Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 3.djvu/242

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
208
History of Woman Suffrage.

where they can be heard, and that that committee may be so organized as that it will be as favorable to their views as possible, so that they may have a fair hearing. That is all I desire to say.

Mr. Morril: I hope this subject will be concluded this morning, otherwise it is to come up constantly and monopolize all the time of the morning hour. I do not think it will require many minutes more to dispose of it now.

The The President pro tempore: The Chair will entertain a motion on that subject.

Mr. Morrill: I move to set aside other business until this resolution shall be disposed of. If it should continue any length of time of course I would withdraw the suggestion.

The President pro tempore: The senator from Vermont——

Mr. Voorhees: Mr. President, I feel constrained to call for the regular order.

December 19, 1881.

The President pro tempore: Are there further "concurrent or other resolutions"?

Mr. Hoar: I call up the resolution in regard to woman suffrage, reported by me from the Committee on Rules.

Mr. Jones of Florida: I ask for information how long the morning hour is to extend?

The President pro tempore: The regular business of the morning hour is closed. The morning hour, however, will not expire until twenty minutes past one. The senator from Massachusetts asks to have taken up the resolution reported by him from the Committee on Rules.

Mr. Hoar: I hope we may have a vote on the resolution this morning.

The President pro tempore: The question is on the amendment proposed by the senator from Delaware [Mr. Bayard], that the subject be referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Mr. Hoar: It is not intended by the resolution to commit the Senate, or any senator in the slightest degree to any opinion upon the question of woman suffrage, but it is merely the question of a convenient mode of hearing. I hope we shall be allowed to have a vote on the resolution.

The President pro tempore: Is the Senate ready for the question on the motion of the senator from Delaware?

Mr. Bayard and Mr. Farley called for the yeas and nays, and they were ordered.

Mr. Beck: Mr. President, I have received a number of communications from very respectable ladies in my own State upon this important question; but I am unable to comply with their request and support the female suffrage which they advocate. I shall vote for the reference to the Committee on the Judiciary in order that there may be a thorough investigation of the question. I wholly disagree with the suggestion of the senator from Illinois [Mr. Logan], that a committee ought to be appointed as favorable to the views of these ladies as possible. I desire a committee that will have no views, for or against them, except what is best for the public good. Such a committee I understand the Committee on the Judiciary to be.