stry list, and her vote
was received without opposition.

The next case was that of Nannette B. Gardner, in Detroit, Michigan.
She registered her name in that city March 25, 1871, and voted,[165]
unquestioned, April 3d. April 20th, of the same year, Sara Andrews
Spencer and Sarah E. Webster, with seventy other women of the District
of Columbia, marched in a body to the polls, but their votes were
refused at the election as they had been previously refused
registration. They immediately took steps to prosecute the Board of
Inspectors, and suit was brought in the Supreme Court of the District
at the general term, October, 1871. Albert G. Riddle and Francis
Miller, able lawyers of the District, and well known advocates of
woman suffrage, were retained by the plaintiffs, and in their defense
made the following arguments:

Mr. RIDDLE said: May it please the Court; ... These plaintiffs,
describing themselves as women, claim to be citizens of the
United States and of this District, with the right of the
elective franchise, which they attempted to exercise at the
election of April 20th last past, and were prevented. They say
that as registration was a prerequisite of the right to vote,
they tendered themselves in due form, and demanded it, under the
second section of the Act of May 31, 1870 (16th U.S. Stats.,
140). That is the "Act to enforce the right of citizens of the
United States to vote," etc., and authorizes a suit for refusing
registration. They say, that being refused registration, they
tendered their votes to the proper inspectors of said election,
with proof of their attempt to register, citizenship, etc., as
authorized by the third section of said Act, and their votes were
refused; and, thereupon, Spencer brings her suit under said
second section, against the registering officers, and Webster
hers under the third section, which authorizes it, for rejecting
her vote. The questions in both cases are identical and presented
together.

To the declarations the defendants demur, and thereby raise the
only questions we desire to have adjudicated. The defendants, by
their demurrer, admit all the allegations of the plaintiffs,
severally, but say, that as they are women, they are not entitled
to vote in the District of Columbia. That the seventh section of
the organic Act, the Constitution of the Di