Exactly 100 years ago today, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified by Tennessee giving women the right to vote. It took 72 years for this crusade to finally bear fruit. It seems incredible by today’s standards that when it came to suffrage, women were considered second-class citizens for so long in our nation’s history.

Women first organized the fight for suffrage at a meeting in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, attended by the likes of well-known suffragettes Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott.

Achieving the vote took a struggle that involved everything from writing to newspapers to civil disobedience, because, make no mistake about it, this was a proposal for a radical change. Voting was man’s work, according to the consensus of that era, even among many women.

“Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote,” said President Grover Cleveland. “The relative positions to be assumed by man and woman in the working of our civilization were assigned long ago by a higher intelligence than ours.”

Cleveland never noted who that higher intelligence was, but his biographers said he was referring to God. I am always curious as to how some people know what God’s intent was, especially when it cannot be referenced even in the Bible.

We have had just 27 constitutional amendments since the Constitution was adopted in 1787 in Philadelphia. Ten of them, known as the Bill of Rights, virtually came immediately (ratified in 1791), so for all intents and purposes, we have had only 17 additional amendments in 229 years, or an average of just one every 13½ years.

The 27th and most recent amendment was ratified in 1992 and delays salary increases for members of Congress from taking effect until after the next election.

One of the reasons why there are so few amendments is because the Founding Fathers wanted to make it difficult for such important changes to occur without full vetting and discussion.

For an amendment to become law, it needs the approval of at least two-thirds of the members of both houses of Congress and concurrence by at least three-quarters of the states - 36 in 1920 when there were 48 states, 38 today.

As for the 19th Amendment, the idea was first introduced in Congress in 1878. Nine western states adopted women suffrage legislation by 1912. Some resisting states were challenged in court. Advocates participated in parades, silent vigils and hunger strikes. Supporters were heckled, jailed and sometimes physically abused.

Various factions supporting suffrage finally agreed to seek a constitutional amendment. The House passed the amendment in May 1919, while the Senate gave its OK two weeks later. It took 15 months for 36 states to agree.

Pennsylvania was one of the first states to ratify the 19th Amendment - about a month after congressional action. The movement in the commonwealth began in earnest in 1915, but in the four years until ratification in the commonwealth, there were disappointments, including the defeat of a referendum to give women the vote before Congress considered a constitutional amendment.

In addition to rallies and door-to-door campaigns, women fanned out from the state’s major cities - Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Reading and Scranton.

The first major local rally was on Aug. 28, 1915, in Allentown and coincided with the arrival of the Woman’s Liberty Bell which was dubbed the “Justice Bell.”

“The original Liberty Bell announced the creation of democracy,” said Katharine Wentworth Ruschenberger of Chester, who came up with the idea and the finances for the Justice Bell, “and the women’s Liberty Bell will announce the completion of democracy.”

This was an impressive copy of the Liberty Bell, but there were two changes: The words “equal justice” were added to the traditional inscription proclaiming liberty, and the bell’s clapper was chained and would not be untied until women’s suffrage was ratified in Pennsylvania.

A contingent of suffragettes in a caravan of vehicles, the cars decorated with yellow “Vote for Women” signs, left Allentown for Lehighton to escort the bell to the rally and then on to other Lehigh Valley communities - Bethlehem, Easton, Nazareth and Bath - where smaller rallies were held.

Hundreds of supporters gathered in streets and highways in Carbon and Northampton counties and cheered and applauded their support for the women as the Justice Bell passed by.

Today, the Justice Bell is housed in the Carillon Rotunda at Washington Memorial Chapel at Valley Forge National Historical Park.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com