Seattle’s Suffrage Milestone
A landmark gathering at the Congregational Church rallies women to vote in the upcoming municipal election, signaling the rise of the movement in the Northwest.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The woman's meeting held Wednesday afternoon in the Congregational Church was the largest and most enthusiastic of its kind ever held in this city. The exercises were opened by an instrumental solo by Miss Minnie Thorndyke. Mrs. C. K. Jenner acted as chairman. She introduced Miss Lelia J. Robinson, who read a manuscript on the 'Public Responsibilities of Our Women.' Robinson explained her conversion from a conservative stance to one favoring 'equality before the law,' noting, 'I had thought it must be extremely impracticable and undesirable that women should be subject to jury duty, but I came—I saw—I was conquered.' She emphasized that women must vote in the municipal election, asserting that 'no woman in Seattle can free herself from the responsibility of voting. For if she does not cast a ballot for the side with which her sympathies are, her silence will serve as a ballot for the other side.' Mrs. Clara B. Colby also spoke, noting that the eyes of the nation were on this 'Northwest corner,' and that success here would provide immense leverage for suffragists across the Union.
“I had thought it must be extremely impracticable and undesirable that women should be subject to jury duty, but I came—I saw—I was conquered.”
This meeting took place just months after the 1883 territorial law granted women the vote, a right they would hold until it was struck down by the courts in 1887. The rhetoric regarding the 'responsibility of voting' remains a central feature of Seattle’s civic culture today.
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