had come to mean laziness; when she realized that through the
changed conditions of modern life so much of her work had been
taken out of the home, leaving her to choose between following it
into the world or remaining idle; when with a clearer vision she
saw that her help in governmental affairs, especially where they
touched her own interests, was much needed--right about face she
turned and said to the southern man: "I don't wish to usurp your
place in government but it is time I had my own. I don't complain
of the way you have conducted your part of the business but my
part has been either badly managed or not managed at all. In the
past you have not shown yourself averse to accepting my help in
very serious matters; my courage and fortitude and wisdom you
have continually praised. Now that there is a closer connection
between the government and the home than ever before in the
history of the world, I ask that you will let me help you."

Mrs. Dudley described the effect of the demand for woman suffrage on
the politicians, on the men who feared they would be "reformed," on
the sentimentalists, and then she paid tribute to the broad-minded,
justice-loving men who encouraged the women in their new aspirations
and concluded: "So you see not only the southern woman but the
southern man is now awake and present conditions strongly indicate
that before another year has passed we will have some form of suffrage
for the woman of Tennessee.... We have had a vision--a vision of a
time when a woman's home will be the whole wide world, her children
all those whose feet are bare and her sisters all who need a helping
hand; a vision of a new knighthood, a new chivalry, when men will not
only fight for women but for the rights of women."

The plea of Mrs. Valentine for a higher womanhood should be given in
full but an idea at least can be gained by a quotation:

If I were asked to give one reason above all others for
advocating the enfranchisement of women I should unhesitatingly
reply, "The necessity for the complete development of woman as a
prerequisite for the highest development of the race." Just so
long as woman remains under guardianship, as if she were a minor
or an incompetent--just so long as she passively accepts at the
hands of men conditions, usages, laws, as if they were decrees of
Providence--just s