possess no form of suffrage. A decision of the Supreme
Court, Feb. 1, 1901, that an amendment to be adopted must receive a
majority of the highest number of votes cast at the election, has made
it practically impossible to secure the franchise for women by
changing the State constitution. It is held, however, by lawyers whose
opinion is of value, that this even now may be legally construed so as
to permit them to vote.

Sustained in her own belief by these views and by a Supreme Court
decision of 1893, which interpreted this constitution to permit women
to practice law (see Occupations), Mrs. Helen M. Gougar decided to
make a test case, and offered her vote in the State election, Nov. 6,
1894, at her home in Lafayette. It was refused and she brought suit
against the election board in the Superior Court of Tippecanoe County.
Sayler & Sayler and John D. Gougar, husband of the plaintiff, were
her attorneys, but she was herself admitted to the bar and argued her
own case before Judge F. B. Everett, Jan. 10, 1895. She based her
masterly argument on the rights guaranteed to all citizens by the
Federal Constitution, and on the first article of the constitution of
Indiana, which declares that "the General Assembly shall not grant to
any citizen, or class of citizens, privileges or immunities which,
upon the same terms, shall not equally belong to all citizens;" and
she used with deadly effect the parallel between the decision of the
Supreme Court in the case of Antoinette D. Leach, by which she was
enabled to practice law, and the claims which were now being made as
to the right of women to vote.[252]

The long, adverse decision of Judge Everett was based upon his
declaration that "suffrage is not a natural right or one necessarily
incident to such freedom and preservation of rights as are upheld by
the National and State constitutions;" that "the intention of their
framers to limit the suffrage to males is so strong that it can not be
disregarded;" and that "the legal and well understood rule of
construction is that the express mention of certain things excludes
all others."

Mrs. Gougar then carried her case to the Supreme Court of Indiana, and
was herself the first woman admitted to practice before that body. Her
brief was filed by her attorneys and she made her own argument before
the full bench, the court-room being crowded with lawyers and members
of the Legislature. It was said by one of the judges to be the
cleares