Women -- Suffrage -- History; Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History; Women's rights -- History; Women's rights -- United States -- History
Action was brought in the Superior Court of Marion county for a
decision on this law. The Court gave an adverse decision but it
embraced definitely only the Municipal suffrage. On October 26 the
Supreme Court upheld this decision concerning Municipal suffrage and
implied that the entire Act was invalid. The counsel for the
suffragists, including some of the foremost lawyers in the State,
with Eli Stansbury, Attorney General, and Mrs. McCulloch, presented
masterly arguments. The decision of the Supreme Court was condemned by
many besides the suffragists. The hearing was not held before a full
bench and the decision was not unanimous, Judge Lawson J. Harvey
handing down a dissenting opinion, so that two men virtually decided
this momentous question.
By Jan. 1, 1919 the Federal Suffrage Amendment had passed the Lower
House of Congress and was pending in the Senate and the first act of
this year's Legislature, convened in joint session before either House
had organized, was to adopt a resolution with but one opposing vote
calling on the U. S. Senate to submit the amendment, which was signed
by the Governor and forwarded to Washington.
There still remained from the legislation of 1917 the amendment to the
State constitution, which in order to be submitted to the voters had
to be passed also by the Assembly of 1919. The result of the election
of 1918 in the State had been an overwhelmingly Republican victory.
Since the party had the Governor and a majority of both branches of
the Assembly, it wished to put through a program of legislation that
called for amending the constitution and the leaders requested the
women to withdraw the suffrage amendment, as while one was pending
another could not be introduced. Feeling that withdrawal with a
friendly majority was better than defeat and enmity, the board of the
Franchise League consented. One of the rewards for this sacrifice,
which meant a delay of two years in presenting a State amendment to
the voters, was the Presidential suffrage bill, which passed on
February 6 with six dissenting votes out of a membership of 150. Three
of these were in the Senate, Erskine of Evansville, Haggerty of South
Bend and Kline of Huntington; three in the House, Sambor, Bidaman and
O'Neal, the last two from Terre Haute, Sambor from Indiana Harbor. The
vote to submit an amendment was unanimous in both Houses.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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