o struggle in the world's affairs. I
thank you in the name of our association for your kindness in
listening to us. There will never be laid before you a claim more
just--one more in accord with the fundamental principles of our
national life.

No one can read the arguments for the enfranchisement of women as
presented before these two committees without a profound conviction of
the justice of their cause and the imperative duty of those before
whom they pleaded it to report in favor of submitting the desired
amendment. This report would simply have placed the matter before the
respective Houses of Congress. But neither committee took any action
whatever and as far as practical results were concerned these eloquent
pleas fell upon deaf ears and hardened hearts.

A unique feature was added to the hearings this year because, for the
first time, the advocates of woman suffrage were opposed before the
committees by a class of women calling themselves "remonstrants." The
_Woman's Journal_ said:

About a dozen women from New York and Massachusetts, with one
from Delaware, came to Washington and made public speeches before
Congressional Committees to prove that a woman's place is at
home. They said they were led to take this action by their alarm
at the activity of the National-American W. S. A.

The party of "antis" who came to the Senate hearing in the Marble
Room would not have been able to get in but for Miss Anthony. As
this room accommodates only about sixty persons, admission was by
tickets, and these had been issued to delegates only. The
"antis," having no tickets, were turned away; but Miss Anthony,
learning who they were, persuaded the doorkeeper to admit them,
introduced them herself to the chairman of the committee, and
placed them in good seats near the front, where they certainly
heard more about the facts of equal suffrage than they ever did
before.[129]

Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge and Miss Bissell addressed the Senate
Committee on Woman Suffrage, and Mr. Thomas Russell, Mrs. A. J.
George, Miss Emily Bissell and Mrs. Rossiter Johnson addressed
the House Judiciary Committee. In each case they secured the last
word, to which they were not entitled either by equity or custom,
by asking to speak at the conclusion of the suffrage hearing. It
was trying to have to listen to egregious misst