During the final weeks of the battle for ratification in Tennessee, Catt was spuriously accused by suffrage opponents of supporting interracial marriage, which was illegal in Tennessee as well as 30 of the 48 states at the time. After she denied making such a statement, Catt said that interracial marriage was “an absolute crime against nature.” According to Elaine Weiss, author of "", “Catt was right that mixed-marriage was a toxic topic and woman suffrage could not afford to be in any way associated with it. She'd never said anything about marriage between the races; the allegation was a calculated lie, manufactured by the Antis and mouthed by their man Candler, but it could still be dangerous. She could not afford it to stand. . . . When pressed for the source of his allegations about Catt's views on interracial marriage, Candler had to admit he stretched the truth a bit, connected dots in a most haphazard way. He said he'd based his claim on a published interview with Catt in which she was quoted as saying, 'Suffrage knows no bias of race, color or sex.'”