I give this illustration as a reason why Southern women are taking part in this movement, Mr. Wallace had charge of that lunatic asylum for years.  He was a good, honorable, able man.  Every one was endeared to him; every one appreciated him; the State appreciated him as superintendent of this asylum.

When a political change was made and Governor Robinson came in, Dr. Wallace was ousted for political purposes.  It almost broke the hearts of some of the women who had sons, daughters, or husbands there.  They determined at once to try to seek some redress and have him reinstated.  It was impossible.  He was out, and what could we do?  I do not know that we could reach a case like that; but such cases have stirred the women of the whole land, for the reason that when they try to do good, or want to help in the cause of humanity, they are combated so bitterly and persistently.

    I leave it to older and abler women, who have labored in this
    cause so long, to prove whether it is or is not constitutional to
    give the ballot to women.

A gentleman said to me a few days ago, “These women want to marry.”  I am married; I am a mother; and in our home the sons and brothers are all standing like a wall of steel at my back.  I have cast aside every prejudice of the past.  They lie like rotted hulks behind me.

After the fever of 1878, when our constitutional convention was going to convene, broke the agony and grief of my own heart, for one of my children died, and took part in the suffrage movement in Louisiana, with the wife of Chief-Justice Merrick, Mrs. Sarah A. Dorsey, and Mrs. Harriet Keatinge, of New York, the niece of Mr. Lozier.  These three ladies aided me faithfully and ably.  When they found we would be received, I went before the convention.  I went to Lieutenant-Governor Wiltz, and asked him if he would present or consider a petition which I wished to bring before the convention.  He read the petition.  One clause of our State law is that no woman can sign a will.  We will have that question decided before the meeting of the next Legislature.  Some ladies donated property to an asylum.  They wrote the will and signed it themselves, and it was null and void, because the signers were women.  They not knowing the law, believed that they were human beings, and signed it.  That clause, perhaps, will be wiped out.  Many gentlemen signed the petition on that account.  I took the paper around myself.  Governor Wiltz, then lieutenant-governor, told me he would present the petition.  He was elected president of the convention.  I presented my first petition, signed by the best names in the city of New Orleans and in the State.

I had the names of seven of the most prominent physicians there, leading with the name of Dr. Logan, and many men, seeing the name of Dr. Samuel Logan, also signed it.  I went to all the different physicians and ministers.  Three