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THE HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE

Edited by

IDA HUSTED HARPER

Illustrated with Copperplate and Photogravure Engravings

In Six Volumes

VOLUME V

1900-1920

AFTER SEVENTY YEARS CAME THE VICTORY



National American Woman Suffrage Association

Copyright, 1922, by National American Woman Suffrage Association



PREFACE

The History of Woman Suffrage is comprised in six volumes averaging about one thousand pages each, of which the two just finished are the last. While it is primarily a history of this great movement in the United States it covers to some degree that of the whole world. The chapter on Great Britain was prepared for Volume VI by Mrs. Millicent Garrett Fawcett, leader of the movement there for half a century. The accounts of the gaining of woman suffrage in other countries come from the highest authorities. Their contest was short compared to that in the two oldest countries on the globe with a constitutional form of government—the United States and Great Britain—and in the former it began nearly twenty years earlier than in the latter. The effort of women in the "greatest republic on earth" to obtain a voice in its government began in 1848 and ended in complete victory in 1920. In Great Britain it is not yet entirely accomplished, although in all her colonies except South Africa women vote on the same terms as men.

Doubtless other histories of this world wide movement will be written but at present the student will find himself largely confined to these six volumes. This is especially true of the United States and many of the documents of the earliest period would have been lost for all time if they had not been preserved in the first three volumes. These also contain much information which does not exist elsewhere regarding the struggle of women for other rights besides that of the franchise. That the materials were collected and cared for until they could be utilized was due to Miss Susan B. Anthony's appreciation of their value. The story of the trials and tribulations of preparing those volumes during ten years is told in Volume II, page 612, and in the Preface of Volume IV. They were written and edited principally by Miss Anthony and Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and covered the history from the beginning of the century to 1884. The writers expected when they began in 1877 to bring out one small volume, perhaps only a large pamphlet. When these three huge volumes were finished they still had enough material for a fourth, which never was used.

Miss Anthony continued her habit of preserving the records and in 1900, when at the age of 80 she resigned the presidency of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, she immediately commenced preparations for another volume of the History. She called to her assistance Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, who had recently finished her Biography, and in her home in Rochester, N. Y., they spent the next two years on the book, Mrs. Stanton, who was 85 years old, taking the keenest interest in the work.[1] When the manuscript was completed hundreds of pages had to be eliminated in order to bring it within the compass of one volume of 1,144 pages.

Miss Anthony then said: "Twenty years from now another volume will be written and it will record universal suffrage for women by a Federal Amendment." Her prophecy was fulfilled to the letter. She put upon younger women the duty of collecting and preserving the records and this was done in some degree by officers of the association. In 1917, after the legacy of Mrs. Frank Leslie had been received by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the association, she formed the Leslie Suffrage Commission and established a Bureau of Suffrage Education, one feature of which was a research department. Here under the direction of an expert an immense amount of material was collected from many sources and arranged for use. After the strenuous work for a Federal Suffrage Amendment had brought it very near, Mrs. Catt turned her attention to the publishing of the last volume of the History of Woman Suffrage while the resources of the large national headquarters in New York and the archives of the research bureau were available, and she requested Mrs. Harper to prepare it. The work was begun Jan 2, 1919, and it was to be entirely completed in eighteen months. No account had been taken of the enormous growth of the suffrage movement. It had entered every State in the Union and it extended around the world. It was occupying the attention of Parliaments and Legislatures. In the United States conventions had multiplied and campaigns had increased in number; it had become a national issue with a center in every State and defeats and victories were of constant record.

To select from the mass of material, to preserve the most important, to condense, to verify, was an almost impossible task. A comparison will illustrate the difference between the work required on Volume IV and that on the present volumes. The Minutes of the national convention in 1901 filled 130 pages of large type; those of the convention of 1919 filled 320 pages, many of small type; reports of congressional hearings increased in proportion. Of the State chapters, describing all the work that had been done before 1901, 29 contained less than 8 pages, 18 of these less than 5 and 7 less than 3; only 6 had over 14 pages. For Volume VI not more than half a dozen State writers sent manuscript for less than 14 and the rest ranged from 20 to 95 pages. The report on Canada in Volume IV occupied 3-1/2 pages; in this volume it fills 18. The chapter on Woman Suffrage in Europe outside of Great Britain found plenty of room in 4 pages; in this one it requires 32.

The very full reports of the national suffrage conventions, the congressional documents, the files of the Woman's Journal and the Woman Citizen and the newspapers furnished a wealth of material on the general status of the question in the United States. It was, however, the evolution of the movement in the States that gave it national strength and compelled the action by Congress which always was the ultimate goal. The attempt to give the story of every State, in many of which no records had been kept or those which had were lost or destroyed; the difficulty in getting correct dates and proper names upset all calculations on the amount of material and length of time. As a result the time lengthened to three and a half years and the one volume expanded into two, with enough excellent matter eliminated to have made a third. In each of these chapters will be found a complete history of the effort to secure the franchise by means of the State constitution, also the part taken to obtain the Federal Amendment and the action of the Legislature in ratifying this amendment.

The accounts of the annual conventions of the National American Suffrage Association demonstrate as nothing else could do the commanding force of that organization, for fifty years the foundation and bulwark of the movement. The hearings before committees of every Congress indicate the never ceasing effort to obtain an amendment to the Federal Constitution and the extracts from the speeches show the logic, the justice and the patriotism of the arguments made in its behalf. The delay of that body in responding will be something for future generations to marvel at. In Chapter XX will be found the full history of this amendment by which all women were enfranchised.

In one chapter is a graphic account of the effort for half a century to get a woman suffrage "plank" into the national platforms of the political parties and its success in 1916, with one for the Federal Amendment in 1920. A chapter is devoted to the forming of the National League of Woman Voters after the women of the United States had become a part of the electorate. All questions as to the part taken in the war of 1914-1918 by the women who were working for their enfranchisement are conclusively answered in the chapter on War Service of Organized Suffragists. In one chapter will be found an account of other organizations besides the National American Association that worked to obtain the vote for women and of those that worked against it. A full description is given of the organizing of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance and its congresses in the various cities of Europe.

Volumes V and VI take up the history of the contest in the United States from the beginning of the present century to Aug. 26, 1920, when Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby proclaimed that the 19th Amendment, submitted by Congress on June 4, 1919, had been ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the States and was now a part of the National Constitution. This ended a movement for political liberty which had continued without cessation for over seventy years. The story closes with uncounted millions of women in all parts of the world possessing the same voice as men in their government and enjoying the same rights as citizens.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, pages 1210, 1256, 1269. Placing in libraries, 1279 to 1282. Bequeathed to National Suffrage Association, History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V, page 205.



TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. PAGE

FOUNDING OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATION 3

Work of the National American Woman Suffrage Association for an amendment to the Federal Constitution, to State constitutions and for other reforms—Annual convention in Minneapolis in 1901—Mrs. Stanton's address on the Church, the Bible and Woman Suffrage—Miss Anthony's and others' opinions—President's address of Mrs. Catt on obstacles—Dr. Shaw's vice-president's address on Anti-suffragists—Plan for national work—Miss Anthony's report on work with Congress—Protest against "regulated vice" in Manila—New York Sun and Woman Suffrage—Discriminating against women in government departments—A tribute to the national suffrage conventions.

CHAPTER II.

THE NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1902 23

Meeting in Washington, D.C., of committee to form an International Woman Suffrage Alliance—Greeting of Clara Barton to foreign delegates—Letters from Norway and Germany—Response of Mrs. Friedland of Russia—Mrs. Catt's president's address on World Progress leading to the International Alliance—Mrs. Stanton's address on Educated Suffrage—Miss Anthony's introduction of Pioneers—Addresses on The New Woman and The New Man—Women in New York municipal election—Miss Anthony's 82d birthday—Mr. Blackwell on Presidential suffrage for women—Hearings before committees of Congress—Addresses of Norwegian and Australian delegates before Senate Committee—Dr. Shaw's plea for a committee to investigate conditions in Equal Suffrage States—Speeches of Russian, Swedish and English delegates—Mrs. Catt's insistence on a Congressional Committee to investigate the working of woman suffrage where it exists.

CHAPTER III.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1903 55

Very successful meeting in New Orleans—Description of Picayune—Ovation to Miss Anthony and Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick—Dr. Shaw's response—Mrs. Catt's president's address—Times Democrat brings up Negro Question, official board of the association states its position—Visit to colored women's club—Reports of officers—Presidential suffrage for women—Mrs. Colby's report on Industrial Problems relating to Women and Children—Addresses of Dr. Henry Dixon Bruns, M. J. Sanders, president of Progressive Union—Memorial service for Mrs. Stanton—Speeches on Educational Qualification for voting—"Dorothy Dix" on The Woman with the Broom—Address of Edwin Merrick—Belle Kearney on Woman Suffrage to insure White Supremacy—Tribute to Misses Kate and Jean Gordon.

CHAPTER IV.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1904 86

Letter of greeting to the convention in Washington from Mrs. Florence Fenwick Miller, suffrage leader in Great Britain—Delegates appointed to International Alliance meeting in Berlin—Mrs. Catt's president's address on an Educational Requirement for the Suffrage—Address of Mrs. Watson Lister of Australia—Charlotte Perkins Gilman's biological plea for woman suffrage—Report from new headquarters—Addresses on Women and Philanthropy by the Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer and Dr. Samuel J. Barrows—Mrs. Mead on Peace and Mrs. Nathan on The Wage Earner and the Ballot—Miss Anthony's 84th birthday—A Colorado Jubilee, speeches by Governor Alva Adams, Mrs. Grenfell and Mrs. Meredith—Mrs. Terrell asks for moral support of colored women—Declaration of Principles adopted—Mrs. Catt Resigns the Presidency, tributes—Hearings before Congressional Committees—Distinguished testimony from Colorado—Mrs. Catt's strong appeal for a report even if adverse.

CHAPTER V.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1905 117

The convention in Portland, Ore., first held in the West—Enthusiastic welcome and great hospitality—Miss Anthony speaks of her visit in 1871—Speech of Jefferson Myers, president of the Exposition—Mrs. Duniway on the Pioneers—Dr. Shaw's president's address, answers ex-President Cleveland and Cardinal Gibbons—Committee appointed to interview President Roosevelt—Protest to committee of Congress against statehood constitution for Oklahoma and other Territories—Fine work of Press Committee—Woman's Day at Exposition—Unveiling of Sacajawea statue—Convention adopts Initiative and Referendum—Decision to have an amendment campaign in Oregon—Tribute to Mr. Blackwell—Mrs. Catt's noble address—Memorial resolutions for eminent members—Speeches by prominent politicians.

CHAPTER VI.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1906 151

The convention held in Baltimore one of the most notable—Miss Anthony, Julia Ward Howe and Clara Barton on the platform—Welcome by Governor Warfield and Collector of the Port Stone—Dr. Shaw scores President Roosevelt's reference to Women in Industry in his message to Congress—Ridicules Cardinal Gibbons' and Dr. Lyman Abbott's recent pronouncements on woman suffrage—Organization of College Women's League—Florence Kelley speaks on Child Labor—College Women's Evening—Women professors from five large colleges speak—Week of hospitality by Miss Mary E. Garrett—Speeches on Women in Municipal Government by Wm. Dudley Foulke, Frederick C. Howe, Rudolph Blankenburg, Jane Addams—Miss Anthony speaks her last words to a national suffrage convention—Mrs. Howe's farewell address—President Thomas and Miss Garrett decide to raise large fund for woman suffrage—Delegates go to Washington for hearings before Congressional Committees—Miss Anthony's 86th birthday celebrated—Her last words on the public platform.

CHAPTER VII.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1907 193

Bishop Fallows welcomes convention to Chicago—Professor Breckinridge on Municipal Housekeeping—Florence Kelley on same—Mary McDowell, Anna Nicholes and others on Workingwomen's Need of a Vote—Addresses by Professor C. R. Henderson, Hon. Oliver W. Stewart—Memorials and service for Miss Anthony—Organizations for Woman Suffrage—Farewell letter of Mary Anthony—Rabbi Hirsch on woman suffrage—Near victories in many States.

CHAPTER VIII.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1908 213

Celebrates 40th anniversary in Buffalo—Emily Howland on Spirit of '48—Kate Gordon describes interview with President Roosevelt—Widespread work of national headquarters—Program of 1848 convention—Responses to its Resolutions by Mrs. Gilman, Miss Blackwell, Mrs. Blatch, the Rev. Caroline Bartlett Crane and others—The Scriptures and St. Paul analyzed by Judith Hyams Douglas—Discussion on the Social Evil led by the Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer—College Women's Evening; addresses by Dr. M. Carey Thomas, Professor Frances Squire Potter, Professor Breckinridge and others—Mrs. Kelley on Laws for Women and Wage Earners—Stirring speech by Jean Gordon, factory inspector—Maude Miner on Night Courts for women—Mrs. William C. Gannett on Woman's Duty—Katharine Reed Balentine on Disfranchised Influence—Mrs. Philip Snowden describes English situation—Legal Phases of Disfranchisement by Harriette Johnson Wood—Progress since 1848—Mrs. Catt's inspiring address.

CHAPTER IX.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1909 243

Annual meeting held in Seattle—Delightful journey across continent—Reception in Spokane—Mrs. Villard tells of opening of Northern Pacific R. R.—Welcomed to Seattle by Mayor—Elizabeth J. Hauser's report of headquarters work—Mrs. Belmont's offer of headquarters in New York City—Mrs. Mead urges association to work for Peace—Professor Potter's address on College Women and Democracy—Mr. Blackwell's last suffrage convention—Mrs. Avery reports on National Association's petition to Congress—Mary E. Craigie tells of suffrage work with the churches—Professor Potter elected corresponding secretary—Political work for suffrage before elections urged, Illinois cited—Suffrage Day at the Exposition.

CHAPTER X.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1910 266

Convention returns to Washington after six years—President Taft makes speech of welcome—Delegates show displeasure—Exchange of letters between national officers and the President—Official resolution of regret—Comment of Woman's Journal—Report of association's vast work from New York headquarters—Great Petition officially received by Congress—Mrs. Upton resigns as treasurer—Memorial addresses for Mr. Blackwell and Wm. Lloyd Garrison—Alice Paul on "militant" suffrage in Great Britain—"Dorothy Dix" on The Real Reason why Women can not Vote—Max Eastman on Democracy and Woman—Mrs. Harper's report as chairman of National Press Committee—Hearings before Committees of Congress; speeches by Dr. Shaw, Mrs. McCulloch, Eveline Gano of New York on teachers' need of the vote; Dr. Anna E. Blount of Chicago on professional women's need; Minnie J. Reynolds on writers signing petitions—U. S. Senator Shafroth's notable speech to Senate Committee—House Committee: Mrs. Raymond Robins, Elizabeth Schauss, factory inspector; Laura J. Graddick of a District Labor Union and Florence Kelley argue for the working women's need of vote—Speeches of Mrs. Upton and Laura Clay.

CHAPTER XI.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1911 310

Convention in Louisville, Ky., celebrates victories in Washington and California—Welcomed by Laura Clay—Mr. Braly tells of California campaign—Mary Ware Dennett, new corresponding secretary, reports world wide work—Caroline Reilly, new chairman, describes press work in 41 States—Jane Addams, on College League's Evening shows what women might accomplish with the franchise—Dr. Thomas what the suffrage means to college women—Dr. Harvey W. Wiley speaks on Women's Influence in Public Affairs—Katharine Dexter McCormick on Effect of Suffrage Work on Women themselves—Mrs. McCulloch on Equal Guardianship Laws—Church needs Woman Suffrage—Mrs. Desha Breckinridge discusses Prospect for Woman Suffrage in the South—Mrs. Pankhurst receives ovation.

CHAPTER XII.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1912 332

Three victories celebrated at convention in Philadelphia, suffrage gained in Oregon, Arizona and Kansas—Welcomed by Mayor Blankenburg—Rally in Independence Square—Reports show wonderful progress—An Evening by Men's Suffrage League—Discussion on officers of the association taking part in political campaigns—Great meeting in Metropolitan Opera House, speeches by Julia Lathrop, Miss Addams and Dr. Burghardt DuBois—On last evening addresses by Bishop Darlington, Baroness von Suttner and Mrs. Catt—Hearings before Congressional Committees, Dr. Shaw and Miss Addams presiding—Speeches on Senate side by James Lees Laidlaw, president of Men's League; Jean Nelson Penfield, speaking for women in civic work; Elsie Cole Phillips and Caroline A. Lowe for the wage-earning women—On the House side, Representatives Raker, Taylor, Lafferty and Berger; Mary E. McDowell, Ida Husted Harper—Colloquy with committee—Ella C. Brehaut speaks for anti-suffrage women.

CHAPTER XIII.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1913 364

Convention opened in Washington Sunday afternoon with mass meeting—Women's trade unions represented by speakers—Victories in Illinois and Alaska—Dr. Shaw's account of Democratic National convention in Baltimore—President Wilson urged to put woman suffrage in his Message—He receives a delegation—Report of year's work for the Federal Amendment by Alice Paul, chairman of association's Congressional Committee—Objection to Congressional Union—New Congressional Committee appointed—Vote on Federal Amendment in Senate—Three days' hearings by House Committee on Rules on appeal for a Committee on Woman Suffrage, Dr. Shaw presiding—Speeches by Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Gardener, Mrs. Harper, Jane Addams, Mrs. Breckinridge, Mary R. Beard and Representative Raker—Women's Anti-Suffrage Associations out in force—In rebuttal Miss Blackwell, Mrs. McCulloch and Mrs. Mondell—Representative Mondell closes—Rules Committee refuses the appeal.

CHAPTER XIV.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1914 398

Convention met in House of Representatives at Nashville, welcomed by Mayor Howse—Dr. Shaw eulogizes Southern women—Governor Hooper welcomes to State—Anne Martin tells of victory in Nevada, Jeannette Rankin in Montana—National Association's work in campaigns—Dr. Shaw on the War—Tribute of convention to her—Address by U. S. Senator Luke Lea—Heated controversy over Shafroth Federal Amendment—Defense by Ruth Hanna McCormick—Antoinette Funk before Judiciary Committee—Her "brief" for amendment—Her report of the campaigns—Miss Clay's and Mrs. Bennett's bill—Committee Hearings: speakers, Mrs. Funk, Mrs. Colby, Mrs. Beard, Crystal Eastman Benedict, Dr. Cora Smith King, Mrs. Gardener—National Anti-Suffrage Association headed by Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge, with array of men and women speakers.

CHAPTER XV.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1915 439

At the convention in Washington defeats and victories to consider—First vote in House on Federal Amendment—President Wilson receives delegates—All reports show progress—Dr. Shaw refuses to stand for reelection—Her farewell address—Beautiful ceremonies—Mrs. Catt elected—Ethel M. Smith's report on political work—Congressmen card-indexed—Ruth Hanna McCormick on first House vote—Shafroth Amendment dropped—Conference with Congressional Union, its policy of fighting party in power condemned—Hearing before friendly Senate Suffrage Committee—House Committee controversies with "antis" and Congressional Union—Men "antis" grilled.

CHAPTER XVI.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1916 480

Great meeting in Atlantic City—President Wilson attends and announces his allegiance—His address—Dr. Shaw responds—Mrs. Catt on State campaigns—Shall association work for Federal and State amendments?—Mrs. Catt sounds key-note in speech on The Crisis—Mrs. Dudley, Mrs. Cotnam and Mrs. Valentine represent South—The "golden flier"—Sharp debate on endorsing candidates—Speeches of Owen Lovejoy, Julia Lathrop and Katherine Bement Davis—Important report of Mrs. Roessing on work in Congress; woman suffrage planks in national conventions at Chicago and St. Louis; interviewing presidential candidates; revised plan for work of association—Dr. Shaw on Americanism and the Flag.

CHAPTER XVII.

National Suffrage Convention of 1917 513

Convention in Washington under war conditions—Distinguished reception committee—Delegates interview their Congressmen; Association pledges loyalty to Government; its officers in service—New York victory celebrated—Secretary Lane brings President Wilson's greetings—Mrs. Catt's great address to Congress—Maud Wood Park's full report of work with Congress—New Washington headquarters—Report of Leslie Bureau of Suffrage Education—Speech of Secretary of War Baker—Dr. Shaw on Woman's Committee of Council of National Defense—Miss Hay on New York's Socialist vote—"Suffrage Schools" begun—Last Hearing before Senate Committee.

CHAPTER XVIII.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1918-1919 550

Convention of 1918 first ever omitted—War conditions—Many suffrage gains—Jubilee Convention in St. Louis in 1919—Mrs. Catt calls for League of Women Voters—Mrs. Shuler's secretary's report of greatest year's work, State campaigns, war service, work with Congress—Missouri Legislature gives Presidential suffrage—Mrs. Park's report on congressional work—Votes in House and Senate—President Wilson asks Congress for woman suffrage—Tributes to Pioneers—League of Women Voters formed—Work with Editors—Non-partisanship reaffirmed—In Washington: Hearing before new Committee on Woman Suffrage—Dr. Shaw on association's war record—Mrs. Catt's survey of situation; urges committee to talk with President—Ex-Senator Bailey's anti-suffrage speech—Mrs. Catt and Mrs. Park answer—Last suffrage hearing.

CHAPTER XIX.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1920 594

Call to convention in Chicago the last—Mrs. Catt's Jubilee speech—Executive Council's recommendations—Mrs. Shuler's, secretary's report of year's gains and losses, work in southern States, great effort for Ratification—Mrs. Rogers' last treasurer's report—Smithsonian Institution gives space for suffrage mementoes—Memorial meeting for Dr. Shaw, college foundations—Miss Anthony's centennial celebrated—League of Women Voters perfected.

CHAPTER XX.

STORY OF FEDERAL SUFFRAGE AMENDMENT 618

The "war amendments" discriminate against women—National Association formed for Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment—Women vote under the 14th—Supreme Court decides against them—Fifty years' struggle with Congress for woman suffrage amendment—Hearings before committees—Stubborn opposition—Votes and defeats—Support of parties finally gained—Planks in their platforms—Amendment submitted to Legislatures—Strenuous efforts for ratification—Victory at last.

CHAPTER XXI.

VARIOUS WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATIONS 656

Federal Suffrage Association—U. S. Elections Bill—College Women's League—Friends' Equal Rights Association—Mississippi Valley Conferences—Southern Women's Conference—International and National Men's Leagues—National Woman's Party—Women's Anti-Suffrage Association—Man Suffrage Association.

CHAPTER XXII.

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS 683

Formed in St. Louis—Mrs. Catt outlines its work—Its eight departments presented—Perfected and officers elected at Chicago—Reports from department chairmen—Laws for women demanded—Citizenship Schools—League asks planks in national political conventions—Visits presidential candidates.

CHAPTER XXIII.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN PRESIDENTIAL CONVENTIONS 702

Long struggle for planks in national platforms—Refused for nearly fifty years—Woman suffrage by State action approved in 1916—Federal Amendment endorsed in 1920—Graphic story of opposition.

CHAPTER XXIV.

WAR SERVICE OF ORGANIZED SUFFRAGISTS 720

Mrs. Catt calls Executive Council of One Hundred to Washington—It sends letter to President Wilson offering services of National American Association—Organizes four departments of work—Mass meeting held, Secretary of War Baker speaks—President expresses approval of the association's work—Woman's Committee of Government Council of National Defense formed, Dr. Shaw appointed chairman, Mrs. Catt and other leading suffragists made members—Reports of department heads at National Suffrage convention—Report of association's Oversea Hospitals, their important work—Anti-suffrage women attack suffrage leaders—After Armistice Mrs. Catt calls meeting in New York, which requests President Wilson to appoint women delegates to Peace Conference in Paris—Woman's Committee of National Defense ends work—Secretary Baker's tribute to Dr. Shaw.

APPENDIX

APPENDIX 741

Moncure D. Conway's address at Mrs. Stanton's funeral—Miss Anthony's last letter to her—National American Association's Declaration of Principles—Memorial building in Rochester for Miss Anthony—Speech of Mrs. Catt at Senate hearing in 1910—Same in 1915—Review of Shafroth Federal Suffrage Amendment—Different National headquarters—Bequest of Mrs. Frank Leslie—Memorial tributes to Dr. Shaw—Present Status of National American Association.

Contents of Illustrations added by Bank of Wisdom.

Pioneers of Woman Suffrage 172+ Court House of Warren, Ohio & Home of Susan B. Anthony 336+ A Lecture in Banquet Hall of Suffrage Headquarters 526+ National Suffrage Headquarters in Washington 632+



INTRODUCTION

A voice in the Government under which one lives is absolutely necessary to personal liberty and the right of a whole people to a voice in their Government is the first requisite for a free country. There must be government by a constitution made with the consent and help of the people which guarantees this right. It is only within the last century and a half that a constitutional form of government has been secured by any countries and in the most of those where it now exists, not excepting the United States, it was won through war and bloodshed. Largely for this reason its principal advantage was monopolized by men, who made and carried on war, and who held that such government must be maintained by physical force and only those should have a voice in it who could fight for it if necessary. There were many other reasons why those who had thus secured their right to a vote should use their new power to withhold it from women, which was done in every country. Women then had to begin their own contest for what by the law of justice was theirs as much as men's when government by constitution was established.

Their struggle lasted for nearly three-quarters of a century in the United States and half a century in Great Britain, the two largest constitutional governments, and a shorter time in other countries, but it was a peaceful revolution. Not a drop of blood was spilled and toward the end of it, when in Great Britain the only "militancy" occurred, its leaders gave the strictest orders that human life must be held sacred. Although at the last the women of Central Europe were enfranchised as the result of war it was not of their making and their part in it was not on the battlefield. This was the most unequal contest that ever was waged, for one side had to fight without weapons. It was held against women that they were not educated, but the doors of all institutions of learning were closed against them; that they were not taxpayers, although money-earning occupations were barred to them and if married they were not allowed to own property. They were kept in subjection by authority of the Scriptures and were not permitted to expound them from the woman's point of view, and they were prevented from pleading their cause on the public platform. When they had largely overcome these handicaps they found themselves facing a political fight without political power.

The long story of the early period of this contest will be found in the preceding volumes of this History and it is one without parallel. No class of men ever strove seventy or even fifty years for the suffrage. In every other reform which had to be won through legislative bodies those who were working for it had the power of the vote over these bodies. In the Introduction to Volume IV is an extended review of the helpless position of woman when in 1848 the first demand for equality of rights was made and her gradual emergence from its bondage. No sudden revolution could have gained it but only the slow processes of evolution. The founding of the public school system with its high schools, from which girls could not be excluded, solved the question of their education and inevitably led to the opening of the colleges. In the causes of temperance and anti-slavery women made their way to the platform and remained to speak for their own. During the Civil War they entered by thousands the places vacated by men and retained them partly from necessity and partly from choice.

One step led to another; business opportunities increased; women accumulated property; Legislatures were compelled to revise the laws and the church was obliged to liberalize its interpretation of the Scriptures. Women began to organize; their missionary and charity societies prepared the way to clubs for self-improvement; these in turn broadened into civic organizations whose public work carried them to city councils and State Legislatures, where they found themselves in the midst of politics and wholly without influence. Thus they were led into the movement for the suffrage. It was only a few of the clear thinkers, the far seeing, who realized at the beginning that the principal cause of women's inferior position and helplessness lay in their disfranchisement and until they could be made to see it they were a dead weight on the movement. Men fully understood the power that the vote would place in the hands of women, with a lessening of their own, and in the mass they did not intend to concede it.

The pioneers in the movement for the rights of women, of which the suffrage was only one, contested every inch of ground and little by little the old prejudice weakened, public sentiment was educated, barriers were broken down and women pressed forward. At the opening of the present century, while they had not obtained entire equality of rights, their status had been completely transformed in most respects and they were prepared to get what was lacking. None of these gains, however, had required the permission of the masses of men but only of selected groups, boards of trustees, committees, legislators. It was when women found that with all their rights they were at tremendous disadvantage without political influence and asked for the suffrage that they learned the difficulty of changing constitutions. They found that either National or State constitutions had to be amended and in the latter case the consent of a majority of all men was necessary. In Volume VI the attempt to obtain the vote through State action is described in 48 chapters and their reading is recommended to those who insisted that this was the way women should be enfranchised. Fifty-six strenuous campaigns were conducted, with their heavy demands on time, strength and money, and as a result 13 States gave suffrage to women! Wyoming and Utah entered the Union with it in their constitutions. Compare this result with the proclamation of the adoption of a Federal Amendment, which in a moment and a sentence conferred the complete franchise on the women of all the other States.

The leaders recognized this advantage and the National Suffrage Association was formed for the express purpose of securing a Federal Amendment in 1869, as soon as it was learned through the enfranchisement of negro men that this method was possible. A short experience with Congress convinced them that there would have to be some demonstration of woman suffrage in the States before they could hope for Federal action and therefore they carried on the work along both lines. The question had to be presented purely as one of abstract justice without appeal to the special interests of any party, but from 1890 to 1896 woman suffrage had been placed in the constitutions of four States and there was hope that it was now on the way to general success. From this time, however, such idealism in politics as may have existed in the United States gradually disappeared. The Republican party was in complete control of the Government at Washington and was largely dominated by the great financial interests of the country, and this was also practically the situation in the majority of the States. The campaign fund controlled the elections and the largest contributors to this fund were the corporations, which had secured immense power, and the liquor interests, which had become a dominant force in State and national politics, without regard to party. Both of these supreme influences were implacably opposed to suffrage for women; the corporations because it would vastly increase the votes of the working classes, the liquor interests because they were fully aware of the hostility of women to their business and everything connected with it.

This was the situation faced by those who were striving for the enfranchisement of women. Congress was stone deaf to their pleadings and arguments and from 1894 to 1913 its committees utterly ignored the question. When a Legislature was persuaded to submit an amendment to the State constitution to the decision of the voters it met the big campaign fund of the employers of labor and the thoroughly organized forces of the liquor interests, which appealed not only to the many lines of business connected with the traffic but to the people who for personal reasons favored the saloons and their collateral branches of gambling, wine rooms, etc. They were a valuable adjunct to both political parties. The suffragists met these powerful opponents without money and without votes. A reading of the State chapters will demonstrate these facts. From 1896 for fourteen years not one State enfranchised its women.

These were years, however, of marvelous development in the status of women, which every year brought nearer their political recognition. Girls outnumbered boys in the high schools; women crowded the colleges and almost monopolized the teaching in the public schools. Their organizations increased in size until they numbered millions and stretched across the seas. In 1904 the International Woman Suffrage Alliance was formed which soon encircled the globe. This year the International Council of Women, the largest organized body of women in existence, formed a standing committee on woman suffrage with branches in every country. In 1914 the General Federation of Women's Clubs, the largest organization in the United States, declared for woman suffrage and this was preceded or followed by a similar declaration by every State Federation. National associations of women for whatever purpose, with almost no exceptions, demanded the franchise as an aid to their objects, until the stock objection that women do not want to vote was silenced. Women who opposed the movement became alarmed and undertook to organize in opposition, thereby exposing their weakness. Their organization was largely confined to a small group of eastern States and developed no strength west of the Allegheny mountains. Its leaders were for the most part connected with corporate interests and did not believe in universal suffrage for men. There was no evidence that they exercised any considerable influence in Congress or in any State where a vote was taken on granting the franchise to women.

An outstanding feature of the present century has been the entrance of women into the industrial field, following the work which under modern conditions was taken from the homes to the factories. Thus without their volition they became the competitors of men in practically every field of labor. Unorganized and without the protection of a vote they were underpaid and a menace to working men. In self-defense, therefore, the labor unions were compelled to demand the ballot for women. They were followed by other organizations of men until hundreds were on record as favoring woman suffrage. Men trying to bring about civic or political reforms in the old parties or through new ones and feeling their weakness turned to women with their great organizations but soon realized their inefficiency without political power. The old objections were losing their force. The lessening size of families and the removal of the old time household tasks from the home left women with a great deal of leisure which they were utilizing in countless ways that took them out into the world, so that there was no longer any weight in the charge that the suffrage would cause women to forsake their domestic duties for public life. Women of means began coming into the movement for the suffrage and relieving the financial stringency which had constantly limited the activities of the organized work. The opening of large national headquarters in New York, the great news center of the country, in 1909, marked a distinct advance in the movement which was immediately apparent throughout the country. The friendly attitude of the metropolitan papers extended to the press at large. Following the example of England, parades and processions and various picturesque features were introduced in New York and other large cities which gave the syndicates and motion pictures material and interested the public. Woman suffrage became a topic of general discussion and women flocked into the suffrage organizations.

Politicians took notice but they remained cold. This political question had not yet entered politics. The leaders of the National Suffrage Association strengthened its lines and established its outposts in every State, but they still made their appeals to unyielding committees of Congress. The Republican "machine" was in absolute control and woman suffrage had long been under its wheels with other reform measures. Then came in 1909-10 the "insurgency" in its own ranks led by members from the western States, and in those States the voters repudiated the railroad and lumber and other corporate interests and instituted a new regime. One of its first acts was the submission of a woman suffrage amendment in the State of Washington and with a free election and a fair count it was carried in every county and received a majority of more than two to one. The revolt extended to California, whose Legislature sent an amendment to the voters in 1911 after having persistently refused to do so for the past 15 years, and here again there was victory at the polls. With the gaining of this old and influential State the extension of the movement to the Mississippi was assured.

The insurgency in the Republican party resulted in a division at the national convention in 1912 and the forming of the Progressive party headed by Theodore Roosevelt. The Resolutions Committee of the regular party gave the suffragists seven minutes to present their claims and ignored them. The new party needed a fresh, live issue and found it in woman suffrage, which was made a plank in its platform. The leaders of the National Suffrage Association were required by its constitution to remain non-partisan and with one exception did so, but thousands of women rallied to the standard of the new party. As most of them were disfranchised they brought little voting strength but the other parties were forced to admit them and for the first time they gained a foothold in politics. The division in Republican ranks resulted in putting into power the Democratic party, with an unfavorable record on woman suffrage and a President who was opposed to it, but "votes for women" was now a national political issue.

When the suffrage leaders went to the new Congress for a Federal Amendment they met a Senate Committee every member but one of which was in favor of it. The vote in the Senate on March 14, 1914, resulted in a majority but not the required two-thirds, and it was a majority of Republicans. The history of the struggle for this amendment for the next six years, through Democratic and Republican administrations, will be found in Chapter XX. Speaker Champ Clark was a steadfast friend. In 1914 William Jennings Bryan declared for it and thenceforth spoke for it many times. In 1915 President Woodrow Wilson announced his conversion to woman suffrage and in 1918 to the Federal Amendment and never wavered in his loyalty, rendering every assistance in his power. His record will be found in these volumes. In 1916, after Justice Charles Evans Hughes was nominated by the Republicans for the presidency, he announced his adherence to the Federal Amendment, being in advance of his party. This year the Republican and Democratic national platforms for the first time contained a plank in favor of woman suffrage but by State and not Federal action. A remarkable feature of the progress of this amendment in Congress was the increase of its advocates among members from the South, who for the most part believed it to be an interference with the State's rights. In 1887, when the first vote was taken in the Senate not one southern member voted for it. On the second occasion in 1914 Senators Lea of Tennessee, Ransdell of Louisiana, Sheppard of Texas, Ashurst of Arizona and Owen of Oklahoma voted in favor. In 1919 on the final vote, if Arizona, New Mexico and Delaware are included, 17 Senators from southern States cast their ballots for the Federal Amendment, and four from northern States who did so were born in the South. It received the votes of 75 Representatives from southern States. The women of every southern State suffrage association worked for this amendment, believing that it was hopeless to expect their enfranchisement from State action, and the above members took the same view. It received a large Republican majority in Senate and House.

While this contest was in progress many events were taking place which had an influence on it. The movement for woman suffrage was progressing in Europe but when the war broke out in 1914, involving all countries, it was thought that all advance was lost. On the contrary the splendid service of the women obtained the franchise for them in Great Britain, The Netherlands and other countries, and at the close of the war the revolution in the Central countries resulted in the suffrage for men and women alike. The war work of Canadian women brought full enfranchisement to them. When the United States entered the war the patriotic response of the women to every demand of the Government and the magnificent service they rendered swept away forever the objection to their voting because they could not do military duty.

Stimulated by the action of Washington and California other western States gave suffrage to their women and its practical working effectually disproved every charge that had been made against it. At the close of 1915 Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt became president of the National Association and bringing to bear her great executive and organizing ability she re-formed it along the lines followed by the political parties, created a large, active working force and prepared for intensive State and national campaigns. Soon afterwards she received a legacy of almost a million dollars from Mrs. Frank Leslie to be used for promoting the cause of woman suffrage and thus she was equipped for carrying the movement to certain victory.

In 1917 the voters of New York State by an immense majority gave the full suffrage to women, guaranteeing probably 45 votes in Congress for the Federal Amendment. In 1917 and 1918 the great "drive" was made on the Legislatures to give women the right to vote for Presidential electors and this was done in 14 States, granting this important privilege to millions of women. In several States the Legislature added the franchise for municipal and county officers. In 1917 the Legislature of Arkansas gave them the right to vote at all Primary elections and in 1918 that of Texas conferred the same, which is equivalent to the full suffrage, as the primaries decide the elections. By 1918 in 15 States women had equal suffrage with men through amendment of their constitutions.[2]

In January, 1918, the Federal Prohibition Amendment went into effect, putting an end to the powerful opposition of the liquor interests to woman suffrage. All political parties were committed to the Federal Amendment. In January, 1918, it passed the Lower House of Congress but the opposition of two Senators and finally of one prevented its submission. Meanwhile the Democratic administration of eight years had been succeeded by a Republican. This party during 44 years in power had refused to enfranchise women but now it atoned for the wrong and with the help of Democratic members the Amendment was submitted to the Legislatures on June 4, 1919. Nearly all had adjourned for two years and if women were to vote at the next presidential election special sessions would be necessary. One of the most noteworthy political feats on record was that of the president of the National Suffrage Association, with the assistance of others, in managing to have the Governors of the various States call these sessions. It is told in the State chapters with the dramatic ending in Tennessee.

The certificate was delivered to Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby at 4 o'clock in the morning on August 26, 1920, and at 9 he issued the official proclamation that the 19th Amendment having been duly ratified by 36 State Legislatures "has become valid to all intents and purposes as a part of the Constitution of the United States." It reads as follows:

"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

"Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."



FOOTNOTES:

[2] It is worthy of note that these fifteen States offer the only instance in the world where the voters themselves granted the complete suffrage to women. Those of British Columbia, Can., gave the Provincial franchise but had not the power to give it for Dominion elections. In all countries both the State and National suffrage was conferred by a simple majority vote of their Parliaments. The U. S. Congress had not this authority but a two-thirds majority of each House was necessary to send it to the 48 Legislatures for final decision. The Federal Suffrage Amendment had to be passed upon by about 6,000 legislators.



THE NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION

FOREWORD

The National Woman Suffrage Association was organized in New York City, May 15, 1869, with Elizabeth Cady Stanton president and Susan B. Anthony chairman of executive committee. [History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II, page 400.] It held annual conventions for the next half century, always in Washington, D.C., until 1895, after which date they were taken in alternate years to other cities, meeting in the national capital during the first session of each Congress. The object of the association from its beginning was to obtain an amendment to the Federal Constitution which would confer full, universal suffrage on the women of the United States, and its work for amending the constitutions of the States to enfranchise their women was undertaken as one means to achieve this main purpose. The American Woman Suffrage Association was organized in Cleveland, Ohio, Nov. 24, 1869, with Henry Ward Beecher president and Lucy Stone chairman of executive committee, principally for action through the States, and it also held annual conventions. [Volume II, page 756.] In 1890 the two united in Washington under the name National American Woman Suffrage Association [Volume IV, page 164], and the work was continued by both methods. Full reports of conventions may be found in preceding volumes of the History of Woman Suffrage, the list ending in Volume IV with that of 1900. This convention was especially distinguished by the public celebration of the 80th birthday of Susan B. Anthony and her retirement from the presidency of the association which she had helped to found and in which she had continuously held official position, and by the election of Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt as her successor.[3]

The assertion is frequently made that the enfranchisement of women was due to a natural evolution of public sentiment. A reading of the following chapters, which give the history of the work of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, will show how largely the creation of this sentiment was due to this organization to which all the State associations were auxiliary. It represented the organized movement during half a century to secure the vote for women—a struggle such as was never made by men for this right in any country in the world. It was the only large organization for this purpose that ever existed in the United States and its efforts never ceased in the more than fifty years. At each annual convention some advance was recorded. These chapters show that, while the principal object of the association was a Federal Amendment, it gave valuable assistance to every campaign for the amendment of State constitutions and that it was responsible for the granting of the Presidential franchise, which was so important a factor in gaining the final victory. The reports of its officers each year show the large amount of money raised and expended, the hundreds of thousands of letters written, the millions of pieces of literature circulated, the thousands of meetings held, the many workers in the field. The committee reports and the resolutions adopted show that all reforms vital to the welfare of women and children and many of a wider scope were included in the work of the association. The names of the speakers at the national conventions and at the hearings before the committees of Congress during all these years prove that this cause was championed by the leaders among the men and women of their generation. Such quotations from their speeches as space has permitted show that in eloquence, logic and strength they were unsurpassed and that their arguments were unanswerable.

If this volume contained only the first nineteen chapters the reader could not fail to be convinced that principally to the efforts of the National American Woman Suffrage Association the women of the United States owe their enfranchisement, but it shows too that in the forty-eight auxiliary States they also fought their own hard battles.

FOOTNOTES:

[3] History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV, Chapters XX and XXI.



CHAPTER I.

THE NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1901.

The Thirty-third annual convention opened on the afternoon of May 30, 1901, in the First Baptist Church of Minneapolis, with the new president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, in the chair, and continued through June 4, with 144 delegates from twenty-six States present.[4]

Miss Anthony was present at this Minneapolis convention, alert and vigorous but happy to relinquish her official duties to one in whose ability and judgment she had implicit confidence; and the rest of the official board were there ready to give the same allegiance and loyalty to the new chief which they had rendered for many years to the supreme leader. The Minneapolis Journal said: "The formal opening of the suffrage convention yesterday afternoon was an impressive affair. Among the national officers seated on the platform were women who saw the first dawn of the suffrage movement, those who came into its fold midway of its life and those whose earnest endeavors are of more recent record. Among the first was the most honored member of the body, Miss Susan B. Anthony, and among the latter is the president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt. When the delegates rose and the Rev. Olympia Brown of Wisconsin stepped to the front of the platform and turned her face heavenward, saying, "In the name of liberty, Our Father, we thank thee," the impression even upon an unbeliever must have been that of entire consecration and one was reminded of when the early Christians met and consulted, fought and endured for the faith that was in them."

Although this was the first convention in many years over which Miss Anthony had not presided she was the first to speak, as Mrs. Catt at once presented her to the audience. With the loyalty which had characterized her life Miss Anthony first read a letter from the honorary president, Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, then in her 86th year, which she prefaced by saying: "It is fitting that I should read this greeting from her, as I have stood by Mrs. Stanton's side for fifty years." The letter urged the same vigorous work in the church for woman's emancipation as had been kept up in the States and said: "The canon law, with all the subtle influences that grow out of it, is more responsible for woman's slavery today than the civil code. With the progressive legislation of the last half century we have an interest in tracing the lessons taught to women in the churches to their true origin and a right to demand from our theologians the same full and free discussion in the church that we have had in the State, as the time has fully come for women to be heard in the ecclesiastical councils of the nation. To this end I suggest that committees and delegates from all our State and national associations visit the clergy in their several localities and assemblies to press on their consideration the true position of woman as a factor in Christian civilization."

Press reports of Mrs. Stanton's paper were as follows:

"Woman today, as ever, supplies the enthusiasm that sustains the church and she has a right in turn to ask that the church sustain her in this struggle for liberty and take some decided action with reference to this momentous and far-reaching movement. It matters little that here and there some clergyman advocates our cause on our platform, so long as no religious organization has yet recognized our demand as a principle of justice. Discussion is rarely held in their councils but it is generally treated as a speculative, sentimental question unworthy of serious consideration. Neither would it be sufficient if they gave their adhesion to the demand for political equality, so long as by scriptural teachings they perpetuate our racial and religious subordination." Mrs. Stanton would demand that an expurgated Bible be read in churches. "Such parables as refer to woman as 'the author of sin,' 'an inferior,' 'a subject,' 'a weaker vessel,'" she says, "should be relegated to the ancient mythologies as mere allegories, having no application whatever to the womanhood of this generation. It is not civil nor political power that holds the Mormon woman in polygamy, the Turkish woman in the harem, the American woman as a subordinate everywhere. The central falsehood from which all these different forms of slavery spring is the doctrine of original sin and woman as a medium for the machinations of Satan, its author. The greatest block today in the way of woman's emancipation is the church, the canon law, the Bible and the priesthood. Canon Charles Kingsley said not long ago: 'This will never be a good world for woman till the last remnant of canon law is stricken from the face of the earth.'"[5]

After finishing Mrs. Stanton's letter Miss Anthony presented her own greeting, in the course of which she said:

"If the divine law visits the sins of the parents upon the children, equally so does it transmit to them the virtues of the parents. Therefore if it is through woman's ignorant subjection to man's appetites and passions that the life current of the race is corrupted, then must it be through her intelligent emancipation that it shall be purified and her children rise up and call her blessed.... I am a full and firm believer in the revelation that it is through woman the race is to be redeemed. For this reason I ask for her immediate and unconditional emancipation from all political, industrial, social and religious subjection. It is said, 'Men are what their mothers made them,' but I say that to hold mothers responsible for the characters of their sons while denying to them any control over the surroundings of the sons' lives is worse than mockery, it is cruelty. Responsibilities grow out of rights and powers. Therefore before mothers can rightfully be held responsible for the vices and crimes, for the general demoralization of society, they must possess all possible rights and powers to control the conditions and circumstances of their own and their children's lives."

The audience then listened with keen appreciation to the president's address, during which she said: "If I were asked what are the great obstacles to the speedy enfranchisement of women I should answer: There are three; the first is militarism, which once dominated the entire thought of the world and made its history. Although its old power is gone and its influence upon public thought grows constantly less, it still molds the opinions of millions of people and holds them to the old ideals of force in government and headship in the family. The second obstacle is the unconscious, unmeasured influence upon the estimate in which women as a whole are held that emanates from that most debasing of our evil institutions, prostitution.... The third great cause is the inertia in the growth of democracy which has come as a reaction following the aggressive movements that with possibly ill-advised haste enfranchised the foreigner, the negro and the Indian. Perilous conditions, seeming to follow from the introduction into the body politic of vast numbers of irresponsible citizens, have made the nation timid. These three influences, born of centuries of tradition, shape every opinion of the opponents of woman suffrage. Not an objection, argument or excuse can be urged against the movement which may not be traced to one of these causes."

At the close of Mrs. Catt's address Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford of Denver presented her with a handsome gavel in behalf of the suffrage association of Colorado. The gavel was made of Colorado silver and the settings and engravings of Colorado gold. In one side was a Colorado amethyst, and the Colorado flower, the columbine, was burned into the gavel by a Colorado girl. Mrs. Bradford said she wished Mrs. Catt the good luck said to follow the possessor of an amethyst, who "shall speak the right word at the right time." She presented it as an expression of gratitude for her aid in their successful suffrage campaign of 1893. "We are apt to attribute everything good in Colorado to woman suffrage," said Mrs. Catt in response, "but in my secret mind I think much of it is due to the progressiveness of the Colorado men. They must be better than other men or they would not have enfranchised their women. I cannot love Colorado any better than I do but I shall always value this gavel as a precious souvenir of that wonderful campaign."

In her report as vice-president at large the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw said regarding her many suffrage speeches during the year: "The manager of a bureau lately said to me: 'If you would only give up for a time the two reforms in which you are most interested, woman suffrage and prohibition, you could earn enough money on the regular lecture platform in a few years to live on for the rest of your life.' Any woman who does not live for unselfish service is a useless cumberer of the earth. I would rather be known as an advocate of equal suffrage and starve than to speak every night on the best-paying platforms in the United States and ignore it."

The first evening of the convention was opened with prayer by the Rev. Marion H. Shutter.[6] The audience was far beyond the seating capacity of the large church and in presenting the official speakers Mrs. Catt said: "This is a great contrast to the early days when we did not use to be welcomed because we were not welcome. Now we are welcomed wherever we go but not often, as here, by the representative of a whole State." Governor Samuel R. Van Sant gave a hearty western greeting, which, he said, he wanted to make as cordial as he could express it and as broad as the State he lived in. He made this point among others: "You are doing a splendid work and the reason you do not get the ballot sooner is because you do not convert your own sex. I know for I have been a member of the Legislature. If you wanted to vote as much as you want other things you would go there and block the legislators so they couldn't get to their seats." Mayor Albert A. Ames extended the welcome of the city and declared his belief in woman suffrage. Former Mayor William Henry Eustis ended his address in behalf of the Commercial Club and Board of Trade by saying: "Commercial bodies are temporary but a great movement like this is eternal." Former Mayor James Gray, representing the press, assured them of its cooperation and said that from a dozen to twenty women were doing important work on the papers of the city. Mrs. Maud C. Stockwell, president of the State Suffrage Association, welcomed them to "the hearts of the women of Minneapolis."

Dr. Shaw closed the evening with a stirring address on An Invisible Foe, in which she referred to the many refusals they had had from the anti-suffrage leaders to come to the convention and debate the question. She accused them of wearing a khaki-colored uniform to conceal themselves from the foe and declared they were always careful to make their attacks when the enemy was not present, saying: "The anti-suffragists are not fighting woman suffrage, they are fighting the ideals of democracy and leaning toward an aristocracy. Take note of the words they use to designate the people, 'mob,' 'hordes,' etc. They look at the people as not only incapable and ignorant now but so for all time and they never learn that in the heart of every individual in the mob lie the forces which make for martyrs or for brutes." "From point to point through long and close argument the brilliant speaker moved with lightning velocity," said a press report. "She called up the anti-suffrage arguments made by the Rev. Samuel G. Smith of St. Paul, in his recent series of sermons on women, and laughed to scorn their plea for 'the days of chivalry,' which, she said, were a man's protection of his own women against other men. Woman must work out God's ideal of what a woman should be and she cannot do it until she is absolutely free as man is free."

Mrs. Catt brought to the presidency a definite belief that Congress would not submit a Federal Suffrage Amendment nor would important States be gained on referendum until national and State officers and workers were better trained for the work required. The increasing evidence of a united and politically experienced opposition as manifested in legislative action and referendum results had convinced her that the cause would never be won unless its campaigns were equipped, guided and conducted by women fully aware of the nature of opposition tactics and prepared to meet every maneuver of the enemy by an equally telling counteraction. She had been appointed by Miss Anthony chairman of a Plan of Work Committee at the convention of 1895 and assembling the practical workers they agreed upon recommendations which proved a turning point in the association's policy. These were presented to that convention and adopted. A Committee on Organization was established with Mrs. Catt as chairman and contrary to the usual custom the convention voted that she be made a member of the National Board. For the last five years her committee had held conferences in connection with each convention which discussed and adopted plans for more efficient work. As president, she now determined to link more closely the work of national and State auxiliary organizations and in the pursuance of this aim and as ex-officio chairman of the convention program committee, she appointed the Executive Committee (consisting of the Board of Officers, the president and one member from each auxiliary State) to be the Committee on Plan of Work. For two entire days preceding this convention the Executive Committee had discussed methods of procedure, as presented by the Board of Officers, who had prepared these recommendations at a mid-year meeting held in Miss Anthony's home at Rochester in August.

The convention accepted the report which included the following: (1) Organization. That organization be continually the first aim of each State auxiliary as the certain key to success; that each State keep at least one organizer employed and endeavor to establish a county organization in each county or at least to form an organization in each county seat and at four other points; that organization work be done among women wage earners and that definite work be undertaken to win the endorsement and cooperation of other associations, chiefly the General Federation of Women's Clubs and the National Education Association. (2) Legislation. That each auxiliary State association appeal to Congress to submit to the Legislatures a 16th Amendment to the Federal constitution prohibiting the disfranchisement of U. S. citizens on account of sex; that the plan initiated by Miss Anthony be continued, namely, that all kinds of national and State conventions be asked to pass resolutions in favor of this amendment, to be sent to Congress; that State societies also ask their Legislatures to pass resolutions in favor of a 16th Amendment, these also to be sent to Congress; that auxiliaries whose States offer a reasonable possibility of a successful referendum try to secure the submission of State suffrage amendments to the voters, with assurance of national cooperation; that auxiliaries whose State constitutions present obstacles to such procedure work to secure statutory suffrage, such as School, Municipal or Presidential; that auxiliaries not strong enough to attempt a campaign work for the removal of legal discriminations against women and attempt to secure co-guardianship of children, equal property rights, the raising of the age of consent, the appointment of police matrons, etc.; that a leaflet be prepared by Mrs. Laura M. Johns advising best methods for successful legislative work. To carry out this plan the Committees on Congressional Work, Presidential Suffrage and Civil Rights found their work for the year. (3) Press. Recommendations were made for rendering this department of work more efficient in the States; enrollment of persons believing in woman suffrage to be continued in order to secure evidence of the strength of general favorable sentiment; the literature of the association to include a plan of work for local clubs.

Work conferences were interspersed during the convention; one on Organization presided over by Miss Mary Garrett Hay; one by Mrs. Priscilla D. Hackstaff, chairman Enrollment Committee; one by Mrs. Babcock, chairman Press Committee. A chart showing the date of the opening of the Legislature in each State; the provision for amending its constitution; the suffrage and initiative and referendum laws and all other information bearing upon the technical procedure of securing the vote State by State was carefully drawn by the Organization Committee. With this in hand each State was given its legislative task. It was voted to urge the auxiliaries of Kansas, Indiana, New York, Washington and South Dakota to ask for submission of State constitutional amendments. It was voted that the corresponding secretary be elected with the understanding that she would serve at the national headquarters and be paid a salary.

The Executive Committee at a preliminary meeting repeated the resolution of the preceding year against the official regulation of vice in Manila, which was under United States control. It closed: "We protest in the name of American womanhood and we believe that this represents also the opinion of the best American manhood.[7] This resolution was unanimously adopted by the delegates after strong addresses, and Miss Anthony, Dr. Shaw, Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Avery and Miss Blackwell were deputized to ask a hearing and present it to the American Medical Association meeting in St. Paul at this time. That body allowed them ten minutes to state their earnest wish that it would endorse the resolution but it took no action.

Miss Anthony had consented to act as chairman of the Congressional Committee and her report was heard with deep interest. Her work during the year was upon two distinct lines, the old familiar petition to Congress to pass the 16th Amendment granting full suffrage to women, and another brought about by new conditions—a petition that the word "male" should not be inserted in the electoral clause of the constitutions proposed by Congress for Hawaii and Porto Rico. These petitions were secured from every State and Territory, a tremendous work, and were laid before the members of Congress from each State. The most interesting petition for the amendment was from Wyoming, where one sheet was signed by every State officer, several U. S. officials and other prominent citizens. They had signed in duplicate several petitions and thus Miss Anthony had an autograph copy with her. The work of securing this petition was done chiefly by Mrs. Joseph M. Cary, wife of the Senator. Miss Anthony was chairman also of the Committee on Convention Resolutions and believed strongly that to present the question of woman suffrage to conventions of various kinds and secure resolutions from them was an efficacious means of propaganda. Her interesting report for 1900 made at this time will be found in full in the History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV, page 439.

In introducing Mr. Blackwell (Mass.), Mrs. Catt said: "The woman suffrage movement has known many women who have devoted their lives and energies to it. I know of only one man. Years ago when Lucy Stone was a sweet and beautiful girl he heard her speak and afterwards proposed to her to form a marriage partnership. When she said that this might prevent her from doing the large work she wanted to do for equal rights he promised to help her in it and loyally and faithfully all through their married life he did so, as constantly and earnestly as Lucy Stone herself; and even after her death he continues to give his time, his money and his effort to the same end. I am glad to introduce Henry B. Blackwell." Mr. Blackwell was the pioneer in urging the suffragists of every State to try to obtain from their Legislature a law giving them a vote for presidential electors. Their authority for this action was conferred by the National Constitution in Article 2, Section 2: "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." His comprehensive report made to this and other conventions was an unanswerable argument in favor of the right of a Legislature to confer this vote on women and eventually it was widely recognized.

The treasurer, Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton (O.), reported the total receipts of the year $22,522. Mrs. Catt stated the needs of the association for the coming year and under the skilful management of Miss Hay subscriptions of $5,000 were soon obtained. On motion of Dr. Shaw a vote of thanks was given to Miss Hay for her "able and efficient work in securing these pledges." The report for the Federal Suffrage Committee was given by Mrs. Sallie Clay Bennett (Ky.)[8]

The corresponding secretary, Mrs. Avery of Philadelphia, made the report of the great bazaar which had been held before the Christmas holidays in Madison Square Garden, New York City, and netted about $8,500. It was accompanied by the carefully prepared report of its treasurer, Mrs. Priscilla D. Hackstaff of Brooklyn. An exact duplicate of a beautiful vase three feet high which had been presented to Admiral Dewey by the citizens of Wheeling, West Virginia, at a cost of $250, with the exception that his face on it was replaced by Miss Anthony's, was presented to the bazaar by Mrs. Fannie J. Wheat of that city. As no "chances" were allowed at suffrage fairs it was purchased by subscriptions and presented to Miss Anthony.[9]

A letter to Miss Blackwell from Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, then past 80 years of age, expressing her regret at not being able to attend the convention, closed: "It is not for lack of interest in our great cause or indifference to the dear western women with whom I was associated so many years ago and who, like myself, have grown gray in the work for women.... God bless you all and give you an ennobling season together, harmonious and uplifting in its results. Remember me in love to the old friends and pledge my affectionate regard to the new friends with whom I will try to keep step here on the Massachusetts coast. Yours with a thousand good wishes." A telegram of greeting was sent to Mrs. Stanton and others to Mrs. Cornelia C. Hussey of New Jersey, Mrs. Jane H. Spofford of Maine and Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway of Oregon, all pioneer workers for the cause. Miss Laura Clay (Ky.) gave a strong, logical address on Counterparts, "the dualism of the race," in which she said:

Any social system founded on a theory designed for the elevation of one sex alone, regardless of the other, is altogether false and delusive to the expectations built upon it, for the human race is dual and heredity keeps the stock common from which both men and women spring. Since the common stock is improved and invigorated by the acquired qualities of individuals, without regard to sex, it is to the advantage of both that all possibilities of development shall be extended to both sexes. In animals acquired qualities can be imparted to the stock only by parenthood; in the human family they are imparted even more widely and permanently through the influence of ideas. All that woman has lost by social systems which denied to her education and the free expression of her genius in literature, art or statesmanship, has been lost to man also, because it has diminished the inheritable riches of the nature from which he draws his existence. He has been less, though unhampered by the shackles which bound her, because she was less. The world is not more called upon to rejoice in the triumphs of his genius in freedom than to mourn over the wasted possibilities of hers in bonds....

The forward movement of either sex is possible only when the other moves also and the obstacles to progress exist in the attitude of both sexes to it, not in that of one alone. So in this woman suffrage movement we have learned that the apathy of women to their own political freedom is as great an obstacle to our success as the unwillingness of men to grant our claims. It is of the same importance to us to educate women out of their indifference as it is to educate men out of their unwillingness. If it should happen that this education shall come to women first, they will never need the argument of force to induce men to remove the legal obstacles, for men and women cannot long think unlike on any subject.

One of the most interesting reports was that of the Press Committee, made by its efficient chairman, Mrs. Elnora Monroe Babcock (N. Y.). Illustrating its work she said: "About 50,000 suffrage articles have been sent out from the press headquarters since our last annual convention; 2,400 of these were specials; 5,155 articles and items advertising the Bazaar; many articles on prominent women were furnished to illustrated papers and newspaper syndicates; a page of plate matter was issued every six weeks and seven large press associations were supplied with occasional articles." The names of State chairmen were given and the number of papers they supplied—New York, 500; Pennsylvania, 336; Iowa, 237; Massachusetts, 97; Indiana, 91; Illinois, 85; Ohio, 63, etc. Mrs. Babcock asked for a vote of thanks, which was unanimous, to Paul Dana, proprietor and editor of the New York Sun, for having given during the past two and a half years and for still giving two columns of its Sunday issue to an article by Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, an unprecedented concession by a great metropolitan paper. Miss Anthony added her words of praise to Mr. Dana and to the department which she herself had been largely instrumental in securing.[10]

One of the most popular addresses of the convention was made by Mrs. Ellis Meredith of Denver—The Menace of Podunk—a clever satire showing that narrow partisanship and dishonest politics were to be found alike in New York and Podunk, Indiana.

Podunk is the place where the country is nothing, the caucus everything; where patriotism languishes and party spirit runs riot. It is the centre of intelligence where they hold back the returns until advices are received from headquarters as to how many votes are needed. The Podunkians believe it is a good thing to have a strong man at the head of the ticket, not because they care about electing strong men but because by putting a good nominee at the head of the ballot it is possible they may be able to pull through the seven saloon keepers and three professional politicians who go to make up the rest of the ticket.... But there lives in Podunk another class that is a greater menace to the life of the nation, the noble army of Pharisees. They have read Bryce's American Commonwealth and have an intellectual understanding of the theory and form of our government but they do not know what ward they live in, they are vague as to the district, have never met their Congressman and do not know a primary from a kettle drum....

The politician and the shirk of Podunk are the creatures who are doing their noble best to blot out the words of Lincoln and make it possible for the government he died to save to perish from the earth. And between these two evils the least apparent is the most real. The man who votes more than once is nearer right than the man who refuses to vote at all. The activity of the repeater in the pool of politics may be wholly pernicious but is no worse than the stagnation caused by the inertia of his self-righteous brother. The republic has less to fear from her illiterate and venal voters than from those who, knowing her peril, refuse to come to the rescue.

The resolutions were presented by Mr. Blackwell, who, at conventions almost without number, served as chairman of this important committee, and the first ones set forth the political status of the women in the year 1901 as follows:

"We congratulate the women of America upon the measure of success already attained—school suffrage in twenty-two States and Territories; municipal suffrage in Kansas; suffrage on questions of taxation in Iowa, Montana, Louisiana and New York; full suffrage in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho—States containing more than a million inhabitants, with eight Senators and nine Representatives in Congress elected in part by the votes of women.

"We rejoice in important gains during the past year; the extension of suffrage upon questions of taxation to 200,000 women in the towns and villages of New York and to the tax-paying women of Norway; the voting of women for the first time for members of Parliament in West Australia; the almost unanimous refusal of the Kansas Legislature to repeal municipal woman suffrage and the acquittal in Denver of the only woman ever charged with fraudulent voting."

A tribute was paid to the tried and true friends of woman suffrage who had died during the year, many of them veterans in the cause: Sarah Anthony Burtis, aged 90, secretary of the first Woman's Rights Convention in 1848 when adjourned to Rochester, N.Y.; Charles K. Whipple, aged 91, for many years secretary of the Massachusetts and New England Woman Suffrage Associations; Zerelda G. Wallace of Indiana, the "mother" of "Ben Hur"; Paulina Gerry, the Rev. Cyrus Bartol, Carrie Anders, Dr. Salome Merritt, Matilda Goddard and Mary Shannon of Massachusetts; Mary J. Clay of Kentucky; Eliza J. Patrick of Missouri; Fanny C. Wooley and Nettie Laub Romans of Iowa; Eliza Scudder Fenton, the widow of New York's war governor; Charlotte A. Cleveland and Henry Villard of New York; John Hooker of Connecticut; Giles F. Stebbins and George Willard of Michigan; Ruth C. Dennison, D. C., Theron Nye of Nebraska; Elizabeth Coit of Ohio; Major Niles Meriwether of Tennessee; M. B. Castle of Illinois; John Bidwell of California; Wendell Phillips Garrison of New Jersey.

On the evening when Miss Anthony presided she introduced to the audience with tender words Mrs. Charlotte Pierce of Philadelphia, as one of the few left who attended the first Woman's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, N. Y., in 1848; Mrs. Eliza Wright Osborne of Auburn, N. Y., niece of Lucretia Mott and daughter of Martha Wright, two of the four women who called that convention; Miss Emily Howland, a devoted pioneer of Sherwood, N. Y.; the Rev. Olympia Brown of Racine, second woman to be ordained as minister; Mrs. Ellen Sulley Fray, a pioneer of Toledo, O., and Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick, wife of a Chief Justice of Louisiana, who organized the first suffrage club in New Orleans.

Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, who had been the corresponding secretary of the association for twenty-one years, had insisted that she should be allowed to resign from the office. A pleasant incident not on the program took place one morning during the convention when Miss Anthony came to the front of the platform and said: "I have in my hand a thousand dollars for Rachel Foster Avery. It has been contributed without her knowledge by about four hundred different persons; most of you are on the list. I asked for this testimonial because I felt that you would all rejoice to show your appreciation of her long and faithful services and her great liberality to the cause. I should never have been able to carry on the work of the society as its president for so many years but for her able cooperation. She thinks she cannot talk but we know that she can work. She has done the drudgery of this association for more than twenty years and I hope the woman who will be chosen in her place, whoever she may be, will be as consecrated and free from all self-seeking."

Miss Kate M. Gordon, president of the Era Club of New Orleans, was almost unanimously elected as corresponding secretary. The only other change in the official board was the retirement of Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch as second auditor and the election of Dr. Cora Smith Eaton in her place. In referring later to Dr. Eaton, Mr. Blackwell said: "In my attendance upon thirty-three successive annual national conventions I have never seen one with such complete and faithful preparation by the local committee and such abundant and cordial welcome.... It seemed natural to recognize the generous hospitality thus extended to the convention by the people of Minnesota by choosing Dr. Eaton of Minneapolis, chairman of this local committee, as one of the auditors for the coming year."[11]

A closely reasoned address on the Ethics of Suffrage was made by Louis F. Post of Chicago, in the course of which he said:

Suffrage is a right, not a privilege. That it is a right of every individual is the only basis for women's demanding it. If it is not a right but a privilege that may be granted to men and withheld from women, be granted to the white and withheld from the black, be given to those who have red hair and kept from those with black hair; if it may be rightfully given to the millionaire and kept from the day laborer; rightfully extended to those who can read and withheld from those who cannot, or to those with a college education and from those who have only a common-school education—if these are the only bases on which women claim a share in government, then the fundamental argument for woman suffrage disappears.

Reason back far enough on the privilege line of argument and you soon come to that fetish of tradition, the divine right of kings. So if you cannot put your claim on any better ground than privilege you would better not go on.... Being a right, it is also a duty. He who has a right to maintain has a duty to perform. This is the firm rock upon which woman suffrage must rest. It must be demanded because women are members of the community, because they have common interests in the common property and affairs of the community; in a word, they have rights in the community and duties toward it which are the same as the rights and duties of every other sane person of mature age who keeps out of the penitentiary.

An unexpected pleasure was a brief address by Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, a veteran suffragist and prominent physician of New York, who was attending the convention of the American Medical Association. She based her argument for equal suffrage on the injustice practiced toward women physicians when they seek the opportunity for hospital practice. Mrs. F. W. Hunt, wife of the Governor of Idaho, testified to the good results of woman suffrage in that State for the past five years. Others who gave addresses were the Rev. Alice Ball Loomis (Wis.), The Feminine Doctor in Society; Mrs. Lydia Phillips Williams, president of the Minnesota Federation of Clubs, Growth and Greetings; Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton Harbert (Ill.), For the Sake of the Child; Miss Frances Griffin (Ala.), A Southern Tour; the Rev. Olympia Brown (Wis.), The Tabooed Trio; Mrs. Annie L. Digges (Kas.), The Duty of the Hour; Miss Laura A. Gregg (Neb.), Who Will Defend the Flag?; the Rev. Celia Parker Woolley (Ill.), Woman's Worth in the Community; the Rev. William B. Riley (Minn.), Woman's Rights and Political Righteousness.[12]

An inadequate newspaper account of the very able address of Miss Gail Laughlin (N. Y.), on The Industrial Laggard, said:

Miss Laughlin described the nineteenth as the industrial century of which the factory was a notable product and co-operation the spirit. Men were trained to do one thing well and by division of labor the maximum result was attained with the minimum expenditure of labor and capital. This principal of division of labor has been applied everywhere except in the household, the field which especially concerns women. Household labor is outside the current of industrial progress. It is not even recognized as an industrial problem because it is not a wealth-producing industry. Students of economics will sometime understand that the industries which consume wealth should receive attention as well as those which produce it. Business principles are not applied to the domestic service problem. There are no business hours. The person is hired, not the labor. One woman described the situation: "If you have a girl, you want her, no matter at what time." There is no standard of work and the result is confusion worse confounded. The servant's goings-out and comings-in are watched and she has no hours to herself. Is it any wonder that so many women prefer to go into factory life at less pay but where they can have some hours of their own?

The report of the Committee on Legislation for Civil Rights, Mrs. Laura M. Johns (Kans.), chairman, showed that it had been in correspondence with many State associations which were working for the repeal of bad laws and the enactment of good ones; for raising the age of consent; for child-labor bills; for women physicians in State institutions; for women on school boards and in high educational positions and for many other civil and legal measures. Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby's report on Industrial Problems affecting Women and Children showed much diligent research into the discriminations against women in the business and educational world and gave many flagrant instances. "In Government positions," she said, "this was clearly due to their lack of a vote."

The Government departments at Washington are almost entirely governed by politics and women are greatly discriminated against, notwithstanding civil service rules. The report of A. R. Severn, chief examiner for the Civil Service Commission, shows that during the last ten years less than ten per cent. of the women who have passed the examinations have been appointed, while more than 25 per cent. of the men who passed obtained positions. To prevent the possibility of women obtaining high-class positions the examinations for these are not open to women. Of the 58 employments for which examinations were held, women were admitted to only 22. The per cent. of women employed of those who had passed was 13 in 1898; 6 per cent. in 1899, and lower in 1900, not a woman being appointed to a clerk's position from the waiting list. The Post Office Department in the last year sent out an order that women should not be made distributing clerks wherever it was possible to appoint men.... Legislation for the protection of children has been defeated in Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina. In the factories of Birmingham, it is stated, children of six and seven are obliged to be at work by 5:30 a.m. and to work twelve hours daily, attending spindles for ten cents a day. Jane Addams says she knows from personal observations that in certain States the conditions of child labor are as bad as they were in England half a century ago. In the great cotton mills at Columbia, S. C., she found a little girl scarcely five years old doing night work thirteen hours at a stretch, for three days in the week.

Sunday afternoon the Rev. Olympia Brown gave the convention sermon—The Forward March—in the First Baptist Church, with scripture reading by Mrs. Catt, prayer by the Rev. Margaret T. Olmstead, hymns by the Rev. Kate Hughes and the Rev. Mrs. Woolley; responsive reading by the Rev. Alice Ball Loomis. The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw preached in the Church of the Redeemer in the morning and Louis F. Post in the evening. Dr. Shaw preached in the evening at the Hennepin Avenue Methodist Church; Miss Laura Clay spoke at the Central Baptist; Dr. Frances Woods at the first Unitarian; Miss Laura Gregg at Plymouth; Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford at the Wesley Methodist in the morning and the Rev. Olympia Brown in the evening; Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton Harbert in the Chicago Avenue Baptist; the Rev. Margaret F. Olmstead at All Souls; the Rev. Alice Ball Loomis at Tuttle Universalist; Mrs. Mariana W. Chapman at the Friends' Church; Miss Ella Moffatt at the Bloomington Avenue Methodist, and Mr. and Miss Blackwell at the Trinity Methodist.

An official letter was sent by request to the Constitutional Convention of Alabama asking for a woman suffrage clause. An invitation to hold a conference in Baltimore was accepted. Arrangements were made to have a National Suffrage Conference September 9, 10, in Buffalo, N. Y., during the Pan-American Exposition. It was decided also to accept an invitation from the Inter-State and West Indian Exposition Board to hold a conference during the Exposition in Charleston, S. C. Official invitations were received from various public bodies to hold the next convention in Washington, Atlantic City, Milwaukee and New Orleans.

The president made the closing address to a large audience on the last evening, a keen, analytical review of the demand for woman suffrage. "Its fundamental principle," she said, "is that 'all governments derive their just power from the consent of the governed.' It is the argument that has enfranchised men everywhere at all times and it is the one which will enfranchise women." As it was extemporaneous no adequate report can be given.

Nothing was left undone by this hospitable city for the success and pleasure of the convention. Very favorable reports and commendatory editorials were given by the newspapers. An excellent program by the best musical talent was furnished at each session under the direction of Mrs. Cleone Daniels Bergren. An evening reception in honor of the national officers, to which eight hundred invitations were sent, took place in the beautiful home of Mr. and Mrs. W. D. Gregory. The Business Woman's Club, Martha Scott Anderson, president, gave an afternoon reception in its rooms, the invitations reading: "The club desires to show in a measure its appreciation of the labor by the members of the National Suffrage Association in behalf of women." Trolley rides through the handsome suburbs and a visit to the big flouring mills were among the diversions.[13]

This chapter has tried to picture the first convention of the National American Suffrage Association in the new century, typical of many which preceded and followed. If it and other chapters seem overburdened with personal mention it must be remembered that it is a precious privilege to those who assisted in this great movement, and to their descendants, to have their names thus preserved in history. In the biography of Susan B. Anthony (page 1246) may be found the following tribute to these conventions, which were held annually for over fifty years.