At first, we thought
it would pass; but one of the male members presently came out with
a speech, which dashed our hopes to nothing. He simply took the
ground that there must be absolute equality in citizenship; that
every privilege was balanced by a duty, every trust accompanied
with its responsibility. He had no objection to women possessing
equal rights with men--but to give them all civil rights and exempt
them from the most important obligation of service, would be, he
said, to create a privileged class--a female aristocracy. It was
contrary to the spirit of our institutions. The women had
complained of taxation without representation; did they now claim
the latter without the former?
The people never look more than half-way into a subject, and so
this speech was immensely popular. I will not give Mrs. Whiston's
admirable reply; for Mr. Spelter informs me that you will not
accept an article, if it should make more than seventy or eighty
printed pages. It is enough that our bill was "killed," as the men
say (a brutal word); and the women of the State laid the blame of
the failure upon us.
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