Women -- Suffrage -- History; Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History; Women's rights -- History; Women's rights -- United States -- History
But the occasion invites some remarks beyond the mere statement
of this point. The debates which have been going on for three
days in this Chamber will go out to the country. They will
constitute an element in the popular discussions of the times and
awaken a large amount of public attention. This is not the last
we shall hear of this subject. It will come to us again; and I am
persuaded that one reason why it will come again is that the
arguments against the proposed extension of suffrage have not
been sufficient; they have been inadequate; they have been placed
upon grounds which will not endure debate. Those who are in favor
of the extension of suffrage to females can answer what has been
said in this Chamber, and they can answer it triumphantly; and
you will eventually be obliged to take other grounds than those
which have been here stated. From the beginning of this debate
there has been either an open or an implied concession of the
principle upon which the extension of suffrage is asked; and that
is, that there is some natural right or propriety in extending it
further than it was extended by those who formed our State and
Federal Constitutions; that there is some principle of right or
of propriety involved which now appeals powerfully to us in favor
of extended and liberal action in behalf of those large classes
who have been hitherto disfranchised; upon whom the right of
suffrage has not been heretofore conferred.
Having made this concession upon the fundamental ground of the
inquiry, or at all events intimated it, the opponents of an
extended franchise pass on to particular arguments of
inconvenience or inexpediency as constituting the grounds of
their opposition.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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