Volume III Part 118 (1/2)

SEC. 2. This act to take effect from and after its pa.s.sage.

Approved November 29, 1871. EDWARD S. SOLOMON, _Governor_.

When the proclamation to hold a convention to form a const.i.tution preparatory to our admission into the Union as a State, was issued, I recommended to the Territorial Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation that we make every effort to secure to the convention as many delegates as possible in favor of woman suffrage, and then that we circulate pet.i.tions asking them to leave out the word ”male” from the const.i.tution. Failing to get the society to take any a.s.sociated action, I went to work individually, wrote and sent out pet.i.tions into every town and country place where there was a post-office, asking that the word ”male” be left out of the const.i.tution. With each pet.i.tion I sent a letter to the person whose name I had procured from the postmaster of the place, stating the object, urging a thorough circulation, and directing its return at a given date to Mary Olney Brown, President of the Was.h.i.+ngton Territorial Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation; thus giving the credit of the work to the Society.

I could not get a member of our a.s.sociation to circulate the pet.i.tion in Olympia, so every day that I could get away from home I took my pet.i.tion in hand and canva.s.sed for signatures. If I went shopping or on an errand I took it with me, and in that way I procured over 300 names. My experience had taught me that the princ.i.p.al opposition to woman's voting came from ignorance as to her true position under the government. She had come to be looked upon almost as a foreign element in our nation, having no lot nor part with the male citizen, and I felt that it was necessary to disabuse the minds of the people generally, and the delegates to the convention particularly, of this notion. I therefore wrote five articles on the ”Equality of Citizens.h.i.+p,” which Mrs.

Duniway kindly published in the _New Northwest_. The Olympia _Courier_ also printed them, and placed the paper on file in the city reading-room; and when I met a man who had not made up his mind on the subject I recommended him to the reading-room, and several after perusing the articles were converted and signed the pet.i.tion.

On the a.s.sembling of the legislature Mrs. A. H. H. Stuart and myself watched a favorable opportunity to present an equal rights bill. We let them talk up the matter pretty well over a pet.i.tion signed by fifty women of one of the upper counties, when one day Mrs. Stuart came to me and said: ”Now, Mrs. Brown, write out your bill; the speaker of the House sent me word they were ready for it.” I sat down and framed a bill[514] to the best of my ability, which was duly presented and respectfully debated. Mrs. Duniway came from Portland to urge its pa.s.sage, and the day before it came to a vote both Houses adjourned and invited her to speak in the hall of representatives. She made one of her best speeches.

The members of both Houses were present, besides a large audience from the city. The next day the House pa.s.sed the bill by two majority, and on the day following it was lost in the Council by two majority. In the House the vote stood, ayes, 13; nays, 11. In the Council, ayes, 5; nays, 7.

Sat.u.r.day evening Mrs. Duniway made another telling speech in the city hall, at the close of which Mr. White, a lobby member, made a few remarks, in which he disclosed the cause of the defeat of the bill in the Council. He said, after the bill pa.s.sed the House the saloon-keepers, alarmed lest their occupation would be gone if women should vote, b.u.t.ton-holed the members of the Council, and as many of them as could be bought by drinks pledged themselves to vote against the bill. The members of the Council were present, and though an urgent invitation was given to all to speak, not one of them denied the charge made by Mr. White. On the following Monday an effort was made in the Council to reconsider the bill, but failed. Thus stands our cause at present. There will be a greater effort than ever before put forth during the next two years to secure an affirmative vote in our legislature.

As Mrs. Brown wrote the above in 1881, the promise in the closing sentence was really quite prophetic, since the legislature of 1883 pa.s.sed a law enfranchising the women of the territory.[515] Mrs.

Duniway concludes her account with a brief reference to the work in neighboring territories:

In addition to all that is being done in Oregon and Was.h.i.+ngton, we are actively engaged in pus.h.i.+ng the work in Idaho and Montana territories, where the _New Northwest_ has been thoroughly circulated in many localities and many spirited public meetings have been held. The Idaho legislature seriously considered and came near adopting a woman suffrage bill last winter, and the women of the territory are confidently awaiting a triumph at the next biennial session. Remembering Dakota's set-back through the governor's veto in 1885, they are carefully planning to avoid a like calamity in their own territory. In Montana the cause has made less apparent progress, but there is much quiet and constantly increasing agitation in its favor. Popular feeling is steadily ripening for the change, and let the rest of the world wag as it will, there cannot be much longer hindrance to the complete triumph of liberty in the Pacific Northwest.

FOOTNOTES:

[507] Hon. H. L. Yesler, the city's founder and mayor; Mrs. Yesler, Rev. John F. Damon, Mrs. Mary Olney Brown, Rev. Daniel Bagley and others.

[508] Its leaders being Mrs. Abble H. H. Stuart, Mrs. P. C. Hale, Hon. Marshall Blinn, Hon. Elwood Evans, and Mr. J. M. Murphy, editor of the _Was.h.i.+ngton Standard_.

[509] Mr. D. W. Williams, Mr. and Mrs. W. T. Shanahan, Mr. and Mrs.

A. B. Gibson, Rev. T. L. Eliot, Mr. B. C. Duniway, Dr. Mary A.

Thompson, Rev. Isaac Dillon and Hon. and Mrs. G. W. Brown.

[510] Addresses were made in advocacy of the cause by Col. Reed, Mrs. J. Devore Johnson, Miss V. M. Olds, Rev. T. L. Eliot, Mrs. C.

A. Coburn, Mrs. Beatty (colored), and the writer. The celebrated McGibeney family furnished the music, and the Portland press gave favorable reports of the proceedings. Valuable aid was also contributed by Mr. and Mrs. D. H. Hendee, Mr. and Mrs. J. W.

Peters, and Mrs. M. J. Foster.

[511] Governor Newell, Judge Orange Jacobs, Judge B. F. Dennison, Mrs. Pamela Hale, Hon. Philip D. Moore, Mr. W. S. Duniway, Captain William H. Smallwood, the writer, and a large number of the members of the legislature.

[512] S. F. Chadwick, United States Representative M. C. George, ex-United States Senator J. H. Mitch.e.l.l, United States District Judge M. P. Deady, Hon. H. W. Scott, editor of the _Oregonian_, ex-Governor A. C. Gibbs, District-Attorneys J. F. Caples and T. A.

McBride, and various ex-members of the legislature.

[513] The official vote of the State was 11,223 for the amendment, and 28,176 against.

[514] _Be it enacted by the Legislature of the Territory of Was.h.i.+ngton:_

SECTION 1. All female citizens of the age of twenty-one years shall be ent.i.tled to vote at all elections in the territory, subject only to such regulations as male citizens.

SEC. 2. Any officer of election who shall refuse to take the vote of a woman citizen (otherwise qualified to vote), shall be liable to a fine of not less than $100 nor more than $500.

SEC. 3. All laws in conflict with this act are hereby repealed.