Women's Suffrage: circa 1880 in Washington Territory

DearREADERS,
Our friend JD Thomas of Accessible-Archives.com writes: "In July 1880, Matilda Joslyn Gage, the owner and editor of the pro-woman suffrage newspaper, The National Citizen and Ballot Box, compiled a massive list of notes from women all over the country who sent in postcards with notes on why they wanted to vote. These were in response to the anti's position that real women don't really WANT to vote. Some of these notes are very touching and sad when you realize how many of them never lived to see the day when every woman in the country could cast a vote in federal elections forty years later."


Knowing I was born in Washington, JD sent me the following quotes from women residing in Washington Territory culled from the July 1800 The National Citizen and Ballot Box.

IMAGE: Screen shot with image of Matilda Joslyn Gage
courtesy of Accessible-Archives.com

"I do not petition for either this thing or that, but demand that the government restore to me that which it has unlawfully and unjustly deprived me of. I demand the ballot." —Sarah H. Hughes, Slaughter."

The following asked for a plank in the Republican Platform:—Mrs. Z. H. Delay, Mary J. Maxon of Vancouver, Laura A. Brogarth. Mary L. Martin, Elizabeth Prolin, Amelia King, Alice Brogatt of Pekin and Emma Calvin of Lancaster.

The President of the Board of Immigration of Washington Territory, Mrs. A. H. H. Stuart, who is also Vice-President for Washington Territory, in the N. W. S. A., sends the following, written at the earliest possible moment after seeing the call for the mass meeting.

OLYMPIA, Washington Territory,

April 24, 1880.

"Decidedly, I want to vote, as I want to exercise all natural and proper rights. I have been working to that end these fifteen years, and for more than ten have paid taxes to help support a government in which I am defrauded of a voice." —Abbie Howard Hunt-Stuart.

"I do not ask nor beg for that which justly belongs to me, but I demand the ballot." —Lucy Hughes, Slaughier, King Co. W.T.

Joanna Boyde also “demands“ the ballot.

The Republican Convention was also addressed, from this Territory.

SEE ALSO

• "Our Reasons for Desiring to Vote (1880)" by JD Thomas | Nov 4, 2016 in his Words From Us blog

Happy family tree climbing!

Myrt     :)
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