Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 4.djvu/366

 no drunken men there, nothing but what is pleasant and decorous.

Woman is an independent element in politics. She has no allegiance to any party. When a ticket is presented to her, she asks, "Are these good men?" A man is apt to say, "Well, this is a bad ticket, but I must stand by my party." He wants to keep his party record straight. She votes for the best man on the ticket. That element is bound to result in good in any State.

People say they don't know how it will work; they are afraid of it. Can it be that we distrust our mothers and sisters? We shall never have the best possible government till women participate in it.

No nation can exist half slave and half free. Ten years before I was old enough to vote, my mother was a voter. I learned at her knee to vote according to my conscience, and not according to the dictation of the bosses. The strongest argument for the suffrage of any class exists in behalf of womankind, because women will not be bound by mere partisanship. If the world is to be redeemed, it must be by the conscience of the individual voter. The woman goes to the truth by instinct. Men have to confer together and go down street and look through glasses darkly. The woman stays at home and rocks the cradle, and God tells her what to do. The suffrage never was abused by women in Utah. During the seventeen years that they voted in the Territory there was not a defalcation in any public office.

I believe in the republic. I believe that its destiny is to shed light not only here, but all over the world. If we can trust woman in the house to keep all pure and holy there, so that the little ones may grow up right, surely we can trust her at the ballot-box. When children learn political wisdom and truth from their mother's lips, they will remember it and live up to it; for those lessons are the longest remembered. When Senator Teller withdrew from a political convention for conscience's sake, a man said, commenting on his action: "It is generally safe to stay with your party." His wife said: "And it is always safe to stay with your principles."

In the midst of the convention came the sad news on February 17 of the death of Miss Frances E. Willard, president of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Affectionate tributes were offered by Miss Anthony, Miss Shaw and other members; a telegram of sympathy was sent to her secretary and close companion, Miss Anna Gordon, by a rising vote, and the audience remained standing for a few moments in silent prayer. A. large wreath of violets and Southern ivy, adorned with miniatures of Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony and other pioneer suffrage workers was sent by the delegates to be laid on her coffin.

The congressional hearings on the morning of February 15, Miss Anthony's birthday, attracted crowds of people to the Cap-