Before proceeding to the discussion of the purely legal question, I
desire, as already intimated, to pay some attention to the propriety and
justice of the rule which I claim to have been established by the
Constitution.
Miss Anthony, and those united with her in demanding the right of
suffrage, claim, and with a strong appearance of justice, that upon the
principles upon which our government is founded, and which lie at the
basis of all just government, every citizen has a right to take part,
upon equal terms with every other citizen, in the formation and
administration of government. This claim on the part of the female sex
presents a question the magnitude of which is not well appreciated by
the writers and speakers who treat it with ridicule. Those engaged in
the movement are able, sincere and earnest women, and they will not be
silenced by such ridicule, nor even by the villainous caricatures of
Nast. On the contrary, they justly place all those things to the account
of the wrongs which they think their sex has suffered. They believe,
with an intensity of feeling which men who have not associated with them
have not yet learned, that their sex has not had, and has not now, its
just and true position in the organization of government and society.
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