of Mr. Cushing. I give this illustration as a reason why
Southern women are taking part in this movement. Mr. Wallace had
charge of that lunatic asylum for years. He was a good,
honorable, able man. Every one was endeared to him; the State
appreciated him as superintendent of this asylum. When a
political change was made and Gov. Robinson came in, Dr. Wallace
was ousted for political purposes. It almost broke the hearts of
some of the women who had sons, daughters or husbands there. They
determined at once to try and have him reinstated. It was
impossible, he was out, and what could they do?

A gentleman said to me a few days ago, "These women ought to
marry." I am married; I am a mother; and in our home the sons and
brothers are all standing like a wall of steel at my back. I have
cast aside the prejudices of the past. They lie like rotted hulks
behind me.

After the fever of 1878, when our constitutional convention was
about to convene, I suppressed the agony and grief of my own
heart (for one of my children had died) and took part in the
suffrage movement in Louisiana with the wife of Chief-Justice
Merrick, Mrs. Sarah A. Dorsey, and Mrs. Harriet Keating of New
York, the niece of Dr. Lozier. These three ladies aided me
faithfully and ably. I went to Lieutenant-Governor Wiltz, and
asked him if he would present or consider a petition which I
wished to bring before the convention. He read the petition. One
clause of our State law is that no woman can sign a will. Some
ladies donated property to an asylum. They wrote the will and
signed it themselves, and it was null and void, because they were
women. That clause, perhaps, will be wiped out. Many gentlemen
signed the petition on that account. Governor Wiltz, then
lieutenant-governor, told me he would present the petition. He
was elected president of the convention. I presented my first
petition, signed by the best names in the city of New Orleans
and in the State. I had the names of seven of the most prominent
physicians. Three prominent ministers signed it for moral
purposes alone. When Mrs. Dorsey was on her dying bed the last
time she ever signed her name was to a letter to go before that
convention. Mrs. Merrick and myself addressed the convention. We
made the petition then that we ma