As early as 1887 Gov. David B. Hill, at the earnest request of the State Suffrage a.s.sociation, had recommended that women should have a representation in the convention which would frame this revision. Miss Susan B. Anthony, Mrs. Lillie Devereux Blake, Mrs. Mary Seymour Howell and Mrs. Caroline Gilkey Rogers addressed a joint committee of the Legislature urging that women delegates should be permitted to sit in this convention. Mrs. Blake also prepared a strong written appeal which was sent to every member. Gov. Roswell P. Flower in his message in 1892 made a similar recommendation. Again Miss Anthony, Mrs. Blake and Mrs. Howell made a plea for women, this time before the a.s.sembly Judiciary Committee.
The original bill provided for a certain number of delegates to be appointed by the Governor, among these four to represent the Prohibitionists, three the Labor Party and three the Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation. The power of the Governor to appoint was afterwards declared unconst.i.tutional. A bill allowing three women delegates pa.s.sed the a.s.sembly, but was defeated in the Senate. The act which finally was secured provided that all the delegates should be elected, and that there should be two representatives each for the Prohibition, Labor and Socialist parties. None was granted to the Suffragists; but the law said: "The electors may elect any citizen of the State above the age of twenty-one years."
The following was then sent to each of the political party conventions, through properly accredited delegates:
Among other duties inc.u.mbent upon the members of your honorable body is that of nominating delegates-at-large to the convention called for the revision of the State const.i.tution. As women are eligible to these positions we offer you the names of three who have been selected by the executive board of the State W. S. A.
as their choice of delegates for that convention, with the hope that you will accept them as candidates of your own.
The names presented were those of Miss Anthony, Mrs. Howell and Miss Emily Howland, the last a large taxpayer and an excellent business woman. The ladies were courteously listened to by the Democrats, and refused an opportunity to speak by the Republicans. Similar efforts were made in district conventions.
Both Republicans and Democrats, however, refused to nominate any women, the compensation of $10 per day, in addition to the political power conferred, making the positions entirely too valuable to give to a disfranchised cla.s.s. The name of even Susan B. Anthony was declined by the Republicans of her district. The Democrats of that district, who were in a hopeless minority, made the one exception in the whole State and nominated Mrs. Jean Brooks Greenleaf, who ran some votes ahead of the rest of the ticket.
[Ill.u.s.tration:
MARY S. ANTHONY.
Rochester, N. Y.
JEAN BROOKS GREENLEAF.
Rochester. N. Y.
MARIANA W. CHAPMAN.
Brooklyn, N. Y.
EMILY HOWLAND.
Sherwood, N. Y.
ELIZA WRIGHT OSBORNE.
Auburn, N. Y.
Every effort was now directed toward obtaining a clause in the new const.i.tution, as there was little doubt that if this could be done it would be adopted with the rest of that instrument. An eloquent appeal was issued to all the friends of liberty throughout the State, urging them to a.s.sist in securing this measure of justice to women. A campaign was carefully planned with an ability which would have been creditable to experienced political managers, and $10,000 were raised and expended with the most rigid economy.[383]
To save rent headquarters were established in Miss Anthony"s own home in Rochester, which soon became a beehive of industry, and the work increased until practically every room was pressed into service. The president of the State a.s.sociation and campaign committee, Mrs.
Greenleaf, and the corresponding secretary, Miss Mary S. Anthony, gave practically every hour of their time for six months to this great effort. The postoffice daily sent mail sacks to the house, which were filled with pet.i.tions and other doc.u.ments and set out on the porch for collection.
Miss Anthony herself, at the age of seventy-four, spoke in every one of the sixty counties of the State, contributing her services and expenses. This series of ma.s.s meetings was managed by Miss Harriet May Mills and Miss Mary G. Hay. The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw spoke at forty of these, and Mrs. Howell at a large number. The entire management of New York City was put into the hands of Mrs. Blake, while the campaign for Brooklyn was conducted by Mrs. Mariana W. Chapman. Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt made thirty-eight speeches in these two cities and vicinity. Mrs. Stanton, from her home in New York, sent many strong articles to the metropolitan press, which were copied throughout the State. Mrs. Martha R. Almy. State vice-president, was an active worker.
Women of social influence in this city, who never had shown any public interest in the question, opened headquarters at Sherry"s, held meetings and secured signatures to a suffrage pet.i.tion. The leaders of this branch were Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell, Mrs. Joseph H. Choate, Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, Mrs. J. Warren G.o.ddard, Mrs. Robert Abbe, Mrs.
Henry M. Sanders and Miss Adele M. Fielde. Among those who signed the pet.i.tion were Chauncey M. Depew, Russell Sage, Frederick Coudert, the Rev. Heber Newton, the Rev. W. S. Rainsford, Bishop Henry C. Potter, Rabbi Gustave Gottheil, John D. Rockefeller, Robert J. Ingersoll and William Dean Howells.
One of the surprises of the campaign was the organization in Albany of a small body of women calling themselves "remonstrants," under the leadership of the Episcopal bishop, William Croswell Doane, and Mrs.
John V. L. Pruyn. Another branch was organized in New York City by Mrs. Francis M. Scott, and one in Brooklyn with Mrs. Lyman Abbott at the head and the support of her husband"s paper, _The Outlook_.
The suffrage forces circulated 5,000 pet.i.tions and secured 332,148 individual signatures, about half of them women (including 36,000 collected by the W. C. T. U.) and memorials from labor organizations and Granges, bringing the total, in round numbers, to 600,000.[384]
The "remonstrants" obtained only 15,000 signatures, yet at that time and ever afterwards many of the newspapers insisted that the vast preponderance of sentiment among men and women was opposed to equal suffrage.
A part of the work was to collect statistics showing the amount of property on which taxes were paid by women. It was impossible to obtain these in New York City, but in three-fifths of the towns and cities outside it was found to be $348,177,107. In Brooklyn women paid one-fourth of all the taxes. The drudgery of preparing these tax lists and recounting and labeling all the pet.i.tions was done chiefly by Miss Isabel Howland.
During the convention an office and a reception room in the Capitol were granted for the use of the women. On May 24 Miss Anthony and Mrs.
Greenleaf addressed the Suffrage Committee of the Const.i.tutional Convention in the a.s.sembly Chamber of the Capitol at Albany. A large crowd was present, including the committee and most of the delegates.
Mrs. Greenleaf"s remarks were brief but forcible, and Miss Anthony spoke earnestly for three-quarters of an hour, seeming to have the full sympathy of her audience.
The women of New York City were accorded a hearing on May 31, and strong arguments were made by Dr. Jacobi, Miss Margaret Livingstone Chanler, Mrs. Blake and Miss Harriette A. Keyser. On June 7 the Suffrage Committee was addressed by representative women, in five-minute speeches, from all of the Senatorial districts outside of New York City.[385] Mrs. Greenleaf presided at all these meetings.[386]
The final hearing was accorded June 28, when U. S. Senator Joseph M.
Carey, who had come from Wyoming by invitation for this purpose, made a most convincing argument based on the practical experience of his own State for twenty-five years. He was followed by Mrs. Howell and Mrs. Mary T. Burt, president of the State W. C. T. U.
All of these addresses in favor of recognizing woman"s right to the franchise were valueless except for the creation of public sentiment and as a matter of history, for the chairman of the convention, the Hon. Joseph H. Choate, had appointed a Suffrage Committee the large majority of whom were known anti-suffragists, and he was reported to have said before the convention met that the amendment should not be placed in the const.i.tution. The committee made an adverse report, which was discussed by the convention on the evenings of August 8 and 15, with the a.s.sembly Chamber crowded at each session.[387] The advocates of adopting a woman suffrage plank were led by the Hon.
Edward Lauterbach and the opponents by Mr. Root and William P.
Goodelle, chairman of the Suffrage Committee.[388]
While the ballot was being taken Mr. Choate went on the floor among the delegates, and himself gave the last vote against the amendment.
The ballot resulted--in favor of the amendment, 58; opposed, 98.
Even though a defeat, this was a decided advance over the Const.i.tutional Convention of 1867, when there were but 19 ayes and 125 noes. Then less than one-seventh, this time more than one-third of the members were in favor of the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women.
The following month Miss Anthony and Mr. Lauterbach addressed the Committee on Resolutions of the State Republican Convention, and Miss Anthony and Mrs. Blake that of the Democratic, asking for a recognition of woman suffrage in their platforms, but both ignored the request.
LEGISLATIVE ACTION: Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Miss Susan B.
Anthony were the pioneers in legislative work for woman suffrage, the former making her first speech before a committee--in behalf of property rights--as early as 1845, and continuing her appeals for the various rights of women during twenty-five years, after which her addresses were given usually before the committees of the United States Congress. Miss Anthony made her first appearance in Albany in 1853, and her last one before a committee there in 1897. She devoted her strongest efforts to the Legislature of her own State until the demands of national work became so great as to absorb most of her time, and then she, too, transferred her appeals to the legislative body of the United States, although a.s.sisting always the work in New York.
Meanwhile other competent laborers had come into the field. In 1873 Mrs. Lillie Devereux Blake began her legislative work, and for twenty-five years there were few bills in the interests of women under consideration at Albany which were not managed by her, with an able corps of a.s.sistants, chief among whom was Mrs. Mary Seymour Howell.
For fifty years there is an almost unbroken record of the efforts of women to secure equality of rights from the Legislature of New York, and they have succeeded to the extent that now, with the exception of the statute providing for dower and curtesy, but few serious discriminations exist against women in the laws, although the injustice of disfranchis.e.m.e.nt has been mitigated in only a slight degree.
When the Legislature a.s.sembled on Jan. 1, 1884, Mrs. Blake and Mrs.
Howell were at hand to further the interests of the pending bill "to prohibit disfranchis.e.m.e.nt on account of s.e.x." On March 13 a hearing was held in the a.s.sembly Chamber before the Judiciary Committee and a large audience. The speakers were Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway of Oregon, Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton Harbert of Illinois and Mrs. Helen M.
Gougar of Indiana, Mrs. Blake, Mrs. Howell and Mrs. Caroline Gilkey Rogers. On May 8, after an exciting debate, the bill was defeated--57 ayes, 62 noes.
The bill of 1885 was drawn by Mrs. Blake and was accompanied by a strong written argument, with many court decisions to show that it was within the power of the Legislature itself to protect all citizens from disfranchis.e.m.e.nt. This was presented by Gen. James W. Husted, speaker of the House. Two hearings were given in the a.s.sembly Chamber, at which addresses were made by Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. Blake, Mrs. Howell, Mrs. Rogers and Gov. John W. Hoyt of Wyoming.
The bill was debated April 7. General Husted, Mayor James Haggerty and Dr. J. T. Williams spoke in favor; Gen. N. M. Curtis and Kidder Scott in opposition. The vote stood 57 ayes, 56 noes, but a const.i.tutional majority was lacking.
During the summer Mrs. Blake spoke in almost every district whose member had voted against the measure.
In 1886 a bill for Munic.i.p.al Suffrage only was presented, drawn by Augustus Levy and introduced in the Senate by George Z. Erwin, in the House by Speaker Husted. On February 10 a hearing took place in the a.s.sembly Chamber. Mrs. Blake presided and the speakers were Mrs.
Matilda Joslyn Gage, Mrs. Howell, Mrs. Rogers and Mrs. Annie Jenness Miller. On March 2 the Senate gave a hearing to Mr. Levy and James Redpath. The campaign this winter was one of the most vigorous ever made. Besides the executive officers of the State a.s.sociation, who were in Albany some days of every week, much help was secured by the occasional visits of prominent women and the numerous letters of influential people from all parts of the State. On the night of the final vote the a.s.sembly Chamber was filled by friends of the measure and many officials were present, including the Lieutenant-Governor and the Attorney-General. As this bill would give women only the right to vote in munic.i.p.al affairs, it had many supporters who would not have favored full suffrage. The debate was long and earnest, Mr. Erwin, General Husted, Mr. Longley of Brooklyn, Mr. Freligh of Ulster and others speaking in favor, and General Curtis, William F. Sheehan and others in opposition. The roll-call was taken in great excitement, and the ayes went up until their number reached 65, the const.i.tutional majority. A round of applause broke out, but in an instant two men arose and changed their votes from the affirmative to the negative, so that on the final call the vote stood, 63 ayes, 52 noes.
This winter another law was enacted to remove all doubts as to the const.i.tutionality of the one of 1880, which conferred School Suffrage on women in villages and country districts. Representative Charles Sprague introduced a bill making mothers and fathers joint guardians of their children, but it was defeated.
In 1887 Mrs. Howell drew up the Munic.i.p.al Suffrage Bill, which was introduced by Senator Erwin. She spent ten days personally interviewing every senator until she had the promise of the twenty votes which were given the bill on its final pa.s.sage, seventeen being necessary. There were but nine noes.
After the clerk had read the bill in the a.s.sembly, Speaker Husted said: "If there is no objection this bill will go at once to the third reading." Wm. F. Sheehan, the leading opponent of woman suffrage, was asleep at the time and so it was thus ordered. Mrs. Howell continued her efforts, but the measure was defeated--48 ayes, 68 noes--by a moneyed influence from New York City, after nearly enough votes to carry it had been promised.
A bill providing police matrons in cities, with the exception of New York and Brooklyn, was secured from this Legislature. It had been pa.s.sed in 1882, but not signed by Gov. Alonzo B. Cornell; pa.s.sed again in the a.s.sembly in 1883, but defeated in the Senate by the Police Department of New York City. The bill was finally secured by the Woman"s Prison a.s.sociation, but it was not made mandatory and no attention was paid to it by the city authorities.
A bill was presented this year to relieve women from the death penalty, on the ground that since they had not the full privileges of men they should not suffer equal punishment. The measure was ably supported, but failed to pa.s.s.