xperiment of woman suffrage shall
be made here, under the eye of Congress, as was that of negro
suffrage. Indeed, the District has ever been the experimental
ground of each step toward freedom. The auction-block was here
first banished, slavery here first abolished, the freedmen here
first enfranchised; and we now ask that women here shall be first
admitted to the ballot. There was great fear and trepidation all
over the country as to the results of negro suffrage, and you
deemed it right and safe to inaugurate the experiment here; and you
all remember that three days' discussion in 1866 on Senator Cowan's
proposition to strike out the word "male." Well do I recollect with
what anxious hope we watched the daily reports of that debate, and
how we longed that Congress might then declare for the
establishment in this District of a real republic. But conscience
or courage or something was wanting, and women were bidden still to
wait.

When, on that March day of 1867, the negroes of the District first
voted, the success of that election inspired Congress with
confidence to pass the proposition for the Fifteenth Amendment, and
the different States to ratify it, until it has become a fixed fact
that black men all over the nation not only may vote but sit in
legislative assemblies and constitutional conventions. We now ask
Congress to do the same for women. We ask you to enfranchise the
women of the District this very winter, so that next March they may
go to the ballot-box, and all the people of this nation may see
that it is possible for women to vote and the republic yet stand.
There is no reason, no argument, nothing but prejudice, against our
demand; and there is no way to break down this prejudice but to
make the experiment. Therefore, we most earnestly urge it, in full
faith that so soon as Congress and the people shall have witnessed
its beneficial results, they will go forward with a Sixteenth
Amendment which shall prohibit any State from disfranchising any of
its citizens on account of sex.

A letter from Mrs. Fannie Howland in the Hartford Courant thus
describes the hearing:

Senator Hannibal Hamlin, chairman, presented to them successively
the gentlemen of the committee, who took their seats around a long
table. Mrs. Stanton stood at one end, serene and dignified. Behind