and to be a
citizen of this nation should be a guaranty to every citizen of
the right to a voice in the Government, and should give to me
my right to express my opinion. You deny to me my liberty, my
freedom, if you say that I shall have no voice whatever in making,
shaping, or controlling the conditions of society in which I live.
I differ from Judge Hunt, and I hope I am respectful when I say
that I think he made a very funny mistake when he said that
fundamental rights belong to the States and only surface rights to
the National Government. I hope you will agree with me that the
fundamental right of citizenship, the right to voice in the
Government, is a national right.

The National Government may concede to the States the right to
decide by a majority as to what banks they shall have, what
laws they shall enact with regard to insurance, with regard to
property, and any other question; but I insist upon it that the
National Government should not leave it a question with the States
that a majority in any State may disfranchise the minority under
any circumstances whatsoever. The franchise to you men is not
secure. You hold it to-day, to be sure, by the common consent of
white men, but if at any time, on your principle of government,
the majority of any of the States should choose to amend the State
constitution so as to disfranchise this or that portion of the
white men by making this or that condition, by all the decisions
of the Supreme Court and by the legislation thus far there is
nothing to hinder them.

Therefore the women demand a sixteenth amendment to bring to women
the right to vote, or if you please to confer upon women their
right to vote, to protect them in it, and to secure men in their
right, because you are not secure.

I would let the States act upon almost every other question by
majorities, except the power to say whether my opinion shall
be counted. I insist upon it that no State shall decide that
question.

Then the popular-vote method is an impracticable thing. We tried
to get negro suffrage by the popular vote, as you will remember.
Senator Thurman will remember that in Ohio the Republicans
submitted the question in 1867, and with all the prestige of the
national Republican party and of the State party, when every
influence that could