Suffragists -- United States; Women -- Suffrage -- United States
“As she set out upon her last journey, she seems to have had the
clearer vision, the spiritual quality of one who has already set out
for another world. With infinite understanding and intense faith in her
mission, she was as one inspired. Her meetings were described as
‘revival meetings,’ her audiences as ‘wild with enthusiasm.’ Thousands
acclaimed her, thousands were turned away unable to enter . . .
“And she made her message very plain.
“She stood for no man, no party. She stood only for woman. And standing
thus she urged:
“‘It is women for women now and shall be until the fight is won!
Together we shall stand shoulder to shoulder for the greatest principle
the world has-ever known, the right of self-government.
“‘Whatever the party that has ignored the claims of women we as women
must refuse to uphold it. We must refuse to uphold any party until all
women are free.
“‘We have nothing but our spirits to rely on and the vitality of our
faith, but spirit is invincible.
“‘It is only for a little while. Soon the fight will be over. Victory
is in sight.’
“Though she did not live to see that victory, it is sweet to know that
she lived to see her faith in women justified. In one of her last
letters she wrote:
“‘Not only did we reckon accurately on women’s loyalty to women, but we
likewise realized that our appeal touched a certain spiritual,
idealistic quality in the western woman voter, a quality which is
yearning to find expression in political life. At the idealism of the
Woman’s Party her whole nature flames into enthusiasm and her response
is immediate. She gladly transforms a narrow partisan loyalty into
loyalty to a principle, the establishment of which carries with it no
personal advantage to its advocate, but merely the satisfaction of
achieving one more step toward the emancipation of mankind . . . . We
are bound to win. There never has been a fight yet where interest was
pitted against principle that principle did not triumph!’
“ . . The trip was fraught with hardship. Speaking day and night, she
would take a train at two in the morning to arrive at eight; then a
train at midnight to arrive at five in the morning. Yet she would not
change the program; she would not leave anything out . . .
“And so . . . her life went out in glory in the shining cause of
freedom.
“And as she had lived loving liberty, working for liberty, fighting for
liberty, so it was that with this word on her lips she fell. ‘How long
must women wait for liberty?’ she cried and fell-as surely as any
soldier upon the field of honor—as truly as any who ever gave up his
life for an ideal.
“As in life she had been the symbol of the woman’s cause so in death
she is the symbol of its sacrifice. The whole daily sacrifice, the
pouring out of life and strength that is the toll of woman’s prolonged
struggle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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