Volume V Part 56 (1/2)
On August 26 a five days' debate in the Senate began and the report of it in the _Congressional Record_ is a historic doc.u.ment which will take its place with the debates on slavery before the Civil War. It was soon apparent that three of the new Senators, who there was reason to hope would vote in favor--Drew of New Hamps.h.i.+re, Baird of New Jersey and Benet of South Carolina--were among the opponents and there would be two less than a two-thirds majority. Every minute was filled with the efforts to obtain these votes and finally an appeal was again made to President Wilson. There was the greatest anxiety until it was learned that he would take the unprecedented step of addressing the Senate in person on the subject September 30. This was done to the joy of its friends and the wrath of its enemies. Mrs. Park, chairman of the Congressional Committee of the National Suffrage a.s.sociation, said in her report: ”For a while our fears were at rest and Monday afternoon when the words of that n.o.ble speech fell upon our ears it seemed impossible that a third of the Senate could refuse the never-to-be-forgotten plea.[139]
Scarcely had the door closed upon the President when Senator Underwood took the floor for a prolonged State's rights argument against the amendment. He was followed by others opposed and in favor, during whose speeches the leaders of the opposition of both parties went about among the members trying to counteract the influence of the President's address.
The next day various amendments proposed were defeated; one by Senator Williams (Miss.) to amend by making the resolution read: ”The right of _white_ citizens to vote shall not be denied, etc.,” was laid on the table by a vote of 61 to 22. One by Senator Frelinghuysen (N. J.), denying the vote to ”female persons who are not citizens otherwise than by marriage” was also laid on the table by a vote of 53 to 33.
One by Senator Fletcher (Fla.) to strike out the words ”or by any State” so that the section would read: ”The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States on account of s.e.x,” was laid on the table by a vote of 65 to 17.
The Senate vote Oct. 1, 1918, on the amendment itself, stood 54 in favor to 30 against, or, including pairs, 62 in favor to 34 against, two votes short of the needed two-thirds majority. Chairman Jones changed his vote and moved reconsideration, which put the amendment back in its old place on the calendar. a.n.a.lyzed by parties and including pairs the vote stood:
Yes No Democrats 30 22 Republicans 32 12 -- -- Total 62 34
President Wilson on the eve of sailing for Europe to the Peace Conference included in his address to a joint session of Congress December 2 another eloquent appeal for the pa.s.sage of the Federal Suffrage Amendment.
It had become evident by the action of the 65th Congress that something more efficacious than public opinion or pressure from high sources was required to secure the needed two votes in the Senate. The official board of the National Suffrage a.s.sociation, therefore, for the first time in its history decided to enter the political campaigns. Those of New Hamps.h.i.+re, New Jersey, Ma.s.sachusetts and Delaware were selected in the hope of defeating the Senatorial candidates for re-election who had opposed the amendment and electing those who would support it. It was necessary to use influence against Republican candidates in three States and a Democratic candidate in Delaware. Two of these efforts were successful and a Republican, J.
Heisler Ball, defeated the Democratic Senator Saulsbury of Delaware, and a Democrat, David I. Walsh, defeated the Republican Senator Weeks of Ma.s.sachusetts. Both of the new members voted for the amendment in the 66th Congress.
The election returns on November 6 indicated that the necessary two-thirds majority in the 66th Congress had been secured. This belief was shared by prominent Democrats, who from that time spared no effort to make unfriendly Democratic Senators realize the folly of their position in leaving the victory for the Republican Congress which had been elected. At this election the voters of Michigan, South Dakota and Oklahoma by large majorities fully enfranchised their women, adding six Senators and twenty-four Representatives to the number partly elected by the votes of women. Texas this year had given women a vote at Primary elections, almost equal to the complete suffrage.
Resolutions were pa.s.sed by twenty-five State Legislatures in January and early February, 1919, calling upon the Senate to submit the Federal Amendment. William P. Pollock of South Carolina, who had been elected to succeed Senator Benet, was not only in favor of it but was working to secure the one vote among the southern Senators which, added to his own, would complete the two-thirds. A conference of friendly Democratic Senators on February 2 decided that a vote must be taken the following week if this party was to have the credit. The next day the Senate Woman Suffrage Committee met and unanimously voted to bring up the amendment on February 10. The reasons for the decision were, first, that there was a chance to win and nothing to be lost by recording the friends and enemies; second, that one man had been gained since the last vote and there was a possibility that another could be won. President Wilson cabled from Paris urging doubtful Senators to vote in favor. William Jennings Bryan came to Was.h.i.+ngton to intercede for it.
On pet.i.tion of twenty-two Democratic Senators, a party caucus on suffrage was held on February 5, but the enemies died hard. They immediately made a motion to adjourn but the suffragists without proxies defeated the ”antis,” who voted proxies, by 22 to 16. On a resolution that the Democratic Senators support the Federal Suffrage Amendment, twenty-two voted in the affirmative but when ten had voted in the negative those ten were allowed by Senator Thomas S. Martin (Va.), Democratic floor leader, to withdraw their votes in order that he might declare that, as the vote stood 22 to 0, a quorum had not voted!
After the close of the morning business on Feb. 10, 1919, Chairman Jones moved to take up the amendment. An extremely strong speech in its favor was made by Senator Pollock. The only other speeches were by Senator Frelinghuysen on points of naturalization and by Edward J.
Gay, the new Senator from Louisiana, in opposition. The vote taken early in the afternoon showed 55 in favor and 29 opposed. As on October 1, all the members who were not present to vote were accounted for by pairs, so that it stood practically 63 to 33. In other words the amendment was lost in the 65th Congress by only one vote and the individual responsibility for the defeat lay at the door of every Senator who voted against it.
From the States west of the Mississippi River only three Senators voted ”no”--Borah of Idaho, Reed of Missouri and Hitchc.o.c.k of Nebraska.
Only three States--Alabama, Delaware and Georgia--cast all their votes in both Senate and House against the amendment.
Twenty States cast all their votes in Senate and House in favor--Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Was.h.i.+ngton and Wyoming. In all of these women already had full or partial suffrage.
On February 17 Senator Wesley L. Jones of Was.h.i.+ngton re-introduced the amendment in its old form, stating that he expected no action during the present Congress. On the following day Senator Gay introduced an amendment in which the right of enforcement was given to the various States and Congress was excluded. On the 20th Senator Kenneth McKellar of Tennessee introduced one requiring personal naturalization of alien women. Senator Gay agreed to support an amendment introduced February 28 by Chairman Jones, giving the States the right to enforce the amendment, but, in case of their failure to do so, permitting Congress to enact appropriate legislation. Just before the close of the session on March 3, a southern Democrat, in response to a cablegram from President Wilson, consented to give the measure the lacking vote if it could be brought up again but this the Republicans declined to permit.
During this winter of 1919 the National American a.s.sociation continued the work of obtaining from the Legislatures Presidential suffrage for women and to the list were added Maine, Vermont, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Tennessee, fourteen altogether. By May 1, adding the States with this Presidential suffrage to the fifteen where women had the complete franchise, it was estimated that about 15,500,000 would be able to ”vote for the President” in the general election of 1920. They could vote for 306 of the 531 members of the Electoral College, 40 more than half. About half of the above number would exercise the full suffrage. Thirty-four Senators and 130 Representatives were now elected partly by women, including those from Arkansas and Texas.
One-third of the Senate and all of the House of Representatives were elected in November, 1918. Many of the old members were re-elected, some friends and some enemies of the Federal Suffrage Amendment. The Republicans had a large majority and both parties wanted an early vote on it. President Wilson made this possible by calling a special session to meet May 19, 1919. Representative Frank W. Mondell (Wyo.) was elected majority leader of the House and Representative James R.
Mann (Ills.) appointed chairman of the Committee on Woman Suffrage, both Republicans. The resolution for the Federal Amendment was introduced by six members on the opening day and on the 20th was favorably reported by the committee and placed on the calendar for the next day, even before the President's message was read, in which it was recommended. On May 21, after two hours' discussion, it was pa.s.sed by 42 more than the needed two-thirds. The vote stood as follows:
In Favor Opposed Republicans 200 19 Democrats 102 70 Miscellaneous 2 0 --- -- 304 89
Members from southern States cast 71 of the affirmative votes and four from the North were born in the South. The Democrats polled 54 per cent. of their voting strength for the amendment and the Republicans polled 84 per cent. of theirs.
In all the great area west of the Mississippi River, excluding Texas and Louisiana, only one vote in the lower house was cast against the amendment--that of Representative H. E. Hull (Rep.), Iowa. In the group of Middle States only five opposing votes were cast--two from Wisconsin, one from Michigan, two from Ohio. The opposition centered in the coast States from Louisiana to Maryland; aside from these the largest opposing majorities were from Pennsylvania and Ma.s.sachusetts.
Twenty-six States--over half of the whole number--gave unanimous support; thirteen had large favorable majorities; one was tied--Maryland; five gave opposing majorities--Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Virginia; only two cast a solid vote in opposition--Mississippi and South Carolina.
These statistics did not indicate that ”a few States were trying to force this amendment on a vast unwilling majority of States,” as the opponents a.s.serted. The increase from the majority of one in 1918 to 42 in 1919 is accounted for by the fact that at the congressional election during the interim 117 new members were elected, of whom 103 voted for the amendment. As it had been an issue in the campaign they represented the sentiment of their const.i.tuencies. Fifteen of the former members who were re-elected changed from negative to affirmative. From January, 1918, to June, 1919, not one member of either House broke his promise to vote for the amendment except Representative Daniel J. Riordan (Dem.) of New York, although many of them were subjected to extreme pressure by the interests opposed to it.
The resolution for the Amendment was introduced in the Senate May 23, 1919, by four members and half a dozen others expressed a wish to present it. The new Committee on Woman Suffrage had not been appointed and it was referred to the old one, whose chairman, Senator Jones, asked unanimous consent to have it placed on the calendar at once.