illiteracy are unable to read or write the ballot they cast. If
our colored population, who were so recently slaves that even the
males who are voters have had but little opportunity to educate
themselves or to be educated, whose ignorance is now exciting the
liveliest interest of our statesmen, are causes of serious
apprehension, what is to be said in favor of adding to the voting
population all the females of that race, who, on account of the
situation in which they have been placed, have had much less
opportunity to be educated than even the males of their own
race?[45]

It may be said that their votes could be offset by the ballots of
the educated and refined ladies of the white race in the same
section; but who does not know that the ignorant female voters
would be at the polls _en masse_, while the refined and educated,
shrinking from public contact on such occasions, would remain at
home and attend to their domestic and other important duties?[46]
Are we ready to expose the country to the demoralization, and our
institutions to the strain, which would be placed upon them, for
the gratification of a minority of the virtuous and good of our
female population at the expense of the mortification of a very
large majority of the same sex?

It has been frequently urged that the ballot is necessary to
women to enable them to protect themselves in securing
occupations, and to enable them to realize the same compensation
for the like labor which is received by men. This argument is
plausible, but upon a closer examination it will be found to
possess but little real force. The price of labor is and must
continue to be governed by the law of supply and demand, and the
person who has the most physical strength to labor, and the most
pursuits requiring such strength open for employment, will always
command the higher prices.

Ladies make excellent teachers in public schools; many of them
are every way the equals of their male competitors, and still
they secure less wages than males. The reason is obvious. The
number of ladies who offer themselves as teachers is much larger
than the number of males who are willing to teach. The larger
number of females offer to teach _because other occupations are
not open to them_. The smaller number of male