The History of Woman Suffrage Volume III Part 118

SEC. 2. This act to take effect from and after its pa.s.sage.

Approved November 29, 1871. EDWARD S. SOLOMON, _Governor_.

When the proclamation to hold a convention to form a const.i.tution preparatory to our admission into the Union as a State, was issued, I recommended to the Territorial Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation that we make every effort to secure to the convention as many delegates as possible in favor of woman suffrage, and then that we circulate pet.i.tions asking them to leave out the word "male" from the const.i.tution. Failing to get the society to take any a.s.sociated action, I went to work individually, wrote and sent out pet.i.tions into every town and country place where there was a post-office, asking that the word "male" be left out of the const.i.tution. With each pet.i.tion I sent a letter to the person whose name I had procured from the postmaster of the place, stating the object, urging a thorough circulation, and directing its return at a given date to Mary Olney Brown, President of the Was.h.i.+ngton Territorial Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation; thus giving the credit of the work to the Society.

I could not get a member of our a.s.sociation to circulate the pet.i.tion in Olympia, so every day that I could get away from home I took my pet.i.tion in hand and canva.s.sed for signatures. If I went shopping or on an errand I took it with me, and in that way I procured over 300 names. My experience had taught me that the princ.i.p.al opposition to woman's voting came from ignorance as to her true position under the government. She had come to be looked upon almost as a foreign element in our nation, having no lot nor part with the male citizen, and I felt that it was necessary to disabuse the minds of the people generally, and the delegates to the convention particularly, of this notion. I therefore wrote five articles on the "Equality of Citizens.h.i.+p," which Mrs.

Duniway kindly published in the _New Northwest_. The Olympia _Courier_ also printed them, and placed the paper on file in the city reading-room; and when I met a man who had not made up his mind on the subject I recommended him to the reading-room, and several after perusing the articles were converted and signed the pet.i.tion.

On the a.s.sembling of the legislature Mrs. A. H. H. Stuart and myself watched a favorable opportunity to present an equal rights bill. We let them talk up the matter pretty well over a pet.i.tion signed by fifty women of one of the upper counties, when one day Mrs. Stuart came to me and said: "Now, Mrs. Brown, write out your bill; the speaker of the House sent me word they were ready for it." I sat down and framed a bill[514] to the best of my ability, which was duly presented and respectfully debated. Mrs. Duniway came from Portland to urge its pa.s.sage, and the day before it came to a vote both Houses adjourned and invited her to speak in the hall of representatives. She made one of her best speeches.

The members of both Houses were present, besides a large audience from the city. The next day the House pa.s.sed the bill by two majority, and on the day following it was lost in the Council by two majority. In the House the vote stood, ayes, 13; nays, 11. In the Council, ayes, 5; nays, 7.

Sat.u.r.day evening Mrs. Duniway made another telling speech in the city hall, at the close of which Mr. White, a lobby member, made a few remarks, in which he disclosed the cause of the defeat of the bill in the Council. He said, after the bill pa.s.sed the House the saloon-keepers, alarmed lest their occupation would be gone if women should vote, b.u.t.ton-holed the members of the Council, and as many of them as could be bought by drinks pledged themselves to vote against the bill. The members of the Council were present, and though an urgent invitation was given to all to speak, not one of them denied the charge made by Mr. White. On the following Monday an effort was made in the Council to reconsider the bill, but failed. Thus stands our cause at present. There will be a greater effort than ever before put forth during the next two years to secure an affirmative vote in our legislature.

As Mrs. Brown wrote the above in 1881, the promise in the closing sentence was really quite prophetic, since the legislature of 1883 pa.s.sed a law enfranchising the women of the territory.[515] Mrs.

Duniway concludes her account with a brief reference to the work in neighboring territories:

In addition to all that is being done in Oregon and Was.h.i.+ngton, we are actively engaged in pus.h.i.+ng the work in Idaho and Montana territories, where the _New Northwest_ has been thoroughly circulated in many localities and many spirited public meetings have been held. The Idaho legislature seriously considered and came near adopting a woman suffrage bill last winter, and the women of the territory are confidently awaiting a triumph at the next biennial session. Remembering Dakota's set-back through the governor's veto in 1885, they are carefully planning to avoid a like calamity in their own territory. In Montana the cause has made less apparent progress, but there is much quiet and constantly increasing agitation in its favor. Popular feeling is steadily ripening for the change, and let the rest of the world wag as it will, there cannot be much longer hindrance to the complete triumph of liberty in the Pacific Northwest.

FOOTNOTES:

[507] Hon. H. L. Yesler, the city's founder and mayor; Mrs. Yesler, Rev. John F. Damon, Mrs. Mary Olney Brown, Rev. Daniel Bagley and others.

[508] Its leaders being Mrs. Abble H. H. Stuart, Mrs. P. C. Hale, Hon. Marshall Blinn, Hon. Elwood Evans, and Mr. J. M. Murphy, editor of the _Was.h.i.+ngton Standard_.

[509] Mr. D. W. Williams, Mr. and Mrs. W. T. Shanahan, Mr. and Mrs.

A. B. Gibson, Rev. T. L. Eliot, Mr. B. C. Duniway, Dr. Mary A.

Thompson, Rev. Isaac Dillon and Hon. and Mrs. G. W. Brown.

[510] Addresses were made in advocacy of the cause by Col. Reed, Mrs. J. Devore Johnson, Miss V. M. Olds, Rev. T. L. Eliot, Mrs. C.

A. Coburn, Mrs. Beatty (colored), and the writer. The celebrated McGibeney family furnished the music, and the Portland press gave favorable reports of the proceedings. Valuable aid was also contributed by Mr. and Mrs. D. H. Hendee, Mr. and Mrs. J. W.

Peters, and Mrs. M. J. Foster.

[511] Governor Newell, Judge Orange Jacobs, Judge B. F. Dennison, Mrs. Pamela Hale, Hon. Philip D. Moore, Mr. W. S. Duniway, Captain William H. Smallwood, the writer, and a large number of the members of the legislature.

[512] S. F. Chadwick, United States Representative M. C. George, ex-United States Senator J. H. Mitch.e.l.l, United States District Judge M. P. Deady, Hon. H. W. Scott, editor of the _Oregonian_, ex-Governor A. C. Gibbs, District-Attorneys J. F. Caples and T. A.

McBride, and various ex-members of the legislature.

[513] The official vote of the State was 11,223 for the amendment, and 28,176 against.

[514] _Be it enacted by the Legislature of the Territory of Was.h.i.+ngton:_

SECTION 1. All female citizens of the age of twenty-one years shall be ent.i.tled to vote at all elections in the territory, subject only to such regulations as male citizens.

SEC. 2. Any officer of election who shall refuse to take the vote of a woman citizen (otherwise qualified to vote), shall be liable to a fine of not less than $100 nor more than $500.

SEC. 3. All laws in conflict with this act are hereby repealed.

SEC. 4. This act to be in force on and after its pa.s.sage.

[515] The bill was introduced in the Was.h.i.+ngton House by Representative Coply, and was supported in speeches by Messrs.

Coply, Besserer, Miles, Clark and St.i.tzel, while Messrs. Landrum and Kincaid spoke against it. The vote was: _Ayes_--Besserer, Brooks, Clark, Coply, Foster, Goodell, Hungate, Kuhn, Lloyd, Martin, Miles, Shaw, St.i.tzel and Speaker Ferguson--14.

_Noes_--Barlow, Brining, Landrum, Ping, Kincaid, Shoudy and Young--7. _Absent_--Blackwell, Turpin and Warner--3. The bill was favorably reported in the Council, November 15, by Chairman Burk of the Judiciary Committee. No one offered to speak on it. The vote stood: _Ayes_--Burk, Edmiston, Hale, Harper, Kerr, Power and Smith--7. _Noes_--Caton, Collins, Houghton, Whitehouse and President Truax--5. Governor W. A. Newell approved the bill November 22, 1883.

CHAPTER LV.

LOUISIANA--TEXAS--ARKANSAS--MISSISSIPPI.

St. Anna's Asylum, Managed by Women--Const.i.tutional Convention, 1879--Women Pet.i.tion--Clara Merrick Guthrie--Pet.i.tion Referred to Committee on Suffrage--A Hearing Granted--Mrs. Keating--Mrs.

Saxon--Mrs. Merrick--Col. John M. Sandige--Efforts of the Women all in Vain--Action in 1885--Gov. McEnery--The _Daily Picayune_--Women as Members of the School-Board--Physiology in the Schools--Miss Eliza Rudolph--Mrs. E. J. Nicholson--Judge Merrick's Digest of Laws--Texas--Arkansas--Mississippi--Sarah A.

Dorsey.

I.--LOUISIANA.

Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick has furnished the following interesting facts from her native State, for which we feel ourselves deeply indebted:

Like the children of one family the States have a common resemblance, but they are various in character as in geographical outline. In Louisiana the Anglo-American finds himself side-by-side with inhabitants of French or Spanish descent, and in many of the country parishes the African freedmen outnumber all the rest.

St. Anna's Asylum in New Orleans is controlled and managed by a board of directors composed entirely of women. Among the inmates in 1878 was a German woman who had resided in the inst.i.tution for many years. Finding herself in ill-health and fearing the approach of the end, she confided to the ladies of the board that she had a thousand dollars in bank which she wished to bequeath to the home where she had been provided for and sheltered so long. At her earnest request a will was drawn up in accordance with her wishes, and signed by members of the board who were present as witnesses. Shortly after, the woman died and her will was submitted to the proper authority for admission to probate.

When the ladies were duly informed that the will was null and void, they naturally asked why, and were told that under Louisiana law women were not lawful witnesses to a will. Had they only called in the old darkey wood-sawyer, doing a day's work in the asylum yard, and had him affix his mark to the paper, the money would have accrued to the asylum; as it was, it went to the State.

Early in 1879, when a convention to make a new State const.i.tution[516] had been called and was about to a.s.semble in New Orleans, Mrs. Merrick tried to arouse the ladies of the board, representing to them that in the controlling power they exercised over St. Anna's Asylum they were only children _playing_ they were a part of the people and citizens of the State, when in reality they were legally powerless to perform any free and independent act. The ladies were mortified by the position in which they found themselves but were not willing to take any step to remedy their pitiful case, not even to sign the pet.i.tion which was afterwards drawn up by Mrs. Saxon and Mrs.

Merrick to present to the const.i.tution-makers to have these disabilities removed. The pet.i.tion was as follows:

_To the Honorable President and Members of the Convention of Louisiana, convened for the purpose of framing a new Const.i.tution:_

The undersigned, citizens of the State of Louisiana, respectfully represent:

That up to the present time all women, of whatever age or capacity, have been debarred from the right of representation, notwithstanding the burdensome taxes which they have paid.

They have been excluded from holding any office save in cases of special tutors.h.i.+ps in limited degree, or of administration only in specified cases.

They have been debarred from being witnesses to wills or notarial acts, even when executed by their own s.e.x.

They look upon this condition of things as a grievance proper to be brought before your honorable body for consideration and relief.

As a question of civilization, we look upon the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women as an all-important one. In Wyoming, where it has been tried for ten years, the law-makers and clergy unite in declaring that this influx of women voters has done more to promote morality and order than thousands of armed men could have accomplished.

Should the entire franchise seem too extended a privilege, we most earnestly urge the adoption of a property qualification, and that women may be allowed a vote on school and educational matters, involving as they do the interests of women and children in a great degree.

So large a proportion of the taxes of Louisiana is paid by women, many of them without male representatives, that in granting consideration and relief for grievances herein complained of, the people will recognize justice and equity.

To woman as well as man "taxation without representation is tyranny," she being "a person, a citizen, a freeholder, a tax-payer," the same as man, only government has never held out the same fostering, protecting hand to all alike, nor ever will, until women are directly represented.

Wherefore, we, your pet.i.tioners, pray that some suitable provision remedying these evils be incorporated in the const.i.tution you are about to frame.