These resolutions, readily passed in the Milwaukee convention, had been rejected at all others held in the West during this campaign, although Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony had earnestly advocated them everywhere. They early foresaw exactly what has come to pass, and did their uttermost to rouse women to the danger of having their enfranchisement indefinitely postponed. They warned them that the debate once closed on negro suffrage, and the amendments passed, the question would not be opened again for a generation. But their warnings were unheeded. The fair promises of Republicans and Abolitionists that, the negro question settled, they would devote themselves to woman's enfranchisement, deceived and silenced the majority. How well they have kept their promises is fully shown in the fact that although twenty years have passed, the political status of woman remains unchanged. The Abolitionists have drifted into other reforms, and the Republicans devote themselves to more conservative measures. The Milwaukee convention was adjourned to Madison, where Mrs. Livermore, Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony addressed the legislature, Gov. Fairchild presiding.

In 1870, March 16, 17, a large and enthusiastic convention was held at Janesville, in Lappin's Hall. Rev. Dr. Maxon, Lilia Peckham and Mrs. Stanton were among the speakers. After this, the latter being on a lyceum trip, spoke in many of the chief cities of the State and drew general attention to the question.

The following clear statement of the petty ways in which girls can be defrauded of their rights to a thorough education by narrow, bigoted men entrusted with a little brief authority, is from the pen of Lilia Peckham, a young girl of great promise, who devoted her rare talents to the suffrage movement. Her early death was an irreparable loss to the women of Wisconsin:[425]

ED. NEWS:—We find proofs at every step that one class cannot legislate for another, the rich for the poor, nor men for women.

The State University, supported by the taxes of the people and for the benefit of the people, should offer equal advantages to men and women. By amendment of the Constitution in 1867, it was declared that the University shall be open to female as well as male students, under such regulations and restrictions as the board of regents may deem proper. At first the students recited together, but Mr. Chadbourne made it a condition of accepting the presidency that they should be separated. I do not speak of the separation of the sexes to find fault. I conceive that if equal advantages be given women by the State, whether in connection with or apart from men, they have no ground for complaint. My object is to compare the advantages given to the sexes and see the practical effect of legislation by men alone in this department. From all the facts that are now pressed upon us, confused, contradictory and obscure, we begin to obtain a glimpse of the general law that informs them. The University has a college of arts (including the department of agriculture, of engraving and military tactics), a college of letters, preparatory department, law department, post-graduate course, last and certainly least, a female college. The faculty and board of instructors number twenty-one. The college of arts has nine professors, one of natural philosophy, one each of mental philosophy, modern languages, rhetoric, chemistry, mathematics, agriculture, and comparative anatomy, and a tutor. In the department of engineering is an officer of the United States Army. In the college of letters is the same faculty, with the addition of William F. Allen, professor of ancient languages and history, one coming from a family of scholarly teachers and thoroughly fitted for his post. In the law department are such names as L. S. Dixon and Byron Paine.

Read now the names composing the faculty of the female college, Paul A. Chadbourne, M. D., president; T. N. Haskell, professor of rhetoric and English literature; Miss Elizabeth Earle, preceptress; Miss Brown, teacher of music; Miss Eliza Brewster, teacher of drawing and painting. Compare these faculties and note what provision is made here for the sciences and languages. Look at the course of instruction in the college of arts. During the first year the men study higher algebra, conic sections, plane trigonometry, German (Otto's) botany, Gibbon's Rome. In the college of letters the course is similar, but more attention is given to classical studies; to Livy, Xenophon and Horace. During the same years in the female college, they are studying higher arithmetic, elementary algebra, United States history, grammar, geography and map drawing. Truly a high standard! The studies in the first term of the preparatory department (to which none can be admitted under twelve years of age) are identical with those in the female college at the same time, except the Latin. Indeed, I cannot see why it would not be an advantage to the students of the female college to go into the preparatory department during their first college year, since they can get their own course with geometry added, and if they stay three years a proportional amount of Latin and Greek. I could compare the whole course in the same way, but my time and the reader's patience would fail. There is no hint either of any thorough prescribed course in any of the languages. In the first and fourth year no foreign language is put down. In each term of the second year French and Latin are written as elective, the same for Latin or German in the third. This is a wretched course at the best. I have no faith in a course set down so loosely as "Latin" instead of being defined as to what course of Latin, and what authors are read. In that case we know exactly how much is required and expected, and what the standard of scholarship. In the college of letters we know that they go from Livy to Cicero on Old Age, then to Horace and Tacitus. Similar definiteness would be encouraging in the female catalogue. Its absence gives us every reason to believe that the course does not amount to enough to add any reputation to the college by being known. Under the head of special information we are told that in addition to this prescribed course of "thorough education young ladies will be instructed in any optional study taught in the college of letters or arts, for which they are prepared." By optional I understand any of the studies marked elective, since they are the only optional studies. In the college of letters there is but one, and that is the calculus. In the college of arts the optional studies are generally, not always, those that they could not be prepared for in the course prescribed by their own college. Under the head of degrees we find a long account of the A. B., A. M., P. B., S. B., S. M., L. B., Ph. D., to which the fortunate gentlemen are entitled after so much study. Lastly, the students of the female college may receive "such appropriate degrees as the regents may determine." I wonder how often that solemn body deliberates as to whether a girl shall be A. B., P. B., or A. M., or whether they ever give them any degree at all. It makes little difference. With such a college course a degree means nothing, and only serves to cheapen what may be well earned by the young men of the college.

In 1870, the stockholders of the Milwaukee Female College elected three women on their board of trustees: Mrs. Wm. P. Lynde, Mrs. Wm. Delos Love and Mrs. John Nazro. This is the first time in the history of the institution that women have been represented in the board of trustees.

Elizabeth R. Wentworth was an earnest and excellent writer and kept up a healthy agitation through the columns of her husband's paper at Racine.

RACINE, August 4, 1875.

MY DEAR MISS ANTHONY: Would it not be well for us women to accept the hint afforded by these Englishmen, and bind ourselves together by a constitution and by-laws. By so doing we might sooner be enabled to secure the rights which men seem so persistently determined to withhold from us. Very respectfully yours,

E. R. WENTWORTH.

The growing strength of woman suffrage in England has caused considerable commotion in that country, among officials and others. Its growth has led the men to form a club in opposition to it, composed of such men as Mr. Bouverie, a noted member of Parliament; Sir Henry James, late attorney-general; Mr. Childers, late first lord of the admiralty.

The formation of this club calls out a few words from Mrs. Stanton, who sarcastically says:

Is not this the first organized resistance in the history of the race, against the encroachment of women; the first manly confession by those high in authority—by lords, attorney-generals, sirs, and gentlemen—of fear at the progressive steps of the daughters of men? These conservative gentlemen had no doubt found Lady Amberly, Lydia Becker, and Mrs. Fawcett too much for them in debate; they had probably winced under the satire of Frances Power Cobbe, and trembled before the annually swelling lists of suffrage petitions. Single-handed they saw they were helpless against this incoming tide of feminine persuasiveness, and so it seems they called a meeting of faint-hearted men, and bound themselves together by a constitution and by-laws to protect the franchise from the encroachment of women.

In the legislature of 1880, the proposition to submit an amendment for woman suffrage to a vote of the people, passed both Houses. In 1881 it passed one branch and was lost in the other. Senator Simpson introduced another bill in 1882[426] which was lost. These successive defeats discouraged the women and they instructed their friends in the legislature to make no further attempts for a constitutional amendment, because they had not the slightest hope of its passage.

The growing interest in the temperance question at this time produced some divisions in the suffrage ranks. Some thought it had been one of the greatest obstacles to the success of the suffrage cause, rousing the opposition of a very large and influential class. Millions of dollars are invested in this State in breweries and distilleries, and members are elected to the legislature to watch these interests. Knowing the terrible sufferings of women and children through intemperance, they naturally infer that the ballot in the hands of women would be inimical to their interests, hence the opposition of this wealthy and powerful class to the suffrage movement. Others thought the agitation was an advantage, especially in bringing the women in the temperance movement to a sense of their helplessness to effect any reform without a voice in the laws. They thought, too, that the power behind the liquor interests was readily outweighed by the moral influence of the best men and women in the State, especially as the church began to feel some responsibility in the question. The Milwaukee Wisconsin of June 4, 1883, gives this interesting item:

The Rev. Father Mahoney, of St. John's Cathedral, preached a temperance sermon to a large concourse of people yesterday morning, in which he heartily indorsed the action of Mayor Stowell in his war against the ordinary saloon, and declared that he should be reelected. He also said that the men who opposed him were covering themselves with infamy, and that he could not conscientiously administer the sacraments to any saloon-keeper who refused to obey the commands of the Church or the laws of the State concerning the good order and welfare of the city. The sermon caused quite a stir, and was much discussed in secular as well as religious circles.

The State Association[427] has maintained an unswerving course, between fanatacism and ultra-conservatism. Since 1869 it has stood as on the watch-tower, quick to see opportunities, and ever ready to cooeperate with the legislative bodies in the State, and well may we be proud of our achievements when we remember that by the census of 1870 Wisconsin is the first foreign and the second Roman Catholic State in the Union, and that at our centennial exposition in 1876 our public schools stood number one.

Rev. Olympia Brown Willis moved into the State of Wisconsin in 1877, and became pastor of the church of the Good Shepherd, in Racine, and exerted a wide influence, not only as a liberal theologian, but as an earnest advocate of suffrage for woman. As a result of her efforts a most successful Woman's Council was held in Racine, March 26, 1883, alternating in the church of the Good Shepherd and Blake's Opera House. One of the chief speakers[428] was Dr. Corwin, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, who was also on the managing committee. The cordiality of many of the western clergy, in strong contrast with those in the east, makes their favorable action worthy of comment, though the liberality of the few is of little avail until in their ecclesiastical assemblies, as organizations, they declare the equality of woman not only before the law, but in all the offices of the church. Mrs. Katharine R. Doud was chosen president of the convention; Mrs. Olin gave the address of welcome, to which Mrs. Sewall responded. Mrs. Doud, in the Advocate, thus sums up the three days' meetings:

During the past week a woman's council has been held in Racine, the success of which has been most noticeable. The different sessions have been attended by large audiences of intelligent men and women, who have very thoughtfully and carefully weighed and discussed the various questions under consideration.

From the beginning to the end there has never been a hitch or jar; the myriad wheels of the machinery required to make smooth the workings of such large assemblies have moved so quietly, and have been so well oiled and in such perfect order as to be absolutely unnoticed; really, one might have been tempted to feel that the machine had no master, no controlling hand.

But now that the council is over; now that we can pause and begin to estimate the good that has been done; now that the seed is sown, from which, please God, a grand harvest shall be reaped—now we can look back and see how one brain has planned it all. One clear-eyed, far-seeing will gathered together these women of genius, who have been with us; one practical, mathematical brain made all estimates of expense, and accepted all risks of failure; one hospitable heart received a house full of guests, and induced others to be hospitable likewise; and one earnest, prayerful soul—and this the best of all—besought and entreated God's blessing upon the work. Need we tell you where to find this master-hand which has planned so wisely? the strong will, the clear brain, the warm heart, the pure soul? We all know her; she is indeed a noble woman, and her name—let us whisper lest she hear—is Olympia Brown Willis.

The following sketch of the leading events of her life, shows how active and useful she has been in all her public and private relations:

Olympia Brown was born in Kalamazoo county, Michigan, January 5, 1835. At the age of fifteen she began to teach school during the winter months, attending school herself in the summer. At eighteen she entered Holyoke seminary, but finding the advantages there inadequate for a thorough education, her parents removed, for her benefit, to Yellow Springs, Ohio, where she entered Antioch college, Horace Mann, one of the best educators of his day, being president. There her ambition was thoroughly satisfied, and she was graduated with honor in 1860. She then entered Canton Theological school, was graduated in 1863, and, duly ordained as a Universalist minister, commenced preaching in Marshfield and Montpelier, Vermont, often walking fifteen miles to fill her appointments. In 1864 she was regularly installed over her first parish at Weymouth, Massachusetts. Her energy and fidelity soon raised that feeble society into one of numbers and influence.

In 1869, she accepted a call to Bridgeport, Connecticut, where she remained seven years. In 1878, with her husband, John Henry Willis, and two children she removed to Racine, Wisconsin, where she became pastor of the church of the Good Shepherd, without the promise of a dollar. The church had been given up as hopeless by several men in succession, because of the influence of the Orthodox theological seminary. But she soon gathered large audiences and earnest members about her; established a Sunday school, had courses of lectures in her church during the winter, which she made quite profitable financially for the church, beside educating the people. Outside her profession she has also done a grand work, in temperance and woman suffrage.[429] She is rarely out of her own pulpit; has generally been superintendent of her own Sunday school, and head of the young ladies' club, doing at all times more varied duties than any man would deem possible, and with all this she is a pattern wife, mother and housekeeper, and her noble husband, while carrying on a successful business of his own, stands ever ready to second her endeavors with generous aid and wise counsel, another instance of the happy homes among the "strong minded."

Among the estimable women who have been identified with the cause of woman suffrage in this country, Mathilde Franziska Anneke, a German lady, is worthy of mention:

She was born in Westphalia, April 3, 1817. Her childhood was passed in happy conditions in a home of luxury, where she received a liberal education, yet her married life was encompassed with trials and disappointments. From her own experiences she learned the injustice of the laws for married women and early devoted her pen to the redress of their wrongs. Her articles appeared in leading journals of Germany and awoke many minds to the consideration of the social and civil condition of woman.

She was identified with the liberal movement of '48, her home being the resort for many of the leaders of the revolution. She published a liberal paper which freely discussed all the abuses of the government, a whole edition of which was destroyed. At length denounced by the government, she secretly made here escape from Cologne, and joined her husband at the head of his command in active preparation for a struggle against the Prussians.

She immediately declared her determination to share the toils of the expedition. Accordingly Col. Anneke appointed her Tolpfofsort, the duties of which she continued to discharge to the end of the campaign. In one of her works published in 1853, she has given a graphic description of the disastrous termination of the revolution, of their flight into France, of their expulsion from France and Switzerland, and of their final determination to come to the United States.

They reached New York in the fall of 1849. Madame Anneke lectured in most of the Eastern cities on the social and civil condition of women, claiming for them the right of suffrage and more liberal education. She also published a woman's journal in New York, and was soon recognized as one of the earnest representative women in America. For many years she made her home in Milwaukee, where she taught a successful school for young ladies. Madame Anneke, a widow with one son and two daughters, lived quietly the closing years of her life, and in death found the peace and rest she had never known in her busy life on earth.

Prof. G. S. Albee, president of the State Normal School at Oshkosh, is a firm friend and outspoken advocate of equal right of the sexes to all the privileges of education, not excepting the education of the ballot-box. John Bascom, president of the Wisconsin University, has been an advocate of suffrage for women many years. While connected with Williams College he worked to secure the admission of women thereto. As one of a committee of five to whom the matter was referred, he, together with David Dudley Field, presented a minority report favoring their admission. Since he has been at the head of our State University he has been in perfect sympathy with its liberal coeducational policy, and has insured to the young women equal advantages in every respect with the young men. To his wise management may be attributed the success of higher coeducation in Wisconsin. He gave an able and scholarly address before our convention at Madison in '82, and is always found ready to speak for woman suffrage, both in public and private. His influence has done much for the advancement of the cause in our State. A cordial letter was received from Mrs. Bascom at the last Washington convention, which was listened to with interest and prized by the officers of the National Association:

MADISON, Wis., January 16, 1885.

MY DEAR MISS ANTHONY: I am sorry I cannot be present and meet the many wise and great women who will respond to your call for the Seventeenth Annual Convention.

What a glorious record these words reveal of unwavering faith in the right, and heroic persistency in its pursuit on one side, and what blindness of prejudice and selfishness of power on the other. The struggle has indeed been a long one, and yet no other moral movement involving so many and so great social changes ever made more rapid progress. You and your fellow-laborers are truly to be congratulated on the full and abundant harvest your faithful seed-sowing has brought to humanity. The irrational sentiment, based upon the methods and customs of barbarous times, is rapidly yielding to reason. The world is learning—women are learning—that character, even womanly character, does not suffer from too much breadth of thought, or from too active a sympathy in human interests and human affairs, but is ever enriched by a larger circle of ideas, larger experience, and more extended activities.

The advance of women in position and influence has been especially great during the past year, and in directions especially cheering and hopeful to the heart of every woman. In national political conventions, as your call so justly says, she has "actively participated in the discussion of candidates, platforms and principles." The last mile-stone before the goal has been reached and passed!

Your convention will offer the final opportunity to the Republican party. Will it be wise enough to seize it for self preservation, if not from principle? Will there be found in this party enough of spiritual life to lay hold of the help now proffered it, and once more renew its strength thereby? Or will it, as so repeatedly in the past, turn a deaf ear to reason, and still continue to deny the rights of half the human family? If so, if it continue deaf, dumb and blind, then the Republican party has no longer any function, and the power of government will pass forever from its hands. The sixteenth amendment to the national constitution is coming, but it will be the crown of blessing and of fame of another party that will inaugurate this era in social life! I take the liberty to send loving greetings to you and the convention in the name of our Wisconsin Equal Suffrage society. I hope our bright, eloquent Rev. Olympia Brown will be with you. Of Wisconsin's eleven representatives in congress, I am happy to make honorable mention, as broad-minded advocates of our cause, of three, Cameron, Price and Stephenson. In earnest sympathy with the object and method of the convention, and with high regard for yourself, I remain yours truly,

EMMA C. BASCOM.

In this, as in many other States there was a prolonged struggle over the equal rights of women in the courts. The first woman to practice law in Wisconsin was Lavinia Goodell. She was admitted in the First Judicial Circuit Court, June 17, 1874, Judge H. S. Conger, presiding. She commenced practicing in Janesville. The following year she had a case which was appealed to the Supreme Court. When the appeal was made, Miss Goodell applied to the Supreme Court for the right to go with her case. She argued her own case and based her claim upon a statute which provides, "That words of the masculine gender may be applied to females; unless such construction would be inconsistent with the manifest intention of the legislature." After she had shown clearly that she had an equal right in the courts in an able and unanswerable argument, Judge Ryan considered her application for two months and rendered an adverse decision. As a result of the agitation induced by this case, the legislature of 1877 passed a law that "no person shall be refused admission to the bar of this State on account of sex," thus showing the power of the legislative branch of the government to over-ride all judicial decisions. Miss Goodell immediately commenced practice in the Supreme Court. She reviewed the judicial decision with keen satire,[430] and ably illustrated the comparative capacity of an educated man and woman to reason logically on American jurisprudence and constitutional law.

In the early part of 1879 Kate Kane and Angie J. King were admitted to the bar. Miss Kane studied in a law office and in the law school of Michigan University. She practiced in Milwaukee until 1883, when she located in Chicago. Miss King practices in Janesville and was at first associated with Miss Goodell, under the name of Goodell & King. Cora Hurtz, Oshkosh, was admitted and began practice in 1882.

FOOTNOTES:

[418] Mrs. Wolcott is a remarkable woman, of rare intelligence, keen moral perceptions and most imposing presence. Much of her success in life is due no doubt to her gracious manners. Her graceful figure, classic face, rich voice and choice language make her attractive in the best social circles, as well as in the laboratory and lecture-room. She is a perfect housekeeper and a most hospitable hostess. Having enjoyed many visits at her beautiful home I can speak alike of her public and domestic virtues.—[E. C. S.

[419] See Vol. I., page 389.

[420] During a visit with my school-friend, Mrs. Elizabeth Ford Proudfit, at Madison, in 1879, I heard a great deal said of the injustice of this law as illustrated in two notable cases of widows in the enjoyment of their husbands' entire estates, while the dead men's relatives, many of them, were living in poverty. This was most shocking! though widowers, from time immemorial, have possessed the life-earnings and inheritance of their wives, while the dead women's mothers and sisters were starving and freezing within sight of the luxurious homes that rightfully belonged to them! It makes a mighty odds whose ox is gored—the widower's or the widow's!—[S. B. A.

[421] In 1867 the governor, General Lucius Fairchild, appointed Laura J. Ross, M. D., as commissioner to the World's Exposition in Paris. In 1871 Mrs. Mary E. Lynde was appointed on the State Board of Charities and Corrections by Governor Fairchild.

[422] The committee on resolutions were: Dr. Laura J. Ross, N. S. Murphey, Mrs. Livermore, Madame Annecke, Geo. W Peckham and Rev. Mr. Gannett. The officers of the convention were: President, Rev. Miss Augusta J. Chapin; Vice-Presidents, O. P. Wolcott, M. D., Laura J. Ross, M. D., and Madame Matilde F. Annecke; Secretary, Miss Lilia Peckham.

[423] For a further description of this convention see Mrs. Stanton's letters from The Revolution, Vol. I., page 873.

[424] Miss Lilia Peckham, G. W. Peckham, esq., Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, Madam Matilde Annecke, Rev. Augusta J. Chapin, Rev. Mr. Eddy, Rev. Mr. English, Rev. Mr. Fallows.

[425] Miss Lilia Peckham died in Milwaukee, the city of her residence. She had been ill but a few weeks, her physicians considering her recovery certain up to within an hour of her death; but a sudden and unlooked-for change took place. One of the truest, purest and best spirits we have ever met has thus passed from earth to heaven. All who met her soon came to appreciate her gifted nature, her rare talent and spiritual insight. But only those who knew her well can bear witness to her wonderful unselfishness, her remorseless honesty of speech and deed, the loftiness of her ideal and the beauty of her womanly soul. The Milwaukee Sentinel closes a brief obituary notice of our friend and co-worker as follows:

"This talented young woman is well known throughout the country as an earnest advocate of the woman's rights movement. Only a few weeks since she made a successful tour through the West, speaking in various city pulpits. Fearlessly she spoke all that she had come to feel was truth, though it shook the very foundations of old creeds and ideas. Many efforts from her scholarly pen attest to her devotion to every onward movement of the hour. She was to have entered the Cambridge Divinity School early in the present autumn, having chosen the ministry for her life-work. That a life so full of promise of usefulness should be so suddenly stopped is irreconcilable with our finite judgment. It is hard to say, 'it is well,' though God's fact may be that this young life, with its beauty of character, its sisterly affection, its still larger sisterly sympathy with a suffering humanity, its longings and aspirations, its zealous strivings after the true and good, is full and complete now; still we shall mourn her loss, her brief though beautiful career."

[426] The members of the Wisconsin Senate who voted against the woman suffrage amendment were: Ackley, Adams, Burrows, Chase, Coleman, Delaney, Flinkelberg, Flint, Kusel, Palmetier, Pingel, Rankin, Ryland, Smith and Van Schaick—15. No better work can be done by Wisconsin suffragists than to try to defeat every one of them at the next election. The following voted for the measure: Bennett, Crosby, Ellis, Hamilton, Hill, Hudd, Kingston, Meffert, Phillipps, Scott, Simpson, Wiley, Randall—13. Senators Wing and McKeeby were paired, and Senators Erwin and Richardson were absent.

[427] The officers of the Wisconsin State society for 1885 were: President, Harriet T. Griswold, Columbus; Vice-Presidents, Laura Ross Wolcott, Milwaukee; Rev. Olympia Brown, Racine; Emma C. Bascom, Madison; F. A. Delagise, Antigo; Laura James, Richland Center; Recording Secretary, Helen R. Olin, Madison; Corresponding Secretary, M. W. Bentley, Schofield; Treasurer, Dr. Sarah R. Munro, Milwaukee; Chairman Executive Committee, Amelia B. Gray, Schofield. Among others active in the movement are Eliza T. Wilson, Menominee; Alura Collins, Muckwonago; Mrs. S. C. Burnham, Bear Valley; Sarah H. Richards, Milwaukee; Mrs. W. Trippe, Whitewater.

[428] Eveleen Mason, May Wright Sewall, Mary A. Livermore, Dr. Sarah Munro, Mrs. Haggart, Mrs. K. R. Doud, Miss Comstock, the Grand Worthy Vice-Templar from Milwaukee, Mrs. Le Page, and Mrs. Amy Talbot Dunn, as Zekel's wife, made a deep impression.

[429] See vol. II. page 259.

[430] For her argument see Woman's Journal, April, 1876.



CHAPTER XLVII.

MINNESOTA.

Girls in State University—Sarah Burger Stearns—Harriet E. Bishop the First Teacher in St. Paul—Mary J. Colburn Won the Prize—Mrs. Jane Grey Swisshelm, St. Cloud—Fourth of July Oration, 1866—First Legislative Hearing, 1867—Governor Austin's Veto—First Society at Rochester—Kasson—Almira W. Anthony—Mary P. Wheeler—Harriet M. White—The W. C. T. U.—Harriet A. Hobart—Literary and Art Clubs—School Suffrage, 1876—Charlotte O. Van Cleve and Mrs. C. S. Winchell Elected to School Board—Mrs. Governor Pillsbury—Temperance Vote, 1877—Property Rights of Married Women—Women as Officers, Teachers, Editors, Ministers, Doctors, Lawyers.

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

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

Mrs. Sarah Burger Stearns, to whom we are indebted for this chapter, was one of the first young women to apply for admission to the Michigan University.[431] Being denied, she finished her studies at the State Normal School, and in 1863 married Mr. O. P. Stearns, a graduate of the institution that barred its doors to her. Mr. Stearns, at the call of his country, went to the front, while his no less patriotic bride remained at home, teaching in the Young Ladies' Seminary at Monroe and lecturing for the benefit of the Soldiers' Aid Societies.

The war over, they removed to Minnesota in 1866, where by lectures, newspaper articles, petitions and appeals to the legislature, Mrs. Stearns has done very much to stir the women of the State to thought and action upon the question of woman's enfranchisement. She has been the leading spirit of the State Suffrage Association, as well as of the local societies of Rochester and Duluth, the two cities in which she has resided, and also vice-president of the National Association since 1876. As a member of the school-board, she has wrought beneficent changes in the schools of Duluth. She is now at the head of a movement for the establishment of a home for women needing a place of rest and training for self-help and self-protection. Mrs. Stearns has the full sympathy of her husband and family, as she had that of her mother, Mrs. Susan C. Burger, whose last years were passed in the home of her daughter at Duluth. Mrs. Stearns writes:

The advocates of suffrage in Minnesota were so few in the early days,[432] and their homes so remote from each other, that there was little chance for cooeperation, hence the history of the movement in this State consists more of personal efforts than of conventions, legislative hearings and judicial decisions. The first name worthy of note is that of Harriet E. Bishop. She was invited by Rev. Thomas Williamson, M. D., a missionary among the Dakotas, to come to his mission home and share in his labors in 1847, where she was introduced to the leading citizens of St. Paul. She was the first teacher of a public school in that settlement. She lectured on temperance, wrote for the daily papers, and preached as a regular pastor in a Baptist pulpit. She published several books, was one of the organizers of the State Suffrage Association in 1881, and in 1883 rested from her labors on earth.

The first lecture in the State on the "Rights and Wrongs of Woman," was by Mrs. Mary J. Colburn, in the village of Champlin, in 1858, the same year that Minnesota was admitted to the Union. In 1864, the State officers promised two prizes for the first and second best essays on "Minnesota as a Home for Emigrants," reserving to the examining committee the right to reject all manuscripts offered if found unworthy. The first prize was accorded to Mrs. Colburn. Most of the other competitors were men, some of them members of the learned professions. Mrs. Colburn says, in writing to a friend, "I am doing but little now on the suffrage question, for I will not stoop longer to ask of any congress or legislature for that which I know to be mine by the divine law of nature."

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

In 1866, at a Fourth of July celebration, Mrs. Stearns accepted an invitation to respond to the sentiment, "Our young and growing State; may she ever be an honor to her citizens." This offered her an opportunity for an off-hand woman suffrage speech, which elicited hearty cheers, and gave, as an old gentleman present said, "something fresh to think of and act upon." About this time the friends of equality began petitioning the legislature for an amendment to the constitution, striking out the word "male." Through the efforts of Mr. A. G. Spaulding—the editor of the Anoka Star—and others, these petitions were referred to a special committee which granted a hearing to Mrs. Colburn and Mrs. Stearns in 1867. Mrs. Colburn read a carefully prepared argument, and Mrs. Stearns sent a letter, both of which were ordered to be printed. In 1868 a bill was introduced proposing to submit the desired amendment, but when brought to a vote it was defeated by a majority of one.

In March, 1869, The Revolution copied from the Martin County Atlas the following:

Show us the man who from the bottom of his heart, laying aside his prejudices and speaking the unbiased truth, will not say that women should have the same rights that he himself enjoys, and we will show you a narrow-minded sycophant, a cruel, selfish tyrant, or one that has not the moral courage to battle for a principle he knows to be just. Equal rights before the law is justice to all, and the more education we give our children and ourselves, as a people, the sooner shall we have equal rights. May the glorious cause speed on.

In 1869, a suffrage society was organized in the city of Rochester, with fifty members, and another at Champlin; the homes of Mrs. Stearns and Mrs. Colburn. Petitions were again circulated and presented to the legislature early in the session of 1870. It had not then been demonstrated by Kansas, Michigan, Colorado, Nebraska and Oregon, that the votes of the ignorant classes on this question would greatly outnumber those of the intelligent. The legislature granted the prayer of the petitioners and passed a bill for the submission of an amendment, providing that the women of the State, possessing the requisite qualifications, should also be allowed to vote upon the proposition, and that their votes should be counted as legal. The governor, Hon. Horace Austin, vetoed the bill, saying it was not passed in good faith, and that the submission of the question at that time would be premature. In a private letter to Mrs. Stearns, the governor said: "Had the bill provided for the voting of the women, simply to get an expression of their wishes upon the question, without requiring their votes to be counted as legal in the adoption or rejection of it, the act would not have been vetoed, notwithstanding my second objection that it was premature."

In 1871, petitions to congress were circulated in Minnesota, asking a declaratory act to protect the women of the nation in the exercise of "the citizen's right to vote" under the new guarantees of the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments. During that year the National Woman Suffrage Association appointed Mrs. Addie Ballou its vice-president for Minnesota.

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

Although our club was at first called a ladies' literary society, the suspicion that its members wished to vote was soon whispered about. Our working members were for some years few in number, and our meetings far between. But our zeal never abating, we tried in later years many plans for making a weekly meeting interesting. The most successful was, that every one should bring something that had come to her notice during the week, which she should read aloud, thus furnishing topics of conversation in which all could join. This never failed to make an interesting and profitable meeting. And still later we invited speakers from other States. In our various courses of lectures, Kasson audiences have enjoyed the brave utterances of Anna Dickinson, Julia Ward Howe, Susan B. Anthony, and others. The pulpit of Kasson we have found about evenly balanced for and against us; but those claiming to be friendly generally maintained a "masterly inactivity." Our editors have always shown us much kindness by gratuitously advertising our meetings and publishing our articles. Our members were all at the first meeting after school suffrage was granted to women, and one lady was elected director for a term of three years. The next year another lady was elected. While they were members of the board, a new and beautiful school house was erected, though some men said, "nothing in the line of building could be safely done until after the women's term of office had expired." Our co-workers have always treated us with great courtesy. In this respect our labors were as pleasant as in any church work.

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

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

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

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

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

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

In the cities the school officers are elected at the regular municipal elections usually held in the spring, while in the rural districts and smaller villages they are chosen at school meetings in the autumn. In East Minneapolis, Hon. Richard Chute, chairman of the Republican nominating convention, having, without their knowledge, secured the nomination of Mrs. Charlotte O. VanCleve[435] and Mrs. Charlotte S. Winchell[436] as school directors, called a meeting of the women of the city to aid in their election. It was a large and enthusiastic gathering. Mrs. Mary C. Peckham presided, Mrs. Stearns of Duluth, and Mrs. Pillsbury, wife of the governor, made stirring speeches, after which the candidates were called upon, and responded most acceptably. When election day came, the names of Mrs. VanCleve and Mrs. Winchell received a handsome majority of the votes of their districts. A correspondent in the Ballot-Box said:

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

Including both East and West Minneapolis, fully 1,000 women voted; and while the numbers in other cities and villages were not so great, they were composed of the more intelligent. In St. Charles, where Dr. Adaline Williams was elected to the school-board, some of the gentlemen requested her to resign, on the ground that she had not been properly elected. Her reply was, "If I have not been elected, I have no need to resign; and if I have been elected, I do not choose to resign." But to satisfy those who doubted, she proposed that another election should be held, which resulted in an overwhelming majority for the Doctor.

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

The ladies' city school committee. Miss A. M. Henderson, chairman, secured the appointment of a committee of seven women in Minneapolis, to meet with a like number of men from each of the political parties, to select such members of the school-board as all could agree upon. Having thus aided in the nominations, women were interested in their election. In 1881 Mrs. Merrill and Miss Henderson stood at the polls all day and electioneered for their candidates. It was said that their efforts not only decided the choice of school officers, but elected a temperance alderman. In many cities of the State the temperance women exert a great influence at the polls in persuading men to vote for the best town-officers. At the special election held in Duluth for choosing school officers, one of the judges of election, and the clerks at each of the polling places have for the last two years been women who were teachers in our public schools.

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

In 1877, a law was passed which gave the widow an absolute title—or the same title her husband had—to one-third of all the real estate, exclusive of the homestead, and of that, it gave her the use, during her lifetime. So that now the widow has the absolute ownership, instead of the life use of one-third of whatever she and her husband may have together earned and saved. That is, should there be any real estate left, over and above the homestead, after paying all the husband's debts, she now has, not merely the difference, as heretofore, between the amount of the tax and the income on one-third, but she may avoid the tax and other costs of keeping it, by selling her third, if she prefers, and putting the money at interest. The law still puts whatever may be left of the other two-thirds, after payment of debts, into the hands of the probate judge and others, and the interest thereof, or even the principal, may go to reward them for their services, or, if falling into honest hands, it may be left for the support and education of the children.

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

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

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

Mr. L. Bixby, editor of the State Temperance Review, gives several columns to the temperance and suffrage societies. Mrs. Helen E. Gallinger, the editor of these departments, is a lady of great ability and earnestness. Mr. Charles H. Dubois, editor of The Spectator, gives ample space in his columns to notes of women. Miss Mary C. Le Duc is connected with The Spectator. Other journals have aided our cause, though not in so pronounced a way. Mrs. C. F. Bancroft, editor of the Mantorville Express, and Mrs. Bella French, of a county paper at Spring Valley, Mrs. Annie Mitchell, the wife of one editor and the mother of another, for many years their business associate, have all given valuable services to our cause, while pecuniarily benefiting themselves. The necessity of finding a voice when something needed to be said, and of using a pen when something needed to be written, has developed considerable talent for public speaking and writing among the women of this State.[439]

All our State institutions are favorable to coeducation, and give equal privileges to all. The Minnesota University has been open to women since its foundation, and from 1875 to 1885 fifty-six young women were graduated with high honor to themselves and their sex.[440] Miss Maria L. Sanford has been professor of rhetoric and elocution for many years. The faculties of the State Normal Schools are largely composed of women. Hamline University and Carlton College are conducted on principles of true equality. At Carlton Miss Margaret Evans is preceptress and teacher of modern languages. Of the Rochester High School, Miss Josephine Hegeman is principal; of Wasioga, Miss C. T. Atwood; of Eyota Union School, Miss Adell M'Kinley.[441]

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



In this State the suffrage cause has had the sympathy of not a few noble women in the successful practice of the healing art; thus lending their influence for the political emancipation of their sex, while blessing the community with their medical skill. To Doctors Hood and Whetstone is due the credit of establishing the Northwestern Hospital for Women and Children, and training school for nurses, of which they are now the attending physicians; and Dr. Hood also attends the Bethany Home, founded by the sisterhood of Bethany, for the benefit of friendless girls and women. In the town of Detroit may be seen a drug store neatly fitted up, with "Ogden's Pharmacy" over the door, and upon it, in gilt letters, "Emma K. Ogden, M. D." While the doctor practices her profession, she employs a young woman as prescription clerk. The Minnesota State Medical Society has admitted nine women to membership.[442]

Conspicuous among evangelists in this State are Mrs. Mary C. Nind, Minneapolis, Mrs. Mary A. Shepardson, Wasioga, Mrs. Ruth Cogswell Rowell, Winona, and Rev. Eliza Tupper Wilkes, Rochester.

Thus far this chapter has been given mainly to individuals in the State, and to the home influences that have aided in creating sentiment in favor of full suffrage for woman. United with these have been other influences coming like the rays of the morning sun directly from the East where so many noble women are at work for the freedom of their sex. Among them are some of the most popular lecturers in the country.[443]

In September, 1881, representative women from various localities met at Hastings and organized a State Woman Suffrage Association[444] auxiliary to the National. During the first year one hundred and twenty-four members were enrolled. During the second the membership more than doubled. In October, 1882, the association held its first annual meeting. The audiences were large, and the speakers[445] most heartily applauded. Mrs. Nelson presided. In her letter of greeting to this meeting, from which ill-health obliged her to be absent, the president urged the association to firmly adhere to the principles of the National Association. Let us not ask for an amendment to the State constitution, and thus put it in the power of ignorance and prejudice to deny the boon we seek; while we are auxiliary to the National let us work according to its plans. Mrs. Stearns was unanimously reelected president, and her views heartily endorsed.

In the spring of '83, at the request of the State society, and with the generous consent of Mr. Bixby, the editor of the State Temperance Review, Mrs. Helen E. Gallinger commenced editing a woman suffrage column in that paper. This has been a very convenient medium of communication between the State society and the local auxiliaries which have since been organized by Mrs. L. May Wheeler, who was employed as lecturer and organizer,[446] in the summer and fall of 1883. Auxiliary societies had previously been organized by Mrs. Stearns, in St. Paul and Minneapolis. The Kasson society, formed in 1872, also became auxiliary to the State.

During the Northwestern Industrial Exhibition, held in Minneapolis August, 1883, a woman suffrage headquarters was fitted up on the fair-grounds, in a fine large tent, made attractive by flags, banners and mottoes. The State and local societies were represented, officers and members being there to receive all who were in sympathy, to talk suffrage to opposers, to pass out good leaflets, and to exhibit copies of the Woman Suffrage History. At the annual convention this year we were honored by the presence of Julia Ward Howe and Mrs. Marianna Folsom of Iowa, and many of the clergymen[447] of Minneapolis. Rev. E. S. Williams gave the address of welcome, and paid a beautiful tribute to the self-sacrificing leaders in this holy crusade. Mrs. Howe not only encouraged us with her able words of cheer, but she presided at the piano while her Battle Hymn of the Republic was sung, and seemed to give it new inspiration. In the course of her remarks the president said:

Should congress finally adopt that long-pending amendment in the winter of 1883-4 enfranchising women, we should still have work to do in 1885 to secure the ratification of this amendment by our State legislature. But should congress still refuse, let us be thankful that the way is opening for women to secure their freedom by the power of the legislature independent of all constitutional amendments, as there is nothing in ordinary State constitutions to prevent legislators from extending suffrage to women by legislative enactment. The constitution of the State of Minnesota simply enfranchises men, and does not even mention women; we have clearly nothing to do but to convince our legislators that they are free to give educated women full suffrage.

With this view the society adopted the following resolution:

Resolved, That we accept with joy the argument that comes to us from the east and from the west declaring suffrage amendments to State constitutions unnecessary, because the word "male," occurring as it does in most State constitutions, in no wise restrains legislatures from extending full suffrage to women, should they feel inclined to do so. Be it also

Resolved, That it therefore becomes our duty to talk with all men and women who are friendly to our cause, and ask them to examine the argument, and if it commends itself to their judgment, to give us the benefit of their convictions.

Though passing the above resolutions at that time, the State Association of course waits to see what may be done, in view of this new idea, by older and stronger States whose constitutions are similar to ours. Although failing health induced Mrs. Stearns, in the fall of 1883, to resign her suffrage work into other hands, and ask to be excused from any office whatever, she has, with improving health lately accepted the presidency of an Equal Rights League in Duluth. Dr. Ripley was not present herself at the convention[448] which chose her for president for the ensuing year, being then at the East, but immediately after returning, she entered upon her new duties with enthusiasm. As there was to be no legislature in 1884, there could be no petitioning, except to continue the work commenced as long ago as 1871, of petitioning congress for a sixteenth amendment. The work was carried on with vigor, and many hundreds of names obtained in a short time. Early in 1884 Mrs. L. May Wheeler continued to lecture in the interests of the suffrage cause. While so engaged she issued her "Collection of Temperance and Suffrage Melodies."

In 1884 a woman suffrage headquarters was again fitted up in Newspaper Row, on the grounds of the Northwestern Industrial Exhibition. The large tent was shared by the State W. C. T. U., and appropriately decked within and without to represent both of the State organizations and their auxiliaries. A large amount of suffrage and temperance literature was distributed among the many who were attracted by the novelty of the sight and sentiments displayed on banners and flags.

As Minneapolis had already become headquarters for the suffrage work of the State, it was thought best to again hold the annual meeting in that city. This was in October, continuing two days, and was both interesting and encouraging. Dr. Martha G. Ripley presided. Many interesting letters were read, and cheering telegrams received.[449] Miss Marion Lowell recited "The Legend," by Mary Agnes Ticknor, and "Was he Henpecked?" by Phebe Cary, Mrs. A. M. Tyng of Austin, made a good speech, also recited a poem entitled "Jane Conquest." Mr. Lars Oure of Norway, spoke well upon the "Claims of Woman." Dr. L. W. Denton of Minneapolis, gave a very good address. Dr. Martha G. Ripley spoke on suffrage as a natural right, and in support of this view read extracts from a pamphlet entitled, "Woman Suffrage a Right, and not a Privilege," by Wm. I. Bowditch; Eliza Burt Gamble of St. Paul, read a very able paper on "Woman and the Church"; Mrs. Stearns spoke upon the new era to be inaugurated when women have the ballot. Miss Emma Harriman read a bright and entertaining paper. The fine address of the occasion was given by Rev. W. W. Satterlee, showing the nation's need of woman's vote. Judge and Mrs. Hemiup, of Minneapolis, just returned from a visit to Wyoming Territory, were present. The judge made several speeches, and was enthusiastic in his praise of the workings of woman suffrage there. He and his wife are now active members of the State and city (Minneapolis) suffrage societies. The judge is also a member of the State executive committee.

Wishing to give honor to whom honor is due, we would mention the brave young women who have formed the Christian Temperance Unions, the leading spirits[450] in this grand movement in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Winona and St. Cloud. Their names will be usually found as delegates to the annual meetings of all the State Unions. The small army of noble girls who have helped to make the Good Templars' lodges attractive and worthy resorts for their brothers and friends, have done an inestimable work in elevating the moral tone of the community all over the State. They have also done their full share in petitioning congress for a sixteenth amendment, in which they have received most untiring help from the young men of the lodges. In 1884 Miss Frances Willard again visited the State, advocating the ballot as well as the Bible as an aid to temperance work. Her eloquent voice here as elsewhere woke many to serious thought on the danger of this national vice to the safety and stability of our republican institutions. It was through Miss Willard's influence, no doubt, that the friends of temperance established a department of franchise for the State, and made Mrs. E. L. Crockett its superintendent.

The women of Minnesota seem thus far to have no special calling to the legal profession. Mrs. Martha Angle Dorsett is the only woman as yet admitted to the bar. She was graduated from the law school at Des Moines, and admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Iowa in June, 1876. She was refused admission at first in Minnesota, whereupon she appealed to the legislature, which in 1877 enacted a law securing the right to women by a vote of 63 to 30 in the House, and 26 to 6 in the Senate.

In some of the larger cities and towns the literary, musical and dramatic taste of our women[451] is evidenced by societies and clubs for mutual improvement. Many are attending classes for the study of natural history, classic literature, social science, etc. There is an art club in Minneapolis, composed wholly of artists, both ladies and gentlemen, which meets every week, the members making sketches from life. Miss Julie C. Gauthier had on exhibition at the New Orleans Exposition, a full-length portrait, true to life, of a colored man, "Pony," a veteran wood-sawer of St. Paul, which received very complimentary notices from art critics of that city, as well as from the press generally.

In the Business Colleges of Mr. Curtis at St. Paul and Minneapolis, many women are teachers, and many more are educated as shorthand reporters, telegraphers, and book-keepers. These have no difficulty in finding places after completing their college course. Nearly fifty young women are employed in the principal towns of the State as telegraphers alone. Miss Mary M. Cary has been employed for seven years as operator and station agent at Wayzata, for the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba R. R. Her services are highly valued, as well they may be, for during her absence from the station two men are required to do her work. By her talents and industry she has acquired a thorough education for herself, besides educating her two younger sisters. Mrs. Anna B. Underwood of Lake City, has for many years been secretary of a firm conducting a large nursery of fruit trees, plants and flowers. Her husband being one of the partners, she has taken a large share of the general management. The orchard yields a profit of over $1,000 a year.

From the list of names to be found in the Appendix, we see that Minnesota is remarkable for its galaxy of superior women actively engaged as speakers and writers[452] in many reforms, as well as in the trades and professions, and in varied employments. One of the great advantages of pioneer life is the necessity to man of woman's help in all the emergencies of these new conditions in which their forces and capacities are called into requisition. She thus acquires a degree of self-reliance, courage and independence, that would never be called out in older civilizations, and commands a degree of respect from the men at her side that can only be learned in their mutual dependence.

FOOTNOTES:

[431] The names of the young women who applied for admission to the classical course of the Michigan State University, in 1858, were Sarah Burger, Clara Norton, Ellen F. Thompson, Ada A. Alvord, Rose Anderson, Helen White, Amanda Kieff, Lizzie Baker, Nellie Baker, Anna Lathrop, Carrie Felch, Mary Becker, Adeline Ladd and Harriet Patton.

[432] See Appendix, Chapter XLVII., note A.

[433] For further account of Mrs. Swisshelm's patriotic work in Minnesota see her "Reminiscences of Half a Century": Janson, McClurg & Co., Chicago, Ill.

[434] The three women were, Mrs. Almira W. Anthony (whose husband was a cousin of Susan B. Anthony), Mrs. Mary Powell Wheeler and Mrs. Hattie M. White.

[435] In a volume of Minnesota biography, Mrs. VanCleve is reported as a woman of great force of character, strong in her convictions of what is right, and fearless in following the dictates of her conscience. She was one of the original founders of the Sisterhood of Bethany, a society for the reformation of unfortunate women, and has held the position of president since its formation. Through the medium of lectures and social influence, she has enlisted the sympathy of a large number of the community. She has served faithfully as a member of the East Minneapolis board of education, and has always improved every opportunity to advocate the right of suffrage for women. She is a member of the State Suffrage Society, and has been for many years honorary vice-president for this State, of the National Suffrage Association. The following interesting fact is told of her, on the authority of Major-General R. W. Johnson. It was given in an address delivered by that gentleman before the old settlers' association of Hennepin county, at a reunion in the city of Minneapolis: Many years ago a soldier at Fort Snelling received an injury to his feet, and mortification ensued. Amputation became necessary and the case could not be postponed until a surgeon could be sent for, because there was none nearer than the post-surgeon at Prairie du Chien. No gentleman in the garrison was willing to undertake so difficult an operation. Equal to any emergency, Mrs. VanCleve, on hearing of the case, resolved to make the attempt. She performed the operation skillfully, and saved the soldier's life.

[436] Mrs. Charlotte S. Winchell was a graduate of Albion College, Michigan, and came to this State in 1873, with her husband, Prof. Newton H. Winchell, widely known as Minnesota's State geologist. Mrs. Winchell has always been an advocate of suffrage for woman, and cheerfully accepted the position on the school board, serving as clerk. She took an active part in the nominations and elections of school officers. She was chairman of the committee for introducing temperance text books into the schools, secretary of the Woman's Board of Foreign Missions, a member of the State and City Suffrage Societies, and of the Association for the Advancement of Women.

[437] For names of women elected as school directors and county superintendents, see Appendix to Minnesota, Chapter XLVII., Note B.

[438] The officers of the Minnesota State W. C. T. U. are: President, Mrs. H. A. Hobart; Vice-Presidents, Mrs. Mary A. Shepardson, Mrs. E. J. Holley, Mrs. R. C. C. Gale, Mrs. H. C. May, Mrs. L. M. Wylie; Recording Secretary, Mrs. D. S. Haywood; Corresponding Secretaries, Mrs. E. S. Wright, Miss M. E. Mclntyre; Treasurer, Miss A. M. Henderson. Editor W. C. T. U. department of Temperance Review, Mrs. Helen E. Gallinger.

[439] See Appendix, Chapter XLVII., Note C.

[440] During the same decade 138 young men were graduated from the different departments of the University.

[441] For names of graduates and professors, see Appendix, Chapter XLVII., Note D.

[442] See Appendix, Chapter XLVII., Note F.

[443] Miss Anna Dickinson, Mrs. Livermore, Mrs. Howe, Miss Alice Fletcher, Miss Frances Willard, Mrs. Wittenmeyer, Mrs. Sarah B. Chase, M. D. In the years 1875-6, Mrs. Stanton favored our State with a series of lectures that awakened much interest. In 1878-9, Miss Anthony came, and spoke in the principal cities. From Iowa came Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, Matilda Fletcher, and Marianna Folsom, and from Missouri, Miss Phoebe Couzins.

[444] President, Sarah Burger Stearns; Vice-President, Julia Bullard Nelson; Recording Secretary, Mrs. C. Smith; Treasurer, Mrs. H. J. Moffit; Executive Committee, Mrs. Minnie Reed, Mrs. L. H. Clark, Mrs. R. Coons; Corresponding Sec'y, Mrs. Laura Howe Carpenter. The following were the charter members: Mrs. Harriet E. Bishop, Mrs. Martha Luly, St. Paul; Mrs. A. T. Anderson, Mrs. H. J. Moffit, Mrs. C. Smith, Minneapolis; Mrs. Harriet A. Hobart, Julia Bullard Nelson, Mrs. R. Coons, Red Wing; Sarah Burger Stearns, Duluth; Mrs. L. C. Clarke, Worthington; Mrs. L. G. Finen, Albert Lea; Mrs. K. E. Webster, Mrs. Minnie Reed, Mrs. M. A. VanHoesen, Hastings.

[445] Mrs. Nelson, Mrs. Hobart, Mr. Satterlee, Mrs. Charlotte O. Van Cleve, Mrs. Laura Howe Carpenter, Mrs. Viola Fuller Miner.

[446] The societies organized were at Wayzata, Farmington, Red Wing, Mantorille, Excelsior, Rochford, Lake City, Shakopee, and Jordan: committees for suffrage work were also formed in the following places: Anoka, Armstrong, Blakely, Brooklyn Center, Champlin, Frontenac, Long Prairie, Long Lake, and Wabashaw.

[447] Rev. W. W. Satterlee, Rev. H. M. Simmons, Rev. F. J. Wagner, whose church we occupied, and others. The speakers at this convention were Mr. and Mrs. Dubois, Mrs. Wheeler, Mrs. Elliott, Mrs. Hobart, Mrs. Carpenter, Miss Harriman. Letters were received from Mrs. Devereux Blake, Dr. Clemence Lozier, Rev. J. B. Tuttle, H. B. Blackwell, Lucy Stone and Col. T. W. Higginson.

[448] The officers elected at this convention were: President, Martha G. Ripley, M. D., Minneapolis; Vice-President, Mrs. Lizzie Manson, Shakopee; Recording Secretary, Mary T. Emery, M. D., St. Paul; Corresponding Secretary, Emma Harriman, Minneapolis; Treasurer, Mrs. Helen E. Gallinger, Minneapolis; Executive Committee, Mrs. S. K. Crawford, Anoka; Mrs. M. A. Warner, Hamline; Mrs. F. G. Gould, Excelsior; Rev. E. S. Williams, Prof. W. A. Carpenter, Mrs. A. T. Anderson and Mrs. Laura Howe Carpenter, Minneapolis.

[449] From John G. Whittier, Mrs. Julia B. Nelson (teaching school in Tennessee) and Henry B. Blackwell.

[450] Miss Carrie Holbrook, Miss Eva McIntyre, Miss Harriman.

[451] See Appendix, Chapter XLVII., Note F.

[452] See Appendix, Chapter XLVII., Note G.



CHAPTER XLVIII.

DAKOTA.

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

Philosophers have had much to say of the effect of climate and scenery upon the human family—the inspiring influence of the grand and the boundless in broadening the thought of the people and stimulating them to generous action. Hence, one might naturally look for liberal ideas among a people surrounded with such vast possessions as are in the territory of Dakota. But alas! there seems to be no correspondence in this republic between areas and constitutions. Although Dakota comprises 96,595,840 acres, yet one-half her citizens are defrauded of their rights precisely as they are in the little States of Delaware and Rhode Island. The inhabitants denied the right of suffrage by their territorial constitution are, the Indians not taxed (a hint that those who pay taxes vote), idiots, convicts and women. But from records sent us by Mrs. Marietta Bones, to whom we are indebted for this chapter, there seem to have been some spasmodic climatic influences at work, though not sufficiently strong as yet to get that odious word "male" out of the constitution. Our Dakota historian says:

The territorial legislature, in the year 1872, came within one vote of enfranchising women. That vote was cast by Hon. W. W. Moody, who, let it be said to his credit, most earnestly espoused the cause in our constitutional convention in 1883, and said in the course of his remarks: "Are not my wife and daughter as competent to vote as I am to hold office?" which question caused prolonged laughter among the most ignorant of the delegates, and cries of, "You're right, Judge!" Although it is deeply to be regretted that through one vote twelve years ago our women were deprived of freedom, yet we must forgive Judge Moody on the ground that "it is never too late to mend."

In February, 1879, the legislature revised the school law, and provided that women should vote at school meetings. That law was repealed in March, 1883, by the school township law, which requires regular polls and a private ballot, so, of course, excluding women from the small privilege given them in 1879. That act, however, excepted fifteen counties[453]—the oldest and most populous—which had districts fully established, and therein women still vote at school meetings.

In townships which are large and have many schools under one board and no districts, the people select which school they desire their children to attend. The persons who may so select are parents: first, the father; next, the mother, if there be no father living; guardians (women or men), and "persons having in charge children of school age." These persons hold a meeting annually of their "school," and such women vote there, and one of them may be chosen moderator for the school, to hold one year. This office is a sort of responsible agency for the school, and between it and the township board.

Since the legislation upon the subject of school suffrage there has not been much work done for the promotion of the cause. The wide distances between towns and the sparsely settled country make our people comparative strangers to each other. We lack organization; the country is too new; in fact, the most and only work for woman suffrage has been done by Matilda Joslyn Gage and myself, and, owing to disadvantages mentioned, that has been but little. Mrs. Gage reached Dakota just at the close of the Huron convention, held in June, 1883, to discuss the question of territorial division. The resolutions of the convention declared that just governments derived their powers from the consent of the governed; that Dakota possessed a population of 200,000, women included; that the people of a territory have the right, in their sovereign capacity, to adopt a constitution and form a State government. Accordingly, a convention was called for the purpose of enabling those residing in that part of Dakota south of the forty-sixth parallel to organize a State. Mrs. Gage at once addressed a letter to the women of the territory and to the constitutional convention assembled at Sioux Falls:

To the Women of Dakota:

A convention of men will assemble at Sioux Falls, September 4, for the purpose of framing a constitution and pressing upon congress the formation of a State of the southern half of the territory. This is the moment for women to act; it is the decisive moment. There can never again come to the women of Dakota an hour like the present. A constitution is the fundamental law of the State; upon it all statute laws are based, and upon the fact whether woman is inside or outside the pale of the constitution, her rights in the State depend.

The code of Dakota, under the head of "Personal Relations," says: "The husband is the head of the family. He may choose any reasonable place, or mode of living, and the wife must conform thereto." Under this class legislation, which was framed by man entirely in his own interests, the husband may, and in many cases does, file a preemption claim, build a shanty, and place his wife upon the ground as "a reasonable place and mode of living," while he remains in town in pursuit of business or pleasure.

Let us examine this condition of affairs a little closer. If the wife is not pleased with this "place and mode of living," but should leave it, she is, under this law of class legislation, liable to be advertised as having left the husband's bed and board, wherefore he will pay no debts of her contracting. And how is it if she remains on this until her continued residence upon it has enabled her husband to prove up? Does she then share in its benefits? Is she then half owner of the land? By no means. Chapter 3, section 83, article V. of the Code, says: "No estate is allowed the husband or tenant by courtesy upon the death of his wife, nor is any estate in dower allowed to the wife upon the death of the husband."

This article carries a specious fairness on its face, but it is a bundle of wrongs to woman. By the United States law, only "the head of the family" is allowed to enter lands—either a preemption, homestead or tree claim. In unison with the United States, the law of Dakota (see chapter 3, section 76) recognizes the husband as the head of the family, and then declares that no estate in dower is allowed to the wife upon the death of her husband. Neither has she any claim upon any portion of this land the husband, as head of the family, may take, except the homestead, in which she is recognized as joint owner. The preemption claim upon which, in a comfortless claim-shanty, she may have lived for six months, or longer, if upon unsurveyed land, as "the reasonable place and mode of living" her husband has selected for her, does not belong to her at all. She has no part nor share in it. Upon proving, her husband may at once sell, or deed it away as a gift, and she has no redress. It was not hers. The law so declares; but she is her husband's, to the extent that she can be thus used to secure 160 acres of land for him, over which she has no right, title, claim or interest. I have not space to pursue this subject farther, but will assure the women of Dakota that reading the code, and the session laws of the territory will be more interesting to them than any novel. If they wish to still farther know their wrongs, let them look in the code under the heads of "Parent and Child," "Crimes Defined," "Probate Court," etc., etc.

Every woman in Dakota should be immediately at work. Inasmuch as the constitution is the fundamental law of the State, it should be the effort of the women of Dakota to prevent the introduction of the restrictive word "male." The delegates to the Sioux Falls convention have now largely been elected. Address letters of protest to them against making the constitution an organ of class legislation. In as far as possible have personal interviews with these delegates, and by speech make known your wishes on this point. These are your only methods of representation. You have in no way signified your desire for a constitution. You have not been permitted to help make these laws which rob you of property, and many other things more valuable. Many women are settling in Dakota. Unmarried women and widows in large numbers are taking up claims here, and their property is taxed to help support the government and the men who make these iniquitous laws.

I have not mentioned a thousandth part of the wrongs done woman by her being deprived of the right of self-government. Every injustice under which she suffers, as wife, mother, woman, child, in property and person, is due to the fact that she is not recognized as man's political equal—and her only power is that of protest. Lose not a moment, then, women of Dakota, in objecting to the introduction of the word "male" into the proposed new constitution. Besides seeing and writing to delegates, make effort to be present at Sioux Falls during the time of the convention, to labor with delegates from distant points, and to go before committees, and the convention itself, with your protests. Above all, remember that now is the decisive hour.

MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE, Vice-President-at-Large, National Woman Suffrage Association.

Mrs. Gage also addressed the following to the constitutional convention:

Gentlemen of the Convention: The work upon which you are now engaged is an important one in the interests of liberty, that of framing a constitution for a proposed new State. As a constitution is the fundamental law, its provisions should be general in their character, equally recognizing the rights of all its citizens by its protective powers. Our National principle, that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, is becoming more and more widely recognized.

At an early day suffrage was restricted by qualifications of property and education in many of the States, and the removal of such restrictions has been left entirely to the States, except in the one instance of color. Within the last two decades, by amendments to the national constitution, all States are forbidden to exclude citizens from the ballot upon that account.