“Every freeman, who hath sufficient discretion, should have a voice in the election of his legislators.… All the members of the State are qualified to make the election, unless they have not sufficient discretion, or are so situated as to have no wills of their own. Persons not twenty-one years old are deemed of the former class, from their want of years and experience.… Women, what age soever they are of, are also considered as not having a sufficient acquired discretion,--not from a deficiency in their mental powers, but from the natural tenderness and delicacy of their minds, their retired mode of life, and various domestic duties. These, concurring, prevent that promiscuous intercourse with the world which is necessary to qualify them for electors. Slaves are of the latter class, and have no wills.”[244] The reasons assigned for the exclusion of women may be very unsatisfactory; but they show at least that the Fathers, when insisting that taxation and representation must go together, did not regard women, any more than minors, within the sphere of this commanding principle. And here I leave this head of the argument, concluding as I began, that you cannot adopt this pretended Amendment without setting at defiance the great maxim of constitutional liberty which was the rallying cry of our fathers. * * * * * 3. Continuing the dissection, I exhibit this proposition as a new form of _concession to State Rights_. Such it is plainly on its face; such it is in reality; and the more you examine it, the more complete the concession appears. Already it has been announced as such by those who seek to commend it in quarters of doubtful loyalty. Here, for instance, is a speech of Hon. John E. King, claimant of a seat in Congress from Louisiana, only a few days ago addressed to the Legislature of his State, where, after calling attention to the present attempt, he exults in what seemed to him the prospect of its adoption:-- “The present Congress is proceeding to amend without the eleven States that are unrepresented in that body. _However, there is some good in all this evil._ If this Amendment should pass,--and the speaker said that himself and colleagues had no doubt that it would,--it will settle forever the right of the States to legislate, each for itself, as to who shall be the voters therein.”[245] Thus, while deprecating Amendments to the Constitution in the absence of the eleven Rebel States, the partisan of State Rights is reconciled to the pending proposition, inasmuch as it is a triumph of this sectional pretension. Alas, that now, at the close of a rebellion in the name of State Rights, we should be considering calmly how to assure this pernicious heresy new support in the Constitution itself!