The Select Committee on Woman Suffrage was a select committee of the United States Senate from 1882 to 1921.Robert C. Byrd. The Senate, 1789-1989, Volume 4: Historical Statistics, 1789-1992. Page 609. Government Printing Office. 1993. It was established to consider an amendment to the United States Constitution granting women the right to vote in the United States.

History The Senate established the select committee on January 9, 1882, when it approved a resolution offered by Senator George Hoar of Massachusetts. The committee was directed to consider "all petitions, bills, and resolves asking for the extension of suffrage to women or the removal of their legal disabilities." The first constitutional amendment granting woman suffrage was proposed January 10, 1878, by Senator Aaron Sargent of California. Similar amendments were introduced and referred to the select committee each successive Congress until 1919, when a resolution that was to become the 19th Amendment to the Constitution passed both houses of Congress.

The committee became a standing committee in 1909 when Senator Nelson Aldrich of Rhode Island submitted a resolution that had the effect of giving all current select committees, including Woman Suffrage, full committee status. The committee was abolished in 1921, along with many other obsolete committees.Center for Legislative Archives - Guide to Senate Records: Chapter 13 Woman Suffrage, National Archives

Woman suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony testified before the select committee several times over the year,Today in History: March 8, 1884. Library of Congress the last occurring in 1902.

Chairmen

Name Party State Years Elbridge G. Lapham Republican New York 1882-1883 Francis M. Cockrell Democratic Missouri 1884-1889 Zebulon B. Vance Democratic North Carolina 1890-1892 George Hoar Republican Massachusetts 1893-1895 James Z. George Democratic Mississippi 1897 James H. Berry Democratic Arkansas 1898-1899 John W. Daniel Democratic Virginia 1900-1901 Augustus O. Bacon Democratic Georgia 1902-1907 Alexander S. Clay Democratic Georgia 1908-1910 Lee S. Overman Democratic North Carolina 1911-1912 Charles S. Thomas Democratic Colorado 1913-1916 Andrieus A. Jones Democratic New Mexico 1917-1918 James E. Watson Republican Indiana 1919-1921

See also United States House Committee on Woman Suffrage Women's suffrage in the United States

Sources

External links Report of the Select Committee on Woman Suffrage. United States Senate. 52nd Congress, 2nd Session. January 4, 1893.