rear their children?

On behalf of the mothers of this country I demand that their
hands shall be loosened before the ballot-box, and that they
shall have the privilege of throwing the mother heart into the
laws which shall follow their sons not only to the age of
majority, but even after their hair has turned gray and they have
seats in the United States Congress; yes, to the very confines of
eternity. This can be done in no indirect way; it can not be done
by silent influence; it can not be done by prayer. While I do not
underestimate the power of prayer, I say give me my ballot with
which to send statesmen instead of modern politicians into our
legislative halls. I would rather have that ballot on election
day than the prayers of all the disfranchised women in the
universe!

....Our forefathers did not object to taxation, but they did
object to taxation without representation, and we object to it.
We are willing to contribute our share to the support of this
Government, as we always have done; but we demand our little yes
and no in the form of the ballot so that we shall have a direct
influence in distributing the taxes.

I am amenable to the gallows and the penitentiary, and it is no
more than right that I shall have a voice in framing the laws
under which I shall be rewarded or punished. It is written in the
law of every State in this Union that a person tried in the
courts shall have a jury of his peers; yet so long as the word
"male" stands as it does in the Constitution of the United States
and the States, no woman can have a jury of her peers. I protest
in the name of justice against going into the court-room and
being compelled to run the gauntlet of the gutter and
saloon--yes, even of the police court and of the jail--as is done
in selecting a male jury to try the interests of woman, whether
relating to life, property or reputation....

The political party that presumes to fight the moral battles of
the future must have the women in its ranks. We are non-partisan.
We come as Democrats, Republicans, Prohibitionists and
Green-backers, and if there were half a dozen other political
parties some of us would affiliate with them. We ask this
beneficent action upon your part, because we believe the
intelligence and justice