have been
held at which valuable aid has been rendered by Mr. and Miss
Blackwell, Miss Shaw, Mrs. Howe, Mrs. Mary A. Livermore and Mrs.
Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the national organization
committee.[453]

LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND LAWS: Harvey Howes of West Haven was the only
man in a convention called to amend the State constitution in 1870,
who voted to grant full political rights to women; 233 voted in
opposition.

To secure to taxpaying women the right of Municipal Suffrage, has been
the special line of legislative work for the State association.
Petitions asking for this, with signatures varying in number from
1,225 to 3,616, and bills to grant it, have been presented in both
Houses of the Legislature at nine biennial sessions, beginning with
1884. In every instance save one these have been referred to the
Judiciary Committees.

In 1884 a Municipal Suffrage Bill was introduced into the House by O.
E. Butterfield and supported by himself and Messrs. Adams, Henry,
Stickney and others, but was lost by 69 yeas, 113 nays.

In 1886 a bill to permit all women to vote who paid taxes was
introduced and strongly advocated in the House by Luke P. Poland. It
was amended without his consent to require that they should pay taxes
on $200 worth of property, and passed by 139 yeas, 89 nays. In the
Senate it was championed by Messrs. Bates, Blake, Bunker, Clark,
Cushing, Foster, Pierce, Smith, Stanley and Swain, but was lost by 10
yeas, 18 nays.

In 1888 a Municipal Suffrage Bill was introduced into the House by C.
P. Marsh, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, that gave a hearing at
which the State W. S. A. was represented. Later, at a public hearing
in Representatives' Hall, Henry B. Blackwell, Prof. W. H. Carruth of
Kansas, Col. Albert Clarke, Mrs. Mary W. Foster and Miss Laura Moore
urged the passage of this bill. It was reported to the House "without
expression of opinion." The friendly members on the committee were
Messrs. Marsh, Ballard and Mann. In the debate which followed, these
three, with Messrs. Southworth and Dole, supported the bill; and a
letter was read from Amasa Scott, presenting arguments in its favor.
It was lost by 38 yeas, 192 nays.

Still later in this session a petition signed by the officers of the
State association asking that "property owned by women be exempt from
taxation," was presented in the House; as was also a bill by Hosea
Mann providing that, "The property, both real and personal, o