ially excluded from the world.
Man has not been consciously unjust to woman in the past, nor is
he now, but he believes that she is in her true sphere, not
realizing that he has fixed her sphere, and not God. This is as
true of the barbarian as of the Christian, and no more so. If the
"unspeakable Turk" should be solicited to open the doors of his
harem and let the inmates become free, he would be indignant,
doubtless, and would swear by the beard of the Prophet that he
never would so degrade lovely woman, who, in her sphere, was
intended to be the solace of glorious, superior man.

Yet, as man advances, woman is elevated, and her elevation in
turn advances him. No liberty ever given her has been lost or
abused or regretted. Where most has been given she has become
best. Liberty never degrades her; slavery always does. For her
good, therefore, she needs the ballot.

Second: Woman's vote is needed for the good of others. Our
horizon is misty with apparent dangers. Woman may aid in
dispelling them. She is an enemy of foreign war and domestic
turmoil; she is a friend of peace and home. Her influence for
good in many directions would be multiplied if she possessed the
ballot. She desires the homes of the land to be pure and sober;
with her help they may become so. Without her what is the
prospect in this regard?

We do not invite woman into the "dirty pool of politics," nor
does she intend to enter that pool. Politics is not necessarily
unclean; if it is unclean she is not chargeable with the great
crime, for crime it is. Politics must be purified or we are lost.
To govern this great nation wisely and well is not degrading
service; to do it, all the wisdom, ability and patriotism of all
the people is required. No great moral force should be
unemployed.

But it is sometimes said that women do not desire the ballot.
Some may not; very many do not, perhaps a majority. Such
indifference can not affect the right of those who are not
indifferent. Some men, for one or other insufficient reason,
decline to vote; but no statesman has yet urged general
disfranchisement on that account. It may be true, and in our
judgment it is, that those individuals who so fail to appreciate
the rights and obligations of freemen as to deliberately refuse