can 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.[1]
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.[2]
Legislative Action:[3] 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
- ↑ Other officers have been: Recording secretary, Miss Alice Stone Blackwell; treasurers, Miss Amanda M. Lougee, Mrs. Harriet W. Sewall, Francis J. Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison; chairmen of the executive committee, Mrs. Lucy Stone, Mrs. Judith W. Smith, Miss Blackwell. Vice-presidents for 1900 are the Hons. George F. Hoar, John D. Long, William Claflin, W. W. Crapo, Josiah Quincy, George A. O. Ernst, J. W. Candler, Lieut.-Gov. John L. Bates, Col. T. W. Higginson, the Rev. George Willis Cooke, William I. Bowditch, William Lloyd Garrison, Prof. Ellen Hayes, Mesdames Julia Ward Howe, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward, Pauline Agassiz Shaw (Quincy A.), Oliver Ames, Fanny B. Ames, Abby Morton Diaz, Susan S. Fessenden, Ole Bull, Emma Walker Batcheller, Martha Perry Lowe, Mary Schlesinger, Miss Mary F. Eastman, Miss Lucia M. Peabody.
- ↑ Mr. Blackwell was corresponding secretary from 1871 to 1893; Miss Laura Moore of Vermont, one year, and Mrs. Ellen M. Bolles of Rhode Island, from 1894 to the present time; recording secretaries, Charles K. Whipple, Mrs. O. Augusta Cheney, Mrs. Ellie A. Hilt, Miss Eva Channing; treasurers, Mrs. Harriet W. Sewall, John L. Whiting, Miss Amanda M. Lougee, Francis J. Garrison. The vice-presidents are the presidents and prominent members of the New England State Associations.
- ↑ Limited space has prevented any résumé of the speeches made during these years in the conventions or before the legislative committees. The reader is referred to the files of the Woman's Journal which have been placed in a number of public libraries. The names of legislators who have advocated woman suffrage will be found at the close of Legislative Action.
