IOWA.[258]
For thirty years the women of Iowa have been petitioning its
legislative body for the elective franchise. Any proposed amendment to
the State constitution must pass two successive Legislatures before
being submitted to the voters, which makes it exceedingly difficult to
secure one. Throughout the State, however, there has been a steady,
healthy growth of favorable sentiment and the cause now numbers its
friends by thousands.
The Iowa Equal Suffrage Association was formed in 1870 and ever since
has held annual conventions. That of 1884 took place in Des Moines,
November 27, 28, Mrs. Narcissa T. Bemis presiding. The report of the
vice-president, Mrs. Jane Amy McKinney, stated that Miss Matilda
Hindman of Pennsylvania had been employed two months of the year,
besides working several weeks upon her own responsibility. She had
delivered seventy-two lectures, formed about forty organizations and
obtained many hundreds of names to pledges of help. Mrs. Helen M.
Gougar of Indiana had given fifteen addresses, distributed 3,000
tracts and secured 500 subscribers for her paper, _Our Herald_. Mrs.
Mariana T. Folsome, financial secretary, had gone from town to town,
arranging her own meetings and visiting many places where no suffrage
work ever before had been done. Mrs. Margaret W. Campbell, State
organizer, had addressed 139 meetings and assisted in organizing ten
counties. Letters urging a Sixteenth Amendment to the Federal
Constitution had been written to all the Iowa members of Congress.
The convention met Oct. 21, 22, 1885, in Cedar Rapids, and elected
Mrs. Campbell president. Lucy Stone and Henry B. Blackwell delivered
evening addresses, while among the delegates was Mrs. Carrie Lane
Chapman (Catt). Mrs. Mary J. Coggeshall, chairman of the executive
committee, reported that each of the eleven congressional districts
had been given in charge of a vice-president of the State association,
local societies had been formed, numerous public meetings held and
seventeen counties organized. Petitions were in circulation asking the
Legislature to amend the constitution of the State so as to
enfranchise women, and others that women be excused from paying taxes
until they had representation. About forty weekly papers had columns
edited by the press committee. At the State Agricultural Fair this
committee had, as usual, a large amount of literature in a handsomely
decorated booth, which was crowded with visitors from all parts of the
State.
In the autumn of 1886 the annual meeting convened in Ottumwa. During
that year funds had been raised and a permanent cottage erected on the
State Fair grounds to be used as suffrage headquarters. There was also
established in Des Moines a State paper, the _Woman's Standard_, with
Mrs. Coggeshall as editor and Mrs. Martha C. Callanan as business
manager. This paper, an eight-page monthly, issued its first number in
September.[259]
The State Convention of 1887 was held in Des Moines, and that of 1888
in Ames. At the latter Miss Susan B. Anthony gave an inspiring
address. The State Agricultural College is located at Ames, and Capt.
James Rush Lincoln of the military department tendered the delegates
an exhibition drill on the campus of Company G, which was composed
entirely of girls.
The annual convention took place in Oskaloosa, Oct. 30-Nov. 1, 1889. A
letter of approval was received from George A. Gates, president of
Iowa College. Mr. Blackwell and Lucy Stone were present and added much
to the interest of the meetings. Mrs. Campbell was for the third time
elected president.
On Dec. 4, 5, 1890, the association again assembled in Des Moines,
with Miss Anthony in attendance. The resolutions recommended that the
suffragists make an effort to place women on all the school boards,
and that they work for the election of legislators favoring Municipal
and School Suffrage for women.
The society was incorporated under the State laws Nov. 7, 1891, as the
Iowa Equal Suffrage Association. The twentieth convention was held at
Ames, December 3, 4. Three departments of work were arranged--fair,
press and oratorical contest--and a superintendent of each was
appointed. Reports were received from all parts of the State which
indicated an increasing growth of sentiment and it was decided to
place another organizer in the field. The delegates were invited by
President William Beardshear to visit the State Agricultural College.
Upon their return they passed a resolution declaring that "the
Legislature ought to provide a suitable hall for women students."
Margaret Hall has since been erected, a commodious building designed
for their exclusive use.
The twenty-first annual meeting was called at Des Moines, Sept. 22,
1892, in connection with the Mississippi Valley Suffrage Conference.
There were present Miss Anthony, president of the National
Association, Mr. Blackwell, Senator M. B. Castle and Mrs. Catharine
Waugh McCulloch of Illinois, Miss Laura Clay of Kentucky, Mrs. Sarah
Burger Stearns of Minnesota and many others from different States. The
report of Mrs. Eliza H. Hunter, chairman of the executive committee,
said:
In no previous year has the demand upon our workers been so
great, and never has the response been so quick and hearty. Mrs.
Chapman Catt, Mrs. Emma Smith DeVoe of Illinois, the Rev. Olympia
Brown of Wisconsin, and Mrs. Belle Mitchell of Iowa, have been
our lecturers and organizers. The association was invited to send
a speaker to the Chautauqua Assembly at Colfax and the Rev. C. C.
Harrah was secured. A plan of work prepared by Mrs. Chapman Catt
was issued as a supplement to the _Woman's Standard_, and sent to
every county president and local club. Mrs. Callanan published at
the same time the Iowa Collection of Readings and Recitations for
suffrage societies. The study topics arranged for clubs two years
ago had been in such demand that a new supply was necessary. We
also have had printed 6,000 copies of a tract, A Woman Suffrage
Catechism, by Mrs. C. Holt Flint. The State Agricultural Society
by request set apart one day of the fair as Woman's Day, and five
women's organizations took part in the exercises. At the hour
devoted especially to suffrage Mrs. DeVoe made the address, Mrs.
Coggeshall presiding. It was hard to tell where this hour began
and ended, for to the listener all seemed suffrage hours.
This report told also of a series of questions sent out which
ascertained that, in the territory covered by twenty-eight clubs,
seventy-eight ministers were in favor of suffrage and eighteen
opposed; and in the same territory forty editors were in favor and
nineteen opposed. There were at that time fifty-seven clubs in the
State.
The year 1893 marked a period of unusual activity. The executive
committee held monthly meetings. Four organizers were kept in the
field. A large amount of money was raised and $100 donated to the
campaign in Colorado. A request was sent to the clubs that each
contribute to the campaign in Kansas, which in many instances was
done. The annual meeting took place in Webster City, November 9, 10.
The convention of 1894 was held in Marshalltown, November 8, 9. That
of 1895 met in Des Moines, October 18, 19. Mrs. Laura M. Johns of
Kansas was secured for a month of organization work and the suffrage
enrollment ordered to be continued.
In 1896 Mrs. Adelaide Ballard was elected State organizer. At the
State Fair Mrs. Pauline Swalm delivered an address on The Woman
Citizen. The suffrage cottage was kept open and a long list of names
was placed upon the enrollment books. The annual meeting convened in
Independence, November 17-19. Mrs. Ballard reported thirty-seven new
clubs organized. Mrs. Anna H. Satterly announced that forty-two
newspapers were publishing articles furnished by the National
Association, which also sent Mrs. DeVoe for a month's work in the
State.
In January, 1897, the National Association held its convention in Des
Moines, with many noted women in attendance.[260] This gave a great
impetus to the work and had a decided effect upon sentiment in the
State, particularly on that of the daily papers in Des Moines, most of
which since this time have treated the cause with marked courtesy. At
the close of the convention fifty members were added to the city club.
The National Association heartily approved the plan of an active
campaign with a view to securing the submission of a suffrage
amendment from the Legislature. Under the directions of Mrs. Chapman
Catt, chairman of its organization committee, workers were sent into
the field to hold a series of conventions for the purpose of
perfecting the organization of the State. These resulted in county
societies in ninety-four of the ninety-nine counties and one hundred
new clubs. The speakers were the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, national
vice-president-at-large, and the Rev. Henrietta G. Moore of Ohio; the
managers, Miss Mary G. Hay of New York and Miss Laura A. Gregg of
Kansas. Mrs. Ballard and Mrs. Clara M. Richey each gave a month to
conducting meetings, and other Iowa women rendered valuable
assistance.
The annual meeting of 1897 took place in Des Moines, October 13-15.
Mrs. Chapman Catt, Miss Hay, Miss Moore and Mrs. Addie M. Johnson of
Missouri were present. Much enthusiasm was manifested and $1,400 were
raised to carry on the next year's work. It was decided to open
headquarters in Des Moines the first of January, 1898, with Mrs. Ina
Light Taylor as office secretary.
Beginning in April, 1898, the State association conducted a series of
conferences throughout the northern part of Iowa, employing as
speakers Mrs. Campbell and Mrs. Ballard; and as managers Miss Ella
Harrison of Missouri and Mrs. Richey. At the same time the National
Association sent into the southern part Miss Moore and Mrs. Martha A.
B. Conine of Colorado, as speakers, and Miss Gregg and Mrs. Jennie L.
Wilson as managers. The annual meeting was held in Council Bluffs,
October 19-21. Mrs. Evelyn H. Belden was made president.
During 1899 a large amount of work was done by correspondence. The
office of press superintendent was transferred to headquarters, from
which 200 newspapers were supplied each week with suffrage matter. Two
hundred and fifty clubs were in active existence. The convention met
in Mason City, October 10-12. Mrs. Belden was unanimously re-elected
and $1,500 were raised.
The convention of 1900 was held in Des Moines, October 16-18, with
Mrs. Chapman Catt in attendance. During the year Mrs. Nellie Welsh
Nelson had done organization work in northwestern Iowa, and Miss Hay
and Dr. Frances Woods lately had held a number of meetings and formed
several clubs. One thousand dollars were pledged to continue the State
headquarters. Mrs. Belden was again elected to the presidency, and
the association entered upon the new century bearing the banner it had
followed for thirty years, with the inscription, "Never give up."[261]
Year after year the executive committee have visited the State
conventions of all the political parties asking for a plank in their
platforms indorsing equal suffrage, but without success. Many of the
prominent officials and political leaders, however, have openly
declared in favor of the enfranchisement of women.[262]
LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND LAWS: From its organization in 1870 the State
association has had a bill before every Legislature asking some form
of suffrage for women. This usually has passed one House but never
both at the same session. The petitions accompanying these bills have
varied from 8,000 signatures in 1884 to 100,000 in 1900. In 1884 the
measure was carried in the Senate but lost in the House.
In 1886 a bill for Municipal Suffrage was introduced by Representative
J. A. Lyons, amended to include School Suffrage and recommended for
passage, but it never came to a vote.
In 1888 a bill for Municipal and School Suffrage was lost in the House
by 11 ayes, 80 noes. This was presented in the Senate also but never
voted upon.
In 1890 a bill for School Suffrage was recommended for passage in the
House but did not reach a vote. A bill for Municipal Suffrage at the
same session was not reported. Both were killed in the Senate
committee.
In 1892 a bill allowing women to vote for Presidential Electors was
introduced in the House but was unfavorably reported and indefinitely
postponed. In the Senate it was referred to the Committee on Suffrage
and never reported.
In 1894 a bill for Municipal and School Suffrage was favorably
reported in the House. It was made a special order and, after being
amended so as to give women the right to vote _only when bonds were to
be issued_, it was returned to the Judiciary Committee. They reported
it without recommendation for the reason that they were not agreed as
to its constitutionality. It was passed by 51 ayes, 39 noes. In the
Senate the amended bill passed by 27 ayes, 20 noes.
The greatest difficulty in the way of securing Municipal or School
Suffrage was the opinion prevalent among legislators that it would be
unconstitutional. In view of this fact the State association decided
to drop all partial suffrage measures and ask only for the Full
Franchise by constitutional amendment.
In 1898 a legislative committee was appointed with Mrs. Belden, State
president, as chairman. Assisted by Miss Mary G. Hay of New York, she
spent some time at the capital trying to secure a joint resolution for
the submission of an amendment. The resolution was lost in the House
by 50 ayes, 47 noes--just one short of a constitutional majority,
which is one over a half of the whole number of members. It did not
come to a vote in the Senate.
In 1900 Mrs. Belden established headquarters at the Savery House in
Des Moines, and with other members of the legislative committee
conducted a vigorous campaign for submission. The bill was reported
favorably by unanimous vote of both House and Senate committees, but
was lost in the House by 44 ayes, 55 noes. Subsequently it passed the
"sifting committee," for the first time in the history of suffrage
legislation in the State. It was then acted upon by the Senate and
lost by 24 ayes, 23 noes--lacking two votes of a constitutional
majority. The absence on account of illness of some of the friends of
the measure contributed to this result. In the meantime work had been
done in the House by Mrs. Belden and the Hon. G. W. Hinkle which had
made it certain that if the bill was carried in the Senate the House
would reconsider and pass it. The bill was treated with courtesy and
fairness and instead of ignoring its claims men came voluntarily to
talk about it and showed a genuine interest.
The laws of inheritance are the same for husband and wife. Dower and
curtesy are abolished. The surviving husband or wife is entitled to
one-third in fee simple of both real and personal estate of the other
at his or her death. If either die intestate, leaving no issue,
one-half of the estate goes to the survivor, the rest to his or her
parents, one or both; or if they are both dead, to their descendants.
If there are none such, the whole estate goes to the surviving husband
or wife. If there should have been more than one wife or husband, the
half portion is equally divided between the husband or wife living and
the heirs of those who are dead, or the heirs of all, if all are dead.
A married woman may contract, sue and be sued and carry on business in
her own name as if unmarried and her earnings are her sole and
separate property.
In 1896 an act was passed making it illegal for the husband to
mortgage household goods without the wife's signature. The same year
it was made a misdemeanor and punishable as such for a man to desert a
woman whom he married to escape prosecution for seduction.
The law declares the father and mother natural guardians and legally
entitled to the custody of the minor children, but in practice the
father has prior claim.
The support and education of the family are chargeable equally on the
husband's and the wife's property.
In 1886 the "age of protection" for girls was raised from 10 to 13
years; and in 1896, on petition of the Woman's Christian Temperance
Union, from 13 to 15 years. The penalty is imprisonment in the
penitentiary for life or for any term of years not less than twenty.
An amendment was made in 1894 that "a man can not be convicted upon
the testimony of the person injured unless she be corroborated by
other evidence."
The same year this organization secured a law compelling the
separation of men and women prisoners in county jails.
SUFFRAGE: Since 1894 the right of any citizen to vote at any city,
town or school election, on the question of issuing any bonds for
municipal or school purposes, and for the purpose of borrowing money,
or on the question of increasing the tax levy, shall not be denied or
abridged on account of sex.
At all elections where women may vote, no registration of women shall
be required, separate ballots shall be furnished for the question on
which they are entitled to vote, a separate ballot-box shall be
provided in which all ballots cast by them shall be deposited, and a
separate canvass thereof made by the judges of the election, and the
returns thereof shall show such vote.
OFFICE HOLDING: Women are not forbidden by law to hold any office
except that of legislator.
In 1884 thirteen women were serving as county superintendents and ten
as superintendents of city schools; six were presidents, thirty-five
secretaries and fifty treasurers of school boards. In 1885 the school
board of Des Moines elected a woman city superintendent at a salary of
$1,800, with charge of eighty teachers, including two male principals.
In 1900 twenty-one women were elected county superintendents. A large
number are acting as school trustees but it is impossible to get the
exact figures.
The office of State librarian always was filled by a woman until 1898,
when Gov. Leslie M. Shaw placed a man in charge. The librarian of the
State University always has been a woman. There are two women on the
Library Board of Des Moines.
Clerkships in the Legislature and in the executive offices are
frequently given to women.
For six years Mrs. Anna Hepburn was recorder of Polk County, and this
office has been held by women in other counties.
A law of 1892 requires cities of over 25,000 inhabitants to employ
police matrons. They wear uniform and star and have the same authority
as men on the force, with this difference in their appointment: The
law makes it permanent and they can not be dismissed unless serious
charges are proved against them.
A woman has been appointed a member of the Board of Examiners for the
Law Department of the State University. For a number of years women
have been sitting on the State boards of Charities and Reforms. They
have served on the Board of Trustees of the Soldiers' Orphans' Home. A
woman is on the State Board of Education, and another on the State
Library Commission.
The law provides that women physicians may be employed in the State
hospitals for the insane, but only two or three have been appointed.
The Board of Control may appoint a woman on the visiting committee for
these asylums but this has not yet been done. A few women have served
on this board.
The law also provides for women physicians in all State institutions
where women are placed, but does not require them.
The Legislature of 1900 passed a bill to establish a Woman's
Industrial Reformatory of which the superintendent must be a woman.
The salary is $1,000 a year.
OCCUPATIONS: No profession or occupation is legally forbidden to
women. In 1884 Iowa furnished, at Marion, what is believed to be the
first instance of the election of a woman as president of a United
States national bank.
EDUCATION: The universities and colleges, including the State
Agricultural College, always have been co-educational.
In the public schools there are 5,855 men and 22,839 women teachers.
The average monthly salary of the men is $37.10; of the women, $31.45.
* * * * *
The women of Iowa have thrown themselves eagerly into the great club
movement, and clubs literary, philanthropic, scientific and political
abound. The State Federation numbers 300 of these with a membership of
12,000. This, however, does not include nearly all the women's
organizations.
By all the means at their command women are striving to fit themselves
for whatever duties the future may have in store for them. With an
unfaltering trust in the manhood of Iowa men, those who advocate
suffrage are waiting--and working while they wait--for the time when
men and women shall stand side by side in governmental as in all other
vital matters.
FOOTNOTES:
[258] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Clara M. Richey
of Des Moines, recording secretary of the State Equal Suffrage
Association.
[259] The _Woman's Standard_ has continued to be a source of pride to
Iowa women up to the present time, and is now edited by J. O.
Stevenson and published by Mrs. Sarah Ware Whitney.
[260] See Chapter XVII.
[261] The following have served as presidents, beginning with 1884:
Mrs. Narcissa T. Bemis, Mrs. Margaret W. Campbell (four terms), Mrs.
Mary B. Welch, Mrs. Mary J. Coggeshall (two terms), Mrs. Estelle T.
Smith (two terms), Mrs. Rowena Stevens, Mrs. M. Lloyd Kennedy, Mrs.
Adelaide Ballard (two terms), Mrs. Evelyn H. Belden (three terms).
The officers at present are: Vice-president, Mrs. Dollie Romans
Bradley; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Nellie Welsh Nelson; recording
secretary, Mrs. Clara M. Richey; treasurer, Mrs. Mary J. Coggeshall;
executive committee, Mrs. Anna H. Ankeny, Mrs. Emma C. Ladd, Miss
Alice Priest; auditors, Mrs. Martha C. Callanan, Mrs. Ina Light
Taylor; member national executive committee, Mrs. Margaret W.
Campbell; State organizer, Dr. Frances Woods.
[262] It is plainly impossible to mention the names of all or even a
large part of the workers in a State where so much has been done. A
few of the most prominent not already named are George W. Bemis;
Mesdames Irene Adams, Virginia Branner, S. J. Cole, S. J. Cottrell,
Mary E. Emsley, Clara F. Harkness, Julia Clark Hallam, Helen M.
Harriman, Etta S. Kirk, Alice S. Longley, Hannah Lecompte, Florence
Maskrey, Emily Phillips, Martha A. Peck, Mettie Laub Romans, C. A.
Reynolds, Cordelia Sloughton, Roma W. Woods; Misses Daisy Deighton,
Ella Moffatt, Katharine Pierce.
CHAPTER XL.
KANSAS.[263]
The first Woman's Rights Association was organized in Kansas in the
spring of 1859, by a little coterie of twenty-five men and women, with
the object of securing suffrage for women from the convention which
was to meet in July to form a constitution for Statehood. They did not
succeed in this but to them is largely due its remarkably liberal
provisions regarding women.[264]
Afterwards local suffrage societies were formed but there was no
attempt to have a State association until 1884. In the winter of that
year Mrs. Bertha H. Ellsworth was sent to the National Convention at
Washington by the society of Lincoln, and she returned enthusiastic
for organization. After some correspondence the first convention was
called by Mrs. Hetta P. Mansfield, who had been appointed
vice-president of Kansas by the National Association, and it met in
the Senate Chamber at Topeka, June 25. Mrs. Helen M. Gougar, who was
making a lecture tour of the State, was invited to preside, and Mrs.
Anna C. Wait, president of the five-year-old society at Lincoln and
for many years the strongest force behind the movement, acted as
secretary.[265] Telegrams of greeting were received from Lucy Stone
and Henry B. Blackwell, editors of the _Woman's Journal_. At the
evening meeting Mrs. Ellsworth recited an original poem and Mrs.
Gougar delivered a fine address to a large audience. Professor W. H.
Carruth, of the University of Kansas, assisted, coming as delegate
from a flourishing suffrage society at Lawrence, of which Miss Sarah
A. Brown was president and Mrs. Annie L. Diggs secretary. A
constitution was adopted and Mrs. Mansfield was elected president;
Mrs. Wait, vice-president; Mrs. Ellsworth, corresponding secretary.
In the fall of 1884 Mrs. Ellsworth and Mrs. Clara B. Colby of
Nebraska, made an extended lecture and organizing tour. At Salina they
met and enlisted Mrs. Laura M. Johns, and then began the systematic
work which rapidly brought Mrs. Johns to the front as the leader of
the suffrage forces in Kansas. In addition to her great ability as an
organizer, she is an unsurpassed manager of conventions, a forceful
writer, an able speaker and a woman of winning personality.
On Jan. 15, 16, 1885, the State association held its annual meeting in
Topeka, during the first week of the Legislature. Its chief business
was to secure the introduction of a bill granting Municipal Woman
Suffrage, in which it succeeded. Mrs. Gougar was an inspiring figure
throughout the convention, addressing a large audience in Assembly
Hall. A Committee on the Political Rights of Women was secured in the
Lower House by a vote of 75 yeas, 45 nays, after a spirited contest.
One was refused in the Senate by a tie vote. Much interest and
discussion among the members resulted and a favorable sentiment was
created. Mrs. Wait was made president, Mrs. Johns, vice-president. A
second convention was held this year in Salina, October 28, 29, with
"Mother" Bickerdyke and Mrs. Colby as the principal speakers. A large
amount of work was planned, all looking to the end of securing
Municipal Suffrage from the next Legislature.
During 1886 the State Woman's Christian Temperance Union, under the
presidency of Mrs. Fannie H. Rastall, zealously co-operated with the
suffrage association in the effort for the Municipal Franchise, Miss
Amanda Way, Mrs. Sarah A. Thurston, Miss Olive P. Bray and many other
able women making common cause with its legislative committee and
working for the bill. About 9,000 suffrage documents were distributed.
This autumn eleven conventions in the congressional districts of the
State were held under the efficient management of Mrs. Johns and Mrs.
Wait, beginning at Leavenworth, October 4, 5, and following at
Abilene, Lincoln, Florence, Hutchinson, Wichita, Anthony, Winfield,
Independence, Fort Scott and Lawrence. Miss Susan B. Anthony,
vice-president-at-large of the National Association, Mrs. Colby and
Mrs. Elizabeth Lyle Saxon of New Orleans, were the speakers. They were
greeted by crowded houses, Miss Anthony especially receiving an
ovation at every place visited.
In October the American W. S. A. held its national convention in
Topeka. Lucy Stone, Henry B. Blackwell, the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw and
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, of Massachusetts, and the Hon. William Dudley
Foulke and Mrs. Mary E. Haggart, of Indiana, were present. The meeting
was of incalculable benefit at this time. For the next few months Mrs.
Gougar, with her strong speeches, was everywhere in demand; Mrs. Saxon
was continuously at work; Mrs. Zerelda G. Wallace of Indiana made a
number of powerful addresses, and the whole State was aroused in the
interest of the bill.
Instead of holding the usual State convention in 1886 it met in
Topeka, Jan. 11-13, 1887, when the Legislature was in session, and was
largely attended for success seemed near at hand. Mrs. Belva A.
Lockwood of Washington, D. C., made an able address. The other
speakers were Professor Carruth, the Rev. C. H. Rogers, Mrs. Saxon and
Mrs. Colby. Miss Sarah A. Brown, as chairman of the committee,
reported a resolution urging the Legislature to confer Municipal
Suffrage on women, which was unanimously carried, and the most
determined purpose to secure its passage by the Legislature then in
session was manifested. Mrs. Johns was elected president, an office
which she held eight consecutive years.
The bill passed and became a law February 15. The next annual meeting
took place in Newton, Oct. 13-15, 1887, with the usual large
attendance.[266] Miss Anthony, Mr. Blackwell, the Rev. Miss Shaw and
Rachel G. Foster (Avery) were the speakers from abroad. Two notable
events were the appearance of Kansas' first woman mayor, Mrs. M. D.
Salter of Argonia, and the reading of a carefully compiled statement
relative to the first vote of women in the towns and cities at the
election the preceding April. This paper was the work of Judge Francis
G. Adams, for many years secretary of the State Historical Society,
and a lifelong friend and helper of woman's enfranchisement. It
answered conclusively the question whether women would vote if they
had an opportunity.
This convention was followed by a very successful series of meetings
in many cities to arouse public sentiment in favor of Full Suffrage,
under the management of Mrs. Johns and Mrs. Letitia V. Watkins, State
organizer, with Miss Anthony, Miss Shaw and Miss Foster as speakers.
Considerable attention was given to the speech recently made by U. S.
Senator John J. Ingalls at Abilene, vigorously opposing woman
suffrage.
Mrs. Mary A. Woodbridge of the National, and Mrs. Rastall of the
Kansas W. C. T. U., also made an active canvass of the State. These
organizations united in a strong appeal to women to be equal to their
new responsibilities, which was supplemented by one from the national
president, Miss Frances E. Willard.
The State convention met at Emporia, Nov. 13-15, 1888, with Miss
Anthony as its most inspiring figure. A notable feature was the
address of Mrs. Johns, the president, in which she said:
And this brings me to speak of our attitude toward political
parties. Whatever may be the individual preferences of the
officers of our State Association, _our organization is
non-partisan_. I have hitherto regarded it as necessary that it
should be strictly non-partisan, just as I have believed that it
must remain non-sectarian, so that no one of any faith, political
or religious, shall be shut out from our work.... I believe that
this attitude toward sects will be necessary to the day of our
full enfranchisement; but not as it now is will our relations to
_party_ remain. The time is not yet ripe perhaps, but the years
will not be many to go over our heads before we shall feel the
necessity of declaring our allegiance to a party, and it is
possible that to this we will be compelled to come before we
secure an amendment to the constitution of the State striking out
the word "male."
A strong speech was made by Secretary Adams, urging that women should
do aggressive political work with a view of securing the franchise.
From this time on women were not only welcomed as political allies,
but their influence and active participation were sought in party
politics. Many women lent their aid chiefly owing to their belief
that they would thus become so valuable as to win party support to
their full enfranchisement; others were enlisted by reason of their
interest and devotion to the issues. Whether for good or ill as it
should affect full suffrage, Kansas women thenceforth entered fully
into party affiliations, but as individuals and not as representing
the suffrage association.
The State convention of 1889 assembled in Wichita, October 1-3. Miss
Anthony was an honored guest and among those who made addresses were
Mrs. Colby, Mrs. Mary D. Lowman, mayor of Oskaloosa, and the Hon.
Randolph Hatfield.
At the convention of 1890 in Atchison, November 18-20, Miss Anthony
was again present accompanied by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt and Mrs.
Colby.
The annual meeting of 1891 was held in Topeka, November 20, 21. During
the past year the great political change from Republicanism to
Populism had taken place in Kansas. Women had been among the most
potent factors in this revolution, and as woman suffrage was at that
time a cardinal principle of the Populist party, and there always had
been considerable sentiment in favor of it among Republicans, the
prospects of obtaining the Full Franchise seemed very bright.
In February and March of 1892 a series of thirty two-days' conventions
was held in the congressional districts and in nearly one-third of the
counties of the State, attended by great crowds. Miss Jennie Broderick
was chairman of the committee, Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery secretary and
treasurer, and Mrs. Martha Powell Davis, Mrs. Martia L. Berry, Mrs.
Diggs and Mrs. Wait were the other members. Mrs. Avery contributed
$1,000 toward this canvass. Outside speakers were Miss Florence
Balgarnie of England, Mrs. Mary Seymour Howell of New York, Mrs. Clara
C. Hoffman of Missouri, and the Rev. Miss Shaw. The State speakers
were Mesdames S. A. Thurston, May Belleville Brown, Elizabeth F.
Hopkins, J. Shelly Boyd and Caroline L. Denton. Mrs. Johns arranged
all of these conventions, presided one day or more over each and spoke
at every one, organizing in person twenty-five of the thirty-one local
societies which were formed as a result of these meetings.
The first week in June a two-days' suffrage conference was held at
the Ottawa Chautauqua Assembly, with the assistance of Miss Anthony,
president, and Miss Shaw, vice-president-at-large of the National
Association. From here Miss Anthony went to the State Republican
Convention, in session at Topeka, accompanied by Mrs. Johns, Mrs.
Hopkins and Mrs. Brown, officers of the State suffrage society. They
were joined by Miss Amanda Way and "Mother" Bickerdyke, and by
unanimous vote all of these ladies were given seats upon the floor of
the convention. Miss Anthony was invited to address the body,
conducted to the platform amid ringing cheers and her remarks were
cordially received. Later several of the ladies addressed the
resolutions committee, and the final result, by 455 yeas, 267 nays,
was a plank in the platform unequivocally declaring for the submission
of an amendment to the constitution to enfranchise women. A similar
plank already had been adopted by the Populist State Convention at
Wichita with great enthusiasm.
During the autumn campaign following, Mrs. Diggs and other women spoke
from the Populist platform, and Miss Anthony, Mrs. Johns and Mrs. T.
J. Smith from the Republican. Miss Anthony, however, simply called
attention to the record of the Republican party in the cause of human
freedom, and urged them to complete it by enfranchising women, but did
not take up political issues.
The State convention of 1892 was held at Enterprise, December 6-8, and
the problem of preserving the non-partisan attitude of the
organization so as to appeal with equal force to Republicans and
Populists presented itself. With this in view, Mrs. Diggs, a Populist,
was made vice-president, as support and counsellor of Mrs. Johns, the
president, who was a prominent Republican, and the association,
despite the political diversity of its members, was held strictly to a
non-partisan basis.
Both Republicans and Populists having declared for the submission of a
woman suffrage amendment, the Legislature of 1893 passed a bill for
this purpose, championed by Representative E. W. Hoch and Senator
Householder. From that time forward, Mrs. Johns, Mrs. Diggs and
hundreds of Kansas women of both Republican and Populist faith labored
with untiring zeal for its success. Nothing was left undone that human
wisdom could plan or human effort carry out.
On Sept. 1, 2, 1893, a mass meeting was held in Kansas City at which
Mrs. Chapman Catt ably presented the question. Mrs. Emma Smith DeVoe
of Illinois agreed to raise $2,000 in the State. Mrs. Thurston, at the
head of the press bureau, announced that hundreds of papers were
pledged to support the amendment; the State Teachers' Association
passed a strong resolution for it; the Grand Army of the Republic was
in favor; Miss Helen L. Kimber related much success in organizing, and
from every county came reports of meetings and debates.
Mrs. Johns, State president, went to the National Suffrage Convention
in Washington in the winter of 1894 and made a most earnest appeal for
assistance in the way of speakers and funds, both of which were
promised by the association. She was appointed chairman of the
amendment committee with power to name the members,[267] and they
opened up with energy the long campaign of agitation, education and
organization. They started enrollment books, appointed polling
committees and undertook to put people to work in every one of the
2,100 voting precincts. The National Association contributed $2,571
and also a number of speakers. A constitutional amendment campaign was
in progress in New York but Miss Anthony made many trips from there to
Kansas, and spent months in canvassing the State, donating her
services during the entire time.
Work was continued without cessation for the purpose of creating a
public sentiment which would be strong enough to compel the delegates
to the political State conventions of 1894 to adopt a plank supporting
this amendment, just as in 1892 they had adopted one asking for it.
But in 1892 the Populists had swept the State, and in 1894 the
Republicans were determined to regain possession of it at all hazards.
The amazement and grief of the Republican women was beyond expression
when they learned early in 1894 that their party was going to refuse
indorsement at its convention in June. Every possible influence was
brought to bear by the State and the National Associations. Miss
Anthony, Miss Shaw and Mrs. Chapman Catt went to Kansas to open the
spring canvass for the women, May 4. They spoke to an immense audience
in Kansas City and a resolution was adopted urging all parties to put
a woman suffrage plank in their platforms. Miss Anthony's speech was
published in full in the Leavenworth _Times_, Col. D. R. Anthony,
editor, and circulated throughout the State. This was the beginning of
a great series of two-days' suffrage conventions held by two groups of
speakers and so "overlapping" that meetings were going on in four
county seats every day, until 85 of the 105 counties had been reached
in this way. The Rev. Miss Shaw and Mrs. Chapman Catt represented the
National Association, reinforced by a number of able State speakers.
All of these meetings were arranged and managed by Mrs. Johns.
Although obliged to return to New York at that time, in three weeks
Miss Anthony went back to Kansas, arriving the day before the
Republican convention, June 6. Neither she nor Miss Shaw was allowed
to address the resolutions committee, which had been carefully
fortified against all efforts by the appointment as chairman of
ex-Gov. C. V. Eskridge, an active opponent of woman suffrage since the
previous campaign of 1867. Mrs. J. Ellen Foster of Washington, D. C.,
and Mrs. Johns, both strong Republican speakers, were, however,
permitted to present the claims of the women, but the platform was
absolutely silent, not even recognizing the services of Republican
women in municipal politics.
The next Saturday night a mass meeting attended by over 1,000 people
was held in Topeka, Mrs. Diggs presiding, Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw
making the addresses.
Every effort was now put forth to secure a plank from the Populist
convention, June 12. There was great opposition, as the party knew the
approaching struggle would be one of life or death. Gov. L. D.
Lewelling had asserted he would not stand for re-election on a
platform which declared for woman suffrage. While the resolutions
committee was out, Miss Anthony, Miss Shaw and Mrs. Chapman Catt
addressed the convention amidst great enthusiasm. The majority of the
committee, led by its chairman, P. P. Elder, were bitterly opposed to
a suffrage plank. It occupied them most of the night, and was defeated
by 13 yeas, 8 nays. The one woman member, Mrs. Eliza Hudson, brought
in a minority report signed by herself and the other seven, and in
spite of every parliamentary tactic it was brought to a debate and
discussed four hours, Judge Frank Doster[268] leading the affirmative.
The debate was closed by Mrs. Diggs,[269] and the resolution was
adopted by 337 yeas, 269 nays--with a rider attached to it saying,
"but we do not regard this as a test of party fealty."
The Democratic women brought every possible influence to bear on the
State convention of that party but it adopted the following
resolution: "We oppose woman suffrage as tending to destroy the home
and family, the true basis of political safety, and express the hope
that the helpmeet and guardian of the family sanctuary may not be
dragged from the modest purity of self-imposed seclusion to be thrown
unwillingly into the unfeminine places of political strife."
Miss Shaw continued canvassing the State for two months. Then Mrs.
Chapman Catt went out and remained until after election, making
addresses, conferring with the politicians and counseling with the
women. Miss Anthony, who was obliged to give most of the summer to the
great campaign in progress in her own State of New York, returned to
Kansas October 20, and spoke daily on the Populist platform in the
principal towns until election day, November 6, but only on the
suffrage plank. A large number of the ablest of the Kansas women made
speeches throughout the campaign and an army of them worked for the
amendment.[270]
The battle was lost, and the grief and disappointment of the Kansas
women were indescribable. The amendment failed by 34,837 votes--95,302
yeas, 130,139 nays. The total vote cast for Governor was 299,231;
total vote on suffrage amendment, 225,441; not voting on amendment,
73,790. There was an attempt to keep count of the ballots according to
parties, but it was not entirely successful and there was no way of
correctly estimating their political complexion. However, the vote for
Gov. E. N. Morrill (Rep.) lacked only 1,800 of that for the other
three candidates combined, which shows how easily the Republican party
might have carried the amendment. Subtracting the 5,000 Prohibition
votes, three-fourths of which it was conceded were cast for the
amendment, it lacked 27,000 of receiving as many votes as were cast
for the Populist candidate for Governor. Since some Republicans must
have voted for it, the figures prove that a vast number of Populists
did not do so.[271]
The first State convention following the defeat of 1894 was held at
Winfield, December 6, 7, of that year. Mrs. Johns was once more
elected president, but the profound disappointment over the defeat of
the amendment made it impossible to revive organization or interest to
any satisfactory degree.
From 1887 until 1895 Mrs. Johns was the efficient and devoted
president of the State association. As she declined to serve longer,
the convention which met at Eureka, November 21, 22, elected Mrs. Kate
R. Addison to this office. Mrs. Addison began her official work with
much hopefulness, established a monthly paper, the _Suffrage
Reveille_, and succeeded in enlisting new workers in the cause. Miss
Laura A. Gregg, State organizer, added a number of clubs and over 200
members.
In June, 1896, Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Stetson was brought into the
State for twenty-seven lectures, beginning with the Chautauqua
Assembly at Winfield. The annual meeting took place at Topeka,
November 10, ll, and Mrs. Addison was re-elected.
The convention of 1897 was held at Yates Center, December 8-10, and
Mrs. Addison was continued in office. Mrs. Stetson had again made a
lecturing tour of the State and a general revival of interest was
reported.
Miss Anthony and Mrs. Chapman Catt were present at the State
convention in Paola, Oct. 21, 22, 1898. Mrs. Abbie A. Welch, a pioneer
in the cause, was elected to the presidency. During this year Mrs.
Johns and Miss Gregg organized a number of counties, and the press
superintendent, Mrs. Alice G. Young, did effective work with the
newspapers.
The annual meeting of 1899 was held in Kansas City, October 9-11, and
was the most largely attended since the great defeat. Gov. John P. St.
John was the orator of the occasion. The Rev. Father Kuhls, a Catholic
priest, spoke as a disbeliever in woman's enfranchisement, which
furnished inspiration for a reply by Mrs. Diggs. This event created an
interest equalling the old-time enthusiasm, and it was believed that
the hour for renewed activity had struck. Mrs. Diggs was made
president, and it was unanimously resolved to take up again the work
for full enfranchisement.
The convention of 1900 was held in Olathe, December 18, 19. The State
at the recent Presidential election having gone strongly Republican,
Mrs. Diggs thought it not political wisdom to remain at the head of
the association and Miss Gregg was elected president. When it was
learned that she had taken charge of the Nebraska suffrage
headquarters her duties devolved upon Miss Helen L. Kimber, the new
vice-president. This convention voted against the proposition to ask
the Legislature of 1901 to submit a constitutional amendment, thinking
it advisable first to devote two years to the work of organization,
after which it is generally believed the full suffrage can be
secured.[272]
LEGISLATIVE ACTION: The State Association from its beginning in 1884
made Municipal Suffrage its chief object. In 1885 a bill for this
purpose was presented in the House by Frank J. Kelly. It was favorably
reported by the Judiciary Committee, but although advanced somewhat on
the calendar it was too far down to reach a vote.
At a special session in 1886 the bill was reported to the House by the
committee on Political Rights of Women, and a large force of competent
women went to Topeka to urge its passage. On February 10 it stood
eighth from the top on the calendar. On February 11, when the
Committee on Revision submitted its report, it stood sixty-first. A
strong protest was made by its friends on the floor and by a standing
vote it was restored to its original place. The enemies were now
thoroughly alarmed. A State election was close at hand and the
Prohibitionists were crowding the Republicans. The bill was
practically a Republican measure and its opponents in that party hit
upon the scheme of getting up a Third Party scare. They were led by
ex-Gov. George T. Anthony who declared he would spend his last cent to
defeat the bill. It was denounced by press and politicians as a sly
Prohibition trick, some of its best friends were thus silenced and it
was quietly smothered. The bill was introduced in the Senate by L. B.
Kellogg and favorably reported from the Judiciary Committee with an
opposing minority report. It was ably championed by himself, Senators
H. B. Kelly and R. W. Blue, but was eventually stricken from the
calendar by the Committee on Revision and a motion to reinstate was
lost by 12 yeas, 25 nays, on February 16.
When the Legislature convened in 1887 the election was over and had
resulted favorably for the Republicans. The suffragists had spent the
intervening ten months in a campaign of their own. Miss Anthony had
come to Kansas and they had held conventions in all the principal
cities. At her request the W. C. T. U. had given up their plan of
asking for an amendment to the constitution and joined the attempt to
secure Municipal Suffrage under the leadership of their president,
Mrs. Fannie H. Rastall. Mrs. Zerelda G. Wallace, their national
superintendent of franchise, gave a series of her eloquent lectures.
The strongest suffrage speakers in the country came to the State,
under the management of Mrs. Laura M. Johns, and petitions were
secured containing 10,000 names, more than ever had been presented for
any purpose. This agitation was continued up to the opening of the
Legislature, Jan. 11, 1887, when Mrs. Johns was on hand with the bill.
It was introduced in the Senate by Judge R. W. Blue and referred to
the Judiciary Committee, of which he was chairman. A favorable report,
with a minority dissent, was made, but the original bill had been
substituted by one which provided merely that "women should vote for
all city officers." A vigorous protest was made by the suffrage
leaders. They insisted that the right to vote for city bonds should be
included, and that the inequalities should be remedied in the present
law which prevented women of first and second class cities from voting
on school questions as did those of the third class and the country
districts. A compromise was finally effected and a bill drafted by
which women should vote for all city and school officers and on bonds
for school appropriations.
A petition against the bill was sent in signed by nineteen women of
Independence, saying in effect that women had all the rights they
needed. On the morning when it was to be discussed an enormous bouquet
adorned the desk of Senator R. M. Pickler, leader of the opponents,
the card inscribed, "From the women of Kansas who do not wish to vote.
History honors the man who dares to do what is right." Later
investigation disclosed the fact that no woman had any part in sending
the flowers, but that, as one member remarked in open session, their
chief perfume was that of alcohol.
After hours of debate and an adjournment the bill finally was adopted
on January 28, by 25 yeas, all Republicans; 13 nays, 10 Republicans, 3
Democrats. Judge Blue's table was loaded with flowers and every
Senator who voted in favor was decorated with a choice buttonhole
bouquet sent by the ladies.
The bill was already far advanced in the House, under the management
of Gen. T. T. Taylor. On February 10 the discussion continued the
entire day. Scripture was read and Biblical authorities cited from Eve
to St. Paul; the pure female angels were dragged through the filthy
cesspool of politics, and the changes were rung on the usual hackneyed
objections. The measure was splendidly championed, however, by many
members, especially by T. A. McNeal (Rep.) who made a telling response
to the scurrilous speech of Edward Carrol (Dem.), leader of the
opposition. No member of the House rendered more effective service
than did A. W. Smith, Speaker. It passed by 91 yeas--88 Rep., 3 Dem.;
22 nays, 5 Rep., 17 Dem. The total vote of both Houses was 116
yeas--113 Rep., 3 Dem.; 35 nays, 15 Rep., 20 Dem. The bill was signed
by Gov. John A. Martin (Rep.), February 15, 1887.[273]
Notwithstanding all the efficient work done by the officers of the
State association, the local clubs and the platform speakers, this
measure would not have become a law but for the vigilant work of the
women with the Legislature itself. Mrs. Johns was on hand from the
first, tactfully urging the bill. She had very material aid in the
constant presence, active pen and careful work of J. B. Johns, her
husband. Mrs. Helen M. Gougar of Indiana was granted the privilege of
addressing the House while in session. Prominent women from all parts
of the State were in attendance, using their influence with the
members from their districts. On the day of final debate in the House
the floor and galleries were crowded, over 300 women being present. A
jubilee impossible to describe followed the announcement that the bill
had passed.[274] The next day the House was transformed by the women
into a bower of blossoms.
In March, the next month after Municipal Suffrage was granted to
women, the "age of protection" for girls was raised from ten to
eighteen years.
Two years later, in 1889, a bill was presented to amend this law,
which passed the Senate by 26 yeas, 9 nays, and was sent to the House.
It was so smothered in words that the general public was not aware of
its meaning. By the time it reached the House, however, the alarm had
been sounded that it proposed to reduce the age of consent, and there
was a storm of protest. This was not alone from women but also from a
number of men. The Labor Unions were especially active in opposition
and the House was inundated with letters and petitions. The bill was
referred to the Judiciary Committee which reported it with the
recommendation that it be not passed. Its author claimed that it was
intended simply to afford some protection for boys.[275] In 1891
Attorney-General L. B. Kellogg recommended that, in order to protect
young men of immature years from women of immoral life, inquiry as to
the character of the woman bringing the charge should be permitted.
Gov. Lyman U. Humphrey urged that such an amendment should be adopted,
which could be done without lowering the age of protection for girls.
No change, however, has been made in the law.
In 1889 the divorce law was so amended as to give the wife all the
property owned by her at the time of marriage and all acquired by her
afterward, alimony being allowed from the real and personal estate of
the husband.
This year a bill was passed creating the Girls' Industrial School.
Mrs. S. A. Thurston was one of the prime factors in securing this
bill.
As the Legislature was overwhelmingly Republican the greatest effort
was put forth to secure a law making it mandatory to place women on
the State Boards of Charitable Institutions. Thirty-six large
petitions were introduced by as many members in each House but all
failed of effect.
In 1891 the Populist party gained control of the House of
Representatives, although the Senate was still Republican. Mrs. Annie
L. Diggs had been appointed by the Farmers' Alliance on their State
legislative committee and she began a vigorous campaign to secure Full
Suffrage for Women by Statutory Enactment, which it was believed
could be done under the terms of the constitution. The bill was
introduced into the House and urged by J. L. Soupene. Mrs. Diggs had
the assistance of Col. Sam Wood and other ardent friends of suffrage.
The Committee on Political Rights of Women reported the bill
favorably, and said through its chairman, D. M. Watson:
While the constitution declares in the first section of its
suffrage article that "every white male person, etc., shall be
deemed a qualified elector," in the second section it names
certain persons who shall be excluded from voting. Women are not
given the right to vote in the first nor are they excluded in the
second, and this indicates that the question of their right to
vote was intended to be left to the Legislature. The Supreme
Court (Wheeler vs. Brady, 15th Kas., p. 33,) says: "There is
nothing in the nature of government which would prevent it. Women
are members of society, members of the great body politic,
citizens as much as men, with the same natural rights, united
with men in the same common destiny, and are capable of receiving
and exercising whatever political rights may be conferred upon
them."
On February 14 the bill received 60 yeas, 39 nays, not a
constitutional majority. The sentiment in favor was so strong among
the Populists that a reconsideration was finally secured and the bill
passed by 69 yeas--64 Pop., 4 Rep., 1 Dem.; 32 nays--16 Pop., 12 Rep.,
4 Dem. Previous to its passage the Speaker, P. P. Elder (Pop.)
presented a protest signed by himself, 7 Populists, 4 Republicans and
4 Democrats, declaring it to be unconstitutional and giving eight
other objections.[276]
The friends were much elated at its passage over this protest and sent
at once for Mrs. Johns to come to Topeka and work for its success in
the Senate. She made every possible effort but in vain, the
Republicans basing their refusal on its unconstitutionality. There was
every reason to believe the Supreme Court would have upheld the
statute.
In 1893 an amendment to the constitution was submitted to the electors
by votes of both Republican and Populist members of the Legislature
and was defeated in 1894, as has been related.
In 1897 two bills were introduced, one providing for a Bond Suffrage
which is not included in the Municipal; the other to enable women to
vote for Presidential electors. They were not reported from committee.
In 1899 a bill providing that there should be women physicians in
penal institutions containing women and at least one woman on the
State Board of Charities was favorably reported by, the House
committee, but did not reach a vote.
This year an act was secured creating the Traveling Libraries
Commission. The work for this was initiated and principally carried
forward by Mrs. Lucy B. Johnston, who enlisted the women of the Social
Science Federation in 1897. The federated club women had conducted the
enterprise three years and now turned over to the State forty
libraries of about 5,000 volumes. In 1901 the appropriation was raised
from $2,000 to $8,000.
On Jan. 14, 1901, a bill prepared by Auditor Carlisle of Wyandotte
county was introduced by its Representative J. A. Butler (Dem.) of
Kansas City, to repeal the law giving Municipal Suffrage to women. It
was received with jeers and shouts of laughter and referred to the
Judiciary Committee, which, on the 17th, reported it with the
recommendation that it be not passed. On January 18 he re-introduced
the same measure under another title. This time protests were sent in
from all parts of the State. Mrs. Diggs went to Mr. Butler's home and
secured a large number of these from his own constituents. A hearing
was given by the Judiciary Committee to a delegation of prominent
women and the bill was never reported.
As there seemed so much favorable sentiment it was hastily decided to
ask this Legislature to give women the right to vote for Presidential
electors, which would unquestionably be legal. Mrs. Johns and Miss
Helen Kimber looked after its interests with the Republican members;
Mrs. Diggs with the Populists. The evening of February 26, when the
vote was to be taken in the Senate, floor and galleries were crowded
with women of position and influence. Senator Fred Dumont Smith (Rep.)
had charge of the bill, and Senator G. A. Noftzger (Rep.) led the
opposition. The vote resulted in 22 yeas--16 Rep., 4 Pop., 2 Dem.; 13
nays--12 Rep., 1 Pop. The friends had every reason to believe the
House would pass the bill, but in the still small hours of the night
following the action of the Senate, its Republican members in caucus
decided that this might injure the party at the approaching State
election, and the next morning it was reconsidered and defeated by 14
yeas--9 Rep., 4 Pop., 1 Dem.; 23 nays--21 Rep., 1 Pop., 1 Dem.
LAWS: The constitution of Kansas, adopted in 1859, contained more
liberal provisions for women than had existed in any State up to that
time. It made the law of inheritance the same for widow and widower;
gave father and mother equal guardianship of children; and directed
the Legislature to protect married women in the possession of separate
property. This was not done, however, until 1868, the next year after
the first campaign to secure an amendment conferring suffrage upon
women. At this time a statute provided that all property, real and
personal, owned by a woman at marriage, and all acquired thereafter by
descent or by the gift of any person except her husband, shall remain
her sole and separate property, not subject to the disposal of her
husband or liable for his debts.
A married woman may make contracts, sue and be sued as if unmarried;
engage in any business or perform any services and her earnings shall
be her sole and separate property to be used or invested by her. The
wife can convey or mortgage her separate personal property without the
husband's signature. He can do the same without her signature except
such as is exempt so long as a man is married. Neither can convey or
encumber real estate without consent of the other.
If there are no children the surviving husband or wife takes all the
property real and personal; if there are children, one-half. Neither
can dispose by will of more than one-half of the separate property
without the consent of the other. A homestead of 160 acres of land, or
one acre within city limits, is reserved free from creditors for the
survivor. If the wife marry again, or when the children have attained
their majority, the homestead must be divided, she taking one-half. If
she die first the husband has the right of occupancy for life, whether
he marry or not, but the homestead must descend to her heirs.
The husband must support the wife according to his means, or she may
have alimony decreed by the court without divorce, or in some cases
she may sue directly for support. In case of divorce the wife is
entitled to all the property owned by her at marriage and all acquired
by her afterwards, alimony being allowed from the real and personal
estate of the husband.
The "age of protection" for girls is 18, with penalty of imprisonment
at hard labor not less than five nor more than twenty-one years.
SUFFRAGE: (See page 659.)
OFFICE HOLDING: The first State constitution, in 1859, declared women
eligible for all School offices. As it does not require that any State
officer except member of the Legislature shall be an elector, women
are not legally debarred from any other State office. The constitution
does prescribe the qualifications for some county officers, and the
Legislature for others and for all township officers. Some of these
are required to be electors and some are not; some can be voted for
only by electors and the law is silent in regard to others. It would
perhaps require a Supreme Court decision in almost every case if there
were any general disposition to elect women to these offices. Twenty
years ago a few were serving as county clerks, registers of deeds,
regents of the State University, county superintendents and school
trustees.
In 1889 Attorney-General L. B. Kellogg (Rep.) appointed his wife
Assistant Attorney-General. She was a practicing attorney and her
husband's law partner and filled the office with great ability. Miss
Ella Cameron served out her father's unexpired term as Probate Judge
and the Legislature legalized her acts.
There is no law requiring women on the boards of State institutions
but a number have been appointed. Gov. L. D. Lewelling (Pop.) in 1893
appointed Mrs. Mary E. Lease member of the State Board of Charities
and Mrs. Eva Blackman on the Board of Police Commissioners of
Leavenworth. These were the first and last appointments of women to
these positions.
In 1894 women physicians were appointed by him in two insane asylums,
the Orphans' Home and the Girls' Industrial School.
In 1897 Gov. John W. Leedy (Pop.) appointed Mrs. John P. St. John
member Board of Regents of State Agricultural College and Dr. Eva
Harding physician at Boys' Reform School.
In 1898 Mrs. Annie L. Diggs was appointed State Librarian by the
Supreme Court, Judges Frank Doster, Stephen Allen, Populists; William
A. Johnston, Republican. The term is four years. There are two women
assistants in the State library.
Miss Zu Adams is first assistant in the State Historical Library.
Three other women are employed as assistants in that office.
Each of the three State Hospitals for the Insane has a woman
physician, but this is not required. The law provides that the Girls'
Industrial School shall have a woman physician and superintendent. Its
officers always have been women, except the farmer and engineer. In
1894 a woman was appointed as farmer and was said to be the best the
institution ever had.
Mrs. Lucy B. Johnston and Mrs. Mary V. Humphreys are members of the
State Traveling Library Commission, Mrs. Diggs, as State Librarian,
being president.
Since the very first time that women voted they have been clerks of
elections, and in some instances, judges.
Several small towns have put the entire local government into the
hands of women. From 1887 to 1894 there had been about fifty women
aldermen, five police judges, one city attorney, several city clerks
and treasurers, and numerous clerks and treasurers of school boards.
In 1896 a report from about half the counties showed twenty women
county superintendents of schools, and 554 serving on school boards.
They are frequently made president or secretary of the board.
Women have been candidates for State Superintendent of Public
Instruction, but none has been elected.
A number of women within the past few years have been elected county
treasurers, recorders, registers and clerks. They serve as notaries
public. Probably one-third of the county offices have women deputies.
The record for 1900, as far as it could be obtained, showed the women
in office to be one clerk of the district court, two county clerks,
seven registrars of deeds and twenty-seven county superintendents of
schools. This list is far from complete.
About twenty-five women have been elected to the office of mayor in
the smaller towns of Kansas. In several instances the entire board of
aldermen have been women. The business record of these women has been
invariably good and their industrious efforts to improve sanitation,
schools, sidewalks, and to advance the other interests of their town,
have been generously seconded and aided by the men of their community.
Among the most prominent of the women mayors were Mrs. Mary D. Lowman
of Oskaloosa, Mrs. Minnie D. Morgan of Cottonwood Falls, and Mrs.
Antoinette Haskell of Gaylord. Mrs. Lowman, the second woman to be
elected, conducted a great work in improving the conditions of the
municipality, morally and physically. She held her office two terms
with entire boards of women aldermen, and refused to serve a third
term, saying that she and her boards had accomplished the work they
set out to do. They retired with much honor and esteem, having made a
creditable amount of street improvements and left the treasury with
more money than they found in it. Mrs. Morgan is editor with her
husband of a Republican newspaper, an officer in the Woman's State
Press Association and holds high official position in the Woman's
Relief Corps. Mrs. Haskell is the wife of a prominent lawyer and
politician. She held the office of mayor for two terms and the last
time her entire board of aldermen were women. Her administration of
municipal affairs was so satisfactory that she was besought to accept
a third term but declined.
OCCUPATIONS: The constitution of the State, framed in 1859, opened
every occupation to women.
EDUCATION: This first constitution also required the admission of
women to all the State educational institutions and gave them a place
on the faculties. As early as 1882 one-half of the faculty of the
State University was composed of women. This university, the State
Agricultural College and the State Normal College average an equal
number of men and women graduates. Women hold places on the faculties
of all these institutions.
In the public schools there are 5,380 men and 7,133 women teachers.
The average monthly salary of the men is $39; of the women, $32.
SUFFRAGE: The constitution for Statehood, framed in 1859, provided
that all women over 21 should vote at all School District meetings the
same as men, the first one to contain such a provision. This excluded
all women in first and second class cities in after years, as their
school affairs are not managed through district meetings. When a test
case was made it was decided by the Supreme Court that no women could
legally vote for State or county superintendents, but only for
trustees. (5th Kansas, p. 227.) Both the constitution and the statutes
are confused as to the qualifications of those who may vote for
various county and township officers but women never have been
permitted to do so.
In 1887 the Legislature granted Municipal Suffrage to women. The law
is as follows:
In any election hereafter held in any city of the first, second
or third class, for the election of city or school officers, or
for the purpose of authorizing the issuance of any bonds for
school purposes, the right of any citizen to vote shall not be
denied or abridged on account of sex; and women may vote at such
elections the same as men, under like restrictions and
qualifications; and any women possessing the qualifications of a
voter under this act shall also be eligible to any such city or
school office.
This law includes women in all of the villages, as these are known as
"third class cities." Women in country districts, however, continue to
have only a limited School Suffrage. It does not give women a vote on
any questions of taxation which are submitted to the electors except
for school purposes.
Nevertheless this was an advanced step which attracted the attention
of the entire country. While in Wyoming women had Full Suffrage, it
was a sparsely settled Territory, with few newspapers and far removed
from centers of political activity. Kansas was a battle-ground for
politics, and great interest was felt in the new forces which had been
called into action. From the first women very extensively took
advantage of their new privilege. It was granted February 15 and the
next municipal election took place April 5, so there were only a few
weeks in which to accustom them to the new idea, make them acquainted
with the issues, settle the disputed points and give them a chance to
register. The question was at once raised whether they could vote for
justices of the peace and constables, and at a late hour
Attorney-General S. B. Bradford gave his opinion that they could not
do so, as these are township officers. This made separate ballot-boxes
necessary and in many places these were not provided, so there was
considerable misunderstanding and confusion. On election day a wind
storm of unusual violence, even for that section of the country, raged
all day. Through the influence of the Liquor Dealers' Association,
which had used every possible effort to defeat the suffrage bill,
reporters were sent by a number of large papers in different cities,
especially St. Louis, with orders to ridicule the voting of the women
and minimize its effects. As a result the Eastern press was soon
flooded with sensational and false reports.
An official and carefully prepared report of 112 pages was issued by
Judge Francis G. Adams, secretary of the Kansas State Historical
Association, and Prof. William H. Carruth of the State University,
giving the official returns from 253 cities. The total vote was
105,216; vote of men, 76,629; of women, 28,587. In a few of the very
small cities there were no women's votes. In many of the second-class
cities more than one-half as many women as men voted. In Leavenworth,
3,967 ballots were cast by men, and 2,467 by women; in Lawrence, 1,437
by men, 1,050 by women. In Kansas City, Topeka and Fort Scott about
one-fourth as many women as men voted. In these estimates it must be
taken into consideration that there were many more men than women in
the State. In 1890, three years later, the census report showed the
excess of males to be about 100,000.
The pamphlet referred to contained 100 pages of extracts from the
press of Kansas on the voting of women, and stated that these
represented but a fraction of the comment. They varied as much as the
individual opinions of men, some welcoming the new voters, some
ridiculing and abusing, others referring to the movement as a foolish
fad which would soon be dropped. The Republican and Prohibitionist
papers almost universally paid the highest tribute to the influence of
women on the election and assured them of every possible support in
the future. The Democratic papers, with but few exceptions, scoffed at
them and condemned woman suffrage. The immense majority of opinion was
in favor of the new regime and was an unimpeachable answer to the
objections and misrepresentations which found place in the press of
all other parts of the country.
The interest of Kansas women in their political rights never has
abated. The proportion of their vote varies in about the same ratio as
that of men. Upon occasions when the character of candidates or the
importance of the issue commands especial attention a great many go to
the polls. Their chief interest, however, centers in questions which
bear directly upon the education and welfare of their children, the
environment of their homes and those of kindred nature. When issues
involving these are presented they vote in large numbers.
There is always a larger municipal vote in the uneven years when
mayors are to be elected, and therefore a comparison is made in five
prominent cities between the vote of 1887 and that of 1901 to show
that in the fourteen years the interest of women in the suffrage has
increased instead of diminished.
_Town._ _Year._ _Man-Vote._ _Woman-Vote._
Kansas City 1887 3,956 1,042
Kansas City 1901 8,900 4,582
Topeka 1887 4,580 1,049
Topeka 1901 7,338 5,335
Fort Scott 1887 1,273 425
Fort Scott 1901 1,969 1,270
Leavenworth 1887 3,967 2,467
Leavenworth 1901 5,590 3,018
Wichita 1887 3,312 2,984
Wichita 1901 ..... .....
It was impossible to obtain the vote of Wichita in 1901 but the
registration was 6,546 men, 4,040 women, and out of these 10,586,
there were 8,960 who voted. One of the most prominent lawyers in
Wichita writes of this election: "The women fully maintained the ratio
of the registration. The vote was small on account of inclement
weather but I am sure that it kept away more men than women."
At one election it is recorded the vote of women exceeded that of men
in one second-class and three third-class cities. In one instance all
but two of the women of Cimarron cast their ballots. In Lincoln for
several years women have polled 46 per cent. of the entire vote. The
percentage of males in the State by the census of 1900 was 52.3.
The question frequently is asked why, with the ballot in their hands,
women do not compel the enforcement of the prohibitory law, as it is
generally supposed that Municipal Suffrage carries with it the right
to vote for all city officials. The same year that women were
enfranchised, the Legislature, for whom women do not vote, passed a
law authorizing the Governor, for whom women do not vote, to appoint a
Board of Police Commissioners for each city of the first class, with
power to appoint the police judge, city marshal and police, and have
absolute control of the organization, government and discipline of the
police force and of all station-houses, city prisons, etc. Temperance
men and women strongly urged this measure as they believed the
Governor would have stamina enough to select commissioners who would
enforce the prohibitory law. This board was abolished at the special
session of the Legislature in 1897, as it was made a scapegoat for
city and county officers who were too cowardly or too unfriendly to
enforce the liquor ordinances, and it did not effect the hoped-for
reforms.
In 1898 City Courts were established. By uniting the townships with
cities and giving these courts jurisdiction over State and county
cases, to relieve the congested condition of State courts, women are
deprived of a vote for their officers. The exercise of the Municipal
Franchise at present is as follows:
MEN VOTE FOR WOMEN VOTE FOR
Mayor, Mayor,
Councilmen, Councilmen,
School Board, School Board,
City Attorney, City Attorney,
City Treasurer, City Treasurer,
City Clerk, City Clerk.
Judge of City Court,
Clerk of City Court, APPOINTED BY MAYOR
Marshal of City Court, Police Judge,
Two Justices of the Peace, City Marshal,
Two Constables. Chief of Police.
In cities of less than 30,000 the Police Judge is elected and women
may vote for this officer. In the smallest places the City Marshal is
also Chief of Police.
It will be seen that even for the Police Court in the largest cities
women have only an indirect vote through the Mayor's appointments. In
all the cities and towns liquor sellers when convicted here simply
take an appeal to a higher court over which women have no
jurisdiction. They have no vote for sheriff, county attorney or any
county officer. These facts may in a measure answer the question why
women are helpless to enforce the prohibitory law or any other to
which they are opposed.
Nevertheless even this small amount of suffrage has been of much
benefit to the women and to the cities. As the years go by the general
average of the woman-vote is larger. Municipal voting has developed a
stronger sense of civic responsibility among women; it has completely
demolished the old stock objections and has familiarized men with the
presence of women at the polls. Without question a higher level in the
conduct of city affairs has resulted. It may, however, well be
questioned as to whether Municipal Suffrage has not militated against
the full enfranchisement of women. Politicians have been annoyed by
interference with their schemes. Men have learned that women command
influence in politics, and the party machine has become hostile to
further extension of woman's opportunity and power to demand cleaner
morals and nobler standards.[277]
Judge S. S. King, Commissioner of Elections at Kansas City, has given
the suffrage question much thought, and he has gleaned from the
figures of his official records some interesting facts. Alluding to
the mooted question of what class of women vote he says:
The opponents of woman suffrage insist that the lower classes
freely exercise the franchise, while the higher classes generally
refrain from voting. As women in registering usually give their
vocation as "housekeeper" it is impossible to learn from that
record what particular ledge of the social strata they stand
upon, therefore, in order to locate them as to trades, business,
etc., I give them the positions occupied by their husbands and
fathers. I take the 17th voting precinct of Kansas City as a
typical one. It is about an average in voting population of white
and colored men and women and in the diversified industries. The
149 white women who registered in this precinct, as indicated by
the vocations of their husbands, fathers, etc., would be
classified thus:
The trades (all classes of skilled labor), 32; the professions,
26; merchants (all manner of dealers), 16; laborers (unskilled),
15; clerks, 10; public officers, 8; bankers and brokers, 7;
railroad employes, 7; salesmen, 5; contractors, 2; foremen, 2;
paymaster, 1; unclassified, 16. Thus, if the opponents of woman
suffrage use the term "lower classes" according to some
ill-defined rule of elite society, the example given above would
be a complete refutation. If by "lower classes" they mean the
immoral and dissolute, the refutation appears to be still more
complete, for the woman electorate in the 17th precinct is
particularly free from those elements.
It is extremely rare to find a prominent man in Kansas, except certain
politicians, who openly opposes woman suffrage. With a very few
exceptions the most eminent cordially advocate it, including a large
number of ministers, lawyers and editors. It would require a chapter
simply to catalogue the names of well-known men and women who are
heartily in favor of it. Had Kansas men voted their convictions,
Kansas women would long since have been enfranchised, but political
partisanship has been stronger than the sense of justice.
FOOTNOTES:
[263] The History is indebted for this chapter principally to Mrs.
Annie L. Diggs of Topeka, State Librarian and former president of the
State Woman Suffrage Association. The editors are also under
obligations to Mrs. Laura M. Johns of Salina and Mrs. Anna C. Wait of
Lincoln, former presidents.
[264] See History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. I, p. 191.
[265] See History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. III, Chap. L.
[266] At this meeting, on motion of Mrs. Johns, the yellow ribbon was
adopted as the suffrage badge, in honor of the sunflower, the State
flower of Kansas, the one which follows the wheel track and the
plough, as woman's enfranchisement should follow civilization. It was
afterwards adopted by the National Association in recognition of
Kansas, then the most progressive State in regard to women. Those of a
classical bent accepted it because yellow among the ancients signified
wisdom.
[267] Secretary, May Belleville Brown; treasurer, Elizabeth F.
Hopkins; Mrs. S. A. Thurston, Mrs. L. B. Smith, Alma B. Stryker, Eliza
McLallin, Bina A. Otis, Helen L. Kimber, Sallie F. Toler, Annie L.
Diggs; from the National Association, Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of
the organization committee, Rachel Foster Avery and Alice Stone
Blackwell, corresponding and recording secretaries.
[268] Now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Kansas.
[269] Of Mrs. Diggs' speech Mrs. Johns writes: "It was one of the most
masterly arguments I ever heard. At one point she said: 'The great
majority of you declare that woman suffrage is right, (a roar of
'yes,' 'yes,' went up), and yet you oppose this plank. Are you afraid
to do right?' Her reply to the flimsy objections of the chairman, P.
P. Elder, was simply unanswerable. She cut the ground from under his
feet, and his confusion and rout were so complete that he stood
utterly confounded. That small woman with her truth and eloquence had
slain the Goliath of the opposition!"
[270] The following speakers and organizers were placed at fairs,
Chautauqua assemblies, picnics, teachers' institutes and in
distinctive suffrage meetings: James Clement Ambrose (Ills.), Theresa
Jenkins (Wyo.), Elizabeth Upham Yates (Me.), Clara C. Hoffman (Mo.);
Mrs. Johns, J. B. Johns, the Revs. Eugenia and C. H. St. John, Mary G.
Haines, Luella R. Kraybill, Helen L. Kimber, Laura A. Gregg, Lizzie E.
Smith, Ella W. Brown, Naomi Anderson, Eva Corning, Ella Bartlett, Alma
B. Stryker, Olive I. Royce, Caroline L. Denton, Mrs. Diggs, May
Belleville Brown, J. Willis Gleed, Thomas L. Bond, the Rev. Granville
Lowther, Prof. W. H. Carruth and Mayor Harrison of Topeka.
During the autumn Mrs. Emma Smith DeVoe (Ills.), and Mrs. Julia B.
Nelson (Minn.), made addresses for one month; Mrs. Rachel L. Child
(Ia.) spoke and organized for two months.
[271] Returns were received from 71 out of the 105 counties, covering
714 of the 2,100 voting precincts. These returns were carefully
tabulated by Mrs. Thurston, acting secretary of the amendment campaign
committee. The result showed that of Republicans _voting on the
proposition_, 38-1/2 per cent. voted _for_; of Populists, 54 per
cent.; of Democrats, 14 per cent.; of Prohibitionists, 88 per cent.
Of the entire vote of the Republican party for its ticket, 22 per
cent. were silent on the amendment; of the entire vote of the People's
party, 22 per cent.; of the Democratic, 28 per cent.; of the
Prohibition, 24 per cent.
[272] Others who have held official position are vice-presidents,
Mesdames J.K. Hudson, Sallie F. Toler, Noble L. Prentis, Abbie A.
Welch, Fannie Bobbet and Emma Troudner; corresponding secretaries,
Mrs. Priscilla Finley, Miss Sarah A. Brown, Dr. Nannie Stephens, Mrs.
Elizabeth F. Hopkins, Mrs. Ray Mclntyre, Mrs. B.B. Baird, Mrs. Alice
G. Young; recording secretaries, Dr. Addie Kester, Mrs. Alice G. Bond,
Prof. William H. Carruth, Mrs. M.M. Bowman, Mrs. Emma S. Albright,
Miss Matie Toothaker; treasurers, Mrs. Martia L. Berry, Dr. C.E.
Tiffany, Mrs. Lucia O. Case, Mrs. Henrietta Stoddard Turner; auditors,
Mrs. Emma S. Marshall, Mrs. S.A. Thurston; parliamentarians, Mesdames
Ella W. Brown, Bina A. Otis, Luella R. Kraybill, Antoinette L.
Haskell; librarians, Mrs. May Belleville Brown, Dr. Emily Newcomb;
State organizer, Miss Jennie Newby; superintendent press work, Mrs.
Nannie K. Garrett.
A number of these filled various offices and some of them bore the
brunt of the work continuously for years. Other names which appear
frequently are J. K. Hudson, editor Topeka _Capital_, Dr. Sarah C.
Hall, Mesdames M. E. De Geer, M. S. Woods, E. D. Garlick, E. A. Elder,
L. B. Kellogg, Jennie Robb Maher, Miss Emma Harriman, the Rev. W. A.
Simkins, Judge Nathan Cree, Walter S. Wait, Sarah W. Rush, Dr. J. E.
Spaulding, Dr. F. M. W. Jackson, Henrietta B. Wall, Mrs. Lucy B.
Johnston, Miss Genevieve L. Hawley.
[273] Miss Susan B. Anthony was in the National Convention at
Washington and this news was telegraphed her as a birthday greeting.
[274] Among the most influential workers for this bill during the
three sessions of the Legislature, in addition to those mentioned,
were Thomas L. Bond; Mesdames Bertha H. Ellsworth, Hetta P. Mansfield,
Martia L. Berry, S. A. Thurston and Henrietta B. Wall; Misses Jennie
Newby, Olive P. Bray and Amanda Way.
[275] Mrs. Johns says of this occasion: "If we had ever had any doubt
that even our small moiety of the suffrage would strengthen our
influence for righteousness, the effect of our protest at this time
and the attitude of the politicians toward us would have dispelled
that doubt. We felt our power and it was a new thrill which we
experienced."
[276] Among these were the following:
The relations of man and wife "are one and inseparable" as to the good
to be derived from or the evil to be suffered by laws imposed, and the
addition of woman suffrage will not better their condition, but is
fraught with danger and evil to both sexes and the well-being of
society.
This privilege conferred will bring to every primary, caucus and
election--to our jury rooms, the bench and the Legislature--the
ambitious and designing women only, to engage in all the tricks,
intrigues and cunning incident to corrupt political campaigns, only to
lower the moral standing of their sex; it invites and creates
jealousies and scandals and jeopardizes their high moral standing;
hurls women out from their central orb fixed by their Creator to an
external place in the order of things. Promiscuous mingling with the
rude and unscrupulous element around earnest and exciting elections
tends to a familiarity that breeds contempt for the fair sex deeply to
be deplored.
The demand for female suffrage is largely confined to the ambitious
office-seeking class, possessing an insatiable desire for the forum,
and when allowed will unfit this class for all the duties of domestic
life and transform them into politicians, and dangerous ones at that.
When the laws of nature shall so change the female organization as to
make it possible for them to sing "bass" we shall then be quite
willing for such a bill to become a law.
It is a grave mistake, an injury to both sexes and the party, to add
another "ism" to our political creed.
Republican--A. H. Heber, W. R. Hopkins, F. W. Willard, J. Showalter.
Democrat--J. O. Milner, G. M. Hoover, T. C. Craig, F. M. Gable.
Populist--Robt. B. Leedy, J. L. Andrews, Wellington Doty, B. F. Morris,
Levi Dumbauld, C. W. Dickson, Geo. E. Smith of Neosho.
[277] In 1901, in Topeka, a candidate for the mayoralty, supposed to
represent the liquor element, speaking on the afternoon of election
day--bleak, dismal and shoe-top deep in snow and mud--said: "I will
lose 1,000 votes on account of the weather as the women are out and
they are opposed to me. It is impossible to keep them from voting."
CHAPTER XLI.
KENTUCKY.[278]
In October, 1886, the Association for the Advancement of Women held
its annual congress in Louisville, and for the first time woman
suffrage was admitted to a place on the program. It was advocated by
Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney of Massachusetts and Miss Laura Clay.
The subject was much discussed for the next two years and in February,
1888, Mrs. Mary B. Clay, vice-president of the American and of the
National Woman Suffrage Associations, called a convention in
Frankfort. Delegates from Lexington and Richmond attended, and Mrs.
Zerelda G. Wallace of Indiana was present by invitation. The Hall of
Representatives was granted for two evenings, the General Assembly
being in session. On the first Mrs. Wallace delivered an able address
and the hall was well filled, principally with members of the
Legislature. On the second Mrs. Clay spoke upon the harsh laws in
regard to women, and Prof. E. B. Walker on the injustice of the
property laws and the advantage of giving women the ballot in
municipal affairs. He was followed by Mrs. Sarah Clay Bennett, who
argued that women already had a right to the ballot under the
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. At the
conclusion of her address she asked all legislators present who were
willing to give the ballot to women to stand. Seven arose and were
greeted with loud applause.
When the annual meeting of the American W. S. A. convened in
Cincinnati, Ohio, Nov. 20-22, 1888, Miss Laura Clay, member of its
executive committee from Kentucky, issued a call to the suffragists of
that State to attend this convention for the purpose of organizing a
State association. Accordingly delegates from the Fayette and Kenton
county societies met and organized the Kentucky Equal Rights
Association. The following officers were elected: President, Miss
Clay; vice-presidents, Mrs. Ellen Battelle Dietrick, Mrs. Mary B.
Clay; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Eugenia B. Farmer; recording
secretary, Miss Anna M. Deane; treasurer, Mrs. Isabella H. Shepard.
The second annual convention was held in the court house at Lexington,
Nov. 19-21, 1889, with officers and delegates representing seven
counties. The evening speakers were Mrs. Clay, Mrs. Josephine K. Henry
and Joseph B. Cottrell, D. D. A committee was appointed, Mrs. Henry,
chairman, to present the interests of women to the approaching General
Assembly and the Constitutional Convention. (See Legislative Action
for 1890.)
The next annual meeting took place in Richmond, Dec. 3, 4, 1890. Mrs.
Sarah Hardin Sawyer was asked to prepare a tract on co-education,
which proved of great assistance in opening the colleges to women. The
evening speakers were Mrs. Shepard, Mrs. Henry and the Rev. John G.
Fee, the venerable Kentucky Abolitionist.
The fourth convention was held in Louisville, Dec. 8-10, 1891, and was
addressed by the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw and the Rev. Dr. C. K. J.
Jones.
The fifth annual meeting convened in Richmond, Nov. 9, 10, 1892.[279]
Mrs. Lida Calvert Obenchain's paper, "Why a Democratic Woman Wants the
Ballot," was afterwards widely circulated as a leaflet. The evening
speakers were Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby of Washington, D. C., and Dr. J.
Franklin Browne.
The General Assembly of 1892 was in session most of that year and some
months in 1893, as there was a vast amount of business to be done in
bringing all departments of legislation into harmony with the new
constitution. During all this time the State association was busy
urging the rights of women; and at its sixth convention, held in
Newport, Oct. 17-19, 1893, was able to report that a law had been
secured granting a married woman the power to make a will and control
her separate property. Among the speakers was the Rev. G. W.
Bradford.
The annual meeting took place in Lexington, Oct. 24-26, 1894. The most
encouraging successes of any year were reported in the extension of
School Suffrage and the passage of the Married Woman's Property Rights
Bill. In answer to the petition of the Fayette County society to Mayor
Henry T. Duncan and the city council of Lexington to place a woman on
the school board, Mrs. Wilbur R. Smith had been appointed. She was the
first to hold such a position in Kentucky. Mrs. Farmer gave an address
on School Suffrage, with illustrations of registration and voting,
which women were to have an opportunity to apply in 1895.[280]
In 1895 Richmond was again selected as the place for the State
convention, December 10-12, at which legislative work in the General
Assembly of 1896 was carefully planned. (See Legislative Action.)
The convention met in Lexington, Dec. 18, 1896. A committee was
appointed to work for complete School Suffrage in the extra session of
the General Assembly the next year.[281]
Covington entertained the annual meeting Oct. 14, 15, 1897. Mrs. Emma
Smith DeVoe of Illinois, a national organizer, was present, being then
engaged in a tour through the State. This convention was unusually
large and full of encouragement.
The eleventh convention was held in Richmond, Dec. 1, 1898, and the
twelfth in Lexington, Dec. 11, 12, 1899. Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt,
chairman of the national organization committee, and Miss Mary G. Hay,
secretary, assisted, the former giving addresses both evenings. It was
decided to ask the General Assembly to make an appropriation for the
establishment of a dormitory for the women students of the State
College.
Miss Laura Clay has been president of the State Association since it
was organized in 1888. Mrs. Ellen Battelle Dietrick was the first
vice-president, but removing to Massachusetts the following year, Mrs.
Mary Barr Clay, the second vice-president, was elected and has
continued in that office. There have been but two other second
vice-presidents, the Hon. William Randall Ramsey and Mrs. Mary C.
Cramer, and but two corresponding secretaries, Mrs. Eugenia B. Farmer
and Mrs. Mary C. Roark. The office of treasurer has been filled
continuously by Mrs. Isabella H. Shepard.[282] During all these years
H. H. Gratz, editor of the Lexington _Gazette_, and John W. Sawyer,
editor of the _Southern Journal_, have been among the most faithful
and courageous friends of woman suffrage. The Prohibition papers,
almost without exception, have been cordial.
LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND LAWS: During the General Assembly of 1890, a
committee of eight from the E. R. A. went to Frankfort to ask
legislation on the property rights of women, and for women physicians
in the State asylums for the insane. A petition for property rights
was presented, signed with 9,000 names. Of these 2,240 were collected
by Mrs. S. M. Hubbard. On January 10 appeals were made in
Representatives' Hall by Miss Laura Clay for the Women Physicians
Bill, and by Mrs. Josephine K. Henry for the Property Rights Bill. The
latter had carefully prepared a compendium of the married women's
property laws in all the States, which was of incalculable value
throughout the years of labor necessary to secure this bill.
The press of the State, with few exceptions, espoused the cause of
property rights for women. Seven bills were presented to this General
Assembly, among them one drawn and introduced into the Senate by Judge
William Lindsay, afterward United States Senator. This secured to
married women the enjoyment of their property, gave them the power to
make a will and equalized curtesy and dower. Although reported
adversely by the committee, it was taken up for discussion and was
eloquently defended by Judge Lindsay. It passed the Senate, but, was
defeated in the House by the opposing members withdrawing and
breaking the quorum.[283] A bill introduced by the Hon. William B.
Smith, making it obligatory upon employers to pay wages earned by
married women to themselves and not their husbands, became a law at
this session.
The Constitutional Convention held in 1890-91 was the field of much
labor by the State association. In October a committee consisting of
Mrs. Henry, Miss Clay, Mrs. Eugenia B. Farmer, Mrs. Isabella H.
Shepard and Mrs. Sarah Clay Bennett went to Frankfort to appeal for
clauses in the new constitution empowering the General Assembly to
extend Full Suffrage to women; to secure the property rights of wives;
and to grant School Suffrage to all women. The importance of their
claims was so impressed upon the convention that it appointed a
special Committee on Woman's Rights, with one of its most esteemed
members, the Hon. Jep. C. Jonson, as chairman, who did all in his
power to bring their cause favorably before this body.
On the evening of October 9, in Representatives' Hall, Miss Clay, Mrs.
Shepard and Mrs. Bennett addressed an audience composed largely of
members, being introduced by Mr. Jonson. Later, Mrs. Henry was given a
hearing before the committee. Her tract appealing for property rights
was read before the convention by Mr. Jonson and supplied to each of
the 100 members. In addition she supplied them several times a week
with leaflets, congressional hearings, etc., and wrote 200 articles
for the press on property rights and thirty-one on suffrage.
The five ladies, with Mrs. Sarah Hardin Sawyer and Mrs. Margaret A.
Watts, met in Frankfort again on December 8, and obtained hearings
before the Committees on Revision of the Constitution, Education and
Woman's Rights. Mrs. Henry also addressed the Committee on Elections,
who asked that her speech be printed and furnished to each member of
the convention.
On December 12 the Hon. W. H. Mackoy, at the request of the
suffragists, offered this amendment to the section on elections: "The
General Assembly may hereafter extend full or partial suffrage to
female citizens of the United States of the age of 21 years, who have
resided in this State one year, etc." By his motion the ladies
appeared before the convention in Committee of the Whole. They
selected Miss Clay as their spokesman and sat in front of the
speaker's stand during her address.
The only clause finally obtained in the new constitution was one
permitting the General Assembly to extend School Suffrage to women;
but the Legislature of 1892 made important concessions.
Among the members of the General Assembly of 1894 especial gratitude
is due to Judges S. B. Vance and W. H. Beckner. The former introduced
the Bill for Married Women's Property Rights in the House, giving
Senator Lindsay credit for being practically its author. Judge Beckner
cordially supported this bill, saying he preferred it to one of his
own, which he had introduced but would push only if it should be
evident that Judge Vance's more liberal bill could not become law. To
the leadership of these two is due the vote of 79 ayes to 14 noes with
which the bill passed the House. In the Senate it came near to defeat,
but was carried through by the strenuous efforts of its friends,
especially of Senators W. W. Stephenson, Rozel Weissinger and William
Goebel. Senator Weissinger withdrew in favor of the House bill one of
his own, not so comprehensive. The bill passed on the very last day of
the session possible to finish business. The Senate vote was 21 yeas,
10 nays.[284] It was signed March 15 by Gov. John Young Brown, who
always had favored it.
Another signal victory this year was School Suffrage for women of the
second-class cities. Since 1838 widows with children of school age had
been voters for school trustees in the country districts, and in 1888
this right was extended to allow tax-paying widows and spinsters to
vote on school taxes. This general law, however, did not apply to
chartered cities. The vigilance of Mrs. Farmer observed and seized
the opportunity offered by the revision of city charters, after the
adoption of the new constitution, to put in clauses granting full
School Suffrage to all women. At her instigation, in 1892, the equal
rights associations of Covington, Newport and Lexington, the only
second-class cities, petitioned the committee selected to prepare a
charter for such cities to insert a clause in the section on
education, making women eligible as members of school boards and
qualified to vote at all elections of such boards. This was done, and
the charter passed the General Assembly in 1894, and was signed by
Governor Brown on March 19. The influence of the State association was
not sufficient, however, to have School Suffrage put in the charters
of cities of the first, third and fourth classes. The Hons. Charles
Jacob Bronston, John O. Hodges, William Goebel and Joel Baker did
excellent service for this clause.
The changes wrought by liberal legislation and the part the State
association had in securing this will be best understood by quotations
from a leaflet issued by the State Association:
In 1888 the Kentucky E. R. A. was organized for the purpose of
obtaining for women equality with men in educational, industrial,
legal and political rights.
We found on the statute books a law which permitted a husband to
collect his wife's wages.
We found Kentucky the only State which did not allow a married
woman to make a will.
We found that marriage gave to the husband all the wife's
personal property which could be reduced to possession, and the
use of all her real estate owned at the time or acquired by her
after marriage, with power to rent the same and receive the rent.
We found that the common law of curtesy and dower prevailed,
whereby on the death of the wife the husband inherited absolutely
all her personalty and, when there were children, a life interest
in all her real estate; while the wife, when there were children,
inherited one-third of her husband's personalty and a
life-interest in one-third of his real estate.
I. In 1890 we secured a law which made the wife's wages payable
only to herself.
II. From the General Assembly of 1892-93 we secured a law giving
a married woman the right to make a will and control her real
estate.
III. From the General Assembly of 1894 we secured the present Law
for Husband and Wife. The main features of this are:
1. Curtesy and dower are equalized. After the death of either
husband or wife, the survivor is given a life estate in one-third
of the realty of the deceased and an absolute estate in one-half
of the personalty.
2. The wife has entire control of her property, real and
personal. She owns her personal property absolutely, and can
dispose of it as she pleases.[285] The statute gives her the
right to make contracts and to sue and be sued as a single woman.
This enables a married woman to enter business and hold her stock
in trade free from the control of her husband and liability to
his creditors.
3. The power to make a will is the same in husband and wife, and
neither can by will divest the other of dower or interest in his
or her estate.
These splendid property laws are pronounced by leading lawyers to
be the greatest legal revolution which has taken place in our
history.
A section of the new constitution made it the duty of the General
Assembly to provide by law as soon as practicable for Houses of Reform
for Juvenile Offenders. The State Woman's Christian Temperance Union
decided in 1892 to urge it to act speedily, and the Equal Rights
Association co-operated heartily, with a special view to securing
provision for girls equal to that for boys, and women on the Board of
Managers. A joint committee from the two associations was appointed,
with Mrs. Frances E. Beauchamp chairman for the former and Mrs. S. A.
Charles for the latter. They compiled a bill with legal advice of
Senator Bronston, who had been largely instrumental in securing the
section. The unremitting labor of three years was at last crowned with
success in 1896, when a bill, essentially that prepared by the women,
passed the General Assembly and was signed by Gov. William O. Bradley,
March 21.[286] This bill provides for two separate institutions, one
for girls and one for boys, on the cottage family plan. The general
government is vested in a board of six trustees, three women and three
men.
From the General Assembly of 1898 the E. R. A. finally obtained the
law making it mandatory to have at least one woman physician in each
State insane asylum, for which they had been petitioning ten years.
Representative W. C. G. Hobbs introduced the bill into the House,
where it passed by a vote of 77 ayes, 4 noes. Mr. Bronston supported
it in the Senate, where it received 26 ayes, one no. It was approved
by Governor Bradley March 15.
In the same year the benevolent associations of the women of
Louisville secured an act providing for police matrons in that city,
the only first-class one in the State, which was approved by the
Governor March 10.[287] The first police matron was appointed March 4,
before the law required it, at the request of women and through the
influence of Mayor Charles P. Weaver, Chief of Police Jacob H. Haager,
Jailer John R. Pflanz and Judge Reginald H. Thompson. By the action of
the State Board of Prison Commissioners this year, two women were
appointed as guards for the women's wards in the penitentiary, their
duties being such as usually pertain to a matron.
This year the Women's Club of Central Kentucky set on foot a movement
for a free library in Lexington. Senator Bronston secured a change in
the city charter to facilitate this object. The act provides that the
library shall be under the control of a board of five trustees and was
intentionally worded to make women eligible. Mayor Joseph Simrall
appointed two of the club women, Mrs. Mary D. Short and Mrs. Ida
Withers Harrison. This is the first free library established in
Kentucky.
Owing to the turbulent political conditions in the General Assembly of
1900, the State association did not send its usual committee to the
capital. However, a committee from the W. C. T. U. did go, and
succeeded in securing an appropriation to build the young women's
dormitory at the State College, receiving in this effort the
encouragement of the E. R. A., as agreed upon at their convention of
1899.
The history of the State association would not be complete without
recording its failures. In 1893 an effort to raise the "age of
protection" for girls from 12 to 18 was made a part of its work. It
was deemed expedient to place this in the hands of a special
committee, Mrs. Thomas L. Jones and Mrs. Sarah G. Humphreys consenting
to assume the arduous task. Mrs. Henry wrote a strong leaflet on the
"age of protection," and Mrs. Humphreys sent many articles to the
press. A petition was widely circulated and bore thousands of names
when the ladies carried it to the General Assembly in 1894. They
succeeded in having a bill introduced, and were given hearings before
an appropriate committee; but the Assembly adjourned without acting.
In 1895, Mrs. Martha R. Stockwell was added to the committee, which
again went to the Assembly with the petition; but without success, and
the "age of protection" still remains 12 years. The penalty is death
or imprisonment for life.
By special statute the Common Law is retained which makes 12 years the
legal age for a girl to marry.
A law to make mothers equal guardians with fathers of minor children
is one to which the State association has devoted much attention, but
which still waits on the future for success. At present the father is
the legal guardian, and at his death may appoint one even for a child
unborn. If the court appoints a guardian, the law (1894) requires that
it "shall choose the father, or his testamentary appointee; then the
mother if [still] unmarried, then next of kin, giving preference to
the males."
The husband is expected to furnish the necessaries of life according
to his condition, but if he has only his wages there is no law to
punish him for non-support.
SUFFRAGE: Kentucky was the first State in the Union to grant any form
of suffrage to women by special statute, as its first School Law,
passed in 1838, permitted widows in the country districts with
children of school age to vote for trustees. In 1888 further
extensions of School Suffrage were made and in the country districts,
including fifth and sixth class cities, i. e., the smallest villages,
any widow having a child of school age, and any widow or spinster
having a ward of school age, may now vote for school trustees and
district school taxes; also taxpaying widows and spinsters may vote
for district school taxes.
In 1894 the General Assembly granted women the right to vote for
members of the board of education on the same terms as men in the
second-class cities, by a special clause in their charter. There are
three of these--Covington, Newport and Lexington.[288]
In the one first-class city, Louisville, the five third-class and the
twenty or more fourth-class cities, no woman has any vote.
OFFICE HOLDING: In 1886 Mrs. Amanda T. Million was appointed to the
office of county superintendent of public schools. Her husband had
been elected in Madison County, but dying at the commencement of his
term, Judge J. C. Chenault, after the eligibility of a woman had been
ascertained, appointed the widow to fill out the year. Mrs. Million
then became a candidate, and was elected for the remaining three years
of the term, being the first woman in the State to fill that office.
Her case attracted much attention and at the election in 1889 four
women were elected county superintendents; in 1893, eight, and in
1897, eighteen.
In 1895 Mayor Henry T. Duncan appointed two women on the Lexington
School Board, Mrs. Ida Withers Harrison and Mrs. Mary E. Lucas, to
serve until their successors were elected under the laws of the new
charter. In August the women held a mass meeting, conducted by a joint
committee from the local E. R. A., the W. C. T. U. and the Woman's
Club of Central Kentucky, to nominate a woman from each ward. They
named Mrs. Harrison, Mrs. Ella Williamson, Mrs. Sarah West Marshal and
Mrs. Mary C. Roark. This ticket was indorsed the same day by the
Citizens' Association (of men). Judge Frank Bullock allowed private
houses to be used for women to register, one in each precinct, the
registration officers all to be women--clerk, two judges and a
sheriff. They were sworn in and did their duty nobly. The Democratic
and Republican parties refused to accept the Woman's Ticket. The women
therefore selected a man from each ward in addition to the four women
nominated, making the required number of eight, known as the
Independent Ticket, which was triumphantly elected in November by
voters of all parties and both sexes.
In Covington, three women were placed on the Republican ticket, but
were defeated. About 5,000 women voted. In Newport two women were
placed on the Democratic ticket, but it was defeated. About 2,800
women registered.
The Prohibitionists nominated Mrs. Josephine K. Henry for clerk of
the Court of Appeals in 1890. Though in many places the election
clerks refused to enter her name on the polling-books, doubting the
eligibility of a woman, she received 4,460 votes. This case is worthy
of note because it was the first in Kentucky where a woman was a
candidate for election to a State office; and because, as she ran on a
platform containing a suffrage plank, practically all the votes for
her were cast for woman suffrage.
Women have been State librarians continuously since January, 1876,
when the first one was elected.
In 1894 the Senate for the first time elected a woman as enrolling
clerk, and women have held this office ever since.
During the session of 1900, stormy as it was, the House for the first
time elected a woman as enrolling clerk.
Women serve as notaries public. (For other offices see Legislative
Action.)
OCCUPATIONS: Women are engaged in all the professions and no
occupation is forbidden to them by law. On Dec. 15, 1886, the Court of
Appeals affirmed the right of women to dispense medicines. The case
was that of Bessie W. White (Hager), a graduate of the School of
Pharmacy of Michigan University. She applied to the State Board of
Pharmacy for registration in 1883, complying with all the
requirements. They rejected her application, whereupon she applied for
a mandamus. The writ was granted but an appeal was taken. Judge
William H. Holt delivered the opinion of the Appellate Court, saying
in his decision: "It is gratifying to see American women coming to the
front in these honorable pursuits. The history of civilization in
every country shows that it has merely kept pace with the advancement
of its women."
EDUCATION: On April 27, 1889, at a called meeting of the Board of
Curators of Kentucky University (Disciples of Christ) in Lexington, it
was decided to admit women students. This was the result of a petition
the preceding June by the Fayette County E. R. A. In response a
committee had been appointed, President Charles Louis Loos, chairman,
and, upon its favorable report, the resolution was carried by
unanimous vote. An immediate appropriation was made for improvements
to the college buildings to accommodate the new students, the opening
was announced in the annual calendar and women invited to avail
themselves of its advantages. This was the second institution of
higher education opened to women, the State Agricultural and
Mechanical College and Normal School, also in Lexington, having
admitted them in 1880.
In 1892 the work done by Mrs. Sarah Hardin Sawyer resulted in the
admission of women to Wesleyan College in Winchester. The Baptist
College at Georgetown became co-educational through the influence of
Prof. James Jefferson Rucker. The Homeopathic Medical College, opened
in Louisville the same year, admitted women from the first and placed
a woman upon the faculty. In 1893 the Madison County E. R. A. secured
the admission of girls to Central University at Richmond.
Co-education now prevails in all the normal and business schools, and
in the majority of the institutions of higher learning; the only
notable exceptions being Centre University, Danville; Baptist College,
Russellville; Baptist Theological College[289] and Allopathic Medical
College, Louisville.
There are in the public schools 4,909 men and 5,057 women teachers.
The average monthly salary of the men is $44; of the women, $37.
* * * * *
The Woman's Emergency Association of Louisville, organized during the
Spanish-American War, called a non-partisan mass meeting February 6,
1900, "for the special purpose of directing the attention of women to
the importance and necessity of using their influence on behalf of
good citizenship." The mass meeting was addressed by several prominent
gentlemen, who deplored the spirit of lawlessness prevailing in the
State and declared that the remedy rested with the women, but the
suggestion that these should have the franchise was not once made.
The State E. R. A. sent a memorial to the annual meeting of the
Kentucky Federation of Women's Clubs in 1900, soliciting their
assistance in securing from the General Assembly the extension of
School Suffrage to the women of all towns and cities. It was voted to
give the co-operation desired.
FOOTNOTES:
[278] The History is indebted for this chapter to Miss Laura Clay of
Lexington, president of the State Equal Rights Association since its
organization, and first auditor of the National-American Woman
Suffrage Association since 1895.
[279] The State W. C. T. U. at its convention in 1892 adopted a
franchise department, and has proved a faithful and valuable ally in
educating public sentiment and obtaining desired legislation.
[280] In the congressional contest of the Seventh District, between W.
C. P. Breckinridge and W. C. Owens, in 1894, the women took such a
share in defeating the former that their action became an instructive
part of political history. Mrs. F. K. Hunt, president of their Owens
Club, which did such distinguished service for public morality,
afterwards became a member of the Equal Rights Association, this
campaign having convinced her, as she said, that "there is a place for
women in politics."
[281] In the Presidential campaign of 1896, Mrs. Josephine K. Henry
and Miss Margaret Ingals spoke for the Silver Democrats, and Mrs.
Frances E. Beauchamp for the Prohibitionists, under the auspices of
the party committees.
In June, 1898, Mrs. Beauchamp, president of the State W. C. T. U., was
elected permanent chairman and presided over the State Prohibition
Convention held in Louisville--the first time a woman ever filled such
a position in Kentucky. She was also elected a member of the National
Central Committee of the Prohibitionists in 1899. This party has
retained the woman suffrage plank in its State platform since 1889.
[282] The other State officers have been, recording secretaries, Dr.
Sarah M. Siewers; Mesdames Mary Ritchie McKee, Mary Muggeridge, Mary
R. Patterson, Sarah Hardin Sawyer, Kate Rose Wiggins; Misses Anna M.
Deane, Mary Susan Hamilton, Mary E. Light; third vice-presidents,
Mesdames Sallie H. Chenault, S. M. Hubbard, Mary H. Johnson, Thomas L.
Jones, N. S. McLaughlin; Miss Belle Harris Bennett; superintendents of
press, Mrs. Lida Calvert Obenchain, Mrs. Sarah G. Humphreys;
superintendent of legislative work, Mrs. Josephine K. Henry.
[283] This bill, drawn up with legal precision and clearness, was
practically the one passed four years later (1894), which raised
Kentucky's property laws for wives to a just and honorable plane.
[284] On the night of March 8 Mrs. Josephine K. Henry spoke in
Frankfort on the subject of American Citizenship. The Legislative Hall
was voted unanimously and the Senate, which was holding night
sessions, adjourned to hear her address. The Property Rights Bill was
on this night virtually dead. Mrs. Henry in her speech never alluded
to this bill, but plainly asked the Legislature to create a power to
which she could apply and receive her papers of citizenship, claiming
that she had every qualification save that of sex. The speech did not
procure for her the right to vote, but the next morning, amid the
greatest tumult, the dead Property Rights Bill was resurrected and
passed.
Minutes of Kentucky E. R. A., 1894.
[285] The wife can not dispose of real estate without the husband's
signature. He can convey real estate without her signature but it is
subject to her dower.
[286] This year the E. R. A., the W. C. T. U. and the Woman's Club of
Central Kentucky petitioned Governor Bradley to appoint a woman
physician for the insane asylum at Lexington. He did appoint one, Dr.
Kathryn Houser, but placed her in the Hopkinsville asylum.
[287] A notable feature of this act is that none shall be appointed
who has not been recommended by a committee composed of one woman
selected by each of the following organizations: Home of Friendless
Women, Flower Mission, Free Kindergarten Association, Humane Society,
Charity Organization Society, City Federation of Women's Clubs,
Kentucky Children's Home Society, W. C. T. U. and Women's Christian
Association.
[288] This Act was repealed in 1902 because more colored than white
women voted in Lexington at the spring election. This is the only
instance where the suffrage has been taken from women after being
conferred by a Legislature. [Eds.
[289] This college was opened to women in 1902.
CHAPTER XLII.
LOUISIANA.[290]
The history of woman suffrage in Louisiana must center always about
the names of Mrs. Elizabeth Lyle Saxon and Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick.
In 1879, before there had been any general agitation of this question
in the State, these ladies appeared before the convention which was
preparing a new constitution, and urged that the ballot should be
granted to women on the same terms as to men. The only concession to
their demands was a clause making women eligible to any office of
control or management under the School Laws of the State.
Mrs. Saxon continued to create equal suffrage sentiment until her
removal to another State, and Mrs. Merrick remains still a principal
figure in the movement. Until his death in 1897 she had the earnest
encouragement and assistance of her distinguished husband, Edwin T.
Merrick, for ten years Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Louisiana
prior to the Civil War.
As New Orleans is the only large city and contains one-fourth of the
population of a State which is among the most conservative in the
Union, organized work naturally would be confined to this locality,
but up to 1884 it had no active club or society of women. In this year
there was a demand by the press that the women of New Orleans should
organize for the promotion of the World's Cotton Centennial, to be
held there in the autumn and winter of 1884-85. This was done and the
Woman's Department was a conspicuous feature of the centennial. Mrs.
Julia Ward Howe of Massachusetts was the commissioner for the
Government, different States sent capable representatives and there
was cordial co-operation with the women of New Orleans.
[Illustration:
SUSAN LOOK AVERY.
Louisville, Ky., and Chicago, Ill.
HELEN PHILLEO JENKINS.
Detroit, Mich.
LOUISA SOUTHWORTH.
Cleveland, Ohio.
MARY BENTLEY THOMAS.
Ednor, Md.
KATE M. GORDON.
New Orleans, La.
]
In March, 1885, Miss Susan B. Anthony visited the city for two weeks.
She was deluged with invitations for addresses, and spoke in
Agricultural Hall of the exposition at the request of the Press Club,
in Tulane Hall under the auspices of the city teachers, at the Girls'
High School and in half-a-dozen other places. Everywhere she was most
warmly welcomed and was favorably reported in the papers, although her
doctrines were new and unpopular. Mrs. Eliza J. Nicholson, owner and
manager of the _Picayune_, and Mrs. M. A. Field (Catharine Cole), of
its editorial staff, gave pleasant manifestations of friendship. One
of the addresses delivered by Miss Anthony was before the Woman's
Club, which had been an outgrowth of the exposition committees. Mrs.
May Wright Sewall of Indiana gave an address on this same occasion.
While this club had by no means been formed in the interests of
suffrage, it was a decided innovation and the first step out of
tradition and conservatism.
The work of the women of Louisiana in the Anti-Lottery campaign of
1891 is entitled to special mention. The lottery, as the great money
power, controlled absolutely the politics of the State, and the
leading newspapers were a unit in its support. The reform movement to
prevent the renewal of its charter was without money, prestige or the
influence of the press. The women came nobly to the rescue of this
apparently hopeless cause. They formed leagues for the collection of
money, they called meetings, they assisted in every possible way to
educate the public mind and awaken the public conscience. To them
belongs a large share of the credit for the final overthrow at the
polls of this octopus corporation, which was so long a reproach to the
State.
In 1892 the Portia Club was formed, a strictly suffrage organization,
with Mrs. Merrick as president.[291] Under its auspices the
Association for the Advancement of Women held its annual congress in
New Orleans in 1895, during which Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby of
Washington, D. C., gave an address on The Philosophy of Woman
Suffrage. At another time Mrs. Clara C. Hoffman of Missouri lectured
for the club.
In January, 1895, Miss Anthony, president of the National Suffrage
Association, accompanied by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of its
organization committee, came again to New Orleans. The _Picayune_ said
of their first appearance:
If any one doubted the interest which Southern women feel in the
all-absorbing question of the day, "Woman and her Rights," that
idea would have been forever dispelled by a glance at the
splendid audience assembled last night. The hall was literally
packed to overflowing, not only with women but with men,
prominent representatives in every walk of life.
In 1896 the Era[292] Club was organized with Miss Belle Van Horn as
president. The successful work of this society has been largely due to
the ability and personal influence of Mrs. Evelyn W. Ordway, a
progressive Massachusetts woman, professor of chemistry in Newcomb
College, New Orleans, who was its second president. Miss Kate M.
Gordon was the third.
In 1896 the Era united with the Portia Club in the beginning of a
State suffrage association, of which Mrs. Merrick was made president.
Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford of Colorado gave two lectures before the new
association this year. Those who have represented this body at the
national conventions are Mrs. Merrick, Miss Katharine Nobles and Miss
Gordon.
In 1898 a convention was held in New Orleans to prepare a new State
constitution. A committee composed of Mrs. Marie Garner Graham, Miss
Nobles, Miss Gordon and Miss Jean Gordon appeared before the Suffrage
Committee in support of a petition for Full Suffrage for the educated,
taxpaying women of Louisiana, which had been presented to the
convention by the Hon. A. W. Faulkner. Mrs. Graham made an eloquent
appeal in behalf of using the intelligence and morality embodied in
the woman's vote in solving the political problem of the South. The
committee further requested that Mrs. Chapman Catt be permitted to
address the convention. The request was immediately granted and an
official invitation courteously extended.
Mrs. Merrick, who was a delegate to the suffrage convention then in
session at Washington, urged that some prominent members of the
National Association should accompany this speaker on her important
mission, and Miss Laura Clay of Kentucky and Miss Mary G. Hay of New
York were duly appointed. On February 24, in Tulane Hall, before the
assembled convention and a large throng of listeners in the galleries,
Mrs. Chapman Catt made a strong argument for the enfranchisement of
Louisiana women.
For many days woman suffrage was seriously considered as a means to
the end of securing white supremacy in the State. The following week
the Athenaeum, the finest lecture hall in New Orleans, was crowded with
men and women from all classes of society anxious to hear more on this
daily topic of discussion, as presented by Mrs. Chapman Catt, Miss
Clay and Miss Frances A. Griffin of Alabama. Seats were reserved for
the members of the Constitutional Convention, who responded almost
unanimously to the invitation to be present.