woman suffrage from
1869 to 1914.

Mrs. Glendower Evans of Boston presided over the hearing for the
Congressional Union and introduced as the first speaker Mrs. Crystal
Eastman Benedict (N. Y.) who said in part:

When we go to the voters of a campaign State to ask them to vote
"yes" on a woman suffrage amendment, we go as petitioners with
smiles and arguments and unwearied patience. We tell them over
and over again the same well established truths; that it is the
essence of democracy that all classes of people should have the
power of protection in their own hands; that women are people and
that they have special interests which need representation in
politics; that where women have the right to vote they vote in
the same proportion as men; that on the whole their influence in
government has been decidedly good and absolutely no evils can be
traced to that influence. In short, we reason and plead with
them, try to touch their sense of honor, their sense of justice,
their reason, whatever noble human quality they possess.

That is one way of getting woman suffrage in the United States, a
long, laborious and very costly way. We have now achieved it in
nine States and are a political power, and the time has come for
us to compel this great reform by the simple, direct, American
method of amending the Federal Constitution. Our argument is not
one of justice or democracy or fair play--it is one of political
expediency. Our plea is simply that you look at the little
suffrage map. That triumphant, threatening army of white States
crowding rapidly eastward toward the center of population is the
sum and substance of our argument. It represents 4,000,000 women
voters. Do you want to put yourselves in the very delicate
position of going to those women next fall for endorsement and
re-election after having refused even to report a woman suffrage
amendment out of committee for discussion on the floor of the
House?

You might say, "Why do you select this Democratic administration
for your demand? This is the first time in eighteen years that
this party has been in control of the Government. We are doing
our best to give the people what they want; we are trying to live
up to our platform pledges; we think we are doing pretty well.
Why persist in embarrassing us w