The Fundamental Principle of a Republic Persuasive
Speech
Anna Howard Shaw • June 21, 1915 • Ogdensburg, New York
When I came into your hall tonight, I thought of the last time I was in your city. Twenty-one years ago I came
here with Susan B. Anthony, and we came for exactly the same purpose as that for which we are here
tonight.
Now one of two things is true: either a Republic is a desirable form of government, or else it is not. If it is, then
we should have it, if it is not then we ought not to pretend that we have it. We ought at least to be true to our
ideals.
The only thing that woman's enfranchisement means at all is that a government which claims to be a
Republic should be a Republic, and not an aristocracy.
If woman's suffrage is wrong, it is a great wrong; if it is right, it is a profound and fundamental principle, and
we all know, if we know what a Republic is, that it is the fundamental principle upon which a Republic must
rise.
We are simply asking that that government which professes to be a Republic shall be a Republic and not
pretend to be what it is not.
Now what is a Republic? Take your dictionary, encyclopedia lexicon or anything else you like and look up the
definition and you will find that a Republic is a form of government in which the laws are enacted by
representatives elected by the people.
When the government says that a citizen, in order to vote, must be a resident of a community a certain length
of time and of the state a certain length of time and of the nation a certain length of time, that applies to all
equally. There is no discrimination.
But when it says that an elector must be a male, that is not a qualification for citizenship; that is an
insurmountable barrier between one half of the people and the other half of the citizens and their rights as
citizens.
No such nation can call itself a Republic. It is only an aristocracy. That barrier must be removed before the
government can become a Republic.
Men know the inconsistencies themselves; they realize it in one way while they do not realize it in another,
because you never heard a man make a political speech when he did not speak of this country as a whole as
though the thing existed which does not exist and that is that the people were equally free.
If it is true that the voice of the people is the voice of God, we will never know what the Deity's voice in
government is until the bass and soprano are mingled together, the result of which will be the divine harmony.
No, we women do not want the ballot in order that we may fight, but we do want the ballot in order that we
may help men to keep from fighting, whether it is in the home or in the state, just as the home is not without
the man, so the state is not without the woman, and you can no more build up homes without men than you
can build up the state without women.
