e is one peaceful haven of rest,
never disturbed by any profane bill or resolution of any sort, it
is the Committee on Revolutionary Claims. It is, in parliamentary
life, described by that ecstatic verse in Watts' hymn:

There shall I bathe my wearied soul
In seas of endless rest,
And not one wave of trouble roll
Across my peaceful breast.

For thirty years there has been no excitement in that committee,
and it needs to-day, in Western phrase, some "stirring-up." By
all natural laws stagnation breeds disease and death; and what
could stir up this most venerable and respectable institution
more than an application of the strong-minded, with short hair
and shorter skirts, invading its dignified realm and elucidating
all the excellences of female suffrage? Moreover, if these ladies
could ever succeed, in the providence of God, in obtaining a
report from that committee, it would end this question forever;
for the public at large and myself included, in view of that
miracle of female blandishment and female influence, would
surrender at once, and female suffrage would become
constitutional and lawful. Sir, I insist upon it that in
deference to this committee, in deference to the fact that it
needs this sort of regimen and medicine, this whole subject
should be so referred. [Laughter.]

Mr. MORRILL: Mr. President, I do not desire to say anything as to
the merits of the resolution, but I understand the sole purpose
of raising this committee is to have a committee-room. So far as
I know, there are some five or six committees now which are
destitute of rooms, and it would be impossible for the Committee
on Public Buildings and Grounds to assign any room to this
committee--the object which I understand is at the foundation of
the introduction of the proposition; that is to say, to give
these ladies an opportunity to be heard in some appropriate
committee-room on the questions which they wish to agitate and
submit.

Mr. HOAR: They would find room in some other committee-room. They
could have the room of the Committee on Privileges and Elections,
if there were no other place.

The PRESIDENT _pro tempore_: The question is on the adoption of
the resolution reported by the senator from Massachusetts.

Mr.