ed the Organic Act for
the District Confining the Right of Suffrage to Males--In 1875 it
Withdrew all Legislative Power from the People--Women in Law,
Medicine, Journalism and the Charities--Dental College Opened to
Women--Mary A. Stuart--The Clay Sisters--The School of
Pharmacy--Elizabeth Avery Meriwether--Judge Underwood--Mary
Bayard Clarke--Dr. Susan Dimock--Governor
Chamberlain--Coffee-Growing--Priscilla Holmes Drake--Alexander H.
Stephens.

I.--DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

The District covers an area of 64 square miles, and contains a
population of 200,000. It was originally a portion of Maryland, and
was ceded to congress by that State for the exclusive use of the
Federal government. Hon. Salmon P. Chase, secretary of the treasury
under Abraham Lincoln, seeing that most of the gifted young men had
been drafted or had enlisted in the army, introduced young women as
clerks in the government departments. The experiment proved
successful, and now there are about six thousand women in the
various departments. Mr. Chase often alluded to this afterwards as
one of the most important acts of his life. The war brought many
bright, earnest women to Washington, led thither by patriotism,
ambition, or the necessity of finding some new employment. This new
vital force, this purer element, infused into the society at the
capitol, has been slowly introducing more liberal ideas into that
community.

The first specific work for woman in the District of Columbia of
which we find any record was that of Myrtilla Miner of New York,
who opened a Normal School for colored girls, December 3, 1851. She
began with six pupils in a small room in a private house, but soon
had more offered than could be accommodated. Through much ridicule
and untold difficulties she struggled alone, but successfully, for
ten years, when Miss Emily Howland came to her aid. The heroism of
this noble woman has been told by Mrs. Ellen O. Connor in a little
volume[523] which is a beautiful tribute to the memory of Miss
Miner. The Miner Normal School of Washington is now a thorough and
popular school for colored girls.

For a brief report of what has been accomplished in the District of
Columbia, we are indebted to Belva A. Lockwood:

In 1866, the women of Washington were first aroused to the
consideration of the suffrage question, by the discussion of "The
District of Columbia suffrage bill" proposing to str