Senator Shields was making it his sole issue in the primary campaign that he would carry out all the President’s war policies. Opposing Senator Shields was Governor Rye, a Democrat of course, and a Suffragist.
Maud Younger called at the White House on Secretary Tumulty one day to ask him if the President could not do something further for Suffrage. Mr. Tumulty’s answer was to read a letter from President Wilson to Senator Shields, asking him to vote for the Suffrage Amendment. Maud Younger, with characteristic political astuteness, saw at once the possibilities in the publication of that letter. She asked Mr. Tumulty for a copy and Mr. Tumulty, with a sudden sense of indiscretion, refused. However, Miss Younger went back instantly with the story to Headquarters, and presently Sue White and Lucy Branham became very busy—oh, very busy indeed—in the Tennessee campaign.
On July 26, Senator Shields notified the Suffragists in Tennessee that he would see them at three that afternoon. He told the fifty women who gathered to meet him that “he would hold the matter in consideration.” The same day a Columbia paper carried the story that President Wilson had requested Senator Shields by letter to vote for Suffrage. This brought the whole month-old correspondence before the public.
The letters ran as follows:
The White House, Washington.
June 20, 1918.
My Dear Senator:
I feel so deeply the possibilities latent in the vote which is presently to be taken by the Senate on the Suffrage Amendment that I am going to take a liberty which in ordinary circumstances I should not feel justified in taking, and ask you very frankly if it will not be possible for you to vote for the Amendment. I feel that much of the morale of this country and of the world will repose in our sincere adherence to democratic principles, will depend upon the action which the Senate takes in this now critically important matter. If it were merely a domestic question, or if the times were normal, I would not feel that I could make a direct request of this sort, but the times are so far from normal, the fortunes of nations are so linked together, the reactions upon the thought of the world are so sharp and involve such momentous issues that I know that you will indulge my unusual course of action and permit me to beg very earnestly that you will lend your aid in clearing away the difficulties which will undoubtedly beset us if the Amendment is not adopted. With much respect,
Sincerely yours,
Woodrow Wilson.