anchisement as "a cruel and degrading penalty?" Suppose the
news were to be flashed across our country to-morrow that the
farmers of the nation were to be disfranchised, what indignation
there would be! How they would leave their homes to assemble and
protest against this wrong! They would declare that
disfranchisement was a burden too heavy to be borne; that if they
were unrepresented laws would be passed inimical to their best
interests; that only personal representation at the ballot box
could give them proper protection; and they would hasten here,
even as we are doing, to entreat you to remove from them the
burden of "the cruel and degrading penalty of disfranchisement."

And now, I desire to call your attention to a series of
declarations in the Constitution which prove beyond all
possibility of contravention that the Government has solemnly
pledged itself to secure to the women of the nation the right of
suffrage.

Article XIV, Section 1, declares that "All persons born or
naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction
thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State
wherein they reside." The women of this country are, then,
citizens thereof and entitled to all the rights of citizens.

Article XV speaks of "the right of a citizen to vote," as if that
were one of the most precious privileges of citizenship, so
precious that its protection is embodied in a separate amendment.

If we now turn to Article IV, Section 2, we find it declares that
"the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the
privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States."

What do these assertions mean? Is there one of you who can
explain away these noble guarantees of the right of individual
representation at the ballot box as mere one-sided phrases,
having no significance for one-half the people? No. These grand
pledges are abiding guarantees of human freedom, honest promises
of protection to all the people of the republic.

You, gentlemen, have sworn to carry out all the provisions of the
Constitution. Does not this oath lay upon you the duty of seeing
that this great pledge is kept and that the Fifty-sixth Congress
sets its mark in history by fulfilling these guarantees and
securing the ballot to the million