Ideas and Strategies of the Woman Suffrage Movement
Although the campaign for Woman Suffrage in the United States began with the Seneca Falls Convention
of 1848, six decades later the leaders of the movement could claim victories in only four, sparselypopulated Western states, Colorado, Utah, Idaho and Wyoming. The two antagonistic factions of the
suffrage movement, which had followed separate paths since the end of the 1860s, had reunited in the
1890s in the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Yet at the end of the first decade
of the twentieth century, despite the major role of women in many prominent reforms of the Progressive
era, the movement seemed at a standstill. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, President of the NAWSA since 1904,
had proved an accomplished orator but an ineffective organizer and administrator.
Then, as the result of a relatively-quiet grass roots campaign, the state of Washington voted nearly two-toone for woman suffrage in 1910, breaking a 14 year stalemate and suddenly infusing new energy and
confidence into the movements in other states. Meanwhile, and in striking contrast, the woman suffrage
movement in Great Britain under such leaders as Emmaline Pankhurst escalated its militant tactics. By
1910 it had moved from mass meetings, marches and the heckling of cabinet ministers to arson, violence,
and hunger strikes.
That new momentum had been gained in the United States was confirmed in 1911 when California voted
for woman suffrage and again in 1912 when Oregon, Kansas and Arizona all fell into line. The next year,
the suffragists finally pushed east of the Mississippi River for the first time and gained the suffrage in the
more industrial and densely-populated state of Illinois. Having frequently lost popular referenda in the
industrial states, the suffragists now had succeeded in Illinois by persuading the state legislature to give
them the vote by legislative action. In 1912 the Progressive Party, headed by Theodore Roosevelt, endorsed
woman suffrage as one of its platform planks. But the movement did not prove victorious everywhere. In
1912 it lost referenda in Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Over the following two years, it would lose such
referenda again in Michigan and Ohio, as well as in Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.
In the midst of this resurgent activity, new leaders came to the fore in the woman suffrage movement.
Carrie Chapman Catt, a long-time suffragist, former President of the NAWSA from 1900 to 1904, and
recently the President of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, returned to the leadership of the
American movement in 1915. She immediately called for the adoption of a "winning plan" that would keep
up pressure from all directions, simultaneously organizing state-by-state campaigns in selected states and
pressing for action by the Congress to submit an amendment to the federal Constitution.
Two years earlier, two youthful Americans, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, had returned from their experience
in the British movement, to rejuvenate the NAWSA's Congressional Committee. And Harriot Stanton
Blatch, daughter of early suffrage leader Elizabeth Cady Stanton, had organized a small, more militant
group in the United States under the title of the Women's Political Union.
For the purposes of, this assignment, assume that you are writing a history of the United States during the
twentieth century and that you have set aside 5-6 pages of one of your early chapters to tell the story of the
ideas and tactics of the woman suffrage movement from about 1912 until the passage by Congress of the
19th Amendment in 1919. On the basis of the following primary source documents, construct an
interpretive account of the development of significant ideas and strategies within the woman suffrage
movement during this period. Why do you think women finally succeeded in getting the vote?
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Document #1
Molly Elliot Seawell, The Ladies' Battle (1911)
.... women voters would inevitably become a privileged class, their mere exemption from military and
naval duty making them such. The first fundamental of our present form of government is, that there shall
be no privileged classes among voters.. Already, the State of Washington, in adopting suffrage, has violated
a principle of republican government, by exempting women from jury duty
... there seems to be a close relation between suffrage and divorce. The five suffrage states show that their
abnormal rate of divorces prevails under conditions which are usually adverse to divorce. It is agreed
among sociologists, and is proved by statistics, that divorce in general follows wealth, luxury, a highly
artificial mode of life, and complex social conditions. In the suffrage states, however, the general mode of
life is simple and the social conditions primitive .....
But that woman suffrage tends to divorce, is plain to all who know anything of men and women. Political
differences in families, between brothers, for example, who vote on differing sides, do not promote
harmony. How much more inharmonious must be the political differences between a husband and wife,
each of whom has a vote which maybe used as a weapon against the other?
Document #2
Inez Haynes Irwin, American woman suffrage advocate, on her reaction to the tactics of the English
Suffragists. (date unknown)
When in England, the first militant of Mrs. Pankhurst's forces threw her first stone, my heart went with it ...
At last the traditions of female patience... had gone by the board. Women were using the tactics that,
through all the ages, men had used; the only tactics that were sure to bring results; rebellion and violence.
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Document #3
Theodore Roosevelt, "Women's Rights; and the Duties of Both Men and Women," editorial in The
Outlook, February 3, 1912.
I believe in woman's rights. I believe even more earnestly in the performance of duty by both men and
women; for unless the average man and the average woman live lives of duty, not only our democracy but
civilization itself will perish....
Perhaps one reason why so many men who believe as emphatically as I do in woman's full equality with
man take little interest in the suffrage movement is to be found in the very unfortunate actions of certain
leaders in that movement, who seem desirous of associating it with disorderly conduct in public and with
thoroughly degrading and vicious assaults upon the morality and the duty of women within and without
marriage....
..I believe in woman suffrage wherever the women wish it. I would not force it upon them where, as a
body, they do not wish it. ... Most of the women who I know best are against woman suffrage precisely
because they approach life from the standpoint of duty. They are not interested in their "rights" so much as
in their obligations. It is, however, with me a question whether these women, with busy, happy, duty-filled
lives, are really typical of those other women who are more or less defenseless. These other women, wageearning girls for instance, and wives whose husbands are brutal or inconsiderate, would, I believe, be
helped by the suffrage, if they used it wisely and honorably.
Document #4
Jane Addams, "The Larger Aspects of the Woman's Movement" The Annuals of the American Academy of
Social and Political Science (Nov. 1914). [Addams was the founder of Hull House, a Settlement House in
the immigrant quarters of Chicago where upper-middle class men and women sought to establish more
congenial relationships with immigrants and to provide them social services.]
The new demand of women for political enfranchisement comes at a time when unsatisfactory and
degraded social conditions are held responsible for so much wretchedness and when the fate of all the
unfortunate, the suffering and the criminal, is daily forced upon woman's attention in painful and intimate
ways. At the same moment, governments all over the world are insisting that it is their function, and theirs
alone, so to regulate social and industrial functions that a desirable citizenship nay be secured.
... is it not obvious that, as industrial changes took spinning out of private houses, so political changes are
taking out of the home humanitarian activities, not to mention the teaching of children? ... The woman who
wishes to be a teacher or a nurse takes her training in public institutions, as she formerly went to the factory
to spin, not because she wishes primarily to leave home but because her work has been transferred. As she
was helpless, without the franchise to keep little children from working all night in the early textile
mills...so she is powerless now to regulate the administration of the schoolhouse or hospital.
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Document #5
Washington Post, March 2, 1913
SUFFRAGISTS TAKE CITY FOR PAGEANT
Special Trainloads from Many States Reach Capital
Armies of Others on Way
BIG MASS MEETING [AND BANQUET] TONIGHT
Classing the woman suffrage cause as an irresistible wave of progressivism which will soon sweep the
entire country ... Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, President of the National American Woman Suffrage
Association, gave the pilgrims credit for recent victories in state legislatures ... Even while the banquet was
in progress, workers at suffrage headquarters were arranging the final details for the procession, tableaux
and mass meeting tomorrow afternoon. Miss Alice Paul, Chairman of the Procession Committee, remained
at headquarters late to work out final details, but appeared at the last moment in evening dress and made a
short address predicting great success for the pageant.
Document #6
Washington Post, editorial, March 3, 1913
Today's pageant is significant not merely of the demand for woman's suffrage, but of the ability and
common sense with which the women are directing their campaign...It should be a source of pride to
Americans that the women have not forgotten their dignity, as has been the case in England. There the
women have shown themselves lawless and irresponsible. They have proved themselves unfit to play any
part in the making of the laws or the enforcement of them.
Document #7
New York Herald, March 4, 1913
Pageant Crowd Largest Washington Has Ever Seen
Call it curiosity, call it sympathy, call it opposition; the fact remains that the suffrage parade and pageant
here today attracted a greater crowd than any inaugural ever did. An incoming and outgoing President were
almost ignored. Only a few hundred persons saw Mr. Wilson's advertised arrival at his hotel; within six
blocks fifty thousand were waiting for the suffragists.
Document #8
Washington Post, March 4, 1913
WOMAN'S BEAUTY, GRACE, AND ART BEWILDER THE CAPITAL
Miles of Fluttering Femininity Present Entrancing Suffrage Appeal PAGEANT, LIVING PICTURES,
ORATORY
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Richly Decorated Floats Tell the History and Point to the Future of Equal Rights Struggle - Entrancing
Spectacle at Times is Marred by Scenes of Disorder Along the Line of March - Procession, Blocked by
Throngs, Moves only Ten Blocks in an Hour...
Five thousand women, marching in the woman suffrage pageant yesterday, practically fought their way
foot by foot up Pennsylvania avenue, through a surging mass of humanity that completely defied the
Washington police, swamped the marchers, and broke their procession into little companies...No
inauguration has ever produced such scenes, which in many instances amounted to little less than riots.
Document #9
Harriot Stanton Blatch, "For the Women's Political Union," to President Woodrow Wilson, March 4, 1913
As you ride today in comfort and safety to the Capitol to be inaugurated as President of the people of the
United States, we beg that you will not be unmindful that yesterday the Government which is supposed to
exist for the good of all, left women while passing in peaceful procession in their demand for political
freedom at the mercy of a howling mob on the very streets which are being at this moment efficiently
officered for the protection of men.
Document #10
Laura Ellsworth Seiler, oral interview with Sherna Gluck, circa., 1974-75.
The Women's Political Union was the most militant of the suffrage groups. Mrs. Blatch had been married to
an Englishman and had lived in England for a time. We [the WPU] were much closer to the English groups
than were the other American suffrage organizations.... The Englishwomen were very fond of talking about
free unions and how their children were going to have hyphenated names ... They felt that conventional
marriage was not right, wasn't fair to women... we [the WPU] believed... in demonstrations
[and] street speaking which I don't remember as being characteristic of the other [American] organizations.
We spoke on street corners every night of the week, using soapboxes with handles on them which every
suffragette carried and plunked down on the curbstone.
Document #11
Anna Howard Shaw, President, at NAWSA Convention, 1913.
By some objectors women are supposed to be unfit to vote because they are hysterical and emotional and of
course men would not like to have emotion enter into a political campaign. They want to cut out all
emotion and so they would like to cut us out. I had heard so much about our emotionalism that I went to the
last Democratic national convention, held at Baltimore, to observe the calm repose of the male politicians. I
saw some men take a picture of one gentleman whom they wanted elected and it was so big they had to
walk sideways, as they carried it forward; they were followed by hundreds of other men screaming and
yelling, shouting and singing the "Houn' Dawg;" then, when there was a lull, another set of men would start
forward under another man's picture, not to be outdone by the "Houn' Dawg" melody, whooping and
howling still louder. I saw men jump upon on the seats and throw their hats in the air... Then, when those
hats came down, other men would kick them back into the air, shouting at the top of their voices. No
hysteria about it - just patriotic loyalty, splendid manly devotion to principle. And so they went on and on
until 5 o'clock in the morning ... I saw men jump up on their seats and jump down again and run around in a
ring. I saw two men run towards another man to hug him both at once and they split his coat up the, middle
of his back and sent him spinning around like a wheel. All this with the prefect poise of the legal male mind
in politics!
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I have been to many women's conventions in my day but I never saw a woman leap up on a chair and take
off her bonnet and toss it in the air and shout... I never heard a body of women whooping and yelling for
five minutes when somebody's name was mentioned in the convention....
Document #12
Lucy Burns, vice chairman of the Congressional Committee of the NAWSA, excerpts from speech at
NAWSA convention, December, 1913.
We ask the Democrats to take action now. Those who hold power are responsible to the country for the use
of it. They are responsible not only for what they do, but for what they do not do. Inaction establishes just
as clear a record as does a policy of open hostility.
We have in our hands today not only the weapon of just cause; we have the support of ten enfranchised
states - states comprising one-fifth of the United States Senate over one-seventh of the house of
representatives, and one-sixth of the electoral vote.... It is unthinkable that a national government which
represents women, and which appeals periodically for the suffrages of women, should ignore the issue of
the right of all women to political freedom.
Document #13
Doris Stevens, Jailed for Freedom (1920)
In spite of the repeated request to President Wilson that he include support of the measure in his message to
Congress, he delivered his message December 2nd [1913] while the convention was still in session, and
failed to make any mention of the suffrage amendment. He recommended self-government for Filipino men
instead.
Immediately Miss Paul organized the entire convention into a deputation to protest this failure and to urge
support in a subsequent message. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw led the interview. In reply to her eloquent appeal
for his assistance, the President said in part: "I am merely the spokesman of my party ... I am not at liberty
to urge upon Congress in messages, policies which have not had the organic consideration of those for
whom I am spokesman. I am by my own principles shut out, in the language of the street, from I starting
anything. I have to confine myself to those things which have been embodied as promises to the people at
an election."
I shall never forget that day. Shafts of sunlight, came in at the window and fell full and square upon the
white-haired leader who was in the closing days of her power. Her clear, deep, resonant voice, ringing with
genuine love of liberty, was in sharp contrast to the halting, timid, little and technical answer of the
President. He stooped to utter some light pleasantry which he thought would no doubt please the "ladies." It
did not provoke even a faint smile. Dr. Shaw had dramatically asked, "Mr. President, if you cannot speak
for us and your party will not, who then, pray, is there to speak for us?"
"You seem very well able to speak for yourselves, ladies, with a broad smile, followed by a quick
embarrassment when no one stirred.
"We mean, Mr. President, who will speak for us with authority? came back the hot retort from Dr. Shaw.
The President made no reply. Instead he expressed a desire to shake the hands of the three hundred
delegates. A few felt that manners compelled them to acquiesce; the others filed out without this little
political ceremony.
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Document #14
Anna Howard Shaw, at a convention of the NAWSA at Nashville, Tennessee, November 1914.
No other country has subjected its women to the humiliating position to which the women of this nation
have been subjected by men.... In Germany, German woman are governed by German men; in France,
French women are governed by Frenchmen; and in Great Britain, British women are governed by British
men; but in this country, American women are governed by every kind of a man under the light of the sun.
There is no race, there is no color, there is no nationality of men who are not the sovereign rulers of
American women....
Document #15
Elizabeth Selden Rogers, editorial entitled "Why We Withdrew," in Women's Political World, 1915
A great deal is said of the value of co-operation of all societies and the economy of not duplicating work.
While believing heartily in a certain amount and kind of co-operation, we are not blind to the fact that too
complete unity may result. in stagnation... The [Women's Political) Union believes that the existence of
many suffrage societies is an evidence of the vitality of the movement, and that the friendly rivalry of such
societies results in more and better work being done, that it gives the freedom necessary to growth,
affording scope for individuality, and allowing personality to count....
To those of our members who are worrying over this co-operate (sic) idea, we would point out that if in the
past four or five years the Women's Political Union in New York City had been bound by a two-thirds vote
of a campaign committee, like the one now formed, we would never have had a parade, or an outdoor
meeting, or a campaign against certain enemies in the Legislature.
Document #16
Harriot Stanton Blatch, Challenging Years: The Memoirs of Harriot Stanton Blatch (1940).
The new Congressional Committee of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, headed by
Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, soon became a separate organization, the Congressional Union. It introduced
political methods into its campaign for the Federal Amendment, and was experiencing, as the Women's
Political Union had in New York State, the opposition of conservative suffragists who believed that the
work for suffrage should be kept nonpartisan. The Congressional Union went even farther than the
Women's Political Union and held the Party in power responsible for the progress of the Federal
Amendment.
I had done my best to persuade Miss Paul and Miss Burns to pitch into the New York Campaign to assure
victory for us in 1915, and through this victory advance the Federal Amendment, but they had lost their
interest in state work....
They continued to want pressure put on leading Democrats in New York, and we continued to insist that no
attacks be made on New York Democrats because they had befriended us in our New York campaign. This
complicated matters somewhat and this complication increased when the Congressional Union opened an
office in New York City. I felt that it would not injure the Congressional Union to stay away from New
York until November 1915 and that it might be disastrous for our state campaign if they should begin
active work for the Federal Amendment in New York at this time.
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Document #17
Carrie Catt, letter to Jane Addams, January 4, 1915.
[Any crusade against the Democrats is] exceedingly distasteful to most of us... because it commits the
stupendous stupidity of making an anti-Democratic campaign when the suffrage question was pending in
eleven states and depending for success upon Democratic votes.
Document #18
Anna Howard Shaw, President of the NAWSA, speech during New York State equal suffrage campaign at
City opera House, Ogdenburg, New York, June 21, 1915.
When I came into your hall tonight, I thought of the last time I was in your city. Twenty-one years ago I
came here with Susan B. Anthony, and we came for exactly the same purpose as that for which we are here
tonight. Boys have been born since that time and have become voters, and the women are still tying to
persuade American men to believe in the fundamental principles of democracy....
Now one of two things is true: either a Republic is a desirable form of government, or else it is not. If it is,
then we should have it, if it is not then we ought not to pretend that we have it. We ought at least to be true
to our ideals, and the men of New York have, for the first time in their lives, the rare opportunity on the
second day of next November, of making the state truly a part of a Republic.
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Document #19
"Cartoon Circulated by the 'Antis,"The Literary Digest, October 9, 1915
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Document #20
"The Woman Suffrage Situation at a Glance" The Literary Digest, November 13, 1915.
Document #21
Carrie C. Catt, Report of Survey Committee to Board of officers, National American Woman Suffrage
Association, March, 1916.
A serious crisis exists in the suffrage movement. A... number of women in the various states have turned to
the Federal Amendment as the most promising avenue....A considerable number of women in the South are
dead set against the Federal Amendment. The first anti-suffrage organization of importance to be effected
in the
South has been formed in Alabama with the slogan "Home Rule, States Rights, and White Supremacy." A
considerable number of other women wish to work exclusively for suffrage within their own states. The
Congressional union is drawing off from the National Association those women who feel it is possible to
work for suffrage by the Federal route only.
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Document #22
Harriot Stanton Blatch, excerpt from speech at Convention for forming of the Woman's Party, Chicago,
June, 1916
...I stand ready to get a group of women about me who will go forth over the Suffrage states with this one
thought in our mind - we will deliver against the Party that blocks the progress of women, 500,000 votes. I
intend to go into the West; I intend to use there very bit of energy and strength I have, to advance this cause
of ours. I intend to go into the West and appeal to very last woman to stand by the women of the East, to
stand by themselves, to make this nation at least a true and great democracy. Women, you voters from
every State, will you join with us; will you come? Will you make every Party feel that you stand first by the
women of our nation?
* The term "Suffrage states" referred to those states which had already amended their state constitutions to
provide for woman suffrage.
Document #23
Carrie C. Catt, "The Winning Plan," presented to Convention of National American Woman Suffrage
Association, 1916
....When thirty-six state associations, or preferably more, enter into a solemn compact to get the [Federal]
Amendment submitted by Congress and ratified by their respective legislatures; when they live up to their
compact by running a red-hot, never ceasing campaign in their own states designed to create sentiment
behind the political leaders of the states and to aim both these forces at the men in Congress as well as the
legislatures, we can get the Amendment through, and ratified. We cannot do it by any other process .... This
Convention must not adjourn, should it sit until Christmas, until it creates a logical and sensible policy
toward the Federal Amendment... There should be a mobilization of at least thirty-six state armies, and
these armies should move under the direction of the national officers. They should be disciplined and
obedient to the national officers in all matters.... More, those who enter on this task, should go prepared to
give their lives and fortunes for success, and any pusillanimous coward among us who dares to call retreat,
should be court martialled.
Any other policy than this is weak, inefficient, illogical, silly, inane and ridiculous! Any other policy would
fail of success.
We should win, if it is possible to do so, a few more states before the Federal Amendment gets up to the
legislatures... A southern state should be selected and made ready for a campaign, and the solid front of the
"antis" should be broken as soon as possible.
Some break in the solid "anti" East should be made too. If New York wins in 1917 the backbone of the
opposition will be largely bent if not broken....
Document #24
arriot Stanton Blatch, excerpt from speech at campaign meeting in Chicago, November 5, 1916 at climax of
1916 election campaigns.
Who is the chief enemy in our path? The Democratic Party is that enemy.... In 1912 this Party had an
overwhelming victory. By every possible means the justice of our cause was urged upon the dominant
Party. But it could not face the new spirit...
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The Democratic Party has declared for Suffrage, state by state. But what have this party and its leaders
done to achieve a victory in any one state? What has Mr Bryan [former Secy. of State] done to help us in
Nebraska? Nothing. What did O'Gorman [Senator from NY], do in New York? Nothing. Champ Clark
[Speaker of House] in Missouri? Nothing. Pres. Wilson in New Jersey*? Nothing.
*Wilson had been Governor of New Jersey before his election as President
Document #25
"Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, Constructive Decisionist," Everybody's Magazine, November, 1916
...She has been an agitator, a camp-meeting exponent; she has come up through the obscurity of travail and
drudgery. But the place that this Iowa farmer's daughter has come to fill is that of an organizer of victory.
Three years after Colorado's bolt from the blue, Idaho and Utah went for suffrage. She managed the Idaho
campaign. ..Her mind first saw the possibility of organizing the world for suffrage. That dream came true in
1904 in Berlin, where the delegates of eight countries elected her their president. By its next meeting in
London in 1909, where she was reelected, the number had grown to twenty-one countries...
She is a plain woman. An inheritance has made her well-to-do in the world's way, but her origins are as
simple as Abraham Lincoln's. She washed-the dishes and fed the chickens around her father's farm near.
Charles City, Iowa, like any other country girl. At fourteen she was teaching school and saving her pennies
for a college education....
Document #26
Maud Wood Park, Front Door Lobby (1960), on her recollections of the beginning of her work as a
Congressional lobbyist for the NAWSA during the late fall of 1916.
I...missed hearing the President read his message. I also missed the first demonstration by a few members
of the congressional union (soon to change its name to the Woman's Party), the so-called militant group of
suffragists, who hung a votes-for-women banner over the railing of a gallery in the House while the
President was speaking. When I met the members of our Committee who had been present, I was surprised
to see how disastrous they considered that small happening. Later I found that most of the newspapers and
many members of the Congress expressed the opinion that it had brought serious reproach on the cause.
That idea was due, I believe, to the Washington habit of setting great store on precedents and official
courtesy and to the fear that the much condemned English militant tactics were being started in the United
States..
We, who had nothing to do with the demonstration, were so constantly blamed for it that our chainman
directed us to make clear in the first words of every interview that we represented the great mass of
suffragists, organized in the National American Woman Suffrage Association, who did not approve of the
methods used by the small group of militants. We were destined to make that kind of explanation as long as
we worked for the amendment.
Document #27
Editorial, "Suffrage Heckling," Washington Post, December 7, 1916.
What possible benefit was achieved for the cause of woman suffrage by the unfurling of a banner in the
House, with its heckling inscription addressed to the President of the United States? ...the only result was a
discourteous interruption of the President while he [read] his annual message. The suffragist leaders have
done well to disavow the act of the hecklers.
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The President has previously stated where he stands with respect to woman suffrage. There has never been
anything equivocal about his utterances on this subject. Frankly and fairly, after Mr. Hughes [Charles
Evans Hughes, Republican Party candidate for President against Wilson in 1916] had said that he favored a
constitutional Amendment, President Wilson said that he believed the right way for the women to get the
vote was through individual State action.
It is significant that in the face of this definite statement most of the woman suffrage States gave majorities
for Mr. Wilson. Since the President declared himself opposed to a constitutional amendment as being the
wrong way to bring about equal suffrage, it is not conceivable that the hecklers should expect him to
advocate a constitutional amendment now.
The suffragists have won notable victories...Their progress has been due to the dignified methods pursued
in the past.
Document #28
Alice Paul, excerpt from speech at luncheon for suffrage activists at Delmonico’s restaurant in New York
City, Dec., 1916.
We are not working to win New York. We are working to put the Federal Suffrage Amendment in the
Constitution. The trouble with the suffragists is they are like the allies in the war .... State Suffrage by its
scattered methods is losing as the allies have been losing. We lost Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania,
West Virginia, North Dakota - but why call the roll of those defeats! The method you ask us to pursue did
not win a point last year or this, but at the National Capitol the situation is more hopeful because the Party
in power is afraid of a method that actually costs them votes.
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Document #29
Doris Stevens, Jailed for Freedom (1920), commenting on Alice Paul.
I have seen her very presence in headquarters change in the twinkling of an eye the mood of fifty people. It
is not through their affection that she moves them, but through a naked force, a vital force which is
indefinable but of which one simply cannot be unaware. Aiming primarily at the intellect of an audience or
an individual, she almost never fails to win an emotional allegiance.
Document #30
Maud Wood Park, Front Door Lobby, on Senator Charles S. Thomas of Colorado, chairman of the Woman
Suffrage Committee of the U.S. Senate, circa. 1916-1917
[He] was thoroughly embittered by the attempt of the militants in the previous election to defeat
Democratic candidates in his state, even though the campaign had been unsuccessful. Their policy of going
out against Democrats, friends of woman suffrage as well as foes, on the theory, copied from English
tactics, of holding the party in power responsible for failure to pass the Amendment stirred his deepest ire.
With the caustic wit for which he was famous, he refuted the fallacy of expecting any one party to deliver
the two-thirds majority for a constitutional amendment and ridiculed the absurdity of trying to make friends
for the cause by endeavoring to defeat men who had given it loyal support.
Document #31
Maud Younger, "Revelations of a Woman Lobbyist," McCalls, on visit of 300 women to President Wilson,
January 9, 1917.
Instead of the assurances we had expected, we heard words to the effect that he could not dictate to his
Party. We must first concert public opinion.... Stunned, talking in low, indignant tones, we moved slowly
out of the East Room and returned to our Headquarters... We saw that the President would do nothing for
some time, perhaps not until the eve of the Presidential election in 1920. He said we must concert public
opinion. But how? For half a century women had been walking the hard way of the lobbyist. We had had
speeches, meetings, parades, campaigns, organization. What new method could we devise?
Document #32
Washington Post, January 10, 1917
‘PICKET’ WHITE HOUSE
Suffragists, After Futile Appeal, Announce Daily Vigil.
NEW STEP IN MILD MILITANCY
Suffrage Devices to Confront President at Own Gates
...Women suffragists, after another futile appeal to President Wilson yesterday for his support of the Susan
B. Anthony amendment, announced plans for retaliation by picketing the White House grounds with "silent
sentinels." Their purpose is to make it impossible for the President to enter or leave the White House
without encountering a sentinel bearing some device pleading the suffrage cause.
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The move was acknowledged to be a step in the new policy of mild militancy which began with the coup in
the House gallery on December 6, when a party of suffragists unfurled a voters for women banner while the
President was making his opening address.
Document #33
Washington Post, January 11, 1917
Suffragists to Increase Squads at White House Until March 4
...It was stated yesterday that the silent sentinels would be gradually increased until 3,000 will be
surrounding the executive mansion grounds.
The women, wearing yellow, purple and white ribbons across their chests, stood three on either side of the
gates, over each of which was held a banner, inscribed, "Mr. President, what will you do for woman
suffrage?"
White House officials and the city police made no effort to interfere, and it was said that as long as the
women created no disorder no official attention would be paid to them.
Document #34
Editorial, The Woman's Journal (official newspaper of the National American Woman Suffrage
Association), January 13, 1917.
It is a very mild sort of militancy that the Congressional Union has adopted, in picketing all the approaches
to the White House with "silent sentinels" bearing suffrage placards. Being perfectly peaceful and legal, it
is not properly to be called militancy at all. The objection to it is that it is not likely to accomplish the
object. Whatever Mr Wilson's good or bad points may be, he is not the kind of man to yield to any form of
persecution - or what may seem to him such. He may be even less inclined to take the action which we all
want him to take, if he is placed in a position here it might seem like a surrender to nagging.
...This action of the Congressional Union gets wide publicity in the press but unfortunately it is the kind of
publicity which will make the average reader think that some women are doing a rather silly thing.
Document #35
Editorial, The Woman's Journal, March 3, 1917
Mrs. Maud Wood Park gave the National Executive council a clear and illuminating account of the work of
the National Association's lobby with Congress.
During the first part of their work they found the members becoming steadily more and more favorable.
Then this improvement was checked, and finally the members began to go backward. Mrs. Park said in
substance:
"I believe that this falling off was due to the picketing of the White House by the Congressional Union.
Personally, I think the fuss made over the banner and the picketing is out of all proportion to the actions
themselves. People almost foam at the mouth about it. They feel that the President and the government
have been insulted...
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The lobby of the National Association wanted to have the federal amendment reported out of the Rules
Committee and brought to vote in the House at this session.... But the leaders of the congressional union do
not want to have it brought to a vote in Congress until President Wilson comes out for it, which they
believe will give it the necessary two-thirds majority.
Mrs. Catt said: "If the Congressional Union had not come back to Washington I believe we should have
had the two-thirds vote in the House. If our organization in all the States were strong, we could do it despite
the Congressional Union.... Mrs. Park added that a continued series of victories in the States would help to
win us the two-thirds majority in the U.S. Senate which we have not yet attained.
Document #36
Maud Wood Park, Front Door Lobby
excerpt from written report of meeting of a lobbyist for NAWSA with a Senator from Texas, circa. Spring,
1917
"Invited us in - polite manner. Believes that woman dwells apart from man - in her nature. "She is different
- Nature made it so - all history, science and biology prove it! Look at the barnyard, the 'cockerel' protects
the hen etc. Woman is meant for the home, the hearth and to be sheltered by man." He acknowledged that
there were some women outside the home but men could protect them. The dirty mire of politics for
women could not be thought of. He deplored the lack of woman's trust in men, and did not think women
wanted to be called "suffragands: (the correlation of the word "brigand".)
Document #37
The Woman's Journal, March 10, 1917
ARKANSAS IS FIRST SOUTHERN STATE IN SUFFRAGE RANKS
Gov. Brough Signs Riggs Bill Permitting Women to Vote in
Primaries - Means Practically Full Suffrage
DEMOCRATIC MAJORITIES SO LARGE PRIMARIES ARE REALLY ELECTION
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Document #38
The Woman's Journal, March 10, 1917
CONGRESSIONAL UNION AND WOMAN'S PARTY UNITE
The Congressional Union and the "Woman's Party" at their recent meeting in Washington, D.C. voted to
amalgamate under the name of the National Woman' Party. [President of NWP is Alice Paul].
Document #39
"Note to President and Government," Executive Council of the National American Woman Suffrage
Association, The Woman's Journal, March 3, 1917.
We devoutly hope and pray that our country's crisis may be passed without recourse to war.... If, however,
our nation is drawn into the maelstrom, we stand ready to serve our country ... With no intention of laying
aside our constructive, forward work to secure the vote for the womanhood of this country and the right
protective of all rights, we offer our services to our county in the event they should be needed... that the
executive ability, industry and devotion of our women, trained through years of arduous endeavor, may be
utilized, with all other national resources, for the protection of our country in its time of stress.
Document #40
Mrs. Carrie C. Catt, testimony before U.S. Senate Suffrage Committee, April 20, 1917, as reported in The
Woman's Journal, April 28, 1917.
Speaking of women's efficiency as a war-time asset, Mrs. Catt pointed to the crippling of efficiency by
political disfranchisement, and the cheapening of woman in her own eyes and the eyes of the government
by that disfranchisement. "Today," she said, "we stand upon the verge of what may prove the greatest test
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of endurance yet put upon our Republic. Women, the greatest force our nation possesses for the creation of
public sentiment, are asked to mobilize their forces in aid of a government which has wronged them. ...
The grievance which every thinking, self-respecting American woman feels is the discrimination which
invites to our land the men of all the nations of the earth, naturalizes them after a five years' residence,
automatically enfranchises them under all State constitutions, and then commands American women to
seek the ballot at their hands. ...With the notions of woman's sphere in mind, which were formed in
countries where the status of men is low and that of women lower, they are given the task of deciding
whether American college presidents, teachers in the public schools, and the Christian mistresses of our
homes are worthy to be trusted with the vote.
Little did American suffragists think that any women of darkest Russia and Darkest Mexico would be
promoted to political freedom before those of the United States of America. ...We are told upon the one
hand that the death hour of autocracy has struck, that democracy, the rule of the people, is coming to its
own; on the other we are warned that this is not time to speak of democracy for that half of our own people
who do not possess its advantages.
"We have been pronounced 'pestiferous annoyances' by a great newspaper, and told to keep still until the
war is over. We accept the title, and decline the advice. We speak not so much for ourselves as in defense
of our republic, in the hope it will make amends and resume its rightful historic place as leader of the
world's democracy."
Comparing State referenda with the federal route, Mrs. Catt said:
"It should be remembered that 19 states have voted on woman suffrage referenda during the past five years,
of which only six were won. In several of the remaining 13, the defeat was definitely traceable to the
foreign vote, organized under the direction of unscrupulous native-born. Women workers at the polls in
each of these States have reported that illiterate men signing their names with a mark, ignorant men without
understanding, foreign men who could not speak English, drunken men with minds blurred, half-witted
men, degenerate men and every other type which makes up the underworld, were marshalled to the polls....
Document #41
Harriot Stanton, Blatch, Challenging Years (1940)
The new Russian republic had enfranchised its women. When the Russian envoys were received by the
President, Woman's Party banners in front of the White House proclaimed the inconsistency of a
Democracy that did not enfranchise its women. When Congress stalled, giving us an inch, and then
hesitating, the banners grew bolder and bolder, pointing out the hypocrisy in all the fine phrases about
democracy. But this time the war spirit in this country was well kindled, and in some quarters picketing
was regarded as traitorous. Mobs began molesting the pickets, knocking them about and tearing down their
banners. Late in June pickets were arrested on trumped up charges...
There was much criticism of the picketing, but the arrests and the outrageous treatment of the women
prisoners stirred the whole nation...
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Document #42
Doris Stevens, Jailed for Freedom
On the first arrests of the pickets, June 26, 1917
There was the criticism in the press and on the lips of men that we were embarrassing our Government
before the eyes of foreign visitors. ..Of course it was embarrassing. We meant it to be. The truth must be
told at all costs. This was not time for manners.
Hurried conferences behind closed doors! Summoning of the military to discuss declaring a military zone
around the White House! ...Closing the Woman's Party headquarters was discussed. Perhaps a raid! And all
for what? Because women were holding banners asking for the precious principle at home that men were
supposed to be dying for abroad.
Finally a decision was reached embodying the combined wisdom of the all the various conferees. The Chief
of Police, Major Pullman, was detailed to "request" us to stop "picketing" and to tell us that if we continued
to picket, we would be arrested.
"We have picketed for six months without interference," said Miss Paul. "Has the law been changed?"
"No," was the reply, "but you must stop it."
"But, Major Pullman, we have consulted our lawyers and know we have a legal right to picket."
"I warn you, you will be arrested if you attempt to picket again."
The following day Miss Lucy Burns and Miss Katharine Morey of Boston carried to the White House gates
[a banner reading] "We shall fight for the things we have always held nearest our hearts, for democracy, for
the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own government," and were arrested...
Miss Burns and Miss Morey upon arriving at the police station, insisted, to the great surprise of all the
officials, upon knowing the charge against them. Major Pullman and his entire staff were utterly at a loss to
know what to answer. The Administration had looked ahead only as far as threatening arrest. They
doubtless thought this was all they would have to do. People could not be arrested for picketing. Picketing
is a guaranteed right under the Clayton Act of Congress. Disorderly conduct? There had been no disorderly
conduct. Inciting to riot? Impossible! The women had stood as silent sentinels holding the President's own
eloquent words."
Doors opened and closed mysteriously. Officials and subofficials passed hurriedly to and fro. Whispered
conversations were heard... Hours passed. Finally the two prisoners were pompously told that they had
"obstructed the traffic" on Pennsylvania Avenue....
Document #43
New York Times June 27, 1917
The coveted goal of the American militant suffragists - a hunger strike in jail - appeared in sight today
when nine White House pickets who were arrested this morning-let it be known that they would go to jail
before they would pay a fine. This is taken as substantiation of oft-repeated talk in Washington that the
militant suffragists, are manoeuvering (sic) for a jail term so that they can start a hunger strike.
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Document #44
Doris Stevens, Jailed for Freedom
When the Administration refused to grant the demands of the prisoners and of that portion of the public
which supported them, for the rights of political prisoners, it was decided to resort to the ultimate protestweapon inside prison. A hunger strike was undertaken....
Little is known in this country about the weapon of the hunger strike. And so at first it aroused tremendous
indignation. "Let them starve to death," said the thoughtless one, who did not perceive that that was the
very thing a political administration could least afford to do. "Mad fanatics," said a kindlier critic. The
general opinion was that the hunger strike was "foolish."
During the suffrage campaign in England this weapon was used for the double purpose of forcing the
release of imprisoned militant suffragettes and of compelling the British government to act.
Document #45
Ernestine Hara Kettler, oral interview with Sherna Gluck, circa., 1974-1975.
So we were given thirty days. Before then, only the hard-core criminals like Alice Paul had been given
thirty days. After we were sentenced, we were taken to the city jail. That's where were cooked up our
political prisoner demands. We were political prisoners. We were not guilty of obstructing traffic. We were
not guilty of the sentence as charged. Therefore, we did not owe any kind of work in the workhouse. That
workhouse in Occoquan, Virginia, was a real workhouse - you worked or else.
Document #46
Doris Stevens, letter to her husband from jail, July, 1917.
My fainting probably means nothing except that I am not strong after these weeks. I know you won't be
alarmed. Alice Paul is in the psychopathic ward. She dreaded forcible feeding frightfully, and I hate to
think how she must be feeling. I have a nervous time of it, gasping a long time afterward, and my stomach
rejecting during the process. I spent a bad, restless night, but otherwise I am all right. The poor soul who
fed me got liberally besprinkled during the process. I heard myself making the most hideous sounds...This
morning, but for an astounding tiredness, I am all right. I am waiting to see what happens when the
President realizes that brutal bullying isn't quite a statesmanlike method for settling a demand for justice at
home.
Document #47
Doris Stevens, Jailed for Freedom
With thirty determined women on hunger strike, of whom eight were in a state of almost total collapse, the
Administration capitulated. It would not afford to feed thirty women forcibly and risk the social and
political consequences; nor could it let thirty women starve themselves to death, and likewise taken the
consequences... And so all the prisoners were unconditionally rleacted on November 27th and November
28th.... Immediately following the release of the prisoners and the magnificent demonstration of public
support of them ... political events happend thick and fast. Committees on Congress acted on the
amendment. President Wilson surrendered and a date for the vote was set.
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Document #48
President Woodrow Wilson, memo to his aide, Joseph Tumulty, November 17, 1917.
There is a great deal in what Mr. Brisbane [editor of the Washington Times] says about entire silence on
the part of the newspapers possibly provoking the less sane of these women to violent action. My own
suggestion would be that nothing that they do should be featured with headlines or put on the front page,
but that a bare, colorless chronicle of what they do should be all that was printed. That constitutes part of
the news, but it need not be made interesting reading.
Document #49
Maud Wood Park, Front Door Lobby
Mrs. Catt's plan had brought great results in the legislatures of 1917*, though at the moment, when
everybody's chief concern was the action likely to be taken about the war, we found it hard to get as much
attention for our successes as they deserved. Still, no one trained in politics could wholly overlook the
significance of the striking increase in electoral votes dependent, in part, upon women. In less than eight
months, state legislative action had raised our total from 91 to 172.
*The state legislatures of Ohio and Indiana granted presidential suffrage to women in February, 1917. In
March, Arkansas grated the right to vote in primary elections to women, the first breakthrough in the deep
South. Late in 1917, women gained the vote in Nebraska, Michigan and Rhode Island.
Editor's Note: In January, 1918, President Wilson set a message to Congress requesting the passage of the
woman suffrage amendment in order to aid in the winning of the war. Within a week, the House of
Representatives passed the amendment by a single vote beyond the 2\3 majority required. Maud Wood
Park (see document #49) argued that the increased support that had enabled the passage of the amendment
"was undoubtedly due to the belief in the inevitability of woman suffrage engendered by state legislative
victories the previous year."
The Senate, however, rejected the amendment.
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Document #50
Representative John A. Moon of Tennessee, speech in House of Representatives, January 10, 1918, on the
issue of the woman suffrage amendment.
It has been insisted that the real-purpose of this amendment is the basis for political legislation that will
ultimately deprive the Southern States of representation in part in Congress and their force in national
affairs ....
In those Southern States where the colored population outnumbers the white to double the number of
ignorant voters by giving the colored woman the right to vote would produce a condition that would be
absolutely intolerable. We owe something to the wishes and the sentiments of the people of our sister States
struggling to maintain law and order and white supremacy....
We are engaged now in a great foreign war. It is not the proper time to change the whole electoral system...
Patriotism, in my judgment, forbids the injection of this issue into national politics at this time.
Editor's Note: The woman suffrage amendment finally passed the Senate by the required 2\3 majority in
1919. It was ratified by the required 36th state in August, 1920.
The Amendment read:
Section I. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the united
States or by any State on account of sex.
Section II. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
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