Among the most enlightened women of the country the pending question awakened a deep interest; nor was their testimony wanting. Mrs. Josephine S. Griffing, devoted to good works in Washington, and especially to the care and protection of poor colored people, young and old, wrote from Washington:-- “I hope I shall not be considered intrusive in expressing to you my deep gratitude for and high estimation of your unparalleled speech, made in the United States Senate, February 5th and 6th, not only as contrasted with that of President Johnson to the colored delegation, but as an independent effort, the greatest, because the broadest in its application, of any ever made before the American people.” Mrs. L. M. Worden, sister of the late Mrs. William H. Seward, and always a warm Abolitionist, wrote from Auburn, New York:-- “Please accept my thanks for your noble speech of the 5th and 6th of February, which I have read and re-read with great attention and deep gratitude and admiration. This ‘testimony of the truth’ will add yet another bright page to the record of your undeviating fidelity to the cause of Justice and Humanity.” Mrs. Horace Mann, widow of the philanthropist, teacher, and Representative in Congress, wrote from Concord, Massachusetts:-- “I presume you will receive a thousand letters expressive of the satisfaction and delight that your speech upon the Suffrage question has given; and yet I must add mine, for it is but rarely that one feels that a moral subject is exhausted, and you appear to have accomplished this astonishing result. It is difficult to conceive how Congress can act otherwise than in the highest manner, after listening to it and reading it.” Miss Susan B. Anthony, so earnest to secure suffrage for her own sex, was not less earnest for the colored race:-- “A thousand thanks for your renewed, repeated protest against that proposed Amendment. You stand in the Senate almost the lone man to vindicate the absolute Right. May you be spared these many years, thus to stand and thus to speak!” PRESIDENT JOHNSON AND HIS COUNTER MANIFESTATIONS. An immediate effect of the speech was to hasten yet more the issue with President Johnson. On the day after its delivery he was visited by a delegation of colored citizens, who pleaded especially for the ballot. The President answered with feeling, that he had always been a friend of the colored race, and said:--