Part 8 (2/2)
General Beauregard called frequently upon us, and I met him also at Waukesha, in Wisconsin. He was very kind to me, and greatly enjoyed hearing some of my nonsensical dialect readings. At the latter place the women were much impressed by his handsome and distinguished appearance and manners. When he called at my hotel many of them were eager in their entreaties to be introduced; our gallant general would bow graciously, but they were not to be satisfied unless he would also take them by the hand.
On February 24, 1893, General Beauregard was lying in state on his bier in the City Hall of New Orleans, and I was holding a convention of the Louisiana W. C. T. U. I could not help alluding to the death of this beloved old soldier, and I asked the women to go and look upon his handsome face for the last time. He was a perfect type of his cla.s.s--courtly, generous, chivalrous. He had been in the Mexican war, and was the only general of the old Confederacy who belonged in New Orleans.
The hearts of the people were touched, and when the meeting adjourned many groups of W. C. T. U. women were added to the crowds who went to look their last upon the face of the dead. Miss Points was pleased to say in the _New Orleans Picayune_: ”It was a beautiful act on the part of our women; and it acquired a new significance and beauty in that it was the outgrowth of the strong friends.h.i.+p and appreciation of the wife of the distinguished man who was our Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in the days of the Confederacy.” This was a tribute which she reminded them to offer to one of the dead heroes of our late war between the states!
”The great effort of courage I have made in my life was going in a skiff in an overflow, with Stephen and Allen, two inexperienced negro rowers, to Red River Landing in order to reach a steamboat for New Orleans, where, at the close of the war, I wanted to get supplies for my family and for my neighbors, who were in extremities by reason of the creva.s.se. That was an act of bravery--hunger forced it--which astonished into exclamation the captain of a Federal gunboat, Capt. Edward P. Lull, who made me take the oath of allegiance before I could leave. You know how afraid I am of water and of any _little_ boat; but give men or women a sufficiently powerful motive and they can do anything.”
CHAPTER XII.
A FIRST SPEECH AND SOME NOTED WOMEN.
In those broken-hearted days Clara said with a pathetic earnestness: ”Now I must try to be two daughters to you. You have not lost all your children--only your best child.” We drew nearer and more mutually dependent as time pa.s.sed, each trying to fill the awful void for the other. How could I dream that the insatiable archer was only waiting, with fatal dart in rest, to claim another victim? We made common joy as well as sorrow, and tried to lead each other out into the sunlit places, the simple pleasures of home and social life.
Early in the year 1897 a State Const.i.tutional Convention was a.s.sembled in New Orleans. The legal inequality of woman in Louisiana had already challenged the notice of some women, and a recent incident was outraging the hearts of a few who had the vision of seers. The Board of Control of St. Ann's Asylum--an inst.i.tution in New Orleans for the relief of dest.i.tute women and children--was composed entirely of women. A German inmate on her deathbed revealed that she had $1,000 in bank, and by a will, witnessed by members of the Board, she bequeathed it to the inst.i.tution which had sheltered her. On submission of the will to probate, the ladies were informed that it was invalid, because a woman was not a legal witness to a will. The bequest went to the State--and the women went to thinking and agitating.
Mrs. Elizabeth L. Saxon urged that we should appear before the Convention with our grievances. I did not feel equal to such an effort, but Mrs.
Saxon said: ”Instead of grieving yourself to death for your daughter who is gone, rise up out of the ashes and do something for the other women who are left!” My husband insisted that, having always wanted to do something for women, now was my opportunity. Mrs. Saxon and I drew up the following pet.i.tion:
”To the Honorable President and Members of the Convention of the State of Louisiana, convened for the purpose of framing a new Const.i.tution:
”Pet.i.tion of the undersigned, citizens of the State of Louisiana, respectfully represents:
”That up to the present time, all women, of whatever age or capacity, have been debarred from the right of representation, notwithstanding the burdensome taxes which they have paid.
”They have been excluded from holding office save in cases of special tutors.h.i.+p in limited degree--or of administration only in specified cases.
”They have been debarred from being witnesses in wills or notarial acts, even when executed by their own s.e.x.
”They look upon this condition of things as a grievance proper to be brought before your honorable body for consideration and relief.
”As a question of civilization, we look upon the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women as an all important one. In Wyoming, where it has been tried for ten years, the Lawmakers and Clergy unite in declaring that this influx of women voters has done more to promote law, morality and order, than thousands of armed men could have accomplished.
”Should the entire franchise seem too extended a privilege, we most earnestly urge the adoption of a property qualification, and that women may also be allowed a vote on school and educational matters, involving as they do the interests of women and children in a great degree.
”So large a proportion of the taxes of Louisiana is paid by women, many of them without male representatives, that in granting consideration and relief for grievances herein complained of, the people will recognize Justice and Equity; that to woman as well as man 'taxation without representation is tyranny,' she being 'a person, a citizen, a freeholder, a taxpayer,' the same as man, only the government has never held out the same fostering, protecting hand to all alike, nor ever will, until women are directly represented.
”Wherefore, we, your pet.i.tioners, pray that some suitable provision remedying these evils be incorporated in the Const.i.tution you are about to frame.”
Four hundred influential names were secured to the pet.i.tion, Mrs. Saxon, almost unaided, having gained three hundred of them. It was sent to the Convention and referred to the Committee on Suffrage, which on May 7 invited the ladies to a conference at the St. Charles Hotel. Mrs. Mollie Moore Davis, Colonel and Mrs. John M. Sandige, Mr. and Mrs. Saxon were present. Dr. Harriette C. Keating, a representative woman in professional life, Mrs. Elizabeth L. Saxon, already a well-known and fearless reformer, and Caroline E. Merrick, as the voice of home, were chosen to appear before the Convention on the evening of June 16, 1879. Eighty-six members of the Convention were present; a half hundred representatives of ”lovely woman” were there. Mrs. Myra Clark Gaines, the celebrated litigant, with a few other notables, occupied the middle of the floor, and youth and beauty retired into a corner. Mr. Poche, chairman of the Suffrage Committee, and afterward a member of the Supreme Court of the State, asked me if I were afraid. ”Afraid,” I said, ”is not the word. I'm scared almost to death!”
He tried to encourage me by recounting the terrors of many men similarly placed.
Mrs. Keating was first introduced, and, at the Secretary's desk, in a clear voice, with dignified self-possession set forth the capabilities of women for mastering political science sufficiently to vote intelligently on questions of the day. Mrs. Saxon following, was greeted with an outburst of welcome. She reviewed the customs of various nations to which women were required to conform, and called attention to the fact that the party which favored woman suffrage would poll twelve million votes. She made clear that the fact of s.e.x could not qualify or disqualify for an intelligent vote: she mentioned that numbers of women had told her they wanted to be present that night, but their husbands would not permit them to come.
Mrs. Elizabeth Lyle Saxon is a woman possessed of fine intellect and an uncommonly warm and generous nature. She was a pioneer in the Suffrage Cause in the South, and has ably represented its interests in National gatherings. She was sent as delegate from this State to the International Suffrage a.s.sociation of the World's Auxiliary Congress in 1893. All along the way she has given of her best with whole-hearted zeal to further the cause of women, and should claim the undying grat.i.tude of those for whom she has helped to build the bridges of human equality.
Mr. Robertson, of St. Landry, then offered the resolution: ”Resolved, That the Committee on elective franchise be directed to embody in the articles upon suffrage reported to this Convention, a provision giving the right of suffrage to women upon the same terms as to men.”
<script>