Mrs. Wiley and Ladies: No one can fail to be impressed by this great company of useful women, and I want to assure you that it is to me most impressive. I have stated once before the position which, as leader of a Party, I feel obliged to take, and I am sure you will not wish me to state it again. Perhaps it would be more serviceable if I ventured upon the confident conjecture that the Baltimore Convention did not embody this very important question in the platform which it adopted because of its conviction that the principles of the Constitution which allotted these questions to the State were well-considered principles from which they did not wish to depart.
You have asked me to state my personal position in regard to the pending measure. It is my conviction that this is a matter for settlement by the States, and not by the Federal Government, and, therefore, that being my personal conviction, and it being obvious that there is no ground on your part for discouragement in the progress you are making, and my passion being local self-government and the determination by the great communities into which this nation is organized of their own policy and life, I can only say that since you turned away from me as a leader of a Party and asked me my position as a man, I am obliged to state it very frankly, and I believe that in stating it I am probably in agreement with those who framed the platform to which allusion has been made.
I think that very few persons, perhaps, realize the difficulty and the dual duty that must be exercised, whether he will or not, by a President of the United States. He is President of the United States as an executive charged with the administration of the law, but he is the choice of a Party as a leader in policy. The policy is determined by the Party, or else upon unusual and new circumstances by the determination of those who lead the Party. This is my situation as an individual. I have told you that I believed that the best way of settling this thing and the best considered principles of the Constitution with regard to it, is that it should be settled by the States. I am very much obliged to you.
The President paused. He looked relieved. There was a moment’s silence, and then Mrs. Dorr said:
“May I ask you this question? Is it not a fact that we have very good precedents existing for altering the electorate by Constitutional Amendment?”
The President’s face changed. “I do not think,” he said, “that that has anything to do with my conviction as to the best way that it could be done.”
“It has not,” agreed Mrs. Dorr, “but it leaves room for the women of the country to say what they want through the Constitution of the United States.”
“Certainly it does,” the President said hastily, “there is good room. But I have stated my conviction. I have no right to criticize the opinions of those who have different convictions and I certainly would not wish to do so.”
Mrs. Wiley stepped forward. “Granted that it is a State matter,” she said, “would it not give this great movement an impetus if the Resolution now pending before Congress were passed?”
“But the Resolution is for an Amendment to the Constitution,” the President objected.