n view of
this they chose the name of citizen suffrage, as the highest and
broadest term by which to designate their devotion to the
political rights of all citizens. They held that the political
condition of the white women of the United States was totally
unlike that of the slave population in this: that while the
slaves were not considered citizens until the adoption of the
fourteenth and fifteenth amendments, white women had always been
citizens, and always entitled to all the political rights of
citizenship. The colored male citizen became a voter--subject to
the police regulations of the different States--upon acquiring
citizenship. No constitutional enactment denied equal political
rights to women as citizens. No constitutional enactment was
therefore required to enable them to exercise the right to vote,
which became the right of male slaves upon their securing
citizenship under the law. The first legal argument on the
subject of woman's right to the ballot as a citizen of the United
States, was made by Jacob F. Byrnes before the Pennsylvania
Society. Had it been published as soon as written, instead of
being circulated privately, surprising person after person with
the position taken, it would have antedated the report of General
Benjamin F. Butler in the House of Representatives in the winter
of 1871.

Edward M. Davis, president for many years, was one of the most
active and untiring officers of this association, giving generously
of his time and money not only to its support but to the general
agitation of the suffrage question in every part of the country.
The meetings were held regularly at his office, 333 Walnut street,
as were also those of the Radical Club. This was composed largely
of the same members as the suffrage society, but in this
organization they had a greater latitude in discussion, covering
all questions of political, religious and social interest. As the
division in the National Society produced division everywhere,
some of the friends in Philadelphia made themselves auxiliary to
the American Association, and the sympathy of others was with the
National, thus forming two rival societies, which together kept the
suffrage question before the people and roused their attention,
particularly to the fact of a pending constitutional convention.
Hence the necessity of holding meetings thro