ontemplated that in all its
bearings and ultimate results, common sense said: It can never be
endured; we have had enough of this going on. Let us come
directly to the point. Is a negro a man? Is he a rational,
accountable man or not? If a beast has rights we are bound to
respect, and if a man for abusing it may be thrown into the
penitentiary, is it possible that he who is made in the image of
God is without rights? Does not common sense teach that we have
some rights, and if our laws contradict such a decision as this
it is time we have better laws, and such as common sense will
approve. We want some one to rise in the cause of suffrage to cut
the Gordian knot that binds the community, that binds churches,
that binds good men everywhere, as well as those who are willing
to be mistaken. A single word from Gen. Butler, who, whatever may
have been charged against him, is not lacking in common sense,
the single word "contraband," wrought a revolution in the midst
of our rebellion, and to that we owe to a great extent our
success in the war. We want such a gleam of light to burst upon
the minds of the community, upon the great American people who
are interested in the subject. The field is ours for the next
four years, and we will strive to impress the doctrines of common
sense upon all men and all women everywhere, until the atmosphere
shall be full of it and all shall take it in by absorption.

Mrs. LONGLEY, of Cincinnati, said--_Ladies and Gentlemen_: In a
country where "No taxation without representation" is a
watchword, and where it is held that "all just governments derive
their powers from the consent of the governed," it should be
unnecessary to plead for the recognition of the right of half its
people to participate in making the laws by which they are taxed
and governed. The justice of woman's claim to the ballot is so
self-evident, and so entirely in accord with the spirit of our
institutions and the fundamental principles upon which they are
based, that I often feel as though it were offering an insult to
American men to undertake to argue the question. But, every
election day reminds us that these fundamental principles which
our forefathers fought to establish are outraged. "We, the
people," they said, yet nearly a century finds hal