“ We see in every stripe of red the blood which has been shed through the centuries by men and women who have sacrificed their lives for the idea of democracy; we see in every stripe of white the purity of the democratic ideal toward which all the world is tending, and in every star in its field of blue we see the hope of mankind that some day the democracy which that bit of bunting symbolizes shall permeate the lives of men and nations, and we love it because it enfolds our ideals of human freedom and justice. ”

“ No one, man or woman, has ever lost influence by the possession of power. We do not ask the ballot simply as a right, though if it be a right it cannot be rightfully denied us; we do not ask it as a privilege, though if it be a privilege it must be ours unless we admit the existence of a privileged class. We demand it because it is a duty and one which no good citizen has a right to shirk.
If you are indifferent come and be convinced. What we ask is not revolutionary but is the reasonable and just demand of every being living under a democratic form of government. ”

“ Let us listen to our fellow workers, and, listening and sympathizing with the unselfish labor being carried on everywhere, pledge ourselves to a flaming loyalty to suffrage and suffragists that will burn away all dross of dissension, all barriers to united effort. Let us come with high resolve that we will never waver in our effort to obtain the right to stand side by side with the men of this country in the mortal struggle that shall bid perish from this land political corruption, privilege, prostitution, the industrial slavery of men, women and children and all exploitation of humanity. ”

“ May we, the daughters of an alien race who slew your people and usurped your country, learn the lessons of calm endurance, of patient persistence and unfaltering courage exemplified in your life, in our efforts to lead men through the Pass of justice, which goes over the mountains of prejudice and conservatism to the broad land of the perfect freedom of a true republic; one in which men and women together shall in perfect equality solve the problems of a nation that knows no caste, no race, no sex in opportunity, in responsibility or in justice! ”

“ We all remember Lincoln's declaration that "when the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is despotism." The exercise of any power of government not emanating from the consent of the governed, therefore, is despotism. After men by an assumption of power have attached the elective franchise to themselves, is it a just answer to the demand of women to say that men have concluded that "suffrage is a privilege which attaches neither to man nor to woman by nature?" ”

“ You can not trust the ballot to women who are controlling millions of money and helping support the country but you give it to loafers and vagabonds who know nothing, have nothing and represent nothing. You can not trust the ballot in the hands of women who are the wives and daughters of your heroes but you give it to those who are willing to sell it for a glass of beer and you trust it in the hands of anarchists. Oh, men, let justice speak and may the public weal demand that this disfranchisement of the noble American women shall be stopped. ”

“ We hear the cry everywhere that democracy is a failure. A speaker in New York said that our democracy was the laughing stock of all the civilized nations of the world. It is the laughing stock because of the failure of this democracy to dare to be democratic. We have never tried universal suffrage but if that which we have is a failure the cure for it is not to restrict it but to extend it, because no class of men is able to represent another class and it is much truer that no class nor all classes of men are capable of representing any class or all classes of women. ”

“ I am proud that from the period of the Civil War and a little before, when the cause of the emancipation of the slave was the foremost question of the time and was only settled by the horrors of a long struggle—from that time I espoused the cause of woman suffrage. I hope there will be no need to fight for it as we fought during those long years but at least there should be a war of words until women have the power to deposit a ballot, until they have complete enfranchisement. ”

“ Constitution which declare that "the right of the citizen to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State," and for forty-five years Congress has turned a deaf ear to the appeal of our own citizens for protection under this law? Is it true that the United States Constitution too is but a "scrap of paper" to be repudiated at will? If, as a mediator of justice, we hold out our hands to lift other nations from the abyss into which injustice has plunged them, they must be clean hands. ”

“ Since the last convention met all the horror of a great war has fallen upon the civilized world. The hearts of thousands of women have been torn by the death and wounds of those they bore, of those they love, yet never has their will and power to help been greater, never man's need of such help been more clearly seen. We, who are spared the anguish of war, well understand that as weight is given in the world's affairs to the voice of women, moved as men are not by all the tragic waste of battles, the chances of such slaughter must perpetually diminish. ”

“ When we go to the voters of a campaign State to ask them to vote "yes" on a woman suffrage amendment, we go as petitioners with smiles and arguments and unwearied patience. We tell them over and over again the same well established truths; that it is the essence of democracy that all classes of people should have the power of protection in their own hands; that women are people and that they have special interests which need representation in politics; that where women have the right to vote they vote in the same proportion as men ”

“ Wilson declared we want nothing out of the war, I said in my own heart: "It may be that we want nothing material out of the war, but, oh, we want the biggest thing that has ever come to the world—we want Peace now and Peace forever." If we cannot get that peace out of this war what hope is there that it will ever come to humanity? Was there ever such a chance offered to the world before? Was there ever a time when the peoples of all nations looked towards America as they are looking to-day because of our unselfishness in our dealings with them during the war? ”

“ Men throughout the world hold their suffrage by the guarantee of the two principles of liberty and for these reasons only: One, "Taxation without representation is tyranny"; who dares deny it? And are not women taxed? The other, "Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." How simple and unanswerable that petition of justice!... Woman suffrage must meet precisely the same objections which have been urged against man suffrage and in addition it must combat sex-prejudice, a prejudice against the rights, liberties and opportunities of women. ”

“ Men nearest the door hasten to light the candles of horsemen outside who speed away on the mission of torchbearer to every home, so that by nightfall the candles on every altar burn with a new brightness that has been transmitted from the holy fire. Likewise the fire of inspiration, kindled in the great soul of Anna Howard Shaw, touched into flame the zeal and courage of her messengers, who in turn reached the homes throughout the nation with her fervor and power. ”

“ I cannot see how any man who calls himself a Democrat can fail to recognize that the fundamental principle of democracy is the right of the citizen to a voice in the government under which that citizen lives; much less can I understand how any southern man can look unmoved into the face of southern women knowing that they are branded as no other body of intelligent people in this country are—by disfranchisement—that they are deprived of that one symbol of power which elevates the citizens of a democracy out of the class of the defective and unfit. ”

“ No one who lives, who ever lived, who ever will live understands or really accepts and believes in a republic which denies to women the right of consent by their ballots to that government. Such a position is unthinkable and the time has come when an aristocracy of sex must give place to a real republic or the absurdity of the position, as it exists, will make us the laughing stock of the world. Let us either stop our pretence before the nations of the earth of being a republic and having "equality before the law" or else let us become the republic that we pretend to be. ”

“ I consider no woman guiltless, whether she lives in a suffrage State or not, if she does not hold herself responsible for guarding less fortunate women. Corrupt custom has rent the sacred, seamless robe of womanhood and cast out part of the women, abandoning them to degradation. We must learn to recognize the responsibility of pure women for the fallen women, of the woman whose circumstances have enabled her to stand, for the woman whom adverse conditions have borne down. ”

“ On the contrary, nothing save a community of great interests—whether in agreement or disagreement—can revive a fading romance. A high and equal comradeship is the one thing that can save those families which are the tottering cornerstones of society. A greater service of the developed woman to the State, however, will be her service in motherhood.... And yet to hear the sacredness of motherhood advanced as a reason why women should not become public-spirited and effectual, you would think this nation had no greater hope than to rear in innocence a generation of grown-up babies. ”

“ Women are one-half of the world, but until a century ago the world of music and painting and sculpture and literature and scholarship and science was a man's world. The world of trades and professions and work of all kinds was a man's world. Women lived a twilight life, a half-life apart, and looked out and saw men as shadows walking. Now women have won the right to higher education and to economic independence. The right to become citizens of the State is the next and inevitable consequence of education and work outside the home. ”

“ So in this woman suffrage movement we have learned that the apathy of women to their own political freedom is as great an obstacle to our success as the unwillingness of men to grant our claims. It is of the same importance to us to educate women out of their indifference as it is to educate men out of their unwillingness. If it should happen that this education shall come to women first, they will never need the argument of force to induce men to remove the legal obstacles, for men and women cannot long think unlike on any subject. ”

“ I believe in woman suffrage because I believe in the home.... I don't care a whit for the argument that women with property should have a vote. Property will always be represented and it does not so much matter whether the property-holding women have a vote or not but it is of immense importance to those women who work for their living. That they have no representation is a great menace to those who are nominally free but who must compete with slaves. Women are economic entities and they should be represented. Labor without representation is as wrong as taxation without representation. ”

“ We have great things at stake in our children. We are trying to take away that shadow which rests upon these United States, the shadow of child labor. It will not be done until the mothers have the right to speak for their children through the ballot. We are looking for the day when we shall be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with our men and share with them the burdens and responsibilities of this greatest nation and be able to hold up our heads and say: "We are on an equal footing because we have men in the United States who recognize equality of rights." ”

“ When we look back over its past history; when we see the land barren, the desolation everywhere; when we see the homes left destitute and the women prostrate by the graves of their dead; when we realize that the men were nearly all swept away—we know that the power which kept the South steadfast, which held the homes together, which cherished the traditions, which made the South what it is today was the loyalty, the patriotism, the unconquerable courage and the devotion of Southern women in that hour of darkness and despair. ”