Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 4.djvu/618

 The Woman's Christian Temperance Union was the first and still continues to be the largest of the organizations. It works for the franchise through public lectures, petitions, legislative bills and various educational measures. The Woman's Relief Corps and a large number of church, lodge and literary societies enlist women's activities in a marked degree. They sit on the official boards of many churches and some of these are composed entirely of women.

In June, 1883, a convention was held at Huron to discuss the question of dividing the Territory and forming two States, and a convention was called to meet at Sioux Falls, September 4, and prepare a constitution for those in the southern portion. The suffrage leaders in the East were anxious that this should include the franchise for women. Mrs. Matilda Joslyn Gage of New York, vice-president-at-large of the National Suffrage Association, lectured at various points in the Territory during the summer to awaken public sentiment on this question. On September 6 a petition signed by 1,000 Dakota men and women, praying that the word "male" should not be incorporated in the constitution, was presented to the convention, accompanied by personal appeals. There was some disposition to grant this request but the opponents prevailed and only the school ballot was given to women, which they already possessed by Act of the Legislature of 1879. However, this constitution never was acted upon.

The desire for division and Statehood became very urgent throughout the great Territory, and this, with the growing sentiment in Congress in favor of the same, induced the Legislature of 1885 to provide for a convention at Sioux Falls, composed of members elected by the voters of the Territory, to form a constitution for the proposed new State of South Dakota and submit the same to the electors for adoption, which was done in November, 1885. Many of the women had become landholders and were interested in the location of schoolhouses, county seats, State capital and matters of taxation. As their only organization was the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, a committee