Dr. Hunt and a few other women have continued their annual protests,
without intermission. In somewhat the same way have petitions recently
been sent to Congress in behalf of universal suffrage. We had no
expectation that any favorable reception would await such petitions; but
it was a duty to put them on record, if we could do it without
perplexing public business. What fate they met in Congress, you have so
recently heard, that I have no occasion to record it. Minnesota, New
York, and other States, have petitioned their Legislatures to the same
effect.
On the 7th of February, 1867, the House of Representatives in Kansas
decided, in concurrence with the Senate, to amend a resolution for the
amendment of the Constitution, by striking out the words "white" and
"male," and making intelligence the basis of suffrage after 1870. This
action has been since rescinded in some way, only the word "_white_"
being stricken out. In Congress, Mr. Noel, of Missouri, offered a series
of resolutions in favor of extending suffrage to women, and authorizing
the calling of a convention to amend the Constitution in the State of
Missouri. The acting Vice-President, the Speaker of the Senate, in
recording his protest against the Suffrage Bill of the District of
Columbia, said, "Make it _intelligent_ suffrage, and I will not only
vote for that, but for _women_ also."
At the recent election of officers for the Philadelphia Mercantile
Library, the female stockholders were admitted to the ballot.