In 1890 the two bodies united under the name National American Woman Suffrage As sociation and both methods of work were fol lowed. Mrs. Stanton was elected president of the new organization; Miss Anthony, vice president-at-large; Lucy Stone, chairman of the executive committee. In 1892 Mrs. Stan ton resigned her office because of advancing age; Miss Anthony was elected president and the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, vice-president at-large. Miss Anthony resigned in 1900 at the age of 80, and Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt was elected. In 1904 she could not serve longer and Dr. Shaw was made president. In 1915 she resigned and Mrs. Catt was re-elected.
Until 1895 the work of the National Asso ciation was conducted principally from the home of Miss Anthony in Rochester, N. Y. That year, Mrs. Rachael Foster Avery, who was corresponding secretary for 21 years, shared the burden by having office headquarters in her home at Philadelphia. In 1900 regular headquarters were opened in New York City under the supervision of Mrs. Catt, chairman of the National Organization Committee. In 1903 they were removed to Warren, Ohio, and placed in charge of Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, national treasurer for 17 years. In 1909 head quarters were established on a large scale in New York City and remained there. In 1914 the National Woman Suffrage Publishing Com pany, Inc., was formed and took charge of the literature department. Miss Alice Stone Black well was recording secretary 20 years and auditor five years.
Representatives of the National Association had a hearing before the committees of every Congress from 1869 to 1919. A remarkable galaxy of women was developed in the last half of the 19th century— as soon as women had opportunities. The first woman physician, Elizabeth Blackwell, was graduated in 1848, and the first woman minister, Antoinette L. Brown (Blackwell), was ordained in 1853. Among many others were Harriet Hosmer, Maria Mitchell, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mary A. Livermore, Julia, Ward Howe, Lucy Stone, Clara Barton, Frances E. Willard, May Wright Sewall, Jane Addams, Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony, Dr. Shaw, Mrs. Catt — all pronounced suffragists.
The leaders soon became convinced that they could not hope for action by Congress until the experiment of woman suffrage had been made by some of the States, and, therefore, they directed the work along the two lines.
The first Territorial legislature of Wyoming in 1869 had given suffrage to women and that of Utah had done so in 1870. Wyoming came into the Union as a State in 1890 with this in the constitution. In 1893 the electors of Colorado by a majority vote granted woman suffrage. In 1895 Utah adopted a constitution for statehood containing equal suffrage by a vote of over 10 to 1. In 1896 in Idaho an amendment to the State constitution to en franchise women received a large majority.
After this gain of four States in six years by the suffragists the opponents took active measures to prevent the submission of the ques tion in other States. In the few cases where this was done the combination of corporations, liquor interests and party ((machines') was im possible to overcome. The domination of politics by these forces was so complete that there was no chance for any moral questions, and nothing was left but the slow process of educating public sentiment to demand that the voice of women should be heard in this wilder ness. There have been altogether 56 campaigns for amending State constitutions and a volume would he required for the story of their hard ships and disappointments, of the times when a victory was unquestionably won but by con sent of both parties women were deprived of it. It is the record of a struggle which never has been equalled in other reforms.
At length came the great political °in surgent') movement in the Western States, and, as the direct result, the suhmitting of a woman suffrage amendment in 1910 by almost unan imous vote of the Washington legislature. The women 'made a thorough campaign and it was carried in every county in the State and received a majority of nearly three to one. California had been swept clean of its corrupt political forces by the great wave of insur gency and the legislature submitted a number of reform amendments, all of which were adopted at the fall election of 1911, including the one for women suffrage. This was the greatest victory it had ever won, as California was an old, thickly populated and wealthy State, having commercial relations with, and known in, all parts of the world. It may be said that with this triumph the movement passed the crisis. In 1910 the National Ameri can Association presented to Congress a petition of about half a millon names for a Federal amendment.