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 o