The bill came to a vote in the Assembly February 11 and passed. A defect was then discovered in the title and it was voted on again February 19, receiving 46 ayes, 29 noes. In the Senate it met with many vicissitudes which need not be recounted, as it eventually failed to pass. This was largely because the members did not believe it would be constitutional.
This question being settled, Senators McGowan of Eureka, and Bulla of Los Angeles, Assemblyman Spencer of Lassen, and others championed a resolution to amend the constitution by striking out the word "male" from the suffrage clause. This was adopted in March, 1895, by a two-thirds majority of both Houses, and signed by Gov. James H. Budd. The story of the campaign which was made to secure the adoption of this amendment is related hereafter. It was defeated by the voters.
Although the experienced national officers told the California women that it would be many years before they would be able to secure another bill they did not believe it, but went to the Legislature of 1897 full of hope that an amendment would be submitted again and they could make another campaign while their organizations were intact and public sentiment aroused. Mrs. Mary Wood Swift, Mrs. Mary S. Sperry and Mme. A. L. Sorbier spent much of the winter in Sacramento, and enough members were pledged to pass the bill. When it was acted upon, however, while it received a majority in both Houses, it lacked seven votes in the Assembly and one in the Senate of the necessary two-thirds.[171]
In 1899 Representative W. S. Mellick of Los Angeles introduced a bill giving women the right to vote for school trustees, and at elections for school bonds or tax levy. It passed the Assembly with only one dissenting vote, and the Senate by a majority of six. Gov. Henry T. Gage refused to sign it on the old ground of unconstitutionality.
Constitutional Amendment Campaign: The action of the Legislature of 1895 in submitting an amendment to the voters, instead of conferring the franchise by statute, was somewhat of a disappointment to the women as it precipitated a campaign which would come at the same time as that for President of the United States, and for which there was not sufficient organization. They were very much at sea for a while but in the spring of 1895 Miss Susan B. Anthony and the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, president and vice-president of the National Association, came to California to the Woman's Congress, and while here, having had much experience, helped them plan their work and gave every possible encouragement. In the autumn Miss Shaw returned and held meetings throughout the State, managed by Miss Harriet Cooper. The next year, at the urgent request of the State Association, Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw came back and remained from the first of March until after the election in November, rendering all the assistance within their power in the longest and hardest campaign ever made for a woman suffrage amendment. An amendment committee had been appointed at the last annual convention and out of this and the State officers a Campaign Committee[172] was formed and, in addition, a State Central Committee was organized.
Mrs. Sargent opened her handsome home for headquarters the first three months, and for eight months she and her daughter, Dr. Elizabeth C. Sargent, gave every hour to this work, entertaining as guests Miss Anthony, Miss Shaw and other workers and contributing large sums of money. In February, Dr. Sargent and Miss Shaw's secretary, Lucy E. Anthony, arranged a series of two days' conventions in every county in the State. Miss Harriet May Mills and Miss Mary G. Hay of New York, experienced organizers, were invited to California to manage these conventions and remained throughout the campaign.[173] The Rev. Miss Shaw and Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates of Maine were the speakers. The audiences were large and cordial, clubs were formed and the meetings more than paid expenses.
On Sunday, May 3, the San Francisco Call, the leading Republican paper, under the management of Charles M. Shortridge, came out with flaming headlines declaring for woman suffrage, and several hundred copies were sent to the State Republican convention which met in Sacramento the following Tuesday. A number of prominent women went to this convention, as it was considered very important that it should repeat its indorsement of the previous year. The delegation consisted of Miss Anthony, Miss Shaw, Mrs. Sargent, State president, Mrs. Mary Wood Swift, Mrs. Sarah Knox Goodrich, Mrs. Mary S. Sperry, Mrs. Ida Husted Harper and Miss Mary G. Hay, members of the campaign committee. Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw addressed the Committee on Resolutions, and the next day a plank declaring for the amendment was adopted by the big convention with only one dissenting voice.
On May 12 most of these ladies attended the Populist Convention in Sacramento. They were received with cheers, escorted to front seats, invited to address the convention and the plank was unanimously adopted. From here a part of them went to the Prohibition Convention in Stockton, meeting a most cordial reception and a similar result. The Socialist Labor and the National parties also indorsed the amendment.
There was little hope for the indorsement of the Democratic Convention, but the ladies, reinforced by Mrs. Sarah B. and Miss Harriet Cooper, Mrs. Henry Krebs, Jr., Mrs. Alice M. Stocker and Mrs. E. O. Smith attended it on June 16. They were permitted to address the Resolutions Committee and present a petition signed by about 40,000 men and women of the State asking for the amendment, but it was laid on the table almost before they had left the room.[174]
A minority report was at once prepared by Charles Wesley Reed and signed by himself, William H. Alford, chairman of the committee, and two other members, but it was prevented from coming before the convention by order of its chairman, Frank Gould of San Joaquin County. After the platform had been adopted Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw were invited to address the convention, which they did to such effect that when they had finished the minority report was demanded. It was too late for this but, in spite of the efforts of John P. Irish and W. W. Foote of Alameda County,[175] and others, the original resolution declaring for an amendment was brought to a vote, receiving 149 ayes, 420 noes, more than one-fourth the whole number.