New York
_Independent_ was based upon the following facts, given by
request of some of the disfranchised women:

Rev. W. G. Pierce was the pastor of the Elmwood
Congregational Church. A large majority of the members were
women, and there was no discrimination against them in the
church manual. The pastor and two or three members decided
that a change of rules was needed. A church meeting was held
in March, 1868, at which the number in attendance was very
small, owing to some irregularities in issuing the call. The
suffrage question was brought up by the pastor, and the talk
soon became so insulting that the women present felt
compelled to leave the house. The manual was then amended so
as to exclude women from voting "in matters pertaining to
the welfare of the church," and making a two-thirds vote of
adult males necessary to any change thereafter. This was
carried by five yeas to one nay--only six votes out of a
membership of 210! The church was taken by surprise, and
there was no little excitement when the fact became known
next day. A vigorous protest and a call for reconsideration
was quickly signed by nearly a hundred members and sent to
the pastor. The meeting was not called for weeks, and when
at last it was secured, he, as moderator, ruled
reconsideration out, on the ground that there was an error
in the announcement of the business (by himself!) from the
pulpit. At a later meeting a vote on reconsideration was
reached, and enough of the male adult minority were in
attendance to make the vote stand 19 to 17, not two-thirds
of the male adult element voting for reconsideration.

The contention now became bitter, and twenty-eight of the
more intelligent and earnest members withdrew and asked for
letters to other churches. Such of the "adult males" as
"tarried by the altar," refused to give the outgoing members
the usual letters, to join in a mutual council on an equal
footing, or to discipline the seceders. The latter called an
ex-parte council, composed of such men as Dr. Bascom, of
Princeton; Dr. Edward Beecher, of Galesburg; Dr. Haven, of
Evanston; Dr. C. D