383

from Women’s Suffrage Is Inevitable

Carrie Chapman Catt

image
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Carrie Chapman Catt (1859–1947) was an activist who worked tirelessly for the right for women to vote in the United States. The founder of the League of Women Voters, Catt was a leader of the suffrage movement and eventually succeeded Susan B. Anthony as the president of the National American Suffrage Association. Catt was a founder and president of the International Woman Suffrage Association, serving from 1904 to 1923 and until her death as honorary president. Her leadership was crucial in the eventual passage in 1920 of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United Sates Constitution, which gave American women at last the right to vote. Catt delivered the speech below before an all-male Congress in 1917 in the final years of her campaign to secure voting rights for women.

Woman suffrage is inevitable. Suffragists knew it before November 4, 1917; opponents afterward. Three distinct causes made it inevitable.

History of Democracy

First, the history of our country. Ours is a nation born of revolution, of rebellion against a system of government so securely entrenched in the customs and traditions of human society that in 1776 it seemed impregnable. From the beginning of things, nations had been ruled by kings and for kings, while the people served and paid the cost. The American Revolutionists boldly proclaimed the heresies: “Taxation without representation is tyranny.” “Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.” The colonists won, and the nation which was established as a result of their victory has held unfailingly that these two fundamental principles of democratic government are not only the spiritual source of our national existence but have been our chief historic pride and at all times the sheet anchor of our liberties.

Eighty years after the Revolution, Abraham Lincoln welded those two maxims into a new one: “Ours is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Fifty years more passed and the president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, in a mighty crisis of the nation, proclaimed to the world: “We are fighting for the things which we have always carried nearest to our hearts: for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own government.”

All the way between these immortal aphorisms political leaders have declared unabated faith in their truth. Not one American has arisen to question their logic in the 141 years of our national existence. However stupidly our country may have evaded the logical application at times, it has never swerved from its devotion to the theory of democracy as expressed by those two axioms. [. . .]

5 With such a history behind it, how can our nation escape the logic it has never failed to follow, when its last unenfranchised class calls for the vote? Behold our Uncle Sam floating the banner with one hand, “Taxation without representation is tyranny,” and with the other seizing the billions of dollars paid in taxes by women to whom he refuses “representation.” Behold him again, welcoming the boys of twenty-one and the newly made immigrant citizen to “a voice in their own government” while he denies that fundamental right of democracy to thousands of women public school teachers from whom many of these men learn all they know of citizenship and patriotism, to women college presidents, to women who preach in our pulpits, interpret law in our courts, preside over our hospitals, write books and magazines, and serve in every uplifting moral and social enterprise. Is there a single man who can justify such inequality of treatment, such outrageous discrimination? Not one. [. . .]

384

Suffrage Already Established in Some States

Second, the suffrage for women already established in the United States makes women suffrage for the nation inevitable. When Elihu Root, as president of the American Society of International Law, at the eleventh annual meeting in Washington, April 26, 1917, said, “The world cannot be half democratic and half autocratic. It must be all democratic or all Prussian. There can be no compromise,” he voiced a general truth. Precisely the same intuition has already taught the blindest and most hostile foe of woman suffrage that our nation cannot long continue a condition under which government in half its territory rests upon the consent of half of the people and in the other half upon the consent of all the people; a condition which grants representation to the taxed in half of its territory and denies it in the other half; a condition which permits women in some states to share in the election of the president, senators, and representatives and denies them that privilege in others. It is too obvious to require demonstration that woman suffrage, now covering half our territory, will eventually be ordained in all the nation. No one will deny it. The only question left is when and how will it be completely established.

image
image
In what ways does this 1912 political cartoon effectively make its point about woman’s suffrage? Who do you think the audience was for a piece like this, and why would it appeal to that audience?
Museum of London/Heritage Images/Getty Images

385

Fundamental American Principle

Third, the leadership of the United States in world democracy compels the enfranchisement of its own women. The maxims of the Declaration were once called “fundamental principles of government.” They are now called “American principles” or even “Americanisms.” They have become the slogans of every movement toward political liberty the world around, of every effort to widen the suffrage for men or women in any land. Not a people, race, or class striving for freedom is there anywhere in the world that has not made our axioms the chief weapon of the struggle. More, all men and women the world around, with farsighted vision into the verities of things, know that the world tragedy of our day is not now being waged over the assassination of an archduke, nor commercial competition, nor national ambitions, nor the freedom of the seas. It is a death grapple between the forces which deny and those which uphold the truths of the Declaration of Independence. [. . .]

Do You Realize?

Do you realize that in no other country in the world with democratic tendencies is suffrage so completely denied as in a considerable number of our own states? There are thirteen black states where no suffrage for women exists, and fourteen others where suffrage for women is more limited than in many foreign countries.

Do you realize that when you ask women to take their cause to state referendum you compel them to do this: that you drive women of education, refinement, achievement, to beg men who cannot read for their political freedom?

10 Do you realize that such anomalies as a college president asking her janitor to give her a vote are overstraining the patience and driving women to desperation?

Do you realize that women in increasing numbers indignantly resent the long delay in their enfranchisement?

Woman Suffrage and the Parties

Your party platforms have pledged women suffrage. Then why not be honest, frank friends of our cause, adopt it in reality as your own, make it a party program, and “fight with us”? As a party measure — a measure of all parties — why not put the amendment through Congress and the legislatures? We shall all be better friends, we shall have a happier nation, we women will be free to support loyally the party of our choice, and we shall be far prouder of our history.

“There is one thing mightier than kings and armies” — aye, than Congresses and political parties — “the power of an idea when its time has come to move.” The time for woman suffrage has come. The woman’s hour has struck. If parties prefer to postpone action longer and thus do battle with this idea, they challenge the inevitable. The idea will not perish; the party which opposes it may. Every delay, every trick, every political dishonesty from now on will antagonize the women of the land more and more, and when the party or parties which have so delayed woman suffrage finally let it come, their sincerity will be doubted and their appeal to the new voters will be met with suspicion. This is the psychology of the situation. Can you afford the risk? Think it over.

The Opposition

We know you will meet opposition. There are a few “women haters” left, a few “old males of the tribe,” as Vance Thompson calls them, whose duty they believe it to be to keep women in the places they have carefully picked out for them. Treitschke, made world famous by war literature, said some years ago, “Germany, which knows all about Germany and France, knows far better what is good for Alsace-Lorraine than that miserable people can possibly know.” A few American Treitschkes we have who know better than women what is good for them. There are women, too, with “slave souls” and “clinging vines” for backbones. There are female dolls and male dandies. But the world does not wait for such as these, nor does liberty pause to heed the plaint of men and women with a grouch. She does not wait for those who have a special interest to serve, nor a selfish reason for depriving other people of freedom. Holding her torch aloft, liberty is pointing the way onward and upward and saying to America, “Come.”

386

To Congress

15 To you and the supporters of our cause in Senate and House, and the number is large, the suffragists of the nation express their grateful thanks. This address is not meant for you. We are more truly appreciative of all you have done than any words can express. We ask you to make a last, hard fight for the amendment during the present session. Since last we asked a vote on this amendment, your position has been fortified by the addition to suffrage territory of Great Britain, Canada, and New York.

Some of you have been too indifferent to give more than casual attention to this question. It is worthy of your immediate consideration. A question big enough to engage the attention of our allies in wartime is too big a question for you to neglect.

Some of you have grown old in party service. Are you willing that those who take your places by and by shall blame you for having failed to keep pace with the world and thus having lost for them a party advantage? Is there any real gain for you, for your party, for your nation by delay? Do you want to drive the progressive men and women out of your party?

Some of you hold to the doctrine of states’ rights as applying to woman suffrage. Adherence to that theory will keep the United States far behind all other democratic nations upon this question. A theory which prevents a nation from keeping up with the trend of world progress cannot be justified.

Gentlemen, we hereby petition you, our only designated representatives, to redress our grievances by the immediate passage of the Federal Suffrage Amendment and to use your influence to secure its ratification in your own state, in order that the women of our nation may be endowed with political freedom before the next presidential election, and that our nation may resume its world leadership in democracy.

20 Woman suffrage is coming — you know it. Will you, Honorable Senators and Members of the House of Representatives, help or hinder it?

Understanding and Interpreting

  1. Catt states, “However stupidly our country may have evaded the logical application at times, it has never swerved from its devotion to the theory of democracy as expressed by those two axioms” (par. 4). Explain Catt’s meaning, and how this language might affect her audience.

  2. Catt illustrates the current situation for women who desire to vote with a series of examples in the form of rhetorical questions that begin with “Do you realize [. . .] ?” (par. 8). Summarize the claims behind the examples, and what Catt is hoping to illuminate with each.

  3. In discussing the opposition the audience will face, Catt uses loaded diction to characterize those who would contest suffrage. What does she suggest about the types of people who are not in favor of suffrage, and how are these suggestions intended to influence the audience?

  4. Review the reasons that Catt offers to her audience to fulfill her petition that they advocate suffrage for women. Summarize her prominent claims regarding how suffrage is best for the country and the political parties currently in office.

387

Analyzing Language, Style, and Structure

  1. Examine Catt’s references to “heresies” and “maxims” in the opening paragraphs of her speech. How do these sentiments build her ethos and the validity of her cause? What effect is Catt hoping to have by opening with these ideas?

  2. Revisit the imagery of Uncle Sam in the last paragraph under “History of Democracy” (par. 5). What hypocrisy does Catt illustrate with the description of what Uncle Sam is doing with each hand? What loaded language in this paragraph aids Catt in her assertiveness? How is this image a strong appeal to logos?

  3. Examine the overall structure of the paragraph under “Suffrage Already Established in Some States” (par. 6). Note how Catt uses the quote from Elihu Root to establish a “general truth” and then provides a specific application of that general truth. Explain how Catt uses this structure to strengthen her argument that suffrage is inevitable.

  4. Consider Catt’s repeated use of rhetorical questions beginning with “Do you realize [. . .] ?” What tone does this diction contribute to the content? How does Catt’s choice of questioning, rather than declaring, change the impact of the examples? What does Catt imply by phrasing her questions in this manner?

  5. Consider the extremely methodical approach that Catt takes in her speech. Write a response in which you analyze the ways in which she carefully structures her argument so that the audience can clearly follow her line of reasoning.

  6. Nearing the conclusion of her speech, Catt addresses her audience directly with a series of rhetorical questions, including “Some of you have grown old in party service. Are you willing that those who take your places by and by shall blame you for having failed to keep pace with the world and thus having lost for them a party advantage? Is there any real gain for you, for your party, for your nation by delay? Do you want to drive the progressive men and women out of your party?” (par. 17). Explain what Catt implies with her questions, and how she uses the competitive relationship between the political parties to her advantage.

Connecting, Arguing, and Extending

  1. The suffrage movement in the United States worked for decades to get the Nineteenth Amendment passed. During that time, suffragists faced a long list of opposing arguments and were lambasted in political cartoons, pamphlets, and other anti-suffrage propaganda. Explore the rhetorical materials of organizations opposed to suffrage. What claims do they promote? How are suffragists depicted? What appeals are employed, and to what effect? Can you identify and articulate any recognizable fallacies behind these claims?

  2. Catt asserts that our nation “has never swerved from its devotion to the theory of democracy” but it has “stupidly [. . .] evaded [its] logical application at times” (par. 4). Consider your perspective on this viewpoint. Then, in a well-organized argument, take a position that defends, challenges, or qualifies Catt’s assertion that there is sometimes a disconnect between what our nation values in theory and what actions it takes in reality.

  3. While they didn’t agree on specifics, both suffragists and anti-suffragists anticipated that the right to vote for women would impact the future of politics and culture in the United States. What, in truth, was the significance of the Nineteenth Amendment? Research the effects of this amendment on political platforms, policies, and laws. How dramatically did the Nineteenth Amendment change the face of politics and culture in our country?