Suffragists -- United States; Women -- Suffrage -- United States
The election campaign had had a wholesome effect, however, on both
parties and was undoubtedly one of the factors in persuading the
President to again appeal to the Senate.
Immediately after the defeat in the Senate, and throughout the election
campaign, we attempted to hold banners at the Capitol to assist our
campaign and in order to weaken the resistance of the senators of the
opposition. The mottoes on the banners attacked with impartial
mercilessness both Democrats and Republicans. One read:
SENATOR WADSWORTH’s REGIMENT IS FIGHTING FOR DEMOCRACY ABROAD.
SENATOR WADSWORTH LEFT HIS REGIMENT AND IS FIGHTING AGAINST DEMOCRACY
IN THE SENATE.
SENATOR WADSWORTH COULD SERVE HIS COUNTRY BETTER BY FIGHTING WITH HIS
REGIMENT ABROAD THAN BY FIGHTING WOMEN AT HOME.
Another read:
SENATOR SHIELDS TOLD THE PEOPLE OF TENNESSEE HE WOULD SUPPORT THE
PRESIDENT’S POLICIES.
THE ONLY TIME THE PRESIDENT WENT TO THE SENATE TO ASK ITS SUPPORT
SENATOR SHIELDS VOTED AGAINST HIM.
DOES TENNESSEE BACK THE PRESIDENT’S WAR PROGRAM OE SENATOR SHIELDS?
And still a third:
GERMANY HAS ESTABLISHED “EQUAL, UNIVERSAL, SECRET, DIRECT FRANCHISE.”
THE SENATE HAS DENIED EQUAL, UNIVERSAL, SECRET SUFFRAGE TO AMERICA.
WHICH IS MORE OF A DEMOCRACY, GERMANY OR AMERICA?
As the women approached the Senate, Colonel Higgins, the Sergeant at
Arms of the Senate, ordered a squad of Capitol policemen to rush upon
them. They wrenched their banners from them, twisting their wrists and
manhandling them as they took them up the steps, through the door, and
down into the guardroom,—their banners confiscated and they themselves
detained for varying periods of time. When the women insisted on
knowing upon what charges they were held, they were merely told that
“peace and order must be maintained on the Capitol grounds,” and
further, “It don’t make no difference about the law, Colonel Higgins is
boss here, and he has taken the law in his own hands.”
Day after day this performance went on. Small detachments of women
attempted to hold banners outside the United States Senate, as the
women of Holland had done outside the Parliament in the Hague. It was
difficult to believe that American politicians could be so devoid of
humor as they showed themselves. The panic that overwhelms our official
mind in the face of the slightest irregularity is appalling! Instead of
maintaining peace and order, the squads of police managed to keep the
Capitol grounds in a state of confusion. They were assisted from time
to time by Senate pages, small errand boys who would run out and attack
mature women with impunity. The women would be held under the most
rigid detention each day until the Senate had safely adjourned. Then on
the morrow the whole spectacle would be repeated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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