to allow them to
dispose of their own property." These bills were all defeated.
Annual legislative hearings on woman suffrage began in 1869. These
were first secured through the efforts of the executive committee
of the New England Woman Suffrage Association. Eight thousand women
had petitioned the legislature that suffrage might be allowed them
on the same terms as men, and in answer, two hearings were held in
the green room at the State House.[134] In 1870 a joint special
committee on woman suffrage was formed, and since that time there
have been one or more annual hearings on the question. To what
extent legislative sentiment has been created will be shown later
in the improvement of many laws with regard to the legal status of
woman.

William Claflin was the first governor of Massachusetts to present
officially to the voters of the commonwealth the subject of woman's
rights as a citizen. In his address to the legislature of 1871, he
strongly recommended a change in the laws regarding suffrage and
the property rights of woman. His attitude toward this reform made
an era in the history of the executive department of the State.
Since that time nearly every governor of the State has, in
his annual message, recommended the subject to respectful
consideration. In 1879 Governor Thomas Talbot proposed a
constitutional amendment which should secure the ballot to women on
the same terms as to men. In response to this portion of the
governor's message, and to the ninety-eight petitions presented on
the subject, a general suffrage bill passed the Senate by a
two-thirds majority, and an act to "give women the right to vote
for members of school committees," passed both branches of the
legislature and became a law of the State.[135] Governor John D.
Long, in his inaugural address before the legislature of 1880,
expressed his opinion in favor of woman suffrage perhaps more
decidedly than any who had preceded him in that high official
position. He said:

I repeat my conviction of the right of woman suffrage. If the
commonwealth is not ready to give it in full by a constitutional
amendment, I approve of testing it in municipal elections.

The law allowing women to vote for school committees is one of the
last results of the legislative agitations, though it is true that
the petition, the answer to which was the passage of this act, did
not emanate from any suffrage association. It was the outcome of a
conferenc