insist on the extinction of slavery." And
our petitions were sent again and again, 300,000 strong, and months
after the measure was carried, they still rolled in from every quarter
where the tracts and appeals had been scattered. But when the
proposition for the 14th Amendment was pending, and the same women
petitioned for their own civil and political rights, they received no
letters of encouragement from Republicans nor Abolitionists; and now
came some of the severest trials the women demanding the right of
suffrage were ever called on to endure. Though loyal to the Government
and the rights of the colored race, they found themselves in
antagonism with all with whom they had heretofore sympathized. Though
Unionists, Republicans, and Abolitionists, they could not without
protest see themselves robbed of their birth-right as citizens of the
republic by the proposed amendment. Republicans presented their
petitions in a way to destroy their significance, as petitions for
"universal suffrage," which to the public meant "manhood suffrage."
Abolitionists refused to sign them, saying, "This is the negro's
hour."[51] Colored men themselves opposed us, saying, do not block
our chance by lumbering the Republican party with Woman Suffrage.

The Democrats readily saw how completely the Republicans were
stultifying themselves and violating every principle urged in the
debates on the 13th Amendment, and volunteered to help the women fight
their battle. The Republicans had declared again and again that
suffrage was a natural right that belonged to every citizen that paid
taxes and helped to support the State. They had declared that the
ballot was the only weapon by which one class could protect itself
against the aggressions of another. Charles Sumner had rounded out one
of his eloquent periods, by saying, "The ballot is the Columbiad of
our political life, and every citizen who holds it is a full-armed
monitor."

The Democrats had listened to all the glowing debates on these great
principles of freedom until the argument was as familiar as a, b, c,
and continually pressed the Republicans with their own weapons. Then
those loyal women were taunted with having gone over to the Democrats
and the Disunionists. But neither taunts nor persuasions moved them
from their purpose to prevent, if possible, the introduction of the
word "male" into the Federal Constitution, where it never had been
before. They could not see the progress--in pur