tinents. The
question of debate in the long past has been the rights of races.
This, in our country, was settled by the war, when the black man
was declared free and worthy to bear arms in defense of the
republic, and the last remnants of aristocracy were scattered
before our northern hosts like chaff in the whirlwind. We have
now come to the broader idea of _individual_ rights. An idea
already debated ably in Congress and out, by Republicans,
Democrats and Abolitionists, who, in common with the best writers
and thinkers of the day the world over, base all rights of
society and government on those of the individual. Each one of
you has a right to everything in earth and air, on land and sea,
to the whole world of thought, to all that is needful for soul
and body, and there is no limit to the exercise of your rights,
but in the infringement of the rights of another; and the moment
you pass that limit you are on forbidden ground, you violate the
law of individual life, and breed disorder and confusion in the
whole social system. Where, gentlemen, did you get the right to
deny the ballot to all women and black men not worth $250? If
this right of suffrage is not an individual right, from what
place and body did you get it? Is this right of franchise a
conventional arrangement, a privilege that society or government
may grant or withhold at pleasure? In the Senate of the United
States, in the recent discussion on the "bill to regulate the
elective franchise in the District of Columbia," GRATZ BROWN
said:

Mr. President, I say here on the floor of the American
Senate, I stand for universal suffrage; and, as a matter of
fundamental principle, do not recognize the right of society
to limit it on any ground of race or sex. I will go farther
and say, that I recognize the right of franchise as being
intrinsically a natural right. I do not believe that society
is authorized to impose any limitations upon it that do not
spring out of the necessities of the social state itself.
Sir, I have been shocked, in the course of this debate, to
hear Senators declare this right only a conventional and
political arrangement, a privilege yielded to you and me,
and others; not a right in any sense, only