ugitive slave
law and in its pronunciamento of nullification quoted the very
words which Jefferson used in 1798. A Democratic Supreme Court at
Washington, presided over by Chief Justice Taney, the arch
apostle of State rights, answered Wisconsin in the very language
of the Federalists of 1798, whom Jefferson despised and
condemned: "The Constitution and laws of the United States are
supreme, and the Supreme Court is the only and final arbiter of
disputes between the State and National Governments."

A few more years elapsed. South Carolina declared the right of
the State to nullify and Wisconsin answered on the field of
battle: "The Constitution and laws of the National Government are
supreme, so help us God!" ... At the close of that ever to be
regretted war the nation wrote into the Constitution the 14th and
15th Amendments, their fundamental principle that the suffrage is
a national matter. Those amendments were intended to establish
forever adult male suffrage....

Mrs. Beard then presented for the record a thorough synopsis of the
proceedings in relation to the franchise of the convention that framed
the U. S. Constitution, which showed, she declared, that it would have
made a national suffrage qualification if the members could have
agreed on one. "In all the great federations of the world," she said,
"Germany, Canada, Australia, suffrage is regarded as a national
question," and continued: "If respect for the great and wise who have
viewed suffrage as a national matter did not compel us so to regard
it, the plain dictates of common sense would do so. We are all ruled
by the laws made by Congress, from Maine to California; we must all
obey them equally whether we like them or not. We are taxed under
them; we travel according to rules laid down by the Interstate
Commerce Commission under the Interstate Commerce law; the remaining
national resources are to be conserved by Congress; whether we have
peace or war depends upon Congress. Is it of no concern who compose
Congress, who vote for members of Congress and for the President?"

It was shown by Mrs. Beard how closely national and State policies
were interwoven; that the submission of this amendment would take it
to the State Legislatures for a final decision; how with woman
suffrage in nine States there was a much greater demand for it than
there was for the one changing the method o