heir prejudices
against acknowledging woman's right to self-government; have
declared that "privileges and immunities" merely signify civil
and legal rights, but not political. Such was the groundwork of
the argument of the Hon. Matt. Carpenter in the Myra Bradwell
case. What a farce! It declared at an early day that the United
States possessed the greatest trust ever confided to a "political
society." "Political society" is the foundation of our nation,
and our political trust is the ballot.

It has been said by a member of the present Congress that no man
in that body doubts that the Constitution authorizes women to
vote, precisely as it authorizes trial by jury and many other
rights guaranteed to the citizens of the United States, but that
in order to give them practical force there must be legislation;
that these guaranteed rights are not self-executing. This is a
fine legal quibble, stated for a purpose; but since legal minds
disagree upon this point, a caviller might say no law is
self-executing; all laws require enforcement. It may be said that
the Ten Commandments are not self-executing; yet though given to
Moses, not only as the underlying constitution of the Jewish
nation and all nations, they contain self-executing provisions,
bearing the penalties of their infraction within themselves. By
their simple statement they carry within themselves the authority
for their enforcement. The provision that the sun shall each day
rise and run its accustomed rounds is a self-executing provision,
until some Joshua vetoes this divine right of the sun.

The Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and no
difficulty should be found in executing its provisions. But
while, as aimed against the exercise of arbitrary power, we have
no objection to the passage of a declaratory law which shall make
plain to every United States judge, and to the most obtuse
inspector of election, that women are voters, we still claim that
the recent "Act for enforcing the XIV. Amendment" should protect
woman in the exercise of her rights of self-government.

Although the States ratified the XIII., XIV. and XV. Amendments
by the requisite two-thirds vote, they still find it difficult to
realize the fact that these amendments have actually strengthened
the Nation