Part 14 (2/2)
The love of freedom is ingrained in the ideals of the South. Its apparent conservatism is not hostility to the new nor intense devotion to the old; it is more an inevitable result of thin population scattered over wide areas, with little opportunity for the frequent and direct contact which is indispensable to the rapid and general development of a common idea. It is not true that Southern men are more opposed than others to the freedom of women. The several Codes show that the Southern States were the first to remove the inequality of women as to property rights. It must also be remembered that a vigorous propaganda for the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women has been conducted for fifty years, at great expense of time and talent, all over the North, while it may be said to have just begun in the South.
If in 1890 any effort had been made by the National American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation to influence the Const.i.tutional Convention then in session in Mississippi, the woman's ballot on an educational basis might have been secured. Henry Blackwell was the only prominent Northern suffragist who seemed to have a wide-open eye on that convention. What he could he did, gratis, to help the cause, and won the friends.h.i.+p and grat.i.tude of many in that State. The leading women who were applied to offered not one word of appreciation of the situation--doubtless because they were accustomed to expecting nothing good out of Nazareth; perhaps also because they would not aid what seemed an unrighteous effort to eliminate the negro vote.
It is not the first time in suffrage history that the white woman has been sacrificed to the brother in black. A political necessity brought within a few votes the political equality of woman. If Mississippi had then settled the race question on the only statesmanlike and just plan--by enfranchising intelligence and disfranchising ignorance--other States would have followed; for the South generally desires a model for a just and legal white supremacy--without the patent subterfuge of ”grandfather clauses.” The heartbreak of any human soul or cause is not to have been equal to its opportunity. The whole woman's movement is yet bearing the consequences of that eclipse of vision ten years ago.
The first ground broken in the cultivation of greater privileges for Louisiana women was the organization of the Woman's Club of New Orleans.
In 1884--as narrated in its history prepared for the World's Columbian Exposition--in response to a notice in the _New Orleans Times-Democrat_, twelve women met in the parlor of the Young Men's Christian a.s.sociation and organized the first Woman's Club in the South.
Miss Elizabeth Bisland, now Mrs. Charles W. Wetmore of New York, was its first president. Miss Bisland had already earned fair fame in literature, and the South was justly proud of her. She afterwards challenged the world's notice by her swift girdling of the globe in the interest of the _Cosmopolitan Magazine_. The charter members of the pioneer club were of the heroic type, and amid fluctuations of hope and despair, forced on by the irresistible spirit of the age, founded a society which numbered its members by hundreds, and which secured and retained the sympathy and respect of the people.
The Const.i.tution provided at first only for working women, but afterward eliminated this restriction. It stated that, evolved as it was from a progressive civilization, its movements must be elastic, its work versatile and comprehensive. It estimated its own scope as follows: ”The vital and influential work of our club must always be along sociological lines. The term embraces pursuits of study and pastime, our labors and relaxations. In the aggregate we are breaking down and removing barriers of local prejudice; we are a.s.sisting intellectual growth and spiritual ambition in the community of which we are a dignified and effective body--for the immense economy of moral force made possible by a permanent organization such as ours, is well understood by the thoughtful.” It extended hospitality in the public recognition of extraordinary achievements by women, and helped to bring aspirants in art, literature and sociology before appreciative audiences, and introduced to New Orleans many world-renowned women and men.
Being the first woman's club in the South it was the subject of peculiar interest and attention from other organizations of women, and was wise enough, from the beginning, to ally itself with the general movement. Its delegate was a conspicuous part of the National Convention of Women's Clubs, held in New York in 1889, under the auspices of Sorosis; in 1892 it was represented in the Convention of Federated Clubs, in Chicago, by its president and delegate, and was present in the General Federation of Women's Clubs in 1894. It was the host, in connection with Portia Club, in 1895, of the ”a.s.sociation for the Advancement of Women,” which enjoyed for a week the novelty of the Crescent City and its environs.
Through its initiation, matrons were placed in station houses and a bed was furnished in the ”Women's and Children's Hospital.” It pet.i.tioned for a revocation of Mrs. Maybrick's sentence, and distributed rations to the sufferers in the great overflows of the Mississippi and Texas rivers. It is clearly manifest from the foregoing that the Woman's Club was the initial step of whatever progression women have made through subsequent organizations.
Following the enlarging influence of the New Orleans Exposition in 1885-86, there came the great contest to overthrow the Louisiana State Lottery. The whole energy of the church and every citizen was called into action all over the State. Women's Lottery Leagues were formed in every town,--that in New Orleans numbering 900 members; it was denominated ”the crowning influence that resulted in victory.” It is impossible to overestimate the liberative value for woman of this struggle brought to a successful issue; or to reckon how far back into inertia she would have been thrown by defeat; for the first time in our post-bellum history it united women of all cla.s.ses and ages in a common moral and political battle-ground. The federal anti-lottery law which has secured the results of this victory may prove to be an invaluable precedent for anti-trust legislation.
In 1892, in response to my invitation, some of the strong, progressive and intellectual women of New Orleans were ready to meet at my house and organize the first suffrage a.s.sociation in Louisiana. It was formed with nine members, and was called the ”Portia Club.” The officers were Mrs.
Caroline E. Merrick, president; Mrs. Jas. M. Ferguson, vice-president; Mrs. Evelyn Ordway, treasurer. Through its influence Governor Foster appointed four women on the school boards of some of the Northern parishes of Louisiana. It has done excellent educational work by the discussion of such subjects as ”Is the Woman in the Wage-earning World a Benefit to Civilization?” ”Is Organization Beneficial to Labor?” ”Has the State of Wyoming been Benefited by Woman Suffrage?” ”Would Munic.i.p.al Suffrage for Women be a Benefit in New Orleans?” ”The Initiative and Referendum;” ”The Republic of Venice;” ”Disabilities of Women in Louisiana.” The Portias have maintained a leading part in all public causes that have enlisted women, and in the interests of full suffrage were heard by the Suffrage Committee of the Const.i.tutional Convention of 1898.
On the occasion of Miss Susan B. Anthony's seventieth birthday, a reception at my house brought together not only those favorable to our undertaking but many whom it was desirable to enlist. When that gentle-faced, lion-hearted pioneer, Lucy Stone, yielded up her beautiful, self-effacing life, the Portia Club held a fitting memorial service. Mrs.
Clara C. Hoffman made a most memorable suffrage address for the Portias in this city, which aroused tremendous enthusiasm. She lectured extensively elsewhere in the State, and wrote to me as follows after her visit here: ”It is generally claimed that Southern people are conservative and bitterly opposed to any mention of equal suffrage. In my recent tour I found them not only willing but anxious to hear the subject discussed. I came into Louisiana at the request of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union Convention, and had been informed that I must not say anything about suffrage, as the people would not bear it. In my first address I reviewed the hindering causes that delay and prevent the establishment of needed reforms, and showed the danger of enfranchising all the vice and ignorance in the land without seeking to counteract it; but I said not a word about what the counteractant might be. The convention closed with Sunday services; but before the day was gone I received an invitation from leading citizens--professional and business men--to speak in the Opera House in Shreveport at their expense, on Monday night, on woman suffrage.
A packed audience greeted me when I was cordially introduced by a prominent lawyer. I presented arguments, answered objections. Round after round of applause interrupted, and many crowded about at the close, expressing themselves with utmost warmth. How is that for Shreveport, and Louisiana?”
Later Mrs. Hoffman spoke at Monroe and Lake Charles with equal acceptance.
One of our city papers said of her: ”Mrs. Hoffman entered bravely upon her subject, interspersing her remarks with delicious bits of witticism. She is a forcible and brilliant speaker, a radical of the radicals, but disarms by her clear, genial manner of presenting truth.”
Besides the women's societies in the various churches, which have done so much to widen the field of woman's thought and endeavor, the Arena Club of New Orleans, under the leaders.h.i.+p of Mrs. James M. Ferguson, has been a vital force. While tacitly endorsing suffrage, it advances social, political and economic questions of the day. Its latest efforts have been to create sentiment for anti-trust legislation.
There has been a valuable period of training through Auxiliaries. Every great movement, social and religious, had its Woman's Auxiliary. These helped to reveal to woman her own capacities and her utter want of power.
But the day of the Auxiliary is done. If some of the auxiliary women have not yet found out what woman ought to do, they have discovered the next best thing--what not to do!
In 1895 an amicable division of the Portia Club was made, the offshoot becoming the Era Club--Equal Rights a.s.sociation. It was a vigorous child, full of progressive energy, and soon outgrew its mother. Its original members, like the Portia, were nine, as follows: Mmes. Ferguson, Ordway, Hereford, Pierce, Misses Brewer, Brown, Koppel, n.o.bles, Van Horn. At this juncture Miss Anthony, accompanied by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, strengthened our hearts and cause by her presence. It was again my privilege to entertain her in my home. She spoke to an enthusiastic audience and Mrs. Catt was complimented in the same way. The next morning the following letter from a leading member of the New Orleans bar was brought to Miss Anthony by a member of the Portia Club: ”That was a great meeting last night. When people are willing to stand for three long hours and listen to speakers it means something. There were ten or twelve men and a score of women standing within ten feet of me, and not one of them who did not remain to the end. There are few men who can hold an audience in that way. I looked around the a.s.sembly Hall and counted near me eight of my legal confreres. One of the most distinguished lawyers in the State told me in court this morning that Mrs. Catt's argument was one of the finest speeches he had ever listened to. Yesterday I was asked at dinner to define the word 'oratory.' Mrs. Catt is an exponent of 'the art of moving human hearts to beat in unison with her own'--which is the end and aim of oratory,--and was that quality which made the Athenians who heard Demosthenes declare that they would 'fight Philip.' Give the speaker a lawyer's compliments.”
Miss Anthony was much moved by this letter. ”All this,” she said, ”is so much sweeter than the ridicule that used to come to me in those early days when I stood alone.”
Committees from the Portia and Era Clubs met in November, 1896, in the parlors of the Woman's Club, and organized a State Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation, with Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick, president; Mrs. Eveleyn Ordway, vice-president; Miss Matilda P. Hero, corresponding secretary; Miss Belle Van Horn, recording secretary; Mrs. Boseley, treasurer; Mrs.
Helen Behrens, an ardent and able pioneer and present worker in the cause, being made our first delegate to a National Convention.
In 1898, the Era Club, in the name of Louisiana women, presented to the Suffrage Committee of the Const.i.tutional Convention, then in session in New Orleans, the following pet.i.tion: ”In view of the fact that one of the purposes of this Convention is to provide an educational qualification for the exercise of the franchise by which to guard more carefully the welfare of the State, we, the undersigned, believing that still another change would likewise conduce greatly to the welfare of our people, pray that your honorable body will, after deciding upon the qualifications deemed necessary, extend the franchise with the same qualifications to the women of this State.”
Mrs. Evelyn Ordway, one of the most efficient and public-spirited women of New Orleans, as president of the Era Club, wisely and bravely led the women's campaign. Owing to a rain which flooded the city, the most of the woman's contingent were prisoners in their homes on the day the pet.i.tion was procured. Mrs. Lewis S. Graham, and Misses Katharine n.o.bles, Kate and Jennie Gordon alone were able to cross the submerged streets to the Committee room. Mrs. Graham made the leading address, and was ably supported by her colleagues. Mrs. Carrie Chapman-Catt, aided by Misses Laura Clay, Mary Hay and Frances Griffin, had been busy creating public sentiment by means of brilliant addresses both in and out of the Convention. Dr. d.i.c.kson Bruns should be ever held in grateful memory for his constant and unflinching efforts in behalf of the woman's pet.i.tion, which was presented in Convention by the Hon. Anthony W. Faulkner of Monroe.
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