History of Woman Suffrage/Volume 5/Chapter 5
CHAPTER V.
NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1905.
Until 1905 the national suffrage conventions had never been held further west than Des Moines, Ia. (1897), but this year the innovation was made of going to the Pacific Coast for the Thirty-seventh annual meeting, June 28-July 5,[1] at the invitation of the managers of the Lewis and Clark Exposition held in Portland, Ore. It was a delightful experience from the beginning, as the delegates from the East and Middle West met in Chicago and had three special cars from there. The Chicago Woman's Club gave a large reception in the afternoon of June 23 for Miss Anthony, the officers and delegates. They took the train that night; Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt joined them in Iowa and others along the way, as it sped westward. The papers had given it wide publicity and they were greeted by suffragists at many places. The Political Equality Club of Boone, Ia., brought large bouquets for Miss Anthony, Dr. Shaw and Mrs. Catt, who made brief speeches from the rear platform. The colored porter listened attentively and said: "Well, that settles me; I am for woman suffrage," and afterwards diligently circulated copies of the Woman's Journal on the train. Another ovation awaited them at Council Bluffs. The train waited half an hour at Omaha and the women of the Political Equality Club, the W. C. T. U. and the Woman's Club united in a demonstration. A platform had been improvised and their presidents expressed a welcome to which responses were made by Miss Anthony, Mrs. Catt, Dr. Shaw, the Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Miss Laura Clay and Mr. and Miss Blackwell, editors of the Woman's Journal, while reporters were busy getting interviews. 'They returned to the train laden with flowers, which they distributed, sending buttonhole bouquets to the engineer, fireman and all the crew.
The train was delayed two hours at Cheyenne and former U. S. Senator Joseph M. Carey and his wife, staunch suffragists and old friends of Miss Anthony, took her for a drive while the officers and delegates walked about the pleasant little city and went to see the handsome State House. Miss Blackwell wrote of the occasion: "Everything in Wyoming was surrounded by a sort of halo. The sky seemed of a more vivid blue, the grass of a brighter emerald than in the States where women do not enjoy equal rights. The leaves of the many cottonwood trees twinkled pleasantly in the clear sunlight, the air was fresh and bracing and the snow mountains looked down upon the city like a visible realization of ideals." The presence of the visitors soon became known and an impromptu reception was held in the large waiting room of the station, which was beautified by potted ferns and palms.
Sunday services were held on the train and during the week days business meetings in the stateroom of Miss Anthony and Dr. Shaw. As the journey neared the end the porter confided to Lucy E. Anthony, the railroad secretary, who arranged the trip: "I ain't never travelled with such a bunch of women before—they don't fuss with me and they don't scrap with each other!" Monday morning they entered the magnificent scenery along the Columbia River and at The Dalles were met by Mrs. Duniway and a party of friends. By noon they had reached the City of Roses and were comfortably settled in the Portland Hotel and the hospitable homes of the city.
The convention, held in the First Congregational Church, was planned for a very full program of ten days instead of the usual week. Notwithstanding the Exposition was in progress and conventions were a matter of daily occurrence, none of the national suffrage conventions ever had fuller or more satisfactory reports. Journal, Telegram and Oregonian vied with each other and the Associated Press sent out whatever was requested of it. The Oregonian said of the first executive session: "Room 618 in the Portland Hotel was the scene of a notable gathering yesterday afternoon. Lawyers, doctors, ministers of the gospel, lecturers of renown and expert auditors were in close conference, mapping out a plan of campaign by which they will fight for their rights in this land of the free and home of the brave. That they have not had the rights accorded by the Declaration of Independence to all American citizens they attribute to the fact that they are women and it is to convince unseeing mankind that women who are intelligent enough to obey laws are capable of helping frame them, that the most profound and representative women of the country are gathered here in the interests of equal suffrage." Miss Blackwell presented this interesting picture in her letter to the Woman's Journal.
The convention was opened with prayer by the Rev. Elwin L. House, pastor of the church. The president, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, was in the chair and greetings were given from the Oregon Suffrage Association by its president, Mrs. Henry Waldo Coe; the National Council of Women by the president, Mrs. Mary Wood Swift (Calif.), who called attention to the fact that it was organized by suffragists; the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union by Mrs. Lucia Faxon Additon; the National Grange by Mrs. Clara H. Waldo, who said: "The basic principle of the Grange is equal rights for men and women and it practices what it preaches, all the offices being open to women." Greetings from the National Federation of Labor were offered by Mrs. F. Ross; the Ladies of the Maccabees by Mrs. Nellie H. Lambson; the Federation of Women's Clubs by Mrs. Sarah A. Evans; the Forestry Association by Mrs. Arthur Hf. Breyman; the Women's Henry George League by Dr. Mary H. Thompson, the pioneer woman physician of Oregon. The National Conference of Charities and Corrections, then in session in Portland, sent greetings by Mrs. Lillie R. Trumbull, who said: "If woman suffrage means anything it means the protection of children, therefore we march under the same banner."
Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway, the pioneer suffragist of the northwest, presented to Dr. Shaw a gavel from the Oregon Historical Society with a letter from its secretary, Dr. George H. Himes, describing the six kinds of wood out of which it was made, each of important historical value. It was accepted with thanks and used by her to preside over the convention. A Centennial Ode, composed by Mrs. Duniway, was finely read by Mrs. Sylvia W. McGuire. The response to all these greetings was made by Miss Anthony, of whom the "Oregonian" said: "The appearance of Susan B. Anthony was the signal for a wild ovation. The large audience rose to its feet and cheered the pioneer who has done so much for the cause of equal suffrage and who is still the life of a great work. At the close of the session men and women rushed forward, eager to clasp her hand and pay homage to her. 'There are many famous delegates present at this convention, women whose names are known in every civilized nation on the globe, but none shines with the luster which surrounds Miss Anthony." She began by recalling her visit in 1871, when Mrs. Duniway and she made a speaking tour of six weeks in the State; the long stage rides over the corduroy roads, the prejudice encountered but personal friendliness and large audiences everywhere, and continued:
I am delighted to see and hear in this church today the women representatives of so many organizations and it is in a measure compensation for the half-century of toil which it has been my duty and privilege to give to this our common cause. The sessions of this convention will be treated by the press of America exactly as it would treat any national gathering which was representative in character and had an object worthy of serious attention. The time of universal scorn for woman suffrage has passed and today we have strong and courageous champions among that sex the members of which fifty years ago regarded our proposals as part of an iconoclasm which threatened the very foundation of the social fabric.... Elizabeth Cady Stanton and I made our first fight for recognition of the right of women to speak in public and have organizations among themselves. You who are younger cannot realize the intensity of the opposition we encountered. To maintain our position we were compelled to attack and defy the deep-seated and ingrained prejudices bred into the very natures of men, and to some of them we were actually committing a sin against God and violating His laws. Gradually, however, the opposition has weakened until today we meet far less hostility to equal suffrage itself than then was manifested toward giving women the right of speaking in public and organizing for mutual advantage.
The opening exercises closed with an address by the Rev. Thomas L. Eliot, a Unitarian minister, who with his wife had encouraged Miss Anthony during that visit of 1871. He said his mother's great-aunt, Abigail Adams, had probably uttered the first declaration for woman suffrage on American soil, and paid a warm tribute to Mrs. Duniway's long and earnest labors
v for this cause as he had seen them during his thirty-seven years in Oregon.
At the insistence of Dr. Shaw Miss Anthony presided at the first evening session. It was said that she had wielded the gavel at more conventions than any other woman and she had presided over national suffrage conventions for nearly forty years, but this proved to be the last at which she filled that honored position. A press report said: "Her voice is more vigorous than that of many a woman half her age and she speaks with fluency and ease." The Oregonian thus described her appearance on this occasion: "A rare picture she made in the high-backed oaken chair, her snowy hair puffed over her ears in old-time fashion and the collar of rose point lace, which seems to belong to dignified old age, forming a frame for her gentle but determined face. When she rose to call the meeting to order she was deluged with many beautiful floral tributes and drolly peering over the heap of flowers she said: "Well, this is rather different from the receptions I used to get fifty years ago. They threw things at me then—but they were not roses—and there were not epithets enough in Webster's Unabridged to fit my case. I am thankful for this change of spirit which has come over the American people."
Governor George E. Chamberlain gave the welcome of the State, declaring himself unequivocally and emphatically in favor of woman suffrage and expressing the hope that Oregon was now ready to grant it. T. C. Devlin extended the welcome of the city as proxy for the Mayor, who addressed the convention later. The Hon. Jefferson Myers, president of the State Commission for the Exposition, paid eloquent tribute to Miss Anthony and her co-workers and said:
Mrs. Duniway spoke on The Pioneers of the Northwest as one of them, introduced by Miss Anthony as "the woman with whom I went gipsying thirty-four years ago," and the audience grew enthusiastic at the sight of these two brave veterans, the one 85 and the other 71. The press commented: "Mrs, Duniway's talk will be remembered as one of the best of the session. She said she had been electrified by the Governor's speech and her own fairly scintillated with the result of the shock. Her anecdotes were capital and her reminiscences of the cabbage and rotten-egg days convulsed the audience." Mrs. Catt, vice-president-at-large, responded to the greetings and expressed the pleasure of the delegates at being in "this most beautiful city of the United States and of the world." She spoke in highest praise of the free, independent spirit of the West, quoting the man who said: "Out here we don't ask who your grandfather was but everybody stands on his own hypothenuse!"
Dr. Shaw was so impressed with the responsibility of her new office that for the first time she wrote her president's address and it was published in twelve columns of the Woman's Journal, A Portland paper thus prepared the audience: 'The event of the evening will be the address of the president, the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw. She is easily the best and foremost woman speaker in the world and in her appearance Portland will enjoy a rare treat. Her eloquence is seldom equalled and she is a woman of deep learning, a cogent reasoner and a brilliant thinker.... She has wonderful magnetism and a rare voice of round, rich tones and great carrying capacity. An unusual combination of dignity and wit is hers and many brilliant remarks intersperse the numbers on the program, keeping the audience in fine humor and constant interest." After a glowing word-picture of the natural beauty of Portland and Oregon Dr. Shaw turned her attention to Sacajawea, the young Indian woman who guided Lewis and Clark through thousands of miles of trackless wilderness on their expedition to the great northwest.
Referring to the convention and the delegates Dr. Shaw said:
The recent attacks of Cardinal Gibbons and former President Cleveland, who had protested against women taking part in the Government lest it interfere with the home, she answered with keen analysis, saying in part:
A comprehensive review was made of the great events in the world's history during the past year and the work of the National American Suffrage Association was described. '"Whatever others may say or do," she declared, "our association must not accept any compromises. We must guard against the reactionary spirit which marks the present time and stand unfalteringly for the principle of perfect equality of rights and opportunities for all. ... Never was there a time when heroic service was more needed—not the spectacular heroism marching with flying banners and weapons of destruction but the quiet, earnest heroism of men and women standing steadfastly by that which seems right and rigidly adhering in daily intercourse to that sterling honesty of purpose which ennobles character and develops the best in a nation's life." This inspiring address, all of which was on the same high level as the portions quoted, thus concluded:
During the several business sessions the following action was taken: It was directed that a letter be sent to the President-elect, Theodore Roosevelt, asking him to recommend the submission of a 16th Amendment in his message to Congress; that as many organizations of women as possible be secured to unite in urging him to do so, following the methods employed by the Protest Committee (a committee appointed to wait upon him to present this request); that the Banker, Starr, Underwood and Green bequests amounting to $3,801 be appropriated for campaign work in Oregon and the Territories. Miss Clay announced that Miss Laura Bruce had bequeathed $5,000 to her in trust for the National American Woman Suffrage Association.
The work conferences established by Mrs. Catt during her administration were held with the following among the questions discussed: Must we supplement our present form of organization to achieve our "argument of numbers"? How can we best spread our ideas in other organizations? The field in 1904 and 1905. Our request in 1904 for a plank in the national platforms. These conferences, which had been a feature of the conventions for eight years, were dropped after this one but many of the practical subjects formerly discussed in such conferences were placed on the regular program. Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch presided at the conference on How can we nationalize our request for a 16th Amendment? At its conclusion it was voted to refer to the Business Committee the idea of asking the suffragists of the four free States to instruct their Senators and Representatives in Congress to move for the submission of a 16th Amendment. It was her thought that all the State suffrage associations should send petitions to their respective Congressmen asking for a 16th Amendment to the National Constitution enfranchising women; that earnest efforts should be made to have other organizations take similar action and every means employed to bring the question before them.
The reports of the standing and special committees and those from the various State presidents, which occupied the morning and afternoon sessions, were excellent and valuable as usual. Miss Kate M. Gordon (La.) in her corresponding secretary's report called attention to the conspicuous triumph for woman suffrage when the great International Council of Women, whose delegates represented practically the whole civilized world, at its meeting in Berlin the preceding year unanimously endorsed woman suffrage and 'appointed a standing committee on Citizenship and Equal Rights, with Dr. Shaw as its chairman. She read letters from the Governors of the four equal suffrage States regretting their inability to be present for Woman's Day at the Exposition and giving the strongest possible endorsement of the practical working of woman suffrage.
The report of Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser, headquarters secretary, of the first year's work in its new home at Warren, O., was most interesting. The letters sent out numbered 14,000 and included three during the year to the president of every local club, giving information, plans of work and encouragement. The bureau had over 1,200 individual correspondents. Nearly 44,000 copies of Progress went to newspapers, public men, delegates to the political conventions and subscribers. About 65,000 pieces of literature exclusive of Progress were distributed, going to every State and Territory, to Canada, England, Holland and Australia. In addition thousands of booklets, political equality leaflets and souvenirs of various kinds were sent forth as propaganda. The report of Mrs. Catt, chairman of the Committee on Literature, showed that it had provided 62,000 of these pieces and had printed about 100,000 during the year. Miss Anthony had presented to the association ten sets of the History of Woman Suffrage and eighty copies of the new Volume IV to be sold, Miss Hauser said. Headquarters were maintained at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. The work inaugurated by Miss Anthony of securing resolutions for woman suffrage from conventions of various kinds was successfully continued. Fraternal delegates were sent to national conventions and the U. S. National Council of Women had created a Committee on Political Equality. Nineteen State organizations adopted resolutions endorsing woman suffrage; fraternal delegates from suffrage associations were sent to eighteen other State gatherings and the question was given a hearing at six Territorial conventions; greetings were sent ta three, literature distributed in four and woman suffrage day observed in three State gatherings. Add to these the 283 societies (not suffrage) which reported adopting resolutions on the Statehood Protest and there is positive knowledge that the question was before and received favorable action from 339 societies in 1904. A full report was given of the effort to obtain woman suffrage planks in the platforms of the political parties, delegates from the association being sent to all. [See Chapter XXIII. ]
An outstanding feature of the year's achievements was what was known as the Statehood Protest. At the beginning of the 58th Congress a bill passed the Lower House providing for the admission to Statehood of Oklahoma, Indian, Arizona and New Mexico Territories under the names of Oklahoma and Arizona. It contained a clause saying that "the right of suffrage should never be abridged except on account of illiteracy, minority, sex, conviction of felony or mental condition." The association's legal adviser, Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch of Chicago, was consulted by Mrs. Upton and Miss Hauser the preceding June as to how the word "sex" could be eliminated. She took the matter under consideration and laid her plan before the Business Committee in September. It called for a nationwide protest from women's organizations and individuals. The committee approved but did not feel able to make a sufficient appropriation. The report continued:
The report of Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, national treasurer, showed receipts for the year to be $14,662, including bequests of $4,237 from Mrs. Henrietta L. Banker of New York and $500 from Mrs. Armilla J. Starr of Michigan; $2,000 from Mrs. Charlotte A. Cleveland of New York and $100 each from Mrs. Jonas Green of Virginia and Mrs. Helen J. Underwood of California. The disbursements were $12,437. Miss Hauser asked for the money for the next year's work and $4,614 were quickly subscribed. A large number of $50 life memberships were taken. One hundred one-dollar pledges were made in memory of Sacajawea. Mrs. Catt guaranteed that Mrs. Upton and herself would raise $3,000 for the Oregon campaign.
Henry B. Blackwell, chairman of the Presidential Suffrage Committee, gave the welcome information that the U. S. Supreme Court through Chief Justice Fuller had rendered a decision that "the power of every State Legislature in the appointment of presidential electors is plenary, exclusive and final." The report of Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer, chairman of the Libraries Committee, was read by Mrs. Blankenburg and showed that thus far a bibliography of 823 books, pamphlets, etc., on woman suffrage had been compiled. One book bore the date of 1627. Another had the title "No Female Suffrage; Theology, Logic, Anatomy, Physiology and Philology United to Establish the Truism that Woman is No Human Being." Mrs. Blankenburg went as fraternal delegate to the convention of the National Libraries Association meeting in Portland at this time and gave part of this report, which was received with much interest and cooperation was promised.
The report of Mrs. Elnora M. Babcock, chairman of the Press Committee, was as complete and valuable as usual. It said that 80,000 general suffrage articles had been sent out and 6,000 papers supplied by the chairman and committee since the last convention. Each paper in Portland had been furnished with personal sketches of every officer and speaker connected with the convention and copies of all the reports and speeches that could be obtained, as was customary wherever a convention was held. In referring to special articles she said that 5,000 copies from members of the association and residents of Colorado had been sent out in answer to the charges that woman suffrage was responsible for the recent election frauds in that State, which seemed to be made by every opponent who could wield a pen. Answers were widely distributed to the report of the Mosely Educational Commission sent here from Great Britain, and the Male Teachers' Association of New York, to the effect that women should not be employed to teach boys over ten years of age and that teaching was interfering with the marriage of many women and keeping them from their proper place in the world. The article of former President Grover Cleveland in the Ladies' Home Journal denouncing women's clubs and particularly suffrage clubs had been almost universally commented on by the press and required extensive attention. A reply to Cardinal Gibbons's address to the women graduates of Trinity College, Washington, by Mrs. Ida Husted Harper was sent to eighty metropolitan papers and hundreds of shorter ones were scattered broadcast. The excellent work of the various State press chairman was described.
One afternoon was devoted to a conference on How Can We Best Utilize the Press? Mrs. Harper presided and nearly twenty speakers took part. One of the Portland papers commented: "If the great political organs of the United States knew how well these women have the tricks of the trade at their fingers' ends they would employ special detectives to watch for suffrage literature in disguise." Mr. Lathrop, editor of the Portland Journal, said: "A newspaper man in his official capacity is not an educator but a seller of news. One who would treat a suffrage convention as a negligible quantity would lose his job. The question is not how you can get matter about women into the papers but how you can keep it out." Mrs. Florence Kelley added: "We all know to our sorrow that women cannot keep out of the papers but the question is how to get our subject in them in a way to promote it. I can recommend the following method: Write something in editorial style just about as you want it to appear and send it to the editor with a deprecatory note to the effect that it is only raw material but perhaps it could be whipped into an editorial by his able pen. The chances are that the first time he is hard up for one he will use it—probably beheaded or with the end off or the middle amputated to show that the editor is editing, but it will be published."
Miss Anthony was asked for reminiscences of her famous paper, the Revolution, published in New York in 1868-70. Mrs. Duniway gave an interesting account of her paper, the New Northwest, begun in 1871 in Portland and continued for a number of years with the help of her five young sons. She expressed her love for the Woman's Journal, "the dear, reliable, old paper started by Lucy Stone and kept going by the heroic efforts of her husband and daughter," and many joined in this expression. Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby (D. C.), editor of the Woman's Tribune, told of the press conference at the International Council of Women. Mrs. Julia B. Nelson (Minn.) and Miss Amanda Way (Ind.) were among the veteran writers who spoke. Miss Blackwell gave experienced advice and a number of younger women made brief but clever suggestions.
An interesting part of the convention was Woman's Day at the Exposition on June 30 and this day had been chosen for the dedication of the statue of Sacajawea, the Indian woman who led the Lewis and Clark Expedition thousands of miles through the wilderness unknown to white men. It was thus described: "The statue, a beautiful creation in bronze, was the work of Miss Alice Cooper of Denver, a pupil of Lorado Taft, the figure full of buoyancy and animation, a shapely arm suggestive of strength pointing to the distant sea, the face radiant, the head thrown back, the eyes full of daring." The exercises were in charge of the Order of Red Men and the Women's Sacajawea Association, Mrs. Eva Emery Dye, president, and on the platform facing the statue prominent members of the convention sat with President Goode, of the Exposition, Mayor Lane and other dignitaries. Miss Anthony and Mrs. Duniway spoke during the unveiling and presentation ceremonies and Dr. Shaw pronounced the benediction. [See Oregon chapter. ]
The afternoon session of the convention was held in Festival Hall on the grounds and greetings were offered for organizations, including the Young Woman's Christian Association by Mrs. L. FE. Rockwell and Women's Medical Association by Dr. Esther C. Pohl. Dr. Sarah A. Kendall of Washington responded. The Los Angeles Suffrage Club sent a greeting and Mrs. Helen Secor Tonjes brought one from the New York City Equal Suffrage League. Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman gave an original poem. Mrs. Mabel Craft Deering, a graduate of California State University and the Hastings Law School of San Francisco, read an able paper on Coeducation. Its sentiments were strongly endorsed by Professor William S. Giltner, president of Eminence College, Kentucky, one of the earliest women's colleges, from its beginning in 1858 to its close in 1894. Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, under the title, Sowing the Seed, gave an interesting account of the early trials of her mother and two aunts, the pioneer doctors, Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell. The Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, an aunt by marriage, the pioneer woman minister, who was on the platform, said: 'Ever since I made my first suffrage speech in 1848 I have believed that the cause of woman suffrage was the cause of religion and vice versa.' Mrs. Maud Wood Park read the eloquent address of Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead on The Organization of the World.
Mrs. May Arkwright Hutton (Idaho), who spoke for the equal suffrage States, gave this unique reminiscence of her early life in Ohio when William McKinley, a young lawyer, after speaking in the town hall, was a guest of her grandfather. She said in part: "Mr. McKinley carried the lantern, leading me by the hand, while I led grandfather, we little dreaming that the kindly young man guiding a child and an old, blind man through the wintry night would some day guide the destiny of the nation. On reaching home, I brought cider, apples and doughnuts from the cellar that we might have what grandfather called a 'schold check' before going to bed. The fire roared in the wide chimney place; grandfather sat in his armchair, Mr. McKinley opposite and I on a low stool between them. They talked of the late war, reconstruction and woman's rights. Then it was that I learned that women were denied rights enjoyed by men. Mr. McKinley deplored the fact and contended that woman was the intellectual equal of man and should be his political equal. Patting my head he said: 'I believe when this lassie grows up she will be a voter.'"
At the close of the session a reception for Miss Anthony and the officers, speakers and delegates was given in the Oregon building by its hostess, Dr. Annice Jeffreys (Mrs. Jefferson) Myers, assisted by Mrs. Coe, the State president. The big reception hall and the parlors were filled with visitors from all parts of the country. TheOregonian said: 'When Miss Anthony, the honored guest, reached the Oregon building the band played Auld Lang Syne and the crowds became so dense that it was with difficulty Dr. Myers could escort her to the parlors. Here she stood in line for more than an hour, women and men pressing around her wanting just a word and they got it! She declared that it did not make her nearly so tired as she used to feel when nobody wanted to take her hand." In a letter to the Woman's Journal Miss Blackwell said: "Both in the convention and at all the social functions Miss Anthony has been the central figure, the object of general admiration and affection. It is the strongest possible contrast to the unpopularity and persecution of her early days. All these attentions were most gratifying to the members of the convention, who appreciated her courage and devotion in making this long journey at the age of 85, and afterwards they were remembered with especial pleasure because it was the last in which she was able to take an active part."
The social courtesies during the convention were unbounded. The Woman's Club gave a large evening reception in the rooms of the Commercial Club and Mrs. Arthur H. Breyman, its president, opened her handsome residence for an afternoon tea. Mrs. Coe gave a dinner party of about thirty, her lovely home decorated in yellow flowers, the suffrage color. Mrs. Hutton had a handsome dinner of thirty covers at the Portland Hotel and the Ode which she had written and dedicated to the convention was sung by Mrs. Alice Mason Barnett of San Francisco here and at the convention. Private dinners and teas were of daily occurrence and the drives around this beautiful city and its environs were a never failing delight.
At one evening session C. E. S. Wood (Ore.) spoke on The Injustice of Majority Rule in a cynical strain, believing that woman suffrage was right but fearing it would not do as much good as its advocates hoped for. Now suffrage meant "little stuffed men going to a little stuffed ballot box" and he was afraid "women would take their place on the chess board to be moved in the game by some power they did not see." After he had finished Dr. Shaw observed: "I would rather be a little stuffed woman having my own say than to be ruled by a little stuffed man without my consent, and the only way we will cease to have little stuffed men is for them to be born of free mothers."
Dr. Harriet B. Jones of Wheeling, W. Va., told of the unsuccessful campaign to have Municipal suffrage for women included in its new charter. "The anti-suffrage women of New York and Massachusetts," she said, "flooded the newspapers with literature and the heaviest opposing vote came from the lowest and most ignorant sections of the city." In answer to the request of the Wheeling women the National Association had sent Miss Hauser to take charge of the campaign and appropriated funds for it. A telegram to Dr. Shaw from Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, was read, saying: 'Kindly convey fraternal greetings to the officers and delegates of your convention and the earnest expression of our hope for the enfranchisement and disenthrallment of women." A telegram of greeting was received from Mrs, Frederick Schoff, president of the National Congress of Mothers. One came from the National Suffrage Association of Denmark.
Mrs. Harper gave an address under the subject Facing the Situation, showing the satire of the disfranchisement of one-half the citizens in a Government boasting of being founded on individual representation. In closing she said: "Eastward the star of woman's empire takes its way. She does not look for the star in the East but for the star in the West. Her sun of political freedom rose not in the East but in the West. It is to the strong, courageous and progressive men of the western States that the women of this whole country are looking for deliverance from the bondage of disfranchisement. It is these men who must start this movement and give it such momentum that it will roll irresistibly on to the very shores of the Atlantic Ocean. Today the eyes of the whole country are on this beautiful and progressive State. This magnificent Exposition has been a revelation of its splendid powers. It is an anomaly, a contradiction, a reproach indeed that in the midst of these wonderful achievements one-half of its citizens should be in absolute political subjection, without voice or share in affairs of State. Are you not ready now to wipe out that paltry 2,000 majority which five years ago voted to continue this unjust condition? Would it not add the crowning glory to this greatest period in your history if the free men of Oregon should decree that this shall be, henceforth and forever, the land also of free women?" The Rev. J. Burgette Short expressed regret that his church, the Methodist Episcopal, had refused to ordain Dr. Shaw and said it was much poorer in consequence. "You represent the brains of the world," he said to the delegates, "and you have my hearty interest and support in your work."
A noteworthy address was made by the Hon. W. S. U'Ren, known as "the father of the Initiative and Referendum," which was then in its early stages but had been adopted by Oregon and some other States. The convention was much impressed by this innovation, as the suffragists had long struggled against the refusal of Legislatures to submit their question to the voters, and Mrs. Catt offered a resolution that "the convention affirms its belief in the Initiative and Referendum as a needed reform and a potent factor in the progress of true democracy." It was enthusiastically received and later adopted by the convention, contrary to the habit-of the association to consider only subjects relating directly to women and children.[3]
Under the pen name of Lucas Malet, Mrs. Mary St. Leger Harrison, a daughter of Charles Kingsley who was a strong believer in woman suffrage, had published an article in the London Fortnightly Review attacking it and quoting President Roosevelt as an opponent. A long resolution giving his favorable record for the past twenty-five years on questions relating to women was presented and adopted, against the judgment of many delegates. A committee was appointed to ask him for a more definite expression on woman suffrage.[4]
Telegrams of greeting were sent to veterans in the cause— Mrs. Laura de Force Gordon, Mrs. Caroline M. Severance, Mrs. Ellen Clark Sargent of California; Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick of Louisiana; Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, Col. T. W. Higginson, Mrs. Judith W. Smith of Massachusetts; Mrs. Armenia S. White of New Hampshire; Miss Laura Moore of Vermont; Mrs. Margaret W. Campbell of Iowa.
The Committee on Legislation for Civil Rights, Mrs. Blankenburg, chairman, reported that among measures the suffragists had worked for, the child labor laws had been strengthened in New York, Pennsylvania and California; the "age of consent" had been raised in Illinois and Oregon; laws had been passed in several States requiring that women should be appointed to public boards and women physicians to public institutions, California leading. In Massachusetts a petition that women might take part in nominating candidates for the school board, for which they were allowed to vote, signed by 100,000 women, was refused by the Legislature. School suffrage was granted to women in the first class cities of Oklahoma.
Mrs. Mead, chairman of the Committee on Peace and Arbitration seems to outshine the preceding one but last night's was the one in Portland; of the series of articles published in preparation for the International Peace Congress in Boston in 1904 and the work she had done in connection with it; of the many lectures given to universities and clubs and of the arrangements to have the public schools observe the anniversary of the first Hague Conference.
The Oregonian said: "Each program given by the convention seems to outshine the preceding one but last night's was the best thus far." The speakers were Mrs. Ella S. Stewart, former president of the Illinois Suffrage Association; the Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell (N. J.); Mrs. Mary J. Coggeshall (Ia.); Miss Gail Laughlin (N. Y.); Judge Stephen A. Lowell, one of Oregon's leading jurists. Judge Lowell reviewed the political situation, the evils that had crept into the Government and the remedies that had been tried and failed and he summed up his conclusion by saying: 'The reforms of the last century have come from women. Man has few to his credit because he could not measure them by the only standard he had mastered, that of the dollar. Witness the movement for female education led by Mary Lyon, the birth of the Red Cross in the work of Florence Nightingale, the institution of modern prison methods under the inspiration of Elizabeth Fry and the campaigns for temperance and social purity under the leadership of Frances Willard. The electorate needs the inspiring influence of women at the ballot box and the full mission of this republic to the world will never be met until she is admitted there. Not color or creed or sex but patriotic honesty must be the test of citizenship if the republic lives."
Mrs. Stewart took up the objections made by many of the clergy to woman suffrage and applied these to the ministers themselves. '"They should not vote," she said with fine sarcasm, "because like women they are exempt from jury duty. They seldom go to war—some of them are too old, others too delicate, some too near-sighted, some too far-sighted. Ministers as a rule are not heavy tax-payers. Many of them do not want to vote and do not use the vote they have. A preacher has not time to vote. It might lead him to neglect his pastoral duties. Political feeling often runs high and if he voted it might make quarrels in the church. The minister has a potent indirect influence. He would be contaminated by the corruption of politics. He is represented by his male relations; they are not as good and pure as he is and are probably immune from contamination by politics."
Mrs. Catt, who presided, in presenting the Rev. Mrs. Blackwell, one of the first to make the fight for the right of women to speak in public, said: "The combination of her sweet personality and her invincible soul has won friends for woman suffrage wherever she has gone." Her address on Suffrage and Education showed the evolution in woman's work. "My grandmother taught me to spin," she said, "but the men have relieved womankind from that task and as they have taken so many industrial burdens off of our hands it is our duty to relieve them of some of their burdens of State." Introducing Mrs. Coggeshall of Iowa Mrs. Catt said: "When I get discouraged I think of her and for many a year she has been one of my strongest inspirations." A Portland paper commented: 'Her snow-white hair and demure face give no indication of the brilliant repartee and sharp argument of which she is capable." In her Word from the Middle West she said: "Its women are determined to have the ballot if they have to bear and raise the sons to give it to them. This scheme is in active operation. I myself have raised three—eighteen feet for woman suffrage—and others have done better. No bugle can ever sound retreat for the women of the Middle West." The Oregonian said of Miss Laughlin's address:
Sunday services were conducted at 4:30 in the First Congregational church by the Rev. Eleanor Gordon, pastor of the First Unitarian church of Des Moines, Ia., assisted by Dr. Shaw and the Rev. Eliza Tupper Wilkes of Los Angeles, with a special musical program. Miss Gordon had filled the Unitarian pulpit in the morning, giving an eloquent sermon on Revelations of God. Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman had preached in the Congregational church in the morning and the Rev. Mrs. Blackwell in the evening. Miss Laura Clay gave a Bible reading and exposition in the Taylor Street Methodist Episcopal church in the evening. The Rev. J. Whitcomb Brougher, pastor of the White Temple, the large Baptist church, invited Miss Anthony to occupy its pulpit and expound "any doctrine she had at heart." The Oregonian said: "She took him at his word and got in some of the best words for suffrage that have been put before the Portland public. There was such enthusiasm over the venerable founder and leader of the suffrage movement that when she appeared on the rostrum the applause was as vigorous as though it had not been Sunday and the place a church. There was not room in the big Temple for another person to squeeze past the doors." The papers quoted liberally from the sermons of all and the Portland Journal said: "Each preached to a congregation that taxed the capacity of the church.... The welcome accorded the women by the Portland pastors was sharply in contrast with the hostility shown by the clergy when equal suffrage conventions began in the middle of the last century.[5]
The Monday evening session was opened by Willis Duniway, who gave a glowing appreciation of the work of the National American Suffrage Association and said in the course of a strong speech that he wanted to see woman suffrage because it was right and because he wanted the brave pioneer women who had worked for it so long to get it before they passed away. "I want my mother to vote," he declared amid applause.[6] "The basis of safe and sane government is justice, which has its roots in constitutional liberty and means equal rights and opportunities.... I claim no right or privilege for myself that I would not give to my mother, wife and sister and to every law-abiding citizen." When he had finished his mother rose and said dryly: "That, dear women from the north, east, south and west, is one of Mrs. Duniway's poor, neglected children!"
Miss Mary N. Chase, president of the New Hampshire Association, spoke convincingly on The Vital Question, taking as the keynote: "A republic based on equal rights for all is not the dream of a fanatic but the only sane form of government." I. N. Fleischner, who had just been elected to the school board largely by the votes of women, assured the convention of his approval and support of the measures it advocated and said he hoped to see the women enjoying the full right of suffrage in Oregon in the very near future.
Mrs. Florence Kelley, executive secretary of the National Consumers' League, spoke with deeper understanding than would be possible for any other woman of The Young Bread-winner's Need. "We have in this country," she said, "2,000,000 children under the age of sixteen who are earning their bread. They vary in age from six and seven in the cotton mills of Georgia, eight, nine and ten in the coal-breakers of Pennsylvania and fourteen, fifteen and sixteen in more enlightened States.... In some of the States children from six to thirteen may legally be compelled to work the whole night of twelve hours," and she described the heart-breaking conditions under which they toil. She urged the need of woman's votes to destroy the great' evil of child labor and said: "We can enlist the workingmen on behalf of our enfranchisement just in proportion as we strive with them to free the children."
In introducing Mr. Blackwell, Dr. Cora Smith Eaton, who was presiding, said: "As we came across the continent what impressed me most was the mountains. First came the foothills, then the high mountains and then the grand, snow clad peaks. Some of us are like the foothills, just raised a little above the women who have all the rights they want; then come those on a higher level of public spirit and service, who are like the mountains; and then the pioneers rising above all like the snow covered peaks." Taking the ground that "the perpetuity of republican institutions depends on the speedy extension of the suffrage to women,' Mr. Blackwell said in his sound, logical address: "How can we reach the common sense of the plain people, without whose approval success is impossible?.... A purely masculine government does not fully represent the people, the feminine qualities are lacking. It is a maxim among political thinkers that 'every class that votes makes itself felt in the government.' Women as a class differ more widely from men than any one class of men differs from another. To give the ballot to merchants and lawyers and deny it to farmers would be class legislation, which is always unwise and unjust, but there is no class legislation so complete as an aristocracy of sex. Men have qualities in which they are superior to women; women have qualities in which they are superior to men, both are needed. Women are less belligerent than men, more peaceable, temperate, chaste, economical and law-abiding, with a higher standard of morals and a deeper sense of religious obligation, and these are the very qualities we need to add to the aggressive and impulsive qualities of men."
The Journal in commenting on this address said: "A venerable and historical figure is that of Henry B. Blackwell, who in company with his daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell, is in attendance upon the national suffrage convention. This snowy-haired, white-bearded patriarch embodies in his voice, his presence, his interest in every passing event, in his appreciation of every beauty of earth and sky, in the shifting panorama of nature, the loyal spirit of freedom, the true spirit of manhood that has dominated his passing years."[7]
A valuable report on Industrial Problems Relating to Women and Children was made by Mrs. Kelley, chairman of the committee, which she began by saying that during 1905 eleven States had improved their Child Labor Laws or adopted new ones and in every State suffragists had helped secure these laws. She said that wherever woman suffrage was voted on its weakness proved to be among the wage-earners of the cities and she urged that the association submit to the labor organizations its bill in behalf of wage-earning women and children with a view to close cooperation. To the workingmen woman suffrage meant chiefly "prohibition" and an effort should be made to convince them that it includes assistance in their own legislative measures. Mrs. Kate S. Hilliard (Utah) answered the question, Will the Ballot Solve the Industrial Problem? Wallace Nash spoke on the work of the Christian Cooperative Federation. The leading address of the afternoon was made by Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch of Chicago on The Educational Problem. "It is a strange anomaly in American public life," he said, "that we have given our schools largely into the hands of women who must teach history and patriotism but are not considered competent to vote. I plead for the same education for boys and girls and I urge you to take a deep interest in the public schools." He gave testimony to the excellent legislative work women had done along many lines and declared that "women pay taxes and do public service and hold up before men the standard of righteousness and they ought to have a vote," and closed by saying: "We need appeals to the heart and conscience in our schools-and a revival of conscience. We need a standard of character and conscience and women can bring it into the schools much better than men can. The woman, because she is a woman, is less easily corrupted than the man who has forgotten that he had a mother. If we must disfranchise somebody, it would better be many of the men than the women."
At one meeting Judge Roger S. Greene, who was Chief Justice of the Territory of Washington when the majority of the Supreme Court gave a decision which took away the suffrage from women and who loyally tried to preserve it for them, was invited to the platform and received an ovation. At another time Judge William Galloway, a veteran suffragist, was called before the convention, and after referring to his journey to Oregon by ox-team in 1852 told of his conversion by Mrs. Duniway when he was a member of the Legislature at the age of 21. National conventions were of daily occurrence during the Exposition and a number of them called for addresses by Mrs. Catt, Dr. Shaw and other suffrage speakers. At the evening session preceding the last Miss Mary S. Anthony, 78 years old, read in a clear, strong voice the Declaration of Sentiments adopted at the famous first Woman's Rights Convention in 1848, which she had signed. The rest of the evening of July 4 was given to what the Woman's Journal spoke of as "Mrs, Catt's noble address," The New Time, beginning:
"Mrs. Catt was awarded the Chautauqua salute when she appeared on the platform," said the Oregonian, "and it was some minutes before the former president of the association could proceed. She spoke eloquently and at considerable length and in this assemblage of remarkably bright women it was plain to be seen that she was a star of the first magnitude." It was hard for the convention to accede to Mrs. Catt's determination to retire from even the vice-presidency of the association because of her continued ill health but they yielded because this was so evident. Mrs. Florence Kelley was the choice for this office and in accepting she said: "I was born into this cause. My great-aunt, Sarah Pugh of Philadelphia, attended the meeting in London which led to the first suffrage convention in 1848. My father, William D. Kelley, spoke at the early Washington conventions for years." Dr. Eaton was again obliged to give up the office of second auditor on account of her professional duties and Dr. Annice Jeffreys Myers, who had so successfully planned and managed the convention, was almost unanimously elected. No other change was made in the board.
Among the excellent resolutions presented by the chairman of the committee, Mr. Blackwell, were the following:
The list of Memorial Resolutions was long and included many prominent advocates of woman suffrage. Among those of California were Mrs. Leland Stanford, Judge E. V. Spencer and the veteran workers, Mrs. E. O. Smith and Sarah Burger Stearns, the latter formerly of Minnesota; Jas. P. McKinney and Jas. B. Callanan of Iowa; Helen Coffin Beedy of Maine. Twenty-two names were recorded from Massachusetts, among them the Hon. George S. Boutwell, President Elmer H. Capen, of Tufts College; the Hon. William Claflin, the Rev. George C. Lorimer, Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney; Mrs. Martha E. Root, a Michigan pioneer; Grace Espey Patton Cowles, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Montana. The Rev. Augusta Chapin, D.D., Dr. Phoebe J. B. Waite, Bishop Huntington, James W. Clarke, Dr. Cordelia A. Greene, were among the ten from New York; Mayor Samuel M. Jones, among seven from Ohio. Five pioneers of Pennsylvania had passed away, John K. Wildman, Richard P. White, Mrs. Mary E. Haggart, Miss Matilda Hindman, Miss Anna Hallowell. Cyrus W. Wyman of Vermont and Orra Langhorne of Virginia were other deceased pioneers; also Mrs. Rebecca Moore and Mrs. Margaret Preston Tanner, who were among the earliest workers in Great Britain.
Special resolutions were adopted for Mrs. Mary A. Livermore and U. S. Senator George F. Hoar of Massachusetts; Col. Daniel R. Anthony of Kansas; Mrs. Louisa Southworth of Ohio. The eloquent resolutions prepared by Mr. Blackwell ended: "Never before in a single year have we had to record the loss of so many faithful suffragists. Let the pioneers who still survive close up their ranks and rejoice in the accession of so many young and vigorous advocates, who will carry on the work to a glorious consummation." The California delegation presented the following resolution, which was enthusiastically adopted: "Resolved, That we remember with the deepest gratitude the one man who has stood steadfast at the helm, notwithstanding constant ridicule and belittlement on the part of the press during the early years of the work, unselfishly and unceasingly devoting his life to the self-imposed task year after year, never faltering, never seeking office or honors but always a worker; one who has grown gray in the service—Henry B. Blackwell."
Invitations were received to hold the next convention in Washington, Chicago and Baltimore. The by-law requiring that every alternate convention must be held in Washington during the first session of Congress was amended to read "may be held." The Woman's Journal said: 'Miss Anthony favored the change and Mr. Blackwell opposed it—an amusing fact to those who remember how strongly he used to advocate a movable annual convention and Miss Anthony a stationary one in Washington. Evidently neither of them is so fossilized as to be unable to see new light." The invitation of the Maryland Woman Suffrage Association was accepted.
The dominant interest of the convention had been in a prospective campaign for a woman suffrage amendment to the constitution of Oregon. The Legislature had refused to submit it but under the Initiative and Referendum law this could be done by petition. Public sentiment throughout the State seemed to indicate that it was now ready to enfranchise women and officials from the Governor down believed an amendment could be carried. All the officers of the State Suffrage Association had joined in the invitation to the National Association to hold its convention of 1905 in Portland and inaugurate the campaign and to assist it in every possible way. After the report of the State vice-president, Dr. Annice Jeffreys Myers, had been read to the convention of 1904 a resolution had been moved by Mrs. Catt, seconded by Miss Anthony and unanimously adopted, that the association accept this invitation and a pledge of $3,000 had been made. Throughout the present convention the speeches of public officials and the pledges made on every hand encouraged the members to feel that the association should give all possible help in money and workers.[8]
The public was much impressed at the last session by the appearance on the platform of four prominent politicians of the State representing the different parties and this was generally regarded as the opening of the campaign for woman suffrage. They were introduced by State Senator Henry Waldo Coe, M.D., who spoke in highest praise of homes and housekeepers as he had seen them in his practice and said: 'The woman who takes an interest in the affairs of her country has the highest interest in her home, and the suffrage will not lessen her fitness as wife and mother." He introduced Mayor Harry Lane as the Democrat who carried a Republican city and who was the best mayor Portland ever had. Mr. Lane declared that women were as much entitled to the suffrage as men and that the enfranchisement of women would tend to purify politics. Dr. Andrew C. Smith, a Republican, was introduced as "the man who presented the names of thirteen women physicians to the State Medical Association and got them admitted." The press report said: "The prospective women voters were informed that they saw before them the next Governor of Oregon." Dr, Smith declared that he had been for woman suffrage twenty-five years and that "the United States was guilty of a national sin in not giving women equal rights." Thomas Burns, State Secretary of the Socialist party, asserted that it was the only one which had a plank for woman suffrage in its platform and the Socialists had fought for it all over the world. "Men have made a failure of government," he said, "now let the women try it." O. M. Jamison, of the Citizens' movement, said: "We have found women the strongest factor in our work for reform and I think 99 per cent. of us are for woman suffrage." B. Lee Paget, who spoke for the Prohibitionists, declared himself an old convert to woman suffrage and said: "I think intelligent women far better fitted to vote on public measures than the majority of men who take part in campaigns and are wholly ignorant of the issues."
L. F. Wilbur of Vermont told of its improved laws for women and advancing public sentiment for woman suffrage and paid a glowing tribute to the early work in that State of Lucy Stone, Mr. Blackwell and Julia Ward Howe. Mrs. Maud Wood Park, president of the Massachusetts College Women's Suffrage League, gave a scholarly address on The Civic Responsibility of Women, which she began by saying that the first "new woman" was from Boston—Anne Hutchinson. Dr. Marie D. Equi, candidate for inspector of markets, spoke briefly on the need of market inspection for which women were especially fitted. Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman (N. Y.) in discussing Woman's World said in part: "Ex-President Cleveland, after warning women against the clubs which are leading them straight to the abyss of suffrage, told us that 'the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.' ... Is it true? The Indian woman rocks the cradle; does she rule the world? The Chinese woman—the woman of the harem—do they rule it? An amiable old gentleman in opening a suffrage debate said: 'My wife rules me and if a woman can rule a man, why should she care to rule the country?' He seemed to think he was equal to the whole United States! Women have been taught that the home was their sphere and men have claimed everything else for themselves. The fact that women in the home have shut themselves away from the thought and life of the world has done much to retard progress. We fill the world with the children of 20th century A. D. fathers and 20th century B. C. mothers."
Miss Blackwell lightened the proceedings with some of her clever anecdotes with a suffrage moral, and Mrs. Gilman with several of her brilliant poems. Mrs. Catt gave a concise review of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, formed at Berlin in 1904, and told of the progress of woman suffrage in other countries. Greetings to all of them were sent by the convention. Dr. Shaw gave an impressive peroration to this interesting session by pointing out the responsibility resting on the men and women of Oregon to carry to success the campaign which they had now begun, and Miss Anthony closed the convention with a fervent appeal to all to work for victory.
The delegates and visitors greatly enjoyed the Exposition, which had such a setting as none ever had before, looking out on the dazzling beauty of the snowclad peaks of Mt. Hood and the Olympic Range, and now they had to select from the many opportunities for travel and sight-seeing. The Rev. Mrs. Blackwell, Emily Howland, Mrs. Cartwright of Portland and others from seventy to eighty years of age, took a steamer for Alaska. Mr. and Miss Blackwell and others went to Seattle, Vancouver and home through the magnificent scenery of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. Mrs. Catt and another party returned east by way of the Yellowstone Park. Dr. Cora Smith Eaton with a few daring spirits went for a climb of Mt. Hood. Miss Anthony with a group of friends started southward, stopping at Chico, California, for her to dedicate a park of 2,000 acres, which Mrs. Annie K. Bidwell had presented to the village. They went on to San Francisco where they were joined by Dr. Shaw, who had remained in Portland for the Medical Convention and spoken at several places en route. Here they were beautifully entertained in the homes of the suffrage leaders, Mrs. Mary Wood Swift, Mrs. Ellen Clark Sargent, Mrs. Mary S. Sperry, Mrs. Emma Shafter Howard and others, and mass meetings crowded to the doors were held in San Francisco and Oakland. From here they went to Los Angeles for other meetings, except Dr. Shaw, who started eastward for her round of Chautauqua engagements.
- ↑ Part of Call: A government of men and women not by women alone, not by men alone, but a government of men and women by men and women for men and women this is the aim and ideal of our association.
One hundred years ago Oregon was an untrodden wilderness. The transformation of that primeval territory into prosperous communities enjoying the highest degree of civilization could not have been accomplished without the work of women. No restriction should be placed upon energies and abilities so potent for good. The extension of the right of suffrage would remove a handicap from the efforts of women and give them an opportunity to work for the welfare of the State. We do not claim that woman's voice in the government would at once sound the death knell to all social and political evils but we do believe that a government representing the interests and beliefs of women and men would prove itself, and is proving itself where it now exists, to be a better government than one which represents the interests and beliefs of men alone.
The movement for the enfranchisement of women is based upon the unchanging and unchangeable principles of human liberty, in accordance with which successive classes of men have won the right of self-government. On such a foundation ultimate victory is assured and in truth is conceded even by those who oppose. The day is ever drawing nearer when the nation will apply to women the principles which are the very foundation existence; when on every election day there will be re-affirmed the immortal truths of our Declaration of American Independence. Then will this indeed be a just government, "deriving its powers from the consent of the governed."
Susan B. Anthony, Honorary President. Anna Howard Shaw, President. Carrie Chapman Catt, Vice President. Kate M. Gordon, Corresponding Secretary. Alice Stone Blackwell, Recording Secretary. Harriet Taylor Upton, Treasurer. Laura Clay, Auditors. Cora Smith Eaton, - ↑ If this request was so "reasonable" why was the word "sex" included in the first place? Although it was omitted from the Act of Congress which admitted these Territories to Statehood under the names of Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma, each one adopted a constitution whose suffrage clause absolutely barred women and those constitutions were approved by Congress. (See their special chapters.)
- ↑ In later years woman suffrage amendments were submitted to the voters through the Initiative and Referendum after the Legislature had refused to do it and were carried in Oregon and Arizona and defeated in Nebraska and Missouri. Still later by this method the ratification of the Federal Suffrage Amendment in Ohio by the Legislature was sent to the voters after they had defeated the ratification of the Prohibition Amendment. This was attempted in several other States and both prohibitionists and suffragists were in great distress, which was relieved by a decision of the U. S. Supreme Court that this action was unconstitutional. They learned, however, that the Initiative and Referendum has its harmful as well as its beneficial side.
- ↑ Miss Anthony and Mrs. Upton went to Washington in November, where Mrs. Harper joined them, and on the 15th President Roosevelt received them cordially and granted them a long interview. Miss Anthony was the principal spokesman and made these requests: 1. To mention woman suffrage in his speeches when practicable. 2. To put experienced women on boards and commissions relating to such matters as they would be competent to pass upon. 3. To recommend to Congress a special committee to investigate the practical working of woman suffrage where it exists. 4. To see that Congress should not discriminate against the women of the Philippines as it had done against those of Hawaii. 5. To say something that would help the approaching suffrage campaign in Oregon. 6. To speak to the national suffrage convention in Baltimore in February, as he did to the Mothers' Congress. 7. To recommend to Congress a Federal Suffrage Amendment before he left the presidency.
These requests were given to him in typewritten form but President Roosevelt did not comply with one of them and did not communicate further with the committee who called upon him. For full account of this occurrence see Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, page 1375.
- ↑ Different sessions were opened with prayer by Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, Father Black and the Reverends Elwin L. House, H. M. Barden, E. S. Muckley, J. Burgette Short, J. Whitcomb Brougher, E. Nelson Allen, Edgar P. Hill, W. S. Gilbert, A. A. Morrison, T. L. Eliot, Asa Sleeth, J. F. Ghormley, George Creswell Cressey, representing various denominations. Nearly all of them pledged their support to the suffrage movement. The fine musical programs throughout the convention were in charge of Mrs. M. A. Dalton.
- ↑ Oregon gave suffrage to women in 1912 and Mrs, Duniway received full recognition. See Oregon chapter.
- ↑ Mr. Blackwell, then 80 years old, used to rise early in the morning and take a trolley ride of thirty or forty miles in various directions to enjoy the beauties of nature. "Feeling unwilling to return east without bathing in the Pacific," he said in one of his letters, "and wishing to visit Astoria, the ancient American fur-post so charmingly immortalized by Washington Irving, I left Portland after the convention closed and had a beautiful voyage of nine hours down the river to where it meets the ocean. ... After an early morning plunge into the big waves we chartered an auto and sped over the hard sands to the fir-crowned cliffs."
- ↑ For results the following year see Oregon chapter.
