lf, he would have made a
perfectly logical and clear statement. Gentlemen, I hope that
hereafter, when speaking or voting in behalf of the citizens of
the United States, you will bear this in mind and will remember
that women are citizens as well as men, and that they claim the
same rights.

This question of woman suffrage cannot much longer be ignored. In
the State from which I come, although we have not a right to
vote, we are confident that the influence which women brought to
bear in determining the result of the election last fall had
something to do with sending into retirement a Democratic
governor who was opposed to our reform, and electing a
Republican who was in favor of it. Recollect, gentlemen, that the
expenditure of time and money which has been made in this cause
will not be without its effect. The time is coming when the
demand of an immense number of the women of this country cannot
be ignored. When you see these representatives coming from all
the States of the Union to ask for this right, can you doubt
that, some day, they will succeed in their mission? We do not
stand before you to plead as beggars; we ask for that which is
our right. We ask it as due to the memory of our ancestors, who
fought for the freedom of this country just as bravely as did
yours. We ask it on many considerations. Why, gentlemen, the very
furniture here, the carpet on this floor, was paid for with our
money. We are taxed equally with the men to defray the expenses
of this congress, and we have a right equally with them to
participate in the government.

In closing, I have only to ask, is there no man here present who
appreciates the emergencies of this hour? Is there no one among
you who will rise on the floor of congress as the champion of
this unrepresented half of the people of the United States? The
time is not far distant when we shall have our liberties, and the
politician who can now understand the importance of our cause,
the statesman who can now see, and will now appreciate the
justice of it, that man, if true to himself, will write his name
high on the scroll of fame beside those of the men who have been
the saviors of the country. Gentlemen I entreat you not to let
this hearing go by without giving due weight to all that we have