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 a.s.sociation 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 a.s.sociation amended the old const.i.tution 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 a.s.sociation, and others.
Lucy Stone was elected president and superintendents were inst.i.tuted for different departments of work.
At a gathering of Ma.s.sachusetts 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 pet.i.tion. 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 pet.i.tion. 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 Munic.i.p.al Suffrage Bill which was then pending.
At the May Festival of 1893 Senator h.o.a.r 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 a.s.sociation. 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 a.s.sociation 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. f.a.n.n.y 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 Munic.i.p.al 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 pa.s.sed 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 n.o.ble 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 a.s.sociation again held its annual meeting in December. Among the resolutions adopted was the following:
In the pa.s.sing 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 a.s.sociation 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 h.o.a.r, Frederick Dougla.s.s and others. Governor-elect Frederick T. Greenhalge and Lieut.
Gov.-elect Roger Wolcott occupied seats on the platform.
This year the Ma.s.sachusetts 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 inst.i.tutions. 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 pa.s.sage 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 s.e.x.
Lucy Stone mite-boxes were circulated by the a.s.sociation 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 pa.s.sed the year before in Louisville.
On July 24 Woman"s Day was celebrated at the Ma.s.sachusetts 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 a.s.sociation 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 Munic.i.p.al Suffrage to women." He also referred to it favorably in an address before the New England Women"s Press a.s.sociation, 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 a.s.sociation 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 a.s.sociation secured a Woman"s Day at the New England Chautauqua a.s.sembly; 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 Ma.s.sachusetts, by Mr. Ernst, and distributed an immense amount of literature.
Up to this time the anti-suffrage a.s.sociations organized in Ma.s.sachusetts always had gone to pieces within a short period after they were formed. But in May, 1895, the present a.s.sociation 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 cla.s.s 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 cla.s.s--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 n.o.ble traditions attach to their names and nowhere more than in Boston. But one thing has in all ages and places been denied to this cla.s.s--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 a.s.sociation 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. f.a.n.n.y 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 pet.i.tion the Legislature to give us a real instead of a sham referendum, by submitting to the voters a const.i.tutional 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 b.u.t.terworth.
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 Ma.s.sachusetts governors who have advocated woman suffrage since 1870--Governors Claflin, Washburn, Talbot, Brackett, Long, Butler and Ames.