It is said women are not fit for freedom. Well, then, secure us
freedom and make us fit for it. Macaulay said many politicians of
his time were in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident
proposition that no people were fit to be free till they were in
a condition to use their freedom; "but," said Macaulay, "this
maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story, who resolved not to
go into the water till he had learned to swim. If men [or women]
are to wait for liberty till they become good and wise in
slavery, they may indeed wait forever."

There has been much talk about precedent. Many women in this
country vote upon school questions, and in England at all
municipal elections. I wish to call your attention a little
further back, to the time that the Saxons first established free
government in England. Women, as well as men, took part in the
Witenagemote, the great national council of our Saxon ancestors
in England. When Whightred, king of Kent, in the seventh century,
assembled the national legislature at Baghamstead to enact a new
code of laws, the queen, abbesses, and many ladies of quality
signed the decrees. Also, at Beaconsfield, the abbesses took part
in the council. In the reign of Henry III. four women took seats
in parliament, and in the reign of Edward I. ten ladies were
called to parliament and helped to govern Great Britain. Also, in
1252, Henry left his Queen Elinor as keeper of the great seal, or
lord chancellor, while he went abroad. She sat in the Aula Regia,
the highest court of the kingdom, holding the highest judicial
power in great Britain. Not only among our forefathers in Britain
do we find that women took part in government, but, going back to
the Roman Empire, we find the Emperor Heliogabalus introducing
his mother into the senate, and giving her a seat near the
consuls. He also established a senate of women, which met on the
Collis Quirinalis. When Aurelian was emperor he favored the
representation of women, and determined to revive this senate,
which in lapse of time had fallen to decay. Plutarch mentions
that women sat and deliberated in councils, and on questions of
peace and war. Hence we have precedents extending very far back
into history.

It is sometimes said that women do not desire freedom. But I tell