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35 - Woman Suffrage and Politics by Carrie Chapman Catt, Nettie Rogers Shuler · Woman Suffrage and Politics

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Speaker 1: Chapter thirty, Part one of Women's Suffrage in Politics. This
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Speaker 1: is the librifox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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Speaker 1: librifox dot org. Women's Suffrage in Politics, The Inner Story
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Speaker 1: of the Suffrage Movement by Carrie Chapman Kat and Nettie
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Speaker 1: Rogers Schuler Tennessee Part one. When on June two, nineteen twenty,
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Speaker 1: the United States Supreme Court rendered that to suffrage momentous
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Speaker 1: decision that state referenda were not permissible. Thirty five states
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Speaker 1: had ratified the Suffrage Amendment. Eight had defeated ratification. The
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Speaker 1: final decision therefore rested with the remaining five states that
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Speaker 1: had not yet taken any action. These states were the
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Speaker 1: northern states of Connecticut and Vermont, and the southern states
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Speaker 1: of North Carolina, Florida, and Tennessee. The poll of the
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Speaker 1: legislatures of North Carolina and Florida indicated an adverse majority,
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Speaker 1: so of course these states were expected to take outdas
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Speaker 1: first action in accord with the remainder of the South.
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Speaker 1: This limited the immediate prospect of the thirty sixth ratification
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Speaker 1: to Connecticut, Vermont, and Tennessee. None of the legislatures of
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Speaker 1: these states was in session, so none could ratify unless
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Speaker 1: its governor called a special session. Responsibility thus narrowed down
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Speaker 1: to the governors of the three states temporarily. The case
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Speaker 1: of Tennessee was dismissed from consideration because of an amendment
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Speaker 1: in its state constitution, which read Article three, Section thirty two.
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Speaker 1: No Convention or General Assembly of the State shall act
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Speaker 1: upon any amendment of the Constitution of the United States
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Speaker 1: proposed by Congress to the several States, unless such convention
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Speaker 1: or general Assembly shall have been elected after such amendment
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Speaker 1: is submitted. Florida's constitution also contained this provision. This provision
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Speaker 1: of the Tennessee Constitution had stood unchallenged for half a
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Speaker 1: century and was accepted as prohibiting a special session for
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Speaker 1: the purpose of ratifying the suffrage image. There was no
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Speaker 1: longer any doubt of the ratification of the amendment if
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Speaker 1: it could be put before any one of the three
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Speaker 1: legislatures of Connecticut, Vermont, and Tennessee. All were favorable to ratification,
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Speaker 1: and the general sentiment in these states was not only
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Speaker 1: very friendly, but the Republicans in the one party Republican
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Speaker 1: states of Connecticut and Vermont, and the Democrats in the
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Speaker 1: one party democratic state of Tennessee were pledged to aid ratification.
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Speaker 1: Yet the presidential election of nineteen twenty was coming nearer
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Speaker 1: and nearer, with women's chance to vote in it hanging
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Speaker 1: upon a thirty sixth ratification, and that ratification hanging upon
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Speaker 1: a special session. It was believed that the governor of
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Speaker 1: Tennessee could not call such a session, as has already
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Speaker 1: been shown the governors of Connecticut and Vermont would not.
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Speaker 1: Feeling was tense and irritable throughout the country. Suffragists regarded
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Speaker 1: the situation with the amazed irrascability of a plaintiff given
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Speaker 1: a verdict by a jury, but with the judgment mysteriously
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Speaker 1: and suspiciously with held. A more surprising manifestation came from hundreds,
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Speaker 1: if not thousands, of women who had taken no part
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Speaker 1: and had shown no especial interests in the campaign for suffrage,
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Speaker 1: but who now developed a more raucous attitude toward the
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Speaker 1: delay than did the better disciplined suffragists. Woman whose sympathies
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Speaker 1: with the suffrage struggle had never been apparent. Now because
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Speaker 1: the thirty sixth state was not more speedily achieved, even
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Speaker 1: went so far as to throw bitter invective at suffragists
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Speaker 1: who had given the whole potentiality of their lives to
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Speaker 1: the cause. There were other causes of irritation. After the
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Speaker 1: ratification of the thirty fifth state on March twenty second,
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Speaker 1: political leaders had concluded that there would be a thirty
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Speaker 1: sixth state and that millions of women would vote in November.
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Speaker 1: The prediction had been widely heralded that these new voters
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Speaker 1: might turn the scale in the coming election, and in consequence,
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Speaker 1: a hectic effort to enroll them in advance had been
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Speaker 1: made by all parties. Suffragists, non suffragists, and antisepeffragists had
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Speaker 1: been appointed to official posts, and the first duty assigned
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Speaker 1: to them had been the organization of the coming women voters.
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Speaker 1: Although hosts of women flocks to the organizing meetings, many
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Speaker 1: declined to be organized as voters before they had attained
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Speaker 1: that dignity. National chairmen of the political parties were harassed
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Speaker 1: on the one hand by suffragists and their state party organizations,
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Speaker 1: who entreated them to use every possible effort to find
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Speaker 1: a thirty sixth state, and on the other by women
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Speaker 1: anti suffragists and a powerful party minority threatening a variety
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Speaker 1: of disasters where that state found Two considerations tipped the
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Speaker 1: scales suffrageword, one that the politics of the thirty sixth
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Speaker 1: state might easily be a determining factor in the coming
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Speaker 1: presidential election, the other that if there should be no
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Speaker 1: thirty sixth ratification, each dominant party would be held lameable,
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Speaker 1: and the premature organization of women might prove a boomerang.
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Speaker 1: It was in the midst of this impasse that the
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Speaker 1: Supreme Court handed down its decay. It validated all the
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Speaker 1: ratifications already affected, cleared the amendment of legal doubt, and
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Speaker 1: emphasized the facts that completed ratification required the action of
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Speaker 1: only a single state. Immediately, a fresh campaign to persuade
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Speaker 1: the two northern governors to action was begun. Since the
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Speaker 1: Republican Party left Snowstone unturned to persuade them to call
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Speaker 1: special sessions, but neither would budge. It left the Republicans,
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Speaker 1: whose majorities in Congress had submitted the amendment and whose
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Speaker 1: proportion of the state ratifications was the larger, seemingly unable
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Speaker 1: to deliver the thirty sixth state. Meanwhile, Democratic hopes had
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Speaker 1: turned slowly but steadily to Tennessee. Colonel Joseph h Auckland,
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Speaker 1: general Counsel of the Tennessee Suffrage Association, on May eleventh,
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Speaker 1: had published an opinion in the Nashville Banner declaring that
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Speaker 1: should the Supreme Court of the United States hold that
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Speaker 1: ratification of federal amendments may be accomplished only by the
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Speaker 1: exact procedure outlined in the Federal Constitution, section thirty two
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Speaker 1: of Article three of the Tennessee Constitution would be abrogated,
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Speaker 1: and the called Session could legally ratify the suffrage amendment.
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Speaker 1: The opinion attracted little attention at the time, but it
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Speaker 1: convinced the women of the state auxiliary of the National
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Speaker 1: Suffrage Association. That auxiliary was now known as the Tennessee
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Speaker 1: League of Women Voters, its old title was the Tennessee
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Speaker 1: Equal Suffrage Association. At their annual convention a week later,
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Speaker 1: they discussed this situation and determined to be on watch.
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Speaker 1: The decision clearly recognized and applied the principle that no
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Speaker 1: state possessed the authority to alter or modify in any
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Speaker 1: way whatsoever the method of amending the Constitution, and Colonel
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Speaker 1: Acklan urged the Tennessee League of Women Voters to agitate
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Speaker 1: the question of a special session. This the League lost
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Speaker 1: no time in doing, telegraphing to the headquarters of the
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Speaker 1: National Suffrage Association for help. It turned its forces to
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Speaker 1: the problem of converting the state press, the governor, and
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Speaker 1: the legislature to the idea that this Supreme Court decision
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Speaker 1: had made ratification in Tennessee possible. Its first appeal was
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Speaker 1: made to the State Democratic Convention. The Convention, with enthusiastic applause,
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Speaker 1: carried a hearty resolution endorsing ratification of the amendment and
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Speaker 1: recommending a special session. Armed with this resolution, the women
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Speaker 1: requested the governor to call the legislature. The National Suffrage
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Speaker 1: Association added its requests, but he gave them no encouragement.
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Speaker 1: There will be no extraordinary session of the sixty first
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Speaker 1: General Assembly, said he, I am forbidden by the Constitution
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Speaker 1: of Tennessee to call an extra session of the legislature
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Speaker 1: to act upon any amendment to the Constitution of the
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Speaker 1: United States. That matter is delegated to the succeeding General Assembly.
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Speaker 1: The agitation proceeded, Nevertheless, the Tennessee in the Chattanooga News.
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Speaker 1: Since the Tennessee League of Women Voters were simultaneously taking
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Speaker 1: a poll of the legislature and from time to time
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Speaker 1: publishing interviews with the legislators. On June twenty, the d governors,
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Speaker 1: still believing that Tennessee had no authority to ratify, again,
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Speaker 1: declined to call a session. The newspapers were timidly discussing
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Speaker 1: the possibilities of the session, the suffragists alone being confident.
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Speaker 1: It was then that the chairman of the Tennessee Ratification
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Speaker 1: Committee wrote the National Suffrage Association, our only hope lies
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Speaker 1: in Washington and Tennessee. All swear by Woodrow Wilson, no
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Speaker 1: one here believes he has clay feet. The Democratic State
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Speaker 1: Convention on the eighth of June exhausted every adjective, Intervalnist's
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Speaker 1: Southern vocabulary to approve, praise, and glorify his every word. Indeed,
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Speaker 1: if he will but speak, Tennessee must yield. Inspired by
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Speaker 1: our faith, the entire state board of the League of
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Speaker 1: Women Voters, thirty two women signed a telegram to the
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Speaker 1: President urging him to ask Governor Roberts to call out
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Speaker 1: the session and assuring him that the legislature would ratify
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Speaker 1: if called. A copy of the telegram was sent to
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Speaker 1: the National Suffrage Headquarters and with it a plea for
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Speaker 1: more help. Through its Washington representatives, the National American Woman
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Speaker 1: Suffrage Association secured the intercession of President Wilson, who asked
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Speaker 1: the United States Department of Justice to render an opinion
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Speaker 1: to the Tennessee Governor concerning the application of the Supreme
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Speaker 1: Court decision to the constitution of Tennessee. This was done
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Speaker 1: within an hour by Assistant Attorney General Ryerson, a citizen
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Speaker 1: of Tennessee, and the following was made public by the
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Speaker 1: White House in the afternoon, fifteen hours after the telegram
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Speaker 1: had been sent for Nashville. The ruling of the Supreme
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Speaker 1: Court in the recent Ohio case, and the consideration which
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Speaker 1: I gave to this question in preparing these cases for hearing,
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Speaker 1: leaves no doubt in my mind that the power of
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Speaker 1: the legislature to ratify an amendment of the Federal Constitution
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Speaker 1: is derived solely from the people of the United States
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Speaker 1: through the Federal Constitution, and not from the people through
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Speaker 1: the constitution of the state. The power thus derived cannot
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Speaker 1: be taken away, limited, or restrained in any way by
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Speaker 1: the constitution of a state. The provision of the Tennessee Constitution,
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Speaker 1: if valid, would undoubtedly be a restriction upon that power.
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Speaker 1: If the people of a state, through their constitution, can
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Speaker 1: delay action on an amendment until after an election, there
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Speaker 1: is no reason why they cannot delay it until after
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Speaker 1: two elections, or five elections, or until the lapse of
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Speaker 1: any period of time they may see fit, and thus
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Speaker 1: practically nullify the article of the Federal Constitution providing for amendment.
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Speaker 1: On the same day, President Wilson telegraphed Governor Roberts, it
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Speaker 1: would be a real service to the party and to
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Speaker 1: the nation if it is possible for you under the
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Speaker 1: peculiar provision of your state constitution. Having in mind the
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Speaker 1: recent decision of the Supreme Court in the Ohio case
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Speaker 1: to call a special session of the Legislature of Tennessee
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Speaker 1: to consider the suffrage amendment, allow me to urge this
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Speaker 1: very earnestly. Governor Roberts had no prejudices per se against
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Speaker 1: the special session, for on March eleventh, he had announced
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Speaker 1: that he would call a special session of the legislature
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Speaker 1: when into if I if the amendment should be ratified
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Speaker 1: by thirty six other states, in order to preclude the
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Speaker 1: possibility of contesting elections in which women had voted without
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Speaker 1: previous enactment of state laws relating to the payment of
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Speaker 1: pull tax and registration. With the proposal of the President,
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Speaker 1: supported by the Fiarson letter, a new light was thrown
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Speaker 1: on the political screen. The next day, June twenty fourth,
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Speaker 1: an elaborate opinion was handed the Governor at his request
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Speaker 1: by State Attorney General Rank M. Thompson, which declared that
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Speaker 1: ratification of the suffrage Amendment by a special session would
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Speaker 1: be legal. The National American Woman Suffrage Association, on June
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Speaker 1: twenty fifth, gave to the public opinion of Honorable Charles V. N.
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Speaker 1: Hughes its council. In part, it said, the provision of
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Speaker 1: the Constitution of Tennessee attempts to take away from an
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Speaker 1: existing legislature of that state the authority to ratify the
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Speaker 1: amendment as proposed by Congress, for ratification by the legislature,
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Speaker 1: and to place this authority in a legislature subsequently chosen. This,
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Speaker 1: in my opinion, is beyond the power of the state.
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Speaker 1: In the adoption of the Federal Constitution, the state assented
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Speaker 1: to the method of ratification by the state legislature without
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Speaker 1: any such qualification, and the state Legislature sitting as such
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Speaker 1: after the amendment has been duly proposed by Congress, has,
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Speaker 1: in my judgment, full authority to ratify. Chief Justice Clerk
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Speaker 1: of the North Carolina Supreme Court volunteered a similar opinion.
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Speaker 1: The widely published opinions of these high legal authorities of
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Speaker 1: both dominant parties instantaneously changed the direction of expectation throughout
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Speaker 1: the nation. Democratic presidential candidates sent drastic telegrams to the
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Speaker 1: governor urging that Tennessee put an end to the uncertainty
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Speaker 1: of the women's vote. In response to combined entreaties, the
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Speaker 1: governor announced that he would call a session, whereupon a
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Speaker 1: long drawn breath of relief swept over the nation. Newspapers
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Speaker 1: carried the news that the Democratic state of Tennessee had
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Speaker 1: come forward as the gallant rescis of the Bufogg's suffrage amendment.
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Speaker 1: Cartoonists discovered a wide diversity of humorous features with which
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Speaker 1: to carry the same message, and Tennessee the perfect thirty
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Speaker 1: six became the talk of the hour. Democrats were exultant,
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Speaker 1: Republicans exceedingly generous. The relief and joy in suffrage and
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Speaker 1: political party headquarters were not, however, universal. The opposition had
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Speaker 1: not given up hope and now gathered its forces for
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Speaker 1: the most terrific battle it had ever waged. That battle
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Speaker 1: might have been a mere flurry had it not been
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Speaker 1: for two unfortunate facts. First, the political situation within the
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Speaker 1: state was the worst possible for United action on any measure,
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Speaker 1: And second, the Tennessee League of Women Voters was ill
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Speaker 1: qualified at that particular date to take care of so
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Speaker 1: serious a campaign. Tennessee had been a Democratic state since
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Speaker 1: the Civil War, although one third of its legislature was Republican.
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Speaker 1: The Republicans came mainly from the Eastern Mountain regions, which
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Speaker 1: had remained loyal to the Union in the Civil War
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Speaker 1: war and loyal to the Republican Party ever after. They
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Speaker 1: were regarded by the majority party with rigid tolerance, and
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Speaker 1: the only time that there were Republican victories in the
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Speaker 1: state was when there were rifts in the Democratic forces.
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Speaker 1: In one party states, the normal party antagonisms pactically cease,
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Speaker 1: but the instincts for division reappear as factions in the
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Speaker 1: majority party. In Tennessee, these factions within the Democratic Party
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Speaker 1: were now at each other's throats. State citizens anxiously shook
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Speaker 1: their heads, remembering a similarly bitter occasion when a shocking
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Speaker 1: murder had resulted from a factional political quarrel. The prevailing
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Speaker 1: fear that a tragedy might ensue or that the state
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Speaker 1: might be thrown into the hands of the Republicans tended
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Speaker 1: to widen the breach, as each group laid the responsibility
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Speaker 1: for the gravity of the situation upon the other. A
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Speaker 1: persistent rumor, untraceable to any definite source, ran through each
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Speaker 1: faction to the facts that the Republicans provided with unlimited
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Speaker 1: funds or making a deal with the leaders of the
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Speaker 1: opposing faction. Suspicion, animosity, and uncompromising hate possessed the entire state.
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Speaker 1: The governor was a candidate to succeed himself against two
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Speaker 1: rival candidates. A whispering campaign of scandal involving the governor
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Speaker 1: was traveling fast. Every person in the state was classified
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Speaker 1: as for or against him. No neutrals were permitted, and
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Speaker 1: when workers sent by the National Suffrage Association entered the state,
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Speaker 1: they were regarded with suspicion, each side accusing them as
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Speaker 1: favorable to its rival. The governor, obviously indifferent in his
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Speaker 1: own feelings toward the question of woman's suffrage now found
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Speaker 1: it an exceedingly troublesome issue. His political opponents alternately charged
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Speaker 1: that he did not intend to call the extraordinary session,
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Speaker 1: or if he did, that he and his friends could
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Speaker 1: be depended upon j dish the amendment. Whatever the harried
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Speaker 1: governor's personal impulse may have been, he was certainly much
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Speaker 1: disturbed by these opposing conditions, and weighed the question to
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Speaker 1: call or not to call each day with varying lines conclusions.
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Speaker 1: Many Tennessee women had been anxious to vote in the
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Speaker 1: primaries on August fifth, and might have done so had
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Speaker 1: the session been called at once. The rival candidate's forces
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Speaker 1: therefore scolded, threatened, ridiculed, and dragooned the governor in the
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Speaker 1: effort to get him to call a special session, and
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Speaker 1: they were, without doubt not a little moved in their
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Speaker 1: anxiety for early action by the hope that the scandal
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Speaker 1: aflote would drive the new women voters into their camp.
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Speaker 1: On the other hand, the governor's friends, recognizing that possibility,
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Speaker 1: assured him daily that enfranchising the woman before August fifth
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Speaker 1: would be equivalent to putting a weapon in the hand
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Speaker 1: of his enemy with which to slay him. So suffragists
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Speaker 1: in the opponents of suffrage in state and nation watched,
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Speaker 1: weighted and grew wroth, while embittered Tennessee fought her way
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Speaker 1: to and through the primaries. Most unfortunately of all, perhaps
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Speaker 1: some of the leading democratic women suffragists of the state
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Speaker 1: had yielded to urging from their men and become involved
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Speaker 1: in the political quarrel, a raid on the governor's side,
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Speaker 1: some on the other. Although the active and efficient chairman
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Speaker 1: of the ratification committee of the state auxiliary to the
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Speaker 1: National American Women's Suffrage Association was strictly neutral, the governor
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Speaker 1: refused to deal with her on the ground that she
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Speaker 1: belonged in the enemy camp. He appointed his own committee
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Speaker 1: of women to work for ratification, with a former president
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Speaker 1: of the Tennessee Suffrage Association as its chairman. Then he
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Speaker 1: announced that he would call the special session for August nine,
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Speaker 1: four days after the primaries. Meanwhile, the chairman of the
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Speaker 1: Governor's Committee of Women hurriedly began to organize and to
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Speaker 1: take a poll of the legislature. At the same time,
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Speaker 1: she appealed to the National Suffrage Association for official recognition
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Speaker 1: of her committee. The Tennessee League of Women voters had
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Speaker 1: no objection to its one time president, but she was
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Speaker 1: not at the moment an officer. Other women were officers
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Speaker 1: irresponsible to their constituency for their success of ratification. These
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Speaker 1: women found themselves in the curious position of having their
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Speaker 1: official duty taken from them by the governor, yet summarily
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Speaker 1: waived aside the organization which had produced the conditions that
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Speaker 1: made radification possible, as the Equal Suffrage Association, it had
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Speaker 1: blazed the trail through the early gloom of Tennessee prejudice,
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Speaker 1: and later had conducted without pause the agitation, education, and
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Speaker 1: organization which had so largely converted the state to the
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Speaker 1: justice of women's suffrage. At the moment, the local groups
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Speaker 1: of the League, under direction of their congressional chairman, were
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Speaker 1: engaged in getting the poll of the legislature. It was
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Speaker 1: the usual routine with all auxiliaries of the National Suffrage Association.
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Speaker 1: The principal being applied that the legislator was responsible to
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Speaker 1: his constituency and that they alone should solicit his voting pledge.
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Speaker 1: Without the League and its many connections, ratification was dubious.
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Speaker 1: The National Suffrage Association dismayed at this unexpected tangle within
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Speaker 1: its own forces sent a representative to reconnoiter a call
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Speaker 1: upon the government. Unor's staff confirms the rumor that the
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Speaker 1: chief executive was surrounded by a hostile group who not
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Speaker 1: only did not want the session called, but would prevent
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Speaker 1: it if they could. From both friends and foes of
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Speaker 1: the governor, it was learned that the session was considered doubtful.
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Speaker 1: The governor's tactical mistake in appointing an independent women's committee
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Speaker 1: was recognized by his enemies at its full value in
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Speaker 1: the Tennessee, and the leading newspaper in Nashville had a
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Speaker 1: series of editorials and cartoons in readiness, with which it
19:27
Speaker 1: intended to lampoon him in relentless fashion. Perceiving that such
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Speaker 1: an attack would arouse the governor's friends to urge the
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Speaker 1: withdrawal of the promise of a session, the representative of
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Speaker 1: the National American Women's Suffrage Association pleaded for delay in
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Speaker 1: the publication. This was reluctantly granted. The governor was campaigning
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Speaker 1: a field that a doughty leaguer driving her own car,
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Speaker 1: took the representative to the place of his next meeting.
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Speaker 1: In a brief midnight interview. She pleaded for a compromise
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Speaker 1: which would enable the recognition of both committees by the
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Speaker 1: National Suffrage Association and by the Governor. The plea was
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Speaker 1: graciously granted, and she returned to Nashville with the signed
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Speaker 1: compromise inner pocket at five o'clock in the morning, having
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Speaker 1: murdered all night. The Tennesseean would not accept the agreement.
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Speaker 1: Then further delay was begged until the President of the
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Speaker 1: National Suffrage Association could reach Nashville. This plea, too was granted,
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Speaker 1: and a hurry telegram was sent to New York. On
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Speaker 1: June fifteenth, The President of the Association, after a twelve
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Speaker 1: hours notice, started for Tennessee, expecting to remain less than
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Speaker 1: a week, but it was not until the comedy tragedy
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Speaker 1: of the Tennessee ratification passed into history more than two
20:38
Speaker 1: months later that she was able to return. The Tennessean
20:41
Speaker 1: reluctantly withheld its planned attack upon the Governor, and in
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Speaker 1: an interview with the Chief Executive on Sunday, August eighteenth,
20:48
Speaker 1: between trains, the president of the National American Woman's Suffrage
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Speaker 1: Association assured him that the Association recognized that ratification would
20:57
Speaker 1: be accomplished only by his aid SCE the aid of
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Speaker 1: his life followers in the legislature, that it was not
21:02
Speaker 1: interested in the local politics of any state, that it
21:05
Speaker 1: recognized the governor's right to appoint any committee he chose,
21:09
Speaker 1: but that it could not repudiate its own auxiliary. She
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Speaker 1: pointed out that there were Republicans in the legislature and
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Speaker 1: also Democrats of the opposing faction. She undertook to guarantee
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Speaker 1: that the officers of the League of Women Voters would
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Speaker 1: neither work Ford nor against him, but would give their
21:25
Speaker 1: undivided attention to ratification. From that moment, the National Suffrage
21:30
Speaker 1: President served as a liaison officer between the governor and
21:33
Speaker 1: the suffragists, and found the position most delicate and difficult.
21:37
Speaker 1: The National Suffrage Association knew one thing that Tennessee did
21:41
Speaker 1: not know, and that was that the opposition meant to
21:44
Speaker 1: wage a desperate and probably unscrupulous battle to prevent ratification
21:49
Speaker 1: in the thirty sixth state. It knew that every weak
21:51
Speaker 1: man would be set upon by powerful forces, and that
21:54
Speaker 1: every vulnerable spot in the campaign would be discovered and
21:57
Speaker 1: attacked in its vulnerability. It knew that the chances of
22:01
Speaker 1: success depended upon preparedness to the last buckle on the
22:04
Speaker 1: last strap. It was no easy task to arouse either
22:07
Speaker 1: men or women to comprehension of the dire need of
22:10
Speaker 1: the hour. All factions professed to stand for ratification. Both
22:15
Speaker 1: the National Democratic and the National Republican committees had urged
22:18
Speaker 1: the governor to call a special session and the legislature
22:22
Speaker 1: to ratify. Both Democratic and Republican national platforms had confirmed
22:27
Speaker 1: this request. Both Democratic and Republican state conventions had urged
22:32
Speaker 1: a special session and ratification. The legislature about to be
22:36
Speaker 1: called had extended presidential into municipal suffrage to women, and
22:40
Speaker 1: more than a majority of its members were pledged to
22:43
Speaker 1: ratification suffrage. Men were inclined to poo at any expression
22:48
Speaker 1: of doubt as to the result. Yet there was not
22:50
Speaker 1: long to wait before warnings against false security began to materialize.
22:55
Speaker 1: The opposition began its work with an old campaign device,
22:59
Speaker 1: in order that ledlegislators might save their faces when they
23:02
Speaker 1: should repudiate their pledges, a plausible excuse must be found.
23:06
Speaker 1: Suddenly there appeared in the press, and directly after in
23:10
Speaker 1: every street corner conversation, the remarkable claim that those legislators
23:14
Speaker 1: who voted for ratification would violate their oath of office.
23:18
Speaker 1: It was held that though ratification might be legal if
23:21
Speaker 1: secured by the legislature called into special session for the purpose,
23:25
Speaker 1: that facts did not free men from their oaths to
23:28
Speaker 1: uphold the state Constitution as it read, even if it
23:31
Speaker 1: included an invalid provision. Every wheel in the opposition machinery
23:36
Speaker 1: was set in motion to spread this idea and to
23:39
Speaker 1: fix it indelibly in the minds of Tennessee. The anti
23:43
Speaker 1: suffrage press hammered it home in daily editorials. Anti suffrage lawyers,
23:47
Speaker 1: surprisingly ignorant of the relation of the Federal Constitution to
23:51
Speaker 1: state constitutions, contributed further confusion to the situation by labored
23:56
Speaker 1: opinions on the inviolability of the oath of office. Men
24:00
Speaker 1: who had never been credited with political virtue came forward
24:04
Speaker 1: to warn legislators of the wickedness of voting for ratification
24:08
Speaker 1: under such circumstances. The Bar Association in session contained so
24:13
Speaker 1: many members who held this remarkable view that the Friends
24:16
Speaker 1: of Suffrage President did not introduce an intended resolution favoring
24:20
Speaker 1: ratification lest it be rejected. With amazing docility, Intelligent men
24:25
Speaker 1: fell into the trap, and for three weeks this device
24:28
Speaker 1: of the opposition threatened to defeat of the amendment in
24:31
Speaker 1: this special session. It was obviously the first duty of
24:35
Speaker 1: suffragists to destroy this legal contention. An invitation to address
24:40
Speaker 1: a luncheon of the Kiwanis Club of Nashville gave the
24:43
Speaker 1: president of the National Suffrage Association an opportunity to discuss it.
24:47
Speaker 1: An excerpt was published in all leading papers of the state,
24:50
Speaker 1: and for the first time the answer to the claim,
24:53
Speaker 1: which had already gained widespread and distinguished support, was put
24:56
Speaker 1: squarely before the people of the state. She said, the
25:00
Speaker 1: use who are urging that legislators who vote for ratification
25:03
Speaker 1: will be violating their oaths to support the state constitution.
25:07
Speaker 1: Forget that every legislator takes an oath of loyalty to
25:10
Speaker 1: two constitutions. The oath is no more in support of
25:14
Speaker 1: one than of the other. In fact, the obligation to
25:17
Speaker 1: take an oath to support the constitution comes from the
25:20
Speaker 1: Federal Constitution, Article six, section three. The possibility of conflict
25:25
Speaker 1: between the two was foreseen in the Federal Constitution. Article five,
25:29
Speaker 1: Section two, declares that to be the supreme law of
25:32
Speaker 1: the land, and the judges in every state shall be
25:35
Speaker 1: bound thereby anything in the constitution or laws of any
25:39
Speaker 1: state to the contrary. Notwithstanding, the legislator does not vote
25:43
Speaker 1: to nullify the Tennessee Constitution when he votes to ratify
25:46
Speaker 1: the Federal Suffrage Amendment. Any part of a state constitution
25:51
Speaker 1: is already nullified when it conflicts with the Federal Constitution.
25:55
Speaker 1: His oath first supports the Federal Constitution, which is the
25:58
Speaker 1: supreme law of the land in stace. Second, such portions
26:01
Speaker 1: of the Tennessee Constitution as are in agreement with the
26:04
Speaker 1: Federal Constitution for all others, including the provision in question,
26:09
Speaker 1: would be held to be nullified and to all intents nonexistent,
26:12
Speaker 1: should the question of their legality ever reach the Supreme Court.
26:17
Speaker 1: Committees were hurriedly appointed in all the chief towns and cities,
26:21
Speaker 1: and suffragists were given instructions to visit all influential lawyers
26:25
Speaker 1: and secure either an opinion upon the mooted point or
26:28
Speaker 1: their signature to an opinion on the question. When a
26:31
Speaker 1: legislature takes a joint oaths to support the federal in
26:34
Speaker 1: the state constitutions, does eviolate his own oath when voting
26:38
Speaker 1: in accord with the provisions of the Federal Constitution. As
26:41
Speaker 1: fast as these opinions were secured, they were printed by
26:44
Speaker 1: the favorable press. After a two weeks vigorous campaign in
26:48
Speaker 1: this direction, a large majority of the important lawyers of
26:51
Speaker 1: the state were publicly recorded against the assumption. A tour
26:55
Speaker 1: of the chief cities of the congressional districts was next planned,
26:59
Speaker 1: and to her verycall issues to the local groups in
27:02
Speaker 1: each district to send their leaders forward for the conference
27:05
Speaker 1: with the state international officers of the National American Women's
27:09
Speaker 1: Suffrage Association. There were public meetings, newspaper interviews, talks with
27:14
Speaker 1: political leaders, and a private conference with workers at each point.
27:18
Speaker 1: At the conferences, the pool of all legislators from the
27:22
Speaker 1: districts was carefully reviewed, and arrangements were made for deputations
27:26
Speaker 1: of constituents or a succession of them if needed, to
27:30
Speaker 1: wait on every member not already pledged to vote favorably
27:34
Speaker 1: on ratification in the special session. To every conference, the
27:38
Speaker 1: question was put, are there any known bibable legislators from
27:41
Speaker 1: your districts? Sometimes the entire group ejaculated a name in
27:45
Speaker 1: unison so well established, with some legislators ill repute in
27:49
Speaker 1: this connection. The same question was put to all political
27:52
Speaker 1: leaders in private talk and was often met by a
27:55
Speaker 1: surprised look of suspicion, to be quickly covered by an
27:58
Speaker 1: expression of candy ditriction not to reveal any names. However,
28:03
Speaker 1: further discussion usually secured the names. All such names were
28:07
Speaker 1: checked by a secret mark on the poll list. Several
28:09
Speaker 1: names were checked as bibable by eight different persons, each
28:13
Speaker 1: thoroughly acquainted with practical politics, and each having given his
28:17
Speaker 1: opinion without the knowledge of the others. The women of Tennessee,
28:20
Speaker 1: alarmed by the unexpected development of hostility, and now understanding
28:25
Speaker 1: the false grounds for their belief in prompt action, laid
28:28
Speaker 1: aside their political differences and worked together in a manner
28:31
Speaker 1: worthy of imitation by the men of the state. The
28:34
Speaker 1: southern summer heat was merciless, and many legislators lived in
28:38
Speaker 1: remote villages or on farms miles from any town. Yet
28:42
Speaker 1: the women trailed these legislators by trained by motor, by wagons,
28:46
Speaker 1: and on foot, often in great discomfort and frequently at
28:49
Speaker 1: considerable expense to themselves. They went without meals, were drenched
28:53
Speaker 1: in unexpected reigns, and met with tire troubles. Yet no
28:57
Speaker 1: women faltered, and there was not a legislator who had
29:00
Speaker 1: not been visited by his women constituents before the legislature met.
29:05
Speaker 1: In many instances, members were visited by deputations of men
29:09
Speaker 1: or by joint delegations of men and women. Each day
29:12
Speaker 1: the poll was corrected in Nashville, as the reports of
29:15
Speaker 1: interviews were received by wire and by mail each day.
29:18
Speaker 1: The prospects were carefully estimated. Although several men under suspicion
29:23
Speaker 1: as Bibable, had signed pledges to vote for ratification, they
29:27
Speaker 1: were never included in the private estimate. It was intended
29:30
Speaker 1: to make the poll so safe that it would not
29:32
Speaker 1: be endangered if the Bibable fell from it. The problem
29:35
Speaker 1: of arriving at an exact account of the a's and
29:38
Speaker 1: a's was embarrassed by the facts that ten vacancies existed,
29:42
Speaker 1: and by the further fact that there was a question
29:45
Speaker 1: of the eligibility of certain members to serve at the
29:48
Speaker 1: special session, since they had been appointed to public office
29:51
Speaker 1: after the regular session. Meanwhile, the need of added political
29:55
Speaker 1: influence was not forgotten. The Democrats, having announced that the
29:58
Speaker 1: National Committee would meet in Columbus on July nineteen, in
30:02
Speaker 1: connection with the ceremonies of notifying Governor Cox of his
30:06
Speaker 1: nomination for the presidency. The National Suffrage Association appointed a
30:11
Speaker 1: committee of Democratic women to be present under the leadership
30:14
Speaker 1: of a director of the Association who was also a
30:17
Speaker 1: proxy member of the committee. This committee presented a memorial
30:21
Speaker 1: from the Association and made three definite requests one a
30:25
Speaker 1: resolution of endorsement, two an expression from mister Cox, three
30:31
Speaker 1: the appointment of a representative of the Democratic Committee to
30:35
Speaker 1: go to Tennessee and North Carolina to work for ratification.
30:39
Speaker 1: Representatives of the National Suffrage Association further advised the Democratic
30:43
Speaker 1: National Committee that suffragists were surfitted with resolutions and that
30:47
Speaker 1: what the women of the country desired was that the
30:50
Speaker 1: Democratic Committee should use its full power to bring about
30:53
Speaker 1: ratification in states like Tennessee and North Carolina, and not
30:57
Speaker 1: content itself with the mere adoption of a resolution. All
31:00
Speaker 1: that was asked was done. The Committee resolved its hope
31:04
Speaker 1: for Tennessee ratification. Two Tennesseans were privately appointed as national
31:09
Speaker 1: representatives of the party to work for ratification, and candidate
31:12
Speaker 1: Cox gave a frank in urgent request to a Tennessee's
31:15
Speaker 1: ratification At his own request, two private conferences with the
31:20
Speaker 1: National Suffrage Association's committee were held, and he agreed that
31:24
Speaker 1: he would come to Tennessee on his campaign trip if
31:27
Speaker 1: needed to urge ratification. As an additional expression, he wired
31:30
Speaker 1: the president of the National Suffrage Association, I am gratified
31:35
Speaker 1: over the news that you are to remain in Nashville
31:37
Speaker 1: for the ratification campaign. It gives me added reason for
31:41
Speaker 1: expressing confidence that the Tennessee Legislature will act favorably, which
31:45
Speaker 1: will greatly please the Democratic Party. The Republicans unexpectedly called
31:50
Speaker 1: their National Committee to meet at Marion on July twenty first,
31:54
Speaker 1: in connection with their notification ceremonies. The National Suffrage Association
31:59
Speaker 1: thereupon he easily appointed a committee of Republican Women and
32:03
Speaker 1: provided it with a memorial similar to that sent to
32:06
Speaker 1: the Democratic Committee, and instructed it to make the same requests.
32:10
Speaker 1: The committee passed the following resolution, resolved that it is
32:14
Speaker 1: the sense of the Executive Committee of the Republican National
32:17
Speaker 1: Committee that the Republican members of the Tennessee Legislature should be,
32:21
Speaker 1: and hereby are most earnestly urged and requested by this resolution,
32:26
Speaker 1: to vote unanimously for ratification of the Woman's Suffrage Amendment
32:30
Speaker 1: in the Special Session of the Tennessee Legislature which is
32:34
Speaker 1: to be called, and the Chairman of the Republican National
32:37
Speaker 1: Committee is hereby authorized to communicate this resolution to each
32:41
Speaker 1: Republican member of said legislature. This was wired to each
32:45
Speaker 1: Republican member of the Tennessee Legislature and confirmed by letter.
32:49
Speaker 1: The National Suffrage Association's Committee then called upon mister Harding,
32:53
Speaker 1: who declared that he was ready to throw the full
32:56
Speaker 1: weight of his influence for ratification, and the news was
32:59
Speaker 1: sent broadcasts by the many correspondents then and Marian. Mister
33:03
Speaker 1: Harding also wired the President of the National Suffrage Association
33:07
Speaker 1: and gave the message to the press himself. I am
33:10
Speaker 1: exceedingly glad to learn that you are in Tennessee seeking
33:13
Speaker 1: to consummate the ratification of the Equal Suffrage Amendment. If
33:17
Speaker 1: any of the Republican members of the Tennessee Assembly should
33:21
Speaker 1: ask my opinion as to their course, I would quarterly
33:23
Speaker 1: recommend an immediate favorable action. The opposition had been at
33:28
Speaker 1: work for several weeks upon a plan to defeat ratification
33:31
Speaker 1: by a solid Republican adverse vote, on the ground that
33:34
Speaker 1: should Tennessee ratify, the Democrats would get the credit. The
33:38
Speaker 1: rumor of this had been persistent and disconcerting. The action
33:42
Speaker 1: of the National Republican Committee at Marion and the endorsement
33:46
Speaker 1: of presidential candidate Arting checked that effort, but did not
33:49
Speaker 1: eliminate it from the possibilities. Representative Fess, chairman of the
33:54
Speaker 1: National Republican Congressional Committee, now urged each Republican member of
33:58
Speaker 1: the legislature by U S telegram to join in a
34:01
Speaker 1: solid vote for ratification. Several state committeemen and Harding clubs
34:06
Speaker 1: wired the Republican chairman of Tennessee, H. H. Clements of Knoxville,
34:11
Speaker 1: urging a solid vote for ratification. He publicly announced that
34:14
Speaker 1: he did so urge the Republican members of the legislature
34:18
Speaker 1: and added, I feel safe in pledging every Republican member
34:21
Speaker 1: of the Senate and House for the immediate ratification of
34:24
Speaker 1: the amendment. Later, the National Republican Committee sent a member,
34:28
Speaker 1: Missus Harriet Taylor Upton, to Nashville to join the Republican
34:32
Speaker 1: legislators in the counter campaign to secure a solid party
34:36
Speaker 1: vote for ratification. The combination of these influences secured nearly
34:40
Speaker 1: all of the Republican votes for ratification. Without them, ratification
34:44
Speaker 1: would have failed. Although the public announcement had been made
34:48
Speaker 1: a month before that the special session would be called
34:50
Speaker 1: for August ninth. Official call was not issued until August seventh.
34:54
Speaker 1: The ratification resolution went before the legislature with the strongest
34:58
Speaker 1: political support it had had in any state or at
35:01
Speaker 1: any time. The preparations were complete when on July twenty fifth,
35:06
Speaker 1: the pool had shown a certain majority. The announcement had
35:09
Speaker 1: been given to the public, while deputations continued to visit
35:12
Speaker 1: the doubtful members and meetings were still held. A. L. Todd,
35:16
Speaker 1: Presiding Officer of the Senate, and SETH. Walker, Speaker of
35:20
Speaker 1: the House, had agreed to introduce the resolution to ratify.
35:24
Speaker 1: Most of the best known lawyers of the state, including
35:27
Speaker 1: the Attorney General, had given opinions not only upon the
35:30
Speaker 1: constitutionality of ratification by the Tennessee Legislature, but upon the
35:35
Speaker 1: specific question as to whether men would violate their oath
35:38
Speaker 1: of office if they should vote for ratification, so that
35:41
Speaker 1: the argument which three weeks before had threatened to send
35:44
Speaker 1: the resolution to defeat had been largely eliminated from the field.
35:49
Speaker 1: The League of Women Voters, the Governor's Committee of Women,
35:52
Speaker 1: the Democratic Women's Committee, and the Republican Women's Committee had
35:55
Speaker 1: all been at last united under the leadership of Miss
35:59
Speaker 1: Charles Williams, vice Chairman of the National Democratic Committee. With
36:03
Speaker 1: all these influences on the side of ratification, and with
36:06
Speaker 1: a majority of the legislature pledged in writing to vote
36:09
Speaker 1: for ratification in the special session, the prospects to onlookers
36:13
Speaker 1: seemed uninterestingly obvious, and the effort to accumulate further evidence
36:18
Speaker 1: of demand for the Tennessee ratification appeared to them a
36:22
Speaker 1: senseless waste of energy. Yet experienced suffragists faced the coming
36:26
Speaker 1: events with anxiety, and each Congressional chairman, to whose workers
36:30
Speaker 1: the legislator's pledges had been made, was urged to be present.
36:33
Speaker 1: When the legislature met on Saturday evening, August seventh, the
36:37
Speaker 1: great floyer of the Hermited Hotel was packed with men
36:40
Speaker 1: and women, bedecked with suffrage yellow and anti suffrage read
36:44
Speaker 1: and the war of the Roses was on. The anti
36:47
Speaker 1: women had made an eleventh hour attempt to show numbers
36:50
Speaker 1: and had brought women from all parts of the country,
36:53
Speaker 1: especially from southern states. All the women who had become
36:56
Speaker 1: familiar figures in anti suffrage contests were there, and man
37:00
Speaker 1: anymore mysterious men in great numbers were there taking an
37:03
Speaker 1: active part in the controversy, while in and doubt through
37:06
Speaker 1: this crowded Third House moved to the bewildered legislators. End
37:11
Speaker 1: of Chapter thirty, Part one,