ng. A bloodless battle
had been fought and won, and the enemy, asleep in carnal
security, had been surrendered unawares. The women of Oregon
thanked God and took courage.

After passing the Council the bill passed leisurely, and some of
us feared perilously, through the various stages of clerical
progress till November 22, when it received the signature of
Governor William A. Newell, who used a gold pen presented him for
the purpose by women whom his act made free. And when at a given
signal the church bells rang in glad acclaim, and the loud boom
of minute-guns reverberated from the forest-clothed hills that
border Puget Sound and lost itself at last in the faint echoes of
the far-off hights, the scroll of the dead century unrolled
before my inner vision and I beheld in spirit another scene on
the further verge of the continent, when men in designing to ring
the bell at Independence Hall in professed honor of the triumph
of liberty, although not a woman in the land was free, had sought
in vain to force the loyal metal into glad responses; for the
old bell quivered in every nerve and broke its heart rather than
tell a lie!

An immense ratification jubilee was held in the evening of the
same day at the city hall in Olympia, with many distinguished
speakers.[511] Similar meetings were subsequently held in all the
principal towns of the Pacific Northwest. The freed women of
Washington thankfully accepted their new prerogatives. They were
appointed as jurors in many localities, and have ever since
performed their duties with eminent satisfaction to judges,
lawyers and all clients who are seeking to obey the laws. But
their jurisdiction soon became decidedly uncomfortable for the
law-breaking elements, which speedily escaped to Oregon, where,
as the sequel proved, they began a secret and effective war upon
the pending constitutional amendment. We all knew we had a
formidable foe to fight at the ballot-box. Our own hands were
tied and our own guns spiked, while our foe was armed to the
teeth with ballots, backed by money and controlled by vice,
bigotry and tyranny. But the leading men of the State had long
been known to favor the amendment; the respectable press had
become mildly, and in a few cases earnestly acquiescent; no
opposition