CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
NOVEMBER 1870
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Throughout the summer and autumn, Representative Butler and I became close friends, uniting under our shared passion for women’s rights. He praised my work with the Weekly and offered to help me refine my argument, borrowed from Virginia Minor, that women already had the right to vote thanks to the Constitution so I could get my message to as many people as possible through my paper.
At the same time, we were coming to realize that in Washington, D.C., the Sixteenth Amendment—which would have given women the right to vote—would go no farther than the Judiciary Committee.
“It’s the classic way to kill a bill no one wants to deal with,” Congressman Butler explained. “But it’s a moot point because our argument overrides the need for it. Tha
