y carriage within sight of the polls, put them in charge
of some Republican who can be trusted. I see they have the right
tickets, then I feel sure I am faithfully represented, and I know I am
right in so doing. I have neither husband, father, nor son; am
responsible for my own taxes; am amenable to all the laws of the
State; must pay the penalty of my own crimes if I commit any; hence I
have the right, according to the principles of our government, to
representation, and so long as I am not permitted to vote in person, I
have a right to do so by proxy, hence I hire men to vote my
principles.'" Thus she disposed of the statesman and his seriocomic
morality.
These two sisters, daughters of Judge Miller, an influential man of
wealth and position, were women of culture and remarkable natural
intelligence, and interested in all progressive ideas. They had rare
common-sense and independence of character, great simplicity of
manner, and were wholly indifferent to the little arts of the toilet.
I was often told by fashionable women that one great objection to the
woman's rights movement was the publicity of the conventions; the
immodesty of speaking from a platform; and the trial of seeing one's
name in the papers. Several ladies made such remarks to me one day as
a bevy of us were sitting together in one of the fashionable hotels in
Newport. We were holding a Convention there at that time, and some of
them had been present at one of the sessions. "Really," said I,
"ladies, you surprise me; our Conventions are not as public as the
ball-room where I saw you all dancing last night. As to modesty, it
may be a question in many minds whether it is less modest to speak
words of soberness and truth, plainly dressed with one's person
decently covered on a platform, than gorgeously arrayed with bare arms
and shoulders, to waltz in the arms of strange gentlemen.
"And as to the press, I noticed you all reading with evident
satisfaction the personal compliments and full descriptions of your
dresses at the last ball, in this morning's papers. I presume that any
one of you would have felt slighted if your name had not been
mentioned in the general description. When my name is mentioned, it is
in connection with some great moral movement, as making a speech, or
reading a resolution. Thus we all suffer or enjoy the same publicity,
we are all alike ridiculed, wise men pity and ridicule you, fops and
fools pity and ridicule me, you as the
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