In 1906 a Senate hearing was given on the bill, addressed by Mr. Blackwell. It was reported without recommendation and ably debated. Senator Walter R. Stiness made a strong speech in its support and it passed by 29 ayes, 7 noes. In the House the bill was referred to the Committee on Special Legislation. Long petitions from prominent voters were presented asking that it be reported but General Charles R. Brayton, the Republican "boss" who for years controlled the Legislature, seeing the strong sentiment in its favor would not permit it to come to a vote. He admitted that he feared it would help the Democratic party.
In 1907 the battle for the bill was renewed and among the petitioners was Governor James H. Higgins. At two largely attended hearings nearly every person gave a rising vote in favor. Mrs. Charles Warren Lippitt and Mrs. Edward Johnson protested against women's being allowed to vote for President and Rowland Hazard supported them. The bill was defeated, though not by them but by political opposition.
In 1909 Mr. Blackwell appeared for the last time as the advocate of the measure. Like a seer he pleaded for it, the significance and potency of which he grasped far in advance of his contemporaries. Miss Yates was appointed his successor as the National Association's chairman of Presidential suffrage, which position he had filled for many years.
In 1911 the Presidential suffrage bill was introduced in the Senate and referred to the Committee on Special Legislation, that limbo of lost causes. The suffragists rallied for a hearing and succeeded in getting it reported without recommendation. When taken from the calendar the Senators seemed to realize for the first time that they were dealing with a live issue. One of them demanded to know why that bill was permitted to waste their valuable time and threw it on the floor and stamped on it, saying: "I will kill woman suffrage." It was then buried by a vote of 29 noes and 3 ayes. The suffragists passed out from the obsequies with full faith in the resurrection.
In 1913 a commission was appointed to revise the State constitution and an appeal to it was made for a woman suffrage clause. A hearing was given; influential men supported the association; the women "antis" made a touching plea to be spared from the burden of the ballot, but the constitution was not revised. This year the Legislature of Illinois passed a bill for Presidential suffrage, which attracted wide attention. The Rhode Island association continued to present one every year. Sometimes zealous friends would introduce a resolution for a constitutional amendment but it was not endorsed by the State association as it would require a three-fifths majority of the voters.
In 1915 Governor R. Livingston Beeckman recommended Presidential suffrage for women in his message and the use of the hall of the House of Representatives in the new State House was for the first time granted for a hearing. Mrs. Agnes M. Jenks, State president, secured Senator John D. Works of California and Representative Frank W. Mondell of Wyoming to speak on the practical effects of woman suffrage in their States. Mrs. A. J. George came from Brookline, Mass., to voice the fears of the "antis." Notwithstanding the hearing surpassed in attendance and interest any that session the bill was indefinitely postponed by a House vote of 61 ayes and 31 noes. An active lobby was maintained and every available influence brought to bear to get the bill on the Senate calendar but it was killed in committee.
Between the close of this Legislature and the opening of the one of 1917 unforeseen events caused a marked change in the attitude of Rhode Island politicians. Its delegates to the Democratic and Republican national conventions in 1916 had recognized the party expediency which compelled a plank in the national platforms in favor of woman suffrage and voted for it. At the Republican State convention in September U. S. Senator LeBaron B. Colt, who had been non-committal on the question, came out with a decisive pronouncement in its favor. The Republicans saw the handwriting on the wall. They recognized that the votes of western women had re-elected President Wilson. For the first time since the Republican party was organized, a Democratic U. S. Senator was elected. Both parties were on the alert for any issue that might bring re-inforcements.
Once more Presidential suffrage was the objective and Governor Beeckman repeated his endorsement. The bill was introduced in the Senate Feb. 8, 1917. The association's Legislative Committee worked without ceasing. The suffragists throughout the State were well organized and loyally backed the committee. Petitions, letters and telegrams showered the legislators. The endorsement of the Republican State Committee was secured. Meanwhile the Legislatures in half a dozen States granted Presidential suffrage. The time had come for Rhode Island. On April 11 the bill passed the Senate by 32 ayes, 3 noes. There was an organized attempt to defeat it in the House by one for a referendum to the voters but by the efforts of Richard W. Jennings and Daniel E. Geary, Republican and Democratic floor leaders, it was defeated. On April 17, after four hours' debate in the presence of hundreds of women, the bill passed by 71 ayes, 20 noes. This was the fifteenth time it had been before the Legislature. On April 18 it was signed by the Governor.
Ratification. As soon as the Federal Amendment was submitted by Congress June 4, 1919, the suffrage organizations began to ask for a special session of the Legislature for ratification but it was deemed best by Governor Beeckman for various reasons to wait until the regular session in January, 1920. Several days before it met the chairman of the Republican State Committee, Joseph P. Burlingame, made the announcement that by a suspension of the rules and contrary to every precedent ratification would be accomplished on the first day. The longed-for day, January 6, dawned clear and cold. Women thronged the Capitol and filled the galleries of the House, except the section which was occupied by the Governor's party, who had come to witness the final scene in a fifty years' drama. After summoning the Senate to meet with the House in Grand Committee, the Governor read his annual message in which he recommended immediate ratification of the amendment, "as an act of justice long delayed." The resolution was at once presented and the floor leaders of both parties, William R. Fortin of Pawtucket, Republican, and William S. Flynn of Providence, Democrat, spoke in favor. It was passed on roll call by 89 ayes, 3 noes—Speaker Arthur P. Sumner of Providence, William H. Thayer of Bristol and Albert R. Zurlinden of Lincoln. A rush was made by the audience across the corridors to the Senate Chamber, where action was even more rapid. Lieutenant Governor Emery J. San Souci, a friend of woman suffrage, was in the chair and within a few moments, with no speeches, the resolution was passed by viva voce vote with but one dissenting voice, that of John H. McCabe of Burrillville. The following day it was signed by Governor Beeckman, not that this was necessary but he wished to give it his approval.
The great event was celebrated in the evening by a brilliant banquet given by the Providence League of Women Voters at which the work of the pioneers was especially featured. A handsome dinner given by the Woman Suffrage Party took place at which the Governor and other public officials spoke on the great victory. Miss Jeannette Rankin, the first woman member of Congress, was a speaker.[161]