I have a favor to ask of this committee in an official capacity; it is something we have never asked before.... We have brought to you testimonials of the success of woman suffrage in operation throughout the world and I think that if any man among you were called to stand before a committee and give in five or ten minutes some proof of the favorable results of man suffrage, he would find it a very difficult thing to do. What I now ask in behalf of our association is that this committee will request the House of Representatives to appoint a commission to investigate the results of woman suffrage in operation. This has never been done....
We ask you in the interest of fairness to see that this commission is appointed to investigate woman suffrage in exactly the same spirit it would use if it were investigating man suffrage in Cuba. We ask you to chase down to its lair every single charge and objection that has been made and if when an honest commission has made an honest investigation you discover that woman suffrage has proved a good thing, if you find that it has proved as beneficial to women as man suffrage has proved to men, then we shall expect that another Judiciary Committee will give a favorable report and ask Congress to submit a 16th Amendment. And if you discover that it is not a good thing, then I promise you in behalf of our association that we will turn our guns into those States and see that it is made a good thing; for never so long as there are women who are educated, women who think for themselves, will they rest content until they have the only weapon that governments can give them for defending liberty and pursuit of happiness. We stand before you as citizens of the United States, qualified, intelligent, taxpaying women, who demand for ourselves the same right to make the Government under which we live that has been given to men.
No commission was appointed, no report was made by Senate or House Committee and there were no definite results of such appeals as never had been made by men for the franchise in this or any other country.
FOOTNOTES:
[14] Part of Call: An International Woman Suffrage Conference will be held in connection with this annual convention, to which suffrage associations of fourteen countries have been invited to send delegates.
The principles which for a century have stood as the guarantee of political liberty to American men, "Taxation without representation is tyranny," and "Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed," can no longer be claimed as belonging to the United States alone for they have been adopted by all civilized nations. The steadily increasing acceptance of the belief that self-government is the highest form of government has revolutionized the popular thought of the world within the last fifty years. During that period all newly established governments have been fashioned after the model of a Republic; while in most European nations and their colonies the suffrage has been so largely extended that the mere skeleton of a monarchy remains.
Logical thinkers the world over have been led in consequence to ask: Are not women equally capable with men of self-government? What necessary qualification fits men for the exercise of this sacred right which is not likewise possessed by women? Are they less intelligent? The statistics of schools, colleges and educational bureaus answer "No." Are they less moral, peaceful and law-abiding than men? The statistics of churches, police courts and penitentiaries answer "No." Are they less public spirited and patriotic than men? The labors of millions of organized women in noble reforms, in helpful charities and wise philanthropies answer "No." ...
An International Woman Suffrage Conference for the exchange of greetings, reports and methods forms a natural milestone on the march of progress. All persons believing that the fundamental principles of self-government contained in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States apply to women as well as to men, are invited to visit the convention and to unite in welcome to our foreign guests.
| Elizabeth Cady Stanton, | } | Honorary Presidents. |
| Susan B. Anthony, | ||
| Carrie Chapman Catt, President. | ||
| Anna Howard Shaw, Vice-president-at-Large. | ||
| Kate M. Gordon, Corresponding Secretary. | ||
| Alice Stone Blackwell, Recording Secretary. | ||
| Harriet Taylor Upton, Treasurer. | ||
| Laura Clay, | } | Auditors. |
| Cora Smith Eaton, | ||