TENNESSEE.[435]
No organized work for woman suffrage had been done in Tennessee up to 1885, when Mrs. Elizabeth Lyle Saxon was appointed president of the State by the National Association. In 1886 she removed to Washington Territory and Mrs. Lida A. Meriwether was made her successor. As the best means of obtaining a hearing from people who would not attend a suffrage meeting, Mrs. Meriwether decided to begin her work in the ranks of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. After three years of quiet effort in this organization (of which she was State president) she succeeded in adding the "franchise" to its departments and having a solid suffrage plank nailed into its platform by unanimous vote. In May, 1889, she formed in Memphis the first local suffrage club, with a membership of fifty.
In January, 1895, Miss Susan B. Anthony, president of the National Association, and Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of its organization committee, came to Memphis and were welcomed not only by the suffrage society, but also by the Local Council of Women, the Woman's Club and the Nineteenth Century Club. They addressed a fine audience in the Young Men's Hebrew Association Hall.
The following June Mrs. Meriwether was employed by the National Association to lecture and organize for two weeks, and visited the most important towns in the State.
In May, 1897, Miss Frances A. Griffin of Alabama made a six weeks' lecture and organizing tour under the auspices of the association, during which she spoke in every available town of any size, Mrs. Nellie E. Bergen acting as advance agent. No other organizing work ever has been done in Tennessee.
The first State suffrage convention was held at Nashville in May, 1897, an association formed and Mrs. Meriwether unanimously elected president. This was in fact an interstate convention, being held during the Tennessee Centennial Exposition at the invitation of the managing committee, who offered the suffragists the use of the Woman's Building for three days to give reasons for the faith that was in them. Delegates were present from Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi and Illinois. Addresses were given by Miss Laura Clay and Mrs. Lida Calvert Obenchain of Kentucky, Mrs. Virginia Clay Clopton and Miss Griffin of Alabama, Miss Josephine E. Locke of Illinois, Mrs. Flora C. Huntington and Mrs. Meriwether.
The second convention took place at Memphis, April 22, 1900, Mrs. Chapman Catt and Miss Mary G. Hay, national organizer, in attendance. Mrs. Meriwether was elected honorary president for life; Mrs. Elise M. Selden was made president and Miss Margaret E. Henry, corresponding secretary. On Sunday evening Mrs. Chapman Catt addressed a mass meeting in the Grand Opera House, and the next evening spoke in the audience hall of the Nineteenth Century Club, both given free of charge.
One incident will further show the growth of public sentiment in this direction. In 1895 a prominent Memphis woman sent to the Arena an article entitled The Attitude of Southern Women on the Suffrage Question, which she claimed to be that of uncompromising opposition. In conclusion she said: "The views presented have been strengthened by opinions from women all over the South, from the Atlantic Coast to Texas, from the Ohio to the Gulf. More than one hundred of the home-makers, the teachers and the writers have been consulted, all of them recognized in their own communities for earnestness and ability. Of these, only thirteen declared themselves outright for woman suffrage; four believed that women should vote upon property and school questions; while nine declined to express themselves. All the others were opposed to woman suffrage in any form." She then gave short extracts from the letters of eighteen women, four in favor and fourteen opposed.
The editor wrote to Mrs. Josephine K. Henry of Kentucky asking for an article from the other side. She sent one entitled The New Woman of the New South, and the two were published in the Arena of February, 1895. Mrs. Henry gave extracts from the letters of seventy-two prominent women in various parts of the South—all uncompromising suffragists. She had written to Mrs. Meriwether that, as her opponent was from Tennessee, she wanted a distinct voice from that State, and requested her to give a few reasons for desiring the suffrage and obtain the signatures of women to the same. Mrs. Meriwether supplied the following:
We, the undersigned women of Tennessee, do and should want the ballot because—
1. Being 21 years old, we object to being classed with minors.
2. Born in America and loyal to her institutions, we protest against being made perpetual aliens.
3. Costing the treasuries of our counties nothing, we protest against acknowledging the male pauper as our political superior.
4. Being obedient to law, we protest against the statute which classes us with the convict and makes the pardoned criminal our political superior.
5. Being sane, we object to being classed with the lunatic.
6. Possessing an average amount of intelligence, we protest against legal classification with the idiot.
7. We taxpayers claim the right to representation.
8. We married women want to own our clothes.
9. We married breadwinners want to own our earnings.
10. We mothers want an equal partnership in our children.
11. We educated women want the power to offset the illiterate vote of our State.