What is Suffrage?

 

Suffrage comes from the Latin word suffragium, meaning clamoring support for a candidate. Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the late 19th century, besides women working for broad-based economic and political equality and for social reforms, women sought to change voting laws to allow them to vote.

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Suffrage in America - The first person to bring up the idea of Suffrage was Abigail Adams who asked her husband John Adams to, "Remember the ladies," when creating the laws of government during the American Revolution. 

 

New Jersey - New Jersey granted some women the right to vote from 1776 to 1807. The women had three requirements to vote: they had to be white, single, and own land. If women were to marry, she would lose her voting rights. The law was overturned in 1807 when fear of women swaying the vote to gain power threatened the status quo of wealthy male landowners.

 

Wyoming - Known as the, "Equality State," Wyoming was the first western territory to grant women the right to vote in 1869 as part of the territorial charter.

 

Colorado - Colorado became the first state to grant women the right to vote by popular referendum. Meaning that Colorado men voted to give white women the right to vote as equal citizens in 1893.        

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Margaret's Role in Suffrage -

 

Margaret Brown’s story illustrates the nuanced final push for national woman’s suffrage. Programs at the Molly Brown House Museum activate her biography to engage audiences in the history of women’s voting rights in the Unites States and how that history informs voting both today and in the future.

 

During the summer of 1914, suffrage leaders, including Brown, gathered from across the U.S. for a “Conference of Great Women,” held at the Newport, RI home of Alva Belmont. Notable leaders in social reform attended, including Senator Helen Robinson from Colorado, who stayed with Brown, and the Duchess of Marlborough, Belmont’s daughter. Brown hosted several events and speeches by friend Judge Ben Lindsey.

 

Competing approaches split suffragists between the National American Women’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and the Congressional Union (CU). Alice Paul and Lucy Burns’ CU followed the British approach to “punish the party in power” by ousting all Democrats in the forthcoming election for not supporting suffrage. Coupled with CU meetings, the “Marble House” conference solidified the decision to agitate for a constitutional amendment by flipping congressional seats. Despite Colorado Senator Charles Thomas being pro-suffrage, he served as chairman of the Committee on Woman Suffrage, this “punish the party in power” tactic meant that as a Democrat his seat too was being eyed by the CU.

 

One appealing candidate came to many minds, Mrs. James J. Brown of Denver. Brown had been in the news all spring of 1914 for her offer to lead a regiment of fighting women in the impending war with Mexico, then for responding to the miner’s strike that had turned deadly in southern Colorado. CU leaders and friends Judge Lindsey, Senator Robinson, and Belmont as well as many in Colorado, New York, and Rhode Island supported her run for Senate. Brown campaigned on the mine labor issues and a need for improved conditions and better pay. When asked if she could win as a woman candidate, Brown stated, “If I go into this fight I am going to win. There will be no mincing matters- no pink tea policies. It will be a regular man’s kind of campaign, stump speaking, spread-eagle and all.”

 

Eastern suffrage leaders inquired about Brown’s credentials. Maud Howe Elliott, leader of the Newport Suffrage League and Alice Stone Blackwell corresponded in reference to a Women’s Journal article upholding Brown as the right kind of suffragist. In a letter to CU’s Doris Stevens, Ellis Meredith replied, “Now about Mrs. Brown… She is a good sort… only please refrain from campaigning against Senator Thomas.” And, Dr. Anna Shaw, President of NAWSA, told reporters that Brown’s bid was nothing short of treason, and that “Miss Paul and Miss Burns have the greatest lack of political sagacity” in campaigning against Senator Thomas.

 

Ultimately, Brown dropped her bid in the fall of 1914. With the Bristow-Mondell and Shafroth-Palmer bills up for vote, she decided to not upset the applecart back in Colorado. And, with the onset of World War I, her desire to aid the Red Cross became undeniable, so she volunteered for the Ambulance Corps in France. Brown’s Senate run and direct involvement in Marble House and the Congressional Union meetings demonstrate the role western women played in the passage of the 19th Amendment, which was passed by Congress June 4, 1919, and ratified by the majority of states on August 18,1920.

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