It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong woman stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the woman who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds;

who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends herself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if she fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that her place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

19th Amendment Annotations

Women's Suffrage

The Amendment was adopted after a long campaign by its advocates who had largely despaired of attaining their goal through modification of individual state laws. Agitation in behalf of women's suffrage was recorded as early as the Jackson Administration but the initial results were meager. Beginning in 1838, Kentucky authorized women to vote in school elections and its action was later copied by a number of other States. Kansas in 1887 granted women unlimited rights to vote in municipal elections. Not until 1869, however, when the Wyoming Territory accorded women suffrage rights on an equal basis with men and continued the practice following admission to statehood, did these advocates register a notable victory. Progress continued to be discouraging, only ten additional States having joined Wyoming by 1914, and, judicial efforts having failed,1 and a vigorous campaign brought congressional passage of a proposed Amendment and the necessary state ratifications.2


Following the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Fifteenth Amendment, the state courts which passed on the effect of the Amendment ruled that it did not confer upon women the right to vote but only the right not to be discriminated against on the basis of their sex in the setting of voting qualifications,3 a formalistic distinction to be sure but one which has restrained the possible applications of the Amendment. In only one case has the Supreme Court itself dealt with the Amendment's effect, holding that a Georgia poll tax statute which exempted from payment women who did not register to vote did not discriminate in any manner against the right of men to vote, although it did note that the Amendment ''applies to men and women alike and by its own force supersedes inconsistent measures, whether federal or State.''4

Footnotes

[Footnote 1] Minor v. Happersett, 88 U.S. (21 Wall.) 162 (1875), a challenge under the privileges of immunities clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

[Footnote 2] E. Flexner, Century of Struggle--The Woman's Rights Movement in the United States (1959).

[Footnote 3] State v. Mittle, 120 S.C. 526 (1922), writ of error dismissed, 260 U.S. 705 (1922); Graves v. Eubank, 205 Ala. 174 (1921); In re Cavelier, 287 N.Y.S. 739 (1936).

[Footnote 4] Breedlove v. Suttles, 302 U.S. 277, 283-84 (1937

The Federal Election Commission has ruled that federal candidates can use campaign funds to pay for child care costs that result from time spent running for office.

On Thursday, the FEC ruled unanimously, 4-0, in favor of New York Democratic House candidate Liuba Grechen Shirley.

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SELMA, Ala. —
Former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton received the International Unity Award at the Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King Unity Breakfast in Selma, Alabama Sunday morning.

The breakfast was one of the events during the annual Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee.

Clinton was also inducted into the National Voting Rights Museum Women’s Hall of Fame.

Others in attendance at the breakfast were Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT), Sen Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Rev. Jesse Jackson.