The Portland daily press., 1889-11-08
WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION.
The Annual Meeting and Election
of Officers.
Address by Thomas w. Aigs'nsoh
of Cambridge.

yesterday TIC pIbolAOhAs AeON'
Blanchard called the meeting to order ana
offered prayer.
Miss l.. f. Donnell, the recording secretary,
read the report of the meeting which was
approved
The corresponding secretary, Mrs. E. II.
Osgood, gave brief review of the assoca-
ton from its earliest organization until the
present. In summing up the work accom-
plished since its reorganization four years
ago, with headquarters at Portland, Mrs.
Osgool said:
The wonder is, not that we have done so
little, but that we have done so much We
have twice appeared before the Judiciary
committee asking first, that constitutional
amendment pc submitted to the people Civ
Ing the ballot to women, and last year ask
ing ior municipal woman suffrage with an
educational qualification. These bills have
been defeated, but they have provoked de-
pate In the Hall of Representatives, discus
sion In public and in private, editorial COM
ment aud columns OF communications pro
and con. Emphasis was laid in the fact that
suffragists are not contending for personal
rights or complaining of persona! wrongs,
the war they wage Is for the great principles
OF eternal right and justice.
The outline of work from the non-legisla-
tive year Is organization, distribution of suf-
frage literature and persistent effort to in
huence public opinion by public and private
meetings and through tho press.
The report of DR.. j. L. Hersom. treasurer,
shows balance in the treasury of $155.
In the absence of the chairman of the
nominating committee, Mrs. Geo. S. Hunt,
who is at the National w. c. T. U. Conven-
ton. Chicago, President Blanchard read the
list of officers for the ensuing year which is
as follows:
President-Rev Henry Blanchard of Port
land.
Vice Presidents Hon. Thos. b. Reed of Port
land Gen. Francis Fessenden of Portland; Ex-
Gov ROBBIE of Gorham; Mrs. A. f. Greedy of Ellis
f II. Gerrlsh of Portland; Mrs. Geo. S. Hunt
of Portland Mrs. c. A. DUMMY of Augusta Mrs.
s. Il. Spring Of Portlgnd.
Cores ponding Secretary-MIs. Eta II. Osgood
of Portland
Recording Secretary-Miss L. f. Donne of
Portland
Treasurcr-Dr j. ii. Hersom of Portland.
Executive Committee-The President Cores
poudent Secretary, Recording Secretary, Treasur-
Mcdowell. Mrs. b. NJ. N. Stevens, Ii. H. Burgess.
Esq, w. H; Looney. Esq, of Portland; Mrs j:
saco; Mrs. L. W. Weston, Skowhegan.
Communications from Alice Stone Black
well and Lucy Stone were read. inviting the
State Association to become auxiliary to the
National American Woman Suffrage Associ-
alton.
The President then offered the following
resolutions which we're voted upon singly
and accepted with very little discussion:
Resolved, That the Maine Woman Suffrage AS
sociatlou hereby declares itself auxiliary to the
National American Woman Suffrage Associa-
tion.
Resolved That this association recognizes wi h
JOY the great value of the Australian ballot Sys-
TEN as recently showd in the elections in Massa-
chusetts and other States, and earnestly COM
mends to the voters of Maine the purpose of elect
ing members to the legislature, who will vote
to make this system the law of our common
wealth.
Resolced That we adhere to aur determination
OF demanding an educational qualification for the
suffrage. when shall again ask the legislature
to give the municipal ballot to women.
Res0loed, That we note with very great pleasure
the Increasing number of those who formerly OPP
posed. are now the earnest advocates of woman
suffrage
part. OF the State 10 be instant and earnest in
the perfecting of organic atoms which shall labor
TO secure votes in the next legislature.
By becoming Auxiliary to the National
Association Maine has the right to elect one
member of the National Executive Commit
tee. The State Executive Committee were
empowered to make the election. The name
of Hon. Thomas b. Reed was suggested by
Miss Thomas
Among the visitors were Miss Mason and
Mrs. Morrill,, Saco; Mrs. Trumbull, Illinois.
Tho Evening session-
Baxter Hall was filed last evening with
an appreciative audience to listen to an adj
dress by Col. t. W. Higgipson of Cambridge
Rev. Mr. Blanchard presided, and intro
duced Col. Hgginson in his usual happy
manner. Col. Higginson commenced his adj
dress by saying:
came here tonight against all rules of
physiological care, against my own comfort,
and perhaps before l get through you will
been engaged for week or more in race
with bad cold, and have only come out q
neck ahead at the present time. 1t may be
necessary for me to ask you, as a sign in a
Leadville church was said to have asked the
congregation, ''Please don't shoot the organ
list; he is doing the best he can" | am
hoarse, and will do the best can. l never
can come to Portland to speak on any re-
agitation which led to trouble because of
its hard leading doctrines. Nothing was
simpler than the anti-slavery question. 1t
consisted of single step, that of declaring
that no one had the right to treat man as
property. This question of woman suffrage
is not so simple, because time has gone on,
the world has made progress, and more
things bear on it than bore on the slavery
question. Now, as then, its advocates must
be willing to be in the advance, to be called
peculiar. 1t is not likely that suffragists
will suffer personal violence as the anti
slavery people did, but they will suffer in So
cial distinctions. [ remember, he said, the
great men who directed those meetings:
Garrison. Phillips, Theodore Parker, who
h1st.o lasting impress on the New England
which is, and afWag and investigating turn
trait. Successful agitalbe, New England
question must be directed by &the suffrage
Will follow readily. but the initiative Men
come from women. Il is wonderful to see
borne fruit In some States the
question, in some on license questions. in
some In municipal matters. but something,
somewhere has been gained, and what has
been gained has never been lost. No State
having once adopted any form of suffrage for
~woman goes back on it. 1t is significant
s tnat-the new States all provide for it in some
reason ~ SoaSn and there is every
State to come n will grant, aa Ife next *
IFS women. We speak not as formerly on an
abstract principle, but on an established fact.
the efficacy OF which has been proved by &C,
t thai &C. experience dNn we come pleading with
US. do not. he said, advocate this question
as matter Of party politics, in which there
Is no evil. There is nothing so fatal to re-.
forms as the intolerance of their advocates.
auhit tiidt tuoIt are inherent points of
view know that there are some snffragists
who disagree with me. and that there are
many different arguments to be brought mn
to its favor, by different persons, some Of
whom perhaps are not quite honest in their
convictions. The argument for woman's
suffrage seems. to me, he said, irres lstible.
AS Frederick Douglass said about another
matter: This is the deck. All else is the
OPEN sea-" This and nothing else will be the
salvation of a Republican form of
government. There is, he said, danger
IN every reform of predicting too much.
Some suffragsts say give woman the ballot
and she will vote for this and against that.
fhey don't know any more about il than
when the slaves were freed, they could tell |
now tEey would vote. Julia Ward Howe |
says that when women vote they will abolish |
war; Perhaps, but Southerners say that the |
rebellion was prolonged two years by the |
spirit of the women of the South.
The suffraglsts ought to know if they do |
nnot, tnat women have changes as men do. |
They will vote for or against measures as |
men do, oftentimeS without cause. Women |
are no more class of angels than men are,
ana not being angels there are chances that
IN Time they may become demoraliZed as |
lnen nave. We do not wish to enfranchise |
t ~ Oh angels, we want to take women as |
sney are, intensely human. Eshould sweep
away al details of prophecy as to what thew
m4 to favor or what oppose by that, they are