The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V

546 Pages·2009·1.562 MB·English

by  Harper, Ida Husted

The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V, by Ida Husted Harper 1
The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V,
by Ida Husted Harper
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Edited by Ida Husted Harper
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Title: The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V
Editor: Ida Husted Harper
Release Date: August 31, 2009 [eBook #29878]
Language: English
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[Illustration: DR. ANNA HOWARD SHAW.
Vice-President-at-Large of the National American Woman Suffrage Association 1892-1904 and President
1904-1915.]
THE HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE
Edited by
IDA HUSTED HARPER
Illustrated with Copperplate and Photogravure Engravings
In Six Volumes
VOLUME V
1900-1920
AFTER SEVENTY YEARS CAME THE VICTORY
National American Woman Suffrage Association
Copyright, 1922, by National American Woman Suffrage Association
PREFACE
The History of Woman Suffrage is comprised in six volumes averaging about one thousand pages each, of
which the two just finished are the last. While it is primarily a history of this great movement in the United
States it covers to some degree that of the whole world. The chapter on Great Britain was prepared for
Volume VI by Mrs. Millicent Garrett Fawcett, leader of the movement there for half a century. The accounts
of the gaining of woman suffrage in other countries come from the highest authorities. Their contest was short
compared to that in the two oldest countries on the globe with a constitutional form of government--the
United States and Great Britain--and in the former it began nearly twenty years earlier than in the latter. The
effort of women in the "greatest republic on earth" to obtain a voice in its government began in 1848 and
ended in complete victory in 1920. In Great Britain it is not yet entirely accomplished, although in all her
colonies except South Africa women vote on the same terms as men.
The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V, by Ida Husted Harper 3
Doubtless other histories of this world wide movement will be written but at present the student will find
himself largely confined to these six volumes. This is especially true of the United States and many of the
documents of the earliest period would have been lost for all time if they had not been preserved in the first
three volumes. These also contain much information which does not exist elsewhere regarding the struggle of
women for other rights besides that of the franchise. That the materials were collected and cared for until they
could be utilized was due to Miss Susan B. Anthony's appreciation of their value. The story of the trials and
tribulations of preparing those volumes during ten years is told in Volume II, page 612, and in the Preface of
Volume IV. They were written and edited principally by Miss Anthony and Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
covered the history from the beginning of the century to 1884. The writers expected when they began in 1877
to bring out one small volume, perhaps only a large pamphlet. When these three huge volumes were finished
they still had enough material for a fourth, which never was used.
Miss Anthony continued her habit of preserving the records and in 1900, when at the age of 80 she resigned
the presidency of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, she immediately commenced
preparations for another volume of the History. She called to her assistance Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, who had
recently finished her Biography, and in her home in Rochester, N. Y., they spent the next two years on the
book, Mrs. Stanton, who was 85 years old, taking the keenest interest in the work.[1] When the manuscript
was completed hundreds of pages had to be eliminated in order to bring it within the compass of one volume
of 1,144 pages.
Miss Anthony then said: "Twenty years from now another volume will be written and it will record universal
suffrage for women by a Federal Amendment." Her prophecy was fulfilled to the letter. She put upon younger
women the duty of collecting and preserving the records and this was done in some degree by officers of the
association. In 1917, after the legacy of Mrs. Frank Leslie had been received by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt,
president of the association, she formed the Leslie Suffrage Commission and established a Bureau of Suffrage
Education, one feature of which was a research department. Here under the direction of an expert an immense
amount of material was collected from many sources and arranged for use. After the strenuous work for a
Federal Suffrage Amendment had brought it very near, Mrs. Catt turned her attention to the publishing of the
last volume of the History of Woman Suffrage while the resources of the large national headquarters in New
York and the archives of the research bureau were available, and she requested Mrs. Harper to prepare it. The
work was begun Jan 2, 1919, and it was to be entirely completed in eighteen months. No account had been
taken of the enormous growth of the suffrage movement. It had entered every State in the Union and it
extended around the world. It was occupying the attention of Parliaments and Legislatures. In the United
States conventions had multiplied and campaigns had increased in number; it had become a national issue
with a center in every State and defeats and victories were of constant record.
To select from the mass of material, to preserve the most important, to condense, to verify, was an almost
impossible task. A comparison will illustrate the difference between the work required on Volume IV and that
on the present volumes. The Minutes of the national convention in 1901 filled 130 pages of large type; those
of the convention of 1919 filled 320 pages, many of small type; reports of congressional hearings increased in
proportion. Of the State chapters, describing all the work that had been done before 1901, 29 contained less
than 8 pages, 18 of these less than 5 and 7 less than 3; only 6 had over 14 pages. For Volume VI not more
than half a dozen State writers sent manuscript for less than 14 and the rest ranged from 20 to 95 pages. The
report on Canada in Volume IV occupied 3-1/2 pages; in this volume it fills 18. The chapter on Woman
Suffrage in Europe outside of Great Britain found plenty of room in 4 pages; in this one it requires 32.
The very full reports of the national suffrage conventions, the congressional documents, the files of the
Woman's Journal and the Woman Citizen and the newspapers furnished a wealth of material on the general
status of the question in the United States. It was, however, the evolution of the movement in the States that
gave it national strength and compelled the action by Congress which always was the ultimate goal. The
attempt to give the story of every State, in many of which no records had been kept or those which had were
lost or destroyed; the difficulty in getting correct dates and proper names upset all calculations on the amount
The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V, by Ida Husted Harper 4
of material and length of time. As a result the time lengthened to three and a half years and the one volume
expanded into two, with enough excellent matter eliminated to have made a third. In each of these chapters
will be found a complete history of the effort to secure the franchise by means of the State constitution, also
the part taken to obtain the Federal Amendment and the action of the Legislature in ratifying this amendment.
The accounts of the annual conventions of the National American Suffrage Association demonstrate as
nothing else could do the commanding force of that organization, for fifty years the foundation and bulwark of
the movement. The hearings before committees of every Congress indicate the never ceasing effort to obtain
an amendment to the Federal Constitution and the extracts from the speeches show the logic, the justice and
the patriotism of the arguments made in its behalf. The delay of that body in responding will be something for
future generations to marvel at. In Chapter XX will be found the full history of this amendment by which all
women were enfranchised.
In one chapter is a graphic account of the effort for half a century to get a woman suffrage "plank" into the
national platforms of the political parties and its success in 1916, with one for the Federal Amendment in
1920. A chapter is devoted to the forming of the National League of Woman Voters after the women of the
United States had become a part of the electorate. All questions as to the part taken in the war of 1914-1918
by the women who were working for their enfranchisement are conclusively answered in the chapter on War
Service of Organized Suffragists. In one chapter will be found an account of other organizations besides the
National American Association that worked to obtain the vote for women and of those that worked against it.
A full description is given of the organizing of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance and its congresses
in the various cities of Europe.
Volumes V and VI take up the history of the contest in the United States from the beginning of the present
century to Aug. 26, 1920, when Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby proclaimed that the 19th Amendment,
submitted by Congress on June 4, 1919, had been ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the States and
was now a part of the National Constitution. This ended a movement for political liberty which had continued
without cessation for over seventy years. The story closes with uncounted millions of women in all parts of
the world possessing the same voice as men in their government and enjoying the same rights as citizens.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, pages 1210, 1256, 1269. Placing in libraries, 1279 to 1282.
Bequeathed to National Suffrage Association, History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V, page 205.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I. 5
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
FOUNDING OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATION 3
Work of the National American Woman Suffrage Association for an amendment to the Federal Constitution,
to State constitutions and for other reforms--Annual convention in Minneapolis in 1901--Mrs. Stanton's
address on the Church, the Bible and Woman Suffrage--Miss Anthony's and others' opinions--President's
address of Mrs. Catt on obstacles--Dr. Shaw's vice-president's address on Anti-suffragists--Plan for national
work--Miss Anthony's report on work with Congress--Protest against "regulated vice" in Manila--New York
Sun and Woman Suffrage--Discriminating against women in government departments--A tribute to the
national suffrage conventions.
CHAPTER II. 6
CHAPTER II.
THE NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1902 23
Meeting in Washington, D.C., of committee to form an International Woman Suffrage Alliance--Greeting of
Clara Barton to foreign delegates--Letters from Norway and Germany--Response of Mrs. Friedland of
Russia--Mrs. Catt's president's address on World Progress leading to the International Alliance--Mrs. Stanton's
address on Educated Suffrage--Miss Anthony's introduction of Pioneers--Addresses on The New Woman and
The New Man--Women in New York municipal election--Miss Anthony's 82d birthday--Mr. Blackwell on
Presidential suffrage for women--Hearings before committees of Congress--Addresses of Norwegian and
Australian delegates before Senate Committee--Dr. Shaw's plea for a committee to investigate conditions in
Equal Suffrage States--Speeches of Russian, Swedish and English delegates--Mrs. Catt's insistence on a
Congressional Committee to investigate the working of woman suffrage where it exists.
CHAPTER III. 7
CHAPTER III.
NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1903 55
Very successful meeting in New Orleans--Description of Picayune--Ovation to Miss Anthony and Mrs.
Caroline E. Merrick--Dr. Shaw's response--Mrs. Catt's president's address--Times Democrat brings up Negro
Question, official board of the association states its position--Visit to colored women's club--Reports of
officers--Presidential suffrage for women--Mrs. Colby's report on Industrial Problems relating to Women and
Children--Addresses of Dr. Henry Dixon Bruns, M. J. Sanders, president of Progressive Union--Memorial
service for Mrs. Stanton--Speeches on Educational Qualification for voting--"Dorothy Dix" on The Woman
with the Broom--Address of Edwin Merrick--Belle Kearney on Woman Suffrage to insure White
Supremacy--Tribute to Misses Kate and Jean Gordon.
CHAPTER IV. 8
CHAPTER IV.
NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1904 86
Letter of greeting to the convention in Washington from Mrs. Florence Fenwick Miller, suffrage leader in
Great Britain--Delegates appointed to International Alliance meeting in Berlin--Mrs. Catt's president's address
on an Educational Requirement for the Suffrage--Address of Mrs. Watson Lister of Australia--Charlotte
Perkins Gilman's biological plea for woman suffrage--Report from new headquarters--Addresses on Women
and Philanthropy by the Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer and Dr. Samuel J. Barrows--Mrs. Mead on Peace and Mrs.
Nathan on The Wage Earner and the Ballot--Miss Anthony's 84th birthday--A Colorado Jubilee, speeches by
Governor Alva Adams, Mrs. Grenfell and Mrs. Meredith--Mrs. Terrell asks for moral support of colored
women--Declaration of Principles adopted--Mrs. Catt Resigns the Presidency, tributes--Hearings before
Congressional Committees--Distinguished testimony from Colorado--Mrs. Catt's strong appeal for a report
even if adverse.
CHAPTER V. 9
CHAPTER V.
NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1905 117
The convention in Portland, Ore., first held in the West--Enthusiastic welcome and great hospitality--Miss
Anthony speaks of her visit in 1871--Speech of Jefferson Myers, president of the Exposition--Mrs. Duniway
on the Pioneers--Dr. Shaw's president's address, answers ex-President Cleveland and Cardinal
Gibbons--Committee appointed to interview President Roosevelt--Protest to committee of Congress against
statehood constitution for Oklahoma and other Territories--Fine work of Press Committee--Woman's Day at
Exposition--Unveiling of Sacajawea statue--Convention adopts Initiative and Referendum--Decision to have
an amendment campaign in Oregon--Tribute to Mr. Blackwell--Mrs. Catt's noble address--Memorial
resolutions for eminent members--Speeches by prominent politicians.
CHAPTER VI. 10
CHAPTER VI.
NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1906 151
The convention held in Baltimore one of the most notable--Miss Anthony, Julia Ward Howe and Clara Barton
on the platform--Welcome by Governor Warfield and Collector of the Port Stone--Dr. Shaw scores President
Roosevelt's reference to Women in Industry in his message to Congress--Ridicules Cardinal Gibbons' and Dr.
Lyman Abbott's recent pronouncements on woman suffrage--Organization of College Women's
League--Florence Kelley speaks on Child Labor--College Women's Evening--Women professors from five
large colleges speak--Week of hospitality by Miss Mary E. Garrett--Speeches on Women in Municipal
Government by Wm. Dudley Foulke, Frederick C. Howe, Rudolph Blankenburg, Jane Addams--Miss
Anthony speaks her last words to a national suffrage convention--Mrs. Howe's farewell address--President
Thomas and Miss Garrett decide to raise large fund for woman suffrage--Delegates go to Washington for
hearings before Congressional Committees--Miss Anthony's 86th birthday celebrated--Her last words on the
public platform.