ugo to preside over its deliberations, though at last
prevented by illness; and the fact that the Italian government sent
Mlle. Mozzoni as an official delegate to the congress to study the
civil position of woman in various countries, in order that an
ameliorating change of its code, in respect to woman, could be
wisely made.

The newspapers of the French capital in general treated the
congress with respect. The _Rappel_, Victor Hugo's organ, spoke of
it in a most complimentary manner. Theodore Stanton, in a letter to
the _National Citizen_, said:

In one important respect this congress differed entirely from an
American convention of like character--it made no demand for
suffrage. The word was never mentioned except by the American
delegates. In continental Europe the idea of demanding for woman
a share in the government, is never considered. This is the more
remarkable in France, as this claim was made at the time of the
revolution. But every imaginable side of the question was
discussed, except the side that comprehends all the others. To an
American, therefore, European woman's rights is rather tame; it
is like the play of Hamlet with Hamlet left out. But Europe is
moving, and the next international congress will, undoubtedly,
give more attention to suffrage and less to hygiene.

The Eleventh Washington Convention was held January 9, 10, 1879.
The resolutions give an idea of the status of the question, and the
wide range of discussion covered by the speakers:[45]

_Resolved_, That the forty-fifth congress, in ignoring the
individual petitions of more than three hundred women of high
social standing and culture, asking for the removal of their
political disabilities, while promptly enacting special
legislation for the removal of the political disabilities of
every man who petitioned, furnishes an illustration of the
indifference of this congress to the rights of citizens deprived
of political power.

WHEREAS, Senator Blaine says, it is the very essence of tyranny
to count any citizens in the basis of representation who are
denied a voice in their laws and a choice in their rulers;
therefore,

_Resolved_, That counting women in the basis of representation,
while denying them the right of suffrage, is compelling them to
swell the number of their tyrants and is an unwarrantable