eneral
Assembly for ratification, the Senate passed the bill, while the
House, for the first time, defeated it by a small majority.

By the constitution of Iowa an amendment must be approved by two
consecutive legislatures, convened in regular session. When so
approved it is then submitted to the popular vote of the
electors. As in this State the legislature meets but once in two
years, the reader can see how easily a bill passed at one session
may, two years later, be defeated by the election of new members
who are opposed to it. And thus through all these years those who
claim the ballot for woman in this State have been elated or
depressed by the action of each succeeding legislature.

The thirteenth General Assembly not only earned a good name for
enlightened statesmanship by passing the constitutional amendment
in favor of woman suffrage, but it also, by chapter 21, approved
March 8, 1870, passed an act admitting women to the practice of
law. It was under this that Judith Ellen Foster--so widely known
as an eloquent lecturer and able lawyer--Annie C. Savery, Mrs.
Emma Haddock, Louisa H. Albert, Jessie M. Johnson, and several
others have passed the necessary examination and been admitted to
practice as attorneys and counselors in all the courts of the
State. Mrs. Arabella Mansfield was admitted to the bar in 1869,
just a year previous to the enactment of the law.

Miss Linda M. Ramsey, now Mrs. Hartzell, was employed as a clerk
by Adjutant-General Baker in 1864, and held the office for some
time after the war closed. The _Record_ says she was the first
woman regularly employed and paid by the State for clerical
services. Miss Augusta Matthews served as military secretary for
Governor Stone during the war under pay of the State.

It was the thirteenth General Assembly, 1870, that first elected
a woman, Miss Mary E. Spencer, to the office of engrossing clerk;
and upon her it devolved to convey the message from the House to
the Senate, announcing the passage of the woman suffrage
amendment. In 1872 each House elected one woman among its
officers; and each succeeding General Assembly since that time
has elected from three to six women. The office of postmaster has
been filled by women for the last ten years, and is now held by
the ven