the citizens of the State. No action was taken by the legislature on this portion of the governor's message. But a member of the Senate actually made the following proposition before that body:
That the "anxious and aimless women" of the State should assemble on the Common on a certain day of the year (to be hereafter named), and that Western men who wanted wives, should be invited to come here and select them.
Legislators who make such propositions, do not foresee that the time may come, when perhaps those nearest and dearest to them, may be classed among the superfluous or "anxious and aimless" women!
In 1865 bills allowing married women to testify in suits at law where their husbands are parties, and permitting them to hold trust estates were rejected. It will be seen that though all this legislation was adverse to woman's interest, the question had forced itself upon the attention of the members of both House and Senate. In 1866 a joint committee of both houses was appointed to consider:
If any additional legislation can be adopted, whereby the means of obtaining a livelihood by the women of this commonwealth may be increased and a more equal and just compensation be allowed for their labor.
In 1867, Francis W. Bird presented the petition of Mehitable Haskell of Gloucester for "an amendment to the constitution extending suffrage to women." In 1868 Mr. King of Boston presented the same petition, and it was at this time, and in answer thereto, that the subject first entered into the regular orders of the day, and became a part of the official business of the House of Representatives. Attempts to legislate on the property question were continued in 1868, in bills "to further protect the property of married women," "to allow married women to contract for necessaries," and if "divorced from bed and board, to allow them to dispose of their own property." These bills were all defeated. Annual legislative hearings on woman suffrage began in 1869. These were first secured through the efforts of the executive committee of the New England Woman Suffrage Association. Eight thousand women had petitioned the legislature that suffrage might be allowed them on the same terms as men, and in answer, two hearings were held in the green room at the State House.[1] In 1870 a joint special committee on woman suffrage
- ↑ The committee was addressed by Wendell Phillips, Julia Ward Howe, Lucy Stone, Rev. James Freeman Clarke and Hon. George F. Hoar.
