ivileges and immunities of citizens is the right to suffrage,
because it says in words that that shall not be denied, though
men do deny it. How is the XV. Amendment declaring that it shall
not be denied on account of either race, color, or previous
condition of servitude, to be regarded? It spends its force in
these two things. The XIV. Amendment only denied the power to the
several States to abridge the privileges of citizenship. The XV.
Amendment goes further, and says that neither any State nor the
United States shall do it, using the term "deny" with the term
"abrogate" of the other. It goes further; for the purposes of
these three conditions it confers express power upon Congress to
legislate, while the XIV. Amendment does not. But there is just
one little thing further that I drop for the henpecked to pick
at. There are three classes whose right to vote shall not be
denied according to the XV. Amendment--persons of color, persons
on account of race, and persons who have suffered from previous
condition of servitude. Now, ladies, what is really the legal
status of marriage, so far as the condition of the wife is
concerned?

SUSAN B. ANTHONY.--One of servitude, and of the hardest kind, and
just for board and clothes, at that, too. (Laughter and
applause.)

Mr. RIDDLE.--And they frequently have to make and pay for their
clothes, and board themselves--(renewed laughter)--and not only
themselves, but board also the lord and master, who calls himself
the head of the family. But that is not all of it. It is not
cant; it is not popular phraseology, but it is the language of
the law. The condition of the married woman is that of servitude.
The law calls her husband "baron," and she is simply a
woman--"feme." The law gives her to the man, not the man to her,
nor the two mutually to each other. They become one, and that one
is the husband--such as he is. Her name is blotted out from the
living, or at best it is appended to that of the husband. She
belongs to her master; all that she has belongs to him. All that
she earns is his, because she is his. If she does anything that
binds him, it is simply as his servant. If she makes a contract
that is binding even upon herself, it is because he consents to
it. She does not own anything; she does n