Mr. Wrangle and
Governor Battle have both said to me that they never knew a measure
to be so splendidly engineered both before the public and in the
State Legislature.
After the bill had been passed, and signed by the Governor, and so
had become a law, and the grand Women's Jubilee had been held at
Gaston, the excitement subsided. It would be nearly a year to the
next State election, and none of the women seemed to care for the
local and municipal elections in the spring. Besides, there
was a good deal of anxiety among them in regard to the bill, which
was drawn up in almost the exact terms used by Mr. Wrangle at the
political meeting. In fact, we always have suspected that he wrote
it. The word "male" was simply omitted from all laws. "Nothing is
changed," said Mrs. Whiston, quoting Charles X., "there are only
201,758 more citizens in Atlantic!"
This was in January, 1861, you must remember; and the shadow of the
coming war began to fall over us. Had the passage of our bill been
postponed a fortnight it would have been postponed indefinitely,
for other and (for the men) more powerful excitements followed one
upon the other.
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