of color or race.

[56] _The New York Tribune_, Dec. 12, 1866, contains the following
editorial comments: The Senate devoted yesterday to a discussion of
the right of women to vote--a side question, which Mr. Cowan, of
Pennsylvania, interjected into the debate on suffrage for the District
of Columbia. Mr. Cowan chooses to represent himself as an ardent
champion of the claim of woman to the elective franchise. It is not
necessary to question his sincerity, but the occasion which he selects
for the exhibition of his new-born zeal, subjects him to the suspicion
of being considerably more anxious to embarrass the bill for
enfranchising the blacks, than to amend it by conferring upon women
the enjoyment of the same right. Mr. Cowan was once a Republican. He
abandoned his party, has been repudiated by his State, and may well be
casting about for some new issue by which to divert attention from his
faithlessness on the old. We have heard that Mr. Cowan affects the
classics; we are sure, therefore, that he will thank us for reminding
him of that familiar story out of Plutarch respecting Alcibiades. When
the dissolute Athenian had cut off the tail of his dog, which was the
dog's principal ornament, and all Athens cried out against him for the
act, Alcibiades laughed, and said: "Just what I wanted has happened. I
wished the Athenians to talk about this that they might not say
something worse of me."

We are not to be suspected of indifference to the question whether
woman shall vote. At a proper time we mean to urge her claim, but we
object to allowing a measure of urgent necessity, and on which the
public has made up its mind, to be retarded and imperilled. Nor do we
think the Radical majority in the Senate need be beholden to the
enemy's camp for suggestions as to their policy. We want to see the
ballot put in the hands of the black without one day's delay added to
the long postponement of his just claim. When that is done, we shall
be ready to take up the next question.

[57] Mrs. Frances Dana Gage, of Ohio.

[58] YEAS--Messrs. Anthony, Brown, Buckalew, Cowan, Foster, Nesmith,
Patterson, Riddle, Wade--9. NAYS--Messrs. Cattell, Chandler, Conness,
Creswell, Davis, Dixon, Doolittle, Edmunds, Fessenden, Fogg,
Frelinghuysen, Grimes, Harris, Henderson, Hendricks, Howard, Howe,
Kirkwood, Lane, Morgan, Morrill, Norton, Poland, Pomeroy, Ramsey,
Ross, Saulsbury, Sherman, Sprague, Stewart, Sumner, Trumbull, Van
Winkle, Willey, Will