Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 4.djvu/930

 assisted by Mrs. Helen G. Ecob, and their effort was to secure a resolution to amend the constitution by striking out the word "male." In order to submit such an amendment in New York, a resolution must be passed by two successive Legislatures.

Judge Charles Z. Lincoln, the legal adviser of Gov. Levi P. Morton, drew up the resolution and it was introduced January 22 in the Assembly by Fred S. Nixon, and in the Senate by Cuthbert W. Pound. It was favorably reported by the Senate Judiciary Committee early in the session. The chairman of the Assembly Committee, Aaron B. Gardenier, was very hostile, and after every effort to get a report had been exhausted, Mr. Nixon and Mrs. Almy made a personal appeal to the committee and were successful. On March 14 six men brought in the mammoth petition for woman suffrage which had been presented to the Constitutional Convention the previous year. The resolution was passed by 80 ayes, 31 noes. This was a remarkable action for the first Legislature after the great defeat in the Constitutional Convention only a few months before.

When the measure came to the Senate it was moved by Senator Pound to substitute Mr. Nixon's resolution for his own, as they were identical. But Amasa J. Parker objected in order to make it run the gauntlet of the Senate Committee again, and this gave the anti-suffragists an opportunity to oppose it. He then asked for a hearing for Bishop William Croswell Doane and others before the State Judiciary Committee, of which he was a member, which Chairman Edmond O'Connor granted. The committee met but once a week, and twice the hearing was postponed to accommodate the opposition. The second time, as no one appeared against the resolution, it was again reported favorably. Just after this had been done Mr. Parker appeared and objected, and the chairman agreed to recall it and give the opposition one more chance. On April 10, the time appointed for the hearing, Bishop Doane sent a letter declining the honor of appearing, but a delegation from New York City came up, and Mrs. Francis M. Scott and Prof. Monroe Smith of Columbia University addressed the committee opposing the measure.