personal purity and morality for men and women.

During the month of preparation for this International Council, the
idea came many times to Mrs. Sewall that it should result in a
permanent organization. The other members gave a cordial assent to
this proposition, and the necessary committees were appointed. Before
the delegates left Washington both a National and International
Council of Women were formed.[71]

Immediately following the Council the National Woman Suffrage
Association held its Twentieth annual convention in the Church of Our
Father, April 3, 4, 1888. As there had been eight days of continuous
speech-making this meeting was devoted principally to the presenting
of State reports and transacting of necessary business. There were,
however, a number of addresses from the distinguished women who
remained after the Council to attend this convention.

The Committee on National Enrollment, Mrs. Louisa Southworth of Ohio,
chairman, reported 40,000 names of adult citizens who favored equal
suffrage; 9,000 of these were from Ohio and 9,000 from Nebraska. Women
were urged to send petitions to members of Congress from their
respective States. Mrs. Stanton was requested to prepare a memorial to
be presented to each of the national political conventions to be held
during the year, and committees were appointed to visit each for the
purpose of securing in their platforms a recognition of woman
suffrage.

The most interesting feature was the hearing before the Senate
Committee on Woman Suffrage, which took place April 2.[72] Mrs.
Stanton made the opening address, in which she took up the provisions
of the Federal Constitution, one by one, and showed how they had been
violated in their application to women, saying:

Even the preamble of the Constitution is an argument for
self-government--"We, the people." You recognize women as people,
for you count them in the basis of representation. Half our
Congressmen hold their seats to-day as representatives of women.
We help to swell the figures by which you are here, and too many
of you, alas, are only figurative representatives, paying little
heed to our rights as citizens.

"No bill of attainder shall be passed." "No title of nobility
granted." So says the Constitution; and yet you have passed bills
of attainder in every State of the Union making sex a
disqualification for the franchise. You have granted title