1888: Willard and the National Suffrage Movement
Willard also had opportunities outside the WCTU to take a stronger stand on suffrage as a right. Representing the WCTU, but also reflecting her own convictions, she became in involved in the National Council of Women, a coalition of women’s organizations. She also brought the WCTU into a closer connection with the Prohibition Party because it endorsed woman suffrage.
Willard brought the right and the duty together, at least in the public mind, during the commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of the First Woman’s Rights Convention, a week-long series of events held in Washington DC in March, 1888. As a representative of the WCTU, Willard participated in programs with well-known figures in the campaign for woman suffrage. Her scrapbook from the event reveals how often she was cited, mentioned, and pictured in news articles and event programs throughout the convention.
Willard spoke on Temperance at the International Council of Women’s meeting, as a delegate of the WCTU. Her impact on the national suffrage movement was clear, as this cartoon shows her shaking hands with Uncle Sam. The caption reads, "If the women get the suffrage, the first thing they will do is to elect Miss Willard President of the United States."
Most notably, she appeared in a two-page rotogravure in the popular national Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper alongside such suffrage stalwarts (some of whom deplored the work of the WCTU) as Susan B Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Matilda Joslyn Gage.