Petition from the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union

Frustrated by their limited ability to secure government regulation of alcohol, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union—the largest women’s organization in the country at the time—endorsed woman suffrage in 1881.

Their "Department of Franchise" sent this petition to Senator Elbridge G. Lapham (R-NY), asking him to vote for the passage of the 16th Amendment (voting rights for women – which was ultimately passed as the 19th Amendment). Pointing to links between drunkenness and domestic violence, temperance reformers argued that women needed the ballot as a means of home protection. They wrote: "The ballot...is a most potent element in all moral and social reforms."

Transcript

“All Injustice Works A Loss”

Department of Franchise NATIONAL WOMAN’S Christian Temperance UNION.
[circular emblem with image of woman holding a child surrounded by the words “FOR GOD AND HOME AND NATIVE LAND DEC 23 1873]

HON. [handwritten] E. G. Lapham [handwritten] January, 1885

Believing that governments can be just only when deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, and that in a government professing to be a government of the people, all the people of mature age should have a voice, and that all class legislation and unjust discrimination against the rights and privileges of any citizen is fraught with danger to the republic, and inasmuch as the ballot in popular governments is a most potent element in all moral and social reforms ;
We, therefore on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of Christian women engaged
in philanthropic effort, pray you to use your influence, and vote for the passage of a
16th amendment to the Constitution of the United States, prohibiting the disfranchise-
ment of any citizen on the ground of sex.

MISS FRANCES E. WILLARD
Pres’t of the National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union,
Evanston, Ill.

MRS. CAROLINE B. BUELL,
Corresponding Secretary, East Hampton, Conn.

MRS. MARY A. WOODBRIDGE,
Recording Secretary, Ravenna, Ohio.

MRS. L. M. N. STEVENS,
Assistant Recording Secretary, Stroudwater, Me.

MISS ESTER PUGH,
Treasurer, Cleveland, Ohio


MRS. ZERELDA G. WALLACE,
Sup’t of Department of Franchise, Indianapolis, Ind.

MRS. HENRIETTA B. WALL,
Sec’y of Department of Franchise, Akron, Ohio.

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48th Cong. }
2 Session}

Memorial of
Miss Frances E.
Willard Prest of
The National Woman’s
Christian Temperance
Union and others
on behalf of the
hundreds of thousands
of Christian women
engaged in philanthropic
Effort, praying for
the passage of a 16th
Amendment to the
Constitution of the
United States prohibiting
the disfranchisement of
any citizen on the
ground of sex
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January ‘85 [illegible]
Committee on Woman Suffrage [illegible]
Hon. Lapham [illegible]