Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 3.djvu/592

Rh widely known. Mrs. Merritt was a frequent attendant upon the sessions of the legislature and her untiring efforts in private conversations with members were invaluable. In spite of all these influences, when the electoral bill was brought to a vote upon its third reading, it was lost on the ground that it was unconstitutional.

At the special session all efforts centered upon the bill for amending section 2, of article II., of the State constitution, so as to give women the right to vote in all elections. Mrs. Wallace and Mrs. Gougar gave another week to the work, and on April 7 the bill was brought to a vote in the House, and passed—ayes 62, nays 24; in the Senate, on April 8, it also passed—ayes 25, nays 18; and so the first entrenchment was won.

No one believed that the bill to amend the constitution would have passed had it not been preceded by the battle over the electoral bill and the consequent education of the General Assembly in regard to this great question of political rights. Immediately a conference was held as to the proper manner of expressing our gratitude to the committees on women's political claims. It was at first thought the recognition should come from the Equal Suffrage Society, but it was finally considered wiser to have a reception given the honorable body by a voluntary committee of women who should act quite independently of any society.

The passage of the amendment by the legislature of 1881 gave the advocates of our cause a common objective point, and the efforts of all during the two years immediately succeeding were directed toward securing the election of such a legislature as might be relied upon to re-pass the bill in 1883. The State society at its annual meeting enlarged its central committee and instructed it to arrange meetings in various parts of the State, to send out speakers, and to organize local societies. This committee prepared a letter, for general distribution, indicating to the women of the State their duty in the premises, and suggesting various lines of work. Blanks for a special petition to the General Assembly were sent to every township, which were industriously circulated and numerously signed.

In the spring of 1882 the officers of the State society issued a call fora mass-meeting, to which "all women within the boundaries of the State who believed in equal suffrage, or were interested in the fate of the pending amendment," were invited. The meeting was held on May 19, at the