the seventeen years that they voted in the
Territory there was not a defalcation in any public office.

I believe in the republic. I believe that its destiny is to shed
light not only here, but all over the world. If we can trust
woman in the house to keep all pure and holy there, so that the
little ones may grow up right, surely we can trust her at the
ballot-box. When children learn political wisdom and truth from
their mother's lips, they will remember it and live up to it; for
those lessons are the longest remembered. When Senator Teller
withdrew from a political convention for conscience's sake, a man
said, commenting on his action: "It is generally safe to stay
with your party." His wife said: "And it is always safe to stay
with your principles."

In the midst of the convention came the sad news on February 17 of the
death of Miss Frances E. Willard, president of the National Woman's
Christian Temperance Union. Affectionate tributes were offered by Miss
Anthony, Miss Shaw and other members; a telegram of sympathy was sent
to her secretary and close companion, Miss Anna Gordon, by a rising
vote, and the audience remained standing for a few moments in silent
prayer. A large wreath of violets and Southern ivy, adorned with
miniatures of Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony and other pioneer suffrage
workers was sent by the delegates to be laid on her coffin.

The congressional hearings on the morning of February 15, Miss
Anthony's birthday, attracted crowds of people to the Capitol. The
hearing before the Senate Committee was conducted by the Rev. Anna
Howard Shaw, and considered The Philosophy of the Movement for Woman
Suffrage. Only two members of the committee were present--James H.
Berry of Arkansas, and George P. Wetmore of Rhode Island--but a number
of other senators were interested listeners, and the large Marble Room
was crowded with delegates and spectators. The first paper, by Wm.
Lloyd Garrison (Mass.) considered The Nature of a Republican Form of
Government:

The advocates of complete enfranchisement of women base their
demand upon the principles underlying all suffrage, rather than
upon the question of sex. If manhood suffrage is a mistake; if
voting is a privilege and not a right; if government does not
derive its just powers from the consent of the governed; if
Lincoln's aphorism that ours is a "government of the people