Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 4.djvu/832

 tained the familiar array of misrepresentations. With the cooperation of Lucy Stone, a reply was printed immediately after the convention and likewise distributed in the Legislature.

The House Bill remained under the judicious guardianship of Dr. Curtis. The chairman of the legislative committee, Mrs. Knaggs, was in constant attendance and secured valuable information on the practical working of Municipal Suffrage from Gov. Lyman U. Humphrey, Attorney-General Simeon B. Bradford, ex-Attorney-General L. B. Kellogg and Laura M. Johns, all of Kansas. The Hon. Charles B. Waite of Chicago prepared by request an exhaustive legal opinion on The Power of the Legislature of Michigan in Reference to Municipal Suffrage. The Judiciary Committee — John V. B. Goodrich, Russell R. Pealer, Byron S. Waite, Norris J. Brown, Oliver S. Smith, Thomas C. Taylor, James A. Randall — gave a unanimous report in favor of the bill, which included this opinion and the Kansas reports. Senator Thomas W. Palmer, who had been appointed Minister to Spain, went to Lansing on the very eve of leaving this country and, in an address to the joint Houses of the Legislature, made a strong plea for the measure.

As the day fixed for the consideration of the bill approached, the suffrage committee found itself confronted by an arrangement, quietly made by the opponents, to have an address delivered an Representative Hall by a Mrs. Mary Livermore, who had been holding parlor meetings in Detroit for pay and speaking against woman suffrage; and the false report was industriously circulated that this was the great suffragist of like name, who had discarded her lifelong convictions and gone over to the enemy.

The bill was considered May 15, 1889. By the courtesy of J. B. Mulliken, general manager of the D. L. and N. R. R., a special train which carried a large delegation of women was sent from Detroit. Some came from other parts of the State and the societies of Lansing were well represented. The galleries were filled and the floor of the House was lined with interested women. After a largely favorable discussion the vote was taken, resulting in 58 ayes, 34 noes. The bill was immediately dispatched to the Senate. That body lost no time, but at once brought the measure