portsmouthhistorynotes

Can you imagine the U.S. Congress taking your citizenship away. That is what happened to Maud Howe Elliott (the daughter of Julia Ward Howe) and many other women. In 1907 the Congress passed the Expatriation Act which took citizenship away from American born women who had married a foreigner. Maud had married English artist John Elliott about 25 years before. What is interesting is that this applied ONLY to women. Men retained their citizenship if married to a foreign citizen. So when women got the vote in 1920, Maud could not cast a vote. She had to wait until another bill was passed. The Cable Act passed in 1922 BECAUSE women now had the vote and the politicians were anxious to solicit the votes of women. A newspaper article in June of 1923 records that Maud had petitioned the Superior Court in Newport in order to regain her citizenship under the Cable Act.*

I consider Maud to be a “Portsmouth Suffragist” although Newport and even Boston lay claim to her. She spent fourteen summers at her parents’ homes at Lawton’s Valley. As her mother Julia grew older, she spent more time with her at the Oak Glen home on Union Street. After her mother’s death in 1910, Maud and her husband John lived at Oak Glen. Oak Glen was a base of operation for the Newport County Suffrage League when Maud became president. Maud was a busy woman and she hesitated about taking on the presidency of the league.

Sept. 6, 1912: “Miss Cora Mitchell asks me to take the presidency of the Newport County Suffrage League. I delayed decision but suppose I shall in the end accept, unless we can find another person. With the heavy work I have undertaken as secretary of the Art Association and for the Progressive Party, this seems the last straw. **

Maud’s connections with both the Art Association and the Progressive Party drew many new women to the suffrage movement. As a co-founder of the Art Association, she had a great impact on Newport culture. She founded the Rhode Island Woman’s branch of the Progressive Party and she worked tirelessly for the party’s candidates. Most of the local suffragists favored the Republican Party.

Maud and the other ladies of the Newport County League did not believe in the militancy of the English suffragists or even noted Newport socialite Ava Belmont. However, they were not hesitant to press their case. Maud and others from the League “botton-holed” Rhode Island legislators in 1914. When the “Antis” (those against suffrage) rented a theater in Newport, Maud and two other League ladies came to refute their arguments. Maud was an excellent spokesman for the suffrage cause and she energized a new group of suffragists among Newport women and the summer socialite community.

*Rutland (Vermont) Daily Herald, June 5, 1923

** Maud Howe Elliott: Three Generations. Little Brown, 1923.

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.”

Susan B. Anthony painted by Sarah Eddy

When Susan B. Anthony visited Portsmouth in 1901, she went to visit Julia Ward Howe. What was extraordinary about that visit is that it probably would not have happened a dozen years before.  Until I began to research the local suffragists, I was not aware that there were divisions among them.   I will try to explain the differences between the various suffrage groups.

During the Civil War activists for women’s rights set aside their cause.  As they took up their activities again,  many of them sought to combine their cause of rights for women with rights for African Americans.  The American Equal Rights Association was formed in 1866 with the rights of women and blacks as their cause.  In November of 1868 there was a regional meeting in Boston of the Women’s Rights Convention.  Some of those who participated in that meeting (Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, Isabella Beecher Hooker, Julia Ward Howe and T.W. Higginson) founded the New England Woman Suffrage Association (NEWSA). Julia Ward Howe was the first President.   Frederick Douglass spoke at the first convention and said “the cause of the negro was more pressing than that of the woman’s.” Julia Ward Howe is recorded as saying at the convention that she would not demand suffrage for women until it was achieved for blacks.

This did not sit well with those who were more focused on the woman’s cause.  In May of 1869 Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony and others formed the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA).  To counter this organization, the executive board of the New England Woman Suffrage Association formed the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) in November of 1869.

What were the goals of each group?

AWSA – Julia’s group – Headquarters in Boston

1. Focus on the vote for women and largely ignored other women’s rights issues.
2. Supported winning suffrage state by state instead of federal approach
3. Supported the Republican Party
4. Used a delegate system
5. Men were full members and served as officers
6. AWSA was the more conservative and larger group.
7. Opposed confrontational strategies.
8. Published “Woman’s Journal”

NWSA – Susan B. Anthony’s group – Headquarters in New York

1. Advocated for range of reforms for equal rights for women – not just the vote.  (Discrimination, pay issues, marriage and divorce laws).
2. Condemned passage of 14th and 15th amendments unless woman’s suffrage was included.
3. Female led group.  All members were women although men could be affiliated.
4. Sought a national, constitutional change to insure voting rights.
5. Sought help from Democrats as well as Republicans.
6. Had a “top-down” organization.
7. Published – “The Revolution”

After the 15th Amendment was passed in 1870, voting rights for blacks was no longer an issue.  In 1878 a woman suffrage amendment was proposed and Congress defeated it, so the NWSA began to use the state by state approach, too.  Those active in woman suffrage were discouraged and tired of the divisions. There was little difference between the two groups at that time.   Lucy Stone  proposed at a AWSA convention that the organization should approach the NWSA and women in the two groups began to negotiate an alliance.  In 1890 the two organizations merged into the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

Oak Glen – home of Julia Ward Howe

Susan B. Anthony wrote to her sister.  “I went in the carriage one afternoon to call on Julia Ward Howe, whose summer home is six miles from here; she was charming and I had an interesting time.”  Two great leaders in the suffrage movement were meeting in Portsmouth through the efforts of Sarah Eddy.  The woman’s suffrage cause was much stronger together than it had been divided.

Resources:  I recommend the online articles by “ThoughtCo” on the various groups.  This one is on AWSA, but there are others on NWSA and the American Equal Rights Association.

Lewis, Jone Johnson. “American Woman Suffrage Association.” ThoughtCo, Jun. 4, 2018, thoughtco.com/american-woman-suffrage-association-3530477