tions on justice
and equality, we lift government out of the mists of speculation
into the dignity of a fixed science. Everything short of this is
trick, legerdemain, sleight of hand. Magicians may make nations
seem to live, but they do not. The Newtons of our day who should
try to make apples stand in the air or men walk on the wall,
would be no more puerile in their experiments than are they who
build nations outside of law, on the basis of inequality.

What thinking man can talk of _coming down_ into the arena of
politics? If we need purity, honor, self-sacrifice and devotion
anywhere, we need them in those who have in their keeping the
life and prosperity of a nation. In the enfranchisement of woman,
in lifting her up into this broader sphere, we see for her new
honor and dignity, more liberal, exalted and enlightened views of
life, its objects, ends and aims, and an entire revolution in the
new world of interest and action where she is soon to play her
part. And in saying this, I do not claim that woman is better
than man, but that the sexes have a civilizing power on each
other. The distinguished historian, Henry Thomas Buckle, says:
"The turn of thought of women, their habits of mind, their
conversation, invariably extending over the whole surface of
society, and frequently penetrating its intimate structure, have,
more than all other things put together, tended to raise us into
an ideal world, and lift us from the dust into which we are too
prone to grovel." And this will be her influence in exalting and
purifying the world of politics. When woman understands the
momentous interests that depend on the ballot, she will make it
her first duty to educate every American boy and girl into the
idea that to vote is the most sacred act of citizenship--a
religious duty not to be discharged thoughtlessly, selfishly or
corruptly; but conscientiously, remembering that, in a republican
government, to every citizen is entrusted the interests of the
nation. Would you fully estimate the responsibility of the
ballot, think of it as the great regulating power of a continent,
of all our interests, political, commercial, religious,
educational, social and sanitary!

To many minds, this claim for the ballot suggests nothing more
than a rough polling