following:

One-half of the people of our State are denied the right of
suffrage. Yet woman has all the qualifications--the capacity, the
desire for the public welfare, that man has. She is among the
governed. She pays taxes. Even-handed justice, a fair application
of the principles of the Declaration of Independence and of our
State constitution, give woman the ballot. There is no reason why
woman should not be allowed to do what she is so eminently fit to
do. We know no good reason why the most ignorant man should vote
and the intelligent woman be refused. Our present political
institutions were formed and shaped when men had their chief
interests and pursuits out of doors, and women remained the
humble slaves at home. The social change has been immense. Now
woman sits by the side of man, is his companion and associate in
his amusements, and in his labors, save the one of governing the
country. And it is time that she should be in this.

The position of woman in regard to the common schools of the
State is the most unjust. She must always be the chief instructor
of the young in point of time and influence. She is their best
teacher at home and in the school. And her share in this
ever-expanding work is becoming vaster every day. Woman as
mother, sister, teacher, has an intelligence, a comprehension of
the educational needs of our youth, and an interest in their
development, far in advance of the other sex. She can organize,
control and teach the most difficult school in the State; yet she
has no vote in the selection of teachers, the building,
arrangements and equipments of school-houses, nor in the method
and extent of instruction. She can pay her share of the expenses
of schools, but can have no legal voice in their management. She
can teach, but she can have no vote in determining what shall be
taught. She is the very corner-stone of institutions which she
has no power in shaping. Let us have her open, avowed and public
cooeperation--always safer than indirect influence.

The submission of an amendment to the constitution necessarily
aroused a general agitation on the proposed changes. The fifth
amendment decided on by the board of censors seemed to create a
more general interest than either of the others, and accordingly a
meeting was called for its ful