Page:The Republican Party (1920).djvu/133

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Equal Suffrage


tion of the United States was adopted by Congress for submission and recommendation to the States for ratification.

No less is it the work of the Republican party that ratification by the states has been secured. The first eight states that ratified it were the staunch Republican states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Kansas, Ohio, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, every one of which had, of course, a Republican legislature. Of the thirty-five states which ratified it and brought it down to within a single state of adoption, only six had Democratic legislatures, while of three more the legislatures were divided, and twenty-six had Republican legislatures. On the other hand, of the six states which down to that crucial point had outrightly rejected the amendment, every one had a Democratic legislature and a Democratic governor. And of the seven states which then had not yet acted, three had Republican and four Democratic legislatures.

Thus twenty-six Republican states had ratified and not one had rejected the equal suffrage amendment, while only six Democratic states had ratified and six had rejected it. Thus the granting of equal suffrage, both by congressional initiative and by the final ratification of the states has been and will be unmistakably and indisputably the work of the Republican party, successfully effected in the face of Democratic opposition.

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