depriving the town of
Portland of the right of representation in view of its paying
such heavy taxes as it does pay. He expressed the greatest
indignation at the attempt, forgetting utterly that great body of
women who pay taxes but are deprived of the right of
representation. In this connection it may be pertinent for me to
express the hope, by way of a suggestion, that hereafter, when
making your speeches, you will not use the term "citizens" in a
broad sense, unless you mean to include women as well as men, and
that when you do not mean to include women you will speak of male
citizens as a separate class, because the term, in its general
application, is illogical and its meaning obscure if not
self-contradictory.

President Hayes was so pleased with one of the sentences in his
message of a year ago that in his message of this year he has
reiterated it. It reads thus:

That no temporary or administrative interests of government
will ever displace the zeal of our people in defense of the
primary rights of citizenship, and that the power of public
opinion will override all political prejudices and all
sectional and State attachments in demanding that all over
our wide territory the name and character of citizen of the
United States shall mean one and the same thing and carry
with them unchallenged security and respect.

Let me suggest what he ought to have said unless he intended to
include women, although I am afraid that Mr. Hayes, when he wrote
this, forgot that there were women in the United States,
notwithstanding that his excellent wife, perhaps, stood by his
side. He ought to have said:

An act having been passed to enforce the rights of _male_
citizens to vote, the true vigor of _half_ the population is
thus expressed, and no interests of government will ever
displace the zeal of _half_ of our people in defense of the
primary rights of our _male_ citizens. _The prosperity of
the States depends upon the protection afforded to our male
citizens_; and the name and character of _male_ citizens of
the United States shall mean one and the same thing and
carry with them unchallenged security and respect.

If Mr. Hayes had thus expressed himse