My Dear Miss Anthony: Would it not be well for us women to accept the hint afforded by these Englishmen, and bind ourselves together by a constitution and by-laws. By so doing we might sooner be enabled to secure the rights which men seem so persistently determined to withhold from us.
The growing strength of woman suffrage in England has caused considerable commotion in that country, among officials and others. Its growth has led the men to form a club in opposition to it, composed of such men as Mr. Bouverie, a noted member of Parliament; Sir Henry James, late attorney-general; Mr. Childers, late first lord of the admiralty. The formation of this club calls out a few words from Mrs. Stanton, who sarcastically says:
Is not this the first organized resistance in the history of the race, against the encroachment of women; the first manly confession by those high in authority—by lords, attorney-generals, sirs, and gentlemen—of fear at the progressive steps of the daughters of men? These conservative gentlemen had no doubt found Lady Amberly, Lydia Becker, and Mrs. Fawcett too much for them in debate; they had probably winced under the satire of Frances Power Cobbe, and trembled before the annually swelling lists of suffrage petitions. Single-handed they saw they were helpless against this incoming tide of feminine persuasiveness, and so it seems they called a meeting of faint-hearted men, and bound themselves together by a constitution and by-laws to protect the franchise from the encroachment of women.
In the legislature of 1880, the proposition to submit an amendment for woman suffrage to a vote of the people, passed both Houses. In 1881 it passed one branch and was lost in the other. Senator Simpson introduced another bill in 1882[1]which was lost. These successive defeats discouraged the women and they instructed their friends in the legislature to make no further attempts for a constitutional amendment, because they had not the slightest hope of its passage.
The growing interest in the temperance question at this time produced some divisions in the suffrage ranks. Some thought it had been one of the greatest obstacles to the success of the suffrage cause, rousing the opposition of a very large and influential class. Millions of dollars are invested in this State in breweries and distilleries, and members are elected to the legislature to watch these interests. Knowing the terrible sufferings of women and children through intemperance, they naturally infer that the ballot in the hands of women would be inimical to their interests, hence the opposition of this wealthy and powerful class to the suffrage movement. Others thought the agitation was an advantage, especially in bringing the women in the temperance movement to a sense of their helplessness to effect any reform without a voice in the laws. They thought, too, that the power behind the liquor interests was readily outweighed by the moral influence of the best men
- ↑ The members of the Wisconsin Senate who voted against the woman suffrage amendment were: Ackley, Adams, Burrows, Chase, Coleman, Delaney, Flinkelberg, Flint, Kusel, Palmetier, Pingel, Rankin, Ryland, Smith and Van Schaick—15. No better work can be done by Wisconsin suffragists than to try to defeat every one of them at the next election. The following voted for the measure: Bennett, Crosby, Ellis, Hamilton, Hill, Hudd, Kingston, Meffert, Phillipps, Scott, Simpson, Wiley, Randall—13. Senators Wing and McKeeby were paired, and Senators Erwin and Richardson were absent.
