presentatives of
15,000,000 women--American citizens--who already possess every
_attainable_ qualification for the ballot. Women read and write,
hold many offices under government, pay taxes, and the penalties
of crime, and yet are allowed to exercise but the one right of
petition.

For twenty years we have labored to bring the statute laws of the
several States into harmony with the broad principles of the
Constitution, and have been so far successful that in many,
little remains to be done but to secure the right of suffrage.
Hence, our prompt protest against the propositions before
Congress to introduce the word "male" into the Federal
Constitution, which, if successful, would block all State action
in giving the ballot to woman. As the only way disfranchised
citizens can appear before you, we availed ourselves of the
sacred right of petition. And, as our representatives, it was
your duty to give those petitions a respectful reading and a
serious consideration. How well a Republican Senate performed
that duty, is already inscribed on the page of history. Some tell
us it is not judicious to press the claims of women _now_; that
this is not the time. Time? When you propose legislation so fatal
to the best interests of woman and the nation, shall we be silent
till the deed is done? No! As we love republican ideas, we must
resist tyranny. As we honor the position of American Senator, we
must appeal from the politician to the man.

With man, woman shared the dangers of the Mayflower on a stormy
sea, the dreary landing on Plymouth Rock, the rigors of a New
England winter, and the privations of a seven years' war. With
him she bravely threw off the British yoke, felt every pulsation
of his heart for freedom, and inspired the glowing eloquence that
maintained it through the century. With you, we have just passed
through the agony and death, the resurrection and triumph, of
another revolution, doing all in our power to mitigate its
horrors and gild its glories. And now, think you we have no souls
to fire, no brains to weigh your arguments; that, after
education such as this, we can stand silent witnesses while you
sell our birthright of liberty, to save from a timely death an
effete political organization? No, as we respect womanhood, we