Weekly Historical Highlights (January 7 through 13)
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January 8, 1918
Standing at the Clerk’s desk on the rostrum in a crowded House Chamber, President Woodrow Wilson delivered an address outlining his vision for a program for world peace to a Joint Session of Congress in 1918. President Wilson’s bold and idealistic annunciation of his “Fourteen Points,” formed the basis of a formula to end World War I and to create a postwar League of Nations to enforce the peace. In one of the monumental power struggles between the executive and legislative branches in American history, Wilson’s efforts to guarantee American participation in the League of Nations failed in late 1919.
January 10, 1918
On this day, in the midst of World War I, the House passed a constitutional amendment granting women the right to vote by a count of 274 to 136. Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana who, a year earlier, had become the first woman to serve in Congress, implored her colleagues to support the legislation: “How shall we answer the challenge, gentlemen? How shall we explain to them the meaning of democracy if the same Congress that voted to make the world safe for democracy refuses to give this small measure of democracy to the women of our country?” The Senate, however, failed to pass the amendment in the 65th Congress (1917–1919), so the measure was once again reintroduced in the House in the 66th Congress (1919–1921), passing on May 21, 1919, by a vote of 304 to 89. The Senate concurred shortly afterward. The 19th Amendment then went to the states, where it was finally ratified in August 1920.
January 12, 1806
Dorothy Ripley became the first woman to speak in the House Chamber when she delivered a sermon on this date. Ripley preached in the chamber at a time when it was used frequently by itinerant missionaries and clergy from local congregations. Until the mid-19th century, Washington, D.C., had few buildings large enough for public gatherings and the House Chamber was often utilized as a place of worship. In 1806, the House itself was hard-pressed for meeting space. Since the Capitol’s House (or South) wing was still under construction, the House was temporarily crammed into the Library of Congress’s reading room, located in the Senate (North) wing.
