Chester County Democrats

As we celebrate our Nation’s 250th Birthday, we ought to also be looking back 150 years to a July 4 in Philadelphia where the 100th birthday of the United States was being celebrated.

Among those in the city for the festivities was the National Woman’s Suffrage Association (NWSA), an organization founded in 1869 to advocate for a constitutional amendment ensuring women’s right to vote. The NWSA planned to participate in the Centennial event by presenting their “Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United States” to the nation.

The purpose of the declaration was to make it clear that women were tired of being second class citizens. While it would be another 40-plus years before the 19th Amendment became law, the declaration made it clear that women were not going to back down.

“We, therefore, women of the United States of America, do solemnly publish and declare that we are by nature, and of right, ought to be by law, free and independent citizens, possessing equal political power with our brother men.”