Mr. Hays talked for nearly five minutes after this last interruption. He slid off the subject of Delaware. He progressed as far away as Abraham Lincoln. Lucy Branham arose to bring his mind back to Delaware. Mr. Hays was saying, “The great Republican leaders of the past——” and his hands were uplifted to emphasize his statement. Glancing down between them, his gaze was attracted by Miss Branham’s movement. “Not now, young lady, not now,” he commanded, or suggested, or perhaps begged. Miss Branham bore up the aisle. Neither Mr. Hays’ gesture nor sentence completed itself. “In conclusion,” he said, “I desire to state that the few women who are about to be enfranchised could do no better——” Mr. Hays’ conclusion merged with air.
In the meantime, the anti-Suffragists in Ohio had brought a suit attacking the validity of the Ohio ratification on the ground that the State of Ohio had the initiative and referendum on all acts by the State Legislature and therefore must have it on ratification, if it were demanded by petition. They therefore demanded a referendum on the ratification of Suffrage. The Woman’s Party contested this suit, engaging the following counsel: Shippen Lewis, George Wharton Pepper, and William Draper Lewis. It went through the Courts of Ohio to the Supreme Court of the United States, which sustained the validity of the Ohio ratification.
The Republican Convention began on June 8 in Chicago. Delaware—whose Legislature and Governor were Republican—had just-defeated ratification. There were only two other States from which it seemed possible at this time to obtain final ratification—Vermont and Connecticut. There were, to be sure, two other States which had not acted on the Amendment—Florida and Tennessee. But there were clauses in their constitutions which provided that an election must occur between the submission of an Amendment and its ratification. The fact that both Vermont and Connecticut were Republican put the responsibility of finishing up ratification on the Republicans. As repeated appeals to the National Republican leaders had failed to induce them to bring sufficient pressure on the Republican governors of Vermont and Connecticut, the Suffragists felt that it was necessary to make a stronger protest than hitherto they had exerted against this Republican inaction. They therefore decided to picket the Republican National Convention. The first day of the Convention, Mabel Vernon led a long white-clad line of women, carrying lettered banners and the purple, white, and gold tri-color, from the Woman’s Party Headquarters to the Coliseum, directly opposite, where the Convention was held. They marched across the street and took up their brilliant tri-color stand at intervals against its dull walls.
Mary Ingham bore a banner which said:
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY HAS THE POWER TO ENFRANCHISE
WOMEN. WHEN WILL IT DO SO?
Doris Stevens’ banner read:
WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH RESOLUTIONS.
GIVE US THE 36TH STATE.