Our “pathway” is straight to the ballot box, with no variableness nor shadow of turning…. We demand in the Reconstruction suffrage for all the citizens of the Republic. I would not talk of Negroes or women, but of citizens.

In this passage Stanton frames political equality as a single, direct objective: access to the ballot. By invoking the biblical phrasing “no variableness nor shadow of turning,” she signals unwavering commitment and casts suffrage as a moral absolute rather than a negotiable reform. Her reference to “Reconstruction” places the demand amid post–Civil War debates over redefining citizenship and voting rights. The insistence that she would not speak of “Negroes or women, but of citizens” argues for a universal standard: rights should attach to citizenship itself, not to race or sex categories. The rhetoric presses for an inclusive reconstruction of the republic’s political community.