“I wish,” said Louis, after Mr. Jackson had left, “that some of our Northern men would only see the heroism of that simple-minded man.  Here he stands facing an uncertain future, no longer young in years, stripped by slavery, his wife not in full sympathy with him, and yet with what courage he refused the bribe.”

“Yes,” said Minnie, “$500 means a great deal for a man landless and poor, with no assured support for the future.  It means a comfortable fire when the blasts of winter are roving around your home; it means bread for the little ones, and medicine for the sick child, and little start in life.”

“But on the other hand,” said Louis, “it meant betrayal of the interests of his race, and I honor the faithfulness which shook his hands from receiving the bribe and clasping hands politically with his life-long oppressors.  And I asked myself the question while he was telling his story, which hand was the better custodian of the ballot, the white hand that offered the bribe or the black one that refused it.  I think the time will come when some of the Anglo Saxon race will blush to remember that when they were trailing the banner of freedom in the dust black men were grasping it with earnest hands, bearing it aloft amid persecution, pain, and death.”

“Louis” said Minnie very seriously, “I think the nation makes one great mistake in settling this question of suffrage.  It seems to me that everything gets settled on a partial basis.  When they are reconstructing the government why not lay the whole foundation anew, and base the right of suffrage not on the claims of service or sex, but on the broader basis of our common humanity.”

“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.”