Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 4.djvu/629

 

In the campaign of 1884 the Republicans had a Ship of State called the New Constitution, with an eagle on the top, which was mounted on wheels and taken from place to place where they held public meetings. When they came to Greenwood, the home of Mrs. Mary A. Stuart, she put a "blue hen" upon it, saying they should not have an eagle to represent freedom for men and nothing to represent women. So the hen went from one end of Delaware to the other, sitting in state in a glass coop. Some of the Republican speakers announced from the platform this year that they favored enfranchisement of women.

In 1888 the State Woman's Christian Temperance Union adopted the franchise department with Mrs. Patience Kent as superintendent, and held several public meetings. In 1889 Mrs. Martha S. Cranston was elected her successor, and still occupies the position.

Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, corresponding secretary of the National Association, organized the Wilmington Equal Suffrage Club, the first in the State, on Nov. 18, 1895, with twenty-five members. The membership soon increased to fifty-three.

The following winter Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the national organization committee, sent into the State the Rev. Henrietta G. Moore of Ohio and Miss Mary G. Hay of York, the latter to arrange meetings and the former to address them and organize clubs. On Jan. 17, 1 8, 1896, they assisted in a convention at Wilmington, where a State Association was formed.

As Delaware was to hold a Constitutional Convention in 1897, the National Association was especially interested in push suffrage work there. Mrs. Chapman Catt met with the