islation, the preservation of popular liberty. It
is impossible for a portion of the people, to be wiser and more
trustworthy than the whole people, or better qualified to decide
what shall be the laws for the government of all. The more minds
consulted, the more souls included, the more interests at stake,
in determining the form and administration of government, the
more of justice and humanity, of security and repose, will be the
result. The exclusion of half the population from the polls, is
not merely a gross injustice, but an immense loss of brain and
conscience, in making up the public judgment. As a nation we have
discarded absolutism, monarchy, and hereditary aristocracy; but
we have not fully attained even to manhood suffrage. Men are
proscribed on account of their complexion, women because of their
sex. The entire body politic suffers from this proscription.

The second objection refutes the first; it is based on the
alleged natural inferiority of woman to man, and the transition
is thus quickly made for her, from a semi-angelic state, to that
of a menial, having no rights that men are bound to respect
beyond what they choose to allow. In the scale of political
power, therefore, one male voter, however ignorant or depraved,
outweighs all the women in America! For, no matter how
intelligent, cultured, refined, wealthy, intellectually vigorous,
or morally great, any of their number may be,--no matter what
rank in literature, art, science, or medical knowledge and skill
they may reach,--they are political non-entities, unrepresented,
discarded, and left to such protection under the laws, as brute
force and absolute usurpation may graciously condescend to give.
Yet they are as freely taxed and held amendable to penal law as
strictly as though they had their full share of representation in
the legislative hall, on the bench, in the jury-box, and at the
polls. This cry of inferiority is not peculiar in the case of
woman. It was the subterfuge and defiance of negro slavery. It
has been raised in all ages by tyrants and usurpers against the
toiling, over-burdened millions, seeking redress for their
wrongs, and protection for their rights. It always indicates
intense self-conceit, and supreme selfishness. It is at war with
reason and common-