Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 5.djvu/713

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WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES
675

chairman of the executive committee. A similar roster could be given in other States. In New York the most eminent men in many lines were connected with the league. The leagues remained in existence until their services were no longer needed.

THE NATIONAL WOMAN'S PARTY.

The National Woman's Party was organized in the spring of 1913 under the name of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage. Its original purpose was to support the work of the Congressional Committee of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and its officers were the members of that committee: Miss Alice Paul (N. J.); Miss Crystal Eastman (Wis.); Miss Lucy Burns (N. Y.); Mrs. Lawrence Lewis (Penn.); Mrs. Mary Beard (N. Y.). In successive years names added to its executive committee were those of Mesdames Oliver H. P. Belmont, William Kent, Gilson Gardner, Donald R. Hooker, John Winters Brannan, Harriot Stanton Blatch, Florence Bayard Hilles, J. A. H. Hopkins, Thomas N. Hepburn, Richard Wainwright; Miss Elsie Hill, Miss Anne Martin and others. A large advisory committee was formed.

The object of the Union was the same as that of the National Association—to secure an amendment to the Federal Constitution which would give universal woman suffrage. At the annual convention of the association in December, 1913, a new Congressional Committee was appointed and the Congressional Union became an independent organization. Its headquarters were in Washington, D. C. It never was regularly organized by States, districts, etc., although there were branches in various States. The work was centralized in the Washington headquarters and the forces were easily mobilized. The exact membership probably was never known by anybody. It was a small but very active organization and Miss Paul was the supreme head with no restrictions. A great deal of initiative was allowed to the workers in other parts of the country who were often governed by the exigencies of the situation. After the first few years annual conventions were held in Washington.

While the principal object of the National Association always was a Federal Amendment, for which it worked unceasingly, it