[189] They had their influence in the church as well as the State, as the following item in The Revolution, July 16, 1868, shows: "The New Hampshire convention of Universalists, at their late anniversary, adopted unanimously a resolution in favor of woman's elevation to entire equality with man in every civil, political and religious right."

[190] President, Mrs. Armenia S. White. Vice-Presidents, Rev. J.F. Lovering, Concord; Mrs. A.L. Thomas, Laconia; Ossian Ray, Lancaster; Mrs. S. Pillsbury, Concord; J.V. Aldrich, West Concord; Mrs. Mary Worcester, Nashua; Mrs. Mary Barker, Alton; Peter Kimball, Grafton; E.J. Durant, Lebanon; Mrs. Fannie V. Roberts, Dover; Miss A.C. Payson, Peterboro; Mrs. E.A. Bartlett, Kingston; Mr. Springfield, South Wolfboro; Galen Foster, Canterbury; Mrs. R.M. Miller, Manchester; Mrs. Nancy Gilman, Tilton; C. Ballou, North Weare; D. Burnham, Plymouth. Executive Committee, Nathaniel White, Mrs. E.C. Lovering, Col. J.E. Larkin, Concord; Mrs. J. Abby Ela, Rochester; Rev. Wm. T. Savage, Franklin; Mrs. Eliza Morrill, Mrs. Daniel Holden, West Concord; Miss Caroline Foster, Canterbury; P.B. Cogswell, Mrs. Louisa Wood, Mrs. M.M. Smith, Concord; Dr. M.V.A. Hunt, Manchester. Recording Secretary, Mrs. E.C. Lovering, Concord. Corresponding Secretary, Dr. J. Gallinger. Treasurer, Jas. H. Chase.

[191] Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Frederick Hinckley, Lucy Stone, Frances Ellen Harper, Dr. Sarah H. Hathaway, Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford, Rev. Mr. Connor, Rev. Ada C. Bowles, Emma Coe Still, Rev. Lorenza Haynes, Mary Grew, Mary A. Livermore, Elizabeth K. Churchill, Margaret W. Campbell, Anna Dickinson, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Rev. Olympia Brown, Lillie Devereux Blake, Elizabeth A. Meriwether, Elizabeth Lisle Saxon, Susan B. Anthony.

[192] The speakers at this hearing were Mr. Galen Foster of Canterbury, Senators Gallinger and Shaw, Mrs. Abby Goold Woolson, H. P. Rolfe, S. B. Page, Rev. E. L. Conger and Mrs. Armenia S. White.

[193] Reelected to the Senate, June, 1885.



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 Woman's Journal—Sarah A. Gibbs' Reply to Rev. Mr. Holmes—School Suffrage.

After the miseries growing out of the civil war were in a measure mitigated, there was a general awakening in the New England States on the question of suffrage for women, and in 1868 one after another organized for action. What Nathaniel P. Rogers was to New Hampshire in the anti-slavery struggle that was Clarina Howard Nichols[194] to Vermont in early calling attention to the unjust laws for woman. From 1843 to 1853 she edited the Windham County Democrat, in which she wrote a series of editorials on the property rights of women, and from year to year made her appeals in person to successive legislatures. Her patient labors for many years prepared the way for the organized action of 1868. The women of that State can never too highly appreciate all that it cost that noble woman to stand alone, as she did, through such bitter persecutions, vindicating for them the great principles of republican government.

And now, after a quarter of a century, instead of that one solitary voice in the district school-house and the State capitol, are heard in all Vermont's towns and cities, echoing through her valleys and mountains, the clarion voices of a whole band of distinguished men and women from all the Eastern States. The revival of the woman question in Vermont began with propositions to amend the constitution. We are indebted to a series of letters, written by a citizen of Burlington, signed "St. Andrew," for many of the interesting incidents and substantial facts as to the initiative steps taken in this campaign. He said:

The only way of amending the constitution is for the people (meaning the male voters) to elect, every seventh year, a board called the Council of Censors, consisting of thirteen persons. This council can, within a certain time, propose amendments to the constitution, and call a convention of one delegate from each town, elected by the freemen, to adopt or reject the articles of amendment proposed by the council. The Council of Censors, elected in March, 1869, proposed six amendments: (1) In relation to the creation of corporations; (2) in relation to biennial sessions and elections; (3) in relation to filling vacancies in the office of senators and town representatives; (4) in relation to the appointment, terms, etc., of judges of the Supreme Court; (5) providing that women shall be entitled to vote, and with no other restrictions than the law shall impose on men; (6) in relation to the manner of amending the constitution.

The election of delegates occurs on Tuesday, May 10, and the convention meets on the first Wednesday in June. There is no general excitement in the State in relation to any of the proposed changes; and now, upon the eve of the election, it is impossible for the most sagacious political observer to predict the fate of any of the amendments. The fifth is the only one in support of which public meetings have been held, and those took place the early part of the spring at the larger places in the State. The friends have never expected to obtain a majority, nor even a considerable vote in the convention, and the meetings that have been held were not expected to settle the question, but to awaken the public mind upon the subject. These meetings have been a decided success, attended by hundreds of intelligent citizens, many of whom for the first time listened to an address upon the subject. It is true that ladies were advised to remain away, but such advice generally resulted in a larger attendance; and to-day the measure has a firmer support than ever before, and its advocates are more confident of final success. We may not have more than "ten righteous" men elected to the convention, but that number was enough to save the cities of the plain, and we have full faith that as small a number can save the cities of the mountains.

The press of the State is divided on the subject. We have two dailies—one, the Rutland Herald, the oldest paper in the State, in favor of the movement, and the Free Press of Burlington, opposed to it. After the coming convention, no change can be made in our constitution for seven years, at least, and if the sixth amendment be adopted, not for ten years. But, in the meantime, the question will assume more importance by a constant agitation as to the equality of the sexes, the admission of women to the State University, the professions, and other rights to which men are entitled. Vermont can never emulate in wealth and population the manufacturing States of the seaboard, or the prairie States of the West; but she can win a nobler preeminence in the quality of her institutions. She may be the first State, as Wyoming already is the first territory, to give political equality to woman, and to show the world the model of a true republic.

ST. ANDREW.

Burlington, Vt., May 1, 1870.

Mr. Reed of Washington county submitted the report in favor of the woman suffrage amendment, from which we give the following:

One-half of the people of our State are denied the right of suffrage. Yet woman has all the qualifications—the capacity, the desire for the public welfare, that man has. She is among the governed. She pays taxes. Even-handed justice, a fair application of the principles of the Declaration of Independence and of our State constitution, give woman the ballot. There is no reason why woman should not be allowed to do what she is so eminently fit to do. We know no good reason why the most ignorant man should vote and the intelligent woman be refused. Our present political institutions were formed and shaped when men had their chief interests and pursuits out of doors, and women remained the humble slaves at home. The social change has been immense. Now woman sits by the side of man, is his companion and associate in his amusements, and in his labors, save the one of governing the country. And it is time that she should be in this.

The position of woman in regard to the common schools of the State is the most unjust. She must always be the chief instructor of the young in point of time and influence. She is their best teacher at home and in the school. And her share in this ever-expanding work is becoming vaster every day. Woman as mother, sister, teacher, has an intelligence, a comprehension of the educational needs of our youth, and an interest in their development, far in advance of the other sex. She can organize, control and teach the most difficult school in the State; yet she has no vote in the selection of teachers, the building, arrangements and equipments of school-houses, nor in the method and extent of instruction. She can pay her share of the expenses of schools, but can have no legal voice in their management. She can teach, but she can have no vote in determining what shall be taught. She is the very corner-stone of institutions which she has no power in shaping. Let us have her open, avowed and public cooeperation—always safer than indirect influence.

The submission of an amendment to the constitution necessarily aroused a general agitation on the proposed changes. The fifth amendment decided on by the board of censors seemed to create a more general interest than either of the others, and accordingly a meeting was called for its full consideration, that efficient steps might be taken for a thorough canvass of the State, preparatory to the May election, and issued the following call:

The friends of woman suffrage in Vermont are requested to meet in mass convention at Montpelier on Wednesday, February 2, at 10 o'clock, for the purpose of considering and advancing the best interests of the cause in this State, in view of the constitutional amendment proposed by the council of censors. The convention will be addressed by several ladies and prominent gentlemen of this State, and by William Lloyd Garrison, Julia Ward Howe and Rev. Ada C. Bowles of Massachusetts; Lucy Stone and Henry B. Blackwell of New Jersey, and Mary A. Livermore of Illinois. A public meeting will also be held the evening before the convention, which will be addressed by some of the eminent speakers above named. The Hutchinson family will be present and sing their woman suffrage songs. The Vermont Central, Passumpsic, Rutland and Burlington and Bennington and Rutland lines of railroad will extend the courtesy of free return checks, provided they shall be applied for by twenty-five or more persons paying full fare one way over an average distance of each of their respective roads, which will be determined by the secretary.

C. W. WILLARD, JAMES HUTCHINSON, JR., GEORGE H. BIGELOW, CHARLES REED, NEWMAN WEEKS, JONATHAN ROSS, JAMES S. PECK. Ex. Com. Vermont Woman Suffrage Association.[195]

Montpelier, January 10, 1870.

It is a noticeable fact that the movement for the enfranchisement of woman in Vermont was inaugurated wholly by men. Not a woman was on its official board, nor was there one to speak in the State. Men called the first woman's rights convention, and chose Hon. Charles Reed of Montpelier as its presiding officer, as well as president of the State association.

However, these gentlemen invited ladies from other States, and a series of meetings[196] was inaugurated through the chief towns and cities of Vermont. The speakers[197] were heartily welcomed at some points and rudely received at others. The usual "free-love" cry was started by some of the opposition papers—a cry that like "infidel" in the anti-slavery days, oft' times frightened even the faithful from their propriety. Henry B. Blackwell came to the rescue, and ably answered the Vermont Watchman:

The Vermont Watchman evades the discussion of the question whether women shall be entitled to vote, by raising false issues. The editor asserts that "many of the advocates of suffrage have thrown scorn upon marriage and upon the Divine Word." That assertion we denounced as an unfounded and wicked calumny. We also objected to it as an evasion of the main question. Thereupon the Watchman, instead of correcting its mistake and discussing the question of suffrage, repeats the charge, and seeks to sustain it by garbled quotations and groundless assertions, which we stigmatized accordingly. The Watchman now calls upon us to retract the stigma. We prefer to prove that our censure is deserved, and proceed to do so.

The first quotation of the Watchman is from an editorial in the Woman's Journal, entitled "Political Organization." The object of which was to show the propriety of doing what the Watchman refuses to do—viz.: of discussing woman suffrage upon its own merits. It showed the unfairness of complicating the question with other topics upon which friends of woman suffrage honestly differ. It regretted that "many well-meaning people insist on dragging in their peculiar views on theology, temperance, marriage, race, dress, finance, labor, capital—it matters not what." It condemned "a confusion of ideas which have no logical connection," and protested "against loading the good ship, Woman Suffrage, with a cargo of irrelevant opinions." The Watchman cites this article as an admission that some of the friends of suffrage advocate free-love. Not at all. The editor of the Watchman is himself one of the well-meaning people alluded to. He insists on dragging in irrelevant theological and social questions. He refuses to confine himself to the issue of suffrage. The Watchman quotes a single sentence of the following statement:

The advocates of woman's equality differ utterly upon every other topic. Some are abolitionists, others hostile to the equality of races. Some are evangelical Christians; others Catholics, Unitarians, Spiritualists, or Quakers. Some hold the most rigid theories with regard to marriage and divorce; others are latitudinarian on these questions. In short, people of the most opposite views agree in desiring to establish woman suffrage, while they anticipate very different results from the reform, when effected.

The above is cited as evidence against us. How so? A man may hold "latitudinarian theories in regard to marriage and divorce" without "throwing scorn upon the marriage relation," or having the slightest sympathy with free-love. For instance: The present law of Vermont is latitudinarian is these very particulars. It grants divorce for many other causes than adultery. Measured by the more conservative standard of Henry Ward Beecher and Mary A. Livermore, it allows divorce upon insufficient grounds. This law represents the public sentiment of a majority of the people of Vermont. Will the Watchman assert that the people of Vermont "throw scorn on the marriage relation"? Or that he is in "low company" because he is surrounded by the citizens of a State who entertain views upon the marriage relation less rigid than his own? Our indignant protest against the injustice of the common law, which subjects the person, property, earnings and children of married women to the irresponsible control of their husbands, is not a protest against marriage. It is a vindication of marriage, against the barbarism of the law which degrades a noble and life-long partnership of equals into a mercenary and servile relation between superior and dependant.

The Watchman assails prominent supporters of woman suffrage, and misquotes and misrepresents them. Because Theodore Tilton is unwilling "that men or women shall be compelled to live together as husband and wife against the inward protest of their own souls," therefore he is charged with advocating free-love. Is it possible that the editor regards such a relation of protest and disgust as consistent with the unity of Christian marriage? Is it right that a pure and noble man, the tender husband of a happy wife, the loving father of affectionate children, should be thus causelessly traduced for showing that the essential fact of marriage is in that unity of soul which is recognized and affirmed by the outward form? When the Watchman undertakes to brand men and women of irreproachable character for an intellectual difference, he is engaged in a very unworthy business. When he charges immorality upon the New York Independent and infidelity upon John Stuart Mill, he forgets that his readers have minds of their own.

But, suppose it were true that newspapers and individuals who believe in woman suffrage held objectionable views on other subjects, what has this to do with the merit of the proposed reform? There are impure and intemperate men in the Republican party. Is the Republican party therefore "low company"? There are brutal and ignorant and disloyal men in the Democratic party. Does this prove that Dr. Lord and every other Democrat in the State of Vermont is brutal and ignorant and disloyal? The Supreme Court of the United States has just decided that a divorce obtained under the laws of Indiana is legal and binding in every other State. In thus affirming Mrs. McFarland's right to marry Mr. Richardson, has the Supreme Court of the United States sanctioned free-love? Will the Watchman call Chief-Justice Chase and the Supreme Court free-lovers? We have very little hope that the Watchman will treat this question with fairness or candor. Our cause is too strong. The argument from reason, from revelation, from nature, from history, is on our side. The Watchman is fighting against the Declaration of Independence, the bill of rights of the State of Vermont, and the principles of representative government. No wonder that it raises false issues. No wonder that it evades the question.

H. B. B.

The following editorial in the Woman's Journal, from the pen of Mary A. Livermore, does not give a very rose-colored view of the reception of the Massachusetts missionaries on their first advent into Vermont:

The Vermont constitutional convention has rejected a proposition to give the ballot to woman, by a vote of 231 to 1. It flouted all discussion of the question, and voted it down with the utmost alacrity. No one cognizant of the bigotry, narrowness and general ignorance that prevail there will be surprised at this result. It is not a progressive State, but the contrary. Great stress has been laid on the fact that "Vermont never owned a slave"—and from this it has been argued that the Green Mountain State is and has been especially liberty-loving. But during the two brief visits we made last winter, we were told again and again, by Vermont men, that the only reason for the non-introduction of slavery was the impracticability of that form of labor among the Green Mountains—that slavery could never have been made profitable there, and that this, and not principle and heroic love of freedom, prevented Vermont from ever being a slave State. Nowhere, not even in the roughest and remotest West, have we met with such vulgar rudeness, ill-manners and heroic lying as we encountered in Vermont. The lecturers who were invited into the State by the Vermont Woman Suffrage Association, composed wholly of men, were in many instances left unsupported by them, allowed to meet the frequently rough audiences as best they could, to pay their own bills, and to manage the campaign as they might. At the very first intimation of opposition on the part of the Montpelier Argus, the Watchman and the Burlington Free Press—an unworthy trio of papers that appear to control the majority—many members of the State association showed the "white feather," and either apologetically backed out of the canvass, or ignominiously kept silent in the background. There was, therefore, nothing like a thorough discussion of the question, no fair meeting of truth and error, not even an attempt to canvass the State. For, not ambitious to waste their efforts on such flinty soil, the men and women who were invited to labor there shook off the dust (snow) of Vermont from their feet, and turned to more hopeful fields of labor.

Let it not be supposed, however, that this vote of the delegates of the constitutional convention is any indication of the sentiment of the women on this question. The fact that 231 women of lawful age, residents of Brattleborough, and 96 of Newfane, sent a petition for woman suffrage, with their reasons for asking it, to Charles K. Field, delegate from that town to the constitutional convention; that petitions from other hundreds of women have been forwarded to congress, praying for a sixteenth amendment; that, by letters and personal statements, we know the most intelligent and thoughtful women everywhere rebel against the State laws whose heathenism, despotism and absurdity were so well shown by Mrs. Nichols in 1845—all these facts are proofs that the sentiment of Vermont women is not represented by the constitutional convention now in session at Montpelier.—[M. A. L.

August 12, 1871, our Burlington correspondent says:

While conventions, picnics and bazar meetings, in the cause of woman suffrage, have been held in our sister States, an event has very quietly occurred with us which we deem an important step in the right direction, viz.: the admission of women to the University. By an almost unanimous vote of the corporation, a few conservatives opposing it, the matter was referred to the faculty, who are understood to be heartily in favor of the "new departure." The college that has thus thrown its doors wide open to all, is the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, founded by the munificence of General Ira Allen in 1791. It commenced operations in 1800; the Federal troops used its buildings for barracks in the war of 1812; the buildings (and library) were burned in 1824, and reconstructed in the following year, when the corner-stone was laid by General Lafayette. It sent forth nearly all its sons to the great rebellion. Indeed, at one time its condition served to remind one of the lines of Holmes—

"Lord, how the Senior knocked about That Freshman class of one."

It has graduated such men as the late Senator Collamer, John G. Smith, president of the Northern Pacific Railroad; William G. T. Shedd, the learned theologian; the late Henry J. Raymond of the New York Times; John A. Kasson of Iowa, Frederick Billings, and a host of others, eminent in all the walks of life. Its late president, who was an "Angell from Providence," and has just been elected president of Michigan University, is heartily in favor of the movement, and the president-elect, Matthew H. Buckham, is no less so. With its new president and its "new departure" the future bids fair even to outshine the past.

It may be well to inquire the reason why a college located in a State regarded by outsiders "as the most conservative of the Union on the woman suffrage question," should take a step so far in advance of what has been deemed the prevailing sentiment. Editors who have been battling the new reform with a zeal equaled only by that manifested against abolitionism a few years since, can see no necessary connection between the new movement and the general cause of woman's emancipation. Whether necessary or not, there is a practical connection between them which is being felt more and more every day. I assert, with no fear of contradiction by any observing man, that Vermont is no more committed against woman suffrage than any other State in the East, and the fact that but one man in our late convention voted to extend the right of suffrage to all, can well be explained when we consider the manner of choosing delegates by towns; one town, for instance, with twelve voters, having the same voice in the representation that this city has with 1,500. With a popular vote upon that question the State would give such a majority as would fairly astonish all those who regarded the late convention as a complete demolition of the "reformers."

ST. ANDREW.

The following criticism of the Rev. Mr. Holmes, from the pen of a woman, shows the growing self-assertion of a class hitherto held in a condition of subordination by clerical authority. Such tergiversation in the pulpit as his has done much to emancipate woman from the reverence she once felt for the teaching of those supposed to be divinely ordained of heaven:

BENSON, Vt., June 20, 1871.

I have heard it stated from the pulpit within a year that the woman suffrage question in Vermont is dead. Well, we believe in the resurrection. Week by week this question of the hour and of the age confronts those who claim to have given it decent burial. The same clergyman who pronounced it dead has since spoken of it as one of the "growing evils of the times," and in this beautiful summer weather he has felt called upon to preach another sermon, ostensibly on "marriage," really upon this "dead question," dragging it out to daylight again, that we might see how easily he could bury it fifty fathoms deep—with mud. It reminded me of Robert Laird Collier's sermon, "The Folly of the Woman Movement," in its logic and its spirit. Mr. Collier and our Mr. Holmes see but one thing in all this struggle for truth and justice, and that is "free-love." Here are some specimens of Mr. Holmes' assertions:

The advocates of woman's rights want, not the ballot so much as the dissolution of the marriage tie. They propose to form a tie for the term of five, six or seven years. Mark the men or women who are the most strenuous advocates of woman suffrage. They are irreligious and immoral.

Who are more strenuous advocates of woman suffrage than Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mrs. Isabella Beecher Hooker, Mrs. Lucy Stone, Mrs. Lucretia Mott, Mrs. Livermore, T. W. Higginson, Henry Ward Beecher, Bishop Simpson, Governor Claflin, Gilbert Haven, Wendell Phillips, and scores of others whose lives are as pure and intellects as fine as his who dares stand in the sacred desk and call these persons "irreligious and immoral"? His argument seems to be like this: Some advocates of woman suffrage are in favor of easy divorces. These men and women advocate woman suffrage; therefore these men and women are in favor of easy divorces. Or, to make the matter still plainer, some ministers of the Gospel are immoral. Mr. H. is a minister of the Gospel; therefore Mr. H. is immoral. The method of reasoning is the same, but it don't sound quite fair and honorable, does it?

"In our land woman is a queen; she is loved and cared for," says Mr. Holmes. In sight from the window where I write is a sad commentary upon this. One of these queens, so tenderly cared for, is hoeing corn, while her five-months-old baby—the youngest of nine children—lies on the grass while she works. Her husband is away from home, but has left word for the "old woman" to "take care of the corn and potatoes, for he has to support the family." When they are out of meat, she must go out washing and earn some, for "he has to support the family," and cannot have her idle. Not long since they were planting corn together, she doing as much as he. At noon, although she had a pail of milk and another of eggs, he brought her the two hoes to carry home, as he could not be troubled with them. Had he ever read:

"I will be master of what is my own; She is my goods, my chattels— My horse, my ox, my ass, my anything"?

"No woman reaches such dignity as the New England wife and mother," says Mr. H. Is wifehood more honorable, or motherhood more sacred, in New England than in other places? Is to be a wife and mother, and nothing else, the sole end and aim of woman? Or is there not other work in God's universe which some woman may possibly be called upon to do? Is Florence Nightingale or Anna Dickinson less dignified than Mrs. John Smith, who happens physically to be the mother of half-a-dozen children, but mentally and morally is as much of a child as any of them?

"Woman has just the sphere she wants. She has more privileges than she could vote herself into," says Mr. H. Has she, indeed? I know women, who would gladly vote themselves into the privilege of having the custody of their own children, whose husbands are notoriously drunken and licentious. They are pure, good women, who, rather than part with their children, live on with men whose very breath is pollution. I know others who would like to vote themselves into the privilege of retaining their own hard earnings instead of having them sacrificed by a drunken husband. Widows have been literally turned out of doors after their husbands' death, and the property they had helped to accumulate divided among those who never earned it. Do you think such women would not change the laws of inheritance if they had the power?

"Husband and wife are one, hence one vote is sufficient," says Mr. H. Follow out the reasoning, if you please. "Both one," hence one dinner is sufficient, "both one," hence if a man is a member of a church his wife is also. In plain English, "the husband and wife are both one," and the husband is that one. Now in case that one should die, is it fair, or just, or fitting, that the widow—"the relict"—or, in the words of Mr. H., "the feminine spirit that has supplemented this masculine nature," whose hands have been tied all these years, should be called upon to pay taxes upon the share of property the law allows her? Taxation without representation was the immediate cause of the famous tea-party in Boston harbor, and, in fact, of a good many other unpleasant things that followed.

"Woman has just the sphere she wants," says Mr. H., closing the discussion. No, sir, she has not. Had those young ladies in Philadelphia who were studying medicine, and were insulted day after day by the male medical students, the sphere they wanted? Our American girls have been to Europe for the sake of pursuing their studies in medicine, and have met with kindness and courtesy, while in this land, where they are called "queens," they received only hisses. Last winter Governor Claflin of Massachusetts—one of those "irreligious and immoral" advocates of woman suffrage—reminded the gentlemen of that State who claim to be woman's representatives in the legislature, "that a wife in that State is deprived of the free control of property that was her own before marriage, and is denied an equal right in the property accumulated during the marriage partnership; that a married mother has no legal right to her child; and that a widow has not equal rights with a widower." When woman has the sphere she wants, these things will be changed.

As a majority of the men in this community are opposed to woman suffrage, I will relate one circumstance that will do to "point a moral or adorn a tale." Of course, the voters in this or any other place always elect their best men to hold office, and the board of selectmen would naturally be the very wisest and best, the "creme de la creme." Now it so happens that one selectman being away from home, there was not enough arithmetic left with the other two to make out the tax-bills for the town, and they hired a woman, the mother of two children, to do it for them. It certainly took more of her time than it would for her to have walked across the street and voted for men who could make out their own tax-bills. Then arithmetic is not a womanly accomplishment, like tatting, crocheting, etc. These things sink into our hearts, and will bear fruit in due season.

SARAH A. GIBBS.

In 1877, July 21, Miss Thyrza F. Pangborn, for the last six years the capable and efficient recorder in the probate office of Burlington, was appointed and sworn as a notary public. In a letter of December 7, 1872, our correspondent says:

In the year 1870, the world was somewhat startled by the fact that in the constitutional convention, held that year in Vermont, but one vote was cast for the enfranchisement of woman; and no one wonders that the friends of that movement exclaimed, "Can any good come out of—Vermont"? Yesterday the first biennial session of the legislature closed its session of fifty-seven days. A bill has been pending in each House, giving female tax-payers a right to vote at all school-district meetings. It was advocated by Mr. Butterfield, one of the leading members of the House, in an able and learned speech, and received 64 votes to 103 against. Is not that doing well for such a staid old State as Vermont, and one where the enemies of equal suffrage supposed, two years since, that the measure was indefinitely postponed? But this is not all. The measure was introduced in the Senate, composed of thirty members, who are supposed to be the balance-wheel of the General Assembly. It was warmly discussed by several Senators, and the vote taken, when there were three members absent, resulting in, yeas 13, nays 14. Had the Senate been full, the vote would have been, yeas 14,[198] nays 16. A change of one of the "no" votes would have carried the measure, as the lieutenant-governor, who presides in the Senate, would have given the casting vote in its favor.

The supporters of the measure included some of the ablest members of the Senate, among them the chairmen of the very important Committees on Finance, Claims, Education, Agriculture, Manufactures, Railroads and Printing.

Following the defeat of the above-mentioned bill came up a measure granting to women the same right to vote as men have in all elections everywhere in the State. It received the support of all who voted for the school measure, save two, Mr. Mason and Mr. Rogers, who prefer to see the first tried as an experiment in the school meetings. You thus perceive that twelve out of our thirty grave and reverend Senators are real out-and-out equal suffrage men. Verily, the world moves! Another year, 1874, we hope will carry off the measure. Meanwhile, we say, three cheers for old Vermont, and glory enough for one day!

ST. ANDREW.

Burlington, Vt.

In 1880 the School Suffrage bill passed the Vermont House of Representatives, with only four dissenting votes. When the bill came to a third reading and only four men stood up for the negative, there was so marked an expression of derision that the speaker called for "order," and reminded the House that "no man was to be scorned for voting alone any more than with a crowd." The action and the voting came cheerily. More than one man, to the objection of "an entering wedge," said "he was ready to grant the whole." The bill passed the Senate triumphantly and was approved by the governor, December 18, 1880:

Women shall have the same right to vote as men have, in all school-district meetings and in the election of school commissioners in towns and cities, and the same right to hold office relating to school affairs.

An item in the Woman's Journal, from Vergennes, March 22, 1881, says:

At the city election to-day General J. H. Lucia, a staunch friend of woman suffrage, was elected mayor, and principally through his management Miss Electa S. Smith has been chosen to the office of city clerk, which office he has held for the past two years. The legislature of 1880 authorized the election of women to the offices of superintendent of schools and town clerk, and some of the friends of the cause were disposed to try the working of the law here. They selected a candidate whose ability, qualifications and thorough fitness all had to concede, and against whom the only objection that could be raised was her being a woman. It took the conservatives some time to get over their surprise at the first suggestion of her name, but they admitted the propriety of the thing and gallantly lent a hand, so that when the election came all the candidates who had been talked about were conspicuous by their absence, and Miss Smith was elected by acclamation. Surely the world does move.

SPRINGFIELD, February 7, 1884.

Miss Lydia Putnam, Brattleboro', Vt.:

Your letter is at hand. I think but few women have, as yet, availed themselves of the privilege of voting in school meetings in this State, and I am not able to say what the effect upon our schools has been up to the present time.

Very respectfully, JUSTUS DARTT.

Notwithstanding the above reply from the state-superintendent of the public schools of Vermont, the Associated Press reports of every year[199] since 1881 make mention of women being elected to school offices in the various towns and counties of the State.

FOOTNOTES:

[194] No woman in so many varied fields of action has more steadily and faithfully labored than Mrs. Nichols, as editor, speaker, teacher, farmer, in Vermont, New York, Wisconsin, Iowa, Ohio, Kansas, and California where she spent the closing years of her life; and though always in circumstances of hardship and privation, yet no annual convention was held without a long letter from her pen, uniformly the most cheerful and able of all that were received. A great soul that seemed to rise above the depressing influences of her surroundings! The last letter she ever wrote us was in January, 1885, a few days before she passed away. See Volume I., page 171.

[195] Officers of the Vermont Woman Suffrage Association: President, Hon. Charles Reed, Montpelier. Vice-presidents, Hon. John B. Hollister, Bennington; Hon. Seneca M. Dorr, Rutland; Rev. Addison Brown, Brattleboro'; Col. Lynus E. Knapp, Middlebury; Hon. James Hutchinson, jr., West Randolph; Hon. Russell S. Taft, Burlington; Hon. A. J. Willard, St. Johnsbury; Hon. H. Henry Powers, Hyde Park; Hon. Jasper Rand, St. Albans. Recording Secretary, Henry Clark, Rutland. Corresponding Secretary, Albert Clarke, St. Albans. Treasurer, Albert D. Hager, Proctorsville. Executive Committee, Hon. C. W. Willard, Montpelier; Hon. Charles Reed, Montpelier; George H Bigelow, Burlington; Newman Weeks, Rutland; Hon. Jonathan Ross, St. Johnsbury; Rev. Eli Ballou, D. D., Montpelier.

[196] Following the convention at Montpelier, meetings were held at St. Albans, Northfield, Barre, Burlington, St. Johnsbury, Brattleboro', Rutland, Fairhaven, Castleton, Springfield and Bellows Falls.

[197] Among the speakers were Mr. Garrison, Mrs. Howe, Mrs. Stone, Leo Miller, Mrs. Churchill, Mrs. Livermore, Mrs. Campbell, Dr. Sarah Hathaway, Mrs. Bowles, Mr. Blackwell, Hon. A. J. Williard. Mr. Taft, Mr. Clark, Judge Carpenter, Mr. Ivison, the Rev. Messrs. Brigham, Eastwood, Brown and Emerson.

[198] The fourteen who favored the bill were: Mr. Bigelow of Burlington, one of the leading editors in the State; Mr. Butterfield of Grafton, one of the most experienced legislators in the State; Mr. Carpenter of Northfield, who is known to be right on all questions that concern humanity, Mr. Colton of Irasburgh, now serving his second term in the Senate; Mr. Estey of Brattleboro', the manufacturer of the celebrated cottage organ; Mr. Houghton of North Bennington, a leading banker and business man who has just been elected one of the directors of our state-prison; Mr. King of North Montpelier, farmer; Mr. Lamb of Royalton, the oldest member in the Senate, a lawyer; Mr. Mason of Richmond, a man who would be described by a Yankee as "chock full of honesty and common-sense"; Mr. Rogers of Wheelock and Mr. Stiles of Montgomery, both farmers, and as near like Mr. Mason as two peas are alike; Mr. Reynolds of Alburgh Springs, one of the absentees, but in favor of the bill, a prominent merchant; Mr. Powers, one of the ablest lawyers in the State, and, finally, Mr. Sprague of Brandon, a leading banker and manufacturer, the head and principal owner of the Brandon Manufacturing Company.

[199] In 1885 there were thirty-three women elected to the office of school superintendent in eleven of the fourteen counties of the State, as follows: Addison, Miss A. L. Huntley; Bennington, Mrs. R. R. Wiley; Caledonia, Miss Nellie Russell, Mrs. A. F. Stevens, Mrs. E. Bradley, Miss S. E. Rogers; Chittenden, Mrs. S. M. Benedict, Mrs. L. M. Bates, Mrs. J. C. Draper; Essex, Mrs. Henry Fuller, Hettie W. Matthews, Jennie K. Stanley, Mrs. S. M. Day; Franklin, none; Grand Isle, Miss I. Montgomery; La Moille, Carrie P. Carroll, Miss C. A. Parker; Orange, Miss F. H. Graves, Miss A. A. Clement, Miss V. L. Farnham, Miss F. Martin; Orleans, none; Rutland, Mrs. I. C. Adams, Miss H. M. Bromley, Miss M. A. Mills, Lillian Tarbell, Mrs. H. M. Crowley; Washington, none; Windham, Mrs. J. M. Powers, Mrs. J. E. Phelps; Windsor, Mrs. E. G. White, Miss C. A. Lamb, Mrs. H. F. VanCor, Clara E. Perkins, Mrs. E. M. Lovejoy, Mrs. L. M. Hall.



CHAPTER XXXVII.

NEW YORK—1860-1885.

Saratoga Convention, July 13, 14, 1869—State Society Formed, Martha C. Wright, President—The Revolution Established, 1868—Educational Movement—New York City Society, 1870, Charlotte B. Wilbour, President—Presidential Campaign, 1872—Hearings at Albany, 1873—Constitutional Commission—An Effort to Open Columbia College, President Barnard in Favor—Centennial Celebration, 1876—School Officers—Senator Emerson of Monroe, 1877—Gov. Robinson's Veto—School Suffrage, 1880—Gov. Cornell Recommended it in his Message—Stewart's Home for Working Women—Women as Police—An Act to Prohibit 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.

The New York chapter in Volume I. closes with an account of some retrogressive legislation on the rights of married women,[200] showing that until woman herself has a voice in legislation her rights may be conceded or withheld at the option of the ruling powers, and that her only safety is in direct representation. The chapter on "Trials and Decisions" in Volume II., shows the injustice women have suffered in the courts, where they have never yet enjoyed the sacred right of trial by a jury of their own peers.

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

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

The advocates of woman suffrage will hold a State convention at Saratoga Springs on the thirteenth and fourteenth of July, 1869. The specific business of this convention will be to effect a permanent organization for the State of New York. Our friends in the several congressional districts should at once elect their delegates, in order that the whole State may be represented in the convention. In districts where delegates cannot be elected, any person can constitute himself or herself a representative. The convention will be attended by the ablest advocates of suffrage for woman, and addresses may be expected from Elizabeth Cady Stanton, president of the National Association, Celia Burleigh, president of the Brooklyn Equal Rights Association, Matilda Joslyn Gage, advisory counsel for the State, Susan B. Anthony, of The Revolution, Charlotte B. Wilbour of New York city, and others. Every woman interested for her personal freedom should attend this convention, and by her presence, influence and money, aid the movement for the restoration of the rights of her sex.

Mrs. ELIZABETH B. PHELPS, Vice-President for the State of New York. MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE, Advisory Counsel.

The opening session of the convention was held in the spacious parlors of Congress Hall the audience composed chiefly of fashionable ladies[201] from all parts of the country, who listened with evident interest and purchased the tracts intended for distribution. The remaining sessions were held in Hawthorn Hall, Matilda Joslyn Gage presiding. A series of spirited resolutions was adopted, also a plan of organization presented by Charlotte B. Wilbour, for a State association.[202] Many able speakers[203] were present. The formation of this society was the result of a very general agitation in different localities on several vital questions in the preceding year:

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

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

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

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

There was a general movement in these years for the more liberal education of women in various departments of art and industry, as well as in letters. First on the list stands Vassar College, founded in 1861, richly endowed with fine grounds and spacious buildings. We cannot estimate the civilizing influence of the thousands of young women graduating at that institution, now, as cultivated wives and mothers, presiding in households all over this land. Cornell University[207] was opened to girls in 1872, more richly endowed than Vassar, and in every way superior in its environments; beautifully situated on the banks of Cayuga Lake, with the added advantage and stimulus of the system of coeducation. To Andrew D. White, its president, all women owe a debt of gratitude for his able and persevering advocacy of the benefits to both sexes, of coeducation. The university at Syracuse, in which Lima College was incorporated, is also open alike to boys and girls. Rochester University,[208] Brown, Columbia, Union, Hamilton, and Hobart College at Geneva, still keep their doors barred against the daughters of the State, and the three last, in the small number of their students, and their gradual decline, show the need of the very influence they exclude. Could all the girls desiring an education in and around Rochester, Geneva,[209] Clinton and Schenectady, enter these institutions, the added funds and enthusiasm they would thus receive would soon bring them renewed life and vigor.

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

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

NEW YORK, June 3, 1869.

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

Very respectfully, MRS. MARSHALL O. ROBERTS.

IMPORTANT MEETING OF NEW YORK LADIES.—WOMAN'S EDUCATION.—On Monday, the 31st of May, a large number of influential ladies gathered at Dr. Taylor's, corner Sixth avenue and Thirty-eighth street, in response to the call of the secretary of The American Woman's Educational Association. A meeting was organized, Mrs. Marshall O. Roberts presiding, and after a long and interesting discussion the following resolutions were unanimously passed. It is proper to state that the society has been an organized and efficient power in woman's education for over twenty years. The object of its present action is to forward a movement to secure endowed institutions for the training of women to their special duties and professions as men are trained for theirs, particularly the science and duties of home-life:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Among the influences that brought new thought to the question of woman suffrage was the establishment of The Revolution in 1868. Radical and defiant in tone, it awoke friends and foes alike to action. Some denounced it, some ridiculed it, but all read it. It needed just such clarion notes sounded forth long and loud each week to rouse the friends of the movement from the apathy into which they had fallen after the war. One cannot read its glowing pages to-day without appreciating the power it was just at that crisis.[210]

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

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

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

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

I went to Iowa to commence practice, and was so successful that the dentists of the State insisted I should be allowed to attend the college. Their efforts prevailed, and I graduated from the Ohio Dental College at Cincinnati in the spring of 1866—the first woman in the world to take a diploma from a dental college. I am a New-Yorker by birth, but I love my adopted country—the West. To it belongs the credit of making it possible for women to be recognized in the dental profession on equal terms with men. Should you wish any further proof, write to Dr. Watt, who was professor of chemistry at the time I graduated, and I know he will take pleasure in giving you any additional information.

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

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

In The Revolution of May 14, 1868, we find the following:

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

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

We most heartily welcome all movements for the cultivation of individual thought and character in woman, and would recommend the formation of such clubs throughout the country. The editors of the New York press have made known their dissatisfaction that no gentlemen were to be admitted into this charmed circle. After a calm and dispassionate discussion of this question, it was decided to exclude gentlemen, not because their society was not most desirable and calculated to add brilliancy to the club, but from a fear lest the natural reverence of woman for man might embarrass her in beginning to reason and discuss; lest she should be awed to silence by their superior presence. It was not because they love man less, but their own improvement more. For the comfort of these ostracised ones, we would suggest a hope for the future. After these ladies become familiar with parliamentary tactics, and the grave questions that are to come before them for consideration, it is proposed to admit gentlemen to the galleries, that they may enjoy the same privileges vouchsafed to the fair sex in the past, to look down upon the feast, to listen to the speeches, and to hear "the pale, thoughtful brow," "the silken moustache," "the flowing locks," "the manly gait and form" toasted in prose and verse.

This club has met regularly ever since the day of its inauguration, and has been remarkable for the harmony maintained by its members. Mrs. Charlotte Wilbour was president for several years, until she went to reside in Paris, in 1874. Since that time Mrs. Croly has been, from year to year, elected to that office. Beginning with 12 members,[211] this club now numbers 320.

The most respected live-stock reporter in New York is a woman. Miss Middie Morgan, pronounced the best judge of horned cattle in this country. She can tell the weight of a beef on foot at a glance, and reports the cattle market for the New York Times. A correspondent says:

Her father was a cattle-dealer, and taught her to handle fearlessly the animals he delighted in. She learned to tell at a glance the finest points of live-stock, and to doctor bovine and equine ailments with the utmost skill. With all this, she became a proficient in Italian and French, and a terse and rapid writer. A few years ago, after her father's death, she traveled in Italy with an invalid sister, having an eye to her pet passion—the horse. While there she met Prince Poniatowsky, also an ardent admirer of that animal. He mentioned her zooelogical accomplishments to Victor Emanuel, and the consequence was Miss Middie was deputed by His Majesty to purchase a hundred or so of fine horses. She had charge of the blood-horses of King Victor Emanuel, who owns the finest stud in Europe, and breeds horses of a superior shape, vigor and fire. He beats Grant in his admiration for that noble animal. When she decided to come to this country, she made known the fact to Hon. George P. Marsh, our minister to Italy; and he gave her a letter of recommendation to Mr. Bigelow, of the Times, who employed her. She is an expert among all kinds of animals. Her judgment about the different breeds is sought after and much quoted. She can discuss the nice points about cattle as easily as Rosa Bonheur can paint them.[212]

From the Woman's Journal, Oct. 1, 1870:

Miss Barkaloo, the lady just admitted to the St. Louis bar as a lawyer, and who has received a license to practice as attorney-at-law from the Supreme Court of that State, is a native of Brooklyn, N. Y., and is a woman of more than ordinary ability. Two years ago, after having read Blackstone and other elementary law-books, she made application for admission as a student at Columbia College, New York, and was promptly refused. Nothing daunted, she went to St. Louis, where she was admitted to the Law School. For eighteen months she assiduously devoted her energies to the study of the science, and her fellow-students all agreed in declaring her by far the brightest member of the class. That there was no question of her ability was clearly shown at her examination. Judge Knight, although overflowing with gallantry, gave the lady no quarter. The most abstruse and erudite questions were propounded to the applicant, but not once did the judge catch the fair student tripping. Miss Barkaloo was about 22 years of age, of a fine figure, intelligent face and large, expressive eyes. The St. Louis papers of last week reported her sudden death of typhoid fever. According to custom, a meeting of the members of the St. Louis bar was held to take suitable action and pay respect to her memory. It was the first meeting of the kind in the United States, and was largely attended, not only by the young members of the bar, but by the most distinguished attorneys. Miss Phoebe Couzins, herself a member of the Law School, was in attendance, attired in deep mourning for the recent death of a beloved sister. The following resolutions were adopted:

Resolved, That in the death of Miss Helena Barkaloo we deplore the loss of the first of her sex ever admitted to the bar of Missouri.

Resolved, That in her erudition, industry and enterprise we have to regret the loss of one who, in the morning of her career, bade fair to reflect credit on our profession, and a new honor upon her sex.

Resolved, That our sympathy and condolence be extended to the relatives of the deceased.

Major Lucien Eaton, into whose office she had entered to seek opportunities of perfecting herself in the knowledge of her profession, said that—

He had been requested by an accomplished lady of St. Louis to afford her that opportunity, and at first had hesitated to do so; yet he felt that she should have a trial, and when he took her into his office his conduct met with the approbation of the legal fraternity generally. That fraternity cordially sympathized with the efforts she was making, and both old lawyers and young ones tried to put business into her hands, the taking of depositions and other such work as she could perform. He testified to finding her a true woman; modest and retiring, carefully shunning all unnecessary publicity, and avoiding all display. She was earnest in her studies, and being gifted with a fine intellect and a good judgment, gave promise of great attainments. He had never known a student more assiduous in study; she wanted to become mistress of her profession. Her death is a calamity, not to her friends alone, but to all who are making an effort for the enlargement of woman's sphere.

After the closing of the doors of the Geneva Medical School to women, the Central Medical College of Syracuse was the first to admit them. Four were graduated in 1852. Since then the two medical colleges in New York city have graduated hundreds of women. Among the many in successful practice are Clemence S. Lozier, Emily Blackwell, Mary Putnam Jacobi, New York; Eliza P. Mosher, Brooklyn; Sarah R. A. Dolley, Anna H. Searing, Fannie F. Hamilton, Rochester; Amanda B. Sanford, Auburn; Eveline P. Ballintine, Le Roy; Rachel E. Gleason, Elmira.

In May, 1870, the New York City Society was formed, with efficient officers,[213] and pleasant rooms, at 16 Union Square, where meetings were regularly held on Friday afternoon of each week. These meetings were well attended and sustained with increasing interest from month to month. This society held its first meeting November 27, 1871, which was addressed by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe; and on January 13, 1872, another, addressed by Jennie Collins, the indefatigable Bostonian who has done so much for the benefit of the working girls. A series of meetings was held under the auspices of this association in many of the chief cities around New York and on the Hudson, the chief speakers being the officers of the association. An active German society was soon after formed, with Mrs. Augusta Lillienthal, president, and Mrs. Matilda F. Wendt, secretary. The latter published a paper, Die Neue Zeit, devoted to woman suffrage. She was also the correspondent of several leading journals in Germany. The society held its first public meeting March 21, 1872, in Turner Hall, Mrs. Wendt presiding. Mrs. Lillienthal, Mrs. Clara Neyman and Dr. Adolphe Doney were the speakers. Clara Neyman became afterwards a popular speaker in many suffrage and free-religious associations.

Petitions were rolled up by both the German and American societies to the legislature, praying for the right of suffrage, and on April 3, 1871, the petitioners[214] were granted a hearing, before the Judiciary Committee of the Assembly, Hon. L. Bradford Prince presiding. Mrs. Wilbour's able address made a most favorable impression. The question was referred to the Judiciary Committee. The majority report was adverse, the minority, signed by Robert A. Strahan and C. P. Vedder, favorable.

A grand demonstration was made April 26, 1872, in Cooper Institute, intended specially to emphasize the claims of wives and mothers to the ballot, and to show that the City Association had no sympathy with any theories of free-love. Five thousand cards of invitation were distributed.

In 1871 women attempted to vote in different parts of the State, among whom were Matilda Joslyn Gage at Fayetteville, and Mrs. Louise Mansfield at Nyack, but were repulsed. In 1872 others did vote under the fourteenth amendment, conspicuously Susan B. Anthony, who, as an example for the rest, was arrested, tried, convicted and fined.[215] Mrs. Gage published a woman's rights catechism to answer objections made at that time to woman's voting, which proved a valuable campaign document. We find the names of Mary R. Pell of Flushing, Helen M. Loder of Poughkeepsie, and Elizabeth B. Whitney of Harlem, frequently mentioned at this time for their valuable services.

The following items show the varied capacity of women for many employments:

In March, 1872, Miss Charlotte E. Ray (colored) of New York, was graduated at the Howard University Law School, and admitted to practice in the courts of the District of Columbia at Washington.—The headquarters of the Women's National Relief Association is in New York; its object is supplying government stations along the coast with beds, blankets, warm clothing and other necessaries for shipwrecked persons.——Miss Leggett, for a long time proprietor of a book and paper store in New York, established a home, in 1878, for women, on Clinton Square, which is in all respects antipodal to Stewart's Hotel. It is governed by no stringent rules or regulations. No woman is liable without cause, at the mere caprice of the founder, to be suddenly required to leave, as was the case in Judge Hilton's home. On the contrary, it is the object of the founder to provide a real home for women. The house is not only provided with a library, piano, etc., but its inmates are allowed to bring their sewing-machines, hang pictures upon the walls, put up private book-racks, etc. The price, too, but $4 a week, falls more nearly within the means of laboring women than the $6 to $10 of the Stewart Hotel.——The first penny lunch-room in New York was established by a woman, who made it a source of revenue.——The inventor of the submarine telescope, a woman, has received $10,000 for her invention.——Deborah Powers, now over ninety years of age, is the head of a large oil-cloth manufactory in Troy. Her sons are engaged in business with her, but she, still bright and active, remains at the head of the firm. This is the largest oil-cloth factory in the United States. She was left a widow with three sons, with a heavy mortgage on her estate. She secured an extension of time, built up the business and educated her sons to the work. She is also president of a bank.——A successful nautical school in New York is conducted by two ladies, Mrs. Thorne and her daughter, Mrs. Brownlow. These ladies have made several voyages and studied navigation, both theoretically and practically. During the late war they prepared for the navy 2,000 mates and captains bringing their knowledge of navigation up to the standard required by the strict examiners of the naval board.——Mrs. Wilson, since a New York custom-house inspector, took charge, in 1872, of her husband's ship, disabled in a terrific gale off Newfoundland in which his collar-bone was broken and a portion of the crew badly hurt. The main-mast having been cut down she rigged a jury-mast, and after twenty-one days brought ship and crew safe to port.

Miss Jennie Turner, a short-hand writer of New York, is a notary public. In a recent law-suit some of the papers were "sworn to" before her in her official capacity, and one of the attorneys claimed that it was not verified, inasmuch as a woman "could not legally hold public office." The judge decided that the paper must be accepted as properly verified, and said that the only way to oust her was in a direct action by the attorney-general. The judge said:

Whether a female is capable of holding public office has never been decided by the courts of this State, and is a question about which legal minds may well differ. The constitution regulates the right of suffrage and limits it to "male" citizens. Disabilities are not favored, and are seldom extended by implication, from which it may be argued that if it required the insertion of the term "male" to exclude female citizens of lawful age from the right of suffrage, a similar limitation would be required to disqualify them from holding office. Citizenship is a condition or status and has no relation to age or sex. It may be contended that it was left to the good sense of the executive and to the electors to determine whether or not they would select females to office, and that the power being lodged in safe hands was beyond the danger of abuse. If, on the other hand, it be seriously contended that the constitution, by necessary implication, disqualifies females from holding office, it must follow as a necessary consequence that the act of the legislature permitting females to serve as school officers, and all other legislative enactments of like import removing such disqualification, are unconstitutional and void. In this same connection it may be argued that if the use of the personal pronoun "he" in the constitution does not exclude females from public office, its use in the statute can have no greater effect. The statute, like the constitution, in prescribing the qualifications for office, omits the word "male," leaving the question whether female citizens of lawful age are included or excluded, one of construction.

Miss Anna Ballard, a reporter on the staff of the New York Sun, was elected a member of the Press Club, in 1877, by a vote of 24 to 10. Within the last ten years women contributors to the press have become numerous. The book-reviewer of the Herald is a woman; one of the book-reviewers of the Tribune, one of its most valued correspondents and several of its regular contributors are women; the agricultural and market reporter of the New York Times is a woman; the New York Sun's fashion writer is a woman, and also one of its most industrious and sagacious reporters. Female correspondents flood the evening papers with news from Washington. We instance these not at all as a complete catalogue; for there are, we doubt not, more than a hundred women known and recognized in and about Printing-house Square as regular contributors to the columns of the daily and weekly press. As a rule they are modest, reputable pains-taking servants of the press; and it is generally conceded that if they are willing to put up with the inconveniences attending journalistic work, it is no part of men's duty to interfere with their attempt to earn an honest livelihood in a profession which has so many avenues as yet uncrowded. Miss Ellen A. Martin, formerly of Jamestown, N. Y., a graduate of the Law School of Ann Arbor, in 1875, was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of Illinois, at the January term, and is practicing in Chicago, occupying an office with Miss Perry, Room 39, No. 143 La Salle street. Mrs. Martha J. Lamb was the first woman ever admitted to membership in the New York State Historical Society. Her "History of New York City" is recognized as a standard authority, and has already taken rank among the great histories of the world.

During the summer of 1872 the presidential campaign agitated the country. As Horace Greeley, who was opposed to woman suffrage, was running against Grant and Wilson, who were in favor, and as the Republican platform contained a plank promising some consideration for the loyal women of the nation, a great demonstration was held in Cooper Institute, New York, October 7. The large hall was crowded by an excited throng. Hon. Luther R. Marsh presided. The speakers[216] were all unusually happy. Mrs. Blake's[217] address was applauded to a recall, when she went forward and asked the audience to give three cheers for the woman suffrage candidates, Grant and Wilson, which they did with hearty good will.

During the winter of 1873 a commission was sitting at Albany to revise the constitution of New York. As it seemed fitting that women should press their claims to the ballot, memorials were presented and hearings requested by both the State and City societies. Accordingly Mr. Silliman, the chairman, appointed February 18, to hear the memorialists. A large delegation of ladies went from New York.[218] The commission was holding its sessions in the common-council chamber, and when the time arrived for the hearing the room was crowded with an attentive audience. The members of the Committee on Suffrage were all present, Mr. Silliman presided. Matilda Joslyn Gage represented the State association, speaking upon the origin of government and the rights pertaining thereto. Mrs. Wilbour and Mrs. Blake represented the New York City Society, and each alike made a favorable impression. The Albany Evening Journal gave a large space to a description of the occasion. The respectful hearing, however, was the beginning and the end, as far as could be seen, of all impression made on the committee, which coolly recommended that suffrage be secured to colored men by ratifying the fifteenth amendment, while making no recognition whatever of the women of the State. A memorial was at once sent to the legislature and another hearing was granted on February 27. Mrs. Blake[219] was the only speaker on that occasion. The Hon. Bradford Prince, of Queens, presided. At the close of Mrs. Blake's remarks James W. Husted of Westchester, in a few earnest words, avowed himself henceforth a champion of the cause. Shortly afterwards the Hon. George West presented a constitutional amendment giving to every woman possessed of $250 the right to vote, thus placing the women of the State in the same position with the colored men before the passage of the fifteenth amendment; but even this was denied. The amendment was referred to the Judiciary Committee and there entombed. Large meetings[220] were held at Robinson Hall during the winter, and at Apollo Hall in May, and in different localities about New York.

July 2, 1873, an indignation meeting was held by the City Society to protest against the sentence pronounced by Judge Hunt in the case of Susan B. Anthony. De Garmo Hall was crowded. The platform was decorated with the United States flag draped with black bunting, while on each side were banners, one bearing the inscription, "Respectful Consideration for a Loyal Woman's Vote! $100 Fine!" the other, "Shall One Federal Judge Abolish Trial by Jury?" Dr. Clemence Lozier presided, and Mrs. Devereux Blake made a stirring speech reviewing Miss Anthony's trial and Judge Hunt's decision.[221] Mr. Hamilton Wilcox made a manly protest against Judge Hunt's high-handed act of oppression, and Mrs. Marie Rachel made another, in behalf of the German association.

In October, 1873, Mrs. Devereux Blake made an effort to open the doors of Columbia College to women. A class of four young ladies[222] united in asking admission. Taking them with her, Mrs. Blake went before the president and faculty, who gave her a respectful hearing. She argued that the charter of the college itself declared that it was founded for "the education of the youth of the city", and that the word youth was defined in all dictionaries as "young persons of both sexes," so that by its very foundation it was intended that girls as well as boys should enjoy the benefits of the university, and it was no more than just that they should, seeing that the original endowment was by the "rectors and inhabitants of the city of New York," one-half of these inhabitants being women. Mrs. Blake's[223] application was referred to "the Committee on the Course of Instruction," and after some weeks of consideration was refused, on the ground that "it was inexpedient," the Rev. Morgan Dix being especially active in his opposition. However, soon after this, the lectures of the college were open to ladies, and a few years later President Barnard warmly recommended that young women should be admitted as students to all the privileges of the university.

A Woman's Congress was organized at New York, October 15, 16, 17, 1873, in the Union League Theater. Representative women[224] were there from all parts of the country. Its object was similar to the social science organizations—the discussion of a wider range of subjects than could be tolerated on the platforms of any specific reform. Mary A. Livermore presided, and the meeting was considered a great success. The speeches and proceedings were published in pamphlet form, and still are from year to year. This had been an idea long brewing in many minds, and was at last realized through the organizing talent of Mrs. Charlotte B. Wilbour, the originator of Sorosis. From year to year they have held regular meetings in the chief cities of the different States.

Dr. Clemence Lozier,[225] president of the city society, early opened her spacious parlors to the monthly meetings, where they have been held for many years. This association has been active and vigilant, taking note of and furthering every step of progress in Church and State. Mrs. Lozier and Mrs. Blake have worked most effectively together, the former furnishing the sinews of war, and the latter making the attack all along the line, to the terror of the faint-hearted.

The era of centennial celebrations was now approaching, and it was proposed to hold a suitable commemoration on the one-hundredth anniversary of the Boston tea-party, December 16, 1873. Union League Theater was, on the appointed evening, filled to its utmost capacity. The platform was decorated with flowers and filled with ladies, Dr. Lozier presiding. Miss Anthony was the speaker of the evening, and made a most effective address; Helen Potter gave a recitation; Hannah M'L. Shepherd read letters of sympathy; Mrs. Blake made a short closing address, and presented a series of resolutions, couched in precisely the same language as that adopted by our ancestors in protesting against taxation without representation:

Resolved, That as an expression of the sentiments of the tax-paying women of New York, we reiterate, as applied to ourselves, the declaration contained in the bill of rights put forth by our ancestors 100 years ago: First—That the women of the country are entitled to equal rights and privileges with the men; Second—That it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a people, and the undoubted right of all men and women, that no taxes be imposed on them but by their own consent, given in person or by their representatives; Third—That the only representatives of these women are persons chosen by themselves, and that no taxes ever have been or can be constitutionally imposed upon them but by legislatures composed of persons so chosen.

The report of the State assessors[226] of 1883 brought forcibly to view the injustice done in taxing non-voters. At their meeting with the supervisors of Onondaga county, Mr. Pope of Fabius said: "Mrs. Andrews is assessed too much." Mr. Hadley replied: "Well, Mr. Briggs says that is the way all the women are assessed." Mr. Briggs responded: "Yes, that is the way we find the assessors treat the women; they can't vote, you know! I am in favor of letting the women vote now."

Two women in the village of Batavia were assessed for more personal property than the entire assessment of like property, exclusive of corporations, in the city of Rochester with a population of 70,000! While declaring they had found very little personal property assessed, Mr. Fowler said: "We found some cases where town assessors had taxed the personal property of women, and one case of a ward who was assessed to full value, while upon the guardian's property there was no assessment at all." This report not only proved a good woman suffrage document, but the work done by the State assessors, Messrs. Hadley, Briggs and Fowler, convinced them personally of woman's need of the ballot for the protection of her property.

Early in the year 1874, memorials from societies in different parts of the State were sent to the legislature, asking "that all taxes due from women be remitted until they are allowed to vote." The most active of these anti-tax societies was the one formed in Rochester through the efforts of Mrs. Lewia C. Smith, whose earnestness and fidelity in this, as in many another good word and work, have been such as to command the admiration even of opponents—a soul of that sweet charity that makes no account of self. A hearing was appointed for the memorialists on January 24, and the journals[227] made honorable mention of the occasion.

The centennial was approaching and the notes of preparation were heard on all sides. The women who understood their status as disfranchised citizens in a republic, regarded the coming event as one for them of humiliation rather than rejoicing, inasmuch as the close of the first century of the nation's existence found one half the people still political slaves. At the February meeting of the association, Mrs. Blake presented the following resolution:

Resolved, That the members of this society do hereby pledge themselves not to aid either by their labor, time or money, the proposed celebration of the independence of the men of the nation, unless before July 4, 1876, the women of the land shall be guaranteed their political freedom.

In their own way, however, the members of the society intended to observe such centennials as were fitting, and so preparation was made for a suitable commemoration of the battle of Lexington. They held a meeting[228] in the Union League Theatre, the evening of April 19, to protest against their disfranchisement. The journals contained fair reports, with the exception of The Tribune, which sent no reporter, and closed its account next day of many observances elsewhere by saying, "there was no celebration in New York city." Several of the papers published Mrs. Blake's speech:

Just as the first rays of dawn stole across our city this morning, the century was complete since the founders of this nation made their first great stand for liberty. The early April sunshine a hundred years ago saw a group of men and boys gathered together, "a few rods north of the meeting-house," in the Massachusetts village of Lexington. Un-uniformed and undisciplined, standing in the chilly morning, that handful of patriots represented the great Republic which on that day was to spring from their martyrdom. The rebellious colonists had collected in the hamlets near Boston some military stores; these the British officers in command at Boston resolved should be seized and destroyed. Warned of their design Paul Revere made his famous ride to arouse the country to resistance, and in the dead of night Adams and Hancock went out to summon their comrades to arms. As the last stars vanished before the dawn, the drum beat to summon the patriots to action, and in response a little band of about eighty men and boys assembled on the village green. Few as they were in numbers, they presented a brave front as the British regulars came up the quiet street, 200 strong. What followed was not a battle, but a butchery. The minute-men refused to surrender to Major Pitcairn's haughty demand, and a volley of musketry, close and deadly, was poured on this devoted band. In response only a few random shots were fired, which did absolutely no harm, and then, seeing the hopelessness of resistance, the commander of the minute-men ordered them to disperse. The British, elated with their easy victory, pushed on toward Concord, thinking that there another speedy success awaited them. In this they soon bitterly learned their error. Although they were reinforced on the way, when they reached that village they were met by such a resistance as drove them back, broken and disorganized, on the road they had so proudly followed in the morning. Concord nobly avenged the slaughter at Lexington.

So much for what men did on that day, and let us see what share the women had in its dangers and its sorrows. Jonathan Harris was shot in front of his own house, while his wife was watching him from a window, seeing him fall with such anguish as no poor words of mine can describe. He struggled to his feet, the blood gushing from a wound in his breast, staggered forward a few paces and fell again, and then crawled on his hands and knees to his threshold only to expire just as his wife reached him. Did not this woman bear her portion of the martyrdom? Isaac Davis, a man in the prime of life, went forth from his home in the morning, and before the afternoon sunlight had grown yellow, was brought back to it dead, and was laid, pale and cold, in his wife's bed, only three hours after he had left her with a solemn benediction of farewell. Did not this woman also suffer? She was left a widow in the very flower of her youth, and for seventy years she faithfully mourned his taking off! Nor were these the only ones; for every man who fell that day, some woman's heart was wrung. There were others who endured actual physical hardship and suffering. Hannah Adams lay in bed with an infant only a week old when the British reached her house in their disorderly retreat to Boston; they forced her to leave her sick room and to crawl into an adjoining corn shed, while they burned her house to ashes in her sight. Three companies of British troops went to the house of Major Barrett and demanded food. Mrs. Barrett served them as well as she was able, and when she was offered compensation, refused it, saying gently, "We are commanded if our enemy hunger to feed him." So, in toil or suffering or anguish the women endured their share of the sorrows of that day. Do they not deserve a share of its glories also? The battles of Lexington and Concord form an era in our country's history. When, driven to desperation by a long course of oppression, the people first resolved to revolt against the mother country. Discontent, resentment and indignation had grown stronger month by month among the hardy settlers of the land, until they culminated in the most splendid act of audacity that the world has ever seen. A few colonies, scattered at long intervals along the Atlantic seaboard, dared to defy the proudest nation in Europe, and a few rustics, undisciplined, and almost unarmed, actually ventured to encounter in battle that army which had boasted its conquests over the flower of European chivalry. What unheard of oppressions drove these people to the mad attempt? What unheard of atrocities had the rulers of these people practiced, what unjust confiscations of property, what cruel imprisonments and wicked murders? None of all these; the people of this land were not starving or dying under the iron heel of an Alva or a Robespierre, but their civil liberties had been denied, their political freedom refused, and rather than endure the loss of these precious things, they were willing to encounter danger and to brave death. The men and women who suffered at Concord and at Lexington 100 years ago to-day, were martyrs to the sacred cause of personal liberty! Looking over the records of the past we find, again and again repeated, the burden of their complaints. Not that they were starving or dying, but that they were taxed without their consent, and that they were denied personal representation.

The congress which assembled at Philadelphia in 1774, declared that "the foundation of liberty and of all free governments is the right of the people to participate in their legislative council"; and the House of Burgesses, assembled in Virginia in the same year, asserted "That a determined system is formed and pressed for reducing us to slavery, by subjecting us to the payment of taxes imposed without our consent." Strong language this, as strong as any we women have ever employed in addressing the men of this nation. Our ancestors called the imposition of taxes without their consent, slavery, and the denial of personal representation, tyranny. Slavery and tyranny! words which they tell us to-day are too strong for our use. We must find some mild and lady-like phrases in which to describe these oppressions. We must employ some safe and gentle terms to indicate the crimes which our forefathers denounced! My friends, what was truth a century ago is truth to-day! Other things may have changed, but justice has not changed in a hundred years!

In 1876 a presidential election was again approaching, and to meet the exigencies of the campaign a woman suffrage committee was formed to ask the legislature to grant presidential suffrage to women, as it was strictly within their power to do without a constitutional amendment. To this end Mrs. Gage prepared an appeal which was widely circulated throughout the State:

Within a year the election of President and Vice-President of the United States, will again take place. The right to vote for these functionaries is a National and not a State right; the United States has unquestioned control of this branch of suffrage, and in its constitution has declared to whom it has delegated this power. Article 2 of the Constitution of the United States, is devoted to the president; the manner of choosing him, his power, his duties, etc. In regard to the method of choosing the president, Par. 2, Sec. 1, Art. 2, reads thus: "Each State shall appoint in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of senators and representatives to which the State may be entitled in the congress." There is no other authority for the appointment of presidential electors, either in the Constitution of the United States, or in the constitution of any State. The constitution of the State of New York is entirely silent upon the appointment of presidential electors, for the reason that the constitution of the United States declares that they shall be appointed in such manner as the legislature may direct. With the exception of South Carolina, every State in the Union has adopted the plan of choosing presidential electors by ballot, and it is in the power of the legislature of each State to prescribe the qualifications of those who shall be permitted to vote for such electors.

The authority to prescribe the qualifications of those persons in the State of New York who shall be permitted to vote for electors of President and Vice-President of the United States, therefore lies alone in the legislature of this State. That body has power in this respect superior to the State constitution; it rises above the constitution; it is invested with its powers by the Constitution of the United States; it is under national authority, and need in no way be governed by any representative clause which may exist in the State constitution. In prescribing the qualifications of those persons who shall vote for electors, the legislature has power to exclude all persons who cannot read and write. It has power to say that no person unless possessing a freehold estate of the value of two hundred and fifty dollars, shall vote for such electors. It has power to declare that only tax-payers shall vote for such electors, it is even vested with authority to say that no one but church members shall be entitled to vote for electors of President and Vice-President of the United States. The legislature of this State at its next session has even power to cut off the right of all white men to vote for electors at the presidential election next fall. It matters not what qualifications the State itself may have prescribed for electors of State officers, the question who shall vote for president and vice-president is on an entirely different basis, and prescribing the qualifications for such electors lies in entirely different hands. It is a question of national import with which the State (in its constitution) has nothing to do, and over which even congress has no power. The legislature which is to assemble in Albany, the first Tuesday in January next, will have power, by the passage of a simple bill, to secure to the women of this State the right to vote for electors at the presidential election in the fall of 1876, and thus to inaugurate the centennial year by an act of equity and justice that will be in accordance with that part of the Declaration of Independence which declares that "governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." Shall it not be done?