The History of Woman Suffrage Volume II Part 74

Mr. EDMUNDS.--That is enough for me.

Mr. RAMSEY.--There is nothing new in that.

The question being taken by yeas and nays, resulted--yeas 19, nays 29; as follows:

YEAS--Messrs. Bogy, Boreman, Chandler, Clayton, Ferry of Michigan, Flanagan, Harvey, Hitchc.o.c.k, Jones, Kelly, Logan, Mitch.e.l.l, Patterson, Pratt, Ramsey, Sherman, Tipton, Wadleigh, and Windom--19.

NAYS--Messrs. Anthony, Bayard, Boutwell, Buckingham, Carpenter, Conkling, Conover, Davis, Edmunds, Frelinghuysen, Gilbert, Hager, Hamilton of Maryland, Ingalls, Johnson, McCreery, Merrimon, Morrill of Maine, Morrill of Vermont, Norwood, Ransom, Sargent, Saulsbury, Scott, Sprague, Stewart, Washburn, West, and Wright--29.

ABSENT--Messrs. Alcorn, Allison, Brownlow, Cameron, Cooper, Cragin, Dennis, Dorsey, Fenton, Ferry of Connecticut, Golthwaite, Gordon, Hamilton of Texas, Hamlin, Howe, Lewis, Morton, Oglesby, Pease, Robertson, Schurz, Spencer, Stevenson, Stockton, and Thurman--25.

So the bill was rejected.

Though the measure was lost, and the women sad under repeated disappointments, yet the progress was noted with grat.i.tude. In 1866 only nine Senators voted in favor of woman's enfranchis.e.m.e.nt after a three days' discussion of the measure. In 1874, after eight years of education, nineteen voted aye to the proposition.

The seventh Was.h.i.+ngton Convention was held January 14th and 15th, 1875, in Lincoln Hall as usual. Mrs. Stanton opened the proceedings by stating that owing to the death of the President of the a.s.sociation, Martha C. Wright, the duties of presiding officer devolved upon her.

After paying a well-merited tribute to her n.o.ble coadjutor, she said that many of their n.o.blest friends had pa.s.sed away. Among them Dr.

Harriot K. Hunt, Hon. Gerrit Smith, and Rev. Beriah Green.

This meeting comes at a most auspicious moment, when the entire Nation is wide awake to the rights of self-government now being trampled on in Louisiana. At such a crisis it would seem that liberty-loving statesmen might easily be converted to the idea of universal suffrage.

On every principle that they now demand self-government for the people of Louisiana, they should extend the right of suffrage to the women of that State now in so unsettled a condition. The annual report and resolutions were discussed and speeches made by Miss Anthony and Mrs.

Blake during the morning session. Letters were read from Robert Dale Owen, of Philadelphia, Rev. O. B. Frothingham, of New York, Paulina Wright Davis, of Providence, Dr. J. C. Jackson, of Dansville, N. Y., and Abby Smith, of Glas...o...b..ry, Conn. Miss Couzins' speech in the evening on the "Social Trinity" was a touching appeal for woman's moral, spiritual, and aesthetic influence on humanity at large. Miss Carrie Burnham made an interesting argument showing that the disabilities of women might be directly traced to papal decrees; to the canon rather than the civil law. Miss Lillie Devereux Blake made a strong appeal on the duty of enfranchising the women of the Nation before celebrating the coming Centennial. She thought it would be an act of justice that would glorify that day as it could be done in no other manner. Belva A. Lockwood, Marilla M. Ricker, Catharine Stebbins, Lavinia Dundore, and Dr. Clemence Lozier, all took part in the discussion of the resolutions.

3. _Resolved_, That as the duties of citizens are the outgrowth of their rights, a cla.s.s denied the common rights of citizens.h.i.+p should be exempt from all duties to the State. Hence the Misses Smith, of Glas...o...b..ry, Conn., and Abby Kelly Foster, of Worcester, Ma.s.s., who refused to pay taxes because not allowed to vote, suffered gross injustice and oppression at the hands of State officials, who seized and sold their property for taxes.

4. _Resolved_, That to deny the right of suffrage to the women of the Nation, is a dangerous innovation on the rights of man, since the a.s.sumed power to deny the right to one cla.s.s, is the implied power to deny it to all others; acting on this principle, New Hamps.h.i.+re abridges the rights of her citizens by forbidding Catholics to hold office; and Rhode Island abridges the rights of her citizens by forbidding foreigners to vote, except on a property qualification.

5. _Resolved_, That our thanks are due to the Hon. A. A. Sargent and the other eighteen Senators who voted for woman suffrage on the Pembina Bill, and to the 40,000 brave men who went to the polls and voted for woman suffrage in Michigan.

6. _Resolved_, That in the death of Martha C. Wright, the President of our National a.s.sociation, Dr. Harriot K. Hunt, the first woman in the country who entered the medical profession, the Rev. Beriah Green, and the Hon. Gerrit Smith, steadfast advocates of woman suffrage, we have in the last year been called to mourn the loss of four most efficient and self-sacrificing friends of our movement--women and men alike true to the great principles of republican government.

WHEREAS, It is now proposed to celebrate our coming centennial birthday as a free Government, inviting the monarchies of the Old World to join in the festivities, while the women of the country have no share in its blessings; therefore,

_Resolved_, That the National Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation will hold a convention in Philadelphia on July 4, 1876, to protest against such injustice unless Congress shall in the meantime secure to woman the rights, privileges, and immunities of American citizens.

_Resolved_, That we cordially invite all women in the Old World and the New, to co-operate with us in promoting the objects of the convention in 1876. As the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of woman would be the most fitting way of celebrating this great event in our nation's history, women suffragists throughout the country should now make an united effort with Congress and all State Legislatures to act on this question, that when the old liberty bell rings in the dawn of the new century, we may all be free and equal citizens of a true republic.

MISS ANTHONY said that man neither supports woman nor protects her. The census reports show that two million women are entirely independent of men in regard to employments. Thousands of women do work outside the home from necessity. A million women are engaged in domestic service providing for their own necessities, and a million more are supporting their families and drunken husbands.

Letters were read from Dr. Mary Thomas, President of the Indiana a.s.sociation, and from Clara Barton, then traveling in Italy, deploring the subject condition of women in foreign lands. The day after the Convention the ladies received their friends in the s.p.a.cious parlors at Willard's Hotel. Congressmen, lawyers, clergymen, and many bright girls from the departments were among the guests. Nothing indicates the progress of a reform more readily than the cordial social recognition of its leaders. While pausing now and then to note the adverse winds we are compelled to encounter in the jealousies, discords, and divisions of friends, and in the ridicule and misrepresentation of enemies, a broader vision shows us that the great tidal waves of thought are all flowing in one direction.

May 11, 1875, the twenty-seventh anniversary of the suffrage movement was held in the new Masonic Temple, Twenty-third street, New York.

This magnificent Hall for the first time echoed to the demands of woman for an equal share in the great interests of the world.

The convention was opened with prayer by the Rev. Olympia Brown, who referred most impressively to the coming Centennial, expressing the hope that the Fourth of July, 1876, might indeed be a day of jubilee, in which liberty and justice would be secured to the whole people. The resolutions[161] were discussed with great spirit by the various speakers.[162] An interesting letter was read from Isabella Beecher Hooker, giving some of her experiences and observations in France.

The Hall was crowded in the evening to listen to Mr. Frothingham. His address was an able exposition of the injustice of the heavy taxes laid on women. He read several extracts from the reports of William I.

Bowditch, of Boston, in regard to the large number of women in Ma.s.sachusetts holding property, and in closing, depicted with great feeling the constant sacrifices women were compelled to endure because they had no representation in the Government. After a song by the Hutchinsons, the large audience slowly dispersed.

At a business meeting next day the officers[163] for the year were chosen, and arrangements made to canva.s.s Iowa if, as was proposed, an amendment to the Const.i.tution extending the right of suffrage to the women of that State, should be submitted to the people.

All thoughts were now turned to the Centennial year, as to what new forms of agitation could be suggested; what onward steps of progress accomplished, for after the untiring labors of thirty years, the leaders in this movement naturally felt that the great event of the century could not pa.s.s without bringing some new liberty to woman.

FOOTNOTES:

[151] 2. _Resolved_, That the present attempts in our courts, by a false construction of the National Const.i.tution, to exalt all men as sovereigns, and degrade all women as slaves, is to establish the most odious form of aristocracy known in the civilized world--that of s.e.x.

3. _Resolved_, That women are "persons" and "citizens," possessed of all the legal qualifications of voters in the several States--age, property, and education--and by the XIV. Amendment of the National Const.i.tution have been secured the right of suffrage.

4.: _Resolved_, That it is the duty of Congress, by appropriate legislation, to protect women in their exercise of this right.

5. _Resolved_, That women are citizens, first of the United States, and second of the States and Territories wherein they reside; hence we claim National protection of our inalienable rights, against all State authority.

6. _Resolved_, That States may regulate all local questions of property, taxation, etc., but the inalienable personal rights of citizens.h.i.+p must be declared by the Const.i.tution, interpreted by the Supreme Court, protected by Congress, and enforced by the arm of the Executive.

7. _Resolved_, That the criminal prosecution of Susan B. Anthony by the United States, for the alleged crime of exercising the citizen's right of suffrage, is an act of arbitrary authority, unconst.i.tutional, and a blow at the liberties of every citizen of this nation.

_Business Committee_:--Matilda Joslyn Gage, New York; Belva A.

Lockwood, District of Columbia; Lillie Devereux Blake, New York; Mrs.

Mary Henderson, Missouri; Mrs. Lavinia Dundore, Maryland; Edward M.

Davis, Pennsylvania; Mrs. Mary A. Dobyns, Kentucky; Mrs. Anna C.

Savery, Iowa; Miss Phebe Couzins, St. Louis; Mrs. Jane Graham Jones, Illinois; Mrs. Helen M. Barnard, District of Columbia; Rev. Olympia Brown, Connecticut; Robert Purvis, District of Columbia.

_Finance Committee_:--Mrs. Ellen C. Sargent, Belva A. Lockwood; Edward M. Davis, Ruth Carr Dennison, Helen M. Barnard.

_Committee on Resolution_:--Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Belva A. Lockwood, Lillie Devereux Blake, Matilda Joslyn Gage.

[152] WOMAN SUFFRAGE ANNIVERSARY.--NATIONAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE a.s.sOCIATION.--The Twenty-fifth Woman Suffrage Anniversary will be held in Apollo Hall, New York, Tuesday, May 6, 1873. Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who called the first Woman's Rights convention at Seneca Falls, 1848, will be present to give their reminiscences.

That Convention was scarcely mentioned by the local press; now, over the whole world, equality for woman is demanded. In the United States, woman suffrage is the chief political question of the hour. Great Britain is deeply agitated upon the same topic; Germany has a princess at the head of its National Woman's Rights organization. Portugal, Spain, and Russia have been roused. In Rome an immense meeting, composed of the representatives of Italian democracy, was recently called in the old Coliseum; one of its resolutions demanded a reform in the laws relating to woman and a re-establishment of her natural rights. Turkey, France, England, Switzerland, Italy, sustain papers devoted to woman's enfranchis.e.m.e.nt. A Grand International Woman's Rights Congress is to be held in Paris in September of this year, to which the whole world is invited to send delegates, and this Congress is to be under the management of the most renowned liberals of Europe.

Come up, then, friends, and celebrate the Silver Wedding of the Woman Suffrage movement. Let our Twenty-fifth Anniversary be one of power; our reform is everywhere advancing, let us redouble our energies and our courage.

MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE, _Ch'n Ex. Com._ SUSAN B. ANTHONY, _Pres._

[153] Mrs. Elizabeth Avery Meriwether, Tennessee; Isabella Beecher Hooker, Connecticut; Francis Miller, Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C.; Sarah R. L.

Williams, Toledo, Ohio; Mrs. C. M. Palmer, California; Carrie S.

Burnham, Pennsylvania; Ellen C. Sargent, Was.h.i.+ngton; Le Grand Marvin, Buffalo, N. Y.; Carl Doerflinger, Wisconsin; Emily Pitts Stevens, editor of the _Pioneer_, San Francisco, Cal.; A. Jane Duniway, editor of the _New Northwest_, Portland, Oregon.

[154] WHEREAS, This being the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first combined effort of women for the recognition of their civil and political rights; and,

WHEREAS, The demands first publicly promulgated in an obscure village in the State of New York have now spread over the world; therefore,

_Resolved_, That while we congratulate women on the progress of this reform during a quarter of a century, we urge them not to grow discouraged or faint-hearted when obstacles arise in their attack upon h.o.a.ry wrongs. We remind them that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, and that the nearer we come to victory the stronger will be the effort against us. But our cause is one of eternal justice, and must ultimately prevail.

_Resolved_, That Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton will evermore be held in grateful remembrance as the pioneers in this grandest reform of the age; that as the wrongs they attacked were broader and deeper than any other, so as time pa.s.ses they will be revered as foremost among the benefactors of the race, and that we also hold sacred the memory of their co-laborers in the Convention of 1848.

WHEREAS, The underlying principle of our Government is equality of political rights, therefore,