tue, less pride and dignity of character under
Republican institutions than in the despotisms and monarchies of
the old world? Your Codes and Constitutions savor of such an
opinion. Fortunately, history furnishes a few saving facts, even
under our Republican institutions. From a recent examination of
the archives of the State of New Jersey we learn that, owing to a
liberal Quaker influence, women and negroes exercised the right
of suffrage in that State thirty-one years--from 1776 to
1807--when "white males" ignored the constitution, and
arbitrarily assumed the reins of government. This act of
injustice is sufficient to account for the moral darkness that
seems to have settled down upon that unhappy State. During the
dynasty of women and negroes, does history record any social
revolution peculiar to that period? Because women voted there,
was the institution of marriage annulled, the sanctity of home
invaded, cradles annihilated, and the stockings, like Governor
Marcy's pantaloons, mended by the State? Did the men of that
period become mere satellites of the dinner-pot, the wash-tub, or
the spinning-wheel? Were they dwarfed and crippled in body and
soul, while their enfranchised wives and mothers became giants in
stature and intellect? Did the children, fully armed and equipped
for the battle of life, spring, Minerva-like, from the brains of
their fathers? Were the laws of nature suspended? Did the sexes
change places? Was everything turned upside down? No, life went
on as smoothly in New Jersey as in any other State in the Union.
And the fact that women did vote there, created so slight a
ripple on the popular wave, and made so ordinary a page in
history, that probably nine-tenths of the people of this country
never heard of its existence, until recent discussions in the
United States Senate brought out the facts of the case. In
Kansas, women vote for school officers and are themselves
eligible to the office of trustee. There is a resolution now
before the Legislature of Ohio to strike the words "white male"
from the Constitution of that State. The Hon. Mr. Noel, of
Missouri, has presented a bill in the House of Representatives to
extend suffrage to the women of the District of Columbia.

I think, Honorable Gentlemen, I have given you facts e