The History of Woman Suffrage Volume III Part 59

Day; _Franklin_, none; _Grand Isle_, Miss I. Montgomery; _La Moille_, Carrie P. Carroll, Miss C. A. Parker; _Orange_, Miss F. H.

Graves, Miss A. A. Clement, Miss V. L. Farnham, Miss F. Martin; _Orleans_, none; _Rutland_, Mrs. I. C. Adams, Miss H. M.

Bromley, Miss M. A. Mills, Lillian Tarbell, Mrs. H. M. Crowley; _Washington_, none; _Windham_, Mrs. J. M. Powers, Mrs. J. E.

Phelps; _Windsor_, Mrs. E. G. White, Miss C. A. Lamb, Mrs. H. F.

VanCor, Clara E. Perkins, Mrs. E. M. Lovejoy, Mrs. L. M. Hall.

CHAPTER x.x.xVII.

NEW YORK--1860-1885.

Saratoga Convention, July 13, 14, 1869--State Society Formed, Martha C. Wright, President--_The Revolution_ Established, 1868--Educational Movement--New York City Society, 1870, Charlotte B. Wilbour, President--Presidential Campaign, 1872--Hearings at Albany, 1873--Const.i.tutional Commission--An Effort to Open Columbia College, President Barnard in Favor--Centennial Celebration, 1876--School Officers--Senator Emerson of Monroe, 1877--Gov. Robinson's Veto--School Suffrage, 1880--Gov. Cornell Recommended it in his Message--Stewart's Home for Working Women--Women as Police--An Act to Prohibit Disfranchis.e.m.e.nt--Attorney-General Russell's Adverse Opinion--The Power of the Legislature to Extend Suffrage--Great Demonstration in Chickering Hall, March 7, 1884--Hearing at Albany, 1885--Mrs.

Blake, Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. Rogers, Mrs. Howell, Gov. Hoyt of Wyoming.

The New York chapter in Volume I. closes with an account of some retrogressive legislation on the rights of married women,[200]

showing that until woman herself has a voice in legislation her rights may be conceded or withheld at the option of the ruling powers, and that her only safety is in direct representation. The chapter on "Trials and Decisions" in Volume II., shows the injustice women have suffered in the courts, where they have never yet enjoyed the sacred right of trial by a jury of their own peers.

After many years of persistent effort for the adjustment of special grievances, many of the leaders, seeing by what an uncertain tenure their civil rights were maintained by the legislative and judicial authorities, ceased to look to the State for redress, and turned to the general government for protection in the right of suffrage, the fundamental right by which all minor privileges and immunities are protected. Hence the annual meeting of the National a.s.sociation, which had been regularly held in New York as one of the May anniversaries, was, from 1869, supplemented by a semi-annual convention in Washington for special influence upon congress.

Until the war the work in New York was conducted by a central committee; but in the summer of 1869, the following call was issued for a convention at Saratoga Springs, to organize a State Society:

The advocates of woman suffrage will hold a State convention at Saratoga Springs on the thirteenth and fourteenth of July, 1869.

The specific business of this convention will be to effect a permanent organization for the State of New York. Our friends in the several congressional districts should at once elect their delegates, in order that the whole State may be represented in the convention. In districts where delegates cannot be elected, any person can const.i.tute himself or herself a representative.

The convention will be attended by the ablest advocates of suffrage for woman, and addresses may be expected from Elizabeth Cady Stanton, president of the National a.s.sociation, Celia Burleigh, president of the Brooklyn Equal Rights a.s.sociation, Matilda Joslyn Gage, advisory counsel for the State, Susan B.

Anthony, of _The Revolution_, Charlotte B. Wilbour of New York city, and others. Every woman interested for her personal freedom should attend this convention, and by her presence, influence and money, aid the movement for the restoration of the rights of her s.e.x.

Mrs. ELIZABETH B. PHELPS, _Vice-President for the State of New York_.

MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE, _Advisory Counsel_.

The opening session of the convention was held in the s.p.a.cious parlors of Congress Hall the audience composed chiefly of fashionable ladies[201] from all parts of the country, who listened with evident interest and purchased the tracts intended for distribution. The remaining sessions were held in Hawthorn Hall, Matilda Joslyn Gage presiding. A series of spirited resolutions was adopted, also a plan of organization presented by Charlotte B.

Wilbour, for a State a.s.sociation.[202] Many able speakers[203] were present. The formation of this society was the result of a very general agitation in different localities on several vital questions in the preceding year:

_First_--On taxation. Women being large property holders, had felt the pressure during the war, especially of the tax on incomes, and had resolved on resistance: Accordingly, large meetings[204] were called at various points, in 1868. While women of wealth were organizing to resist taxation, the working women[205] were uniting to defend their earnings, and secure better wages. It seemed for a few months as if they were in a chronic condition of rebellion. But after many vain struggles for redress in the iron teeth of the law, and equally vain appeals to have unjust laws amended, the women learned the hopelessness of all efforts made by disfranchised cla.s.ses.

_Second_--On prost.i.tution. For the first time in the history of the government, a bill was presented in the New York legislature, in 1868, proposing to license prost.i.tution. This showed the degradation of woman's position as no other act of legislation could have done, and although the editors of _The Revolution_ were the only women who publicly opposed the bill (which they did both before the committee of the legislature, and in their journal), yet there was in the minds of many, a deep undercurrent of resistance to the odious provisions of that bill. Horace Greeley, too, in his editorials in the New York _Tribune_, denounced the proposition in such unmeasured terms that, although pressed at three different legislative sessions, no member of the committee could be found with sufficient moral hardihood to present the bill.

In connection with this question, the necessity of "women as police," was for some time a topic of discussion. They had proved so efficient in many cases, that it was seriously proposed to have a standing force in New York and Brooklyn, to look after young girls,[206] new to the temptations and dangers of city life. In _The Revolution_ of March 26, 1868, we find the following:

It is often asked, would you make women police officers? It has already been done. At least a society of women exists in this country, for the discovery of crimes, conspiracies and such things. The chief of this band was Mrs. Kate Warn, a native of this State, who lately died in Chicago. She was engaged in this business, fifteen years ago, by Mr. Pinkerton, of the National Police Agency. She did good service for many years in watching, waylaying, exploring and detecting; especially on the critical occasion of President Lincoln's journey to Washington in 1861. In 1865 she was sent to New Orleans, as head of the Female Police Department there.

There was a general movement in these years for the more liberal education of women in various departments of art and industry, as well as in letters. First on the list stands Va.s.sar College, founded in 1861, richly endowed with fine grounds and s.p.a.cious buildings. We cannot estimate the civilizing influence of the thousands of young women graduating at that inst.i.tution, now, as cultivated wives and mothers, presiding in households all over this land. Cornell University[207] was opened to girls in 1872, more richly endowed than Va.s.sar, and in every way superior in its environments; beautifully situated on the banks of Cayuga Lake, with the added advantage and stimulus of the system of coeducation.

To Andrew D. White, its president, all women owe a debt of grat.i.tude for his able and persevering advocacy of the benefits to both s.e.xes, of coeducation. The university at Syracuse, in which Lima College was incorporated, is also open alike to boys and girls. Rochester University,[208] Brown, Columbia, Union, Hamilton, and Hobart College at Geneva, still keep their doors barred against the daughters of the State, and the three last, in the small number of their students, and their gradual decline, show the need of the very influence they exclude. Could all the girls desiring an education in and around Rochester, Geneva,[209] Clinton and Schenectady, enter these inst.i.tutions, the added funds and enthusiasm they would thus receive would soon bring them renewed life and vigor.

Peter Cooper and Catharine Beecher's efforts for the working cla.s.ses of women were equally praiseworthy. Miss Beecher formed "The American Woman's Educational a.s.sociation," for the purpose of establishing schools all over the country for training girls in the rudiments of learning and practical work. The Cooper Inst.i.tute, founded in 1854, by Peter Cooper, has been invaluable in its benefits to the poorer cla.s.ses of girls, in giving them advantages in the arts and sciences, in evening as well as day cla.s.ses. Here both boys and girls have free admission into all departments, including its valuable reading-room and library. It had long been a cherished desire of Mr. Cooper to found an inst.i.tution to be devoted forever to the union of art and science in their application to the useful purposes of life. The School of Design is specially for women.

The Ladies Art a.s.sociation of New York was founded in 1867, now numbering over one hundred members. One of the most important things accomplished by this society has been the preparation of thoroughly educated teachers, many of whom are now filling positions in Southern and Western colleges.

NEW YORK, June 3, 1869.

EDITORS OF THE REVOLUTION: Inclosed please find the report of a meeting of New York ladies to consider the important subject of woman's education. The within slip will show that this is a movement quite as earnest and p.r.o.nounced as the woman suffrage agitation of the day, and more in consonance with prevailing public opinion. We trust that you will aid the effort by inserting the report and resolutions into your columns, and add at least a brief editorial notice.

Very respectfully, MRS. MARSHALL O. ROBERTS.

IMPORTANT MEETING OF NEW YORK LADIES.--WOMAN'S EDUCATION.--On Monday, the 31st of May, a large number of influential ladies gathered at Dr. Taylor's, corner Sixth avenue and Thirty-eighth street, in response to the call of the secretary of The American Woman's Educational a.s.sociation. A meeting was organized, Mrs.

Marshall O. Roberts presiding, and after a long and interesting discussion the following resolutions were unanimously pa.s.sed. It is proper to state that the society has been an organized and efficient power in woman's education for over twenty years. The object of its present action is to forward a movement to secure endowed inst.i.tutions for the training of women to their special duties and professions as men are trained for theirs, particularly the science and duties of home-life:

_Resolved_, That one cause of the depressed condition of woman is the fact that the distinctive profession of her s.e.x, as the nurse of infancy and of the sick, as educator of childhood, and as the chief minister of the family state, has not been duly honored, nor such provision been made for its scientific and practical training as is accorded to the other s.e.x for their professions; and that it is owing to this neglect that women are driven to seek honor and independence in the inst.i.tutions and the professions of men.

_Resolved_, That the science of domestic economy, in its various branches, involves more important interests than any other human science; and that the evils suffered by women would be extensively remedied by establishing inst.i.tutions for training woman for her profession, which shall be as generously endowed as are the inst.i.tutions of men, many of which have been largely endowed by women.

_Resolved_, That the science of domestic economy should be made a study in all inst.i.tutions for girls; and that certain practical employments of the family state should be made a part of common school education, especially the art of sewing, which is so needful for the poor; and that we will use our influence to secure these important measures.

_Resolved_, That every young woman should be trained to some business by which she can earn an independent livelihood in case of poverty.

_Resolved_, That in addition to the various in-door employments suitable for woman, there are other out-door employments especially favorable to health and equally suitable, such as raising fruits and flowers, the culture of silk and cotton, the raising of bees and the superintendence of dairy farms and manufactures. All of these offer avenues to wealth and independence for women as properly as men, and schools for imparting to women the science and practice of these employments should be provided and as liberally endowed as are the agricultural schools for men.

_Resolved_, That the American Woman's Educational a.s.sociation is an organization which aims to secure to women these advantages, that its managers have our confidence, and that we will cooperate in its plans as far as we have opportunity.

_Resolved_, That the Protestant clergy would greatly aid in these efforts by preaching on the honor and duties of the family state. In order to this, we request their attention to a work just published by Miss Beecher and Mrs. Stowe, ent.i.tled "The American Woman's Home," which largely discusses many important topics of this general subject, while the authors have devoted most of their profits from this work to promote the plans of the American Woman's Educational a.s.sociation.

_Resolved_, That editors of the religious and secular press will contribute important aid to an effort they must all approve by inserting these resolutions in their columns.

Among the influences that brought new thought to the question of woman suffrage was the establishment of _The Revolution_ in 1868.

Radical and defiant in tone, it awoke friends and foes alike to action. Some denounced it, some ridiculed it, but all read it. It needed just such clarion notes sounded forth long and loud each week to rouse the friends of the movement from the apathy into which they had fallen after the war. One cannot read its glowing pages to-day without appreciating the power it was just at that crisis.[210]

Miss Lucy B. Hobbs of New York was the first woman that ever graduated in the profession of dentistry. She matriculated in the Cincinnati Dental College in the fall of 1864--pa.s.sing through a full course of study, missing but two lectures, and those at the request of the professor of anatomy. She graduated from that inst.i.tution in February, 1866. A letter from the dean of the college testifies to her worth as follows:

She was a woman of great energy and perseverance. Studious in her habits, modest and una.s.suming, she had the respect and kind regard of every member of the cla.s.s and faculty. As an operator she was not surpa.s.sed by her a.s.sociates. Her opinion was asked and her a.s.sistance sought in difficult cases almost daily by her fellow-students. And though the cla.s.s of which she was a member was one of the largest ever in attendance, it excelled all previous ones in good order and decorum--a condition largely due to the presence of a lady. In the final examination she was second to none.

Having received her diploma, she opened an office in Iowa; from thence she removed to Chicago, and practiced successfully. The following letter from Mrs. Taylor (formerly Miss Hobbs) gives further interesting details. Writing to Matilda Joslyn Gage, she says:

I am grateful to you for giving me the opportunity to place in history the fact of my study of dentistry. I was born in Franklin county, New York, in 1833. You ask my reason for entering the profession. It was to be independent. I first studied medicine, but did not like the practice. My preceptor, Professor Cleveland, advised me to try dentistry, and I commenced with Dr. Samuel Warde of Cincinnati, finishing my studies in March, 1861. At that time the faculty of the Ohio Dental College would not permit me to attend, and there was not a college in the United States that would admit me, and no amount of persuasion could change their minds. So far as I know, I was the first woman who had ever taken instruction of a private tutor.

I went to Iowa to commence practice, and was so successful that the dentists of the State insisted I should be allowed to attend the college. Their efforts prevailed, and I graduated from the Ohio Dental College at Cincinnati in the spring of 1866--the first woman in the world to take a diploma from a dental college.

I am a New-Yorker by birth, but I love my adopted country--the West. To it belongs the credit of making it possible for women to be recognized in the dental profession on equal terms with men.

Should you wish any further proof, write to Dr. Watt, who was professor of chemistry at the time I graduated, and I know he will take pleasure in giving you any additional information.

As early as 1866 a system of safe-deposit companies was inaugurated in New York, which has proved a boon to women, enabling them to keep any private papers they may wish to preserve. In 1880, we find the following in the _National Citizen_:

A ladies' exchange for railroad and mining stocks has been started at 71 Broadway, New York. The rooms are provided with an indicator, desks and such other conveniences as are required for business. Messenger boys drop in and out, and a telephone connects with the office of a prominent Wall-street brokerage firm. Miss Mary E. Gage, daughter of Frances Dana Gage, is the manager and proprietor of the business. In reply to the inquiries of a _Graphic_ reporter, Miss Gage said she had found so much inconvenience and annoyance in transacting her own operations in stocks that she concluded to establish an office. After Miss Gage was fairly settled, other women who labored under the same disadvantages, began to drop in, their number increasing daily. A ladies' stock exchange also exists at No. 40 Fourth street, under charge of Mrs. Favor. The banking houses of Henry Clews and the wealthy Russell Sage are said to be working in union with this exchange. In January we chronicled the formation of a woman's mining company and this month of a woman's stock exchange, each of them an evidence of the wide range of business women are entering.

In _The Revolution_ of May 14, 1868, we find the following:

SOROSIS.--This is the name of a new club of literary women, who meet once a month and lunch at Delmonico's, to discuss questions of art, science, literature and government. Alice Carey, who is president, in her opening speech states the object of the club, which is summed up in this brief extract:

We have proposed the inculcation of deeper and broader ideas among women, proposed to teach them to think for themselves and get their opinions at first hand, not so much because it is their right as because it is their duty. We have also proposed to open new avenues of employment to women--to make them less dependent and less burdensome--to lift them out of unwomanly self-distrust and disqualifying diffidence into womanly self-respect and self-knowledge. To teach them to make all work honorable, by each doing the share that falls to her, or that she may work out to herself agreeably to her own special apt.i.tude, cheerfully and faithfully--not going down to it, but bringing it up to her. We have proposed to enter our protest against all idle gossip, against all demoralizing and wicked waste of time, also, against the follies and the tyrannies of fashion, against all external impositions and disabilities; in short, against each and every thing that opposes the full development and use of the faculties conferred upon us by our Creator.