Address to the Senate on the Nineteenth Amendment Woodrow ...stewartc2.weebly.com/uploads/8/4/5/1/84511578/suffrage_text_set.p… · “Address to the Senate on the Nineteenth Amendment.”

1 __________________________________________________________________________ Wilson, Woodrow. (1918). “Address to the Senate on the Nineteenth Amendment.” (public domain) Retrieved from Democratic Underground (2013). www.democraticunderground.com

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Address to the Senate on the Nineteenth Amendment Woodrow Wilson

Wilson, Woodrow. (1918). “Address to the Senate on the Nineteenth Amendment.” (public domain) Retrieved from Democratic Underground (2013). www.democraticunderground.com

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President Woodrow Wilson’s Address to the Senate on the Nineteenth Amendment

by Woodrow Wilson, September 30, 1918

GENTLEMEN OF THE SENATE: The unusual circumstances of a world war in which we 1 stand and are judged . . . will, I hope, justify in your thought, as it does in mine, the 2 message I have come to bring to you. I regard the concurrence of the Senate in the 3 constitutional amendment proposing the extension of the suffrage to women as vitally 4 essential to the successful prosecution of the great war of humanity in which we are 5 engaged. . . . It is my duty to win the war and to ask you to remove every obstacle that 6 stands in the way of winning it. 7

I had assumed that the Senate would concur in the amendment because no disputable 8 principle is involved but only a question of the method by which the suffrage is to be 9 extended to women. . . . Both of our great national parties are pledged, explicitly pledged, 10 to equality of suffrage for the women of the country. Neither party, therefore . . . can justify 11 hesitation as to the method of obtaining it, can rightfully hesitate to substitute federal 12 initiative for state initiative. . . . Its adoption is, in my judgment, clearly necessary to the 13 successful prosecution of the war and the successful realization of the objects for which the 14 war is being fought. . . . 15

This is a peoples’ war and the peoples’ thinking constitutes its atmosphere and morale, not 16 the predilections of the drawing room or the political considerations of the caucus. If we be 17 indeed democrats and wish to lead the world to democracy, we can ask other peoples to 18 accept in proof of our sincerity and our ability to lead them whither they wish to be led 19 nothing less persuasive and convincing than our actions. . . . Verification must be 20 forthcoming when verification is asked for. . . . It is asked for by the anxious, expectant, 21 suffering peoples with whom we are dealing and who are willing to put their destinies in 22 some measure in our hands. . . . Through many, many channels I have been made aware 23 what the plain, struggling, workaday folk are thinking upon whom the chief terror and 24 suffering of this tragic war falls. They are looking to the great, powerful, famous Democracy 25 of the West to lead them to the new day for which they have so long waited; and they think, 26 in their logical simplicity, that democracy means that women shall play their part in affairs 27 alongside men and upon an equal footing with them. If we reject measures like this, in 28 ignorance or defiance of what a new age has brought forth, of what they have seen but we 29 have not, they will cease to believe in us; they will cease to follow or to trust us . . . the 30 strange revelations of this war having made many things new and plain, to governments as 31 well as to peoples. 32

Are we alone to refuse to learn the lesson? Are we alone to ask and take the utmost that 33 our women can give,—service and sacrifice of every kind,—and still say we do not see 34

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what title that gives them to stand by our sides in the guidance of the affairs of their nation 35 and ours? We have made partners of the women in this war; shall we admit them only to a 36 partnership of suffering and sacrifice and toil and not to a partnership of privilege and right? 37 This war could not have been fought, either by the other nations engaged or by America, if 38 it had not been for the services of the women,—services rendered in every sphere,—not 39 merely in the fields of effort in which we have been accustomed to see them work, but 40 wherever men have worked and upon the very skirts and edges of the battle itself. We shall 41 not only be distrusted but shall deserve to be distrusted if we do not enfranchise them. . . . 42

The women of America are too noble and too intelligent and too devoted to be slackers 43 whether you give or withhold this thing that is mere justice; but I know the magic it will work 44 in their thoughts and spirits if you give it them. . . . The tasks of the women lie at the very 45 heart of the war, and I know how much stronger that heart will beat if you do this just thing 46 and show our women that you trust them as much as you in fact and of necessity depend 47 upon them. 48

Have I said that the passage of this amendment is a vitally necessary war measure, and do 49 you need further proof? Do you stand in need of the trust of other peoples and of the trust 50 of our own women? Is that trust an asset or is it not? I tell you plainly, as the commander-in-51 chief of our armies and of the gallant men in our fleets, as the present spokesman of the 52 people in our dealings with the men and women throughout the world who are now our 53 partners . . . that this measure which I urge upon you is vital to the winning of the war and to 54 the energies alike of preparation and of battle. 55

And not to the winning of the war only. It is vital to the right solution of the great problems 56 which we must settle, and settle immediately, when the war is over. We shall need them in 57 our vision of affairs, as we have never needed them before, the sympathy and insight and 58 clear moral instinct of the women of the world. The problems of that time will strike to the 59 roots of many things that we have not hitherto questioned, and I for one believe that our 60 safety in those questioning days, as well as our comprehension of matters that touch 61 society to the quick, will depend upon the direct and authoritative participation of women in 62 our counsels. We shall need their moral sense to preserve what is right and fine and worthy 63 in our system of life as well as to discover just what it is that ought to be purified and 64 reformed. Without their counselings we shall be only half wise. 65

That is my case. This is my appeal. Many may deny its validity, if they choose, but no one 66 can brush aside or answer the arguments upon which it is based. The executive tasks of 67 this war rest upon me. I ask that you lighten them and place in my hands instruments, 68 spiritual instruments, which I do not now possess, which I sorely need, and which I have 69 daily to apologize for not being able to employ. 70

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The Crisis Carrie Chapman Catt

Catt, Carrie. (1916). “The Crisis.” Presidential address to the National American Women’s Suffrage Association (public domain) Retrieved from Social Justice Speeches (2013). www.edchange.org/multicultural/speeches/catt_the_crisis.html

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2 _________________________________________________________________________________________ Catt, Carrie. (1916). “The Crisis.” Presidential address to the National American Women’s Suffrage Association (public domain). Retrieved from Social Justice Speeches (2013). www.edchange.org/multicultural/speeches/catt_the_crisis.html


The Crisis by Carrie Chapman Catt, Atlantic City, NJ 1916

Presidential Address to the National American Women’s Suffrage Association

I have taken for my subject, “The Crisis,” because I believe that a crisis has come in our 1 movement which, if recognized and the opportunity seized with vigor, enthusiasm, and will, 2 means the final victory of our great cause in the very near future. I am aware that some 3 suffragists do not share this belief; they see no signs nor symptoms today which were not 4 present yesterday; no manifestations in the year 1916 which differ significantly from those 5 in the year 1910. To them, the movement has been a steady, normal growth from the 6 beginning and must so continue until the end. I can only defend my claim with the plea that 7 it is better to imagine a crisis where none exists than to fail to recognize one when it comes; 8 for a crisis is a culmination of events which calls for new considerations and new decisions. 9 A failure to answer the call may mean an opportunity lost, a possible victory postponed. 10

The object of the life of an organized movement is to secure its aim. Necessarily, it must 11 obey the law of evolution and pass through the stages of agitation and education and finally 12 through the stage of realization. As one has put it: “A new idea floats in the air over the 13 heads of the people and for a long, indefinite period evades their understanding but, by and 14 by, when through familiarity, human vision grows clearer, it is caught out of the clouds and 15 crystallized into law.” Such a period comes to every movement and is its crisis. In my 16 judgment, that crucial moment, bidding us to renewed consecration and redoubled activity, 17 has come to our cause. I believe our victory hangs within our grasp, inviting us to pluck it 18 out of the clouds and establish it among the good things of the world. 19

If this be true, the time is past when we should say: “Men and women of America, look upon 20 that wonderful idea up there; see, one day it will come down.” Instead, the time has come to 21 shout aloud in every city, village, and hamlet, and in tones so clear and jubilant that they will 22 reverberate from every mountain peak and echo from shore to shore: “The woman’s Hour 23 has struck.” Suppose suffragists as a whole do not believe a crisis has come and do not 24 extend their hands to grasp the victory, what will happen? Why, we shall all continue to 25 work and our cause will continue to hang, waiting for those who possess a clearer vision 26 and more daring enterprise. On the other hand, suppose we reach out with united 27 earnestness and determination to grasp our victory while it still hangs a bit too high? Has 28 any harm been done? None! 29

Therefore, fellow suffragists, I invite your attention to the signs which point to a crisis and 30

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your consideration of plans for turning the crisis into victory. 31

FIRST: We are passing through a world crisis. All thinkers of every land tell us so; and that 32 nothing after the great war will be as it was before. Those who profess to know, claim that 33 100 millions of dollars are being spent on the war every day and that 2 years of war have 34 cost 50 billions of dollars or 10 times more than the total expense of the American Civil 35 War. Our own country has sent 35 millions of dollars abroad for relief expenses. . . . 36

Women by the thousands have knocked at the doors of munition factories and, in the name 37 of patriotism, have begged for the right to serve their country there. Their services were 38 accepted with hesitation but the experiment, once made, won reluctant but universal praise. 39 An official statement recently issued in Great Britain announced that 660,000 women were 40 engaged in making munitions in that country alone. In a recent convention of munition 41 workers, composed of men and women, a resolution was unanimously passed informing 42 the government that they would forego vacations and holidays until the authorities 43 announced that their munition supplies were sufficient for the needs of the war and Great 44 Britain pronounced the act the highest patriotism. Lord Derby addressed such a meeting 45 and said, “When the history of the war is written, I wonder to whom the greatest credit will 46 be given; to the men who went to fight or to the women who are working in a way that many 47 people hardly believed that it was possible for them to work.” . . . 48

On fields of battle, in regular and improvised hospitals, women have given tender and 49 skilled care to the wounded and are credited with the restoration of life to many, heroism 50 and self-sacrifice have been frankly acknowledged by all the governments; but their 51 endurance, their skill, the practicality of their service, seem for the first time, to have been 52 recognized by governments as “war power.” So, thinking in war terms, great men have 53 suddenly discovered that women are “war assets.” Indeed, Europe is realizing, as it never 54 did before, that women are holding together the civilization for which men are fighting. A 55 great search-light has been thrown upon the business of nation-building and it has been 56 demonstrated in every European land that it is a partnership with equal, but different 57 responsibilities resting upon the two partners. 58

It is not, however, in direct war work alone that the latent possibilities of women have been 59 made manifest. In all the belligerent lands, women have found their way to high posts of 60 administration where no women would have been trusted two years ago and the testimony 61 is overwhelming that they have filled their posts with entire satisfaction to the authorities. 62 They have dared to stand in pulpits (once too sacred to be touched by the unholy feet of a 63 woman) and there, without protest, have appealed to the Father of All in behalf of their 64

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stricken lands. They have come out of the kitchen where there was too little to cook and 65 have found a way to live by driving cabs, motors, and streetcars. Many a woman has turned 66 her hungry children over to a neighbor and has gone forth to find food for both mothers and 67 both families of children and has found it in strange places and occupations. Many a 68 drawing-room has been closed and the maid who swept and dusted it is now cleaning 69 streets that the health of the city may be conserved. Many a woman who never before slept 70 in a bed of her own making, or ate food not prepared by paid labor, is now sole mistress of 71 parlor and kitchen. 72

In all the warring countries, women are postmen [sic], porters, railway conductors, ticket, 73 switch, and signal men. Conspicuous advertisements invite women to attend agricultural, 74 milking, and motor-car schools. They are employed as police in Great Britain and women 75 detectives have recently been taken on the government staff. In Berlin, there are over 3,000 76 women streetcar conductors and 3,500 women are employed on the general railways. In 77 every city and country, women are doing work for which they would have been considered 78 incompetent two years ago. 79

The war will soon end and the armies will return to their native lands. To many a family, the 80 men will never come back. The husband who returns to many a wife, will eat no bread the 81 rest of his life save of her earning. 82

What then, will happen after the war? Will the widows left with families to support cheerfully 83 leave their well-paid posts for those commanding lower wages? Not without protest! Will the 84 wives who now must support crippled husbands give up their skilled work and take up the 85 occupations which were open to them before the war? Will they resignedly say: “The 86 woman who has a healthy husband who can earn for her, has a right to tea and raisin cake, 87 but the woman who earns for herself and a husband who has given his all to his country, 88 must be content with butterless bread?” Not without protest! On the contrary, the economic 89 axiom, denied and evaded for centuries, will be blazoned on every factory, counting house, 90 and shop: “Equal pay for equal work”; and common justice will slowly, but surely enforce 91 that law. . . . 92

The male and female anti-suffragists of all lands will puff and blow at the economic change 93 which will come to the women of Europe. They will declare it to be contrary to Nature and to 94 God’s plan and that somebody ought to do something about it. Suffragists will accept the 95 change as the inevitable outcome of an unprecedented world’s cataclysm over which no 96 human agency had any control and will trust in God to adjust the altered circumstances to 97 the eternal evolution of human society. They will remember that in the long run, all things 98

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work together for good, for progress, and for human weal. . . . 99

SECOND: As the most adamantine rock gives way under the constant dripping of water, so 100 the opposition to woman suffrage in our own country has slowly disintegrated before the 101 increasing strength of our movement. . . . 102

The hands of many suffrage master-masons have long been stilled; the names of many 103 who laid the stones have been forgotten. That does not matter. The main thing is that the 104 edifice of woman’s liberty nears completion. It is strong, indestructible. All honor to the 105 thousands who have helped in the building. 106

The four Corner-stones of the foundations were laid long years ago. We read upon the first: 107 “We demand for women education, for not a high school or college is open to her”; upon the 108 second, “We demand for women religious liberty for in few churches is she permitted to 109 pray or speak”; upon the third, “We demand for women the right to own property and an 110 opportunity to earn an honest living. Only six, poorly-paid occupations are open to her, and 111 if she is married, the wages she earns are not hers”; upon the fourth, “We demand political 112 freedom and its symbol, the vote.” . . . 113

And we who are the builders of 1916, do we see a crisis? Standing upon these planks 114 which are stretched across the top-most peak of this edifice of woman’s liberty, what shall 115 we do? . . . 116

Is the crisis real or imaginary? If it be real, it calls for action, bold, immediate, and decisive. 117

Let us then take measure of our strength. Our cause has won the endorsement of all 118 political parties. Every candidate for the presidency is a suffragist. It has won the 119 endorsement of most churches; it has won the hearty approval of all great organizations of 120 women. It has won the support of all reform movements; it has won the progressives of 121 every variety. The majority of the press in most States is with us. Great men in every 122 political party, church, and movement are with us. The names of the greatest men and 123 women of art, science, literature and philosophy, reform, religion, and politics are on our 124 lists. We have not won the reactionaries of any party, church, or society, and we never 125 will. . . . 126

We have not won the ignorant and illiterate and we never can. They are too undeveloped 127 mentally to understand that the institutions of today are not those of yesterday nor will be 128 those of tomorrow. 129

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We have not won the forces of evil and we never will. Evil has ever been timorous and 130 suspicious of all change. It is an instinctive act of self-preservation which makes it fear and 131 consequently oppose votes for women. As the Hon. Champ Clark said the other day: 132 “Some good and intelligent people are opposed to woman suffrage; but all the ignorant and 133 evil-minded are against it.” 134

These three forces are the enemies of our cause. 135

Before the vote is won, there must and will be a gigantic final conflict between the forces of 136 progress, righteousness, and democracy and the forces of ignorance, evil, and reaction. 137 That struggle may be postponed, but it cannot be evaded or avoided. There is no question 138 as to which side will be the victor. 139

Shall we play the coward, then, and leave the hard knocks for our daughters, or shall we 140 throw ourselves into the fray, bare our own shoulders to the blows, and thus bequeath to 141 them a politically liberated womanhood? We have taken note of our gains and of our 142 resources! And they are all we could wish. Before the final struggle, we must take 143 cognizance of our weaknesses. Are we prepared to grasp the victory? Alas, no! Our 144 movement is like a great Niagara with a vast volume of water tumbling over its ledge but 145 turning no wheel. Our organized machinery is set for the propagandistic stage and not for 146 the seizure of victory. Our supporters are spreading the argument for our cause; they feel 147 no sense of responsibility for the realization of our hopes. Our movement lacks cohesion, 148 organization, unity, and consequent momentum. 149

Behind us, in front of us, everywhere about us are suffragists,—millions of them, but 150 inactive and silent. They have been “agitated and educated” and are with us in belief. There 151 are thousands of women who have at one time or another been members of our 152 organization but they have dropped out because, to them, the movement seemed negative 153 and pointless. Many have taken up other work whose results were more immediate. 154 Philanthropy, charity, work for corrective laws of various kinds, temperance, relief for 155 working women, and numberless similar public services have called them. Others have 156 turned to the pleasanter avenues of clubwork, art, or literature. 157

There are thousands of other women who have never learned of the earlier struggles of our 158 movement. They found doors of opportunity open to them on every side. They found well-159 paid posts awaiting the qualified woman and they have availed themselves of all these 160 blessings; almost without exception they believe in the vote but they feel neither gratitude to 161 those who opened the doors through which they have entered to economic liberty nor any 162

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sense of obligation to open other doors for those who come after. 163

. . . There are men, too, millions of them, waiting to be called. These men and women are 164 our reserves. They are largely unorganized and untrained soldiers with little responsibility 165 toward our movement. Yet these reserves must be mobilized. The final struggle needs their 166 numbers and the momentum those numbers will bring. Were never another convert made, 167 there are suffragists enough in this country, if combined, to make so irresistible a driving 168 force that victory might be seized at once. 169

How can it be done? By a simple change of mental attitude. If we are to seize the victory, 170 that change must take place in this hall, here and now! 171

The old belief, which has sustained suffragists in many an hour of discouragement, “woman 172 suffrage is bound to come,” must give way to the new, “The Woman’s Hour has struck.” The 173 long drawn out struggle, the cruel hostility which, for years, was arrayed against our cause, 174 have accustomed suffragists to the idea of indefinite postponement but eventual victory. 175 The slogan of a movement sets its pace. The old one counseled patience; it said, there is 176 plenty of time; it pardoned sloth and half-hearted effort. It set the pace of an educational 177 campaign. The “Woman’s Hour has struck” sets the pace of a crusade which will have its 178 way. It says: “Awake, arise, my sisters, let your hearts be filled with joy,—the time of victory 179 is here. Onward March.” . . . 180

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On Women’s Right to Vote Susan B. Anthony

Anthony, Susan. (1873). “On Women’s Right to Vote.” (public domain) Retrieved from The History Place (2013). www.historyplace.com/speeches/anthony.htm

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2 ____________________________________________________________________________ Anthony, Susan. (1873). “On Women’s Right to Vote.” (public domain) Retrieved from The History Place (2013). www.historyplace.com/speeches/anthony.htm


On Women’s Right to Vote by Susan B. Anthony, 1873

Friends and fellow citizens: I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of 1 having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote. It shall be 2 my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, 3 instead, simply exercised my citizen’s rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens 4 by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any state to deny. 5

The preamble of the Federal Constitution says: 6

“We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, 7 insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and 8 secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this 9 Constitution for the United States of America.” 10

It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, 11 the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, 12 but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole 13 people—women as well as men. And it is a downright mockery to talk to women of their 14 enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of 15 securing them provided by this democratic-republican government—the ballot. 16

For any state to make sex a qualification that must ever result in the disfranchisement of one 17 entire half of the people, is to pass a bill of attainder, or, an ex post facto law, and is therefore 18 a violation of the supreme law of the land. By it the blessings of liberty are forever withheld 19 from women and their female posterity. 20

To them this government has no just powers derived from the consent of the governed. To 21 them this government is not a democracy. It is not a republic. It is an odious aristocracy; a 22 hateful oligarchy of sex; the most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe; 23 an oligarchy of wealth, where the rich govern the poor. An oligarchy of learning, where the 24 educated govern the ignorant, or even an oligarchy of race, where the Saxon rules the African, 25 might be endured; but this oligarchy of sex, which makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the 26 oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters, of every household—which 27 ordains all men sovereigns, all women subjects, carries dissension, discord, and rebellion into 28 every home of the nation. 29

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3 ____________________________________________________________________________ Anthony, Susan. (1873). “On Women’s Right to Vote.” (public domain) Retrieved from The History Place (2013). www.historyplace.com/speeches/anthony.htm


Webster, Worcester, and Bouvier all define a citizen to be a person in the United States, 31 entitled to vote and hold office. 32

The only question left to be settled now is: Are women persons? And I hardly believe any of 33 our opponents will have the hardihood to say they are not. Being persons, then, women are 34 citizens; and no state has a right to make any law, or to enforce any old law, that shall abridge 35 their privileges or immunities. Hence, every discrimination against women in the constitutions 36 and laws of the several states is today null and void, precisely as is every one against 37 Negroes. 38

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Address to the Senate on the Nineteenth Amendment Woodrow ...stewartc2.weebly.com/uploads/8/4/5/1/84511578/suffrage_text_set.p… · “Address to the Senate on the Nineteenth Amendment.”