instinctive feeling on the part of juries and judges that
existing laws and institutions are unjust to women, or to the
fact that juries composed wholly of men are led to do injustice
by their susceptibility to the attractions of women. But
certainly it is a grave defect in any system of government that
it does not administer justice impartially, and the existence of
such a defect is a strong reason for preferring an arrangement
which would remove the feeling that women do not have fair play,
or for so composing juries that, drawn from both sexes, they
would be impartial between the two.

The final objection of the committee is that "such a change
should be made, if at all, by the States. Three-fourths of the
States should not force it upon the others. Whenever any
considerable part of the women in any State wish for the right to
vote, it will be granted without the intervention of congress."
Who can doubt that when two-thirds of congress and three-fourths
of the States have voted for the change, a considerable number of
women in the other States will be found to desire it, so that,
according to the committee's own belief, it can never be forced
by a majority on unwilling communities? The prevention of unjust
discrimination by States against large classes of people in
respect to suffrage is even admitted to be a matter of national
concern and an important function of the national constitution
and laws. It is the duty of congress to propose amendments to the
constitution whenever two-thirds of both houses deem them
necessary. Certainly an amendment will be deemed necessary, if it
can be shown to be required by the principles on which the
constitution is based, and to remove an unjust disfranchisement
from one-half the citizens of the country. The constitutional
evidence of general public demand is to be found not in
petitions, but in the assent of three-fourths of the States
through their legislatures or conventions.

The lessons of experience favor the conclusion that woman is fit
for a share in government. It may be true that in certain
departments of intellectual effort the greatest achievements of
women have as yet never equaled the greatest achievements of
men. But it is equally true that in those same departments women
have exhibit