13 yeas, 8 nays. The one woman member, Mrs. Eliza Hudson, brought in a minority report signed by herself and the other seven, and in spite of every parliamentary tactic it was brought to a debate and discussed four hours, Judge Frank Doster[1] leading the affirmative. The debate was closed by Mrs. Diggs,[2] and the resolution was adopted by 337 yeas, 269 nays—with a rider attached to it saying, "but we do not regard this as a test of party fealty."
The Democratic women brought every possible influence to bear on the State convention of that party but it adopted the following resolution: "We oppose woman suffrage as tending to destroy the home and family, the true basis of political safety, and express the hope that the help-meet and guardian of the family sanctuary may not be dragged from the modest purity of self-imposed seclusion to be thrown unwillingly into the unfeminine places of political strife."
Miss Shaw continued canvassing the State for two months. Then Mrs. Chapman Catt went out and remained until after election, making addresses, conferring with the politicians and counseling with the women. Miss Anthony, who was obliged to give most of the summer to the great campaign in progress in her own State of New York, returned to Kansas October 20, and spoke daily on the Populist platform in the principal towns until election day, November 6, but only on the suffrage plank. A large number of the ablest of the Kansas women made speeches throughout the campaign and an army of them worked for the amendment.[3]
- ↑ Now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Kansas.
- ↑ Of Mrs. Diggs' speech Mrs. Johns writes: 'It was one of the most masterly arguments I ever heard. At one point she said: 'The great majority of you declare that woman suffrage is right, (a roar of 'yes,' 'yes,' went up), and yet you oppose this plank. Are you afraid to do right?' Her reply to the flimsy objections of the chairman, P. P. Elder, was simply unanswerable. She cut the ground from under his feet, and his confusion and rout were so complete that he stood utterly confounded. That small woman with her truth and eloquence had slain the Goliath of the opposition!"
- ↑ The following speakers and organizers were placed at fairs, Chautauqua assemblies, Picnics, teachers' institutes and in distinctive suffrage meetings: James Clement Ambrose (Ills.), Theresa Jenkins (Wyo.), Elizabeth Upham Yates (Me.), Clara C. Hoffman (Mo.); Mrs. Johns, J. B. Johns, the Revs. Eugenia and C. H. St. John, Mary G. Haines, Luella R. Kraybill, Helen L. Kimber, Laura A. Gregg, Lizzie E. Smith, Ella W. Brown, Nsomi Anderson, Eva Corning, Ella Bartlett, Alma B. Stryker, Olive I. Royce, Caroline L. Denton, Mrs. Diggs, May Belleville Brown, J. Willis Gleed, Thomas L. Bond, the Rev. Granville Lowther, Prof. W. H. Carruth and Mayor Harrison of Topeka. During the autumn Mrs. Emma Smith DeVoe (Ills.), and Mrs. Julia B. Nelson (Minn.),
