"I shall never be satisfied until a black woman is seated in the presidential chair of the United States," than which no more advanced claim for the complete legal recognition of woman has been made in our country.
In February, 1879, a spirited debate took place in the legislature upon an amendment to the Episcopal Church bill, which struck out the word "male" from the qualification of voters. The Detroit Post and Tribune says a vigorous effort was made to defeat the measure, but without success. The justice of allowing women to take part in church government was recognized, and the amendment carried.
We have written persistently to leading women all over the State for facts in regard to their local societies, and such responses as have been received are embodied in this chapter. We give interesting reports of a few of the county societies in which much has been accomplished.
Of the work in Quincy Mrs. Sarah Turner says:
We never organized a woman suffrage society, although our literary club has done much for the cause in a general way. We had crowded houses on the occasions of a very able speech from Elizabeth Cady Stanton and a most spirited one from Miss Phœbe Couzins. For the past eight years a dozen tax-paying women of this town have availed themselves of the privilege granted them years ago, and voted at the school meetings; and two years ago a woman was elected member of the school-board.
Lansing reports for January, 1871, Mrs. Livermore's lecture on "The Reasons Why" [women should be enfranchised]; the organization of a city society with sixty members at the close of the annual meeting of the State Association held in that city in March; a lecture from Mrs. Stanton before the Young Men's Association; the adoption of a declaration of rights by the Ingham County Society, March, 1872, signed by 169 of the best people of the county. In 1874, of the many meetings held those of Mrs. Stanton and Miss Couzins are specially mentioned.
The St. Johns society, formed in 1872 with six members, reported sixty at the State annual meeting of 1874, and also $171.71, raised by fees and sociables, mainly expended in the circulation of tracts and documents throughout the county.
From Manistee Mrs. Fannie Holden Fowler writes:
In the campaign of 1874 Hon. S. W. Fowler, one of the committee for Northern Michigan appointed by the State Society, canvassed Manistee county and advocated the cause through his paper, the Times and Standard. The election showed the good of educational work, as a large vote was polled in the towns canvassed by Mr. Fowler, two of them giving a majority for the amendment. In an editorial, after the election, Mr. Fowler said: "The combined forces of ignorance, vice and prejudice have blocked the wheels of advancing civilization, and Michigan, once the proudest of the sisterhood of States, has lost the opportunity of inaugurating a reform; now let the women organize for a final onset." However, no active suffrage work was done until December 3, 1879, when Susan B. Anthony was induced to stop over on her way from Frankfort to Ludington and give her lecture, "Woman Wants Bread; Not the Ballot." She was our guest, and urged the formation of a society, and through her influence a "Woman's Department" was added to the Times and Standard, which is still a feature of the paper. In the following spring (April, 1880), Elizabeth Cady Stanton gave her lecture, "Our Girls," with two "conversations," before the temperance women and others, which revived the courage of the few who had been considering the question of organization. A call was issued, to which twenty-three responded, and the society was formed June 8, 1880,[1] adopting the constitution of the National and electing
- ↑ The officers of the Manistee Society are (1885): President, Mrs. Lucy T. Stansell; Corresponding Secretary, Fannie Holden Fowler; Recording Secretary, Miss Nellie Walker; Treasurer, Mrs. Susan Seymour.
