no argument, it appears to me, to show that a constitution and laws adopted and enacted by a fragment of the whole body of the people, but binding alike on all, is a usurpation of the powers of government.

Government is but organized society.  Whatever its form, it has its origin in the necessities of mankind and is indispensable for the maintenance of civilized society.  It is essential to every government that it should represent the supreme power of the State, and be capable of subjecting the will of its individual citizens to its authority.  Such a government can only derive its just powers from the consent of the governed, and can be established only under a fundamental law which is self-imposed.  Every citizen of suitable age and discretion who is to be subject to such a government has, in my judgment, a natural right to participate in its formation.  It is a significant fact that should Congress pass this bill and authorize the people of Washington Territory to frame a State constitution and organize a State government, the fundamental law of the State will be made by all the citizens of the State to be subject to it, and not by one-half of them.  And we shall witness the spectacle of a State government founded in accordance with the principles of equality, and have a State at last with a truly republican form of government.

The fathers of the Republic enunciated the doctrine “that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  It is strange that any one in this enlightened age should be found to contend that this declaration is true only of men, and that a man is endowed by his Creator with inalienable rights not possessed by a woman.  The lamented Lincoln immortalized the expression that ours is a Government “of the people, by the people, and for the people,” and yet it is far from that.  There can be no government by the people where one-half of them are allowed no voice in its organization and control.  I regard the struggle going on in this country and elsewhere for the enfranchisement of women as but a continuation of the great struggle for human liberty which has, from the earliest dawn of authentic history, convulsed nations, rent kingdoms, and drenched battlefields with human blood.  I look upon the victories which have been achieved in the cause of woman’s enfranchisement in Washington Territory and elsewhere as the crowning victories of all which have been won in the long-continued, still-continuing contest between liberty and oppression, and as destined to exert a greater influence upon the human race than any achieved upon the battlefield in ancient or modern times.

Mr. Dolph.  Mr. President, the movement for woman suffrage has passed the stage of ridicule.  The pending joint resolution may not pass during this Congress, but the time is not far distant when in every