

CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



137 



s departed from only in very rare and peculiar 

 cases ? " 



Mr. Bayard: "I will reply to the honorable 

 Senator that the occasion which arose to my 

 mind and caused me to remember the action of 

 that committee was the audience given by it to 

 a very large delegation of woman suffragists, 

 to wit. the representatives of a convention held 

 in this city, who to the number, I think, of 

 twenty-five, came into the committee-room of 

 the Committee on the Judiciary, and were 

 heard, as I remember, for more than one day, 

 or certainly had more than one hearing, before 

 that committee, of which you, sir, and I were 

 members." 



Mr. Hoar: "If the Senator will pardon me, 

 however, he has not answered my question. I 

 asked the Senator not whether on one partic- 

 ular occasion they gave a hearing on this sub- 

 ject, but whether it is not the rule of that 

 committee, occasioned by the necessity of its 

 business fro.m which it departs only in very 

 rare cases, not to give hearings ? " 



Mr. Bayard: "I can not answer whether a 

 rule so defined as that suggested by the honor- 

 able Senator from Massachusetts exists in that 

 committee. It is my impression, however, 

 that cases are frequently, by order of that com- 

 mittee, argued before it. We have had very 

 elaborate and able arguments upon subjects 

 connected with the Pacific Railroads, I remem- 

 ber ; and we have had arguments upon various 

 subjects. It is constantly our pleasure to hear 

 members of the Senate upon a variety of ques- 

 tions before that committee. It may be only 

 a proof that women's rights are not unrecog- 

 nized nor their influence unfelt when I state 

 the fact that if there be such a rule as is sug- 

 gested by the honorable Senator from Massa- 

 chusetts of excluding persons from the audience 

 of that committee, on the occasion of the ap- 

 plication of the ladies a hearing was granted, 

 and they came in force not only force in 

 numbers, but force in the character and intel- 

 ligence of those who appeared before the com- 

 mittee. They were listened to with great 

 respect, but their views were not concurred in 

 by the committee as it was then composed. 



" We were all entertained by the bright wit, 

 the clever and, in my judgment, in many re- 

 spects, the just sarcasm of our honorable friend 

 from Missouri (Mr. Vest), but my habit' is not 

 to consider public measures in a jocular light; 

 it is not to consider a question of this kind in a 

 jocular light. Whatever may be the merits or 

 demerits of this proposition, whatever may be 

 the reasons for or against it, no man can doubt 

 that it will strike at the very roots of the pres- 

 ent organization of society, and that its conse- 

 quences will be most profound and far-reaching 

 should the advocates of the measure proposed 

 prevail. 



"Therefore it is that I think this subject 

 should not be considered separately ; it should 

 not have a special committee either of advo- 

 cates or opponents arranged for its considera- 



tion ; but it should go where proposed amend- 

 ments to the fundamental law of the land 

 have always been sent for consideration 

 to that committee to which judicial questions, 

 questions of a constitutional nature, have al- 

 ways in the history of this Government been 

 committed. There is no need, there is no jus- 

 tice, there is no wisdom in attempting to sep- 

 arate the fate of this question, which affects 

 society so profoundly and generally, from the 

 other questions that affect society. It can not 

 be made a specialty ; it ought not to be. You 

 can not tear this question from the great con- 

 tests of human passions, affections, and inter- 

 ests which surround it, and treat it as a thing 

 by itself. It has many sides from which it 

 may be viewed, some that are not proper or 

 fitting for this forum, and a discussion now in 

 public. There are the claims of religion itself 

 to be considered in connection with this case. 

 Civil rights, social rights, political rights, relig- 

 ious rights, all are bound up in the considera- 

 tion of a measure like this. In its considera- 

 tion you can not safely attempt to segregate 

 this question and leave it untouched and unin- 

 fluenced by all those other questions by which 

 it is surrounded, and in the consideration of 

 which it is bound to be connected and con- 

 cerned." 



Mr. Beck, of Kentucky: "I desire to say 

 only in a word that the difficulty I have and 

 the question I desire the Committee on the Ju- 

 diciary to report upon is the effect of this ques- 

 tion upon suffrage. By the fifteenth amend- 

 ment to the Constitution of the United States 

 there can be no discrimination made in regard 

 to voting on account of race, color, or previous 

 condition. Intelligence is properly regarded 

 as one of the fundamental principles of fair 

 suffrage. We have been compelled in the last 

 ten years to allow all the colored men of the 

 South to become voters. There is a mass of 

 ignorance there to be absorbed that will take 

 years and years of care in order to bring that 

 class up to the standard of intelligent voters. 

 The several States are addressing themselves 

 to that task as earnestly as possible. Now it 

 is proposed that all the women of the country 

 shall vote ; that all the colored women of the 

 South, who are as much more ignorant than 

 the colored men as it is possible to imagine, 

 shall vote. Not one perhaps in a hundred of 

 them can read or write. The colored men 

 have had the advantages of communication 

 with other men in a variety of forms. Many 

 of them have considerable intelligence ; but 

 the colored women have not had equal chances. 

 Take them from their wash-tubs and their 

 household work, and they are absolutely igno- 

 rant of the new duties of voting citizens. The 

 intelligent ladies of the North and the West and 

 the South can not vote without extending that 

 privilege to that class of ignorant colored peo- 

 ple. 



" I doubt whether any man will say that it 

 is safe for the republic now, when we are go- 



