The Story of the Woman's PartyGillmore, Inez Haynes
History
The Story of the Woman's Party
Gillmore, Inez Haynes
National Woman's Party; Paul, Alice, 1885-1977; Women -- Suffrage -- United States
THE second event of 1915 of less importance nationally, but of great
practical importance to the Congressional Union, was the removal of
Headquarters from the dark, congested rooms in F Street to Cameron
House, sometimes known as the Little White House. Cameron House has
held, ever since its construction, a vivid place in Washington history.
It has been occupied by Senator Donald Cameron; Vice-President Garret A.
Hobart; Senator Mark Hanna. The famous breakfasts given by Senator
Hanna, to which President McKinley often came, occurred here.
Presidents, such as John Quincy Adams, Harrison, Taylor, and Fillmore;
statesmen, such as Webster, Clay, Cass, and Calhoun; historians, such as
Prescott, Bancroft, and Washington Irving, have frequented it. The
Little White House is situated at 21 Madison Place, just across
Lafayette Square from the big White House. From the windows of the big
White House could be seen great banners of purple, white, and gold,
waving at the windows of the Little White House.
Cameron House was charming inside and out. Outside, a great wistaria
vine made in the spring a marvel of its façade, and inside a combination
of fine proportions and a charming architectural arrangement of the
rooms gave it that _gemütlich_ atmosphere necessary to a rallying spot.
When you entered, you came into a great hall, from which a noble
staircase made an effective exit, and in which a huge fireplace formed a
focussing center. All winter long, a fire was going in that fireplace;
there were easy chairs in front of it, and straying off from it. The
Little White House became a place where people dropped in easily. This
big reception hall always held a gay, interesting, and interested group,
composed of Party members resident there; sympathizers and workers who
lived in Washington; people from all over the United States who had come
to Washington on a holiday. The organizers were always returning from
the four corners of the country with a harvest of news and ideas and
plans before starting off for new fields.
Perhaps there is no better place than here to speak of the work of those
remarkable young women—the organizers. It will be remembered that from
the time of the formation of the Congressional Committee to the time
when the Senate passed the Anthony Amendment was about six years and a
half. Yet in 1919, Maud Younger said to me, “There have been three
generations of organizers in this movement.” That was true. Not that
they served their average of two years and left. Most of them who came
to work for the Party stayed with it. It was only that, as the work
grew, developed, expanded, more organizers and even more became
necessary. And perhaps it is one of the chief glories of the Woman’s
Party that these organizers came to them younger and younger, until at
the end they were fresh, beautiful girls in their teens and early
twenties.
The first group consisted of:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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