Mary Elizabeth Lease

Overview

Mary Elizabeth Lease (née Clyens) Ridgway, PA September 11, 1850 (d. 1933). Populist lawyer, orator, suffragist, pacifist; Vice President World Peace Congress 1893; opposed militarism.

Quotations

"If men can not get along without the shedding of blood and putting the knife to the throat of a brother, let them no longer set themselves up as guides and rulers, but confess their self-evident inefficiency and turn the management of affairs over to the mothers, who will temper their justice with love and enthrone mercy on the highways." (synopsis of 'Peace', in Mary Engle, The Congress of Women, p. 413, 1893; photo Kansas Hist. Society)