leges. This movement is the legitimate result
of this development, and of the suffering that woman has
undergone in the ages past.

A short time ago I went before the legislature of Indiana with a
petition signed by 25,000 of the best women in the State. I
appeal to the memory of Judge McDonald to substantiate the truth
of what I say. Judge McDonald knows that I am a home-loving,
law-abiding, tax-paying woman of Indiana, and have been for fifty
years. When I went before our legislature and found that one
hundred of the vilest men in our State, merely by the possession
of the ballot, had more influence with our lawmakers than the
wives and mothers it was a startling revelation.

You must admit that in popular government the ballot is the most
potent means for all moral and social reforms. As members of
society, we are deeply interested in all the social problems with
which you have grappled so long unsuccessfully. We do not intend
to depreciate your efforts, but you have attempted to do an
impossible thing; to represent the whole by one-half, and because
we are the other half we ask you to recognize our rights as
citizens of this republic.

JULIA SMITH PARKER of Glastonbury, Conn., said: _Gentlemen_: You
may be surprised to see a woman of over four-score years appear
before you at this time. She came into the world and reached
years of discretion before any person in this room was born. She
now comes before you to plead that she can vote and have all the
privileges that men have. She has suffered so much individually
that she thought when she was young she had no right to speak
before the men; but still she had courage to get an education
equal to that of any man at the college, and she had to suffer a
great deal on that account. She went to New Haven to school, and
it was noised around that she had studied the languages. It was
such an astonishing thing for girls at that time to have the
advantages of education, that I had actually to go to cotillon
parties to let people see that I had common sense. [Laughter.]

She has had to pay $200 a year in taxes without knowing what
becomes of it. She does not know but that it goes to support
grog-shops. She knows nothing about it. She has had to suffer her
cows to be sold at the sign-post six t