This was signed by the governor, three ex-governors, both senators, both members of Congress and ex-senators, the chief justice and two associate justices of the supreme court, three judges of the court of appeals, four judges of the district court, the secretary of State, the State treasurer, State auditor, attorney-general, the mayor of Denver, the president of the State University, the president of Colorado College, the representative of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, the vice-regent of the Mount Vernon Association, and the presidents of thirteen women's clubs.
I am confident that recognition of woman suffrage in the constitution of proposed States will not in any way hinder, delay or endanger their admission. That question is one belonging to the State and not to the general government, and the opponents of woman suffrage will not, I am sure, deny to the new States the right to settle that question for themselves.
Instead of rough or vicious men, or even drunken men, treating women with disrespect, the presence of a single good woman at the polls seems to make the whole crowd of men as respectful and quiet as at the theater or church. For the credit of American men be it said that the presence of one woman or girl at the polls, the wife or daughter of the humblest mechanic, has as good an effect on the crowd as the presence of the grandest dame or the most fashionable belle. The American woman is clearly as much of a queen at the polls, in her own bearing and the deference paid her, as in the drawing-room or at the opera. I feel more pride than ever in American manhood and American womanhood since seeing these gatherings on Tuesday, where men and women of all classes and conditions met in their own neighborhood to perform with duty and dignity the selection of their own rulers, and to give their approval to the principles to guide such officials when chosen. No woman was less in dignity and sweetness of womanhood after such participation in public duties, and I do not believe there is a man of sensibility in Colorado to-day who does not love his wife, daughter, sister or mother the more for the womanly and gracious manner in which she helped so loyally and intelligently in this election.
Indeed, Colorado in this election has left very little of good argument for its sincere opponents to urge against suffrage. So nearly all of everything having any good sense in it has been disproved here, that the opposition is left with very few weapons in its armory, and all of them weak.
When the question was submitted in Colorado, I supported and voted for the proposition as a matter of abstract right; as every fair man must admit, when the question comes to him, that a woman has the same right of suffrage as a man. In advocating suffrage you need no platform but right and justize; those who will not accept it upon that ground would not be persuaded though one rose from the dead. I will add, however, that even the most virulent enemy of woman suffrage can not prove that any harm has come from the experiment. The test in Colorado is still too new to expect
