er, or to modify laws that are
odious.

I have come to Washington, as men cannot address you for us. We
have no power at all; we are totally defenseless. [Miss Smith
then read two short letters written by her sister Abby to the
Springfield _Republican_.] These tell our brief story, and may I
not ask, gentlemen, that they shall so plead with you that you
will report to the Senate unanimously in favor of the sixteenth
amendment, which we ask in order that the women of these United
States who shall come after us may be saved the desecration of
their homes which we have suffered, and our country may be
relieved from the disgrace of refusing representation to that
half of its people that men call the better half, because it
includes their wives and daughters and mothers?

ELIZABETH BOYNTON HARBERT, vice-president for Illinois:
_Gentlemen of the Committee_--We recognize your duty as men
intrusted with the control and guidance of the government to
carefully weigh every phase of this momentous question. Has the
time arrived when it will be safe and expedient to make a
practical application of these great principles of our government
to one-half of the governed, one-half of the citizens of the
United States? The favorite argument of the opposition has been
that women are represented by men, hence have no cause for
complaint. Any careful student of the progress of liberty must
admit that the only possible method for securing justice to the
represented is for their representatives to be made entirely
responsible to their constituents, and promptly removable by
them. We are only secure in delegating power when we can dictate
its use, limit the same, or revoke it. How many of your honorable
committee would vote to make the presidency an office for life,
said office to descend to the heirs in a male line forever, with
no reserved power of impeachment? Yet you would be more fairly
represented than are American women, since they have never
elected their representatives. So far as women are concerned you
are self-constituted rulers. We cannot hope for complete
representation while we are powerless to recall, impeach, or
punish our representatives. We meet with a case in point in the
history of Virginia. Bancroft gives us the following quotation
fr