highest number of votes cast at the
election of 1902, in round numbers 7,200 names, and compelled the
submission of the amendment. In less than three weeks 7,900 had been
obtained but as only half of them had been verified and classified
before the limited time expired the work was of no avail.

During the following two years another force had been contributing
indirectly to the suffrage cause through the preparations for the
National Exposition which was to celebrate in Portland the Lewis and
Clark Expedition. In 1904 the Hon. Jefferson Myers, president of the
Exposition Commission, with his wife, Dr. Annice Jeffreys, attended
the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association at
Washington, D. C., and so eloquently presented the claims of Oregon
that its unanimous decision was to hold its next meeting in Portland.
Stimulated by this prospect the Legislature of 1905 yielded to
pressure and submitted the amendment to be voted on in November, 1906.

It was a proud day for Oregon when the national convention was called
to order on June 21, 1905, by Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, national
president, in the First Congregational Church. The honorary president,
Miss Susan B. Anthony, then 85 years old, favored every session with
her gracious presence. Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, the vice-president;
Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, the recording secretary, with her father,
Henry B. Blackwell; Miss Kate Gordon, corresponding secretary, and
Miss Laura Clay, auditor, were present and with Mrs. Charlotte Perkins
Gilman, Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch, Misses Gail Laughlin, Mary and
Lucy Anthony, Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, Mrs. Maud Wood Park and other
well known women were heard during the convention. [See Chapter V,
Volume V.]

Very significant of the changing sentiment toward women was the
unveiling of the Sacajawea statue, in the exposition grounds, which
had been arranged for the time when these visitors could assist the
committee in the ceremonies. Miss Anthony in the opening address paid
a glowing tribute to this Indian woman and exhorted the women of
Oregon to lead the way to women's liberty. Dr. Shaw highly
complimented those who had made this recognition of a woman's services
to her country possible and hailed it as the dawning of a new day for
the cause of woman. Brief words along these lines were spoken by Mrs.
Catt and others. The picture will never fade from the memory of those
who saw Miss Anthony and Dr. Shaw standi