s to her by day and by night.

An address to President Hayes, asking that in his next message he
recommend that women should be protected in their civil and political
rights, was signed by Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony and Mrs. Gage. Several
ladies, by appointment, had a private audience in the President's
library and a courteous and friendly hearing. The petition for a
Sixteenth Amendment was sent in printed form to every member of
Congress, presented in the Senate by Vice-President Wheeler and, at the
request of Senator Ferry, was read at length and referred to the
committee on privileges and elections. This was done by the special
desire of its chairman, Senator Oliver P. Morton, of Indiana, who
stated that he wished to bring in a report in favor of the
amendment.[94]

[Autograph: O.P. Morton]

Before the committee could act upon this question Senator Morton passed
away. An adverse report was presented by his successor, Senator
Bainbridge Wadleigh, of New Hampshire, June 14, 1878. Among many severe
scorings received by this honorable gentleman, the following from Mary
Clemmer will serve as an example:

... You can not be unconscious of the fact that a new race of
women is born into the world who, while they lack no womanly
attribute, are the peers of any man in intellect and aspiration. It
will be impossible long to deny to such women that equality before
the law granted to the lowest creature that crawls, if he happen to
be a man; denied to the highest creature that asks it, if she
happen to be a woman.

On what authority, save that of the gross regality of physical
strength, do you deny to a thoughtful, educated, tax-paying person
the common rights of citizenship because she is a woman? I am a
property-owner, the head of a household. By what right do you
assume to define and curtail for me my prerogatives as a citizen,
while as a tax-payer you make not the slightest distinction between
me and a man? Leave to my own perception what is proper for me as a
lady, to my own discretion what is wise for me as a woman, to my
own conscience what is my duty to my race and to my God. Leave to
unerring nature to protect the subtle boundaries which define the
distinctive life and action of the sexes, while you as a legislator
do everything in your power to secure to every creature of God an
equal chance to make the best and most of himself.