rotection to the
home. We favor the admission of women to wider spheres of
usefulness, and welcome their co-operation in rescuing the
country from Democratic mismanagement and Populist misrule.

A whole plank to exploit Republicanism and a small splinter to cajole
the women, who had not asked for the suffrage to "rescue" or to defeat
any political party!

No Democratic national platform ever has recognized so much as the
existence of women, in all its grandiloquent declarations of the
"rights of the masses," the "equality of the people," the "sovereignty
of the individual" and the "powers inherent in a democracy."

The Populists at the beginning of their career sounded the slogan,
"Equal rights to all, special privileges to none," and many believed
that at length the great party had arisen which was to secure to women
the equal right in the suffrage which thus far had been the special
privilege of men. Full of joy and hope there went to the first
national convention of this party, held in Omaha, July 4, 1892, Susan
B. Anthony and the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, president and
vice-president-at-large of the National Suffrage Association. To their
amazement they were refused permission even to appear before the
Committee on Resolutions, a courtesy which by this time was usually
extended at all political conventions. The platform contained no woman
suffrage plank and no reference to the question except that in the
long preamble occurred this sentence:

We believe that the forces of reform this day organized will
never cease to move forward until every wrong is righted, and
equal rights and equal privileges securely established for all
the men and women of this country.

In 1896 the Populist National Convention in St. Louis effected its
great fusion with the Democrats, and the political rights of women
were hopelessly lost in the shuffle. By 1900 the organization was
thoroughly under Democratic control, and the expectations of women to
secure their enfranchisement through this "party of the people,"
created to reform all abuses and abolish all unjust discriminations,
vanished forever. It must be said to its credit, however, that during
its brief existence women received more recognition in general than
they ever had had from the old parties. They sat as delegates in its
national and State conventions and served on National and State
Committees; they were employed as political speakers and