After considerable uproar these were referred to a select committee on which were placed two ladies, Mary L. Booth and Julia A. Wilbur, both strong supporters of Miss Anthony.  The committee brought in a majority report in favor of the resolutions but this make-shift minority report was adopted:  “In our opinion the colored children of the State should enjoy equal advantages of education with the white.”  Miss Anthony then proceeded to throw another bomb by presenting this resolution: 

    Since the true and harmonious development of the race demands that
    the sexes be associated together in every department of life;
    therefore

    Resolved, That it is the duty of all our schools, colleges and
    universities to open their doors to woman and to give her equal and
    identical educational advantages side by side with her brother man.

This opened the flood gates.  Motions to lay on the table, to refer to a committee, etc., were voted down.  A few strong speeches were made in favor, but most of them were in opposition and very bitter, insisting that “it was sought to uproot the theory and practice of the whole world.”  The antique Professor Davies was in his element.  He declared:  “Here is an attempt to introduce a vast social evil.  I have been trying for four years,[i.e. ever since Miss Anthony’s first appearance at a teachers’ convention] to escape this question, but if it has to come, let it be boldly met and disposed of.  I am opposed to anything that has a tendency to impair the sensitive delicacy and purity of the female character or to remove the restraints of life.  These resolutions are the first step in the school which seeks to abolish marriage, and behind this picture I see a monster of social deformity.”

Another speaker, whose name is lost in oblivion, said in tones which would melt a heart of stone:  “Shall an oak and a rose tree receive the same culture?  Better to us is the clear, steady, softened, silvery moonlight of woman’s quiet, unobtrusive influence, than the flashes of electricity showing that the true balance of nature is destroyed.  Aye, better a thousand times is it than the glimmering ignus fatuus rising from decayed hopes and leading the deluded follower to those horrible quagmires of social existence—­amalgamation and Mormonism.”

Prof.  John W. Buckley, of Brooklyn, opposed the resolution in coarse and abusive language.  State Superintendent of Public Instruction Henry H. Van Dyck demolished its last hope when he demanded with outstretched arm and pointed finger:  “Do you mean to say you want the boys and girls to room side by side in dormitories?  To educate them together can have but one result!”

The Binghamton Daily Republican said:  “Miss Anthony vindicated her resolutions with eloquence, force, spirit and dignity, and showed herself a match, at least, in debate for any member of the convention.  She was equal if not identical.  Whatever may be thought of her notions or sense of propriety in her bold and conspicuous position, personally, intellectually and socially speaking, there can be but one opinion as to her superior energy, ability and moral courage; and she may well be regarded as an evangel and heroine by her own sex.”