KENTUCKY.[55]
When the Equal Rights Association was formed in 1888 Kentucky was the
only State that did not permit a married woman to make a will; a
wife's wages might be collected by the husband; property and
inheritance laws between husband and wife were absolutely unequal;
fathers were sole guardians of their children and at death could
appoint one even of a child unborn; the age of consent was 12 years
and it was legal for a girl to marry at 12. An infinitesimal number of
women had a bit of School suffrage. In the rest of that century, under
the leadership of Miss Laura Clay, with the able assistance of such
women as Mrs. Josephine K. Henry, Mrs. Eliza Calvert Obenchain and
many others, much was accomplished in the improvement of the laws and
in other ways beneficial to women.
No State convention was held in 1900. Conventions took place annually
in the autumn from 1901 to 1917 inclusive in the following cities:
Louisville, Lexington, Covington, Newport, Richmond, Ashland,
Owensboro, most often in Lexington. The convention of 1918 was
postponed on account of the influenza epidemic and held in Louisville
March 11-12, 1919. The convention which should have been held in the
fall of this year was postponed because of work for ratification and
became a "victory" convention held Jan. 6-7, 1920, in Frankfort and
Lexington.
The first president of the Equal Rights Association, Miss Laura Clay
of Lexington, elected in 1888, served until November, 1912. The
constitution was then amended at her desire to prevent a president
from succeeding herself and to provide for a three-year term. Mrs.
Desha Breckinridge of Lexington was elected in November, 1912, and in
1915 Mrs. Thomas Jefferson Smith of Frankfort. In 1916, Mrs. Smith
resigning because of her election to the National Board, Mrs. John
Glover South of Frankfort was elected to fill out the unexpired term.
In March, 1919, Mrs. Breckinridge was again elected.
For many years the association worked on a non-dues-paying basis and
was supported by voluntary contributions. Increase of activity is
indicated by the following figures: The financial report for 1903
shows that $359 were spent; that for 1917 gives an expenditure of
$7,838. In 1912 there were 1,779 members, with organizations in 11
counties; 4,655 members were reported in November, 1913, and 10,577 in
November, 1914, with completely organized suffrage leagues in 64
counties; partially organized leagues in 23; a roll of members in 32
and but one county in which there was no membership.
Many suffrage addresses have been made in the State by eminent
Kentucky men and women and in later years by outside speakers
including Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, Mrs.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Senator Helen Ring Robinson, Mrs.
T. T. Cotnam, Max Eastman, Walter J. Millard, Mrs. Beatrice
Forbes-Robertson; Mrs. Philip Snowden, Mrs. Pethick-Lawrence and Mrs.
Pankhurst of England, and Rosika Schwimmer of Hungary.
Propaganda work has been done by means of the press and the lecture
bureau, by the offering of prizes in schools and colleges for the best
essays on woman suffrage and at the State, Blue Grass and county fairs
through speaking and circulating literature. In recent years many
newspapers have given editorial support and many more have given space
for frequent articles furnished by the press bureau. Notable among
those of recent date is the Louisville _Courier-Journal_, in which for
many years Colonel Henry Watterson inveighed against woman suffrage in
immoderate terms. From the time it passed into the hands of Judge
Robert W. Bingham, and "Marse Henry's" connection with it ceased, it
consistently and persistently advocated suffrage for women, including
the Federal Amendment. Miss Clay writes: "The paper with the largest
circulation of any in the State outside of Louisville and of great
influence in central Kentucky, the Lexington _Herald_, owned and
edited by Desha Breckinridge, has from the beginning of the century
editorially advocated and insisted upon suffrage for women, including
School, Presidential and full suffrage, whether through 'State rights'
or Federal Amendment. It has given unlimited space to suffrage
propaganda and is largely responsible for making the question one of
paramount political moment." The _Herald_ of Louisville has been also
a valued supporter of the cause.
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union, of which Mrs. Frances E.
Beauchamp, always a prominent suffragist, has for thirty years been
president, and the Federation of Women's Clubs have continually worked
with the State Equal Rights Association for the improvement of
conditions affecting women. By mutual agreement bills in the
Legislature have been managed sometimes by one and sometimes by the
other.
In addition to organizing the suffrage forces and creating favorable
sentiment the principal work of the State Association has been to
secure action by the Legislature for suffrage and better laws and
conditions for women. This work was under the direction of Miss Clay
until the end of her presidency, with a corps of able assistants, and
she continued to help the legislative work. She was always sustained
by the interest and generosity of her sister, Sallie Clay (Mrs. James)
Bennett of Richmond, Ky. Mrs. S. M. Hubbard of Hickman was the largest
contributor and was a strong factor in the western part of the State.
As early as 1902 a bill for the franchise for presidential electors
was presented. In 1904, to the amazement of the suffragists, the act
of 1894 was repealed which gave School suffrage to the women of the
three third-class cities, Lexington, Covington and Newport. The reason
given was that too many illiterate negro women voted. It was made a
strict party measure, but one Democrat voting against the repeal and
but one Republican for it.
Following this action the women went to work to obtain School suffrage
for all women in the State able to read and write. In organizing this
protest against the repeal Mrs. Mary C. Roark, afterwards head of the
Eastern Kentucky Normal School, was a leader. Mrs. A. M. Harrison,
member of the school board in Lexington, was prominently identified
with the effort. This proved a long, hard struggle, as it was
considered an entering wedge to full suffrage by the liquor interests
and ward politicians of the cities and was bitterly fought. Year after
year the bill was defeated in the Legislature. At the request of the
suffrage association in 1908 the State Federation of Women's Clubs
took charge of it as a part of its work for better schools, but it was
defeated that year and in 1910. The Federation did not cease its work
and in 1912 the Democratic party included a School suffrage plank in
its platform. It already had the support of the Republican party and
this year the bill passed both Houses by a vote of more than two to
one. The Democrats were in control of the two Legislatures that
rejected it and also of the one that passed it. Mrs. Breckinridge was
legislative chairman for the federation during the years covering
these three sessions.
In 1912 the suffragists accepted the invitation of the Perry
Centennial Committee to have a suffrage section in the parade in
Louisville and their "float" attracted much attention. This is
believed to have been the first suffrage parade in the South.
In 1914 amendments to the new primary law were made by the Legislature
securing the right of women to vote in the primary elections for
county superintendent of schools. This right was in doubt the year
before and was denied in many counties. Much work was done by the
association in acquainting the women of the State with their rights
under the new law. This year after many efforts a resolution to submit
to the voters an amendment to the State constitution giving full
suffrage to women was before the Legislature, presented by Senator J.
H. Durham of Franklin and Representative John G. Miller of Paducah,
both Democrats. Favorable reports were obtained from Senate and House
Committees, it was placed on the Senate calendar, but after its defeat
in the House by 52 noes, 29 ayes, was not considered.
In 1915 a plank was obtained in the Republican State platform
endorsing woman suffrage, largely through the work of Mrs. Murray
Hubbard, chairman of a committee from the Federation of Women's Clubs.
When the Legislature met in January, 1916, the Republicans, under the
leadership of Edwin P. Morrow, caucused and agreed to support solidly
the resolution to submit a suffrage amendment to the State
constitution. The legislative work of the State association was
managed by Mrs. Breckinridge, chairman, and Mrs. Hubbard,
vice-chairman. The resolution was presented in the Senate by Thomas A.
Combs and in the House by W. C. G. Hobbs, both of Lexington and both
Democrats. It passed the Senate by 26 ayes, 8 noes. In the House it
was held in the committee and although three test votes were made in
an effort to bring it out and a majority was obtained on one of them,
a two-thirds vote was necessary and it was not allowed to come to a
vote. No Republican in the Senate gave an adverse vote and only three
in the House. Governor A. O. Stanley (Democrat) used the full strength
of the administration, even invoking the aid of the Kentucky
delegation in Congress, to kill the measure in the House.
This year the Republican and Progressive State conventions endorsed
woman suffrage, the Democrats refusing to do so. At the national
Republican convention in Chicago the Kentucky member of the
Resolutions Committee voted for the suffrage plank in its platform. At
the national Democratic convention in St. Louis all the twenty-six
delegates, on account of the "unit ruling," cast their votes for the
State's rights suffrage plank.
During 1917 suffrage work was displaced by war work, of which Kentucky
suffragists did a large share. They were asked to raise $500 for the
Women's Oversea Hospitals of the National Association and more than
doubled the quota by the able management of Mrs. Samuel Castleman of
Louisville. Under the direction of Mrs. E. L. Hutchinson of Lexington
a plan to raise money for an ambulance to be named in honor of Miss
Laura Clay, the pioneer suffragist, was successfully carried through.
In 1918 for the first time there was every reason to believe that a
resolution to submit a State amendment would pass the Legislature, but
a majority of the State suffrage board voted to conform to the desire
of the National Association to avoid State campaigns and concentrate
on the Federal Amendment and no resolution was presented.
At the State convention, held March 11, 1919, resolutions were adopted
calling upon all Kentucky members of Congress to vote for the Federal
Suffrage Amendment; calling on the Legislature to ratify this
amendment, when passed, at the first opportunity and asking it to
enact a law giving to women a vote for presidential electors. Miss
Clay, who for over thirty years had been the leader of the
suffragists, withdrew from the State association, which she had
founded, and formed a new organization to work for the vote by State
action alone, as she was strongly opposed to Federal action. It was
called the Citizens' Committee for a State Suffrage Amendment and
opened headquarters in Lexington. It issued an "open letter to the
public," an able argument for the State's control of its own suffrage
and an arraignment of interference by Congress, which it declared
would "become possessed of an autocratic power dangerous to free
institutions." It conducted a vigorous campaign against every move for
a Federal Amendment and met the representatives of the old association
at the Republican State convention in May to prevent their securing an
endorsement of it. In an eloquent speech before the platform committee
Miss Clay urged it to reaffirm the State's rights plank in the
National platform and pledge the party to secure the submission to the
voters of a State suffrage amendment and to support it at the polls.
The plank adopted was as follows: "We reaffirm our belief in the
justice and expediency of suffrage for women and call upon our
representatives in the Congress of the United States, in the
Legislature and in all executive positions to use their votes and
their influence for all measures granting political rights to women."
The Federal Suffrage Amendment was submitted by Congress June 4. Both
organizations urged their claims at the Democratic State convention in
September and the platform contained the following plank:
We favor the ratification by the Legislature of Kentucky at its
next session of the amendment to the Constitution of the United
States extending to women the right of suffrage and we urge our
representatives in the Legislature and all executive or other
officers to use their votes and influence in every legitimate way
to bring about the ratification of the same. We pledge ourselves
to support in the next General Assembly, if the Federal Amendment
has not become operative by that time, the submission of an
amendment to the State Constitution granting suffrage to women on
the same terms as to men and when the amendment is submitted to
support it at the polls as a party measure.
Every candidate for the nomination for Governor had stood on a
suffrage platform and the successful Democratic candidate, Governor
James D. Black, defeated at the election by Edwin P. Morrow, was a
staunch and life-long suffragist. When he was filling out Governor
Stanley's unexpired term and he received a telegram in June, with all
other Governors of Southern States, from the Governor of Louisiana,
asking him to oppose ratification of the Federal Amendment, he gave to
Mrs. Breckinridge a ringing interview for use in the press to the
effect that he would not oppose it. Governor Morrow, a Republican, had
always been a friend of woman suffrage in whatever form it was asked.
Kentucky suffragists could easily remember when they could poll but
one vote in Congress--that of John W. Langley. When in 1919 the final
vote was taken on the Federal Amendment but one of the State's ten
votes in the Lower House, that of A. B. Rouse of Covington, was cast
against it. There was one vacancy. Senator George B. Martin voted for
the resolution and Senator J. C. W. Beckham against it. He had voted
against it in February, when, having passed the House, it was lost in
the Senate by a single vote.
RATIFICATION. The November legislative election in 1919 resulted in a
Republican House and a Democratic Senate. The Republicans caucused and
agreed to vote for ratification. Governor Morrow urged it in a
vigorous message personally delivered to the Legislature in which he
said:
A government "of the people by the people" can not and does not
exist in a commonwealth in which one-half of its citizens are
denied the right of suffrage. The women of Kentucky are citizens
and there is no good or just reason why they should be refused
the full and equal exercise of the sovereign right of every free
people--the ballot. Every member of this General Assembly is
unequivocally committed by his party's platform declaration to
cast his vote and use his influence for the immediate
enfranchisement of women in both nation and State. Party loyalty,
faith-keeping with the people and our long-boasted chivalry all
demand that the General Assembly shall break all previous speed
records in ratifying the Federal Suffrage Amendment and passing
all measures granting political rights to women.
By agreement, a Democrat, Senator Charles M. Harriss, presented the
resolution for ratification in the Senate, and a Republican, Joseph
Lazarus, in the House. On Jan. 6, 1920, the first day of the session,
it was passed by a vote of 30 ayes, 8 noes in the Senate and 72 ayes,
25 noes in the House. The affirmative vote by parties was as follows:
In the two Houses 39 Democrats out of a possible 65, and 63
Republicans out of a possible 73. That any measure should pass on the
first day of the session was unprecedented in Kentucky legislative
history. Democrats were in control of the two Legislatures--1914 and
1916--which defeated the full suffrage measures. Democrats were in
control of the Legislature in 1918 which undoubtedly would have passed
a resolution for a State amendment, a Presidential suffrage bill, or
would have ratified the Federal Amendment had Congress acted in time.
The leaders of both parties by this time had seen a great light!
The delegates who had gathered in Frankfort for the State convention
were entertained at a buffet luncheon by the local suffrage
organization, went in a body to the State House and had the
gratification of seeing the Federal Amendment ratified. A
glorification meeting was held that night at Lexington, twenty-five
miles away, at which Governor Morrow told why the new women voters
should enter the Republican party and Judge C. S. Nunn and Senator
Harriss, leader of the Senate, told why they should enter the
Democratic party. The latter were introduced by former Senator Combs,
who had sponsored the suffrage cause among the Democrats in the last
two Legislatures. The convention closed with an address by Mrs.
Emmeline Pankhurst of England the following night, and on the next day
the officers and members of the association went to Frankfort again to
see the Governor sign the ratification.
As it was not certain that the amendment would be completely ratified
before the general election in November the Legislature decided to
pass a bill giving to women the right to vote for presidential
electors. On March 11 it passed the House and on the 15th the Senate
by almost the same vote given on the Federal Amendment. Only three
Senators voted against it--Thomas J. Gardner of Bardwell, Hayes Carter
of Elizabethtown and C. W. Burton of Crittenden. On the 16th bills
were passed making necessary changes in the election laws to insure
the voting of the women in the primaries and at the regular elections.
Kentucky women who rendered conspicuous service in the lobby work at
Washington under the auspices of the National Suffrage Association
were Mrs. John Glover South, Mrs. Thomas Jefferson Smith, Mrs. Edmund
M. Post, Mrs. Samuel Castleman, Mrs. Charles Firth and Mrs. Samuel
Henning. They were equally helpful in the State political work and
among many others who deserve especial mention are Mrs. James A.
Leech, Mrs. J. B. Judah and Mrs. Robinson A. McDowell. The association
is indebted to Mr. McDowell for legal assistance. An important factor
was the press work of Miss Eleanor Hume.[56]
The organizing of classes in citizenship was begun in the summer of
1919 and the services of a specialist in politics and history, Miss
Mary Scrugham, a Kentucky woman, were secured to prepare a course of
lectures for their use. These were published in the Lexington _Herald_
and supplied to women's clubs, suffrage associations and newly formed
Leagues of Women Citizens, soon to become Leagues of Women Voters.
The Equal Rights Association voted at its convention in January, 1920,
to change its name to the League of Women Voters as soon as
ratification of the Federal Amendment was complete or Presidential
suffrage granted. The league was fully organized on December 15, with
Miss Mary Bronaugh of Hopkinsville chairman.
The first vice-president of the State Equal Suffrage Association, Mrs.
South, was elected as chairman of the Women's Division of the National
Republican Committee, and the second vice-president, Mrs. Castleman,
as Kentucky member of the National Democratic Woman's Committee.
FOOTNOTES:
[55] The History is indebted for this chapter to Madeline McDowell
(Mrs. Desha) Breckinridge, president of the State Equal Rights
Association 1912-1915 and 1919-1920; vice-president of the National
American Woman Suffrage Association 1913-1914.
[56] In addition to the presidents the following served as officers of
the association: Vice-presidents: Mrs. Mary B. Clay, Mrs. Mary Cramer,
Mrs. N. S. McLaughlin, Mrs. John Castleman, Mrs. E. L. Hutchinson,
Mrs. Charles Firth, Mrs. Judah, Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Samuel Castleman,
Mrs. Leech, Mrs. McDowell, Mrs. Joseph Alderson, Mrs. F. A. Rothier.
Corresponding secretaries: Miss Anna Miller, Mrs. Mary C. Roark, Mrs.
Alice Carpenter, Miss Clay, Mrs. Herbert Mendel, Mrs. South. Recording
secretaries: Mrs. Emma Roebuck, Mrs. McDowell, Mrs. Firth, Mrs. J. D.
Hays. Treasurers: Mrs. Isabella Shepherd, Mrs. Warfield Bennett, Mrs.
Judah. Auditors: Miss Laura White, Mrs. Charles L. Nield, Mrs. W. F.
Lillard, Mrs. Alderson. Historians: Mrs. Mary Light Ogle, Mrs. M. B.
Reynolds. Press work: Mrs. Obenchain. Members National Executive
Committee: Miss Mary E. Giltner, Mrs. Post, Miss Clay.