Volume IV Part 33 (1/2)
Of the n.o.ble band that started in 1848, few now remain, but a host of young women are already on the stage of action, even better equipped than were our pioneers to plead their own cases in the courts, the halls of legislation, the pulpit and the press.
Two large receptions were given to the delegates and visitors, one at the Hotel Aragon, and one by Mrs. W. A. Hemphill, chairman of the Committee on the Professional Work of Women at the approaching Cotton States Exposition soon to be held in Atlanta. She was a.s.sisted by Mrs.
W. Y. Atkinson, wife of the newly-elected Governor of Georgia.
During several weeks before the convention Miss Anthony and Mrs.
Chapman Catt had made a tour of the Southern States, speaking in the princ.i.p.al cities to arouse suffrage sentiment, as this section was practically an unvisited field. Immediately after the convention closed a ma.s.s meeting was held in the court-house of Atlanta.
Afterwards Mrs. Blake was requested to address the Legislature of North Carolina, Miss Anthony lectured in a number of cities on the way northward, and others were invited to hold meetings in the neighboring States. Most of the speakers and delegates met in Was.h.i.+ngton on February 15 to celebrate Miss Anthony's seventy-fifth birthday and partic.i.p.ate in the triennial convention of the National Council of Women.
FOOTNOTES:
[101] The three sisters, Claudia Howard Maxwell, Miriam Howard Du Bose and H. Augusta Howard, who as delegates at Was.h.i.+ngton the previous winter had invited the a.s.sociation to Atlanta, bore the princ.i.p.al part of these expenses and were largely responsible for the success of the convention.
[102] The facts and figures presented in the report from Kansas by the president, Mrs. Laura M. Johns, will be found in the chapter on that State.
[103] For an account of this beautiful celebration in the Metropolitan Opera House with an audience of 3,000, see Life and Work of Susan B.
Anthony, p. 848; also Reminiscences of Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
[104] For account of Mrs. Bradwell's case see History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. II, p. 601; of Mrs. Minor's, same, p. 715.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE NATIONAL-AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1896.
The suffrage a.s.sociation held its Twenty-eighth annual convention in the Church of Our Father, Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C., Jan. 23-28, 1896. In her opening remarks the president, Miss Susan B. Anthony, said:
The thought that brought us here twenty-eight years ago was that, if the Federal Const.i.tution could be invoked to protect black men in the right to vote, the same great authority could be invoked to protect women. The question has been urged upon every Congress since 1869. We asked at first for a Sixteenth Amendment enfranchising women; then for suffrage under the Fourteenth Amendment; then, when the Supreme Court had decided that against us, we returned to the Sixteenth Amendment and have pressed it ever since. The same thing has been done in this Fifty-fourth Congress which has been done in every Congress for a decade, namely, the introducing of a bill providing for the new amendment....
You will notice that the seats of the delegation from Utah are marked by a large United States flag bearing three stars, a big one and two smaller ones. The big star is for Wyoming, because it stood alone for a quarter of a century as the only place where _women had full suffrage_. Colorado comes next, because it is the first State where a majority of the men voted to grant women equal rights. Then comes Utah, because its men in convention a.s.sembled--in spite of the bad example of Congress, which took the right away from its women nine years ago--those men, having seen the good effects of woman suffrage for years, voted by an overwhelming majority to leave out the little word ”male” from the suffrage clause of their new State Const.i.tution, and their action was ratified by the electors. Next year, if I am here, I hope to rejoice with you over woman suffrage in California and Idaho.
Some one whispered to Miss Anthony that the convention had not been opened with prayer, and she answered without the slightest confusion: ”Now, friends, you all know I am a Quaker. We give thanks in silence.
I do not think the heart of any one here has been fuller of silent thankfulness than mine, but I should not have remembered to have the meeting formally opened with prayer if somebody had not reminded me.
The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw will offer prayer.”
Miss Shaw's report as vice-president-at-large was full of the little touches of humor for which she was noted:
The report of my specific work would not take long; but the work that really did count for our a.s.sociation began last May, when your president and I were invited to California. On the way we stopped first at St. Louis, where Miss Anthony spoke before the Women's Federation, the Woman's Council, and the State W. S. A.
From there we went to Denver, where we had a remarkable meeting, and a warm greeting was given to Miss Anthony by the newly enfranchised women of Colorado. It was pleasant to find them so grateful to the pioneers. The large opera house was packed, and a reception, in which the newspapers estimated that 1,500 persons took part, was afterwards given at the Palace Hotel.
From Denver we went to Cheyenne, where we addressed the citizens, men and women. For once there were present at our meeting quite as many men as women, and not only ordinary but extraordinary men. After introducing us to the audience, Mrs. Theresa A.
Jenkins introduced the audience to us. It included the Governor, Senators, Representatives, Judges of the Supreme Court, city officials, and never so many majors and colonels, and it showed that where women have a vote, men think their meetings are worth going to. We were the guests of the Governor during our stay in Colorado, and guests of a U. S. Senator in Wyoming. At Salt Lake all the city turned out, and I spoke in the Tabernacle to the largest audience I ever had. It was sympathetic too, for Utah people are accustomed to go to church and listen. At Ogden they had to take two buildings for the meeting. At Reno, Nevada, there was a large audience.
The Woman's Congress at San Francisco was the most marvelous gathering I ever saw. The newspapers said the men were all hypnotized, or they would not stand on the sidewalk two hours to get into a church. Every subject considered during the whole week, whether it was the care of children or the decoration of the home, turned on the ballot for women, and Susan B. Anthony was the belle of the ball. The superintendent of San Francisco closed the schools that Miss Anthony might address the 900 teachers. The Ministers' a.s.sociation pa.s.sed resolutions favoring the amendment. We went the whole length of the State and the meetings were just as enthusiastic.
The Citizens' Committee asked women to take part in the Fourth of July celebration. The women accepted more than the men meant they should, for they insisted that a woman should be on the program.
The Program Committee refused, and the Executive Committee said if they did not put a woman on they should be discharged. Instead of this they proposed that Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper should provide sandwiches for over 5,000 kindergarten children. That was the kind of work they invited such women to do.