While these violent tactics were being followed the Union worked also along legitimate lines, organized parades, lobbied in Congress, attended committee hearings, went to political conventions, interviewed candidates and worked unceasingly. When the amendment was submitted for ratification it transferred its activities to the Legislatures and the Presidential candidates.
After the Federal Amendment was proclaimed a convention was called to meet in Washington Feb. 15-19, 1921, and decide whether the organization should disband or continue its work until women stood on the same legal, civil, and economic basis as men. The convention decided on the latter course. The name was retained. Miss Paul insisted upon retiring from office and Miss Elsie Hill, who had long been an officer, was elected chairman. A large executive committee was named, headed by Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont of New York. An impressive ceremony took place in the rotunda of the Capitol on February 15, the 101st birthday of Susan B. Anthony, when the party presented to Congress a marble group of Miss Anthony, Mrs. Stanton and Lucretia Mott, the work of Mrs. Adelaide Johnson, with representatives of sixty organizations of women taking part. It was officially accepted by Congress.
The National Woman's Party will undertake to secure a Federal Amendment removing all disabilities on account of sex or marriage and will also have bills for this purpose introduced in State Legislatures. In 1921 Mrs. Belmont, who had been the largest contributor, gave $146,000 for the purchase of a historic mansion in Washington to be used for permanent headquarters and for a national political clubhouse for women. At a new election Mrs. Belmont was made president; Miss Paul vice-president and Miss Hill chairman of the executive committee.
ASSOCIATIONS OPPOSED TO WOMAN SUFFRAGE.
The first society of women opposed to the suffrage seems to have been formed in Washington, D. C., in 1871, with the wife of General Sherman, the wife of Admiral Dahlgren and Mrs. Almira Lincoln Phelps, a sister of Miss Emma Willard, as officers. Their first public effort on record was two letters to the Washington Post published in 1876 and a memorial from Mrs. Dahlgren in 1878 to a Senate Committee which was to grant a hearing to the suffragists on a Federal Amendment.
An Anti-Suffrage Committee was formed in Massachusetts in the early '80's with Mrs. Charles D. Homans as chairman. About twenty prominent women signed a remonstrance against a State suffrage amendment, which was first presented to the Legislature in 1884 and each year afterwards when there was a resolution before it for this purpose. An Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women was organized in Massachusetts in May, 1895, with Mrs. J. Elliott Cabot president and Mrs. Charles E. Guild secretary; Laurence Minot, treasurer. Executive Committee, chairman, Mrs. Henry M. Whitney. A paper called the Remonstrance, started about 1890, was published quarterly in Boston, edited for some years by Frank Foxcroft. It ceased publication October, 1920, at which time Mrs. J. M. Codman was editor.
In 1894, when a convention for revising the constitution of New York State was held, Anti-Suffrage Committees were formed in Brooklyn, April 18; in New York City, April 25; in Albany, April 28. These committees combined to form the New York State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage on April 8, 1895, with Mrs. Francis M. Scott, president. The other States in which there was an association or committee in late years were as follows: Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, D. C., Wisconsin.
The National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage was organized in New York City in November, 1911, with the following officers: President, Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge; vice-presidents, Miss Mary A. Ames, Boston, and Mrs. Horace Brock, Philadelphia; secretary, Mrs. William B. Glover, Fairfield, Conn.; treasurer, Mrs. Robert Garrett, Baltimore. Mrs. James W. Wadsworth, Jr., succeeded Mrs. Dodge in July, 1917, and was followed by Miss Mary G. Kilbreth in 1920. The aim of the association was "to increase general interest in the opposition to universal woman suffrage and to educate the public in the belief that women can be more useful to the community without the ballot than if affiliated with and influenced by party politics." It held mass meetings during campaigns; sent delegates to hearings given by committees of Congress on a Federal Suffrage Amendment and other matters connected with national woman suffrage; also to Legislatures to oppose State amendments; sent speakers and workers to States where amendment campaigns were in progress and circulated vast quantities of literature.
The national headquarters were in New York City at 37 West 39th St. until 1918 when they were moved to Washington, D. C. Three papers were published, the Anti-Suffragist in Albany; the Woman's Protest in New York from May, 1912 to March 1, 1918, when it was succeeded by the Woman Patriot, published in Washington.