National Association at the convention of the latter in Washington, D. C., and arrangements for the union of the two societies for the following year were practically completed.[1]
In the summer an appeal was addressed by Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe and Mary A. Livermore to the constitutional conventions which were preparing for Statehood in Dakota, Washington, Montana and Idaho. It said in part:
You, gentlemen, felt keenly the disadvantage you were under when you had only Territorial rights. If you will consider how much greater are the disadvantages of a class that is wholly without political rights, you will, we feel sure, pardon our entreaty that in building your new constitution you will secure for women equal political rights with men.
The men of the older States inherited their constitutions, with the odious features which the common law imposes upon women. But you are making constitutions. You have the golden opportunity to save your women from all these evils. by securing their right to vote in the organic law of the new State. By doing this, over and above the satisfaction which comes from having done a just deed, you will win the gratitude of women for all time, as our fathers won the gratitude of the race when they announced the principle which we ask you to apply. You will also secure the- ↑ The American Woman Suffrage Association was indebted for State reports during the past years to the following: Arkansas, Lizzie Dorman Fyler; California, Sarah Knox Goodrich, Elizabeth A. Kingsbury, Sarah M. Severance, Fannie Wood; Connecticut, Emily P. Collins, Abby B. Sheldon; Dakota, Major J. A. Pickler, Alice M. Pickler; Delaware, Dr. John Cameron; Illinois, Mary E. Holmes, Catherine G. Waugh (McCulloch); Indiana, Florence M. Adkinson, Mary S. Armstrong, Sarah E. Franklin, Adelia R. Hornbrook, Mary D. Naylor; Iowa, Mary J. Coggeshall, Eliza H. Hunter, Mary A. Work, Narcissa T. Bemis; Kansas, Prof. W. H. Carruth, Mrs. M. E. De Geer, Bertha H. Ellsworth; Kentucky, Mary B. Clay, Laura Clay; Maine, the Rev. Henry Blanchard, Mrs. C. S. Quinby; Massachusetts, Henry B. Blackwell, Lucy Stone; Missouri, Rebecca N. Hazard, Amanda E. Dickenson; Minnesota, Martha Angle Dorsett, Ella M. S. Marble, Dr. Martha G. Ripley; Michigan, Mrs. E. L. Briggs, Mary L. Doe, Emily B. Ketcham, Mrs. H. L. Udell, Mrs. Ellis; New Hampshire, Armenia S. White, Mrs. M. H. Ela; New Jersey, Cornelia C. Hussey, Therese M. Seabrook; New York, Lillie Devereaux Blake, Mariana W. Chapman, Mrs. E. O. Putnam Heaton, Anna Holyoke Howard, Hamilton Willcox; Nebraska, Erasmus M. Correll, Deborah G. King, Lucinda Russell, Clara Albertson Young; Ohio, Lou J. Bates, Frances M. Casement, Orpha D. Baldwin, S. S. Bissell, Mary J. Cravens, Mrs. (Dr.) Henderson, Mrs. M. B. Haven, Martha M. Paine, Mary P. Spargo, Rosa L. Segur, Cornelia C. Swezey; Oregon, Abigail Scott Duniway, W. S. Duniway; Pennsylvania, Florence A. Burleigh, Mary Grew, Matilda Hindman; Rhode Island, Elizabeth B. Chace, Marilla M. Brewster, Sarah W. Ladd, Mary C. Peckham, Louise M. Tyler; Tennessee, Lida A. Meriwether, Elizabeth Lyle Saxon; Texas, Mariana T. Folsom; Vermont, Laura Moore; Virginia, Orra Langhorne; Washington Territory, Bessie J. Isaacs; Wisconsin, Mary W. Bentley, Alura Collins; Wyoming, Dr. Kate Kelsey.
