Indomitable Spirits
The Interrelationship between the
Women's Suffrage and the Prohibition
Movements in Oregon from 1883-1914
Essay by Mike Lobel
History 407 - Professor Pascoe
Fall 2008
On a train car headed to Washington State in the year of 1910, the simultaneously
renowned, hated, and revered suffragist Abigail Scott Duniway was drawn into a chance
conversation with an old lady sitting next to her. Somehow, the topic of the prohibition of
alcohol was broached. The elderly Abigail Scott Duniway, never one to refuse a
controversial statement said "I believe we can protect ourselves from all the elements.
We are protected from this snow-storm, but we can't prohibit it. God has put it among
the elements of nature. There is only one Power that is capable ofprohibiting snow-
storms or alcohol, and He doesn't seem ready to act." The old lady, a proud supporter of
the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was highly offended, asked
Duniway, "do you mean to say that God is the author ofalcohol?" Duniway responded
in her usual fearless manner, "certainly! The Bible tells us that God makes everything."
After hearing this blasphemy, the old lady declared, "I don't want anything to do with
your kind of God!" and furiously stormed away. 1 This conversation, described in
Duniway's memoir, Path Breaking, encapsulates the palpable tension between the
prohibition and women's suffrage movements in Oregon, a result of their ideological
proximity during their conception in the late nineteenth century.
The prohibition ofalcohol and women's suffrage were topics at the core of'life in
the American West in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, inseparable in
their effect on one another. While there has been much research done as to what
propelled these movements, I am curious about how they were related. In my essay, I
will address the question as to how these individual movements intertwined with one
1 Abigail Scott Duniway. Path Breaking: An Autobiographical History ofthe Equal Suffrage
Movement in Pacific Coast States (James, Kerns & Abbott, 1914; reprint, New York: Schocken Books,
1971),99.
2another in Oregon. I will do this by first analyzing the rhetoric ofthe WCTU to
. illuminate this dedicated proponent of the women's suffrage and prohibition movements.
I will then examine the general public and organizations of Oregon to see how they, too,
considered suffrage and the prohibition of alcohol inseparable. Finally, I will look at the
activist Abigail Scott Duniway and the ways that her goal ofunquestioned women's
suffrage could not be separated from prohibition. The state ofOregon stands out as a
case study into the interrelationship and efficacy of the women's suffrage and prohibition
movements. There is a wealth ofwell-preserved activism intact to this day, exposing the
incredible ways that these two ideologies conflicted and cooperated in this Pacific
Northwest state. The women's suffrage and prohibition movements in Oregon presented
both a logical and paradoxical way of interacting, but in the final perspective were
intrinsically linked together through the people involved and their outspoken beliefs.
The route that I am taking on this paper requires the movements of the prohibition
and women's suffrage in Oregon to be dealt with together in regards to their effect on
each other, making this a unique take from a historiographic perspective. The work that
has been done on the women's suffrage movement mostly interprets the history in an
isolated perspective, such as the M.A. thesis, Woman Suffrage in Oregon by Martha
Frances Montague.2 Authors such as Jack S. Blocker Jr. in his article, "Separate Paths:
Suffragists and the Women's Temperance Crusade," and Suzanne M. Marilley in hers,
"Frances Willard and the Feminism ofFear," pursue their topics from a gender studies
2 Martha Frances Montague, Woman Suffrage in Oregon, Thesis M.A., University ofOregon
1930, Robert Carleton Clark Papers, Special Collections, Knight Library, University ofOregon, Eugene,
Oregon.
3perspective.3 Eileen McDonagh and H. Douglas Price show nationwide statistics on the
women's suffrage movement in their article, "Woman Suffrage in the Progressive Era:
Patterns of Opposition and Support in Referenda Voting, 1910-1918." Rebel/or Rights
by Ruth Barnes Moynihan provided the bulk of material on Abigail Scott Duniway in an
artful biography.4 Ann-Marie E. Szymanski's book, Pathways to Prohibition, contains
the most thoroughly detailed account of the prohibition movement that I have found. 5 It
chronicles the arising of the prohibition nationally, particularly focusing on the political
developments nationwide, though not at all focusing on the women's suffrage movement.
My work will be a combination of these fields of study in order to find correlations
between them with a focus on Oregon.
The WCTU epitomized the marriage of suffrage and prohibition ideals within the
goals of one nationwide organization. Its influence was felt significantly in the state of
Oregon. This organization's rise to prominence during the later half of the nineteenth
century traces the success and failure of women's suffrage and prohibition in American
history. The WCTU pioneered these ideals as the first major women-led political
organization.6 The national WCTU was formally founded in Noxember 1874 as an
offshoot of temperance movements in the Midwest of the United States. These
temperance crusaders, reacting to the evils of liquor in their households and communities,
3 Jack S. Blocker, Jr., "Separate Paths: Suffiagists and the Women's Temperance Crusade," Signs,
Vol. 10, No.3 (Spring, 1985); Suzanne M. Marilley, "Frances Willard and the Feminism of Fear," Feminist
Studies Vol. 19, No.1 (Spring, 1993).
4 Eileen L. McDonagh and H. Douglas Price, "Woman Suffiage in the Progressive Era: Patterns
ofOpposition and Support in Referenda Voting, 1910-1918," The American Political Science Review, Vol.
79, No.2 (June, 1985); Ruth Barnes Moynihan, Rebel/or Rights: Abigail Scott Duniway, (Connecticut:
Yale University Press, 1983).
5 Ann-Marie E. Szymanski, Pathways to Prohibition (London: Duke University Press, 2003).
6 Marilley, "Frances Willard," 123
4went to local saloons and kneeled outside, praying for the end of alcohol's grasp on
American society.7 The WCTU's path to national influence started out with a simple
credo, penned in 1879 by the organization's leader during its earlier years, Frances
Willard, "For God, for Home, for Native Land." 8 This motto showed the early goals and
future aspirations of this burgeoning movement.
The WCTU had its most profound roots amongst devout followers of the
Christian faith, fmding its adamant support in churches nationwide for the organization's
moral purity crusade.9 The heavily religious element ofthe organization expressed its
views through its staunch support of temperance. However, what the WCTU considered
temperance was something far greater than what many others at the time considered to be
so. Colloquial speaking oftemperance at the time was split between the radical
viewpoint of the WCTU and the moderate opinions of others. The moderate supporters
of temperance believed it should be a personal and non-intrusive restraint of the
consumption of liquor, while not necessarily eliminating intake altogether.1o On the other
end, far beyond simply regulating alcohol consumption to a non-excessive level, the
WCTU believed that complete temperance should extend to every individual, with
7 James A. Morone, Hellfire Nation (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2003), 289.
Further reference abb. as Morone, Hellfire Nation.
8 Marilley, "Frances Willard," 131.
9 Marilley, "Frances Willard," 135.
10 J.A. Homan, Prohibition, The Enemy o/Temperance (Cincinnati, Ohio: The Christian Liberty
Bureau, 1910),35. Further abbrev. as Homan, Enemy o/Temperance.
5everyone refusing the vice ofalcohol in their life at all times. ll Of course, the WCTU
knew all too well of those who called themselves pro-temperance, but imbibed within the
privacy oftheir homes. For the temperance crusaders to expect all to give up drinking of
their own prerogative, even those who did so casually, was simply unrealistic. The
WCTU was thus forced to consider governmental enforcement as the best course of
action to achieve nationwide temperance, so that "not one legalized door to HELL will be
opened with the saloon sign above its gaping mouth.,,12
Unfortunately for the WCTU's plans to eliminate liquor and liquor consumption,
women's participation in governance during the 1800s was severely restricted, without
the right to vote. At first, the WCTU did not wish to seek women's suffrage legislation
because it viewed the extension of suffrage to women as "contrary to true womanhood.,,13
It was not long before the WCTU, known for bull-headedly adhering to its principles,
changed its position on the right ofwomen to vote. The WCTU realized that the quickest
route towards moral purity and temperance would logically be for them, as the first major
women's political organization, to enfranchise themselves and other women, to vote.14
Through a nationally organized but locally independent set ofmovements, the WCTU set
about achieving women's suffrage so that the dream of the prohibition of alcohol could
be actualized.
11 Woman's Christian Temperance Union, President's Address I Oregon WeT. u. Convention,
speech by Lucia H.F. Additon in Eugene, OR, Oct 15, 1907 (Newberg, OR: Oregon WCTU, 1907).
Further abbrev. as WCTU, President's Address.
12 WCTU, President's Address, speech by Ada Wallace Unruh in Salem, OR, Oct. 11-14, 1910.
13Moynihan, Rebelfor Rights, 131.
14 Blocker, "Separate Paths," 475.
6The WCTU pursued an aggressive course of action that was full ofpowerful
symbolism to achieve its two primary goals of the prohibition of alcohol and women's
suffrage. The organization used the symbol of woman as the "Mother" to hearken
towards a kind of moral superiority of women over men. IS In its writings and speeches,
the WCTU continually used the mantra of "Home Protection!" as a rallying cry for
disenfranchised women throughout the country.I6 The organization also further combated
the notion of women as the weaker sex, and could thus be attributed to pioneering an
early budding of American feminist movements.
Frances Willard, the leader of the WCTU, often portrayed the man as the morally
degenerate drunkard and the woman as the hero, forced to shoulder the responsibility of
running a household.17 The power ofthe WCTU to enact legislation that could benefit
both women's suffrage and the prohibition was apparent in its single-minded
determination to see its goals through. Whether it be protecting a woman's home from
the injustice of a lecherous, drinking husband, or from the lack ofpolitical sway that
women felt during the late nineteenth century, the symbol of the Home was a powerful
one, especially for American women who were destitute in political sway.
The revolutionary aspect ofthe WCTU was its ability to enfranchise and mobilize
women, mostly middle and upper-class, into influential positions in United States society
to gain women's suffrage rights and reform of liquor laws. The WCTU did this by
relating its political goals with the everyday strife of women in the nineteenth century.
This gave each member of the organization her own motive for participation, such as
15 Marilley, "Frances Willard," 126.
16 Mariney, "Frances Willard," 125.
17 Marilley, "Frances Willard," 139.
7Elisabeth Eggert from Portland, Oregon who said "although I have but recently become a
member of the WCTU, I have been in lifelong sympathy with every measure for the
annihilation of the liquor traffic." Often, women such as Elisabeth, with personal animus
towards the atrocities they perceived in the liquor traffic had these ideas actualized not
through political or media programming, but through their own upbringing: "instilled in
me by a mother who prayed and worked for that end [prohibition], and a father wh? hated
it in all its hideous forms.,,18 Through its appeal to the experiences of women in the
1800s, a gravely underrepresented group of people in the politics and social life of
America, the WCTU's nationwide popularity grew.
The leverage that women gained on the issue ofprohibition and suffrage during
the late 1800s was undeniable: "It should be noted that [the WCTU] managed to persuade
over 250,000 men to vote for its national candidates at its peak (1886-92), while the
WCTU could only claim about 150,000 members in this period.,,19 The WCTU's success
atjumpstarting the prohibition and women's suffrage movements had been nothing short
of extraordinary, even before it began to establish itself in the Pacific Northwest state of
Oregon.
In the year of 1883, the by-then renowned members ofthe WCTU had finally
established a national chapter in Oregon and carved out an influential niche in the state's
realm of pioneer politics, bringing their intemperate passion for the temperance and
women's suffrage movements from the East. Even before the WCTU arrived in the
Pacific Northwest, the movements ofwomen's suffrage and the prohibition had long
18 Elisabeth Eggert to Abigail Scott Duniway, October 1, 1914, Box 1, Folder 28, Abigail Scott
Duniway Papers, 1834-1915, Special Collections, Knight Library, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon.
19 Szymanski, Pathways to Prohibition, 42.
8been inexorably drawn together. Once established in Oregon, the organization fought
hard to see its goals through in a multitude ofways, during its heyday ofprominence in
the late nineteenth century. The first Oregon chapter was led by Elisabeth A.P. White
who had '.'imbibed rigorous temperance views from her parents" and had been personally
appointed by Frances Willard to be the Representative of Oregon and the Vice President
of the greater WCTU organization?O
The WCTU implemented effective and highly opinionated programs at schools to
educate children and families about the dangers ofdrinking. Children received WCTU
regulated instruction in Sunday school and chanted proudly "Tremble, King Alcohol, for
we shall grow up.,,21 In a report by Mrs. Kern of the WCTU, she said to "let every
woman use her ballot at the school meetings to secure the election of school directors
who [enforce the] law relating to instruction regarding the effects ofalcohol on the
human system.,,22 The WCTU encouraged women to vote at school elections in order to
show their interest in political matters, thereby encouraging women's suffrage interest
and furthering the organization's political causes in education?3 By tying the suffrage
and prohibition movements together, the organization could often make gains on one
front by garnering more support for the other.
The WCTU's ultimate goal was to seek a constitutional amendment in order to
ban the traffic and consumption ofalcohol once and for all. This was not a goal that the
20 Lucia H. Faxon Additon, Twenty Eventful Years ofthe Oregon Woman's Christian Temperance
Union, 1880-1900. Statistical, Historical and Biographical. Portraits ofProminent Pioneer Workers
(Portland, OR: Gotshall Printing Company, 1904),87.
21 WCTU, President's Address, speech by Ada Wallace Unruh in Salem, OR, Oct. 11-14,1910.
22 Additon, 20 Eventful Years, 34.
23 Montague, WS in 0, 28.
9WCTU would immediately or ever fully reach, but it managed to secure local option laws
throughout many counties in Oregon and the rest of the United States, making specific
areas legally dry within their boundaries.24 By 1906, the list ofdry counties in Oregon
included Linn, Benton, Lincoln, Lane, Tillamook, Sherman, Yamhill and Wallowa.25
While the WCTU did not secure the right to vote for women in Oregon until 1912, it was
a tremendous influence in swaying votes more favorably towards the cause each election
year.26 Throughout the 1880s, the WCTU's participation in the political process was most
visible, with ample cooperation from the Oregon Woman Suffrage Association.27 But
most of all, its great success was giving women the voice that they had been deprived of
through all the years ofpolitical and domestic subjugation to the whims of men.
Once the WCTU swept the Northwest, the women's suffrage and temperance
movements came to be closely associated with one another, mostly because the
ratification of women's suffrage would almost certainly spell the imminent arrival of
prohibition with newly enfranchised women following the gospel of the WCTU. During
the late 1800s, women's suffrage and prohibition of alcohol inched seemingly closer
every year, yet never quite arrived.28 Would the arrival of the movements have come
earlier had they not been bred together under the watchful gaze of the WCTU? For better
or for worse in furthering the legitimacy of its goals, the WCTU was always clear as to
24 Szymanski, Pathways to Prohibition, 101.
25 WCTU, President's Address, speech by Lucia H.F. Additon, Newberg, OR, Oct. 1-4 1906,
26 Montague, WS in 0, 19.
27 Montague, WS in 0, 18.
28 Montague, WS in 0, 25-26.
10
the inseparable nature of prohibition and women's suffrage. The WCTU also managed to
simultaneously alienate many potential constituents who did not agree with its
assertions.29
In the late 1800s, the WCTU had created a vast empire in Oregon on a crusade to
purify the ethics ofhumanity by first attaining voting rights for women then using those
votes to sway the government towards a national prohibition.3o The question still remains
today as to whether the WCTU overstretched its efforts and credibility in melding these
two individual movements, women's suffrage and prohibition, into the body ofone
indivisible goal, along with the many other ideas it championed along its quest for
national purity. Through its underlying stubborn and disparaging nature, the organization
made many enemies who were as zealous as its supporters along the windy route towards
suffrage and prohibition.31 The WCTU was the original group to conceptualize women's
suffrage and the prohibition of alcohol as being mutually dependent, and it castigated
those who would say otherwise. However, the inherently controversial nature of the
WCTU made attempts to pass both women's suffrage and prohibition legislation not
nearly as expedient as hoped and eventually led to the organization's demise.
The WCTU adamantly preached that anyone who stood against the
enfranchisement of suffrage to women was morally abject by supporting "the marauding
hordes of the saloon" instead ofliberty for all.32 Very similarly, anybody who stood
against the prohibition ofalcohol, regardless of what reason they had for doing, was
29 WCTU, President's Address, speech by Lucia H.F. Additon in Eugene, OR, Oct 15th, 1907.
30 Montague, WS in 0, 26.
31 WCTU, President's Address, speech by Ada Wallace Unruh, Corvallis, OR, Sep. 23-26, 1913.
32 WCTU, President's Address, speech by Ada Wallace Unruh, Salem, OR, Oct. 11-14, 1910.
11
quickly to be chastised as being in the pocket of the liquor men, so responsible for the
downfall of Western morality. This polarized view showed how the nature of the WCTU
was divisive instead of cooperative with other people and groups. Was this controversial
nature and grouping of movements the best way to pursue its goals? The divisive nature
of the WCTU and the combination of women's suffrage and prohibition together
offended many who might otherwise have supported one movement or the other had they
been presented in a more isolated manner.
The general population of Oregon had vastly differing views on the state's
inherent mixture,of the women's suffrage and prohibition movements because of the
involvement of the WCTD. In a 1904 report by the WCTU, an interesting stone epitaph
was noted that read "died... a saloon... nagged to death by women.,,33 There was clearly
a line bitterly drawn in the sand between the sexes about prohibition, and women's
suffrage was to be the lynchpin in the argument. Abigail Scott Duniway, who will be
studied in greater depth later on, gave the most resonant statement regarding the WCTU's
use of women's suffrage to gain prohibition. Duniway claimed that "every woman who
says, 'Give us the ballot, and we'll put down your whiskey!' only arouses men to say by
their votes, 'Very well, we won't give you the ballot... if you are going to use it as a
whip over us.",34 Because women sought the vote from men, it could be viewed as a very
poor move for the women's suffrage supporters to align themselves with prohibition, a
cause that would be unpopular for a lot of the male voters ofAmerica.
33 Additon, 20 Eventful Years, 61.
34 Moore, Mary Alice and Donald E. Moore, More Power Than We Knew: The League o/Women
Voters in Oregon, 1920-1995, (Salem, OR: League of Women Voters ofOregon, 1995), II. Further
abbrev. as Moore/Moore, More Power.
12
Outspoken literature on the disadvantages of women's suffrage is very difficult to
find, but many individuals publicly balked at the idea of national prohibition. Rev l.A.
Homan saw it as an infringement on civil liberty in that "compulsory abstinence is
without any scriptural sanction, [while] gospel temperance, or the method of moral
suasion, has it in fullest measure.,,35 These people believed that self-control was the key
to health and happiness. Rev. l.A. Homan believed that "it will be universally conceded
that one of these laws ofNature is that every man may eat or drink whatever he pleases,"
and that "so long as he does not injure himself thereby, or interfere with rights of others"
he should be entitled to his God-given rights without government interference.36
Still, other men were incensed at the line that prohibition walked between the law
and enforcement of religious morality, which may have discouraged them from
supporting the related women's suffrage movement. One man named George Harrison
wrote a pamphlet in which he went so far as to call it an "idolatry of the grossest
character; that the ballot box is the God ofmillions of benighted Christians [sip] today,"
who through their vote for the moralizing agent of the prohibition "permitted the ballot
box to invade the spiritual spheres of their life.',37 The organization known as The Oregon
Taxpayers and Wage Earners' League, which identified itself as a "statewide temperance
(not prohibition) organization," stood against the WCTU's goal of broad-sweeping
prohibition because it feared losing the civil liberties of the individua1.38 It is interesting
35 Homan, Enemy ojTemperance, IX.
36 Homan, Enemy ojTemperance, XI.
37 "A Challenge to Discuss The Other Side of the Liquor Question," Box I, Folder 21,
A.S.D. Papers.
38 A definition of the Tax Taxpayers and Wage Earner's League, Box I, Folder 24,
A.S.D. Papers.
13
to note that these different factions, who all saw some underlying fallacy in the WCTU's
methods, make no mention of any opposition to women's suffrage. Instead, it is the
prohibition movement that gives us concrete evidence towards their opposition to the
WCTU's methods. It is clear though, that people could not make a judgment about one
movement without considering its effect on the passage of the other.
Due to the clear path leading from women's suffrage to prohibition, the people
who stood the most to lose by passing a women's suffrage law in Oregon were the liquor
manufacturers and saloon owners, pejoratively referred to as the "liquor men.,,39 As far as
the WCTU was concerned, these people were the true scourge of the nation who profited
from the sale of poison to the masses.40 During a break from doing some particularly
taxing work on this project, I opted for a drink of cream soda. Upon absent-mindedly
reading the label on the neck of the bottle of Henry Weinhard's Cream Soda, a company
that got its start in Hood River, Oregon in 1856, I came upon this product statement: "We
proudly present this classic American recipe... Originally introduced during prohibition,
[this soda] provided a refreshing alternative for our beer-drinking loyalists both during
and after the Ignoble Experiment of the early [twentieth] century." It is not all that
surprising that a company would be adverse to its product being taken away, as its
survival depended on the sale of this product. What was intriguing was to find that
Henry Weinhard's was against more than just the prohibition ofalcohol.
According to the front page of The Evening Telegram of June 1, 1906, which was
dedicated to heralding the upcoming June 4th election in which women's suffrage was
39 WCTU, President's Address, speech by Henrietta Brown in Portland, OR, Oct. 6-9, 1908.
40 WCTU, President's Address, speech by Ada Wallace Unruh in Salem, OR, Oct. 11-14, 1910.
14
thought likely to become a reality in Oregon; Henry Weinhard's brewing company was
listed in the column ofthose who were "Opponents of Progress," along with other local
breweries such as Star, North Pacific, Enterprise and Mt. Hood.41 The article contains an .
exhaustive list of those who opposed women's suffrage: "corporate interests, liquor
organizations, selfish society beings, indifferent people and unscrupulous politicians.,,42
Clearly, those who defended their business issues against prohibition were maligned by
women's suffrage reporters. Even more striking was how the brewers, saloon owners
and liquor retailers were forced to take a stand against women's suffrage in order to
defend their business interests from being outlawed. They did this by banding together
behind the Brewers' and Wholesale Liquor Dealers' Association located in Portland.
This organization reportedly cast votes to spoil Oregon women's suffrage legislation in
order to prevent further anti-liquor legislation.43
It was all too clear in the year 1906 that while many were not fond of the
relationship of women's suffrage and the prohibition, the movements were practically
running on ajoint ticket. The women's suffrage law lost by a more significant margin in
1906, of 10,000 votes, when it had much more publicity and optimism, than it had in the
quieter year of 1900, when it only lost by 2,000 votes.44 Could it have been the negativity
from the two movements being so closely associated with each other?
41 "Opponents ofProgress," The Evening Telegram, July 1, 1906, Box 1, Folder 3, A.S.D. Papers.
42 "Favorable/Opposed to Equal Suffrage," The Evening Telegram, July 1, 1906, Box 1, Folder 3,
A.S.D. Papers.
43 "A Dangerous and Degrading Combine," The Evening Telegram, July 1, 1906, Box 1, Folder 3,
A.S.D. Papers.
44 "What Defeated Woman Suffrage," The Oregonian, 1906, Box 1, Folder 3, A.S.D. Papers.
15
It is very possible that had the women's suffrage and the prohibition movements
been insulated from one another, they would not have been met with such derision in
certain circles. The militancy ofthe WCTU discouraged many from associating with
them throughout its existence, and in 1895 they were excluded from their previously held
positions in churches throughout Oregon, ironically eliminating the very grassroots
support that the WCTU had originally built upon.45 The organization lost the support of
churches by pushing ideals that were simply too radical for the more moderate Christian
attendees and many people found the WCTU's interpretation of the Christian faith as a
vehicle for political crusade grossly misconstrued.46
Yet for all the negative campaigning and mudslinging that the WCTU engaged in
through their long run in Oregon politics, it still brought passion and education to the
fields ofwomen's suffrage and the prohibition that may never have otherwise been
seen.
47 In contrast to those that were against women's suffrage or prohibition on the basis
ofthem being tied together, there were still many who supported them. For every one
with a "corporate interest" there was a ''wage earning woman." For every "selfish
society being" there was a "home guardian.,,48 Shortly before the 1906 election, George
Chamberlain, the governor of Oregon, gave a speech at the convention of the National
American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in Portland and related women's
suffrage to the archetype of the mother figure which had been propagated by Frances
45 Montague, WS in 0, 29.
46 Marilley, "Frances Willard," 132.
47 Moynihan, Rebel/or Rights, 142.
48 "Favorable/Opposed to Equal Suffrage,?' The Evening Telegram, July 1,1906, Box 1, Folder 3,
A.S.D. Papers.
16
Willard years earlier. In his speech, Chamberlain said that "it is strange that the mother
who is capable of caring for the welfare of a child in the home cannot do so in the
state.,,49 Many Oregonians attributed an innate morality to women and believed that it
should be brought to the political sphere.
Many who supported the WCTU and its crusade to achieve prohibition and
women's suffrage provided pragmatic reasons for doing so. The Anti-Saloon League, an
Ohio-based organization that was part of the second generation of temperance reformers,
published an annual book stating what changes and progress had been made on the
prohibition movement. While strongest in the Midwest, the league did find its way into
Oregon politics. The Anti-Saloon League had a penchant for crunching the liquor
problem down to economic numbers.50
In the Anti-Saloon League's 1912 year book, without so much as mentioning the
women's suffrage movement amongst its multitudes of statistics, it claims the total
amount ofmoney spent on alcoholic beverages in America in the census year of 1910 to
be $2,500,000,000.51 It implies that the huge drink bill that Americans put on their tab
each year should be used for more charitable and economically productive uses.52 These
calculations bring numbers to an otherwise primarily moralistic movement. The Anti-
Saloon League was a group made up of men, and as so, did not step on the feet of the
WCTU and its pursuit of women's suffrage. In this way it was perhaps the great
49 "Opinions ofOregonians," The Evening Telegram, July 1, 1906, Box 1, Folder 3, A.S.D.
Papers.
50 Cherrington, Ernest H. The Anti-Saloon League Year Book. Westerville, Ohio: The American
Issue Press, 1912, 153. Further abbrev. as Cherrington, ASL Year Book 1912.
51 Cherrington, ASL Year Book 1912,33.
52 Cherrington,ASL Year Book 1912,34.
17
exception to the interrelationship of women's suffrage and prohibition in Oregon, most
likely because of the Anti-Saloon League having such a strong base in Ohio which kept it
nationally unified, as opposed to such vast local disparity in hierarchy seen in the WCTU.
From the WCTU's arrival in Oregon in 1883 up to the passing of the prohibition
law in 1914, the organization strayed little from its original formula, regardless ofpublic
opinion. The WCTU's melding of the prohibition and women's suffrage was detestable
to many, such as the everything-in-moderation temperance supporters, The Oregon
Taxpayers and Wage Earners' League, those in the liquor brewing and retail industry and
many of those not associated with any organization. To others, such as the people who
I
were sympathetic to one or the other cause, and not averse to them combined, the WCTU
was either a salvation or, at the worst, a novel and outdated complement to their views.
There was a third major viewpoint on the issue of women's suffrage and prohibition, and
that was illustrated by Abigail Scott Duniway.
The controversial figure Abigail Scott Duniway was a, if not the, forerunner of
the women's suffrage movement in Oregon, and a constant thorn in the side of
prohibition agitators. Despite her success and determination in achieving women's
suffrage throughout her long life, she would struggle with the blueprint that the WCTU
laid out in Oregon that made the movements fundamentally inseparable in Oregon's
consciousness. Abigail Scott Duniway, whose maiden name was Abigail Jane Scott, was
born in the sparsely populated Tazewell County, Illinois on October 22, 1834. She
immigrated to Oregon with her family on the infamous Oregon Trail in 1852, in that
classic American search for prosperity in the West. Once in Oregon, Abigail married a
18
man named Ben Duniway and entered a very formative period in her life.53 She settled
down with her husband on a farm in Yamhill County.54
During her time in Yamhill, Abigail Scott Duniway began to develop her ideas on
women's rights and suffrage. Her life on the farm was filled with great adversity; she
admitted that "my labors on that farm became an added burden as our resources grew.,,55
These hardships culminated with the farm being sold, and her husband being grievously
wounded and incapacitated in an accident. Duniway started a millinery business and
soon became interested in equal rights for women, becoming involved in the early stages
of the Oregon Equal Suffrage Association during the 1870's. This was in part due to her
highly motivated personality but also because of the tough circumstances she grew up in
and similar ones that she saw so many other women silently accept. In 1870, she started
the higWy influential newspaper, The New Northwest, dedicated to increasing awareness
of the women's suffrage movement. Duniway received great amounts of help from her
brother, Harvey Scott, in founding the publication and refining her journalistic skills.
One ofher greatest achievements was organizing the State Equal Suffrage Association
under the tutelage and aide of renowned activist Susan B. Anthony.56 By the 1870s,
Duniway's importance in the realm of the women's suffrage movement in Oregon was
already sealed, but would by no means end there.
Abigail Scott Duniway's work with the women's suffrage movement was coupled
with a lifelong obsession with civil liberties. Never one to rest on her laurels, she became
53 Moynihan, Rebel/or Rights, 1,30,53.
54 Duniway, Path Breaking, 10.
55 Duniway, Path Breaking, 13.
S6 Duniway, Path Breaking, 15-16,28,30,40,42,57.
19
aware of a movement that she saw as an affront to her personal beliefs: the prohibition of
alcohol. Though she had grown up pro-temperance, she felt that government-mandated
prohibition was tyrannical. Instead, she believed that prohibition was something to be
sought as a personal moral goal, much like the moderate temperance reformers
believed.57 Duniway related her views on temperance to her youth, saying "I had become
interested in the temperance question in childhood," and she believed that "intemperance
is a disease and should be treated as such" like any other ailment to strike humanity. 58
She believed, based upon her pioneer upbringing, that everybody was responsible for
themselves.
The WCTU's arrival in Oregon, and subsequent adoption of the women's suffrage
movement with its prohibition goals set off sparks in the fiery Duniway, who had already
had some high-profile scuffles with church affiliated organizations, such as calling their
institutionalized beliefs "puffed up churchanity." Duniway's one solid praise of the
WCTU was for its early leader, Frances Willard, who she believed had some grit to her
through her ardent support of women's suffrage.59 Duniway realized that with the
organization's influence came prohibition. No matter how comfortable she got with the
WCTU, she would disagree on this key point which was by then well tied in with the
women's suffrage cause in Oregon.
During the WCTU's growth in Oregon during the late 1870s and 1880s, Abigail
Scott Duniway strove with all her might to pry her women's suffrage movement apart
57 Moynihan, Rebel/or Rights, 143.
58 Duniway, Path Breaking, 62.
59 Moynihan, Rebel/or Rights, 132, 142.
20
from the prohibition. While she held many preconceived notions on the potential
disasters of a government-mandated temperance reform, she felt the greatest affront was
that the WCTU betrayed the women's suffrage movement by tying the two together. She
didn't want women's suffrage to be ''the tail of the prohibition kite," or in other words,
the means to an end.60 She sincerely believed that women's suffrage was a cause that
was so fundamental to American liberty that to muddle it with another issue like
prohibition as the WCTU did, was pure lunacy.
Duniway's opposition to prohibition on the basis of her belief in freedom and
self-responsibility explained her frustration at prohibition's newfound relationship with
women's suffrage. Her view on how the two matters should see legislation was vastly
different than the WCTU's. As she explained, "I will say, that I am opposed to two kinds
ofprohibition," already differing from the WCTU's one type ofprohibition. She
explained the two types ofprohibition as she saw it: "One of these would prohibit woman
from the use ofher right to vote" while the other "would prohibit a man's right to sell a
sober man a drink ofliquor if he should want to buy.,,61 She looked at both issues in
terms of their effects on civil liberty. For one to be anti-women's suffrage was to negate
a fundamental right as an American, and for one to be pro-prohibition was to do the
same: restrict freedom. In her mind, the WCTU sought women's suffrage not to increase
freedom, but to decrease it through prohibition legislation.
Due to the harsh ideological divide between Duniway and the WCTU, their
arguments were legendary during their time and added both energy and lethargy to the
women's suffrage and prohibition movements. Oftentimes, these episodes would play
60 Moynihan, Rebelfor Rights, 14l.
61 Duniway, Path Breaking, 100.
21
..
out with Abigail Scott Duniway standing up for her beliefs, calling the WCTU women a
variety of derogatory terms.62 She did this against an equally stubborn and immovable
force that happened to possess national influence. For her refusal to support prohibition,
the WCTU took the route most often taken against the enemies of its goals, accusing her
of being under control of the liquor men "in the way [she was] permitting [her] influence
to be exploited for the benefit of this appalling source ofmisery and crime.,,63
The truly intriguing part of the life of Abigail Scott Duniway was how she was in
nobody's pocket regarding her views on prohibition and women's suffrage. She would
fight her entire adult life from the time the WCTU arrived in Oregon until her death, to
see the women's suffrage movement separated from the prohibition movement.64 By the
1880s, having still not passed any considerable legislation for women's suffrage in
Oregon, Duniway was distraught. She decided to go on a sabbatical to Idaho to pursue
other work and calm down from the heated exchanges with the WCTU, during which
little activity occurred in the realm of women's suffrage.65
After being drawn back into Oregon in 1894, Abigial Scott Duniway found a
women's suffrage movement in disarray. Both Duniway and the WCTU continued along
their same paths, albeit with considerably less tension after having had several years to
mend and forget their differences.66 In the final perspective, the WCTU wanted to use
62 Moynihan, Rebelfor Rights, 184.
63 Elisabeth Eggert to Abigail Scott Duniway, October 1, 1914, Box 1, Folder 28, A.S.D. Papers.
64 Duniway, Path Breaking, 204.
65 Duniway, Path Breaking, 130; Montague, WS in 0, 26.
66 Montague, WS in 0, 26.
,-------._--
22
women's suffrage as a tool to achieve the prohibition of alcohol. Abigail Scott Duniway
believed that women's suffrage was an inalienable right that should set a precedent for
freedom in America and should be respected for its own sake, without the burden of other
Issues.
Fortunately for the women's suffrage movement, there was enough begrudging
acceptance of the prohibition cause that it did not deter suffrage's eventual passing. In
spite of the many opponents of the movements, enough men sympathetic to the cause
flocked to the polls and finally passed a referendum giving full suffrage to women in
1912, ahead of the vast majority of states in the Union. Not long after the
enfranchisement ofwomen, statewide prohibition was passed in Oregon in 1914,
confirming the evidence towards their fundamentallinkage.67 Abigail Scott Duniway
lived to the age of81 and not long before her passing on, she was able to see her life's
joy and disappointment, respectively, through the passage of the inseparable women's
suffrage and prohibition movements in Oregon.68
The underlying tension between those who favored the blending ofwomen's
suffrage and the prohibition, and those who wanted to separate them created a unique
environment in Oregon that was particularly suJted towards their achievement. Each
faction fought with all their might to see their ideas through and the opposing group's
dismissed. The words written by people during this formative period in American
history, along with the two-year difference between the passing ofwomen's suffrage and
the passing of the prohibition, proves the ultimately inseparable nature ofthe two
movements.
67 McDonaghlPrice, "WS in Prog Era," 417.
68 Moynihan, Rebel/or Rights, 218.
23
Selected Bibliography
Primary Sources
Additon, Lucia H. Faxon. Twenty Eventful Years ofthe Oregon Woman's Christian
Temperance Union, 1880-1900. Statistical, Historical and Biographical. Portraits of
Prominent Pioneer Workers. Portland, OR: Gotshall Printing Company, 1904.
University of Oregon Special Collections, Knight Library, Eugene, Oregon.
Cherrington, Ernest H. The Anti-Saloon League Year Book. Westerville, Ohio: The
American Issue Press, 1912.
Abigail Scott Duniway Papers, 1834-1915. University of Oregon Special Collections,
Knight Library, Eugene, Oregon.
Duniway, Abigail Scott. Path Breaking: An Autobiographical History ofthe Equal
Suffrage Movement in Pacific Coast States. James, Kerns & Abbott, 1914; reprint, New
York: Schocken Books, 1971.
Homan~ J.A. Prohibition, The Enemy ofTemperance. Cincinnati, Ohio: The Christian
Liberty Bureau, 1910.
Woman's Christian Temperance Union. President's Address / Oregon W C. T. U.
Convention. Newberg, OR: Oregon WCTU, 1907. University of Oregon Special
Collections, Knight Library, Eugene, Oregon.
Secondary Sources
Blocker, Jr., Jack S. "Separate Paths: Suffragists and the Women's Temperance
Crusade." Signs, Vol. 10, No.3 (Spring, 1985) pp. 460-476.
Marilley, Suzanne M. "Frances Willard and the Feminism ofFear." Feminist Studies
Vol. 19, No.1 (Spring, 1993) pp. 123-146.
McDonagh, Eileen L. and H. Douglas Price. "Woman Suffrage in the Progressive Era,
Patterns of Opposition and Support in Referenda Voting, 1910-1918." The American
Political Science Review, Vol. 79, No.2 (Jun., 1985), pp. 415-435.
Montague, Martha Frances. The Woman Suffrage Movement in Oregon. Thesis, M.A.
(University of Oregon), 1930.
24
Moore, Mary Alice and Donald E. Moore. More Power Than We Knew: The League of
Women Voters in Oregon, 1920-1995. Salem, OR: League of Women Voters of Oregon,
1995.
Morone, James A. Hellfire Nation. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press,
2003.
Moynihan, Ruth Barnes. Rebelfor Rights: Abigail Scott Duniway. Connecticut: Yale
University Press, 1983
Szymanski, Ann-Marie E. Pathways to Prohibition. London: Duke University Press,
2003.