Mr. COWAN. Mr. President, I agree that if you will allow the gentleman to put arguments in my mouth to furnish me theories as his fancy paints them, he can demolish them. I will not agree that he is my master in any particular; but I do agree that he can take a pair of old pantaloons out in the country and stuff them and make a man of straw, and that he can oyerthrow it and trample upon it and kick it about with the utmost impunity. But I do not choose to allow the honorable Senator to make either my theories or my arguments, nor I do allow him to make quotations from me We utterance to no such idea as that which he has just attributed to me. I. did not say that in this race of radio calism I was determined to be in front. I said no such thing. I said that there was an onward and that while I yielded to it against my own better opinion that any change was impolitic, et that change was inevitable, I wanted it to i. as perfect as possible and f waited it to be made with all the safeguards possible. That was my argument. I said so yesterday; I said so today; I say so now; and I appeal to my friends here who have talked about this onward movement, this progress of things, this inevitable which was in the future, to stand now upon their theories and upon their doctrines. That was my ground, ground simply stated, and for that I am not to be charged fere with a desire to conciliate the honorable gentleman or his faction or his party, or any other party in this country. Mr. President, I am not a proud man, Ihope; not a vain man, I hope; but I would rather be deprived of the right of suffrage, high punishment as it is, I would ratio offer all the penalties that would be inflicted even by the most malignant law giver than to cower or cringe or yield to anything of mortal mold on this planet, except by duress and by force. No man dare charge me with that. I have endeavored to act here as an honest man feeling his own responsibili ties, feeling the responsibilities of the oath upon him when he took it; obliged to interpret the Constitution as he himself understands it; feeling that that Constitution was a restraint upon him, a restraint upon the people, a restraint upon everybody; that we were scut here for the purpose of standing upon it even against the rage of the people, even against their desire to trample it under foot. Feelin all these things, I have stood here and I appea to my fellow Senators to know if anyone of them can say that at any time I have manifested the smallest disposition to yield in anyone particular. I scorn the imputation; I would rather have the approval of my own conscience, I would rather o in the star light and look up to them and to the God who made me free and independent, than to seek the highest station upon the earthiby truckling to any man or any set of people or giving up my free opinions. And yet I propose not to be irrational in this matter. As I said yesterday, and as I said today, I have struggled against change; but if it is to be made I wish to direct it properly. I made in my own person, 2 or 3 years ago, a motion which F. this body by, I think, a vote of precisely 2 to one I believe it was 28 to 14 that the voters of the DistCol should be confined to white males; but upon that occasion I stated and the debates will bear me out, I think that if the door of the franchise was to be opened, if it was thought that the safety of the country required more people to cast ballots, more people to enjoy this privilege, I would open it to the women of the country sooner than I would open it to the negroes. I say so today. ou are determined to open it to the negroes. I appeal to you to open it to the women. You say there is no danger in opening, it to the negroes. I say there is no danger then in opening it to the women. You say that it is safe in the hands of the negroes. I say it is equally safe in the hands of our sis ters, and more safe in the hands of our wives and our mothers. I say more to you. I say you have not demonstrated that it is safe to confer the franchise upon men just emerged from the barbarism of slavery; I say you have not demonstrated that it is safe to give the bal lot to men who require a Freedmen's Bureau to take care of them, and who it is not pretended anywhere have that intelligence which is necessary to enable them to comprehend the questions which agitate the people of this nation, and of which the people are supposed to have an intelligent understanding. I say you have not demonstrated all that; but you have expressed your determination. You are determined to do it, and when you are determined to do iIt want to put along with that element, that doubtful element, that ignorant element, that debased element, that elementjust emerged from slavery, I want you to put along with it into the ballot box, to neutralize its poison if poison there be, to correct its dangers if danger there be, the female element of the country. That is my position. If you abandon the whole project I have no objection. I am willing to rest the safety of the country where it is and has been so far. I am open to conviction, open to argument, open to reason even upon that subject; but I am willing to leave this question of suffrage where our fathers left it, where the world leaves it today, where all wise men leave it. If, however, it is to be opened, if there is to be a new era, if political poweris to be distributed per capita according to a particular age, then f'.for extending it to women as well as men. Let me tell the honorable senator I am not alone in this opinion; the Senfrom Ohio with me is not alone; one of the 1st intellects of this age, perhaps the 1st man of the 1st country of the earth, is of the same opinion. I allude to John Stuart Mill, of GreatBritain. He is now agitating for this verything in England. So that it need not seem surpris.ing that I should be in earnest in this; and I trust that after the explanation I have made of my position and my doctrines, I shall not be charged either with insincerity or with a desire toingratiate myself with the majority of this body, with the majority of the people, or with anyone, because thank God I am free from all entanglements of that kind at this present joand if I retain my senses I think I shall keep free.