arriage copartnership in all the States
belong legally to the husband. If the wife goes outside the home
to work, the law in most of the States permits her to own and
control the money thus earned. We have not a single State in the
Union where the wife's earnings inside the marriage copartnership
are owned by her. Therefore, to ask the vast majority of women who
are thus situated, without an independent dollar of their own, to
make a canvass of the States is asking to much.

Mrs. GOUGAR. Why did they not ask the negro to do that?

Miss ANTHONY. Of course the negro was not asked to go begging
the white man from school district to school district to get his
ballot. If it was known that we could be driven to the ballot-box:
like a flock of sheep, and all vote for one party, there would
be a bid made for us; but that is not done, because we can not
promise you any such thing; because we stand before you and
honestly tell you that the women of this nation are educated
equally with the men, and that they, too, have political opinions.
There is not a woman on our platform, there is scarcely a woman
in this city of Washington, whether the wife of a Senator or a
Congressman--I do not believe you can find a score of women in the
whole nation--who have not opinions on the pending Presidential
election. We all have opinions; we all have parties. Some of us
like one party and one candidate and some another.

Therefore we can not promise you that women will vote as a unit
when they are enfranchised. Suppose the Democrats shall put a
woman suffrage plank in their platform in their Presidential
convention, and nominate an open and avowed friend of woman
suffrage to stand upon that platform; we can not pledge you that
all the women of this nation will work for the success of that
party, nor can I pledge you that they will all vote for the
Republican party if it should be the one to take the lead in their
enfranchisement. Our women will not toe a mark anywhere; they will
think and act for themselves, and when they are enfranchised they
will divide upon all political questions, as do intelligent,
educated men.

I have tried the experiment of canvassing four States prior to
Oregon, and in each State with the best canvass that it was
possible for us to make we obtained a vote of one-third. O