Early on, the word "democracy" was typically used by the Democratic party. This would shift in the early-1900s to describe the concept of democracy.
1 / 27 / 1890
SEN. EDWARD WALTHALL (D-MS)
… when issue was squarely joined between the contending parties upon a great economic question, on which the principles of Democracy were in accord with the plain interests of the masses of the people, Republican leaders blinded the agricultural voters of the North to the real question before them by reviving the bitterest animosities engendered by the war…
Many American founding fathers believed only educated white men should hold political power. Yet they signed a Declaration of Independence that said "all men are created equal" and that the government derives its powers from our consent.
According to the historian Sean Wilentz in The Rise of American Democracy, these words set the U.S. on a path to be more democratic than they expected. And ever since, Americans have debated what it means to strive for these ideals—especially when democracy is under threat.
5 / 10 / 1900
REP. WILLIAM KITCHIN (D-NC)
…in those large negro counties where you have comparatively no white Republicans… there were found this great mass of impressionable voters, composed largely of ignorant negroes. I admit that there, the Democracy composing the vast majority of intelligence and responsibility in those counties, the Democrats frequently carry those counties by a large majority.
Southern states actively worked to suppress the Black vote with literacy tests, poll taxes, and violence, eventually reducing Black turnout from 75% in 1872 to just 30% in 1904. The Conservative Party, Democrats, argued that these tactics were necessary to protect democracy, like in this speech from William Kitchin.
"Whenever it looked as if marginalized people might get an equal voice, designing political leaders told white men that their own rights were under attack. Soon, they warned, minorities and women would take over and push them aside," writes historian Heather Cox Richardson in her book, Democracy Awakening.
1 / 10 / 1918
REP. EDWARD GRAY (R-NJ)
Mr. Speaker, the United States of America is a party to the great war not only to save the world for democracy… A nation will endure just so long as its men are virile. History, physiology, and psychology all show that giving women equal political rights with man makes ultimately for the deterioration of manhood.
During World War 1, women's rights activists argued that the U.S. was fighting a war to protect democracy abroad—but it failed to uphold those ideals at home by not allowing women to vote. Some congressmen, like Rep. Edward Gray, doubled-down on denying women political power.
1 / 10 / 1918
REP. LEONIDAS DYER (R-MO)
Women and men throughout the United States and the civilized world generally, for that matter, have come to understand that real democracy must recognize the political freedom of women as well as men. … Woman suffrage is inevitable. It is plainly written in the signs of the times.
In 1920, the U.S. passed an amendment giving women the right to vote.