a luncheon, which was provided at
the headquarters. They distributed 1,700 woman suffrage ballots and
1,000 circulars containing arguments on the rights of women. They
were treated with unexceptionable politeness and kindness by the
voters.

[130] The first time women went to the polls in Massachusetts was
in 1870, when forty-two women of Hyde Park, led by Angelina Grimke
Weld and Sarah Grimke, deposited their ballots, in solemn protest
"against the political ostracism of women, against leaving every
vital interest of a majority of the citizens to the monopoly of a
male minority." It is hardly needful to record that these ballots
were not counted.

[131] For summary of voting laws relating to women from 1691 to
1822, see "Massachusetts in the Woman Suffrage Movement," by
Harriet H. Robinson: Roberts Brothers, Boston.

[132] Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Lucy Stone, Theodore Parker,
Wendell Phillips, and other speakers of ability, presented able
arguments in favor of giving women the right to vote.

[133] This memorial was printed by order of the legislature (Leg.
Doc. Ho. 57) and is called "Memorial of the Female Signers of the
Several Petitions of Henry A. Hardy and Others," presented March 1,
1849. The document is not signed and Mrs. Ferrin's name is not
found with it upon the records, neither does her name appear in the
journal of the House in connection with any of the petitions and
addresses she caused to be presented to the legislature of the
State. But for the loyal friendship of the few who knew of her work
and were willing to give her due credit, the name of Mary Upton
Ferrin [see Vol. I., page 208] and the memory of her labors as well
as those of many another silent worker, would have gone into the
"great darkness."

[134] The committee was addressed by Wendell Phillips, Julia Ward
Howe, Lucy Stone, Rev. James Freeman Clarke and Hon. George F.
Hoar.

[135] Two years before (1869), while sitting as visitor in the
gallery of the House of Representatives, I heard the whole subject
of woman's rights referred to the (bogus) committee on graveyards!

[136] It was perhaps intended to serve as a means of reinstating
Abby W. May and other women who had been defeated as candidates for
reelection on the Boston school-board. The names of Isa E. Gray,
Mrs. C. B. Richmond, Elizabeth P. Peabody and John M. Forbes led
the lists of petitioners.

[137] At the first annual election for school committees in cities
and