The President was visibly moved as I added, "You are the President now, reelected to office. You ask if I am going to sacrifice you. You sacrifice nothing by my resignation. But I lose much. I quit a political career. I give up a powerful office in my own state. I, who have no money, sacrifice a lucrative salary, and go back to revive my law practice. But most of all I sever a personal a.s.sociation with you of the deepest affection which you know has meant much to me these past seven years. But I cannot and will not remain in office and see women thrown into jail because they demand their political freedom."
The President earnestly urged me not to resign, saying, "What will the people of the country think when they hear that the Collector of the Port of New York has resigned because of an injustice done to a group of suffragists by the police officials of the city of Washington?"
My reply to this was, "With all respect for you, Mr. President, my explanation to the public will not be as difficult as yours, if I am compelled to remind the public that you have appointed to office and can remove all the important officials of the city of Washington."
The President ignored this and insisted that I should not resign, saying, "I do not question your intense conviction about this matter as I know you have always been an ardent suf-
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fragist; and since you feel as you do I see no reason why you should not become their counsel and take this case up on appeal without resigning from the Administration."
"But," I said, "Mr. President, that arrangement would be impossible for two reasons; first, these women would not want me as their counsel if I were a member of your Administration, for it would appear to the public then as if your Administration was not responsible for the indignities to which they have been subjected, and your Administration is responsible; and, secondly, I cannot accept your suggestion because it may be necessary in the course of the appeal vigorously to criticize and condemn members of your cabinet and others close to you, and I could not adopt this policy while remaining in office under you." The President seemed greatly upset and finally urged me as a personal service to him to go at once and perfect the case on appeal for the suffragists, but not to resign until I had thought it over for a day, and until he had had an opportunity to investigate the facts I had presented to him. I agreed to this, and we closed the interview with the President saying, "If you consider my personal request and do not resign, please do not leave Washington without coming to see me." I left the executive offices and never saw him again.
There was just a day and a half left to perfect the exceptions for the appeal under the rules of procedure. No stenographic record of the trial had been taken, which put me under the greatest legal difficulties. I was in the midst of these preparations for appeal the next day when I learned to my surprise that the President had pardoned the women. He had not even consulted me as their attorney. Moreover, I was amazed that since the President had said he considered the treatment of the women "shocking," he had pardoned them without stating that he did so to correct a grave injustice. I felt certain that the high-spirited women in the workhouse would refuse to accept the pardon as a mere "benevolent" act on the part of the President.
I at once went down to the workhouse in Virginia. My opinion was confirmed. The group refused to accept the President"s pardon. I advised them that as a matter of law no one could compel them to accept the pardon, but that as a matter of fact they would have to accept it, for the Attorney
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General would have them all put out of the inst.i.tution bag and baggage. So as a solution of the difficulty and in view of the fact that the President had said to me that their treatment was "shocking" I made public the following statement:
"The President"s pardon is an acknowledgment by him of the grave injustice that has been done:" This he never denied.
Under this published interpretation of his pardon the women at Occoquan accepted the pardon and returned to Washington. The incident was closed. I returned to New York. During the next two months I carefully watched the situation. Six or eight more groups of women in that time were arrested on the same false charges, tried and imprisoned in the same illegal way. Finally a group of women was arrested in September under the identical circ.u.mstances as those in July, was tried in the same lawless fashion and given the same sentence of "sixty days in the workhouse." The President may have been innocent of responsibility for the first arrests, but he was personally and politically responsible for all the arrests that occurred after his pardon of the first, group. Under this development it seemed to me that self-respect demanded action, so I sent my resignation to the President, publicly stated my att.i.tude and regretfully left his Administration."
Mr. Malone"s resignation in September, 1917, came with a sudden shock, because the entire country and surely the Administration thought him quieted and subdued by the President"s personal appeal to him in July.
Mr. Malone was shocked that the policy of arrests should be continued. Mr. Wilson and his Administration were shocked that any one should care enough about the liberty of women to resign a lucrative post in the Government. The nation was shocked into the realization that this was not a street brawl between women and policemen, but a controversy between suffragists and a powerful Administration. We had said so but it would have taken months to convince the public that the President was in any way responsible. Mr. Malone did what we could only have done with the greatest difficulty and after more pro-
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longed sacrifices. He laid the responsibility squarely and dramatically where it belonged. It is impossible to overemphasize what a tremendous acceleration Mr. Malone"s fine, solitary and generous act gave to the speedy break-down of the Administration"s resistance. His sacrifice lightened ours.
Women ought to be willing to make sacrifices for their own liberation, but for a man to have the courage and imagination to make such a sacrifice for the liberation of women is unparalleled. Mr. Malone called to the attention of the nation the true cause of the obstruction and suppression. He reproached the President and his colleagues after mature consideration, in the most honorable and vital way,-by refusing longer to a.s.sociate himself with an Administration which backed such policies.
And Mr. Malone"s resignation was not only welcomed by the militant group. The conservative suffrage leaders, although they heartily disapproved of , picketing, were as outspoken in their grat.i.tude.
Alice Stone Blackwell, the daughter of Lucy Stone, herself a pioneer suffrage leader and editor, wrote to Mr. Malone:
"May I express my appreciation and grat.i.tude for the excellent and manly letter that you have written to President Wilson on woman suffrage? I am sure that I am only one of many women who feel thankful to you for it.
"The picketing seems to me a very silly business, and I am sure it is doing the cause harm instead of good; but the picketers are being shamefully and illegally treated, and it is a thousand pities, for President Wilson"s own sake, that he ever allowed the Washington authorities to enter on this course of persecution. It was high time for some one to make a protest, and you have made one that has been heard far and wide . . . ."
Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, the President of the National American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation, wrote:
"I was in Maine when your wonderful letter announcing your resignation came out. It was the n.o.blest act that any man
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ever did on behalf of our cause. The letter itself was a high minded appeal . . . . "
Mrs. Norman de R. Whitehouse, the President of the New York State Woman Suffrage Party, with which Mr. Malone had worked for years, wired:
"Although we disagree with you on the question of picketing every suffragist must be grateful to you for the gallant support you are giving our cause and the great sacrifice you are making."
Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw, Vice Chairman of the New York Suffrage Party, said:
"No words of mine can tell you how our hearts have been lifted and our purposes strengthened in this tremendous struggle in New York State by the reading of your powerful and n.o.ble utterances in your letter to President Wilson. There flashed through my mind all the memories of Knights of chivalry and of romance that I have ever read, and they all paled before your championship, and the sacrifice and the high-spirited leadership that it signifies.
Where you lead, I believe, thousands of other men will follow, even though at a distance, and most inadequately . . . ."
And from the women voters of California with whom Mr. Malone had kept faith came the message:
"The liberty-loving women of California greet you as one of the few men in history who have been willing to sacrifice material interests for the liberty of a cla.s.s to which they themselves do not belong. We are thrilled by your inspiring words. We appreciate your "sympathetic understanding of the viewpoint of disfranchised women. We are deeply grateful for the incalculable benefit of your active a.s.sistance in the struggle of American women for political liberty and for a real Democracy."
I reprint Mr. Malone"s letter of resignation which sets forth in detail his position.
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September 7, 1917.
The President, The White House, Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. President:
Last autumn, as the representative of your Administration, I went into the woman suffrage states to urge your reelection. The most difficult argument to meet among the seven million voters was the failure of the Democratic party, throughout four years of power, to pa.s.s the federal suffrage amendment looking toward the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of all the women of the country. Throughout those states, and particularly in California, which ultimately decided the election by the votes of women, the women voters were urged to support you, even though Judge Hughes had already declared for the federal suffrage amendment, because you and your party, through liberal leadership, were more likely nationally to enfranchise the rest of the women of the country than were your opponents.
And if the women of the West voted to reelect you, I promised them that I would spend all my energy, at any sacrifice to myself, to get the present Democratic Administration to pa.s.s the federal suffrage amendment.
But the present policy of the Administration, in permitting splendid American women to be sent to jail in Washington, not for carrying offensive banners, not for picketing, but on the technical charge of obstructing traffic, is a denial even of their const.i.tutional right to pet.i.tion for, and demand the pa.s.sage of, the federal suffrage amendment. It, therefore, now becomes my profound obligation actively to keep my promise to the women of the West.
In more than twenty states it is a practical impossibility to amend the state const.i.tutions; so the women of those States can only be enfranchised by the pa.s.sage of the federal suffrage amendment. Since England and Russia, in the midst of the great war, have a.s.sured the national enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of their women, should we not be jealous to maintain our democratic leadership in the world by the speedy national enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of American women?
To me, Mr. President, as I urged upon you in Washington two months ago, this is not only a measure of justice and democracy, it is also an urgent war measure. The women of
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the nation are, and always will be, loyal to the country, and the pa.s.sage of the suffrage amendment is only the first step toward their national emanc.i.p.ation. But unless the government takes at least this first step toward their enfranchis.e.m.e.nt, how can the government ask millions of American women, educated in our schools and colleges, and millions of American women, in our homes, or toiling for economic independence in every line of industry, to give up by conscription their men and happiness to a war for democracy in Europe, while these women citizens are denied the right to vote on the policies of the Government which demands of them such sacrifice?
For this reason many of your most ardent friends and supporters feel that the pa.s.sage of the federal suffrage amendment is a war measure which could appropriately be urged by you at this session of Congress. It is true that this amendment would have to come from Congress, but the present Congress shows no earnest desire to enact this legislation for the simple reason that you, as the leader of the party in power, have not yet suggested it.
For the whole country gladly acknowledges, Mr. President, that no vital piece of legislation has come through Congress these five years except by your extraordinary and brilliant leadership. And what millions of men and women to-day hope is that you will give the federal suffrage amendment to the women of the country by the valor of your leadership now. It will hearten the mothers of the nation, eliminate a just grievance, and turn the devoted energies of brilliant women to a more hearty support of the Government in this crisis.
As you well know, in dozens of speeches in many states I have advocated your policies and the war. I was the first man of your Administration, nearly five years ago, to publicly advocate preparedness, and helped to found the first Plattsburg training camp. And if, with our troops mobilizing in France, you will give American women this measure for their political freedom, they will support with greater enthusiasm your hope and the hope of America for world freedom.
I have not approved all the methods recently adopted by women in pursuit of their political liberty; yet, Mr. President, the Committee on Suffrage of the United States Senate was formed in 1883, when I was one year old; this same federal
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suffrage amendment was first introduced in Congress in 187"8, brave women like Susan B. Anthony were pet.i.tioning Congress for the suffrage before the Civil War, and at the time of the Civil War men like William Lloyd Garrison, Horace Greeley, and Wendell Phillips a.s.sured the suffrage leaders that if they abandoned their fight for suffrage, when the war was ended the men of the nation "out of grat.i.tude" would enfranchise the women of the- country.