# History of Woman Suffrage/Volume 5/Chapter 3

Contents
CHAPTER III.
THE NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1903.
In 1903 the National American Suffrage Association for the second time took its annual convention to a southern State and held it in New Orleans, March 15-25, in Athenaeum Hall. The Woman's Journal said: "To the northern delegates there was something almost magical in the sudden change from snowdrifts and nipping winds to balmy air and a temperature like June. The delicious climate of Louisiana in spring has not been exaggerated and it seems wonderful to find roses in bloom in March, the ​wistaria vines in a cloud of purple blossom and the grass an emerald green. .... The delegates were enthusiastic over the quaint houses surrounded by palms, bananas and great live oaks, a pleasing novelty to most of them."
The hostess of the convention was the Era Club, the largest organization of women in the city, its title—era—cleverly concealing Equal Rights Association. It was founded in 1896; Miss Kate Gordon, the present secretary of the National Association, was formerly its president and her sister, Miss Jean M. Gordon, now filled that office. On the first afternoon the spacious and beautiful home of Mrs. Reuben Bush, prominent in club and civic work, was opened for the club to entertain the officers, delegates and a large number of invited guests. Sunday evening all were received informally in the charming home of Misses Kate, Fanny and Jean Gordon.
The excellent convention program was prepared by Miss Kate Gordon. The first evening session was opened with prayer by the Right Reverend Davis Sessums, Episcopal Bishop of Louisiana, who said in the course of it: "Prosper, we beseech thee, the deliberations of this association whose representatives are here assembled and direct and rule their judgment and actions in all things to the furtherance of truth and justice, so that their work may be an abiding work and contribute to the growth of true religion and civilization, to the happiness of homes and to the advancement of Thy Kingdom."
The Picayune thus described the occasion: "In the presence of a magnificent audience that packed the Atheneum to its utmost capacity, the thirty-fifth annual convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association was formally opened last night, with the president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, in the chair. Seldom perhaps in its history has the association received such a greeting, for the audience was not only deeply interested and sympathetic but it was representative of the finest culture in the city and State. Distinguished jurists, physicians and teachers, staid men of business and leaders in many lines united with women of the highest social standing in giving the convention a hearty and earnest welcome. Many were no doubt attracted by the memory of the former visits of Miss Susan B. ​Anthony and Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt and the remarkable personality of the pioneer suffrage workers, but whether they came from pure interest in these famous leaders or deep sympathy with the cause, all were generous in giving to both the credit and applause they justly deserved. . . .
Mayor Paul Capdeville, who was to welcome the convention, was ill and this was very acceptably done by "Tom" Richardson, secretary of the Progressive Union, an important commercial body of 1,600 members that had joined in the invitation for it to come to New Orleans and contributed the rent of the Athenæum. He expressed his pleasure at being associated with the suffragists of the city, "who had never neglected any opportunity to promote its best interests," and said: "No other class of our citizens have done it so much good." He was followed by the Hon. Edgar H. Farrar, an eminent lawyer, author of the Drainage and Sewerage plan, who told of the valuable assistance of women in the strenuous fight against the State lottery ten years before and described the splendid work of the women since the constitutional convention of 1898 had given them taxpayers' suffrage. Miss Gordon read a poem of welcome by Mrs. Grace G. Watts and gave the Era Club's welcome and then Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, who was presiding, introduced Miss Anthony to respond. The "Picayune" said in its report:
Miss Anthony told of her visit to New Orleans in 1884 during the Centennial Exposition, when she was the guest of Mrs. Merrick, and spoke of Mrs. Eliza J. Nicholson, owner and editor of the Picayune, paying a tribute to her and to the gifted writer, "Catharine Cole," of its editorial staff, both now passed from earth. In Dr. Shaw's eloquent response to the greetings she said: "Nothing has given me greater hope for women and has made me prouder of women than the splendid reserve power shown by southern womanhood for the last twenty-five years. When your hearthstones were left desolate and your bravest and strongest had gone forth never to come back, your women, who had been cared for as no other women ever were cared for, who were uneducated to toil, unacquainted with business requirements, averse to them by instinct and tradition—when they had to face the world they went out uncomplaining and worked with sublime heroism. .... I am glad to come among you southern women and to say that you have been an inspiration to the women of the North and to whole world. The daughters of those women of twenty-five years ago are the ones who have made this splendid convention possible. Over our country now there floats only one flag but that is a flag for women as well as men. If there are any men who ought to have faith in women and in their power to dare and do it is southern men, who owe so much to southern women."
Mrs. Catt then gave her president's address of which an ex​tended press notice said: "Never was there a more masterly exposition of a theme, never a more earnest or cogent argument. A distinguished Justice of the Supreme Court who was present remarked to the writer: 'I have heard many men but not one who can compare with Mrs. Catt in eloquence and logical power.' So the entire audience felt and at the close of her magnificent discourse she was the recipient of an ovation that came spontaneously from their hearts. The scene presented in the Athenæum was indeed a remarkable one." 'The address was not written and no essential part of it can be reproduced from fragmentary news paper reports.
A discordant note in the harmony was struck by the "Times Democrat," which, in a long editorial, Woman Suffrage and the South, assailed the association because of its attitude on the race question. The board of officers immediately prepared a signed statement which said in part:
The National American Woman Suffrage Association is seeking to do away with the requirement of a sex qualification for suffrage. What other qualifications shall be asked for it leaves to each State. The southern women most active in it have always in their own State emphasized the fact that granting suffrage to women who can read and write and who pay taxes would insure white supremacy without resorting to any methods of doubtful constitutionality. The Louisiana association asks for the ballot for educated and taxpaying women only and its officers believe that in this lies "the only permanent and honorable solution of the race question." ....
The "Times-Democrat" published this letter in full and endeavored by its press reports afterwards to atone for its blunder. It had been feared that trouble over this question would arise but no other paper referred to it. The "Picayune, Item" and "States" were most generous with space and complimentary in expression throughout the convention.
The reports at the executive sessions were possibly of more interest to the delegates than the public addresses. Miss Gordon in her secretary's report spoke of the 12,000 or 13,000 letters which had been sent out since the last convention, many of them made necessary by the International Conference of the preceding year, and of the ending of its proceedings. To the 14,000 newspapers on the list to receive the quarterly "Progress" the names of legislators in various States had been added, and to the latter leaflets attractively prepared by Miss Blackwell also were sent. She described the new suffrage postage stamp, a college girl in cap and gown holding a tablet inscribed: "In Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho women vote on the same terms as men," to offset the prevailing ignorance of this fact. Resolutions endorsing woman suffrage had been secured from the National Grange, the ​American Federation of Labor and a number of large labor unions. For the first time in the history of the National Education Association, three-fourths of whose members are women, a woman had been invited to address their annual convention and the one selected was the president of the National American Suffrage Association. Mrs. Catt was cordially received by them in July at Minneapolis.
Four of the five morning sessions were given over completely to Work Conferences. The usual ones on Organization and Press were held with Miss Mary Garrett Hay and Mrs. Elnora Babcock respectively presiding. The conference on Enrollment gave way to one on Literature, Dr. Mary D. Hussey presiding, and a new one on Legislation was added. A president's and a delegates' conference completed the list. The Plan of Work again presented by the Executive Committee emphasized the line of action adopted in the first year of Mrs. Catt's presidency and urged that the States endeavor to secure recommendations of their Legislatures asking the submission of a 16th Amendment; that special efforts be made to secure the appointment of a Commission to investigate the working of full suffrage in States where it now exists; that correspondence be taken up vigorously with all members of Congress giving them the arguments in favor of a Federal Amendment and of a Commission on Investigation; that the association aim to double its membership the coming year and that a catalogue of woman suffrage literature be prepared for libraries.
Only $3,000 in pledges were called for and $3,200 were quickly subscribed. The treasurer, Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, announced receipts during the year of $18,310 with a balance of $6,183 now in the treasury. "New York has always been the largest contributor and paid the largest auxiliary fee," she said, "and it never has any aid from the national treasury. Its temper ​is always sweet and its methods always business-like but to be sure it has always been blessed by having one of its citizens as national president. This year, however, Massachusetts has won the place at the head of the list." Mrs. Catt reported for the Congressional Committee that Congress had entirely ignored the urgent appeals of last year for a committee to investigate the effects of woman suffrage in the equal franchise States. Mrs. Sallie Clay Bennett (Ky.) made her usual strong plea for an effort to secure from Congress Federal suffrage or the right to vote for members of Senate and House Representatives. Tor many years Mrs. Bennett, as chairman of the committee, had appealed to the association for action but while it considered that the measure would be perfectly valid it believed it to be hopeless of attainment. [History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV, page 6.] Mrs. Elnora M. Babcock (N. Y.), chairman of the Press Committee, made a comprehensive report of the constantly increasing favorable comment of the newspapers. Mrs. Boyer, chairman for Pennsylvania, had placed 5,700 suffrage articles and the chairmen of various other States had a proportionate record. Miss Blackwell gave as a recipe for finding favor with editors: "Make your articles short; make them newsy; don't denounce the men." Mrs. Priscilla D. Hackstaff (N. Y.), chairman of the Enrollment Committee, reported a good start on the nation-wide enrollment of men and women who believe in woman suffrage.
Henry B. Blackwell, chairman of the Presidential Suffrage Committee, urged the southern women to petition their Legislatures, seven of which would meet during the year, to give women the right to vote for presidential electors. 'The choice of President and Vice-president of the United States," he said, "is the most important form of suffrage exercised by an American citizen... . The King of England and the Emperor of Germany are practically possessed of no greater political power than our President during his official term," and he continued:
Among other committees reporting was that on Church work, Miss Laura De Meritte (Me.) chairman, and her recommendations were adopted that the committee on National Sunday School lessons be asked to prepare one each year on the rights and duties of women citizens; that ministers of all denominations be urged to preach one sermon each year on this topic; that all women's missionary societies be requested to make it a part of their regular program at their annual conventions and that a place be sought on the program of national conventions of the Epworth League and Christian Endeavor Societies to present the question of woman's enfranchisement. The valuable report of the Committee on Industrial Problems Relating to Women and Children by the chairman, Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby (D.C.) said: "Everyone can recall instances of discrimination against women by factories, business firms, school boards and municipalities, making it plain that women are at a disadvantage as non-voting members of the community. As a recent fact in regard to the government I would cite the order by Postmaster-General Payne that a woman employee must give up her position if she marries." The report continued:
The continued defeat of child labor protection laws in some of the southern States and the conditions of children working in the mines of Pennsylvania, as shown in testimony before the Coal Strike Commission, show the need of woman's help in shaping social economics and her powerlessness without the ballot. .... How can we get hold of the wage-earning women in mass and convince them that from their own selfish and personal standpoint, if from no other, they should join the ranks of those that are working for the ballot? Talented speakers from the ranks of wage-earners have thrilled audiences with their impetuous oratory but there has been no general rally of working women to secure the ballot for themselves. ....
Miss Anthony presided at the Friday evening public meeting, which was opened with prayer by the Rev. Gilbert Dobbs, who said: 'We invoke Thy divine blessing, O God, upon this assembly and we rejoice that Thou hast always opened the way for Thy consecrated servants—women—to do well from the time of Miriam and of Deborah to the present. While not often has the call been to women to don armor and press on to battle, yet it may be that Thou hast reserved them for the battle of ballots, in which they can secure victory for all moral good and aid in the overthrow of every organized vice and infamy, so that there shall be a higher type of public morals and nobler methods of government."
​Mrs. Bennett spoke in her humorous and inimitable way on The Authority of Women to Preach the Gospel of Christ in Public Places. Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery (Penn.) under the title What’s in a Name? told of the efforts that were being made by the conservative women of Philadelphia to reform municipal conditions through Civic Betterment Clubs, not by the ballot in the hands of women but through the men voters. “Yet, after all,” she said, “are not these clubs doing good work for woman suffrage under another name? For as these earnest but conservative women find themselves in contact with life at so many new points they are getting so used to all the things which go to make up that awful bugaboo, ‘politics,’ that they will soon begin to realize that politics affects for good or evil all the things which touch the daily lives of every one of them. After awhile, perhaps sooner than most of us think, they will join the ranks of the wiser women who are now suffragists and who know that they want the vote and why they want it.”
Miss Frances Griffin (Ala.) kept the audience in a gale of laughter from the first to the last of her speech, which began: “My address is put down on the program as ‘A Song or a Sermon.’ It is going to be neither, I have changed my mind. Mrs. Catt’s address last night furnished argument enough to lie three feet deep all over Louisiana for three years.”
The talented young lawyer, Miss Gail Laughlin (Me.), gave an address entitled The Open Door, during which she said:
One of the notable addresses of the convention was that of the eminent physician, Dr: Henry Dixon Bruns—a lifelong advocate of woman suffrage—on Liberty, Male and Female, a part of which was as follows:
Keep ever in your mind that the professional politician is your implacable enemy. To him an election is not a process for ascertaining the will of the majority but a battle to be won by any strategy whose maneuvers do not end within the walls of a penitentiary. He knows that yours would be an uninfluenceable vote, that you do not loaf on street corners or spend your time in barrooms and he could not "get at" you; therefore he will never consent to your enfranchisement until compelled by the gathering force of public opinion; then, as usual, he will probably undergo a sudden change of heart and be found in the forefront of your line of battle. .... Do not rely upon wise and eloquent appeals to Legislatures and conventions. It is in the campaigns for the election of the legislative bodies that you should marshal your forces and use to the full the all-sufficient influence with which your antagonists credit you. Secure the election of ​men who do not give up to party all that was meant for mankind and your pleas are not so likely to be heard in vain.
The nomination and election of officers, both by secret ballot, were almost unanimous and no change was made. A cordial letter was received from Miss Clara Barton. Fraternal greetings from the Baltimore Yearly Meeting of Friends (Quakers) were given by Mrs. Mary Bentley Thomas (Md.); from the Supreme Hive of the Ladies of the Maccabees, the largest business organization of women in the world, by Mrs. Emma S. Olds, (O.); and from the Central Socialist Club of Indiana. The report from the Friends' Equal Rights Association, an affiliated society, was made by its president, Mrs. Mariana W. Chapman (N. Y.). In the report for New York by its president, Mrs. Ella Hawley Crosset, she called attention to the completion of the Fourth Volume of the History of Woman Suffrage by Miss Anthony and Mrs. Ida Husted Harper. During the convention word was received that the Territorial Legislature of Arizona had given full suffrage to women but before they had time to rejoice a second telegram announced that the Governor had vetoed it!
The resolutions presented by Mr. Blackwell, chairman of the committee, and adopted, rejoiced over the extension of national suffrage to all the women of the newly federated Australian States; noted the granting to Kansas women of the right to vote on issuing bonds for public improvement and of an equal guardianship law in Massachusetts; protested against "the recent action of the Cincinnati board of health in introducing without legal warrant the European system of sanctioning the social evil .... the object of a strong and growing opposition where-ever it prevails and favored the settlement of all national and international controversies by arbitration and disapproved of war as a relic of barbarism." Mrs. May Wright Sewall (Ind.), president of the International Council of Women, who had come to New Orleans to attend the executive meeting of the National Council of the United States, as chairman of the International Committee on Peace and Arbitration, spoke earnestly in favor of this resolution. Miss Nettie Lovisa White (D. C.) was appointed a delegate to represent the association at the Council meeting.
The Saturday evening public session, with Mrs. Catt presiding, ​was opened with prayer by the Rev. R. Wilkinson, in which he said: "Almighty God, Thou hast always been pleased with consecration. We pray Thee to look down upon these people gathered here—the women whose lives have been devoted to a great cause. Send forth Thy light so that they may achieve still more for Thee. In this work, men and women, animated with a noble purpose, are combining their forces to bring about the reign of righteousness and when that comes it will take all that both can do to eradicate the great evils which men have already wrought. .... God bless this organization and may the realization of its hopes be not far off! God bless the women engaged in this work! God knows that if this city has in any way been lifted up, it has been through the efforts of noble women. God bless them! We want to feel that men and women are actuated by righteousness and are working together to bring about its social and political regeneration."
Dr. Cora Smith Eaton (Minn.) thus began her address, Westward Ho: "The geologists tell us that Louisiana and her sister State Mississippi are built up of the particles of earth brought down by the great river through the Mississippi valley," and after a picturesque description she said: "Coming from the source of this river, travelling 1,500 miles to its mouth, I find myself still on my native soil and I feel at home; so all who have joined me on the way down the valley claim kinship with you of New Orleans." She then paid tribute to the State and its people and closed: "O, men of the South, your saviour is the southern woman! Put into her hand the ballot of full enfranchisement, like that you carry in your own hand on election day. Her interests are identical with your own and she will hold your ideals sacred even more loyally than you do yourselves." Mr. Blackwell gave one of his customary logical and carefully reasoned addresses on Domestic Imperialism.
The Rev. Marie Jenney (Iowa) discussed the question Why Women do Not Vote. She compared them to some wild ducks that were born in a farmyard and as they were stepping timidly about the farmer said: "Them ducks can fly, they can fly miles, but they don't know it." "One reason why women do not vote," she said, '"is the entire self-effacement of many, and another is ​the kindness of many men. These are lovely traits but they may be misapplied. Women sometimes efface themselves to an extent that is bad for their men as well as themselves, and men out of mistaken kindness shield their women from responsibilities that it would be better for them to have." Mrs. Virginia D. Young (S. C.), owner, manager and editor of a weekly paper in Fairfax, announced her speech From the Most Conservative State, but she did not say, as she might have done, that she had leavened the State with woman suffrage sentiment. Her address was bubbling over with the humor which seems inherent with Southern women.
The Sunday services were held at 4 o'clock in the Athenæum, which was crowded. The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw gave the sermon from the text: "Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." The Rev. Kate Hughes and the Rev. Marie Jenney assisted in the services. That morning the latter had preached in the Unitarian church and Mr. and Miss Blackwell had spoken in the handsome Temple Sinai to a cultured Jewish audience by invitation of Rabbi Max Heller. A fine musical service was arranged by Cantor Julius Braunfels. The next day they received from the Council of Jewish Women a large bouquet of bride roses and red carnations. Miss Blackwell spoke on A Righteous Reform and Mr. Blackwell on A Modern Deborah. He paid a splendid tribute to the Jewish race and declared that "the Hebrew history as recorded in the Old Testament has been the principal source of our nobler conception of woman's nature and destiny." He spoke of the prophetess Miriam, of the daughters of Zelophehad, described the great work of Deborah and said: "If, therefore, Divine Providence, for the guidance of mankind, selected a married woman to be the supreme judge, the supreme executive, the commander-in-chief of the army; to lead the chosen people in war and peace, to rescue the nation from enslavement and to rule over it in peace and prosperity for forty years, may we not hope that He will raise up in your race modern Deborahs to cooperate with the men of their race in the redemption of American democracy from political corruption and misrule?"
The interest did not diminish during the eight evening sessions. In his invocation Monday night the Rev. Wallace T. Palmer said: ​"O Lord, we account it a high honor and privilege to take part in this grand work. .... May those who are to speak tonight speak for Thy glory and honor."? Dr. Shaw presided Monday and thus introduced the first speaker: 'Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch of Chicago is an attorney and the wife of an attorney. The sign on the door is 'McCulloch and McCulloch.' My interest in the firm dates from the time when I performed the ceremony that united them for life.' Mrs. McCulloch began her address on Woman's Privileges by saying: "One of the principal reasons why women do not obtain the ballot is because there is rooted in the popular mind the notion that now the laws in all respects are so favorable to women and grant them such great privileges that they would gain nothing more by a vote but instead might lose these privileges. A careful investigation of laws relating to women's property, earnings, rights of action, eligibility to paying positions, selection of family home, guardianship of children and many others where women's interests are involved shows that these so-called privileges usually give women less than men enjoy in the same States and that the vote in their own hands is the only assurance of equal privilege." After referring to the laws in other States Mrs. McCulloch made a thorough analysis of those relating to women in Louisiana, showing them to be archaic and unjust and wholly without special privileges.
The address of M. J. Sanders, president of the Progressive Union, was enthusiastically received as representing the best thought of advanced Southern men. He said in beginning: "T believe my own state of mind on the woman suffrage question when I attended your first public meeting last Thursday evening represented fairly the average male opinion in this city—one of moderate ignorance and considerable indifference. Since listening to the addresses here I have had my ignorance largely dispelled and my indifference dissipated, I hope forever. It has been my lot to attend meetings all over the country but never in my life have I heard such eloquence, such logic and such glorious oratory as in this hall during this convention. A cause that can ​bring forth such talent and devotion must have in it a great truth. .... I have come now to see that the franchise is not an end but a means to an end; that the object of these women is not merely to escape injustice done to themselves but to be able to take part in the great work of reform which is calling for the best energies of the nation. I have seen sufficient of the women who are working in this fight for suffrage to believe that hand-in-hand with earnest men, as co-workers and equals, in no way subordinate, they can furnish brains and power to remove a vast load of the iniquities and inequalities of life and even in our generation lift this country to a plane of civilization wherein the masses shall have a chance for happiness and freedom."
In explaining the absence of Dr. Julia Holmes Smith of Chicago Dr. Shaw said: 'She is detained because of illness of her husband and like a good wife she puts him first and the convention second." Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman (N. Y.) spoke on the Duties of Today, outlining her address by saying: "The strongest feeling of most women is the sense of duty. The reason they do not see the practicability and immediate need of suffrage is because they do not see the duty of it. There is a gradual development of the sense of duty. The first duty that we recognize is that of self-preservation—our duty to ourselves. Then comes duty to our own, to our family, to those dear to us, before which duty to self must and does go down unfailingly. These two duties to one's self and to one's family are the foundation but they are the beginning of life, not the end of it. Next comes social duty. . .. In America we rank high in personal and family virtues but not in public virtues. Our great need is for the deep and broad civic virtues. .... "
An interesting symposium took place one afternoon on The Need of Women in Municipal Politics, with the following speakers: Mrs. Marie Louise Graham (La.), City Politics is but a Broader Housekeeping; Mrs. Carrie E. Kent (D. C.), The Home—the Ballot the Only Weapon for its Defence; the Rev. Kate Hughes (IlI.), Justice Dictates, Expediency Confirms; Dr. Sarah M. Siewers (O.), Men's and Women's Votes the Only True Basis of Reform; Miss Laura E. Gregg (Kans.), The Stepping Stone to a Yet Untried System of Government; Mrs. ​Lucretia L. Blankenburg (Penn.), Municipal Corruption under the Present System a National Disgrace. Each topic was treated in a keen, incisive manner. Miss Gregg described the practical benefit that the women's municipal vote had been to Kansas. Dr. Siewers gave a dramatic illustration of the need of women's votes in her own city of Cincinnati, which applied with equal force to all cities. Mrs. Blankenburg emphasized all that had been said by an account of conditions in Philadelphia, saying:
Dr. Augusta Stowe-Gullen, a prominent physician of Toronto and an early suffragist, who had come as a fraternal delegate from the Canadian Association, spoke of the excellent results of the School and Municipal vote in the hands of women. "We have better officials," she said, "and therefore less dishonesty but the greatest gain has been in the educative and broadening effect on women and men. The polls, which used to be even in old stables, are now in the school houses and the general tone of elections has been improved." Later Dr. Stowe-Gullen gave a long and thoughtful address at an evening session on The Evolution of Government.
The Memorial Service on March 21 was opened with prayer ​by the Rev. Marie Jenney and the singing of "The Lord is my shepherd," by Miss Gordon. Mrs. Catt, who presided, paid eloquent tribute to those who had died during the year, among them Mrs. Esther Morris, to whom the women of Wyoming were principally indebted for the suffrage in 1869; to the Hon. Thomas B. Reed of Maine, one of the most distinguished Speakers of the lower House of Congress and always a staunch supporter of woman suffrage; to Madame Sophie Levovna Friedland, delegate from Russia to the International Woman Suffrage Conference the preceding year, who died soon after returning home; to Dr. Hannah Longshore, the first woman physician in Philadelphia, and told of the bitter opposition she had to overcome, adding: "She gave to the Pennsylvania Association its splendid president, her daughter, Mrs. Blankenburg." Mrs. Catt spoke also of Mrs. Cornelia Collins Hussey of New Jersey and her boundless generosity, saying: "Often and often she sent a hundred dollars to our treasury with a note: 'I have just sold a piece of real estate and I want to give a part of the proceeds to the suffrage cause.'" Miss Blackwell added to the tribute: 'A quiet woman of Quaker blood, never seeking office or prominence, she came to the relief of our distressed officers on innumerable occasions. She once told me that there were many who could write and speak for equal suffrage but that the Lord seemed to have given her only one talent, that of making money, and she meant to use it for the cause. .... She was a great believer in preaching the gospel of reform through the printed page and she and her daughter, Dr. Mary D. Hussey, who was like-minded with her, have sent out probably more equal suffrage literature than any other two women in the United States. She placed the Woman's Journal in a great number of college reading-rooms and sent it far and wide. During the thirty-three years that the paper has been published—and published always at a financial loss—she has been one of its most steadfast and generous friends."
"The palm of victory has come this year to Elizabeth Cady Stanton," said Mrs. Catt, "but though she has gone it is still our privilege to have her friend and co-worker, Susan B. Anthony, ​and I echo the prayer of every heart that she may be here till all women are enfranchised." Miss Anthony was most affectionately greeted and said: "I feel indeed as if a part of my life had gone. Mrs. Stanton always said that when the parting came she wanted me to go first, so that she might write my eulogy. I am not a 'word-artist,' as she was, and I can not give hers in fitting terms." She read from the last volume of the History of Woman Suffrage extracts from her great speeches and related a number of instances showing her characteristics. Dr. Shaw then began a eulogy, which can only be marred in quoting from memory, by saying: "Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony and Lucy Stone held up the standard of truth and when they were urged to lower it in order to suit the ideas of the world they answered: 'We will not lower our standard to the level of your world; bring the world up to the standard.' .... I shall always be thankful that I lived in the present age and knew these women who never quailed in the face of danger. The side of Mrs. Stanton that I like best to think of is her home life, her family affections and her friendships. I was once a guest for several days in the same house with her and other leaders and she was so vivacious, so fresh, so full of joy of life that it was delightful to be with her. She was so witty that no one wanted to leave the room a minute for fear of losing something she might say. I used to love to see her after she took a nap; though so advanced in years she would always awaken with a look of wonder and pleasure like a child just gazing out upon life."
Tributes also were paid to Mrs. Alice Freeman Palmer of Massachusetts; Mrs. Thomas M. Patterson of Colorado; the Hon, Albert H. Horton of Kansas; Mrs. Addie M. Johnson of Missouri: Miss Anna C. Mott of Ohio; the Hon. Lester H. Humphrey and Mrs. Hannah L. Howland of New York; Dr. Marie Zakrzewska of Massachusetts and other workers in the cause. Mrs. Gilman closed the services by reading her beautiful memorial poem, In Honor, written for the occasion.
A unique feature of the convention which lightened its serious tone was Dr. Shaw's "question box," into which any one might drop a question and at intervals she would take them out and ​answer them on the spur of the moment to the delight of her audience. 'If women voted," was one of them, "would they not have to sit on juries?" "Many women would be glad of a chance to sit on anything," she answered with a smile. 'There are women who stand up and wash six days in the week at 75 cents a day who would like to take a vacation and sit on a jury at $1.50. Some women would like to sit on a jury at the trial of the sharks that live by corrupting boys and girls. It would be easier for a woman to sit on a jury and send to the penitentiary the men who are trying to ruin her boy than to be always watching the boy." Another question was: "Have not men a better right to the suffrage because they have to support the family?" She answered: "It is fallacy to say that the men support the women. The men by their industry provide the raw material and the women by their industry turn it into clothing and nourishment. When my father sent home a barrel of flour my mother did not lead us eight youngsters up to that barrel of raw flour at mealtime and say, "Children, here is your dinner." When he bought a bolt of cloth she did not take that bolt of cloth and wind it around us and say, 'Children, here are the clothes your father has sent you.' The woman has always done her full share of supporting the family. In the South under the old régime she bore more than an equal part of the care, for the planter could hire an overseer for the plantation work but the wife could not hire one for the work of the house."
Notwithstanding the utmost care and tact on the part of those who had the convention in charge the "color question" kept cropping out. Finally Dr. Shaw said: "Here is a query that has been dropped in the box again and again and now I am asked if I am afraid to answer it: 'Will not woman suffrage make the black woman the political equal of the white woman and does not political equality mean social equality?' If it does then the men by keeping both white and black women disfranchised have already established social equality!' The question was not asked again.
One of the able addresses during the convention was that of Mrs. Hala Hammond Butt, president of the Mississippi Suffrage Association, entitled, Restricted Suffrage from a Southern Point ​of View. After referring to the man's all-mastering desire for liberty from the early history of the race the speaker said: "Did women not share with men this craving for freedom, then would they justly be reckoned as unnatural and unworthy members of the human family, but the same red blood pulses in our veins as in yours, fathers, sons, brothers; we are alive to the same impulses, our souls are kindled by the same aspirations as are yours. Why should this, our ambition, be held in leash by the same bond that holds the ignorant, the illiterate, the vicious, the irresponsible in the human economy? What does the idea of government imply? The crystallized sentiments of an intelligent people? Then do we meet it with but half a truth."
The speaker denounced with much severity the 14th and 15th Amendments and said that by the restrictive educational qualifications now so generally adopted in the southern States the spirit of the amendments had been practically set at naught. "It was born of the instinct of self-preservation," she said, but she deplored the political crimes it made possible and continued: "There is an undercurrent of thought that recognizes in its true proportions the value of an educated suffrage to the South, a restriction based not upon color, race or previous condition of servitude, not upon sex, not upon the question of taxable property, but its sole requirement is the ability to perform worthily the functions of citizenship. This is the only honorable solution of those questions that are vexing not only the body political but the body social of this Southern country."
Mrs. Butt's speech was one of a symposium on the question: Would an educational qualification for all voters tend to the growth of civilization and facilitate good government? Mrs. Hackstaff discussed The Relation which Government Bears to Civilization, saying: "The government which will increase social and individual development most is the best. Progress depends on whether the government will give the opportunity for such development. The one that serves the people best is the one that strengthens them by letting them take part in it." Mrs. Eleanor C. Stockman (Iowa) spoke strongly on Suffrage a Human Right, not a Privilege; Mrs. Clara B. Arthur (Mich.) on A Disfranchised Class a Menace to Self Government; Mrs. Mary Wood ​Swift (Calif.) on Abolishment of Illiteracy, Its Ultimate Influence. After calling attention to "the mass of ignorant immigrants who almost go from the steerage to the polls"; to the enfranchisement of the half-civilized Indian; to that of paupers, delinquents and defectives, she said:
Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer substituted for her own address on Universal Suffrage a Pretence a paper sent by Rudolph Blankenburg, one of Philadelphia's most distinguished citizens, entitled: Not Sex but Intelligence, in which he said:
Mr. Blankenburg gave statistics of the illiterates in the United States and said: "An educational qualification, wisely considered, would within a few years entirely obliterate the whole mass of this species of undesirable voters. The right of suffrage can not and should not be taken from those who at present legally enjoy it. All women of legal age with the proposed educational requirements should be enfranchised without delay but laws should be enacted demanding that all citizens, men and women alike, presenting themselves to cast their ballot after 1910 must be able to read and write. If the women suffragists will base their claim to vote upon the broad ground of good government and not demand suffrage for the ignorant woman because it is exercised by the ignorant man, they will make ten friends where they now have one."
The audience had the northern and the southern point of view on Educated Suffrage. Mrs. Gilman, who spoke on whether it would serve the best interests of the laboring classes, was alone in objecting to it. "Will exclusion from the suffrage educate and improve the illiterate masses more quickly than the use of it?" she asked. "We shall educate them sooner if we dread their votes and this is our work in common." A great deal of sentiment was developed in favor of an educational requirement 'for the suffrage and an informal rising vote showed only five opposed, but most of the officers were absent. This vote was due largely to the southern delegates and to the arguments which had been made for its necessity in this section of the country. The policy of the association had always been and continued to be to ask and work only for the removal of the sex qualification.
One of the most popular speakers was Mrs. Elizabeth M. Gilmer, known far and wide as 'Dorothy Dix," whose home was ​in New Orleans. Her address, quaintly entitled The Woman with the Broom, filled more than four columns of the Woman's Journal and an adequate idea of its wise philosophy illuminated with the sparkling wit for which she was renowned cannot be conveyed by quotations. "A few years ago," she said, "a famous poet roused the compassion of the world by portraying the tragedy of hopeless toil by the Man with the Hoe. He might have found nearer home a better illustration of the work that is never done, that has no inspiration to lighten it and looks for no appreciation to glorify it, in the Woman with a Broom." "She is understudy to a perpetual motion machine," was one of her epigrams. She referred to the many successful business and professional women at the convention and said:
Always, always it is the frantic cry for financial independence, the demand of the worker for her wage; the futile, bitter protest of the woman with the broom against the injustice of taking her work without pay. Men will say that in supporting their wives, in furnishing them with houses and food and clothes, they are giving the women as much money as they could ever hope to earn by any other profession. I grant it; but between the independent wage-earner and the one who is given his keep for his services is the difference between the free-born and the chattel. ... The present state of affairs brings about a disastrous condition in the woman's world of labor, so that the woman wage-earner must not only compete with the man worker but with the domestic woman who has her home and clothes supplied her and who does things on the side in order to get a little money that she may spend as she pleases. ... When men grow just enough to abandon the idea that keeping house and doing the family sewing and rearing children is a "snap" and not a profession; when they grow broad enough to realize that the woman with the broom is a laborer just as much worthy of her hire as a typewriter, we shall have fewer women yearning to go out into the world and earn a few dollars of spending money.
Miss Mary N. Chase, president of the New Hampshire Suffrage Association, made an earnest plea for the enfranchisement of women, "the natural guardians and protectors of the home. It will strengthen their minds and broaden their intellects and render them more fit for its government," she said, "and until women join with men in exercising the sacred right of the franchise we cannot hope for the dawn of the kingdom of God on the earth." A letter was read from Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch urging that for a year the organization should be used nationally and locally to pursue and punish political corruption. "The women in our association," she said, "are trained to political action; we have had long experience in self-control; defeat has taught us its lessons of poise; devotion to a great principle has given us a faith almost religious in its optimism." The men were taking no concerted action to protect the republic against this menace, she thought, and the task seemed to be left to the women.
The formal address of Dr. Shaw on The Modern Democratic Ideal made a profound impression but no record of it exists except in newspaper clippings. She began by saying: "It is impossible to discuss the woman question without discussing also the man question. What is fundamental to one is fundamental to the other. It is argued by some that on account of the difference in characteristics between men and women it is the man who ought to govern. They are mistaken. It is now recognized that the best ​and noblest men and women are those in whom the different characteristics of each sex are most harmoniously blended. The modern democratic ideal illustrates this fact. It is greatly different from the ancient democratic ideal, as neither Plato nor Aristotle nor Dante had a place in their ideals for the common people, but when the French Revolution startled the world-with the idea of human rights, of natural rights common to all, there sprang into life the conception of the same ideal among the men of our own country." Dr. Shaw traced the progress of democratic ideals in this country from the early days of the republic when property and not manhood constituted the prerequisite for representation. She spoke in glowing terms of the pure democracy of Thomas Jefferson, who extended its privileges to the great masses of the people. "This ideal has been growing," she said, "it will never stop growing, developing, widening and changing and it must ultimately extend to women citizens the same rights in the government that men have. This is the 20th century idea of democracy."
The address of Miss Belle Kearney, Mississippi's famous orator, was a leading feature of the last evening's program The South and Woman Suffrage. It began with a comprehensive review of the part the South had had in the development of the nation from its earliest days. "During the seventy-one years reaching from Washington's administration to that of Lincoln," she said, "the United States was practically under the domination of southern thought and leadership." She showed the record southern leaders had made in the wars; she traced the progress of slavery, which began alike in the North and South but proved unnecessary in the former, and told of the enormous struggle for white supremacy which had been placed on the South by the enfranchisement of the negro. "The present suffrage laws in the southern States are only temporary measures for protection," she said. "The enfranchisement of women will have to be effected and an educational and property qualification for the ballot be made to apply without discrimination to both sexes and both races." The address closed as follows:
Miss Kearney's speech was enthusiastically received and at its end Mrs. Catt said she had been getting many letters from persons hesitating to join the association lest it should admit clubs of colored people. "We recognize States' rights," she said, "and Louisiana has the right to regulate the membership of its own association, but it has not the right to regulate that of Massachusetts or vice versa," and she continued: "We are all of us apt to be arrogant on the score of our Anglo-Saxon blood but we must remember that ages ago the ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons were regarded as so low and embruted that the Romans refused to have them for slaves. The Anglo-Saxon is the dominant race today but things may change. The race that will be dominant through the ages will be the one that proves itself the most worthy. . . . Miss Kearney is right in saying that the race problem is the problem of the whole country and not that of the South alone. The responsibility for it is partly ours but if the North shipped slaves to the South and sold them, remember that the North has sent some money since then into the South to help undo part of the wrong that it did to you and to them. Let us try to get nearer together and to understand each other's ideas on the race question and solve it together."
Mrs. Maud Wood Park (Mass.), who was introduced to the ​audience as "a very unpopular woman with the anti-suffragists," did not prove to be so with her audience, as in her brief address she charmed every One with her beauty and womanliness and convinced by her delicate wit and keen logic. 'The last address was made by the Rev. Ida C. Hultin (Mass.), an eloquent summing up of the arguments for woman suffrage, given with a dignity of manner and sweetness of words which thoroughly eliminated any unpleasant feelings that might have been created and diffused a spirit of forgiveness and consecration.
At the conclusion of the program, Mrs. Upton came forward and in the name of the officers of the association presented to Miss Kate Gordon a handsome loving cup with the injunction to "handle it carefully as it is filled to the brim with love'; and to Miss Jean Gordon a large bouquet of roses, "in appreciation of the perfect arrangements that had been made for the convention." The Picayune said: "The two sisters stood side by side on the stage, a picture of feminine loveliness and grace. They tried to speak but their hearts were too full and Miss Kate could only express in a few words their thanks for these tokens of affection and esteem."
All the expenses of the convention had been met by the citizens and the collections had more than paid the travelling expenses of the officers. Nothing had been left undone for the entertainment of the visitors. The New Orleans Street Railway Company gave a trip of several hours in special cars, taking them to Audubon Park and Horticultural Hall, through the handsome residence sections, to the Esplanade, City Park and famous cemeteries. They visited the Howard and Fisk libraries, the Southern Yacht Club, the Exposition and the antiquarian shops. An unusual experience was the boat trip on the Mississippi, tendered by the Progressive Union. On a fine sunshiny morning the several hundred visitors assembled in the palm garden of the St. Charles Hotel, walked to the rooms of the Union and from there to the steamer Alice. They crossed to Algiers, passed the French quarter with the Ursuline Convent, the Stuyvesant Docks, the historic houses and monuments, and saw the great Naval Docks, the large sugar plantations with their big live oaks and magnolias, the immense sugar and oil refineries and met a fleet of ​huge ocean steamers. Lunch was served on board and the occasion was most interesting, especially to the delegates from the North.
Although this was the longest suffrage convention ever held and the sessions were crowded, the people wanted more. The Progressive Union arranged for meetings Thursday night, to be addressed by Mrs. Catt on The Home and the Municipality, and Friday night by Dr. Shaw on The Fate of Republics. The Atheneum Hall, seating 1,200, was overflowing and as many were gathered on the outside. It was a ten days never to be forgotten by the visitors or the residents, and the convention undoubtedly gave a decided impetus to favorable sentiment for woman suffrage in that section of the South.
* ↑ Part of Call: The association goes to New Orleans in response to an invitation from the Progressive Union, the Era Club of women and many prominent individuals. It is especially appropriate that the advocates of this important reform should assemble in Louisiana in honor of the action taken by this State in 1898, when its constitutional convention incorporated a clause giving to tax-paying women a vote on all questions of taxation submitted to the electors; and in commemoration of the splendid use they made of this privilege at the election held to secure to New Orleans the completion of its drainage and the establishment of a sewerage system and free water supply .... Never in the fifty years of this movement have its advocates had such a victory to record as was achieved in Australia in June, 1902, when almost the first act of Parliament of the new Federation of States was to confer the full national suffrage with the right to a seat in the Parliament on all qualified women of the entire commonwealth. This one act enfranchised about 800,000. These added to those of New Zealand and of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho, it will be found that 1,125,000 English-speaking women are at the present time in possession of the complete suffrage and all except those of Wyoming have been enfranchised within the past ten years. By adding to these the women of Great Britain and Ireland, who have all except the Parliamentary vote, those of Kansas with Municipal, of Louisiana, Montana, and New York with the Tax-payers' and of over one-half of the States with the school ballot, the 1,125,000 will be multiplied several times .... It is therefore, with courage and hope inspired by the glorious promise of the new century for greater material and moral progress in all directions than the world has ever known, that the advocates of this measure, which ultimately will affect the destinies of the whole American people, are called in convention to review the labor of the past year, to plan that of the future, to strengthen the old comradeship and greet new workers and friends.   Susan B. Anthony, Honorary President. Carrie Chapman Catt, President. Anna Howard Shaw, Vice President-at-Large. Kate M. Gordon, Corresponding Secretary. Alice Stone Blackwell, Recording Secretary. Harriet Taylor Upton, Treasurer, Laura Clay, $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ Auditors Mary J Coggeshall,
* ↑ The colored women had some excellent organizations in New Orleans, the most notable being the Phyllis Wheatley Club, which in addition to its literary and social features maintained a training school for nurses, a kindergarten and a night school. It invited Miss Anthony, Miss Blackwell and Mrs. Elizabeth Smith Miller to address it and they were accompanied by "Dorothy Dix," the well-known writer, a New Orleans woman. In the large assemblage were some of the teachers from the four colleges for colored students—Methodist, Congregational, Baptist and the State. 'Dorothy Dix' said in her brief address that no woman in the city was more respected or had more influence than Mrs. Sylvanie Williams, the club's president, and gave several instances to illustrate it. After the addresses Mrs. Williams presented Miss Anthony with a large bouquet tied with yellow satin ribbon and said: 'Flowers in their beauty and sweetness may represent the womanhood of the world. Some flowers are fragile and delicate, some strong and hardy, some are carefully guarded and cherished, others are roughly treated and trodden under foot. These last are the colored women. They have a crown of thorns continually pressed upon their brow, yet they are advancing and sometimes you find them further on than you would have expected. When women like you, Miss Anthony, come to see us and speak to us it helps us to believe in the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man, and at least for the time being in the sympathy of woman."
* ↑ The important decision was made at this convention to remove the headquarters on May: from New York to Warren, O., the home of the national treasurer, Mrs, Upton. The burden of having charge of them had borne heavily upon Mrs. Catt for the past three years and it grew more difficult as each year she had to spend more time in field work. Miss Gordon, the corresponding secretary, wished to remain in New Orleans because of her mother's failing health and it was necessary to have a national officer in charge. Mrs, Upton consented reluctantly to assume the responsibility and only on the assurance of Miss Elizabeth Hauser, a capable executive, that she would manage the details of the office. The arrangement was to be temporary but it continued for six years.
* ↑ Quotations are given from each of the opening prayers because each of them endorsed woman suffrage.
* ↑ Mrs. Hussey left a bequest of $10,000 to the National American Woman Suffrage Association.
* ↑ For appreciations of Mrs. Stanton see Appendix.