Constitutional Equality ('Address to the House Judiciary Committee')
Delivered on January 11, 1871, Woodhull became the first woman to address a Congressional committee, arguing that the 14th and 15th Amendments already granted women the constitutional right to vote.
Full Transcript
To the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives:
The subscriber, Victoria C. Woodhull, respectfully represents that she is a native-born citizen of the United States; that she has resided in the State of New York for more than five years; and that she possesses all the qualifications required by law to render her a voter, except that she is a woman.
The 14th Amendment declares that ‘All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.’
Women are persons; women are citizens. Therefore, any state law which restricts the right of voting to male citizens alone is in direct conflict with the Supreme Law of the Land.
I ask for no new constitutional grant; I demand the recognition and enforcement of the rights already secured to women citizens by the plain words of our fundamental law.
Defining Key Excerpts
"Women are citizens, and no State has the right to make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States."
"The Constitution makes no distinction of sex in its conferring of citizenship and the voting franchise."
Bring this Speech to your Wall
Get this historic speech professionally typeset, printed on structured canvas, and delivered in a solid wood frame.