"The Liberal Shall Be Blessed"

I recently received my undergraduate in Political Science from BYU, and as such I have always been fascinated by the origination of social change. Couple that with a minor in Women’s Studies and I can’t even begin to tell you how amazing I find the suffrage movement, particularly in Utah.

It is a poorly misrepresented fact that the territory of Utah gave women the right to vote in 1870 (far ahead of the rest of the United States which would follow 50 years later). This was revoked by congress in 1887 in an attempt to rid the state of polygamy, who believed women were being manipulated to vote for polygamist rights and ideals. This act was denying women the power and privilege of political activism, that had been granted them for 17 years, and it sparked a fire that would ignite Latter-day Saint women all across the territory.

One such woman to be set aflame was Sarah M. Kimball. You have heard of her, I promise, she is the woman who bargained with her husband upon the birth of her son, who was said to be worth $1,000 and she would become determined donate her half to the Church. After, I am sure, much discussion her husband Hiram, relinquished $500.00 worth of property to the Church, though Sarah maintained that the contribution was hers. She was also the woman who mustered other women to join a charitable ladies’ society in order to provide new shirts for Nauvoo Temple workers. In an attempt to ensure the organization was grounded with a sure foundation she asked Eliza R. Snow to create a constitution and bylaws for the society. It would be the beginnings of our modern –day Relief Society one of the world’s largest women’s organizations. Starting to sound familiar?

Sarah’s story begins further back then we often discuss and continues on much further than we know. She was born in Phelps Ontario County, New York on December 29, 1818, a very small town about 20 miles between Palmyra and Seneca Falls (the place where Elizabeth Cady Stanton presented the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments which was a resolution to promote the attainment of civil, social, political and religious rights for women). It was the restored gospel, and in particular, Joseph Smith’s teachings on equality of the sexes that would drive Sarah’s devotion in the Church throughout her years.

In 1882, she became an active participant in the Utah Constitutional Convention and less than a decade later (1891) she was named the leader of the Utah Women’s Suffrage Association. She was by her own definition a “woman’s rights woman”.  This position as president enabled her to petition the Congress of the United States to stop the atrocities inflicted by federal deputies on Latter-day Saint women (often over issues of polygamy). Sarah was not a hot-headed woman, nor were her compatriots. These women were highly skilled at mobilizing and organizing for support and were extremely knowledgeable, the Relief Society being their primary means of meeting and discussing political topics (could you image the PR scandal that would follow today if we were to follow directly in their footsteps?). In fact, as soon as she was elect as president, she suggested each woman read over the United States Constitution at least six times and start studying municipal governments as it “would lead to [their] advancement and the enlargement of [their] capacities”. Under her leadership, fifteen hundred members would participate in mock legislation assemblies to help women understand the process of a bill to law.

Sarah saw the suffrage movement as  fulfilling the “turning of the key” (as proclaimed by Joseph Smith at the inception of The Relief Society) and she proclaimed that “the sure foundations of the suffrage cause were deeply and permanently laid on the 17^th of March, 1842.”

Unfortunately, Sarah M. Kimball passed away without seeing the national franchisement of women in 1920. Jill Mulvay Derr, a noted LDS historian, concluded, “if she was exceptional it is not because her options were significantly different [than other Mormon women of the time], but because of her own strong-mindedness and charity made her exercise of those options exceptional, and often exemplary. ‘The liberal shall be blessed,’ she had told her sisters… and that statement seems a fitting tribute to her ideology and works” (Italics added, Derr 1976: 69).

I glean strength from the political activism and strong-mindedness of Sarah M. Kimball. She was active, involved and passionate about her beliefs in the equality of the sexes. Her legacy was of charity, and her stories are full of true zeal.

I wonder when we lost it. I know I generalize, but I don’t see fervent activism from the women that surround me (in my peers, or in my relief society sisters), when did we stop being the vocal organization that pursued the cause of the just and abhorred the evils of the world? Perhaps we have forgotten that less than a hundred years ago, our sisters were not able to propose legislation, run for congress (heck run for president), nor were they able to cast a simple ballot denying an outrageous school budget in a town vote. I don’t know when we stopped or why. Maybe it’s the ease we so easily feel in Zion or maybe the fear of being labeled a feminist (slippery slope- one vote and next a flaming bra) or maybe time gets away from us. But I see small glimmers rising, it’s my hope that we can be set aflame like the women of the Utah territory and that we can honor the memory of Sarah M. Kimball and so many others who fought with their whole souls to grant us the privilege of casting a simple ballot. So do your research, pick the best candidate, become active in your town meetings, because it is not the options we have available to us that makes us extraordinary but rather how we exercise our options that do. I truly believe the liberal will be blessed.

-Kyra

*Note: Liberal is defined by dictionary.com as an individual favorable to progress or reform, as in political or religious affairs. An individual favorable to or in accord with concepts of maximum individual freedom possible especially as guaranteed by law and secured by government protection of civil liberties. 

In what ways have you become politically involved? Any good educational websites for us to check out? Please share your thoughts and ideas!

Burgess-Olson, Vicky, ed. 1978. Sister Saints. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 23-40.
Black, Susan Easton and Mary Jane Woodger. 2011. Women of Character: Profiles of 100 Prominent LDS Women. American Fork, Utah: Covenant Communications, Inc.,169- 171.
Derr, Jill Mulvay. 1976. Sarah M Kimball. Salt Lake City, Utah: Utah State Historical Society.