In answer to an earnest solicitation for facts and incidents of the suffrage movement in Missouri, Mrs. Rebecca N. Hazard, one of the earliest and most active friends in that State, sends us the following:
Meeting an old friend and neighbor not long after, the talk turned upon negro suffrage. I expressed myself in favor of that measure, and timidly added, "And go farther—I think women also should vote." She grasped my hand cordially, saying, "And so do I!" This was Mrs. Virginia L. Minor. We had each cherished this opinion, supposing that no other woman in the community held it; and this we afterwards found to have been the experience of many others. This was in 1866; and in the following autumn Mrs. Minor prepared and circulated for signatures a card of thanks to Hon. B. Gratz Brown for the recognition of woman's political rights he had given in the United States Senate in a speech upon extending the suffrage to the women of the District of Columbia.[1] This card received enough names to justify another step—that of a petition to the Missouri General Assembly. This was headed by Mrs. Minor, and circulated with untiring energy by her, receiving several hundred signatures, and was sent to the legislature during the winter, where it received some degree of favor.
But as yet no effort had been made toward an organization. The first Step in that direction was in May, 1867, by Mrs. Lucretia P. Hall and her sister, Miss Penelope Allen, daughters of Mrs. Beverly Allen, and nieces of General Pope, in the parlors of Mrs. Anna L. Clapp, the president of the Union Aid Society during the war. Mrs. Hall, Mrs. Clapp and myself called a public meeting on May 8, when the Woman Suffrage Society of Missouri was organized, with Mrs. Minor president.
In the winter of 1868 the association sent a large delegation of ladies to Jefferson with a petition containing about 2,000 names, to present to the legislature. The Republicans were then in the ascendency, and the ladies having many professed friends among the members, were received with
- ↑ For this speech of B. Gratz Brown see Vol. II., page 136.