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127-401: The NWSA worked primarily at the federal level in its campaign for women's right to vote. In the early 1870s, it encouraged women to attempt to vote and to file lawsuits if prevented, arguing that the constitution implicitly enfranchised women through its guarantees of equal protection for all citizens. Many women attempted to vote, notably Susan B. Anthony, who was arrested and found guilty in

254-580: A widely publicized trial . After the Supreme Court ruled that the constitution did not implicitly enfranchise women, the NWSA worked for an amendment that would do so explicitly. The NWSA and its leaders also worked on related projects, such as a history of the women's suffrage movement and the establishment of the International Council of Women , which is still active. The split in the suffrage movement

381-505: A Declaration of Rights for Women at the official celebration, but they were refused. Despite the lack of permission, five women, headed by Anthony, walked onto the platform during the ceremony and handed their Declaration to Senator Thomas Ferry who was the acting Vice President of the United States, and the official in charge of the celebration. As they left, they handed out copies to the crowd. Stepping onto an unoccupied bandstand outside

508-719: A convention in Cleveland following the issuance of a call signed by more than 100 people from 25 states. It was organized by leaders of the New England Woman Suffrage Association (NEWSA), which had been created in November 1868 as part of the developing split within the women's movement. The AWSA and the NEWSA operated separately with somewhat overlapping leadership. Wanting to differentiate themselves from NWSA leaders who had expressed hostility to male political influence,

635-412: A corporation or organization selling limited autonomy to run a part of its operation (such as a sports team or restaurant). This modern connotation with exclusivity, however, clashes with ideas like universal suffrage where voting is a right for all, not a privilege for a select few. Universal suffrage would be achieved when all have the right to vote without restriction. It could, for example, look like

762-770: A few months earlier to visit her daughter, whose husband was British. Over a period of nine months, they met with leaders of various European women's movements and began laying the foundation for an international women's organization. The NWSA agreed to host the founding congress of the organization that Stanton and Anthony were working toward. The first congress of the International Council of Women (ICW) met in Washington in 1888 with delegates from fifty-three women's organizations in nine countries. The delegates represented various organizations, including suffrage associations, professional groups, literary clubs, temperance unions, labor leagues and missionary societies. The AWSA participated in

889-458: A largely ceremonial capacity as the NAWSA's first president while Anthony was its leading force in practice. The suffrage movement distanced itself from labor groups and kept its focus on the more affluent levels of society. The first three volumes of the six-volume History of Woman Suffrage were written by the leaders of the NWSA prior to the merger. It included a 107-page chapter on the history of

1016-536: A leaked document from 2012, an official report concerning the City's Cash revealed that the aim of major occasions such as set-piece sumptuous banquets featuring national politicians was "to increase the emphasis on complementing hospitality with business meetings consistent with the City corporation's role in supporting the City as a financial centre". The first issue taken up by the Northern Ireland civil rights movement

1143-407: A legal advantage in building the organization. A married woman at that time had the legal status of feme covert , which, among other things, excluded her from signing contracts (she had to convince her husband to sign for her). As Anthony had no husband, she had the legal status of a feme sole , enabling her to sign contracts for convention halls and printed materials. In 1869, Virginia Minor ,

1270-710: A member of either house, or appointed to any office or place of trust, before taking his seat, or entering upon the execution of his office, shall (...) also make and subscribe the following declaration, to wit: I, A B. do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost, one God, blessed for evermore; and I do acknowledge the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration. This

1397-544: A member of the NWSA, and her husband Francis developed the idea that achieving women's suffrage did not require a Sixteenth Amendment. Their approach, which became known as the New Departure, was based on the belief that women were already implicitly enfranchised by the U.S. Constitution. Their strategy relied heavily on the Fourteenth Amendment , which says, "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge

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1524-454: A modest publication that could be produced quickly, the history evolved into a six-volume work of more than 5700 pages written over a period of 41 years, preserving a rich history that otherwise might have been lost. The first three volumes, which cover the movement up to 1885, were produced primarily by Anthony and Stanton. Anthony handled the production details while Stanton wrote most of the text. Matilda Joslyn Gage , another leading member of

1651-481: A multitude of campaigns where suffrage amendments had been submitted for the popular vote. In 1866 Stone helped organize The Equal Rights Association which advocated from equal rights among African Americans and women. She then went on to organize the American Woman's Suffrage Association, sitting as chairman for its executive branch for almost twenty years. Then with the money she earned through her work she funded

1778-410: A national office, its mailing address being simply that of one of the officers. Anthony and Stanton did not receive a salary from the organization, supporting themselves with the money they earned by lecturing. In Anthony's case, the money flowed the other way, with her lecture fees helping to fund the organization after she had paid The Revolution's debts. The fact that Anthony was unmarried gave her

1905-411: A new electoral register came into effect, based on registration as of the previous 10 October, with the effect of limiting voting to those resident five to seventeen months earlier depending on the timing of the election. American Woman Suffrage Association The American Woman Suffrage Association ( AWSA ) was a single-issue national organization formed in 1869 to work for women's suffrage in

2032-539: A number of topics including the information regarding local conventions and events and it reported back on speeches including those at the New England Woman's Tea Party. The journal offered updates and tracked progress across the US on woman's suffrage victories. It also offered insights from the readers including editorials, letters from supporters, debates on other woman's rights issues, short stories and poetry. The journal

2159-556: A petition drive calling for an end to the split. In April 1870, he convened a meeting of members of both organizations in an attempt to merge the two groups. Anthony opposed the idea of merger, as did her rival Lucy Stone. The NWSA sent three official representatives to the meeting who reported that their organization would agree to a merger only if the new organization agreed to work toward a Sixteenth Amendment to enfranchise women. Lucy Stone and two other AWSA members who were present as unofficial representatives of their organization left

2286-540: A petition drive, the largest in the nation's history, in support of an amendment to abolish slavery. Another was the Working Women's Association , which began as an organization of wage-earning women but evolved into one consisting almost entirely of journalists, doctors and other middle-class working women. Its members formed the core of the New York City segment of the NWSA, where the NWSA was headquartered. Even after

2413-634: A prominent NWSA ally, and Reverend Henry Ward Beecher , the first president of the AWSA, seriously damaging the reputation of the entire women's movement. Woodhull did not play a significant role in the women's suffrage movement afterwards. In 1871 the NWSA officially adopted the New Departure strategy, encouraging women to attempt to vote and to file lawsuits if denied that right. Soon hundreds of women tried to vote in dozens of localities. In 1872, Susan B. Anthony convinced some election officials to allow her to vote in that year's presidential elections, for which she

2540-404: A series that "included racist and nativist comments." Stanton added that U.S. Senators "degrade" women "in their political status, below unwashed and unlettered ditch-diggers, boot-blacks, hostlers, butchers, and barbers." Stanton then objected to laws being made for women by "Patrick and Sambo and Hans and Yung Tung who do not know the difference between a Monarchy and a Republic, and who never read

2667-746: A specified acreage or monetary value could vote or participate in elections. Similarly, in Brazil, the Constitution of 1824 established that, in order to vote, citizens would need to have an annual income of 200,000 milréis and, to be voted, their minimum annual income would need to be 400,000 milréis. Where compulsory suffrage exists, those who are eligible to vote are required by law to do so. Thirty-two countries currently practise this form of suffrage. In local government in England and some of its ex-colonies, businesses formerly had, and in some places still have,

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2794-519: A split in the movement convinced Susan B. Anthony, one of the leaders of the NWSA, to attend the AWSA's founding convention. She was given a seat on the platform where she heard speeches voicing a determination to replace the NWSA. She rose to speak immediately after Lucy Stone's speech, offering to cooperate with the AWSA and saying the movement was more important than any one organization. The split, however, continued for many years. NWSA, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony , condemned

2921-412: A system where everyone was presumed to have the right to vote unless a government can prove beyond a reasonable doubt the need to revoke voting rights. The trend towards universal suffrage has progressed in some democracies by eliminating some or all of the voting restrictions due to gender, race, religion, social status, education level, wealth, citizenship , ability and age . However, throughout history

3048-526: A teacher in order to save enough money to pay for her college education, eventually at the age of 25 she had earned enough to begin school at Oberlin, which was the only college that would admit women during the early 1800s. Stone gave her first public speech at Oberlin, but received a great amount of backlash from the Ladies Board, calling her actions "unwomanly" and "unscriptural." Stone graduated from Oberlin in 1847, and gave her first woman's right lecture

3175-574: A vote in the urban area in which they paid rates . This is an extension of the historical property-based franchise from natural persons to other legal persons . In the United Kingdom, the Corporation of the City of London has retained and even expanded business vote, following the passing of the City of London (Ward Elections) Act 2002 . This has given business interests within the City of London , which

3302-513: A weekly women's rights newspaper in New York City that became an important tool for supporting their wing of the movement. The dispute became increasingly bitter after the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was introduced, which would in effect enfranchise black men by prohibiting the denial of suffrage because of race. Lucy Stone supported the amendment even though she argued that suffrage for women would be more beneficial to

3429-491: A woman's place was in the home, not polls. Political cartoons and public outrage over women's rights increased as the opposition to suffrage worked to organize legitimate groups campaigning against women's voting rights. The Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women was one organization that came out of the 1880s to put down the voting efforts. Much anti-suffrage propaganda poked fun at

3556-455: A women's suffrage leader continued to rise afterwards. Both Stanton and Anthony eagerly supported her at first, although Anthony became increasingly wary of her. At the UWSA's 1872 convention, Woodhull attempted to commandeer the organization, urging its delegates to meet the next day in a different hall to form a new political party with herself as its candidate for president of the United States. In

3683-556: Is a major financial centre with few residents, the opportunity to apply the accumulated wealth of the corporation to the development of an effective lobby for UK policies. This includes having the City Remembrancer , financed by the City's Cash , as a parliamentary agent , provided with a special seat in the House of Commons located in the under-gallery facing the Speaker 's chair. In

3810-457: Is lower than a given amount are barred from voting; or people with higher education have more votes than those with lower education; stockholders who have more shares in a given company have more votes than those with fewer shares). In many countries, census suffrage restricted who could vote and be elected: in the United States, until the Jacksonian reforms of the 1830s, only men who owned land of

3937-500: Is optional for businesses but compulsory for individuals. Some municipalities in Delaware allow corporations to vote on local matters. In ancient Athens , often cited as the birthplace of democracy, only adult, male citizens who owned land were permitted to vote. Through subsequent centuries, Europe was generally ruled by monarchs, though various forms of parliament arose at different times. The high rank ascribed to abbesses within

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4064-537: Is permitted at all levels of government. In the United States, some states such as California, Washington, and Wisconsin have exercised their shared sovereignty to offer citizens the opportunity to write, propose, and vote on referendums; other states and the federal government have not. Referendums in the United Kingdom are rare. Suffrage continues to be especially restricted on the basis of age , residency and citizenship status in many places. In some countries additional restrictions exist. In Great Britain and

4191-673: Is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote ). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to vote is called active suffrage , as distinct from passive suffrage , which is the right to stand for election. The combination of active and passive suffrage is sometimes called full suffrage . In most democracies, eligible voters can vote in elections for representatives. Voting on issues by referendum may also be available. For example, in Switzerland, this

4318-489: The Woman's Journal in 1870, working on it with her husband to give woman a space to advocate for themselves, the journal was passed down to her daughter and continued to thrive as a space of change for women across the United States of America. After Reconstruction, the AWSA began to differ from the NWSA in several other ways: The author of a study of African American women in the suffrage movement lists nine who participated in

4445-427: The 2004 Canadian federal election . Under certain electoral systems elections are held within subnational jurisdictions, thus preventing persons from voting who would otherwise be eligible on the basis that they do not reside within such a jurisdiction, or because they live in an area that cannot participate. In the United States, license plates in Washington, D.C. read "TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION," in reference to

4572-573: The 2015 local elections (and from then on) and be appointed to the Consultative Assembly . In the aftermath of the Reformation it was common in European countries for people of disfavored religious denominations to be denied civil and political rights, often including the right to vote, to stand for election or to sit in parliament. In Great Britain and Ireland , Roman Catholics were denied

4699-605: The Catholic Church permitted some women the right to sit and vote at national assemblies – as with various high-ranking abbesses in Medieval Germany, who were ranked among the independent princes of the empire. Their Protestant successors enjoyed the same privilege almost into modern times. Marie Guyart, a French nun who worked with the First Nations peoples of Canada during the seventeenth century, wrote in 1654 regarding

4826-520: The Convention on the Political Rights of Women , which went into force in 1954, enshrining the equal rights of women to vote, hold office, and access public services as set out by national laws. One of the most recent jurisdictions to acknowledge women's full right to vote was Bhutan in 2008 (its first national elections). Most recently, in 2011 King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia let women vote in

4953-547: The Declaration of Independence or Webster's spelling book." The AERA essentially collapsed after an acrimonious convention in 1869, and two rival women's suffrage organizations were created in its wake. The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) was created on May 15, 1869, two days after what turned out to be the AERA's last convention, with Anthony and Stanton as its primary leaders. The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA)

5080-567: The Fifteenth Amendment as an injustice to women. In her The Revolution newsletter, Stanton periodically appealed to racism and ethnocentrism in order to distinguish female suffrage from black male suffrage: “ 'Patrick and Sambo and Hans and Yung Tung, who do not know the difference between a monarchy and a republic,' declared Stanton, had no right to be “making laws for [feminist leader] Lucretia Mott.” ' The AWSA, which included Lucy Stone , Frances Ellen Watkins Harper , Henry Blackwell , Julia Ward Howe and Josephine Ruffin , strongly supported

5207-751: The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). The new organization, called the National American Woman Suffrage Association , was initially led by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton , who had been the leaders of the NWSA. Following the Civil War, in 1866, leaders of the abolition and suffrage movements founded the American Equal Rights Association (AERA) to advocate for citizens' right to vote regardless of race or sex. Divisions among

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5334-658: The Paris Commune of 1871 and the island republic of Franceville (1889). From 1840 to 1852, the Kingdom of Hawai'i granted universal suffrage without mention of sex. In 1893, when the Kingdom of Hawai'i was overthrown in a coup , New Zealand was the only independent country to practice universal (active) suffrage, and the Freedom in the World index lists New Zealand as the only free country in

5461-756: The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 , which extended the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791 ), and Jews in 1858 (with the Emancipation of the Jews in England ). Benjamin Disraeli could only begin his political career in 1837 because he had been converted to Anglicanism at the age of 12. In several states in the U.S. after the Declaration of Independence , Jews, Quakers or Catholics were denied voting rights and/or forbidden to run for office. The Delaware Constitution of 1776 stated that: Every person who shall be chosen

5588-490: The abolitionist movement insisted, and wanted to maintain close ties with the Republican Party. The other, whose leading figures were Stanton and Anthony, wanted women and black men be enfranchised at the same time and worked toward a politically independent women's movement that would no longer be dependent on abolitionists for financial and other resources. In 1868, Anthony and Stanton began publishing The Revolution ,

5715-457: The homeless may not be able to register because they lack regular addresses. In the United Kingdom , until the House of Lords Act 1999 , peers who were members of the House of Lords were excluded from voting for the House of Commons as they were not commoners. Although there is nothing to prevent the monarch from voting, it is considered improper for the monarch to do so. Throughout

5842-643: The 1727 Disenfranchising Act took away Catholics' voting rights in Ireland, which were restored only in 1788. Jews could not even be naturalized. An attempt was made to change this situation, but the Jewish Naturalization Act 1753 provoked such reactions that it was repealed the following year. Nonconformists ( Methodists and Presbyterians ) were only allowed to run for election to the British House of Commons starting in 1828, Catholics in 1829 (following

5969-561: The 19th and 20th centuries, many nations made voters pay to elect officials, keeping impoverished people from being fully enfranchised. These laws were in effect in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Sometimes the right to vote has been limited to people who had achieved a certain level of education or passed a certain test. In some US states, " literacy tests " were previously implemented to exclude those who were illiterate. Black voters in

6096-584: The 20th century, many countries other than the US placed voting restrictions on illiterate people, including: Bolivia , Brazil , Canada , Chile , Ecuador , and Peru . Various countries, usually countries with a dominant race within a wider population, have historically denied the vote to people of particular races, or to all but the dominant race. This has been achieved in a number of ways: All modern democracies require voters to meet age qualifications to vote. Worldwide voting ages are not consistent, differing between countries and even within countries, though

6223-409: The AERA effectively dissolved. In its aftermath, two rival organizations were formed to campaign for women's suffrage . The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) was formed at a hastily organized meeting two days after the last AERA convention. Preparations for the formation of the rival American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) began soon afterward. The AWSA was founded in November 1869 at

6350-516: The AERA, was listed first among those who signed the Declaration and was a vice president of the NWSA. According to Sally Gregory McMillen, a historian of the women's movement during this period, Lucretia Mott "avoided taking sides" in the split in the women's movement, providing support to both sides. In 1876, Anthony and Stanton began working on the History of Woman Suffrage . Originally envisioned as

6477-508: The AWSA during the 1870s and six who participated in the NWSA. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and additional NWSA members employed racism in order to distinguish female suffrage from black male suffrage. In contrast, Lucy Stone and AWSA members countenanced the absence of a female suffrage clause in the Fifteenth Amendment , while arguing that suffrage for women would be more beneficial to the country than suffrage for black men. Several modest but significant gains for women suffrage occurred during

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6604-468: The AWSA focused almost exclusively on suffrage. The AWSA's membership included both women and men, and its first president was a man, Henry Ward Beecher . Stanton had originally proposed that the NWSA's membership be limited to women, but her proposal was not accepted. In practice, however, the overwhelming majority of the NWSA members and officers were women. The NWSA held its conventions in Washington in accordance with its strategy of working primarily at

6731-407: The AWSA founders made a point of inviting prominent male abolitionists and Republican politicians to sign the call to its founding convention. The first slate of officers consisted of equal numbers of men and women, and the convention agreed to alternate the presidency of the organization between a woman and a man. Henry Ward Beecher was the first president of the AWSA, and Lucy Stone was chair of

6858-410: The AWSA was losing strength. Anthony, by contrast, was by that point, "among the senior political figures in the United States", according to a prominent historian of women's history. Stanton, a popular speaker and a prolific writer of articles for newspapers and magazines, was also well known. The AWSA's annual meeting in November 1877 passed a resolution authorizing Stone to confer with Anthony about

6985-521: The AWSA, the NWSA's bitter rival, but provided much more information about the NWSA itself that was written from its own point of view. This unbalanced portrayal of the movement influenced scholarly research in this field for many years. Not until about the middle of the 20th century did the AWSA begin to receive adequate scholarly attention. Lucy Stone was born on August 13, 1818 in West Brookfield Massachusetts. She began her career as

7112-685: The Fifteenth Amendment was ratified in 1870, some important differences remained between the two organizations, and others emerged over time. The NWSA worked mostly at the federal level, focusing on a constitutional amendment to achieve women's suffrage, while the AWSA worked toward the same goal mostly at the state level. The NWSA's meetings were open to everyone, but the AWSA allowed only delegates from recognized state organizations to vote at its meetings, although any member could attend and speak. The NWSA initially dealt with several women's issues, such as divorce reform and equal pay for women , while

7239-589: The First World War, but was renewed for Doukhobors from 1934 (via the Dominion Elections Act ) to 1955. The first Constitution of modern Romania in 1866 provided in article 7 that only Christians could become Romanian citizens. Jews native to Romania were declared stateless persons. In 1879, under pressure from the Berlin Peace Conference , this article was amended, granting non-Christians

7366-525: The Houses of Parliament. Historian Robert Poole has called the Peterloo Massacre one of the defining moments of its age. (The eponymous Peterloo film featured a scene of women suffragists planning their contribution to the protest.) At that time Manchester had a population of around 140,000 and the population totals of Greater Manchester were around 490,000. This was followed by other experiments in

7493-407: The NWSA under a new name. In May 1870, Anthony was forced to sell The Revolution because of mounting debts, thereby losing the NWSA's primary media voice. The NWSA afterwards depended on smaller periodicals, such as The National Citizen and Ballot Box , edited by Matilda Joslyn Gage , and The Woman's Tribune , edited by Clara Bewick Colby , to represent its viewpoint. The NWSA benefited from

7620-478: The NWSA, wrote three chapters of the first volume but was forced to abandon the project afterwards because of the illness of her husband. After Stanton's death, Anthony published Volume 4 with the help of Ida Husted Harper . After Anthony's death, Harper completed the last two volumes, bringing history up to 1920. Stanton and Anthony had encouraged their rival Lucy Stone to assist with the work, or at least to send material that could be used by someone else to write

7747-406: The Republican Party and the Fifteenth Amendment , which they felt would not win congressional approval if it included the vote for women. Another member was abolitionist and women's rights advocate Sojourner Truth . In 1870, Lucy Stone , the leader of the AWSA, began publishing an eight-page weekly newspaper called the Woman's Journal as the voice of the AWSA. Eventually it became a voice of

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7874-469: The South were often deemed by election officials to have failed the test even when they did not. Under the 1961 constitution of Rhodesia , voting on the "A" roll, which elected up to 50 of the 65 members of parliament, was restricted based on education requirements, which in practice led to an overwhelming white vote. Voting on the "B" roll had universal suffrage, but only appointed 15 members of parliament. In

8001-808: The United Nations' Human Rights Commission, whose elected chair was Eleanor Roosevelt . In 1948 the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ; Article 21 states: "(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives. (3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures." The United Nations General Assembly adopted

8128-410: The United States . The AWSA lobbied state governments to enact laws granting or expanding women's right to vote in the United States. Lucy Stone , its most prominent leader, began publishing a newspaper in 1870 called the Woman's Journal . It was designed as the voice of the AWSA, and it eventually became a voice of the women's movement as a whole. In 1890, the AWSA merged with a rival organization,

8255-605: The United States a felon might lose the right to vote. As of 2022 , Florida felons with court debts may not vote. In some countries being under guardianship may restrict the right to vote. Non-resident citizen voting allows emigrants and expats of some countries to vote in their home country. Resident non-citizens can vote in some countries, which may be restricted to citizens of closely linked countries (e.g., Commonwealth citizens and European Union citizens ) or to certain offices or questions. Multiple citizenship typically allows to vote in multiple countries. Historically

8382-467: The United States to give her lectures, and was greeted with a large audience at almost every lecture. She managed to have control over her crowds and they began to respect her efforts even if they didn't necessarily agree with her. Stone married Henry Blackwell in 1855 who felt strongly about woman's rights and was an abolitionist. Stone never changed her name throughout the 40 years they were happily married. The two of them lectured together and took part in

8509-596: The Woman's National Liberal Union, but it did not attract a significant following, and plans for merger proceeded. The NWSA and the AWSA met in a joint convention in Washington and formed the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) on February 18, 1890. At Anthony's insistence, Stanton agreed to accept its presidency. This was largely a symbolic move; the day after she was elected president, Stanton sailed to her daughter's home in England, where she stayed for eighteen months, leaving Anthony effectively in charge. Stone

8636-509: The adoption of the succeeding constitution , which reverted to "all white male" suffrage restrictions. Although the Kingdom of Hawai'i granted female suffrage in 1840, the right was rescinded in 1852. Limited voting rights were gained by some women in Sweden, Britain, and some western U.S. states in the 1860s. In 1893, the British colony of New Zealand became the first self-governing nation to extend

8763-423: The agenda of Woman's Suffrage and ultimately gave positive recognition to the cause. The attention the AWSA gave to woman's suffrage and their work to spread the message were all contributing factors that led to the passage of the 19th amendment in 1920. The Woman's Journal played a fundamental role in the AWSA's ability to get their message and wants out into the public sphere. The Woman's Journal became

8890-541: The chaotic situation that followed, Anthony shouted that the UWSA would meet the next day as usual and abruptly adjourned the session. The UWSA did meet the next day as planned, although with fewer participants because most of them had gone to the Woodhull event instead. The UWSA voted to transform itself at this meeting into a reconstituted NWSA with Anthony as president. Later that year, Woodhull published details of an affair between Elizabeth Tilton , wife of Theodore Tilton ,

9017-402: The civil, but moral codes by which you shall be governed, awake to the dangers of your present position, and demand, too, that women too shall be represented in government!" These beliefs and contentions corresponded with her published comments from inaugural issues of The Revolution . In 1868, for instance, she argued that "there is only one safe, sure way to build a government, and that is on

9144-469: The congress. The ICW convention brought increased publicity and respectability to the women's movement, especially when President Grover Cleveland honored the delegates by inviting them to a reception at the White House . Still active, ICW is associated with the United Nations. Lucy Stone initiated the reunification of the rival suffrage organizations. She was seventy years old and in declining health, and

9271-461: The country than suffrage for black men. Stanton and Anthony opposed it, insisting that all women and all African Americans should be enfranchised at the same time. Stanton argued that by enfranchising almost all men while excluding all women, the amendment would give constitutional authority to the belief that men were superior to women, creating an "aristocracy of sex". During the debate, Stanton wrote articles for The Revolution with language that

9398-517: The denial of suffrage because of sex rather than race. On July 4, 1876, The United States celebrated its 100th anniversary with a ceremony in Philadelphia at Independence Hall , where the Declaration of Independence was approved on July 4, 1776. In preparation for the event, the NWSA established headquarters nearby and began drawing up "articles of impeachment" against the country's male "Political Sovereigns". NWSA officers asked permission to present

9525-654: The district not holding a seat in either the House of Representatives or Senate , however residents can vote in presidential elections based on the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution adopted in 1961. Residents of Puerto Rico enjoy neither. Sometimes citizens become ineligible to vote because they are no longer resident in their country of citizenship . For example, Australian citizens who have been outside Australia for more than one and fewer than six years may excuse themselves from

9652-663: The electoral system or corruption of public officials. In the Republic of Ireland , prisoners are allowed the right to vote, following the Hirst v UK (No2) ruling , which was granted in 2006. Canada allowed only prisoners serving a term of less than 2 years the right to vote, but this was found to be unconstitutional in 2002 by the Supreme Court of Canada in Sauvé v. Canada (Chief Electoral Officer) , and all prisoners have been allowed to vote as of

9779-501: The equality of all its citizens, male and female, black and white...Just so if woman finds it hard to bear the oppressive laws of a few Saxon Fathers, of the best orders of manhood, what may she not be called to endure when all the lower orders, natives and foreigners, Dutch, Irish, Chinese and African, legislate for her and her daughters?" Ellen DuBois referred to this particularly litany of "lower orders" as "betraying her underlying elitism", whereas Sue Davis renounced her question as one in

9906-482: The executive committee. Its headquarters were in Boston. African Americans attended the AWSA's founding convention and played important roles in the organization. Robert Purvis was elected vice president for Pennsylvania at that convention. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper , also a founding member of the AWSA, gave the closing address at the annual conventions in 1873 and 1875. Suffrage activists who hoped to prevent

10033-529: The extensive lecture tours that Stanton and Anthony undertook, which brought new recruits into the organization and strengthened it at the local, state and national levels. Their journeys during that period covered a distance that was unmatched by any other reformer or politician. From 1869 to 1879, Stanton traveled eight months of the year on the lecture circuit, usually delivering one lecture per day, two on Sundays. In one year alone, Anthony traveled 13,000 miles and gave at least 170 lectures. The NWSA did not have

10160-512: The federal level, while the AWSA, working mainly at the state level, met in various cities across the country. The author of a study of African American women in the suffrage movement lists nine who participated in the AWSA during the 1870s and six who participated in the NWSA. Stanton, a NWSA leader, "moved to sever the women's rights movement from its earlier moorings in the antislavery tradition." She periodically "appealed to racial and ethnic prejudices, arguing that native-born white women deserved

10287-512: The female line. Women elders voted on hereditary male chiefs and could depose them. The emergence of many modern democracies began with male citizens obtaining the right to vote in advance of female citizens, except in the Kingdom of Hawai'i , where universal suffrage without mention of age or sex was introduced in 1840; however, a constitutional amendment in 1852 rescinded female voting and put property qualifications on male voting. Voting rights for women were introduced into international law by

10414-467: The goal of votes for women. Conversations about a merger between the AWSA and NWSA began in 1886. After several years of negotiations, the organizations officially joined in 1890 to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). The leaders of this new organization included Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Carrie Chapman Catt , Frances Willard , Mary Church Terrell , Matilda Joslyn Gage and Anna Howard Shaw . Stanton served in

10541-593: The group's members, which had existed from the outset, became apparent during the struggle over the ratification of two amendments to the United States Constitution. The proposed Fourteenth Amendment , which guaranteed equal protection of the laws to all citizens, regardless of race, color, creed, or previous condition of servitude, added the word "male" to the Constitution for the first time. The proposed Fifteenth Amendment extended franchise to African American men, but not to women. Following its contentious convention in May 1869,

10668-877: The hall, Anthony read the Declaration to a large crowd and invited everyone to a NWSA convention at the nearby Unitarian church to hear Stanton, Lucretia Mott and other speakers. The Declaration was signed by Susan B. Anthony and these other leading members of the NWSA: Lucretia Mott , Elizabeth Cady Stanton , Paulina Wright Davis , Ernestine L. Rose , Clarina I. H. Nichols , Mary Ann McClintock , Amy Post , Sarah Pugh , Matilda Joslyn Gage , Clemence Sophia Harned Lozier , Olympia Brown , Mathilde Franziska Anneke , Mathilde F. Wendt, Adelaide Thomson, Laura de Force Gordon , Ellen Clark Sargent , Virginia L. Minor , Sara Andrews Spencer, Lillie Devereux Blake , Phoebe Couzins , Jane Graham Jones, Abigail Scott Duniway , Belva A. Lockwood . Lucretia Mott, former president of

10795-454: The heart and soul of the AWSA's mission. Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell founded the journal in 1870, their daughter Alice eventually joined the journal's staff by becoming the sole editor after her parents passing. The journal never had any immense financial success attached to it, but it received widespread attention which heavily contributed to the Woman's Suffrage Movement. The journal covered

10922-548: The history of her wing of the movement, but she refused to cooperate in any way. Stanton's daughter Harriot Stanton Blatch , wrote the 120-page chapter on Stone and the AWSA, which appears in Volume 2. Even so, the History of Woman Suffrage places Stanton, Anthony and the NWSA at the center of the movement's history and marginalizes the role of Stone and the AWSA. Anthony traveled to Europe in 1883, linking up with Stanton, who had arrived

11049-407: The idea of women in politics. Political cartoons displayed the most sentiment by portraying the issue of women's suffrage to be swapped with men's lives. Some mocked the popular suffrage hairstyle of full-upward combed hair. Others depicted young girls turning into suffragettes after a failure in life, such as not being married. Equal suffrage is sometimes confused with Universal suffrage , although

11176-402: The issue; none, however, were successful. Along with their success in western states, the AWSA also played a vital role in the passage of the 19th amendment which granted white woman the right to vote under constitutional law. Their efforts to promote Woman's Suffrage on more local and state levels through conferences, debates, speeches and even publishing their own journal all helped to push

11303-489: The judge's order to stop talking and sit down, she castigated him for denying her a trial by jury, but said that even if he had allowed the jury to discuss the case, she still would have been denied a trial by a jury of her peers because women were not allowed to be jurors. The Supreme Court ruled in 1875 in Minor v. Happersett that "the Constitution of the United States does not confer the right of suffrage upon anyone". The NWSA

11430-435: The meaning of the former is the removal of graded votes, wherein a voter could possess a number of votes in accordance with income, wealth or social status. Also known as "censitary suffrage", it is the opposite of equal suffrage, meaning that the votes cast by those eligible to vote are not equal, but weighed differently according to the person's income or rank in society (e.g., people who do not own property or whose income

11557-507: The meeting at that point. Those remaining, including some non-affiliated activists, formed a new organization, the Union Woman Suffrage Association (UWSA) with Tilton as president and a Sixteenth Amendment as its central goal. Soon afterward, the executive committee of the moribund AERA met and voted, over Stone's objection, to merge into the UWSA. The next month, the NWSA itself merged into the UWSA, which essentially became

11684-518: The next several years, they worked together for the abolition of slavery and for women's rights. In 1866, Anthony and Stanton organized the Eleventh National Women's Rights Convention , the first since the Civil War began. The convention voted to transform itself into the American Equal Rights Association (AERA), whose purpose was to campaign for the equal rights of all citizens, especially

11811-453: The only tax for such countries was the property tax), or the voting rights were weighted according to the amount of taxes paid (as in the Prussian three-class franchise ). Most countries abolished the property qualification for national elections in the late nineteenth century, but retained it for local government elections for several decades. Today these laws have largely been abolished, although

11938-542: The pinnacle of development...to admit Black men to enfranchisement was to admit them into 'manhood', making ever more difficult the task of redefining citizenship...for women." She also presumed that all "lower orders" promoted "low ideas of womanhood." Stanton wrote, "American women of wealth, education, virtue and refinement, if you do not wish the lower orders of Chinese, Africans, Germans and Irish, with their low ideas of womanhood to make laws for you and your daughters, to be your rulers, judges, and jurors---to dictate not only

12065-411: The possibility of a merger. The proposal did not generate significant controversy within the AWSA. There was strong opposition within the NWSA, however. Ida Husted Harper , Anthony's co-worker and biographer, said the NWSA meetings that dealt with this issue "were the most stormy in the history of the association." Matilda Joslyn Gage , an opponent of the merger, formed a competing organization called

12192-536: The privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States … nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." In January 1871, the UWSA delayed the opening session of its annual convention in Washington so its members could hear the historic address to the House Judiciary Committee by Victoria Woodhull , the first woman to speak before a Congressional body. A stockbroker with wealthy backers but little previous connection to

12319-452: The range usually varies between 16 and 21 years. The United Kingdom was the first major democratic nation to extend suffrage to those 18 and older in 1969 . The movement to lower the voting age is one aspect of the Youth rights movement. Demeny voting has been proposed as a form of proxy voting by parents on behalf of their children who are below the age of suffrage. Some countries restrict

12446-510: The requirement to vote in Australian elections while they remain outside Australia (voting in Australia is compulsory for resident citizens). Danish citizens that reside permanently outside Denmark lose their right to vote. In some cases, a certain period of residence in a locality may required for the right to vote in that location. For example, in the United Kingdom up to 2001, each 15 February

12573-458: The residents in each county (...) and they shall be of the Protestent (sic) religion". In Maryland , voting rights and eligibility were extended to Jews in 1828. In Canada , several religious groups ( Mennonites , Hutterites , Doukhobors ) were disenfranchised by the wartime Elections Act of 1917, mainly because they opposed military service. This disenfranchisement ended with the closure of

12700-436: The right of suffrage. Its members consisted mainly of activists in the women's rights and abolitionist movements, and its leadership included such prominent activists as Lucretia Mott , Lucy Stone and Frederick Douglass . Over time, the AERA members whose primary interest was women's suffrage began to divide into two wings. One wing, whose leading figure was Lucy Stone, was willing for black men to achieve suffrage first, as

12827-509: The right to become Romanian citizens, but naturalization was granted on a case-by-case basis and was subject to Parliamentary approval. An application took over ten years to process. Only in 1923 was a new constitution adopted, whose article 133 extended Romanian citizenship to all Jewish residents and equality of rights to all Romanian citizens. Until the nineteenth century, many Western proto-democracies had property qualifications in their electoral laws; e.g. only landowners could vote (because

12954-527: The right to vote from 1728 to 1793, and the right to sit in parliament until 1829. The anti-Catholic policy was justified on the grounds that the loyalty of Catholics supposedly lay with the Pope rather than the national monarch. In England and Ireland, several Acts practically disenfranchised non-Anglicans or non-Protestants by imposing an oath before admission to vote or to stand for office. The 1672 and 1678 Test Acts forbade non-Anglicans to hold public offices, and

13081-477: The right to vote to all adult women. In 1894, the women of South Australia achieved the right to both vote and stand for Parliament . The autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland in the Russian Empire was the first nation to allow all women to both vote and run for parliament. Those against the women's suffrage movement made public organizations to put down the political movement, with the main argument being that

13208-410: The right to vote was more restricted, for example by gender, race, or wealth. The word suffrage comes from Latin suffragium , which initially meant "a voting-tablet", "a ballot", "a vote", or "the right to vote". Suffragium in the second century and later came to mean "political patronage, influence, interest, or support", and sometimes "popular acclaim" or "applause". By the fourth century

13335-479: The same year. Stone's early work consisted of a mix between woman's rights and anti-slavery lectures, but eventually resigned from the Anti-Slavery Society in order to devote herself to the fight for woman's rights. Stone began her fight for suffrage alone, as no suffrage associations had been established at the time, she received a great deal of backlash from the public, still she continued to travel across

13462-484: The same, and have resided within the county in which they claim a vote for twelve months immediately preceding the election, shall be entitled to vote for Representatives in Council and Assembly; and also for all other public officers, that shall be elected by the people of the county at large. New Jersey 1776 However, the document did not specify an Amendment procedure, and the provision was subsequently replaced in 1844 by

13589-473: The suffrage practices of Iroquois women, "These female chieftains are women of standing amongst the savages, and they have a deciding vote in the councils. They make decisions there like the men, and it is they who even delegated the first ambassadors to discuss peace." The Iroquois, like many First Nations peoples in North America, had a matrilineal kinship system . Property and descent were passed through

13716-454: The term 'universal suffrage' has meant different things with the different assumptions about the groups that were or were not deemed desirable voters. The short-lived Corsican Republic (1755–1769) was the first country to grant limited universal suffrage to all citizens over the age of 25. In 1819, 60–80,000 women and men from 30 miles around Manchester assembled in the city's St. Peter's Square to protest their lack of any representation in

13843-485: The twenty-year period of AWSA activity. Women in two Western states, Wyoming and Utah , won the right to vote. The AWSA used their state to state campaigning tactic across these western states in order to gain support for woman's suffrage . This allowed the campaign to gain traction on more local and state levels, but not on a national level. An average of 4.4 states per year considered, but did not adopt woman suffrage. Eight additional states also considered referendums on

13970-405: The verdict had been delivered. At the end of the trial, Justice Hunt delivered his opinion, which he had put in writing, and directed the jury to deliver a guilty verdict. When he asked Anthony if she had anything to say, she responded with "the most famous speech in the history of the agitation for woman suffrage", according to Ann D. Gordon , a historian of the women's movement. Repeatedly ignoring

14097-410: The vote more than non-whites and immigrants." Lee Boomer and New-York Historical Society educators noted that "while the NWSA did not prohibit Black women from joining at the national level, local [NWSA] organizations could reject their participation." Many suffragists were appalled by the split and insisted on reunification. Theodore Tilton , a newspaper editor and women's rights advocate, initiated

14224-467: The voting rights of convicted criminals. Some countries, and some U.S. states , also deny the right to vote to those convicted of serious crimes even after they are released from prison. In some cases (e.g. in many U.S. states ) the denial of the right to vote is automatic upon a felony conviction; in other cases (e.g. France and Germany) deprivation of the vote is meted out separately, and often limited to perpetrators of specific crimes such as those against

14351-412: The women's movement as a whole. The AWSA was initially larger than the NWSA, but it declined in strength during the 1880s. Stanton and Anthony, the leading figures in the NWSA, were more widely known as leaders of the women's suffrage movement during this period and more influential in setting its direction. During the 1880s, it became increasingly clear that group rivalries were counterproductive to

14478-437: The women's movement, she presented a modified version of the New Departure strategy. Instead of asking the courts to rule that the Constitution implicitly enfranchised women, she asked Congress to pass a declaratory act to accomplish the same goal. The committee did not accept her proposal. Woodhull was invited to give the same speech to the UWSA's afternoon session and was greeted there with enthusiasm. Woodhull's reputation as

14605-519: The word may be related to suffrago , signifying an ankle bone or knuckle bone. In the 17th century the English suffrage regained the earlier meaning of the Latin suffragium , "a vote" or "the right to vote". The word franchise comes from the French word franchir , which means "to free." Other common uses of the term today have less resemblance to the original meaning as they are associated with

14732-521: The word was used for "an intercession", asking a patron for their influence with the Almighty. Suffragium was used in the fifth and sixth centuries with connection to buying influence or profiteering from appointing to office, and eventually the word referred to the bribe itself. William Smith rejects the connection of suffragium to sub "under" + fragor "crash, din, shouts (as of approval)", related to frangere "to break"; Eduard Wunder writes that

14859-616: The world in 1893. Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote. This was the goal of the suffragists, who believed in using legal means, as well as the suffragettes , who used extremist measures. Short-lived suffrage equity was drafted into provisions of the State of New Jersey's first, 1776 Constitution, which extended the Right to Vote to unwed female landholders and black land owners. IV. That all inhabitants of this Colony, of full age, who are worth fifty pounds proclamation money, clear estate in

14986-511: Was arrested and found guilty in a widely publicized trial. The judge at the trial was Justice Ward Hunt , who had recently been appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court and who conducted the trial as part of the federal circuit court system at that time. The trial, United States v. Susan B. Anthony , was closely followed by the national press. Following a rule of common law at that time which prevented criminal defendants in federal courts from testifying, Hunt refused to allow Anthony to speak until

15113-536: Was elected chair of the executive committee. The NAWSA developed into the nation's largest voluntary organization, with two million members. After women's suffrage was achieved in 1920 by the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution , the NAWSA transformed itself into the League of Women Voters , which is still active. Suffrage Suffrage , political franchise , or simply franchise

15240-406: Was endorsed at the convention only after a vigorous debate about an idea that was controversial even within the women's movement. Soon after the convention, however, it became a central tenet of the movement. In 1851, Stanton and Susan B. Anthony formed a decades-long partnership that became important to the women's rights movement and to the future National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). For

15367-484: Was eventually sold to the Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission who was headed by Carrie Chapman Catt, the journal was renamed to The Woman Citizen , three years later the 19th amendment was passed, and their was a decline in activism regarding the general sphere of woman's rights. The journal continued to publish, but now only monthly compared to their weekly publications, this lasted for a little over

15494-512: Was formed in November 1869, with Lucy Stone as its primary leader. The AWSA was initially larger and better funded, but Stanton and Anthony were more widely known as leaders of the women's suffrage movement and were more influential in setting its direction. Membership of the NWSA came partly from activists in organizations that Anthony and Stanton had created. One of those was the Women's Loyal National League , whose 5000 members had by 1864 completed

15621-598: Was healed in 1890, when the NWSA merged with its rival, the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association under the leadership of Anthony and Stanton. Women's suffrage in the U.S. emerged as a significant issue in the mid-1800s. A key event was the first women's rights convention, the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, which was initiated by Elizabeth Cady Stanton . Women's right to vote

15748-443: Was obliged to return to the far more difficult strategy of achieving suffrage by constitutional amendment. In 1878, Senator Aaron A. Sargent , who was married to NWSA treasurer Ellen Clark Sargent , introduced into Congress the women's suffrage amendment that more than forty years later would become the Nineteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution . Its text is identical to that of the Fifteenth Amendment except that it prohibits

15875-515: Was repealed by article I, section 2 of the 1792 Constitution : "No religious test shall be required as a qualification to any office, or public trust, under this State". The 1778 Constitution of the State of South Carolina stated that "No person shall be eligible to sit in the house of representatives unless he be of the Protestant religion", the 1777 Constitution of the State of Georgia (art. VI) that "The representatives shall be chosen out of

16002-482: Was sometimes elitist and racially condescending. According to Cheris Kramarae and Lana Raknow, Stanton distinguished between " 'colorophobia' " and her own belief in the "evolutionary development of the human 'race.' Stanton, for example, sometimes referred to the 'lower orders of mankind', an indication of her belief that education and 'civilization' were needed to bring groups of people (particularly American Blacks and white working-class immigrants) out of barbarism and to

16129-555: Was the business vote, abolished in 1968 (a year before it was abolished in Great Britain outside the City of London). In the Republic of Ireland , commercial ratepayers can vote in local plebiscites , for changing the name of the locality or street , or delimiting a business improvement district . From 1930 to 1935, 5 of 35 members of Dublin City Council were "commercial members". In cities in most Australian states, voting

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