, Henry B. Blackwell and Lucy Stone of Massachusetts sent
Mrs. Laura M. Johns of Kansas to Arizona in August to endeavor to
secure a clause in this constitution granting suffrage to women. She
was received in Tucson by Mr. and Mrs. Hughes, editors and proprietors
of an influential daily paper, who gave every possible assistance.

Mrs. Johns soon went to Phoenix, where the convention was in session,
and followed up a previous correspondence with the delegates
by personal interviews. She found a powerful champion in
ex-Attorney-General William Herring, chairman of the committee which
had the question of woman suffrage in charge. When she asked
permission to address this committee it set an early date and
suggested that it might be pleasanter for the ladies if the hearing
should be held in a private residence. Accordingly Mrs. E. D. Garlick,
formerly of Winfield, Kansas, opened her parlor, invited a number of
ladies who were interested and the committee met with them and
listened courteously to their plea for the ballot. A favorable report
was presented to the convention and General Herring, Mrs. Johns, Mrs.
Hughes and others spoke eloquently in favor of its acceptance. The
measure was lost by three votes.

So much interest had been manifested that a Territorial Suffrage
Association was formed, with Mrs. Hughes as president and Mrs. Garlick
as corresponding secretary. Mrs. Johns intended to organize the
Territory but was suddenly called home by a death in her family.

Four years later, in 1895, while she was working in New Mexico for the
National Association, she was requested by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt,
chairman of its organization committee, to speak at the annual
convention in Phoenix; and on the way she held preliminary meetings at
Tucson, Tempe and other places.

In January, 1896, Mrs. Hughes, whose husband was now Governor, went to
the convention of the National Association in Washington to interest
that body in Arizona, which it was then expected would soon enter
Statehood. She made a strong appeal, assuring the delegates that the
pioneer men of the Territory were willing to confer the suffrage on
the women who had braved the early hardships with them, and saying:

It is of the most vital importance that our women be enfranchised
before the election of delegates to the approaching
constitutional convention, as the Congressional enabling act
provides that all persons qualified as voters unde