the amendment reported by the
Committee on the District of Columbia, by striking out in the
second line of its first section the word "male" before "person."
Upon this question the Senator from Missouri is entitled to the
floor.

Mr. BROWN: Mr. President, I do not believe that the pending
amendment to the bill extending the franchise to women in the
District of Columbia, offered by the Senator from Pennsylvania,
was designed to be carried out into practical legislation at this
time or in this connection. I think it was rather intended to
elicit an expression of opinion from members of the Senate upon
the general proposition involved. If it were to go into practical
effect, I am one of those who believe that it would be necessary
to accompany it by a good deal of other legislation to prevent it
from degenerating into abuse, and perhaps corrupting many of
those it designs to advance in position and influence. But
accepting the matter in the light which I have stated, for one I
am willing to express an opinion very freely on the subject. I
have to say then, sir, here on the floor of the American Senate,
I stand for universal suffrage, and as a matter of fundamental
principle do not recognize the right of society to limit it on
any ground of race, color, or sex. I will go further and say that
I recognize the right of franchise as being intrinsically a
natural right; and I do not believe that society is authorized to
impose any limitation upon it that does not spring out of the
necessities of the social state itself. These may seem, Mr.
President, extreme views, but they conform to the rigid logic of
the question, and I defy any Senator here who abides that logic
to escape that conclusion. Sir, I have been shocked, yes,
shocked, during the course of this debate at expressions which I
have heard so often fall from distinguished Senators, and
apparently with so little consideration of what the heresy
irresistibly leads to, saying in substance that they recognize in
this right of franchise only a conventional or political
arrangement that may be abrogated at will and taken from any;
that it is simply a privilege yielded to you and me and others by
society or the Government which represents society; that it is
only a gracious boon from some abst