upon men just emerged from the barbarism of slavery; I say you
have not demonstrated that it is safe to give the ballot to men
who require a Freedmen's Bureau to take care of them, and who it
is not pretended anywhere have that intelligence which is
necessary to enable them to comprehend the questions which
agitate the people of this nation, and of which the people are
supposed to have an intelligent understanding. I say you have not
demonstrated all that; but you have expressed your determination.
You are determined to do it, and when you are determined to do it
I want to put along with that element, that doubtful element,
that ignorant element, that debased element, that element just
emerged from slavery, I want you to put along with it into the
ballot-box, to neutralize its poison if poison there be, to
correct its dangers if danger there be, the female element of the
country.

That is my position. If you abandon the whole project I have no
objection. I am willing to rest the safety of the country where
it is and has been so far. I am open to conviction, open to
argument, open to reason even upon that subject; but I am willing
to leave this question of suffrage where our fathers left it,
where the world leaves it to-day, where all wise men leave it.
If, however, it is to be opened, if there is to be a new era, if
political power is to be distributed _per capita_ according to a
particular age, then I am for extending it to women as well as
men. Let me tell the honorable Senator I am not alone in this
opinion; the Senator from Ohio with me is not alone; one of the
first intellects of this age, perhaps the first man of the first
country of the earth, is of the same opinion. I allude to John
Stuart Mill, of Great Britain. He is now agitating for this very
thing in England. So that it need not seem surprising that I
should be in earnest in this; and I trust that after the
explanation I have made of my position and my doctrines. I shall
not be charged either with insincerity or with a desire to
ingratiate myself with the majority of this body, with the
majority of the people, or with any one, because, thank God, I am
free from all entanglements of that kind at this present
speaking, and if I retain my senses I think I shall keep free.

M