r
vice-president-at-large, 130; Rachel Foster Avery for corresponding
secretary, unanimous; Alice Stone Blackwell for recording secretary,
136; Harriet Taylor Upton for treasurer, unanimous.

During the convention the death of Miss Anna Ella Carroll was
announced. A resolution of sympathy with her sister was adopted and a
collection was taken up, as had been done for Miss Carroll a number
of times during the past twenty-five years, which resulted in over
forty dollars.

Mrs. Sallie Clay Bennett (Ky.), the faithful champion of Federal
Suffrage, insisted that, instead of asking for an amendment to confer
suffrage, we should demand protection in the right already guaranteed
by the U. S. Constitution: "Even when asking for Municipal Suffrage,
we never should fail to assert that it is already ours under the
Constitution, and that there is strength enough in our national
government to protect every woman in the Union provided the men had
interpreted the laws right." Miss Sara Winthrop Smith (Conn.)
supported Mrs. Bennett, saying: "It is useless labor to petition for a
Sixteenth Amendment--we do not need it. Our fundamental institutions
most adequately protect the rights of all citizens of the United
States, irrespective of sex. In the twenty-four years since the
passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, 300 amendments to the Constitution
have been introduced into Congress which never met with any approval
from either House. I think it is wasted time for us to continue in
this work, and therefore I feel that it concerns our dignity as a part
of the people of this great United States that we declare and ask only
for that which recognizes the dignity of such citizens." Mrs. Diggs,
Mrs. Dietrick, Mrs. Colby and others supported this view.

In expressing his dissent Mr. Blackwell said: "I do not believe in
Federal Suffrage. I agree with the State's Rights party in their
views." Miss Blackwell and others took the same position, and Miss
Anthony closed the debate by saying: "There is no doubt that the
spirit of the Constitution guarantees full equality of rights and the
protection of citizens of the United States in the exercise of these
rights, but the powers that be have decided against us, and until we
can get a broader Supreme Court--which will not be until after the
women of every State in the Union are enfranchised--we never will get
the needed liberal interpretation of that document." The majority
concurred in this view.

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