Women -- Suffrage -- History; Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History; Women's rights -- History; Women's rights -- United States -- History
ELIZABETH L. SAXON of Louisiana, said: _Gentlemen_: I feel that
after Mrs. Wallace's plea there is no necessity for me to say
anything. I come from the extreme South, she from the West.
People have asked me why I came. I care nothing for suffrage
merely to stand beside men, or rush to the polls, or to take any
privilege outside of my home, only, as Mrs. Wallace says, for
humanity. I never realized the importance of this cause, until we
were beaten back on every side in the work of reform. If we
attempted to put women in charge of prisons, believing that
wherever woman sins and suffers women should be there to teach,
help and guide, every place was in the hands of men. If we made
an effort to get women on the school-boards we were combated and
could do nothing.
In the State of Texas, I had a niece living whose father was an
inmate of a lunatic asylum. She exerted as wide an influence as
any woman in that State; I allude to Miss Mollie Moore, who was
the ward of Mr. Cushing. I give this illustration as a reason why
Southern women are taking part in this movement. Mr. Wallace had
charge of that lunatic asylum for years. He was a good,
honorable, able man. Every one was endeared to him; the State
appreciated him as superintendent of this asylum. When a
political change was made and Gov. Robinson came in, Dr. Wallace
was ousted for political purposes. It almost broke the hearts of
some of the women who had sons, daughters or husbands there. They
determined at once to try and have him reinstated. It was
impossible, he was out, and what could they do?
A gentleman said to me a few days ago, "These women ought to
marry." I am married; I am a mother; and in our home the sons and
brothers are all standing like a wall of steel at my back. I have
cast aside the prejudices of the past. They lie like rotted hulks
behind me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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