The History of Woman Suffrage Volume IV Part 57

At the very first National Convention of the People's Party, held at Omaha in 1892, the preamble of their platform declared that "equal rights and privileges must be securely established for all the men and women of the country." In the majority of State conventions held since that time there has been specific recognition of equal political rights for women. By admitting women as delegates in their representative a.s.semblies and by appointing them to State and local offices, the Populists have put into practice this fundamental principle of their organization. Therefore, in asking you to give your influence and vote in favor of this pet.i.tion, we are proposing only that you shall reaffirm your previous declarations.

(To the Prohibition delegates.)

Judging from the honorable record made by your party upon this subject, we have every reason to hope that you will give your influence and your vote in favor of the pet.i.tion contained herein.

In the Democratic letter was enclosed an Open Letter from Gov. Charles S. Thomas (Dem.) of Colorado, setting forth in the strongest manner the advantages of woman suffrage, and in all was placed favorable testimony from prominent men of the respective States, accompanied by the following Memorial. The latter was mailed also to every member of the Resolutions Committees, and 10,000 copies were sent to editors and otherwise circulated throughout the country.

MEMORIAL

TO THE NATIONAL PRESIDENTIAL CONVENTION OF 1900.

GENTLEMEN: You are respectfully requested by the National-American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation to place the following plank in your platform:

_Resolved_, That we favor the submission by Congress, to the various State Legislatures, of an Amendment to the Federal Const.i.tution forbidding disfranchis.e.m.e.nt of United States citizens on account of s.e.x.

The chief contribution to human liberty made by the United States is the establishment of the right of personal representation in government. In other countries suffrage often has been called "the vested right of property," and as such has been extended to women the same as to men. Our country at length has come to recognize the principle that the elective franchise is inherent in the individual and not in his property, and this principle has become the corner-stone of our republic. Up to the beginning of the twentieth century, however, the application of this great truth has been made to but one-half the citizens.

The women of the United States are now the only disfranchised cla.s.s, and s.e.x is the one remaining disqualification. A man may be idle, corrupt, vicious, utterly without a single quality necessary for purity and stability of government, but through the exercise of the suffrage he is a vital factor. A woman may be educated, industrious, moral and law-abiding, possessed of every quality needed in a pure and stable government, but, deprived of that influence which is exerted through the ballot, she is not a factor in affairs of State. Who will claim that our government is purer, wiser, stronger and more lasting by the rigid exclusion of what men themselves term "the better half" of the people?

Every argument which enfranchises a man, enfranchises a woman.

There is no escape from this logic except to declare s.e.x the just basis of suffrage. But this position can not be maintained in view of the fact that women already have full suffrage in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho, munic.i.p.al suffrage in Kansas, school suffrage in twenty-five States, a vote on tax levies in Louisiana, on bond issues in Iowa, and on minor questions in various other States. They have every franchise except the Parliamentary in England, Scotland and Ireland, the full ballot in New Zealand and South and West Australia, and some form of suffrage in every English colony. In a large number of the monarchical countries certain cla.s.ses of women vote. On this fundamental question of individual sovereignty surely the United States should be a leader and not a follower. The trend of the times is clearly toward equal suffrage. It will add to the credit and future strength of any party to put itself in line with the best modern and progressive thought on this question.

In the division of the world's labor an equal share falls to woman. As property holder and wage-earner her material stake in the government is equal to that of man. As wife, as mother, as individual, her moral stake is certainly as great as his. The perpetuity of the republic depends upon the careful performance of the duties of both. One is just as necessary as the other to the growth and prosperity of the country. All of these propositions are self-evident, but they are wholly foreign to the question at issue. The right of the individual to a vote is not founded upon the value of his stake in government, upon his moral character, his business ability or his physical strength, but simply and solely upon that guarantee of personal representation which is the essence of a true republic, a true democracy.

The literal definition of these two terms is, "a State in which the sovereign power resides in the whole body of the people and is exercised by representatives elected by them." By the Declaration of Independence, by the rules of equity, by the laws of justice, women equally with men are ent.i.tled to exercise this sovereign power, through the franchise, the only legal means provided. But whatever may be regarded as the correct basis of suffrage--character, education, property, or the inherent right of the person who is subject to law and taxation--women possess all the qualifications required of men.

At this dawn of a new century are not the sons of the Revolutionary Fathers sufficiently progressive to remove the barriers which for more than a hundred years have prevented women from exercising this citizen's right? We appeal to this great national delegate body, representing the men of every State, gathered to outline the policy and select the head of the Government for the next four years, to adopt in your platform a declaration approving the submission by Congress of an amendment enfranchising women. We urge this action in order that the question shall be carried to the various Legislatures, where women may present their arguments before the representative men, instead of being compelled to plead their cause before each individual voter of the forty-one States where they are still disfranchised.

We make this earnest appeal on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of women who, from year to year, have pet.i.tioned Congress to take the action necessary for their enfranchis.e.m.e.nt; and of those millions who are so engrossed in the struggle for daily bread, or in the manifold duties of the home, that they are compelled to leave this task to others. We make it also on behalf of the generations yet to come, for there will be no cessation of this demand until this highest privilege of citizenship has been accorded to women.

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, } Honorary Presidents.

SUSAN B. ANTHONY, }

CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, President.

HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, ANNA HOWARD SHAW, Treasurer. Vice-President-at-Large.

LAURA CLAY, RACHEL FOSTER AVERY, First Auditor. Corresponding Secretary.

CATHARINE WAUGH MCCULLOCH, ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Second Auditor. Recording Secretary.

Headquarters, National-American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation, 2008 American Tract Society Building, New York City.

Four women were permitted to appear before a sub-committee of the Committee on Platform at the Republican National Convention at Philadelphia, in 1900. They met with a polite but chilly reception and were informed that they could have ten minutes to present their case. This time was occupied by the president and the vice-president-at-large in concise but forcible arguments on the duty of the party to recognize their claim for enfranchis.e.m.e.nt. The platform eventually contained the following plank:

We congratulate the women of America upon their splendid record of public service in the Volunteer Aid a.s.sociation, and as nurses in camp and hospital during the recent campaigns of our armies in the Eastern and Western Indies, and we appreciate their faithful co-operation in all works of education and industry.

In other words, being asked to recognize women as political factors, the committee responded by commending them as nurses!

This plank was written by Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, who as president of the Woman's National Republican League and a campaign speaker, has done far more for the party than any other woman, and originally it ended with this clause: "We regard with satisfaction their unselfish interest in public affairs in the four States where they have already been enfranchised, and their growing interest in good government and Republican principles." But even so small a recognition as this of women in political life was ruthlessly struck out by the committee.

Mrs. Chapman Catt and Miss Mary G. Hay attended the Democratic National Convention at Kansas City and were not allowed to address any committee, but the platform contained the Declaration of Independence as its preamble!

The Populist national platform adopted at Sioux City did not contain even a reference to women or their rights and privileges.

The Prohibition convention followed its action of 1896 and put no woman suffrage plank in its platform. A separate resolution was pa.s.sed expressing a favorable regard but carrying no official weight.

The only national political convention in 1900 which adopted a plank declaring for the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women was that of the Social-Democratic party at Indianapolis.

In not one of the four largest parties were the delegates in convention given so much as an opportunity to discuss and vote on a resolution to enfranchise women. All these heroic efforts, all these n.o.ble appeals, had not the slightest effect because made by a cla.s.s utterly without influence by reason of this very disfranchis.e.m.e.nt which it was struggling to have removed. At every political convention all matters of right, of justice, of the eternal verities themselves, are swallowed up in the one all-important question, "Will it bring party success?" And to this a voteless const.i.tuency can not contribute in the smallest degree, even though it represent the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, the Golden Rule, the Magna Charta and the Declaration of Independence.

Paradoxical as it may seem, notwithstanding the refusal of the Resolutions Committees of all these national bodies to grant even an indirect recognition of woman suffrage in their platforms, its advocates never before found such a general sentiment in its favor among the individual delegates. In a number of instances they were told that a poll of delegations had shown a majority of the members to be ready to vote for it. It was demonstrated beyond doubt that the rank and file of the delegates, if freed from hostile influences among their const.i.tuents and granted the sanction of the political leaders, could be won to a support of the measure, but that at present it must wait on party expediency. As every campaign brings with it national issues on which each party makes a fight for its life, and which it fears to hamper by any extraneous questions; as the elements most strongly opposed to the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women not only are fully armed with ballots themselves but are in complete control of an immense force similarly equipped; and as the vote of women is so problematical that none of the parties can claim it in advance, it is impossible to foresee when and how they are to obtain political freedom. The one self-evident fact is, however, that in order to win it they must be supported by a stronger public sentiment than exists at present, and that this can be secured only through a constant agitation of the subject.

A return to Miss Anthony's report will ill.u.s.trate other methods adopted to bring this question to the attention of the public. "During the year I have also sent pet.i.tions and letters to more than one hundred national conventions of different sorts--industrial, educational, charitable, philanthropic, religious and political.[149]

Below are the forms of pet.i.tion:"

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Fifty-sixth Congress of the United States:_

The undersigned on behalf of (naming the a.s.sociation) in annual convention a.s.sembled at ......, ......, 1900, and representing fully ...... members, respectfully ask for the prompt pa.s.sage by your Honorable Body of a _Sixteenth Amendment_ to the Federal Const.i.tution, to be submitted to the Legislatures of the several States for ratification, prohibiting the disfranchis.e.m.e.nt of United States citizens on account of s.e.x.

................, President.

................, Secretary.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Fifty-sixth Congress of the United States:_

WHEREAS, The trend of civilization is plainly in the direction of equal rights for women, and

WHEREAS, Woman suffrage is no longer an experiment, but has been clearly demonstrated to be beneficial to society; therefore,

_Resolved_, That we, on behalf of [as above], do respectfully pet.i.tion your Honorable Body not to insert the word "male" in the suffrage clause of whatever form of government you shall recommend to Hawaii, Cuba, Porto Rico or any other newly-acquired possessions. We ask this in the name of justice and equality for all citizens of a republic founded on the consent of the governed.[150]

"A number of large a.s.sociations adopted these and returned them to me duly engrossed on their official paper, signed by the president and secretary and with their seal affixed; and I forwarded all to the Senators and Representatives whom I thought most likely to present them to Congress in a way to make an impression.

"The General Federation of Labor at Detroit was the first to respond.

I was invited to address its annual convention and, after I had spoken, the four hundred delegates pa.s.sed a resolution of thanks to me, adopted the above pet.i.tion for the Sixteenth Amendment by a rising vote, and ordered their officers to sign it in the name of their one million const.i.tuents.

"The National Building Trades Council at Milwaukee had an able discussion in its annual meeting, based on my letter, and adopted both pet.i.tions. This body has half a million members.

"The Bricklayers' and Masons' International Union of America was held in Rochester, and invited me to address the delegates. They received me with enthusiasm, pa.s.sed strong woman suffrage resolutions and signed both pet.i.tions. Afterwards a stenographic report of my speech, covering two full pages of their official organ, _The Bricklayer and Mason_, was published with an excellent portrait of myself, thus sending me and my argument to each one of their more than sixty thousand members, all of whom subscribe to this paper as part of their dues to the union.

"The National Grange, which has indorsed woman suffrage for so many years, adopted the resolutions and pet.i.tions.

"At the Federation of Commercial Schools of the United States and Canada, which met in Chicago, my letter was read, the question was thoroughly discussed and the suffrage pet.i.tions were adopted almost unanimously.

"The Columbia Catholic Summer School, held at Detroit, gave a hearing to our national president, Mrs. Chapman Catt, at which she is said to have made many converts. A strong suffrage speech was made by the Rev.

Father W. J. Dalton, and other prominent members expressed themselves in favor.