operty that a man has, and she
has consequently the same right to an equality of protection that
he has; and this, as I understand it, is what is meant by the
phrase, the right of suffrage. If I have a natural right to that
hand, I have an equal natural right to everything that secures to
me its use, provided it does not harm the equal right of another;
and if I have a natural right to my life and liberty, I have the
same right to everything that protects that life and liberty
which any other man enjoys. I should like my honorable friend,
the Chairman of this Committee, to show me any right which God
gave him, which he also gave to me, for which God gave him a
claim to any defense which He has not given to me. And I ask the
same question for every woman in this State. Have they less
natural right to life, liberty, and property than my honorable
friend the Chairman of the Committee; and is it not, to quote the
words of his report, an extremely "defensible theory" that he can
not justly deprive the least of those women of any protection of
those rights which he claims for himself? No, sir, the natural,
or what we call civil right, and its political defense, go
together. This was the impregnable logic of the Revolution. Lord
Gower sneered in Parliament at the American Colonists a century
ago, as Mr. Robert Lowe sneers at the English Reformers to-day:
"Let the Americans talk about their natural and divine rights....
I am for enforcing these measures." Dr. Johnson bellowed across
the Atlantic, "Taxation, no Tyranny." James Otis spoke for
America, for common sense, and for eternal justice, in saying,
"No good reason, however, can be given in any country, why every
man of a sound mind should not have his vote in the election of a
representative. If a man has but little property to protect and
defend, yet his life and liberty are things of some importance."
And long before James Otis, Lord Somers said to a committee of
the House of Commons, that the possession of the vote is the only
true security which an Englishman has for the possession of his
life and property.

Every person, then, is born with an equal claim to every kind of
protection of his natural rights which any other person enjoys.
The practical question, therefore, is how shall this protec