The History of Woman Suffrage Volume IV Part 55

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 Ma.s.sachusetts 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 a.s.sertion that advocates of the ballot for the fair s.e.x 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. h.o.a.r 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, n.o.ble, precious Aunt f.a.n.n.y, 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, s.e.x, 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 st.u.r.dy 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.

G.o.d'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 cla.s.s in society, differing from men in character, position and interest.

Every cla.s.s 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 appet.i.te and pa.s.sion; 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 a.s.sociation.

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 n.o.ble mother in Israel, agreed with her, though from a different point of view, while Frederick Dougla.s.s 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 a.s.sociation 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 quant.i.ties 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 a.s.sociation began the publication of a series of tracts under the t.i.tle of the _Woman Suffrage Leaflet_. The a.s.sociation 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 a.s.sociation, 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, Ma.s.sachusetts.

_1889._--In January these delegates met with those from the National a.s.sociation 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 const.i.tutional conventions which were preparing for Statehood in Dakota, Washington, Montana and Idaho. It said in part:

The undersigned, officers of the American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation, though not properly ent.i.tled 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 cla.s.s that is wholly without political rights, you will, we feel sure, pardon our entreaty that in building your new const.i.tution you will secure for women equal political rights with men.

The men of the older States inherited their const.i.tutions, with the odious features which the common law imposes upon women. But you are making const.i.tutions. 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 grat.i.tude of women for all time, as our fathers won the grat.i.tude 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, ill.u.s.trating 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 cla.s.s 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 cla.s.ses 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 inst.i.tutions imperiled by the dangerous cla.s.ses to whom you entrusted the power which you denied to orderly and good women.

Henry B. Blackwell, secretary of the a.s.sociation, visited North Dakota, Montana and Washington, and personally labored with the members of the three const.i.tutional 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. h.o.a.r, William Lloyd Garrison and others of Ma.s.sachusetts, commending his mission and expressing the hope that the new States would incorporate equal suffrage in their const.i.tutions. 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 a.s.sociation.

[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 a.s.sociation 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, Ma.s.s. For early accounts of this organization see History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. II, Chap. XXVI. [Editors of History.

[136] Mrs. Helen Ekin Starrett, princ.i.p.al 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 Const.i.tutional 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] Ma.s.sachusetts 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, Ma.s.s.; 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. Cas.e.m.e.nt, O.; Mary F. Thomas, M. D., Ind.; Miss Ada C. Sweet, Ill.; Lucy C.

Stansell, Mich.; Sylvia G.o.ddard, Ky.; Mrs. A. E. d.i.c.kinson, 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, Ma.s.s.; 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 Ma.s.sachusetts; 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.