She acquiesced in the decision very readily, saying she only wished to test a principle, and retired very quietly from the hall."
While thus mentioning the women with uncounted votes, it may be well to embalm here a historical fact, published in April, 1868:
In the year 1824 widows were allowed to vote in New Jersey on their husbands' tax receipts. The election officers paid great deference to the widows on these occasions, and took particular care to send carriages after them, so as to get their votes early and make sure of them. The writer of this has often heard his grandmother state that she voted for John Quincy Adams for president of the United States when he was elected to that office. Her name was Sarah Sparks, and she voted at Barnsboro', her husband having died the year previous. N. M. Wallington, Washington, D. C.
Miss Anthony held a spirited meeting in Rahway on Christmas eve, December 24, 1867. The following October, 1868, Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony attended a two days' convention in Vineland, and helped to rouse the enthusiasm of the people. A friend, writing from there, gives us the following:
The Unitarian church in this town is highly favored in having for its pastor a young man of progressive and thoroughly liberal ideas. Rev. Oscar Clute is well known as an earnest advocate in the cause of woman. Last Sunday the communion or Lord's Supper was administered in his church. One of the laymen who usually assists in the distribution of the bread and wine, was absent, and Mr. Clute invited one of the women to officiate in his stead. She did so in such a sweet and hospitable manner that it gave new interest to the occasion. Even those who do not like innovations could not find fault. And why should any one be displeased? The Christ of the sacrament was the emancipator of women. In olden time they had deaconesses, and in most of our churches women constitute a majority of the communicants, so it seems particularly appropriate that they should be served by women. Women vote on all matters connected with this church, they are on all "standing committees," and sometimes are chosen and act as trustees.
Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford sends us the following reports of the progress of the movement in this State:
- ↑ In a letter to Mary F. Davis, February 13, 1882, asking her for some facts in regard to that period, Lucy Stone says: "I have never kept any diary or record of my work. I have been too busy with the work itself. I could not answer your questions without a search among old letters and papers, which have been packed away for years, and I have not time to make the search, and cannot be accurate without. I know we had many meetings in New Jersey in all the large towns, beginning in Newark and Orange, and following the line of the railroad to Trenton, Camden, and Vineland, and then another series that included towns reached by stage, Salem being one, but I cannot tell whether these meetings were before or after the formation of the State Society." The records show that they were before, says Mrs. Davis; newspaper reports of them are in the archives of the Historical Society.
- ↑ President, Lucy Stone, Roseville; Vice-Presidents, Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Thomas B. Peddie, Portia Gage, Rev. Robert McMurdy, Cornelia Collins Hussey, George T. Cobb, Sarah E. Webb, Dr. James Brotherton, Isaac Stevens, Rev. H. A. Butler, A. J. Davis, James H. Nixon, Dr. G. H. Haskell, I. M. Peebles, Rev. C. H. Dezanne, William Baldwin; Corresponding Secretaries, Phebe A. Pierson, Miss P. Fowler; Recording Secretary, C. A. Paul; Treasurer, S. G. Silvester; Executive Committee, Mary F. Davis, Mrs. E. L. Bush, H. B. Blackwell, Rev. Oscar Clute, Miss Charlotte Bathgate, Rowland Johnson, Mrs. Robert McMurdy, Dr. D. N. Allen, Sarah Pierson, Lizzie Prentice, W. D. Conan, John Whitehead.
