on, almost
at a bound, to the broad plateau of universal equality and
co-operation to which all these blood-stained and prayer-worn
steps have surely led.

Like life insurance and the man who carried the first umbrella,
the inception of this movement was greeted with derision. Born of
an apparently hopeless revolt against unjust discrimination,
unequal statutes, and cruel constructions of courts, it has
pressed on and over ridicule, malice, indifference and
conservatism, until it stands in the gray dawn before the most
powerful legislative body on earth and challenges final
consideration.

The laws which degraded our wives have been everywhere repealed
or modified, and our children may now be born of free women. Our
sisters have been recognized as having brains as well as hearts,
and as being capable of transacting their own business affairs.
New avenues of self-support have been found and profitably
entered upon, and the doors of our colleges have ceased to creak
their dismay at the approach of women. Twelve States have
extended limited suffrage through their Legislatures, and three
Territories admit all citizens of suitable age to the ballot-box,
while from no single locality in which it has been tried comes
any word but that of satisfaction concerning the experiment.

The spirit of inquiry attendant upon the agitation and discussion
of this question has permeated every neighborhood in the land,
and none can be so blind as to miss the universal development in
self-respect, self-reliance, general intelligence and increased
capacity among our women. They have lost none of the womanly
graces, but by fitting themselves for counselors and mental
companions have benefited man, more perhaps than themselves.

In considering the objections to this extension of the suffrage
we are fortunate in finding them grouped in the adverse report of
the minority of your committee, and also in confidently
assuming, from the acknowledged ability and evident earnestness
of the distinguished Senators who prepared it, that all is
contained therein in the way of argument or protest which is left
to the opponents of this reform after thirty-seven years of
discussion. I wish that every Senator would examine this report
and note how many of its reasonings