Virginia Louisa Minor was an American woman suffragist.
Background
Virginia Louisa Minor was born on March 27, 1824, in Goochland County, Virginia. She was the daughter of Warner and Maria (Timberlake) Minor. Her father, a first cousin of Lucian and John B. Minor, was a descendant of Maindort Doodes, a Dutch mariner, and his son, Doodes Minor, who became naturalized citizens of Virginia in 1673.
Education
Except for a short period of study in the academy for young ladies at Charlottesville, Virginia, the greater part of her education was received at home.
Career
Minor had long been keenly interested in politics and public affairs, and soon after the war, she became active in the movement to raise the status of women in America. She was convinced that the extension of the suffrage to women was essential to the accomplishment of this object, which conviction was enthusiastically shared by her husband. At the woman-suffrage convention held at St. Louis in 1869, she made a militant speech, urging women no longer to submit to their inferior condition. A set of resolutions, drafted by her husband, asserting the right of woman suffrage under the national Constitution was adopted. Reese Happersett, the registrar of voters, refused to place her name on the list because "she was not a 'male' citizen, but a woman. " In association with her husband, since the status of a woman under the common law made it impossible for her to bring suit independently of him, she sued for damages in the circuit court at St. Louis. The decision was against the plaintiffs. On appeal to the supreme court of Missouri, the court unanimously upheld the decision. The case was carried to the Supreme Court of the United States, and Francis Minor was one of the attorneys who presented arguments. In giving the unanimous opinion of the court in upholding the Missouri decisions, Chief Justice Waite centered his elaborate argument around two main propositions; first, that "if the courts can consider any question settled, this is one"; and second, that "the Constitution of the United States does not confer the right of suffrage upon anyone". While the congenitally feeble legal case was lost, the publicity accompanying it no doubt contributed to the victory which came later. In 1889, she appeared before the Senate committee on woman suffrage to reiterate her stock arguments. Her last office was an honorary vice-presidency of the Interstate Woman Suffrage Convention, held at Kansas City in 1892. Two years later, she was buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis with religious solemnity but, of her own choice, without an officiating clergyman, since she had long regarded the clergy as hostile to the great mission of her life.
Achievements
Personality
In her early years, Virginia was noted, as she continued to be, for her personal charm and beauty. During the Civil War Mrs. Minor was actively engaged in welfare and relief work among the sick and wounded in the hospitals of the St. Louis area. To the depression and sorrow which the war brought to her, was added, in 1866, the grief occasioned by the accidental death of her only child, Francis Gilmer, then fourteen years of age.
Connections
On August 31, 1843, Minor was married to Francis Minor, a relative, who was a graduate of Princeton and the University of Virginia, and a lawyer by profession.