Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 4.djvu/999

 May, 1897, an association formed and Mrs. Meriwether unanimously elected president. This was in fact an interstate convention, being held during the Tennessee Centennial Exposition at the invitation of the managing committee, who offered the suffragists the use of the Woman's Building for three days to give reasons for the faith that was in them. Delegates were present from Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi and Illinois. Addresses were given by Miss Laura Clay and Mrs. Lida Calvert Obenchain of Kentucky, Mrs. Virginia Clay Clopton and Miss Griffin of Alabama, Miss Josephine E. Locke of Illinois, Mrs. Flora C. Huntington and Mrs. Meriwether.

The second convention took place at Memphis, April 22, 1900, Mrs. Chapman Catt and Miss Mary G. Hay, national organizer, in attendance. Mrs. Meriwether was elected honorary president for life; Mrs. Elise M. Selden was made president and Miss Margaret E. Henry, corresponding secretary. On Sunday evening Mrs. Chapman Catt addressed a mass meeting in the Grand Opera House, and the next evening spoke in the audience hall of the Nineteenth Century Club, both given free of charge.

One incident will further show the growth of public sentiment in this direction. In 1895 a prominent Memphis woman sent to the Arena an article entitled The Attitude of Southern Women on the Suffrage Question, which she claimed to be that of uncompromising opposition. In conclusion she said: "The views presented have been strengthened by opinions from women all over the South, from the Atlantic Coast to Texas, from the Ohio to the Gulf. More than one hundred of the home-makers, the teachers and the writers have been consulted, all of them recognized in their own communities for earnestness and ability. Of these, only thirteen declared themselves outright for woman suffrage; four believed that women should vote upon property and school questions; while nine declined to express themselves. All the others were opposed to woman suffrage in any form." She then gave short extracts from the letters of eighteen women, four in favor and fourteen opposed.

The editor wrote to Mrs. Josephine K. Henry of Kentucky asking for an article from the other side. She sent one entitled The New Woman of the New South, and the two were pub-