y
who oppose us we will say nothing, but throw over them the
pall of merciful oblivion.

The first woman suffrage convention ever held in the city of St.
Louis, or the State of Missouri, assembled in Mercantile Library,
October 6, 7, 1869. Many distinguished people were on the
platform.[380] At this convention Mr. Francis Minor introduced a
very able series of resolutions, on which Mrs. Minor made a
remarkably logical address.[381] The following letter from Mr.
Minor shows the careful research he gave to the consideration of
this question:

ST. LOUIS, December 30, 1869.

DEAR REVOLUTION: So thoroughly am I satisfied that the
surest and most direct course to pursue to obtain a
recognition of woman's claim to the ballot, lies through the
courts of the country, that I am induced to ask you to
republish the resolutions that I drafted, and which were
unanimously adopted by the St. Louis convention. And I will
here add, that to accomplish this end, and to carry these
resolutions into practical effect, it is intended by Mrs.
Minor, the president of the State Association, to make a
test case in her instance at our next election; take it
through the courts of Missouri, and thence to the Supreme
Court of the United States at Washington. I think it will be
admitted that these resolutions place the cause of woman
upon higher ground than ever before asserted, in the fact
that for the first time suffrage is claimed as a privilege
based upon citizenship, and secured by the Constitution of
the United States. It will be seen that the position taken
is, that the States have the right to regulate, but not to
prohibit, the elective franchise to citizens of the United
States. Thus the States may determine the qualifications of
electors. They may require the elector to be of a certain
age, to have had a fixed residence, to be of a sane mind,
and unconvicted of crime, etc., because these are
qualifications or conditions that all citizens, sooner or
later, may attain; but to go beyond this, and say to
one-half the citizens of the State, notwithstanding you
possess all these qualifi