ward Shaw, Mrs. Sallie Clay
Bennett, Mrs. Virginia L. Minor and Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby.

Later in the session Senator Henry W. Blair (N. H.) presented the
majority report of the Committee (No. 1576), the usual strong,
dignified statement. It closed as follows: "To deny the submission of
this joint resolution to the action of the Legislatures of the States
is analogous to the denial of the right of justice in the courts. It
is to say that no plaintiff shall bring his suit; no claimant of
justice shall be heard; and whatever may be the result to the friends
of woman suffrage when they reach the Legislatures of the States, it
is, in our belief, the duty of Congress to submit the joint resolution
and give them the opportunity to try their case."

Mrs. Stanton presented the same address before the House Judiciary
Committee, February 11, with the result that for the first time in
history a majority House report in favor of a Sixteenth Amendment was
submitted. It was presented by Lucien B. Caswell (Wis.) and said in
conclusion: "The disfranchisement of twelve millions of people, who
are citizens of the United States, should command from us an immediate
action. Since the women of this country are unjustly deprived of a
right so essential to complete citizenship in a republic as the
elective franchise, common justice requires that we should submit the
proposition for a change in the fundamental law to the State
Legislatures, where the correction can be made."[77]

The fiftieth birthday of Susan B. Anthony had been celebrated in New
York City in 1870 by a large number of prominent men and women, the
first instance of the kind on record. It had been decided by her
friends that her seventieth birthday should receive a similar
recognition, but that it should be more national in character. The
arrangements were made by Mrs. May Wright Sewall and Mrs. Rachel
Foster Avery, and on the evening of February 15 a distinguished
company of two hundred sat around the banquet tables in the great
dining-room of the Riggs House. Miss Anthony occupied the place of
honor, on her right Senator Blair and Mrs. Stanton, on her left Robert
Purvis, Mrs. Isabella Beecher Hooker and Mrs. Sewall, who presided. In
addition to the after-dinner speeches of these distinguished guests
there were clever and sparkling responses to toasts by the Rev. Anna
Howard Shaw, Mrs. Matilda Joslyn Gage, Miss Phoebe W. Couzins, the
Rev. Frederick A. Hinckley, Representati