nt began two years
ago as a crusade of prayer and song, and the women engaged
therein have now resolved themselves into a national
organization, whose second convention, held in October last,
numbering delegates from twenty-two States, almost unanimously
passed a resolution demanding the ballot to aid them in their
temperance work. We who make our constant demand for suffrage,
knew that these women were in process of education, and would
soon be forced to ask for the key to all reform.

The ballot says yes or no to all questions. Without it women are
prohibited from practically expressing their opinions. The very
fact that the women of this District make this demand of you more
urgently than men proves that they desire it more and see its
uses better. The men of this District who quietly remain
disfranchised have the spirit of slaves, and if asking for the
ballot is any proof of fitness for its use, then the women who do
ask for it here prove themselves in this respect superior to men,
more alive to the interests of this District, and better fitted
to administer the government. Women who are not interested in
questions of reform would soon become so if they possessed the
ballot. They are now in the condition we were when we heard of
the famine in Persia two years ago. Our sympathies were aroused
for a brief while, but Persia was far away, we could render it no
certain aid, and the sufferings of the people soon passed from
our minds.

Our approaching centennial celebration is to commemorate the
Declaration of Independence, which was based on individual
rights. For ages it was a question where the governing power
rightfully belonged; patriarch, priest, and monarch each claimed
it by divine right. Our country declared it vested in the
individual. Not only was this clearly stated in the Declaration
of Independence, but the same ground was maintained in the secret
proceedings upon framing the constitution. The old confederation
was abandoned because it did not secure the independence and
safety of the people. It has recently been asked in congressional
debates, "What is the grand idea of the centennial?" The answer
was, "It is the illustration in spirit and truth of the
principles of the Declaration of Independence and of the
constitut