are proud to believe that

"Woman's noblest station is retreat:
Her fairest virtues fly from public sight;
Domestic worth--that shuns too strong a light.

"Before that Committee on Revolutionary Claims why could not this
most revolutionary of all claims receive immediate and ample
attention? More than that, as I said before, if there is any
tribunal that could give undivided time and dignified attention, is
it not this committee? If there is one peaceful haven of rest,
never disturbed by any profane bill or resolution of any sort, it
is the Committee on Revolutionary Claims. It is, in parliamentary
life, described by that ecstatic verse in Watts'
hymn--

"There shall I bathe my wearied soul
In seas of endless rest.
And not one wave of trouble roll
Across my peaceful breast.

"By all natural laws, stagnation breeds disease and death, and what
could stir up this most venerable and respectable institution more
than an application of the strong-minded, with short hair and
shorter skirts, invading its dignified realm and elucidating all
the excellences of female suffrage. Moreover, if these ladies could
ever succeed in the providence of God in obtaining a report from
that committee, it would end this question forever; for the public
at large and myself included, in view of that miracle of female
blandishment and female influence, would surrender at once, and
female suffrage would become constitutional and lawful. Sir, I
insist upon it that, in deference to this committee, in deference
to the fact that it needs this sort of regimen and medicine, this
whole subject should be so referred."

This gives a very fair idea of the character of the arguments produced
by our opponents, from the inauguration of the movement. But, as there
are no arguments in a republican government in favor of an aristocracy
of sex, ridicule was really the only available weapon. After declaring
"that no just government can be formed without the consent of the
governed," "that taxation without representation is tyranny," it is
difficult to see on what basis one-half the people are disfranchised.

CHAPTER XX.

WRITING "THE HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE."

The four years following the Centennial were busy, happy ones, of varied
interests and employments, public and private. Sons and daughters
graduatin