The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Amendment XIX, United States Constitution (1920)

As the date of adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment shows, the movement to extend the suffrage to women moved at a glacially slow pace.  Most of the brave women at Senaca Falls never lived to see the fruits of their work.  For many years following the adoption of this amendment, American society acted as if equality issues had been resolved.  But by the 1970s, inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, women began to investigate the issues once again.  We'll explore the reawakening of feminism and "women's liberation" by watching a video from the PBS People's Century series:  Half the People.

The video will form the basis for class discussion.  Read ahead to the materials for Friday.  The essay by Henry David Thoreau is going to take you some time.  Don't wait until the last minute to try to digest it.

For Friday, April 26

Read: in Idea of Democracy,
# 27,  Speech at Peoria (Abraham Lincoln),  pp. 133 - 134
# 28,  Address at Gettysburg (Abraham Lincoln), p. 135
# 18,  Amendments # 13, 14, 15, United States Constitution  (1865, 1868, 1870) pp. 79 - 80
# 26,  On the Duty of  Civil Disobedience, (Henry David Thoreau) pp. 123 - 132

Many of the women who were active in the struggle for women's rights were ardent abolitionists struggling to abolish the institution of chattel slavery.  In fact, they saw the conditions of women and slaves as being remarkably similar.  Consequently it makes good sense to consider some of the issues regarding political participation of blacks at this point in the course.  The general issue remains the same:  who can participate and who can't, and why?

Abraham Lincoln was a person of complex views.  As his Speech at Peoria demonstrates, he could simultaneously hate slavery and believe that Negroes were inferior.  In this, he was probably representative of most northern opinion of his day.  He frames his thinking around an unusual question, "Is the Negro a Man?"  As you read him, be as aware as possible of the structure of the argument he creates.  Here again is an example of the use of reason.  The structure of the argument is very similar to that used in Federalist Paper #10, in which questions are posed, two alternatives suggested, and one of two chosen and then followed to the end of its implications.  The Gettysburg Address (remember Mr. Smith's favorite place and quotation) shows Lincoln defining the purpose of the Civil war in terms of faithfulness to Jefferson's vision which had been penned 87 years earlier.

Amendments 13, 14, and 15 formally abolish slavery.

I place Henry Thoreau's On the Duty of Civil Disobedience in this group because of an affinity with the Seneca Falls Declaration which we recently examined.  A persistent question arises in western thought concerning the relationship between civic duty and private conscience.  Remember that one of the resolutions passed in Seneca Falls declared certain laws as being of no force or authority. Remember, too, that the reason given is that the persons to whom the such laws applied had no part in the framing of them.  Thoreau can't use this argument as he examines his obligations:  he is white, he is male, he is educated, and he is posessed of full political rights and privileges.   What should a person do when confronted with a law which requires him/her to violate his/her conscience?