“ I know that a mother's advice is always safest for her boy to follow and my mother wanted me to vote for ratification. I appreciated the fact that an opportunity such as seldom comes to mortal man—to free 17,000,000 women from political slavery—was mine. I desired that my party in both State and Nation might say it was a Republican from the mountains of East Tennessee, purest Anglo-Saxon section in the world, who made woman suffrage possible, not for any personal glory but for the glory of his party. ”

“ There can be no democratization which excludes women and no safe or sound democracy which is not based upon an educated, intelligent electorate. Nor is it enough to establish democracy in individual nations—it must be extended to world politics. The old militarism must go and with it the old diplomacy, with its secret treaties, distrust and intrigues. No League of Nations can abolish war unless every government in the world is based on democracy. ”

“ The greatest danger to the Republic of the United States today, as it always has been in governments where the people rule, is in an excitable and emotional suffrage. If the women of this country would always think coolly and deliberate calmly, if they could always be controlled and act by judgment and not under passion, they might help us to keep our institutions "eternal as the foundations of the continent itself" ”

“ The right of suffrage does not attach of right to the owners of property, for, if so, all other persons should be disfranchised. It is not a fundamental right of taxpayers, for a great body of men are not taxpayers, and nine-tenths of the women who would become voters, if woman suffrage were adopted, would be non-taxpayers. It is not an inherent right of citizenship, for the time never was in the whole history of the world when the franchise was granted to all citizens.... Franchise is a privilege of government granted only to those to whom the Government sees fit to grant it. ”

“ We must strike a note in this meeting so full of sisterly sympathy, of faith in womanhood, of exultant hope, a note so impelling, that it will be heard by the women of all lands and will call them forth to join our world's army. ”

“ Indeed, when we look back over that little stretch of time and observe the mighty changes which have come within our movement; when we hear the reports of the awakening of men and women to the justice of our cause all the way around the world, I am sure that there is no pessimist among us who does not realize that at last the tide of woman's enfranchisement is coming in. ”

“ A government "of the people by the people" can not and does not exist in a commonwealth in which one-half of its citizens are denied the right of suffrage. The women of Kentucky are citizens and there is no good or just reason why they should be refused the full and equal exercise of the sovereign right of every free people—the ballot. Every member of this General Assembly is unequivocally committed by his party's platform declaration to cast his vote and use his influence for the immediate enfranchisement of women in both nation and State. ”

“ There are spheres in which feeling should be paramount. There are kingdoms in which the heart should reign supreme. That kingdom belongs to woman—the realm of sentiment, the realm of love, the realm of gentler and holier and kindlier attributes that make the name of wife, mother and sister next to the name of God himself, but it is not in harmony with suffrage and has no place in government.
We submit these considerations in all candor to the men of this State. Ultimately the decision of this question at the polls is a man's question. We ask your cooperation.... ”

“ While as Southerners we wish to see the power of the State retained, yet as women we are equally determined to secure, as of paramount importance, the right which is the birthright of an American citizen. We, therefore, appeal to you gentlemen vested with the power largely to shape conditions to confer with us and influence public opinion to adopt woman suffrage through State action. Failing to accomplish this, the onus of responsibility will rest upon the men of the South if southern women are forced to support a National Amendment, weighted with the same objections as the Fifteenth. ”

“ Many of the Chinese women have already been decapitated for the truth they have told while fighting their battle for freedom and all the leaders of the woman movement know that their life is uncertain and that any day the men may find a reason to silence them when their eloquence and enthusiasm make too many converts. In translating the words which they embroidered upon this bright red satin you will learn what is going on in the minds of the new Chinese women: "The Mutual Helping Society to the International Alliance. Helping each other, all of one mind." ”

“ All who knew her well mourn her and long will they miss her wise counsel, her hearty cheerfulness and her splendid optimism. There has been no important national suffrage meeting in the United States for half a century and no international meeting of significance at any time in which she has not been a conspicuous figure. ”

“ We women of twenty-six countries, having banded ourselves together in the International Woman Suffrage Alliance with the object of obtaining the political means of sharing with men the power which shapes the fate of nations, appeal to you to leave untried no method of conciliation or arbitration for arranging international differences which may help to avert deluging half the civilized world in blood. ”

“ New York was the cradle of the movement for woman suffrage not only in this State but in the world, for here in 1848 was held the first Women's Rights Convention in all history. Except during the Civil War there was no year after 1850 when one or more such conventions did not take place until 1920, when all the women of the United States were enfranchised by an amendment to the National Constitution. This State was the home of the two great leaders for half a century—Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. ”

“ Asquith. It will ever be an open question on which different people, with equal opportunities of forming a judgment, will pronounce different verdicts, whether "militancy" did more harm or good to the suffrage cause. It certainly broke down the "conspiracy of silence" on the subject up to then observed by the press. Every extravagance, every folly, every violent expression, and of course when the "militants" after 1908 proceeded to acts of violence, every outrage against person or property were given the widest possible publicity not only in Great Britain but all over the world. ”

“ While the women in the District of Columbia rejoiced with those in the States over the successful end of the long, hard fight for the Federal Suffrage Amendment their joy was tempered by the fact that they still had before them a struggle for an amendment which would enfranchise the residents of the District—one really for equal suffrage, men and women alike being without the vote. The Congress itself now has entire jurisdiction, each branch appointing a committee for the purpose. ”

“ Clarence Hale, State president of the anti-suffrage organization, issued the following: "The large majority vote cast against suffrage today must indicate, as did the great vote of Massachusetts in 1915, that the East is not in favor of the entrance of women into political life. The result should satisfy the suffragists for all time and they should now practice the principles of democracy and fairness, which they are so ready to preach, by refraining from further disputing the will of the people.... We can now return to give our services to the State and the nation in woman's normal way." ”

“ If a petition opposed to woman suffrage should be presented to the Hottentots, the Afghanistans, the tribes of Thibet or to the interior of Turkey, every individual would sign it and the longest petition 'opposed to the further extension of rights to women' yet known could be secured there. A petition for suffrage, however, carries a very different meaning; every name represents a convert, a victory, an education of the understanding, an answer to an appeal for justice. A woman suffrage petition is a gain; an anti-suffrage petition merely shows how much more must be gained. ”

“ From its sources ages ago, amid the protests which we know barbaric women must have made against the cruel wrongs done their sex, we clearly trace its course through the centuries, moving slowly but majestically onward, gathering momentum with each century, each generation, until just before us lies the golden sea of woman's full liberty. ”

“ Pyle and her lieutenants met at Pierre, the capital, prepared for action. The hard work, the deep devotion to the cause of the men and women of preceding years had begun to bear fruit and instead of finding a lone member here and there in favor of woman suffrage, now there were many. Hitherto it had been solely a woman's campaign, aided by only a few loyal men who dared brave the ridicule of their brothers. The years of education had begun to change public opinion and the president felt that the time for women to be buttonholing unwilling men in the lobbies in an apologetic manner was past. ”

“ Catt described the influence the Alliance had had in these changes and said: "We have been baptised in that spirit of the 20th century which the world calls Internationalism; it is a sentiment like love or religion or patriotism, which is to be experienced rather than defined in words. Under the influence of this new spirit we realize that we are not enlisted for the work of our own countries alone but that before us stretches the task of emancipating the women of the civilized world...." ”

“ While no certainty exists that the favorable action of Nevada will in 1920 assure to the women of the United States the same voting privileges which our own women enjoy by virtue of our State law, it does appear certain that without our favorable action national suffrage may be delayed for such a time as to withhold the right to vote in a presidential election from millions of the women of America. ”

“ Catt convinced those of all nations that impartiality and justice would prevail without exception; a common bond united them; they learned that in all countries the obstacles to woman suffrage were the same and that in all women were oppressed by the inequality of the laws and by their disenfranchisement, and they understood the influence which could be exerted through an international movement. ”

“ Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, who answered in part: "I cannot express to you how happy I am that you are willing to begin the work in your State where very little has been done for suffrage because of the great conservatism among the women of the South. I am very glad if they are now beginning to realize their absolutely helpless and unprotected position. We have the temperance agitation to thank for arousing a great many women over all the country...." ”

“ We have a full appreciation of all the great things which have been accomplished by women in education, in charity and in benevolent work and in other channels of duty too numerous to mention, by which both men and women have been benefited, society improved and the welfare of the human race advanced. We would take from women none of their privileges as citizens but we do not believe that women are adapted to the political work of the world. ”

“ We hear it frequently stated that there is no argument against woman suffrage except sentiment. We can reply with equal force that there is no argument for woman suffrage except sentiment, and that often misguided and uninformed. Some suffragists insist that if woman suffrage became universal "it would set in motion the machinery of an earthly paradise." ”

“ To what he called the proposal to "force through the 19th Amendment for woman suffrage in the same manner," he said: "I will never be a party to any proceeding which proposes to change [Pg 659] the organic law of the State without the consent of the people." "The National Constitution," he said, "threatens free popular government alike as it stands and as it is interpreted by the Supreme Court. Its decision leaves the people at the mercy of any group of men who may lobby a proposal for a change in it through Congress and then through the Legislatures." ”

“ It has been said that if woman suffrage should become universal in the United States, in times of great excitement arising out of sectional questions or local conditions this country would be in danger of State insurrections and seditions and that in less than a hundred years revolutions would occur and our republican form of government would come to an end. The United States should guard against emotional suffrage. What we need is to put more logic and less feeling into public affairs. This country has already extended suffrage beyond reasonable bounds. ”

“ Open that terrible page of the French Revolution and the days of terror, when the click of the guillotine and the rush of blood through the streets of Paris demonstrated to what extremities the ferocity of human nature can be driven by political passion. ”

“ An emancipator is not the man who takes the prisoner all the way to the door and lets him look out but the man who actually unlocks the door and lets him go free. Once in history the Republican party played the part of a genuine emancipator. Now it looks very much as if it was playing petty politics.... At the time of the last State Republican convention the Hartford Courant obligingly explained that the suffrage resolution it passed was a pretense and really meant nothing—a statement, it is only fair to say, repudiated by many honorable Republicans. ”

“ Although the task of persuading the huge cosmopolitan population of New York State to grant equality to women had been recognized as being almost superhuman, the work done had been so colossal that it would have been impossible not to hope for success. Mrs. Catt had planned and seen carried out a masterly campaign never before approached anywhere in the history of suffrage. ”

“ Everywhere was cruel injustice to women, barred out from the higher places, working for half the pay of men in others, and discriminated against even by the labor unions. "They are utterly at the mercy of selfish employers, of hard economic conditions and unfair legislation," she said. "The only logical conclusion is to give votes to working women that they may defend their own wages, hours and conditions. We have worked to gain the suffrage because the principle is just. ”