tennessee.gov

While she was collapsing, she exclaimed, ‘President Wilson, ‘How long must, how long must women wait for liberty?’ Inez died a few weeks later from leukemia but her words became the war cry of the suffrage movement.

Elizabeth Avery Meriwether was an author and publisher.  In 1872, she published her own pro-suffrage newspaper, “The Tablet.”  Her husband was a Confederate Soldier and friend of Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest.  In 1867, when Forrest and some of her husband other friends were visiting with them, she asked, “But when will women have the right to vote?  I have been taught to believe that taxation without representation is tyranny.”  To which Matt Galloway (editor of the Memphis Appeal) replied, “You know very well your husband will take care of your interests.”  Then Mrs. Meriwether rejoined with, “Who will take care of the interests of women who have no husbands?”  After a long pause through which no answer was forthcoming, Mrs. Meriwether responded with, “Taxation without representation is tyranny.  I shall protest against that tyranny as long as I live.”  On May 5, 1876, Mrs. Meriwether rented out the Memphis Theater and told a large audience she intended to vote for Samuel J. Tilden in November.  On the first Tuesday in November, she did cast her ballot; however, it was probably not counted.  The Judge and the clerk were friends of her husband.  It was rumored that they dropped the ballot in the box to keep her happy and then destroyed her ballot later.