The Olivia Letters: Being Some History of Washington City for Forty Years as Told by the Letters of a Newspaper CorrespondentBriggs, Emily Edson
History
The Olivia Letters: Being Some History of Washington City for Forty Years as Told by the Letters of a Newspaper Correspondent
Briggs, Emily Edson
United States -- Politics and government -- 1865-1933; Washington (D.C.) -- History
He then introduced Miss Kate Stanton, of Rhode Island, as one of
the fairest daughters of the State. Senator Nye added that she had
undertaken to work in a field where strong men often fail, but
he trusted, in her case, that she would meet with success. Miss
Stanton then came forward, half hesitating, her eyes brilliant with
excitement and true carnation in her cheek. This was the second
time in her life that she had faced an audience, and the ordeal was
quite as much as she could bear. She commenced reading her lecture,
and when she became accustomed to her own voice she glided along
gracefully, as only a truly gifted woman can. Miss Stanton will be
one of the stars in the lecture field if she speaks equally well
on other subjects as the one at present under discussion. She has
a remarkably clear, fine voice, a most pleasing personal presence,
an unusually cultivated mind, and the true vim of a young American
woman. It is true she did not give us any new ideas about woman
suffrage, but she treated the subject in a natural, girlish way; and
if sentiment predominated, it seemed a halo around her head, for
young people are romantic, and when they are otherwise, the gloss of
youth has gone forever. Miss Stanton’s great point in her so-called
argument may be summed up in a few words. The laws made by man are
fractional. The woman must be added to make the unit.
After Miss Stanton’s logic was finished, Senator Nye introduced Mr.
Riddle. The lawyer went over exactly the same ground traversed in
the morning before the Judiciary Committee. It is true he enlarged
here, cropped off there, but it was the same thing altogether. He
commenced by asserting that women were as broadly and deeply citizens
as the men of this nation. That the right of government is a natural
right. The right to govern is inherent in the people. That there is
no right to be conferred, for there is nothing to confer; and that
all who stand in the way would have to get out or else get crushed.
Mr. Riddle did not make his case clear, and the audience yawned in
his presence for applause.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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