Mary Olney Brown, President of the Washington Territorial Woman Suffrage Association; thus giving the credit of the work to the Society.
I could not get a member of our Association to circulate the petition in Olympia, so every day that I could get away from home I took my petition in hand and canvassed for signatures. If I went shopping or on an errand I took it with me, and in that way I procured over 300 names. My experience had taught me that the principal opposition to woman's voting came from ignorance as to her true position under the government. She had come to be looked upon almost as a foreign element in our nation, having no lot nor part with the male citizen, and I felt that it was necessary to disabuse the minds of the people generally, and the delegates to the convention particularly, of this notion. I therefore wrote five articles on the "Equality of Citizenship," which Mrs. Duniway kindly published in the New Northwest. The Olympia Courier also printed them, and placed the paper on file in the city reading-room; and when I met a man who had not made up his mind on the subject I recommended him to the reading-room, and several after perusing the articles were converted and signed the petition.
On the assembling of the legislature Mrs. A. H. H. Stuart and myself watched a favorable opportunity to present an equal rights bill. We let them talk up the matter pretty well over a petition signed by fifty women of one of the upper counties, when one day Mrs. Stuart came to me and said: '" Now, Mrs. Brown, write out your bill; the speaker of the House sent me word they were ready for it." I sat down and framed a bill [1] to the best of my ability, which was duly presented and respectfully debated. Mrs. Duniway came from Portland to urge its passage, and the day before it came to a vote both Houses adjourned and invited her to speak in the hall of representatives. She made one of her best speeches. The members of both Houses were present, besides a large audience from the city. The next day the House passed the bill by two majority, and on the day following it was lost in the Council by two majority. In the House the vote stood, ayes, 13; nays, 11. In the Council, ayes, 5; nays, 7.
Saturday evening Mrs. Duniway made another telling speech in the city hall, at the close of which Mr. White, a lobby member, made a few remarks, in which he disclosed the cause of the defeat of the bill in the Council. He said, after the bill passed the House the saloon-keepers, alarmed lest their occupation would be gone if women should vote, button-holed the members of the Council, and as many of them as could be bought by drinks pledged themselves to vote against the bill. The members of the Council were present, and though an urgent invitation was given to all to speak, not one of them denied the charge made by Mr. White. On the following Monday an effort was made in the Council to reconsider the bill, but failed. Thus stands our cause at present.
- ↑ Be it enacted by the Legislature of the Territory of Washington: Section 1. All female citizens of the age of twenty-one years shall be entitled to vote at all elections in the territory, subject only to such regulations as male citizens. Sec. 2. Any officer of election who shall refuse to take the vote of a woman citizen (otherwise qualified to vote), shall be liable to a fine of not less than $100 nor more than $500. Sec. 3. All laws in conflict with this act are hereby repealed. Sec.4. This act to be in force on and after its passage.
