Thus ended the struggle for the submission to the Legislatures of an amendment to the National Constitution to give complete universal suffrage to women, which had been carried on without cessation for almost exactly fifty years—a struggle which has no parallel in history.
It is not possible to give in this limited space due recognition to all the Senators and Representatives who during this long period stood faithfully by this Federal Amendment, many of them at serious political risk. This was especially true of those from the South. The speech of Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas, Aug. 5, 1918, was as strong an argument as ever was made for the Federal Amendment. The great corporate interests of the country, including the liquor interests, which were the dominating force in politics, were implacably opposed to woman suffrage and the women had no material influence to counteract them. All the more honor is due, therefore, to those members who loyally supported it in this long contest founded upon abstract right, justice and democracy.
Vote on Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment in the U. S. Senate, June 4, 1919.
| Republicans, Aye | Democrats, Aye | ||||
| Cal. | Johnson | Ariz. | { | Ashurst | |
| Col. | Phipps | Smith | |||
| Del. | Ball | Ark. | { | Kirby | |
| Ills. | { | McCormick | Robinson | ||
| Sherman | Cal. | Phelan | |||
| Ind. | { | New | Col. | Thomas | |
| Watson | Ga. | Harris | |||
| Iowa | { | Cummins | Ida. | Nugent | |
| Kenyon | Ky. | Stanley | |||
| Kans. | { | Capper | La. | Ransdell | |
| Curtis | Mass. | Walsh | |||
| Me. | { | Fernald | Mont. | { | Myers |
| Hale | Walsh | ||||
| Md. | France | Nev. | { | Henderson | |
| Mich. | { | Newberry | Pittman | ||
| Townsend | N. M. | Jones | |||
| Minn. | { | Kellogg | Okla. | { | Gore |
| Nelson | Owen | ||||
| Mo. | Spencer | Ore. | Chamberlain | ||
| Neb. | Norris | R. I. | Gerry | ||
| N. H. | Keyes | S. D. | Johnson | ||
| N. J. | { | Edge | Tenn. | McKellar | |
| Frelinghuysen | Tex. | { | Culberson | ||
| N. M. | Fall | Sheppard | |||
| N. Y. | Calder | Utah | King | ||
| N. D. | { | Gronna | Wyo. | Kendrick | |
| McCumber | |||||
| Ohio | Harding | ||||
| Ore. | McNary | ||||
| R. I. | Colt | ||||
| S. D. | Sterling | ||||
| Utah | Smoot | ||||
| Vt. | Page | ||||
| Wash. | { | Jones | |||
| Poindexter | |||||
| W. Va. | { | Elkins | |||
| Sutherland | |||||
| Wis. | { | LaFollette | |||
| Lenroot | |||||
| Wyo. | Warren | ||||
| Total | 40 | Total | 26 | ||
| Republicans, No | Democrats, No | ||||
| Conn. | { | Brandegee | Ala. | { | Bankhead |
| McLean | Underwood | ||||
| Ida. | Borah | Del. | Wolcott | ||
| Mass. | Lodge | Fla. | { | Fletcher | |
| N. H. | Moses | Trammell | |||
| N. Y. | Wadsworth | Ga. | Smith | ||
| Penn. | { | Knox | Ky. | Beckham | |
| Penrose | La. | Gay | |||
| Vt. | Dillingham | Md. | Smith | ||
| Miss. | { | Harrison | |||
| Williams | |||||
| Mo. | Reed | ||||
| Neb. | Hitchcock | ||||
| N. C. | { | Overman | |||
| Simmons | |||||
| Ohio | Pomerene | ||||
| S. C. | { | Dial | |||
| Smith | |||||
| Tenn. | Shields | ||||
| Va. | { | Martin | |||
| Swanson | |||||
| Total | 9 | Total | 21 | ||
Benet was appointed for a few months to succeed Senator Tillman and voted against the amendment October 1. Pollock was elected to serve until March and voted for it February 10. Dial was elected for the full term beginning March 4. Senator Hale of Maine was the only hold-over Senator who changed his position, voting "no" in October and "aye" in June. The suffragists deeply regretted that Senator John F. Shafroth of Colorado, an able and valued friend for the past twenty-five years, was no longer a member of the Senate.
After the woman suffrage amendment had become a part of the Constitution of the United States Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, the national president, prepared a complete summary of the several votes on it in the two Houses of Congress according to the political parties and sent it to Chairman Will H. Hays of the Republican National Committee and Chairman George White of the Democratic. To the former she said in part: "I take the occasion to express to you personally on behalf of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, our grateful appreciation of your own faithful, consistent and always sincere efforts to carry out the platforms of your party wherein they referred to the enfranchisement of women. Ratification at this date would not have been achieved without your conscientious and understanding help. I wish also to express our gratitude to the Republican party for its share in the final enfranchisement of the women of the United States...."
To Mr. White Mrs. Catt said: "There is one important Democratic factor which should be included in the record and that is the fearless and able sponsorship of the amendment by the leader of your party, the President of the United States.... He has never hesitated to let members of his party know in every State that he favored ratification.... His championship furnishes cause for pride to all forward-looking Democrats, since his vision foresaw this now achieved fact of the enfranchisement of the women of this country. On behalf of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, I wish to thank you and your party for its share in the completion of the task to which our association set itself more than fifty years ago."
Mrs. Catt said in the course of her summing up: "Women owe much to both political parties but to neither do they owe so much that they need feel themselves obligated to support that party if conscience and judgment dictate otherwise. Their political freedom at this time is due to the tremendous sentiment and pressure produced by their own unceasing activities over a period of three generations. Had either party lived up to the high ideals of our nation and courageously taken the stand for right and justice as against time-serving, vote-winning policies of delay, women would have been enfranchised long ago.... If, however, neither of the dominant parties has made as clean and progressive a record as its admirers could have wished, there is no question but that individual men of both parties have given heroic service to the cause of woman suffrage and this has been true in every State, those which ratified and those which rejected. Women should not forget these men who have stepped in advance of the more slow moving of their own constituents to help this great cause of political freedom."