The History of the 19th Amendment
The campaign for women’s suffrage began in small numbers decades before the Civil War and launched on the national stage in 1848 when reformers Stanton and Mott organized the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls to an audience of more than 300 women and men. Stanton and other delegates drafted a “Declaration of Sentiments” document, which was modeled after the Declaration of Independence and outlined the belief that men and women were created equal and women should have the right to vote.
e hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” — From The Declaration of Sentiments, drafted by a group of delegates led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton modeled after the U.S. Declaration of Independence
When the Civil War began in 1861, the suffrage movement lost some of its momentum and many women shifted their focus to helping their country through the conflict. At the conclusion of the war, the country passed the 15th Amendment granting — on paper — the right to vote to black men. Stanton and some other suffrage leaders objected to this amendment because it failed to extend voting rights to American women of any skin color. But the passage of this amendment made Stanton — joined by Anthony to form the National Woman Suffrage Association — to set her sights on a federal constitutional amendment that would grant women the right to vote.
Progress in the States There was a victory for voting rights in 1869 when the Wyoming Territory granted all female residents 21 and older the right to vote. This victory helped steer the suffrage movement toward the states after the constitutional amendment proposal was defeated in the U.S. Senate in 1886. The National American Women’s Suffrage Association lobbied for women’s voting rights in the states, and within six years, Colorado, Utah and
ISSUE 4 2020 | CAPITOL IDEAS
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Facing Setbacks
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