Volume III Part 25 (1/2)

After trying in vain for recognition as a political factor from the Republican and Greenback nominating conventions the delegates went to Cincinnati.[65]

Committees were at once appointed to visit the different delegations. Women were better treated by the Democrats at Cincinnati than by the Republicans at Chicago. A committee-room in Music Hall was at once placed at their disposal, placards pointing to their headquarters were printed by the local committee at its own expense, and sixteen seats given to the ladies upon the floor of the house, just back of the regular delegates. A hearing[66]

before the platform committee was granted with no limit as to time.

At the close a delegate approached the table, saying, ”I favor giving woman a plank,” ”So do I,” replied Mr. Watterson, chairman of the committee. Many delegates in conversation, favored the recognition of woman's political rights, and a large number of the platform committee favored the introduction of the following plank:

That the Democratic party, recognizing the rapid growth of the woman suffrage question, suggests a consideration of this important subject by the people in antic.i.p.ation of the time, near at hand, when it must become a political issue.

But although the platform committee sat until 2 A.M., no such result was reached, in consequence, it was said, of the objection of the extreme Southern element which feared the political recognition of negro women of the South.

The delegations from Maine, Kansas and New York were favorable, and offered the a.s.sociation the use of their committee-rooms at the Burnett House and the Grand Hotel whenever desired. Mayor Prince of Boston not only offered a committee-room but secured seats for the delegates on the floor of the house. Mr. Henry Watterson, of the Louisville _Courier-Journal_, as chairman of the Platform Committee, extended every courtesy within his power. Mayor Harrison of Chicago did his best to secure to the delegates a hearing before the convention. He offered to escort Miss Anthony to the platform that she might at least present the address. ”You may be prevented,” suggested one. ”I'd like to see them do it,” he replied. ”Have I not just brought about a reconciliation between Tammany and the rest of New York?” Taking Miss Anthony upon his arm and telling her not to flinch, he made his way to the platform, when the chairman, Hon. Wade Hampton of South Carolina, politely offered her a seat, and ordered the clerk to read the address:

_To the Democratic Party in Nominating Convention a.s.sembled, Cincinnati, June 22, 1880:_

On behalf of the women of the country we appear before you, asking the recognition of woman's political rights as one-half the people. We ask no special privileges, no special legislation.

We simply ask that you live up to the principles enunciated by the Democratic party from the time of Jefferson. By what principle of democracy do men a.s.sume to legislate for women?

Women are part of the people; your very name signifies government by the people. When you deny political rights to women you are false to your own principles.

The Declaration of Independence recognized human rights as its basis. Const.i.tutions should also be general in character. But in opposition to this principle the party in power for the last twenty years has perverted the Const.i.tution of the United States by the introduction of the word ”male” three times, thereby limiting the application of its guarantees to a special cla.s.s. It should be your pride and your duty to restore the const.i.tution to its original basis by the adoption of a sixteenth amendment, securing to women the right of suffrage; and thus establish the equality of all United States citizens before the law.

Not for the first time do we make of you these demands. At your nominating convention in New York, in 1868, Susan B. Anthony appeared before you, asking recognition of woman's inherent natural rights. At your convention of 1872, in Baltimore, Isabella Beecher Hooker and Susan B. Anthony made a similar appeal. In 1876, at St. Louis, Phoebe W. Couzins and Virginia L.

Minor presented our claims. Now, in 1880, our delegates are present here from the Middle States, from the West and from the South. The women of the South are rapidly uniting in their demand for political recognition, as they have been the most deeply humiliated by a recognition of the political rights of their former slaves.

To secure to 20,000,000 of women the rights of citizens.h.i.+p is to base your party on the eternal principles of justice; it is to make yourselves the party of the future; it is to do away with a more extended slavery than that of 4,000,000 of blacks; it is to secure political freedom to half the nation; it is to establish on this continent the democratic theory of the equal rights of the people.

In furtherance of this demand we ask you to adopt the following resolution:

WHEREAS, Believing in the self-evident truth that all persons are created with certain inalienable rights, and that for the protection of these rights governments are inst.i.tuted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; therefore,

_Resolved_, That the Democratic party pledges itself to use all its powers to secure to the women of the nation protection in the exercise of their right of suffrage.

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

MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE, _Chairman Executive Committee_.

That the women however, in the campaign of 1880, received the best treatment at the hands of the National Prohibition party is shown by the following invitation received at the Bloomington convention:

_To the National Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation of the United States:_

The woman suffragists are respectfully invited to meet with and partic.i.p.ate in the proceedings of the National Prohibition Convention to be held at Cleveland, Ohio, June, 1880.

JAMES BLACK, _Chairman of National Committee._

Per J. W. HAGGARD.

A letter was received from Mr. Black urging the acceptance of the invitation. Accordingly Miss Phoebe Couzins was sent as a delegate from the a.s.sociation. The Prohibition party in its eleventh plank said:

We also demand that women having privileges as citizens in other respects, shall be clothed with the ballot for their own protection, and as a rightful means for a proper settlement of the liquor question.

After attending all these nominating conventions, some of the delegates[67] went to Wisconsin where the State and National a.s.sociations held a joint convention, in the Opera House at Milwaukee, June 4, 5. Madam Anneke gave the address of welcome.[68]