The Chief Clerk read as follows: 

    [Letter from Mrs. Clara T. Leonard.]

    The following letter was read by Thornton K. Lothrop, esq., at
    the hearing before the Legislative committee on woman suffrage,
    January 29, 1884: 

    The principal reasons assigned for giving suffrage to women are
    these: 

    That the right to vote is a natural and inherent right of which
    women are deprived by the tyranny of men.

    That the fact that the majority of women do not wish for the right
    or privilege to vote is not a reason for depriving the minority of
    an inborn right.

    That women are taxed but not represented, contrary to the
    principles of free government.

That society would gain by the participation of women in government, because women are purer and more conscientious than men, and especially that the cause of temperance would be promoted by women’s votes.

Those women who are averse to female suffrage hold differing opinions on all these points, and are entitled to be heard fairly and without unjust reproach and contempt on the part of “suffragists,” so called.

    The right to vote is not an inherent right, but, like the right to
    hold land, is conferred upon individuals by general consent, with
    certain limitations, and for the general good of all.

It is as true to say that the earth was made for all its inhabitants, and that human has a right to appropriate a portion of its surface, as to say that all persons have a right to participate in government.  Many persons can be found to hold both these opinions.  Experience has proved that the general good is promoted by ownership of the soil, with the resultant inducement to its improvement.

Voting is simply a mathematical test of strength.  Uncivilized nations strive for mastery by physical combat, thus wasting life and resources.  Enlightened societies agree to determine the relative strength of opposing parties by actual count.  God has made women weaker than men, incapable of taking part in battles, indisposed to make riot and political disturbance.

The vote which, in the hand of a man, is a “possible bayonet,” would not, when thrown by a woman, represent any physical power to enforce her will.  If all the women in the State voted in one way, and all the men in the opposite one, the women, even if in the majority, would not carry the day, because the vote would not be an estimate of material strength and the power to enforce the will of the majority.  When one considers the strong passions and conflicts excited in elections, it is vain to suppose that the really stronger would yield to the weaker party.

It is no more unjust to deprive women of the ballot than to deprive minors, who outnumber those above the age of majority, and who might