Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 3.djvu/748

748 The meeting of January 26 was held in the opera-house and was presided over by Mrs. Franc E. Finch. The speakers were John B. Finch, Rev. Mary J. DeLong, Judge O. P. Mason and Mrs. Esther L. Warner. Reading and music filled the programme. Mrs. DeLong's address was in behalf of the prohibitory and suffrage amendments. Judge Mason's address was afterwards printed for distribution. It showed how forcible and eloquent the Judge could be when on the right side. It will be remembered that Judge Mason opposed woman suffrage in the constitutional convention of 1871. His closing sentences were:

The more intelligent and exalted the character of the electors in a government whose foundation rests upon the franchise, the more safe and secure are the liberties of the people and the property of that government. The higher the social and moral standard of the electors, the better will be the type of manhood that is chosen to make laws and administer the government. As you elevate the standard of intelligence, and increase the ability and intensify the power to recognize the right and a sense of obligation to follow it, you make sure the foundations of civil and religious liberty. You do more, you elevate the character of the laws, and better the administration in every department of government. It has been wisely said that government is best which is best administered.

Do as we will, however, forget the rights of others, treat them with contempt, summon to our aid the united efforts of great political parties, invoke statutory and constitutional law to aid us in the mad career, yet, let no one forget that God's balances, watched by his angels, are hung across the sky to weigh the conduct of individuals and nations, and that in the end divine wisdom will pronounce the inexorable judgment of compensatory justice.

Previous to all of these meetings Hon. E. M. Correll had introduced on January 13, H. R. 59, a bill for an amendment to the constitution striking the word "male" from qualifications of electors. This had given impetus to the friends of the measure and inspiration to the meetings. A vote of thanks was tendered Mr. Correll by both the State and Thayer County Associations. The bill not being technically correct, Mr. Correll introduced on February 3, a joint resolution of the same purport, H. R. 162. The committees of Senate and House on constitutional amendments gave a hearing that evening to the advocates of the measure:

Of the fourteen members of the committees, ten were present; the full number from the House and three from the Senate. Mr. Correll pressed the claims of the resolution in the first speech, and then introduced the different speakers representing the State association. Mrs. Harriet S. Brooks reviewed the progress of sentiment elsewhere and said that her acquaintance and correspondence in this State led her to think the time ripe for action of this kind. Mrs. Orpha Clement Dinsmoor argued the abstract right of it, saying:

It has now come to the question of absolute right—whether one class of people shall say to another: "You can come only thus far in the direction of liberty." We realize that woman must be educated to this new privilege, just as man has been educated to it, and just as this nation is now educating millions of the newly enfranchised to it. Feeling that in intellectual and moral capacity woman is the peer of man, I think that her actual steps forward in needful preparation have given her the right to say who shall rule over her.

Mrs. Jennie F. Holmes based her remarks on the added influence it would give women in securing wise legislation in matters of welfare to the home. Clara B. Colby answered questions of the committee. It was a most encouraging fact that every member of the committee, after the speakers had finished presenting the case,