extension of the franchise to women
but the new State constitution gave universal suffrage to men and
carefully protected the right to vote of those who could not speak,
read or write either the English or Spanish language. It then provided
that the suffrage clause could only be amended by having the amendment
submitted by a vote of three-fourths of each House of the Legislature.
In order to be carried, it must have a three-fourths majority of the
highest number voting at a State election and a two-thirds majority of
the highest number voting in every county. This was expressly designed
to prevent woman suffrage and it destroyed all possibility of it until
conferred by a Federal Amendment.

Among the women who worked for woman suffrage in addition to those
mentioned in the chapter were Mesdames Margaret Cartright, S. F.
Culberson, George W. Carr, Josie Lockard, J. R. Kinyon, H. F. LaBelle,
N. J. Strumquist, Margaret Medler, William J. Barker, Lansing Bloom,
C. E. Mason, R. P. Donahoe, Ruth Skeen, John W. Wilson, S. C. Nutter,
Catherine Patterson, Minnie Byrd, Howard Huey, Alfred Grunsfeld, Edgar
L. Hewett, I. H. Elliot and I. H. Rapp.

As all women were fully enfranchised by the Federal Amendment a State
branch of the National League of Women Voters was formed with Mrs.
Gerald Cassidy as chairman.

FOOTNOTES:

[121] The History is indebted for this chapter to Deane H. (Mrs.
Washington E.) Lindsey, State chairman of the National Woman Suffrage
Association.

CHAPTER XXXI.

NEW YORK.[122]

New York was the cradle of the movement for woman suffrage not only in
this State but in the world, for here in 1848 was held the first
Women's Rights Convention in all history. Except during the Civil War
there was no year after 1850 when one or more such conventions did not
take place until 1920, when all the women of the United States were
enfranchised by an amendment to the National Constitution. This State
was the home of the two great leaders for half a century--Elizabeth
Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. The first appeal ever made to a
Legislature for woman suffrage was made by these two women in 1854 and
there was never a year afterwards when this appeal was not made by the
women of New York except during the Civil War. The State Woman
Suffrage Association was organized in 1869 and its work never ceased.
Notwithstanding this record no suffrage for women had ever been
obtained in this State, except a fragment