Samuel McKee Quotes
This House is not prepared to enfranchise all men.
He was referring to Negroes who did not then have the fight to vote.
Samuel McKee, 1833-1898, U. S. Congressman (KY), House Debate
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The issue was the voting franchise for Negroes in the aftermath of the Civil War.
This was the last public speech that Lincoln made before he was shot.
Miller was the first Black American admitted to a Graduate Program—Johns Hopkins—in Mathematics. Women were not then universally allowed to vote and suffrage was a major issue. Miller, like many Black males, was opposed to female suffrage. The prospect of many women holding public office was to him so absurd that the potential prospect was sufficient to oppose women voting.
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.
This phrase was also to be used over 100 years later by Malcolm X. See {624101} and {38291}.
This was a year after the United States gave women the right to vote.
The were debating the wisdom of an Constitutional amendment to enfranchise Negroes.
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.
