very of which the fathers
complained, allow me to cite Benjamin Franklin, who in those olden times
was admitted to be good authority, not merely in domestic but also in
political economy:

Every man of the commonalty, except infants, insane persons and
criminals, is, of common right and the law of God, a freeman and
entitled to the free enjoyment of liberty. That liberty or freedom
consists in having an actual share in the appointment of those who
are to frame the laws, and who are to be the guardians of every
man's life, property and peace. For the all of one man is as dear
to him as the all of another; and the poor man has an equal right,
but more need, to have representatives in the legislature than the
rich one. They who have no voice or vote in the electing of
representatives do not enjoy liberty, but are absolutely enslaved
to those who have votes and to their representatives; for to be
enslaved is to have governors whom other men have set over us, and
to be subject to laws made by the representatives of others,
without having had representatives of our own to give consent in
our behalf.

Suppose I read it with the feminine gender:

Women who have no voice or vote in the electing of representatives
do not enjoy liberty, but are absolutely enslaved to men who have
votes and to their representatives; for to be enslaved is to have
governors whom men have set over us, and to be subject to the laws
made by the representatives of men, without having representatives
of our own to give consent in our behalf.

And yet one more authority, that of Thomas Paine, than whom not one of
the Revolutionary patriots more ably vindicated the principles upon
which our government is founded:

The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by
which other rights are protected. To take away this right is to
reduce man to a state of slavery; for slavery consists in being
subject to the will of another; and he that has not a vote in the
election of representatives is in this case. The proposal,
therefore, to disfranchise any class of men is as criminal as the
proposal to take away property.

Is anything further needed to prove woman's condition of servitude
sufficient to entitle her to the guarantees of the Fifteenth Amendment?
Is there a man who will not agree with me that to talk