Pioneers break the ground -- All their demands now practically conceded except the Franchise -- Why is this still refused? -- All other rights depend on Statute Law, suffrage on change of Constitution -- No other nation thus fettered -- Further almost insurmountable obstacles -- Experience in many States -- Either dominant party would enfranchise women if it were sure of their votes -- Liquor interests and political "machines" allied in opposition -- They control the situation -- Figures of votes on Amendments -- Majority of people born opponents of all innovations -- Character of electorate on which women must depend -- Indifference of women themselves -- Reaction against a democratic government -- Facts showing steady progress of Woman Suffrage -- All signs favorable -- Women in education and business -- Old objections dying out -- Personal character of advocates -- Persecution not obsolete but the enfranchisement of women inevitable. CHAPTER I. WOMAN'S CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO VOTE 1-13 Early State constitutions provided against Woman Suffrage -- First demand for it -- Women after the Civil War -- "Male" first used in National Constitution -- Fourteenth Amendment -- Endeavor to make it include women -- They attempt to vote -- Susan B. Anthony's trial -- Case of Virginia L. Minor -- Supreme Court decisions -- Suffrage as a right -- Arguments for the Federal Franchise -- National Association decides to try only for new Amendment -- Hearings before Congressional Committees -- Reports of these committees -- Debate in Congress. CHAPTER II. THE NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1884 14-30 Forming of National Association in 1869 -- Washington selected for annual conventions -- Call for that of '84 -- Extracts from speeches on Kentucky Laws for Women -- Woman before the Law -- Outrage of Disfranchisement -- Ethics of Woman Suffrage -- England vs. the United States -- Bishop Matthew Simpson in Favor of Woman's Enfranchisement -- Resolutions and Plan of Work -- Memorial to Wendell Phillips -- Miss Anthony on Disfranchisement a Disgrace -- Matilda Joslyn Gage on The Feminine in the Sciences. CHAPTER III. CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS AND REPORTS OF 1884 31-55