XXII. THE AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION.[135]…

XXII. THE AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION.[135]

1884.--The American Woman Suffrage Association which was organized in Cleveland, Ohio, in November, 1869, held its sixteenth annual meeting, November 19, 20, at Hershey Hall, Chicago. Lucy Stone in the Woman's Journal said:

Beginning with a good-sized audience, it went on increasing in numbers until the gallery, the stairs and the side aisles were literally packed with people.

Reports of the work done by auxiliary and other societies came in from Maine to Oregon and all the way between, showing in some cases very little and in others a great deal of good work. But each one was helpful in its measure to the final success, just as streams of all sizes flow to make great rivers and the seas. There were present some of the oldest workers--Dr. Mary F. Thomas of Indiana and Mrs. Hannah M. Tracy Cutler of Illinois--who, having put their hands to the plow in the beginning of the movement, have never looked back. To supplement and continue the work there were noble and earnest younger women, who came down from Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan and up from Ohio, Missouri, Kansas, Indiana and Illinois, women who can speak well for the cause and whose reports show that they know how to work well for it, too. It was a joy and a comfort to meet them....

Not the least pleasant feature was the cordial friendliness that seemed all-pervasive. Troops of women we had never seen came to shake hands.... A bevy of bright girls stood below the platform on the last evening and, looking up, they said: "We are school-girls now, but we are bound to help." The collections more than paid the expenses, and two hundred memberships were taken.

All the local arrangements had been admirably made by a committee of influential Chicago women.[136] The city papers gave friendly reports, those of the Inter-Ocean being especially full.

The convention was not expected to open till Wednesday evening, but so large a number of delegates and friends met in the hall in the afternoon that an informal meeting was held in advance. Mrs. Cutler called the assembly to order, and the Rev. Florence Kollock offered prayer. A telegram was read from Chief-Justice Roger S. Greene, of Washington Territory, saying: "Be assured that woman suffrage has worked well, done good, and been generally exercised by women at our State election."

Brief addresses were made by Mrs. Lucy Stone, Mrs. Mary A. Livermore and Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton Harbert. Dr. Mary F. Thomas, in the name of the Indiana W. S. A., the oldest State association in the country, organized in 1851, presented the association with a bouquet of never fading chrysanthemums.

On Wednesday evening Mrs. Helen Ekin Starrett gave the address of welcome. In referring to the influence of the woman suffrage movement upon the legal status of women, she said that Kansas entered the Union as a State with women's personal and property rights legally recognized as never before. This was largely because a delegate to the Kansas constitutional convention which met in Leavenworth, (Mr. Sam Wood), wrote to Lucy Stone at her home in Orange, N. J., asking her to draft a legal form, which she did, with her baby on her knee, and its suggestions were afterwards incorporated in the organic law of that State.[137] As one result of School Suffrage in the hands of women, Kansas had the best schools in the United States while the people still lived in cabins.

Mrs. Mary B. Clay, of Kentucky, president of the association, made a special plea for work in the South, saying in part:

Alabama has given married women equal property rights with their husbands. This monied equality I regard as one of the most essential steps to our freedom, for as long as women are dependent upon men for bread their whole moral nature is necessarily warped. There never was a truer thought than that of Alexander Hamilton, when he said, "He who controls my means of daily subsistence controls my whole moral being." I therefore recommend to the Southern women particularly the petitioning for property rights, because pecuniary independence is one of the most potent weapons for freedom, and because that claim has less prejudice to overcome....

Mississippi also has made equal property laws for women; and Arkansas allows married women to hold their own property, and all women to vote on the licensing of saloons within three miles of a church or school-house. A lady writing from there says: "The welcome accorded the law by the women of the State refutes all adverse theories, and establishes the fact that woman's nature possesses an inherent strength and courage which no surroundings can extinguish, and which only need the light of hope and the voice of duty to call them into action." I would recommend that whenever it is possible, we hold our conventions and send our speakers through the South....

Henry B. Blackwell said: "This is not an anti-man society. Suffrage is demanded as much for the sake of men as for the sake of women. What is good for one is good for both;" and Mrs. Livermore said, "Women should have a share in the government because the whole is better than the half."

In the annual report of Mrs. Lucy Stone, chairman of the executive committee, she said in part: "During the past year, the chief effort of the society has been directed to aid the work in Oregon, where a constitutional amendment had been submitted to the voters. One thousand dollars were raised for this purpose by our auxiliary societies, and forwarded to the Oregon Woman Suffrage Association.[138] The society has also printed and circulated at cost more than 100,000 tracts and leaflets."

Officers for the next year were elected, as follows: President, the Hon. Wm. Dudley Foulke, State Senator of Indiana; vice-presidents-at-large, Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, the Hon. George William Curtis, N. Y.; the Hon. George F. Hoar, Mass.; Mrs. Mary B. Willard, Mrs. H. M. T. Cutler, Ill.; Mrs. D. G. King, Neb.; Mrs. R. A. S. Janney, O.; Mrs. J. P. Fuller, Mrs. Rebecca N. Hazard, Mo.; Mrs. Martha A. Dorsett, Minn.; Mrs. Mary J. Coggeshall, Ia.; Mrs. Mary B. Clay, Ky.; foreign corresponding secretary, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe; corresponding secretary, Henry B. Blackwell; recording secretary, Mrs. Margaret W. Campbell; treasurer, Mrs. Abbie T. Codman; chairman executive committee, Mrs. Lucy Stone.[139]

Mr. Blackwell, chairman of the committee, reported resolutions which were adopted with a few changes as follows:

Resolved, In the words of Abraham Lincoln, That "we go for all sharing the privileges of the government who assist in bearing its burdens, by no means excluding women;" that a government of the people, by the people, for the people, must be a government of men and women, by men and women, for men and women; and that any other form of government is unreasonable, unjust and inconsistent with American principles.

Resolved, That we rejoice in the triumph of woman suffrage in Washington Territory; in the continued success of woman suffrage in Wyoming; in the exercise of School Suffrage by the women of twelve States; in the establishment of Municipal Woman Suffrage by Nova Scotia and Ontario, and in the steady growth of woman suffrage during the past year as shown by more than 21,000 petitioners for it in Massachusetts, by increased activity in Connecticut, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Kansas, Nebraska, Kentucky, Minnesota and Oregon, by the recent formation of an active State association in Vermont, and by the presence with us to-day of sixty-six delegates from organized societies in fifteen States.

Resolved, That the American Association is non-partisan; that success will be promoted by refusing to connect woman suffrage with any political party, or to take sides as suffragists in any party conflict; but that we will question candidates of all parties for State Legislatures, and use every honorable effort to secure the election of suffragists as legislators irrespective of party lines, provided they be men of integrity.

Resolved, That this association expresses its appreciation of the services rendered by the co-workers who since our last meeting have been gathered with the honored dead: Mrs. Frances D. Gage, who from the beginning of our movement until the last week of her life never ceased to do what she could for its success; Wendell Phillips, who as early as 1850 attended a woman's rights convention at Worcester, Mass., and made an argument which covered the whole ground of statement and defense, and with serene faith advised: "Take your part with the perfect and abstract right and trust God to see that it shall prove the expedient." Besides these we record the names of Kate Newell Doggett, Laura Giddings Julian, Bishop Matthew Simpson, Mrs. L. B. Barrett, Emily J. Leonard and Jane Gray Swisshelm.

Speaking to the memorial resolution Mrs. Cutler said: "Some years ago I paid a visit to an old and valued friend who had long been an invalid, though never so absorbed in her own suffering as to forget the great needs of her human brothers and sisters. Said she, 'If you outlive me, I hope you will say for me that I tried honestly and earnestly to do my duty.' The promise then given I now attempt to fulfil in behalf of Mrs. Frances Dana Gage, our beloved 'Aunt Fanny,' who entered upon her rest Nov. 10, 1884." Mrs. Cutler gave a full and appreciative review of Mrs. Gage's life. Dr. Mary F. Thomas spoke feelingly of her, of Mrs. Julian and Mr. Phillips; and Mrs. Livermore paid a warm tribute to Mr. Phillips and Mrs. Doggett.

The plan of work adopted was in part as follows:

1. That the officers of this association memorialize Congress in behalf of a sixteenth constitutional amendment prohibiting all political distinctions on account of sex.

2. That while we do not undervalue any form of agitation, State or national, we hold that practical woman suffrage can at present be best promoted by urging legislative as well as constitutional changes, and by appealing to State as well as national authority; therefore we urge the establishment of active State societies, with their working centers in the State capitals and their corresponding committees in every representative district.

3. That in every State, at each session of its Legislature, petitions should be presented by its own citizens asking for woman suffrage by statute in all elections and for all officers not expressly limited by the word "male" in the State constitution.

4. That School Suffrage having been secured for women by statute in twelve States, our next demand should be for Municipal Suffrage by statute; also for Presidential Suffrage by statute, under Article 2, Section 1, par. 2, of the United States Constitution.

5. And, whereas, in three Territories, viz., Wyoming, Utah and Washington, our cause is already won by statutes, therefore a special effort should be made to secure similar statutory action in the remaining Territories, viz.: Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Arizona and New Mexico.

Addresses were made by the Rev. S. S. Hunting, Mrs. Margaret W. Campbell of Iowa and Dr. Thomas. Mr. Foulke, Mrs. Mary E. Haggart of Indiana, Mrs. Livermore and Lucy Stone addressed the evening meeting, and the singing of the Doxology closed a memorable convention.

1885.--The Seventeenth annual meeting was held in Minneapolis, October 13-15, in the Church of the Redeemer (Universalist), the finest in the city, which was given without charge. Here, as the daily papers said, "the most brilliant audiences that ever assembled in Minneapolis" gathered evening after evening until the last when crowds of people went away unable to find even standing room. The pulpit steps were occupied, extra seats were brought in, the aisles were crowded, and as far as one could see over the throng that filled the doorway, was another assembly eager to hear what it could. The earnest, interested, assenting faces of the vast audience and their hearty applause attested their sympathy with the ideas and principles expressed.

Every evening several of the speakers addressed large audiences in St. Paul, thus carrying on two series of meetings contemporaneously. The Hon. Wm. Dudley Foulke occupied the chair. Mayor George A. Pillsbury, of Minneapolis, gave the address of welcome, which he closed by saying: "Our citizens may not all agree with you, yet we recognize the fact that some of the greatest and best minds in the country are engaged in this work. I have never identified myself with your organization but wish you Godspeed, and hope to see the time when the women shall stand with the men at the polls."

Mrs. Julia Ward Howe in responding said: "We are glad to be welcomed for ourselves; we are still more gratified by the welcome extended to our cause. We do not live altogether in our magnificent cities and houses; we all live in houses not made with hands. We have with us some who have devoted their lives to this noble work. They have been building up, stone by stone, a mighty structure, and it is to lay a few more stones that we have gathered here."

It had been persistently asserted that Mrs. Howe and Louisa M. Alcott had renounced their belief in equal suffrage. Mrs. Howe was present to speak for herself. Miss Alcott wrote from Concord, Mass.:

I should think it was hardly necessary for me to say that it is impossible for me ever to "go back" on woman suffrage. I earnestly desire to go forward on that line as far and as fast as the prejudices, selfishness and blindness of the world will let us, and it is a great cross to me that ill-health and home duties prevent my devoting heart, pen and time to this most vital question of the age. After a fifty years' acquaintance with the noble men and women of the anti-slavery cause and the sight of the glorious end to their faithful work, I should be a traitor to all I most love, honor and desire to imitate if I did not covet a place among those who are giving their lives to the emancipation of the white slaves of America.

If I can do no more, let my name stand among those who are willing to bear ridicule and reproach for the truth's sake, and so earn some right to rejoice when the victory is won.

Most heartily yours for woman suffrage and all other reforms.

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps wrote: "With all my head and with all my heart I believe in womanhood suffrage; can I say more for your convention?" and from the Rev. James Freeman Clarke, of Boston, "Every word spoken for or against our cause helps it forward. I feel that there is a current of conviction sweeping us on toward the day when there shall be neither male nor female, in Church or State, but equal rights for all, and the tools to those who can use them."

Chief-Justice Greene, of Washington Territory, sent a careful statistical computation in regard to the women's votes, and said: "My sober judgment, from the best light I have succeeded in getting, is that at our last general election the women cast as full or a fuller vote than the men in proportion to their numbers." Mrs. Livermore wrote:

Whatever may be the apparent direction of the ripples on the surface, facts which accumulate daily show us that the cause of woman's enfranchisement progresses with a deep and steady undercurrent. The long, weary, faithful work of the past, covering almost half a century, has resulted in a radical change of public opinion. It has opened to woman the doors of colleges, universities and professional schools; it has increased her opportunities for self-support till the United States census enumerates nearly 300 employments in which women are working and earning livelihoods; it has repealed many of the unjust laws which discriminate against woman; it has given her partial suffrage in twelve States and full suffrage in three Territories.

Courage, then, for the end draws near! A few more years of persistent, faithful work and the women of the United States will be recognized as the legal equals of men; for the goal towards which we toil is the enfranchisement of women, since the ballot is the only symbol of legal equality that is known in a republic.

Chancellor Wm. G. Eliot, of Washington University, St. Louis, wrote:

Considered as a right, suffrage belongs equally to man and woman. They are equally citizens and taxpayers. They share equally in the advantages of good government and suffer equally from bad legislation. They equally need the right of self-protection which the ballot alone can give. In average good, practical sense, wherever fair opportunity is permitted women are equal to men. In moral perception and practice women are at least equal--generally the superiors, if such comparison must be made. There is, therefore, no justification in saying that the right of suffrage, on whatever founded, belongs to man rather than to woman.

Considered as a privilege, little needs to be said on either side.... Every citizen is under moral obligation to take part in the social interests and welfare of the community, whether national or municipal. Woman equally with man is under that moral law. In a republic she can not rightly be deprived of the opportunity to do her full share as a citizen in all that concerns good government.

This seems to be the whole story. I have read with astonishment the arguments (so called) of Francis Parkman, the Rev. Brooke Herford and Mrs. Kate Gannett Wells. They scarcely touch the real merits of the case.

Dr. Mary F. Thomas, of Indiana, wrote:

As I see pictured before me all of you gathered from different parts of this great sisterhood of States to discuss the grand principle of human freedom, I can but compare this assembly with one convened in Philadelphia over a hundred years ago with this difference--they declared for the civil and political freedom of all men; you ask to-day that all human beings of sound mind shall enjoy the civil and political rights which they are entitled to by virtue of their humanity. As the judicious management of the family circle requires the combined wisdom and judgment of father and mother, so this great political family, whose interests are identical, can only be consistently managed by the complete representation and concurrence of each individual governed by its laws.

It is not necessary for me to show argument for this statement, as your meeting to-day, composed of men and women thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the great truth contained in the Declaration of Independence, will supply words glowing with fervor that can not be written, that comes with a full conviction of the magnitude of this great question, involving even the perpetuity of our government.... But without other reasons than that it is right, let the united voice of your meeting demand full recognition of the political rights of the women of the nation, so that it may stand before the world exemplifying the meaning of a true republic. After near half a century of earnest, continued pleading we see light breaking in different parts of the political horizon. If it takes half a century more, nay, even longer than that, to establish this truth let us never falter. For we know our cause is just and, as God is just, the eternal principles of right must succeed.

Among the speakers were Mr. Foulke, Mr. Blackwell, Mrs. Alice Pickler of Dakota, Mrs. Cutler, Miss Bessie Isaacs of Washington Territory, the Rev. Ada C. Bowles of Massachusetts, Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway, editor of the New Northwest, Oregon, and from Minneapolis Mrs. Sarah Burger Stearns, C. H. Du Bois, editor of the Spectator, Dr. Martha G. Ripley, the Rev. Dr. J. H. Tuttle, pastor of the Church of the Redeemer, the Rev. Kristofer Jansen, of the Swedish Unitarian Church, the Rev. Mr. Williams of the City Mission, the Rev. Mr. Tabor of the Friends' Church, the Rev. Mr. Harrington, a visiting Universalist minister, and Mrs. Charlotte O. Van Cleve, of the Bethany Home, who spoke of herself and her associates as "the ambulance corps, to pick up and care for the fallen and wounded of their sex."

Judge Norton H. Hemiup of Minneapolis, read a humorous play in several acts, dramatically representing the venerable widows of ex-presidents and wives of living ones going to the polls in their respective precincts and offering their votes in vain, while those of the late slaves and of men half-drunk and wholly ignorant were received without a question.

Major J. A. Pickler, the chivalrous legislator of Dakota, who championed the suffrage bill which passed both Houses and was defeated by the veto of Gov. Gilbert F. Pierce, was invited to tell the history of the bill and did so in a vigorous speech. He said its passage was materially aided by the efforts of Eastern remonstrants to defeat it, and added: "There are peculiar reasons why our women should have their rights, as they own fully one-fourth of the land and are veritable heroines." During the convention the men and women present from Dakota organized an association to carry on the battle for equal rights in that Territory.

Mrs. Howe said in her address:

While a great deal needs to be said to both men and women on the subject of woman suffrage, I am one who thinks that most needs to be said to women. This is quite natural both because of their timidity in putting themselves forward and because of their frequent ignorance of the principles upon which reform is based. No one could be more opposed to woman suffrage than I was twenty years ago. Everything I had read and heard seemed to point in exactly the opposite direction. But at the first meeting I attended I heard Lucy Stone, Henry B. Blackwell, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other pioneers of the cause, found nothing but reasonableness in their speech and their arguments and so was speedily converted.

The Battle Hymn of the Republic was then sung by Prof. James G. Clark, the well-known singer of anti-slavery days, the audience rising and joining in the chorus.

Mrs. Margaret W. Campbell of Iowa, who was introduced by Lucy Stone with a history of her many years of devoted work for the cause, said in part: "Good men who mean well often say that women are as fit to vote as the ignorant foreigners just landed at Castle Garden or the freedmen who can not read or write. Don't say that any more; you don't know how it hurts. Say instead, 'You are as fit to vote as we are.' The names of those who emancipated the slave will be written in letters of gold, but the names of those who have helped to emancipate the women of this nation will be written in letters of living light."

The closing address was made by Mrs. Stone. "Her feeling and womanly appeals," said the Minneapolis papers, "were such as to move any masculine heart not thoroughly indurated." She said in part:

If the question of the right of women to a voice in making the laws they are to obey could be treated in the same common-sense way that other practical questions are treated it would have been settled long ago. If the question were to be asked in any community about to establish a government, "Shall the whole people who are of mature age and sound mind have a right to help make the laws they are required to obey?" the natural answer would be that they should have that right. But the fact is that only the men exercise it. If the question were asked, "Shall the whole people who are of mature age and sound mind and not convicted of crime have a right to elect the men who will have the spending of the money they pay for taxes?" the common-sense answer would be that they should have that right. But the fact is that only men are allowed to exercise it. So of the special interests of women, their right to settle the laws which regulate their relation to their children, their right to earn and own, to buy and sell, to will and deed, the application of the simple principles of fair play, would have given women equal voice with men in these questions of personal and common interest. But as it is men control it all, whether it is the child we bear, the dollar we earn or the will we wish to make.

One would suppose that under a government whose fundamental principle affirms that "the consent of the governed" is the just basis, the consent of the governed women would have been asked for. The only form of consent is a vote and that is denied to women. As a result they are at a disadvantage everywhere. The stigma of disfranchisement cheapens the respect due to their opinions, diminishes their earnings and makes them subjects in the home as they are in the State. The woman suffrage movement means equal rights for women. It proposes to secure fair play and justice.

At this convention valuable reports were presented from twenty-six States. Of especial interest was that from Texas, where Mrs. Mariana T. Folsom had done seven months' work under the auspices of the American W. S. A., giving nearly 200 public addresses in advocacy of equal rights. Texas was virgin soil on this subject, and Mrs. Folsom's description of the conditions she found there was both entertaining and instructive.

The old officers were re-elected with but few changes. Among the resolutions adopted were the following:

The American Woman Suffrage Association, at its seventeenth annual meeting, in this beautiful city of the new Northwest, reaffirms the American principle of free representative government, and demands its application to women. "Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed," and women are governed; "taxation without representation is tyranny," and women are taxed; "all political power inheres in the people," and one-half of the people are women.

Resolved, That women, as sisters, wives and mothers of men, have special rights to protect and special wrongs to remedy; that their votes will represent in a special sense the interests of the home; that equal co-operation of the sexes is essential alike to a happy home, a refined society, a Christian church and a republican State.

WHEREAS, Under the Federal Constitution, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens thereof, and of the States in which they reside;" and, by the decision of the United States courts, "Women are citizens, and may be made voters by appropriate State legislation;" therefore,

Resolved, That this association regards with satisfaction the acceptance of the claim of Anna Ella Carroll by the United States Court of Claims, by which the remarkable services of Miss Carroll in urging the campaign of Tennessee, which broke the force of the rebellion and gave success to our armies, will have at last, after more than a score of years, their late reward.[140]

Resolved, That the association send a deputation to Washington in behalf of its memorial to Congress to frame a statute prohibiting the disfranchisement of women in the Territories, and to co-operate with the National Woman Suffrage Association (at its January meeting) for a Sixteenth Amendment forbidding political distinctions on account of sex.

The great success of this convention was due in large measure to the excellent arrangements made by the friends in Minneapolis, especially Dr. Ripley and Mrs. Martha A. Dorsett.

The association sent two delegates, Henry B. Blackwell and the Rev. Anna H. Shaw, to Washington, to urge upon the House Committee the duty of Congress to establish equal suffrage in the Territories. They were given a respectful hearing.

1886.--The Eighteenth annual meeting was held in Topeka, Kan., October 26-28. The morning and afternoon sessions were held in Music Hall. Above the platform hung the beautiful banner of the Minnesota W. S. A., sent by Dr. Martha G. Ripley, and at its side was a package of 7,000 leaflets for distribution contributed by Mrs. Cornelia C. Hussey of New Jersey, which were gladly taken for use in different States. The evening meetings assembled in the Hall of the House of Representatives, seating 1,200 persons; the floor and both galleries were crowded with the best citizens of Topeka; all the desks were taken out, making room for more chairs, and even then hundreds of people were turned away. Both halls were given free.

All the preparations had been admirably made by Mrs. Juliet N. Martin, Miss Olive P. Bray, Mrs. S. A. Thurston and other Topeka women, who had a collation spread in Music Hall for the delegates on their arrival. The press gave full and cordial reports. Lucy Stone wrote in the Woman's Journal:

We found the editors of the four daily papers all suffragists. Among these was Major J. K. Hudson, who took his first lessons in equal rights on the Anti-Slavery Bugle in Ohio and, reared among "Friends," was ready to continue the good service he has all along rendered. Here, too, we found our old co-worker, William P. Tomlinson, who at one time published the Anti-Slavery Standard for Wendell Phillips and the American Anti-Slavery Society, and who a little later, in his young prime, devoted his time, his money and his strength to the publication of the Woman's Advocate in New York, of which he was proprietor and editor. He is now editor of the Topeka Daily Democrat. Mr. B. P. Baker, now editor and proprietor of the Commonwealth, did good service to the woman suffrage cause in 1867 in the Topeka Record. Mr. McLennan, of the Journal, is also with us.

The whole convention was interspersed with ringing reminiscences of the heroic early history of Kansas. Mrs. S. N. Wood, who in the Border Ruffian days went through the enemy's lines and at great personal peril brought into beleaguered Lawrence the ammunition which enabled it to defend itself, came to the platform to add her good word for equal suffrage. It was a great pleasure to the officers of the association to meet her and the other early Kansas workers, many of whom, like Mrs. J. H. Slocum, of Emporia, were old personal friends.

Mrs. Anna C. Wait, president of the Kansas W. S. A. and editor of the Lincoln Beacon, gave the address of welcome in behalf of the suffragists. Referring to the first campaign for a woman suffrage amendment in 1867, when Lucy Stone and Henry B. Blackwell spoke in forty-two counties of Kansas, Mrs. Wait said: "Nineteen years ago when you came to Kansas you found no suffrage societies and even seven years ago you would have found none. To-day, in behalf of the State W. S. A. and its many flourishing auxiliaries, I welcome these dear friends who come to us from the rock-ribbed shores of the Atlantic, from the coast of the Pacific, from the lakes of the North and from the sunny South, a veritable gathering of the clans of freedom."

Major Hudson, in his address of welcome in behalf of the city, reviewed the history of woman suffrage in Kansas, paid a tribute to the work of the pioneer suffragists, and said:

We welcome you to Kansas, because it has been good battle-ground for the right.... We place the ballot in the hands of the foreigner who can not read or speak our language, and who knows nothing of our government; we enfranchised a slave race, most of whom can not read; and yet we deny to the women of America the ballot, which in their hands would be the strongest protection of this republic against the ignorance and vice of the great centers of our population. Give to woman the ballot, and you give her equal pay with men for the same work; you break down prejudice and open to her every vocation in which she is competent to engage; you do more--you give her an individuality, and equal right in life.

The president, the Hon. William Dudley Foulke, in his response to the welcome of the suffrage association said: "It gives us great pleasure to visit your beautiful city and fertile State. It gives us pleasure not because your State is fertile and your city beautiful but because it is in these Western States that there is most hope of the growth of the woman suffrage movement. The older States are what old age is in the human frame, something that is difficult to change; but where there is young blood there is hope and the progress of a new idea is more rapid."

Mrs. Howe, responding to the welcome of the citizens, said some one had spoken of woman suffrage as a hobby; she questioned whether the opposition to suffrage was not the hobby and suffrage the horse. The discussion of these great questions was doing much to make the women of the country one in feeling, and to do away with sectional prejudices. A most cordial hearing was given to the Woman's Congress lately held at Louisville, Ky., and especially to the woman suffrage symposium which occupied one evening. Mrs. Howe spoke of the wonderful, providential history of Kansas, and the way in which a new and unexpected chapter of the country's history opened out from the experience of the young Territory. She remembered when the name of Kansas was the word which set men's blood at the East tingling. She continued:

You men of Kansas, you who have been bought with a price, noble men have worked and suffered and died that you might be free. For you Charles Sumner fell in the Senate of the United States. He fell to rise again, but others fell for whom there was no rising. Having received this great gift of freedom, pray you go on to make it perfect. You may think that you have a free State, well founded and stable, and that it will stand; but remember that the State, like the Church, is not a structure to be built and set up but a living organism to grow and move. Its life is progress and freedom. Do not think that you can stay this great tide of progress by saying, "Thus far shalt thou go and no farther." No such limitation is possible. That tide will oversweep every obstacle set in its way.

Why, men of Kansas, having been so nobly endowed at the beginning, have you let the younger children in the nursery of our dear mother country learn lessons that you have not learned? Are the women of Wyoming and Washington better than your women, and do the men of those Territories love their women better than you love yours? You will say "no," with indignation; but remember that love is shown in deeds far more than in words. Until you make your women free I must hold that you do not love them as well as those do who have given their mothers and sisters the gift of political enfranchisement. This place is the temple of your liberties; here, if anywhere, should be spoken the words of wisdom and be enacted just and equal laws. However grand the words may be which have been spoken here, may they become grander and better and deeper, until to all your other glories shall be added that of having set the crown of freedom upon the heads of the women of your State!

Only a few gleanings from the many speeches can be given. Professor W. H. Carruth, of the Kansas State University, said in part:

We are likely to meet some good-natured person who will say: "Why, yes, I am in favor of woman suffrage, but I don't see that there is any need of it here in Kansas. If I were in Rhode Island or Connecticut, where there are so many laws unjust to women, I would petition and work for it; but I don't see that it is worth while to make a fuss about it here." Now, what can be said to such a person? Weapons are both defensive and aggressive. The ballot has both uses. What would a herdsman say if you told him his sheepfold was all that was needed, and refused to give him a gun? What would the farmer say if you gave him a cultivator but no plough? What would Christianity be if it had only the Ten Commandments and not the Golden Rule?

He who thinks the ballot is given simply as a means of protection--protection in a limited sense, against fraud and violence--has but a limited conception of the duties of American citizenship. The old let-alone theory of government has been found a failure, and instead of it people are coming to think that government is good to do anything that it can do best--just as they have already learned that it is proper for woman to do anything that she can do well. In a word, as Mrs. Howe said the other evening, the ballot is a means of getting things done which we want done.

When your good friend with a kind and prosperous husband, a pleasant home and nothing lacking which better laws could secure for her, says she thinks women are already pretty well treated and she doesn't know that she would care for the ballot, ask her how she would feel if she were a teacher and were expected to work beside a man, equal work and equal time, he to get $60 and she $40 a month? Ask her whether she would not want to have a vote then? Isn't this a case, kind mistress of a home, where you should remember those in bonds as bound with them? I very much fear there never will be a time when all the good people in this world can dispense with any effective weapon against wrong.

And, beyond this, there are all the offensive, aggressive uses of the ballot. We want a sewer here, a bridge there, a lamp-post or a hydrant yonder. A woman's nose will scent a defective drain where ten men pass it by, but votes get these things looked after. We want a new schoolhouse, or more brains or more fresh air in an old one. Don't you know that women will attend to such needs sooner than men?

Mr. Foulke said in part:

It is said that woman suffragists are dreamers. There was a time within our memory when human flesh in this our free America was sold at auction. In those days a few earnest men dreamed of a time when our flag should no longer unfurl itself over a slave. Inspired by this great vision they bore the persecution and contumely of their fellows. In season and out of season they preached their glorious gospel of immediate and unconditional emancipation. Wild visionaries they, incendiaries whose very writings, like the heresies of old, must be consigned to the flames; impracticable enthusiasts, seditious citizens. But lo! the flame of war passed over us and their dream is true; and in the clearer light which shines upon us to-day, we can hardly realize that this great blot upon our civilization could have existed, the time seems so far away.

And we of America, we who have reached the summit of the prophecies of centuries past, we dream of new and loftier mountains in the distance. We who have realized in our political institutions a universal equality of men before the law, find that we have only reached the foothills of the greater range beyond. There are men in our midst who are dreaming to-day of a time when mere political equality shall be based upon that broader social and economic equality which is so necessary to maintain it. They dream of a time when each man's reward shall be proportioned to his own exertions and his own desert, and nothing at all shall be due to the accident of birth; dream of a time when bitter, grinding poverty, save as a punishment for idleness, shall no longer exist in a world so full of the bounty of heaven. Is it wilder than the dream of him who, under the despotism of the Bourbons, could dream of a great people whose birth should be heralded by the cry that all men are created equal? Is it wilder than the dream of him who, oppressed by the tyranny of Alva, could dream of a day of perfect religious toleration? Men talk with contemptuous pity of the dreamer. But he rather is the object of pity who bars the windows and draws the curtains of his soul to shut out the light of heaven that would smile in upon him. Let us rather pity the man who fears to utter the divine thought which fills him. Let us pity rather that man or that nation which lives in the complacent consciousness of its own virtue and blessedness, and dreams of no higher good than it possesses. He that has a dream of something better than he sees around him, let him tell it though the world smile. He that has a prophecy to utter, let him speak, though men account it his folly as much as they will. God bless the dreamers of all just and perfect dreams! The great wheel of the ages with ever-increasing motion is sure to roll out their accomplishment.

The Rev. Louis A. Banks, lately of Washington Territory, spoke of woman suffrage there. He said:

The first fact proved by experience is that women do vote. Before the law was enacted, the old objection used to meet us on every hand, "The women do not want to vote"--as though that, if true, were a valid reason. They ought to want to. It is my business to urge men to repent, and I have never supposed it a reason to cease preaching to them because they did not want to repent; they ought to want to. But our experience has proved that women do want to vote. It was universally conceded that in our first general Territorial election fully as many women voted in proportion to their numbers as men....

Woman's influence as a citizen has been of equal value in the jury-box. Experience shows that she is peculiarly fitted for that duty. Woe to the gambler who enriches himself by the folly or innocence of the ignorant, and the rum-seller who lures boys into his backroom! Woe to the human vultures who prey upon young lives, when they fall into the hands of a jury of mothers!...

You who have not hitherto been woman suffragists, why not espouse this cause now, when it is in the full flush of its heroic struggle? When John Adams went courting Abigail Smith, her proud father said to her: "Who is this young Adams? Where did he come from?" Abigail answered: "I do not know where he came from and I do not care, but I know where he is going and I am going with him." Ladies and gentlemen, you know where we are going; we invite your company for the journey.

State Senator R. W. Blue said: "One of the greatest questions of the day is how to counteract the influence of the vicious vote cast every year in the large cities. I believe the only way to do that is to enfranchise the women." He added that he had worked for the Municipal Suffrage Bill in the preceding Legislature, and should do so in the next. President Foulke complimented him on his bold and outspoken remarks, and said he thought a man in politics never lost anything by telling the people exactly where he stood on vital issues.[141]

James G. Clark, associate editor of the Minneapolis Spectator, was a delegate, and delighted the audience with his equal rights songs. A letter was received from Dr. Mary F. Thomas and, by a rising vote of the convention, it was decided to send her a telegram of greeting and congratulations on her seventieth birthday.

Letters were read from Chief-Justice Greene of Washington Territory, and from Mrs. Margaret Bright Lucas of England, sister of John and Jacob Bright; also telegrams from the Minnesota W. S. A., from Major and Mrs. Pickler of South Dakota, and from others, and reports from the different State societies.

Chancellor J. A. Lippincott, of the State University, invited the association to visit that institution, and Mrs. Howe and Mrs. Stone to address the students. Mrs. Stone wrote in the Woman's Journal: "It was worth the journey to receive the warm welcome which greeted us on every hand, and still more to see the progress the cause has made in the nineteen years that have passed since the first suffrage campaign in Kansas. It would not be surprising if Municipal Suffrage should be secured in this State at the next session of the Legislature.[142] The very air was full of suffrage, even in the midst of the political contest."

1887.--The Nineteenth annual meeting was held in Association Hall, Philadelphia, October 31, November 1, 2. The platform had been beautifully decorated with tropical plants and foliage by Miss Elizabeth B. Justice and other Pennsylvania friends. The weather was fine, the audience sympathetic and the speaking excellent.

State Senator A. D. Harlan gave the address of welcome in behalf of the Pennsylvania W. S. A. President Wm. Dudley Foulke in responding paid a tribute to the Senator's good service in the Legislature in behalf of a constitutional amendment for equal suffrage. A letter of welcome was read from the venerable and beloved president of the association, Miss Mary Grew, who was kept away by illness. Col. T. W. Higginson said:

I have the sensations of a Revolutionary veteran, almost, in coming back to Philadelphia and remembering our early suffrage meetings here in that time of storm, in contrasting the audiences of to-day with the audiences of that day, and in thinking what are the difficulties that come before us now as compared with those of our youth. The audiences have changed, the atmosphere of the community has changed; nothing but the cause remains the same, and that remains because it is a part of the necessary evolution of democratic society and is an immortal thing.

I recall those early audiences; the rows of quiet faces in Quaker bonnets in the foreground; the rows of exceedingly unquiet figures of Southern medical students, with their hats on, in the background. I recall the visible purpose of those energetic young gentlemen to hear nobody but the women, and the calm determination with which their bootheels contributed to put the male speakers down. I recall also their too-assiduous attentions in the streets outside when the meeting broke up....

Woman suffrage should be urged, in my opinion, not from any predictions of what women will do with their votes after they get them, but on the ground that by all the traditions of our government, by all the precepts of its early founders, by all the axioms which lie at the foundation of our political principles, woman needs the ballot for self-respect and self-protection.

The woman of old times who did not read books of political economy or attend public meetings, could retain her self-respect; but the woman of modern times, with every step she takes in the higher education, finds it harder to retain that self-respect while she is in a republican government and yet not a member of it. She can study all the books that I saw collected this morning in the political economy alcove of the Bryn Mawr College; she can master them all; she can know more about them perhaps than any man of her acquaintance; and yet to put one thing she has learned there in practice by the simple process of dropping a piece of paper into a ballot-box--she can no more do that than she could put out her slender finger and stop the planet in its course. That is what I mean by woman's needing the suffrage for self-respect.

Then as to self-protection. We know there have been great improvements in the laws in regard to women. What brought about those improvements? The steady labor of women like these on this platform, going before Legislatures year by year and asking for something they were not willing to give, the ballot; but, as a result of it, to keep the poor creatures quiet, some law was passed removing a restriction. The old English writer Pepys, according to his diary, after spending a good deal of money for himself finds a little left and buys his wife a new gown, because, he says, "It is fit that the poor wretch should have something to content her." I have seen many laws passed for the advantage of women and they were generally passed on that principle.

I remember going before the Rhode Island Legislature once with Lucy Stone and she unrolled with her peculiar persuasive power the wrong laws which existed in that commonwealth in regard to women. After the hearing was over the chairman of that committee, a judge who had served on it for years, said to her: "Mrs. Stone, all that you have stated this morning is true, and I am ashamed to think that I, who have been chairman for years of this judiciary committee, should have known in my secret heart that it was all true and should have done nothing to set these wrongs right until I was reminded of them by a woman." Again and again I have seen that experience. Women with bleeding feet, women with exhausted voices, women with wornout lives, have lavished their strength to secure ordinary justice in the form of laws which a single woman inside the State House, armed with the position of member of the Legislature and representing a sex who had votes, could have had righted within two years. Every man knows the weakness of a disfranchised class of men. The whole race of women is disfranchised, and they suffer in the same way.

Among the other speakers were the Rev. Charles G. Ames, Henry B. Blackwell, the Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Dr. Thomas, Mrs. Campbell, Mrs. Mary E. Haggart, Mrs. Frances E. W. Harper, the Rev. S. S. Hunting, Miss Cora Scott Pond, the Rev. Ada C. Bowles and Mrs. Adelaide A. Claflin.

The chairman of the executive committee, Mrs. Lucy Stone, in her annual report, reviewed the year's activities and continued:

But the chief work of the American Woman Suffrage Association during the past year has been to obtain wide access to the public through the newspapers. Early in the year correspondence was opened with most of the papers in the United States. The editors were asked whether they would publish suffrage literature if it were sent them every week without charge. More than a thousand answered that they would use what we sent, in whole or in part. Accepting this the association has, for the last eight months, furnished 1,000 weekly papers with a suffrage column. The cost of it consumes nearly the whole interest of the Eddy Fund, besides much time and strength gratuitously given. But as these papers come to us week by week containing the suffrage items and articles which through their columns reach millions of readers, we feel that no better use could be made of money or time.

The Revs. Anna H. Shaw and Ada C. Bowles were chosen national lecturers. Among the resolutions were the following:

We congratulate the Legislature of Kansas upon its honorable record in extending Municipal Suffrage last February to the women of that State, and the 26,000 women of Kansas by whose aid, last April, reformed city governments were elected in every municipality; we hail the National W. C. T. U. as an efficient ally of the woman suffrage movement; we recognize the woman suffrage resolutions of the Knights of Labor, the Land and Labor organizations, the Third Party Prohibitionists and other political parties, as evidence of a growing public sentiment in favor of the equal rights of women; we rejoice that two-thirds of the Northern Senators in the Congress of the United States voted last winter for a Sixteenth Constitutional Amendment prohibiting political distinctions on account of sex; we observe an increasing friendliness in the attitude of press and pulpit and the fact that 1,000 newspapers now publish a weekly column in the interests of woman suffrage; we are encouraged by more general discussions and more favorable votes of State Legislatures than ever before--all indicating a sure and steady progress toward the complete enfranchisement of women.

WHEREAS, The woman suffragists of the United States were all united until 1868 in the American Equal Rights Association; and

WHEREAS, The causes of the subsequent separation into the National and the American Woman Suffrage Societies have since been largely removed by the adoption of common principles and methods, therefore,

Resolved, That Mrs. Lucy Stone be appointed a committee of one from the American W. S. A. to confer with Miss Susan B. Anthony, of the National W. S. A., and if on conference it seems desirable, that she be authorized and empowered to appoint a committee of this association to meet a similar committee appointed by the National W. S. A., to consider a satisfactory basis of union, and refer it back to the executive committees of both associations for final action.

A pleasant incident of the convention was the presentation to the audience of Mrs. E. R. Hunter, of Wichita, Kan., a real voter. Letters of greeting were read from Miss Matilda Hindman of Pennsylvania, Senator M. B. Castle of Illinois, Mrs. Mary B. Clay of Kentucky, and Judge Stanton J. Peelle of Indiana. Mrs. Stone, the Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell and Mrs. Mary A. Livermore were elected delegates to the International Council of Women to be held in Washington, D. C., in 1888, with Dr. Mary F. Thomas, Miss Mary Grew and Mrs. Hannah M. Tracy Cutler as alternates.

After Mrs. Howe's address on the last evening, The Battle Hymn of the Republic was sung standing, the great assembly joining in the chorus. The officers had the pleasure of visiting Bryn Mawr College, by invitation of Dean M. Carey Thomas, during the convention.

In December of this year, a Suffrage Bazar was held in Boston for the joint benefit of the American W. S. A. and of the State suffrage associations that participated,[143] which was a success both socially and financially. The Woman's Journal of December 17 said:

Music Hall is a wonderful sight; the green and gold banner of Kansas occupies the place of honor in the middle of the platform, flanked on the left by the great crimson banner of Michigan with its motto "Neither delay nor rest," and on the right by the blue flag of Maine, decorated with a pine branch and cones. The bronze statue of Beethoven which has looked calmly down upon so many different assemblages in Music Hall, gazes meditatively at the Kansas table, with a large yellow sunflower which surmounts the Kansas banner blazing like a great star at his very feet. Next comes the banner of Vermont, rich and beautiful, though smaller than the rest, in two shades of blue, with the seal of the State in the center surrounded by wild roses and bearing the motto "Freedom and Unity." At the extreme right of the platform hangs the banner of Pennsylvania, yellow, with heavy crimson fringe and the motto "Taxation with Representation." On the other side of Michigan is a large portrait of Wendell Phillips, sent by friends in Minnesota. At the left are the Woman's Journal exhibit, press headquarters and a display of exquisite blankets made at the Lamoille mills and contributed to the Vermont exhibit by the manufacturer, Mrs. M. G. Minot.

All down the hall on both sides and across the middle hang the many banners of the Massachusetts local leagues, of all sizes and colors and with every variety of motto and device. At the extreme end hangs the white banner of the State Association.

This handsome banner, bearing the motto, "Male and female created He them, and gave them dominion," was presented to the association by Miss Cora Scott Pond and the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, to whose energetic work the success of the bazar was largely due.

Mrs. Livermore, the president of the bazar, made the opening address on the first evening. Floor and gallery were filled and scores of yellow-ribboned delegates threaded their way through the smiling crowd. Mrs. Howe followed, saying in part:

Addresses this evening are something like grace before meat; they are expected to be short and sweet. The grace is a good thing because it reminds us that we do not live by bread alone but by all the divine words with which the Creator has filled the universe. The most divine word of all is justice, and in that sacred name we are met to-night. In her name we set up our tents and spread our banners....

In the suspense in which we have so long waited for suffrage, I sometimes feel as if we were in a dim twilight through which at last a single star sheds its way to show us there is light yet, and then another and another star follow. Wyoming was the first, the evening star--we may call her our Venus; then came Washington Territory, and then Kansas. What sort of a star shall we call Boston? She might aptly be compared to sleepy old Saturn, surrounded by a triple ring of prejudice. Dr. Channing was asked once if he did not despair of Harvard College. He replied: "No, I never quite despair of anything." Therefore, following his good example, I never quite despair of Boston. We want our flag to be full of such stars as those I have mentioned.

Mrs. Lucy Stone closed a brief address by saying: "To-morrow will be election day and the papers urge all citizens to go and vote; but there are 60,000 women in Boston who have the same interest in the city government that men have, and yet can have no voice in the matter. Make this bazar a success and so enable us to take Massachusetts by its four corners and shake it till it gives suffrage to women."

1888.--The twentieth annual meeting was held in Cincinnati, Ohio, November 20-22, with large crowds in attendance and much interest shown. The Enquirer said: "The audiences may be said to have chestnutized the time-honored assertion that advocates of the ballot for the fair sex are unable to win even womankind to their way of thinking. New faces of ladies of the highest standing in society are seen at every succeeding session. The Scottish Rite Cathedral has rarely or never held as large a number of ladies, and equally rarely has there been present at a meeting of woman suffragists so large a proportion of men." And the Commercial Gazette: "The Scottish Rite Cathedral never held a finer-looking company, composed as it was of a large number of the oldest and best citizens."

The Hon. Wm. Dudley Foulke presided.[144] Addresses of welcome were made by the Hon. Alphonso Taft and Mrs. McClellan Brown, president of the Wesleyan Woman's College. Mrs. Julia Ward Howe responded.

In a letter the Hon. George William Curtis said: "Every change in the restrictive laws regarding women is an acknowledgment of the justice of the demand for equal suffrage. The case was conceded when women became property holders and taxpayers in their own right. In every way their interest in society is the same as that of men, and the reason for their voting in school meetings is conclusive for their voting upon the appropriation of other taxes which they pay."

U. S. Senator George F. Hoar wrote: "My belief in the wisdom and justice of the demand that women shall be admitted to the ballot grows stronger every year." In a letter to Lucy Stone, Clara Barton wrote:

It gives me pain to be compelled to decline your generous invitation to attend your annual meeting, but there is a deep pleasure in the thought that you remembered and desired me to be with you. Nowhere would I so gladly speak my little word for woman, her rights, her needs, her privileges delayed and debarred--yet blessed with the grand advance of the last thirty years, the budding and blossoming of the seed sown in darkness, doubt and humiliation, scattered by the winds of conscious superiority and power and the whirlwinds of opposing wrath--as on the green, native soil, the home of the early labors of its sainted citizen, Frances D. Gage. Dear, noble, precious Aunt Fanny, with the soul so pure and white, the heart so warm, the sympathies so quick and ready, the sensitive, shrinking modesty of self, the courage that scoffed at fear when the needs of others were plead; the friend of the bondman and oppressed, who knew no sect, sex, race or color, but toiled on for freedom and humanity till the glorious summons came! If only five minutes of her clarion voice could ring out in that meeting--McGregor on his native heath--"'twere worth a thousand men." I pray you, dear friend, whose voice will reach and be heard, try to point out to the younger and later workers of the grand, old State the broad stubble swath of the scythe and the deep blazing of the sturdy axe of this glorious pioneer of theirs--the grandest of them all--whose sleeping dust is an honor to Ohio.

It is nothing that I am not there; it is much that you will be, who carry back the memories of your girlhood, your school-life, your earliest labors, to lay them on this freely-proffered altar, in a spot where then there was no room for the tired foot, nor scarce safety for the head. The occasion points with unerring finger to the hands on the dial of thirty years in the future. We need not to see it then, for it is given us to foresee it now. God's blessing on this work and on the meeting, and on all who may compose it![145]

Henry B. Blackwell said in his address:

In equal suffrage lies our only hope of a representative government. Women are one-half of our citizens with rights to protect and wrongs to remedy. They are a distinct class in society, differing from men in character, position and interest. Every class that votes makes itself felt in the government. Women will change the quality of government when they vote. They are more peaceable, temperate, chaste, economical and law-abiding than men; less controlled by physical appetite and passion; more influenced by humane and religious considerations. They will superadd to the more harsh and aggressive masculine qualities those feminine qualities in which they are superior to men. And these qualities are precisely what our government lacks. Women will always be wives and mothers. They will represent the home as men represent the business interests, and both are needed. This is a reform higher, broader, deeper than any and all others. Let good men and women of all sects, parties and opinions unite in establishing a government of and by and for the people--men and women.

Lucy Stone, describing the convention in the Woman's Journal of December 1, wrote:

The local arrangements had been carefully made by Dr. Juliet M. Thorpe, Mrs. Ellen B. Dietrick and Miss Annie McLean Marsh. The spirit and temper of the meeting were of the best. Telegrams of greeting were received from various States, and from far and near came letters from those who were already friends of the cause, and others who wished to learn. One old lady with snow-white locks had come alone forty miles. She was not a delegate and she had no speech to make, but her heart was in the work and she found opportunity to speak words of cheer to those who were in the thick of the fight. One young woman, a busy teacher, came from Knoxville, Tenn. She wanted to know how to work for suffrage in that State, and said she thought it "the best way to come where the suffrage was." A large supply of leaflets, copies of the Woman's Journal and of the Woman's Column, were given her, with such advice and instruction as the time permitted. Two ladies were there from Virginia. This was their first suffrage meeting, but they listened eagerly, subscribed for our periodicals and gladly accepted leaflets. It was a comfort to see by these new recruits how widely the idea of equal rights for women is taking root. At these annual meetings the workers who come from far distant States and Territories strengthen each other. The sight of their faces and the warm grasp of their hands serve to renew the strength of those who never have flinched, and who never will flinch till women are secure in possession of equal rights.

A number of ladies who came over from Kentucky took the opportunity to organize a Kentucky Equal Suffrage Association.

It is always a matter of regret that the excellent speeches made at these meetings can not be phonographically reported, but it must suffice to say that they covered all the ground, from the principles on which representative government rests, to the teaching of the Bible, which Miss Laura Clay, in an able speech, warmly claimed was on the side of equal rights for women. Mrs. Zerelda G. Wallace, that noble mother in Israel, agreed with her, though from a different point of view, while Frederick Douglass claimed that the "Eternal Right exists independent of all books."

The Cincinnati press gave noticeably friendly and fair reports. Hospitality to delegates was abundant. The sunny side of many of the best people of the Queen City was evidently turned toward this meeting. A distinguished member of the Hamilton County bar, who had not been thoroughly converted before, said: "When you come again, let me make the address of welcome!"

The annual report of the chairman of the executive committee stated that the association had continued to supply with suffrage matter all editors who would use it; and that to save postage this weekly bulletin had been put into the form of a small newspaper, the Woman's Column:

Its woman suffrage arguments come back to us in papers scattered from Maine to California, and reach hundreds of thousands of readers who would not take a paper devoted specifically to this reform.... Twenty thousand suffrage leaflets were given to the Rev. Anna H. Shaw, national lecturer for the American W. S. A., whose position as national superintendent of franchise for the W. C. T. U. enables her to use them with great effect; 7,700 were made a gift to the Ohio Centennial Exposition at Cincinnati with hundreds of copies of the Woman's Journal and Woman's Column; also many to the exposition at Columbus; 1,000 leaflets were sent to the meeting of the Wisconsin W. S. A. at Milwaukee, and 500 to its recent meeting at Stevens Point; many were sent to the fair at Ottumwa, Ia.; a large number were distributed at the annual meeting of the National W. C. T. U. in New York, and smaller quantities have been supplied for local use in almost all the States and Territories. Several friends have made donations of money for this purpose, and there is no way in which money goes further or does more good. In August, the association began the publication of a series of tracts under the title of the Woman Suffrage Leaflet. The association has given $50 for work in Montana, $50 in Vermont, $25 in Wisconsin and $15 in New York.

Memorial resolutions were adopted for Louisa M. Alcott, Dr. Mary F. Thomas and James Freeman Clarke, D. D.

The following committee was chosen to continue the negotiations for union with the National Woman Suffrage Association, which had been entered upon in pursuance of the resolution adopted at Philadelphia: the Hon. William Dudley Foulke, Indiana; the Rev. Anna H. Shaw, Michigan; Miss Laura Clay, Kentucky; Mrs. Margaret W. Campbell, Iowa; Prof. W. H. Carruth, Kansas; Miss Mary Grew, Pennsylvania; the Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, New Jersey; Mrs. Sarah C. Schrader, Ohio; Mrs. Catherine V. Waite, Illinois; Mrs. May S. Knaggs, Michigan; Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, Massachusetts.

1889.--In January these delegates met with those from the National Association at the convention of the latter in Washington, D. C., and arrangements for the union of the two societies for the following year were practically completed.[146]

In the summer an appeal was addressed by Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe and Mary A. Livermore to the constitutional conventions which were preparing for Statehood in Dakota, Washington, Montana and Idaho. It said in part:

The undersigned, officers of the American Woman Suffrage Association, though not properly entitled to address your convention, nevertheless ask its courtesy on account of the great interest they feel in the question of the status you will give to women.

You, gentlemen, felt keenly the disadvantage you were under when you had only Territorial rights. If you will consider how much greater are the disadvantages of a class that is wholly without political rights, you will, we feel sure, pardon our entreaty that in building your new constitution you will secure for women equal political rights with men.

The men of the older States inherited their constitutions, with the odious features which the common law imposes upon women. But you are making constitutions. You have the golden opportunity to save your women from all these evils by securing their right to vote in the organic law of the new State. By doing this, over and above the satisfaction which comes from having done a just deed, you will win the gratitude of women for all time, as our fathers won the gratitude of the race when they announced the principle which we ask you to apply. You will also secure the historic credit of being the first men to take the next great step in civilization--a step sure to be taken at no distant day....

Edward Everett once said, illustrating the effect of small things on character: "The Mississippi and the St. Lawrence Rivers have their rise near each other. A very small difference in the elevation of the land sends one to the ocean amid tropical heat, while the other empties into the frozen waters of the north." So, it may seem a small matter whether you admit or shut out women from an equal share in the government. But if you exclude them you shut out a class of citizens pre-eminently orderly, law-abiding and peaceful, and especially interested in the welfare of the home and the safety of society. If, at the same time, you admit all classes of men, however worthless, provided they are out of prison, and if you make them free to stamp their impress upon the government, in the long run you will find the moral tone of the community lowered and cheapened, and your most sacred institutions imperiled by the dangerous classes to whom you entrusted the power which you denied to orderly and good women.

Henry B. Blackwell, secretary of the association, visited North Dakota, Montana and Washington, and personally labored with the members of the three constitutional conventions. He carried with him letters written expressly for these conventions by Governor Francis E. Warren and U. S. Delegate Joseph M. Carey of Wyoming; Governor Lyman U. Humphrey, Attorney-General L. B. Kellogg, Chief Justice Albert H. Horton and all the Judges of the Supreme Court of Kansas; U. S. Senator Henry M. Teller of Colorado, U. S. Senator Cushman K. Davis of Minnesota, Governor Oliver Ames, U. S. Senator George F. Hoar, William Lloyd Garrison and others of Massachusetts, commending his mission and expressing the hope that the new States would incorporate equal suffrage in their constitutions. Copies of these letters were placed in the hands of every delegate. Mr. Blackwell devoted over a month to the journey and the work in these Territories, paying his own expenses and giving them and his services to the American Suffrage Association. [Detailed accounts of these efforts will be found in chapters on these three States.]

1890.--In February the American and the National Societies held a convention in Washington under the name of the National-American Association and this body has continued its annual meetings as one organization.

FOOTNOTES:

[135] The History is indebted for this chapter to Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, editor of The Woman's Journal, Boston, Mass. For early accounts of this organization see History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. II, Chap. XXVI. [Editors of History.

[136] Mrs. Helen Ekin Starrett, principal of Highland Park Academy; Miss Ada C. Sweet, head of the Pension Office in Illinois; Mrs. Mary B. Willard, of the Union Signal; Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton Harbert, of the Inter-Ocean; Dr. Julia Holmes Smith, Helen K. Pierce, Mrs. W. O. Carpenter, Mrs. H. W. Fuller, Mrs. George Harding, Mrs. Catherine V. Waite, Mrs. Elizabeth Loomis and the Rev. Florence Kollock composed the entertainment committee.

[137] Mr. Wood, in many public addresses made during the first Kansas amendment campaign in 1867, attributed this action of the Kansas Constitutional Convention to Mrs. Stone; but it is certain that other influences contributed to it. [For a further account of these, see History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. 1, p. 185. Eds.]

[138] Massachusetts gave to this fund $472; Pennsylvania, $201.50; Indiana, $146; New Jersey, $80; Connecticut, $50; New Hampshire, $25; Ohio, $10; Delaware, $5; New Brunswick, Canada, $10.

[139] Vice-presidents, ex-officio: Mrs. E. N. Bacon, Me.; Mrs. Armenia S. White, N. H.; Mrs. M. L. T. Hidden, Vt.; William I. Bowditch, Mass.; Mrs. Elizabeth B. Chace, R. I.; Mrs. Emily P. Collins, Conn.; Mrs. Mariana W. Chapman, N. Y.; Kate A. Browning, N. J.; Miss Mary Grew, Penn.; Mrs. Mary A. Heald, Del.; Mrs. Frances M. Casement, O.; Mary F. Thomas, M. D., Ind.; Miss Ada C. Sweet, Ill.; Lucy C. Stansell, Mich.; Sylvia Goddard, Ky.; Mrs. A. E. Dickinson, Mo.; Lizzie D. Fyler, Ark.; Jennie Beauchamp, Tex.; Emma C. Bascom, Wis.; Narcissa T. Bennis, Ia.; Gertrude M. McDowell, Neb.; the Hon. Charles Robinson, Kan.; Gen. Theodore F. Brown, Col.; Jennie Carr, Cal.; Abigail Scott Duniway, Ore.; Martha G. Ripley, M. D., Minn.; the Hon. J. W. Hoyt, Wy. Ty.; Elizabeth Lyle Saxon, Tenn.; Mrs. Cadwallader White, Ga.; the Hon. Roger S. Greene, Wash. Ty.; Mary J. Ireland, Md.; Caroline E. Merrick, La.

Executive Committee: Lucy Stone, chairman; Mrs. C. A. Quinby, Me.; Dr. J. H. Gallinger, N. H.; Laura Moore, Vt.; Mrs. Judith W. Smith, Mass.; Mrs. S. E. H. Doyle, R. I.; the Hon. John Sheldon, Conn.; Anna C. Field, N. Y.; Cornelia C. Hussey, N. J.; John K. Wildman, Penn.; Dr. John Cameron, Del.; Jennie F. Holmes, Neb.; Prof. W. H. Carruth, Kan.; Mary F. Shields, Col.; Sarah Knox Goodrich, Cal.; Mrs. N. Coe Stewart, O.; Mary E. Haggart, Ind.; Helen E. Starrett, Ill.; Mrs. Geary, Va.; Jennie A. Crane, W. Va.; Mrs. L. S. Ellis, Mich.; Laura Clay, Ky.; Charlotte A. Cleveland, Mo.; Rhoda Munger, Ark.; Mrs. H. Buckner, Tex.; Helen R. Olin, Wis.; Mary A. Work, Ia.; Laura Howe Carpenter, Minn.; Mrs. A. S. Duniway, Ore.; the Hon. J. W. Kingman, Wy. Ty.; Mrs. Smith of Seattle, Wash. Ty.

[140] Congress never could be persuaded to take any action and Miss Carroll died in poverty and need. [Eds.

[141] Among the other speakers were Lucy Stone and Henry B. Blackwell, of Massachusetts; Mrs. Margaret W. Campbell and the Rev. S. S. Hunting, of Iowa; Mrs. Mary E. Haggart, of Indiana; the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, of Michigan; Mrs. Laura M. Johns, Mrs. Hammer, Mrs. Barnes, Mrs. Annie L. Diggs, Miss Sarah A. Brown, Mrs. Brown of Abilene, William P. Tomlinson, of the Topeka Democrat; the Revs. C. H. Lovejoy, H. W. George and Dr. McCabe, Dr. Fisher, Judge W. A. Peffer, Mrs. M. E. De Geer Call, Mrs. Martia L. Berry, Col. A. B. Jetmore, J. C. Hebbard and Hon. C. S. Gleed.

[142] This was done.

[143] The American W. S. A. afterwards voted to give to each State the entire amount of its gross sales.

[144] Mr. Foulke served as president from 1884 to 1890. During this time but few changes were made in the official board. In 1885 Mrs. Mary E. Haggart (Ind.) was added to the vice-presidents-at-large; in 1886 Dr. Mary F. Thomas (Ind.), J. K. Hudson (Kas.), the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw (Mass.); 1887, Mrs. May Stocking Knaggs (Mich.); 1888, Miss Clara Barton (D. C.), Mrs. Zerelda G. Wallace (Ind.), Mrs. Phebe C. McKell (Ohio). In 1887 Mrs. Martha C. Callanan (Iowa) was elected recording secretary. The various State auxiliaries made numerous changes in vice-presidents ex-officio and members of the executive committee.

[145] Among speakers not elsewhere mentioned were the Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Mrs. Lucy Stone, Mrs. Sarah C. Schrader, Mrs. Margaret W. Campbell, Mrs. Martha C. Callahan, Dr. Caroline M. Dodson, Madame Calliope Kachiya (a Greek friend of Mrs. Howe's), and Miss Alice Stone Blackwell. Mrs. Wessendorf read a poem, and there were songs by the Blaine Glee Club and by Miss Annie McLean Marsh and her little niece, and violin music by Miss Lucille du Pre.

[146] The American Woman Suffrage Association was indebted for State reports during the past years to the following: Arkansas, Lizzie Dorman Fyler; California, Sarah Knox Goodrich, Elizabeth A. Kingsbury, Sarah M. Severance, Fannie Wood; Connecticut, Emily P. Collins, Abby B. Sheldon; Dakota, Major J. A. Pickler, Alice M. Pickler; Delaware, Dr. John Cameron; Illinois, Mary E. Holmes, Catherine G. Waugh (McCulloch); Indiana, Florence M. Adkinson, Mary S. Armstrong, Sarah E. Franklin, Adelia R. Hornbrook, Mary D. Naylor; Iowa, Mary J. Coggeshall, Eliza H. Hunter, Mary A. Work, Narcissa T. Bemis; Kansas, Prof. W. H. Carruth, Mrs. M. E. De Geer, Bertha H. Ellsworth; Kentucky, Mary B. Clay, Laura Clay; Maine, the Rev. Henry Blanchard, Mrs. C. S. Quinby; Massachusetts, Henry B. Blackwell, Lucy Stone; Missouri, Rebecca N. Hazard, Amanda E. Dickenson; Minnesota, Martha Angle Dorsett, Ella M. S. Marble, Dr. Martha G. Ripley; Michigan, Mrs. E. L. Briggs, Mary L. Doe, Emily B. Ketcham, Mrs. H. L. Udell, Mrs. Ellis; New Hampshire, Armenia S. White, Mrs. M. H. Ela; New Jersey, Cornelia C. Hussey, Therese M. Seabrook; New York, Lillie Devereaux Blake, Mariana W. Chapman, Mrs. E. O. Putnam Heaton, Anna Holyoke Howard, Hamilton Willcox; Nebraska, Erasmus M. Correll, Deborah G. King, Lucinda Russell, Clara Albertson Young; Ohio, Lou J. Bates, Frances M. Casement, Orpha D. Baldwin, S. S. Bissell, Mary J. Cravens, Mrs. (Dr.) Henderson, Mrs. M. B. Haven, Martha M. Paine, Mary P. Spargo, Rosa L. Segur, Cornelia C. Swezey; Oregon, Abigail Scott Duniway, W. S. Duniway; Pennsylvania, Florence A. Burleigh, Mary Grew, Matilda Hindman; Rhode Island, Elizabeth B. Chace, Marilla M. Brewster, Sarah W. Ladd, Mary C. Peckham, Louise M. Tyler; Tennessee, Lida A. Meriwether, Elizabeth Lyle Saxon; Texas, Mariana T. Folsom; Vermont, Laura Moore; Virginia, Orra Langhorne; Washington Territory, Bessie J. Isaacs; Wisconsin, Mary W. Bentley, Alura Collins; Wyoming, Dr. Kate Kelsey.

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XXIII. SUFFRAGE WORK IN POLITICAL AND OTHER CONVENTIONS

The chapters thus far have given some idea of the endeavor to secure the ballot for women through national suffrage conventions, which bring together delegates from all parts of the country and send them back to their respective localities strengthened and fortified for the work; and which, through strong and logical arguments covering all phases of the question, given before large audiences, gradually have created a wide-spread sentiment in favor of the enfranchisement of women. There have been described also the hearings before committees of Congress, at which the advocates of this measure have made pleas for the submission to the State Legislatures of a Sixteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution which should prohibit disfranchisement on account of sex, as the Fifteenth Amendment does on account of color--pleas which a distinguished Senator, who reported against granting them, said "surpassed anything he ever had heard, and whose logic if used in favor of any other measure could not fail to carry it" (p. 201); and of which another, who had the courage to report in favor, declared, "The suffragists have logic, argument, everything on their side" (p. 162).

In addition to this national work the following chapters will show that the State work has been continued on similar lines--State and local conventions and appeals to Legislatures to submit an amendment to the electors to strike the word "male" from the suffrage clause of their own State constitution. These appeals, in many instances, have been supported by larger petitions than ever presented for any other object.

Further efforts have been made on a still different line, viz.: through attempts to secure from outside conventions an indorsement of woman suffrage, not only from those of a political but also from those of a religious, educational, professional or industrial nature. This has been desired in order that the bills may go before Congress and Legislatures with the all-important sanction of voters, and also because of its favorable effect on those composing these conventions and on public sentiment.

The idea of asking for recognition from a national political convention was first suggested to Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Miss Susan B. Anthony in 1868. By their protests against the use of the word "male" in the Fourteenth Amendment, as described in Chap. I of this volume, they had angered the Republican leaders, some of whom, even those who favored woman suffrage, sarcastically advised them to ask the Democrats for indorsement in their national convention of this year and see what would be the response. These two women, therefore, did appear before that body, which dedicated the new Tammany Hall in New York City, on July 4. An account of their insulting reception may be found in the History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. II, p. 340, and in the Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, p. 304. They, with Abby Hopper Gibbons, daughter of Isaac T. Hopper, and Elizabeth Smith Miller, daughter of Gerrit Smith, previously had sent an earnest letter to the National Republican Convention which had met in Chicago in June, asking in the name of the women who had rendered the party such faithful service during the Civil War, that it would recognize in its platform their right to the suffrage, but the letter received no notice whatever.

From that year until the present a committee of women has attended every national convention of all the parties, asking for an indorsement or at least a commendation of their appeal for the franchise. Sometimes they have been received with respect, sometimes with discourtesy, and occasionally they have been granted a few minutes to make their plea before the Committee on Resolutions. In but a single instance has any one of these women, the most eminent in the nation, been permitted to address a Republican convention--at Cincinnati in 1876. Twice this privilege has been extended by a Democratic--at St. Louis in 1876 and at Cincinnati in 1880. A far-off approach to a recognition of woman's claim was made by the National Republican Convention at Philadelphia in 1872, in this resolution:

The Republican party, mindful of its obligations to the loyal women of America, expresses gratification that wider avenues of employment have been opened to woman, and it further declares that her demands for additional rights should be treated with respectful consideration.

Again in 1876 the national convention, held in Cincinnati, adopted the following:

The Republican party recognizes with approval the substantial advance recently made toward the establishment of equal rights for women by the many important amendments effected by the Republican (!) Legislatures, in the laws which concern the personal and property relations of wives, mothers and widows, and by the election and appointment of women to the superintendence of education, charities and other public trusts. The honest demands of this class of citizens for additional rights, privileges and immunities should be treated with respectful consideration.

In 1880, '84, '88 and '92 the women were wholly disregarded. The national platform of 1888, however, contained this plank:

We recognize the supreme and sovereign right of every lawful citizen to cast one free ballot in all public elections and to have that ballot duly counted.

The leaders of the woman suffrage movement at once telegraphed to Chicago to the chairman of the convention, the Hon. Morris M. Estee, asking if this statement was intended to include "lawful women citizens," and he answered, "I do not think the platform is so construed here." A letter was addressed to the presidential candidate, Gen. Benjamin Harrison, begging that in his acceptance of the nomination, he would interpret this declaration as including women, but it was politely ignored.

In 1892 Miss Anthony appeared before the Resolutions Committee of the national convention in Minneapolis and in an address of thirty minutes pleaded that women might have recognition in its platform. At the close many of the members assured her of their thorough belief in the justice of woman suffrage, but said frankly that "the party could not carry the load."[147] The following was the suffrage plank in its platform that year:

We demand that every citizen of the United States shall be allowed to cast one free and unrestricted ballot in all public elections, and that such ballot shall be counted as cast; that such laws shall be enacted and enforced as will secure to every citizen, be he rich or poor, native or foreign, white or black, this sovereign right guaranteed by the constitution. The free and honest popular ballot, the just and equal representation of all the people, as well as their just and equal protection under the laws, are the foundation of our republican institutions, and the party will never relax its efforts until the integrity of the ballot and the purity of elections shall be guaranteed and protected in every State.

But not once during the campaign did the party speakers or newspapers apply this declaration to the women citizens of the United States.

In 1896, when the prospects of success seemed certain enough to justify the party in assuming some additional "load," the women made the most impassioned appeal to the committee at the St. Louis convention, with the following remarkable result:

The Republican party is mindful of the rights and interests of women. Protection of American industries includes equal opportunities, equal pay for equal work, and protection to the home. We favor the admission of women to wider spheres of usefulness, and welcome their co-operation in rescuing the country from Democratic mismanagement and Populist misrule.

A whole plank to exploit Republicanism and a small splinter to cajole the women, who had not asked for the suffrage to "rescue" or to defeat any political party!

No Democratic national platform ever has recognized so much as the existence of women, in all its grandiloquent declarations of the "rights of the masses," the "equality of the people," the "sovereignty of the individual" and the "powers inherent in a democracy."

The Populists at the beginning of their career sounded the slogan, "Equal rights to all, special privileges to none," and many believed that at length the great party had arisen which was to secure to women the equal right in the suffrage which thus far had been the special privilege of men. Full of joy and hope there went to the first national convention of this party, held in Omaha, July 4, 1892, Susan B. Anthony and the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, president and vice-president-at-large of the National Suffrage Association. To their amazement they were refused permission even to appear before the Committee on Resolutions, a courtesy which by this time was usually extended at all political conventions. The platform contained no woman suffrage plank and no reference to the question except that in the long preamble occurred this sentence:

We believe that the forces of reform this day organized will never cease to move forward until every wrong is righted, and equal rights and equal privileges securely established for all the men and women of this country.

In 1896 the Populist National Convention in St. Louis effected its great fusion with the Democrats, and the political rights of women were hopelessly lost in the shuffle. By 1900 the organization was thoroughly under Democratic control, and the expectations of women to secure their enfranchisement through this "party of the people," created to reform all abuses and abolish all unjust discriminations, vanished forever. It must be said to its credit, however, that during its brief existence women received more recognition in general than they ever had had from the old parties. They sat as delegates in its national and State conventions and served on National and State Committees; they were employed as political speakers and organizers; and they were elected and appointed to official positions. Various State and county conventions declared in favor of enfranchising women, the majority of the legislators advocated it, and there is reason to believe that in those States where an amendment to secure it was submitted, individual Populists very largely voted for it.

The Prohibition National Conventions many times have put a woman suffrage plank in their platforms, and women have served as delegates and on committees. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union forms the bulwark of this party, and, like its distinguished president, Miss Frances E. Willard, her successor, Mrs. Lillian M. N. Stevens, is an earnest advocate of the enfranchisement of women, which is also true of the vast majority of its members, so it has not been necessary for the Woman Suffrage Association to send delegates to the national conventions, although it has occasionally done so. These have frequently failed, however, to adopt a plank declaring for woman suffrage, the refusal to do so at Pittsburg in 1896 being a principal cause of the division in the ranks which took place at that time.

The Greenback party, the Labor party, the various Socialist parties, and other reform organizations of a political character have made unequivocal declarations for woman suffrage and welcomed women as delegates. Whether they would do so if strong enough to have any hope of electing their candidates must remain an open question until practically demonstrated.[148]

Women have served a number of times as delegates in the national conventions of most of the so-called Third parties. In 1892 they appeared for the first time at a Republican National Convention, serving as alternates from Wyoming. In 1896 women alternates were sent from Utah to the Democratic National Convention. In 1900 Mrs. W. H. Jones went as delegate from that State to the Republican, and Mrs. Elizabeth Cohen to the Democratic National Convention, and both discharged the duties of the position in a satisfactory manner. Mrs. Cohen seconded the nomination of William J. Bryan. A newspaper correspondent published a sensational story in regard to her bold and noisy behavior, but afterwards he was compelled to retract publicly every word of it and admit that it had no foundation.

Doubtless Miss Anthony has attended more political conventions to secure recognition of the cause which she represents than any other woman, and also has presented the subject to more national conventions of various associations. In early days this was because she was one of the few who had the courage to take this new and radical step, and also because she was the only one who made the suffrage the sole object of her life and was ready and willing to work for it at all times and under all circumstances. In later days her name has carried so much weight and she is so universally respected that she has been able to obtain a hearing and often a resolution where this would be difficult if not impossible for other women. However, in national and State work of this kind she has had the valuable co-operation of the ablest women of two generations. In no way can the scope and extent of these efforts be better understood than by reviewing Miss Anthony's report to the National Suffrage Convention of 1901, as chairman of the Committee on Convention Resolutions. It is especially interesting as a fair illustration of the vast amount of work which women have been doing in this direction for the past thirty years.

After stating that the names and home addresses of most of the delegates to all the national political conventions of 1900 were obtained, Miss Anthony submitted copies of four letters of which 4,000 were sent in June from the national suffrage headquarters in New York, signed by herself and the other members of the committee--Carrie Chapman Catt, Anna Howard Shaw, Ida Husted Harper and Rachel Foster Avery.

(To the Republican delegates.)

The undersigned Committee, appointed by the National-American Woman Suffrage Association, beg leave to submit to you, as delegate to the approaching Republican Convention, the enclosed Memorial.

The Republican party was organized in response to the demand for human freedom. Its platform for the last forty years has been an unswerving declaration for liberty and equality. Animated by the spirit of progress, it has continued to enlarge the voting constituency from time to time, thus acknowledging the right of the individual to self-representation. This principle was embodied in the plank adopted at the Chicago convention of 1888, and has been often reaffirmed: "We recognize the supreme and sovereign right of every lawful citizen to cast one free ballot in all public elections and have that ballot duly counted." We appeal to the Republican party to sustain its record by applying this declaration to the lawful women citizens of the United States.

You will observe that this petition does not ask you to endorse the enfranchisement of women, but simply to recommend that Congress submit this question to the decision of the various State Legislatures. In the name of American womanhood we ask you to use every means within your power to bring this matter to a discussion and affirmative vote in your convention.

* * * * *

(To the Democratic delegates.)

Since its inception the Democratic party has had for its rallying cry the immortal words of Thomas Jefferson, "No taxation without representation," "Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." Under this banner wage-earning men, native and foreign, were endowed with the franchise, by which means alone an individual can represent himself or consent to his government, and by this act the party was kept in power for nearly sixty years.

At the close of the eighteenth century this was a broad view for even so great a leader to take. In this closing year of the nineteenth century it would show an equally progressive spirit if his loyal followers would carry these splendid declarations to their logical conclusion and enfranchise women.

* * * * *

(To the Populist delegates.)

At the very first National Convention of the People's Party, held at Omaha in 1892, the preamble of their platform declared that "equal rights and privileges must be securely established for all the men and women of the country." In the majority of State conventions held since that time there has been specific recognition of equal political rights for women. By admitting women as delegates in their representative assemblies and by appointing them to State and local offices, the Populists have put into practice this fundamental principle of their organization. Therefore, in asking you to give your influence and vote in favor of this petition, we are proposing only that you shall reaffirm your previous declarations.

* * * * *

(To the Prohibition delegates.)

Judging from the honorable record made by your party upon this subject, we have every reason to hope that you will give your influence and your vote in favor of the petition contained herein.

In the Democratic letter was enclosed an Open Letter from Gov. Charles S. Thomas (Dem.) of Colorado, setting forth in the strongest manner the advantages of woman suffrage, and in all was placed favorable testimony from prominent men of the respective States, accompanied by the following Memorial. The latter was mailed also to every member of the Resolutions Committees, and 10,000 copies were sent to editors and otherwise circulated throughout the country.

MEMORIAL

TO THE NATIONAL PRESIDENTIAL CONVENTION OF 1900.

GENTLEMEN: You are respectfully requested by the National-American Woman Suffrage Association to place the following plank in your platform:

Resolved, That we favor the submission by Congress, to the various State Legislatures, of an Amendment to the Federal Constitution forbidding disfranchisement of United States citizens on account of sex.

The chief contribution to human liberty made by the United States is the establishment of the right of personal representation in government. In other countries suffrage often has been called "the vested right of property," and as such has been extended to women the same as to men. Our country at length has come to recognize the principle that the elective franchise is inherent in the individual and not in his property, and this principle has become the corner-stone of our republic. Up to the beginning of the twentieth century, however, the application of this great truth has been made to but one-half the citizens.

The women of the United States are now the only disfranchised class, and sex is the one remaining disqualification. A man may be idle, corrupt, vicious, utterly without a single quality necessary for purity and stability of government, but through the exercise of the suffrage he is a vital factor. A woman may be educated, industrious, moral and law-abiding, possessed of every quality needed in a pure and stable government, but, deprived of that influence which is exerted through the ballot, she is not a factor in affairs of State. Who will claim that our government is purer, wiser, stronger and more lasting by the rigid exclusion of what men themselves term "the better half" of the people?

Every argument which enfranchises a man, enfranchises a woman. There is no escape from this logic except to declare sex the just basis of suffrage. But this position can not be maintained in view of the fact that women already have full suffrage in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho, municipal suffrage in Kansas, school suffrage in twenty-five States, a vote on tax levies in Louisiana, on bond issues in Iowa, and on minor questions in various other States. They have every franchise except the Parliamentary in England, Scotland and Ireland, the full ballot in New Zealand and South and West Australia, and some form of suffrage in every English colony. In a large number of the monarchical countries certain classes of women vote. On this fundamental question of individual sovereignty surely the United States should be a leader and not a follower. The trend of the times is clearly toward equal suffrage. It will add to the credit and future strength of any party to put itself in line with the best modern and progressive thought on this question.

In the division of the world's labor an equal share falls to woman. As property holder and wage-earner her material stake in the government is equal to that of man. As wife, as mother, as individual, her moral stake is certainly as great as his. The perpetuity of the republic depends upon the careful performance of the duties of both. One is just as necessary as the other to the growth and prosperity of the country. All of these propositions are self-evident, but they are wholly foreign to the question at issue. The right of the individual to a vote is not founded upon the value of his stake in government, upon his moral character, his business ability or his physical strength, but simply and solely upon that guarantee of personal representation which is the essence of a true republic, a true democracy.

The literal definition of these two terms is, "a State in which the sovereign power resides in the whole body of the people and is exercised by representatives elected by them." By the Declaration of Independence, by the rules of equity, by the laws of justice, women equally with men are entitled to exercise this sovereign power, through the franchise, the only legal means provided. But whatever may be regarded as the correct basis of suffrage--character, education, property, or the inherent right of the person who is subject to law and taxation--women possess all the qualifications required of men.

At this dawn of a new century are not the sons of the Revolutionary Fathers sufficiently progressive to remove the barriers which for more than a hundred years have prevented women from exercising this citizen's right? We appeal to this great national delegate body, representing the men of every State, gathered to outline the policy and select the head of the Government for the next four years, to adopt in your platform a declaration approving the submission by Congress of an amendment enfranchising women. We urge this action in order that the question shall be carried to the various Legislatures, where women may present their arguments before the representative men, instead of being compelled to plead their cause before each individual voter of the forty-one States where they are still disfranchised.

We make this earnest appeal on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of women who, from year to year, have petitioned Congress to take the action necessary for their enfranchisement; and of those millions who are so engrossed in the struggle for daily bread, or in the manifold duties of the home, that they are compelled to leave this task to others. We make it also on behalf of the generations yet to come, for there will be no cessation of this demand until this highest privilege of citizenship has been accorded to women.

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, } Honorary Presidents. SUSAN B. ANTHONY, }

CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, President.

HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, ANNA HOWARD SHAW, Treasurer. Vice-President-at-Large.

LAURA CLAY, RACHEL FOSTER AVERY, First Auditor. Corresponding Secretary.

CATHARINE WAUGH MCCULLOCH, ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Second Auditor. Recording Secretary.

Headquarters, National-American Woman Suffrage Association, 2008 American Tract Society Building, New York City.

Four women were permitted to appear before a sub-committee of the Committee on Platform at the Republican National Convention at Philadelphia, in 1900. They met with a polite but chilly reception and were informed that they could have ten minutes to present their case. This time was occupied by the president and the vice-president-at-large in concise but forcible arguments on the duty of the party to recognize their claim for enfranchisement. The platform eventually contained the following plank:

We congratulate the women of America upon their splendid record of public service in the Volunteer Aid Association, and as nurses in camp and hospital during the recent campaigns of our armies in the Eastern and Western Indies, and we appreciate their faithful co-operation in all works of education and industry.

In other words, being asked to recognize women as political factors, the committee responded by commending them as nurses!

This plank was written by Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, who as president of the Woman's National Republican League and a campaign speaker, has done far more for the party than any other woman, and originally it ended with this clause: "We regard with satisfaction their unselfish interest in public affairs in the four States where they have already been enfranchised, and their growing interest in good government and Republican principles." But even so small a recognition as this of women in political life was ruthlessly struck out by the committee.

Mrs. Chapman Catt and Miss Mary G. Hay attended the Democratic National Convention at Kansas City and were not allowed to address any committee, but the platform contained the Declaration of Independence as its preamble!

The Populist national platform adopted at Sioux City did not contain even a reference to women or their rights and privileges.

The Prohibition convention followed its action of 1896 and put no woman suffrage plank in its platform. A separate resolution was passed expressing a favorable regard but carrying no official weight.

The only national political convention in 1900 which adopted a plank declaring for the enfranchisement of women was that of the Social-Democratic party at Indianapolis.

In not one of the four largest parties were the delegates in convention given so much as an opportunity to discuss and vote on a resolution to enfranchise women. All these heroic efforts, all these noble appeals, had not the slightest effect because made by a class utterly without influence by reason of this very disfranchisement which it was struggling to have removed. At every political convention all matters of right, of justice, of the eternal verities themselves, are swallowed up in the one all-important question, "Will it bring party success?" And to this a voteless constituency can not contribute in the smallest degree, even though it represent the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, the Golden Rule, the Magna Charta and the Declaration of Independence.

Paradoxical as it may seem, notwithstanding the refusal of the Resolutions Committees of all these national bodies to grant even an indirect recognition of woman suffrage in their platforms, its advocates never before found such a general sentiment in its favor among the individual delegates. In a number of instances they were told that a poll of delegations had shown a majority of the members to be ready to vote for it. It was demonstrated beyond doubt that the rank and file of the delegates, if freed from hostile influences among their constituents and granted the sanction of the political leaders, could be won to a support of the measure, but that at present it must wait on party expediency. As every campaign brings with it national issues on which each party makes a fight for its life, and which it fears to hamper by any extraneous questions; as the elements most strongly opposed to the enfranchisement of women not only are fully armed with ballots themselves but are in complete control of an immense force similarly equipped; and as the vote of women is so problematical that none of the parties can claim it in advance, it is impossible to foresee when and how they are to obtain political freedom. The one self-evident fact is, however, that in order to win it they must be supported by a stronger public sentiment than exists at present, and that this can be secured only through a constant agitation of the subject.

A return to Miss Anthony's report will illustrate other methods adopted to bring this question to the attention of the public. "During the year I have also sent petitions and letters to more than one hundred national conventions of different sorts--industrial, educational, charitable, philanthropic, religious and political.[149] Below are the forms of petition:"

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Fifty-sixth Congress of the United States:

The undersigned on behalf of (naming the association) in annual convention assembled at ......, ......, 1900, and representing fully ...... members, respectfully ask for the prompt passage by your Honorable Body of a Sixteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution, to be submitted to the Legislatures of the several States for ratification, prohibiting the disfranchisement of United States citizens on account of sex.

................, President. ................, Secretary.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Fifty-sixth Congress of the United States:

WHEREAS, The trend of civilization is plainly in the direction of equal rights for women, and

WHEREAS, Woman suffrage is no longer an experiment, but has been clearly demonstrated to be beneficial to society; therefore,

Resolved, That we, on behalf of [as above], do respectfully petition your Honorable Body not to insert the word "male" in the suffrage clause of whatever form of government you shall recommend to Hawaii, Cuba, Porto Rico or any other newly-acquired possessions. We ask this in the name of justice and equality for all citizens of a republic founded on the consent of the governed.[150]

"A number of large associations adopted these and returned them to me duly engrossed on their official paper, signed by the president and secretary and with their seal affixed; and I forwarded all to the Senators and Representatives whom I thought most likely to present them to Congress in a way to make an impression.

"The General Federation of Labor at Detroit was the first to respond. I was invited to address its annual convention and, after I had spoken, the four hundred delegates passed a resolution of thanks to me, adopted the above petition for the Sixteenth Amendment by a rising vote, and ordered their officers to sign it in the name of their one million constituents.

"The National Building Trades Council at Milwaukee had an able discussion in its annual meeting, based on my letter, and adopted both petitions. This body has half a million members.

"The Bricklayers' and Masons' International Union of America was held in Rochester, and invited me to address the delegates. They received me with enthusiasm, passed strong woman suffrage resolutions and signed both petitions. Afterwards a stenographic report of my speech, covering two full pages of their official organ, The Bricklayer and Mason, was published with an excellent portrait of myself, thus sending me and my argument to each one of their more than sixty thousand members, all of whom subscribe to this paper as part of their dues to the union.

"The National Grange, which has indorsed woman suffrage for so many years, adopted the resolutions and petitions.

"At the Federation of Commercial Schools of the United States and Canada, which met in Chicago, my letter was read, the question was thoroughly discussed and the suffrage petitions were adopted almost unanimously.

"The Columbia Catholic Summer School, held at Detroit, gave a hearing to our national president, Mrs. Chapman Catt, at which she is said to have made many converts. A strong suffrage speech was made by the Rev. Father W. J. Dalton, and other prominent members expressed themselves in favor.

"The contents of my letters to religious and educational bodies can readily be imagined, and one which was sent to the United States Brewers' Association, in convention at Atlantic City, N. J., may be cited as an example of the subject-matter of those to other organizations:

GENTLEMEN: As chairman of the committee appointed by our National Suffrage Association to address letters to the large conventions held this year, allow me to bring before you the great need of the recognition of women in all of the rights, privileges and immunities of United States citizenship.

Though your association has for its principal object the management of the great brewing interests of this country, yet I have noted that you have adopted resolutions declaring against woman suffrage. I therefore appeal to you, since the question seems to come within the scope of your deliberations, to reverse your action this closing year of the century, and declare yourselves in favor of the practical application of the fundamental principles of our Government to all the people--women as well as men. Whatever your nationality, whatever your religious creed, whatever your political party, you are either born or naturalized citizens of the United States, and because of that are voters of the State in which you reside. Will you not, gentlemen, accord to the women of this nation, having the same citizenship as yourselves, precisely the same privileges and powers which you possess because of that one fact?

The only true principle--the only safe policy--of a democratic-republican government is that every class of people shall be protected in the exercise of the right of individual representation. I pray you, therefore, to pass a resolution in favor of woman suffrage, and order your officers, on behalf of the association, to sign a petition to Congress for this purpose, and thereby put the weight of your influence on the side of making this Government a genuine republic.

Should you desire to have one of our best woman suffrage speakers address your convention, if you will let me know as soon as possible, I will take pleasure in arranging for one to do so.

"This was read to the convention, and the secretary, Gallus Thomann, thus reported its action to me:

Mr. Obermann [ex-president of the association and one of the trustees] voicing the sentiments of the delegates, spoke as follows: "Miss Susan B. Anthony is entitled to the respect of every man and woman in this country, whether agreeing with her theories or not. I think it but fair and courteous to her that the secretary be instructed to answer that letter, and to inform Miss Anthony that this is a body of business men; that we meet for business purposes and not for politics. Furthermore, that she is mistaken and misinformed so far as her statement is concerned that we have passed resolutions opposing woman suffrage. We have never taken such action at any of our conventions or on any other occasion. I submit this as a motion."

The motion was unanimously adopted, and that part of Mr. Obermann's remarks which related to the respect due Miss Anthony was loudly and enthusiastically applauded.

To the sentiment thus expressed, permit me, dear Miss Anthony, to add personally the assurance of my highest esteem.

"Among the results of the work with State conventions it may be mentioned that the Georgia Federation of Labor, the Minnesota Federation of Labor, the State Teachers' Association of Washington and the New York State Grange signed the petitions and passed the resolutions.

"As another branch of the work, copies of these two petitions were sent to each of the forty-five States and three Territories, with letters asking the suffrage presidents, where associations existed, and prominent individuals in the few States where they did not, to make two copies of each petition on their own official paper, sign them on behalf of the suffragists of the State, and return them to me to be sent to the members of Congress from the respective districts. This was done almost without exception and these petitions were presented by various members, one copy in the Senate and one in the House. Of all the State petitions, the most interesting was that of Wyoming, which, in default of a suffrage association (none being needed) was signed by every State officer, from the Governor down, by several United States officials, and by many of the most influential men and women. With it came a letter from the wife of ex-U. S. Senator Joseph M. Carey, who collected these names, saying the number was limited only by the brief space of time allowed.

"In all, more than two hundred petitions for woman suffrage from various associations were thus sent to Congress in 1900, representing millions of individuals. Many cordial responses were received from members, and promises of assistance should the question come before Congress, but there is no record of the slightest attempt by any member to bring it before that body.

"In doing this work I wrote fully a thousand letters to associations and individuals, in all of which I placed some of our best printed literature. There was a thorough stirring up of public sentiment which must have definite results in time, for it should not be forgotten that in addressing conventions we appeal to the chosen leaders of thought and work from many cities and States, and so set in motion an ever-widening circle of agitation in countless localities."

A most valuable means of educating public sentiment is the securing of a Woman's Day at Chautauqua Assemblies and State and county fairs, when good speakers present the "woman question" in its various phases, including always the need for enfranchisement. The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw and Mrs. Chapman Catt, the leading orators of the country, have addressed Chautauquas in all parts of the United States, as well as countless other large gatherings which have no connection with suffrage, being thus enabled to propagate the principle over a vast area. It can be seen from the above resume that the ground of effort is widely extended and that the harvest is ripening, but alas, there is a constant repetition of the old, old cry, "The laborers are few." One can only repeat what has often been said, that never before were such results as can be seen on every hand in the improved conditions for women and the advanced public sentiment in favor of a full equality of rights, accomplished by so small a number of workers and under such adverse conditions. Perhaps this will continue to be said even unto the end, but their labors will know neither faltering nor cessation until the original object, as announced over fifty years ago, has been attained, viz.: the full enfranchisement of women.

FOOTNOTES:

[147] See Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, p. 723.

[148] For the names of the women who have addressed the National Conventions and Resolutions Committees of the various parties in the effort to obtain an indorsement of woman suffrage, and for a full account of their reception, of the memorials presented and the results which followed, the reader is referred to the History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. II, pp. 340 and 517; Vol. III, pp. 22 and 177; and for many personal incidents, to the Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony in the chapters devoted to the years of the various presidential nominating conventions, beginning with 1868.

Mrs. Lillie Devereux Blake, from the National Suffrage Association, and Henry B. Blackwell and Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, as Republicans, presented the question to the Resolutions Committee of the National Republican Convention of 1896 in St. Louis, above referred to; Dr. Julia Holmes Smith, accompanied by a committee of ladies, to that of the National Democratic Convention in Chicago that year.

[149] Miss Anthony sent a special letter to each of these bodies worded to appeal particularly to the interests it represented.

[150] For the answer to this petition see Chap. XIX.

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XXIV. THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN THE STATES

The preceding chapters have been devoted principally to efforts made in behalf of women by the National-American Suffrage Association through its conventions, committees, officers, speakers, organizers and members. Contemporaneous with this line of action there has been for a number of years a similar movement in the respective States carried forward through their associations auxiliary to the National, their committees, officers, speakers, organizers and individual membership. Each of the two divisions has been largely dependent upon the other, the States forming the strength of the national body, the latter extending assistance to the States whenever a special campaign has been at hand or help has been needed in organizing, convention or legislative work. The following chapters are confined wholly to the situation in the various States and are subdivided into Organization, Legislative Action, Laws, Suffrage, Office-Holding, Occupations and Education. Their object is to give a general idea of the status of woman at the close of the nineteenth century and the manifold changes of which it is the result. It is desired also to put on record the part which women themselves have had in the steady advance which will be observed.

The account of only the past seventeen years is given, as the three preceding volumes of this History relate in detail the pioneer work and the gains made previous to 1884. Unfortunately it is inevitable in a recital of this kind that many names should be omitted which are quite as worthy of mention as those that find place, for in some instances the records are imperfectly kept and in others the list is so long as to forbid reproduction.[151] It has been necessary to bar compliments in order to avoid unjust discrimination and to meet the demands of limited space. To posterity the work is of more importance than the workers, and those who have engaged in the efforts to improve the condition of women necessarily have had to possess a spirit of self-abnegation and self-sacrifice which neither expected nor desired personal rewards.

The subject of Organization in most of the States is treated in the briefest possible manner, the intention being merely to show that in every State and Territory there has been some attempt to gather into a working force the scattered individuals who believe in the justice of woman suffrage and wish to obtain it. More extended mention of course is due to the older States, where there has been continuous organized work for many years, and where the societies have remained intact and held their regular meetings in spite of such defeats and discouragements as never have had to be faced by any other cause. It is most difficult to form and maintain an association which has not a concrete object to labor for, and when a campaign for an amendment is not actually in progress, the suffrage in the distant future appears largely as an abstraction. The early days of the movement necessarily had to be given to creating the sentiment which would later be organized, and it is only within the past decade that the time has seemed ripe for systematic effort in this direction. The lack of effective organization has been a serious but unavoidable weakness which henceforth will be remedied as speedily and thoroughly as possible.

It is a favorite argument of the opponents of woman suffrage that the many gains of various kinds have not been due to the efforts of women themselves. Under the head of Legislative Action will be found the dates and figures to prove that, year after year, in almost every State, women have gone to the Legislatures with appeals for every concession which has been granted and many more which have been refused. The bills presented by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union have not been specifically included because they are fully recorded in the publications of that body, and because this volume is confined almost exclusively to the one subject of enfranchisement. While the Suffrage Associations have directed their legislative efforts principally to secure action for this purpose, individual members have joined the W. C. T. U. innumerable times in its attempts to obtain other bills of advantage to women and children, and in some instances this has been done officially by the associations.

Among various measures in which the two organizations have united may be mentioned the raising of the "age of protection" for girls; the securing of women physicians in all institutions where women and children are confined, and women on the boards of all such; women city physicians; matrons at jails and station houses; better conditions for working women; the abolition of child-labor; industrial schools for girls. Measures which have been especially championed by the W. S. A., but which the W. C. T. U. has aided officially or individually, have been those asking for every form of suffrage; equal property laws for wives; the opening of all educational institutions to women; their admission to all professions and occupations; the repeal of laws barring them from office; the enactment of laws giving father and mother equal guardianship of children.[152]

The W. C. T. U. alone has secured temperance measures of many kinds, including a law in every State requiring scientific temperance instruction in the public schools; in many States curfew laws, and statutes prohibiting the sale of cigarettes and of liquor on or near fair grounds, Soldiers' Homes and school-houses, and preventing gambling devices, immoral exhibits, etc. The Federation of Women's Clubs has obtained laws for free traveling libraries and has united with other organizations in various States in efforts for equal guardianship of children, school suffrage, women on school and library boards and the abolishing of child labor. Other associations have joined in one or more of the above lines of work and have had independent measures of their own, such as prison reform, social purity, the assistance of different races--as the negro and the Indian--village improvement, kindergartens, public playgrounds, etc.

It would not be possible to draw a distinct line dividing the legislative work of one association from the others, except that it may be said the suffrage societies have made the franchise their chief point, believing it to be the power with which the rest could be gained, and the temperance unions have made their principal attack upon the liquor traffic, considering it the greatest evil. The objects of the various bodies are indicated in the last chapter of this volume on Organizations of Women, but whatever these may be, if they include any direct, practical work their promoters usually find themselves at the door of the Legislature asking for help. Here they get their first lesson in the imperative necessity of possessing a vote, and seeing their measures fail because asked for by a disfranchised class, to whom the legislators are in no way indebted, they frequently become ardent advocates of suffrage for women.

As it would be wholly impossible in the small space which can be allowed to include an account of all the legislative work done by women, mention is made principally of that for the franchise. While the successes have been few compared to the number of bills presented, the record is valuable as indicating that determined and persistent effort will not be relaxed until it is granted in every State.

Under the head of Legislation is related also the attempts to get from Constitutional Conventions an amendment striking out the word "male" as a qualification for suffrage. It includes, besides, graphic accounts of the campaigns made in behalf of such amendments when submitted to the voters by the Legislatures. Those who have not closely followed these events doubtless will be surprised to learn the amount of effort which has been expended by women to obtain the franchise. It is infinitely greater than has been put forth for this purpose by all other classes combined, since the Revolutionary War was fought to secure to every citizen the right of individual representation.

The Laws regarding women as here given are in no sense of the word a "brief," but merely present the facts in the language of a layman and in the simplest and most concise form. Those relating to property are in the nature of a curiosity. An attorney in San Francisco who was asked for information as to the laws in general for women in California, answered that to give in full those of property alone would require as much space as could be granted in the History for the entire chapter. It is not possible to make in these introductory paragraphs an adequate digest of these laws in various States. They are not precisely the same in any two of the forty-nine States and Territories, and they offer a striking illustration of the attempts of law-makers, during the last few decades, to rectify in a measure the legal outrages of the past, and of their inability in the present state of their development to grant absolute justice. That must await the lawmakers of the future, and probably the time when women shall have a part in selecting them.

All that can be claimed for the statutes quoted herein is that they are as nearly correct as it has been possible to make them. With but one or two exceptions, the Attorney-Generals in every State have been most courteous and obliging when appealed to for assistance. The laws for women, however, have been so taken from and added to, so torn to pieces and patched up, that the best lawyers in many States say frankly that they do not know just what they are at the present time. Legislatures and code revision committees are continually tinkering at them and every year witnesses some changes in most of the States.[153] A very thorough abstract of the laws, made in 1886 by Miss Lelia J. Robinson, LL. B., a member of the bar in Massachusetts, was of almost no use in the compilation for this volume because of the endless alterations since that time. The Legal Status of Women, a condensed resume issued in 1897 by the National Suffrage Association, has been covered thickly with pencil marks during the preparation of this summary, as the reports received from different States have shown the changes effected in the few years which have since elapsed. A new book, Woman and the Law, prepared by a lecturer on political science in one of our largest universities and published in 1901, was hailed with joy, but was found to include a number of laws which had been repealed within the past four or five years and to omit some very important ones which had been enacted during this time, as well as to contain frequent mistakes in regard to others.

These instances show the impossibility of an absolutely authentic presentation of the laws for women in their constantly changing condition. Although it was the intention to close this History with 1900, in several States, notably Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Illinois and Wisconsin, laws have been passed since that date of sufficient importance to demand a place. During the two years of its preparation the entire codes of property laws for women in Massachusetts and Virginia have been revolutionized.

An amusing part of a difficult task has been the reluctance of men to admit the existence of laws which are conspicuously unjust to women, the admission being frequently accompanied by the statement that it is the intention to change them at an early date, or that it would only be necessary to call the attention of the Legislature to them in order to secure their repeal. Even women themselves in States where the statutes especially discriminate against them, have written that these must not be published unless those from all the others are given. Whether this is due to State pride or personal humiliation is not clearly evident.

The one encouraging feature is that in almost every State decided progress is shown since 1848, when in New York and Pennsylvania the first change was made in the English Common Law which then everywhere prevailed, and which did not permit a married woman to hold property, to buy or sell, to sue or be sued, to make a contract or a will, to carry on business in her own name, to possess the wages she earned, or to have her children in case of divorce. An examination of the laws in the following chapters will show that the wife now may own and control her separate property in three-fourths of the States, and in the other fourth only one Northern State is included. In every State a married woman may make a will, but can dispose only of her separate property. In about two-thirds of the States she possesses her earnings. In the great majority she may make contracts and bring suit. The property rights of unmarried women always have been nearly the same as those of unmarried men, but the Common Law declared that "by marriage husband and wife are one person in law and the legal existence of the wife is merged in that of the husband. He is her baron or lord, bound to supply her with shelter, food, clothing and medicine, and is entitled to her earnings and the use and custody of her person, which he may seize wherever he may find it." (Blackstone, I, 442.)[154]

In his Commentaries, after enumerating some of the disabilities of woman under these laws, Blackstone calmly argues that the most of them were really intended for her benefit, "so great a favorite is the female sex with the law of England." He strikes here the keynote of even the special statutes which have superseded the Common Law in the various States, all have been "intended for her benefit," man alone being the judge of what she needed and careful while providing it to retain within himself the exclusive power of law-making. It has been gradually dawning upon him, however, that, as a human being like himself, her needs are very similar to his own, and where he has failed to see it she has reminded him of it as she has slowly learned this fact herself. The laws show an awakening conscience on the part of men and a tardy but continuous advance toward justice to women, although there is yet very much to be desired. For instance, in reading the laws regarding the inheritance of separate property, which in a number of States is now made the same for widow and widower, the first thought will be, "These are absolutely just." But a little investigation will show that the separate property of either is what he or she possesses at marriage or receives afterwards by gift or inheritance, while all that is acquired during marriage by the joint earnings of the two belongs to the husband. In many States the law now provides that if the wife engages in business as a sole trader or goes outside the home to work, her earnings belong to her, but all the proceeds of her labor within the household are still the sole and separate property of the husband. The Common Law on this point, which never has been changed in a single State,[155] makes the services of the wife belong to the husband, and in return she is legally entitled only to food, shelter and clothes, and these of such quality and quantity as the husband dictates. She can not dispose by will of any of the property acquired during marriage, nor has she any control of it during the husband's lifetime.

These facts should be borne in mind when reading the laws which declare that husband and wife have the same power to dispose of separate property. Comparatively few women in this country have property when married, especially if young at the time, and the same is true of the majority of men, but afterwards the woman may never hope to accumulate any, as the joint earnings of the marriage partnership belong exclusively to the husband, and the duties of the average household prevent the wife from engaging in outside work. However, in order that she might not be left absolutely penniless after years of labor, the Common Law provided that she should be entitled to "dower," i. e., the possession, for her lifetime, of one-third of all the real estate of which her husband was possessed in fee simple during the marriage. That is, she should receive the life-use of one-third of any realty she might have brought into the marriage and one-third of all they had earned together. But if the husband had converted these into cash, bonds, stocks or other personal property, she could legally claim nothing. He had "curtesy," i. e., the life-use of all her real estate, (sometimes dependent on the birth of children, sometimes not), and usually the whole of her personal estate absolutely.

Curtesy has now been abolished in over one-half the States. The law of dower still exists in more than one-half, but special statutes in regard to personal property and the wife's separate estate have been made so liberal that in comparatively few States is she left in the helpless condition of olden times. In about one-half of them she takes from one-third to the whole (if there are no children) of both real and personal estate absolutely; but in all of them it is only at the death of the husband that she has any share or control of the joint accumulations except such as he chooses to allow. At the death of the wife all of these belong legally to the husband and she can not secure to her children or her parents any part of the property which she has helped to earn. Space forbids going into a discussion of the general upheaval which follows the death of the husband, the inventories which must be taken, the divisions which must be made, generally resulting in the breaking up of the home; while at the death of the wife all passes peacefully into the possession of the husband and there is no scattering of the family unless he wishes it. A general but necessarily superficial statement of the property laws will be found in connection with each State in the following chapters, and they represent a complete legal revolution during the past half century.

Fathers and mothers are given equal guardianship of children in the District of Columbia and nine States--Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New York and Washington. (See Pennsylvania.) In all others the father has the sole custody and control of the persons, education, earnings and estates of minor children. Where this right is abused the mother can obtain custody only by applying for separation or divorce or proving in court the unfitness of the father. In a number of States the father may by will appoint a guardian even of a child unborn, to the exclusion of the mother. In others the widow is legally entitled to the guardianship but forfeits it by marrying again. Others do not permit a widow to appoint by will a guardian for her children. Tennessee and Louisiana offer examples of the English and French codes in this respect.

Although the father is the sole guardian and entitled to the services of the children, and although the joint earnings of the marriage belong exclusively to him, and in a number of States he is declared in the statutes to be the "head of the family," in many of them the mother is held to be equally liable for its support. Her separate property may be taken for this purpose and she is also required to contribute by her labor. In such cases the husband decides what constitutes "necessities" and the wife must pay for what he orders. A recent decision of the Illinois courts compelled a wife to pay for the clothes of an able-bodied husband. In most but not all of the States the husband, if competent, is punished for failure to support his family. The punishment consists in a fine, the State thus taking from the family what money he may possess; or confinement in prison, where he is boarded and lodged while the family is in nowise relieved.

It has not been deemed necessary to consider at length the subject of divorce, except to mention the laws of the few States which discriminate against women. South Carolina is the only one which does not grant divorce; New York the only one which makes adultery the sole cause. In the remainder the causes have a wider range, but in all the records show that the vast majority of divorces are granted to wives. The following list is taken from the New York Sun (1902) and corresponds with information gathered from other sources:

Habitual drunkenness, in all except eight States. Wilful desertion, generally. Felony, in all except three. Cruelty, and intolerable cruelty, in all except five. Failure by the husband to provide, in twenty. Fraud and fraudulent contract, in nine. Absence without being heard from, for different periods, in six. Ungovernable temper, in two. Insupportably cruel treatment, outrages and excesses, in six. Indignities rendering life burdensome, in six. Attempt to murder other party, in three.

Insanity or idiocy at time of marriage, in six. Insanity lasting ten years, in Washington; incurable insanity, in North Dakota, Florida and Idaho.

Husband notoriously immoral before marriage, unknown to wife, in West Virginia. [Pregnancy of wife before marriage, unknown to husband, in many States]. Fugitive from justice, in Virginia. Gross misbehavior or wickedness, in Rhode Island. Any gross neglect of duty, in Kansas and Ohio. Refusal of wife to remove into the State, in Tennessee. Mental incapacity at time of marriage, in Georgia. Three years with any religious society that believes the marriage relation unlawful, in Massachusetts; and joining any such sect, in New Hampshire. When parties can not live in peace and union, in Utah. Vagrancy of the husband, in Missouri and Wyoming. Excesses, in Texas. Where wife by cruel and barbarous treatment renders condition of husband intolerable, in Pennsylvania.

By reference to the History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. I, pp. 482, 717, 745 and following, it will be seen that the resolutions favoring divorce for habitual drunkenness offered in the first women's conventions, during the early '50's, almost disrupted the meetings, and caused press and pulpit throughout the country to thunder denunciations, but half a century later such laws exist in thirty-seven of the forty-five States and meet with general approval. It is frequently charged that the granting of woman suffrage has been followed by laws for free divorce, but an examination of the statutes will show that exactly the same causes obtain in the States where women do not vote as in those where they do; that there has not been the slightest change in the latter since the franchise was given them; and that in Wyoming, where it has been exercised since 1869, there is the smallest percentage of divorce in proportion to the population of any State in the Union. The three places which are so largely utilized by outsiders who wish a speedy divorce, because only a ninety days' residence is required, are North and South Dakota and Oklahoma, in neither of which have women any suffrage except for school trustees.

The "age of consent or protection" for girls, i. e., the age when they are declared to have sufficient understanding to consent to intercourse, and above which they can claim no legal protection, was fixed at ten years by the Common Law. No action was taken by any State to advance the age up to which they might be protected until 1864, when Oregon raised it to fourteen years. No other State followed this example until 1882, when Wyoming made it fourteen. In 1885 Nebraska added two years making it twelve. At this date women commenced to besiege the Legislatures in all parts of the country, and there was a general movement from that time forward to have the age of protection increased, but in almost every instance where this has been accomplished, the penalty for violation of the law has been reduced, and now in thirteen States no minimum penalty is named. The age still remains at ten years in Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North and South Carolina. In Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee and West Virginia the age is twelve years, but in Tennessee it is only a "misdemeanor" between twelve and sixteen. (For the recent efforts of women in Georgia and Florida to have the age advanced, and their failure, see the chapters on those States.) In Delaware the Common Law age of ten years was reduced to seven by the Legislature in 1871, and no protection was afforded to infants over seven until 1889 when the age was raised to fifteen, but the crime was declared to be only a "misdemeanor."

Women who have "all the rights they want," and men who insist that "the laws are framed for the best interests of women," are recommended to make a study of those presented herewith.

Under the head of Suffrage it is stated whether women possess any form of it and, if so, in what it consists. The story of the four States where they have the complete franchise--Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho--naturally is most interesting, as it describes just how this was obtained and gives considerable information on points which are not fully understood by the general public. The chapter on Kansas doubtless will come next in interest, as there women have had the Municipal ballot since 1887. It is frequently said in criticism that women have School Suffrage in twenty-six States and Territories, including the five mentioned above, but they do not make use of it in large numbers. What this fragmentary suffrage includes, the restrictions thrown around it and the obstacles placed in its way, are described in the chapters of those States and Territories where it prevails--Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin.

It will be seen that in New York women tax-payers in villages, and in Louisiana and Montana all tax-paying women, may vote on questions submitted for taxation, and an account is given of the first use which women made of this privilege in Louisiana in 1899. In Iowa all women may vote on the issuing of bonds. In Mississippi they have the merest form of a franchise on a few matters connected with country schools and the running at large of stock. In Arkansas they may sign a petition against liquor selling within certain limits and their names count for as much as men's. After a careful study of the situation the wonder will not be that women do not exercise more largely these grudgingly-given and closely-restricted privileges, but that in many States they think it worth while to exercise them at all. In the four, however, where they have the Full Suffrage, and in Kansas where they have the Municipal, the official figures which have been carefully tabulated will demonstrate beyond further controversy that where they possess exactly the same electoral rights as men they use them in even a larger proportion. These statistics answer conclusively the question, "Do women want to vote?"

The information as to Office-Holding is necessarily somewhat desultory as there is no record in any State of the women in office. This is true even of those pertaining to the schools, and in very few cases does the State Superintendent of Public Instruction know how many women are serving as county superintendents and members of school boards. The information on these points contained in the State chapters was secured principally through personal investigation and by an extended correspondence, and while it is believed to be entirely correct so far as it goes, it does not by any means include the total number of offices filled by women. Imperfect as is the list it will be a surprise to those who look upon office-holding as the natural prerogative of man. A stock objection to woman suffrage is that women will be wanting the offices. An examination of the reports here submitted will disclose the surprising fact that in a number of States where women do not vote they are filling as many offices as in those where they have the full franchise. Probably the majority of State constitutions declare that the offices must be held by electors, but where this proviso is not made, women have been elected and appointed to various offices and so far as can be learned have given general satisfaction.[156]

The necessity for matrons at police stations and jails, and for women physicians in all institutions where women and children are confined, is too evident to need any argument in its favor, and yet it is only within the past ten years that they have been thus employed to any extent and even now they are found in only a small fraction of such institutions. The objection to these matrons on the part of the police force has been strenuous, and yet, almost without exception, after they have gained a foothold, the police officers testify that they do not understand how the department got on without them. It ought to be equally evident that there should be women on the boards of all institutions which care for women and children, but, although in most instances these positions have no salary, there is the most violent opposition to giving women a place, and the concession has had to be wrung from Legislatures in the few States where it has been obtained. The right of women and their value to school offices is now partly conceded in about half the States. Women librarians also have met with some favor. As to offices in general, most of which carry either salary or patronage or both, they will continue to be regarded as belonging entirely to voters and as perquisites of party managers with which to reward political service, although all of them are proportionately supported by women tax-payers.

As regards Occupations, the census of 1900 shows 3,230,642 women engaged in wage-earning employments, exclusive of domestic service, and the question of their admittance to practically all such may be regarded as settled, but it has not been gained without a contest. Women, however, are still barred from the best-paying positions and are usually compelled to accept unequal wages for equal work. This is partly due to disfranchisement and partly to economic causes and can be remedied only by time. In many of the States of which it is said, "No profession is forbidden to women," the test has not been made, and until some woman attempts to be a minister, physician, lawyer or notary public it can not be known whether she will encounter a statutory prohibition.

The department of Education presents the most satisfactory condition. The battle for co-education, which means simply a chance for women to have the best advantages which exist, has been bitterly fought. A guerilla warfare is still maintained against it, but the contest is so nearly finished as to warrant no fears as to the future. Every State University but those of Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina and Virginia, is open to women on exactly the same terms as to men (with the exception of some departments of Pennsylvania). They have full admission to Chicago and Leland Stanford Universities, two of the largest in the United States. They may enter the post-graduate department of Yale and receive its degrees. Harvard and Princeton are still entirely closed to them, as are a number of the smaller of the old, established Eastern universities, but this is largely compensated by the great Woman's Colleges of the East--Bryn Mawr, Wellesley, Smith and Vassar--which accommodate nearly 4,000 students. The Medical Department of Johns Hopkins, and Medical, Theological, Law and Dental Colleges in all parts of the country, admit women to their full courses. This is true also of Agricultural Colleges and of Technical Institutes such as Drexel and Pratt. There is now no lack of opportunity for them to obtain the highest education, either along the line of general culture or specialized work.[157]

The details of the following chapters will show that the civil, legal, industrial and educational rights of women are so far secured as to give full assurance that they will be absolute in the near future. The political rights are further off, for reasons which are presented in the introduction to this volume, but the yielding of all the others is proof sufficient that the spirit of our institutions will eventually find its fullest expression in perfect equality of rights for all the people.

FOOTNOTES:

[151] The names of newspapers which have supported this cause are not given, partly for these reasons and partly because on this question they reflect simply the personal views of the editors, and a change of management may cause a complete reversal of their attitude toward woman suffrage.

[152] A reading of these chapters will show that the suffrage societies have started many progressive movements and then turned them over to other organizations of women, believing they would thrive better if freed from the effects of the prejudice against woman suffrage and everything connected with it.

[153] Notwithstanding these efforts, the very statutes which are intended to be fair to women are continually found to be defective, and whenever any doubt arises as to their construction the Common Law must prevail, which in all cases is unjust to women. An example of this kind will be found in the chapter on New York, showing that it was held in 1901 that a wife's wages belonged to her husband, although it was supposed that these had been secured to her beyond all question by a special statute of 1860.

[154] For abstract of the Common Law in regard to women see History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. III, p. 961.

[155] A few of the States were formed under the Spanish or French code instead of the English Common Law, but neither was more favorable to women.

[156] No mention is made of women postmasters as these are found in all States. The first were appointed by President Grant during his first term of office, 1868-1872.

[157] In the various States under the head of Education, Roman Catholic colleges and universities are not considered, as they are nowhere co-educational.

The public school statistics are taken from the reports for 1898-9 of the U. S. Commissioner of Education.

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XXV. ALABAMA.[158]

Actual work for woman suffrage in Alabama began in 1890, at the time the constitutional convention of Mississippi was in session. The editor of the New Decatur Advertiser opened his columns to all matter on the question and thus aroused local interest, which in 1892 culminated in the formation in that town of the first suffrage club in the State, with seven charter members. The women who thus faced a most conservative public sentiment were Mesdames Harvey Lewis, F. E. Jenkins, E. G. Robb, A. R. Rose, B. E. Moore, Lucy A. Gould and Ellen Stephens Hildreth.

Before the close of the year a second club was formed in Verbena by Miss Frances A. Griffin, who has since become noted as a public speaker for this cause. Others were soon established through the efforts of Mesdames Minnie Hardy Gist, Bessie Vaughn, M. C. Arter, W. J. Sibert and Miss B. M. Haley.

In 1892 and 1893 the Woman's Column, published in Boston, was sent by the National Association to 1,500 teachers, ministers, school superintendents, editors, legislators and other prominent people, the names being furnished by Mrs. Hildreth. A State organization was effected in 1893, with Mrs. Hildreth, president, and Miss Griffin, secretary.

In 1895 Miss Susan B. Anthony, president of the National Association, and Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of its organization committee, who were making a southern tour, were asked by the New Decatur Club to include that city in their itinerary. They were also invited by Mrs. Alberta Taylor to address her society at Huntsville. These visits of the great leader and her eloquent assistant aroused much interest, but the financial depression prevented active work.

Mrs. Virginia Clay Clopton was elected State president in 1896; Mrs. Annie D. Shelby, Mrs. Milton Hume and Mrs. Taylor were made vice-presidents; Mrs. Laura McCullough and Mrs. Amelia Dilliard, recording secretaries; Mrs. Hildreth, corresponding secretary; and Mrs. E. E. Greenleaf, treasurer. Mrs. Clopton represented the association at the Tennessee Centennial in 1898. Opposition is so great that it has been deemed wise to do nothing more than distribute literature and present the arguments in the press.

A State convention was held at Huntsville, Oct. 1, 1900, Mrs. Taylor presiding. Mrs. Clopton being obliged to resign, Miss Griffin was made president. Mrs. Hume and Mrs. Robert Cunningham were chosen vice-presidents; Mrs. Greenleaf, treasurer; Miss Julia Tutweiler, State organizer.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND LAWS: In January, 1893, through the influence of the suffrage association, Senator J. W. Inzer presented a bill to amend the State constitution so as to permit women to vote on municipal questions and prohibitory liquor enactments. It never was reported from the Judiciary Committee.

In 1895, at the desire of the New Decatur Club, Representative Osceola Kyle introduced a bill raising the "age of protection" for girls from ten to fourteen years, and a similar one was offered for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Although these efforts were not successful then, public attention was drawn to the subject, and at the next session, in 1897, the age was raised to fourteen years with a penalty of death or imprisonment for not less than ten years in the penitentiary.

Previous to 1886 legislation and public sentiment in Alabama were of the most conservative kind, but at the Constitutional Convention held that year changes in the statutes were made which gave to women many rights and privileges not before possessed. Dower but not curtesy obtains. If there are no lineal descendants, and the estate is solvent, the widow takes one-half of the real estate for life, but if the estate is insolvent, one-third only. If there are lineal descendants, then the dower right is one-third, whether the estate is solvent or not. If a husband die without a will, his widow, if there are no children, is entitled to all of his personal property; if there is but one child, she is entitled to one-half; if there are more than one and not more than four children, then she is entitled to one child's portion. A homestead to the value of $2,000 is exempt to her from all creditors and no will can deprive her of it, unless she has signed a mortgage on it. If a wife die without a will, her husband is entitled to one-half of her personal property, whether there are children or not, and to the life use of all her real estate.

A wife may will her property to whom she pleases, excluding her husband from all share. He can do this with his property, but can not impair her dower rights. She can not sell her real estate without his written consent, but can sell her personal property without it. He can mortgage or sell his real estate, except the homestead, and can dispose of his personal property, without her consent.

A married woman may be agent, guardian or administrator. She may acquire and hold separate property not liable for the debts of her husband, though necessaries for the family can be a liability. Her bank deposit is her own, and her earnings can not be taken by her husband or his creditors. A wife can not become surety for her husband. Property purchased with her money will be returned to her upon application to the court.

A wife may engage in business with her husband's written consent. If she does so without it she incurs no penalty, but it is necessary in order that her creditors may recover their money. She must sue and be sued and make contracts jointly with the husband.

If a woman commit a crime in partnership with her husband (except murder or treason) she can not be punished; nor, if she commit a crime in his presence, can he testify against her.

Common law marriage is valid and the legal age for a girl is fourteen years.

The father is the guardian of the minor children, and at his death may appoint a guardian to the exclusion of the mother. If this is not done she becomes the legal guardian of the girls till they are eighteen, of the boys till fourteen.

Alabama is one of the few States which do not by law require the husband to support the family.

The convicted father of an illegitimate child must pay to the Probate Court for its support not exceeding $50 yearly for ten years, and must give $1,000 bond for this purpose. Failing to do this, judgment is rendered for not more than $625 and he is sentenced to hard labor for the county for one year.

It is a criminal offense to use foul language to or in the hearing of a woman, or by rude behavior to annoy her in any public place; or to take a woman of notorious character to any public place of resort for respectable women and men. Slander against a woman's character is heavily punished; a seducer is sent to the penitentiary if his victim previously has been chaste. Procurers may be sentenced to the penitentiary.

The "age of protection for girls" is 14 years, and the penalty is death or imprisonment in the penitentiary from ten years to life.

SUFFRAGE: Women have no form of suffrage.[159]

OFFICE HOLDING: Women are not eligible to any elective office. They act as enrolling clerks in the Legislature. Two women, whose fathers died while holding the position, were made registrars in chancery. Women can not serve as notaries public.

There are no women trustees on the board of any State institution, although the charitable and benevolent work is almost entirely in the hands of women. A man is superintendent of the Girls' Industrial School and the entire board is composed of men. Limited State aid is extended to a number of institutions founded and controlled by women, including the Boys' Industrial Farm.

OCCUPATIONS: Women are legally prohibited from acting as lawyers, physicians or ministers. They are not allowed to engage in mining.

EDUCATION: All educational institutions admit women. The State Polytechnic at Auburn was the pioneer, offering to women in 1892 every course, technical, scientific and agricultural. The State University at Tuscaloosa opened its doors to them in 1896. Two scholarships for girls are maintained here, one by the ladies of Montgomery and one by those of Birmingham. In 1900, out of a class of 178 boys and 23 girls, two boys and four girls took the highest honors.

The State Industrial School for Girls, at Montevallo, was established in 1896. There are two co-educational Normal Schools at Florence and Troy.

The colored men and women have excellent advantages in several Normal Schools and Colleges. The Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, under the presidency of Booker T. Washington, has a national reputation. Colored children have also their full share of public schools.

There are in the public schools 2,262 men and 5,041 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men is $32; of the women, $25.35.

* * * * *

The most progressive movement in the State is that of the Federation of Women's Clubs, formed in 1895, and including at present fifty-eight clubs. Its work has been extremely practical in the line of education and philanthropy. The most important achievement is the Boys' Industrial Farm, located at East Lake near Birmingham. This is managed by a board of women and has a charter which secures its control to women, even if it become entirely a State institution. The club women have for three years sustained five scholarships for girls, two at Tuscaloosa and three at Montevallo. They have organized also a free traveling library, and in four cities free kindergartens.

In conclusion it may be noted that the strength of the woman movement in the State has been wonderfully developed in all directions during the last five years.

FOOTNOTES:

[158] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Ellen Stephens Hildreth of New Decatur, the first president of the State Woman Suffrage Association.

[159] In the Constitutional Convention of 1901, an amendment providing that any woman paying taxes on $500 worth of property might vote on all bond propositions was adopted with great enthusiasm, but the next day, under the influence of the argument that "it would be an entering wedge for full suffrage," it was reconsidered and voted down. U. S. Senator John T. Morgan urged this amendment. The new constitution did contain a clause, however, providing that if a wife paid taxes on $500 worth of property her husband should be entitled to this vote.

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XXVI. ARIZONA.[160]

The Territory having elected delegates to a convention to be held in Phoenix in August and September, 1891, to prepare a constitution for Statehood, Henry B. Blackwell and Lucy Stone of Massachusetts sent Mrs. Laura M. Johns of Kansas to Arizona in August to endeavor to secure a clause in this constitution granting suffrage to women. She was received in Tucson by Mr. and Mrs. Hughes, editors and proprietors of an influential daily paper, who gave every possible assistance.

Mrs. Johns soon went to Phoenix, where the convention was in session, and followed up a previous correspondence with the delegates by personal interviews. She found a powerful champion in ex-Attorney-General William Herring, chairman of the committee which had the question of woman suffrage in charge. When she asked permission to address this committee it set an early date and suggested that it might be pleasanter for the ladies if the hearing should be held in a private residence. Accordingly Mrs. E. D. Garlick, formerly of Winfield, Kansas, opened her parlor, invited a number of ladies who were interested and the committee met with them and listened courteously to their plea for the ballot. A favorable report was presented to the convention and General Herring, Mrs. Johns, Mrs. Hughes and others spoke eloquently in favor of its acceptance. The measure was lost by three votes.

So much interest had been manifested that a Territorial Suffrage Association was formed, with Mrs. Hughes as president and Mrs. Garlick as corresponding secretary. Mrs. Johns intended to organize the Territory but was suddenly called home by a death in her family.

Four years later, in 1895, while she was working in New Mexico for the National Association, she was requested by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of its organization committee, to speak at the annual convention in Phoenix; and on the way she held preliminary meetings at Tucson, Tempe and other places.

In January, 1896, Mrs. Hughes, whose husband was now Governor, went to the convention of the National Association in Washington to interest that body in Arizona, which it was then expected would soon enter Statehood. She made a strong appeal, assuring the delegates that the pioneer men of the Territory were willing to confer the suffrage on the women who had braved the early hardships with them, and saying:

It is of the most vital importance that our women be enfranchised before the election of delegates to the approaching constitutional convention, as the Congressional enabling act provides that all persons qualified as voters under the Territorial law shall be qualified to vote for delegates to this convention and for the ratification or rejection of the same.

If our women are enfranchised before the enabling act is passed, then Arizona is safe and no power can prevent them from being accorded their rights in the constitution, and if their rights are not conceded they will see to it that the constitution fails of ratification.

In March the National Association sent Mrs. Johns again into the Territory and she remained until May. In company with Mrs. Hughes she made a successful tour through the Salt River Valley, receiving generous hospitality, addressing large audiences and forming local clubs. The two ladies then crossed the Territory to Yuma, speaking at various points on the way, and went from there to Prescott. Governor Hughes himself spoke at the meetings held in Clifton. Mrs. Johns then went to the Northern counties. Altogether most of the towns were visited, and while the distances were great and the difficulties numerous, the meetings were well attended and earnest advocates were found even in small mining camps among the mountains.

Mrs. Johns returned in the winter of 1897 and addressed the Legislature in behalf of a bill for woman suffrage but no action was taken. Among the friends and workers not elsewhere mentioned were the Hon. and Mrs. George P. Blair, ex-Mayor Gustavus Hoff, C. R. Drake, John T. Hughes; the other officers of the suffrage association were Mrs. C. T. Hayden, vice-president; Mrs. R. G. Phillips, corresponding secretary; Mrs. Lillian Collins, recording secretary; Mrs. Mary E. Hall, treasurer.

In the winter of 1899 the time seemed propitious for a vigorous movement, and Mrs. Chapman Catt and Miss Mary G. Hay spent a month at Phoenix during the legislative session. Every possible effort was made, there seemed to be a remarkable sentiment in favor of woman suffrage among the better classes and it looked as if it would be granted. The final result is thus described in Mrs. Chapman Catt's report to the national convention the following April:

Our bill went through the House by an unprecedented majority, 10 yeas, 5 nays, and then, as in Oklahoma, the remonstrants concentrated their opposition upon the Council. Here, as there, the working opponents were the saloon-keepers, with the difference that in Arizona they are often the proprietors of a gambling den and house of prostitution in connection with the saloons, and thus the opposition was more bitter and intolerant because it was believed greater damage would result from the votes of women. Every member of the Council received letters or telegrams from the leading proprietors of such resorts, threatening political ruin if he failed to vote against the measure. It was well known that money was contributed from these same sources. Here, as in Oklahoma, a majority were pledged to support the bill, but here, too, they played a filibustering game which prevented its coming to final vote. Pledges made to women are not usually counted as binding, but these pledges, as in Oklahoma, were made to men who were political co-workers. They did not deem it prudent to break these pledges by an open vote against the bill, but they held that they were not violated when they kept the matter from coming to a vote. The opposition was led by the proprietor of the largest and richest saloon in the Territory.

I have never found anywhere, however, so many strong, determined, able men, anxious to espouse our cause as in Arizona. The general sentiment is overwhelmingly in our favor. At one time three prominent men were in Phoenix to do what they could for the suffrage bill, each of whom had traveled four hundred miles for this express purpose. Governor N. O. Murphy recommended woman suffrage in his message and did all that was possible to assist its passage. The press is favorable, the intelligent and moral citizens are eager for it, but the vicious elements, as everywhere, are opposed. For a month the question was bitterly contested, but its foes prevented a vote. So again a campaign, which was sure of victory had each man voted his conviction, ended in crime and bribery won the day. The pay of legislators in the Territories is very small, and the most desirable men can not afford to serve. In consequence there drifts into every Legislature enough men of unprincipled character to make a balance of power. It may interest you to know that in both Territories we were told that all such legislation is controlled by bribery, and that our measure could be put through in a twinkling by "a little money judiciously distributed," but to such suggestions we replied that what the suffragists had won they had won honestly and we would postpone further advances till they could come in the same way. In the future years of strife over this question there will be many hands stained with guilt, but they will be those of the remonstrants and not ours. Though crime prevented the victory, yet we were abundantly assured of the lasting results of the campaign.

LAWS: Curtesy and dower were abolished by Territorial legislation, but in 1887 Congress passed an act granting a widow dower in all the Territories. If either husband or wife die without a will, leaving descendants, out of the separate property of either the survivor has one-third of the personal and a life use of one-third of the real estate. If there are no descendants, the survivor has all of the personal and a life use of one-half the real estate; if there are neither descendants nor father nor mother of the decedent, the survivor has the whole estate. The community property goes entirely to the survivor if there are no descendants, otherwise one-half goes to the survivor, in either case charged with the community debts. If the widow has a maintenance derived from her own property equal to $2,000, the whole property so set apart, other than her half of the homestead, must go to the minor children. If the homestead was selected from the community property it vests absolutely in the survivor. If selected from the separate property of either, it vests in that one or his heirs. It can not exceed $5,000 in value.

Married women have the exclusive control of their separate property; it is not liable for the debts or obligations of the husband; it may be mortgaged, sold or disposed of by will without his consent. The same privileges are extended to husbands.

A married woman may sue and be sued and make contracts in her own name as regards her separate property, but she must sue jointly with her husband for personal injuries, and damages recovered are community property and in his control.

If a married woman desire to become a sole trader she must file a certificate in the registry of deeds setting forth the nature and place of business. She can not become a sole trader if the original capital invested exceeds $10,000 unless she takes oath that the surplus did not come from any funds of the husband. If the wife is not a sole trader her wages are community property and belong to the husband while she is living with him.

The father is the legal guardian of the minor children. At his death the mother becomes guardian so long as she remains unmarried, provided she is a suitable person.

If the husband fails to support his wife, she may contract debts for necessaries on his credit, and for such debts she and her husband must be sued jointly and if he is not financially responsible her separate property may be taken.

The "age of protection" for girls was raised from 10 to 14 years in 1887, and to 18 in 1895. The penalty is confinement in the penitentiary for life or for not less than five years.

SUFFRAGE: Since 1887 every person, male or female, twenty-one years old, who is the parent or guardian of a child of school age residing in the district, or has paid Territorial or county school tax, exclusive of poll-tax, during the preceding year, is eligible to the office of school trustee and entitled to vote for this officer at any School District election. This includes all cities and towns in the Territory.

OFFICE HOLDING: Women may legally serve as school trustees, court commissioners, clerks of court, official stenographers, deputies and clerks in Territorial, county and municipal offices, and notaries public. Very few, however, are filling any of these offices.

Governor L. C. Hughes held that women were qualified to sit on any State Board and appointed one on the board of the State Normal School and one assistant superintendent of the Insane Asylum. None have since been appointed. There are no women physicians in any public institutions, and no police matrons at any jail or station-house.

OCCUPATIONS: No profession or occupation is legally forbidden to women.

EDUCATION: The State University is co-educational. In the public schools there are 122 men and 257 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men is $73.23; of the women, $63.17.

FOOTNOTES:

[160] The History is indebted to Mrs. L. C. Hughes of Tucson, former president of the Territorial Woman Suffrage Association, and to Mrs. Laura M. Johns of Kansas for material used in this chapter.

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XXVII. ARKANSAS.[161]

In 1885 the first woman suffrage association in Arkansas was formed at Eureka Springs by Miss Phoebe W. Couzins and Mrs. Lizzie D. Fyler, who was made president. Miss Susan B. Anthony lectured in February, 1889, in Helena, Fort Smith and Little Rock, at the last place introduced by Gov. James B. Eagle. On Sunday afternoon she spoke at a temperance meeting in this city, to a large audience that manifested every evidence of approval although she advocated woman suffrage. These were the first addresses on woman's enfranchisement given in the State.

No regularly constituted State suffrage convention ever has been held, but at the close of the annual Woman's Christian Temperance Union convention it is customary for the members of this body who favor the ballot for woman to meet and elect the usual officers for that branch of the work.

For fifteen years before her death in 1899, Mrs. Clara A. McDiarmid was a leader, was president of the association and represented the State at the national conventions. Dr. Ida J. Brooks is an earnest worker, and valuable assistance has been given by Mrs. Fannie L. Chunn and Mrs. Bernie Babcock.

In 1896 Mrs. Lida A. Meriwether of Tennessee gave twelve lectures under the auspices of the National Association. Miss Frances A. Griffin of Alabama also spoke here on this subject.

Not even this brief history of the suffrage movement would be complete without a mention of the Woman's Chronicle, established in 1888 by Catherine Campbell Cunningham, Mary Burt Brooks and Haryot Holt Cahoon. Mrs. Brooks was principal of the Forest Grove School, and Miss Cunningham a teacher in the public schools of Little Rock, but every week for five years this bright, newsy paper appeared on time. It was devoted to the general interests of women, with a strong advocacy of their enfranchisement. During the General Assembly it was laid each Saturday morning on the desk of every legislator. Charles E. Cunningham encouraged and sustained his daughter in her work.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND LAWS: The only bill for woman suffrage was that championed in the Senate by J. P. H. Russ, in 1891, "An act to give white women the right to vote and hold office, and all other rights the same as are accorded to male citizens." This unconstitutional measure passed third reading, but it is not surprising that it received only four affirmative votes; fourteen voted against it and fourteen refrained from voting.

In 1895 the law recognizing insanity after marriage as a ground for divorce was repealed.

This year a law was passed requiring the councils of all first-class cities to elect a police matron to look after woman prisoners.

Dower exists but not curtesy, unless the wife dies intestate and there has been issue born alive. If there are children the wife is entitled to one-third of the real property for her life and one-third of the personal property absolutely. If there are no children living she takes in fee simple one-half of the real estate where it is a new acquisition and not an inheritance, and one-half of the personal estate absolutely as against the collateral heirs; but as against creditors she takes one-third of the real estate in fee simple and one-third of the personal property absolutely. If either the husband or the wife die without a will and there are neither father, mother, nor their descendants, nor any paternal or maternal kindred capable of inheriting, the whole estate, both real and personal, goes to the surviving wife or husband.

The wife may sell or transfer her separate real estate without the consent of the husband. He can do the same with his real estate but can not impair her dower. A transfer of the homestead requires the joint signature.

A married woman as sole trader may engage in business on her own account and have the profits free from the interference of her husband, but if she is simply working for wages he may sue for her earnings and his receipt will bind her.

The father is the legal guardian of the children, having custody of their persons and property, but "no man shall bind his child to apprenticeship or service, or part with the control of such child, or create any testamentary guardianship therefor, unless the mother shall in writing signify her consent thereto." At the father's death the mother may be guardian of the persons of the children but not of their property unless derived from her.

There is no law requiring the husband to support his family.

The "age of protection" for girls was raised from 12 to 16 years in 1893, with a penalty of imprisonment in the penitentiary not less than five years nor more than twenty-one. In 1899 the minimum penalty was reduced to one year.

SUFFRAGE: Women have no form of suffrage except under the Three-Mile Law. This provides that, on petition of a majority of the inhabitants living within three miles of any church or school, the court shall make it illegal for liquor to be sold within this limit for two years. The law never has been utilized in the larger cities, but has been tried in numerous small towns and hundreds of outlying districts, where it has borne the test bravely, ruling out completely the public drink-houses. Wherever it has been put into force, women have been a strong factor, giving their own signatures in its favor and in many instances making house to house canvasses to obtain signers.

OFFICE HOLDING: Women are not eligible for any elective office. For twenty-five years, however, they have held clerkships in both branches of the General Assembly. In 1899 a bill to disqualify them from holding these was defeated in the Lower House by a considerable majority. But this same Legislature did not hesitate to declare women not qualified to serve as notaries public, which they had been doing for several years.

There are police matrons in Little Rock and Hot Springs.

For one year the "visiting committee" appointed by the School Board was composed of three men and two women. The latter made a written report, but the innovation was not repeated.

OCCUPATIONS: Women are not permitted to practice law. No other profession or occupation is legally forbidden.

EDUCATION: All of the universities and colleges are coeducational, even the Law and Medical Departments of the State University being open to women.

In the public schools there are 4,515 men and 2,558 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men is $49.22, of the women, $35.52.

FOOTNOTES:

[161] The History is indebted for the material for this chapter to Miss Catherine Campbell Cunningham of Little Rock, one of the earliest suffrage workers in the State.

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