Rev. Mrs. Wilkes made an especial point of the fact that in
Colorado Springs women owned one-third of the taxable property,
and yet were obliged (at the recent spring election) to see the
bonds for furnishing a supply of pure water, voted down because
women had no voice in the matter. This had been a serious
mistake, as the physicians of the place had pronounced the
present supply impure and unwholesome. She referred to the fears
of many that the constitution, freighted with woman suffrage,
might sink, when it would else be buoyant, and begged her hearers
not to fear such a burden would endanger it. The convention
continued through two days with enthusiastic speeches from Mr. D.
M. Richards and Rev. Mr. Wright, who preferred to be introduced
as the nephew of Dr. Harriot K. Hunt of Boston. Letters were read
from Lucy Stone and Judge Kingman, and an extract from the
message of Governor Thayer of Wyoming, in which he declared the
results of woman suffrage in that territory to have been
beneficial and its influence favorable to the best interests of
the community. A territorial society was formed with an efficient
board of officers;[487] resolutions, duly discussed, were
adopted, and the meeting closed with a carefully-prepared
address by Dr. Avery, the newly-elected president of the
territorial association.

The committee[488] appointed to wait upon the constitutional
convention were received courteously by that body, and listened
to with respectful attention. One would have thought the
gentlemen to whom the arguments and appeals of such women were
addressed would have found it in their hearts to make some reply,
even while disclaiming the official character of their act; but
they preserved a decorous and non-committal, if not incurious
silence, and the ladies withdrew. The press said, the morning
after their visit: "The gentlemen were all interested and amused
by the errand of the ladies." The morning following, the
constitutional convention was memorialized by the Suffrage
Association of Missouri, and was also presented with a petition
signed by a thousand citizens of Colorado, asking that in the new
constitution no distinction be made on account of sex. This was
only the beginning. Petitions came in afterwards, numerously
signed