exclude another from all share in the Government has the most
doubtful and shadowy foundation in right, and to an American it
needs no evidence to show that a portion of the people thus
excluded are in a state of vassalage. I read from Story on the
Constitution, volume 1st, commencing at

Sec. 578. The most strenuous advocate for universal suffrage
has never yet contended that the right should be absolutely
universal. No one has ever been sufficiently visionary to
hold that all persons of every age, degree, and character,
should be entitled to vote in all elections of all public
officers. Idiots, infants, minors, and persons insane or
utterly imbecile, have been, without scruple, denied the
right as not having the sound judgment and discretion fit
for its exercise. In many countries, persons guilty of
crimes have also been denied the right as a personal
punishment, or as a security to society. In most countries,
females, whether married or single, have been purposely
excluded from voting, as interfering with sound policy and
the harmony of social life ... And yet it would be extremely
difficult, upon any mere theoretical reasoning, to establish
any satisfactory principle upon which the one-half of every
society has thus been systematically excluded by the other
half from all right of participating in government, which
would not at the same time apply to and justify many other
exclusions. If it be said that all men have a natural,
equal, and inalienable right to vote, because they are all
born free and equal; that they all have common rights and
interests entitled to protection; and, therefore, have an
equal right to decide, either personally or by their chosen
representatives, upon the laws and regulations which shall
control, measure, and sustain those rights and interests;
that they can not be compelled to surrender, except by their
free consent, what by the bounty and order of Providence
belongs to them in common with all their race. What is there
in these considerations which is not equally applicable to
females as free, intelligent, moral, responsible beings,
entitled to equal ri