History of Woman Suffrage Volume II Part 104

Pending the report of the Committee on Credentials, Mrs. Lucy Stone presented letters from several persons[181] who had been unable to attend the Convention, but desired to give expression to their sympathy with its object. In a few preliminary remarks she expressed the pleasure she felt at the sight of such a large and intelligent audience at the first session of the Convention, which many had supposed would be but merely a business meeting.

It was an evidence of the increasing interest which is being felt upon the subject of woman suffrage. She alluded to the Convention held in this city sixteen years ago, and was glad to see several familiar faces which were present on that occasion. Mrs. H. M.

Tracy Cutler, of Cleveland, delivered an eloquent appeal for women.

Judge Bradwell said that under the laws in some States the right of woman to a certain degree of citizenship is acknowledged.

Foreign-born women may be naturalized, and even without the consent of their husbands. In all probability Vermont will soon confer upon woman the right of suffrage. In that State the women considerably outnumber the men, and if some of them should move to the West, they might say, "We voted and were citizens in Vermont, and, under the XIV. Amendment to the Const.i.tution of the United States, we claim the right to vote here."

Mrs. C. G. Ames, of California, alluded to a case which occurred in San Francisco. A woman was informed that she might be protected through the courtesy of the consul, but that she had no claim to protection as a citizen of the Government.

The Committee on Credentials presented the names of delegates[182] who were already present as ent.i.tled to seats in the Convention. Other names were added as they were reported to the Convention during the session.

There were also in attendance persons from Virginia, Mississippi, and Nebraska, who conferred with the Chairman of the Committee on credentials with reference to their admission to the body of delegates. They were all _bona fide_ residents in the States they represented, but they seemed so undecided in reference to the question of woman suffrage, finding it hardly possible to tell whether they were for it or against it, that it was thought not best for them to propose themselves as self-const.i.tuted delegates. Near the close of the Convention, those from Nebraska and Virginia sought the Chairman of the Committee to say that if another convention were to be held, they could heartily and conscientiously take seats as delegates; for if they had any doubts as to the justice and utility of woman suffrage in the outset, they had been wholly removed by the arguments to which they had listened. Twenty-one States were thus represented in the Convention, making it truly National.

On motion of Mr. Blackwell, the President was authorized to appoint a committee,[183] consisting of one from each State on the permanent organization of the Convention. Pending the announcement of the committee, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, of Boston, delivered an address to the Convention, replete with the n.o.blest wisdom and the soundest morality. Her utterance was both prophetic and hortatory. She cautioned women not to do injustice to others, while seeking justice for themselves; advised them that they must prepare for the new responsibilities they coveted; and that they would better learn to command, by learning well how to serve. She closed her grand and inspiring address with this sentence: "Oh! of all the names given to us to warn off the demon and invoke the angel, let us hold fast to this word--service!"

The Convention rea.s.sembled at two o'clock, the hall being filled in every part. Before proceeding to business, the President invited to seats upon the platform, Stephen S. Foster, Miss Susan B. Anthony, Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Andrew Jackson Davis, Mrs. Leland, of Wisconsin; Mr. and Mrs. John Gage, of Vineland, New Jersey, all of whom he designated as faithful veteran laborers in the good cause. He also invited all officers of Woman Suffrage a.s.sociations, members of the press and the clergy without distinction of s.e.x or color.

The proceedings were opened with an impressive prayer by Rev.

Antoinette Brown Blackwell, of New Jersey. The Committee on Permanent Organization reported the list of officers[184] of the Convention, which was adopted. The announcement of the name of T.

W. Higginson as President was received with loud applause. On taking the Chair, he spoke substantially as follows:

_Ladies and Gentlemen and Fellow Citizens_: I feel truly grateful to the members of this Convention for the honor they have done me by choosing me for this responsible position. I take it not as a personal compliment to myself, but as a graceful act of courtesy on the part of the West, which is so largely represented, to the East, which is but slightly represented--perhaps our California friends would rather hear us say from the great central Keystone States of the Nation, to the little border States on the Atlantic coast. It is eminently fit and proper that this Convention should select for its place of meeting the great State of Ohio, which takes the lead in the woman suffrage movement, as well as in other good things. It was the first to organize a State Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation, and the first in which a committee of the Legislature recommended extending to woman the right of suffrage.

It is befitting, then, that this Convention should desire Ohio as the stepping stone from which an American Suffrage a.s.sociation shall rise into existence.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Lucy Stone.]

My own State is but a small one. At the commencement of the war it was hardly thought worth while to attempt to raise troops in Rhode Island, for if they should be able to muster a regiment it would be necessary to go out of the State to find room to drill.

But regiments were raised and they stood side by side with those of Ohio during the great struggle, and your record is theirs.

Rhode Island, too, stands shoulder to shoulder with Ohio in the cause of woman suffrage. The call for this Convention was signed by the representatives of twenty-five States; that for, the Woman's Rights Convention, in 1850, was signed by those of but six, yet Ohio and Rhode Island were two of that number. I do not blush at the smallness of my State, but I rejoice in its prominence in this movement. I am glad to claim her as the only State which stands as a unit in the Senate of the United States in favor of giving the ballot to woman. Messrs. Sprague and Anthony, the Senators from that State, agree upon this point, although if they ever agreed upon any other matter, I never heard of it.

Fellow-delegates and citizens, we have come together as supporters of a grand reformatory movement, and there is but one plain course for us to pursue. Some years ago I attended a meeting of progressive Friends, in Pennsylvania. The subject of Woman's Rights came up for discussion, and opinions were expressed pro and con, when suddenly there came striding up the aisle an awkward boy, half-witted and about half-drunk. He stepped to the platform, flung his cap to the floor, and said that he wanted to give his testimony. "I don't know much about this subject or any other, but my mother was a woman!" The boys in the galleries laughed, and the Quakers, sitting with their hats on their heads, looking as solemn as if the funeral of the whole human race was being held and they were the chief mourners, did not relax a muscle of their faces, but thought I to myself, "That overgrown boy, drunk or sober, has solved the whole question." Women may doubt and hesitate, uncertain whether they want to vote or not, but men have only one position to take--to withdraw their opposition, and leave it to the women to decide for themselves.

Many intelligent and respectable ladies fear a conspiracy against their freedom--imagining that at times of elections detachments of police would seize and rudely drag the weak, fainting sisters to the polls against their will. They seem to regard the matter in the same light as a boy who went to the theatre night after night, but invariably went to sleep. Upon being asked what he went for, he replied: "Why I've got to go because I've a season ticket." And so some women seem to think that the right of suffrage will be like the boy's season ticket, and they must vote whether they will or not. When we can not drive men to the polls, when there is no law to compel them to serve or save their country at the ballot-box, if they stay away from selfishness or indifference, it is not likely that we will be more successful with the women. No compulsion is intended. We will lay before woman the great responsibility that rests upon her, her sacred duty as a wife and mother, we will open up to her a career of the highest usefulness in the world, in which she may more perfectly than ever before fulfill the destiny for which she is created, and then she may individually accept the ballot or not, according to the dictates of her own conscience. All men can do is to take down the barriers and say to her: "Vote, if you please." It is to give more dignity and sacredness to woman; to enlarge and not limit her field of usefulness; but not to take her out of her appropriate sphere. It says to the wife: "Do all you can to save your sons and husbands at home, strew around them its most hallowed influences; but if you fail there, you have another chance at the ballot-box to abolish, by your votes, the liquor-sellers that are dragging them down to ruin."

I would earnestly recommend to this Convention the importance of efficient and perfect organization, and not only in this body, but throughout the country. In the judgment of those who called this meeting, the great movement for woman suffrage is too far advanced to be further prosecuted only by local and accidental organizations. In most of the States, State a.s.sociations are of but recent origin, and in many they do not exist at all. The efforts. .h.i.therto made were all well and useful in their way, but not enough to meet the demands of the present. It is the aim to establish this a.s.sociation on a national representative basis, embracing all the States in the Union. We seek this because we need it. The enterprise is too vast to be left to hasty or accidental organizations only. We want something solid and permanent. The Congress of the United States rests upon a narrower basis than does the organization at which we aim. That represents but half the people of the country while this is for all. It is eminently needful that we give the greatest care and deliberations to the work. We must have the counsel of various minds, laying aside local differences. We are of different habits and opinions, and do not think alike on all subjects. Upon many questions we "agree to differ," but on this great question we are, and must be, all united. Efficient organization will be a powerful aid in helping forward the grandest reform that was ever launched upon the human race. With this understanding I accept the position of President of this Convention, losing my own individuality as one of its members. In conclusion, I ask your patience with my short-comings and your co-operation in conducting its proceedings.

Mrs. Cutler read a courteous communication from H. S. Stevens Esq., kindly offering to furnish carriages free to those members of the Convention who may wish to see the city, during their stay. Col. Higginson said that in the early days of woman suffrage, he had seen a rivalry among livery stable keepers to furnish carriages to take persons engaged in the movement out of town, and he regarded this offer as in singular contrast to that.

On motion of Mrs. Lucy Stone, the Committee on Permanent Organization of the Convention was also charged with the duty of preparing a basis of organization, const.i.tution, and by-laws for a National Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation, and to report a list of officers for the same. The President invited all local Woman Suffrage organizations to make themselves known through their members present, and to partic.i.p.ate in the deliberations of the Convention. The following resolution, offered by Mrs. Lucy Stone, was adopted.

_Resolved_, That the members of the a.s.sociated Press, now in session in this city, be invited to attend this Convention and take part in its proceedings, and that Mr. Boyer, Mr. F.

B. Sanborn, and Mrs. Cole, of Dayton, be a Committee to convey the invitation to that body.

A telegram was received from GRACE GREENWOOD, as follows:

To T.W. HIGGINSON, _President of the Woman's Suffrage Convention:_

Kept at home by illness. G.o.d speed the cause.

GRACE GREENWOOD.

Brief speeches were made by Rev. Mrs. Hanaford, of Ma.s.sachusetts; Mary F. Davis and Lucy Stone, of New Jersey; and Giles B.

Stebbins, of Michigan, who introduced the following resolution, which was unanimously carried:

_Resolved_, That the National Labor Congress, representing five hundred thousand of the workingmen of our country, at its late session at Philadelphia, by recognizing the equal membership and rights of men and women, of white and colored alike, showed a spirit of broad and impartial justice worthy of all commendation, and we hail its action as a proof of the power of truth over prejudice and oppression, which must be of signal benefit to its members, in helping that self-respect, intelligence, and moral culture by which the fair claims of labor are to be gained and the weaker truly enn.o.bled and elevated.

Mr. H. B. BLACKWELL presented the following:

CONSt.i.tUTION OF THE AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE a.s.sOCIATION.

PREAMBLE: The undersigned, friends of woman suffrage, a.s.sembled in delegate Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, November 24th and 25th, 1869, in response to a call widely signed and after a public notice duly given, believing that a truly representative National organization is needed for the orderly and efficient prosecution of the suffrage movement in America, which shall embody the deliberate action of State and local organizations, and shall carry with it their united weight, do hereby form the American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation.

ARTICLE I.

NAME: This a.s.sociation shall be known as the American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation.

ARTICLE II.

OBJECT: Its object shall be to concentrate the efforts of all the advocates of woman, suffrage in the United States for National purposes only, viz:

SEC. 1. To form auxiliary State a.s.sociations in every State where none such now exist, and to co-operate with those already existing, which shall declare themselves auxiliary before the first day of March next, the authority of the auxiliary Societies being recognized in their respective localities, and their plan being promoted by every means in our power.

SEC. 2. To hold an annual meeting of delegates for the transaction of business and the election of officers for the ensuing year; also, one or more national conventions for the advocacy of woman suffrage.

SEC. 3. To publish tracts, doc.u.ments, and other matter for the supply of State and local societies and individuals at actual cost.

SEC. 4. To prepare and circulate pet.i.tions to State Legislatures, to Congress, or to const.i.tutional conventions in behalf of the legal and political equality of woman; to employ lecturers and agents, and to take any measures the Executive Committee may think fit, to forward the objects of the a.s.sociation.

ARTICLE III.--ORGANIZATION.

SEC. 1. The officers of this a.s.sociation shall be a President, eight Vice-Presidents at Large, Chairman of the Executive Committee, Foreign Corresponding Secretary, two Recording Secretaries, and a Treasurer, all of whom shall be _ex-officio_ members of the Executive Committee from each State and Territory, and from the District of Columbia, as hereinafter provided.

SEC. 2. Every President of an auxiliary State society shall be _ex-officio_ a vice-president of this a.s.sociation.

SEC. 3. Every chairman of the Executive Committee of an auxiliary State society shall be _ex-officio_ a member of the Executive Committee of this a.s.sociation.

SEC. 4. In cases where no auxiliary State society exists, a suitable person may be selected by the annual meeting, by the Executive Committee, as Vice-President or member of the Executive Committee, to serve only until the organization of said State a.s.sociation.

SEC. 5. The Executive Committee may fill all vacancies that may occur prior to the next annual meeting.

SEC. 6. All officers shall be elected annually at any annual meeting of delegates, on the basis of the Congressional representation of the respective States and Territories, except as above provided.

SEC. 7. No distinction on account of s.e.x shall ever be made in the membership or in the selection of officers of this Society; but the general principle shall be that one half of the officers shall, as nearly as convenient, be men, and one half women.

SEC. 8. No money shall be paid by the Treasurer except under such restrictions as the Executive Committee may provide.