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16 testimony before select Committee ofthe newYork state assembly March 3, 1854 Albany, New York Following the New York Woman’s Rights Convention of February 14–15, 1854, the first to be held at the state capital, reformers who were able to stay on in Albany presented their petitions to committees of the New York State Assembly. According to a report in the Albany Transcript, “Rose’s speeches . . . were the most applauded during the Convention by the New York Legislature.” Rose addressed the issues “in an ingenious and plausible manner. Her remarks were listened to with the most profound attention, and she was encouraged by frequent and prolonged applause. . . . [A]s a whole her speech which was of great length and ability, appeared to be favorably received.” Rose’s subsequent testimony before the legislative committees may not have been so well received, especially by opponents of women’s rights. When Rose and William Channing spoke to a Senate select committee on March 1, the Albany Register reported, “The Honorable senators quailed beneath the trial.” On March 3, Rose joined Susan B. Anthony in addressing a select committee of the Assembly. The Evening Journal described their appearance “before the Senate Committee of Bachelors”: “The only effect produced was a determination more fixed than ever, in the minds of the Committee to remain Bachelors in the event of the success of the movement. . . .” (Gordon 1997, 263n) Her colleagues were even more pleased with Rose’s presentation than the Albany Transcript. Susan B. Anthony reported in a letter to Lucy Stone: . . . We have had a most glorious hearing before our Assembly Committee , the one to whom was referred our Petition for the Just and Equal Rights of Women. All the members, save one, are quite liberally disposed. Mr. Channing and Mrs. Rose were the only members of our committee who could be present at the hearing. . . . After the presentations of the statement to the Senate by Channing, Mrs. Rose and Mr. C. made good arguments—as good as they could under the circumstances. The Senate Committee were very frivolous and wanting in common politeness. I read the document presented to the Assembly Committee. Mrs. Rose followed with an hour’s close argument. We expected Mr. C. to follow her, but he thought best that the impression made by Mrs. R. should not be marred. [N.B. is the end of quote] (Gordon 1997, 262) What follows is an excerpt of Rose’s testimony, published in the March 4, 1854 edition of the Albany Argus. Though brief and incomplete, this document is an important example of Rose’s frequent, but rarely recorded, advocacy before a legisla- 164 ernestIne l.rose ture. Rose spoke before legislative committees in Massachusetts, Michigan, and many times before the State Legislature in New York, but there is little documentation of her words on those occasions, perhaps at least in part because of a fire in the New York State archives in a subsequent period. n The right of petition is of no avail unless the reform demanded be candidly considered by the legislators. We judge of the intellectual inferiority of our fellow-men by the amount of resistance they oppose to oppression , and to some extent we judge correctly by this test. The same rule holds good for women; while they tamely submit to the many inequalities under which they labor, they scarcely deserve to be freed from them. . . . These are not the demands of the moment or the few, they are the demands of the age; of the second half of the nineteenth century. The world will endure after us, and future generations may look back to this meeting to acknowledge that a great onward step was here taken in the cause of human progress. [Mrs. Rose took her seat amidst great applause from the galleries and lobbies. The Committee adjourned.] ...

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