“The Consent of the Governed”

The pickets endured intimidation and insult almost from the beginning, with little boys—encouraged by older onlookers—calling them names and spitting at them. Later, more threatening crowds gathered, incensed at the suffragists’ “unpatriotic” messages. Starting on June 22, women began to be arrested, including a group of ten on July 4, 1917, who carried a banner quoting the Declaration of Independence, a scene drawn by political cartoonist Nina Allender. Geologist Helena Hill Weed, daughter of a former congressman and a vice-president of the Daughters of the American Revolution, was among those sentenced to three days in District Jail.