File 89, April 1913-December 1915

Anna Howard Shaw, Carrie Chapman Catt, and other National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) leaders worried that confrontational tactics would endanger state suffrage victories and antagonize Congress. Instead, they felt that targeting the party in power was self-defeating and preferred to use lobbying, petitioning, personal meetings, and pointed letters to convince the president and other politicians of the importance of a federal suffrage amendment. Many of the documents in this section of file 89 demonstrate the ongoing suffrage struggle and the variety of tactics used by suffragists and their opponents, including sending individual and group appeals to the president.