The History of Woman Suffrage Volume III Part 98

The Rev. Father Mahoney, of St. John's Cathedral, preached a temperance sermon to a large concourse of people yesterday morning, in which he heartily indorsed the action of Mayor Stowell in his war against the ordinary saloon, and declared that he should be reelected. He also said that the men who opposed him were covering themselves with infamy, and that he could not conscientiously administer the sacraments to any saloon-keeper who refused to obey the commands of the Church or the laws of the State concerning the good order and welfare of the city. The sermon caused quite a stir, and was much discussed in secular as well as religious circles.

The State a.s.sociation[427] has maintained an unswerving course, between fanatacism and ultra-conservatism. Since 1869 it has stood as on the watch-tower, quick to see opportunities, and ever ready to cooperate with the legislative bodies in the State, and well may we be proud of our achievements when we remember that by the census of 1870 Wisconsin is the first foreign and the second Roman Catholic State in the Union, and that at our centennial exposition in 1876 our public schools stood number one.

Rev. Olympia Brown Willis moved into the State of Wisconsin in 1877, and became pastor of the church of the Good Shepherd, in Racine, and exerted a wide influence, not only as a liberal theologian, but as an earnest advocate of suffrage for woman. As a result of her efforts a most successful Woman's Council was held in Racine, March 26, 1883, alternating in the church of the Good Shepherd and Blake's Opera House. One of the chief speakers[428] was Dr. Corwin, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, who was also on the managing committee. The cordiality of many of the western clergy, in strong contrast with those in the east, makes their favorable action worthy of comment, though the liberality of the few is of little avail until in their ecclesiastical a.s.semblies, as organizations, they declare the equality of woman not only before the law, but in all the offices of the church. Mrs. Katharine R. Doud was chosen president of the convention; Mrs. Olin gave the address of welcome, to which Mrs.

Sewall responded. Mrs. Doud, in the _Advocate_, thus sums up the three days' meetings:

During the past week a woman's council has been held in Racine, the success of which has been most noticeable. The different sessions have been attended by large audiences of intelligent men and women, who have very thoughtfully and carefully weighed and discussed the various questions under consideration.

From the beginning to the end there has never been a hitch or jar; the myriad wheels of the machinery required to make smooth the workings of such large a.s.semblies have moved so quietly, and have been so well oiled and in such perfect order as to be absolutely unnoticed; really, one might have been tempted to feel that the machine had no master, no controlling hand.

But now that the council is over; now that we can pause and begin to estimate the good that has been done; now that the seed is sown, from which, please G.o.d, a grand harvest shall be reaped--now we can look back and see how one brain has planned it all. One clear-eyed, far-seeing will gathered together these women of genius, who have been with us; one practical, mathematical brain made all estimates of expense, and accepted all risks of failure; one hospitable heart received a house full of guests, and induced others to be hospitable likewise; and one earnest, prayerful soul--and this the best of all--besought and entreated G.o.d's blessing upon the work. Need we tell you where to find this master-hand which has planned so wisely? the strong will, the clear brain, the warm heart, the pure soul? We all know her; she is indeed a n.o.ble woman, and her name--let us whisper lest she hear--is Olympia Brown Willis.

The following sketch of the leading events of her life, shows how active and useful she has been in all her public and private relations:

Olympia Brown was born in Kalamazoo county, Michigan, January 5, 1835. At the age of fifteen she began to teach school during the winter months, attending school herself in the summer. At eighteen she entered Holyoke seminary, but finding the advantages there inadequate for a thorough education, her parents removed, for her benefit, to Yellow Springs, Ohio, where she entered Antioch college, Horace Mann, one of the best educators of his day, being president.

There her ambition was thoroughly satisfied, and she was graduated with honor in 1860. She then entered Canton Theological school, was graduated in 1863, and, duly ordained as a Universalist minister, commenced preaching in Marshfield and Montpelier, Vermont, often walking fifteen miles to fill her appointments. In 1864 she was regularly installed over her first parish at Weymouth, Ma.s.sachusetts.

Her energy and fidelity soon raised that feeble society into one of numbers and influence.

In 1869, she accepted a call to Bridgeport, Connecticut, where she remained seven years. In 1878, with her husband, John Henry Willis, and two children she removed to Racine, Wisconsin, where she became pastor of the church of the Good Shepherd, without the promise of a dollar. The church had been given up as hopeless by several men in succession, because of the influence of the Orthodox theological seminary. But she soon gathered large audiences and earnest members about her; established a Sunday school, had courses of lectures in her church during the winter, which she made quite profitable financially for the church, beside educating the people. Outside her profession she has also done a grand work, in temperance and woman suffrage.[429]

She is rarely out of her own pulpit; has generally been superintendent of her own Sunday school, and head of the young ladies' club, doing at all times more varied duties than any man would deem possible, and with all this she is a pattern wife, mother and housekeeper, and her n.o.ble husband, while carrying on a successful business of his own, stands ever ready to second her endeavors with generous aid and wise counsel, another instance of the happy homes among the "strong minded."

Among the estimable women who have been identified with the cause of woman suffrage in this country, Mathilde Franziska Anneke, a German lady, is worthy of mention:

She was born in Westphalia, April 3, 1817. Her childhood was pa.s.sed in happy conditions in a home of luxury, where she received a liberal education, yet her married life was encompa.s.sed with trials and disappointments. From her own experiences she learned the injustice of the laws for married women and early devoted her pen to the redress of their wrongs. Her articles appeared in leading journals of Germany and awoke many minds to the consideration of the social and civil condition of woman.

She was identified with the liberal movement of '48, her home being the resort for many of the leaders of the revolution. She published a liberal paper which freely discussed all the abuses of the government, a whole edition of which was destroyed. At length denounced by the government, she secretly made here escape from Cologne, and joined her husband at the head of his command in active preparation for a struggle against the Prussians.

She immediately declared her determination to share the toils of the expedition. Accordingly Col. Anneke appointed her _Tolpfofsort_, the duties of which she continued to discharge to the end of the campaign. In one of her works published in 1853, she has given a graphic description of the disastrous termination of the revolution, of their flight into France, of their expulsion from France and Switzerland, and of their final determination to come to the United States.

They reached New York in the fall of 1849. Madame Anneke lectured in most of the Eastern cities on the social and civil condition of women, claiming for them the right of suffrage and more liberal education. She also published a woman's journal in New York, and was soon recognized as one of the earnest representative women in America. For many years she made her home in Milwaukee, where she taught a successful school for young ladies. Madame Anneke, a widow with one son and two daughters, lived quietly the closing years of her life, and in death found the peace and rest she had never known in her busy life on earth.

Prof. G. S. Albee, president of the State Normal School at Oshkosh, is a firm friend and outspoken advocate of equal right of the s.e.xes to all the privileges of education, not excepting the education of the ballot-box. John Bascom, president of the Wisconsin University, has been an advocate of suffrage for women many years. While connected with Williams College he worked to secure the admission of women thereto. As one of a committee of five to whom the matter was referred, he, together with David Dudley Field, presented a minority report favoring their admission. Since he has been at the head of our State University he has been in perfect sympathy with its liberal coeducational policy, and has insured to the young women equal advantages in every respect with the young men. To his wise management may be attributed the success of higher coeducation in Wisconsin. He gave an able and scholarly address before our convention at Madison in '82, and is always found ready to speak for woman suffrage, both in public and private. His influence has done much for the advancement of the cause in our State. A cordial letter was received from Mrs. Bascom at the last Was.h.i.+ngton convention, which was listened to with interest and prized by the officers of the National a.s.sociation:

MADISON, Wis., January 16, 1885.

MY DEAR MISS ANTHONY: I am sorry I cannot be present and meet the many wise and great women who will respond to your call for the Seventeenth Annual Convention.

What a glorious record these words reveal of unwavering faith in the right, and heroic persistency in its pursuit on one side, and what blindness of prejudice and selfishness of power on the other. The struggle has indeed been a long one, and yet no other moral movement involving so many and so great social changes ever made more rapid progress. You and your fellow-laborers are truly to be congratulated on the full and abundant harvest your faithful seed-sowing has brought to humanity. The irrational sentiment, based upon the methods and customs of barbarous times, is rapidly yielding to reason. The world is learning--women are learning--that character, even womanly character, does not suffer from too much breadth of thought, or from too active a sympathy in human interests and human affairs, but is ever enriched by a larger circle of ideas, larger experience, and more extended activities.

The advance of women in position and influence has been especially great during the past year, and in directions especially cheering and hopeful to the heart of every woman.

In national political conventions, as your call so justly says, she has "actively partic.i.p.ated in the discussion of candidates, platforms and principles." The last mile-stone before the goal has been reached and pa.s.sed!

Your convention will offer the final opportunity to the Republican party. Will it be wise enough to seize it for self preservation, if not from principle? Will there be found in this party enough of spiritual life to lay hold of the help now proffered it, and once more renew its strength thereby? Or will it, as so repeatedly in the past, turn a deaf ear to reason, and still continue to deny the rights of half the human family? If so, if it continue deaf, dumb and blind, then the Republican party has no longer any function, and the power of government will pa.s.s forever from its hands. The sixteenth amendment to the national const.i.tution is coming, but it will be the crown of blessing and of fame of another party that will inaugurate this era in social life! I take the liberty to send loving greetings to you and the convention in the name of our Wisconsin Equal Suffrage society. I hope our bright, eloquent Rev. Olympia Brown will be with you. Of Wisconsin's eleven representatives in congress, I am happy to make honorable mention, as broad-minded advocates of our cause, of three, Cameron, Price and Stephenson. In earnest sympathy with the object and method of the convention, and with high regard for yourself, I remain yours truly,

EMMA C. BASCOM.

In this, as in many other States there was a prolonged struggle over the equal rights of women in the courts. The first woman to practice law in Wisconsin was Lavinia Goodell. She was admitted in the First Judicial Circuit Court, June 17, 1874, Judge H. S.

Conger, presiding. She commenced practicing in Janesville. The following year she had a case which was appealed to the Supreme Court. When the appeal was made, Miss Goodell applied to the Supreme Court for the right to go with her case. She argued her own case and based her claim upon a statute which provides, "That words of the masculine gender may be applied to females; unless such construction would be inconsistent with the manifest intention of the legislature." After she had shown clearly that she had an equal right in the courts in an able and unanswerable argument, Judge Ryan considered her application for two months and rendered an adverse decision. As a result of the agitation induced by this case, the legislature of 1877 pa.s.sed a law that "no person shall be refused admission to the bar of this State on account of s.e.x," thus showing the power of the legislative branch of the government to over-ride all judicial decisions. Miss Goodell immediately commenced practice in the Supreme Court. She reviewed the judicial decision with keen satire,[430] and ably ill.u.s.trated the comparative capacity of an educated man and woman to reason logically on American jurisprudence and const.i.tutional law.

In the early part of 1879 Kate Kane and Angie J. King were admitted to the bar. Miss Kane studied in a law office and in the law school of Michigan University. She practiced in Milwaukee until 1883, when she located in Chicago. Miss King practices in Janesville and was at first a.s.sociated with Miss Goodell, under the name of Goodell & King. Cora Hurtz, Oshkosh, was admitted and began practice in 1882.

FOOTNOTES:

[418] Mrs. Wolcott is a remarkable woman, of rare intelligence, keen moral perceptions and most imposing presence. Much of her success in life is due no doubt to her gracious manners. Her graceful figure, cla.s.sic face, rich voice and choice language make her attractive in the best social circles, as well as in the laboratory and lecture-room. She is a perfect housekeeper and a most hospitable hostess. Having enjoyed many visits at her beautiful home I can speak alike of her public and domestic virtues.--[E. C. S.

[419] See Vol. I., page 389.

[420] During a visit with my school-friend, Mrs. Elizabeth Ford Proudfit, at Madison, in 1879, I heard a great deal said of the injustice of this law as ill.u.s.trated in two notable cases of widows in the enjoyment of their husbands' entire estates, while the dead men's relatives, many of them, were living in poverty. This was most shocking! though widowers, from time immemorial, have possessed the life-earnings and inheritance of their wives, while the dead women's mothers and sisters were starving and freezing within sight of the luxurious homes that rightfully belonged to them! It makes a mighty odds whose ox is gored--the widower's or the widow's!--[S. B. A.

[421] In 1867 the governor, General Lucius Fairchild, appointed Laura J. Ross, M. D., as commissioner to the World's Exposition in Paris. In 1871 Mrs. Mary E. Lynde was appointed on the State Board of Charities and Corrections by Governor Fairchild.

[422] The committee on resolutions were: Dr. Laura J. Ross, N. S.

Murphey, Mrs. Livermore, Madame Annecke, Geo. W Peckham and Rev.

Mr. Gannett. The officers of the convention were: _President_, Rev.

Miss Augusta J. Chapin; _Vice-Presidents_, O. P. Wolcott, M. D., Laura J. Ross, M. D., and Madame Matilde F. Annecke; _Secretary_, Miss Lilia Peckham.

[423] For a further description of this convention see Mrs.

Stanton's letters from _The Revolution_, Vol. I., page 873.

[424] Miss Lilia Peckham, G. W. Peckham, esq., Mrs. Mary A.

Livermore, Madam Matilde Annecke, Rev. Augusta J. Chapin, Rev. Mr.

Eddy, Rev. Mr. English, Rev. Mr. Fallows.

[425] Miss Lilia Peckham died in Milwaukee, the city of her residence. She had been ill but a few weeks, her physicians considering her recovery certain up to within an hour of her death; but a sudden and unlooked-for change took place. One of the truest, purest and best spirits we have ever met has thus pa.s.sed from earth to heaven. All who met her soon came to appreciate her gifted nature, her rare talent and spiritual insight. But only those who knew her well can bear witness to her wonderful unselfishness, her remorseless honesty of speech and deed, the loftiness of her ideal and the beauty of her womanly soul. The Milwaukee _Sentinel_ closes a brief obituary notice of our friend and co-worker as follows:

"This talented young woman is well known throughout the country as an earnest advocate of the woman's rights movement. Only a few weeks since she made a successful tour through the West, speaking in various city pulpits. Fearlessly she spoke all that she had come to feel was truth, though it shook the very foundations of old creeds and ideas. Many efforts from her scholarly pen attest to her devotion to every onward movement of the hour. She was to have entered the Cambridge Divinity School early in the present autumn, having chosen the ministry for her life-work. That a life so full of promise of usefulness should be so suddenly stopped is irreconcilable with our finite judgment. It is hard to say, 'it is well,' though G.o.d's fact may be that this young life, with its beauty of character, its sisterly affection, its still larger sisterly sympathy with a suffering humanity, its longings and aspirations, its zealous strivings after the true and good, is full and complete _now_; still we shall mourn her loss, her brief though beautiful career."

[426] 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.

[427] The officers of the Wisconsin State society for 1885 were: _President_, Harriet T. Griswold, Columbus; _Vice-Presidents_, Laura Ross Wolcott, Milwaukee; Rev. Olympia Brown, Racine; Emma C. Bascom, Madison; F. A. Delagise, Antigo; Laura James, Richland Center; _Recording Secretary_, Helen R. Olin, Madison; _Corresponding Secretary_, M. W. Bentley, Schofield; _Treasurer_, Dr. Sarah R. Munro, Milwaukee; _Chairman Executive Committee_, Amelia B. Gray, Schofield. Among others active in the movement are Eliza T. Wilson, Menominee; Alura Collins, Muckwonago; Mrs. S. C.

Burnham, Bear Valley; Sarah H. Richards, Milwaukee; Mrs. W. Trippe, Whitewater.

[428] Eveleen Mason, May Wright Sewall, Mary A. Livermore, Dr.

Sarah Munro, Mrs. Haggart, Mrs. K. R. Doud, Miss Comstock, the Grand Worthy Vice-Templar from Milwaukee, Mrs. Le Page, and Mrs.

Amy Talbot Dunn, as Zekel's wife, made a deep impression.

[429] See vol. II. page 259.

[430] For her argument see _Woman's Journal_, April, 1876.

CHAPTER XLVII.

MINNESOTA.