The Fight for the Ballot in the Northwest

In the course of his speech in the Senate on the bill to admit Washington Territory into the Union, Mr. Dolph, speaking of woman suffrage, said: 'Mr. President, there is another matter, which I consider pertinent to this discussion, and of too much importance to be left entirely unnoticed on this occasion. It is something new in our political history. It is full of hope for the women of this country and of the world. It is full of promise of the future of Republican institutions. I refer to the fact that in Washington Territory the right of suffrage has been extended to women of proper age. I do not believe the proposition so often asserted, that suffrage is a political privilege. It is a natural right. It is regulated by the constitution and laws of a State, I grant, but it needs an argument. It appears to me to show that the constitution and laws adopted and enacted by a fragment of the whole body of people, but binding upon all alike, is a usurpation of the power of government. The government is but an organized society. Every citizen of suitable age and discretion who is to be a subject to such government has, in my judgment, a natural right to participate in its formation. There can be no government by the people where only one half of them are allowed to have a voice in its organization and control.'