On their return from the convention the leaders of the Party began to line up the important men of the State by letter and by personal interviews. Beginning with the ex-Governors, they secured the endorsement of L. E. Hall, H. C. Warmoth, N. C. Blanchard, Jared Y. Sanders and W. W. Heard. Against these, however, was the present Governor, Ruffin G. Pleasant, who took an aggressive stand for State's rights, although at a public banquet eight months earlier he had told the women that 'if Louisiana women could not obtain the ballot by State enactment he would favor Federal action.' Among those who declared for ratification were J. J. Bailey, Paul Capdeville, F. R. Grace, T. R. Harris, A. V. Coco, Semmes Walmsley, Rufus E. Foster, Howell Morgan, Percy Saint, E. N. Stafford, Phanor Breazeale, Donaldson Caffery and many other men of affairs. The New Orleans _Item_ had always advocated woman suffrage and the Federal Amendment especially; the _Times-Picayune_ now approved ratification, as did nearly all the papers in the State. The Orleans Democratic Association, which had put Governor Parker in office, passed a resolution endorsing it. The State Central Committee chairman, Frank J. Looney, and the National Democratic Committeeman, Arsene Pujo, were in favor, and North Louisiana was almost solid for it. The opposition was chiefly in New Orleans, where certain elements under ward-boss leadership were opposed to woman suffrage in any form. Mrs. Holmes had a number of interviews with Governor-elect Parker alone, with other women and with Marshall Ballard, editor of the _Item_, one of his valued supporters. She was always led to believe that he would help when the time for it came, although some of his strongest adherents were opposed to ratification. It was deemed best to make the fight along non-partisan lines, and so he was asked if it would be wiser to have two of his own supporters take charge of it or to have one who had opposed him in the primary campaign. He advised the latter course and Norris C. Williamson of East Carroll parish, his opponent, was selected to introduce the bill in the Senate, and S. O. Shattuck of Calcasieu, a supporter and the introducer of the first woman suffrage bill in the Legislature in the Lower House. The day Mayor Martin Behrman came out for ratification, Mr. Parker said to Mrs. Holmes: "I have always been for woman suffrage any way it could be obtained and I have never understood a suffragist's taking any other stand."