History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II

In Short

Documenting the pivotal years from 1861 to 1876, this second volume records the American woman suffrage movement as it navigates the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the battle over the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Compiled by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage, the text assembles speeches, congressional debates, court decisions, convention proceedings, letters, and news reports. It tracks how women organized hospital care and patriotic leagues during wartime, only to find themselves explicitly excluded from post-war constitutional protections that enfranchised black men while leaving "male" embedded in the law.

The movement responds through tactical innovation: asserting that the Fourteenth Amendment already grants women the right to vote as United States citizens, testing the law at the ballot box, enduring criminal trials, and appealing directly to Congress and the Supreme Court. The volume endures as a primary source record of early American constitutional law, radical political strategy, and the philosophical debate over universal human rights.

The Story

The volume opens in the crucible of the Civil War, a period when organized suffrage agitation temporarily gave way to patriotic service. Women organized sanitary commissions, nursed in military hospitals, and managed farms and businesses left vacant by soldiers. Through the Women's Loyal National League, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, activists collected hundreds of thousands of signatures petitioning Congress for the total abolition of slavery. Young orators like Anna Dickinson captivated huge crowds at New York's Cooper Institute and the Philadelphia Union League, demonstrating that women possessed formidable political intellect and public charisma. The war proved to American women that the interests of the home and the state were inextricably linked, convincing them that full citizenship, backed by the ballot, was essential to protecting their lives and labor.

As the war ended and Reconstruction began, the movement faced a bitter political fracture. Radical Republicans and abolitionist allies championed the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to secure the civil and voting rights of newly freed black men. However, these constitutional additions introduced the word "male" into the United States Constitution for the first time regarding voting rights. Leaders like Stanton and Anthony argued passionately against creating an "aristocracy of sex" and demanded universal suffrage that included women alongside freedmen. Others in the reform movement urged patience, insisting that Reconstruction was the "negro's hour" and that pressing for woman suffrage would jeopardize the black man's newly gained rights. This dispute split the movement, leading to the creation of the Equal Rights Association and eventually rival suffrage organizations.

Diverted from immediate constitutional reform at the federal level, suffragists carried their campaign directly to the voters of individual states and territories. In Kansas, Anthony and Stanton traversed the prairie alongside controversial figures like George Francis Train, holding fiery debates against political opponents to demand state constitutional amendments for woman suffrage. Although the Kansas referendum failed, the movement celebrated victories in the West, where the legislatures of Wyoming and Utah territories enfranchised women, and the Democratic party of Kansas endorsed the cause. Activists constantly pointed to these Western successes to refute claims that female voting would destroy domestic harmony or degrade female delicacy.

When traditional petitioning to state legislatures yielded slow results, movement strategists adopted a bold legal argument known as the "New Departure." Formulated by legal thinkers like Francis Minor and public figures like attorney A. G. Riddle, this strategy posited that the Fourteenth Amendment had already enfranchised women. The amendment declared that all persons born or naturalized in the United States were citizens, and that no state could abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens. Because the right to vote was an essential privilege of citizenship, suffragists argued, women were already legal voters without needing further constitutional amendments.

Armed with this legal theory, women across the country attempted to register and cast ballots in the national and local elections of the early 1870s. In Rochester, New York, Susan B. Anthony successfully registered and voted in the 1872 presidential election, leading to her arrest and prosecution by the federal government for "knowingly voting without having a lawful right." Her high-profile trial before Judge Ward Hunt exposed the hostility of the judicial system: the judge refused to let the jury deliberate and directed a verdict of guilty, fining her $100. Anthony defiantly refused to pay a single penny. Simultaneously, in Missouri, Virginia Minor sued an election inspector for refusing to register her, carrying her case all the way to the United States Supreme Court in Minor v. Happersett.

The story reaches a solemn climax in the mid-1870s as the courts deliver crushing blows to the New Departure strategy. The Supreme Court ruled in Minor v. Happersett that citizenship did not inherently confer the right of suffrage, leaving election qualifications to individual states. State supreme courts similarly turned away female applicants seeking licenses to practice law, as in Illinois with Myra Bradwell, ruling that the ruder strifes of the bar were unsuited to female delicacy. Undeterred by judicial defeat, the volume closes on the eve of the 1876 National Centennial. Suffragists rallied at Washington and New York, rejecting the status of second-class citizens, calling on women worldwide to unite, and demanding that the Centennial herald a true republic where liberty and justice belonged to all.

How It Unfolds

Mobilizing for the Union — Women throw themselves into wartime labors, founding the Women's Loyal National League to collect petitions against slavery and demonstrating their political power on public platforms through dynamic speakers like Anna Dickinson.

The Post-War Split — When lawmakers draft the Fourteenth Amendment using the word "male," suffragists clash with abolitionist allies, arguing over whether to prioritize freedmen's voting rights or hold out for universal suffrage.

Taking the Case to Kansas — Movement leaders travel across Kansas in a grueling campaign to pass a state suffrage amendment, debating hostile politicians and forging temporary alliances to win over western voters.

The "New Departure" Strategy — Legal theorists argue that the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of citizenship privileges already grants women the right to vote, prompting activists to stop begging for new laws and start exercising their rights.

Testing the Ballot Box — Dozens of women attempt to register and vote across the country, leading to the dramatic arrest and federal trial of Susan B. Anthony in Rochester, New York, where a judge directs a verdict of guilty without jury deliberation.

Defeat in the Courts — The Supreme Court rules in Minor v. Happersett that voting is not an automatic privilege of national citizenship, while state courts reject women seeking admission to the legal bar.

Rallying for the Centennial — Rebuffed by both the judiciary and Congress, suffragists organize national conventions on the eve of 1876, renewing their demand for equal political rights as the nation prepares to celebrate its century of independence.

The People

• Elizabeth Cady Stanton — The intellectual driving force and primary writer of the movement. She refuses to accept a Reconstruction that enfranchises men while ignoring women, arguing relentlessly that true republican government requires absolute equality of the sexes.

• Susan B. Anthony — The indefatigable organizer and strategist who coordinates national campaigns, manages publications, and lectures across the nation. Her insistence on exercising her right as a citizen leads to her famous trial for voting in 1872, where she challenges the authority of the court.

• Matilda Joslyn Gage — A meticulous scholar and activist who articulates the philosophical alignment between liberty and human rights. She documents regional petition drives and argues that no government can remain stable while denying justice to its citizens.

• Anna Dickinson — A gifted young orator whose spellbinding Civil War speeches at Cooper Institute and the Union League move audiences to tears, proving that female intellect can command the highest halls of public discourse.

• Sojourner Truth — A veteran abolitionist and suffragist who brings profound moral clarity to conventions, exposing the double burden borne by black women and insisting that true freedom requires complete emancipation for all sexes and races.

• Lucretia Mott — The revered elder Quaker statesman of the movement whose serene presence and moral authority guide turbulent national conventions, keeping activists focused on non-violence, ethical integrity, and fundamental justice.

• Olive Logan — A former stage actress who brings witty, clear-eyed arguments to the suffrage platform, pointing out that women already receive equal pay in the theater and literature, so they ought to enjoy equal rights in politics.

In Its Own Voice

When Senator Morrill and others resurrect ancient arguments against expanding the franchise to women, Senator Cowan of Pennsylvania warns his colleagues that the leaders of the reform will not be silenced:

"Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mrs. Frances D. Gage, Miss Susan B. Anthony, are upon your heels; they have their banner flung out to the winds; they are after you; and their cry is for justice, and you can not deny it."

Addressing the House Judiciary Committee on the foundational principles of American democracy, Representative George W. Julian of Indiana insists that true republicanism cannot tolerate half-citizenship:

"I believe the question of woman's rights necessarily involves the question of human rights. The famous maxim of our fathers that 'taxation without representation is tyranny' applies not to one-half only, but to the whole people."

Refusing to accept the inferior legal status forced upon married women and mothers, Elizabeth K. Churchill challenges the ancient social order at a Rhode Island convention:

"Can there be an aristocracy meaner and more tyrannical than that of sex, by which a wise, cultured, intelligent woman is made the inferior (for that is what the denial of the ballot implies), the inferior of a base, brutal, degraded man?"

What It's Really About

At its core, the volume is not merely a record of meetings and petitions, but a sustained philosophical investigation into the nature of American citizenship. It asks whether the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution belong inherently to the individual human being or are gifts granted at the whim of state legislatures and male voters. The text continuously tests the tension between state rights and national sovereignty, showing how suffragists turned to federal power to protect individual liberty against local prejudice.

The volume also wrestles with the complex, often painful friction between overlapping social movements. It documents the tragic rift between abolitionists and suffragists during Reconstruction, capturing the debate over whose rights should take priority when political expediency demands compromise. Through its transcriptions of legislative debates, court opinions, and activist speeches, the book illustrates how patriarchal power protects itself by framing women's subordination as "delicacy" and domestic protection. Ultimately, it argues that a nation built on the consent of the governed remains fundamentally incomplete, fragile, and hypocritical as long as half its people are denied a voice in its laws.

Why Read It Today

Reading this volume feels like stepping into a crowded, echoing hall filled with the greatest minds of nineteenth-century political reform. It is an exhilarating, unfiltered record of democracy in action. Far from a dry, idealized textbook history, it offers raw transcriptions of fierce debates, sharp-witted retorts, judicial overreach, and passionate appeals. The reader gets to witness history as it was lived and argued, complete with the humor, outrage, and tactical brilliance of women who refused to be silenced.

Modern readers will find the text remarkably relevant to contemporary discussions surrounding voting rights, citizenship, and constitutional interpretation. The legal arguments forged in the "New Departure"—debating whether rights are inherent or bestowed by government—remain vital to civil rights jurisprudence today. Furthermore, the book provides an unvarnished look at the internal conflicts of social movements, offering valuable lessons on the perils of political compromise and the courage required to demand absolute justice.

The text does present real challenges. At well over eight hundred pages, its sheer length and dense documentation—including full court opinions, lengthy congressional speeches, lists of financial donors, and regional convention minutes—demand patience. The nineteenth-century rhetorical style can be dense, and readers will encounter period attitudes, obsolete legal terminology, and bitter racial arguments born of the post-war political fracture. Yet these difficulties are precisely what make the book so valuable. It does not sanitize the past. Anyone who wants to understand how civil rights are actually won, defended, and lost in America will find this volume an indispensable, deeply moving masterclass in political courage.

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