Suffragists -- United States; Women -- Suffrage -- United States
It was my privilege yesterday afternoon to be one of a committee of
twelve to ask the President for advice and counsel on this important
measure (prolonged laughter and jeers). Mr. Speaker, in answer to the
sentiment expressed by part of the House, I desire to say that at no
time and upon no occasion am I ever ashamed to confer with Woodrow
Wilson upon any important question (laughter, applause, and, jeers) and
that part of the House that has jeered that statement before it
adjourns to-day will follow absolutely the advice which he gave this
committee yesterday afternoon. (Laughter and applause.) After
conference with the President yesterday afternoon he wrote with his own
hands the words which I now read to you, and each member of the
committee was authorized by the President to give full publicity to the
following:
“The committee found that the President had not felt at liberty to
volunteer his advice to Members of Congress in this important matter,
but when we sought his advice (laughter) he very frankly and earnestly
advised us to vote for the amendment as an act of right and justice to
the women of the country and o f the world.”
. . . To my Democratic brethren who have made these halls ring with
their eloquence in their pleas to stand by the President, I will say
that now is your chance to stand by the President and vote for this
amendment, “as’ an act of right and justice to the women of the country
and of the world” . . .
Do you wish to do that which is right and just toward the women of your
own country? If so, follow the President’s advice and vote for this
amendment. It will not do to follow the President in this great crisis
in the world’s history on those matters only which are popular in your
own districts. The true test is to stand by him, even though your own
vote is unpopular at home. The acid test for a Member of Congress is
for him to stand for right and justice even if misunderstood at home at
first. In the end, right and justice will prevail everywhere.
. . . No one thing connected with the war is of more importance at this
time than meeting the reasonable demand of millions of patriotic and
Christian women of the Nation that the amendment for woman suffrage be
submitted to the States . . . .
The amendment passed the House January 10, 1918, by a vote of 274 to
136—a two-thirds majority with one vote to spare—exactly forty years to
a day from the time the suffrage amendment was first introduced into
Congress, and exactly one year to a day from the time the first picket
banner appeared at the gates o f the White House.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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