ter of 1919 was to press for a
Presidential suffrage bill such as had been adopted by a number of
States. In support of this a petition signed by over 98,000
women--increased afterwards to 102,000--was presented to the
Legislature when the bill came up for consideration. Nevertheless,
through the intense hostility of the Republican "machine," the bill
was defeated by a single vote in the Senate after having received a
large majority in the House.

When Congress finally sent the amendment to the Legislatures most of
them had adjourned and would not meet again until 1921. If women were
to vote in the general election of November, 1920, ratification would
have to be by special sessions. The suffragists of Connecticut were
determined that it should be one of the States to hold an extra
session. Deputations from the State Association and the National
Woman's Party waited upon Governor Holcomb in the summer of 1919 to
ask that he call one in order to ratify the amendment. He refused on
the ground of a constitutional limitation of the Governor's power. The
State constitution provides that the Governor may convene the General
Assembly "on special emergencies" and he held that no special
emergency existed. The association then concentrated on the Republican
State Central Committee and the other leaders whom they considered the
chief opponents of suffrage. A petition signed by 478 prominent
members of the Republican party was presented to the chairman of this
committee on Feb. 11, 1920, by the Men's Ratification Committee--a
committee friendly to woman suffrage and anxious for the ending of
the long struggle, which had been formed with Colonel Isaac M. Ullman
chairman. No effect was produced by this petition nor by an interview
with John Henry Roraback, the State chairman, by Miss Ludington, in
which he was urged to put Connecticut among the 36 States necessary
for ratification, in order that the women might be able to feel that
suffrage had been granted them by their own State.

By March 35 Legislatures had ratified and only a group of three or
four States held out any hope of the 36th and final ratification, of
which Connecticut was one. Leading Republicans in and out of Congress
tried to impress upon those in Connecticut that this was no longer a
State but a national issue. At their State convention in March the
Resolutions Committee gave a hearing to the suffragists and reported a
resolution in favor of a special session, w