as not intended to advance the rights of women, but simply
to slay the advocates of the enlargement of the franchise with
their own weapons. A. B. Fuller moved to amend by striking out
the word "universal," and all after the word "suffrage," which
was carried by a vote of 22 to 9. The Committee on Federal
Relations reported:

The constitution recognizes all persons born within the
United States, or naturalized in pursuance of the law, to be
citizens, and entitled to the rights of citizenship; and a
recent act of congress amends the organization acts of the
several territories so as to confer the rights of suffrage
upon all citizens except such as are disqualified by reason
of crime. Consequently, when congress decrees that we shall
not, as a State, deprive citizens of rights already
guaranteed to them, it does not transcend its powers, or
impose upon us conditions from which we are now exempt.

With these discussions of fundamental principles which, although
couched in the most comprehensive terms, strangely enough
conserved the rights of only half the citizens, the fourteenth
amendment was ratified, and Nebraska became a State on March 1,
1867.

The early legislation of Nebraska was favorable to woman, and
much ahead of that passed in the same period by most of the older
States, The records show that a few legislators treated any
matter that referred to the rights of woman as a jest, but the
majority were liberal or respectful, and the honored names of
Dailey, Reavis, Majors, Porter, Kelley, and others, constantly
recur in the records of the earlier sessions as pushing favorable
legislation for women. At almost every session, too, the actual
question of the ballot for woman was broached. The legislature of
1869 bestowed school suffrage on women;[460] and a joint
resolution and a memorial to congress relative to female suffrage
were introduced. The journals show that:

Hon. Isham Reavis of Falls City, introduced in the Senate
January 30, a memorial and joint resolution to congress, on
the subject of female suffrage. After the second reading, on
motion of Mr. Majors, it was referred to a select committee
of bachelors, consisting of Senators Gere, Majors, Porter,