Alaska, and covering half the Southern gulf with his tail, will cease to scream and sink into the pits of blackness of darkness amidst the shrieks of lost spirits that will forever echo and reëcho through cavernous depths unknown.
S. P. Majors advocated the measure, and in the course of the discussion, B. I. Hinman offered a burlesque resolution, proposing to change the duties and functions of the sexes by law, and John D. Neligh said:
The gentleman from Otoe (Mr. Mason) will get the commission of the Christian mothers, not against the right of female suffrage, but for universal suffrage. That will be a happy day—a day when we shall shine out as a nation more brightly than any other nation under the sun.[1]
The constitution of 1871 not having been adopted, it became necessary to present another to the people. Accordingly in the summer of 1875 delegates of the male citizens met in the capital city. No outside pressure was brought to bear upon them to influence their consideration of this subject. The grasshoppers had ravaged the State the previous year, cutting off entirely the principal crop of the country. Again in the spring of 1875, in some of the river counties, the young had hatched in myriads, and devoured the growing crops ere winging their way to their mountain home. Gloom overspread the people at the prospect of renewed disaster, and the dismal forebodings were realized even as the delegates sat in council, for at this time occurred the final appearance of the locust. As the people gazed into the sky and watched the silver cloud floating in the sunshine resolve itself into a miniature army clad in burnished steel, women forgot to be concerned for their rights, and the delegates thought only of completing their work with the utmost economy and speed.
The new constitution, however, was formed on a more liberal basis. Hon. R. B. Harrington, of Beatrice, in the Committee on Bill of Rights, substituted the word "people" for "men," and it passed without comment. An article on amendments was embodied in the constitution, the same in substance as the one defeated in 1871, under which, as was actually done in 1881, the legislature could present amendments relating to suffrage.
The question of adopting the article relating to qualifications of electors being before the convention. Judge Clinton Briggs of Omaha sat during the reading of the first clause, "every male," etc., meditating, as he related to a friend, on how many lives had been sacrificed and how many millions of money had been spent in getting rid of the word "white," which had made such an unjust restriction, and how easy it would be, by
- ↑ The gentlemen who advocated the measure most warmly, were among the ablest judges and jurists of the State. Of the opposition, Judge O. P. Mason experienced a change of heart, and ten years later appeared as a foremost advocate. General E. Estabrook of Omaha lent all his influence to the amendment in the late canvass, and Col. Philpott of Lincoln was also a warm advocate, often accompanying his zealous wife and other members of the effective and untiring Lincoln association to the school-house meetings held in all parts of Lancaster county. D. T. Moore was called out at a meeting in York in 1881, and came forward without hesitation, saying that he was in favor of woman suffrage. He related this incident: that on his return home from the convention of 1871, he found that his wife had been looking after his stock farm and attending to his business so that everything was in good order. He praised her highly, when she replied, "Yes, and while I was caring for your interests, you were voting against my rights." The reply set him to thinking, and he thought himself over on the other side. A. J. Weaver opposed the clause in a very bitter speech. The friends of the amendment in 1881 were given to understand that Mr. Weaver was friendly, but to prevent the foreigners having that opinion, Mr. Weaver translated the record of his opposition into German, and distributed the papers among the German voters. Having been elected to congress, he was one of only three Republican members who voted against the standing committee on woman's claims. These facts cost him a great many votes at the time of his reëlection in 1884, and are not yet forgotten.
