CHAPTER VII.
DELAWARE.[1]
During the past twenty years the advocates of woman suffrage have continued to suffer from the handicap peculiar to Delaware — no referendum to the voters possible on constitutional amendments — and therefore it never has had the advantage of a State-wide educational campaign. An amendment must be passed by two-thirds of each branch of the Legislature at two successive sessions and it then becomes a part of the constitution. However, the State Equal Suffrage Association has held conventions every year. Many distinguished advocates from outside the State, including Miss Susan B. Anthony, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, Miss Mary Garrett Hay, Mrs. Beatrice Forbes Robertson Hale, Mrs. Maud Wood Park, Mrs. Frank A. Vanderlip and Mrs. Borden Harriman, have been among the speakers. Prominent endorsers of woman suffrage have been the State Grange, Grand Army of the Republic, Ministerial Union, Central Labor Union and Woman's Christian Temperance Union. The last is the only leading woman's organization to give official sanction.
The annual State convention was held Nov. 6, 1901, at Newport, with three clubs — Wilmington, Newport and New Castle — under the presidency of Mrs. Martha S. Cranston. Dr. Shaw, vice-president-at-large of the National Association, was the speaker and the presence of reporters was an encouraging feature.
The convention of 1902 took place November 8 in Wilmington. Miss Jane Campbell, president of the large Philadelphia county society, and Henry W. Wilbur of the Friends' society, New York, were the speakers from outside the State. During this year the W. C. T. U. and the Wilmington District Epworth
- ↑ The History is indebted for this chapter to Miss Mary R. de Vou, corresponding secretary of the Delaware Equal Suffrage Association fourteen years; also treasurer and auditor.
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