Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 2.djvu/842

804

faculty she possesses, subject only to the law of benevolence. This organization has been vastly influential in securing public sympathy and respect for our ideas. The very names of its officers gave confidence, and through their confidence the cause has received large accessions of strength. We have already nine auxiliary State societies. Each of these has held conventions. Some have employed lecturers, some have organized county and local societies. All have circulated tracts and petitions. Ohio, Indiana, and Massachusetts have been especially abundant in labor. Ohio has thirty-one local societies, Indiana twenty-five, and Massachusetts five. These States have had a force of excellent speakers in the field, who, with rare self-forgetting, have worked as only those can who work with whole-hearted faith for immortal principles.

Under the auspices of this Association, a canvass was made in the State of Vermont. The sole reason which induced the Executive Committee to undertake this special work was that the Council of Censors had submitted a proposition that "henceforth women may vote, and with no other restrictions than are prescribed for men." A Vermont State Woman Suffrage Association was organized, auxiliary to the American Society.

The speech of Mr. Curtis at our May mass meeting, so admirable in style and substance we have published in a tract entitled "Fair Play for Women." Thousands of copies have been sent to all parts of the United States. It is doing its silent work by quiet firesides, where hard-working men and women, who can never attend a convention, can find time to read. We have published seven tracts, which had previously been sold at $5.00 a hundred, at the actual cost of $2.00 per hundred, and keep them constantly for sale at these low prices. They have been scattered broadcast, and the good seed thus sown will bear fruit in due season.

There has been steady progress in our ideas during the whole year. The Woman's Journal, established last January, and since consolidated with the Woman's Advocate, of Ohio, is constantly increasing its circulation, more than a thousand new subscribers having been added within a single month.

One of the most significant signs of progress is found in the recent action of the Republican party in Massachusetts. Their State Convention unanimously admitted Mary A. Livermore and Lucy Stone, who were regularly accredited delegates from the towns of Melrose and West Brookfield. A resolution in favor of making woman suffrage part of the platform was reported by the Committee on Resolutions. A change of only 29 votes out of 331 would have made woman suffrage this year a part of the Republican platform of Massachusetts. Thus women have been admitted to represent men in a political State Convention. The next step will be that women will represent themselves.

With all these cheering indications, we have only to keep our question of woman's right to the ballot clear and unmixed with other issues, and the growing public sympathy will soon carry our cause to a successful issue.

Judge Bradwell, of Chicago, presented the following letter to the Chair, which was read to the Association:

To the American Woman Suffrage Association;


 * We, the undersigned, a committee appointed by the Union Woman Suffrage Society in New York, May, 1870, to confer with you on the subject of merging the two organizations into one, respectfully announce:

1st. That in our judgment no difference exists between the objects and methods of the two societies, nor any good reason for keeping them apart.

2d. That the society we represent has invested us with full power to arrange with you a union of both under a single constitution and executive.

3d. That we ask you to appoint a committee of equal number and authority with our own, to consummate if possible this happy result.