from that. There can be no government by the people
where one-half of them are allowed no voice in its organization
and control. I regard the struggle going on in this country and
elsewhere for the enfranchisement of women as but a continuation
of the great struggle for human liberty which, from the earliest
dawn of authentic history, has convulsed nations, rent kingdoms
and drenched battlefields with human blood. I look upon the
victories which have been achieved in the cause of woman's
enfranchisement in Washington Territory and elsewhere, as the
crowning victories of all which have been won in the
long-continued, still-continuing contest between liberty and
oppression, and as destined to exert a greater influence upon the
human race than any achieved upon the battlefield in ancient or
modern times."

Mr. President, the movement for woman suffrage has passed the
stage of ridicule. The pending joint resolution may not pass
during this Congress, but the time is not far distant when in
every State of the Union and in every Territory women will be
admitted to an equal voice in the government, and that will be
done whether the Federal Constitution is amended or not....

No measure involving such radical changes in our institutions and
fraught with so great consequences to this country and to
humanity has made such progress as the movement for woman
suffrage. Denunciation will not much longer answer for arguments
by the opponents of this measure. The portrayal of the evils to
flow from woman suffrage such as we have heard pictured to-day by
the Senator from Georgia, the loss of harmony between husband and
wife and the consequent instability of the marriage relation, the
neglect of husbands and children by wives and mothers for the
performance of their political duties, in short the
incapacitating of women for wives and mothers and companions,
will not much longer serve to frighten the timid. Proof is better
than theory. The experiment has been made and the predicted evils
to flow from it have not followed. On the contrary, if we can
believe the almost universal testimony, wherever it has been
tried it has been followed by the most beneficial results.

In Washington Territory, since woman was enfranchised, there have
been two elections. At