rs. C. E. Hagar, Mrs. Alice Gossage,
Mrs. C. E. Thorpe, Mrs. Luella A. Ramsey, Mrs. Ruby Smart, Kara Smart
and Floy Cochrane.

CHAPTER XXXII.

DELAWARE.[211]

In the campaign of 1884 the Republicans had a Ship of State called the
New Constitution, with an eagle on the top, which was mounted on
wheels and taken from place to place where they held public meetings.
When they came to Greenwood, the home of Mrs. Mary A. Stuart, she put
a "blue hen" upon it, saying they should not have an eagle to
represent freedom for men and nothing to represent women. So the hen
went from one end of Delaware to the other, sitting in state in a
glass coop. Some of the Republican speakers announced from the
platform this year that they favored enfranchisement of women.

In 1888 the State Woman's Christian Temperance Union adopted the
franchise department with Mrs. Patience Kent as superintendent, and
held several public meetings. In 1889 Mrs. Martha S. Cranston was
elected her successor, and still occupies the position.

Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, corresponding secretary of the National
Association, organized the Wilmington Equal Suffrage Club, the first
in the State, on Nov. 18, 1895, with twenty-five members. The
membership soon increased to fifty-three.

The following winter Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the
national organization committee, sent into the State the Rev.
Henrietta G. Moore of Ohio and Miss Mary G. Hay of New York, the
latter to arrange meetings and the former to address them and organize
clubs. On Jan. 17, 18, 1896, they assisted in a convention at
Wilmington, where a State Association was formed.

As Delaware was to hold a Constitutional Convention in 1897, the
National Association was especially interested in pushing the suffrage
work there. Mrs. Chapman Catt met with the executive committee in
Wilmington to arrange plans, and Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford of Colorado
and Miss Laura A. Gregg of Kansas were sent during March and April to
further organization. Three county associations were formed, and Mrs.
Hortense Davenport held parlor meetings in various towns throughout
May.

On Nov. 27, 1896, the second annual convention was held in the New
Century Club parlors in Wilmington. Judge William N. Ashman of
Philadelphia and Mrs. Mary Heald Way of Oxford, Penn., addressed the
audience in the evening.

Petitions were circulated throughout the State, and Mrs. Cranston and
Miss Hay went to Dover to presen