each
left a small legacy to the association.

Of the annual meeting of 1883,[411] held at Ottumwa, the local
papers gave full and fair reports; while 200 papers of the State
published a condensed statement prepared by the secretary. Miss
Hindman and Mrs. Campbell were again invited to the State. No
grander work than theirs was ever done in Iowa. There is scarcely
a county which they have not canvassed; holding meetings, forming
associations, circulating petitions, distributing tracts,
preaching on Sundays in the churches, traveling, often for months
at a time, without a pledge of pecuniary aid, depending for their
expenses wholly on funds contributed at their meetings.

The State convention of 1884 met at the Christian Church at Des
Moines; Mrs. Nacissa T. Bemis presided. Mrs. Helen M. Gougar of
Indiana was one of the speakers. A committee, of which Mrs.
Martha C. Callanan was chairman, interviewed the governor, asking
a recognition of woman's right of suffrage, and were told it
should receive consideration. Accordingly, in his message to the
legislature, Governor Sherman said:

Your attention is respectfully directed to the question of
impartial suffrage, in respect to which the nineteenth
General Assembly proposed an amendment to the constitution.
Should this meet your approval, as preliminary to taking the
judgment of the voters, I recommend that it be submitted at
a special election, in order that it may be freed from the
influence of partisan politics, and thus receive an
unprejudiced vote of our citizens. Not caring to here
express an opinion upon the question itself, it is
sufficient to say that now, as heretofore, I am in favor of
the submission of any question which is of importance and
general interest.

Governor Sherman also gave it as his opinion that a good woman
should be placed on the board of trustees of every public
institution. This was the second time that an Iowa governor had
referred to this great political question in his message to the
General Assembly, Governor Carpenter having heartily indorsed the
measure in 1876. It is said, however, that Governor Newbold had
written a clause on the subject in his message in 1878, but that
it was suppressed b