ls more decent, more respectable
than they are now. Why, sir, fifty years ago the idea of women
attending political meetings was intolerable to a great many
people. The idea of her going to lectures of a scientific
character was thought to be out of all reason. But now women go
to political meetings. In almost every canvass in my State there
are nearly as many women who attend the meetings as men. What is
the effect of it? Are they degraded? On the contrary, their
presence elevates the character of those meetings. It is an
assurance of peace, it is a security against rowdyism and
violence, because in this country men have to be very low if they
are guilty of rowdyism or blackguardism in the presence of women.
We have a habitual respect for them; and I can testify from my
own experience in politics that the attendance of women upon
political meetings, so far from degrading them or affecting men
injuriously, has elevated the character of political assemblages,
has made them more respectable, has secured to them immunity from
violence, and from degrading scenes and blackguardism, and so it
will be at the polls. When a woman is allowed to go to the polls
and vote her sentiments and convictions, it will have the same
effect there that her presence has in society. There is not a bit
of doubt about it. And there will be no more discord in the
family circle than there was when, in violation and against the
old principles of the common law, you gave a woman the right to
retain her legal existence after marriage and to own property
separate and apart from her husband. These old notions have been
giving away one after another little by little, and we shall
finally come down to the true theory of our Government in all
respects, and that is to allow every person, man or woman, who is
to be affected and controlled by the Government, whose interest
or whose happiness is to be controlled by or depends on the
administration of that Government, to have an equal voice in that
Government. Therefore I give my vote heartily and cheerfully for
this amendment.

Mr. FLANAGAN.--I confess, sir, that I was delighted when my
distinguished friend from California presented this amendment.
Unlike my distinguished friend from Indiana, however, I am a new
convert to this