ousehold. He was the one leading man in the nation who, in all
his public speeches, demanded universal suffrage in the
reconstruction. And by universal suffrage Mr. Beecher meant political
equality for all, without distinction of race, color, or sex. Women
would have been dull scholars indeed had they not readily seen that
the watchword "universal suffrage" stripped of the limitations that
lay in the minds of party politicians, included women also.

Under Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment they saw that being
"persons" and born in the United States, they were "citizens," whom
the National Government was bound to protect against the tyranny of
the State.

Section 2 called their attention to another principle of justice, that
those who were counted in the basis of representation should have a
voice in the rulers whose election their numbers helped to secure. To
be sure, the word "male" thrown in seemed to nullify all applications
of the several amendments to one sex, nevertheless the women
understood the breadth of the principle, and made their demands for an
equal recognition on the ground that they too were counted in the
basis of representation.

Again, in the discussion on removing the "political disabilities" of
those who had made war on the Government, when the injustice of taxing
that large class denied the suffrage was pointed out and the exercise
of that right demanded for thousands of rebels, the women saw the
application of that principle to themselves, and echoed the old
war-cry in our first Revolution, "taxation without representation is
tyranny." In the exhaustive discussions on the emancipation and
enfranchisement of the black man and the restoration of the rebels to
political equality, the fundamental principles of republican
government were more clearly comprehended by the American people than
ever before. Hence, it was in harmony with the order of events that
educated women, appreciating the genius of our institutions, with
their interest in politics intensified by all the complications of
the war, should think and reason and express their opinions on all
these great questions of popular thought. They saw that "universal
suffrage and universal amnesty" was the broad, safe foundation for the
new republic. They saw that the enfranchisement of the women of the
South would not only double the vote, but give a new impulse to
thought and education throughout the Southern States, and mitigate the
hostili