Women and the Republican Party, 1854-1924

3. Devotions and Disharmonies, 1881–1910

3. Devotions and Disharmonies, 1881–1910 At the same time that Susan B.Anthony and other suffragists were exploring independent political paths outside the Republican party in the 1880s, other women were finding new ways to demonstrate their partisan loyalties and push for greater partisan rewards. Judith Ellen Foster, who founded the first woman’s partisan organization formally recognized by the Republican party in 1888, was among those who challenged the retreat from the Republican party. The creation of the Woman’s National Republican Association (WNRA) signaled a new phase for women in Republican party politics, and it contributed to a political debate among women about the consequences of partisanship and nonpartisanship. Unlike the debates and tensions of the late 1860s and 1870s, which were played out between Republican women and men, these new ones took place within women’s reform organizations. The association of women with nonpartisanship increased in the 1880s and 1890s despite the fact that women continued their partisan activism. This connection was based on an understanding of women as disinterested citizens upholding virtues and was manifested in the written and unwritten rules of women’s reform organizations. Partisanship and nonpartisanship were not necessarily a contradiction for women at the end of the nineteenth century. But women’s attempts to promote one path or the other, or hold both in balance, created new political tensions, shaped the development of the woman suffrage movement, and determined the development of the early years of the first national Republican women’s auxiliary . 62 women and the republican party, 1854–1924 Judith Ellen Foster: Founder of the Woman’s National Republican Association In 1888 Judith Ellen Foster told women gathered in Washington for the first meeting of the International Council of Women that “Woman is in politics,” but there was still the “unanswered question” of the form and meaning of women’s relationship to politics.Drawing on observations from a recent trip to Europe, she questioned whether women’s relationship to politics would be determined by the “mere accident of birth,” as was Queen Victoria’s. Maybe women would find their power through their use of “favor and caprice ,” as did the ladies of the imperial French court. Or they could act like the English Primrose Dames, who labored for the government without the vote. Turning to the United States, she said that women seeking government protections were in the “position of supplicants,” like beggars,asking for help. Should American women, who “seek governmental protection for temperance , for education, for philanthropy, for industrial education,” continue as beggars, pleading for favors and protections from their government?1 Her answer was a resounding no. American women needed all the political rights of men. The right to vote and hold public office would give them direct political power and enable them to enact their issues into legislation. Foster chose the last words of her speech before the International Council of Women with care, knowing they would be widely reprinted. She followed her call for gender equality with an emphasis on gender cooperation, stating , “Gentlemen, we do not threaten. No, no, no. We are of you and yours.”2 Foster promoted a political strategy for women that recognized their historical exclusion from politics but also their aspirations to work with men in political parties.3 She believed that women needed to engage in politics as nonpartisans and partisans.Her dedication to promoting both nonpartisanship and partisanship for women resulted in a political drama that played out in the WCTU and in the Republican party in the 1880s. It is a drama that underscores the diversity of women’s political commitments, loyalties, and tactics at the end of the nineteenth century. It also highlights the passionate feelings that women invested in their politics and the powerful convictions that divided and united women. Foster became the most famous woman in the Republican party at the end of the nineteenth century after she founded the WNRA in 1888 and built it into a organizing machine for the Republican party. Her interest in the Republican party was a result of her own individual political ideology,but it was also shaped by larger ideological and political currents. In the nineteenth Devotions and Disharmonies, 1881–1910 63 century, faith in the millennial spirit decreased, women’s reform politics increased with the establishment of single-issue organizations,and partial suffrage allowed women to place themselves as voters in the...