ratify was made upon the General Assembly. President
Wilson sent an earnest appeal and others came from Homer Cummings,
chairman of the National Democratic Committee; A. Mitchell Palmer, U.
S. Attorney General; Carter Glass, U. S. Treasurer; U. S.
Representative C. C. Carlin and other prominent Democrats. Thousands
of telegrams were sent from women throughout the southern States. A
cablegram came from Lady Astor, M. P. of Great Britain, a Virginian.
Urgent requests for ratification were made by presidents of colleges,
mayors of cities, State and county officials and other eminent
citizens.

Before the Governor had even sent the certified copy of the amendment
to the Legislature its strongest opponent, Senator Leedy, also an
opponent of the administration at Washington, introduced a Rejection
Resolution couched in the same obnoxious terms he had used in August.
By urgent advice of the leaders he finally omitted some of its most
offensive adjectives. It was presented in the House by Representative
Ozlin and referred to the Federal Relations Committee, which granted a
hearing. On the preceding evening Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president
of the National Suffrage Association, addressed a mass meeting held by
the Equal Suffrage League in the Jefferson Hotel. The hearing was held
before a joint session of the Senate and House in the Hall of
Delegates at noon on January 21. Some of Virginia's foremost citizens
spoke for ratification, among them Allan Jones, member of the State
Democratic Committee; Roswell Page, State auditor and a brother of the
Hon. Thomas Nelson Page; U. S. Representatives Thomas Lomax Hunter and
Howard Cecil Gilmer; J. B. Saul, chairman of the Roanoke County
Democratic Committee; former Senator Keezel; Dr. Lyon G. Tyler. The
women speakers were Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Valentine, president, and Mrs.
John H. Lewis, vice-president of the State Suffrage League, and Mrs.
Kate Waller Barrett.[195]

Notwithstanding this very able presentation the Federal Relations
Committee reported the Rejection Resolution favorably. On the floor
Lindsay Gordon of Louisa county substituted a Ratification Resolution
and Harry Rew of Accomac a substitute to refer ratification to the
voters. The latter carried on January 27 by a vote of 55 to 39,
supported by Representatives Gordon, Willis of Roanoke, Williams of
Fairfax, Hunter of Stafford, Rodgers, J. W. Story, Wilcox of Richmond,
Snead of Chesterfield and H. W. Anderson, Republican fl