LETTER: Autograph letter signed, to Dr. Alice B. Stockholm.
WILLARD ROUSES THE SISTERHOOD
Willard, Frances. Autograph letter signed, “Frances Willard,” to “Dr. [Alice B.] Stockham and Suffragists of Englewood,” May 6, 1890, one leaf of NWCTU letterhead, both sides covered.
Willard writes in praise of the work of “the faithful few”: Dr. Alice Stockham and the suffragists at Englewood. She writes,
All honor the faithful few – the true of heart who keep the cauldron of reform seething in the midst of a callow and apathetic generation! Key notes count for everything and human ears will catch them after awhile – sound out ‘high do’ loud and clear; insist upon it; strengthen the volume of it – lift the psalm of life out of its basso profundo: soprano has a penetrating quality and will make itself heard in due course! Woman will bless and brighten every place she enters and she will enter every place. The octave of government will have its high notes slurred over until she comes – may her time be hastened by your brave deeds. Always your comrade, loyally, Frances Willard.
Willard was prominent in both the suffrage and temperance movements, and was influential in the passage of the 18th and 19th amendments (prohibition and votes for women, respectively); she also helped found the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in 1874. Willard’s platform of “Home Protection” as the premise behind suffrage was designed to appeal to women everywhere. She held that if a woman had the right to vote, she could better protect her home and family and improve society. An uplifting letter from this important suffragist.
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