had, than at the polls where prejudice and tradition oftentimes
exert a more potent influence than logic and justice. To refuse
this method to those to whom we are bound by the dearest ties
betrays an indifference to their requests or an inexplicable
adhesion to prejudice, which is only sought to be defended by an
asserted regard for women, that to me seems most illogical.

I share no fears of the degradation of women by the ballot. I
believe rather that it will elevate men. I believe the tone of
our politics will be higher, that our caucuses will be more
jealously guarded and our conventions more orderly and decorous.
I believe the polls will be freed from the vulgarity and
coarseness which now too often surround them, and that the
polling booths, instead of being in the least attractive parts of
a ward or town, will be in the most attractive; instead of being
in stables, will be in parlors. I believe the character of
candidates will be more closely scrutinized and that better
officers will be chosen to make and administer the laws. I
believe that the casting of the ballot will be invested with a
seriousness--I had almost said a sanctity--second only to a
religious observance.

The objections enumerated above appear to be the only profferings
against this measure excepting certain fragmentary quotations and
deductions from the sacred Scriptures; and here, Mr. President, I
desire to enter my most solemn protest. The opinions of Paul and
Peter as to what was the best policy for the struggling churches
under their supervision, in deferring to the prejudices of the
communities which they desired to attract and benefit, were not
inspirations for the guidance of our civilization in matters of
political co-operation; and every apparent inhibition of the
levelment of the caste of sex may be neutralized by selections of
other paragraphs and by the general spirit and trend of the Holy
Book.... Sir, my reverence for this grandest of all compilations,
human or divine, compels a protest against its being cast into
the street as a barricade against every moral, political and
social reform; lest, when the march of progress shall have swept
on and over to its consummation, it may appear to the superficial
observer that it is the Bible which has been ove