Carrie Chapman Catt’s views on race and immigration evolved over her long life. Early in her career, Catt espoused nativist sentiments. According to Jacqueline Van Voris, Catt began her public life in the 1880s with three speeches, “Zenobia,” “America for Americans” and “The American Sovereign.” The latter two echoed anti-immigrant sentiments popular at the time. In the 1890s, when she was active in NAWSA but before becoming president, Catt made public speeches that referred to the “ignorant foreign vote,” and pointed to Native American men’s lack of knowledge representative government. Later, Catt noted that the votes of illiterate men in the South were “purchasable.”