all men could be free and equal while there were more than
3,000,000 slaves.

A. J. Weaver spoke in opposition and was followed by Hon. I.
S. Hascall, who based his advocacy of the principle on the
rights that woman has as an individual:

Because we have started upon the wrong track, because women
in the dark ages were in bondage, is no reason, when we have
advanced to a higher civilization, that we should continue
this barbarous practice. There is a higher point to reach
and I want to see the people reach that point. I think that
the American people are old enough in experience to bring
order out of disorder, and that when the question arises
they will meet it in such a way as will be satisfactory to
all.

Mr. Stevenson spoke in opposition basing his argument on
man's superiority to woman and closed with this remarkable
prediction which has probably never been surpassed as a
specimen of "spread eagle":

Finally, Mr. President, I really think that if the ballot
were placed in the hands of woman the old American eagle
that stands with one foot upon the Alleghanies and the other
upon the Rockies, whetting his beak upon the ice-capped
mountains of Alaska, and covering half the Southern gulf
with his tail, will cease to scream and sink into the pits
of blackness of darkness amidst the shrieks of lost spirits
that will forever echo and reecho through cavernous depths
unknown.

S. P. Majors advocated the measure, and in the course of the
discussion, B. I. Hinman offered a burlesque resolution,
proposing to change the duties and functions of the sexes by
law, and John D. Neligh said:

The gentleman from Otoe (Mr. Mason) will get the commission
of the Christian mothers, not _against_ the right of female
suffrage, but _for_ universal suffrage. That will be a happy
day--a day when we shall shine out as a nation more brightly
than any other nation under the sun.[464]

The constitution of 1871 not having been adopted, it became
necessary to present another to the people. Accordingly in the
summer of 1875 delegates of the male citizens met in the capital
city.