ing of husband and
wife only an "increase of ballots"; what a reflection upon men to
assume that if there were an honest difference of opinion "the home
would become a scene of base and demoralizing intrigue"; what a
recognition of justice to decree that, since possibly there might be a
disagreement, the man should do the voting and the woman should be
forbidden a voice!]

In respect to married women, it may well be doubted whether the
influences which result from the laws of property between husband
and wife, would not make it improbable that the woman should
exercise her suffrage with freedom and independence. This, too,
in despite of the fact that the dependence of woman under the
Common Law has been almost entirely obliterated by statutory
enactments.

[Almost, but not quite, and it would still prevail everywhere had its
obliteration depended upon the committee making this report. Think of
saying in cold blood that, as the husband holds the purse-strings, the
wife would not dare vote with freedom and independence!]

Your committee are of the opinion that while a few intelligent
women, such as appeared before the committee in advocacy of the
pending measure, would defy all obstacles in the way of their
casting the ballot, yet the great mass of the intelligent,
refined and judicious, with the becoming modesty of their sex,
would shrink from the rude contact of the crowd and, with the
exceptions mentioned, leave the ignorant and vile the exclusive
right to speak for the gentler sex in public affairs.

[This opinion has been wholly disproved by the experience of States
where women do vote. The "intelligent and judicious" have learned that
there is more "rude contact" in going to the market, the theater, the
train and the ferry-boat, than in a quiet booth where no man is
permitted to come within a hundred feet. But women are not so "modest
and refined" as to shrink from "rude contact" even, if it would give
them the opportunity to control the conditions which surround and
influence their husbands, their children, their homes and their
community.]

Your committee are of the opinion that the general policy of
female suffrage should remain in abeyance, in so far as the
general Government is concerned, until the States and communities
directly chargeable under our system of government with the
exercise and regulation of