The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-08-19
SUFFRAGE WON
AFTER LONG FIGHT
Vote for Woman First AID
yocated In Maryland
In 1647
FIRST CONVENTION
IN NEW YORK 1913

/ Suffrage Associations Formed In 1862
First Proposal to Amend Consti-
| tuition Made In 1s75-victory Comes
As Years Later.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 19.-Ratiica-
ton of the suffrage amendment to the
constitution ends struggle which be-
gan in this country before the colonies
ldeclared their independence. 1t will
Eventually enfranchise 25,000,00o wo-
men. sS
Woman suffrage first raised its voice
| in America in Maryland in 1917 when
Mistress Margaret Brent, heir of Lord
| Calvert, demanded a place in the legis-
lature of the colony as a property
holder of wide extent. And in the days
of the Revolution, Abigail Adams wrote
her husband John Adams at the Cont
mental congress which was framing the
| laws of the infant nation that, ''if-in
| the new laws-particular care and at
tention are not paid to the ladies, we
are determined to foment rebellion
and will not hold ourselves bound to
obey any laws in which we have no
| voice.
| OISdulZcu WOTk TOT NOmdu suffrage
| began in the United States with the
| Woman s Rights convention in Seneca
Falls, N. Y, 1S4S, which was called
by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady
| Stanton, early leaders of Massachusetts
and New York, in response to the in
| dignation aroused by the refusal to per
NIT women to take part in the anti
slavery convention of 1910. From the
date of that convention the suffrage
movement in the United States began
| the fight that lasted 20 years and ended
with victory. Another convention fol
Flowed in 1852 at Syracuse, n. Y, at
which delegates from Canada were
| present and it was there that Susan b
| Anthony assumed leadership of the
cause to which she devoted her life
/ In 1869 the National Woman Suf-
| frage association, with Miss Anthony
and Mrs. Stanton at its head was
| formed in New York and in the same
| year the American Woman Suffrage
/ association was organized in Cleveland
with Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe
rs its leaders. At first differing widely
| in policy, the National association
working to put suffrage amendment
through the federal congress and its
sister organization bending its efforts
| TO convert the country state by state,
the two associations later united I'M
| der the name of the National Woman
| Suffrage association. The association s
! drive for the vote was led in turn by
Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony, Dr. Anna
Howard Shaw and Mrs. Carrie Chap
man Gait, the latter of whom is now
| its president
The nineteenth amendment, which
1 hparg bnr ~
Anthony in 1875 and was first intro
duced in congress in 1873 by Senator
A. A. Sargent of California. and it is
in the same language that the new prin.
: eiple of the national law reads:
. Article, Section l. 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 ae-
| count of sex
s'Section 2. Congress shall have
| power, by appropriate legislation, to
enforce the provisions of this article -
/ The amendment holds the record of
| being before the country longer than
/ any other successful amendment to the
/ constitution 1t was introduced as the
/ 10th amendment and has been success.
| sively the 18th, 18th and 10th and has
i been before every session of congress
/ since It's initial appearance.
/ During the first 80 years after its in
/ PRODUCTION into congress the amendment
made practically no progress and I'M
/ til seven years ago it had not been de.
| bated on the floor for 80 years. But
/ the campaign for the movement was
slowly but steadily gaining ground in
| the states
4 Meanwhile Miss Anthony made test
4 of no rit ght nf women "a cost tbo Hal
| lot by going to the polls and voting.
/ She was arrested and convicted and ).
/ though she refused to pay her fine. was
never jailed. She became, however, the
/ forerunner of the militants'' who
| adopted the forceful tactics of the lat
/ ter days of the campaign.
i Ctate after state gradually enfran-
/ chised its women citizens Beginning
/ with Wyoming in 1869, by 1919 Is
i states had given women the right to
vote, and IA states had presidential
suffrage previous to ratification of the
amendment.
Militancy in the fight for suffrage
in America made its appearance with
the formation of the National Woman g
party in 1913. On the eve of Presi-
dent Wilson s inauguration, 5000 wo-
men led by Alice Paul, now the chair
man of the party, attempted to march
from the Capitol to the White House
They were harassed by a hostile crowd
which overran an unsympathetie police
and the capitol of the United States
had its first experience with suffrage
riots.
Continuing their demonstrations over
period of seven years members of the
women s party picketed the White
W. hap in bnir ho IL