Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 3.djvu/447

on April 3, 1871, the petitioners^[1] were granted a hearing, before the Judiciary Committee of the Assembly, Hon. L. Bradford Prince presiding. Mrs. Wilbour's able address made a most favorable impression. The question was referred to the Judiciary Committee. The majority report was adverse, the minority, signed by Robert A. Strahan and C. P. Vedder, favorable.

A grand demonstration was made April 26, 1872, in Cooper Institute, intended specially to emphasize the claims of wives and mothers to the ballot, and to show that the City Association had no sympathy with any theories of free-love. Five thousand cards of invitation were distributed.

In 1871 women attempted to vote in different parts of the State, among whom were Matilda Joslyn Gage at Fayetteville, and Mrs. Louise Mansfield at Nyack, but were repulsed. In 1872 others did vote under the fourteenth amendment, conspicuously Susan B. Anthony, who, as an example for the rest, was arrested, tried, convicted and fined.^[2]Mrs. Gage published a woman's rights catechism to answer objections made at that time to woman's voting, which proved a valuable campaign document. We find the names of Mary R. Pell of Flushing, Helen M. Loder of Poughkeepsie, and Elizabeth B. Whitney of Harlem, frequently mentioned at this time for their valuable services. The following items show the varied capacity of women for many employments:

In March, 1872, Miss Charlotte E. Ray (colored) of New York, was graduated at the Howard University Law School, and admitted to practice in the courts of the District of Columbia at Washington.—The headquarters of the Women's National Relief Association is in New York; its object is supplying government stations along the coast with beds, blankets, warm clothing and other necessaries for shipwrecked persons.——Miss Leggett, for a long time proprietor of a book and paper store in New York, established a home, in 1878, for women, on Clinton Square, which is in all respects antipodal to Stewart's Hotel. It is governed by no stringent rules or regulations. No woman is liable without cause, at the mere caprice of the founder, to be suddenly required to leave, as was the case in Judge Hilton's home. On the contrary, it is the object of the founder to provide a real home for women. The house is not only provided with a library, piano, etc., but its inmates are allowed to bring their sewing-machines, hang pictures upon the walls, put up private book-racks, etc. The price, too, but $4 a week, falls more nearly within

———

1. The petitioners were represented by Mrs. Wilbour, Mrs. Hester M. Poole, Elizabeth B. Phelps, Elizabeth Langdon, Mrs. I. D. Hull, Mrs. Charlotte L. Coleman, Mrs. M. E. Leclover, Matilda Joslyn Gage.
2. See Vol. II., page 628.