The Suffrage Convention and Its Leading Participants.

Washington, January 14, 1871.

The last evening’s session of the woman suffrage convention opened with Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts, on the stage. Although this Senator has greatest faith in Catharine Beecher’s views, it would be in direct opposition to all the acts of his past life to turn a cold cheek to the appeal of loving humanity; so his broad, genial face stood out from its luminous background like the moon attended by its starry host. The first person introduced to the audience was Mrs. Cora L. V. Hatch (now Tappan), and, judging by what followed, she must have been entranced. It could not be ascertained whether or not her mental machinery had been wound up with the expectation that it would run down at the end of a given period, but at any rate she kept on ticking until Senator Wilson drew an instrument out of a side pocket, apparently for no other reason but to find out whether she was gaining or losing time. Mrs. Hooker, in the meantime, looked anxious and weary, and Susan B. Anthony, like Banquo’s ghost, stalked across the stage. This seemed to bring the “medium” to her senses, and she closed after it was known that she had been innocent of having anything to say.

As if to reward the audience for its late patience, Miss Anthony came forward to give it some food for thought. She said the object of this convention is to prevail on Congress to decide on Mrs. Woodhull’s definition of the fourteenth amendment. “If we fail in this it is our intention to apply for registration in the different districts where we belong, and if we are refused this privilege, suits will at once be commenced, and the case be followed up until it is decided by the highest court in the land. But suppose we fail to obtain justice under the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the Constitution, we can go back to our good old sixteenth, and work until our undertaking is crowned with success.” She then read the name of a grand central working committee, every name a well-tried, faithful servant of the cause. She said no name would be placed on that paper because she was a Mrs. Senator This or a Mrs. Rev. That. The names were then read:

“The business of this committee is to go to work and get money to defray the expense of printing documents. Congress will be asked to make an appropriation to this end, but in case of disappointment from that quarter we shall fall back on the national central committee. We shall also ask the members to frank these documents, and we hope to fill Uncle Sam’s mail-bags with the same until they groan. Among all my acquaintances in Congress, I never found but one man who would allow me the use of his frank, and this was Brooks, of New York. Yes, Congressman Brooks. I know he is a Democrat, but I find Democrats just as much inclined to give us the ballot as the Republicans. And why should they not, for they are all of them nothing but men? She said the strongest kind of appeals would be made for money during the coming campaign. Mrs. Victoria Woodhull had subscribed ten thousand dollars, and would any man in the country do the same?”

Miss Lillie Peckham, of Wisconsin, was then introduced by Senator Wilson. Miss Lillie confined her remarks closely to the labor question, and her efforts this time were a marked improvement upon the last. She told her hearers all about the difficulties in the way of women when they attempt to enter the field of science and art. Harriet Hosmer had to go the length and breadth of this land before she could find a college where she was allowed to study anatomy; Rosa Bonheur was obliged to pursue her studies in the butcher shambles of Paris, and Myra Bradwell was not allowed to practice before the courts of Illinois because she was a married woman, and as such could not be recognized, in consequence of technicalities of the law. Ben Butler had said that women should not hold clerkships under the Government because they were needed for wives in the far West; Mr. Rodgers, of Arkansas, had introduced a law too infamous to mention. In forcible terms she painted the narrow field in which women who have no protectors must necessarily struggle and die. At the magic touch of her voice thousands of lowly women left their wretched basements and attics, folded their rags about them and stood on the stage. She went on to say, if the ballot improves the workingman’s condition, in Heaven’s name why not the workingwoman’s? Are they not the same flesh and blood, warmed by the same heat, frozen by the same cold, and subject to the same laws of life and death?

After Miss Peckham had finished Miss Anthony came to the financial point again, and appointed a committee of two persons to receive the amount which any were disposed to give. Senators Wilson and Pomeroy made their donation in the most modest possible way, and a few others followed the example, and this brought the woman suffrage convention to an end.

It will be remembered that it was called and organized by three prominent women, and so far as it was a success it must be attributed to them. It is safe to say that the woman suffrage conventions at the capital are steadily improving in social refinement and intellectual culture as they succeed each other year after year. Women with pantaloons and men with long hair have taken the back seats, and if peaked hats and coat-tails are visible, these badges are confined exclusively to Wall street, and there may be a necessity for the peaked hats in this awful locality which the innocent world knows nothing about. Senators of the United States have presided at every session, and quite a number of members have attended the meetings from time to time. Occasionally the head of a bureau has peeped out from the audience, and a slight sprinkling of clerks has been noticed now and then, whilst the most perfect order has reigned from the beginning to the end.

When the question was asked Miss Kate Stanton, why the woman suffragists did not bring all their weapons to bear upon the women of the country, instead of wasting their ammunition upon the men, she replied: “It is of no use; we must make the movement popular with the men, and they will educate the women up to it.”

Owing to the misfortune that some of the delegates from a long distance did not reach Washington in time for the convention, a meeting took place in the lecture-room of the Young Men’s Christian Association building the following day. No business of importance took place. Mrs. Brooks, a small, timid woman, undertook to give a report of what was progressing in the West. But this she found was too much for her modesty, so she gave way for one of the masculine gender by the name of Jones, who feelingly gave the Western picture. Mrs. Post, of Wyoming, gave her experience of voting, and this of necessity was very interesting. She had “electioneered,” been to caucus meetings and to the polls side by side with the men, and, so far as she knew, her womanhood was just as good as ever, and matters had become greatly improved since woman suffrage was a fixed fact in Wyoming. Miss Anthony followed in one of her best speeches. Miss Peckham said that Senator Carpenter, of Wisconsin, was fully committed to the cause, and Mrs. Josephine Griffing was willing to pledge herself for the District. Mrs. Pauline Davis eulogized Rhode Island, and Mrs. Hazlett, of Michigan, spoke in her usual bright, crispy way. She said she would present her name for registration under the law of the fourteenth amendment, and had no fear as to the result. Mrs. Dr. Lockwood moved a vote of thanks to the reporters of the Washington press for their courtesy, kindness, and ability displayed during the convention, and the meeting adjourned sine die.

Olivia.