of this government, every one of which was based on the
immutable principle of equal rights to all. By those
declarations, kings, priests, popes, aristocrats, were all alike
dethroned, and placed on a common level, politically, with the
lowliest born subject or serf. By them, too, men, as such, were
deprived of their divine right to rule, and placed on a political
level with women. By the practice of those declarations all class
and caste distinction will be abolished; and slave, serf,
plebeian, wife, woman, all alike, will bound from their subject
position to the proud platform of equality.

The preamble of the Federal Constitution says:

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more
perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic
tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the
general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to
ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States of America.

It was we, the people, not we, the white male citizens, nor yet
we, the male citizens, but we, the whole people, who formed this
Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty,
but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of
our posterity, but to the whole people--women as well as men. And
it is downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of
the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the
only means of securing them provided by this democratic
republican government--the ballot.

The early journals of Congress show that when the Committee
reported to that body the original Articles of Confederation, the
very first article which became the subject of discussion was
that respecting equality of suffrage. Article 4th said:

The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and
intercourse between the people of the different States of
this Union, the free inhabitants of each of the States
(paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from justice excepted),
shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of
the free citizens of the several States.

Thus, at the very beginning, did the fathers see the necessity of
the universal application of the great principle of