In 1892 the Portia Club was formed, a strictly suffrage organization, with Mrs. Merrick as president.[291] Under its auspices the Association for the Advancement of Women held its annual congress in New Orleans in 1895, during which Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby of Washington, D. C., gave an address on The Philosophy of Woman Suffrage. At another time Mrs. Clara C. Hoffman of Missouri lectured for the club.
In January, 1895, Miss Anthony, president of the National Suffrage Association, accompanied by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of its organization committee, came again to New Orleans. The Picayune said of their first appearance:
If any one doubted the interest which Southern women feel in the all-absorbing question of the day, "Woman and her Rights," that idea would have been forever dispelled by a glance at the splendid audience assembled last night. The hall was literally packed to overflowing, not only with women but with men, prominent representatives in every walk of life.
In 1896 the Era[292] Club was organized with Miss Belle Van Horn as president. The successful work of this society has been largely due to the ability and personal influence of Mrs. Evelyn W. Ordway, a progressive Massachusetts woman, professor of chemistry in Newcomb College, New Orleans, who was its second president. Miss Kate M. Gordon was the third.
In 1896 the Era united with the Portia Club in the beginning of a State suffrage association, of which Mrs. Merrick was made president. Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford of Colorado gave two lectures before the new association this year. Those who have represented this body at the national conventions are Mrs. Merrick, Miss Katharine Nobles and Miss Gordon.
In 1898 a convention was held in New Orleans to prepare a new State constitution. A committee composed of Mrs. Marie Garner Graham, Miss Nobles, Miss Gordon and Miss Jean Gordon appeared before the Suffrage Committee in support of a petition for Full Suffrage for the educated, taxpaying women of Louisiana, which had been presented to the convention by the Hon. A. W. Faulkner. Mrs. Graham made an eloquent appeal in behalf of using the intelligence and morality embodied in the woman's vote in solving the political problem of the South. The committee further requested that Mrs. Chapman Catt be permitted to address the convention. The request was immediately granted and an official invitation courteously extended.
Mrs. Merrick, who was a delegate to the suffrage convention then in session at Washington, urged that some prominent members of the National Association should accompany this speaker on her important mission, and Miss Laura Clay of Kentucky and Miss Mary G. Hay of New York were duly appointed. On February 24, in Tulane Hall, before the assembled convention and a large throng of listeners in the galleries, Mrs. Chapman Catt made a strong argument for the enfranchisement of Louisiana women.
For many days woman suffrage was seriously considered as a means to the end of securing white supremacy in the State. The following week the Athenæum, the finest lecture hall in New Orleans, was crowded with men and women from all classes of society anxious to hear more on this daily topic of discussion, as presented by Mrs. Chapman Catt, Miss Clay and Miss Frances A. Griffin of Alabama. Seats were reserved for the members of the Constitutional Convention, who responded almost unanimously to the invitation to be present.
Dr. Henry Dickson Bruns, a member of the Suffrage Committee, bent every effort to secure Full Suffrage for women as the only means to effect the reform in political conditions so much desired. The majority report of the committee, however, contained only this clause: "All taxpaying women shall have the right to vote in person or by proxy on all questions of taxation."
While the women were greatly disappointed, this was really a signal victory in so conservative a State.