"

Mr. Johnson was unwilling to vote for the amendment with a view to
defeat the bill. "I have lived to be too old," said he, "and have
become too well satisfied of what I think is my duty to the country to
give any vote which I do not believe, if it should be supported by the
votes of a sufficient number to carry the measure into operation,
would redound to the interests and safety and honor of the country."

"The women of America," said Mr. Frelinghuysen, "vote by faithful and
true representatives, their husbands, their brothers, their sons; and
no true man will go to the polls and deposit his ballot without
remembering the true and loving constituency that he has at home. More
than that, sir, ninety-nine out of a hundred, I believe nine hundred
and ninety-nine out of a thousand, of the women in America do not want
the privilege of voting in any other manner than that which I have
stated. In both these regards there is a vast difference between the
situation of the colored citizens and the women of America.

"The learned and eloquent Senator from Pennsylvania said yesterday
with great beauty that he wanted to cast the angel element into the
suffrage system of America. Sir, it seems to me, that it would be
ruthlessly tearing the angel element from the homes of America; and
the homes of the people of America are infinitely more valuable than
any suffrage system. It will be a sorry day for this country when
those vestal fires of piety and love are put out."

On the next day, December 12th, the discussion being resumed, Mr.
Brown advocated the amendment. "I stand," said he, "for universal
suffrage, and as a matter of fundamental principle do not recognize
the right of society to limit it on any ground of race, color, or sex.
I will go further and say that I recognize the right of franchise as
being intrinsically a natural right; and I do not believe that society
is authorized to impose any limitation upon it that does not spring
out of the necessities of the social state itself."

Believing "that the metaphysical always controls the practical in all
the affairs of life," Mr. Brown gave the "abstract grounds" upon which
he deemed the right of woman to the elective franchise rested. Coming
finally to the more practical bearings of the subject, he answered the
objection, that "if women are entitled to the rights of franchise,
they would correspondingly come under the obligation to bear arms."
"Are there not large classe