USA > Massachusetts > Commonwealth history of Massachusetts, colony, province and state, volume 5 > Part 19
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After all efforts had been exhausted to free them on the ground that they had been unfairly tried and that they were the innocent victims of prejudice against them because of their Red activities during the World War, they appealed to the governor to save them from the chair. Their plea for clemency was supported by an organized committee of men and women of liberal tendencies. The world-wide agitation in their behalf was renewed. Some of the more "advanced thinkers" of their number threatened the life of many of the officials connected with the prosecution of the case, including Governor Fuller; and it was necessary to guard State officials for months. The governor spent weeks looking into the case, concluded that certain evidence of alibis could be disregarded and the verdict of the jury was just. To make doubly sure, he summoned to his aid three unprejudiced prominent citizens, President Abbott Lawrence Lowell of Harvard University, Judge Robert Grant, a retired justice of the Suffolk County Probate Court, and President Samuel W. Stratton of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to examine into the case and report to him their findings. They agreed with the governor that the verdict was just. Buttressed in his opinion by the jury, the courts, and the special commission, Governor Fuller declined to interfere with the action of the court.
Then began a series of protest meetings by the radicals, many of whom came from other States. Street parades and
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meetings were part of a propaganda in their behalf, which deluged the governor with appeals to save the lives of the con- victed men. For a time the State House was a veritable arsenal. Many arrests were made of the more boisterous of the friends of the condemned men. The police broke up several outdoor meetings. Excitement reigned for days, while awaiting the governor's decision.
The feeling grew more intense as the time drew near for the executions. Petitions by letter, telegraph, and cable poured into the executive chamber, many from recognized leaders in world affairs, asking the governor to interfere; but he refused to be swerved from what he believed to be his duty. He was convinced that the men had been justly convicted, and the sentence of death was carried out by the warden of the State prison. From every nook and corner of the country came messages of gratitude and congratulations to the gover- nor for his courageousness. Again Massachusetts demon- strated to the world that she still elects men to the highest public office who are not afraid to perform their duty. But when Fuller travelled in Europe the following year, he went under a name that concealed his true identity.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Bay State Monthly; a Massachusetts Magasine of Literature, History, Biography and State Progress (3 vols., Boston, McClintock, 1884-1885) -- Continued as the New England Magazine.
BOSTON : POLICE DEPARTMENT .- Fourteenth Annual REPORT; Year Ending November 30, 1919 (Boston, 1920)-See pp. 5-20 for an account of the attempt to unionize the police force of Boston and the "strike" of September 9, 1919.
BRANTING, GEORG .- Sacco-Vanzetti dramat; justitiemorden i Massachusetts (Stockholm, Sweden, Bokforlaget Brand, 1927).
CHEYNEY, RALPH, AND CHEYNEY, MRS. LUCIA TRENT, editors .- America arraigned (N. Y., Dean, 1928)- Criticism of the Sacco-Vanzetti case. EVANS, LAWRENCE BOYD .- Samuel W. McCall (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1916)-Governor of Massachusetts.
FRANKFURTER, FELIX .-- The Case of Sacco and Vansetti; a Critical Analysis for Lawyers and Laymen ( Boston, Little, Brown, 1927).
A Governor's Work; the Record of Three Years 1906-1907-1908 ( Privately printed, Boston, 1909)-Here are assembled reprints of newspaper articles summarizing the career of Curtis Guild, his messages to the General Court, his proclamations, and his public statement refusing pardon for Charles L. Tucker.
GRABILL, ETHELBERT V .- Sacco and Vansetti in the Scales of Justice (Bos- ton, Fort Hill Press, 1927).
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SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
GRIFFIN, SOLOMON BULKLEY .- W. Murray Crane; a Man and a Brother (Boston, Little, Brown, 1926)-Governor of Massachusetts. The fore- word is by Calvin Coolidge.
HARLOW, GEORGE M .- A Working Governor Who Stands up for Massa- chusetts and Gets Things Done for the People; Governor Foss Reports to the Public Upon the Public's Business (Boston, Allied Printers, no date).
HENNESSY, MICHAEL EDMUND .- Calvin Coolidge; from a Green Mountain Farm to the White House (N. Y., Putnam's, 1924).
HOAR, GEORGE FRISBIE .- Autobiography of Seventy Years (2 vols., N. Y., Scribner's, 1903).
LAWRENCE, WILLIAM .- Roger Wolcott (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1902)- Governor of Massachusetts.
LODGE, HENRY CABOT .- A Fighting Frigate, and Other Essays and Ad- dresses (N. Y., Scribner's, 1902)-Contains essays on three governors of Massachusetts : Timothy Pickering, Caleb Strong, Albert Gallatin. See pp. 224-262 for the essay on Caleb Strong.
LODGE, HENRY CABOT .- Speeches and Addresses 1884-1909 (Boston, Hough- ton, Mifflin, 1909).
LYONS, EUGENE .- The Life and Death of Sacco and Vanzetti (N. Y., In- ternational Publishers, 1927).
MARKS, JEANNETTE .- Thirteen Days (N.Y., Boni, 1929)-Concerned with the Sacco-Vanzetti case.
MASSACHUSETTS .- Acts and Resolves (Boston, 1839 and later years).
MASSACHUSETTS : ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE .- Annual Report (Boston, 1845 and later)-See the reports for the periods of the Spanish War and the World War.
MASSACHUSETTS : CONSTITUTIONAL . CONVENTION 1917-1919 .- Amendments passed by the Constitutional Convention for Submission to the People at the Election to be Held November 5, 1918; together with an Ad- dress by the President of the Convention, John L. Bates ( Boston, 1918). MASSACHUSETTS : CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 1917-1919 .- Debates (4 vols., Boston, 1919-1920).
MASSACHUSETTS : CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 1917-1919 .- Journal (Bos- ton, 1917).
MASSACHUSETTS : GOVERNOR .- The inaugural address of the Governor con- stitutes Senate Document No. 1 each year.
MASSACHUSETTS : GOVERNOR (ALVAN T. FULLER) .- Decision in the Matter of the Appeal of Bartolomeo Vansetti and Nicola Sacco from Sentence of Death (Boston, 1927).
NESMITH, JAMES ERNEST .- The Life and Works of Frederic Thomas Greenhalge (Boston, Roberts, 1897)-Governor of Massachusetts.
The New England Magazine; an Illustrated Monthly (Boston, 1886-May, 1916)-Volumes I-III appeared as The Bay State Monthly.
NORTON, CHARLES ELIOT .- "The Public Life and Services of William Eustis Russell" (Harvard Graduates' Magazine, 1896, Vol. V, pp. 177-194)- Also published separately.
Sacco-Vanzetti Case: Transcript of the Record of the Trial of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti in the Courts of Massachusetts and Subsequent Proceedings, 1920-1927 (6 vols., N. Y., Holt, 1928)-Edited by Newton D. Baker and others.
SACCO, NICOLA AND VANZETTI, BARTOLOMEO .- The Letters of Sacco and Vanzetti (N. Y., Viking Press, 1928)-Edited by Marion Denman Frankfurter and Gardner Jackson.
SINCLAIR, UPTON .- Boston (N. Y., Boni & Liveright, 1928)-A novel deal- ing with the case of Sacco and Vanzetti.
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Sons of the Puritans; a Group of Brief Biographies (Boston, Am. Uni- tarian Association, 1908)-Contains essays on eleven noted men of this period by different writers.
THAYER, WILLIAM ROSCOE .- "Memoir of Curtis Guild" (Mass. Historical Society, Proceedings, Vol. I, pp. 308-312, Boston, 1917).
UNITED STATES : SENATE: COMMITTEE ON FINANCE .- Reciprocity with Canada; Hearings on H. R. 1142, An Act to Promote Reciprocal Trade Relations with the Dominion of Canada and for Other Purposes (2 vols., Washington, 1911)-62nd Congress, 1st Session, Senate Docu- ment No. 56.
UNITED STATES : PRESIDENT .- Canadian Reciprocity: Special Message of The President to Congress; Correspondence Embodying an Agreement between the Department of State and the Canadian Government in Re- gard to Reciprocal Tariff Legislation; also Statistical Data (Washing- ton, 1911)-61st Congress, 3d Session, Senate Document No. 787. President Taft's message of January 26, 1911.
NOTE-Consult newspaper files for the accounts of successive political cam- paigns. The Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, and the Springfield Republican are especially valuable.
CHAPTER VII
THE WOMAN MOVEMENT IN MASSACHUSETTS (1830-1930)
.
BY MRS. FREDERICK P. BAGLEY
TRADITIONS (1783-1850)
The first permanent European settlement in Massachusetts, the little Plymouth Colony, was made up of men, women and children, as was the greater settlement under the Charter in Salem, Boston, and the other first towns. The earliest records bear testimony to the share of colonial women in both private and public life. Early chapters in this Commonwealth History bring out the first organized woman movement, headed by Mrs. Hutchinson, who did not need to have a man tell her what to believe. Despite the long exclusion of the girls from public education, intellectual women, women of power, appear all the way down the three centuries since that time. Previous chapters in this series on literature and social life bring out such positive characters as Ann Bradstreet, the poetess, Mary Dyer, the Quaker, Madame Knight, the traveller; and the trio of educated and influential Revolutionary figures, Abigail Adams and Mercy Warren and Hannah Dustin.
The influence of women was more strongly felt in the nine- teenth century from the time that Massachusetts first recog- nized the duty of educating the girls at public expense. Women of education, women heads of religious sects, women interested in public affairs-particularly women educators and agitators-were a part of Massachusetts life and a power in the great changes in religion and education during the nine- teenth century. Though entirely excluded from the suffrage and from elective public office, the legal and social status of women improved. The law slowly relaxed toward giving to wives and to widows more control over their property. The greatest step, however, was the establishment, proceed- ing from the close of the Revolution onward, of public schools
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for girls. Most of the Massachusetts communities were too poor to keep up separate elementary schools for both boys and girls; and the mixed district school became the germ of co- education in grade schools, eventually in high schools, and later in some of the colleges of the State.
Though women had no votes in Massachusetts till a limited school suffrage was allowed them in 1881, they always had brains and tongues. In many religious bodies, particularly the Quakers and the Methodists, they enjoyed a recognized equal status in the church and a voice in religious services. The wives and daughters of professional men and public officials frequently were public characters. When Emily Mar- shall, famed a century ago for her grace and beauty, passed through a town, the public schools were dismissed so that the children might see this glorious and gracious lady. Never- theless, in the affairs of the semi-established Congregational Church and its younger sister, the Unitarian Church, women were listeners and not participants.
WOMEN AGITATORS (1830-1890)
In politics and elections women had no active part. In 1830 began the great movement for the improvement in education (described in the chapter on education in the pre- vious volume) : it gave a new impulse to the release of the tongues and the spirits of Massachusetts women. When boys and girls were taught in the same schoolroom, there was no denying that the girls were as competent as the boys for a common-school education. Beyond that very elementary stage, the State washed its hands; but in 1821 Emma Willard established the Troy Female Seminary, the first institution in the United States offering higher education to women. For the first time, the school curriculum was not made up exclu- sively of "readin', 'ritin' and 'rithmetic." Mrs. Willard and Mary Lyon were the forerunners of the emancipation of women by affirmative proof that women were human beings on the same intellectual plane as men.
If a woman could safely be allowed to know more about the education of girls than any man, why should not women also share in a discussion on the betterment of the community at large? And if some women had minds equal to those of
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superior men, why should they not take part in the great re- form movement which swept over Massachusetts?
The first appearance of women as political leaders was in the great temperance movement of the 'thirties and 'forties; and particularly in the antislavery movement, in which Quakers (both men and women) were especially interested. By 1840 a clear-cut suffrage movement was under way in Massachusetts, and one of the most telling proofs that women ought to share in public discussions was that they did share in it and convinced many minds. The story of the women antislavery agitators has been told in the preceding volume.
The movement for woman suffrage advanced very slowly. The creation of girls' high schools, beginning about 1850, and then of normal schools, chiefly frequented by young women, opened up the profession of teaching. The appearance of high-grade girls' schools, beginning with Mount Holyoke (which was not placed on a collegiate basis till 1904) made possible the preparation of women high-school teachers. Thus, by 1890, women were recognized as a part of the body politic, fit to be students, teachers, and even administrators of school affairs.
Furthermore, between 1840 and 1890 developed a woman- operative system, under which thousands of women were em- ployed in the mills-nearly all of them in monotonous manual labor. Alongside this class was a growing and numerous group of saleswomen, presently flanked by the professional typists and secretaries. The definite contribution of women to the wealth of the State, their employment in gainful occu- pations, their success in many of the arts and sciences, gave great impetus to the demand that they should be put on a political equality with men. The number of self-sustaining and independent women in 1890 was a hundred times as great as it had been in 1790. Hence, the forty years from 1890 to 1930 witnessed the enfranchisement of women from an inferior status as workers, and recognized them as human beings of equal capacity with men, who might share in the making of laws and the dispensation of justice.
This brief statement of the change in the status of women in Massachusetts during the nineteenth century is necessary in order to make clear the nature and the results of the fur-
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ther enlargement which has been witnessed by the twentieth century.
WOMAN SUFFRAGE (1859-1919)
The first national women's rights convention was held in Worcester, Massachusetts, October 1850.
In 1869, Wyoming, at that time a territory, gave suffrage to women. Congress held back consent to the admission of Wyoming as a State with woman suffrage in its constitution. During the debate, a telegram was sent to the Wyoming legislature, then in session. The answer came back, "We will remain, out of the Union a hundred years rather than come in without woman suffrage."
It was June 4, 1919, fifty years later, before the Federal amendment giving women the right of suffrage was passed by the Congress of the United States. In the meantime, a national organization with branches in every State in the Union had been gradually built. The object of the organiza- tion was eventually reached, as stated in the text of the Nine- teenth Amendment, adopted in 1920, as follows:
"Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.
"Section 2. The Congress shall have power, by appro- priate legislation to enforce the powers of this article."
Historically, the National American Woman Suffrage Asso- ciation presents a record of intensive organization probably never paralleled. When victory finally came, there were over two million women enlisted. It had branch auxiliaries in forty-six States, and these far-reaching confederated bodies were functioning as one organ through its centralized board. When victory came, it doubled the electorate of a vast coun- try with a population of 117,859,495, covering an area of 3,738,371 square miles.
No political party ever established more complete cam- paign headquarters than those of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in New York. Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt sat in the watchtower as general-in-chief, and dispatched aid and reinforcements to the various States where the battle was raging and defeat seemed imminent.
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SUSAN B. ANTHONY
In analyzing the defeats and victories of forty years, a singular fact became evident. The more complete the or- ganization and the better the campaign, the more certain was it that suffrage would be defeated at the polls. In the opinion of the leaders, the real influences which dictated platforms and tickets were the monied interests, which made gigantic contributions to party treasuries or their candidates' cam- paign funds. Wherever a strong organization developed, the enemy focussed its attacks. The suffragists won, when they did win, through sudden strategy and by publicity. At the moment when the paramount importance of the use of pub- licity was recognized and money for the cause was hard to secure, out of a clear sky came a legacy from Mrs. Frank Leslie, of Leslie's Magazine, which was used for the estab- lishment of the national organ, The Woman Citizen, which was a combination of The Woman's Journal and several smaller papers. This remained the official organ of the asso- ciation until the final victory in 1920.
NINETEENTH-CENTURY CHAMPIONS (1830-1890)
The list of women who took part in the early attempts to secure equal rights and privileges is long and honorable. They range all the way from Mrs. Bloomer, in her long pelisse and modest trousers, to Margaret Fuller at Brook Farm. Equal suffrage was at the back of their minds, though their first demands were for equal status before the law and equal opportunities for education. Three of the outstanding pro- ponents of women's rights were Massachusetts women : Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, and Mary A. Livermore.
SUSAN B. ANTHONY
The most ridiculed and mercilessly persecuted of all the suffragists was Susan B. Anthony. The newspapers were filled with caricatures, showing her in man's attire, with hip boots, and a slouch hat from under which flashed a pair of fierce eyes from a countenance at once evil and formidable. The first sight of the actual Susan B. Anthony as she appeared on the platform, in contrast to the sexless deformity pictured
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by a hostile press, gave one a flash of amazement. , Patience and gentleness shone from her mild blue eyes; and in her plain black dress, relieved only by a white frill at the neck, her smoothly brushed hair parted over her forehead and coiled neatly at the nape of her neck, she looked what indeed she was, a Hicksite Quaker of sturdy New England stock, born at the foot of Old Greylock, in South Adams, Massachusetts. Her voice had the thrilling cadence of the trained orator; and when she began to speak, the woman's nervous energy, her alertness and propulsive force, became evident. There was hardly a town, large or small, from New York to San Fran- cisco, that did not gather crowds to hear the eloquent radical.
In an address to Congress she said, referring to the Civil War: "With you, we have just passed through the agony of death, the resurrection and triumph of another revolution, doing all in our power to mitigate its horrors and gild its glories, and now think you we have no souls to fire, no brains to weigh, your arguments, that after education such as this we can stand silent witnesses while you sell our birthright of liberty?"
LUCY STONE
Antislavery was one of the modern movements which drew women from the shelter of their homes into the larger cur- rent of human affairs. One of those primarily interested in antislavery was Lucy Stone, of Massachusetts. She was educated at Oberlin, the only college at that time which ad- mitted boys and girls, black and white, on equal terms. Enter- ing into the struggle for equal rights, she was indifferent to mobs and their hisses and yells. It was indeed as the result of a meeting of exceptional turmoil that, with soul afire, she started forth single-handed and alone. She went through Massachusetts, from town to town, engaging her own halls, nailing up her posters, and conducting her meetings. The press called her a "she-hyena," the clergy thundered at her, the average man and woman regarded her as a freak; but once under the spell of her silver voice and the lure of her soft manner, she won the auditors, who came to scoff, but remained to sympathize and to applaud.
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JULIA WARD HOWE
MARY A. LIVERMORE
Another "cause" which brought women into public life was that of the reform of the liquor evil. In 1891, the world's first temperance convention was held in Boston, with Miss Frances Willard as the presiding officer. Among those who entered this crusade was Mary A. Livermore, woman of iron and fire, whose eloquence was so great that, at a time when lyceum lecturing as a business was at a height which it will never again reach, she was one of the four lecturers most in demand; and she made the highest terms with the bureaus. She delivered more than eight hundred temperance addresses. "I have the blood of six generations of Welsh preachers in my veins," is the significant testimony of the woman who packed Boston theatres on Sunday evenings when she talked on immortality.
JULIA WARD HOWE
The propaganda changed somewhat in the last years of the struggle, especially after, first, Wyoming in 1869, and then the other far-western Territories and States, granted equal suffrage. Two champions in Massachusetts stand out with especial significance; Julia Ward Howe and Alice Stone Blackwell.
Chief among those who had the vision of the possibilities of the woman movement was Julia Ward Howe, poet, patriot and philosopher. Adored in her happy family life as wife and mother, she had faith in the ultimate enfranchisement of woman on account of the changes she had already beheld. In her own words: "When I turn my face toward the en- franchised woman of today, I seem to have an apocalyptic vision of a great multitude praising God for the new and wonderful revelation of His spirit."
Shortly before her death, she was reverently acclaimed as the most distinguished woman in the United States, not only for her work for the political freedom of her sex, but also for her contribution to the Union cause, and above all for her immortal "Battle Hymn of the Republic," which will always be reckoned among the noble songs of American patriotism.
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ALICE STONE BLACKWELL
In the yearly appearance of the woman suffragists before the General Court, Alice Stone Blackwell was chosen for the most difficult part-the rebuttal. No preparatory speech could be made, since none knew what particular arguments the opponents would bring forth ; but Miss Blackwell's answers were as perfect as if they had long been anticipated. Her arguments were conclusive, and the English polished, each word perfectly chosen. In discussion, she would often appear to be asleep, but when the crucial moment came, her powers came into full command and her answers were brilliant and decisive. The daughter of Lucy Stone and Henry D. Black- well, Miss Blackwell assisted her, father and mother in edit- ing The Woman's Journal, which was the national suffrage organ. After the death of her parents, she continued as editor-in-chief.
HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN (1830-1880)
In the 'thirties, Oberlin College in Ohio was the first col- legiate institution in America to introduce coeducation; and it gave an A.B. degree to girls who took the same regular classical course as the boys. Both coeducation and the de- gree gradually spread to various private and State institu- tions. That combination was unpopular in New England, where in 1875 two women's colleges-Wellesley and Smith- received their first classes. Several others followed, besides one coeducational college. The basis of both institutions was that girls were as capable of the usual classical course as boys, and should have identical training. Both early introduced the elective system, and both developed a college life quite different from that of Massachusetts colleges for men.
MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE (1893-1930)
Mount Holyoke College, at South Hadley, was founded by Mary Lyon and was the pioneer institution in America for the higher education of women. Chartered as Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in 1836, the seminary course was discon- tinued in 1893, and a charter was granted to become Mount Holyoke College. It has retained one of its original fea-
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