not long be shut out." As Congress has absolute control over the
District, no one can dispute its right to enfranchise the women
here, even though they dispute its control of this matter in
other parts of the nation. Miss Spencer submitted the following
petition for woman suffrage by the women of the district of
Columbia:

_Whereas_, The Supreme Court or the District or Columbia in
the ease of Spencer against the Board of Registration has
decided that by the operation of the first section of the
XIV. Amendment to the Constitution of the United States,
"Women have been advanced to full citizenship and clothed
with the capacity to become voters," and

_Whereas_, The same court further decided that the said
first section of the XIV. Amendment does not execute
itself, but requires the supervention of legislative power
in the exercise of legislative discretion to give it effect.
And

_Whereas_, The Congress of the United States is the
legislative body having exclusive jurisdiction over this
District,

_Therefore_, We respectfully pray your honorable bodies for
the passage of an act amending an act entitled "An act to
provide a government for the District of Columbia," approved
Feb. 21, 1871, by striking the word "male" from the seventh
section of said act, thus placing the constitutional rights
of the women of this District, as declared by the highest
judicial tribunal, under the protection of the legislative
power.

She said it might surprise and encourage many, as it did her, to
learn that neither the Constitution of the United States nor any
State constitution, nor legislative enactment, general or local,
has ever forbidden women to vote. They have simply permitted
certain male citizens to vote, and have said nothing about women
whatever. It is one thing to forbid women to vote; it is quite
another thing to simply fail to expressly declare that they may.
Some people think the Bible forbids women to vote because it
doesn't say anything about it from beginning to end. True, it
does not give any authority for it. Neither does it give any
authority for using sewing-machines or clothes-wringers. The zeal
of the people w