Women's Suffrage Struggle

On April 21, 1920 in Montpelier, Vermont, four hundred women gathered in the pouring rain to support the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote. To show the intensity of the situation, they marched silently down State Street and into the State House where a large room had been set aside for their meeting with the governor. Rain dripping from their clothes, one by one, 14 speakers tried to convince the governor at the time, Percival Clement, to call a special session of the Vermont Legislature to ratify the woman suffrage amendment. There needed to be 36 states to vote in favor of the amendment to make the ratification process complete, and as of then, there were 35. The women of Vermont wanted their state to be the one to make it complete, adorning cards, posters and banners with the slogan "Make Vermont the Perfect 36".

Despite the pressure from the women, important institutions such as the state Supreme Court and the national Republican Party and important figures like ex-President Taft and presidential candidate Warren G. Harding, Governor Clement refused to call the special session. He labeled the amendment an infringement on the rights guaranteed by the State constitution. Although he said this, there were rumors he had refused because of pressure from the liquor interests in Vermont and elsewhere to deny women the vote. Either way, Tennessee ended up being the 36th state to vote in favor for the amendment.

It wasn't until February 1921 that the Vermont Legislature endorsed the woman suffrage amendment. By that time, the women of Vermont had already cast their votes in the presidential election and helped James Hartness become the new governor of the Green Mountain State because if he had been governor in 1920, he would have done anything to aid the suffragists.

The march of the women in 1920 had been planned and carried out by the Vermont Equal Suffrage Association, whose president, Dr. Marion Horton would come to be one of the twelve woman delegates from the National American Woman Suffrage Association to attend the International Woman Suffrage Alliance Congress in Geneva, Switzerland.

Although the march didn't have much of an affect on making Vermont the "Perfect 36", it did show Vermont how persistent and dedicated the women were, and helped them make the decision to vote for James Hartness who helped aid the women's rights movement.