Women -- Suffrage -- History; Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History; Women's rights -- History; Women's rights -- United States -- History
We are not now dealing with the considerations which should
affect the admission of citizens of other countries to acquire
the right to take part in our government. All nations claim the
right to impose restrictions on the admission of foreigners
trained in attachment to other countries or forms of rule, and to
indifference to their own, whatever they deem the safety of the
State requires. We take it for granted that no person will deny
that the women of America are inspired with a love of country
equal to that which animates their brothers and sons. A capacity
to judge of character, so sure and rapid as to be termed
intuitive, is an especial attribute of woman. One of the greatest
orators of modern times has declared:
I concede away nothing which I ought to assert for our sex
when I say that the collective womanhood of a people like
our own seizes with matchless facility and certainty on the
moral and personal peculiarities and character of marked and
conspicuous men, and that we may very wisely address
ourselves to such a body to learn if a competitor for the
highest honors has revealed that truly noble nature that
entitled him to a place in the hearts of a nation.
We believe that in that determining of public policies by the
collective judgment of the State which constitutes
self-government, the contribution of woman will be of great
importance and value. To all questions into the determination of
which considerations of justice or injustice enter, she will
bring a more refined moral sense than that of man. The most
important public function of the State is the provision for the
education of youths. In those States in which the public school
system has reached its highest excellence, more than ninety per
cent. of the teachers are women. Certainly the vote of the women
of the State should be counted in determining the policy that
shall regulate the school system which they are called to
administer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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