ecility upon her at once. So far
as the Government is concerned we are held in perpetual tutelage,
we are minors always, and while good men will act justly towards
women, it is an excuse for every bad and foolish man to oppress
them, and every unfledged boy to make them the subject of
ridicule....

I believe the great majority of American men love our free
institutions; I believe they have hope and pride in the future of
this nation; but as sure as you live, every argument you use
against the enfranchisement of women deals a death-blow against
the fundamental principle which lies at the base of our
government, and it is treason to bring an argument against it.

Another thing which you permit is reacting now to the detriment
of our free institutions; if from prejudice or expediency you
think you have a right to withhold the ballot from the women of
this nation, you have but to go one step further and deprive any
other class of a right they already have, should you think it
expedient to do so. It is beginning to bear its fruit now in your
elections. You are becoming demoralized; ballots are bought and
sold; you have your blocks of five; and in some entire
communities the men are deprived of the right of suffrage. It is
simply a question of time how long you will be able to maintain
the freedom you cherish for yourselves.

If we women are citizens, if we are governed, if we are a part of
the people, according to the plain declarations of the
fundamental principles which underlie this nation, we are as much
entitled to vote as you, and you can not make an argument against
us that would not disfranchise yourselves.

I feel this phase of the question more acutely than any other
because I think from a fundamental standpoint the progress of the
race is bound up in republican institutions. It is not a question
of woman's rights, it is a question of human rights, of the
success or failure of these institutions, and the more highly
cultured a woman is the more deeply she feels this
humiliation....

I do not think it weakness to say that women love, and that love
predominates in their nature, because, my friends, love is the
only immortal principle in the universe. Love is to endure
forever. Faith will be swallowed up in knowledge after a