here. Mr. Lamar is detained at his home in Mississippi by
sickness; Mr. Carpenter is confined to his room by sickness; Mr.
Conkling has been unwell; I do not know how he is this morning;
and Mr. Garland is chairman of the Committee on Territories,
which has a meeting this morning that he could not fail to
attend. I do not think we are likely to have any more members of
the committee than are here now, and we will hear you, ladies.

Mrs. ZERELDA G. WALLACE of Indiana said: _Mr. Chairman, and
Gentlemen of the Committee_: It is scarcely necessary to say that
there is not an effect without a cause. Therefore it would be
well for the statesmen of this nation to ask themselves the
question, What has brought the women from all parts of this
nation to the capital at this time? What has been the strong
motive that has taken us away from the quiet and comfort of our
own homes and brought us before you to-day? As an answer to that
question I will read an extract from a speech made by one of
Indiana's statesmen. He found out by experience and gave us the
benefit of it:

You can go to meetings; you can vote resolutions; you can
attend great demonstrations in the street; but, after all,
the only occasion where the American citizen expresses his
acts, his opinions, and his power is at the ballot-box; and
that little ballot that he drops in there is the written
sentiment of the times, and it is the power that he has as a
citizen of this great republic.

That is the reason why we are here; the reason why we want to
vote. We are not seditious women, clamoring for any peculiar
rights; it is not the woman question that brings us before you
to-day; it is the human question underlying this movement. We
love and appreciate our country; we value its institutions. We
realize that we owe great obligations to the men of this nation
for what they have done. To their strength we owe the subjugation
of all the material forces of the universe which give us comfort
and luxury in our homes. To their brains we owe the machinery
that gives us leisure for intellectual culture and achievement.
To their education we owe the opening of our colleges and the
establishment of our public schools, which give us these great
and glorious privi