es of the South, you are to-day receiving more praise from
the best men of the party, than for any and all of your
utterances _inside_ the line of the platform. And I _know_, if
you had in your letter of acceptance, or in your New York speech,
declared yourself in favor of "perfect equality of rights for
women, civil and political," you would have touched an electric
spark that would have fired the heart of the women of the entire
nation, and made the triumph of the Republican party more grand
and glorious than any it has ever seen.

_Third_. As to picking fruit before it is ripe! Allow me to
remind you that very much fruit is _never_ picked; some gets
nipped in the blossom; some gets worm-eaten and falls to the
ground; some rots on the trees before it ripens; some, too slow
in ripening, gets bitten by the early frosts of autumn; while
some rich, rare, ripe apples hang unpicked, frozen and worthless
on the leafless trees of winter! Really, Mr. Garfield, if, after
passing through the war of the rebellion and sixteen years in
congress;--if, after seeing, and hearing, and repeating, that _no
class_ ever got justice and equality of chances from any
government except it had the power--the ballot--to clutch them
for itself;--if, after all your opportunities for growth and
development, you cannot yet see the truth of the great principle
of individual self-government;--if you have only reached the idea
of class-government, and that, too, of the most hateful and cruel
form--bounded by sex--there must be some radical defect in the
ethics of the party of which you are the chosen leader.

No matter which party administers the government, women will
continue to get only subordinate positions and half-pay, not
because of the party's or the president's lack of chivalric
regard for woman, but because, in the nature of things, it is
impossible for any government to protect a disfranchised class in
equality of chances. Women, to get justice, must have political
freedom. But pardon this long trespass upon your time and
patience, and please bear in mind that it is not for the many
_good_ things the Republican party and its nominee have done in
extending the area of liberty, that I criticise them, but because
they have failed to place the women of the nation on t