(To the Republican delegates.)
The undersigned Committee, appointed by the National-American Woman Suffrage Association, beg leave to submit to you, as delegate to the approaching Republican Convention, the enclosed Memorial.
The Republican party was organized in response to the demand for human freedom. Its platform for the last forty years has been an unswerving declaration for liberty and equality. Animated by the spirit of progress, it has continued to enlarge the voting constituency from time to time, thus acknowledging the right of the individual to self-representation. This principle was embodied in the plank adopted at the Chicago convention of 1888, and has been often reaffirmed: "We recognize the supreme and sovereign right of every lawful citizen to cast one free ballot in all public elections and have that ballot duly counted." We appeal to the Republican party to sustain its record by applying this declaration to the lawful women citizens of the United States.
You will observe that this petition does not ask you to endorse the enfranchisement of women, but simply to recommend that Congress submit this question to the decision of the various State Legislatures. In the name of American womanhood we ask you to use every means within your power to bring this matter to a discussion and affirmative vote in your convention.
(To the Democratic delegates.)
Since its inception the Democratic party has had for its rallying cry the immortal words of Thomas Jefferson, "No taxation without representation," "Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." Under this banner wage-earning men, native and foreign, were endowed with the franchise, by which means alone an individual can represent himself or consent to his government, and by this act the party was kept in power for nearly sixty years.
At the close of the eighteenth century this was a broad view for even so great a leader to take. In this closing year of the nineteenth century it would show an equally progressive spirit if his loyal followers would carry these splendid declarations to their logical conclusion and enfranchise women.
(To the Populist delegates.)
At the very first National Convention of the People's Party, held at Omaha in 1892, the preamble of their platform declared that "equal rights and privileges must be securely established for all the men and women of the country." In the majority of State conventions held since that time there has been specific recognition of equal political rights for women. By admitting women as delegates in their representative assemblies and by appointing them to State and local offices, the Populists have put into practice this fundamental principle of their organization. Therefore, in asking you to give your influence and vote in favor of this petition, we are proposing only that you shall reaffirm your previous declarations.
(To the Prohibition delegates.)
Judging from the honorable record made by your party upon this subject, we have every reason to hope that you will give your influence and your vote in favor of the petition contained herein.
In the Democratic letter was enclosed an Open Letter from Gov. Charles S. Thomas (Dem.) of Colorado, setting forth in the strongest manner the advantages of woman suffrage, and in all was placed favorable testimony from prominent men of the respective States, accompanied by the following Memorial. The latter was mailed also to every member of the Resolutions Committees, and 10,000 copies were sent to editors and otherwise circulated throughout the country.
MEMORIAL
To the National Presidential Convention of 1900.Gentlemen: You are respectfully requested by the National-American Woman Suffrage Association to place the following plank in your platform:
Resolved, That we favor the submission by Congress, to the various State Legislatures, of an Amendment to the Federal Constitution forbidding disfranchisement of United States citizens on account of sex.
The chief contribution to human liberty made by the United States is the establishment of the right of personal representation in government. In other countries suffrage often has been called "the vested right of property," and as such has been extended to women the same as to men. Our country at length has come to recognize the principle that the elective franchise is inherent in the individual and not in his property, and this principle has become the corner-stone of our republic. Up to the beginning of the twentieth century, however, the application of this great truth has been made to but one-half the citizens.
The women of the United States are now the only disfranchised class, and sex is the one remaining disqualification. A man may be idle, corrupt, vicious, utterly without a single quality necessary for purity and stability of government, but through the exercise of the suffrage he is a vital factor. A woman may be educated, industrious, moral and law-abiding, possessed of every quality needed in a pure and stable government, but, deprived of that influence which is exerted through the ballot, she is not a factor in affairs of State. Who will claim that our government is purer, wiser, stronger and more lasting by the rigid exclusion of what men themselves term "the better half" of the people?
Every argument which enfranchises a man, enfranchises a woman. There is no escape from this logic except to declare sex the just basis of suffrage. But this position can not be maintained in view of the fact that women already have full suffrage in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho, municipal suffrage in Kansas, school suffrage in twenty-five States, a vote on tax levies in Louisiana, on bond issues in Iowa, and on minor questions in various other States. They have every franchise except the Parliamentary in England, Scotland and Ireland, the full ballot in New Zealand and South and West Australia, and some form of suffrage in every English colony. In a large number of the monarchical countries certain classes of women vote. On this fundamental question of individual sovereignty surely the United States should be a leader and not a follower. The trend of the times is clearly toward equal suffrage. It will add to the credit and future strength of any party to put itself in line with the best modern and progressive thought on this question.
In the division of the world's labor an equal share falls to woman. As property holder and wage-earner her material stake in the government is equal to that of man. As wife, as mother, as individual, her moral stake is certainly as great as his. The perpetuity of the republic depends upon the careful performance of the duties of both. One is just as necessary as the other to the growth and prosperity of the country. All of these propositions are self-evident, but they are wholly foreign to the question at issue. The right of the individual to a vote is not founded upon the value of his stake in government, upon his moral character, his business ability or his physical strength, but simply and solely upon that guarantee of personal representation which is the essence of a true republic, a true democracy.
The literal definition of these two terms is, "a State in which the sovereign power resides in the whole body of the people and is exercised by representatives elected by them." By the Declaration of Independence, by the rules of equity, by the laws of justice, women equally with men are entitled to exercise this sovereign power, through the franchise, the only legal means provided. But whatever may be regarded as the correct basis of suffrage—character, education, property, or the inherent right of the person who is subject to law and taxation—women possess all the qualifications required of men.
At this dawn of a new century are not the sons of the Revolutionary Fathers sufficiently progressive to remove the barriers which for more than a hundred years have prevented women from exercising this citizen's right? We appeal to this great national delegate body, representing the men of every State, gathered to outline the policy and select the head of the Government for the next four years, to adopt in your platform a declaration approving the submission by Congress of an amendment enfranchising women. We urge this action in order that the question shall be carried to the various Legislatures, where women may present their arguments before the representative men, instead of being compelled to plead their cause before each individual voter of the forty-one States where they are still disfranchised.
We make this earnest appeal on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of women who, from year to year, have petitioned Congress to take the action necessary for their enfranchisement; and of those millions who are so engrossed in the struggle for daily bread, or in the manifold duties of the home, that they are compelled to leave this task to others. We make it also on behalf of the generations yet to come, for there will be no cessation of this demand until this highest privilege of citizenship has been accorded to women.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, } Honorary Presidents. Susan B. Anthony, Carrie Chapman Catt, President. Harriet Taylor Upton,
Treasurer.Anna Howard Shaw,
Vice-President-at-Large.Laura Clay,
First Auditor.Rachel Foster Avery,
Corresponding Secretary.Catharine Waugh McCulloch,
Second Auditor.Alice Stone Blackwell,
Recording Secretary.Headquarters, National-American Woman Suffrage Association, 2008 American Tract Society Building, New York City.
| Elizabeth Cady Stanton, | } | Honorary Presidents. |
| Susan B. Anthony, | ||
| Carrie Chapman Catt, President. | ||
| Harriet Taylor Upton, Treasurer. | Anna Howard Shaw, Vice-President-at-Large. | |
| Laura Clay, First Auditor. | Rachel Foster Avery, Corresponding Secretary. | |
| Catharine Waugh McCulloch, Second Auditor. | Alice Stone Blackwell, Recording Secretary. | |
| Headquarters, National-American Woman Suffrage Association, | ||
| 2008 American Tract Society Building, | ||
| New York City. | ||
Four women were permitted to appear before a sub-committee of the Committee on Platform at the Republican National Convention at Philadelphia, in 1900. They met with a polite but chilly reception and were informed that they could have ten minutes to present their case. This time was occupied by the president and the vice-president-at-large in concise but forcible arguments on the duty of the party to recognize their claim for enfranchisement. The platform eventually contained the following plank:
We congratulate the women of America upon their splendid record of public service in the Volunteer Aid Association, and as nurses in camp and hospital during the recent campaigns of our armies in the Eastern and Western Indies, and we appreciate their faithful co-operation in all works of education and industry.
In other words, being asked to recognize women as political factors, the committee responded by commending them as nurses!
This plank was written by Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, who as president of the Woman's National Republican League and a campaign speaker, has done far more for the party than any other woman, and originally it ended with this clause: "We regard with satisfaction their unselfish interest in public affairs in the four States where they have already been enfranchised, and their growing interest in good government and Republican principles." But even so small a recognition as this of women in political life was ruthlessly struck out by the committee.
Mrs. Chapman Catt and Miss Mary G. Hay attended the Democratic National Convention at Kansas City and were not allowed to address any committee, but the platform contained the Declaration of Independence as its preamble!
The Populist national platform adopted at Sioux City did not contain even a reference to women or their rights and privileges.