Virginia Minor's Case

[18thVirginia]

It's well recognized that women's abolition activities often led to involvement in the Women's Suffrage Movement, attempting to gain the right to vote for American women. This was especially true in Kansas and Missouri, where the women's activism followed civic work during or before the Civil War.

We've mentioned Virginia Minor in threads about Missouri women who were involved in the St. Louis Ladies Union Aid Society, working to help put together hospitals, to find volunteer nurses and visitors, to run the Mississippi Valley Sanitary Fair. At some point, Minor was the president of the St. Louis Ladies Union Aid Society. She'd been born in Virginia in 1824 and had been educated at a women's academy in Charlottesville, Va. and at home. In 1843, she married Francis Minor, a lawyer and graduate of Princeton and University of Virginia. They moved to St. Louis and had one son, born in 1852.

When Minor's son died in 1866, she became involved in women's suffrage activities, dedicated her time and considerable energies to that cause for the rest of her life, joined by some of the women with whom she'd worked at the St. Louis Ladies Union Aid Society. In 1867, she and several other LUAS women formed the Women's Suffrage Association of Missouri and a couple of years later, petitioned the Missouri legislature to extend the voting franchise to women.

In 1869, at the Missouri Women's Suffrage Convention, Minor stated:

"I believe the Constitution of the United States gives me every right and privilege to which every other citizen is entitled; for while the Constitution gives the States the right to regulate suffrage, it nowhere gives them power to prevent it."

http://shsmo.org/historicmissourians/name/m/minor/

Wikipedia

 

[18thVirginia]

In 1872, Minor tried to register to vote in Missouri, part of a larger national effort in which suffrage activists attempted to vote in October, 1872. Virginia Minor brought suit through her husband, contending that the 14th Amendment had Virginia Minor's case was different in that she was not prosecuted criminally for trying to vote, but brought suit (through her husband, contending that under the 14th Amendment, the states could not prevent a citizen from voting.

The case was heard by the Missouri Supreme Court in 1873, who contended that the amendment was meant to extend the right to vote to freed men, not women and said that "There could have been no intention [in the amendment] to abridge the power of the States to limit the right of suffrage to the male inhabitants." https://www.nps.gov/jeff/learn/historyculture/the-virginia-minor-case.htm

The case went on up to the U. S. Supreme Court in 1874, where a unanimous decision affirmed the Missouri Court, stating, "the Constitution of the United States does not confer the right of suffrage upon anyone."

 

[18thVirginia]

The Courthouse in St. Louis where Virginia Minor's case was heard by the Missouri Supreme Court.

 

[18thVirginia]

Chief Justice Waite wrote the opinion of the U. S. Supreme Court that 9-0 affirmed Missouri officials in their right to deny Virginia Minor the vote. Francis Minor argued the case before the U. S. Supreme Court.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

"You do not need a ballot to clean out your sink spout" One helpful hint for ladies, on why voting should not be required.

When you consider women could not vote until 1920 it still makes the top of your head wish to pop off, doesn't it? My mother wasn't born until 1933 so she voted- my grandmother, grandmother was 17 when women could vote in the United States. I'm not that old. We lost the Lusitania and Titanic, fought a World War and no vote. It still has not been 100 years, there are people alive today born in 1920. Our country is how old?

What blows you away about Virginia Minor's case is where she came from- Kansas and Missouri being epicenters to mindless, bloody chaos- allegedly about the war, always seems just a society in shambles to me, the war an excuse for mayhem. These beautifully educated, erudite citizens remained there regardless, must have been some deep refusal to bend or give or in anyway acknowledge the darkness.

 

[18thVirginia]

In 2014, women's groups from around the State raised the funds for a bust of Virginia Minor to be included in the Hall of Famous Missourians. State women's political caucus head Barbara Womack said about Minor, "She was like the mother of the suffragette movement," she says. "All of them came after her, and it was because of her tenacity that others felt empowered."

http://kcur.org/post/suffragette-pioneer-virginia-minor-inducted-hall-famous-missourians#stream/0

 

[18thVirginia]

"You do not need a ballot to clean out your sink spout" One helpful hint for ladies, on why voting should not be required.

When you consider women could not vote until 1920 it still makes the top of your head wish to pop off, doesn't it? My mother wasn't born until 1933 so she voted- my grandmother, grandmother was 17 when women could vote in the United States. I'm not that old. We lost the Lusitania and Titanic, fought a World War and no vote. It still has not been 100 years, there are people alive today born in 1920. Our country is how old?

What blows you away about Virginia Minor's case is where she came from- Kansas and Missouri being epicenters to mindless, bloody chaos- allegedly about the war, always seems just a society in shambles to me, the war an excuse for mayhem. These beautifully educated, erudite citizens remained there regardless, must have been some deep refusal to bend or give or in anyway acknowledge the darkness.

What also blows me away is that we read the name, Susan B. Anthony, even when you're reading about Kansas and Missouri and not the names of the women who were agitating for the vote in Kansas or Missouri long before it became such a national cause.

My grandmother was born in 1887, so she would have been 33 by the time she was able to vote. I remember that she always voted in her elder years; went down and paid her poll tax and that of a neighbor lady so they could vote.

 

[18thVirginia]

Virginia Minor was named President of the Women Suffrage Association of Missouri after it was formed in 1867. Two years later, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony would form the National Women's Suffrage Association. In 1869, women from across the nation met at the Mercantile Library Building in St. Louis and adopted Francis Minor's theory that women could be included in the right to vote under the 14th Amendment.

 

[18thVirginia]

Minor had also lobbied the Missouri legislature to include women in the amendment allowing blacks to vote, which was defeated. She continued lobbying for women's rights after the Supreme Court ruled against her, refusing to pay her taxes, and joining with Stanton and Anthony in signing a Declaration of the Rights of Women of the United States.

Virginia Minor asked that no clergyman officiate at her funeral in 1894, as she felt that they had opposed women's right to vote as she had worked for it since the Civil War. Her family and friends gathered at her home and sang "Abide with Me." Her dream of women getting the right to vote would be realized 16 years later, in 1920.

She and her husband were buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St Louis.

http://www.distilledhistory.com/tag/virginia-minor/

 

[18thVirginia]

U. S. Supreme Court Justices, 1869, Brady

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Still top heavy on men, the 1869 photo isn't too different than a modern photo.

My daughter is beginning to be recruited out of grad school- organic chem and polymers. She's not giving her doctorate to a company run by men, she just, plain will not do it. Some smart companies are beginning to get it- all these years later. One made a point of setting up at a chem conference advertising their 50/50 corporate structure. She spoke with them.

It's tremendous, having conversations on the amendments inclusive of Virginia and all the women involved. There were so, so, so many- nothing against Susan B. but all the great movements of history have their lists, and warriors. It has not yet been a 100 scant years, we get Susan B. Had this conversation with my mother last night. We're not sure my other grandmother was permitted to vote- men still controlled wives. Many remained outside the vote for years, too controlled to get there.