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1 pg. TLS, February 13, 1942, Washington D.C., by Jeannette Rankin (1880-1973) the first woman to be elected to the House of Representatives and the first female member of Congress. She was sometimes referred to as the Lady of the House. In this letter to the National Headquarters of Disabled American Veterans (DAV) of the World War (WW1), Rankin send New Years greetings to the DAV. Rankin was a lifelong pacifist and was the only person to vote against the U.S.s entry into WW1 and WW2. A suffragette, she worked to get women the right to vote in Montana, her home state, in 1914. This was 6 years before the 19th Amendment was passed giving all women in the U.S. the right to vote. She was elected to Congress on November 7, 1916. Only 4 days into her first term, the House voted to enter WW1. Rankin was one of 50 members who voted against the war resolution, earning her immediate dislike from just about everyone, including women. This killed her efforts for reelection when her term ended in 1919. She then became a lobbyist, supporting bills to help women and children. She was founding Vice-President of the ACLU (too bad, I was starting to like her bio) and a founding member of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. In 1940, Rankin was again elected to Congress, this time on an anti-war platform. Following Pearl Harbor, she again voted against entering a World War, this time the only member of Congress to do so. However she did not vote against declaring war on Germany and Italy when they declared war on us. Instead, she voted merely "Present." She didn't bother to run for re-election because she became so unpopular from her decision. An admirer of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968, then 88 -year old Rankin led more than 5,000 women who called themselves "The Jeannette Rankin Brigade" to the U.S. Capitol to demonstrate against the Vietnam War. In 1985, a statue of her was placed in the United States Capitol's Statuary Hall. DAV National Headquarters receipt stamp on the reverse, o/w in fine condition. Buyer pays $2 shipping in the U.S.
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