Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 2.djvu/896

858 ings flow," and thus closed the tenth annual meeting of the American Woman Suffrage Association.

The Eleventh Annual Meeting of the American Woman Suffrage Association held its sessions in 1880 at Washington, D.C. Delegates were present from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, and Iowa. A large and intelligent audience nearly filled the body and galleries of the large hall. The meeting was called to order by the President, HENRY B. BLACKWELL. who said: Fellow-citizens, Ladies and Gentlemen: The Annual Meeting of the American Woman Suffrage Association is not a mere mass meeting of individuals. Itis a body of delegates from State and local societies assembled in a representative capacity, and as such I welcome you to-night. We meet for 'the first time in this capital city of the republic, to promote a great social and political change. We propose to substitute for the existing political aris'tocracy of men alone, a government founded upon the united suffrages of men and women. We urge the enfranchisement of women, not in a spirit of antagonism between man and woman, but as the common interest of both. We urge the enfranchisement of woman as an act of political justice, and also as a measure of the highest expediency. Women need the ballot for their own protection and self-respect. Men equally need the votes of women as an added power for order, temperance, purity, and peace.

read a dispatch from Gov. Hoyt, of Wyoming Territory:

W. T., Dec. 15, 1880.

To the Committee on Woman Suffrage:—Your kind invitation was delayed, so that my acceptance is impossible. Understand, however, that I fully recognize the justice of the cause you represent, and wish you and your co-laborers God-speed in the great work of its furtherance.

Mrs. was the last speaker. She spoke with a quiet earnestness that showed the depth of her convictions, and how greatly her heart was in her work. Her address was an entirely argumentative one, abundant illustrations being used to clinch her statements. She said that she felt keenly the degradation of being disfranchised. To bring about a change in the present state of affairs, she would have every mother impress upon her children, when they were as young as nine years of age, that women have as much right to govern as their fathers; then the boys would grow up on the side of their mothers and the girls would become advocates of the cause. Personally she cared more for woman suffrage than anything else under the sun. In conclusion, she urged the people of Washington to help them in obtaining from Congress a XVI. Amendment to the Constitution, giving women the right to vote, and for the enactment of a law giving women suffrage in the Territories.

The following letter was read:

Dec. 5, 1880.

My Dear Mrs. Howe:—My time is to be so crowded with occupations for the next ten days that I must decline your courteous invitation to speak at the annual meeting of the American Woman Suffrage Association.

I shall be very glad to take some fitting opportunity publicly to reaffirm my conviction, which grows stronger with every year's experience, that the admission of woman to her full and equal share in the Government is essential to a perfect republic.

I am, yours very truly,