Women -- Suffrage -- History; Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History; Women's rights -- History; Women's rights -- United States -- History
At one meeting Judge Roger S. Greene, who was Chief Justice of the
Territory of Washington when the majority of the Supreme Court gave a
decision which took away the suffrage from women and who loyally tried
to preserve it for them, was invited to the platform and received an
ovation. At another time Judge William Galloway, a veteran suffragist,
was called before the convention, and after referring to his journey
to Oregon by ox-team in 1852 told of his conversion by Mrs. Duniway
when he was a member of the Legislature at the age of 21. National
conventions were of daily occurrence during the Exposition and a
number of them called for addresses by Mrs. Catt, Dr. Shaw and other
suffrage speakers. At the evening session preceding the last Miss Mary
S. Anthony, 78 years old, read in a clear, strong voice the
Declaration of Sentiments adopted at the famous first Woman's Rights
Convention in 1848, which she had signed. The rest of the evening of
July 4 was given to what the _Woman's Journal_ spoke of as "Mrs.
Catt's noble address," The New Time, beginning:
This is a glorious Fourth of July. In a hundred years the United
States has grown into a mighty nation. This last has been a
century of wonderful material development, but we celebrate not
for this. July 4 commemorates the birth of a great idea. All over
the world, wherever there is a band of revolutionists or of
evolutionists, today they celebrate our Fourth. The idea existed
in the world before but it was never expressed in clear,
succinct, intelligible language until the American republic came
into being.... Taxation without representation is tyranny, it
always was tyranny, it always will be tyranny, and it makes no
difference whether it be the taxation of black or white, rich or
poor, high or low, man or woman.... The United States has lost
its place as the leading exponent of democracy. Australia and New
Zealand have out-Americanized America. Let us not forget that
progress does not cease with the 20th century. We say our
institutions are liberal and just. They may be liberal but they
are not just for they are not derived from the consent of the
governed. What is your own mental attitude toward progress? If
you should meet a new idea in the dark, would you shy?
Robespierre said that the only way to regenerate a nation was
over a heap of dead bodies but in a republic the way to do it is
over a heap of pure, white ballots.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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