Volume II Part 48 (1/2)

Article 2. Its object shall be to secure the Ballot to the women of the nation on equal terms with men.

Article 3. Any citizen of the United States favoring this object, shall, by the payment of the sum of one dollar annually into the treasury, be considered a member of the a.s.sociation, and no other shall be ent.i.tled to vote in its deliberations.

Article 4. The officers of the a.s.sociation shall be a President, a Vice-President from each of the States and Territories, Corresponding and Recording Secretaries, Treasurer, an Executive Committee of not less than five nor more than nine members, located in New York City, and an Advisory Counsel of one person from each State and Territory, who shall be members of the National Executive Committee. The officers shall be chosen at each annual meeting of the a.s.sociation.

Article 5. Any Woman's Suffrage a.s.sociation may become auxiliary to the National a.s.sociation by its officers becoming members of the Parent a.s.sociation and sending an annual contribution of not less than twenty-five dollars.

PEt.i.tION FOR WOMEN SUFFRAGE.--The following Pet.i.tion was adopted by the National Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation at their meeting held at the Woman's Bureau, June 1, 1869:

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

The undersigned men and women of the United States ask for the prompt pa.s.sage by your Honorable Bodies of a Sixteenth Amendment to the Const.i.tution, to be submitted to the Legislatures of the several States for ratification, which shall secure to all citizens the right of suffrage without distinction of s.e.x.

_The Revolution_ of May 27, 1869, said: ”NATIONAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE a.s.sOCIATION.--It is with great pleasure that we announce that Anna E.

d.i.c.kinson will deliver the inaugural address of the new National Woman Suffrage movement at the Cooper Inst.i.tute to-morrow (Friday) evening at eight o'clock, also that Miss d.i.c.kinson consents to represent Pennsylvania in that a.s.sociation as its Vice-President. The t.i.tle of Anna d.i.c.kinson's lecture is ”Nothing Unreasonable.”

CHICAGO, Illinois.

_Dear Miss Anthony_: As to the new Society, G.o.d bless and speed it.

Write me down for anything in which I can serve it. I feel like ”a new hand,” but I am not so dull but I can learn. Please put my name on your list of members, and also on your list of subscribers.

With entire sympathy, KATE N. DOGGETT.

MANHATTAN, Kansas, _June 3, 1869_.

I shall be indeed proud to represent Kansas in the new National Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation, whose formation meets my hearty approval.

Definiteness of purpose is always conducive to success, and I think it would be well now to concentrate all our efforts upon the one idea of ”Suffrage for Women.” You may rely upon me to do whatever lies within my power and ability to further the cause.

Yours truly, MARY A. HUMPHREY.

[125] NATIONAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE CONVENTION AT NEWPORT, R.I.--A Woman Suffrage Convention will be held in the Academy of Music at Newport, R.I., on Wednesday and Thursday the 25th and 26th days of August next.

The success attending the recent gathering at Saratoga warrants the most sanguine hopes and expectations from this also. The intense interest now everywhere felt on the great question renders all appeal for a full attendance unnecessary. Among the speakers will be Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mrs. Paulina Wright Davis, Mrs. Celia Burleigh, Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford, Mrs. Wilbour, and Miss Susan B.

Anthony. The Misses Alice and Phoebe Cary, Mrs. Isabella Beecher Hooker, Mrs. E. H. Bullard, and many other of the most eminent women of the country will be in attendance. Names of other speakers will be announced hereafter.

In behalf of the National Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation.

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, President.

A. L. NORTON, PAULINA W. DAVIS, Advisory Counsel for the State of Rhode Island.

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LONDON, July 18, 1869.

_Mrs. President and Members of the Woman's National Suffrage a.s.sociation_:

I send an account of the first woman suffrage meeting ever held in London. But if we may judge anything of the prospects of the movement from the list of men and women who have interested themselves in the cause, it will not be the last. When such men as John Stuart Mill, Charles Kingsley, Prof. Newman, and their peers, put the shoulder to the wheel, a cause is bound to move on and crush all obstacles in the way of its progress. No old stumbling blocks of prejudice, or deep ruts of conventionality can impede the onward movement. As in America, I find that intellect, genius, wealth, and fas.h.i.+on even, are beginning in England to fall into the ranks and push on the woman suffrage question. Miss Frances Power Cobbe writes me: ”The uprising of a s.e.x throughout the civilized world, is certainly an unique fact in history, and can hardly fail of some important results.”