%1 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/ en Margaret W. Campbell http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/margaret-w-campbell <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Margaret W. Campbell</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2020-03-13T16:06:29-06:00" title="Friday, March 13, 2020 - 16:06" class="datetime">Fri, 03/13/2020 - 16:06</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/margaret-w-campbell" data-a2a-title="Margaret W. Campbell"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fmargaret-w-campbell&amp;title=Margaret%20W.%20Campbell"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>Margaret West Norton Campbell (1827–1908) was an ardent advocate of women’s rights and one of the nation’s most sought-after suffrage speakers. In Colorado she was instrumental in the 1877 campaign for <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/womens-suffrage-movement"><strong>women’s suffrage</strong></a>. The measure failed, but her work paved the way for suffrage to be enacted in Colorado sixteen years later, in 1893.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Early Life</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Margaret West Norton was born on January 16, 1827, in Hancock County, Maine, to David and Elizabeth Norton. Her grandfather, Noah Norton, had been a soldier in the Revolutionary War. After attending local schools, in 1847 she married lawyer John Barker Campbell of nearby Waldo, Maine. The couple had three children: George, Susan Elizabeth, and Charles Parker. Charles died in 1863.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Entering the Suffrage Movement</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1857 the Campbells moved to Linn County, Iowa. During the <a href="/article/civil-war-colorado"><strong>Civil War</strong></a>, Margaret was active in soldiers’ aid societies and made her first public speeches in favor of women’s suffrage. By the late 1860s, with grown children, Margaret and John were back in Massachusetts, where Margaret began her suffrage work began in earnest. In February 1870 she attended a convention in Boston’s Horticultural Hall, during which the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association was founded as an affiliate of the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). Campbell gave a speech providing an account of the suffrage work that she had led in Hampden and Hampshire Counties; she did not claim credit for herself, but other suffrage leaders knew her role. She went on to serve as an officer of the AWSA for more than twenty years.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>By 1871, in the campaign for women’s suffrage in Vermont, Campbell had become a key figure on the suffrage lecture circuit. By 1872, in her home state of Maine, she was considered one of the most effective suffrage organizers. For the rest of the 1870s, she and her husband traveled the country lecturing in support of suffrage. As part of her lecture tours, she gathered signatures on prosuffrage petitions, which were then delivered to each state’s legislators.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Working for Equal Suffrage in Colorado</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>By 1874, AWSA members were targeting Colorado as a promising place to push for equal suffrage as the territory started its transition to <strong>statehood</strong>. By mid-November 1875, the AWSA had dispatched the Campbells to the territory, where Margaret began to hold a series of women’s suffrage meetings. That month, the <em>Boulder County News </em>described her as “a middle-aged woman, modest, earnest, sensibly dressed, of sweet and womanly voice, an engaging and impressive manner, gifted in speech, and above most of her fellow mortals of either sex.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>On January 10, 1876, as delegates worked to hammer out a new <a href="/article/colorado-constitution"><strong>state constitution</strong></a> in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a>, Campbell recruited Colorado Grange member <strong>Albina Washburn</strong> to help organize a convention of suffrage supporters nearby. Campbell declared that the “convention had been called to present to the law-making powers woman’s claim to the ballot, so that some means might be taken whereby every woman might not continue to be the political subject of every man.” The convention resulted in the establishment the Colorado Woman Suffrage Association (CWSA), the forerunner of the <strong><a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/non-partisan-equal-suffrage-association">Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association</a></strong>. Campbell and the CWSA employed a number of tactics to generate support among convention delegates. They held public meetings around the state, gathered signatures on petitions, and wrote newspaper columns.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Despite her energetic work on behalf of women’s suffrage, Margaret Campbell experienced significant frustrations during the Colorado campaign. Lack of funds forced John to leave the suffrage work to her while he tried to find a job to pay their living expenses. Public hearings were often badly attended. As she reported to AWSA leaders, “we were told in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/central-city%E2%80%93black-hawk-historic-district"><strong>Central [City]</strong></a>—one of the places where we could not get a hearing—that we must advertise a dog fight, and then we would get a crowd.” More important, she noted that some Coloradans believed equal suffrage would interfere with statehood. “The newspapers so far as we have seen, are either opposed or afraid to come out boldly. The cry with them is—it will endanger the new constitution.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>As Campbell feared, the constitutional convention’s suffrage and elections committee included a provision that voters must be male. (Women were allowed to vote only in school board elections.) She was successful, however, in persuading delegates to require that the issue of women’s suffrage be put to a vote at the next general election, in 1877—and to allow it to be put to a vote again in any subsequent year.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Suffrage Campaign of 1877</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In fall 1876, the Campbells headed east, where they worked for suffrage in Rhode Island, but they returned to Colorado in time for the 1877 campaign. Campbell was influential in bringing national suffrage leaders <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/lucy-stone"><strong>Lucy Stone</strong></a>, <a href="/article/henry-browne-blackwell"><strong>Henry Blackwell</strong></a>, and <strong><a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/susan-b-anthony">Susan B. Anthony</a></strong> to the state to advocate for the suffrage referendum. Stone saw firsthand the hard work that the Campbells put into the cause. “Mr. and Mrs. Campbell crossed five of the snowy ranges, sometimes making their bed upon hemlock boughs out of doors where, in spite of woolen and rubber blankets, the intense cold banishes sleep,” Stone recorded in her diary.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Yet the Campbells failed to win the support of the major political parties, and most of the state’s newspapers also took a negative view. In <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/pueblo-0"><strong>Pueblo</strong></a> the <em><strong>Colorado Daily Chieftain</strong> </em>claimed that Campbell had “inserted her shriveled limbs in a pair of her hen-pecked husband’s cast-off pantaloons, and proceeded to shriek for the ballot for women.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>On Election Day, October 2, 1877, the suffrage referendum failed by a margin of more than 2 to 1. Both Margaret Campbell and Susan B. Anthony believed that race and education were factors in the defeat. According to the <em>Chieftain,</em> Campbell identified the enemies of suffrage as “the ignorant, degraded and superstitious Mexicans of the south . . . and the uneducated and uncultivated Negroes of the north.” While it is true that, in keeping with their Catholic faith, Hispano men tended not to favor suffrage, county vote totals show that the lack of support was widespread across the state. Only <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/boulder-county"><strong>Boulder County</strong></a> voted in favor.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Aftermath</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>After the defeat in Colorado, Margaret and John Campbell continued their nationwide work for suffrage. In 1879 they moved to Iowa, though Margaret continued to be one of the nation’s most widely sought public speakers on suffrage and frequently traveled to take part in various state suffrage campaigns. She also remained active in the Iowa State Suffrage Association through the 1890s, serving as president and corresponding secretary. She died on November 5, 1908.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Even though they failed in 1877, suffrage advocates in the state could sustain hope thanks to the constitutional provision Campbell had secured allowing the issue to be placed on the ballot in any subsequent year. As national suffrage leader Henry Blackwell later wrote, “that provision enabled . . . resubmission and adoption [of women’s suffrage] in 1893.” That eventual victory, he believed, was a direct result of Margaret and John Campbell’s earlier labors. “Colorado,” he wrote, “ought to erect a monument in their memory.” So far the state has not taken Blackwell up on his suggestion.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/wroble-susan" hreflang="und">Wroble, Susan</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/margaret-w-campbell" hreflang="en">Margaret W. Campbell</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/womens-suffrage" hreflang="en">Women&#039;s Suffrage</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/referendum-1877" hreflang="en">Referendum of 1877</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/american-woman-suffrage-association" hreflang="en">American Woman Suffrage Association</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colorado-state-constitution" hreflang="en">Colorado State Constitution</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colorado-non-partisan-equal-suffrage-association" hreflang="en">Colorado Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/albina-washington" hreflang="en">Albina Washington</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/lucy-stone" hreflang="en">Lucy Stone</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/henry-blackwell" hreflang="en">henry blackwell</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/susan-b-anthony" hreflang="en">Susan B. Anthony</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>Joseph G. Brown, <a href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbnawsa.n1331/?st=list"><em>The History of Equal Suffrage in Colorado, 1868–1898</em></a> (Denver: News Job Printing, 1898).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="http://womensuffragecentennialsoutherncolorado.org/about-us/research/chieftain/">Excerpts from the Newspaper the Colorado Daily Chieftain (now the Pueblo Chieftain) on Women’s Suffrage</a>,” Women Suffrage Centennial, Southern Colorado, n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Benjamin F. Gue, <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/History_of_Iowa_From_the_Earliest_Times_to_the_Beginning_of_the_Twentieth_Century/4/Margaret_W._Campbell"><em>History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century</em>, vol. 4: <em>Iowa Biography</em></a> (New York: Century History, 1903).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Corrine M. McConnaughy, <em>The Woman Suffrage Movement in America: A Reassessment </em>(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>National American Woman Suffrage Association, <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/mss3413200202/"><em>National American Woman Suffrage Association Records: General Correspondence, 1839–1961</em>; <em>Campbell, Margaret W.; 2 of 3</em></a>, MSS 34132, Library of Congress, n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Andy O’Brien, “<a href="https://www.freepressonline.com/content/home/homepage-rotator/article/maine-women-continue-the-fight-for-voting-rights-fair-treatment-/78/720/62638/">Maine Women Continue the Fight for Voting Rights and Fair Treatment</a>,” <em>Free Press</em> (Rockland, ME), January 10, 2019.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage, eds., <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/History_of_Woman_Suffrage.html?id=I4oEAAAAYAAJ"><em>History of Woman Suffrage</em>, vol. 3: <em>1876–1885</em></a> (Rochester, NY: Susan B. Anthony, 1886).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Gail M. Beaton, <em>Colorado Women: A History</em> (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2012).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-4th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-4th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-4th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-4th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-4th-grade"><p>Margaret West Norton Campbell (1827–1908) was an advocate of women’s rights. She was one of the nation’s most sought-after suffrage speakers. In Colorado, she was instrumental in the 1877 campaign for women’s suffrage. The measure failed. Her work paved the way for suffrage to be enacted in Colorado in 1893.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Early Life</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Margaret West Norton was born on January 16, 1827, in Hancock County, Maine. In 1847, she married lawyer John Barker Campbell. The couple had three children: George, Susan Elizabeth, and Charles Parker. Charles died in 1863.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Entering the Suffrage Movement</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1857 the Campbells moved to Linn County, Iowa. During the Civil War, Margaret was active in soldiers’ aid societies. She made her first public speeches in favor of women’s suffrage. By the late 1860s, Margaret and John were back on the East Coast. Margaret began her suffrage work began in earnest. In February 1870 she attended a convention in Boston. During the convention, the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association was founded. It was an affiliate of the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). Margaret gave a speech. She talked about the suffrage work in Hampden and Hampshire Counties. She did not claim credit for herself. However, other suffrage leaders knew her role. She went on to serve as an officer of the AWSA for more than twenty years.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>By 1871, Margaret had become a key figure on the suffrage lecture circuit. For the rest of the 1870s, she and her husband traveled the country lecturing in support of suffrage. She gathered signatures on prosuffrage petitions. The petitions were then delivered to each state’s legislators.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Working for Equal Suffrage in Colorado</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>By 1874, AWSA members were targeting Colorado. It was a promising place to push for equal suffrage. The territory was shifting to statehood. By mid-November 1875, the AWSA had sent the Campbells to the territory. Margaret began to hold a series of women’s suffrage meetings.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>On January 10, 1876, delegates were working to hammer out a new state constitution in Denver. Margaret helped organize a convention of suffrage supporters nearby. At the convention, the Colorado Woman Suffrage Association (CWSA) was founded. It was the forerunner of the Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association. Campbell and the CWSA tried to generate support among constitutional delegates. They held public meetings around the state. They also gathered signatures on petitions and wrote newspaper columns.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Margaret was frustrated during the Colorado campaign. Lack of funds forced John to leave the suffrage work. He tried to find a job to pay their living expenses. Public hearings were poorly attended. As she told AWSA leaders, “we were told in Central [City]...that we must advertise a dog fight, and then we would get a crowd.” More important, some Coloradans believed suffrage would interfere with statehood. “The newspapers so far as we have seen, are either opposed or afraid to come out boldly. The cry with them is—it will endanger the new constitution.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Margaret failed to get suffrage included in the new constitution. The convention’s suffrage and elections committee included a provision that voters must be male. Women were allowed to vote only in school board elections. However, Margaret was partially successful. She persuaded delegates to require women’s suffrage be put to a vote at the next general election in 1877. She convinced delegates to allow suffrage to be put to a vote in any following year.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Suffrage Campaign of 1877</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In fall 1876, the Campbells headed east. They worked for suffrage in Rhode Island. The couple returned to Colorado in time for the 1877 campaign.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The Campbells failed to win the support of the major political parties. Most of the state’s newspapers also took a negative view. In Pueblo the Colorado Daily Chieftain claimed that Campbell had “inserted her shriveled limbs in a pair of her hen-pecked husband’s cast-off pantaloons, and proceeded to shriek for the ballot for women.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>On October 2, 1877, the suffrage referendum failed by a margin of more than 2 to 1. Margaret believed that race and education were factors in the defeat. It is true that Hispano men tended not to favor suffrage. However, county vote totals show that the lack of support was widespread. Only Boulder County voted in favor.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Aftermath</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Margaret and John Campbell continued their nationwide work for suffrage. In 1879 they moved to Iowa. Margaret continued to be one of the nation’s most sought after public speakers on suffrage. She traveled to take part in various state suffrage campaigns. She remained active in the Iowa State Suffrage Association through the 1890s, where she served as president. She died on November 5, 1908.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Even though they failed in 1877, suffrage advocates in Colorado had hope thanks to the provision Campbell secured. Her work allowed suffrage to be placed on the ballot in any subsequent year. As national suffrage leader Henry Blackwell later wrote, “that provision enabled . . . resubmission and adoption [of women’s suffrage] in 1893.” That eventual victory, he believed, was a result of the Campbell’s work.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-8th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-8th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-8th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-8th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-8th-grade"><p>Margaret West Norton Campbell (1827–1908) was an advocate of women’s rights. She was one of the nation’s most sought-after suffrage speakers. In Colorado, she was instrumental in the 1877 campaign for women’s suffrage. The measure failed. Her work paved the way for suffrage to be enacted in Colorado in 1893.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Early Life</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Margaret West Norton was born on January 16, 1827, in Hancock County, Maine. In 1847, she married lawyer John Barker Campbell of nearby Waldo, Maine. The couple had three children: George, Susan Elizabeth, and Charles Parker. Charles died in 1863.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Entering the Suffrage Movement</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1857 the Campbells moved to Linn County, Iowa. During the Civil War, Margaret was active in soldiers’ aid societies. She made her first public speeches in favor of women’s suffrage. By the late 1860s, Margaret and John were back in Massachusetts. Margaret began her suffrage work began in earnest. In February 1870 she attended a convention in Boston’s Horticultural Hall. During the convention, the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association was founded. It was an affiliate of the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). Margaret gave a speech. She talked about the suffrage work in Hampden and Hampshire Counties. She did not claim credit for herself. However, other suffrage leaders knew her role. She went on to serve as an officer of the AWSA for more than twenty years.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>By 1871, Margaret had become a key figure on the suffrage lecture circuit. By 1872, in her home state of Maine, she was considered one of the most effective suffrage organizers. For the rest of the 1870s, she and her husband traveled the country lecturing in support of suffrage. She gathered signatures on prosuffrage petitions. The petitions were then delivered to each state’s legislators.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Working for Equal Suffrage in Colorado</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>By 1874, AWSA members were targeting Colorado. It was a promising place to push for equal suffrage as the territory started its transition to statehood. By mid-November 1875, the AWSA had sent the Campbells to the territory. Margaret began to hold a series of women’s suffrage meetings.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>On January 10, 1876, delegates were working to hammer out a new state constitution in Denver. Margaret recruited Colorado Grange member Albina Washington to help organize a convention of suffrage supporters nearby. The convention resulted in the creation the Colorado Woman Suffrage Association (CWSA). It was the forerunner of the Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association. Campbell and the CWSA tried to generate support among convention delegates. They held public meetings around the state. They also gathered signatures on petitions and wrote newspaper columns.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Margaret was often frustrated during the Colorado campaign. Lack of funds forced John to leave the suffrage work. He tried to find a job to pay their living expenses. Public hearings were poorly attended. As she reported to AWSA leaders, “we were told in Central [City]...that we must advertise a dog fight, and then we would get a crowd.” More important, some Coloradans believed suffrage would interfere with statehood. “The newspapers so far as we have seen, are either opposed or afraid to come out boldly. The cry with them is—it will endanger the new constitution.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Margaret failed to get suffrage included in the new constitution. The convention’s suffrage and elections committee included a provision that voters must be male. Women were allowed to vote only in school board elections. However, Margaret was partially successful. She persuaded delegates to require women’s suffrage be put to a vote at the next general election in 1877. She also convinced delegates to allow suffrage to be put to a vote again in any following year.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Suffrage Campaign of 1877</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In fall 1876, the Campbells headed east. They worked for suffrage in Rhode Island. The couple returned to Colorado in time for the 1877 campaign.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The Campbells failed to win the support of the major political parties. Most of the state’s newspapers also took a negative view. In Pueblo the Colorado Daily Chieftain claimed that Campbell had “inserted her shriveled limbs in a pair of her hen-pecked husband’s cast-off pantaloons, and proceeded to shriek for the ballot for women.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>On October 2, 1877, the suffrage referendum failed by a margin of more than 2 to 1. Margaret believed that race and education were factors in the defeat. It is true that Hispano men tended not to favor suffrage. However, county vote totals show that the lack of support was widespread. Only Boulder County voted in favor.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Aftermath</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>After the defeat in Colorado, Margaret and John Campbell continued their nationwide work for suffrage. In 1879 they moved to Iowa. Margaret continued to be one of the nation’s most sought after public speakers on suffrage. She traveled to take part in various state suffrage campaigns. She also remained active in the Iowa State Suffrage Association through the 1890s, where she served as president. She died on November 5, 1908.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Even though they failed in 1877, suffrage advocates in Colorado had hope thanks to the provision Campbell secured. Her work allowed the issue to be placed on the ballot in any subsequent year. As national suffrage leader Henry Blackwell later wrote, “that provision enabled . . . resubmission and adoption [of women’s suffrage] in 1893.” That eventual victory, he believed, was a direct result of Margaret and John Campbell’s work. “Colorado,” he wrote, “ought to erect a monument in their memory.” So far the state has not taken Blackwell up on his suggestion.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-10th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-10th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-10th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-10th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-10th-grade"><p>Margaret West Norton Campbell (1827–1908) was an ardent advocate of women’s rights. She was one of the nation’s most sought-after suffrage speakers. In Colorado, she was instrumental in the 1877 campaign for women’s suffrage. The measure failed. Her work paved the way for suffrage to be enacted in Colorado in 1893.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Early Life</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Margaret West Norton was born on January 16, 1827, in Hancock County, Maine, to David and Elizabeth Norton. Her grandfather, Noah Norton, had been a soldier in the Revolutionary War. In 1847, she married lawyer John Barker Campbell of nearby Waldo, Maine. The couple had three children: George, Susan Elizabeth, and Charles Parker. Charles died in 1863.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Entering the Suffrage Movement</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1857 the Campbells moved to Linn County, Iowa. During the Civil War, Margaret was active in soldiers’ aid societies. She made her first public speeches in favor of women’s suffrage. By the late 1860s, Margaret and John were back in Massachusetts. Margaret began her suffrage work began in earnest. In February 1870 she attended a convention in Boston’s Horticultural Hall. During the convention, the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association was founded. It was an affiliate of the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). Campbell gave a speech providing an account of the suffrage work that she had led in Hampden and Hampshire Counties; she did not claim credit for herself, but other suffrage leaders knew her role. She went on to serve as an officer of the AWSA for more than twenty years.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>By 1871, in the campaign for women’s suffrage in Vermont, Campbell had become a key figure on the suffrage lecture circuit. By 1872, in her home state of Maine, she was considered one of the most effective suffrage organizers. For the rest of the 1870s, she and her husband traveled the country lecturing in support of suffrage. As part of her lecture tours, she gathered signatures on prosuffrage petitions, which were then delivered to each state’s legislators.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Working for Equal Suffrage in Colorado</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>By 1874, AWSA members were targeting Colorado as a promising place to push for equal suffrage as the territory started its transition to statehood. By mid-November 1875, the AWSA had dispatched the Campbells to the territory, where Margaret began to hold a series of women’s suffrage meetings. That month, the Boulder County News described her as “a middle-aged woman, modest, earnest, sensibly dressed, of sweet and womanly voice, an engaging and impressive manner, gifted in speech, and above most of her fellow mortals of either sex.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>On January 10, 1876, as delegates worked to hammer out a new state constitution in Denver, Campbell recruited Colorado Grange member Albina Washington to help organize a convention of suffrage supporters nearby. Campbell declared that the “convention had been called to present to the law-making powers woman’s claim to the ballot, so that some means might be taken whereby every woman might not continue to be the political subject of every man.” The convention resulted in the establishment the Colorado Woman Suffrage Association (CWSA), the forerunner of the Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association. Campbell and the CWSA employed a number of tactics to generate support among convention delegates. They held public meetings around the state, gathered signatures on petitions, and wrote newspaper columns.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Despite her energetic work on behalf of women’s suffrage, Margaret Campbell experienced significant frustrations during the Colorado campaign. Lack of funds forced John to leave the suffrage work to her while he tried to find a job to pay their living expenses. Public hearings were often badly attended. As she reported to AWSA leaders, “we were told in Central [City]—one of the places where we could not get a hearing—that we must advertise a dog fight, and then we would get a crowd.” More important, she noted that some Coloradans believed equal suffrage would interfere with statehood. “The newspapers so far as we have seen, are either opposed or afraid to come out boldly. The cry with them is—it will endanger the new constitution.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>As Campbell feared, the constitutional convention’s suffrage and elections committee included a provision that voters must be male. (Women were allowed to vote only in school board elections.) She was successful, however, in persuading delegates to require that the issue of women’s suffrage be put to a vote at the next general election, in 1877—and to allow it to be put to a vote again in any subsequent year.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Suffrage Campaign of 1877</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In fall 1876, the Campbells headed east, where they worked for suffrage in Rhode Island, but they returned to Colorado in time for the 1877 campaign. Campbell was influential in bringing national suffrage leaders Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, and Susan B. Anthony to the state to advocate for the suffrage referendum. Stone saw firsthand the hard work that the Campbells put into the cause. “Mr. and Mrs. Campbell crossed five of the snowy ranges, sometimes making their bed upon hemlock boughs out of doors where, in spite of woolen and rubber blankets, the intense cold banishes sleep,” Stone recorded in her diary.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Yet the Campbells failed to win the support of the major political parties, and most of the state’s newspapers also took a negative view. In Pueblo the Colorado Daily Chieftain claimed that Campbell had “inserted her shriveled limbs in a pair of her hen-pecked husband’s cast-off pantaloons, and proceeded to shriek for the ballot for women.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>On Election Day, October 2, 1877, the suffrage referendum failed by a margin of more than 2 to 1. Both Margaret Campbell and Susan B. Anthony believed that race and education were factors in the defeat. According to the Chieftain, Campbell identified the enemies of suffrage as “the ignorant, degraded and superstitious Mexicans of the south . . . and the uneducated and uncultivated Negroes of the north.” While it is true that, in keeping with their Catholic faith, Hispano men tended not to favor suffrage, county vote totals show that the lack of support was widespread across the state. Only Boulder County voted in favor.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Aftermath</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>After the defeat in Colorado, Margaret and John Campbell continued their nationwide work for suffrage. In 1879 they moved to Iowa, though Margaret continued to be one of the nation’s most widely sought public speakers on suffrage and frequently traveled to take part in various state suffrage campaigns. She also remained active in the Iowa State Suffrage Association through the 1890s, serving as president and corresponding secretary. She died on November 5, 1908.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Even though they failed in 1877, suffrage advocates in the state could sustain hope thanks to the constitutional provision Campbell had secured allowing the issue to be placed on the ballot in any subsequent year. As national suffrage leader Henry Blackwell later wrote, “that provision enabled . . . resubmission and adoption [of women’s suffrage] in 1893.” That eventual victory, he believed, was a direct result of Margaret and John Campbell’s earlier labors. “Colorado,” he wrote, “ought to erect a monument in their memory.” So far the state has not taken Blackwell up on his suggestion.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Fri, 13 Mar 2020 22:06:29 +0000 yongli 3185 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/non-partisan-equal-suffrage-association <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: x field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-article-image.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-article-image.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div id="carouselEncyclopediaArticle" class="carousel slide" data-bs-ride="true"> <div class="carousel-inner"> <div class="carousel-item active"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--3340--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--3340.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/early-female-voters"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Non-Partisan-Equal-Suffrage-Association-Media-1_0.jpg?itok=SDAe_P8U" width="1090" height="494" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/early-female-voters" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Early Female Voters</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association and its predecessors worked for more than thirty years to grant women the right to vote, first in Colorado in 1893 and later in the United States as a whole in 1920.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2020-01-16T16:19:32-07:00" title="Thursday, January 16, 2020 - 16:19" class="datetime">Thu, 01/16/2020 - 16:19</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/non-partisan-equal-suffrage-association" data-a2a-title="Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fnon-partisan-equal-suffrage-association&amp;title=Non-Partisan%20Equal%20Suffrage%20Association"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>The Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association was the main organization in Colorado working toward <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/womens-suffrage-movement"><strong>granting women the right to vote</strong></a>. The association and its precursors were influential for more than thirty years, from Colorado’s failed suffrage referendum in 1877 to its successful suffrage referendum in 1893 and finally to the state’s ratification of the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/19th-amendment"><strong>Nineteenth Amendment</strong></a> to the US Constitution in 1919. The association relied primarily on speakers, newspaper articles, and leaflets to spread its message.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Background and First Steps</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1861 the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-territory"><strong>territory of Colorado</strong></a> was established. Seven years later, in 1868, former governor <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/john-evans"><strong>John Evans</strong></a> and D. M. Richards of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a> advocated for women’s right to vote, but the territorial legislature failed to act. Instead, in 1869, it was the territory of Wyoming that first granted women suffrage in the United States. Colorado territorial governor <strong>Edward McCook</strong> tried again the following year, telling the legislature, “Our higher civilization has recognized women’s equality with man in all other respects save one—suffrage.” Again, the measure was defeated. On the national level, women’s suffrage was debated during discussions of the Fifteenth Amendment, but that amendment, ratified in 1870, ultimately extended voting rights to black men while continuing to exclude women.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Statehood and Suffrage</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>By late 1875, it was becoming clear that Colorado would attain statehood the next year. Proponents of equal suffrage began to work in earnest to ensure that women in the new state would have the right to vote. On January 10, 1876, suffrage advocates held a convention at Unity Church in Denver, timed to coincide with the state constitutional convention. <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/margaret-w-campbell"><strong>Margaret W. Campbell</strong></a> of Massachusetts, one of the country’s most prominent suffrage advocates, helped organize the convention. The meeting was publicized by placing leaflets on representatives’ desks at the territorial legislature and at the constitutional convention. The suffrage convention established the Territorial Woman Suffrage Society, the precursor to the Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association, and elected <strong>Alida C. Avery</strong>, the first woman licensed to practice medicine in Colorado, as president. A committee of the newly formed society gave a report at a session of the constitutional convention.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>On February 15, 1876, the state constitutional convention’s committee on suffrage issued two reports to the convention. The minority report in favor of granting women the right to vote was signed by only two members‚ Judge H. P. H. Bromwell of Denver and Agapito Vigil, who represented <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/huerfano-county"><strong>Huerfano</strong></a> and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/las-animas-county"><strong>Las Animas</strong></a> Counties. Governor <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/john-l-routt"><strong>John Routt</strong></a>, himself a strong proponent of women’s suffrage, also lent his support to the minority report, but ultimately the majority report stating that voters must be male citizens won out. There was only one exception: women would be allowed to vote for school board officers.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Despite the defeat of equal voting rights at the convention, Judge Bromwell managed to win support for one provision that gave suffragists hope. Article 7, Section 2, stated that “the General Assembly may at any time extend the law of suffrage . . . [by] a vote of the people at a general election and approved by a majority of all votes cast.” In other words, it would take only a simple majority of the state’s male citizens—not the two-thirds majority required for a constitutional amendment—for women to be granted the right to vote.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>On August 1, 1876, Colorado became a state. In 1877 the new state’s First General Assembly put the question of women’s right to vote on the ballot. The Territorial Woman Suffrage Society changed its named to the Women’s Suffrage Association of Colorado and convened in February 1877 to start the campaign. Governor John Routt and his wife, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/eliza-pickrell-routt"><strong>Eliza</strong></a>, hosted national suffragists such as <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/susan-b-anthony"><strong>Susan B. Anthony</strong></a>, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/lucy-stone"><strong>Lucy Stone</strong></a>, and Henry B. Blackwell, who were brought in to canvas the state along with Margaret Campbell. Stone and Blackwell spoke in the southern part of the state in early September, then returned to the northern counties, while Anthony spent <strong>most of her time</strong> in the southern part of the state.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Opposition to suffrage was fierce, including resistance from religious leaders. The prominent Catholic priest Joseph P. Machebeuf preached from pulpits all over the state that “the class of women wanting suffrage are battalions of old maids disappointed in love.” On Election Day in November 1877, the measure was defeated by a more than two-to-one margin, with the state’s predominantly Catholic and Hispano southern counties voting strongly against. Only <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/boulder-county"><strong>Boulder County</strong></a> voted for suffrage. The Women’s Suffrage Association of Colorado disbanded.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Trying Again</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In April 1890, Matilda Hindman of South Dakota traveled to Colorado to garner support for the equal rights campaign in her home territory. She also hoped to reawaken interest in suffrage in Colorado. Hindman succeeded. During her visit, six women met at her hotel room to revive the old Women’s Suffrage Association of Colorado.  Soon the newly reestablished organization attracted some of the state’s most prominent women, including Louise Tyler, head of the Colorado <strong>Women’s Christian Temperance Union</strong>; writers <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/ellis-meredith-0"><strong>Ellis Meredith</strong></a>, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/minnie-reynolds-scalabrino"><strong>Minnie Reynolds</strong></a>, and Patience Stapleton; physician Mary Elizabeth Bates; and African American activist <strong>Elizabeth Ensley</strong>. Believing in part that the failure of 1877 was due to women who had not been ready to support suffrage, they made the decision to remove the word  <em>woman</em> from the organization’s name and replace it with the word <em>equal</em> to appeal to more voters. It was now the Colorado Equal Suffrage Organization.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>As part of their strategy to achieve suffrage, the founders of the Colorado Equal Suffrage Organization took advantage of the constitutional provision allowing women to vote in school board elections. By May 1893, they were able to organize sufficient female turnout to make longtime educational reformer and suffragist Ione Hanna the first female school board member in Denver. Hanna was the first woman elected to any governing body in the state.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Also in 1893, the Ninth General Assembly passed a bill to put the question of women’s suffrage before the state’s male citizens in that year’s election. At the time, the Colorado Equal Suffrage Organization had only twenty-eight members and twenty-five dollars to its name. The group renamed itself once again, becoming the Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association of Colorado, and reorganized its leadership, with Martha Pease as president, Ellis Meredith as vice-president, and Elizabeth Ensley as treasurer, tasked with filling the group’s meager bank account. Their goal was to build a broad coalition, encompassing all political parties and any other groups who would support suffrage.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Since the Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association had almost no money and no members with strong public speaking skills, Meredith headed to the Women’s Congress at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair in search of funds and speakers from national suffrage leaders. But Susan B. Anthony felt the timing was wrong. The National American Woman Suffrage Association was unwilling to provide funding, but the group did provide a speaker, <strong>Carrie Chapman Catt</strong>, whom Meredith considered “better than silver or gold.” Auxiliary clubs had already been established in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/longmont-0"><strong>Longmont</strong></a>, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-springs"><strong>Colorado Springs</strong></a>, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/greeley"><strong>Greeley</strong></a>, and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/breckenridge-historic-district"><strong>Breckenridge</strong></a>. As Catt traveled around the state giving speeches, she helped establish additional auxiliary suffrage chapters that provided funds and influenced voters at the local level. One chapter, the City League of Denver, elected Eliza Routt, the state’s first lady, as its president.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In August 1893 the state headquarters of the Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association opened in the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/tabor-grand-opera-house"><strong>Tabor Opera House</strong></a> block in Denver, with <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/elizabeth-%E2%80%9Cbaby-doe%E2%80%9D-tabor"><strong>Elizabeth “Baby Doe” Tabor</strong></a> donating free use of the room. Journalist Minnie Reynolds served as the association’s chair of press work, convincing three-quarters of the state’s newspaper editors to come out in support of suffrage and to reserve space in their papers for prosuffrage articles. Using her professional position as society editor for the <em>Rocky Mountain News</em>, Reynolds would attend parties of wealthy Denver women and use the occasion to garner support and funds for the association. Her sister, Helen Reynolds, was the association’s corresponding secretary, keeping communication lines open throughout the state. Author and journalist Patience Stapleton, writing in the <em>Denver Republican</em>, lent her platform to the cause. In <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/fort-collins"><strong>Fort Collins</strong></a>, <strong>Grace Espy Patton</strong> promoted suffrage in the woman’s journal <em>Tourney</em>, and in Cañon City, publisher Emma Ghent Curtis worked to convince coal miners to support suffrage. Laura Ormiston Chant, an English suffragist, also lent her support to the campaign on the speaking circuit.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Gearing up for the November election, the Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association distributed 150,000 leaflets. One reason for the failure of 1877, the group’s leadership believed, was that no one had shown the state’s women why they should support suffrage. The leaflets addressed that problem directly. “Women of Colorado, do you know the opportunity that is before you this fall? Do you know that there is a possibility you may rise to legal equality with man?” one leaflet asked the state’s women. “Awake from your indifference . . . The ballot is the greatest power and protection of this day and age.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>By the eve of the election, more than 10,000 women were working for suffrage in at least sixty suffrage chapters. With a strong prosuffrage coalition that included leaders in the Republican, Democratic, and Populist Parties—as well as unions, farmers, miners, temperance organizations, and members of both black and white clubs—the campaign faced little organized opposition.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/populism-colorado"><strong>Populists</strong></a>, who had come to power in the election of 1892, suggested that “it was time to let the women vote—they can’t do any worse than the men!” The liquor industry, fearing that female voters would work to outlaw alcohol, distributed a circular ridiculing those in favor of suffrage, but otherwise advocates of expanded voting rights dominated the campaign. On Election Day, November 7, members of the Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association spurred voters to the polls, and they also stood by voting stations to make last-minute appeals. When the final votes were tallied, 35,698 came in for suffrage, with 29,461 against. Colorado had become the first state to win the vote for women by popular election, and Colorado first lady Eliza Routt became the first woman registered to vote in the state. The law officially took effect on January 1, 1894.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>From Colorado to the Nation</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Even after suffrage passed in Colorado, the Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association remained active. Indeed, the campaign the association had carried out in Colorado became a model for other states. Members of the Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association began working on the national stage as the National American Woman Suffrage Association asked them to support and help lead the state-by-state effort to enact suffrage. Minnie Reynolds, for example, moved to New York and worked for the national association from 1901 to 1909. Ellis Meredith testified before Congress in 1904 about Colorado’s legislative progress for women. In 1917 she moved to Washington, DC, to work on suffrage as part of the Democratic National Committee’s women’s bureau. Another NPESA member, Mabel Cory Costigan, served on the board of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and became active in the District of Columbia Suffrage Association after she and her husband moved to Washington, DC, in 1917.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Despite the nationwide efforts of experienced Colorado suffragists, the state-by-state strategy for achieving women’s suffrage seemed stalled in the early 1900s. Between 1896 and 1910, no states voted in favor of suffrage for women. By 1913, believing that the state-by-state method was unlikely to succeed in achieving universal suffrage, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns formed a splinter group, eventually known as the National Women’s Party, to push for a constitutional amendment.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>This shift in strategy proved decisive. On June 4, 1919, the proposed amendment that prohibited denying the right to vote to citizens on the basis of sex was sent to the states for ratification. Even though women had been able to vote in Colorado for more than twenty-five years, the state still took six months to approve the amendment, finally doing so on December 12, 1919. The Nineteenth Amendment was officially adopted into the US Constitution on August 26, 1920. </p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/wroble-susan" hreflang="und">Wroble, Susan</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colorado-non-partisan-equal-suffrage-association" hreflang="en">Colorado Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/womens-suffrage" hreflang="en">Women&#039;s Suffrage</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/territorial-woman-suffrage-society" hreflang="en">Territorial Woman Suffrage Society</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/alida-avery" hreflang="en">Alida Avery</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/margaret-w-campbell" hreflang="en">Margaret W. Campbell</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/john-routt" hreflang="en">John Routt</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/referendum-1877" hreflang="en">Referendum of 1877</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colorado-equal-suffrage-organization" hreflang="en">Colorado Equal Suffrage Organization</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/referendum-1893" hreflang="en">Referendum of 1893</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/martha-pease" hreflang="en">Martha Pease</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/ellis-meredith" hreflang="en">ellis meredith</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/elizabeth-ensley" hreflang="en">Elizabeth Ensley</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/minnie-reynolds" hreflang="en">Minnie Reynolds</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/nineteenth-amendment" hreflang="en">Nineteenth Amendment</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/national-american-woman-suffrage-association" hreflang="en">National American Woman Suffrage Association</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>Joseph G. Brown, <a href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbnawsa.n1331"><em>The History of Equal Suffrage in Colorado, 1868–1898</em></a> (Denver: News Job Printing, 1898).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Wilma R. Davidson, <em>A Force for Change: The League of Women Voters of Colorado, 1928–1995</em> (Denver: League of Women Voters of Colorado, 1995).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Jennifer Frost, et al., “<a href="https://documents.alexanderstreet.com/womhist">Why Did Colorado Suffragists Fail to Win the Right to Vote in 1877, but Succeed in 1893?</a>,” <em>Women and Social Movements, 1600–2000</em> (Spring 2002).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Marcia Goldstein, “Colorado Women and the Vote,” <em>Denver Westerners Roundup</em> (July–August 1995).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Billie Barnes Jensen, “<a href="https://www.historycolorado.org/sites/default/files/media/document/2018/ColoradoMagazine_v41n1_Winter1964.pdf">Let the Women Vote</a>,” <em>Colorado Magazine</em> (Winter 1964).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Stephen J. Leonard, “‘Bristling for their Rights’: Colorado’s Women and the Mandate of 1893,” <em>Colorado Heritage</em> (Spring 1993).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Doris McCraw, “<a href="https://westernfictioneers.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-two-doctor-bates-by-doris-mccraw.html">The Two Doctor Bates</a>,” <em>Western Fictioneers</em>, April 19, 2014.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Chris Nicholl, “<a href="https://documents.alexanderstreet.com/d/1008342646">Biographical Sketch of Natalie Hoyt Gray</a>,” <em>Online Biographical Dictionary of Militant Women Suffragists, 1913–1920</em> (Alexandria, VA: Alexander Street Press, 2015).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Gail M. Beaton, <em>Colorado Women: A History</em> (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2012).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Nancy F. Cott, <em>The Grounding of Modern Feminism</em> (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1987).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Stephen J. Leonard, “‘Bristling for Their Rights’: Colorado’s Women and the Mandate of 1893,” <em>Colorado Heritage</em> (Spring 1993).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Susan Ware, <em>Why They Marched: Untold Stories of the Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote</em> (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2019).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Thu, 16 Jan 2020 23:19:32 +0000 yongli 3147 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org