the custody of their minor children, and in case of controversy
on the subject, courts may award the custody to either in their
discretion. The husband can not now by will effectually appoint a
guardian for his infant children without the consent of the
mother, if living. These are certainly great ameliorations of the
law; but how have they been produced? Mainly as the result of the
exertions of a few heroic women, one of the foremost of whom is
she who stands arraigned as a criminal before this Court to-day.
For a thousand years the absurdities and cruelties to which I
have alluded have been imbedded in the common law, and in the
statute books, and men have not touched them, and would not until
the end of time, had they not been goaded to it by the persistent
efforts of the noble women to whom I have alluded.

Much has been done, but much more remains to be done by women. If
they had possessed the elective franchise, the reforms which have
cost them a quarter of a century of labor would have been
accomplished in a year. They are still subject to taxation upon
their property, without any voice as to the levying or
destination of the tax; and are still subject to laws made by
men, which subject them to fine and imprisonment for the same
acts which men do with honor and reward--and when brought to
trial no woman is allowed a place on the bench or in the jury
box, or a voice in her behalf at the bar. They are bound to
suffer the penalty of such laws, made and administered solely by
men, and to be silent under the infliction. Give them the ballot,
and, although I do not suppose that any great revolution will be
produced, or that all political evils will be removed (I am not a
believer in political panaceas), but if I mistake not, valuable
reforms will be introduced which are not now thought of. Schools,
alms-houses, hospitals, drinking saloons, and those worse dens
which are destroying the morals and the constitutions of so many
of the young of both sexes, will feel their influence to an
extent now little dreamed of. At all events women will not be
taxed without an opportunity to be heard, and will not be subject
to fine and imprisonment by laws made exclusively by men for
doing what it is lawful and honorable for men to do.

It may be said in