lass who have strength to do
it, and who persuade themselves that their rule is for the public
interest. Either these doctrines are true, or you can give no
reason for your own possession of the suffrage except that you
have got it. If this doctrine be sound, it follows that no class
of persons can rightfully be excluded from their equal share in
the government, unless they can be proved to lack some quality
essential to the proper exercise of political power.

A person who votes helps, first, to determine the measures of
government; second, to elect persons to be intrusted with public
administration. He should therefore possess, first, an honest
desire for the public welfare; second, sufficient intelligence to
determine what measure or policy is best; third, the capacity to
judge of the character of persons proposed for office; and,
fourth, freedom from undue influence, so that the vote he casts
is his own, and not another's. That person or class casting his
or their own vote, with an honest desire for the public welfare,
and with sufficient intelligence to judge what measure is
advisable and what person may be trusted, fulfill every condition
that the State can rightfully impose.

We are not now dealing with the considerations which should
affect the admission of citizens of other countries to acquire
the right to take part in our government. All nations claim the
right to impose restrictions on the admission of foreigners
trained in attachment to other countries or forms of rule, and to
indifference to their own, whatever they deem the safety of the
State requires. We take it for granted that no person will deny
that the women of America are inspired with a love of country
equal to that which animates their brothers and sons. A capacity
to judge of character, so sure and rapid as to be termed
intuitive, is an especial attribute of woman. One of the greatest
orators of modern times has declared:

I concede away nothing which I ought to assert for our sex
when I say that the collective womanhood of a people like
our own seizes with matchless facility and certainty on the
moral and personal peculiarities and character of marked and
conspicuous men, and that we may very wisely address
ourselves to such a bo