ective franchise but each
State shall determine the age, etc." A few days later Representative
George W. Julian of Indiana offered one in the House which declared:
"The right of suffrage shall be based on citizenship ... and all
citizens, native or naturalized, shall enjoy this right equally ...
without any distinction or discrimination founded on sex." These were
the first propositions ever made in Congress for woman suffrage by
National Amendment.

In order to impress Congress with the seriousness of the demand, a
woman's convention--the first of its kind to meet in the national
capital--was held in Washington in January, 1869. It continued several
days with large audiences and an array of eminent speakers, including
Lucretia Mott, Clara Barton, Mrs. Stanton, a number of men and Miss
Anthony, the moving spirit of the whole. In response Congress the next
month submitted the 15th Amendment with even a stronger discrimination
against women than the 14th contained.

* * * * *

The annual gatherings of the Equal Rights Association had been growing
more and more stormy while the 14th and 15th Amendments were pending
and the point was reached where any criticism of them made by the
women was met by their advocates with hisses and denunciation. Finally
at the meeting of May 12, 1869, in New York City, with Mrs. Stanton
presiding, an attempt was made, led by Frederick Douglass, to force
through a resolution of endorsement. Miss Anthony opposed it in an
impassioned speech in which she said: "If you will not give the whole
loaf of justice to the entire people, then give it first to women, to
the most intelligent and capable of them at least.... If Mr. Douglass
had noticed who applauded when he said black men first and white women
afterwards, he would have seen that it was only the men."

The men succeeded in wresting the control of the convention from the
women, who then decided that the time had come for them to have their
own organization and endeavor to have the question of their
enfranchisement considered entirely on its own merits. Three days
later, at the Women's Bureau in East 23rd Street, where now the
Metropolitan Life Building stands, with representatives present from
nineteen States, the National Woman Suffrage Association was formed.
Mrs. Stanton was made president, Miss Anthony chairman of the
executive committee. One hundred women became members that evening and
here was begun th