Address of Mrs. Lucy Stone

Lucy Stone’s address at the hearing of the Woman suffrage association was awe inspiring. One question that she posed that is fundamental to any nonviolence movement warranting government action was, “How much do we spend for war, and how much should we save if this peace element were only represented in the Government?” That principle applies not only to the woman suffragist movement, but in any area of oppression and/or war.

The way she gave this speech was, in my opinion, nonviolent action at its best. She presented her argument to the committee without verbally attacking the men in the audience and in a way that made her point very clear. She pointed out various injustices towards women, such as inequality in marriage, difference in legal power, and of course, the right to vote.

I appreciated how she spoke of the injustices towards women. She used the example of Jefferson Davis. This man received a punishment, which at the time was considered the worst sentence they could impose on him. They took away his right to vote. Stone went on to say that in Massachusetts, only idiots, felons, and lunatics don’t have the right to vote. By using these examples, she made it clear that women should indeed have the right to vote, for there was no logical basis for withholding it. Certainly, every woman was not crazy, or a felon, or an idiot, and did not deserve to receive the punishment of a criminal. Clearly, at this point men were just trying to hold a monopoly on the power to vote. As Mrs. Stone pointed out, there was no real reason that men should deny women that simple, but deeply important right.

I learned a great deal from Lucy Stone’s address and the movie shown in class about the women suffragists. Never before had I considered how deeply the right to vote impacts an individual. I remember when I was younger, I thought when I reached the age to vote; I would refuse to do so. After reading this article, and seeing what these women were willing to suffer in order to acquire that same right, I can think of no reason why an individual would refuse to vote.