Friends, compatriots, and confreres of the International

Congress assembled to discuss the rights of women: Allow me

to extend to you the congratulations of the National Woman

Suffrage Association of America, which I have the honor to

represent. I congratulate you upon this important, this

sublime moment, this auspicious place for the meeting of a

woman's congress. Paris, gorgeous under the grand monarch

who surrounded his royal person with a splendid galaxy of

beauty, genius, and chivalry; attractive and influential

under the great emperor whose meteoric genius held

spell-bound the wondering gaze of a world; to-day, with

neither king nor court, nor man of destiny, is grander, more

gorgeous, more beautiful and more influential than ever

before. To-day this is the shrine toward which the pilgrims

from every land turn their impatient steps.

Each balmy breeze comes to us heavily laden with the

dialects of all nations. Not only are the different parts

represented in their economic and industrial products, but

each thought, idea, motive and need is brought before the

world in the various congresses assembled during this great

union festival of liberty, peace and labor. Literature,

science, religion, education, philosophy, and labor, each

has had its eloquent advocates. At this time, when the great

ones of the earth are met together in earnest thought and

honest discussion, when each mind and conscience is attuned

to the highest motive, how appropriate that woman, whose

labor, wealth and brain have cemented the stones in every

monument that man has reared to himself; that woman, the

oppressed, woman, the hater of wars, the faithful, quiet

drudge of the centuries, watching while others slept,

working while others plundered and murdered; woman, who has

died in prison and on the scaffold for liberty, should here

and now have her audience and her advocates.

As a child of America I love and venerate France. We cannot

forget LaFayette, although a hundred years have passed since

generous France sent him to our aid in our great struggle

for freedom. But as a woman I glory in her. [Great and

deafening applause.] All true women love and honor France.

[At this point the reader was interrupted with wild cries of

"Bravo! bravo!" "Live America!" "True, true."] France, in

whose prolific soil great and progressive ideas generate and

take root, in spite of king, emperor, priest or tyrant;

France, the protectress of science, art, and philosophy;

France, the home of the scholar and thinker; France, the

asylum which generously received the women who came hither

seeking those intellectual advantages and privileges cruelly

denied them at home; France, that compelled republican

America and civilized England to open their educational

institutions to women; France, the birth-place of a host of

women whose splendid genius, devoted lives, and heroic

deaths have encouraged and inspired women of other lands in

their struggles to strike off the ignominious shackles which

the ages have riveted upon them! [Loud applause.] How

apropos it is, then, that the women from all nations meet on

the free soil of France to give to the world their

declaration of rights. To-day we clasp hands and pledge

hearts to the sacred cause of woman's emancipation. To-day

we meet to thank France for the grand women whose lofty

utterances come echoing and reechoing to us through the

corridors of time, and to thank her for her great men who

have been the beacon lights to guide the world to higher

civilization and greater hatred of oppression. In the name

of my great countrywomen, inaugurators and leaders of the

woman's rights movement in America, the eloquent and ardent

advocates of liberty for men and women alike, both black and

white; in the name of the officers of the National Woman

Suffrage Association; in the name of those grand women,

Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony,

I salute the women of France and of the world assembled in

this congress, and bid them god-speed. When we call to mind

what has been accomplished by noble women everywhere, we are

encouraged to renewed effort.

In America we have accomplished wonders, and yet we demand

more; and shall continue to demand until we are equal in the

state, in the church, and in the home. Twenty years ago

woman entered our courts of law only as a criminal to be

tried; now she enters as an advocate to plead the cause of

justice, and invoke the spirit of mercy. Twenty years ago

woman entered the sick room only as the poorly-paid nurse;

now she is the trusted medical adviser, friend and

counsellor. To-day she is in many respects the peer of man,

to-morrow she will be in all respects his acknowledged

equal. [Great and continued applause.]

Who can measure the influence this congress may have on

woman's advancement toward that perfect equality which

justice and humanity demand. Women of France and of the

world, be of good cheer, and continue to agitate for the

right, for in the elevation of woman lies the progress of

the world. [Deafening applause, and cries of hear, hear.]

A letter to the Chicago _Times_ commenting upon the above address

says:

Mrs. Jones being indisposed, was replaced momentarily by her

daughter, a beautiful young lady of about sixteen summers,

who read the opening address of her mother; her rich voice

pronouncing with such distinctness and beauty, the earnest

words, translated into French, won all hearts, and gave to

the opening of the congress such a prestige as it would

otherwise never have had. After its close, Miss Jones

regained her seat amidst the hearty congratulations of the

throng assembled in that great hall, and I was proud of our

little American. Her beauty and courage, coupled with her

extreme youth, were the principal topics discussed during

the day by outsiders. I was thankful that our nation was so

well represented at the very first meeting, and the Parisian

journals were all loud in their praise of Mrs. Jones'

welcoming address, as well as the charming apparition of her

young and accomplished daughter.

As indicating the numerous lines along which woman's aroused

energies have found expression, we would call attention to the

Art Union of central Illinois. It is composed of nine societies,

"The Historical," and "The Palladium," of Bloomington; the art

class at Decatur; "Art Society," of Lincoln; "Art Association,"

of Jacksonville; "Art Society," of Peoria; "Art Society," of

Springfield, and "Art Club," of Champagne. Mrs. Lavilla Wyatt

Latham, wife of Col. Robert G. Latham, of Lincoln, was the

originator of the Art Union. Their spacious home, built with

large piazzas in true southern style, is a museum of curiosities.

Its library, cabinet, pictures, and statuary, make it a most

attractive harbor of rest to the wandering band of lecturers,

especially as the cultivated host and hostess are in warm

sympathy with all reform movements. Mr. Latham was a warm friend

of Abraham Lincoln, and entertained him many times under his

roof.

The _Woman's Journal_ of March 24, 1877, said:

Seventy women of Illinois, appointed by the Woman's State

Temperance Union, went to the legislature, bearing a

petition signed by 7,000 persons, asking that no licenses to

sell liquor be granted, which are not asked for by a

majority of the citizens of the place.

Mr. SHERMAN moved a suspension of the rules to admit of the

presentation of the petition.

Mr. MERRITT objected, but, by a decided vote, the rules were

suspended, and the petition was received and read.

Mr. SHERMAN moved that Mrs. Prof. S. M. D. Fry of Wesleyan

University of Bloomington, be invited to address the House

upon the subject of the petition.

Mr. HERRINGTON objected to the obtrusion of such trifling

matter upon the House, which had business to do. It was well

enough to let the petition be received, but he wanted nobody

to be allowed to interfere with the business of the House.

Referring to some forty or fifty ladies of the Union who had

been admitted to the floor of the House, he wanted to know

by what authority persons not entitled to the privilege of

the floor had been admitted. He insisted on his prerogative

as a member, and asked that the floor and lobbies be cleared

of all persons not entitled to the privilege of the House.

According to the Chicago _Tribune_, this speech of

Herrington created a slight sensation, among the ladies

especially, but Mr. Herrington's demand was ignored, and a

recess of thirty minutes was taken to allow Mrs. Fry to

address the House in support of the petition, which she did

in a speech put in very telling phrases. At its conclusion,

some of the members opposed to temperance legislation,

signalized their ill-breeding, to say the least, by derisive

yells for Mr. Herrington and others to answer Mrs. Fry.

Presently the hall was resonant with yells and cheers,

converting it into a a very babel, and the hubbub was kept

up until, at the expiration of the half-hour recess, Speaker

Shaw called "order" and the House immediately adjourned.

If any body of men bearing a petition of 7,000 voting men,

had gone to the same legislature, and by courtesy been

admitted to speak for their petition, no member would have

dared to insult them. It is because they had no recognized

political rights that these women were insulted. Claim your

right, ladies, to be equal members of the legislature, then

you can enact temperance laws, and have an unquestioned

right "to the privilege of the floor."

In 1879, under the lead of their president, Frances E. Willard,

the women of Illinois rolled up a mammoth petition of 180,000,

asking the right to vote on the question of license. This

prayer, like that of the 7,000, met the fate of all attempts of

disfranchised classes to influence legislation. Following this

repulse, in some ten or fifteen of the smaller cities of the

State, boards of common council were prevailed upon to pass

ordinances giving the women the right to vote on the question.

Without an exception, the result was overwhelming majorities for

"No License." In the cities where officers were elected at the

same time, almost without exception, the majority of them were in

favor of license, while in those in which the old board of

officers held over, no licenses were granted, until the new board

elected only by the votes of the men of the city, was installed.

Dr. Alice B. Stockham, in her report at the Washington convention

of 1885, said:

After the city ordinance of Keithsburg allowed women to

vote, the hardest work was to convert the women themselves.

Committees were appointed who visited from house to house to

persuade women to go to the polls for the suppression of the

rule of liquor. On the morning of election they met in a

church for conference and prayer. At 10 o'clock forty brave

women marched to the polls and cast their first ballot for

home protection. Carriages were running to and fro all day

to bring the invalid and the aged. For once they were

induced to leave the making of ruffles and crazy quilts, to

give their silent voice for the suppression of vice. Three

weeks later not a woman could be found in the town opposed

to suffrage, and for one year not a glass of liquor could be

bought in Keithsburg.

Under the act of 1872, the women of Illinois thought their right

to pursue every avocation, except the military, secure. But in

1880, a judicial decision proved the contrary. We quote from the

_National Citizen_:

In June, 1879, the Circuit Court of Union County, Judge John

Dougherty presiding, appointed Helen A. Schuchardt, resident

of the county, to the office of Master in Chancery. Mrs.

Schuchardt gave bond with security approved by the court,

taking and subscribing the required oath of office. Since

that day, she has been the acting Master of Chancery of that

county, taking proofs, making judicial rules, and performing

the other various duties incident to such office. At the

last term of the court the State attorney, at the instance

of Mr. Frank Hall, relator, filed an information in the

nature of a _quo warranto_ charging that Mrs. Schuchardt had

usurped and was unlawfully holding and exercising the

office. Mrs. Schuchardt filed pleas setting forth the order

of the court appointing her, her bonds with the order of

approval, and the oath of office filed by her. To these

pleas a general demurrer was interposed and argued.

The questions presented by the demurrer were: _First_--Is

the defendant eligible to this office, she being neither a

practicing nor a learned lawyer? _Second_--Is the defendant

eligible to this office, she being a female? The court

dismissed the first question on the ground that the statute

does not require admission to the bar as a qualification. Of

the eleven Masters in Chancery in that Judicial Circuit, it

was shown that only five had been admitted to the bar. As to

the second objection, _i. e._, that Mrs. Schuchardt was a

female (!) it was decided that the common law never

contemplated the admittance of a woman to the office of

Master in Chancery, and that doubtless it was the first

instance in which a woman had been admitted to the office.

It was also decided that the act of March 22, 1872, did not

make women eligible to this office; Master in Chancery--for

woman--did not mean "occupation, profession, or employment,"

and that "persons do not select an office, but are selected

for the office."

Judge Harker, in delivering this opinion, said: "It is due

to Mrs. Schuchardt to say in conclusion, that while I am

constrained to sustain this demurrer and hold that under the

law she cannot retain this office, there is not one of the

Masters in Chancery in the four counties where I preside,

who has been more faithful or attentive in the discharge of

his duties, and none who has exhibited higher qualifications

to discharge well those duties. And it is my sincere hope

that at its next session the legislature will make this

office accessible to females."

One of the most influential local associations has been that of

Chicago, or Cook county.[371] From 1870 to 1876 Mrs. Jane Graham

Jones was its president, as well as the leading spirit in the

State Society.[372] She was the one to plan and execute the

attacks upon the board of education, the common council, and the

legislature, holding many meetings in Chicago, and at

Springfield, the seat of government. Another flourishing

association is that of Moline. We give the following from its

secretary:

In May, 1877, Mrs. Eunice G. Sayles, and Mrs. Julia Mills

Dunn, secured Mrs. Stanton to give a lecture on woman

suffrage in Moline, and at a reception given to her by Mrs.

Sayles, a society with 22 members was organized, which has

held meetings regularly since that time, with the reading of

papers on topics previously arranged by the president. It is

a matter of pride that not a failure has ever occurred, each

member always cheerfully performing the duty assigned her.

An evening reception is held annually to celebrate the

organization of the society, to which two hundred or more

guests are invited, each member being entitled to bring

several outside of her own family. The meetings have been

valuable, not only in promoting friendly relations between

the members, but also in the mental stimulus they have

afforded. Much of the success of this society is due to the

literary culture and earnestness of Mrs. Anne M. J. Dow, who

was our president for three years. We have sustained a great

loss in the death of Mrs. Sarah D. Nourse, who for

thirty-five years was an earnest friend of all reforms.

Soon after its organization, our society became auxiliary to

the National Association. We have circulated petitions and

forwarded them to Springfield and Washington, where they

have met the fate common to all prayers of the

disfranchised; we have circulated tracts, placed on file in

the public reading room all the suffrage journals, and

secured the best lecturers on the question. We are

organizing an afternoon reading society, to have read aloud

"The History of Woman Suffrage," and shall soon place it on

the shelves of the public library of the village. While we

cannot point to any wonderful revolution in public sentiment

because of our work, we are nevertheless full of courage,

and under the leadership of our State president, Elizabeth

Boynton Harbert, we shall go forward in faith and good

works, hoping for the end of woman's political slavery.[373]

In concluding this meager record of the methods of earnest men

and women of Illinois in their brave work for liberty, we are

painfully conscious of a vast aggregate of personal toil and

self sacrifice which can never be reported. We write of petitions

presented to State and National legislative assemblies, but it is

impossible to record the personal sacrifice and moral heroism of

the women who went from house to house in the cities and

villages, or traveled long distances across the broad prairies to

secure the signatures. Only those who have carried a petition

from door to door can know the fatigue and humiliation of spirit

it involves. Though these earnest women ask only the influence of

the names of persons to help on our reform, they are often

treated with less courtesy than the dreaded book-agent and

peddler.

WATSEKA, Ill.

I send you petitions, the one circulated by me has 270

names--the other by Clara L. Peters, 139.[374] We are

interested heart and soul in the movement, and our efforts

here have made many friends for the cause. Have been an

ardent worker since I was a child, and well remember that

grand hero of moral reforms, Samuel J. May of Syracuse, N.

Y., at a Woman's Temperance Convention held in Rochester in

1852, when I was eight years old.

VIOLA HAWKS ARCHIBALD.[375]

The following letter from Mary L. Davis, gives some idea of the

toils of circulating petitions:

DAVIS, Stephenson Co., Ill., May 28, 1877.

EDITOR _Ballot-Box_:--The question of suffrage for woman has

been thoroughly discussed in our society, and last week I

started out with my petition. I could work but a short time

each day, but I systematically canvassed our beautiful

little village, taking it by streets, and although I have

been over but a small portion, I have ninety signatures. I

met with but little opposition, and with kind wishes in

abundance; with some amusing, some provoking, some pathetic,

and some disgusting phases of human nature--with very

agreeable disappointments, and very disagreeable ones. Very

often some person would say to me, there is no use in

calling at such a house; the man will not, and the woman

dare not, sign. I went to such a place last week, was met

with all the courtesy one could ask. The man looked over the

petition thoughtfully, affixed his own name, and asked his

wife if she did not wish to do so, and called in a beautiful

sister who was out playing ball with the children, telling

her as it was for the especial benefit of women, she ought

to sign it too. I write these things to encourage our young

girls, who will take up the work. Take every house, ask

every person; "No," will not hurt or kill you. Be prepared

to meet every argument that can possibly be advanced. The

one which I meet oftenest, is that woman cannot fight, and

therefore she shall not vote; and strange to relate, it is

almost always advanced by a person who was never a soldier,

through physical disability, cowardice, or over or under

age.

The shortest "No," without the slightest shadow of courtesy,

was shot from the lips of a man who is doing business on

capital furnished by his wife, and who lives in a house

purchased with his wife's money. Graceful return for her

devotion, wasn't it? I suppose he prefers to keep her in her

present state of serfdom, as, if she should ever find out

that she was of any importance in the world, except as his

housekeeper, cook, washerwoman, and waiter-in-general, she

might possibly inquire into the stewardship of her lord and

master. And it seemed to me if that ever came to pass, a man

who could say "no" so cavalierly, without even a "thank you,

ma'am," or, "you're quite welcome," both could and would

manage to make surroundings rather disagreeable to the party

of the second part. So far no person who has thought much,

read much, or suffered much, has refused to sign, and in the

few hours which I have devoted to the work, three

grandmothers nearly ninety years of age, wished to have

their names recorded on the right side of the question, and

in two of those instances the grandmother, daughter, and

grandfather affixed their signatures, one after

another.[376]

We have been permitted to copy the following private letter from

A.J. Grover to Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who is now at her

home in Tenafly, N. J., busily at work with Miss Anthony and Mrs.

Gage on the second volume of the "History of Woman Suffrage." The

first volume should be on the center-table of every family in the

land as a complete text-book on the woman suffrage question,

which is to be one of the great issues, social and political, in

the coming years. These three women have grown old and won their

crowns of white hair in the cause of not only their sex, but of

mankind:

CHICAGO, November 29, 1881.

MY DEAR FRIEND: You represent a movement of more importance

to mankind than any that ever before claimed attention in

the whole history of the race, viz.: the freedom of one-half

of it. You have enforced this claim by half a century of

heroic discussion--of persistent, unanswerable logic and

appeal against the theory and practice of all nations,

against all governments, codes and creeds. You proclaimed

fifty years ago the novel doctrine that woman by nature is,

and by law and usage should be, the absolute equal of man. A

claim so self-evident should only have to be stated to be

recognized by all civilized nations; and yet to this hour

the highest civilization, equally with the lowest, is built

on the slavery of woman. In the darkest corners of the earth

and on the sunlit heights of civilization, the mothers of

the race are by law, religion and custom doomed to

degradation. And if the seal of their bondage is never to be

broken, they themselves as well as the lords and masters

they serve, are equally unconscious of the servitude. No

religion, no civil government, has ever taught or recognized

any other condition for woman than that of subjection.

Against the accumulated precedents of all the ages, you and

your noble coaedjutors have rebelled in the face of derision

for fifty long, weary years. Was ever such sublime womanly

heroism and self-sacrifice before known? Was ever such worth

of culture, such wealth of womanhood, laid on the altar of

country and humanity? And all this comparatively

unrecognized and unrewarded. Where is the boasted chivalry

of the English-speaking nations? It is a virtue we boast of,

but do not possess. It never, in fact, had any real

existence based on genuine respect for woman. It is a bitter

sarcasm in the mouth of an American male citizen. A few men

like Theodore Parker, Joshua R. Giddings, William Lloyd

Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Gerrit Smith, Samuel J. May and

Parker Pillsbury have measurably redeemed this nation,

recognizing your claim for woman as self-evidently just and

righteous, and cooeperating with you in maintaining it. There

are only a score or two of such men in a generation with

sufficient chivalry or perception of justice to publicly

claim for women the rights they themselves possess.

Science has demonstrated that men to be manly must be well

born, must have noble mothers. How can a mother give birth

to a noble soul while herself a slave? How can she impart a

free spirit when her own is servile? A stream cannot rise

higher than its fountain.

We have thought to bring about a high order of civilization

by freeing our sons, while chaining our daughters, by

sending sons to college and daughters to menial service for

a mere pittance as wages, or selling them in marriage to the

highest bidder--by robbing them on the very threshold of

life of all noble ambition. By the degradation of our women

we take from the inherited qualities of the race as much as

is added by culture. We take from the metal before casting

as much as we restore by polish afterwards, and thus we

curse and stultify both sexes.

The law and religion of man can be no better than man

himself. If religion, law, justice and social order are to

improve, man must first be improved. Religion and law are

effects, not causes. They are fruits, not the tree--the

products of the human mind. If these are to be improved,

mankind must first be improved. This will be impossible

until freedom and culture shall become the inalienable

rights of woman. It would be a thousand times better, if

either must be a slave to the other, that man should be a

slave to woman. The History of Woman Suffrage, on which you

are engaged, if the second volume shall prove equal to the

first, will be the richest legacy this age will bequeath to

the future. It is a revelation from God, in which, if men

believe, they shall be saved. Religion itself, without this

great salvation, will continue to remain little else than "a

wretched record of inspired crime" against woman. Woman must

be free! Protection as an underling from man, savage or

civilized, she in reality never had and never will have.

Protection she does not want. What she needs is equal

rights, when she can protect herself--rights of person,

rights of labor, rights of property, rights of culture,

rights of leisure, rights to participate in the making and

administering of the laws. Give her equality in exchange for

protection; give her her earnings in exchange for support;

give her justice in exchange for charity. Let man trust

woman as woman trusts man, with entire liberty of action,

and she will show the world that liberty is her highest

good.

In conclusion, let me confess that I read your first volume

with a feeling of inexpressible shame and mortification for

my sex.

Yours faithfully,

A.J. GROVER.

[Illustration: Elizabeth Boynton Harbert]

Mrs. Boynton Harbert, to whom we are indebted for this chapter, has

from girlhood been an enthusiastic advocate of the rights of women.

Growing up in Crawfordsville, Indiana, under the very shadow of a

collegiate institution into which girls were not permitted to

enter, she early learned the humiliation of sex. After vain

attempts to slip the bolts riveted with precedent and prejudice

that barred the daughters of the State outside, she tried with pen

and voice to rouse those whose stronger hands could open wide the

doors to the justice of her appeals. Her youthful peaens to liberty

in prose and verse early found their way into our Eastern journals,

and later in arguments before conventions and legislative

assemblies in Illinois, Iowa and other Western States. As editor

for seven years of the "Woman's Kingdom" in the Chicago

_Inter-Ocean_--one of the most popular journals in the nation--she

has exerted a widespread influence over the lives of women,

bringing new hope and ambition into many prairie homes. As

editor-in-chief of the _New Era_, in which she is free to utter her

deepest convictions; as wife and mother, with life's multiplied

experiences, a wider outlook now opens before her, with added

wisdom for the responsibilities involved in public life. In all her

endeavors she has been nobly sustained by her husband, Mr. William

Harbert, a successful lawyer, many years in practice in Chicago,

whose clear judgment and generous sympathies have made his services

invaluable in the reform movements of the day.

FOOTNOTES:

[351] Judge and Mrs. Catharine V. Waite, Mrs. Hannah M. Tracy

Cutler, Amelia Bloomer, Dr. Ellen B. Ferguson, Mrs. E. O. G.

Willard, the Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Harrison of Earlville; Professor and

Mrs. D. L. Brooks, Mrs. M. E. De Geer, Mrs. Frances D. Gage.

[352] Mrs. Sunderland was one of the many New England girls who in

the early days went West to teach. Speaking of the large number of

women elected to the office of county superintendent (one of them

her own daughter), she told me that thirty years ago when she

arrived at the settlement where she had been engaged as teacher,

the trustees being unable to make the "examination" deputed one of

their number to take her to an adjoining county, where another New

England girl was teaching. The excursion was made in a lumber wagon

with an ox-team. All the ordinary questions asked and promptly

answered, the trustee rather hesitatingly said, "Now, while you're

about it, wouldn't you just as lief write out the certificate?"

This was readily done, and the man affixing his cross thereto,

triumphantly carried the applicant back to his district, announcing

her duly qualified to teach; and that trio of unlettered

men installed the cultivated New England girl in their log

school-house, probably without the thought entering the heads of

trustees or teacher, that woman, when better educated, should hold

the superior position.--[S. B. A.

[353] Dr. Mary Safford, Mrs. A. M. Freeman, Hon. and Mrs. Sharon

Tyndale, Hon. E. Haines, Fernando Jones, Jane Graham Jones,

Professor Bailey, Mr. and Mrs. Ezra Prince, Mr. and Mrs. R. M.

Fell, Mrs. Belle S. Candee, General J. M. Thompson, Mrs. Professor

Noyes of Evanston, Charles B. Waite, Catharine V. Waite, Susan

Bronson, E. S. Williams, Kate N. Doggett, C. B. Farwell, L. Z.

Leiter, J. L. Pickard, Henry M. Smith, Frank Gilbert, Ann Telford,

Mrs. L. C. Levanway, Myra Bradwell, Mary E. Haven, Mrs. A. L.

Taylor, Elizabeth Eggleston, P. D. Livermore, James B. Bradwell,

Joseph Haven, J. H. Bayliss, D. Blakely, R. E. Hoyt, C. D. Helmer,

Alfred L. Sewell, George D. Willigton, H. Allen, R. N. Foster, W.

W. Smith, M. B. Smith, Amos G. Throop, Robert Collyer, L. I.

Colburn, G. Percy English, Arthur Edwards, A. Reed and Sons, S. M.

Booth, Sumner Ellis, George B. Marsh, Sarah Marsh, Ruth Graham,

John Nutt, J. W. Butler, Mrs. J. Butler, Mrs. S. A. Richards, Mrs.

S. W. Roe, F. W. Hall, Mrs. Fanny Blake, Mary S. Waite, J. F.

Temple, A. W. Kellogg, W. H. Thomson, J. W. Loomis, James E.

Curtis, Elizabeth Johnston, E. F. Hurlbut, E. E. Pratt, Mrs. E. M.

Warren, William Doggett, Edward Beecher, James P. Weston, E. R.

Allen, J. E. Forrester, Mrs. J. F. Temple, Mrs. F. W. Adams, L.

Walker, Mary A. Whitaker, Elvira W. Ruggles, W. W. Corbett, H. B.

Norton, W. H. Davis, I. S. Dennis, G. T. Flanders, Mrs. H. B.

Manford, Edward Eggleston, Sarah G. Cleveland, G. G. Lyon, E.

Manford, William D. Babbitt, Elizabeth Holt Babbitt, I. S. Page, W.

O. Carpenter, Mrs. W. O. Carpenter, Mrs. H. W. Cobb, T. D. Fitch,

Harriet Fitch, Mary A. Livermore, T. W. Eddy, A. G. Brackett,

Andrew Shuman, John A. Jameson, John V. Farwell, B. W. Raymond, E.

G. Taylor, Mems Root and lady, Rev. John McLean, Mrs. Owen Lovejoy,

Mrs. Noyes Kendall.

[354] The officers were: _President_, Mrs. M. Livermore;

_Vice-Presidents_, the Rev. Dr. Goodspeed, Mrs. Helen M. Beveridge,

Judge Bradwell, the Rev. Edward Beecher, the Rev. D. Eggleston,

Miss Eliza Bowman, the Rev. Dr. Fowler, Mrs. Elizabeth Loomis, Mrs.

M. Hawley, Mrs. M. Wheeler, Mrs. Myra Bradwell; _Secretaries_, Mrs.

Jeanne Fowler Willing, of Rockford, Mrs. Elizabeth Babbitt, and

George Graham, Esq.; _Committee on Finance_, Judge Bradwell,

General Beveridge and the Hon. S. M. Booth. The speakers were Anna

Dickinson, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Rev. Robert

Collyer, Rev. Mr. Hammond, Rev. Robert Laird Collier, Kate N.

Doggett, and many of the officers of the convention.

[355] For this speech see Vol. II., page 348.

[356] The officers of the convention were: _President_, Mary A.

Livermore; _Vice-Presidents_, the Rev. Robert Collyer, Professor

Haven; _Recording Secretary_, Jeanne Willing, of Rockford;

_Corresponding Secretary_, Myra Bradwell; _Executive Committee_,

Professor Haven, chairman; the Rev. Dr. Edward Beecher, Elizabeth

J. Loomis, Hannah B. Manford, the Rev. E. Eggleston, the Rev. C. H.

Fowler the Rev. E. J. Goodspeed, Rebecca Mott, Charlotte L.

Levanway.

[357] The committee to visit Springfield were Hon. James B.

Bradwell, Mrs. Myra Bradwell, Mrs. Kate N. Doggett, the Rev. E.

Goodspeed, the Hon. C. B. Waite, and Mrs. Rebecca Mott.

[358] _Indiana_--Elizabeth Boynton Harbert, Dr. Mary Wilhite, Emma

Mallory, and Amanda Way; _Missouri_--Rebecca N. Hazzard;

_Wisconsin_--Lelia Peckham; _Iowa_--Mary Newbury Adams, Matilda

Fletcher; _Minnesota_--Mrs. Bishop; _Kansas_--Mrs. Henry;

_Ohio_--Margaret V. Longley; _Michigan_--Professor Stone;

_Massachusetts_--Henry B. Blackwell, and Lucy Stone; _New

York_--Susan B. Anthony, most of whom took part in the discussions.

[359] Letters were also received from Paulina Wright Davis,

Frederick Douglass, Hon. Sharon Tyndale, Rev. D. H. N. Powers, Mrs.

Arabella Mansfield, Rev. Willis Lord.

[360] The speakers were Mrs. Livermore, Mrs. Stone, Hon. Sharon

Tyndale, Hon. E. Haines, and Judge Bradwell.

[361] One thousand three hundred and eighty women of Peoria also

prayed that the constitution might not be so amended as to

enfranchise women; another evidence of the demoralizing influence

of any form of slavery upon the human mind. Had not these women

been lacking in a proper self-respect they would not have protested

against the right to govern themselves.--[E. C. S.

[362] Our limited space prevents the publication of Judge Waite's

argument and Judge Jameson's decision.

[363] Jane Graham Jones and Elizabeth Loomis represented the Cook

County Association. Delegates from several other districts were

present. The speakers were A. J. Grover, Mrs. Jane Graham Jones,

Miss Anthony, Mrs. Adelle Hazlett of Michigan, Dr. Ellen B.

Furguson of Indiana, Mr. and Mrs. Fell, Mr. and Mrs. Prince.

[364] For Mrs. Bradwell's case see Vol. II., page 601.

[365] Those who have traveled and lectured through the West and

spent many rainy Sundays in dreary hotels, know how to appreciate a

few days rest in the delightful homes scattered over the country as

well as in the towns and cities. How many of these memory recalls

in the State of Illinois! What a hospitable reception we had in the

cozy farm-house of Mrs. Owen Lovejoy at Princeton, and in the

stately residence of Mrs. Noyes Kendall at La Moile, in the home of

Judge Lawrence at Galesburg, Mrs. Judge Joslyn at Woodstock, Mrs.

R.M. Patrick, Marengo; Mrs. A.W. Brayton, Mt. Morris; Mrs. Eldridge

Norwood, Olney; Rev. Dr. Moffatt, Monticello; Col. E.B. Loop,

Belvidere; Mrs. Judge Greer, Decatur; Mr. and Mrs. Prince,

Bloomington; Col. and Mrs. Latham, Lincoln, and others too numerous

to mention in all the Western States.--[S.B.A.

[366] At her beautiful home, 910 Prairie avenue, her social

influence was even more than her public work. An unfriendly report

in any journal was uniformly followed by an invitation to dinner to

the editor or some one of his staff, to meet the lady criticised,

or discuss the point of attack. Miss Emily Faithful, Mrs. Stanton,

Miss Anthony and Miss Couzins have all in turn shared these dinners

and discussions. If the Methodist Episcopal conference sent an

opponent to preach in their church, and a little social attention

did not convert him, two persons left the church. Neither Mrs.

Jones nor her husband would listen to the Rev. Dr. Hatfield, for

Fernando Jones was always as staunch an advocate of the suffrage

for women as his wife, and had no faith in a religion that did not

teach human equality.--[S. B. A.

[367] "_Ducit Amor Patriae_"; "1876."--Centennial Commemoration,

Evanston, Ill. Music, prayer, music; recitation, Miss M. E. Brown;

music, "Battle Hymn"; salutatory, "Woman and Philanthropy," Mrs.

Elizabeth Boynton Harbert; "Historical Record of the Educational

Work of Our Women," Mrs. Mary Bannister Willard; music, "Whittier's

Hymn; recitation, Miss M. E. Brown; Missionary Roll of Honor, Miss

Jessie Brown; oration, Rev. F. L. Chapell; benediction.

[368] Mary F. Haskin, Melinda Hamline, Caroline Bishop, Elizabeth

M. Greenleaf, Harriet S. Kidder, Mary T. Willard, Mary I. K. Huse,

Cornelia Lunt, Harriet N. Noyes, Maria Cook, Margaret P. Evans,

Sarah I. Hurd, Annie H. Thornton, Abby L. Brown, and Virginia S.

Kent.

[369] Prominent among these journalists were Margaret Buchanan

Sullivan and Mrs. Annie Kerr of the Chicago _Times_, Mrs. Hubbard

of the _Tribune_, Miss Farrand of the _Advance_, Virginia

Fitzgerald and Alice Hobbins of the _Inter-Ocean_, Mrs. Myra

Bradwell, editor of the _Legal News_, Mrs. Catharine V. Waite and

Mrs. DeGeer of the _Crusader_, Mrs. Louisa White of the Moline

_Dispatch_, Mrs. C. B. Bostwick of the Mattoon _Gazette_, Mrs. J.

Oberly of the Cairo _Bulletin_, Miss Mary West of the Galesburg

_Republican_, Mrs. Celia Wooley, Miss Eliza Bowman, Mrs. Clara Lyon

Peters of the Watseka _Times_, Jane Grey Swisshelm, Elizabeth Holt

Babbitt, and many others.

[370] The officers of the Illinois Social Science Association were:

_President_, Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton Harbert, Evanston; _Recording

Secretary_, Miss Sarah A. Richards, Chicago; _Corresponding

Secretary_, Mrs. W. E. Clifford, Evanston; _Treasurer_, Mrs. H. H.

Candee, Cairo; _Directors_, Mrs. Helen M. Beveredge, Evanston; Mrs.

Frank Denman, Quincy; Mrs. C. A. Beck, Centralia; Mrs. R.

McLoughrey, Joliet; Mrs. W. O. Carpenter, Chicago; Miss M.

Fredricka Perry, Chicago; _Vice-Presidents_, First Congressional

District, Mrs. Eliza R. Sunderland, Chicago; Second, Mrs. W. D.

Babbitt, Chicago; Third, Mrs. Chas. E. Brown. Evanston; Fourth,

Mrs. Carrie A. Potter, Rockford; Fifth, Mrs. F. A. W. Shimer, Mt.

Carroll; Sixth, Mrs. Sarah C. McIntosh, Joliet; Thirteenth, Mrs. B.

M. Prince, Bloomington; Fourteenth, Mrs. C. B. Bostwick, Mattoon;

Sixteenth, Mrs. J. W. Seymour, Centralia; Nineteenth, Mrs. J. H.

Oberly, Cairo.

[371] _President_, Mrs. Fernando Jones; _Vice-Presidents_, Mrs.

Robert Collyer, Mrs. Richard Somers, Rev. C. D. Helmer;

_Corresponding-Secretary_, Mrs. C. B. Waite; _Recording-Secretary_,

Mrs. S. H. Pierce; _Treasurer_, Mrs. J. W. Loomis; _Executive

Committee_, Mrs. Rebecca Mott, Mrs. H. W. Fuller, Mrs. Dr. C. D. R.

Levanway, Fernando Jones, Miss Thayer, Rev. J. M. Reid, Mrs. Jno.

Jones, Mrs. Wm. Coker, Dr. S. C. Blake.

[372] The officers of the Illinois State Association are now,

1885; _President_, Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton Harbert, Evanston;

_Vice-President-at-large_, Mrs. M. E. Holmes, Galva; _Secretary_,

Rev. Florence Kollock, Englewood; _Treasurer_, Dr. L. C. Bedell,

354 N. La Salle street, Chicago; _Executive Committee_, Hon. M. B.

Castle, Sandwich: Mrs. E. J. Loomis, 2,939 Wabash avenue, Chicago;

Mrs. Clara L. Peters, Watseka; Mrs. L. R. Wardner, Anna; Mrs. Julia

Mills Dunn, Moline; Mrs. Helen E. Starrett, Lake Side Building,

Chicago; Capt. W. S. Harbert, Evanston; Rev. C. C. Harrah, Galva.

[373] From time to time we have had for president, Mrs. Eunice G.

Sayles, Mrs. Anna M. J. Dow, Mrs. Flora N. Candee, Mrs. Julia Mills

Dunn, Mrs. Nettie H. Wheelock; for secretaries, Mrs. C. W. Heald,

Mrs. Lucy Anderson, Mrs. Kate Anderson; among those who have been

active members of the society from its formation are, Harriet B. G.

Lester, Ida Peyton, L. F. M'Clennan, Catharine H. Calkins, Dr. Jane

H. Miller, Margaret Osborne, Harriet M. Gillette, Laoti Gates, Mary

F. Barnes, Mary Wright, M. M. Hubbard, Emma Jones, Mary A. Stewart,

Kate S. Holt, Mary A. Stephens, Abbie A. Gould, Mrs. M'Cord, Lydia

Wheelock, Mrs. E. P. Reynolds, J. A. Tallman, Ann Eliza Reator, Dr.

S. E. Bailey, Dr. E. A. Taylor, Lucy Ainsworth, Jerome B. Wheelock,

M. A. Young, Mary Knowles, M. E. Abbot, Lois Forward, Mrs. Young.

[374] Mrs. Clara Lyon Peters of Watseka, furnished the largest

petition ever sent from Illinois; W. B. Wright of Greenview, Mrs.

S. Eliza Lyon of Toulon, Mrs. Hannah J. Coffee of Orion, Mrs. Eva

Edwards of Plymouth, Mrs. C. E. Larned of Champaign, Mrs. Barbara

M. Prince of Bloomington, Mrs. F. B. Rowe of Freedom, Mrs. Jane

Barnett, Mrs. E. H. Blacfan, and Mrs. E. T. Lippincott of Orion,

Mrs. Julia Dunn of Moline, Mrs. Clara P. Bourland of Peoria,

Sybilla Leek Browne of Odell, Mrs. Jacob Martin, Cairo, Mary E.

Higbee, Kirkland Grove, Mary Thompson, LaSalle, Emily Z. Hall of

Savoy, Elizabeth J. Loomis of Chicago, have all done worthy work in

circulating petitions, both to congress and the State legislature.

[375] Mrs. Archibald is the daughter of Betsey Hawks, of Genesee

county, N. Y. I well remember the brave-hearted mother in the early

days of the movement, when in 1852 I made my first stammering

speech in the town-hall at Batavia. She arranged the meeting, and

entertained the speakers, and was indeed "the cause" in that

conservative village.--[S. B. A.

[376] When at Durand, near Davis, in 1877, Mrs. Davis and her

husband drove over, and at the close of my lecture, she gave me her

maiden name and said, "Do you not remember me? I sat by your side

and fairly pushed you up in that teachers' convention at Rochester,

in 1853, when you made that first speech you told about; and I have

been most earnestly hoping and working for the enfranchisement of

women ever since."--[S.B.A.

CHAPTER XLIV.

MISSOURI.

Missouri the First State to Open Colleges of Law and Medicine to

Woman--Liberal Legislation--Eight Causes for Divorce--Harriet

Hosmer--Wayman Crow--Works of Art--Women in the War--Adeline

Couzins--Virginia L. Minor--Petitions--Woman Suffrage

Association, May 8, 1867--First Woman Suffrage Convention, Oct.

6, 1869--Able Resolutions by Francis Minor--Action Asked for in

the Methodist Church--Constitutional Convention--Mrs. Hazard's

Report--National Suffrage Association, 1879--Virginia L. Minor

Before the Committee on Constitutional Amendments--Mrs. Minor

Tries to Vote--Her Case in the Supreme Court--Miss Phoebe Couzins

Graduated from the Law School, 1871--Reception by Members of the

Bar--Speeches--Dr. Walker--Judge Krum--Hon. Albert

Todd--Ex-Governor E. O. Stanard--Ex-Senator Henderson--Judge

Reber--George M. Stewart--Mrs. Minor--Miss Couzins--Mrs. Annie R.

Irvine--"Oregon Woman's Union."

It has often been a subject for speculation why it was that a slave

State like Missouri should have been the first to open her medical

and law schools to women, and why the suffrage movement from the

beginning should there have enlisted so large a number of men[377]

and women of wealth and position, who promptly took an active

interest in the inauguration of the work. A little research into

history shows that there must have been some liberal statesmen,

some men endowed with wisdom and a sense of justice, who influenced

the early legislation in Missouri.

By the constitution, imprisonment for debt is forbidden, except for

fines and penalties imposed for violation of law. A homestead not

exceeding $3,000 in value in cities of 40,000 inhabitants or more,

and not exceeding $1,500 in smaller cities and in the country, is

exempt from levy on execution. The real estate of a married woman

is not liable for the debts of her husband. There are eight causes

for divorce, so many doors of escape for unfortunate wives from the

bondage of a joyless union.

The memory of the unjust treatment of Miss Hosmer will always be a

reproach to Massachusetts. That she enjoyed the privileges of

education in Missouri denied her in Massachusetts was due in no

small measure to the generosity and public spirit of Wayman Crow.

Speaking of the gifted sculptor, a correspondent says:

Harriet Hosmer was born in 1830. She studied sculpture in the

studio of Mr. Stephenson, in Boston, and also with her father. In

1830, after being denied admission to anatomical lectures in

Harvard and many other colleges at the East, she went to St.

Louis, where, through the spirited determination of Wayman Crow,

a most liberal benefactor of Washington University, she was

admitted to the Missouri Medical College through the kindness and

courtesy of Dr. Joseph N. McDowell, its founder and head. Here

for a whole winter she pursued her studies under the instruction

of Dr. McDowell and Dr. Louis T. Pim, the able demonstrator of

anatomy of the college, who gave her the benefit of their

constant and unremitting aid; also Dr. B. Gratz Moses and Dr. J.

B. Johnson were particularly kind in inviting her to be present

when important cases were before them. The names of these men are

gratefully mentioned, now that the doors of hundreds of colleges

have opened to women. While in St. Louis Miss Hosmer had a

constant companion and friend in Miss Jane Peck, a lady well

known in society circles, and together they daily attended at the

college; indeed, Miss Peck informed the writer, that on no

occasion did Miss Hosmer go to the college without her. So

quietly was this done, it was not until the month of February

that the students became aware of their attending, and when

informed of it the entire class, numbering about one hundred and

thirty, gave them a most cordial and hearty endorsement, and from

that time on until the day of graduation they were treated by the

young gentlemen with marked attention. The students were not

aware of their attending in the earlier part of the course,

because it had been the custom for the ladies to attend in the

amphitheater after the class had left to go to the various

hospitals. On one occasion while on their way to the college, a

number of the students being behind them, they heard the

gentlemen say to some men they met, "These ladies are under our

charge, and if you offer them an insult we will shoot you down."

They did not hear the language of the men, only the reply of the

students. At the close of the session the students gave a ball

and not only were Miss Hosmer and Miss Peck invited, but a

carriage was specially sent to take them to it.

In March, 1869, Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony again visited St.

Louis. In a letter to _The Revolution_ the former said:

We went to the Mercantile Library to see Miss Hosmer's works of

art, and there read the following letter to Wayman Crow, who had

been a generous friend to her through all those early days of

trial and disappointment. One of the best of her productions is

an admirable bust of her noble benefactor:

BOSTON, October 18, 1857.

DEAR MR. CROW: Will you allow me to convey through you to

the Mercantile Library Association "The Beatrice Cenci."

This statue is in execution of a commission I received three

years ago from a friend who requested me not only to make a

piece of statuary for that institution, but to present it in

my own name. I have finished the work, but cannot offer it

as my own gift--but of one who, with a most liberal hand,

has largely ministered to the growth of the arts and

sciences in your beautiful city. For your sake, and for

mine, I would have made a better statue if I could. The will

was not wanting, but the power--but such as it is, I rejoice

sincerely that it is destined for St. Louis, a city I love,

not only because it was there I first began my studies, but

because of the many generous and indulgent friends who dwell

therein--of whom I number you most generous and indulgent of

all, whose increasing kindness I can only repay by striving

to become more and more worthy of all your friendship and

confidence, and so I am ever affectionately and gratefully

yours,

_Wayman Crow, Esq._ H.G. HOSMER.

The very active part that the women of Missouri had taken in the

civil war, in the hospitals and sanitary department, had aroused

their enthusiasm in the preservation of the Union and their sense

of responsibility in national affairs. The great mass-meetings of

the Loyal Women's Leagues, too, did an immense educational work in

broadening their sympathies and the horizon of their sphere of

action. So wholly absorbed had they been in the intense excitement

of that period, that when peace came their hands and hearts,

unoccupied, naturally turned to new fields of achievement. While in

some States it was the temperance question, in St. Louis it was

specifically woman suffrage.

We are indebted for the main facts of this chapter to Mr. Francis

Minor, Mrs. Rebecca N. Hazard, Miss Couzins and Miss Arathusa

Forbes, who have kindly sent us what information they had or could

hastily glean from the journals of the time or the imperfect

records of the association.

The labors of Mrs. Minor and Mrs. Couzins were exceptionally

protracted and severe. The latter offered her services as nurse

at the very opening of the war. The letters received from men in

authority show how highly their services were appreciated. Dr.

Pope who writes the following, was the leading surgeon in St.

Louis:

ST. LOUIS, April 26, 1861.

Mrs. J. E. D. COUZINS--_Dear Madam_: Your note in which, in

case of collision here, you generously offer your services

in the capacity of nurse, is just received. Should so dire a

calamity befall us (which God forbid), I shall, in case of

need, most assuredly remember your noble offer. With high

regard and sincere thanks, I am,

Yours very truly, CHAS. A. POPE.

HEADQUARTERS 2D BRIG., MO. VOL., ST. LOUIS, MO.,

Aug. 23, 1861.

Mrs. J. E. D. COUZINS, _present--Madam_: I received your

kind letter, dated Aug. 17. Accept my heartfelt thanks for

your generous offer. I regard the nursing of our wounded

soldiers by the tender hands of patriotic ladies as a most

effectual means of easing their condition and encouraging

them to new efforts in defense of our glorious cause. You

will please confer with Mrs. von Wackerbarth, corner Seventh

and Elm streets, in regard to the steps to be taken in this

matter.

Your obedient servant, F. SIGEL, _Brig.-Gen. Com._

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI, February 18th, 1862.

The commanding officers at Cairo, Paducah, or vicinity, are

hereby requested to grant any facilities consistent with the

public interests that may be desired by the bearers of this

note. They are Mrs. Couzins and Crawshaw, of the Ladies'

Union Aid Society, who wish to administer relief to our sick

and wounded. By order of

J. T. PRICE, _A. D. C._ Maj.-Gen'l HALLECK.

ROOMS WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION, ST. LOUIS, Oct, 6th, 1862.

MY DEAR MRS. COUZINS: The surgeon-general has notified me

that he may want me to send nurses and surgeons to Columbus

and Corinth. I look to you, my dear madam, as one ever ready

to volunteer when you can be of real service. In case it

should become necessary, may I rely on your valuable

services? Such other names as you may suggest I would be

pleased to have.

Very respectfully,

JAS. E. YEATMAN.

OFFICE OF WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION, }

SAINT LOUIS, MO., Oct. 8th, 1862. }

Mrs. Couzins has been detailed to service in the hospital

steamer T.L. McGill, as volunteer nurse.

N.B.--If the place of service is changed, a new certificate

will be issued.

JAMES E. YEATMAN, President of Sanitary Commission.

CORINTH, Oct. 13, 1862.

Pass Mrs. Couzins from Corinth to Columbus.

W. S. ROSECRANZ, _Maj.-Gen'l U. S. A._

HEADQUARTERS DEP'T OF THE TENNESSEE, }

BEFORE VICKSBURG, Feb'y 21st, 1863. }

The quartermaster in charge of transportation at Memphis,

Tenn., will furnish transportation on any chartered steamer

plying between Memphis, Tenn., and St. Louis, to Mrs.

Couzins and five other ladies, members of the Western

Sanitary Commission, and who have been with this fleet

distributing sanitary goods for the benefit of sick

soldiers.

U.S. GRANT, _Maj.-Gen. Com_.

Capt. J. B. LEWIS,

_A. Q. M. and Master of Transportation_, Memphis, Tenn.

While Mrs. Couzins thus gave herself to mitigating the sufferings

of the "boys in blue," in camp and hospital, Mrs. Minor was no

less active and energetic in the equally important department of

preserving supplies for the sanitary commission. Although Mrs.

Minor resided too far from the city to attend the evening

meetings, and her name does not appear in the accounts of such

gatherings, she was one of the first members of the Ladies' Union

Aid Society of St. Louis, and took part in the meeting of loyal

women called and presided over by Gen. Curtis. Having an orchard

and dairy on her place, she furnished the hospital with milk and

fruit, and for more than two years, sent a supply every day to

the soldiers in camp at Benton barracks. When the news came that

the army around Vicksburg was suffering with scurvy, she took her

carriage and drove through the country soliciting fruit, and in

one week she canned with her own hands, a wagon-load of cherries,

the sanitary commission finding the cans and sugar, and from time

to time she continued the work until the end of the war. When the

great fair was held under the auspices of the Western Sanitary

Commission, she was a member of the floral department, and

worked with her accustomed energy. The sanitary commission,

feeling that she had done so much, wrote her a letter of thanks,

and enclosed her a check for a liberal amount; but she returned

the check, saying that hers was a work of love, and not for

money. Although the official letter of the commission thanking

Mrs. Minor for her most valuable services, is lost, the following

to Mr. Minor may fairly be considered as including her also:

ROOMS WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION, St. Louis, Oct. 7, 1863.

FRANCIS MINOR, Esq.--_My Dear Sir_: I am directed by our

board to return you their thanks in behalf of the soldiers

in the hospitals, for your long-continued remembrance of

them, and for the daily supply of fresh fruits, vegetables

and milk, which you have furnished for the sick, now more

than two years. Your garner and sympathy have been like the

widow's cruse, and may they ever continue to be so. What you

have done has been in the most quiet and unobtrusive way.

The sick soldier has had no more constant, uniform and

untiring friend, and it is with pleasure that I convey the

thanks of the board, both to yourself and wife, who have

been as indefatigable at home in preparing canned fruits and

other delicacies for the sick soldiers in the field, as you

have been in providing for those in the hospitals. With

grateful feelings and many thanks and best wishes, I remain,

Very respectfully yours,

JAMES E. YEATMAN,

_President Western Sanitary Commission_.

The submission of a constitutional amendment in Kansas, and the

preparations for a thorough canvass of that State, had its

influence in heightening the enthusiasm and increasing the

agitation in Missouri, as most of the speakers going to Kansas

held meetings at various points. Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony

stopped at St. Louis both going and returning, held large

meetings in Library Hall, and had a pleasant reception in the

parlors of the Southern Hotel, where many warm friendships that

have lasted ever since, were formed.

The subject of woman's enfranchisement had doubtless often

occurred to the thoughtful men and women of Missouri, long before

the movement in its behalf assumed anything like a practical

shape. The manifest absurdity and injustice of declaring, as the

constitution of the State did, "that all political power is

vested in, and derived from the people; that all government of

right originates from the people, is founded upon their will

only, and is instituted solely for the good of the whole," and at

the same time, denying to one-half of the people any voice

whatever in framing their government or making their laws, could

not fail to strike the attention of any one who gave the subject

the slightest consideration. But no attempt was made towards an

organization in behalf of woman suffrage until the winter of

1866-7; and the movement then had its origin from the following

circumstance: During the debate in the Senate of the United

States, on the district suffrage bill, December 12, 1866, Senator

Brown, of Missouri, in the course of his remarks said:

I have to say then, sir, here on the floor of the American

Senate, I stand for universal suffrage, and as a matter of

fundamental principle do not recognize the right of society

to limit it on any ground of race, color, or sex. I will go

further, and say that I recognize the right of franchise as

being intrinsically a natural right; and I do not believe

that society is authorized to impose any limitation upon it

that does not spring out of the necessities of the social

state itself.

When Mrs. Francis Minor, of St. Louis, who had given the subject

much thought, read the report of Senator Brown's speech, she

considered that it was due to him from the women of the State

that he should receive a letter of thanks for his bold and

out-spoken utterances in their behalf. She accordingly wrote him

such a letter, obtaining to it all the signatures she could, and

it was presented to Senator Brown on his return home. But

although first an advocate of the measure, he soon recanted, and

gave his influence against it.

It was next determined to petition the legislature of the State

then in session, January, 1867, to propose an amendment to the

constitution, striking out the word "male," in the article on

suffrage. Such a petition was presented, and attracted much

attention, as it was the first instance of the kind in the

history of the State. This move was followed by a formal

organization of the friends of the cause, and on May 8, 1867, the

"Missouri Woman Suffrage Association" was organized, and officers

elected.[378]

We find the following letter from Mr. Minor in _The Revolution_

of January 22, 1868:

_Editors of The Revolution_: In order to show the steady

progress that the grand idea of equal rights is slowly but

surely making among the people of these United States, I

think it would be well, in the beginning, at least, to make

a record in _The Revolution_ of the fact of each successive

State organization; and for that purpose I send you the list

of officers for the association in Missouri not yet a year

old; as also their petition to the legislature for a change

in the organic law, and a brief address to the voters of the

State, in support of the movement:

_To the Voters of Missouri:_

The women of this State, having organized for the purpose of

agitating their claims to the ballot, it becomes every

intelligent and reflecting mind to consider the question

fairly and dispassionately. If it has merits, it will

eventually succeed; if not, it will fail. I am of the number

of those who believe that claim to be just and right, for

the following, among other reasons:

Taxation and Representation should go hand in hand. This is

the very corner-stone of our government. Its founders

declared, and the declaration cannot be too often repeated,

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are

created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with

certain inalienable rights; that among these are life,

liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure those

rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their

just powers from the consent of the governed." The man who

believes in that declaration, cannot justly deny to women

the right of suffrage. They are citizens, they are

tax-payers; they bear the burdens of government--why should

they be denied the rights of citizens? We boast about

liberty and equality before the law, when the truth is, our

government is controlled by one-half only of the population.

The others have no more voice in the making of their laws,

or the selection of their rulers, than the criminals who are

in our penitentiaries; nay, in one respect, their condition

is not as good as that of the felon, for he may be pardoned

and restored to a right which woman can never obtain. And

this, not because she has committed any crime, or violated

any law, but simply because she is, what God made her--a

woman! Possessed of the same intelligence--formed in the

same mold--having the same attributes, parts and

passions--held by her Maker to the same measure of

responsibility here and hereafter, her actual position in

society to-day is that of an inferior. No matter what her

qualifications may be, every avenue of success is virtually

closed against her. Even when she succeeds in obtaining

employment, she gets only half the pay that a man does for

the same work. But, it is said, woman's sphere is at home.

Would giving her the right to vote interfere with her home

duties any more than it does with a man's business? Again it

is said, that for her to vote would be unfeminine. Is it at

all more indelicate for a woman to go to the polls, than it

is for her to go to the court-house and pay her taxes? The

truth is, woman occupies just the position that man has

placed her in, and it ill becomes him to urge such

objections. Give her a chance--give her the opportunity of

proving whether these objections are well founded or not.

Her influence for good is great, notwithstanding all the

disadvantages under which she at present labors; and my firm

belief is, that that influence would be greatly enhanced and

extended by the exercise of this new right. It would be felt

at the ballot-box and in the halls of legislation. Better

men, as a general rule, would be elected to office, and

society in all its ramifications, would feel and rejoice at

the change.

A VOTER.

_To the General Assembly of the State of Missouri: _

GENTLEMEN: The undersigned women of Missouri, believing that

all citizens who are taxed for the support of the government

and subject to its laws, should have a voice in the making

of those laws, and the selection of their rulers; that, as

the possession of the ballot ennobles and elevates the

character of man, so, in like manner, it would ennoble and

elevate that of woman by giving her a direct and personal

interest in the affairs of government; and further,

believing that the spirit of the age, as well as every

consideration of justice and equity, requires that the

ballot should be extended to our sex, do unite in praying

that an amendment to the constitution may be proposed,

striking out the word "male" and extending to women the

right of suffrage.

And, as in duty bound, your petitioners will ever pray.

On behalf of the Missouri Woman Suffrage Association.

[Signed:] _President_, Mrs. Francis Minor; _Vice-President_,

Mrs. Beverly Allen; _Corresponding Secretary_, Mrs. Wm. T.

Hazard; _Recording Secretary_, Mrs. Geo. D. Hall;

_Treasurer_, Mrs. N. Stevens, St. Louis, Missouri.

Copies of the petition, and information furnished upon

addressing either of above named officers. Formation of

auxiliary associations in every county requested. Petitions

when completely signed, to be returned to the head office.

These papers will serve to show that the idea has taken root

in other States beyond the Mississippi besides Kansas; and

may also be somewhat of a guide to others, who may desire to

accomplish the same purpose elsewhere. A work of such

magnitude requires, of course, time for development; but the

leaven is working. The fountains of the great deep of public

thought have been broken up. The errors and prejudices of

six thousand years are yielding to the sunlight of truth. In

spite of pulpits and politicians, the great idea is making

its way to the hearts of the people; and woman may rejoice

in believing that the dawn of her deliverance, so long hoped

for and prayed for, is at last approaching.

F. M.

_St. Louis_, January, 1868.

The following from _The Revolution_ shows that the women of St.

Louis were awake on the question of taxation:

The women here have endeavored to find out to what extent

taxation without representation, because of sex, obtains in this

city, and as the result of their inquiries they are enabled to

place on their records the following very suggestive document.

ASSESSOR'S OFFICE, ST. LOUIS, January 30, 1869.

_To Mrs. Couzins and Emma Finkelnburg, Committee of the

Ladies' Suffrage Association:_

In reply to your request to report to your association the

amount of property listed in the city of St. Louis in the

name of ladies, permit me to state that the property in

question is represented by over 2,000 tax-paying ladies, and

assessed at the value of $14,490,199.

Yours very respectfully,

ROBT. J. ROMBAUER, _Assessor_.

This exhibit has opened the eyes of a good many people. "Two

thousand on 'em," exclaimed a male friend of mine, "and over

fourteen millions of property! Whew! What business have these

women with so much money?" Well, they have it, and now they ask

us, "Shall 2,000 men, not worth a dollar, just because they wear

pantaloons go to the polls and vote taxes on us, while we are

excluded from the ballot-box for no other reason than sex?" What

_shall_ we say to them? They ask us if the American Revolution

did not turn on this hinge, _No taxation without representation_.

Who can answer?

The advocates of suffrage in St. Louis made their attacks at once

in both Church[379] and State, and left no means of agitation

untried. There has never been an association in any State that

comprised so many able men and women who gave their best thoughts

to every phase of this question, and who did so grand a work,

until the unfortunate division in 1871, which seemed to chill the

enthusiasm of many friends of the movement.

In the winter of 1869 the association sent a large delegation of

ladies to the legislature with a petition containing about 2,000

signatures. A correspondent in _The Revolution_, February 6,

1869, said:

It will not be feminine to say, yet I fear I must say, the

women of Missouri have stormed their capitol, and if it is

not yet taken, the outworks are in our hands, and I believe

with a few more well-directed blows the victory will be

ours. On February 3 a large delegation of ladies,

representing the Suffrage Association of Missouri, visited

Jefferson City for the purpose of laying before the

legislature a large and influentially signed petition,

asking the ballot for women; and we were gratified to see

the great respect and deference shown to the women of

Missouri by the wisest and best of her legislators in their

respectful and cordial reception of the delegates. Both

Houses adjourned, and gave the use of the house for the

afternoon, when eloquent addresses were made by Mrs. J.G.

Phelps of Springfield, Dr. Ada Greunan of St. Louis, and the

future orator of Missouri, Miss Phoebe Couzins, whose able

and effective address the press has given in full. Of the

brave men who stood up for us, it is more difficult to

speak. To give a list would be impossible; for every name

would require a eulogy too lengthy for the pages of _The

Revolution_. We will, therefore, record them on the tablets

of our memory with a hand so firm that they shall stand out

brightly till time shall be no more. Of the small majority

who oppose us we will say nothing, but throw over them the

pall of merciful oblivion.

The first woman suffrage convention ever held in the city of St.

Louis, or the State of Missouri, assembled in Mercantile Library,

October 6, 7, 1869. Many distinguished people were on the

platform.[380] At this convention Mr. Francis Minor introduced a

very able series of resolutions, on which Mrs. Minor made a

remarkably logical address.[381] The following letter from Mr.

Minor shows the careful research he gave to the consideration of

this question:

ST. LOUIS, December 30, 1869.

DEAR REVOLUTION: So thoroughly am I satisfied that the

surest and most direct course to pursue to obtain a

recognition of woman's claim to the ballot, lies through the

courts of the country, that I am induced to ask you to

republish the resolutions that I drafted, and which were

unanimously adopted by the St. Louis convention. And I will

here add, that to accomplish this end, and to carry these

resolutions into practical effect, it is intended by Mrs.

Minor, the president of the State Association, to make a

test case in her instance at our next election; take it

through the courts of Missouri, and thence to the Supreme

Court of the United States at Washington. I think it will be

admitted that these resolutions place the cause of woman

upon higher ground than ever before asserted, in the fact

that for the first time suffrage is claimed as a privilege

based upon citizenship, and secured by the Constitution of

the United States. It will be seen that the position taken

is, that the States have the right to regulate, but not to

prohibit, the elective franchise to citizens of the United

States. Thus the States may determine the qualifications of

electors. They may require the elector to be of a certain

age, to have had a fixed residence, to be of a sane mind,

and unconvicted of crime, etc., because these are

qualifications or conditions that all citizens, sooner or

later, may attain; but to go beyond this, and say to

one-half the citizens of the State, notwithstanding you

possess all these qualifications you shall never vote, is of

the very essence of despotism. It is a bill of attainder of

the most odious character.

A further investigation of the subject will show that the

language of the constitutions of all the States, with the

exception of those of Massachusetts and Virginia, on the

subject of suffrage is peculiar. They almost all read

substantially alike: "White male citizens, etc., shall be

entitled to vote," and this is supposed to exclude all other

citizens. There is no direct exclusion, except in the two

States above named. Now the error lies in supposing that an

enabling clause is necessary at all. The right of the people

of a State to participate in a government of their own

creation requires no enabling clause; neither can it be

taken from them by implication. To hold otherwise would be

to interpolate in the constitution a prohibition that does

not exist. In framing a constitution the people are

assembled in their sovereign capacity; and being possessed

of all rights and all powers, what is not surrendered is

retained. Nothing short of a direct prohibition can work a

disseizin of rights that are fundamental. In the language of

John Jay to the people of New York, urging the adoption of

the Constitution of the United States, "silence and blank

paper neither give nor take away anything," and Alexander

Hamilton says (_Federalist_, No. 83), "Every man of

discernment must at once perceive the wide difference

between silence and abolition."

The mode and manner in which the people shall take part in

the government of their creation may be prescribed by the

constitution, but the right itself is antecedent to all

constitutions. It is inalienable, and can neither be bought,

nor sold, nor given away. But even if it should be held that

this view is untenable, and that women are disfranchised by

the several State constitutions directly, or by implication,

then I say that such prohibitions are clearly in conflict

with the Constitution of the United States, and yield

thereto. The language of that instrument is clear and

emphatic: "All persons born or naturalized in the United

States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are

citizens of the United States, and of the State wherein they

reside." "No State shall make, or enforce any law that shall

abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the

United States." It would be impossible to add to the force

or effect of such language, and equally impossible to

attempt to explain it away.

Very respectfully, FRANCIS MINOR.

The St. Louis _Democrat_ spoke of the convention as follows:

Readers of our report have doubtless been interested to

observe the fair spirit and dignified manner of the woman

suffrage convention, and the ability displayed in some of

the addresses. It is but due to the managers to say that

they extended most courteous invitations to gentlemen not

identified with the movement to address the convention, and

state freely their objections to the extension of the

franchise. Of those invited some were prevented by duties

elsewhere from attending. Others, it may be, felt that it

would scarcely be a gracious thing, in spite of the

liberality of the invitation, to occupy the time of a

convention in favor of the extension of the franchise with

arguments against it. But the objections which, after all,

probably have most weight with candid men are those which it

is not easy to discuss in public, namely: "Will not

extension of suffrage to women have an injurious effect upon

the family and sexual relations?" "Will not the ballot be

used rather by that class who would not use it wisely than

by those who are most competent?" We do not argue these

questions, but are sure that some frank discussion of them,

however delicate the subject may be, is necessary to

convince the great majority of those who are still doubting

or opposed. Meanwhile the reports are of interest, and

reflect no little credit upon the women of this city who

have taken so prominent a part in the movement.

The officers of the Missouri Society were annually reelected for

several years, and the work proceeded harmoniously until the

division in the National Association. The members of the Missouri

Society took sides in this division as preference dictated. Mr.

and Mrs. Minor, Miss Forbes, Miss Couzins and others were already

members of the National Association, and sympathized with its

views and modes of pushing the question.

In order that there might be no division in the Missouri

Association, a resolution was introduced by Mr. Minor and

unanimously adopted, declaring that each member of the society

should be free to join the National body of his or her choice,

and that the Missouri Association, as a society, should not

become auxiliary to either the "National" or the "American." The

good faith of the association was thus pledged to respect the

feelings and wishes of each member, and as long as this course

was observed all went well. But, at the annual meeting in 1871,

just after Mrs. Minor had for the fifth time been unanimously

reelected president, in violation of the previous action of the

association a resolution was introduced and passed, declaring

that the association should henceforth become auxiliary to the

American. This gross disregard of the wishes and feelings of

those who were members of the National Association left them no

alternative, with any feeling of self-respect, but to withdraw;

and accordingly Mrs. Minor at once tendered her resignation as

president and her withdrawal as a member of the association. She

was followed in this course by Mr. Minor, Miss Couzins, Miss

Forbes and others.[382] However, the work went steadily on.

Meetings were held regularly from week to week, with occasional

grand conventions, tracts and petitions were circulated, and

constant agitation in some way kept up.

In answer to an earnest solicitation for facts and incidents of the

suffrage movement in Missouri, Mrs. Rebecca N. Hazard, one of the

earliest and most active friends in that State, sends us the

following:

I think the cruel war had much to do in educating the women of

Missouri into a sense of their responsibilities and duties as

citizens; at least all who first took part in the suffrage

movement had been active on the Union side during the war, and

that having ended in the preservation of the government, they

naturally began to inquire as to their own rights and privileges

in the restored Union. My own feelings were first fully awakened

by the hanging of Mrs. Surrat; for, although a Unionist and an

abolitionist, I could but regard her execution by the government,

considering her helpless position, as judicial murder. I wrote on

the subject to the editor of the New York _Independent_. The

letter was handed to Miss Anthony, and resulted in an invitation

to the next meeting of the Equal Rights Society. This almost

frightened me, for I had hitherto looked askance at the woman's

rights movement.

Meeting an old friend and neighbor not long after, the talk

turned upon negro suffrage. I expressed myself in favor of that

measure, and timidly added, "And go farther--I think women also

should vote." She grasped my hand cordially, saying, "And so do

I!" This was Mrs. Virginia L. Minor. We had each cherished this

opinion, supposing that no other woman in the community held it;

and this we afterwards found to have been the experience of many

others. This was in 1866; and in the following autumn Mrs. Minor

prepared and circulated for signatures a card of thanks to Hon.

B. Gratz Brown for the recognition of woman's political rights he

had given in the United States Senate in a speech upon extending

the suffrage to the women of the District of Columbia.[383] This

card received enough names to justify another step--that of a

petition to the Missouri General Assembly. This was headed by

Mrs. Minor, and circulated with untiring energy by her, receiving

several hundred signatures, and was sent to the legislature

during the winter, where it received some degree of favor.

But as yet no effort had been made toward an organization. The

first step in that direction was in May, 1867, by Mrs. Lucretia

P. Hall and her sister, Miss Penelope Allen, daughters of Mrs.

Beverly Allen, and nieces of General Pope, in the parlors of Mrs.

Anna L. Clapp, the president of the Union Aid Society during the

war. Mrs. Hall, Mrs. Clapp and myself called a public meeting on

May 8, when the Woman Suffrage Society of Missouri was organized,

with Mrs. Minor president.

In the winter of 1868 the association sent a large delegation of

ladies to Jefferson with a petition containing about 2,000 names,

to present to the legislature. The Republicans were then in the

ascendency, and the ladies having many professed friends among

the members, were received with every demonstration of respect.

Addresses were made by Miss Phoebe Couzins and Dr. Ada Greunan.

The petition was respectfully considered and a fair vote given

for the submission of an amendment.

Subsequent sessions of the legislature have been besieged, as was

also the constitutional convention in 1875; but beyond the

passage of several laws improving the general status of women, we

have not made much impression upon the law-making power of our

State; not so much since the State passed into the hands of the

Democrats, as while the Republicans were in the majority.

But the public meetings and social influence of our association

have done much for the cause of woman suffrage. Strangers are

surprised to find so little prejudice existing against a movement

so decidedly unpopular in many places. The convention held in St.

Louis in October, 1869, was one of the very best I have ever

known, and its influence was long felt for good. In the spring of

1871 our association became auxiliary to the American, and in

consequence several of our active members seceded, viz.: Mr. and

Mrs. Minor, Miss Couzins, Dr. Greunan and others. In the autumn

of 1872 the American Association held its annual meeting in St.

Louis.

The law school of Washington University has always been open to

women. Miss Couzins was the first to avail herself of its

advantages in 1869, though Miss Barkaloo of Brooklyn, denied

admission to Columbia Law School, soon joined her, and was

admitted to the bar in 1870. While Miss Barkaloo was not the

first woman admitted to the bar in the United States, she

doubtless was the first to try a case in court. She died after a

few months of most promising practice.[384] Miss Couzins was

admitted to the bar in May, 1871.

The St. Louis School of Design, which has done much for woman,

was originated by members of our association; principally by Mrs.

Mary F. Henderson, who has given untiring effort in that

direction. Our members were also instrumental in opening to women

the St. Louis Homeopathic Medical College, and active in opposing

what was known as the St. Louis "Social Evil Law." They aided Dr.

Eliot in his valiant struggle against that iniquity. Mrs. E.

Patrick and myself called the first public meeting to protest

against the law. It was repealed March 27, 1874.

You are probably familiar with Mrs. Minor's suit to obtain

suffrage under the fourteenth amendment. We all admired her

courageous efforts for that object. Previous to that attempt our

society had earnestly advocated a sixteenth amendment for the

protection of woman's right to vote, but held the matter in

abeyance pending the suit. After its failure, we again renewed

our efforts for a sixteenth amendment, circulating and sending to

Washington our petitions. Our association holds monthly meetings

and proposes to continue the agitation.[385] I ought to say,

perhaps, that our society lends all the help possible to other

States. It gave $520 to Michigan in 1874, and $200 to Colorado in

1877.

R. N. H.

To bring the question of woman's right as a citizen of the United

States to vote for United States officers before the judiciary,

Mrs. Minor attempted to register in order to vote at the national

election in November, 1872, and being refused on account of her

sex, brought the matter before the courts in the shape of a suit

against the registering officer.[386] The point was decided

adversely to her in all the courts, being finally reported in

Vol. 21 of Wallace's U. S. Supreme Court Reports. The importance

of this decision cannot be over-estimated. It affects every

citizen of the United States, male as well as female, if, as

there pronounced, the United States has no voters of its own

creation. The Dred-Scott decision is insignificant in comparison.

Mrs. Minor made the following points in her petition:

1. As a _citizen_ of the United States, the plaintiff is

entitled to any and all the "privileges and immunities" that

belong to such position however defined; and as are held,

exercised and enjoyed by other citizens of the United

States.

2. The elective franchise is a "privilege" of citizenship,

in the highest sense of the word. It is the privilege

preservative of all rights and privileges; and especially of

the right of the citizen to participate in his or her

government.

3. The denial or abridgment of this privilege, if it exist

at all, must be sought only in the fundamental charter of

government--the Constitution of the United States. If not

found there, no inferior power or jurisdiction can legally

claim the right to exercise it.

4. But the Constitution of the United States, so far from

recognizing or permitting any denial or abridgment of the

privileges of citizens, expressly declares that "no State

shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the

privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States."

5. It follows that the provisions of the Missouri

constitution and registry law before recited are in conflict

with, and must yield to the paramount authority of, the

Constitution of the United States.

At a mass meeting held in St. Louis January 25, 1875, a

committee[387] was appointed to prepare an address to the people

of the State, setting forth the necessity of such action by the

constitutional convention, soon to assemble, as would insure to

all citizens the right of choice in their lawmakers and in the

officers whose duty it should be to execute the laws. The address

was prepared and widely circulated over the State. In June, the

convention being in session at Jefferson, Mrs. Minor, Miss

Couzins, and Mrs. Dickinson went to the capitol and were granted

a gracious hearing, but no action was conceded.

In May, 1879, the National Woman Suffrage Association held its

annual meeting at St. Louis, holding its session through the day,

morning, afternoon and evening, and so much interest was aroused

that on May 13 a local society was organized under the head of

the National Woman Suffrage Association for St. Louis,[388] with

Mrs. Minor president, which has continued to do most efficient

service to the present. During the summer of 1879, Mrs. Minor

refused to pay the tax assessed against her:

ST. LOUIS, MO., August 26, 1879.

Hon. DAVID POWERS, _President Board of Assessors_: I

honestly believe and conscientiously make oath that I have

not one dollars' worth of property subject to taxation. The

principle upon which this government rests is representation

before taxation. My property is denied representation, and

therefore can not be taxable. The law which you quote as

applicable to me in your notice to make my tax return is in

direct conflict with section 30 of the bill of rights of the

constitution of the State which declares, "No person shall

be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due

process of law," And that surely cannot be due process of

law wherein one of the parties only is law-maker, judge,

jury and executioner, and the other stands silenced, denied

the power either of assent or dissent, a condition of

"involuntary slavery" so clearly prohibited in section 31 of

the same article, as well as in the Constitution of the

United States, that no legislation or judicial prejudice can

ignore it. I trust you will believe it is from no disrespect

to you that I continue to refuse to become a party to this

injustice by making a return of property to your honorable

body, as clearly the duties of a citizen can only be exacted

where rights and privileges are equally accorded.

Respectfully, VIRGINIA L. MINOR.

Again, in February, 1881, Mrs. Minor made an able argument before

the legislative committee on constitutional amendments in support

of the petition for the enfranchisement of the women of the

State. Her pivotal point was, "By whatever tenure you, as

one-half of the people, hold it, we, the other half, claim it by

the same." And again in December of the same year at a meeting of

the Knights and Ladies of the Father Matthew Debating Club, at

which the subject was, "Is the woman's rights movement to be

encouraged?" Patrick Long, Daniel O'Connel Tracy, Richard D.

Kerwen, spoke in the affirmative; several gentlemen and two

ladies in opposition, when Mrs. Minor, who was in the audience,

was called out amid great applause, to which she responded in an

able speech, showing that the best temperance weapon in the hands

of woman is the ballot.

Of the initial steps taken for the elevation of women in the little

village of Oregon, Mrs. Annie R. Irvine writes:

The Woman's Union, an independent literary club, designed to

improve the mental, moral, and physical condition of women, held

its first meeting in Oregon, Holt county, on the evening of

January 6, 1872, at the residence of Dr. Asher Goslin. Temporary

officers were elected, and a committee appointed to prepare

by-laws for the government of the club. Six ladies[389] were

present. The succeeding meetings grew in interest, and took

strong hold upon the minds of all classes, from the fact that

hitherto no outlet had been found for the energies of our women

outside the circle of home and church. During the first two years

of its existence, the Woman's Union had to bear in a small way,

many of the sneers and taunts attending more pretentious

organizations, but luckily, when the novelty wore off, we were

allowed to pursue the quiet tenor of our way, with an occasional

slur at the "strong-minded" tendency of the organization. During

nearly fourteen years we have held regular meetings in a hall

rented for the purpose, and paid for by earnings of the society.

An excellent organ is owned by the club; they have a library of

several hundred volumes, book-cases, carpet, curtains, pictures,

tables, chairs, stove, etc., and the members take great pride in

their cosy headquarters. At this writing, interesting meetings

are held on each Wednesday evening at the homes of the different

members of the society.[390] In the course of so long a time,

this organization has had many changes. Members have removed to

all parts of the United States, and many similar clubs elsewhere

trace their origin to our society.

Several years ago an open letter from here to "Woman's Kingdom,"

in the Chicago _Inter-Ocean_ called attention to our plan of work

for small towns; as a result fifteen similar Unions were

organized, some of them still flourishing. In northwest Missouri

the same kind of clubs were formed in Maryville, Nodaway county,

and Savannah, Andrew county, but neither of them became

permanent. In the course of twelve years many of the best

speakers on the American platform have addressed Oregon

audiences, brought here by the determined efforts of a few women.

To-day, public opinion in this part of Missouri is in advance of

other sections on all questions relating to the great interests

of humanity. In March, 1879, a call signed by prominent

citizens[391] brought together a large assembly of men and women

in the court-house. An address in favor of woman suffrage was

delivered by Rev. John Wayman of the M. E. Church of St. Joseph.

Mr. James L. Allen acted as chairman of the meeting, and a

society was then organized, to bear the name of the Holt County

Woman Suffrage Society. At the National Woman Suffrage Convention

held at St. Louis later in the same year, Jas. L. Allen acted as

delegate from this association and reported our progress. The

best organized woman's society in the State is probably the

Women's Christian Temperance Union. In its different departments,

although hampered by too much theological red tape, it is

reaching thousands of ignorant, prejudiced, good sectarian women

who would expect the "heavens to fall" if they accidentally got

into a meeting where "woman's rights" was mentioned even in a

whisper. Mrs. Clara Hoffman, of Kansas City, is State president,

and a woman of great force. She, as well as other leading lights

in the Women's Christian Temperance Union, is strongly advocating

woman suffrage as a _sine qua non_ in the temperance work. The

women of this part of the State have been given quite a prominent

place among organizations mentioned in a late "History of

Missouri, by Counties." The Woman's Union has taken the place of

honor.[392] From the very outset we have had the most bitter and

persistent opposition from the churches, more particularly the

Presbyterian, although some of our most capable members were of

that faith. Exceptions should be made in favor of the Christian,

or Campbellite, and as a general thing, the M. E. churches. The

greatest shock we have had to resist, however, came a few months

since in the shape of a division among our own members, and has

really discouraged the more independent among us more than

anything else. The W. C. T. U. sent their Mascatine organizer

here, to wake up the women in the interests of the State society.

Although ignorant and prejudiced, he created a fanatical

stampede, and in the goodness of their hearts and the weakness of

their heads, our church women in the Woman's Union proposed to

give to the three temperance clubs, numbering perhaps 150, the

free use of our rooms and property, and suspend our own club,

claiming that our mission was ended, and that a field of greater

usefulness was opened in the W. C. T. U. line of work. The

liberal element refused to abandon the old organization, although

many joined in the W. C. T. U. work and attended both clubs.

However, in a small community, where the consciences of many good

women are not free, we have met with serious drawbacks. We have

had to submit to a sort of boycotting process, for some time, the

orthodox, goody-goody people evidently trying to freeze us out;

although I must claim that nearly every member of the Woman's

Union is strongly interested in the temperance cause, and as the

different departments in the W. C. T. U. fail to cover the ground

we occupy, quite a respectable number seem determined to hold on

in their own way, trying little by little to better the condition

of all, and particularly to increase and strengthen the feeble

germ of independent thought in women, so often smothered and

destroyed by too much theology. What we need for women is not

more spirituality but more hard common-sense, applied to reform

as well as religion. One thing connected with our organization is

a matter of pride to all women, namely, that no pecuniary

obligation has ever been repudiated by the Woman's Union. Besides

paying our debts we have given hundreds of dollars to works of

charity and education, and keep a standing fund of $100, to be

used in case of emergency, when, as often happens, we fail to

make expenses on lectures, entertainments, etc. It would not be

claiming too much if the Woman's Union of Oregon was to go upon

the historic page as the only free, independent woman's club ever

successfully carried on for any length of time, in the great

State of Missouri.[393]

Missouri has always felt a becoming pride in the gifted daughter,

Miss Phoebe Couzins, who was the first woman to enter the law

school, go through the entire course, and graduate with honor to

herself and her native State. Hence, a reception to her, to mark

such an event, was preeminently fitting. This compliment was paid

to her by Dr. and Mrs. G. A. Walker, and a large gathering of the

elite of St. Louis honored her with their presence.[394] The

drawing-rooms were festooned with garlands of evergreens and

brilliant forest leaves and hanging-baskets of roses; the bountiful

tables were elaborately decorated with fruits and flowers and

statuettes, while pictures of distinguished women looked down from

the wall on every side. After the feast came letters, toasts and

speeches, a brilliant address of welcome was given by Dr. Walker,

and an equally brilliant reply by Miss Couzins. Witty and

complimentary speeches were made by Judge Krum, Hon. Albert Todd,

Mrs. Francis Minor, ex-Governor Stanard, Judge Reber, Professor

Riley, I. E. Meeker, Mrs. Henrietta Noa. Congratulatory letters

were received from several ladies and gentlemen of national

reputation, and the following regrets:

Rev. W. G. Eliot, chancellor of the University, with "compliments

and thanks to Dr. and Mrs. Walker. I regret that engagements this

evening prevent me from enjoying the pleasure of meeting Miss

Couzins and welcoming her to her new and well-deserved honors, as

I had expected to do until an hour ago."

James E. Yeatman sent regrets accompanied with "his warmest

congratulations to Miss Couzins, with best wishes for her success

in the noble profession of the law."

George Partridge regrets, "hoping every encouragement will be

given to those who aspire to high honors by their intellectual

and moral attainments."

General J. H. Hammond, Kansas City, Mo.: "I would feel honored in

being allowed the privilege of congratulating this lady who so

practically honors her sex."

In addition to the many congratulations showered upon Miss Couzins,

she was the recipient of testimonials of a more enduring and

equally flattering character. Among many valuable presents were

twelve volumes of Edmund Burke from Miss A. L. Forbes, who wished

to testify her appreciation of the event by deeds rather than

words. Mrs. E. O. Stanard presented a handsomely-bound set of

"Erskine's Speeches," in five volumes.

There were other gifts of great intrinsic worth. These tokens of

regard were sent from admiring friends scattered all over the

country, from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Although Miss Couzins has never practiced in her chosen profession,

yet the knowledge and discipline acquired in the study of our

American system of jurisprudence and constitutional law have been

of essential service to her in the prolonged arguments on the

enfranchisement of woman, in which she has so ably and eloquently

advocated the case of the great plaintiff of the nineteenth

century, in that famous law-suit begun by Margaret Fuller in 1840,

"Woman versus Man." Our junior advocate has taken the case into the

highest courts and made her appeals to a jury of the sovereign

people and "the judgment of a candid world." On all principles of

precedent and importance our case now stands first on the calendar.

When will the verdict be rendered and what will it be?

FOOTNOTES:

[377] Among them were Isaac H. Sturgeon, Francis Minor, James E.

Yeatman, Judge John M. Krum, Judge Arnold Krekel, Hon. Thomas Noel,

Ernest Decker, Dr. G. A. Walker, John E. Orrick, J. B. Roberts,

Rev. G. W. Eliot, Bishop Bowman, Albert Todd, Rev. John Snyder,

John Datro, J. B. Case, H. E. Merille, Mrs. Virginia L. Minor, Mrs.

Rebecca N. Hazard, Mrs. Adeline Couzins, Miss Phoebe Couzins, Mrs.

Beverly Allen, Miss Mary Beedy, Miss Arathusa Forbes, Mrs. Isaac

Sturgeon, Mrs. Hall, and many others.

[378] _President_, Mrs. Virginia L. Minor; _Vice-President_, Mrs.

Beverly Allen; _Secretaries_, Mrs. Rebecca N. Hazard, and Mrs.

George D. Hall; _Treasurer_, Mrs. George W. Banker. There were

present, besides the officers, Mrs. Anna L. Clapp, Miss Penelope

Allen, Mrs. Frank Fletcher, Miss Arathusia L. Forbes, Mrs. Nannie

C. Sturgeon, Mrs. Harriet B. Roberts, Mrs. N. Stevens, Mrs. Joseph

Hodgman, Miss A. Greenman, etc. Among the men who aided the

movement were Francis Minor, Isaac W. Sturgeon, James E. Yeatman,

Judge John M. Krum, Judge Arnold Krekel, Hon. Thomas Noel, who gave

the society its first twenty-five dollars, Ernest Decker, Dr. G.A.

Walker, John C. O'Neill, J.B. Roberts, Wayman Crow, Rev. Dr. Wm. G.

Eliot, Bishop Bowman, Albert Todd, Rev. John Snyder, John Datro,

J.B. Case, H.C. Leville.

[379] The following we find in the St. Louis papers. It is

significant of the sentiment of the Methodist women of the West:

"We, the undersigned, join in a call for a mass-meeting of the M.E.

Church in St. Louis, to meet at Union Church on the 15th inst., at

3 o'clock P.M., to consider a plan for memorializing the General

Conference to permit the ordination of women as ministers. All

women of the M.E. Church are requested to attend. Mrs. Henry

Kennedy, Mrs. T.C. Fletcher, Mrs. E.O. Stanard, Mrs. A.C. George,

Mrs. Lucy Prescott, Mrs. U.B. Wilson, Mrs. L. Jones, Mrs. E.L.

Case, Mrs. W.F. Brink, Mrs. S.C. Cummins, Mrs. R.N. Hazard, Mrs.

Dutro, Mrs. M.H. Himebaugh." The result of this meeting of the

ladies of the Methodist churches to discuss a plan for admitting

women into the pulpit as preachers was the appointment of a

committee to draft a memorial to the General Conference to meet at

Brooklyn, N.Y., asking that body to sanction and provide for the

ordination of women as ministers of the Methodist Church.

[380] On the platform were Julia Ward Howe, Massachusetts; Lillie

Peckham, Wisconsin; Miriam M. Cole, Ohio; Mary A. Livermore, Hon.

Sharon Tyndale, Judge Waite and Rev. Mr. Harrison, Illinois; Susan

B. Anthony, New York. The officers of the Woman Suffrage

Association of Missouri: _President_, Mrs. Francis Minor:

_Vice-President_, Mrs. Beverly Allen: _Secretary_, Mrs. William T.

Hazard: _Treasurer_, Mrs. George B. Hall; Miss Mary Beady, Miss

Phoebe Couzins, Mrs. E. Tittman, Mrs. Alfred Clapp, Miss A. L.

Forbes, Isaac H. Sturgeon, Mrs. J. C. Orrick, Mrs. R. J. Lackland,

Francis Minor, and many others.

[381] For speech and resolutions, see Vol. II., page 408.

[382] Dissension and division were the effect in every State,

except where the associations wisely remained independent and all

continued to work together, and the forces otherwise expended in

rivalry were directed against the common enemy.

[383] For this speech of B. Gratz Brown see Vol. II., page 136.

[384] For full account of Miss Barkaloo see New York chapter, page

404.

[385] Besides those already named, there are many other women

worthy of mention--Mrs. Hannah Stagg, Mrs. George H. Rha, Mrs. S.

F. Gruff, Miss N. M. Lavelle, Mrs. Helen E. Starrett, Mrs. A. E.

Dickinson, Mrs. E. R. Case, Miss S. Sharman, Mrs. Mary S. Phelps,

Miss Mary E. Beedy, Mrs. Fanny O'Haly, Mrs. J. C. Orrick, Miss

Henrietta Moore, Mrs. Stephen Ridgeley, Mrs. M. E. Bedford, Mrs. M.

Jackson; and among our German friends are Mrs. Rosa Tittman, Mrs.

Dr. Fiala, Mrs. Lena Hildebrand, Mrs. G. G. Fenkelnberg, Mrs.

Rombauer, Miss Lidergerber.

[386] For a full report of Mrs. Minor's trial, see History of Woman

Suffrage, Vol. II., page 715.

[387] The committee were: J. B. Merwin, Virginia L. Minor, John

Snyder, Lydia F. Dickinson, Maria E. F. Jackson.

[388] The officers were: _President_, Mrs. Virginia L. Minor;

_Vice-Presidents_, Mrs. Eliza J. Patrick, Mrs. Caroline J. Todd,

Miss Phoebe W. Couzins; _Executive Committee_, Mrs. E. P. Johnson,

Mrs. W. W. Polk; _Secretary_, Miss Eliza B. Buckley; _Treasurer_,

Miss Maggie Baumgartner.

[389] They were, Mrs. S. L. Goslin, Mis. A. E. Goslin, Mrs. M. M.

Soper, Annie E. Batcheller, Mary Curry, Annie R. Irvine.

[390] _President_, Emma G. Dobyns; _Vice-President_, Kate Evans

Thatcher; _Secretary_, Matilda C. Shutts; _Treasurer_, Lucy S.

Rancher; _Corresponding Secretary_, Annie R. Irvine.

[391] Believing that the best interests of society, as well as

government, would be best served by admitting all citizens to the

full rights of citizenship, we, the undersigned, hereby give notice

that a meeting will be held at the court-house, Oregon, on

Saturday, March 1, 1879, at 2 p. m., for the purpose of organizing

a Woman Suffrage Association. Those interested are urged to attend.

Clarke Irvine, C. W. Lukens, James L. Allen, S. B. Lukens, Samuel

Stuckey, Sudia Johnson, D. J. Lukens, Elvira Broedbeck, Mary Curry,

Jas. B. Curry, Annie R. Irvine.

[392] In 1875 I made my first visit to Oregon, and remember my

surprise at meeting so large a circle of bright, intelligent women.

After taking an old stage at Travesty city, and lumbering along two

miles or more over bad roads on a dull day in March into a very

unpropitious looking town, my heart sank at the prospect of the

small audience I should inevitably have in such a spot. Wondering

as to the character of the people I should find, we jolted round

the town to the home of the editor and his charming wife, Mrs. Lucy

S. Rancher. Their cordial welcome and generous hospitalities soon

made the old stage, the rough roads, and the dull town but dim

memories of the past. One after another the members of the Union

club came to greet me, and I saw in that organization of strong,

noble women, wisdom enough to redeem the whole State of Missouri

from its apathy on the question of woman's rights. One of the

promising features of the efforts of the immortal six women who

took the initiative, was the full sympathy shown by their husbands

in their attempts to improve themselves and the community. Miss

Couzins and Miss Anthony soon followed me, and were alike surprised

and delighted with the Literary Club of Oregon. I was there again

in '77, and was entertained by Mrs. R. A. Norman, now living in St.

Joseph, and in '79, I stayed in a large, old-fashioned brick house

near the public square with Mrs. Montgomery, then "fat, fair and

forty," and all three visits, with the teas and dinners at the

homes of different members of the club, I thoroughly enjoyed.--[E.

C. S.

[393] Among progressive women in this part of Missouri, Mrs. Adela

M. Kelly, of Savannah, wife of Circuit Judge Henry S. Kelly, is

prominent; in Mound City, Mrs. Emma K. Hershberger, Mrs. Mary L.

Mamcher, Mrs. Mary C. Tracy, Mrs. Fanny Smith, and others, are

leading women, and were once residents here, and members of the

Woman's Union. Among those actively interested here now, I shall

only mention a few, Mrs. Nancy Hershberger, Mary Curry, Elvira

Broedbeck, Lucy A. Christian, Ella O. Fallon, Mary Stirrell, and

many others.

[394] Among those present were the following ladies and gentlemen:

Dr. and Mrs. Walker, Phoebe Couzins, esq., Hon. and Mrs. John B.

Henderson, Gov. and Mrs. E. O. Stanard, Mr. and Mrs. Chester H.

Krum, Mr. and Mrs. Francis Minor, Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Patrick, Major

and Mrs. J. E. D. Couzins, Major and Mrs. J. R. Meeker, Major and

Mrs. W. S. Pope, Mr. and Mrs. Lippmann, Mr. and Mrs. Leopold Noa,

Miss Noa, Miss A. L. Forbes, Judge Krum, Judge Reber, Judge Todd,

Geo. M. Stuart (dean), Prof. Riley, State Entomologist; Prof.

Hager, State Geologist; J. R. Stuart, artist, and others.

CHAPTER XLV.

IOWA.

Beautiful Scenery--Liberal in Politics and Reforms--Legislation

for Women--No Right yet to Joint Earnings--Early

Agitation--Frances Dana Gage, 1854--Mrs. Bloomer Before the

Territorial Legislature, 1856--Mrs. Martha H. Brinkerhoff--Mrs.

Annie Savery, 1868--County Associations Formed in 1869--State

Society Organized at Mt. Pleasant, 1870, Henry O'Connor,

President--Mrs. Cutler Answers Judge Palmer--First Annual

Meeting, Des Moines--Letter from Bishop Simpson--The State

Register Complimentary--Mass-Meeting at the Capitol--Mrs. Savery

and Mrs. Harbert--Legislative Action--Methodist and Universalist

Churches Indorse Woman Suffrage--Republican Plank, 1874--Governor

Carpenter's Message, 1876--Annual Meeting, 1882, Many Clergymen

Present--Five Hundred Editors Interviewed--Miss Hindman and Mrs.

Campbell--Mrs. Callanan Interviews Governor Sherman,

1884--Lawyers--Governor Kirkwood Appoints Women to Office--County

Superintendents--Elizabeth S. Cook--Journalism--Literature--

Medicine--Ministry--Inventions--President of a National Bank--

The Heroic Kate Shelly--Temperance--Improvement in the Laws.

The euphonious Indian name, Iowa, signifying "the beautiful land,"

is peculiarly appropriate to those gently undulating prairies,

decorated in the season of flowers with a brilliant garniture of

honey-suckles, jassamines, wild roses and violets, watered with a

chain of picturesque lakes and rivers, chasing each other into the

bosom of the boundless Mississippi. The motto on the great seal of

the State, "Our liberties we prize and our rights we will

maintain," is the key-note to the successive struggles made there

to build up a community of moral, virtuous, intelligent people,

securing justice, liberty and equality to all. Iowa has been the

State to give large Republican majorities; to prohibit the

manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors by a constitutional

amendment; and to present propositions before her legislature for

eight successive sessions to give the right of suffrage to woman.

In the article on Iowa, in the American Cyclopaedia, the writer

says: "No distinction is made in law between the husband and the

wife in regard to property. One-third in value of all the real

estate of either, upon the death of the other, goes to the survivor

in fee simple. Neither is liable for the separate debts of the

other. The wife may make contracts and incur liabilities which may

be enforced by or against her in the same manner as if she was

unmarried; and so a married woman may sue and be sued without the

husband being joined in the action." Many women living in Iowa

often quote these laws with pride, showing the liberality of their

rulers as far as they go. But in new countries the number of women

that inherit property is very small compared to the number that

work all their days to help pay for their humble homes. It is in

the right to these joint earnings where the wife is most cruelly

defrauded, because the mother of a large family, who washes, irons,

cooks, bakes, patches and darns, takes care of the children, labors

from early dawn to midnight in her own home, is not supposed to

earn anything, hence owns nothing, and all the labors of a long

life, the results of her thrift and economy, belong absolutely to

the husband, so that when he dies they call it liberality for the

husband to make his partner an heir, and give her one-third of

their joint earnings.

For this chapter we are indebted to Mrs. Amelia Bloomer, who moved

into this State from New York in the spring of 1855 with her

husband, who commenced the practice of law in Council Bluffs, where

they have resided ever since. Mrs. Bloomer had been the editor for

several years of a weekly paper called the _Lily_, which advocated

both temperance and woman's rights, and for the six years of its

publication was of inestimable value alike to both reforms. She was

one of the earliest champions of the woman's rights movement, and

as writer, editor and lecturer, did much to forward the cause in

its infancy.[395]

The first agitation of the question of woman suffrage in Iowa was

in the summer of 1854, when Frances Dana Gage of Ohio gave a

series of lectures in the southeastern section of the State on

temperance and woman's rights. Letters written to _Lily_ at the

time show that large audiences congregated to see and hear a

woman publicly proclaiming the wrongs of her sex, and demanding

equal rights before the law. During the year 1855 the writer gave

several lectures at Council Bluffs, and in January, 1856, by

invitation, addressed the second territorial legislature of

Nebraska, in Representative Hall, Omaha; and in the year

following lectured in Council Bluffs, Omaha, Nebraska City,

Glenwood and other towns.

In 1868 Mrs. Martha H. Brinkerhoff made a very successful

lecture-tour through the northern counties of Iowa. She roused

great interest and organized many societies, canvassing meanwhile

for subscribers to _The Revolution_. In the same year Mrs. Annie

C. Savery gave a lecture for the benefit of a blind editor at Des

Moines. In February, 1870, by invitation, she responded to a

toast at a Masonic festival in that city; and during that and the

year following she lectured in several places on woman suffrage,

and wrote many able articles for the press.

On April 17, 1869, the "Northern Woman Suffrage Association" was

organized at Dubuque.[396] This was the first society in Iowa,

though about the same time others were being organized in

different localities. J. L. McCreery, in his editorial position,

advocated the enfranchisement of woman, and wrote an able paper

in favor of the object of the organization. Mrs. Mary N. Adams

opened a correspondence with friends of the movement in other

parts of the State; Henry O'Connor, Mary A. Livermore and others

lectured before the society, thus educating the people into a

better understanding of woman's rights and needs. Mrs. Adams not

only addressed the home society, but gave lectures before lyceums

and educational institutions.

Des Moines has always maintained the most successful organization

having a band of earnest women enlisted in the work, and being

the capital of the State, where every opportunity was afforded to

facilitate their efforts. The liberality of the press, too, aided

vastly in moulding public sentiment in favor of the cause. About

the earliest work done in that city was in June, 1870, when

Hannah Tracy Cutler and Amelia Bloomer (immediately on returning

from the formation of the State Society at Mt. Pleasant) held two

meetings there--one in the open air on the grounds where the new

capitol now stands, on the question of temperance, Sunday

afternoon, presided over by Governor Merrill; the other in the

Baptist Church, on woman suffrage, the following evening, Mrs.

Annie C. Savery presiding.

The Polk County Woman Suffrage Society was formed October 25, and

has never failed to hold its meetings regularly each month since

that time. Every congress and every legislature have been

appealed to by petitions signed by thousands of the best

citizens, and it is on record that the senators and

representatives of Polk county, with one exception,[397] have

always voted in favor of submitting the question of woman's

enfranchisement to the electors of the State. When men are talked

of for legislative honors they are interviewed by a committee

from the society, and pledges secured that they will vote "aye"

on any woman suffrage bill that may come before them.

This society has from time to time engaged the services of

prominent lecturers,[398] and nearly all of the ministers and

lawyers of the city have given addresses in favor of the cause.

Only one minister has openly and bitterly opposed the measure,

and his sermon on the "Subordination of Woman," published in the

_Register_, called out spirited replies from Mrs. Savery and Mrs.

Bloomer in the same journal, which completely demolished the

flimsy fancies of the gentleman.

About 1874 Mrs. Maria Orwig edited a column in the _Record_, and

Mary A. Work a column in the _Republican_. Since 1880, Mesdames

Hunter, Orwig, Woods and Work have filled two columns in _The

Prohibitionist_, of which Laura A. Berry is one of the editors.

Mrs. M. J. Coggeshall has for several years served the society as

reporter for the _Register_, proving herself a very ready and

interesting writer. All of these ladies are efficient and

untiring in whatever pertains to woman's interest.[399] The

_Register_ says:

The field of labor in Des Moines is pretty well occupied by

the ladies. You will find them at the desks in the county

and United States court-houses, in the pension office, in

the insurance office, in the State offices, behind the

counters in stores, in attorneys' offices--and there is one

woman who assists her husband at the blacksmith's trade, and

she can strike as hard a blow with a sledge as the brawniest

workman in the shop.

In the autumn of 1870 a society was organized at Burlington, with

fifty members. One of the earliest advocates of the cause in this

place was Mary A. P. Darwin, president of the association, who

lectured through the southern tier of counties during the summer

of 1870. She was an earnest and forcible speaker.

At Oskaloosa the opening work was done in 1854 by Frances D.

Gage, who gave four lectures there, and roused the people to

thought and discussion. Mattie Griffith Davenport has long filled

a prominent place in the woman suffrage movement in that city.

She commenced lecturing in 1868, and during that and the two

succeeding years traveled over much of the State, speaking upon

temperance and woman's rights. During 1879 she edited a column of

the Davenport _News_ in the interest of suffrage. In the summer

of 1870 Mrs. Cutler and Mrs. Bloomer held two meetings in

Oskaloosa, in one of which a gentleman engaged in the

discussions, and as is usual in such encounters, the women having

right and justice on their side, came out the victors; at least

so said the listeners. Following this a Woman's Suffrage Society

was organized.[400] Many prominent speakers lectured here in

turn, and helped to keep up the interest.

Council Bluffs also organized a society[401] in 1870, holding

frequent meetings and sociables. There is here a large element in

favor of the ballot for woman; and though we are unfortunate in

not having an advocate in the press, still Council Bluffs will

give a good report of itself when the question of woman's

enfranchisement shall come before the electors for action. The

trustees of the public library of this city are women; the

librarian is a woman: the post-office is in the hands of a woman;

the teachers in the public schools, with one or two exceptions,

are women; the principal of the high school is a woman; and a

large number of the clerks in the dry goods stores are women.

Miss Ingelletta Smith received the nomination of the Republican

party for school superintendent in the fall of 1881, but was

defeated by her Democratic competitor.

Marshalltown had a suffrage organization as early as July,

1870.[402] Nettie Sanford lectured in several of the central

counties of the State during that and the previous year.

Josephine Guthrie, professor of Belles-Lettres at Le Grand

College, in a series of able articles in the Marshalltown _Times_

in 1869, claimed for women equality of rights before the law. In

1873, Aubie Gifford, a woman of high culture and an experienced

teacher, was elected to the office of county superintendent of

the public schools of Marshall county, by a handsome majority;

she was reelected, serving, in all, four years.

At Algona a society[403] was formed in 1871. At the annual

meeting of the State Society at Des Moines, in 1873, Lizzie B.

Read delivered an address entitled, "Coming Up Out of the

Wilderness," and in July, 1875, at a mass-meeting at Clear Lake,

one on "The Bible in Favor of Woman Suffrage." Mrs. Read,

formerly as Miss Bunnel, published a paper called the

_Mayflower_, at Peru, Indiana, and in 1865 a county paper in this

State called the _Upper Des Moines_.

Since 1875 Jackson county has had an efficient Equal Rights

Society.[404] On July 4, 1876, Nancy R. Allen, at the general

celebration at Maquoketa, the county-seat, read the "Protest and

Declaration of Rights," issued by the National Association from

its Centennial Parlors in Philadelphia. It was well received by

the majority of the people assembled; but, as usual, there were

some objectors. The Presbyterian minister published a series of

articles in the _Sentinel_, to each of which Mrs. Allen replied

ably defending the principles of the Woman Suffrage party. The

Maquoketa Equal Rights Society celebrated the thirtieth

anniversary of the woman's rights movement July 19, 1878, by

holding a public meeting in Dr. Allen's grounds, in the shade of

the grand old trees. It was a large gathering, and many prominent

gentlemen of the city, by their presence and words of cheer, gave

dignity to the occasion. Jackson county has long honored women

with positions of trust. The deputy recorder is a woman; Mrs.

Allen was notary public; Mrs. Patton was nominated for auditor by

the Greenback party in 1880, but was defeated with the rest of

the ticket. Women are book-keepers, merchants, clerks, teachers;

and, in fact, almost every avenue is open to them.

Of Fort Dodge, Mrs. Haviland writes: "The subject has never been

much agitated here. I have stood almost alone these long years,

watching the work done by my sisters in other parts of the State,

and hoping the time would soon come when some move could be made

in this place. Last spring the annual meeting of our State

Society was held here, but it was with difficulty that I found

places where the few who came could be entertained, people were

so afraid of woman's rights. After the refusal of the other

churches, the Baptists opened theirs; the crowd of curious ones

looked on and seemed surprised when they failed to discover the

'horns.'" Mrs. A.M. Swain also writes: "Miss Anthony came here

first in June, 1871, and has been here twice since. Mrs.

Swisshelm was here in 1874. Both were my guests when no other

doors were open to the advocates of woman suffrage. The late

convention of the State Society held here was a decided success;

the best class of ladies attended; the dignity and ability shown

in the management, and the many interesting and logical papers

read disarmed all criticism and awakened genuine interest. I have

handed in my ballot for several years, but it has never been

received or counted."

Societies were organized in 1869 and 1870, in Independence and

Monticello. Humboldt, Nevada, West Union, Corning, Osceola,

Muscatine, Sigourney, Garden Grove, Decorah, Hamburg, and scores

of other towns have their local societies. At West Liberty Mrs.

Mary V. Cowgill and her good husband are liberal contributors to

the work, both State and National.

At a convention held at Mt. Pleasant, June 17, 18, 1870,

different sections of the State being well represented, the Iowa

Woman Suffrage Society[405] was formed. Belle Mansfield,

president, Frank Hatton,[406] editor of the Mt. Pleasant

_Journal_, secretary. W.R. Cole opened the convention with

prayer. After many able addresses from various speakers,[407] in

response to an invitation from the president, Judge Palmer in a

somewhat excited manner stated his objections to woman's voting.

He wanted some guarantee that good would result from giving her

the ballot. He thought "she did not understand driving, and would

upset the sleigh. Men had always rowed the boat, and therefore

always should. Men had more force and muscle than women, and

therefore should have all the power in their hands." He spoke of

himself as the guardian of his wife, and said she did not want to

vote. After talking an hour in this style, he took his seat,

greatly to the relief of his hearers. Mrs. Cutler, in her calm,

dignified, deliberate manner, answered his arguments. She proved

conclusively that muscular force was not the power most needed in

our government. If it were, all the little, weak men and women,

no matter how intellectual must stand aside, and let only the

strong, muscular do the voting and governing. In clearness of

perception, and readiness of debate, she distanced her opponent

altogether in the opinion of the convention.

The first annual meeting of the State Society was held at Des

Moines, October 19, 1871. Mrs. Bloomer presided[408] in the

absence of the president, Gen. O'Connor. Speakers had been

engaged for this convention, a good representation secured, and

every arrangement made for a successful meeting. And such it was,

barring a difference of opinion among the friends of the movement

as to what questions should properly come before a society whose

only object, as declared in its constitution, was to secure

suffrage for women. The following letters were received:

IOWA CITY, October 11, 1871.