the Saxon blood, and the
first line of record that is left to the Saxon race is that line
of Tacitus, "On all grave questions they consult their women."
When the cycle of Saxondom is complete, when the Saxon element
culminates in modern civilization, another Tacitus will record in
the valley of the Mississippi, as he did in the valley of the
Rhine, "On all grave questions they consult their women." The
fact is, there is no use of blinking the issue. It is Paul
against the Saxon blood; it is a religious prejudice against the
blood of the race. The blood of the race accords to woman
equality; it is a religious superstition which stands in the way
and balks the effort.

Europe has known three phases. The first was the dominion of
force; the second the dominion of money; the third is
beginning--the dominion of brains. When it comes, woman will step
out on the platform side by side with her brother. The old Hindoo
dreamed that he saw the human race led out to its varied fortune,
and first he saw a man bitted and curbed, and the reins went back
to an iron hand. Then he saw a man led on and on, under various
changes, until, at last, he saw the man led by threads that came
from the brain and went back to an invisible hand. The first was
the type of despotism--the reign of force, the upper classes
keeping down the under. The last is ours--the dominion of brains.
We live in a government where _The New York Herald_ and _New York
Tribune_, thank God, are more really the government than Franklin
Pierce and Caleb Cushing. Ideas reign. I know some men do not
appreciate this fact; they are overawed by the iron arm, by the
marble capitol, by the walls of granite--palpable power, felt,
seen. I have seen the palace of the Caesars, built of masses that
seemed as if giants alone could have laid them together, to last
for eternity, as if nothing that did not part the solid globe
could move them. But the tiny roots of the weeds of Italian
summers had inserted themselves between them, and the palace of
the Caesars lies a shapeless ruin. So it is with your government.
It may be iron, it may be marble, but the pulses of right and
wrong push it aside; only give them time. I hail the government
of ideas.

There is another thing I claim. You laugh at Woman's Right