Latest / Woman Suffrage and Politics / 36 - Woman Suffrage and Politics by Carrie Chapman Catt, Nettie Rogers Shuler
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- 0:00Speaker 1: Chapter thirty, Part two of Woman Suffrage and Politics. This
- 0:06Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
- 0:09Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
- 0:14Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Cassiopeia Sparks. Woman Suffrage and Politics,
- 0:22Speaker 1: The Inner Story of the Suffrage Movement by Carrie Chapman
- 0:26Speaker 1: Cat and Nettie Rogers Schuller Tennessee Part two. That very day,
- 0:33Speaker 1: the ominous possibilities of the invisible government were made manifest.
- 0:39Speaker 1: Seth Walker, Speaker of the House, who had willingly joined
- 0:42Speaker 1: the Men's ratification Committee and had not only pledged his
- 0:46Speaker 1: vote verbally and in writing to several persons, but had
- 0:50Speaker 1: accepted the invitation to introduce the resolution, sought out the
- 0:54Speaker 1: president of the League of Women Voters and announced a
- 0:58Speaker 1: change of mind. By evening, it had become clear that
- 1:02Speaker 1: he would assume the floor leadership against the amendment. Before midnight,
- 1:07Speaker 1: suffragists had other worries. During the evening, groups of legislators,
- 1:13Speaker 1: under escort of strange men, had left the foyer and
- 1:16Speaker 1: gone to a room on the eighth floor. As the
- 1:19Speaker 1: evening grew late, legislators both suffrage and anti suffrage men
- 1:24Speaker 1: were realing through the hall in a state of advanced intoxication,
- 1:29Speaker 1: a sight no suffragist had before witnessed in a sixty
- 1:32Speaker 1: years of suffrage struggle. Sunday passed, and Monday, August ninth came.
- 1:39Speaker 1: The legislature met at noon. The Governor's message recommending ratification
- 1:44Speaker 1: was delivered, and both houses adjourned for the day. With
- 1:47Speaker 1: nothing to do, members again accepted the invitation to the
- 1:50Speaker 1: eighth floor, where a group of anti suffrage men dispensed
- 1:55Speaker 1: old bourbon and moonshine whisky with lavish insistence. Tennessee had
- 2:01Speaker 1: been a prohibition state before the eighteenth Amendment had been submitted,
- 2:05Speaker 1: and the state had also ratified that amendment. Why was
- 2:10Speaker 1: not the law enforced? Asked the women. Now see here
- 2:14Speaker 1: was the answer. In Tennessee, whisky and legislation go hand
- 2:18Speaker 1: in hand, especially when controversial questions are urged. Denial of
- 2:24Speaker 1: this traditional license when a great issue was at stake
- 2:27Speaker 1: would be resented as an interference with established custom by
- 2:33Speaker 1: suffragists and anti suffragists. This is the Tennessee way Suffragists
- 2:40Speaker 1: were plunged into helpless despair hour by hour. Suffragemen and
- 2:45Speaker 1: women who went to the different hotels of the city
- 2:47Speaker 1: to talk with the legislators, came back to the Hermitage
- 2:50Speaker 1: headquarters to report, and every report told the same story.
- 2:56Speaker 1: The legislature was drunk. How many let legislators? Was the
- 3:01Speaker 1: abashed query. No one knew our none sober? Was next asked,
- 3:09Speaker 1: possibly was the answer? In agony of soul. Suffragists went
- 3:15Speaker 1: to bed in the early morning, but not to sleep.
- 3:18Speaker 1: The members of the Tennessee Legislature, however, largely slept themselves
- 3:22Speaker 1: sober during the night, and hope revived. Presiding Officer Todd
- 3:28Speaker 1: introduced the resolution in the Senate on the tenth according
- 3:31Speaker 1: to agreement, and the entire Shelby County delegation introduced it
- 3:35Speaker 1: in the House. At the request of the anties, the
- 3:39Speaker 1: Senate and House committees to which the resolution had been
- 3:42Speaker 1: referred granted a hearing on the evening of the twelfth. Meantime,
- 3:46Speaker 1: the opponents tested their strength in the House by introducing
- 3:50Speaker 1: a resolution referring the amendment to county conventions in order
- 3:55Speaker 1: to hear from the people. Suffrage legislators promptly tabled it
- 4:01Speaker 1: by a vote of fifty to thirty seven. The suffragemen
- 4:05Speaker 1: also tabled another resolution declaring ratification of any amendment in
- 4:09Speaker 1: that session to be in violation of the spirit of
- 4:12Speaker 1: the state Constitution. One of the largest crowds ever assembled
- 4:17Speaker 1: in the Capitol attended the suffrage hearing. The suffragists entrusted
- 4:22Speaker 1: their side to a group of brilliant and distinguished Tennessee lawyers.
- 4:26Speaker 1: The evening furnished the suffrage side with two disagreeable surprises.
- 4:31Speaker 1: Major Stallman of the Nashville Banner, who had faithfully promised
- 4:36Speaker 1: support to suffragists at the Kawanis Club, spoke for the anties.
- 4:41Speaker 1: Later it was learned that he had assumed direction of
- 4:44Speaker 1: the opposition lobby. His sudden change of position was regarded
- 4:48Speaker 1: as another ominous sign. The other incident that startled the
- 4:52Speaker 1: suffragists was this A man arose and read a letter
- 4:56Speaker 1: from presidential candidate Harding. I beg to ignowl your esteemed
- 5:01Speaker 1: favor of August fourth. Your letter is the first bit
- 5:04Speaker 1: of information I have had concerning the provision in your
- 5:07Speaker 1: state constitution. I have heard something about a constitutional inhibition
- 5:13Speaker 1: against your legislature acting upon the federal Amendment, but I
- 5:17Speaker 1: did not know of the explicit provision to which your
- 5:20Speaker 1: letter makes reference. I quite agree with you that members
- 5:24Speaker 1: of the General Assembly cannot ignore the State Constitution without
- 5:29Speaker 1: having seen the document myself, I should be reluctant to
- 5:33Speaker 1: undertake to construe it. I have felt for some time
- 5:37Speaker 1: that it would be very fortunate if we could dispose
- 5:40Speaker 1: of the suffrage Amendment, and I have done what I
- 5:43Speaker 1: could in a consistent way to bring about the consummation
- 5:47Speaker 1: of ratification. I have tried throughout it all to avoid
- 5:51Speaker 1: trespassing upon the rights of state officials. It has not
- 5:55Speaker 1: seemed to me a proper thing for a candidate on
- 5:58Speaker 1: the federal ticket to assume an undue authority in directing
- 6:02Speaker 1: state officials as to the performance of their constitutional duties.
- 6:07Speaker 1: I did say, and I still believe it would be
- 6:10Speaker 1: a fortunate thing for Republicans to play their full part
- 6:13Speaker 1: in bringing about ratification. I should be very unfair to
- 6:17Speaker 1: you and should very much misrepresent my own convictions if
- 6:22Speaker 1: I urged you to vote for ratification when you hold
- 6:26Speaker 1: to a very conscientious belief that there is a constitutional
- 6:30Speaker 1: inhibition which prevents your doing so until after an election
- 6:35Speaker 1: has been held italics hours. I hope I make myself
- 6:40Speaker 1: reasonably clear on this subject. I do not want you
- 6:43Speaker 1: to have any doubt about my belief in the desirability
- 6:47Speaker 1: of completing the ratification. But I am just as earnest
- 6:51Speaker 1: about expressing myself in favor of fidelity to conscience in
- 6:55Speaker 1: the performance of a public service. Candidates Harding and Cox
- 7:01Speaker 1: had both been fully informed of the alleged technical obstruction
- 7:06Speaker 1: in the Tennessee Constitution and of the campaign among the
- 7:09Speaker 1: lawyers of the state to offset it. In the flood
- 7:13Speaker 1: of impression circling around a presidential candidate, the explanation had
- 7:17Speaker 1: apparently slipped away in mister Hardinge's case, and the effect
- 7:22Speaker 1: of this letter upon the campaign was to hand a
- 7:25Speaker 1: cudgel to the opponents. It opened the way for Republicans
- 7:29Speaker 1: to creep out of their pledged obligations with a pose
- 7:33Speaker 1: of extra conscientiousness, and for a return of the argument
- 7:37Speaker 1: which had been largely eliminated by intensive effort to watching suffragists.
- 7:43Speaker 1: That letter came like a bolt from a blue sky,
- 7:47Speaker 1: and again there was no sleep. The anxiety was stilled
- 7:51Speaker 1: for a time by the prompt and generous act of
- 7:53Speaker 1: the Tennessee Senate. The Senate Committee met immediately after the
- 7:57Speaker 1: hearing on the twelfth and voted to report the amendment
- 8:00Speaker 1: favorably by a vote of eight to two. The two
- 8:04Speaker 1: dissenters made ready to present a minority report. Although the
- 8:09Speaker 1: debate in the Senate on the thirteenth had been awaited
- 8:12Speaker 1: with anxiety, only two speeches were made in opposition. One
- 8:17Speaker 1: of these was so vituperative and vulgar that it not
- 8:21Speaker 1: only aroused the fighting qualities of the friends of Suffrage,
- 8:24Speaker 1: but called forth denunciation from the entire state. Many were
- 8:29Speaker 1: the letters of apology sent to Suffrage headquarters from prominent
- 8:33Speaker 1: men on behalf of the state for this attack upon
- 8:36Speaker 1: individual suffragists. Senator Collins, who had been brought from a
- 8:41Speaker 1: sick bed to cast his vote for ratification, stood tremblingly,
- 8:45Speaker 1: clinging to his desk as with shaking voice, he eloquently
- 8:49Speaker 1: defended women against the attack. Senator Monroe, who was carried
- 8:54Speaker 1: on the anti poll, created a sensation when he announced
- 8:58Speaker 1: that he had been reminded of the fourteenth and fifteenth
- 9:01Speaker 1: amendments and requested in that connection by northern women anties
- 9:06Speaker 1: to vote against the amendment, but said he I am
- 9:11Speaker 1: going to vote for ratification in order to give back
- 9:15Speaker 1: to the North what the North gave to Tennessee when
- 9:18Speaker 1: it ratified the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments. Others, for various reasons,
- 9:24Speaker 1: announced changes of attitude. The minority report was promptly rejected
- 9:29Speaker 1: and ratification passed August thirteenth, twenty five eyes and four nays.
- 9:36Speaker 1: To the outside world watching, this result was an expected
- 9:39Speaker 1: and normal action to the suffragist on guard in Tennessee.
- 9:44Speaker 1: It meant a reversal of the usual policy the opposition
- 9:48Speaker 1: had centered on the House instead of the Senate. The
- 9:52Speaker 1: political fate of the women of the nation now rested
- 9:56Speaker 1: in the hands of a minority of a single legislative chamber.
- 10:00Speaker 1: From day to day, the House ominously postponed the date
- 10:03Speaker 1: of the vote. Though the postponement meant that the pledged
- 10:07Speaker 1: majority was still standing fast in vain did the suffrage
- 10:11Speaker 1: members try to get the resolution on the calendar. Meanwhile,
- 10:16Speaker 1: the male anti suffrage lobby, from early morning of each
- 10:19Speaker 1: day until the wee small hours the next threatened and
- 10:24Speaker 1: cajoled the embattled sixty two who had signed pledges. They
- 10:28Speaker 1: were baited with whiskey, tempted with offers of office, loans
- 10:33Speaker 1: of money, and every other device which old hands at
- 10:36Speaker 1: illicit politics could conceive or remember. An alleged attempt to
- 10:42Speaker 1: kidnap a suffrage member was made. Various schemes were started
- 10:46Speaker 1: to get rid of enough suffrage legislators to allow the
- 10:50Speaker 1: opposition a chance to act. A favorite proposal being that
- 10:54Speaker 1: men might conveniently get messages calling them home in games,
- 11:00Speaker 1: which in this nefarious intrigue was what old timers recognized
- 11:04Speaker 1: as the former whiskey lobby in full force, the one
- 11:08Speaker 1: time railroad lobby, which was alleged to have directed Tennessee
- 11:12Speaker 1: politics for years, and a newer manufacturer's lobby. All pretense
- 11:17Speaker 1: was thrown aside, and all three worked openly as one man.
- 11:21Speaker 1: Although who paid the bills, the public never knew. Every
- 11:25Speaker 1: day men dropped from the poll. In some cases the
- 11:29Speaker 1: actual consideration was noised about one man who had written
- 11:33Speaker 1: nine letters in which he declared that he would be
- 11:36Speaker 1: on hand to vote for women's suffrage until I am
- 11:39Speaker 1: called up. Yonder had fallen early before the end. All
- 11:44Speaker 1: men checked as bribeable on the poll taken before the
- 11:48Speaker 1: legislature met fell from it. The American Constitutional League Everett P. Wheeler, President,
- 11:56Speaker 1: formerly the Men's Anti Suffrage League, formed a branch in
- 11:59Speaker 1: now and its members, mainly politicians, joined in the bombardment
- 12:04Speaker 1: of legislators friendly to suffrage. The Maryland Legislature sent a
- 12:10Speaker 1: memorial which was read at the opening of the Tennessee Legislature,
- 12:15Speaker 1: urging rejection of ratification, and representatives of the Maryland League
- 12:20Speaker 1: for State Defense formerly the Men's Anti Suffrage League of
- 12:24Speaker 1: Maryland joined the lobby. Women ANTIS pressed the sharp point
- 12:30Speaker 1: of Negro woman suffrage into Southern traditions. The men Antis
- 12:35Speaker 1: bore hard on the alleged illegalities of ratification by the
- 12:39Speaker 1: Tennessee Legislature. All of them quoted mister Harding's sympathy with
- 12:45Speaker 1: the oath, violating theory. Men and women as organized anti
- 12:49Speaker 1: suffragists issued daily press bulletins, assuming the responsibility for the
- 12:54Speaker 1: campaign of opposition, while as usual, other men, whose presence
- 12:59Speaker 1: in Nashville was unannounced to the outside world, were applying
- 13:03Speaker 1: the third degree in a hotel bedroom. The Hotel Committee
- 13:08Speaker 1: met on the evening of the sixteenth and reported favorably
- 13:12Speaker 1: on the seventeenth, the vote on the resolution having been
- 13:15Speaker 1: set for that day. The debate was opened by T. K.
- 13:19Speaker 1: Riddick of Memphis, Shelby County, a distinguished lawyer who had
- 13:24Speaker 1: allowed himself to be elected to a vacancy for the
- 13:27Speaker 1: sole purpose of aiding ratification. Said he, I have in
- 13:33Speaker 1: my pocket the pledges of sixty two members of this House,
- 13:37Speaker 1: which the people of Tennessee will have the opportunity to read.
- 13:41Speaker 1: If those men fail to keep faith, I shall go
- 13:44Speaker 1: from this chamber, ashamed of being a Democrat, ashamed of
- 13:49Speaker 1: being a Tennesseean Seth Walker made what the Mountaineers called
- 13:55Speaker 1: a bear cat of a speech, saying that it had
- 13:58Speaker 1: been charged that his change of attitude was due to
- 14:01Speaker 1: a certain railroad, which he named. This he resented, but
- 14:05Speaker 1: he conspicuously failed to give an explanation of his strange
- 14:09Speaker 1: volt fests, which was amazing the entire nation. The Anties
- 14:15Speaker 1: brought the debate to a close by a motion to adjourn,
- 14:19Speaker 1: passed by a vote of fifty two to forty four.
- 14:22Speaker 1: The previous tests had indicated that Suffragists were in control
- 14:26Speaker 1: of the House, but this one gave evidence that the
- 14:29Speaker 1: position had been reversed. Suffrage anxiety was intense that night.
- 14:36Speaker 1: The suffrage leaders, with heavy hearts, confessed their despair to
- 14:39Speaker 1: each other. There is one thing more we can do,
- 14:44Speaker 1: said the President of the National Suffrage Association, only one
- 14:49Speaker 1: we can pray. In the interim, representatives of a group
- 14:54Speaker 1: of newspapers called upon the governor and threatened to defeat
- 14:58Speaker 1: him at the election if he did not pull off
- 15:01Speaker 1: his men. He stood firm. On the eighteenth, the house
- 15:05Speaker 1: was again packed, and hundreds of would be onlookers were
- 15:09Speaker 1: turned away. The debate continued. What is a greater crime
- 15:15Speaker 1: than for interests from New York to San Francisco to
- 15:19Speaker 1: send lobbyists here to break your pledges, or for certain
- 15:23Speaker 1: newspapers connected with railroads to threaten you as they have
- 15:26Speaker 1: been doing for the last ten days, demanded Joe hanover floor.
- 15:31Speaker 1: Suffrage leader L. D. Miller of Chattanooga closed with a
- 15:36Speaker 1: ringing speech in which he said, when this special interest
- 15:41Speaker 1: made an attack on this legislature in January, they had
- 15:44Speaker 1: a gang of lobbyists to put over their infamous bills.
- 15:48Speaker 1: I recognize in the lobbies these same special interest servers.
- 15:52Speaker 1: You have an opportunity on this occasion to rid this
- 15:55Speaker 1: state of an incubus that has had its claws in
- 15:59Speaker 1: this legislature for fifty years. Let us show by our
- 16:02Speaker 1: votes that the special interests are done in Tennessee. The
- 16:08Speaker 1: moment had become intensely dramatic. Every onlooker knew that the
- 16:13Speaker 1: fate of the question might depend upon a single vote.
- 16:17Speaker 1: Of the ninety nine elected members of the House, ninety
- 16:20Speaker 1: six were present. One had resigned and his place was vacant.
- 16:25Speaker 1: The other two, both suffragists, were kept at home by
- 16:29Speaker 1: serious family illness. Doctor J. Frank Griffin, had hastened home
- 16:34Speaker 1: from California to cast a suffrage vote. R. L. Dowlan,
- 16:38Speaker 1: who had just undergone a serious operation, was brought from
- 16:42Speaker 1: his bed to the capital to vote for the resolution.
- 16:46Speaker 1: Seth Walker, in a last effort to rally the weakening
- 16:49Speaker 1: lines of the anti ratificationists, at the end of the debate,
- 16:53Speaker 1: shouted in melodramatic manner, the hour has come, the battle
- 16:59Speaker 1: has been fought. And one and moved to table the resolution.
- 17:04Speaker 1: But the vote on tabling stood forty eight to forty eight.
- 17:09Speaker 1: The room rang with the cheers of the galleries. One
- 17:12Speaker 1: more vote had been won for suffrage. The role call
- 17:17Speaker 1: showed that Banks Turner, who was carried on the anti pole,
- 17:21Speaker 1: had dropped into the suffrage column. Unwilling to believe the
- 17:25Speaker 1: role call, mister Walker demanded a second and it was taken,
- 17:29Speaker 1: He left his speaker's seat, and with arms thrown around Banks,
- 17:33Speaker 1: Turner whispered insistent entreaties in his ears. As the names
- 17:37Speaker 1: were again called, Shivers ran down suffrage backs. As mister
- 17:42Speaker 1: Turner passed his call without response, heads stretched forward and
- 17:48Speaker 1: every eye centered on the legislator and the speaker. While
- 17:52Speaker 1: a breathless silence pervaded the room, The fans ceased to waive,
- 17:57Speaker 1: even the overpowering heat was forgotten. At the end of
- 18:01Speaker 1: the roll call, mister Turner threw off the speaker's arm,
- 18:05Speaker 1: drew himself up proudly, and shouted a defiant no. Cheers
- 18:10Speaker 1: and shouts burst forth again, and the galleries would accept
- 18:14Speaker 1: no discipline from the chair. The vote still stood forty
- 18:18Speaker 1: eight to forty eight against tabling. A motion to ratify
- 18:25Speaker 1: the amendment was then made, and the vote was taken
- 18:28Speaker 1: in attention that was well nigh unbearable. Forty nine eyes,
- 18:33Speaker 1: forty seven knaves. The house broke into an uproar, and
- 18:37Speaker 1: the cheers of triumph that rang through the old Legislative
- 18:40Speaker 1: chamber were heard far down the street. The second additional
- 18:45Speaker 1: vote that had been won for suffrage was that of
- 18:47Speaker 1: Harry Byrne, a twenty four year old Republican who forthwith
- 18:52Speaker 1: became a hero to the suffragists and a traitor to
- 18:55Speaker 1: their opponents. He had been placed on the suffrage pole
- 18:59Speaker 1: as conditioned for. He had promised to vote for the
- 19:02Speaker 1: resolution only if his vote should be necessary for ratification.
- 19:06Speaker 1: Otherwise he was going to vote against it, as he
- 19:09Speaker 1: believed his constituents were opposed. From the vote on the
- 19:14Speaker 1: motion to table, he saw that his vote was necessary,
- 19:18Speaker 1: and so changed his attitude on the ratification motion. Although
- 19:24Speaker 1: forty nine was a majority of ninety six the number
- 19:27Speaker 1: of members present and sufficient for legal ratification, Tennessee was
- 19:32Speaker 1: accustomed to consider fifty the majority of ninety nine the
- 19:36Speaker 1: total elected membership, as a constitutional majority. Seth Walker, in
- 19:42Speaker 1: order to move a reconsideration, changed his vote from no
- 19:47Speaker 1: to I, which made the final record fifty eyes to
- 19:51Speaker 1: forty six nays, thus giving the constitutional majority. Thus, by
- 19:57Speaker 1: a freak of politics, the last vote needed by the
- 20:00Speaker 1: Tennessee standard to enfranchise the women of a great nation
- 20:05Speaker 1: was cast by a man who was clearly staking heavily
- 20:08Speaker 1: to defeat it. According to the printed rules of the
- 20:13Speaker 1: House in Tennessee, a motion to reconsider any ordinary measure
- 20:18Speaker 1: may be made by any person voting on the majority side,
- 20:22Speaker 1: and that person controls the right to bring the motion
- 20:25Speaker 1: up at any time within three days. No other person
- 20:29Speaker 1: may bring it up. On each of these three days,
- 20:32Speaker 1: the House met with full quorum present, but the Speaker
- 20:36Speaker 1: did not bring up his motion to reconsider the two
- 20:40Speaker 1: Suffrage absentees had returned, and there were Suffrage votes to spare.
- 20:46Speaker 1: During that three days period, the opposition again worked desperately.
- 20:50Speaker 1: One Suffrage member was called every half hour through two nights,
- 20:54Speaker 1: each time with a different appeal to change his vote.
- 20:57Speaker 1: Another was urged every half hour all night to come
- 21:00Speaker 1: downtown to see an important man. A man who was
- 21:04Speaker 1: laboring day and night in the midst of the anti
- 21:07Speaker 1: forses to break the Suffrage majority, finally implored his daughter
- 21:11Speaker 1: in law to renounce publicly the Suffrage side and come
- 21:14Speaker 1: out in opposition. With tears in his eyes, he entreated,
- 21:19Speaker 1: it will mean a great deal to you and your
- 21:22Speaker 1: daughter in the future if this amendment is defeated, whereupon
- 21:27Speaker 1: the spirited seventeen year old daughter present at the interview
- 21:30Speaker 1: spoke for her mother. Mother, and I would rather live
- 21:34Speaker 1: in poverty all the rest of our lives than get
- 21:37Speaker 1: money by treachery to our sex. We will not desert
- 21:41Speaker 1: the suffragists, and we are not proud of the work
- 21:44Speaker 1: you are doing. A man who was carried on the
- 21:48Speaker 1: suffrage pole was reported by suffragemen as wavering and was
- 21:52Speaker 1: boldly claimed by the opposition. A confession was secured by
- 21:57Speaker 1: U S Senator McKellar that he had been offered a
- 21:59Speaker 1: pay position under the Excise Commissioner for his vote. A
- 22:03Speaker 1: telegram to the President of the United States brought prompt
- 22:07Speaker 1: rebuke to the commissioner, who left town at once, and
- 22:11Speaker 1: the man ceased to waver. Young Harry Burrn was the
- 22:15Speaker 1: chief object of persecution. He was threatened with exposure of
- 22:19Speaker 1: an alleged bribe if he did not remain out of
- 22:22Speaker 1: the legislature until the vote on Greek consideration was over.
- 22:27Speaker 1: Men declared they had affidavits to prove that he had
- 22:30Speaker 1: been bribed by Suffrage floor leader Hanover and the Governor's secretary.
- 22:35Speaker 1: Between the vote on tabling and that on ratification. The
- 22:39Speaker 1: presentation of affidavits disproved that charge. The efforts at intimidation
- 22:44Speaker 1: led mister Burne to make a statement to the House
- 22:49Speaker 1: I desire to resent in the name of honesty and justice,
- 22:53Speaker 1: the veiled intimation and accusation regarding my vote on the
- 22:57Speaker 1: suffrage Amendment, as indicated in certain statements. And it is
- 23:01Speaker 1: my sincere belief that those responsible for their existence, no,
- 23:06Speaker 1: there is not a sinella of truth in them. I
- 23:10Speaker 1: want to state that I changed my vote in favor
- 23:13Speaker 1: of ratification, first because I believe in full suffrage as
- 23:17Speaker 1: a right. Second, I believe we had a moral and
- 23:21Speaker 1: legal right to ratify. Third, I knew that a mother's
- 23:25Speaker 1: advice is always safest for her boy to follow, and
- 23:29Speaker 1: my mother wanted me to vote for ratification. Fourth, I
- 23:33Speaker 1: appreciated the fact that an opportunity such as seldom comes
- 23:37Speaker 1: to a mortal man. To free seventeen million women from
- 23:41Speaker 1: political slavery was mine. Fifth, I desired that my party,
- 23:47Speaker 1: in both state and nation might say that it was
- 23:50Speaker 1: a Republican from the East Mountains of Tennessee, the purest
- 23:54Speaker 1: Anglo Saxon section in the world, who made national women
- 23:58Speaker 1: suffrage possible at this state, not for personal glory, but
- 24:02Speaker 1: for the glory of his party. A few hours later,
- 24:07Speaker 1: the president of the League of Women Voters received a
- 24:10Speaker 1: telegram from Missus J. L. Byrne, the young man's mother.
- 24:15Speaker 1: The telegram read woman was here today, claims to be
- 24:19Speaker 1: wife of governor of Louisiana, and secured an interview with
- 24:23Speaker 1: me and tried by every means to get me to
- 24:26Speaker 1: refute and say that the letter I sent to my
- 24:29Speaker 1: son was false. The letter is authentic and was written
- 24:33Speaker 1: by me. And you can refute any statement that any
- 24:36Speaker 1: party claims to have received from me. Any statement claiming
- 24:41Speaker 1: to be from me is false. I stand squarely behind
- 24:44Speaker 1: suffrage and request my son to stick to suffrage until
- 24:48Speaker 1: the end. This woman was very insulting to me in
- 24:51Speaker 1: my home, and I had a hard time to get
- 24:54Speaker 1: her out of my home. An amusing indication of the
- 24:58Speaker 1: state of suffrage nerves occurred when during this three day
- 25:01Speaker 1: period Harry Byrne was reported as having left Nashville. His
- 25:06Speaker 1: hotel said he had gone, and the clerks did not
- 25:09Speaker 1: know where. There was consternation again among the suffrage forces.
- 25:14Speaker 1: Had he deserted after all? Had he been kidnapped? An
- 25:18Speaker 1: hour later, his name appeared upon the register of another
- 25:21Speaker 1: hotel to which he had moved. Men were found listening
- 25:26Speaker 1: at the transoms of suffrage doors a telegram between the
- 25:30Speaker 1: receiving and operating telephone desk was stolen and given to
- 25:34Speaker 1: the press. Men, whom nobody seemed to know or what
- 25:38Speaker 1: they represented, mysteriously appeared and joined the opposition forces. All
- 25:43Speaker 1: day and all night, suffrage lines were guarded, Suffrage women
- 25:48Speaker 1: picketed the hotel floors where suspicious incidents had taken place,
- 25:53Speaker 1: and suffrage men polled the suffrage members every two hours
- 25:57Speaker 1: during the day and watched over them at night. On
- 26:01Speaker 1: the eighteenth, the opposition held a mass meeting where two
- 26:04Speaker 1: things of note occurred. In a speech seth Walker confidently
- 26:09Speaker 1: announced that three men had deserted the suffrage side, and that,
- 26:13Speaker 1: in consequence, the defeat of the amendment was certain. The
- 26:17Speaker 1: other incident was a letter from presidential candidate Cox, surprisingly
- 26:22Speaker 1: similar to that of mister Hardy and dated on the
- 26:25Speaker 1: same day. More doubt and confusion. Again, the public did
- 26:30Speaker 1: not know whether to believe that the two candidates were
- 26:33Speaker 1: plain politics or were sincere in their desire to see
- 26:37Speaker 1: the amendment ratified, and the opposition made the most of
- 26:40Speaker 1: the situation. Again, the oath loyalty argument was revived and
- 26:45Speaker 1: made to work. Could it be true that three men
- 26:49Speaker 1: had deserted suffrages asked faithful suffrage men did not sleep
- 26:54Speaker 1: until they had sounded every pledged man, and when they
- 26:58Speaker 1: found the sterling forty nine star still standing firm, they
- 27:01Speaker 1: recorded seth Walker's claim as a political bluff. The vote
- 27:06Speaker 1: on reconsideration was expected hourly on Friday, and the galleries
- 27:10Speaker 1: were again packed. A manufacturer had given a holiday to
- 27:13Speaker 1: his women employees and sent them red rose bedecked to
- 27:17Speaker 1: help fill the galleries and swell the anti numbers. It
- 27:22Speaker 1: was clear that every vote might be needed. T A
- 27:26Speaker 1: Dodson had received a message that his baby was dying
- 27:30Speaker 1: and had just taken his train. When it was discovered
- 27:33Speaker 1: that his vote might prove crucial, a suffragist drove her
- 27:37Speaker 1: motor on a flying trip to the station, taking two
- 27:40Speaker 1: suffrage men with her. They reached the train just as
- 27:44Speaker 1: it was moving out, and the men promised the legislator
- 27:47Speaker 1: a special train which would get him home as soon
- 27:50Speaker 1: as a regular one if he would come back. He returned,
- 27:54Speaker 1: remaining while needed, was given the special train, paid for
- 27:58Speaker 1: by Nowell Sanders, a republic and ex state senator, and
- 28:02Speaker 1: reached home to find the baby happily recovering the hours passed,
- 28:08Speaker 1: the quorum was present, the Suffrage voters were all there,
- 28:12Speaker 1: but mister Walker, perceiving the futility of so doing, did
- 28:16Speaker 1: not bring up his motion to reconsider. At the end
- 28:21Speaker 1: of the session, the Suffrage majority carried a motion to
- 28:24Speaker 1: meet on Saturday morning, the twenty first. According to the
- 28:28Speaker 1: custom but not the printed rules of the House, it
- 28:32Speaker 1: was possible after the three days for any member to
- 28:35Speaker 1: call up a motion to reconsider, and the Suffrage members
- 28:38Speaker 1: intended to bring it up on Saturday morning and vote
- 28:42Speaker 1: it down. The city of Nashville looked forward to another
- 28:46Speaker 1: exciting session, but before Saturday's breakfast, the news was all
- 28:50Speaker 1: about town that thirty eight anti ratification House members had
- 28:56Speaker 1: ignominiously fled in the dead of night. They had gone
- 29:00Speaker 1: in small groups to a station near Nashville, where they
- 29:03Speaker 1: boarded an L and N train, which carried them across
- 29:07Speaker 1: the border into Alabama. This move of last resort was
- 29:11Speaker 1: intended to prevent any further action by destroying a quorum,
- 29:15Speaker 1: and to give time to anti suffrage workers to break
- 29:18Speaker 1: down a Suffrage member. The House met on Saturday morning
- 29:24Speaker 1: with fifty Suffrage men and nine antis present, and with
- 29:29Speaker 1: women suffragists occupying the seats of the absentees. The anti
- 29:33Speaker 1: suffrage chaplain added a bit of irony to the situation
- 29:37Speaker 1: when he prayed that God's richest blessings be granted are
- 29:41Speaker 1: absent ones. The suffrage garrison prepared to enjoy itself and
- 29:47Speaker 1: harassed Speaker Walker by overturing every ruling and voting down
- 29:51Speaker 1: every decision of the chair. Speaker Walker announced that an
- 29:55Speaker 1: injunction against forwarding the certificate of ratification to Wash had
- 30:01Speaker 1: been issued that morning by Judge Langford of the Supreme Court,
- 30:05Speaker 1: and that the injunction had been served upon the Governor,
- 30:09Speaker 1: the Secretary of State, and the Speaker of both houses.
- 30:12Speaker 1: The ratificationists went on with the legislative program. The pending
- 30:17Speaker 1: motion to reconsider was called up and voted down. The
- 30:21Speaker 1: ratified amendment was ordered returned to the Senate, and it
- 30:25Speaker 1: was returned. It was common knowledge that the Governor could
- 30:28Speaker 1: not be enjoined by the laws of the state, and
- 30:31Speaker 1: lawyers now begged him to ignore the injunction and forward
- 30:34Speaker 1: the certificate, but the Governor was non committal. While neither
- 30:38Speaker 1: the Attorney General nor any of his assistants could be
- 30:42Speaker 1: located the Attorney General's office mysteriously professed no knowledge of
- 30:47Speaker 1: their whereabouts. After two days absence, however, Attorney General Thompson
- 30:53Speaker 1: emerged from his hiding place brief in hand supporting a
- 30:57Speaker 1: plea which was heard by Judge Lanstone, Chief Justice of
- 31:01Speaker 1: the Supreme Court, on August twenty third. The plea was
- 31:05Speaker 1: for a writ of certiorari et supersitious, and it was issued,
- 31:11Speaker 1: thus dissolving the injunction of the lower court and clearing
- 31:15Speaker 1: the way for the Tennessee certificate to be sent to Washington.
- 31:19Speaker 1: During this time, the Attorney General issued two opinions which
- 31:23Speaker 1: were seconded through the press by many other equally prominent
- 31:27Speaker 1: lawyers throughout the state. One, when a legislature has taken
- 31:31Speaker 1: favorable action on a federal amendment, it has exhausted its
- 31:35Speaker 1: power to act, and no motion to reconsider is applicable
- 31:39Speaker 1: even for the limit of three days. Two. Had a
- 31:43Speaker 1: motion to reconsider been applicable in the case of a
- 31:46Speaker 1: federal suffrage amendment, that power was exhausted according to the
- 31:50Speaker 1: printed rules of the House when three days had passed,
- 31:54Speaker 1: for no contrary custom of the House could be held
- 31:57Speaker 1: to have legal value. On Tuesday, August twenty fourth, at
- 32:03Speaker 1: ten seventeen a m. Governor Roberts, in the presence of
- 32:07Speaker 1: interested suffragists, signed the certificate and sent it by registered
- 32:12Speaker 1: mail to the Secretary of State. It was delivered at
- 32:16Speaker 1: four a m. On the twenty sixth, and was at
- 32:19Speaker 1: once referred for examination to the Solicitor, who had been
- 32:23Speaker 1: sitting up all night in order to be on hand
- 32:25Speaker 1: when it should arrive. An open threat to secure an
- 32:29Speaker 1: injunction to prevent the issuance of the proclamation certifying to
- 32:33Speaker 1: the ratification of the amendment had been continually made by
- 32:37Speaker 1: the opposition. In July, Justice Bailey of the District of
- 32:41Speaker 1: Columbia Supreme Court had declined to issue such an injunction
- 32:46Speaker 1: upon action brought by Charles S. Fairchild and the American
- 32:50Speaker 1: Constitutional League. On August twenty fifth, Justice Sidoms of the
- 32:55Speaker 1: same court had refused the same application. The Secretary of
- 32:59Speaker 1: sas Date Bainbridge Colby, however, took no chances, and arose
- 33:04Speaker 1: early on the morning of the twenty sixth, at eight
- 33:07Speaker 1: o'clock without ceremony, he signed the proclamation. The group of
- 33:11Speaker 1: workers of the National Suffrage Association, returning from Tennessee, arrived
- 33:16Speaker 1: in Washington the morning the proclamation was signed and found
- 33:20Speaker 1: a great victory celebration awaiting them in the evening to
- 33:24Speaker 1: a packed theater audience, they told the story of the
- 33:27Speaker 1: Tennessee campaign. The Secretary of State was there to represent
- 33:32Speaker 1: the administration, and on behalf of the nation congratulated the
- 33:35Speaker 1: Suffragists upon their freedom. On August twenty seventh, the Tennessee
- 33:41Speaker 1: Suffrage Group returned to New York City, the home of
- 33:45Speaker 1: the National Suffrage Headquarters. The Governor of the state and
- 33:48Speaker 1: representatives of the Republican and Democratic National committees were at
- 33:53Speaker 1: the station to welcome them, and so were the old
- 33:56Speaker 1: Guard Suffragists. With the seventy first Regiment banned at the
- 34:01Speaker 1: head and with the old familiar banners waving, they marched
- 34:04Speaker 1: together for the last time to the Waldorf Astoria, where
- 34:08Speaker 1: all made speeches of self congratulation. Missus Harriet Taylor Upton,
- 34:13Speaker 1: national chairman of the Republican Women, told how the Republicans
- 34:17Speaker 1: carried Tennessee, and Miss Charles Williams, national chairman of the
- 34:22Speaker 1: Democratic Women, told how the Democrats did it. Others told
- 34:26Speaker 1: how resourceful and fearless the Tennessee Women had been, how
- 34:30Speaker 1: heroic were the faithful forty nine, in the midst of
- 34:33Speaker 1: the whirlwind of opposition, and how the victory was everybody's
- 34:37Speaker 1: victory who had labored in the cause. A hurry call
- 34:42Speaker 1: had been sent to all the mayors of Tennessee, urging
- 34:45Speaker 1: them to join the women's celebration by ordering the ringing
- 34:48Speaker 1: of bells and blowing of whistles. And the whistles did blow,
- 34:52Speaker 1: and the bells did ring merrily and sincerely in most
- 34:55Speaker 1: Tennessee towns, for the people in the main stood by
- 34:59Speaker 1: the ratifying legislature. From ocean to ocean, from Canada to
- 35:04Speaker 1: the Gulf, the celebrations continued, meetings, processions, flag raisings, transformations
- 35:10Speaker 1: from suffrage associations into leagues of women voters, where the
- 35:15Speaker 1: order of the day for the month that followed. None
- 35:19Speaker 1: was more significant than the draped flag over the tablet
- 35:22Speaker 1: that marked the site of the chapel where the world's
- 35:26Speaker 1: first woman's Convention had been held in eighteen forty eight
- 35:30Speaker 1: in Geneva, New York. None more significant than the wreaths
- 35:34Speaker 1: of flowers hung on the old building where the world's
- 35:37Speaker 1: first woman's jury had sat in eighteen seventy in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
- 35:44Speaker 1: Here the story of women's suffrage in the United States
- 35:47Speaker 1: should appropriately end, but there was more to come and
- 35:51Speaker 1: come in Tennessee before the long suffrage campaign was permitted
- 35:56Speaker 1: to pass into history as a closed issue. The Tennessee
- 36:00Speaker 1: Legislature recessed from day to day as there was no quorum.
- 36:05Speaker 1: The call had included one hundred thirty two bills as
- 36:08Speaker 1: needing attention by the legislature. The majority of the anti
- 36:13Speaker 1: ratificationists stubbornly remained in Alabama or at their homes and
- 36:17Speaker 1: awaited the call of their masters. The ratification members, unwilling
- 36:22Speaker 1: to remain in Nashville without a quorum, had gone home. Also,
- 36:27Speaker 1: anti ratification mass meetings were still in progress, and the
- 36:31Speaker 1: speakers were defiantly threatening to undo ratification in the courts. Meanwhile,
- 36:36Speaker 1: the governor and the Sergeant at Arms were striving to
- 36:39Speaker 1: get a quorum of the legislature. It was publicly announced
- 36:44Speaker 1: that on August thirtieth, the Red Rose Brigade would return.
- 36:49Speaker 1: Four hours were spent on that day in an effort
- 36:51Speaker 1: to secure the quorum of sixty six members, but at
- 36:54Speaker 1: no time could more than sixty three be found. The
- 36:58Speaker 1: filibusters had returned with a great show of being ready
- 37:01Speaker 1: for business. The full Suffrage majority was not in Nashville,
- 37:06Speaker 1: and the Ratificationists who were there feared to help compose
- 37:09Speaker 1: of korum lest some unfriendly act be passed. Ratification legislators
- 37:15Speaker 1: arrested and brought into the house escaped by other doors,
- 37:19Speaker 1: while the forty six anti ratificationists held their seats. Finally,
- 37:25Speaker 1: it was announced that the Ratificationists would all be in
- 37:28Speaker 1: their seats on the thirty first, whereupon the anties failed
- 37:31Speaker 1: to appear lest they could not muster a sufficient vote
- 37:35Speaker 1: to overthrow the Suffrage action of August twenty first. The
- 37:40Speaker 1: scene had lost its attraction for both suffragists and anti suffragists,
- 37:44Speaker 1: who now deserted the balconies. Without the yellow and the red,
- 37:49Speaker 1: the place looked lonesome. Even mister Walker absented himself on
- 37:53Speaker 1: this date. On September eleventh, however, the anti Ratificationists won
- 37:59Speaker 1: the game of ride and seek and got control of
- 38:02Speaker 1: the house, many suffrage men being absent amid shouts of glee.
- 38:07Speaker 1: By a vote of forty seven to thirty seven, they
- 38:10Speaker 1: passed a motion to expunge from the record all that
- 38:14Speaker 1: had taken place on the twenty first, except the record
- 38:17Speaker 1: that there had been no quorum. Mister Riddick, on behalf
- 38:22Speaker 1: of the ratificationists, contested every step with points of order.
- 38:27Speaker 1: The entire controversy raged around the question of a quorum.
- 38:31Speaker 1: By the rules of the legislature, two thirds sixty six
- 38:35Speaker 1: of the elected number constituted a quorum in the House.
- 38:39Speaker 1: There was a quorum when the House ratified, there was
- 38:42Speaker 1: a majority, but not a quorum by Tennessee rules. When
- 38:46Speaker 1: the House voted down the motion to reconsider and returned
- 38:50Speaker 1: the ratified amendment to the Senate, mister Riddick contended that
- 38:55Speaker 1: the authority for procedure was drawn from their federal constitution
- 38:59Speaker 1: and that no rules of the House could supersede. He
- 39:02Speaker 1: claimed that the authority for a quorum composed of a
- 39:06Speaker 1: majority was drawn from parliamentary usage. In these views, he
- 39:11Speaker 1: was sustained by the Attorney General, whose opinion he quoted.
- 39:14Speaker 1: The Anti members refused to accept this interpretation. A resolution
- 39:20Speaker 1: to reject the suffrage amendment as a substitute for the
- 39:23Speaker 1: one to ratify, which the anties held to be pending
- 39:27Speaker 1: on reconsideration, was voted on forty seven to twenty four,
- 39:32Speaker 1: with twenty not voting. This rejection resolution was sent to
- 39:37Speaker 1: the Senate with instructions that it be forwarded to the
- 39:40Speaker 1: Governor the suffrage. House members now enjoined the Chief Clerk
- 39:45Speaker 1: of the Senate from receiving it. On September twelfth, the
- 39:49Speaker 1: Senate was in a turmoil of indignation as it discussed
- 39:53Speaker 1: the resolution received from the House and resented attempts to
- 39:58Speaker 1: control its business. By a vote of seventeen to eight,
- 40:03Speaker 1: it refused to accept the resolution and returned that message,
- 40:07Speaker 1: whereupon House members volubly informed senators that if their resolution
- 40:12Speaker 1: was not received, there would be no passage by the
- 40:15Speaker 1: House of their per diem for senators, nor other Senate legislation.
- 40:21Speaker 1: The threats proved persuasive, and on September thirteenth, the Senate,
- 40:26Speaker 1: having turned a somersault overnight, accepted the resolution by a
- 40:31Speaker 1: vote of twenty one to four. Then the Senate forwarded
- 40:35Speaker 1: the resolution of rejection to the Governor, who in turn
- 40:39Speaker 1: sent it to the Secretary of State. With the suffrage
- 40:43Speaker 1: question thus disposed of to the satisfaction of each contending faction,
- 40:48Speaker 1: the legislature settled down to business and remained in session
- 40:52Speaker 1: until September sixth, when it adjourned after passing over the
- 40:56Speaker 1: Governor's veto the appropriation bill, which which gave to each
- 41:00Speaker 1: member one hundred dollars extra for expenses, incurred in remaining
- 41:05Speaker 1: longer than the twenty days of the special session allowed
- 41:08Speaker 1: by the Constitution. Although the laws of the state of
- 41:11Speaker 1: Tennessee declared desertion of a legislative post to be a felony,
- 41:16Speaker 1: this law was not enforced, and the fleeing opposition members
- 41:20Speaker 1: of the House drew their per diem and extra allowances
- 41:24Speaker 1: without protest. On September twelfth, Speaker Walker and a group
- 41:30Speaker 1: of anti men appeared in Washington to entreat the Secretary
- 41:34Speaker 1: to withdraw the proclamation. Failing in their mission, they went
- 41:38Speaker 1: on to Connecticut with the avowed purpose of persuading the
- 41:41Speaker 1: political group which had so stubbornly resisted all efforts to
- 41:45Speaker 1: secure a special session in that state, to continue that
- 41:49Speaker 1: policy in order that the legality of the ratification of
- 41:52Speaker 1: the amendment might rest upon the case of Tennessee. They
- 41:57Speaker 1: returned to Washington and again sought an interview with the
- 42:00Speaker 1: Secretary of State in order to renew their appeal. Interviews
- 42:05Speaker 1: in the press widely announced that they had not surrendered
- 42:09Speaker 1: and would contest the ratification of Tennessee in the courts.
- 42:14Speaker 1: The American Constitutional League formerly the Men's Anti Woman Suffrage
- 42:19Speaker 1: League and the Maryland League for State Defense formerly the
- 42:23Speaker 1: Maryland Men's Anti Suffrage Association were still declaring through numerous
- 42:29Speaker 1: press communications that ratification would be proved invalid. The women
- 42:34Speaker 1: antis still continued their publicity service, announcing with frequency that
- 42:39Speaker 1: litigation would be started not only to invalidate the amendment
- 42:44Speaker 1: but the entire presidential election. None of the threatened litigation
- 42:49Speaker 1: alarmed the nation, but it doubtless served to convince political
- 42:53Speaker 1: leaders that another state was desirable. To make assurance doubly sure,
- 42:58Speaker 1: Governor Holcombe of Cannet, although still unyielding, now called a
- 43:03Speaker 1: special session to provide for registering women. When calling it,
- 43:09Speaker 1: he warned the legislators that they must confine themselves to
- 43:12Speaker 1: the business contained in the call, and omitted the suffrage
- 43:16Speaker 1: amendment from the list. No such restriction had ever been
- 43:20Speaker 1: put upon Connecticut legislature, and the governor himself had said
- 43:24Speaker 1: two years before that he had no power to prevent
- 43:27Speaker 1: the transaction of any business. When once the legislature had
- 43:31Speaker 1: been called in special session, the members, a majority of
- 43:35Speaker 1: whom had long been pledged to ratification, determined to show
- 43:39Speaker 1: independence and to ratify. As soon as the special session opened,
- 43:45Speaker 1: Governor Holcomb appeared and asked that it adjourn without action,
- 43:49Speaker 1: as it was his intention to issue another call to
- 43:52Speaker 1: meet a week later to ratify the amendment and to
- 43:55Speaker 1: enact other necessary legislation. Both houses refused, and by unanimous
- 44:01Speaker 1: vote in the Senate and with only eleven voting an
- 44:04Speaker 1: opposition in the House, ratified the Federal Suffrage Amendment, even
- 44:09Speaker 1: though the governor had failed to transmit the certified copy.
- 44:14Speaker 1: In further defiance of the governor, they passed several bills,
- 44:18Speaker 1: none of which was included in the call. They then
- 44:21Speaker 1: adjourned until September twenty first, when the legislature again met.
- 44:27Speaker 1: The governor appeared and asked the members to ratify the amendment.
- 44:31Speaker 1: Many refused, as it seemed an acknowledgment that their former
- 44:35Speaker 1: action was invalid, but reason conquered tempers, and as the
- 44:39Speaker 1: Connecticut auxiliary to the National Suffrage Association strongly recommended a
- 44:44Speaker 1: second action to make legality absolutely certain. The amendment was
- 44:49Speaker 1: again ratified the same day. To placate the members who
- 44:54Speaker 1: wished the first record to stand, a motion was made
- 44:57Speaker 1: to reconsider and to confirm the act action of the
- 45:00Speaker 1: first session. Thus terminated a continuous struggle of fifteen months
- 45:07Speaker 1: to secure ratification from a legislature which all that time
- 45:11Speaker 1: had been ready to act favorably, and which finally ratified
- 45:15Speaker 1: the amendment not once, but three times. The ratification of
- 45:20Speaker 1: Connecticut stilled any restless questioning of the validity of Tennessee,
- 45:25Speaker 1: and forever established the amendment as a part of the
- 45:29Speaker 1: federal Constitution. Governor Clement of Vermont retired from office December
- 45:36Speaker 1: thirty first, nineteen twenty and was succeeded by Governor James Hartness.
- 45:41Speaker 1: The Vermont legislature met in regular session in January nineteen
- 45:46Speaker 1: twenty one. The resolution to ratify the Federal Suffrage Amendment
- 45:51Speaker 1: was read in the House for the third time on
- 45:54Speaker 1: January twenty eighth, and passed eyes two hundred and two mays.
- 46:01Speaker 1: On February eight it was passed unanimously by the Senate.
- 46:07Speaker 1: The threats of the Tennessee antis had died of inattention,
- 46:11Speaker 1: and the threatened invalidation of the amendment had by now
- 46:16Speaker 1: narrowed down to two cases, one the lesser versus Garnet case,
- 46:22Speaker 1: claiming that thirty six states had not legally ratified the amendment.
- 46:26Speaker 1: The ratifications of West Virginia, Missouri, and Tennessee been cited
- 46:30Speaker 1: as invalid. Brought a decision from the Maryland Court of
- 46:34Speaker 1: Common Pleas that thirty six had duly ratified. The case
- 46:39Speaker 1: was carried to the Court of Appeals, Maryland, where on
- 46:42Speaker 1: June twenty eighth, nineteen twenty one, the judge affirmed the
- 46:46Speaker 1: decision of the lower court that these ratifications were valid.
- 46:51Speaker 1: It was then appealed to the United States Supreme Court,
- 46:54Speaker 1: where a decision sustaining the two prior opinions was handed down.
- 46:59Speaker 1: The other similar contention, known as the fair Child case,
- 47:03Speaker 1: which had been pending in different forms since July nineteen twenty,
- 47:07Speaker 1: was also dismissed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
- 47:11Speaker 1: Thus all efforts to declare the Amendment invalid came to
- 47:15Speaker 1: an end. The final announcement of these decisions appeared in
- 47:20Speaker 1: small paragraphs in obscure corners of the newspapers. Hardly anyone
- 47:25Speaker 1: noted them. Women's suffrage was already everywhere recognized as an
- 47:30Speaker 1: established fact. End of Chapter thirty, Part two recording by
- 47:37Speaker 1: Cassiopia Sparks