as the perpetrators of the outrage were styled, grew heartily disgusted over their questionable glory.
When the legislature met in the autumn of 1880 it was decided by the Woman Suffrage Association that we could "raise the blockade" and encourage agitation in the work by consenting to an attempt to amend the State constitution. Pursuant to this decision a resolution was offered in the Senate by Hon. W. C. Fulton of Clatsop, and in the House by Hon. Lee Laughlin, which, after considerable discussion pro and con in which I was graciously invited to participate on the floor of both Houses, was passed by the requisite two-thirds majority. The result was considered a triumph for the cause. A grand ratification jubilee was held in the opera-house in honor of the event, and resolutions of thanks to the lawmakers were passed, accompanied by many expressions of faith in the legislation of the future.
In the meantime the work was going steadily on in Washington territory, my own labors being distributed about equally between the two sections of the Pacific Northwest that had formerly been united under one territorial government. In the autumn of 1881 the legislature of Washington met one afternoon in joint convention to listen to arguments from Hon. William H. White and myself, on which occasion I held the floor for nearly three hours, in the midst of an auditory that was itself an inspiration. Mr. White, a Democrat of the old school, and now (1885) holding the office of United States marshal in the territory, under commission from President Cleveland, based his plea for woman suffrage upon the enfranchisement of the colored men, urging it strongly as a means of Democratic retaliation. The suffrage bill passed in the House on the following day by a majority of two, but was defeated in the Council by a majority of two, showing that the vote would have been a tie if taken under the joint-ballot rule.
Returning to Oregon I renewed the contest, and in the autumn of 1882 we were all gratified by the passage of the pending constitutional amendment by a very nearly unanimous vote of each House. Then the Oregon campaign began in earnest. The question had assumed formidable proportions and was no longer an ignored issue. The work went on with accelerated speed, and as far as could be ascertained there was little or no opposition to it. The meetings were largely attended and affirmative speakers were ready to assist at all times, the help of this kind representing all grades of the professions, led by the best and most influential men of the State everywhere.
Another year went by, and the time for assembling the Washington territory legislature was again at hand. Immediately upon arriving at Olympia I learned that a coterie of politicians, finding open hostility no longer effectual, had combined to crush the woman suffrage bill, which had passed the House triumphantly, by lobbying a "substitute" through the Council. In pursuance of this seemingly plausible idea they talked with the ladies of Olympia and succeeded in convincing a few of them that all women, and especially all leaders of the movement, must be kept away from the capitol or the bill would certainly be defeated. Several
