The History of Woman Suffrage Volume III Part 9

OAKLAND, Cal., January 9, 1877.

_To the National Suffrage Convention, Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C.:_

Our incorporated State society has deputed Mrs. Ellen Clark Sargent, the wife of Hon. A. A. Sargent, our fearless champion in the United States Senate, to represent the women of California in your National Convention, and with one so faithful and earnest, we know our cause will be well represented; but there are many among us who would gladly have journeyed to Was.h.i.+ngton to partic.i.p.ate in your councils. Many and radical changes have taken place in the past year favorable to our s.e.x, not the least of which was the nomination and election of several women to the office of county superintendent of common schools, by both the Democratic and Republican parties, in which, however, the Democrats led. Important changes in the civil code favorable to the control of property by married women, have been made by the legislatures during the last four years, through the untiring efforts of Mrs. Sarah Wallis, Mrs. Knox and Mrs. Watson, of Santa Clara county. In our schools and colleges, in every avenue of industry, and in the general liberalization of public opinion there has been marked improvement.

Yours very truly, LAURA DEFORCE GORDON, _Pres. California W. S. S._ (Incorporated).

Mrs. Stanton's letter to _The Ballot-Box_ briefly sums up the proceedings of the convention:

TENAFLY, N. J., January 24, 1877.

DEAR EDITOR: If the little _Ballot-Box_ is not already stuffed to repletion with reports from Was.h.i.+ngton, I crave a little s.p.a.ce to tell your readers that the convention was in all points successful. Lincoln Hall, which seats about fifteen hundred people, was crowded every session. The speaking was good, order reigned, no heart-burnings behind the scenes, and the press vouchsafed "respectful consideration."

The resolutions you will find more interesting and suggestive than that kind of literature usually is, and I ask especial attention to the one for a national convention to revise the const.i.tution, which, with all its amendments, is like a kite with a tail of infinite length still to be lengthened. It is evident a century of experience has so liberalized the minds of the American people, that they have outgrown the const.i.tution adapted to the men of 1776. It is a monarchial doc.u.ment with republican ideas engrafted in it, full of compromises between antagonistic principles. An American statesman remarked that "The civil war was fought to expound the const.i.tution on the question of slavery." Expensive expounding! Instead of further amending and expounding, the real work at the dawn of our second century is to make a new one. Again, I ask the attention of our women to the educational resolution. After much thought it seems to me we should have education compulsory in every State of the Union, and make it the basis of suffrage, a national law, requiring that those who vote after 1880 must be able to read and write the English language. This would prevent ignorant foreigners voting in six months after landing on our sh.o.r.es, and stimulate our native population to higher intelligence. It would dignify and purify the ballot-box and add safety and stability to our free inst.i.tutions. Mrs. Jane Grey Swisshelm, who had just returned from Europe, attended the convention, and spoke on this subject.

Belva A. Lockwood, who had recently been denied admission to the Supreme Court of the United States, although a lawyer in good practice for three years in the Supreme Court of the District, made a very scathing speech, reviewing the decision of the Court.

It may seem to your disfranchised readers quite presumptuous for one of their number to make those nine wise men on the bench, const.i.tuting the highest judicial authority in the United States, subjects for ridicule before an audience of the sovereign people; but, when they learn the decision in Mrs. Lockwood's case, they will be rea.s.sured as to woman's capacity to cope with their wisdom. "To arrive at the same conclusion, with these judges, it is not necessary," said Mrs. Lockwood, "to understand const.i.tutional law, nor the history of English jurisprudence, nor the inductive or deductive modes of reasoning, as no such profound learning or processes of thought were involved in that decision, which was simply this: 'There is no precedent for admitting a woman to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States, hence Mrs. Lockwood's application cannot be considered.'"

On this point Mrs. Lockwood showed that it was the glory of each generation to make its own precedents. As there was none for Eve in the garden of Eden, she argued there need be none for her daughters on entering the college, the church, or the courts.

Blackstone--of whose works she inferred the judges were ignorant--gives several precedents for women in the English courts. As Mrs. Lockwood--tall, well-proportioned, with dark hair and eyes, regular features, in velvet dress and train, with becoming indignation at such injustice--marched up and down the platform and rounded out her glowing periods, she might have fairly represented the Italian Portia at the bar of Venice. No more effective speech was ever made on our platform.

Matilda Joslyn Gage, whose speeches are always replete with historical research, reviewed the action of the Republican party toward woman from the introduction of the word "male" into the fourteenth amendment of the const.i.tution down to the celebration of our national birthday in Philadelphia, when the declaration of the mothers was received in contemptuous silence, while Dom Pedro and other foreign dignitaries looked calmly on. Mrs. Gage makes as dark a chapter for the Republicans as Mrs. Lockwood for the judiciary, or Mrs. Blake for the church. Mrs. B. had been an attentive listener during the trial of the Rev. Isaac See before the presbytery of Newark, N. J., hence she felt moved to give the convention a chapter of ecclesiastical history, showing the struggles through which the church was pa.s.sing with the irrepressible woman in the pulpit. Mrs. Blake's biblical interpretations and expositions proved conclusively that Scott's and Clark's commentaries would at no distant day be superceded by standard works from woman's standpoint. It is not to be supposed that women ever can have fair play as long as men only write and interpret the Scriptures and make and expound the laws. Why would it not be a good idea for women to leave these conservative gentlemen alone in the churches? How sombre they would look with the flowers, feathers, bright ribbons and shawls all gone--black coats only kneeling and standing--and with the deep-toned organ swelling up, the solemn ba.s.s voice heard only in awful solitude; not one soprano note to rise above the low, dull wail to fill the arched roof with triumphant melody! One such experiment from Maine to California would bring these bigoted presbyteries to their senses.

Miss Phoebe Couzins, too, was at the convention, and gave her new lecture, "A Woman without a Country," in which she shows all that woman has done--from fitting out s.h.i.+ps for Columbus, to sharing the toils of the great exposition--without a place of honor in the republic for the living, or a statue to the memory of the dead. Hon. A. G. Riddle and Francis Miller spoke ably and eloquently as usual; the former on the sixteenth amendment and the presidential aspect, modestly suggesting that if twenty million women had voted, they might have been able to find out for whom the majority had cast their ballots. Mr. Miller recommended State action, advising us to concentrate our forces in Colorado as a shorter way to success than const.i.tutional amendments.

His speech aroused Susan B. Anthony to the boiling point; for, if there is anything that exasperates her, it is to be remanded, as she says, to John Morrissey's const.i.tuency for her rights. She contends that if the United States authority could punish her for voting in the State of New York, it has the same power to protect her there in the exercise of that right. Moreover, she said, we have two wings to our movement. The American a.s.sociation is trying the popular-vote method. The National a.s.sociation is trying the const.i.tutional method, which has emanc.i.p.ated and enfranchised the African and secured to that race all their civil rights. To-day by this method they are in the courts, the colleges, and the halls of legislation in every State in the Union, while we have puttered with State rights for thirty years without a foothold anywhere, except in the territories, and it is now proposed to rob the women of their rights in those localities. As the two methods do not conflict, and what is done in the several States tells on the nation, and what is done by congress reacts again on the States, it must be a good thing to keep up both kinds of agitation.

In the middle of November the National a.s.sociation sent out thousands of pet.i.tions and appeals for the sixteenth amendment, which were published and commented on extensively by the press in every State in the Union. Early in January they began to pour into Was.h.i.+ngton at the rate of a thousand a day, coming from twenty-six different States. It does not require much wisdom to see that when these pet.i.tions were placed in the hands of the representatives of their States, a great educational work was accomplished at Was.h.i.+ngton, and public sentiment there has its legitimate effect throughout the country, as well as that already accomplished in the rural districts by the slower process of circulating and signing the pet.i.tions. The present uncertain position of men and parties, has made politicians more ready to listen to the demands of their const.i.tuents, and never has woman suffrage been treated with more courtesy in Was.h.i.+ngton.

To Sara Andrews Spencer we are indebted, for the great labor of receiving, a.s.sorting, counting, rolling-up and planning the presentation of the pet.i.tions. It was by a well considered _coup d'etat_ that, with her brave coadjutors, she appeared on the floor of the House at the moment of adjournment, and there, without circ.u.mlocution, gave each member a pet.i.tion from his own State. Even Miss Anthony, always calm in the hour of danger, on finding herself suddenly whisked into those sacred enclosures, amid a crowd of stalwart men, spittoons, and sc.r.a.p-baskets, when brought _vis-a-vis_ with our champion, Mr. h.o.a.r, hastily apologized for the intrusion, to which the honorable gentleman promptly replied, "I hope, Madam, yet to see you on this floor, in your own right, and in business hours too." Then and there the work of the next day was agreed on, the members gladly accepting the pet.i.tions. As you have already seen, Mr. h.o.a.r made the motion for the special order, which was carried and the pet.i.tions presented. Your readers will be glad to know, that Mr. h.o.a.r has just been chosen, by Ma.s.sachusetts, as her next senator--that gives us another champion in the Senate. As there are many pet.i.tions still in circulation, urge your readers to keep sending them until the close of the session, as we want to know how many women are in earnest on this question. It is constantly said, "Women do not want to vote." Ten thousand told our representatives at Was.h.i.+ngton in a single day that they did! What answer?

Yours sincerely, ELIZABETH CADY STANTON.

The press commented as follows:

SIXTEENTH AMENDMENT.--The woman suffragists, who had a benefit in the House of Representatives, on Friday, when their pet.i.tions were presented, transferred their affections to the Senate on Sat.u.r.day to witness the presentation of a large number of pet.i.tions in that body. It is impossible to tell whether the results desired by the women will follow this concerted action, but it is certain that they have their forces better organized this year than they ever had before, and they have gone to work on a more systematic plan.--[_National Republican._

SIXTEENTH AMENDMENT IN THE SENATE--THE TEN THOUSAND PEt.i.tIONERS ROYALLY TREATED.--That women will, by voting, lose nothing of man's courteous, chivalric attention and respect is admirably proven by the manner in which both houses of congress, in the midst of the most anxious and perplexing presidential conflict in our history, received their appeals from twenty-three States for a sixteenth amendment protecting the rights of women.

In both houses, by unanimous consent, the pet.i.tions were presented and read in open session. The speaker of the House gallantly prepared the way yesterday, and the most prominent senators to-day improved the occasion by impressing upon the Senate the importance of the question. Mr. Sargent reminded the senators that there were forty thousand more votes for woman suffrage in Michigan than for the new State const.i.tution, and Mr.

Dawes said, upon presenting the pet.i.tion from Ma.s.sachusetts, that the question was attracting the attention of both political parties in that State, and he commended it to the early and earnest consideration of the Senate. Mr. c.o.c.krell of Missouri, merrily declared that his pet.i.tioners were the most beautiful and accomplished daughters of the State, which of course he felt compelled to do when Miss Couzins' bright eyes were watching the proceedings from the gallery. Mr. Cameron of Pennsylvania, suggested that it would have been better to put them all together and not consume the time of the Senate with so many presentations.

The officers of the National Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation held a caucus after the adjournment of the Senate, and decided to thank Mr. Cameron for his suggestion, and while they had no anxiety lest senators should consume too much time attending to the interests of women whom they claim to represent, and might reasonably antic.i.p.ate that ten millions of disfranchised citizens would trouble them considerably with pet.i.tions while this injustice continued, yet they would promptly adopt the senator's counsel and roll up such a mammoth pet.i.tion as the Senate had not yet seen from the thousands of women who had no opportunity to sign these. Accordingly they immediately prepared the announcement for the friends of woman suffrage to send on their names to the chairman of the congressional committee. They naturally feel greatly encouraged by the evident interest of both parties in the proposed sixteenth amendment, and will work with renewed strength to secure the cooperation of the women of the country.--[_Was.h.i.+ngton Star._

The time has evidently arrived when demands for a recognition of the personal, civil and political rights of one-half--unquestionably the better half--of the people cannot be laughed down or sneered down, and recent indications are that they cannot much longer be voted down. It was quite clear on Friday and Sat.u.r.day, when pet.i.tions from the best citizens of twenty-three States were presented in House and Senate, that the leaders of the two political parties vied with each other in doing honor to the grave subject proposed for their consideration. The speaker of the House set a commendable example of courtesy to women by proposing that the pet.i.tions be delivered in open House, to which there was no objection. The early advocates of equal rights for women--h.o.a.r, Kelley, Banks, Ka.s.son, Lawrence, and Lapham--were, if possible, surpa.s.sed in courtesy by those who are not committed, but are beginning to see that a finer element in the body politic would clear the vision, purify the atmosphere and help to settle many vexed questions on the basis of exact and equal justice.

In the Senate the unprecedented courtesy was extended to women of half an hour's time on the floor for the presentation of pet.i.tions, exactly alike in form, from twenty-one States, and while this kind of business this session has usually been transacted with an attendance of from seven to ten senators, it was observed that only two out of twenty-three senators who had sixteenth amendment pet.i.tions to present were out of their seats.

Senator Sargent said the presence of women at the polls would purify elections and give us a better cla.s.s of public officials, and the State would thus be greatly benefited. The subject was receiving serious consideration in this country and in England.

Senator Dawes, in presenting the pet.i.tion from Ma.s.sachusetts, said the subject was commanding the attention of both political parties in his own State.

The officers of the National a.s.sociation, who had been able to give only a few days' time to securing the cooperation of the women of the several States in their present effort, held a caucus after the adjournment of the Senate, and decided to immediately issue a new appeal for a mammoth pet.i.tion, which would even more decidedly impress the two houses with the importance of protecting the rights of women by a const.i.tutional amendment. Considering the many long days and weeks consumed in both houses in discussing the political rights of the colored male citizens, there is an obvious propriety in giving full and fair consideration to the protection of the rights of wives, mothers and daughters.--[_The National Republican_, January 22, 1877.

The National a.s.sociation held its anniversary in Masonic Temple, New York, May 24, 1877. Isabella Beecher Hooker, vice-president for Connecticut, called the meeting to order and invited Rev. Olympia Brown to lead in prayer. Mrs. Gage made the annual report of the executive committee. Dr. Clemence S. Lozier of New York was elected president for the coming year. Pledges were made to roll up pet.i.tions with renewed energy; and resolutions were duly discussed[22] and adopted:

WHEREAS, Such minor matters as declaring peace and war, the coining of money, the imposition of tariff, and the control of the postal service, are forbidden the respective States; and whereas, upon the framing of the const.i.tution, it was wisely held that these property rights would be unsafe under the control of thirteen varying deliberative bodies; and whereas, by a curious anomaly, power over suffrage, the basis and corner-stone of the nation, is held to be under control of the respective States; and

WHEREAS, the experience of a century has shown that the personal right of self-government inhering in each individual, is wholly insecure under the control of thirty-eight varying deliberative bodies; and

WHEREAS, the right of self-government by the use of the ballot inheres in the citizen of the United States; therefore,

_Resolved_, That it is the immediate and most important duty of the government to secure this right on a national basis to all citizens, independent of s.e.x.

_Resolved_, That the right of suffrage underlies all other rights, and that in working to secure it women are doing the best temperance, moral reform, educational, and religious work of the age.

_Resolved_, That we solemnly protest against the recent memorial to congress, from Utah, asking the disfranchis.e.m.e.nt of the women of that territory, and that we ask of congress that this request, made in violation of the spirit of our inst.i.tutions, be not granted.

_Resolved_, That the thanks of the National Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation are hereby tendered to the late speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Samuel J. Randall, Pa.; and to Representatives Banks, Ma.s.s.; Blair, N. H.: Bland, Mo.; Brown, Kan.; c.o.x, N. Y.; Eames, R. I.; Fenn, Col.; Hale, Me.; Hamilton, N. J.; Hendee, Vt.; h.o.a.r, Ma.s.s.; Holman, Ind.; Jones, N. H.; Ka.s.son, Iowa; Kelley, Pa. Knott, Ky.; Lane, Oregon; Lapham, N.

Y.; Lawrence, O.; Luttrel, Cal.; Lynde, Wis.; McCrary, Iowa; Morgan, Mo.; O'Neill, Pa.; Springer, Ill.; Strait, Minn.; Waldron, Mich.; Warren, Conn.; Wm. B. Williams, Mich.; and Senators Allison, Iowa; Bogy, Mo.; Burnside, R. I. (for Conn. and R. I.); Cameron, Pa.; Cameron, Wis.; Chaffee, Col.; Christiancy, Mich.; c.o.c.krell, Mo.; Conkling, N. Y.; Cragin, N. H.; Dawes, Ma.s.s.; Dorsey, Ark. (a pet.i.tion from Me.); Edmunds, Vt.; Frelinghuysen, N. J.; Hamlin, Me.; Kernan, N. Y.; McCreery, Ky.; Mitch.e.l.l, Oregon; Morrill, Vt.; Morton, Ind.; Oglesby, Ill.; Sargent, Cal.; Sherman, Ohio; Spencer, Ala. (a pet.i.tion from the District); Thurman, Ohio (a pet.i.tion from Kansas); Wadleigh, N.

H.; Wallace, Pa.; Windom, Minn.; Wright, Iowa, for representing the women of the United States in the presentation of the sixteenth amendment pet.i.tions from ten thousand citizens, in open House and Senate, at the last session of congress.

_Resolved_, That while we recognize with grat.i.tude the opening of many new avenues of labor and usefulness to women, and the amelioration of their condition before the law in many States, we still declare there can be no fair play for women in the world of business until they stand on the same plane of citizens.h.i.+p with their masculine compet.i.tors.

_Resolved_, That in entering the professions and other departments of business heretofore occupied largely by men, the women of to-day should desire to accept the same conditions and tests of excellence with their brothers, and should demand the same standard for men and women in business, art, education, and morals.

_Resolved_, That the thanks of this a.s.sociation are hereby tendered to the Hon. Geo. F. h.o.a.r of Ma.s.sachusetts, for rising in his place in the Cincinnati presidential convention, and asking in behalf of the disfranchised women of the United States that the convention grant a hearing to Mrs. Spencer, of Was.h.i.+ngton, the accredited delegate of the National Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation.

Great unanimity was reached in these sentiments and the enthusiasm manifested gave promise of earnest labor and more hopeful results.

It was felt that there was reason to thank G.o.d and take courage.

The day before the opening of the Tenth Was.h.i.+ngton Convention a caucus was held in the ladies' reception-room[23] in the Senate wing of the capitol. A roll-call of the delegates developed the fact that every State in the Union would be represented by women now here and _en route_, or by letter. Mrs. Spencer said she had made a request in the proper quarter, that the delegates should be allowed to go on the floor when the Senate was actually in session, and present their case to the senators. She had been met with the statement that such a proceeding was without precedent. Mrs. Hooker suggested that inasmuch as there was a precedent for such a course in the House, the delegates should meet the following Thursday to canva.s.s for votes in the House of Representatives. Another delegate recalled the fact that Mrs. General Sherman and Mrs. Admiral Dahlgren had been admitted upon the floor of the Senate while it was in session, to canva.s.s for votes against woman suffrage.

This agitation resulted in a resolution introduced by Hon. A. A.

Sargent, January 10:

WHEREAS, Thousands of women of the United States have pet.i.tioned congress for an amendment to the const.i.tution allowing women the right of suffrage; and whereas, many of the representative women of the country favoring such amendment are present in the city and have requested to be heard before the Senate in advocacy of said amendment,

_Resolved_, That at a session of the Senate, to be held on ----, said representative women, or such of them as may be designated for that purpose, may be heard before the Senate; but for one hour only.

Mr. EDMUNDS demanded the regular order.

Mr. SARGENT advocated the resolution, and urged immediate action, as delay would detain the women in the city at considerable expense to them. He thought the question not so intricate that senators require time for consideration whether or not the women should be heard.

Mr. EDMUNDS said there was a rule of long standing that forbids any person appearing before the Senate. There was much to be said in favor of the pet.i.tions, but it was against the logic of the resolution that the pet.i.tioners required more than was accorded any others. He, therefore, insisted on his demand for the regular order.

Mr. SARGENT gave notice that he would call up his resolution to-morrow, and reminded the senators that no rule was so sacred that it could not be set aside by unanimous consent.

On the next day there was a lively discussion, Senators Edmunds, Thurman and Conkling insisting there was no precedent; Mr. Sargent, a.s.sisted by Senators Burnside, Anthony and Dawes, reminding them of several occasions when the Senate had extended similar courtesies. The resolution was voted down--31 to 13.[24]