Senator-elect John Curtis delivered these remarks at a luncheon prior to the unveiling of the Martha Hughes Cannon statue in the United States Capitol on Wednesday, Dec. 11.
Martha Hughes Cannon’s remarkable Welsh-American story resonates deeply in Utah’s history — and personally within my family. My wife, Sue, descends from the Martha Hughes Cannon family line — and I can sense her spirit, power and gifts in my children and grandchildren.
Her list of accomplishments is long and spans from public health and education to her original glass-ceiling-shattering election to the Utah State Senate. Yet, it is her principles that have echoed longest and loudest down through the years and inspired women, and men, to live up to the principles they profess to believe, and the possibilities freedom provides.
Martha’s animating principles included being faith-filled and fearless, relentless and resilient and laser-focused on achieving the unimaginable. To her, impossible was nothing. At a time when few women had a voice and fewer still used them, Martha Hughes Cannon’s principles drove her to stand up, speak out and even stand alone in order to lead. She also recognized the need to stand with key allies and important alliances in her cause. Martha has inspired millions of women to recognize their principles and power, find their voice and then raise it to transform communities, states and nations.
Principles first learned in Wales and tested on the American frontier were ultimately lived as a leader in Utah. She was an authentic influencer over 100 years before social media even existed and from her new position on a pedestal in the United States Capitol, she still summons all of us to the fearless, faithful and resilient pursuit of all we can imagine and achieve — together.
One of Martha’s superpowers was found in the principles of allies and alliances. I actually believe these are the vital leadership principles for the 21st century. Martha Hughes Cannon lived and leveraged them in the late 1800s. A defining moment in Utah’s history and Martha’s legacy occurred in the 1895 debate to include women’s suffrage in Utah’s state constitution. As is always the case, the day the journey began was not the day the journey began. Martha had shaped the conversation on equality over many years, while forging and fostering allies and alliances that proved prophetic and essential to the cause.
In 1895, women’s suffrage was one of the most contentious issues facing the nation. Nationally, the movement faced substantial resistance. Suffragists were making progress, but opposition was widespread, especially in the Eastern and Southern states. Many states avoided the divisive issue altogether.
Utah, however, was leading the way and demonstrating what coalition building looks like and how people of principle act together.
For decades, the women of Utah had worked tirelessly and relentlessly to build coalitions of support for equal suffrage with the women and the men of the territory. Martha Hughes Cannon and an army of suffragists had influenced the debate, not by demonizing opponents, bludgeoning skeptics or bashing men, but by engaging allies and building strategic alliances based on democratic principles and shared moral values.
Ironically, it was Utah’s men who had the ultimate power to make equal suffrage a reality. Utah’s 1895 constitutional convention is an extraordinary example of the critical role of allies and alliances in propelling progress toward an equal and prosperous society. Having linked and locked arms on the important principles long before the convention, the women had galvanized a coalition that created momentum and opportunity while inspiring and strengthening the men who would actually cast the votes.
Utah’s women were compelling and convincing in their crusade, AND the men who shared their vision and determination became equally yoked and indispensable partners in the effort. Because of the way these extraordinary women built bridges, linked and locked arms and developed a working coalition based on principles, men in positions of power chose to stand as allies to women’s equality, despite the risks and resistance that existed in 1895.
As Utah’s all-male convention of delegates convened to draft Utah’s constitution, granting women the right to vote was far from a foregone conclusion. During the constitutional convention, there was passionate debate on both sides.
Some of the delegates, products of their time, doubted the value of women’s suffrage. Other delegates simply argued for caution. They were not necessarily opposed to women’s suffrage, but they worried that including it in the constitution might jeopardize Utah’s statehood. Utah had already been denied statehood six times. They did not think it wise to address such a contentious issue in their seventh bid for statehood. And they argued passionately against its inclusion.
But there were other delegates, key allies, who fully shared the suffragists’ vision for a society in which women and men contributed as equal partners. Their allyship was not passive; it was principled. They understood what was needed from them: action, advocacy and the willingness to challenge the status quo. These men chose to align themselves with the women of Utah because they recognized three things: 1) women had as much right to liberty and self-government as men did; 2) the advancement of one group uplifts us all; and 3) Utah had a responsibility to lead the way.
Orson F. Whitney declared persuasively that “the enfranchisement of women is not a concession. It is a right inherent, a truth eternal.”
Franklin D. Richards persuaded his fellow delegates that the work done in Utah on behalf of women would be “the purest and brightest ray of Utah’s glorious star, beckoning its sister states onward and upward to the higher plane of civilization and the fuller measure of civil and religious liberty.”
This wasn’t men speaking for women. This was the embodiment of “In unity there is strength” — women’s voices and men’s voices united in the principles of equality and opportunity for all.
In the end, Utah’s leaders were bold. They saw the power of aligning our laws with our values. They felt called to lead the world to a better way — the Utah way.
By the time the convention voted, the prevailing attitude among the delegates was as bold and audacious as their pioneering vision of what the West would become: “We go into the Union with our women or not at all.”
The state constitution included women’s suffrage, making Utah the third state in the nation to include women’s suffrage in its constitution. It was a stunning move with statehood riding in the balance. The alliance created courage for the right solution on a difficult decision and added to Utah’s legacy of leadership.
That vote not only secured a fundamental right for half of Utah’s population but also put a log on the fire of women’s equality throughout the nation and the rest of the world. That decision reflected our state’s enduring values: that we rise higher when we lift everyone, and that true progress is born of pioneer values like courage. That decision set forces in motion to demonstrate what happens when barriers to opportunity are removed.
Utah women have many firsts. A quick list includes:
- Seraph Young became the first woman to cast a vote under an equal suffrage law in February of 1870.
- Lucy A. Clark became the first woman in the nation to vote as a delegate and give a speech at the Republican National Convention in 1908.
- Margaret Zane Witcher became the first woman in the nation to serve as elector in the presidential electoral college of 1912.
Today, we honor that legacy, not just by celebrating it, but also by each of us asking ourselves how we can emulate it.
How can we better seek to make our laws align with our values?
How can we support allies and strengthen alliances to create a world in which everyone truly has an equal opportunity to rise?
Being an ally today means listening, understanding and amplifying not only women’s voices but every voice, and using our influence to create opportunities for all. It means addressing disparities in representation through education, mentoring, encouraging civic engagement and supporting women in elected office, communities and organizations. It means recognizing, as Orson Whitney and Franklin Richards did, that families, communities and societies thrive when women engage as truly equal partners and decisionmakers.
The story of the 1895 constitutional convention teaches us that allyship is about using positions of influence to make the world a better place by providing others an opportunity to deploy their unique abilities to contribute to the common good.
Today, as we celebrate the legacy of Martha Hughes Cannon, let’s recommit ourselves to the pioneer values she and the Utahns of her day believed and lived. Equally yoked in our pursuit of a more perfect union, let’s commit to being the allies and forging the alliances that history demanded back then — and upon which the future of America depends, now — in our families, in the workplace, in our communities, at the ballot box, and in the halls of power.
Thank you.