Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/514

 49^ HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE sent a message urging ratification. Mrs. Daniels came to Raleigh to assist personally in the struggle to ratify. On August 10 the session convened. The outlook was encouraging but the enemies had been busy and the very next day a "round robin" signed by 63 members of the House w.as sent to the General Assembly of Tennessee, where a bitter fight on ratification was in progress, which said: "We, the under- signed, members of the House of Representatives of the Gen- eral Assembly of North Carolina, constituting the majority oi said body, send greetings and assure you that we will not ratify the Susan B. Anthony amendment interfering with the sov- ereignty of Tennessee and other States of the Union. We most respectfully request that this measure be not forced upon the people of North Carolina." On August 13 the Governor, accompanied by Mrs. Bickett, Mrs. Daniels and Mrs. Jerman, appeared in person before the joint assembly in the hall of the House of Representatives, where the gallery was crowded with women, and began his address by saying: "From reports in the public press it seems that senti- ment in the General Assembly is decidedly against the ratification of the amendment. With this sentiment I am in deepest sym- pathy and for the gentlemen who entertain* it I cherish the pro- foundest respect but this does not lessen my obligation to lay before you a photographic copy of my mind on this important subject. It is well known that I have never been impressed with the wisdom of or the necessity for woman suffrage in North Carolina." After a long speech setting forth the arguments in opposition and quoting poetry he said : "But in the words of Grover Cleveland, a condition not a theory confronts us. Woman suffrage is at hand. It is an absolute moral certainty that inside of six months some State will open the door and women will enter the political forum. No great movement in all history has ever gone so near the top and then failed to go over. The very most this General Assembly can do is to delay for six months a movement it is powerless to defeat. I am pro- foundly convinced that it would be the part of wisdom and grace to accept the inevitable and ratify the amendment." On the same day Senator Scales introduced the resolution to