364
History of Woman Suffrage.
N.Y. Judge Kingsbury made the introductory address. Addresses were also made by H. B. Blackwell, Miss Eastman and Lucy Stone, showing the right and need of women in politics, and the duty of law-makers to establish justice for them. It was especially urged that the centennial celebration would be only a mockery if the Fourth of July, 1876, finds this government still doing to women what the British government did to the colonists a hundred years ago. Rev. Mr. Gage of Lewiston urged the right of women to vote in the interest of civilization itself. In the perilous times upon which we have fallen in the great experiment of self-government, some new force is needed to check growing evils. The influence in the home is that which is needed in legislation, and it can only be had by the ballot in the hand of woman. Mrs. Quinby, from the Business Committee, reported a series of resolutions. After their adoption Mrs. Abba G. Woolson, in an earnest and forcible speech, claimed the right of women to vote, as the final application of the theory of the consent of the governed. She had personally noticed the good effects of the ballot conferred upon the women in Wyoming, and should be glad to have her native State of Maine lead in this matter, and give an illustration of the true republic. Miss Lorenza Haynes, who had been the day before ordained over the Universalist Church in Hallowell, followed with a speech of remarkable wit and brilliancy, to which no report can do justice.
A writer in the Woman's Journal about this time said:
During the early part of the session of our late legislature woman suffrage petitions were numerously signed by the leading men and women throughout the State receiving an earnest and respectful consideration from the people generally, even from those who were not quite ready to sign petitions. Consequently, it seemed an easy matter to get a bill before the legislature, and we were almost certain of a majority in one branch of the House, at least, especially as it was generally understood that our new governor favored the cause; and it is believed yet that Governor Dingley does sympathize with it, even though he failed to mention it in his otherwise admirable message. The petitions were duly presented and referred to a joint committee, where the matter was allowed to quietly drop.
It is neither riches, knowledge, nor culture that constitutes the electoral qualifications, but gender and a certain implied brute force. By this standard legislative bodies have been wont to judge the exigency of this mighty question. More influential than woman, though unacknowledged as such by the average legislator of States and nations, even the insignificant lobster finds earnest champions where woman's claims fail of recognition; which assertion the following incident will substantiate: Being present in the Representatives Hall in Augusta when the "lobster question "came up for discussion (the suffrage question was then struggling before the committee), I was struck by the air of earnestness that pervaded the entire House on that memorable occasion, And why not? It was a question that appealed directly to man's appetite, and there he is always interested. After the morning hour a dozen ready debators sprang to their
