786 



WOMAN SUFFRAGE. 



Up to the outbreak of the civil war nation- 

 al conventions were held annually, either in 

 Massachusetts or New York, and the number of 

 State conventions steadily increased. At all of 

 these long series of resolutions were adopted set- 

 ting forth the wrongs and disabilities of women, 

 and demanding their removal. 



In 1853 the first woman-suffrage newspaper 

 ' The Una " appeared in Providence, R. I. It 

 lived three years, and stimulated the enthusiasm 

 of its readers. 



Petitions were poured in upon the various 

 State Legislatures and constitutional conven- 

 tions, and great activity prevailed all through 

 the ranks of the advocates of woman's rights. 

 In 1856, at the seventh national convention, held 

 in New York, it was announced that nearly 

 every Northern State had modified its laws in 

 relation to women, the newer States being in 

 advance of the older. A growing sentiment in 

 favor of woman-suffrage was manifest, especially 

 in Ohio, where in 1857 a woman-suffrage bill, 

 reported favorably by a select committee of the 

 Senate, was defeated' by a vote of 44 to 44. 



The fourth annual convention, assembled in 

 New York during anniversary week of 1853, was 

 much disturbed in all its sessions by a disorderly 

 crowd in the rear of the hall, and such disturb- 

 ances became almost the rule for several years. 

 In 1859 the confusion was so great that Wendell 

 Phillips alone could be heard. In that year it 

 was resolved to turn the forces upon constitu- 

 tional amendment rather than legislative action, 

 and a memorial to this effect was sent to every 

 State in the Union. It received little attention. 

 The year 1860 saw the complete emancipation 

 of the women of New York a? far as property 

 rights are concerned. W'hile this bill was pend- 

 ing, the State convention having been recently 

 in session at Albany, Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stan- 

 ton addressed the Legislature on the bill. This 

 year, in which Vassar College for women was 

 founded, marked a noticeable change in public 

 opinion. The first petition for woman suffrage 

 presented to the New York Legislature, in 1837, 

 had 5 signatures ; that of 1861 had 13,000. Dur- 

 ing the four years of the civil war agitation for 

 woman's rights ceased almost entirely, all ener- 

 gies being concentrated- upon the great conflict 

 and its exigencies. In 1863 the Woman's Na- 

 tional Loyal League, an outgrowth of the 

 Woman's Rights Association, circulated a mam- 

 moth petition to Congress that the Constitution 

 might be amended to prohibit slavery. This 

 petition, with 100,000 signatures, was presented 

 to Congress in February, 1864. Before the close 

 of the year the signatures amounted to 300,000. 

 The leaders of the league were Elizabeth Cady 

 Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. 



The results of the war had brought the issue 

 of suffrage squarely before Congress and the Con- 

 stitution of the United States, and thenceforward 

 all energies were concentrated upon an amend- 

 ment of the national Constitution. The thir- 

 teenth and fourteenth amendments having passed, 

 in 1865 two petitions were presented to Congress 

 protesting against the word male, in the four- 

 teenth. The suffrage becoming now the central 

 interest, the various women's rights societies 

 were merged into one. Under the title of the 

 American Equal Rights Association an effort was 



made to have woman suffrage tried in the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia, and every pressure was brought 

 to bear in the various States to arouse public sen- 

 timent. In May, 1868, the first argument before 

 a committee of Congress was made before the 

 House Committee of the District of Columbia in 

 behalf of the Universal Franchise Association of 

 Washington, by Hamilton Willcox, and was re- 

 ceived by the' committee (Gen. William H. 

 Koontz, of Pennsylvania, presiding) with unex- 

 pected favor. Mrs. Josephine S. Griffing and 

 Mrs. Mary T. Corner also spoke briefly. 



In January, 1869, the first of a series of con- 

 ventions, extending to the present time, was held 

 at Washington. The fourteenth amendment had 

 just been ratified, the fifteenth was pending, and 

 several suffrage bills were before Congress. There 

 was great diversity of opinion among friends of 

 woman suffrage as to the propriety of saddling 

 the fifteenth amendment with woman suffrage. 

 " This is the negro's hour " was the general senti- 

 ment, and it was urged that woman suffrage 

 could be relegated to a future moment. The dif- 

 ference of opinion was so radical and so decided 

 that the Equal Rights Association could not en- 

 dure the pressure, and in the same year (1869) it 

 split into two societies, the National Woman Suf- 

 frage Society, with Elizabeth Cady Stanton for 

 president, the wing opposed to the fifteenth 

 amendment, and the American Woman Suffrage 

 Society, with Plenry Ward Beecher, and later 

 Lucy Stone, for president, comprising the wing 

 in favor of it. A sixteenth amendment was pro- 

 posed to Congress in the spring of this year by 

 Hon. George W. Julian. Hamilton Willcox made 

 the first argument for suffrage in the Territories 

 before the bar of the House, Gen. James M. Ash- 

 ley, of Ohio, presiding. 



Meanwhile the State societies had not been in- 

 active. School suffrage had been quite generally 

 asked for, and in some States granted. The 

 new Constitution of North Carolina gave property 

 rights to married women, and their condition 

 was improved in several other States. The sub- 

 ject of taxation without representation was agi- 

 tated in Missouri and Connecticut. In Wyoming 

 and Utah entire enfranchisement was accorded 

 to women. " The Revol ution " newspaper, found- 

 ed in New York in 1868 by Susan B. Anthony, 

 helped much in the cause, and the starting by 

 Myra Bradwell, of Chicago, of " The Legal News," 

 which took a good place among law journals, 

 doubtless added to it some prestige. In Europe 

 a marked advance was made, especially in Eng- 

 land, where the first organization to demand 

 parliamentary suffrage for women was formed in 

 1869 : and the following year the Elementary 

 Education act empowered women to sit in 

 school boards and to vote for school officers. 



In 1870. at the time of the Washington con- 

 vention, Elizabeth Cady Stanton spoke on suf- 

 frage before a congressional committee ; the inter- 

 est was so great that the hearing was prolonged 

 two days, and many notabilities gathered to 

 listen. This was the first fruit of many hear- 

 ings granted to women by congressional commit- 

 tees. The woman-suffrage movement, however, 

 at this time, as from the beginning, found its 

 strongest opponents among women, and certain 

 women of Ohio this year issued a protest against 

 it. A bill was passed in Iowa permitting women 



