It is this class of enthusiasts that would most confidently attempt to conduct the affairs of the state.
Next to these would come the great body of busy and easy women, who, from pliant kindness and confidence, would vote as fathers, brothers, and husbands advised.
Next to these most respectable classes would come the superficial, the unreflecting, and the frolicsome, to serve only as tools for political wire-pullers.
Then would come the lovers of notoriety, the ambitious—the lovers of power—the caterers for public offices, and the seekers for money. Of these, the most unprincipled would employ the distinctive power of their sex in caucuses, in jury-boxes, and in legislative and congressional committees; thus adding another to the many deteriorating influences of political life.
Next would come that vast mass of ignorant women whose consciences and votes would be controlled by a foreign and domestic priesthood.
Lastly would come the most degraded and
despised, who would like nothing better than to insult and oppose those who look down upon them with disgust and contempt.
Lead all these classes to the polls, and the result would be a vast increase of the incompetent and dangerous voters. It would, to a still greater extent, place the wealth and intelligence of the nation under those without intelligence, who, for their own advantage, would lavish wealth on useless schemes, and vote away the property of the industrious to support the indolent and vicious. In many of our large cities we are witnessing the beginning of this impending danger.
Still another reason for such a conclusion is the fact that, though the Woman's Suffrage party at present is increasing in numbers, the discussion it has produced is gradually changing the views of many sensible persons who at first were its advocates. That has been the case with myself. For, on the first consideration of the matter, it seemed right and proper that women should have a voice in deciding who should be