white persons, and negroes were not
citizens. In 1843 the question came before Attorney-General
Legree, of South Carolina, as to whether free negroes of that
State were citizens, and he gave it as his opinion that as the
law of Congress intended only to exclude aliens, therefore that
they as denizens could take advantage of the act. Mr. Marcy, in
1856, decided that negroes were not citizens, but entitled to the
protection of the Government.

In justice to our sex, I must ask you to bear in mind the fact
that all these wise Secretaries of State and Attorney-Generals,
were men that made these singular decisions, not illogical,
unreasoning women, totally incapable of understanding politics.
And lastly, in 1862, our late honored and lamented
fellow-citizen, Attorney-General Bates, decided that free negroes
were citizens. Thus, you see, it took forty-one years to make
this simple discovery. I have cited all these examples to show
you that all rights and privileges depend merely on the
acknowledgment of our right as citizens, and wherever this
question has arisen the Government has universally conceded that
we are citizens; and as such, I claim that if we are entitled to
two or three privileges, we are entitled to all. This question of
woman's right to the ballot has never yet been raised in any
quarter. It has yet to be tested whether a free, moral,
intelligent woman, highly cultivated, every dollar of whose
income and property are taxed equally with that of all men, shall
be placed by our laws on a level with the savage. I am often
jeeringly asked, "If the Constitution gives you this right, why
don't you take it?" My reply is both a statement and a question.
The State of Massachusetts allows negroes to vote. The
Constitution of the United States says the citizens of each State
shall be allowed all the privileges of the citizens in the
several States. Now, I ask you, can a woman or negro vote in
Missouri? You have placed us on the same level. Yet, by such
question you hold us responsible for the unstatesmanlike piece of
patchwork which you call the Constitution of Missouri! Women of
the State, let us no longer submit to occupy so degraded a
position! Disguise it as you may, the disfranchised class is ever
a degraded class. Let us lend all ou