ery respectfully, LYMAN TRUMBULL,
_Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary._

MRS. ISABELLA BEECHER HOOKER.

Accordingly the hearing being granted, at the appointed hour the whole
convention adjourned to the Capitol, crowding not only the committee
room but the corridors, thousands of eager, expectant women struggling
to gain admission. The committee,[148] seated round a large table,
manifested a respectful attention to each speaker in turn,
complimenting them warmly at the close.

MRS. HOOKER said: _Gentlemen of the Judiciary Committee_--In
accordance with your courteous invitation of the 10th, I have the
honor to present to you an argument upon the question: Are women
entitled to vote under the United States Constitution, as
amended? It is not important to inquire what was the status of
woman before the adoption of the XIV. Amendment. By that
amendment they are clearly made citizens. No one denies this. The
first section of the amendment is as follows:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and
subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the
United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State
shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.

The whole question is, what is the meaning of the term "citizen"
as here used. The term is familiar to law and politics, and the
authorities are very numerous and uncontradicted which make
citizenship include the right to vote. These authorities consist
of lexicographers, English and American, and legal and political
writers. It is said, however, that to give the term a meaning by
which women become voters under it is contrary to the actual
intent of Congress and the State Legislatures in passing the
amendment, as, unquestionably, the legislators who voted for it
had personally (with, perhaps, a few exceptions) no thought of
enfranchising women.

To this it is replied: 1. That the question is not whether they
thought of enfranchising women, but whether they used the term as
a term of enfranchisement at all; for if it would have
enfranchised black men, it would have equally enfranchised women,
and unquestionably the predominant idea in these legislators was
a politi