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.
[3] Woman suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony testified before the select committee several times over the year,[4] the last occurring in 1902.