Resolved, That we are unqualifiedly opposed to the dogma of “Female Suffrage,” and while we do not recognize it as a party question, the attempt of certain persons within the State, and from without it, to enforce it upon the people of the State, demands the unqualified opposition of every citizen who respects the laws of society and the well-being and good name of our young commonwealth.

    On motion, the executive committee were instructed to open a
    campaign based upon the foregoing resolutions; and an Anti-Female
    Suffrage Committee appointed of one member from each county.

At the beginning of the campaign, Republican leaders and newspapers were in favor of woman suffrage, but when it was feared that its advocacy would hazard the chances of negro suffrage, they repudiated the amendment.  While it was by no means certain that all women when enfranchised would vote the Republican ticket, there was no doubt whatever that the negroes would, and so it was party expediency to sacrifice the women.  Notwithstanding the opposition of both Republican and Democratic politicians, the woman suffrage advocates had large and friendly audiences and the amendment would have been carried beyond a doubt, if it had had the continued sanction of Republican leaders.  In October, stung by the reproaches of the women, a number of influential Republicans from different parts of the country[44] sent out an appeal which was published in the newspapers of Kansas, but this was wholly offset by the active opposition of the State Committee.

The hardships of a campaign in the early days of Kansas scarcely can be described.  Much of the travelling had to be done in wagons, fording streams, crossing the treeless prairies, losing the faintly outlined road in the darkness of night, sleeping in cabins, drinking poor water and subsisting on bacon, soda-raised bread, canned meats and vegetables, dried fruits and coffee without cream or milk, sweetened with sorghum.  The nights offered the greatest trial, owing to a species of insect supposed to breed in the cotton wood trees.  In one of her letters home Miss Anthony says:  “It is now 10 A. M. and Mrs. Stanton is trying to sleep, as we have not slept a wink for several nights, but even in broad daylight our tormentors are so active that it is impossible.  We find them in our bonnets, and this morning I think we picked a thousand out of the ruffles of our dresses.  I can assure you that my avoirdupois is being rapidly reduced.  It is a nightly battle with the infernals....  Twenty-five years hence it will be delightful to live in this beautiful State, but now, alas, its women especially see hard times, and there is no poetry in their lives.”  She was not given to complaining but again she writes: