Volume III Part 53 (1/2)
AUGUSTA, March 1, 1872.
EDITORS WOMAN'S JOURNAL: I have never seen a letter in the _Woman's Journal_ written from Augusta, the capital of Maine, and as some things have transpired lately which might interest your readers, I take the liberty of writing a few lines. The bill for woman suffrage was defeated in the House, fifty-two to forty-one.
In the Senate the vote was fifteen in favor to eight against. I think the smallness of the vote was owing to the indifference of some of the members and the determination of a few to kill the bill. Some politicians are afraid of this innovation just now, lest the Republican party be more disrupted than it already is.
Day after day, when the session was drawing to a close, women went to the state-house expecting to hear the question debated.
Wednesday every available place was filled with educated women.
The day was spent--if I should say how, my criticism might be too severe. Gentlemen from Thomaston, Biddeford, Burlington and Waldoborough had the floor most of the time during the afternoon.
In the evening, while those same women and some of the members of the legislature were attending a concert, the bill was taken up and voted upon, _without any discussion whatever_. Now, I submit to any fair-minded person if this was right. I have listened to discussions upon that floor this winter for which I should have hung my head in shame had they been conducted by women. The whole country, from Maine to California, calls loudly for better legislation--for morality in politics.
A member of the House said to me yesterday, that he thought that some of the members from the rural districts were not sufficiently enlightened upon the question of woman suffrage, and the bill ought to have been thoroughly discussed. Yes, and perhaps treated with respect by its friends. I saw the member from Calais while a vote was being taken. Standing in his seat, with his hand stretched toward the rear of the House, where it is generally supposed that members sit who are a little slow in voting at the beck of politicians, he said: ”_Yes_ is the way to vote, gentlemen! Yes! Yes!” When women have such politicians for champions equal suffrage is secured. But do we want such men? The member from Calais voted against woman's right of suffrage. He is said to be an ambitious aspirant in the fifth congressional district. See to it, women of the fifth district, that you do not have him as an opponent of equal rights in congress. There is a throne behind a throne. Let woman be _regal_ in the background, where she must stand for the present, in Maine.
But I am happy and proud to state that some very high-minded men, and some of the best legislators in the House, did vote for the bill, viz.: Brown of Bangor, Judge t.i.tcomb of Augusta, General Perry of Oxford, Porter of Burlington, Labroke of Foxcroft, and many others; in the Senate, the president and fourteen others, the real bone and marrow of the Senate, voted for the bill. The signs of the times are good. The watchman of the night discerns the morning light in the broad eastern horizon.
[Signed:] PATIENCE COMMONSENSE.
The _Portland Press_, in a summary of progress in Maine for 1873, says:
Women certainly have no reason to complain of the year's dealings with them, for they have been recognized in many ways which indicate the gradual breaking down of the prejudices that have hitherto given them a position of _quasi_ subjection. Mrs. Mary D. Welcome has been licensed to preach by the Methodists; Mrs.
Fannie U. Roberts of Kittery has been commissioned by the governor to solemnize marriages; Clara H. Nash, of the famous law firm of F. C. & C. H. Nash, of Columbia Falls, has argued a case before a jury in the Supreme Court; Miss Mary C. Lowe of Colby University has taken a college prize for declamation. They are the first Maine women who have ever enjoyed honors of the kind.
Miss Cameron spoke, too, at the last Congregational conference, and Miss Frank Charles was appointed register of deeds in Oxford county.
It is further to be noted that the legislature voted as follows on the question of giving the ballot to women: Senate--14 yeas, 14 nays; House--62 yeas, 69 nays. Women are rapidly obtaining a recognized position in our colleges. There are now five young women at Colby, three at Bates, and three at the Agricultural College--eleven in all. Bates has already graduated two. In the latter college a scholars.h.i.+p for the benefit of women has been endowed by Judge Reddington. Finally, the first Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation ever formed in Maine held its first meeting at Augusta last January, and was a great success. Carmel, Monroe, Etna and some other towns have elected women superintendents of schools, but this has been done in other years. For a little movement in the right direction we must credit Messrs. Amos, Abbott & Co., woolen manufacturers of Dexter, who divide ten per cent. of their profits with their operatives.
Clara H. Nash, the lady who, in partners.h.i.+p with her husband, has recently entered upon the practice of law in Maine, says:
Scarcely a day pa.s.ses but something occurs in our office to rouse my indignation afresh by reminding me of the utter insignificance with which the law, in its every department, regards woman, and its utter disregard of her rights as an individual. Would that women might feel this truth; then, indeed, would their enfranchis.e.m.e.nt be speedy.
In the _Woman's Journal_ of January 1, 1873, we find the following call:
The people of Maine who believe in the extension of the elective franchise to women as a beneficent power for the promotion of the virtues and the correction of the evils of society, and all who believe in the principles of equal justice, equal liberty and equal opportunity, upon which republican inst.i.tutions are founded, and have faith in the triumph of intelligence and reason over custom and prejudice, are invited to meet at Granite Hall, in the city of Augusta, on Wednesday, January 29, 1873, for the purpose of organizing a State Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation, and inaugurating such measures for the advancement of the cause as the wisdom of the convention may suggest.[181]
The _Portland Press_, in a leading editorial on the ”Moral Eminence of Maine,” says:
Maine has been first in many things. She has taught the world how to struggle with intemperance, and pilgrims come hither from all quarters of the earth to learn the theory and practice of prohibition. She was among the first to practically abolish capital punishment and to give married women their rights in respect to property. She is, perhaps, nearer giving them political rights, also, than any of her sister commonwealths. If Maine should be first among the States to give suffrage to women, she would do more for temperance than a hundred prohibitory laws, and more for civilization and progress than Ma.s.sachusetts did when she threw the tea into Boston harbor in 1773, or when she sent the first regiment to the relief of Was.h.i.+ngton in 1861.
The leaders of the temperance reform in Maine are fully alive to the necessity of woman suffrage as a means to that end. At the meeting of the State Temperance a.s.sociation of Maine, in Augusta, recently, Mr. Randall said that ”as the woman suffrage convention has adjourned over this afternoon in order to attend the temperance meeting, he would move that when we adjourn it be to Thursday morning, as the work at both conventions is intimately connected. If the women of Maine went to the ballot-box, we should have officers to enforce the law.” Mr. Randall's motion was carried, and the temperance convention adjourned.
The Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation a.s.sembled Wednesday, January 29, in Granite Hall, Augusta. There was a very large attendance, a considerable number of those present being members of the legislature. Hon. Joshua Nye presided. He made a few remarks relating to the removal of political disabilities from women, and introduced Mrs. Agnes A. Houghton of Bath, who spoke on the ”Turning of the Tide,” contending that woman should be elevated socially, politically and morally, enjoying the same rights as man.
She was followed by Judge Benjamin Kingsbury, jr., of Portland, who declared himself unequivocally in favor of giving woman the right to vote, and who trusted that she would be accorded this right by the present legislature. More than 1,000 persons were in the audience, and great enthusiasm prevailed. The morning session was devoted to business and the election of officers.[182] In order not to conflict with a meeting of the State Temperance a.s.sociation, no afternoon session was held, and, in return, the State Temperance Society gave up its evening meeting to enable its members to attend the suffrage convention.
Speeches were made by Henry B. Blackwell of Boston, Rev. Ellen Gustin of Mansfield, Mary Eastman of Lowell, and others.
Resolutions were pa.s.sed pledging the a.s.sociation not to cease its efforts until the unjust discrimination with regard to voting is swept away; that in the election of president, and of all officers where the qualifications of voters are not prescribed by the State const.i.tution, the experiment should be tried of allowing women to vote; that in view of the large amount of money which has been expended in Maine for the exclusive benefit of the Boys' Industrial School during the past twenty years, it is the prayer of the ladies of Maine that the present legislature vote the sum asked for the establishment of an Industrial School for girls.
In 1874 we find notices of other onward steps:
EDITORS JOURNAL: Woman's cause works slowly here, though in one respect we have been successful. Our county school-superintendent is a lady. She had a large majority over our other candidate, and over two gentlemen, and she is decidedly ”the right person in the right place.” She is a graduate from the normal school, the mother of four children, a widow for some six years past, and a lady. What more can we ask, unless, indeed, it be for a very conscientious idea of duty? That, too, she has, and also energy, with which she carries it out. The sterner s.e.x admit that women are competent to hold office. But some say we are not intelligent enough to vote. What an appalling amount of wisdom they show in this idea! It would be ”unwomanly” in us to suggest such a word as inconsistency.
Fraternally, M. J. M.