Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard (September 28, 1839 – February 17, 1898) was an American educator, temperance reformer, and women’s suffragist. Willard became the national president of Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1879 and remained president until her death in 1898. Her influence continued in the next decades, as the Eighteenth (on Prohibition) and Nineteenth (on women’s suffrage) Amendments to the United States Constitution were adopted. Willard developed the slogan “Do Everything” for the WCTU and encouraged members to engage in a broad array of social reforms by lobbying, petitioning, preaching, publishing, and education. During her lifetime, Willard succeeded in raising the age of consent in many states as well as passing labor reforms including the eight-hour work day. Her vision also encompassed prison reform, scientific temperance instruction, Christian socialism, and the global expansion of women’s rights.
Frances E. Willard
American Activist
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Quotes by Frances E. Willard
In externals we advance with lightening express speed, in modes of thought and sympathy we lumber on in stage-coach fashion.
Frances E. Willard
Temperance is moderation in the things that are good and total abstinence from the things that are foul.
Frances E. Willard
The world is wide, and I will not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum.
Frances E. Willard
This seems to be the law of progress in everything we do; it moves along a spiral rather than a perpendicular; we seem to be actually going out of the way, and yet it turns out that we were really moving upward all the time.
Frances E. Willard