outhern women, and closed as follows:

There are mighty forces striving within our souls--a latent
strength is astir that is lifting us out of our passive sleep.
Defenseless, still are we subject to restrictions, bonds as
illogical in theory as unjust in practice. Helpless, we may
formulate as we will; but demonstrate we may not. The query
persists in thrusting itself upon my mind, why should I be
amenable to a law that does not accord me recognition? Why,
indeed, should I owe loyalty and allegiance to a Government that
stamps my brow with the badge of servility and inferiority?

Our human interests are identical--yours and mine; our paths not
far apart; we have the same loves, the same hates, the same
hopes, the same desires; a common origin, a common need, a common
destiny. Our moral responsibilities are equal, our civil
liabilities not less than yours, our social and industrial
exactions equally as stringent as yours, and yet--O, crowning
shame of the nineteenth century!--we are denied the garb of
citizenship. Gentlemen, is this justice?

Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch, auditor of the National Suffrage
Association and a member of the Chicago bar, demonstrated The
Protective Power of the Ballot:

The spirit of struggle against oppression and dependence is in
the air, and all have breathed it in--women as well as men. They,
too, feel the desire for freedom, opportunity, progress; the wish
for liberty, a share in the government, emancipation. The
practical method by which these aspirations can be realized is
through the ballot. It is the insignia of power. The Outlander
wants it; so does the Filipino, the Slav, the Cuban; so do women.
Women need the ballot not only for the honor of being esteemed
peers among freemen, but they want it for the practical value it
will be in protecting them in the exercise of a citizen's
prerogatives....

But, it is asked, "Have not women had some sort of protection
without the ballot?" Yes, but it has been only such protection
as the caprice or affection of the voting class has given,
gratuities revocable at will. The man of wealth or power defends
his wife, daughter or sweetheart because she is his, just as he
would defend his property. His own opinions, not her views,
decide him concerning the things from whic