i

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WOMAN SUFFRAGE

EDITED BT

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON,

SUSAN B. ANTHONY, AND

MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE.

ILLUSTRATED WITH STEEL ENGRAVINGS.

THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. III. 1876-1885.

'WOMEN ARE CITIZENS OF THE VNITED STATES, ENTITLED TO ALL THE RIGHTS, PRIVILEGES AMD IMMUNITIES GUARANTEED TO CITIZENS BY THE NATIONAL CONSTITUTION."

SUSAN B. ANTHONY.

ROCHESTER, N. Y. : CHARLES MANN.

LONDON : 25 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN.

PARIS : G. FISCHBACHER, 33 RVE DE SEINE.

1887.

Charles Mann, Printer,

Rochester, >••

PREFACE.

\

THE labors of those who have edited these volumes are not only finished as far as this work extends, but if three- score years and ten be the usual limit of human life, all our earthly endeavors must end in the near future. After faithfully collecting material for several years, and making the best selections our judgment has dictated, we are painfully conscious of many imperfections the critical reader will perceive. But since stereotype plates will not reflect our growing sense of perfection, the lavish praise of friends as to the merits of these pages will have its antidote in the defects we ourselves discover. We may however without egotism express the belief that this volume will prove specially interesting in having a large number of contributors from England, France, Canada and the United States, giving personal experiences and the progress of legislation in their respective localities.

Into younger hands we must soon resign our work; but as long as health and vigor remain, we hope to publish a pamphlet report at the close of each congressional term, containing whatever may be accomplished by State and National legislation, which can be readily bound in volumes similar to these, thus keeping a full record of the prolonged battle until the final victory shall be achieved. To what extent these publications may be multiplied depends on when the day of woman's emancipation shall dawn.

For the completion of this work we are indebted to Eliza Jackson Eddy, the worthy daughter of that noble

iv Preface.

philanthropist, Francis Jackson. He and Charles F. Hovey are the only men who have ever left a generous bequest to the woman suffrage movement. To Mrs. Eddy, who bequeathed to our cause two-thirds of her large fortune, belong all honor and praise as the first woman who has given alike her sympathy and her wealth to this momentous and far-reaching reform. This heralds a turn in the tide of benevolence, when, instead of building churches and monu- ments to great men, and endowing colleges for boys, women will make the education and enfranchisement of their own sex the chief object of their lives.

The three volumes now completed we leave as a precious heritage to coming generations ; precious, because they so clearly illustrate — in her ability to reason, her deeds of heroism and her sublime self-sacrifice — that woman pre- eminently possesses the three essential elements of sovereignty as defined by Blackstone : ''wisdom, goodness and power." This has been to us a work of love, written without recompense and given without price to a large circle of friends. A thousand copies have thus far been distributed among our coadjutors in the old world and the new. An- other thousand have found an honored place in the leading libraries, colleges and universities of Europe and America, from which we have received numerous testimonies of their Value as a standard work of reference for those who are investigating this question. Extracts from these pages are being translated into every living language, and, like so many missionaries, are bearing the glad gospel of woman's emancipation to all civilized nations.

Since the inauguration of this reform, propositions to ex- tend the right of suffrage to women have been submitted to the popular vote in Kansas, Michigan, Colorado, Ne- braska and Oregon, and lost by large majorities in all ; while, by a simple act of legislature, Wyoming, Utah and Washington territories have enfranchised their women without going through the slow process of a constitutional

Preface. v

amendment. In New York, the State that has led this movement, and in which there has been a more continued agitation than in any other, we are now pressing on the legislature the consideration that it has the same power to extend the right of suffrage to women that it has so often exercised in enfranchising different classes of men.

Eminent publicists have long conceded this power to State legislatures as well as to congress, declaring that women as citizens of the United States have the right to vote, and that a simple enabling act is all that is needed. The con- stitutionality of such an act was never questioned until the legislative power was invoked for the enfranchisement of women. We who have studied our republican institutions and understand the limits of the executive, judicial and legislative branches of the government, are aware that the legislature, directly representing the people, is the primary source of power, above all courts and constitutions. Re- search into the early history of this country shows that in line with English precedent, women did vote in the old colonial days and in the original thirteen States of the Union. Hence we are fully awake to the fact that our struggle is not for the attainment of a new right, but for the restitution of one our fore-mothers possessed and ex- ercised.

All thoughtful readers must close these volumes with a deeper sense of the superior dignity, self-reliance and inde- pendence that belong by nature to woman, enabling her to rise above such multifarious persecutions as she has en- countered, and with persistent self-assertion to maintain her rights. In the history of the race there has been no struggle for liberty like this. Whenever the interest of the ruling classes has induced them to confer new rights on a subject class, it has been done with no effort on the part of the latter. Neither the American slave nor the English laborer demanded the right of suffrage. It was given in both cases to strengthen the liberal party. The

vi Preface.

philanthropy of the few may have entered into those re- forms, but political expediency carried both measures. Women, on the contrary, have fought their own battles ; and in their rebellion against existing conditions have in- augurated the most fundamental revolution the world has ever witnessed. The magnitude and multiplicity of the changes involved make the obstacles in the way of success seem almost insurmountable.

The narrow self-interest of all classes is opposed to the sovereignty of woman. The rulers in the State are not willing to share their power with a class equal if not superior to themselves, over which they could never hope for absolute control, and whose methods of government might in many respects differ from their own. The an- nointed leaders in the Church are equally hostile to free- dom for a sex supposed for wise purposes to have been subordinated by divine decree. The capitalist in the world of work holds the key to the trades and professions, and undermines the power of labor unions in their struggles for shorter hours and fairer wages, by substituting the cheap labor of a disfranchised class, that cannot organize its forces, thus making wife and sister rivals of husband and brother in the industries, to the detriment of both classes. Of the autocrat in the home, John Stuart Mill has well said : "No ordinary man is willing to find at his own fireside an equal in the person he calls wife." Thus society is based on this fourfold bondage of woman, making liberty and equality for her antagonistic to every organized institution- Where, then, can we rest the lever with which to lift one- half of humanity from these depths of degradation but on "that columbiad of our political life — the ballot — which makes every citizen who holds it a full-armed monitor"?

LIST OF ENGRAVINGS.

VOL. III.

PHCEBE W. COUZINS Frontispiece.

MARILLA M. RICHER page 112

FRANCES E. WILLARD 129

JANE H. SPOFFORD 192

HARRIET H. ROBINSON 273

PHEBE A. HANAFORD 337

ARMENIA S. WHITE 369

LILLIE DEVEREUX BLAKE 417

RACHEL G. FOSTER 465

CORNELIA C. HUSSEY 481

MAY WRIGHT SEWALL 545

ELIZABETH BOYNTON HARBERT 592

SARAH BURGER STEARNS 656

MARIETTA M. BONES 672

CLARA BEWICK COLBY 689

HELEN M. COUGAR 704

LAURA DEFORCE GORDON 753

ABIGAIL SCOTT DUNIWAY 769

CAROLINE E. MERRICK 801

MARY B. CLAY 817

MENTIA TAYLOR 833

PRISCILLA BRIGHT MCLAREN. 864

GEORGE SAND 896

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE CENTENNIAL YEAR — 1876.

The Dawn of the New Century — Washington Convention — Congressional Hear- ing— Woman's Protest — May Anniversary — Centennial Parlors in Philadelphia — Letters and Delegates to Presidential Conventions — 50,000 Documents sent out — The Centennial Autograph Book — The Fourth of July — Independence Square — Susan B. Anthony reads the Declaration of Rights — Convention in Dr. Furness' Church, Lucretia Mott, Presiding — The Hutchinson Family, John and Asa — The Twenty-eighth Anniversary, July 19, Edward M. Davis, Presiding — Letters, Ernestine L. Rose, Clarina I. H. Nichols — The Ballot- Box — Retrospect— The Woman's Pavilion I

CHAPTER XXVIII.

NATIONAL CONVENTIONS, HEARINGS AND REPORTS. 1877-1878-1879.

Renewed Appeal for a Sixteenth Amendment — Mrs. Gage Petitions for a Re- moval of Political Disabilities — Ninth Washington Convention, 1877 — Jane Grey Swisshelm — Letters, Robert Purvis, Wendell Phillips, Francis E. Abbott — 10,000 Petitions Referred to the Committee on Privileges and Elections by Special Request of the Chairman, Hon. O P. Morton, of Indiana — May An- niversary in New York — Tenth Washington Convention, 1878 — Frances E.\ Willard and 30,000 Temperance Women Petition Congress — 40,000 Petition) for a Sixteenth Amendment — Hearing before the Committee on Privileges and Elections — Madam Dahlgren's Protest — Mrs. Hooker's Hearing on Washing- ton's Birthday — Mary Clemmer's Letter to Senator Wadleigh — His Adverse Report — Thirtieth Anniversary, Unitarian Church, Rochester, N. Y., July 19, 1878 — The Last Convention Attended by Lucretia Mott — Letters, William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips — Church Resolution Criticised by Rev. Dr. Strong — International Women's Congress in Paris — Washington Convention, 1879 — Favorable Minority Report by Senator Hoar — U. S. Supreme Court Opened to Women — May Anniversary at St. Louis — Address of Welcome by Phoebe Couzins — Women in Council Alone — Letter from Josephine Butler, of England — Mrs. Stanton's Letter to The National Citizen and Ballot-Box . 57

CHAPTER XXIX.

CONGRESSIONAL REPORTS AND CONVENTIONS. I88o-l88l.

Why we Hold Conventions in Washington — Lincoln Hall Demonstration — Sixty- six Thousand Appeals — Petitions Presented in Congress — Hon. T. W. Ferry of

x. Contents.

Michigan in the Senate — Hon. Geo. B. Loiing of Massachusetts in the House — Hon. J. J. Davis of North Carolina Objected — Twelfth Washington Con- vention— Hearings before the Judiciary Committee of both Houses, 1880 — May Anniversary at Indianapolis — Series of Western Conventions — Presidential Nominating Conventions — Delegates and Addresses to each — Mass-Meeting at Chicago — Washington Convention, 1881 — Memorial Service to Lucretia Mott — Mrs. Stanton's Eulogy — Discussion in the Senate on a Standing Com- mittee— Senator McDonald of Indiana Champions the Measure — May Anni- versary in Boston — Conventions in the chief cities of New England . . . 150

CHAPTER XXX.

CONGRESSIONAL DEBATES AND CONVENTIONS. 1882-1883.

Prolonged Discussions in the Senate on a Special Committee to Look After the Rights of Women, Messrs. Bayard, Morgan and Vest in Opposition — Mr. Hoar Champions the Measure in the Senate, Mr. Reed in the House — Wash- ington Convention — Representative Orth and Senator Saunders on the Woman Suffrage Platform — Hearings Before Select Committees of Senate and House — Reception Given by Mrs. Spofford at the Riggs House — Philadelphia Con- vention— Mrs. Hannah Whitehall Smith's Dinner — Congratulations from the Central Committee of Great Britain — Majority and Minority Reports in the Senate — E. G. Lapham, J. Z. George — Nebraska Campaign — Conventions in Omaha — Joint Resolution Introduced by Hon. John D. White of Ken- tucky, Referred to the Select Committee — Washington Convention, January 24, 25, 26, 1883 — Majority Report in the House. .... . 198

CHAPTER XXXI.

MASSACHUSETTS.

The Woman's Hour — Lydia Maria Child Petitions Congress — First New England Convention — The New England, American and Massachusetts Associations — Woman's Journal — Bishop Gilbert Haven — The Centennial Tea-Party — County Societies — Concord Convention — Thirtieth Anniversary of the Wor- cester Convention — School Suffrage Association — Legislative Hearing — First Petitions — The Remonstrants Appear — Women in Politics — Campaign of 1872 — Great Meeting in Tremont Temple — Women at the Polls — Provisions of Former State Constitutions — Petitions, 1853 — School-Committee Suffrage, 1879 — Women Threatened with Arrest — Changes in the Laws — Woman Now Owns her own Clothing — Harvard Annex — Woman in the Professions — Sam- uel E. Sewall and William I. Bowditch — Supreme-Court Decisions — Sarah E. Wall — Francis Jackson — Julia Ward Howe — Mary E. Stevens — Lucia M. Peabody — Lelia Josephine Robinson — Eliza (Jackson) Eddy's Will . . . 265

CHAPTER XXXII.

CONNECTICUT.

Prudence Crandall — Eloquent Reformers — Petitions for Suffrage — The Com- mittee's Report — Frances Ellen Burr — Isabella Beecher Hooker's Reminis- cences— Anna Dickinson in the Republican Campaign — State Society Formed October 28, 29, 1869 — Enthusiastic Convention in Hartford — Governor Mar- shall Jewell — He recommends More Liberal Laws for Women — Society Formed in New Haven, 1871 — Governor Hubbard's Inaugural, 1877 — Samuel

Contents. xL

Bowles of the Springfield Republican — Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford, Chaplain, 1870— John Hooker, Esq., Champions the Suffrage Movement — The Smith Sisters — Mary Hall — Chief-Justice Park — Frances Ellen Burr — Hartford Equal Rights Club 316

CHAPTER XXXIII.

RHODE ISLAND.

Senator Anthony in North American Review — Convention in Providence— State Association organized, Paulina Wright Davis, President — Report of Elizabeth B. Chase — Women on School Boards — Women's Board of Visitors to the Penal and Correctional Institutions — Dr. Win. F. Channing — Miss Ida Lewis — Letter of Frederick A. Hinckley — Last Words of Senator Anthony . . . 339

CHAPTER XXXIV.

MAINE. •

Women on School Committees — Elvira C. Thorndyke — First Suffrage Society organized, 1868, Rockland — Portland Meeting, 1870 — John Neal — Judge Goddard — Colby University Open to Girls, August 12, 1871 — Mrs. Clara Hapgood Nash Admitted to the Bar, October 26, 1872 — Tax- Payers Protest — Ann F. Greeley, 1872 — March, 1872, Bill for Woman Suffrage Lost in the House, Passed in the Senate by Seven Votes — Miss Frank Charles, Register of Deeds — Judge Reddington — Mr. Randall's Motion — Moral Eminence of Maine — Convention in Granite Hall, Augusta, January, 1873, Hon. Joshua Nye, President — Delia A. Curtis — Opinions of the Supreme Court in Regard to Women Holding Offices — Governor Dingley's Message, 1875 — Convention, Representatives Hall, Portland, Judge Kingsbury, President, Feb. 12, '76 — The two Snow Families — Hon. T. B. Reed 351

CHAPTER XXXV.

NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Nathaniel P. Rogers — Parker Pillsbury — Galen Foster — The Ilutchinson Family — First Organized Action, 1868 — Concord Convention — William Lloyd Gar- rison's Letter — Rev. S. L. Blake Opposed — Rev. Mr. Sanborn in Favor — Concord Monitor — Armenia S. White — A Bill to Protect the Rights of Mar- ried Men — Minority and Majority Reports — Women too Ignorant to Vote — Republican State Convention — Women on School Committees, 1870 — Vot- ing at School District Meetings, 1878 — Mrs. White's Address — Mrs. Ricker on Prison Reform — Judicial Decision in Regard to Married Women, 1882 — Let- ter from Senator Blair 367

CHAPTER XXXVI.

VERMONT.

Clarina Howard Nichols— Council of Censors — Amending the Constitution— St. Andrew's Letter — Mr. Reed's Report — Convention Called — H. B. Blackwell on the Vermont Watchman — Mary A. Livermore in the IVoman s Journal — Sarah A. Gibbs' Reply to Rev. Mr. Holmes— School Suffrage, 1880 . . . 383

xii. Contents.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

NEW YORK — 1860-1885.

Saratoga Convention, July 13, 14, 1869 — State Society Formed, Martha C. Wright, President — The devolution Established, 1068 — Educational Move- ment— New York City Society, 1870, Charlotte B. \Vilbour, President — Presi- dential Campaign, 1872 — Hearings at Albany, 1873 — Constitutional Commis- sion— An Effort to Open Columbia College, President Barnard in Favor — Centennial Celebration, 1876 — School Officers — Senator Emerson of Monroe, 1877 — Governor Robinson's Veto — School Suffrage, 1880— Governor Cornell Recommended it in his Message — Stewart's Home for Working Women — Women as Police — An Act to Prohibit Disfranchisement — 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 395

CHAPTER XX*XVIII.

PENNSYLVANIA.

Carrie Burnham— The Canon and Civil Law the Source of Woman's Degradation — Women Sold with Cattle in 1768 — Women Arrested in Pittsburg — Mrs. Mc- Manus — Opposition to Women in Colleges and Hospitals; John W. Forney Vindicates their Rights — Ann Preston — Women in Dentistry — James Truman's Letter — Swarthmore College — Suffrage Association Formed in 1866, in Phila- delphia— John K. Wildman's Letter — Judge William S. Pierce — The Citizens' Suffrage Association, 333 Walnut Street, Edward M. Davis, President — Pe- titions to the Legislature — Constitutional Convention, 1873 — Bishop Simpson, Mary Grew, Sarah C. Hallowell, Matilda Hindman, Mrs. Stanton, Address the Convention — Messrs. Broomall and Campbell Debate with the Opposition — Amendment Making Women Eligible to School Offices — Two Women Elected to Philadelphia School Board, 1874 — The Wages of Married Women Protected — J. Edgar Thomson's Will — Literary Women as Editors — The Rev. Knox Little — Anne E. McDowell — Women as Physicians in Insane Asylums — The Fourteenth Amendment Resolution, iSSi — Ex-Gov. Hoyt's Lecture on Wy- oming

CHAPTER XXXIX.

NEW JERSEY.

Women Voted in the Early Days — Deprived of the Right by Legislative Enact- ment in 1807 — Women Demand the Restoration of Their Rights in 1868 — At the Polls in Vineland and Roseville Park — Lucy Stone Agitates the Question — State Suffrage Society Organized in 1867 — Conventions — A Memorial to the Legislature — Mary F. Davis — Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford — Political Science Club — Mrs. Cornelia C. Hussey — Orange Club, 1870 — Mrs. Devereux Blake gives the Oration, July 4, 1884 — Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell's Letter — The Laws of New Jersey in Regard to Property and Divorce — Constitutional Com- mission, 1873 — Trial of Rev. Isaac M. See — Women Preaching in his Pulpit — The Case Appealed — Mis. Jones, Jailoress — Legislative Hearings . . 476

Contents. xiii.

CHAPTER XL.

OHIO.

The First Soldiers' Aid Society — Mrs. Mendenhall — Cincinnati Equal Rights As- sociation, 1868 — Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital — Hon. J. M. Ashley — State Society, 1869 — Murat Halstead's Letter — Dayton Convention, 1870 — Women Protest Against Enfranchisement — Sarah Knowles Bolton — Statistics on Coeducation by Thomas Wentworth Higginson — Woman's Crusade, 1874 — Miriam M. Cole — Ladies' Health Association — Professor Curtis — Hos- pital for Women and Children, 1879 — Letter from J. D. Buck, M. D. — March, 1881, Degrees Conferred on Wromen — Toledo Association, 1869 — Sarah Langdon Williams — The Sunday Journal — The Ballot-Box — Constitu- tional Convention — Judge Waite — Amendment Making Women Eligible to Office — Mr. Voris, Chairman Special Committee on Woman Suffrage — State Convention, 1873 — Rev. Robert McCune — Centennial Celebration — Women Decline to Take Part — Correspondence — Newbury Association — Women Voting, 1871 — Sophia Ober Allen — Annual Meeting, Painesville, 1885 — State Society, Mrs. Frances M. Casement, President — Adelbert College . . . 491

CHAPTER XLL

MICHIGAN.

Women's Literary Clubs and Libraries — Mrs. Lucinda H. Stone — Classes of Girls in Europe — Ernestine L. Rose — Legislative Action, 1849-1885 — State Woman Suffrage Society, 1870— Annual Conventions — Northwestern Association — Wendell Phillips' Letter — Nannette Gardner votes — Catharine A. F. Stebbins Refused — Legislative Action — Amendments Submitted — An Active Canvas of the State by Women — Election Day — The Amendment Lost, 40,000 Men Voted in Favor — University at Ann Arbor Opened to Girls, 1869 — Kalamazoo Institute — J. A. B. Stone— Miss Madeline Stockwell and Miss Sarah Burger Applied for Admission to the University in 1857 — Episcopal Church Bill — Local Societies — Quincy — Lansing — St. Johns — Manistee — Grand Rapids— Sojourner Truth — Laura C. Haviland — Sybil Lawrence 513

CHAPTER XLII.

INDIANA.

The First WToman Suffrage Convention After the War, 1869 — Amanda M. Way — Annual Meetings, 1870-85, in the Larger Cities — Indianapolis Equal Suf- frage Society, 1878 — A Course of Lectures — In May, iSSo, National Conven- tion in Indianapolis — Zerelda G. Wallace — Social Entertainment — Governor Albert G. Porter — Susan B. Anthony's Birthday — Schuyler Colfax — Legislative Hearings — Temperance Wromen of Indiana — Helen M. Cougar — General As- sembly— Delegates to Political Conventions — Women Address Political Meet- ings— Important Changes in the Laws for Women, from iSooto 1884 — Col- leges Open to \Vomen — Demia Butler — Professors — Lawyers — Doctors — Min- isters— Miss Catharine Merrill — Miss Elizabeth Eaglestield — Rev. Prudence Le Clerc — Dr. Mary F. Thomas — Prominent Men and Women — George W. Julian — The Journals — Gertrude Garrison 533

xiv. Contents.

CHAPTER XLIII.

ILLINOIS.

Chicago a Great Commercial Centre — First Woman Suffrage Agitation, 1855 — A. J. Grover — Society at Earlville — Prudence Crandall — Sanitary Movement — Woman in Journalism — MyraBradwell — Excitement in Elmwood Church, 1868 — Mrs. Huldah Joy — Pulpit Utterances — Convention, 1869, Library Hall, Chicago— Anna Dickinson, Robert Laird Collier Debate — Manhood Suffrage Denounced by Mrs. Stan ton and Miss Anthony — Judge Charles B. Waite on the Constitutional Convention — Hearing before the Legislature — Western Suf- frage Convention, Mrs. Livermore, President — Annual Meeting at Blooming- ton — Women Eligible to School Offices — Evanston College — Miss Alta Hulett Medical Association — Dr. Sarah H ackett Stevenson— " Woman's Kingdom" in the Inter-Ocean — Mrs. Harbert — Centennial Celebration at Evanston — Temperance Petition, 180,000— Frances E. Willard — Social Science Associa- tion— Art Union — Jane Graham Jones at International Congress in Paris — Moline Association 559

CHAPTER XLIV.

MISSOURI.

Missouri the first State to Open Colleges of Law and Medicine to Woman — Lib- eral Legislation — Harriet Hosmer — Wayman Crow — Dr. Joseph N. McDowell — Works of Art — Women in the War — Adeline Couzins — Virginia L. Minor — Petitions — Woman Suffrage Association, May 8, 1867 — First Woman Suffrage Convention, Oct. 6, 1869 — Able Resolutions by Francis Minor — Action Asked for in the Methodist Church — Constitutional Convention — Mrs. Hazard's Re- port— National Suffrage Association, 1879 — Virginia L. Minor Before the Committee on Constitutional Amendments — Mrs. Minor Tries to Vote — Her Case in the Supreme Court — Mrs. Annie R. Irvine — "Oregon Woman's Union " — Miss Phoebe Couzins Graduates From the Law School, 1871 — Reception by Members of the Bar — Speeches — Dr. Walker — Judge Krum — Hon. Albert Todd — Ex-Governor E O. Stanard — Ex-Senator Henderson — Judge Reber— George M. Stewart — Mrs. Minor — Miss Couzins . . . 594

CHAPTER XLV.

IOWA.

Beautiful Scenery — Liberal in Politics and Reforms — Legislation for Women — No Right yet to Joint Earnings — Early Agitation — Frances Dana Gage, 1854 — Mrs. Amelia Bloomer Lectures in Council Bluffs, 1856— Mrs. Martha H. Brinkerhoff — Mrs. Annie Savery, 1868— County Associations Formed in 1869 — State Society Organized at Mt. Pleasant, 1870, Henry O'Connor, President — Mrs. Cutler Answers Judge Palmer — First Annual Meeting, Des Moines — Letter from Bishop Simpson — The State Register Complimentary — Mass- Meeting at the Capitol — Mrs. Savery and Mrs. Harbert — Legislative Action — Methodist and Universalist Churches Indorse Woman Suffrage — Republican Plank, 1874 — Governor Carpenter's Message, 1876 — Annual Meeting, 1882, Many Clergymen Present — Five Hundred Editors Interviewed — Miss Hind- man and Mrs. Campbell — Mrs. Callanan Interviews Governor Sherman, 1884 — Lawyers — Governor Kirkwood Appoints Women to Office — County Super- intendents— Elizabeths. Cook — Journalism — Literature— Medicine — Ministry — Inventions — President of a National Bank — The Heroic Kate Shelly — Tem- perance— Improvement in the Laws 6 12

Contents. xv.

CHAPTER XLVI.

WISCONSIN.

Progressive Legislation — The Rights of Married Women — The Constitution Shows Four Classes Having the Right to Vote — Woman Suffrage Agitation — C. L. Sholes' Minority Report, 1856 — Judge David Noggle and J. T. Mills' Minority Report, 1859 — State Association Formed, 1869 — Milwaukee Conven- tion— Dr. Laura Ross — Hearing Before the Legislature — Convention in Janes- ville, 1870 — State University — Elizabeth R. Wentworth — Suffrage Amend- ment, iSSo, '81, '82 — Rer. Olympia Brown, Racine, 1877 — Madam Anneke — Judge Ryan — Three Days' Convention at Racine, 1883 — Eveleen L. Ma- son— Dr. Sarah Munro — Rev. Dr. Corwin — Lavinia Godell, Lawyer — Angie King — Kate Kane . 638

CHAPTER XLVII.

MINNESOTA.

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 Swiss- helm, St. Cloud — Fourth of July Oration, 1866 — First Legislative Hearing, 1867 — Governor Austin's Veto — First Society at Rochester — Kasson — Almira W. Anthony— Mary P. Wheeler— Harriet M. White— The W. C. T. U.— Harriet A. Hobart — Literary and Art Clubs — School Suffrage, 1876 — Char- lotte O. Van Cleve and Mrs. C. S. Winchell Elected to School Board— Mrs. Governor Pillsbury — Temperance Vote, 1877 — Property Rights of Married Women — Women as Officers, Teachers, Editors, Ministers, Doctors, Lawyers. 649

CHAPTER XLVIII.

DAKOTA.

Influences of Climate and Scenery — Legislative Action, 1872 — Mrs. Marietta Bones — In February, 1879, School Suffrage Granted Women — Constitutional Convention, 1883 — Matilda Joslyn Gage Addressed a Letter to the Conven- tion and an Appeal to the Women of the State — Mrs. Bones Addressed the Convention in Person — The Effort to get the Word " Male " out of the Con- stitution Failed — Legislature of 1885 — Major Pickler Presents the Bill — Car- ried Through Both Houses — Governor Pierce's Veto — Major Pickler's Letter. 662

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. Lari- mer, 1856 — A Bill to Confer Suffrage on Women — Passed the House — Lost in the Senate — Constitution Harmonized with the Fourteenth Amendment — Admitted as a State March I, 1867 — Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony Lecture in the State, 1867 — Mrs. Tracy Cutler, 1870 — Mrs. Esther L. Warner's Letter — Constitutional Convention, 1871 — Woman Suffrage Amendment Submitted — Lost by 12,676 against, 3.502 for — Prolonged Discussion — Constitutional Con- vention, 1875 — Grasshoppers Devastate the Country — Inter-Ocean, Mrs. Har- bert — Omaha Republican, 1876 — Woman's Column Edited by Mrs. Harriet S.

xvi. Contents.

Brooks — "Woman's Kingdom" — State Society Formed, January 19, 1881, Mrs. Brooks President — Mrs. Dinsmoor, Mrs. Colby, Mrs. Brooks, before the Legislature — Amendment again Submitted — Active Canvass of the State, 1882 — First Convention of the State Association — Charles F. Manderson — Unreli- able Politicians — An Unfair Count of Votes for Woman Suffrage — Amendment Defeated — Conventions in Omaha — Notable Women in the State — Conven- tions— Woman's Tribune Established in 1883 670

CHAPTER L.

KANSAS.

Effect of the Popular Vote on Woman Suffrage — Anna C. Wait — Hannah Wilson — Miss Kate Stephens, Professor of Greek in State University — Lincoln Centre Society, 1879 — The Press — The Lincoln Beacon — Election, 1880 — • Sarah A. Brown, Democratic Candidate — Fourth of July Celebration — Women Voting on the School Question — State Society, 1884 — Helen M. Cougar — Clara Bewick Colby — Bertha H. Ellsworth — Radical Reform Association — Mrs. A. G. Lord — Prudence Crandall — Clarina Howard Nichols — Laws — Women in the Professions — Schools — Political Parties — Petitions to the Legis- lature— Col. F. G. Adams' Letter 696

CHAPTER LI.

COLORADO.

Great American Desert — Organized as a Territory, February 28, 1 860 — Gov. McCook's Message Recommending Woman Suffrage, 1870— Adverse Legisla- tion— Hon. Amos Steck — Admitted to the Union, 1876— Constitutional Con- vention— Efforts to Strike Out the \Vord '"Male" — Convention to Discuss Woman Suffrage — School Suffrage Accorded — State Association Formed, Alida C. Avery, President — Proposition for Full Suffrage Submitted to the Popular Vote — A Vigorous Campaign — Mrs. Campbell and Mrs. Patterson of Denver — Opposition by the Clergy — Their Arguments Ably Answered — D. M. Richards — The Amendment Lost — The Rocky Mountain News . . . .712

CHAPTER LIT.

WYOMING.

The Dawn of the New Day, December, 1869 — The Goal Reached in England and America — Territory Organized, May, 1869 — Legislative Action — Bill for Woman Suffrage — William H. Bright — Gov. Campbell Signs the Bill — Ap- points Esther Morris, Justice of the Peace, March, 1870 — Women on the Jury, Chief-Justice Howe, Presiding — J. Wr. Kingman, Associate-Justice, Addresses the Jury — Women Promptly Take Their Places — Sunday Laws Enforced — Comments of the Press — Judge Howe's Letter — Laramie Sentinel — J. H. Hayford — Women Voting, 1870— Grandma Swain the First to Cast her Ballot — Effort to Repeal the Law, 1871 — Gov. Campbell's Veto — Mr. Corlett — Rapid Growth of Public Opinion in Favor of Woman Suffrage .... 726

CHAPTER LIII.

CALIFORNIA.

Liberal Provisions in the Constitution — Elizabeth T. Schenck — Eliza W. Farnham — Mrs. Mills' Seminary, now a State Institution — Jeannie Carr, State Super-

Contents. xvii.

intendent of Schools — First Awakening — The Revolution — Anna Dickinson — Mrs. Gordon Addresses the Legislature, 1 868 — Mrs. Pitts Stevens Edits The Pioneer — First Suffrage Society on the Pacific Coast, 1869 — State Convention, January 26, 1870, Mrs. Wallis, President — State Association Formed, Mrs. Haskell of Pctaluma, President — Mrs. Gordon Nominated for Senator — In 1871, Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony Visit California — Hon. A. A. Sargent Speaks in Favor of Suffrage for Women — Ellen Clark Sargent Active in the Movement — Legislation Making Women Eligible to Hold School Offices, 1873 — July 10, 1873, State Society Incorporated, Sarah Wallis, President — Mrs. Clara Foltz — A Bill Giving Women the Right to Practice Law— The Bill Passed and Signed by the Governor — Contest Over Admitting Women into the Law Department of the University — Supreme Court Decision Favorable — Hon. A. A. Sargent on the Constitution and Laws — Journalists and Printers Silk Culture — Legislative Appropriation — Mrs. Knox Goodrich Celebrates July 4, 1876 — Imposing Demonstration — Ladies in the Procession . . . 749

CHAPTER LIV.

THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST.

The Long Marches Westward — Abigail Scott Duniway — Mary Olney Brown — The First Steps in Oregon — Col. C. A. Reed — Judge G. W. Lawson — 1870 — The New Northwest, 1871 — Campaign, Mrs. Duniway and Miss Anthony — They Address the Legislature in Washington Territory — Hon. Elwood Evans — Suffrage Societies Organized at Olympia and Portland — Before the Oregon Legislature — Donation Land Act — Hon. Samuel Corwin's Suffrage Bill — Mar- ried Woman's Sole Traders' Bill — Temperance Alliance — Women Rejected — Major Williams Fights Their Battles and Triumphs — Mrs. H. A. Loughary — Progressive Legislation, 1874 — Mob-Law in Jacksonville, 1879 — Dr. Mary A. Thompson — Constitutional Convention, 1878 — Woman Suffrage Bill, 1880— Hon. W. C. Fulton — Women Enfranchised in Washington Territory, Nov. 15, 1883 — Great Rejoicing, Bonfires, Ratification Meetings — Constitutional Amendment Submitted in Oregon and Lost, June, 1884 — Suffrage by Legis- lative Enactment Lost — Fourth of July Celebrated at Vancouvers — Benjamin and Mary Olney Brown — Washington Territory — Legislation in 1867-68 Fav- orable to Women — Mrs. Brown Attempts to Vote and is Refused — Charlotte Olney French — Women Vote at Grand Mound and Black River Precincts, 1870 — Retrogressive Legislation, 1871 — Abby II. Stuart in Land-Office — Hon. William II. White — Idaho and Montana 767

CHAPTER LV.

LOUISIANA — TEXAS — ARKANSAS — MISSISSIPPI.

St. Anna's Asylum, Managed by Women — Constitutional Convention, 1879 — Women Petition — Clara Merrick Guthrie — Petition Referred to Committee on Suffrage — A Hearing Granted — Mrs. Keating — Mrs. Saxon — Mrs. Merrick — Col. John M. Sandige — Efforts of the Women all in Vain — Action in 1885 — Gov. McEnery — The Daily Picayune — Women as Members of the School Board — Physiology in the Schools — Miss Eliza Rudolph — Mrs. E. J. Nicholson — Judge Merrick's Digest of Laws — Texas — Arkansas — Mississippi — Sarah A. Dorsey

xviii. Contents.

CHAPTER LV. (CONTINUED).

J.IMKKT ()!•• * ol.rMllIA- M AKVLAND— -DELAWARE— KENTUCKY— TENNKS-

SKK— VIRGINIA —WEST YII«;iNI.\— NORTH CAROLINA— SOUTH

CAROLINA — FLORIDA — ALABAMA — GEORGIA.

Secretary Chase — Women in tlie ('•overnmcnt Departments — Myrtilla Miner — Mrs. O'Connor's Tribute — District of Columbia Suffrage Bill — The Universal Franchise Association, 1867 — 15111 for a Prohibitory Law Presented by Hon. S. C. Pomeroy, 1869 — A Bill for Equal Wages for the Women in the Depart- ments, Introduced by Hon. S. M. Arnejl, 1870 — In 1871 Congress Passed the Organic Act for the District Confining the Right of Suffrage to Males — In 1875 it Withdrew all Legislative Power from the People — Women in Law, Medicine, Journalism and the Charities — Dental College Opened to Women — Mary A. Stewart — The Clay Sisters — The School of Pharmacy — Elizabeth Aveiy Meriwether — Judge Underwood — Mary Bayard Clarke — Dr. Susan Dimock — Governor Chamberlain — Coffee-Growing — Priscilla Holmes Drake — Alexander II. Stephens 808

CHAPTER LV. (CONCLUDED).

CANADA.

Miss Phelps of St. Catharines — The Revolt of the Thirteen Colonies — First Par- liament— Property Rights of Married Women — School Suffrage Thirty Years — Municipal Suffrage, 1882, 1884 — Women Voting in Toronto, 1886 — Mrs. Curzon — Dr. Emily II. Stone — Woman's Literary Club of Toronto— Nova Scotia — New Brunswick — Miss Harriet Stewart 831

CHAPTER LVI.

GREAT BRITAIN.

Women Send Members to Parliament — Sidney Smith, Sir Robert Peel, Richard Cobden — The Ladies of Oldham — Jeremy Bentham — Anne Knight — Northern Reform Society, 1858 — Mrs. Matilda Biggs — Unmarried Women and Widows Petition Parliament — Associations Formed in London, Manchester, Edin- burgh, 1867 — John Stuart Mill in Parliament — Seventy-three Votes for his Bill — John Bright's Vote — Women Register and Vote — Lord-Chief-Justice of England Declares their Constitutional Right — The Courts Give Adverse De- cisions— Jacob Bright Secures the Municipal Franchise — First Public Meeting — Division on Jacob Bright's Bill to Remove Political Disabilities — Mr. Glad- stone's Speech — Work of 1871-72 — Fourth Vote on the Suffrage Bill — Jacob Bright Fails of Reelection — Efforts of Mr. Forsyth — Memorial of the National Society — Some Account of the Workers — Vote of the New Parliament, 1875 — Organized Opposition — Diminished Adverse Vote of 1878 — Mr. Courtney's Resolution — Letters — Great Demonstrations at Manchester — London — Bristol — Nottingham — Birmingham — Sheffield — Glasgow — Victory in the Isle of Man — Passage of the Municipal Franchise Bill for Scotland — Mr. Mason's Resolu- tion— Reduction of Adverse Majority to iG — Liberal Conference at Leeds — Mr. Woodall's Amendment to Reform Bill of 1884 — Meeting at Edinburgh — Other Meetings — Estimated Number of Women Householders — Circulars to Members of Parliament — Debate on the Amendment — Resolutions of the Society — Further Debate — Defeat of the Amendment — Meeting at St. James Hall— Conclusion 833

Contents. xix.

CHAPTER LVII.

CONTINENTAL EUROPE.

The Woman Question in the Back-ground — In France the Agitation Dates from the Upheaval of 1789 — International Women's Rights Convention in Paris, 1878 — Mile. Ilubertine Auclert Leads the Demand for Suffrage — Agitation Began in Italy with the Kingdom — Concepcion Arenal in Spain — Coeducation in Portugal — Germany: Leipsic and Berlin — Austria in Advance of Germany Caroline Svetla of Bohemia — Austria Unsurpassed in Contradictions — Marriage Emancipates from Tutelage in Hungary — Dr. Henrietta Jacobs of Holland — Dr. Isala Van Dicst of Belgium — In Switzerland the Catholic Cantons Lag Behind — Marie Gcegg, the Leader— Sweden Stands First — Universities Open to Women in Norway — Associations in Denmark — Liberality of Russia toward Women — Poland— The Orient — Turkey — Jewish Wives — The Greek Woman in Turkey — The Greek Woman in Greece — An Unique Episode — Woman's Rights in the American Sense not Known 895

CHAPTER LVIII.

REMINISCENCES.

BY E. C. S 922

Appendix 955

CHAPTER XXVII. THE CENTENNIAL YEAR— 1876.

The Dawn of the New Century — Washington Convention — Congressional Hearing — Woman's Protest — May Anniversary — Centennial Parlors in Philadelphia — Letters and Delegates to Presidential Conventions — 50,000 Documents sent out — The Cen- tennial Autograph Book — The Fourth of July — Independence Square — Susan B. Anthony reads the Declaration of Rights — Convention in Dr. Furness' Church, Lucretia Mott, Presiding — The Hutchinson Family, John and Asa — The Twenty- eighth Anniversary, July 19, Edward M. Davis, Presiding — Letters, Ernestine L. Rose, Clarina I. H. Nichols— The Ballot-Box— Retrospect— The Woman's Pavilion.

DURING the sessions of 1871-72 congress enacted laws pro- viding for the celebration of the one-hundredth anniversary of American independence, to be held July 4, 1876, in Philadelphia, the historic city from whence was issued the famous declaration of 1776.

The first act provided for the appointment by the president of a "Centennial Commission," consisting of two members from each State and territory in the Union ; the second incorporated the Centennial Board of Finance and provided for the issue of stock to the amount of $10,000,000, in 1,000,000 shares of $10 each. It was at first proposed to distribute the stock among the peopft of the different States and territories according to the ratio of their population, but subscriptions were afterward received without re- gard to States. The stockholders organized a board of directors, April i, 1873. The design of the exhibition was to make it a comprehensive display of the industrial, intellectual and moral progress of the nation during the first century of its existence ; but by the earnest invitation of our government foreign nations so generally participated that it was truly, as its name implied, an " International and World's Exposition."

The centennial year opened amid the wildest rejoicing. In honor of the nation's birthday extensive preparations were made for the great event. Crowds of people eager to participate in the celebration, everywhere flocked from the adjacent country to

2 ///>Avr of Wonitui Suffrage.

the nearest village or city, filling the streets and adding to the general gala look, all through the day and evening of December 31, 1875. From early gas-light upon every side the blow- ing of horns, throwing of torpedos, explosion of fire-crackers, gave premonition of more enthusiastic exultation. As the clock struck twelve every house suddenly blossomed with red, white and blue; public*and private buildings burst into a blaze of light that rivaled the noon-day sun, while screaming whistles, booming cannon, pealing bells, joyous music and brilliant fire-works made the midnight which ushered in the centennial 1876, a never-to- be-forgotten hour.

Portraits of the presidents from Washington and Lincoln laurel-crowned, to Grant, sword in hand, met the eye on every side. Stars in flames of fire lighted the foreign flags of welcome to other nations. Every window, door and roof-top was filled with gay and joyous people. Carriages laden with men, women and children in holiday attire enthusiastically waving the na- tional flag and singing its songs of freedom. Battalions of soldiers marched through the streets; Roman candles, whizzing rockets, and gaily-colored balloons shot upward, filling the sky with trails of fire and adding to the brilliancy of the scene, while all minor sounds were drowned in the martial music. Thus did the old world and the new commemorate the birth of a nation founded on the principle of self-government.

The prolonged preparations for the centennial celebration naturally roused the women of the nation to new thought as to their status as citizens of a republic, as well as to their rightful sharAin the progress of the centuiy. The oft-repeated declara- tions of the fathers had a deeper significance for those who realized the degradation of disfranchisement, and they queried with each other as to what part, with becoming self-respect, they could take in the coming festivities.* Woman's achievements in art, science and industry would necessarily be recognized in

•Some suggested that the women in their various towns and cities, draped in black, should march in solemn procession, bells slowly tolling, bearing banners with the inscriptions : " Taxation without representation is tyranny.'.' " Xo just government can be formed without the consent of the governed," " They who have no voice in the laws and rulers are in a condition of slavery."

Others sug^oted that instead of women wearing crape during the centennial glorification, the men should sit down in sackcloth and ashes, in humiliation of spirit, as those who repented in olden times were wont to do. The best centennial celebration, said they, for the men of the United States, the one to cover them with glory, would be to extend to the women of the nation all the rights, privileges and immunities that they themselves