, as it did in the case of negro men.]

Woman's true sphere is not restricted, but is boundless in
resources and consequences. In it she may employ every energy of
the mind and every affection of the heart, while within its
limitless compass, under Providence, she exercises a power and
influence beyond all other agencies for good. She trains and
guides the life that is, and forms it for the eternity and
immortality that are to be. From the rude contact of life, man is
her shield. He is her guardian from its conflicts. He is the
defender of her rights in his home, and the avenger of her wrongs
everywhere.

[That is, what man considers her true sphere is not restricted, but
she is not allowed to decide for herself what shall be its
dimensions. "Her power for good is beyond all other agencies," but it
is not wanted in affairs of State, where surely it is needed quite as
badly as in any place in the world. "Man is her shield, guardian,
defender and avenger." Witness the Common Law of England, made by men,
under which women lived for centuries and which is still in force in a
number of the States; witness the records of the courts with the
wife-beaters and slayers, the rapists, the seducers, the husbands who
have deserted their families, the schemers who have defrauded widows
and orphans--witness all these and then say if all men are the natural
protectors of women. But even if they were, witness the millions of
women who are not legally entitled to the protection and assistance of
any man. However, the report does not forget these women.]

The exceptional cases of unmarried females are too rare to change
the general policy, while expectancy and hope, constantly being
realized in marriage, are happily extinguishing the exceptions
and bringing all within the rule which governs wife and matron.

To permit the entrance of political contention into the home
would be either useless or pernicious--useless if man and wife
agree, and pernicious if they differ. In the former event the
volume of ballots alone would be increased without changing
results. In the latter, the peace and contentment of home would
be exchanged for the bedlam of political debate and become the
scene of base and demoralizing intrigue.

[What a breadth of statesmanship, what a grasp of the principles of a
republican form of government, to see in the vot