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 1 The Emergence of the WJCC On August 26, 120, Tennessee became the thirty-sixth state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, thus ending the seventy-two-year struggle for women’s suffrage formally launched in 1848 at Seneca Falls, New York. Most women who had been active in the suffrage campaign, however, realized that a new struggle had just begun, one more daunting in many respects than that of the past century. For them, suffrage had never been merely an end but rather a means with which to carry out more effectively the broad social reform goals initiated by women’s organizations prior to 120. As Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, noted, “Winning the vote did not end the woman’s campaign for equality and justice. Many a hard fought battle lies ahead and its field will be found in unexpected places.”1 Immediately following the victory speeches and celebrations, women activists began to consider the best methods through which to implement reform within a new political climate. Aware that the struggle for the Nineteenth Amendment had united diverse women of often contradictory political leanings, former suffrage leaders recognized the need for continued cooperation to secure further social reform and women’s full citizenship. As the Woman Citizen, the official publication of the National League of Women Voters, warned, “Now that the vote is won, . . . [w]omen who have worked hand in hand for years find themselves split up into members of all the different political camps. They are sometimes aligned in opposition to those who have been their closest friends. This opposition is inevitable; but let us resolutely make up our minds that it 10 women’s joint congressional committee shall not interfere with the friendship.”2 Hence, former suffrage leaders hoped that women’s natural political differences would not preclude the possibility of continued benevolence and united reform efforts. Former suffrage leaders were not alone in speculating about women’s political behavior in the wake of the Nineteenth Amendment. One month after ratification, the New York Herald declared that the entire nation was waiting to see how women would vote in the upcoming election. The Herald speculated whether women would vote according to the best interests of the nation or unwisely use their newfound political power to exact revenge on antisuffrage politicians. Ultimately, the article confidently concluded that the great majority of women were not so petty and vindictive as to vote out of spite. Rather, “they are going to vote like men on the principles of parties, the issues of the day and the ability, the public service and the character of the candidates,” and in doing so, “will abundantly prove their moral and intellectual capacity as well as their legal right to exercise the ballot.”3 As J. Stanley Lemons has pointed out, the “women’s vote” was an unknown quantity in the early 120s, and no one knew with any certainty just what effect “universal” suffrage would have on the political life of the nation. Least certain of all were male politicians, who responded to the potential power and possible threat of women’s votes in various ways. Some feared that women would favor principle above party loyalty; others worried that they would place sentiment over practicality. But whatever their individual opinion of women’s political behavior, most politicians agreed that winning the “woman vote” was crucial to their party’s success in the November 120 election. As early as 11, several congressmen were weighing carefully the possible political repercussions of their party’s record on women’s suffrage . In a letter, Gifford Pinchot urged Senator Boies Penrose not to seek election as chairman of the Committee on Finance, claiming that the senator’s well-known opposition to the Nineteenth Amendment made him a political liability of the Republican Party in the 120 election. The Republicans, he noted, “cannot win against the Democrats unless the farmers, the women, and the progressives, and some of the organized workers vote with us. Your name as Chairman of the Committee on Finance would go far to insure their hostility to the Republican Party.”4 Members of the Democratic Party likewise recognized the politically charged nature of women’s suffrage. Some tried to convince fellow Democrats to support the Nineteenth Amendment for the good of the party. Writing in February 120, Senator Thomas Walsh of Montana, a longtime champion of the federal suffrage...

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