n masse, while the refined and educated, shrinking from
public contact, would remain at home." He continued: "The ballot will
not protect females against the tyranny of bad husbands, as the latter
will compel them to vote as they dictate;" then in the next breath he
declared: "Wives will form political alliances antagonistic to the
husbands, and the result will be discord and divorce." In his entire
speech Senator Brown ignored the existence of unmarried women and
widows. He closed with copious extracts from "Letters from a Chimney
Corner," written by some Chicago woman.

Senator Dolph, of Oregon, followed in a clear, concise argument,
brushing away these sophistries by showing that such evils did not exist
where women were enfranchised and voted at every election. He was
interrupted by Senator Eustis, of Louisiana, who inquired whether he
thought "it would be a decent spectacle to take a mother away from her
nursing infant and lock her up all night with a jury?" Senator Dolph
replied that there was not a judge in the world who would not excuse a
woman under such circumstances, just as there were many causes which
exempted men. He continued:

Government is but organized society.... It can only derive its just
powers from the consent of the governed, and can be established
only under a fundamental law which is self-imposed. Every citizen
of suitable age and discretion has, in my judgment, a natural right
to participate in its formation. The fathers of the republic
enunciated the doctrine "that all men are created equal; that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights." It
is strange that any one in this enlightened age should be found to
contend that this is true only of men, and that a man is endowed by
his Creator with inalienable rights not possessed by a woman. The
lamented Lincoln immortalized the expression that ours is a
government "of the people, by the people, and for the people," and
yet in reality it is far from that. There can be no government by
the people where half of them are allowed no voice in its
organization and control.... God speed the day when not only in all
the States of the Union and in all the Territories, but everywhere,
woman shall stand before the law freed from the last shackle which
has been riveted upon her by tyranny, and the last disability which
has been imposed upon h