in her sphere, any more than the slave can in his sphere.
Civilly, socially, and religiously, she is what man chooses her to be,
nothing more or less, and such is the slave. It is impossible for us
to convince man that we think and feel exactly as he does; that we
have the same sense of right and justice, the same love of freedom and
independence. Some men regard us as devils, and some as angels; hence,
one class would shut us up in a certain sphere for fear of the evil we
might do, and the other for fear of the evil that _might be done to
us_; thus, except for the sentiment of the thing, for all the good
that it does us, we might as well be thought the one as the other. But
we ourselves have to do with what we are and what we _shall_ be.

2d. Men can not legislate for us. Our statute books and all past
experience teach us this fact. His laws, where we are concerned, have
been, without one exception, unjust, cruel, and aggressive. Having
denied our identity with himself, he has no data to go upon in judging
of our wants and interests. If we are alike in our mental structure,
then there is no reason why we should not have a voice in making the
laws which govern us; but if we are not alike, most certainly we must
make laws for ourselves, for who else can understand what we need and
desire? If it be admitted in this Government that all men and women
are free and equal, then must we claim a place in our Senate Chamber
and House of Representatives. But if, after all, it be found that even
here we have classes and caste, not "Lords and Commons," but lords and
women, then must we claim a lower House, where our Representatives can
watch the passage of all bills affecting our own welfare, or the good
of our country. Had the women of this country had a voice in the
Government, think you our national escutcheon would have been stained
with the guilt of aggressive warfare upon such weak, defenceless
nations as the Seminoles and Mexicans? Think you we should cherish and
defend, in the heart of our nation, such a wholesale system of piracy,
cruelty, licentiousness, and ignorance as is our slavery? Think you
that relic of barbarism, the gallows, by which the wretched murderer
is sent with blood upon his soul, uncalled for, into the presence of
his God, would be sustained by law? Verily, no, or I mistake woman's
heart, her instinctive love of justice, and mercy, and truth!

Who questions woman's right to vote? We can show our credenti