time" for the women of the nation to be heard, Mr. Sumner to
the contrary notwithstanding.

The right of petition is a sacred right, and whatever may be
thought of giving the ballot to women, the right to ask it of the
Government can not be denied them. I present this petition
without any apology. Indeed, I present it with pleasure. It is
respectful in its terms, and is signed by ladies occupying so
high a place in the moral, social, and intellectual world, that
it challenges at our hands, at least a respectful consideration.
The distinguished Senators from Massachusetts and from Illinois
must make their own defense against the assumed inconsistency of
their position. They are abundantly able to give reasons for
their faith in all things; whether they can give reasons
satisfactory to the ladies in this case, I do not know. The
Senators may possibly argue that if women vote at all, the right
should not be exercised before the age of twenty-one; that they
are generally married at or before that age, and that when
married, they become, or ought to become, merged in their
husbands; that the act of one must be regarded as the act of the
other; that the good of society demands this unity for purposes
of social order; that political differences should not be
permitted to disturb the peace of a relation so sacred. The
honorable Senators will be able to find authority for this
position, not only in the common law, approved as it is by the
wisdom and experience of ages, but in the declaration of the
first man, on the occasion of the first marriage, when he said,
"This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh." It may be
answered, however, that the wife, though one with her husband, at
least constitutes his better half, and if the married man be
entitled to but one vote, the unmarried man should be satisfied
with less than half a vote. [Laughter]. Having some doubts,
myself, whether beyond a certain age, to which I have not yet
arrived, such a man should be entitled to a vote or even half a
vote, I leave the difficulty to be settled by my friend from
Massachusetts and the fair petitioners. The petitioners claim,
that as we are proposing to enfranchise four million emancipated
slaves, equal and impartial justice alike demands the suffrage