lusion, a sophism in legislation is not a mere
abstraction; it must speedily bear fruit in material results of
the most disastrous nature, and I implore your honorable
committee, in behalf of our common country, not to open a
Pandora's box by way of experiment from whence so much evil must
issue, and which once opened may never again be closed.

Very respectfully,
MADELEINE VINTON DAHLGREN.

Mrs. Dahlgren was ably reviewed by Virginia L. Minor of St. Louis,
and the Toledo Woman Suffrage Association. Mrs. Minor said:

In assuming to speak for the "silent masses" of women, Mrs.
Dahlgren declares that silence does not give consent; very
inconsequently forgetting, that if it does not on one side of the
question, it may not on the other, and that she may no more
represent them than do we.

The Toledo society, through its president Mrs. Rose L. Segur, said:

We agree with you that this grave question is not one of
expediency. It is simply one of right and justice, and therefore
a most legitimate subject for agitation. As a moral force woman
must have a voice in the government, or partial and unjust
legislation is the result from which arise the evils consequent
upon a government based upon the enslavement of half its
citizens.

To this Mrs. Dahlgren replied briefly, charging the ladies with
incapacity to comprehend her.

The week following the convention a hearing was granted by the
House Judiciary Committee to Dr. Mary Walker of Washington, Mary A.
Tillotson of New Jersey and Mrs. N. Cromwell of Arkansas, urging a
report in favor of woman's enfranchisement. On January 28, the
House sub-committee on territories granted a hearing to Dr. Mary
Walker and Sara Andrews Spencer, in opposition to the bill
proposing the disfranchisement of the women of Utah as a means of
suppressing polygamy.

On January 30 the House Judiciary Committee granted Mrs. Hooker a
hearing. Of the eleven members of the committee nearly all were
present.[32] The room and all the corridors leading to it were
crowded with men and women eager to hear Mrs. Hooker's speech. At
the close of the two hours occupied in its delivery, Chairman Knott
thanked her in the name of the committee for her able argument.

Immediately after this hearing Mr. Frye of Maine, in presenting in
the House of Repres