t
to vote.

FRANCIS MILLER, Esq. said that he had one reason for
congratulation in being engaged in the suit with Mr. Riddle, as
it gave him an opportunity to do something for the women of his
country. Under the XIV. Amendment he contended that women had the
right to vote, and no lawyer that read the amendment could decide
in any other way.

It was not true that the cohorts of this issue had been defeated
every time, but it was true that they had gained two victories.
Chief-Justice Cartter had decided that woman was a full citizen,
and had not the right to vote, simply because they had not passed
a law necessary for the purpose. If the XIV. Amendment did not
confer suffrage they must go through the States with a new
amendment, and fight a battle in each. He thought that very
obscure ideas prevailed on the subject. How could anyone that had
no self-government enjoy any inalienable right? It was said that
the ballot was a creature of legislation, consequently not
natural. This was an absurdity. There was no way in the world for
a man to govern himself except by the ballot. To deny any one the
only means of exercising that right is a wrong before heaven and
should be redressed. He did not propose to go into a legal
argument; the best of his ability has been expended in the cause,
and is before the public.

At the evening session Mrs. Gage gave the following address:

Mrs. GAGE said: We hear many fears expressed in regard to the
danger of "centralized power," and the growing tendency of the
nation toward it. The people have been told that through this
tendency their liberties were endangered. The truth is just the
contrary. "State rights" has from the very commencement of this
Government been the rock on which the ship of the nation has many
times nearly foundered, and from which it is to-day in great
danger. The one question of the hour is, Is the United States a
Nation with full and complete National powers, or is it a mere
thread upon which States are strung as are the beads upon a
necklace?

Let us look back a hundred years. The War of the Revolution
commenced merely as a rebellion of the Colonies against the
Nation to which they belonged. Though all were located on the
continent of America, each colony was under its own