had wrongs, but how to state them was the difficulty, and this was
increased from the fact that they themselves were fortunately organized
and conditioned." The Declaration of Independence meant war against the
ever-growing encroachment of despotism. The gauntlet was thrown down at
the feet of a king by his subjects. The Declaration of Sentiments meant
war against the whole social order as then constituted. The gauntlet was
thrown down at the feet of man by those who declared him to be a
determined foe.

They had not the remotest notion of "instituting a new government," far
from it; they relied upon the old government to sustain them in making
their attempted "rebellion" a revolution. Without the backing of the
state's defence, they had no expectation or hope of enforcing any new
enactment they might desire. They were gladly consenting to be governed,
in order to prove that they withheld consent.

Should woman suffrage prevail, the foundation principles of democracy
would have to be overthrown and "a new government instituted" in which the
power should be delegated and not direct, if the nation thus formed was to
"assume among the powers of the earth a separate and equal station." The
leaders of the Suffrage movement well understood that they claimed no
inalienable right to institute a new government, and this is again shown
in another "slight change" made by them. The first count in the suffrage
indictment against all men, but especially against those of the American
Republic, reads as follows: "He has never permitted her to exercise her
inalienable right to the elective franchise." The Fathers made no claim or
suggestion that the suffrage was an inalienable right, or a right at all.
Not only is there nothing to intimate that voting was a natural right, but
from that day to this it has been the theory and the practice of our
Government to control the suffrage. The fact that "governments were