d opens as
follows:

The right of the people to participate in the Legislature is the
best security of liberty and the foundation of all free
government; for this purpose, elections ought to be free and
frequent; and every male (!) citizen having the qualifications
prescribed by the constitution ought to have the right of
suffrage.

The Legislature has been petitioned to grant full suffrage to women;
to raise the "age of protection" for girls, and to refrain from giving
State aid to institutions of learning which do not admit women
students on equal terms with men.

The Legislature of 1900 took a remarkably progressive step. An act
authorizing the city of Annapolis to submit to the voters the question
of issuing bonds to the amount of $121,000, to pay off the floating
indebtedness and provide a fund for permanent improvements, contained
a paragraph entitling women to vote.

This bill was introduced in the Senate January 25, by Elijah Williams
and was referred to the Committee on Finance. On January 31, Austin L.
Crothers reported it favorably. On February 1, at the motion of
Senator Williams, the bill was recommitted and on the 15th Senator
Crothers again reported it favorably. On the 19th it was passed by the
Senate unanimously.

The Senate Bill was presented to the House of Delegates February 20,
and referred to the Committee on Ways and Means. On the 28th,
Ferdinand C. Latrobe (who had been mayor of Baltimore four or five
times) reported the bill favorably. On March 23 it was passed by the
House, 69 yeas, one nay, the negative vote being cast by Patrick E.
Finzel of Garrett County.

It is a common practice of the General Assembly to pass laws
applicable only to one county or portion of a county, or to one
municipality or to one special occasion, as in this instance.

As this law was a decided innovation in a very conservative community,
naturally the number of women availing themselves of it for the first
time was not large, and it hardly seemed worth a special Act of the
Legislature, except as a progressive step. The Baltimore _Sun_ of May
14 said:

Women voted in Annapolis to-day under the law permitting property
owners to say if $121,000 bonds shall be issued for street and
other improvements. The novelty of their presence did not disturb
the serenity of the polling-room or unnerve the ladies who were
exercising their right to vote for the first ti