said. You can no more stay the onward current of this reform than
you can fight against the stars in their courses.

Mr. WILLITS of Michigan: _Mr. Chairman_: I would like to make a
suggestion here. The regulation amendment, as it has heretofore
been submitted, provided that the right of citizens of the United
States to vote should not be abridged on account of sex. I notice
that the amendment which the ladies here now propose has prefixed
to it this phrase: "The right of suffrage in the United States
shall be based on citizenship." I call attention to this because
I would like to have them explain as fully as they may why they
incorporate the phrase, "shall be based on citizenship." Is the
meaning this, that all citizens shall have the right to vote, or
simply that citizenship shall be the basis of suffrage? The
words, "or for any reason not applicable to all citizens of the
United States," also seem to require explanation. The proposition
in the form in which it is now submitted, I understand, covers a
little more than has been covered by the amendment submitted in
previous years.

SARA A. SPENCER of Washington, D. C.: If the committee will
permit me, I will say that the amendment in its present form is
the concentrated wish of the women of the United States. The
women of the country sent to congress petitions asking for three
different forms of constitutional amendment, and when preparing
the one now before the committee these three were concentrated in
the one now before you (identical with that of the resolution
offered in the House by Hon. George B. Loring and by Hon. T. W.
Ferry in the Senate), omitting, at the request of each of the
three classes of petitioners, all phrases which were regarded by
any of them as objectionable. The amendment as now presented is
therefore the combined wish of the women of the country, viz.,
that citizenship in the United States shall mean suffrage, and
that no one shall be deprived of the right to vote for reasons
not equally applicable to all citizens.

MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE said: It is necessary to refer to a
remarkable decision of the Supreme Court. The case of Virginia L.
Minor, claiming the right to vote under the fourteenth amendment,
was argued before the Supreme Court of the United States, Octo