<P> In 1897 the economy began to improve, mostly from restored business confidence . Silverites--who did not realize that most transactions were handled by bank checks, not sacks of gold--believed the new prosperity was spurred by the discovery of gold in the Yukon . In 1898, the Spanish--American War drew the nation's attention further away from Populist issues . If the movement was dead, however, its ideas were not . Once the Populists supported an idea, it became so tainted that the vast majority of American politicians rejected it; only years later, after the taint had been forgotten, was it possible to achieve Populist reforms, such as the direct popular election of Senators in 1914 . </P> <P> The women's suffrage movement began with the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention; many of the activists became politically aware during the abolitionist movement . The movement reorganized after the Civil War, gaining experienced campaigners, many of whom had worked for prohibition in the Women's Christian Temperance Union . By the end of the 19th century a few western states had granted women full voting rights, though women had made significant legal victories, gaining rights in areas such as property and child custody . </P> <P> Around 1912, the movement, which had grown sluggish, began to reawaken . This put an emphasis on its demands for equality and arguing that the corruption of American politics demanded purification by women because men could no longer do their job . Protests became increasingly common as suffragette Alice Paul led parades through the capitol and major cities . Paul split from the large National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), which favored a more moderate approach and supported the Democratic Party and Woodrow Wilson, led by Carrie Chapman Catt, and formed the more militant National Woman's Party . Suffragists were arrested during their "Silent Sentinels" pickets at the White House, the first time such a tactic was used, and were taken as political prisoners . </P> <P> Finally, the suffragettes were ordered released from prison, and Wilson urged Congress to pass a Constitutional amendment enfranchising women . The old anti-suffragist argument that only men could fight a war, and therefore only men deserved the franchise, was refuted by the enthusiastic participation of tens of thousands of American women on the home front in World War I. Across the world, grateful nations gave women the right to vote . Furthermore, most of the Western states had already given women the right to vote in state and national elections, and the representatives from those states, including the first voting woman Jeannette Rankin of Montana, demonstrated that Women's Suffrage was a success . The main resistance came from the south, where white leaders were worried about the threat of black women voting . Nevertheless, Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment in 1919 . It became constitutional law on August 26, 1920, after ratification by the 36th required state . </P>

American voters united around which major issue in the late nineteenth century