and used it as an
argument against the enfranchisement of women, some of them going so
far as to denounce the suffrage advocates as infidels and the movement
itself as atheistic and immoral. They wholly ignored the facts--first,
that the resolution was merely against the dogmas which had been
incorporated into the creeds, and was simply a demand that Christian
ministers should teach and enforce only the fundamental declarations
of the Scriptures; second, that there was an emphatic division of
opinion among the members on the resolution; third, that by consent it
was laid on the table; and fourth, that even had it been adopted, it
was neither atheistic nor immoral.

On February 6, 1885, Thomas W. Palmer (Mich.) brought up in the Senate
the joint resolution for a Sixteenth Amendment which had been
favorably reported by the Select Committee on Woman Suffrage the
previous winter, and in its support made a masterly argument which has
not been surpassed in the fifteen years that have since elapsed,
saying in part:

This resolution involves the consideration of the broadest step
in the progress of the struggle for human liberty that has ever
been submitted to any ruler or to any legislative body. Its
taking is pregnant with wide changes in the pathway of future
civilization. Its obstruction will delay and cripple our
advancement. The trinity of principles which Lord Chatham called
the "Bible of the English Constitution," the Magna Charta, the
Petition of Rights, and the Bill of Rights, are towering
landmarks in the history of our race, but they immediately
concerned but few at the time of their erection.

The Declaration of Independence by the colonists and its
successful assertion, the establishment of the right of petition,
the abolition of imprisonment for debt, the property
qualification for suffrage in nearly all the States, the
recognition of the right of women to earn, hold, enjoy and devise
property, are proud and notable gains.

The emancipation of 4,000,000 slaves and the subsequent extension
of suffrage to the male adults among them were measures enlarging
the possibilities of freedom, the full benefits of which have yet
to be realized; but the political emancipation of 26,000,000 of
our citizens, equal to us in most essential respects and superior
to us in many, it seems to me would translate our nati