The History of Woman Suffrage Volume III Part 99

Girls in State University--Sarah Burger Stearns--Harriet E.

Bishop the First Teacher in St. Paul--Mary J. Colburn Won the Prize--Mrs. Jane Grey Swisshelm, St. Cloud--Fourth of July Oration, 1866--First Legislative Hearing, 1867--Governor Austin's Veto--First Society at Rochester--Ka.s.son--Almira W. Anthony--Mary P. Wheeler--Harriet M. White--The W. C. T. U.--Harriet A.

Hobart--Literary and Art Clubs--School Suffrage, 1876--Charlotte O. Van Cleve and Mrs. C. S. Winch.e.l.l Elected to School Board--Mrs. Governor Pillsbury--Temperance Vote, 1877--Property Rights of Married Women--Women as Officers, Teachers, Editors, Ministers, Doctors, Lawyers.

Minnesota was formally admitted to the Union May 11, 1858. Owing to its high situation and dry atmosphere the State is a great resort for invalids, and nowhere in the world is the sun so bright, the sky so blue, or the moon and stars so clearly defined. Its early settlers were from New England; hence, the church and the school-house--monuments of civilization--were the first objects in the landscape to adorn those boundless prairies, as the red man was pushed still westward, and the white man seized his hunting-ground.

This State is also remarkable for its admirable system of free schools, in which it is said there is a larger proportion of pupils to the population than in any other of the Western States. All inst.i.tutions of learning have from the beginning been open alike to boys and girls.

Mrs. Sarah Burger Stearns, to whom we are indebted for this chapter, was one of the first young women to apply for admission to the Michigan University.[431] Being denied, she finished her studies at the State Normal School, and in 1863 married Mr. O. P.

Stearns, a graduate of the inst.i.tution that barred its doors to her. Mr. Stearns, at the call of his country, went to the front, while his no less patriotic bride remained at home, teaching in the Young Ladies' Seminary at Monroe and lecturing for the benefit of the Soldiers' Aid Societies.

The war over, they removed to Minnesota in 1866, where by lectures, newspaper articles, pet.i.tions and appeals to the legislature, Mrs.

Stearns has done very much to stir the women of the State to thought and action upon the question of woman's enfranchis.e.m.e.nt.

She has been the leading spirit of the State Suffrage a.s.sociation, as well as of the local societies of Rochester and Duluth, the two cities in which she has resided, and also vice-president of the National a.s.sociation since 1876. As a member of the school-board, she has wrought beneficent changes in the schools of Duluth. She is now at the head of a movement for the establishment of a home for women needing a place of rest and training for self-help and self-protection. Mrs. Stearns has the full sympathy of her husband and family, as she had that of her mother, Mrs. Susan C. Burger, whose last years were pa.s.sed in the home of her daughter at Duluth.

Mrs. Stearns writes:

The advocates of suffrage in Minnesota were so few in the early days,[432] and their homes so remote from each other, that there was little chance for cooperation, hence the history of the movement in this State consists more of personal efforts than of conventions, legislative hearings and judicial decisions. The first name worthy of note is that of Harriet E. Bishop. She was invited by Rev. Thomas Williamson, M. D., a missionary among the Dakotas, to come to his mission home and share in his labors in 1847, where she was introduced to the leading citizens of St.

Paul. She was the first teacher of a public school in that settlement. She lectured on temperance, wrote for the daily papers, and preached as a regular pastor in a Baptist pulpit. She published several books, was one of the organizers of the State Suffrage a.s.sociation in 1881, and in 1883 rested from her labors on earth.

The first lecture in the State on the "Rights and Wrongs of Woman," was by Mrs. Mary J. Colburn, in the village of Champlin, in 1858, the same year that Minnesota was admitted to the Union.

In 1864, the State officers promised two prizes for the first and second best essays on "Minnesota as a Home for Emigrants,"

reserving to the examining committee the right to reject all ma.n.u.scripts offered if found unworthy. The first prize was accorded to Mrs. Colburn. Most of the other compet.i.tors were men, some of them members of the learned professions. Mrs. Colburn says, in writing to a friend, "I am doing but little now on the suffrage question, for I will not stoop longer to ask of any congress or legislature for that which I know to be mine by the divine law of nature."

In 1857, Mrs. Jane Grey Swisshelm settled at St. Cloud, where she lived until 1863, editing the St. Cloud _Democrat_, the organ of the Republican party, and making a heroic fight for freedom and equality. In 1860 she spoke in the Hall of Representatives, on Anti-slavery; in 1862 she was invited to speak before the Senate on woman's rights, and was listened to with great respect.[433]

In 1866, at a Fourth of July celebration, Mrs. Stearns accepted an invitation to respond to the sentiment, "Our young and growing State; may she ever be an honor to her citizens." This offered her an opportunity for an off-hand woman suffrage speech, which elicited hearty cheers, and gave, as an old gentleman present said, "something fresh to think of and act upon." About this time the friends of equality began pet.i.tioning the legislature for an amendment to the const.i.tution, striking out the word "male."

Through the efforts of Mr. A. G. Spaulding--the editor of the _Anoka Star_--and others, these pet.i.tions were referred to a special committee which granted a hearing to Mrs. Colburn and Mrs. Stearns in 1867. Mrs. Colburn read a carefully prepared argument, and Mrs. Stearns sent a letter, both of which were ordered to be printed. In 1868 a bill was introduced proposing to submit the desired amendment, but when brought to a vote it was defeated by a majority of one.

In March, 1869, _The Revolution_ copied from the Martin County _Atlas_ the following:

Show us the man who from the bottom of his heart, laying aside his prejudices and speaking the unbiased truth, will not say that women should have the same rights that he himself enjoys, and we will show you a narrow-minded sycophant, a cruel, selfish tyrant, or one that has not the moral courage to battle for a principle he knows to be just.

Equal rights before the law is justice to all, and the more education we give our children and ourselves, as a people, the sooner shall we have equal rights. May the glorious cause speed on.

In 1869, a suffrage society was organized in the city of Rochester, with fifty members, and another at Champlin; the homes of Mrs. Stearns and Mrs. Colburn. Pet.i.tions were again circulated and presented to the legislature early in the session of 1870. It had not then been demonstrated by Kansas, Michigan, Colorado, Nebraska and Oregon, that the votes of the ignorant cla.s.ses on this question would greatly outnumber those of the intelligent.

The legislature granted the prayer of the pet.i.tioners and pa.s.sed a bill for the submission of an amendment, providing that the women of the State, possessing the requisite qualifications, should also be allowed to vote upon the proposition, and that their votes should be counted as legal. The governor, Hon. Horace Austin, vetoed the bill, saying it was not pa.s.sed in good faith, and that the submission of the question at that time would be premature. In a private letter to Mrs. Stearns, the governor said: "Had the bill provided for the voting of the women, simply to get an expression of their wishes upon the question, without requiring their votes to be counted as legal in the adoption or rejection of it, the act would not have been vetoed, notwithstanding my second objection that it was premature."

In 1871, pet.i.tions to congress were circulated in Minnesota, asking a declaratory act to protect the women of the nation in the exercise of "the citizen's right to vote" under the new guarantees of the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments. During that year the National Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation appointed Mrs.

Addie Ballou its vice-president for Minnesota.

In 1872 a suffrage club was formed at Ka.s.son. Its three originators[434] entered into a solemn compact with each other that while they lived in that city there should always be an active suffrage society until the ballot for women should be obtained. Their secretary, Mrs. H. M. White, writes:

Although our club was at first called a ladies' literary society, the suspicion that its members wished to vote was soon whispered about. Our working members were for some years few in number, and our meetings far between. But our zeal never abating, we tried in later years many plans for making a weekly meeting interesting. The most successful was, that every one should bring something that had come to her notice during the week, which she should read aloud, thus furnishing topics of conversation in which all could join. This never failed to make an interesting and profitable meeting. And still later we invited speakers from other States. In our various courses of lectures, Ka.s.son audiences have enjoyed the brave utterances of Anna d.i.c.kinson, Julia Ward Howe, Susan B. Anthony, and others.

The pulpit of Ka.s.son we have found about evenly balanced for and against us; but those claiming to be friendly generally maintained a "masterly inactivity." Our editors have always shown us much kindness by gratuitously advertising our meetings and publishing our articles. Our members were all at the first meeting after school suffrage was granted to women, and one lady was elected director for a term of three years. The next year another lady was elected. While they were members of the board, a new and beautiful school house was erected, though some men said, "nothing in the line of building could be safely done until after the women's term of office had expired." Our co-workers have always treated us with great courtesy. In this respect our labors were as pleasant as in any church work.

At a temperance convention in 1874, a woman suffrage resolution was ably defended by Mrs. Julia Ballard Nelson and Mrs. Harriet A. Hobart; Mrs. Asa Hutchinson, of beloved memory, also spoke at this meeting.

As the women in several of the States voted on educational matters, the legislature of 1875 wished to confer the same privilege upon the women of Minnesota. But instead of doing so by direct legislation, as the other States had done, they pa.s.sed a resolution submitting a proposition for an amendment to the const.i.tution to the electors of the State, as follows:

An amendment to the State const.i.tution giving the legislature power to provide by law that any woman of the age of twenty-one years and upwards, may vote at any election held for the purpose of choosing any officers of schools; or upon any measure relating to schools; and also that any such woman shall be eligible to hold any office pertaining solely to the management of schools.

No effort was made to agitate the question, lest more should be effected in rousing the opposition than in educating the ma.s.ses in the few months intervening between the pa.s.sage of the bill and the election in November. Mrs. Stearns, however, as the day for the decision of the question approached, wishing to make sure of the votes of the intelligent men of the State, wrote to the editor of the _Pioneer Press_, the leading paper of Minnesota, begging him to urge his readers to do all in their power to secure the adoption of the amendment. The request was complied with, and the editor in a private letter, thanking Mrs. Stearns, said he "had quite forgotten such an amendment had been proposed."

At this last moment the question was, what could be done to secure the largest favorable vote. Finding that it would be legal, the friends throughout the State appealed to the committees of both political parties to have "For the amendment of Article VII. relating to electors--Yes," printed upon all their tickets. This was very generally done, and thereby the most ignorant men were led to vote as they should, with the intelligent, in favor of giving women a voice in the education of the children of the State, while all who were really opposed could scratch the "yes," and subst.i.tute a "no." When election day came, November 5, 1875, the amendment was carried by a vote of 24,340 for, to 19,468 against. The following legislature pa.s.sed the necessary law, and at the spring election of 1876, the women of Minnesota voted for school officers, and in several cases women were elected as directors.

I have given these details because the great wonder has been how the combined forces of ignorance and vice failed to vote down this amendment, as they always have done every other proposition for the extension of suffrage to women in this and every other State where the question has been submitted to a popular vote. I believe our success was largely, if not wholly, attributable to our studied failure to agitate the question, and the affirmative wording of all the tickets of both parties, by which our bitterest opponents forgot the question was to be voted upon, and the ignorant cla.s.ses who could not, or did not read their ballots, voted unthinkingly for the measure.

In the cities the school officers are elected at the regular munic.i.p.al elections usually held in the spring, while in the rural districts and smaller villages they are chosen at school meetings in the autumn. In East Minneapolis, Hon. Richard Chute, chairman of the Republican nominating convention, having, without their knowledge, secured the nomination of Mrs. Charlotte O.

VanCleve[435] and Mrs. Charlotte S. Winch.e.l.l[436] as school directors, called a meeting of the women of the city to aid in their election. It was a large and enthusiastic gathering. Mrs.

Mary C. Peckham presided, Mrs. Stearns of Duluth, and Mrs.

Pillsbury, wife of the governor, made stirring speeches, after which the candidates were called upon, and responded most acceptably. When election day came, the names of Mrs. VanCleve and Mrs. Winch.e.l.l received a handsome majority of the votes of their districts. A correspondent in the _Ballot-Box_ said:

The women of Minnesota are rejoicing in the measure of justice vouchsafed them,--the right to vote and hold office in school matters. Two hundred and seventy women voted in Minneapolis, the governor's wife among others. Although it rained all day they went to the polls in great numbers.

Including both East and West Minneapolis, fully 1,000 women voted; and while the numbers in other cities and villages were not so great, they were composed of the more intelligent. In St.

Charles, where Dr. Adaline Williams was elected to the school-board, some of the gentlemen requested her to resign, on the ground that she had not been properly elected. Her reply was, "If I have not been elected, I have no need to resign; and if I have been elected, I do not choose to resign." But to satisfy those who doubted, she proposed that another election should be held, which resulted in an overwhelming majority for the Doctor.

As the law says women are "eligible to any office pertaining solely to the management of schools," one might be elected as State superintendent of public instruction. There have been many women elected to the office of county superintendent, and in several counties they have been twice reelected,[437] and wherever women have held school offices, they have been reported as doing efficient service. Although the law provided that women might "vote at any election for the purpose of choosing any officers of schools," the attorney-general gave an opinion that it did not ent.i.tle them to vote for county superintendent; hence "an act to ent.i.tle women to vote for county superintendent of schools," was pa.s.sed by the legislature of 1885.

The ladies' city school committee. Miss A. M. Henderson, chairman, secured the appointment of a committee of seven women in Minneapolis, to meet with a like number of men from each of the political parties, to select such members of the school-board as all could agree upon. Having thus aided in the nominations, women were interested in their election. In 1881 Mrs. Merrill and Miss Henderson stood at the polls all day and electioneered for their candidates. It was said that their efforts not only decided the choice of school officers, but elected a temperance alderman.

In many cities of the State the temperance women exert a great influence at the polls in persuading men to vote for the best town-officers. At the special election held in Duluth for choosing school officers, one of the judges of election, and the clerks at each of the polling places have for the last two years been women who were teachers in our public schools.

The early homestead law of Minnesota ill.u.s.trates how easily men forget to bestow the same rights upon women that they carefully secure to themselves. In 1869, the "protectors of women" enacted a law which exempted a homestead from being sold for the payment of debts so long as the man who held it might live, while it allowed his widow and children to be turned out penniless and homeless. It was not until 1875 that this law was so amended that the exemption extended to the widow and fatherless children.

In 1877, a law was pa.s.sed which gave the widow an absolute t.i.tle--or the same t.i.tle her husband had--to one-third of all the real estate, exclusive of the homestead, and of that, it gave her the use, during her lifetime. So that now the widow has the absolute ownership, instead of the life use of one-third of whatever she and her husband may have together earned and saved.

That is, should there be any real estate left, over and above the homestead, after paying all the husband's debts, she now has, not merely the difference, as heretofore, between the amount of the tax and the income on one-third, but she may avoid the tax and other costs of keeping it, by selling her third, if she prefers, and putting the money at interest. The law still puts whatever may be left of the other two-thirds, after payment of debts, into the hands of the probate judge and others, and the interest thereof, or even the princ.i.p.al, may go to reward them for their services, or, if falling into honest hands, it may be left for the support and education of the children.

The legislature of 1877 submitted a const.i.tutional amendment giving women a vote on the temperance question. This seemed likely to be carried by default of agitation, as was that of school suffrage, until within a few weeks of the election, when the liquor interest combined all its forces of men and money and defeated it by a large majority. The next year the temperance people made a strong effort to get the proposition re-submitted, but to no purpose.

In 1879, acting upon the plan proposed to all the States by the National a.s.sociation, we pet.i.tioned for the adoption of a joint resolution asking congress to submit to the several State legislatures an amendment to the National const.i.tution, prohibiting the disfranchis.e.m.e.nt of woman. Mrs. Stearns and others followed up the pet.i.tions with letters to the most influential members, in which they argued that the legislatures of the States, not the rank and file of the electors, ought to decide this question; and further, that the same congress that had granted woman the privilege of pleading a case before the Supreme Court of the United States would doubtless pa.s.s a resolution submitting to the legislatures the decision of the question of her right to have her opinion on all questions counted at the ballot-box. The result was a majority of six in the Senate in favor of the resolution, while in the House there was a majority of five against it.

Since 1879, our legislature has met biennially. In 1881 the temperance women of the State again pet.i.tioned for the right to vote on the question of licensing the sale of liquor. Failing to get that, or a prohibitory law, they became more than ever convinced of the necessity of full suffrage. The annual meetings of the State Union[438] have ever since been spoken of by the press as "suffrage conventions," because they always pa.s.s resolutions making the demand.

Mr. L. Bixby, editor of the _State Temperance Review_, gives several columns to the temperance and suffrage societies. Mrs.

Helen E. Gallinger, the editor of these departments, is a lady of great ability and earnestness. Mr. Charles H. Dubois, editor of _The Spectator_, gives ample s.p.a.ce in his columns to notes of women. Miss Mary C. Le Duc is connected with _The Spectator_.

Other journals have aided our cause, though not in so p.r.o.nounced a way. Mrs. C. F. Bancroft, editor of the _Mantorville Express_, and Mrs. Bella French, of a county paper at Spring Valley, Mrs.

Annie Mitch.e.l.l, the wife of one editor and the mother of another, for many years their business a.s.sociate, have all given valuable services to our cause, while pecuniarily benefiting themselves.

The necessity of finding a voice when something needed to be said, and of using a pen when something needed to be written, has developed considerable talent for public speaking and writing among the women of this State.[439]

All our State inst.i.tutions are favorable to coeducation, and give equal privileges to all. The Minnesota University has been open to women since its foundation, and from 1875 to 1885 fifty-six young women were graduated with high honor to themselves and their s.e.x.[440] Miss Maria L. Sanford has been professor of rhetoric and elocution for many years. The faculties of the State Normal Schools are largely composed of women. Hamline University and Carlton College are conducted on principles of true equality.

At Carlton Miss Margaret Evans is preceptress and teacher of modern languages. Of the Rochester High School, Miss Josephine Hegeman is princ.i.p.al; of Wasioga, Miss C. T. Atwood; of Eyota Union School, Miss Adell M'Kinley.[441]

For many years Mrs. M. R. Smith was employed as State Librarian.

Mrs. H. J. M'Caine for the past ten years has been librarian at St. Paul, with Miss Grace A. Spaulding as a.s.sistant. Among the engrossing and enrolling clerks of our legislature, Miss Alice Weber is the only lady's name we find, though the men holding those offices usually employ a half dozen women to a.s.sist them in copying, allowing each two-thirds of the price paid by the State, or ten cents per folio.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sarah Burger Stearns]

In this State the suffrage cause has had the sympathy of not a few n.o.ble women in the successful practice of the healing art; thus lending their influence for the political emanc.i.p.ation of their s.e.x, while blessing the community with their medical skill.