I too mean to be out of politics. The ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment gives me the boon of equality before the law, termin...ates my enlistment, and discharges me cured.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It could be clearly proved that by a practical nullification [by the South] of the Fifteenth Amendment the Republicans have for se...veral years been deprived of a majority in both the House and Senate. The failure of the South to faithfully observe the Fifteenth Amendment is the cause of the failure of all efforts towards complete pacification. It is on this hook that the bloody shirt now hangs.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
When in the enfranchisement of the black men [women] saw another ignorant class of voters placed about their heads, and beheld the... danger of a distinctively "male" government, forever involving the nations of the earth in war and violence; and demanded for the protection of themselves and children, that woman's voice should be heard and her opinions in public affairs be expressed by the ballot, they were coolly told that the black man had earned the right to vote, that he had fought and bled and died for his country. It was not because the three-penny tax on tea was so exorbitant that our Revolutionary fathers fought and died, but to establish the principle that such taxation was unjust. It is the same with this woman's revolution; though every law were as just to woman as to man, the principle that one class may usurp the power to legislate for another is unjust, and all who are now in the struggle from love of principle would still work on until the establishment of the grand and immutable truth, "All governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Woman--with a capital letter--should by now have ceased to be a specialty. There should be no more need of "movements" on her beha...lf, and agitations for her advancement and development ... than for the abolition of negro slavery in the United States.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
No matter how well-born, how intelligent, how highly educated, how virtuous, how rich, how refined, the women of to-day constitute... a political class below that of every man, no matter how base-born, how stupid, how ignorant, how vicious, how poverty-stricken, how brutal. The pauper in the almshouse may vote; the lady who devotes her philanthropic thought to making that almshouse habitable, may not. The tramp who begs cold victuals in the kitchen may vote; the heiress who feeds him and endows universities may not.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... women feel the humiliation of their petty distinctions of sex precisely as the black man feels those of color. It is no pallia...tion of our wrongs to say that we are not socially ostracized, so long as we are politically ostracized as he is not.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There is a great stir about colored men getting their rights, but not a word about colored women, and if colored men get their rig...hts, and not colored women theirs, you see the colored men will be masters over the women, and it will be just as bad as it was before. So I'm for keeping the thing going while things are stirring; because if we wait till it is still, it will take a great while to get it going again.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.... Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... when we shall have our amendment to the Constitution of the United States, everyone will think it was always so, just exactly ...as many young people believe that all the privileges, all the freedom, all the enjoyments which woman now possesses were always hers. They have no idea of how every single inch of ground that she stands upon to-day has been gained by the hard work of some little handful of women of the past.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... if you're poor and ignorant, with a child, you're a slave. Meaning that you're never going to get out of it. These women are i...n bondage to a kind of slavery that the 13th Amendment just didn't deal with. The old master provided food, clothing and health care to the slaves because he wanted them to get up and go to work in the morning. And so on welfare: you get food, clothing and shelter--you get survival, but you can't really do anything else. You can't control your life.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »