Women’s Vote

1890 — On September 6, 1890, Louisa Ann Swain of Laramie, Wyoming becomes the first woman to cast a vote in a general election. In 1890, Wyoming, with a Republican governor and Democratic legislature, insisted it would not accept statehood without keeping women’s suffrage.

Passage of the 19th Amendment

First introduced to Congress in 1878, the women’s suffrage amendment failed several times. In 1915, the amendment failed again without President Wilson’s support.

The United States’ entry into WWI, in 1917, helped to shift public opinion about women’s suffrage and role in the country. NASWA argued women should be rewarded with the right to vote for their patriotic wartime service.

In 1918, another bill was introduced, this time with President Wilson’s support. The 1918 Suffrage Bill passed the House with only one vote to spare but failed the Senate by two votes.

With increasing pressure from the public, lawmakers in both parties were anxious to pass the amendment and make it effective by the 1920 general election. To try and get the amendment passed in time for the next year’s election, President Wilson called a special session of Congress and in the spring of 1919, The House of Representatives passed the amendment followed by the Senate just a few months later.

The amendment was then submitted to the states for ratification, where it would require the approval of 36 states (three-fourths of states) to be adopted as a Constitutional Amendment. Within just a few days, several states ratified the amendment since their legislatures were actively in session. Additional states ratified at a regular pace until March 1920 when the number of states stalled at 35 for five months.

“GOOD BOY”

In the summer of 1920, the Tennessee State Senate voted to ratify the amendment, but the State House of Representatives still had to vote. A young state representative, Harry Burns, wore an anti-suffragist pin and voted against the amendment in what would be a tie vote. Harry had been internally conflicted so when a letter from his mom was delivered to him in the chambers before the revote, he took her advice. His mother urged him to “be a good boy” and vote for the amendment. In the revote, Burns cast the tie-breaking vote making Tennessee the 36th state to ratify the amendment allowing the 19th amendment to be adopted and officially become part of the U.S. Constitution on August 26, 1920..

On paper, the Amendment protected discrimination against all women, but in practice, it only gave white women the right to vote. Black women, Native American women, Asian American women, and women from other racial and ethnic minority groups were discriminated against for 45 more years until the passage of The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA). The VRA afforded crucial protections to Black, Indigenous, and Women of Color (BIWOC) voters.

I know the ho hum history of it all may be boring, but if I were alive and thought not fit to vote, it would be another story, as far as my involvement was concerned. Familiarizing ourselves with the reality of the recent past should make us more mindful of current ways that women are oppressed, and to vote seriously.

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ALTHOUGH I JUST RETURNED FROM AN ECLIPSE, I had to get this off before turning in. More tomorrow.

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OH YES: While I was musing over my “pages” listed way above, I re-read the one on SECRETS and was interested again. Moreover, I thought I had lost the extended section after 48 items, but found them still there, after a couple of blank spots continuing through entry 81. The world is certainly an interesting place, which brings to mind an earlier poem:

LETTING GO

I don’t believe in anything

but appreciate a lot.

I’m thankful for myself and the

organ music in my ear,

for the existence of all

my family, bless-’em.

Others’ frailings are okay ’cause

they’re just caught in their own net.

We need to feel good about ourselves,

’cause we’re all we’ve really got.

nan

IT WAS A LONG ROW TO HOE

New Jersey’s Roller Coaster ride …with women’s right to vote. You probably knew this, but I didn’t…Two days before the Declaration of Independence…

July 2, 1776 — The New Jersey State Constitution is adopted. It uses the gender-neutral pronoun “they” and does not include racial categories in its election law.

November 18, 1790 — The New Jersey State Legislature passes an Act revising the regulations of the election law to include “he or she” in 7 of 13 counties in New Jersey (Bergen, Burlington, Gloucester, Hunterdon, Monmouth, Salem, and Sussex). This law also institutes township voting in these counties.

February 22, 1797 — The New Jersey Legislature passes a statewide Act revising the regulations of the election law to include “he or she,” lower the property requirement for voters from “fifty pounds proclamation money clear estate in the same” to “fifty pounds proclamation money,” and institutes township voting across the state.

October 1800 — In Bedminster Township, Somerset County, New Jersey, a state election takes place. Three women vote in that election, and 2 vote against reconvening the state constitutional convention.

December 1800 — Twenty-nine women (of 217 voters) vote in a congressional election in Upper Penns Neck Township, Salem County, New Jersey. A total of at least 75 women vote in state or congressional elections in Upper Penns Neck from 1800 – 1806, some voting year after year.

October 13, 1801 — A state election takes place in Montgomery Township, Somerset County, New Jersey. Of 343 total voters, at least 46 are women and at least four are free Black male voters. October 1802 — New Jersey residents began submitting petitions to the state legislature citing voter fraud and suppression as early as 1783. From 1783 to 1807, 73 petitions were submitted to the state (37 for voter suppression, 36 voter fraud)….October 1802 — Petitions taken in Maidenhead Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, urge the state legislature to overturn an 1802 election. Petitioners allege that married women, enslaved people, “aliens” and non-residents had voted illegally….

1805 — Martin v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts sets a legal precedent that married women did not have separate political identities or citizenship from their husbands under “coverture.”

October 1807 — A state election takes place in Chester Township, Burlington County, New Jersey. Of 260 voters, 38 are women. The election marks one of the last elections in the state that women and free people of color are legally able to participate in. https://tag.rutgers.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/suffrage-by-state.pdf

(In other words, women had the right to vote in New Jersey for more than thirty years and then it was taken away from them [us]!)

Post Script:

Compiled by the Center for American Women and Politics – August 2014

The following territories provided full voting rights to women before statehood:
1869 Territory of Wyoming
1870 Territory of Utah
1883 Territory of Washington
1887 Territory of Montana
1913 Territory of Alaska

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I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the women’s vote and about one woman who was quoted as saying she wasn’t interested in what he said, but the sight of the former president “made her all warm inside.”

By November 2024 I hope we have found more cerebral reasons for whichever way we choose to vote.

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Who’s going to get thrown under the bus next? [I hate that image, but it is so descriptive in a metaphorical way]. I heard a rumor that the conservatives are readying a new candidate for the November fray if/when Mr. Trump tires or retires…. and will enter that person to run as a conservative INDEPENDENT.

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“God Bless the USA Bible” is a period piece for sixty dollars, and the proceeds go to its generator.

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Hope this isn’t a repeat:

It’s her fault, not mine I’m told.

My Muse is ill and gotten old.

Silver threads among the brown

on her way to leaving town,

taking with her my renown.

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