Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Historic Candidacies
The 2008 Pennsylvania Primary is over and as the media moves on to Indiana and North Carolina they continue to define only half of the Democratic candidacy as historic. How little they understand the history they are repeating.
For much of the 19th century the women’s suffrage movement was tied to the movement to abolish slavery. Universal Suffrage required, first, that the enslaved be emancipated and then all citizens be enfranchised. Such was the movement supported by many women and men like Frederick Douglass.
When the Emancipation Proclamation was followed in 1865 by a Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery within the United States, the success of both abolition and women’s suffrage movements seemed at hand. But the pursuit of a Fourteenth Amendment, passed by Congress in 1866, granting equal protection under the law for all was followed by a Fifteenth granting the right to vote only to male citizens. A rift was created between women and the free black supporters of a woman’s right to vote.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a leader in the women’s rights movement, descended into racist diatribe against the amendment, furious that women “had better stand aside and see ‘Sambo’ ‘enter into the kingdom[of voting] first.” Mr. Douglass supported the amendment arguing that “When women, because they are women, are hunted down…… when their children are torn from their arms… then they will have an urgency to obtain the ballot…” Yet by his argument, former slaves who were female were every bit as entitled to the vote as former slaves who were male. But in Congress, gender trumped race.
That year, 1866, Mrs. Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and others submitted an unsuccessful petition to Congress for Universal Suffrage (http://ecssba.rutgers.edu/docs/petuniv.html). "Therefore, as you are now amending the Constitution, and, in harmony with advancing civilization, placing new safeguards round the individual rights of four millions of emancipated slaves, we ask that you extend the right of Suffrage to Woman – the only remaining class of disfranchised citizens - ….”
Their petition was submitted to Congress by Thaddeus Stevens.
For much of the 19th century the women’s suffrage movement was tied to the movement to abolish slavery. Universal Suffrage required, first, that the enslaved be emancipated and then all citizens be enfranchised. Such was the movement supported by many women and men like Frederick Douglass.
When the Emancipation Proclamation was followed in 1865 by a Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery within the United States, the success of both abolition and women’s suffrage movements seemed at hand. But the pursuit of a Fourteenth Amendment, passed by Congress in 1866, granting equal protection under the law for all was followed by a Fifteenth granting the right to vote only to male citizens. A rift was created between women and the free black supporters of a woman’s right to vote.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a leader in the women’s rights movement, descended into racist diatribe against the amendment, furious that women “had better stand aside and see ‘Sambo’ ‘enter into the kingdom[of voting] first.” Mr. Douglass supported the amendment arguing that “When women, because they are women, are hunted down…… when their children are torn from their arms… then they will have an urgency to obtain the ballot…” Yet by his argument, former slaves who were female were every bit as entitled to the vote as former slaves who were male. But in Congress, gender trumped race.
That year, 1866, Mrs. Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and others submitted an unsuccessful petition to Congress for Universal Suffrage (http://ecssba.rutgers.edu/docs/petuniv.html). "Therefore, as you are now amending the Constitution, and, in harmony with advancing civilization, placing new safeguards round the individual rights of four millions of emancipated slaves, we ask that you extend the right of Suffrage to Woman – the only remaining class of disfranchised citizens - ….”
Their petition was submitted to Congress by Thaddeus Stevens.
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