le deprives the State of
the united wisdom of man and woman--that "consensus of the
competent" so necessary in national affairs--making our
Government an oligarchy of males, instead of a republic of the
people, thus perpetuating with all its evils a dominant masculine
civilization. But in answer to this it is said that although
women do not vote, yet they have an indirect influence in
Government through their husbands and brothers. Yes, an
"irresponsible power," of all kinds of influence the most
dangerous....

The dogged, unreasonable persecutions of sex in all ages, the
evident determination to eliminate, as far as possible, the
feminine element in humanity, has been the most fruitful cause of
the moral chaos the race has suffered, under every form of
government and religion.... The loss to women themselves of the
highest development of which they are capable is sad, but when
this involves a lower type of manhood and danger to our free
institutions, it is still more sad. The primal work in every
country, for its own safety, should be the education and freedom
of woman.

The arguments before the Judiciary Committee of the House were given
the next morning, March 8, twelve of the fifteen members being
present.[23] Miss Anthony opened the hearing with an earnest address
in which she referred to the hundreds of thousands of petitions which
had been sent to Congress for woman suffrage--far more than for any
other measure--and continued:

Negro suffrage was again and again overwhelmingly voted down in
various States--New York, Connecticut, Ohio, etc.--and you know,
gentlemen, that if the negro had never had the right to vote
until the majority of the rank and file of white men,
particularly foreign-born men, had voted "Yes," he would have
gone without it till the crack of doom. It was because of the
prejudice of the unthinking majority that Congress submitted the
question of the negro's enfranchisement to the Legislatures of
the several States, to be adjudicated by the educated, broadened
representatives of the people. We now appeal to you to lift the
decision of woman suffrage from the vote of the populace to that
of the Legislatures, that you may thereby be as considerate, as
just, to the women of this nation as you were to the male
ex-slaves.

Eve