actical instrument of this equality is the ballot. Now what is
the ballot? Mr. Frothingham gave us one definition; Mr. Phillips
gave us another. But the ballot is so large a thing that it
admits of many definitions. The ballot is what the citizen thinks
of the government. The government looks to the ballot to know the
popular will. I do not mean to say that the little piece of white
paper which we hold in our hand on election day is the only means
whereby we can utter an opinion that shall be heard in
Washington. We can speak by the pen; we can speak by the voice. A
wise government will give heed to the public press, and to the
popular voice. But there is no spoken voice, there is no written
word, which the government is legally bound to heed except the
ballot. When they see the ballot, they know they are served with
official notice. When you _talk_ to a government, you talk as to
a tree; but when you _vote_ at it, you scratch your name on the
bark. Now, I want to see Rosalind's name cut into the bark of the
government. [Applause]. Who ought to possess the ballot? Our
President is right--I mean _this_ President. [Applause]. She does
not claim the ballot for women as women, but for women as
citizens. That is the true ground. The ballot belongs not to the
white man, not to the black man, not to the woman, but to the
citizen. Shall the minister vote? No. Shall the lawyer? No. Shall
the merchant? No. Shall the rich man? No. Shall the poor man? No.
None of these shall vote. There is only one person who shall
vote, and that is the citizen. [Applause]. Now I trust the day is
not far distant when our institutions shall practically recognize
this idea--when civil prerogative shall be limited not only by no
distinction of color, but by no distinction of sex.

Are women politically oppressed that they need the ballot for
their protection? I leave that question to be answered by women
themselves. I demand the ballot for woman, not for woman's sake,
but for man's. _She_ may demand it for her own sake; but to-day,
_I_ demand it for _my_ sake. We shall never have a government
thoroughly permeated with humanity, thoroughly humane, thoroughly
noble, thoroughly trustworthy, until both men and women shall
unite in forming the public sentiment, and in administering tha