Volume V Part 57 (1/2)
In the meantime the opponents had succeeded in Maine under its Initiative and Referendum law in having the ratification submitted to the voters and they threatened to take this action in all States having this law. The Ohio Supreme Court sustained the legality of a pet.i.tion for a referendum and it was carried to the Supreme Court of the United States--Hawk vs. the Secretary of the State of Ohio. Here it was argued April 23, 1920. On June 1 the Court announced its decision that the ratification of a Federal Amendment was not subject to action by the voters.
This decision removed the obstacle that existed in Tennessee and its Governor called a special session for August 9. Mrs. Catt took charge of the campaign in person and the ratification was obtained in the Senate on the 13th and the House on the 18th, in the latter with the greatest difficulty. It called for a.s.sistance from President Wilson, from both of the Presidential candidates, the National Committees of both parties and many prominent men and women within and without the State. A full account will be found in the Tennessee chapter. A vote for reconsideration followed; enough members left the State to prevent a quorum and it was not until the 24th that Governor Roberts could forward the certificate of ratification to Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby in Was.h.i.+ngton.[140] Here on August 26 he proclaimed the 19th Amendment a part of the Federal Const.i.tution. A body of the Tennessee legislators, headed by Speaker of the House Seth Walker, went immediately to Was.h.i.+ngton and undertook to obtain an injunction on this action but it was refused by the court.
Although the ratification by the Tennessee Legislature was due to the votes of both Democrats and Republicans the former claimed the credit.
The general election was close at hand in which all women could take part and Republican leaders felt that some action was necessary.
Governor Marcus H. Holcomb of Connecticut called a special session of the Legislature for September 14 and its first act was to ratify the Federal Amendment by unanimous vote of the Senate and 216 to 11 in the House. Owing to a technical question the ratification was repeated September 21.[141]
The stories of these 37 ratifications are interesting--in some States occasions of much pleasure accompanied by music and feasting; in others strenuous contests which left some unpleasant memories. They are described in each State chapter and the failures as well. Especial reference should be made to those of States mentioned here and of Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana.
When the opponents could not prevent ratification they had recourse to the law. The attempt to have a referendum to the voters has been referred to. Efforts were made in many States to have the Attorney Generals declare that the ratification was unconst.i.tutional or that further legislation by the States would be necessary, but they were unavailing. In May, 1920, the official board of the National Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation retained former U. S. Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes as counsel and his advice and his opinions widely published proved to be of the greatest benefit. Although one of the most eminent of lawyers his interest in woman suffrage was so great that he never refused any appeal for a.s.sistance.
On July 7, 1920, before the 36th State had ratified, Charles S.
Fairchild, president of the American Const.i.tutional League, formerly the Men's Anti-Suffrage a.s.sociation of New York, inst.i.tuted injunction proceedings in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia against Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby and Attorney General A. Mitch.e.l.l Palmer. They sought to restrain the Secretary from proclaiming the Federal Suffrage Amendment when it should receive the final ratification and the Attorney General from doing anything to enforce it. On July 13 the case for the Government was argued by Solicitor General William L. Frierson and a.s.sistant U. S. District Attorney James B. Archer. Mr. Fairchild and the league were represented by Everett P. Wheeler, a New York attorney and officer of the league. He contended that under the U. S. Const.i.tution Congress had no power to submit the amendment and that various ratifications were illegal.
Justice Thomas J. Bailey dismissed the injunction proceedings on the ground that neither Mr. Fairchild nor the league had sufficient interest to ent.i.tle them to ask for an injunction and that the court had no authority to go behind the action of the Legislatures in voting for ratification. The case was taken to the District Court of Appeals.
On October 4 this court denied the injunction and dismissed the case as ”frivolous and brought for delay.” It was then carried to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Litigation was threatened in Tennessee. In Maryland a League for State Defense was formed to defeat ratification. It succeeded in the Maryland Legislature and had delegations of legislators sent to Tennessee and West Virginia for the purpose, who were not successful.
On Oct. 30, 1920, this league brought a test case in the Court of Common Pleas in Baltimore through Attorney William L. Marbury against J. Mercer Garnett et al., const.i.tuting the Board of Registry, to compel them to strike the names of two women from the registration books. The suit was filed in the name of Oscar Leser, a former Judge, who had long fought woman suffrage, and twenty members of the league, on the following grounds: The alleged 19th Amendment is not authorized by Article V of the U. S. Const.i.tution; it was never legally ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the States; (those of West Virginia, Tennessee and Missouri were cited); it was rejected by the Maryland Legislature. Everett P. Wheeler a.s.sisted in the trial just before Christmas. The case was conducted for the State by Attorney General J. Lindsay Spencer. Judge Heuisler gave an adverse decision on Jan. 29, 1921. The case was taken to the Court of Appeals and set for April 7. The decision of the lower court was sustained--that ”the power to amend the Const.i.tution of the United States granted by Article V is without limit except as to the words 'equal suffrage in the Senate.' ... From all the exhibits and other evidence submitted the court is of the opinion that there was due, legal and proper ratification of the amendment by the required number of State Legislatures.”
This case also went to the U. S. Supreme Court and there both of them rested. Meanwhile millions of women voted in the general election on Nov. 2, 1920, and in the State and local elections which followed through 1921, and the cases were almost forgotten. Finally in February, 1922, the court heard the arguments, the Government represented by Solicitor General James M. Beck. On the 27th it handed down its decision on the two cases. It upheld the authority of Congress under the Const.i.tution of the United States to submit the amendment; declared that ”the validity of the 15th Amendment had been recognized for half a century”; that ”the Federal Const.i.tution transcends any limitations sought to be imposed by the State”; that ”the Secretary of State having issued the proclamation the amendment had become a part of the National Const.i.tution.”
This was the decision of the highest legal authority, from which there was no appeal.
FOOTNOTES:
[131] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, author of the Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, and with Miss Anthony of Volume IV of the History of Woman Suffrage, which ended with 1900.
[132] For full account see History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I, page 67.
[133] Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, Chapter XVI.
[134] The American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation was organized in Cleveland, O., Nov. 25, 1869, with the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, president; Lucy Stone, chairman of the executive committee, to work especially for amending State const.i.tutions. The two bodies united in February, 1890, under the name National American and the a.s.sociation thenceforth worked vigorously by both methods.
[135] History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II, page 734.
[136] For full account see History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV, Chapter VI.
[137] In 1913 and the years following strenuous work with members of Congress was done by the Congressional Union, afterwards called the National Woman's Party.
[138] For full report of this hearing see Chapter XVIII.
[139] For speech in full see Appendix for this chapter.
[140] As soon as the certificate was despatched Mrs. Catt left Nashville, where she had been for six weeks, accompanied by Mrs.
Harriet Taylor Upton, vice-chairman of the National Republican Executive Committee; Miss Charl Williams, vice-chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and Miss Marjorie Shuler, the National a.s.sociation's chairman of publicity, who had been working with her during this time. They went to Was.h.i.+ngton, called on the President and Secretary of State and in the evening addressed an enthusiastic ma.s.s meeting that filled the largest theater to overflowing. Secretary Colby represented President Wilson, from whom he brought this message:
”Will you take the opportunity to say to my fellow citizens that I deem it one of the greatest honors of my life that this great event, the ratification of this amendment, should have occurred during the period of my administration. Nothing has given me more pleasure than the privilege that has been mine to do what I could to advance the cause of ratification and to hasten the day when the womanhood of America would be recognized by the nation on the equal footing of citizens.h.i.+p that it deserves.”