circulated,[1]praying for the submission of the amendment. Over 6,000 signatures were obtained. Each petition was placed in the hands of a senator or member from the county in which the names were gathered, for presentation in the respective Houses.
For fifteen consecutive years the State Society has met annually, made reports, passed resolutions, elected officers, listened to speeches and transacted what other business has come before it. Though its anniversaries have usually been held at Des Moines, its influence through the press has pervaded the whole State. Since 1875, the annual meetings have been held in different cities[2] outside the capital, thus giving the people of all sections of the State an opportunity to participate in the deliberations. Petitions to the legislature and to congress have been circulated by the society, delegates sent to the conventions of the National and American Suffrage Associations,[3]and letters addressed to the delegates of the State and National nominating conventions of the political parties, asking for a recognition of woman's right to the ballot in their platforms.
A brief recital of the proceedings of the Iowa legislature will show that a large majority of the Representatives have been in favor of submitting the question of woman suffrage to a direct vote of the men of the State. The proposition was first presented in the House by Hon. John P. Irish, in 1870. The resolution passed both Houses with very little debate, was approved by the governor, and submitted to the next General Assembly. In the session of 1872 it was discussed in both Houses at considerable length, and again passed in the Lower House by the strong vote of 58 ayes to 39 nays; while in the Senate it was lost by only two majority. The House has never failed at any session since that time, until 1884, to give a majority in its favor; but the Senate has not made for itself so good a record. In 1872 the vote in the Senate stood: ayes, 22; nays, 24. In 1876 it was lost by one vote; and in 1880 lost on engrossment. In 1884 the tables were turned; when the amendment came up in the twentieth General Assembly for ratification, the Senate passed the bill, while the House, for the first time, defeated it by a small majority.
- ↑ Mrs. M. A. Darwin, Mrs. Martha Callanan, Mrs. Judith Ellen Foster, superintendents of the franchise department of the W. C. T. U. of the State, rolled up petitions in their respective districts; and Mrs. Campbell and Miss Hindman aided largely in gathering the signatures.
- ↑ In August, 1875, at Oskaloosa; October, 1880, Fort Dodge; 1881, Marshalltown; 1883, Ottumwa; 1885, Cedar Rapids; all of the intervening anniversaries have been held at Des Moines. The presidents of the State society since its organization have been Attorney-General Henry O'Connor, Amelia Bloomer, Lizzie B. Read, Elizabeth Boynton Harbert, Mrs. Dr. Porter, James Callanan, Martha C. Callanan, Mrs. Caroline A. Ingham, Narcissa T. Bemis, Margaret W. Campbell. When the society was organized, in 1870, it declared itself independent and remained thus until 1879, when, by a small vote, it was made auxiliary to the American Association. The officers for 1885 are: President, Mrs. M. W. Campbell, Des Moines; Treasurer, Mrs. Eliza H. Hunter, Des Moines; Recording Secretary, Mrs. Jennie Wilson, Cedar Rapids; Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. Martha C. Callanan, Des Moines; Executive Committee, Mary J. Coggeshall, Chairman; R. Amanda Stewart, Harriet G. Bellanger, Des Moines; Orilla M. James, Knoxville; Florence English, Grinnell; Ellen Armstrong, Ottumwa; Narcissa T. Bemis, Independence; Angeline Allison, Cedar Rapids; Elizabeth P. Gue, Des Moines.
- ↑ At the State Fair held September, 1885, at Des Moines, the women had a very handsomely decorated booth where they received many hundred calls, distributed an immense amount of suffrage literature, obtained a thousand signatures to a petition to the legislature and wrote notes of the fair for various newspapers, in all of which woman suffrage was freely discussed.
