e organized work for an Amendment to the Federal
Constitution to confer woman suffrage which was to continue without
ceasing for half a century.[134] Its constitution declared the object
of the association to be "to secure the ballot to the women of the
Nation on equal terms with men." On June 1 its executive board sent a
petition to Congress for "a 16th Amendment to be submitted to the
Legislatures of the States for ratification which shall secure to all
citizens the right of suffrage without distinction of sex."

Before the work for a 16th Amendment was fairly organized a number of
members of Congress and constitutional lawyers took the ground that
women were already enfranchised by the first clause of the 14th
Amendment. At the convention held in St. Louis in the autumn of 1869,
Francis Minor, a prominent lawyer of that city, presented this
position so convincingly that the newly formed National Association
conducted an active campaign in its favor for several years. In 1872
women tried to vote in a number of States and in a few of them were
successful. Miss Anthony's vote was accepted in Rochester, N. Y., and
later she was arrested, charged with a _crime_, tried by a Justice of
the U. S. Supreme Court and fined $100. The inspectors in St. Louis
refused to register Mrs. Francis Minor, she brought suit against
them, and her husband carried the case to the Supreme Court of the
United States (Minor vs. Happersett). He made an able and exhaustive
argument but an adverse decision was rendered March 29, 1875.[135]

The women then returned to the original demand for a 16th Amendment,
which indeed many of them, including Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton,
never had entirely abandoned. Beginning with 1869 Congressional
committees had granted hearings on woman suffrage every winter, even
though no resolution was before them. Under the auspices of the
National Association petitions by the tens of thousands continued to
pour into Congress, which were publicly presented. Finally on Jan. 10,
1878, Senator A. A. Sargent of California offered the following joint
resolution: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall
not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on
account of sex."

The Committee on Privileges and Elections granted a hearing which
consumed a part of two days, with the large Senate reception room
filled to overflowing and the corridors crowded. Extended hearings
were given also by the Ho