"
James Madison said:
"Under every view of the subject, it seems indispensable that the
mass of the citizens should not be without a voice in making the
laws which they are to obey, and in choosing the magistrates who
are to administer them." Also, "Let it be remembered, finally, that
it has ever been the pride and the boast of America that the rights
for which she contended were the rights of human nature."
And these assertions of the framers of the United States Constitution of
the equal and natural rights of all the people to a voice in the
government, have been affirmed and reaffirmed by the leading statesmen
of the nation, throughout the entire history of our government.
Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania, said in 1866:
"I have made up my mind that the elective franchise is one of the
inalienable rights meant to be secured by the declaration of
independence."
B. Gratz Brown, of Missouri, in the three days' discussion in the United
States Senate in 1866, on Senator Cowan's motion to strike "male" from
the District of Columbia suffrage bill, said:
"Mr. President, I say here on the floor of the American Senate, I
stand for universal suffrage; and as a matter of fundamental
principle, do not recognize the right of society to limit it on any
ground of race or sex.
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