In 1856 there was an able minority report published,
from C. L. Sholes, of the Committee on Expiration and Reenactment
of Laws, to whom were referred sundry petitions praying that
steps might be taken to confer upon women the right of suffrage.
In 1857, there was another favorable minority report by Judge
David Noggle, and J. T. Mills. It has been twice considered by
the legislatures of 1868-69, and 1880-81, failing each time by a
small majority. A constitutional amendment is supposed by some to
be necessary to effect this needed reform, but the legislature is
competent to pass a bill declaring women possessed of the right
to vote, without any constitutional amendment. The legislature of
New York all through the century has extended the right of
suffrage to certain classes and deprived others of its exercise,
without changing the constitution. The power of the legislature
which represents the people is anterior to the constitution, as
the people through their representatives make the constitution.

The women, both German and American, awoke to action and
organized a local suffrage society at Janesville in 1868. _The
Revolution_ said:

From the report of a recent convention held in Janesville,
we find the leading men and women of that city have formed
an Impartial Suffrage organization, and are resolved to make
all their citizens equal before the law. Able addresses were
made by the Rev. S. Farrington, Rev. Sumner Ellis, and a
stirring appeal issued to the people of the State, signed by
Hon. J. T. Dow, G. B. Hickox, Mrs. J. H. Stillman, Joseph
Baker and Mrs. F. Harris Reed. Mrs. Paulina J. Roberts of
Racine, a practical farmer in a very large sense, delivered
an address which was justly complimented.

The first popular convention held in Wisconsin, with national
speakers, convened in Milwaukee February 15, 16, 1869.[422] The
bill then pending in the legislature to submit the question of
woman suffrage to the electors of the State added interest to
this occasion. Parker Pillsbury, in _The Revolution_, said:

The Wisconsin convention seems to have been quite equal in
all respects to its predecessors at Chicago and other
places. Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony were accompanied to