Volume 14 , Issue 10

When Clowns Make Laws ....

When Clowns Make Laws . . . is taken from the selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony. Elizabeth Cady Stanton (November 12, 1815 - October 26, 1902) was an American social activist, abolitionist, and leading figure of the early woman's movement. Her Declaration of Sentiments, presented at the first women's rights convention held in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York, is often credited with initiating the first organized woman's rights and woman's suffrage movements in the United States.

The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony begins with Volume IV, "When Clowns Make Laws for Queens 1880 to 1887," ISBN 0-8135-2320-6edited by Ann D. Gordon. Total pages displayed online is limited. it includes Feminists U.S. Archives; Suffragists U.S. Archives; Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 1815-1902 Archives; anthony, Susan Brownell, 1820-1902 Archives; Feminish U.S. History, 19th Century Sources; Women Suffrage U.S. Hisotry 19th Century Sources; and more.

"The National protection for National citizens," was the definition given in 1878 to their campaign for a constitutional amendment as it continued to define the political objectives of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan Brownell Anthony through the 1880's. Their movement for woman suffrage sought federal action to override state constitutions that granted voting rights only to males. When the National Woman Suffrage Association launched its campaign, Stonon instructed members of the U.S. Senate that "the primal rights of all citizens should be regulated by the national government - complete equality in civil, political rights everywhere secured."

Between the years, September 1880 through January 1887, Stanton and Anthony grew frustrated in their efforts to win passage of a constitutional amendment guaranteeing woman suffrage. congressional allies remained faithful as popular support for the cause grew. Those who resisted woman suffrage increased their political power and found cultural acceptance for rejecting the premises that women were individuals and should be treated equally with men.

It was through encouragement of National association willing to introduce their constitutional amendment in each Congress, that the 47th Congress (Senate and House), under pressure, created a "Select Committee on Woman Suffrage." It took three times in the Senate and one time in the House before committees reported in favor of the amendment. This progress toward a constitutional amendment attracted wide support from women. Even members of the rival American Woman Suffrage Association joined in petitioning Congress. Just before the amendment came to a vote in the Senate in 1887, petitions arrived from the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, the nation's largest, conservative, organization of women.

Members of Congress and Senators spent more time debating whether to disfranchise women who lacked the right. Great Britain's parliament voted to exclude women from the larger franchise provided in the Reform bill of 1884.

It was the end of the Reconstruction period with tight political contests that made even idealistic men fearful on an unpredictable experiment like the enfranchisement of women. It was during the presidential campaign of 1880, that Susan B. Anthony chastised the Republican candidate, James Garfield, for standing on a platform that surrendered what Americans gained through the Civil War -- "Supremacy of the United States government in the protection of citizens in their right to vote."

It was through the revival of the Democratic party and its success in national elections that pull the Republican party toward the political center and away from its commitment to federal guarantees of rights. Democrats held a majority in the House of Representatives for 5 to 7 congressional sessions between 1880 and 1887. Republicans gained a majority in the Senate only to the end of 1883 and struggled to keep it. It was this environment that the federal amendment was blocked by parliamentary maneuvers to avoid debate, mocked in committee reports. It was finally rejected when it reached the floor of the Senate in January 1887. It was during that same month the House and Senate approved laws to strip the women in Utah Territory of their existing right to vote.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton dubbed these times as, "When clowns make laws for queens," in a speech delivered in Providence, Rhode Island!

Is this where we head backwards to where the man's wife and children were only property to control? Where only one third of the white men, owning land could vote? This NW Okie believes women of all ages, races and culturals need to come together and continue preserving, defending our Suffrage Rights that our mothers, grandmothers and great grandmothers fought for in the 19th and 20th century.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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