at you find the women who "look persistently to
married life as a means of livelihood." Here, in Massachusetts, we do
not acknowledge any such. Fashion has her danglers among men and
women, but we pity those whose lot has thrown them into intimate
relations with such women as you describe. They are not of our sort.
We think that if the writer in _The Evening Post_ were tested, he
would be forced to admire most the hands which could do the best work.
It would be small comfort to him, when Bridget and John had
simultaneously departed, when the baby was crying and the fire out,
that his wife sat lonely, in one corner of the apartment, with serene
eyes and unstained hands. Men who talk such nonsense in America, must
remember that neither wealth nor gentle blood can _here_ protect them
from such a dilemma. As to suffrage, we are not now talking of
granting it to a distinct race; if we were, they might manifest a
"general" desire for it. Women, who love their husbands and brothers,
can not _all_ submit to bear the reproach which clings to their demand
for justice. A few of us must suffer sharply for the sake of that
great future which God shows us to be possible, when goodness shall
join hands with power. But we do not like our pain. We would gladly be
sheltered, and comforted, and cheered, and we warn you, by what passes
in our own hearts, that women will never express a "general" desire
for suffrage until men have ceased to ridicule and despise them for
it; until the representatives of men have been taught to treat their
petitions with respect. There would be no difficulty in obtaining this
right of suffrage If it depended on a property qualification. It is
consistent democracy which bars our way.

CAROLINE HEALEY DALL.

[55] _Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled_: That, from and after
the passage of this act, each and every male person, excepting paupers
and persons under guardianship, of the age of twenty-one years and
upward, who has not been convicted of any infamous crime or offence,
and who is a citizen of the United States, and who shall have resided
in the said District for the period of six months previous to any
election therein, shall be entitled to the elective franchise, and
shall be deemed an elector and entitled to vote at any election in
said District, without any distinction on account