The History of Woman Suffrage Volume VI Part 56

After the bill had been cleverly put to sleep by the President of the Senate, Andrew Todd, by referring it to the hostile Judiciary Committee, Senator E. N. Haston, who was its sponsor, secured enough votes to overrule his action and put it in the Committee on Privileges and Elections, which reported in favor. The enemies were led by Senator J. Parks Worley. The hardest fight that ever took place in the Senate was waged, and the outcome was not certain until Judge Douglas Wikle of Williamson county cast the deciding vote in favor, making the result on April 16, ayes, 17; noes, 14, a bare majority. At 10:30 the following morning Governor Roberts affixed his signature to the Act conferring upon women the right to vote for electors of President and Vice-President of the United States and in the Munic.i.p.al elections throughout the State. More than half a million women were thus far enfranchised.

Conspicuous and persistent among the enemies of the bill outside of the Legislature were U. S. Senator John K. Shields and Judge Vertrees.

The latter, claiming to represent "others" filed a writ of injunction in the Chancery Court to test the validity of the law. Attorney General Frank M. Thompson and other able lawyers defended this suit[168], which was hotly contested, and this court, by Chancellor James B. Newman, in June declared the law unconst.i.tutional. The case was appealed to the State Supreme Court, which in July, 1919, reversed this decision and declared the law valid.

When the Supreme Court rendered this decision the regular biennial registration was only ten days off and it was at the hottest period of the summer, when many women and most of the suffrage officials were out of town, but the registration was large in all the cities. In Nashville about 7,500 registered; in Knoxville about 7,000, and the type of those who presented themselves everywhere was of the highest and best. Contrary to all predictions the negro women did not flock to the polls. They voted but in comparatively few numbers and the records show that only the better educated were interested. Their vote proved to be anything but the "bugaboo" politicians had tried to show that it would be and in some instances it was a contributing factor to good government. In Nashville they registered about 2,500 and voted almost their full quota. They organized under the direction of the suffrage a.s.sociation, had their own city and ward chairmen and worked with an intelligence, loyalty and dignity that made new friends for their race and for woman suffrage. There was not a single adverse criticism of them from any ward. They kept faith with the white women even when some of their men sold out the night before election to a notorious political rounder. They proved that they were trying to keep step with the march of progress and with a little patience, trust and vision the universal tie of motherhood and sisterhood can and will overcome the prejudice against them as voters.

An immense amount of work was done by Tennessee women for the Federal Suffrage Amendment. After interviewing their members of Congress and using every possible influence on them in their home districts, hundreds of letters and telegrams were sent to them in Washington whenever they were to vote on it from 1915 to 1919. Mrs. Dudley, as a member of the national board, spent months in Washington and was sent to various southern States where skilled work was necessary. There was a gradually increasing vote in favor by Tennessee members until when the last one was taken in June, 1919, only three Representatives, Moon, Hull and Garrett, voted against it. Senator Shields voted in opposition and Senator McKellar in favor.

[With this chapter was sent a complete history of the woman suffrage movement in Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga and smaller cities, which accounts for the phenomenally rapid advance in Tennessee. Unfortunately these chapters can give s.p.a.ce only to the general work of the State a.s.sociations.]

TENNESSEE. PART II[169]

Tennessee's pioneer period was from 1885-1911, for during those years the educational and organization work carried on by a few intrepid women was as difficult as was the same work in other parts of the United States thirty or more years before that time. Woman suffrage was in the stage of ridicule and abuse and with a few exceptions the press of the State was opposed and lost no opportunity to disparage it.

The State Equal Suffrage a.s.sociation was reorganized in Memphis in 1906 and there was increasing activity each year afterwards. In 1907 the suffragists held a convention and reported their membership trebled. They secured a suffrage article in the _News Scimitar_ through the courtesy of Mike Connolly, its editor. In 1908 Dr. Shaw spoke at the Goodwin Hall in Memphis under the auspices of the State a.s.sociation and a return engagement was secured by the Lyceum Course the following winter. The third annual convention was held Dec. 15, 1909, in Memphis at the home of the State president, Mrs. J. D. Allen, and the officers were re-elected. It was reported that a pet.i.tion had been sent to Congress for a Federal Amendment and more than 400 letters written, one to President Taft asking him to declare for woman suffrage and local work had been done. Mrs. E. S. Conser, a.s.sisted by Mrs. Allen and the suffrage club, prevailed upon the Memphis University Law Department to open its doors to women and Mrs. Conser became its first woman student. Mrs. Allen attended the national convention at Seattle, Washington. Mrs. Ittie K. Reno delivered the first woman suffrage address in Nashville, at the Centennial Club, and the first one in Chattanooga was given by Miss Margaret Ervin at the university where she was a student.

In 1910 a league was organized in Knoxville by Mrs. L. Crozier French, who became its president. In the summer a suffrage debate, affirmative taken by Mrs. Ford, was held in the Methodist church at Kingston, the first time the question was discussed in that part of the State and people came from neighboring towns. Miss Catherine J. Wester, a Kingston suffragist, had a six weeks' newspaper debate in the Chattanooga _Times_. A booth was maintained at the Appalachian Exposition, and 590 names of visitors from Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi were registered in the suffrage booth at the Tri-State fair in September at Memphis.

The fourth State convention was held at Memphis in the Business Men's Club Feb. 18, 1911, and the president, Mrs. Allen, reported suffrage trips to Little Rock, Ark., and Jackson, Miss. Addresses were given by Attorney Robert Beattie and by H. P. Hanson, vice-president of the Southern Conference on Child and Woman Labor, who brought word that the Memphis Typographical Union was on record for woman suffrage. Mrs.

Beattie was elected vice-president and Dr. Madge Patton Stephens secretary. The Nashville club was organized September 28, with Mrs.

Guilford Dudley president; one at Morristown November 3, with Mrs.

Hannah Price Hardy president; one at Chattanooga December 9, with Mrs.

E. W. Penticost president.

By 1912 a new era had dawned with five of the largest cities organized and affiliated with the State a.s.sociation. It held its annual convention at Nashville January 10-11. Governor Ben W. Hooper addressed it and stated that he was "on the fence" as to the suffrage question. Mrs. Allen was elected honorary president and Miss Sarah Barnwell Elliott president. Miss Elliott spent two months of this year speaking in the State and she also spoke in Birmingham, in New York and the Mississippi Valley Conference in Chicago. In December a suffrage club was organized in Jackson with Mrs. C. B. Bell president.

J. W. Brister, State Superintendent of Schools, gave a suffrage address at Nashville.

The State convention was held again at the Hermitage Hotel in Nashville, Jan. 6, 7, 1913. The princ.i.p.al speakers were ex-Governor John I. c.o.x, U. S. Senator Luke Lea, Misses Laura Clay of Kentucky and Mary Johnston of Virginia. Mrs. Virginia Clay Clopton, as president, sent greetings from the Huntsville, Ala., league, reorganized after a lapse of thirty years with the same president. The main discussion was whether to introduce a suffrage bill in the Legislature. Mrs. Margaret Ervin Ford urged it, saying that, though it had small chance, it was well to accustom the Legislature to the idea. The matter was placed in the hands of Miss Elliott, Mrs. French, Mrs. Dudley and Mrs. Scott, who recommended that no bill should be introduced. Mrs. Allen and Miss Elliott were re-elected and Mrs. James M. McCormack was made vice-president-at-large; Miss Clay and Miss Johnston spoke on the 10th at a large meeting in Chattanooga and Miss Clay the following Sunday in the Universalist church. On April 7 Miss Elliott and Mrs. Dudley marched in Washington in a parade to the Capitol to interview the Tennessee representatives in Congress on the Federal Amendment. This year Miss Jeannette Rankin of Montana, an organizer for the National a.s.sociation, came to a.s.sist. By October the State membership was 942 and fifteen newspapers were reached regularly with suffrage matter.

Booths were conducted at many of the county fairs and a "suffrage day"

was given at the Memphis Tri-State fair, when the outside speakers were Miss Clay and Miss Kate Gordon of Louisiana. The _News Scimitar_ issued a suffrage edition.

A second convention met in Morristown, October 21, 22. Miss Sue S.

White was elected secretary, Mrs. Hardy State organizer and the other officers continued. At the national convention in Washington in November Miss Wester and Mrs. Ford represented Tennessee on the "committee of one hundred," which, led by Mrs. Medill McCormick, chairman of the National Congressional Committee, called upon President Wilson to enlist his a.s.sistance. That year and each succeeding year letters, telegrams and pet.i.tions were sent to the President and to the Tennessee Representatives in Congress urging their support of the Federal Amendment. One pet.i.tion from Chattanooga bore a thousand signatures.

By 1914 the six largest cities in the State were organized and the majority of the clubs celebrated National Suffrage Day, May 2, with parades and open air meetings to the amazement and interest of the people. The Chattanooga parade, with a bra.s.s band, ended at the Court House where the steps of that building were aglow with yellow bunting.

Mrs. Wesley Martin Stoner of Washington, D. C., was the princ.i.p.al speaker and Mrs. Ford, the local president, read the following resolution: "We, citizens of Chattanooga, voice our demand that women citizens of the United States be accorded the full right of citizenship." The silence was breathless as the sound of the "ayes"

died away and not a voice was raised to say "no." Other speakers were Mayor Jesse M. Littleton, L. P. Barnes, Attorney J. J. Lynch, the Reverends Charles H. Myers, L. R. Robinson and Dr. Daniel E. Bushnell.

The State Federation of Women's Clubs in convention at Pulaski voted down a suffrage resolution, though the president, Mrs. George W.

Denney, favored it.

From March to May 13 there was a spirited controversy as to whether the annual convention of the National American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation should meet in Chattanooga, which city had invited it, or in Nashville, which had not. Miss Elliott, who was ill, resigned and Mrs. McCormack took charge of the State work. Chattanooga won the convention on the first vote of the State board but after balloting by the clubs through telegrams for several weeks and much misunderstanding it met in Nashville the next November. The annual convention was held in Knoxville October 28-30, when there was a separation of the State forces, Mrs. Crozier French and her following leaving the convention, taking three clubs with them and organizing the "Tennessee Equal Suffrage a.s.sociation Incorporated," with Mrs.

French president. Mrs. McCormack was elected president of the original Equal Suffrage a.s.sociation, of which this chapter is the history.

The Southern States Suffrage Conference, Miss Kate M. Gordon, president, met in Chattanooga, November 10-11, just before the national convention. A special suffrage edition of the _News_, with Mrs. Frances Fort Brown editor-in-chief, was issued and the conference was a great success. Many prominent women from outside the State attended and all except Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont of New York and Miss Christabel Pankhurst of England, who was with her, went on to the national convention at Nashville. Here a special edition of the _Tennesseean_ was issued, many street meetings were held and suffrage arguments filled the air. Both State delegations were seated.

By the end of the year only four cities with a population of five thousand or over were still unorganized. In December Miss Mary Pleasant Jones organized the Nashville Business Women's League with a large membership. Organization was continued during 1915. Through the courtesy of Judge Samuel C. Brown, the Circuit Court at Benton was suspended for an hour to hear the speeches of Miss Wester, Miss Sarah Ruth Frazier and Mrs. Ford and a club was then organized with 100 members. Mrs. Ford organized the Business Woman's Suffrage Club of Chattanooga with 160 charter members. A Men's Suffrage Club was formed there, the first in the State, R. B. Cook, George Fort Milton and J.

B. F. Lowery, officers.

This year the suffragists a.s.sisted a vigorous campaign to secure a majority vote for holding a convention to prepare a new const.i.tution, opened headquarters in the different cities and worked day and night, and they received letters of high appreciation from the chairman of the State committee. The convention really won but was lost by dishonest election returns. The annual convention was held at the Hotel Patton, Chattanooga, December 9, Mrs. McCormack presiding. In 1912 a treasury fund of $5.50 was turned over to the new treasurer, Miss Wester, who handled in 1915 $1,127. The National a.s.sociation this year elected Mrs. McCormack auditor.

National Suffrage Day, May 2, 1916, was celebrated in all of the larger cities. The Business Women's Club brought Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst of England and Miss Margaret Foley of Boston to Chattanooga and the 5,000 capacity auditorium was packed. The State Federation of Women's Clubs, which was to hold its convention there May 3, was invited to attend and the next day it pa.s.sed a woman suffrage resolution by a vote of 96 to 43.

In May woman suffrage planks were secured in both the Republican and Democratic State platforms, after which the State officers living in Chattanooga had a 25-foot streamer prepared with the following words on it: Tennessee Leads the South, The State Federation, Republican and Democratic Parties Endorse Woman Suffrage, and had it stretched across the main street. Over night Police Commissioner E. R. Betterton had made a ruling that banners could no longer hang over the street and three policemen with the patrol wagon "arrested" it. The women secured the release of the culprit and through the courtesy of E. A. Abbott, a merchant, it was placed over the front of his store and there it hung for several weeks. On June 13 it was taken to the National Democratic convention at St. Louis, where it gave its silent message hanging on the wall of the lobby of the hotel in which the Tennessee delegation had headquarters. Mrs. Dudley and Mrs. Ford addressed the Tennessee delegates to the convention urging them to vote for the woman suffrage plank, which they did unanimously.

Mrs. Catt held a successful congressional conference in Memphis, spoke at several large meetings and the biggest automobile parade ever seen in the city added to the occasion.[170] Federal Amendment Day was celebrated in twenty-six cities and thousands of leaflets were distributed. In October the legislative chairman wrote to all candidates for Congress asking their position on suffrage and eight declared in favor. In November those elected were interviewed and banquets, luncheons and receptions given them on the eve of their leaving for Washington.

In order to unite the two State a.s.sociations Mrs. Catt suggested that they hold their conventions at about the same time in the same city.

The Tennessee Equal Suffrage a.s.sociation, Mrs. McCormack president, set its convention for Jan. 5, 6, 1917, and that of the other was announced for the 9th, both in Nashville. The former was held at the Hotel Hermitage, large and enthusiastic, with the princ.i.p.al speakers Clyde Shropshire, Speaker of the House, the Hon. George L. Berry, Dixon Merritt, editor of the _Tennesseean_, and Miss Laura Clay. Mrs.

Ford was elected president. The latter postponed its convention to January 30-31, which made the union impossible. On February 22 the former a.s.sociation offered its services to Governor Rye to be utilized as he should see fit, should the United States enter the war. Mrs.

Catt called a meeting of the Executive Council of the National a.s.sociation for the 23rd in Washington to consider offering its a.s.sistance to President Wilson and Mrs. Ford represented Tennessee.

The suffragists of this State, as did those of every other, rallied to the colors. Many served in France and thousands at home in every field of activity where women were permitted, in army and navy, in citizen service, Red Cross, Government bond sales, etc., and their devoted service proved a most effective plea for their enfranchis.e.m.e.nt.

On March 26, 1918, the boards of the two a.s.sociations met in Memphis at the Professional and Business Women's Club, with Mrs. Allen, honorary president, in the chair. A union was effected and Mrs. Leslie Warner was unanimously elected president of the amalgamated a.s.sociations. Mrs. Warner spoke at the State Federation of Women's Clubs in Jackson and after one session she asked all to remain who were interested in suffrage. About 90 per cent. did so and an enthusiastic meeting was held. Her next work was to secure resolutions in favor of the Federal Suffrage Amendment and protests against further delay in the Senate. She spoke before nineteen organizations of various kinds, all of which pa.s.sed the desired resolutions. It was also endorsed by the Democratic and Republican State Committees.

As vice-chairman of the Woman's Committee Council of National Defense, Mrs. Warner introduced Dr. Shaw, its chairman, to an audience of 7,000 people at Nashville in April. In July she called 200 suffragists from all sections of the State for a hearing before U. S. Senator John K.

Shields, hoping they might convince him that the Tennessee women did want the ballot, as one of his reasons for voting against the Federal Amendment was that they did not. Later when pressed by the women for a declaration during his candidacy for re-election he gave to the press his correspondence with President Wilson who had urged him to vote for it, to whom he wrote: "If I could bring myself to believe that the adoption of the resolution would contribute to the successful prosecution of the war we are waging with Germany I would unhesitatingly vote for it, because my whole heart and soul are involved in bringing the war to a victorious issue and I am willing to sacrifice everything save the honor and freedom of our country in aiding you to accomplish that end, but I have been unable to do so...."

The President said in reply: "I realize the weight of argument that has controlled your att.i.tude in the matter and I would not have written as I did if I had not thought that the pa.s.sage of the amendment at this time was an essential psychological element in the conduct of the war for democracy. I am led by a single sentence in your letter, therefore, to say that I do earnestly believe that our action upon this amendment will have an important and immediate influence upon the whole atmosphere and morale of the nations engaged in the war and every day I am coming to see how supremely important that side of the whole thing is."

On August 8 the State Bar a.s.sociation pa.s.sed a strong resolution endorsing woman suffrage by Federal Amendment. The president, Colonel Ed Watkins, in his annual address, included a strong plea for it and Judge David V. Puryear introduced the resolution. Miss Elizabeth Lea Miller and Mrs. Ford, the first women members of the a.s.sociation; Mrs.

John Lamar Meek and others worked for it. Col. Joseph H. Acklen gave his services as attorney for years to the State a.s.sociation without charge. Urgent pet.i.tions which bore the names of all the leading Democrats of the State, arranged on a large sheet with the photograph of and a quotation from President Woodrow Wilson, were sent to Senator Shields. The State board sent pet.i.tions to the legislators urging that they ask him to vote for the Federal Amendment resolution, which lacked only two votes of pa.s.sing the Senate, but he opposed it to the end.

The remainder of Mrs. Warner's regime was filled with efforts in the Legislature for the Presidential suffrage bill. She began in September and worked unceasingly until its pa.s.sage the next April, financing the campaign with some small a.s.sistance from her board. During the hundredth anniversary of the city of Memphis in June, a notable State event, a suffrage "victory" celebration was held with addresses by Mayor Monteverde and leading suffragists.

The eleventh annual convention was held in the Tulane Hotel, Nashville, June 4, 5, 1919. During the second day's session news came of the submission of the Federal Amendment by the U. S. Senate and excitement ran riot. Telegrams of congratulation were sent to Mrs.

Catt, Dr. Shaw, U. S. Senator McKellar and the Tennessee Representatives who voted for it. It was a dramatic ending of the long contest--long even in Tennessee, for here too women had grown old and died in the struggle. Tributes were paid to those who were gone, among them Mrs. Meriwether who had given her life to the work. The two pioneers present, Mrs. Allen and Miss Terrett, gave reminiscences of the early days. Mrs. George Fort Milton was elected president.

A call was issued for the final convention of the State a.s.sociation and the first convention of the Tennessee League of Women Voters to meet May 18, 19, 1920, in the House of Representatives at Nashville.

This was signed by the presidents of the following State a.s.sociations: Suffrage, Mothers' Congress and Parent Teachers', Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Federation of Music Clubs, Daughters of the American Revolution and Press and Authors' Club. Mrs. Milton presided over the convention and Miss Mary Boyce Temple, regent of the D. A. R., presided over the first conference of the League of Women Voters. The a.s.sociation and the League were merged and Mrs. Milton was elected chairman.[171]

LEGISLATIVE ACTION. 1911. This year for the first time a resolution was introduced by Senator Walter White of Dayton "to amend the const.i.tution so as to give women the ballot." It was referred to the Const.i.tutional Amendment Committee, Alfred A. Adams, chairman, which reported adversely. The women in charge were Mrs. J. D. Allen, State president, and Attorney Frances Wolf, legislative chairman.

1915. The suffragists espoused two bills. The a.s.sociation of which Mrs. McCormack was president worked for a new State const.i.tution because of the great difficulty of changing the old one. The a.s.sociation of which Mrs. Dudley was president asked for an amendment.

It received a "courtesy" vote in favor from the first Legislature and did not come before a second. Mrs. McCormack, Mrs. Ford, Mrs. Henry J.

Kelso, Mrs. Hall and Miss Wester were the Legislative Committee.

1917. In March the Legislature pa.s.sed an Act amending the charter of Lookout Mountain so as to give the women Munic.i.p.al suffrage. The prime mover was Attorney James Anderson and Mayor P. F. Jones, and the other commissioners voted unanimously for it. Mrs. Ford, the State president, a lifelong resident, had the previous year registered there in order to call attention to the injustice of "taxation without representation" but her name was removed from the records. Early in 1917 Mrs. Ford called on President Wilson at the White House and asked him to send a message to the Legislature in favor of the pending Presidential suffrage bill, which he did.

[Mrs. Ford's thorough account of the fortunes of this bill through the Legislatures of 1917 and 1919 is so largely covered by the report in Part I of this chapter that it is omitted here.][172]

After the law was enacted Mrs. Kenny and Mrs. Kimbrough appeared at the office of the county trustee and made a tender of the amount due as their poll tax. He refused to receive it, acting under instructions from the county attorney who declared that the laws of the State exempted women. They then filed a bill in the Chancery Court of Davidson county asking a decision. Chancellor Newman dismissed it with an opinion in part as follows: "It will be observed by Section 686 of the code that those liable for poll taxes are males between the ages of 21 and 50 years on the 10th day of January the year the a.s.sessment is laid. Women were not liable Jan. 10, 1919, for poll tax and plainly it was never the purpose or intent of Section 1220 that a qualified voter as a condition precedent to the right to vote should produce satisfactory evidence that he had paid a poll tax a.s.sessed against him for which he was not liable.... All women between the ages of 21 and 50 years, otherwise qualified as voters, are ent.i.tled to vote in the November election of 1920 without paying a poll tax for 1919." The case was taken to the Supreme Court, which ruled that women did not have to pay in order to vote that year.

RATIFICATION. When the Legislature of Washington in March, 1920, ratified the Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment making the 35th, there came an absolute stop. The southeastern States had rejected it and it had been ratified by all the others except Vermont and Connecticut, whose Governors refused to call special sessions. It looked as if the women of the United States would be prevented from voting at the presidential election in November for the lack of one ratification.

There was every reason to believe that the Legislature of Tennessee would give this one if it were not prevented by a clause in the State const.i.tution. Meanwhile the ratification of the Federal Prohibition Amendment by the Ohio Legislature had been sent to the voters by a recent law, they had rejected it and an appeal had been taken to the U. S. Supreme Court on the const.i.tutionality of the referendum law. On June 1, in Hawk vs. Smith, this court held that a referendum to the voters on the ratification of Federal Amendments was in conflict with Article V of the Federal Const.i.tution, therefore null and void, as this Const.i.tution was the supreme law of the land. The decision said: "It is not the function of courts or legislative bodies, National or State, to alter the method which the U. S. Const.i.tution has fixed."

Article II, Section 32 of the Tennessee const.i.tution reads: "No convention or General a.s.sembly of this State shall act upon any amendment of the Const.i.tution of the United States proposed by Congress to the several States unless such convention or General a.s.sembly shall have been elected after such amendment is submitted."