Letter from the Fortnightly Literary Club
12/15/1904
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The Fortnightly Literary Club of Wheeling, West Virginia, sent this letter urging changes to a paragraph in the Statehood Bill to Senator N. B. Scott.
The bill would admit Oklahoma and Indian Territory (as one state) and Arizona and New Mexico (as one state) into the union, and included a line that "said states shall never enact any law restricting the right of suffrage on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude, except on account of illiteracy, minority, conviction of felony, mental condition, or sex." The club asks that the word sex be removed, or that the entire paragraph be omitted.
This document was digitized by teachers in our Primarily Teaching 2017 summer workshop in Washington, D.C.
The bill would admit Oklahoma and Indian Territory (as one state) and Arizona and New Mexico (as one state) into the union, and included a line that "said states shall never enact any law restricting the right of suffrage on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude, except on account of illiteracy, minority, conviction of felony, mental condition, or sex." The club asks that the word sex be removed, or that the entire paragraph be omitted.
This document was digitized by teachers in our Primarily Teaching 2017 summer workshop in Washington, D.C.
This primary source comes from the Records of the U.S. Senate.
National Archives Identifier: 74884235
Full Citation: Letter from the Fortnightly Literary Club of Wheeling, West Virginia, Regarding the Suffrage Paragraph in Statehood Bill; 12/15/1904; Tabled Petitions and Memorials of the 58th Congress; (SEN58A-K2); Petitions and Related Documents That Were Presented, Read, or Tabled, 1789 - 1966; Records of the U.S. Senate, Record Group 46; National Archives Building, Washington, DC. [Online Version, https://docsteach.org/documents/document/suffrage-oklahoma, April 26, 2025]Rights: Public Domain, Free of Known Copyright Restrictions. Learn more on our privacy and legal page.
