o use the necessary and proper means to enforce
that right; it is a part of it. To say that I have a natural
right but have not the right to use the means for its protection
is illogical; it makes nonsense of it. The natural and proper
means to enforce any right are a part of it. The right of
self-defense is one of the natural rights; everybody concedes it,
and to take from me the natural and effective means of defending
myself is to take from me the right itself. Government is the
means of securing natural rights, and should depend upon the
consent of the governed. Therefore the right to give or to
withhold my consent is a part of the natural right. Let us come
down to the substance and put away these shadowy distinctions. To
say that I have the right of self-defense, but that I have no
right to use the knife or any instrument necessary to protect my
life against the assassin, is nonsense. So far as the right of
government is concerned, the right to assent, to consent, or to
dissent, the natural means under our system is the right to vote.
You can not conceive any other. Therefore it is a part of the
right and without it the other is worth nothing.

Mr. EDMUNDS: I wish to ask the Senator from Indiana whether
persons under the age of twenty-one and eighteen years
respectively have not all the natural rights that grown-up people
have?

Mr. MORTON: I think I can answer that question very readily, if
the Senator is through.

Mr. EDMUNDS: That is my only question at present.

Mr. MORTON: Every right must have some sort of regulation.

Mr. EDMUNDS: That does not answer the question.

Mr. MORTON: Wait until I get through. We have in our country, and
I believe generally in Europe, certainly in England, agreed that
twenty-one years is the age when men and women have come into the
full possession of their understanding and are supposed to be so
well informed that they can take upon themselves the government
of their own fortunes and the control of their own property. The
mere fact that this thing is to be regulated does not take away
the right. The natural right to own and control property is
regulated in that way. There must be some age fixed. We know the
infant can not do it; we know the child ten years old has not the
necessary know