Volume IV Part 116 (1/2)

In 1888 the Munic.i.p.al Suffrage Bill was presented in the Senate by Charles Coggeshall, and in the a.s.sembly by Danforth E. Ainsworth. A hearing in the Senate Chamber on February 15 was addressed by Mrs.

Blake, Mrs. Rogers and the Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer of Rhode Island.

The bill was lost in the Senate by a tie vote, 15 ayes, 15 noes; in the House by 48 ayes, 61 noes.

Laws were enacted at this session providing that there shall be women physicians in all State insane asylums where women are patients; and also that there shall be at least one woman trustee in all public inst.i.tutions where women are placed as patients, paupers or criminals.

In 1889 the Munic.i.p.al Suffrage Bill was again presented in the a.s.sembly by Mr. Ainsworth, but it was lost by 56 ayes, 43 noes, not a const.i.tutional majority.

In 1890 the Munic.i.p.al Suffrage Bill was presented by Speaker Husted, but was defeated by 47 ayes, 52 noes.

In 1891 no legislative work was attempted beyond the efforts toward securing a representation of women in the Const.i.tutional Convention, which it was supposed would be held at an early date.

In 1892 an act was pa.s.sed to enable women to vote for County School Commissioners, which received the signature of Gov. Roswell P. Flower.

This year a Police Matron Bill was obtained which was made mandatory in cities of 100,000 and over. This bill had been pa.s.sed several times before and vetoed, but it finally obtained the Governor's signature.

Even then the Police Commissioners of New York refused to appoint matrons until the matter was taken up by the Woman Suffrage League of that city. This was the end of a ten years' struggle on the part of women to secure police matrons in all cities. Most active among the leaders were Mrs. Mary T. Burt, Mrs. Abby Hopper Gibbons and Mrs.

Josephine Shaw Lowell, backed by the W. C. T. U., the Prison Reform, the Suffrage and various other philanthropic and religious societies.

In 1892 Hamilton Willc.o.x, who had worked untiringly in the Legislature for many years, had a bill introduced in the a.s.sembly to give a vote to self-supporting women. It was referred to the Judiciary Committee, but met with general disfavor. Mrs. Howell being in the a.s.sembly Chamber with friends one evening, three of its members invited her to go to their committee room and draw up a bill for Full Suffrage, telling her they would report it favorably in place of the Working Woman's Bill. This she did and the new bill was at once reported. The next week she gave every moment to working with the members for it, aided by General Husted, Mr. Willc.o.x and William Sulzer. On Friday morning, one week from the day the bill was reported, it came to the final vote and pa.s.sed by 70 ayes, only 65 being required for the const.i.tutional majority. Excitement ran high at this success and ten minutes were given for congratulations to Mrs. Howell by friends and foes alike. The Monday following she carried the bill from the Engrossing Committee to the Senate. Only three days of the session were left and the committee held no more meetings, so she saw separately each member of the Judiciary Committee and all gave a vote in favor of considering the bill. Mr. Sheehan was now Lieutenant-Governor and presiding officer of the Senate and would allow no courtesies to Mrs. Howell, but one senator, Charles E.

Walker, arranged for her to see every member, and she secured the promise of 18 votes, 17 being required. On Thursday evening, although Senator Cornelius R. Parsons made many attempts to secure recognition, the bill was not allowed to come before the Senate. There was every reason to believe Governor Flower would have signed it.[389]

In 1893 Mrs. Cornelia H. Cary worked for a bill providing that on all boards of education one person out of five should be a woman, but it failed to pa.s.s. The measure making fathers and mothers joint guardians of their children, so often urged, became a law this year chiefly through the efforts of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union of Buffalo, which had been hampered constantly in its efforts to care for helpless children by the interference of worthless fathers.[390]

A law also was enacted, championed by Col. George C. Webster, giving to a married woman the right to make a valid will without her husband's consent.

The season of 1894 was given wholly to the work of securing a woman suffrage amendment in the revised State const.i.tution.

In 1895 Mrs. Martha R. Almy, as chairman of the Legislative Committee, began work in Albany early in January and was absent but one legislative day from that time until May. She was a.s.sisted by Mrs.

Helen G. Ecob, and their effort was to secure a resolution to amend the const.i.tution by striking out the word ”male.” In order to submit such an amendment in New York, a resolution must be pa.s.sed by two successive Legislatures.

Judge Charles Z. Lincoln, the legal adviser of Gov. Levi P. Morton, drew up the resolution and it was introduced January 22 in the a.s.sembly by Fred S. Nixon, and in the Senate by Cuthbert W. Pound. It was favorably reported by the Senate Judiciary Committee early in the session. The chairman of the a.s.sembly Committee, Aaron B. Gardenier, was very hostile, and after every effort to get a report had been exhausted, Mr. Nixon and Mrs. Almy made a personal appeal to the committee and were successful. On March 14 six men brought in the mammoth pet.i.tion for woman suffrage which had been presented to the Const.i.tutional Convention the previous year. The resolution was pa.s.sed by 80 ayes, 31 noes. This was a remarkable action for the first Legislature after the great defeat in the Const.i.tutional Convention only a few months before.

When the measure came to the Senate it was moved by Senator Pound to subst.i.tute Mr. Nixon's resolution for his own, as they were identical.

But Amasa J. Parker[391] objected in order to make it run the gauntlet of the Senate Committee again, and this gave the anti-suffragists an opportunity to oppose it. He then asked for a hearing for Bishop William Croswell Doane and others before the State Judiciary Committee, of which he was a member, which Chairman Edmond O'Connor granted. The committee met but once a week, and twice the hearing was postponed to accommodate the opposition. The second time, as no one appeared against the resolution, it was again reported favorably. Just after this had been done Mr. Parker appeared and objected, and the chairman agreed to recall it and give the opposition one more chance.

On April 10, the time appointed for the hearing, Bishop Doane sent a letter declining the honor of appearing, but a delegation from New York City came up, and Mrs. Francis M. Scott and Prof. Monroe Smith of Columbia University addressed the committee opposing the measure.

Mrs. Almy and Mrs. Mary H. Hunt replied in its behalf. For the third time the resolution was reported favorably by the Senate Committee, and April 18 the vote was taken. Senators Pound, Coggeshall and Bradley spoke in favor, and Jacob H. Cantor in opposition. It was carried by 20 ayes, 5 noes.

When the resolution went to the Revision Committee it was found that in one section there was a period where there should have been a comma. Mrs. Almy was obliged to remain two weeks and get an amendment through both Houses to correct this error. Finally the resolution was declared perfect, and was ordered published throughout the State, etc.

Then it was discovered that the word ”resident” was used instead of ”citizen,” and the entire work of the winter was void. As it is not required that copies of original bills shall be preserved, the responsibility for the mistake never can be located.

The Senate of 1896, by a change in the term of office, was to sit three years instead of two; and a concurrent resolution, in order to pa.s.s two successive Legislatures, would have to be deferred still another year, so no work was attempted.

On Jan. 4, 1897, when the Legislature a.s.sembled, every member found on his desk a personally addressed letter appealing for the right of women citizens to representation, signed by all the officers of the State Suffrage a.s.sociation and by the presidents of all the local societies. The resolution asking for a suffrage amendment was introduced in the Senate by Joseph Mullen, in the a.s.sembly by W. W.

Armstrong, and was referred to the Judiciary Committees. Repeated interviews by Mrs. Mariana W. Chapman, Mrs. Mary E. Craigie, chairman of the legislative committee, and other members were not sufficient to secure a favorable vote even from the committees, as they were frightened by the action of the preceding Legislature.

The New York Society Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women was at work on the spot, and every legislator received a letter urging him not to consider any kind of a bill for woman suffrage.

Finally a hearing was appointed by the Senate Committee for March 24.

In the midst of a snowstorm, all the way from Rochester came the National president, Miss Anthony; from New York City, the State president, Mrs. Chapman; the chairman of the national organization committee, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt; Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and Miss Elizabeth Burrill Curtis; from Syracuse, Miss Harriet May Mills; and in Albany already were Mrs. Blake, Mrs. Almy, Mrs. Julia D. Sheppard and a number of local suffragists. Miss Anthony, Mrs. Chapman Catt and Miss Mills addressed the committee. As the delegation withdrew one senator said to another: ”I do not know what is to become of us men when such women as these come up to the Legislature.” Nevertheless the resolution was not reported by the committee.

Under the auspices of a Civic Union of all the boroughs of the proposed ”Greater New York,” an active campaign was carried on during this winter to secure various advantages for women under the new charter, but it met with no especial success.