t
committee. It may be only a proof that women's rights are not
unrecognized nor their influence unfelt when I state the fact
that if there be such a rule as is suggested by the honorable
senator from Massachusetts of excluding persons from the audience
of that committee, on the occasion of the application of the
ladies a hearing was granted, and they came in force,--not only
force in numbers, but force in the character and intelligence of
those who appeared before the committee. They were listened to
with great respect, but their views were not concurred in by the
committee as it was then composed. We were all entertained by the
bright wit, the clever and, in my judgment, in many respects, the
just sarcasm of our honorable friend from Missouri [Mr. Vest],
but my habit is not to consider public measures in a jocular
light; it is not to consider a question of this kind in a jocular
light. Whatever may be the merits or demerits of this
proposition, whatever may be the reasons for or against it, no
man can doubt that it will strike at the very roots of the
present organization of society, and that its consequences will
be most profound and far-reaching should the advocates of the
measure proposed prevail.

Therefore it is that I think this subject should not be
considered separately; it should not have a special
committee--either of advocates or opponents arranged for its
consideration; but it should go where proposed amendments to the
fundamental law of the land have always been sent for
consideration,--to that committee to which judicial questions,
questions of a constitutional nature, have always in the history
of this government been committed. There is no need, there is no
justice, there is no wisdom in attempting to separate the fate of
this question, which affects society so profoundly and generally,
from the other questions that affect society. It cannot be made a
specialty: it ought not to be. You cannot tear this question from
the great contest of human passions, affections, and interests
which surround it, and treat it as a thing by itself. It has many
sides from which it may be viewed, some that are not proper or
fitting for this forum, and a discussion now in public. There are
the claims of religion itself to be considered in c