The History of Woman Suffrage Volume III Part 102

JUSTICE.

Mr. Pickler, who had taken an active part in the discussion on the amendment, received many letters of thanks from the friends of woman suffrage throughout the nation, and made his acknowledgments in the following cordial letter to Mrs. Matilda Joslyn Gage:

FAULKTON, D. T., April 20, 1885.

_Matilda Joslyn Gage, Syracuse, N. Y._:

DEAR MADAM: Your kind letter addressed to me on the Woman Suffrage bill, at Bismarck, would have been earlier acknowledged had it not been that I suffered quite a severe illness upon my return from the legislature. I beg to a.s.sure you that words of encouragement from such able and distinguished personages as yourself have been highly appreciated in my effort to secure suffrage for women in Dakota. I am half inclined to think that your indication as to a coming political party, with woman suffrage as one plank in its platform, may not be without foundation.

I introduced the bill in the Dakota legislature, having previously supported a like measure in the Iowa legislature, really without consultation with any one, or without knowledge as to the sentiment of the members upon the question. I have had my convictions since my college days that simple justice demands that woman should have the ballot, and in this opinion I am warmly seconded by my wife, who desires to vote, as I think all sensible women should. I was pleased with the favor the bill received, and after a week or two believed it possible to have it pa.s.s the House, with constant exertion and watchfulness. Those who at first laughed at the idea, learning I was very much in earnest, stopped to consider and to discuss, and finally came to vote for it.

It pa.s.sed the House, and after considerable difficulty in getting it out of the hands of an adverse committee in the Council, who insisted on having it referred to them, it pa.s.sed with an amendment "to submit to a vote of the people." I managed to have the House refuse to concur in this amendment, which resulted in a conference committee, five out of six of whom reported in favor of the Council receding from their amendment, which they did, and yet, after all, and when we thought it safe, it was vetoed. Few, if any, supposed that Governor Pierce, a governor only appointed over us less than six months, would place himself a barrier in the way of the will of the people, and opposed to the advancement of human rights. I deeply regret that he did not rise to the grandest opportunity of his life, but he failed to do so.

Your words were particularly encouraging, being personally interested in Dakota as you are, and I dare say you will bear witness that we have an intelligent people, and a great many good women, land-owners and property-holders, who should have a voice in the taxation of their property, real and personal. We shall not give it up; we shall continue in the work, not doubting that success will finally crown our efforts. Our const.i.tution is not yet formed, and if ever the political parties cease to exercise their tyranny over us, by allowing us to be admitted as a State, we shall endeavor at least to secure it so the legislature may grant or prescribe the qualifications of voters without requiring a change in the const.i.tution.

Will you visit Dakota again? In another contest we would be much aided by your presence and a.s.sistance, confidently believing that "Heaven will one day free us from this slavery." If your children[456] reside in this section of the territory, I should be pleased to form their acquaintance. Again thanking you for your kind words, I am,

Yours truly, J. A. PICKLER.

As Dakota has thus deliberately trampled upon the rights of one-half her people, it is to be hoped that congress will not admit her into the Union until that odious word "male" is stricken from her const.i.tution.

FOOTNOTES:

[453] These counties are Union, Lincoln, Clay, Minnehaha, Moody, Deuel, Codington, Ca.s.s, Walsh, Grand Forks, Pembina, Barnes, Lawrence and Hutchinson.

[454] Since 1882 Mrs. Bones has held the office of deputy-clerk of the District Court of Day county; Mrs. Washburn was appointed to her office in 1884; Miss Elizabeth M. Cochrane, appointed by Judge Seward Smith, is clerk of the District Court of Falk county; Mrs.

Virginia A. Wilkins is deputy-clerk of the District Court of Hand county; Mrs. Dutton, deputy county-clerk, and Mrs. Hanson deputy-sheriff of Day county; and Mrs. Pease is deputy-receiver of the Watertown Land-office.

[455] _Yeas_--Barnes, Blackmore, Coe, Bayard, Clark, Dermody, Gregg, Hutson, Johnson, Miller, McCall, Parshall, Pierce, Roach, Southwick, Smith, Stebbins, J. P. Ward, Huntington, Hutchinson, Langan, Martin, Morgan, Pickler, Riddell, Steele, Stevens, Sprague, Stewart--29. _Nays_--Davison, Hobart, Larson, Mcc.u.mber, Oliver, Pugh, Ruger, Strong, Eldridge, Helvig, Myron, McHugh, Runkle, Swanton, Van Osdell, Williams, Mark Ward, Mr. Speaker--18.

[456] Mrs. Gage has a son and daughter residing in Dakota, both well educated, superior young people, whose influence will, no doubt, be felt in every progressive movement in that State. Mrs.

Gage's children sympathize with their mother in her broad, liberal views on all questions.--[E. C. S.

CHAPTER XLIX.

NEBRASKA.

Clara Bewick Colby--Nebraska Came into the Possession of the United States, 1803--The Home of the Dakotas--Organized as a Territory, 1854--Territorial Legislature--Mrs. Amelia Bloomer Addresses the House--Gen. Wm. Larimer, 1856--A Bill to Confer Suffrage on Woman--Pa.s.sed the House--Lost in the Senate--Const.i.tution Harmonized with the Fourteenth Amendment--Admitted as a State March 1, 1867--Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony Lecture in the State, 1867--Mrs. Tracy Cutler, 1870--Mrs.

Esther L. Warner's Letter--Const.i.tutional Convention, 1871--Woman Suffrage Amendment Submitted--Lost by 12,676 against, 3,502 for--Prolonged Discussion--Const.i.tutional Convention, 1875--Gra.s.shoppers Devastate the Country--_Inter-Ocean_, Mrs.

Harbert--Omaha _Republican_, 1876--Woman's Column Edited by Mrs.

Harriet S. Brooks--"Woman's Kingdom"--State Society formed, January 19, 1881, Mrs. Brooks President--Mrs. Dinsmoore, Mrs.

Colby, Mrs. Brooks, before the Legislature--Amendment again Submitted--Active Canva.s.s of the State, 1882--First Convention of the State a.s.sociation--Charles F. Manderson--Unreliable Pet.i.tions--An Unfair Count of Votes for Woman Suffrage--Amendment Defeated--Conventions in Omaha--Notable Women in the State--Conventions--_Woman's Tribune_ Established in 1883.

Clara Bewick Colby, the historian for Nebraska, is of English parentage, and came to Wisconsin when eight years of age. In her country home, as one of a large family, she had but scant opportunities for attending the district school, but her father encouraged and a.s.sisted his children to study in the winter evenings, and in this way she fitted herself to teach in country schools. After a few terms she entered, the State University at Madison, and while there made a constant effort to secure equal privileges and opportunities for the students of her s.e.x. She was graduated with honors in 1869, and at once became a teacher of history and Latin in the inst.i.tution. She was married to Leonard W.

Colby, a graduate of the same university, and moved to Beatrice, Nebraska, in 1872. Amidst the hardships of pioneer life in a new country, the young wife for a season found her family cares all-absorbing, but her taste for study, her love of literature and her natural desire to improve the conditions about her, soon led her to work up an interest in the establishment of a library and course of lectures. She afterwards edited a department in the Beatrice _Express_ called "Woman's Work," and in 1883 she started _The Woman's Tribune_, a paper whose columns show that Mrs. Colby has the true editorial instinct. For several years she has been deeply interested in the movement for woman's enfranchis.e.m.e.nt, devoting her journal to the advocacy of this great reform. In addition to her cares as housekeeper[457] and editor, Mrs. Colby has also lectured extensively in many States, east and west, not only to popular audiences, but before legislative and congressional committees.

In her description of Nebraska and the steps of progress in woman's civil and political rights, Mrs. Colby says:

Nebraska makes its first appearance in history as part of Louisiana and belonging to Spain. Seized by France in 1683, ceded to Spain in 1762; again the property of France in 1800, and sold to the United States in 1803; the shifting ownership yet left no trace on that interior and inaccessible portion of Louisiana now known as Nebraska. It was the home of the Dakotas, who had come down from the north pushing the earlier Indian races before them.

Every autumn when _Heyokah_, the Spirit of the North, puffed from his huge pipe the purpling smoke "enwrapping all the land in mellow haze," the Dakotas gathered at the Great Red Pipestone Quarry for their annual feast and council. These yearly excursions brought them in contact with the fur traders, who in turn roamed the wild and beautiful country of the Niobrara, returning thence to Quebec laden with pelts. With the exception of a few military posts, the first established in 1820 where the town of Fort Calhoun now stands, Nebraska was uninhabited by white people until the gold hunters of 1849 pa.s.sed through what seemed to them an arid desert, as they sought their Eldorado in the mountains beyond. Disappointed and homesick, many of the emigrants retraced their steps, and found their former trail through Nebraska marked by sunflowers, the luxuriance of which evidenced the fertility of the soil, and encouraged the travelers to settle within its borders.

Nebraska became an organized territory by the Kansas-Nebraska bill in 1854, including at first Dakota, Idaho and Colorado, from which it was separated in 1863. The early settlers were courageous, keeping heart amid attacks of savages, and devastations of the fire-demon and the locust. Published history is silent concerning the part that women took in this frontier life, but the tales told by the fireside are full of the endurance and heroism of wives whose very isolation kept them hand to hand, shoulder to shoulder, and thought to thought with their husbands. It is not strange then that the men of those early days inclined readily to the idea of sharing the rights of self-government with women who had with them left home and kindred and the comforts of the older States. But it is remarkable, and proof that the thought belongs to the age, that, thirty years ago, when the discussion of woman's status was still new in Ma.s.sachusetts and New York, and only seven years after the first woman-suffrage convention ever held, here--half way across a continent, in a country almost unheard of, and with but scant communication with the older parts of the Republic--this instinctive justice should have crystalized into legislative action.

In December, 1855, an invitation was extended by the territorial legislature to Mrs. Amelia Bloomer of Council Bluffs, to deliver an address on woman's rights, in the Hall of the House of Representatives. This invitation was signed by twenty-five members of the legislature and was accepted by Mrs. Bloomer for January 8. The following pleasing account of this address and its reception was written by an Omaha correspondent of the Council Bluffs _Chronotype_ of that date:

Mrs. Amelia Bloomer, who had been formally invited by members of the legislature and others, arrived at the door of the state-house at 7 o'clock, P. M., and by the gallantry of Gen. Larimer, a pa.s.sage was made for her to the platform.

The house had been crowded for some time with eager expectants to see the lady and listen to the arguments which were to be adduced as the fruitage of female thought and research. When all had been packed into the house who could possibly find a place for the sole of the foot, Mrs. Bloomer arose, amid cheers. We watched her closely, and saw that she was perfectly self-possessed--not a nerve seemed to be moved by excitement, and the voice did not tremble. She arose in the dignity of a true woman, as if the importance of her mission so absorbed her thoughts that timidity or bashfulness were too mean to entangle the mental powers. She delivered her lecture in a pleasing, able, and I may say, eloquent manner that enchained the attention of her audience for an hour and a half. A _man_ could not have beaten it.

In mingling with the people next day, we found that her argument had met with much favor. As far as property rights are concerned, all seemed to agree with the lady that the laws of our country are wrong, and that woman should receive the same protection as man. All we have time to say now is, that Mrs. Bloomer's arguments on woman's rights are unanswerable. We may doubt it is policy for women to vote, but who can draw the line and say that naturally she has not a right to do so? Mrs. Bloomer, though a little body, is among the great women of the United States; and her keen, intellectual eye seems to flash fire from a fountain that will consume the stubble of old theories until woman is placed in her true position in the enjoyment of equal rights and privileges. Her only danger is in asking too much.

ONEIDA.

Eight days after Mrs. Bloomer's address, Hon. Jerome Hoover, member for the counties of Nemaha and Richardson, introduced in the House a bill to confer suffrage equally upon women. The bill was put upon its third reading, January 25, and was earnestly championed by General William Larimer of Douglas county, formerly of Pittsburgh, Pa. It pa.s.sed by a vote of 14 to 11.[458] The result of the pa.s.sage of the bill by the House was graphically described by the _Chronotype_ of January 30:

On Friday afternoon and evening quite an excitement took place, which resulted in offering an insult to one of the ablest members of the legislature, but which, while it reflected no dishonor upon the person against whom it was aimed, should cover the perpetrators with lasting shame. We will state briefly the facts as we have heard them.

The bill giving woman the right to vote came up at 11 o'clock, by a special order of the House. A number of ladies entered the hall to listen to the proceedings. General Larimer spoke eloquently and ably in favor of the bill, making, perhaps, the best speech that could be made on that side of the question. On the vote being taken, it stood--ayes 14, nays 11. The bill was then sent to the Council, where it was referred to the Committee on Elections. Its pa.s.sage by the House of Representatives created a great deal of talk, and several members threatened to resign. At the evening session J. S. Morton, W. E. Moore, A. F. Salisbury and L. L. Bowen came into the House and proposed to present General Larimer with a petticoat, which did not tend much to allay the excitement. The General, of course, was justly indignant at such treatment, as were also the other members. The proposal was characteristic of the prime mover in it, and we are astonished that the other gentlemen named should have been willing to a.s.sociate themselves with him in offering this indignity to the oldest and most respected member of the body--a man who was elected to the station he has so ably filled by the unanimous vote of the people of Douglas county. General Larimer had a perfect right to advocate or oppose the bill according to his own sense of duty, and any man, or set of men, who would attempt to cast insult or ridicule upon him for so doing, is worthy only of the contempt of decent people. In saying this we, of course, express no opinion on the merits of the bill itself.

The bill was taken up in the Council, read twice, and referred to the Committee on Elections, whose chairman, Mr. Cowles, reported it back without amendment, and recommended its pa.s.sage. This being the last day of the session, the bill could not come up again. The _Chronotype_, after the adjournment, commented as follows:

The bill granting women the right to vote, which had pa.s.sed the House, was read the first and second time in the Council and referred to the Committee on Elections, where it now remains for want of time to bring it up again. A gentleman who was opposed to the pa.s.sage of a bill to locate the seat of justice of Washington county, obtained the floor, and delivered a speech of many hours on some unimportant bill then under consideration, in order to "kill time" and prevent the Washington county bill from coming up. The hour for adjournment _sine die_ arrived before he concluded, and the Woman Suffrage bill, and many others of great importance, remained upon the clerk's table without being acted upon. It is admitted by every one that want of time only defeated the pa.s.sage of the bill through the Council.

The citizens of Nebraska are ready to make a trial of its provisions, which speaks volumes for the intelligence of the free and independent squatters of this beautiful territory.

Mrs. Bloomer says that a.s.surance was given by members of the Council that the bill would have pa.s.sed that body triumphantly had more time been allowed, or had it been introduced earlier in the session. The general sentiment was in favor of it, and the gentlemen who talked the last hours away to kill other bills were alone responsible for its defeat. Mrs. Bloomer followed up her work by lectures in Omaha and Nebraska City two years later.

The exigencies attending the settlement of the territory and the absorbing interests of the civil war occupied the next decade.

The character of the settlers may be inferred from the fact that, with only about 5,000 voters, Nebraska gave over 3,000 soldiers for the defense of the Union and of their home borders, where the Indians had seized the occasion to break out into active hostilities. The war over, Nebraska sought to be admitted as a State, and a const.i.tution was prepared on the old basis of white male suffrage. Congress admitted Nebraska, but provided that the act should not take effect until the const.i.tution should be changed to harmonize with the fourteenth amendment. After some discussion the condition was accepted, and Nebraska was thus the first State to recognize in its const.i.tution the sovereignty of all male persons. Some of the debates of this time indicate that the appreciation of human rights was growing, nor were allusions wanting making a direct application of the principle to women.

The debates and resolutions connected with the ratification of the fourteenth amendment are historically and logically connected with the growth of the idea of woman's political equality. The man who, from regard for justice and civil liberties, advocates the right of franchise for additional cla.s.ses of men, easily extends the thought until it embraces woman. On the other hand the man who sees men enfranchised whom he deems unworthy to use the ballot, thinks it a disgrace to withhold it from intelligent women. Gov. Alvin Saunders,[459] in his message urging the ratification of the fourteenth amendment said:

The day, in my opinion, is not far distant when property qualifications, educational qualifications, and color qualifications, as precedent to the privilege of voting, will be known no more by the American people, but that intelligence and manhood will be the only qualifications necessary to ent.i.tle an American citizen to the privilege of an elector.

Later, Acting-governor A. S. Paddock[459] in his message said:

I should hail with joy a radical change in the rule of suffrage which would give the franchise to intelligence and patriotism wherever found, regardless of the color of the possessor.

The majority report of the committee to whom was referred that portion of the governor's message which related to rights of suffrage, was as follows:

We hold that the dogma of partial suffrage is a dangerous doctrine, and contrary to the laws of nature and the letter and spirit of the Declaration of Independence.

[Signed:] ISAAC WILES, WILLIAM DAILEY, GEORGE CROW.

A minority report was brought in by S. M. Curran and Aug. F.

Harvey. On its rejection Mr. Harvey introduced this resolution: