History of Woman Suffrage Volume II Part 1

History of Woman Suffrage.

Edited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage.

VOL. II.

1861-1876.

PREFACE.

In presenting to our readers the second volume of the "History of Woman Suffrage," we gladly return our thanks to the press for the many favorable notices we have received from leading journals, both in the old world and the new. The words of cordial approval from a large circle of friends, and especially from women well known in periodical literature, have been to us a constant stimulus during the toilsome months we have spent in gathering material for these pages. It was our purpose to have condensed the records of the last twenty years in a second volume, but so many new questions in regard to Citizens.h.i.+p, State rights, and National power, indirectly bearing on the political rights of women, grew out of the civil war, that the arguments and decisions in Congress and the Supreme Courts have combined to swell these pages beyond our most liberal calculations, with much valuable material that can not be condensed nor ignored, making a third volume inevitable.

By their active labors all through the great conflict, women learned that they had many interests outside the home. In the camp and hospital, and the vacant places at their firesides, they saw how intimately the interests of the State and the home were intertwined; that as war and all its concomitants were subjects of legislation, it was only through a voice in the laws that their efforts for peace could command consideration.

The political significance of the war, and the prolonged discussions on the vital principles of government involved in the reconstruction, threw new light on the status of woman in a republic. Under a liberal interpretation of the XIV. Amendment, women, believing their rights of citizens.h.i.+p secured, made several attempts to vote in different States. Those who succeeded were arrested, tried, and convicted. Those who were denied the right to register their names and deposit their votes, sued the Inspectors of Election. Others attempting to practice law, being denied that right in the States, took their cases up to the Supreme Court of the United States for adjudication. Others invaded the pulpit, asking to be ordained, which brought the question of woman's right to preach before ecclesiastical a.s.semblies. These various attempts to secure her political and civil rights have called forth endless discussions on woman's true position in the State, the church, and the world of work.

While gratefully accepting the generous praises of our friends, we must briefly reply to some strictures by our critics. Some object to the t.i.tle of our work; they say you can not write the "History of Woman Suffrage" until the fact is accomplished. We feel that already enough has been achieved to make the final victory certain. Women vote in England, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, and even India, on certain interests and qualifications; in Wyoming and Utah on all questions, and on the same basis as male citizens; and in a dozen States of the Union on school affairs. Moreover, women are filling many offices, such as Clerks of Courts, Notaries Public, Masters in Chancery, State Librarians, School Superintendents, Commissioners of Charity, Post Mistresses, Pension Agents, Engrossing and Enrolling Clerks in Legislative a.s.semblies.

After years of persistent effort a resolution was pa.s.sed in both Houses, during the present session of Congress (1882), securing "a select committee on the political Rights and Disabilities of Woman"--the first time in the history of our Government that a special committee to look after the interests of woman was ever appointed. A proposition for a XVI. Amendment to the National Const.i.tution, to secure to women the right of suffrage, is now pending in Congress.

Some phase of this question is being debated every year in State Legislatures. Propositions for so amending their const.i.tutions as to extend the elective franchise to women will be voted upon by the people in four of the Western States within the coming two years.

These successive steps of progress during forty years are as surely a part of the History of Woman Suffrage as will be the events of the closing period in which victory shall at last crown the hard fought battles of half a century.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XVI.

WOMAN'S PATRIOTISM IN THE WAR.

PAGE The first gun on Sumter, April 12, 1861--Woman's military genius--Anna Ella Carroll--The Sanitary Movement--Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell--The Hospitals--Dorothea Dix--Services on the battle-field--Clara Barton--The Freedman's Bureau--Josephine Griffing--Ladies' National Covenant--Political campaigns--Anna d.i.c.kinson--The Woman's Loyal National League--The Mammoth Pet.i.tion--Anniversaries--The Thirteenth Amendment 1

CHAPTER XVII.

CONGRESSIONAL ACTION.

First Pet.i.tions to Congress December, 1865, against the word "male"

in the 14th Amendment--Joint resolutions before Congress--Messrs.

Jenckes, Schenck, Broomall, and Stevens--Republicans protest in presenting pet.i.tions--The women seek aid of Democrats--James Brooks in the House of Representatives--Horace Greeley on the pet.i.tions--Caroline Healy Dall on Messrs. Jenckes and Schenck--The District of Columbia Suffrage Bill--Senator Cowan, of Pennsylvania, moved to strike out the word "male"--A three days' debate in the Senate--The final vote nine in favor of Mr. Cowan's amendment, and thirty-seven against 90

CHAPTER XVIII.

NATIONAL CONVENTIONS IN 1866-67.

The first National Woman Suffrage Convention after the war--Speeches by Ernestine L. Rose, Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Henry Ward Beecher, Frances D. Gage, Theodore Tilton, Wendell Phillips--Pet.i.tions to Congress and the Const.i.tutional Convention--Mrs. Stanton a candidate to Congress--Anniversary of the Equal Rights a.s.sociation 152

CHAPTER XIX.

THE KANSAS CAMPAIGN--1867.

The Battle Ground of Freedom--Campaign of 1867--Liberals did not Stand by their Principles--Black Men Opposed to Woman Suffrage--Republican Press and Party Untrue--Democrats in Opposition--John Stuart Mill's Letters and Speeches Extensively Circulated--Henry B. Blackwell and Lucy Stone Opened the Campaign--Rev. Olympia Brown Followed--60,000 Tracts Distributed--Appeal Signed by Thirty-one Distinguished Men--Letters from Helen E. Starrett, Susan E. Wattles, Dr. R. S. Tenney, Lieut.-Governor J. B. Root, Rev. Olympia Brown--The Campaign closed by ex-Governor Robinson, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and the Hutchinson Family--Speeches and Songs at the Polls in every Ward in Leavenworth Election Day--Both Amendments lost--9,070 Votes for Woman Suffrage, 10,843 for Negro Suffrage 229

CHAPTER XX.

NEW YORK CONSt.i.tUTIONAL CONVENTION.

Const.i.tution Amended once in Twenty Years--Mrs. Stanton before the Legislature Claiming Woman's Right to Vote for Members to the Convention--An Immense Audience in the Capitol--The Convention a.s.sembled June 4th, 1867. Twenty Thousand Pet.i.tions Presented for Striking the Word "Male" from the Const.i.tution--"Committee on the Right of Suffrage, and the Qualifications for Holding Office"

Horace Greeley, Chairman--Mr. Graves, of Herkimer, Leads the Debate in favor of Woman Suffrage--Horace Greeley's Adverse Report--Leading Advocates Heard before the Convention--Speech of George William Curtis on Striking the Word "Man" from Section 1, Article 11--Final Vote, 19 For, 125 Against--Equal Rights Anniversary of 1868 269

CHAPTER XXI.

RECONSTRUCTION.

The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments--Universal Suffrage and Universal Amnesty the Key-note of Reconstruction--Gerrit Smith and Wendell Phillips hesitate--A Trying Period in the Woman Suffrage Movement--Those Opposed to the word "Male" in the Fourteenth Amendment Voted Down in Conventions--The Negro's Hour--Virginia L.

Minor on Suffrage in the District of Columbia--Women Advised to be Silent--The Hypocrisy of the Democrats preferable to that of the Republicans--Senator Pomeroy's Amendment--Protests against a Man's Government--Negro Suffrage a Political Necessity--Charles Sumner Opposed to the Fourteenth Amendment, but Voted for it as a Party Measure--Woman Suffrage for Utah--Discussion in the House as to who Const.i.tute Electors--Bills for Woman Suffrage presented by the Hon.

George W. Julian and Senators Wilson and Pomeroy--The Fifteenth Amendment--Anna E. d.i.c.kinson's Suggestion--Opinions of Women on the Fifteenth Amendment--The Sixteenth Amendment--Miss Anthony chosen a Delegate to the Democratic National Convention July 4, 1868--Her Address Read by a Unanimous Vote--Horatio Seymour in the Chair--Comments of the Press--_The Revolution_ 313

CHAPTER XXII.

NATIONAL CONVENTIONS--1869.

First Convention in Was.h.i.+ngton--First hearing before Congress--Delegates Invited from Every State--Senator Pomeroy, of Kansas--Debate between Colored Men and Women--Grace Greenwood's Graphic Description--What the Members of the Convention Saw and Heard in Was.h.i.+ngton--Robert Purvis--A Western Trip--Conventions in Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Springfield, and Madison--Editorial Correspondence in _The Revolution_--Anniversaries in New York and Brooklyn--Conventions in Newport and Saratoga 345

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE NEW DEPARTURE--UNDER THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT.

Francis Minor's Resolutions--Hearing before Congressional Committee--Descriptions by Mrs. Fannie Howland and Grace Greenwood--Was.h.i.+ngton Convention 1870--Rev. Samuel J. May--Senator Carpenter--Professor Sprague, of Cornell University--Notes of Mrs. Hooker--May Anniversary in New York--The Fifth Avenue Conference--Second Decade Celebration--Was.h.i.+ngton, 1871--Victoria Woodhull's Memorial--Judiciary Committee--Majority and Minority Reports--George W. Julian and A. A. Sargent in the House--May Anniversary, 1871--Was.h.i.+ngton in 1872--Senate Judiciary Committee--Benjamin F. Butler--The Sherman-Dahlgren Protest--Women in Grant and Wilson Campaign 407

CHAPTER XXIV.

NATIONAL CONVENTIONS--1873, '74, '75.

Fifth Was.h.i.+ngton Convention--Mrs. Gage on Centralization--May Anniversary in New York--Was.h.i.+ngton Convention, 1874--Frances Ellen Burr's Report--Rev. O. B. Frothingham in New York Convention--Territory of Pembina--Discussion in the Senate--Conventions in Was.h.i.+ngton and New York, 1875--Hearings before Congressional Committees 521

CHAPTER XXV.