ers to extend it in all cases as the best interests of
the State require. No thinking man would admit that educated,
refined womanhood would not constitute a most desirable element
and better represent the whole humanitarian idea than a
government of men alone.

The objections to Mr. Butler's bill, extending the provisions of
the enforcement act to women, all summed up, are these:

1st. This is too short a cut to liberty. It is taking the nation
by storm. The people are not ready for it. The slower process of
a XVI. Amendment would be safer, surer, and do more toward
educating the people for the final result. To all of which I
answer, the women at least are ready and as well prepared for
enfranchisement as were the slaves of the Southern plantation.
There could have been no plan devised to educate the people so
rapidly as the startling announcement in the Woodhull Memorial
that women already had the right to vote. It has roused wise men
to thought on the question, stirred the bar and bench of the
nation, with the prospect of a new and fruitful source of
litigation; it has inspired woman with fresh hope that the day of
her enfranchisement is at hand, given the press of the country
solid arguments for their consideration, and changed the tone of
the speeches in our conventions from whinings about brutal
husbands, stolen babies, and special laws, to fundamental
principles of human rights.

This question has been up for discussion in this country over
thirty years; it split the first anti-slavery society in two, was
a firebrand in the world's convention, and has been a disturbing
element in temperance, educational and constitutional conventions
ever since, and it is high time it took a short cut to its final
consummation. There have been many shorter cuts to liberty than
this is likely to be, even with a declaratory act at this
session. Why multiply amendments when we have liberty and justice
enough in the spirit and letter of the Constitution as it now is
to protect every citizen under this Government?

The simple opinion of a Chief Justice, a century ago, without any
change in legislation, settled in one hour as great a question of
human rights as we now submit to your consideration. Lord
Mansfield, presiding in the Court of Queen's Ben