Harry T. Burn

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Information from Nigh Onto Heaven by Effie Lones. Used with permission.

Harry T. Burn, Sr. (November 12, 1895 - February 19, 1977), from the small East Tennessee town of Niota, had been elected as State Representative for McMinn County. He was the youngest member of the Legislature, being only 22 years of age when elected.

The Nineteenth Amendment, Woman Suffrage, had been passed by Congress but had to be ratified by thirty-six of the forty-eight states before it could become a law. Thirty-five states had ratified it and in the summer of 1920. Four states were asked to call special sessions and vote on the issue. Three of the states refused to call special sessions, but Tennessee agreed to do so. This session was called to meet in August 1920.

Mr. Burn had planned to vote "nay" but a letter from his mother, Febb Ensminger Burn asking him to vote "aye" changed his mind. After much debating and arguments the vote was 48-48, his vote broke the tie. He asked to speak to the House the next day and told them he changed his vote because his mother asked him to and he had been taught that "a good boy always does what his mother asks him to do."

Mrs. J. L. Burn (Febb Ensminger) of Niota, Tennessee, had written a long letter to her son, excerpts below, and he had it in his pocked on August 18, 1920:

Dear Son:

Hurrah and vote for suffrage! Don't keep them in doubt! I notice some of the speeches against. They were bitter. I have been watching to see how you stood, but have not noticed anything yet. Don't forget to be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt (Carrie Chapman Catt) put the "rat" in ratification.

Your mother

[edit] A brief recap of the woman suffrage movement

Votes for women would not be seriously proposed in the United States until July, 1848, at the Seneca Falls Woman's Rights Convention organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. One woman who attended that convention was Charlotte Woodward. She was nineteen at the time. In 1920, when women finally won the vote throughout the nation, Charlotte Woodward was the only participant in the 1848 Convention who was still alive to cast her vote. ninety-one years old, she cast her vote proudly.

Alice Paul and the National Women's Party began using more activist tactics such as picketing the White House, staging large suffrage marches and demonstrations, and even going to jail to work for a federal suffrage amendment to the Constitution. In 1913, Paul led a march of eight thousand participants on President Woodrow Wilson's inauguration day. There were half a million spectators, and two hundred were injured in the resulting violence. During Wilson's second inauguration in 1917, Paul led a march around the White House.

Opposed by a well-organized and well-funded anti-suffrage movement which argued that most women really did not desire suffrage, and they were unqualified to exercise it anyway, women had to use many tactics. During World War I, women took up jobs in factories to support the war. Women additionally performed a more active role than in previous wars. After the war, even the more restrained National American Woman Suffrage Association, headed by Carrie Chapman Catt, took many opportunities to remind the President, and the Congress, that women's work for the war should be rewarded with recognition of their political equality. Wilson responded by beginning to support women’s suffrage. In a speech on September 18, 1918, he said:

We have made partners of the women in this war. Shall we admit them only to a partnership of suffering and sacrifice and toil and not to a partnership of right?

Less than a year later, the House of Representatives passed, in a 304 to 90 vote, a proposed Amendment to the Constitution, originally drafted by Susan B. Anthony in 1875.

Section 1:The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any States on Account of sex.

Section 2: The Congress shall have the power by appropriate legislation to enforce the provisions of this article.

On June 4, 1919, the United States Senate also endorsed the Amendment, voting 56 to 25, and sending the amendment to the states.

Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan were the first states to pass the law; Georgia and Alabama rushed to pass rejections. The anti-suffrage forces, which included both men and women, were well organized, and passage of the amendment was no easy task. When thirty-five of the necessary thirty-six states had ratified the amendment, the battle came to Nashville, Tennessee. Anti-suffrage and pro-suffrage forces from around the nation descended on the town. On August 18, 1920, the final vote was scheduled.

Women from all classes in Tennessee had traveled to Nashville along with reporters from every end of the nation. Carrie Chapman Catt, herself, was in attendance, wearing a yellow rose upon her breast, the symbol of the suffragists. The hot and humid day was wilting the already despondent suffragists who were lamenting the two or three defectors from their position. The abundance of red roses, the symbol of the anti-suffragists, upon the lapels of the legislators only served to cause a greater disheartening.

Several were tardy in taking their seats, as routine business was undertaken. With that out of the way, the suffrage amendment was brought to the floor. “Everyone seemed to awaken from a kind of stupor and the battle was on.” After a brief debate, the speaker started roll call. At the end of roll call, a stalemated vote stood at 48 to 48. Charges of a miscount immediately ensued. Pandemonium broke loose, with some declaring the tie made the motion lost, senators took to the aisles and ignored the commands of the sergeant-at-arms.

With order restored, Clerk John Green was asked to repeat the procedure in order to verify the vote. The roll call once again showed a tie, 48 to 48. The legislators squared off for a third roll call. It was this time around, that Harry T. Burn, a representative from the small town of Niota, Tennessee, in McMinn County, betrayed the red rose on his chest and vote a resounding, “Aye” in favor of the ratification. Clerk Green continued the roll call until he reached representative Banks Turner who offered no response, visibly at battle with himself. Clerk Green continued, until he reached the end of the roll. At this time Representative Turner stood, and proceeded to declare his support. Before the resulting vote could be announced, Speaker Walker, who had voted no, arose and said that he wished to reverse his vote. This made the vote 50 to 46, an exact constitutional majority.

Sources conflict on what happened after the vote was cast in favor of the amendment. However, the most interesting claim is that his outraged opponents to the bill began chasing Representative Burn around the room. In order to escape the angry mob, Burn climbed out one of the third-floor windows of the Capitol. Making his way along a ledge, he was able to save himself by hiding in the Capitol attic. However, this report is unfounded in the other sources, which make no mention of such an event. It is untrue.

The suffragists broke loose with celebration, despite the fact that the legislators had decided to reconsider the motion the next day. In fact, the actual ratification would not become official until August 24, 1920, nearly a week after the initial vote. However, action upon a resolution affecting a federal amendment is final and cannot be reconsidered. Forces against ratification still left no stone unturned in an attempt to defeat the resolution in the following days. All of their tactics failed, nonetheless.

One reporter stated, “The name of Tennessee is upon the lips of millions today,” in response to the suffrage decision. Many other officials had earnestly attempted to make their state the crucial thirty-sixth state to ratify the amendment. Governor Townsend of Delaware called special session of the Legislature to act upon the amendment, but action by the House was delayed in that state. In the meantime, the Louisiana Legislature met but was unable to rally enough support. So hard was the push to ratify the amendment in this state that President Wilson pleaded with Governor Parker to recommend ratification, but he declined to take such action.

It is because of these failures, that all eyes fell to Tennessee. In order to make the amendment a reality, the drive made by suffrage proponents was intense. They greatly desired to have the amendment made effective in time for the women of the country to vote in the upcoming presidential election in November. The encouraging forces of President Wilson, Governor Cox, and the leaders of the Democratic Party swayed a large portion of the Democratic vote, while pleadings from Harding and the Republican Party worked to have their party support ratification as well. Knowing that ratification was a key issue, both parties were aware of the importance of the support of future women voters. It was by chance, good fortune, and some motherly advice, that Tennessee gained the honor of being the decisive state in the ratification process.

The vote was especially key in Governor Cox’s Presidential campaign. The Democratic Party felt that the female vote might be the very thing to turn victory his way in November, a prediction that would ultimately fail when Harding captured victory in the Presidential election. Additionally, immediate debate broke out over poll taxes, land ownership, and what laws would have to be rewritten, revised, or abolished in the process of accommodating women voters.

Suffragists and newspapers alike heralded Harry T. Burn, the youngest member of the governing body at 24 years of age, as the ”man who gave 27,000,000 women of America their complete political freedom.” The Republican representative, an employee of Southern Railroad and ice president of the Bank of Niota, was also vice president of a textile mill in Niota. The reasons behind his change of heart, and vote, only served to strengthen the impeachable quality of his business integrity and moral character among his fellow citizens.

Burn’s motivation for the change in vote is best described in his own words. “ I know that a mother’s advice is always safest for her boy to follow, and that my mother wanted me to vote for ratification.” A Long letter from his mother, received during the deadlock, had several simple messages: “Vote for suffrage and don’t keep them in doubt. Don’t forget to be a good boy, and help Mrs. Catt put the ‘Rat’ in ratification.” It was this that swayed Rep. Burn to the other side of the issue. Though wearing a red rose, and going against many of his constituents, his mother’s pleas won out. He made good on earlier promises to suffragists that, if necessary for victory, he would give his support to the amendment.

Suffrage opponents quickly stepped up to level accusations against Representative Burn. Some claimed that he accepted a bribe from Jon Hanover in the presence of Mrs. Leslie Warner, Senator Copenhaver, Major Daughtry, and a number of strangers present in the committee rooms and on the floor of the house. The alleged transaction was said to have taken place during the intermission between the second and third votes. However, due to Mr. Burn’s quality of character and the lack of testimony from any credible witnesses, the allegations soon faded.

On that sultry day in Middle Tennessee, the battle that ensued was very much a microcosm for the feelings of the South about the issue of suffrage. Arkansas, Kentucky, and West Virginia had already ratified the amendment. However, both Alabama and Georgia passed resolutions against adding the thirty-six words to the Constitution. Reactions from other southern states were mixed, most favoring the side of the anti-suffragists. The tie vote, the hair-pin decisions, and the deeply seeded feelings about the issue were all played out in Nashville as a symbol of the battle among the states of the South over a woman’s right to vote.

Consequently, the decision in Tennessee would be in the press for months to come. The culmination of three centuries of hard work, American women made the United States the 22nd nation to offer women the right to vote.

[edit] Sources

• “Battle Began For Suffrage Many Years Ago.” The Nashville Tennessean. 19 August 1920. Vol. 14: No. 100

See Also: Frost-Knappman, Elizabeth, and Kathryn Cullen-DuPont. Women's Suffrage in America : An Eyewitness History. New York: Facts on File, 1992.

• Lewis, Jone Johnson. “The Long Road to Suffrage.” About: The Human Internet. [1] (8 April 2001.)
• Frost-Knappman, Elizabeth, and Kathryn Cullen-DuPont. Women's Suffrage in America: An Eyewitness History. New York: Facts on File, 1992.
• “Suffrage Amendment Adopted by House.” The Nashville Tennessean. 19 August 1920. Vol. 14: No. 100
• “Tennessee Ratifies Amendment Giving Women of U.S. Vote.” The Commercial Appeal. 19 August 1920. Vol. 104: No. 50.
• Hiers, Cheryl. “The Nineteenth Amendment and the War of the Roses.” BlueShoe Nashville Guide. [2] (8 August 2001).
• “Decisive Action Taken Today in Suffrage Battle.” The Nashville Tennessean. 21 August 1920. Vol. 14: No. 102
• “Battle Began For Suffrage Many Years Ago.” The Nashville Tennessean. 19 August 1920. Vol. 14: No. 100
• Frost-Knappman, Elizabeth, and Kathryn Cullen-DuPont. Women's Suffrage in America: An Eyewitness History. New York: Facts on File, 1992.
• “New Election Laws May Be Necessary.” The Nashville Tennessean. 19 August 1920. Vol. 14: No. 100
• “The Case of Harry T. Burn.” The Nashville Tennessean. 21 August 1920. Vol. 14: No. 102
• “Word From Mother Won For Suffrage.” The Nashville Tennessean. 20 August 1920. Vol. 14: No. 101
• See Also: “Burn Changed vote on Advice of His Mother.” The Commercial Appeal. 20 August 1920. pp. 1
• Frost-Knappman, Elizabeth, and Kathryn Cullen-DuPont. Women's Suffrage in America : An Eyewitness History. New York: Facts on File, 1992.