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468 & 1. This mass meeting at Cooper Union, sponsored by Ten Thousand Colored Voters, was a stop on a state tour by James H. Hayes. Major national newspapers picked up three paragraphs of SBA’s letter to the meeting; additional opening sentences appeared only in the New York Sun. Hayes was an African-American lawyer and former city councilman from Richmond, Virginia, who filed suit in November 1902 to challenge the disfranchisement of African-American men under Virginia’s new constitution.On this tour he raised money for an appeal of the cases to the Supreme Court of the United States. A month later in New Orleans, SBA was held to account for resolutions introduced at this meeting she did not attend, specifically one defending African-American appointees to federal posts in the South. (R. Volney Riser, Defying Disfranchisement: Black Voting Rights Activism in the Jim Crow South, 1890–1908 [Baton Rouge, La., 2010], 183–207, 241–51; J. Clay Smith, Jr., Emancipation: The Making of the Black Lawyer, 1844–1944 [Philadelphia, 1993], 263n, 264n; J. H. Hayes to Booker T. Washington, 3 February 1903, and Charles William Anderson to B. T. Washington, 13 February, 13 May 1903, all in Booker T. Washington, Papers, 7:30, 74–75, 138–41; Jones v. Montague, 194 United States Reports 147 [1904], and Selden v. Montague, 194 United States Reports 153 [1904].) 2. As published in the New York Sun, the letter ends here. ••••••••• 229 • Carrie Chapman Catt to SBA [New York] Mch 11, 1903 My very dear and revered Leader:— I am just in from New Hampshire and at the office an hour before any one else is about. When I left last night at 6 pm, the returns were coming in and we were being beaten about 3 to 1. Not all of Concord had yet reported. 1 The days of miracles seem about over and unless there had been one, we had no chance. R.I. defeated her amendment 6 to 1, I believe and if we come out 3 to 1, we must consider that we have moved on a peg. 2 I sent papers to Miss Blackwell and the envelope in which they were wrapped came to her hand, but the papers were gone. I hope you received yours. Our two meetings were a fine climax and certainly the moral effect of Brother Lyman was quite overcome. 3 He is as blind as a bat to the real situation, but I hope he will keep on, for he is a great help to us. I shall see you soon in New Orleans. May peace and health attend you, dearest of women. Hastily U Carrie Chapman Catt 19 february 1903 ^ 469 Y ALS, Emma B. Sweet Papers, NRU. 1. By the official count, the amendment lost 21,788 nay votes to 13,089 yeas. (New Hampshire, Manual for the General Court, 1905 [Concord, N.H., 1905], 349, 363, with the assistance of Charles Shipman, New Hampshire State Library.) 2. Catt refers to the disasterous defeat of a woman suffrage amendment in Rhode Island in 1887, long regarded as the national movement’s worst loss. (History , 4:909–11.) 3. Representatives’ Hall in Concord was the scene of a rally for opponents of woman suffrage on 4 March 1903, addressed by Lyman Abbott, and one for advocates on 5 March, at which Catt spoke. (History, 6:400–402; New York Times, 8 March 1903.) ••••••••• 230 • Business Committee to the Editor, New Orleans TIMES-DEMOCRAT New Orleans, La., March 18, 1903. To the Editor of The Times-Democrat: 1 The article in this morning’s Times-Democrat, entitled “Woman Suffrage in the South,” contains some remarks that are evidently based on a misapprehension. The officers of the National American Woman Suffrage Association ask the courtesy of space in your columns to correct the error. 2 Referring to the color question, this article says, “The association’s record does not encourage the South to believe that the association’s view on this subject is wise.” The association, as such, has no view on this subject. Like every other national association, it is made up of persons of all shades of opinion on the race question, and on all other questions except those relating to its particular object. The Northern and Western members hold the views on the race question that are customary in their sections. The Southern members hold the views that are customary in the South. The doctrine of State’s rights...

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