In behalf of the National Woman Suffrage Association. ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, President.

A. L. NORTON, PAULINA W. DAVIS, Advisory Counsel for the State of Rhode Island.

[126]

LONDON, July 18, 1869.

Mrs. President and Members of the Woman's National Suffrage Association:

I send an account of the first woman suffrage meeting ever held in London. But if we may judge anything of the prospects of the movement from the list of men and women who have interested themselves in the cause, it will not be the last. When such men as John Stuart Mill, Charles Kingsley, Prof. Newman, and their peers, put the shoulder to the wheel, a cause is bound to move on and crush all obstacles in the way of its progress. No old stumbling blocks of prejudice, or deep ruts of conventionality can impede the onward movement. As in America, I find that intellect, genius, wealth, and fashion even, are beginning in England to fall into the ranks and push on the woman suffrage question. Miss Frances Power Cobbe writes me: "The uprising of a sex throughout the civilized world, is certainly an unique fact in history, and can hardly fail of some important results."

With the confident expectation that her prophecy will find a speedy and perhaps grander fulfillment than she or any of us dream of now, I remain yours, respectfully,

LAURA C. BULLARD, Cor. Sec'y N. W. S. Association.



CHAPTER XXIII.

THE NEW DEPARTURE.

UNDER THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT.

Francis Minor's Resolutions—Hearing before Congressional Committee—Descriptions by Mrs. Fannie Howland and Grace Greenwood—Washington Convention, 1870—Rev. Samuel J. May—Senator Carpenter—Professor Sprague, of Cornell University—Notes of Mrs. Hooker—May Anniversary in New York—The Fifth Avenue Conference—Second Decade Celebration—Washington, 1871—Victoria Woodhull's Memorial—Judiciary Committee—Majority and Minority Reports—George W. Julian and A. A. Sargent in the House—May Anniversary, 1871—Washington in 1872—Senate Judiciary Committee—Benjamin F. Butler—The Sherman-Dahlgren Protest—Women in Grant and Wilson Campaign.

Although with Charles Sumner many believed that under the original Constitution women were citizens and therefore voters in our Republic, much more bold and invincible were their claims when the XIV. Amendment added new barriers to the already strong bulwarks of the Supreme Law of the land.

The significance of these amendments in reference to women was first seen by Francis Minor, of Missouri, a member of the legal profession in St. Louis. He called attention to the view of the question, afterward adopted by many leading lawyers of the American bar, that women were enfranchised by the letter and spirit of the XIV. Amendment. On this interpretation the officers of the National Association began soon after to base their speeches, resolutions, and hearings before Congress, and to make divers attempts to vote in different parts of the country.

At a woman suffrage convention in St. Louis, October, 1869, the following suggestive resolutions were presented by Francis Minor, Esq., enclosed in the accompanying letter to The Revolution:

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 14, 1869.

DEAR REVOLUTION:—I wish to say a few words about the action of the Woman's Suffrage Convention just held here. It is everywhere spoken of as a complete success, both in point of numbers and the orderly decorum with which its proceedings were conducted. But I desire to call special attention to the resolutions adopted. When I framed them, I looked beyond the action of this Convention. These resolutions place the cause of equal rights far in advance of any position heretofore taken. Now, for the first time, the views and purposes of our organization assume a fixed purpose and definite end. We no longer beat the air—no longer assume merely the attitude of petitioners. We claim a right, based upon citizenship. These resolutions will stand the test of legal criticism—and I write now to ask, if a case can not be made at your coming election. If this were done, in no other way could our cause be more widely, and at the same time definitely brought before the public. Every newspaper in the land would tell the story, every fireside would hear the news. The question would be thoroughly discussed by thousands, who now give it no thought—and by the time it reached the court of final resort, the popular verdict would be in accord with the judgment that is sure to be rendered. If these resolutions are right, let the question be settled by individual determination. A case could not be made here for a year to come, but you could make one in New York at the coming election.

Respectfully, FRANCIS MINOR.

THE ST. LOUIS RESOLUTIONS.

WHEREAS, In the adjustment of the question of suffrage now before the people of this country for settlement, it is of the highest importance that the organic law of the land should be so framed and construed as to work injustice to none, but secure as far as possible perfect political equality among all classes of citizens; and,

WHEREAS, All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and of the State wherein they reside; be it

Resolved, 1. That the immunities and privileges of American citizenship, however defined, are National in character and paramount to all State authority.

2. That while the Constitution of the United States leaves the qualification of electors to the several States, it nowhere gives them the right to deprive any citizen of the elective franchise which is possessed by any other citizen—to regulate, not including the right to prohibit the franchise.

3. That, as the Constitution of the United States expressly declares that no State shall make or enforce any laws that shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, those provisions of the several State Constitutions that exclude women from the franchise on account of sex, are violative alike of the spirit and letter of the Federal Constitution.

4. That, as the subject of naturalization is expressly withheld from the States, and as the States clearly would have no right to deprive of the franchise naturalized citizens, among whom women are expressly included, still more clearly have they no right to deprive native-born women citizens of this right.

5. That justice and equity can only be attained by having the same laws for men and women alike.

6. That having full faith and confidence in the truth and justice of these principles, we will never cease to urge the claims of women to a participation in the affairs of government equal with men.

Extracts from the Constitution of the United States, upon which the resolutions are based:

PREAMBLE, We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

ARTICLE I. Sec. 2. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several States, and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature.



SEC. 4. The times, places, and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may, at any time, by law, alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing Senators.—[See Elliot's Debates, vol. 3, p. 366—remarks of Mr. Madison—Story's Commentaries, Secs. 623, 626, 578].

SEC. 8. The Congress shall have power to establish a uniform mode of naturalization—to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.

SEC. 9. No bill of attainder, or ex post facto law shall be passed.

No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States.

No State shall pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law—or law impairing the obligations of contracts, or grant any title of nobility.—(See Cummings vs. the State of Missouri. Wallace Rep. 278, and Exparte Garland, same volume).

ARTICLE IV. Sec. 2. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States. (The elective franchise is one of the privileges secured by this section—See Corfield vs. Coryell, 4 Washington Circuit Court Reps. 380—cited and approved in Dunham vs. Lamphere, 3 Gray—Mass. Rep. 276—and Bennett vs. Boggs, Baldwin Rep., p. 72, Circuit Court U. S.)

SEC. 4. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government. (How can that form of government be republican, when one-half the people are forever deprived of all participation in its affairs).

ARTICLE VI. This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any States to the contrary notwithstanding.

XIV. AMENDMENT. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.

At this same convention Mrs. Virginia L. Minor, President of the Missouri State Association, in her opening address said:

I believe that the Constitution of the United States gives me every right and privilege to which every other citizen is entitled; for while the Constitution gives the States the right to regulate suffrage, it nowhere gives them power to prevent it. The power to regulate is one thing, the power to prevent is an entirely different thing. Thus the State can say where, when, and what citizens may exercise the right of suffrage. If she can say that a woman, who is a citizen of the United States, shall not vote, then she can equally say that a Chinaman, who is not a citizen, shall vote and represent her in Congress. The foreign naturalized citizen claims his right to vote from and under the paramount authority of the Federal Government, and the State has no right to prevent him from voting, and thus place him in a lower degree or grade of citizenship than that of free citizens. This being the case, is it presumable that a foreign citizen is intended to be placed higher than one born on our soil? Under our Constitution and laws, woman is a naturalized citizen with her husband. There are men in this town to-day, to my certain knowledge, who have had this boon of citizenship thrust upon them, who scorned the name, and who freely claimed allegiance to a foreign power. Our Government has existed for eighty years, yet this question of citizenship has never been settled. In 1856 the question came before the then Attorney-General, Mr. Cushing, as to whether Indians were citizens of the United States, and as such, were entitled to the privilege of preempting our public lands. He gave it as his opinion that they were not citizens, but domestic subjects, and therefore not entitled to the benefits of the act.

In 1821 the question came before Attorney-General William Wirt, as to whether free persons of color in the State of Virginia were citizens of the United States, and as such, entitled to command vessels engaged in foreign trade. He gave it as his opinion that they were not, that the Constitution by the term citizen, and by its description of citizen, meant only those who were entitled to all the privileges of free white persons, and negroes were not citizens. In 1843 the question came before Attorney-General Legree, of South Carolina, as to whether free negroes of that State were citizens, and he gave it as his opinion that as the law of Congress intended only to exclude aliens, therefore that they as denizens could take advantage of the act. Mr. Marcy, in 1856, decided that negroes were not citizens, but entitled to the protection of the Government.

In justice to our sex, I must ask you to bear in mind the fact that all these wise Secretaries of State and Attorney-Generals, were men that made these singular decisions, not illogical, unreasoning women, totally incapable of understanding politics. And lastly, in 1862, our late honored and lamented fellow-citizen, Attorney-General Bates, decided that free negroes were citizens. Thus, you see, it took forty-one years to make this simple discovery. I have cited all these examples to show you that all rights and privileges depend merely on the acknowledgment of our right as citizens, and wherever this question has arisen the Government has universally conceded that we are citizens; and as such, I claim that if we are entitled to two or three privileges, we are entitled to all. This question of woman's right to the ballot has never yet been raised in any quarter. It has yet to be tested whether a free, moral, intelligent woman, highly cultivated, every dollar of whose income and property are taxed equally with that of all men, shall be placed by our laws on a level with the savage. I am often jeeringly asked, "If the Constitution gives you this right, why don't you take it?" My reply is both a statement and a question. The State of Massachusetts allows negroes to vote. The Constitution of the United States says the citizens of each State shall be allowed all the privileges of the citizens in the several States. Now, I ask you, can a woman or negro vote in Missouri? You have placed us on the same level. Yet, by such question you hold us responsible for the unstatesmanlike piece of patchwork which you call the Constitution of Missouri! Women of the State, let us no longer submit to occupy so degraded a position! Disguise it as you may, the disfranchised class is ever a degraded class. Let us lend all our energies to have the stigma removed from us. Failing before the Legislatures, we must then turn to the Supreme Court of our land and ask it to decide what are our rights as citizens, or, at least, not doing that, give us the privilege of the Indian, and exempt us from the burden of taxation to support so unjust a Government. [Applause].

Ten thousand extra copies of The Revolution containing these resolutions and this speech were published and sent to friends throughout the country, laid on every member's desk in Congress, and circulated at the Washington Convention of 1870. From this hour up to the time of the Supreme Court decision in the case of Virginia L. Minor in 1875, the National Woman Suffrage Association took this view in regard to the XIV. Amendment. Mrs. Stanton, fully accepting the new position, made her speech on that basis before the Congressional Committee[127] on the District of Columbia. In calling this Committee to order Senator Hamlin said:

We have met this morning for the purpose of considering two petitions which have been presented, I believe, only to the Senate Committee of the District of Columbia. The first one is a petition, very numerously signed, I think, by both ladies and gentlemen of this city, and in a few brief words it says that: "The undersigned, residents of the District of Columbia, earnestly but respectfully request that you extend the right of suffrage to the women of the District." The other memorial, very nearly as brief, is in these words: "The undersigned citizens of the United States pray your honorable body that in the proposed amendments to the Constitution which may come before you in regard to suffrage, and in any law affecting suffrage, in the District of Columbia or in any Territory, the right of voting may be given to the women on the same terms as to the men." Upon this subject we have some lady friends who desire to address us, and I have the pleasure of introducing to you Mrs. Stanton.

Mrs. STANTON said: Accustomed to appeal to the sentiments and combat the prejudices of popular assemblies, it is a comparatively easy task to plead the cause of woman before clear, logical, dispassionate minds—committees of statesmen—trained to view all subjects in the light of pure reason; for unprejudiced minds admit to-day that if the democratic theory of government is true, the argument lies wholly on our side of this question. As history shows that each step in civilization has been a steady approximation to our democratic theory, securing larger liberties to the people, it is fair to infer that its full realization—the equal rights of all—will be the best possible government. Whatever is true in theory is safe in practice, and those holding the destinies of nations in their hands should legislate with a sublime faith in eternal principles. As bills are soon to be introduced in both the Senate and the House, asking further special legislation, we appear before you at this time to urge that the women of the District shall share equally in all the rights, privileges, and immunities you propose to confer on male citizens.

In the adjustment of the question of suffrage, now before the people of this country for settlement, it is of the highest importance that the organic law of the land should be so framed and construed as to secure political equality to all citizens.

While the Constitution of the United States leaves the qualifications of electors to the several States, it nowhere gives them the right to deprive any citizen of the elective franchise; they may regulate, but not prohibit the franchise. The Constitution of the United States expressly declares that no State shall make or enforce any law that shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; hence those provisions of the several State constitutions that exclude women from the franchise are in direct violation of the Federal Constitution. Even the preamble recognizes, in the phrase "We, the people," the true origin of all just government.

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Are not women people?

SEC. 4. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government.

How can that form of government be republican, when one-half the people are forever deprived of all participation in its affairs?

ARTICLE VI. The Constitution and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.

The Constitution tells us, too, who are citizens. The XIV. Amendment says:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.

It has just been decided by the Supreme Court that a foreign born woman is naturalized by marriage to a native. Therefore, as birth and marriage secure the right of citizenship to large numbers, the remaining classes of foreign unmarried women should secure naturalization papers, that we may all test our right to vote in the courts. As the subject of naturalization is expressly withheld from the States, and as the States would clearly have no right to deprive of the franchise naturalized citizens, among whom women are expressly included, still more clearly have they no right to deprive native born women citizens of this right.

The States have the right to regulate but not to prohibit the elective franchise to citizens of the United States. Thus the States may determine the qualifications of electors. They may require the elector to be of a certain age, to have had a fixed residence, to be of a sane mind, and unconvicted of crime, etc.; but to go beyond this, and say to one-half the citizens of the State, notwithstanding you possess all these qualifications, you shall never vote, is of the very essence of despotism. It is a bill of attainder of the most odious character.

On this point the Constitution says:

ART. I., Sec. 9. No bill of attainder, or ex post facto law shall be passed.

No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States.

No State shall pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, impairing the obligations of contracts, or grant any title of nobility. (See Cummings vs. the State of Mo., 4th Wallace Rep 278, and Exparte Garland, same volume.)

Opposed to this provision of the Constitution, by the XV. Amendment you have established an aristocracy of sex, sanctioning the unjust legislation of the several States, which make all men nobles, all women serfs. Justice and equity can only be attained by having the same laws for men and women in the District as well as the State.

A further investigation of the subject will show that the language of the constitutions of all the States, with the exception of those of Massachusetts and Virginia, on the subject of suffrage is peculiar. They almost all read substantially alike. "White male citizens, etc., shall be entitled to vote," and this is supposed to exclude all other citizens. There is no direct exclusion, except in the two States above named. Now the error lies in supposing that an enabling clause is necessary at all. The right of the people of a State to participate in a government of their own creation requires no enabling clause; neither can it be taken from them by implication. To hold otherwise, would be to interpolate in the constitution a prohibition that does not exist. In framing a constitution the people are assembled in their sovereign capacity; and being possessed of all rights and all powers, what is not surrendered is retained. Nothing short of a direct prohibition can work a deprivation of rights that are fundamental.

In the language of John Jay to the people of New York, urging the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, "silence and blank paper neither give nor take away anything," and Alexander Hamilton says (Federalist, No. 83), "Every man of discernment must at once perceive the wide difference between silence and abolition." The mode and manner in which the people shall take part in the government of their creation may be prescribed by the constitution, but the right itself is antecedent to all constitutions. It is inalienable, and can neither be bought, nor sold, nor given away. But even if it should be held that this view is untenable, and that women are disfranchised by the several State Constitutions directly, or by implication, then I say that such prohibitions are clearly in conflict with the Constitution of the United States and yield thereto.

The proposition is now before the people of the District to abolish the municipal government and reduce this to a mere territory, which is clearly retrogressive legislation; as in the former, the chief magistrate is elected by the people and in the latter appointed by the President. In your civil rights bill, compelling black and white to vote together, to go to school together, to ride in the cars together, you have taken a grand step in progress. If in the proposed bills soon to come before you for the establishment of a medical college in the District, and an improved school system, you shall as carefully guard the rights of women to equal place and salary, you will take another onward step. In making the changes you propose, it is evident you are doing to-day an elementary work in which all the people should have a voice; hence, your primal duty is to extend to the women of the District the right of suffrage, that they may vote on the schools, colleges, hospitals, prisons, and whether their government shall be republican with a Representative in Congress, municipal officers, or territorial with a Governor appointed by the President. In doing such fundamental work, many distinguished publicists have expressed the opinion that all the people should have a voice. In the debates in the Illinois Convention, now in session, members refused to swear to support the State Constitution, because, said they, "it is absurd to swear to support what we are now tearing to pieces. We are doing an elementary work, and are amenable to the Federal Constitution alone."

Ever since the abolition of slavery, the District has been resolved into its original elements. In fact by the war, and the revision of the Federal Constitution, the nation, too, has been resolved into its original elements, and the women have to-day, the right to say on what basis the District, their several States, and the nation shall be reconstructed. We think, honorable gentlemen, you must all see the broad application of this principle. And if all the people should have a voice in the revision of a State or national constitution, women must be included. The Constitution confers, by express grant upon Congress, "exclusive jurisdiction in all cases whatsoever," for the purposes of government. Under this grant Congress, by the first section of the act of January 8, 1867, enacted that each and every male person of the age of twenty-one years, who shall have been born or naturalized in the United States, who shall have resided in the said District for the period of one year, and three months in the ward or election precinct in which he shall offer to vote, shall be entitled to the elective franchise, and shall be deemed an elector, and entitled to vote. This act, you perceive, recognizes the pre-existing right of all persons, and excludes women only by the use of the word male, unless, as Hamilton says, "silence on that point is not abolition."

It is fitting that here, under the shadow of the national capitol, under the control of the Federal Government, where the black man was first emancipated and enfranchised, that the experiment of a true republicanism should be tried, by securing to woman, too, the rights of an American citizen.

SUSAN B. ANTHONY addressed the Committee as follows: We are here for the express purpose of urging you to present in your respective bodies, a bill to strike the word "male" from the District of Columbia Suffrage Act, and thereby enfranchise the women of the District. We ask that the experiment of woman suffrage shall be tried here, under the eye of Congress, as was that of negro suffrage. Indeed, the District has ever been made the experimental ground of each step toward freedom. The auction-block was here first banished, slavery was here first abolished, the newly-made freemen were here first enfranchised; and we now ask that the women shall here be first admitted to the ballot. There was great fear and trepidation all over the country as to the results of negro suffrage, and you deemed it right and safe to inaugurate the experiment here; and you all remember that three days discussion in 1866 on Senator Cowan's proposition to amend the Senate bill by striking out the word "male;" the able speeches of Cowan, Anthony, Gratz Brown, Wade, and the Senate's nine votes for the amendment. Well do I remember with what anxious hope we watched the daily reports of that debate, and how we prayed that Congress might then declare for the establishment in this District of a real, practical republic. But conscience, or courage, or something was wanting, and women were bidden still to wait.

When, on that March day of 1867, the negroes of the District first voted, with what anxiety did the people wait, and with what joy did they read the glad tidings, flashed over the wires the following morning! And the success of that first election in this District, inspired Congress with confidence to pass the proposition for the XV. Amendment, and the different States to ratify it until it has become a fixed fact that black men all over the nation may not only vote, but sit in legislative assemblies and constitutional conventions. We now ask Congress to do the same for women. We ask you to enfranchise the women of the District this very winter, so that next March they may go to the ballot-box, and all the people of this nation may see that it is possible for women to vote and the republic to stand. There is no reason, no argument, nothing but prejudice, against our demand; and there is no way to break down this prejudice but to try the experiment. Therefore we most earnestly urge it, in full faith that so soon as Congress and the people shall have witnessed its beneficial results, they will go forward with a XVI. Amendment that shall prohibit any State to disfranchise any of its citizens on account of sex.

Mrs. HOOKER said: The fifth commandment, "Honor thy father and thy mother," can not be obeyed while boys are taught by our laws and constitutions to hold all women in contempt. I feel it is not only woman's right, but duty to assume responsibility in the government. I think the importance of the subject demands its hearing.

Madam ANNEKE: You have lifted up the slave on this continent; listen now to woman's cry for freedom.

Mrs. MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE: Liberty is an instinct of the human heart, and men desirous of creating change in governments or religion have led other men by promising them greater liberty and better laws. Nothing is too good, too great, too sacred for humanity—and, as part of humanity, woman as well as man demands the best that governments have to offer. Honorable gentlemen have spoken of petitions. For twenty years we have petitioned, and I now hold in my hand over three thousand names of citizens from but a small portion of the State of New York, asking that justice shall be done women by granting them suffrage. But people have become tired of begging for rights, and many persons favoring this cause will not again petition. We but ask justice, and we say to you that the stability of any government depends upon its doing justice to the most humble individual under it.

Mrs. PAULINA WRIGHT DAVIS: We are tired of petitioning. It is time our legislators knew what was right and gave us justice.

Mrs. WILBOUR remarked that a lady of the district near her said she had obtained 1,500 signatures in one ward of the city to a petition.

Senator PATTERSON inquired what the effect would be in case women were allowed to vote, if there were a difference of opinion between the husband and wife on some political question—where the authority of the family would rest?

Mrs. STANTON replied that there was always a superior will and brain in every family. If it was the man, he would rule; if it was the woman, she would rule. Individuality would be preserved in the family as well as in society.

Hon. Mr. WELKER wanted to know if the women in the District had shown any interest in the movement yet.

Mrs. STANTON replied that they had; they had attended the sessions of the Convention held here, and all she had spoken to were in favor of it.

Mrs. WILBOUR said the petition of 1,500 women of the District asking for suffrage had been presented to Congress this very winter.

Hon. Mr. COOKE said that the Committee on the District of Columbia could not get enough time allowed them by the House to transact the necessary business of the District during the short morning hour to which they were limited by the rules, and he feared they would be unable to get the action of the House on the subject.

Miss ANTHONY said that they must make time enough to present the bill at least; and asked if women had the right to vote, and make and unmake members, if they could not then find time to plead woman's cause?

The honorable member was obliged to answer this pertinent question in the affirmative.

Senator HAMLIN said the Committee would take the matter into consideration and discuss it; that in Scripture language he could say he "was almost, if not quite, persuaded."

Altogether the hearing was serious and impressive, and it was evident that the honorable gentlemen had already given the subject a thoughtful consideration. As each member of the Congressional Committee was presented by Senator Hamlin, the ladies had abundant opportunity for learning their individual opinions. Senator Sumner never appeared more genial, and said though he had been in Congress for twenty years, and through the exciting scenes of the Nebraska Act, Emancipation, District of Columbia Suffrage Act, and Reconstruction, he had never seen a committee in which were present so many Senators and Representatives, so many spectators, and so much interest manifested in the subject under discussion.

The following description (in the Hartford Courant) is from the pen of Mrs. Fannie Howland.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 22, 1870.

The close of the Woman's Suffrage Convention in this city was marked by an event which, no matter how slowly its logical sequence is developed, must be regarded as initiative.

A committee of ladies appointed by the convention and composed in great part of those well known as leaders in the movement, was received at the Capitol by the committee of the Senate and House (on the District of Columbia) for a formal hearing. The object of that hearing was to request the honorable gentlemen to present a bill to Congress for enfranchising the women of the District, as an experiment preparatory to ultimate acknowledgment of equal rights for all the women of the United States. The ladies were received in one of the larger committee rooms, in order to accommodate a number who wished to be present at this novel interview. After taking their seats, the Hon. Hannibal Hamlin, chairman, presented to them successively the gentlemen of the committee, who certainly greeted their fair appellants with the deferential courtesy due to fellow-sovereigns, albeit unacknowledged and disguised, for the present, under the odium of disfranchisement.

The gentlemen took their seats around a long table in the middle of the room. Mrs. Stanton stood at one end, serene and dignified. Behind her sat a large semi-circle of ladies, and close about her a group of her companions, who would have been remarkable anywhere for the intellectual refinement and elevated expression of their earnest faces. Opposite, at the other end of the table, sat Charles Sumner, looking fatigued and worn, but listening with alert attention. So these two veterans in the cause of freedom were fitly and suggestively brought face to face.

The scene was impressive. It was simple, grand, historic. Women have often appeared in history—noble, brilliant, heroic women; but woman collectively, impersonally, never until now. To-day, for the first time, she asks recognition in the commonwealth—not in virtue of hereditary noblesse—not for any excellence or achievement of individuals, but on the simple ground of her presence in the race, with the same rights, interests, responsibilities as man. There was nothing in this gathering at the Capitol to touch the imagination with illusion, no ball-room splendor of light and fragrance and jewels, none of those graceful enchantments by which women have been content to reign through brief dynasties of beauty over briefer fealties of homage. The cool light of a winter morning, the bare walls of a committee room, the plain costumes of every day use, held the mind strictly to the simple facts which gave that group of representative men and women its moral significance, its severe but picturesque unity. Some future artist, looking back for a memorable illustration of this period, will put this new "Declaration of Independence" upon canvas, and will ransack the land for portraits of those ladies who first spoke for their countrywomen at the Capitol, and of those Senators and Representatives who first gave them audience.

Mrs. Stanton's speech was brief and able, eloquent from the simplicity and earnestness of her heart, logical from the well disciplined vigor of her mind. She was followed by Miss Anthony, morally as inevitable and impersonal as a Greek chorus, but physically and intellectually individual, intense, original, full of humor and good nature—anything but the roaring lioness of newspaper reports some years ago. Mrs. Davis, of Rhode Island, spoke briefly in support of the demand for franchise. Mrs. I. B. Hooker presented the Scriptural argument for the equality of woman in all moral responsibility and duty under the divine law. She spoke very feelingly, and was heard with marked attention. A German lady from Wisconsin who, weighed in any balance, would not be found wanting, struggled to express, in broken English, the ideas for which she came forward as representing many of her countrywomen in the West. Madam Anneke fought by her husband's side in the revolution of 1848; but such an example adds no force to the argument for woman's suffrage, the plea being made, not for distinguished exceptional women, but for the average women of the community.

When the ladies had finished their remarks, the gentlemen were invited to ask any questions which were suggested by the subject discussed. Either from indifference or chivalrous sentiment, no very grave questions were proposed, nothing which required effort or argument to answer. Probably when the matter comes, as sooner or later it must come, before Congress, we shall hear some well-considered defense of the Salic law, which in this democratic republic, excludes all women from the citizen's prerogative. One of the honorable gentlemen asked how they could be certain that any number of women in the United States desired the ballot. Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony recounted their experience at conventions, the numerous signatures to petitions, the many demonstrations here and in England in favor of woman suffrage, but reminded the gentleman that no such separate expression is required from the unwashed, unkempt immigrants upon whom the government makes haste to confer unqualified suffrage, nor from the southern negroes, who are provided for by the XV. Amendment.

The hearing ended about noon, followed by very cordial shaking hands and pleasant chat. I do not know if the ladies were invited to "call again," but am quite sure that Miss Anthony's parting salutation was an "au revoir." There was some quiet by-play as the audience dispersed, a little interchange of knowing nods and condescending smiles, as if to say, "we can keep these absurd pretensions at bay while we live, and after us the deluge." I have no doubt that to some persons it appears an extravagant joke for women to aspire to political equality with the negro. King George thought it a very good joke when his upstart colonists steeped their tea in the salt water of Boston harbor, but the laugh was on their side in the long run. History has no precedents for the elevation of woman to a civic status, but we are making precedents every day in our conduct of popular government. In Athens—where woman was both worshiped and degraded—the protectress of the city was a feminine ideal whose glorious image crowned the Parthenon with consummate beauty. In America, where woman is beloved and respected as nowhere else in the world—if she is only true to the ideals of private and public virtue—if she seeks power only as a means for the highest good of the race, the old fable of the Pellas Athenae may become real, and the nation acknowledge with grateful joy, that the fathers "builded better than they knew," when they placed the figure of a woman on the dome of their Capitol at Washington.

The second Washington Convention assembled at 10 o'clock, January 19th, 1870, in Lincoln Hall. Mrs. Stanton called the assemblage to order and invited the Rev. Samuel J. May to open the convention with prayer. Letters were read from John Stuart Mill, Robert Purvis, Clara Barton, and others. Miss Barton appealed to her soldier friends in behalf of woman's right of suffrage thus:

Brothers, when you were weak, and I was strong, I toiled for you. Now you are strong, and I am weak because of my work for you, I ask your aid. I ask the ballot for myself and my sex, and as I stood by you, I pray you stand by me and mine.

Mr. Purvis closed his eloquent letter with these sentiments:

Censured as I may be for apparent inconsistency, as a member and an officer of the American Anti-Slavery Society, in approving a movement whose leaders are opposed to the passage of the XV. Amendment, I must be true to my own soul, to my sense of the absolute demands of justice, and hence, I say that, much as I desire (and Heaven knows how deeply through life I have antagonized therefor) the possession of all my rights as an American citizen, were I a woman, black or white, I would resist, by every feeling of self-respect and personal dignity, any and every encroachment of power, every act of tyranny (for such they will be), based upon the impious, false, and infamous assumption of superiority of sex.

Mr. Sinclair Toucey, of New York, wrote a letter in which he said:

The argument of to-day against the legal and political equality of the sexes carries one back to the days of pro-slavery ascendency, and brings vividly to mind the old wail of the non-humanity of the negro, and his lack of capacity for civilizing improvements: and though the opponents of equal rights for both sexes do not go quite so far as to deny the humanity of women, yet one might believe they would, did not such a denial involve their own status.... In a feeble manner I fought the old pro-slavery dogma, and in a feeble manner I am trying to fight its twin—the non-equality of the sexes.... I believe in the brotherhood of man, regardless of sex, color, or birth-place, and that every member of the great family is entitled to equal rights in life's ceaseless struggles.

Mr. Mill's letter was as follows:

AVIGNON, France, Dec. 11, 1869.

DEAR MADAM: I should have reason to be ashamed of myself if your name were unknown to me. I am not likely to forget one who stood in the front rank of the woman's rights movement in its small beginnings, and helped it forward so vigorously in its early and most difficult stages. You and Mrs. Mott have well deserved to live to see the cause in its present prosperity, and may now fairly hope to see a commencement of victory in some of the States at least. I have received many kind and cordial invitations to visit the United States, and were I able, the great convention to which you invite me would certainly be a strong inducement to do so. My dislike to a sea voyage would not of itself prevent me, if there were not a greater obstacle—want of time. I have many things to do yet, before I die, and some months (it is not worth while going to America for less) is a great deal to give at my time of life, especially as it would not, like ordinary traveling, be a time of mental rest, but something very different. I regret my inability the less, as the friends of the cause in America are quite able to dispense with direct personal co-operation from England. The really important co-operation is the encouragement we give one another by the success of each in our own country. For Great Britain this success is much greater than appears on the surface, for our people, as you know, shrink much more timidly than Americans from attracting public notice to themselves; and the era of great public meetings on this subject has not arrived in our country, though it may be near at hand. I need hardly say how much I am gratified at the mode in which my name was mentioned in the National Convention at Newport, and still more at the tribute to the memory of my dear wife, who from early youth was devoted to this cause, and had done invaluable service to it as the inspirer and instructor of others, even before writing the essay so deservedly eulogized in your resolutions. To her I owe the far greater part of whatever I have myself been able to do for the cause, for though from my boyhood I was a convinced adherent of it, on the ground of justice, it was she who taught me to understand the less obvious bearings of the subject, and its close connection with all the great moral and social interests of the cause. I am, dear madam, very sincerely yours,

J. S. MILL. To Mrs. Paulina W. Davis.

Senator Pomeroy, of Kansas, was introduced and made some very appropriate remarks:

He said he was no new convert to this idea of woman's right to suffrage. Woman claims the right to vote, not because she is a woman, and stronger or weaker than man, but because she is a citizen, amenable to the laws and under the control of the government. He did not propose to vote to simply give woman the franchise, but to remove the obstacles that now forbid the exercise of that right. He welcomed to this organization every earnest worker, and he was glad to hear that they were stirring up the elements. He had been waiting for the last two months for petitions, but he thought the franchise would never be secured to any class until it was imbedded in the constitution, and put beyond the freaks of politicians and majorities in State Legislatures. He was in favor of carrying the movement into the fundamental law of the land. The negro's hour is passed, and it is woman's hour now. The negro has had his day, his cause has triumphed, and as woman is a citizen, and we need her ballot in the government, I hope that this movement may have a triumphant success.

Committees[128] were appointed. Mrs. Wright of Auburn, N. Y., stated that her sister, Lucretia Mott, had charged her with a message to the Convention, she sent her "God speed" to the movement, and regretted that she could not be present.

Paulina W. Davis read an interesting history of the woman's rights movement, giving a brief sketch of its leaders. Miss Anthony introduced a series of resolutions,[129] which were laid on the table for debate.

Mrs. M. GAGE, Secretary of the Suffrage Association of New York, addressed the Convention. She thought the world had never yet seen what woman could do, because she had never been given the opportunity. The ballot is the symbol of a higher power than a king's crown; it is the promise of justice to him who holds it. John Bright said no oppression, however hoary headed, could stand the voice of the people.

Mrs. SUSAN EDSON, of Washington, desired to have the Committee on Resolutions urge upon Congress the passage of the bill now before it, providing for the reorganization of the Treasury Department, but opposing that section of the bill which fixes the salary of the female employees lower than that of the men. She thought this was a proper subject for the convention to discuss.

At the evening session Mrs. Josephine S. Griffing occupied the chair.

Hon. JAMES M. SCOVILL, of New Jersey, said:—I believe in heroism. Grant won with the sword at Appomattox what Charles Sumner contended for half a century—an idea. That idea is the liberty of all, limited by the like liberty of each. To-night we are here to bow to conscience, not to caste. Susan B. Anthony, the heroine of the hour, sustained by such brave souls as crowd this platform, who for the last twenty years have worked without fear and without reproach, deserves the thanks of millions yet to be, for she is the hero, the champion of the same idea for which Abraham Lincoln and half a million soldiers died. The emancipation of man was the proposition. The enfranchisement of woman was not the corollary to that proposition, but the major premise.

John Stuart Mill, in his great book, "The Subjection of Women," denies the superior mental capacity of man when compared with woman. The nineteenth century don't yield a blind assent to such bosh as Tennyson's, "Woman is the lesser man." It would not do for Madame de Stael to assert (for alas! it was too true then—for the first Napoleon never read Rochefort's "Marseillaise") that man could conquer, but woman must submit to public opinion. To-day Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Anna E. Dickinson take public opinion by storm, because they use the everlasting logic of human rights. Woman has power enough whenever fidelity, or truth, or genius are worshiped. She wants authority. The will of the nation says, "She shall have it and that speedily." We want and demand that Congress shall make a loud "amen" to this clearly expressed will of the nation. The civil rights bill did little good until you armed the African with the ballot. Then the old master touched his hat to the new citizen—his old slave. And why? Because he was a power in the land. It is only Godlike to use power for humanity; and that is the way we propose to use it. Congress must hear us—shall hear us—because we speak in the voice of the people. And I speak to you as a man, yes, and as a lawyer, when I tell you your boasted amendments are the small dust of the balance till the XVI. is written. Then we will have a country, never again clasping the Bible with the handcuffs of slavery, but a land where we, men and women alike, can worship a common God, before whom there is neither Jew nor Greek, "white male" nor female, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free.

Mrs. WILBOUR remarked that she was fully aware of the truth that humanity was a unit. She knew the day was coming when a woman would be considered the equal of man. No disabilities to vote or hold office should exist in a free country on account of sex or color. She was anxious to know by what authority the word "male" had been placed in the constitution, which governed woman as well as man. Woman's rights were natural rights—nothing more or less. She claimed the right of self-rule or self-government as a natural right. Men were united in saying, "We have the right to vote." She was not present to be an advocate of woman's rights, whatever they may be, but of human rights. The largest giant had no more rights than Tom Thumb. It was brain, not force, that governed the world. A small hand was able to discharge a musket, guide an engine, or edit a paper as well as a large one. The womanly in nature should be expressed by woman, the manly by man; the two were distinct, and could not be blended together without spoiling the harmony of the whole. Society had to be governed by the sacred right of self-government. How could a woman be responsible for her deeds to God if somebody had control over her conscience?

Mr. ALBERT G. RIDDLE believed that the question of universal franchise would be tried before the grand tribunal of the world, and, if not victorious, it would appeal and appeal again. The question ought to be met squarely by the "masculines" as well as by the women. He was an earnest advocate of woman's rights, because he claimed the same rights for his daughters as for his sons; he wanted for them the same atmosphere, the same public opinion, the same prestige. Women were often heard to exclaim, "I wish I were a man." This elucidates how keenly they feel their position. Mr. Riddle spoke at length in favor of universal rights, and his logical arguments attracted the admiration of all who heard him.

Mrs. JOSEPHINE S. GRIFFING stated that the city clergy had evinced a disinclination to attend the convention, as they could not see any justification for the same in Divine revelation. She read a letter from Bishop Simpson, in which he wished the convention God-speed.

Senator POMEROY said he was in favor of the XVI. Amendment, and he thought the best place in the world to try the experiment was in the District of Columbia. They had tried negro suffrage in the District, and it had proved a success and a benefit. There were plenty of offices in the city that could be filled by capable and now idle young ladies, which were at present filled by men weighing two hundred pounds, who were able to do a day's work but now received large salaries for little labor.

Rev. SAMUEL J. MAY proposed to test the ladies present as to their ideas of suffrage. He asked that every lady in the house who desired the ballot should hold up her hand. A few ladies responded.

Mrs. STANTON stated that Mr. May had adopted a very bad manner of submitting the question. She would, therefore, reconsider the vote, and ask all ladies who opposed the XVI. Amendment to rise from their seats, and those in favor to retain them. About sixteen ladies arose, amidst great mirth and laughter.

THE CHAIR then announced that the meeting had expressed itself largely in favor of female suffrage.

Madam ANNEKE, a German lady, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, stated that, being a foreigner, allowance should be made for her defective pronunciation. If she could not speak the English language, she could speak the language of the heart. She came from the West, burdened heavily with petitions, signed by one thousand residents of the State of Wisconsin. She would appeal to her countrymen, Carl Schurz and Finkelnburg, to assist in this last struggle for universal liberty.

The Rev. OLYMPIA BROWN addressed herself particularly to that small minority of ladies who had expressed themselves opposed to the XVI. Amendment. She admired their independence of character, for it showed they were the kind of women that the friends of woman suffrage wished to win over to their cause. She thought them honest in their opinions, but prejudiced. It required strong minds to combat against the common enemy—prejudice. They may think they do not require this right, as they might be blessed with comfortable homes, and be satisfied with the condition they were in. A change might come—even to them, but if it did not, ought they not to pity other women whose situation was less comfortable than their own? She alluded to the idle lives of young women, to which they were condemned by the customs of society, and said Christianity demanded a useful life from every woman as well as every man. This cause is the cause of the civilized world, and will go on till the ballot is in the hands of every American woman.

Mr. STILLMAN, of R. I., had no doubt that the result of this agitation would be to secure the universal franchise of all women. Women would be admitted to all colleges of the land, and to the study of the arts and sciences.

Miss ANTHONY said that Senator Pomeroy's being here to advocate woman suffrage, might be attributed to the fact that he had a constituency to sustain him. Let the people of other States make as strong an expression as Kansas, and their representatives would quickly find their places here too. She wanted women to emigrate to Wyoming and make a model State of it by sending a woman Senator to the National capitol. She would go there, if she had time, but her mission was in the States until this great reform was accomplished. She desired women to become members of the National organization, and to pay their dollar, or twenty-five, or twenty-five hundred dollars. She requested the Finance Committee to take their pencils and paper, and canvass the hall for membership and money, commencing at the door, so as to catch every fugitive. She invited all ladies who visit New York to call at the Woman's Bureau, and her own sanctum, the editorial rooms of The Revolution.

At the second evening session, letters[130] were read from Senators Ross, of Kansas, and Carpenter, of Wisconsin.

Miss JENNIE COLLINS, of Lowell, Mass., addressed the meeting in a speech of some length, which was broken by frequent applause. She came to plead the cause of the working women, her associates. She knew the dignity of the kitchen, many of whose occupants were the daughters of refined and wealthy parents. If these girls could tell their story to the ladies of Washington, they would not rest till Congress had conceded to them their rights. The sufferings of the factory girls could hardly be described; poor wages for hard labor, in dirty rooms, shut out from bright sunshine, with dreary homes, were but part of their misery. With a love of the ennobling and beautiful, a natural taste for reading and study, many of them were led astray from the path of virtue by the artifices of men, often the sons of their own employers, and nothing was done to prevent their fall.

The President announced that so great was the interest evinced, that a third day's session had been arranged.

THIRD DAY—MORNING.—Among the large and fashionable audience present were the Governor of Wyoming Territory, many Senators and Members of Congress, as well as other distinguished persons. Mrs. GRIFFING read an interesting letter from Mrs. Frances D. Gage:

More than one-half of the "people," are to-day without the right of franchise, and can exert no power in the government, and have no voice in electing its representatives. They have no voice in making the laws under which they live. If they commit offenses they are punished the same as voters. If they have property it is taxed precisely the same and for the same purposes as is the property of the voter. Government money and lands and revenues are appropriated for schools, colleges, and institutions of learning by the voters for their own use, while the non-voters are debarred all rights and privileges in the same. And it may be said that the disfranchised "have no rights that the enfranchised are bound to respect." ... A government that fails to execute its own laws and mocks at its own enactments, can not be respected by its people. We therefore demand that our representatives "shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government;" that the right of suffrage be guaranteed to all persons of sound mind and adult years, without regard to race, color, or sex.

Respectfully, FRANCES D. GAGE.

Rev. SAMUEL J. MAY said this movement was the most radical one ever proposed to the civilized world. America had suffered severely because it had violated the rights of 4,000,000 people. If the rights of 15,000,000 were much longer violated, severer suffering still would be induced.

CHARLOTTE B. WILBOUR said: In demanding suffrage for women we are not making any innovation on political principles, but only attempting to restore the broken connection between practice and profession. A steady, constant, palpable ignoring of the application of great truths, like the claim of woman's rights, and the equality of all before the law, begets a reckless manner of assertion, an illogical application of premises, and thence a sort of organic dishonesty of mind which is carried into practice almost unconsciously. Every subject of a government who has not a voice in its conduct is openly degraded, and must be something more or less than human not to show it in the conduct of his life. We demand the ballot for women in the name of that very domesticity which is urged against it, of that home whose peace has always been more marred by passive servility and masculine authority than by any over-assertion of individuality, on the part of the so-called partner.

Speeches were also made by Mr. Hinton of Washington, and Miss Phoebe Couzins.

Miss ANTHONY called upon Senator Sherman, of Ohio, to address the meeting, who expressed himself highly pleased with the convention to which he only came as a listener. The following letters were then read:

SYRACUSE, January 18, 1870.

Mrs. M. J. GAGE—Dear Friend: I doubt not this meeting will urge emphatically upon Congress the duty of striking the word "male" from the suffrage bill for the District of Columbia. It is a gross injustice, a shame that such a term should be in any legal paper defining citizenship in any civilized State, especially a shame that it should stand in a bill touching suffrage, in what ought to be the model District, the choice sample ground of wise and just government for the model republic. Let an indignant protest and admonition go up in regard to this matter from your convention, that Congress shall not dare to disregard. I trust also that the convention will urge upon Congress the eminent fitness and duty of passing without delay the XVI. Amendment, and submitting the same to the Legislatures of the several States for ratification.

The world is moving to-day in the direction of the abolition of all monopolies of privilege and that of equal and exact justice and fair play to all classes. Woman now has the floor; the hour has struck for her. Wyoming and Colorado are already setting example for the older communities. Let the preaching of this faith in effective ways, its benign and thorough working, begin at Jerusalem, at the Capitol of the nation, and may your convention urge the work to immediate undertaking, aye, and completion then, at home.

Yours truly, CHAS. D. B. MILLS.

CORNELL UNIVERSITY, ITHACA, N. Y., Jan. 17, 1870.

Mrs. M. JOSLYN GAGE—Dear Madam: I beg you to be assured that I heartily sympathize with all well directed efforts to secure to woman equality before the law. Whatever can be done to give her a fair and equal chance with man, is due to her, and no effort of mine shall be wanting to secure so desirable a consummation.

Very respectfully yours, HOMER B. SPRAGUE.

Mrs. Helen Taylor, of London, after expressing the wish that she might be with us, says:

It is a great delight to hear of the numerous societies, in various countries, working well and vigorously for that justice which for so long has been denied to women. The time can not be far distant now, when we shall attain the right of expressing our opinion by giving a vote.

Letters joining in the demand for a XVI. Amendment were received from E. H. G. Clarke, of Troy, N. Y.; S. D. Dillaye, of Syracuse; Martha B. Dickinson, Sarah Pugh, Mrs. E. K. Pugh, Abby Kimber, of Philadelphia; Mrs. Mary J. O'Donovan-Rossa, and Hon. Jacob H. Ela. The following extracts from private letters of Mrs. Hooker show somewhat the spirit of the occasion.

WASHINGTON, January 19, 1870.

I have just come from a good meeting; just such a house as we had at Hartford the mornings of our Convention. Senator Pomeroy spoke admirably, and carried every one with him. Then came Olympia Brown, and nothing could have been better than her speech and the effect of it on the audience, which, by the way, was earnest and intelligent. But Madam Anneke, the German patriot who fought with her husband and slept beside her horse in the field, carried the day over everyone else. It was fairly overwhelming to hear her English, so surcharged with feeling, yet so exact in the choice of words, and the burden of it all was that the trials of the battle-field were as naught compared to this inward struggle of her soul toward liberty for woman. Her presence, gestures, oratory, were simply magnificent.

Mrs. F., of Cincinnati, who lives here now, came to me this morning with great warmth, saying she had brought two Senators' wives who were opposed, and they said a few more such women as Olympia Brown would convert them. She has promised to bring them to our reception at the Arlington this evening.

Jan. 20.—We have had to hold a three days' meeting, interest grew so fast. Yesterday morning Lincoln Hall jammed, even aisles full. I never heard better speaking in my life, not a disturbance in the audience, not a jar on the platform, all loving, tender, earnest. Olympia Brown is wonderful; she talked Christ and His Gospel just I should have done with her voice and practice; can't enlarge, but she surely is a remarkable woman. We are to have a hearing by a committee from both Houses on Saturday, and Senator Pomeroy will present a bill for suffrage in the District of Columbia next week, and would not be much surprised if it were carried at once—does not really expect that—but Senator Trumbull, Chairman of Judiciary, says he shall vote for it, and so do many others in both Houses. Mrs. Pomeroy received yesterday afternoon, and to my surprise, nearly all her callers had been at the Convention—at least three hundred young ladies were in the hall, they said, and all spoke with perfect respect of the movement—many seemed in sympathy with it.

Jan. 21, two o'clock.—Just from the Committee Room, and too full to write. Mrs. Stanton standing at the head of the long table (Committee all round the table, Sumner so attentive as to fix my eyes upon him with intense interest, watching changes of expression) read a magnificent argument. Mrs. Davis and Miss Anthony followed, and then sitting in my chair, I made a five minutes' talk on my favorite point—personal responsibility God's only method in human affairs. Then questions from various gentlemen and conversation all round the room for two hours. The large room was full of gentlemen and ladies, and there were congratulations without stint, but Sumner, grandest of all, approaching Mrs. Stanton and myself, said in a deep voice, really full of emotion, "I have been in this place, ladies, for twenty years; I have followed or led in every movement toward liberty and enfranchisement; but I have it to say to you now, that I never attended such a committee meeting as this in my life, it exceeds all that I have ever witnessed."

Mrs. Howland was there, and excited to her highest eloquence in speech; with flushed cheeks she said to me, "If only that scene could have been photographed—it was the grandest one of history—the first time that woman has ever appeared in halls of legislation—women often, but woman never before." I have sent her home to write a letter for the Courant, and I hope she will make it out; she has promised to try. Senator Pomeroy counts thirteen Senators ready to vote for us now, but I can not attempt to do justice to the situation.

The Revolution of March 24, 1870, gives the following call for the May Anniversary of the National Woman's Suffrage Association, which held its regular annual meeting in Irving Hall, New York, May 10th and 11th:

The various woman suffrage associations throughout this country and the Old World are invited to send delegates to the Convention, prepared to report the progress of our movement in their respective localities. And, in order that this annual meeting may be the expression of the whole people, we ask all friends of woman suffrage to consider themselves personally invited to attend and take part in its discussions. With the political rights of woman secured in the Territories of Utah and Wyoming—with the agitation of the question in the various State Legislatures, with the proposition to strike the word "male" from the State Constitution of Vermont—with New York, New England, and the great West well organized, we are confident that our leading political parties will soon see that their own interest and the highest interests of the country require them to recognize our claim.

The Executive Committee recommend the friends of woman suffrage, everywhere, to concentrate their efforts upon the work of securing a XVI. Amendment to the Federal Constitution that shall prohibit the States from disfranchising any of their citizens on account of sex.

Many of the ablest advocates[131] of the cause—both men and women—will address the meetings. Communications and contributions should be addressed to the Corresponding Secretary.

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, President. ERNESTINE L. ROSE, Chairman Executive Committee. CHARLOTTE B. WILBOUR, Corresponding Secretary, 151 East 51st Street, New York.

The Convention was eventually held in Apollo Hall, the owners of Irving Hall annulling their contract when they learned that colored people were not only to be admitted to the audience, but welcomed to the platform as speakers. The Rev. Phebe Hanaford opened the meeting with prayer, Mrs. Charlotte Wilbour read the call, and announced the various committees, Miss Anthony reported the work done during the past year; excellent addresses were made by the many able speakers present, and strong resolutions were discussed and adopted.

It was during this convention that a proposition was made, that as the American Association had chosen Henry Ward Beecher for President, Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony should resign their offices for a season, and place some popular man at the head of the National Society. They readily assented, hoping thereby to heal the division so distracting to friends in every State, and unite all the forces in a grand Union Association. Theodore Tilton, editor of the Independent, was chosen for the position. He and Mr. Beecher exchanged amicable letters, and a meeting of pacification[132] was held at the Fifth Avenue hotel where both sides were fairly represented. Complimentary greetings were exchanged, but nothing was gained.

The one wise step in this episode was the meeting of the National Woman Suffrage Association: in Washington, January, 1871, as usual under its long-tried leaders, as if no mistaken policy had been suggested or considered. Emerson says the power of the human mind is shown in its ability to recover after a blunder. The Association showed its real strength in taking up again and carrying forward its grand National work.

THE SECOND DECADE CELEBRATION.

At half past ten o'clock Friday morning October 19, 1870, the twentieth anniversary convention assembled in Apollo Hall, New York. A large number of the life-long friends were on the platform and a fine audience in attendance. Mrs. Stanton called the meeting to order and read the call.[133] She said, after due consultation the committee had decided that as Mrs. Davis had called the first National Convention twenty years ago, and presided over its deliberations, it was peculiarly fitting that she should preside over this also. A motion was made and seconded to that effect, and unanimously adopted. On taking the chair Mrs. Davis gave the following resume of the Woman's Rights movement:

In assembling to review the past twenty years, it is a fitting question to ask if there has been progress; or has this universal radical reform, which was then declared, been like reformations in religion, but a substitution of a new error for an old one; or, like physical revolutions, but a rebellion? Has this work, intended from its inception to change the structure of the central organization of society, failed and become a monument of buried hopes? Have we come together after twenty years, bowed with a profound grief over the wreck and debris of the battle unwon, or to rejoice over what has been attained, and mark out work for the next decade?

We answer, in many things we have failed, for we believed and hoped beyond the possible; but reviewing the past we have only cause for rejoicing—for thanksgiving to God—and for courage in the future. We affirmed a principle, an adjustment of measures to the exigencies of the times, a profound expediency true to the highest principles of rights, and to-day we reiterate the axiom with which we started, that "They who would be free, themselves must strike the blow," believing it as imperative as when the first woman took it up, and applied it to her needs; and it must be kept as steadily before the eye, for not yet can we rest on our privileges gained.

Women are still frivolous; the slaves of prejudice, passion, folly, fashion, and petty ambitions, and so they will remain till the shackles, both social and political, are broken, and they are held responsible beings—accountable to God alone. Not till then can it be known what untold wealth lies buried in womanhood—"how many mute, inglorious Miltons." Men are still conceited, arrogant, and usurping, dwarfing their own manhood by a false position toward one half the human race.

In commencing this work we knew that we were attacking the strongholds of prejudice, but truth could no longer be suppressed, nor principles hidden. It must be ours to strike the bottom line. We believed it would take a generation to clear away the rubbish, to uproot the theories of ages, to overthrow customs, which at some period of the world's history had their significance.

We proclaimed that our work was to reform, reconstruct, and harmonize society; not to lay waste her homes and her sanctuaries. A few only have been found brave enough to do more than touch the fringe work that circles round the vortex which is heaving and surging with social pollutions, which might well make angels stand appalled; but should the occasion come in this country, the pure women of our nation will rise, as the women of England are now doing, resisting a legislation which degrades womanhood to the lowest depths. We proclaimed a peaceful revolution; for we abhorred then as now the atrocities of war, hence our demand for a participation in government, that we might bring a new element into it to restrain and purify it. Says a French lady in a private letter received a few days since, "Oh, is it not time that women come? Is it not because we have no voice in public affairs that Europe is on fire now? Men are true brutes. Pride, injustice, and cruelty are their most remarkable qualities. What can free us from their laws so unjust?" This is the sad, passionate utterance of a French woman now in the hour of her country's peril. What better proof that women love peace more than glory, than in the Empress Eugenie's course,—She would have no force used to uphold her power. "She would rather be pitied than hated."

Frances Wright, a noble Scotchwoman, early sought to make herself thoroughly acquainted with the nature of our institutions, and the genius of our government. She determined to try the experiment of organized labor with negroes. Purchasing two thousand acres of land on the Bluffs, now known as Memphis, Tenn., she took a number of families, with fifteen able-bodied men, and, giving them their freedom, organized her work. Prostrated by illness, she was compelled to yield her personal supervision, and thus her attempt to civilize those people failed, and they were finally sent to Hayti.

She then commenced lecturing on the nature and object of the "American Political Institutions." She gave also a course of Historical and Political Lectures; and another course on the Nature of Knowledge, Free Inquiry, Divisions of Knowledge, Religion, Morals, Opinions, Existing Evils and a Reply to the Traducers of the French Reformers. No other person was at that time prepared so well to defend them as she was, from her having been in part educated in General Lafayette's family. In all those lectures she showed the low estimate of woman, and her inferior education.

To this heroic woman, who left ease, elegance, a high social circle of rich culture, and with true self-abnegation gave her life, in the country of her adoption, to the teaching of her highest idea of truth, it is fitting that we pay a tribute of just, though late, respect. Her writings are of the purest and noblest character, and whatever there is of error in them is easily thrown aside. The spider sucks poison from the same flower from which the bee gathers honey; let us therefore ask if the evil be not in ourselves before we condemn others. Pharisaism, then as now, was ready to stone the prophet of freedom. She bore the calumny, reproach and persecution to which she was subjected for the truth, as calmly as Socrates. Looking down from the serene heights of her philosophy she pitied and endured the scoffs and jeers of the multitude, and fearlessly continued to utter her rebukes against oppression, ignorance and bigotry. Women joined in the hue and cry against her, little thinking that men were building the gallows and making them the executioners. Women have crucified in all ages the redeemers of their own sex, and men mock them with the fact. It is time now that we trample beneath our feet this ignoble public sentiment which men have made for us; and if others are to be crucified before we can be redeemed, let men do the cruel, cowardly work; but let us learn to hedge womanhood round with generous, protecting love and care. Then men will learn, as they should, that this system of traducing women is no longer to be used as a means for their subjugation. Let us learn to demand that all men who come into our presence be as pure as they claim that woman should be. Let the test be applied which Christ gave, that if any is without sin in word, or deed, or thought, he shall "cast the first stone."...

When the war ended and National reconstruction commenced, women, feeling an equal interest in having the work rightly done, presented their petitions for the right of suffrage, but were coolly told by those who were most eager to enfranchise the negro, "stand aside and wait, it is the black man's hour." The sacrifice of their sons on the altar of freedom was not counted to them as anything. Their years of toil and weary watching in camp and hospital were not to be put in the scale with the black man's, who fought for his own freedom. Such wrong and injustice is bearing its fruits, in the confusion of the councils of the Republican party. Like the French of 1848, they refused to deal justly with the mothers of the nation, and are now reaping a bitter reward. They dared to suppress the petitions of thousands of women, and now disintegration has begun; the handwriting is seen on the wall. Thus injustice has done its work, and thousands of women have been roused by it to protest who had never before given any thought to public affairs.

The National Convention, held in the Church of the Puritans, after the war, was one of intense interest, and marked an era in this movement. The demand for suffrage became paramount—the only one with many. Mrs. Stanton, in 1867, went before the Judiciary Committee of the New York Legislature, asking universal suffrage to be recognized by the Constitutional Convention which was to be held. About this time a bill was before a Committee of the Legislature, the purport of which was to legalize prostitution Reading this bill in the presence of the Committee, her quick mind comprehended all its horrors at a glance, and she tried the test of asking each man if he would be willing that that law should be applied to his daughter, his sister, or any one dear to him. Self-ism answered "No." "Then, gentlemen," said she, "legislate for the poorer daughters of the State as you would for your own." All that winter she battled against that hideous system, which would legalize the foulest of sins, and to her efforts, mainly, the delay of passing that law is due. She made a clear exposition of that cruel, corrupt, one-sided legislation, which subjects woman to the grossest indignities, while men are benefited and allowed safe and unlimited license. To her lectures, also, is due a healthier tone of public sentiment on the marriage question. It is slowly beginning to be felt that in that relation there is a vast amount of legalized prostitution.

In 1867 an extensive lecturing tour through Kansas was made by Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony, Rev. Olympia Brown, Henry Blackwell, and Lucy Stone. The proposition of striking the words "white male" from the Constitution had been submitted to the people, and the result of the campaign was one third the vote of the State in favor of both propositions. Of Miss Brown, now preaching in New England, we can not forbear saying we have few in our ranks more earnest, honest, or devoted. A clear, incisive intellect, a true heart and firm purpose mark her every day life. She is unobtrusive and gentle, but always ready at the call of duty. On this campaign they were joined by a new worker, George Francis Train, whether for good or ill it will be for history to decide. Certain it is, that a new impulse was given to the cause, and The Revolution established, with Susan B. Anthony as proprietor, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Parker Pillsbury as editors, has done a great work. It has been hated, abused, slandered, misquoted, and garbled; nevertheless, it has been a terror to evil doers, and a help to those who would do well. Others, thinking to do better, have started monthly and weekly papers....

In May, 1869, at the annual meeting of the Equal Rights Society, which had been three years in existence, a change of name was proposed. Notice was given to that effect, and at a large meeting, in which nineteen States were represented, the National Woman Suffrage Society was formed, which has done most efficient service, holding conventions in many of our large cities, and awakening thought and action. In Saratoga and Newport a new class was reached. Wearied with the monotony of fashionable dissipation and the driveling idiocy of flirtations, women were glad to hear a few sensible, wholesome truths.

In December, 1869, an able report was received from Mrs. Kate N. Doggett, one of the six delegates to the Labor Convention, in Berlin. In the spring of 1869 a fresh impulse was given to the work in the establishment of the Woman's Bureau, by Mrs. Elizabeth B. Phelps. Its discontinuance was due to the same cause which has thwarted so many plans of women. There were not a sufficient number possessed of wealth who had the will to render this a permanent institution. Mrs. Phelps possesses in an eminent degree all the requisites for such a post—a queenly hospitality, elegant manners, fine conversational ability, with a generous catholic spirit. Delicacy forbids saying all that the heart prompts of friends.... In November, 1869, a delegate convention was held in Cleveland, Ohio, and a society organized, called the American Woman's Suffrage Society. Its work is yet to be done. The crowning act of 1869, and the one which gave an omen for the year that was approaching, was the enfranchising of the women of Wyoming and Utah. For these acts of justice we are most grateful. A correspondent says:

The cause of woman in Wyoming goes bravely on. At the last sitting of the District Court in Albany County, both the Grand and Petit Juries were equally composed of either sex; and Chief-Justice Howe, presiding, took advantage of this occasion to compliment, in the highest terms, the intelligence, discrimination, honesty, and propriety of the conduct with which the women acquitted themselves last session, saying they had gone far to vindicate the policy, justify the experiment, and realize the expectations of those who had clothed themselves with the right. The bar, the bench, and the intelligent men of the country had long felt that something was needed to improve and justify our jury system; something to lift it above prejudice and passion, and imbue it with a higher regard for law, justice, oath, and conscience. His Honor then expressed the opinion that the introduction of the new element furnished good reason to expect that to women we should ultimately be indebted for those reforms which the unaided exertions of men had been incompetent to effect.

This is certainly a most flattering presentment of the results of enfranchising the sex in Wyoming, and what is better, it seems substantially a just one. The question will therefore naturally suggest itself, if women, in their new political capacity, are thus able to "tone" the rude elements of Western civilization, what inconsistency is there in granting them like privileges in communities whose superior refinement is so much less likely to expose them to insult or mortification? In Utah it is of less account, because the women there are under a hierarchy, and as yet vote only as directed.

In January, 1870, a convention was called in Washington by the officers of the National Society. This meeting, large in attendance and deeply earnest, marked an historical era, the influence of which can not be estimated. A hearing before the joint committee of the House and Senate of the District was asked, in order to present the question of woman suffrage, and granted. Elizabeth Cady Stanton made the argument in favor of enfranchising women of the District of Columbia. It was clear, incisive, and cogent; divested of all sentiment, and condensed into a twenty-minutes' speech. It was very impressive. Susan B. Anthony, Madam Anneke, and others made a few pertinent remarks. At the close of the hearing, Hon. Charles Sumner said: "In my twenty years' experience in the Senate of the United States, I have never witnessed so fine a hearing as this one, so large an attendance, and such respectful attention." Thus begins the national history of this great reform—a fitting opening for 1870.

The work, not only in this country, but in Europe, was greatly accelerated by the publication of John Stuart Mill's inestimable book, "The Subjection of Woman," which has been extensively circulated in a cheap form in this country, and has been translated and reprinted in France, Prussia, and Russia. The first National Woman Suffrage Convention was held in London, July, 1869, at which Members of Parliament, professors of science—noble men and noble women, still more ennobled by this great work—took active part, and now women have the right of suffrage there in the municipal elections. The bill was introduced by Mr. Jacob Bright, and, says Prof. Fawcett: "In one night it passed beyond ridicule, so ably and calmly was it presented, and in less than one year it is a fixed fact." How stands the comparison, Aristocratic England and Democratic America? The Crown Princesses of Prussia and Italy are strong advocates of this movement, while women, who pay taxes in Austria and Russia, vote and have a voice in making laws. Will America hold on to her barbarism in this, as she did to chattel slavery, till all the nations of the earth cry out against her wrong to womanhood?...

A few of the earlier women who came to this work should be named here. Martha C. Wright, sister of Lucretia Mott, of Auburn, has presided in most of the New York State Conventions, and in some of the National, and her pen has always been sharpened in ready defense of the cause and its leaders. A woman of rare good sense and large sympathies, she is always to be trusted in emergencies. Sarah Helen Whitman was the first literary woman of reputation who gave her name to the cause, and her interest has never lessened, though ill health has prevented any work. Alice Cary for years gave her heartiest sympathy to the movement, and socially she and her sister Phoebe have awakened an interest in a large circle not easily penetrated by outside influences. Her story, never completed, the "Born Thrall," published in The Revolution, gave evidence of thought, experience, and deep feeling. The songs of the sisters have a new sweet sadness, now that Alice is singing hers on the other side of the river of life. Grace Greenwood has done good service with her fluent pen and voice through the press and on the platform. Mary L. Booth, with her rich culture and her unsurpassed practical ability, her skill as a translator of Martin's great History of France, and numberless other works, has given aid to the cause with her pen, one of the best in the country. As an editor she has done great service by showing that a woman can work as earnestly and persistently at a closely confining business as a man, and can hold for years a place at the head of a profession so difficult and so arduous.

As physicians, many women have won not only fame, but wealth. The names are too many for our limits. A few only who have taken an active interest in the principles which we have been urging can be given. Dr. Mercy B. Jackson, Dr. Ann Preston, and Dr. Clemence Lozier are some of the names which stand out conspicuously.

The government appointments within the last two years have been a matter of great rejoicing. Many responsible offices are held by women in different localities. There are 1,400 postmistresses, some of them of first-class offices. The one in Richmond, Va., is considered a model office, held by Miss Rachel Van Lew.

Ten years ago a young girl sprang, like Minerva from the head of Jupiter, fully armed, into the moral and political arena, and has stirred the heart of the Nation as no other speaker ever did. Anna E. Dickinson has never feared to utter the boldest truths, has never shrunk from, or withheld the most scathing rebukes of sin in high places, has never faltered or failed in principle, and yet is to-day a far more popular lecturer than those who have pandered to a corrupt, vitiated public taste. Does this not prove that the deep heart of the people is better than it has the credit of being.

About the same time Theodore Tilton threw into the scale his brilliant and varied talents, and the Independent, of which he was editor, was found on the side of freedom for all. Judge Samuel E. Sewall, always on the right side in every good work, published, in 1868, a digest of the laws of Massachusetts in relation to woman's disabilities, which has done good work. Later, Prof. Hickox prepared one of like character for Connecticut, which is enough to rouse the women of that State to white heat.

Within the last two years of the second decade many new speakers have appeared on our platform. Standing first is Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, a woman of rare powers of oratory. Possessing a magnetism which grasps and holds her audience whether they will or no, she is a special pleader, and if her logic is not always perfect it is most effective, for she has the power of unlocking the hearts of her hearers. She has made within the last two years extensive lecturing tours in the North and West, and verging toward the South. Mrs. Julia Ward Howe came in November, 1868, and laid her rich gifts on the altar of freedom, and has often been heard in conventions, and twice or thrice before the Legislature of Massachusetts. Mrs. Isabella Beecher Hooker, from the family of ministers, also came about this time with her ready available talents. Phoebe Couzins and Lilie Peckham, alike generous, enthusiastic, cultured, and above all of high-toned principles, lead a strong band of young workers. Charlotte B. Wilbour, gifted in a high degree, calm in judgment and steady in purpose, is always a tower of strength. Celia Burleigh, graceful, poetic and earnest, is equally at home on the platform or in the drawing-room, and Lillie Devereux Blake is always ready with pen or voice. Myra Bradwell, with her legal knowledge, is another to be grateful for; and with pride the names of Elizabeth O. Willard, Catherine B. Waite, and Elizabeth Boynton are recorded as having given their rare gifts to this work. We gladly pay tribute to James W. Stillman, of Rhode Island, who has given most generously of time, money, and, above all, talents, to this cause, and that, at a time when ridicule and even the sacrifice of position followed. His logical argument on the inherent right of self-government has done great service.

Looking back over the names of our co-workers, those of Hannah Tracy Cutler, and Frances D. Gage, and Jane Elizabeth M. Jones are widely honored. Another of this class is Josephine S. Griffing, a woman of rare endowments intellectually, with a heart as true and gentle as God ever gave to woman. Modest, almost to a fault, she is the unseen power that moves the machinery in the very heart of the nation; asking no recognition, no applause, she works on with a steady, systematic, careful earnestness which commands the respect of the best and wisest.

Early among women journalists Mrs. Jane G. Swisshelm stands out conspicuously. The Pittsburg Saturday Visitor, which she edited for several years with marked ability, was the paper most often quoted, and made war upon by all opposers of progress. Mrs. C. I. H. Nichols also edited the Windham Co. Democrat, in Brattleboro, Vt., with much ability, and though less radical and aggressive than Mrs. Swisshelm's paper, it is to the seed sown by her head and hands that all the spirit of progress there is in that county is due.

There is yet one other name that well deserves not one page but many, for his good deeds and unselfish work. A man with a strong, vigorous mind, a quick conception of principles and perfectly fearless in his advocacy of them, holding always his personality so in reserve as sometimes to be overlooked among the many more assuming. Parker Pillsbury was for some time editor of the National Anti-Slavery Standard, and co-editor of the Revolution. His editorials have been marked by an almost prophetic spirit; and the profoundness of their thought will be more justly appreciated as there is a larger development and a higher demand for unqualified justice. The Hutchinson family were among our earliest workers, giving of time and money liberally without regard to party or sectionalism. Mr. John Hutchinson and family went through Kansas with the lecturing tourists, in 1867, and with their inspiring songs for freedom did much toward increasing the vote for woman suffrage. They still continue their work, penetrating into the most benighted regions, for freedom, temperance, peace, and the reign of righteousness; they are doing their quota in the world's great work.