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606 haps, that our society lends all the help possible to other States. It gave $520 to Michigan in 1874, and $200 to Colorado in 1877. R. N. H.

To bring the question of woman's right as a citizen of the United States to vote for United States officers before the judiciary, Mrs. Minor attempted to register in order to vote at the national election in November, 1872, and being refused on account of her sex, brought the matter before the courts in the shape of a suit against the registering officer. The point was decided adversely to her in all the courts, being finally reported in Vol. 21 of Wallace's U. S. Supreme Court Reports. The importance of this decision cannot be over-estimated. It affects every citizen of the United States, male as well as female, if, as there pronounced, the United States has no voters of its own creation. The Dred-Scott decision is insignificant in comparison. Mrs. Minor made the following points in her petition:

1. As a citizen of the United States, the plaintiff is entitled to any and all the "privileges and immunities" that belong to such position however defined; and as are held, exercised and enjoyed by other citizens of the United States.

2. The elective franchise is a "privilege" of citizenship, in the highest sense of the word. It is the privilege preservative of all rights and privileges; and especially of the right of the citizen to participate in his or her government.

3. The denial or abridgment of this privilege, if it exist at all, must be sought only in the fundamental charter of government—the Constitution of the United States. If not found there, no inferior power or jurisdiction can legally claim the right to exercise it.

4. But the Constitution of the United States, so far from recognizing or permitting any denial or abridgment of the privileges of citizens, expressly declares that "no State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States."

5. It follows that the provisions of the Missouri constitution and registry law before recited are in conflict with, and must yield to the paramount authority of, the Constitution of the United States.

At a mass meeting held in St. Louis January 25, 1875, a committee[387] was appointed to prepare an address to the people of the State, setting forth the necessity of such action by the constitutional convention, soon to assemble, as would insure to all citizens the right of choice in their lawmakers and in the officers whose duty it should be to execute the laws. The address was prepared and widely circulated over the State. In June, the convention being in session at Jefferson, Mrs. Minor, Miss Couzins, and Mrs. Dickinson went to the capitol and were granted a gracious hearing, but no action was conceded.

In May, 1879, the National Woman Suffrage Association held its annual meeting at St. Louis, holding its session through the day, morning, afternoon and evening, and so much interest was aroused that on May 13 a local society was organized under the head of the National Woman Suffrage Association for St. Louis,[388] with Mrs. Minor president, which has con