made really a fine speech, but his evident disconcertion showed
that he knew what was to follow. It was expected that when Miss
Brown was introduced many would leave, owing to the strange
feeling against Female Suffrage in and about Oscaloosa; but not
one left, the crowd grew more dense. A more eloquent speech never
was uttered in this town than Miss Brown delivered; for an hour
and three-quarters the audience was spell-bound as she advanced
from point to point. She had been longing for such an
opportunity, and had become weary of striking off into open air;
and she proved how thoroughly acquainted she was with her subject
as she took up each point advanced by her opponent, not denying
their truth, but showing by unanswerable logic that if it were
good under certain reasons for the negro to vote, it was ten
times better for the same reasons for the women to vote.

The argument that the right to vote is not a natural right, but
acquired as corporate bodies acquire their rights, and that the
ballot meant "protection," was answered and explained fully. She
said the ballot meant protection; it meant much more; it means
education, progress, advancement, elevation for the oppressed
classes, drawing a glowing comparison between the working classes
of England and those of the United States. She scorned the idea
of an aristocracy based upon two accidents of the body. She paid
an eloquent tribute to Kansas, the pioneer in all reforms, and
said that it would be the best advertisement that Kansas could
have to give the ballot to women, for thousands now waiting and
uncertain, would flock to our State, and a vast tide of
emigration would continually roll toward Kansas until her broad
and fertile prairies would be peopled. It is useless to attempt
to report her address, as she could hardly find a place to stop.
When she had done, her opponent had nothing to say, he had been
beaten on his own ground, and retired with his feathers drooping.
After Miss Brown had closed, some one in the audience called for
a vote on the female proposition. The vote was put, and nearly
every man and woman in the house rose simultaneously, men that
had fought the proposition from the first arose, even Judge
Sears himself looked as though he would like to rise, but his
princip