Suffragists -- United States; Women -- Suffrage -- United States
Perceiving that he had now not only to move himself, but also to
overcome the obstacle which he had allowed to develop, we increased the
energy of our attack. And finally the President made a supreme
assertion of his power, and secured the last and 64th vote in the
Senate. He did this too late to get the advantage—if any advantage is
to be gained from granting a just thing at the point of a gun—for this
last vote arrived only in time for a Republican Congress to use it.
It seems to me that Woodrow Wilson was neither devil nor God in his
manner of meeting the demand of the suffragists. There has persisted an
astounding myth that he is an extraordinary man. Our experience proved
the contrary. He behaved toward us like a very ordinary politician.
Unnecessarily cruel or weakly tolerant, according as you view the
justice of our fight, but a politician, not a statesman. He did not go
out to meet the tide which he himself perceived was “rising to meet the
moon” That would have been statesmanship. He let it all but engulf him
before he acted. And even as a politician he failed, for his tactics
resulted in the passage of the amendment by a Republican Congress.
Chapter 27
Republican Congress Passes Amendment
The Republican Congress convened in Special Session May 19.
Instantly Republican leaders in control of the 66th Congress caucused
and organized for a prompt passage of the amendment. May 21st the
Republican House of Representatives passed the measure by a vote of 304
to 89—the first thing of any importance done by the new House. This was
42 votes above the required two-thirds majority, whereas the vote in
the House in January, 1918, under Democratic control had given the
measure only one vote more than was required.
Immediately the Democratic National Committee passed a resolution
calling on the legislatures of the various states to hold special
legislative sessions where necessary, to ratify the amendment as soon
as it was through Congress, in order to “enable women to vote in the
national elections of 1920.”
When the 64th vote was assured two more Republican Senators announced
their support, Senator Keyes of New Hampshire and Senator Hale of
Maine, and on June 4th the measure passed the Senate by a vote of 66 to
30,—2 votes more than needed.[1] Of the 49 Republicans in the Senate,
40 voted for the amendment, 9 against. Of the 47 Democrats in the
Senate, 26 voted for it and 21 against.
[1] These figures include all voting and paired.
And so the assertion that “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,” introduced into Congress by the efforts of
Susan B. Anthony in 1878, was finally submitted to the states for
ratification[1] on June 4th, 1919.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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