l the last quarter of the century, when
the scanty harvest began to be gathered. The yield has seemed small
indeed at the end of each twelvemonth and it is only when viewed in
the aggregate that its size can be appreciated. The condition of woman
to-day compared with that of last year seems unchanged, but contrasted
with that of fifty years ago it presents as great a revolution as the
world has ever witnessed in this length of time.

If the first organized demand for the rights of woman--made at the
memorable convention of Seneca Falls, N. Y., in 1848--had omitted the
one for the franchise, those who made it would have lived to see all
granted. It asked for woman the right to have personal freedom, to
acquire an education, to earn a living, to claim her wages, to own
property, to make contracts, to bring suit, to testify in court, to
obtain a divorce for just cause, to possess her children, to claim a
fair share of the accumulations during marriage. An examination of
Chap. XXIV and the following chapters in this volume will show that in
many of the States all these privileges are now accorded, and in not
one are all refused, but when this declaration was framed all were
denied by every State. For the past half century there has been a
steady advance in the direction of equal rights for women. In many
instances these have been granted in response to the direct efforts of
women themselves; in others without exertion on their part but through
the example of neighboring States and as a result of the general trend
toward a long-delayed justice. Enough has been accomplished in all of
the above lines to make it absolutely certain that within a few years
women everywhere in the United States will enjoy entire equality of
legal, civil and social rights.

Behind all of these has been the persistent demand for political
rights, and the question naturally arises, "Why do these continue
to be denied? Educated, property-owning, self-reliant and
public-spirited, why are women still refused a voice in the
Government? Citizens in the fullest sense of the word, why are they
deprived of the suffrage in a country whose institutions rest upon
individual representation?"

There are many reasons, but the first and by far the most important is
the fact that this right, and this alone of all that have had to be
gained for woman, can be secured only through Constitutional Law. All
others have rested upon statute law, or upon the will of a boa