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448 & ••••••••• 215 • ECS to Theodore Roosevelt New York, October 22d, 1902. 1 Dear Sir—As you are the first President of the United States who has ever given a public opinion in favor of woman suffrage, and, when Governor of New York State,recommended the measure in a message to the Legislature, the members of the different suffrage associations in the United States now urge you to advocate, in your coming message to Congress, an amendment to the National Constitution for the enfranchisement of the thirty-six million American women, now denied their most sacred right as citizens of a Republic. 2 In the beginning of our nation, the fathers declared that “no just government can be founded without the consent of the governed,” and that “taxation without representation is tyranny.” Both of these grand declarations are denied in the present position of woman,who constitutes one-half of the people.If “political power inheres in the people”—and women are surely people—then there is a crying need for an amendment to the National Constitution,making these fundamental principles verities.Surely there is no greater monopoly than that of all men denying to all women a voice in the laws they are compelled to obey. Abraham Lincoln immortalized himself by the emancipation of four million Southern slaves. Speaking for my suffrage coadjutors, we now desire that you, Mr. President, who are already celebrated for so many honorable deeds and worthy utterances, immortalize yourself by bringing about our complete emancipation from the slavery of the past. With best wishes for your continued honorable career and re-election as President of the United States, U Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Y Independent 54 (6 November 1902): 2621. 1. When the Independent published this letter alongside the one to Edith Roosevelt dated 25 October 1902 below, the editor’s note explained that ECS, at the time of her death, “was engaged in preparing documents and letters urging upon President Roosevelt the claims of woman suffrage. The very last letter she wrote, dictated to her secretary on Saturday, twenty-four hours before her death, 22 october 1902 ^ 449 22 october 1902 was addressed to Mrs. Roosevelt. The letters to the President and his wife were to have been recopied and signed on Monday. We are able to give below these two letters and a third document. The originals have been sent by the family to Mrs. Roosevelt.” 2. In his annual message of 2 January 1899, Governor Theodore Roosevelt included a paragraph headed “School Suffrage” that read in full, “I call the attention of the legislature to the desirability of gradually extending the sphere in which the suffrage can be exercised by women.” (Theodore Roosevelt, State Papers as Governor and President, 1899–1909, vol. 15 of The Works of Theodore Roosevelt, National Edition [New York, 1926], 21.) ••••••••• 216 • ECS to Edith Carow Roosevelt,1 with Enclosure 250 West 94th st New York Oct. 25 [1902] Dear Mrs Roosevelt, Please read & consider this enclosed letter to the women of the Nation, in regard to the action of our President on the woman suffrage question. Do lend your influence to rouse the women to their duty on this subject, & urge the President to recommend, in his coming message to Congress, an amendment to the constitution,for the enfranchisement of the thirty-six million women citizens of this Republic. With kind regards Y L, in hand of E. L. White, in the collection of Coline Jenkins, Greenwich, Conn. Signed for ECS by secretary. Enclosure Oct 20th 1902 Women Appeal to the President In July, 1848, history records the first movement among women for the discussion of their political, religious and social wrongs. Since then the demand for the right of suffrage has extended over many countries and has been granted, in one form or another, in the United States, in England and her colonies, in Australia, New Zealand, the Isle of Man and New South Wales. 2 ...

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