voices for the vote

Declaration:		We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
Shaw:		By some objectors, women are supposed to be unfit to vote because they are hysterical and emotional and of course men would not like to have emotion enter into a political campaign. … I had heard so much about our emotionalism that I went to the last Democratic national convention, held at Baltimore, to observe the calm repose of the male politicians. …I saw men jump upon on the seats and throw their hats in the air... Then, when those hats came down, other men would kick them back into the air, shouting at the top of their voices. …And so they went on and on until 5 o'clock in the morning ... I saw men jump up on their seats and jump down again and run around in a ring. I saw two men run towards another man to hug him both at once and they split his coat up the middle of his back and sent him spinning around like a wheel. …! I have been to many women's conventions in my day but I never saw a woman leap up on a chair and take off her bonnet and toss it in the air and shout... I never heard a body of women whooping and yelling for five minutes when somebody's name was mentioned in the convention... ~ Anna Howard Shaw, 1913.
Newsy:		Classing the woman suffrage cause as an irresistible wave of progressivism which will soon sweep the entire country ... Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, gave the pilgrims credit for recent victories in state legislatures ... Even while the banquet was in progress, workers at suffrage headquarters were arranging the final details for the procession, tableaux and mass meeting tomorrow afternoon. Miss Alice Paul, Chairman of the Procession Committee, remained at headquarters late to work out final details, but appeared at the last moment in evening dress and made a short address predicting great success for the pageant. ~ Washington Post, March 2, 1913
Declaration:		Prudence indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they were accustomed.
Blatch:		As you ride today in comfort and safety to the Capitol to be inaugurated as President of the people of the United States, we beg that you will not be unmindful that yesterday the Government which is supposed to exist for the good of all, left women while passing in peaceful procession in their demand for political freedom at the mercy of a howling mob on the very streets which are being at this moment efficiently officered for the protection of men. ~ Harriot Stanton Blatch to President Woodrow Wilson, March 4, 1913
Newsy:		Call it curiosity, call it sympathy, call it opposition; the fact remains that the suffrage parade and pageant here today attracted a greater crowd than any inaugural ever did. An incoming and outgoing President were almost ignored. Only a few hundred persons saw Mr. Wilson's advertised arrival at his hotel; within six blocks fifty thousand were waiting for the suffragists. ~ New York Herald, March 4, 1913
Declaration:		The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise. He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice.
Burns:		Those who hold power are responsible to the country for the use of it. They are responsible not only for what they do, but for what they do not do. Inaction establishes just as clear a record as does a policy of open hostility. We have in our hands today not only the weapon of just cause… It is unthinkable that a national government which represents women, and which appeals periodically for the suffrages of women, should ignore the issue of the right of all women to political freedom. ~ Lucy Burns, December, 1913.
Shaw:		No other country has subjected its women to the humiliating position to which the women of this nation have been subjected by men.... In Germany, German woman are governed by German men; in France, French women are governed by Frenchmen; and in Great Britain, British women are governed by British men; but in this country, American women are governed by every kind of a man under the light of the sun. There is no race, there is no color, there is no nationality of men who are not the sovereign rulers of American women... ~ Anna Howard Shaw, November 1914.
Declaration:		He has withheld from her rights which are given to the most ignorant and degraded men—both natives and foreigners. Having deprived her of this first right of a citizen, the elective franchise, thereby leaving her without representation in the halls of legislation, he has oppressed her on all sides. … After depriving her of all rights as a married woman, if single, and the owner of property, he has taxed her to support a government which recognizes her only when her property can be de profitable to it. When I came into your hall tonight, I thought of the last time I was in your city. Twenty-one years ago I came here with Susan B. Anthony, and we came for exactly the same purpose as that for which we are here tonight. Boys have been born since that time and have become voters, and the women are still tying to persuade American men to believe in the fundamental principles of democracy...
Shaw:		Now one of two things is true: either a Republic is a desirable form of government, or else it is not. If it is, then we should have it, if it is not then we ought not to pretend that we have it. We ought at least to be true to our ideals… for the first time in their lives, the rare opportunity on the second day of next November, of making the state truly a part of a Republic. ~ Anna Howard Shaw, speech during New York State equal suffrage campaign at Ogdenburg, New York, June 21, 1915
Blatch:		...I stand ready to get a group of women about me who will go forth over the Suffrage states with this one thought in our mind - we will deliver against the Party that blocks the progress of women, 500,000 votes. I intend to go into the West; I intend to use there every bit of energy and strength I have, to advance this cause of ours. I intend to go into the West and appeal to every last woman to stand by the women of the East, to stand by themselves, to make this nation at least a true and great democracy. Women, you voters from every State, will you join with us; will you come? Will you make every Party feel that you stand first by the women of our nation? ~ Harriot Stanton Blatch, Convention for forming of the Woman's Party, Chicago, June, 1916
Paul:		We are not working to win New York. We are working to put the Federal Suffrage Amendment in the Constitution. The trouble with the suffragists is they are like the allies in the war .... State Suffrage by its scattered methods is losing as the allies have been losing. We lost Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, North Dakota - but why call the roll of those defeats! The method you ask us to pursue did not win a point last year or this, but at the National Capitol the situation is more hopeful because the Party in power is afraid of a method that actually costs them votes. ~ Alice Paul, New York City, December 1916
Younger:		In entering upon the great work before us, we anticipate no small amount of misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule; but we shall use every instrumentality within our power to effect our object. We shall employ agents, circulate tracts, petition the State and National legislatures, and endeavor to enlist the pulpit and the press in our behalf. We hope this Convention will be followed by a series of Conventions embracing every part of the country.
Declaration:		WHEREAS, The great precept of nature is conceded to be, that "man shall pursue his own true and substantial happiness." … no human laws are of any validity if contrary to this, and such of them as are valid, derive all their force, and all their validity, and all their authority, mediately and immediately, from this original; therefore...
Younger:		Instead of the assurances we had expected, we heard words to the effect that he could not dictate to his Party. We must first concert public opinion.... Stunned, talking in low, indignant tones, we moved slowly out of the East Room and returned to our Headquarters... We saw that the President would do nothing for some time, perhaps not until the eve of the Presidential election in 1920. He said we must concert public opinion. But how? For half a century women had been walking the hard way of the lobbyist.We had had speeches, meetings, parades, campaigns, organization. What new method could we devise? ~ Maud Younger, on visit of 300 women to President Wilson, January 9, 1917
Newsy:		...Women suffragists, after another futile appeal to President Wilson yesterday for his support of the Susan B. Anthony amendment, announced plans for retaliation by picketing the White House grounds with "silent sentinels." Their purpose is to make it impossible for the President to enter or leave the White House without encountering a sentinel bearing some device pleading the suffrage cause. The move was acknowledged to be a step in the new policy of mild militancy which began with the coup in the House gallery on December 6, when a party of suffragists unfurled a votes for women banner while the President was making his opening address. ~ Washington Post, January 10, 1917
Newsy:		...It was stated yesterday that the silent sentinels would be gradually increased until 3,000 will be surrounding the executive mansion grounds. The women, wearing yellow, purple and white ribbons across their chests, stood three on either side of the gates, over each of which was held a banner, inscribed, "Mr. President, what will you do for woman suffrage?" White House officials and the city police made no effort to interfere, and it was said that as long as the women created no disorder no official attention would be paid to them. ~ Washington Post, January 11, 1917
Declaration:		Resolved, That woman is man's equal—was intended to be so by the Creator, and the highest good of the race demands that she should be recognized as such. Resolved, That the women of this country ought to be enlightened in regard to the laws under which they live, that they may no longer publish their degradation by declaring themselves satisfied with their present position, nor their ignorance, by asserting that they have all the rights they want. ... Resolved, That it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise.
Stevens:		There was the criticism in the press and on the lips of men that we were embarrassing our Government before the eyes of foreign visitors. ..Of course it was embarrassing. We meant it to be. The truth must be toldat all costs. This was not time for manners. Hurried conferences behind closed doors! Summoning of the military to discuss declaring a military zone around the White House! ...Closing the Woman's Party headquarters was discussed. Perhaps a raid! And all for what? Because women were holding banners asking for the precious principle at home that men were supposed to be dying for abroad. Finally a decision was reached embodying the combined wisdom of all the various conferees. The Chief of Police, Major Pullman, was detailed to "request" us to stop "picketing" and to tell us that if we continued to picket, we would be arrested. … The following day Miss Lucy Burns and Miss Katharine Morey of Boston carried to the White House gates [a banner reading] "We shall fight for the things we have always held nearest our hearts, for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own government," and were arrested... Hours passed. Finally the two prisoners were pompously told that they had "obstructed the traffic" on Pennsylvania Avenue... ~ Doris Stevens, on the first arrests of the pickets, June 26, 1917
Newsy:		The coveted goal of the American militant suffragists - a hunger strike in jail - appeared in sight today when nine White House pickets who were arrested this morning-let it be known that they would go to jail before they would pay a fine. This is taken as substantiation of oft-repeated talk in Washington that the militant suffragists, are manoeuvering (sic) for a jail term so that they can start a hunger strike. ~ New York Times June 27, 1917
Stevens:		When the Administration refused to grant the demands of the prisoners and of that portion of the public which supported them, for the rights of political prisoners, it was decided to resort to the ultimate protest-weapon inside prison. A hunger strike was undertaken... Little is known in this country about the weapon of the hunger strike. And so at first it aroused tremendous indignation. "Let them starve to death," said the thoughtless one, who did not perceive that that was the very thing a political administration could least afford to do. "Mad fanatics," said a kindlier critic. The general opinion was that the hunger strike was "foolish." During the suffrage campaign in England this weapon was used for the double purpose of forcing the release of imprisoned militant suffragettes and of compelling the British government to act. ~ Doris Stevens, Jailed for Freedom
Declaration:		Resolved, therefore, That, being invested by the Creator with the same capabilities, and the same consciousness of responsibility for their exercise, it is demonstrably the right and duty of woman, equally with man, to promote every righteous cause by every righteous means, and especially in regard to the great subjects of morals and religion, it is self-evidently her right to participate with her brother in teaching them...
Stevens:		My fainting probably means nothing except that I am not strong after these weeks. I know you won't be alarmed. Alice Paul is in the psychopathic ward. She dreaded forcible feeding frightfully, and I hate to think how she must be feeling. I have a nervous timeof it, gasping a long time afterward, and my stomach rejecting during the process. I spent a bad, restless night, but otherwise I am all right. The poor soul who fed me got liberally besprinkled during the process. I heard myself making the most hideous sounds...This morning, but for an astounding tiredness, I am all right. I am waiting to see what happens when the President realizes that brutal bullying isn't quite a statesmanlike method for settling a demand for justice at home. ~ Doris Stevens, letter to her husband from jail, July, 1917.
Declaration:		Resolved, That the speedy success of our cause depends upon the zealous and untiring efforts of both men and women, for the overthrow of the monopoly of the pulpit, and for the securing to woman an equal participation with men in the various trades, professions, and commerce.
Stevens:		With thirty determined women on hunger strike, of whom eight were in a state of almost total collapse, the Administration capitulated. It would not afford to feed thirty women forcibly and risk the social and political consequences; nor could it let thirty women starve themselves to death, and likewise taken the consequences... And so all the prisoners were unconditionally released on November 27th and November 28th.... Immediately following the release of the prisoners and the magnificent demonstration of public support of them ... political events happened thick and fast. Committees in Congress acted on the amendment. President Wilson surrendered and a date for the vote was set. ~ Doris Stevens, Jailed for Freedom
Newsy:		The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, granting women the right to vote, finally passed the Senate by the required two-thirds majority in 1919. It was ratified by the required 36th state on August 26, 1920. This victory for first-wave feminism in the United States came 72 years, 1 month and 7 days after the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions was ratified in Seneca Falls, NY. The Amendment reads: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the united States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

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This dramatic reading was commissioned by the Pima County/Tucson Women's Commission for their Women's Equality Day Open House on August 26, 2005, celebrating the 85th anniversary of the ratification of the Susan B. Anthony amendment.

Click here for a pdf version of this script.