Suffragists -- United States; Women -- Suffrage -- United States
An aged government clerk, grown infirm in the service, takes the stand
and the government attorney proves through him that there is a White
House; that it has a side-walk in front of it, and a pavement, and a
hundred other overwhelming facts. The pathetic clerk shakes his dusty
frame and slinks off the stand. The prosecuting attorney now
elaborately proves that we walked, that we carried banners, that we
were arrested by the aforesaid officers while attempting to hold our
banners at the White House gates.
Each woman speaks briefly in her own defense. She denounces the
government’s policy with hot defiance. The blame is placed squarely at
the door of the Administration, and in unmistakable terms. Miss Anne
Martin opens for the defense:
“This is what we are doing with our banners before the White House,
petitioning the most powerful representative of the government, the
President of the United States, for a redress of grievances; we are
asking him to use his great power to secure the passage of the national
suffrage amendment.
“As long as the government and the representatives of the government
prefer to send women to jail on petty and technical charges, we will go
to jail. Persecution has always advanced the cause of justice. The
right of American women to work for democracy must be maintained . . .
. We would hinder, not help, the whole cause of freedom for women, if
we weakly submitted to persecution now. Our work for the passage of the
amendment must go on. It will go on.”
Mrs. John Rogers, Jr., descendant of Roger Sherman, one of the signers
of the Declaration of Independence, speaks: “We are not guilty of any
offence, not even of infringing a police regulation. We know full well
that we stand here because the President of the United States refuses
to give liberty to American women. We believe, your Honor, that the
wrong persons are before the bar in this Court . . . .”
“I object, your Honor, to this woman making such a statement here in
Court,” says the District Attorney.
“We believe the President is the guilty one and that we are innocent.”
“Your Honor, I object,” shouts the Government’s attorney.
The prisoner continues calmly: “There are votes enough and there is
time enough to pass the national suffrage amendment through Congress at
this session. More than 200 votes in the House and more than 50 in the
Senate are pledged to this amendment. The President puts his power
behind all measures in which he takes a genuine interest. If he will
say one frank word advocating this measure it will pass as a piece of
war emergency legislation.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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