Volume II Part 108 (1/2)

THE FIRST ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE a.s.sOCIATION was held in Cleveland, Ohio, Nov. 22 and 23, 1870.

Col. T. W. HIGGINSON, first Vice-President, called the meeting to order, and addressed the audience substantially as follows:

REMARKS OF COLONEL HIGGINSON.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: I heartily congratulate you that you are again called together in this goodly city of Cleveland.

We stand to-day at the cradle of the a.s.sociation, a child one year old, to celebrate its first birthday. There is nothing in the record of the past year that we have to blush for, or that we have to undo. If our work has been limited in its success, it has been because we have been limited in means. If we have not transformed the entire world it has been because the world has not poured its money into our coffers. But the great fact remains, as much as if we had accomplished a work ten times as large, that we have a great central organization, to which ten States have given a cordial and hearty support. Congress at Was.h.i.+ngton is but a small body. The amount it annually does and spends is nothing to that done and spent by the State governments. It is the keystone of our great national arch, the string upon which all State governments are strung. And so this a.s.sociation is the keystone upon which all the auxiliary State organizations depend.

We meet here to-day, in a delegate meeting, for full and free discussion; none are proscribed, none prescribed. If there is anything new to be done, now is the time to do it; if anything wrong was done last year, now is the time to rectify it. This is the great, golden opportunity of this a.s.sociation. It is especial cause for rejoicing that it is organized for a specific purpose, to secure the ballot to women, everything else being held for the time in abeyance. Early in the movement in behalf of women the broad platform of ”woman's rights” was adopted. This was all proper and right then, but the progress of reform has developed the fact that suffrage for woman is the great key that will unlock to her the doors of social and political equality. This should be the first point of concentrated attack. Suffrage is not the only object, but it is the first, to be attained. When we gave our a.s.sociation that name we escaped a vast deal of discussion and argument, for its object can not be misunderstood.

But after that is gained there will be worlds yet to conquer. If the conservatives think that because it is called the Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation it has no further object, they are greatly mistaken. Its purpose and aim are to equalize the s.e.xes in all the relations of life; to reduce the inequalities that now exist in matters of education, in social life and in the professions--to make them equal in all respects, before the law, society, and the world. With this burden upon our shoulders we can not carry all the other ills of the world in addition, we must take one thing at a time. Suffrage for woman gained, and all else will speedily follow.

H. B. Blackwell, Chairman of the Committee on Credentials, presented the report of delegates present.[188]

On motion of Mrs. Dr. Ferguson, seconded by Judge Bradwell, each delegation was authorized to cast the full vote of the State it represents. The number of votes to which each State was ent.i.tled was declared to be that of its Congressional representation.

Mrs. LUCY STONE, Chairman of the Executive Committee, read the

REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

_Annual Report of the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation:_

The American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation was formed in this city one year ago under the most favorable auspices. Its one great object is to secure the ballot for woman. Through the power this will give, she may take her true place, free to use every gift and faculty she possesses, subject only to the law of benevolence. This organization has been vastly influential in securing public sympathy and respect for our ideas. The very names of its officers gave confidence, and through their confidence the cause has received large accessions of strength. We have already nine auxiliary State societies. Each of these has held conventions. Some have employed lecturers, some have organized county and local societies. All have circulated tracts and pet.i.tions. Ohio, Indiana, and Ma.s.sachusetts have been especially abundant in labor. Ohio has thirty-one local societies, Indiana twenty-five, and Ma.s.sachusetts five. These States have had a force of excellent speakers in the field, who, with rare self-forgetting, have worked as only those can who work with whole-hearted faith for immortal principles.

Under the auspices of this a.s.sociation, a canva.s.s was made in the State of Vermont. The sole reason which induced the Executive Committee to undertake this special work was that the Council of Censors had submitted a proposition that ”henceforth women may vote, and with no other restrictions than are prescribed for men.” A Vermont State Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation was organized, auxiliary to the American Society.

The speech of Mr. Curtis at our May ma.s.s meeting, so admirable in style and substance we have published in a tract ent.i.tled ”Fair Play for Women.” Thousands of copies have been sent to all parts of the United States. It is doing its silent work by quiet firesides, where hard-working men and women, who can never attend a convention, can find time to read. We have published seven tracts, which had previously been sold at $5.00 a hundred, at the actual cost of $2.00 per hundred, and keep them constantly for sale at these low prices. They have been scattered broadcast, and the good seed thus sown will bear fruit in due season.

There has been steady progress in our ideas during the whole year. The _Woman's Journal_, established last January, and since consolidated with the _Woman's Advocate_, of Ohio, is constantly increasing its circulation, more than a thousand new subscribers having been added within a single month.

One of the most significant signs of progress is found in the recent action of the Republican party in Ma.s.sachusetts.

Their State Convention unanimously admitted Mary A.

Livermore and Lucy Stone, who were regularly accredited delegates from the towns of Melrose and West Brookfield. A resolution in favor of making woman suffrage part of the platform was reported by the Committee on Resolutions. A change of only 29 votes out of 331 would have made woman suffrage this year a part of the Republican platform of Ma.s.sachusetts. Thus women have been admitted to represent men in a political State Convention. The next step will be that women will represent themselves.

With all these cheering indications, we have only to keep our question of woman's right to the ballot clear and unmixed with other issues, and the growing public sympathy will soon carry our cause to a successful issue.

Judge Bradwell, of Chicago, presented the following letter to the Chair, which was read to the a.s.sociation:

_To the American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation;_

FRIENDS AND CO-WORKERS: We, the undersigned, a committee appointed by the Union Woman Suffrage Society in New York, May, 1870, to confer with you on the subject of merging the two organizations into one, respectfully announce:

1st. That in our judgment no difference exists between the objects and methods of the two societies, nor any good reason for keeping them apart.

2d. That the society we represent has invested us with full power to arrange with you a union of both under a single const.i.tution and executive.

3d. That we ask you to appoint a committee of equal number and authority with our own, to consummate if possible this happy result.

Yours, in the common cause of woman's enfranchis.e.m.e.nt,