ubmitting it to them. When we
wish to ascertain whether the male citizens of the country desire
a proposition, we submit the question to them and let them vote
upon it.

Mr. SARGENT.--That suggestion is very just. But the fact that
there are remonstrances against the extension of the suffrage to
women shows that there is agitation, and agitation shows interest
in the matter. If this opinion were not in danger of prevailing,
if it were not sweeping over the country, we would get no
remonstrances; it would be looked upon as mere idle wind blowing
nowhere and amounting to nothing. I say these petitions are
coming here in every form. There are large and popular
conventions, attended by ladies and attended by a great many men,
making strong efforts to this end. There is as much agitation on
this point as there was for the abolition of slavery before the
war broke out.

Now I come to the other proposition of my friend from Maine. He
says the ballot and the bayonet go together, and that he who
handles the one must be prepared to handle the other. What do you
do with men who are past the years of military service and
exempted by your laws? Do you deprive them of the ballot? That of
itself is a sufficient answer to that argument. They are not
inseparable. Fortunately for our country the necessity for the
use of the bayonet occurs very seldom; but when it does occur
there are large classes of male voters who are not called to the
field, but are exempted by the policy of our law. No one believes
that if women had this privilege, or this immunity, or this
right--whatever you may call it--put into their hands we would
therefore require of them to do things that would degrade or
unsex them, or that would be improper for them to perform. I
believe that men would have the same respect for women with the
ballot in their hands as without it.

It is not for the few women who remonstrate from luxurious
parlors, sitting upon sofas, in the glare of the gaslight,
changing and choosing their phrases, but for the great class of
laboring women in the country that I appeal for this redress. I
appeal for the women who have been struggling on in these
Government offices, doing the same work that men do, aye, and in
many cases doing it better, for about one-h