The first suffrage convention ever held which assumed a national character by inviting representatives from other States took place in Worcester, Mass., Oct. 23, 24, 1850.[304]

The New England Woman Suffrage Association was formed at Boston in November, 1868, with Mrs. Julia Ward Howe as president; and the Massachusetts Association was organized in the same city Jan. 28, 1870, of which also Mrs. Howe was elected president. In 1871 Henry B. Blackwell, editor of the Woman's Journal, was made corresponding secretary of both associations and has filled the office of the latter continuously, of the former twenty-two years.

From those years until the present each of these bodies has held an annual meeting in Boston and they have almost invariably been addressed by men and women of State, of national and of international reputation. They have met in various churches and halls, but of late years the historic old Faneuil Hall has been selected. The State association meets in the winter and the New England association during Anniversary Week in May, when there are business sessions with reports from the various States, public meetings and a great festival or banquet. The last is attended by hundreds of people, all the tickets are frequently sold weeks in advance, and with its prominent after-dinner speakers it has long been an attractive feature.[305]

The annual meeting of 1884 was held January 22, 23, presided over by William I. Bowditch, who had succeeded the Rev. Dr. James Freeman Clarke as president in 1878. A number of fine addresses were given and the official board was unanimously re-elected.[306] Mr. Bowditch's opening address was afterwards widely circulated as a tract, The Forgotten Woman in Massachusetts.

It was voted that a fund should be raised to organize local suffrage associations or leagues throughout the State, and that, as soon as $2,500 was in hand, an agent should be put in the field. Mr. Bowditch, Miss Louisa M. Alcott, John L. Whiting and Henry H. Faxon each subscribed $100 on the spot; $800 was raised at the meeting and more than $2,500 within four months.

This year, in the death of Wendell Phillips, the cause of equal rights lost one of its earliest and noblest supporters. On February 28 an impressive memorial service was held in Boston. Mrs. Howe presided and the other speakers were William Lloyd Garrison, Theodore D. Weld, Judge Thomas Russell, Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney, Elizur Wright, the Rev. Samuel May, George W. Lowther, Mrs. Lucy Stone and Mr. Blackwell. John Boyle O'Reilly and William P. Liscomb read memorial poems.

Fifty-seven meetings were held this year in different parts of the State, arranged by Arthur P. Ford and Miss Cora Scott Pond. The speakers were the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, Miss Matilda Hindman, Miss Pond and Miss Ida M. Buxton, and at some of the meetings Lucy Stone, Mr. Blackwell and Mrs. Adelaide A. Claflin. In addition six conventions were held and a large number of local leagues were formed. Suffrage sociables were given monthly in Boston. Leaflets were printed, including Wendell Phillips' great speech at the Worcester Convention in 1850, which were sent out by tens of thousands, and 50,000 special copies of the Woman's Journal were distributed gratuitously. Mrs. H. M. Tracy Cutler was employed for a month in Worcester to enlist interest in the churches, and Miss Pond for two months in Boston. Letters were sent to every town, with postal cards inclosed for reply, to find who were friends of suffrage, and to those so found a letter was sent asking co-operation. This constitutes an average twelve months' work for the past thirty years.

The sixteenth annual meeting of the New England Association took place May 26, 27, Lucy Stone presiding. The Rev. Minot J. Savage and Edward M. Winston of Harvard University were among the speakers. The two associations united as usual in the May Festival. Letters of greeting were read from the Hons. George F. Hoar, John D. Long and John E. Fitzgerald, Postmaster Edward S. Tobey, Col. Albert Clarke and Chancellor William G. Eliot, of Washington University, St. Louis. The Rev. Robert Collyer, Mr. Garrison and the Rev. Miss Shaw made addresses.

At the State convention, Jan. 27, 28, 1885, addresses were made by Mrs. Margaret Moore of Ireland, A. S. Root of Boston University, and the usual brilliant galaxy, while letters expressing sympathy with the cause were read from John G. Whittier, the Rev. Samuel Longfellow, the Rev. Samuel J. Barrows and many others. An appeal to the Legislature, written by Lucy Stone, was unanimously adopted.

An Anti-Woman Suffrage Association formed in Massachusetts the previous year, had devoted itself chiefly to securing signatures of women to a protest against the franchise. In 1885 Mrs. Kate Gannett Wells and her associates obtained the signatures of about 140 influential men to a remonstrance against "any further extension of suffrage to women," and published it as an advertisement in the Boston Herald of Sunday, February 15. The list included President Eliot of Harvard, a number of college professors, one or two literary men, several ex-members of the Legislature, and a number of clergymen of conservative churches; but it was made up largely of those prominent chiefly on account of their wealth.

An average of ten suffrage meetings and conventions a month were held in various cities throughout the year. The Rev. Miss Shaw and Miss Pond attended nearly all, and Mrs. Stone, Mr. Blackwell, Mrs. Claflin, Mr. Garrison, Miss Eastman and Mr. Bowditch addressed some of them, besides local speakers. Two thousand persons gathered in Tremont Temple on the opening night of the May anniversary, Lucy Stone presiding. Senator Hoar, Mrs. Livermore and others made short speeches and later responded to toasts at the Festival.

Mr. Blackwell presided over the State convention Jan. 26, 1886. At the New England meeting this year Frederick Douglass delivered an oration and spoke also at the Festival, over which Miss Eastman presided. The association kept Miss Shaw in the field for six months and Miss Pond throughout the year and held summer conventions in Cottage City and Nantucket, besides ten county conventions in the fall. There were 123,014 pages of literature sent out and agents visited seventy-five towns. A suffrage bazar was held in December with Mrs. Livermore as president and Mrs. Howe as editor of the Bazar Journal. The list of vice-presidents included Phillips Brooks and many other distinguished persons. The brunt of the work, however, was borne by Miss Pond and Miss Shaw, and the bazar cleared $6,000.

Mrs. Howe, Mrs. Stone, Mr. Garrison, Mrs. Cheney, State Senator Elijah A. Morse and others addressed the annual convention of 1887. Petitions were circulated for Municipal and Presidential Suffrage and a constitutional amendment; also for police matrons, the raising of the age of protection for girls, improvements in the property rights of married women, a bill enabling husbands and wives to make legal contracts with each other, and one making women eligible to all offices from which they are not debarred by the constitution. In March the association gave $1,000 to the constitutional amendment campaign in Rhode Island, and a number of the officers contributed their services.

Mrs. Howe presided at the May Festival, and among the speakers were Mrs. Helen M. Gougar of Indiana, Mrs. J. Ellen Foster of Iowa, the Revs. Henry Blanchard of Maine and Frederick A. Hinckley of Rhode Island. Mr. Garrison read an original poem rejoicing over the granting of Municipal Suffrage in Kansas. At the New England Convention which followed, these speakers were reinforced by the Rev. Jenkyn Lloyd Jones of Chicago. On October 19 the State Association gave a reception to Miss Frances E. Willard, president of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, at the Hotel Brunswick.

In December a great bazar was held in Boston for the joint benefit of the American Suffrage Association and various States which took part. The gross receipts were nearly $8,000. This year the association moved into larger offices at No. 3 Park street; held fifty-one public meetings and four county conventions and organized twenty-one new leagues. The Woman's Journal was sent for three months to all the members of the Legislature; 378,000 pages of suffrage literature were sold and many thousands more given away.

During the annual meeting in February, 1888, a reception was given to Mrs. Rebecca Moore, of England, at which John W. Hutchinson sang and many bright speeches were made. At the twentieth anniversary of the New England association, in May, Lucy Stone presided. Mrs. Laura Ormiston Chant and Mrs. Alice Scatcherd of England, and Baroness Gripenberg and Miss Alli Trygg of Finland, were among the speakers. Others were Miss Clara Barton, Mrs. Isabella Beecher Hooker of Connecticut, the Hon. William Dudley Foulke and Mrs. Zerelda G. Wallace of Indiana. At the Festival Music Hall was crowded to overflowing and Miss Susan B. Anthony was one of the guests of honor.

This year great excitement was aroused among both men and women by a controversy over the historical text-books used in the public schools of Boston. At the request of a priest the school board removed a history which the Catholics regarded as unfair in its statements, and substituted one which many Protestants considered equally unfair. The school vote of women never had risen much above 2,000, and generally had been below that number. This year 25,279 applied to be assessed a poll tax and registered, and 19,490 voted, in one of the worst storms of the season. All the Catholic candidates were defeated. The suffrage association kept out of the controversy as a body, but its members as individuals took sides as their personal views dictated.

In 1889 Gov. Oliver Ames, for the third time, recommended women suffrage in his inaugural, saying: "Recent political events have confirmed the opinion I have long held, that if women have sufficient reason to vote they will do so and become an important factor in the settlement of great questions. If we can trust uneducated men to vote we can with greater safety and far more propriety grant the same power to women, who as a rule are as well educated and quite as intelligent as men."

The convention met January 29-31. Among outside speakers were Mrs. Ellen Battelle Dietrick of Kentucky, Prof. William H. Carruth of Kansas, and the Hon. Hamilton Willcox of New York. Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson presided at the May Festival and Mrs. Howe's seventieth birthday was celebrated. Mrs. Laura M. Johns of Kansas, Mrs. Mary Seymour Howell of New York, Mrs. Emily P. Collins of Connecticut, and many from other States were present.

An organizer was kept in the field eight months and a State lecturer two months; summer meetings were held at Swampscott, Hull and Nantasket. Two quarterly conferences took place in Boston between the State officers and representatives from the eighty-nine local leagues. A great Historical Pageant was given under Miss Pond's supervision in May and October, which netted $1,582; the Woman's Journal was sent four months to all the legislators, and leaflets to all the students of Harvard and Boston Universities; 15,000 leaflets were given to the South Dakota campaign. The State Farmers' Institute, held at West Brookfield, adopted a woman suffrage resolution almost unanimously.

In Boston 10,051 women voted and the Catholic candidates for the school board were again defeated. The Independent Women Voters elected all their nominees, and candidates who had the joint nomination of both Republicans and Democrats were defeated.

Ex-Gov. John D. Long was one of the speakers at the convention of Jan. 28, 29, 1890; also Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates of Maine. In April an evening with authors and composers was arranged, chiefly by Miss Lucia T. Ames. Well-known authors read from their writings and musicians contributed from their own compositions. In the same month a week's fair called The Country Store was held, Miss Charlotte H. Allen supervising the arrangements, with gross receipts, $2,346. The Rev. Charles G. Ames presided at the May Festival and the Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer of Rhode Island was one of the speakers.

In July a reception was given in the suffrage parlors to the ladies of the National Editorial Association and the members of the New England Women's Press Association. The editors of the Woman's Journal—Lucy Stone, Mr. and Miss Blackwell—and the associate editor, Mrs. Florence M. Adkinson, received the guests, assisted by the Rev. Miss Shaw and Miss Lucy E. Anthony. During Grand Army week in August a reception was extended to the ladies of the Woman's Relief Corps and others, the guests received by Mrs. Livermore, Mrs. Howe, the editors of the Journal and Dr. Emily Blackwell, dean of the Women's Medical College of the New York Infirmary for Women and Children.

In October the association exhibited at the Hollis Street Theater a series of Art Tableaux, The History of Marriage, showing the marriage ceremonies of different ages and countries, Mrs. Livermore acting as historian. The receipts were $1,463. The association sent literature to the legislators, to several thousand college students and to all the members of the Mississippi Constitutional Convention; had a booth for two months at the Mechanics' Fair in Boston; supplied suffrage matter every week to 603 editors in all parts of the country and gave 133,334 pages of leaflets to the campaign in South Dakota. The chairman of its executive committee, Mrs. Stone, also donated 95,000 copies of the Woman's Column to the same campaign, and the secretary, Mr. Blackwell, contributed five weeks' gratuitous service in Dakota, lecturing for the amendment.

The Boston Methodist ministers, at their Monday meeting, passed unanimously a resolution in favor of Municipal Woman Suffrage; and a gathering of Massachusetts farmers, at the rooms of the Ploughman, did the same with only one dissenting vote, after an address by Lucy Stone, herself a farmer's daughter.[307]

The annual meeting, Jan. 27, 28, 1891, was made a celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the First National Woman's Rights Convention, which had been held at Worcester in October, 1850. Miss Susan B. Anthony came on from Washington to attend. The advance of women in different lines during the past forty years was ably reviewed in the addresses by representative women in their respective departments.[308] Only two of the speakers at the convention of forty years ago were present on this occasion, Lucy Stone and the Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell; and two who had signed the Call—Colonel Higginson and Charles K. Whipple. The resolutions were reaffirmed which had been reported by Wendell Phillips and adopted at the convention of 1850. At this time Mrs. Howe was elected president of the State association.

The New England meeting in May was preceded by a reception to Miss Anthony, the Rev. Miss Shaw and Miss Florence Balgarnie of England, all of whom made addresses at the convention and the Festival, where ex-Governor Long presided.

The meetings this year included a number of college towns and among the speakers were Senator Hoar, Mr. Garrison, Mr. Blackwell, Mrs. Livermore, Mrs. Howe and Mrs. Stone, with the younger women, Mrs. Anna Christy Fall, Mrs. Adelaide A. Claflin, Miss Elizabeth Sheldon (Tillinghast), Miss Elizabeth Deering Hanscom. At Amherst a large gathering of students listened to Senator Hoar. President and Mrs. Merrill E. Gates occupied seats on the platform. At South Hadley President Elizabeth Storrs Mead of Mt. Holyoke entertained all the speakers at the college, and at Northampton it was estimated by the daily papers that 500 Smith College girls came to the meeting.

On October 21 the association gave a reception to Theodore D. Weld in honor of his eighty-eighth birthday. This date was the anniversary of the famous mob of 1835, which attacked the meeting of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society. Later a reception was tendered to Mrs. Annie Besant of the London School Board. On November 17, during the week when the W. C. T. U. held its national convention in Boston, a reception was given in the suffrage parlors to all interested in the Franchise Department. A special invitation was issued to White Ribboners from the Southern States where none was yet adopted, and the spacious rooms were filled to overflowing. Lucy Stone presided and Julia Ward Howe gave the address of welcome. Many brief responses were made by the Southern delegates and by Northern delegates and friends.

In December a suffrage fair was held under the management of Mrs. Dietrick, now of Boston, which netted $1,800. Senator Hoar's speech at Amherst was sent to the students of all the colleges in the State.

At the annual meeting Jan. 26, 27, 1892, the Rev. Joseph Cook gave an address. Lucy Stone presided at the New England convention and Mrs. Howe at the Festival. Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt was the speaker from a distance. Letters were read from the Hon. Thomas B. Reed, Terence V. Powderly and U. S. Senators Joseph M. Carey and Francis E. Warren of Wyoming.

In addition to the usual work this year $200 were offered in $5 prizes to the children of the public schools for the best essays in favor of woman suffrage. Mrs. Dietrick was employed for six months as State organizer. An appeal for equal suffrage signed by Mrs. Stone, Mrs. Howe and Mrs. Livermore was sent to editors throughout the State with the request to publish it and to indorse it editorially, which was done by many. A letter signed by the same was sent to every minister in Boston asking him either to present the subject to his congregation or permit it to be presented by some one else, and a number consented.

A Woman's Day was held at the State Agricultural Fair in Worcester, when it was estimated 70,000 people were present. Col. Daniel Needham, president of the Fair, expressed himself as thankful for the opportunity to welcome woman suffrage. Mrs. Rufus S. Frost, Lucy Stone, Mrs. Livermore, Mrs. Claflin and Mr. Blackwell were the speakers. When a vote was taken at the close, the whole audience rose in favor of suffrage.

The Independent Women Voters of Boston again elected their entire school ticket. Miss Frances E. Willard and Mrs. Claflin addressed the Working Girls' Clubs of the State on suffrage at their annual reunion in Boston. The association was represented at the great farewell reception to Lady Henry Somerset, Lucy Stone presenting her with twenty-three yellow roses for the States with School Suffrage and one pure white for Wyoming.

This year at a special meeting the association amended the old constitution under which it had been working since 1870, and unanimously adopted a delegate basis of representation.

The annual meeting was held Dec. 6, 7, 1892, instead of January, 1893. Mrs. Howe presided and addresses were made by Mrs. Stone, Mrs. Livermore, the Hon. George A. O. Ernst, Mrs. Estelle M. H. Merrill, president of the New England Women's Press Association, and others. Lucy Stone was elected president and superintendents were instituted for different departments of work.

At a gathering of Massachusetts farmers in Boston, Lucy Stone and Mrs. Olive Wright of Denver, spoke for woman suffrage; the meeting declared for it unanimously by a rising vote and every farmer present signed the petition. The State Grange, at its annual convention, adopted a strong suffrage resolution by 96 yeas, 27 nays. The Unitarian Ministers' Monday Club of Boston, after an address by Mrs. Stone, did the same, and every minister present but one signed the petition. The Universalist Ministers' Monday meeting in Boston, at her request, voted by a large majority to memorialize the Legislature for woman suffrage. The Central Labor Union took similar action. The Boston Transcript, Globe, Advertiser, Traveller and Beacon, the Springfield Republican, Greenfield Gazette and Courier, Salem Observer, Salem Register and many other papers supported the Municipal Suffrage Bill which was then pending.

At the May Festival of 1893 Senator Hoar presided and 900 persons sat down to the banquet. Mrs. Laura Ormiston Chant of England, and Miss Kirstine Frederiksen of Denmark, were the speakers from abroad. A reception to these ladies preceded the annual meeting of the New England Association. Mme. Marie Marshall of Paris, was added to the above speakers, also Wendell Phillips Stafford of Vermont, Mrs. Ellen M. Bolles of Rhode Island, and others. On June 5 a reception was given to Mrs. Jane Cobden Unwin of London, Richard Cobden's daughter. On July 19, by invitation of the Waltham Suffrage Club, the State association and the local leagues united in a basket picnic at Forest Grove. On this occasion Lucy Stone made her last public address.

Woman's Day at the New England Agricultural Fair in Worcester was observed in September with addresses by Mrs. Chant, Mrs. Livermore, Mrs. Fanny Purdy Palmer and Mr. Blackwell, representing Lucy Stone, who was too ill to be present. There was a very large audience. Part of a day was also secured at the Marshfield Fair with an address by Mrs. Katherine Lente Stevenson. A convention was held at Westfield, October 2, when the opera house was crowded to hear Mrs. Livermore.

Mr. Blackwell presented a resolution in favor of Municipal Suffrage for women in the Resolutions Committee of the Republican State Convention, October 6. It was warmly advocated by the Hon. John D. Long, Samuel Walker McCall, M. C., Mayor Fairbanks of Quincy, and others, and would possibly have been passed but for the strenuous opposition of the chairman, ex-Gov. George D. Robinson, who said he would decline to read the platform to the convention if the resolution was adopted. It was finally lost by 4 yeas, 7 nays.

On Oct. 18, 1893, occurred the death of Lucy Stone at her home in Dorchester. She said with calm contentment, "I have done what I wanted to do; I have helped the women." Her last whispered words to her daughter were, "Make the world better." The funeral was held in James Freeman Clarke's old church in Boston. Hundreds of people stood waiting silently in the street before the doors were opened. The Rev. Charles G. Ames said afterward that, "the services were not like a funeral but like a solemn celebration and a coronation." The speakers were Mr. Ames, Colonel Higginson, Mrs. Livermore, Mr. Garrison, Mrs. Cheney, the Rev. Samuel J. Barrows, Mrs. Chant, the Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer of Providence, Mary Grew of Philadelphia, with a poem by Mrs. Howe. A strong impetus was given to the suffrage movement by the wide publication in the papers of the facts of Lucy Stone's simple and noble life, and by the universal expression of affection and regret. A life-long opponent declared that the death of no woman in America had ever called out so general a tribute of public respect and esteem.

The State association again held its annual meeting in December. Among the resolutions adopted was the following:

In the passing away of Lucy Stone, our president, the beloved pioneer of woman suffrage, who has been, ever since 1847, its mainstay and unfailing champion, the cause of equal rights in this State and throughout the Union has suffered an irreparable loss.

Her daughter closed the report of the year's work by saying: "Let all those who held her dear show their regard for her memory in the way that would have pleased and touched her most—by doing their best to help forward the cause she loved so well."

Mrs. Mary A. Livermore was elected president.

On December 16 the association celebrated in Faneuil Hall the one hundred and twentieth anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. One of the last expressed wishes of Lucy Stone had been that the celebration should take place in the Old South Church, but the use of this historic building was refused by the trustees, much to the mortification of the more liberal members of the General Committee of the Old South. Colonel Higginson, who had presided at the centennial celebration of the same event by the suffragists twenty years before, again presided and made the opening address. Other speakers were Mrs. Chapman Catt and Wendell Phillips Stafford. Mr. Garrison gave a poem and Mr. Blackwell read the speech made by Lucy Stone at the celebration in 1873. Letters were read from Senator Hoar, Frederick Douglass and others. Governor-elect Frederick T. Greenhalge and Lieut. Gov.-elect Roger Wolcott occupied seats on the platform.

This year the Massachusetts W. S. A. had become incorporated. It had sent suffrage literature to all the Episcopalian, Unitarian and Universalist clergymen in the State, to most of the Methodist ministers, to 1,100 public school teachers and to a large number of college students. Its president, Lucy Stone, had sent, from her death bed, the largest contribution to the Colorado campaign given by any individual outside of that State. Its secretary, Mr. Blackwell, had attended the National Convention of Republican Clubs at Louisville, Ky., and secured the adoption of the following resolution: "We recommend to the favorable consideration of the Republican Clubs of the United States, as a matter of education, the question of granting to the women of the State and nation the right to vote at all elections on the same terms and conditions as male citizens."

A thousand copies of William I. Bowditch's Taxation Without Representation and George Pellew's Woman and the Commonwealth were bound and presented to town and college libraries. Mayor Nathan Matthews, Jr., of Boston appointed two women on the Board of Overseers of the Poor, despite the strong opposition of the aldermen. He also appointed three women members of a commission to investigate and report to him upon the condition of public institutions. Toward the end of the year he again appointed two women on a similar committee, including one of those who served before. The Hon. George S. Hale said at the annual suffrage meeting, "Both ladies are admirably qualified, and the one who acted last year is declared by all the men who served with her to be the most valuable member of the board."

Out of 622 students and professors at Wellesley College, who were questioned as to their views on suffrage, 506 declared themselves in favor, and 500 of them united in sending a telegram of congratulation to the women of Colorado on the passage of the equal suffrage amendment this year. (1893.)

At the May Festival 1,000 sat down to the banquet and hundreds occupied the balconies. Ex-Governor Long presided. One of the speakers was Robert S. Gray, chairman of the Committee on Woman Suffrage in the Legislature. In honor of Mrs. Howe's seventy-fifth birthday Mrs. Alice J. Harris sang The Battle Hymn of the Republic, the audience joining in the chorus.

On June 18 delegates from many labor organizations met in Boston, in response to a call from the Boston Workingmen's Political League, and decided to act together at the ballot box. Their platform demanded universal suffrage irrespective of sex.

Lucy Stone mite-boxes were circulated by the association for funds to aid the amendment campaign in Kansas. Mr. Blackwell attended the National Convention of Republican Clubs held in Denver. On June 27 it reiterated the woman suffrage resolution it had passed the year before in Louisville.

On July 24 Woman's Day was celebrated at the Massachusetts Chautauqua in South Framingham, with many able speakers. On September 4 Woman's Day was observed at the New England Agricultural Fair in Worcester. Colonel Needham, its president, made an earnest woman suffrage address and was followed by Mrs. Howe, Miss Yates, Mrs. Mary Sargent Hopkins and Mr. Blackwell. In December a suffrage fair was held under the management of Mrs. Abby M. Davis which cleared about $1,800. On the opening night Mrs. Cheney presided and there were addresses by Lady Henry Somerset and Miss Frances E. Willard.

This year the association kept the papers supplied with suffrage articles more thoroughly than ever before; had speakers present the subject to thirty-one women's clubs; furnished literature to the legislators, to 5,000 public school teachers, to all the Congregational ministers in the State and to many of other denominations; and sent 3,782 leaflets to college students and graduates.

Governor Greenhalge in his inaugural in 1895, said, "I hold to the views expressed in the message of last year as to the extension of Municipal Suffrage to women." He also referred to it favorably in an address before the New England Women's Press Association, and at the Parliament of Man held in Boston.

Mrs. Livermore presided at the annual meeting, January 8, 9. Mrs. Helen H. Gardiner and Representative Alfred S. Roe were among the speakers. From this time date the Fortnightly Meetings at the suffrage headquarters, and these have been held ever since except during the summer vacations. They are usually well attended and seldom fail to have some speaker of note.

On May 4 Mr. Blackwell's seventieth birthday was celebrated by a reception and dinner at Copley Square Hotel, Boston, ex-Governor Long presiding. A newspaper said, "The guests on this occasion represented the conscience and culture of New England." Addresses were made by many of his co-workers,[309] and among those who sent letters were the Rev. Samuel May, Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Ainsworth R. Spofford, of the Library of Congress, Ex-Governor Claflin, Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, the Hon. James L. Hughes, president of the Equal Rights Association of Toronto, Professor and Mrs. Carruth of Kansas University, and others. On May 14 the golden wedding of the Rev. D. P. and Mrs. Livermore was celebrated by a reception in the suffrage parlors. Their daughters, son-in-law and grandchildren received with them. In accordance with Mrs. Livermore's wish there was no speaking but a great throng of distinguished guests, including both suffragists and "antis," were present.

At the May Anniversary a reception was given to Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi of New York, and Miss Elizabeth Burrill Curtis, daughter of the staunch advocate of suffrage, George William Curtis. Mr. Blackwell presided at the Festival in Music Hall and 700 sat down to the banquet.

Woman suffrage was indorsed by the Garment Makers' Union of Boston, with its 400 members. This year a long list of prominent persons signed a published statement declaring themselves in favor, all the names being collected within about a week. This remarkable list included several hundred names, about one-third of men. So far as personal achievement goes they were among the most prominent in the State and included several presidents of colleges, a large number of noted university men, public officials, lawyers, editors, etc. Among the women were the president, dean and twenty professors of Wellesley College; the director of the Observatory and six instructors of Smith College, physicians, lawyers, authors, large taxpayers, and many noted for philanthropy.[310]

The association secured a Woman's Day at the New England Chautauqua Assembly; brought the question before hundreds at parlor meetings and public debates, outside of the many arranged by the Referendum Committee; published six leaflets and a volume, The Legal Status of Women in Massachusetts, by Mr. Ernst, and distributed an immense amount of literature.

Up to this time the anti-suffrage associations organized in Massachusetts always had gone to pieces within a short period after they were formed. But in May, 1895, the present Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women was organized, with Mrs. James M. Codman at its head and Mrs. Charles E. Guild as secretary. This was a society composed of women alone. Col. Higginson said in Harper's Bazar:

All the ladies move in a limited though most unimpeachable circle. All may be presumed to interchange visiting cards and meet at the same afternoon teas. There is not even a hint that there is any other class to be consulted. Where are the literary women, the artists, the teachers, the business women, the temperance women, the labor reform advocates, the members of the farmers' grange, the clergymen's wives? Compared with this inadequate body how comfortably varied looks the list of the committee in behalf of woman suffrage. [Distinguished names given.] It includes also women who are wholesomely unknown to the world at large but well known in the granges and among the Christian Endeavorers. Can any one doubt which list represents the spirit of the future?

The more cultivated social class—the "Four Hundred," as the saying is—have an immense value in certain directions. They stand for the social amenities and in many ways for the worthy charities. Generous and noble traditions attach to their names and nowhere more than in Boston. But one thing has in all ages and places been denied to this class—that of leadership in bold reforms.

On November 5 the mock referendum, which had been opposed by many of the leading suffragists, was voted on and received a large negative majority. (See Legislative Action.)

The State association held its annual convention, Jan. 14, 15, 1896, with large audiences. It opened with a Young People's Meeting, Miss Blackwell presiding.[311] The Rev. Father Scully and Mrs. Fanny B. Ames, State Factory Inspector, were among the many who gave addresses. At the business meeting the following resolution on the mock referendum was adopted:

Whereas, The returns show that we only need to convert twenty per cent. of the male voters in order to have a majority; and

Whereas, Public sentiment is growing rapidly and grows faster the more the subject is discussed; therefore,

Resolved, That we petition the Legislature to give us a real instead of a sham referendum, by submitting to the voters a constitutional amendment enfranchising women.

The president, Mrs. Livermore, was made a Doctor of Laws by Tufts College and was given a great birthday reception by her fellow-townsmen, with addresses by Mrs. Susan S. Fessenden and Mr. Blackwell and a poem by Hezekiah Butterworth.

The May Festival also opened with a Young People's Meeting, Mrs. Howe as "grandmother" introducing the speakers.[312] Mr. Garrison presided at the Festival and the speakers included Alfred Webb, M. P., of Dublin, the Rev. Dean Hodges, of the Episcopal Theological School, Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Stetson and Prof. Ellen Hayes of Wellesley.

A series of meetings was held this year in Berkshire County. Mrs. Mary Clarke Smith was kept in the field as State organizer for seven months. A speaker was sent free of charge to every woman's club or other society willing to hear the suffrage question presented; 13,000 pages of literature were distributed. On October 27 the State Baptist Young People's Union at its anniversary indorsed woman suffrage. In December a rousing meeting was held in Canton, Congressman Elijah Morse presiding, with Mrs. Livermore and Miss Yates as speakers.

Among the deaths of the year was that of Frederick T. Greenhalge—the latest of a long line of Massachusetts governors who have advocated woman suffrage since 1870—Governors Claflin, Washburn, Talbot, Brackett, Long, Butler and Ames.

At the annual meeting, in 1897, the speakers included the Rev. George L. Perin and Augusta Chapin, D. D. As the laws were about to be revised and codified it was decided to ask for an equalization of those bearing on domestic relations. The Women's Journal noted that never before had so many petitions for suffrage been sent in within so short a time. On February 16 the association gave a large and brilliant reception at the Vendome to Miss Jane Addams of Chicago. Col. Higginson presided, and Miss Addams, Mrs. Howe and Mrs. Livermore spoke. On April 17 a reception was given in the suffrage parlors to Mrs. Harriet Tubman, the colored woman so noted in anti-slavery days for her assistance to fugitive slaves, Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney assisting.

Mr. Blackwell presided at the Festival, May 27, and eloquent addresses were made by the Rev. Dr. George C. Lorimer, Lieutenant-Governor John L. Bates, Mrs. Florence Howe Hall and many others, while letters of greeting were read from Lady Henry Somerset and Mrs. Millicent Garrett Fawcett of England. It was Mrs. Howe's seventy-eighth birthday and she was received with cheers and presented with flowers.

On July 29 the annual meeting of the Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society, held at Adams, was "a woman suffrage convention from end to end," with Miss Susan B. Anthony as the guest of honor in her native town. Her friends and relatives from all parts of the country were present and addresses were made by the vice-president of the society, the Rev. A. B. Whipple, by Miss Shaw, Mrs. Chapman Catt, Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton and Miss Blackwell, officers of the National Suffrage Association, and by Mrs. May Wright Sewall, vice-president of the International Council of Women, Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby, editor of the Woman's Tribune and Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, Miss Anthony's biographer.

The Prohibition State Convention in September resolved that "educational qualifications and not sex should be the test of the elective franchise." The next year it adopted a woman suffrage plank.

In December the association held a bazar under the management of Miss Harriet E. Turner which cleared $3,200. During the year the usual large amount of educational work was done, which included 1,024 suffrage articles furnished to 230 newspapers, and the holding of 176 public meetings. The New England Historical and Genealogical Society voted unanimously to admit women to membership. Strong efforts were made to have the Boston school board elect several eminently qualified women as submasters, but sex prejudice defeated them.

The Anti-Suffrage Association published an anonymous pamphlet entitled Tested by its Fruits. The Massachusetts W. S. A. published a counter-pamphlet by Chief-Justice Groesbeck of Wyoming, who testified that some of the laws which it represented as then in force had been repealed many years before, and that upon some "an absurd construction" had been placed.

The convention of Jan. 26, 1898, was addressed by J. M. Robertson of England. At the May Festival in Hotel Brunswick, the Hon. Hugh H. Lusk of New Zealand gave an address, and the occasion was made noteworthy by bright speeches from young women—Mrs. Helen Adelaide Shaw, Miss Maud Wood (Park) of Radcliffe and Miss Hanscom of Boston University and Smith College. Several members of the Legislature spoke and reports were received from all the New England States.

Woman's Day was celebrated at the Mechanics' Fair in Boston. This year the association began to issue a monthly letter to the local leagues. As an addition to the literature, Secretary-of-the-Navy John D. Long's suffrage address with his portrait was issued as a handsome pamphlet. In response to an appeal from the president, Mrs. Livermore (so well known through the Sanitary Commission during the Civil War), $500 and many boxes of supplies were sent to the soldiers in the Spanish-American War, and the secretary of the State association, Mrs. Ellie A. Hilt, literally worked herself to death in this service.

The usual meetings were held in 1899 and 1900 and the same great amount of work was done. To increase the school vote of women in 1899 thirty-eight public meetings were held by the association, with the result that in Boston 3,000 new names were added to the registration list. In 1900 the association contributed liberally to the suffrage campaign in Oregon. A large and brilliant reception was given at the Hotel Vendome in honor of Mrs. Livermore's 80th birthday.

Presidents of the State association since 1883 have been the Hon. William I. Bowditch (1878) to 1891; Mrs. Julia Ward Howe to 1893; Mrs. Lucy Stone elected that year but died in October; Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, 1893 and still in office. Henry B. Blackwell has been corresponding secretary over thirty years.[313]

The first president of the New England association was Mrs. Howe. In 1877 Mrs. Lucy Stone was elected, and at her death in 1893 Mrs. Howe was again chosen and is still serving.[314]

Legislative Action:[315] The first petition for the rights of women was presented to the Legislature by William Lloyd Garrison in 1849. In 1853 Lucy Stone, Theodore Parker, Wendell Phillips and Thomas Wentworth Higginson went before the constitutional convention held in the State House, with a petition signed by 2,000 names, and pleaded for an amendment conferring suffrage on women.

The first appearance of a woman in this State before a legislative committee was made in 1857, when Lucy Stone, with the Rev. James Freeman Clarke and Mr. Phillips, addressed the House Judiciary asking suffrage for women and equal property rights for wives. The next year Samuel E. Sewall and Dr. Harriot K. Hunt were granted a similar hearing. In 1869, through the efforts of the New England Suffrage Association, two hearings were secured to present the claims of 8,000 women who had petitioned for the franchise on the same terms as men. This was the beginning of annual hearings on this question, which have been continued without intermission for over thirty years. Henry B. Blackwell has spoken at every hearing and Lucy Stone at every one until her death.

1884—Petitions were presented for Municipal Suffrage, for the appointment of police matrons; also for laws permitting husbands and wives to contract with each other and make gifts directly to each other; allowing a woman to hold any office to which she might be elected or appointed; and requiring that a certain number of women should be appointed on Boards of Overseers of the Poor, on State Boards of Charities and as physicians in the women's wards of insane asylums. Hearings were given on most of these petitions. At that of January 25 for Municipal Suffrage the speakers were William I. Bowditch, Mrs. Stone, Mr. Blackwell, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney, the Rev. J. W. and Mrs. Jennie F. Bashford, Mary F. Eastman, Mrs. H. H. Robinson, Mrs. Harriette Robinson Shattuck and Miss Nancy Covell.

On January 29 a hearing was given to the remonstrants conducted by Thornton K. Lothrop. The speakers were Francis Parkman (whose paper was read for him by Mr. Lothrop) Louis B. Brandeis, Mrs. Kate Gannett Wells, William H. Sayward, Mrs. Lydia Warner and George C. Crocker. A letter was read from Mrs. Clara T. Leonard. Mr. Parkman asserted that the suffragists "have thrown to the wind every political, not to say every moral principle;" that "three-fourths of the agitators are in mutiny against Providence because it made them women;" and that "if the ballot were granted to women it would be a burden so crushing that life would be a misery."

This year 315 petitions for suffrage with 21,608 signatures were presented. The remonstrants who set out with the avowed intention of getting more secured about 3,000. A number of persons who signed the anti-suffrage petition in Boston published letters afterwards over their own names and addresses saying that they had signed without reading, upon the assurance of the canvasser employed by the remonstrants that it was a petition to permit women to vote on the question of liquor license.

In the House Municipal Suffrage was discussed March 12, 13, and finally was defeated by 61 yeas, 155 nays. A bill to let women vote on the license question, which had not been asked for by the suffrage association, was voted down without a count.

A law was enacted requiring two women trustees on the board of every State lunatic hospital, and one woman physician in each. Samuel E. Sewall, Frank B. Sanborn, Mr. Blackwell and Miss Mary A. Brigham had been the speakers at the hearing in behalf of this measure. All the other petitions were refused.

1885—On Municipal Suffrage and the submission of a constitutional amendment a hearing was given February 17. As usual the Green Room was crowded. There were before the committee petitions for suffrage with 16,113 signatures, and petitions against it with 285. The speakers in favor were the Rev. James Freeman Clarke, Mrs. Cheney, Lucy Stone, Mr. Blackwell, Mr. Bowditch, William Lloyd Garrison, Jr., Miss Eastman, Mrs. Adelaide A. Claflin, Mrs. Abby M. Gannett and Miss Lelia J. Robinson. The opposition was conducted by Mr. Brandeis and the speakers were Judge Francis C. Lowell, Mrs. Gannett Wells, Thomas Weston, Jr., Henry Parkman and the Rev. Brooke Hereford, lately from England, with letters from President L. Clark Seelye of Smith College, Miss Mary E. Dewey and Mr. Sayward. The committee reported in favor of Municipal Suffrage with only one dissenting. The House on May 4 rejected the bill by 61 yeas, 131 nays.

While the women sat in the gallery waiting for the measure to be discussed, the bill proposing to limit the working day for women and children to ten hours was "guyed, laughed at and voted down amid ridicule and uproar." This Legislature also refused the petition of Mr. Sewall and others for one or more women on every Board of Overseers of the Poor; for the better protection of wives; for the submission of a constitutional amendment granting women full suffrage; and for the amendment of the school suffrage law to make it as easy for women as for men to register. (See Suffrage.)

1886—At the hearing, January 28, a letter was read from the Hon. Josiah G. Abbott, and addresses were made by Mr. Garrison, Lucy Stone, Mr. Blackwell, Mrs. Cheney, Mrs. Eliza Trask Hill, the Rev. Ada C. Bowles, Mrs. Shattuck, Mrs. Robinson, Miss Eastman and Mrs. Claflin. The remonstrants' hearing had been appointed for January 29. Their attorney, E. N. Hill, tried at the last moment to get a postponement but failed. The leaders of the "antis" declined to speak but several of the rank and file appeared and made the usual objections. The committee reported in favor of Municipal Suffrage. It was discussed in the House April 14, about the same number speaking on each side, and defeated by 77 yeas, 132 nays, the most favorable vote since 1879.

On May 20, before the Senate Judiciary Committee, representatives of the suffrage association and other societies had a hearing in behalf of bills to raise the "age of protection" and to provide adequate penalties for seduction, but no action was taken.

1887—On January 6 Governor Oliver Ames, in his inaugural address to the Legislature, said, "I earnestly recommend, as a measure of simple justice, the enactment of a law securing Municipal Suffrage to women." The suffrage petitions this year had 5,741 signatures, the remonstrant petitions 81. On February 2 it was ordered in the House, on motion of Josiah Quincy, that the Committee on Woman Suffrage consider the expediency of submitting the question of Municipal Suffrage to the women of the different cities and towns, the right to be given to them in any city or town where the majority of those who voted on the question should vote in favor; or where a number of women should petition for it equal to a majority of the number of men who voted at the last annual municipal or town election; or where a majority vote of the men should be given for it at the annual election.

On motion of Mr. Quincy an order for legislation to equalize the interest of husbands and wives in each other's property had been previously introduced but was lost.

On February 9 a hearing was given to the petitioners. The speakers were the same as the previous year with the addition of Col. T. W. Higginson. Mr. Blackwell presented two letters in favor of the bill, one addressed to Republicans, one to Democrats.[316] Clement K. Fay spoke for the remonstrants.

The committee reported in favor of Municipal Suffrage, two dissenting. It was discussed in the House March 3 and 10. Mr. Bailey of Everett offered an amendment that the provisions of the bill be tried for ten years, but it was not put to a vote. The bill was lost by 86 yeas, 122 nays, including pairs.

A bill to let women vote on the license question passed the House by 116 yeas to 88 nays, including pairs, but was defeated in the Senate, 24 yeas, 13 nays.

The bill was passed providing for police matrons in all cities of 30,000 or more inhabitants.

1888—The Legislature was asked for Municipal and Presidential Suffrage and for the submission of a constitutional amendment; also for various improvements in the laws relating to women. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union petitioned for License Suffrage. Several thousand women signed the petition and one hundred the remonstrance. On January 25 a hearing was given on the petitions for Municipal and License Suffrage. Mr. Bowditch, Lucy Stone, Mr. Blackwell, Mrs. Howe and Mrs. Cheney spoke for Municipal Suffrage and Miss Elizabeth S. Tobey for License Suffrage. Mr. Brandeis made an argument as attorney for the remonstrants. Charles Carleton Coffin, A. A. Miner, D. D., Mrs. Claflin, the Rev. Ada C. Bowles and Miss Cora Scott Pond replied for the petitioners.

On February 20 and 25 hearings were given on the petitions for six bills drawn by Mr. Sewall: 1. To give mothers the equal care, custody and education of their minor children. 2. To give married women a right to appoint guardians for their minor children by will. 3. To repeal the act of 1887 limiting the inheritance of personal property. 4. To regulate and equalize the descent of personal property between husband and wife. 5. To equalize curtesy and dower and the descent of real estate between husband and wife. 6. To enable husbands and wives to make gifts, contracts and conveyances directly with one another, and to authorize suits between them.

Addresses in support of the petitions were made by Mr. Sewall, Mrs. Howe, Mrs. Stone, Mr. Blackwell, the Hon. George A. O. Ernst, Miss Robinson, George H. Fall and others. All these measures were refused. Several new statutes for the better protection of women were passed this year, however, at the instance of Mr. Sewall, among them one providing severe penalties for any person who should aid in sending a woman as inmate or servant to a house of ill fame; one prohibiting railroads from requiring women or children to ride in smoking cars; one providing that women arrested should be placed in charge of police matrons.

On April 23 Municipal Suffrage was defeated in the House, 50 yeas, 121 nays. License Suffrage, after a prolonged contest, passed by 118 yeas, 110 nays, and was defeated in the Senate, 20 yeas, 19 nays.

1889—At the hearing of January 31 the attendance was larger than ever before. Prof. W. H. Carruth, Franklyn Howland and the Rev. J. W. Hamilton (afterwards Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church) were added to the usual list of speakers.

On February 4 a hearing was granted to the W. C. T. U. for Municipal Suffrage, and on February 8 one was given to the remonstrants. The Hon. John M. Ropes, the Rev. Charles B. Rice, the Rev. Dr. Dexter of the Congregationalist and Arthur Lord spoke in the negative. They said they were employed as counsel by the remonstrants, whose names and numbers they declined to give. As Mr. Lord was unable to complete his argument in the allotted time, at his request a further hearing was granted on February 11. Extracts were read from letters by Mrs. Clara T. Leonard and Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney.[317] Mrs. Howe, Lucy Stone, Mr. Blackwell, Col. L. Edwin Dudley and Miss Tobey replied. Chester W. Kingsley, chairman of the legislative committee, said that as no petitions against suffrage had been sent in he would ask all the remonstrants present to rise. Not a person rose, but the men standing in the aisles tried to sit down. Mr. Lord suggested that the remonstrants were averse to notoriety, whereupon Senator Kingsley asked all in favor to rise, and the great audience rose in a body.

Among the petitions sent in this year for Municipal Suffrage was one signed by President Helen A. Shafer of Wellesley College, a number of the professors and about seventy students who were over twenty-one. The committee reported in favor of both Municipal and License Suffrage. The former was discussed March 12 and lost by a vote, including pairs, of 90 yeas, 139 nays. The Woman's Journal said: "Although not a majority, the weight of character, talent and experience was overwhelmingly in favor of the bill, as is shown by the fact that the chairmen of thirty of the House Committees, out of a total of forty-one, were recorded in its favor."

License Suffrage passed the Senate, 15 yeas, 12 nays, after a long fight, and was defeated in the House, 101 yeas, 42 nays.

1890—Suffrage petitions were presented and also petitions asking that fathers and mothers be made equal guardians of their children; that contracts between husbands and wives be legally valid; and that a widow be allowed to stay more than forty days in the house of her deceased husband without paying rent. All these were refused.

On March 12 a hearing was given to the petitioners for suffrage. Mrs. Stone, Mr. Blackwell, the Rev. J. W. Hamilton, Mrs. Ellen B. Dietrick, the Rev. Frederick A. Hinckley, Mr. Crane of Woburn and Miss Alice Stone Blackwell spoke in behalf of the W. S. A., and Mrs. Susan S. Fessenden, Mrs. Amelia C. Thorpe and Miss Tobey in behalf of the W. C. T. U. Mr. Ropes, Dr. A. P. Peabody and J. B. Wiggin spoke against woman suffrage. Mr. Lord asked that the hearing be extended for another day, as he wished to speak in behalf of the remonstrants, although no petitions had been sent in. Mr. Blackwell requested the chairman of the committee to ask Mr. Lord to state definitely whom he represented. The chairman answered that if he did not choose to tell he could not compel him. On March 19 a hearing was given to Mr. Lord, who spoke for more than an hour. The usual distinguished suffrage advocates spoke in answer.

On April 8 seventy-nine Republican Representatives met at the Parker House, Boston, in response to an invitation from the Republican members of the House Committee on Woman Suffrage. Ex-Gov. John D. Long presided. Addresses were made by Mr. Long, U. S. Collector Beard, Mayor Thomas N. Hart of Boston, the Hon. Albert E. Pillsbury, ex-president of the Senate, ex-Governor Claflin and State Treasurer George E. Marden. Letters were read from the Hon. W. W. Crapo and ex-Governor Ames. The following was unanimously adopted:

Resolved, That it is the duty of the Republican party of Massachusetts forthwith to extend Municipal Suffrage to the women of the commonwealth.

On April 17, after extended discussion in the House, the bill was lost, including pairs, by 73 yeas, 141 nays. The same Legislature defeated a proposal to disfranchise for a term of three years men convicted of infamous crimes, and it voted to admit to suffrage men who did not pay their poll-tax.

1891—On February 4 a hearing was granted to the petitioners for Municipal Suffrage, conducted by Mr. Blackwell for the association, by Mrs. Fessenden for the W. C. T. U. To the usual speakers for the former were added Mrs. Helen Campbell, the Rev. Charles G. Ames, and also the Rev. Daniel Whitney, who had advocated woman suffrage in the Massachusetts constitutional convention of 1853 and now celebrated his eighty-first birthday by supporting it again. The speakers for the W. C. T. U. were the Rev. Joseph Cook, Mrs. Thorpe, President Elmer Hewitt Capen of Tufts College, Mrs. Katherine Lente Stevenson and others. Mrs. Martha Moore Avery spoke for the labor reformers. No remonstrants appeared.

In the Senate, March 31, Senators Gilman, Nutter and Breed spoke for Municipal Suffrage, and no one in the negative. The bill was lost by a vote, including pairs, of 12 yeas, 25 nays.

This year a bill was passed requiring the appointment of women as factory inspectors, and two were appointed.

1892—The suffrage association petitioned for Municipal and Full Suffrage, also for equal property rights for women. The W. C. T. U. for Municipal and License Suffrage, and both societies for legislation granting women equal facilities with men in registering to vote for school committee. On March 2 a hearing was given by the Committee on Election Laws on an order introduced by Senator Gorham D. Gilman to remove the poll-tax prerequisite for women's school vote, as it had been removed from men. Bills to secure for them a more just and liberal method of registration, drafted by ex-Governor Long and Mr. Blackwell, were submitted. Addresses were made by these two, Senator Gilman, Mrs. Cheney, Dr. Salome Merritt, Mrs. Brockway and others.

On February 19 a hearing was given on the suffrage petitions which were advocated by Senator Gilman, Colonel Dudley, Mrs. Howe, Lucy Stone, Mr. Blackwell, the Hon. George S. Hale, Mrs. Trask Hill and others. No remonstrants appeared. On March 14 the hearing for the W. C. T. U. was held with many prominent advocates.

License Suffrage was discussed in the House April 27, and on a viva voce vote was declared carried, but on a roll call was defeated, 93 yeas, 96 nays. A reconsideration was moved next day and the advocates of the bill secured twenty-three additional votes, but the opponents also increased their vote and the motion was refused. Out of the 240 members 117 recorded themselves in favor of the bill. Municipal Suffrage was voted down in the Senate May 2, without debate, by 10 yeas, 22 nays.

The poll-tax was abolished as a prerequisite for voting in the case of women. This had been done in the case of men in 1890. A bill to permit a wife to bring an action against her husband, at law or in equity, for any matter relating to her separate property or estate passed the House but was defeated in the Senate. The Senate Judiciary Committee reported against legislation to enable a woman to be appointed a justice of the peace.

1893—This year for the first time the State W. S. A., the National W. S. A. of Massachusetts, the W. C. T. U., the Independent Women Voters and the Loyal Women of American Liberty all united in petitioning for a single measure, Municipal Suffrage. The hearing at the State House on February 1 was conducted by Mr. Blackwell. Addresses were made by Lucy Stone,[318] Mrs. Howe, Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, Mrs. Stevenson, the Rev. Louis A. Banks, Mayor Elihu B. Hayes of Lynn, Mrs. A. J. Gordon, Mrs. Trask Hill, Mrs. A. P. Dickerman, Mrs. Fiske of St. Johns, N. B., Amos Beckford, George E. Lothrop, Mrs. M. E. S. Cheney and Miss Blackwell. Mrs. M. E. Tucker Faunce was the sole remonstrant.

The committee reported in favor of the petitioners, 7 yeas, 4 nays. The question was debated in the Legislature February 21. Every inch of space was crowded, the first three rows of the men's gallery were allowed on this occasion to be occupied by women and even then many stood. On motion of Representative White of Brookline an amendment was adopted by 110 yeas, 90 nays, providing that Municipal Suffrage should be granted conditionally; the question be submitted to a vote of the men and women of the State, and the measure to go into effect only in case the majority of those voting on it voted in favor. The bill as amended was then defeated by 111 yeas, 101 nays, almost every opponent of suffrage voting against it. They thus virtually declared that they were not willing women should have Municipal Suffrage even if the majority of both men and women could be shown to favor it. The adverse majority this year was ten votes; the smallest in any previous year had been 49.

1894—Gov. Frederick T. Greenhalge, in his inaugural message to the Legislature, strongly urged that it should consider the extension of Municipal Suffrage to women.

On January 18 a hearing was given by the Joint Special Committee. No remonstrant petitions had been sent in. The chairman invited alternate speeches from suffragists and opponents, but only one of the latter presented himself, J. Otis Wardwell of Haverhill, who said:

I appear here this morning for a lady who, I understand, has occupied a position as chairman or secretary of an organization that has for some time been an active opponent of woman suffrage.

Mr. Blackwell—May I inquire what the organization is that the gentleman refers to? We have never been able to find out much about this organization against woman suffrage. We hear that there is one, but if so it is a secret society. What is the name of it?

Mr. Wardwell—I do not know the name of it, sir. [Laughter.]

When pressed for the name of the lady at whose request he appeared he finally acknowledged that it was Mrs. C. D. Homans of Boston. It was afterwards reported that she was extremely indignant with him for having disclosed her name.

Addresses in favor of suffrage were made by Mrs. Howe, Mrs. Livermore, Mr. Ernst, Mr. Garrison, Mr. and Miss Blackwell, for the State W. S. A.; by Mrs. Cheney, president, for the State School Suffrage Association; by Dr. Salome Merritt and Miss Charlotte Lobdell for the National W. S. A. of Massachusetts; by Willard Howland, Mrs. Gleason and others for the W. C. T. U.; by Mrs. Trask Hill for the Independent Women Voters; and by Mrs. Avery for the labor element; also by Miss Catherine Spence of Australia, Mrs. Emily A. Fifield of the Boston school board, and others. Henry H. Faxon added a few words.

A second hearing was given January 19, at which Mrs. Fessenden and twelve other speakers represented the W. C. T. U. No remonstrants appeared. At the request of a member of the Joint Special Committee a third hearing was given on January 29. The Rev. Dr. Hamilton, Mrs. L. A. Morrison, Mrs. Trask Hill and others spoke in favor of suffrage, and Jeremiah J. Donovan against it. The committee made a majority report against Municipal Suffrage and a minority report in favor.

On January 31 Arthur S. Kneil offered an amendment providing that the question should be submitted to the men and women of the State, and that the act should take effect only if a majority of the votes cast on the proposition were in favor. Wm. H. Burges wanted it submitted to the men only. A second amendment proposed to lay the whole matter on the table till the opinion of the Supreme Court could be taken on the constitutionality of Mr. Kneil's amendment. On February 1 there was a spirited discussion but finally both amendments were defeated, and the minority report in favor of the bill was substituted for the adverse majority report by a vote of 104 yeas, 90 nays.

On February 2 Senator Arthur H. Wellman urged the adoption of his order that the Justices of the Supreme Court should be required to give their opinion to the House on three questions:

1. Is it constitutional, in an act granting to women the right to vote in town and city elections, to provide that such act shall take effect throughout the commonwealth upon its acceptance by a majority of the voters of the commonwealth?

2. Is it constitutional to provide in such an act that it shall take effect in a city or town upon its acceptance by a majority of the voters of such city or town?

3. Is it constitutional to provide that such an act shall take effect throughout the commonwealth upon its acceptance by a majority of the voters of the commonwealth, including women specially authorized to register and vote upon this question?

Alfred S. Roe and the other leading advocates of Municipal Suffrage withdrew their opposition to the order, saying that they preferred the bill as it stood, but that if amendments were to be added to it at any subsequent stage it would be well to know whether they were constitutional. The order was adopted.

On March 3 four Justices of the Supreme Court—Field, Allen, Morton and Lathrop—answered "No" to all three questions. Justices Holmes and Barker answered "Yes" to all three; and Justice Knowlton answered "No" to the first and third and "Yes" to the second. These opinions were published in full in the Woman's Journal of March 10, 1894.

On March 14 Municipal Suffrage was discussed in open session. An amendment was offered to limit the right to taxpaying women and a substitute bill to allow women to vote at one election only. The latter was offered by Richard J. Hayes of Boston, who said, "You would see the lowest women literally driven to the polls by thousands by mercenary politicians. The object lesson would settle the question forever." The amendment and the substitute were lost and the bill was passed to its third reading by a vote, including pairs, of 122 yeas, 106 nays.

On March 29 the galleries were crowded with women. Richard Sullivan of Boston offered an additional section that the question be submitted to the men at the November election for an expression of opinion. This was adopted by 109 yeas, 93 nays. The bill to grant women Municipal Suffrage at once, irrespective of what the expression of opinion in November might be, was then passed to be engrossed, by a vote, including pairs, of 118 yeas, 107 nays. A motion to reconsider was voted down.

On April 5 the bill came up in the Senate. Floor and galleries were crowded and hundreds were turned away. Senator William B. Lawrence of Medford, a distiller, offered as a substitute for the bill a proposal to submit the question to the men at the November election for an expression of opinion as a guide to action by the next Legislature. He said it was absurd to grant women the suffrage first and call for an expression of opinion by the men afterward. The vote on the substitute was a tie, 19 yeas, 19 nays. To relieve the president of the Senate from the necessity of voting Senator John F. Fitzgerald changed his vote, but Senator Butler declined to be so relieved and gave his casting vote against the substitute. The bill for Municipal Suffrage was then defeated by 14 yeas, 24 nays.

The Boston Herald, of April 9, had an editorial entitled Liquor and Woman Suffrage, expressing satisfaction in the defeat of the bill but emphatic disapproval of the corrupt methods used against it in the Senate. A majority of the Senators had promised to vote for it but the Liquor Dealer's Association raised a large sum of money to accomplish its defeat, a persistent lobby worked against it and several Senators changed front. The Herald plainly intimated that the result was due to bribery.

The credit of the unusually good vote in the House in 1893 and '94 was largely due to Representative Alfred S. Roe of Worcester, an able member, highly esteemed and very popular, who worked for the bill with the utmost zeal and perseverance.

There were petitions this year from many different organizations representing a vast aggregate membership. On June 9 a bill to allow women to be notaries public was defeated in the Senate by 10 yeas, 12 nays.

1895.—On January 30 a great hearing was held in old Representatives' Hall at the State House, with floor, aisles and galleries crowded to the utmost capacity. Senator Alpheus M. Eldridge presided and Mrs. Livermore, as president of the State Association, conducted the hearing for the five organizations that appeared as petitioners. Addresses were made by Lady Henry Somerset, Mrs. Howe, Mr. Blackwell, Profs. Hayes and Webster of Wellesley College, Mrs. Fessenden, Mrs. Trask Hill, Mrs. Emily McLaughlin, Mrs. Boland, John Dean, F. C. Nash, Frank H. Foster, chairman of the legislative committee of the American Federation of Labor for Massachusetts, James F. Norton, the representative of 10,000 Good Templars.

No opposing petitions had been sent in but Thomas Russell appeared as attorney for the remonstrants and said: "Believing as they do that the proper place for women is not in public urging or remonstrating against legislation before public gatherings, but rather in the home, the hospital, the school, the public institution where sin and suffering are to be found and to be alleviated, they have not themselves appeared before you"—but had sent him.[319] Representative Roe said that the lawyer who had spoken for the remonstrants at the hearing of 1894 had received $500 for his services, and asked Mr. Russell if he appeared in the same capacity. He answered that no compensation had been promised him, and that he did not mean to accept any. He added: "I represent no organization, anything more than an informal gathering of ladies, and as for the numbers I can not state. But I do not come here basing my claim to be heard on the numbers of those who have asked me to appear. It is the justice of the cause which I speak upon that entitles me to a hearing, as it would if there were no one but myself."

Later twelve remonstrances were sent in, signed by 748 women. For suffrage there were 210 petitions from 186 towns and cities representing 133,111 individuals, men and women.

The opposition, alarmed by the large affirmative vote of 1894, this year put forth unprecedented efforts. Daily papers were paid for publishing voluminous letters against suffrage—sometimes of four columns—and an active and unscrupulous lobby worked against the bill. For the first time in history an anti-suffrage association was formed within the Legislature itself. Representatives Dallinger, Humphrey, Bancroft of Clinton, Eddy of New Bedford, and others, organized themselves into a society, elected a chairman and secretary and worked strenuously and systematically, making a thorough canvass of the House and pledging as many members as possible to vote "No."

The suffragists made the mistake of devoting their attention mainly to the Senate, where it was expected that the bill would come up first, and where it was believed that the main difficulty would be, but on March 5 the Municipal Suffrage Bill was brought up in the House. Every inch of space was crowded with spectators. After much discussion the bill was defeated by 137 yeas, 97 nays.

On March 13 a bill to raise the "age of protection" for girls from 16 to 18 years was defeated by 108 yeas, 55 nays.

On May 17 Senator Wellman's bill for a "mock referendum" was adopted by the Legislature. It proposed to take a vote of the men and women of the State on the question "Is it expedient that Municipal Suffrage should be extended to women?"

The Mock Referendum: This is called by the advocates of equal rights a "mock referendum" because it was to have no legal validity and was to give the women nothing even if it should be carried in their favor. The Woman's Journal said:

Two years ago an amendment was added to the Municipal Suffrage Bill providing that it should become law when ratified by a vote of the majority of the men and women of the State. Nearly every opponent in the House voted against the bill after that amendment had been incorporated, showing clearly that they were not willing to let women have suffrage even if a majority of the men and women of the State should vote for it. It was then believed that such action would be constitutional. The Supreme Court afterwards gave its opinion that Municipal Suffrage could not be extended by a popular vote of either the men or the women, or both, but must be extended, if at all, by the Legislature. Following that decision, the opponents have become clamorous for a popular vote.

The suffragists, who, beginning in 1869, had petitioned year after year for the submission to the voters of a legal and straightforward constitutional amendment, which would give women the ballot if the majority voted for it, were disgusted with this sham substitution. Mrs. Livermore, the State president, declared that she would neither take part in the mock vote herself nor advise others to do so. This feeling was so general that at the last meeting of the executive committee of the W. S. A. for the season, in June, it was found impossible even to pass a resolution recommending those men and women who favored equal suffrage to go to the polls and say so.

A number of individual suffragists, however, believed that advantage should be taken of the chance to make an educational campaign and, as the Woman's Journal of June 8 said, "to use the opportunity for what it is worth as a means of agitation." Therefore a Suffrage Referendum State Committee was formed of more than fifty prominent men and women, including U. S. Senator Hoar, ex-Governor Long, the Hon. J. Q. A. Brackett, Mrs. Howe, Mrs. Livermore, Mrs. Fannie B. Ames, Mrs. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward, the editors of the Woman's Journal and others. Mrs. Mary Clarke Smith was employed as organizer, beginning July 10, and as good a campaign was made as the circumstances permitted. By the time the executive committee reassembled in October, every one had become convinced of the wisdom of this course, and the State Suffrage Association and the Referendum Committee worked hand in hand during the last few weeks before election. It was a disadvantage that the bill for the "mock referendum" was passed just before people went away for the summer, and that the vote was to be taken soon after they came back in the fall; nevertheless, a spirited campaign was made, a large number of meetings and rallies were held and a great quantity of literature was distributed.

About six weeks before election a Man Suffrage Association was formed with Francis C. Lowell as chairman, Thomas Russell as treasurer and Charles R. Saunders as salaried secretary.[320] This society was composed wholly of men. It sent out an enormous number of circulars and other documents, spent money like water, enlisted active political workers, utilized to a considerable extent the party "machines," and as far as possible secured a committee of men to work at each polling place on election day and roll up a large negative vote of men. It contained a number of influential politicians who displayed much skill in their tactics. They published a manifesto against equal rights signed by one hundred prominent men. The Woman's Journal, which printed this document on October 19, said:

In the main the protest represents merely money and social position. There are half-a-dozen names on it which it is a pity and a shame to see there. All the rest were to be expected. They are men whose opinion would be of weight on questions of stocks and bonds, but whose opinion on questions of moral reform has only a minus value.... Its signers have pilloried themselves for posterity. It is regarded as discourteous to-day to remind President Eliot of Harvard that his father was the only member of Congress from Massachusetts who voted for the Fugitive Slave Law. Forty years hence it will be regarded as cruel to remind the children of these gentlemen [among whom was President Eliot] that their fathers put their names to a protest against equal rights for women.

At first the two anti-suffrage associations, the men's and the women's, co-operated with the suffragists in getting up debates; but no man ever consented to take part in one against suffrage a second time, and toward the end of the campaign it became almost impossible to secure speakers in the negative. Both sides published appeals and counter-appeals and the question was discussed in the press, at public meetings and in social circles to an extent unprecedented in the history of the State. Even the advertisements in the street cars began with the query in large letters, Should Women Vote? in order to attract attention to a particular brand of soap, etc.

During the early part of the canvass the opponents of suffrage circulated pledges for signature by women promising to vote "No" in November,[321] but they soon became convinced that in trying to get out a large vote of women against suffrage they had undertaken more than they could accomplish. The Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women supplied in plate form to a large number of State papers a series of articles one of which urged women to express themselves against suffrage, warned them that "silence will be cited as consent," and said: "It is our duty in any clear and forcible way that presents itself, to say 'I am not sure that our country should run this enormous new risk.'"

The "antis" have since asserted that in saying "in any clear and forcible way that presents itself," they did not mean to include the most obvious way, i. e., by voting "No" when given an opportunity by the Legislature to do so. Later in the campaign they issued a manifesto declaring that they did not urge women to register or vote, and that silence was not to be interpreted as consent. And finally, just before registration closed in Boston and the other cities, when it was clear that the majority of women were not going to register to vote either way, they issued another manifesto urging women not to vote against suffrage!

This was a transparent device to conceal the fewness of their numbers, and they thus stultified all their previous professions, as they had asserted for years that whenever women were given the right to vote on an important question it would be their duty to do so, irrespective of their personal inclinations, and it was in order to save women from this burden that their enfranchisement was opposed. If they could have brought out an overwhelming vote of women against equal suffrage, of course they would have done so. Since they could not, it was their policy to advise women not to express themselves and thus let the few who were strongly opposed be confounded with the mass of those who were indifferent. The Man Suffrage Association, which professed to be working in full harmony with the women's organization, declared in small and inconspicuous type that it did not urge women to take the trouble to register, merely for the sake of expressing themselves on the referendum, but that it did urge those who voted at all to vote "No." It published a circular giving reasons "why women and the friends of women should vote no," and it covered walls and fences from one end of the State to the other with huge placards bearing in enormous letters the words, "Men and Women, Vote No!"

The main object of this association, however, was not to get an expression of opinion from the women (which would weigh little either way) but to influence the Legislature through a large negative vote from the men. Mr. Saunders was reported in an interview in the Boston Herald as saying that the women who took the trouble to vote at all would probably vote in favor ten to one (it proved to be twenty-five to one), but that if the men would give a good majority against it the Legislature could be relied upon to defeat a genuine amendment for years.

The suffragists spent only $1,300 during the entire canvass. The Man Suffrage Association never made the sworn report of its receipts and expenditures which the law requires of every campaign committee, although even the papers opposed to suffrage exhorted it to do so and warned it that it was placing itself in a false position by refusing, but the treasurer published an unsworn statement, not of his receipts but of his general expenditures, by which it appeared that the association, during the six weeks of its existence, spent $3,576. In addition large sums were expended by the women's anti-suffrage association, which, not being a campaign committee but a permanent society, was under no legal obligation to file a statement.

The "mock referendum" was voted on at the State election, Nov. 5, 1895, receiving 108,974 yeas, 187,837 nays. Men cast 86,970 yeas, 186,115 nays; women cast 22,204 yeas, 861 nays. Forty-eight towns gave a majority for equal suffrage, two were a tie, and in several the adverse majority was only one or two votes, and yet in most of these towns no suffrage league existed, and in some of them no suffrage meeting ever had been held.

The number of men who voted in the affirmative was a general surprise. A leaflet by one of the leading remonstrants, circulated during the campaign, asserted that "not one citizen of sound judgment in a hundred is in favor of woman suffrage;" but nearly one-third of the male voters who expressed themselves declared for it. There was the smallest affirmative vote in the most disreputable wards of Boston. Nearly 2,000 more votes of men were cast for suffrage than had been cast for prohibition in 1889. The proportion of votes in favor was almost twice as large as in Rhode Island, the only other New England State in which the question had been submitted, although in that there was no anti-suffrage association in the field. Outside of Boston the largest negative vote by women was cast in Cambridge and Newton, which have the reputation of being remonstrant strongholds. In 238 of the 322 towns not one woman voted "No." In most of these the anti-suffrage association had no branches, and there is no reason to suppose that the women ever had heard of its eleventh-hour advice to women not to vote. In every county, and in every Congressional, Senatorial and Representative district the women's vote was in favor at least ten to one. The "mock referendum" answered the main purpose of its promoters, however, for it did seriously cut down the vote for suffrage in the Legislature for several years thereafter, but it made a host of converts among the people at large and gave a fresh impetus to the activity of the State Suffrage Association, which ever since has steadily grown in membership.

1896—The usual petitions for suffrage were presented from 79 cities and towns, with 7,780 signatures. The Joint Special Committee on Woman Suffrage, which had been appointed annually for many years, was discontinued, with the good result that the suffragists ever since have had their hearings before two more influential committees, those on Constitutional Amendments and on Election Laws. On February 26 the latter gave a hearing for Municipal Suffrage. Mr. Blackwell opened the case for the petitioners and the usual number of fine addresses were made. Thomas Russell spoke for the remonstrants, and Miss Blackwell replied to him. On February 27 the Committee on Constitutional Amendments gave a hearing. Addresses were made by Mrs. Howe, Mr. Garrison, the Rev. Florence E. Kollock, Oswald Garrison Villard, Mr. Ernst, Mrs. Isabel C. Barrows, Miss Cora A. Benneson and Clyde Duniway, formerly of Oregon. Mr. Russell again spoke for the remonstrants and was answered by Miss Blackwell, Miss Gail Laughlin and Mrs. Mary Clarke Smith.

On March 4 a hearing was given to the petitioners for License Suffrage. Just after the hearing closed Mr. Russell arrived to remonstrate, but too late.

On March 9 a hearing was given on the petition of the State W. S. A. that the times of registration should be the same for women (school) voters as for men.

The Committee on Constitutional Amendments recommended that the question of submitting a suffrage amendment be referred to the next Legislature—three dissenting and favoring its submission this year. On March 23 consideration of the question was voted down and the yeas and nays were refused.

On March 31 and April 1 License Suffrage was discussed and finally defeated by 93 yeas, 116 nays, including pairs.

The Committee on Election Laws reported in favor of Municipal Suffrage but the bill was defeated.

The Supreme Court decided that women could not be made notaries public because they are not distinctly named as eligible in the State constitution.

Thomas F. Keenan, an opponent of woman suffrage, introduced a bill to license houses "for commercial sexual intercourse," which he alone voted for.[322]

1897—It was decided to ask this year for a thorough revision and equalization of the statutes bearing on domestic relations, in view of the fact that the last Legislature had appointed a committee of lawyers to revise and codify the laws. Especial attention was called to the need of a law making fathers and mothers joint guardians of their children. Mr. Ernst, in behalf of the association, prepared a bill equalizing the property rights of husbands and wives. Mr. Russell, in behalf of the M. A. O. F. E. S. W. (which had for years been circulating leaflets declaring that the laws of Massachusetts were already more than just to women) prepared a bill tending in a similar direction; and a Judge of Probate prepared a more limited bill. All three appeared before the revising committee and, after repeated conferences, a bill making some improvements was recommended by the committee and enacted by the Legislature, but with a proviso that it should not go into effect until the following year, in order that the next Legislature might have a chance to amend it.

On February 10 the committee gave a hearing to the petitioners for the submission of an amendment to enfranchise women. It was addressed by Mr. Blackwell, Mrs. Cheney, Mrs. Boland, the Rev. Thomas Scully, the Rev. Mr. Ames, the Rev. Augusta Chapin, Miss Blackwell and others. No remonstrants appeared. The committee reported favorably, but on February 18 the bill was defeated by 74 yeas, 107 nays.

On February 24 the Committee on Election Laws heard arguments for Municipal and Presidential Suffrage, and also on the petition of the W. C. T. U. for License Suffrage. The committee had before it 144 largely signed petitions for suffrage and none against it. Mrs. Howe and Mr. Blackwell spoke in behalf of the measures asked for by the suffrage association, and a large number of prominent women for the W. C. T. U. Mr. Russell, Mrs. J. Elliott Cabot, Frank Foxcroft, Miss Dewey, Dr. Walter Channing, Mrs. A. J. George, A. Lawrence Lowell and Miss Mary A. J. McIntyre spoke against all three bills. Miss Blackwell, at the close, replied in behalf of both associations. Members of the committee asked the president of the anti-suffrage association, Mrs. Cabot, and almost all the women who spoke on that side whether they would vote for or against license if they had the ballot. Everyone answered that she would vote for license. Mr. Russell had declared that if women were allowed to vote, "no license would be carried in every town and city of the commonwealth, contrary to the will of the people." The committee gave a majority report against all the bills.

On March 10 the question of accepting the adverse report on License Suffrage came up in the Legislature. The vote stood, 100 yeas, 100 nays, and Speaker John L. Bates gave his casting vote in favor of substituting the bill for the adverse report. On March 18 the question was debated and the vote resulted in 108 yeas, 125 nays. There was much public interest and a lively discussion in the papers. Municipal and Presidential Suffrage were lost without a roll-call. A bill to make the Boston School Board appointive instead of elective, which would have deprived women of their School Suffrage, was defeated.

1898—The hearing on February 2 was conducted by Mr. Blackwell for the petitioners; Mr. Russell for the remonstrants. A letter from ex-Gov. William Claflin in favor of suffrage was read. Mrs. Anna Christy Fall, Mr. Garrison, ex-U. S. Attorney Frank B. Allen, Mrs. Helen Adelaide Shaw, Dr. A. E. Winship, editor of the Journal of Education, and others spoke for suffrage; Mrs. Arthur D. Gilman, Mrs. Egbert C. Smythe, Mrs. Rothery of Wellesley, Mrs. Lincoln R. Stone and Mrs. George against it. Miss Blackwell replied for the petitioners. The committee reported "leave to withdraw." On February 14, after debate in the House of Representatives, the vote stood 44 yeas, 97 nays.

On February 23 the committee gave a hearing on Municipal Suffrage and on License Suffrage, both of which were eloquently urged. Mrs. Cabot, Mrs. Charles E. Guild, the Rev. Thomas Van Ness, the Rev. Reuen Thomas, Mrs. Henry F. Durant, Mrs. William T. Sedgwick, Mr. Foxcroft and Mr. Russell spoke in opposition. Municipal Suffrage was not debated, but after discussion on March 10 and 11, in the House of Representatives, the vote on License Suffrage, including pairs, stood 60 yeas, 116 nays.

The record for 1899 and 1900 presented no variations except that a number of local associations petitioned for Municipal Suffrage for Taxpaying Women. The State association did not officially ask for this, though the majority of its officers favored the measure. The annual hearings were given, the usual large crowds were in attendance, the ablest men and women in the State advocated the granting of suffrage, those heretofore mentioned spoke in opposition,[323] and the negative vote was in about the same proportion as before the "remonstrants" made their appearance.[324]

Laws: Until 1845 the women of Massachusetts suffered to the fullest extent the barbarities of the English Common Law. After that date the changes were gradual but very slow. From 1884 there was but little improvement in the property laws until 1899, when a radical revision was effected by a legislative committee and approved by the Legislature. As there was to be a general revision of the statutes and the new book would not be issued until Jan. 1, 1902, it was decided that all should go into effect at that date. The new property law for women provides as follows: No distinction is made between real and personal property in distributing the estate. The surviving husband or wife takes and holds one-third if the deceased leaves children or their descendants; $5,000 and one-half of the remaining estate if the deceased leaves no issue; and the whole if the deceased leaves no kindred. This is taken absolutely and not for life. Curtesy and dower have not been abolished but the old-time curtesy, which is a life interest in the whole of a deceased wife's real estate, is cut down to a life interest in one-third, the same as dower; and in order to be entitled to dower or curtesy the surviving husband or wife must elect to take it in preference to abiding by the above provisions.

Either husband or wife can make a will under the new law without the consent of the other, but the survivor, if not satisfied with the will of the deceased, can waive it within a year and take the same share of the estate that he (or she) would have taken if there had been no will, except that, if he would thus become entitled to more than $10,000 in value, he shall receive, in addition to that amount, only the income during his life of the excess of his share of such estate above that amount; and except that, if the deceased leaves no kindred, he, upon such waiver, shall take the interest he would have taken if the deceased had died leaving kindred but no issue.

A discretionary amount may be assigned by the Probate Court to the widow for the support of herself and minor children and takes precedence of the debts of the deceased. The old law took this allowance out of the personal estate only, and often the widow was not able to receive the immediate assistance she needed, because the property was all in the form of real estate. The new law permits the real estate to be used if necessary. It also gives $100 to a minor child for his immediate necessities, if there is no widow; the old law gave $50. The new law permits the widow to remain in her husband's house for six months after his death. The old law gave her only forty days.

A married woman has full control of her separate property, and can dispose of her real estate subject only to the husband's interests. If she has been deserted or if the court has decreed that she is living apart from him for justifiable cause, she can by will or deed dispose of all her real and personal estate as if unmarried. The husband can do the same.

A married woman can be executor, administrator, guardian or trustee. She may make contracts with any one except her husband; may sue and be sued, carry on business in her own name, by complying with the legal requirements; control and invest her earnings and enter into partnerships. She is responsible for her contracts and debts and her property may be held for them. The husband is not liable on any judgments recovered against the wife alone, and her separate property is not liable on any judgment or execution against the husband. Suits between husband and wife are not allowed except for divorce.

The father is the legal guardian of the persons and estates of minor children; he has power to dispose of them during the lifetime of the mother and may appoint a guardian at his death.[325]

For non-support of wife and minor children the husband may be fined not exceeding $20 or imprisoned in the house of correction not exceeding six months. At the discretion of the court the fine is paid in whole or part to the town, city, society or person actually supporting such wife and children. (1893.)

The "age of protection" for girls was raised from 10 to 13 years in 1886; to 14 in 1888; to 16 in 1893. The penalty is imprisonment in the State prison for life or for any term of years, or for any term in any other penal institution in the commonwealth. This may be one day in the city jail.

Among various laws passed in the interests of women was one in 1895 making army nurses eligible to receive State aid. One of 1896 requires the State to inter the wife or widow of an honorably discharged soldier, sailor or marine who served during the Civil War, if she did not leave sufficient means for funeral expenses, provided she was married prior to 1870. In 1900 it was enacted that the State should perform a similar service for the mothers of said soldiers, sailors or marines, and that this should not be with the pauper dead, in either case.

Massachusetts has detailed laws regarding the employment of women, among them one restricting the hours of work in any mercantile establishment to fifty-eight in a week, except in retail stores during the month of December. Ten hours is a legal workday for women in general.

Separate houses of detention are required for women prisoners in cities of over 30,000.[326]

Suffrage: The original charter of Massachusetts in 1691 did not exclude women from voting. In 1780 the first constitution prohibited them from voting except for certain officers. The new constitution of 1820 limited the suffrage strictly to males.

In 1879 the Legislature enacted that a woman twenty-one years of age, who could give satisfactory evidence as to residence and who could stand the educational test (i. e., be able to read five lines of the constitution and write her name), and who should give notice in writing to the assessors that she wished to be assessed a poll tax (two dollars) and should give in under oath a statement of her taxable property (which was not required of men, as they had the option of letting the assessors guess at the amount) should thereupon be assessed and should be entitled to register and vote for members of school boards.[327] In order to keep her name on the registration list this entire process had to be repeated every year, while a man's name once placed on the list was kept there without further effort on his part, and the payment of the same poll tax entitled him to full suffrage.

In 1881 the poll tax was reduced to fifty cents, and the law was changed so that women's names should remain on the registration list so long as they continued to reside and pay their taxes in the place where they were registered. Even now, however, it requires constant watchfulness on their part to have this done. In 1890 the poll tax as a prerequisite for voting was abolished for men, and in 1892 for women. Only a few weeks in each year were set apart when women might register until 1898, when it was enacted that the time of registration should be the same for both.

The School Suffrage includes only a vote for members of the school board and not for supervisors, appropriations or any questions connected with the public schools. Women are not authorized to attend caucuses or have any voice in nominations of school officers. As they were thus deprived of all voice in selecting candidates, an association, Independent Women Voters, was formed in Boston in 1889 by Mrs. Eliza Trask Hill, who served as president until 1896, when she removed from the city, and Mrs. Sarah J. Boyden has filled the office since then. This organization, which was entered at the registration office as a political party, holds a caucus in each ward between January 1 and April 1 every year and nominates candidates for the School Board. Such nomination by 100 or more legal voters entitles their names to be placed on the Australian ballot. Some of the nominees of the Independent Women Voters are often accepted by the regular parties, but even when this is refused they are sometimes elected over the Republican or Democratic candidates.

Because of the conditions attached and the small privilege granted it is remarkable that any considerable number of women should have voted during these past years. When School Suffrage was first granted, in 1879, only 934 women voted, and for the first seven years the average was only 940. Since then there has been a large increase of interest. During the past seven years the number never has fallen below 5,000. In 1898, 5,201 women voted; in 1899, 7,090; in 1900, 9,542; and this year (1901) there were 15,545 names on the register and 11,620 voted. The highest number was reached in 1888, when under special circumstances 25,279 women were registered and 19,490 voted.

Office Holding: Women have served as School Committee (trustees) since 1874. For some time previous to 1884 they could hold by appointment the offices of overseers of the poor, trustees of public libraries, school supervisors, members of the State Boards of Education and of Health, Lunacy and Charity, without special legislation. It was required that there should be women on the boards of the three State Primary and Reform Schools, State workhouse, State almshouse and Board of Prison Commissioners, and that certain managers and officers of the Reformatory Prison for Women at Sherborn should be women.

In 1884 a bill was passed requiring the appointment of two women on the board of every Hospital for the Insane and one woman physician for each. In 1885 it was enacted that women might be assistant registers of deeds; in 1886 that they might be elected overseers of the poor. In 1887 a law was passed requiring police matrons in all cities of 30,000 inhabitants or more. There had been matrons in Boston fifteen years.

In 1890 the Supreme Court decided that a woman could not act as notary public. In 1891 it was enacted that there should be women factory inspectors; in 1895 that a woman could be appointed assistant town or city clerk; in 1896 that county commissioners might appoint a woman clerk pro tempore!

The evolution of the Special Commissioner shows the laborious processes by which women make any gains in Massachusetts. In 1883 a law was passed that women attorneys could be appointed Special Commissioners to administer oaths, take depositions and acknowledge deeds. In 1889 it was amended to give Special Commissioners the same powers as justices of the peace in the above respects and also that of issuing summonses for witnesses. In 1896 it was provided that any woman over twenty-one, the same as any man, whether a lawyer or not, could be appointed commissioner; a change of name by marriage should terminate her commission but should not disqualify her for re-appointment. In 1898 the powers were extended to appointments of appraisers of estates. In 1899 the powers of the Special Commissioner were made coincident with those of justice of the peace, but the authority to perform the marriage ceremony was taken from justices generally and is now given to specified ones only.

Women can not be justices of the peace. They may be appointed by the State to take acknowledgments of deeds but not to perform the marriage ceremony unless regularly ordained ministers.

Women at present are serving on State Boards as follows: Commissioners of Prisons, Charity and Free Public Library—two each; trustees of Insane Hospitals at Danvers, Northampton, Taunton, Worcester and Medfield—two each, and at Westborough, three; School for Feeble-minded, one; Hospital for Epileptics, two; for Dipsomaniacs and Inebriates, one; Hospital Cottages for Children, one; State Hospital and State Farm, two; Lyman and Industrial Schools, two.

It has been impossible to ascertain the number of women serving as School Trustees later than 1898. Then the records showed 194 on boards in 138 towns, but, as in many cases only the initials of the prefixes to the names were given, this is probably an underestimate. Women serve on the boards of public libraries.

Women are found in the following official positions in Boston: trustees of public institutions, two; of children's institutions, three; of insane hospitals, two; of bath departments, two; overseers of the poor, two; city conveyancer in law department, one; Superior Court stenographer, one; probation officers, two; chief matron House of Detention, one; supervisor of schools, one; members of school committee, four.

Occupations: Massachusetts claims the first woman who ever practiced medicine in the United States—Dr. Harriot K. Hunt, who studied with her father and began in 1835, long before a medical college in the country was open to women. In 1881 Lelia J. Robinson applied for admission to the bar in Boston and the Supreme Court decided a woman to be ineligible. The Legislature of 1892 enacted that women should be admitted to the practice of law. No professions or occupations are now legally forbidden to them.

Education: One of the first seminaries for women in the United States was Mt. Holyoke at South Hadley, Mass., now a college with 550 students; the largest college for women in the world is Smith at Northampton, with 1,131 students; one that ranks among the four highest in existence, Wellesley, has 819; Radcliffe at Cambridge, has 407. The requirements of admission and the examinations are the same for Radcliffe as for Harvard and the courses of instruction are identical. The teaching is done by members of the Harvard faculty, over one hundred of them. All degrees must be approved by the President and Fellows of Harvard, the diplomas are countersigned by the President and bear the University seal. Nevertheless Radcliffe is not recognized as having any official connection with the ancient university. A number of graduate courses in Harvard are open to women but without degrees.

Boston University, with 1,430 students, is co-educational in all its departments, including law, medicine and theology. The same is true of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the State Agricultural College. There has been no distinction of sex in Tufts College (Univers.) since 1892; or in Clark University (post-graduate) in Worcester, since 1900. The College of Physicians and Surgeons and Tufts Colleges of Medicine and Surgery, in Boston, admit women. They are excluded from Andover Theological Seminary (Cong'l), Newton Theological Institute (Baptist), Amherst College, Williams College and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

In the public schools there are 1,197 men and 12,205 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men is $136.23; of the women, $51.41. Omitting the High School salaries, the average amount paid to men per month is $130.09; to women, $49.61. In some counties over one-half as much is paid to women teachers as to men, but in Essex County the monthly ratio is $127.82 to men, and $47.17 to women, and in Suffolk County $200.07 to men and $63.44, or less than one-third, to women. Boston has 215 men teachers at an average monthly salary of $213.61; and 1,762 women at an average of $69.68. In no other State is the discrepancy so great in the salary of men and women teachers.

The women's clubs of Massachusetts are as the sands of the sea. Of these 169, with a membership of 21,451, belong to the State Federation. The New England Woman's Club was organized in 1868, the same year as Sorosis in New York and about one month earlier. These two are generally spoken of as the pioneers of women's clubs as they exist to-day.

THE NATIONAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.[328]

When the third volume of the History of Woman Suffrage closed in 1885 it left this association three years old, with Mrs. Harriette Robinson Shattuck, president, Dr. Salome Merritt, vice-president, and thirteen other vice-presidents who represented the same number of counties. To these leaders and others it seemed necessary that Massachusetts should have this society in order to give a support to the officers and the methods of the National Woman Suffrage Association, which they were not receiving from the State society, at that time auxiliary to the American Association. In those three years conventions had been held in some twenty cities.

Mrs. Harriet M. Emerson was then engaged in preparing petitions, to which she secured many signers, asking for "a statute to enable a widow who desires it, to become on reasonable terms a co-executor with those appointed by her husband's will." For several years she spent much time on this work and had the help of many of the best citizens of Boston. It was ably presented at each session of the Legislature, but no action was taken.[329]

Mrs. Harriet H. Robinson, the corresponding secretary, has published Massachusetts in the Woman Suffrage Movement, The New Pandora, a woman's play, Capt. Mary Miller, etc.; Mrs. Shattuck, The Woman's Manual of Parliamentary Law, Advanced Rules for Large Assemblies. Another member, Mrs. Sara A. Underwood, has done valuable work on the newspapers of Boston, New York and other cities, and before the Legislature. The writings of Mrs. Evaleen L. Mason are well known.

In 1888 certain historical text-books which were objected to by the Roman Catholics were removed from the schools and replaced by others. This caused great excitement, over 25,000 women registered to vote, and for two successive years helped to defeat all the Catholic candidates for the school board and to elect a number of women. The members of this association maintained the non-partisan side and opposed the extremists who urged that Catholics should be excluded from the board, thus depriving it of some of its most experienced and faithful men.

In April, 1888, the association applied for a charter and became the first incorporated body of woman suffragists in the State. In December a petition was sent to Congress asking for an amendment to the United States Constitution prohibiting disfranchisement on account of sex.

In 1889 a petition from this association was introduced in the Legislature to require assessors to ask at every house whether there are women there who wish to be assessed a poll tax. A petition was also sent in for a law providing that one-third of the membership of the school committee consist of women. These were presented by Mr. Barker of Malden.

At the eighth annual meeting in May, 1890, C. W. Ernst gave an instructive address on political topics.

In October, 1891, a special meeting was called to discuss the question of discontinuing auxiliaryship to the National-American Association, and continuing work as an independent organization. After a full discussion the vote resulted in remaining auxiliary, only one opposed.

In March, 1892, a plan was laid before the association by Dr. Merritt for action in the various cities and towns of the State to secure the nomination in caucuses of such senators and representatives only as would declare themselves in favor of woman suffrage. A committee was formed to confer with other organizations, and at the next meeting it reported that the Boston Suffrage League, Mrs. Ellen Battelle Dietrick, president, had approved the plan and called a meeting where nine wards were represented and a compact signed. In May this agreement was adopted by the Suffolk County Committee, who were to work in Boston while the association was to manage outside counties. One thousand copies were printed and circulated but the final results showed not enough interest to make the measure a success.

At this time Mrs. Shattuck resigned the presidency, "being engaged in work more imperative," and Mrs. Robinson gave up her office of corresponding secretary. At the October meeting Miss Hatch was elected a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Columbian Exposition. Mrs. Sarah A. P. Dickerman acted as president during the remainder of the year. Valuable discussions were held on State and National Banks, Should the Governor Exercise the Veto Power? Shall Immigration Be Restricted? Which Would Benefit Boston Most, License or No License? and other timely questions.

In January, 1893, it was voted to petition the Legislature that women be allowed to vote on a constitutional amendment affecting their property rights. A special effort was made in petition work both for Congress and the Legislature. In one small village where forty-two signatures were obtained, only four persons refused to sign. In May Dr. Merritt was unanimously elected president of the association, and remained in office until her death in 1900. At this meeting a statement was made that in Massachusetts there were from 105,000 to 110,000 families with widows or single women as heads, not represented by one vote. In December a committee was appointed to confer with the legislative committee of the State School Suffrage Association to secure an extension of the time (then only two or three days) which was allotted to the registration of women.

At the legislative hearing in January, 1894, petitions were presented by this association from seven counties, covering twenty-one towns. At this date 186 women were reported as holding office, eleven being district superintendents of schools. The following May the registration laws were so changed that women have since had the same time as men in which to register. Under the present law, the assessors in their regular rounds are required to take the names of women voters having the same residence as on a previous voting list. These are then entered on the register for the ensuing campaign without further trouble.

In September, 1895, a special meeting was called to decide how best to help the work for the referendum which had been submitted by the Legislature in order to ascertain how many women desired to vote. Twenty-five dollars were appropriated toward defraying the expenses of the State committee appointed to conduct this campaign.

In 1896 much time was spent on measures helpful to women and children. One of these was to secure the early closing of stores, the result being that through the entire summer all the principal stores in Boston were closed at 5 p. m. every day, and on Saturdays at 12 M., as they have been each summer since.

House Bill 625 of 1896 started with a most innocent appearance under the title, "A bill to enlarge the powers of the police commissioners of Boston." In reality it asked that the powers of the police force be so extended as to allow them to issue permits for the keeping of houses of ill-repute, with authority for their inspection and control. Other organizations joined this one in opposition, with the result that the bill was defeated.

The association also advocated "A bill to prohibit child insurance," on account of the injury done to families by absorbing the means which should be expended for food, clothes and other necessaries in the payment of policies. It was considered, moreover, in the nature of a premium for child murder by neglect.

The most interesting event of 1898 was the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the first woman's rights convention. Dr. Merritt spoke of the rise of the movement, saying that 1848 was as marked an epoch in the rights of women as was 1776 in the rights of men. Miss Hatch's paper gave the trend of events previous to the Seneca Falls Convention, showing that these molded public sentiment and gave rise to the calling of this memorable meeting. Speeches, letters from absent members and a roll of honor, each giving the name of an old worker and adding appropriate remarks, followed.

In addition to the usual petitions was one to Congress in behalf of the Hawaiian women. A protest was also sent against the admission to Congress of Brigham H. Roberts of Utah, a polygamist and an enemy to woman suffrage.

Since 1884 this association has held 128 public meetings. It has been represented by active working delegates at every convention of the National Association since becoming an auxiliary in 1882. The recording secretary has held that office for seventeen years, never having been absent from a monthly meeting unless because of illness or attendance at the national conventions. She has been a delegate to the latter for fourteen years.

This association did much pioneer press work. From its first session a report of the same, with items made up of whatever had occurred in any part of the world advantageous to woman's advancement since the previous meeting, has appeared next day in the leading Boston dailies, with scarcely an omission during the eighteen years.

Besides those already mentioned the following have held office and been faithful workers: Mesdames A. M. Mahony, Sarah A. Rand and Lydia L. Hutchins; and the Misses Hannah M. Todd, Elizabeth B. Atwill, Charlotte Lobdell, Agnes G. Parrott and Sophia M. Hale. In 1901 the society united with the Massachusetts State Association.