e shows that my neighbor's ballot is no protection for
me. We see that voters may be bribed, dazzled, coerced; and,
where there is practically universal suffrage among men, we often
see, indeed, corruption, waste, and bad laws. But we nowhere see
that those who once have the ballot are willing to relinquish it,
and many of those who most warmly oppose the voting of women also
most earnestly advocate the unconditional restoration of
political rights to the guiltiest of the late rebel leaders,
because they know that to deprive them of the ballot places them
at a terrible disadvantage. If then it is what I may call an
American political instinct, that any class of men which
monopolizes the political power will be unjust to other classes
of men, how much truer is it that one sex as a class will be
unjust to the other.

I know, as every man knows, many a woman of the noblest
character, of the highest intelligence, of the purest purpose,
the owner of property, the mother of children, devoted to her
family and to all her duties, and for that reason profoundly
interested in public affairs. And when this woman says to me,
"You are one of the governing class. Your Government is founded
upon the principle of expressed consent of all as the best
security of all. I have as much stake in it as you--perhaps more
than you, because I am a parent--and wish more than many of my
neighbors to express my opinion and assert my influence by a
ballot. I am a better judge than you or any man can be of my own
responsibilities and powers. I am willing to bear my equal share
of every burden of the Government in such manner as we shall all
equally decide to be best. By what right, then, except that of
mere force, do you deny me a voice in the laws which I am forced
to obey?" What shall I say? What can I say? Shall I tell her that
she is "owned" by some living man, or is some dead man's
"relict," as the old phrase was? Shall I tell her that she ought
to be ashamed of herself for wishing to be unsexed; that God has
given her the nursery, the ball-room, the opera, and that, if
these fail, He has graciously provided the kitchen, the wash-tub,
and the needle? Or shall I tell her that she is a lute, a
moonbeam, a rosebud; and touch my guitar, and weave flowers in
her hair,