person to have a voice in the
government that he shall live under, and in the electing of the
magistrate who shall make the laws by which he is to be governed.
But they say women don't want to vote. Well, I didn't want to
learn my letters, but I had to, and, on the whole, I am not sorry
for it. If men say women don't want the ballot, my reply is, they
need it, at any rate. In behalf of the poor and needy, I plead
for suffrage. They are the persons who are in just that place
where the hail of misfortune plays pitilessly upon them. I plead
for suffrage for women, not because the rich and refined need
it--they have already more than their heart could wish--but for
the great sisterhood of common women.

But, it is said, is it not subverting the order of the Bible; is
it not subverting those sound Christian maxims in respect to the
subordination of woman to man? Well, if you think it is, let the
husband vote first and the wife vote after; that settles that
point. I have looked through the Ten Commandments, and although I
find a great many things that you shall not do, I don't find
anywhere it says that you shall not vote; and I don't think that
there is a place in the Bible where it says that a woman shall
not vote; nor, since it pleased God to make thousands and
thousands of women that are superior to men, I don't believe that
he ever wrote a line to say that a woman who was superior should
be inferior. My friends, the true rendering of Scripture is this:
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul,
and strength, and thy neighbor as thyself. In the kingdom of love
there is neither high nor low. Love knows no distinctions. It is
all equal in the kingdom of God; and wherever the human family
are supremely possessed by that one supreme, beneficent feeling
of love, there never can arise these disturbing elements.

* * * * *

Mrs. LIVERMORE said: _Ladies and Gentlemen_--Mr. Beecher very
pertinently said that women are allowed to _know_, but not to
_say_; they may make all the preparations necessary to
intelligent voting, but that they shall not vote. That is exactly
what is doing a vast deal of mischief the world over. If they are
not allowed to vote, and express their opinions upon the laws by