of men who, however well
qualified they may be to vote, are physically unable to perform
any of the duties which appertain to the execution of the law and
the defense of the State. Scarcely a Senator on this floor is
liable by law to perform military or other administrative duty,
yet this rule set up against the right of women to vote would
disfranchise nearly this whole body.

"But it is unnecessary to grant that woman can not fight. History
is full of examples of her heroism in danger, of her endurance
and fortitude in trial, of her indispensable and supreme service
in hospital and field.... It is hardly worth while to consider
this trivial objection--that she is incompetent for purposes of
national murder or of bloody self-defense--as the basis for
denying a fundamental right, when we consider that if this right
were given to her she would by its very exercise almost certainly
abolish this great crime of the nations, which has always
inflicted upon woman the chief burden of woe."

Mr. Blair then demonstrated the intellectual ability of the woman of
the present day, proving in this respect her capacity and fitness to
vote. He quoted from the minority report of the Senate Committee,
which had been submitted by Senators Brown and Cockrell, saying:

It proceeds to show that both man and woman are designed for a
higher final estate--to-wit, that of matrimony. It seems to be
conceded that man is just as well fitted for matrimony as woman
herself, and the whole subject is illuminated with certain
botanical lore about stamens and pistils, which, however relevant
to matrimony, does not prove that woman should not vote unless at
the same time it proves that man should not vote. And certainly
it can not apply to those women, any more than to those men,
whose highest and final estate never is merged in the family
relation at all....

The right to vote is the great primitive right in which all
freedom originates and culminates. It is the right from which all
others spring, in which they merge, and without which they fall
whenever assailed. This right makes all the difference between
government by and with the consent of the governed, and
government without and against the consent of the governed; and
that is the difference between freedom and slavery. If the right