Women [Poll] Watcher's Certificate; with New York State Printed Temperance Act.
Two Early New York State Suffrage Documents
[Suffrage]. Women [Poll] Watcher’s Certificate. New York: New York State Woman Suffrage Party, 1917.
8vo.; single leaf, approximately 8 1/2” x 4”; printed on recto only; with the autograph of a New York State A.D. Leader entered on the appropriate blank; evenly browned.
Together with:
New York State Printed Temperance Act. N.p., n.d.
8vo.; single leaf, approximately 8.5” x 11.5”; printed on recto only; folded for mailing; lightly, evenly browned.
Interesting examples of two printed documents which served as lobbying tools for New York’s pro-suffrage forces. The undated Temperance Act proposes anti-alcohol legislation as an inherently pro-female issue:
Your petitioners have seen, and many of the wives and daughters of our country have felt, the evils resulting from licensed and unlicensed taverns and grog-shops....Many of our sisters, afflicted and broken-hearted, cry in our ears, Can nothing be done to put an end to the evils of intemperance!....As females we approach our law makers; not to dictate in legislation, but to plead by all that is tender and valuable in domestic and social life, that at this session of the Legislature, your honorable body would repeal the present license laws of the state; and by a prohibitory statute remove from our midst a traffic which causes to many of our families the most heart rending anguish . . .
The Women Watcher’s Certificate was issued by the New York State Women’s Suffrage Party and was apparently intended for use by election workers; it reads, in part:
. . . Pursuant to the provisions of Section 352 of the Election Law of the State of New York, we, the undersigned, duly appointed officers of the Women’s Suffrage Party...do hereby certify that [blank] has been duly appointed watcher to attend the polling place in the [blank] Election District of the [blank] Assembly District in the County of [blank], at the General Election to be held on the 6th day of November, 1917. witness, the signature of the Officials of the Woman Suffrage Party of the County of [blank], this [blank] day of October, 1917 . . .
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