ut Mrs. Bodeker, who also memorialized the general assembly, was
first to make the attempt to vote. The Richmond _Dispatch_
describes the occasion:

Yesterday morning the judges of the second precinct of Marshall
ward, J. F. Shinberger, esq., presiding, were surprised at the
appearance of a lady at the polls. She wished to deposit a
ballot, but as the judges declined to allow this, in view of her
not having registered, she then asked to be permitted to have a
paper with the following inscription placed in the ballot-box:
"By the Constitution of the United States, I, Anne Whitehead
Bodeker, have a right to give my vote at this election, and in
vindication of it drop this note in the ballot-box, November 7,
1871." This paper was taken by the judges, and will be deposited
with the ballots in the archives of the Hustings court.

One remarkable incident in Gen. Grant's administration was Miss
Elizabeth VanLew's appointment as postmaster at Richmond. She held
the office eight years, notwithstanding the persistent opposition
of politicians. The _Ballot-Box_ said:

Miss VanLew was postmaster in Richmond under Grant, introducing
many reforms in the office, but through the envy of men, who were
voters, she, a non-voter, lost her office, as she had lost wealth
and friends from her devotion to the Union during the war. Now,
since its close, she finds not only her former slave men
permitted to make laws for her, but also those whom she opposed
when they were seeking their country's life. But women of all
ranks, white and colored, are awaking to their need of the ballot
for self-protection.

The Philadelphia _Press_, edited by J. W. Forney, said:

Some covert enemies of the president and the new civil-service
reform have been spreading a report, through sensational
specials, that the Richmond post-office is to be given to some
prominent Virginian of local standing as soon as Miss VanLew's
commission expires. If there is any post-office in the United
States in which the whole nation at this time has a special
interest, it is this one of Richmond which the present incumbent
holds, as it were, by a national right, and certainly by popular
acclaim. We have not time in a brief paragraph to tell the
striking story of what Miss VanLew has done and what she has
suffered for the count