Power of the Legislature to Extend Suffrage--Great Demonstration
in Chickering Hall, March 7, 1884--Hearing at Albany, 1885--Mrs.
Blake, Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. Rogers, Mrs. Howell, Gov. Hoyt of
Wyoming.

The New York chapter in Volume I. closes with an account of some
retrogressive legislation on the rights of married women,[200]
showing that until woman herself has a voice in legislation her
rights may be conceded or withheld at the option of the ruling
powers, and that her only safety is in direct representation. The
chapter on "Trials and Decisions" in Volume II., shows the
injustice women have suffered in the courts, where they have never
yet enjoyed the sacred right of trial by a jury of their own peers.

After many years of persistent effort for the adjustment of special
grievances, many of the leaders, seeing by what an uncertain tenure
their civil rights were maintained by the legislative and judicial
authorities, ceased to look to the State for redress, and turned to
the general government for protection in the right of suffrage, the
fundamental right by which all minor privileges and immunities are
protected. Hence the annual meeting of the National Association,
which had been regularly held in New York as one of the May
anniversaries, was, from 1869, supplemented by a semi-annual
convention in Washington for special influence upon congress.

Until the war the work in New York was conducted by a central
committee; but in the summer of 1869, the following call was issued
for a convention at Saratoga Springs, to organize a State Society:

The advocates of woman suffrage will hold a State convention at
Saratoga Springs on the thirteenth and fourteenth of July, 1869.
The specific business of this convention will be to effect a
permanent organization for the State of New York. Our friends in
the several congressional districts should at once elect their
delegates, in order that the whole State may be represented in
the convention. In districts where delegates cannot be elected,
any person can constitute himself or herself a representative.
The convention will be attended by the ablest advocates of
suffrage for woman, and addresses may be expected from Elizabeth
Cady Stanton, president of the National Association, Celia
Burleigh, president of the Brooklyn Equal Rights Association,
Matilda Joslyn Gage, advisory counsel for the State