Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-03-08
MAINE LEGISLATURE.
Continued from page 81

women, the cranks of both sexes did ser
vice. OF course it was lie, as most
epigrams arc, and survived only ior
brief period The cause of woman en-
reimbursement counts among Its Irlenos
the greatest poets, writers, oratorS'
preachers, scholars, scientists, phiiah-
thropists statesmen and seers of our day'
and most of the choicest spirits OF tne
century, such men as Abraham Llncolh'
Salmon p. Chase, Charles Sumner, Henry
Wilson, Nathaniel p Banks, Geo. +. Hoar,
John d. Long, Thomas B. Reed, Thos.
W. Palmer VIM. Lloyd Garrison, Wendell
Phillips, Matthew Simpson, Gilbert Haven,
Phillips Brooks, Henry Ward Beecher,
Neal Dow, Robert Collyer. George Will
liam Curtis, John q. Whittier, John
Stuart Mill and Ralph Waldo Emerson,
and such women as Margaret Fuller,
Lydis Maria Child, Lucretia Mott, Florence
Nightinale, Elizabeth Barrett Browning,
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Julia Ward Howe,
Mary A. Livermore, Lucy Stone, Eliza
beth Cady Stanton, Louisa NJ. Alcott,
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Clara Barton,
Frances E. Willard. Harriet Prescott
Spofford and Lady Henry Somerset.
"I.ong-haired men and short haired
women indeed Who dares stand up
with these illustrious names ringing in
his ears and repeat the Islander?
believe women are prepared to exercise
this natural right to have voice in the
government under which they live, in
telligently, conscientiously and wisely l
believe the elective franchise is necessary
to the full and complete development of
IL. IL ,f nh
have a right to demand that in this re-
public the mothers shall be OF the highest
type. / believe we wrong woman and the
generations of the future which she shall
bring forth by denying her the exercise OF
this righteous means of development.
believe too that we wrong society and
the State by depriving them Of woman S
quick intelligence. moral power, and IN
tuitive perception of right principles, and
worthy candidates for office in the voting
body believe experience has shown what
is manifcstly and right and just in the
matter to be cxpedient
The women of Wyoming and Colorado
have done their sisters throughout the
Union and throughout the world an in
estimable service. They have demonstrated
that equal suffrage is not only best for
women but best for the State. A quarter
of a century ago reason and argument
were in favor of equal suffrage for women.
But timid conservatism shook it's head in
doubt and fear as to the results of the
practical experiment. 1t is a success.
The women of Wyoming and Colorado
have withstood the test.
Mr.. Speaker, l believe in the wise
principles, worthy purposes and patriotic
spirit of the Republican party. l believe
the common veal is bound up in the wei
fare of that liberal and progressive organi-
zation of glorious record And L believe
that in its future contests for free ballot
and fair count. for individual protection,
for the American flag on the high seas, for
an American foreign policy, for the rights
of labor and of property, for the security
of the home and the stability of organized
society, it will need the cooperation, sup
port and votes of women.
In the last election, with its momen-
tous issues and consequences, women,
| handicapped as they are in most states by
suffrage disqualification, and making their
power felt only indirectly, were an i'm
portant factor of Republican strength
and in Colorado, had not their disquali-
| fication to vote been removed, Republi-
canism and what it represents, would not
have been triumphant. And now,
gentlemen, representatives of the male
people of Maine, appeal to you to show
the country and the world that the rights
of all the people are safe in your hands,
| by at once doing an act of simple justice
to whole sex, as well as of wise and far
sighted policy for all. (Applause.)
III. - ID ri,.1y -niI
| When Napoleon Bonaparte was in
Egypt on that eventful morning before
that terrible conflict with the Mameluke
cavalry, standing at the base of the
great pyramid of Cheops, he addressed his
soldiers in language like this. He said
To-day the history of 1000 years will look
down on you and will scrutinize your
conduct " Sitting here as we are
today, as the legislators of the State of
Maine, the history OF generations past will
look down on us and scrutinize our con
duct, today, and the history of the future
will thus applaud or condemn our delibcra-
tions.
| shall not attempt to eulogize our
theme of discussion. If l did / should
have to use borrowed language. Suffice
it to say that the morning stars never
! sang together until the great thought
burst upon the Omnipotencc and he made
woman in all her loveliness. / have been
trying to think Of the exact language that
| Stanley used when he drank the toast to
! the one he said was the nohlest woman of
the land, but he withheld the name, which
SO enraged Leon that he rose up and with
sabre drawn, he said I'VE quoth the
name of that most peerless dame, whose
! health you drink" and Stanley, bowling
his respects to that brave and chivalric
! knight, he said my mother" My vote
| today will either be vote of confidence
or vote of lack of confidence in that
woman from whom I had my earliest
| kiss.
In the early history of the Roman re
public, in their great struggles for suprem
acy, their most severe conflicts were with
the Sabines. On one occasion when the
wild tempest Of. war was raging and the
fortune of the day was doubtful the
Sabine women rushed in between the two
contending armies, with their children in
their arms, and holding them up to the
gaze of the contending forces, entreat-
! = eta no II