in the Senate of the State at that time, and the question
was referred to the committee of which I was a member, and it
fell to my lot to report upon it. If my recollection serves me
rightly the resolution favoring the right of women to vote was
lost by but a majority of three in the Michigan Senate.

Mr. EDMUNDS: Which way was the report?

Mr. FERRY, of Michigan: I am reminded by the Senator from Vermont
that perhaps I have not intimated which side the report took. The
report was in favor of woman suffrage, and it may be regarded as
having contributed to so large a vote. To-day, sir, is the first
time since that occasion that I have been officially called upon
to record my judgment upon the same question. I have had no
reason since that report was drawn to shake my belief that the
right of suffrage will not be jeopardized or perverted if wielded
by the hand of woman. Believing that now and desiring to act in
accord with my action in 1858 in the Senate of my native State. I
am glad of the opportunity to prove my consistency by voting for
woman suffrage to-day.

Mr. ANTHONY: Mr. President, I am quite content that this
experiment of female suffrage should be tried in this new
Territory. I believe that female suffrage is coming with the
other ameliorations and changes which have been tending for so
many years in the same direction. I have not taken any part in
the measures which have been agitated to hasten that event. I
think it will come in its own good time; but I should do very
great injustice to myself if I should allow it to be supposed
that my opinion is based upon some of the arguments that have
been made here. I do not believe that suffrage is a natural
right. I believe it is a right that grows out of society, a
political right, and that it is within the body-politic to decide
upon its limits, its modifications, and its conditions. The only
question in my mind is whether it is proper and expedient. I
think that the XIV. Amendment has nothing whatever to do with it.

Mr. MORTON: Mr. President, the Senators from Rhode Island, Maine,
and North Carolina have all said that the right to vote is not a
natural right, but merely a political right. Is not that a
distinction without a difference? If I have a natural right, I
have a right t