San
Joaquin County
Biographies
MRS. LAURA DE FORCE GORDON
In the campaign of 1871 a new feature in
politics was the announcement of Mrs. Laura de Force Gordon (x) as a candidate
for State Senator from San Joaquin county.
At that time woman suffrage organizations were in existence in the
larger cities and the San Joaquin organization nominated Mrs. Gordon for
Senator. She had been lecturing in
Oregon on woman suffrage. In a newspaper
card she accepted the nomination and gave her reasons for so doing. Mrs. Gordon stumped the county, although she
knew she could not serve if elected, and sarcastically stated that the law
excluded from voting, “Idiots, Chinese, paupers, and women”(y). After her acceptance she began stumping the
county and August 28, 1871, delivered her first speech for woman suffrage. Mrs. Gordon at that time was about thirty
years of age, pretty and of handsome form.
Her hair was cut short and in curls.
Her speeches were all delivered with her head uncovered. One of the Republican papers, a little
worried, declared that she was speaking in the interest of the Democratic party. She could not
fill the office, as the constitution declared none but qualified electors could
serve. Mrs. Gordon was the most
interesting feature of the campaign, but she polled only 116 votes.
(x)
Laura De Force Gordon was born in 1843 in Pennsylvania and through her
veins ran the blood of Ethan Allen of revolutionary fame. At the age of sixteen she was in the
lecturing field. Soon after the Civil
War, 1868, she came to California, and some years later locating at Stockton,
she purchased a defunct newspaper plant and republished it as the Stockton
Leader, an advocate of woman suffrage.
It failed to pay expenses. Later
she tried to manage and edit the Oakland Democrat. Again she failed.
(y) Without any fanfare of trumpets or
even a general advocacy of the movement the Legislature of 1911 submitted to a
vote of the electors an amendment omitting the word “male” from the state
constitution. It was a special election October
10th upon twenty-three amendments, among them home rule for
counties, equal suffrage, recall of state officers, initiative and referendum,
working men’s compensation, municipal ownership and a state railroad
commission. They were all approved, the
woman suffrage having a majority of nearly 4,000.
While editing the Democrat Mrs. Gordon
began the study of law. Because of her
sex, the Hasting’s law college, San Francisco, refused to admit her as a
student. She then began her long
persistent fight for admittance. The
press, the men and even those of her own sex ridiculed and taunted her. No sarcasm could check her and finally,
through the court’s decision she was admitted.
She was graduated with honor.
Fighting every step of the road, she next compelled the Supreme Court to
give her a hearing. She passed a
satisfactory examination, and in December 1879, she was admitted to
practice. Still unsatisfied, Mrs. Gordon
knocked at the door of the Supreme Court of the United States. Again successful, February 3, 1883, she was
admitted, the second woman in the United States to be thus recognized. Clara Foltz was admitted to the same court
March 4, 1890.
The Republican Party along in the 70’s
refused to endorse woman suffrage. Mrs.
Gordon stumped the state for the Democratic nominees. In some precincts, however, so strong was the
prejudice against her sex that the committeemen would not permit her to
speak. As the Democrats also refused to
give her sex recognition, she went into the workingmen’s camp, and campaigned the state advocating the boycott and the
expulsion of the Chinese.
In her demand for woman suffrage Mrs.
Gordon was ably assisted by Clara Foltz, another woman lawyer. These two women, in 1874, hammered the
legislature until it passed a law March 12, making eligible to any state
educational office any woman over twenty-one years of age, except those
officers (sic) from which they were excluded by the constitution. Under this the first woman suffrage law, Mrs.
Coleman of Shasta county, was elected county
superintendant. She held the office
until 1886.
Transcribed by
Susan Vomocil.
Source: “California Men
and Events 1769-1890” by George H. Tinkham. Pages 220-221.
Record Publishing Co., Stockton, CA. 1915.
©
2012 Susan Vomocil.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Biographies
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