Women at the Polls
1871, American Women Force their Republican Vote at the Polls
Adapted from an Article in Harper’s Weekly Magazine, November 25th, 1871
Five adventurous women of this city marched boldly to the polls on last election day, and demanded to be allowed to vote. Among them was Mrs. Victoria Woodhull, who, fresh from an interview on the house-top with the roving spirit of Demosthenes, drove up early to the polls in a fine carriage. This lady was more determined and more demonstrative than her sister reformers. She was not to be bluffed off without an argument. Her lawyer was at hand, but she required no prompting.
When her right to vote was denied, she planted herself on the Constitution of the United States, and insisted that the inspector should read the clause on which she founds her claim. The objection that no copy of that document was at hand was immediately me by the production of a pocket edition with which the fair claimant hand come provided. The Republican inspector was inclined to receive her vote, but his Democratic colleague was immovable. He would even look at the Constitution, and finally put an end to the scene by telling the persistent lady that she “obstructed the polls, and must get out.” Miss Tennie C. Clafflin met with the same rebuff; the ladies departed. Our artist has delineated this serio-humorous recontre in the sketch on this page.
The only one of the five who succeeded in voting was a Mrs. Miller, who afterward openly boasted that she had cast a ballot for Tweed.
The World suggests that if this is a fair sample of the use which women will make of the ballot, the opposition to their demand will be stronger than ever, and humorously expresses the fear that Mrs. Miller may have “chosen some untrustworthy Greek — Alcibiades, perhaps, or possibly Pisistratus — as her guide and counselor .” Demosthenes is wholly occupied by his prior engagement with Mrs. Woodhull, but the World suggests the name of several other distinguished Grecian spirits who might be glad to undertake the task of directing Mrs. Miller’s political conscience.
