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The Galveson Equal Suffrage Association (TERA)

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The TERA ended unofficially in 1895 when the organization had already faced a crisis of leadership and then dwindling funds. By 1896 the TERA had ceased to function completely. The organization was only in existence for 3 years, but in that time it accomplished what some of the organizations to follow would not be able to. The TERA had a statewide membership, although it remained small, with auxiliaries in cities like Beaumont and San Antonio, and had organized a convention that drew hundreds of visitors in Ft. Worth. The TERA defied Governor Hogg and brought suffrage to Texas. The organization was also well publicized and was often featured in newspapers from Dallas, Austin, Houston, and Galveston. The members of the organization often followed …show more content…

She led the group for a year, until April 1914 when Annette Finnegan who had returned to Texas was re-elected president of the organization. Finnegan gave a speech upon her reelection in 1914 in Galveston, with many members of the TWSA and a member of the Galveston Equal Suffrage Association, Minnie Fisher Cunningham. Finnegan and many men and women gathered at the corner of 25th Street and Broadway in Galveston, Texas on the 4th of July 1914. After a series of introductions, the last of which by the president of the GESA, Mrs. Cunningham, Finnegan took the main stage. Finnegan protested the current conditions of women in the United States. She stated, “There is no real democracy in America and there will never be so long as women are denied the protector of all rights, the right of the ballot.” Finnegan’s speech took a stark opposition to denying women the right to vote, but in a softer and more general tone than the TERA before her had taken. In a similar way, the TESA’s rhetoric was more toned down that the rhetoric of the TERA. Instead of claiming that women had a God-given right to vote and that all men were created equal as Hayes and other TERA members had in the past, Finnegan and TESA members maintained that women should purify politics with their vote, and clean up their …show more content…

While the TERA did not shy away from grand statements referring to the Constitution about all men being made equal, or recalling the Declaration of Independence to claim taxation without representation, the TESA maintained a more culturally acceptable tone for women in many of their public statements. The TESA would circulate flyers with language that encouraged wives to support their husbands in all areas of life, and encourage men to support their wives in achieving the vote. Many messages focused on the idea of wives and mothers being helpful in the community, and therefore being a force for good in politics. However, you can see some of the language originally used by the TERA in some TESA language. In 1917, the TESA wrote a call to the seventh annual suffrage convention, and urged President Wilson to pass suffrage for women. In the document the women echoed the tone of the TESA when they reminded President Wilson that the government only gets its power from the consent of the governed. The women stated that in this time of war, women were needed in politics, and to be included in the vote more than ever. “…The undying truth that there is no more important duty before America than the enfranchisement of her women, and particularly now when she goes forth to do battle in the sacred name of liberty.” These carefully crafted statements deviate from the traditional rhetoric, and recall

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