The 19th Amendment: Women's Suffrage

Women's Suffrage After the Civil War

Universal women's suffrage was achieved in August 1920 with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. The women's suffrage amendment was first introduced to Congress all the way back in January 1878 by California Senator Aaron Sargent.1 Petitions for women's suffrage became common following the civil war and some of the more famous women's suffragists at the time were Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony who were also staunch abolitionists before the 13th Amendment was ratified in 1865. On February 14, 1866, Charles Sumner, the Republican Senator from Massachusetts stated “But I…do not think this is a proper time for the consideration of that question.”2 Sumner had been a strong abolitionist as well, however, he believed there were more pressing issues to address following the Civil War.

Women's Suffrage at the State Level

Although there are some who might believe that the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 was the first time that women received the right to vote, this was not the case. That's because voting, in 1920 as it is today, is primarily a state's rights issue according to Article I of the Constitution. Therefore, for the federal government to affect voting laws, they must do so through the constitutional amendment process, which they have done several times during American history. Prior to 1913, nine states had granted women full voting rights and another seven states legalized women's suffrage between 1913 and 1920.

The Year Each State Allowed Women to Vote Before 1920

Here is a list of states and territories that legalized full women's suffrage before the 19th amendment was ratified.

• 1869: Wyoming Territory(Statehood: 1890)

• 1870: Utah Territory (1896)

• 1883: Washington Territory (1910)

• 1887: Montana Territory (1914)

• 1893: Colorado

• 1896: Idaho

• 1911: California

• 1912: Arizona, Kansas, Oregon

• 1913: Alaska Territory (1959)

• 1914: Nevada

• 1917: New York

• 1918: Michigan, Oklahoma, South Dakota3

The First Women's March - Washington DC

The year 1913 turned out to be a pivotal year for women's voting rights. In December 1912, the initial beginnings of The National Woman's Party began. That month, Lucy Burns and Alice Paul were appointed to the National American Woman Suffrage Association’s congressional committee. Although these two women were Americans, they were previously active in the fight for women's suffrage in England. While in England, they learned and used radical tactics such as violent confrontations with authorities, serving jail time, and hunger strikes and they hoped to bring these more militant tactics to the American fight in their new positions in NAWSA. As they assumed their new role, they also began to change their strategy away from winning voting rights for women at the state and local levels to working towards amending the US Constitution to enfranchise women nationally.4

In March 1913, Lucy Burns and Alice Paul organized the first Washington DC women's march and over 5,000 women attended the march. The march was held one day before President Wilson's inauguration and so with many visitors from around the nation visiting, they witnessed the women's march, creating a larger impact on society's overall perception. One of the inconvenient truths of the march is that it was segregated between black women attendees and white women. The black women were organized so that they had to march in the back of the procession.5

Women's March Poster 1913

As the march began down Pennsylvania Avenue, the march was carefully choreographed for maximum impact. The march was led by Inez Milholland riding a white horse, who was an activist and lawyer, and who some called "the most beautiful suffragist."6 As the march continued, it was meant to highlight the various accomplishments of women with its signs and floats. The crowd that was watching the march was roughly 250,000 and instead of peacefully observing, they began to intentionally block the march until the entire march was surrounded. Most of the women remained in place, even in the face of strong opposition, until the US Army arrived and cleared out the crowd, allowing the march to continue. Despite the drama, it only served to create even greater national attention from the march.7

In June 1913, a few months after the march and Wilson's presidential inauguration, a Senate Committee convened and presented a report to the Senate, recommending the passage of the 19th Amendment. Despite the recommendation and remarkable lobbying efforts by Senators and suffragists, the debate in the Senate continued throughout 1914. In March 1914, a vote was taken on the amendment in the Senate. The vote failed by a wide margin but a silver lining was that it forced Senators to go on the record which the suffragists would use against them for the next five years. In July 1914, World War I began and as the war escalated, people's attention was drawn away from the debate surrounding women's suffrage. But during the war, women played a more active role than in any previous war. America entered the war in 1917 and as men traveled overseas, women were required to support the war effort by working in factories and producing the required products for the war.

Women's March in Washington DC: 1913

The Case Against Women's Suffrage

From 1878, when the 19th Amendment was first proposed until its passage, there were various arguments against suffrage. Here are just a few quotes from several who tried to make the case against women's suffrage.

Here is a quote from James Caples who was a Democrat attending the California Constitutional Convention of 1878-79. He argues, that it is man's ability to fight which grants him the right to participate in his government. Whereas, since women do not engage in combat, they should therefore not receive the rights of suffrage. Whether you agree or disagree, this argument held a prophetic tone as World War I, where more women participated in the workforce at home became a key argument FOR the 19th Amendment.

What is political sovereignty? It is the fruits of the sword. It has always been the fruits of the sword. . .The right to vote, the power of sovereignty, does rest right squarely upon the basis of the ability of men to wield the sword.8

Here, Mr. Caples went on to again try to make his argument from natural law. Mr. Caples stated:

This fungus growth upon the body of modern civilization is no such modest thing as the mere privilege of voting, by any means. . .The demand is for the abolition of all distinctions between men and women, proceeding upon the hypothesis that men and women are all the same. . . Gentlemen ought to know what is the great and inevitable tendency of this modern heresy, this lunacy, which of all lunacies is the mischievous and most destructive. It attacks the integrity of the family; it attacks the eternal decrees of God Almighty; it denies and repudiates the obligations of motherhood.9

Others would try to make their argument from the Constitution rather than from natural law such as Henry St. George in 1916 who at the time, was a lawyer and former Representative from Virginia. George's argument had become a mute point as the 15th Amendment had long established the precedent that suffrage laws, although normally determined by states, can be overruled by the constitutional amendment process.

For three-fourths of the States to attempt to compel the other one-fourth of the States of the Union, by constitutional amendment, to adopt a principle of suffrage believed to be inimical to their institutions, because they may believe it to be of advantage to themselves and righteous as a general doctrine, would be to accomplish their end by subverting a principle which has been recognized from the adoption of the Constitution of the United States to this day, viz., that the right of suffrage — more properly the privilege of suffrage — is a State privilege, emanating from the State, granted by the State, and that can be curtailed alone by the State.10

There are pieces of truth found in each of these arguments against the 19th Amendment and as America tries to continue to create "a more perfect Union," I'm sure these debates will resurface from time to time. It will be important that Americans defend their arguments intellectually and intelligently, regardless of their position, so that America's system of government and justice can continue to improve.

The Post-War Push For the 19th Amendment

On January 10, 1918, World War I was not yet over, however, the House of Representatives passed the 19th Amendment 304 for and 89 against. On that day, women who attended the vote, left together singing.

Then, on December 2, 1918, not yet a month after The Great War had ended, Woodrow Wilson stood before Congress and delivered the State of the Union speech. This was Wilson's sixth State of the Union since starting the tradition of oral delivery in 1913. And for the first time, he publicly endorsed the Nineteenth Amendment.

And what shall we say of the women,-of their instant intelligence, quickening every task that they touched; their capacity for organization and cooperation, which gave their action discipline and enhanced the effectiveness of everything they attempted; their aptitude at tasks to which they had never before set their hands; their utter self-sacrifice alike in what they did and in what they gave? Their contribution to the great result is beyond appraisal. They have added a new lustre to the annals of American womanhood. The least tribute we can pay them is to make them the equals of men in political rights as they have proved themselves their equals in every field of practical work they have entered, whether for themselves or for their country. These great days of completed achievement would be sadly marred were we to omit that act of justice. . . 11

Although the House had already passed the bill, it had stalled in the Senate. On May 19, 1919, Wilson called a special session of Congress and urged the Senate to once again to pass the amendment legislation. The Senate finally passed the amendment 56 to 25 on June 4, 1919, moving the legislation onto the states for ratification. When the Senate passed the bill, Wilson was at the Paris Peace Conference negotiating details following the war. He wired his "warmest congratulations" to representatives at NAWSA. All that was left was for 36 out of the 48 states to ratify the Amendment. Fourteen months after Congress passed the amendment, on August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified by the 36th state, Tennessee.12

The 19th Amendment states:

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.13

The 19th Amendment will likely rise to the surface in American political debates in the future. As these kinds of debates arise from time to time, I think it is important to reverse engineer the debate. In other words, it is important to begin any debate with the end in mind. That end, of course, is to administer a more perfect justice where women and men are treated equally and appropriately under America's legal system. This is a very broad statement that encompasses innumerable nuances which I will not argue for or against here. However, to deny men and women's unique and valuable differences and how they have the potential to affect this end goal, is willful ignorance. It is also important that people realize that voting is but one very small way that affects justice in America and to focus the debate solely on suffrage(although important) denies a full understanding of the American legal system.

Sources:

1. “Aaron A. Sargent (R-CA).” U.S. Senate: Aaron A. Sargent (R-CA), August 7, 2023. https://www.senate.gov/about/images/sargent-aaron-augustus.htm.

2. “Woman Suffrage Centennial.” U.S. Senate: Woman Suffrage Centennial, March 10, 2020. https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/People/Women/Part1_BestowtheBallot.htm.

3. Women’s suffrage in the U.S. by state - Rutgers University. Accessed October 25, 2023. https://tag.rutgers.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/suffrage-by-state.pdf.

4. “Visionaries | Selected Leaders of the National Woman’s Party | Articles and Essays | Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman’s Party | Digital Collections | Library of Congress,” The Library of Congress, accessed October 25, 2023, https://www.loc.gov/collections/women-of-protest/articles-and-essays/selected-leaders-of-the-national-womans-party/visionaries/.

5. “1913 Woman Suffrage Procession. U.S. National Park Service. ” accessed October 25, 2023, https://www.nps.gov/articles/woman-suffrage-procession1913.htm.

6. 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession. US National Park Service.

7. 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession. US National Park Service.

8. Keyssar, Alexander. The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States. Ukraine: Basic Books, 2009. 191.

9. Keyssar, Alexander. The Right to Vote. 199.

10. Woman’s Suffrage By Constitutional Amendment, by Henry St. George Tucker. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1916. p 4. National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection. Rare Book & Special Collections Division. Via Library of Congress.

11. “Sixth Annual Message | The American Presidency Project,” accessed October 25, 2023, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/sixth-annual-message-6.

12. Catt, Carrie Chapman., Shuler, Nettie Rogers. Woman Suffrage and Politics: The Inner Story of the Suffrage Movement. United States: C. Scribner's Sons, 1923. 342.

13. “19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women’s Right to Vote (1920),” National Archives, February 8, 2022, accessed October 25, 2023, https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/19th-amendment.