Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 2.djvu/452

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436
History of Woman Suffrage.
436

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[1] of the cause—both men and women—will

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  1. Rev. Olympia Brown, Connecticut; E. H. Heywood and Jennie Collins, Massachusetts; M. Adele Hazlitt, Michigan; Mrs. Francis Minor and Phoebe Couzins, Missouri; Hon. Henry B. Stanton; Judge Barlow, Canastota; Josephine S. Griffing, Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford, Lizzie M. Boynton, Maud D. Molson, Susan B. Anthony, Gen. E. M. Lee, Act Gov. Wyoming; Hon. A. G. Riddle, Washington; Hon. Jas. W. Stillman, Rhode Island; Col. R. G. Ingersoll, Illinois; Hon. J. M. Scovill, New Jersey; Dr. James C. Jackson, New York; Mrs. Louisa H. Dent, New York; Lillie Peckham, Wisconsin; Mrs. M. E. J. Gage, New York; Mrs. Dr. S. Hathaway, Boston; and S. D. Dillaye, Syracuse.