Elizabeth Cady Stanton

SPEECHES & WRITINGS FILE

Speech: Address Before United States Senate Special Committee on Woman Suffrage, Feb. 8, 1890 The Woman's Tribune, Feb 15, 1890

[*86*]THE WOMAN'S TRIBUNE ; SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1890.
[*87*] Hearing Before the Woman-Suffrage Committee.

[Address of Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton before 
the United States Senate Special Committee on 
Woman Suffrage, in behalf of Senate Resolution I, 
and Senate Files 1363, 1364, February 8, 1790.]
     
For a quarter of a century a body of intelligent 
and law abiding women have held 
annual conventions in Washington and 
made their appeals before committees of the 
House and the Senate asking to be recognized 
as citizens of this Republic. A whole 
generation of distinguished Senators and 
Members of the House, who have each in 
turn given us aid and encouragement have 
passed away. Seward, Sumner, Wilson, 
Giddings, Wade, Garfield, Morton, and Sargent, 
with Hamlin, Butler and Julian still 
living, have each and all declared our demands 
just, our arguments unanswerable.

In consulting at an early day as to the 
form in which our claims should be presented, 
some said by an amendment to the 
Constitution, others said the Constitution as 
it is, in spirit and letter, is broad enough to 
protect the rights of every citizen under our 
flag.  But when the war came and we saw 
it take three amendments to make the slaves 
of the South full-fledged citizens, we thought 
it would at least take one to make woman's 
calling and election sure. Then we asked 
for a XVI. amendment.  But learned lawyers, 
judges and Congressmen, took the 
ground that women too were enfranchised 
by the XIV. amendment. The House 
Minority Report in 1871, signed by Benjamin 
F. Butler and William Loughridge 
took that ground.  It is an able, unanswerable 
argument on the whole question, based 
on the oft-repeated principles of the republican 
party at that time.  It stands to-day 
a living monument of the grossest inconsistences 
of which the Republican party was 
ever guilty.
     We fully believed for a time that we were 
enfranchised under the XIV. amendment, 
and women in different States voted. 
Whereupon in some places they were sued 
for voting, and the inspectors of election 
were sued for allowing them to vote.  In 
other places the women sued the inspectors 
for refusing their ballots.  This gave rise to 
several cases which were tried in the supreme 
court and all the decisions alike were 
adverse to woman's claims.  And ever since 
our rulers have put the narrowest construction 
on all those articles and sections of the 
Constitution that with a fair interpretation 
apply to women as well as to the Freedmen 
of the South  Then we fell back to the old 
ground and demanded a XVI. amendment. 

When our rulers began their tergiversations 
in the shape of adverse decisions, on 
all the test cases women carried to the Supreme 
Court, denying the very principles 
for women they admitted for the slaves, we 
prophesied that the time would come when 
they would re-act against the Freedmen 
themselves, and according to the admissions 
made in Mr. Ingalls' late speech on the 
floor of the Senate, our prophecy is fulfilled.

We cannot play fast and loose with the 
eternal principles of justice without being 
caught sooner or later, in the net of our own 
weaving.

[*88*] The legitimate results of the war have 
been all frittered away by political manoeuvering.

While northern statesmen have made 
a foot-ball of the rights of 10,000,000 women 
of legal age as voters, and by Supreme Court 
decisions driven them from the polls, why 
arraign the men of the South for treating 
1,000,000 Freedmen in the same way? Are 
the rights of that class of citizens more sacred 
than ours? Are the violations of the 
fundamental principles of our government 
in their case more dangerous than in ours? 
And these decisions in Northern courts do 
not escape the watchful eye of Southern 
lawyers and politicians. The decision in 
the case of Virginia Minor was recently referred 
to, in a trial in the State of Georgia, 
in which a person of African descent, was 
prevented from voting for Member of Congress.  
A recent pamphlet from the pen of 
Francis Minor, Esq., on the "Law of Federal 
Suffrage," throws new light on the principles 
involved in the XIV. amendment.  He says:

"Every citizen of the United States is possessed 
of a dual citizenship, and is a member 
of two sovereignties; and yet these two 
conditions of citizenship, although entirely 
distinct, are united or blended in the same 
individual. Suffrage is an attribute of citizenship 
under the federal constitution; no 
limitation or restriction whatever is made 
as to the sex of the elector, while under the 
State constitutions there is; and as there 
has been no assertion by the federal government 
of its reserved right to make and 
alter regulations as to the times, places and 
manner of holding elections for representatives 
in Congress, the matter has gone by 
default as it were, and been left entirely to 
the control of the states. And this has been 
the case so long that the impression is almost 
universal, that the states have supreme 
control over the federal as well as the state 
right of suffrage. This was the opinion of 
the Supreme Court itself when the subject 
was formerly under consideration in the case 
of Minor vs. Happersett, 21 Wallace, for the 
Court was then unanimously of the opinion 
that the United States has no voters of its 
own creation, and that the Constitution of 
the United States does not confer the right 
of suffrage upon any one. Subsequent reflection 
however has led the Court to change 
its views, and it now declares that the right 
to vote for members of Congress is fundamentally 
based upon the Constitution of the 
United States, which created the office, if it 
can be called an office, and declares the 
manner in which it shall be filled. The importance 
of this last declaration by the Supreme 
Court cannot be over-estimated.  It 
places the right to vote for members of Congress 
on its only true foundation, that of the 
Constitution of the United States, and is an 
assertion of national power and dignity; 
and the next declaration by the Court is no 
less important, that the States, in prescribing 
the qualifications of voters for the most 
numerous branch of their own legislatures, 
'do not do this with reference to the election 
of members of Congress.  Nor can they prescribe 
the qualifications for voters for those 
eo nomine.'

"So that when the states impose upon their 
own citizens a qualification, that of sex, with 
which one-half of them cannot comply it 
has no reference to the federal elector, who 
is not bound thereby, nor can his or her 
right of federal suffrage be defeated by such 
an artifice. Thus an impediment, heretofore 
supposed to be ineluctable, is removed 
by this decision.

"The right of federal suffrage is not based 
upon sex.

"It inheres in the status or condition of 
federal citizenship.

[*89*]"Men do not vote for members of Congress 
by reason of their sex, or because they 
are men, but because they are citizens of 
the United States, and members of the national 
body politic. Upon this ground, and 
upon this only, is their right to vote based, 
and the right of women to vote is based on 
the same ground and for the same reason. 
They constitute a part of the 'people' or 
'citizens.' There is not a word as to the sex 
of the electors.

"The right is vested absolutely and without 
limitation in 'the people of the several 
states.' The term 'people' includes persons 
of both sexes--neither sex is excluded. The 
present decision, therefore, that the right to 
vote for members of Congress is fundamentally 
based upon the constitution, applies to 
women as well as to men."

And yet here we stand, after half a century 
of persistent effort still wholly unrepresented 
in the government, while having 
done all in our power, alike in peace and 
war, to maintain the grand institutions bequeathed 
us by the fathers.

Have you ever thought, gentlemen, that 
the vast possessions within our national 
boundaries, with all their future wealth and 
grandeur, belong to women as well as to 
men? We are the natural heirs to one-half 
this magnificent estate. What would you 
think of the sons of a family who should 
seize the whole of a private estate and dole 
out to the sisters a pittance in charity when 
asked to restore their legal share of the inheritance? 
And what should we think of 
the women who in such circumstances failed 
to assert their rights, and assume their 
duties to guard and wisely use the wealth 
their fathers had accumulated for them as 
well as their brothers?

Those who enjoy the blessings of wealth 
should share in its responsibilities. Those 
who ask for rights under the government 
should be prepared to assume its duties.

We do not question man's ability to manage 
our affairs, but we need the development 
of learning to manage our own. There 
is nothing more enervating than continual 
dependence.

We are here to-day, Honorable Gentlemen, 
to ask you to take the necessary steps for 
the speedy enfranchisement of woman for 
the three following reasons:

1st. For the benefit that self-government 
will be to herself.
2nd. For the immense advantage it will 
be to the family to have liberally educated 
wives and mothers at the fireside.
3rd. For the benefit of the state in having 
woman's interest in the public good legally 
recognized.

In considering the first proposition, we 
must view woman, as a woman, to be educated 
for the whole round of human duties. 
In prescribing her rights, we must not limit 
her sphere as wife, mother, housekeeper, 
teacher or seamstress, as she may never fill 
one of these positions, or may fill all. In 
deciding her rights, consider her simply as 
a citizen of the United States. The capacities 
or attractions of each individual must 
settle the question of education and sphere, 
of rights and duties. In conferring the right 
of suffrage on men we do not ask whether 
they are husbands, fathers or blacksmiths.

In addressing those who already enjoy the 
right of suffrage, one would naturally suppose 
that it would not be necessary to enlarge 
on the advantages of having a voice 


in deciding the laws and the rulers under 
which one lives. [*90*]

And neither would it, if each member of 
this committee understood that woman's 
wants and needs are similar to his own; that 
the cardinal virtues belong to her as well as 
to him; that personal dignity, the power of 
self protection, are as important for her as 
for him.

That woman loves justice, equality, liberty, 
and wishes the right to give her consent 
to the government under which she 
lives as well as man does. Matthew Arnold 
says: "The first desire of every cultured 
mind is to take part in the great work of 
government."

And this desire is as strong in women as 
men. They have a peculiar aptitude too, 
for governing, from their education in family 
life and the school-room. In the management 
of children, servants, scholars, in daily 
contact with the merchant, the butcher, the 
baker, the grocer, in dispensing charity, woman 
has abundant opportunities for studying 
all phases of human nature and learning 
how to adapt herself to their capacities. I 
often hear women say "if I had the power 
I would have shorter hours in our schools 
for the youngest children and I would have 
the buildings scientifically ventilated." "I 
would have the streets of our cities, the 
lanes and courts to the tenement houses 
kept sweet and clean." "I would have the 
drinking saloons banished from the corners 
of our streets." What are all these but so 
many expressions of their desire to take 
part in administering the government.
     A thoughtful person never sees a wrong 
without wishing for the power to right it. 
You may say that in these matters education 
does more than legislation. Yes, but 
when you dignify the educator with the 
right to legislate, you have added a new 
force to her teaching, and when you have 
made the political status of the woman who 
presides at your table equal to your own, 
you will give added weight to her advice to 
your children.
     Can any one doubt the good effect on 
woman's character in opening broader avenues 
for her thought and action, in giving 
her new power and responsibility outside 
her garden gate?
     It makes a vast difference in the character 
and manners of any class of human beings, 
whether they are regarded as equals 
or inferiors.
     Our only badge of aristocracy in this 
country is the ballot, and those who do not 
hold it belong to an inferior, a subject class, 
and all in a greater or less degree feel the 
invidious distinction. The position lowers 
woman's self-respect and necessarily her 
ability in the estimation of others.
     We all know the feeling of self-respect it 
gives a man to be invited to assist in any 
important work; to be one of a chosen few, 
in some great enterprise.
     Women share, though perhaps in a different 
and narrower way, the same feelings. 
They like the excitement now and then of 
some duties outside the home. See with 
what zest they enter into agricultural and 
church affairs, donation parties, amateur 
theatricals and receptions. Look at their 
enthusiasm in the temperance movement, for 
missionaries, for the Indians. See with what 
devotion and self sacrifice they labored in 
the late war; the same feeling of patriotism 
roused the women north and south, to look 
after the wants of the soldiers, in camp and 
hospital, as roused the men on the battle 
field. Women must expend their enthusiasm 
on something, and it is a question, 
gentlemen, for you to decide for your sisters, 
wives, and daughters, whether their 
time and forces shall be given to important 
or frivolous occupations. The more we 
can broaden the outlook of human beings 
and deepen their interests in the public 
welfare, the more we can strengthen their 
judgment and heighten their happiness.
     The great virtue we need to cultivate in 
woman to-day is an enlightened self-respect, 
a serious consideration of her rights and 
duties as an equal factor in government, 
and the first step in this achievement is political 
equality. Shakespeare says "the world 
holds us as we hold ourselves."
     Hence if we would rouse new respect for 
womanhood in the hearts of the masses, 
we would place woman in a position 
to respect herself, which she never can do 
as long as her political status is beneath 
that of the most degraded, ignorant classes 
of men. To make woman the political 
equals of their sons, even of their gardeners, 
and coachmen, would add new dignity to 
their position, and to change our laws and 
constitutions in harmony with the new status 
would have its influence on the larger class 
of young men now devoting themselves to 
the study of the law. Lord Brougham said 
long ago the common law of England for 
women and all the statutes based on such 
principles are a disgrace to the christianity 
and civilization of the 19th century. Do 
you suppose our sons can rise from such 
studies with a high ideal of womanhood? 
And with what feelings do you suppose women 
themselves read these laws, and the 
articles in the state constitutions ranking 
them with the disreputable and feeble minded 
classes. I cannot tell you, gentlemen, 
my feelings of humiliation and indignation 
when I first awoke to my true position as a 
political pariah in a republic that declared 
universal suffrage for all men. Can you 
not understand the dignity, the pride, the 
new-born self-respect, that would thrill the 
hearts of the women of this nation, in their 
enfranchisement? It would elevate their 
sphere of action, every department of labor 
in which they are occupied, it would give 
new force to their words as teachers, reformers 
and missionaries, new strength to 
their hands as guardians of the young, the 
wayward and the unfortunate. It would 
transform us from slaves to sovereigns, 
crowned with the rights of citizenship, with 
the ballot, that scepter of power in our own 
right hands. When this event transpires it 
will indeed be our year of jubilee, when the 
glad notes of rejoicing will echo over every 
hill and valley from the lakes to the gulf, 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific shores. 
And this will surely come, postpone action 
as you will, what you do not want the honor 
of doing, some other committee will be glad 
to do in the near future.      [*91*]

sent an explanation that the absence was 
unavoidable.

     The Industrial Age states that the Supreme 
Court of the United States has 
granted a writ of error in the famous 
Chicago anarchist case on the ground 
that the record of the court was made up 
falsely to show the presence of the prisoners 
in court when their sentence was 
given. This will give the survivors a 
new trial. The families of those who 
were hung are preparing to sue the city 
of Chicago to prove that their conviction 
was secured by prejudiced detectives. 
The result will be waited with interest.

     The recent installation of Dr. Lyman 
Abbot as pastor of Plymouth Church as 
the successor of Mr. Beecher is illustrative 
of the changed attitude towards 
doctrine that marks the liberal theologian 
of the denominations usually styled 
orthodox. Dr. Abbot believes in the 
Divinity of Christ, and that His resurrection 
is the best attested fact in ancient 
history, yet he dares to say when asked 
to explain the Trinity that he can not do 
it. He gave as his reason that God was

Woma
     "EQUALITY BE
WASHINGTON, D.C. AND BEATRICE,

whether or not there should be war. 
Women know the cost of life. Mrs. 
Stanton added that statistics showed that 
many women enlisted and fought in our 
civil war, and the only difference between 
them and the men was that they 
were dismissed in disgrace and never 
paid for their services.
     The Chairman then asked whether if 
all distinctions were abolished and all 
the avocations of men were thrown open 
so that women could equally participate 
in the workings of the government and 
in the work of men, would not woman 
lose much of the refining influence that 
now blesses our race. To this Mrs. Stanton 
said that she should first have to have 
a definition of "the work of men," for she 
found them in many avocations, selling 
tapes and pins and needles which might 
be considered the work of women. She 
said these questions settle themselves by 
custom and need no laws. In the life of 
a pioneer family, the wife helps the husband 
in harvest time and in the winter 
the husband may be seen helping in domestic 
duties. There is no law which 
says a man shall not stay at home and 
get the dinner.
     The Chairman asked if Mrs. Stanton 
had personal knowledge of women asking

n's Tri[bune]
FORE THE LAW"
NEB., SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 18

nated the movement and called the first 
convention forty-two years ago, which 
elicted the sally from Mrs. Stanton that 
the time was short, and when she met 
Peter at the gate she wanted to be able 
to say: "Here I stand, an American citizen." 
The committee thought the password 
would be honored.
     Questions were then put by Senator 
Blair which drew out information as to 
the progress of woman suffrage abroad, 
its advocacy by leading English statesmen, 
the fact that women had the right 
to vote in the colonies and many other 
facts calculated to make the committee 
realize that they had better be doing 
something if this Republic is to keep up 
with the procession.
     Senator Allen was then questioned as 
to the voting of women in Washington. 
He said that the right was granted in uncertain 
times, and much partisan feeling 
was engendered by other troublesome 
questions before the people, with which 
this became involved. He briefly recounted 
the history of its giving and 
taking away. He was in favor of woman 
suffrage himself, but felt that on account 
of these complications the experiment 
had left them about where they began.
That is, those who were in favor of suffrage 
felt that it had been a good thing 
and those that were opposed were firm 
in their conviction that it was a bad thing. 
At the last election, woman suffrage went 
largely by default. The point was then 
made about Wyoming and the hearty endorsement 
of woman suffrage there.
     Mrs. Colby then presented the committee 
with a file of the TRIBUNE, and 
said that the Association would be glad 
to stock the shelves with suffrage literature. 
She also said that she would present 
the room with pictures of Mrs. 
Stanton and Miss Anthony, who had 
plead in the Capitol so many years for 
woman's sake, that these might speak for 
them when their voices should be silent 
until, when women were enfranchised, 
their statues should be placed in the 
rotunda along with the great men of the 
nation. The Chairman said the committee 
would gladly accept the pictures. 
There was still more pleasant chat and 
the only thing to regret in the occasion 
was that some of the committee were 
absent. All but one member--who has 
not it is believed been yet in the city--


for her but she did not know that it was 
by a divorce and she went on living with 
him and keeping him as straight as she 
could until his death. The officials seem 
to be exercised over the possibility of the 
Government getting back the money already 
paid to the widow, but in the name 
of justice, if the facts are as they appear, 
is she not entitled to still draw the pension 
as the lawful widow of the man. 
Having once assumed the legal relation, 
the living with him and the caring for 
him should give her the recognition and 
claims of wife. One would think from 
the laws that the essential feature of the 
marriage tie was the putting the control 
of the person and property of one adult 
absolutely into the power of another. 
The daily press abounds with instances 
which show the injury resulting to the 
conjugal state from the married woman's 
disabilities. One of two things must 
transpire to make the relation between 
husband and wife harmonious and congruous. 
Either the wife must take the 
position of a child in the husband's family, 
or else that of an equal partner. At 
every step in the way from the patriarchate 
to co-equality there will be rebellion, 
deceit, and demoralization. It is a gratification 
to know that no such necessity 
or excuse for divorce can exist in Ohio 
since the abolition of the right of curtesy 
in 1887.
-----------
     The Nation of January 23, contains an 
excellent review of the character and 
writing of Amalie Von Imhoff, "A 
Poetess of the Weimar School," who was 
the friend of Schiller and Goethe, and 
of whom the latter wrote that he was attracted 
to the author of the "Sisters of 
Lesbos" "as an extremely beautiful child 
and in after-times as a woman of rare 
talent." The review maintains that 
Amalie's fame rests securely on twelve 
lyrics which she published for the relief 
of widows and orphans in Greece, and 
which were set to music by Bettina von 
Arnim. Amalie died in 1831.
------
     Rev. Robert Collier, in his morning 
sermon last Sunday, in this city, spoke 
very beautifully of his "dear friend, Lucretia 
Mott," relating the incident that 
once she said in the presence of Mr. 
Combe, "I am growing old," and the 
philosopher replied: "That is the last 
thing you should admit;" and then proceeded 
to urge her not to ally her will 
with the destructive agencies of time. 
She acted on this, and, as the speaker 
said, was one of the sunniest and most 
useful old persons he ever met.
------
Mr. Harriet Taylor Upton states 
that in looking through the extensive list 
of papers that come to her father, Hon. 
Ezra B. Taylor, she finds general favorable 
mention of the effort to secure women 
being placed upon the board of

     are free.
And the cakes of the ice are melting, floating toward the 
     summer sea.
We have watched the long procession, as the floods 
     go crowding past,
And we know it tells of spring-tide, and the harvest 
     at the last.
Still the trees are bare and leafless, still the landscape 
     bleak and drear,
But the winter is retreating; we shall beat him with 
     the year.
For his strength of arms is broken, and the ice-packs 
     straggling on
Are the earnest of a victory, of a battle being won.
Though their cold mist clogs the vista, with its dimness, 
     doubt and chill,
They are beaten; they are broken; they have lost the 
     power to kill;
They are fleeing from the sunlight but it melts them 
     as they flee,
And their rancorous course is ending in the peaceful 
     summer sea.

Old oppressions too are loosening, faith and righteousness 
     are freed;
Error's clanking fetters breaking, and the chafing 
     bands of creed.
We have watched the blighting forces as they stand 
     in full retreat,
As they melt to fairer courses in the truth that is 
     complete;
God is working in his kingdom by more ways than 
     mortals wist,
And the epoch-sun is rising to dispel the moral mist,
For though old conceptions haunt us like the ghost 
     our childhood feared,
Though our tastes are prone to evil, and the error is 
     endeared
Still these enemies are fleeing, and their front is 
     broken through,
And we carry on the standards of the triumph of the 
     true,
For the last, long age of being shall for righteousness 
     decide,
Hate and evil vainly fleeing melting in the summer 
     tide.
--Charles H. Fitch, Cambridge, Mass.
------
Woman Suffrage Hearing.

     In view of Mrs. Stanton's speedy departure 
for Europe, it was arranged that 
she should have a hearing before the Woman 
Suffrage Committee last Saturday. 
The matter was kept quiet as it was known 
that the committee-room, where it was 
stated the hearing would be, was very 
small, so only a few persons accompanied 
Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony. 
The committee, expecting the usual large 
attendance, very thoughtfully seated the 
reception room but Mrs. Stanton and 
Miss Anthony, who have had hearings for 
twenty years by sufferance in the rooms 
devoted to other purposes, were anxious 
to take possession of the room that has 
been assigned to the Committee on Woman-Suffrage.
     The room is neat and cosy, the carpet
and furniture new, and desks and cabinets
are provided.  Chairman Vance was
the recipient of many compliments for
his gallantry in securing and fitting up a
room for this purpose.
     Senators Vance, Blair, Farwell and
Allen being present, Mrs. Stanton was
invited to present her argument.  She
humorously stated that she had stood
before committees for twenty years and
would now like leave to sit.  To this the
chairman assented, adding that she was
still a lady of standing.

for the ballot who made a living in avocations
heretofore considered man's work
and whether they had lost some of
the moral qualities that should exist in
females.  Mrs. Stanton replied that lovely
moral qualities grow when a human
being is useful and that they increase in
the woman who helps to support the
family rather than in her who devoted
herself to idleness and fashionable frivolities.
The consideration of questions
in legislation, finance, free-trade, etc.
would certainly not degrade woman nor
was her refinement so evanescent a virtue
that it could be swept away by anything 
she could do with her hands.  Queen
Victoria, she said, looked as dignified
and refined in opening Parliament as any
lady she had ever seen.  The Chairman
interposed with the remark that the
Queen was only a figure-head and Mrs.
Stanton raised a heart laugh by saying,
"Then we might make good figure-heads 
for our Government."  Miss Anthony
said there would always be a division of
labor in time of war as elsewhere. Women
would do their share in the hospitals
and elsewhere, and if they were enfranchised,
the only difference would be
that they would be paid for their services
and pensioned at the close of the
war.  The Chairman stated that he knew
no reason why a woman should not be
equally paid and he had never known a 
woman who did not bear her full share
of burdens.  Mrs. Colby reminded the
committee that the report of the Commissioner
of Labor showed that the
larger proportion of immoral women came
from home life and the more feminine
occupations, proving that to engage in
the outside work of the world, did not
destroy a woman's refinement and virtue.
The Chairman said he had got the worst
of the discussion and he would now let
other members question the speaker.
Mrs. Stanton then called the committee's
attention to the portraits in the volumes
of the History of Woman Suffrage which
Miss Anthony had presented to them, as
evidence that these advocates were women
of refined appearance.  "Yes," said
Chairman Vance as he looked at the picture
of Frances Wright, "That is a delightful
face."  Miss Anthony then stated

The
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For the Tribune.
THE RETREAT OF WINTER.
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The frozen bond is loosening and the northern streams

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