ion, then I
say that such prohibitions are clearly in conflict with the
Constitution of the United States and yield thereto.

The proposition is now before the people of the District to
abolish the municipal government and reduce this to a mere
territory, which is clearly retrogressive legislation; as in the
former, the chief magistrate is elected by the people and in the
latter appointed by the President. In your civil rights bill,
compelling black and white to vote together, to go to school
together, to ride in the cars together, you have taken a grand
step in progress. If in the proposed bills soon to come before
you for the establishment of a medical college in the District,
and an improved school system, you shall as carefully guard the
rights of women to equal place and salary, you will take another
onward step. In making the changes you propose, it is evident you
are doing to-day an elementary work in which all the people
should have a voice; hence, your primal duty is to extend to the
women of the District the right of suffrage, that they may vote
on the schools, colleges, hospitals, prisons, and whether their
government shall be republican with a Representative in Congress,
municipal officers, or territorial with a Governor appointed by
the President. In doing such fundamental work, many
distinguished publicists have expressed the opinion that all the
people should have a voice. In the debates in the Illinois
Convention, now in session, members refused to swear to support
the State Constitution, because, said they, "it is absurd to
swear to support what we are now tearing to pieces. We are doing
an elementary work, and are amenable to the Federal Constitution
alone."

Ever since the abolition of slavery, the District has been
resolved into its original elements. In fact by the war, and the
revision of the Federal Constitution, the nation, too, has been
resolved into its original elements, and the women have to-day,
the right to say on what basis the District, their several
States, and the nation shall be reconstructed. We think,
honorable gentlemen, you must all see the broad application of
this principle. And if all the people should have a voice in the
revision of a State or national constitution, women must be
included