r point of
view, stand before the law on an equality, and what one may do,
so may the other, each may govern him or herself. But not so
politically; when the youth reaches the age of twenty-one the
ballot comes to his hands by due course of law, protecting his
natural right, he having grown to it. Why do you give him the
ballot, pray, or permit him to take it for himself? Simply
because it is the means by which he governs and protects himself.
Nobody would start I suppose the terribly heterodox idea that it
is not necessary for the young man to govern himself with the
ballot. It would be one of those unheard-of atrocities that
nobody would have the hardihood to promulgate in the presence of
masculine associates at all. He is entitled to the right for the
purpose of governing himself. Nobody was born to govern anybody
else--man or woman. It is only because in political associations
people become so united, that a man in order to govern himself is
obliged to govern others, that we get the right to govern others
at all. It grows out of our effort to govern ourselves. As an
essential necessity we are obliged to govern others and to be
governed by them. This is our only warrant for the government of
others.

Now, I pray to know why a young maiden, when she approaches the
same age, may not have accorded to her the same protection of her
natural right that is accorded to the youth, and for the same
purpose. In the name of all womanhood, and of all manhood, I beg
to know why this may not be so? In the name of my own daughters
whose whispered words haunt the chambers of my soul, asking to
know why, if it is necessary for their brother to exercise this
right, it is not necessary for them? Nobody need to argue to a
father that his daughters are not the equals of his sons. I will
never tolerate hearing it said, that my son is born to empire and
sovereignty, while his sisters are born to be hidden away and
yarded up in some solitary desert place, as their proper sphere.
[Applause.] I do not propose to raise and educate my daughters to
keep them cooped up with their feet tied until some masculine
purveyor comes along with his market basket.

Oh! ye opponents of the rights of woman, why not be consistent.
If, as you say, she has not the capacity to ch