Volume IV Part 115 (1/2)

As early as 1887 Gov. David B. Hill, at the earnest request of the State Suffrage a.s.sociation, had recommended that women should have a representation in the convention which would frame this revision. Miss Susan B. Anthony, Mrs. Lillie Devereux Blake, Mrs. Mary Seymour Howell and Mrs. Caroline Gilkey Rogers addressed a joint committee of the Legislature urging that women delegates should be permitted to sit in this convention. Mrs. Blake also prepared a strong written appeal which was sent to every member. Gov. Roswell P. Flower in his message in 1892 made a similar recommendation. Again Miss Anthony, Mrs. Blake and Mrs. Howell made a plea for women, this time before the a.s.sembly Judiciary Committee.

The original bill provided for a certain number of delegates to be appointed by the Governor, among these four to represent the Prohibitionists, three the Labor Party and three the Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation. The power of the Governor to appoint was afterwards declared unconst.i.tutional. A bill allowing three women delegates pa.s.sed the a.s.sembly, but was defeated in the Senate. The act which finally was secured provided that all the delegates should be elected, and that there should be two representatives each for the Prohibition, Labor and Socialist parties. None was granted to the Suffragists; but the law said: ”The electors may elect any citizen of the State above the age of twenty-one years.”

The following was then sent to each of the political party conventions, through properly accredited delegates:

Among other duties inc.u.mbent upon the members of your honorable body is that of nominating delegates-at-large to the convention called for the revision of the State const.i.tution. As women are eligible to these positions we offer you the names of three who have been selected by the executive board of the State W. S. A.

as their choice of delegates for that convention, with the hope that you will accept them as candidates of your own.

The names presented were those of Miss Anthony, Mrs. Howell and Miss Emily Howland, the last a large taxpayer and an excellent business woman. The ladies were courteously listened to by the Democrats, and refused an opportunity to speak by the Republicans. Similar efforts were made in district conventions.

Both Republicans and Democrats, however, refused to nominate any women, the compensation of $10 per day, in addition to the political power conferred, making the positions entirely too valuable to give to a disfranchised cla.s.s. The name of even Susan B. Anthony was declined by the Republicans of her district. The Democrats of that district, who were in a hopeless minority, made the one exception in the whole State and nominated Mrs. Jean Brooks Greenleaf, who ran some votes ahead of the rest of the ticket.

[Ill.u.s.tration:

MARY S. ANTHONY.

Rochester, N. Y.

JEAN BROOKS GREENLEAF.

Rochester. N. Y.

MARIANA W. CHAPMAN.

Brooklyn, N. Y.

EMILY HOWLAND.

Sherwood, N. Y.

ELIZA WRIGHT OSBORNE.

Auburn, N. Y.

Every effort was now directed toward obtaining a clause in the new const.i.tution, as there was little doubt that if this could be done it would be adopted with the rest of that instrument. An eloquent appeal was issued to all the friends of liberty throughout the State, urging them to a.s.sist in securing this measure of justice to women. A campaign was carefully planned with an ability which would have been creditable to experienced political managers, and $10,000 were raised and expended with the most rigid economy.[383]

To save rent headquarters were established in Miss Anthony's own home in Rochester, which soon became a beehive of industry, and the work increased until practically every room was pressed into service. The president of the State a.s.sociation and campaign committee, Mrs.

Greenleaf, and the corresponding secretary, Miss Mary S. Anthony, gave practically every hour of their time for six months to this great effort. The postoffice daily sent mail sacks to the house, which were filled with pet.i.tions and other doc.u.ments and set out on the porch for collection.

Miss Anthony herself, at the age of seventy-four, spoke in every one of the sixty counties of the State, contributing her services and expenses. This series of ma.s.s meetings was managed by Miss Harriet May Mills and Miss Mary G. Hay. The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw spoke at forty of these, and Mrs. Howell at a large number. The entire management of New York City was put into the hands of Mrs. Blake, while the campaign for Brooklyn was conducted by Mrs. Mariana W. Chapman. Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt made thirty-eight speeches in these two cities and vicinity. Mrs. Stanton, from her home in New York, sent many strong articles to the metropolitan press, which were copied throughout the State. Mrs. Martha R. Almy. State vice-president, was an active worker.

Women of social influence in this city, who never had shown any public interest in the question, opened headquarters at Sherry's, held meetings and secured signatures to a suffrage pet.i.tion. The leaders of this branch were Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell, Mrs. Joseph H. Choate, Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, Mrs. J. Warren G.o.ddard, Mrs. Robert Abbe, Mrs.

Henry M. Sanders and Miss Adele M. Fielde. Among those who signed the pet.i.tion were Chauncey M. Depew, Russell Sage, Frederick Coudert, the Rev. Heber Newton, the Rev. W. S. Rainsford, Bishop Henry C. Potter, Rabbi Gustave Gottheil, John D. Rockefeller, Robert J. Ingersoll and William Dean Howells.

One of the surprises of the campaign was the organization in Albany of a small body of women calling themselves ”remonstrants,” under the leaders.h.i.+p of the Episcopal bishop, William Croswell Doane, and Mrs.

John V. L. Pruyn. Another branch was organized in New York City by Mrs. Francis M. Scott, and one in Brooklyn with Mrs. Lyman Abbott at the head and the support of her husband's paper, _The Outlook_.

The suffrage forces circulated 5,000 pet.i.tions and secured 332,148 individual signatures, about half of them women (including 36,000 collected by the W. C. T. U.) and memorials from labor organizations and Granges, bringing the total, in round numbers, to 600,000.[384]

The ”remonstrants” obtained only 15,000 signatures, yet at that time and ever afterwards many of the newspapers insisted that the vast preponderance of sentiment among men and women was opposed to equal suffrage.

A part of the work was to collect statistics showing the amount of property on which taxes were paid by women. It was impossible to obtain these in New York City, but in three-fifths of the towns and cities outside it was found to be $348,177,107. In Brooklyn women paid one-fourth of all the taxes. The drudgery of preparing these tax lists and recounting and labeling all the pet.i.tions was done chiefly by Miss Isabel Howland.

During the convention an office and a reception room in the Capitol were granted for the use of the women. On May 24 Miss Anthony and Mrs.