PRINTER'S NO. 2131
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE RESOLUTION
No.
405
Session of
2019
INTRODUCED BY KRUEGER, JUNE 14, 2019
INTRODUCED AS NONCONTROVERSIAL RESOLUTION UNDER RULE 35,
JUNE 14, 2019
A RESOLUTION
Commemorating the centennial of the Commonwealth's ratification
of the 19th Amendment on June 24, 2019, and recognizing the
Justice Bell as a symbol of the suffrage cause.
WHEREAS, Passed by the Congress of the United States on June
4, 1919, and ratified by the Commonwealth on June 24, 1919, the
19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States provides
that the right to vote "shall not be denied or abridged by the
United States or by any State on account of sex"; and
WHEREAS, On August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified
as approved by 36 state legislatures; and
WHEREAS, on August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment was certified
by the United States Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby; and
WHEREAS, Millions of women voted in national elections for
the first time in 1920; and
WHEREAS, The social and political movement to secure equal
voting rights for women originated at the historic Seneca Falls,
New York Convention of 1848; and
WHEREAS, A resolution drafted there states that "it is the
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duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their
sacred right to the elective franchise"; and
WHEREAS, While some state legislatures enacted suffrage laws,
the Congress of the United States blocked or defeated proposed
constitutional amendments; and
WHEREAS, Diverse activism and opposition continued into the
20th century; and
WHEREAS, In 1915, the General Assembly agreed to a referendum
for a suffrage amendment to the Constitution of Pennsylvania;
and
WHEREAS, As part of the lobbying campaign to urge male voters
to expand the State electorate and then "announce the completion
of democracy," Katharine Wentworth Ruschenberger of Tredyffrin
Township, Chester County, commissioned a near replica of the
Liberty Bell; and
WHEREAS, Known as the Justice Bell or the Women's Liberty
Bell, the bell is inscribed:
ESTABLISH JUSTICE
PROCLAIM LIBERTY THROUGHOUT ALL THE LAND UNTO ALL THE
INHABITANTS THEREOF
MENEELEY BELL CO
TROY, NY
MCMXV;
and
WHEREAS, A flatbed truck carried the Justice Bell, with its
bronze clapper silenced by chains, to all 67 Pennsylvania
counties; and
WHEREAS, When the 1915 Statewide referendum failed by a vote
of 385,348 to 441,034, the Justice Bell tour continued in other
states; and
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WHEREAS, The Justice Bell was present at the Victory
Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association
in Chicago in 1920; and
WHEREAS, The Justice Bell's clapper was unchained on
September 25, 1920, at Independence Hall in Philadelphia; and
WHEREAS, The Justice Bell is permanently displayed at the
Washington Memorial Chapel in Valley Forge; therefore be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives commemorate the
centennial of the Commonwealth's ratification of the 19th
Amendment on June 24, 2019, and recognize the Justice Bell as a
symbol of the suffrage cause.
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