CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



135 



the country that I propose not to degrade the 

 wife and mother to the ward politician, the 

 justice of the peace, or the notary public. It is 

 because I believe honestly that all the best in- 

 fluences for the conservatism of society rest 

 upon the women of the country in their proper 

 sphere, that I shall oppose this and every other 

 step now and henceforth as violating, as I be- 

 lieve, one of the great essential fundamental 

 laws of nature and of society. 



" Mr. President, the revenges of nature are 

 sure and unerring, and these revenges are just 

 as certain in political matters and in social 

 matters as in the physical world. Now and 

 here I desire to record once for all my convic- 

 tion that in this movement to take the women 

 of the country out of their proper sphere of 

 social influence, that great and glorious sphere 

 in which nature and nature's God have placed 

 them, and rush them into the political arena, 

 the attempt is made to put them where they 

 were never intended to be ; and I now and 

 here record my opposition to it. This may 

 seem to be but a small matter, but as this letter 

 shows, and I reveal no private confidence, it 

 recognizes the first great step in this reform, 

 as its advocates are pleased to term it." 



Mr. Hoar: "Mr. President, I do not under- 

 stand that the question which the honorable 

 Senator from Missouri has discussed with so 

 much eloquence is before the Senate. No 

 question of the extension of suffrage to any 

 portion of our citizens is raised by the reso- 

 lution which is before the Senate. The only 

 question now is, first, whether Senators like 

 the honorable Senator from Missouri will pre- 

 fer to decide this question before it is heard or 

 after ; and next, whether if one half the pop- 

 ulation of this country have an interest which 

 their representatives desire to present to Con- 

 gress, it will be more convenient to give them 

 a hearing by one of the standing committees 

 of the Senate or by a separate committee ap- 

 pointed for that purpose. I suppose the Judi- 

 ciary Committee would be entirely competent, 

 and would be for many reasons entirely appro- 

 priate, as .the proper organ of the Senate to 

 hear the requests of these ladies ; but the 

 Judiciary Committee is crowded with great 

 subjects, and as one very intelligent Senator 

 observed to me, yesterday, ' Send the matter 

 to the Judiciary Committee, for they never 

 report on anything.' This committee is pro- 

 posed, not alone to hear any representation or 

 arguments which may be proper to be heard 

 in regard to the question of woman suffrage, 

 but in regard to all subjects where these ladies 

 think their sex lies under an improper legal 

 disability. 



"Mr. President, I suppose that the wildest 

 conservative in this country will not deny that 

 the old common law in defining the rights and 

 duties of English and American women was 

 not only unjust but almost brutal. No matter 

 what might be the degradation of the husband, 

 the person, the earnings, the personal prop- 



erty, the real estate for life of the wife were 

 absolutely in his power. 



" The discussion of this class of questions 

 has convinced the American people, I believe, 

 to an absolute unanimity of judgment, that the 

 law which permitted the husband to beat his 

 wife with a rod, which varied in size with the 

 thumb of the lord chief- justice or chancellor, 

 which denied her the right to secure the earn- 

 ings of her own day's work, which denied her 

 any voice or control in the education, or cus- 

 tody, or direction of the children which she 

 had borne, was not only unjust but almost 

 brutal. 



" Within our national jurisdiction, with 

 Congress organizing the institutions of the 



freat Territories which are to become imperial 

 tates, is it not fitting that that class of con- 

 siderations should be gravely, fully, adequately 

 considered ? If so, I do not see why the hon- 

 orable Senator from Missouri (who I know 

 entertains as high and chivalrous a regard for 

 the sex to which our mothers and sisters and 

 wives belong as any man on this floor) should 

 not unite with me in providing for giving a 

 respectful and thorough hearing, which it is 

 impossible that any of the standing committees 

 of this body can do, to the petitioners on this 

 class of subjects. Unless I am misinformed, it 

 is the rule of the Judiciary Committee, from 

 which they almost never depart, to give no 

 hearings at all, a course to which they are 

 constrained by the necessities of the business 

 committed to them. Therefore, entirely inde- 

 pendent of any question of the right or pro- 

 priety of extending suffrage to the women of 

 this country, it seems to me eminently proper 

 and fitting that this committee should be 

 raised." 



Mr. Vest : " If the Senator will permit me, 

 I simply wish to state in reference to his argu- 

 ment as to the Territories that I have the hon- 

 or to be a member of the Committee on Terri- 

 tories, and at the last session, I believe, or the 

 session before, while the Senator from Arkan- 

 sas (Mr. Garland) was the chairman of that 

 committee, we heard most respectfully and pa- 

 tiently for two days, I think, the advocates of 

 woman suffrage in the Territories of the 

 United States, and that committee to-day is 

 ready to hear those ladies upon that ques- 

 tion at any time they choose to appear before 

 it." 



Mr. Hoar : " The Senator's suggestion does 

 not cover the District of Columbia ; it does 

 not cover the jurisprudence of the national 

 courts, the practice or the rights, wherever 

 they extend. The Committee on Territories 

 is not raised for the purpose of dealing with 

 that class of questions, as this committee would 

 be. Therefore, I say it seems to me entirely 

 independent of the opinion of any Senator 

 upon the question of the extension of suf- 

 frage to women, that the raising of this com- 

 mittee is a right and proper and expedient 

 measure." 



