Barquilla de Ia Santa Maria BULLETIN of the Catholic Record Society­ Diocese of Columbus Vol. XXVI, No. I 0 Oct. 25 : St. Ann Lyne October, 2001 Madeleine Vinton Dahlgren, about 1885. In 1889 she was said to have a.figure rather inclining to embonpoint, iron-gray hair parted smoothly over a high forehead, and blue eyes glistening with intelligence. (Photo courtesy of the Washingtoniana Division, the District of Columbia Public Library.) Courage and Modesty in Plenty: The Life of Madeleine Vinton Goddard Dahlgren by Donald M. Schlegel Part 3 (Continued from Vol. XXVI, No. 8) After the Admiral's death, in addition to her The Woman Suffrage Movement duties as a mother Madeleine Vinton Dahlgren took up again her literary pursuits along with Two pictures of Madeleine come to mind in religious commitments. At the same time she relation to the battle over woman suffrage. One became an acknowledged social leader. Her is her fearless jumping onto the back of the activities against Woman Suffrage brought her elephant as a child, and enjoying the ride. The before the public eye to a greater extent than she other is her description of herself on board ship liked. during a storm in the Pacific. "The night grows 171 black and sullen. It is fearful to scan the Sherman.) In 1871 Madeleine wrote a pamphlet, darkness; and yet we stand for hours in this outer Thoughts on Female Suffrage and in Vin­ gloom, transfixed by the appalling wonder of the dication of Woman's True Rights (Washington: scene. Amidst the inky blackness, foams the Blandshard & Mohun). The suffrage movement fury-lashed breaker that throws out in its agony a was not successful at this time. wild, flickering, ghostly light, dashing the cold spray over us, which falls upon the shivering Though invariably polite to her suffrage sense, and enshrouds us, as if projected from opponents, in South Sea Sketches she revealed spirit land. "24 Both pictures show her to be her view of them when she compared the lively fearless in the presence of things beyond her navy ship Ossipee, with its rolls and pitches, jerks controL as she was when facing the many women and quivers, to "an indignant woman's righter, who wanted the vote. who is too everlastingly demonstrative to adjust herself to a peaceful order of things. "26 One Woman Suffrage, the enfranchisement ofwomen reason that the suffrage movement failed at this to vote, had been advocated throughout the time was the infamy of some of these ladies nineteenth century in the United States. After the (including Victoria Woodhull from Homer, Civil War its advocates quickly realized that the Ohio). Another reason was the fractured nature resolution ofthat conflict had changed the nature ofthe movement. Immigration also complicated of the government, and therefore the point on the picture, for immigrant men, raised in which their efforts must focus. The war had been European or other cultures, and with a large fought to enforce the union of the individual proportion of Catholics, were deeply states and tilted the structure of political power conservative in their views of women; many also toward the federal level in Washington. Now the associated women's votes with votes for efforts of Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady prohibition. They continually clashed with the Stanton, and others became focused on the U.S. suffragists, who in return called immigrant men Congress and the Constitution. ignorant, savage wretches. Some liberals also opposed giving the vote to their Irish house­ A proposed sixteenth amendment to enfranchise maids or "poor, degraded" Chinese immigrant women was introduced in Congress in 1869. women.21 Madeleine opposed this amendment and was joined by Ellen Ewing Sherman from Ohio and A new sixteenth amendment was introduced in Almira Lincoln Phelps, an author and educator the U.S. Senate in 1878, in the words as finally from Troy, New York. In 1871 they formed the adopted in 1920, "The right of citizens of the Woman's Anti-Suffrage Association (or Anti­ United States to vote shall not be denied or Woman Suffrage Society) of Washington City abridged by the United States or by any State on and drew up a petition to congress, which was account ofsex ." extensively signed, asking that the right to vote should not be extended to women.is Part of their Madeleine's Woman's Anti-Suffrage Association success in this opposition might have been due to now was defunct. Even her friend and ally Ellen the fact that the two leading ladies could sign Ewing Sherman was unavailable, for she now themselves as wives of two great heroes of the resided in St. Louis and was spending her limited Civil War, Mrs. General Sherman and Mrs. time in Washington working on the collection in Admiral Dahlgren. (Curiously, Anna Shannon honor ofthe fiftieth anniversary ofPope Pius IX's McAllister never mentions this campaign in her ordination to the episcopacy. Madeleine biography Ellen Ewing Wife of General therefore made her personal arguments in a 172 memorial presented to the Congressional and an importance not only as a citizen, but Committee and in the newspapers, including also before High Heaven for whom she rears those ofWashington, Toledo, and St. Louis. immortals!" This "glorious crown" of motherhood gives woman distinct duties to The woman suffrage amendment again was perform, of the most complex order and overwhelmingly defeated and women were not sacred nature. Ifresponsibilities pertaining to given the vote on the national level until 1920. men are added to these duties, "we shall be made the victims of an oppression not Madeleine's Arguments intended by a kind and wise Providence, and from which the refining influences of In examining Madeleine's position, it becomes Christian civilization have emancipated us." clear that she was not opposed to woman She examines the disadvantageous position of suffrage itself She states at one point that her Indian women who have "equal rights" and reasons lie deeper and strike higher than the vote. sees "so-called equal rights" as endangering Her arguments were not against the surface issue existing privileges ofwomen . of the vote but were against the stronger sub­ currents on which that issue rode, and in 2. The functions of men and women in the opposing these sub-currents her instincts were state are correlative and opposite. They probably correct, as we are seeing in the issues as cannot be made common without seriously they have developed until today. Bishop Hartley impairing the public virtue. Our men must be of Columbus took the same stance against brave and our women modest, if this country woman suffrage, on the same basis, in 1912.28 may hope to fulfill her true mission for humanity. The principle that the anti-suffrage It is interesting to notice that her opponents in women seek to defend is the preservation of debating the issue in 1878 entirely missed her female modesty. main points and replied instead with arguments on peripheral issues. To this, she replied briefly This position can be traced back to St. John that "the ladies had not the capacity to Chrysostom and even further to St. Paul. It understand her." In this she probably was has been argued in this century (by Podle in correct, but perhaps the difficulty was not on The Church Impotent: the Feminization of their side but on hers. In her 1878 memorial2 9 the Christianity) that part of today's problems, coherence of her reasoning is more apparent than not only in society but even in the Church, can it was in the 1873 petition to Congress, but her be traced to the feminine spirituality that mind, like a goat at home on its mountain, leapt began with St. Bernard ofClairvaux and that a from crag to crag, oblivious to the fact that masculine spirituality is needed for men. Our others, to follow her, had to wind their way men must be brave and our women modest. tortuously down and up the intervening slopes. 3. Marriage is a sacred unity, in which the Her three main arguments may be summarized family, with the husband at the head, is the from her various writings as follows. foundation of the state. Out of this comes peace, concord, proper representation, and 1. Holy Scripture indicates a sphere for woman adjustment -- union. The proposed above public life. Motherhood is "the one amendment instead implies that marriage is most glorious crown of woman, through merely a compact in which each member which she becomes invested with a dignity requires individual representation, leading to 173 diversity and discord rather than unity and trust to that moral influence over men which peace. intelligence never fails to exercise, and is more potent than the direct vote. "In this I am The Church has perennially taught, of course, doubtless as old-fashioned as were our that marriage is more than a mere contract. grandmothers, who assisted to mold this vast Though perhaps he would not have joined republic." Madeleine in opposition to woman suffrage, (To be concluded) Pope Pius XII later taught similarly (Summi Ponti.ficatus) that the two main pillars of NOTES human society are the family and the state; and within all states, the family is the primary 24) South Sea Sketches, 112 and essential cell. Everything that makes the 25) The memorial is printed in Stanton, family unstable threatens the stability of the Elizabeth Cady, e.a., History of Woman state -- as we are seeing in America and Suffrage, Vol II (1887), 494-495 throughout the West today. 26) South Sea Sketches, 19 27) Weatherford, Doris, A History of the Madeleine concluded one of her statements by American Suffragist Movement; Santa remarking that, despite that fact that she then Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1998; 111-123, 133-135.