be granted
and the whole right established; but now it seems that he wishes
to create a perpetual committee, so that it is to go on
interminably, from which I infer that he intends that never shall
these prayers be granted. I suggest to the senator from Indiana
that, if he be in earnest, if he wishes to crown with success
this great and beneficent movement, he should raise a special
committee, which committee would understand that it was to
achieve and conclude its purpose, and this presently, and not
postpone indefinitely in the vast forever the realization of this
hope. I trust, therefore, that the senator from Indiana will make
this a special committee, and will let that special committee
understand that before the sun goes down on the last day of this
session it is to take final, serious, intelligent action, for
which it is to be responsible, whether that action be one way or
the other.[76]

Mr. MCDONALD: The senator from New York misapprehends one purpose
of this committee. I certainly have no desire that the rights of
this class of our citizens should be deferred to that far-distant
future to which he has made reference, nor would this committee
so place them. If it be authorized by the Senate, it will be the
duty of the committee to receive all petitions, memorials,
resolutions and bills relating to the rights of women, not merely
presented now but those presented at any future time. It is
simply to provide a place where one-half the people of the United
States may have a tribunal in this body before which they can
have their cases considered. I apprehend that these rights are
never to be ended. I do not suppose that the time will ever come
in the history of the human race when there will not be rights of
women to be considered and passed upon. Therefore, to make this
merely a special committee would not accomplish the purpose I had
in view. While it would of course give a committee that would
receive and hear such petitions as are now presented and consider
such bills as should now be brought forward, it would be better
to have a committee from term to term, where these same plaints
could be heard, the same petitions presented, the same bills
considered, and where new rights, whatever they might be, can be
discussed and acted upo