as colleagues some of the matrons
of this Republic whose names are now being daily signed to this
new declaration of fealty to human rights, we have confident
assurance that you will cheerfully work hand in hand with them,
according to the tenor of their pledge to work with you for the
maintenance of those equal rights on which our Republic was
originally founded, to the end that it may have what is declared
to be the first condition of just government--the consent of the
governed.

Mr. JULIAN responded:--I thank you, Mrs. Hooker, and the
committee you represent, for your words of cordial approbation.
Such a testimony will go far to redeem the ordinary drudgery and
dreariness of public life, and I shall ever cherish it with real
satisfaction and pride. I ought to say, however, that in
performing the acts so handsomely commended by you I did nothing
but my simple duty. Indeed, constituted as I am, and believing as
I do, it was morally impossible for me to do otherwise. Having
espoused the cause of woman's enfranchisement more than twenty
years ago, when it was first launched in the United States, and
having labored so long and so earnestly for the enfranchisement
of the male citizens of our country, irrespective of color or
race, it would have been grossly inconsistent in me, not to say
recreant and mean, to shrink from the duties for which you
compliment me when invited to their performance.

You are pleased to express the hope that some of the retiring
members of the XLI. Congress may hereafter be returned to the
places they have filled. For myself, I am weary of the service
in which I have toiled for so many years, and I welcome a season
of rest, or at least a change of labor. But when your hope goes
farther, and points to our return here by the votes of
enfranchised women, and our welcome from a sisterhood of
co-representatives in the halls of Congress, I confess the
prophecy is so pleasing and the picture seems so tempting that
its realization would completely reconcile me to my restored
place in the House of Representatives, or even to a seat in that
smaller body at the other end of the Capitol. And I am not
lacking in the spirit of good courage and hope which animates
you. These are revolutionary times. Whole years of progress are