er politician like
her father, Mark Hanna, offered the following motion: "Since President
Wilson omitted all mention of woman suffrage in his Message yesterday,
and since he has announced that he will send several other messages to
Congress outlining the measures which the administration will support,
I move that this convention wait upon the President in order to lay
before him the importance of the woman suffrage question and urge him
to make it an administration measure and to send immediately to
Congress the recommendation that it proceed with this measure before
any other. I also move that a committee of two be appointed to make
the arrangements with the President." The motion was unanimously
carried and the Chair appointed Mrs. McCormick (Ills.) and Mrs.
Breckinridge (Ky.) to arrange for the interview and for a committee of
fifty-five, representing all the associations auxiliary to the
National, to wait upon the President at his pleasure. To finish the
story here--he expressed entire willingness to receive them but was
not well enough to do so during the convention. Nearly a hundred of
the delegates waited until the next Monday, December 8, when they met
in the rooms of their Congressional Committee, a few blocks from the
White House and marched two by two to the executive offices,
attracting much attention, as this was the first time a President had
ever received a woman suffrage delegation officially.[79] He met them
cordially and gave them as much time as they desired. Dr. Shaw spoke
as follows:

As president of the National Suffrage Association I have come
with this delegation, authorized by the association, to present
to you the object for which we are organized--to secure equal
suffrage for the women citizens of the United States. We have
made these pilgrimages to Washington for many, many years and
committees have received us with graciousness and have listened
to our arguments, but the difficulty is that they have not
permitted our claims to come before Congress, so that body itself
might act upon them. Our wish is that we may have a national
constitutional amendment, enfranchising the women citizens and
preventing the States from depriving them of representation in
the Government. Since the Judiciary Committee has not reported
our measure for many years and has not given the House an
opportunity to discuss it we have asked that a speci