Ratification document 1920

Rhode Island was not among the first states to ratify the federal constitutional amendment that would grant the vote to women. In fact, two attempts to secure a special legislative session failed in July and September of 1919. Just a few days before the opening of the January 1920 legislative session, word was out that there would be a suspension of rules so that on January 6 the vote would be taken.  At that point the Providence League of Women Voters began to plan for a Victory Dinner.  Congressman Jeanette Rankin would be the lead speaker.  Rankin came from Montana which had granted women the vote in 1914 and in 1916 Rankin was the first woman elected to Congress.  She had a long history of working for the vote for women.

Women gathered outside the State House.  Suffragists filled the seats in the galleries along with the first lady of the state, Mrs. R. Livingston Beeckman.Not all the politicians had been converted to the suffrage cause.  The Speaker of the House, Arthur Sumner (a lifelong opponent of the vote for women) asked for permission to cast the first vote against the amendment.  Women in the room began to fear that the speaker could somehow hold up the vote, but in the end there were only two other votes against – William Taylor of Bristol and Albert Zurlinden of Lincoln.

With that vote taken, the resolution was taken across the corridor to the Senate.  The chair of the Senate was a “friend of the cause” – Lt. Governor Emery J. San Souci.  With no speeches, the resolution was passed by voice vote.  There was only one dissent – John H. McCabe of Burrillville.

With the passage of the resolution to approve the 19th Amendment, the Victory Party was held at the Turks Head Club.  Men and women dined together on the turkey dinner.  “Jolly little speechlets” were given by those who had worked hard for suffrage during the previous fifty years.  Among those speaking were three who had Aquidneck Island ties – Anna Darlin Spencer, Sarah Eddy and Maud Howe Elliott.  Mrs. J.K. Barney spoke for the pioneers and especially those who could not be there like Portsmouth’s own Mrs. Barton Ballou.

On January 7th 1920 a large delegation of the suffragists witnessed Governor Beeckman sign the Ratification Resolution.  Sara Algro, reporting for the “Women Citizen” summed it this way.  “Thus ended in a most satisfactory manner the glorious victory which will long be remembered in the annals of Rhode Island.”