John M. Murphy, "Laura Clay," 99-110, in Women Public Speakers in the United States, 1800-1925: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook. Edited by Karlyn Kohrs Campbell. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993.

Author: John M. Murphy

Title: "Laura Clay," 99-110, in Women Public Speakers in the United States, 1800-1925: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook. Edited by Karlyn Kohrs Campbell.

Publisher: Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993.

This collection places Laura Clay firmly into a Southern, post-Civil War Democratic Party, white supremacist camp which served as the "foundation for her rhetorical action (xvi)." Emphasizing her strict construction of the Constitution, Murphy calls for more attention to Clay as a public intellectual as well as a nationally recognized suffragist - and "the preeminent spokeswoman for the southern wing of the woman's rights movement (99)." Professor John M. Murphy is in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois where he studies how political languages function within U.S. public speeches.