ective committees, offered us the use of their several rooms,
in case the threats of a certain gentleman in the House should so
terrify you, sir, that you should feel compelled to withdraw your
most friendly offer. We have accepted the use of the
Committee-room on Agriculture, leaving you, sir, with reluctance,
simply because it is larger and more accessible than your room,
and one so beautifully adorned by art, that our womanly tastes
are daily gratified in its use.

To you, Mr. Loughridge, as the author of the minority report of
the Judiciary Committee on the Woodhull Memorial, and to General
Butler, your faithful colleague, we owe that most luminous
statement of the historic position of woman, her natural, civil,
and constitutional rights, and the best method of enforcing these
in the interest of the women citizens of the United States. For
that report, sir, we thank you from the depth of our hearts. We
claim it as our bill of rights. On that line we also fight, not
with weapons of steel, but with pen and voice and silent prayer;
and when at last the solemn responsibilities of citizenship shall
have been laid upon us by the men of this great nation, and
together we shall strive to bring justice and equality into
legislation and administration, we shall not forget to whom we
owe this first judicial protest in these halls against
traditional misrepresentations of the constitutional rights of
women citizens of the Republic.

And, gentlemen, permit us to congratulate you all, that having
secured equal rights to all men in these United States by your
vote, and having welcomed the proscribed black man to a seat by
your side in halls of legislation, you are now turning your
attention to the women of the United States, with a firm
resolution that they shall no longer be denied the rights nor
excused from the responsibilities of a full citizenship.

Permit us to express the hope that in coming years you may be
returned to this Capitol by the votes of grateful women citizens,
enfranchised through your instrumentality; and should you be
called to take upper seats here in remembrance of faithful
service during this session, we shall congratulate not only
ourselves but our common and well-beloved country; and if,
gentlemen, you should find here