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HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE.
Edited by
ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, SUSAN B. ANTHONY, AND MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE.
Illustrated with Steel Engravings.
In Three Volumes.
VOL. II.
1861-1876.
[Illustration: Anna Dickinson. "The World belongs to those who take
it. Truly Yours Anna Dickinson"]
ALL PERSONS BORN OR NATURALIZED IN THE UNITED STATES, AND SUBJECT TO
THE JURISDICTION THEREOF, ARE CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES.
Susan B. Anthony,
17 Madison St., Rochester, N. Y.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1881, by
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, And
Matilda Joslyn Gage.
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.
PREFACE.
In presenting to our readers the second volume of the "History of
Woman Suffrage," we gladly return our thanks to the press for the many
favorable notices we have received from leading journals, both in the
old world and the new. The words of cordial approval from a large
circle of friends, and especially from women well known in periodical
literature, have been to us a constant stimulus during the toilsome
months we have spent in gathering material for these pages. It was our
purpose to have condensed the records of the last twenty years in a
second volume, but so many new questions in regard to Citizenship,
State rights, and National power, indirectly bearing on the political
rights of women, grew out of the civil war, that the arguments and
decisions in Congress and the Supreme Courts have combined to swell
these pages beyond our most liberal calculations, with much valuable
material that can not be condensed nor ignored, making a third volume
inevitable.
By their active labors all through the great conflict, women learned
that they had many interests outside the home. In the camp and
hospital, and the vacant places at their firesides, they saw how
intimately the interests of the State and the home were intertwined;
that as war and all its concomitants were subjects of legislation, it
was only through a voice in the laws that their efforts for peace
could command consideration.
The political significance of the war, and the prolonged discussions
on the vital principles of government involved in the reconstruction,
threw new light on the status of woman in a republic. Under a liberal
interpretation of the XIV. Amendment, women, believing their rights of
citizenship secured, made several attempts to vote in different
States. Those who succeeded were arrested, tried, and convicted. Those
who were denied the right to register their names and deposit their
votes, sued the Inspectors of Election. Others attempting to practice
law, being denied that right in the States, took their cases up to the
Supreme Court of the United States for adjudication. Others invaded
the pulpit, asking to be ordained, which brought the question of
woman's right to preach before ecclesiastical assemblies. These
various attempts to secure her political and civil rights have called
forth endless discussions on woman's true position in the State, the
church, and the world of work.
While gratefully accepting the generous praises of our friends, we
must briefly reply to some strictures by our critics. Some object to
the title of our work; they say you can not write the "History of
Woman Suffrage" until the fact is accomplished. We feel that already
enough has been achieved to make the final victory certain. Women vote
in England, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, and
even India, on certain interests and qualifications; in Wyoming and
Utah on all questions, and on the same basis as male citizens; and in
a dozen States of the Union on school affairs. Moreover, women are
filling many offices, such as Clerks of Courts, Notaries Public,
Masters in Chancery, State Librarians, School Superintendents,
Commissioners of Charity, Post Mistresses, Pension Agents, Engrossing
and Enrolling Clerks in Legislative Assemblies.
After years of persistent effort a resolution was passed in both
Houses, during the present session of Congress (1882), securing "a
select committee on the political Rights and Disabilities of
Woman"--the first time in the history of our Government that a special
committee to look after the interests of woman was ever appointed. A
proposition for a XVI. Amendment to the National Constitution, to
secure to women the right of suffrage, is now pending in Congress.
Some phase of this question is being debated every year in State
Legislatures. Propositions for so amending their constitutions as to
extend the elective franchise to women will be voted upon by the
people in four of the Western States within the coming two years.
These successive steps of progress during forty years are as surely a
part of the History of Woman Suffrage as will be the events of the
closing period in which victory shall at last crown the hard fought
battles of half a century.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XVI.
WOMAN'S PATRIOTISM IN THE WAR.
PAGE
The first gun on Sumter, April 12, 1861--Woman's military
genius--Anna Ella Carroll--The Sanitary Movement--Dr. Elizabeth
Blackwell--The Hospitals--Dorothea Dix--Services on the
battle-field--Clara Barton--The Freedman's Bureau--Josephine
Griffing--Ladies' National Covenant--Political campaigns--Anna
Dickinson--The Woman's Loyal National League--The Mammoth
Petition--Anniversaries--The Thirteenth Amendment 1