he District:

"Be it enacted, etc., That from and after the passage of
this act, no person shall be debarred from voting or holding
office in the District of Columbia by reason of sex."

Mrs. Josephine S. Griffing began by saying that the friends
of equal freedom for women in the District had thought the
revision of the local government a fit time to present their
claims and submit a memorial, setting forth the justice of
passing the bill before the committee to remove the
restrictions that forbid women to vote in the District. The
movement was not wholly new, and was known by those active
in the work to be approved by a large mass of women who were
not prepared to express themselves openly. The
enfranchisement of woman is needful to a real
reconstruction.

Mr. Wilcox read a memorial, signed by a committee of
residents of the district, consisting of eleven ladies and
eleven gentlemen, including Mrs. Griffing, Mrs. E. D. E. N.
Southworth, Miss Lydia S. Hall (formerly of Kansas), Mrs.
Annie Denton Cridge, Judge A. B. Olin and Mrs. Olin,
recalling the fact that congress had freed 3,000 slaves, and
enfranchised the 8,000 colored men of the district, both of
which experiments had worked well, notwithstanding
conservative predictions to the contrary; and showing that,
while the former experiments, on a small scale
comparatively, had yielded rich results, so the
enfranchisement of half the adult population would produce
vast good. He incidentally answered the usual arguments
against suffrage, and affirmed that those who possess
neither the power of wealth nor of knowledge wherewith to
protect themselves, most need political power for that
purpose. He remarked that the competition for votes among
politicians was a tremendous educating force, and that laws
would not be certain of enforcement unless those for whose
benefit they were made were clothed with power to compel
such enforcement.

Mrs. Mary T. Corner presented a number of points as to the
laws of the district relating to women, of some of which
Judge Welker took notes with a view to their spee