History of Women in the United States: Volume 19/1 Women Suffrage [Reprint 2012 ed.] 9783110971064, 9783598414732

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HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES Historical Articles on Women's Lives and Activities

Edited by Nancy F. Cott Series ISBN 3-598-41454-4 1.

Theory and Method in Women's History ISBN 3-598-41455-2 Part 1 ISBN 3-598-41477-3 Part 2

2.

Household Constitution and Family Relationships ISBN 3-598-41456-0 Domestic Relations and Law ISBN 3-598-41457-9

3.

4.

Domestic Ideology and Domestic Work ISBN 3-598-41458-7 Part 1 ISBN 3-598-41475-7 Part 2

11.

Women's Bodies: Health and Childbirth ISBN 3-598-41465-X

12.

Education ISBN 3-598-41466-8

13.

Religion ISBN 3-598-41467-6

14.

Intercultural and Interracial Relations ISBN 3-598-41468-4

15.

Women and War ISBN 3-598-41469-2

16.

Women Together: Organizational Life ISBN 3-598-41470-6

17.

Social and Moral Reform ISBN 3-598-41471-4 Part 1 ISBN 3-598-41695-4 Part 2

5.

The Intersection of Work and Family Life ISBN 3-598-41459-5 Part 1 ISBN 3-598-41476-5 Part 2

6.

Working on the Land ISBN 3-598-41460-9

7.

Industrial Wage Work ISBN 3-598-41461-7 Part 1 ISBN 3-598-41693-8 Part 2

18.

Women and Politics ISBN 3-598-41472-2 Part 1 ISBN 3-598-41697-0 Part 2

8.

Professional and White-Collar Employments ISBN 3-598-41462-5 Part 1 ISBN 3-598-41694-6 Part 2

19.

Woman Suffrage ISBN 3-598-41473-0 Part 1 ISBN 3-598-41696-2 Part 2

20. 9.

Prostitution ISBN 3-598-41463-3

Feminist Struggles for Sex Equality ISBN 3-598-41474-9

10. Sexuality and Sexual Behavior ISBN 3-598-41464-1

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES Historical Articles on Women's Lives and Activities

•

Woman Suffrage

PART Ι

Edited with an Introduction by

Nancy F. Cott Yale University

K G · Saur Munich · New Providence · London · Paris · 1994

Publisher's Note The articles and chapters which comprise this collection originally appeared in a wide variety of publications and are reproduced here in facsimile from the highest quality offprints and photocopies available. The reader will notice some occasional marginal shading and text-curl common to photocopying from tightly bound volumes. Every attempt has been made to either correct or minimize this effect. Copyright information for articles reproduced in this collection appears at the end of this volume. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data History of women in the United States : historical articles on women's lives and activities / edited with an introduction by Nancy F. Cott. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. Contents: 1. Theory and method in women's history ~ 2. Household constitution and family relationships -- 3. Domestic relations and law -- 4. Domestic ideology and domestic work — 5. The intersection of work and family life — 6. Working on the land — 7. Industrial wage work — 8. Professional and white-collar employments — 9. Prostitution --10. Sexuality and sexual behavior --11. Women's bodies — 12. Education --13. Religion — 14. Intercultural and interracial relations — 15. Women and war — 16. Women together — 17. Social and moral reform — 18. Women and politics — 19. Woman suffrage — 20. Feminist struggles for sex equality. ISBN 3-598-41454-4 (set) 1. Women—United States—History. 2. Women—United States—Social conditions. I. Cott, Nancy F. HQ1410.H57 1992 305.4Ό973—dc20 92-16765 CIP

Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP - Einheitsaufnahme History of Women in the United States: historical articles on women's lives and activities / ed. with an introd. by Nancy F. Cott. - Munich ; New Providence ; London ; Paris : Saur. ISBN 3-598-41454-4 NE: Cott, Nancy F. (Hrsg.) Vol. 19. woman suffrage - (1994) Pt. 1. - (1994) ISBN 3-598-41473-0

®

Printed on acid-free paper/Gedruckt auf säurefreiem Papier All Rights Strictly Reserved/Alle Rechte vorbehalten K.G. Saur Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Munich 1994 A Reed Reference Publishing Company Printed in the United States of America Printed/Bound by Edwards Brothers Incorporated, Ann Arbor ISBN 3-598-41473-0 (vol. 19/part 1) ISBN 3-598-41454-4 (series)

Contents Series Preface Introduction

ix xi

Part 1 The Radicalism of the Woman Suffrage Movement: Notes toward the Reconstruction of Nineteenth-Century Feminism ELLEN DuBOIS

3

Separate Paths: Suffragists and the Women's Temperance Crusade JACK S. BLOCKER, JR

12

The Case for Domestic Feminism: Woman Suffrage in Wyoming VIRGINIA SCHARFF

29

Woman Suffrage and the Massachusettes "Referendum" of 1895 JAMES J. KENNEALLY

52

Woman's Place Is in the Constitution: The Struggle for Equal Rights in Utah in 1895 JEAN BICKMORE WHITE

69

A Half Century of Struggle: Gaining Woman Suffrage in Kansas WILDA M. SMITH

95

Working Women, Class Relations, and Suffrage Militance: Harriot Stanton Blatch and the New York Woman Suffrage Movement, 1894-1909 ELLEN CAROL DuBOIS

147

Leadership and Tactics in the American Woman Suffrage Movement: A New Perspective from Massachusetts SHARON HARTMAN STROM

172

The Woman Suffrage Movement in Mississippi, 1890-1920 A. ELIZABETH TAYLOR

192

ν

CONTENTS

Kate Gordon and the Woman-Suffrage Movement in the South KENNETH R. JOHNSON

226

Kate Gordon and Louisiana Woman Suffrage B. H. GILLEY

254

Tactical Problems of the Woman-Suffrage Movement in the South AI LEEN S. KRADITOR

272

The 1912 Suffrage Referendum: An Exercise in Political Action MARILYN GRANT

291

The Woman Suffrage Movement in Washington T. A. LARSON

318

The Montana Woman Suffrage Campaign, 1911-14 RONALD SCHAFFER

352

Part 2 The Problem of Conciousness in the Woman Suffrage Movement: A California Perspective RONALD SCHAFFER

367

Sue Shelton White and the Woman Suffrage Movement in Tennessee, 1913-20 JAMES P. LOUIS

392

Woman Suffrage and the Urban Masses JOSEPH F. MAHONEY

413

The Urban Political Machine and Woman Suffrage: A Study in Political Adaptability JOHN D. BUENKER

437

vi

CONTENTS

The New York City Woman Suffrage Party, 1909-1919 RONALD SCHAFFER

453

Building a Winning Coalition: The Suffrage Fight in New York State DORIS DANIELS

472

Jewish Involvement in the New York City Woman Suffrage Movement ELINOR LERNER

495

Sexual Warfare in the Silent Cinema: Comedies and Melodramas of Woman Suffragism KAY SLOAN

515

Woman Suffrage in the Progressive Era: Patterns of Opposition and Support in Referenda Voting, 1910-1918 EILEEN L. McDONAGH and H. DOUGLAS PRICE

540

Fighting the Odds: Militant Suffragists in South Carolina SIDNEY R. BLAND

586

Delaware's Woman Suffrage Campaign CAROL E. HOFFECKER

598

Woman Suffrage in South Dakota: The Final Decade, 1911-1920 PATRICIA O'KEEFE EASTON

617

Women Anti-Suffragists in the 1915 Massachusetts Campaign LOUISE L. STEVENSON

638

Male Opponents and Supporters of Woman Suffrage: Iowa in 1916 THOMAS G. RYAN

652

vii

CONTENTS

Along the Suffrage Trail: From West to East for Freedom Now! AMELIA FRY

666

Copyright Information

685

Index

689

viii

Series Preface In the space of one generation, women's history has become the fastest-growing area of scholarship in U.S. history. Since the resurgence of feminism in the late 1960s and 1970s, insistent questions about the historical meanings of "woman's place" have sowed and reaped a garden of scholarship. Where scholarly works used to be bare of mention of women, academic enterprise has now produced a vigorous growth of books and articles, bringing to light diverse women of every region, race, class and age. This research is marked by a renovating intent that refuses to accept as "human" history a history of men. Interest is lively and debate is stimulating and sought after: attendance at the Berkshire Conference on the History of Women rivals the size of the annual convention of the American Historical Association. While books in women's history are daily increasing in numbers and strength, as in any fast-developing field the scholarly literature in the form of articles is most expansive and up-to-the-minute. All the history journals now publish articles on women's work, domestic settings, family relations, household matters, female politics and organizations and so forth, and new journals have sprung into being to concentrate on such topics. Women's historians publish in numerous regional and thematic history journals as well as in feminist outlets and in journals of other social science disciplines. This series brings together a collection of outstanding articles from the field, almost all written in the past twenty years and more than half published during the 1980s. It brings together, in volumes organized by topic, essays otherwise widely dispersed. These volumes reprint only articles that originally appeared in journals, not chapters of books; review articles are not included. Articles have been chosen for overall quality and for range. Each one was chosen for one or more of the following reasons: because it is the standard authority on its subject matter; represents an important statement on a topic by a recognized scholar; presages an important book to come; provides a first look at new evidence or new methods; or opens an untapped area or new controversy. Older articles have been reprinted if their data or interpretation have not been surpassed or if they marked an important stage in the historiography, even if since superseded. The historical coverage of the series extends from the Revolutionary era to the 1960s. The articles themselves are dated from the 1940s through 1988. Volumes are organized by topic rather than time period. Within each volume, the

ix

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SERIES PREFACE

articles are ordered chronologically (with respect to substance), so that the whole can be read as an historical overview. The only exception to this ordering principle is Volume One, on Theory and Method, in which the contents are arranged in order of publication. Within each volume there is an attempt to include articles on as diverse kinds of women as possible. None of the volume topics is regionally or racially defined; rather, all volumes are topically designed so as to afford views of women's work, family lives, and public activities which cut across races and regions. Any volume in the series stands on its own, supplying as full a treatment of a designated subject matter as the scholarly literature will provide. Several groupings of volumes also make sense; that is, volumes two through five all center around domestic and family matters; volumes five through nine consider other varieties of women's work; volumes nine through eleven concern uses and abuses of women's bodies; volumes twelve through fourteen look at major aspects of socialization; and volumes fifteen through twenty include organizational and political efforts of many sorts. As a whole, the series displays in all its range the vitality of the field of women's history. Aside from imbuing U.S. history with new vision, scholarship in this area has informed, and should continue to inform, current public debate on issues from parental leave to the nuclear freeze. By bringing historical articles together under topical headings, these volumes both represent accurately the shape of historical controversy (or consensus) on given issues and make historians' findings most conveniently available for current reference.

Introduction For many years the only mention women received in most history books had to do with their campaign at the national level to gain the vote—a campaign which fit in with traditional focus on "past politics" as the real stuff of history. Treatment of that almost century-long effort was usually perfunctory. The national woman suffrage campaign has not commanded so much of historians' interest lately as, for instance, women's work; but there has been an important harvest of articles on suffrage campaigns in the various states. Probably most of women's agitation for the ballot was carried on at the local and state level. This was always the approach of the American Woman Suffrage Association, from its founding in 1869 by Lucy Stone and other former activists in the antislavery movement. There was considerable warrant for this approach, since the U.S. Constitution gave to the states the power to regulate elections, and registration requirements varied from state to state. The National Woman Suffrage Association, however, founded the same year by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, took its inspiration and national approach from the example of the recently-passed Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which prevented racial bars to voting without removing the barrier of sex. Stanton and Anthony initially looked to the federal government to enfranchise women through legal or constitutional means, although the organization always forwarded state-level campaigns as well. When these two groups merged into the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1890, the composite organization continued the state-by-state approach to gaining the ballot Historians generally date the beginning of the woman suffrage movement from 1848, when a meeting called by Elizabeth Cady Stanton first included that demand along with a host of others in a rousing woman's rights "Declaration of Sentiments." Over the next couple of decades, scorn and ridicule were probably the most effective weapons against the amassing of a large movement on behalf of the ballot. In the aftermath of the Civil War, both because of the example of constitutional enfranchisement of previously powerless black males, and because of the emergence to civic prom inence of women in war service, the ballot for women no longer seemed so impossible. The movement gained strength, although nothing near the female constituency for temperance or more widely diffused social reform; it generated hostility among some women who believed that their sex had apolitical role to play differentfrommen's, and even greater hostility from male publicists and politicians. Even among the minority who advocated woman suffrage, deep divisions over philosophy and strategy existed, as indicated by the formation of xi

xii

INTRODUCTION

two rival suffrage organizations in 1869. In 1890, the year that the formation of the National American Woman Suffrage Association signalled the end of Civil-War era differences among suffragists, the new state of Wyoming entered the Union with woman suffrage a provision of its constitution. The same was true of Utah in 1896. The 1890s seemed to be looking up, as suffragists also succeeded in their campaigns in Colorado (1893) and Idaho (1896). But there the ledger stood on states with voting women until 1910. This was not for lack of trying. Between 1870 and 1910, suffragists mounted 480 campaigns in 33 states, each time trying to offer a woman suffrage referendum to the state's voters, but only 55 referenda were fielded as a result, and Colorado and Idaho were the two lone successes of the 55.' A victory in the state of Washington in 1910 marked the beginning of a new phase, however, and the successful referendum in populous California in 1911 touched off rising expectations nationwide. New vigor and interest in the ballot was expressed by women in the 1910s. Multiple, sometimes rival suffrage organizations sprung up at the grass roots in neighborhoods, colleges, trades, professions and clubs. The leadership of the National American Woman Suffrage Association had little to do with it: the energy was sproutingfrombelow. The suffrage movement of the 1910s wasagenuine mass movement, encompassing the broadest spectrum of ideas and participants ever since 1848. Never before had such large numbers of women worked together to gain the ballot. Yet the 1910s movement showed two seemingly contradictory tendencies, for the goal-oriented unity among women came along with the loud emergence of diversity and conflicts in these women's supplementary aims. This was the only decade in which suffrage groups found ready recruits among working-class women and wage-earners, and at the same time among the rich, elite women who had formerly been indifferent or opposed. There had been black advocates of woman suffrage since the Civil War, but the 1910s was the only decade in which large numbers of black women avidly pursued suffrage, although they knew that white Southern suffragists were arguing that the vote for women would increase the white majority. And this was the decade in which young college women and aging matrons, political moderates and radical left-wingers m ight be found standing on the same platforms. The intensity of the 1910s campaigns was astounding, the amount of womanpower involved awesome. In the New Jersey campaign of 1915, for instance, suffragists distributed over one and one-half million pieces of literature, conducted almost three thousand meetings, and gave suffrage news out to two hundred newspapers. For the New York referendum the same year, suffrage workers canvassed almost four hundred thousand voters, printed and distributed almost three million leaflets, and held nearly six thousand meetings.2 Neither the New York or New Jersey referendum of 1915 succeeded. By that point, suffragists were reviewing the state-by-state route with new eyes. The possibility of enfranchising all the nation's women by means of a constitutional

INTRODUCTION

xiii

amendment seemed highly appealing and newly possible. Two young women, Alice Paul and Lucy Bums, founded a new national suffrage organization, the Congressional Union—soon to be renamed the Woman's Party—in 1913, with the constitutional aim foremost. Its conflicts with the National American Suffrage Association over tactics and strategy multiplied the points of friction among American women in the 191 Os, but the two organizations, apart and together, orchestrated the passage and ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1919 and 1920. This volume includes some older articles on state suffrage campaigns still valuable for the data they provide and adds more recent treatments, which look at suffragists more critically in terms of their social attitudes, class and racial biases, and political methods. The movement for woman suffrage was the greatest democratic movement in U.S. history, with regard to the numbers enfranchised, and the contents of this volume display in full range both the nobility and the limitations of its advocates. Notes 1

The best overviews of the suffrage campaigns are Eleanor Flexner, Century of Struggle: The Woman's Rights Movement in the United States (N.Y., Atheneum, 1970), and Anne F. and Andrew Scott, One Half the People (Phila., Lippincott, 1975). 2 See Joseph Mahoney, "Woman Suffrage and the Urban Masses," N J . Hist 87 (1969) and Doris Daniels, "Building a Winning Coalition: The Suffrage Fight in Ν. Y. State," NY History 60 (Jan. 1979), reprinted in this volume.

Woman Suffrage

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

3

THE RADICALISM OF THE WOMAN S U F F R A G E MOVEMENT: NOTES TOWARD THE RECONSTRUCTION OF NINETEENTH-CENTURY FEMINISM Ellen DuBois

The major theoretical contribution o f contemporary feminism has been the identification of the family as a central institution o f women's oppression. 1 On the basis of this understanding we are seeing the beginnings o f a revisionist history o f American feminism which challenges the significance that has traditionally been attributed to the woman suffrage movement. Aileen Kraditor and William O'Neill have suggested that the woman suffrage movement did not lead to female emancipation because it accepted women's traditional position within the home.^ While attacking this "whatwent-wrong" approach, Daniel Scott Smith has contended that suffragism should yield its claim to the central place in the history o f nineteenth-century feminism to a phenomenon he calls " d o m e s t i c f e m i n i s m . " 4 Similarly, in her study o f the female moral reform movement of the 1 8 3 0 s , Carroll Smith-Rosenberg argues that "it can hardly be assumed that the demand for votes for women was more radical t h a n " the moral reform movement's attack on the sexual double standard. 4 These revisionist efforts are c o m m e n d a b l e in that they expand our sense of nineteenth-century feminism to include a m u c h larger and more diverse group o f women's activities than merely suffrage. On the other hand, I think they do an historical disservice to the woman suffrage movement. Nineteenth-century feminists and antifeminists alike perceived the demand for the vote as the most radical element in women's protest against their oppression and we are obligated to honor the perceptions o f the historical actors in question. When considering nineteenth-century feminism, not as an intellectual tradition but as a social movement, as a politics that motivated people to action, twentieth-century historians are in no position to redefine what was its most radical aspect. What we can d o is analyze the position of nineteenth-century women and the nature o f suffragism in order to understand why the demand for the vote was the most radical program for w o m e n ' s emancipation possible in the nineteenth century. I would like to suggest an interpretation o f nineteenth-century suffragism that reconciles the perceived radicalism o f the w o m a n suffrage movement with the historical centrality o f the family to w o m e n ' s condition. My hypothesis is that the significance of the woman suffrage movement rested precisely on the fact that it bypassed women's oppression within the family, or private sphere, and demanded instead her admission to citizenship, and through it admission to the public arena. By focusing

4

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

on the public sphere, and particularly on citizenship, suffragists demanded for women a kind of power and a connection with the social order not based on the institution of the family and their subordination within it. Recent scholarship has suggested that the sharp distinction between public and private activities is a relatively modern historical phenomenon. In his work on the evolution of the idea of childhood in Western Europe, Phillipe Aries demonstrates that there was considerable overlap between family life and community life in the premodern period. He traces a gradual separation of public and private life from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth century, when "family" and "society" came finally to be viewed as distinct, even hostile institutions.^ This development seems to be have been clear and compact in American history. In seventeenth-century New England, all community functions—production, socialization, civil government, religious life—presumed the family as the basic unit of social organization. ^ The whole range of social roles drew on familial roles. The adult male's position as producer, as citizen, as member of the church, all flowed from his position as head of the family. Similarly, women's exclusion from church and civil government and their secondary but necessary role in production coincided with their subordinate position within the family. 7 A few women enjoyed unusual economic or social privileges by virtue of their family connections, but, as Gerda Lerner has pointed out, this further demonstrated women's dependence on their domestic positions for the definition of their roles in community life. 8 By the nineteenth century, this relationship between family and society had undergone considerable change. Although the family continued to perform many important social functions, it was no longer the sole unit around which the community was organized. The concept of the "individual" had emerged to rival it. In the nineteenth century, we can distinguish two forms of social organization—one based on this new creature, the individual, the other based on the family. These overlapping but distinct structures became identified respectively as the public sphere and the private sphere. The emergence of a form of social organization not based on the family meant the emergence of social roles not defined by familial roles. This was equally true for women and men. But because women and men had different positions within the family, the existence of nonfamilial roles had different implications for the sexes. For women, the emergence of a public sphere held out the revolutionary possibility of a new way to relate to society not defined by their subordinate position within the family. However, only men emerged from their familial roles to enjoy participation in the public sphere. Women on the whole did not. Women were of course among the first industrial workers, but it is important to remember that these were overwhelmingly unmarried women, for whom factory work was a brief episode before marriage. Adult women remained almost entirely within the private sphere, defined politically, economically, and socially by their familial roles. Thus, the public sphere became man's arena; the private, woman's. This gave the public/private distinction a clearly sexual character. This phenomenon, canonized as the nineteenth-century doctrine of sexual spheres, is somewhat difficult for us to grasp. We are fond of pointing out the historical durability of sexual roles into our own time and miss the enormous difference between the twentieth-

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

5

century notion of sexual roles and the nineteenth-century idea of sexual spheres. The difference is a measure of the achievements of nineteenth-century feminism. The contradiction between the alternative to familial roles that activity in the public sphere offered and the exclusion of women f r o m such activity was particularly sharp with respect to civil government. In seventeenth-century New England, citizenship was justified on the basis of familial position; the freeholder was at once the head of the household and a citizen. By contrast, nineteenth-century citizenship was posed as a direct relationship between the individual and his government. In other words, patriarchy was no longer the official basis of civil government in modern industrial democracy. However, in reality only men were permitted to become citizens. The exclusion of women from participation in political life in the early nineteenth century was so absolute and unchallenged that it did not require explicit proscription. It was simply assumed that political "persons" were male. The U. S. Constitution did not specify the sex of citizens until the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1869, after women had begun actively to demand the vote. Prior to that, the equation between "male" and " p e r s o n , " the term used in the Constitution, was implicit. The same by the way was true of the founding charter of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Written in 1833, it defined the society's membership as "persons," but for six years admitted only men into that category. The doctrine of separate sexual spheres was supreme in the nineteenth century and even sufragists were unable to challenge certain basic aspects of it. Most notably, they accepted the particular suitability of women to domestic activities and therefore their special responsibility for the private sphere, and did not project a reorganization of the division of labor within the home. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, pioneer suffragist and minister, asserted, " T h e paramount social duties of women are household duties, avocations arising f r o m their relations as wives and mothers. . . . The work nearest and dearest before the eyes of average womanhood is work within family boundaries—work within a sphere which men cannot e n t e r . " ' No suffragist of whom I am aware, including the otherwise iconoclastic Elizabeth Cady Stanton, seriously suggested that men take equal responsibilities with women for domestic activities. "Sharing housework" may be a more uniquely twentieth-century feminist demand than "smashing monoga m y . " To nineteenth-century feminists, domestic activities seemed as "naturally" female as childbearing, and as little subject to social manipulation. Although suffragists accepted the peculiarly feminine character of the private sphere, their demand for t h e vote challenged the male monopoly on the public arena. This is what gave suffragism much of its feminist meaning. Suffragists accepted women's "special responsibility" for domestic activity, but refused to concede that it prohibited them f r o m participation in the public sphere. Moreover, unlike the demand that women be admitted to trades, professions, and education, the demand for citizenship applied to all w o m e n and it applied to them all of the time—to the housewife as much as to the single, self-supporting woman. By demanding a permanent, public role for all women, suffragists began t o demolish the absolute, sexually defined barrier marking the public world of men off f r o m the private world of women. Even though they did

6

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

not develop a critical analysis of domestic life, the dialectical relationship between public and private spheres transformed their demand for admission to the public sphere into a basic challenge to the entire sexual structure. Thus, although she never criticized women's role in the family, Stanton was still able to write: "One may as well talk of separate spheres for the two ends of the magnet as for man and woman; they may have separate duties in the same sphere, but their true place is together everywhere." 1 0 Suffragists' demand for a permanent, public role for all women allowed them to project a vision of female experience and action that went beyond the family and the subordination of women which the family upheld. Citizenship represented a relationship to the larger society that was entirely and explicitly outside the boundaries of women's familial relations. As citizens and voters, women would participate directly in society as individuals, not indirectly through their subordinate positions as wives and mothers. Mary Putnam Jacobi identified this as the revolutionary core of suffragism. The American state, she explained, is based on "individual cells," not households. She went on: "Confessedly, in embracing in this conception women, we do introduce a change which, though in itself purely ideal, underlies all the practical issues now in dispute. In this essentially modern conception, women also are brought into direct relations with the State, independent of their 'mate* or ' b r o o d ' . " 1 1 Without directly attacking women's position within the private sphere, suffragists touched the nerve of women's subordinate status by contending that women might be something other than wives and mothers. "Womanhood is the great fact in her life," Stanton was fond of saying; "wifehood and motherhood are but incidental relations." 1 ^ On one level, the logic behind the demand for woman suffrage in a country professing republican principles is obvious, and suffragists made liberal use of t h e tradition and rhetoric of the Revolution. Yet this is not sufficient to explain why suffrage became the core of a feminist program, why enfranchisement was perceived as the key to female liberation. I hypothesize that because enfranchisement involved a way for women to relate to society independent of their familial relations, it was the key demand of nineteenth-century feminists. It was the cornerstone of a social movement that did not simply catalogue and protest women's wrongs in the existing sexual order, but revealed the possibility of an alternate sexual order. Unlike the tradition of female protest, from the moral reformers of the 1830s to the temperance w o m e n of the 1880s, which was based in the private sphere and sought to reinterpret women's place within it, suffragism focused squarely on the public sphere. In part, the feminist, liberating promise of enfranchisement rested on t h e concrete power that suffragists expected to obtain with the vote. Suffragists expected women to use the ballot to protect themselves and to impose their viewpoint on political issues. They anticipated that by strategic use of their political power women would break open new occupations, raise the level of their wage scales to that of men, win strikes, and force reforms in marriage and family law in order to protect themselves f r o m sexual abuse, the loss of their children, and the unchecked tyranny of their husbands. The demand for suffrage drew together protest against all these abuses in a single demand for the right to shape the social order by way of the public sphere. No longer content

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

7

either with maternal influence over the future voter's character or an endless series of petitions f r o m women to law makers, suffragists proposed that women participate directly in the political decisions that affected their lives. "Like all disfranchised classes, they began by asking to have certain wrongs redressed," Stanton wrote. But suffragism went beyond what she called "special grievances" to give women's protest "a larger scope." 1 -' In evaluating suffragists' expectations of the power that the vote would bring women, it is important to keep in mind the structure of political power in the nineteenth century. Political decisions were less centralized in the federal government and more significant at the local level than they are now. Herbert Gutman's analysis of the assistance which local politicians gave labor activists in nineteenth-century Patterson, New Jersey suggests that Susan B. Anthony's prediction that woman suffrage would win women's strikes had some basis in reality. 1 4 Even granted the greater power of the individual voter over political decisions that would affect her or his life, suffragists did not understand the ballot as merely a weapon with which to protect their interests in the political process. They also expected enfranchisement to transform woman's consciousness, to reanchor her self-image, not in the subordination of her familial role, but in the individuality and self-determination that they saw in citizenship. This was a particularly important aspect of the political thought of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the chief ideologue of nineteenth-century suffragism. It is developed most fully in "Solitude of Self," the speech she thought her best. She wrote there: "Nothing strengthens the judgment and quickens the conscience like individual responsibility. Nothing adds such dignity to character as the recognition of one's self-sovereignty." 1 5 Elsewhere, she wrote that, from the "higher stand-point" of enfranchisement, woman would become sensitive to the daily indignities which, without due appreciation for her own individuality, she ignored and accepted. 1 ** She developed the theme of the impact of enfranchisement on women's self-concept most fully in a speech simply titled, "Self-Government the Best Means of Self-Development."17 Given the impact on consciousness that suffragists expected from the vote, they generally refused to redirect their efforts toward such partial enfranchisements as municipal or school suffrage. Although these limited suffrages would give women certain political powers, they were suffrages designed especially for women and justified on the basis of women's maternal responsibilities. Their achievement would not necessarily prove women's right to full and equal participation in the public sphere. Suffragists did not simply want political power; they wanted to be citizens, to stand in the same relation t o civil government as men did. As a result, it was primarily clubwomen who worked for school and municipal suffrage, while those who identified themselves as suffragists continued to concentrate o n the admission of women to full citizenship. 1 ® An important index to the nature and degree of suffragism's challenge to the nineteenth-century sexual order was the kind and amount of opposition that it inspired. Antisuffragists focused on the family, its position vis-a-vis the state, and the revolutionary impact of female citizenship on that relation. In response to suffragists' de-

8

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

mand that modern democracy include women, antisuffragists tried to reinstate a patriarchal theory o f society and the s t a t e . 1 ' The family, they contended, was the virtual, if not the official unit o f civil government, and men represented and protected the women o f their families in political affairs. Antisuffragists regularly charged that the enfranchisement o f women would revolutionize the relations o f the sexes and, in turn, the character and structure o f the home and women's role within it. The 1 8 6 7 New York Constitutional Convention expressed this fear for the future o f the family when it rejected suffrage because it was an innovation " s o revolutionary and sweeping, so openly at war with a distribution o f duties and functions between the sexes as venerable and pervading as government itself, and involving transformations so radical in social and domestic l i f e . " 2 0 Most suffragists were much more modest about the implications o f enfranchisement for women's position within the family. They expected reform of family law, particularly of the marriage contract, and the abolition of such inequities as the husband's legal right to his wife's sexual services. They also anticipated that the transformation in woman's consciousness which enfranchisement would bring would improve the quality of family relations, particularly between wife and husband. Stanton argued that once women were enfranchised they would demand that democracy be the law of the family, as well as o f the s t a t e . 2 1 Her comment suggests that, by introducing women into a form o f social organization not based on patriarchal structures, she expected enfranchisement to permit women a much more critical perspective on the family itself. However, suffragists regularly denied the antisuffragists' charge that woman suffrage meant a revolution in the family. Most would have agreed with Jacobi that, if antisuffragists wanted to argue that familial bonds were mere "political contrivances," requiring the disfranchisement o f women to sustain them, suffragists had considerably more faith in the family as a "natural institution," able to survive women's entry into the public sphere. 2 2 Suffragists worked hard to attract large numbers o f women to the demand for the vote. They went beyond the methods o f agitational propaganda which they had learned as abolitionists, and beyond the skills o f lobbying which they had developed during Radical Reconstruction, to become organizers. As suffragists' efforts at outreach intensified, the family-bound realities o f most women's lives forced more and more domestic imagery into their rhetoric and their arguments. Y e t suffrage remained a distinctly minority movement in the nineteenth century. The very thing that made suffragism the most radical aspect o f nineteenth feminism—its focus on the public sphere and on a nonfamilial role for women—was the cause o f its failure to establish a mass base. It was not that nineteenth-century women were content, or had no grievances, but that they understood their grievances in the context o f the private sphere. The lives o f most nineteenth-century women were overwhelmingly limited to the private realities of wifehood and motherhood, and they experienced their discontent in the context of those relations. The enormous success o f the Women's Christian Temperance Union, particularly as contrasted with the nineteenth-century suffrage movement, indicates the capacity for protest and activism among nineteenth-century women, and the fact

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

9

that this mass feminism was based in the private sphere. The WCTU commanded an army in the nineteenth century, while woman suffrage remained a guerrilla force. Unlike the woman suffrage movement, the WCTU took as its starting point woman's position within the home; it catalogued the abuses she suffered there and it proposed reforms necessary to ameliorate her domestic situation. As the WCTU developed, its concerns went beyond the family to include the quality of community life, but its standard for nonfamilial relations remained the family and the moral values women had developed within it. The WCTU spoke to women in the language of their domestic realities, and they joined in the 1870s and 1880s in enormous numbers. Anchored in the private realm, the WCTU became the mass movement that nineteenth-century suffragism could not. The WCTU's program reflected the same social reality that lay beyond suffragism— that the family was losing its central place in social organization to nondomestic institutions, from the saloon to the school to the legislature, and that w o m a n ' s social power was accordingly weakened. Yet the WCTU, Luddite-like, defended the family and women's traditional but fast-fading authority within it. Its m o t t o s reflected this defensive goal: " F o r God and Home and Native Land"; "Home Protection." In 1883, the WCTU formally endorsed the demand for female enfranchisement, but justified its action as necessary to protect the home and women within it, thus retaining its familybased analysis and its defensive character. The first resolutions introduced by Frances Willard in support of suffrage asked for the vote for women in their roles as wives and mothers, to enable them to protect their homes from the influence of the saloon. 2 -' This was the woman suffrage movement's approach to female oppression and the problem of spheres stood on its head—women entering the public arena to protect the primacy of the private sphere, and women's position within it. Yet, the very fact that the WCTU had to come to terms with suffrage and eventually supported it indicates that the woman suffrage movement had succeeded in becoming the defining focus of nineteenth-century feminism, with respect to which all organized female protest had to orient itself. Even though the WCTU organized and commanded the forces, the woman suffrage movement had defined the territory. Suffrage became a mass movement in the twentieth century under quite different conditions, when women's position vis-a-vis the public and private spheres had shifted considerably. Despite, or perhaps because of, the home-based ideology with which they operated, the WCTU, women's clubs, and other branches of nineteenth-century feminism had introduced significant numbers of women to extradomestic concerns. 2 ^ Charlotte Perkins Gilman noted the change among women in 1903: " T h e socialising of this hitherto subsocial, wholly domestic class, is a marked and marvellous event, now taking place with astonishing r a p i d i t y . " 2 5 Similarly, Susan B. A n t h o n y commented at the 1888 International Council of Women: " F o r t y years ago w o m e n had no place anywhere except in their homes, no pecuniary independence, no purpose in life save that which came through marriage. . . . [ I ] η later years the way has been opened to every avenue of industry—to every profession. . . . What is true in the world of work is true in education, is true everywhere." 2 ^ At the point that it could attract a mass

10

H I S T O R Y O F W O M E N IN T H E U N I T E D S T A T E S

base, suffragism no longer opened up such revolutionary vistas for w o m e n ; they were already operating in the public world o f work and politics. The scope and meaning of twentieth-century suffragism requires its own analysis, but the achievement o f nineteenth century suffragists was that they identified, however haltingly, a fundamental transformation o f the family and the new possibilities for women's emancipation that this revealed.

NOTES i T h e clearest exposition of this is Juliet 1971). 2 Aileen Kraditor, Up From the Pedestal O'Neill, " F e m i n i s m as a Radical I d e o l o g y , " Radicalism, ed., Alfred F. Y o u n g (De Kalb,

Mitchell, Women's

Estate

(Baltimore: Penguin Books,

(Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1968), pp. 21-24. William L. in Dissent: Explorations in the History of American 111.: Northern Illinois University Press, 1 9 6 8 ) , p. 2 8 4 .

^Daniel Scott S m i t h , " F a m i l y L i m i t a t i o n , Sexual Control and Domestic Feminism in Victorian America," Feminist Studies 1, n o . 3 / 4 (1973): 40-57; reprinted in Clio's Consciousness Raised, eds., Mary Hartman and Lois W. Banner (New York: Harper T o r c h b o o k s , 1 9 7 4 ) . ^Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, " B e a u t y , the Beast, the and Militant W o m a n : Sex Roles and Social Stress in Jacksonian America," /IraeriMti Quarterly 2 3 (1971): 5 8 4 . ^Phillipe Aries, Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life (New Y o r k : Vintage Books, 1 9 6 2 ) , especially pp. 365-407. ^ E d m u n d Morgan, The Puritan Family: Religion and Domestic Relations in Seventeenth-Century New England (New York: Harper and Row, 1966), especially chapter 6. J o h n D e m o s , A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colony (New Y o r k : O x f o r d University Press, 1 9 7 0 ) , pp. 2-11. ^Morgan, The Puritan Family, chapter 2. Demos, A Little Commonwealth, pp. 82-84. 8(Jerda Lerner, " T h e Lady and the Mill Girl: Changes in the S t a t u s of Women in t h e Age of J a c k s o n , " Midcontinent American Studies Journal 10 (1969): 6. 9 A n t o i n e t t e Brown Blackwell, " R e l a t i o n of Woman's Work in the Household t o t h e Work Outside," reprinted in Kraditor, Up From the Pedestal, p. 151. ^ E l i z a b e t h Cady S t a n t o n , " S p e e c h to the 1885 National Suffrage C o n v e n t i o n , " in History of Woman Suffrage, eds., Elizabeth Cady S t a n t o n , Susan B. A n t h o n y , and Matilda J o s l y n Gage ( R o c h e s t e r , N.Y.: Susan B. A n t h o n y , 1889), vol. 4, p. 5 8 . Ü M a r y P u t n a m J a c o b i , "Common Sense" Applied to Woman Suffrage (New Y o r k : P u t n a m , 1 8 9 4 ) , p. 1 3 8 . l ^ S t a n t o n , " I n t r o d u c t i o n , " History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 1, p. 22. 1 3 l b i d „ p. 15. l ^ H e r b e r t G u t m a n , "Class, Status, and C o m m u n i t y Power in N i n e t e e n t h Century American Industrial Cities—Paterson, New J e r s e y : A Case S t u d y , " in The Age of Industrialism in A merica, ed., Frederic C. J a h e r (New York: Free Press, 1968), pp. 263-87. For A n t h o n y ' s prediction o n the impact of w o m a n suffrage on w o m e n ' s strikes, see "Woman Wants Bread, not the B a l l o t , " reprinted in The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, ed., Ida Husted Harper (Indianapolis a n d Kansas C i t y : Bower-Merrill Co., 1898), vol. 2, pp. 9 9 6 - 1 0 0 3 . ^ E l i z a b e t h Cady S t a n t o n , " S o l i t u d e of S e l f , " reprinted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, pp. 189-91. l ^ S t a n t o n , " I n t r o d u c t i o n ' , " History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 1, p. 18. l ^ S t a n t o n , "Self-Government the Best Means of Self-Development," reprinted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, pp. 40-42.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE 18

11

S e e Lois B. Merk, " B o s t o n ' s Historical Public School Crisis," New England Quarterly 3 1 ( 1 9 5 8 ) : 196-202. for instance, Orestes Brownson, " T h e Woman Q u e s t i o n , " in Kraditor, Up From the Pedestal, pp. 192-94. 2 0 " R e p o r t o n t h e C o m m i t t e e on S u f f r a g e , " reprinted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 2, p. 285. 21 Elizabeth Cady S t a n t o n , " T h e Family, the State, and the C h u r c h , " unpublished manuscript speech, Elizabeth Cady S t a n t o n Papers, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division. 2 2 j a c o b i , "Common Sense," p. 108. 2^Mary E a r h a r t , Frances Willard: From Prayers to Politics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944), c h a p t e r 10. 2^This process is described in Anne Firor S c o t t , The Southern Lady: From Pedestal to Politics 1830-1930 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970), chapter 6. 25 C h a r l o t t e Perkins Gilman, The Home: Its Work and Influence (New Y o r k : McClure, Phillips, & Co., 1903), p. 3 2 5 . 26S usan B. A n t h o n y , " I n t r o d u c t o r y R e m a r k s , " Report of the International Council of Women assembled by t h e National W o m a n Suffrage Association (Washington, D.C.: R u f u s H. Darby, Printer, 1888), p. 31. Note: I wish t o t h a n k Amy Bridges, Mari J o Buhle, Ann D. G o r d o n , Linda G o r d o n , Carolyn Korsemeyer, and Rochell Ruthchild for their c o m m e n t s and suggestions on earlier versions o f this article.

12

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

Separate Paths: Suffragists and the Women's Temperance Crusade

Jack S. Blocker, Jr.

For students of the dialectic between human condition and response, nineteenth-century American women represent a special problem. Because we still live in the shadow of their world, we are often tempted to take what we share with them as a reliable guide to their experience. But in doing so, we risk oversimplifying and thereby misunderstanding both the conditions faced by nineteenth-century women and their responses. Women reformers are a case in point. During the nineteenth century, women organized for change in a variety of movements besides suffrage—most notably temperance, antislavery, and moral reform. Yet no matter what goal they sought, analysis of their actions usually begins— and too often ends—with the question. Were thev feminists? Because their world contained, sometimes in exaggerated form, many of the elements against which late twentieth-century feminists struggle, the question is a natural one. But because their world contained other elements as well, a focus on feminism's presence or absence in women's reform activities can be misleading. Of nineteenth-century women's reform movements, temperance was by far the largest. From the beginning of their organized activity in the 1820s, women evidently contributed between one-third and one-half of the temperance movement's mass support. But until 1873 they worked Research and analysis for this article were supported by a grant f r o m the Social Sciences a n d Humanities Research Council of Canada. I wish to thank Susan Margaret Smith Blocker, Craig Simpson, and three anonymous Signs reviewers for their comments on earlier versions. All citations in the notes are to 1874 meetings or publications unless otherwise indicated.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE primarilv t h r o u g h organizations h e a d e d by men. 1 The Women's T e m p e r a n c e (Crusade of 1873-74 b r o u g h t t h o u s a n d s of new women into the fold, and their action created the first large-scale t e m p e r a n c e movement speci(icall\ In and for women. The Crusade's successor, the Woman's Christian T e m p e r a n c e Union ( W C T L ) , institutionalized t e m p e r a n c e women's i n d e p e n d e n c e f r o m male control. Recent studies of the C r u s a d e have described it as a protofeminist m o v e m e n t . According to Barbara F.pstein. the C r u s a d e secularized and politic ized women's feelings of sexual antagonism, which had originated in response to subordination and had been fostered bv the evangelical culture shared b\ middle-class women. Although the WCTL' gave f u r ther expression to this antagonism, it too fell short of t r u e feminism since it accepted the c e n t r a l i s of the patriarchal family.·' For Ruth Bordin, the C r u s a d e engaged conservative women in actions that were objectively feminist, although thev were not usually recognized as such. 1 Epstein and Bordin have directed attention to the scale and significance of women's t e m p e r a n c e work and have suggested that women had their own reasons, rooted in economic d e p e n d e n c e on m e n . to engage in temperance reform. But in evaluating the W o m e n ' s T e m p e r a n c e Crusade, they have applied an ahistorical definition of feminism to women who never used that term, and thev have neglected the responses evoked by the movement. Mv analysis, d r a w n f rom a larger study of the Crusade, defines the C r u s a d e r s position on women's rights and woman s u f f r a g e t h r o u g h an examination both of their actions a n d of contemporary observers' perceptions. In addition. I e x a m i n e with particular care the views of the C r u s a d e held bv suf f ragists, who are generally r e g a r d e d by historians as the leading nineteenth-century advocates of women's rights. The Women's T e m p e r a n c e C r u s a d e was the largest nineteenthcenturv protest movement bv w o m e n . ' Beginning in small towns in western New York slate and southwestern O h i o shortly before Christmas 1873, it spread over the following six m o n t h s to at least 911 communities in thirty-one states and territories plus the District of Columbia. T h e 1. J e d D a n n e n b a u m . " T h e Origins of T e m p e r a n c e Activism and Militancy among American Women." Journal of Social History 15, no. 2 (Winter 1981): 235-52; Ian R. Tyrrell, "Women and T e m p e r a n c e in Antebellum America. 1830-1860." Civil War History 28, no. 2 ( J u n e 1982): 128-52. A partial exception was the Daughters of Temperance, f o u n d e d in 1843 as an affiliate of the Sons of T e m p e r a n c e . 2. Barbara Leslie Epstein, The Politics of Domesticity: Women, Evangelism, and Temperance in Xinetrenth-Centun America (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1981), chaps. 4-5. 3. Ruth Bordin, Woman and Temperance: The Search for Power and Liberty, 1873-1900 (Philadelphia: T e m p l e University Press, 1981), chap. 2. 4. This description is based on examination of fifty-one newspapers and journals published in twenty-three states d u r i n g the Crusade and on the alcohol tax records of the Internal Revenue Service. RG 58, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

14

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

movement reached its greatest intensity in Ohio, I n d i a n a , Illinois, and Michigan, which together contained nearly two-thirds of the r e p o r t e d C rusades and tour-fifths of the Crusaders. In a survey of c o n t e m p o r a r y newspapers conducted tor this study I f o u n d a total of oyer 56,000 Crusaders: the actual n u m b e r of participants may have been closer to 150.000. A nonviolent movement against the retail liquor business, the C r u s a d e adopted as its principal tactic a public m a r c h by g r o u p s of women that ranged in n u m b e r s f r o m a h a n d f u l to several h u n d r e d . At each liquor outlet the Crusaders attempted, t h r o u g h p r a y e r a n d song, a r g u m e n t s and pleas, to persuade or coerce dealers to a b a n d o n their business. Crusaders justified their movement as an a t t e m p t to r e m o v e the temptations that beset their husbands, sons, and brothers. W o m e n , they said, were the "greatest sufferers" f r o m male i n t e m p e r a n c e because of the pain, shame, violence, and economic loss thev e n d u r e d when m e n d r a n k to excess. ' T h e i r movement was. in fact, p r o m p t e d bv a s h a r p rise in the n u m b e r of retail liquor outlets and a concurrent j u m p in the level of alcohol consumption. In at least sixty-nine communities the m o v e m e n t was reported to have shut down all retail liquor outlets and in 128 all saloons; newspaper reports claimed a total of 1.260 retail liquor outlets closed o r pledged to stop selling beverage alcohol as a result of the m o v e m e n t . During the Crusade, both alcohol consumption a n d the retail liquor business shrank, an effect both of the C r u s a d e r s ' m a r c h e s a n d of the economic depression that began at a r o u n d the same time; the n u m b e r of retail liquor dealers relative to population did not reach its p r e - C r u s a d e level for at least a half-century thereafter.' T h e Crusade was a nationwide movement (save t h e d e e p South) but was locally generated and regionally centered. T h e r e f o r e mv analysis proceeds on the national, stale, and local levels. O h i o , which contained over one-third of r e p o r t e d Crusades and three-fifths of the C r u s a d e r s , f urnishes the best state case study of the m o v e m e n t . Washington C o u r t 5. See Fredoma (N.Y.) Censor ( D e c e m b e r 17, 1873): Matilda G i l r u t h C a r p e n t e r , The Crusade: lis Origin and Development at Washington Court House and Its Results ( C o l u m b u s , O h i o : \V. G. H u b b a r d & Co.. 1893). p p . 3 5 - 3 6 ; Chrutian Advorate (Se* York) (May 7); Philadelphia Sörth American and United States Cazttte (March tri); Seu· York Tribune ( F e b r u a r y 12). Ii. The n u m b e r ol retail liquor d e a l e r s increased b\ 154 p e r c e n t in (he d e c a d e b e f o r e t h e C r u s a d e , while t h e U.S. p o p u l a t i o n rose bv only '23 p e r c e n t . T h e largest a n n u a l i n c r e a s e o c c u r r e d d u r i n g 1 8 7 2 - 7 3 . Per capita c o n s u m p t i o n o f b e e r rose f r o m 4.4 gals, in 1866 to 7.0 gals, in 1873. t h e highest level u p to that time. P e r capita c o n s u m p t i o n of distilled l i q u o r c a n n o t be definitely established, but circumstantial e v i d e n c e indicates a rising level in t h e d e c a d e p r e c e d i n g t h e C r u s a d e (Annual Report of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 1901 [ W a s h i n g t o n . D C . : G o v e r n m e n t Printing O f f i c e , 1901], p p . 3 7 6 - 8 3 , 4 3 1 - 3 3 ; J a c k S. Blocker, Jr., " W h y W o m e n M a r c h e d : T h e T e m p e r a n c e C r u s a d e of 1 8 7 3 - 7 4 " ( p a p e r p r e s e n t e d at t h e a n n u a l m e e t i n g of t h e A m e r i c a n Historical Association, N e w Y o r k , D e c e m b e r 28. 19791).

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

House, Ohio, the fourth town to engage in the Crusade and the first to achieve complete success, provides a local case study. At a meeting of the Crusaders of Battle Creek, Michigan, in June 1874, one Crusader reported that "there was a misapprehension among some of the citizens with regard to the Woman's Suffrage movement being connected with the women's temperance work." Those attending the meeting t h e r e u p o n instructed the secretary to issue a public statement "that although some of the members of the Temperance Society were also members of the S u f f r a g e Association, the two societies are entirely distinct and their movements disconnected." 7 In an atmosphere highly charged by the suf frage issue, meeting such expectations from potential participants, supporters, and opponents probably became a typical experience for Crusaders." Also typical was the Battle Creek Crusaders' avoidance of the suffrage issue. Of the 911 reported Crusade groups, only one, in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, went on record for or against suffrage." Crusaders in main states held statewide conventions, but in none was suffrage reported to have been an issue. Nor was it an issue at the founding convention of the national WCTU, which occurred in Cleveland in November 1874, and although subsequent national conventions debated the issue, no suffrage plank passed until 1881."' On the few occasions during 1873-74 when suffragists rose in Crusade meetings to announce the futility of proceeding without the ballot, they were ruled out of order or drowned out by the singing of hymns." Even though Crusaders avoided the suffrage issue, the Crusade was w idely regarded, by both opponents and male supporters, as a movement for women's rights. Evaluations of the movement usually addressed its potential effects rather than its causes. No one in 1873-74, not even representatives of the liquor business, denied that intemperance was a great social evil and that women were the "greatest sufferers" since it was predominantly men who were intemperate. Instead, liquor-industry spokesmen pointed to the economic damage—loss of markets, jobs, and 7. Minutes of June 2 meeting, minute book. Battle Creek WCTU, Bentley Library, Michigan Historical Collections, Ann Arbor. 8. See. e g ..Buffalo Commercial Advertiser (January 30); Xenia (Ohio) Torchlight (March 4. 11); Chicago Tribune (March 17); Woman's Journal (Boston) (May 30). 9. T h e Allegheny County Crusaders passed a resolution advocating woman suffrage (Earl C. Kaylor, Jr., "The Prohibition Movement in Pennsylvania, 1865-1920" [Ph.D. diss., Pennsylvania State University, 1963], pp. 193-94). 10. On the suffrage debate within the WCTU, see Mary Earhart, Frances Willard: From Prayers to Politics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944), pp. 151-72. 11. In Indianapolis, see Indianapolis Journal (March 16), and Woman'sJournal (Boston) (October 17); in Portland, Oregon, see Abigail Scott Duniway, Path Breaking: An Autobiographical History of the Equal Suffrage Movement in the Pacific Coast States (Portland, Oreg.: James, Kerns Sc Abbott, 1914), pp. 6£-72.

16

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

tax revenues—that would result from reduction of their business. They also asserted their right to "personal liberty"—not the right to drink liquor but the right to sell it, the right "to pursue any honest calling or trade."' 2 Indeed, liquor-industry spokesmen in 1874 recognized no right to drink to excess, for they shifted the blame for intemperance from seller to consumer. This position and its consequences were outlined by Henry Clausen, president of the National Brewers' Association: "Instead of condemning and prosecuting the saloon keeper, punish the drunkards; refuse to recognize them as gentlemen, debar them from all society, disfranchise them at the polls, condemn them to sweep the streets of your city with chain and ball fastened to their feet. Make drunkards criminals, but not the honest producers and purveyors of a necessity of life."13 Other opponents of the Crusade perceived it as the opening shot of a women's revolution. For them, marching on saloons represented an illegitimate means of seeking redress for women's grievances, for such action usurped man's sole right to make all important social and political decisions. Such usurpation, some felt, would inevitably lead to a reversal of power roles, with women dominant and men subordinate." While utterances by male supporters of the Crusade rarely shared the apocalyptic quality of these last statements, they too revealed a belief that the Crusade would lead directly to the ballot for women (a development that at least some were prepared to welcome). 1 ' Ardent suffragists held a different view, one conditioned by the history of the woman suf frage movement. Although the campaign for women's rights had existed since 1848, only after the Civil War did some suffragists, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, wean themselves from the abolitionist movement, within which suffragism had developed, and from the Republican party, through which abolitionists now acted. T h e weaning process was greatly accelerated by the abolition12. Resolutions of the National Brewers' Congress, published in Cincinnati Enquirer (June 5). For further statements by individuals and groups representing brewers, distillers, wholesalers, and retailers, see Columbus Evening Dispatch (March 10); Cincinnati Gazette (March 16, 18); Cincinnati Enquirer (March 18); Detroit Daily Post (May 8); Boston Daily Advertiser (June 4). 13. Boston Daily Advertiser (June 4). 14. Cincinnati Enquirer (January 5, February 23); Nashville (Tenn.) Republican Banner (February 7); Buffalo Commercial Advertiser (February 7); Rochester 'N.Y.) Union and Advertiser (February 16, April 14, May 13); Indianapolis Evening News (February 24); New York Tribune (February 27); Louisville Commercial (February 27); Columbus Evening Dispatch (March 3); Ohio State Journal (Columbus) (March 7, 16); Chicago Tribune (March 17); Chicago Times (March 18); Baltimore American and Commercial Advertiser (March 26); Akron Daily Beacon (March 27); Omaha Bee (March 30); Wheeling (W. Va.) Intelligencer (April 7,8); Daily StateJournal (Lincoln, Nebr.) (April 12, 14; May 31); Pittsburgh Post (May 1). 15. Detroit Daily Post (February 13); Xenia (Ohio) Torchlight (March 4, 11); Cincinnati Enquirer (April 27).

WOMAN SUFFRAGE ist and Republic an dec ision to f ocus r e f o r m energies on passage o f the Fifteenth A m e n d m e n t enfranchising black men; the decision alienated some suff ragists and split the suffrage movement. T h e founding o f the National Woman S u f f r a g e Association in 1869 marked the e m e r g e n c e o f an independent women's movement, but neither this association n o r its rival, the American W o m a n Suffrage Association, enrolled more than a tiny nucleus o f those who would fill the movement's ranks after the turn o f the centurv. 1 " Bv 1 8 7 3 - 7 4 , small bands o f suffragists had made their cause an issue in state and national politics, although the movement lacked the strength to force the issue in its favor. During the Crusade, legislatures or constitutional conventions in at least nine states, as well as the U.S. Congress, were confronting the suf frage question, but n o n e o f their deliberations resulted in a suffrage victory. 17 In Ohio a proposal for a suffrage r e f e r e n d u m had recentlv been defeated in the state legislature; nevertheless, the constitutional convention, which began in early 1873, considered the issue, then finally rejected a suffrage clause in April 1874.'" Organizers f r o m the O h i o Woman S u f f r a g e Association had visited Washington Court House in March 1870, stimulating about thirty women to organize a local branch o f the association, but the group left no record o f its activities after August of the same year.'" Critical responses to the Crusade by suffragists were complex, but thev generally fit a single pattern. Probably the most bitter public critic w as J a n e Crey Swisshelm, a lecturer and writer whose views were widely reported. T o Swisshelm the Crusade was both unlawful (an invasion o f the saloonkeeper's right to be free from intrusion) and hopeless. " I s it not better,'' she asked, "that women should submit to even so great a wrong as that o f the liquor traffic . . . until they can devise and e x e c u t e some o t h e r

16. Ellen Carol DuBois. Feminism and Suffrage: The Emergence of an Independent Women's Movement in America, 1848-1869 (Ithaca. N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1978). 17. The nine states were Pennsylvania, Iowa, Michigan, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, California, Missouri, and Ohio (St. Louis Dispatch [January 27]; Portland [Maine] Eastern Argus [Februar)' I I ] ; San Francisco Chronicle [February 19]; New Haven [Conn.] Journal and Courier [March 6. May 15]; Illinois State Journal [Springfield] [March 13J; St. Louis Globe [ March 13]; Cleveland Leader [May 29]; Ira V. Brown, " T h e Woman's Rights Movement in Pennsylvania, 1848-1873," Pennsylvania History 32. no. 2 [April 1965]: 153-65). 18. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage, History of Woman Suffrage, 6 vols. (Rochester, N.Y., and New York: Susan B. Anthony, 1881-1922), 3:492; Mary Marjorie Stanton, "The Woman Suffrage Movement in Ohio prior to 1910" (M.A. thesis, Ohio State University, 1947), pp. 13-16; J . G. Adel, Official Report of the Proceedings and Debates of the Third Constitutional Convention of Ohio (Cleveland: W. S. Robinson & Co., 1873-74), pp. 2800-2808; Woman's Journal (Boston) (October 24). 19. Fayette County Herald (Washington Court House, Ohio) (March 10, April 28, August 18, 1870); Ohio State Register (Washington Court House) (March 1 0 , 2 4 , 3 1 ; April 7; May 5, 1870).

17

18

HISTORY O F WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

r o a d to r e a d ] it t h a n o n e which leads directly across f u n d a m e n t a l laws p r o t e c t i n g t h e l ights of all?"-"' She illustrated t h e m o v e m e n t ' s hopelessness In suggesting that "these w o m e n are r e - e n a c t i n g the part of the old s h e e p w h o k n o c k e d his own brains out b u t t i n g a swinging mallet."- 1 Elizabeth K. Churchill, a New E n g l a n d s u f f r a g i s t , a d d e d the c h a r g e that the C r u s a d e placed w o m e n in an ignoble position. T o see w o m e n o n their knees b e f o r e m e n p l e a d i n g with t h e m to a b a n d o n their business, she said, was pitif ul: use of this d e g r a d i n g a p p r o a c h was a result of women having been t a u g h t that their i n f l u e n c e was indirect, that it involved w h e e d l i n g a n d cajoling.-"-' Even Swisshelm a n d Churchill, however, e x p e c t e d beneficial results eventually since both w o m e n a n d m e n , thev believed, would discover in t h e C r u s a d e ' s a p p e a r a n c e a n d inevitable failure reason to s u p p o r t the vote f o r w o m e n . W o m e n would discover their powerlessness without t h e vote: t e m p e r a n c e m e n would realize t h e s t r e n g t h of w o m e n ' s attraction to t h e c a u s e . " A l t h o u g h the balance varied f r o m s p e a k e r to s p e a k e r , a similar c o m b i n a t i o n of d e n u n c i a t i o n a n d optimism m a r k e d t h e public r e s p o n s e to the C r u s a d e by p r o m i n e n t suffragists. The A m e r i c a n W o m a n S u f f r a g e Association, as r e p r e s e n t e d by Lucy Stone, h e r h u s b a n d H e n r y Blackwell, a n d their publication, t h e Woman's Journal, took a m o r e favorable view of the m o v e m e n t . Early on Blackwell e n d o r s e d t h e C r u s a d e because it was a w o m a n ' s m o v e m e n t a n d t h r o u g h it w o m e n w e r e e n t e r i n g t h e public s p h e r e . Most of all, however, he welc o m e d the C r u s a d e because it would surely fail a n d by its failure convince w o m e n of their n e e d f o r t h e vote in o r d e r to close the saloons." But w h e n t h e Cleveland c o n v e n t i o n c r e a t e d t h e W C T U without a d o p t i n g a s u f f r a g e d e m a n d . Blackwell was b a f f l e d by t h e convention's action: " T h a t w o m e n w h o feel themselves d e f r a u d e d , by their exclusion f r o m the franchise, of a God-given a n d inalienable right, s h o u l d be g o a d e d to e x t r e m e measures, is at least conceivable; but that w o m e n w h o a r e too conservative o r too timid to d e s i r e a voice in t h e m a k i n g of t h e laws which govern t h e m , s h o u l d h a v e b e e n m o v e d to so m a r k e d a d e p a r t u r e f r o m the old paths, is to us, we confess, a puzzling enigma."-' Miriam M. Cole, p r e s i d e n t in 1873 of t h e O h i o W o m a n S u f f r a g e Association, similarly p o i n t e d o u t t h e C r u s a d e r s ' unconventionality: "A w o m a n k n o c k i n g o u t t h e h e a d of a whiskey b a r r e l with an axe, to the t u n e of O l d H u n d r e d , is not t h e ideal w o m a n sitting o n a sofa, d i n i n g o n 20. Chicago Tribune (February 27). 21. Atlanta Constitution (March 10). 22. Woman's Journal (Boston) (March 28), reprinted from the Providence Journal. 23. For additional statements by Swisshelm, see Cincinnati Commercial (March 20), reprinted from the Independent (New York) and the Cleveland Leader (April 13). 24. Woman's Journal (Boston) (February 28, March 14). This was also Mary Livermore's position (see Indianapolis Journal [March 27)). 25. Woman's Journal (Boston) (December 5).

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

strawberries and cream, and sweetly warbling ' T h e Rose that all are praising.'" But she too insisted, at a time when only one-fifth of the eventual number of Crusades had begun, that the movement could not be successful since women could not make the laws that alone could restrain "depraved passions and appetites." 26 In her later recollections and in her private correspondence at the time, Susan B. Anthony excoriated the Crusade. "Those identified with the woman suffrage movement," she wrote in 1896, "had no sympathy with w hat thev felt to be a desecration of womanhood and of the religious element in woman." T h e Crusaders' hopeless faith was "pitiful." Women, in fact, were partly responsible for drunkenness because of their consenting "to make licentious, d r u n k e n men the fathers of their children." 2 ' H e r biographer claimed that Anthony had lectured the Rochester Crusaders on the futilitv of their ef forts. "I am always glad," she is reported to have told them, "to welcome every association of women for any good purpose, because I know that they will quickly learn the impossibility of accomplishing any substantial end."·"1 Contemporarv records, however, reveal that Anthony responded somew hat more sympathetically than later statements indicated. Anthony attended at least five Crusade meetings in Rochester between March 30 and April 23, 1874. Strongly influenced by clergymen and d e t e r r e d by a dense concentration of liquor outlets and bitter opposition f r o m a local newspaper, the Rochester women conducted a relatively tame movement, limiting their efforts to a petition campaign against liquor license renewals. At a meeting on April 6, Anthony tried to turn them in a m o r e militant direction by introducing a veteran C r u s a d e r f r o m Albany who urged the women to abandon the petition campaign in favor of street marches. Although these suggestions were rejected, Anthony continued to attend meetings.' 9 Her efforts may have been p r o m p t e d merely by a desire to demonstrate to the Crusaders that even a militant attack on the saloons was useless without the vote. But since it was a women's movement against an enemy Anthony described as "the great d e m o n that desolates [women's] homes," she may have felt at the same time a desire to see the movement succeed. 50 Certainly she did not act as if she felt "no sympathy" for the Crusade. As usual, Elizabeth Cady Stanton formulated the suffragists' most 26. Woman's Journal (Boston) (February 21). 27. Stanton et al. (n. 18 above), 3:500; Ida Husted Harper, The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, 3 vols. (Indianapolis: Hollenbeck Press, 1898), 1:457. 28. Harper, 1:457. 29. Rochester (N.V.) Union and Advertiser (March 26-June 1); see also the entries for March 24, 30; April 1, 6, 13, 19, 23, Susan B. Anthony diary, Susan B. Anthony Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 30. Harper, 1:457.

20

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

t h o r o u g h and reasoned statement. She delivered it first as a lecture to the Radical Club of Philadephia on February 26, 1874; excerpts were widely quoted in both the pro- a n d antisuffragist press. Like o t h e r suffragists, she welcomed the C r u s a d e as a public activity by w o m e n , agreed with the Crusaders' picture of the d a m a g e s inflicted by i n t e m p e r a n c e , and a d d e d that if the movement were to succeed, general rejoicing should follow. But then Stanton took a new tack, p u s h i n g f u r t h e r Swisshelm's claim that the Crusade was unlawful. "This whisky war,' as now waged," she said, "is mob law, nothing m o r e n o r less, and neither c h u r c h influence, psalms n o r prayers can sanctify it. T h o u g h we may wink at m o b law in a good cause, we are educating the people to use it in a bad one." R e m i n d e d of the use of mobs in the American Revolution, Stanton asserted a quantitative difference between the Revolution a n d the C r u s a d e : " W h e n laws a n d customs are so oppressive as to be n o longer e n d u r e d ; when resistance is general so as to carry evervthing b e f o r e it, then a movement rises to the dignity of a revolution, anything short of this is m o b law, a n d , in the e n d , does m o r e harm than good." She closed by a r g u i n g that the vote was the only sure and lawful means to eradicate the liquor business." Stanton may not have been entirely comfortable with this stand, however. After all, if women were t h r e a t e n e d bv the activities of liquor sellers, how could o n e o p p o s e a direct a p p r o a c h to those sellers? Indeed Stanton herself, only a few years before, had seemed to advocate a woman's temperance strategy quite similar to that a d o p t e d by the Crusaders: "In temperance woman will not I think theorize and violate individual f r e e d o m & responsibility by saying that a m a n shall not buy, or sell, a drink, but they will deal directly with d r u n k e n n e s s a n d with public drinking dens, closing u p the latter as n u i s a n c e s . . . . My interpretation of woman's method in dealing with public conflicts, w h e r e t h e r e are good elements in both sides is reconciliation, but w h e r e t h e r e is u n p a r d o n a b l e or unmitigated wrong direct action." 1 -' But speaking publicly in 1874, Stanton the radical a g r e e d with the suffragist maverick Swisshelm and the moderate Blackwell that s u f f r a g e was the only effective r e m e d y for intemperance. T o the women w h o m a r c h e d to meet an immediate threat f r o m rising alcohol consumption a n d proliferating liquor dealers, such advice represented a prescription f o r continued suffering. In o r d e r to p e r s u a d e them, Stanton had to show that their apparently successful marches were not only unlawful but also likely to be futile. She a t t e m p t e d to d o so by asserting that the C r u s a d e aimed itself at the w r o n g target. T e m p e r a n c e 31. Philadelphia Inquirer (February 26). Stanton's address was reprinted in the Woman's Journal (Boston) (March 21). 32. Undated speech (ca. 1872), in Scrapbook, 1870-78, Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D C.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

societies, she said, e r r e d in "cuddling d r u n k a r d s ; excusing their crimes a n d bestiality." A l t h o u g h their m o v e m e n t focused on the retail dealer, C r u s a d e r s recognized the d r i n k e r ' s role in i n t e m p e r a n c e a n d sometimes p r e c e d e d o r a c c o m p a n i e d their m a r c h e s with circulation of a totalabstinence pledge. S t a n t o n , in contrast, suggested a remedy only marginally less sweeping a n d coercive t h a n that later advocated by H e n r y Clausen of the National Brewers' Association. D r u n k a r d s , she said, " s h o u l d be treated as criminals; taken to the public jails a n d kept t h e r e w h e r e thev could not d o themselves or a n y o n e else any harm." 1 1 Besides u n d e r c u t t i n g the C r u s a d e r s ' m a r c h e s , blaming the d r i n k e r was a d v a n t a g e o u s f o r Stanton because it explained why d r i n k i n g had survived t h e existing legal restrictions o n liquor sellers. For the C r u s a d ers, however, b l a m i n g the d r i n k e r held d i f f e r e n t meanings. For one, it implicated m o t h e r s foi t h e i r a p p a r e n t f ailure to g u i d e their sons f r o m the bottle. A n d . tor wives a n d d a u g h t e r s , jailing d r i n k e r s simply r e m o v e d the p r i m a r y s o u r c e of family s u p p o r t . Given suf fragist claims that the C r u s a d e was both illegal a n d futile a n d that s u f f r a g e was the only t r u e r e m e d y f o r i n t e m p e r a n c e , Stanton h a d to explain why t h o u s a n d s of w o m e n chose to m a r c h f o r t e m p e r a n c e while onlv h u n d r e d s c a m p a i g n e d f o r s u f f r a g e . Previously, suffragists could see w o m e n outside their o r g a n i s a t i o n s as t h e u n r e a c h e d or the timid. But the militant action of the C r u s a d e r s , t o g e t h e r with the extensive public d e b a t e over women's place that it p r o v o k e d , u n d e r c u t this analysis. S t a n t o n a d d r e s s e d the C r u s a d e r s ' i n d i f f e r e n c e toward the vote in a n article published by t h e Woman's Journal in April 1874. Basically, she a r g u e d , t h e cause lay in men's control over w o m e n . While m e n would c o u n t e n a n c e a n d even s u p p o r t women's activities that did not at'ack their privileges, they w e r e always p r e p a r e d to o p p o s e w o m e n ' s m o v e m e n t s that t h r e a t e n e d to seek equality. The mass of C r u s a d e r s , knowing this, in eff ect p u r c h a s e d m e n ' s s u p p o r t f o r their m o v e m e n t by avoiding t h e issue of w o m e n ' s rights. "All kinds of slaves," S t a n t o n wrote, "seem to have a blind instinct, c o m p o u n d e d of i g n o r a n c e a n d hypocrisy, that teaches t h e m just how to please their masters."" Suffragists, t h e n , were both fascinated a n d repelled by the a p p e a r a n c e of this vigorous new sister. T h e fascination was n o d o u b t provoked by t h e C r u s a d e ' s success in rallying so m a n y w o m e n to launch "so m a r k e d a d e p a r t u r e f r o m the old paths." S o m e suffragists improved on A n t h o n y ' s e x a m p l e by taking active a n d s o m e t i m e s leading roles in the

33. Detroit Daily Post (March 27). T h e temperance movement had long since abandoned a belief in the responsibility of the d r u n k a r d (see Harry Gene Levine, " T h e Discovery of Addiction: Changing Conceptions of Habitual Drunkenness in America," Journal of Studies on Alcohol 39, no. I [1978]: 143-74). 34. Woman's Journal (Boston) (April 18).

21

22

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES C r u s a d e . S u f f r a g i s t p a r t i c i p a t i o n was p a r t i c u l a r l y e v i d e n t in M i c h i g a n , w h e r e o f f i c e r s of t h e s t a t e w o m a n s u f f r a g e a s s o c i a t i o n h e l p e d to l e a d C r u s a d e s in A d r i a n a n d J a c k s o n a n d w h e r e H i l l s d a l e C r u s a d e r s s e n t a n o f f i c i a l d e l e g a t i o n to t h e s t a t e suf f r a g e c o n v e n t i o n . I n D e s M o i n e s , I o w a , Lizzie B o v n t o n

Harbert. dress r e f o r m e r and president o f the county

w o m a n s u f f r a g e society, p l a y e d a l e a d i n g r o l e in t h e o r g a n i z a t i o n o f t h e local C r u s a d e . I n O h i o , suf f ragists Hliza D a n i e l S t e w a r t (a f o u n d e r o f t h e O h i o State Kqual Rights Society), S a r a h Knowles B o l t o n , a n d

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HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

errors in scheduling may have occurred because those planning a tour were in the eastern part of the state and did not realize the difficulties of transportation in the western part, where roads were many times nothing more than trails. T h e c a m p a i g n of 1 9 1 1 - 1 9 1 2 s h o w e d a marked change for the better. T h e automobile was now in use; and the problem, instead of being one concerning the meeting of a schedule, was one of securing the support of those who owned the automobiles. This was sometimes solved by persuading a dealer to lend an automobile for a county tour. Obliging dealers obviously felt that it was good advertising for business since it was impossible to miss the suffrage group as it arrived in a car decorated with signs, bunting, and flags.3* S o m e state officials, s u c h as G o v e r n o r Stubbs, donated the use of their automobiles because their wives were interested in the suffrage movement. 17 Auto tours were arranged in many cities and counties. In Hays, a houseto-house canvass was conducted in automobiles decorated with balloons. T h e driver stopped in front of a house, tooted the horn, and when the occupants came out to see what was going on, suffrage workers handed out their literature. 1 " Mrs. H. P. Pomeroy planned an auto tour every Saturday to different towns in Phillips county. About 15 decorated autos were in line at these outdoor meetings at which Rev. Η. M . H u n t e r of P h i l l i p s b u r g was speaker.19 In the eastern part of the state, a car decorated with balloons went from Topeka to Kansas City, stopping at every house so that literature could be handed out. In addition, a 36. Magdalen B. Munson to Lucy B. Johnston.—"Lucy B. Johnston Collection," Woman Suffrage, undated, 1911. 37. Topeka Daily Capital, September 9, 1912. 3H. Woman Equal Suffrage Association, headquarters bulletin, July 29, 1 9 1 2 . — " L u c y B. Johnston Collection," Woman Suffrage. 39. Ibid., September 9, 1912.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

suffrage flyer and a copy of a prosuffrage congressional speech were placed in each mail box between Lawrence and Topeka. 4 " A proposed whirlwind tour of a special boosters' train to take place in October of 1912 41 failed to materialize, probably because of lack of money, 12 and another attempt to get aid from railroads for the campaign met with no success. A Chicago woman went to the Santa Fe railroad office where she "was greeted by a very gracious gentleman w h o listened politely to what I had to say, but assured me it was out of the question to expect either transportation or other aid from the Co. Such arrangements are a thing of the past." n Some women were willing to use any means of transportation to carry on their work. Helen B. Owens, one of the most tireless workers of the movement, went by freight from Greensburg to Liberal. 44 But many of the workers of the last campaign were either more particular or made of less sturdy stuff than their predecessors who had undergone the hardships of the early campaign, considering themselves lucky if horse and buggy were available.

40. Mrs. P. M. Clark to coworkers, 1912— Ibid., 1912-1913, undated. For a chronological account of the final c a m p a i g n , see Martha B. Caldwell, " T h e W o m a n Suffrage C a m p a i g n of 1912," Kansas Historical Quarterly, Topeka, v. 12, no. 3 (August, 1943), pp. 300-318. 41. Mildred Peck to Lucy B. J o h n s t o n , May 31, 1912.—"Lucy B. Johnston Collection," W o m a n Suffrage, May, 1912. 42. Mary E. Haines to Lucy B. Johnston, August 13, 1912 — Ibid., August 1-13, 1912. 43. Anna Delony Martin to Lucv B. Johnston, J u l v 12, 1912.— Ibid., July 1-16, 1912. 44. Helen B. O w e n s to Lucy B. Johnston, December 1, 1911.— Ibid., December, 1912.

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNTIED STATES

DISAGREEMENTS

AMONG

LEADERS

CONCERNING

TACTICS

H E R E W E R E sometimes serious disagreements among leaders of the suffrage movement, both men and women, concerning tactics and methods of campaigning. Some arguments were results of personal jealousies while others were basic differences of opinion. Both were poor advertising for the movement. There were also rivalries among women's clubs as to their chief objectives. Even on the national level, the suffrage forces were split. T o remedy this situation, at the National Council of Women in 1887, it was suggested that an international association of women's clubs be formed under the auspices of the suffragists. Nothing came of the suggestion since many women in cultural clubs were not interested in the right to vote. As the suffragists saw it, these women were interested only in their own leadership in their own clubs. Gradually the clubs with a definite purpose outnumbered the merely- cultural ones, probably because by then most young women had gone to high school, some to college, and they wanted to take part in affairs of the nation rather than just study about them.4"1 During the campaign of 1894, some of the leading suffrage workers were accused of working in the interests of the Republican party, while others worked openly for the Populist party. Laura Johns, president of the Equal Suffrage Association and also president of the Woman's Republican Club of Kansas, was accused of entering into an agreement with the Republican politicians whereby the prohibition question was not to be mentioned in the suffrage campaign throughout the state. Mrs. J o h n s supposedly would keep prohibition

T

45. Irwin, Angels and Amazons,

pp. 229-235.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

speakers off the suffrage platform as her part of the bargain. Some critics went so far as to accuse Mrs. Johns of spending suffrage money in the interest of the Republican party, but this was probably untrue, since Annie L. Diggs, a staunch Populist, came to her defense and denied the truth of such a claim. 46 Following the defeat of the suffrage amendment in 1894, women seemed to concentrate on quarrels over leadership in the state organization and the meeting places of suffrage conventions. Much of the criticism of Mrs. Johns had come from Topeka. Therefore, when it was time for the annual meeting in 1894, she used her influence to prevent the meeting's being held there. Her stated objection to Topeka as a meeting place was the friction and squabbling among Topeka women. She was very outspoken in the criticism of her opponents, going so far as to say that she really thought that Dr. Eva Harding was not well-balanced or even quite sane! Mrs. Johns had heard that the Topeka women planned to put Mrs. [Mary E.?] Lease in as state president. She swore she did not want to be president, but said she would accept the office rather than see Mrs. Lease take over.47 The following year, Mrs. Johns again expressed the wish to retire from the presidency, but again she feared that the wrong woman would succeed her. The woman being considered for the position was a Populist who had proposed that the state suffrage association pledge its support to the People's party for two years in exchange for their pledge to enfranchise women. Naturally, Mrs. Johns, a faithful Republican, objected to such a proposal. 4 " In preparing for the final campaign, suffrage leaders looked back to the earlier attempts to 46. Ottawa Journal & Triumph (Topeka edition), September 20, 1894. 47. Laura M. Johns to Lucy B. Johnston, November 11, 1894.— "Lucy B. Johnston Collection," Woman Suffrage, 1886-1902. 48. Ibid., July 21, 1895.

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

try to discover the mistakes made, hoping to avoid them. Since some men had voiced an objection to out-of-state speakers, Kansas women were determined to run things themselves. They had encouragement for this plan from women in Western states who had gained suffrage. Laura Johns, who had moved to California, warned against letting the national association dominate the campaign, because she felt that was what had defeated the Kansas forces in 1894. w The same advice came from a Washington woman who gave her formula for winning. She said that the Washington association had withdrawn from the national, had none of their lecturers, none of their organizers, and only literature they could not get from the states that had already won. Their idea was to take advice from the states where women voted, believing that women who had waged a s u c c e s s f u l b a t t l e k n e w more of effectual methods than those who had never won a victory. She emphasized the fact that women had been far more successful in the West than in the East in the matter of equal suffrage." The women of Kansas followed the Washington advice, withdrawing from the national association and asking national headquarters not to send any workers unless they were requested. One of the Kansas leaders wrote at great length to Anna Shaw, national president, explaining why Kansas wanted only outside speakers of its own choosing. She had heard some men say that they objected to having help brought in from outside to coerce them into giving women the ballot. She also pointed out that speakers from other states had no way of knowing local political conditions and often offended the men whose support they needed. She said that such an incident had just oc49. Ibid., October 13, 1911. 50. Berthe Knatvold Kittilsen to Lucy B. Johnston, May 16, 1911— Ibid., January-May, 1911

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

curred and requested that the woman be recalled from Kansas.51 In later reference to this letter, Anna Shaw stated that the national association had no intention of interfering with the Kansas work and that its leaders had not begun making suggestions until they were asked for." She expressed her willingness to overlook the letter as a part of the antagonistic forces and the work of unprincipled people, urging the Kansas workers to call upon the national association for any help they needed." In her letters she warned that if Kansas failed to accept the amendment, it would be the fault of the Kansas women themselves and a blow to suffrage over the whole United States. She made the gloomy prophecy that " I t looks very much as if Kansas is going to act as South Dakota did, spend the first year in quarrelling for the glory and the last year in finding there was no glory to quarrel over." M She felt that if, after having granted municipal suffrage in 1887 the men of Kansas now voted down full suffrage, it would be a national calamity and a reflection upon Kansas women. In her opinion, if Kansas women were not willing to forget their differences and work for the measure in a wholehearted way, they should not have persuaded the legislature to pass the measure." T h e squabble among workers of the movement was not confined to the state, but reached to the national association as well. Helen Kimber, one of the Kansas delegates to the national convention in 1900, wrote of disagreements among national leaders: I am glad Mrs. Johns did not come. T h i s will surprise you. Yes, but the truth is Miss Anthony, Mrs. Avery and Miss Shaw are fighting Mrs. Catt just as they fought Mrs. Johns and they are still fighting me because of what I said 51. Ibid. 52. 53. 54. 55.

Lilla Day Monroe to Anna H. Shaw, February 25. 1911.— Anna Ibid., Ibid., Ibid.,

H. Shaw to Lucy B. Johnston, March 8, 1911.—/6« Sδ JΦ Φ 3 ?ο Β 3 3i °> ια > 3 ·£ > i t £r α 5 ρ - ** | s ^

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the formation of a suffrage club. It began with forty members among whom were "many of the brightest women and most prominent men in Greenville."22 Also, in 1895, Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates of Maine toured Mississippi. She spoke in Corinth, Iuka, Brookhaven, Crystal Springs, Greenville, McComb, and Harrison.28 As a result of her tour several clubs were organized. These clubs functioned on a purely local level, however, for Mississippi still had no state organization. The national association hesitated to take the liberty of appointing a state president, and the local clubs had no funds to finance an organizational meeting.24 The formation of a state association was finally accomplished two years later.25 In May, 1897 the suffragists held a meeting in Meridian, immediately following a convention of the W. C. T. U. On this occasion thirty-three people from different parts of the state organized the Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association. Its officers were Mrs. Nellie Nugent Somerville of Greenville, president; Miss Belle Kearney of Flora, vice-president; and Mrs. Lily Wilkinson Thompson of Crystal Springs, corresponding-secretary.26 At this time there were six Mississippi towns with suffrage organizations,27 and five others in which suffrage sentiment was said to exist. A by-product of the convention was 22 Woman's Journal, XXVI (February 23, 1895), 60. 23 Nellie Nugent Somerville, "History of Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association, 1897-1917," p. 2. MS. Somerville-Howorth Collection. Woman's Archives. Radcliffe College. M N. A. W. S. A. Proceedings, 1896, p. 43. 25 In the spring of 1897 two out-of-state lecturers, Mrs. Mary C. Bradford of Colorado and Mrs. Ella Harrison of Missouri, toured Mississippi. Their meetings were reported to have been "well-attended," and "many who came to scoff went away converted." Both of these women attended the organizational meeting of the Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association. *· Woman'* Journal, XXVIII (June 12, 1897), 191. The National American 87Woman Suffrage Association helped finance this meeting. The towns were Vicksburg, Greenville, Durant, Columbus, Iuka, and Yazoo City.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

the formation of a club in Meridian. It began with thirty members, half of whom were men.28 The Mississippi suffragists held their next state convention in Greenville in 1898. Sixteen delegates from eight towns attended. In her presidential address Mrs. Somerville said that no disfranchised class could be truly patriotic because patriotism found its truest expression at the polls. She observed that the "mother's influence . . . [was] extolled to the highest degree" but asked how disfranchised mothers could teach their sons the real value of the ballot. She spoke also of the need for organizational and educationtal work and advised: "We must find our friends and get their help, find the doubtful and convert them, and even our bitterest opponents must not be forgotten, and in time influence may be brought to bear that shall lead them to see the error of their ways."29 The delegates pledged $112.00 for the furtherance of their work and reelected Mrs. Somerville president. At this time the Mississippi Association had 106 members.80 The Greenville convention was considered a successful one, and the delegates returned to their homes with renewed enthusiasm. Mrs. Somerville commented: "Personally, I feel greatly encouraged. A good many newspapers are with us; a strong group of preachers are our friends; and on all sides the light is breaking."81 In June, 1898 Miss Belle Kearney sponsored the formation of a club in Flora. To stimulate interest 28 Woman'» Journal, XXVIII (June 12, 1897), 191. 29 President's Address at the First Annual Woman Suffrage Convention, State of Mississippi. MS. Somerville-Howorth Collection. Other conventions speakers were Miss Belle Kearney, Rev. Quincy Ewing, and Mrs. Lid a Meriwether. Mrs. Meriwether was president of the Tennessee Equal Rights Association. 30 Woman's Journal, XXIX (April 16, 1898), 127. si Ibid.

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she sent a "suffrage" letter to all adults within a radius of eight miles. As a result of her effort, a club was organized with her father, Colonel Walter G. Kearney, as president. Relative to changing public opinion in Flora, Miss Kearney remarked: "Some of the women who attended the meeting declared that three years ago they spoke of woman suffrage with horror; now they are keen to learn more about it." sa The suffragists endeavored to influence opinion through the distribution of literature. As a publicity device, they printed and circulated the minutes of the state convention in Greenville. They published and sold for ten cents a copy a pamphlet entitled "The Legal Status of Women under the Laws of Mississippi." They distributed more than three hundred copies of a pamphlet called "Woman's Place under the Gospel." Due largely to the influence of Mrs. Hala Hammond Butt, editor of the Clarksdale Challenge, suffrage news began receiving more adequate press coverage. By 1899 twenty-three papers were printing suffrage articles.33 In February, 1899, because of ill-health, Mrs. Somerville resigned her presidency of the Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association, and Miss Kearney, the vice-president, succeeded to the office. Two months later a state convention assembled in Clarksdale. Miss Kearney refused to continue as president, and Mrs. Hala Hammond Butt was elected to the position.84 When addressing the convention Mayor Walter Clark of Clarksdale called equal suffrage a "great cause" and urged all women to support it. He commented: "Men may sneer and ridicule, but in this very act μ Ibid., XXIX (June 18, 1898), 199. 83 Ν. A. W. S. A. Proceedings, 1899, p. 106. 84 Jackson Clarion-Ledger, April 12, 1899.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

they show their own weakness."88 Other convention speakers were Ε. H. Martin, a Clarksdale physician, and Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick, a Louisiana feminist. The following year, at a meeting in Clarksdale, the suffragists reelected Mrs. Butt president.3" The highlight of this convention was the presence of Carrie Chapman Catt and Mary Hay. At an evening session in the Methodist church, Mrs. Catt addressed a "large and sympathetic assemblage." Her speech gave the cause a boost, turning "lukewarm sympathizers" into friends and bringing some of the town's best people into the local club.87 From Clarksdale, Mrs. Catt and Miss Hay went to Greenville where they spent two days holding parlor meetings. They visited Vicksburg, Crystal Springs, Yazoo City, and Jackson also. In each place they were well received and spoke before large audiences. Mrs. Butt felt that the tour had been beneficial and that it had resulted in "an enlarged suffrage sentiment, an increased activity in behalf of this work."88 After Mrs. Catt's visit the woman suffrage movement in Mississippi entered a languid phase. The next two years passed without a state meeting.89 In 1903 Mrs. Butt and three other women held a business conference in Jackson. They hoped to devise some plan for revitalizing the movement, but none was forthcoming.40 The listlessness continued. No one from Mississippi attended the annual meeting of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1903, despite the fact that it was held as near as New Orleans. In February, 88 Woman's Journal, XXX (July 15, 1899), 223. 88 Ibid., XXXI (May 26, 1900), 166. flbid. Ibid. 89 This occurrence was not peculiar to Mississippi. There was a lull in suffrage activities in many southern states in the early twentieth century. 40 Mrs. Lily Wilkinson Thompson, "Mississippi," Hietcry of Woman Suffrage (β vols. New York, 1881-1922), VI, 326.

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1904 Mrs. Butt reported that the Mississippi Association had "accomplished nothing in the way of organization since its last report." She felt that suffrage sentiment was growing, however, due to a recent visit by Anna Howard Shaw, who had delivered three lectures in the state. She said that the suffragists had sent letters to state legislators and to other officials. They had had enrollment cards printed, and a "goodly number" had been "signed by new adherents."41 Yet the lethargy continued, and both 1904 and 1905 passed without a state convention.42 A revitalization of the movement did not occur until 1906. During that year Miss Belle Kearney returned to Mississippi after a lengthy sojourn in Europe. She was disturbed by the lack of interest in suffrage not only in her own state but in the South as a whole. Acting on her own initiative and as an individual, she called a meeting in Memphis in December. About twelve women from different parts of the South attended. This group designated itself the Southern Woman Suffrage Conference and adopted a statement recommending the enfranchisement of all women who could read and write.43 After the Memphis meeting Miss Kearney and Mrs. Butt sponsored a conference in the parlor of the Edwards House in Jackson. On this occasion a group of approximately twenty women reorganized the almost defunct Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association with Miss Kearney as president.44 Relative to this conference the Evening News commented: "Although the number of woman suffragists 41 43

N. A. W. s . A. Proceedings, 1904, pp. 86-87. During this convention-less period, Mrs. Butt continued to serve as president of the Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association. 48 A. Elizabeth Taylor, The Woman Suffrage Movement in Tennessee (New44 York, 1967), 26-26. N. A. W. S. A. Proceedings, 1907, pp. 80-81.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

in Mississippi is rather small, and few members of the fair sex seem to care particularly about the right to vote, those engaged in the work are nevertheless enthusiastic and persistent and feel confident that their cause is steadily gaining ground."45 Since most of the suffrage clubs had disbanded during the years of little activity, Miss Kearney decided to make a lecturing and organizing tour. During March, 1907 she traveled from place to place, lecturing in churches on "sociological subjects, and whenever possible . . . holding parlor meetings in the interest of woman suffrage." She felt it necessary to present the issue with care and finesse. She explained: "I had to broach the work tentatively. I began by having my hostess, usually a representative woman, invite . . . the most prominent and earnest women in each town to meet me in her home. After a while I found so many advocates of the enfranchisement of women among the ministers that I grew brave enough to announce my parlor meetings from the pulpits. Later on, I discovered ministers who cordially assisted in making the meetings possible."4* In Biloxi Miss Kearney organized a suffrage club with Dr. D. L. Mitchell, a Methodist minister, as president. At Clinton George H. Brunson, a history professor at Mississippi College, was elected president of a similar organization. In Brookhaven Miss Kearney spoke before the fashionable Woman's Club. At the conclusion of her appeal, only one woman expressed interest in forming a suffrage society. When she realized that she was the only one, she lost courage and said: "Oh! I beg of you ladies not to tell my husband. He is extremely conservative." Later Miss Kearney commented: "The «β Jackson Evening Newa, December 21, 1906. «β Woman's Journal, XXXVIII (April 13, 1907), 60.

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woman who dared that afternoon is a graduate of Wellesley, a beautiful, brilliant young person, whose name I withhold for the sake of her husband."47 In Vicksburg she established a club of forty women. She continued her speaking and organizing tour, and, by the end of March, she had formed nine new suffrage clubs, making a total of eleven in the state.48 She reported that she had found "no real antagonism to woman suffrage," her chief handicaps being a profound indifference manifested on the part of the women." She said that the eleven clubs were "not strong in numbers" but each would serve "as a nucleus for propaganda."49 The suffragists endeavored to further their crusade through newspaper publicity. Mrs. Lily Wilkinson Thompson, superintendent of press work, queried two hundred editors and found that twenty-one were willing to publish suffrage news.50 The suffragists utilized literature furnished by the National Association but often wrote their own. An appeal written by Mrs. Thompson stated: Will not the hand that rocks the cradle rock just as well if it be the right hand of freedom rather than the left hand of subjection? As long as Mississippi women have access to the tax list and the penitentiary, may they not justly have access to the polls? Will not the ballot in the hands of women afford them the quickest, quietest, most dignified method of affecting legislation, for is not an ounce of voting worth a pound of petitioning?®1 «Ibid. 48 Belle Kearney, "The Fight for Suffrage by Mississippi Women," Jackson Daily News, March 16, 1914. The towns in which clubs were located were McComb, Clinton, Iuka, Yazoo City, Columbus, Biloxi, Okolona, West Point, Vicksburg, Flora, and Jackson. «50 Woman's Journal, XXXVIII (April 13, 1907), 60. Thompson, "Mississippi," Woman Suffrage, VI, 327. Some friendly editors were P. L. Smith of the Greenville Democrat. J. R. Oliphant of the Poplarville Free Press, Frank R. Birdsall of the Yazoo Sentinel, C. E. Glassco of the Cleveland Enterprise, John Norwood of the Magnolia Gazette, James Faulk of the Green County Herald. 51 Woman's Journal, XXXVIII (September 21, 1907), 151.

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In November, 1907 they held a five day conference at Mrs. Thompson's home in Jackson. They discussed the advisability of sponsoring an equal suffrage measure in the next session of the legislature, but, after conferring with Governor James K. Vardaman and other officials, they decided to defer action.82 Perhaps their efforts were not entirely fruitless, however, for in his farewell message to the legislature in January, 1908, Governor Vardaman mentioned woman suffrage as a subject worthy of consideration.83 When the Mississippi Association held its annual convention in Jackson in March, 1908, six clubs were represented. On this occasion, Miss Kearney reviewed the history of the movement in the state, and Mrs. Thompson reported that she had distributed 1800 pages of suffrage notes, hundreds of leaflets, and numerous copies of the Woman's Journal. The delegates elected Mrs. Nellie Nugent Somerville president and adopted a resolution urging that the principles of the Declaration of Independence be applied "to women who are citizens of the United States."54 At this time the Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association had approximately 152 members. In the spring of 1909 the suffragists once again met in Jackson. Six towns sent delegates, and eighteen sent greetings and financial support.55 In reviewing the year's activities Mrs. Somerville stated that their cause remained an unpopular one but that sentiment in its favor was growing. Mrs. Thompson emphasized the importance of publicity, especially of articles written by Mississippians. "Original articles are of immense 52

Thompson, "Mississippi," Woman Suffrage, VI, 328. 53 Journal of the Senate of the State of Mississippi, regular session, 1908,M p. 18. Jackson Daily News, March 27, 1908. Μ Ibid., April 9, 1909. The delegates represented Jackson, Canton, Crystal Springs, Martin, Greenville, and Flora.

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value," she said. "Mississippi people are interested in what Mississippi men and women think on the question, rather than what is being done elsewhere."8® After hearing these and other reports, the delegates reelected Mrs. Somerville president. Two out-of-state visitors who addressed the convention were Kate and Jean Gordon of Louisiana. Kate Gordon told of woman suffrage activities in that state, while Jean, a factory inspector in New Orleans, spoke in behalf of compulsory education and child labor laws." At their convention in Greenville in 1910, the suffragists reelected Mrs. Somerville president. A "notable event" of the occasion was an address by Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Dr. Shaw's "earnestness, logic, and extensive information" were said to have captivated her "large and intelligent audience" and to have won "many converts" to the cause.88 The delegates were told that several Mississippi newspapers were publishing columns devoted to woman suffrage. They learned that during the past year more than 1700 pieces of literature had been distributed. In spite of this agitation, however, the public remained generally indifferent. The Jackson Daily News, which was friendly to the cause stated editorially: A small but very serious band of estimable women in this state have been laboring for several years in behalf of the suffrage cause, and if they have made any considerable headway it is hard to see just where it is. Certainly, the women of Mississippi are not in the attitude of rising up and, with one unanimous M Fifth Annual Report of the Mississippi Woman Suffrage 1909,57pp. 9-10. Somerville-Howorth Collection. Jackson Daily News, April 9, 1909. 58 Sixth Annual Report of the Mississippi Woman Suffrage 1910, p. 7. Somerville-Howorth Collection.

Association, Association,

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

voice, demanding that they be given the right of ballot. If women will once show political ability of a constructive kind, they can have the vote for the asking. Until they do, they will appeal in vain to a power which now sees in equal suffrage only more votes and an extension of the complications of present politics. When there is advantage to Mississippi in giving votes to women, Mississippi can, and probably will, do it without regard to what England thinks or what New York or Colorado has done. In the language of the street, it is up to the women to talk less about having votes and show89 what they would do with the power if they had it.

In the fall of 1910, Mississippi suffragists joined those in Tennessee in sponsoring a booth at the tri-state fair in Memphis. The management provided free space, and the man who erected the booth refused payment, "saying that this would be his contribution to the cause." During the fair the suffragists distributed more than 2,000 pieces of literature, interviewed hundreds of people, and brought "many doubting Thomases . . . to see the error of their ways."·0 The following year the movement in Mississippi entered a more active phase. At a meeting in Cleveland in April, 1911, the state organization reported a growing membership in thirty-six towns. The dozen or so delegates present were told that more suffrage meetings had been held during the past twelve months than during the past several years. Much newspaper publicity had been obtained, and five hundred copies of a report on the activities of the state organization had been distributed. The delegates heard talks by Judge Ε. N. Thomas of Greenville and Kate Gordon of New Orleans, and reelected Mrs. Somerville president.81 β® Jackson Daily News, April 23, 1910. eo Woman's Journal, XLI (November 5, 1910), 191. 61 Seventh Annual Meeting of the Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association, 1911, no page number. Somerville-Howorth Collection.

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At a meeting in Flora in 1912, the Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association reported an increase in membership from 164 to 519. On this occasion the guest speakers were Mrs. Judith Hyams Douglas of Louisiana and Mr. Omar Garwood of Colorado. Garwood was secretary of the National Men's League for Woman Suffrage. Mrs. Somerville called upon the men of Mississippi to aid the movement by forming a men's league.®2 She refused another term as president of the Association, and Mrs. Lily Wilkinson Thompson was elected to the position." In the fall of 1912 the suffragists sponsored a booth at the State Fair in Jackson. This "interesting and attractive" exhibit was supervised by a "group of the most devoted workers in the cause." Apparently these women impressed the public favorably for The Daily News commented: "Evidently some of their visitors expected to find there a band of screaming marching women clamoring . . . for the right to vote. Instead they find a group of well-bred, lovely women... [whose] work for the cause they love has certainly been well done during this Fair Week."94 In the spring of 1913 the Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association met in Jackson. In an address of welcome, Mayor Swepson J. Taylor expressed "hearty sympathy" for their cause. At an evening session, Mrs. Royden Douglas, president of the Louisiana Federation of Women's Clubs, expressed indignation that women were classed politically with idiots, insane persons, and criminals. She predicted: "The time is close at hand when the hope of the suffragists will be realized 82 Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association: Address of the President, 1912. Somerville-Howorth Collection. M Thompson, "Mississippi," Woman Suffrage, VI, 330. M Jackson Daily News, October 26, 1912.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

—when woman may be accorded every right, privilege and public honor now accorded exclusively to man."·8 The delegates were told that the Association now had 1500 members." They held an election of officers and named Mrs. Annie K. Dent of Yazoo City president.67 In the fall of 1913, for the first time, a woman suffrage day was listed on the calendar of the State Fair. Also, the booth was three times as large as the one the previous year. An unusual feature was the speaker's platform, which consisted of a bale of cotton grown on Mrs. Dent's plantation. Women from different sections of the state came to Jackson to act as hostesses." In another part of the fair, woman suffrage was a subject of ridicule. The Fain Seed Company had on display a sexless rooster who was "mothering" a group of baby chickens. On his cage was a sign bearing the inscription—"Votes for Women."6· In 1914 the suffragists for the first time lobbied for a state constitutional amendment enfranchising women. Mrs. Somerville acted as chairman of the legislative committee, and, for several weeks before the session started, she, Mrs. Dent, and others interviewed and sent literature to the lawmakers.70 After the legislature convened, they placed a desk in the lobby of the Capitol, and, with this as their headquarters, they continued to "meet, confer, buttonhole members, and generally work for the right to to vote."71 Μ Ibid., April 16, 1913. ββ ν . A. W. S. A. Proceeding», 1913, no page number, •τ Woman'» Journal, XLVI (May 10, 1913), 151. u Thompson, "Miasissippi," Woman Suffrage, VI, 832. njackeon Daily New», October 30, 1913. το Thompson, "Mississippi," Woman Suffrage, VI, 335. 71 Jackson Daily New», January 15, 1914;

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On January 9th, N. A. Mott of Yazoo county introduced in the House a resolution to confer suffrage on Mississippi women.78 This resolution was referred to the Committee on Constitution, which recommend that it not be adopted.73 A minority report requested a hearing, and one was scheduled for the morning of January 21st.T4 On this occasion Miss Belle Kearney of Flora stated that the suffragists were asking only for "simple justice." She maintained that the Negro woman vote was not a threat to white supremacy and predicted that Mississippi would never regret enfranchising women. Miss Pauline Orr of the Industrial School for Girls in Columbus stated that in modern, industrial society women needed the vote. Mrs. Monroe McClurg, a former state librarian, contended that it was unfair to tax women property-owners while denying them the ballot. Mrs. Nellie Nugent Somerville and Mrs. Lily Wilkinson Thompson of Jackson made their appeal as mothers who wanted to protect their homes. Mrs. Annie K. Dent, who owned and managed a 500 acre cotton plantation, made her plea as a businesswoman. An out-of-state speaker, Kate Gordon of Louisiana, objected to women's being classed with idiots, criminals, and other "baneful members of society" and called on Mississippi to lead the South for woman suffrage.7® The following day the House considered Mott's resolution. Speaker Η. M. Quin of Hinds County,76 who left his chair to lead the debate, spoke in its favor and predicted the eventual triumph of female suffrage in 72 Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Mississippi, regular session, 1914, p. 108. η Ibid., 232. μ Ibid., 248. n Jackson Daily News, January 21, 1914. TS When identifying members of the House, the names of their horn· counties are cited.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

Mississippi. Henry A. Minor of Noxubee complimented the women who had participated in yesterday's hearing and urged approval of the resolution. E. C. Cavette of Noxubee, G. J. Rancher of Kemper, and Moncure Dabney of Warren also spoke for it, as did N. A. Mott who urged its adoption in the name of justice and "fairmindedness."" Speaking in opposition, S. Joe Owen of Union called woman the "queen of the home and hearthstone" and stated: "I am absolutely, inherently, fundamentally, first, last, and all the time opposed to woman suffrage." W. L. Evans of Carthage thought that ninety percent of the people were against it and predicted that they would "bury it beyond resurrection," should a referendum be held. B. N. Edens of Monroe stated that women should spend their time purifying ballrooms instead of trying to purify politics, while W. T. Simmons of Smith did not think that enfranchisement was in accord with the "best interests of the women of the state."78 At the conclusion of debate, the House rejected the resolution by a vote of forty-two to eighty.79 The suffragists, therefore, failed to gain any concessions from the 1914 legislature. Not all were disheartened, however. Some felt encouraged that the resolution had received as many as forty-two favorable votes. A few months later, in May, 1914, the Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association held its annual convention in Jackson. At this meeting the Association's president, Mrs. Annie K. Dent, reviewed the progress of the past year and reported the formation of four additional it Jackson Daily News, January 22, 1914; Jackson Daily ClarionLedger, January 23, 1914. ™ Ibid. 79 Mississippi House Journal, regular session, 1914, p. 269.

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clubs. She spoke of the need for funds and stated that she considered donations a more lucrative source of income than dues. An election of officers was held, and the delegates reelected Mrs. Dent president.80 Among the speakers at the convention were Rabbi Abram Brill of Meridian and Mrs. Alex Y. Scott of Memphis. Rabbi Brill stated that women were as intelligent as men and that they should use their intelligence for "better government, better administration of law, and better conditions in general." Mrs. Scott told the convention: "Woman forms one-half of the human family. She is a human being just as man is; she must pay taxes; she must obey the law; she must support the government equally with man. She is, therefore, equally with him entitled to participate in government."81 In the fall of 1914 the suffragists participated in the parade opening the State Fair. Six women wearing suffrage ensignia marched and carried a banner. It was reported that they were "generously cheered along the way."82 As in previous years they sponsored a booth at the State Fair. Once again, their speaker's platform was a bale of cotton raised on Mrs. Dent's plantation. Mrs. Dent, Miss Pauline Orr, Miss Kate Gordon, and Mrs. C. F. Rhodes spoke from this platform.83 In April, 1915, Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, addressed a capacity audience in the hall of the House of Representatives in Jackson. She told her listeners that there was nothing unladylike about voting and branded as absurd the charge that the ballot would 80 81

Jackson Daily News, May 27-28, 1914. Ibid., May 27, 1914. 82 Thompson, "Mississippi," Woman Suffrage, 83 Jackson Daily News, October 30, 1914.

VI, 332.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

destroy "the charm of womanhood." She refuted the objection that female suffrage would bring "so much ignorance to the polls" by asking why female ignorance was so much worse than male ignorance. She did not consider the Negro woman vote a threat to white supremacy and urged Mississippi to become the first southern state to enfranchise women.®4 From Jackson Dr. Shaw went to Greenville to attend the annual convention of the Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association. There she made a "strong and stirring" address and held a "large audience spellbound" with her appeals for "justice for women." Other speakers were Miss Pauline V. Orr of Columbus, who spoke on "Mississippi Women and the Ballot," and Mrs. Alex Y. Scott of Memphis, who told of suffrage activities in Tennessee.85 An unusual feature of the meeting was a session called "an hour for men." At this session Congressman Benjamin Humphreys presided and James A. Finley, an attorney from Belzoni, spoke. The delegates elected officers for the coming year and named Miss Pauline V. Orr of Columbus, president.84 In April, 1916 Mississippi suffragists held their state convention in Meridian. Their chief speaker was Mrs. Pattie R. Jacobs of Birmingham, Alabama. Delegates from throughout the state attended, reports were made, and Miss Orr was reelected president.87 During the months that followed, Miss Orr delivered suffrage lectures in many of the larger towns M Ibid., April 6. 1915. Dr. Shaw was introduced by Frederick Sailens of the Jackson Daily News. «β Woman's Journal, XLVI (April 24, 1916), 132. «βIbid. M Jackson Daily News, April 4, β, 1916.

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of the state. She organized several new clubs. There were now eighteen suffrage societies in Mississippi.*· In April, 1917 the suffragists convened in Starkville. They adopted a resolution urging Congress to submit a federal woman suffrage amendment to the states.8® They elected to the presidency Mrs. Edward F. McGehee, a past president of the Mississippi Federation of Women's Clubs.90 Among the out-of-state convention visitors were Miss Margaret Irvin of Tennessee, Mrs. Walter McNab Miller of Missouri, and Dr. Anna Howard Shaw.·1 The Mississippi suffragists, like those in other states, sought the approval of the Federation of Women's Clubs. At the Federation's convention in Greenwood in 1916, Miss Orr introduced a resolution to endorse woman suffrage. In spite of much sentiment in its favor, the delegates decided to postpone action.®2 A year later at a convention in Meridian, the Federation officially endorsed votes for women.·3 Another group whose approval the suffragists desired was the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Many of its members were active workers for suffrage, but the Mississippi W. C. T. U. never went on record in favor of the enfranchisement of women.·4 Throughout its history the Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association was an affiliate of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, headed by Anna Howard Shaw and Carrie Chapman Catt. A rival association was the National Woman's Party, which was « N . A . W . S. A. Proceeding». 1917, p. 210. ββ Jackson Daily Newt, April IB, 1917. »o Woman's Journal. XLVIII (May 19, 1917), 117. 91 Thompson, "Mississippi," Woman Suffrage, VI, 333. M Woman'» Journal, XLVII (December 2, 1916), 390. The Women's Clubs93 of Meridian endorsed woman suffrage in 1916. Jackson Daily News, November 16, 1917. M Thompson, "Mississippi," Woman Suffrage, VI, 335.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

led by Alice Paul. Alice Paul's organization was the more radical of the two and engaged in picketing the White House and other militant activities. In June, 1917 the National Woman's Party sent two organizers to Vicksburg.96 They arranged a conference, which almost two hundred people attended. At this conference, a Mississippi Division of the National Woman's Party was organized with Mrs. Julius Crisler Jackson as state chairman." The Mississippi Division was never very active, and it exerted little influence on the movement in the state. The overwhelming majority of Mississippi suffragists disapproved militancy and refused to resort to such tactics." When the United States entered the First World War, the suffragists turned their attention to homefront defense activities. Their state president, Mrs. McGehee, served as chairman of the Mississippi Division of the National Council of Defense. Because of preoccupation with the war, the Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association did not hold its usual annual convention in the spring of 1918. Instead it held a one day conference during which Mrs. Marion Trotter of Winona was elected president.98 In March, 1918 the woman suffrage issue came before the Mississippi Senate when Earl Richardson of Philadelphia introduced a resolution to enfranchise women through an amendment to the state constitution.9· Several days later the resolution received a favorable »5 The organizers were Mrs. St. Clair Thompson, southern field secretary of the National Woman's Party, and Miss Beulah Amidon, a national organizer for the Party. Mrs. Thompson's home-state was North Carolina. »· Suffragist, (Washington, 1913-1921), V (June 9, 1917), 9. ®T Apparently no person in Mississippi was ever arrested, tried, or jailed because of suffrage activities. 98 Thompson, "Mississippi," Woman Suffrage, VI, 333-334. •e Mississippi Senate Journal, regular session, 1918, p. 770. No suffrage measure had been introduced during the 1916 legislative session.

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committee report·100 This action surprised the suffragists who had not planned to seek legislation at this time. Naturally they supported the measure, and when it came before the Senate on March 15th, Mrs. Isaac Reese of Memphis, Tennessee and Miss Belle Kearney of Flora, Mississippi spoke in its behalf. Senator P. E. Carothers moved that it be voted on without debate, and the Senate agreed. The result was twenty-one for and twentyone against the resolution.101 Since a two-thirds favorable majority was necessary for adoption, the measure failed. The suffragists sponsored no state convention in 1919. Instead they held a conference in November in conjunction with the convention of the State Federation of Women's Clubs in Clarksdale. By this time the federal woman suffrage amendment had passed both houses of Congress and had been submitted to the states.102 With only one dissenting vote the Federation of Women's Clubs went on record as favoring Mississippi's ratification.103 At the suffrage conference the women organized a committee to work in its behalf. Mrs. B. F. Saunders of Swan Lake, retiring president of the Federation of Women's Clubs, was named chairman.104 In December the ratification campaign began. Letters were written, petitions circulated, literature distributed, and legislators interviewed.108 In January headquarters were opened in Jackson under the di10° Ibid., 808. 101 Ibid., 927. On March 16, 1918 the Jackson Clarion-Ledger commented: "There is slight demand for female suffrage in Mississippi. Not ten white women of every hundred in the State would accept suffrage if tendered them; and less than that number of men favor it." 102 During the amendment's history in Congress, only one Mississippian voted for it. He was Senator James K. Vardaman, who cast favorable votes108on October 1, 1918 and February 10, 1919. Thompson, "Mississippi," Woman Suffrage, VI, 335. 104 N. A. W. S. A. Proceeding«, 1920, p. 166. "»β Ibid.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

rection of Mrs. Saunders and Mrs. Trotter,10· who encouraged the suffragists to continue contacting legislators, distributing literature, and supplying the press with news and arguments.107 The leaders of the National Democratic Party wanted Mississippi to ratify. Homer S. Cummings, chairman of the National Committee, urged it as a matter of party loyalty.108 Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer sent each legislator a letter in which he stated: "Both the great national parties have indorsed the ratification of the Woman Suffrage Amendment, and most of the leading nations of the world have already secured this measure of justice to women. We do not want tQ see America lagging behind in this forward movement."10· The Jackson Daily News and many other Mississippi newspapers favored ratification. The leading opposition paper, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, placed great stress on the racial aspect of the issue. One of its editorials stated: "What a shame and a disgrace it would be for the state of Jefferson Davis, J. Z. George, L. Q. C. Lamar, E. C. Walthall, . . . and other dead patriots and statesmen to have the Mississippi legislature vote to give Negro women the ballot."110 Another editorial asked: "How do you like the picture, fair suffragettes, you who are clamoring for equal suffrage? How will you relish the idea of being jostled in the election booths by your cook or washerwoman, who will have as much right there as white women who employ them."111 The Clarion-Ledger printed many ιοβ Mrs. Trotter was continuing to serve as president of the Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association. 10T Thompson, "Mississippi," Woman Suffrage, VI, 337. "β Jackson Daily News, January 3, 1920. io*IbvL, January 4, 1920. no Jackson Clarion-Ledger, January 7, 1920. i n Ibid., January 6, 1920.

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extracts from Negro journals published in the North.1" These items bore such titles as "The Negro and the New Social Order" and stressed the supposition that the enfranchisement of the Negro woman would mean social equality for the races. The Jackson Daily News maintained that woman suffrage was inevitable and recommended that Mississippi ratify. Concerning the Negro issue the Daily News stated: "Every red-blooded Mississippian well knows that there is no more danger of negro women in this state attempting to vote than there is of negro men attempting to vote. . . . The negro is finally and forever out of politics in Mississippi, and nobody knows it better than the negroes themselves. In common with all southern states, Mississippi offers no apology for barring the negro from the polls. Our conscience suffers no twinges. We know our action is fully justified. Furthermore, the position we have taken is permanent. It will endure for all time to come. The door of hope is forever barred to Sambo, insofar as suffrage is concerned."1" Prior to 1920 Mississippians opposed to woman suffrage had not bothered to form an organization. The ratification crusade caused them to consider this move. Mrs. J. S. Pinchard and Mrs. Cola Barr Craig of Alabama came to Jackson for the purpose of forming a Mississippi branch of the Southern Women's League for the Rejection of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment.114 On December 31, 1919 they addressed a group of women in the Carnegie Library. They aroused interest but did not succeed in forming an 112

Thompson, "Mississippi," Woman Suffrage, VI, 338. us Jackson Daily News, January 18, 1920. 114 Mrs. Pinchard 'was the founder of this organization. Mrs. Craig was a former resident of Jackson, Mississippi.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

anti-suffrage organization.115 Approximately two weeks later, on January 15th, the "antis" held another meeting at which a club was organized.116 This group met a few times but actually took little part in the ratification controversy. The legislators convened on January 6th, and the following day the retiring governor, Theodore G. Bilbo, sent his farewell message. In this message Bilbo said that all arguments against enfranchisement fell "to the ground in their final analysis." He urged the lawmakers to add "new laurels" to their records of public service by ratifying the Nineteenth Amendment. He concluded: "Woe to the man who raises his voice or hand against the onward sweep of this great cause that means so much to the moral and social life of our State and Nation."1" The incoming governor, Lee M. Russell, favored ratification also. In his inaugural address he denied that the proposed federal amendment infringed upon the rights of the states. He said that some legislators preferred enfranchising women through an amendment to the Mississippi constitution but that he saw "nothing to be gained by this position."118 Meanwhile the legislators were barraged with pro-ratification letters and telegrams. Women from all parts of the state came to Jackson to lobby. In spite of these pressures the lawmakers showed little friendliness toward the cause. The Jackson Daily News took a poll of the House and concluded that there was not a "ghost of a show for ratification."119 On January 21st William A. Winter of Grenada u s Jackson Clarion-Ledger, January 1, 1920. α» Ibid., January 16, 1920. "Τ Mississippi Senate Journal, 1920, pp. 27-32. Ii« Mississippi House Journal, 1920, pp. 221-222. Ii» Jackson Daily News, January 14, 1920.

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County120 introduced in the House a resolution to reject the Susan B. Anthony Amendment as an "unwarranted, unnecessary, and dangerous interference" with state rights.121 This resolution was not referred to a committee, but instead was rushed to a vote. Debate lasted only about ten minutes and was interrupted by cheers, laughter, and calls for the previous question.122 During this brief debate Winter and several other representatives argued that the proposed amendment would jeopardize state control of elections and that it constituted a threat to white supremacy. Guy William Mitchell of Lee and George Lawson Sheldon of Washington defended the amendment. Mitchell asked the legislators to think of it as a "matter of plain justice to women" and not to be "frightened by the negro bugaboo." Sheldon expressed his "abiding faith in the supremacy of the white people of Mississippi" and stated that ratification would be "serving notice on the nation that white supremacy" would be "forever maintained."123 The House voted on the Winter rejection resolution and approved it 106 to 25.124 It was then sent to the Senate and referred to the Committee on Constitution. This development took the suffragists by surprise. Only five of them were in the House gallery at the time of the vote. The House's speedy rejection of the Anthony Amendment made them realize the hopelessness of their cause. Many simply stopped lobbying and announced that they would await enfranchisement through the action of other states.125 Some questioned the sincerity of the state rights objection. They noted 120 When identifying members of the House, the names of their home counties are cited. 121 Mississippi House Journal, 1920, p. 232. 122 Jackson Daily News, January 21, 1920. ι« Ibid. 124 Mississippi House Journal, 1920, p. 233. we Jackson Daily New», January 22, 1920.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

that Mississippi had been the first state to ratify the Prohibition Amendment and felt that the rejection of the suffrage amendment constituted "an unfair political trick against Mississippi women."12® The "antis," on the other hand were jubilant, and the Clarion-Ledger congratulated the House on its "good, glorious, and grand work."12* A few days after the House had rejected the Anthony Amendment, it approved a resolution to enfranchise women through an amendment to the Mississippi constitution. This resolution had been introduced on January 12th by D. H. Glass of Attala and had received a favorable report from the Committee on Constitution. With very little debate it passed the House by a vote of 99 to 13.128 It was then sent to the Senate where it was referred to the Committee on Constitution. On February 6th, without a dissenting vote, the Senate approved it.129 Before becoming a part of the state constitution, however, the resolution had to be submitted to the Mississippi voters at the general election in November. On February 18th the Senate considered the question of ratifying the proposed Susan B. Anthony Amendment. In spite of the importance of the issue, "there was little or no pep in the proceedings," and the gallery was "very slim."130 After brief debate the 126

Ibid,., January 24, 1920. Jackson Clarion-Ledger, January 22, 1920. An ironic not« was the presence in Mississippi of Kate Gordon of Louisiana, who came to Jackson at the invitation of the anti-ratificationists. Although she had been an ardent suffragist for many years, Miss Gordon favored enfranchisement through state action only. She considered the proposed federal amendment a threat to state control of elections and to white supremacy in the South. During her sojourn in Jackson, she visited both houses of the legislature, talked to the lawmakers, and made an anti-ratification speech in the Carnegie Library. 12s Mississippi House Journal, 1920, p. 91, p. 251, p. S71. i»e Mississippi Senate Journal, 1920, p. 381. 180 Jackson Daily News, February 18, 1920. 127

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HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

Senate refused to ratify by a vote of 14 to 29. m Also, on this date, the Senate considered a resolution to ratify the Aiithony Amendment with reservations.132 By a vote of 12 to 31, it rejected this resolution to ratify with reservations.133 Thus the Mississippi Senate refused to accept the Nineteenth Amendment in any form. In an editorial of approval the Clarion-Ledger stated: "The vile old thing is as dead as its author [Susan B. Anthony], the old advocate of social equality and intermarriage of the races, and Mississippi will never be annoyed with it again."134 To many Mississippians ratification was indeed a "dead" issue. Yet it proved not as "dead" as it seemed for before adjournment both houses of the legislature considered it again. When the Mississippi legislature had convened in January, only twenty-two states had ratified the proposed Nineteenth Amendment. During the weeks that followed, others ratified, and, with Washington's approval on March 22nd, the total number reached thirtyfive. Only one more was needed to make it a part of the federal constitution. Even the most stubborn "anti" now realized that woman suffrage was inevitable. A few days remained in the Mississippi legislative session. Since the amendment's adoption was now a certainty, some Mississippi senators felt that the legislature should yield to the wishes of the National Democratic Party and ratify. The House resolution to reject the Anthony Amendment was still in the custody of the Senate Committee 131

Mississippi Senate Journal, 1920, p. 532. This resolution, sponsored by H. D. Minor of Macon, rejected the portion of the Nineteenth Amendment providing: that Congress could enforce woman suffrage through appropriate legislation. 133 Mississippi Senate Journal, 1920, p. 632. 184 Jackson Clarion-Ledger, February 19, 1920. 132

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

on Constitution. On the motion of William Beauregard Roberts of Rosedale,188 it was recalled. Acting as a Committee of the Whole, the Senate amended the resolution to make it read ratify instead of reject the proposed amendment. The vote on this amended resolution was a tie, which Lieutenant Governor Η. H. Casteel broke by voting in its favor.186 Thus the Mississippi Senate ratified the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. The suffrage triumph was short-lived. When the ratification resolution reached the House, there was a brief but bitter debate. It "lasted only ten minutes, and the noise, confusion, and repeated demands for the roll call kept the House in such an uproar that the speakers could not make themselves heard." Speaking in behalf of ratification, Walter Sillers of Bolivar stated: "Men, woman suffrage is here and you know it. The leaders of the Democratic Party have made an eleventh hour appeal to us, and it should be heeded. A vote against this amendment is a vote against the Democratic Party. . . ."18T In opposition R. H. Watts of Rankin announced that "he would rather die and go to hell" than to vote for the Amendment.138 Many House members cheered this remark. Albert J. Whitworth of Pike and William A. Winter of Grenada also spoke against ratification. At the close of this brief debate, the House refused to ratify by a vote of 90 to 23.139 In this way the Mississippi legislature finally disposed of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. iss When identifying members of the Senate, the names of their home towns are cited. »36 Mississippi Senate Journal, 1920, p. 1472. Walton Shields of Greenville handled the parliamentary maneuvers involved in changing the sense of the resolution. 137 Jackson Daily News, April 1, 1920. 138 Jackson Clarion-Ledger, April 1, 1920. 1,9 Mississippi House Journal, 1920, p. 1854.

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HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

The Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association held its last convention at Gulfport in April, 1920. Realizing that its work was finished, the delegates reorganized the Association to form the League of Woman Voters. Although the suffragists had only defeat to show for their many years of crusading, most of them felt that the effort had been worth the while. One of their number, Lily Wilkinson Thompson wrote: "The army of active suffragists was never large. Many women wanted the ballot but comparatively few were under conviction to work for it. To those who did, especially in the early, trying days, belongs that indescribable exultation which is the portion of those who help onward a great revolutionary movement for the uplift of the race."140 In August, 1920 Tennessee's ratification made the Nineteenth Amendment part of the United States Constitution. The enfranchisement of American women was now accomplished. One bit of suffrage business remained unfinished, however. That was the referendum on the proposed woman suffrage amendment to the Mississippi constitution. This issue came before the voters in the general election in November, 1920. Feeling that it was now unimportant, the suffragists showed little interest. In the November election, in which only men voted,141 the proposed state constitutional amendment failed of adoption. It received more favorable than unfavorable votes but failed to receive the required majority of all 140

Thompson, "Mississippi," Woman Suffrage, VI, 341. Two leaders in the suffrage movement served in the Mississippi legislature during the 1920's. Miss Belle Kearney was a member of the Senate, and Mrs. Nellie Nugent Somerville was a member of the House. 141 Because of the lateness of Tennessee's ratification, Mississippi women were unable to register in time to be eligible to vote in this election.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

votes cast.1" Though inconsequential, due to the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, the word 'male" remained in the suffrage provision of the Constitution of the State of Mississippi until 1935, at which time an amendment to section 241 deleted it14* 143 Thompson, "Mississippi," Woman Suffrage, VI, 341. »*» Law* of the State of Misrurtppi, extra session, 1935, pp. 262-263.

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HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

Kate Gordon and the Woman-Suffrage Movement in the South By

T H E

EARLY

KENNETH R .

WOMAN-SUFFRAGE

JOHNSON

MOVEMENT

WAS

A

NORTHERN

phenomenon. No southerner was associated with the rise of the movement, nor was there any significant suffrage activity in the South until the late nineteenth century. Southern suffragists began to organize in the 1880s, and by 1913 every southern state had at least one state suffrage association made up of numerous local suffrage leagues. The state associations in turn were affiliated with the National American Woman Suffrage Association.1 Complete suffrage was their objective. Two historic methods were proposed to achieve this. One involved action by state government. Supporters of this approach maintained that setting voter qualifications was a right given exclusively to the states by the Constitution. Appeals for enfranchisement should therefore be made to state legislatures and constitutional conventions. In practice, this proved to be a long, costly, and discouraging process. Between 1867 and 1910 numerous campaigns were conducted for state constitutional amendments. In all but four states the efforts ended in failure.2 Between 1896 and 1910 no state campaigns were successful. The second method was adoption of an amendment to the federal Constitution. Supporters of this approach acknowledged that the states could enfranchise women but argued that all women could be enfranchised at one stroke by a federal constitutional amendment, just as Negro 1 Elizabeth Cady Stanton et d., eds., History of Woman Suffrage ( 6 vols., New York and Rochester, 1881-1922), IV, has chapters treatingthe rise of suffrage activities in each southern state. See also Lee N. Allen, T h e Woman Suffrage Movement in Alabama, 1910-1920," Alabama Review, XI (April 1958), 83-99; and the following works by A. Elizabeth Taylor: T h e Woman Suffrage Movement in Arkansas, Arkansas Historical Quarterly, XV (Spring 1956), 17-52; "The Woman Suffrage Movement in Florida," Florida Historical Quarterly, XXXVI (July 1957), 42-60; T h e Woman Suffrage Movement in North Carolina," North Carolina Historical Reoiew, XXXVIII (January and April 1961), 45-62, 173-89; The Woman Suffrage Movement in Tennessee (New York, 1957). a Women gained the ballot in Wyoming (1869), Colorado (1893), Utah (1896), and Idaho (1896).

MR. JOHNSON is associate professor of history at Florence State University, Florence, Alabama.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

men had been enfranchised by the Fifteenth Amendment. A constitutional amendment to enfranchise women was introduced in Congress in 1868 and in every session thereafter until passage. The amendment usually received little or no consideration, and between 1900 and 1913 it was never reported out of committee.8 The National American Woman Suffrage Association4 traditionally worked for enfranchisement by both methods, usually supporting both with equal vigor on the theory that any agitation was good for the cause and that there was little enough chance of success by either method. Southern suffragists followed the same patterns of organization, objective, and method. In other words, there was nothing distinctively southern about the woman-suffrage movement until 1913, when disagreements began to arise over the method to be used. The whole movement began to take on new life in 1910 when women achieved suffrage in Washington State. Other successes quickly followed, and increased vitality was evident in all states. Efforts to secure a federal amendment also revived, and woman suffrage became a live issue. In 1912 the Progressive party under the leadership of Theodore Roosevelt adopted a platform pledging to secure equal suffrage for men and women. The Congressional Committee of NAWSA made the amendment a subject of national consideration in 1913 by militant methods and organized pressure on congressmen. Mrs. Medill McCormick in 1914 took over the leadership of this committee from Alice Paul. Miss Paul continued her suffrage work as president of the Congressional Union, which became the National Woman's party in 1916 and sought the enfranchisement of women exclusively by federal amendment. Women already enfranchised in 1913 pledged their support of a federal amendment, and efforts were made to enlist the backing of the General Federation of Women's Clubs. The strength of support for the federal amendment was evident early in 1914 when the Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage, after twenty years of inaction, reported the measure favorably. The Senate voted in favor of the amendment by a margin of 35 to 34, which was not the two-thirds majority needed for passage. The same measure had strong support in the House of Representatives, but effective action was blocked there by a Democratic caucus.® a This proposed amendment was commonly known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment «The National American Woman Suffrage Association will hereinafter be referred to as NAWSA in both the text and notes. • Stanton et dl., History of Woman Suffrage, V, 705-707; Carrie Chapman ffrtt

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HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

Agitation for the federal amendment was no longer mere form. Passage was a real possibility, and suffragists had to consider the consequences of a federal amendment. Many southern women were deeply concerned over what they believed to be its dangers. Patterned after the Fifteenth Amendment, the first section provided that the right of citizens to vote should not be denied or abridged on account of sex, while the second section authorized the federal government to enforce the first. The first section aroused no concern, but the second held the possibility of federal interference with the states' traditional right to control elections and to determine who should vote. The Fifteenth Amendment had been used earlier to justify federal intervention to protect Negroes' right to vote. Any federal control of the elective process seemed to pose a threat to states' rights and white supremacy. But these suffragists, while fearful of the possible consequences of a federal amendment, believed its growing popularity created a golden opportunity for southern women to demand the ballot. Miss Kate M. Gordon of New Orleans explained that suffragists "could make a very effective demand for the southern States to fall in line and avoid the undesirable alternative of a constitutional amendment."6 On another occasion she wrote, "we can advance the cause of suffrage in the South . . . if we take a dignified stand on this States' Rights Question."7 Miss Gordon also believed that the race problem made it necessary for southern women to control the suffrage movement in the South. If suffrage demands were made in the South by supporters of the federal amendment unconcerned about states' rights and willing to let Negroes vote, then southern politicians would never enfranchise women for fear of the other problems this would raise. An organization of southern suffragists could avoid issues which and Nettie Rogers Shuler, Woman Suffrage and Politic« The Inner Story of the Suffrage Movement (New York, 1926), 244—45; Inez Haynes Irwin, Angels and Amazons: A Hundred Years of American Women (Garden City, Ν. Y., 1933), 355-60; Henry S. Commager, ed., Documents of American History ( 2 vols., New York, 1968), II, 74; Jacksonville Florida Times-Union, February 8, 1914; Tampa Morning Tribune, January 4,1914. ®Kate Gordon to Laura Clay, July 5, 1913, Laura Clay Papers (University of Kentucky Library, Lexington, Ky.). Miss Gordon was a native of New Orleans. Her interest in reform of local conditions and equal rights for women began in the 1890s and continued until her death on August 24, 1932. She helped organize the ERA (Equal Rights Association) Club in 1896 and the Louisiana Woman Suffrage Association the same year. She served as president of both organizations for many years. From 1902 to 1910 she was corresponding secretary of NAWSA and was chosen second vice-president of that organization in 1911. 7 Gordon to Clay, September 30,1913, ibid.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

tended to hide the merits of woman suffrage. From Kentucky, Miss Laura Clay agreed that the time had arrived when different sections should seek expression of suffrage views without too much reference to the National Association. Similar views were expressed by other women over the South.8 Other factors also contributed to the belief that a southern wing of the suffrage movement should be organized. The militant Congressional Union followed a policy of holding the party in power rather than individual congressmen responsible for failure to enfranchise women. After the Democratic victory at the polls in 1912 this policy appeared to be pro-Republican. Most of the leaders of the national movement were from the Northeast; many were supporters of the Republican party, which led some southerners to believe that the woman-suflFrage movement was becoming a branch of that party. Discontent with NAWSA had been growing. Its leaders were criticized for what was thought to be improper use of funds, for moving the headquarters without proper authority, for the manner in which money was solicited, for excessive concentration of authority in the hands of a few officials, and for other activities. All this was reflected in a growing disrespect for Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, ana other national leaders.9 Miss Cordon took the initiative in creating a sectional suffrage organization for the South. After consulting the presidents of suffrage associations in southern states, she called a conference to meet November 12-13, 1913, in New Orleans. A call signed by leading suffragists was sent to southern governors, inviting them or their representatives to meet with the suffragists "to discuss 8 Clay to Gordon, July 30, 1913, ibid.; Gordon, "Aims of the Southern States Conference," Pensacola Journal, September 7, 1914. The belief that southern uniqueness required special organization and methods was widespread. For another example see Emma Wold, headquarters secretary of the National Woman's party, to Helen Hunt, July 13, 1920, Helen Hunt West Papers (Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Mass.). • Gordon to Catharine W. McCulloch, June 5, 1912, Clay Papers; Gordon to Mary Ware Dennett, corresponding secretary of NAWSA, June 6, 1911; June 16, 1912; Gordon to McCulloch, March 24, 1908; March 6, 1911; June 5, 1912; November 2, 1914; Gordon to Members of the Official Board of NAWSA, June 5, August 7, 1911, Catharine Waugh McCulloch Papers (Schlesinger Library). Miss Gordon had a personal cause for unhappiness with NAWSA. In 1913 a group of Louisiana suffragists led by Mrs. Sake Meehan of New Orleans withdrew from the Louisiana Woman Suffrage Association (LWSA), then led by Miss Gordon. The Meehan group intended to work more militantly for the Anthony Amendment and more closely with NAWSA. For this purpose they organized the Louisiana Woman Suffrage party and applied for affiliation with NAWSA. Miss Gordon, against the advice of moderates, opposed the application.

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and adopt a uniform plan for action for the adoption of woman suffrage in the South. The call expressed the belief that "unless the South squarely faces the issue and takes steps to preserve the States' Rights, the force of public opinion will make it mandatory through a national constitutional amendment. . . . We wish to see the power of the State retained, yet as women we are equally determined to secure . . . the right which is the birthright of any American citizen. We, therefore, appeal to you gentlemen . . . to confer with us and influence opinion to adopt woman suffrage through State action."10 At the appointed time suffragists from eleven states and the District of Columbia assembled for the conference.11 As expected, none of the governors attended, and only three responded to the invitation. The governors of Arkansas and North Carolina appointed women to represent them. Governor Coleman L. Blease of South Carolina replied that he did not know a woman suffragist in his state whom he could appoint to attend.12 Despite the lack of cooperation, the suffragists continued efforts to find a workable plan to bring about the adoption of woman suffrage in the South. The delegates at the New Orleans conference displayed a wide variety of attitudes. All agreed that the strong southern tradition of states' rights, t i e opposition to federal intervention in the electoral process, and the problem of race relations created special conditions in the South. All concurred that white supremacy should be maintained, but there was disagreement as to just what this entailed. It was also agreed that appeals for enfranchisement should first be directed to the state governments, but there was division of opinion over what should be The real question was who or which group would lead the suffrage fight in Louisiana. Over strong objections from Miss Gordon, NAWSA recognized the Woman Suffrage party. This was a blow to Miss Cordon's prestige. See Gordon to McCulloch and Ella S. Stewart, May 15, 1913, Ella S. Stewart Papers (Schlesinger Library); Gordon to Clay, July 13, 1913; d a y to Gordon, July 30, 1913, Clay Papers. 1 0 Ida Clyde Clarke, comp., Suffrage in the Southern States (Nashville, 1914), 99; Gordon to Clay, July 5,1913, Clay Papers. 11 New Southern Citizen, I (December 1914), 1-3; Tampa Morning Tribune, November 13, 1913. The New Orleans Conference was held in conjunction with the Louisiana Woman Suffrage Association's convention and at the time of the convention of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. This improved attendance because women could attend more than one meeting on the same trip and also get low travel rates offered by the railroad to the UDC delegates. But the UDC would not allow Miss Gordon or other suffragists to speak at its meeting. «New Southern Citizen, I (March 1915), 4; Gordon to Clay, November 21, 1913, d a y Papers.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

done if the states failed to act. Gradually, these differences produced two factions among southern suffragists—the states' rightists, who followed the lead of Miss Gordon, and the moderates, who followed the lead of NAWSA. These differences became obvious only with the passage of time; at New Orleans agreement was the dominant and unifying sentiment among the delegates. Southern suffragists held at least two views as to how to overcome the peculiar conditions in the South. Laura Clay favored annual conferences at which southern suffragists would discuss common problems, plan strategy for overcoming opposition, coordinate programs in the states, and conduct training sessions for suffrage workers. This course would leave southern suffragists loyal to NAWSA and its activities while working to overcome sectional peculiarities. Miss Gordon, on the other hand, envisioned a new suffrage organization which would bring all the southern state and local suffrage organizations into one dynamic unit. It would seek enfranchisement of women by the states'rights method exclusively and thereby prevent any Negro suffrage. Success within the states would make a federal amendment unnecessary and avoid the threat of federal intervention in local affairs. Miss Gordon believed such a southern organization would spearhead the drive for suffrage in the South so effectively that all other organizations would be unnecessary. She hoped Laura Clay would become president of such an organization, but Miss Clay refused, though she remained willing to give complete support to the southern suffrage movement.18 Miss Gordon presided at the New Orleans conference, and her views prevailed. It was quickly decided that a new organization should be established. A committee consisting of Mrs. Emma Maddox Funck (Maryland), Mrs. Nellie Nugent Somerville (Mississippi), and Mrs. Hattie Rowland Parker (Louisiana) drew up a constitution. Controversy arose as to whether or not the term "states' rights" should be a part of the title of the new organization. Miss Belle Kearney (Mississippi) and Mrs. Funck opposed it. Mrs. Funck, believing such a title would preclude work for a federal amendment, declared, "We women have a right to suffrage and mean to get it any way we c a n . . . . We don't have to be over particular about the tactics we use."14 Mrs. Jen13 Gordon to Clay, November 6, 1913; Gordon to Fellow Suffragists, March 1, 1914, Clay Papers; New Orleans Daily Picayune, November 13, 1913; Tampa Morning Tribune, November 13,1913. 1 4 New Orleans Daily Picayune, November 12,1913.

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nie Lauderdale (Tennessee), Mrs. Somerville, and others spoke out strongly for including the reference to states' rights. Mrs. Timette Moses, editor of the New Citizen, official publication of the ERA Club in New Orleans, believed that the states'-rights approach would be the only successful route to suffrage in the South. She stated, "By all means keep those two words in the title. They will keep the cause before the public and that is where we want it" 1 5 However, "states' rights" was excluded from the title of the new organization, which became the Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference (SSWSC). But there was agreement that its purpose was "to obtain the enfranchisement of the women of die Southern States principally through the medium of state legislation and to promote the cause of suffrage throughout the United States."16 The constitution of the SSWSC called for a president, vicepresident at large, recording secretary, corresponding secretary, treasurer, and a vice-president for each state in the South. These officers constituted an official board authorized to make policy decisions between annual conventions. Confusion surrounded the matter of membership. An individual could become a member upon payment of one dollar, while an organization could become affiliated by paying dues proportioned to its membership. Miss Clay and others favored a non-dues-paying system of membership, but Miss Gordon objected strongly, and the proposal was voted down. Actually, there was never an accurate count of members. It was reported at 100,000 in 1914, but the financial statement showed that only $362 had been collected in dues. Apparently, many suffragists thought of themselves as members of SSWSC because they agreed with its program, although they never paid dues.17 As the New Orleans Conference closed, Miss Gordon was elected president and Miss Clay vice-president at large.18 The official board held few meetings, and few decisions regarding policy were ever made. Thus, the SSWSC reflected almost completely the views of Miss Gordon. ™ Ibid. ia Ibid. 1 7 Tampa Morning Tribune, May 10, 1914; Chattanooga Daily Times, November 12, 1914; New Southern Citizen, II (January 1916), 8; NAWSA, Handbook; and Proceedings of the 46th Annual Convention . . . (Washington, 1914), 160. 1 8 Other officers included Mrs. Hattie Rowland Parker of Louisiana, corresponding secretary; Mrs. Emma Maddox Funck of Maryland, recording secretary; Mrs. George E. Conningham of Arkansas, treasurer; Mrs. Nellie Nugent Somerville of Mississippi and Mrs. Jennie Lauderdale of Tennessee, auditors.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE No policy was established to govern the relations of SSWSC with other suffrage organizations. Many suffragists such as Mrs. Wesley Martin Stoner, one of the foremost organizers in the South, expected the SSWSC to become an affiliate of NAWSA. Miss Clay and most other suffragists expected that it would cooperate with NAWSA by working for tnat part of the national program acceptable to southerners. Miss Gordon had other ideas. Believing that the states'-rights approach was the only ossible method by which suffrage could be achieved, she condently expected NAWSA to recognize that its methods were not acceptable in the South and therefore to discontinue its southern activities. The SSWSC would then constitute the organized woman-suffrage movement in the South; it would be equal to NAWSA, which Miss Gordon considered to be merely another regional organization. She expected the two "equal" organizations to cooperate and assist each other rather than become rivals.19 She moved quickly to put her views into practice, appealing to NAWSA to pay the salary of a full-time secretary until SSWSC became financially solvent. She also requested NAWSA to advise all southern affiliates to follow the leadership of SSWSC. In effect, NAWSA was being asked to terminate its work in the South.20 She expected too much. The national leaders looked favorably upon a southern organization that would mobilize states'-rights sentiment in support of woman suffrage, but they did not agree that all suffrage work in the South must be restricted to the states'-rights approach. They believed it possible to work for the federal amendment and for state action at the same time. Thus, NAWSA, constantly short of funds, refused the request for assistance and suggested that SSWSC merely hold an annual conference to deal with sectional problems radier than try to duplicate services already performed by the national organization. Miss Gordon dismissed the suggestion as "both useless and absurd."21 NAWSA, instead of advising its southern affiliates to follow the leadership of SSWSC, launched a vigorous and successful organizational drive throughout the South. The SSWSC made no campaign, depending upon loyalty to southern interests to bring » Gordon to Clay, March 1, 1914, Clay Papers; New Citizen, III (December 1913), 4; Chattanooga Daily Times, November 8, 1914; Tampa Homing Tribune, March 22, 1914. 20 Cordon to Officials of SSWSC, February 11, 1914, Clay Papers. «Ibid.; Dennett to Gordon, March 17, 1914; Gordon to Fellow Suffragists, April 13,1914, ibid.

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suffragists into SSWSC after they were organized by NAWSA workers. Miss Gordon unhesitatingly assured her co-workers that the national leaders were antisouthern and pro-Republican and that "the ghost of reconstruction stalks boldly" among them. Yet she remained confident that NAWSA would change its policies and cooperate with SSWSC. For this reason she urged southem suffragists to cooperate with it. Thus, SSWSC and NAWSA were not intended to be rivals, but the spirit of rivalry existed and gradually increased.22 After NAWSA refused to give financial assistance, Miss Gordon turned to southerners for support. Hoping to raise $100,000, she appealed for one thousand persons to pledge $25 annually for four years. These pledges would permit her to borrow money to finance early operations. The response was discouraging. Only about two thousand dollars was pledged on the four-year plan, although other small contributions were received. Real support came from an unexpected source. Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont, a former Alabamian living in New York, contributed one thousand dollars, as did an anonymous "southern politician." As finances gradually became adequate, a program was launched.28 A permanent headquarters was established in New Orleans in May 1914. Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer of Pennsylvania, skilled in public relations, was hired as the full-time executive secretary. A press service was organized. Southern editors were contacted, and most indicated a willingness to use material furnished them. During 1914 over six thousand press releases were sent out to newspapers over the South. In October 1914 a magazine, the New Southern Citizen, was launched as the official organ of SSWSC. It set forth the views of the extreme states'-rights suffragists. Most of the articles were reprints or were written by Miss Gordon and other suffragists in the New Orleans area. The magazine was patterned after the ERA Club's New Citizen, which ceased publication about this time. A speakers' bureau was also established. Miss Gordon was in great demand. While urging woman suffrage, she never failed to stress the importance of the states'-rights approach over the federal amendment. By the end of 1914 SSWSC was in a position to duplicate the ser*»Neto Citizen, ΠΙ (December 1913), 4; Chattanooga Daily Times, November 8, 1914; Cordon to Clay, March 1, 1914; Gordon to Officials of SSWSC, February 11, 1914, Clay Papers; Kenneth R. Johnson, "The Woman Suffrage Movement in Florida" (unpublished PbuD. dissertation, Florida State University, 1966), 40—48. *» Gordon to Clay, March 21,28,1914, Clay Papers.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

vices rendered to southern suffragists by NAWSA. This strengthened Miss Gordon's belief that NAWSA should withdraw from the South.24 Political developments also helped convince her that the states'-rights approach was the only one offering any real hope of success in the South. Early in 1914 a caucus of Democrats in the House of Representatives announced that woman suffrage was an issue to be settled in the states. Shortly thereafter James Beauchamp (Champ) Clark, Speaker of the House, and William Jennings Bryan, secretary of state, came out in favor of woman suffrage in their respective states. Miss Gordon announced that this confirmed the wisdom of forming the Southern Conference.25 Southern suffragists agreed that the presence of the Negro created unique conditions in the South. The states'-rightist leaders of SSWSC, hoping to enfranchise white women and exclude all blacks, announced that they sought "political equality." Mrs. Boyer, executive secretary of SSWSC, explained, "Under the states' rights proposition each state can prescribe the same qualification for its women as it does for its men citizens. That is what we mean by political equality."28 Mrs. Belmont declared that "We are after securing for women the political rights equal to those of men. Negro women could share the same treatment Our campaign is to eliminate discrimination against women and secure for them a parity with men in the matter of rigiit to vote."27 While on a speaking tour in Florida, Miss Gordon asserted that intelligent white women should be able to use the same means to protect themselves from colored women as the southern men used to protect themselves from colored men.28 This concept of "political equality" implied total exclusion of Negroes from the polling places. When the Congressional Union announced that the federal amendment would in no way complicate the race problem, Miss Gordon, through the New Southern Citizen, contended that the amendment would open the door to Negro domination. She pointed out that in Mississippi and South Carolina Negroes were in an absolute majority and that Negro majorities existed in some political districts in all southern **New Southern Citizen, I (December 1914), 8-10; New Orleans Daily Picayune, May 3, 1914; Jacksonville Florida Times-Union, March 4, β, 1914. ϋβ Gordon to Officers of SSWSC, February 11, 1914, Clay Papers; Chattanooga Daily Times, November 11, 1914; Tampa Morning Tribune, July 21, 1914; Jacksonville Florida Times-Union, February 8,1914. 2® Chattanooga Daily Times, November 9,1914. Ibid., November 11,1914. 2» Tampa Morning Tribune, March 22,1914.

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states. Therefore, while Negro suffrage would not mean Negro domination of the whole South, it would mean domination of some sections. The argument was carried further with the explanation that white supremacy would be threatened in any area where Negro voting strength was great enough to hold the balance of power between two or more parties.29 Thus, the states' rightists saw the exclusion of the Negro as an essential aspect of woman suffrage, and they rejected any suffrage activity which threatened to raise the issue of Negro suffrage. There was no outspoken opposition to this position, but the moderate suffragists held different views. They believed white supremacy was safely maintained in any state where white voters outnumbered black voters. Most Negro men had already been disfranchised despite constitutional guarantees; large white majorities would continue to exist in every state even if black and white women were given the ballot. The moderates were therefore unwilling to restrict their activities as the states' rightists demanded. Though the South was alleged to present unique problems to the suffrage movement, no program to overcome these problems was developed by the official board of SSWSC, the New Orleans Conference, or the first annual convention held in Chattanooga in November 1914. Left to her own initiative, Miss Gordon suggested three techniques by which the state political leaders could be persuaded to enfranchise women. One method proposed that a woman-suffrage plank be written into the national Democratic party platform. This tactic, though considered most important of all, had to be delayed until the National Democratic Convention in 1916. The other techniques were put into practice shortly after SSWSC was formed, but both crashed on die rock of white supremacy, which had to be "maintained in the South by fair or foul means."30 2»New Southern Citizen, II (October 1915), 3-7; Aileen S. Kraditor, The Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement, 1890-1920 (New York and London, 1965), 174-75. so Gordon to McCulloch, August 19, 1915, McCulloch Papers. While the states' rightists were opposed to Negro suffrage, they were not opposed to exploiting the issue. As early as 1907 Miss Cordon argued that enfranchisement of women would strengthen the preponderance of white voters over black, further ensuring white supremacy. She also argued that the states could enfranchise white women without enfranchising black women. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments had created no new voters; states were simply denied the right to restrict suffrage because of a citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." Therefore, according to Miss Gordon, a state could give the ballot to white women without contravening the Constitution, and Negro women could not claim their right to vote was being denied, because they never had the right National political and suffrage leaders never gave this proposal

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

The first was merely a well-publicized threat that if the southern political leaders did not extend the ballot to women, they would appeal to the men of other sections of the country and especially to women already franchised to seek passage of a federal amendment. Miss Gordon believed that if southern politicians could be made fearful that a federal amendment might actually be passed, they would respond by granting woman suffrage as a means of avoiding the threat of federal intervention.81 But southern politicians were unimpressed. Miss Gordon and her states'rights supporters would not carry out their own threat and work for a federal amendment because they feared it might lead to Negro suffrage. The moderate suffragists, less fearful of Negro suffrage and federal authority, did work for a federal amendment. Thus, the threat from moderate southerners was real, but it was only empty rhetoric from Miss Gordon and the strong states' rightists. The other method was also a mere threat. Miss Gordon maintained that the grandfather clause, the literacy test, and the understanding clause as adopted by most southern states and used to disfranchise Negro men were violations of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. She believed that if southern women would publicize the unconstitutionality of these electoral requirements, public opinion in the North would force federal intervention to ensure fair and impartial electoral requirements in the South. She argued that the consequences of an organized campaign by southern women against the "illegal constitutions" would be so obvious and detrimental to the southern Democratic politicians that they would grant women suffrage in order to avoid such a campaign.82 This particular scheme might well have been one of the truly unique features of the woman-suffrage movement had the women been willing to push the plan. But southern suffragists had no real objection to electoral requirements that excluded Negroes, and this proposal consequently never got beyond the talking stage except on one brief occasion. serious consideration, and after Florence Loeber, a New Orleans attorney, advised that it was not feasible, Miss Cordon no longer pushed the idea. See Cordon to Clay, March 30, August 2, 1907; Florence Loeb«r to Cordon, February 25, 1908, Clay Papers; Woman Patriot, I (October 26,1918), 7-8. 31 New Southern Citizen, I (February 1915), β; ibid. (May 1915), 4-5; Kraditor, Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement, 179-80; Clarke, comp., Suffrage in the Southern States, 95. 8 2 Cordon to Members of the Official Board of NAWSA, June 23, 1915; Cordon, Speech to SSWSC Convention in 1914, Clay Papers; Kraditor, Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement, 179-82.

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HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

In 1915 the Supreme Court in the case of Guinn v. United States ruled the grandfather clause unconstitutional. The SSWSC was not involved in the case and had conducted no campaign against the "illegal constitutions," but Miss Gordon claimed it was responsible for the decision." While the decision tended to confirm her belief that voting requirements which resulted in disfranchisement of Negroes were illegal, she sought further legal opinions. The constitutions of Mississippi and Virginia were sent to Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch, an attorney, suffragist, and close friend, with the request that she study the points that conflicted with the national Constitution. Not wanting to be misunderstood, Miss Gordon added, "if Louisiana employs the understanding clause to preserve white supremacy and will grant woman suffrage, then I will not have a word to say against i t . . . . The only ammunition I want is to strike at the unconstitutional points in any subterfuge that does not include white women in its protection."84 In reply, Mrs. McCulloch pointed out that the Supreme Court in striking down the grandfather clause was careful to explain that "The literacy test considered alone was but the exercise of the State of a lawful power vested in it and not subject to our supervision and indeed its validity is admitted." She expressed the opinion that the literacy test if applied properly would disfranchise ignorant persons whether black or white, and in order to test the constitutionality of the literacy test and understanding clause, one would have to show that they operated to exclude a very large percentage of Negroes and practically no whites. Miss Gordon had no desire to show this; the question of the "illegal constitutions" was therefore dropped.86 While little progress had been made by SSWSC toward actual enfranchisement, its first annual convention was an optimistic gathering. Numerous national figures, delegates from twelve states, and Miss Christabel Pankhurst of England met in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in November 1914. It was a grand social occasion. Enthusiastic speeches were made and strong opinions expressed, but when adjournment came, nothing had been done to plan a suffrage campaign in the South. Delegates returned to their state and local associations with no new ideas, and the SSWSC had no definite program to follow. Miss Gordon was *» Gordon to Members of the Official Board of NAWSA, June 23, 1915, Clay Papen; New Southern Citizen, I (July 1915), 4-5. " Gordon to McCulloch, Auguk 19, 1915, McCulloch Papers. " McCulloch to Gordon, September 11, 1915; Gordon to McCulloch, September 16,1915, ibid.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

reelected president, and most other officers were reelected without opposition. Thus, the course set by the SSWSC leadership was continued.36 But there were rumblings of discontent. Women from all parts of the South indicated a belief that the SSWSC, while working for state action, should also cooperate actively with NAWSA and work for the federal amendment. This was in accord with the stated purpose of SSWSC, which from its inception had been called a "flank movement" to NAWSA.87 The position of these moderates was strengthened when Mrs. Medill McCormick, chairman of the NAWSA Congressional Committee, praised the concept of SSWSC as an auxiliary movement and voiced the opinion that it would be "of utmost importance to the National."38 Miss Gordon disagreed. Wanting to remain friendly with other suffragists, she often referred to the national leaders as "our suffrage friends," but when speaking of their support of the federal amendment, she characterized them as the "opposition" and the "enemy." She was sure the amendment would never pass Congress and that ratification was impossible if it did. She had once favored agitation for the amendment because it brought publicity, but she now thought discussion of it merely allowed opponents to conceal the merits of woman suffrage behind the question of Negro suffrage. All consideration of the federal amendment in the South should therefore cease. Miss Gordon assured the delegates that the quickest way to full enfranchisement was to persuade the Democratic party to endorse woman suffrage. She explained that the SSWSC "has for its immediate object to make the Democratic Party declare itself in favor of votes for women in the next national platform. This we southern suffragists believe, is the first step in what will prove a veritable landslide in the South." There was general agreement that the Democratic party should endorse woman suffrage, but most suffragists believed other methods should also be used.89 se Stanton et al., eds., History of Woman Suffrage, VI, 219-20. Other officers elected were Miss Clay, vice-president at large; Mrs. Hattie Rowland Parker, corresponding secretary; Mrs. O. F. Ellington, recording secretary; Mrs. C. E. Ellicott and Mrs. D. P. Montague, auditors. « Cordon to Clay, November 21,1913, Clay Papers. *» Chattanooga Daily Times, November 11, 1914. »»New Southern Citizen, I (December 1914), β; NAWSA Handbook; and Proceeding! of the 40th Annual Convention . . . (Washington, 1909), 30-31; New Citizen, ΙΠ (December 1913), 4; Woman Voter, V (December 1914), 18;

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HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

When the SSWSC convention adjourned, most delegates traveled the short distance to Nashville, where the forty-sixth annual convention of NAWSA was being held. Strong states'rights sentiment prevailed among the delegates there. The Susan B. Anthony Amendment, which NAWSA had supported for over forty years, was dropped in favor of a new states'-rights measure known as the Shafroth-Palmer Amendment. This proposed amendment did not provide directly for women but merely required that a state conduct a referendum on woman suffrage whenever 8 percent of the qualified voters in a state petitioned for such a referendum. It was a states'-rights measure involving no federal controls. Miss Gordon, believing that no federal amendment for woman suffrage would pass Congress and that none was needed, ignored the Shafroth-Palmer Amendment. The strong states'-rights sentiment in both NAWSA and SSWSC failed to produce a feeling of unity or spirit of cooperation between them.40 Another action of the national organization tended to push Miss Gordon and her states' righters further from NAWSA and the southern moderates. A suffrage campaign planned for Alabama in 1915 attempted to get the legislature to submit a woman-suffrage amendment to the voters and envisioned a second campaign among the voters to secure ratification of the amendment. The Alabama suffragists, led by Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs, launched a strong campaign, during which they requested and received extensive assistance from NAWSA. They requested no help from SSWSC. Alabama legislators refused to submit the proposed amendment to the voters, complained of outside interference in local matters, and argued that woman suffrage would lead to Negro suffrage and that NAWSA wanted Alabama women to have the ballot so that they could use it to force passage of a federal amendment which would endanger states' rights. Miss Gordon was hurt by not being invited to help in the campaign and disgusted with Alabama suffragists for failing to realize that the use of NAWSA assistance would permit the legislators to raise these questions and confuse the issue of woman suffrage. She asserted that there was some truth in the claims made by the legislators and that southern legislators would always interpret suffrage activities in the South by nonPatricia L. Spiers, "The Woman Suffrage Movement in New Orleans" (unpublished MA. thesis, Southeastern Louisiana College, 1965), 58. *o Stanton et d., eds., History of Woman Suffrage, V, 416-27; Kraditor, Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement, 206-208; Irwin, Angels and Amazons, 369-71.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

southerners as outside interference, as attacks upon states* rights, as attempts to reenfranchise the Negro, and as threats to Democratic party supremacy. Therefore, she considered NAWSA rather than uncooperative legislators the real obstacle to suffrage progress in the South. The demand for woman suffrage in the South must come from southerners.41 For these reasons Miss Gordon again urged NAWSA to terminate its southern activities and to recommend that all southern suffragists use the states'-rights method for securing the ballot.4" Leaders of NAWSA ignored her and continued to expand their activities in the South. By late 1915 Miss Gordon was convinced that there must be a parting of the ways, although she desired to "preserve a semblance of cordiality with both national organizations." The different paths of NAWSA and SSWSC became still more obvious when the delegates to the forty-seventh annual convention of NAWSA abandoned the Shafroth-Palmer Amendment and renewed support of the traditional Susan B. Anthony Amendment. Thereafter states'-rights sentiment had no significant influence on NAWSA policy.43 Moderate southern suffragists were forced to choose between the exclusively states'-rights approach of Miss Gordon or loyalty to NAWSA and a program for enfranchisement by both state and federal action. There was a steady decline in support for the states'-rights position. This resulted primarily from the lack of sympathy shown by state legislators for woman suffrage. By the end of 1915 the suffragists had made appeals to every southern state legislature for action. In many cases the matter was handled in a joking fashion and the women subjected to unpleasant insinuations. Even where legislators treated the question with seriousness and the suffragists with respect, most of them were unwilling to vote for woman suffrage. Newspapers generally opposed woman suffrage, and the few southern organizations that endorsed it were unwilling to campaign for its adoption. Since no serious effort at federal intervention in southern elections had been made since 1890 when the Force Bill was defeated, fear of such intervention was declining. Negro men had been disfranchised. There seemed little justification for the claim that « Gordon to Clay, January 25, September 16, 1915, Clay Papers; New Southern Citizen, I (September 1915), 4-5; Allen, "Woman Suffrage Movement in Alabama," 91-95. « Gordon to Members of the Official Board of NAWSA, June 23, 1915, Clay Papers. « Gordon to Clay, September 16, November 6,1915, ibid.

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appeals for woman suffrage should be made exclusively to the states. The growing reluctance of most southern suffragists to follow Miss Gordon was evident in many ways. The Congressional Union, which worked exclusively for the federal amendment, started organizing in the South in 1915 and attracted enough women to organize a branch in every southern state. NAWSA in the same year succeeded in establishing a "Congressional District Plan" in the South, whereby the suffragists of each congressional district would bring pressure on congressmen and senators when a suffrage measure was being considered.44 Among the suffragists who held responsible positions in NAWSA and often spoke for the federal amendment were Mrs. Guilford Dudley (Tennessee), Mrs. Τ. T. Cotnam (Arkansas), Mrs. Nonie R. MaJboney (Texas), the Reverend Mary A. Safford (Florida), and Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs (Alabama). Perhaps the strongest example of the trend of southern suffragists to the support of NAWSA and the Anthony Amendment can be seen in the case of Mrs. Nellie Nugent Somerville of Mississippi. A firm believer in states' rights, she was one of the organizers and officers of SSWSC. Yet in 1915 she was selected second vice-president of NAWSA.48 Her acceptance of this position indicated that one of the staunchest states' rightists was willing to work for suffrage by federal action and symbolized a loss of faith in the ability of southern women to gain suffrage by state action. She reflected the attitude of the moderate southerners in the statement that "The national association is a broad democratic organization and permits its members the widest latitude as to measure and kind of support which they give to the federal amendment, but we all believe in it and we are gradually convincing thoughtful men and women in the South that it holds no menace for the institutions of any State or any group of States." Mrs. Emma Funck, another organizer and an official of SSWSC, became a member of the Advisory Council of the National Woman's party. Miss Gordon and her close associates were appalled at these "defections."4® She sought to stem the tide by advising her suffrage colleagues against committing ** NAWSA, Handbook; and Proceedings of the 47th Annual Convention . . . (Washington, 191Θ), 74-75,78. « Clay to Gordon, June 12,1915, Clay Papers. *e Charleston News and Courier, December 14, 1915; Cordon to McCulIoch, une 22, 1915, McCulIoch Papers; Cordon to Clay, November 6, 1915, Clay 'ape».

J

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

their organizations to support any program which included the Anthony Amendment. But her advice apparently went unheeded.47 The more moderate suffragists warned that attempts to prevent southern women from following the lead of NAWSA would end in failure unless SSWSC developed some kind of national policy.48 Miss Clay wanted SSWSC to work for the United States Election Bill. It was a states'-rights measure in that women could be given the right to vote for national senators and representatives with no extension of federal authority. Miss Clay had first proposed this bill in the 1890s and constantly urged its adoption thereafter. It became a part of NAWSA's program, but few efforts were made to secure its passage. By late 1915 Miss Clay had given up hope for any real support from NAWSA, and she suggested that SSWSC go on record as favoring the bill and that Miss Gordon go to Washington to work for its passage.49 The latter would have none of it. Convinced that a Democratic party endorsement of woman suffrage would make a federal program unnecessary, she opposed adoption of any federal program prior to the Democratic convention in June 1916. Since she had also decided that early 1916 was the proper time to launch an attack" on the federal policies of NAWSA, she considered it an inappropriate time for SSWSC to offer a federal program.60 Miss Clay continued to urge support of the United States Election Bill. When the second SSWSC convention met in Richmond, Virginia, in December 1915 the division between states' rightists and moderates was greater than ever. Miss Gordon had hopes that this convention would perfect "a southern woman's appeal" to the Democratic convention to write into the "organic law" of the party a "vote for women" plank.61 Moderates attached far less significance to the womansuffrage plank. They were determined that SSWSC should move more into the mainstream of the woman-suffrage movement by cooperating more closely with NAWSA and supporting some kind of federal action.62 Miss Gordon, supported by Mrs. Hattie « Gordon to Officers of SSWSC, May 11, 1915; Gordon to Southern Suffragists, May 31,1915, Clay Papers. « Clay to Gordon, October 28,1915, ibid. 4» Stanton et al., eds., History of Woman Suffrage, V, 424, 659-60; Clay to Gordon, July 3, October 28, November 25, 1915, Clay Papers. 5 0 Gordon to Clay, November 6, 1915, Clay Papers; Gordon to McCullocb, September 16,1915, McCulloch Papers. « New Southern Citizen, II (October 1915), 7. 52 Woman's Journal and Suffrage News (December 4, 1915), 389; Richmond Times-Dispatch, December 12, 1915.

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244

Rowland Parker, Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer, and others, mainly from Louisiana and Mississippi, argued that the quickest way to woman suffrage was through state action, but most delegates were not convinced. The moderate suffragists, led by such women as Mrs. John Lewis, Miss Mary Johnston, Mrs. Μ. T. Coleman, Mrs. Helen H. Gardner, and Miss Clay, were mainly from the border states. Mrs. Coleman of South Carolina best summed up their attitude, stating that "Many people, men and women, feel that it is the men of our own State who should enfranchise us. We have asked and are still asking them to do it through the State Legislature. But they have refused to do it that way. Now there is only one other way it can be done and that is through the National Congress . . . The program finally adopted was a compromise. The delegates agreed to a resolution demanding a suffrage plank in the Democratic platform and to another urging the legislature of each state to confer suffrage on women upon the same terms as men. The states' rightists would have been happy to stop at this point, but over their objections the SSWSC pledged its support of the United States Election Bill. It also agreed that SSWSC should join NAWSA in urging the right of women to vote for presidential electors if this could be accomplished by congressional legislation. However, there was no resolution in support of the Anthony Amendment. Miss Gordon, the spokeswoman of a minority of southern suffragists, was reelected president, with the duty of carrying out a program which she opposed in part.54 Following the Richmond convention Miss Gordon held smaller conferences in Atlanta, Little Rock, and Greenville, South Carolina, and visited numerous other cities seeking to arouse interest in SSWSC. She also began working for the passage of the United States Election Bill in compliance with the program adopted by the SSWSC convention. Her leadership was hardly dynamic. Shortly after the convention she suggested that Miss Clay continue working for the bill.55 She wrote all the Democratic members of Congress, requesting diem to support the bill and hinting that "it is natural Jacksonville Florida Times-Union, December 15, 1915. Richmond Times-Dispatch, December 11-14, 1915; Woman's Journal and Suffrage News (December 25, 1915), 412; New Southern Citizen, Π (December 1915), 15. 6 5 Gordon to Clay, December 30, 1915, Clay Papers. M M

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

for women to rally to the party which enfranchises them . . . ."M She also wrote members of the SSWSC board, asking if they would endorse a note for funds to support a lobbyist in Washington. A short time later she announced that the response indicated that there was "no interest or desire on the part of women to do anything for the bill."®7 Meanwhile Miss Gordon had consulted Solomon Wolff, an attorney in New Orleans, as to the constitutionality of the bill. Pointing to Article I, Section 2, of the Constitution, he expressed the opinion that the state had exclusive authority to set the qualifications an elector must possess and that the Constitution granted Congress no power to impose additional qualifications or make exceptions. The United States Election Bill would therefore be unconstitutional.58 With this reinforcement, Miss Gordon discontinued her efforts in behalf of the bill, expressing the belief that "the only hope we southern women have for our suffrage is to put the Democratic Party on record in favor of states' rights suffrage." Miss Clay admitted that her United States Election Bill had little prestige but urged continued support of it. She was confident that if SSWSC did not support some federal program, it would lose the allegiance of most southern suffragists. But Miss Gordon had by this time lost all her earlier flexibility and would not be moved. The opportunity to rally southern women behind an alternative to the federal amendment was lost.89 Her hope for success depended exclusively on Democratic party action. The opportunity to rally southern women behind a demand that the Democratic party go on record as favoring woman suffrage by state action was also fading. In May 1915 leaders of NAWSA started a campaign to have a large number of southern women participate in a "standing parade" at the Democratic convention to demand that the party endorse woman suffrage. The presence of southern women was to counter the common claim by politicians that southern women did not really want the ballot.60 Miss Gordon angrily denounced NAWSA tor this action and accused it of trying "everything under the sun to disrupt the Southern Conference.""1 Specifically, she charged «Gordon to die Democratic Members of the Sixty-fourth Congress of the United Stetes, March 17,1916, ibid. " Gordon to Clay, March 28,1916, ibid. Μ Wolff to Gordon, March 2, 20,1916, ibid. "Gordon to Clay, March 28, 1916; Clay to Gordon, April 12, 1916, ibbL; Martha G. Stapler, ed., Woman Suffrage Year Book, 1917 (New York, 1917), 91. eo Gordon to McCuIloch, August 3, 1915, McCuIloch Papers, «ι GordontoMcCdloch, November 23,1915, ibid.

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

that NAWSA was ignoring the "priority of right" of SSWSC in the South and was deliberately duplicating the SSWSC program.62 NAWSA offered no explanation for its campaign in the South, and Miss Clay advised that SSWSC cooperate with NAWSA in its activities before the convention.®8 Miss Gordon flatly refused. She believed the one essential step toward woman suffrage in the South was to secure a plank in the Democratic party platform calling for woman suffrage by state action.64 She considered the Democratic party an organic body with many branches but with one will. Once the party expressed its will in the platform, it was inconceivable to her that a Dranch of the party would act contrary to that platform. Support of this view came from President Woodrow Wilson, who stated, in explaining his opposition to woman suffrage, that it was not in the party program, thereby implying that he would feel duty bound to support what was in the party platform. In the legislative halls of Louisiana, Miss Gordon had also heard appeals for the ratification of the income tax amendment because it was a "party measure." In spite of her strong belief in states' rights, she believed the Democratic party in each state to be a mere branch of the national party. She did not regard the party as a confederation of autonomous state units, a view common among southern politicians. Miss Gordon never doubted that Democratic leaders in the South would use their control of state governments to carry out the will of the party. Neither was she tempted to support another party. She was in complete accord with what she thought the Democratic party stood for.66 She explained that the "Democratic South" was simply "a concise way of expressing anti-nigger" and that the Democratic party consistently stood for the principle of states' rights. She therefore assured her colleagues that "State action is the only form of suffrage we can reasonably expect the Democratic Party to endorse."66 But Miss Gordon's dream of leading a large united group of southern women before the platform committee of the Demoei Gordon to Mis. MediQ McCormick, July 13, 1915; Gordon to Clay, August 3,1915, Clay Papers, β» Clay to Gordon, April 12,1916, ibid. •«Cordon to Clay, November 21, 1913; Cordon to the Southern States Presidents, October 20, 1915, ibid.; Clarke, comp., Suffrage in the Southern States, 95. es Cordon to Clay, December 8, 1908; Cordon, Speech to SSWSC Convention, 1914, Clay Papers; Stanton et al., eds., History of Woman Suffrage, V, 671-72; Ray S Baker, Woodrou) Wilson: Life and Letters (8 vols., Garden City, Ν. Y , 1927-1940), ΠΙ, 385; IV, 225-27. Μ Gordon to Officers of SSWSC, May 8, 1916, Clay Papers.

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cratic convention faded long before the delegates assembled. When it became obvious that women in all southern stattes were cooperating fully with NAWSA, Miss Gordon sought only a brief hearing before the platform committee and then made a quick departure from St. Louis. Mrs. Ellington, Mrs. Boyer, and Miss Clay appeared with her as representatives of SSWSC.67 The platform committee of the Democratic party heard four basic appeals concerning woman suffrage. Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge, representing the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, opposed any political action that would recognize woman suffrage as an issue. Miss Gordon, representing the SSWSC, favored a plank calling for woman suffrage by state action. Mrs. Catt led the NAWSA delegation, demanding a statement that the Democratic party favored woman suffrage, which would imply that party members should work for enfranchisement of women through state and federal action. Miss Alice Paul, leader of the National Woman's party, demanded woman suffrage immediately by federal amendment. Probably more influential than any of these demands was the fact that in twelve states women could already vote. Their demand for suffrage for all women could not be ignored. On the other hand, in parts of the South and Northeast some powerful political leaders opposed any mention of the suffrage issue. The party plank finally adopted stated, "We favor the extension of the franchise to the women of this country, State by State, on the same terms as to the men." President Wilson announced his complete agreement with this plank.68 Miss Gordon and her states'-rightist followers were jubilant. "The first historic milestone . . . was reached when . . . the Democratic Party went on record recommending extension of the franchise to women," she wrote.69 But the first "milestone" also proved to be the last for SSWSC. It soon became evident that the national party platform was not a mandate for state action by party members. Immediately after the Democratic victory in the 1916 election, an invitation was sent in the name of SSWSC to the southern governors inquiring if they or their representatives would βτ Gordon to Clay, April 29, 1916; Gordon to Officers of SSWSC, May 8, 1916, ibid.; Stanton et al, eis., History of Woman Suffrage, VI, 220. ββNew Southern Citizen, II (July 1916), 6-10; Tampa Morning Tribune, August 4, June 13-16, 1916; Stanton et al., eds., History of Woman Suffrage, V, 713-14; Stapler, ed., Woman Suffrage Year Book, 1917, pp. 112-13. ββ New Southern Citizen, II (July 1916), 11; ERA Club, Minutes of chib meeting, June 24, 1914 (New Orleans Public Library, New Orleans, La.)

247

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meet with the suffragists. It was claimed that the Democratic party was in power because of the influence of those states where women already voted, and southern women must therefore be given the vote "if the Democratic Party's allegiance to state sovereignty is to be maintained." Mrs. Catt, president of NAWSA, although considered to be a tool of the Republican party, was urged to recommend that suffrage leagues in the South cooperate if the governors agreed to a conference.70 Apparently, the governors responded negatively or failed to respond, because no conference was held. The second blow to Miss Gordon's strategy came on January 9, 1918, when the President, reversing his former stand, advised the members of Congress to vote for the Anthony Amendment. Having praised Wilson's announced belief in woman suffrage as a states'-rights measure, Miss Gordon was completely unprepared for his about-face. Her first reaction was to use Wilson's stand for promoting suffrage in the South. She proposed writing Democratic committeemen in southern states, requesting them to demand immediate submission and ratification of woman-suffrage amendments in every southern state before the Anthony Amendment could be acted upon. Hopefully this would make federal action unnecessary. Miss Clay and others heartily endorsed this proposal, but these officials, if approached, took no action.71 The states' rightists were unwilling to accept Wilson's announcement at face value and sought some hidden explanation. They finally decided that Wilson supported the amendment in order to win the election of 1918, but they reasoned that he was sure the amendment would never be ratified even if Congress should pass it.72 Once this explanation was accepted, Miss Gordon and her followers could continue opposing me amendment without feeling disloyal to the country, to Wilson, and to the Democratic party. Miss Gordon would never accept the amendment as a war measure. She came to believe that most supporters of the amendment were German sympathizers and that German propagandists were financing the campaign for the amendment in order

7 0 Gordon to Governors of the Southern States, December 13, 1916; Gordon to Catt, December 13, 1916, McCulloch Papers; Gordon to Clay, December 21, 1916; February 13, 1917, Clay Papers; New Southern Citizen, III (January 1917), 11. 7 1 Gordon to Clay, January 15, 21, 1918; Clay to Gordon, January 19, 1918, day Papers; Stanton et al., eds., History of Woman Suffrage, V, 635-36; Baker, Woodrow Wilson, VII, 67,458,460. 7 1 Gordon to Clay, July 2,1918, Clay Papers.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

to bring four million inexperienced voters to the polls at a crucial time. But her primary concern continued to be the Negro. The amendment presented the threat of Negro suffrage at a time when the blacks were already creating problems.73 T h e Negro women," wrote Miss Gordon, "are receiving such large sums of money from the government from the soldiers . . . that the labor situation is appalling."74 But her uncertainty was clear in the statement that "I earnestly hope the President will use his power to defeat its ratification for the poor fool niggers are already showing the effect of bad counsel, and feeling the effect of the army allowances. Well I am going to fight the federal amendment to the last ditch."75 Miss Gordon's faith in the Democratic party was finally laid to rest by the Louisiana voters. In July 1918 die Louisiana legislature passed a bill submitting a woman-suffrage amendment to the state constitution for ratification in the November general election. Miss Gordon was sure "this submission signifies the beginning of the end in the South and the defeat of the federal amendment."76 One of her first acts in preparing for the ratification campaign was to request that NAWSA send no money, literature, or personnel to Louisiana. This request was based on a strong belief that the state could be carried but that defeat was sure if it was thought that women would work for the Anthony Amendment after they were enfranchised. Mrs. Catt promised to "use my utmost influence to see that no assistance of any kind or description is given to Louisiana." She expressed the belief that the Louisiana Democrats were not really for woman suffrage but had submitted the amendment only to oppose the federal amendment, and she predicted the politicians would "see to it that your state amendment is voted down good and hard."77 However, all the suffrage groups in Louisiana temporarily suppressed their antagonisms to cooperate in the campaign for ratification.78 The campaign was launched by a call to the men of Louisiana for loyalty to the platform of the Democratic party in 1916. They were assured that ratification of the state amendment

τ» Gordon to Clay, March 14, 26, 1918; Clay to Gordon, July β, 1918, ibid. 7 4 Gordon to Clay, September 6,1918, ibid. ™ Gordon to Clay, July 20,1918, ibid. τ« Telegram, Gordon to Clay, June 20,1918, ibid. " Gordon to Clay, July 2, 1918; Gordon to Catt, July 3, 1918; Catt to Gordon, July 11,1918, ibid. 7 8 Gordon to Clay, July 2, September 16, 26, 1918, ibid.; Stanton et al., eds., History of Woman Suffrage, IV, 678-87.

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would "vindicate the spirit and sacrifices of the men who in the dark days of reconstruction fought and died to maintain white supremacy."79 An elaborate campaign was conducted in every parish. Money was adequate, and Miss Gordon even thought that some would be left over to carry on work outside the state. Miss Clay was urged to come and make a speech in each congressional district. She did not come, but she offered to contributefivehundred dollars to the campaign.80 A vigorous campaign was carried on, but Miss Gordon felt sure that "Unless the powers that be will be for us, nothing under the heaven can carry the election." The "powers that be' were the Democratic leaders of the state and nation. Most public officials did endorse the proposed amendment. The governor, the two senators, all representatives except one, most state legislators, and other elected officials announced that they would vote for it, although few joined the campaign. Robert S. Ewing, national committeeman and owner of two newspapers in the state, worked diligently for the women. The State Democratic Committee did not endorse the amendment, but most individual members were in sympathy with the women. Miss Gordon expected that at the crucial moment President Wilson would intervene and support the amendment. Though they expressed concern over the failure of many city officials to endorse the measure, the suffragists felt complete confidence as the election drew near.81 So confident was Miss Gordon that she asked Governor Ruffin G. Pleasant to call a special conference of southern governors to develop a plan for submission of state suffrage amendments in all southern states. He hesitated, explaining that such a call would be more effective after the Louisiana amendment was actually ratified. Mrs. Catt was also asked to call a conference of the leaders in nonsuffrage states to plan a campaign in all states. Miss Gordon was convinced that success in Louisiana would set off a great movement that would make suffrage by state action possible everywhere. Mrs. Catt, believing that some states would never enfranchise women, replied that she was "unwilling to join in any conference that would hinder and reduce the movement for the federal amendment"82 ™ Call issued by Louisiana Woman Suffrage Association, August 3, 1918, copy in Clay Papers. 80 Gordon to Clay, September β, 26, 1918, ibid.; ERA Club, Minutes of dub meeting, November 12,1918. 81 Gordon to Clay, September β, October 8, 1918, Clay Papers. « Catt to Gordon, July 11, 1918; Gordon to Clay, October 8, 1918, ibid.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

Election day brought hard realities. The amendment was defeated. Miss Gordon thought the loss was "incredible of belief, with the political exigency what it was . . . " M Numerous reasons were advanced for the defeat. Many qualified voters simply did not vote, and many other sympathetic men had failed to pay their poll tax. It was also thought that the "Flu condition of the country" kept many men away from the polls, but most of the blame was placed on the "contemptible old mayor," Martin Behrman of New Orleans, who had consistently but quietly opposed the measure.84 It was clear that the Democratic party platform did not command the loyalty of southern Democrats. While the tactics of the states' rightists were proving ineffective, SSWSC was also failing financially. The financial reports showed that after 1914 expenditures constantly exceeded income. SSWSC delegates at the Richmond convention pledged only twelve hundred dollars.88 During 1916 SSWSC income was barely adequate to pay for essential services, which required about four thousand dollars annually. Early in 1917 Miss Gordon announced that if all pledges were paid, SSWSC could operate for another two months.88 But no new financing was available. In May the last issue of the New Southern Citizen was published, and all other SSWSC activities were terminated. For all practical purposes the organization ceased to exist, but in some ways it still functioned. A bank account was continued through 1918, letters were written on SSWSC stationery, and it was sometimes referred to as an existing organization. Actually, the states'-rights philosophy continued, ana the followers of Miss Gordon used the trappings of SSWSC when it served their purposes.87 Underlying the decline of SSWSC was the unwillingness of moderate suffragists to restrict themselves to methods agreeable to the states' rightists. As the moderates increasingly used their time and resources to support the broader tactics of NAWSA, Miss Gordon and her followers began to distrust even some state action. The Arkansas legislature passed a suffrage bill in early 1917, giving women the privilege of voting in primary elections. Although Miss Gordon suggested such a bill as early as 1912, «3 Gordon to Clay, November 13,1918, ibid, 8 4 Kate Gordon to Ida Hausted Harper, December 19, 1918; Jean Gordon to Co-Workers, November 1918, ibid. β» New Southern Citizen, II (January 1916), 8. 8 9 Gordon to McCuDoch, December 15, 1916, McCulloch Papers; Gordon to the Official Board of SSWSC, March 17, 1917, Clay Papers. 87 Clay to Gordon, January 26, 1918; Gordon to Clay, September 26, 1918, Clay Papers; Stanton et al., eds., History of Woman Suffrage, V, 671-73.

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it was not supported by SSWSC, and no assistance was given in Arkansas. In fact, Miss Gordon was critical of the victory there because of the participation of NAWSA in the campaign.88 She suggested that a campaign could be successful in Oklahoma but would lend no assistance, even though Miss Clay pointed out that it would give SSWSC prestige.8® Miss Gordon refused because she feared success in these states would strengthen the demand for the Anthony Amendment. Thus, the organized southern wing of the woman-suffrage movement came to an end. Although woman-suffrage organizations in the South were actually more active in 1918 than ever before, they were not uniquely southern. The suffrage associations, their tactics, and objectives were practically identical with those throughout the nation. The disappearance of SSWSC did not eliminate the loyal states' rightists who followed Miss Gordon. States'-rights sentiment existed in all southern states, but it was most evident and active in the Louisiana Woman Suffrage Association (LWSA) and the ERA Club.80 Although the states' rightists had openly opposed the federal amendment since 1916, NAWSA leaders hoped that the defeat in Louisiana would lead all southern suffragists to support the federal amendment or at least to be neutral. They pointed out that LWSA in affiliating with NAWSA had tacitly agreed to work for suffrage by state and federal action. While it was acceptable for LWSA to seek suffrage by the states'rights method only, it had no right to work against the federal amendment. The states' rightists would not agree but claimed the right to oppose the amendment and still remain in good standing in NAWSA. Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, historian of NAWSA, tactfully urged Miss Gordon to "accept the inevitable and even if you cannot work for it [the Anthony Amendment] do not try to impede." But Miss Gordon refused to acknowledge the inevitability of the Anthony Amendment.91 8» Gordon to McCulIoch, December 15, 1916, McCulIoch Papers; Harper to Gordon, November 18, 1918, Clay Papers; Taylor, "The Woman Suffrage Movement in Arkansas," 42-45. 8 9 Gordon to McCulIoch, December 15, 1916; Gordon to Catt, December 13, 1916, McCulIoch Papers; Gordon to Clay, September 26, 1918; Clay to Gordon, March 2, 1917; March 30, 1918, Clay Papers; Stanton et al., eds., History of Woman Suffrage, VI, 528-33. 8 0 ERA Club, Minutes of regular and board meetings of the club, November 12, 17, December 14, 1918; NAWSA, Handbook; and Proceedings of the 48th Annual Convention . . . (Washington, 1917), 27; New Southern Citizen, ΙΠ (October 1916), 5-6; New Orleans Times-Picayune? August 4, 1916. 8 1 Halsey W. Wilson, recording secretary of NAWSA, to Jean Gordon, April 29, 1918; Kate Gordon to Wilson, May 7, 1918; Wilson to Kate Gordon, May 17,

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

Realizing, however, that some federal action was almost certain, she sought an alternative to that amendment. Following the 1918 general election she seriously considered asking Democratic leaders in the lame-duck session of Congress to pass the Anthony Amendment without the enforcement provisions.93 Κ the request was made, no action was taken on it. After the amendment had passed the House of Representatives the following year and passage by the Senate seemed likely, Miss Gordon proposed an alternative amendment to apportion the House of Representatives among the states on the basis of the whole population, but any state which denied women the right to vote for presidential electors, senators, and representatives, would be represented in the House only on the basis of its male population. The states' rightists around Miss Gordon favored this proposal. At the same time Miss Clay and other states' rightists still active in NAWSA argued strongly that the federal amendment should be altered to meet the objections of southerners. But the great mass of suffragists were unwilling to consider alternatives while standing on the threshold of victory.83 The Anthony Amendment passed Congress and was sent to the states for ratification in June 1919. Miss Gordon and other states' rightists without hesitation joined the forces which had consistently opposed woman suffrage and worked to prevent ratification in Louisiana and Mississippi.94 They were successful in these states, but by August 1920 thirty-six states had ratified the federal amendment. Miss Gordon and her cohorts were thus enfranchised by federal action despite their best efforts. 1918, Official Correspondence of NAWSA, Harriet Burton Laidlaw Papers (Schlesinger Library); Harper to Kate Cordon, November 18, 1918; Kate Cordon to Harper, December 19,1918, Clay Papers. 8 2 Telegram, Gordon to Clay, November 11, 1918, Clay Papers. •sERA Club, Minutes of club meeting, March 8, 1919; Stanton et ei., eds., History of Woman Suffrage, V, 5β1. »* Woman Patriot, IV (January 31, 1920), 4; (April 24, 1920), 4; (June 12, 1920), 2.

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Kate Gordon and Louisiana Woman Suffrage By B. H .

GILLEY Louisiana T e c h U n i v e r s i t y

Henry James observed that women "sometimes throw off a bold conception—such as a man wouldn't have risen t o — w i t h singular serenity." 1 T h i s observation well describes Kate G o r d o n , Louisiana's turn-of-the-century woman suffrage leader. G o r d o n , of N e w Orleans, is best r e m e m b e r e d in the national w o m a n suffrage movement for a campaign to restrict w oman suffrage in the Southern states to white w o m e n . 2 G o r d o n ' s origins and the Louisiana background of her suffrage activities are less well known. A significant achievement was her direction in Louisiana in 1918 of the South's first state woman suffrage a m e n d m e n t campaign. T h e purpose of this article is to delineate G o r d o n ' s state career and the relation of her state suffrage endeavor to that at the Southern and national level. Kate G o r d o n w as the daughter of George H . G o r d o n , a Scottish educator, w ho emigrated from Edinburgh to New Orleans where Kate was born in 1861. Reared in the comfortable confines of the New Orleans G a r d e n District, she was educated locally and was graduated f r o m a Miss Shaw's finishing school, a private academy for "fashionable young ladies." 3 From 1896 to the national election of 1918, Kate G o r d o n spearheaded Louisiana's woman suffrage endeavor. She became a m e m b e r of the Portia Club, the first organization to work for woman suffrage in New Orleans, and she served from 1901 to 1909 as corresponding secretary of the Na1

Henry James, The Aspern Papers, in The Aspern Papers, The Turn of the Screw, The Lion, The Two Faces (New York, 1908) p. 3. 2 This aspect of Gordon's career has been recounted by Kenneth R. Johnson, "Kate Gordon and the W oman Suffrage Movement in the South," Journal of Southern History, XXXVIII (1972), 365-392. 3 New Orleans Daily Picayune, July 7, 1901, August 25, 1932; hereinafter cited as Picayune.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE tional American Woman Suffrage Association. In 1910, Gordon became a vice president of the national organization. T h e Louisiana suffragist withdrew from national suffrage advocacy in 1913 and thereafter worked for women's enfranchisement at the state level. Gordon was a product of the late-nineteenth-century revival of woman suffrage advocacy. T h e first significant insistence on women's right to vote was registered in 1848 when Elizabeth Cady Stanton insisted on making the demand a pan of the rights declaration issued at the Seneca Falls Women's Convention. There was, however, little suffrage endeavor over the next twenty years; instead, women battled for legal and, especially, property rights. Woman suffrage became a serious goal in 1869. Women's rights leaders v\er|? angered when the franchise for women was omitted from the Fifteenth Amendment which purported to protect the right of black men to vote. Whether or not to support the Fifteenth Amendment became one of several issues which, for the next twenty years, divided suffragists into two factions and weakened their advocacy. T h e American Woman Suffrage Association sought the vote through state constitutional amendments whereas the National Woman Suffrage Association campaigned for a federal measure. After years of frustration and failure, the factions united in 1890 as the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Until 1915 they achieved only limited success. Thereafter, they rallied for the victory of the Nineteenth Amendment. Concern for women's rights characterized the Gordon family heritage. In 1853, Kate's mother, Margaret Galiece, attended a women's rights meeting in New York. Upon returning to Louisiana, she pledged to convert her children to women's rights when they became of age. T h e scholarly father also was a convert to women's rights. He opposed the taxation of women without representation and declared that they were entitled to equal rights with men. 4 Kate Gordon was attracted to suffrage work in 1896. At a local Unitarian meeting she heard Mary C. C. Bradford, a Colorado suffragist, espouse the need for "women to stand for women. . . ." T h e New Orleans suffragist described the speech as the great "epoch" of her life to that time. 5 4

/ω.

"Ibid.

HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

256

T w o developments conditioned Kate G o r d o n ' s suffrage advocacy. O n e was the late-nineteenth-century woman's club movement. Another was the prospect that granting the vote to white women might counteract t h e seemingly increasing potential of the black vote. G o r d o n ' s first significant advocacy was initiated through association in club work with Caroline E. Merrick, Louisiana's pioneer suffragist. In 1892 Merrick founded the Portia C l u b as an auxiliary of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Although a mild-mannered woman w h o did not fit the aggressive suffragist stereotype, Mrs. Merrick objected strongly to the continuing d i s f r a n c h i s e m e n t of w o m e n . It was, she said, not "thinking m e n " b u t "the political machine" that denied the vote to women. 6 Merrick's political philosophy, that men would enfranchise women only w h e n it was politically expedient to do so, influenced G o r d o n to become a m e m b e r of the Portia C l u b . 7 With reference to suffrage strategy, the N e w Orleanian became convinced that w o m e n should demonstrate their political talents and will to politicians. T h e exhilaration occasioned by hearing M a r y Bradford's appeal prompted G o r d o n , her sister Jean, and several other y o u n g women later in 1896 to form a second N e u Orleans women's rights organization, the Era Club. T h e Portia C l u b subsequently merged with the Era C l u b to f o r m a statew ide suffrage movement. From 1904 to 1913 the statew ide movement was headed by Kate G o r d o n . 8 In 1898 the Louisiana suffragist met Carrie C h a p m a n Catt, chairman of the N A W S A Organization Committee. T h e occasion was the Louisiana constitutional convention which met in February and March of 1898 in New Orleans. T h e visiting national suffrage leaders and a delegation from the combined Era and Portia clubs testified before the convention suffrage committee. T h e Era-Portia Club delegation included Caroline Merrick, her long-time coworker Elizabeth Lyle Saxon, and Kate G o r d o n . N A W S A Organization Committee members w h o accompanied Catt to N e w Orleans were Mary Garrett H a y , of Indiana, and Laura Clay, of Ken8

Ibid., March 20, 1903. Ibid., May H , 1893, March 20, 1903. 'Ibid., May 13, 1893, August 25, 1932; Elizabeth Cady Stanton et al., eds. History of Woman Suffrage, 6 vols. (New York, 1881-1922), IV, 679-680, VI, 216; hereinafter cited as Stanton, History of Woman Suffrage; Ethel Hutson Papers, Manuscript Division, Tulane University Library, New Orleans, Louisiana; hereinafter cited as Hutson Papers. 7

WOMAN SUFFRAGE tucky. 9 Clay directed Southern suffrage work in the National Association. She subsequently became G o r d o n ' s confidant and collaborator in Southern suffrage endeavor. Caroline Merrick told the convention suffrage committee members how in 1879 she had appealed to their predecessors to grant the suffrage to Louisiana w o m e n . She then introduced each of the accompanying w o m e n , several of w h o m addressed the committee and urged it to endorse a state constitutional a m e n d m e n t granting suffrage to w o m e n . 1 0 Dr. H e n r y Dickson Bruns, a close friend of the G o r d o n family and a m e m b e r of the convention suffrage committee, pleaded unsuccessfully with his colleagues to submit a woman suffrage proposal to the convention for electoral consideration. Bruns and the women did achieve a partial victory. A committee resolution that all taxpaying women should have the right to vote in person or by proxy on all questions of taxation w as voted into the Louisiana c o n s t i t u t i o n . " In 1899 a New Orleans w ater and drainage bond election presented the fledgling suffragist an opportunity to test her leadership. Inadequate sanitary drainage and sewerage, as well as unsafe cistern w ater, had long been problems for the low-lying city, and in recent years the inadequacies had c o m p o u n d e d the menace of yellow fever. G o r d o n saw in the bond proposal an opportunity to convince New Orleans women that benefits could be derived from the new tax suffrage. She especially felt that men could be impressed by the potential of women voters. T o mobilize eligible women to vote, the Era C l u b sponsored a women's rally at which a Women's Sew erage and Drainage League, headed by G o r d o n , was organized. T o expedite the enlistment of eligible women voters, Gordon even paid a woman $100 to compile a list of the city's female property ow ners. About 15,000 names w ere compiled and it was estimated that at least 10,000 women w ere eligible to vote. T h e suffrage leader also organized parlor meetings to acquaint women w ith the merits of the proposed bond issue and w ith the need for women to exercise their tax vote. 1 2 Ward and precinct parlor meet-

' Picayune, February 25, 1898; Mary Gray Peck, Carrie Chapman Catt: A Biography (NewYork, 1944), p. 97. 10 Stanton, History of Woman Suffrage, IV, 678; Picayune, February 25, 1898. 11 Picayune, March 25, 1898. 11 Ibid., August 25, 1932; Stanton, History of Woman Suffrage, IV, 682.

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258

ings subsequently became a standard part of N e w Orleans woman suffrage endeavor. 1 3 A major difficulty in the water and drainage bond election campaign was the reluctance of conservative Creole property-owning women to vote at public polls. G o r d o n partially resolved this problem by persuading m a n y of these women to sign proxies which she voted on election day. T h e proxy campaign provoked two interesting episodes. It was necessary for a witness to sign a proxy. In the absence of a witness in the household, the resourceful G o r d o n would remark: "I will have Sam come in and help us o u t . " Sam was the Gordon's black coachman. H i s presence and action illustrated to the aristocratic N e w Orleans ladies their lowly legal standing. Gordon secured some three h u n d r e d proxies. A n o t h e r problem was that each woman's proxy had to be voted in the appropriate ward precinct. T o perform this task, Miss G o r d o n literally voted all day. She was the first woman to vote on election day and she cast the last ballot at 5:50—minutes before the polls closed. 1 4 T h e proposed bond issue passed. T h e feat of women's tax suffrage in conservative N e w Orleans attracted the attention of suffragists throughout the nation. National suffrage leaders especially were impressed. Carrie Chapman Catt, who became president of the National Association in 1900, remarked that, "If ever there is another vacancy on the national [NAWSA] board, it will go to the little woman d o w n in the conservative old state of Louisiana." 1 5 Catt was true to her word. At the NAWSA convention of 1901, she secured for G o r d o n the office of recording secretary. Events between 1899 and 1901 convinced G o r d o n that the best way to convert men, and women, to woman suffrage was to achieve social service through politics. Although involved in official duties with the N A W S A from 1902 through 1910, G o r d o n remained active in New Orleans civic work through the Era C l u b . Members received thorough training in political organization, and through the years they worked as ward and precinct leaders in a variety of referenda and political contests. 1 6 13

Picayune, Jul ν 7. 1901; Kra C l u b Minutes, J a n u a r y 8, 1915 (Archives D e p a r t m e n t , New Orleans Public L i b r a r y , New Orleans, Louisiana); hereinafter cited as F.ra C l u b Minutes. 14 Picayune, July 7. 1901, March 18, 22, 1903. 15 Ibid., July 7, 1901, March 18, 1903. 16 Stanton, History of Woman Suffrage, VI, 218, 221.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

In 1904 the G o r d o n sisters shocked the Louisiana legislature by appearing before the C o m m i t t e e on the Judiciary to request that women be allowed to fill vacancies on the state school board. They specifically sought the repeal of Article 210 of the state constitution which made women ineligible to serve in any official capacity in Louisiana government. 1 7 Such advocacy forced political leaders to give more serious consideration to the requests of w o m e n . Judith H y a m e s Douglas, president of the Era C l u b in 1910-11, reported at the end of her term that state legislators listened to Era C l u b bills with dignity and consideration, whereas the same bills had earlier met with "jesting, indignity, and r i d i c u l e . " 1 8 T h e Era Club, primarily through the initiative of Kate and Jean G o r d o n , achieved t h e admission of w o m e n to the T u l a n e University School of Medicine and the equal division of T u l a n e scholarships between men and women that were granted by the N e w Orleans city commission. T h e women also secured Louisiana's first legislation to c u r b white slavery. In 1910 the Era C l u b sponsored a charity and educational benefit for the A n t i - T u b e r c u l o s i s League and the Women's Dispensary. 1 9 T h e N A W S A convention of 1900 at Washington, D . C . , was also significant for challenging G o r d o n ' s suffrage ambitions. While addressing the delegates on the subject of the N e w Orleans bond election, she became convinced that Louisiana suffragists should expose their conservative state to the influence of the national woman suffrage b o d y . 2 0 In 1903 G o r d o n , Caroline Merrick, and the Era Club, headed by Jean G o r d o n , brought the convention of the N A W S A to N e u Orleans. " O n e of the most remarkable," reported the organization's official historian. New Orleans men wined and dined the ladies as those in no other city ever did—for ten d a y s — t h e longest convention in the organization's history. 2 1 T h e convention was also memorable for a historic decision regarding racial policy. T h e prospect that granting the vote to white women in the South "Ibid., 18

p. 221.

Annual Address to the Era Club, 1911, Judith H y a m e s Douglas Papers, Archives D e p a r t m e n t , Louisiana State University Library, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. "Picayune, May 28, 1916, August 25, 1932; Era C l u b Minutes, N o v e m b e r 14, 1914; Stanton, History of Woman Suffrage, VI, 218. 40 Stanton, History of Woman Suffrage, V I . 218. 21 Ibid., V , 85; VI, 218.

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might counteract t h e seeming increasing potential of the black vote was the second development that conditioned Kate G o r d o n ' s suffrage advocacy. T h i s manifestation of white supremacy influenced the Ν A W S A convention of 1903. N o r t h e r n delegates wished to avoid the issue of race; however, the topic emerged in a question and answer session which G o r d o n arranged for each evening. A pointed racial question, in writing, was submitted and ignored on succeeding evenings. Finally, it could no longer be ignored: "Will not the ballot in the hands of women make the black woman the political equal of the white woman; and does not political equality imply social equality?" T h e question evoked a masterful response from the eloquent Anna H o w a r d Shaw, the most formidable suffragist orator in the nation. 2 2 Even more important, it forced the racc issue into the open and enabled the convention to endorse the principle of "states' rights" as a basis for the relation of state suffrage organizations to one another and to the national body. This enabled Southern N A W S A suffrage officials to espouse racial exclusion. Gordon's second idea, that Southern states might grant the vote to white women while denying it to black w o m e n , was extreme. O n assuming national office in 1901, G o r d o n cited the need to grant the vote to white women in the South. She observed that, heretofore, Southern women had been reluctant to seek the vote for fear that it would enfranchise dissolute w o m e n . Circumstances now dictated the need for a more positive approach. Miscegenation and the "double standard," the twin sins of Southern men, could only be successfully fought if enfranchised Southern women could alter public opinion. Even more important, granting Southern women the suffrage would offset the increasing potential black vote. 2 3 Gordon w as apparently alarmed by the census of 1890. It revealed that Louisiana blacks o u t n u m b e r e d whites 559,193 to 558,395. 2 4 " Picayune, M a r c h 25, 1903. S h a w

responded:

"If t h a t is t r u e , this d e f i n i t i o n of t h e black

and the white u n m a n has placed t h e m o n a basis of political e q u a l i t y , a n d if political equality, then t h e m e n , b v d i s f r a n c h i s i n g b o t h black a n d w h i t e « o m e n , h a v e laid t h e basis fur social e q u a l i t y . " Ibid. " Kate G o r d o n to L ^ u r a C l a y , M a r c h 30, A u g u s t 2, 1907, l-aura C l a y P a p e r s , U n i v e r s i t y »f Kentucky L i b r a r y , L e x i n g t o n , K e n t u c k y (copies in A r c h i v e s D e p a r t m e n t , T u l a n e U n i versity L i b r a r y , N e w O r l e a n s . Louisiana); h e r e i n a f t e r c i t e d as C l a v P a p e r s . " Picayune, J u l y 7, IVO). Also, see. U n i t e d S t a t e s D e p a r t m e n t of C o m m e r c e , B u r e a u of the Census, Negroes in the United Slates, 1920-12

(Washington, D C ,

1935), p. 10, h e r e i n a f t e r

WOMAN SUFFRAGE

T h e unproductive leadership of Dr. A n n a H o w a r d Shaw, president of the N A W S A f r o m 1903 to 1915, also encouraged Gordon to seek white woman suffrage by state action. National suffrage endeavor had languished and had become p e r f u n c t o r y . T h e Louisiana suffragist especially criticized Shaw for opposing assistance to Oklahoma in its suffrage c a m p a i g n . 2 5 T h e significant suffrage victories in Washington and California in 1910 and 1911, respectively, were achieved without National assistance. By early 1907 G o r d o n had evolved a Southern states woman suffrage plan. Since s u f f r a g e , as i n t e r p r e t e d by the Fifteenth A m e n d m e n t , was not a privilege guaranteed by the Constitution, Southern white women could seek it for themselves from the states without contravening the rights of black w o m e n . At the same time G o r d o n emphasized that a national suffrage a m e n d m e n t , which would enfranchise black w o m e n , could u n d e r m i n e tenuous Southern white s u p r e m a c y . 2 6 In short, Southern men, in order to insure white s u p r e m a c y , would be well advised to enfranchise white women. Although such specious reasoning was doomed f r o m the outset, the New Orleans leader was optimistic. In August 1907 she sought a legal opinion as to the validity of including the restrictive wording "white female" in a proposed state a m e n d m e n t . If upheld, she wrote Laura Clay, "then b'Jenks, I am going to j u m p the track and start out and work for the enfranchisement of white women in th