of the "antis" were conspicuously vacant. As
the Speaker had not asked for a reconsideration, Mr. Riddick moved to
call from the Journal the motion to reconsider. Speaker Walker ruled
this out of order, giving among other reasons that Judge E. F.
Langford of the Chancery Court had granted a temporary injunction
restraining the Governor, Secretary of State and Speakers from
certifying to Secretary of State Colby that the Legislature had
ratified. Mr. Riddick appealed from the decision of the chair and it
was not sustained. He then moved that the House reconsider its action
in concurring in the Senate ratification, which was defeated by 49
noes, 9 present and not voting. He next moved that the Clerk of the
House be instructed to transmit to the Senate the ratification
resolution, which was carried by a viva voce vote. Governor Roberts,
himself formerly a Judge, could not be checked by the devices of the
opposition but asked Attorney General Thompson to place the matter
before Chief Justice D. L. Lansden of the State Supreme Court. He
issued a writ of supersedeas and certiorari, which, taking the matter
out of the jurisdiction of the Chancery Court, amounted to a
dissolving of the injunction. The Governor then mailed the certificate
of ratification to Secretary Colby at noon, August 24, which he
received on the morning of August 26. This completed the necessary
thirty-six ratifications and Secretary Colby immediately proclaimed
the Federal Suffrage Amendment a part of the Constitution of the
United States.

During the weeks of machinations by the opposition, Governor Roberts,
State Superintendent of Education Albert H. Williams, the other
officers of the administration and the efficient Steering Committee,
made up of members of the Legislature, headed by President Todd and
Chief Clerk W. M. Carter of the Senate, were on complete guard night
and day.

After the American Constitutional League had failed in the courts of
Tennessee they planned to secure injunctions against election
officials to prevent women from voting and carried their fight to the
courts of the District of Columbia, losing in every one. They finally
reached the Supreme Court of the United States, which eventually
decided that the 19th Amendment was legally and constitutionally
ratified. [This matter is referred to in Chapter XX of Volume V.]
Meanwhile on September 20 Speaker Walker and other opponents went to
Washington and requested Secretary Colby to