We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution

by Jill Lepore

The relationship between temperance and suffrage was uneasy. Within the rhetoric of the movement, drinking was a vice indulged in by men, at the expense of women and children. In 1875 Frances Willard convinced the Illinois chapter of the WCTU to pass a resolution “that since woman is the greatest sufferer from the rum curse, she ought to have power to close the dram-shop door over against her home.” But when Willard, then corresponding secretary of the national organization, sought the presidency, she was defeated. She resigned and inaugurated the Home Protection Petition campaign, seeking for women the right to vote on temperance issues. In 1879 she finally prevailed against the anti-suffrage faction and was elected president of the WCTU, a position she held for nearly twenty years.78