his
preservation and protection; the power to help govern himself.
Let us never forget his claim, but strengthen it, by not
neglecting our own."

At the November election of this year, Mrs. Stanton offered herself as
a candidate for Congress; in order to test the constitutional right of
a woman to run for office. This aroused some discussion on this phase
of the question, and many were surprised to learn that while women
could not vote, they could hold any office in which their constituents
might see fit to place them. Theodore Tilton gives the following
graphic description of this event in "The Eminent Women":

In a cabinet of curiosities I have laid away as an interesting
relic, a little white ballot, two inches square, and inscribed:

+-------------------------------------+
| _For Representative to Congress_, |
| ELIZABETH CADY STANTON. |
+-------------------------------------+

Mrs. Stanton is the only woman in the United States who, as yet,
has been a candidate for Congress. In conformity with a practice
prevalent in some parts of this country, and very prevalent in
England, she nominated herself. The public letter in which she
proclaimed herself a candidate was as follows:

_To the Electors of the Eighth Congressional District_:

Although, by the Constitution of the State of New York woman is
denied the elective franchise, yet she is eligible to office;
therefore, I present myself to you as a candidate for
Representative to Congress. Belonging to a disfranchised class, I
have no political antecedents to recommend me to your
support,--but my creed is _free speech_, _free press_, _free
men_, and _free trade_,--the cardinal points of democracy.
Viewing all questions from the stand-point of principle rather
than expediency, there is a fixed uniform law, as yet
unrecognized by either of the leading parties, governing alike
the social and political life of men and nations. The Republican
party has occasionally a clear vision of personal rights, though
in its protective policy it seems wholly blind to the rights of
property and interests of commerce; while it recognizes the duty
of benevolence between man and man, it teaches the narrowest
selfishness in trade between nations. The Democrats, on the
contrar