Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 3.djvu/742

742 purpose of revising and amending the constitution of said State, is hereby most respectfully and earnestly requested to draft such amendment to the constitution of this State as will allow the women thereof to exercise the right of the elective franchise and afford to them such other and further relief as to that honorable body may be deemed wise, expedient and proper; and be it further

Resolved, That said convention is hereby most respectfully and earnestly requested to make such provision (when said amendment shall be submitted to a vote of the people of said State) as will enable the women of Nebraska to vote at said election for the adoption or rejection of the same.

Resolved, Further, that the Secretary of State is hereby instructed to present a copy of this resolution to said convention as soon as the same shall be convened.

Mr. Porter moved the adoption of the report, which was carried by a vote of 19 to 16. In the Senate, March 22, E. C. Cunningham offered the following amendment to the bill providing for calling a constitutional convention:

That the electors of the State be and are hereby authorized and recommended to vote for and against female suffrage at the election for members of the constitutional convention. Provided, That at such election all women above the age of 21 years, possessing the qualifications required of male electors are hereby authorized and requested to vote upon said proposition, and for the purpose of receiving their votes a separate polling place shall be provided.

The amendment was lost by a vote of 6 to 6.

In accordance with the memorial of the legislature, the constitutional convention that met in the following summer by a vote of 30 to 13 submitted a clause relative to the right of suffrage. The constitution itself was rejected by the voters; and on this clause the ballot stood, for, 3,502; against, 12,676. Had it been carried at the polls, it would only have conferred upon the legislature the right to submit amendments, and it was therefore no special object to the adherents of impartial suffrage to make efforts for its adoption, while the fact that it was the outgrowth of the discussion of that principle brought upon it all the opposition that a clause actually conferring the ballot would have insured. The right of woman to the elective franchise was championed by the ablest men in the convention. Night after night the question was argued pro and con. Petitions from Lincoln and Omaha were numerously presented. The galleries were filled with women eagerly watching the result. The proposition finally adopted did not touch the point at issue, but was accepted as all that could be obtained on that occasion. As the constitution was not adopted, the succeeding legislature felt no interest in the proceedings of the convention, and the journals were not printed; and the records of this battle for justice and civil liberty were hidden in the dusty archives of the state-house until brought out to tell their story for these pages. As this is the only discussion of the question by Nebraska statesmen which has been officially preserved, and as the debaters were among the most promi-