Wilson Endorses Suffrage
The treatment of the suffragists in prison had increased the public's support for their cause. Finally, due to the combined pressure from both the NWP and NAWSA, President Wilson abandoned his apathetic attitude toward suffrage and came out in full support of it (Mayo, 2007). In a 1918 speech to the Senate, he appealed to lawmakers to pass a comprehensive suffrage amendment. In his speech he cited the importance of women in the war effort and said that equal suffrage was needed to win the war. He asked, "we have made partners of the women in this war, shall we admit them only to a partnership of suffering and sacrifice and toil, and not to a partnership of privilege and right?" (Flexner, 1996). When the Senate voted in 1918 they were only two votes short of those necessary to pass the amendment. The change in attitude of the American people was reflected by the President's words which ended up being the turning point the movement needed.
Passing the Bill
The suffragists and their supporters were energized by the President's support and both the NWP and NAWSA continued to campaign ceaselessly until the day of the next vote in 1919. Almost a year after its two-vote defeat, the Nineteenth Amendment was passed in Congress by just two votes (Clift, 2003). The only hurdle left was getting the amendment ratified by three-quarters of the states. After the amendment was passed in Congress suffragist immediately sprang into action contacting state leaders to pressure them to call their legislators to session and ratify the amendment. Throughout the summer and fall of 1919 the amendment moved through state legislatures, and, by February of 1920, 32 out of the necessary 36 states had ratified the Nineteenth Amendment (Weatherford, 1998).
The Final Hurdle: Tennessee
The last votes were the most difficult, suffragists had always known that ratification in the more conservative, southern states would be complicated and so they had sent extra delegates to those states with messages of support for the pro-suffrage legislators. In the end it came down to a very heated debate in the Tennessee legislature. Carrie Chapman Catt herself spent over two months in Tennessee trying to secure this final state. The official tally came out to 48-48, which meant defeat for the amendment, however, Representative Harry Burn changed his vote at the last minute making the final count 49-47 in favor of ratification. When accused of accepting bribes, Burn responded by saying, "I know that a mother's advise is always safest for her boy to follow and my mother wanted me to vote for ratification" (Weatherford, 1998, p. 243). Even after the votes were counted the opposition fought desperately to suspend ratification, going so far as to leave town to try to suspend a decision while the Speaker of the House tried to sway one of those voting in favor. In the end, however, the oppositions tricks ran out and Tennessee became the final state needed for ratification. Finally, on August 26, 1920, Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby signed the proclamation that made the Nineteenth Amendment a part of the US Constitution (Clift, 2003). The Amendment states, "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" (Weatherford, 1998). This wording was not changed from the original Amendment, that would have been the Sixteenth, that was drafted by Susan B. Anthony in 1878.
*Alice Paul unfurls the ratification banner from the National Woman's Party headquarters as the news spreads that Tennessee has ratified the Nineteenth Amendment on August 18, 1920 (National Photo Co., 1920).
*Alice Paul unfurls the ratification banner from the National Woman's Party headquarters as the news spreads that Tennessee has ratified the Nineteenth Amendment on August 18, 1920 (National Photo Co., 1920).
Conclusion
It took 72 years, from the Seneca Falls Convention, until full suffrage was finally granted to American women. In the end Carrie Chapman Catt tallied up a count of the battles: "480 campaigns in state legislatures; 56 statewide referenda to male voters; 47 attempts to add suffrage planks during revisions of state constitutions; 277 campaigns at state party conventions and 30 at national conventions; and 19 biannual campaigns in 19 different Congresses" (Weatherford, 1998, p. 244). That count does not include the thousands of women and men who were harassed, imprisoned, and tortured for speaking out against inequality; the millions of people who spent their lives fighting for the cause only to depart this life without seeing the fruit of their labors; or the countless women who lived and died under a government that treated them as second class citizens. At the time of the passage only one of the founding suffragists who attended the convention at Seneca Falls was still living. Charlotte Woodward Pierce had been the youngest signer of the Declaration of Sentiments, at nineteen, and was ninety-one at the time of the ratification (Clift, 2003).
The struggle for freedom did not end with the passage of a law. In the years that followed women would have many issues to combat, activists such as Alice Paul and Carrie Chapman Catt continued to work to improve the lives of women. Paul who lived into her nineties, wrote the first draft of the controversial Equal Rights Amendment in 1921 and campaigned for its passage until her death in 1977. Catt, who was a generation older than Paul, died in 1947. She spoke out, until her death, about the magnitude of the rights of citizens and stressed the desire that women not take their freedom for granted. She stated, "women have suffered an agony of soul which you can never comprehend that your daughters might inherit political freedom. That vote has been costly. Prize it" (Clift, 2003, p. 209). Her comment sums up the overall importance of what the suffragists did and why we should never forget. The right to vote is fundamental to being a citizen of this country. It is, therefore, crucial that we remember the fact that this right has not always been granted freely. It took hundreds of years to ensure this basic right to all and it must never be taken for granted.
The struggle for freedom did not end with the passage of a law. In the years that followed women would have many issues to combat, activists such as Alice Paul and Carrie Chapman Catt continued to work to improve the lives of women. Paul who lived into her nineties, wrote the first draft of the controversial Equal Rights Amendment in 1921 and campaigned for its passage until her death in 1977. Catt, who was a generation older than Paul, died in 1947. She spoke out, until her death, about the magnitude of the rights of citizens and stressed the desire that women not take their freedom for granted. She stated, "women have suffered an agony of soul which you can never comprehend that your daughters might inherit political freedom. That vote has been costly. Prize it" (Clift, 2003, p. 209). Her comment sums up the overall importance of what the suffragists did and why we should never forget. The right to vote is fundamental to being a citizen of this country. It is, therefore, crucial that we remember the fact that this right has not always been granted freely. It took hundreds of years to ensure this basic right to all and it must never be taken for granted.