1. "This Government is menaced with great danger, and that danger cannot be averted by the triumph of the party of protection, nor by that of free trade, nor by the triumph of single tax or of free silver. That danger lies in the votes possessed by the males in the slums of the cities, and the ignorant foreign vote which was sought to be bought up by each party, to make political success."

Carrie Chapman Catt, 1894: Some white women suffrage leaders were willing to use class, ethnic, and racial arguments to bolster the case for granting white women the vote. In 1894 (a year of extraordinary class conflict that included the national Pullman and coal strikes), Catt addressed an Iowa suffrage gathering and maintained that women’s suffrage was necessary to counter "the ignorant foreign vote" in American cities and protect the life and property of native-born Americans. See text here.

2. "Nothing strengthens the judgment and quickens the conscience like individual responsibility. Nothing adds such dignity to character as the recognition of one’s self-sovereignty; the right to an equal place, everywhere conceded—a place earned by personal merit, not an artificial attainment by inheritance, wealth, family and position."

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1892: Speaking to fellow suffragists on the occasion of her retirement as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, Stanton repeated this speech before a U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary and a U.S. Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage. The speech was published in the Woman's Journal and 10,000 copies of the text from the Congressional Record were reprinted and distributed throughout the country.

3. "I am not . . . in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them . . . to intermarry with white people."

Abraham Lincoln, 1858: During his debates with Stephen Douglas, Lincoln referenced his concerns with race, reflecting prevalent nineteenth-century attitudes. At one point he even advocated black settlements in Haiti, Central America, or Africa. While his primary purpose was to preserve the Union, he issued the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation to free slaves, forever changing the construct of race in the United States. See the special edition of the Organization of American Historians' Magazine of History, vol. 21:4 (October 2007) for more information on Lincoln, race, and slavery.

4. "It is true that a strong plea for equal suffrage might be addressed to the national sense of honor."

Frederick Douglass, 1867: In January 1867, Douglass appealed to Congress for impartial suffrage. He believed that restrictions of rights for blacks restricted rights for all people, and that the nation needed the great potential strength located in African Americans, to share the burdens of society. Here is the full text of his speech.

5. "The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men."

Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965: When the Voting Rights Bill was signed on August 6, 1965, Johnson addressed the nation from the Capitol Rotunda, calling the historic day a triumphal victory. He then charged the Attorney General to file a lawsuit against the constitutionality of poll taxes, and the Department of Justice to work to register voters who were previously denied the right. "I pledge you that we will not delay, or we will not hesitate, or we will not turn aside until Americans of every race and color and origin in this country have the same right as all others to share in the process of democracy." See full text here.

6. "Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost."

John Quincy Adams: In 1824 the presidential race included five candidates: Speaker of the House Henry Clay, Secretary of Treasury William H. Crawford, Secretary of War John C. Calhoun, Andrew Jackson, and John Quincy Adams. After Crawford suffered a stroke, there was no clear favorite. No candidate had a majority of the electoral votes. According to the 12th Amendment, the election went to the House of Representatives to vote on the top three candidates: Jackson, Adams, and Crawford. As Speaker of the House, Clay voiced his support of Adams, who shared a similar platform. The House elected Adams, who became the only U.S. president who did not win the popular vote or the electoral vote.

7. "Voting is the most precious right of every citizen, and we have a moral obligation to ensure the integrity of our voting process."

Hillary Clinton, 2005: On February 17, 2005, U.S. Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) presented comprehensive voting reform legislation to make sure that every American is able to vote and every vote is counted. The Count Every Vote Act was introduced but did not pass.

1. The severely religious trend of thought, the barrenness of life, and the dangers from Indian attacks that impended about the year 1691, account for the occurrence in Massachusetts of the witchcraft troubles. The theory of Satanic manifestations was commonly held in European countries, and there claimed its thousands of victims. In Salem and surrounding towns, two or three hundred persons, some of them being of the highest character, were accused of having allowed themselves to become possessed by the devil. Of these, nineteen were judicially condemned and were put to death. The comparative brevity and mildness of this outburst of religious fanaticism testifies to the real sadness of the Puritan mind. Nowhere in the world at this time was life more pure or thought more elevated.

1912

2. Early in the year [1692], two children of the family of a clergyman in Salem village, the one eleven, the other nine years of age, having been for some time indisposed, and no relief being obtained from medical aid, the attending physician suggested the probability of their being bewitched. The children, informed of their supposed situation, complained of an Indian woman, and declared they were "pinched, pricked, and, tormented" by her. Other persons, soon after, afflicted with various complaints, attributed their sickness to the same cause; and several of the imagined witches were put in prison. In the month of June eleven persons were tried, condemned, and executed. The awful mania increased. In September, nine more received sentence of death. Each became suspicious of his neighbor. The charges of witchcraft, commencing with the lower part of society, extended to all ranks; even a clergyman, among others, having been executed. A confession of guilt became the only security for life; such not being condemned. In October, the number of persons accused was so great, and their standing in society so respectable, that by general consent, all persons were released, and all prosecutions dropped.

1823

3. The most plausible explanation may lie in the uncertainty of life in late seventeenth-century New England. Salem Village, a farming town on the edge of a commercial center, was torn between old and new styles of life. Some families were abandoning agriculture for trade, while others were struggling to maintain traditional ways. The villagers who exploited the new economic opportunities were improving their status relative to their neighbors. Most people were uncertain about their destiny, but none more so than adolescent girls. As children their fate lay in the hands of their parents, yet their ultimate destiny would depend on their husbands. But would their husbands be farmers or artisans or merchants? What would their future lives be like? No one knew. By lashing out and in effect seizing command of the entire town, the girls gave their lives a certainty previously lacking. At the same time, they afforded their fellow townspeople an opportunity to vent their frustrations at the unsettling changes in their lives. The accused witches were scapegoats for the shattered dream of an isolated Bible Commonwealth.

1982

4. In 1692, the supposed witchcraft broke out in Salem and Danvers. Here the first subjects of it were children. The disorder, whatever its character may have been, … [at first] affected the lower classes only; but at length it pervaded all ranks and conditions. Two daughters of a minister, in Salem, were strangely affected. Before this they had been quiet, happy children but now they began to look wild, shriek, tell strange stories, sit barefoot among the ashes, or go abroad with their clothes and hair in great disorder, looking like insane people. Sometimes they were dumb; at others they would complain of being pricked severely with pins. The madness continuing to spread… Those who confessed the crime of witchcraft, however, were not executed. It was indeed a fearful time. Multitudes were suspected and accused, and at one period no less than one hundred and fifty were in prison for witchcraft…. The excitement at length passed away; and the more rapidly in proportion as the criminals were treated with clemency. Multitudes owned, at length, that they confessed their guilt to save their lives! For a century past little has been said of witchcraft in the United States, and few believe in its existence. The events we have narrated are supposed to have been the result of delusion.

1866