Lucretia Mott Quotes
Far be it for me to encourage women to vote, or take an active part in politics in the present state of our government. Her right to the elective franchise, however, is the same, and should be yielded to her, whether she exercise that right or not.
Lucretia Mott, 1793-1880, Quaker Minister, Abolitionist & Suffragette, Quoted in E. C. Stanton, S.B. Anthony and M. J. Gage, The History of Woman Suffrage
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Although liberal on many other issues, women voting was anathema to him.
Having passed this law, the state legislature turned down subsequent efforts to expand the female voting franchise, and Wisconsin women had to wait until all American women finally got the right to vote.
The editorial was in support of women’s suffrage—the right to vote which at the time women did not have in Britain. Women were very active in protests and demonstrations. Tactics sometimes involved civil disobedience and chaining themselves to public buildings. It was the civil disobedience and disruptions that the newspaper referred to as the “follies and excesses.” In retrospect today, it is amazing how threatened the society felt and how they reacted to the “threat” of females voting. It does however give us a perspective on those contemporary societies which restrict women’s voting rights.
The speaker predicted the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, but was off by three years.
It would be over 30 years more before American women could vote for President. Lockwood never could.
Hunt gave as an example Mary Smith of Stanmore. This quotation is very interesting in the history of women’s suffrage. Hunt was a strong advocate for Universal Suffrage (See {616653}.) At the time, even men had to be a taxpayer and own a sufficient amount of property to vote. Less than 20% of the population of Britain were allowed to vote. The argument at the time was that the husband would represent the family’s interest at the ballot box and there was no need for women to vote. But by facing parliament with the logical inconsistency of its position, he was able to make his point, although there were very few women like Mary Smith who were single and had the economic resources to qualify. Most widows remarried so even if they had economic resources, there was a man who could assume the then perceived role of head of the household.
Billinghurst was physically handicapped without the use of her legs. She protested and marched in protest parades using a hand propelled tricycle which the police sometimes dumped her out of and left her immobile in alleys.
Although most politicians of the time opposed voting rights, Harding, whose wife was herself a suffragette, and an accomplished woman, tried to lead the nation in the new direction of female equality. It was one of the few laudatory things he did in an otherwise lap luster presidency.
Many people, mostly men, tended to regard and label the militant suffragettes as extremists and allowed as how women who advocated their voting rights but in an acceptable way might be wrong but they were at least ladies. The same kind of attempted split occurred in the latter half of the 20th century over the Woman’s movement. The Feminists were not “ladies” and were not to be emulated by normal women even if they had sympathy for he views. Groups without power have always been acceptable to society as long as their cries for a share of power were ineffectual and did not disrupt the existing order. But when they begin to use more successful means and are heard and attended to, then they are labeled as extremists not to be emulated by “decent” people.
First woman elected to Congress. Women could vote in Montana years before women had the right to vote nationally. Women pioneers were critical contributors to an extremely hard life. Many widows and single women ran farms and ranches, fought raiding Indians, and married pioneer women were necessary to survival.
Lucretia Mott was an American Quaker, abolitionist, women's rights activist, and social reformer. She had formed the idea of reforming the position of women in society when she was amongst the women excluded from the World Anti-Slavery Convention held in London in 1840. In 1848 she was invited by Jane Hunt to a meeting that led to the first public gathering about women's rights, the Seneca Falls Convention, during which Mott co-wrote the Declaration of Sentiments.
