he did so with the
greatest reluctance, but felt that the increasing pressure of work
made it important that some one with more leisure at her disposal
should fill the office. Mrs. Sexton was elected president.[370]

Mrs. Cornelia C. Hussey is the largest contributor in New Jersey to
the suffrage cause in general. Since many of her donations have been
made to the National Association directly, not passing through the
hands of the State treasurer, they can not be computed here, nor does
she herself know their full amount. She has given also most liberally
to State work and her contributions run well up into the thousands. A
number of New Jersey women have been made life members of the National
Association by her. She is a member of its organization
committee.[371]

In early days Mrs. Theresa Walling Seabrook stood almost alone in the
W. C. T. U. in her advocacy of woman suffrage and it required ten
years of effort to secure a franchise department, of which she was
made the first superintendent. For many years, however, this
organization has been an active and helpful force and undoubtedly has
made numerous converts, besides securing valuable legislation. The
Grange has been always a faithful ally of the woman suffrage cause.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND LAWS: On Feb. 13, 1884, a special committee of
the Assembly granted a hearing on the petition of Mrs. Celia B.
Whitehead and 220 others, asking the restoration of the right of Full
Suffrage which had been unconstitutionally taken away from women in
1807. (See Suffrage.) Henry B. Blackwell and the Rev. Phoebe A.
Hanaford of Massachusetts and Mrs. Theresa Walling Seabrook presented
the question. They asked also for School Suffrage. The committee
reported favorably on both measures. The former reached a vote and was
defeated by 24 yeas, 27 nays.

In 1887 Dr. William M. Baird, Speaker of the Assembly, had a bill
introduced conferring School Suffrage on women in villages and country
districts, and advocated it from the floor. It passed unanimously,
March 23, not on its merits but because the Speaker wanted it. It was
passed by the Senate March 31, by 15 yeas, 2 nays, and signed April 8,
by Gov. Robert S. Green.

This year Aaron M. Powell and the Rev. A. H. Lewis secured a law
raising the "age of protection" for girls from 10 to 16.

In 1894 the courts decided that the law granting School Suffrage to
women was unconstitutional and that an amendment to the constitution
would