Carrie Chapman Catt: The Pacifist Movement

Carrie Chapman Catt was born on January 9, 1859 in Ripon, Wisconsin. Carries father would not pay for her college education so Carrie began working as a teacher to earn the money to go to college at Iowa State College. In 1880 Carrie graduated Iowa State College with a bachelor’s degree. The following year Carrie became a high school principal in Iowa then two years later she became the superintendent of schools in Mason City, Iowa. Carrie married Leo Chapman who was a newspaper editor in 1885. Carrie began to work with her husband for the newspaper company. The following year Carries husband died and she moved away to San Francisco to work for a different newspaper company. In 1887 Carrie became involved with the Iowa Woman Suffrage Association

Carrie was going to have to earn the support of Congress to get the amendment proposed. At this time there were only two states that allowed women to vote. Wyoming started to allow women to vote in 1890 and Colorado also allowed women to start voting in 1893. Besides those two states women had no rights towards voting until Carrie came around. It was known that most women activists followed the pacifist movement and disagreed on the United States entering WWI. The pacifist movement was a group of individuals who didn’t believe in going to war or violence. Carrie was not like most women activists, she announced that the association was in support of the American participation in WWI. Carrie believed that by the United States being a part of the war then women would finally win the right to vote. During the winter of 1917, Carrie wrote an address to Congress urging for a constitutional amendment that would allow women the right to vote throughout the

From the beginning of time governments have been ruled by kings and only for kings while the people payed taxes and were never allowed to speak out in government. In 1776 this all changed when the Declaration of Independence was signed cutting all political connections to Great Britain and becoming an independent nation. Carrie points out that the government states that “Taxation without representation is tyranny” although women who also pay taxes are not allowed to have a voice in the government. The people’s beliefs are the foundation of the authority of the government. Carrie states that our government has failed to follow these two principles of democratic government. Abraham Lincoln combined the two principles into one which states “Ours is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people” and later Woodrow Wilson proclaims “We are fighting for the things we have always carried nearest to our hearts: for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own government.” Carrie states that over the 151 years not one American has questioned the political leader’s logics. The government has been seizing billions of dollars paid in taxes by women but still are not allowed to have