et
of statesmen answer her appeals by sending her for redress to
the courts; another advises her to submit her qualifications to
the States; but we, with a clearer intuition of the rightful
power, come to you who thoughtfully, conscientiously, and
understandingly passed that Amendment defining the word
"citizen," declaring suffrage a foundation right. How are women
"citizens" from Utah, Wyoming, Kansas, moving in other States, to
be protected in the rights they have heretofore enjoyed, unless
Congress shall pass the bill presented by Mr. Butler, and thus
give us a homogeneous law on suffrage from Maine to Louisiana?
Remember, these are citizens of the United States as well as of
the Territories and States wherein they may reside, and their
rights as such are of primal consideration. One of your own
amendments to the Federal Constitution, honorable gentlemen, says
"that the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall
not be denied or abridged by any State on account of race, color,
or previous condition of servitude." We have women of different
races and colors, as well as men. It takes more than men to
compose peoples and races, and no one denies that all women
suffer the disabilities of a present or previous condition of
servitude. Clearly the State may regulate, but can not deny the
exercise of this right to any citizen.

You did not leave the negroes to the tender mercies of the courts
and States. Why send your mothers, wives, and daughters
suppliants at the feet of the unwashed, unlettered, unthinking
masses that carry our elections in the States? Would you compel
the women of New York to sue the Tweeds, the Sweeneys, the
Connollys, for their inalienable rights, or to have the scales of
justice balanced for them in the unsteady hand of a Cardozo, a
Barnard, or a McCunn? Nay, nay; the proper tribunal to decide
nice questions of human rights and constitutional
interpretations, the political status of every citizen under our
national flag, is the Congress of the United States. This is your
right and duty, clearly set forth in article 1, section 5, of the
Constitution, for how can you decide the competency and
qualifications of electors for members of either House without
settling the fundamental question on what the right of su