LIV. THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST…

LIV. THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST

The Long Marches Westward--Abigail Scott Duniway--Mary Olney Brown--The First Steps in Oregon--Col. C. A. Reed--Judge G. W. Lawson--1870--The New Northwest, 1871--Campaign, Mrs. Duniway and Miss Anthony--They Address the Legislature in Washington Territory--Hon. Elwood Evans--Suffrage Society Organized at Olympia and at Portland--Before the Oregon Legislature--Donation Land Act--Hon. Samuel Corwin's Suffrage Bill--Married Woman's Sole Traders' Bill--Temperance Alliance--Women Rejected--Major Williams Fights their Battles and Triumphs--Mrs. H. A. Loughary--Progressive Legislation, 1874--Mob-Law in Jacksonville, 1879--Dr. Mary A. Thompson--Constitutional Convention, 1878--Woman Suffrage Bill, 1880--Hon. W. C. Fulton--Women Enfranchised in Washington Territory, Nov. 15, 1883--Great Rejoicing, Bonfires, Ratification Meetings--Constitutional Amendment Submitted in Oregon and Lost, June, 1884--Suffrage by Legislative Enactment Lost--Fourth of July Celebrated at Vancouvers--Benjamin and Mary Olney Brown--Washington Territory--Legislation in 1867-68 Favorable to Women--Mrs. Brown Attempts to Vote and is Refused--Charlotte Olney French--Women Vote at Grand Mound and Black River Precincts, 1870--Retrogressive Legislation, 1871--Abby H. Stuart in Land-Office--Hon. William H. White--Idaho and Montana.

In the spring of 1852, when the great furor for going West was at its height, in the long trails of miners, merchants and farmers wending their way in ox-carts and canvas-covered wagons over the vast plains, mountains and rivers, two remarkable women, then in the flush of youth, might have been seen; one, Abigail Scott Duniway, destined to leave an indelible mark on the civilization of Oregon, and the other, Mary Olney Brown, on that of Washington territory. What ideas were revolving in these young minds in that long journey of 3,000 miles, six months in duration, it would be difficult to imagine, but the love of liberty had been infused in their dreams somewhere, either in their eastern homes from the tragic scenes of the anti-slavery conflict, or on that perilous march amidst those eternal solitudes by day and the solemn stillness of the far-off stars in the gathering darkness. That this long communion with great nature left its impress on their young hearts and sanctified their lives to the best interests of humanity at large, is clearly seen in the deeply interesting accounts they give of their endeavors to mould the governments of their respective territories on republican principles. Writing of herself and her labors, Mrs. Duniway says:

I was born in Pleasant Grove, Tazewell county, Illinois, October 22, 1834, of the traditional "poor but respectable parentage" which has honored the advent of many a more illustrious worker than myself. Brought up on a farm and familiar from my earliest years with the avocations of rural life, spending the early spring-times in the maple-sugar camp, the later weeks in gardening and gathering stove-wood, the summers in picking and spinning wool, and the autumns in drying apples, I found little opportunity, and that only in winter, for books or play. My father was a generous-hearted, impulsive, talented, but uneducated man; my mother was a conscientious, self-sacrificing, intelligent, but uneducated woman. Both were devotedly religious, and both believed implicitly that self-abnegation was the crowing glory of womanhood. Before I was seventeen I was employed as a district school teacher, received a first-class certificate and taught with success, though how I became possessed of the necessary qualifications I to this day know not. I never did, could, or would study when at school.

In the spring of 1852 my father decided to emigrate to Oregon. My invalid mother expostulated in vain; she and nine of us children were stowed away in ox-wagons, where for six months we made our home, cooking food and washing dishes around camp-fires, sleeping at night in the wagons, and crossing many streams upon wagon-beds, rigged as ferryboats. When our weary line of march had reached the Black Hills of Wyoming my mother became a victim to the dreadful epidemic, cholera, that devastated the emigrant trains in that never-to-be-forgotten year, and after a few hours' illness her weary spirit was called to the skies. We made her a grave in the solitudes of the eternal hills, and again took up our line of march, "too sad to talk, too dumb to pray." But ten weeks after, our Willie, the baby, was buried in the sands of the Burnt River mountains. Reaching Oregon in the fall with our broken household, consisting of my father and eight motherless children, I engaged in school-teaching till the following August, when I allowed the name of "Scott" to become "Duniway." Then for twenty years I devoted myself, soul and body, to the cares, toils, loves and hopes of a conscientious wife and mother. Five sons and one daughter have been born to us, all of whom are living and at home, engaged with their parents in harmonious efforts for the enfranchisement of women.

The first woman suffrage society ever formed in Oregon, was organized in Salem, the capital of the State, in the autumn of 1870, and consisted of about a dozen members. Col. C. A. Reed was chosen president and G. W. Lawson, secretary. This little society which maintained a quiescent existence for a year or more and then disbanded without ceremony, was, in part, the basis of all subsequent work of its character in Oregon. In the winter of 1871 this society honored me with credentials to a seat in the woman suffrage convention which was to meet in San Francisco the following May. My business called me to the Golden City before the time for the convention, and a telegraphic summons compelled me to return to Oregon without meeting with the California Association in an official way, as I had hoped. But my credentials introduced me to the San Francisco leaders, among whom Emily Pitts Stevens occupied a prominent position as editor and publisher of the The Pioneer, the first woman suffrage paper that appeared on the Pacific coast. Before returning to Oregon I resolved to purchase an outfit and begin the publication of a newspaper myself, as I felt that the time had come for vigorous work in my own State, and we had no journal in which the demands of women for added rights were treated with respectful consideration.

Soon after reaching my home in Albany I sold my millinery store and removed to Portland, where, on May 5, 1871, the New Northwest made its appearance, and a siege of the citadels of a one-sexed government began, which at this writing is going on with unabated persistency. The first issue of this journal was greeted by storms of ridicule. Everybody prophesied its early death, and my personal friends regarded the enterprise with sincere pity, believing it would speedily end in financial disaster. But the paper, in spite of opposition and burlesque, has grown and prospered.

In August, 1871, Susan B. Anthony favored Oregon and Washington territory with a visit. The fame of this veteran leader had preceded her, and she commanded a wide hearing. We traveled together over the country, visiting inland villages as well as larger towns, holding woman suffrage meetings and getting many subscribers for the New Northwest. During these journeyings I became quite thoroughly initiated into the movement and made my first efforts at public speaking. After a six weeks' campaign in Oregon, we went to Olympia, the capital of Washington territory, where the legislature was in session, and where, through a motion of Hon. Elwood Evans, we were invited to address the Assembly in advocacy of equal rights for all the people. From Olympia we proceeded to Victoria, a border city belonging to a woman's government, where we found that the idea of the ballot for woman was even more unpopular than in the United States, though all, by strange inconsistency, were intensely loyal to their queen. After an interesting and profitable experience in the British possessions we returned to Puget Sound, stopping over on our route at the different milling towns that teem with busy life upon the evergreen shores of this Mediterranean of the Pacific. At Seaettle we organized an association[507] in which many of the leading ladies and gentlemen took a prominent part; after which we returned to Olympia, where a territorial organization was effected.[508]

Returning to Portland, we called a convention, and organized the Oregon State Woman Suffrage Association, with Harriet W. Williams, a venerated octogenarian, president. This estimable woman had been one of the earliest leaders of the woman suffrage movement in the State of New York, and her presence at the head of our meetings in Oregon was a source of genuine satisfaction to the friends of the cause in the new State of her adoption. Subsequently, Mrs. Williams was compelled to resign on account of increasing infirmities, but her wise counsels are still cherished by her successors, whom she regards with motherly solicitude as she serenely awaits the final summons of the unseen messenger. Many of those who early distinguished themselves in this connection deserve special mention because of their long-continued zeal in the work.[509] If others failed us, these were always ready to work the hardest when the fight was hottest. And whatever might be our differences of opinion personally, we have always presented an unbroken phalanx to the foe. The original society at Salem having disbanded, its members joined the new State Association organized at Portland, which has ever since been regarded as the nucleus of all our activities.

In September of 1872, I visited the Oregon legislature, where I went clothed by our association with discretionary power to do what I could to secure special legislation for the women of the State, who, with few exceptions, were at that time entirely under the dominion of the old common law. The exceptions were those fortunate women who, having come to Oregon as early as 1850 and '52, had, by virtue of a United States law, known as the Oregon Donation Land Act, become possessed of "claims," as they were called, on equal shares with their husbands, their half, or halves, of the original ground being set apart as their separate property in realty and fee simple. This Donation Land Act deserves especial mention, it being the first law enacted in the United States which recognized the individual personality of a married woman. It became a temporary law of congress in 1850, mainly through the efforts of Hon. Samuel R. Thurston, delegate from Oregon territory (which at that time included the whole of Washington territory), aided by the eminent Dr. Linn of Missouri, from whom one of the principal counties of the State of Oregon derives its name.

My first experience in the capitol was particularly trying. I spent two days among my acquaintances in Salem in a vain attempt to find a woman who was ready or willing to accompany me to the state-house. All were anxious that I should go, but each was afraid to offend her husband, or make herself conspicuous, by going herself. Finally, when I had despaired of securing company, and had nerved myself to go alone, Mary P. Sawtelle, who afterwards became a physician, and now resides in San Francisco where she has a lucrative practice, volunteered to stand by me, and together we entered the dominion hitherto considered sacred to the aristocracy of sex, and took seats in the lobby, our hearts beating audibly. Hon. Joseph Engle, perceiving the innovation and knowing me personally, at once arose, and, after a complimentary speech in which he was pleased to recognize my position as a journalist, moved that I be invited to a seat within the bar and provided with table and stationery as were other members of the profession. The motion carried, with only two or three dissenting votes; and the way was open from that time forward for women to compete with men on equal terms for all minor positions in both branches of the legislature--a privilege they have not been slow to avail themselves of, scores of them thronging the capitol in these later years, and holding valuable clerkships, many of them sneering the while at the efforts of those who opened the way for them to be there at all.

Hon. Samuel Corwin introduced a woman suffrage bill in the House of Representatives early in the session; and while it was pending, I was invited to make an appeal in its behalf, of which I remember very little, so frightened and astonished was I, except that once I inadvertently alluded to a gentleman by his name instead of his county, whereupon, being called to order, I blushed and begged pardon, but put myself at ease by informing the gentlemen that in all the bygone years while they had been studying parliamentary rules, I had been rocking the cradle.

One member who had made a vehement speech against the bill, in which he had declared that no respectable woman in his county desired the elective franchise, became particularly incensed, as was natural, upon my exhibiting a woman suffrage petition signed by the women he had misrepresented, and headed, mirabile dictu, by the name of his own wife! The so-called representative of women lost his temper, and gave vent to some inelegant expletives, for which he was promptly reprimanded by the chair. This offender has since been many times a candidate for office, but the ladies of his district have always secured his defeat. The woman suffrage bill received an unexpectedly large vote at this session, and was favored in 1874 by a still larger one, when it was ably championed by Hon. C. A. Reed, the before named ex-president of the first woman suffrage society in the State.

In 1872 the Senate, the House concurring, passed a Married Woman's Sole Trader bill, under the able leadership of Hon. J. N. Dolph, who has since distinguished himself as our champion in the Senate of the United States. This bill has ever since enabled any woman engaged in business on her own account to register the fact in the office of the county clerk, and thereby secure her tools, furniture, or stock in trade against the liability of seizure by her husband's creditors.

Perhaps I cannot better illustrate the general feeling of opposition to women having a place in public affairs at that time, than by describing the scenes in the State Temperance Alliance in February of that year, when somebody placed my name in nomination as chairman of an important committee. The presiding officer was seized with a sudden deafness when the nomination was made, and the Alliance was convulsed with merriment. Ladies on all sides buzzed about me, and urged me to resent the insult in the name of womanhood. And, as none of them were at that time public speakers, I felt obliged to rise and speak for myself.

"Mr. President," I exclaimed, "by what right do you refuse to recognize women when their names are called? Are men the only lawful members of this Alliance? And if so, is it not better for the women delegates to go home?"

"Mr. President: The committees are now full!" shouted an excited voter. Somebody, doubtless in ridicule, then nominated me as vice-president-at-large, which was carried amid uproarious merriment. I took my seat, half frightened and wholly indignant; and the deliberations of the sovereign voters were undisturbed for several hours thereafter by word or sign from women. At last they got to discussing a bill for a prohibitory liquor law, and the heat of debate ran high. During the excitement somebody carried a note to the presiding officer, who read it, smiled, colored, and rising, said: "We are hearing nothing from the ladies, and yet they constitute a large majority of this Alliance. Mrs. Duniway, will you not favor us with a speech?"

I was taken wholly by surprise, but sprang to my feet and said: "Mr. President: I have always wondered what it was that consumed so much time in men's conventions. I hope gentlemen will pardon the criticism, but you talk too much, and too many of you try to talk at once. My head is aching from the roar and din of your noisy orators. Gentlemen, what does it all amount to? You are talking about prohibition, but you overestimate your political strength. Disastrous failures attend upon all your endeavors to conquer existing evils by the votes of men alone. Give women the legal power to combat intemperance, and they will soon be able to prove that they do not like drunken husbands any better than men like drunken wives. Make women free. Give them the power the ballot gives to you, and the control of their own earnings which rightfully belong to them, and every woman will be able to settle this prohibition business in her own home and on her own account. Men will not tolerate drunkenness in their wives; and women will not tolerate it in husbands unless compelled to."

A prominent clergyman arose, and said: "Mr. President: I charge the sins of the world upon the mothers of men. There are twenty thousand fallen women in New York--two millions of them in America. We cannot afford to let this element vote." Before I was aware of what I was doing I was on my feet again. Shaking my finger at the clergymen, I exclaimed: "How dare you make such charges against the mothers of men? You tell us of two millions of fallen women who, you say, would vote for drunkenness; but what say you, sir, to the twenty millions of fallen men--all voters--whose patronage alone enables fallen women to live? Would you disfranchise them, sir? I pronounce your charge a libel upon womanhood, and I know that if we were voters you would not dare to utter it."

A gentleman from Michigan--Mr. Curtis--called me to order, saying my remarks were personal. "You, sir, sat still and didn't call this man to order while he stood up and insulted all womanhood!" I exclaimed, vehemently. "Prohibition is the question before the house," said the gentleman, "and the lady should confine herself to the resolution." "That is what I am doing, sir. I am talking about prohibition, and the only way possible to make it succeed."

The chair sustained me amid cries of "good!" "good!" but I had become too thoroughly self-conscious by this time to be able to say anything further, and, with a bow to the chairman whom I had before forgotten to address, I tremblingly took my seat.

A resolution was passed, after a long and stormy debate, declaring it the duty of the legislature to empower women to vote on all questions connected with the liquor traffic; and I, as its author, was chosen a committee to present the same for consideration at the coming legislative session. Woman suffrage gained a new impetus all over the Northwest through this victory. Everybody congratulated its advocates, and the good minister who had unwittingly caused the commotion seized the first opportunity to explain that he had always been an advocate of the cause. I was by this time so thoroughly advertised by the abuse of the press that I had no difficulty in securing large audiences in all parts of the Pacific Northwest.

I was chosen in April, 1872, as delegate to the annual meeting of the National Association, held in New York the following month. Horace Greeley received the nomination for the presidency at the Cincinnati Liberal Republican Convention while I was on the way; and when I reached New York I at first threw what influence I had in the Association in favor of the great editor. But Miss Anthony, who knew Mr. Greeley better than I did, caused me to be appointed chairman of a committee to interview the reputed statesman and officially report the result at the evening session. Miss Anthony and Mrs. Jane Graham Jones of Chicago were the other members of this committee. We obtained the desired interview, of which it only needs to be said that it became my humiliating duty to ask pardon in the evening for the speech in advocacy of the illustrious candidate which in my ignorance I had made in the morning. That Mr. Greeley owed his defeat in part to the opposition of women in that memorable campaign, I have never doubted. But he builded better than he knew in earlier years, for he planted many a tree of liberty that shall live through the ages to come, overshadowing in a measure his failure to recognize the divine right of political equality for woman in his later days.

The first annual convention of the Oregon State Association met in Portland, February 9, 1873. Many ladies and several gentlemen[510] of more or less local prominence assisted at this convention, but we were able to prevail upon but one gentleman, Col. C. A. Reed of Salem, to occupy the platform with us. This convention received favorable notice from the respectable press of the State, and was largely attended by the best elements of the city and country. Delegates were chosen to attend the forthcoming State Temperance Alliance which held its second annual meeting February 20, and to which a dozen of us went bearing credentials. It was evident from the first that trouble was brewing. The enemy had had a whole year to prepare an ambuscade of which our party had no suspicion. A Committee on Credentials was appointed with instructions to rule the woman suffrage delegation out of the Alliance as a "disturbing element." Hon J. Quinn Thornton was chairman of that committee. In his report he declared all delegations to be satisfactory (including those from the penitentiary) except the women whom he styled "setting hens," "belligerent females," etc., after which he subsided with pompous gravity. All eyes were turned upon me, and I felt as I fancy a general must when the success or failure of an army in battle depends upon his word. "Mr. President," I exclaimed, as soon as I could get the floor, "I move to so amend the report of the committee as to admit the suffrage delegation." The motion was seconded by a half-dozen voices. Then followed a scene which beggars description. It was pandemonium broken loose. When I arose again to address the chair that worthy ordered my arrest by the sergeant-at-arms, saying: "Take that crazy woman out of the house and take care of her." The officer came forward in discharge of his duty, but he quailed before my uplifted pencil, and several gentlemen stepped into the aisle and began drawing off their coats to defend me, among them a veteran minister of the gospel. I smiled and bowed my thanks, and as nobody could hear a word amid the uproar I complacently took my seat while the officer skulked away, crestfallen. All that day and evening, and until one o'clock the next afternoon, a noisy rabble of self-styled temperance men sought to prevent bringing the question to a square and honorable vote. Major George Williams, a brave man who had lost a limb in fighting for his country, at last succeeded in wearying the chairman into a semblance of duty. The result was a triumph for the advocates of suffrage. A recess was then taken, during which my hand was so often and enthusiastically shaken that my shoulder was severely lamed. The first thing in order after resuming business was my report as Legislative Committee. I advanced to the platform amid deafening cheers and, as soon as I could make myself heard, said, in substance, that the legislature had decided that it was an insult to womanhood to grant women the right to vote on intemperance and debar them from voting on all honorable questions. I then offered a fair and unequivocal woman suffrage resolution, which was triumphantly carried. The disappointed minority seceded from the Alliance and set up a "Union" for themselves; but their confederacy did not live long, and its few followers finally returned to their alma mater and gave us no further trouble.

Woman suffrage associations were formed in several counties during the year 1874. Our strength was now much increased by the able assistance of Mrs. H. A. Loughary, who suddenly took her place in the front rank as a platform speaker. The editorial work of the New Northwest received a valuable auxiliary in June of this year in the person of Catharine A. Coburn, a lady of rare journalistic ability, who held her position five years, when my sons, W. S., H. R. and W. C. Duniway, having completed their school duties and attained their majority, were admitted to partnership in the business. Mrs. Coburn now holds a situation on the editorial staff of the Daily Oregonian.

In the autumn of 1876 I was absent at the Centennial Exposition, whither I had gone in the summer in response to an invitation from the National Woman Suffrage Association to "Come over into Macedonia and help." The work for equal rights made favorable headway in the legislature of Oregon that year through the influence of a convention held at Salem under the able leadership of Mrs. H. A. Loughary and Dr. Mary A. Thompson.

In June, 1878, a convention met in Walla Walla, Washington territory, for the purpose of forming a constitution for the proposed new State of Washington, and in compliance with the invitation of many prominent women of the territory I visited the convention and was permitted to present a memorial in person, praying that the word "male" be omitted from the fundamental law of the incubating State. But my plea (like that of Abigail Adams a century before) failed of success, through a close vote however--it stood 8 to 7--and men went on as before, saying, as they did in the beginning: "Women do not wish to vote. If they desire the ballot let them ask for it." In September of that year I was again at my post in the Oregon legislature circulating the New Northwest among the law-makers, and doing what else I could to keep the cause before them in a manner to enlist their confidence and command their respect. An opportunity was given me at this session to make an extended argument upon constitutional liberty before a joint convention of the two Houses, which occupied an hour in delivery and was accorded profound attention. I was much opposed to the growing desire of the legislature to shirk its responsibility upon the voters at large by submitting a proposed constitutional amendment to them when the constitution nowhere prohibits women from voting, and I labored to show that all we need is a declaratory act extending to us the franchise under the existing fundamental law. Dr. Mary A. Thompson followed in a brief speech and was courteously received. The Married Woman's Property bill, passed in 1874, received some necessary amendments at this session, and an act entitling women to vote upon school questions and making them eligible to school offices, was passed by a triumphant majority.

I went to Southern Oregon in 1879, and while sojourning in Jacksonville was assailed with a shower of eggs (since known in that section as "Jacksonville arguments") and was also burned in effigy on a principal street after the sun went down. Jacksonville is an old mining town, beautifully situated in the heart of the Southern Oregon mountains, and has no connection with the outside world except through the daily stagecoaches. Its would-be leading men are old miners or refugees from the bushwhacking district whence they were driven by the civil war. The taint of slavery is yet upon them and the methods of border-ruffians are their hearts' delight. It is true that there are many good people among them, but they are often over-awed by the lawless crowd whose very instincts lead them to oppose a republican form of government. But that raid of the outlaws proved a good thing for the woman suffrage movement. It aroused the better classes, and finally shamed the border ruffians by its own reaection. When I returned to Portland a perfect ovation awaited me. Hundreds of men and women who had not before allied themselves with the movement made haste to do so. The newspapers were filled with severe denunciations of the mob, and "Jackson-villains," as the perpetrators of the outrage were styled, grew heartily disgusted over their questionable glory.

When the legislature met in the autumn of 1880 it was decided by the Woman Suffrage Association that we could "raise the blockade" and encourage agitation in the work by consenting to an attempt to amend the State constitution. Pursuant to this decision a resolution was offered in the Senate by Hon. W. C. Fulton of Clatsop, and in the House by Hon. Lee Laughlin, which, after considerable discussion pro and con in which I was graciously invited to participate on the floor of both Houses, was passed by the requisite two-thirds majority. The result was considered a triumph for the cause. A grand ratification jubilee was held in the opera-house in honor of the event, and resolutions of thanks to the lawmakers were passed, accompanied by many expressions of faith in the legislation of the future.

In the meantime the work was going steadily on in Washington territory, my own labors being distributed about equally between the two sections of the Pacific Northwest that had formerly been united under one territorial government. In the autumn of 1881 the legislature of Washington met one afternoon in joint convention to listen to arguments from Hon. William H. White and myself, on which occasion I held the floor for nearly three hours, in the midst of an auditory that was itself an inspiration. Mr. White, a Democrat of the old school, and now (1885) holding the office of United States marshal in the territory, under commission from President Cleveland, based his plea for woman suffrage upon the enfranchisement of the colored men, urging it strongly as a means of Democratic retaliation. The suffrage bill passed in the House on the following day by a majority of two, but was defeated in the Council by a majority of two, showing that the vote would have been a tie if taken under the joint-ballot rule.

Returning to Oregon I renewed the contest, and in the autumn of 1882 we were all gratified by the passage of the pending constitutional amendment by a very nearly unanimous vote of each House. Then the Oregon campaign began in earnest. The question had assumed formidable proportions and was no longer an ignored issue. The work went on with accelerated speed, and as far as could be ascertained there was little or no opposition to it. The meetings were largely attended and affirmative speakers were ready to assist at all times, the help of this kind representing all grades of the professions, led by the best and most influential men of the State everywhere.

Another year went by, and the time for assembling the Washington territory legislature was again at hand. Immediately upon arriving at Olympia I learned that a coterie of politicians, finding open hostility no longer effectual, had combined to crush the woman suffrage bill, which had passed the House triumphantly, by lobbying a "substitute" through the Council. In pursuance of this seemingly plausible idea they talked with the ladies of Olympia and succeeded in convincing a few of them that all women, and especially all leaders of the movement, must be kept away from the capitol or the bill would certainly be defeated. Several women who ought to have have known better were deceived by these specious pleaders, and but for some years of experience in legislative assemblies that had brought me to comprehend the "ways that are dark and tricks that are vain," for which the average politician is "peculiar," the ruse would have succeeded. I remained at headquarters, enduring alike the open attacks of the venal press and the more covert opposition of the saloons and brothels, and, as vigilantly as I could, watched all legislative movements, taking much pains to keep the public mind excited through the columns of the Daily Oregonian and the weekly issues of the New Northwest. The bill, which had been prepared by Professor William H. Roberts, passed the House early in the session; but it tarried long in the Council, and those most interested were well-nigh worn out with work and watching before the measure reached a vote. It came up for final passage November 15, 1883, when only three or four women were present. The Council had been thoroughly canvassed before-hand and no member offered to make a speech for or against it. The deathly stillness of the chamber was broken only by the clerk's call of the names and the firm responses of the "ayes" and "noes." I kept the tally with a nervous hand, and my heart fairly stood still as the fateful moment came that gave us the majority. Then I arose and without exchanging words with any one left the state-house and rushed toward the telegraph-office, half a mile distant, my feet seeming to tread the air. Judge J. W. Range of Cheney, president of a local woman suffrage society, overtook me on the way, bound on the same errand. He spoke, and I felt as if called back to earth with a painful reminder that I was yet mortal. A few minutes more and my message was on the way to the New Northwest. It was publication-day and the paper had gone to press, but my jubilant and faithful sons opened the forms and inserted the news, and in less than half an hour the newsboys were crying the fact through the streets of Portland, making the New Northwest, which had fought the fight and led the work to the point where legislation could give a victory, the very first paper in the nation to herald the news to the world. The rejoicing in Oregon, as well as in Washington territory, was most inspiriting. A bloodless battle had been fought and won, and the enemy, asleep in carnal security, had been surrendered unawares. The women of Oregon thanked God and took courage.

After passing the Council the bill passed leisurely, and some of us feared perilously, through the various stages of clerical progress till November 22, when it received the signature of Governor William A. Newell, who used a gold pen presented him for the purpose by women whom his act made free. And when at a given signal the church bells rang in glad acclaim, and the loud boom of minute-guns reverberated from the forest-clothed hills that border Puget Sound and lost itself at last in the faint echoes of the far-off hights, the scroll of the dead century unrolled before my inner vision and I beheld in spirit another scene on the further verge of the continent, when men in designing to ring the bell at Independence Hall in professed honor of the triumph of liberty, although not a woman in the land was free, had sought in vain to force the loyal metal into glad responses; for the old bell quivered in every nerve and broke its heart rather than tell a lie!

An immense ratification jubilee was held in the evening of the same day at the city hall in Olympia, with many distinguished speakers.[511] Similar meetings were subsequently held in all the principal towns of the Pacific Northwest. The freed women of Washington thankfully accepted their new prerogatives. They were appointed as jurors in many localities, and have ever since performed their duties with eminent satisfaction to judges, lawyers and all clients who are seeking to obey the laws. But their jurisdiction soon became decidedly uncomfortable for the law-breaking elements, which speedily escaped to Oregon, where, as the sequel proved, they began a secret and effective war upon the pending constitutional amendment. We all knew we had a formidable foe to fight at the ballot-box. Our own hands were tied and our own guns spiked, while our foe was armed to the teeth with ballots, backed by money and controlled by vice, bigotry and tyranny. But the leading men of the State had long been known to favor the amendment; the respectable press had become mildly, and in a few cases earnestly acquiescent; no opposition could be raised at any of our public meetings, and we felt measurably sure of a victory until near election time, when we discovered to our dismay that most of the leading politicians upon whom we had relied for aid had suddenly been seized with an alarming reticence. They ceased to attend the public meetings and in every possible way ignored the amendment, lest by openly allying themselves with it they might lose votes; and as all of them were posing in some way for office, for themselves or friends, and women had no votes with which to repay their allegiance, it was not strange that they should thus desert us.

Our Republican senator in congress, Hon. J. N. Dolph, favored the Woman Suffrage Association with an able and comprehensive letter, which was widely circulated, urging the adoption of the amendment as a measure of justice and right, and appealing to the voters to make Oregon the banner State of the great reform. Leading clergymen, especially of Portland, preached in favor of woman suffrage, prominent among them being Rev. T. L. Eliot, pastor of the Unitarian church; Chaplain R. S. Stubbs of the Church of Sea and Land, and Rev. Frederic R. Marvin of the First Congregational society. Appeals to voters were widely circulated from the pens and speeches of many able gentlemen.[512] Not one influential man made audible objection anywhere.

We had carefully districted and organized the State, sparing neither labor nor money in providing "Yes" tickets for all parties and all candidates and putting them everywhere in the hands of friends for use at the polls. But the polls were no sooner open than it began to appear that the battle was one of great odds. Masked batteries were opened in almost every precinct, and multitudes of legal voters who are rarely seen in daylight except at a general election, many of whom were refugees from Washington territory, crowded forth from their hiding-places to strike the manacled women down. They accused the earnest ladies who had dared to ask for simple justice of every crime in the social catalogue. Railroad gangs were driven to the polls like sheep and voted against us in battalions. But, in spite of all this, nearly one-third of the vote was thrown in our favor, requiring a change of only about one-fourth of the opposing vote to have given us a victory, and proving to the amazement of our enemies that the strength of our cause was already formidable.[513] We were repulsed but not conquered. Before the smoke of the battle had cleared away we had called immense meetings and passed vigorous resolutions, thanking the lovers of liberty who had favored us with their suffrages, and pledging ourselves anew to the conflict.

We at once decided that we would never again permit the legislature to remand us to the rabble in a vain appeal for justice. We had demonstrated the impossibility of receiving a fair, impartial vote at the hands of the ignorant, lawless and unthinking multitude whose ballots outweigh all reason and overpower all sense. In pursuance of this purpose I went to the legislature of 1885 and found no difficulty in securing the aid of friendly members of both Houses who kindly championed the following bill:

Be it enacted by the Legislative Assembly of Oregon:

That the elective franchise shall not hereafter be denied to any person in this State on account of sex.

This act to be in force from and after its approval by the governor.

After much parliamentary fillibustering the vote of both Houses was recorded upon this bill and stood conjointly 34 to 54. This vote, coming so soon after our defeat at the polls, is regarded as the greatest victory we have yet won. The ablest lawyers of the State and of Washington territory are preparing elaborate opinions showing the constitutionality of our present plan, and these are to be published in the form of a standard work, with appropriate references for convenient use. The movement exhibits a healthy, steady and encouraging growth, and is much accelerated by its success in Washington territory.

On the Fourth of July of this year a grand celebration was held at Vancouver, on Washington soil, the women of Oregon having resolved in large numbers that they would never again unite in celebrating men's independence-day in a State where they are denied their liberty. The celebration was a success from first to last. Boys and girls in equal numbers rode in the liberty-car and represented the age of the government. The military post at Vancouver joined heartily in the festivities, headed by the gallant soldier, General Nelson A. Miles, commander-in-chief of the department of the Columbia. The fine Fourteenth Infantry Band furnished the instrumental music, and a local choir rendered spirited choruses. The New Declaration of Independence was read by Josie De Vore Johnson, the oration was delivered by Mattie A. Bridge, and Louise Lester, the famous prima donna, electrified the delighted crowd by her triumphant rendition of the "Star-Spangled Banner." The exercises closed with the announcement by the writer, who had officiated as president of the day, that the Executive Committee of the Oregon Woman Suffrage Association had, during the noon recess, adopted the following resolutions:

Resolved, That our thanks are due to General Nelson A. Miles of the department of the Columbia for his valuable cooeperation in the exercises and entertainments of this historic day.

Resolved, That we thank the citizens of Clarke County, and especially of Vancouver, for their hospitality and kindness, so graciously bestowed upon their less fortunate Oregon neighbors, who have not yet achieved their full independence, and we shall ever cherish their fraternal recognition in grateful remembrance.

Resolved, That while we deplore the injustice that still deprives the women of Oregon of the liberty to exercise their right to the elective franchise, we rejoice in the record the women of Washington are making as citizens, as voters and as jurors. We congratulate them upon their newly-acquired liberties, and especially upon the intelligent and conscientious manner in which they are discharging the important public duties that in no wise interfere with their home affairs. And we are further

Resolved, That if our own fathers, husbands, sons and brothers do not at the next session of the Oregon legislature bestow upon us the same electoral privileges which the women of Washington already enjoy, we will prepare to cross the Columbia River and take up our permanent abode in this "land of the free and home of the brave."

The resolutions evoked cheers that waked the echoes, and the celebration, reported by the Oregon press, contributed largely to the growth of the equal-rights sentiment among the people of the State. Two stanzas of a spirited poem are subjoined, written for the Woman Suffrage Association just after our defeat at the polls, by a young man from Southern Oregon who has withheld his own name but included the names of all the counties in his glorious prophecy:

From Clatsop and from Clackamas, from Linn and Tillamook; From Grant, Multnomah, Lane and Coos, and Benton, Lake and Crook; From Josephine, Columbia, and loyal Washington, And Union, Baker and Yamhill, and proud old Marion; From where the Cascade mountain-streams their foaming waters pour, We're coming, mothers, sisters, dear, "ten times ten thousand more."

From Klamath's lakes and Wasco's plains, and Jackson's rolling hills; From Douglas with her mines of gold, and Curry with her mills; From Umatilla's burdened fields, and hills and dales of Polk, We're coming with our votes and songs to break the tyrant's yoke, And in the ears of Liberty this song of joy we'll pour, We're coming, mothers, sisters, dear, "ten times ten thousand more."

Mrs. Mary Olney Brown gives an amusing account of her attempts to vote in Washington territory. The incidents related occurred several years before the passage of the act specifically enfranchising women. She says:

I do not think there has ever been a session of our legislature that has not had before it the subject of woman suffrage. It has been my habit to write out, and send to all parts of the territory, before the assembling of each legislature, petitions to be signed, asking for a law guaranteeing to women the exercise of their right to vote. These petitions were not without their effect, though no one knew who sent them out, or, when returned, who selected the member to receive and present them to the legislature. At the session of 1867, mainly through the efforts of Edward Eldridge of Whatcom County, an act was passed giving "all white American citizens above the age of twenty-one years" the right to vote. This law is still on our statute books; but, like the fourteenth amendment, is interpreted to mean only male citizens. During the time between the passage of this law and the next election, I wrote to some of the prominent women of the principal towns, telling them of the law, and urging them to go out and vote at the coming election, and also to induce as many more to go as they could. But no notice was taken of my letters. I was looked upon as a fanatic, and the idea of a woman voting was regarded as an absurdity. The law seemed to be in advance of the people. It needed lectures and organized societies among us to educate the women into a just appreciation of their rights and duties.

In the autumn of 1868, Dr. Smith wrote several articles on the right of women to the ballot, as did also Mr. Eldridge. The latter asserted that it was the intention of the law to give the women of the territory the right to vote; that being a member of the legislature he had purposely stated in his remarks, that if the bill passed in that form, it would give the women the right to vote; and a member from his seat cried out, "That is what we want!" Mr. Eldridge urged the women to go out to the polls and vote. These articles were published in the Olympia Transcript, the Republican paper, J. N. Gale, one of the editors, being an advocate of suffrage. Still not a woman made a move. Many wished to vote; they knew it was the only way to secure their rights, and yet they had not the courage to go to the polls in defiance of custom.

Seeing this to be the case, and knowing that if anything was done some one must take the initiative, I determined to cast aside my timidity and set the ball rolling. Accordingly, several weeks before the election of 1869 I gave out word that I was going to the polls to vote. I had the previous year removed with my family from Olympia, and was living on White River in King county. The announcement that I would attend the election caused a great commotion in White River precinct. A fearful hue and cry was raised. The news reached Olympia and Seaettle, and some of the papers deprecated the idea that "a woman should unsex herself by dabbling in the filthy pool of politics." But I was fully committed. The law had been on our statute books for nearly three years. If it was intended for our benefit, it was time we were availing ourselves of it. So, nothing daunted, I determined to repair to the polling place, the district school-house, accompanied by my husband, my daughter (Mrs. Axtell) and her husband--a little band of four--looked upon with pity and contempt for what was called our "fanaticism."

For several days before the election the excitement in the neighborhood and other settlements along the river was intense. Many gentlemen called on me and tried to persuade me to stay at home and save myself from insult. I thanked them for their kindness, and told them I fully appreciated their good intentions, but that I had associated with men all my life, and had always been treated as a lady; that the men I should meet at the polls were the same that I met in church and social gatherings, and I knew they would treat me with respect. Then they begged my husband not to allow me to go; but he told them his wife had as good a right to vote as he had; and that no citizen can legally deprive another of the right to vote.

On the morning of the election, just before we reached the school-house, a man met us and said, "Mr. Brown, look here now! If Mrs. Brown goes up to vote she will be insulted! If I was in your place I wouldn't let her go any farther. She had better go back." My husband answered, "Mr. Brannan, my wife has as good a right to vote as I have, and I would not prevent her if I could. She has a mind of her own and will do as she thinks best, and I shall stand by her and see that she is well treated! Besides [speaking with emphasis], she will not be insulted either!" "Well," said the man, "if she was my wife she shouldn't go! She'll be sure to be insulted!" I looked him full in the face, and said with decision, "Mr. Brannan, a gentleman will be a gentleman under all circumstances, and will always treat a lady with respect." I said this because I knew the man, and knew that if anyone offered any annoyance, it would be he, and so it proved.

As we drove up to the school-house and alighted, a man in an angry voice snapped out, "Well! if the women are coming to vote, I'm going home!" But he did not go; he had too much curiosity; he wanted to see the fun. He stayed and was converted. After watching the sovereign "white male citizen" perform the laborious task of depositing his vote in the ballot-box, I thought if I braced myself up I might be equal to the task. So, summoning all my strength, I walked up to the desk behind which sat the august officers of election, and presented my vote. When behold! I was pompously met with the assertion, "You are not an American citizen; hence not entitled to vote." The great unabridged dictionary of Noah Webster was opened, and the definition of the word citizen read to me. They all looked to see me vanquished; they thought I would have to retreat before such an overwhelming array of sagacity. The countenances of the judges wore a pleased expression that they had hit on so easy an expedient to put me hors du combat, while the crowd looked astonished that I did not sink out of sight. Waiting a moment, I said, "The definition is correct. A citizen of the United States, is a person owing allegiance to the government; but then all persons are not men; and the definition of "citizeness" is a female citizen. I claim to be an American citizen, and a native-born citizen at that; and I wish to show you from the fourteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States, that women are not only citizens having the constitutional right to vote, but also that our territorial election law gives women the privilege of exercising that right."

When I commenced speaking, all the men, with the exception of two--the one who had urged my husband not to let me go to the school-house, and a low, degraded fellow, who had a squaw for a wife--came and ranged themselves around me and the judges before whom I stood, and listened attentively. It was a new subject to them. They had heard of woman suffrage, but only in ridicule. Now it was being presented to them in a very different light. As I proceeded there was a death-like stillness, so intent were they to catch every word. Even the man who had declared he would go home if the women were going to vote, was among the most interested of the listeners. There was but one interruption; the two men, of whom I have spoken, to make good their assertion that I would be insulted, got behind a desk in the far corner of the room, and began talking and laughing very loudly; but they were promptly called to order. Silence being restored, I went on to show them that the original constitution recognized women as citizens, and that the word citizen includes both sexes, as is proved by the phrases, "male citizen," and "female citizen"; that women from the beginning had been unjustly deprived of the exercise of their constitutional rights; that they had for years been petitioning those in power to restore them to their political freedom, when the emancipation of the Southern slaves threw upon the country a class of people, who, like the women of the nation, owed allegiance to the government, but whose citizenship was not recognized. To settle this question, the fourteenth amendment was adopted. Its first section declares emphatically who are citizens, and guarantees to them the exercise of all their natural rights under the equal protection of the law. (Here I read to them the section.) No distinction is made in regard to sex; the word "person" being used, which includes both men and women.

"And now, honorable gentlemen," I said, in conclusion, "I am a 'person,' declared by the fourteenth amendment to be a citizen, and still further, I am a native-born citizen of the same race and color of these gentlemen by whom I am surrounded, and whose votes you do not hesitate to receive; and, had our territorial law failed to give me the right to vote, this amendment would protect me in the exercise of it. I again offer my vote, and hope you will not refuse it." No hand was extended to receive it; but one of the judges threw himself back in his seat, and with great dignity of manner and an immense display of ignorance, exclaimed, "Women have no right to vote; and the laws of Congress don't extend over Washington territory." This was too much for even the strongest opponents. On every side was heard, "Oh, Mr. Alvord! why, yes, they do!" "Mr. Alvord, you are mistaken, the laws of congress do extend over our territory"; and some tried to explain to him that the territory belonged to the United States and was under the jurisdiction of the national government, and that of course the laws of congress extended over it. But still more pompously, he again declared, "It is no such thing, the laws of congress don't extend over Washington territory." A look of disgust and shame was depicted on nearly every countenance, and the cause of woman suffrage had advanced perceptibly in the minds of the audience.

Another of the judges arose, and said, he had never thought much on the subject. He had no doubt but Mrs. Brown was right, woman were citizens and had the right to vote; but as the courts had not instructed the election officers to take the votes of women, and as the precinct was a small one, he was afraid their whole vote would be thrown out if they received the women's ballots. So, although he should like to see the women have their rights, he should have to refuse Mrs. Brown's vote. Here an Irishman called out, "It would be more sensible to let an intelligent white woman vote than an ignorant nigger." Cries of "Good for you, Pat! good for you, Pat!" indicated the impression that had been made. My daughter now went up and offered her vote, which was, of course, rejected.

My going to the polls was noised abroad, and set men as well as women thinking. They examined the law for themselves, and found that women had a right to vote, so that before the next election many were prepared to act. In May, 1870, I published an appeal to the women of the territory, quoting to them the law, and urging them to avail themselves of its provisions by going to the polls and voting. My sister, Charlotte Olney French, living in Grand Mound precinct, some twenty-five miles from Olympia, began talking the matter up; and, being a woman of energy and influence, she soon had the whole neighborhood interested. With the assistance of an old lady, Mrs. Peck, she planned a regular campaign. By the programme the women were to get up a picnic dinner at the school-house where the election was to be held, and directly after, while the officers of election were in good humor (wives will understand the philosophy of this), they were to present their votes. My sister, being a good talker and well informed on all the constitutional, judicial and social phases of the question as well as a good judge of human nature, was able to meet and parry every objection, and give information where needed, so that by the time dinner was over, the judges, as well as everybody else, were in the best of spirits. When the voting was resumed, the women (my sister being the first) handed in their ballots as if they had always been accustomed to voting, and everything passed off pleasantly. One lady, Mrs. Sargent, seventy-two years old, said she thanked the Lord that He had let her live until she could vote. She had often prayed to see the day, and now she was proud to cast her first ballot.

It had been talked of for some days before the election in the adjoining precinct--Black River--that Mrs. French was organizing a party of women to attend the election in Grand Mound precinct; but they were not sure the judges would let them vote. "If they do," said they, "if the Grand Mound women vote, the Black River women shall!" So they stationed a man on a fleet horse, at the Grand Mound polls, with instructions to start as soon as the women began to vote, and ride with all haste back to their precinct and let them know. The moment the man rode in sight of the school-house he swung his hat, and screeched at the top of his voice, "They're voting! They're voting!" The teams were all ready in anticipation of the news, and were instantly flying in every direction, and soon the women were ushered into the school-house, their choice of tickets furnished them, and all allowed to vote as "American citizens."

While the women of these two precincts were enjoying the exercise of their political rights, the women of Olympia were suffering the vexation of disappointment. I had been stopping there for some weeks previous to the election, trying to induce the women to go to the polls, and also to convince the men that women had a legal right to vote, and that their right must be respected. The day before election the judges were interviewed as to whether they would take the votes of the women. They replied, "Yes; we shall be obliged to take them. The law gives them the right to vote, and we can not refuse." This decision was heralded all over the city, and women felt as if their millennium had come. To-morrow, for the first time, their voice would be heard in the government through the ballot. All day long women met each other, and asked: "Are you going to the election to-morrow?" Groups gathered in parlors and discussed the matter, and everything seemed auspicious.

But how true the saying: "There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip!" Before nine o'clock the next morning, the word had been communicated all over town that "the women need not come out to the polls as the judges would not take their votes." They would give no reason why, but said "they had decided not to take the votes of the women." About a dozen of us gathered together to consult what was best to be done; finding most of them inclined to back out, I urged the necessity of our making an effort; that whether the judges took our votes or not, it was not best to give it up as the rest had done; if we did, it would be harder to make an effort next time; that I had been to the polls once and had my vote refused, and could be refused again; at any rate, I had the right to vote, and I should go and offer it if I had to go alone. Three of the number said they would go with me--Mrs. Patterson, Mrs. Wiley and Mrs. Dofflemyer; these, with Mr. Patterson, my husband and myself made our party. As we reached the court-house where the election was held, Mr. Dofflemyer met us and took his wife home, she meekly submitting.

Just before us a cart rattled up bearing a male citizen, who was too drunk to know what he was doing, or even to do anything. He was lying on his back in the cart, with feet and hands up, hurrahing at the top of his voice. This disgusting, drunken idiot was picked up out of the cart by two men, who put a ticket into his hand, carried him to the window (he was too drunk to stand), shoved him up and raised his arm into the aperture; his vote received, he was tumbled back into the cart.

I then stepped up and offered my vote, and was answered with, "We have decided not to take the votes of the women!" "On what grounds do you refuse?" I asked. No answer. "Do you refuse it on legal grounds?" Still no answer. I then said, "Under the election law of this territory, setting aside my constitutional right as a citizen of the United States, I have the right to vote at this election. Have you the election law by you?" "No, we have not got it here," they said. I knew they had, but did not dispute their word. "Very well," I said, "I can quote it for you." I did so, and then said, "Under this territorial law I claim my right, and again I offer you my vote as an American citizen. If you doubt my citizenship, I will insist on taking the oath. Will you receive it?" The answer was, "No; we have decided not to take women's votes, and we cannot take yours." "Then," said I, "it amounts to this: the law gives women the right to vote in this territory, and you three men who have been appointed to receive our votes, sit here and arbitrarily refuse to take them, giving no reason why, only that you have decided not to take the women's votes. There is no law to sustain you in this usurpation of power. We can claim legal redress. Are you willing to stand a legal prosecution?" "Yes," was the response of each one separately. It was now plain to see why the votes of the women were refused; the judges had been hired to do the dirty work, and money pledged in case of prosecution. They were men in moderate circumstances and could not have stood the cost of a suit individually. The ready assent they gave showed such a contingency had been thought of and provided against by the opponents of woman suffrage. The other two women then offered their votes, which were also refused.

In the autumn of 1871 Susan B. Anthony came to Olympia and attended the first woman suffrage convention ever held here. Our legislature was in session, and a joint hearing before the two Houses was extended to her. Her statesman-like argument clearly proved the right of our women to vote under both the national constitution and the territorial law. After Miss Anthony left, there arose a rumor that the election law was to be repealed, and a committee of women attended every session, determined if possible to prevent it. They were at the capitol the last day, prepared to stay until the adjournment; they were urged to go home, but would not unless a solemn promise was made them that the law should in no way be tampered with. This the members refused to do, until a bright idea struck one of them, which was that they need not disturb the law, but could make it inoperative by enacting another statute. This being whispered among the members, the promise was given, and the women retired. Immediately after, the following act was passed by both Houses, approved and signed by the governor:

Be it enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Washington:

SECTION 1. That hereafter no female shall have the right of ballot, or vote at any poll or election precinct in this territory until the Congress of the United States of America shall, by direct legislation, declare the same to be the supreme law of the land.

SEC. 2. This act to take effect from and after its passage.

Approved November 29, 1871. EDWARD S. SOLOMON, Governor.

When the proclamation to hold a convention to form a constitution preparatory to our admission into the Union as a State, was issued, I recommended to the Territorial Woman Suffrage Association that we make every effort to secure to the convention as many delegates as possible in favor of woman suffrage, and then that we circulate petitions asking them to leave out the word "male" from the constitution. Failing to get the society to take any associated action, I went to work individually, wrote and sent out petitions into every town and country place where there was a post-office, asking that the word "male" be left out of the constitution. With each petition I sent a letter to the person whose name I had procured from the postmaster of the place, stating the object, urging a thorough circulation, and directing its return at a given date to Mary Olney Brown, President of the Washington Territorial Woman Suffrage Association; thus giving the credit of the work to the Society.

I could not get a member of our Association to circulate the petition in Olympia, so every day that I could get away from home I took my petition in hand and canvassed for signatures. If I went shopping or on an errand I took it with me, and in that way I procured over 300 names. My experience had taught me that the principal opposition to woman's voting came from ignorance as to her true position under the government. She had come to be looked upon almost as a foreign element in our nation, having no lot nor part with the male citizen, and I felt that it was necessary to disabuse the minds of the people generally, and the delegates to the convention particularly, of this notion. I therefore wrote five articles on the "Equality of Citizenship," which Mrs. Duniway kindly published in the New Northwest. The Olympia Courier also printed them, and placed the paper on file in the city reading-room; and when I met a man who had not made up his mind on the subject I recommended him to the reading-room, and several after perusing the articles were converted and signed the petition.

On the assembling of the legislature Mrs. A. H. H. Stuart and myself watched a favorable opportunity to present an equal rights bill. We let them talk up the matter pretty well over a petition signed by fifty women of one of the upper counties, when one day Mrs. Stuart came to me and said: "Now, Mrs. Brown, write out your bill; the speaker of the House sent me word they were ready for it." I sat down and framed a bill[514] to the best of my ability, which was duly presented and respectfully debated. Mrs. Duniway came from Portland to urge its passage, and the day before it came to a vote both Houses adjourned and invited her to speak in the hall of representatives. She made one of her best speeches. The members of both Houses were present, besides a large audience from the city. The next day the House passed the bill by two majority, and on the day following it was lost in the Council by two majority. In the House the vote stood, ayes, 13; nays, 11. In the Council, ayes, 5; nays, 7.

Saturday evening Mrs. Duniway made another telling speech in the city hall, at the close of which Mr. White, a lobby member, made a few remarks, in which he disclosed the cause of the defeat of the bill in the Council. He said, after the bill passed the House the saloon-keepers, alarmed lest their occupation would be gone if women should vote, button-holed the members of the Council, and as many of them as could be bought by drinks pledged themselves to vote against the bill. The members of the Council were present, and though an urgent invitation was given to all to speak, not one of them denied the charge made by Mr. White. On the following Monday an effort was made in the Council to reconsider the bill, but failed. Thus stands our cause at present. There will be a greater effort than ever before put forth during the next two years to secure an affirmative vote in our legislature.

As Mrs. Brown wrote the above in 1881, the promise in the closing sentence was really quite prophetic, since the legislature of 1883 passed a law enfranchising the women of the territory.[515] Mrs. Duniway concludes her account with a brief reference to the work in neighboring territories:

In addition to all that is being done in Oregon and Washington, we are actively engaged in pushing the work in Idaho and Montana territories, where the New Northwest has been thoroughly circulated in many localities and many spirited public meetings have been held. The Idaho legislature seriously considered and came near adopting a woman suffrage bill last winter, and the women of the territory are confidently awaiting a triumph at the next biennial session. Remembering Dakota's set-back through the governor's veto in 1885, they are carefully planning to avoid a like calamity in their own territory. In Montana the cause has made less apparent progress, but there is much quiet and constantly increasing agitation in its favor. Popular feeling is steadily ripening for the change, and let the rest of the world wag as it will, there cannot be much longer hindrance to the complete triumph of liberty in the Pacific Northwest.

FOOTNOTES:

[507] Hon. H. L. Yesler, the city's founder and mayor; Mrs. Yesler, Rev. John F. Damon, Mrs. Mary Olney Brown, Rev. Daniel Bagley and others.

[508] Its leaders being Mrs. Abble H. H. Stuart, Mrs. P. C. Hale, Hon. Marshall Blinn, Hon. Elwood Evans, and Mr. J. M. Murphy, editor of the Washington Standard.

[509] Mr. D. W. Williams, Mr. and Mrs. W. T. Shanahan, Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Gibson, Rev. T. L. Eliot, Mr. B. C. Duniway, Dr. Mary A. Thompson, Rev. Isaac Dillon and Hon. and Mrs. G. W. Brown.

[510] Addresses were made in advocacy of the cause by Col. Reed, Mrs. J. Devore Johnson, Miss V. M. Olds, Rev. T. L. Eliot, Mrs. C. A. Coburn, Mrs. Beatty (colored), and the writer. The celebrated McGibeney family furnished the music, and the Portland press gave favorable reports of the proceedings. Valuable aid was also contributed by Mr. and Mrs. D. H. Hendee, Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Peters, and Mrs. M. J. Foster.

[511] Governor Newell, Judge Orange Jacobs, Judge B. F. Dennison, Mrs. Pamela Hale, Hon. Philip D. Moore, Mr. W. S. Duniway, Captain William H. Smallwood, the writer, and a large number of the members of the legislature.

[512] S. F. Chadwick, United States Representative M. C. George, ex-United States Senator J. H. Mitchell, United States District Judge M. P. Deady, Hon. H. W. Scott, editor of the Oregonian, ex-Governor A. C. Gibbs, District-Attorneys J. F. Caples and T. A. McBride, and various ex-members of the legislature.

[513] The official vote of the State was 11,223 for the amendment, and 28,176 against.

[514] Be it enacted by the Legislature of the Territory of Washington:

SECTION 1. All female citizens of the age of twenty-one years shall be entitled to vote at all elections in the territory, subject only to such regulations as male citizens.

SEC. 2. Any officer of election who shall refuse to take the vote of a woman citizen (otherwise qualified to vote), shall be liable to a fine of not less than $100 nor more than $500.

SEC. 3. All laws in conflict with this act are hereby repealed.

SEC. 4. This act to be in force on and after its passage.

[515] The bill was introduced in the Washington House by Representative Coply, and was supported in speeches by Messrs. Coply, Besserer, Miles, Clark and Stitzel, while Messrs. Landrum and Kincaid spoke against it. The vote was: Ayes--Besserer, Brooks, Clark, Coply, Foster, Goodell, Hungate, Kuhn, Lloyd, Martin, Miles, Shaw, Stitzel and Speaker Ferguson--14. Noes--Barlow, Brining, Landrum, Ping, Kincaid, Shoudy and Young--7. Absent--Blackwell, Turpin and Warner--3. The bill was favorably reported in the Council, November 15, by Chairman Burk of the Judiciary Committee. No one offered to speak on it. The vote stood: Ayes--Burk, Edmiston, Hale, Harper, Kerr, Power and Smith--7. Noes--Caton, Collins, Houghton, Whitehouse and President Truax--5. Governor W. A. Newell approved the bill November 22, 1883.

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LV. LOUISIANA--TEXAS--ARKANSAS--MISSISSIPPI

St. Anna's Asylum, Managed by Women--Constitutional Convention, 1879--Women Petition--Clara Merrick Guthrie--Petition Referred to Committee on Suffrage--A Hearing Granted--Mrs. Keating--Mrs. Saxon--Mrs. Merrick--Col. John M. Sandige--Efforts of the Women all in Vain--Action in 1885--Gov. McEnery--The Daily Picayune--Women as Members of the School-Board--Physiology in the Schools--Miss Eliza Rudolph--Mrs. E. J. Nicholson--Judge Merrick's Digest of Laws--Texas--Arkansas--Mississippi--Sarah A. Dorsey.

I.--LOUISIANA.

Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick has furnished the following interesting facts from her native State, for which we feel ourselves deeply indebted:

Like the children of one family the States have a common resemblance, but they are various in character as in geographical outline. In Louisiana the Anglo-American finds himself side-by-side with inhabitants of French or Spanish descent, and in many of the country parishes the African freedmen outnumber all the rest.

St. Anna's Asylum in New Orleans is controlled and managed by a board of directors composed entirely of women. Among the inmates in 1878 was a German woman who had resided in the institution for many years. Finding herself in ill-health and fearing the approach of the end, she confided to the ladies of the board that she had a thousand dollars in bank which she wished to bequeath to the home where she had been provided for and sheltered so long. At her earnest request a will was drawn up in accordance with her wishes, and signed by members of the board who were present as witnesses. Shortly after, the woman died and her will was submitted to the proper authority for admission to probate. When the ladies were duly informed that the will was null and void, they naturally asked why, and were told that under Louisiana law women were not lawful witnesses to a will. Had they only called in the old darkey wood-sawyer, doing a day's work in the asylum yard, and had him affix his mark to the paper, the money would have accrued to the asylum; as it was, it went to the State.

Early in 1879, when a convention to make a new State constitution[516] had been called and was about to assemble in New Orleans, Mrs. Merrick tried to arouse the ladies of the board, representing to them that in the controlling power they exercised over St. Anna's Asylum they were only children playing they were a part of the people and citizens of the State, when in reality they were legally powerless to perform any free and independent act. The ladies were mortified by the position in which they found themselves but were not willing to take any step to remedy their pitiful case, not even to sign the petition which was afterwards drawn up by Mrs. Saxon and Mrs. Merrick to present to the constitution-makers to have these disabilities removed. The petition was as follows:

To the Honorable President and Members of the Convention of Louisiana, convened for the purpose of framing a new Constitution:

The undersigned, citizens of the State of Louisiana, respectfully represent:

That up to the present time all women, of whatever age or capacity, have been debarred from the right of representation, notwithstanding the burdensome taxes which they have paid.

They have been excluded from holding any office save in cases of special tutorships in limited degree, or of administration only in specified cases.

They have been debarred from being witnesses to wills or notarial acts, even when executed by their own sex.

They look upon this condition of things as a grievance proper to be brought before your honorable body for consideration and relief.

As a question of civilization, we look upon the enfranchisement of women as an all-important one. In Wyoming, where it has been tried for ten years, the law-makers and clergy unite in declaring that this influx of women voters has done more to promote morality and order than thousands of armed men could have accomplished.

Should the entire franchise seem too extended a privilege, we most earnestly urge the adoption of a property qualification, and that women may be allowed a vote on school and educational matters, involving as they do the interests of women and children in a great degree.

So large a proportion of the taxes of Louisiana is paid by women, many of them without male representatives, that in granting consideration and relief for grievances herein complained of, the people will recognize justice and equity. To woman as well as man "taxation without representation is tyranny," she being "a person, a citizen, a freeholder, a tax-payer," the same as man, only government has never held out the same fostering, protecting hand to all alike, nor ever will, until women are directly represented.

Wherefore, we, your petitioners, pray that some suitable provision remedying these evils be incorporated in the constitution you are about to frame.

While this petition was being circulated, favorable articles appeared from time to time in the public prints. The following, signed "Fatima," the nom de plume of Clara Merrick Guthrie, appeared in the Democrat:

A well-known notary signed this petition with a flourish, remarking that "few women and not over half the men were aware of the disabilities of wives and daughters."

If the convention should invest women of property with the elective franchise it would give to the respectable side of politics a large body of sensible voters which would go far toward neutralizing the evil of unlimited male suffrage. The policy in the Northern States has been to demand unrestricted suffrage, but the women of Louisiana may with propriety exhibit certain variations in the nature of their appeal. This subject in all its phases inspires my enthusiasm, but I dare not be as eloquent as I might, lest a messenger should be sent to me with an urgent request to address the convention next Monday evening. * * * *

On dit.--Other ladies beside our brave Mrs. Saxon are desired to give their views. Now surely the convention would not ask these quiet house-mothers, who are not even remotely akin to professional agitators, to do such violence to their old-time precedents if the prospect of some reward were not encouraging and immediate. Nothing could induce me to make personal application save the solemn obligation of the whole august body to accede to my timid proposal simultaneously and by acclamation. Fortunately for us there are women in Louisiana more sacrificing of their naturally shrinking disposition, who perhaps take the cause more seriously than your correspondent, who would make a most persuasive enrolling-officer but not so gallant a general for active service.

After securing over 400 influential names[517] the petition was sent in to the convention and was referred to the Committee on Suffrage, Mr. Felix P. Poche, chairman, now judge of the Supreme Court. On May 7, the committee invited the ladies to a conference at Parlor P, St. Charles Hotel. Mr. and Mrs. Saxon, Colonel and Mrs. John M. Sandige and Mrs. Mollie Moore Davis were present. Mrs. Saxon spoke for an hour and replied to questions from the committee. She made a very favorable impression and was highly commended for her argument. On June 16 the friends of the petition were notified that a hearing would be granted them at the evening session of the convention. Mrs. Harriette C. Keating and Mrs. Elizabeth L. Saxon had consented to speak if such a hearing were granted.

Col. John M. Sandige, who had occupied prominent positions in the political affairs of the State, gave much encouragement and assistance. He did not hesitate to urge the importance of this movement, and the necessity that the women who were most interested should cheerfully assume their responsibility in relation to it. While Mrs. Saxon was known already as a fearless and able reformer, and Dr. Harriette C. Keating as a noble representative of woman in professional life, he thought it was desirable to have a voice from the home and from society, and Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick was solicited to come forward and endorse what her colleagues would say, in a few words at the close of the proceedings. Mrs. Merrick finally agreed that she should see her duty in the light in which it was presented if Judge Merrick, who constituted her court of last resort, should leave her entirely free to act in the case. After a consultation, to her great surprise and consternation the judge said, "You have always desired to help women--here is an opportunity; go forward and do your share in this work."

The surprise could hardly have been greater if a procession of slaves twenty-five years ago had come up in force to the lordly mansion of their master with several spokesmen chosen from their ranks, for the avowed purpose of asking for their freedom. The ladies were treated with a delicate courtesy and kindness on this unusual occasion, which they can never forget. Judge Poche, with the tact of a true gentleman, endeavored to smooth a difficult way, reassuring the failing courage of the ladies while assisting them to mount the platform. The Daily Picayune of June 17, 1879, said:

The usually prosaic and unimpressive appearance of the convention hall assumed for the occasion an entire change last evening. When the convention closed its forenoon's labors, it took a recess until half-past 7 o'clock for the purpose of affording the female suffragists an opportunity to plead their cause before a full meeting. The scene before the convention was called to order was interesting and amusing. As the minutes rolled on the crowd of ladies commenced to pour in, and by 8 o'clock the hall contained some fifty representatives of the gentler sex of the Crescent City. Every age of womanhood and every class of beauty found a representative upon the floor. About half a dozen "society girls" occupied a retired corner of the room, while a number of the notables, including Mrs. Myra Clark Gaines, took possession of the middle of the hall.

Promptly at 8 o'clock President Wiltz climbed to his seat and called the convention to order in a tone slightly husky from nervous excitement. Secretary Harris, having summoned up his spare courage, called the roll in a determined voice. Of the 134 members 106 responded to their names. After the usual preliminaries Mr. Poche announced that a committee of ladies were in attendance, prepared to address the convention upon the question of woman suffrage. He then introduced Mrs. Dr. Keating. The fair speaker had scarcely begun before it was seen that she possessed a clear, slow enunciation and perfect confidence in her ability to enforce the doctrines of the cause she was to advocate. She read from manuscript and showed no little knowledge of the rules of oratory.

Mrs. Saxon was greeted with a burst of applause, which was gracefully acknowledged by the recipient; her address was earnest and made a deep impression.

Mr. Robertson of St. Landry then offered the following resolution, which lies over under the rules:

Resolved, That the committee on elective franchises be directed to embody in the article upon suffrage reported in this convention, a provision giving the right of suffrage to women upon the same terms as to men.

After some talk the resolution was laid aside to allow another speech to be made. Mrs. E. T. Merrick was introduced by Mr. Poche, as the wife of ex-Chief-Justice Merrick, and a shower of applause followed the appearance of the lady. She said:

Mr. President and Delegates of the Convention:--We have met with such unexpected kindness in the reception which you have accorded us to-night, that we find it hard to give expression to anything but thanks. When we remember the persistent and aggressive efforts which our energetic sisters of the North put forth before they could obtain a hearing before any legislative assembly, we find ourselves lost in a pleasing astonishment at the graciousness which beams upon us here from all quarters. Should we even now be remanded to our places and have our petitions met with an utter refusal, we should be grieved to the heart, we should be sorely disappointed, but we never could cherish the least feeling of rebellious spite toward this convention of men, who have shown themselves so respectful and considerate toward the women of Louisiana.

Perhaps some of the gentlemen thought we did not possess the moral courage to venture even thus far from the retirement in which we prefer to dwell; perhaps they thought we would not dare to appear in person before this formidable body and speak for our own cause. Be assured that a resolute and conscientious woman can put aside her individual preferences at the call of duty, and act unselfishly for the good of others. You are our witnesses that we have not wearied you by our importunities, nor have we sought in any disingenuous manner to influence you in our favor. We are simply here in response to your own courteous invitation to explain our ideas and opinions on the great question of woman's enfranchisement. The ladies who have already addressed you have given you our arguments, and in eloquent language have made their appeal, to which you could not have been insensible. It only remains for me to give you some of my own individual views in the few words which are to conclude this interview.

We assure you we are not cherishing any ambitious ideas of political honors and emoluments for women. We do not wish to become governors or legislators, nor have we any inordinate desire to obtain seats in congress. I have seen but one woman who ever expressed even a wish to be president of these United States. But we do ask with most serious earnestness that you should give us the ballot, which has been truly called the expression of allegiance and responsibility to the government. All over the world this same movement is advancing. In many countries earnest, thoughtful, large-hearted women are working day and night to elevate their sex; to secure higher education; to open new avenues for their industrious hands; trying to make women helpers to man, instead of being millstones round his neck to sink him in his life struggle. Ah, if we could only infuse into your souls the courage which we, constitutionally timid as we are, now feel on this subject, you would hasten to perform this act of justice, and inaugurate the beginning of the end which all but the blind can see is surely and steadily approaching. We are willing to accept anything. We have always been in the position of beggars, as now, and cannot be choosers if we wished. We will gladly accept the franchise on any terms, provided they be wholly and entirely honorable. If you should see proper to subject us to an educational test, even of a high order, we should try to attain it; if you require a considerable property qualification, we would not complain. We would be only too grateful for any amelioration of our legal disabilities. Allow me to ask, are we less prepared for the intelligent exercise of the right of suffrage than were the freedmen when it was suddenly conferred upon them? Has not this right been to them a beneficial stimulant, inducing them to use exertions to promote their improvement, and has it not raised them to a superior place, above the disfranchised classes, such as the Chinese, Indians and women?

Perhaps you think only a few of us desire the ballot. If that were so, we think it would not be any sufficient reason for withholding it. In old times most of our slaves were happy and contented. Under the rule of good and humane masters, they gave themselves no trouble to grasp after a freedom which was beyond their reach. So it is with us to-day. We are happy and kindly treated (as witness our reception here to-night), and in the enjoyment of the numerous privileges which our chivalrous gentlemen are so ready to accord; many of us who feel a wish for freedom, do not venture even to whisper a single word about our rights. For the last twenty-five years I have occasionally expressed a desire to vote, and it was always received as a matter of surprise, but the sort of effect produced was as different as the characters of the individuals with whom I conversed. * * * *

Gentlemen of the convention, we now leave our cause in your hands, and commend it to your favorable consideration. We have pointed out to you the signs of the dawning of a better day for woman, which are so plain before our eyes, and implore you to reach out your hand and help us up, that we may catch the first glimpse of its glory before it floods the world with noon-day light.[518]

Col. John M. Sandidge read a letter from Mrs. Sarah A. Dorsey:

JUNE 11, 1879.

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention:--Too weak from recent illness and suffering to appear personally before you by the side of the women of Louisiana who are asking for the privilege and responsibility of political suffrage, I am forced to use this mode of indorsing their movement.

Being left by the fiat of God entirely alone in the world, with no man to represent me, having large interests in the State and no voice either in representation or taxation while hundreds of my negro lessees vote and control my life and property, I feel that I ought to say one word that may perhaps aid many other women whom fate has left equally destitute. It is doubtful whether I shall rise from my couch of pain to profit by the gift should the men of Louisiana decide to give the women of the State the right which is the heritage of the Anglo-Saxon race--representation for taxation. But still I ask it for my sisters and for the future of the race. We women of Louisiana have always been treated before the law as civil partners of our husbands. In every respect our rights have been protected.

It needs but one more step to make us civilly free, and this we ask you to embody in your new constitution. Many men are not opposed to the fact of female suffrage, but to its mode at present; that could be corrected, and women need not be exposed to the coarseness and strife of the polls as they are now conducted. There is no man among you who does not believe his wife or his daughter intelligently capable of taking a voice in the government. If my lessees are capable of being citizens of Louisiana, it is because for thirty years of my life and for five generations of my ancestors we have interested ourselves in their civilization and in their instruction. Gentlemen, we ask nothing that would unsex ourselves. We do not expect to do man's work; we can never pass the limits which nature herself has set. But we ask for justice; we ask for removal of unnatural restrictions that are contrary to the elemental spirit of the civil law; we do not ask for rights, but for permission to assume our natural responsibilities.

Praying that the hearts and minds of the men of Louisiana may be moved toward this act of justice, I am, with profound respect, your obedient servant,

SARAH A. DORSEY.

The Webster Tribune, Mr. Scanland, editor, of June 25, 1879, shows the sensation created in the remotest parishes of Louisiana by this hearing before the convention:

The ladies, it seems, are about walking up and demanding enlarged liberties. We were under the impression that women generally had about as much latitude as they wanted, but if they desire more, the Tribune says, in the name of gallantry if not justice, let them have all they wish. There is an element throughout the Union agitating the proposition that they are entitled to vote because they are taxed. The Constitution of the United States provides that no one shall be taxed without representation. Representation is based on population, and, of course, the ladies are enumerated; and the "horrid men" claim that the ladies are represented through them. This a great many repudiate, and their heads are about level. When a man assumes to represent a woman, he undertakes a larger contract than he imagines--something we would not dream of attempting in a political or any other sense.

The ladies who advocate female suffrage claim that as they are governed by the laws they have a right to a voice in making them. Many of the ablest women of this country hold that belief, and of all our noble statesmen, not one has advanced an answer to this demand--reasonable, if it does come from women. A French essayist held that as women are a part of society, they have a right to be judges of its members, assist in making its laws, and condemn and punish transgressors. They have their influence, but that is not so effective as power. * * * * Some of the brightest intellects that adorn the social circles throughout this country and State hold these views and ably advance them. Among them in this State are Mrs. E. L. Saxon, Mrs. Merrick, wife of ex-Chief-Justice Merrick, and Mrs. Dr. Harriette Keating. When our convention was discussing the suffrage question, these ladies petitioned to be heard. Of course the request was allowed. Last Tuesday evening the above-mentioned ladies addressed the congress at length. Their speeches were able, and the ideas they advanced were sound logic; but if carried into effect may prove beneficial, and may not. Woman suffrage is an experiment. Like everything else, we will never know its effects until after it is tried. We only wish that there were a few more men in that convention who could make as able speeches as did these ladies--notwithstanding the Utopian ideas advanced.

When the new constitution finally went forth, it contained, as the result of all our arguments and appeals, but one little concession:

ARTICLE 232. Women twenty-one years of age and upwards, shall be eligible to any office of control or management under the school laws of the State.

Judge I. F. Marshall of Catahoula parish, an accomplished gentleman and able lawyer, suggested this article, and it was presented and championed by Hon. F. L. Claiborne[519] of Pointe Coupee. The women of Louisiana have never realized any advantage from this law. All school offices are filled by appointment of the governor, and there was no serious agitation for the enforcement of this clause in the new constitution until the autumn of 1885, when, in response to the demand that women should be appointed on the school-board of New Orleans, Gov. McEnery, through a correspondent of the Times-Democrat, gave his opinion as follows:

If a married woman occupied an office under the school laws, in which it was necessary to bring a suit to enforce some right connected with it, she would have to get the consent of her husband to bring the suit and join him with her. There are only a few exceptional cases where the married woman can legally act independently of her husband. Our code so recognizes the paramount control of the husband that when a widow, who is the tutor of her minor children, wishes to marry, and gets the consent of a family meeting to be retained in the tutorship, the code, article 255, says: Her second husband becomes of necessity the co-tutor, and, for the administration of the property subsequently to his marriage, becomes bound in solido with his wife. And so it would be in the appointment of a married woman to a public office. Her husband, of necessity, would share it with her; would, in fact, be the officer. And as to unmarried women, Article 232 does not repeal any of their disabilities. It does not repeal the laws creating the essential differences between men and women. It, as I stated, simply asserts a right, and is inoperative until there is legislation to enforce it.

The Daily Picayune of November 16, under the head lines of "Women as Members of School Boards," "The Law and the Facts in the Case Presented by Mrs. Merrick," gives the following:

Last Thursday evening, November 12, a special meeting or reception was held by the women's club at their rooms on Baronne street. On this occasion the club was addressed by Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick, a good and practical-minded friend of the cause of woman. The 12th was the seventieth birthday of Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and a decorated picture of the famous woman hung in the rooms. Mrs. Merrick read a sketch of the life of Mrs. Stanton, but devoted the first part of the evening to reading the following paper, the matter of which is, of the keenest interest to all thinking men and women in the State:

More than eighty thousand children attend the public schools in Louisiana, and of this number one-half are girls, and of the 389 teachers employed in the public schools of New Orleans, 368 are women. It cannot be denied that these are of equal concern and importance to the State with any like number of boys and men, nor does it require any argument to prove that mothers are best qualified to superintend and look after the welfare of their own children. In view of this fact the convention of 1879 embodied the following article in the constitution of the State:

ARTICLE 232. Women 21 years of age and upward shall be eligible to any office of control or management under the school laws of this State.

Notwithstanding the absolute right conferred by this article on women over twenty-one years of age, the chief executive of the State, with his present views, is apparently unwilling to make any appointment of women to such management without further legislation. The views of the Governor on all questions are always entitled to great respect. The question is one of interpretation, and many of the best lawyers in Louisiana do not hesitate to hold and declare a different view.

I am told that there are in the various constitutions of the States and general government two classes of provisions, the one self-executing and absolute, and the other requiring legislative action before they can be exercised. For example of the first class, article 59 of the constitution declares that "the supreme executive power of the State shall be vested in a chief magistrate, who shall be styled the Governor of Louisiana." Nobody would ever undertake to say that the governor was dependent on any more legislation to carry this into effect so as to enable him to fill his office. If he were, it would then become necessary to legislate about every other article, and so the constitution would be worthless, everything being required to be done over by the legislature before the constitution could have any effect.

Article 232 of the constitution is imperative. It declares that women over twenty-one years of age shall be eligible to any office of control or management under the school laws of the State. Can the legislature repeal or modify this mandate? Of course not. Could the absoluteness of this right be expressed in plainer or more energetic terms? No, indeed. We are told and have been made to understand that it is a right conferred by the constitution of the State, which cannot be defeated or enlarged, or even abridged in any way by the legislature; neither by modification, repeal, or inaction. That this article being paramount law, itself repeals all legislation inconsistent with it. The constitution, I am told, prescribes the legal and other qualifications for our judges of the courts. Nobody ever thought legislative action was needed when their qualifications are according to that instrument, to enable them to take their places on the bench.

Article 185 of the constitution prescribes the qualifications of voters or electors, and we are instructed that all conflicting laws on that point are annulled by the sovereign will of the people in convention assembled. In fact, good lawyers have given us innumerable examples, illustrations and decisions to this effect; and even women, who are for the most part ignorant of the laws of their State, begin to understand that they have a right to a place on the school-board for some one of their own sex here in Louisiana. True, it has been said that there are other articles which are in conflict with article 232, but we are told the other provisions of the constitution relate to other and more general subjects, and on this very subject the framers of the constitution have in very positive and unmistakable terms declared its precise will, and it is wasting time to try to explain it away. These wise jurists do not fear to tell us further, that special laws or provisions in a constitution or statute abrogate or limit the general provisions in the same instrument.

We are sorry that our governor apprehends any difficulty would arise in regard to married women being school directors. He says the husband might change his domicile and the wife would be obliged to follow him, and if bond were required she could not sign it without his consent, and finally the fact was she could not do anything without the husband's consent. Then "the husband would share the office with her." I have heard that it was difficult to prevent outside influences from operating upon the minds of men in office. We have certainly heard some complaints of this sort, but it seems that there would be no great danger encountered from this source. The duties which this article of the constitution permits women to perform are not generally remunerative, and would be probably more a labor of love than of reward. As to the other objections, perhaps the husband would sign his wife's bond, and perhaps he would not move away while she held the office. I have heard that sheriffs sometimes run away after giving bond, and people are sometimes elected to office and unable to qualify, and others disappoint the public by resigning. Moreover we have ascertained the fact that a tutrix may subsequently marry, and that act does not prevent her from filling the office of tutrix, neither does the fact of being already married prevent her from discharging the duties of tutrix. But I see no harm done if the husband should become the assistant of his wife in this office. Is it not manifest that the two together would have a superior official knowledge of the needs and exigencies of the girls sent to the public schools and the women who teach them daily, than the husband could possibly attain by himself? But the whole difficulty, it seems to us, might be obviated. Let the governor appoint unmarried women. A woman who has been so unfortunate as to be a widow would not be objectionable.

The article says: "Women over twenty-one years shall be eligible" to these offices. It does not say the legislature may make them "eligible." By its own inherent force it declares them eligible. If they are really eligible, then why not have them selected and appointed? They have every requisite for the office, and as the dictionary says, are "proper to be chosen." They are "qualified to be elected." They are "legally qualified." They are eligible. It is not at all likely that the legislature will ever do the vain thing of affirming a constitutional right so explicitly given.

The opposition of the executive, therefore, seems to be a bar not only to this provision being carried out, but also to the raising of any question under it for the consideration of the judiciary. It is confidently hoped and expected that he will consent to reconsider the whole question. We feel sure the governor will not intentionally be guilty of any injustice to the women of Louisiana, and will not desire to withhold any benefit from them which has already been conferred by the State constitution. Women all over the Union rejoiced when this generous concession was granted here in Louisiana. In many other States they enjoy the same, and greater privileges, and letters and inquiries have come from distant States, asking why this law has not gone into effect. We are aware that any reform changing existing conditions must move slowly, and is apt to be unpopular with men in authority; then it also antagonizes the inertia of women, who are too modest to thrust themselves forward, saying, "I am ready to serve the State"; yet they know all the time they can do good service in relation to the schools. Only give them a kindly helping hand, and we feel sure that a valuable cooeperating influence will be felt, of which no one has ever dreamed in the past. We leave this matter to the governor, to the citizens of Louisiana, and to the fathers who take a deep interest in the welfare of their daughters as well as of their sons.

Our legislature passed a law requiring physiology to be taught in the public schools, while the vast majority of the teachers of the State are women, and no college in which that science is taught is open to them. In 1885, Dr. Chaille gave a course of free lectures on physiology and anatomy for the benefit of the New Orleans teachers, who, while they are doing the most important-public work in training the rising generation in the rudiments of learning, are denied the advantages of the higher education that would fit them for the duties of their profession. A fitting precedent for the action of our rulers may be found in Shakespeare's, "Titus Andronicus," in which rude men seize the king's daughter, cut out her tongue and cut off her hands, and then bid her go call for water and wash her hands.

The State Pharmaceutical Association, formed in 1882 with 110 members, unanimously elected Miss Eliza Rudolph a member. Miss Rudolph was then the only woman in the drug business. Having been refused admission to the medical college of the State University, she perfected herself in pharmacy by a course of private lectures. In 1884 she was elected corresponding secretary of the association.

The Daily Picayune, in closing its half-century, gives the following of Mrs. E. J. Nicholson, its chief owner and manager since January, 1876:

"Pearl Rivers," the lady's nom de plume, was already well known in the republic of letters before she became, as she now is, the most eminent female journalist in the world, largely owning and successfully directing for years a great daily political journal. The fact is unique. The fame of Mrs. Nicholson belongs to the world of letters and her biography may be found in any dictionary of Southern authors, nevertheless a history of the Picayune would not be complete without some notice of one who has had so much to do with its destiny. Miss Eliza J. Poltevent is a native of Hancock county, Mississippi. She was born on the banks of one of the most beautiful streams in the South, Pearl river. She wrote over the name of "Pearl Rivers," and her poems made her a conspicuous niche in the temple of Southern letters. She wrote much for the Picayune and wrote herself into love as well as fame. She was married to Col. Holbrook, the proprietor of the paper, and after his death in 1876, she succeeded to the ownership. This was a trying position for a woman. The South had not recovered from the devastation of the war, and the Picayune was involved in embarrassments. Friends even advised her to dispose of the property and not to undertake so formidable a task as the conduct of a daily paper under existing complications. Brave and true-hearted, with a profound and abiding conviction of her duty in the matter, she assumed the control of the paper. She wisely surrounded herself with able and devoted assistants, and with their help has gallantly and successfully surmounted many formidable obstacles, until she has seen the Picayune reestablished on a sound and prosperous basis. Mr. George Nicholson had acquired a proprietorship in it, and when Mrs. Holbrook assumed control the firm name was E. J. Holbrook & Co. On June 28, 1878, the interests of the two copartners were further consolidated by marriage. Since then the Picayune has been published under the firm name of Nicholson & Co., and the columns daily attest the energy, enterprise and ability with which it is conducted, while its advertising patronage speaks for itself.

Mrs. Martha R. Field is a member of the editorial staff of the Picayune. She has charge of the Sunday woman's column, besides her regular column over the nom de plume of Catherine Cole.

The Times-Democrat is owned by Mrs. Burke, who however leaves its management to her husband, Col. Burke. Miss Bessie Bisland, under the name of B. L. R. Dane, contributes to the Sunday paper, and edits the "Bric-a-Brac column" which consists of criticisms and reviews of the leading magazines. This paper boasts the most clever "Society column" in the country; it is edited by Mrs. Jennie Coldwell Nixon who is now, 1886, superintendent of the Woman's Department of the Exposition.

Mrs. J. Pinkney Smith edits the "Social Melange" of the States. Among the regular Sunday contributors are Miss Corrinne Castillanos, who buzzes as the Society Bee, and Mrs. Mollie Moore Davis, known as the "Texas Song Bird." Mrs. Ada Hilderbrand, editor of the Courier at Gretna, did the printing for the Woman's Exposition.

New Orleans has a Woman's National Press Association of which Mrs. E. J. Nicholson is president; a Christian Woman's Exchange, Mrs. R. M. Wamsley, president, doing a business of $45,000 a year,[520] a Southern Art Union and Woman's Industrial Association, with Mrs. J. H. Stauffer and others on the auxiliary executive committee, and a Woman's Club,[521] originated by Miss Bessie Bisland who was the president of the club for the first year, 1885.

The laws of Louisiana relating to women have been given by Judge E. T. Merrick, a well-known legal authority and for ten years the chief-justice of the Supreme Court of the State:

The rights of married women to their estates are probably better secured in Louisiana than in any other of these United States. The laws on this subject are derived from Spain. Certain provinces of that kingdom were conquered and for centuries held by the Visigoths, among whom, as among the Franks at Paris, the institution called the community of aquets and gains between husband and wife, prevailed. In Spain, as in France, there were certain provinces in which the ancient Roman law continued in force, and they were called the provinces of the written law. In these (called also the countries of the dotal regime) there was no community between the spouses of their acquisitions. Both of these systems are recognized by the Louisiana civil code, but if the parties marry without any marriage settlement the law implies that they have married under the regime of the community. To prevent error it is proper to observe that there have been three civil codes adopted in Louisiana, viz., in 1808, 1825 and 1870. The marriage laws are substantially the same in all, but bear different numbers in each code. The following references are to the code of 1870. Except in a very limited number of cases the husband and wife are incapable of making binding contracts with each other during the marriage. Hence all settlements of property, to be binding, must be executed before marriage and in solemn form, that is, before a notary and two male witnesses having the proper qualifications. The betrothed are granted considerable liberty over the provisions of their marriage contract, as the following quotations show:

ART. 2,325. In relation to property, the law only regulates the conjugal association in default of particular agreements, which the parties are at liberty to stipulate as they please, provided they be not contrary to good morals and under the modifications hereafter prescribed.

ART. 2,326. Husband and wife can in no case enter into any agreement or make any renunciation the object of which would be to alter the legal order of descents, either with respect to themselves, in what concerns the inheritance of their children, posterity, or with respect to their children between themselves, without prejudice to the donations inter vivas or mortis causa, which may take place according to the formalities and in the cases determined by this code.

The parties are also "prohibited from derogating from the power of the husband over the person of his wife and children which belongs to the husband as the head of the family, or from the rights guaranteed to the surviving husband or wife" (C. C., Art. 2,327).

If the parties adopt the dotal regime in their marriage contract the dotal effects are (except under some circumstances) inalienable during marriage; and at the dissolution of the marriage, they are to be replaced or returned to the wife, or her heirs, and to secure this, the wife has a mortgage on her husband's lands, and a privilege on his movables, including those of the community (C. C., Art. 2376; Art. 2347). "The dower is given to the husband, for him to enjoy the same as long as the marriage shall last." Strong as is this language, the dowry is given by the wife or her father or mother or other relations or friends, simply to support the marriage.

Under the regime of the community, the individual property of the husband or wife, and all property either may acquire afterwards by inheritance or donations re-remain separate property. The conjugal partnership is defined by C. C., Art. 2402. "This partnership, or community, consists of the profits of all the effects of which the husband has the administration and enjoyment, either of right or in fact, of the produce of the reciprocal industry and labor of both husband and wife, and the estates which they may acquire during marriage, either by donations made jointly to them both, or by purchase, or in any other similar way, even should the purchase be in the name of one of the two, and not of both, because in that case the period of time when the purchase is made is alone attended to, and not the person who made the purchase."

During the marriage the husband has the management of the community, and he can sell or exchange the same, but he cannot give away the real estate without binding his estate to recompense the wife or her heirs, for the one-half so given away. All the income of his estate must enter into the community. On the other hand the wife may at her pleasure take her own estate from the management of the husband into her own control and discretion (C. C. 2384). But in this contingency she must contribute to the family expenses (C. C. 2389 and 2435).

If the affairs of the husband become embarrassed, the wife can sue the husband for a separation of property, and get a judgment against him for all indebtedness, on account of money or property used or disposed of by him, and sell him out under execution, and buy in the property herself if she sees fit. Thus she stands in a more favorable position toward the community than the husband, who is bound for all its debts, for she can stand by and choose. If the community becomes prosperous, she has the absolute right, as owner, to one-half of it after payment of debts, and a right to the income of the other half until she dies, or marries a second time.

By causing her claims on account of her separate or paraphernal estate to be recorded, she secures a mortgage against her husband's lands and the lands of the community. If a husband or wife dies affluent, leaving the survivor in necessitous circumstances, the latter can claim one-fourth of the estate of the deceased. This is called "the marital fourth." The wife, also, if she or the children do not possess one thousand dollars in their own right, can claim as a privilege and against the creditors, one thousand dollars, or a sum which, with her own estate, shall equal that amount.

The wife cannot appear in court, or dispose of, or mortgage, or acquire real estate, without the consent of the husband, but the judge of the court of the domicil may authorize the wife to sue, or be sued. If the husband refuses to empower the wife to contract, she may cite him into court and have the property of the proposed contract settled by an order of the judge. The wife has full power to make a will without any authorization from her husband or the court.

ART. 2,398. The wife, whether separated in property, by contract, or by judgment, or not separated, cannot bind herself for her husband, nor conjointly with him, for debts contracted by him before or during the marriage.

ART. 119. The husband and wife owe to each other mutual fidelity, support and assistance.

ART. 120. The wife is bound to live with her husband, and follow him wherever he chooses to reside; the husband is obliged to receive her, and furnish her with whatever is required for the convenience of life in proportion to his means and condition.

It is provided that the domicil for granting divorces of such marriages as have been solemnized in Louisiana, shall be in that State so that the courts of Louisiana may grant divorces for causes and faults committed in foreign countries. For abandonment and other causes, a final divorce cannot be granted until one year after a decree of separation from bed and board has elapsed without a reconciliation. In other particulars the law is similar to that of the other States.

One day in 1842, the New Orleans Delta had this item: "Myra Clark Gaines argued her own case in court in this city; the only instance of a lady appearing as counsel in the courts." Mrs. Gaines was a remarkable woman. She carried on a suit for many years against the city of New Orleans to recover property that belonged to her, and, through untold difficulties and delays, triumphed at last. She preserved her youth, beauty and vivacity until late in life. All who knew her can readily recall her bright, sparkling face, and wonderful powers of conversation. In her long experience in litigation, she became well versed in the laws regarding real estate and the right of descent. Mrs. Gaines was a generous woman and did not desire to rob the poor; to many such she gave a quit-claim title to the property which she had secured under her suits.

In 1869, the New Orleans Republican had an excellent editorial fully endorsing the demand for woman's enfranchisement. In 1870 the Livingston Herald, published in Ponchatoula parish, by J. O. and J. E. Spencer, advocated suffrage for women.

In 1874, the secretary of the treasury rendered a decision that when a woman owns a steamboat she may be named in the papers as the master of the same. This decision, despite the opposition of Solicitor Raynor, received confirmation in case of Mrs. Miller, in 1883, from Secretary Charles J. Folger.

II.--TEXAS.

In the adoption of the first constitution of Texas, woman had some representatives in the convention to remind the legislators of that State of her existence, and to demand that the constitution be so framed as to secure the right of suffrage alike to both sexes. On the resolution of Mr. Mundine, to extend suffrage to women, in the constitutional convention of Texas, January, 1869, Hon. L. D. Evans said:

I do not favor the adoption of this measure at the present time, because the country is not yet prepared, yet it is entitled to our respectful consideration--therefore I thank the convention for allowing me the opportunity to state the ground on which the friends of woman suffrage place their advocacy, so far as I may be able under the five-minute rule. It does not comport with the dignity of a representative body engaged in forming a constitution of government to thrust aside the claim of woman to the right of suffrage,--a claim that is advocated by some of the ablest statesmen and political philosophers of Europe and America, and is destined to a sure and speedy triumph.

Aristotle, the profoundest thinker of antiquity, in his treatise on politics, defines a citizen to be "one who enjoys a due share in the government of that country of which he is a member." If he does not enjoy this right, then he is no citizen, but a subject. Every citizen, therefore, is entitled to a voice--a vote--a due share in the government of his country. I am aware that the courts and politicians in democratic America have not so defined citizenship. The reason is that politics is not yet a positive science, and they have failed to analyze this question. Had they a clear conception of the constituent elements--the anatomy, so to speak, of the body politic, they would perceive that suffrage--a voice in the government--is an essential condition of citizenship. Aristotle, in his treatise, which is perhaps the ablest yet given to the world, pointed out that families, not individuals, are the constituent units of a State.

A family--a household--exists and is held together by natural laws, independent of the State, and an aggregation of these constitute the State. The head of the family, whoever that may be, according to its structure, is the representative in the State. All the constituent members of the family, consisting, in its most perfect form, of husband, wife, children and domestics, are subject to the authority of the head, and have no voice, no vote, no share in the government, except through their head or representative. In societies where the common law obtains, which in this respect is a transcript of the Bible, the wife, like the child, is subordinated to the authority of the husband, and on principle, has no voice, no vote. On the decease of the husband, the widow becomes the head of the family, and on principle is entitled to a voice, a vote. But in countries where the civil law governs, the wife is the partner, and not the subject of her husband, and on principle ought to have her due share in the government.

When the children in a family, whether male or female, attain the age fixed by law for the control of their own affairs, and do control them, they are free, independent, and on every principle are entitled to a due share in the government--to a vote. Every member of society who is free and independent--capable of managing his own affairs, or making his own living, and does make it, should have the same right of choice in the selection of his political agents that he has to select his legal or business agents. But all persons, no matter from what cause, who are unable to maintain themselves, and are dependent for their support upon others, are incapable of any share in the government, and should have no voice--no vote. As soon as the principle of citizenship comes to be thoroughly understood, woman suffrage must be adopted throughout the United States, in England, and in every country where representative government exists.

The Revolution of August 20, 1868, said:

We have received from Loring P. Haskins, esq., a delegate to the convention, the following excellent report and declaration made and signed by a majority of the committee to whom the subject of woman suffrage was referred. We need scarcely bespeak attentive reading:

Report of the Committee on State Affairs upon Female Suffrage, with accompanying Declaration:

July 30, 1868--Introduced and ordered to be printed.

COMMITTEE ROOM, AUSTIN, Texas, July 10, 1868.

To the Hon. E. J. Davis, President of the Convention:

A majority of your Committee on State Affairs, to whom was referred the declaration introduced by the Hon. T. H. Mundine of the county of Burleson, to extend the right of suffrage to all citizens of the State over the age of twenty-one years, possessing the requisite qualifications for electors, have examined with much care said declaration and considered the object sought to be accomplished, and have arrived at the conclusion that said declaration ought to be a part of the organic law.

It was said by George Washington that the safety of republican government depends upon the virtue and intelligence of the people. This declaration is not a new theory of government for the first time proposed to be made a part of our republican institutions. The idea of extending the elective franchise to females has been discussed both in Great Britain and in the United States. Your committee are of the opinion that the true base of republican government must ever be the wisdom and virtue of the people.

In this State our system of jurisprudence is a combination of civil and Spanish law, intermixed with the common law of England; and this peculiar system, just in all its parts for the preservation of the rights of married and unmarried women, is likely to be continued. The time was when woman was regarded as the mere slave of man. It was believed, in order to perpetuate the pretended divine right of kings to rule, that the mass of the people should be kept in profound ignorance and that woman was not entitled to the benefits of learning at all. It is not remarkable that as the benign principles of Christianity have been promulgated, free government has steadily progressed and the divine rights of woman have been recognized.

The old constitution of the republic of Texas, the constitution of the State of Texas of 1845, the laws enacted for the protection of married women, the many learned decisions of the Supreme Courts of Texas and Louisiana, and other courts, clearly indicate that the march of intelligence is onward and that our advanced civilization has approximated to the period when other and more sacred rights are to be conceded. Is it just that woman, who bears her reasonable portion of the burdens of government, should be denied the right of aiding in the enactment of its laws?

The question of extending the freedom of the ballot to woman may well claim the attention of the law-maker, and in view of the importance of the subject a majority of your committee earnestly recommend the passage of the declaration.

H. C. HUNT, Chairman,

T. H. MUNDINE, BENJ. WATROUS, WM. H. FLEMING, L. P. HARRIS.

A DECLARATION.

Be it declared by the people of Texas in convention assembled, that the following shall be a section of the constitution of the State of Texas, known as section ---- of article ----: Every person, without distinction of sex, who shall have arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and who shall be a citizen of the United States, or is at the time of the adoption of this constitution by the congress of the United States a citizen of the State of Texas, and shall have resided in this State one year next preceding an election, and the last six months within the district, county, city or town in which he or she offers to vote, shall be an elector.

The Woman's Journal of December 4, 1875, contains a letter from Mrs. Sarah W. Hiatt, who presented a memorial to the constitutional convention. The memorial was referred to the Committee on Suffrage. In regard to the effect, she says:

Since the presentation of the memorial I have had some very interesting letters on the subject from a few of our leading men; some for, others against woman suffrage, but all treating the subject respectfully. I copy below a portion of one just received. I should like to give it entire with the writer's name, but have not his permission to do so:

As you apprehended, the question of suffrage had been definitely settled in the convention before the reception of your letter. It remains as heretofore, unrestricted manhood suffrage. That all the rabble, the very debris of society, should be allowed a voice in government, and yet intelligent, highly-cultivated women who are amenable to the laws of the State and who own and pay taxes on property, should be debarred from a voice in making the laws which are to affect their persons and property equally with that of the men, is to my mind simply an outrage on reason and justice. * * * The fear of ignoring the right of petition, and gallantry towards your sex on the part of a few, prevented the memorial from being summarily rejected. Outside of ---- and ---- I know of no member of the convention who openly favors woman suffrage in any form. It is true there are a number of gentlemen who, in private conversation, will admit the justice of your plea, but avoid it by saying that ladies generally neither demand nor desire the right to vote. The truth is, these men (and society is full of them) have not the moral courage to do simple justice.

Thus you see that, so far as the action of this convention is concerned, our cause is defeated. Yet I do not feel discouraged. I think there is hardly a State in the Union that has such just and excellent laws concerning the property rights of women as Texas. There is also great liberality of sentiment here concerning the avocations of women. But the right of women to the ballot seems to be almost a new idea to our people. I have never lived in a community where the women are more nearly abreast of the men in all the activities of life than here in this frontier settlement. In our State a woman's property, real or personal, is her own, to keep, to convey, or to bequeath. The unusual number of widows here, due to the incursions of the Indians during and since the war, has made the management as well as the ownership of property by women so common a thing as to attract no notice. I might give interesting instances, but that would take time, and my point is this, that the laws which have enabled, and the circumstances which have driven women to rely upon and to exert themselves, have been educational, not only to them, but also to the community. The importance of this education to the future--who can measure it? It is true that many of them can neither read nor write, but in this the men are not in advance of them. It as often happens that the woman can read while the man cannot, as the reverse. And they are almost universally resolved that their children shall not grow up in the ignorance that has been their portion. If the women could vote, our convention would not think of submitting a constitution that did not secure to the State a liberal free school system.

The legislature of 1885, after a hard struggle, enacted a law making it compulsory on the heads of all departments to give at least one-half of the clerical positions in their respective offices to women. The action has extraordinary interest, and is regarded as a victory for the woman's rights party. Mrs. Jenny Bland Beauchamp of Dennison writes:

Texas claims to be a woman's State, in that her laws are unusually just and lenient to women. A woman who has property at marriage can keep it. She can even claim any property that she can prove was bought with that money. The wife is entitled to half the community whether she owned any of the original stock or not. She has a life interest in the homestead; no deed of trust can be put upon it, nor can it be mortgaged. It can only be conveyed from her by actual sale with her written consent. Under our latest revised statutes women have the right of suffrage, but have never exercised it; nor is the subject agitated to any great extent.

Three years ago, when the State University was built, it was decided that it should be coeducational, and young women are now being educated there side by side with young men. Texas has many liberal men and women. It is generally remarked that the women of the State are better educated than the men.

Miss Julia Pease, a Vassar graduate and daughter of the late ex-Governor Pease, has charge of 6,000 acres of land. She lives in the family mansion at Austin with her mother, and in addition to her other duties superintends the education of the three children of her deceased sisters.

Mrs. Rogers, the "cattle queen" of Texas, inherited from her first husband a herd of 40,000 cattle. The widow managed the business, and in due time married a preacher twenty years younger than herself, who had seven children. She attends to her estate herself, rides among her cowboys on horseback, and can tell just what a steer or cow is worth at any size or age.

The largest individual sheep-owner is a woman, known all over the State as the "Widow Cullahan." Her sheep, more than 50,000 in number, wander over the ranges of Uvalda and Bandern counties, in the southwestern part of the State. Their grade is a cross between the hardy Mexican sheep and the Vermont merino. They are divided into flocks of 2,000 head each, with a "bossero" and two "pastoras" in charge of each flock. At the spring and fall shearings long trains of wagons transport the "widow's" wool to the market at San Antonio.

Texas has two female dentists. Mrs. Stocking is one of the most successful dental surgeons in the State. The other, Miss Emma Tibler, went from Kentucky to Texas for the purpose of teaching. Finding this profession full, she studied dentistry and is now a successful practitioner of Cleburne.

The youngest telegrapher in the world is probably Hattie Hutchinson, in charge of an office in Texas. She is only ten years old.

III.--ARKANSAS.

Under date of March, 1868, Miles L. Langley writes from Arkadelphia, Arkansas, in regard to the efforts for equality in the constitutional convention:

ARKADELPHIA, Ark., March 5, 1868.

SUSAN B. ANTHONY--Dear Friend: With a sad heart but an approving conscience, I will give you some information relative to the action of our constitutional convention on the franchise question.

The new constitution--a copy of which I send you--makes no difference between men, on account of race or color and contains other excellences; but alas! it fails to guarantee to woman her God-given and well-earned rights of civil and political equality.

I made a motion to insert in the constitution a section to read thus: "All citizens twenty-one years of age, who can read and write the English language, shall be eligible to the elective franchise, and be entitled to equal political and legal rights and privileges." The motion was seconded and I had the floor, but the House became so clamorous that the president could not restore order, and the meeting adjourned with the understanding that I was to occupy the floor next morning. But next morning, just as I was about to commence my speech, some of the members tried to "bully" me out of the right to speak on that question. I replied that I had been robbed, shot, and imprisoned for advocating the rights of the slaves, and that I would then and there speak in favor of the rights of women if I had to fight for the right! I then proceeded to present arguments of which I am not ashamed. I was met with ridicule, sarcasm and insult. My ablest opponent, a lawyer, acknowledged in his reply that he could not meet my argument. The motion was laid on the table.

The Democrats are my enemies because I assisted in emancipating the slaves. The Republicans have now become my opponents, because I have made an effort to confer on the women their rights. And even the women themselves fail to sympathize with me.

Very respectfully, MILES L. LANGLEY.

The Arkansas Ladies' Journal says:

They tell us that women are not fit for politics. This may be true; and as it is next to impossible to change the nature of a woman, why wouldn't it be a good idea to so change politics that it shall be fit for women?

In 1885, Arkansas formed its first woman suffrage society at Eureka Springs through the efforts of Miss Phoebe Couzins, Mrs. Lizzie D. Fyler, president. The association numbers some fine speakers. The press is not in opposition, one or two papers favor the cause.

Misses Pettigrew and Sims have been elected clerks of the legislature. Several other ladies were candidates for the positions, and the contest was quite exciting. Mrs. Simonson and Miss Emily Thomas are members of the board of directors of a lumber company at Batesville, and Miss Thomas is also bookkeeper of the firm.

A very able report[522] of what has been done in Arkansas for the elevation of woman was presented by Mrs. Lizzie D. Fyler at the annual Washington convention in March, 1884.

IV.--MISSISSIPPI.

Mississippi secures to a married woman her own separate estate, and enables her to contract with her husband, or others, and carry on business in her own name. She may sue her husband, or others, and be sued, and has practically most of her civil rights; but her political rights are denied as in all other States.

In 1877 a law was passed by which henceforth no one can legally sell liquor in Mississippi unless he can obtain the written consent of a majority of the adult citizens of both sexes resident in the township.

The Mississippi Industrial College for Women held its formal opening October 22, 1885, at Columbus. Students had come from all parts of the State. More than 300 had already entered. The occasion was a brilliant one. Speeches were made by Senator E. T. Sykes, Senator J. McMcartin of Claiborne county, Col. J. L. Power of Jackson, Hon. James T. Harrison, Governor Lowry, and Dr. Jones. Mrs. E. G. Peyton of Hazelhurst, to whose efforts the founding of the Industrial College is largely due, was called upon, and in a few well-chosen remarks expressed the pride she felt in the State and in the college, feeling sure, she said, that Mississippi's daughters were now in safe hands.

Miss Lilian Light, the eight-year-old daughter of Mr. Jere Light of Hayneville, when only five or six years old began to make figures in clay, and now (1885) has a large collection of mud cats, hogs, dogs, cows, horses, and men. The figures are declared to be not childish imitations, but remarkably acute likenesses. Her best piece represents a negro praying, and is said to be very clever.

Miss C. F. Boardman of Elmore's Point, two miles from Biloxi, on the Bock Bay, has received the chief premiums awarded for oranges grown on the Gulf coast outside of Florida. This lady has 1,000 bearing orange trees of the choicest varieties, and has devoted her attention to the production of these and other tropical fruits, with great success. She came to the South for health a few years ago, and has not only found that, but has established for herself a pleasing and profitable industry in fruit culture. Her oranges were exhibited among numerous fine competing specimens, and were chosen for high excellence.

Miss Eliza A. Dupuy for many years contributed copiously to Mr. Bonner's Ledger. Miss Dupuy, who was descended from prominent Virginia families, was in her youth a teacher. The first story written by her was produced when she was only fourteen years old. More fortunate than the majority of authors, she leaves behind her a considerable sum earned by her ever-busy pen.

Mrs. Sarah A. Dorsey was perhaps the most remarkable woman that Mississippi can boast. She was the niece of Mrs. Warfield, the author of the "Household of Bouverie," who had great influence in forming her literary tastes. The New Orleans Monthly Review contains many able articles on abstruse questions from her pen. One, in the February number for 1876, on the "Origin of the Species," is exceptionally able and interesting. It was read in October, 1875, before the New Orleans Academy of Sciences by Mrs. Dorsey herself. This article shows extensive reading in scientific questions. She was made corresponding member of the Academy, an honor she appreciated more highly for her sex than for herself. She was a large-souled, noble woman, devoted to what she considered Southern interests. She bequeathed to Jefferson Davis the estate, called Beauvoir, on which he now resides.

FOOTNOTES:

[516] Emily P. Collins of Ponchatoula, Louisiana, wrote Miss Anthony: "Our State is to form a new constitution this spring. I feel that now if ever is the time to strike for woman's emancipation. 'We, the people' includes women as well as men, and regardless of former legislative enactments we should be allowed to vote and be voted for as delegates to the constitutional convention. If I only had some one to aid me, or had your moral courage, I would proclaim myself a candidate for the constitutional convention. The colored people ought to sustain me for I have ever been their steadfast friend, and they themselves owe their emancipation chiefly to women. They cannot elect a colored man here, but could I have their support I have personal friends enough to secure my election. The parish ought to be stumped in support of some candidate whose efforts should be pledged to the insertion of a clause in the new constitution to prohibit future legislatures making sex a qualification for voting."

[517] The following letter from Mrs. Saxon to Mrs. Minor gives the reason why she could not be present at the National Convention held in St. Louis:

"Almost entirely unaided I have gained 300 names in five weeks. Among them two Presbyterian ministers, wives of three others, seven of the most prominent physicians, all of the city administrators, two distinguished judges, several lawyers and many leading business men. I have begged Mrs. Emily P. Collins to urge upon the Association to meet here next year. I feel that now and before this convention is our most important work, so I must stay and try and influence the members all in my power. I was unaware of the action I was to take here, and if I get before the convention it will not be before the morning of the 7th, or I would come anyway as I have been offered a free passage by both rail and river. Mrs. Collins was with me for a few days and will assure you of my untiring efforts in the cause here. God knows I would be willing to buy fifteen minutes before the whole convention, the day they vote on that bill, by the sacrifice of my life; for remembering the grand women I have seen sacrificed along life's path, I think from their memory a power and eloquence would spring that might win hearts of steel and force justice to women from them. I will write again in a few days and report progress.

"Very sincerely your friend, E. L. SAXON."

"May 5, 1879."

[518] Of her speech Mrs. Merrick writes: "Fearing that I could not be heard, I proposed to my son-in law, Mr. Guthrie, that he should read it for me, but Mrs. Saxon objected, saying, 'No matter if they do not hear a word you say! You do not wish a man to represent you at the polls; represent yourself now, if you only stand up and move your lips.' 'I will,' said I, 'you are right.'--[EDITORS.

[519] The Claibornes are a distinguished Virginia family, but belong to the history of Mississippi and Louisiana since territorial times. Mr. Claiborne now regrets that he did not go farther, for he is satisfied that women may be trusted with powers that have long been withheld. He says he was led to reflect seriously on the subject by the able addresses of Mrs. Keating, Mrs. Saxon and Mrs. Merrick, who made a profound impression on the convention.

[520] The officers of the Christian Woman's Exchange for 1885, were: President, Mrs. R. M. Walmsley; Vice-Presidents, Mesdames T. G. Richardson, M. W. Bartlett, Albert Baldwin, John R. Juden, J. H. Allen; Recording Secretary, Mrs. Theo. Auze; _Corresponding Secretary_, Mrs. E. J. Wharton; Treasurer, Mrs. S. H. Davis; Acting Treasurer, Mrs. F. N. Griswold; Board of Managers, Mesdames S. Landrum, M. C. Jennings, B. D. Wood, A. Brittin, Percy Roberts, S. Delgado, F. N. Griswold, E. L. Wood, Wm. Muller, E. Ranlett, G. W. Pritchard, L. P. Wayne, T. H. Holmes, J. B. Wallace, Albert Baldwin, P. N. Strong, K. Fuhri, S. H. Kennedy, H. J. Leovy, John Parker, R. M. Walmsley, T. G. Richardson, Theo. Auze, E. J. Wharton, S. H. Davis. M. W. Bartlett, D. A. Given, John R. Juden, J. H. Allen, Fred. Wing.

[521] The original members of the Woman's Club were: Miss Bessie Bisland, Mrs. Elizabeth W. Baker, Miss C. Farrar, Mrs. J. M. Ferguson, Miss M. E. Hagan, Miss J. E. Linsler, Miss H. D. Pickens, Miss M. Siebold, Mrs. M. J. C. Swayze, Miss E. Schrieves, Miss M. Manning, Miss P. Teiltebaum.

[522] See Report Washington Convention, 1884.

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LV. (CONTINUED)

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA--MARYLAND--DELAWARE--KENTUCKY--TENNESSEE-- VIRGINIA--WEST VIRGINIA--NORTH CAROLINA--SOUTH CAROLINA--FLORIDA-- ALABAMA--GEORGIA.

Secretary Chase--Women in the Government Departments--Myrtilla Miner--Mrs. O'Connor's Tribute--District of Columbia Suffrage Bill--The Universal Franchise Association, 1867--Bill for a Prohibitory Law Presented by Hon. S. C. Pomeroy, 1869--A Bill for Equal Wages for the Women in the Departments, Introduced by Hon. S. M. Arnell, 1870--In 1871 Congress Passed the Organic Act for the District Confining the Right of Suffrage to Males--In 1875 it Withdrew all Legislative Power from the People--Women in Law, Medicine, Journalism and the Charities--Dental College Opened to Women--Mary A. Stuart--The Clay Sisters--The School of Pharmacy--Elizabeth Avery Meriwether--Judge Underwood--Mary Bayard Clarke--Dr. Susan Dimock--Governor Chamberlain--Coffee-Growing--Priscilla Holmes Drake--Alexander H. Stephens.

I.--DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

The District covers an area of 64 square miles, and contains a population of 200,000. It was originally a portion of Maryland, and was ceded to congress by that State for the exclusive use of the Federal government. Hon. Salmon P. Chase, secretary of the treasury under Abraham Lincoln, seeing that most of the gifted young men had been drafted or had enlisted in the army, introduced young women as clerks in the government departments. The experiment proved successful, and now there are about six thousand women in the various departments. Mr. Chase often alluded to this afterwards as one of the most important acts of his life. The war brought many bright, earnest women to Washington, led thither by patriotism, ambition, or the necessity of finding some new employment. This new vital force, this purer element, infused into the society at the capitol, has been slowly introducing more liberal ideas into that community.

The first specific work for woman in the District of Columbia of which we find any record was that of Myrtilla Miner of New York, who opened a Normal School for colored girls, December 3, 1851. She began with six pupils in a small room in a private house, but soon had more offered than could be accommodated. Through much ridicule and untold difficulties she struggled alone, but successfully, for ten years, when Miss Emily Howland came to her aid. The heroism of this noble woman has been told by Mrs. Ellen O. Connor in a little volume[523] which is a beautiful tribute to the memory of Miss Miner. The Miner Normal School of Washington is now a thorough and popular school for colored girls.

For a brief report of what has been accomplished in the District of Columbia, we are indebted to Belva A. Lockwood:

In 1866, the women of Washington were first aroused to the consideration of the suffrage question, by the discussion of "The District of Columbia suffrage bill" proposing to strike out the word "white" in order to extend the franchise to colored men. Mr. Cowan, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, offered an amendment to strike out the word "male" also, and thus enfranchise the women of the District. It was said his proposition was not made in good faith, but simply to embarrass Republican legislation. However it served a good purpose for all disfranchised classes, as the amendment called out a notable debate,[524] lasting three days, and received the votes of nine influential senators in its favor. The voting of the newly enfranchised negroes at the May election, 1867, brought out in strong color the beauties of masculine legislation, and immediately after there was a movement among the friends of woman's enfranchisement. A meeting was called by James and Julia Holmes at their residence, where the "Universal Franchise Association" was organized.[525] As soon as their meetings, regularly held, took on a serious air, the combined power of the press was brought to bear upon them with the determination to break them up. But the meetings were continued, notwithstanding the opposition; and although most of the speeches were good, they were often interrupted with hisses and yells, and the police, when appealed to, failed to keep order, seeming rather to join hands with the mob. In order to put a check on the rabble, contrary to the spirit of the society, a fee was charged at the door. Strangely enough, so great had the interest become, the crowd increased instead of lessening, and night after night Union League Hall was crowded, until the coffers of the association contained nearly $1,000. The press of the city in the meantime had kept up a fusilade of ludicrous reports, in which the women were caricatured and misrepresented, all of which they bore with fortitude, and without any attempt at reply. The meetings continued through the year notwithstanding the cry of the timid that the cause was being injured and fair reputations blighted.

June 25, 1868, a deputation from the District Franchise Association appeared, by appointment, before the House Committee of the District, to urge the passage of the bill presented in the House of Representatives by Hon. Henry D. Washburn, accompanied by a petition signed by eighty women of the District:

"Be it enacted, etc., That from and after the passage of this act, no person shall be debarred from voting or holding office in the District of Columbia by reason of sex."

Mrs. Josephine S. Griffing began by saying that the friends of equal freedom for women in the District had thought the revision of the local government a fit time to present their claims and submit a memorial, setting forth the justice of passing the bill before the committee to remove the restrictions that forbid women to vote in the District. The movement was not wholly new, and was known by those active in the work to be approved by a large mass of women who were not prepared to express themselves openly. The enfranchisement of woman is needful to a real reconstruction.

Mr. Wilcox read a memorial, signed by a committee of residents of the district, consisting of eleven ladies and eleven gentlemen, including Mrs. Griffing, Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth, Miss Lydia S. Hall (formerly of Kansas), Mrs. Annie Denton Cridge, Judge A. B. Olin and Mrs. Olin, recalling the fact that congress had freed 3,000 slaves, and enfranchised the 8,000 colored men of the district, both of which experiments had worked well, notwithstanding conservative predictions to the contrary; and showing that, while the former experiments, on a small scale comparatively, had yielded rich results, so the enfranchisement of half the adult population would produce vast good. He incidentally answered the usual arguments against suffrage, and affirmed that those who possess neither the power of wealth nor of knowledge wherewith to protect themselves, most need political power for that purpose. He remarked that the competition for votes among politicians was a tremendous educating force, and that laws would not be certain of enforcement unless those for whose benefit they were made were clothed with power to compel such enforcement.

Mrs. Mary T. Corner presented a number of points as to the laws of the district relating to women, of some of which Judge Welker took notes with a view to their speedy investigation by the committee. As to suffrage, she pointed out that women do not come under the head of paupers, minors, felons, rebels, idiots or aliens, and that the reasons existing for the disfranchisement of such persons do not apply to native-born, loyal women. She showed that women are not represented in the government of the district, though taxed by it, and by law cannot properly protect themselves, their children, or their property, nor hold municipal office, however fit. A wife cannot hold property in the district except by proxy. Women understand their needs and condition better than men, and should be free to regulate them. The swarms of foreigners who are freely admitted to the polls know less of our institutions than the masses of our women. Women have voted and held the highest offices in other countries with great success. Are our women less capable than these? At the conclusion Mrs. Corner returned thanks to the committee for their attention; and the latter, without expressing an opinion on the matter, complimented the speakers on the ability and eloquence with which their views had been presented. It was also stated that a large number of petitions would be presented in support of the bill. The committee expressed themselves as unable, by reason of the lateness of the session and the pressure of other business, to promise an early report. The interview lasted about an hour, and was very cordial and pleasant on both sides.

September 25, 1868, the Universal Franchise Association held its first annual meeting[526] at Union League Hall, Mrs. Josephine S. Griffing presiding. A letter was read from Senator Pomeroy, stating that he was willing to act as president of the society. In closing he said:

I trust the friends will unite in one association. We have but one object in view, and should all labor together to accomplish this end, viz.: the enfranchisement of every citizen, with no partiality for race or sex. The American citizen is the only safe depository for the ballot, and the only safeguard for individual and national liberty. Let us labor to realize, even in our day and time, this true type of republican government. The rights and safety of individuals and of the nation demand it.

In 1869, the executive committee passed a resolution to expend the money that had been accumulated at the meetings of the association in a series of lectures for the purpose of enlightening the public mind upon the question of equal political rights for women. Among the speakers engaged were Anna Dickinson, Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony, D. R. Locke (Nasby), Theodore Tilton. From that time the women of the district were permitted to speak their minds freely.

In the House of Representatives, March 21, 1870, Mr. Arnell, on leave, introduced the following bill:

A bill to do justice to the female employees of the Government, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That hereafter all clerks and other employes in the civil service of the United States shall be paid, irrespective of sex, with reference to the character and amount of services performed by them.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That, in the employment of labor, clerical or other, in any branch of the civil service of the United States, no discrimination shall be made in favor of either sex.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That where examinations of candidates for positions in the civil service of the United States are prescribed by law, or by the heads of departments, bureaus, or offices, said examinations shall be of the same character for persons of both sexes.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That the designations, chief clerk, chief or head of division, chief or head of section, clerk of the fourth class, clerk of the third class, clerk of the second class, clerk of the first class, copyist, messenger, laborer, and all other designations of employes, in existing acts of Congress, or in use in any branch of the civil service of the United States, shall be held, hereafter to apply to women as well as to men; and that women shall be regarded equally eligible with men to perform the duties of the afore-designated clerks and employes, and shall receive the compensation therefor prescribed by law.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That this act shall not be so construed as to require the displacement of any person now employed, but shall apply to all vacancies hereafter occurring, for any cause.

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That all acts and parts of acts, in conflict with any of the provisions of this act be, and the same are hereby, expressly repealed.

Thousands of petitions for this bill were circulated. Mrs. Lockwood went to New York, and secured seven hundred signatures, visiting both of the suffrage conventions then in session in that city, the National and the American. The bill was shortly afterward passed in a modified form, and has ever since been in force in all of the government departments.

In February, 1871, congress passed the organic act for the district, making of it a territory and granting suffrage to the male members of the commonwealth. There was also granted under this bill a right to a delegate in congress. In the meetings which followed for the nomination of delegates a number of women took part. Mrs. Lockwood often broke the monotony with a short speech, and on one occasion only lacked one vote of an election to the general convention for the nomination of a delegate to congress.

The women of the district were not permitted to vote under the organic act, but soon after the organization of its legislature, bills to provide for this were introduced into both Houses. Mrs. Lockwood prepared an exhaustive address upon these pending bills, and was granted a hearing before both Houses of the legislature, but they were finally lost. In 1875 congress withdrew the legislative power from the people of the District of Columbia.

It was also in 1871 that the National University Law School, then principally under the control of Prof. Wm. B. Wedgewood, organized a law class for women, in which fifteen matriculated. Mrs. Lockwood had been denied admission the previous year to the law class of Columbia College for the reason, as given by the trustees, "that it would distract the attention of the young men." About this time a young colored woman, Charlotte Ray of New York, was graduated from the law class of Howard University and admitted to the bar with the class. Of the fifteen women who entered the National University only two completed the course, viz., Lydia S. Hall, and Belva A. Lockwood. The former never received her diploma. The latter, after an appeal to President Grant, received her diploma, and was admitted to the district bar, September 23, 1873. Since that period Emma M. Gillett, Marilla M. Ricker, and Laura DeForce Gordon have been admitted to the district bar, and there seems to be no longer any hindrance to such admissions. The above-named have all appeared in court, and a number of other ladies have been graduated in the district. Women have also been appointed notaries public, and examiners in chancery.

In the profession of medicine there has been more liberality. Dr. Susan A. Edson and Dr. Caroline B. Winslow have been in full practice here since the close of the war. Dr. Mary Parsons and Dr. Cora M. Bland and others, are practicing with marked success. Last year there were fourteen women duly registered with the health department, and they all seem to be in good standing. Howard University has admitted women to its medical classes for some years, and both white and colored women have availed themselves of the privilege. Last year Columbia College opened its doors in the medical department, with a suggestion that the classes in law and theology may soon be opened also.

Many women in the district within the last few years have entered into business for themselves, as they are now permitted to do under the law of 1869, and are milliners, merchants, market-women, hucksters. In the art of nursing, which has been reduced to a science, they have free course.

In 1871, a large number of ladies tried to register in the city of Washington. They marched in solid phalanx some seventy[527] strong to the registrar's office, but were repulsed. They tried afterwards to vote, but were refused, whereupon Mrs. Spencer sued the inspectors, and Mrs. Webster sued the registrars, so testing their rights in two suits in the Supreme Court of the District.[528]

In 1866 Jane G. Swisshelm commenced the publication of a liberal sheet in the District of Columbia, known as The Wasp. This was the continuation of a paper formerly published by her in Pittsburg, Pa., and in St. Cloud, Minn., called The Visitor. Many other papers by women have been since published in the District. Perhaps the most voluminous author in this country is Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth, who has written a volume for each year of her life, and is now sixty-five years of age. Her authorship has been confined to romances, which have been very popular. A large proportion of the teachers of the public schools in the District are women, some of them of very marked culture. Many of the most noted and successful private schools, some with collegiate courses, are conducted by women. Among these, Mrs. Margaret Harover who taught in the District during the war, is worthy of mention, also Mrs. Ellen M. O'Connor, president of the Miner school. Mrs. Sarah J. Spencer, as associate principal of the Spencerian business college whence large classes of young women have been graduated for many years past, is deservedly popular. She was at one time prominent in the woman suffrage movement, acting as corresponding secretary of the National Association. She is now engaged in one of the large charity organizations of the city. Many colored women who have been graduated from Howard University, have become quite successful as teachers, and some have studied medicine. All of the copyists in the office of registrar of deeds are women. A goodly number are short-hand reporters for the courts, among whom Miss Camp, daughter of the assistant clerk, is notably skillful.

The number of women who hold property in the District is large and rapidly increasing. A woman may now enter into almost any honorable profession that she chooses, and maintain her respectability. All of the professions are open to her, and the sphere of trades is rapidly widening. The progress made in this regard in the last quarter of a century amounts almost to a revolution. The first women ever admitted to the reporter's gallery of the Senate and House were Abigail Dodge (Gail Hamilton), and Helen M. Barnard, both political writers of great power; the former as a reporter for the New York Times, and the latter for the New York Herald. Mrs. Barnard, during Grant's administration, was sent as commissioner of immigration to Liverpool, visiting England, Ireland and Scotland. Returning in the steerage of an ocean steamer, she gave one of the finest reports ever made upon this question. This resulted in the passage by the legislature of New York of a bill for the better protection of emigrants on shipboard, and the appointment by the United States government of an inspector of immigration for every out-going steamer.

Women were first appointed as clerks in the government departments in 1861 by Secretary Chase, at the earnest solicitation of Treasurer Spinner. They were employed at temporary work at $50 a month--one-half the lowest price paid to any male clerk--until they were recognized by an act of congress in which their salary was fixed at $900 a year, in the general appropriation bill of July 23, 1866. The men doing the same work were of four classes, receiving, respectively, $1,000, $1,400, $1,600, $1,800. Treasurer Spinner, in his report of October, 1866, said:

The experiment of employing females as clerks has been, so far as this office is concerned, a success. For many kinds of office-work, like the manipulation and counting of fractional currency, they excel, and in my opinion are to be preferred to males. There is, however, quite as much difference in point of ability between female clerks as there is between the several classes of male clerks, whose equals some of them are. Some are able to accomplish twice as much as others, and with greater accuracy. So, too, some of them incur great risks, being responsible for making mistakes in count, and for counterfeits overlooked. Such should, by every consideration of justice and fair dealing, be paid according to their merits, and the risks and liabilities they incur.

And in 1868, Mr. Spinner urged the committee of which Mr. Fessenden of Maine was the chairman, to so amend the bill providing for the reorganization of the treasury department as to increase the salary of the female clerks who have the handling of money, stating that cases had occurred in which women had lost more than half their monthly pay by reason of being short in count, or of allowing counterfeit notes to pass their hands.

Secretary M'Cullough asserted that women performed their clerical duties as creditably as men, and stated that he had three ladies who performed as much labor, and did it as well as any three male clerks receiving $1,800 a year. It is now a quarter of a century that women have served the government in these responsible positions, and still, with but few exceptions, they receive only the allotted $900. Mrs. Fitzgerald, the expert in the redemption bureau of the treasury, who has for fifteen years deciphered defaced currency, in which no man has ever yet proved her equal, receives $1,400. In 1886 she subjected herself to an examination for an increase to $1,600, but, failing to answer some questions foreign to her art, she was compelled to content herself with the former salary.

II.--MARYLAND.

The Revolution of February 26, 1868, shows an effort in the direction of progress on this question in Maryland. A correspondent says:

Notwithstanding the present ascendancy of conservatism in Maryland, the progressive element is not wholly annihilated; in proof of which, we send information of the working of this leaven, as developed in an association lately organized in the city of Baltimore, under the name of the "Maryland Equal Rights Society." For nearly a year past it has been in contemplation to form a society based upon the principle of equal chance to all human kind, irrespective of sex or color, through the mediumship of the elective franchise. The first public meeting of the friends of the movement was held on the afternoon of November 12, 1867, at the Douglass Institute, at which twelve persons, white and colored, were present. Some steps were taken towards organization in the framing and adopting of a constitution based upon the principle afore-mentioned; but further business was deferred in hope of securing a larger attendance at a subsequent meeting. Two weeks later a second meeting was called, when the constitution was signed by fourteen persons, ten of whom were white and four colored. Officers were chosen, consisting of a president, a vice-president, a secretary and a treasurer, together with eight other members to act as an executive committee. The last meeting, held January 29, was attended by Alfred H. Love and Rachel Love of Philadelphia. To Mr. Love the society is indebted for many valuable suggestions as to the best means of becoming an effective co-worker in the cause of human progress.

Our colored friends, who have control of the Douglass Institute, have testified their good will toward the movement in giving the society the use of an apartment in the building, free of charge. This is the one instance in which we have met with encouragement in our own community. We have sought it in high places, among those we supposed to be friends, and found it not. It appears to be the nature of fine linen to dread the mud splashes of the pioneer's spade and pick-ax, and for silk and broadcloth to shrink from contact with the briers of an uncleared thicket; hence our sole recourse is to appeal to those only who are dressed for the service. We are conscious that we have entered upon no easy task; but, ashamed of having so long left our Northern sisters to toil and endure alone in a cause which is not one of section but of humanity, we come forward at last to assume our share of the hardship, trusting that what we have lost in our tardiness may be made up in earnestness and activity.

From various papers we clip the following items:

At the election in Baltimore, January 20, 1870, there were three women who applied to be registered as voters at the third-ward registry office. Their names were Mrs. L. C. Dundore, Mrs. A. M. Gardner and Miss E. M. Harris. Their cases were held under advisement by the register.----In 1871, a Maryland young lady, Miss Middlebrook, raised over 5,000 heads of cabbage. On Christmas, she sold in the Baltimore market 500 pounds of turkey at 20 cents per pound.----Mrs. H. B. Conway of Frederick county, has established a reputation as a contractor for "fills" and "cuts." She has filled several contracts in Pennsylvania, been awarded a $100,000 job on the Western Maryland railroad, and now, 1885, is engaged in the work of excavating a tract in Baltimore for building-sites.

Miss R. Muller has for several years been engaged as subscription and general correspondence clerk for the Baltimore Daily American. She was the first woman to be employed in that city on newspaper work during the present century. In the chapter on newspapers it will be seen that Anna R. Green established the first newspaper in the Maryland colony one hundred and nineteen years ago, doing the colony printing; and that Mary R. Goddard not only published a paper, writing able editorials, but was also the first postmaster after the revolution. And from the following item it would seem that the first woman to claim her right to vote must be credited to Maryland:

At the regular meeting of the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore, December, 1885, Hon. J. L. Thomas read a paper on "Margaret Brent, the first woman in America to claim the right to vote." She lived at St. Mary's city on the river of the same name two hundred and forty years ago, and was related to Lord Baltimore. She was the heir of Leonard Calvert, Lord Baltimore's brother and agent, and as such she claimed not only control of all rents, etc., of Lord Baltimore, but also the right to two votes in the assembly as the representative of both Calvert and Baltimore. The first claim the courts upheld, but the second was rejected.

On March 20, 1872, Hon. Stevenson Archer made an exhaustive speech on the floor of the House of Representatives, entitled, "Woman Suffrage not to be tolerated, although advocated by the Republican candidate for vice-presidency." The speech was against Senator Wilson's bill to enfranchise the women of the territories. The honorable representative from Maryland may have been moved to enter his protest against woman's enfranchisement by the fact that the women of his State had in convention assembled early in the same month made a public demand for their political rights:

The Havre de Grace Republican says that the convention of the Maryland Equal Rights Association, held in Raine's Hall, Baltimore, last week, was a grand success. Mrs. Lavina C. Dundore, president of the association, presided over the convention with dignity and grace. Many prominent and able champions of the cause were present and delivered eloquent and telling addresses in favor of woman's enfranchisement, which were listened to with marked attention by the large audiences in attendance. The friends of the cause in Maryland feel much gratified at this exhibition of the rapidly increasing interest in the movement.

Meetings had been held in Baltimore during the years of 1870-71, and lectures given by Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, Susan B. Anthony, and others.

Charlotte Richmond of Baltimore writes the Woman's Journal, April 22, 1873:

The American Journal of Dental Science makes the following statement: "The Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, having had the honor of conferring the first degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery in the world, has also graduated the first woman who ever received a diploma in medicine or dentistry in Baltimore, in the person of Miss Emilie Foeking of Prussia, who, after attending two full courses of lectures and demonstrations, passed a very creditable final examination. Miss Foeking conformed to all the rules and regulations of the college during the two sessions that she was a student; no favor whatever as to requirement being asked for on her part, or extended to her by the faculty, on account of sex. She has fairly earned her degree by proficiency and earnest application. After a short time Miss Foeking will return to Berlin, where she intends to locate. That she will succeed in establishing a large and lucrative practice, there is no doubt, as she is well qualified professionally, and is in manner so perfect a lady as to command the respect of all who know her."

You will see by this extract from one of our medical journals, that a lady has been graduated from our dental college. I hope she has left the doors open, so that some of our own countrywomen may enter and acquit themselves as honorably, but without the difficulties which she has been compelled to encounter. You are aware of the proceedings of the Philadelphia college in regard to female students. Our Baltimore dentist, for we feel proud to claim her as ours, although admitted in the college, still had all the prejudices to meet in the minds of the people, but they were too courteous and hospitable to act upon those feelings so far as to turn her from their doors. She was brave and did not surrender; not even when her sensitive woman's heart was wounded and humiliated by the little acts done heedlessly under the impression that a woman had stepped out of her sphere and was taking upon herself a vocation belonging exclusively to men. She is naturally sincere, modest and dignified. With these lady-like qualifications, together with ability and perseverance, she has won the honor and esteem of the faculty and the students.

I wish that Prussia could have witnessed the success of her daughter on the night of commencement--the wreaths of laurel, and the incessant applause while she was on the stage. I, for one, felt quite proud to see my city acknowledge the foreign lady-student so gracefully. She is already practicing to some extent, and in every case gives the most entire satisfaction. I trust there will be no more college doors closed against our sex, for the reason that the male students do not want us. Let the professors and trustees be just. We have proved that a true lady is no disadvantage in a college with male students. I think the way is now clear for women to enter upon the dental profession. Miss Foeking has proved that a woman can be successful when she undertakes an honorable profession.

For the facts in regard to the Baltimore Dental College we are indebted to the dean of the faculty:

BALTIMORE COLLEGE OF DENTAL SURGERY, Jan. 2, 1886.

MISS SUSAN B. ANTHONY--Dear Miss: Your letter of 27th of last month came safely to hand. In reply I will say that only two members of the fair sex have been graduated with us. Miss Emilie Foeking of Prussia, whose present address I do not know, and Miss Pauline Boeck of Germany, who has since died. Miss Foeking was graduated in 1873, and Miss Boeck in 1877. I have learned that both of these young ladies were attentive and energetic in the pursuit of their studies, and were graduated with credit to themselves. We have the "Woman's Medical College," from which quite a number of young women have been graduated. For information in regard to this institution I would refer you to its dean, Prof. Wm. D. Booker, 157 Park avenue.

Very truly yours, R. B. WINDER.

III.--DELAWARE.

Mary A. Stuart is the active representative of the movement for woman suffrage in Delaware. From year to year she has written and contributed to our National conventions in Washington, and has been among the delegates on several occasions to address congressional committees. In her report she says:

My father was the first man in the State Senate to propose the repeal of some of our oppressive laws, and succeeded in having the law giving all real estate to the eldest male heir repealed. The law of 1871 gave a married woman the right to make a will, provided her husband gave his written consent, with the names of two respectable witnesses thereunto attached. In 1873 the law was repealed, and another act passed giving married women the right to make a will, buy property and hold it exempt from the husband's debts, but this law does not affect his tenancy by courtesy.

Prior to 1868, bonds, mortgages, stocks, etc., were counted personal property, all of which went into the possession of the husband the moment the woman answered "I will," in the marriage ceremony. I worked hard to get the law passed giving the wife the right to her own separate earnings, and at last was greatly helped by the fact that a woman petitioned for a divorce, stating in her application that she was driven from her home, that she and her two children had worked hard and saved $100 for a rainy day, and now her husband claimed the money. It was a case in point, and helped the members of our legislature to pass the wages bill.

Delaware College, the only institution of the kind in the State, was open to girls for thirteen years, but owing to a tragedy committed by the boys in hazing one another, resulting in death, the doors were thereafter closed to girls, although they were in no way directly or indirectly implicated in the outrages. When Governor Stockley was appealed to, he simply gave some of the old arguments against coeducation, and did not recommend, as he should have done, an appropriation at once by the State to build a similar college, with all the necessary appointments for the education of girls. We have women who are practicing physicians, and are also in the State Medical Boards. We have none who practice law or preach in our pulpits, and all the political offices of the State are closed to women. No notaries, bank cashiers, telegraph operators. Women are still in the belief that work outside the home is a disgrace to the men of their families.

In February, 1881, Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony, Miss Couzins and Mrs. Lockwood, held various hearings before the legislature. Mrs. Lockwood read to the gentlemen article 4 of the constitution as amended in 1834: "Any white male citizen over 22 years of age who shall be a tax-payer, shall be eligible to vote for electors." She then showed them how readily, without any marked revolution, the word "white" had been stricken out, while the word tax-payer had virtually become a dead letter. Then turning to the first paragraph of the United States revised code she cited the passage which states that in determining the meaning of statutes after February 25, 1877, "words importing the masculine gender may be applied to females." * * * * At this point the chairman of the committee placed before Mrs. Lockwood the Delaware code from which she read a similar application of the law made many years before. Having laid this foundation she asserted that the women of Delaware were legally entitled to vote under the laws as they are, but that to prevent all question on the subject, she would recommend a special enactment like that prepared in the bill before them. An amendment to the State constitution giving suffrage to women was presented in the House of Representatives in February, 1881, and referred to the committee on privileges and elections. It was reported adversely. The vote showed that all the members, with two[529] exceptions, were opposed to the measure.

Among the friends in Delaware were several liberal families, active in all the progressive movements of the day. Preeminent among these was that of the noble Thomas Garrett, whose good words of encouragement for woman's enfranchisement may be found in the bound copies of The Revolution as far back as 1868. His private letters to those of us interested in his labors of love are among our most cherished mementoes. He was a man of good judgment, broad sympathies, and unswerving integrity.

IV.--KENTUCKY.

Mary B. Clay, daughter of Cassius M. Clay, sends us the following report of what has been done to change the status of women in Kentucky:

The earliest agitation of the suffrage question in our State arose from the advent of Miss Lucy Stone in Louisville, in 1853, at which time she delivered three lectures in Masonic Hall to crowded audiences. George D. Prentice gave full and friendly reports in the Courier-Journal. In later years, Anna Dickinson and others have lectured in our chief cities. But the first note of associated effort is that given in The Revolution from Glendale, which says:

We organized here an association with twenty members the first of October, 1867, and now have fifty. We hope soon to have the whole of Hardin county, and by the close of another year the whole of the State of Kentucky, enlisted on the side of woman's rights.

In the winter of 1872 Hannah Tracy Cutler and Margaret V. Longley were granted a respectful hearing before our legislature at Frankfort. In May, 1879, self-appointed, I represented Kentucky at the May anniversary of the National Association at St. Louis. In the autumn following, Miss Anthony, during an extended lecture tour through the State, stopped in Richmond several days, and aided us in organizing a local suffrage society.[530] Letters were at once written to the leading editors asking them to publish articles on the subject. Many favorable answers were received, and we have largely availed ourselves of the columns of the papers to keep up the agitation. My sister, Sally Clay Bennett, edits a column in the Richmond Register, sister Anne a column in the Lexington Gazette, and Kate Dunning Clarke, a column in the Turf, Field and Farm. Mrs. Clarke is also associate editor of the Kentucky State Journal. The Misses Moore are making a success of a daily paper at Milledgeville.

In May, 1880, Mrs. Bennett and myself were delegates at the great National Mass Convention in Farwell Hall, Chicago. In October, 1881, the American Association held its annual meeting in Louisville. It was largely attended and fully and fairly reported by the press of the city. At its close, a Kentucky State association was organized, with Laura Clay as president.

In January, 1882, the Richmond and Louisville clubs secured a hearing before the judiciary committee of the Senate, Mrs. Bennett and myself representing the former, and John A. Ward the latter. With the valuable aid of Mrs. Mary Haggart of Indianapolis we made a most favorable impression upon our legislators. The points in which our laws are defective and upon which our appeals and arguments were based are well indicated by the pleas of our several petitions:

That women might have municipal and presidential suffrage by statute; that in marriage women might own their property as men own theirs; that women who were married might be the legal guardians of their children's property and persons as well as the father; that women should be appointed with equal responsibility and authority as assistant physicians in insane asylums, and that the appointment of all the officers in such asylums should be made by the legislature, and not by the governor, as now; that women be appointed on boards of visitors and commissioners to all asylums where women are inmates or prisoners.

In 1884, all of the Clay sisters--Mrs. Bennet, Mary, Laura and Anne--with Mrs. Haggart, again went to Frankfort, and held meetings in the legislative hall, which were largely attended by the best classes of the citizens of that city, as well as by members of the legislature.

For several years we have had a woman for State Librarian. In Fayette, one of our most aristocratic counties, Lexington being its county seat, a woman was elected to the office of county clerk by a majority of 200 over her male competitor. In two other counties women are also county clerks. Each of them had served so efficiently in her husband's office, that at his death she had been elected in his place.

That woman has to fight every step of her way to the recognition of her rights as a citizen equal before the law, is shown by the following despatch from Frankfort, dated December 18, 1885:

Mrs. M. C. Lucas was elected by the vote of Daviess county to the office of jailer, to succeed her husband, who was killed by a mob while in discharge of his duty. When she appeared before the county court to give bond for the office, the Judge refused to allow her to qualify. A writ of mandamus from the Circuit Court was applied for to compel the court to allow her to qualify, but the motion was denied. An appeal was then taken to the Court of Appeals. Yesterday that court affirmed the decision of the Circuit Court, that a woman cannot legally hold the office of county jailer.

A woman in Madison county acted as census-taker, and performed her duty well. She was the niece of Mr. Justice Miller of the Supreme Court of the United States. Gen. W. J. Sanderson, internal revenue collector for the eighth district, employed two young ladies as clerks, Miss Brown and Miss Price, the former of whom is said to be his best clerk. She is the sister of Mrs. Smith, the circuit clerk of Laurel county. The successor of General Sanderson, employs his two daughters as clerks, and they receive the same pay as men who do the same work.

Many women in our State manage their own farms. My mother, during my father's absence as minister to Russia, took his farm of 2,500 acres (he making her his attorney), paid off a large debt on the property, built an elegant house costing $30,000, stocked the farm, and largely supported the family of six children, with money which she made during the war. She fed government mules, and did it so well that she would return them to camp before the time expired, in better condition than most feeders got theirs. She is now, 1885, conducting her own farm of 350 acres, selling several thousand dollars' worth of wheat, cattle, and sheep annually, giving her personal attention to everything, at the age of seventy. During the adventurous and perilous period of my father's life she shared his dangers, and was ever his mainstay in upholding his hands against slavery; and in that crowning point of his life, when he was mobbed in Lexington, my mother sat at his bed-side, and wrote at his dictation, "Go tell your secret conclave of dastardly assassins, Cassius M. Clay knows his rights and how to defend them."

Two of my sisters, Laura and Anne, and myself are practical farmers, each having under her immediate superintendence the workmen, both white and black, on 300 acres. We raise corn, wheat, oats, cattle and sheep, buying and selling our own stock and produce. We took possession of the land without stock or utensils, and by our observation and experience, prudence and industry, have greatly improved the lands and stock, and annually realize a handsome income therefrom.

Miss Laura R. White of Manchester, sister of Hon. John D. White, who ably advocated our cause in congress as well as in his own State, was graduated with marked honor from the Michigan State University in 1874. Since that time she has studied architecture in the Boston Institute of Technology one year, worked as draughtsman in the office of the supervisory architect of the treasury department at Washington, two years, studied in the special school of architecture in Paris one year, and is now, 1886, prosecuting her studies with a liberal selection of French and English architectural works at her mountain home in Kentucky. Mrs. Bessie White Heagen, the youngest daughter of Mrs. Sarah A. White, was graduated with honor from the Roxbury High School of Boston, and from the school of Pharmacy of Michigan University. Being denied examination and the privileges of college graduates of the college of pharmacy at Louisville, where she was employed by a prominent pharmacist, she brought suit and obtained a verdict in her favor.

Early in 1882, Dr. J. P. Barnum employed young women in his store with the expectation of being able to educate them in the college of pharmacy. But the hostility of the students to the proposed innovation, and the lack of a systematic laboratory course, caused the relinquishment of that plan and the formation of the new school. Prominent gentlemen in the community assisted Dr. Barnum, and the Louisville School of Pharmacy was duly incorporated under the general laws of Kentucky.[531] Though sustained by men of wealth and influence, the school met with great opposition, the State Board of Pharmacy refusing to register the women who were graduated from it until compelled to do so by a mandamus from the Law and Equity Court, Judge Simral presiding. March 7, 1884, the legislature incorporated the Louisville School of Pharmacy for Women, and by special enactment empowered its graduates to practice their profession without registration or interference from the State board.

The school confers two degrees; its full course taking three years and requiring more work than is done in other schools. So far its graduates have been representative women, and all have found responsible situations awaiting them. Its faculty remains, with a few exceptions, as in the first session. Dr. J. P. Barnum, to whose indefatigable efforts the foundation of the school is due, is dean and professor of pharmacy and analytical chemistry; Dr. T. Hunt Stuckey, a graduate of Heidelberg University, who joined his efforts with Dr. Barnum at an early day, is professor of materia medica, toxicology and microscopy. Mrs. D. N. Marble, professor of general and pharmaceutical chemistry, and Mrs. Fountaine Miller, professor of botany, were graduates of the first class.

Mrs. Kate Trimble de Roode, in a recent letter says:

Kentucky has had school suffrage for thirty years, but as the right is not generally known or understood, few women have ever availed themselves of the privilege. The State librarian has for many years been a woman, and there are several post-mistresses also in this State. The State University has recently admitted women on equal terms to all its departments. As a general thing the young women of Kentucky are better educated than the men, the latter being early put to business, while most parents desire above all things to secure to their daughters a liberal education. We have a number of women practicing medicine in the larger cities, one architect, but as yet no lawyers, although several women have taken a full course of study for that profession. The question of woman suffrage has been but little agitated in this State, although the last legislature gave a respectful hearing to several ladies on the question. The property rights of married women are in a crude state; the wife's personal property vests in the husband; the profits and rents that accrue from her real estate belong to him also. She can make no will without the assent of her husband, and if given, he can revoke it at any time before the will is probated. The wife's wages belong to her husband. She cannot sue or be sued without he joins her in the suit. The wife's dower is a life interest in a third of the husband's real estate, whereas the husband's curtesy, where there is issue of the marriage, born alive, is a life interest in all the real estate belonging to the wife at the time of her death. This is the statutory law, but the wife by obtaining a decree in chancery may possess all the rights of a femme sole. A bill securing more equal rights to women passed the House of the last legislature, but failed in the Senate. The courtesy of Kentucky men to women in general, has kept them from realizing their civil and political degradation, until, by some sudden turn in the wheel of fortune, the individual woman has felt the iron teeth of the law in her own flesh, and warned her slumbering sisterhood. We are now awaking to the fact that an aristocracy of sex in a republic is as inconsistent and odious as an aristocracy of color, and indeed far more so.

V.--TENNESSEE.

We are indebted to Mrs. Elizabeth Lisle Saxon for the following:

Elizabeth Avery Meriwether is the chief representative of liberal thought in Tennessee. Her pen is ever ready to champion the wronged. I first came to know her when engaged in a newspaper discussion to reestablish in the public schools of Memphis three young women who had been dismissed because of "holding too many of Mrs. Meriwether's views"--the reason actually given by the superintendent and endorsed by the board of directors. A seven month's war was carried on, ending in a triumphant reinstallment of the teachers, a new superintendent, and a new board of directors. Public opinion was educated into more liberal ideas, and the Memphis Appeal, through its chivalrous editor, Mr. Keating, declared squarely for woman suffrage.

When Col. Kerr introduced into the Tennessee legislature a bill making divorce impossible for any cause save adultery, Mrs. Meriwether wrote the ablest article I ever read, in opposition, which Mr. Keating published in his paper, and distributed among the members of the legislature. The result was a clear vote against the bill.

With Mrs. Lide Meriwether and Mrs. M. J. Holmes, she publicly assailed the cross examination of women in criminal trials, either as culprits or witnesses, until the practice was broken up, and private hearings accorded. In 1876 she sent a memorial to the National Democratic convention at St. Louis, asking that party to declare for woman suffrage in its platform. Though her appeal was not read, hundreds of copies were circulated among the members in the hope of stirring thought on the subject in the South. It provoked much sarcasm because it was signed only by Mrs. Meriwether and Mrs. Saxon. In 1880-81 Mrs. Meriwether was one of the speakers in the series of conventions held by the National association in the Western and New England States.

VI.--VIRGINIA.

In the winter of 1870, immediately after the National Washington convention, Mrs. Paulina Wright Davis, while spending a few days in Richmond, formed the acquaintance of Mrs. Anna Whitehead Bodeker, a most earnest advocate of the ballot for women. Mrs. Davis held a parlor meeting in the home of Mrs. Bodeker, enlisting the interest of several prominent citizens of Richmond, who very soon invited Mrs. Joslyn Gage to their city to give a series of lectures. Of the result of this visit we give Mrs. Bodeker's report as published in The Revolution of May, 1870:

DEAR REVOLUTION:--I glory in announcing a grand achievement in the great reform of the day in Virginia. Our energetic and heroic leader, Mrs. M. Joslyn Gage, after giant efforts on her part, and with the aid of some strong advocates of the reform, on Friday evening, May 6, 1870, organized in the city of Richmond a Virginia State Woman Suffrage Association. The whole proceedings I here append, for immediate publication in your columns.

Mrs. Gage, advisory counsel for New York, in the National Woman Suffrage Association of America, delivered a lecture upon "Opportunity for Woman," at Bosher's Hall, corner of Ninth and Main streets, on Thursday evening. The lecture was able, earnest and eloquent, and was listened to with rapt attention by the friends of the cause present. At its conclusion, Judge John C. Underwood gave notice that on the following evening a meeting would be held at the United States Court room (which he freely proffered for the purpose) to organize a State Association, adopt a constitution, elect officers, and appoint delegates to the anniversary of the National Association soon to be held in New York city. The judge remarked that, upon conversing with Governor Wise upon the subject, he expressed his warm sympathy with the objects of the movement save upon the question of giving women the ballot. With all the other rights claimed, he was heartily in accord; especially, he thought, should the professions be opened to women, more particularly the medical, they being the natural physicians of their sex and of children.

Pursuant to the above notice, a meeting was held in the United States court-room. Judge John C. Underwood was called to preside. Previous to action on the regular business of the meeting, several articles favorable to the movement were read. Miss Sue L. F. Smith, daughter of the late Rev. Dr. Wm. A. Smith, read very charmingly a well-written essay prepared by herself in advocacy of granting to women the full meed of powers and responsibilities now enjoyed by men. Mr. William E. Colman read an article entitled "Clerical Denunciation of Woman Suffrage--A Defense," being a reply to a violent attack made by the Rev. Dr. Edwards of this city, upon the adherents of the movement, in a sermon delivered by him recently. A proposed constitution for the government of the Virginia State Woman Suffrage Association was adopted; after which came the election of officers[532] of the society. On motion of Judge Underwood, Miss Sue L. F. Smith was appointed delegate to represent Virginia in the National Association to be held in New York city May 12, 13, the society having by resolution connected itself as an auxiliary to said National Association. Mrs. Gage offered resolutions, which were unanimously adopted, after which she delivered a forcible address, enumerating many of the wrongs to which women are subjected in this State, dwelling particularly upon the laws depriving mothers of the right to their own children, placing the property of married women at the mercy of their husbands, and depriving the wives of all voice in the disposition of the property possessed by them before marriage.

In the winter of 1871, Miss Anthony was honored by an invitation from the society, and held several meetings in Judge Underwood's court-room. About this time appeared the following:

Judge Underwood, having stated in a letter that after mature consideration he had come to the conclusion that the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the Constitution of the United States, together with the enforcement act of May 31, 1870, have secured the right to vote to female citizens as fully as it is now exercised and enjoyed by male citizens, a test case is to be made at once in the Virginia courts. As there are very few advocates of woman suffrage in Virginia, some of the leaders of the movement in Washington are about to move to Alexandria to perfect an organization and be ready with a case when Judge Underwood opens court there.

But Mrs. Bodeker, who also memorialized the general assembly, was first to make the attempt to vote. The Richmond Dispatch describes the occasion:

Yesterday morning the judges of the second precinct of Marshall ward, J. F. Shinberger, esq., presiding, were surprised at the appearance of a lady at the polls. She wished to deposit a ballot, but as the judges declined to allow this, in view of her not having registered, she then asked to be permitted to have a paper with the following inscription placed in the ballot-box: "By the Constitution of the United States, I, Anne Whitehead Bodeker, have a right to give my vote at this election, and in vindication of it drop this note in the ballot-box, November 7, 1871." This paper was taken by the judges, and will be deposited with the ballots in the archives of the Hustings court.

One remarkable incident in Gen. Grant's administration was Miss Elizabeth VanLew's appointment as postmaster at Richmond. She held the office eight years, notwithstanding the persistent opposition of politicians. The Ballot-Box said:

Miss VanLew was postmaster in Richmond under Grant, introducing many reforms in the office, but through the envy of men, who were voters, she, a non-voter, lost her office, as she had lost wealth and friends from her devotion to the Union during the war. Now, since its close, she finds not only her former slave men permitted to make laws for her, but also those whom she opposed when they were seeking their country's life. But women of all ranks, white and colored, are awaking to their need of the ballot for self-protection.

The Philadelphia Press, edited by J. W. Forney, said:

Some covert enemies of the president and the new civil-service reform have been spreading a report, through sensational specials, that the Richmond post-office is to be given to some prominent Virginian of local standing as soon as Miss VanLew's commission expires. If there is any post-office in the United States in which the whole nation at this time has a special interest, it is this one of Richmond which the present incumbent holds, as it were, by a national right, and certainly by popular acclaim. We have not time in a brief paragraph to tell the striking story of what Miss VanLew has done and what she has suffered for the country. Her story will pass into standard history, however, as sadly illustrative of our times. She herself is known and loved wherever the horrors of Libby and Belle Isle are mourned and denounced.

VII.--WEST VIRGINIA.

Hon. Samuel Young, in a letter to The Revolution, dated Senate Chamber, Wheeling, West Virginia, February 22, 1869, writes:

In 1867, I introduced a bill in the State Senate, looking to the enfranchisement of all women in West Virginia, who can read the Declaration of Independence intelligently, and write a legible hand, and have actually paid tax the year previous to their proposing to vote. But even this guarded bill had no friends but myself. * * * I introduced a resolution during the present session of our legislature, asking congress to extend the right of suffrage to women. Eight out of the twenty-two members of the Senate voted for it. This is quite encouraging--advancing from one to eight in two years. At this rate of progress, we may succeed by next winter. I give the names of those who are in favor of and voted for female suffrage in the Senate: Drummond, Doolittle, Humphreys, Hoke, Wilson, Workman, Young, and Farnsworth, president. The same senators voted to invite Miss Anna E. Dickinson to lecture in the state-house during her late visit to Wheeling.

VIII.--NORTH CAROLINA.

We are indebted to Mrs. Mary Bayard Clarke of New Berne for the following:

Since 1868, when the constitution was changed, a married woman has absolute control of all the real estate she possessed before marriage or acquired by gift or devise after it, except the power to sell without the consent of her husband, who in his turn is not at liberty to sell any real estate possessed by him before marriage, or acquired after it, without the consent of his wife. Should he sell any real estate without the wife's consent, in writing, she can, after his death, claim her dower of one-third in such real estate. If she owns a farm and her husband manages it, she can claim full settlements from him, he having no more rights than any other agent whom she may employ. So her property, real and personal, is her individual right, with the income therefrom. But she cannot contract a debt that is binding on her property without the consent of her husband. With his written consent, which must be registered in the office of the clerk of the county in which she resides, she may become a free-trader with all the rights of a man, her husband having no claim to her gains and not being responsible for any debt which she may contract. By giving this written consent her husband virtually places her in the position of an unmarried woman, as far as her property is concerned.

In 1881, finding that a widow had no right to appoint a guardian for her children by "letters testamentary," I, through my son, William E. Clarke, who was then senator for this county in our State legislature, succeeded in getting this law so changed that she now has the same rights as a man. In cases of divorce or separation while the children are under age, it is discretionary with the judge to give the children to either parent; but public sentiment always gives them to the mother while young.

As a rule the women of the South are better educated than the men, the boys being put to work while the girls are at school. The girls are not trained to work in any way, and very few, as yet, see the necessity of being regularly trained to do anything by which they may make a living except as teachers. Our public-school system requires a course through the normal school for all teachers. Mixed schools are not popular with us, but we have been forced into them by the public-graded-school tax, which has crushed out our private schools. I am now, and have been for the past two years, making an effort to have women on our school-boards, and a female as well as a male principal for every mixed public school, on the ground that mothers have as much right to a voice in the education of their daughters as fathers have in that of their sons. We have female teachers in our public schools but not as principals, and the pay of the women is, regardless of the quality of their work, always considerably less than that of men.

Our Supreme Court granted a license to Miss Tabitha A. Holton to practice law, and there is no legal impediment in the way of one doing so. The same is true of the medical profession. Dr. Susan Dimock was a North Carolinian by birth and on her application for admission to the State Medical Society was unanimously elected a member of that body. The African Methodist-Episcopal Conference, Bishop Turner presiding, ordained Miss Sarah A. Hughes of Raleigh, a bright mulatto girl, as deacon in the church. Shortly after the close of the late war, my husband being then incapacitated for work by wounds received in the Mexican and the civil war, and my sons under age, I applied to Governor Jonathan Worth for the position of State librarian. Though cordially acknowledging my fitness, intellectually, for the office, and admitting that my sex did not legally disqualify me to hold it, he positively refused to appoint me or any other woman to any office in his gift. Public sentiment then sustained him, but it would not now do so; so many ladies of culture, refinement and social position have been, since the war, forced to work or starve, that it is now nothing remarkable to see them and their daughters doing work which twenty years ago they would have been ostracised for undertaking.

In a letter to the Boston Index, published August, 1885, the venerable Mrs. Elizabeth Oakes Smith, who is now a resident of this State, truthfully says,

The women of the North can have little conception of the hindrances which their sisters of the South encounter in their efforts to accept new and progressive ideas. The other sex, in a blind sort of way, hold fast to an absolute kind of chivalry akin to that of the renowned Don Quixote, by which they try to hold women in the background as a kind of porcelain liable to crack and breakage unless daintily handled. Women here see the spirit of the age and the need of change far more clearly than the men, and act up to this light, but with a flexible grace that disarms opposition. They see the necessity of work and are turning their attention to methods for remunerative labor, far more difficult to obtain at the South than at the North.

I cordially endorse this extract. The Southern man does not wish his "women folks" to be self-supporting, not because he is jealous of their rivaling him, but because he feels it is his duty to be the bread-winner. But the much sneered at "chivalry" of the South, while rendering it harder for a woman to break through old customs, most cordially and heartily sustains her when she has successfully done so. There are fewer large centers in the South than in the North, and much less attrition of mind against mind; the people are homogeneous and slower to change, and public opinion is much less fluctuating. But once let the tide of woman suffrage fairly turn, and I believe it will be irresistable and advance far more steadily and rapidly in the South than it has done in the North. Let the Southern women be won over and the cause will have nothing to fear from the opposition of the men. But, after twenty years' experience as a journalist, my honest opinion is that until the Southern women can be made to feel the pecuniary advantages to them of suffrage, they will not lift a finger or speak a word to obtain it.

In 1881, at the March meeting of the Raleigh Typographical Union, No. 194, my son, being then a member of that Union, introduced and, after some hard fighting, succeeded in carrying a resolution placing women compositors on a par in every respect with men. There was not at that time a single woman compositor in the State, to my son's knowledge; there is one now in Raleigh and two apprentices, who claimed and receive all the advantages that men applying for admission to the Union receive.

Mrs. C. Harris started the South Atlantic at Wilmington. The Misses Bernheim and their father started a magazine in the same city called At Home and Abroad, which was afterwards moved to Charlotte; both were short-lived. We have now the Southern Woman. This is the only journal ever edited and managed by a woman alone, with no man associated with or responsible for it. I have been for twenty years connected with the press of this State in one way and another, and am called the "Grandmother of the North Carolina Press Association." In 1880 I delivered an original poem before the association, and another Masonic one before the board of the orphan asylum; making me, I believe, the first native North Carolina woman that ever came before the public as a speaker. I was both denounced and applauded for my "brass" and "bravery." Public sentiment has changed since then.

Mrs. Marion A. Williams, president of the State National Bank at Raleigh for several years, is probably the first woman ever elected to that responsible position in any State of this Union. In 1885 Louisa B. Stephens was made president of the First National Bank of Marion, Iowa; and a national bank in Newbery, South Carolina, honored itself by placing a woman at the head of its official board.

The North Carolinian of January, 1870, contained an able editorial endorsing woman suffrage, closing with:

For one we say, tear down the barriers, give woman an opportunity to show her wisdom and virtue; place the ballot in her hands that she may protect herself and reform men, and ere a quarter of a century has elapsed many of the foulest blots upon the civilization of this age will have passed away.

From an interesting article in the Boston Advertiser, May 22, 1875, by Rev. James Freeman Clark, concerning Dr. Susan Dimock, one of North Carolina's promising daughters, whose career was ended in the wreck of the Schiller near the Scilly islands, we make a few extracts:

One of our eminent surgeons, Dr. Samuel Cabot, said to me yesterday:

"This community will never know what a loss it has had in Dr. Dimock. It was not merely her skill, though that was remarkable, considering her youth and limited experience, but also her nerve, that qualified her to become a great surgeon. I have seldom known one at once so determined and so self-possessed. Skill is a quality much more easily found than this self-control that nothing can flurry. She had that in an eminent degree; and, had she lived, she would have been sure to stand, in time, among those at the head of her profession. The usual weapons of ridicule would have been impotent against a woman who had reached that supreme position which Susan Dimock would certainly have attained."

During the war of the rebellion, Miss Dimock sought admission into the medical school of Harvard University, preferring, if possible, to take a degree in an American college. Twice she applied, and was twice refused. Hearing that the University of Zurich was open to women, she went there, and was received with a hospitality which the institutions of her own country did not offer. She pursued her medical studies there, and graduated with honor. A number of the "Revue des Deux Mondes" for August, 1872, contains an article called "Les Femmes a l'Universitie de Zurich," which speaks very favorably of the success of the women in that place. The first to take a degree as doctor of medicine was a young Russian lady, in 1867. Between 1867 and 1872 five others had taken this degree, and among them Miss Dimock is mentioned. From the medical school at Zurich, she went to that at Vienna; and of her appearance there we have this record: A distinguished German physician remarked to a friend of mine residing in Germany that he had always been opposed to women as physicians--but that he had met a young American lady studying at Vienna, whose intelligence, modesty and devotion to her work was such as almost to convince him that he was wrong. A comparison of dates shows that this American student must have been Dr. Dimock.

On her return to the United States Dr. Dimock became resident physician at "The Hospital for Women and Children," on Codman Avenue, in Boston. Both the students of medicine and the patients became devotedly attached to her; they were fascinated by this remarkable union of tenderness, firmness and skill. The secret was in part told by what she said in one of her lectures in the training-school for nurses connected with the woman's hospital: "I wish you, of all my instructions, especially to remember this. Where you go to nurse a patient, imagine that it is your own sister before you in that bed; and treat her as you would wish your own sister to be treated." While at this hospital, she was also able to carry out a principle in which she firmly believed, namely--that in a hospital the rights of every patient, poor and rich, should be sacredly regarded, and never be postponed even to the supposed interests of medical students. No student was allowed to be present at any operation, except so far as the comfort and safety of her patients rendered the student's presence desirable. Her interest in the woman's hospital was very great. She was in the habit, at the beginning of each year, of writing and sealing up her wishes for the coming year. Since her death, her mother has opened the envelope of January 1, 1875, and found it to contain a prayer for a blessing on "my dear hospital."

And now this young, strong soul so ardent in the pursuit of knowledge, so filled with a desire to help her suffering sisters, has been taken by that remorseless deep.

IX.--SOUTH CAROLINA.

The first action we hear of in South Carolina was a Woman's Right's Convention in Columbia, Dec. 20, 1870, of which the Charleston Republican said:

The chairman, Miss Rollin, said: "It had been so universally the custom to treat the idea of woman suffrage with ridicule and merriment that it becomes necessary in submitting the subject for earnest deliberation that we assure the gentlemen present that our claim is made honestly and seriously. We ask suffrage not as a favor, not as a privilege, but as a right based on the ground that we are human beings, and as such, entitled to all human rights. While we concede that woman's ennobling influence should be confined chiefly to home and society, we claim that public opinion has had a tendency to limit woman's sphere to too small a circle, and until woman has the right of representation this will last, and other rights will be held by an insecure tenure."

Mr. T. J. Mackey made a forcible argument in favor of the movement. He was followed by Miss Hosley, who made a few brief remarks upon the subject. General Moses thought woman's introduction upon the political platform would benefit us much in a moral point of view, and that they had a right to assist in making the laws that govern them as well as the sterner sex. Messrs. Cardozo, Pioneer and Rev. Mr. Harris followed in short speeches, endorsing the movement and wishing it success. Resolutions were adopted, and officers chosen.[533] The following letters were read:

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Columbia, Jan. 19, 1871.

Miss L. M. Rollin:--I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your invitation to be present at the preliminary organization of the association for the assertion of woman's rights in this State, and regret that the pressure of public duties precludes my indulging myself in that pleasure. Be assured, however, that the cause has my warmest sympathy, and I indulge the hope that the time is not far distant when woman shall be the peer of man in political rights, as she is peerless in all others, and when she will be able to reclaim some of those privileges that are now monopolized by the sterner sex.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, etc.,

R. K. SCOTT, Governor.

OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL, Columbia, Feb. 1, 1871.

I hoped when I received your invitation to the meeting to-night of the friends of woman suffrage, that I should be able to attend in person, but at a late hour I find other duties standing in the way, and I can only say a word of approval and encouragement with my pen. The woman suffrage cause is to my mind so just and so expedient as to need little argument. To say that my mother, my sisters or my wife have less interest in good government than I have, or are less fitted by nature to understand and use the ballot than I am, is to contradict reason and fact.

Upon the same grounds that I defend my own right to share in the government which controls and protects me, do I now assert the right of woman to a voice in public affairs. For the same reasons that I would regard an attempt to rob me of my civil rights as tyranny, do I now protest against the continued civil inequality and thralldom of woman. I take no merit or pride to myself for such a position. I have felt and said these things during my whole life. They are to me self-evident truths; needing no more demonstration by argument than the first lines of the Declaration of American Independence. My claim for woman is simply this: Give her a full and fair chance to act in any sphere for which she can fit herself. Her sphere is as wide as man's. It has no limits except her capacity. If woman cannot perform a soldier's duty, then the army is not her sphere; if she can, it is her sphere, as much as it is man's.

I value the ballot for woman chiefly because it opens to her a wide, free avenue to a complete development of all her powers. The Chinese lady's shoe is nothing compared to the clamps and fetters which we Americans have put upon woman's mind and soul. An impartial observer would scarcely condemn the one and approve the other. What we need now is to accustom the public to these radical truths. Demand the ballot; demand woman's freedom. It is not a conflict of argument or reason, so much as a crusade against habit and prejudice. To tell the truth, I don't think there is a respectable argument in the world against woman suffrage. People think they are arguing or reasoning against it when they are in fact only repeating the prejudices in which they have been trained. With the sincerest wishes for the success of your meeting and of all your efforts for woman suffrage, I remain, yours very truly,

D. H. CHAMBERLAIN.

The American association memorialized the legislature March 13, 1872. The joint committee recommended an amendment to the constitution of the State, providing that every person, male or female, possessed of the necessary qualifications, should be entitled to vote. B. F. Whittemore, H. J. Maxwell, W. B. Nash, G. F. McIntyre, were the committee on the part of the Senate; C. D. Hayne, W. J. Whipper, Benj. Byas, B. G. Yocom, F. H. Frost, committee on the part of the House.

In the debate in congress in 1874, Hon. Alonzo J. Ransier of South Carolina, the civil-rights bill being under discussion, claimed that equal human rights should be extended to women as follows:

And may the day be not far distant when American citizenship in civil and political rights and public privileges shall cover not only those of our sex, but those of the opposite one also; until which time the government of the United States cannot be said to rest upon the "consent of the governed," or to adequately protect them in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Miss Sallie R. Banks, for some years a teacher of colored schools in South Carolina, has been appointed collector of internal revenue for the Sumter district.

X.--FLORIDA.

In 1880, the agricultural department at Washington, paid a premium of $12 to Madame Atzeroth of Manatee, for the first pound of coffee ever grown out of doors in the United States.

The following is from a letter to the Savannah News, reporting a judgment rendered by a Florida county judge, in a case between an old black man and his wife:

OCALA, Fla., May 12, 1874.

Be it known throughout all christendom that the husband is the head of the wife, and whatever is his is his'n, and whatever is hers is his'n, and come weal or woe, peace or war, the right of all property is vested in the husband, and the wife must not take anything away. The ox belongs to Uncle Ben, and he must keep it, and the other things, and if the old woman quits she must go empty-handed. Know all that this is so by order of the Judge of Probate.

[Signed] WM. R. HILLYER.

Though quaintly expressed, yet this decision is in line with the old common law and the statutes of many of the States in this Union to-day.

XI.--ALABAMA.

The women of Alabama are evidently awake on the temperance question, though still apparently unprepared for suffrage. In a report of a meeting in Birmingham in 1885, the following, from a prominent editor, was read by the president:

Tell the admirable lady, Mrs. Bryce, that I would devote everything to the cause she espouses, but there's no use. Let women demand the ballot, and with it they can destroy whisky, and by no other agency. There is no perfect family or state in which woman is not an active governing force. They should have the courage to assert themselves and then they can serve the country and the race.

If a thunderbolt had fallen it would not have created a greater sensation. The ladies at first grew indignant and uttered protestations. When they grew calmer, the corresponding secretary was ordered to furnish the editor with the following:

The ladies of the W. C. T. U. return thanks to the editor for his kindly and progressive suggestions, but, in their opinion, they are not ready to ask any political favors. Whenever suffrage is granted to the women of the United States, those of Alabama will be found on the right side.

At Huntsville lives Mrs. Priscilla Holmes Drake, whose name has stood as representative of our National Association in Alabama since 1868.

XII.--GEORGIA.

We give a letter from Georgia's great statesman, defining his views of woman's sphere:

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, WASHINGTON, D. C., May 29, 1878.

Mrs. E. L. Saxon, New Orleans, La.

MY DEAR MADAM:--Your letter to Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, of the 22d inst., came duly to hand. He requests me to thank you for it, and to say in reply that he has ever sympathized with woman in her efforts for a higher and broader sphere of intellectual and moral culture, as well as physical usefulness in life. He does not go so far as to endow woman with the ballot, or to fit her for the more masculine duties of the State. Her sphere, by nature, is circumscribed within certain physical boundaries, but in all those things to which she is fitted by nature, and can enter without interference with the laws of God, he would open the doors wide to her.

Very respectfully yours, C. P. CULVER, Secretary.

FOOTNOTES:

[523] Myrtilla Miner; published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston and New York.

[524] See Vol. II., page 90.

[525] President, Hon. Samuel C. Pomeroy; Vice-Presidents, Josophine S. Griffing, Belva A. Lockwood, Jas. H. Holmes, John H. Craney; Advisory Council, Mary E. O'Connor, Josephine S. Griffing, Caroline B. Winslow, Dr. Susan A. Edson, Lydia S. Hall, Mr. and Mrs. Boyle, Caroline B. Colby, and others.

[526] The officers elected were: President, United States Senator S. C. Pomeroy; Vice-Presidents, Mrs. Josephine S. Griffing, Mrs. Belva McNall Lockwood, Miss Stickney, Thaddeus Hyatt, Caroline B. Winslow, M. D., S. Yorke At Lee, Mrs. Josephine L. Slade, Prof. William J. Wilson, Mrs. Mary Olin, Judge A. B. Olin, Mrs. C. M. E. Y. Christian, Prof. George B. Vashon, J. H. Crossman, Mrs. Angeline S. Hall, Dr. C. B. Purvis, Mrs. Dr. Hathaway, Bishop Moore, Mrs. C. A. F. Stebbins, Giles B. Stebbins, Miss Emily Stanton, Dr. John Mayhew, John R. Elvana, J. C. O. Whaley, Charles Roeser, George T. Downing; Recording Secretary, George F. Needham; Treasurer, Daniel Breed; Board of Managers, Josephine S. Griffing, Hamilton Wilcox, Dr. Daniel Breed, Mrs. Corner, Geo. F. Needham, Mrs. Lydia S. Hall, J. H. Crane; Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. Mary T. Corner. Letters were reported from Frederick Douglass, George William Curtis, Mrs. E. Oakes Smith. Addresses were delivered by J. H. Crossman, G. F. Needham, Mrs. Lockwood, R. J. Hinton, and Mr. Tibbits of Virginia. Dr. Breed recited an original poem, entitled, "Woman's Pledge to Freedom."

[527] The names of the women who attempted to register and vote were: Jane A. Archibald, Clara M. Archibald, Mary Anderson, S. W. Aiken, Sallie S. Barrett, Mary B. Baumgras, Florence Riddle Bartlett, Ann M. Boyle, M. W. Browne, Deborah B. Clarke (Grace Greenwood's mother, eighty years of age), C. W. Campbell, Elizabeth T. Cowperthwaite, Mary T. Corner, Mary M. Courtenay, Mary A. Donaldson, Mary A. Dennison, Ruth Carr Dennison, L. S. Doolittle, Dr. Susan A. Edson, Sarah P. Edson, B. F. Evans, E. W. Foster, Olive Freeman, Maggie Finney, Julia H. Grey, Josephine S. Griffing, A. A. Henning, Susie J. Hickey, Calista Hickey, E. M. Hickey, Mary Hooper, Ruth G. D. Havens, E. E. Hill, Lydia S. Hall, Julia Archibald Holmes, N. M. Johnson, Jennie V. Jewell, Carrie Ketchum, Joanna Kelly, Sara J. Lippincott (Grace Greenwood), Belva A. Lockwood, Susie S. McClure, A. Jennie Miles, Augusta E. Morris, M. T. Middleton, Savangie E. Mark, A. E. Newton, M. C. Page, Eliza Ann Peck, Mary A. Riddle, A. R. Riddle, Caroline Risley, Sarah Andrews Spencer, E. D. E. N. Southworth, Caroline A. Sherman, Mary S. Scribner, Belle Smith, Maria T. Stoddard, Ada E. Spurgeon, Rubina Taylor, Harriet P. Trickham, Eliza M. Tibbetts, Dr. Caroline B. Winslow, Sarah E. Webster (mother of Dr. Susan A. Edson), Julia A. Wilbur, Mrs. Westfall, Mary Willard, Amanda Wall, Lucy A. Wheeler.

[528] For full account see Vol. II., page 587.

[529] David Eastburn and Henry Swaine of New Castle county.

[530] The officers were: Sally Clay Bennett, Maggie S. Burnham, Mrs. Somers, Mary B. Clay.

[531] The incorporators who formed the Board of Regents were, the Right Rev. Thomas U. Dudley, D. D., Bishop of Kentucky; Rev. James P. Boyce, D. D., President of the Baptist Theological Seminary; Rev. E. F. Perkins, Rector of St. Paul's Church; Hon. I. H. Edwards, Chancellor of Louisville Chancery Court; Theodore Harris, President Louisville Banking and Insurance Co.; W. N. Haldeman, President Courier Journal Co.; Nicholas Finzer, President of Finzer tobacco works; Samuel L. Avery, President B. F. Avery Co.; G. H. Cochran, President Louisville School Board; Robert Cochran, Commissioner of Chancery Court; Hon. Charles Godshaw, Trustee of Jury Fund; Dr. E. A. Grant and Mr. James K. Lemon. The board was organized by the election of Mr. Theodore Harris, President, Dr. E. A. Grant, Secretary, and James K. Lemon, Treasurer. The school opened with fifteen students, and continued until June, 1883. A lecture and practical course combined, occupy ten months of the year--lectures being given five afternoons of each week during the term.

[532] President, Mrs. Anne W. Bodeker, Richmond; Vice-Presidents, Mrs. Maria G. and Judge John C. Underwood, Mr. and Mrs. Judge Westal Willoughby, Mr. and Mrs. Judge Lysander Hill, all of Alexandria; Mr. R. M. Manly, Richmond; Mrs. Martha Haines Bennett, Norfolk; Mr. Andrew Washburne and Mr. William E. Coleman, Richmond; Secretary, Miss Sue L. F. Smith, Richmond; _Executive Committee_, Rev. W. F. Hemenway, Mrs. Andrew Washburne, Mrs. Dr. E. H. Smith, Dr. and Mrs. Langstedt, Richmond, and Mrs. Allen (Florence Percy) of Manchester.

[533] President, Gov. R. K. Scott; Vice-Presidents, Hon. B. F. Whittemore, Hon. G. F. McIntyre, Gen. W. J. Whipper, Mrs. R. C. DeLarge, Hon. D. H. Chamberlain, Mrs. A. J. Ransier, and Mrs. R. K. Scott; Secretary, Miss K. Rollin; Treasurer, Mrs. K. Harris.

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