r 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 dem