"
"Because, Minnie, we are not prepared for it. This hour belongs to the
negro."
"But, Louis, is it not the negro woman's hour also? Has she not as many
rights and claims as the negro man?"
"Well, perhaps she has, but, darling, you cannot better the condition of
the colored men without helping the colored women. What elevates him
helps her."
"All that may be true, but I cannot recognize that the negro man is the
only one who has pressing claims at this hour. To-day our government
needs woman's conscience as well as man's judgment. And while I would
not throw a straw in the way of the colored man, even though I know that
he would vote against me as soon as he gets his vote, yet I do think
that woman should have some power to defend herself from oppression, and
equal laws as if she were a man."
"But, really, I should not like to see you wending your way through
rough and brawling mobs to the polls."
"Because these mobs are rough and coarse I would have women vote. I
would soften the asperity of the mobs, and bring into our politics a
deeper and broader humanity. When I see intemperance send its floods of
ruin and shame to the homes of men, and pass by the grog-shops that are
constantly grinding out their fearful grist of poverty, ruin and death,
I long for the hour when woman's vote will be levelled against these
charnel houses; and have, I hope, the power to close them throughout the
length and breadth of the land.
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