3. Mainstream Praise for the Antis
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Their mission was laid out in black and white through
Anti-Suffrage newspapers, essays, pamphlets, and even speeches before Congress,
all supported by established female associations and organizations, in which
men played their part as distributors of these materials, but their movements
were dictated by their female counterparts.[1]
Their arguments against women’s enfranchisement were logical and rational and
garnered much praise in the mainstream media for their “… complete and
overwhelming refutation of the arguments of the suffragists”[2]
according to a St. Louis periodical. Helen Kendrick Johnson’s 1897 book, Woman and the Republic sparked her own
personal accolades from the Denver Times
who exclaimed that she “possesses a wonderfully unfeminine capability for
indulging in calm, logical discussion.”[3] The
press further claimed that “if the woman suffrage movement is ever to be
finally defeated, it will be by women themselves…”[4]
These, among other high reaching praise, set the tone for the reality behind
the characters of the women who urged men to vote against women’s
enfranchisement.
[1]
[2] Ibid, 36
[3] Ibid, 36
[4] Ibid, 36