The History of the Women's Suffrage: The Flame Ignites. Susan B. Anthony
the new Tammany Hall in New York City, on July 4. An account of their insulting reception may be found in the History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. II, p. 340, and in the Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, p. 304. They, with Abby Hopper Gibbons, daughter of Isaac T. Hopper, and Elizabeth Smith Miller, daughter of Gerrit Smith, previously had sent an earnest letter to the National Republican Convention which had met in Chicago in June, asking in the name of the women who had rendered the party such faithful service during the Civil War, that it would recognize in its platform their right to the suffrage, but the letter received no notice whatever.
From that year until the present a committee of women has attended every national convention of all the parties, asking for an indorsement or at least a commendation of their appeal for the franchise. Sometimes they have been received with respect, sometimes with discourtesy, and occasionally they have been granted a few minutes to make their plea before the Committee on Resolutions. In but a single instance has any one of these women, the most eminent in the nation, been permitted to address a Republican convention—at Cincinnati in 1876. Twice this privilege has been extended by a Democratic—at St. Louis in 1876 and at Cincinnati in 1880. A far-off approach to a recognition of woman's claim was made by the National Republican Convention at Philadelphia in 1872, in this resolution:
The Republican party, mindful of its obligations to the loyal women of America, expresses gratification that wider avenues of employment have been opened to woman, and it further declares that her demands for additional rights should be treated with respectful consideration.
Again in 1876 the national convention, held in Cincinnati, adopted the following:
The Republican party recognizes with approval the substantial advance recently made toward the establishment of equal rights for women by the many important amendments effected by the Republican (!) Legislatures, in the laws which concern the personal and property relations of wives, mothers and widows, and by the election and appointment of women to the superintendence of education, charities and other public trusts. The honest demands of this class of citizens for additional rights, privileges and immunities should be treated with respectful consideration.
In 1880, '84, '88 and '92 the women were wholly disregarded. The national platform of 1888, however, contained this plank:
We recognize the supreme and sovereign right of every lawful citizen to cast one free ballot in all public elections and to have that ballot duly counted.
The leaders of the woman suffrage movement at once telegraphed to Chicago to the chairman of the convention, the Hon. Morris M. Estee, asking if this statement was intended to include "lawful women citizens," and he answered, "I do not think the platform is so construed here." A letter was addressed to the presidential candidate, Gen. Benjamin Harrison, begging that in his acceptance of the nomination, he would interpret this declaration as including women, but it was politely ignored.
In 1892 Miss Anthony appeared before the Resolutions Committee of the national convention in Minneapolis and in an address of thirty minutes pleaded that women might have recognition in its platform. At the close many of the members assured her of their thorough belief in the justice of woman suffrage, but said frankly that "the party could not carry the load."147 The following was the suffrage plank in its platform that year:
We demand that every citizen of the United States shall be allowed to cast one free and unrestricted ballot in all public elections, and that such ballot shall be counted as cast; that such laws shall be enacted and enforced as will secure to every citizen, be he rich or poor, native or foreign, white or black, this sovereign right guaranteed by the constitution. The free and honest popular ballot, the just and equal representation of all the people, as well as their just and equal protection under the laws, are the foundation of our republican institutions, and the party will never relax its efforts until the integrity of the ballot and the purity of elections shall be guaranteed and protected in every State.
But not once during the campaign did the party speakers or newspapers apply this declaration to the women citizens of the United States.
In 1896, when the prospects of success seemed certain enough to justify the party in assuming some additional "load," the women made the most impassioned appeal to the committee at the St. Louis convention, with the following remarkable result:
The Republican party is mindful of the rights and interests of women. Protection of American industries includes equal opportunities, equal pay for equal work, and protection to the home. We favor the admission of women to wider spheres of usefulness, and welcome their co-operation in rescuing the country from Democratic mismanagement and Populist misrule.
A whole plank to exploit Republicanism and a small splinter to cajole the women, who had not asked for the suffrage to "rescue" or to defeat any political party!
No Democratic national platform ever has recognized so much as the existence of women, in all its grandiloquent declarations of the "rights of the masses," the "equality of the people," the "sovereignty of the individual" and the "powers inherent in a democracy."
The Populists at the beginning of their career sounded the slogan, "Equal rights to all, special privileges to none," and many believed that at length the great party had arisen which was to secure to women the equal right in the suffrage which thus far had been the special privilege of men. Full of joy and hope there went to the first national convention of this party, held in Omaha, July 4, 1892, Susan B. Anthony and the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, president and vice-president-at-large of the National Suffrage Association. To their amazement they were refused permission even to appear before the Committee on Resolutions, a courtesy which by this time was usually extended at all political conventions. The platform contained no woman suffrage plank and no reference to the question except that in the long preamble occurred this sentence:
We believe that the forces of reform this day organized will never cease to move forward until every wrong is righted, and equal rights and equal privileges securely established for all the men and women of this country.
In 1896 the Populist National Convention in St. Louis effected its great fusion with the Democrats, and the political rights of women were hopelessly lost in the shuffle. By 1900 the organization was thoroughly under Democratic control, and the expectations of women to secure their enfranchisement through this "party of the people," created to reform all abuses and abolish all unjust discriminations, vanished forever. It must be said to its credit, however, that during its brief existence women received more recognition in general than they ever had had from the old parties. They sat as delegates in its national and State conventions and served on National and State Committees; they were employed as political speakers and organizers; and they were elected and appointed to official positions. Various State and county conventions declared in favor of enfranchising women, the majority of the legislators advocated it, and there is reason to believe that in those States where an amendment to secure it was submitted, individual Populists very largely voted for it.
The Prohibition National Conventions many times have put a woman suffrage plank in their platforms, and women have served as delegates and on committees. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union forms the bulwark of this party, and, like its distinguished president, Miss Frances E. Willard, her successor, Mrs. Lillian M. N. Stevens, is an earnest advocate of the enfranchisement of women, which is also true of the vast majority of its members, so it has not been necessary for the Woman Suffrage Association to send delegates to the national conventions, although it has occasionally done so. These have frequently failed, however, to adopt a plank declaring for woman suffrage, the refusal to do so at Pittsburg in 1896 being a principal cause of the division in the ranks which took place at that time.
The Greenback party, the Labor party, the various Socialist parties, and other reform organizations of a political character have made unequivocal declarations for woman suffrage and welcomed women as delegates. Whether they would do so if strong enough to have any hope of electing their candidates must remain an open question until practically demonstrated.148
Women have served a number of times as delegates in the national conventions of most of