Keynote Address / page 8

Carrie Chapman Catt
categories: Keynote Address, Speeches
The Outlook (Boston Festival) - May 10, 1905
May 10, 1905
In this speech, Catt chastised Western states for the perceived hypocrisy of rebuking woman suffrage while also touting a liberal society. Upon occasions like this, one is expected to express only the thoughts which are gay, optimistic and joyous. I confess that I like that kind of speech at a social gathering, yet my mood bids me talk of more serious things tonight. Within the past eight months, thirty-five of our forty eight states have held legislative sessions. The proceedure of each legislature has now passed into history. These records […]
Carrie Chapman Catt
categories: Keynote Address, Speeches
Presidential Address to NAWSA - March 19, 1903
March 19, 1903
This speech was given on March 19, 1903 by President Carrie Chapman Catt at the National American Woman Suffrage Association Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana. In it, Catt made the case for woman suffrage, gave an update on the Association's activities, and described the current political climate. This first paragraph was crossed out in Catt’s draft of the speech. Our delegates at least know that it has been one of my cardinal principles that a President should come before the Annual Meeting with a carefully prepared address, but I have […]
Kamala Harris
categories: Keynote Address, Speeches
Remarks at 2017 Madeleine K. Albright Lunch - May 2, 2017
May 2, 2017
People have been asking me, as a newly elected senator, "Are you having fun?" And I wouldn't exactly describe it that way, but I will tell you one of the things that I'm very sad about is that I did not have the honor and pleasure of serving with Senator Barbara Mikulski at the time that she was such a fierce fighter and leader in the United States Senate. [applause] And she's so extraordinary, as we all know from her years of service and just her presence. There is an […]
Carrie Chapman Catt
categories: Keynote Address, Speeches
War or Peace? - Nov. 12, 1923
November 12, 1923
I have long believed that when peace really comes to the world, that the Jewish people, men and women, are going to have a tremendous place in that great movement. It is because I believe that so sincerely that I am pleased that l may have the opportunity of addressing the Council of Jewish Women, tonight. I want to talk about the great question as it stands before us, today. The gravest question in all the world is, How may we attain and how may we maintain peace? I say […]
Jane Addams
categories: Keynote Address, Speeches
A Modern Lear - 3 September 1895
September 3, 1895
This speech was first delivered in 1895 at the Social Economics Conference in Chicago, IL, but was delivered many times from 1895 to 1897. It was eventually published as a magazine article in 1912. Those of us who lived in Chicago during the summer of 1894 were confronted by a drama which epitomized and, at the same time, challenged the code of social ethics under which we live, for a quick series of unusual events had dispelled the good nature which in happier times envelopes the ugliness of the industrial […]
Carrie Chapman Catt
categories: Keynote Address, Speeches
The Nation Calls - March 24, 1919
March 24, 1919
Catt's presidential address at the National American Woman Suffrage Association Convention in 1919. Every suffragist will hope for a fitting commemoration of this 50th Anniversary of our national organization and the Golden Jubilee of the first grant of full suffrage to women. She will hope for a memorial dedicated to the memory of our brave departed leaders, to the sacrifices they made for our cause, to the scores of victories won. She will not be content with resolutions of self congratulation; with speeches of tribute; nor will any suffragist propose […]
Carrie Chapman Catt
categories: Keynote Address, Speeches
Presidential Address to NAWSA - Feb. 11, 1904
February 11, 1904
Delivered at the 36th Annual Convention of the National American Women Suffrage Association in Washington, D.C. When the American Republic was new, and manhood suffrage represented a unique experience in the history of governments, Lord Macauley exclaimed in the confidence of deep conviction: "America will not live long. Whenever a government puts the ballot in the hands of her promiscuous citizens as America has done, it will not be long ere some Caesar or Napoleon among them will seize the reins of government and the republic become a monarchy." He […]
Carrie Chapman Catt
categories: Keynote Address, Speeches
Presidential Address at the 6th IWSA Convention: Is Woman Suffrage Progressing? - June 13, 1911
June 13, 1911
Presidential address by Catt to the Sixth Convention of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance. Published by the International Woman Suffrage Association. In the debate upon the Woman Suffrage Bill in the Swedish Parliament, a few weeks ago, a University Professor said, in a tone of eloquent finality: "The Woman Suffrage movement has reached and passed its climax; the suffrage wave is now rapidly receding." To those who heard the tone of voice and saw the manner with which he spoke, there was no room for doubt that he believed what […]
Carrie Chapman Catt
categories: Keynote Address, Speeches
Presidential Address at the IWSA Congress in Amsterdam - June 15, 1908
June 15, 1908
Catt's address as president of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance at the Congress in Amsterdam, June 15, 1908. It is a suggestive coincidence that the opening day of this Congress commemorates the anniversary of the signing of the Immortal Magna Charta. That event stands out distinctly against the background of seven centuries, as one of the most important in the history of man. The historian Green says of it: "The Great Charter marks the transition from the age of traditional rights to the age of written legislation, of Parliaments and […]
Carrie Chapman Catt
categories: Keynote Address, Speeches
Then and Now - Jan. 9, 1939
January 9, 1939
This speech was delivered by Catt at the celebration of her eightieth birthday, held at the Hotel Astor in New York City and sponsored by the Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission in cooperation with the National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War. In a neat little house in the quiet town of Ripon, Wisconsin there lived a family named Lane in 1859. There, at 2 o'clock in the morning of January 9th, a new baby arrived, looking and acting like a million other babies born on the same day. […]