Note 227 — Chapter XXXVII

The Albany Evening Journal of January 22 said: A hearing was granted by the Judiciary Committee to-night, on the petition of the Woman's Tax-payers Association of the City of Rochester, for either representation or relief from taxation. The petitioners were heard in the assembly chamber, and in addition to members of the committee, a large audience of ladies and gentlemen were drawn together, including the president of the Senate, speaker of the House, and nearly all the leading members of both branches of the legislature. The first speaker was Mrs. Blake, the youngest of the trio, who occupied about twenty minutes and was well received. She was followed by Miss Anthony, who made a telling speech, frequently eliciting applause. She recounted her long service in the woman's rights cause, and gave a brief history of the different enactments and repeals on the question for the last thirty years. She related her experience in voting, and said she was fined $100 and costs, one cent of which she had never paid and never meant to. She claimed Judge Waite was in favor of woman suffrage, and believed the present speaker of the Assembly of New York was also in favor of the movement. Calls being made for General Husted, that gentleman replied that Miss Anthony was perfectly correct in her statement. She summed up by asking the committee to report in favor of legislation exempting women from taxation unless represented by the ballot, remarking that she would not ask for the right to vote, as that was guaranteed her by the Constitution of the United States. Miss Anthony then introduced Mrs. Joslyn Gage, who said if any member of the committee had objections to offer or questions to ask she would like the privilege of answering; but as none of the committee availed themselves, she proceeded for fifteen minutes in about the same strain as her predecessors. Calls being made for Mr. Spencer and eliciting no reply from that gentleman, Mrs. Blake said they should consider him a convert.