izens, I am capable of possessing the
rights of a citizen myself. I ask you to remove the barriers
which restrain women from equal opportunities and privileges with
men.

Mrs. Meriwether pointed out the helplessness of mothers to obtain
legal protection for themselves and their children, or to influence
the action of municipal bodies, without the suffrage. Miss Eastman
said in the course of her address:

The first business of government is foreshadowed in the
Constitution, that it is to secure justice between man and man
by allowing no intrusion of any on the rights of others. This
principle is large in application although simple in statement.
The first words, "We, the people," contain the foundation of our
claim. If we limit the application of the word "people," all the
rest falls to the ground. Whatever work of government is referred
to, it all rests on its being managed by "We, the people." If we
strike that out, we have lost the fundamental principle. Who are
the people? I feel that it is not my business to ask men to vote
on my right to be admitted to the franchise. I have been debarred
from my right. You hold the position to do me justice. Why should
I go to one-half of the people and ask whether so clear and
explicit a declaration as this includes me? The suffrage is not
theirs to give, and I would not get it from them easily if it
were. Neither would you get even education if you had to ask them
for it. This question is not for the people at large to settle.
Justice demands that we should be referred to the most
intelligent tribunals in the land, and not remanded to the
popular vote.

Mrs. Clay Bennett based her argument largely on the authority of the
Scriptures. Mrs. Gougar said:

We do not come as Democrats or Republicans, not as Northern or as
Southern, but as women representing a great principle. This is in
line with the Magna Charta, with the Petition of Rights, with the
Articles of Confederation, with the National Constitution. This
is in direct line of the growth of human liberty. The Declaration
of Independence says, "Governments derive their just powers from
the consent of the governed." Are you making a single law which
does not touch me as much as it does you?

Questions are upon you which you can not solve without the moral
senti