Woodhull Memorial." As our demands are based on the same
principles of constitutional interpretation, I will not detain
you with the re-statement of arguments already furnished, but
will present a few facts and general principals showing the need
of some speedy action on this whole question.

Gentlemen hold seats in Congress to-day by the votes of women.
The legality of the election of Mr. Garfield, of Washington
Territory, and Mr. Jones, of Wyoming, involves the question
whether or not their constituents are legal voters. Ultimately,
this question, involving the fundamental rights of citizens, must
be considered in the Senate as well as the House. Women have
voted in the general elections in several of the States, and if
legislators chosen by women choose Senators, their right to their
seats can not be decided until it is first decided whether women
are legal voters. Some speedy action on this question is
inevitable, to preserve law and order.

In some States women have already voted; in others they are
contesting their rights in the courts, and the decisions of
judges differ as widely as the capacities of men to see first
principles.

Judge Howe, Judge Cartter, and Judge Underwood have given their
written opinions in favor of woman's citizenship under the XIV.
and XV. Amendments. Even the majority report of the Judiciary
Committee, presented by John A. Bingham, though adverse to the
prayer of Victoria Woodhull, admits the citizenship of woman. In
the late cases of Sarah Spencer against the Board of
Registration, and Sarah E. Webster against the superintendent of
election, the judge decided that under the XIV. Amendment women
are citizens.

We do not ask to vote outside of law, or in open violation of it,
nor to avail ourselves of any strained interpretations of
constitutional provisions, but in harmony with the Federal
Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and our American
theory of just government. The women of this country and a
handful of foreign citizens in Rhode Island, the only
disfranchised classes, ask you to-day to secure to them a
republican form of government to protect them against the
oppression of State authorities, who, in violation of your
amendments, assume the right not merely to regulate the suffrag