could be raised at any of our public meetings, and we
felt measurably sure of a victory until near election time, when
we discovered to our dismay that most of the leading politicians
upon whom we had relied for aid had suddenly been seized with an
alarming reticence. They ceased to attend the public meetings and
in every possible way ignored the amendment, lest by openly
allying themselves with it they might lose votes; and as all of
them were posing in some way for office, for themselves or
friends, and women had no votes with which to repay their
allegiance, it was not strange that they should thus desert us.

Our Republican senator in congress, Hon. J. N. Dolph, favored the
Woman Suffrage Association with an able and comprehensive letter,
which was widely circulated, urging the adoption of the amendment
as a measure of justice and right, and appealing to the voters to
make Oregon the banner State of the great reform. Leading
clergymen, especially of Portland, preached in favor of woman
suffrage, prominent among them being Rev. T. L. Eliot, pastor of
the Unitarian church; Chaplain R. S. Stubbs of the Church of Sea
and Land, and Rev. Frederic R. Marvin of the First Congregational
society. Appeals to voters were widely circulated from the pens
and speeches of many able gentlemen.[512] Not one influential man
made audible objection anywhere.

We had carefully districted and organized the State, sparing
neither labor nor money in providing "Yes" tickets for all
parties and all candidates and putting them everywhere in the
hands of friends for use at the polls. But the polls were no
sooner open than it began to appear that the battle was one of
great odds. Masked batteries were opened in almost every
precinct, and multitudes of legal voters who are rarely seen in
daylight except at a general election, many of whom were refugees
from Washington territory, crowded forth from their hiding-places
to strike the manacled women down. They accused the earnest
ladies who had dared to ask for simple justice of every crime in
the social catalogue. Railroad gangs were driven to the polls
like sheep and voted against us in battalions. But, in spite of
all this, nearly one-third of the vote was thrown in our favor,
requiring a change of only about one-fourth