n, and which may be
considered to be the evidence of seriousness and earnestness. I
generally speak as a man, and as a good-natured man, I think. I hope I
entertain no malice toward any body. But the honorable Senator thinks
that I want to become a Radical. Why, sir, common charity ought to
have taught the honorable Senator better than that. I think no such
imputation, even on the part of the most virulent opponent that I
have, can with any justice be laid to my door. I have never yielded to
his radicalism; I have never truckled to it. Whether it be right or
wrong, I have never bowed the knee to it. From the very word 'go' I
have been a Conservative; I have endeavored to save all in our
institutions that I thought worth saving."

Mr. Wade had introduced the original bill, and had put it upon the
most liberal principle of franchise. "The question of female
suffrage," said he, "had not then been much agitated, and I knew the
community had not thought sufficiently upon it to be ready to
introduce it as an element in our political system. While I am aware
of that fact, I think it will puzzle any gentleman to draw a line of
demarcation between the right of the male and the female on this
subject. Both are liable to all the laws you pass; their property,
their persons, and their lives are affected by the laws. Why, then,
should not the females have a right to participate in their
construction as well as the male part of the community? There is no
argument that I can conceive or that I have yet heard that makes any
discrimination between the two on the question of right.

"I shall give a vote on this amendment that will be deemed an
unpopular vote, but I am not frightened by that. I have been
accustomed to give such votes all my life almost, but I believe they
have been given in the cause of human liberty and right and in the way
of the advancing intelligence of our age; and whenever the landmark
has been set up the community have marched up to it. I think I am
advocating now the same kind of a principle, and I have no doubt that
sooner or later it will become a fixed fact, and the community will
think it just as absurd to exclude females from the ballot-box as
males."

Mr. Yates opposed the pending amendment, deeming it a mere attempt on
the part of the Senator from Pennsylvania to embarrass this question.
"Logically," said he, "there are no reasons in my mind which would not
permit women to vote as well as men, according