ss, does humanity, or justice, or good sense
require that they should be registered and called to vote upon
their own restoration? Why, Mr. Chairman, it might as well be
said that Jack the Giant Killer ought to have gravely asked the
captives in the ogre's dungeon whether they wished to be
released. It must be assumed that men and women wish to enjoy
their natural rights, as that the eyes wish light or the lungs an
atmosphere. Did we wait for emancipation until the slaves
petitioned to be free? No, sir, all our lives had been passed in
ingenious and ignominious efforts to sophisticate and stultify
ourselves for keeping them chained; and when war gave us a legal
right to snap their bonds, we did not ask them whether they
preferred to remain slaves. We knew that they were men, and that
men by nature walk upright, and if we find them bent and
crawling, we know that the posture is unnatural whether they may
think so or not. In the case of women we acknowledge that they
have the same natural rights as ourselves--we see that they hold
property and pay taxes, and we must of necessity suppose that
they wish to enjoy every security of those rights that we
possess. So when in this State, every year, thousands of boys
come of age, we do not solemnly require them to tell us whether
they wish to vote. We assume, of course, that they do, and we say
to them, "Go, and upon the same terms with the rest of us, vote
as you choose." But gentlemen say that they know a great many
women who do not wish to vote, who think it is not ladylike, or
whatever the proper term may be. Well, sir, I have known many men
who have habitually abstained from politics because they were so
"ungentlemanly," and who thought that no man could touch pitch
without defilement. Now what would the honorable gentlemen who
know women who do not wish to vote, have thought of a proposition
that I should not vote, because my neighbors did not wish to?
There may have been slaves who preferred to remain slaves--was
that an argument against freedom? Suppose that there are a
majority of the women of this State who do not wish to vote--is
that a reason for depriving _one_ woman who is taxed of her equal
representation, or one innocent person of the equal protection of
his life and liberty?

Shal