entatives the petitions of 30,000 persons asking
the right of women to vote upon the question of temperance,
referred in a very complimentary manner to Mrs. Hooker's argument,
to which he had just listened. Upon this prayer a hearing was
granted to the president and ex-president of the Woman's Christian
Temperance Union, Frances E. Willard and Annie E. Wittenmyer.

Hon. George F. Hoar of Massachusetts, February 4, presented in the
Senate the 120 petitions with their 6,261 signatures, which, by
special request of its officers, had been returned to the
headquarters of the American Association, in Boston. In her appeal
to the friends to circulate the petitions, both State and national,
Lucy Stone, chairman of its executive committee, said:

The American Suffrage Association has always recommended
petitions to congress for a sixteenth amendment. But it
recognizes the far greater importance of petitioning the State
legislatures. _First_--Because suffrage is a subject referred by
the constitution to the voters of each State. _Second_--Because
we cannot expect a congress composed solely of representatives of
States which deny suffrage to women, to submit an amendment which
their own States have not yet approved. Just so it would have
been impossible to secure the submission of negro suffrage by a
congress composed solely of representatives from States which
restricted suffrage to white men. While therefore we advise our
friends to circulate both petitions together for signature, we
urge them to give special prominence to those which apply to
their own State legislatures, and to see that these are presented
and urged by competent speakers next winter.

By request of a large number of the senators,[33] the Committee on
Privileges and Elections granted a special hearing to Mrs. Hooker
on Washington's birthday--February 22, 1878. It being understood
that the wives of the senators were bringing all the forces of
fashionable society to bear in aid of Mrs. Dahlgren's protest
against the pending sixteenth amendment, the officers of the
National Association issued cards of invitation asking their
presence at this hearing. We copy from the Washington _Post_:

The conflicting rumors as to who would be admitted to hear Mrs.
Hooker's argument before the Senate Committee on Privileges and
Elections, led to the assembling of large numbers of women i