e close of the evening, which were supplemented with remarks
by Senator Joseph M. Carey (Wy.), Representatives J. A. Pickler (S.
D.), Martin N. Johnson (N. D.) and the Rev. Dr. Corey of the
Metropolitan church.

The hearing on January 17 was held for the first time before a
Judiciary Committee of the House, the majority of which was
Democratic.[85] The Washington _Star_ said: "The new members of the
committee were apparently surprised at receiving such a talk from a
woman and there was the most marked attention on the part of every one
present. Their surprise was still greater when they found that Mrs.
Stanton was not a phenomenal exception, but that every woman there
could make an argument which would do credit to the best of public
men."

The hearing before the Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage was held the
morning of February 20. Four of the greatest women this nation ever
produced addressed this committee, asking for themselves and their sex
a privilege which is freely granted without the asking to every man,
no matter how humble, how ignorant, how unworthy, who is not included
within the category of the insane, the idiotic, the convicted
criminal--Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone,
Isabella Beecher Hooker. Mrs. Stanton (N. Y.) gave her address, The
Solitude of Self, in place of the old arguments so many times
repeated, saying in part:

The point I wish plainly to bring before you on this occasion is
the individuality of each human soul--our Protestant idea, the
right of individual conscience and judgment--our republican idea,
individual citizenship. In discussing the rights of woman, we are
to consider, first, what belongs to her as an individual, in a
world of her own, the arbiter of her own destiny, an imaginary
Robinson Crusoe with her woman Friday on a solitary island. Her
rights under such circumstances are to use all her faculties for
her own safety and happiness.

Secondly, if we consider her as a citizen, as a member of a
great nation, she must have the same rights as all other
members, according to the fundamental principles of our
Government.

Thirdly, viewed as a woman, an equal factor in civilization, her
rights and duties are still the same--individual happiness and
development.

Fourthly, it is only the incidental relations of life, such as
mother, wife, sister, daughter, which may in