The attendance yesterday morning clearly demonstrated that the woman’s movement has received an immense addition in numbers, quality and earnestness....  Miss Anthony, with her face all aglow, her eyes sparkling with indignation, said that a petition against suffrage had been presented in the Senate by Mr. Edmunds, signed by Mrs. General Sherman, Mrs. Admiral Dahlgren and others.  She was glad the enemies of the movement at last had shown themselves.  They were women who never knew a want, and had no feeling for those who were less fortunate.  They had boasted that if necessary they could get one thousand more signatures of the best women in the land to their petition.  What are a thousand names, and who are the best women in the land?  In answer to the one thousand the advocates of suffrage could bring tens, aye, hundreds of thousands of women who desire the ballot for self-protection.  The fight had now commenced in earnest, and it would not be ended until every woman in this broad land was vested with the full rights of citizenship.

The tenor of all the speeches was the right of women to vote under the recently adopted Fourteenth Amendment.  There was an absence of the usual long series of resolutions, and all were concentrated in the following, presented by Miss Anthony: 

Whereas, The Fourteenth Article of the Constitution of the United States declares that all persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens thereof, and of the State wherein they reside, and as such entitled to the unabridged exercise of the privileges and immunities of citizens, among which are the rights of the elective franchise; therefore

    Resolved, That the Congress of the United States be earnestly
    requested to pass an act declaratory of the true extent and
    meaning of the said Fourteenth Article.

Resolved, That it is the duty of American women in the several States to apply for registration at the proper times and places, and in all cases when they fail to secure it to see that suits be instituted in the courts having jurisdiction, and that their right to the franchise shall secure general and judicial recognition.

In presenting the resolutions she said that if Congress failed to do what was asked, and if the courts decided that “persons” are not citizens, then the women had another resource; they could go back to first principles and push the Sixteenth Amendment.  A national woman suffrage and educational committee of six was formed, herself among the number; and a large book was opened containing a “Declaration and Pledge of Women of the United States,” written by Mrs. Hooker, asserting their belief in their right to the suffrage and their desire to use it.  This was signed within a few months by 80,000 women and presented to Congress.  The following spring large numbers attempted to vote in various parts of the country.