a
freedom which was beyond their reach. So it is with us
to-day. We are happy and kindly treated (as witness our
reception here to-night), and in the enjoyment of the
numerous privileges which our chivalrous gentlemen are so
ready to accord; many of us who feel a wish for freedom, do
not venture even to whisper a single word about our rights.
For the last twenty-five years I have occasionally expressed
a desire to vote, and it was always received as a matter of
surprise, but the sort of effect produced was as different
as the characters of the individuals with whom I conversed.
* * * *

Gentlemen of the convention, we now leave our cause in your
hands, and commend it to your favorable consideration. We
have pointed out to you the signs of the dawning of a
better day for woman, which are so plain before our eyes,
and implore you to reach out your hand and help us up, that
we may catch the first glimpse of its glory before it floods
the world with noon-day light.[518]

Col. John M. Sandidge read a letter from Mrs. Sarah A.
Dorsey:

JUNE 11, 1879.

_Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention:_--Too weak
from recent illness and suffering to appear personally
before you by the side of the women of Louisiana who are
asking for the privilege and responsibility of political
suffrage, I am forced to use this mode of indorsing their
movement.

Being left by the fiat of God entirely alone in the world,
with no man to represent me, having large interests in the
State and no voice either in representation or taxation
while hundreds of my negro lessees vote and control my life
and property, I feel that I ought to say one word that may
perhaps aid many other women whom fate has left equally
destitute. It is doubtful whether I shall rise from my couch
of pain to profit by the gift should the men of Louisiana
decide to give the women of the State the right which is the
heritage of the Anglo-Saxon race--representation for
taxation. But still I ask it for my sisters and for the
future of the race. We women