res. The amendment
which has been presented before you reads:

ARTICLE XVI.

SECTION 1. The right of suffrage in the United States shall
be based on citizenship, and the right of citizens of the
United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the
United States, or by any State, on account of sex, or for any
reason not equally applicable to all citizens of the United
States.

SEC. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation.

In this way we would get the right of suffrage just as much by
what you call the consent of the States, or the States' rights
method, as by any other method. The only point is that it is a
decision by the representative men of the States instead of by
the rank and file of the ignorant men of the States. If you would
submit this proposition for a sixteenth amendment, by a two-thirds
vote of the two Houses to the several legislatures, and the
several legislatures ratify it, that would be just as much by the
consent of the States as if Tom, Dick, and Harry voted "yes" or
"no." Is it not, Senator? I want to talk to Democrats as well as
Republicans, to show that it is a State's rights method.

SENATOR EDMUNDS. Does anybody propose any other, in case it is
done at all by the nation?

MISS ANTHONY. Not by the nation, but they are continually driving
us back to get it from, the States, State by State. That is the
point I want to make. We do not want you to drive us back to the
States. We want you men to take the question out of the hands of
the rabble of the State.

THE CHAIRMAN. May I interrupt you?

MISS ANTHONY. Yes, sir; I wish you would.

THE CHAIRMAN. You have reflected on this subject a great deal. You
think there is a majority, as I understand, even in the State of
New York, against women suffrage?

MISS ANTHONY. Yes, sir; overwhelmingly.

THE CHAIRMAN. How, then, would you get Legislatures elected to
ratify such a constitutional amendment?

MISS ANTHONY. That brings me exactly to the point.

THE CHAIRMAN. That is the point I wish to hear you upon.

MISS ANTHONY. Because the members of the State Legislatures are
intelligent men and can vote and enact laws embodying great
principles of the government without in any wise endangering their