Letter, Susan B. Anthony to Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod

[page 1]
[Letterhead: National American Woman Suffrage Association]
COPY. June 7, 1900
To the President, Officers and Delegates of the
Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod of North America
in session at Burlington, Ia., June 15-22.
My Dear Friends: –
As chairman of the committee appointed by our National American
Woman Suffrage Association to address letters to all of the large conven-
tions held during this last year of the nineteenth century, allow me to
bring before you the great need of the recognition of the women of our
nation in all of the rights, privileges and immunities of United States
citizenship.
The utter powerlessness of the religious world in governmental af-
fairs is frequently commented upon by both the church and the secular
press. Permit me to call your attention to the cause of this fact. Near-
ly every money-making enterprise, large or small, is owned and conducted
by men. The great monopolies – railroad, coal, oil, sugar, liquor,
tobacco, etc. – have their agents and attorneys at Washington and at
every State capital not only to secure laws in their favor, but to prevent
the passage of any which would be inimical to their interests. In addi-
tion to the capitalists themselves the vast majority of their employes,
being men, are voters, so that these corporations can put into one of the
political scales the weight of both money and ballots. On the other
hand, the churches, the charities, the schools, the reforms, though

[page 2]
generally officered by men, count but a very small minority of voters in
their membership, however large that may be. It is therefore but a very
simple problem in mathematics to show that if you put lall the great mate-
rial interests into one scale with votes, and all the great moral and
spiritual interests into the other practically without votes, the latter
must kick the beam. The representatives in any legislative body have no
alternative – they must comply with the demands of those who gave and can
take away their positions.
It is generally admitted that we stand at a moral deadlock. While
it is possible to secure some enactments for the suppression of drunken-
ness and immorality, such laws are virtually dead letters on the statute-
books of every State in the Union. This is so not because humans
not try to have good laws enforced, but because there are not enough such
men to make a balance of power sufficiently strong to re-elect officers
who have faithfully discharged their duties. Since all classes of men
are now voters, there is no possible way of obtaining this needed balance
of power except by the enfranchisement of women who already form the vast
majority of members in every educational, reform or religious association.
But it surely is not necessary for me to argue this point with those whose
life-work it is to study how to better the conditions of the world.
Will you not have introduced into your meeting, discussed and adopted,
a resolution in favor of woman suffrage, and also have your officers, on
behalf of the Synod, sign a petition asking Congress for the sub-
mission of a Sixteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution, prohibiting
the disfranchisement of United States citizens on account of sex?
Enclosed is a form of petition. Please make two copies of it on

[page 3]
your own official paper, if adopted, and return both to me when signed
for presentation to Congress. Kindly send me also a copy of the suffrage
resolution, should one be passed. In any case, I shall esteem it a favor
to be informed of whatever action is taken upon these requests.
Hoping that the churches represented in your Synod will throw the
weight of their influence on the side of justice and equality for women,
I am,
Very sincerely yours,
Susan B. Anthony