C. 2. The congress shall have power, by appropriate
legislation, to enforce the provisions of this article.

Thus closed the forty-seventh congress, and although with so little
promise of any substantial good for women, yet this slight
recognition in legislation was encouraging to those who had so long
appealed in vain for the attention of their representatives. A
committee to even consider the wrongs of woman was more than had
ever been secured before, and one to propose some measures of
justice, sustained by the votes of a few statesmen awake to the
degradation of disfranchisement, gave some faint hope of more
generous action in the near future. The tone of the debates[103] in
these later years even, on the nature and rights of women, is
wholly unworthy the present type of developed womanhood and the age
in which we live.

FOOTNOTES:

[81] During the autumn Miss Anthony, Mrs. Jones, Miss Snow and Miss
Couzins, spending some weeks in Washington, asked for an audience
with President Chester A. Arthur, and urged him to recommend in his
first message to congress the appointment of a standing committee
and the submission of a sixteenth amendment.

[82] _Yeas_--Aldrich, Allison, Anthony, Blair, Cameron of Pa.,
Cameron of Wis., Conger, Davis of Ill., Dawes, Edmunds, Ferry,
Frye, Harrison, Hawley, Hill of Col., Hoar, Jones of Fla., Jones of
Nev., Kellogg, Lapham, Logan, McDill, McMillan, Miller of Cal.,
Mitchell, Morrill, Platt, Plumb, Ransom, Rollins, Saunders, Sawyer,
Sewell, Sherman, Windom--35.

_Nays_--Bayard, Beck, Brown, Butler, Camden, Cockrell, Coke, Davis
of W. Va., Fair, Farley, Garland, Hampton, Hill of Ga., Jackson,
Jonas, McPherson, Maxey, Saulsbury, Slater, Vance, Vest, Walker,
Williams--23.

_Absent_--Call, George, Gorman, Groome, Grover, Hale, Harris,
Ingalls, Johnston, Lamar, Mahone, Miller of N. Y., Morgan,
Pendleton, Pugh, Teller, Van Wyck, Voorhees--18.

The members of the committee were Senators Lapham of New York,
Anthony of Rhode Island, Blair of New Hampshire, Jackson of
Tennessee, George of Mississippi, Ferry of Michigan and Fair of
Nevada.

[83] _Yeas_--Aldrich, Anderson, Bayne, Beach, Belford, Bingham,
Black, Bliss, Brewer, Briggs, Browne, Brumm, Buck, Burrows, Julius
C., Butterworth, Calkins, Camp, Campbell, Candler, Cannon,
Carpenter, Caswell, Converse, Crapo, Davis, George R., Dawes,
Deering, De Motte, Dezendorf, Dingley, Dwight, Farwell, Sewall S.,
Finley, Flower, Gedde