Letter to the Honorable Edwin Webb from Mary Stevens

Some women fought for decades—as many as 50 years—for their right to vote. Mary O. Stevens, a former Civil War nurse, sent this letter to Rep. Edwin Webb, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which held hearings on women's suffrage prior to the creation of the Woman Suffrage Committee in 1917. Stevens wrote: "I have given my help to the agitation...a good many years. It seems as if the time was come for this great act of justice."

Transcript

[image of Army Nurse medal]

[handwritten] Series of 1915-16.
Officers now.

Secretary & Press Correspondent Mary O. Stevens, Peabody, Mass.
President Alice C. Risley, Jefferson City, Mo.
Treasurer Salome M. Stewart, Gettysburg, Pa.
Senior Vice President Mary E. Squire, Sheboygan, Wis.
Counselor Rebecca L. Price, Lancaster, Pa.
Color Bearer Nannie M. Cochran, Troy, N.Y.
Junior Vice President Susanna Krips, Philadelphia, Pa
Conductor Matilda C. Morris, Cleveland, Ohio
Custodian of Brooches Clarissa F. Dye, Germantown, Pa
Chaplain Emily Alder, Clarion, Iowa
Guard Margaret Hamilton, Wakefield, Mass.
Judge Advocate General George B. Loud, New York City.

NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
Association of Army Nurses of the Civil War
1861 -- 1865
Office of the Secretary & Press Correspondent, [Handwritten] of last year.
Peabody, Mass., May 1, 1917

Hon. Edwin Y. Webb.
Chairman Judiciary Com.
U.S. House of Representatives:

Dear Sir,
It seems to me right to ask you to help the cause of Woman Suffrage just now at this session of Congress by an immediate and favorable report on the Federal Suffrage Amendment Bill.
My father trained me in my childhood days to expect this right. I have given my help to the agitation and work for its coming a good many years. It seems as if the time was come for this great act of justice and that this Congress doing most needed things for the whole world ought not to overlook the appeal of the women of our land.

Yours most sincerely,

Mary O. Stevens