itself.

You sit here, gentlemen, in judgment on my rights as an American
citizen, as though they were something different from your own!
By whatsoever title you sit in these seats and make laws, wise or
unwise, just or unjust, for this great people, by that same title
do I claim my share in this great responsibility, owing
allegiance to God and my own conscience alone. I may have been
born with less capacity than the least among you, with small
chance of growing to your mental stature, or reaching your
standard of moral elevation; but I have a perfect right to sit in
your midst, pigmy that I may be, since I am one of "the people"
who did ordain this glorious old Constitution, and one of "the
governed," whose consent is made the basis of a government that
can be called just.

It is for this reason that I and my fellow memorialists have
asked to be protected in the use of our present rights, rather
than endowed with any new ones; and we do pray you, gentlemen of
the committee, to give immediate attention to our claim, and to
report to the Senate within a short time, favorably if you can,
adversely if you must, because we not only wish, in common with
thousands of other women-citizens, to vote for the next
President, but to have a potent voice in his nomination, and we
wish to know, therefore, how far Congress will aid us, and how
far we must work out our own salvation. For we can wait no
longer. We feel that we have neglected our duty already, else
what means this appalling official corruption that is bringing
dismay to the stoutest hearts among men, and leading them to
doubt the wisdom of republican institutions, the strength of the
great doctrines of liberty and responsibility on which our
Government is founded? We do not doubt these great doctrines, we
know what they mean and whereto they tend. Our Ship of State
carries two engines, gentlemen, and was built for them, but
heretofore you have used only one, and now you have reached the
place where not only two seas meet, but all ocean currents are
struggling together for the mastery. The man power alone will not
save you, but put on the woman power, and our gallant ship will
steady itself for a moment, and then ride the waves triumphantly
forevermore.

Gentlemen, we come to you