territory, Hon. John W. Hoyt, in an
address delivered in Philadelphia, April 3, 1882, in answer to a
question as to the operation of the law, said:

First of all, the experience of Wyoming has shown that the
only actual trial of woman suffrage hitherto made--a trial
made in a new country where the conditions were not
exceptionably favorable--has produced none but the most
desirable results. And surely none will deny that in such a
matter a single ounce of experience is worth a ton of
conjecture. But since it may be claimed that the sole
experiment of Wyoming does not afford a sufficient guaranty
of general expediency, let us see whether reason will not
furnish a like answer. The great majority of women in this
country already possess sufficient intelligence to enable
them to vote judiciously on nearly all questions of a local
nature. I think this will be conceded. Secondly, with their
superior quickness of perception, it is fair to assume that
when stimulated by a demand for a knowledge of political
principles--such a demand as a sense of the responsibility
of the voter would create--they would not be slow in rising
to at least the rather low level at present occupied by the
average masculine voter. So that, viewing the subject from
an intellectual stand-point merely, such fears as at first
spring up, drop away, one by one, and disappear. But it must
not be forgotten that a very large proportion of questions
to be settled by the ballot, both those of principle and
such as refer to candidates, have in them a _moral_ element
which is vital. And here we are safer with the ballot in the
hands of woman; for her keener insight and truer moral sense
will more certainly guide her aright--and not her alone, but
also, by reflex action, all whose minds are open to the
influence of her example. The weight of this answer can
hardly be overestimated. In my judgment, this moral
consideration far more than offsets all the objections that
can be based on any assumed lack of an intellectual
appreciation of the few questions almost wholly commercial
and economical. Last of all, a majority of qu