Mrs. Hooker then took her seat at the head of the table, as her modesty would not let her stand up before this august tribunal. Mrs. Hooker leaned over the table and made the daintiest kind of a picture. Senator Hamlin straightened himself up and pulled down his vest. Senator Pratt opened his sleepy eyes to the widest extent, and Senator Sumner gave his undivided attention. Mrs. Hooker said that woman looked to the Government for her rights. “I assure you, Christ uses the word thou shalt do this, and thou shalt do that, which means to apply to women quite as much as to men. The Bible says, ‘Honor thy father and mother, and thy days shall be long in the land.’ How can a son honor his mother when he chooses to use his young thoughts to legislate for her whilst he is so much younger than she is. It cannot be right.” She did not believe so much in woman’s rights as woman’s duty. At this moment her voice stole away from her like the dying notes of a swan, and she removed to another seat, her white forehead bedewed with perspiration.
Madame Anneke was now introduced, and commenced by saying: “Honorary Sirs: Perhaps you will be kind enough to listen to my poor talk. I come delegate from Wisconsin; from oder places too. You have lifted up the slaves, shentlemen, you hear t’ousand and t’ousand voices. In Europe you hear the cry, help us, gentlemens, and den we help ourselves.” After some more such logic, Madame Anneke ponderously withdrew.
Senator Patterson now modestly proposed a question: Suppose a difference of opinion should arise in the family, what will prevent the mischief of discord?
Mrs. Stanton, who had the cunning answer already to spring upon him, said there is already discord there. “I do not think this can make any more. There is always the superior mind in every family. If it belongs to the man, he decides it; if to the woman, she does the same. The smallest men are most tenacious of their rights.” Senator Patterson, seemingly afraid to be classed in this category, closed his lips.
Judge Cook now asked, “What evidence have you that the great body of women in the country want to vote?”
Mrs. Stanton replied that in New York, where she had scattered tracts and otherwise labored, she had been rewarded with petitions signed by 20,000 women.
Judge Welker then asked, “How large a number want to vote in the District of Columbia?”
Mrs. Stanton said they had just closed a convention attended by fifteen hundred persons who were enthusiastic on the subject.
Mrs. Davis then said: “People are tired of asking for this thing and that thing. It is time that legislators knew their business without being petitioned.”