of eyes, and scarred all over with the
lead and iron hail of war--must he now hobble on his crutches up
to a Republican, Democratic, yea, and a Christian throne, and beg
the boon of a ballot in that government, in defense of which he
periled all, and lost all but bare life and breath, only because
an African instead of a more indulgent sun looked upon him or his
ancestors in their allotment of life? And then, when the claim of
immortal manhood is superadded, the inalienable rights of the
soul, in and of themselves, the rights of the reason, the
understanding, the conscience, the will--what desperation is that
which treads down all these claims, and rushes into seats of
higher authority than were ever claimed by the eternal God, and
denies him that right altogether! No white male citizen was ever
born with three ballots in his hand, one his own by birthright,
and to be used without restraint, the others to be granted, given
to women and to colored men at his pleasure or convenience! Such
an idea should never have outraged our common humanity. And any
bill or proposal for what is called "manhood suffrage," while it
ignores womanhood suffrage, whether coming from the President or
the Republican party and sanctioned by the Anti-Slavery Society,
should be repudiated as at war with the whole spirit and genius
of a true Democracy, and a deadly stab into the very heart of
justice itself.

I have referred to the age of the Roman Catholic Church. Lord
Macaulay, in accounting for her astonishing longevity as compared
with other institutions, turns with felicitous insight to female
influence as one of the principal causes. In her system, he says,
she assigns to devout women spiritual functions, dignities, and
even magistracies. In England, if a pious and devout woman enter
the cells of a prison to pray with the most unhappy and degraded
of her sex, she does so without any authority from the Church.
Indeed, the Protestant Church places the ban of its reprobation
on any such irregularity. "At Rome, the Countess of Huntingdon
would have a place in the calendar as St. Selina, and Mrs. Fry
would be Foundress and First Superior of the Blessed Order of
Sisters of the Jails." But even Macaulay overlooks another
element of power and permanence in the economy of t