"The States have only
corporate rights." Wilson, the philanthropic member from
Pennsylvania, afterward a learned Judge of the Supreme Court of
the United States and author of the "Lectures on Law," said:
"Will a regard to State rights justify the sacrifice of the
rights of men? If we proceed on any other foundation than the
last, our building will neither be solid nor lasting."

Those of us who understand the dignity, power and protection of
the ballot, have steadily petitioned congress for the last ten
years to secure to the women of the republic the exercise of
their right to the elective franchise. We began by asking a
sixteenth amendment to the national constitution. March 15, 1869,
the Hon. George W. Julian submitted a joint resolution to
congress, to enfranchise the women of the republic, by proposing
a sixteenth amendment:

ARTICLE 16.--The right of suffrage in the United States
shall be based on citizenship, and shall be regulated by
Congress, and all citizens of the United States, whether
native or naturalized, shall enjoy this right equally,
without any distinction or discrimination whatever founded
on sex.

While the discussion was pending for the emancipation and
enfranchisement of the slaves of the South, and popular thought
led back to the consideration of the fundamental principles of
our government, it was clearly seen that all the arguments for
the civil and political rights of the African race applied to
women also. Seeing this, some Republicans stood ready to carry
these principles to their logical results. Democrats, too, saw
the drift of the argument, and though not in favor of extending
suffrage to either black men, or women, yet, to embarrass
Republican legislation, it was said, they proposed amendments for
woman suffrage to all bills brought forward for enfranchising the
negroes.

And thus, during the passage of the thirteenth, fourteenth and
fifteenth amendments, and the District suffrage bill, the
question of woman suffrage was often and ably discussed in the
Senate and House, and received both Republican and Democratic
votes in its favor. Many able lawyers and judges gave it as their
opinion that women as well as Africans were enfranchised by the
fourteenth and fift