Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 4.djvu/507

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SUFFRAGE WORK IN CONVENTIONS.
443

ever may be regarded as the correct basis of suffrage—character, education, property, or the inherent right of the person who is subject to law and taxation—women possess all the qualifications required of men.

At this dawn of a new century are not the sons of the Revolutionary Fathers sufficiently progressive to remove the barriers which for more than a hundred years have prevented women from exercising this citizen's right? We appeal to this great national delegate body, representing the men of every State, gathered to outline the policy and select the head of the Government for the next four years, to adopt in your platform a declaration approving the submission by Congress of an amendment enfranchising women. We urge this action in order that the question shall be carried to the various Legislatures, where women may present their arguments before the representative men, instead of being compelled to plead their cause before each individual voter of the forty-one States where they are still disfranchised.

We make this earnest appeal on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of women who, from year to year, have petitioned Congress to take the action necessary for their enfranchisement; and of those millions who are so engrossed in the struggle for daily bread, or in the manifold duties of the home, that they are compelled to leave this task to others. We make it also on behalf of the generations yet to come, for there will be no cessation of this demand until this highest privilege of citizenship has been accorded to women.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton Honorary Presidents.
Susan B. Anthony,
Carrie Chapman Catt President.
Harriet Taylor Upton, Anna Howarp Shaw,
Treasurer. Vice-President-at-Large.
Laura Cray, Rachel Foster Avery,
First Auditor. Corresponding Secretary.
Catharine Waugh Mcculloch, Alice Stone Blackwell,
Second Auditor. Recording Secretary.
Headquarters, National-American Woman Suffrage Association,
2008 American Tract Society Building,
New York City.

Four women were permitted to appear before a sub-committee of the Committee on Platform at the Republican National Convention at Philadelphia, in 1900. They met with a polite but chilly reception and were informed that they could have ten minutes to present their case. This time was occupied by the president and the vice-president-at-large in concise but forcible arguments on the duty of the party to recognize their claim