The History of Woman Suffrage Volume III Part 41

The Ma.s.sachusetts School Suffrage a.s.sociation was formed in 1880, Abby W. May, president.[117] Its efforts are mostly confined to Boston. An independent movement of women voters in Boston, distinct from all organizations, was formed in 1884, and subdivided into ward and city committees. These did much valuable work and secured a larger number of voters than had qualified in previous years. In 1880 the number of registered women in the whole State was 4,566, and in Boston 826. In 1884, chiefly owing to the ward and city committees, the number in Boston alone was 1,100. This year (1885) a movement among the Roman Catholic women has raised the number who are a.s.sessed to vote to 1,843; and it is estimated that when the tax-paying women are added, the whole number will be about 2,500.

The National Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation[118] of Ma.s.sachusetts was formed in January, 1882, of members who had joined the National a.s.sociation at its thirteenth annual meeting, held in Tremont Temple, Boston, May 26, 27, 1881. According to Article II. of its const.i.tution, its object is to secure to women their right to the ballot, by working for national, State, munic.i.p.al, school, or any other form of suffrage which shall at the time seem most expedient.

While it is auxiliary to the National a.s.sociation, it reserves to itself the right of independent action. It has held conventions[119] in Boston and some of the chief cities of the State, sent delegates to the annual Was.h.i.+ngton Convention[120] and published valuable leaflets.[121] It has rolled up pet.i.tions to the State legislature and to congress. Its most valuable work has been the canva.s.s made in certain localities in the city and country in 1884, to ascertain the number of women in favor of suffrage, the number opposed and the number indifferent. The total result showed that there were 405 in favor, 44 opposed, 166 indifferent, 160 refusing to sign, 39 not seen; that is, over nine who would sign themselves in favor to one who would sign herself opposed. This canva.s.s was made by women who gave their time and labor to this arduous work, and the results were duly presented to the legislature.

In 1883 this a.s.sociation pet.i.tioned the legislature to pa.s.s a resolution recommending congress to submit a proposition for a sixteenth amendment to the national const.i.tution. The Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage granted a hearing March 23, and soon after presented a favorable report; but the resolution, when brought to a vote, was lost by 21 to 11. This was the first time that the National doctrine of congressional action was ever presented or voted upon in the Ma.s.sachusetts legislature. A second hearing[122] was granted on February 28, 1884, before the Committee on Federal Relations. They reported leave to withdraw.

The a.s.sociations mentioned are not the only ones that are aiding the suffrage movement. Its friends are found in all the women's clubs, temperance a.s.sociations, missionary movements, charitable enterprises, educational and industrial unions and church committees. These agencies form a network of motive power which is gradually carrying the reform into all branches of public work.

The _Woman's Journal_ was incorporated in 1870 and is owned by a joint stock company, shares being held by leading members of the suffrage a.s.sociations of New England. Shortly after it was projected, the _Agitator_, then published in Chicago by Mary A.

Livermore, was bought by the New England a.s.sociation on condition that she should "come to Boston for one year, at a reasonable compensation, to a.s.sist the cause by her editorial labor and speaking at conventions." Lucy Stone and Henry B. Blackwell, invited by the same society to "return to the work in Ma.s.sachusetts," at once a.s.sumed the editorial charge. T. W.

Higginson, Julia Ward Howe and W. L. Garrison were a.s.sistant editors. "Warrington," Kate N. Doggett, Samuel E. Sewall, F. B.

Sanborn, and many other good writers, lent a helping hand to the new enterprise. The _Woman's Journal_ has been of great value to the cause. It has helped individual women and brought their enterprises into public notice. It has opened its columns to inexperienced writers and advertised young speakers. To sustain the paper and furnish money for other work, two mammoth bazars or fairs were held in Music Hall in 1870, 1871. Nearly all the New England States and many of the towns in Ma.s.sachusetts were represented by tables in these bazars. Donations were sent from all directions and the women worked, as they generally do in a cause in which they are interested, to raise money to furnish the sinews of war. The newspapers from day to day were full of descriptions of the splendors of the tables, and the reporters spoke well of the women who had taken this novel method to carry on their movement. People who had never heard of woman suffrage before came to see what sort of women were those who thus made a public exhibition of their zeal in this cause. In remote places, as well as nearer the scene of action, many people who had never thought of the significance of the woman's rights movement, began to consider it through reading the reports of the woman suffrage bazar.

Female opponents of the suffrage movement began to make a stir as early as 1868. A remonstrance was sent into the legislature, from two hundred women of Lancaster, giving the reasons why women should not enjoy the exercise of the elective franchise: "It would diminish the purity, the dignity and the moral influence of woman, and bring into the family circle a dangerous element of discord."

In _The Revolution_ of August 5, 1869, Parker Pillsbury said:

Dolly Chandler and the hundred and ninety-four other women who asked the Ma.s.sachusetts legislature not to allow the right of suffrage, were very impudent and tyrannical, too, in pet.i.tioning for any but themselves. They should have said: "We, Dolly Chandler and her a.s.sociates, to the number of a hundred and ninety-five in all, do not want the right of suffrage; and we pray your honorable bodies to so decree and enact that we shall never have it." So far they might go. But when they undertake to prevent a hundred and ninety-four thousand other women who do want the ballot and who have an acknowledged right to it, and are laboring for it day and night, it is proper to ask, What business have Dolly Chandler and her little coterie to interpose? n.o.body wants them to vote unless they themselves want to. They can stay at home and see n.o.body but the a.s.sessor, the tax-gatherer and the revenue collector, from Christmas to Christmas, if they so prefer. Those gentlemen they will be pretty likely to see, annually or quarterly, and to feel their power, too, if they have pockets with anything in them, in spite of all pet.i.tions to the legislature.

It did not occur to these women that by thus remonstrating they were doing just what they were protesting against. What _is_ a vote? An expression of opinion or a desire as to governmental affairs, in the shape of a ballot. The "aspiring blood of Lancaster" should have mounted higher than this, since, if it really was the opinion of these remonstrants that woman cannot vote without becoming defiled, they should have kept themselves out of the legislature, should have kept their hands from pet.i.tioning and their thoughts from agitation on either side of the subject. Just such illogical reasoning on the woman suffrage question is often brought forward and pa.s.ses for the profoundest wisdom and discreetest delicacy! The same arguments are used by the remonstrants of to-day, who are now fully organized and doing very efficient political work in opposing further political action by women. In their carriages, with footman and driver, they solicit names to their remonstrances. As a Boston newspaper says:

The anti-woman suffrage women get deeper and deeper into politics year by year in their determination to keep out of politics. By the time they triumph they will be the most accomplished politicians of the s.e.x, and unable to stop writing to the papers, holding meetings, circulating remonstrances, any more than the suffrage sisterhood.

These persons, men and women, bring their whole force to bear before legislative committees at woman suffrage hearings, and use arguments that might have been excusable forty years ago. However this is merely a phase of the general movement and will work for good in the end. It can no more stop the progress of the reform than it can stop the revolution of the globe.

Political agitation on the woman suffrage question began in Ma.s.sachusetts in 1870. A convention to discuss the feasibility of forming a woman suffrage political party was held in Boston, at which Julia Ward Howe presided, and Rev. Augusta Chapin offered prayer. The question of a separate nomination for State officers was carefully considered.[123] Delegates were present from the Labor Reform and Prohibition parties, and strong efforts were made by them to induce the convention to nominate Wendell Phillips, who had already accepted the nomination of those two parties, as candidate for governor. The convention at one time seemed strongly in favor of this action, the women in particular thinking that in Mr. Phillips they would find a staunch and well tried leader. But more politic counsels prevailed, and it was finally concluded to postpone a separate nomination until after the Republican and Democratic conventions had been held. A State central committee was formed, and at once began active political agitation. A memorial was prepared to present to each of the last-named conventions; and the candidates on the State tickets of the four political parties were questioned by letter concerning their opinions on the right of the women to the ballot. At the Republican State convention held October 5, 1870, the question was fairly launched into politics, by the admission, for the first time, of two women, Lucy Stone and Mary A. Livermore, as regularly accredited delegates. Both were invited to speak, and the following resolution drawn up by Henry B.

Blackwell, was presented by Charles W. Slack:

_Resolved_, That the Republican party of Ma.s.sachusetts is mindful of its obligations to the loyal women of America for their patriotic devotion to the cause of liberty; that we rejoice in the action of the recent legislature in making women eligible as officers of the State; that we thank Governor Claflin for having appointed women to important political trusts; that we are heartily in favor of the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women, and will hail the day when the educated, intelligent and enlightened conscience of the women of Ma.s.sachusetts has direct expression at the ballot box.

This resolution was presented to the committee, who did not agree as to the propriety of reporting it to the convention, and they instructed their chairman, George F. h.o.a.r, to state the fact and refer the resolution back to that body for its own action. A warm debate arose, in which several members of the convention made speeches on both sides of the question. The resolution was finally defeated, 137 voting in its favor, and 196 against it. Although lost, the large vote in the affirmative was thought to mean a great deal as a guaranty of the good faith of the Republican party, and the women were willing to trust to its promises. It was thought then, as it has been thought since, that most of the friends of woman suffrage were in the Republican party, and that the interests of the cause could best be furthered by depending on its action.

The women were, however, mistaken, and have learned to look upon the famous resolution in its true light. It is now known as the _coup d'etat_ of the Worcester convention of 1870, which really had more votes than it was fairly ent.i.tled to. After that,--"forewarned, forearmed," said the enemies of the enterprise, and woman suffrage resolutions have received less votes in Republican conventions.

When the memorial prepared by the State Central Committee was presented to the Democratic State convention, that body, in response, pa.s.sed a resolution conceding the _principle_ of women's right to suffrage, but at the same time declared itself against its being _enforced_, or put into practice. To finish the brief record of the dealings of the Democratic party, with the women of the State, it may be said that since 1870, it has never responded to their appeals, nor taken any action of importance on the question.

In 1871 a resolution endorsing woman suffrage was pa.s.sed in the Republican convention. In June, 1872, the national convention at Philadelphia, pa.s.sed the following:

_Resolved_, That the Republican party is mindful of its obligations to the loyal women of America for their n.o.ble devotion to the cause of freedom; their admission to wider fields of usefulness is viewed with satisfaction; and the honest demand of any cla.s.s of citizens for additional rights, should be treated with respectful consideration.

The Ma.s.sachusetts Republican State Convention, following this lead, again pa.s.sed a woman suffrage resolution:

_Resolved_, That we heartily approve the recognition of the rights of woman contained in the fourteenth clause of the national Republican platform; that the Republican party of Ma.s.sachusetts, as the representative of liberty and progress, is in favor of extending suffrage to all American citizens irrespective of s.e.x, and will hail the day when the educated intellect and enlightened conscience of woman shall find direct expression at the ballot-box.

This was during the campaign of 1872, when General Grant's chance of reelection was thought to be somewhat uncertain, and the Republican women in all parts of the country were called on to rally to his support. The National Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation had issued "an appeal to the women of America," asking them to cooperate with the Republican party and work for the election of its candidates. In response to this appeal a ratification meeting was held at Tremont Temple, in Boston, at which hundreds stayed to a late hour listening to speeches made by women on the political questions of the day. An address was issued from the "Republican women of Ma.s.sachusetts to the women of America." In this address they announced their faith in and willingness to "trust the Republican party and its candidates, as saying what they mean and meaning what they say, and in view of their honorable record we have no fear of betrayal on their part." Mrs. Livermore, Lucy Stone and Huldah B. Loud took part in the canva.s.s, and agents employed by the Ma.s.sachusetts a.s.sociation were instructed to speak for the Republican party.[124] Women writers furnished articles for the newspapers and the Republican women did as much effective work during the campaign as if each one had been a "man and a voter."

They did everything but vote. All this agitation was a benefit to the Republican party, but not to woman suffrage, because for a time it arrayed other political parties against the movement and caused it to be thought merely a party issue, while it is too broad a question for such limitation.

General Grant was reelected and the campaign was over. When the legislature met and the suffrage question came up for discussion, that body, composed in large majority of Republicans, showed the women of Ma.s.sachusetts the difference between "saying what you mean and meaning what you say," the Woman Suffrage bill being defeated by a large majority. The women learned by this experience that nothing is to be expected of a political party while it is in power. To close the subject of suffrage resolutions in the platform of the Republican party, it may be said that they continued to be put in and seemed to mean something until after 1875, when they became only "glittering generalities," and were as devoid of real meaning or intention as any that were ever pa.s.sed by the old Whig party on the subject of abolition. Yet from 1870 to 1874 the Republican party had the power to fulfill its promises on this question. Since then, it has been too busy trying to keep breath in its own body to lend a helping hand to any struggling reform. At the Republican convention, held in Worcester in 1880, an attempt was made by Mr. Blackwell to introduce a resolution endorsing the right conferred upon women in the law allowing them to vote for school committees, pa.s.sed by the legislature of 1879. This resolution was rejected by the committee, and when offered in convention as an amendment, it was voted down without a single voice, except that of the mover, being raised in its support. Yet this resolution only asked a Republican convention to endorse an existing right, conferred on the women of the State by a Republican legislature! A political party as a party of freedom must be very far spent when it refuses at its annual convention to endorse an act pa.s.sed by a legislature the majority of whose members are representatives elected from its own body. Since that time the Republican party has entirely ignored the claims of woman. In 1884, at its annual convention, an effort was made, as usual, by Mr.

Blackwell, to introduce a resolution, but without success, and yet some of the best of our leaders advised the women to "stand by the Republican party."[125]

The question of forming a woman suffrage political party had, since 1870, been often discussed.[126] In 1875 Thomas J. Lothrop proposed the formation of a separate organization. But it was not until 1876 that any real effort in this direction was made. The Prohibitory (or Temperance) party sometimes holds the balance of political power in Ma.s.sachusetts, and many of the members of that party are also strong advocates of suffrage. The feeling had been growing for several years that if forces could be joined with the Prohibitionists some practical result in politics might be reached, and though there was a difference of opinion on this subject, many were willing to see the experiment tried.

The Prohibitory party had at its convention in 1876 pa.s.sed a resolution inviting the women to take part in its primary meetings, with an equal voice and vote in the nomination of candidates and transaction of business. After long and anxious discussions, the Ma.s.sachusetts Woman Suffrage State Central Committee, in whose hands all political action rested, determined to accept this invitation. A woman suffrage political convention was held, at which the Prohibitory candidates were endorsed and a joint State ticket was decided on, to be headed "Prohibition and Equal Rights."

These tickets were sent to women all over the State, and they were strongly urged to go to the polls and distribute them on election day. Lucy Stone, Mary A. Livermore and other leading speakers took part in the campaign, and preparations were completed by which it was expected both parties would act harmoniously together. Clubs were formed at whose headquarters were seen men and women gathered together to organize for political work. From some of these headquarters hung transparencies with "Baker and Eddy" on one side, and "Prohibition and Equal Rights" on the other. Caucuses and conventions were held in Chelsea, Taunton, Malden, Lynn, Concord, and other places. A Middles.e.x county (first district) senatorial convention was called and organized by women, and its proceedings were fully reported by the Boston newspapers.[127]

The nominations made at these caucuses were generally unanimous, and it seemed at the time as if the two wings of the so-called "Baker party" would work harmoniously together. But, with a few honorable exceptions, the Prohibitionists, taking advantage of the fact that the voting power of the women was over, once outside the caucus, repudiated the nominations, or held other caucuses and shut the doors of entrance in the faces of the women who represented either the suffrage or the Prohibitory party. This was the case invariably, excepting in towns where the majority of the voting members of the Prohibitory party were also in favor of woman suffrage. This result is what might have been expected. Of what use was woman in the ranks of any political party, with no vote outside the caucus?

After being thus ignored in one of their caucuses in Malden, Middles.e.x county, the suffragists in that town determined to hold another caucus. This was accordingly done, and two "straight"

candidates were nominated as town representatives to the legislature. A "Woman Suffrage ticket"[128] was thereupon printed to offer to the voters on election day. The next question was, who would distribute these ballots most effectively at the polls. Some men thought that the women themselves should go and present in person the names of their candidates. At first the women who had carried on the campaign shrank from this last test of their faithfulness; but, after carefully considering the matter, they concluded that it was the right thing to do. The repugnance felt at that time, at the thought of "women going to the polls" can hardly be appreciated to-day. Since they have begun to vote in Ma.s.sachusetts the terror expressed at the idea of such a proceeding has somewhat abated; but in 1876 it was thought to be a rash act for a woman to appear at the polls in company with men. Some attempt was made to deter them from their purpose, and stories of pipes and tobacco and probable insults were told; but they had no terrors for women who knew better than to believe that their neighbors would be turned into beasts (like the man in the fairy tale) for this one day in the year.[129]

It was a sight to be remembered, to behold women "crowned with honor" standing at the polls to see the freed slave go by and vote, and the newly-naturalized fellow-citizen, and the blind, the paralytic, the boy of twenty-one with his newly-fledged vote, the drunken man who did not know Hayes from Tilden, and the man who read his ballot upside down. All these voted for the men they wanted to represent them, but the women, being neither colored, nor foreign, nor blind, nor paralytic, nor newly-fledged, nor drunk, nor ignorant, but only _women_, could not vote for the men they wanted to represent them.[130]

The women learned several things during this campaign in Ma.s.sachusetts. One was, that weak parties are no more to be trusted than strong ones; and another, that men grant but little until the ballot is placed in the hands of those who make the demand. They learned also how political caucuses and conventions are managed.

The resolution pa.s.sed by the Prohibitionists enabled them to do this. So the great "open sesame" is reached. It is but fair to state that since 1876 the Prohibitory party has treated the woman suffrage question with consideration. In its annual convention it has pa.s.sed resolutions endorsing woman's claims to political equality, and has set the example to other parties of admitting women as delegates. At the State convention in 1885 the following resolution was adopted by a good majority:

_Resolved_, That women having interests to be promoted and rights to be protected, and having ability for the discharge of political duties, should have the right to vote and to be voted for, as is accorded to man.

In the early history of Ma.s.sachusetts, when the new colony was governed by laws set down in the Province charter (1691, third year of William and Mary) women were not excluded from voting. The clause in the charter relating to this matter says:

The great and general court shall consist of the governor and council (or a.s.sistants for the time being) and of such freeholders as shall be from time to time elected or deputed by the major part of the freeholders and other inhabitants of the respective towns or places, who shall be present at such elections.

In the original const.i.tution (1780) women were excluded from voting except for certain State officers.[131] In the const.i.tutional convention of 1820, the word "male" was first put into the const.i.tution of the State, in an amendment to define the qualifications of voters. In this convention, a motion was made at three different times, during the pa.s.sage of the act, to strike out the intruding word, but the motion was voted down. Long before the second attempt was made to revise the const.i.tution of the State, large numbers of women began to demand suffrage. Woman's sphere of operations and enterprise had become so widened, that they felt they had not only the right, but also an increasing fitness for civil life and government, of which the ballot is but the sign and the symbol.

In the const.i.tutional convention of 1853, twelve pet.i.tions were presented, from over 2,000 adult persons, asking for the recognition of woman's right to the ballot, in the proposed amendments to the const.i.tution of the State. The committee reported leave to withdraw, giving as their reason that the "consent of the governed" was shown by the small number of pet.i.tioners. Hearings before this committee were granted.[132] The chairman of this committee, in presenting the report, moved that all debate on the subject should cease in thirty minutes, and on motion of Benjamin F. Butler of Lowell, the whole report, excepting the last clause, was stricken out. There was then left of the whole doc.u.ment (including more than two closely-printed pages of reasoning) only this: "It is inexpedient for this convention to take any action."

Legislative action on the woman's rights question began in 1849, when William Lloyd Garrison presented the first pet.i.tion on the subject to the State legislature. Following him was one from Jonathan Drake and others, "for a peaceable secession of Ma.s.sachusetts from the Union." Both these pet.i.tions were probably considered by the legislature to which they were addressed as of equally incendiary character, since they both had "leave to withdraw." In 1851 an order was introduced asking "whether any legislation was necessary concerning the wills of married women?"

In 1853 a bill was enacted "to exempt certain property of widows and unmarried women from taxation." In the legislature of 1856 the first great and important act relating to the property rights of women was pa.s.sed. It was to the effect that women could hold all property earned or acquired independently of their husbands. This act was amended and improved the next session.

In 1857 a hearing was held before the Committee on the Judiciary to listen to arguments in favor of the pet.i.tion of Lucy Stone and others for equal property rights for women and for the "right of suffrage." Another hearing was held in the same place in February, 1858, before the Joint Special Committee on the Qualifications of Voters. A second hearing on the right of suffrage for women was held the following week before the same committee. Thomas W.

Higginson made an address and Caroline Kealey Dall read an essay.

In 1858, Stephen A. Chase of Salem, from the same Committee on the Qualifications of Voters, made a long report on the pet.i.tions. This report closed with an order that the State Board of Education make inquiry and report to the next legislature "whether it is not practicable and expedient to provide by law some method by which the women of this State may have a more active part in the control and management of the schools." There is nothing in legislative records to show that the State Board of Education reported favorably; but from the above statement it appears that ten years before Samuel E. Sewall's pet.i.tion on the subject, a movement was made towards making women "eligible to serve as members of school-committees."

The pet.i.tions for woman's rights were usually circulated by women going from house to house. They did the drudgery, endured the hards.h.i.+ps and suffered the humiliations attendant upon the early history of our cause; but their names are forgotten, and others reap the benefit of their labors. These women were so modest and so anxious for the success of their pet.i.tions, that they never put their own names at the head of the list, preferring the signature of some leading man, so that others seeing his name, might be induced to follow his example. Among the earliest of these silent workers was Mary Upton Ferrin. Her pet.i.tions were for a change in the laws concerning the property rights of married women, and for the political and legal rights of all women. In 1849 she prepared a memorial to the Ma.s.sachusetts legislature in which are embodied many of the demands for woman's equality before the law, which have so often been made to that body since that time.[133]

In 1861 the legislature debated a bill to allow a widow, "if she have woodland as a part of her dower, the privilege of cutting wood enough for one fire." This bill failed, and the widow, by law, was _not_ allowed to keep herself warm with fuel from her own wood-lot.

In 1863 a bill providing that "a wife may be allowed to be a witness and proceed against her husband for desertion," was reported inexpedient, and a bill was pa.s.sed to _prevent_ women from forming copartners.h.i.+ps in business. In 1865, Gov. John A. Andrew, seeing the magnitude of the approaching woman question, in his annual message to the legislature, made a memorable suggestion:

I know of no more useful object to which the commonwealth can lend its aid, than that of a movement, adopted in a practical way, to open the door of emigration to young women who are wanted for teachers and for every appropriate, as well as domestic, employment in the remote West, but who are leading anxious and aimless lives in New England.

By the "anxious and aimless" it was supposed the governor meant the widowed, single or otherwise unrepresented portion of the citizens of the State. No action was taken by the legislature on this portion of the governor's message. But a member of the Senate actually made the following proposition before that body:

That the "anxious and aimless women" of the State should a.s.semble on the Common on a certain day of the year (to be hereafter named), and that Western men who wanted wives, should be invited to come here and select them.

Legislators who make such propositions, do not foresee that the time may come, when perhaps those nearest and dearest to them, may be cla.s.sed among the superfluous or "anxious and aimless" women!

In 1865 bills allowing married women to testify in suits at law where their husbands are parties, and permitting them to hold trust estates were rejected. It will be seen that though all this legislation was adverse to woman's interest, the question had forced itself upon the attention of the members of both House and Senate. In 1866 a joint committee of both houses was appointed to consider:

If any additional legislation can be adopted, whereby the means of obtaining a livelihood by the women of this commonwealth may be increased and a more equal and just compensation be allowed for their labor.

In 1867, Francis W. Bird presented the pet.i.tion of Mehitable Haskell of Gloucester for "an amendment to the const.i.tution extending suffrage to women." In 1868 Mr. King of Boston presented the same pet.i.tion, and it was at this time, and in answer thereto, that the subject first entered into the regular orders of the day, and became a part of the official business of the House of Representatives. Attempts to legislate on the property question were continued in 1868, in bills "to further protect the property of married women," "to allow married women to contract for necessaries," and if "divorced from bed and board, to allow them to dispose of their own property." These bills were all defeated.