content with saying as regards the general question
that in a republic which theoretically is founded upon the principle
that government derives its just powers from the consent of the
governed I think it illogical, unreasonable and an injustice to deny
the vote to adult women who are citizens. With that statement I
shall address myself to the suggestion of the National American Woman
Suffrage Association that Congress should propose to the States an
amendment to the Constitution which shall in effect provide that no
State shall deny to any person the right to vote on account of sex.
And as respects that suggestion I shall deal with a single phase of
the matter. It seems to be supposed in some quarters that if such an
amendment were to be adopted it would involve a breach of faith with
the dissenting States, or violate some unwritten principle of local
self-government, or conflict with the historic doctrine of State
Rights.

I have no hesitancy in saying that I have for years believed and still
believe that there is a constitutional doctrine of State Rights which
cannot be safely or rightfully ignored. Many of the foremost men in
both parties share that belief. It must be admitted, however, that
this doctrine sometimes has been so perverted, misapplied and carried
to such extreme limits as seriously to prejudice many worthy and
intelligent citizens against its true merit and value. This fact makes
it all the more necessary on the part of those who would save the
doctrine from absolute repudiation to be careful when and how and to
what purpose it is invoked.

There has recently been published a book entitled "Woman Suffrage by
Constitutional Amendment." The author of that book, the Hon. Henry St.
George Tucker of Virginia, was at one time a member of Congress, and
has been president of the American Bar Association. He was invited to
deliver a course of five lectures, in 1916, before the School of Law
of Yale University on the subject of "Local Self-Government." In one
of the lectures woman suffrage by Federal Amendment was discussed and
the theory was advanced that the attempt to bring about the right of
suffrage by an amendment to the Constitution of the United States
was opposed to the genius of the Constitution and subversive of the
principle of local self-government. In his opinion, woman suffrage
by Federal Amendment is contrary to the rightful demarcation of the
powers of the Federal and State governments under