“A New Woman in Old Fashioned Times”: Party Women and the Rhetorical Foundations of Political Womanhood

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL THE UNIVERSITY OF

BY

Emily Ann Berg Paup

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Karlyn Kohrs Campbell, Advisor

December 2012

© Emily Ann Berg Paup 2012

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Acknowledgments

My favorite childhood author, Louis May Alcott, once wrote: “We all have our own life to pursue, our own kind of dream to be weaving, and we all have the power to make wishes come true, as long as we keep believing.” These words have guided me through much of my life as I have found a love of learning, a passion for teaching, and an appreciation for women who paved the way so that I might celebrate my successes. I would like to acknowledge those who have aided in my journey, helped to keep me believing, and molded me into the scholar that I am today.

I need to begin by acknowledging those who led me to want to pursue a career in higher education in the first place. Dr. Bonnie Jefferson’s The Rhetorical was the first class that I walked into during my undergraduate years at College. She made me fall in love with the history of U.S. public discourse and the study of rhetorical criticism. Ever since the fall of 2002, Bonnie has been a trusted colleague and friend who showed me what a passion for learning and teaching looked like. Dr. Dale Herbeck and

Dr. Charles E. Morris III were also inspirational figures at Boston College, and I would not be where I am today without their guidance and support.

As I ventured to graduate school at the University of Minnesota, I had the privilege of working with some of the best rhetorical scholars in the country. I am honored to have had the privilege to work with Dr. Karlyn Kohrs Campbell. Her career, scholarly work, and educational guidance served as the inspiration for this Dissertation. I hope that it is an addition to the groundbreaking work that she has done for women in history, and I am grateful for her patience and direction throughout the years. I also ii would like to thank Dr. Edward Schiappa, who has been a pillar of support in my educational and professional life. His open door and candid professional advice is invaluable.

The other members of my committee were influential in the development and execution of this project. I am indebted to Dr. Zornitsa Keremidchieva, who has been a constant source of inspiration and support. She went above and beyond the duties of an outside committee member and helped to form this project as a whole. Dr. Mary Vavrus has always been reassuring and helpful, and I thank her for the support. I also thank Dr.

Lisa Norling, who opened my eyes to interdisciplinary approaches to the study of women in history. In addition, I owe much of my development as a scholar to Dr. Kirt Wilson, from whom I received the best possible education and encouragement.

Next I would like to recognize the Department of Communication Studies at the

University of Minnesota for the funding and support through the years. I also would like to thank the University of Minnesota for the 2011-2012 Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship.

An archival project such as this is not completed without the help of others in a scholarly community. I would like to thank the staff at the Swarthmore College Peace Collection.

Drs. Ronald and Mary Zboray, Dr. Jill Norgren, and Dr. Anne Mattina for their critical assistance. I would also like to acknowledge Dr. Terry Check, Dr. Aric Putnam, Dr.

Katherine Johnson, Dr. Jennifer Kramer, and the rest of the Communication Department at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University for their support during the final stages of this dissertation.

I owe my success in graduate school to close friends and colleagues who rode the waves with me. I learned a lot from Meg Kunde, Justin Killian, Jess Prody, and Sam iii Boerboom, who were all integral members of a supportive graduate community.

Jeremy Rose has also always been there for me as a friend and as a colleague. In addition,

Sara Ann Mehltretter Drury and Chara Van Horn are two women whom I admire and am lucky to call friends. Finally, Diane Odash has been there every step of this journey. I am eternally grateful for her friendship and support.

Finally, I could not have completed this project without the unfailing love and encouragement of my family. Adam and Elizabeth Berg are two loving and compassionate siblings who have always been there no matter what. My husband, Dan

Paup, is my rock, without whom I would have no direction or purpose. Thank you for your faith in me. Finally, I thank my parents, who encouraged all of their children to pursue their dreams. Their dedication to my education, encouragement, and support has been unfailing. Words cannot express how appreciative and lucky I am to have the family that I do. My maternal grandfather, John L. Parker, loved learning, and my mother has always expressed to me how proud he would have been of my pursuit of a PhD. I hope to live up to his example and spread his love of learning as a teacher and scholar. iv

Dedication

To my parents. Thank you for encouraging me to learn. v

Abstract

Women have been involved in party politics in the U.S. in a variety of ways since the American Revolutionary War. They began as participants from within the home and grew to have leadership roles within partisan organizations themselves. This evolution in role was possible because of the rhetorical efforts of party women during the .

Through case studies of Populist Party leader Mary Elizabeth Lease, Party founder Frances Elizabeth Willard, key Republican Party player Judith Ellen Foster, and presidential candidate Belva Bennett Lockwood, the narrative of female political activism is expanded and nuanced. All four women acted with political agency inconsistent with their contemporary dominant socio-political system. By deepening the archive of female historical discourse and through analysis of rhetorical patterns of party women in the late nineteenth century, scholars gain insight into the political culture, the power of rhetorical agency, and the rhetorical power of women. This history creates a model of rhetorical discourse for political women of the future, putting historical rhetorical practice in conversation with contemporary rhetorical strategies.

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ...... i

Dedication ...... iv

Abstract ...... v

Table of Contents ...... vi

Chapter One: Introduction ...... 1

Chapter Two: Mary Elizabeth Lease, The Feminized Populist ...... 58

Chapter Three: Frances E. Willard and Judith E. Foster, Principled Partisans ...... 100

Chapter 4: Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate ...... 158

Chapter Five: Precedents and Directions ...... 207

Bibliography ...... 225

Introduction 1 “The world was wide, and I would not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum.” ~Frances Elizabeth Willard1

Chapter One: Introduction

During a classroom discussion about the presidential election in September 2012,

I asked my students to discuss the candidates. Throughout the course of this conversation,

I asked them to name the female candidates for President of the . When it was clear that they were not aware of any female candidates, I asked them whom the first woman was ever to run for President. One young student in the front row raised his hand and answered enthusiastically, “!” Another proclaimed “Margaret Chase

Smith!” Although the young woman who answered impressed me, given the lack of education about female politicians in our schools today, this classroom exchange reiterated a realization that I have had for quite some time now. Students are unaware of the dynamic political culture that currently exists, with its multitude of candidates and voices. Perhaps even more significantly, society at large is also uneducated about our history. Another anecdote will help to illustrate this point. As I walked into the classroom during the summer of 2011, I prepared to prompt a discussion about Minnesota Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s recent presidential campaign announcement. As I looked for news stories that covered the event, a CNN blog caught my attention. Its title was “Michele Bachmann, Evangelical Feminist?”2

Although the blog acknowledges that “evangelical women have long been involved in political activism,” it suggests that their presence in “white house” partisan politics “took off in the 1980s.” I continued to prepare for class, determined to teach my students the rich history of evangelical that dominated partisan discourse in the 1880s. Introduction 2 As a teacher and scholar, I encourage engagement with context. I believe that one of the most important components of an informed citizenry is knowledge of the historical development of ideas and their relevance. Familiarity with historical discourse is integral for engagement with contemporary debates and issues. In order for students to fully understand how their own context exists in a continuum, the past and present must be in conversation with each other. We have an obligation as scholars, teachers, and citizens to educate. The study of historical rhetorical practice is one way to accomplish this goal. I believe that in order to be an engaged citizen, it is integral that one is aware of the political culture in which one lives and the political culture that came before. It is out of experiences like those described above that this project was born.

There are three female candidates for President of the United States in 2012:

Green Party candidate Jill Stein, Peace and Freedom Party candidate and television personality Roseanne Barr, and Party for Socialism and Liberation candidate Peta

Lindsay.3 Although all are nominees of third parties and do not receive much national recognition, they continue a tradition of female political party leadership that began more than a century ago. The history and case studies that follow profile women as they led political parties during an age when female party leadership blossomed and set the stage for women’s future contributions. This project examines the rhetorical efforts of party women during the Gilded Age, a period of great partisan and social transition. It does not incorporate the stories of all political women, nor does it generalize the experiences of these women to all others. It claims, however, that their rhetorical activities as political party leaders are exemplary case studies through which to analyze the changing role of Introduction 3 women in politics. Party women in the Gilded Age created a model of rhetorical discourse for future female political leaders.

Women have been involved in party politics in the United States in a variety of capacities since the American Revolutionary War. They began as participants from within the home and grew to have leadership roles within partisan organizations themselves. This evolution in role was possible because of the rhetorical efforts of party women. Women were systematically excluded from politics in the nineteenth century.

They did not have access to the types of public forums afforded to their white, male counterparts. Leadership in politics, and specifically party politics, in the United States was neither a common nor a socially acceptable activity for women. As the political climate changed in the late nineteenth century, however, opportunities arose that enabled women to question their prescribed status as “non-political” citizens. This project describes and analyzes the speeches and writings of women who assumed leadership roles and gained power within political parties. They also acted as rhetorical agents, speaking on behalf of political candidates and about party-supported policies. Finally, in a few cases, women presented themselves as candidates for political office. Through an analysis of the rhetoric of key female political party leaders during the late nineteenth century, I argue that their accomplishments reflect the resources that exist in rhetorical agency and in the strategic appropriation of cultural expectations.

In order to limit what is a large undertaking, this project focuses on the activities of women from 1884 to 1892, and specifically on the female leadership within the

Populist, Prohibition, Republican, and Equal Rights Parties. During this eight-year period, several women emerged as leaders and gained national prominence as speakers Introduction 4 and policymakers. Third parties, without the realistic possibility of electoral success, aimed predominantly aimed at spreading a message, a role, I argue, that was uniquely suited to female participation. As a dominant party of the Gilded Age, the

Republican Party was not as quick to embrace female leadership. However, in a few significant cases, they utilized women. The case studies provide a look at women in varying geographic locations, with distinctive backgrounds and worldviews, who represented different political parties. All of them used specific rhetorical techniques to carve a space for female participation in the political party system. By the election of

1896, women participated in large numbers in the campaign activities of the Republican and Democratic parties. During the Progressive era and the final campaign for woman suffrage in the early twentieth century, participation and recognition of women’s contribution to party politics increased substantially. I contend that the activities of women during the Gilded Age established the basis for this growth in women’s political activism.

The following project adds a layer to an already complex historical and scholarly narrative. The Gilded Age was a period of great cultural and political transformation.

Specifically, the era gave rise to issue-oriented politics and the potential power of third party organizations. What is missing from this story is the influence that women had on these changes in political culture. Historians and political scientists have begun to recognize the important contribution that women made to Gilded Age politics; this project studies how they framed their roles and their discourse. The advent of third parties that focused on specific issues, reform movements involving women, and changes in the political landscape provided the circumstances in which women could become party Introduction 5 leaders. I provide three case studies that examine the rhetorical strategies women used to facilitate this transformation.

The first case study considers the rhetoric of Populist Party leader Mary Elizabeth

Lease and her adoption of personae based on expected gendered norms that were re- interpreted as reasons for her unique ability to lead the Populist Party as a woman. The second analyzes the national political party convention addresses of leader Frances Elizabeth Willard and Republican Party leader Judith Ellen Foster. As women who engaged in debates with each other about women and partisanship, Willard and Foster presented a rhetorical model that highlighted the nation’s past and woman’s ability to be the ultimate patriotic authority. The third traces the public communication of

Belva Bennett Lockwood, who ran for President of the United States in 1884 and 1888.

Lockwood crafted a model of discourse based on her own past accomplishments and the exceptional qualities that women could bring to political culture. Each woman created a model of rhetorical behavior that carved out space for female leadership in the future.

All four women acted with a political agency inconsistent with the dominant socio-political system. Through the re-appropriation of cultural expectations, these women justified their presence in “male space” and forged a future role for women in politics. Their experiences as leaders of different political parties offer an expanded narrative of female political party leadership during the Gilded Age. Although each woman’s history and activities are distinctive, patterns emerge when seen in relation to each other. I conclude with a reflection on the study of rhetorical history and the pedagogical contributions studies like this might make. This study is an attempt to define Introduction 6 political womanhood during its formative years and postulate implications for women in politics in the 21st century and beyond.

The Gilded Age: An Age of Transformation

The Gilded Age in the United States is characterized as an era of transition and growth as economic, cultural, and political changes modernized society.4 Historian

Charles Calhoun recognizes that “some eras exhibit greater change than others, and that certainly was true of the nineteenth century in the United States.” He specifies that the

Gilded Age “saw a rapid acceleration in the country’s transformation.”5 Employment patterns changed as more women and immigrants entered the workforce, while labor shifted from agriculture to industry. The national population doubled, cities matured, railroads expanded, and inventions like the telephone and electricity altered daily life.

These changes led to the development of a national market and industrialization, which then led to the rise of big business. Innovators and businessmen made vast fortunes, often by exploiting the newly formed laboring class as the period was marked by “the contrasts between crushing poverty and opulent excess.”6

An integral part of Gilded Age transformation was a changing political culture.

To consider these changes, we must understand what “politics” meant at the time.

Citizens in the nineteenth century defined “politics” narrowly. Rebecca Edwards defines nineteenth-century politics as “the system by which factions and parties won control of government through elections. In an era when government services were scarce and party affiliations the key factor in legislative votes, elections dominated the public’s understanding of political structure.”7 In this environment, political parties were the

“most important political structures of the era.”8 Jo Freeman claims that “political parties Introduction 7 constructed the framework in which politics was, and is, conducted” in the nineteenth century.9 Political parties organized voters, educated the public on policies and issues, and ran candidates for office. Parties dominated the political environment, and party identification was strong. As a result, “party switching” was relatively rare and the

“principal aim in campaigns was to inspire the party faithful to get to the polls rather than to persuade others to come on board.”10

As Gilded Age culture was transformed, party politics grew in importance. Paula

Baker calls the period “the high tide of partisan politics,” as the largest number ever of eligible citizens voted and publicly supported parties.11 While participation expanded, the era traditionally has been considered a time of rampant political corruption.12 Historians recently, however, have concluded that Gilded Age politicians were “not just intense partisans but also hard-working public servants, serious about issues and governance.”13

The Republicans and the Democrats “waged one of the most intense partisan struggles for political power in U.S. history” from 1870-1896.14 Locked in political stalemate, the two major parties worked hard to gain every possible vote. Although historical evidence suggests that this led to exploitation, backroom deals, and bribery, it also led to an increased amount of public participation. Political campaigns involved mass rallies, parades, and celebrations that provided voters with a substantial portion of their political education and popular entertainment.”15 Political interest was expressed through public support of candidates and policies.16 Ultimately, the two major parties needed the support of the party faithful in order to succeed in elections and influence public policy. Worth

Robert Miller describes the Gilded Age as a time when “politicians and parties truly Introduction 8 engaged the American public on fundamental issues concerning the direction of the nation and the role government should play in national life.”17

In this environment, politics shifted from “mass” to “interest group” politics.18

Because of social and cultural changes, politicians were forced to address issues of concern to their constituencies. As more citizens were concerned about specific issues like agriculture, moral reform, and labor, an opportunity arose for issue-oriented political parties to enter the debate. Partisan messages in the later half of nineteenth century became more committed to educating the public about political philosophies and advertising their party’s candidates.19 Industrialization, economic hardship, and changing labor practices led many to distrust the major party organizations. Republican and

Democratic leaders “struggled to address these issues with only partial success.”20 One of the period’s characteristic features was a growth in the number of third parties that posed a challenge to the Republicans and the Democrats. Although the Democratic and the

Republican Party still dominated the electoral system, third parties were important spaces in which to enact alternative policy initiatives and political beliefs. The Prohibition Party, the Populist Party, and the Equal Rights Party were among the partisan groups that emerged during the Gilded Age.21

Nineteenth Century Politics and Gender

Defining the Gilded Age as a period of cultural and political transformation is incomplete without understanding how gender defined and regulated the changes.

Political culture throughout most of the nineteenth century was, by definition, a “male preserve.” As Freeman, describes, “The very places where men congregated for political purposes— the polling place, the barber shop, and the saloon – were closed to women, or Introduction 9 at least respectable women. The personal networks through which information flowed and within which decisions were made were male networks.”22 Politics was, in essence, a “male dominion.”23 Women were institutionally restricted from “political citizenship,” which T.H. Marshall defines as “the right to participate in the exercise of political power, as a member of a body invested with political authority or as an elector of the members of such a body.”24 Women in the nineteenth century, by virtue of their sex, did not have access to these rights. As a result, men and women participated in

“distinct political subcultures, each with its own bases of power, modes of participation, and goals.”25

Partisanship, raucous public political activity, and a right to vote defined male political participation. Constitutional constraints and certain social pressures, however, restricted female participation. Women were considered to be pure, pious, submissive, and emotional – characteristics suited to the home, but not to electoral party politics. In addition, society was structured around the doctrine of “coverture,” which meant that married women were legally and civilly “covered” by their husband’s identity in respect to their wages, their body, and their political identity.26 This, in turn, made women’s enfranchisement unnecessary. As Francis Cutting, a Democrat from New York, said in

1855, “by the act of marriage itself the political character of the wife shall at once conform to the political character of the husband.”27 Without the right to vote or formally participate in electoral politics, women and men operated in different political worlds for most of the nineteenth century.

The Gilded Age provided an opportunity for women to enter this “male” space in unprecedented ways. Most scholars identify involvement in the social reform movements Introduction 10 of the time as women’s most important political role. Concerns about labor conditions, alcohol abuse, rights of women in cases of divorce, and suffrage led women to engage in public life in record numbers. Most women’s political histories focus on woman suffrage, women’s reform organizations, and legal issues affecting women of the time.28 In their 1990 collection of essays on women in politics, Louise Tilly and Patricia

Gurin consider women’s political activity that began in the 1880’s as primarily

“nonelectoral.” That is, they write that reform groups such as suffrage, temperance, and labor organizations worked for “nonelectoral ends,” instead of seeking a “radical redistribution of power.” Even the National Woman’s Party, established during the final push for woman suffrage, was considered an officially “nonpartisan” organization. In addition, they argue that “only after 1920 was women’s politics able to expand to include electoral efforts to shape government policies.”29 This literature is extensive and significant, as it traces female involvement in public issues and of female public action.

Scholars can rightfully claim that “women’s route to politics lay through moral reform.”30

The women who participated in these movements worked toward different goals than did the women who infiltrated the political party system at the same time. Women in party politics and women in reform movements were working in parallel ways.31 Jo

Freeman described the difference in the following way: “While one body of women demanded the right to vote, another tried to influence the men who could vote.”32 This often led to conflict, as leaders of the suffrage movement would often take issue with women in party politics, and vice versa. The issue of party alignment came to a head in a heated exchange between leaders of the temperance movement (a debate which is Introduction 11 detailed in Chapter 3). By the end of the nineteenth century “there were three major types of female political activists: feminists, reformers, and party women.”33

These reform movements struggled for recognition, most working for decades before seeing any form of success. The suffrage movement, in particular, struggled to gain institutional support. No social movement can bring about desired legislative reform until it coalesces with a party. Suffrage leaders understood the need to work with political parties and leaders, which is evidenced by their constant campaign for woman suffrage to be adopted on political party platforms. The Republicans consistently refused, and eventually some suffragists found success with third parties like the Prohibition and the

Populist parties. Freeman describes the problem in the following way:

With suffrage, women could enter the polls, but voting was just the foyer to the

political house, not the living room where candidates were chosen, nor the dining

room where the spoils were divvied up, nor the kitchen where the deals were

made. To enter these rooms women had to pass through several doors; the

doorkeepers were the major political parties.34

As reform “shifted to the passage of laws, women first circulated petitions, then lobbied and spoke to legislative committees, then worked for candidates they thought would support their program.”35 As a result, the Gilded Age was a period of transition for women in party politics as well. Freeman writes that women won suffrage “after they proved themselves to be an important political force.”36 The roots of this effort were formed during the Gilded Age.

The Development of the Party Woman: A Brief History Introduction 12 Freeman begins her groundbreaking historical narrative, A Room at a

Time: How Women Entered Party Politics, in the following way: “At the beginning of the nineteenth century, there was only the bare framework of a political house and women were merely observers. By the end of the century the house was built. Women were still outside, but they had cracked open the door.”37 The Gilded Age was the period between the end of Reconstruction and the end of the nineteenth century that set the stage for the women’s sizable public participation in the first decades of the twentieth century. As early as the American Revolution, women took on political leadership roles within the home. In the antebellum United States, women tested acceptance of public involvement by campaigning for the Whig party in their “proper” feminine roles. Significantly, a theme emerges in the discourse. Just as female social reformers often worked within the

“cult of true womanhood,”38 so too did female political party participants. After the Civil

War and Reconstruction, there was an explosion of political parties and increased female participation. During the Gilded Age, women became partisan organizers, leaders, and candidates. They began slowly to enter the public sphere, while rhetorically recognizing expected social behavior. Accordingly, this is the period from which the case studies in this project are taken. By proving their ability to participate in the public sphere through demonstrating what they could bring to partisan politics as women, women like the ones studied in this project began to transform public culture.

Women began to create a distinctive political identity as early as the American

Revolution. This initial involvement set an early precedent for more overt involvement later in the nineteenth century. This early period was filled with a tension between the desire to participate publicly and the need to remain in the domestic arena. Women Introduction 13 involved themselves politically during the Revolution by boycotting imported goods, petitioning, and running their husband’s farms and businesses while they were away at war – all activities typically reserved for men, but still consistent with a woman’s role in the home and the community.39 The home was thus transformed into a political space through domestic forms of political activity like boycotting tea, forming spinning societies, etc.40 The Revolutionary War offered women the opportunity to create political identities.41 As Kerber writes, “Women were challenged to commit themselves politically and then to justify their allegiance. The war raised once again the old question of whether a woman could be a patriot – that is, an essentially political person – and it also raised the question of what form female patriotism might take.”42 As the Revolution ended, the rejection of meant less of a focus on power in the state and more on the power of individuals in their households.43 This, in turn, led to more involvement on the part of the women in civic life.

Women were praised for their sense of civic duty, and their participation in party politics grew out of privileging female patriotism. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, “Republican Motherhood” defined women’s role in the politics of the nation as raising patriotic children.44 This role presupposed material understanding of patriotic values and civic ideals. “Republican Motherhood” is one of the first instances of female party loyalty, as women were charged with instilling virtue and party loyalty in their sons. The idea that women could play a political role in the domestic sphere continued well into the 19th century. Women could not participate publicly in politics, but they were supposed to cultivate political minds in their homes. Introduction 14 As the nation developed in the early nineteenth century, woman’s role in party politics grew. There is extensive evidence that women in Washington D.C. attended debates, held political discussions with other women and directly with politicians, and played a role in “shaping the national discourse.”45 Although most activity remained domestic, women engaged in forms of political activity. Louise Young claims that the role of political wife became an important aspect of women’s political participation.46

She cites as an example of one of the first political partnerships. John

Adams frequently discussed political issues with his wife, leading her to comment in a letter in 1780, “What a politician you have made me.”47 Women began to shape their involvement in politics while using the social tools at their disposal, which made the transition to their involvement in public less radical.

In the early Republic, there were only a few instances of recorded public party participation by women. Initially suffrage rights were given to women in the New Jersey

Constitution, which some attribute to substantial support.48 There is also evidence that as early as 1786, the mother of politician Benjamin Hawkins was electioneering for her son.49 Without the right to suffrage, women participated in party politics in other ways. They were present at political dinners, canvassed for candidates, edited partisan newspapers, and petitioned the government.50 In fact, the presence of women at Federalist Party campaign events helped shape what is now called a “grass roots campaign.”51 Women’s involvement in politics from the home was integral to their eventual involvement in public. Edwards argues that the reason party leaders began to speak directly to women was because of their role in the home.52 That is, women were assumed to have an influence on the political views of the men in their lives. Rosemary Introduction 15 Zagarri asserts that through direct messages to women, “Federalist orators transformed the females from passive bystanders into active participants in the day’s events.”53 In early political campaigns, women were tasked with preparing food for rallies, making banners, decorating meeting spaces, and cheering on their partisan husbands.54 These activities were appropriate for the “domestic” women’s sphere, but they opened the door for their direct involvement in electoral campaigns in the decades that followed.

Some of the earliest women’s civic organizations involved public issues.55 These benevolent organizations confronted issues such as prostitution, “male seduction,” abolition of , and protecting children.56 Published reports of meetings of benevolent organizations suggest that women debated political issues, and sometimes criticized public policy.57 Although formative activities of party identity, these efforts were defined as “private, feminine, and non-political.”58 As Boylan describes,

“Politicians accepted benevolent women’s claims, trickling tax monies into their treasuries and adopting the women’s own descriptions of their public service.”59

Women’s groups argued that their work “served ‘the interests of ’ by improving the moral character of the poor and promoting social order.”60

In the 1830s, women learned about political organization, speaking, and tactics from their involvement with these reform societies.61 Much of this history is explored in the literature about the abolition movement. Sarah and Angelina Grimké are often cited as the first politically active women in America. In fact, Flexner and Fitzpatrick’s history begins with abolitionist organizations, formed in the late 1830s, when the Grimké sisters began much of their public work.62 Because speaking in public was not allowed, and Introduction 16 addressing men and women in the same “promiscuous” audiences was considered inappropriate, women often engaged in other forms of political participation.

The most common was to petition, an activity which Susan Zaeske claims was a way for women to assert their rights of citizenship by making demands on their political representatives.63 Once speaking in public became more acceptable, women began to speak directly to legislative committees, and eventually worked for candidates that they thought would support their issues. As reform “shifted from moral suasion to electoral politics,” women became more interested in political culture and efficacy.64

The Jacksonian era brought with it the first direct, public involvement of women in electoral politics when the Whig Party became politically powerful.65 Throughout the

1830s and 1840s, the Whig party became nationally recognized as the party opposing

Andrew Jackson’s Democrats, electing Whig President William Henry Harrison and winning a majority in Congress in 1840.66 Dinkin attributes the increase in female interest to the widening of male suffrage, which encouraged more political participation generally, an increase in the number of women being educated, and a growing number of ladies’ literary societies where women often discussed public issues.67 As the previously cited historians have suggested, this was not always a separate female political culture.

Often women “act[ed] in conjunction with men.”68 The Whig Party encouraged female involvement as women participated in grassroots political efforts during the election of

1840. In fact, the Henry Clay societies during the election of 1844 are considered by many to be the first women’s campaign clubs.69

The Whig Party recognized and, thus, institutionalized many of the social reform efforts for which women had advocated, and they included men and women in their Introduction 17 political messages. Elizabeth Varon calls this a “revolution in campaign tactics.”70 Terming female involvement in Whig politics “Whig womanhood,” she argues that women could publicly adopt Whig identities because of their interest in Whig policies and act as persuaders of their voting husbands. In addition, Whig women were

“mediators,” whose gender roles allowed them to continue the tradition of “Republican

Motherhood” through their patriotism, devotion to community values, and “tempering political passions.”71 That is, women often gathered information at events that “allowed them to mold partisan families.”72 Despite an increase in the amount of activity, Whig women writers and campaigners made it clear through their rhetoric that their action was consistent with their subject position as women.73

A few key regional examples highlight women’s experience. Whig women in

Tennessee participated overtly in campaign rallies and discussions during the presidential campaigns of 1840 and 1844.74 In addition, upper- and middle-class white women across the South “played an active, distinct, and evolving role in the political life of the Old

South.”75 Some historians have framed women’s involvement in the Whig campaigns as symbolic and passive,76 but evidence suggests that women actively participated, making speeches, writing pamphlets, participating in rallies and parades, and running political meetings.77 For example, Anne Newport Royall published political pamphlets and a weekly partisan paper in the 1830s,78 wrote Whig mottoes, and Jane

Field gave an address in during the campaign of 1844.79

The primary evidence of Whig female participation is of women “subverting”80 their domestic sphere, using their position to involve themselves actively in the campaigns. Massachusetts was a Whig “stronghold,”81 leading Ronald and Mary Zboray Introduction 18 to investigate the participation of three Whig women: Eliza Davis, Mary Pierce, and Annie Lawrence. Zboray and Zboray find evidence of active electioneering and political conversation, stating that, “these women reveal through their writings a level of political involvement – ranging from personal sacrifice in the name of the party to introspection on the interrelationship of politics and gender – that intensified as the campaign unfolded.”82 Their writings display are important scholarly engagements with economic concerns, political corruption, partisan ideology, and modes of political communication.83

In addition, Virginian Lucy Kenney wrote tracts on behalf of William Henry

Harrison in 1840.84 Kenney published a series of pamphlets in the 1830s, including one that supported and his Vice President, Martin Van Buren. In 1838, however, Kenney abandoned the Democratic Party and became a Whig.85 An avid supporter of slavery, Kenney ideologically could not support Northerner Van Buren. In addition, she wrote and asked Van Buren for compensation for “her efforts on their behalf,” to which Van Buren “offered her a mere dollar.”86 The Whigs offered her a thousand dollars for her services, and she in turn wrote a pamphlet denouncing Van

Buren. This prompted a response from Democratic supporter Eliza B. Runnells. Runnels wrote that Kenney possessed none “of the elevated tone of feeling and celestial goodness, that has distinguished the female character.”87 During the 1840 election, Kenney became the most active female crusader for the Harrison campaign, publishing two pamphlets.88

Kenney had clear personal animosity toward Van Buren, which is evidenced in her pamphlet, “The Strongest of All Government is that which is Most Free.”89 In writing the political pamphlet, Kenney was directly participating in a campaign in a way few Introduction 19 women had before her. Kenney was, in essence, a representative of the campaign itself, acting as a mouthpiece and partisan supporter. Her rhetoric reflects the thrust of Harrison’s campaign. What is significant about her literature is that it served two cooperative purposes. First, Kenney is overtly campaigning for Harrison, using partisan rhetoric and campaign jargon to convince the public to vote Whig in 1840. Second,

Kenney seems to be carefully navigating between her role as campaign spokesperson and female member of society through the use of analogy. Her use of analogy simultaneously acts as political strategy and as justification for her right to construct that strategy. By crafting a “kingly” persona of Van Buren, alluding to biblical, historical, and symbolic images, and placing Harrison in the institutional fabric of the nation, Kenney acts as a female campaigner. Kenney’s pamphlet uses mainstream political rhetoric to justify her occupation of male political space.

Even white women from the “arch-conservative Deep South” participated in the male realm of party politics, although their experience emphasized the “cult of domesticity” more obviously than those in Massachusetts or Virginia. “Their actions denied the fictional rigidity of separate spheres, blurring the line between public and private that antebellum U.S.s never quite fixed, despite the rhetorical support it constantly received.”90 Olsen provides evidence from newspapers and private letters that thousands of women, all white but varying in social class, were at political rallies, debates, barbeques in , while elite women wrote public letters and gave speeches, and one woman edited a partisan newspaper.91 Olsen points to an interesting tension, though, through an examination of their discourse. Although their presence and participation represented overt political participation, their actions and their rhetoric emphasized their Introduction 20 belief in their “subordinate position.” 92 The Southern defense of social hierarchy required Southern women to adhere to the white male superiority hierarchy, which was the justification for slavery. Women often sat in galleries as passive observers, not participants, to avoid being part of the “raucous male crowd.”93 Evidence from newspaper articles demonstrates that women wrote political arguments while using language that reinforced gender hierarchy by referencing manliness and honor.94 This is clear from the example of Harriet Prewett, who became the editor of her husband’s

Yazoo City newspaper the Weekly Whig upon her husband’s death. Prewett displayed a keen interest in partisan politics through her writings, and even attended the state Whig convention in 1851, but she “strove to affirm her femininity and disavow any ambition

(intentional or not) to violate the ideology of separate spheres.”95

Although it was primarily in the Whig party that there was an increase in female involvement, Frances Wright campaigned for Democrat Martin Van Buren. However, the

Democratic Party expended much effort to distance itself from her. The Whigs also used

“Fanny Wrightism”96 as an example of the sort of public role that women should not play in politics.97 Women’s party participation continued to grow in the 1850s and became increasingly public. Varon offers evidence that in addition to Whig women, more

Democratic women became involved in the 1850s.98 Women involved in the woman suffrage movement also became increasingly partisan. , Elizabeth Cady

Stanton, Mary Livermore, Belva Lockwood, and others were on the campaign trail during the 1850s.99 This was not yet widely accepted behavior, however. As DeFiore writes, the ardent partisanship displayed in 1844 and 1848 did not turn political participation into an organized campaign for woman’s rights in . She posits that there were two Introduction 21 reasons for this. One was that it was acceptable for women to participate alongside male members of their families, but “with self-imposed limits to evade the possibility of being tarred with the brush of Fanny Wrightism.”100 Dinkin writes of a decline in newspaper stories of women at political rallies after 1848, which he posits was because of the and the advent of the woman suffrage movement, suggesting that those had a negative effect on female partisan activity.101

The politics of reform, abolition, and the sectional crisis led women to increasingly support the creation of the Republican Party in the 1850s.102 As soon as the party came into being, women volunteered and attended meetings – including woman’s rights leader .103 Famed woman’s rights advocates and abolitionists Lydia Marie Child and Clarina Howard Nichols spoke on the campaign trail for Republican presidential candidate John C. Fremont in 1856, leading Edwards to conclude that Nichols was arguably the first woman to go on a partisan stump speaking tour.104 Northern women’s increased presence in partisan politics was linked to the rise of sectionalism, as evidence by individuals like who followed her publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin with a public awareness campaign and petition drive against the Kansas-Nebraska Bill.105 Similarly, Hannah Ropes wrote a tract criticizing

President Franklin Pierce and the Democrats,106 and Jane Grey Swisshelm of Minnesota wrote articles critical of the Democratic administration. Swisshelm had been politically active earlier as well, publishing a weekly abolitionist newspaper called the Pittsburg

Saturday Visitor in the 1840s, often writing articles endorsing the Liberty Party and the

Free Soil Party. She also worked for Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune, and opened the Introduction 22 Senate press gallery to women.107 There is also evidence that Mary Todd

Lincoln influenced her husband’s campaign rhetoric and his views on slavery.

Female participation in early partisan electoral campaigns and social activism laid the groundwork for female party action during the second half of the nineteenth century.

Activities during the antebellum period demonstrate how political parties began to embrace issues important to women and illustrate examples of women exercising their right to participate. However, the overwhelming pattern of female involvement in party campaign activity was within her role as a “domestic” participant.

This changed after the Civil War. Experiences during the Civil War taught women how to organize, fundraise, and manage. Women involved with the Sanitary

Commission delivered speeches, raised money, produced circulars, and oversaw other organizations.108 Women filled jobs vacated during the war, and many widows had to be self-supporting after the war. The number of women employed in government also grew after the Civil War. By 1872, women were employed in the Treasury Department, Patent

Office, Census Bureau, and Department of the Interior, and by 1900, 27% of government employees were women.109 Women working and speaking in public became ordinary.110

The Civil War created a new conception of woman, or as Mary Buhle writes, “women learned the techniques of organization and mobilization; they gained a sense of self- reliance and spiritual depth through their common triumphs and sorrows.”111 By the

Reconstruction era, female mass participation in party politics was visible in both urban centers and rural communities. Although most women did not yet have decision-making power and could not be delegates, female participation was becoming a significant part of political culture.112 Introduction 23 The Republican Party was the primary focus for many female activists during the Gilded Age. Woman’s rights leaders frequently attempted to persuade the

Republican Party to adopt woman suffrage and prohibition planks in their platform.

Many became frustrated at the lack of support and focused their party loyalties elsewhere.

Others continued to support Republican Party candidates. As the party of progress and reform, women often felt the Republicans might best address their issues. This relationship was dynamic and complex, and is explored in detail in Chapter 3.

The Gilded Age was unique as an era marked by a rise in third party activity. As

Edwards comments, “In the 1870s and 1880s, reformers who broke from the Republicans promptly encamped with other parties”113 This presented a distinct opportunity for female involvement in leadership and policy-making. Edwards notes that women inspired men and exerted indirect moral influence. But the new coalitions also began to argue that women should have direct political power.”114 The was one of the first to attract “reform-minded women.”115 The 1880 Greenback candidate for the presidency was General James B. Weaver, who would also become the 1892 Populist Party candidate for president. According to Edwards, “Several workingwomen’s associations sent voting delegates to the 1880 national convention; in a few states, Greenbackers were the first ever to nominate a woman for statewide office.”116 The Greenback Party was the first of many third parties created to advocate for specific political issues.

The Farmers’ Alliance came into existence in reaction to a worsening economy in the West during the late 1880s. Middle-class populist women saw themselves as speaking for poor farming women, and they played an active role.117 Women frequently participated in meetings and edited newspapers.118 It was a woman who played a key role Introduction 24 in the creation of the Populist Party, or the “People’s Party.” Kansas-native

Annie Diggs lobbied at a variety of Farmer’s Alliance conventions and helped launch the

Populist Party.119 The Populist Party was active until it merged with the Democratic Party in 1896.120 Populists frequently, “drew on Republican precedents to explain America’s economic problems in domestic moral terms.”121 Populists also acted to decrease the compromising moral positions that many poor women faced (i.e. prostitution), and argued for federal assistance. The Populists believed that ending poverty, giving women the vote, and enacting prohibition would improve work and home life. 122

The Prohibition Party also embraced female leadership, in part because of the issue to which it was most dedicated. Freeman calls the post-Reconstruction campaign for temperance the “first mass movement of American women.” Women who sought to improve “what they saw as the cause of their family problems, the easy availability of hard liquor,” founded the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1874.123

Willard became President in 1879, and took partisan steps by dedicating resources from the WCTU to the Prohibition Party.124 After hopes that Republican James Garfield would support prohibition and suffrage proved fruitless, Willard formed her own “Home

Protection Party” in 1881, which then merged with the Prohibition Party in 1882.125

The “Home Protection” campaign utilized resources from the WCTU to encourage federal legislation to literally protect the home from the evils of alcohol. The

WCTU provided a space in which women could act publicly in the name of the protection of their private sphere. That is, “The WCTU built the bridge to wider political activity by connecting women’s socially acceptable concern with the home to issues subject to legislative action, and from there to the election of the men who made these Introduction 25 decisions.”126 Four women immediately became paid campaign speakers for the

Prohibition Party, and several women served on the party’s national committee.

Throughout the end of the 19th century, almost 30% of delegates at the Prohibition

Party’s national conventions were women.127 The Prohibition Party was not nationally successful, and in the 1890s Willard began to consider aligning with the Populist Party instead. Her hope was that the Populists and the Prohibitionists might form one large party to combat the Republicans and the Democrats. When the “People’s Party” refused to endorse temperance on their platform, the WCTU moved away from partisan politics in general.128

Besides an increase in participation as campaigners and party activists, women also began to run for political office during the third party system. Notably, Elizabeth

Cady Stanton was one of the first, and ran for U.S. Congress in 1866 in the 8th

Congressional District of NY as an Independent. was the first woman to address a Congressional committee in 1871, and was the first woman nominated for the Presidency in 1872.129 Californian Marietta Stow created the Equal Rights Party, and in 1882 ran for Governor of . Belva Bennett Lockwood, the first woman to be admitted to the bar of the United States Supreme Court, ran for President of the United

States on an Equal Rights Party ticket in 1884 and 1888. The Equal Rights Party also nominated Linda Gilbert for Governor in 1888.130

Although most political parties toward the end of the nineteenth century acknowledged women’s potential in varied ways, the Democratic Party was the least progressive. The Democratic Party did not begin to institutionally involve women in campaigns until the 1880s and 1890s, almost 20 years after the Republican Party, let Introduction 26 alone grant them positions of leadership. However, Anthony and Harper recorded that women were permitted to address small groups at the Democratic national convention in 1876 and 1880.131 There are only a few instances when the Democratic

Party utilized women in their partisan efforts. In the 1870s, Emma Webb and Terese

Esmond were sent on speaking tours to combat the efforts of Republican Anna

Dickinson. Brooklyn native Lizzie O’Brien Pollock made speeches on behalf of

Democratic candidate Winfield S. Hancock in 1880.132 Kate Chase Sprague, daughter of

Senator, Governor, and Supreme Court Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, worked to gain the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party in 1868 for her father. Her efforts led her to become the first woman to actively participate in a nominating convention. Although she was barred from the convention floor, she caucused and met with Democratic delegates.133

With the exception of the Democrats, political parties cultivated overt female participation.134 Whether as candidates or leaders on the campaign trail, women in the

1880s and 1890s began to carve out a distinct space on the partisan landscape for overt female leadership. By 1896, women’s partisan political contribution was large as

“women in all parties marched, canvassed, and monitored the polls on election day.”135

Women could vote in Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and Idaho. Once Utah became a state that year, women were elected to several state positions, including the state legislature.136

States that had already granted women suffrage rights were the most likely to produce candidates. Colorado elected three women to the State legislature that year, as well as several others to municipal positions. The Democrats in Utah elected three women to the state legislature in 1896, and the Republican State Central Committee of Utah named a Introduction 27 woman vice-chairman and secretary. Furthermore, three women were elected to the Idaho state legislature in 1898.137

Republican and Democratic women became very involved in the 1896 election between William McKinley and . Women campaigned hard for

Republican William McKinley in 1896, even organizing a campaign headquarters in New

York that published tracts in several languages and organized grass roots efforts.138 Mary

F. Henderson, the wife of a former Republican senator from Missouri, wrote a tract called

“The Issue of the Campaign – Sound Money,” which the party distributed nationally.139

Even Northern African American women were working on the campaign trail, led by Ida

B. Wells Barnett. She traveled the state of Illinois to campaign for McKinley, and the

Republican women who had formed their own State committee had a nurse meet her at every campaign stop to assist with her newborn baby.140 Women had such considerable influence on the election in 1896 that the party recognized their contribution by giving the Women’s National Republican Association (WNRA) headquarter offices in

Washington D.C.141

Democratic women displayed excitement for the campaign of William Jennings

Bryan, writing pamphlets on the silver question, which was the primary issue in Bryan’s campaign.142 There is evidence that William Jennings Bryan’s wife Mary advised him on speeches; it even reported in the Tribune that his wife wrote Bryan’s first major speech delivered to Congress. Although there was no equivalent to Republican Party leader Judith Ellen Foster, there were a limited number of campaign clubs, although they rarely continued to operate in non-election years.143 Nellie Fassett Crosby established the

Women’s National Democratic League in 1904.144 Introduction 28 Regional suffrage victories opened the door for female politicians.145 In addition, the early twentieth century allowed the Socialist Party to become a political contender. Women quickly became leaders within the Socialist organization at the beginning of the twentieth century.146 Socialists formally utilized women and recognized women’s issues. The “woman question” was mentioned for the first time at the 1908 convention, and an official outline for a woman’s organization was written. A committee called the Woman’s National Committee (WNC) was formed as part of the national party.147 As Buhle writes, “the inauguration of the WNC marked a major turning point in the Socialist women’s movement. Although the independent women’s clubs continued to ponder the pros and cons of affiliation, those newly formed and fully sanctioned women’s branches of the party gave the WNC their full support and gained representation for their views.”148 The original members of the WNC did not believe in autonomous women’s organizations, and made it a point to eliminate the independent clubs so that women would become directly involved in party activities. Stressing that party membership was key, the WNC acted as organizers, propagandists, and theorists.149 The Socialist Party’s evolution from an all-male organization to one with females on the Executive Committee represents the evolution of women in partisan politics in general during the Fourth Party

System. As women’s issues became integral to the public conversation, political parties began to take notice and utilize female leadership and involvement.

This can be illustrated clearly by examining female involvement during the election of 1912. Freeman calls 1912 a “springboard for women’s political activism.”150

Three more states had ratified woman suffrage, and four states elected women to legislatures. Women played a crucial role in the founding of the Progressive Party. Introduction 29 Representatives of the National American Woman Suffrage Association

(NAWSA), including , Louise DeKoven Bowen, and attended the Republican National Convention and made a presentation about the addition of a suffrage plank to the platform.151 The rejection of this and several other issues on the agenda led hundreds of progressive Republicans to walk out after received the nomination for President. This group promptly announced the formation of a new party that would nominate Theodore Roosevelt as its candidate. Progressives were concerned about the power and corruption in political parties, often fighting to return the nation “to the people.” They fought for initiatives like the direct election of U.S.

Senators, the ballot referendum and recall, voter registration, and state regulation of parties.152 Protective women’s labor legislation became part of the Progressive agenda, and woman suffrage found the largest number of male supporters in the Progressive movement.153

After the Progressive Party dedicated itself to woman suffrage, women became heavily involved. As Progressives, women acted as delegates to the national convention and assisted in drafting the party platform, action which was unprecedented in the history of partisan politics in the United States.154 In fact, between 12 and 40 women were delegates to the Progressive Party convention, and only two women each were delegates to the Democratic and Republican conventions.155 Although the press might have exaggerated female participation, the Progressive Party encouraged women and “took the lead by making equality an issue.”156 According to a New York Times article, about half of every car of a chartered train from New York to Chicago to go to the first Progressive

Party convention in 1912 was filled by women.157 Progressive women worked in their Introduction 30 own political organizations and worked with men, actions that combined approaches of the Populist, Prohibitionist, Republican, Democrat, and Socialist Party’s female auxiliary organizations and party organization, and the nonpartisan reform movements.158

After women’s participation in the Progressive Party was officially recognized and praised by , thus legitimizing women as political actors,

Democrats and Republicans started women’s bureaus. In New York, the Democratic

Party employed Florence Jaffrey Harriman to head its branch. Republicans had more experience with women’s work, and as President of the WNRA, Helen Varick Boswell traveled the country to organize women in several states, including an organization of

African American women.159 Women campaigned and discussed the election across the nation.

If 1912 was a “springboard” for political action, 1916 finally saw women’s involvement come to full fruition. In 1916, Roosevelt led Progressives back to the

Republican Party, increasing the involvement of women.160 The Hughes alliance was formed to elect former New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes as a Republican and a national Women’s Committee was formed as part of the alliance, headed by Frances

Kellor. In September of 1916, the Women’s Committee launched a campaign train to 28 different states, which was completely funded and run by women. Under the support of the Republican National Committee, the women publicly campaigned for Hughes across the country. All of the women were suffragists.161 In addition, Democratic women finally began to organize across the nation in 1916. They formed the Women’s Wilson and

Marshall Clubs, and Wilson headquarters in states like New York and Illinois had Introduction 31 women’s bureaus.162 Montana, a state that approved woman suffrage in 1914, elected the first woman to national political office. Republican Jeanette Rankin was elected to the U.S. Congress, although she lost re-election in 1918.163 Rankin was not the only female to run for national office. Frances C. Axtell, a state legislator in Washington, ran for U.S. Representative in 1916 and lost by only 3,000 votes. President Wilson then appointed Axtell to the Employees Compensation Commission.164 Furthermore, Rebecca

Latimer Felton of Georgia was appointed the first woman to U.S. Senate in 1922, although she only served for one day.165 The second decade of the twentieth century brought with it the election of women to political office across the country.166

By 1920, along with the passage of the 19th Amendment finally granting women suffrage, women were firmly involved in major party organizations. Although the 19th

Amendment was not yet ratified, many women were in attendance at both the Republican and Democratic national conventions. Twenty-six women had voting power at the

Republican convention, and 139 women were delegates or alternates. The Democrats had

318 female delegates.167 Women gave speeches, participated in platform discussions, and seconded nominations. It took more than a century for women to be fully immersed in political party life, and their role is still being negotiated today.

As the above history illustrates, women were firmly entrenched in partisan politics by 1920, and the Gilded Age fostered that growth. As Freeman indicates, “By the end of the century women listened to speeches and attended political events with men, were highly regarded as campaign orators, were eagerly employed by the parties to canvass their voters, and had their own political clubs and party organizations in some states”168 Prior to Reconstruction, women were involved in partisan politics, but mostly Introduction 32 from within their designated “private sphere.” By 1896, women were participated publicly in unprecedented numbers and activities. Just as the Gilded Age was a period of cultural and political transition, it was also an era of transformation between these two norms of behavior for women in party politics.

The Rhetorical Study of Party Women in the Gilded Age

How women entered party politics is an important research question that scholars have only recently begun to explore. According to political scientist Denise Baer, “an entire area of political science central to the political influence of women – political parties – has been both ignored and misunderstood.”169 Political scientists have largely overlooked women as a factor in political party activity. The fact that by 1980, women were almost equal in representation in political parties as their male counterparts has “for the most part been unrecognized by women and politics scholars”170 Suffering from a lack of data, most political scientists focus their research on women in parties during the second half of the twentieth century.171

According to historian Jo Freeman, “Political historians ignored women’s political work because women could not vote for most of our history, and even when they could, were seen as auxiliaries to political life, playing only minor, supporting roles.”172

A few notable historical works have begun to rectify this and have added important contributions to our understanding of party women during the Gilded Age. Historians

Robert Dinkin’s, Rosemarie Zagarri’s, and Rebecca Edwards’ books provide a historical narrative for the involvement of women in partisan politics in the nineteenth century.173

Freeman’s A Room at a Time: How Women Entered Party Politics and Melanie

Gustafson, Kristie Miller, and Elisabeth Perry’s collection of essays We Have Come to Introduction 33 Stay: American Women and Political Parties: 1880-1960 provide important historical background for the nineteenth century, but primarily focus on the 20th century.

Paula Baker’s works are also influential pieces of historical scholarship about the gendered nature of political culture in the nineteenth century.174 There are also a few essays that look at activities of specific female partisan activities, particularly women in the Whig Party and women in the Progressive Party.175 Most agree that by the end of the

Gilded Age, elections “became less an act of male solidarity and more of a civic duty.”176

After this period, women moved into a political world from which they had been consistently excluded. According to Cordery, educated women who “were more free of the separate sphere” in the Progressive era was “clearly the legacy of Gilded Age activists on all fronts.”177 This project attempts to identify how the rhetorical activities of party women during this period established the foundation for this shift.

The study of the individual voices of party women in the late nineteenth century offers distinctive contributions to women’s rhetorical history. This study adds to the scholarship of Ronald and Mary Zboray and Elizabeth Varon, whose examinations of the rhetorical activities of party women during the antebellum United States has enhanced our knowledge of political culture.178 The late nineteenth century public address archive includes the rhetoric of dominant politicians, as well as important recent additions of the rhetoric of activist women. The rhetorical activities of women involved in party politics are an important extension of the textual archive. Such studies are recent and few in number. Studying women from the late nineteenth century partisan political culture helps to trace developing rhetorical patterns Introduction 34 As illustrated by the complex history of research on politically active women in the late nineteenth century, it is important to avoid grouping the attributes and actions of these women into an essentialized whole. That is, rather than considering nineteenth century “political women” as a group with the same characteristics and tendencies, it is imperative to recognize social context and circumstances and its influence on role and activity. The party women discussed in this project belong to what

Iris M. Young calls a “serial collectivity.”179 Young uses Sartre’s concept of a “series,” from his Critique of Dialectical Reason, as a framework for gender that recognizes the similarities of sex and the differences in personal circumstances, including age, class, ethnicity, cultural background, marital and maternal circumstances, and the like.

Specifically, Young describes Sartre’s concept of a serial collective “whose members are unified passively by the objects around which their actions are oriented or by the objectified results of the material effects of the actions of others.”180 When studied this way, one can begin to consider a unified concept of gender, while recognizing the importance of differences of ethnicity, class, culture, and experience.

Despite their different class, ethnic, and geographic backgrounds, the women in this project were confronting similar boundaries and limitations because of the prescriptions on gender roles. As Young writes, “the unity of the series derives from the way that individuals pursue their own individual ends with respect to the same objects conditioned by a continuous material environment, in response to structures that have been created by the unintended collective result of past actions.”181 Specifically, these women can be seen as a unified collective by the restrictions they faced in relation to participation in the “objects” of political culture. Approaching Gilded Age party women Introduction 35 as a collective provides a perspective for a project that recognizes similarities and differences in the nineteenth century political female experience. Explaining the concept of seriality, Young enumerates its varied forms, including “material structures arising from people’s historically congealed institutionalized actions and expectations that position and limit individuals in determinate ways that they must deal with.”182

Nineteenth century political culture exhibited this sort of “social positioning.” As

Gustafson, Miller, and Perry write, “in writing women’s political history, scholars must take into account as many of these factors of difference, commonality, and tradition as they can discover and reconstruct.”183

When considering Edwards’ definition of “nineteenth century politics” cited above as a system driven by political party control and electoral success, one must begin to contemplate what access to this system represented. Some women during the Gilded

Age began to resist their limitations. These women can be considered as a serial collective – women with different backgrounds who were confronting institutionalized socio-political constraints. Belonging to a “serial collective” can prompt action, without defining what specific form that action might take.184 Women who worked within political parties for electoral purposes were unified by their exclusion from the rights of political citizenship. In particular, these women all acted against the institutionalized norm that their sex precluded them from participating in nineteenth century U.S. politics.

At the same time, party women had varied experiences, identities, and goals. They worked for different political parties, and for varied reasons. Knowing how these women worked within the party machinery in order to act as political citizens offers a more nuanced view of politically active women during the late nineteenth century. Introduction 36 The Gilded Age provided an opportunity for women to transition from being simply participants to being influential leaders in partisan political culture.

According to Freeman, “multiple social, economic, and political changes were simultaneously expanding women’s sphere, expanding the role of government, erasing the demarcation between male and female realms, and redefining politics.”185 As has been demonstrated, women’s participation in party politics evolved throughout the course of the nineteenth century. This study focuses on the end of that period. The years between

1884-1892 demonstrate kairos, or an “opportune”186 rhetorical moment of entry into a political system that had systematically excluded women from positions of leadership for more than a century. Scholars must understand that “place and time are also critical to understanding women’s partisan opportunities and choices.”187 If one understands kairos as “a moment of rhetorical prowess and control completely dependent on the context of the situation,”188 one can begin to explore an answer to this question: why were these women successful at gaining leadership within political parties at this particular historical moment? One answer involves knowledge of the political parties within which these women gained positions of power. The Populist, Prohibition, and Equal Rights Parties all emerged on the political scene because of certain Gilded Age social concerns. As

Freeman claims, “women were particularly visible in states where the Prohibition and

Populist parties brought them directly into party politics because reform and party coincided.”189 The focus, dynamics, and structures of these parties provided a point of entry for these women.

A second answer to the above question involves an appreciation of the rhetorical agency demonstrated by each woman and the rhetorical skill with which they navigated Introduction 37 norms of expected gender behavior. As was surveyed earlier, women were denied access to “political citizenship.” As such, their emerging leadership within political parties during the late nineteenth century is a noteworthy accomplishment. In addition to the personal and situational factors that helped them to gain agency, it is important to discover how that agency was expressed. Scholars have debated and problematized the concept of rhetorical agency for decades. The traditional approach to agency has been to define it as a “communicative process of inquiry and advocacy on issues of public importance”190 that is largely in the control of the rhetor. Leff describes this “humanistic” approach to agency as one that “positions the orator both as an individual who leads an audience and as a community member shaped and constrained by the demands of the audience.”191 Karlyn Kohrs Campbell further defines rhetorical agency as “the capacity to act,” or “to have the competence to speak or write in a way that will be recognized or heeded by others in one’s community.”192 The women examined in this project had agency in part because of their personal backgrounds and experiences. Each had access to education, communities, and organizations that enhanced and encouraged their political growth. Their power must, in some ways, be attributed to their training, qualifications, and systems of support.

A post-modern critique of agency decenters the speaking subject, claiming that the “humanistic” approach described above disregards social and cultural constraints related to access.193 As Casey Kelly describes, “this critique of subjectivity challenges simplistic notions of agency that over determine an individual's ability to construct or even transcend their material conditions through rhetorical power.”194 Nan Johnson reiterated this problem at the 2004 meeting of the Alliance of Rhetoric Societies when Introduction 38 she brought up concerns about the “complications of who has access to rhetorical agency and how rhetorical agency is obtained.”195 Campbell bridges these interpretations by claiming that agency is “communal, social, cooperative, and participatory and, simultaneously, constituted and constrained by the material and symbolic elements of context and culture.”196 To continue to extend this concept, this project seeks to continue Kelly’s call to understand agency as “the individual or collective capacity to recognize moments in which structures are open to reinterpretation and then act to resignify the social order.”197 For this project, agency is “the complex process by which a communicative act materializes out of a combination of individual will and social circumstances.”198 This project contends that certain women found agency in spite of, and in some cases, because of their social constraints. Party women found agency within the very institutional structure that denied them access by seizing moments of entry in political parties that could benefit from their leadership through use of particular rhetorical strategies.

A Model of Political Womanhood

The Gilded Age was a foundational era for the growth of women’s leadership within U.S. political parties. The years between 1884-1893 saw significant advances for the role of women in political parties as female leadership materialized. During this period, women began to carve a space for themselves as political party leaders. Freeman claims that it was in the 1880s and 1890s that women arrived “as a factor in politics.”199

These new patterns presented an opportunity for women in electoral party politics, fostering overt female partisanship and a debate about women’s new political identity.200

As Edwards writes, the period “produced a series of political experiments, some initiated Introduction 39 by the major parties and others by third-party challengers…Gilded Age campaigns thus produced multiple, overlapping searches for effective models of political manhood and womanhood that would meet the needs of a new age.”201 New political parties that were formed around issues of the day were created and led by women.

Women also used established political parties to achieve policy goals, working alongside men to bring about desired political change.202 Women became influential party members and political candidates themselves.

The women analyzed here found agency through the power of language that draws on cultural expectations. Their rhetorical patterns exhibit a type of enthymeme, or a cultural assumption based on “common knowledge.” Women found sources of power by making claims that highlighted, reinforced, or re-interpreted their prescribed gendered behavior, insinuating that they were acting in ways consistent with those modes of belief.

The enthymeme signifies the shared beliefs of the audience, and thus consists of assumptions “based on the shared experience of speaker and hearer” and “dependent on audience, context, time, and place.”203 For party women in the 1880s, interpretations of expected norms of female behavior became powerful enthymemes upon which to build a justification for their leadership in political parties.

Each case study presented here argues that female political party leaders created a model of rhetorical discourse for political women to use in the future. Their rhetorical strategies gained them entry into a system defined as male. Analyzing these patterns can enlarge the available narrative of how, why, and in what ways women became involved in political life. The women studied enriched the arsenal of rhetorical techniques for political women to use. In addition, the rhetorical strategies identified here nuance our Introduction 40 understanding of female political agency of the time. The stylistic and substantive argument choices made demonstrate recognition of contextual forces at work in relation to the development of political parties during the era. In other words, these women exhibited awareness of their expected cultural role and the rhetorical needs of the parties within which they gained power. As Gustafson, Miller, and Perry contend,

“women’s different political styles influenced strategies that brought about important changes in the political landscape. Their activism had an impact on party structures, and their concerns colored party ideology.”204 The women studied here became ideal spokespeople for the parties they represented because of the way they framed their political role as women. As such, the women studied here changed the political scene during the Gilded Age.

Chapter Two is the first of three case studies to focus on the different experiences of female political party leaders. This chapter looks at the rhetorical strategies of Mary

Elizabeth Lease, the famed speaker and leader of the Populist Party. Lease delivered over

160 speeches during the 1890 campaign season. She was lauded as a capable and eloquent orator, and she spoke at the 1892 Populist national convention.205 Examining

Lease’s rhetorical activities offers insight into the reasons women played such a significant rhetorical role within the Populist Party. Because of the rhetorical nature of the Populist movement itself, Lease is an example of a woman who acted as woman and as a party leader – a new and different public role.

The Populist Party called for a return to “moral” politics and a protection of the family. “Morality” was considered the be the “very essence of femininity.” 206 Although

Michael Goldberg claims that Lease “flaunted her masculine style” and exaggerated a Introduction 41 “masculinist persona,”207 I argue that Lease played an important role as a woman in the success of populist rhetorical campaigns. Lease adopted different feminine personae, each of which gave her credibility as an “ideal” Populist spokesperson. Current rhetorical scholarship of female activists of the time establishes that it was common for women to assert their femininity in public. As Edwards writes, “Most politically active women demonstrated female consciousness. They believed their gender identity was a useful political tool – probably the most powerful available to them – and they deployed it in the service of their goals.”208 Lebsock reiterates, “However slimy politics might be, who better than the nation’s house-keepers to clean it up?”209 This case study explores the performance of femininity for partisan purposes. Lease used cultural behavioral expectations to gain agency as a political leader. She acted as a religious, moral, and domestic political “guide” to present herself as a credible and formidable Populist leader.

All of these roles were in keeping with cultural expectations of appropriate female behavior. Historian Lori Ginzberg asks in reference to the early 19th century: “To the defenders of Republican Motherhood, mothers had borne the responsibility to influence their children to be virtuous citizens: how much wider an impact might they have as teachers?”210 I seek to answer this question by exploring Lease’s use of these expectations as justification for female political leadership in the future. Lease’s rhetoric expanded the reach of women within a partisan organization.

Chapter Three follows the rhetoric of two prominent but opposed party women who used parallel argumentative structures. This chapter examines the debate about partisanship that happened within the WCTU and the political party involvement of its two primary participants, Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster. During the Introduction 42 1888 WCTU national convention, WCTU President Willard announced that the organization should provide absolute support for parties willing to put temperance on their platform. This action was understood as a pledge of support for the Prohibition

Party.211 The action was definitive but not unexpected, as women like Willard had been heavily involved in the formation and leadership of the Prohibition Party throughout the previous decade. The Prohibition Party “offered a particularly strong model for women’s participation.”212 Several women served on the party’s national committee and almost thirty percent of the delegates at the Prohibition Party’s national conventions were women.213 Willard was integral to the national campaign efforts of the Prohibition Party as she led policy initiatives, toured the nation on behalf of candidates, and served as a key decision maker and orator.

Some, however, opposed Willard’s partisan agenda. Foster and other women protested by leaving the WCTU organization and forming the Non-Partisan Woman’s

Christian Temperance Union.214 Foster had been an active member of the WCTU and had served as ’s Superintendent of the Legislative Department.215 She tried to maintain the WCTU’s traditionally nonpartisan approach, arguing that position forcefully at conventions throughout the 1880s.216 Although Foster ardently emphasized the need for women to work in non-partisan ways for reform as a member of the WCTU, Foster was an avid Republican. She worked for years to increase female influence in the Republican

Party.217 She described the role that she envisioned women could play in the Republican

Party when in 1892, addressing the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis,

Minnesota, she said “We are here to help you, and we have come to stay.” Foster formed the Women’s National Republican Association (WNRA), an auxiliary to the National Introduction 43 League of Republican Clubs in 1888.218 The WNRA distributed literature, sent speakers during campaigns, and assisted the Republican National Committee with fundraising and grassroots efforts.219 Foster herself gave speeches during several presidential campaigns, with a goal to increase female influence in the Republican

Party.220

Despite their party differences, Willard and Foster both offered similar messages about women’s distinct role in politics, arguing that women’s moral superiority could clean up political corruption.221 More importantly for this study, though, both Willard and

Foster re-framed women’s political role as authorities on patriotism and civic duty. Like

Lease, both women adopted certain personae that helped to justify their presence in the political institution, which in their case was the national party convention. Both women also attempted to claim patriotism for the party they represented. Working within different political environments, Willard and Foster fostered identification with their immediate audiences through assumptions about national duty, unity, and patriotism.

Accordingly, they added women to the group tasked with performing this duty. Through an examination of Willard’s Prohibition Party convention address in 1888 and Foster’s

Republican Party convention address in 1892, one can continue to develop an awareness of female political leaders’ argumentative strategies as a model of discourse. Willard and

Foster used stories of the nation’s past and women’s traditional roles in it to enact a more particular form of female patriotic leadership. Historically, “political and civic virtue,” was “something achieved through active, public participation in political affairs.” 222

Willard and Foster argued that women could protect and influence that civic virtue in a unique way, justifying their political participation. As the first women to address national Introduction 44 party conventions, each structured her speech to avoid alienating her audience, while asserting her right to participate as a female political citizen who embodied patriotism.

The final case study in Chapter Four analyzes the rhetorical techniques of Belva

Ann Bennett Lockwood, the Equal Rights Party candidate for President of the United

States in 1884 and 1888. Perhaps the most radical of the women studied in this project,

Lockwood not only was a party leader but also a candidate for national office. Lockwood and fellow woman’s rights activist Marietta Stow were the first women to share a ticket for President and Vice President of the United States. In 1884, Lockwood attended the

Republican Convention and was rebuffed when she asked if they would draft a resolution to support woman suffrage. Lockwood wrote a letter to Stow’s Women’s Herald of

Industry expressing her concern over the current state of political affairs and the need for a female candidate. In the letter she wrote, “if women in the states are not permitted to vote, there is no law against their being voted for,” and asserted, “it is quite time that we had our own party; our own platform, and our own nominee.”223 She was then nominated for the presidency by the newly formed Equal Rights Party, with Stow as her running mate for Vice President.224

Whether as candidates or leaders on the campaign trail, women in the 1880s and

1890s began to carve a space on the partisan landscape for overt female participation.

This fusion between seeking office and campaigning for progressive legislation led to

Lockwood’s presidential campaign. Lockwood put forth a model of discourse that celebrated female accomplishment. She used her career and her struggles with gendered cultural expectations as evidence of her leadership ability and political expertise. Introduction 45 Lockwood’s rhetoric is an example of the rhetorical strategy of a usable past, or

“a body of beliefs and ideas about the past that help a public or society understand both its past, present, and by implication, its future.”225 The use of the past is rhetorically powerful and can be manipulated toward particular persuasive ends. Because the past is symbolically constructed, its use is a productive argument strategy that can create identification between a rhetor and her audience. Her past became usable for Lockwood insofar as it provided shared meaning for her and the “male” political world.

Lockwood’s candidacy was a rhetorical re-framing of behavioral expectations.

Her rhetoric was not just an assertion of her ability to be a presidential candidate, but was also evidence of the type of leadership and momentum that women in politics needed as the twentieth century dawned. She recounted her past accomplishments as evidence of her intelligence and experience. She referenced her past experiences through the lens of her physical capabilities to argue that even though she was a woman, she was just as qualified to serve in office. Finally, Lockwood referred to past instances of female collective action to express the power of women as a group. She enacted the philosophy of the Equal Rights Party, which espoused political and social equality, by creating a persona that was based on personal qualifications and a desire for equality of opportunity.

Lockwood argued that women had an important political role to play because of the exceptional qualities they could bring to the table. Specifically, she used the past to assert herself as a leader. She crafted a unique political female persona through the interpretation of her own past, using it as an example of the qualities of a political candidate. In so doing, Lockwood used the past to facilitate momentum for future behavior. Introduction 46 Conclusion

The women examined here represented different political parties but faced similar cultural constraints. As a result, they articulated a rhetoric with varied partisan goals, but parallel social aims. In order to conceptualize their role, I focus on their rhetorical strategies as they gained agency within a political system that had denied them access. In an attempt to create a persona suited for the “male” world of party electoral politics, the women studied here made strategic use of cultural arguments that fostered identification with their audience and exerted a new female political role. They all believed that political womanhood was about claiming rights regardless of sex and presented strong arguments for the power of women because of their sex. These case studies enhance our understanding of the rhetorical strategies of activist women, the potential for agency within the parties that dominated the political scene during the Gilded Age, and models for political womanhood that each woman left for future generations.

The case studies show us the diverse contributions that women made to the arsenal of rhetorical strategies for female activists of the time. Women helped shape the arguments of the political parties they represented. They also demonstrated potential rhetorical behavior that other women could emulate in order to become leaders in partisan organizations. The rhetorical discourse of party women enhances our knowledge of the period and its political culture. Gustafson, Miller, and Perry’s claim that “that new perspectives can be gained from studying women in political parties,” because “historians have often mentioned women only in ways that made them tangential to the story being told.”226 They continue, “political parties can be a rich resource for examining the challenges that women, both disenfranchised and enfranchised, faced in their struggles Introduction 47 for voice and power in the nation’s political arena.”227A rhetorical perspective can highlight how women carved this space for themselves.

This project concludes with a discussion on the importance of the “rhetorical study of historical events” and the “historical study of rhetorical practice.”228 Studying the argument strategies used by female party leaders during the Gilded Age nuances our understanding of the transformations occurring in the political culture. Specifically, the rhetoric of party women gives us a deeper knowledge of the partisan system as a group of gendered and issue-oriented organizations. Further, this historical recovery project grants us expanded access to an archive of rhetorical practice that serves as a model of discourse. The party women studied present rhetorical strategies that are exemplary standards. Kathleen Turner contends:

Historical research provides an understanding of rhetoric as a process rather than

as simply a product; it creates an appreciation of both the commonalities among

and the distinctiveness of rhetorical situations and responses; it tests theory and

complements criticism while standing as a distinct and valid approach in and of

itself.229

Turner’s synthesis is a key way to understand the significance of doing rhetorical history.

Approaching primary documents through a rhetorical lens leads to the discovery of patterns and identities. Rather than re-creating the past, rhetorical historians interpret the past in order to understand historical and contemporary patterns of discourse.

Historians have shown that women influenced the issues and strategies that political parties used during the Gilded Age to increase awareness, get out the vote, and connect with citizens.230 This project demonstrates how they accomplished that. As “men Introduction 48 discovered that women excelled at crucial aspects of winning elections,”231 women stepped into unprecedented leadership roles, creating a form of political womanhood that was both consistent with and divergent from cultural norms of behavior.

The female party leaders in this project are examples of women who “excelled” at rhetorical leadership. The case studies highlight women’s civic engagement, while placing women in the mainstream political culture of their day. Specifically, an examination of female political party leadership can offer a more complex approach to the study of women, political leadership, and rhetorical practice.

The study of rhetorical activities also has an important pedagogical contribution to make. By expanding the archive of female historical discourse and through analysis of rhetorical patterns of women in the late nineteenth century, scholars gain insight into the political culture, the power of rhetorical agency, and the rhetorical power of women. In addition, this history creates a model of rhetorical discourse for political women of the future, putting historical rhetorical practice in conversation with contemporary rhetorical strategies. Analyses of the past connect us across historic time.232 Rhetorical history allows us to contextualize the present. This is part of the contribution that I hope to make as a scholar. My interest in studying women’s involvement in partisan politics is to help tell an historical narrative that, to use Maurice Halbwachs’ terms, “renders the present familiar.”233

Women’s research in public address has recently exploded in studies that look at women in politics, particularly women like Hillary Clinton, , and Sarah

Palin. I argue that it is only through understanding the rhetorical actions of party women of the past that we can begin to understand actions, cultural expectations, and social Introduction 49 interpretations of party women in the present. As women embark on entering political leadership in full force, it is important to understand the historic circumstances from which their efforts arise. We have an obligation to not only know this history, but to teach it. Female presidential campaigns of the nineteenth century, female leadership in early political parties, and the first forays of women into political office provide not just a historic grounding, but an interpretive base for understanding gendered expectations of female politicians today.

Notes for Chapter One

1 Frances Elizabeth Willard, My Happy Half Century: The Autobiography of an American Woman (London, UK: Ward, Lock & Co., Limited, 1894). 2 Dan Gillgoff, “Michele Bachmann, Evangelical Feminist?” June 27, 2011, http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/06/27/michele-bachmann-as-evangelical-feminist/. 3 For more on each, visit the Green Party website at www.gp.org, the Peace and Freedom Party website at www.peaceandfreedom.org, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation at www.pslweb.org. 4 The term the “Gilded Age” was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their book The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, written in 1873. The “Gilded Age” is widely considered by historians to be the period characterized by industrial and urban growth from the 1870s-1890s, after the period of Reconstruction and before the Progressive period, The Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History, ed. Michael Kazin, Rebecca Edwards, and Adam Rothman (Princeton, NJ: Princeont University Press, 2010), viii. For a more detailed account of the changes during the Gilded Age, see The Gilded Age: Perspectives on the Origins of Modern America 2nd Edition, ed. Charles W. Calhoun (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlfeild Publishers, Inc., 2007). See also Robert W. Cherny, American Politics in the Gilded Age: 1868-1900 (Wheeling, IL: Harlan Davidson, Inc., 1997); Paul Kleppner, The Third Electoral System: 1853-1892 (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1979). 5 Charles W. Calhoun, “Introduction,” The Gilded Age: Perspectives on the Origins of Modern America 2nd Edition, ed. Charles W. Calhoun (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2007): 1. 6 Calhoun, “Introduction,” 2; Judith Freeman Clark, The Gilded Age (New York: Infobase Publishing, 2006), ix. 7 Rebecca Edwards, Angels in the Machinery: Gender in Politics from the Civil War to the Progressive Era (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1997), 9. 8 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 9. 9 Jo Freeman, A Room at a Time: How Women Entered Party Politics (New York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2000), 7; see also Richard L. McCormick, “The Party Period and Public Policy: An Exploratory Hypothesis,” The Journal of American History 66.2 (1979): 281. 10 Charles W. Calhoun, “Public Life and the Conduct of Politics,” The Gilded Age: Perspectives on the Origins of Modern America 2nd Edition, ed. Charles W. Calhoun (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2007): 254. 11 Paula Baker, The Moral Frameworks of Public Life: Gender, Politics, and the State in Rural New York, 1870-1930 (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1991), xvi. Introduction 50

12 For more on Gilded Age politics see Worth Robert Miller, “The Lost World of Gilded Age Politics,” The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 1.1 (2002): 49-67; Vincent P. De Santis, “The Political Life of the Gilded Age: A Review of the Recent Literature,” The History Teacher 9.1 (1975): 73-106; Calhoun, “The Political Culture: Public life and the Conduct of Politics,” 239-264. 13 Charles W. Calhoun, “The Political Culture: Public Life and the Conduct of Politics,” 240. 14 Lewis L. Gould, “Party Conflict: Republicans versus Democrats, 1877-1901,” The Gilded Age: Perspectives on the Origins of Modern America 2nd Edition, ed. Charles W. Calhoun (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2007): 265. 15 Worth Robert Miller, “The Lost World of Gilded Age Politics,” The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 1.1 (2002): 51. 16 McCormick, 282. 17 Miller, 50. 18 Suzanne Lebsock, “Women and American Politics, 1880-1920,” Women, Politics, and Change ed. Louise A. Tilly and Particia Gurin (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1992): 36-37. 19 Michael McGerr, "Political Style and Women's Power, 1830-1930," Journal of American History 77 (December 1990): 869. 20 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 7. 21 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 13-16. 22 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 7. 23 Michael Lewis Goldberg, An Army of Women: Gender and Politics in Gilded Age Kansas (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997), 7. 24 T.H. Marshall, Citizenship and Social Class (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1950), 5. Although Marshall’s academic subject position as a sociologist in post-World War II Great Britain makes his categories of citizenship gendered, according to the critique of Nancy Fraser and Linda Gordon in Nancy Fraser and Linda Gordon, "Civil Citizenship Against Social Citizenship? On the Ideology of Contract-Versus-Charity," in The Condition of Citizenship, ed. Bart Van Steenbergen, 90-107 (London: Sage Publications, 1994), his definition is still useful. In conjunction with Edwards definition of nineteenth century politics, it allows scholars to consider what political citizenship meant in the context of the nineteenth century. 25 Paula Baker, "The Domestication of Politics: Women and American Political Society, 1780-1920," American Historical Review 89 (June 1984): 623. 26 Linda Kerber, "The Revolutionary Generation: Ideology, Politics, and Culture in the Early Republic," in History, ed. Eric Foner (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1997), 38. 27 Nancy Cott, "Marriage and Women's Citizenship in the United States, 1830-1934," American Historical Review 103, no. 5 (1998): 1456. 28 Eleanor Flexner and Ellen Fitzpatrick, Century of Struggle: The Woman's Rights Movement in the United States, Enlarged Edition (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1996), 38; Melanie Gustafson, Kristie Miller and Elisabeth Perry, We Have Come to Stay: American Women and Political Parties, 1880-1960, ed. Melanie Gustafson, Kristie Miller and Elisabeth Perry (Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1999), x; Linda Gordon, "U.S. Women's History," in The New American History, ed. Eric Foner, 262 (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1997); Judith Ann Giesberg, Civil War Sisterhood: The U.S. Sanitary Commission and Women's Politics in Transition (Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press, 2000), 3; Nancy Isenberg, Sex and Citizenship in Antebellum America (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1998), 3-6. 29 Louise A. Tilly and Patricia Gurin, "Introduction: Women, Politics, and Change," in Women, Politics, and Change, ed. Louise A. Tilly and Patricia Gurin, 10-11 (New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 1990). 30 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 28. 31 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 3. 32 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 3-4. 33 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 4. 34 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 7. 35 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 28. 36 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 3. Introduction 51

37 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 27. 38 This term originated in Barbara Welter, "The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860," U.S. Quarterly, Summer 1966: 151-174. The term reflects the four “cardinal virtues” by which women were judged in the nineteenth century. These were “piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity” (152). 39 Paula Baker, "The Domestication of Politics,” 624. 40 Linda Kerber, Women of the Republic: Intellect & Ideology in Revolutionary America (New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Co., 1986), 35-38. 41 The Revolutionary period gave the country a few women who are now revered in history for their political thought: Judith Sargent Murray, Susannah Rowson, , and Hannah Webster Foster. See Kerber, Women of the Republic, 269, 11. 42 Kerber, Women of the Republic, 9. 43 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 17. 44 Kerber, Women of the Republic, 283. 45 Catherine Allgor, Parlor Politics: In Which the Ladies of Washington Help Build a City and a Government (Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 2001), 119; Robert J. Dinkin, Before Equal Suffrage: Women in Partisan Politics from Colonial Times to 1920 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995), 21-22. 46 Louise Young, "Women's Place in American Politics: The Historical Perspective," Journal of Politics 38 (August 1976): 304-307; Peggy Eaton traveled with her husband on his Senate campaign, leading Robert Dinkin to call her the first women in U.S. history to join an extensive political campaign as a political wife. Catherine Allgor calls Dolley Madison a “politician” because of her position as social leader. She was considered one of the primary hostesses in Washington D.C., often serving as hostess for President as well her husband. Allgor also refers to Louisa Catherine Adams and as a “political team.” While living in Philadelphia, Louisa Catherine Adams created an intellectual salon with politicians, newspaper editors, judges, etc., all of whom eventually became supporters of Quincy Adams. She traveled extensively during her husband’s campaign and called upon the wives of congressmen and other influential men of Washington. See Dinkin, 23; Allgor, 54, 148. 47 Dinkin, 15. 48 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 27, 33. More can be read on this event in Judith A. Klinghoffer and Lois Elkis, “’The Petticoat Electors’: Women’s Suffrage in New Jersey, 1776-1807.” Journal of the Early Republic, 12.2 (Summer 1992): 159-193. 49 Dinkin, 17. 50 Petitioning the government was a common form of political participation utilized by female social reformer at the time. See Alisse Portnoy, Their Right to Speak: Women's Activism in the Indian and Slave Debates (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005), 6; Dinkin, 27; Susan Zaeske, "Signatures of Citizenship: The Rhetoric of Women's Anti-Slavery Petitions," Quarterly Journal of Speech 88, no. 2 (May 2002): 147-168. 51 Young, "Women's Place in American Politics,” 309. 52 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 13. 53 Rosemarie Zagarri, "Gender and the First Party System," Federalists Reconsidered, ed. Doron Ben-Atar and Barbara B. Oberg (Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1998), 122. 54 McGerr, 867. 55 Baker, 632. 56 Mary P. Ryan, Women in Public: Between Banners and Ballots, 1825-1880 (Baltimore, MD: The John Hopkins University Press, 1990), 173. See also Barbara Berg, The Remembered Gate: Origins of American Feminism: The Woman and the City, 1800-1860 (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1978). 57 Anne Boylan, “Women and Politics in the era before Seneca Falls,” Journal of the Early Republic 10 (Fall 1990): 373. 58 Boylan, 372. 59 Boylan, 368. 60 Boylan, 373-374. 61 Baker, 634. 62 Eleanor Flexner and Ellen Fitzpatrick, Century of Struggle: The Woman’s rights Movement in the United States, Enlarged Edition (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1996), 42-43. Introduction 52

63 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 27; Susan Zaeske, "The 'Promiscuous Audience" Controversy and the Emergence of the Early Woman’s rights Movement," Quarterly Journal of Speech 81 (1995): 191-207. See also Susan Zaeske, Signatures of Citizenship: Petitioning, Antislavery, & Women’s Political Identity (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2003). 64 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 29. 65 President William Henry Harrison was the first Whig to be elected President of the United States in 1840. The Whigs also won a majority in Congress that same year. See Freeman, A Room at a Time, 33. 66 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 13. 67 Dinkin, 24-25. 68 Dinkin, 3. 69 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 33. 70 Elizabeth R. Varon, We Mean to be Counted: White Women and Politics in Antebellum Virginia (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1998), 3. 71 Varon, 3. 72 Jayne DeFiore, "Come and Bring the Ladies: Tennessee Women and the Politics of Opportunity During the Presidential Campaigns of 1840 and 1844," Tennessee Historical Quarterly 51 (1992): 197-212. 73 Women like Virginian Lucy Kenney wrote tracts on behalf of William Henry Harrison in 1840. Kenney clearly felt personal animosity toward Van Buren, which is evidenced in her pamphlet, “The Strongest of All Government is that Which is Most Free.” Kenney was overtly campaigning for Harrison, using partisan rhetoric and campaign jargon to convince the public to vote Whig in 1840. In addition, Kenney seems to be carefully navigating between her role as campaign spokesperson and female member of society through the use of analogies consistent with her private, domestic role. Whig women in Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Massachusetts display similar rhetorical tendencies. See DeFiore; Christopher Olsen, "Respecting 'The Wise Allotment of Our Sphere': White Women and Politics in Mississippi, 1840-1860," Journal of Women's History 11, no. 3 (1999): 104-125; Varon; Zboray and Zboray. 74 Jayne DeFiore, "Come and Bring the Ladies: Tennessee Women and the Politics of Opportunity During the Presidential Campaigns of 1840 and 1844," Tennessee Historical Quarterly 51 (1992): 198. 75 Elizabeth R. Varon, We Mean to be Counted: White Women and Politics in Antebellum Virginia (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1998), 1. 76 Ronald T. Zboray and Mary Saracino Zboray, "Whig Women, Politics, and Culture in the Campaign of 1840: Three Perspectives from Massachusetts," Journal of the Early Republic 17, no. 2 (Summer 1997): 278. 77 Varon, 71; Young, “Women’s Place in American Politics,” 311; DeFiore, 78. 78 Dinkin, 23. 79 Dinkin, 31. 80 Zboray and Zboray, “Whig Women,” 282-283. 81 Zboray and Zboray, “Whig Women,” 278. See also Ronald J. Zboray and Mary Saracino Zboray, Voices Without Votes: Women and Politics in Antebellum New England (Durham, NH: The University of New Hampshire Press, 2010). 82 Zboray and Zboray, 280. 83 Zboray and Zboray, 281. 84 Varon.74-103. 85 Varon, 74-75. 86 Varon, 75. 87 Qtd in Varon, 75. 88 Varon, 77. 89 Lucy Kenney, The Strongest of All Government is That Which is Most Free: An Address to the People of the United States (n.p.: n.p., 1840). 90 Christopher Olsen, "Respecting 'The Wise Allotment of Our Sphere': White Women and Politics in Mississippi, 1840-1860," Journal of Women's History 11, no. 3 (1999): 104-125.105. 91 Olsen, 105. 92 Olsen, 105. 93 Olsen, 110. 94 Olsen, 112. Introduction 53

95 Olsen, 116. 96 Frances Wright was one of the first women to speak on political issues in public. She delivered a series of lectures in the early 1830s, but came under sharp social critique. She was called an “unnatural woman,” and a “female monster.” “Fanny Wrightism” was a term coined to describe extreme, often shameless, political radicals. For more on Frances Wright see William R. Waterman, Frances Wright (New York, NY: AMS Press, Inc., 1967); Robert J. Connors, "Frances Wright: First Female Civic Rhetor in America," College English 62, no. 1 (September 1999): 30-57; Elizabeth Ann Bartlett, Liberty, Equality, Sorority: The Origins and Interpretation of U.S. Feminist Thought: Frances Wright, Sarah Grimke, and (Brooklyn, NY: Carlson Publishing, Inc., 1994); DeFiore, 209. 97 DeFiore, 202. 98 Varon, 96. 99 Young, "Women's Place in American Politics,” 320. 100 DeFiore claims that women participated in rallies because they were formatted like the revival meetings of the Second Great Awakening. When this changed, they lost their ability to participate, DeFiore, 209-210. 101 Dinkin, 37. 102 Dinkin, 39. 103 Dinkin, 44-45. 104 Nichols delivered more than 50 stump speeches in 1856. See Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 29; Dinkin, 45. 105 Dinkin, 43-44. 106 Dinkin, 46. 107 Dinkin, 50. 108 Mari Jo Buhle, Women and U.S. Socialism, 1870-1920 (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1981), 50. 109 Dinkin, 65. 110 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 29. 111 Buhle, 50. 112 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 35. 113 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 40. 114 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 40. 115 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 40. 116 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 40. 117 Edwards, 101. 118 Dinkin, 89. 119 Dinkin, 90. 120 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 36. 121 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 92. 122 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 96. 123 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 29. 124 Melanie Gustafson, "Partisan Women in the Progressive Era: The Struggle for Inclusion in American Political Parties," in Unequal Sisters: A Multicultural Reader in U.S. Women's History, ed. Vicki L. Ruiz and Ellen Carol DuBois (New York, NY: Routledge, 2000), 244. 125 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 34. 126 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 30. 127 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 43. 128 Dinkin, 87. 129 Dinkin, 67. 130 Dinkin, 73. 131 Anthony and Harper, 435. 132 Dinkin, 78. 133 Dinkin, 64. 134 Gustafson, “Partisan Women in the Progressive Era,” 243. 135 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 36. 136 Dinkin, 107. Introduction 54

137 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 37. 138 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 37. 139 Dinkin, 97. 140 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 38. 141 Dinkin, 97. 142 Dinkin, 99. 143 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 36. 144 Gustafson, "Partisan Women in the Progressive Era,” 245. 145 A 1910 law in Colorado that required there to be equal numbers of men and women on committees of major political parties, to be selected by open primaries, and that required each committee at the county and municipal level to have a woman as either chair or vice chair, brought Democratic women into politics in a significant way. Women had been able to vote since 1894, and the requirement that women participate equally in political parties gave them an advantage. This provided leadership and office-holding opportunities. According to Muncy, “the Democratic Party hierarchy granted its imprimatur to more female candidates than did the Progressive Party.” Some more progressive members of the Colorado Democratic party formed a committee separate from the main state party to decide primary candidates in 1912, and five of the 11 members were women. The committee proposed Helen King Robinson for state senator, recommended five women for state representatives, and collected enough petition signatures to put all of those women on the state ballot. In addition, a side group pressured mainstream Democrats to put women up for nomination as well, and the Democratic Party nominated six more women for state representatives. In the end, 26% of the candidates nominated for office were women, including Katherine Williamson as a candidate for U.S. Representative, Robyn Muncy, “‘Women Demand Recognition’: Women Candidates in Colorado’s Election of 1912.” We Have Come to Stay: American Women and Political Parties: 1880-1960 ed. Melanie Gustafson, Kristie Miller, Elisabeth I. Perry (Albuquerque, NM: The University of New Mexico Press 1999), 45-50. 146 Women’s limited participation in the Socialist Party began primarily in the 1870s among German- American women. Mari Jo Buhle describes German-American Socialist thought as “rich in genuine idealism yet rooted in the common people’s struggle for existence.” See Buhle, 5. Women’s involvement began in auxiliary groups that planned events, participated in rallies, and educated communities on socialist thought. Many viewed the Socialist movement as the way to fight for women’s equal wage, and women’s auxiliaries began to adapt themselves to women in the industrial workforce. The Frauenbund (the women’s federation) was created in New York in 1883, and was the first political women’s sector in the Socialist movement. Women soon began to see the potential of the Socialist movement. Female socialist speakers such as Martha Moore Avery, who joined the Socialist Labor Party in Boston, drew large crowds and gained national attention. The head of the WCTU in Iowa was Marion Howard Dunham, who joined the Socialists and served as Midwest coordinator for Socialist women’s clubs. In addition, Josephine Conger became the leading editor of the Socialist women’s movement, and encouraged women to participate through sending letters to the socialist press, and working with their sisters in the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Corinne Stubbs Brown, Elizabeth H. Thomas, Carrie Rand Herron, and five others were eight of the 128 delegates at the founding meeting of the Socialist Party of America in 1901 in Indianapolis. See Buhle. 147 Buhle, 147, 150. 148 Buhle, 150. 149 Anna Maley from Minnesota became an intellectual and a platform speaker, embarking on a lecture tour in 1910. Maley also convinced the party to increase the WNC from five to seven members, gained a headquarters and a secretary, and direct access to the treasury. In 1911, Caroline Lowe took over the WNC and encouraged the growth of its educational services. Lena Morrow Lewis was considered the “most prominent woman in the national Socialist party,” and was the first woman appointed to the National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party. Lewis was a member of the WNC, the WCTU, NAWSA, and became a dramatic street-speaker, infamously using “soapbox agitation.” While the WNC and other Socialist women became leaders in the party, many abandoned electoral projects to organize and assist labor unrest, strikes, and woman suffrage between 1909-1920. See Buhle, 152-162. 150 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 75. 151 Gustafson, “Partisan Women in the Progressive Era,” 246. Introduction 55

152 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 48. 153 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 21, 47. 154 Gustafson, “Partisan Women in the Progressive Era,” 247. 155 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 70. 156 Gustafson, “Partisan Women in the Progressive Era,” 247. 157 Gustafson, “Partisan Women in the Progressive Era,” 242. 158 Freeman, A Room at a Time, Jane Addams was a key player in the Progressive Party. Addams had devoted her career to improving the lives of working class women and providing them with the education and resources necessary to participate in public life. This can be in her creation of Hull House and subsequent leadership in the settlement house movement of the late 19th and early 20th century. Addams became engaged in partisan politics precisely to continue her agenda, believing that indirect partisan affiliation could not advance reform movements. She firmly believed that women could only influence policy through involvement, which led to her advocacy for partisanship and active participation in the suffrage movement. Jane Addams traveled to campaign in 1912, and even had the honor of seconding Roosevelt’s nomination and delivering a speech to the Progressive Party’s national convention. See Victoria Bissell Brown, "Jane Addams, Progressivism, and Woman Suffrage: An Introduction to Why Women Should Vote," in One Woman, One Vote: Rediscovering the Woman Suffrage Movement, ed. Marjorie Spruill Wheeler, 183 (Troutdale, OR: NewSage Press, 1995); Louise W. Knight, Citizen: Jane Addams and the Struggle for Democracy (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2005); Freeman, 72; Gustafson, “Partisan Women in the Progressive Era,” 247-249. 159 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 71. 160 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 76. 161 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 76; For a more detailed account of the Women’s Committee and the Hughes Train, see Molly M. Wood, "Mapping a National Campaign Strategy: Partisan Women in the Presidential Election of 1916," in We Have Come to Stay: American Women in Political Parties 1880- 1960, ed. Melanie Gustafson, Kristie Miller and Elisabeth I. Perry, 77-86 (Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1999). 162 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 78. 163 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 80. 164 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 80. 165 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 39. 166 Clara Munson was elected mayor of Warrenton, in 1913 as a member of the Citizens Party. In 1915, Socialist Jessie Wallace Hughan ran for Alderman of , Secretary of State in 1918, and Lieutenant Governor of New York in 1920. Stella Blanchard ran for Congress from California’s Eleventh District in 1914. Anne Martin became the first woman to run for U.S. Senate in 1918, campaigning for a seat from Nevada. For a list of women who ran for political office before 1920, see Her Hat was in the Ring!: U.S. Women Who Ran for Political Office Before 1920, 2010, http://www.swarthmore.edu/library/peace/wchmiel1/women%20in%20politics/Party%20Affiiliation.htm (accessed March 1, 2010). 167 Alice Donaldson, "Women Emerge as Political Speakers," Speech Monographs 18, no. 1 (March 1951): 54. 168 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 27. 169 Denise Baer “Political Parties: The Missing Variable in Women and Politics Research,” Political Research Quarterly 46.3 (Sep, 1993): 547-576. 170 Baer, 559. 171 For scholarship on contemporary political campaigns and the representation of women in the political science disciplines see Barbara C. Burrell, A Woman’s Place Is in the House: Campaigning for Congress in the Feminist Era (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1996) and R. Darcy, Susan Welch, and Janet Clark, Women, Elections, and Representation (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1994). 172 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 9. 173 Dinkin’s book Before Equal Suffrage: Women in Partisan Politics from Colonial Times to 1920 focuses on the long nineteenth century. Rosemarie Zagarri, Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Early American Republic (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007) focuses on the early nineteenth century. Edwards’ book Angels in the Machinery: Gender in American Party Politics from the Introduction 56

Civil War to the Progressive Era focuses on the later half of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the 20th century. 174 Baker, “The Domestication of Politics”; Baker, The Moral Frameworks of Public Life. 175 See Gustafson, Melanie. “Partisan Women in the Progressive Era: The Struggle for Inclusion in American Political Parties”; Elsa Barkley Brown, “Negotiating and Transforming the Public Sphere: African American Political Life in the Transition from Slavery to Freedom,” Public Culture 7 (1994): 107- 146; Christopher Olsen, “Respecting ‘The Wise Allotment of Our Sphere’: White Women and Politics in Mississippi, 1840-1860.” Journal of Women’s History 11.3 (1999): 104-125; Zboray, Ronald T. and Mary Saracino Zboray. “Whig Women, Politics, and Culture in the Campaign of 1840: Three Perspectives from Massachusetts.” Journal of the Early Republic 17.2 (Summer 1997): 277-315; Boylan, 363-382; Varon; DeFiore; 176 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 22. 177 Stacy A. Cordery, “Women in Industrializing America,” The Gilded Age: Perspectives on the Origins of Mondern America 2nd Edition, ed. Charles W. Calhoun (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2007): 137. 178 Zboray and Zboray, Voices Without Votes; Varon, 179 Iris M. Young, "Gender as Seriality: Thinking About Women as Social Collective"," Signs 19 (Spring 1994): 713-738. 180 Young, "Gender as Seriality”, 724. Young is referencing Jean-Paul Sartre’s concept of “seriality” from his 1976 Critique of Dialectical Reason. Sartre uses people waiting for a bus as an example of a series. They are related to one another insofar as they are all waiting for a “material object” (the bus), but all have different identities, experiences, and goals (724-725). 181 Young, "Gender as Seriality”, 724. 182 Young, "Gender as Seriality”, 732-733. 183 Gustafson, Miller, and Perry, “Introduction,” x. 184 Young, "Gender as Seriality”, 730. 185 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 3. 186 William C. Trapani, “Materiality’s Time: Rethinking the Event from the Derridean esprit d’a-propos,” Rhetoric, Materiality, & Politics ed. Barbara Beisecker and John Lucaites (New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, 2009): 341. See also Sharon Crowley and Debra Hawhee, Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students 4th Edition (New York, NY: Pearson Longman, 2008). 187 Gustafson, Miller, and Perry, “Introduction,” x. 188 Carol M. Laperle, “Rhetorical Situationality: Alice Arden’s Kairotic Effect in The Tragedy of Master Arden of Faversham,” Women’s Studies 39 (2010): 177. 189 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 37. 190 Ronald Walter Greene, “Rhetorical Agency as Communicative Labor,” Philosophy and Rhetoric 37.3 (2004): 188. 191 Leff, “Tradition and Agency in Humanistic Rhetoric,” 135. 192 Karlyn Kohrs Campbell, “Agency: Promiscuous and Protean,” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 2.1 (2005): 3. 193 See Dilip Gaonkar, “The idea of rhetoric in the rhetoric of science,” Rhetorical hermeneutics: invention and interpretation in the age of science ed. A.G Gross & W.M. Keath (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997): 25-85. 194 Casey Kelly, “Women’s Rhetorical Agency in the American West: The New Penelope,” Women’s Studies in Communication 32.2 (2009): 210. 195 Cited in Geisler, 10. 196 Campbell, “Agency: Promiscuous and Protean,” 3. 197 Kelly, 210. 198 John Logie qtd. in Cheryl Geisler, “How Ought We to Understand the Concept of Rhetorical Agency? Report from the ARS,” Rhetoric Society Quarterly 34.3 (2004): 14. 199 Freeman, We Will Be Heard, 1. 200 Gustafson, “Partisan Women in the Progressive Era,” 243. 201 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 8. 202 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 8. Introduction 57

203 Douglas Walton, “Enthymemes, Common Knowledge, and Plausible Inference,” Philosophy and Rhetoric 34.2 (2001): 96. 204 Gustafson, Miller, and Perry, “Introduction,” xiii. 205 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 103. 206 Carol Mattingly, “Telling Evidence: Rethinking What Counts in Rhetoric,” Rhetoric Society Quarterly 32.1 (2002): 106. 207 Michael Lewis Goldberg, An Army of Women: Gender and Politics in Gilded Age Kansas (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997), 178-179. 208 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 8. See also Lebsock, 35-41; Dow, “Frances E. Willard.” 209 Lebsock, 35. 210 Lori Ginzberg, Women and the Work of Benevolence: Morality, Politics, and Class in the 19th-Century United States (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990), 17. 211 Gustafson, “Partisan Women in the Progressive Era,” 244; Willard formed her own political party called the “Home Protection Party” in 1881. The Home Protection Party merged with the Prohibition Party in 1882, Freeman, A Room at a Time, 34. 212 Edwards, “Gender, Class, and the Transformation of Electoral Campaigns,” 14. 213 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 43. 214 Gustafson, “Partisan and Nonpartisan,” 4. 215 Gustafson, “Partisan and Nonpartisan,” 3. 216 Gustafson, “Partisan and Nonpartisan,” 3. 217 Gustafson, "Partisan and Nonpartisan,” 7. 218 Gustafson, “Partisan Women in the Progressive Era,” 245. 219 Freeman, 35. 220 Gustafson, 7. 221 Dinkin, 96. 222 James Jasinski “The Feminization of Liberty, Domesticated Virtue, and the Reconstitution of Power and Authority in Early American Political Discourse,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 79.2 (1993): 155. 223 Belva A. Lockwood, "How I Ran for the Presidency," National Magazine, March 1903: 729. 224 Lockwood, "How I Ran for the Presidency," 728-733; Dinkin, 73.. 225 John Bodnar, Remaking America: Public Memory, Commemoration, and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992), 15. 226 Gustafson, Miller, and Perry, “Introduction,” x. 227 Gustafson, Miller, and Perry, “Introduction,” x. 228 David Zarefsky, "Four Senses of Rhetorical History," in Doing Rhetorical History: Concepts and Cases, ed. Kathleen Turner, 19-32 (Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 1998). 229 Kathleen Turner, “Rhetorical History as Social Construction: The Challenge and the Promise.” Doing Rhetorical History: Concepts and Cases (Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 1998: 2. 230 Gustafson, Miller, and Perry, “Introduction,” xi. 231 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 67. 232 Barbie Zelizer, “Reading the Past Against the Grain: The Shape of Memory Studies,” Critical Studies in Mass Communication 12 (June 1995): 226. 233 Maurice Halbwachs, On Collective Memory Ed. Lewis Coser (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992). Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 58

“Take a firm hold of the plow of progress and hang on…” ~Mary Elizabeth Lease1

Chapter Two: Mary Elizabeth Lease, The Feminized Populist

The Minneapolis Tribune reported in 1894: “Mrs. Lease is the first woman in

American politics. The Anthonys, the Willards and the Stantons have only tried to annex woman’s world to politics. Mrs. Lease is mixing up with man politics and acting like a woman.”2 Mary Elizabeth Lease’s unprecedented effort to participate in the “male” sphere of public politics while maintaining her femininity was even recognized by her contemporaries. Rather than work in organizations outside of the mainstream political process, Lease charged into a partisan world where women were marginalized. Because women’s participation in party politics was not integral to electoral success, they were deemed unimportant and unwanted. Lease contested this view, working within the burgeoning world of third-party politics to confront issues common to all underrepresented groups. Capitalizing on the opportunity to form and lead a new political party, Lease attempted to work within the existing political system to bring about change.

As a result, she became a well-known national public figure and one of the Populist

Party’s most famous orators of the late nineteenth century.

As a leader of the Populist Party, a labor organizer, a member of the Woman’s

Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), and a woman suffragist, Lease created a rhetoric that spoke to all “underrepresented” groups. Her message to this diverse audience was about the meaning of political representation, citizenship, and patriotism. Through an examination of several speeches delivered from 1888 to 1896 in different contexts, one Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 59 can see that Lease’s rhetoric was an expression of traditional feminine behavior.

By highlighting her persona as a moral and religious leader and domestic political guide,

Lease’s message emphasized progressing toward the common goal of equality. Lease did not just balance these personae; she also merged them to justify political citizenship in order to legitimize her presence in party politics. Specifically, Lease referenced traditionally feminine norms of behavior to become an ideal Populist Party representative. She successfully combined gendered behavioral expectations with the traditional arguments of the Populist Party. Accordingly, Lease became the ideal Populist spokesperson, and she helped to define the rhetorical patterns of the People’s Party itself.

Her assertion of her prescribed gender role gave her ethos as a Populist. Through her interpretation of socially prescribed feminine behavior, Lease argued that fundamental human progress relied on pride in one’s values and value as a citizen.

In a speech given in 1896 to the Wichita Woman Suffrage Association, Lease said that she, “felt proud to stand before an assemblage of women who had the moral courage to take a stand for their rights…”3 Her emphasis on woman’s moral leadership in her capacity as Populist spokesperson makes her rhetoric politically significant. Brooke

Speer Orr argues that Lease “used the concepts of female civic duty and women’s presumed ‘moral authority’ to enter the public sphere, but once there she adopted traditionally masculine political styles.”4 I argue that Lease pushed the norms of female political participation in what might have been considered a “masculine” oratorical style, but used “feminine” argumentative forms. In other words, Lease adopted what Orr considers “masculine” style such as speaking in public, debating, campaigning, and confronting her opponents verbally.5 What is perhaps more significant, though, was Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 60 Lease’s construction of a persona that was simultaneously feminine and acceptable as a political party spokesperson, a markedly masculine role.

Lease’s rhetoric ultimately was about power. Throughout most of the nineteenth century, partisanship defined male political involvement.6 Political parties were the center of public political activity in most communities, acting as the center of entertainment, social life, and culture for men. In addition, party loyalty was of primary concern for politically involved males, and straying from one’s party was unthinkable.7 Because men were defined by their party, married women were not independent of their husband’s political identity. Lease was able to circumvent this difficulty by rhetorically combining

Populist Party and woman’s rights appeals. She made partisanship a mark of principle, not a mark of gender. By acting as a party spokesperson who embodied ideal

“womanhood,” Lease turned partisan politics into a debate about issues rather than party, a conversation about representation and citizenship, instead of partisanship and loyalty.

As Lease said, “If you men will vote for principle once and quit voting for party, the victory will be ours.”8

Lease and the Populist Party

Scholarship on Lease is limited. She is mentioned in narratives about the Populist

Party, but only as a popular speaker. Little has been published on her background, and even less on her rhetorical significance beyond her perceived notoriety. Richard Stiller wrote a novelistic portrayal of Lease’s career, and James Costigan and Betty Lou Taylor wrote M.A. Theses on her life.9 The most extensive rhetorical treatments of Lease’s career are those of Orr and Thomas Burkholder, both of whom analyze Lease’s rhetorical abilities. As Orr writes, “An investigation of how and why Lease moved into overtly Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 61 public activities at a time when women’s access to public political realms was severely limited reveals how women’s status was changing during this dynamic period.”10 I suggest that her career reveals not only gender dynamics, but also shifts in party influence and leadership. It is not just Lease’s participation in the “male” sphere of party politics that is important, but that she used femininity to build an ethos as a Populist

Party leader.

Mary Elizabeth Clyens was born the sixth of eight children to Joseph and Mary

Elizabeth Murray Clyens on September 11, 1850, in Ridgeway, PA.11 She was influenced by radical political tendencies at an early age, as her parents had been exiled from Ireland because of their activist work against the Penal Code of England.12 Her father was an outspoken Irish activist who campaigned unsuccessfully against local British landowners as an impoverished farmer during the Irish Potato Famine. Joseph Clyens reportedly attempted to lead a revolt, but local authorities learned of his plans and set out to arrest him, forcing him and his family to flee to the United States.13 He later died a prisoner of war in Andersonville, the notorious Confederate Civil War prison.14 Lease also had unusual access to advanced education. Her mother was a linguist and worked hard to educate her children, teaching them to read Latin, Greek, and French. Clyens attended school at Olear, PA, and then St. Elizabeth’s Academy in Allegany, NY, where she received a teaching certificate at the age of 15.15 She first taught at a school near Ceres,

PA, and later at St. Ann’s Academy for girls in Osage Mission, Kansas, from 1871 to

1873.16

She married local drugstore owner Charles A. Lease on January 30, 1873.17

Financial hardships during the depression of 1873 forced them to move to Denison, TX, Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 62 where Lease worked as a laundress and her husband as a drugstore clerk.18 In

1874, she was asked to join the WCTU of Texas by Sarah Acheson, who was the wife of

Charles’ employer. Her first public speaking experience was at one of these meetings.19

By 1884, the Leases moved to Kingman County, KS. Over the course of 11 years, Lease gave birth to five children, two of whom died before the age of 1.20 She told an interviewer with the Denison Sunday Gazetteer that she would do housework while reading a newspaper article pinned to the wall so that she “might waste no time in digesting its contents.”21 While living in Kingman County, she wrote an article for the local newspaper called “Are Women Inferior?”22 She also continued to pursue intellectual growth by forming the “Hypatia Club,” a group of women “dedicated to intellectual improvement.”23

She began to study law in 1884 under the guidance of the law firm Eby and

McMacon, and passed the Kansas Bar in 1885.24 Soon after, Lease became involved in several local activist organizations. In addition to involvement in the WCTU, Lease became a member of the Knights of Labor. By 1886, the Knights of Labor had organized more than 250 local assemblies, including five in Wichita. Lease joined No. 3306 and served as “general and district organizer,” and was even named “Master Workman” in recognition of her work.25 In 1888, she became editor of a reform paper called The

Wichita Independent. As an active woman suffragist, she helped organize the Wichita

Equal Suffrage Association and traveled the country to speak about women’s equality issues.26 Famed suffragist Susan B. Anthony said of her: “Mrs. Lease is a splendid agitator. She is a magnificent intellect and a tremendous factor in the movement.”27 Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 63 Lease’s political career blossomed in Kansas, which was a hotbed of political activity in the nineteenth century. According to Raymond Miller’s landmark article on the history of Populism, between 1880 and 1885, the population increased by a third and the value of property doubled.28 Miller attributed this to the potential for prosperity because of the high prices of wheat and corn and the expansion of railroads.

The production of wheat and corn, though, would soon lead to a declining economy. In fact, Kansas was primarily a wheat-producing region in the 1870s, but the production of corn became profitable and took over as the primary product of the state in the early

1880s, which caused the prices to drop. Populist officials in Kansas claimed that farmers lost over $235 million between 1884 and 1894.29 In addition, industrial production in the

Northeast was booming. According to Ecroyd, “Between 1860 and the early 1900s the rapid growth of industry left the farmers and miners of the West and South feeling they were in a colonial relationship to the East. As the fortunes of industry climbed, the fortunes of agriculture fell.”30

Politically, Kansas was a stronghold for the Republican Party until the economic crisis of the 1880s, when the Union Labor Party and the Farmers’ Alliance materialized.31

The Farmers’ Alliance was an officially nonpartisan organization formed in Texas in

1877. The Alliance began as a conglomeration of farmers formed to figure out how best to deal with the crop-lien system.32 The Alliance encouraged farmers to act together for their common interests. Throughout the early 1880s, several small Alliances appeared throughout the South and Midwest. According to Edwards, “Decades before Populism, agricultural societies like the Grange had built a tradition of civic cooperation among rural men and women that later extended to partisan politics.”33 Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 64 Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats demonstrated much public interest in the problems of farmers and laborers. Thus, a door was open for a party willing to represent those groups.34 In the fall of 1889, Alliance members, former Union Labor

Party members, and others held a “People’s convention” in Cowley County, Kansas.

There, they announced that their public support would only be given to candidates who pledged to legislate “in favor of the producing classes.”35 In December of 1889, the

Northern Alliance and the Southern Alliance held separate meetings in St. Louis, MO, and drafted a platform “proposing new federal interventions in the economy.”36 The

Farmers’ Alliance thus became a political organization, and their first action was a successful campaign to remove Kansas Senator John J. Ingalls. Lease was one of the most prominent speakers in that campaign.37

In the early 1890s, The Populist Party united the Farmers’ cause with the Labor movement.38 According to Orr, the Populist Party aimed “to politically and economically empower farmers and workers and challenge the corporate, financial, and political elites.”39 As a result, membership in the Party consisted of reformers from different groups, including farmers, laborers, unionists, prohibitionists, woman suffragists, and others.40 According to Edwards, “Populists believed that Republicans’ printing of paper money…followed by return to the , had contracted the nation’s currency and caused widespread poverty and unemployment.”41 Populists also believed that society was adversely affected economically by uneven wealth distribution and the exploitation of the working class.42 Burkholder writes, “Convinced that the old political parties were ‘in cahoots’ with the Eastern ‘money powers,’ Kansas Populists sought to remove their representatives from office and replace them with representatives of ‘the Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 65 people.’”43 Kansas became the center of Populist activism. As Ecroyd writes,

“Kansas was the hotbed of Populism as a political movement….the source of the movement’s greatest strength, and the scene of its greatest triumphs.”44 By 1892, the

People’s Party launched a national platform, held a convention, and nominated a candidate for President of the United States. General James B. Weaver polled over one million votes in the 1892 presidential election, including 22 electoral college votes from

Kansas, Colorado, Idaho, and Nevada.45

Because Populism began in the West, it was more open to the inclusion of women, perhaps because men and women were integral parts of frontier life. As Margaret

Walsh writes, “Women and men were dependent on each other for reproduction, within the home, in daily work patterns and in the connections which built local society.

Relationships between women and men were more important than individualistic achievements by either women or men.”46 Women had a more prominent place in public life, and the Populist Party embraced women as important figures in the political process.

In fact, Sara E.V. Emery was one of the first members of the Union Labor Party to call publicly for financial reforms in 1888, just prior to the formation of the Populist Party.

The Union Labor Party distributed a pamphlet written by Emery called “Seven Financial

Conspiracies Which Have Enslaved the American People.” It was circulated for almost ten years, and over 400,000 copies were printed, “making it a strong candidate for being the single most widely read of all Populist works.”47 Women also frequently participated in meetings and edited newspapers.48

Women played key roles in the creation of the Populist Party from the Alliance.

Kansas-native Annie Diggs lobbied at a variety of Farmers’ Alliance conventions and Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 66 helped launch the Populist Party.49 According to an article in the Kansas City

Times in 1894, “The Populists are great believers in the force of women in politics.”50 As

Lease claimed in her 1891 speech to the WCTU,

The farmers and laborers could not well exclude their mothers, wives and

daughters, the patient burden bearers of the home, who had been their faithful

companions, their tried friends and trusted counselors through long, weary years

of poverty and toil. Hence the doors of the Farmers’ Alliance were thrown open

wide to the women of the land. They were invited into full membership, with all

the privileges of promotion; actually recognized and treated as human beings.51

Middle-class populist women saw themselves as speaking for poor farming women, and played an active role.52 The Knights of Labor also hired many prominent

Populist women as lecturers. Sue Ross Keenan of Oregon, Emma DeVoe of Illinois, and

Eva Valesh of Minnesota all lectured within their various regions.53 Fannie McCormick of Kansas edited a Populist newspaper and ran for state school superintendent. In addition, women from Kansas, Iowa, South Dakota, Missouri, California, and Arkansas were delegates to the 1892 national convention.54 The Populists nominated Ella Knowles for Attorney General in Montana, the first female state school superintendent in North

Dakota was a Populist, and Evangeline Heartz won a seat as a Populist to the state legislature in Colorado.55 In fact, women were involved that the Party ridiculed.

According to Edwards, “Opponents nonetheless ridiculed the party for advocating women’s rights because its women held power as decision makers….Republicans implied that women’s power rendered the new party shrill and irresponsible.”56 Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 67 The difference between Western and Southern populists lay in the involvement of women in their organizations. Like other parties in the South, southern white populists were less apt to involve women in their day-to-day activities or in their messages. Although southern women were less active in party activities, some southern men recognized the importance of including women because of their potential influence over their husbands, and occasionally invited white and black women to their rallies.57

Rebecca Felton was the only southern woman who was renowned as a speaker, and she emphasized the need for women to have an independent income and for husbands to help their farmer wives.58

Lease was the most renowned female Populist in the nation.59 In June of 1886,

Lease was invited to speak to two meetings of the Farmers’ Alliance in Harper County,

KS. That she had lived on a farm near Kingman for a short time entitled her to membership. Because the Alliance did not admit professionals, she only gained admittance to the Farmers’ Alliance by proving she had never taken a fee as a lawyer.60

She was a stump speaker for the Union Labor Party in 1888, including speaking at the

1888 Union Labor Party state convention. Although the Union Labor Party was not recognized nationally and soon vanished,61 Lease became a popular and sought after speaker for the new Populist Party.62

Lease delivered over 160 speeches during the 1890 campaign season. Lease was lauded as a capable and eloquent orator, and she was considered one of Populism’s “most potent” speakers.63 Although she is historically famous for the phrase “raise less corn and more hell,” there is now doubt among historians as to whether she actually uttered that phrase.64 One of the earliest historians of Populism, O. Gene Clanton, called Lease the Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 68 “stem-widening prophetess of Kansas Populism.”65 She was recognized as a primary reason that Senator Ingalls was defeated in 1891, which brought national fame.

As the Kansas Historical Society claims, when Lease joined the campaign, she traveled

“hundreds of miles by stagecoach crisscrossing Kansas. It was at a county convention that Lease proposed the list of candidates should rightly be called the ‘party of the people.’ Two months later, Lease gave the opening address at the state convention of the

People’s Party in Topeka.”66

Lease was described as being almost six feet tall and having a “contralto voice.”67

A reporter from the Salina Daily Republican on Dec. 19, 1893 wrote that her voice was

“remarkably loud” and “capable of much expression.”68 She spoke twice in 1891 at the triennial convention of the National Council of Women in Washington D.C. on “Women in the Farmers’ Alliance.”69 In April of 1891, Lease went on a two-week speaking tour in

Missouri. In June of 1891, she spoke to a crowd of 1500 at the local anniversary celebration of the Knights of Labor.70 In August of 1891, she headlined as the “Modern

Joan of Arc,” delivering four lectures at Chautauqua in Lithia Springs, just outside of

Atlanta. In addition, she was the first woman to address the Georgia State Legislature.71

Throughout her career she was also considered by the Populist Party as a candidate for the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House, the Kansas governorship, and other offices. Her supporters seriously considered her candidacy, as evidenced in The Wichita Eagle: “Mrs.

Lease is a forcible woman of much more ability than the average legislator elected, regardless of party”72 On the other hand, her critics made statements like the following:

“Lease’s female ‘nervous system’ could not endure the trials of legislating, which were Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 69 ‘not encountered in housekeeping.’”73 Lease rejected to being put on the ballot as a candidate and only served as a party spokesperson.

She was also one of five delegates at large to represent Kansas at the 1892

Populist Party convention.74 The Arkansas Gazette even attributed Alliance political victories in November of 1890 to Lease and her “army of Kansas women of like spirit.”75After the convention, Lease traveled with presidential candidate General James

Weaver across the West and the South. She spoke at almost every campaign event, often speaking up to eight times per day and in front of audiences of several thousand.76

According to fellow Populist Annie Diggs, General Weaver would often introduce Lease as “our Queen Mary.”77 She also had several other speaking engagements in 1892, including lecturing for the Y.W.C.A. in Iowa, at the Women’s League and Women’s

Industrial League Congress, and on “Issues of the Time” at Peerless Hall in Wichita.78

Her speaking style was natural and passionate. She delivered strongly argued and well- prepared speeches, often speaking extemporaneously.79 Her obituary in the New York

Times stated that she had a resounding voice and a knack for forceful phraseology that carried conviction and enthusiasm.”80 As Clanton writes, Lease “had that special something that made her a magnetic orator.”81 A pamphlet written by the Kansas

Historical Society even dubs her “the voice of the Populist Party.”82

As a prominent member of the Populist Party, Lease was appointed President of the Kansas State Board of Charities in 1893. Her tenure was short-lived, however, because of a public disagreement with Kansas Populist Governor Lorenzo D. Lewelling, who had been elected in 1892. Lease was concerned about the trend of fusion between the Populists and Democrats that existed in local elections in November of 1893, and Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 70 spoke out against the “corrupt” men in the Party who took advantage of that political position. Her opponents accused her of being upset that Lewelling had attempted to appoint a non-Populist as a member of the Board of Charities. Lewelling attempted to have her removed from office that year, but she filed a petition in the Kansas Supreme

Court. The Supreme Court forced her reappointment in February of 1894, but this led to the beginning of her dissatisfaction within the Populist Party.83 During the 1894 campaign, the party split into so-called fusionists and anti-fusionists. The Populist Party was active until it merged with the Democratic Party in 1896.84

Lease is a unique female figure from the Gilded Age because she conflated the argumentative styles of two political spheres. On the one hand, she acted as a mouthpiece for the Populist Party through the use of arguments common to party rhetoric of the time.

In speeches at both Populist Party events and in her capacity as a woman’s rights activist,

Lease used religious imagery, morality, agrarian principles, and civic duty to be persuasive, all of which were cited as prevalent throughout Populist discourse. On the other hand, Lease spoke distinctively as a female leader continuing a female tradition.

She persuaded her audiences to accept her arguments not only because she was a

Populist, but also because she was a woman. Acting as a religious, moral, and patriotic authority allowed Lease to participate in party rhetoric in an even more legitimate way in her capacity as a female politician. In fact, her womanhood made her the ideal Populist speaker. This, in turn, legitimized both Populist argument and her place as a female in the

“male” sphere of politics.

Religious and Moral Guide Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 71 Women were considered to be the moral compass of society, which stems from, some argue, the history of the relationship between women and religion.

Women’s political participation began as early as , who offered sermons in her community asserting her religious beliefs, even when the political elite ordered her to cease and eventually expelled her from the Massachusetts colony.85 This public participation through religious means led Quaker women to serve as ministers and leaders in their local communities in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Many of the early women’s rights leaders like Lucretia Coffin Mott, Susan B. Anthony and the Grimké sisters were Quakers.86 Edwards writes that discourse of the time suggests that U.S. society believed that women were more spiritual and moral than men. Thus, “this ideology of female moral superiority offered a rationale for women’s involvement in a host of reform activities, and it quickly led them into politics.”87

Although it was common for the Populists to use religious appeals in their oratory, Lease’s use of biblical allusion was distinctive. Lease adopted a prophetic persona, acting as a religious guide who could lead people toward future righteousness.

In addition, she did so through references to the use of biblical prophets. Her use of religious appeals was significant because it recalled for the audience a distinctly female form of argumentation. Lease was proving not only that she could toe the party line by using popular Populist appeals. Through use of religious allusions and the Bible as a text,

Lease did more than use “acceptable” feminine argument forms. Acting as a religious guide, or prophet, made her political voice acceptable in traditionally male space.88

According to Amos Kiewe, prophetic rhetoric is “addressed to audiences with the specific objective of influencing people to take a different course of action,” and is Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 72 always “action oriented.”89 Further, her interpretive use of the Bible conjured trust from her audience because of her womanly religious authority, giving her even more ethos as a Populist speaker.

The use of revivalist style, biblical allusions and metaphors, and modern approaches to religious doctrine were considered commonplace in Populist oratory.90

Some historians even describe Populist rhetoric as having an “evangelical political impulse,” claiming that party spokespersons often attempted to elevate U.S. society to higher moral ground.91 Populist campaign meetings often resembled the religious revivals of the antebellum period, consisting of large outdoor gatherings of families and impassioned oratory.92 As Edwards writes, “Christian imagery pervaded party rhetoric.”93

Lease’s speaking style certainly had an “evangelical fervor.”94 Orr writes, “Her speeches more closely resembled religious revival oratory than any sort of constrained academic, political language, prompting her opponents to mock that she encouraged chaos and

‘hollering crowds.’”95

Lease exemplified the Populist revivalist style in most of her speeches. She often used biblical authority as the basis for an argumentative appeal, specifically through a

“prophetic logos.” This rhetorical style is based on the idea that “God invents” and the prophet “delivers” a particular message.96 A few key examples from Lease’s Populist and woman’s rights speeches showcase this pervasive rhetorical strategy. In a speech she delivered at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago as a representative for the

Populist government of Kansas, she said, “From Kansas shall come the fulfillment of scripture. Up from her plains, baptized with the blood of martyrs, shall come the prophet

Ezekiel’s vision, that breathing upon the dry bones of the world’s oppressed will clothe Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 73 them with new life, resurrecting the wisdom of the seers, the justice of Christ, and all humanity will enjoy that liberty which the winds of Kansas forever play on

Aeolian harps…”97 Lease spoke in a prophetic way, framing Kansas as the holy place of the future. For Lease, Kansas was the land that was living by God’s plan and would continue to live righteously. Through vivid imagery and references to prophets, Christ, and the ancient Greek God of the Winds (the Aeolian harps), Lease presented the

Populist Party as the guiding voice of Christianity. She also presented herself as the prophet who could speak God’s vision through reference to the prophet Ezekiel.

Lease also used a prophetic appeal through the use of ancient prophets in her 1891 speech to the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). Lease proclaimed that the

Populists were “sending out the gladdest message to oppressed humanity that the world has heard since John the Baptist came preaching in the Wilderness … The movement among the masses today is an echo of the life of Jesus of Nazareth, an honest endeavor on the part of the people to put into practical operation the basic principles of Christianity.”98

She continued, “let no one for a moment believe that this uprising and federation of the people is but a passing episode in politics. It is a religious as well as a political movement, for we seek to put into practical operation the teachings and precepts of Jesus of Nazareth.”99 She made reference to the Old Testament as well when she said, “But we shall have the golden age of which Isaiah sang and the prophets have so long foretold; when the farmers shall be prosperous and happy, dwelling under their own vine and fig tree.”100 All of these references emphasize individuality, spirituality, and safety. Through biblical allusions, Lease spoke as the Populist voice of “the people,” encouraging faith, guidance, unity, and strength. Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 74 Significantly, she acted with what Woodyard calls “prophetic pathos,” a rhetorical move when “the prophet calls for a fundamental reordering of the audience’s value system as a means to alleviate social injustice and replicate the natural ordering of creation.”101 Whether referencing John the Baptist or Jesus of Nazareth, Lease called upon biblical texts to encourage a future that was simultaneously new and traditional. She spoke of advancing forward to a new era that replicated the values of the teachings of

Jesus. Lease acted as the voice of this movement, as a religious guide or prophet who could see the future, through the use of biblical texts. For Lease and the Populists, their new third party was the rightful voice of common citizens, and could represent them faithfully and virtuously because of its adherence to these religious .

Lease was able to advocate Populist principles as a religious authority, a role that was considered socially acceptable for women to adopt. In her speech at the 1890

Populist convention, Lease promoted unity, while guiding a moral community. She said,

“”Let us unite prohibitionists and resubmissionists, republicans, and democrats, to stamp out this unholy monster, the money power. Let our motto be more money and less misery.”102 By using inclusive language like “us” and “our,” Lease automatically added herself to the group as a partisan actor. She was clearly speaking on behalf of all those who might have felt that they did not have a political party to truly represent their interests. Although she promoted unity among political actors regardless of sex, Lease also set herself up as a religious authority. The phrase “stamp out this unholy monster,” suggested that she not only could identify those who were immoral or profane, but she also was the right person to lead the group toward righteous actions. Through reference to Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 75 biblical texts, and as a woman and prophet, Lease became an even more legitimate voice for the Populist religious cause.

Lease frequently highlighted her ability to be moral because of her womanhood.

This not only gained her entrance into party politics, but also made her particularly appealing as a leader. By highlighting women’s traditional “strengths”, Lease interpreted her involvement as not just welcome, but necessary. The Populists believed that ending poverty, giving women the vote, and enacting prohibition would improve work and home life. The party frequently “drew on Republican precedents to explain America’s economic problems in domestic moral terms.”103 Populists used Republican and

Prohibitionist sentiments, arguing that men and women had a duty to protect the home.104

As an inherently moral woman, Lease was an ideal spokesperson for the party as she campaigned for the protection of the home and its values. Lease advocated for this

Populist position in her capacity as female moral guide, interpreting past social norms for her present rhetorical needs.

An excerpt from Lease’s address to the 1890 Kansas Populist convention showcases her persona as moral guide. Lease said, “With such a party as is here assembled today representing the great common people of today, the question is upon what success depends. The old parties are depending upon the boodle they can circulate, but this party does not depend upon the greasy boodle.”105 The “old parties,” in contrast to the Populists, were painted as immoral and impure, depending on the “greasy boodle.”

Using the word “boodle” enabled Lease to speak as the representative of a more pure political practice. Not only was this a common Populist Party line, but it was considered appropriate feminine public rhetoric. Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 76 Perhaps the most obvious representation of Lease’s persona as moral guide is present in her woman’s rights speeches. In a speech delivered in 1894 at

Representative Hall in Topeka, KS, Lease described why she believed women belonged in politics:

As politics or the science of government is the basic rock of the altar at which we

worship – the foundation of the home – the foundation of the social system in

which we live – the structure upon which rests the happiness or unhappiness of

our people – women have resolutely entered that domain of politics and bid fair to

maintain there, as else where, her standard: “For God and Home and Native

Land.”106

Although it may seem as if Lease was simply proving herself as an educated member of society, she was doing much more for the role of women in politics. She was demonstrating phronesis, or practical wisdom, thus proving her ethos as a political leader.

Her understanding of the workings of government and its impact on citizens’ everyday lives builds her credibility as a Populist leader.

Further, by linking government practice to basic home life, Lease suggested that politics should be devoid of personal gain and interest and instead be concerned with the average citizen and their happiness. Lease linked her moral guidance with the Populist tendency to be interested in the affairs of the “people” in an uncorrupt way. This passage also presented Lease as a spiritual leader. By describing politics as an “alter” of

“worship,” Lease’s authority on the subject included how politics worked, but she could best speak on how to fulfill a political role. In her capacity as moral guide, Lease used the ideals of faith and worship to justify a leadership role in politics and present the roots of Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 77 her moral positions. Finally, her reference to the WCTU through the slogan

“For God and Home and Native Land,” the group’s mantra, connected her to other female moral leaders. This is exemplified in Lease’s 1893 statement to the Labor Congress in

Chicago, IL: “We women, I repeat, are not going to sacrifice our loved ones to help out greedy bondholders. Ours is the mission to prevent you men from fighting, and we are going to do it, you may be sure.”107

In her “female” capacity as moral guide, Lease could bring credibility to the

Populist Party as an authority on moral values. In her 1890 convention speech she said,

“We are depending upon the votes of freemen for our success, votes of men who will not be bought or sold.”108 She used the pronoun “we” to insert herself into the conversation, not even considering that she might be an outsider. More important, those voting a

Populist ticket were not immoral and would avoid accepting bribes and other forms of political corruption. In essence, Lease justified her participation on the Populist oratorical platform as a Populist and as a woman. In other words, as a woman, Lease could act as a religious and moral guide for the Populists, setting them apart from other parties. Lease was an appropriate spokesperson for the party of the moral high ground precisely because she was a woman, wife, and mother.

A Domestic Political Guide

Lease’s rhetoric exemplified the common Populist appeal to the “ideal” national values of democracy, independence, and self-sufficiency. Lease used patriotism in a particularly female way to speak as party authority through recalling women’s civic duty as Republican Mothers. That is, her power as a Populist orator stemmed from her traditional role as a political guide within the home. This is evident in her use of the Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 78 founding of the nation. First, talk of conspiracy and monarchy was common in

Lease’s rhetoric in her capacity as a Populist and an activist. In his analysis of Populist speech making, Jeffery Ostler asserts that, “expressions of an English conspiracy against

American liberties” was frequent in Populist rhetoric.109 According to Ostler,

“conspiratorial rhetoric” is often used by third parties as a way to “legitimize extraordinary action.”110 Lease delivered her first public speeches on a statewide lecture tour of Kansas on behalf of the Irish Nationalist “land war” cause, “calling for an end to

British landlordism and the exploitative ‘rack-rent’ system and advocating Ireland’s home rule.”111 Her rhetoric was riddled with allusions to the British government, frequently suggesting that the current economic and political system in the United States reflected life under British rule.

Specifically, Lease linked the leaders of corporations in the United States with the values of monarchy. In seconding the nomination of James B. Weaver for President in

1892, Lease said, “Give him to us and we will drive from the American shores the

English robbers with their stolen gold, and we will make plutocrats and monopolists cringe and tremble. Give us Weaver, and no earthly power can keep us from sweeping on to victory in November.”112 In a speech at Cooper Union in 1896, Lease said, "All history is illustrated by the fact that new liberties cannot exist with old tyrannies. New ideals ever seek new manifestations. The ideals of Christ could not live under the tyrannies of the

Roman government. The ideals of the founders of this Government could not exist under the tyrannies of royal rule."113 In her speech in 1893 to the Columbian Exposition, she said,“…and kings shall be no more, and the world will not tolerate hungry poor or idle rich; neither shall be found tyrants, small or great, but they who obey the divine Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 79 injunction to earn their bread in the sweat of their face; honest toilers shall constitute a state.”114 In these statements, Lease showed that history, as well as religion, authorized the need for change, and the people of the United States were in need of a new form of government to protect their liberties. By presenting this parallel to the American

Revolution and the fight against British “tyranny,” Lease not only presented the Populists as the genuine “American” political ideal, but also became the person who could guide the people toward that ideal.

Lease made the same sort of argument in her speech to the WCTU in 1891, a speech about woman’s rights, which could also be described as a piece of Populist campaign oratory. Lease said, “Crowns will fall, thrones will tremble, kingdoms will disappear, the divine right of kings and the divine right of capital will fade away like the mists of the morning when the Angel of Liberty shall kindle the fires of justice in the hearts of men.”115 Here Lease spoke as a Populist warning against the threat of a new monarchy to advance a different cause. One could argue, then, that she used Populist partisan rhetoric to advance the fight for woman’s rights. This rhetorical positioning makes Lease more than either a Populist mouthpiece or a woman’s rights activist. She made woman’s issues and Populist issues one, using both to strengthen her position as a female political spokesperson. Lease’s persona as a female political authority made her arguments salient for both causes.

In addition to linking the Populist cause with the historical fight against

“tyranny,” Populists frequently emphasized traditional agrarian values, which included the right to own land and be independent and self-sufficient. In addition, “yeomen” or small farmers were considered “ideal citizens,” a tradition linking back to men like Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 80 Thomas Jefferson.116 Based on what Burkholder calls the “agrarian myth,”

Populists often argued that agrarian culture needed to be preserved in the face of growing industrialization, mechanization, and financial corruption.117 Ostler suggests that

Populists also rooted their values in the traditions of “radical republicanism,” which

“originated among urban mechanics in the pre-revolutionary period and flourished in the

Jacksonian era.” According to Ostler, “Radical republicans accepted some aspects of a market economy, but they invoked ideals of liberty and independence to denounce monopoly, speculation, inequality of wealth, and deferential politics.”118 These values were most often highlighted through anecdote, metaphor, and historical allusion in order to solicit nostalgic emotional responses. Further, these ideals encouraged a common cause between Populists and woman’s rights activists. According to Burkholder, both groups’ “standards of decency and righteousness were virtually identical to those embraced by the simple, honest, self-sufficient yeoman. Thus, the ideological affinity between suffragists and Populists was strong.”119

Lease often used past texts to emphasize that she and the Populists were continuing the genuine “American” tradition. For instance, in her 1893 speech at the

Columbian Exposition, she said, “Patrick Henry pled for liberty; Washington fought for it; the philosophy of Jefferson perpetuated it; but Kansans live it.”120 In other words, the

Populists were continuing the quest for freedom that began with the early

Revolutionaries. This was not the only time that she placed the Populist actions in the chronology of U.S. history. In her speech to the WCTU in 1891, Lease said, “We seek to bring the nation back to the constitutional liberties, guaranteed us by our forefathers. The voice that is coming up today from the mystic chords of the American heart is the same Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 81 voice that Lincoln heard blending with the guns of Fort Sumter and the

Wilderness …”121 A return to the original intent of the Constitution seemed to be the ultimate aim of the Populist cause.

Further, Populist goals could be linked to a more recent U.S. tradition by referring to . She used Lincoln’s words in ending her speech to the WCTU with the phrase, “government of the people, by the people.”122 In addition, using the words,

“the mystic chords,” from Lincoln’s “First Inaugural Address” and phrases from “The

Gettysburg Address” connected Lease to history and linked the Populist cause to

Lincoln’s political ideas. In effect, the Populists were the true inheritors of Lincoln’s politics, which legitimized their political role and minimized the importance of the

Republican Party. Lease interpreted these historical texts strategically, presenting herself and the Populists as the torch bearers of “American” ideals.

Lease and the Populists attempted to show that their goals were an extension of the nation’s fight for freedom. She proclaimed in 1893, “The Farmers in every conflict that has swept this country from the battle of Lexington down to the great rebellion have always come to the front and have solved the great questions involved successfully.”123

Significantly, just as the Populist Party would continue fighting for freedom, so should women. Lease combined the two political projects in her 1896 Populist speech at Cooper

Union: “Once we made it our boast that this nation was not founded upon any class distinction. But now we are not only buying diamonds for their wives and daughters and selling our children to titled debauchees, but we are setting aside our Constitution....”124

Lease presented herself as an expert on Constitutional liberty, claiming not only that the Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 82 Populist Party could return the nation to its rightful state and that she was leading that quest.

This was evident in her 1894 speech in Topeka: “But the self-evident proposition of Jefferson, in regard to the source and application of governmental authority, has been suffered to remain unheeded through a century of experience.”125 In addition to adhering to the common Populist appeal of recognizing the nation’s agrarian roots, Lease spoke as a guide for the nation’s future. That is, by claiming that this “self-evident proposition” had been “unheeded” throughout the century, Lease spoke as one who could lead the country toward its fulfillment. According to her, Lease and the Populist Party represented equality, liberty, and true patriotism. Her presumed authority on the nation’s most revered documents was evident later in that same speech when she said, “Men cannot represent us at the polls…and to pretend to do so is a violation of constitutional liberty…”126 This speech, which ostensibly was about woman’s rights, became a speech about democratic principles.

Although speaking as a Populist, Lease established her knowledge of the principles of the Constitution on the basis that women were the authentic voice of the republic. Throughout the nineteenth century, many women participated in politics in their capacity as “Republican Mothers,” which emphasized that women’s role in the politics of the nation was indirect but expressed by raising patriotic children.127 Linda Kerber and others claim that “Republican Motherhood” allowed women to play a political role while in the confines of their homes. As was described by a male character in an 1851 short essay written by essayist Susan Warner: “An American woman may best show her patriotism, I should think, by bringing up her sons to be patriots.”128 Lease used the basic Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 83 justifications for Republican Motherhood as reasons for women’s public involvement in politics.

Lease believed that women should participate directly in the public political conversation because of their obligation to help shape the political minds of future generations. Clarina Howard Nichols, who “recast motherhood as the basis of woman’s economic rights and full citizenship”, first established this argument.129 According to

Blackwell and Oertel, “Nichols’ style of politics set a standard for other female activists who pursued a similar strategy in the second half of the nineteenth century, especially in

Kansas, where they built upon her legacy.”130 Orr points out that Lease used Republican

Motherhood as justification for woman suffrage. Lease also used this position to justify her role as a Populist leader.131 By emphasizing woman’s unique understanding of the goals of a republic and by referring to the Populist political fight in phrases like the “great struggle for our little ones,” she linked political purposes to her maternal instincts and capabilities.132

Lease extended the claims of Republican Motherhood farther than most women of the time. For Lease, it was not enough to argue that women deserved to vote because they were responsible for raising patriotic sons. Lease believed that women were patriotic authorities and guides. She frequently spoke as an expert on patriotism and the overarching goals of the nation. This was evident in her 1890 Populist convention address when she said, “Unite friends and brothers. When dissension comes into our ranks, let us unite hearts and hands; the conflict is for liberty, life and lands and the flag of our union forever.”133 This authoritative statement on the meaning of patriotism directly referenced the Lockean and Jeffersonian principles of the value of life, liberty, and property. Her Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 84 usurpation of patriotic authority was also evident in her 1893 address to the

Columbian Exposition, when she said, “My God? How any patriotic man today can be a

Republican or a Democrat is past my comprehension.”134 Lease assumed patriotism for the Populist Party, but did so as a woman who was schooled in the meaning of patriotism itself.

Much of Lease’s patriotic rhetoric was overtly linked to her role as Republican

Mother. In her speech at Cooper Union, Lease observed, “The heart of the nation is aroused, and Principle and not Pelf is the watchword. The great heart of the nation beats response to patriotism, and the nation is safe.”135 “Principle and not Pelf” is most likely a reference to the well-known expression of patriotism in the famous Sir Walter Scott poem “My Native Land,” which was a part of the longer poem “The Lay of the Last

Minstrel.”136 Republican Mothers arguably were the members of society who felt and directed the “heart” of the nation. This is perhaps best illustrated in the statement she made in seconding Weaver’s nomination for President at the 1892 national Populist convention: “Let me, in behalf of the women of the nation, who have by word or work aided you so nobly in your grand struggle for liberty, and in behalf of the Sunflower state, second the nomination of a true and tried friend of the people – the grand champion of human liberty, that hero, of a hundred battles – brave, bold James B. Weaver.” 137 Besides demonstrating how women contributed to the success of the party, Lease became the spokesperson for those women. In addition, her persona as patriotic guide justified, and perhaps necessitated, her important role in the Populist Party. She continued, “Give us

General Weaver, and not only the mothers, but the very children will do battle for him.”138 Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 85 A Natural Right to Political Citizenship

In an attempt to obtain Marshall’s “political citizenship,”139 women of the time had to prove that sex was irrelevant to the needs of political participation. Some women argued that it was “personhood” that should determine presence in the political world, not sex. To justify her presence, Lease often attempted to prove her physical ability through references to hands, connecting herself to the plight of woman as laborer. If women’s physical presence in the political arena was questioned, Lease made an attempt to link men’s and women’s physical experiences. If their experiences were parallel, there was no justifiable reason to exclude women from public participation. As Nathan Stormer writes, the body can “function as the limit and authorization of political power.”140 This was done primarily through references to the experiences of men and women in agricultural labor. In Topeka in 1894, she said, “While conceding that women, of right and necessity, must enter the field of competition and join in the terrible hand-to-hand struggle for existence,”141 emphasizing woman’s physical contribution to suggest that was reason enough for political equality. Men and women both struggled to make a living, often working side by side. In that vein, both should be able to fight for Populist ideals of citizenship. When paired with the Populist sentiment in speaking on behalf of farmers and laborers, Lease becomes a distinctive spokesperson. This type of appeal can be seen again in Lease’s 1891 speech to the WCTU when she said, “Our loyal, white-ribbon women should be heart and hand in this Farmers’ Alliance movement.”142 Their commitment and hard work justified their presence in the Populist Party and Lease’s place as a public, Populist orator. Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 86 As a party representative, Lease emphasized the need for progress, regardless of sex. She reiterated that the Populist Party platform was about listening to the issues that people cared about in order to pursue the fundamental goals of human life.

These appeals can be seen in her introduction of Susan B. Anthony in Wichita in October of 1896. Lease used this opportunity to align the experience of the Populist Party and the

Woman’s Rights movement. She fused her authority as a politician and a woman’s rights leader. She said, “For ages, the oppressed of all nations, the toiling millions of every land have sent up a wailing protest against monied might, against gigantic monopoly, against corporated capital. For ages the voice of their appeal has fallen upon hearts of stone and ears of brass.”143 This statement linked the experience of women with the experience of the Populists – both were struggling against those who refused to hear their pleas. Lease pitted the woman’s rights activists and the Populists against the Democrats and the

Republicans. She continued, “In vain they looked to party to represent them. In vain they sought party to redress their wrongs, till at last their pitiful wailing changed to muttered discontent, their discontent to passionate utterances…”144 The people were the momentum for change. They found a voice of their own. Like the woman’s rights movement, the Populists gave a voice to those unrepresented by the current political parties. Lease became the voice for both movements because of their parallel struggles for political representation.

Language that suggested momentum for change was present in her speeches delivered on the Populist lecture circuit. In an 1895 speech in Dallas, TX, Lease said of the Populists, “The movement is spreading like wild fire, the people everywhere are becoming thoroughly alive to the great issues that must be settled in a way that will Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 87 insure the greatest good to the greatest number, and the prospects for 1896 are most favorable.”145 Use of the metaphor “spreading like wildfire” suggests uncontrollable momentum. Coupled with her interest in all people expressed in the phrase, “greatest good to the greatest number,” Lease reinforced her leadership and her forward thinking.

Her language became even more ambitious in a remark made in 1896 at Cooper Union:

"We stand to-day at the beginning of one of those revolutionary periods that mark an advance of the race. We stand at a period that marks a reformation.”146 Once again connecting the values of the Populist movement to revolutionary history, Lease stressed that progress should be the most important political value. In addition, Lease attempted to show that the so-called corruption and abuses of the Democrats and Republicans would disappear in the face of the Populist movement. At the 1890 convention, she said,

“Tyranny, usury, autocracy, and plutocracy shall fade away like the mists of the morning.”147 Moreover, the opposing politicians would become victims of natural occurrences and fade away.

Natural progression was present in her woman’s rights speeches as well, particularly through the use of light/dark metaphors. In her introduction of Susan B.

Anthony before a speech in Wichita in October of 1896. Lease claimed a parallel between the experience of the Populist Party and the Woman’s Rights movement:

Until in one day we hear coming up from the people, and reverberating from state

to state, the calm, strong protest of resolute, faithful, organized men – men who

are in earnest, and what may we not hope for, what may we not look for from men

who are in earnest? The laboring masses of today are slipping off the bondage of Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 88 the past, and perusing in letters of fire by the vivifying light of inevitable

conquest, the magna charta of the liberties of man.148

It is obvious that this statement was an expression of Populist political principles. Its place in a speech introducing a woman’s rights activist was an indicator that Lease attempted to bring the two movements together through her language. She also suggested that change was inevitable because of the honest and serious work of the working people of the country. Note her use of “men” in this passage, another illustration of Lease’s attempt to represent the Populist Party in her capacity as a woman. She encouraged support and passion for the “organized men.” In addition, she used “fire” and “vivifying light” to insinuate that the Populist movement was full of passion and promise.149 She continued, “In behalf of this humanity a woman world known and world honored will set forth her powers of eloquence tonight. The new dawning of a glad era is shining from the hearts of men...”150 Lease is no longer referring to the Populist movement, but to Susan

B. Anthony and the woman’s movement. Language about the “dawning” of an era brings hope for the future, perhaps suggesting that the woman’s movement would pursue

Populist goals even after the People’s Party disintegration in 1896. In statements like these Lease overtly brought the issues of the two movements together and became the ideal spokesperson for both as a person and a citizen.

Significantly, Lease represents a woman who demanded political personhood through her womanhood. She utilized traditional female roles to encourage momentum for change. Just as her 1894 speech in Topeka suggested that women’s presence in politics was an extension of their rightful place in society, she emphasized the idea that this position was natural. In the same speech, Lease said, “It has been said that woman Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 89 has a higher and holier sphere within the United States, but the government, whose laws we must obey, whose laws we have no hand in making, comes unbidden into every home and broods at every fireside.”151 In addition to being left out of the process,

Lease believed that current politicians were corrupt. She continued, “Masculine politics have invaded and degraded the home.”152 Exclusion of women from their deserved participation was, for Lease, the reason for the degradation of politics. In this way, Lease connected the Populist cause and the woman’s rights movement. Both were working to weed out the corruption of the current “masculine” political system. She claimed, “Our entry as wives and mothers into the political and legislative fields is not the result of individual tastes or morbid sympathies, but is a prime necessity, for the purification of politics and the elevation of the race – a factor to remove political and legal disabilities, weed out corrupt political tricksters and bestow a blessing on posterity.”153 For Lease, participation in the political field was not just an option, but a necessity of social existence for women and Populists alike.

Political citizenship, for Lease, meant fully participating in the public partisan conversation in one’s own capacity and utilizing one’s own talents. Here Lease adopts a persona for political personhood that embraces political womanhood. Her use of religious, moral, and patriotic appeals take on new meaning in this context. Equality of the sexes and unique gendered contributions to the political conversation were fundamental to Lease’s existence and, according to Lease, to the political process itself.

In this way, all of her appeals are persuasive and powerful because of her ardent dedication to motherhood. Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 90 Direct involvement in political parties was necessary because of the power women had as mothers. Lease emphasized the importance of motherhood in the search for moral and political guidance. As Orr observes, “Mary Lease in fact remained firmly tied to the notion that women best served their nation and community through motherhood, and she regarded motherhood as women’s central and most important social role, despite her calls for women’s direct involvement in the political sphere.”154

Goldberg adds, “Although Lease chose to put forth, even exaggerate, a masculinist persona, there was one boundary she dared not cross. Motherhood was still a sacred subject.”155 Lease’s attempt to bring women directly into the political sphere was because of their status as mothers and citizens. In her 1894 speech in Topeka, she said,

We carefully and tenderly guard our boys in infancy and childhood; we baptize

them with tears and sanctify them with a mother’s prayers. They go forth at the

dawn of manhood, from the shelter of the home roof. We may not follow them.

The wild beasts of lust and drunkenness beset their paths. Man-made laws

interfere, and they say to the mother: “Go back to your home; you cannot follow

your boys into the miasma of politics; you cannot go with him to the polls, to help

him close, by the mother’s voice and mother’s influence, the saloons and

gambling and brothel houses that are luring his soul to hell. You are women.”156

Maternal influence was the key to the success of the system. Further, it was Lease’s ability to be a moral guide fighting against the “miasma,” or the corruptive atmosphere, that demanded her participation in politics as a woman. Women could not function as moral guides if excluded from the system. Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 91 It was not uncommon for Lease to utilize domestic virtue as a rhetorical tool. Her conflation of her domestic obligations as a woman and the political goals of the

Populist Party is significant. Orr writes, “Lease and her supporters freely oscillated between associating her political work with socially proscribed masculine, aggressive behavior and with feminine domestic virtue, suggesting that gendered political discourse was increasingly fluid as Gilded Age society broke down Victorian gender-role hegemony.”157 This is obvious in an excerpt from her 1891 WCTU address:

We find at the present time upward of a half-million women in the Alliance, who,

because of their loyalty to home and loved ones and their intuitive and inherent

sense of justice, are investigating the great social economic and political

problems, fully realizing that the political arena is the only place where the

mighty problems of today and tomorrow can be satisfactorily fought and settled,

and simply qualified to go hand-in-hand with fathers, husbands, sons and brothers

to the polls and register their opinion against legalized robbery and corporate

wrong.158

Lease argued that women could not continue to fulfill their prescribed social function without entering political space. I argue that, for Lease, woman’s qualification for participation in the political world went beyond domestic virtue. By highlighting the

“intuitive and inherent sense of justice” of women in the Farmers Alliance, Lease emphasized their natural right to be there. Significantly, this speech, seemingly about the participation of women in politics, became a speech against “legalized robbery and corporate wrong,” an ardently Populist political stance. Lease’s rhetorical maneuvering is significant not only because she used accepted feminine social norms to justify Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 92 participation in “masculine” political space, but because she did so as a Populist spokeswoman. In other words, Lease made the fight for woman’s rights and the fight for the People’s Party one and the same, often using them to highlight one another. In so doing, Lease presented a credible partisan voice and proved the need for women to have political citizenship.

Conclusion

Lease made every attempt to increase her credibility as a woman participating in the “male” world of politics. She entered space typically closed to women, and did so while ardently defending the female social role. Lease made her political affiliation more about issues than about partisanship. Perhaps the Populist Party was appealing to her because of the ability of third parties to speak on issues that mainstream political parties feared would alienate their base. On the other hand, perhaps she was an appealing spokesperson for the Populists for a similar reason. The Populists took on moral issues, prohibition, and woman suffrage in a period when the Democrats and Republicans refused to do so. Lease was an ideal mouthpiece for the Populist platform because her sex made her a powerful spokeswoman. That is, masculine and feminine norms of public address came together in the style and substance of Lease’s rhetoric, which worked in favor of the Populists. Lease enacted political womanhood through articulating a feminine rhetoric that justified her role in masculine space.

After breaking with the Populists, Lease moved to New York to continue to pursue her career. She joined the staff of ’s New York World in 1897 as a feature writer, and actively campaigned against William Jennings Bryan and the

Democrats in the election of 1900. According to Blumberg, “By 1900 she had completely Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 93 reversed herself politically, writing scorching articles against both Bryan and the Populists, and campaigning statewide for McKinley and the Republicans in

Nebraska.”159After moving her family to New York, Lease divorced Charles Lease in

1902, claiming nonsupport. She made her living primarily as a paid lecturer, continuing her involvement in politics for many years. She also worked as a lecturer in an evening educational program for adults under the New York Board of Education.160 She was active in the Republican Party during the first decade of the twentieth century, and joined the campaign for Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Party in 1912.161 Lease died in

Callicoon, New York, on October 29, 1933, at the age of 84.162

The coverage of Lease by the contemporary press reflects the tension that existed at the time around social expectations of gender performance. Supporters of Lease highlighted her femininity. The Kansas City Star described her as, “a tall woman – fully five feet ten inches, and rather slender. Her face is strong, good, not pretty, and very feminine.”163 In his profile in Metropolitan Magazine in 1894, Livermore wrote, “There is something charmingly womanly and even appealing in the personality of Mrs. Lease and this appeal of the woman united with a certain rugged logic born of earnest conviction, is perhaps her greatest power upon the platform.”164 In addition to this praise about her speaking ability and her “womanly” personality, Lease was often criticized by reference to her more “masculine” qualities. For example, in a letter to the Editor in the

Grand Rapids Evening Press, a woman named Marie H. Davidis wrote: “There is nothing refined and womanly in Mrs. Lease. She takes a very pessimistic view of life and the way she portrayed men – the picture she made of certain women and their slave-like attitude towards men as their superiors was to me perfectly disgusting.”165 The New York World Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 94 published the following when describing a speech Lease gave at Cooper Union:

“Striding to the edge of the platform, Mrs. Lease stretched out her hand, clenched the fingers and then roared with masculine energy.”166

Issues of gender performance are a significant part of the impact that Lease had on history and society. As Orr writes, “Mary Lease’s political career and the explicitly gendered responses it inspired illustrated the ongoing significance of gender ideology in

American politics during the Gilded Age and foreshadowed the continued influence of gender ideology in constructing political discourse as the twentieth century dawned.”167

Lease spent most of her career championing the struggle for equality for underrepresented groups. She did so by strategically utilizing social norms and expectations to her advantage, constructing a rhetoric that was ultimately about progressing toward a new future. The Journal of the Knights of Labor introduced one of her speeches this way: “And the cyclone…that overtook the enemies of the people’s rights last November, proves what a mighty factor the women of the Alliance have been in the political affairs of the nation.”168 The imagery of a cyclone, with its organized yet chaotic rotating movement, is perhaps a perfect metaphor for Lease’s activities. She gathered strength by gaining the respect of several groups, and propelled herself into territory rarely traversed by women at the time.

Mary Elizabeth Lease created a new role for women in politics, enacting the idea that women could simultaneously be party leaders and exemplars of feminine virtue. In fact, it was their socialized role that made them essential leaders of third party movements. Clinton ended her biographical account of Lease with the question: “When death silenced the voice of this vibrant personality, what legacy did she leave - - a dream, Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 95 a protest, an ideal, or merely an epithet?”169 I argue that by acting as a religious, moral, and domestic political guide, Lease acted as a powerful Populist spokesperson and made room for party women in positions of leadership. Her ethos as a woman made her apt for articulating typical Populist argument. Lease enacted an egalitarian partisan political personhood that set the tone for future female political leaders.

Notes for Chapter Two

1 Kansas Commoner, January 22, 1892, quoted in Betty Lou Taylor, “Mary Elizabeth Lease: Kansas Populist” (PhD Diss., The Municipal University of Wichita, 1951). 2 "Not Mary Yellin’: She’s Mary Elizabeth Lease and a Regular Curiousity,” Minneapolis Tribune, March 1, 1894, 1. 3 “Oh Woman! Meeting of the Wichita Woman’s Suffrage Association at Memorial Hall,” Wichita Daily Beacon Dec 7, 1896. 4 Brooke Speer Orr, “Gendered Discourse and Populist Party Politics in Gilded Age America.” Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains 29 (Winter 2006-2007): 249. 5 Burkholder, Thomas R. “Mary Clyens Lease,” in Women Public Speakers in the United States, 1800- 1925, ed. Karlyn Kohrs Campbell (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993), 111-124; Thomas R. Burkholder, “Kansas Populism, Woman Suffrage, and the Agrarian Myth: A case Study in the Limits of Mythic Transcendence,” Communication Studies 40 (1989): 292-307. 6 Paula Baker, “The Domestication of Politics: Women and American Political Society, 1780-1920,” The American Historical Review 89.3 (June, 1984): 627. 7 Michael McGerr, "Political Style and Women's Power, 1830-1930," Journal of American History 77 (December 1990): 866. 8 Dorothy Rose Blumberg, “Mary Elizabeth Lease, Populist Orator: A Profile.” Kansas History I (1978), 7. 9 Richard Stiller, Queen of the Populists: The Story of Mary Elizabeth Lease (New York, NY: T.Y. Crowell Co.,1970). James Costigan, “An Analysis of Selected Speeches by Mrs. Mary E. Lease,” (Thesis for Master of Science, Southern Illinois University, 1960); Betty Lou Taylor, “Mary Elizabeth Lease: Kansas Populist,” (Master’s Thesis, The Municipal University of Wichita, 1951). 10 Orr, 248. 11 Blumberg, 15; Katherine B. Clinton, “What Did You Say, Mrs. Lease?” Kansas Quarterly I (1969), 52; Burkholder, “Mary Clyens Lease,” 111. 12 Taylor, 1; “Mary Lease Dead: Long Dry Agitator,” New York Times, October 30, 1933, 7. 13 Orr, 249. 14 “Mary Lease Dead: Long Dry Agitator.” 15 This account was taken from a manuscript written in longhand by JAS Arnold, who might have been Mary E. Lease, from the Kansas State Historical Society Manuscript Division, and was recounted in Taylor, 1. 16 Burkholder, “Mary Clyens Lease,” 111; Blumberg, 26. 17 Harry Levinson, “Mary Elizabeth Lease: Prairie Radical,” Kansas Magazine (1948): 19; Clinton, 52. 18 Orr, 249-250. 19 Burkholder, “Mary Clyens Lease,” 111. 20 Blumberg, 3. 21 Qtd. In Blumberg, 4. 22 Mary E. Lease, “Are Women Inferior?” Kingman County Citizen, January 31, 1884, 9. 23 Blumberg, 4. 24 Taylor, 4. Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 96

25 Blumberg, 4-5. 26 Burkholder, “Mary Clyens Lease,” 112; Blumberg, 8-9; Taylor, 17. 27 “Fought for Forty Years: Susan B. Anthony The Champion of Woman’s Rights is Here,” Kansas City Times, May 13, 1894, 2. 28 Raymond Miller, “The Background of Populism in Kansas,” The Mississippi Valley Historical Review XI (1925), 470. 29 Miller, 476. 30 Donald H. Ecroyd, “The Agrarian Protest,” America in Controversy: History of American Public Address, ed. DeWitte Holland (Dubuque, Iowa: WM.C. Brown Co. Publishers, 1973): 171. 31 Jeffrey Ostler, “The Rhetoric of Conspiracy and the Formation of Kansas Populism,” Agricultural History 69.1 (Winter, 1995), 4. 32 Lawrence Goodwyn, The Populist Moment: A Short History of the Agrarian Revolt in America (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1978), 26; Ostler, 4. 33 Rebecca Edwards, Angels in the Machinery: Gender in American Party Politics from the Civil War to the Progressive Era (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1997), 92-93. 34 Ecroyd, 173. 35 Blumberg, 5. 36 Edwards, 91. 37 Blumberg, 6. 38 Ecroyd, 173. 39 Orr, 250. 40 Burkholder, “Kansas Populism, Woman Suffrage, and the Agrarian Myth A case Study in the Limits of Mythic Transcendence,” 292. 41 Edwards, 94. 42 Orr, 253. 43 Burkholder, “Kansas Populism, Woman Suffrage, and the Agrarian Myth:” 292. 44 Ecroyd, 176. 45 Ecroyd, 172; Blumberg, 5, 29. 46 Margaret Walsh, “State of the Art: Women’s Place on the American Frontier,” Journal of American Studies 29 (August 1995): 248. 47 Ostler, 5. 48 Robert J. Dinkin, Before Equal Suffrage: Women in Partisan Politics from Colonial Times to 1920 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995), 89. 49 Dinkin, 90. 50 “An Idol of the Pops,” Kansas City Times, June 14, 1894, 1. 51 “Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Lease: The Kansas Prophet of the Farmers’ Alliance,” Journal of the Knights of Labor, April 2, 1891, 2. For more comments on Populism and gender issues, see Michael Lewis Goldberg, An Army of Women: Gender and Politics in Gilded Age Kansas (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997). 52 Edwards, 101. 53 Edwards, 102. 54 Edwards, 103. 55 Edwards, 104. 56 Edwards, 114. 57 Dinkin, 91. 58 Edwards, 99-100. 59 Jo Freeman, A Room at a Time: How Women Entered Party Politics (New York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2000), 36. 60 Levinson, 20; Taylor, 9. 61 Blumberg, 5. 62 O. Gene Clanton, Kansas Populism: Ideas and Men (Lawrence, KS: The University Press of Kansas, 1969), 74; John D. Hicks, The Populist Revolt: A History of the Farmers’ Alliance and the People’s Party (Minneapolis, MN: The University of Minnesota Press, 1931), 160; "Not Mary Yellin’: She’s Mary Elizabeth Lease and a Regular Curiousity.” Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 97

63 Ecroyd, 176; Edwards, 103; Blumberg, 6; Orr, 252. 64 Various historians cite her use of the phrase, but few cite a source. In addition, she denied saying it on two different occasions. Blumberg, 3; Clinton, 56, 58; Levinson, 18. 65 Clanton, 73. 66 Mary Elizabeth Lease: The Populist Joan of Arc (Topeka, KS: Kansas Historical Society, 2009). 67 Blumberg, 6. 68 Qtd. in Costigan, 42. 69 Blumberg, 7. 70 Blumberg, 7. 71 Blumberg, 7. 72 Taylor, 15. 73 Orr, 258-260. 74 Mary Elizabeth Lease: The Populist Joan of Arc. 75 “Mrs Mary Lease.” Arkansas Gazette, August 30, 1891, 10. 76 Blumberg, 9. 77 Qtd. In Costigan, 36; Taylor, 27. 78 Taylor, 22. 79 Clanton, 76. 80 “Mary Lease Dead: Long Dry Agitator,” 7. 81 Clanton, 75. 82 Mary Elizabeth Lease: The Populist Joan of Arc. 83 Accounts of the scandal with Lewelling are reported in “Won Her Case: The Supreme Court of Kansas Decides for Mrs. Lease,” Plain Dealer, February 9, 1894, 7; Blumberg, 10; Costigan, 36-37, Taylor, 46, 49-51; Kansas City Star, January 2, 1894. 84 Freeman, 36. 85 Young, 297-299. 86 Young, 300. 87 Edwards, 5. 88 Use of religious references was a common rhetorical tactic used by several woman’s rights activists throughout history. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, , and Sarah and Angelina Grimké frequently utilized biblical appeals to legitimize their arguments and their place in the public conversation. For examples of these speeches, see Man Cannot Speak For Her Volume II: Key Texts of the Early Feminists, ed. Karlyn Kohrs Campbell (New York, NY: Praeger Publishers, 1989). For an analysis of the power of religion in feminist rhetoric, see Phyllis M. Japp, “Esther or Isaiah?: The Abolitionist-Feminist Rhetoric of Angelina Grimké,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 71 (1985): 335-348. 89 Amos Kiewe, “Theodore Herzl’s The Jewish State: Prophetic Rhetoric in the Service of Political Objectives,” Journal of Communication & Religion 26 (2003): 210. 90 Charles Postel, The Populist Vision (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2007). Postel describes the Populist approach to religion as in harmony with the more modernized conception of the role of the Church as it related to science and progress. He associates Populist thoughts with the more liberal sect of Christianity, including Christian free-thinkers and even non-Christian schools of thought. 91 Orr, 252-253; Postel, Chapter 8; Edwards, 92. 92 Orr, 252. 93 Edwards, 94. 94 Blumberg, 3. 95 Orr, 252. 96 Kerith M. Woodyard, “’If by Martyrdom I Can Advance My Race One Step, I am Ready for It’: Prophetic Ethos and the Reception of Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s The Woman’s Bible,” Journal of Communication & Religion (2008): 280. 97 “Extols the Virtues of Kansas,” in Women at the Podium: Memorable Speeches in History, ed. S. Michele Nix (New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers, Inc., 2000), 82. 98 “Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Lease: The Kansas Prophet of the Farmers’ Alliance,” 2. 99 “Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Lease: The Kansas Prophet of the Farmers’ Alliance,” 2. Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 98

100 “Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Lease: The Kansas Prophet of the Farmers’ Alliance,”2. This reference to the vine and fig tree is a direct reference to 1 Kings 4:25: “And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.” In addition, the fig tree is a safe place for prayer and reflection in The Book of John 1:48. 101 Woodyard, 280. 102 Topeka Daily Capitol, August 14, 1890. 103 Edwards, 92. 104 Edwards, 96. 105 Topeka Daily Capitol, August 14, 1890. 106 Mary E. Lease. “The Legal Disabilities of Women.” Speech on Feb. 7, 1894 at Representative Hall in Topeka, KS. Excerpt in Thomas R. Burkholder, “Mythic Conflict: A Critical Analysis of Kansas Populist Speechmaking. 1890-1894, Volume Two” (PhD diss., University of Kansas, 1988), par. 15. 107 Mary E. Lease, “Speech Before the Labor Congress,” The Monitor (Abilene), September 7, 1893, 8, in Thomas R. Burkholder, “Mythic Conflict: A Critical Analysis of Kansas Populist Speechmaking. 1890- 1894, Volume Two” (PhD diss., University of Kansas, 1988), par. 4. 108 Topeka Daily Capitol, August 14, 1890. 109 Ostler, 2. 110 Ostler, 4. 111 Orr, 250. 112 Kansas Commoner, July 7, 1892, quoted in Taylor. 113 “Cheered Mary E. Lease,” New York World, August 11, 1896. 114 “Extols the Virtues of Kansas,” 82. 115 “Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Lease: The Kansas Prophet of the Farmers’ Alliance,” 2. 116 Burkholder, “Kansas Populism, Woman Suffrage, and the Agrarian Myth: A case Study in the Limits of Mythic Transcendence,” 294. 117 Burkholder, “Kansas Populism, Woman Suffrage, and the Agrarian Myth: A case Study in the Limits of Mythic Transcendence,” 294. 118 Ostler, 23. 119 Burkholder, “Kansas Populism, Woman Suffrage, and the Agrarian Myth: A case Study in the Limits of Mythic Transcendence,” 298. 120 “Extols the Virtues of Kansas,” 81. 121 “Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Lease: The Kansas Prophet of the Farmers’ Alliance,” 2. 122 “Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Lease: The Kansas Prophet of the Farmers’ Alliance2. 123 Lease, “Speech Before the Labor Congress,” par. 1. 124 “Cheered Mary E. Lease,” New York World, August 11, 1896. 125 Lease, “The Legal Disabilities of Women,” par. 2. 126 Lease, “The Legal Disabilities of Women,” par. 28. 127 Linda Kerber, Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1997), 283. 128 Elizabeth Witherell, “How May an American Woman Best Show Her Patriotism,” Ladies Wreath 5 (1851): 313-27, reprinted in Sharon Estes, “Susan Warner’s ‘How May an American Woman Best Show Her Patriotism,’” American Periodicals 19.2 (2009): 221. 129 Marilyn S. Blackwell and Kristen T. Oertel, Frontier Feminist: Clarina Howard Nichols and the Politics of Motherhood (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2010), 7. 130 Blackwell and Oertel, 5. 131 For more on Lease and woman suffrage, see Orr, 260. 132 Topeka Daily Capitol, August 14, 1890. 133 Topeka Daily Capitol, August 14, 1890. 134 Lease, “Speech Before the Labor Congress,” par. 3. 135 “Cheered Mary E. Lease,” New York World, August 11, 1896. 136 For full text of the poem, see Scottish Poems ed. Gerard Carruthers (New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009), 42. 137 Kansas Commoner, July 7, 1892, quoted in Taylor. 138 Kansas Commoner, July 7, 1892, quoted in Taylor. Mary Elizabeth Lease, Feminized Populist 99

139 T.H. Marshall defines this as “the right to participate in the exercise of political power, as a member of a body invested with political authority or as an elector of the members of such a body” in Citizenship and Social Class (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1950), 5. This is explored in a more expanded way in Chapter 1. 140 Nathan Stormer, “Embodied Humanism: Performative Argument for Natural Rights in “The Solitude of Self,” Argumentation and Advocacy 36 (Fall 1999): 51. 141 Lease, “The Legal Disabilities of Women,” par. 5. 142 “Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Lease: The Kansas Prophet of the Farmers’ Alliance,”2. 143 “The Meeting: Memorial Hall Crowded to its Utmost Capacity to Hear Miss Susan.” Wichita Daily Beacon, October 21, 1896. 144 “The Meeting: Memorial Hall Crowded to its Utmost Capacity to Hear Miss Susan.” 145 “Was Persuaded to Talk: Mrs. Mary Lease Tells the Texans What to Expect in Politics,” Kansas City Times, August 26, 1895, 1. 146 “Cheered Mary E. Lease,” New York World, August 11, 1896. 147 Topeka Daily Capitol, August 14, 1890. 148 “The Meeting: Memorial Hall Crowded to its Utmost Capacity to Hear Miss Susan.” 149 This language is again present in her 1893 speech to the Columbian Exposition: “All the world shall come up the path which we have blazed and bask in the light which we have kindled,” “Extols the Virtues of Kansas,” 82. 150 “The Meeting: Memorial Hall Crowded to its Utmost Capacity to Hear Miss Susan.” 151 Lease, “The Legal Disabilities of Women,” par. 10. 152 Lease, “The Legal Disabilities of Women,” par. 12. 153 Lease, “The Legal Disabilities of Women,” par. 31. 154 Orr, 260. 155 Goldberg, 179. 156 Lease, “The Legal Disabilities of Women,” par. 12. 157 Orr, 248. 158 “Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Lease: The Kansas Prophet of the Farmers’ Alliance,” 2. 159 Blumberg, 12. 160 The Daily Picayune, April 4, 1907, 6. 161 Clinton, 54. 162 “Mary Lease Dead; Long Dry Agitator.” 163 Qtd in Clinton, 54, from a clipping from April 1, 1891 in “Kansas Biographical Scrapbook.” 164 A.L. Livermore, “Mary Elizabeth Lease: Foremost Woman Politician of the Times,” Metropolitan Magazine (November, 1894): 266. 165 “Letter to the Editor,” The Evening Press (Grand Rapids), July 25, 1901. 166 “Cheered Mary E. Lease,” New York World, August 11, 1896. 167 Orr, 265. 168 “Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Lease: The Kansas Prophet of the Farmers’ Alliance,” 2. 169 Clinton, 59. Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 100

“Happy indeed are the women who have not only the brain and the heart, but the power…” ~Judith Ellen Foster1

Chapter Three:

Frances Elizabeth Willard And Judith Ellen Foster, Principled Partisans

“A Washington gathering called by the suffragists to commemorate the Seneca

Falls convention of 1848 and designed to unify the woman’s movement by drawing together representatives of a wide variety of organizations”2 was held in 1888. At this

International Council of Women, several prominent woman’s rights activists spoke and engaged in debates about the role of women, the struggle for equality, and potential directions for the future. In addition to speeches by women like Susan B. Anthony, two women addressed the Council on two different issues.

Anthony introduced WCTU President Frances E. Willard. She spoke about a bill she had presented to Congress “to pass a law to raise the age of consent to eighteen years in the District of Columbia and the Territories,” and she asked the women to sign a petition in support. She said, “Out of the aggregation of men by themselves, always comes harm; out of the coming of men and women into true, and noble, and high conditions, side by side, always comes good.”3 Lawyer Judith Ellen Foster, also introduced by Anthony, spoke on “Women in Politics.” In a reference to Anthony,

Willard, and their moral leadership, Foster proclaimed: “so I say to you tonight, dear friends, that the lady who presides over this meeting, who has for so many years stood at Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 101 the head of this great movement, so I say to you that the lady who presides over the great temperance movement of this country, I say that these two women are a moral power in this nation, and are mightier than they would be if they led armies. Why?

Because it is moral power that counts.”4 Willard and Foster both praised morality in politics, women’s leadership, and the need for women’s participation. In addition, Foster gave high praise to Willard, even calling her a “peerless orator.”5 One would not guess that, at this time, the two were in the midst of an intense public debate over partisanship.

Willard had worked hard throughout the 1880s to align the Woman’s Christian

Temperance Union (WCTU) with the Prohibition Party, a third party that endorsed prohibition and woman suffrage. Foster, who ardently protested against that alliance, left the WCTU in 1889 to form the Non-Partisan Woman’s Christian Temperance Union

(NWCTU). Believing partisanship to be an individual choice that should be independent of the , Foster sought to prevent an alliance with the Prohibition Party,

In addition, she was a long-standing member of the Republican Party. That these two women bonded over moral leadership at the 1888 International Council of Women is indicative of their attitudes toward women’s involvement in politics. Both women belonged to different parties, but espoused the same values. Both women used moral appeals to justify women’s participation in politics. The quintessential political event of a national nominating convention and their speeches at such an event shows how women combatted the constraints on their sex.

Significantly, both women became leaders of their respective parties. In a historic moment, Willard addressed the Prohibition Party national nominating convention in

1888, delivering the “Decoration Day” address, a coveted and prominent speech at the Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 102 convention. A banner above the speaker’s platform said: “No North, No South,

No Distinction in Politics, No Sex in Citizenship.” 6 Foster actively campaigned for

Republican Benjamin Harrison in 1888, who won the election. Four years later, during the same summer that Mary Elizabeth Lease addressed the Populist Party convention seconding the nomination of James Weaver for President, Foster gave an address at the

Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, MN as the head of the Woman’s

National Republican Association (WNRA). Foster was also the first woman ever to address a Republican Party national convention. 7 The convention was held from June 7-

10, 1892, and Foster spoke on the last day of the convention. To introduce her, a clerk read aloud a letter from Foster to the New York delegation of the Republican National

Convention in which she described the work of “Republican women for the maintenance of Republican principles and the election of Republican candidates.”8 She was then introduced as the “Chairman of the Woman’s Republican Association of the United

States” and delivered an address on the role of women in the Republican Party.

Through an analysis of these two convention addresses, one can compare and contrast the strategies used by women in such an unprecedented position.9 As the first women to break a barrier by addressing party members in one of the most traditional political spaces, these two women used similar rhetorical strategies, despite their differing political affiliations and beliefs. Previous scholars confirm that both women were “feminine” arguers. Their adherence to True Womanhood and moral citizenship was an important part of their rhetorical personae, themes present in both addresses. How they utilize these strategies toward rhetorically performing political womanhood, however, shows the significance of their addresses. Willard enacted political womanhood Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 103 through rhetorically performing femininity as patriotic authority. Foster asserted her femininity as a reason for her participation in the party, while asserting her rights as a political citizen. Both women used femininity as a strategic tool to seamlessly enter unchartered male political space.

As Campbell points out, “Willard’s rhetorical alchemy involved relabeling and reframing proposals in ways that transformed them from demands for social change into reaffirmations of traditional arrangements and values.”10 This strategy can be seen in both

Willard’s and Foster’s convention addresses. Specifically, both women tapped into the iconic nature of the nominating convention and highlighted national and patriotic memory to assert women’s rightful place within political parties. They strategically structured their speeches so as to assert their place avoid threatening their audiences. By examining Willard’s 1888 Prohibition Party convention address and Willard’s 1892

Republican Party convention address, one can identify the rhetorical strategies involved in being a political party female participant. Willard was a more accepted speaker at her convention, as she had been one of the founders and most influential voices in the party.

Foster had much less influence because she addressed an older and larger political party.

Both women, however, had to prove they were worth listening to in such an environment.

Their strategies demonstrate how they used their individual rhetorical styles in order to gain ethos in this quintessential space of U.S. party politics.

Frances Willard: The “Partisan” Prohibitionist

Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard was born to parents Josiah F. Willard and

Mary Thompson Hill Willard in Churchville, New York, on September 28, 1839.11 When she was two, her family moved to Oberlin, Ohio. Her father then developed symptoms of Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 104 tuberculosis and, at the suggestion of his doctor, the family moved to

Janesville, Territory, to live “an outdoor life” in 1846.12 Life on their extensive farm in Janesville was, at times, isolating. There were no schools, and the

Willards would live for most of the year without human interaction outside of the family.13

Both of her parents were educated, having taken courses at Oberlin College before the family moved to Wisconsin. Her father, however, believed women belonged in the home, and so Frances and her sister, Mary, studied at home with their mother for several years.14 In 1848, her father Josiah was elected to the Wisconsin legislature. While he was away in Madison during the legislative session, her mother educated Frances and

Mary. When Frances was 17, her father agreed to let his two daughters attend Milwaukee

Female College, a school where their aunt was teaching. After one term, they transferred to the new North Western Female College in Evanston, Illinois. After graduating in 1859,

Frances Willard spent sixteen years teaching, primarily at schools for girls in several different locations.15 She even served as Preceptress at Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, the college that Judith Ellen Foster and Belva Lockwood both attended over a decade earlier.16

Early in her education, Willard became interested in the “Woman Question.”

Slagell points out that, “As early as 1860, at the age of 20, she copied long excerpts from a Henry Ward Beecher pro-suffrage speech.”17 In the late 1860s, Willard traveled throughout Europe and returned to the United States determined to improve the lives of women, initially through higher education.18 She encouraged her students to become interested in women’s issues, even assigning debate topics concerning temperance and Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 105 like issues to her classes.19 In 1871, Willard became the president of the newly opened Evanston Ladies College and later the first Dean of Women at Northwestern

University.20 Two years later, when financial aid for the college diminished because of the Chicago fire, the Ladies College was absorbed into Northwestern University. Because of administrative differences, and what Mattingly called “demeaning treatment of her ideas and unjustified challenges to her authority,” Willard resigned from her position and entered the world of social and political reform.21

The temperance movement had been in existence since the beginning of the 19th century. According to Slagell, “As early as 1809 groups were circulating pledges to abstain from distilled spirits. But with the 1826 emergence of the American Temperance

Society (ATS) the movement hit its pre-Civil War stride.”22 Evangelical religious leaders who “used moral suasion to encourage people to pledge total abstinence from distilled spirits” led the organization.23 By the 1830s, temperance groups began to advocate total abstinence from liquor, and in some states, passage of prohibition laws. Women had long been involved with the movement, but in the 1850s, as the issue gained more national attention, leaders became concerned about women’s public involvement. In 1852, the

New York Sons of Temperance denied the Daughters of Temperance equal participation in their organization, leading women like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to form the Women’s New York State Temperance Society.24 Debates about slavery and the Civil War stalled the movement’s growth, but women became active again in 1873.

Between December of 1873 and the fall of 1874, the “Women’s Crusade” swept the nation.25 More than 57,000 women marched through the streets and prayed in front of saloons.26 According to Slagell, “women who had never before spoken in public could be Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 106 heard singing and praying in the churches, outside saloons, and even inside saloons when bartenders gave them leave. In some towns crusade fever spread beyond street protests and into public demands for enforcement of policies such as Sunday closing laws.”27 Women would even kneel in saloons and place Bibles on bars to try to convince saloon owners to stop selling liquor.28 According to Dillon, “in about six months some three thousand saloons are said to have been closed.”29 In several states, those who participated in the Women’s Crusade began to organize into local Woman’s

Christian Temperance Unions, and in the fall of 1874, 16 states came together to form a national organization. The national WCTU received support from Protestant churches and “were part of a moral reformism based in values of sobriety, sexual morality, and

Protestant religious ethics.”30 As Slagell writes, “the WCTU quickly became the largest organization of women in America and brought not only new people, but a new fervor, and a broader perspective to the temperance movement, helping that movement play a central role in the reform energies of the Gilded Age.”31 Although Willard was not involved in the Women’s Crusades, she quickly identified the temperance movement as a prime space for her leadership.

Involvement with the temperance movement was a “conscious and pragmatic career choice.”32 Willard and her family had long been temperance advocates, and she delivered her earliest temperance address before the Evanston Temperance Alliance in the 1860s.33 According to Dow, Willard wanted to continue fighting for women’s issues, and “her choice to identify herself with women’s temperance activities rather than with woman’s rights reflects the strategic thinking she would demonstrate as the leader of the

WCTU.”34 Many viewed the woman suffrage movement as radical, whereas the growing Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 107 woman’s temperance movement “could achieve advances for women while presenting itself in the guise of moral reform, a more respectable pursuit.”35 Immediately upon her resignation, Willard became President of her local WCTU in Chicago, and a few months later she became secretary of the WCTU in Illinois.36 In addition, she was invited to help found the Association for the Advancement of Women at a meeting of the

Woman’s Congress at the Union League Club in New York City in October of 1873.

According to Dillon, she was chosen “to provide a voice for moderate feminism at a time when the suffrage movement seemed marked by radicalism and eccentricity.”37 Bordin describes this meeting as Willard’s “eastern debut.”38 In 1874, she was chosen as a delegate to the Cleveland, Ohio, temperance convention at which the National WCTU was formed, and was elected corresponding secretary.39 In the historical account of women co-edited by Willard and Mary Livermore, Willard’s career choice was thus described: “Her soul had been stirred by the reports of the temperance crusade in Ohio during the preceding winter, and she heard the divine call to her life-work.”40

Willard served as President of the National WCTU from 1879 until her death in

1898.41 Under her leadership, the WCTU grew from 27,000 members to over 250,000 members nationwide.42 According to Dow, Willard’s “organizational genius and rhetorical acumen were the primary reasons for the growth of the WCTU under her leadership.”43 She set the agenda for the National WCTU for almost two decades, enlarging its sphere and expanding its reform efforts. As Dillon writes, “Under her leadership the Union quickly adopted new objectives and new methods. Hitherto a praying society dedicated to temperance, it soon became a strong women’s movement, solidly rooted in the Midwest, which promoted not only ‘temperance’ – total abstinence Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 108 and legal prohibition – but also a broad range of other causes.”44 This was partly reflected in Willard’s so-called “Do Everything” policy, a broad reform program tackling issues ranging from prison reform to kindergartens to health and hygiene.45 By

1890, the national WCTU had 39 departments organized into the three overarching areas of temperance, labor, and woman.46 Significantly, Willard moved the relatively conservative membership of the WCTU toward support of woman suffrage.47 Most historians credit Willard with forming the WCTU into an attractive organization that, according to Campbell, “met the needs of women who were frustrated in their attempts to effect change by influencing men.”48

One of the WCTU’s main initiatives was the rhetorical education of women, a program that undoubtedly stemmed from Willard’s earlier involvement with higher education. Mattingly describes this program in detail in her study of temperance rhetoric, describing the WCTU as a “tremendous network for providing leadership opportunities for women: scores of offices and departments on the national level, and thousands on state, district, county, and local levels, that would require workers to become publicly active writers and speakers.”49 Because most women were not educated in the arts of rhetoric or elocution, many women sought this education within movements like the

WCTU. According to Mattingly, the WCTU rhetorical education program was

“especially successful because new members learned public presentation from skillful teachers who understood women’s particular needs.”50 Willard was a prime example of such an educator, as she was someone who not only built her career around public performance and argument, but also was skilled at the art of persuasion. In fact, as

Campbell writes, “Willard’s power came from her leadership ability which, in turn, was Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 109 directly related to her skill as a speaker.”51 The national WCTU created a department for “Training Schools,” which was later changed to “Schools of Methods and

Parliamentary Usage,” which taught women such topics as “the Best Methods of

Influencing Public Opinion,” engaging with the “Press,” and participating on the

“Platform.”52 In its instruction, the WCTU leaders taught women to combine “a modified version of the classical ‘good’ speaker with patriotic and biblical allusions in order to establish credibility and create authority for their public roles.”53 This was a style perhaps best illustrated by Willard’s own rhetoric, as she frequently encouraged “womanliness first.”54

Willard spent most of her career traveling the country and lecturing on a range of issues. Significantly, she would speak to women “first through their interest in protecting their homes and families as well as the homes of others in the community from the ravages of alcohol, she encouraged these women to see themselves as serious participants in the political community.”55 Throughout her speaking career she coined several historical phrases associated with the WCTU, including their primary motto, “For God and Home and Native Land.”56 Accompanied often by her mother, and almost always by her close confidant and personal secretary, Anna Gordon, Willard had visited every state and territory in the United States by 1883.57

In addition to her rhetorical leadership, Willard broadened the scope of the

WCTU through publishing. According to Dow, the Union Signal, the official journal of the WCTU, “was the most popular women’s paper in the world, with a circulation of almost 100,000.”58 She also founded the Woman’s Temperance Publishing Association Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 110 (WTPA), which published writings of the WCTU and several of Willard’s personal writings, including four books, and several essays, pamphlets, and speeches.59

Willard is remembered by most for her unmatched leadership of the WCTU and efforts for woman’s rights. She is one of the most well known women of her time, partially because of the incredible archive of material that she left for scholars. In addition to her reform work, Willard was one of the first women to hold a position of leadership within a political party. The Prohibition Party was started in 1869 by a religious group called the Good Templars in New York. The group accepted women into their ranks from the beginning, seating thirty women as delegates at its founding convention.60 As Prohibition interests expanded over the next decade, the Prohibition

Party grew in both membership and influence. Prohibition Party membership came predominantly from the Midwest and the Northeast. Its primary stances included asserting that both the Democratic and Republican parties were influenced and manipulated by liquor interests, and that “the liquor traffic endangered democracy” by preventing an individual from recognizing “his self-interest, a critical prerequisite for working democracy.”61 As Edwards writes, “Prohibitionists accused men in both major parties of the intemperance, violence, and sexual corruption that GOP leaders charged to

Democrats. In place of such debauched manhood, the third party presented men of pure character and ‘manly tenderness’ and women of the ‘most exalted virtue.’”62 Prohibition

Party members were predominantly evangelical, and their religious messages were evidenced in their party rituals. As Edwards writes, “Prohibitionists contrasted the virtues of these faithful family men with the behavior of politicians in the major parties”63 It was Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 111 the involvement of Willard and the WCTU, however, that enabled the party to develop an influential national image.

The Prohibition Party was the party of the Gilded Age that most publicly and prominently featured the value of its female membership. Because the main issue for the party was promoting Prohibition, and because women had long been involved in the temperance crusade, the fit seemed natural. Even in the 1870s, before the party formally organized with the WCTU, women began to circulate petitions and canvass communities in order to elect “dry” candidates to local or state positions.64 Women also served on platform committees and represented their states at national meetings by 1875. At the local level, “women’s participation was a constant feature of party life.”65

Andersen argues that the Prohibition Party embraced women’s involvement for both practical and philosophical reasons. Practically, because partisan politics was “labor intensive,” and because their membership was significantly smaller than the Republican or Democratic parties, women could help spread the message through passing out pamphlets, organizing rallies, getting people to the polls, and speaking to constituents.66

As Andersen writes, “Some Prohibitionists suggested that when women solicited newspaper subscriptions, fundraised, or distributed campaign materials, the gendered aspect of their canvassing made it more effective than when similar work was performed by men.”67 At conventions, women spoke, wrote resolutions, participated in debates, and voted on the platform.68 Philosophically, women members ideally could use their moral authority to aid in combatting the corruption of the two major parties.69 Regardless of why women participated, the Party remained supportive of woman’s rights for most of its tenure, adopting a woman suffrage plank at its first national convention in 1872, which it Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 112 renewed at almost every convention thereafter.70 At the 1880 national convention, ten of 142 delegates were women.71

Willard might have had a penchant for third party politics, as her father was a member of the Free Soil Party in the 1840s.72 Willard grew up fascinated by politics, even claiming that she would listen to her mother and father talk about politics as a child and that her mother was a ”tremendously potential politician”73 Her family had been

Republican since 1856, and most of the WCTU membership was Republican “in its traditions.”74 She began to organize “Home Protection” clubs outside of the WCTU, most of which were made up primarily of WCTU members. Bordin cites this as a smart choice by Willard because it “developed organized support within the Union for Prohibition

Party affiliation, and it provided a strong constituency that Willard could use to bargain for influence within the Prohibition Party at its next convention.”75 After supporting

Republican James Garfield in 1880 with the failed hope that he and the Republican Party would endorse both suffrage and prohibition, Willard formed her own “Home Protection

Party” in 1881.76

Even before Willard, WCTU leaders were involved with the Prohibition Party.

Andersen cites Amanda Way, Eliza Stewart, Mattie McClellan Brown, and Harriet Goff as WCTU leaders who also held party positions before Willard’s presidency. In fact,

“Connecticut’s women Prohibitionists suggested the alliance’s deep historical roots when they founded a state WCTU in 1874 while attending a party convention.”77 In 1882, the

Prohibition Party merged with Willard’s Home Protection Party to create the Prohibition

Home Protection Party. It increased party membership by tens of thousands, and gave women a significant role to play.78 As Willard wrote in her autobiography, “I there Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 113 became officially related to a political party as a member of its central committee and have been thus related almost ever since.”79 Willard was not only one of the founders of the party, but also one of its most vocal leaders. She served as a member of the executive committee of the Prohibition Party from 1882 until 1891. In fact, the party had little success with their male candidates before the involvement of the women of the WCTU.80

When the Democrats, Greenbackers, and Republicans all failed to endorse prohibition in 1884, the Prohibition Party nominated John P. St. John for President of the

United States at its own nominating convention in Pittsburgh, PA. Willard gave a speech seconding the nomination.81 John St. John was the former Republican governor of Kansas who had passed the state’s prohibition amendment.82 Willard described the 1884

Prohibition Party convention in the following way: “It was a gathering never to be forgotten!...Careful hands had decked the old hall with mottoes and flags, pictures and banners, all symbolic of ‘Down with the saloon and up with the home.’ Mary A.

Woodbridge, of Ohio, was chosen one of the secretaries, and women were on every committee.”83 Many historians claim that the party was responsible for Republican James

Blaine’s loss of the presidency in 1884.84 St. John won over 150,000 votes.85 Willard was also invited to give a major address at the 1888 national convention. During the 1888 presidential election, Willard actively campaigned nationally for Clinton B. Fisk, the

Prohibition Party’s nominee. She and Helen Gougar were the two most active female campaign speakers. Gougar even followed Anna Dickinson and Judith Ellen Foster on the campaign trail, countering their Republican speeches with a speech for the Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 114 Prohibition Party.86 As Edwards claims, “Prohibitionist men offered women unprecedented power inside a party structure.”87

Judith Ellen Foster: The “Non-Partisan” Republican

Judith Ellen Horton was born the third daughter and youngest of ten children in

Lowell, MA, on November 3, 1840, to parents Jotham Warren Horton and Judith Delano

Horton.88 Her parents were both of Puritan ancestry and were devoutly religious.89

Jotham was a blacksmith who became a Methodist minister, but died when Foster was

12. Because her mother died when Foster was six, Foster then moved to Boston to live with a married sister, where she attended school at Charlestown Female Seminary. From

1855-1856, she attended Genesee Wesleyan Seminary. Coincidentally, she seemingly was a classmate of Belva Bennett Lockwood, who was also at Genesee Wesleyan in

1855.90 She was a teacher until she married Addison Avery in 1860. In December of

1860 she gave birth to a daughter, Mary Elizabeth, and in 1863, a son named William

Horton. Mary Elizabeth died at the age of five. The Averys moved to Montreal and then to Chicago in 1865. According to Byrne, “their marriage was unhappy,” and they divorced.91 Judith Avery met lawyer Elijah Caleb Foster while working at a Sunday school in a poor Chicago neighborhood. They were married in July of 1869. Born in

Canada, Elijah Foster established his law practice in Clinton, Iowa. The Fosters had a son, Emory Miller, in 1870, and a daughter, Ellen Orilla in 1871, who also died when she was five years old.92

Under her husband’s guidance, she studied law while raising her children, and began to practice law in the early 1870s. In 1872, Foster became the first woman in Iowa Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 115 to be admitted to the bar, and in 1875 became only the fourth woman to be admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of Iowa.93 Foster and her husband shared the law practice of “Foster and Foster,” and she practiced law for most of her life. In addition, the Fosters continually engaged in missionary and charity work. Moreover, she became increasingly involved with her local temperance organization. Her involvement even caused some local tension, evidenced by an act of arson on the Fosters home in

1874, allegedly by one of the local saloon keepers.94 Supported by her husband, Foster began to volunteer as a WCTU organizer.95 Like Willard, Foster was also a delegate to the first WCTU convention in 1874. She became a national leader, and in 1880 became the WCTU’s legal advisor and the Superintendent of Legislation and Petitions.96 She and

Willard met at the 1874 convention and “became great friends,” as “Miss Willard urged

Mrs. Foster to go on the platform and devote herself to the cause of prohibition.”97 As

Superintendent of Legislation and Petitions, “she made nationwide speaking tours advocating prohibition and woman suffrage.”98

Apparently, Foster was a charismatic and successful public speaker. On June 5,

1874, the DeWitt Observer described her public speaking as follows: “One of the best temperance lectures we ever listened to was delivered in the M.E. Church last Sabbath evening by Mrs. Foster of Clinton. The house was filled to overflowing. The audience was delighted with the lecture.” Again, on August 6, 1874, the Observer reprinted an article from the Lyons Mirror that said: “We have an Elizabeth Cady Stanton in our midst. Last Sabbath evening I went to Clinton to hear Mrs. Foster lecture on temperance.

The several congregations combined filled the church to its utmost capacity. She gave one of the best addresses upon this subject I ever heard. It really appears to me she is Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 116 equal to any lady orator in the United States.”99 As Mott writes, “Thus it appears Mrs. Foster had attained a local reputation as a very effective and eloquent temperance orator, and was in demand in her section of the state.”100 In addition to her speaking career, Foster published several pamphlets and articles, including one in 1882 titled The Constitutional Amendment Manual, which described organizational techniques for pre-election canvases of voters.101 She also wrote a few articles on women’s involvement in politics, and published a volume titled For God and home, and native land. The truth in the case, concerning partisanship and non-partisanship in the WCTU, in 1889. The volume was a direct refutation of a pamphlet written by “the General

Officers” of the national WCTU called “Facts in the Case” and the “Monthly Reading” dispersed to WCTU members, and written by Frances Willard.

In addition to speaking on temperance, Foster was in demand as a speaker for the

Republican Party. She actively campaigned during the 1884, 1888, and 1892 elections.

As Mott states, “During the 1884 political campaign Mrs. Foster was in great demand as a speaker, not only in Iowa, but made many addresses in other states, speaking under the auspices of the Republican National Committee…For the next ten years she delivered hundreds of addresses, speaking in all parts of the United States, frequently on politics, but oftener on temperance, on which she spoke in many churches, as well as in public halls.”102 Women had been involved with the Republican Party since its creation, although in a much more limited capacity than the women of the Prohibition Party.

The visibility of women in the Republican Party came to the forefront during the presidential election of 1860, when women sat in galleries at the Republican National

Convention, and one woman, Mary Livermore, gained access to the floor as a reporter. Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 117 Just like Whig women in the 1840s, Republican women hosted parties, attended rallies, and marched in parades.103 This continued during the Civil War, when women increasingly wrote pamphlets, tracts, and newspaper columns.104 Perhaps the most famous Republican woman of the time was Anna E. Dickinson, who gave speeches for the Republican Party from 1862 to the 1890s. As Freeman writes, her speeches “were deemed so essential to its electoral success in New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania that she was invited to address Congress in January of 1864.”105 She spent the rest of her career as a lecturer, often paid by candidates to speak for them on the campaign trail. The Democrats were sufficiently intimidated by Dickinson’s success that they employed their own women, actress Emma Webb and Irish-American

Terese Esmond, to combat Dickinson’s lectures.106 Willard even named Dickinson as

“her primary role model for female public speakers.”107

Notably, after passage of the 15th Amendment, newly emancipated African

American women in the South began to participate in Republican campaigns. Although the amendment only enfranchised Black men, the Southern Black population in the South understood the need for racial solidarity. Whereas female involvement in the North was still seen as distinct from the male right to the ballot, the southern African American community viewed access to voting rights as a collective victory. That is, African

American men and women had a sense of the ballot as collectively owned, with both sexes able to use their influence in order to better their position in society.108 The

Republican Party was the party that offered them the greatest chance. At the Republican state constitutional convention in Richmond, VA, for example, thousands of African

American men, women, and children went to the convention site to participate in the Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 118 proceedings, an activity they would continue to do throughout the 1860s. The

Reconstruction Act of 1867 required Confederate states to hold constitutional conventions, and African American men and women intended to be more than mere observers. There was robust activity from both men and women, as both sexes took part in voting, gave speeches, and participated in committee discussions. This differed significantly from southern white women, who sat silently in the gallery. 109

Brown argues that African American Richmonders developed an internal political community that gave women significant agency, a practice that seemed to be common among the growing African American communities in the South. Women voted in meetings, participated in public debates, marched in parades, and attended conventions.110 The Richmond evidence suggests that African American women also organized their own political societies, like the Rising Daughters of Liberty. These societies participated in political campaigns by educating people on the issues, raising funds, and getting out the vote.111 Tera Hunter mentions a African American cook and laundress named Hannah Flournoy, who ran a boarding house that was often a gathering place and safe-haven for Southern Republicans.112 In Mississippi, women wore

Republican campaign buttons in 1868, and in , Louisiana, and other places, women were sent as representatives of their communities to political meetings.113

At these meetings, women were sometimes charged with protecting the proceedings by guarding the door with guns.114 It was generally understood that African American women had an invested interest in their husband’s vote. Some women were even encouraged to call off engagements if their men voted Democratic, or to abstain from sex with their husbands if they voted Democratic, and some even organized groups to enforce Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 119 these social expectations.115 A few even gave speeches at some campaign rallies.116 Freedwomen were fiercely partisan, often going so far as to expel Democrats from their churches or refuse room and board to Democratic husbands or sons. In fact, well-known African American writers Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and Anna Julia

Cooper frequently claimed that Black women were the tried and true Republicans.117

Despite the high level of involvement that southern African American women experienced during the beginning of Reconstruction, their involvement caused Democrats to charge that the Republican Party was being influenced by “negro wenches.”118 The role that African American women played in Southern politics declined in the late 1860s, and women were formally excluded from Republican meetings by the end of the decade.119 African American women’s experience just after the end of the Civil War in the South, however, represents a key aspect of the development of women’s increased political participation. As Brown writes, “unlike many northern white middle-class women, southern African American women in the immediate post-Civil War era did not base their political participation in justifications of superior female morality or public motherhood. They did not need to; their own cultural, economic, and political traditions provided rationale enough – ‘autonomy was not simply personal.’”120 African American women’s public involvement in the politics of the South, however short-lived, illustrates the development of political womanhood. Woman’s role in politics was considered collective and communal -- a role that would be developed further later in the century.

After the height of the had passed, the Republican Party continued to utilize women’s activism. In addition, woman suffrage advocates continued to foster a relationship with the Republican Party, believing it to be the only major party Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 120 with the potential to back suffrage. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B.

Anthony attended the Republican National Convention in 1868, and claim that after that year, a woman attended every national convention of each major party.121 Despite a rift in the suffrage movement, the American Woman Suffrage Association and the National

Women Suffrage Association both supported Republican Ulysses S. Grant in 1872, putting aside their differences and working together to re-elect President Grant over anti- suffrage Democrat Horace Greeley.122 Interestingly, formerly staunch Republican Anna

Dickinson campaigned for Greeley, thinking that Grant’s unproductive first administration did not deserve support.123 The leaders of NWSA disagreed with

Dickinson, and they published a statement encouraging women to forget the unfulfilled promises of the Republican Party and instead to campaign for Grant. Hoping to utilize the influence of the woman’s rights leaders, the Republican National Committee published and distributed the statement nationwide.124 Furthermore, Susan B. Anthony went to

Washington to consult with Republican National Committee about how best to assist the campaign, and sent woman suffrage leaders with Republican candidates on speaking tours and at campaign rallies.125 In fact, most suffrage leaders stumped for Grant in 1872, including Stanton, Anthony, Stone, , Olympia Brown, Ida H. Harper, and Abigail Scott Duniway.126

The allegiance between the Republican Party and woman suffrage organizations began to unravel in the 1880s. By that time, both AWSA and NWSA members were frustrated by the Republican Party’s failure to support woman suffrage, and often argued that female partisan campaign work “distracted women from true advancement.”127

However, this frustration did not vitiate their Republican loyalties, and leaders like Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 121 Anthony, Stanton, and Blackwell, and publications like The Woman’s Journal, frequently and enthusiastically endorsed Republican candidates.128 The advocacy for the

Republican Party did not last long after 1884; Anthony and Stanton split publicly in 1888 when Stanton supported the Prohibition Party and Anthony remained loyal to the

Republicans.129

Arguably the first significant Republican Party leader was Foster. Like Willard,

Foster delivered a message that women played a distinct role in politics, and that their moral superiority could clean up corruption.130 Foster and her husband were ardent

Republicans, and this partisanship was obvious in many of Foster’s career choices. In

1884, Mott describes Foster as in great demand as a speaker, not only in Iowa, but in many other states, speaking under the auspices of the Republican National

Committee.”131 After the Republican Party endorsed “equal pay for equal work” in their

1888 platform, Foster began to organize women.132 As Edwards writes, “Foster preferred to cast her lot with the most palatable party in power and wait for it to take up the issue closest to her heart.”133 She continued to argue for Prohibition by attending meetings of

“Anti-Saloon Republicans” during 1888 to encourage support for a temperance plank in that year’s party platform.134

Foster also formed the new Women’s National Republican Association (WNRA) in 1888 with the support of the Republican National Committee (RNC). Chairman of the

National League of Republican Clubs and member of the Republican National

Committee, James Clarkson, a Republican also from Iowa, approved the program. The

RNC believed that these women’s clubs could help to educate the population on

Republican policies and candidates. The WNRA was given an office adjoining the RNC Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 122 in New York City.135 The WNRA had significant financial backing from the likes of temperance advocate and Republican John D. Rockefeller. According to Byrne,

“in 1888 the Fosters moved to Washington, D.C., where Elijah Foster was given a minor

Justice Department appointment while his wife continued her party work, becoming a familiar figure in state and national Republican conclaves."136 Edwards writes that by

1892, “the NWRA’s paid staff included Foster, a secretary, a publicity director, and 300 field workers. Republican leaders apparently covered all expenses, including travel funds.”137 Foster continued to head the group until her death.

Edwards argues that much of the push for Republican support for women was class based, as middle-class women attempted to connect to other women across class lines in an age when women were increasingly wage earners and important participants in the economy.138 The NWRA traveled nationally to rally women to support Republican candidates and educate women on Republican issues. Edwards writes, “Rather than promoting parades and fireworks, the National Women’s Republican Association copied the educational campaign style pioneered by young men in the Northeast. From New

York City, Foster and her staff directed women to form local clubs that would ‘study, discuss, and circulate party literature.’”139 Foster actively encouraged women’s participation, even offering a prize for essays written by women about government.140

Foster’s program did not include advocacy for issues like temperance and woman suffrage, as she spread the message that women should support Republican candidates,

“whomever they might be.”141 This demonstrates the vision that Foster had of party politics, which stood in sharp contrast to Willard’s. This tension came to a head in 1889 at the WCTU national convention. Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 123 A Definitional Debate: Partisanship and Political Exercise

As president of the WCTU, Willard spent the 1880s advocating for the WCTU’s official endorsement of the Prohibition Party.142 Because the Prohibition Party shared many of the same goals and espoused many of the same values, Willard believed that this party could be the WCTU’s door to institutional political influence. As Edwards writes,

“Women as well as men justified Prohibitionism by reference to the sacred trusts of family and faith, cloaking partisan and suffrage advocacy in the rhetoric of motherhood and Christian obligation.”143 Willard capitalized on these strategies when trying to convince the WCTU to formally endorse the party and its candidates. Her advocacy for the Prohibition Party was not popular with all of the WCTU membership, particularly

Foster and her Iowa WCTU cohorts. They were not alone, as many of the Northern members of the WCTU remained loyal Republicans throughout the 1880s and 1890s.144

As Edwards states, “Struggles in the 1880s left a legacy of division within the Union, between those who endorsed partisan Prohibitionism and those who resented Willard’s efforts to prod them along. For many if not most of these women, the problem was not their commitment to nonpartisanship but the new party’s interference with loyalties they already held.”145 The decade-long debate between Willard and Foster demonstrates the tension that existed among reform women about the definition of partisanship and its role with women.

The Iowa Republican Party had adopted planks in their platform supporting prohibition, primarily because of the hard work of Foster. Willard’s biographer Bordin writes that Foster “could not accept WCTU alignment with the Prohibition party, which usually drew what votes it got at the expense of Republican strength, and if Willard was Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 124 determined to have the WCTU firmly in the Prohibition party camp, she was equally determined to prevent it.”146 This is a simplistic approach to the tension that existed. After examining Willard and Foster’s statements on the matter, it is clear that the two women had differing views on partisanship itself. Willard believed that the WCTU should align itself with the party that would endorse its reform program. As she claimed in her 1884 Annual Address to the WCTU titled “Gospel Politics,” “Party inclosures must be broken down, that men who think and vote alike may clasp hands in a political fraternity where the issue of to-day outranks that of yesterday or of to-morrow.”147 She believed that the failure of Republicans and Democrats to endorse prohibition and woman suffrage meant they were not supportive of the WCTU and its policies. She continued,

“Existing parties can not in the nature of the case, take up this question. Not to this end were they born; not for this cause did they come into the world. Upon this issue the voters who compose them are irrevocably divided.”148 For Willard, partisanship meant aligning with the party of principle, regardless of electoral success.

In contrast, Foster held that: “The result of an election is an aggregate result…Politics deal with the masses, reforms deal with the individuals. As a reformer I am a Prohibitionist; but as a Republican I am the best I can get.”149 Foster’s protest against joining forces with the Prohibition Party was more over political choice than partisanship itself. Foster believed that involvement in reform movements was a choice independent of partisanship. As Freeman points out, “Foster actively discouraged

Republican women from merging reform and partisanship. She felt that women could participate in reform work, including the movement for woman suffrage, as individuals, but that as Republicans they should support the party’s candidates.”150 In addition, Foster Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 125 and her husband were ardent Republicans, and she did not want her membership in the WCTU to hinder her support of the party. Foster claimed that endorsement of the Prohibition Party was “wrong in principle. A moral reform association, having as its test of membership a total abstinence pledge, ought not to ally itself with any organization, political or otherwise, having no such test of membership”151

In addition, Foster believed partisanship to be a political right and should be an individual choice, not one made by an organization. To that end, Foster articulated her stance in 1887 in her protest to the WCTU: “We assert the right of each member of any philanthropic society to their denominational and political preferences to be inalienable and beyond the just power of any majority to transfer.”152 For Foster, in part because of her strong Republican allegiances, participation in a political party was a matter of rights.

She described this in the formal protest issued to the WCTU in 1885: “In contravention of this equality of rights…it uses the collective influence of the Union, and its moral power, as an entirety, including that of the opponents of this policy, in the upbuilding and advancement of a political party to which some of our members, as individuals, refuse allegiance. It lends our influence and may appropriate our money to aid a political party over which we have no control.”153 Foster advocated “non-partisanship” within the

WCTU, not because she was not a partisan herself, but because she believed that the members of the WCTU should be able to make their own political party choices.

Beginning in 1882, Willard annually proposed a formal alliance between the

WCTU and the Prohibition Party, and at every convention until 1888, Foster presented resolutions protesting the measure. At the 1884 convention in St. Louis, Willard fervently Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 126 advocated an alliance with the Prohibition Party, which resulted in a lengthy debate involving Willard, Foster, and other members.154 In 1886, the convention voted to stop debating “resolutions dealing with political endorsements,” but Foster forced the debate on the floor. In 1888, Willard led the WCTU to vote to “back any party that endorsed prohibition and ‘Home Protection,” which was interpreted as complete endorsement of the Prohibition Party. Foster attempted to protest yet again, but debate on the issue was denied in the proceedings.155 Unable to protest during convention proceedings, Gustafson reports that Foster and those who supported her position stopped paying their dues, claiming that they would be used for the Prohibition Party campaign.

The WCTU then passed a resolution claiming “that anyone unfriendly to the Prohibition

Party ‘is hereby declared disloyal to our organization.’”156

The formerly close friends and colleagues began a significant public debate over partisanship. From 1884 to the early 1890s, Willard and Foster publicly accused the other of manipulation, selfishness, and misguided values.157 According to Bordin, “Personal relationships eroded. Foster accused Willard of unethical tactics and violations of parliamentary procedure, although they had appeared on the same platform at a large temperance mass meeting in the spring.”158 Willard described Foster’s actions in this way: “And now arose Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, of Iowa, until this time my warm and earnest coadjutor in every measure that had come before our conventions, in so much that we two were called ‘the wheel-horses of the W. C. T. U. wagon’… Twice in my life I have been moved to bitter tears, by the contradictions of my public environment.”159 Finally, in

1889, Foster and Ellen J. Phinney of Ohio led the entire Iowa delegation and others out of the WCTU convention and formed their own “Non-Partisan Woman’s Christian Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 127 Temperance Union” (NWCTU). The NWCTU held a convention in 1890, with

Phinney presiding as President. The Non-Partisan National WCTU “achieved only a limited following, though for a time, it had branches in seven states” – Iowa, Illinois,

Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maine, and Vermont.160 It also held at least four annual conventions. All the while, Willard continued her active campaigning for the Prohibition

Party.

Rhetorical Partisan Parallels: “Conventional” Addresses

As two women who fundamentally disagreed on the partisan direction of the

WCTU and had differing partisan alliances, one might assume that their party rhetoric would reflect these disparities. However, a rhetorical comparison of Willard’s and

Foster’s addresses at the Prohibition and Republican Party national conventions reflect more similarities than differences. Both women were embarking on unchartered territory in speaking at the main political event of each party. As women, they were confronted with similar constraints based on their sex. Despite their different audiences, one can trace similar rhetorical strategies.

No analysis of Foster’s writings or speeches has been conducted to this time, probably owing lack of material. Although a few of her works have been published, and her speeches are included in the minutes of the 1892 Republican Party convention, the

WCTU conventions, and the NWCTU conventions, most of Foster’s rhetorical activities have been lost. The most significant biographical and philosophical study of Foster is found in Melanie Gustafson’s chapter “Partisan and Nonpartisan: The Political Career of

Judith Ellen Foster, 1881-1910,” in a volume on women in political parties. Her work is comprehensive and offers a historical analysis of Foster’s political philosophy. Jo Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 128 Freeman examines the roots of women’s involvement in the Republican Party, crediting Foster in the 1880s.161 David C. Mott wrote a biographical entry on Foster in the Annals of Iowa: A Historical Quarterly, in 1933, arguing for her consideration as one of the most influential Iowans. Finally, Frank Byrne wrote a biographical entry on Foster in Notable American Women 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary, published in 1972.

In contrast, several historians and rhetoricians have studied Willard’s career and her rhetorical strategies. Much of Willard’s personal story, as well as texts of her speeches and writings, were published in Willard’s autobiography, Glimpses of Fifty

Years: The Autobiography of an American Woman, in 1889. 162 Mary Earhart wrote the first full-length biography of Willard in 1944.163 Ruth Bordin has written perhaps the most about Willard, having penned a significant biography, a book on women and the temperance movement, as well as an article about Willard’s political influence. In her study, Bordin examines how “Willard functioned as a political leader by examining a critical phase of her political activity, a period when her social philosophy was mature, and when she also was at the peak of her ability to use the political system effectively.”164

Several rhetoricians have also analyzed Willard’s woman’s rights and temperance rhetoric. Karlyn Kohrs Campbell analyzes her speech, “A White Life For Two,” which eventually was printed as a pamphlet, in Man Cannot Speak For Her: A Critical Study of

Early Feminists Rhetoric.165 Campbell writes of the discourse of “social feminism,” claiming that, “Social feminists accepted traditional views of woman but argued that her distinctive influence should be extended to areas outside the home.”166 In her analysis,

Campbell claims that “A White Life For Two,” “embodied the paradox of ‘feminine feminism.’”167 Bonnie Dow continues this claim in her analysis of several of Willard’s Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 129 speeches and writings. Dow writes, “Willard’s appeal for her conservative audiences was her framing of all reforms within the boundaries of True Womanhood. Her entire public philosophy radiated from the argument that reforms were necessary to protect the home, woman’s traditional sphere.”168 Patricia Bizzell extends this argument by describing Willard’s “womanly spiritual ethos” in her analysis of Willard and Phoebe

Palmer, Willard’s “contemporary role model,” and “the most famous Methodist woman preacher of the nineteenth century.”169 Mary Williams attempts to understand Willard’s

“Theory of Rhetoric,” and identifies five distinct strategies through an analysis of

Willard’s publication How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle.170 Finally, Carol Mattingly’s wide study of temperance rhetoric in the 19th century engages with Willard as well, leading her to write, “Her unique brand of woman’s rights rhetoric and her work on behalf of a wide range of innovative reforms make her one of the most creative and strategic of nineteenth-century woman orators.”171

The most comprehensive rhetorical analyses of Willard’s rhetoric were written by

Amy Slagell and Richard Leeman. Slagell looked at over 100 of Willard’s speeches, her journals, and materials from scrapbooks from the Illinois WCTU headquarters. In her analysis, Slagell claims that, “Willard’s discourse on women’s rights transcended the ballot and envisioned instead a transformed world.”172 Slagell expertly traces Willard’s evolving persuasive campaign to compel the membership of the WCTU to support of woman suffrage. She examines Willard’s rhetoric throughout the years to trace an argumentative arc that began with arguing for the need for women’s political action based on women’s duty to protect the home.173 Leeman claimed that several of Willard’s speeches used a “masculine” style of rhetoric through use of deductive reasoning, logical Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 130 argument, and aggressive criticism of her opponents, but that her “feminine” values and ethos helped make her rhetoric successful on a large scale.174 In addition,

Maegan Parker examines a more controversial part of Willard’s rhetorical career through an analysis of a controversy between Willard and the prominent African American women’s leader, Ida B. Wells.175 According to Parker, “the Wells/Willard controversy offers a synechdochical view of broader societal attempts to grapple with expanding claims to citizenship.”176

All of the above scholars agree that Willard was a strategic thinker. Bordin describes: “To the young drunkard she offered the sympathy of a mother, to the elderly derelict she played angel of mercy.”177 Those who supported temperance were an

“essentially conservative group” who adhered to the, “pure, pious, domestic, and submissive ideals of True Womanhood.”178 Willard was able to appeal to a large segment of the population, including conservatives and reformers, men and women. As Dow writes, “Willard’s genius as a rhetorical strategist is apparent in her ability to obtain support for various controversial causes from the women who joined the WCTU and the men who supported the organization financially and ideologically.”179

Her “Home Protection” claims embraced “careful nurturance, womanly virtue, and love of family – all qualities the nineteenth century found admirable and worthy when practiced by the female sex.”180 Further, Willard frequently argued for women’s involvement in public policy because of their obligation to guard the “moral well-being of the home.”181 Because women could protect the home, part of Willard’s strategy involved convincing her audiences that “society, the larger ‘home,’ would benefit from women’s influence.”182According to Campbell, she utilized this strategy of encouraging Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 131 women to uphold their traditional role, while arguing for social reform.

Campbell writes, “Willard attempted to transmute apparently radical demands into minor reforms by treating them as the means to reaffirm traditional values. She framed her demands for change so that they appeared to reinforce traditional gender roles.”183 She was thus able to identify with a diverse audience, acting and advocating for a traditionally feminine role, while also arguing that change was needed. Bizzell described Willard’s rhetoric as embracing “purity” and “motherly domesticity.”184

Willard enacted what she argued, dressing in a “ladylike and fashionable” manner, yet embarking on a career in the public sphere arguably unparalleled at the time.185 In an encomium of sorts in a book titled The Beautiful Life of Frances E. Willard,

A Memorial Volume, edited by Anna Gordon and Lady Henry Somerset, the Reverend

Frank W. Gunsaulus describes Willard’s femininity this way: “When she pleaded for womanhood, the gentleness and quietness of her demeanor, the modesty of accent and sweetness of tone, made woman’s cause not less womanly than woman herself at her best.”186 He continued, “Miss Willard never needed to assume modesty – she was modesty incarnate.”187 Embodying a “feminine feminism” created a unique persona unlike other woman’s rights advocates at the time. Scholars point out that Willard performed femininity as a way to address diverse audiences, making her more radical claims seem non-threatening.

Both Willard and Foster embarked on rhetorical campaigns meant to rouse the desire in women to participate in politics. As Slagell writes, “The first step in Willard’s campaign was to awaken her audience to the need for political power to achieve its goals.”188 Willard accomplished this through an emphasis on home protection, True Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 132 Womanhood, motherhood, and duty. As Bordin writes, “She extolled its celebration of women’s special virtues, and she added her own corollary, a corollary shared by increasing numbers of women as the century moved into its final decades, that women must use their special virtues to uplift the public sphere and imbue politics and citizenship with the righteousness and purity so peculiarly their own.”189 Bordin points to

Willard’s use of the word “influence” as one way of accomplishing her goals. “Influence was a womanly word … Almost any woman could accept the idea that she had influence.

The whole doctrine of sphere revolved around woman’s influence in the home. Women were expected to influence their husbands and sons through moral suasion.”190

Importantly, Willard emphasized the “ease with which change could be achieved” with women’s involvement.191 Scholars point out that she did so through euphemism, words associated with movement, religious discourse, battle imagery, and enactment.192

Foster explicitly encouraged women to enter politics throughout her career. She wrote, “Out of the heart are the issues of life in politics as well as in religion. Women have much heart. In politics heart is needed.”193 She often argued on behalf of women’s participation because of what they could bring to the table. In addition, she often stressed the desire women had to participate. She wrote, “It is impossible for women to carry movements of social economies on their hearts and in their activities up to the point of the relation of these questions to the government and then suddenly let go their hold, and see these various objects of their solicitude lost in the whirlpool of political action where, being disenfranchised, they have no recognized place.”194 Finally, like Willard, Foster emphasized the unique position that women could bring to politics: “In social educational, and industrial emancipation, woman’s present achievements have realized Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 133 the largest expectations of enthusiasts. Her political enfranchisements shall bring like realizations.”195 She further wrote definitively, “Woman is in politics, and the only unanswered question is, what relation shall she hold to politics and what will be the result of that relation with all it involves?”196

Frances Elizabeth Willard: Prohibition Party National Convention, 1888

Because Willard was delivering the “Decoration Day” address at the 1888

Prohibition Party convention, one could expect her to reference veterans. According to

Gifford and Slagell, her audience included 500 veterans of the Union Army and the

Confederacy, all of whom were pro-temperance.197 Willard skillfully capitalized on the ethos of her audience in order to construct a partisan narrative that both characterized the

Prohibition Party as the party of unity and crafted a persona for herself as unifier. Willard used the memory of the Civil War and her own female patriotic authority to dissolve sectional division and unite the sexes for the common cause of Prohibition. This project is one that she seemed to embark on throughout her career. According to her profile in her own historical biographical reference book, “In 1881 Miss Willard made a tour of the

Southern States, which reconstructed her views of the situation and conquered conservative prejudice and sectional opposition. Thus was given the initial impetus to the foundation of the home protection party, which it was desired should unite all good men and women in its ranks.”198 This initiative is prominently showcased through her 1888 convention address.

She began the speech this way: “Here side by side sit the Blue and the Gray. No other than the Prohibition Party ever dared to be so great as to ordain a scene like this. I Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 134 speak the words of truth – and soberness.”199 Launching the address with a reference to the unified veterans in the audience accomplished a few things. First, Willard noted the historical strife between the North and the South, while claiming that it was the

Prohibition Party that could unify these two former enemies in the name of an important issue. Second, Willard acted as witness to this scene, thus honoring the strength of the veterans and the party, rather than herself. Campbell points out that this was an aspect of

Willard’s style: “Willard addressed her audiences not as her peers but as her superiors, inviting approval rather than participation.”200 In this instance, Willard framed the speech as if in deference to the authority of the party membership, and, specifically, the veterans of the “Army of the Blue and the Gray.” By implementing such a structure, Willard entered the conventional political space as a guest and a witness, but not necessarily a significant participant. Thus, she was non-threatening and inviting. In this structure,

Willard could claim for both herself and the Prohibition Party these “words of truth.”

That is, through these words she framed her “true” legacy and goal for politics in the

United States: unity, for the North and the South and for men and women. Just as the

Prohibition Party could bring together formerly warring men, so could it bring together the sexes.

Willard continued this theme by crediting the soldiers with teaching women how to unify, This made her a patriotic authority as a woman, but because of the actions of her male audience. She said, “The soldiers learned this first, brave and chivalric fellows, and they helped to teach us stay-at-homes the gracious lesson of fraternity. How often was the rude wreath of leaves placed on the grave of a Confederate by the Union soldier who had killed and yet had wept over him!”201 Her audience’s past experiences gave Willard the Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 135 ability to speak about unity in the present. Moreover, it was the veterans in the audience who were teaching women a “gracious lesson.” It was widely accepted that women predominately acted as the moral authorities in society. As is cited throughout this chapter, Willard frequently made use of this as a rhetorical strategy. As Bordin writes, “American society embraced with conviction the idea of the moral superiority of women, and as women moved into the public sphere they carried with them that aura of uncorrupted righteousness bestowed on them…“202 Here, though, it seems as if she is deferring to the veterans’ moral authority. Through this unique rhetorical move, Willard ascribed her moral authority to the lessons she learned from the men present, another non-threatening form of discourse. Additionally, this deference to the moral authority of men not only legitimized the Prohibition Party as the moral voice in politics, but suggested that the combined moral forces of men and women could benefit society. From the memory of the grief and disunity of the Civil War battlefield, experienced by men and learned by women, came the moral sense to lead the nation through the Prohibition Party.

Unity and moral rightness were further explicated through co-opting yet another

Civil War memory. Willard framed the Prohibition Party as the legacy of Abraham

Lincoln, in contrast to the Republican Party. According to John Bodnar, it was around this time when nineteenth century that “Abraham Lincoln slowly emerged as a major historical symbol.”203 Willard first claimed that the Republican Party no longer resembled its original form when she referred to it as “the party that was great when great Lincoln was its chief.”204 She then claimed the legacy of Lincoln for the Prohibitionists: Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 136 That is the rallying call of North and South, Protestant and Catholic, of

white and black, of men and women equally. Bourbon Democrat and Radical

Republican will seek in vain to stifle this swift-swelling chorus, that ‘Chorus of

the Union,’ for which great Lincoln vainly prayed in his first inaugural. Do you

not recall his marvelous concluding sentence (I quote from memory): ‘The mystic

chords of memory, stretching from many a sacred hearth and patriot’s grave all

over this broad land, shall once more swell the chorus of the Union when again

touched, as surely they will be, by the better angel of our nature.’ That angel is the

temperance reform, and the fulfillment of that prophecy we have lived to see.205

Unity, patriotism, and growing momentum were not the only themes that emerged in this passage. By co-opting not only Lincoln’s vision for the United States, but the words of his First Inaugural Address, Willard set the stage for demonstrating her own political knowledge. Further, she claimed the hope for a “better angel of our nature” for the

Prohibition Party and for the women now involved. By naming the “better angel” as temperance reform in general, Willard directly referenced the efforts of the Prohibition

Party and the WCTU. Seen in this way, the Prohibition Party was not only continuing the patriotic legacy of unity for which Lincoln “prayed,” but also was doing so by involving all those who were moral and pure. Willard thus utilized traditional feminine appeals to illustrate how and why women should be involved in future political decisions. They were, in several senses, the patriotic vision for the future. According to Rosemarie

Zagarri, it was accepted in the nineteenth century that female patriotism was “purer and nobler than men’s, untainted by self interest or the pursuit of personal gain”206 These Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 137 values of morality, patriotism, unity, and orientation toward the future were perhaps best demonstrated in the following quotation from Willard’s speech: “The greatest party stands for nationalism against sectionalism…it stands for the future in politics as against the past.”207

An important part of building her ethos as an authority on the desired political direction for the nation was proving knowledge of the past. In addition to citing Lincoln,

Willard said:

When I think of Lexington and Paul Revere; when I think of Bunker Hill and the

dark redoubt where General Warren died; when I think of Washington, that

greatest of Southerners, upon his knees in prayer at Valley Forge; when I think of

Stonewall Jackson praying before he fought; of Robert E. Lee and Sidney

Johnston’s stainless shields; when I remember Sheridan’s ride…and Sherman’s

march to the sea with the boys in blue behind him, and Grant fighting the battle

out and on to the glorious triumph of our Northern arms, then my heart prophesies

with all a patriot’s gratitude, America will win as against the awful tyranny of

King Alcohol and King Gambrinus, and proud am I to have a part in it, for thank

God I – I, too, am an American.”208

Note, first, that all of these historical references were related to past wars, in keeping with the theme of the address. As a woman, Willard needed to prove that she not only understood “American” values but also “American” battles. This was a continuation of arguments previously noted in this chapter. Second, Willard adhered to the needs of her united audience by referencing Northern and Southern triumphs and military leaders, an Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 138 important rhetorical move in order to identify with everyone listening to her.

Third, by calling herself a patriot with “gratitude,” she again showed deference to the heroic and meaningful acts of the men in her audience.

Finally, and of most significance, she rhetorically paralleled finding faith and pride in fighting a battle with finding faith in this political party. The Prohibition Party claimed to be the party of patriotism since its inception with its slogan of pairing

“prohibition and democracy”, and stating as the first plank in its 1872 platform:

That while we acknowledge the pure patriotism and profound statesmanship of

those patriots who laid the foundations of this Government, securing at once the

rights of the States severally, and their inseparable union by the Federal

Constitution, we would not merely garnish the sepulchers of our republican

fathers, but we do hereby renew our solemn pledges of fealty to the imperishable

principles of civil and religious liberty embodied in the Declaration of American

Independence and our Federal Constitution.”209

In an address at the 1872 Prohibition Party convention in Columbus, Ohio, Charles

Denison claimed that the primary credentials for a Prohibition Party candidate was

“patriotic devotion to welfare of our country.”210 In a way, then, by adding herself to the list of great “Americans” and because women were understood to be authorities on patriotism, Willard hinted at the notion that the involvement of women made the

Prohibitionists the true inheritors of patriotism, a position at the heart of their philosophy.

Finally, in promoting herself and the Prohibition Party as ultimate patriotic authority, Willard added her name to the “army” of Prohibitionists. Just as other female political leaders like Mary Elizabeth Lease capitalized on her patriotic authority as an Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 139 extension of Republican Motherhood, as argued in Chapter Two, Willard took her patriotic authority to the next level. Not only was Willard someone who could speak about “American” legacy and patriotism, but she was also a member of a group that could act. Rhetorically, she not only carved a space for women to participate in party politics, but put them there. She enacted this role in the following way: “Fellow soldiers in the fight for a clear brain, I am proud to belong to an army which makes kindred of those who once stood in arms against each other.”211

Her rhetoric continued to stress that women not only could help, but also would be important influences into the future. For this progressive statement, Willard used one of her most common strategies. She suggested that women belonged as participants through the “feminine” argument of the Bible. She said,

Let us cherish North Carolina’s motto from Isaiah’s words: ‘Fear not, I am with

thee; I will bring thy seed from the east and gather them from the west; I will say

to the north give up, and to the south keep not back, bring my sons from afar, and

my daughters from the ends of the earth.’ I am glad of these good times, and I

think we women are in them, equal members of the greatest party, as we have

been since the day of its birth.212

This quotation demonstrates Willard’s knowledge of religious values, state values, and feminine guidance. Willard had strong ties to the Methodist church and they informed her actions throughout her life. Christianity was also at the heart of the mission of the

WCTU. By using a strong religious and emotional appeal, Willard enacted political womanhood through the personae of moral guide, religious authority, and patriot. In this way, Willard was simultaneously a “feminine” participant and a political citizen. Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 140 Speaking as a woman at a nominating convention was virtually unheard of in 1888. In Willard’s instance, she highlighted the similarities that men and women shared through collective patriotism. She then manipulated this to transcend sectionalism, co-opt “American” political memory, and write women into its history. This was then framed as the vision for the future that the Prohibition Party could carry out. All the while, Willard maintained her “feminine feminism,” often speaking in deference to her male veteran audience and seamlessly adding her name to the “American” political story in a non-threatening way. Because she was able to frame the party’s agenda and membership in an honorable, authoritative, and credible way, Willard became the party’s patriotic authority.

Judith Ellen Foster: Republican Party National Convention, 1892

As has been described, Foster’s main political focus was temperance, and in this way she argued for many of the same values and policy initiatives as did Willard for the

Prohibition Party during her 1892 Republican Party convention address. Because there was no difference in the issues for which they argued, one can compare Willard’s and

Foster’s rhetorical strategies in light of their different audiences. Foster was a trailblazer for women within one of the two major parties during the Gilded Age. She garnered respect from other Republican leaders and led thousands of women in support of

Republican candidates. Her first major rhetorical move, then, was to assert women’s presence within the party. She proclaimed, “It is no mean honor which is given to me as a representative of many thousand Republican women to stand in this magnificent presence.”213 Like Willard, Foster spoke of being honored to speak at the convention in Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 141 front of such a group of men. By beginning her speech this way, she framed her address as humble and nonthreatening, the same way that Willard structured her convention address. She made it clear that she recognized her limited position as a woman, while asserting her presence as the representative of a large coalition of active female Republican Party members. She was both a humble participant and strong representative.

Foster then stressed the importance of her moment as a female speaker. She continued, “The tests of civilization which are its changed ideals, are recognized by our recognition here.”214 Here, Foster immediately structured her address as recognition of the past while looking toward the future, which paralleled Willard’s strategy four years earlier. Unlike Willard, though, who rhetorically enacted her womanhood, Foster stated clearly the role that women could play in the party. The “changing ideals” of

“civilization” suggested that the party was progressive and welcoming to woman’s rightful place as participants in political society.

She then stated plainly and famously, “Gentleman and Ladies, the Woman’s

Republican Association has prepared plans of work, with suggestions of detail which will be presented to every delegate and alternate in this convention. We are here to help you.

And we have come to stay.”215 Foster’s insertion of women into the rank and file of the

Republican Party was outright and definitive. At the same time, though, she strategically chose language that claimed her place as a party woman while not usurping the space of men. Like Willard, Foster framed women’s role as one that would unite, not divide. Take, for example, her use of the word “help.” She does not use words like “lead” or “create,” but shrouds her position in the role of assistance. This was, undoubtedly, in order to Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 142 appeal to her audience. As the first woman to address a national Republican

Party convention, she could not march in forcefully, but instead had to ease her audience into accepting her potential contribution. She emphasized preparation, plans, and organization so as to give Republican women credibility, and suggest that the party needed them. She made women merely assistants, while framing them as invaluable.

Here began one part of Foster’s address that differed significantly from Willard’s in 1888. Whereas Willard was addressing a party that was created based on moral reform,

Foster was addressing a much more diverse and widespread political audience. Willard spoke at length on prohibition and raising moral standards. Foster did not speak about the same moral issues. In fact, Foster worked to distance herself from such issues as prohibition when she said, “We do not seek recognition in the party in the interest of any one of the various reforms, in which, as individuals, we are interested.”216 This statement reflects an attempt by Foster to separate her from the traditional view of political women.

It seems that Foster wanted the convention to recognize her as an active participant both because of and in spite of her sex. Republican women had a lot to offer the party in terms of their presence and effort. At the same time, Foster stayed true to her proclaimed belief that moral reform should be a non-partisan political activity when she said, “We believe the moral reforms should be conducted outside of party lines, in the broad field of humanitarian, philanthropic, and Christian effort.”217 For Foster, Republican women were not involved because of women’s issues or women’s morality, but instead because of party loyalty. Willard certainly espoused party loyalty as well, but in the name of prohibition, which was appropriate for her particular audience. Foster asserted her presence as a woman because women deserved to be there as political citizens. Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 143 While seemingly wanting to distance herself from women’s issues, the rest of Foster’s speech rhetorically constructed the contribution that women could make as women. Like Willard, who claimed a space in the Prohibition Party for women as moral leaders, Foster became a moral leader. She said, “A man who fails to vote or who ignores the present harm which his vote may do can find no warrant for his course in reason or in morals.”218 She continued, “He who does not stand for the greatest present attainable good is a helper of the bad.”219 Women should help guide men to the polls because it was their moral duty to vote. Furthermore, women should be political participants because of their ability to help men find the good. Later she said,

“Righteousness in government comes by evolution oftener than by revolution.”220 With this statement one can see the whole of Foster’s argument. Not only should women contribute as moral guides, but they should do so because of the evolution in the political civilization that she mentioned at the beginning of the address. That is, she referenced past government and its lack of acceptance, claiming that “righteousness” could and would evolve. Read between the lines, Foster seems to be suggesting that women’s involvement in the Republican Party is not a radical act (like a revolution), but simply an evolution in thought. The past, in essence, could evolve into a “righteous” future.

Foster also utilized national history to justify her presence at a political convention. In particular, she referenced the history of the Civil War and the unifying tendencies of the Republican Party. Republican politicians frequently associated patriotism with Republicanism, particularly through the “memories of shared hardships and a common sense of national purpose” shared among veterans of the Civil War.221 In this vein Foster said, “Gentlemen, in our service of Republicanism we know no personal Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 144 preferences or factional strife; we wear upon our breasts the name of none of the honorable men who may be your choice; but on our hearts are carried and from prayerful lips will soon be uttered the names of your nominees.”222 This passage is key to understanding Foster’s strategy for several reasons. First, her use of the words “in our service,” references both militancy and unity. Second, she justified the presence of women by asserting their loyalty. She essentially claimed that Republican women all across the country would campaign for the nominee. Third, and most important, she used language associated with femininity to chart new territory for women’s involvement. The words “on our hearts” and “prayerful lips” reminded her audience that she understood woman’s sphere, while emerging from that sphere in a new and useful way.

She then praised her birthplace of Massachusetts and her home state of Iowa. The significance of these passages lies in what she referenced. She first described

Massachusetts as said “a great State; from the sand and rocks of her Atlantic coast consecrated by Plymouth’s pilgrim band…” Having come from a state with ingrained

“American” history, Foster further legitimized her presence as a citizen and political voice. Similarly, she praised Iowa when she claimed, “Iowa was quick to respond to the nation’s call in time of civil strife; she was first to respond to the cry of starving Russia; the sight of her corn made glad the hearts of dying men and women and little children; she even sent seven of her good women along to set the table.”223 Associating herself with an accomplished and generous state like Iowa added to her credibility. Because she came from two such historical and honored states, it was hard to reject her credentials.

Foster worked hard to associate herself with Republican Party history and its connection to patriotism. A history of the Republican Party written in 1884 claimed: Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 145 The Republican Party has been the most powerful champion of

freedom and equal rights in the world….Under various names, led by a purer

patriotism far in advance of the different political organizations to which they had

belonged, they continued to grow in numbers and influence, until, composing a

majority of their respective communities in this Republic, they were, in response

to an inexorable law, drawn into one great spirited army, with a common purpose

– equal and perpetual freedom for all – and a common name, Republican.”224

Foster’s words placed women in the service of that “spirited army.” Female patriotism was seen as “purer and nobler than men’s, untainted by self interest or the pursuit of personal gain”.225 Frame in this way, Foster’s leadership in the Republican Party could prove useful because of her strength as an ideal patriot.

This rich history of which Foster was part moved her to talk about the future potential of the Republican Party and of Republican women. She said, “Gentlemen, the

Republican party is nothing if not aggressive. It is a party of action; its breath is progress; its speech is the language of the world; its dialect is the rhetoric of the home, the farm, the shop.” She continued, “Its shibboleths might be written on the white walls of any church. It holds within its ranks the armies of all reform; its constituencies are the living, moving, vital elements of American life.”226 Just as Willard asserted that the Prohibition

Party could unite and lead the nation into the future, Foster claims that role for the

Republicans. Also like Willard, she does so moving from past to present. She first reminded the party of the history of the nation and then proclaimed it as the vision of the future. Further, she spoke as patriotic authority through that action and progress toward Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 146 the future. If the Republican Party was the “language of the world,” it should set an example for society. That example, Foster insinuated, was allowing women to participate.

Foster proclaimed, “Therefore let women weave their laurels and sing their glorias to the robust political action of the Republican party, which accepts the present as it is found, but out of it builds great boulevards of human progress.”227 Here, too, was

Foster asking her audience to be let in, but also showing her audience what the future should look like. She framed women’s involvement as an evolution; it was about changing with the times and keeping up with human progress. The Republican Party could be the one to lead into the future. Foster concluded, “Why should not women rally to the support of such a party? Gentlemen, we have come; we are for service. May God keep us all wise, and true, and strong, and brave.”228

Conclusion

By 1892, 120 women were delegates and alternates to the Prohibition Party national convention.229 An article in The Woman’s Journal in October 1892 said, “As might be expected of the party which incorporated a woman suffrage plank in its first national platform and has kept it there ever since, the Prohibition party has taken the lead during the present political campaign in recognizing the rights of women.”230 The

Woman’s Journal went on to name the Rev. Henrietta G. Moore of Ohio, Mrs. Clara

Hoffman of Missouri, Mrs. Mary T. Burt of New York, among others, as heavily involved in party activities. It also cited Miss Isabel G. Shortridge and Mrs. A.M. Holvey, both from Pennsylvania, as addressing campaign gatherings.231 Despite this sustained involvement, the Prohibition Party began to lose its appeal to many women. Andersen Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 147 discusses possible reasons for the declining participation by women in the party, attributing the phenomenon to election laws that required a certain number of votes from the previous election in order to appear on the ballot and changing campaign strategies. This, in many instances, marginalized female participation.

In addition, during the early twentieth century, election legislation changed the nomination process. Almost every state adopted the direct primary as a means to nominate candidates, rather than the traditional nominating conventions. These new election regulations that made it more difficult for third party candidates to appear on ballots.232 The Prohibition Party began to lose its political power due to economic and social unrest in the late 1880s. Because of the increasing influence of the Populists, particularly in the South and the West, Willard “attempted to unite the new Populist movement with the Prohibition party, the labor movement, and the Nationalists, and in the process she used techniques she had perfected in her previous political campaigns and in her political struggles within her own organization.”233 In 1890, Willard was a member of the Prohibition Party, Edward Bellamy’s Nationalists, and was affiliated with the

Knights of Labor.234

In 1892, Willard organized an informal conference of Prohibition and Populist leaders. Bordin asserts that the caliber of political leaders that responded to her call and attended her meeting was “a measure of the seriousness with which she was taken as a major force in American reform politics.”235 Hoping to create a united front heading into the St. Louis Industrial Conference in February, Willard failed to combine the two parties, as the Populists would “accept only limited municipal suffrage for women” and

“not a word about prohibition.”236 Willard did not participate in campaign activities of the Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 148 Prohibition Party in 1892.237 The Party is still in existence, and continues to nominate a candidate for president during each election cycle, but has little to no influence in national politics.

Women also continued to be involved with the Republican Party. Helen Varick

Boswell, a leader of Republican women’s clubs in New York, was the only woman invited to the National League of Republican Clubs convention in 1895.238 She took over as head of the NWRA upon Foster’s death. In addition, Adele Hazlett of Michigan, Nellie

Holbrook Blinn, Clara Shortridge Foltz spoke often on behalf of Republicans throughout the 1880s.239 In fact, the Republican Party in New York, Massachusetts, the Midwest, and the far West frequently utilized female campaign speakers by the 1880s.240

Willard’s health began to fail in 1890s because of “recurring attacks of anemia,”241 and during the last five years of her life, her physical strength diminished greatly. The following was printed after her own biographical entry in the historical compilation of American women that she edited:

She fell an easy prey to la grippe, during a visit she made to New York City in the

latter part of January, 1898. This was only a few days after the publication of

‘American Women,’ a work which will doubtless remain one of the most

enduring monuments of her literary labors. At midnight of February 17, after a

few days of severe illness, her spirit took its flight, to enter upon the eternal

rewards. Her last words testified to the consecration of her life. ‘How beautiful it

is to be with God!’ was her last uttered thought.242

Flags were lowered the day of Willard’s funeral, and services were held in New York

City, Churchville, New York, and Evanston, IL. Her coffin was placed on a podium in Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 149 Chicago’s “Temple” office building prior to her burial. According to Bordin,

“Throngs of silent Chicagoans, thirty thousand in one day, filed by the bier for a parting look at their city’s most famous citizen. Crowds stood for hours on the wet, windy pavement outside Willard hall waiting in fallen snow for their turn to pay homage to this slight, middle-aged woman.” Willard was one of the most well-known women of her day.

Upon her death, the New York Independent wrote, “No woman’s name is better known in the English speaking world than that of Miss Willard, save that of England’s great queen…it is the simple truth to say that in the death of Miss Willard, the foremost woman in the public life of this country has been removed.”243

As Gustafson writes, “Foster’s fame as a Republican organizer grew during the campaigns of 1892, 1894, and 1896, as she successfully organized African American and

White women all over the Northeast and in the West.”244 Her political career continued into the twentieth century. Interestingly, Foster proved to be a shrewd politician, frequently asking for appointments from Republican presidents. She won an appointment to the Industrial Commission and was charged with inspecting mobilization stations during the Spanish-American war by President McKinley, was appointed to examine the status of women in the Philippines and appointed as a U.S. representative to the

International Red Cross Conference by President Theodore Roosevelt, and was appointed to be a special agent to the Department of Justice to study the prison system by President

Taft.245 Foster died on August 11, 1910.246 The Register and Leader wrote upon her death, “She came in for much unkind criticism because she was a new woman in old- fashioned times, but posterity must be kinder to her than her own generation, because she deserves it.”247 Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 150 Bordin writes, “Frances Willard is a prime example of women’s practice of political influence…She developed flexible manipulative skills that made her highly effective at operating within the system,” while embracing “an ideology that demanded basic change in the social and economic fabric of American society.”248 This chapter argues that both Willard and Foster expanded the role of women in politics in a significant way. Despite their differences, both women tackled institutional political space, and crafted rhetorical personae and strategies that women would emulate in the future. For them, partisanship was about participation, and both succeeded in breaking unprecedented barriers. Willard and Foster set an example for how women could utilize their distinctive position, their past, and their present in order to propel into the future.

Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 151 Notes for Chapter Three

1 Judith Ellen Foster, “Address,” Rock Springs Miner, Nov 2, 1896. 2 Mary Earhart Dillon. “Willard, Frances Elizabeth.” Notable American Women 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary, ed. Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James, and Paul S. Boyer, vol. III (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1972), 617. 3 Frances E. Willard, “Statement on Petition to Congress,” Report on the International Council of Women, March 25 to April 1, 1888 (Washington, D.C.: National Woman Suffrage Association, Rufus H. Darby Printer, 1888), 286. 4 Judith Ellen Foster, “Women in Politics,” Report on the International Council of Women, March 25 to April 1, 1888, (Washington, D.C.: National Woman Suffrage Association, Rufus H. Darby Printer, 1888), 306. 5 Foster, “Women in Politics,” 305. 6 “Decoration Day” today is known as “Memorial Day.” There was a crowd of over 5,000 at the speech, which was considered the “centerpiece of the convention,” Carolyn De Swarte Gifford and Amy R. Slagell, Let Something Good Be Said: Speeches and Writings of Frances E. Willard (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2007), 117. 7 The first woman to speak at a Republican National Convention was Sara Andrews Spencer in 1876, but she addressed a committee on woman suffrage, and not the convention as a whole. For the first time, two women from Wyoming were also sent as alternate delegates to the Republican National Convention in 1892. According to the website of the National Federation of Republican Women, Therese A. Jenkins and Cora G. Carleton were the first women seated at a Republican national convention. “Woman Suffrage,” National Federation of Republican Women, accessed June 5, 2012, http://www.nfrw.org/republicans/women/suffrage.htm 8 Judith Ellen Foster, “Letter to the Hon. Warner Miller,” in The Republican Party: A History of its Fifty Years’ Existence and a Record of its Measures and Leaders, Volume II (New York, NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904), 251. 9 Willard’s convention address is reprinted in her autobiography, Frances E. Willard, Glimpses of Fifty Years: The Autobiography of an American Woman (Chicago: H. J. Smith & Co, 1889), 447-452. It also can be found in Our Day 1 (June 1888): 505-510. The text is printed in Gifford and Slagell, 117-124. This chapter will use the text from Gifford and Slagell. Foster’s Address is found in the report on the 1892 Republican National Convention in Francis Curtis, The Republican Party: A History of its Fifty Years’ Existence and a Record of its Measures and Leaders, 1854-1904, Volume II (New York, NY: The Knickerbocker Press, 1904), 251-253. 10 Karlyn Kohrs Campbell, Man Cannot Speak For Her Vol. I: A Critical Study of Early Feminist Rhetoric (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1989), 126. 11 “Willard, Miss Frances Elizabeth,” in American Women: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of the Lives and Achievements of American Women During the Nineteenth Century, ed. Frances E. Willard and Mary A Livermore (New York, NY: Mast, Crowell & Kirkpatrick, 1897), 777-778. 12 Dillon, 613; “Willard, Miss Frances Elizabeth,” 778. 13 Dillon, 613. 14 Ruth Bordin, Frances Willard: A Biography (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press), 20. 15 Dillon, 614; Amy R. Slagell, “The Rhetorical Structure of Frances E. Willard’s Campaign for Woman Suffrage, 1876-1896,” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 4.1 (2001): 6. 16 “Willard, Miss Frances Elizabeth,” 778. 17 Slagell, “The Rhetorical Structure of Frances E. Willard’s Campaign for Woman Suffrage,” 6. 18 Slagell, “The Rhetorical Structure of Frances E. Willard’s Campaign for Woman Suffrage,” 6; “Willard, Miss Frances Elizabeth,” 780. 19 Slagell, “The Rhetorical Structure of Frances E. Willard’s Campaign for Woman Suffrage,” 6. 20 Bordin, Frances Willard: A Biography, 55; Dillon, 614. 21 Carol Mattingly, Well-Tempered Women: Nineteenth-Century Temperance Rhetoric (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1998), 58; “Willard, Miss Frances Elizabeth,” 778-779. 22 Slagell, “The Rhetorical Structure of Frances E. Willard’s Campaign for Woman Suffrage,” 5. Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 152

23 Slagell, “The Rhetorical Structure of Frances E. Willard’s Campaign for Woman Suffrage,” 5. 24 Slagell, “The Rhetorical Structure of Frances E. Willard’s Campaign for Woman Suffrage,” 5. 25 Bordin, Frances Willard: A Biography, 66. 26 Bonnie J. Dow, “Frances E. Willard,” Women Public Speakers in the United States, 1800-1925: A Bio- Critical Sourcebook (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993). 477; Ruth Bordin, Woman and Temperance: The Quest for Power and Liberty, 1873-1900 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1981), Chapter 2. 27 Slagell, “The Rhetorical Structure of Frances E. Willard’s Campaign for Woman Suffrage,” 5-6. 28 Bordin, Frances Willard: A Biography, 67. 29 Dillon, 615. 30 Dow, “Frances E. Willard,” 481. 31 Slagell, “The Rhetorical Structure of Frances E. Willard’s Campaign for Woman Suffrage,” 5-6. 32 Dow, “Frances E. Willard,” 477. 33 Slagell, “The Rhetorical Structure of Frances E. Willard’s Campaign for Woman Suffrage,” 6. 34 Dow, “Frances E. Willard,” 477. 35 Dow, “Frances E. Willard,” 477. 36 Slagell, “The Rhetorical Structure of Frances E. Willard’s Campaign for Woman Suffrage,” 7. 37 Dillon, 615. 38 Bordin, Frances Willard: A Biography, 71. 39 Dillon, 615. 40 “Willard, Miss Frances Elizabeth,” 779. 41 Slagell, “The Rhetorical Structure of Frances E. Willard’s Campaign for Woman Suffrage,” 8. 42 Bordin, Frances Willard: A Biography, 112; Campbell, Man Cannot Speak For Her Vol. I, 122. 43 Dow, “Frances E. Willard,” 478. 44 Dillon, 616. 45 Dow, “Frances E. Willard,” 480. 46 Dow, “Frances E. Willard,” 479. 47 Slagell, “The Rhetorical Structure of Frances E. Willard’s Campaign for Woman Suffrage,” 1; Dow, “Frances E. Willard,” 476. 48 Campbell, 122. 49 Mattingly, 60. 50 Mattingly, 60. 51 Campbell, Man Cannot Speak For Her Vol. I, 122. 52 Mattingly, 63. 53 Mattingly, 65. 54 Mattingly, 651. 55 Slagell, “The Rhetorical Structure of Frances E. Willard’s Campaign for Woman Suffrage,” 2. 56 Willard first used the phrase when leader of the Chicago union. It became the motto of the national WCTU in 1876, and used at the 1891 meeting of the world WCTU in Boston, MA. “Willard, Miss Frances Elizabeth,” 779. 57 “Willard, Miss Frances Elizabeth,” 779; Campbell, Man Cannot Speak For Her Vol. I, 122. 58 Dow, “Frances E. Willard,” 479. The WCTU newspapers Our Union of New York and the Signal of Illinois merged to become the national paper, the Union Signal, in 1882, “Willard, Miss Frances Elizabeth,” 779. 59 Dow, “Frances E. Willard,” 479; Bordin, Frances Willard: A Biography, 116. 60 Robert J. Dinkin, Before Equal Suffrage: Women in Partisan Politics from Colonial Times to 1920 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995), 85; Lisa Andersen, “Give the Ladies a Chance: Gender and Partisanship in the Prohibition Party, 1869-1912, Journal of Women’s History 23.2 (2011): 137. 61 Andersen, 138. 62 Rebecca Edwards, Angels in the Machinery: Gender in American Party Politics from the Civil War to the Progressive Era (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1997), 41. 63 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 44. 64 Dinkin, 84. 65 Andersen, 144. 66 Andersen, 141. Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 153

67 Andersen, 141. 68 Andersen, 137. 69 Andersen, 137. 70 Andersen, 147. 71 Andersen, 147. 72 Bordin, Frances Willard: A Biography, 15. 73 Quoted in Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 42. 74 Bordin, Frances Willard: A Biography, 135. 75 Bordin, Frances Willard: A Biography, 136; Bordin, 124. 76 Jo Freeman, A Room at a Time: How Women Entered Party Politics (New York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2000), 34. 77 Andersen, 144. 78 Andersen, 147.; Dinkin, 86. 79 Willard, Glimpses, 382. 80 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 41. 81 “Willard, Miss Frances Elizabeth,” 780; Earhart, 215. 82 Andersen, 148. 83 Willard, Glimpses, 396-397. 84 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 41. 85 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 46. 86 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 35; Bordin, Frances Willard: A Biography, 137. 87 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 41. 88 Frank L. Byrne, “Foster, Judith Ellen Horton” in Notable American Women 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary, Volume I, ed. Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James, and Paul S. Boyer (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1972), 651; Freeman, We Will Be Heard, 21. 89 David C. Mott, “Judith Ellen Foster,” Annals of Iowa: A Historical Quarterly 19.3 (1933): 127; Byrne, 651. 90 Byrne, 651. 91 Byrne, 651. 92 Byrne, 651. 93 Byrne, 651; Mott, 128. 94 Mott, 132. 95 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 49. 96 Byrne, 651. 97 Mott, 132. 98 Byrne, 651. 99 Qtd. in Mott, 131. 100 Mott, 132. 101 Byrne, 651. 102 Mott, 136. 103 Dinkin, 51. 104 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 34. 105 Freeman, 34; Dinkin, 58. 106 Dinkin, 58. 107 Dow, “Frances E. Willard,” 478. 108 Elsa Barkley Brown, "Negotiating and Transforming the Public Sphere: African American Political Life in the Transition from Slavery to Freedom," Public Culture 7 (1994): 135. 109 Brown, “To Catch the Vision of Freedom,” 129. 110 Brown, “To Catch the Vision of Freedom,” 129. 111 Brown, “To Catch the Vision of Freedom,” 133. 112 Tera Hunter, "Reconstruction and the Meanings of Freedom," in Women's America: Refocusing the Past, ed. Linda Kerber and Jane Sherron de Hart, 240 (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2004). 113 Brown, “To Catch the Vision of Freedom,” 134. 114 Brown, “To Catch the Vision of Freedom,” 134. Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 154

115 Brown, “To Catch the Vision of Freedom,” 135. 116 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 35. 117 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 36. 118 Edwards, 36. 119 Brown, “To Catch the Vision of Freedom,” 134. 120 Brown, “To Catch the Vision of Freedom,” 137. 121 Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper, The History of Woman Suffrage, ed. Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper, Vol. IV, VI vols. (Rochester, NY: Susan B. Anthony, 1902), 435. 122 Dinkin, 68. 123 Dinkin, 69. 124 Dinkin, 68. 125 Dinkin, 68-69. 126 Dinkin, 69. 127 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 52. 128 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 52. 129 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 55. 130 Dinkin, 96; Melanie Gustafson, “Partisan and Nonpartisan: The Political Career of Judith Ellen Foster,” in We Have Come to Stay: American Women and Political Parties 1880-1960 (Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1999), 5 131 Mott, 136. 132 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 87. 133 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 85. 134 Gustafson, “Partisan and Nonpartisan,” 5. 135 Gustafson, “Partisan and Nonpartisan,” 6. 136 Byrne, 652. 137 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 83-84. 138 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 88. 139 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 86. 140 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 86. 141 Freeman, We Will Be Heard, 22. 142 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 42. 143 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 44. 144 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 47. 145 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 50. 146 Bordin, Woman and Temperance, 125. 147 Frances E. Willard, “Woman’s Christian Temperance Union Convention Annual Address, 1884,” in Glimpses of Fifty Years: The Autobiography of an American Woman (Chicago, IL: H. J. Smith & Co., 1889), 404. 148 Willard, “Woman’s Christian Temperance Union Convention Annual Address, 1884,” 404. 149 Qtd. in Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 84. 150 Freeman, We Will Be Heard, 22. 151 Judith Ellen Foster, “The Non-Partisan Minority in the National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union,” in For God and home, and native land. The Truth in the case concerning partisanship and non- partisanship in the W.C.T.U., ed. Judith Ellen Foster (Iowa: J.E. Foster, 1889), 58-61. 152 Cited in Foster, “The Non-Partisan Minority in the National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union,” 60. 153 Cited in Foster, “The Non-Partisan Minority in the National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union,” 59. 154 Bordin, 126. 155 Gustafson, “Partisan and Nonpartisan,” 4. 156 Gustafson, “Partisan and Nonpartisan,” 4. 157 Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, 49. 158 Ruth Bordin, Woman and Temperance (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1981), 127. 159 Willard, Glimpses, 388-389. Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 155

160 Byrne, 652. 161 Jo Freeman, We Will Be Heard, Chapter 1. 162 Willard, Glimpses. 163 Mary Earhart, Frances Willard: From Prayer to Politics (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1944). 164 Bordin, “Frances Willard and the Practice of Political Influence,” 19. 165 Campbell, Man Cannot Speak For Her Vol. I, 122. 166 Campbell, Man Cannot Speak For Her Vol. I, 121. 167 Campbell, Man Cannot Speak For Her Vol. I, 123. 168 Dow, “Frances E. Willard,” 481. See also Bonnie J. Dow, “The ‘Womanhood” Rationale in the Woman Suffrag Rhetoric of Frances E. Willard,” Southern Communication Journal 56 (1991): 298-307. 169 Patricia Bizzell, “Frances Willard, Phoebe Palmer, and the Ethos of the Methodist Woman Preacher,” Rhetoric Society Quarterly 36:378. 170 Mary Rose Williams, “Riding Under the Influence: Frances Willard’s Theory of Rhetoric,” Journal of the Northwest Communication Association. 30 (Spring 2001) 73-93. 171 Dow, “Frances E. Willard,” 476. 172 Slagell, “The Rhetorical Structure of Frances E. Willard’s Campaign for Woman Suffrage,” 2. 173 Slagell, “The Rhetorical Structure of Frances E. Willard’s Campaign for Woman Suffrage,” 10. 174 Richard W. Leeman, “Do Everything” Reform: The Oratory of Frances E. Willard (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992). 175 Maegan Parker, “Desiring Citizenship: A Rhetorical Analysis of the Wells/Willard Controversy,” Women’s Studies in Communication. 31.1 (Spring 2008) 56-78. 176 Parker, 57. 177 Bordin, Frances Willard: A Biography, 76. 178 Dow, “Frances E. Willard,” 480. 179 Dow, “Frances E. Willard,” 480. 180 Bordin, Frances Willard: A Biography, 100. 181 Williams, 85; Dow, “Frances E. Willard,” 481. 182 Dow, “Frances E. Willard,” 481. 183 Campbell, Man Cannot Speak For Her Vol. I, 123; Dow, “Frances E. Willard,” 486; Bordin, Frances Willard: A Biography, 10. 184 Bizzell, 378. 185 Campbell, Man Cannot Speak For Her Vol. I, 121. 130. 186 Rev. Frank W. Gunsaulus, “Frances E. Willard as an Orator,” The Beautiful Life of Frances E. Willard, A Memorial Volume, ed. Anna A. Gordon. Lady Henry Somerset, et al. (Chicago: Woman’s Temperance Publishing Association, 1898), 350. 187 Gunsaulus, 351. 188 Slagell, “The Rhetorical Structure of Frances E. Willard’s Campaign for Woman Suffrage,” 5. 189 Bordin, Frances Willard: A Biography, 8. 190 Bordin, Frances Willard: A Biography, 134. 191 Williams, 77. 192 Dow, “Frances E. Willard,” 481; Williams, 81; Campbell, Man Cannot Speak For Her, 123; Bizzell, 390; Slagell, “The Rhetorical Structure of Frances E. Willard’s Campaign for Woman Suffrage,” 12; Dow, “Frances E. Willard,” 483. 193 Judith Ellen Foster, “The Influence of Women in American Politics,” in The National Exposition Souvenir: What America Owes to Women, ed. Lydia Hoyt Farmer (Chicago, IL: Charles Wells Moulton, 1893), 323. 194 Foster, “The Influence of Women in American Politics,” 319. 195 Foster, “Women in Politics,” 305. 196 Foster, “Women in Politics,” 304. 197 Gifford and Slagell, 117. 198 “Willard, Miss Frances Elizabeth,” 779. 199 Frances E. Willard, “The Greatest Party,” in Gifford and Slagell, 118. 200 Campbell, Man Cannot Speak For Her, 129. Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 156

201 Willard, “The Greatest Party,” 120. 202 Bordin, “Frances Willard and the Practice of Political Influence,” 26. 203 Bodnar, 35. 204 Willard, “The Greatest Party,” 119. 205 Willard, “The Greatest Party,” 122. 206 Rosemarie Zagarri, Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Early American Republic (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007), 86. 207 Willard, “The Greatest Party,” 122. 208 Willard, “The Greatest Party,” 122; King Gambrinus was the “king of Beer,” and is considered the “inventor of Beer” in Germany, according to Daniel Dorchester, The Liquor Problem of All Ages (New York, NY: Phillips & Hunt, 1884), 154. . 209 “1872 Prohibition Party Platform,” The Prohibition Party, accessed October 17, 2012, http://www.prohibitionists.org/Background/Party_Platform/Platform1872.htm 210 Charles Wheeler Denison, Address to the American People (Washington, D.C.: Henry Polkinhorn & Co. Printers, 1872), 3. 211 Willard, “The Greatest Party,” 123. 212 Willard, “The Greatest Party,” 123. 213 Judith Ellen Foster, “Convention Address,” in The Republican Party: A History of its Fifty Years’ Existence and a Record of its Measures and Leaders, Volume II (New York, NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904), 251-252. 214 Foster, “Convention Address,” 252. 215 Foster, “Convention Address,” 252. 216 Foster, “Convention Address,” 252. 217 Foster, “Convention Address,” 252. 218 Foster, “Convention Address,” 252. 219 Foster, “Convention Address,” 252. 220 Foster, “Convention Address,” 252. 221 A. James Reichley, The Life of the Parties: A History o f American Political Parties (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1992), 124-125. 222 Foster, “Convention Address,” 252. 223 Foster, “Convention Address,” 253. 224 Frank Abial Flower, History of the Republican Party: Embracing Its Origin, Growth, and Mission (Grand Rapids, MI: Union Book Co., 1884), 9. 225 Zagarri, 86. 226 Foster, “Convention Address,” 253. 227 Foster, “Convention Address,” 252. 228 Foster, “Convention Address,” 253. 229 “Women and Woman Suffrage in the Prohibition Campaign,” The Woman’s Journal, October 29, 1892, 350. 230 “Women and Woman Suffrage in the Prohibition Campaign,” 350. 231 “Women and Woman Suffrage in the Prohibition Campaign,” 350. 232 Andersen, 139. 233 Ruth Bordin, “Frances Willard and the Practice of Political Influence,” Hayes Historical Journal 5.1, 1985: 19. 234 Bordin, “Frances Willard and the Practice of Political Influence,” 19. 235 28 people came to the conference in Chicago, IL, including General James Weaver, who was the first Populist candidate for President, Annie Diggs, the famed Populist female orator, and Samuel Dickie, the Prohibition Party chairman, Bordin, “Frances Willard and the Practice of Political Influence,” 20. 236 Bordin, “Frances Willard and the Practice of Political Influence,” 21. 237 Bordin, “Frances Willard and the Practice of Political Influence,” 24. 238 Freeman, A Room at a Time, 40. 239 Dinkin, 78. 240 Dinkin, 78. 241 Dow, “Frances E. Willard,” 477. Frances Elizabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster, Principle Partisans 157

242 “Willard, Miss Frances Elizabeth,” 781. 243 Qtd. in Bordin, Frances Willard: A Biography, 5. 244 Gustafson, “Partisan and Nonpartisan,” 8. 245 Gustafson, “Partisan and Nonpartisan,” 7. 246 Byrne, 651. 247 Qtd. in Mott, 138. 248 Bordin, “Frances Willard and the Practice of Political Influence,” 18. Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 158

“It is quite time that we had our own party; our own platform, and our own nominee.” ~Belva Bennett Lockwood1

Chapter 4: Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate

The year 1884 was a watershed moment for women’s involvement in party politics. The Equal Rights Party nominated not one, but two female candidates for national office. Belva Bennett Lockwood was nominated for President of the United

States, and the head of the Equal Rights Party, Marietta Stow, was nominated as her running mate.2 Both were politically minded women who played significant roles in

Gilded Age politics.3 Lockwood ran for the presidency on the Equal Rights Party ticket again in 1888. She was a force for women in politics in the late nineteenth century, as she ardently advocated for a woman’s right to pursue a law career, form a political party, and run for political office. Through an emphasis on women’s abilities and strengths, she presented a model of rhetorical discourse based on women’s exceptional qualifications for political leadership.

Lockwood crafted a persona that embodied her vision of political womanhood that can offer scholars some insight into the origins of the nature of a female presidential candidacy in the United States. This persona emerged out of her past, as she used her career and experience as evidence of her leadership potential in the future. In her presidential campaign speeches and essays, Lockwood used corroborated evidence, language associated with physicality, phrases drawn from nature, and narratives of the power of female collective action to assert her leadership capabilities. She redefined womanhood in her terms, claiming that political women should demonstrate their mental Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 159 and physical capabilities, claim their natural role as political participants, and unite in their quest for equality. Lockwood enacted her belief in women’s political rights by embarking on a candidacy for the presidency built on using the past to encourage movement toward the future.

Lockwood’s rhetoric had a purpose beyond electoral success. Her past became usable as a way to justify her candidacy in a male-dominated electoral field. Barbie

Zelizer claims that the past is most useful for “the ways in which it helps us to make connections – to each other over time and space, and to ourselves.”4 The past is collectively experienced, and as such, its strategic use provides an opportunity for the creation of community, identification, and acceptance.5 Barry Schwartz reaffirms this when he writes, “To remember is to place a part of the past in the service of conceptions and needs of the present.”6 The essays and speeches analyzed here are examples of the ways in which the past can be usable as a persuasive tool as they are re-told. On one level, Lockwood’s narratives gave meaning to her career and paid homage to her hard work. On another level, though, Lockwood’s use of the past reflects a greater overall purpose. That is, Lockwood’s rhetoric did more than just recount history, it presented a usable past. Maurice Halbwachs’ foundational notion that the past can be strategically reproduced to influence present social conditions demonstrates the role the past can play in rhetorical argument.7 The past can be used “to mediate competing interpretations and privilege some explanations over others.”8 Because the past can influence the way people view the world, rhetors can purposefully tailor its memory to influence audiences based on the rhetorical needs of a situation. Her rhetoric had multiple purposes, textually Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 160 promoting the leadership, activity, and momentum that women needed to grasp political leadership.

Lockwood’s presidential campaigns were strategic, purposeful, and symbolic in nature. As Lockwood biographer Jill Norgren points out, Lockwood had, “no illusion that a woman could be elected.”9 Lockwood did, however, run a tactical campaign designed to bring attention to issues and the role of women in politics. Further, Lockwood’s rhetoric displayed a tendency to utilize language and memory in such a way that she guided her audiences toward particular understandings of larger trends and contexts.

Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood

Belva Ann Bennett was born October 24, 1830, to Hannah and Lewis Bennett.10

Her interest in women’s education and public participation began early. Widowed when young in 1853, Belva McNall left her three-year-old daughter, Lura, with her parents so that she could pursue an education. She enrolled at Genessee Wesleyan Seminary for

Ladies, and then Genessee College, which later became Syracuse University. Her interest in woman’s rights began early, and it has been documented that, on at least one occasion, she left campus to hear Susan B. Anthony lecture.11 After receiving her Bachelor’s degree, she became the principal at Lockport Union Academy, where she introduced a required course in public speaking for girls.12

Fascinated by politics, she moved with her daughter to Washington D.C. in 1866, during the height of Reconstruction. She often sat in the recently opened “Ladies

Gallery” in the Senate and observed the Reconstruction Debates.13 This experience helped her to understand the world of politics, which would prove useful in her later lobbying efforts.14 For example, she worked with Representative Samuel M. Arnell to Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 161 write H.R. 1571 (which he introduced to Congress), a bill that helped establish equal pay for equal work for federal employees.15 In 1867 she married Ezekial

Lockwood, who supported her activist efforts. After becoming involved in the temperance and suffrage movements,16 Lockwood founded the Universal Franchise

Association (UFA) with Josephine Griffing and Julia Archibald Holmes in 1867. She served as President of the UFA in 1870,17 and also became a member of the National

Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B.

Anthony. The organization was dedicated to passing a federal suffrage amendment.18

Lockwood would continue this fight later in life as a member of the National American

Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), but she would split with Stanton and Anthony on desired movement tactics.

Lockwood made her living as an attorney, arguing on behalf of women and men.

Her efforts to become a lawyer were trying and difficult. After being denied admission to both Georgetown and Howard University Law Schools, she began to take classes at the new National University Law School. After years of struggle to receive her diploma and be admitted to the Bar Association,19 Lockwood eventually received her law degree and became the first woman to be admitted to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Claims in 1879.20 It took an Act of Congress, for which Lockwood lobbied, to effect her admission to practice. President Rutherford B. Hayes signed the

“Lockwood Bill” into law on February 15, 1879,21 giving women the right to practice law in federal courts. She often fought on behalf of poor women, although she “could not afford to make sexual bias the sole focus of her work.”22 Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 162 The first time she participated in oral arguments before the Supreme Court of the United States was in the case of Kaiser v. Stickney in 1880.

In law, as in politics, Lockwood understood the importance of public attention. As

Norgren explains, “As an engineer of reform, she understood the importance of political theater and willingly participated in noteworthy and attention-getting occasions.”23 One of these instances was proposing Samuel R. Lowery as the first African American attorney to practice before the Bar of the Supreme Court.24 Perhaps her most famous case was securing a victory for the Cherokee Nation in a claims suit against the United States government.25 In a 1902 publication about the contributions of women, she was described this way: “Mrs. Lockwood is one of America’s most remarkable women, and has achieved marked success in her chosen profession, that of law. In this she is the pioneer of our country.”26

In addition to arguing in the courtroom, much of her life was spent on the lecture circuit. Lockwood was also the first woman to run a campaign for the U.S. Presidency.27

In 1884, California woman’s rights activists Marietta Stow and Clara Foltz nominated

Lockwood for President on the Equal Rights Party ticket. This was part of a political strategy to show that women could create their “own terms of engagement in American party politics.”28 Lockwood had attended the Republican Party Convention that year and was rebuffed when she asked if they would draft a resolution to support woman suffrage.

Lockwood wrote a letter to Stow’s Woman’s Herald of Industry expressing her concern over the current state of political affairs and the need for a female candidate. In her letter she wrote: “If women in the states are not permitted to vote, there is no law against their being voted for,” and encouraged people, saying that, “it is quite time that we had our Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 163 own party; our own platform, and our own nominee.”29 The Equal Rights Party then nominated her for the presidency.30

She set up campaign headquarters in Washington D.C., and her daughter Lura was her campaign manager. Having campaign experience from traveling with Horace

Greeley as a newspaper columnist a decade earlier, Lockwood ran a strategic campaign.

She wrote essays for a few literary magazines, distributed pamphlets and the Equal

Rights Party platform, and had an official campaign portrait circulated.31 Her political savvy was apparent when she traveled nationally delivering campaign speeches, as she often procured speaker’s fees for her appearances in order to fund her campaign. She even boasted to reporters after the 1884 campaign that she had been able to cover her expenses and come out $125 ahead.32 She also invited her fellow candidates to a debate, but received no reply.33

The leaders of the suffrage movement at the time did not support her candidacy.

In particular, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony disapproved. Upon hearing her speak in 1884, Anthony wrote to Stanton that Lockwood’s speech was “too much like a re-hash of the men’s speeches,”34 and not enough about suffrage. Stanton and Anthony believed that women should stand together in support of the Republican Party, and that

Lockwood’s candidacy diverted resources from the woman suffrage fight.35 This seemed to be a common viewpoint among suffrage leaders. The Equal Rights Party initially nominated Abigail Scott Duniway for president in 1884. The prominent suffrage leader turned down the nomination claiming that a female candidate would weaken the movement itself. 36 Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 164 The 1884 campaign received a lot of press coverage, both positive and negative. The Evening Star published a few accounts of her campaign events, and Frank

Leslie’s Illustrated published a full-page article featuring Lockwood and highlighting

“women’s contribution to the political life of the country.”37 There were a few articles published in the New York Times about the campaign. One was a lengthy biography, in which Lockwood was mostly described as caring and pure. The other was an article titled

“The Divided Skirt Question,” which coupled her candidacy with a discussion of whether or not women should wear culottes. There were articles that claimed that her back hair was not her original hair, her underpants were “cardinal red,” and all mentioned her attire.38 The Boston Globe even published an article called “Belva in the White House: A

Cabinet Meeting of the Period When Women Shall Steer the Ship of State,” which was a satire of a cabinet meeting run by Lockwood. In it, she was described as being late for the meeting because she could not choose what to wear, being unable to pay attention, and as incompetent at running a meeting.39 A popular aspect of the campaign in the press was coverage of the so-called “Mother Hubbard” or “Belva Lockwood Clubs.” Men would parade the streets wearing “Mother Hubbard” dresses to mock Lockwood’s candidacy.40

Democrat won the 1884 presidential election with 219 electoral votes, compared to Republican James Blaine’s 182.41 In the end, Lockwood received

4,149 of the tabulated votes from 6 states.42 According to a petition included in her essay,

Lockwood and Stow received votes in New Hampshire, New York, Michigan, Illinois,

Maryland, California, , Oregon, and Pennsylvania. Lockwood claimed that the votes received in Pennsylvania were “not counted, simply dumped into the waste basket as false votes.”43 Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 165 Lockwood ran for president again in 1888 on the Equal Rights Party ticket. In 1888, The Woman’s Journal published a report that Lockwood had been nominated again for the presidency, but published the following statement by Henry

Browne Blackwell:

In view of the announcement made in this morning’s paper that a national

convention of woman suffragists has nominated a presidential ticket, it is proper

to state that this action does not represent any of the large organizations of woman

suffragists in this country, either State or national. Of course any individual has a

right to nominate, or be nominated for, the presidency. But when this is done in

the name of a great body of intelligent and earnest persons engaged in a serious

movement, it should be distinctly understood that such a nomination is wholly

unauthorized and in no sense representative of the plans or purposes of the

suffragists of the United States. Since the women who wish to vote are not yet

able to do so, it seems premature, to say the least, for them to nominate an

independent presidential ticket.44

When asked if her candidacy would receive the support of woman suffragists by an

Evening Star reporter, Lockwood replied, “Certainly not…the women are divided up into as many factions and parties as the men.”45 Lockwood firmly believed that “women who believed in women’s rights and temperance ought not to hang on to the skirts of the republican party any longer…this nomination is the result of the expression of those sentiments.”46

The 1888 campaign was less of a novelty and more explicitly about strategy.

Lockwood claimed that the only way to political equality for women was “to gain Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 166 strength and to get organization…put nominees in the field at once and to keep them there.”47 Her involvement with the Universal Peace Union served her well, as the group publicized her campaign events.48 Lockwood delivered speeches and gave interviews all over the country to bolster her campaign. Although she attracted supportive audiences, her campaign failed to garner much popularity. According to Norgren, “Four years earlier her political bravado had expressed the optimism of the movement; by 1888, with the woman suffrage movement all but stalled, the campaign drew attention to its failure.”49 Although President Cleveland won the popular vote, Republican Benjamin

Harrison won the electoral college vote and emerged victorious. No votes for Lockwood were recorded.50

Lockwood was not alone in her attempt to run for political office in the late nineteenth century. Notably, Elizabeth Cady Stanton ran for U.S. Congress in 1866 in the

8th Congressional District of NY as an Independent. In addition to Lockwood, the Equal

Rights Party also nominated Linda Gilbert for Governor in 1888.51 It was more common for women to run for state or local office. A law that allowed women to vote in municipal elections in Kansas in 1887 also allowed them to run for municipal office, which led many women to run for city councils and for mayor. In fact, the first woman to be elected mayor was Susanna Madera Salter from the town of Argonia, Kansas, in 1887.52 In addition, an all-female city council was elected in Syracuse, Kansas, in 1887, and

Okaloosa, Kansas, elected a female mayor and all-female city council in 1888. By 1900,

15 women had been elected mayors in Kansas.53 Laura J. Eisenhuth was elected as State

Superintendent of Public Instruction in North Dakota in 1892, and several other women in the North and the West were elected to schoolboards, city councils, and city Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 167 commissions.54 Although rare, there is evidence that women in the South also ran for office. Eliza Garner of South Carolina ran for county commissioner in 1888. Most women ran for school board or school commissioner, partly because women were seen as appropriate for those positions and partly because some states had passed limited suffrage for women for local positions.55 Sarah Christie Stevens also ran for superintendent in

1890 and had to emphasize amid criticism that “someone of her sex could perform in a public position without losing her womanly graces”56

A rhetorical study of Lockwood falls prey to the all too common problem associated with many early woman’s rights activists – a lack of primary materials.

Lockwood’s papers are primarily housed at the New York State Library and the Peace

Collection at Swarthmore College. Although a few original letters and writings are in these collections, most of the primary material available can be found in publications from the time.57 This study focuses on the most complete pieces of communication available from Lockwood’s 1884 and 1888 campaigns. The New York Times printed excerpts from an 1884 campaign speech delivered at the New York Academy of Music.58

Another campaign speech was printed in the Louisville Courier Journal in October of

1884.59 Her essay "My Efforts to Become a Lawyer" ran in Lippincott's Monthly

Magazine in February of 1888.60 Although Lockwood was not officially nominated as a candidate for President until May of 1888, this article, published less than two months earlier, can be considered a preliminary piece of campaign rhetoric. It expresses sentiments similar to the rhetoric of her 1884 campaign and was an opportunity for her to gain national readership. She also wrote an essay published in the March-October 1888 Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 168 edition of The Cosmopolitan titled, “The Present Phase of the Woman

Question.”61 In addition, a campaign address was published in the Boonville Herald of

Boonville, NY, in September of 1888.62 Finally, Lockwood published the essay “How I

Ran for the Presidency” in the March 1903 issue of the National Magazine.63 In this essay, she interlaced the narrative of her 1884 campaign with copies of a letter to the editor that she wrote, her letters of nomination and acceptance, the platform for the campaign, and a petition she sent to Congress after Election Day in 1884.

A Corroborated Past

Lockwood was neither the most famous nor the most popular woman’s rights activist during the Gilded Age, yet she actively pursued national recognition as a leader.

As the first woman to run a campaign for the U.S. presidency, Lockwood needed to prove to her critics and the public that she had the credentials. Construction of her political persona involved providing corroborated proof of her ability to participate in the “male” world of political candidacy, and she did so by recounting her past experiences. Using verifiable evidence from her past and specifically memories of her pursuit of an education and career, helped Lockwood to demonstrate her ability to be independent, hard-working, and self-sufficient, all qualities integral to the traditional “ideal” citizen.

This portion of her rhetoric was necessary because it built her credibility. Lockwood gave a history of her activism and work as a lawyer as proof of her ability to function and persevere in the public sphere, characteristics necessary in a presidential candidate.

This was, seemingly, a continuation of common nineteenth century woman’s rights rhetoric about the ability of women to be independent.64 “American” values inherent to “ideal” citizenship were built around the idea that independence and self- Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 169 sufficiency were virtuous. “Good” citizens were unselfish, independent, and committed to the public. Paula Baker claims these qualities of citizenship led to the exclusion of women in the Constitution. She writes that good citizens were, “self-reliant, given to simple needs and tastes, decisive, and committed first to the public interest.

These were all ‘masculine’ qualities; indeed, ‘feminine’ attributes – attraction to luxury, self-indulgence, timidity, dependence, passion – were linked to corruption and posed a threat to republicanism.”65 The Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution with this ideal of independence in mind.

Scholars have debated the reasons that women are not mentioned in the

Constitution. Some claim that the Founders purposefully made the document gender- neutral so that it might include women in the future. Others argue that it was simply a reflection of the “patriarchal assumptions of the Founders and their belief that women had no role to play in government.”66 Liberal representatives to the Constitutional

Convention like believed that every free person in the nation should be considered a citizen and deserved protection from the federal government.67 Throughout this argument is the implication, then, that women were citizens but were not capable of representing themselves. This idea “became the touchstone of the modern, liberal state.

By construing women as interested citizens incapable of representing themselves, liberalism provided a justification for the state: protecting those who could not protect themselves.”68 The lack of citizenship rights for women thus was institutionalized in the state. As Baker writes that in the nineteenth-century, “Politicians embodied ideal masculine traits: loyalty, strength, fortitude, boldness, industry, and honesty.”69 Through Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 170 proving her independence and concern for the public, Lockwood was portraying the persona of this “ideal” citizen who could and should play a role in government.

Her 1888 essay “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer” is made up almost entirely of verifiable evidence of her “independent” career. This is not surprising given her training as an attorney. Throughout the essay, she included the texts of her letters appealing for entry to educational institutions, her initial letter of rejection from law school,70 the text of a letter to President Grant about admission to the Bar of the District of Columbia,71 and the text of the Bill for which she lobbied that allowed women to be admitted to the

Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States.72 Perhaps most telling is her description of her attempt to be admitted to the Bar of the United States Court of Claims, in which she included exact quotations from the Chief Justice.73 She recalled the Chief Justice as saying, “Mistress Lockwood, you are a woman”, and followed the quote with the reflection, “For the first time in my life I began to realize that it was a crime to be a woman.”74 Lockwood’s precise narration of the event and her subsequent reflection legitimized her presence in the courtroom itself. Her use of evidence to substantiate her memory of these events was proof of her struggle and legitimation of her career as a lawyer and as presidential candidate.

Lockwood spent part of the 1903 essay “How I Ran for the Presidency” describing her past accomplishments. She introduced her work as a lawyer and woman’s rights activist by reflecting on the state of her career in 1884: “I had now been ten years in the practice of law before the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, and four Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 171 years before the United States Supreme Court of Claims, all of which courts I had opened to women by hand to hand work and dogged persistence, in the last two instances drafting the bill and lobbying it through congress in 1879.”75 In addition to proof of her work as a lawyer, this was testimony to her diligence and determination. The opening of the courts was described as difficult, requiring conviction and personal attentiveness. She wrote of women’s battle to enter the legal profession in her 1888 essay,

“The Present Phase of the Woman Question”: “only in recent years, and by the most indefatigable zeal, has she been enabled to work her way into the profession of law.”76

Although she wrote of women in general terms, this is obviously a nod to her personal accomplishments and an expression of the type of courage that women needed to succeed in male-dominated fields. This was common in her campaign rhetoric, as the New York

Times reported that she “told an interesting story of her struggles for admission to the bar” at a campaign event on August 5, 1888.77 She further described her accomplishments in “How I Ran for the Presidency,” which included securing equal pay for female government employees through passage of an act in 1872, the appointment of a matron in a district jail, and an extensive amount of legal work.78 Her testimony was proof of her accomplishments as well as recognition of her limitations. For example, she wrote, “my hands were full of legal work, often two or three cases a day, and my patronage, for a woman, was really marvelous.”79 While demonstrating her diligence, she recognized the limitations placed on her sex.

Perhaps the most obvious way that Lockwood used her past as proof of her ability to be a candidate was through corroborating her political campaign experience and expertise. She first recounted her experience with political campaigns when she wrote, Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 172 “Desperate enough for any adventure, I now, at the request of Theodore Tilton, went on a canvassing and campaigning tour through the Southern States in the interest of the New York Tribune and Golden Age, and of Horace Greeley, whom the Liberal

Republicans had nominated for the Presidency in July, 1872.”80 She again referenced her work with Greeley in an 1888 campaign speech in Louisville: ““I now remember that I have been in your beautiful city once before. Then as now, we were on the eve of a great

Presidential election. I bore aloft the standard and flung to the breeze the flag of…Horace

Greeley.”81 These statements reflected her sense of “adventure,” and her work as a campaigner, both of which were proof of her ability and drive to run for the presidency.

Lockwood offered evidence supporting her candidacy through the texts of letters as well. In “How I Ran for the Presidency,” she wrote that writings circulated by Stanton and Anthony prompted her to write a letter to Stow’s Woman’s Herald of Industry, the text of which she included in the essay. The letter claimed that although women cannot vote, “there is no law against their being voted for,” and encouraged women to consider nominating a woman as a candidate for President.82 This letter was an important part of the essay. First, it illustrates the tension between her and the other woman’s rights leaders, a tension that arises again later in the narrative. Although the “conditions” she was writing about refer to 1884, the statements worked politically in 1903, when the essay was written. By painting Stanton and Anthony as leaders who were out of touch with current developments, Lockwood implied that she could be a leader who was attuned to present conditions. Lockwood recalled this tension, but in a way to suggest that her leadership was headed in the right direction. The circulation of material by other leaders, her presence and knowledge of the conventions and issues, and the action she Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 173 took, all contributed to building the narrative of her life, her credibility, and her leadership potential. Second, Lockwood’s call for a female candidate caused Stow and others to nominate Lockwood herself for the presidency. Whereas the conventions and the circular represented an issue (the lack of a candidate for women to support),

Lockwood’s letter to the Woman’s Herald presented a solution. As a result, it was the catalyst, at least as framed by Lockwood, for her nomination.

Lockwood also legitimated her campaign through recounting exact conversations that she had with reporters during her 1884 campaign. After accepting the nomination,

Lockwood detailed the dialogue between her and reporters. Four conversations were recounted in “How I Ran for the Presidency.” One example is of a reporter appearing at her office and saying “Mrs. Lockwood, we hear you have a nomination for the presidency and have accepted it. The Evening Star must have a copy, of course.”83 Other reporters were also directly quoted in the narrative. Lockwood seemingly included these dialogues with reporters as a way to establish her legitimacy. Direct quotation verified the events.

In addition, her interaction with reporters was proof of the importance of her campaign.

Once reported, the campaign became institutionalized. Further, these conversations demonstrated her political savvy by illustrating her ability to gain press coverage.

An important part of corroborating of her experiences, in addition to providing proof of her career, was placing them in the course of history. Her essays and speeches used historical events and figures both to verify her career and legitimize her actions.

During an 1888 campaign speech, Lockwood portrayed her candidacy as a new and welcome addition to the field by describing the political conversation between “two rival political parties now in the field who have been shaping and controlling the legislation of Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 174 the country for the last 20 years.”84 She continued to describe the political conversation as being stalled over the question of tariffs, upon which, in her view, “more ink and brains have been wasted than would suffice to run the Government for the next four years, without either of the parties having enlightened or attempted to enlighten their respective constituencies as to what their true interests are...”85 In addition to describing the major parties’ debates as tired, Lockwood positioned herself as the candidate who could bring a fresh perspective. Significantly, she did this through temporally locating the argument, suggesting that it had been 20 years since new issues had surfaced. She, then, was the candidate who would revitalize to the political field.

She continued to use historical time to bring significance to her campaign through her discussion of monopolies in this speech:

Our platform, when it comes to the anti-monopoly plank – its first and strongest foothold – declares that ‘monopoly is not authorized by the Constitution.’ If this be so – and I reassert it – then for 100 years and more, my brothers, you have been running the Government of the United States on a policy diametrically opposed to the

Constitution, for in all of those years a grand aristocracy known as the men of the country have insisted on and have succeeded in distributing all of the public money.86

Aside from demonstrating a deeper understanding of the Constitution than her male counterparts, which in itself was an important part of establishing her credibility,

Lockwood described past and present political leadership as misinterpreting the

Constitution. That is, the male political leaders in control of the nation since its inception had been, in her words, governing with unchanging and unconstitutional policies. As a Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 175 female addition to the field, Lockwood could bring about a necessary change.

Proof of her ability existed in the placement of her candidacy as an essential need to help change an illegitimate tradition.

In “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer,” each leg of Lockwood’s journey was placed in a specific historical time. Although her story began before the Civil War, her narrative recognized that event as a turning point for progressive thinkers. She wrote,

“But the war closed. The arm of the strongest prevailed. The slave went free. It was a grand step onward in the liberties of the world…”87 As the essay continues, Lockwood structured the essay around social movements of the time. The next section began: “The next great contest that is about to sweep over the country and break up the old party lines

(bloodless, I hope, for rum has already had her share of blood) is prohibition. The earth- rents made by the recent earthquake-shocks will be nothing compared to the rents made in party by the great tidal wave of prohibition that is about to sweep over the land.”88

Although her political viewpoint was clearly presented, it is significant that the development of what was then in her political platform was anchored in the events of the time. She then continued to legitimize her opinion through reference to the nation’s political past. She wrote that the political party that rejects prohibition as an issue will

“die as the old Whig party died in 1860.”89 The narrative is further driven by current conditions through reference to the third parties present in the political climate.

Lockwood wrote, “The Labor party, the Prohibition party, and the woman, are looming up on the horizon in a magnitude not to be undervalued by one who chooses to read the signs of the times.”90 Her career, and her political stances, were presented as consistent with historical trends which situated her narrative in historical time. Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 176 A similar effort was made in “How I Ran for the Presidency,” although the time span that she was writing about was much shorter. Lockwood opened the narrative by placing it in historical time. She began, “It was in the regular course of presidential elections in 1884 that I received a nomination to the office.”91 Lockwood described the scene, the election year of 1884. She confirmed with a reference to the main event of the narrative – her nomination to the presidency. Then, Lockwood placed herself in the normal “course” of events. Her campaign was not exceptional or unexpected, but a natural part of political history. After setting the scene, Lockwood turned to the first major campaign event of the political season: the political conventions:

“The national conventions had been assembled, and had made their nominations early.”92

She wrote of her involvement in the conventions. She attended the Republican Party’s

Convention, where she “had besought the resolutions committee in vain to adopt a plank in their platform giving some recognition to women.”93 Her political efforts, while unsuccessful, introduced her political activism and concern for women’s political participation, a key characteristic in her journey toward becoming a presidential candidate.

By providing the year and emphasizing continuity, the essay had historical specificity and temporality. This sort of rhetorical maneuvering was also present in her discussion of fellow woman suffrage advocates. The use of Susan B. Anthony and

Elizabeth Cady Stanton had two distinct purposes in the essays. On the one hand, a relationship with these women gave Lockwood legitimacy. As Lowenthal writes,

“Identification with a national past often serves as an assurance of worth against Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 177 subjugation.”94 Anthony and others were a few of the names most commonly associated with the woman’s rights movement at the time. Lockwood’s identification with Anthony in “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer” helped to make Lockwood credible.

In 1888, Anthony was still revered as a woman’s rights leader, and a connection with the movement’s leadership could legitimate Lockwood’s campaign. Lockwood placed herself in the progressive history of the nation through reference to her attendance at political meetings. She wrote, “It was at one of the meetings of the State Association that

I first met Susan B. Anthony, who, like myself, was in early life a teacher in the public schools of the State of New York. It is true that while in college I had slipped away one evening, without the knowledge of the faculty, to hear Susan deliver one of her progressive lectures on the ‘wrongs of woman.’”95 Lockwood not only compared herself to Anthony in this passage, but she also supported Anthony’s message. This suggested to her readers that she could act as a similar sort of leader. This linkage expanded when

Lockwood wrote of Anthony, “I met her repeatedly after this at meetings of the School

Association, her spirit of aggressiveness always carrying her so far ahead of any of her competitors as to make her a marked figure.”96 Lockwood framed herself as having the same fighting spirit. Lockwood’s link to Anthony’s legacy implied that Lockwood, as candidate for President, could carry the torch.

As noted, the relationship between Anthony and Lockwood was not always so congenial. “How I Ran for the Presidency” was a statement of Lockwood’s leadership abilities in the context of 1903, the year of its publication. In reference to the Democratic and Republican political conventions in 1884, Lockwood wrote, “Progressive and Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 178 thinking women from all parties had attended in greater or less numbers all of these conventions, and were pressing forward for recognition. About this time Mrs.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Mrs. Susan B. Anthony came out with a circular, directed to the leading women of the country, urging them to use their influence for the republican party.”97 Lockwood emphasized the forward thinking women of that time, associating herself with them. The movement forward was possible, in part, because of her actions and viewpoints. She attempted to establish legitimacy of character, almost as if to assert her authority as a woman’s rights leader. However, once she introduced Stanton,

Anthony and others, she painted them as out of touch with current conditions. Lockwood wrote: “The circular of these distinguished ladies appeared to me to be so out of harmony with real conditions, that I at once made the following reply…”98 This statement gave

Lockwood legitimacy as an important woman’s rights advocate, but in opposition to

Stanton and Anthony.

Finally, Lockwood frequently highlighted her work as an activist with specific details. When describing her experience as a teacher who received a lower salary than the men in an equivalent position, in “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer” she wrote: “It was an indignity not to be tamely borne by one with so little discrimination of the merits and demerits of sex, and of course, impolitic as it might seem, I at once began to agitate this question, arguing that pay should be for work, and commensurate to it, and not be based on sex. To-day this custom is changed.”99 Through personal experience, Lockwood had questioned and rejected a common cultural practice through “agitation.” As a woman running for president, this was one of the qualities Lockwood needed to demonstrate. Her Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 179 past work was proof of her fearlessness in confronting social expectations and her ability to produce a change. These qualities were reflected in other statements throughout the essay in phrases such as, “I was not to be squelched so easily,”100 and

“When I arose to explain my position, the court grew white at my audacity and imperturbability, and positively declined to hear me.”101 This bold spirit was reflected in her career. For example, she wrote of her attempt to obtain a consulship at Ghent:

“Conceiving that I could fill this position, I had the audacity to make application for it.”102 Her impudence was proof of her resolve. As Lockwood wrote, “Defeats are always advantageous, if they only bend the spirit and do not break it.”103

Physical Memory

In addition to providing proof of events in her campaign and her abilities,

Lockwood used physical ability as justification for her candidacy. First, she used language directly linked to physical action in order to describe her journey to become a lawyer and her presidential campaign. In her rhetoric, physical effort was proof of her professional commitment. Lockwood used language about labor and hard work to demonstrate her dedication. This pride in individual work and possession of a strong work ethic were a dominant part of the “American” psyche and probably recognizable to her contemporary readership. Furthermore, many of the arguments against women’s rights were based on physical differences between men and women. Many men believed that a woman’s physical “feebleness” and “meekness” were justification for her inability to participate in the world of public affairs.104 Lockwood’s use of language that focused on her physical ability that directly refuted this argument. Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 180 In “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer,” Lockwood more overtly referred to her laborious efforts. She began this piece of 1888 campaign literature with her education and work history. When writing about her first job as a teacher, she wrote phrases such as, “My first term was devoted entirely and zealously to the routine-work of the school.”105 Language like “entirely” and “zealously” reaffirmed her determination.

Later in the section, Lockwood referred to her teaching load as “four years of unremitting toil, of earnest work.”106 The work was framed as hard, honorable, and proof of her work ethic. This dedication was reaffirmed later in the essay when she wrote, “In my efforts to discover new avenues of labor I met with some ludicrous and some serious experiences.”107 Lockwood carefully crafted her persona as a determined, ambitious laborer. Her belief in dedicated work and attentiveness was illustrated further in an 1888 campaign speech in Louisville when Lockwood said, “The price of liberty and the prosperity of a republic is eternal vigilance.” Using this phrase also identifies her with former political and activist leaders, giving her additional credibility. The phrase because repeats the words of famous abolitionist Wendell Phillips and former U.S. President

Andrew Jackson.108

Her characterization of her work was often linked specifically to manual labor. In fact, she began her speech in Boonville, NY, by telling her audience how happy she was to be at a county fair where she could see the “skilled work of your hands.”109 In “How I

Ran for the Presidency,” she wrote that she “opened” the courts to women by “hand to hand work.”110 The image of her physically opening doors with her bare hands was not a literal interpretation of her legal career, but was indicative of her dedication and determined attitude. Lockwood struggled for years against barriers that prevented her Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 181 from being admitted to Bar Associations. Thus her “hand to hand” work was a metaphor that linked individual labor to her actual struggles. She went on to write that her

“hands were full”111 of legal cases, again suggesting that it was individual work that made her successful. The importance of this vocabulary exists in its relation to the cultural concept of privileging individual labor as part of the path to success. Further, she linked her actions to her physical body, arguably insinuating that women could work just as hard as men and deserved the benefits they reaped. This was present even in her description of her reaction to the letter of nomination, when she wrote that she kept the answer in her “pocket.”112 Although she literally carried her letter of acceptance in her pocket, she linked it to her physical body, suggesting that the nomination was a part of her very being.

Lockwood further linked language related to manual labor with the act of building. Lockwood’s physical struggles in “How I Ran for the Presidency” were metaphorically related to the act of building a platform, an act in which Lockwood, through the Equal Rights Party, was actively engaged. The word “platform” to refer to a political party’s policies on issues is an example of the basic construction of the metaphor. One must build a platform, usually by nailing together pieces of material so that it becomes a flat surface on which someone or something might be supported.

Lockwood takes the metaphor further when she wrote about political platforms. For example, she referred to her failed attempt to add a “plank” to the Republican Party platform in recognition of woman’s rights.113 For Lockwood, the issue was not one on which the Republicans were willing to build their “platform.” The protections the Equal Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 182 Rights Party platform afforded would be “exerted” to defend the rights of every citizen.114

She used this construction language in an 1884 campaign speech when, in reference to her political opponents, she said, “I have been perplexed to discover just what their platform means, and on which end of the great political level they intend to adjust themselves. It is possible for very good material to be put to very bad uses.”115 In antithesis, the policies of the Equal Rights Party could be seen as metaphorically sturdy and concrete. She continued, “I am an unswerving friend of the laboring man, but I want a platform broad enough for the wives and daughters of the manufacturers, broad enough to take in every adult woman in the land, a platform on which the rights of the woman will be respected as well as the rights of the man, a platform on which justice as well as courtesy will not only be expected but exacted.”116 The notion of building a platform through reference to its physical make up and the effort needed to build one in a physical sense was an important component of her language because it allowed Lockwood the ability to frame, through literal language, a political platform that legitimized her candidacy. Further, Lockwood frequently linked this notion of physical building to her right to political candidacy. In that same 1884 campaign speech, she declared, “There are those who will tell you that a woman cannot be elected President of the Republic under the Constitution, but I quote from that immortal document to show to you that the brain that conceived and the hand that planned it builded better than he knew…There is nothing in the Constitution or in its several amendments that tends to render a woman citizen of the Republic ineligible to the Presidency.”117 By framing the Constitution itself Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 183 as being hand-built, Lockwood rhetorically paralleled her experience and provided legitimacy for her actions.

Discussion of manual labor worked in conjunction with language proving

Lockwood’s physical capabilities. Lockwood’s texts suggest that physical activity, or how the body remembers action, was integral to her identity. As Henri Bergson contends, the past survives in part through “motor mechanisms,” or the automatic action of memory as it is located in the body. That is, people often locate the past in actions that are remembered physically.118 The location of her memories of her experiences in her physical body was important for crafting her political persona. This is an example of

Mattingly’s claim that “since gender so clearly shaped nineteenth century culture, references to the body legitimized existing perceptions of gender or worked to change them.”119 For example, Lockwood’s ability to work as a lawyer was linked to her bodily make-up when discussing her admittance to a university in “My Efforts to Become a

Lawyer.” She reflects that the President of the school, “evidently did not fully comprehend, good man as he was, the nature of the timber of which the young woman who then confronted him was made.”120 The word “timber” is key here. Timber refers to the wood of a tree – strong, firm, natural, and ever-lasting. Timber grows with the right cultivation, and is used as the foundation for the buildings of society. Lockwood’s use of the word to describe her own stature not only reaffirms her strength and determination, but it rhetorically makes her career objectives possible as a woman.

She writes in “How I Ran for the Presidency” that she “sped away” on her bicycle to the post office in order to mail her letter of acceptance of the nomination. Although the action described was literal behavior, the language was simultaneously metaphorical. Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 184 First, riding a bicycle is an example of indirect memory; its action, once learned, is natural and repeatable. Lockwood’s use of her activity of riding a bicycle located her memories in physical activity and in a natural expression of action. Second, throughout the essay Lockwood describes the nature of her nomination as a surprise, and her campaign as a whirlwind of coordinated effort and exciting events. The notion that she “sped away” is not just an homage to her bicycle riding, for which she was frequently ridiculed.121 The notion seemed to be a description of the campaign. It was fast, unexpected, and full of direction, purpose, and swiftness. Her physical health was also mentioned in “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer.” Lockwood wrote that during her teaching career, “I had regularly exercised the young ladies in the gymnasium… I believe that to this exercise, at least in part, I owe my robust health and a certain suppleness of limb that I have never since lost.”122 Her past experiences molded her into the woman she was in 1888, a woman both mentally and physically able to run for the presidency.

The bodily focus of her memories worked in conjunction with the naturalization of her actions. By using logical conclusions and natural elements to describe her past experiences, Lockwood’s rhetoric moved toward a more equal future. She reflected in

“My Efforts to Become a Lawyer,” that her mind had always been one of “extreme practicality.”123 She then stated outright that the prejudices against women “have had no foundation in reason, in nature, or in nature's laws.”124 She reflected:

My only thought was to do those things which in the nature of human affairs

seemed the things to be done, and to do them in the best and most expeditious

manner. Hence I was not careful as to the nature of my work, so that it was means Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 185 to an end, and never for a moment stopped to consider whether the

labor was such as women were accustomed to do, but only whether I had the

ability to perform it.125

Lockwood’s belief in natural performance transcended her belief in social norms.

By linking her actions to what she considered to be ordinary, she rhetorically questioned and ignored societal gender expectations. As she stated in her 1888 essay, “The Present

Phase of the Woman Question,” “A few years hence the world will wonder why women have not always voted, why they have not always possessed property rights, why they were so long held as subjects and inferiors, instead of partners and equals. There is no reason in nature. There should be none in law.”126 Remembering her past in natural terminology not only prevented her audience from discrediting her career based on gender norms, but simultaneously put those norms in combat with natural human existence. For Lockwood, practicality, expediency, and capability outweighed expected female behavior.

Language referring to natural elements helped Lockwood portray a sequence of events. Her career was constructed as ordinary, therefore, not odd for her sex. When describing significant events, Lockwood used several metaphors to facilitate movement in the text and assert female agency. She wrote of her nomination in “How I Ran for the

Presidency,” by referencing natural phenomenon. She wrote, “suddenly, like a clap of thunder from a clear sky, came a nomination to me for the presidency from the women of

California.”127 Lockwood carefully illustrated her nomination as a welcome disruption to her normal routine. In addition, this description suggested that humans could not control Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 186 events. “Like a clap of thunder” referred to a natural, yet unexpected occurrence. She made it seem as if her nomination was something that she could neither control nor prevent. The imagery gave the reader the ability to experience the same sense of surprise that Lockwood did upon receiving the nomination. Thus, Lockwood’s nomination is part of a natural evolution of events. Yet a tension exists in this statement, because although the language suggested that Lockwood’s campaign was a natural occurrence in her career, the women of the Equal Rights Party in California controlled the power to nominate her. Lockwood’s statement made her nomination occur naturally, but also as a result of the work of women. Such action was, then, both natural and potentially powerful.

The power of women was frequently discussed with this natural terminology.

Lockwood used a light-dark metaphor when she referred to women at her political rally as “bright” women.128 The word “bright” is often used to suggest that someone is smart or savvy, and also to suggest that someone is happy or cheerful. The word is also a physical reminder of the sun, or vivid amounts of color and light. Lockwood also wrote that she was “fired” by the situation, which connotes a sense of heat (or passion) and flare

(or excitedness). The word is a synecdoche for feelings felt and actions taken. Taken as a whole, Lockwood’s use of the word stands in for the idea that these women embodied these characteristics; they were smart, capable, happy, and could lead the people toward the future. This was a key part of Lockwood’s essay: women political leaders were the wave of the future. The use of language linked to natural elements like weather, fire, and light made it all the more possible for Lockwood’s campaign to take its place in the natural progression of time, as a natural progression toward the future. Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 187 This sort of progression is best seen in Lockwood’s attempt to build momentum throughout much of her rhetoric. In “How I Ran for the Presidency,” the campaign itself was portrayed as if it were uncontrollably propelled forward. She wrote,

“the campaign having been uncorked, it seemed disposed to run itself.”129 A campaign

“uncorked” suggests an explosion or uncontrollable release. Once the press began to cover the campaign, Lockwood wrote that her efforts were unstoppable.

This sort of rhetorical maneuvering was also present in her discussion of fellow woman suffrage advocates. In reference to the Democratic and Republican political conventions that year, Lockwood wrote, “Progressive and thinking women from all parties had attended in greater or less numbers all of these conventions, and were pressing forward for recognition. About this time Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Mrs.

[sic] Susan B. Anthony came out with a circular, directed to the leading women of the country, urging them to use their influence for the republican party.”130 She introduced well-known, integral woman’s rights advocates by their relation to the party convention activities, exhibiting her belief in the power of party politics. In addition, the phrase

“pressing forward” suggests forward thinking and progressive action. Similarly, she later referred to the appointment of Phoebe Couzins as assistant marshal of St. Louis as a “step in the right direction.”131 Women were progressing toward something greater. A similar sentiment is reflected in the use of the word “movement” to describe the fight for woman’s rights in which Lockwood fought.

In an 1888 essay “The Present Phase of the Woman Question,” Lockwood mentioned changes in society that “have quickened into life the reasoning forces of the mass of American women.”132 As a piece of campaign literature, Lockwood’s language Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 188 suggested excited movement and momentum. She went on to describe the advent of the mass media in the form of “metropolitan journals…ready for delivery at the homes of nearly every remote town, by ten o’clock in the morning…” as further proof of women’s participation in public conversation.133 Here, again, she used time and availability to suggest the force of the growing community of informed women who desired to participate in public conversation. The forces at work described through these phrases illustrated the ever-growing presence of politically minded females. As she said in 1888 in Louisville: “We are a progressive people, an educated people, a thinking people, whose life and vitality, whose freedom and prosperity, are in the onward march of free thought, and in the dissemination of the views of true republicanism. Our life is, in

[a] word, due to progression and to activity. To stand still is to retrograde.”134

To further suggest movement forward, in her essay recounting her 1884 campaign, Lockwood legitimized her own candidacy by mentioning her rival candidates and fellow woman’s rights leaders. As she did, she used words associated with direction and physicality. She wrote, “James G. Blaine, then in the zenith of his popularity and one of the leading statesmen of the nation, had been nominated by the Republican Party, and

Grover Cleveland, then a new possibility, and comparatively unknown, was nominated by the Democratic Party…”135 (728). The word “zenith” refers to a high point and its use suggested that support for Blaine might have reached its peak. Despite ardent campaigning by suffrage leaders, the Republican Party did not recognize woman suffrage in their platform throughout the Gilded Age. As she reiterated later in the essay,

Lockwood believed that because of the continued lack of support, continued effort with the party was fruitless. Taken further then, Blaine’s peaked popularity could have been a Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 189 metaphor for the idea that women had nowhere else to go within the

Republican Party, and needed to look elsewhere. Or it might suggest that men had reached the peak of their power, and thus offering a fluid opening for a female candidate to step in. In addition, the subtext of battle seeped into her essay, as “zenith” is the high point of a hill – those who control the high ground in battle typically maintain power.

Lockwood might have been suggesting that although Blaine maintained control of the high ground of politics, she was willing to fight for control.

Enacting Political Womanhood

Using her past experiences to describe women as independent, physically able, and naturally progressing in society is perhaps most significant for its ability to demonstrate the communal power and strength of women in politics. She spent much of her time justifying her presence in the political arena by providing testimony and emphasizing her physical and mental capabilities. Much of this was seemingly an attempt to separate her sex from her abilities. Political rights, in Lockwood’s view, should be accessible to everyone. At the same time, Lockwood’s career could be seen as evidence of women’s distinctive and exceptional contributions to the political arena. She enacted the very roles for which she sought access. This tension between asserting personhood and emphasizing the strength of women is perhaps best illustrated with a passage from her campaign speech in Louisville in 1888. Lockwood spent a large section of the speech reciting the entire first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence. She then said:

We declare that the government as at present administered is not by the consent of

the governed. That the tax paying women of the country outnumber the men (so-

called) by one million and a half (1,500,000), the ranks of the male voters having Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 190 been largely decimated by the late civil war – a war brought about by

the tenacity and pugnacity of the male politician. We state also that in many

instances the Constitution of the United States has been violated by Congressional

legislation; that its provisions have not been preserved intact: that the government

that the women of the country have so long tacitly permitted the men of the

country to usurp has not been sacredly preserved; and that now, in accordance

with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, ratified by the Bills of

Rights of the several States, it has become the privilege of the women of this

country and the noble men who are standing shoulder to shoulder with them,

either to alter or abolish the Constitution of the United States, or to make a bold

and persistent demand for equal political privileges under it.136

As a candidate for President, Lockwood enacted her view that it was time for women to take part in political leadership. In this passage, it seems as if Lockwood was asserting her right to political participation as a candidate based on the founding documents, based on her rights of personhood, regardless of sex. She then stated:

Like a child who has outgrown its swaddling clothes, the United States of

America has outgrown the civilization of the past…the woman of today is bearing

her responsibilities, fulfilling her mission and doing her share of the physical and

mental work of the republic…and developed so much of individuality, so much of

brain power, so much of possibility, that it is now too late to relegate her back to

the cradle and the kitchen…the full fledged American woman stands before you

today ready for the workshop, the pulpit, the forum or the political arena, Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 191 demanding equal political rights under the Constitution, and equal civil

rights before the law.137

Her physical substantiation of her abilities regardless of her sex was paired with the distinctive power of her generation of women. A statement from a New York campaign speech reiterates this sentiment when Lockwood proclaimed, “Only a grand, free woman, with the fresh blood of inspiration flowing through her veins and proud of her motherhood can bear a child fit to govern a republic.”138 Here Lockwood presented the unique ability of women to have children as yet another indication that they should play important roles in the political arena. Lockwood thus believed in her right to political office both in spite of and because of her sex.

As described earlier, although her essays and speeches were often narratives depicting her past experiences, the language used by Lockwood oriented her rhetoric toward the future. As she described each event in her life, there was an awareness of its importance for the on-going fight for women’s participation in institutional politics. As she wrote in her letter of acceptance of the nomination, “now, without stopping to look back, let us see what a few earnest, capable women can do.”139 She articulated this more clearly in her 1888 Boonville address when she said, “We are coming up out of the old heathen civilization which formerly denied to woman a soul, into the broad light of a

Christian civilization in which brain force and moral force, not tyranny and brute force shall be uppermost.”140 Just like Lease, Willard, and Foster, Lockwood used religious and moral leadership to claim future political action for women. The power of women’s collective action was further illustrated in Lockwood’s description of a political rally for her candidacy. She described the women and men at a rally in Maryland as participating Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 192 together, acting together in a group, and identifying with one another. Her female supporters had the “audacity” to hold a political convention.141 She even wrote of the presence of journalists and that the next morning “both Baltimore and Washington had the report of the meeting, with embellishments.”142 The community of support and political action that Lockwood described was indicative of the sort of thing that can happen when women come together. This recognition of the strengths of women was also articulated in Lockwood’s description of the attendees: the bright women of Washington and the sturdy old farmers of Maryland, who were almost amazed at the audacity of women holding a political convention, made the welkin ring.”143 Women were “bright,” or related to light and direction. Men were “sturdy” and “old.” This language suggests that while the men involved could be strong and powerful, they were simultaneously outdated and weakened. Her campaign was driven by support from a community of hard- working, self-determined women.

Lockwood placed the power to determine presidential candidates in the hands of women. As she stated in “How I Ran for the Presidency,” her nomination was decided upon and executed by a group of politically active women, without approval or support from the political establishment or the dominant woman suffrage associations. In her letter to the Woman’s Herald of Industry Lockwood first suggested a female candidate for President. Here again was an example of radical action. The mere suggestion of a female president, considering women could not vote and no woman had run a full campaign, was radical. In fact, the one woman who had attempted a run was socially ostracized.144 Lockwood wrote in the letter, “Two of the present political parties who have candidates in the field believe in woman suffrage. It would have been well had some Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 193 of the candidates been women. There is no use in attempting to avoid the inevitable” (729). Lockwood’s statement was strong and determined, asserting in no uncertain terms that the nation would be unable to avoid a female political leader in the future. In addition, she questioned the political machinery not only by asserting woman’s right to suffrage, but by suggesting that women should be involved in the actual political process as decision makers. This sort of autonomous decision-making, or decisions made by women without the influence of men, was simultaneously personal and political. As a woman, Lockwood asserted her firm belief in the power of every woman, while encouraging that power to be used in a larger social framework. She continued, “it is quite time that we had our own party; our own platform, and our own nominees.”145 Her strong message was that women were capable of political policymaking and needed to take matters into their own hands. As she said in Boonville in 1888, “Woman therefore is obliged to enter the political arena, not from choice but from a sense of duty.”146

Just as her description of her struggle to advance in the legal profession was described as “hand to hand work”147 earlier, this language evokes the imagery of hand to hand combat, an appropriate signifier for the nature of her career. Lockwood’s legal battles and attempts to enter politics represented a constant struggle between expected norms of gender behavior and her efforts to contribute to society. This sort of imagery was also present in her 1888 campaign rhetoric, when she praised the Woman’s Christian

Temperance Union (WCTU) as “almost in one solid phalanx demanding that badge of

American citizenship – the ballot.”148 By describing the WCTU as a phalanx, or a well- armed and organized militant group,149 Lockwood asserted that women had both the capability and the drive to fight the battle for advancement. She spoke of the Equal Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 194 Rights Party in the same way in Louisville in 1888 when she said, “The grand and new Equal Rights Party, whom I am proud to represent, have girded on their armor, and …will sweep over the country awakening our people to new and living issues…”150

This language was also present in Lockwood’s description of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her “coadjutors”: “A large majority of those who early espoused the cause beat a hasty retreat from the field. But the specter would not down. Some of the women braved the tempest and died at their posts. Some still survive, and have added thousands of converts to the idea of woman’s equality before the law.”151

Her 1888 campaign literature continued to emphasize the power of political women as a welcome and expected outcome of their efforts. She wrote, “It is more formative than formidable; and yet there is such a general uprising all along the line, as to indicate that a social revolution is impending.”152 The inevitable appearance of women in positions of institutional leadership was emphasized in strong and confident terms. She went on to describe that more women were being admitted into educational institutions in the same sort of language: “the gradual opening up to [women] of the older institutions of learning, formerly devoted to masculine genius only, are all beginning to bear legitimate fruit.”153 Lockwood was forceful in her assertion that schools should only be considered valid when educating women as well as men. Just as with the political institution, the educational institution needed to accept women into its ranks in order to be legitimate.

She also went on to blame past subjugation of women for its continuation: “But at the present time it is largely caused by that might force, public opinion – old time custom, the fear of being laughed at if she has her own ideas.” 154 In her view, outdated viewpoints Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 195 were to blame for expected social behavior. This was a phenomenon that women could overcome through asserting the power of their sex.

A Usable Past

Understanding the historical context of 1884, 1888, and 1903 is important for interpreting Lockwood’s essays and speeches. First, Lockwood’s rhetoric illustrates attempts made by a woman who took unprecedented steps to insert herself into the political institutions of the time. Lockwood represents the most complete picture we have of one of the first female political party candidates. Her language helps us to understand the rhetorical constraints on a female candidacy, and her efforts to confront these social biases. Second, her references to her capability and historical significance illustrates a potential desire to bolster her place in the history of the woman’s rights movement. This leads to an interesting negotiation between history and memory, or grounded historical time and timeless public memory. This can be seen in Lockwood’s constant linguistic orientation from the past to the future. Not only did her rhetoric present a documented past, but it attempted to create a usable past for Lockwood’s present.

Woman’s rights activists throughout the nineteenth century often enacted their rights through physically performing their citizenship.155 The act of voting by women across the country is an example of this sort of enacted citizenship. As Angela Ray writes, the “ritual” performance of voting highlights “social anxiety about the parameters of the mythically universal category of the citizen.”156 Lockwood legitimized her candidacy in a similar way by enacting her right to run for her office. She provided proof of her career, emphasized her physical abilities, and proclaimed her hopeful outlook for a more progressive future, all while running for President of the United States. Her need to Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 196 document her career, her physical make up, her ability to reason, and the positive power of female collective action all help to highlight the constraints faced by a female candidate for political office during the Gilded Age.

Lockwood’s essays and speeches are also significant because of their use of memory as a rhetorical tool. First, Lockwood used her memories to make sense of the present. Lockwood was explicitly trying to shape the collective memory of her own life by documenting her career. Pennebaker and Banasik write that, “Significant historical events form stronger collective memories, and present circumstances affect what events are remembered as significant.”157 It is clear that Lockwood was attempting to control remembrance by documenting those events that she deemed most important. This task is reflected in Pierre Nora’s statement that, “The task of remembering makes everyone his own historian.”158 Lockwood not only grounded her career in a corroborated past, but also interpreted her own past to shape public memory. By materially grounding both her legal career and her campaign for the presidency, Lockwood attempted to solidify herself in the nation’s historical narrative and legitimize herself as a woman’s rights leader.

The past can be appropriated and used in ways that reinforce or question social norms. The construction of the past can be a basis for interpreting contemporary social practices, and thus is rhetorical in nature.159 In this light, Lockwood’s essays became useful for her present. As hinted at throughout this essay, whether in 1884, 1888, or 1903, her rhetoric potentially served a more general purpose. Lockwood’s memories both solidified the past in a particular narrative of history and also provided an interpretive context for present situations. Lockwood’s memories said as much about the past as they did about a potential future. In the essays and speeches analyzed here from 1884 and Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 197 1888, Lockwood’s attempt to prove both the strength of her character and the success of her career was rhetorically useful for proving herself a good candidate for

President. The physical strength, sense of movement, corroborated career, and rhetorical energy created by her language work as autobiography and campaign literature.

Further, Lockwood’s essay from 1903 recounting her 1884 presidential campaign was just as much about historical documentation as it was a rallying cry for women to become politically active. Through words associated with the physical and natural world,

Lockwood propelled the reader toward a conclusion. On the surface, the essay was a retelling of the events of her campaign, with written documentation of many important occurrences. On a meta-level, however, the essay seemed to reflect a desire to continue moving forward. The woman suffrage “movement” itself is a metaphor that is reflected in

Lockwood’s tone and language. Lockwood presented herself as an able leader, offered her campaign as evidence of action and momentum, and encouraged similar behavior in the future. The example of her campaign and its constant movement forward is reflective of the need for the same sort of driving force, an energetic rebirth, from the women involved in the movement in 1888 and in 1903.

The woman suffrage movement became increasingly “conservative and conventional” in the late nineteenth century, mostly in reaction to the hysteria caused by radical labor agitation, including the growing antagonism toward anarchists and

Chicago’s Haymarket riot of 1886.160 As Flexner and Fitzpatrick write, “Susan Anthony herself would have thought twice about flouting Federal election laws and going to jail in an era which witnessed Haymarket hysteria.”161 In part, this lack of radical activism was related to suffrage victories in the West. Although considered “victories,” woman Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 198 suffrage opponents began to link the movement to political sentiments.

Colorado, which supported women suffrage, was a hotbed of Populism. Populists “cast themselves as outsiders and mistrusted the eastern political establishment.” 162 In addition, suffrage was granted in Utah, linking it with Mormonism. As Edwards writes,

“Between 1871 and 1890, the suffrage movement had suffered from the stigma of

Mormon polygamy; in the years between 1897 and 1910, the stigma of radicalism was even worse…In retrospect, the victories in Utah, Colorado, and Idaho seemed to have hampered the cause of suffrage in other states.”163

Further, the woman suffrage movement was stalled in 1903. Although the 1890 merger of the two prominent woman suffrage organizations into the National American

Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)164 contributed to the unification of suffrage efforts, the movement had yet to find a new charismatic leader. Major leaders had died or were fading into the background, membership and momentum had declined, and many of the newly established local suffrage groups were unstable, “often lapsing into inactivity or quietly folding as soon as the charismatic NAWSA organizers left the area.”165

NAWSA suffered from “financial woes, public indifference, and lack of national recognition.”166 Although there were a series of suffrage victories in the 1890s, the period between 1896 and 1910 is referred to by historians as the “doldrums” – a time when no states adopted woman suffrage amendments.167 It was in this environment that Lockwood published “Presidency.”

On the surface, Lockwood’s rhetoric was a retelling of the events of her career, with written documentation of many important occurrences. Her rhetoric also reflected a Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 199 desire to continue moving forward during the height of the woman suffrage movement. Her past provided key evidence of women’s strength, endurance, and determination. Lockwood presented herself as an able leader, presented her career as evidence of action and momentum, and encouraged similar behavior in the future. Her strength and determination was useful both as a presidential candidate and a woman’s rights leader. The rhetorical movement forward was reflective of the need for the same sort of driving force, an energetic rebirth, from the women involved in the movement in

1888 and 1903.

In her 1884 nomination acceptance letter, Lockwood wrote that her campaign would “pass into the history of 1884, and become the entering wedge – the first practical movement in the history of Woman Suffrage, and will be the beginning of the end.”168

Two key metaphors here illustrate the overall purpose of the campaign narrative. That the campaign would “pass” into history contributed to the overall sense of direction that

Lockwood’s writing suggested. Metaphorically, it physically moved into the annals of history. Lockwood’s essay could be described as an attempt to solidify the campaign’s existence in the national memory. Further, her use of the word “will” suggested that the campaign would be the first of many, or perhaps the removal of the political barrier for the women of the country. Similarly, she wrote, “It will open a door to be shut no more forever, and four years from now will sweep the country.”169 She spoke of her nomination and its importance to history. The nomination itself was the important aspect of the action. Lockwood wrote of the barrier that prevented women from seeking office as a personally experienced aspect of society. The phrase “to be shut no more forever” is Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 200 further indication of movement from past to future. “To be shut” is active and suggests future action, and “no more” refers to actions of the past that would be halted.

By placing “forever” at the end of the phrase, Lockwood inferred that this action would be timeless and continual.

Yet her use of the word “wedge” encompassed the text’s purpose more fully.

Lockwood seemingly used the term to suggest that her campaign could be that needed piece of history for woman’s rights. Her campaign could be evidence of women’s hard work and determination, the sort of action that was needed in 1903. Further, a “wedge” brings to light images of a solid section that might be immovable once it is put in place.

The progress that her campaign made, Lockwood suggested, was important for the movement’s history and its future. Finally, the verb “to wedge” often means to force, to hold, to separate, or to fix in place. In Lockwood’s view, her campaign made woman’s political place distinctive and permanent in history. She ended her essay in a similar way:

“thus ended a presidential campaign that has gone down in history, but which awakened the women of the country.”170 The campaign moved down and up at the same time. It had passed into history, but also aroused sentiments. The metaphors of physical movement propelled the narrative and suggested a need to propel the movement forward. Her narrative recounted that exact “awakening,” perhaps with the rhetorical purpose of inspiring women to experience a similar feeling in the future.

Lockwood’s career was prolific. She assisted in passing much legislation, including a Married Women’s Property Act. By the late 1880s, she became heavily involved in the Universal Peace Union.171 She continued to be involved in the suffrage movement, lobbying Congress when state referenda were passed.172 She also wrote Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 201 essays on the state of women in The American Journal of Politics II, frequently contributed to Marietta Stow’s Woman’s Herald of Industry, and wrote for The

Peacemaker, a journal that she also co-edited.173 Her rift with Stanton and Anthony played out further when she joined the National Legislative League Federal Suffrage

Association, which was established in 1892 and renamed the Federal Women’s Equality

League in 1902. According to Norgren, “The group was born out of frustration with

NAWSA’s emphasis on state suffrage campaigns.” 174 They believed that an Act of

Congress was needed in order to override any state laws barring women from the ballot.

The group advocated in particular for an Act that would at least allow women to vote for the U.S. House of Representatives. Lockwood died on May 19, 1917, three years before the passage of the 19th Amendment.

Notes for Chapter Four

1 Belva A. Lockwood, "How I Ran for the Presidency," National Magazine, March 1903: 729. 2 Victoria Woodhull was the first woman to run for President in 1876, also as a candidate for the Equal Rights Party. Woodhull was a controversial figure for the woman’s movement, as her radical views on free love and financial woes brought notoriety to her public persona. In addition, the legality of her candidacy is question by many historians. She was not the constitutionally mandated age of 35 when she ran for office, her name was not printed on the ballot, and she was in custody for violating the Comstock Act on election day in 1876. Jill Norgren, “Lockwood in ’84,” Wilson Quarterly 26, no. 4 (Autumn 2002); Jill Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would be President (New York, NY: Press, 2007), 125. For more information on Woodhull, see Lois Beachy Underhill, The Woman Who Ran for President: The Many Lives of Victoria Woodhull (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1996); Mary Gabriel, Notorious Victoria (Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books, 1998). 3 In addition to running on the ticket with Lockwood, Stow also ran for in 1882 and edited the Woman’s Herald of Industry and Social Science Cooperator, an important progressive magazine for women. Woman’s Herald of Industry, July and September, 1882. 4 Barbie Zelizer, “Reading the Past Against the Grain: The Shape of Memory Studies,” Critical Studies in Mass Communication 12 (June 1995): 226. See also Edward Casey, “Public Memory in Place and Time, “Framing Public Memory ed. Kendall Phillips (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2004): 17-44. 5 Douglas Walton, “Enthymemes, Common Knowledge, and Plausible Inference,” Philosophy and Rhetoric 34.2 (2001): 96. Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 202

6 Barry Schwartz, “The Social Context of Commemoration: A Study in Collective Memory” Social Forces 61.2 (1982): 347. 7 Maurice Halbwachs, On Collective Memory Ed. Lewis Coser (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992) 49. 8 John Bodnar, Remaking America: Public Memory, Commemoration, and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992), 14. 9 Jill Norgren, “Lockwood in ’84,” Wilson Quarterly 26 (2002): 12. 10 Warren L. Lashley, "Belva Bennett McNall Lockwood," in Women Public Speakers in the United States, 1800-1925: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook, 39-48 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993), 39. 11 Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, 6-7. At the time, Anthony was a prominent woman’s rights advocate and abolitionist, frequently touring the country giving lectures on a variety of issues. 12 Lashley, 40. 13 Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, 14-16. 14 Lockwood lobbied Congress for many reforms, including pensions, mining rights, Indian affairs, foreign policy, and woman’s rights. Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, Chapter 9. 15 Lashley, 40. 16 Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, 23-26. 17 Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, 19. 18 Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, 31. 19 Lockwood faced intense gender discrimination in receiving her diploma. She completed her coursework, but it took several years for the school to award her a diploma so she could apply for membership in the Bar Association. 20 Lashley, 39. 21 Lashley, 41. 22 Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, 98. 23 Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, 107. 24 Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, 107. 25 For details about the case, see Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, 204- 211; United States v. Cherokee Nation, 202 U.S. 101 (1906). 26 Woman: Her Position, Influence, and Achievement Throughout the Civilized World (Springfield, MA: The King-Richardson Co., 1902). 27 In 1872, Victoria Claflin Woodhull ran for President, but was arrested and was in jail during election week. Woodhull was arrested under the Comstock Law, which made it illegal to send “obscene” material through the mail. Woodhull had exposed in print the sexual infidelities of Henry Ward Beecher, a harsh critic of her candidacy. 28 Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, 124. 29 Belva A. Lockwood, "How I Ran for the Presidency," National Magazine, March 1903: 729. 30 Lockwood, "How I Ran for the Presidency," 728-733. 31 “A Women’s Candidate for President,” The Evening Star, September 4, 1884: 1. 32 “Mrs. Lockwood’s Campaign Closed,” Evening Star, September 29, 1884; Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, 135. 33 Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, 135-136. 34 Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, 137. 35 Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, Chapter 10. 36 Woman’s Herald of Industry, July, 1884, 1; Woman’s Herald of Industry, September, 1884, 1;Norgren, 128. 37 Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, 134; “Woman in Politics,” Frank Leslie’s Illustrated, September 20, 1884: 72-75. 38 “Another Scandal,” New York Times, October 12, 1884: 8; 39 Erika Falk, Women for President: Media Bias in Eight Campaigns (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2008), 39. Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 203

40 Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, 139; Mother Hubbard dresses were new pieces of female clothing that allowed for freer movement that was considered inappropriate to be worn outdoors; “Fun of the Campaign,” New York Times, Nov. 4, 1884: 1. 41 Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, 140. 42 Lashley, 42. 43 Lockwood, "How I Ran for the Presidency," 733. 44 “Belva Lockwood’s Nomination,” The Woman’s Journal, May, 1888: 5. 45 “A Women’s Candidate for President,” 1. 46 “A Women’s Candidate for President,” 1. 47 Qtd. In Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, 163. 48 Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, 165. 49 Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, 167. 50 Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, 167. 51 Robert J. Dinkin, Before Equal Suffrage: Women in Partisan Politics from Colonial Times to 1920 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995), 73. 52 Dinkin, 104. 53 Dinkin, 105. 54 For a list of women who ran for and were elected to state and local offices, see Her Hat was in the Ring!: U.S. Women Who Ran for Political Office Before 1920, 2010, http://www.swarthmore.edu/library/peace/wchmiel1/women%20in%20politics/Party%20Affiiliation.htm (accessed March 1, 2010). 55 Dinkin, 74. 56 Dinkin, 75. 57 Julia Hill Winner has compiled a series of writings in a volume with the Niagara County Historical Society in 1969. The Belva A. Lockwood Papers in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection includes letters, pamphlets, and newspaper clippings. The Belva Lockwood Papers in the Ormes-Winner Collection at the New York State Historical Association includes handwritten manuscripts. 58 “A Woman Can Be President: Belva Lockwood Defines the Position of the Equal Righters.” New York Times, October 20,1884, 1. 59 “Mrs. Lockwood’s Speech,” Louisville Courier Journal, October 14, 1884. 60 Belva Lockwood, "My Efforts to Become a Lawyer," Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, February 1888: 215-229. 61 Belva Lockwood, “The Present Phase of the Woman Question,” The Cosmopolitan V, March-October, 1888: 467-470. 62 “Belva Lockwood’s Address,” Boonville Herald, September 20, 1888. 63 The journal was titled The Bostonian, and was established in 1894. After four volumes, the name changed to The National Magazine, and was published until 1933 by the Bostonian Publishing Company. The magazine was illustrated, and usually included short stories, poems, humorous articles, and editorials. It also focused on Washington political affairs. According to Frank Mott, the magazine “specialized in small-city circulation throughout the country, but never reached more than about three hundred thousand.” Frank Luther Mott, A History of American Magazines, 1741-1930, Vol. 4 (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1958-1968), 80-81. 64 Ellen Carol DuBois, "Outgrowing the Compact of the Fathers: Equal Rights, Woman Suffrage, and the United States Constitution, 1820-1878," The Journal of American History 74, no. 3 (1987): 842. 65 Paula Baker, "The Domestication of Politics: Women and American Political Society, 1780-1920," American Historical Review 89 (June 1984): 624 66 Jan Lewis, "'Of Every Age, Sex, & Condition': The Representation of Women in the Constitution," Journal of the Early Republic 15, no. 3 (1995): 359. 67 Lewis, 669. 68 Lewis, 369. 69 Paula Baker, The Moral Frameworks of Public Life: Gender, Politics, and the State in Rural New York, 1870-1930 (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1991), xiii. 70 Lockwood, “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer,” 222. 71 Lockwood, “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer,” 224. Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 204

72 Lockwood, “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer,” 228. 73 Lockwood, “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer,” 225. 74 Lockwood, “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer,” 225. 75 Lockwood, “How I Ran for the Presidency,” 729. 76 Lockwood, “The Present Phase of the Woman Question,” 470. 77 “Hopeful Mrs. Lockwood” New York Times, August 6, 1888: 5. 78 Lockwood, “How I Ran for the Presidency,” 729. 79 Lockwood, “How I Ran for the Presidency,” 729. 80 Lockwood, “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer,” 223. 81 “Mrs. Lockwood’s Speech.” 82 Lockwood, "How I Ran for the Presidency," 729. 83 Lockwood, “How I Ran for the Presidency,” 730. 84 “A Woman Can Be President: Belva Lockwood Defines the Position of the Equal Righters,” 1. 85 “A Woman Can Be President: Belva Lockwood Defines the Position of the Equal Righters,” 1. 86 “A Woman Can Be President: Belva Lockwood Defines the Position of the Equal Righters,” 1. 87 Lockwood, “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer,” 220. 88 Lockwood, “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer,” 220. 89 Lockwood, “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer,” 220. 90 Lockwood, “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer,” 220. 91 Lockwood, "How I Ran for the Presidency," 728. 92 Lockwood, "How I Ran for the Presidency," 728. 93 Lockwood, "How I Ran for the Presidency," 729. 94 David Lowenthal, The Past is a Foreign Country (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 44. 95 Lockwood, “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer,” 218. 96 Lockwood, “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer,” 218. 97 Lockwood, "How I Ran for the Presidency," 728-729. 98 Lockwood, “How I Ran for the Presidency, 729. 99 Lockwood, “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer,” 216. 100 Lockwood, “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer,” 223. 101 Lockwood, “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer,” 226. 102 Lockwood, “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer,” 221. 103 Lockwood, “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer,” 217. 104 See Barbara Young Welke, Law and the Borders of Belonging in the Long Nineteenth Century United States (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 8; Baker, 629. 105 Lockwood, “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer,” 217. 106 Lockwood, “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer,” 218. 107 Lockwood, “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer,” 221. 108 “Mrs. Lockwood’s Speech.” The phrase “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty” repeats words from President Andrew Jackson’s “Farewell Address” on March 4, 1837 and abolitionist Wendell Phillips Address to the Massachusetts Antislavery Society in 1852. See “Andrew Jackson Farewell Address,” The American Presidency Project, accessed July 19, 2012, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=67087 and Wendell Phillips, Speeches Before the Massachusetts Antislavery Society January 1852 (Boston, MA: Robert F. Wallcut, 1852), 13. 109 “Belva Lockwood’s Address,” 1. 110 Lockwood, “How I Ran for the Presidency,” 729. 111 Lockwood, “How I Ran for the Presidency,” 729. 112 Lockwood, “How I Ran for the Presidency,” 729. 113 Lockwood, “How I Ran for the Presidency,” 729. 114 Lockwood, “How I Ran for the Presidency,” 731. 115 “A Woman Can Be President: Belva Lockwood Defines the Position of the Equal Righters,” 1. 116 “A Woman Can Be President: Belva Lockwood Defines the Position of the Equal Righters,” 1. 117 “A Woman Can Be President: Belva Lockwood Defines the Position of the Equal Righters,” 1. Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 205

118 Henri Bergson, Matter and Memory, 1910, trans. N.M. Paul and W.S. Palmer (New York, NY: Cosimo Classics, 2007), 87. 119 Carol Mattingly, “Telling Evidence: Rethinking What Counts in Rhetoric,” Rhetoric Society Quarterly 32.1 (2002): 106. 120 Lockwood, “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer,” 218. 121 Lockwood rode her bicycle almost everywhere in Washington D.C., and was frequently ridiculed for it in the press. The bicycle she rode was actually an adult’s tricycle. Riding a bicycle was a controversial act for women of the time, and was further proof for many of her contemporaries of her radical ways. Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, 94-95. 122 Lockwood, “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer,” 219. 123 Lockwood, “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer,” 215. 124 Lockwood, “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer,” 215. 125 Lockwood, “My Efforts to Become a Lawyer,” 215. 126 Lockwood, “The Present Phase of the Woman Question,” 470. 127 Lockwood, "How I Ran for the Presidency," 729. 128 Lockwood, “How I Ran for the Presidency,” 732. 129 Lockwood, "How I Ran for the Presidency," 732. 130 Lockwood, "How I Ran for the Presidency," 728-729. 131 Lockwood, "How I Ran for the Presidency," 729. 132 Lockwood, “The Present Phase of the Woman Question,” 467. 133 Lockwood, “The Present Phase of the Woman Question,” 467. 134 “Mrs. Lockwood’s Speech.” 135 Lockwood, "How I Ran for the Presidency," 728 136 “Mrs. Lockwood’s Speech.” 137 “Mrs. Lockwood’s Speech.” 138 “A Woman Can Be President: Belva Lockwood Defines the Position of the Equal Righters,” 1. 139 Lockwood, “How I Ran for the Presidency,” 730. 140 “Belva Lockwood’s Address.” 141 Lockwood, "How I Ran for the Presidency," 732. 142 Lockwood, "How I Ran for the Presidency," 732. 143 Lockwood, “How I Ran for the Presidency,” 732. 144 Victoria Woodhull was ridiculed heavily in the press, and branded a social radical during and after her campaign in 1872; see Falk, 33, 101-105. 145 Lockwood, "How I Ran for the Presidency," 730. 146 “Belva Lockwood’s Address.” 147 Lockwood, “How I Ran for the Presidency,” 729. 148 Lockwood, “The Present Phase of the Woman Question,” 470. 149 Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “phalanx” as: “a body of heavily armed infantry in ancient Greece formed in close deep ranks and files.” 150 “Mrs. Lockwood’s Speech.” 151 Lockwood, “The Present Phase of the Woman Question,” 470. 152 Lockwood, “The Present Phase of the Woman Question,” 467. 153 Lockwood, “The Present Phase of the Woman Question,” 467. 154 Lockwood, “The Present Phase of the Woman Question,” 470. 155 Angela Ray, "The Rhetorical Ritual of Citizenship: Women's Voting as Public Performance, 1868- 1875," Quarterly Journal of Speech 93, no. 1 (February 2007): 1-26. 156 Ray, 8. 157 James W Pennebaker and Becky L. Banasik, "On the Creation and Maintenance of Collective Memories: History as Social Psychology," in Collective Memory of Political Events: Social Psychological Perspectives, ed. James Pennebaker, Dario Paez and Bernard Rime (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, 1997), 6. 158 Pierre Nora, "Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Memoire," Representations 26 (Spring 1989): 15. David Lowenthal writes of a similar task when he says, “The remembered past requires us all to behave, however unwittingly, as historians” (39). Belva Bennett Lockwood, Confident Candidate 206

159 Halbwachs, 188. 160 Eleanor Flexner and Ellen Fitzpatrick, Century of Struggle: The Woman's Rights Movement in the United States, Enlarged Edition (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1996), 209. 161 Flexner and Fitzpatrick, 209. 162 Rebecca Edwards, "Pioneers at the Polls: Woman Suffrage in the West," in Votes for Women: The Struggle for Suffrage Revisited, ed. Jean H. Baker, 90-101 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 95. 163 Edwards, 98. 164 Flexner Fitzpatrick, 209. 165 Frances E.Willard, a national leader in the suffrage and temperance movements, died in 1898, and her organization, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union backed away from her original commitment to woman suffrage. In addition, Lucy Stone died in 1893, Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1902, and Susan B. Anthony in 1906. Ross Evans Paulson, Liberty, Equality, and Justice: Civil Rights, Women's Rights, and the Regulation of Business 1865-1932 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997), 119; Sara Hunter Graham, Woman Suffrage and the New Democracy (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996), 8. 166 Graham, 10. 167 Graham, 148. 168 Lockwood, "How I Ran for the Presidency," 730. 169 Lockwood, "How I Ran for the Presidency," 730. 170 Lockwood, "How I Ran for the Presidency," 733. 171Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, Chapters 12 and 16. 172 Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, 214-215. 173 Belva Lockwood, "The Present Phase of the Woman Question"; Belva Lockwood, "Women in Politics," The American Journal of Politics, II, 1893: 385-387. 174 Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, 215. Precedents and Directions 207

“The glory of each generation is to make its own precedents…”

~Belva Bennett Lockwood1

Chapter Five: Precedents and Directions

In August of 1893, the law department of the Queen Isabella Association held the first international convention for female attorneys in Chicago, IL.2 Mary Elizabeth Lease,

Judith Ellen Foster, and Belva Bennett Lockwood were all in attendance.3 The event demonstrated the growing presence of women in law and the importance of female unity.

As a collective, those in attendance came together as women to celebrate agency and power. With varied backgrounds and viewpoints, Lease, Foster, and Lockwood came together as female attorneys and pioneers in party politics. Along with Frances Elizabeth

Willard, each had the education and experience to gain power within the political system because of their careers in law. In addition, each faced constraints on participation in a world dominated by men and “male” interests. The rhetorical tactics of women like

Lease, Willard, Foster, and Lockwood help tell the story of the development of political womanhood. Their activities were integral to the success, growth, and presence of women in positions of leadership in party politics. In addition, their experiences broaden our understanding of female rhetorical strategies and their potential influence on party rhetoric. By claiming political leadership through their distinctive contributions as women, they forged a path for female political participation in the future. All of them argued for political citizenship because of their womanhood. This final chapter will explore the importance of expanding the archive of women’s rhetoric to include women Precedents and Directions 208 like those studied here. It will also argue that these case studies nuance historical and rhetorical understandings of the Gilded Age. Finally, it will explain why understanding the roots of political womanhood influences pedagogy and social understanding today.

Rhetorical History and the Expanding Archive

Rhetorical histories are unique avenues for interdisciplinary examinations of historical moments. Historians participate in similar acts of recovery, sociologists examine patterns of social identity formation, and scholars across disciplines find evidence from primary texts. However, an explicitly rhetorical approach, particularly through case studies, can highlight aspects of the past and present that other disciplines do not necessarily find. David Zarefsky put it best when he wrote that rhetorical studies:

help to articulate the rhetorical climate of an age: how people defined the

situation, what led them to seek to justify themselves or to persuade others, what

storehouse of social knowledge they drew upon for their premises, what themes

and styles they produced in their messages, how their processes of identification

and confrontation succeeded or failed. It is precisely the commitment and training

in rhetoric that sensitizes one to these dimensions of the rhetorical experience.”4

The women studied in this project help us accomplish this task. Each defined female political activity and leadership in a different way, focusing on the potential of women as political actors. They drew from cultural understandings of gender performance and identity in order to identify with their audiences in a non-threatening way. These rhetorical “dimensions” of the origins of the female political party experience help scholars deepen the rhetorical, historical, and cultural narrative. Precedents and Directions 209 Rhetoricians are historians of public discourse, as opposed to those who use public discourse to recreate historical culture. The recreation of history is an integral project, and one without which most rhetorical historians could not begin to appreciate the texts themselves. However, rhetoricians’ primary contribution is to enhance the history of discourse and situate it’s meaning in cultural understanding. In other words,

“rhetorical discourse could be studied as a force in history…less because it produces tangible effects than because it alters an ongoing social conversation.”5 The work of the rhetorical historian contributes to scholarship through the recovery of public texts. Those texts can increase understanding about specific historical moments and cultures. Projects like this are important for historic preservation. One of the primary functions of this project has been to trace the rhetorical activities of lesser-known women and less- examined public activities. Although there has been some historical work done on these women, as explicated in Chapter One, an examination of their rhetorical activities is just as important for historical recovery.

When women are added to the rhetorical archive it both embraces and challenges disciplinary norms. On one hand, claiming that certain texts are worthy of preservation necessitates utilizing and examining available norms of inclusion. On the other hand, disciplinary history is fundamentally challenged because women have historically not been included. In his 1967 essay “Women Orators: More Research?” Robert Brake did a survey of academics of public oratory to assess their knowledge of the history of women speaking. The answers he received from scholars from across the country were telling examples of the bias in the discipline. Most argued that they did not know of many Precedents and Directions 210 women speakers because most women chose other forms of communication.

Others simply could not name any significant female rhetoricians.

It is in this academic environment that Karlyn Kohrs Campbell began her archival project. Campbell looked at forty-five volumes of published speeches that were published between 1896 and 1981, and found only fifty-two speeches or speech excerpts by women.6 As part of an extensive archival project, Campbell published Man Cannot Speak

For Her Volumes I and II in 1989, which chronicled and analyzed the oratorical efforts of women during the first wave of feminism. In addition to Doris Yoakam’s 1937 essay on pioneer women orators, Campbell’s publication remains one of the first and most complete chronicling of women’s 19th century speaking attempts.7

Recent studies that have been cited throughout this project demonstrate the growing amount of scholarship on historical women. The importance of having primary texts for performing acts of rhetorical history and criticism cannot be overstated. Primary texts allow scholars to analyze historical rhetorical acts without secondary interpretations.

It is at that point, Moya Ball argues, that true analysis can begin.8 Doing feminist rhetorical history requires a rich archive of texts for analysis. When it comes to female rhetorical action as party leaders during the late 19th century, this is no small task. Access is limited, for the most part, to newspaper accounts (which are uncommon and limited), published writings, and personal archives of the women themselves. Increasing awareness of and access to the texts examined in projects like this one expand the archive in important ways.

Chapter Two adds analysis of the speeches and writings of Mary Elizabeth Lease, a powerful orator and Populist Party leader. Chapter Three brings attention to the party Precedents and Directions 211 rhetoric of Frances Elizabeth Willard, a well-known woman’s rights leader, and Judith Ellen Foster, a lesser known but equally as powerful orator. While many scholars have analyzed Willard’s activist rhetoric, fewer have looked at her Prohibition

Party rhetoric. Chapter Four highlights the speeches and writings of Belva Bennett

Lockwood, a formidable force for women and a figure who has been overlooked by historians and rhetoricians alike. These rhetorical activities develop the expanding archive of woman suffrage and reform movement rhetoric. In addition, their speeches and writings provide a necessary addition to the history of the political parties that they represented. As was described in Chapter One, women have been largely left out of scholarly work on political change. Women’s discourse necessarily changes the way that history should be studied and understood.

The act of recovering texts is a key component to understanding historic context.

Many rhetorical scholars advance the notion that analyses of texts can tell us just as much about the context in which the texts existed as they can about the texts themselves. This is most institutionalized in the common practice of situating a text within its contextual moment. As Ernest Wrage writes, “A speech is an agency of its time, one whose surviving record provides a repository of themes and their elaborations from which we may gain insight into the life of an era as well as into the mind of a man.”9 Despite

Wrage’s obvious gendered and speech-centered notion of rhetorical texts, Wrage’s insight is useful. Thinking of past moments of rhetorical discourse as “repositories” of social values, hierarchies, principles, and institutions highlights one of the most fundamental reasons for doing rhetorical history. Our rhetorical past offers a unique and complex vision of historical contexts. The study of women’s voices enhances our Precedents and Directions 212 understanding of cultural norms, expectations, and hierarchies. By examining the growth in female partisan activity and leadership during the Gilded Age, one can see the evolution of an identity. This project finds women debating partisanship and negotiating political womanhood in new and important ways, creating a role for women in political discourse.

Rhetorical history contributes to understanding messages and their context.10 As

Ball reiterates, “a rhetorical perspective prods us to ask what persuasive discourse means within its historical context.”11 James Jasinski offers one of the best descriptions of the relationship between discourse and context:

In addition to self-constitution and the formation of subjectivity or subject

positions, discourse functions to organize and structure an individual’s or a

culture’s experience of time and space, the norms of political culture and the

experience of communal existence (including collective identity), and the

linguistic resources of the culture (including, in particular, the stock of

fundamental political concepts that shape the culture’s understanding of political

existence).12

Research that has been done on women rhetors, strategies, and specific “exigencies” of the first wave of feminism has contributed to an understanding of the origins of social movements in which women played a role, in addition to understanding the more immediate “ideological development and key leaders of these movements.”13 Michele

Ramsey writes that studying women’s rhetorical history “recognizes the predominant social forces in operation during a time period and thus acknowledges that a variety of contextual phenomena influence a rhetorical act regardless of whether all of the aspects Precedents and Directions 213 of that context are consciously addressed in the act itself.”14 The patterns, trials, tribulations, setbacks, and successes that women experienced as they made their way into the male partisan political world tell a story that intersects with and deepens already established women’s and political history.

The rhetorical history explored in this project highlights a debate that took place during the Gilded Age about the role of women in party politics, the appropriate space for female civic engagement, and the benefits and drawbacks of female partisanship. As

Melanie Gustafson writes, “women’s struggle for inclusion in political parties raised serious questions about the meaning of partisanship as a political identity for women, and in turn, influenced decisions regarding political arguments, tactics, and goals.”15 This debate is key to understanding the subject positions of political women in the late nineteenth century. Partisanship itself became a contested term, leading female political leaders to question in what way women should or should not use party politics for their causes. Some, like Lease, believed already established political parties were important spaces for increasing female political influence. Some, like Willard and Foster, believed women’s strength lay in their ability to maintain their “moral” influence over the political environment as experts on the nation’s past. Others, like Lockwood, believed that women had unique contributions to make because of their exceptional qualities.

The case studies presented here give us an appreciation for the rhetorical abilities of women and also nuance our understanding of a larger socio-political context. As a collective, the women studied here present us with a range of experiences and viewpoints that help craft a narrative. The rhetorical historian views “history as a series of rhetorical problems, situations that call for public persuasion to advance a cause or overcome an Precedents and Directions 214 impasse. The focus of the study would be on how, and how well, people invented and deployed messages in response to the situation,”16 Defined and constrained by their gendered role, these women utilized specific rhetorical techniques in order to penetrate a restricted system. As such, their rhetorical strategies are distinctive rhetorical acts. Cheree Carlson calls for scholars to take a “step back from our modern definitional desires and gain perspective on what constituted a feminist act for a woman given her own time and cultural roots.”17 As women working within cultural constraints, the actions of female party leaders constitute just this type of feminist act.

Chapter Two demonstrates how Lease worked within cultural expectations of female behavior to gain agency within the Populist Party. Specifically, she adopted personae consistent with her prescribed female role, but that proved useful for the

Populist Party. The Populists attempted to prove they were the party of moral, religious, and patriotic leadership. Through her rhetoric, Lease proved that as a woman, she could be the voice of those claims, making her a useful and powerful Populist representative. It was indeed her womanhood that gave her the power to enact such leadership. Similarly,

Willard and Foster demonstrated that women could be a continuation of political principle and patriotism by linking the actions of women to the visions of the Prohibition and Republican parties respectively. Finally, Lockwood showed how women had exceptional qualities that would make them great leaders, demonstrating that examples independence, ability, and accomplishment could be proof of a woman’s ability to lead in the political arena. These women were constrained by cultural expectations like True

Womanhood and Republican Motherhood. In addition, all were inhibited by a lack of access to educational, vocational, and rhetorical opportunities. Despite this, each found Precedents and Directions 215 agency within cultural limitations to find a space in the political institution. All of the women studied showed that they could be significant and powerful voices for political parties as women.

The actions of party women also enhance our understanding of the larger political culture of the day. Ramsey calls for scholars of “historical women’s public address” to recognize “broader aspects of context” and their impact on rhetorical history.18 Party structures and the overarching political system were fundamentally changed because women became important players. As was illustrated in Chapter One, the Gilded Age was a period of social, cultural, and political transformation. As political parties battled for votes, third parties emerged on the scene to address concerns about specific issues. The case studies presented here demonstrate that women were integral to this project. Turner claims that “the melding of historical and rhetorical methodologies can contribute to an understanding of the complex latitudinal and longitudinal processes of social influence.”19 Party women and their rhetorical techniques became important influences for the parties in which they gained control. Lease became an ideal Populist Party spokesperson because as a woman, she embodied the very religious, moral, and civic leadership of which the Populists hoped to gain control. Similarly, during a time when parties fought for the right to claim the nation’s history as their torch, Willard and Foster were critical players in their rhetorical efforts of patriotic leadership. Finally, as more women became part of the workforce and began to claim political citizenship for themselves, Lockwood helped to create a party and a platform that emphasized equal opportunity. Through influencing party message and organization, these women Precedents and Directions 216 transformed Gilded Age political culture itself. Rhetorical analyses shed light on the ways in which they exerted this influence.

“A New Woman in Old-Fashioned Times”: Rhetorical History and Models of

Discourse

Analyses of female orators and their rhetorical techniques forces the academy to re-examine what constitutes rhetorical excellence. Scholars like Campbell, Bonnie Dow,

Elizabeth Varon, and Susan Zaeske have spent much of their careers doing criticism of female rhetorical texts to recover little known rhetorical objects, discover historical and cultural identities, and present rhetorical case studies.20 Understanding rhetorical texts by women helps to create a rhetorical theory that moves beyond “great men” giving “great speeches” to appreciate a wider form of rhetorical technique. Instances of discourse can highlight the realities of a time past, the symbols of past societies, and the construction of publics.

The activities of Lease, Willard, Foster, and Lockwood help paint a more vivid picture of a particular historical period and its gendered expectations. Examining individual female rhetorical agents also helps us to understand the cultural identity of nineteenth century women. Looking at the texts created by such women allows us to begin to craft a narrative of experience. As Campbell points out, female rhetorical participation is automatically unique because a woman participating in a public communicative act challenges the contextual reality. In other words, examining female communication is distinct because the mere act of participating was questioning the status quo. As Jo Freeman states, “Knowing history shapes our sense of the possible. Leaving Precedents and Directions 217 women out of political science and political history lets students falsely believe that political women did not exist, that politics was something properly reserved to men, and that women who tried to participate were ‘idiosyncratic individuals’ rather than engaged and effective political actors who faced a lot of resistance.”21 This project has attempted to understand how rhetorical strategies could both represent a political party and a female space in a typically male arena.

During a time when female participation in political parties was not typical nor accepted, women like Lease, Willard, Foster, and Lockwood paved the way for future women. Each demonstrated a rhetorical technique that granted them access to a party system closed to women. Each found rhetorical agency through her education, experience, beliefs, and goals. Even more significant, though, each found agency within a constraining cultural context. To work within the system, they used rhetorical strategies that fostered identification with their audience. Lease used socially acceptable female personae to justify her leadership and expertise. Willard and Foster framed women as experts on patriotism and civic duty, a new and important political role. Lockwood emphasized women’s physical and mental abilities as justification for her necessary involvement in the political system. These rhetorical techniques presented political women in the future with a model of discourse that justified political action and encouraged political leadership. The recovery of instances of historic discourse is vital not only for preserving a society’s past, but also understanding its future. That is, analyses of historic discourse can highlight key aspects of an historic context, a society’s identity, and our understanding of historic moments. In other words, rhetorical history helps make sense of the present through actions of the past. Precedents and Directions 218 There are several directions that future research might take. The archive can continue to be widened through the discovery and analysis of texts by other female political party leaders, including women like Abigail Scott Duniway and Marietta

Stow of the Equal Rights Party, Helen Gougar of the Prohibition Party, Johanna Greie and Martha Moore Avery of the Socialist Party, and others. Continued examination of the rhetorical activities of female political party leaders not only can lead to the discovery of rhetorical patterns, but also will broaden our understanding of this particular “serial collective.” In addition, more work can be done on the resistive forces at work that these women combatted, their male counterparts, and the media representations of their work.

Finally, it is important to continue putting the activities of some of the first female political party leaders in conversation with those of publicly involved women today.

Political Womanhood: 2012

“We’re walking along with the camera. She looks at the carpet. It has lint on it, little scraps of paper. She can’t stand it. She gets down and cleans the carpet so that we could walk. And she looks up at me and said, ‘It’s just a bonus of having a female

Speaker of the House.’”22 During an interview in January 2007 with Diane Sawyer, just a few weeks after officially becoming the first female Speaker of the House, Speaker

Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) physically cleaned the floor of the House chamber in front of a national audience in an act of stereotypical domesticity. Six years later, the 2012 Green

Party candidate for President of the United States is Dr. Jill Stein. Born in Chicago, Dr.

Stein attended Harvard College and then Harvard Medical School. She has worked as a physician, testified before legislative panels on health and the environment, led campaigns to protect women and children from mercury contamination, and run for Precedents and Directions 219 Governor, State Representative, and Secretary of State of Massachusetts. Yet the top of her Biography page of her presidential campaign website reads: “Dr. Jill Stein is a mother, housewife, physician, longtime teacher of internal medicine, and pioneering environmental-health advocate.” In addition, she said in her presidential campaign announcement: “I’d like to say a few words as a mother…” She continued, “People ask me why I keep fighting political battles in a rigged system. The answer is simple. I keep fighting because when it comes to our children, mothers don’t give up.”23

I began this project with a reflection on experiences in the classroom. I end with a reflection on the implications of the lack of knowledge and understanding of our history.

The idea that women should play multiple roles still exists. Women have more access to education and professions, but they are still expected to perform their gendered role as mother and housewife. Knowledge of the cultural expectations of the past, and even more importantly, the use of those expectations for political advancement, is necessary in order to comment on, comprehend, and contextualize conversations in the present. Even the conversations in the media today about women “having it all” still acknowledge the need for women to perform their prescribed gender roles. This was manifested in a statement made by 2012 Republican Presidential candidate and former Governor of Massachusetts

Mitt Romney in a debate against Democratic candidate and incumbent President Barack

Obama. When asked what he would do “rectify inequalities” for women in the workplace, Romney replied that “if you're going to have women in the workforce then sometimes you need to be more flexible… My chief of staff, for instance, had two kids that were still in school. She said, I can't be here until 7 or 8 o'clock at night. I need to be able to get home at 5 o'clock so I can be there for making dinner for my kids…”24 Precedents and Directions 220 Questions arise that are difficult to answer. Why is there still a social expectation that women are the primary caretakers of the home and family? Why would

Speaker Pelosi choose to immediately bring attention to a stereotype of her gender during her first nationally televised interview as the first female Speaker of the House? Why would the female presidential candidate for one of the most progressive political parties and accomplished politician and physician choose to begin her campaign biographical statement with “mother” and “housewife”? As of 2012, 17 women were serving as

United States Senators, 76 women were serving as members of the House of

Representatives, 6 women were Governors of U.S. states, and 4 women were appointed

Cabinet Secretaries. In addition, for 12 of the past 16 years, a woman has served as the

Secretary of State. In 2006, Nancy Pelosi was the first woman to be elected Speaker of the House. Only two women have been Vice Presidential candidates on a Democratic or

Republican ticket, and no woman has been elected Vice President, let alone President of the United States.

I propose that some of these expectations come from past behavior. The women in this study used, confronted, and shaped social expectations to develop a political womanhood that led to leadership. By creating models of discourse, party women from the Gilded Age not only made room for women in political parties, but climbed to the top of party structures. Understood in the context of the Gilded Age, their activities demonstrate a new political agency. At the beginning of this project I defined agency as

“the complex process by which a communicative act materializes out of a combination of individual will and social circumstances.”25 The rhetorical activities of party women can now be understood in these terms. The women studied had the education, resources, and Precedents and Directions 221 support systems to enter a world that had been closed to them. They then exhibited an understanding of cultural expectations, creating models of discourse that both remained constituent with and confronted social thought. At that time, their activities were bold. By the end of the Gilded Age, women were participating and leading political parties in record numbers, perhaps due to the paths forged by women like Lease,

Willard, Foster, and Lockwood.

The rhetorical history presented here provides a backdrop for understanding ongoing social expectations for women in politics today. The women in this project certainly set a precedent for women in the future. However, we must continue to ask ourselves if the conversation about women’s role in politics today should be consistent with the conversation at the end of the nineteenth century. What has changed? How has it changed? How can we continue to facilitate change? As Zarefsky notes, “historical study aides in understanding the present by placing it in the context of the past.”26 No society or nation can be productive without the inclusion of diverse viewpoints. For the majority of our history, women’s voices have been marginalized and silenced in the political world.

This is especially true when it comes to setting policy and determining political agendas.

Even today, when diverse viewpoints are slowly finding some sort of voice in the national discourse, they are shrouded by cultural assumptions that control the force, power, and agency of those voices. Clark Culpepper and Raymie McKerrow write, “the purpose of history is to explain the present by connecting it to the past...history is inescapably a rhetorical re-construction of the self or a community.”27 Understanding why we continue to view women in positions of leadership as fulfilling a domestic role comes from a rich history of their marginalization. Women have to behave rhetorically in Precedents and Directions 222 certain ways today to be allowed a voice in political discourse. This project develops a rhetorical history that is key to placing twenty-first century party women today in the context of an ongoing historical narrative.

One of the most important aims of this project is pedagogical. Scholars need to think not only about how to teach women’s history and rhetoric, but how to understand women’s involvement in politics. Political rhetoric should exist “not at a sacred distance or in an absolute past but rather within a zone of direct and even crude contact with all other discourses, past and present.”28 Conversations surrounding female political candidacies, representation, and involvement should only happen in context with what came before. Courses on women in politics should ask questions like: what has changed since the Gilded Age? Are women still fighting to carve a space for themselves in a

“male” world? Are political women now, unknowingly, enacting the same sort of political womanhood as their sisters did during their first forays into party politics more than a century ago? David Lowenthal writes, “The past is most characteristically invoked for the lessons it teaches.”29 More than 125 years after Mary Elizabeth Lease toured the country as a party spokesperson, Frances Eilzabeth Willard and Judith Ellen Foster addressed national party conventions, and Belva Bennett Lockwood ran for President, women are still navigating space in party politics not because of their credentials, but because of their gender.

Rhetorical history can facilitate both an understanding of the past and a framework for the present. As Bruce Gronbeck writes, “The past thus can guide the present…past and present live in constant dialogue, even in a hermeneutic circle where neither can be comprehended without the other.” When women look to the past for Precedents and Directions 223 inspiration and highlight prior values, are they also highlighting past standards that halt their quest for equality? When Pelosi and Stein frequently refer to their motherhood as their primary credential for involvement in politics, is this a constraining expectation or a strategic use of framing? And if it is strategic, why is it that in 2012, U.S. society has still not moved beyond expecting women to engage in traditional gendered behavior. This project asks scholars, the media, and U.S. citizens to acknowledge the practices of political women of the past and put those practices in conversation with those of political women today. Belva Lockwood once said, “The glory of each generation is to set its own precedent.” The women in this project set precedents and directions for future women. Let us hope that this tradition continues.

Notes for Chapter Five

1 Quoted in Jill Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President (New York, NY: New York University Press, 2007), 74. 2 Mary Jane Mossman, “’Le Feminisme’ and professionalism in law: Reflections on the History of Women Lawyers,” Transcending the Boundaries of Law: Generations of Feminism and Legal Theory, ed. Martha Albertson Fineman (New York, NY: Routledge, 2011), 22. 3 “Queen Isabella Association,” Chicago Legal News, August 5, 1893 cited in Jill Norgren, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President (New York, NY: New York University Press, 2007), 97. 4 David Zarefsky, "Four Senses of Rhetorical History," in Doing Rhetorical History: Concepts and Cases, ed. Kathleen Turner, 19-32 (Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 1998). 31-32. 5 Zarefsky, 29. 6 Karlyn Kohrs Campbell, “The Communication Classroom: A Chilly Climate for Women?” Association for Communication Administration Bulletin 51 (1985): 69. 7 Doris G. Yoakam, "Pioneer Women Orators of America." Quarterly Journal of Speech 23, no. 2 (April 1937): 251-260. 8 Moya Ann Ball, “Theoretical Implications of Doing Rhetorical History: Groupthink, Foreign Policy Making, and Vietnam” Doing Rhetorical History: Concepts and Cases (Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 1998), 63. 9 Ernest J. Wrage, "Public Address: A Study of Social and Intellectual History," in Readings in Rhetorical Criticism, ed. Carl Burgchardt (State College, PA: Strata Publishing, Inc., 2005), 32. 10 Kathleen Turner, "Rhetorical History as Social Construction: The Challenge and the Promise," in Doing Rhetorical History: Concepts and Cases, ed. Kathleen Turner (Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama, 1998), 2. Precedents and Directions 224

11 Ball, 63. 12 James Jasinski, "A Constitutive Framework for Rhetorical Historiography: Toward an Understanding of the Discursive (Re)constitution of "Constitution" in The Federalist Papers," in Doing Rhetorical History: Concepts and Cases, ed. Kathleen Turner (Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 1998), 75. 13 Michele Ramsey, “Addressing Issues of Context in Historical Women’s Public Address,” Women’s Studies in Communication 27.3 (Fall 2004): 354. 354. 14 Ramsey, 354. 15 Melanie Gustafson, "Partisan Women in the Progressive Era: The Struggle for Inclusion in American Political Parties," in Unequal Sisters: A Multicultural Reader in U.S. Women's History, ed. Vicki L. Ruiz and Ellen Carol DuBois, 243 (New York, NY: Routledge, 2000). 16 Zarefsky, 30. 17 Cheree A. Carlson, "Defining Womanhood: Lucretia Coffin Mott and the Transformation of Femininity," Western Journal of Speech Communication 58 (Spring 1993): 86. 18 Ramsey, 353. 19 Turner, 4. 20 For examples see Karlyn Kohrs Campbell, "The Discursive Performance of Femininity: Hating Hillary," Rhetoric & Public Affairs 1, no. 1 (1998): 1-19; Karlyn Kohrs Campbell, "The Rhetoric of Women's Liberation: An Oxymoron," Communication Studies 50 (1999): 125-137; Bonnie J. Dow, "Performance of Feminine Discourse in Designing Women," Text and Performance Quarterly 12 (1992): 125-145; Elizabeth R. Varon, We Mean to be Counted: White Women and Politics in Antebellum Virginia (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1998); Susan Zaeske, "Signatures of Citizenship: The Rhetoric of Women's Antislavery Petitions," Quarterly Journal of Speech 88, no. 2 (2002): 147-168; Susan Zaeske, "The 'Promiscuous Audience" Controversy and the Emergence of the Early Woman's Rights Movement," Quarterly Journal of Speech 81 (1995): 191-207. 21 Freeman, We Will Be Heard, 15. 22 “The Most Powerful Woman in America; Pelosi: Mother and Speaker,” interview by Diane Sawyer, Good Morning America, ABC, January 19, 2007. 23 All biographical information and quotes from Stein’s campaign announcement address were taken from “A Green New Deal for America,” Jill Stein for President, accessed August 1, 2012, http://www.jillstein.org. 24 “Second Presidential Debate Full Transcript,” last modified October 17, 2012, ABC News, http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/2012-presidential-debate-full-transcript-oct-16. 25 John Logie qtd. in Cheryl Geisler, “How Ought We to Understand the Concept of Rhetorical Agency? Report from the ARS,” Rhetoric Society Quarterly 34.3 (2004): 14. 26 Zarefsky, 31. 27 Clark E. Culpepper and Raymie E. McKerrow, “The Rhetorical Construction of History,” Doing Rhetorical History: Concepts and Cases, ed. Kathleen Turner (Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 1998), 35. 28 (Cherny 1997) (Kleppner 1879) (Mattingly 2002) (Stormer 1999) (DuBois 1987) 29 David Lowenthal, The Past is a Foreign Country (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1985) 46. Bibliography 225

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