FOOTNOTES:
[23] Part of Call: The association goes to New Orleans in response to an invitation from the Progressive Union, the Era Club of women and many prominent individuals. It is especially appropriate that the advocates of this important reform should assemble in Louisiana in honor of the action taken by this State in 1898, when its constitutional convention incorporated a clause giving to tax-paying women a vote on all questions of taxation submitted to the electors; and in commemoration of the splendid use they made of this privilege at the election held to secure to New Orleans the completion of its drainage and the establishment of a sewerage system and free water supply....
Never in the fifty years of this movement have its advocates had such a victory to record as was achieved in Australia in June, 1902, when almost the first act of Parliament of the new Federation of States was to confer the full national suffrage with the right to a seat in the Parliament on all qualified women of the entire commonwealth. This one act enfranchised about 800,000. These added to those of New Zealand and of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho, it will be found that 1,125,000 English-speaking women are at the present time in possession of the complete suffrage and all except those of Wyoming have been enfranchised within the past ten years. By adding to these the women of Great Britain and Ireland, who have all except the Parliamentary vote, those of Kansas with Municipal, of Louisiana, Montana, and New York with the Tax-payers' and of over one-half of the States with the school ballot, the 1,125,000 will be multiplied several times....
It is, therefore, with courage and hope inspired by the glorious promise of the new century for greater material and moral progress in all directions than the world has ever known, that the advocates of this measure, which ultimately will affect the destinies of the whole American people, are called in convention to review the labor of the past year, to plan that of the future, to strengthen the old comradeship and greet new workers and friends.
| Susan B. Anthony, Honorary President. | ||
| Carrie Chapman Catt, President. | ||
| Anna Howard Shaw, Vice-president-at-Large. | ||
| Kate M. Gordon, Corresponding Secretary. | ||
| Alice Stone Blackwell, Recording Secretary. | ||
| Harriet Taylor Upton, Treasurer. | ||
| Laura Clay, | } | Auditors. |
| Mary J. Coggeshall, | ||
[24] The colored women had some excellent organizations in New Orleans, the most notable being the Phyllis Wheatley Club, which in addition to its literary and social features maintained a training school for nurses, a kindergarten and a night school. It invited Miss Anthony, Miss Blackwell and Mrs. Elizabeth Smith Miller to address it and they were accompanied by "Dorothy Dix," the well-known writer, a New Orleans woman. In the large assemblage were some of the teachers from the four colleges for colored students—Methodist, Congregational, Baptist and the State. "Dorothy Dix" said in her brief address that no woman in the city was more respected or had more influence than Mrs. Sylvanie Williams, the club's president, and gave several instances to illustrate it. After the addresses Mrs. Williams presented Miss Anthony with a large bouquet tied with yellow satin ribbon and said: "Flowers in their beauty and sweetness may represent the womanhood of the world. Some flowers are fragile and delicate, some strong and hardy, some are carefully guarded and cherished, others are roughly treated and trodden under foot. These last are the colored women. They have a crown of thorns continually pressed upon their brow, yet they are advancing and sometimes you find them further on than you would have expected. When women like you, Miss Anthony, come to see us and speak to us it helps us to believe in the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man, and at least for the time being in the sympathy of woman."
[25] The important decision was made at this convention to remove the headquarters on May 1 from New York to Warren, O., the home of the national treasurer, Mrs. Upton. The burden of having charge of them had borne heavily upon Mrs. Catt for the past three years and it grew more difficult as each year she had to spend more time in field work. Miss Gordon, the corresponding secretary, wished to remain in New Orleans because of her mother's failing health and it was necessary to have a national officer in charge. Mrs. Upton consented reluctantly to assume the responsibility and only on the assurance of Miss Elizabeth Hauser, a capable executive, that she would manage the details of the office. The arrangement was to be temporary but it continued for six years.
[26] Quotations are given from each of the opening prayers because each of them endorsed woman suffrage.
[27] Mrs. Hussey left a bequest of $10,000 to the National American Woman Suffrage Association.
[28] For appreciations of Mrs. Stanton see Appendix.