erty must have already died out, and the dreary process
of centralization be already far advanced. It will thus be
evident that the preservation of individual rights is the
only possible preventative of centralization, and that free
society has no interest to be compared for an instant in
importance with that of preserving these individual rights.
No nation is free in which this is not the paramount
concern. Woe to America when her sons and her daughters
begin to sneer at rights! Just so long as the citizens are
protected individually in their rights, the towns and
counties and States cannot be stripped; but if the former
lose all love for their own liberties as equal units of
society, the latter will become the empty shells of
creatures long perished. The nation as such, therefore, if
it would be itself free and non-centralized, must find its
own supreme interest in the protection of its individual
citizens in the fullest possible enjoyment of their equal
rights and liberties.

As this question of woman's enfranchisement is one of national
safety, we ask you to remember that we are citizens of the United
States, and, as such, claim the protection of the national flag
in the exercise of our national rights, in every latitude and
longitude, on sea, land, at home as well as abroad; against the
tyranny of States, as well as against foreign aggressions. Local
authorities may regulate the exercise of these rights; they may
settle all minor questions of property, but the inalienable
personal rights of citizenship should be declared by the
constitution, interpreted by the Supreme Court, protected by
congress and enforced by the arm of the executive. It is nonsense
to talk of State rights until the graver question of personal
liberties is first understood and adjusted. President Hayes, in
reply to an address of welcome at Charlottesville, Va., September
25, 1877, said:

Equality under the laws for all citizens is the corner-stone
of the structure of the restored harmony from which the
ancient friendship is to rise. In this pathway I am going,
the pathway where your illustrious men led--your Jefferson,
your Madison, your Monroe, your Was