the whole course of our national
history have been powerfully and beneficially operative in
making our institutions more and more popular, in framing
laws more and more just and in securing amendments to our
federal constitution. If the ballot be an expression of the
wish, or a declaration of the will, of the tax-payer as to
the manner in which taxes should be levied and collected and
revenues disbursed, why should those who hold in their own
right a large proportion of the wealth of the country be
excluded from a voice in making the laws which regulate this
whole subject? If, again, the ballot be for the physically
weak a guarantee of protection against the aggression and
violence of the strong, upon what ground can the delicate
bodily organism of woman be forbidden this shelter for her
protection? If, once more, each ballot be the declaration of
the individual will of the person casting it, as to the
relative merit of opposed measures or men, surely the
ability to judge and determine--the power of choice--does
not depend upon sex, nor does womanhood deprive of
personality. If these principles are too general to be free
from criticism, and if this reasoning be too abstract to be
always practically applicable, neither the principles nor
the reasoning can fail of approbation when contrasted with
the gloomy misgivings for the future and the dark
forebodings of evils, imaginary, vague and undefined, by
dwelling upon which the opponents of this reform endeavor to
stay its progress. Aggressive reasoning and positive
principles like these must be met with something more than
mere doubtful conjectures, must be resisted by something
more than popular prejudices, and overthrown--if overthrown
at all--by something stronger than the force of inert
conservatism; yet what is there but conjecture, prejudice
and conservatism opposing this reform? * * * * * * * *

The law granting to women the right to vote and to hold
office in this territory was a natural and logical sequence
to the other laws upon our statute-book. Our laws give to
the widow the guardianship of her minor children