James B. Clark Quotes
Women will vote by 1917.
The speaker predicted the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, but was off by three years.
James B. (Champ) Clark, 1850-1921, U. S. Congressman (Democrat, MO), Speaker of the House, Statement, 1912
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
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.
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.
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.
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.
It would be over 30 years more before American women could vote for President. Lockwood never could.
The concept of taxpayers being entitled to vote to avoid taxation without representation was fundamental to the Founding Fathers. However, the only people who paid taxes were those who owned property as there was no income tax at the time. Since the male controlled the family property, not allowing women to vote did no injury to the basic principle. However, the sexist attitude of the times ran up against this basic principles in the case of widows and unmarried women who owned property. Faced with this contradiction, some of the Founding Fathers like Lee actually favored the voting franchise for women who were widows and property owners or even unmarried female property owners. There were not enough people who saw this contradiction so that all women were originally prohibited from voting, but this quotation shows that it was a political issue at the time.
Although liberal on many other issues, women voting was anathema to him.
James Beauchamp Clark was an American politician and attorney who represented Missouri in the United States House of Representatives and served as Speaker of the House from 1911 to 1919.
