ampaign work.

[85] A portion of this report is in the chapter on the Federal
Suffrage Amendment.

[86] The Federal Suffrage Amendment had been thoroughly debated and
voted on in the Senate in 1887; the question of woman suffrage itself
discussed in 1866, 1881-3-4-5-6 in the Senate; at great length in the
Lower House in 1883 and 1890 and briefly in both houses at other
times.

[87] Instead of seven or eight amendments there was only one and never
had been but one--the old, original amendment introduced by Senator A.
A. Sargent (Calif.) in 1878. There was and long had been one "bill"
advocated, the one to give women so-called "federal" suffrage, the
right to vote for Senators and Representatives, but it had never been
reported out of committee. There was no bill before Congress to give
women the right to vote for Presidential electors and there was no
other bill proposed. It was of course the "State's rights argument"
that had been the continuous barrier to the Federal Suffrage Amendment
ever since it was first introduced but the favorable attitude of a
majority of the Senators showed how much progress had been made in
meeting that argument.

[88] On the contrary at a public hearing before the Judiciary
Committee of the Lower House on March 3, Mrs. Funk referred several
times to such an amendment and stated that she represented an
association of 462,000 women. She intimated that she knew the old
amendment could not pass and that another might be introduced, which,
it was hoped, would be more acceptable. The vote was not taken in the
Senate till March 19. Meanwhile the newspapers gave to the suffragists
of the country their first knowledge of the new amendment and vigorous
protests soon followed, especially from the older leaders of the
movement. _The Woman's Journal_ of March 28 said editorially: "It is
felt by many that before the Congressional Committee introduced a
wholly new measure, which had never been sanctioned or even considered
by the National Association, it ought to have been submitted to the
National Executive Council."

As soon as the Senate had voted on the original amendment, Senator
Bristow, at the request of the Congressional Union, re-introduced it,
and it was reported favorably April 7, Senator Thomas B. Catron of New
Mexico alone dissenting. Senator Bristow in re-introducing it said of
the Shafroth measure: "It is more of a national initiative and
referendum amendment than a woman suffrage ame