CHAPTER XLII.

LOUISIANA.[290]

The history of woman suffrage in Louisiana must center always about the names of Mrs. Elizabeth Lyle Saxon and Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick. In 1879, before there had been any general agitation of this question in the State, these ladies appeared before the convention which was preparing a new constitution, and urged that the ballot should be granted to women on the same terms as to men. The only concession to their demands was a clause making women eligible to any office of control or management under the School Laws of the State.

Mrs. Saxon continued to create equal suffrage sentiment until her removal to another State, and Mrs. Merrick remains still a principal figure in the movement. Until his death in 1897 she had the earnest encouragement and assistance of her distinguished husband, Edwin T. Merrick, for ten years Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Louisiana prior to the Civil War.

As New Orleans is the only large city and contains one-fourth of the population of a State which is among the most conservative in the Union, organized work naturally would be confined to this locality, but up to 1884 it had no active club or society of women. In this year there was a demand by the press that the women of New Orleans should organize for the promotion of the World's Cotton Centennial, to be held there in the autumn and winter of 1884-85. This was done and the Woman's Department was a conspicuous feature of the centennial. Mrs. Julia Ward Howe of Massachusetts was the commissioner for the Government, different States sent capable representatives and there was cordial co-operation with the women of New Orleans.

SUSAN LOOK AVERY. HELEN PHILLEO JENKINS.
Louisville, Ky., and Chicago, Ill. Detroit, Mich.
LOUISA SOUTHWORTH.
Cleveland, Ohio.
MARY BENTLEY THOMAS. KATE M. GORDON.
Ednor, Md. New Orleans, La.

In March, 1885, Miss Susan B. Anthony visited the city for two weeks. She was deluged with invitations for addresses, and spoke in Agricultural Hall of the exposition at the request of the Press Club, in Tulane Hall under the auspices of the city teachers, at the Girls' High School and in half-a-dozen other places. Everywhere she was most warmly welcomed and was favorably reported in the papers, although her doctrines were new and unpopular. Mrs. Eliza J. Nicholson, owner and manager of the Picayune, and Mrs. M. A. Field (Catharine Cole), of its editorial staff, gave pleasant manifestations of friendship. One of the addresses delivered by Miss Anthony was before the Woman's Club, which had been an outgrowth of the exposition committees. Mrs. May Wright Sewall of Indiana gave an address on this same occasion. While this club had by no means been formed in the interests of suffrage, it was a decided innovation and the first step out of tradition and conservatism.

The work of the women of Louisiana in the Anti-Lottery campaign of 1891 is entitled to special mention. The lottery, as the great money power, controlled absolutely the politics of the State, and the leading newspapers were a unit in its support. The reform movement to prevent the renewal of its charter was without money, prestige or the influence of the press. The women came nobly to the rescue of this apparently hopeless cause. They formed leagues for the collection of money, they called meetings, they assisted in every possible way to educate the public mind and awaken the public conscience. To them belongs a large share of the credit for the final overthrow at the polls of this octopus corporation, which was so long a reproach to the State.