MRS. WELD said: I came here with no desire and no intention to

speak; but my heart is full, my country is bleeding, my people

are perishing around me. But I feel as a South Carolinian, I am

bound to tell the North, go on! go on! Never falter, never

abandon the principles which you have adopted. I could not say

this if we were now where we stood two years ago. I could not say

thus when it was proclaimed in the Northern States that the Union

was all that we sought. No, my friends, such a Union as we had

then, God be praised that it has perished. Oh, never for one

moment consent that such a Union should be re-established in our

land. There was a time when I looked upon the Fathers of the

Revolution with the deepest sorrow and the keenest reproach. I

said to their shadows in another world, "Why did you leave this

accursed system of slavery for us to suffer and die under? why

did you not, with a stroke of the pen, determine--when you

acquired your own independence--that the principles which you

adopted in the Declaration of Independence should be a shield of

protection to every man, whether he be slave or whether he be

free?" But, my friends, the experience of sixty years has shown

me that the fruit grows slowly. I look back and see that great

Sower of the world, as he traveled the streets of Jerusalem and

dropped the precious seed, "Do unto others as ye would that

others should do unto you." I look at all the contests of

different nations, and see that, whether it were the Patricians

of Rome, England, France, or any part of Europe, every battle

fought gained something to freedom. Our fathers, driven out by

the oppression of England, came to this country and planted that

little seed of liberty upon the soil of New England. When our

Revolution took place, the seed was only in the process of

sprouting. You must recollect that our Declaration of

Independence was the very first National evidence of the great

doctrine of brotherhood and equality. I verily believe that those

who were the true lovers of liberty did all they could at that

time. In their debates in the Convention they denounced

slavery--they protested against the hypocrisy and inconsistency

of a nation declaring such glorious truths, and then trampling

them underfoot by enslaving the poor and oppressed, because he

had a skin not colored like their own; as though a man's skin

should make any difference in the recognition of his rights, any

more than the color of his hair or of his eyes. This little blade

sprouted as it were from the precious seeds that were planted by

Jesus of Nazareth. But, my friends, if it took eighteen hundred

years to bring forth the little blade which was seen in our

Declaration, are we not unreasonable to suppose that more could

have been done than has been done, looking at the imperfections

of human nature, looking at the selfishness of man, looking at

his desire for wealth and his greed for glory?

Had the South yielded at that time to the freemen of the North,

we should have had a free Government; but it was impossible to

overcome the long and strong prejudices of the South in favor of

slavery. I know what the South is. I lived there the best part of

my life. I never could talk against slavery without making my

friends angry--never. When they thought the day was far off, and

there was no danger of emancipation, they were willing to admit

it was an evil; but when God in His providence raised up in this

country an Anti-slavery Society, protesting against the

oppressions of the colored man, they began to feel that truth

which is more powerful than arms--that truth which is the only

banner under which we can successfully fight. They were

comparatively quiet till they found, in the election of Mr.

Lincoln, the scepter had actually departed from them. His

election took place on the ground that slavery was not to be

extended--that it must not pass into the Territories. This was

what alarmed them. They saw that if the National Government

should take one such step, it never would stop there; that this

principle had never before been acknowledged by those who had any

power in the nation.

God be praised. Abolitionists never sought place or power. All

they asked was freedom; all they wanted was that the white man

should take his foot off the negro's neck. The South determined

to resist the election of Mr. Lincoln. They determined if Fremont

was elected, they would rebel. And this rebellion is like their

own Republic, as they call it; it is founded upon slavery. As I

asked one of my friends one day, "What are you rebelling for? The

North never made any laws for you that they have not cheerfully

obeyed themselves. What is the trouble between us?" Slavery,

slavery is the trouble. Slavery is a "divine institution." My

friends, it is a fact that the South has incorporated slavery

into her religion; that is the most fearful thing in this

rebellion. They are fighting, verily believing that they are

doing God service. Most of them have never seen the North. They

understand very little of the working of our institutions; but

their politicians are stung to the quick by the prosperity of the

North. They see that the institution which they have established

can not make them wealthy, can not make them happy, can not make

them respected in the world at large, and their motto is, "Rule

or ruin."

Before I close, I would like, however strange it may seem, to

utter a protest against what Mrs. Stanton said of colonizing the

aristocrats in Liberia. I can not consent to such a thing. Do you

know that Liberia has never let a slave tread her soil?--that

when, from the interior of the country, the slaves came there to

seek shelter, and their heathen masters pursued them, she never

surrendered one? She stands firmly on the platform of freedom to

all. I am deeply interested in this colony of Liberia. I do not

want it to be cursed with the aristocracy of the South, or any

other aristocracy, and far less with the Copperheadism of the

North. (Laughter). If these Southern aristocrats are to be

colonized, Mrs. President, don't you think England is the best

place for them? England is the country which has sympathized most

deeply with them. She has allowed vessels to be built to prey

upon our commerce; she has sent them arms and ammunition, and

everything she could send through the West India Islands. Shall

we send men to Liberia who are ready to tread the black man under

their feet? No. God bless Liberia for what she has done, and what

she is destined to do. (Applause).

I am very glad to say here, that last summer I had the pleasure

of entertaining several times, in our house, a Liberian who was

well educated in England. He had graduated at Oxford College, and

had a high position there. His health broke down, and he went to

Liberia. "When I went to Liberia," said he, "I had a first-rate

education, and I supposed, of course, I would be a very superior

man there; but I soon found that, though I knew a great deal more

Greek and Latin and mathematics than most of the men there, I was

a child to them in the science of government and history. Why,"

said he, "you have no idea of the progress of Liberia. The men

who go there are freemen--citizens; the burdens of society are

upon them; and they feel that they must begin to educate

themselves, and they are self-educated men. The President of

Liberia, Mr. Benson, was a slave about seven years ago on a

plantation in this country. He went to Liberia. He was a man of

uncommon talents. He educated himself to the duties which he

found himself called upon to perform as a citizen. And when Mr.

Benson visited England a year ago, he had a perfect ovation. The

white ladies and gentlemen of England, those who were really

anti-slavery in their feelings--who love liberty--followed him

wherever he went. They opened their houses, they had their

_soirees_, and they welcomed him by every kind of demonstration

of their good wishes for Liberia."

Now, Mrs. President, the great object that I had in view in

rising, was to give you a representative from South Carolina.

(Applause). I mourn exceedingly that she has taken the position

she has. I once had a brother who, had he been there, would have

stood by Judge Pettigrew in his protest against the action of the

South. He, many years ago, during the time of nullification in

1832, was in the Senate of South Carolina, and delivered an able

address, in which he discussed these very points, and showed that

the South had no right of secession; that, in becoming an

integral part of the United States, they had themselves

voluntarily surrendered that right. And he remarked, "If you

persist in this contest, you will be like a girdled tree, which

must perish and die. You can not stand." (Applause).

THE PRESIDENT (Lucy Stone): Mrs. Weld thinks it would be too bad

to send the Southern aristocrats and Northern copperheads to

Liberia: I do not know but it would. I am equally sure that it

would be too bad to send them among the laboring people of

England, who are thoroughly, heartily, and wholly on the side of

the loyal North. They ought not to be sent there. I would

suggest, when they are fairly subdued, that we should send them

to London to make a part of the staff of the London _Times_. I

think they would do better there than anywhere else. (Laughter).

The Hutchinson Family being present, varied the proceedings with their

inspiring songs. Lucy Stone, in introducing them, said Gen. McClellan

was not willing they should sing on the other side of the Potomac, but

we are glad to hear them everywhere. Susan B. Anthony presented a

series of resolutions,[43] and said:

There is great fear expressed on all sides lest this war shall be

made a war for the negro. I am willing that it shall be. It is a

war to found an empire on the negro in slavery, and shame on us

if we do not make it a war to establish the negro in

freedom--against whom the whole nation, North and South, East and

West, in one mighty conspiracy, has combined from the beginning.

Instead of suppressing the real cause of the war, it should have

been proclaimed, not only by the people, but by the President,

Congress, Cabinet, and every military commander. Instead of

President Lincoln's waiting two long years before calling to the

side of the Government the four millions of allies whom we have

had within the territory of rebeldom, it should have been the

first decree he sent forth. Every hour's delay, every life

sacrificed up to the proclamation that called the slave to

freedom and to arms, was nothing less than downright murder by

the Government. For by all the laws of common-sense--to say

nothing of laws military or national--if the President, as

Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, could have devised any

possible means whereby he might hope to suppress the rebellion,

without the sacrifice of the life of one loyal citizen, without

the sacrifice of one dollar of the loyal North, it was clearly

his duty to have done so. Every interest of the insurgents, every

dollar of their property, every institution, however peculiar,

every life in every rebel State, even, if necessary, should have

been sacrificed, before one dollar or one man should have been

drawn from the free States. How much more, then, was it the

President's duty to confer freedom on the four million slaves,

transform them into a peaceful army for the Union, cripple the

rebellion, and establish justice, the only sure foundation of

peace! I therefore hail the day when the Government shall

recognize that it is a war for freedom. We talk about returning

to the old Union--"the Union as it was," and "the Constitution as

it is"--about "restoring our country to peace and prosperity--to

the blessed conditions that existed before the war!" I ask you

what sort of peace, what sort of prosperity, have we had? Since

the first slave-ship sailed up the James River with its human

cargo, and there, on the soil of the _Old_ Dominion, sold it to

the highest bidder, we have had nothing but war. When that pirate

captain landed on the shores of Africa, and there kidnapped the

first stalwart negro, and fastened the first manacle, the

struggle between that captain and that negro was the commencement

of the terrible war in the midst of which we are to-day. Between

the slave and the master there has been war, and war only. This

is only a new form of it. No, no; we ask for no return to the

_old_ conditions. We ask for something better. We want a Union

that is a Union in fact, a Union in spirit, not a sham.

(Applause).

By the Constitution as it is, the North has stood pledged to

protect slavery in the States where it existed. We have been

bound, in case of insurrections, to go to the aid, not of those

struggling for liberty, but of the oppressors. It was politicians

who made this pledge at the beginning, and who have renewed it

from year to year to this day. These same men have had control of

the churches, the Sabbath-schools, and all religious influences;

and the women have been a party in complicity with slavery. They

have made the large majority in all the different religious

organizations throughout the country, and have without protest,

fellowshiped the slave-holder as a Christian; accepted

pro-slavery preaching from their pulpits; suffered the words

"slavery a crime" to be expurgated from all the lessons taught

their children, in defiance of the Golden Rule, "Do unto others

as you would that others should do unto you." They have had no

right to vote in their churches, and, like slaves, have meekly

accepted whatever morals and religion the selfish interest of

politics and trade dictated.

Woman must now assume her God-given responsibilities, and make

herself what she is clearly designed to be, the educator of the

race. Let her no longer be the mere reflector, the echo of the

worldly pride and ambition of man. (Applause). Had the women of

the North studied to know and to teach their sons the law of

justice to the black man, regardless of the frown or the smile of

pro-slavery priest and politician, they would not now be called

upon to offer the loved of their households to the bloody Moloch

of war. And now, women of the North, I ask you to rise up with

earnest, honest purpose, and go forward in the way of right,

fearlessly, as independent human beings, responsible to God alone

for the discharge of every duty, for the faithful use of every

gift, the good Father has given you. Forget conventionalisms;

forget what the world will say, whether you are in your place or

out of your place; think your best thoughts, speak your best

words, do your best works, looking to your own conscience for

approval.

Mrs. HOYT, of Wisconsin: Thus far this meeting has been conducted

in such a way as would lead one to suppose that it was an

anti-slavery convention. There are ladies here who have come

hundreds of miles to attend a business meeting of the Loyal Women

of the North; and good as anti-slavery conventions are, and

anti-slavery speeches are, in their way, I think that here we

should attend to our own business.

Mrs. CHALKSTONE, of California: My speech shall be as brief as

possible and I ask for an excuse for my broken language. Our

field is very small, and God has given us character and abilities

to follow it out. We do not need to stand at the ballot-boxes and

cast our votes, neither to stand and plead as lawyers; but in our

homes we have a great office. I consider women a great deal

superior to men. (Laughter and applause). Men are physically

strong, but women are morally better. I speak of pure women, good

women. It is woman who keeps the world in the balance.

I am from Germany, where my brothers all fought against the

Government and tried to make us free, but were unsuccessful. My

only son, seventeen years old, is in our great and noble army of

the Union. He has fought in many of the battles here, and I only

came from California to see him once more. I have not seen him

yet; though I was down in the camp, I could not get any pass. But

I am willing to lay down all this sacrifice for the cause of

liberty. We foreigners know the preciousness of that great, noble

gift a great deal better than you, because you never were in

slavery, but we are born in it. Germany pines for freedom. In

Germany we sacrificed our wealth and ornaments for it, and the

women in this country ought to do the same. We can not fight in

the battles, but we can do this, and it is all we can do. The

speaker, before me, remarked that Abraham Lincoln was two years

before he emancipated slaves. She thought it wrong. It took

eighteen hundred years in Europe to emancipate the Jews, and they

are not emancipated now. Among great and intelligent peoples like

Germany and France, until 1814 no Jew had the right to go on the

pavement; they had to go in the middle of the street, where the

horses walked! It took more than two years to emancipate the

people of the North from the idea that the negro was not a human

being, and that he had the right to be a free man. A great many

will find fault in the resolution that the negro shall be free

and equal, because our equal not every human being can be; but

free every human being has a right to be. He can only be equal in

his rights. (Applause).

Mrs. ROSE called for the reading of the resolutions, which after

a spirited discussion, all except the fifth, were unanimously

adopted.

Mrs. HOYT, of Wisconsin, said: _Mrs. President_--I object to the

passage of the fifth resolution, not because I object to the

sentiment expressed; but I do not think it is the time to bring

before this meeting, assembled for the purpose of devising the

best ways and means by which women may properly assist the

Government in its struggle against treason, anything which could

in the least prejudice the interest in this cause which is so

dear to us all. We all know that Woman's Rights as an _ism_ has

not been received with entire favor by the women of the country,

and I know that there are thousands of earnest, loyal, and able

women who will not go into any movement of this kind, if this

idea is made prominent. (Applause). I came here from Wisconsin

hoping to meet the earnest women of the country. I hoped that

nothing that would in any way damage the cause so dear to us all

would be brought forward by any of the members. I object to this,

because our object should be to maintain, as women properly may,

the integrity of our Government; to vindicate its authority; to

re-establish it upon a far more enduring basis. We can do this if

we do not involve ourselves in any purely political matter, or

any _ism_ obnoxious to the people. The one idea should be the

maintenance of the authority of the Government as it is, and the

integrity of the Republican idea. For this, women may properly

work, and I hope this resolution will not pass.

SARAH H. HALLECK, of Milton, N. Y.: I would make the suggestion

that those who approve of this resolution can afford to give way,

and allow that part of it which is objectionable to be stricken

out. The negroes have suffered more than the women, and the

women, perhaps, can afford to give them the preference. Let it

stand as regards them, and blot out the word "woman." It may

possibly be woman's place to suffer. At any rate, let her suffer,

if, by that means, _man_kind may suffer less.

A VOICE: You are too self-sacrificing.

ERNESTINE L. ROSE: I always sympathize with those who seem to be

in the minority. I know it requires a great deal of moral courage

to object to anything that appears to have been favorably

received. I know very well from long experience how it feels to

stand in a minority of one; and I am glad that my friend on the

other side (Mrs. Halleck) has already added one to make a

minority of two, though that is by far too small to be

comfortable. I, for one, object to the proposition to throw woman

out of the race for freedom. (Applause). And do you know why?

Because she needs freedom for the freedom of man. (Applause). Our

ancestors made a great mistake in not recognizing woman in the

rights of man. It has been justly stated that the negro at

present suffers more than woman, but it can do him no injury to

place woman in the same category with him. I, for one, object to

having that term stricken out, for it can have no possible

bearing against anything that we want to promote: we desire to

promote human rights and human freedom. It can do no injury, but

must do good, for it is a painful fact that woman under the law

has been in the same category with the slave. Of late years she

has had some small privileges conceded to her. Now, mind, I say

_conceded_; for publicly it has not yet been recognized by the

laws of the land that she has a right to an equality with man. In

that resolution it simply states a fact, that in a republic based

upon freedom, woman, as well as the negro, should be recognized

as an equal with the whole human race. (Applause)

ANGELINE G. WELD: _Mrs. President_--I rejoice exceedingly that

that resolution should combine us with the negro. I feel that we

have been with him; that the iron has entered into our souls.

True, we have not felt the slave-holder's lash; true, we have not

had our hands manacled, but our _hearts_ have been crushed. Was

there a single institution in this country that would throw open

its doors to the acknowledgment of woman's equality with man in

the race for science and the languages, until Oberlin, Antioch,

Lima, and a very few others opened their doors, twenty years ago?

Have I not heard women say--I said thus to my own brother, as I

used to receive from him instruction and reading: "Oh, brother,

that I could go to college with you! that I could have the

instruction you do! but I am crushed! I hear nothing, I know

nothing, except in the fashionable circle." A teacher said to a

young lady, who had been studying for several years, on the day

she finished her course of instruction, "I thought you would be

very glad that you were so soon to go home, so soon to leave your

studies." She looked up, and said, "What was I made for? When I

go home I shall live in a circle of fashion and folly. I was not

made for embroidery and dancing; I was made a woman; but I can

not be a true woman, a full-grown woman, in America."

Now, my friends, I do not want to find fault with the past. I

believe that men did for women the best that they knew how to do.

They did not know their own rights; they did not recognize the

rights of any man who had a black face. We can not wonder that,

in their tenderness for woman, they wanted to shelter and protect

her, and they made those laws from true, human, generous

feelings. Woman was then too undeveloped to demand anything else.

But woman is full-grown to-day, whether man knows it or not,

equal to her rights, and equal to the responsibilities of the

hour. I want to be identified with the negro; until he gets his

rights, we never shall have ours. (Applause).

SUSAN B. ANTHONY: This resolution brings in no question, no

_ism_. It merely makes the assertion that in a true democracy, in

a genuine republic, every citizen who lives under the government

must have the right of representation. You remember the maxim,

"Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the

governed." This is the fundamental principle of democracy; and

before our Government can be a true democracy--before our

republic can be placed upon lasting and enduring foundations--the

civil and political rights of every citizen must be practically

established. This is the assertion of the resolution. It is a

philosophical statement. It is not because women suffer, it is

not because slaves suffer, it is not because of any individual

rights or wrongs--it is the simple assertion of the great

fundamental truth of democracy that was proclaimed by our

Revolutionary fathers. I hope the discussion will no longer be

continued as to the comparative rights or wrongs of one class or

another. The question before us is: Is it possible that peace and

union shall be established in this country; is it possible for

this Government to be a true democracy, a genuine republic, while

one-sixth or one-half of the people are disfranchised?

MRS. HOYT: I do not object to the philosophy of these

resolutions. I believe in the advancement of the human race, and

certainly not in a retrograde movement of the Woman's Rights

question; but at the same time I do insist that nothing that has

become obnoxious to a portion of the people of the country shall

be dragged into this meeting. (Applause). The women of the North

were invited here to meet in convention, not to hold a Temperance

meeting, not to hold an Anti-Slavery meeting, not to hold a

Woman's Rights Convention, but to consult as to the best

practical way for the advancement of the loyal cause. To my

certain knowledge there are ladies in this house who have come

hundreds of miles, who will withdraw from this convention, who

will go home disappointed, and be thrown back on their own

resources, and form other plans of organization; whereas they

would much prefer to co-operate with the National Convention if

this matter were not introduced. This movement must be sacred to

the one object of assisting our Government. I would add one more

remark, that though the women of the Revolution did help our

Government in that early struggle, they did not find it necessary

to set forth in any theoretical or clamorous way their right to

equal suffrage or equal political position, though doubtless they

believed, as much as any of us, in the advancement of woman.

A LADY: I want to ask the lady who just spoke if the women of the

Revolution found it necessary to form Loyal Leagues? We are not

bound to do just as the women of the Revolution did. (Applause

and laughter).

LUCY N. COLEMAN, of Rochester, N. Y.: I wish to say, in the first

place, something a little remote from the point, which I have in

my mind just now. A peculiar sensitiveness seems to have come

over some of the ladies here in reference to the anti-slavery

spirit of the resolutions. It seems to me impossible that a

company of women could stand upon this platform without catching

something of the anti-slavery spirit, and without expressing, to

some extent, their sympathy with the advancement of human rights.

It is the Anti-Slavery women and the Woman's Rights women who

called this meeting, and who have most effectually aided in this

movement. Their hearts bleed to the very core that our nation is

to-day suffering to its depths, and they came together to devise

means whereby they could help the country in its great calamity.

I respect the woman who opposed this resolution, for daring to

say so much. She says that it is an Anti-Slavery Convention that

is in session. So it is, and something more. (Applause). She says

it is a Woman's Rights Convention. So it is, and even more than

that; it is a World's Convention. (Applause). Another woman (I

rejoice to hear that lisping, foreign tongue) says that our

sphere is so narrow that we should be careful to keep within it.

All honor to her, that she dared to say even that. I recognize

for myself no narrow sphere. (Applause). Where you may work, my

brother, I may work. I would willingly stand upon the

battle-field, and would be glad to receive the balls in my

person, if in that way I could do more for my country's good than

in any other. I recognize no right of any man or of any woman to

say that I should not stand there. Our sphere is _not_ narrow--it

is broad.

In reference to this resolution, Mrs. Halleck thinks it might be

well to leave out woman. No, no. Do you remember, friends, long,

long ago here in New York, an Anti-Slavery convention broke up in

high dudgeon, because a woman was put upon a committee? But that

Anti-Slavery Society, notwithstanding those persons who felt so

sensitive withdrew from it, has lived thirty years, and to-day it

has the honor of being credited as the cause of this war. Perhaps

if the principle which was then at stake--that a woman had a

right to be on a committee--had been waived, from the very fact

that the principle of right was overruled, that Society would

have failed. I would not yield one iota, one particle, to this

clamor for compromise. Be it understood that it is a Woman's

Rights matter; for the Woman's Rights women have the same right

to dictate to a Loyal League that the Anti-Woman's Rights women

have, and the side that is strongest will carry the resolution,

of course. But do not withdraw it. Do not say, "We will take it

away because it is objectionable."

I want the people to understand that this Loyal League--because

it is a Loyal League--must of necessity bring in Anti-Slavery and

Woman's Rights. (Applause). Is it possible that any of you

believe that there is such a being in this country to-day as a

loyal man or woman who is not anti-slavery to the backbone?

(Applause). Neither is there a loyal man or woman whose intellect

is clear enough to take in a broad, large idea, who is not to the

very core a Woman's Rights man or woman. (Applause).

MRS. HOYT: As I have said before, I am not opposed to

Anti-Slavery. I stand here an Abolitionist from the earliest

childhood, and a stronger anti-slavery woman lives not on the

soil of America. (Applause). I voted Yea on the anti-slavery

resolution, and I would vote it ten times over. But, at the same

time, in the West, which I represent, there is a very strong

objection to Woman's Rights; in fact, this Woman's Rights matter

is odious to some of us from the _manner_ in which it has been

conducted; not that we object to the philosophy--we believe in

the philosophy--but object to this matter being tacked on to a

purely loyal convention.... I will make one more statement which

bears upon the point which I have been trying to make. I have

never before spoken except in private meetings, and therefore

must ask the indulgence of the audience. The women of Madison,

Wisconsin, feeling the necessity and importance of doing

something more than women were doing to assist the Government in

this struggle, organized a Ladies' Union League, which has been

in operation some time, and is very efficient.

A VOICE:--What are they doing? Please state.

MRS. HOYT: In Madison we had a very large and flourishing

"Soldiers' Aid Society." We were the headquarters for that part

of the State. A great many ladies worked in our Aid Society, and

assisted us, who utterly refused to join with the Loyal League,

because, they said, it would damage the Aid Society. We

recognized that fact, and kept it purely distinct as a Ladies'

Loyal League, for the promotion of the loyal sentiment of the

North, and to reach the soldiers in the field by the most direct

and practical means which were in our power. We have a great many

very flourishing Ladies' Loyal Leagues throughout the West, and

we have kept them sacred from Anti-Slavery, Woman's Rights,

Temperance, and everything else, good though they may be. In our

League we have three objects in view. The first is, retrenchment

in household expenses, to the end that the material resources of

the Government may be, so far as possible, applied to the entire

and thorough vindication of its authority. Second, to strengthen

the loyal sentiment of the people at home, and instil a deeper

love of the national flag. The third and most important object

is, to write to the soldiers in the field, thus reaching nearly

every private in the army, to encourage and stimulate him in the

way that ladies know how to do. I state again, it is not an

Anti-Slavery objection. I will vote for every Anti-Slavery

movement in this Convention. I object to the Woman's Rights

resolutions, and nothing else.

ERNESTINE L. ROSE: It is exceedingly amusing to hear persons talk

about throwing out Woman's Rights, when, if it had not been for

Woman's Rights, that lady would not have had the courage to stand

here and say what she did. (Applause). Pray, what means "loyal"?

Loyal means to be true to one's highest conviction. Justice, like

charity, begins at home. It is because we are loyal to truth,

loyal to justice, loyal to right, loyal to humanity, that woman

is included in that resolution. Now, what does this discussion

mean? The lady acknowledges that it is not against Woman's Rights

itself; she is _for_ Woman's Rights. We are here to endeavor to

help the cause of human rights and human freedom. We ought not to

be afraid. You may depend upon it, if there are any of those who

are called copperheads--but I don't like to call names, for even

a copperhead is better than no head at all--(laughter)--if there

are any copperheads here, I am perfectly sure they will object to

this whole Convention; and if we want to consult them, let us

adjourn _sine die_. If we are loyal to our highest convictions,

we need not care how far it may lead. For truth, like water, will

find its own level. No, friends, in the name of consistency let

us not wrangle here simply because we associate the name of woman

with human justice and human rights. Although I always like to

see opposition on any subject, for it elicits truth much better

than any speech, still I think it will be exceedingly

inconsistent if, because some women out in the West are opposed

to the Woman's Rights movement--though at the same time they take

advantage of it--that therefore we shall throw it out of this

resolution.

MRS. SPENCE, of New York: I didn't come to this meeting to

participate--only to listen. I don't claim to be a Northerner or

a Southerner; but I claim to be a human being, and to belong to

the human family (Applause). I belong to no sect or creed of

politics or religion; I stand as an individual, defending the

rights of every one as far as I can see them. It seems to me we

have met here to come to some unity of action. If we attempt to

bring in religious, political, or moral questions, we all must of

necessity differ. We came here hoping to be inspired by each

other to lay some plan by which we can unite in practical action.

I have not heard such a proposition made; but I anticipate that

it will be. (Hear, hear). Then if we are to unite on some

proposition which is to be presented, it seems to me that our

resolutions should be practical and directed to the main

business. Let the object of the meeting be unity of action and

expression in behalf of what we feel to be the highest right, our

highest idea of liberty.

THE PRESIDENT (Lucy Stone): Every good cause can afford to be

just. The lady from Wisconsin, who differs from some of us here,

says she is an Anti-Slavery woman. We ought to believe her. She

accepts the principles of the Woman's Rights movement, but she

does not like the way in which it has been carried on. We ought

to believe her. It is not, then, that she objects to the idea of

the equality of women and negroes, but because she does not wish

to have anything "tacked on" to the Loyal League, that to the

mass of people does not seem to belong there. She seems to me to

stand precisely in the position of those good people just at the

close of the war of the Revolution. The people then, as now, had

their hearts aching with the memory of their buried dead. They

had had years of war from which they had garnered out sorrows as

well as hopes; and when they came to establish a Union, they

found that one black, unmitigated curse of slavery rooted in the

soil. Some men said, "We can have no true Union where there is

not justice to the negro. The black man is a human being, like

us, with the same equal rights." They had given to the world the

Declaration of Independence, grand and brave and beautiful. They

said, "How can we form a true Union?" Some people representing

the class that Mrs. Hoyt represents, answered, "Let us have a

Union. We are weak; we have been beset for seven long years; do

not let us meddle with the negro question. What we are for is a

Union; let us have a Union at all hazards." There were earnest

men, men of talent, who could speak well and earnestly, and they

persuaded the others to silence. So they said nothing about

slavery, and let the wretched monster live.

To-day, over all our land, the unburied bones of our fathers and

sons and brothers tell the sad mistake that those men made when

long ago The babes we bear in anguish and carry in our arms are

not ours. The few rights that we have, have been wrung from the

Legislature by t they left this one great wrong in the land. They

could not accomplish good by passing over a wrong. If the right

of one single human being is to be disregarded by us, we fail in

our loyalty to the country. All over this land women have no

political existence. Laws pass over our heads that we can not

unmake. Our property is taken from us without our consent. The

babes we bear in anguish and carry in our arms are not ours. The

few rights that we have, have been wrung from the Legislature by

the Woman's Rights movement. We come to-day to say to those who

are administering our Government and fighting our battles, "While

you are going through this valley of humiliation, do not forget

that you must be true alike to the women and the negroes." We can

never be truly "loyal" if we leave them out. Leave them out, and

we take the same backward step that our fathers took when they

left out slavery. If justice to the negro and to woman is right,

it can not hurt our loyalty to the country and the Union. If it

is not right, let it go out of the way; but if it is right, there

is no occasion that we should reject it, or ignore it. We make

the statement that the Government derives its just powers from

the consent of the governed, and that all human beings have equal

rights. This is not an _ism_--it is simply an assertion that we

shall be true to the highest truth.

A MAN IN THE AUDIENCE: The question was asked, as I entered this

house, "Is it right for women to meet here and intermeddle in our

public affairs?" It is the greatest possible absurdity for women

to stand on that platform and talk of loyalty to a Government in

which nine-tenths of the politicians of the land say they have no

right to interfere, and still oppose Woman's Rights. The very act

of standing there is an endorsement of Woman's Rights.

A VOICE: I believe this is a woman's meeting. Men have no right

to speak here.

THE GENTLEMAN CONTINUED: It is on woman more than on man that the

real evils of this war settle. It is not the soldier on the

battle-field that suffers most; it is the wife, the mother, the

daughter. (Applause. Cries of "Question, question").

A VOICE: You are not a woman, sit down.

SUSAN B. ANTHONY: Some of us who sit upon this platform have many

a time been clamored down, and told that we had no right to

speak, and that we were out of our place in public meetings; far

be it from us, when women assemble, and a man has a thought in

his soul, burning for utterance, to retaliate upon him. (Laughter

and applause).

The resolution was then put to vote.

A VOICE: Allow me to inquire if men have a right to vote on this

question?

THE PRESIDENT: I suppose men who are used to business know that

they should _not_ vote here. We give them the privilege of

speaking.

The resolution was carried by a large majority.

SUSAN B. ANTHONY: The resolution recommending the practical work,

has not yet been prepared. We have a grand platform on which to

stand, and I hope we shall be able to present a plan of work

equally grand. But, Mrs. President, if we should fail in doing

this, we shall not fail to enunciate the principles of democracy

and republicanism which underlie the structure of a free

government. When the heads and hearts of the women of the North

are fully imbued with the true idea, their hands will find a way

to secure its accomplishment.

There is evidently very great earnestness on the part of all

present to settle upon some practical work. I therefore ask that

the women from every State of the Union, who are delegates here

from Loyal Leagues and Aid Societies, shall retire, at the close

of this meeting, to the lecture-room of this church, and there we

will endeavor to fix upon the best possible plan we can gather

from the counsels of the many. I hope this enthusiasm may be

directed to good and legitimate ends, and not allowed to

evaporate into thin air. I hope we shall aid greatly in the

establishment of this Government on the everlasting foundation of

justice to all.

BUSINESS MEETING.

The lecture-room was crowded with representatives from the different

States--Susan B. Anthony in the chair. There was a general expression

in favor of forming a Woman's Loyal National League, which ended in

the adoption of the following resolution:

_Resolved_, That we, loyal women of the nation, assembled in

convention in New York, this 14th day of May, 1863, do hereby

pledge ourselves one to another in a Loyal League, to give

support to the Government in so far as it makes the war for

freedom.

This pledge was signed by nearly every woman present. Mrs. Stanton was

elected president unanimously, and Miss Anthony, Secretary. Many women

spoke ably and eloquently; women who had never before heard their own

voices in a public meeting, discussed nice points of law and

constitution in a manner that would have done credit to any

legislative assembly. A deep religious tone of loyalty to God and

Freedom pervaded the entire meeting. It was an occasion not soon to be

forgotten. Women of all ages were assembled there, from the matron of

threescore years and ten to the fair girl whose interest in the war

had brought to her a premature sadness and high resolve. But of all

who mourned the loss of husbands, brothers, sons, and lovers, no word

of fear, regret, or doubt was uttered. All declared themselves ready

for any sacrifice, and expressed an unwavering faith in the glorious

future of a true republic. The interest in the meeting kept up until

so late an hour that it was decided to adjourn, to meet the next

afternoon.

EVENING SESSION.

The evening session was held in Cooper Institute, Mrs. Stanton

presiding. An address to the President was read by Miss Anthony, which

was subsequently adopted and sent to him.

_The Loyal Women of the Country to Abraham Lincoln, President of

the United States._

Having heard many complaints of the want of enthusiasm among

Northern women in the war, we deemed it fitting to call a

National Convention. From every free State, we have received the

most hearty responses of interest in each onward step of the

Government as it approaches the idea of a true republic. From the

letters received, and the numbers assembled here to-day, we can

with confidence address you in the name of the loyal women of the

North.

We come not to criticise or complain. Not for ourselves or our

friends do we ask redress of specific grievances, or posts of

honor or emolument. We speak from no considerations of mere

material gain; but, inspired by true patriotism, in this dark

hour of our nation's destiny, we come to pledge the loyal women

of the Republic to freedom and our country. We come to strengthen

you with earnest words of sympathy and encouragement. We come to

thank you for your proclamation, in which the nineteenth century

seems to echo back the Declaration of Seventy-six. Our fathers

had a vision of the sublime idea of liberty, equality, and

fraternity; but they failed to climb the heights that with

anointed eyes they saw. To us, their children, belongs the work

to build up the living reality of what they conceived and

uttered.

It is not our mission to criticise the past. Nations, like

individuals, must blunder and repent. It is not wise to waste one

energy in vain regret, but from each failure rise up with renewed

conscience and courage for nobler action. The follies and faults

of yesterday we cast aside as the old garments we have outgrown.

Born anew to freedom, slave creeds and codes and constitutions

must now all pass away. "For men do not put new wine into old

bottles, else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and

the bottles perish; but they put new wine into new bottles, and

both are preserved."

Our special thanks are due to you, that by your Proclamation two

millions of women are freed from the foulest bondage humanity

ever suffered. Slavery for man is bad enough, but the refinements

of cruelty must ever fall on the mothers of the oppressed race,

defrauded of all the rights of the family relation, and violated

in the most holy instincts of their nature. A mother's life is

bound up in that of her child. There center all her hopes and

ambition. But the slave-mother, in her degradation, rejoices not

in the future promise of her daughter, for she knows by

experience what her sad fate must be. No pen can describe the

unutterable agony of that mother whose past, present, and future

are all wrapped in darkness; who knows the crown of thorns she

wears must press her daughter's brow; who knows that the

wine-press she now treads, unwatched, those tender feet must

tread alone. For, by the law of slavery, "the child follows the

condition of the mother."

By your act, the family, that great conservator of national

virtue and strength, has been restored to millions of humble

homes, around whose altars coming generations shall magnify and

bless the name of Abraham Lincoln. By a mere stroke of the pen

you have emancipated millions from a condition of wholesale

concubinage. We now ask you to finish the work by declaring that

nowhere under our national flag shall the motherhood of any race

plead in vain for justice and protection. So long as one slave

breathes in this Republic, we drag the chain with him. God has so

linked the race, man to man, that all must rise or fall together.

Our history exemplifies this law. It was not enough that we at

the North abolished slavery for ourselves, declared freedom of

speech and the press, built up churches, colleges, and free

schools, studied the science of morals, government, and economy,

dignified labor, amassed wealth, whitened the sea with our

commerce, and commanded the respect and admiration of the nations

of the earth, so long as the South, by the natural proclivities

of slavery, was sapping the very foundations of our national

life....

You are the first President ever borne on the shoulders of

freedom into the position you now fill. Your predecessors owed

their elevation to the slave oligarchy, and in serving slavery

they did but obey their masters. In your election, Northern

freemen threw off the yoke. And with you rests the responsibility

that our necks shall never bow again. At no time in the annals of

the nation has there been a more auspicious moment to retrieve

the one false step of the fathers in their concessions to

slavery. The Constitution has been repudiated, and the compact

broken by the Southern traitors now in arms. The firing of the

first gun on Sumter released the North from all constitutional

obligations to slavery. It left the Government, for the first

time in our history, free to carry out the Declaration of our

Revolutionary fathers, and made us in fact what we have ever

claimed to be, a nation of freemen.

"The Union as it was"--a compromise between barbarism and

civilization--can never be restored, for the opposing principles

of freedom and slavery can not exist together. Liberty is life,

and every form of government yet tried proves that slavery is

death. In obedience to this law, our Republic, divided and

distracted by the collisions of caste and class, is tottering to

its base, and can only be reconstructed on the sure foundations

of impartial freedom to all men. The war in which we are involved

is not the result of party or accident, but a forward step in the

progress of the race never to be retraced. Revolution is no time

for temporizing or diplomacy. In a radical upheaving, the people

demand eternal principles to stand upon.

Northern power and loyalty can never be measured until the

purpose of the war be liberty to man; for a lasting enthusiasm is

ever based on a grand idea, and unity of action demands a

definite end. At this time our greatest need is not in men or

money, valiant generals or brilliant victories, but in a

consistent policy, based on the principle that "all governments

derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." And

the nation waits for you to say that there is no power under our

declaration of rights, nor under any laws, human or divine, by

which _free_ men can be made slaves; and therefore that your

pledge to the slaves is irrevocable, and shall be redeemed.

If it be true, as it is said, that Northern women lack enthusiasm

in this war, the fault rests with those who have confused and

confounded its policy. The page of history glows with incidents

of self-sacrifice by woman in the hour of her country's danger.

Fear not that the daughters of this Republic will count any

sacrifice too great to insure the triumph of freedom. Let the men

who wield the nation's power be wise, brave, and magnanimous, and

its women will be prompt to meet the duties of the hour with

devotion and heroism.

When Fremont on the Western breeze proclaimed a day of jubilee to

the bondmen within our gates, the women of the nation echoed back

a loud Amen. When Hunter freed a million men, and gave them arms

to fight our battles, justice and mercy crowned that act, and

tyrants stood appalled. When Butler, in the chief city of the

Southern despotism, hung a traitor, we felt a glow of pride; for

that one act proved that we had a Government, and one man brave

enough to administer its laws. And when Burnside would banish

Vallandigham to the Dry Tortugas, let the sentence be approved,

and the nation will ring with plaudits. Your Proclamation gives

you immortality. Be just, and share your glory with men like

these who wait to execute your will.

In behalf of the Women's National Loyal League,

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, _President_.

SUSAN B. ANTHONY, _Secretary_.

Rev. ANTOINETTE BROWN BLACKWELL: Possibly there maybe nations,

like individuals, that are without definite ideas or purposes.

They sprang into being by accident, and they continue to live by

the sufferance of circumstances. Our American Republic is not of

this type. We were born to the heritage of one great idea; we

were created by it and for it, and it is mightier than we; it

must annihilate us, or it must establish us a nation as lasting

as the ages.

Our ante-revolutionary statesmen were dissatisfied with an

inadequate, partial, unjust representation. The thought grew in

them till it developed the broad principle of self-government by

the people. They perceived and asserted that truth; they fought

for it, and died or lived for it, as the case might be. So they

constructed this great Republic, grounding it firmly upon a deep

and wide democracy. Its frame-work was essentially democratic,

but there were a few great beams and joists, and plenty of paint

and mortar used, which were as purely aristocratic.

We, here at the North, have been accustomed to look at the

strength of the foundations, and of the consistent massive

frame-work; they, at the South, admired the incongruous ornaments

and decorations, and they did not forget any of the exceptional

timbers. We were shocked when the great structure seemed ready to

tumble about our ears; they expected it all the time, and were

working for it, ready to perish in the general downfall, if that

were inevitable. I have seen a drop of water spread over a small

orifice in a layer of melting ice, which was brilliant red in

color to me, but it was the intensest blue to my friend, who was

standing at my side. The moral vision is quite as largely

dependent upon the angle at which it receives its rays of

reflected light. North and South represent the extremes of the

moral spectrum. The equalizing of labor and capital, which is a

beautiful violet to us, is a very angry red to them; and the

soft-toned hues of their system of servitude are crimson with

blood-guiltiness to ourselves. If we stood where the perfect and

undivided sunbeams could fall upon us, we should see all men

under the common radiance of that pure white light, of which

Providence has an unlimited supply.

No more unanimity of sentiment or principle existed among our own

people in the war of the Revolution, than in this. Democracy,

asserting its rights, brought on the conflict then, though

aristocracy, goaded by the instinct of self-preservation and

self-interest, joined hands and aided it to its consummation.

Patriotism grew in the hearts of each, and held us together as a

nation for about eighty years; but the subordinate antagonism,

tortured by its unnatural alliance during all those years, now in

turn strikes also for independence. Predominance, precedence,

pre-eminence, might have satisfied it for a time; but, from the

nature of our institutions, that was impossible. It encroached at

every point, and was generally rewarded for its self-assertion;

but it was inherently and constitutionally subordinate, and must

have remained so forever in the federation of the United States.

It struck for independence, and it did well! It did all it could

do, if it would not die inanely. One must always admire that

instinct of the grub which leads it to weave its own

winding-sheet, and lie down fearlessly in its sepulcher,

preparatory to its resurrection as a butterfly; but immeasurably

more to be admired is the calculating courage of men who are

ready to stake their all upon any issue--even upon one so

mistaken, so false, so partial to one class and so unjust to

another, as the cause of the slave-holders. Every earnest purpose

must have its own baptism of blessings.

We, the inheritors of a sublime truth, have been grievously

wanting in faith in our heritage!--wanting in aim and purpose to

maintain its integrity! No wonder the land is still washed with

tears of the widowed and fatherless, and that stricken mothers

refuse to be comforted. Give us a living principle to die for.

"Make this a war for emancipation!" cries anti-slavery England,

"and our sympathies will be with you!" They demand much; but,

that demand granted, it yet falls infinitely below the real point

at issue. It is immeasurably short of the great conflict which we

are actually waging. It is one phase of it,--the most acute

phase, undoubtedly; but not, therefore, the broadest and most

momentous one. Slavery was the peculiar institution of the South;

but we, as a nation, have an incomparably greater peculiar

institution of our own. The one is only peculiarly exceptional to

our general policy; the other is essentially and organically at

war with it. It is the only thing which pointedly distinguishes

us from a dozen other nations. The consent of the governed is the

sole, legitimate authority of any government! This is the

essential, peculiar creed of our republic. That principle is on

one side of this war; and the old doctrine of might makes right,

the necessary ground-work of all monarchies, is on the other. It

is a life-and-death conflict between all those grand, universal,

man-respecting principles, which we call by the comprehensive

term democracy, and all those partial, person-respecting,

class-favoring elements which we group together under that

silver-slippered word aristocracy. If this war does not mean

that, it means nothing.

Slavery is malignantly aristocratic, and seems therefore to

absorb all other manifestations of the principle into itself. It

is Pharaoh's lean kine, which devour all the others of their

species, and yet are no better favored than before. But if

slavery were dead to-day, aristocracy might still grind our

republic to powder. Men may cease to be slaves, and yet not be

enfranchised. Although they are no longer bondmen, yet they may

be governed without their own consent. But when you deny the

universal enfranchisement of our people, you deny the one

distinctive principle of our Government, and the only essential,

fore-ordained fact in the future of our national institutions. We

do not at all comprehend this.

There was one who builded wiser than he knew, Emerson says, and I

think that result is not uncommon. The little Indian boy in the

pleasant fable, who ran on eagerly in advance of his migrating

tribe, to plant his single, three-cornered beech-nut in the

center of a great prairie, scarcely foresaw the many acres of

heavy timber which was to confront the white pioneer hundreds of

years afterward, as the outgrowth of his childish deed. Many

soldiers are fighting our battles upon a basis broader than they

know. There are men who believe that they are solely engaged in

putting down the rebellion; others are maintaining the disputed

courage and honor of the "mudsills"; some are fighting to uphold

our present Northern civilization and its institutions; and a

handful have set out definitely to carry these into the South, to

give them to the slave, and to the master also, in spite of

himself. All love the Union, and are ready to fight, perhaps to

die, for it. Aye! but what does that mean? Something as

antagonistic in the interpretation thereof as the decisions

touching an ancient oracle, a disputed biblical text, or a knotty

passage from our own venerated Constitution.

If victory should come just as she is summoned by each class of

our patriotic and brave Union volunteers, would she most favor

the rebels or the Government? Look at some of her conflicting

purposed achievements:

1. To preserve slavery unharmed, without so much as the smell of

fire upon its garments, when it shall emerge from the ordeal of

war.

2. To gratuitously establish slavery forever, by solemn and

unchanging guarantees.

3. To leave slavery to perish slowly and ingloriously, as it must

when unprotected.

4. To cripple and destroy slavery by a long guerrilla warfare

against its special manifestations.

5. To kill slavery at a blow, by right of an imperious and

undoubted military necessity.

6. To exterminate slavery without compromise or weighing of

consequences, because it is a gross moral wrong.

These are a few of the many platforms upon which husbands,

brothers and sons are fighting to-day. No two opposing armies

ever wearied heaven with asking more impossible cross-purposes

than does this fraternal, Union army of ours. The bread and fish

of these, are stones and scorpions to those. We are a practical

people, but we are fighting for practical paradoxes. Do we expect

any massive concentration of results? Our wavering, anaconda

system of warfare is typical of our moral status as a people. It

is the spontaneous and legitimate exponent of our aims and

motives. Many or decisive victories I despair of, till we are

better educated in the early lesson of the fathers. But from the

President--God bless him that he seems to be more teachable than

many others--down to the youngest drummer-boy of the army, the

severe discipline of this war is schooling us into a better

appreciation of our heritage as a peculiar people.

All governments, said the fathers, are subordinate to the people,

not the people to their governments. The distinct enunciation of

that principle was the net result of the war of the Revolution.

Born of the long-suffering and anguish of bleeding nations, its

worth is yet incomparably greater than the cost, for it is the

sublimest principle which has ever entered into the governmental

relations of men. It must turn and overturn till, as rightful

sovereign it is placed securely upon the throne of all nations,

for, from the inherent nature of things, it is destined to become

the mightiest revolutionist of the ages. The reinstating of that

principle in the chair of our Republic will be the net result of

this war of the Rebellion!

When the statesmen of '76 sought to embody this principle in the

complicated machinery of a vast government, there they partially

failed--there they designedly failed. The minority seceded from

it in that day as in this, and then they compromised. The

antagonism which they engrafted on the young Republic assuming,

as it does, that power, not humanity, is statute-maker, could not

be more diametrically opposed to the axiom which asserts, that

humanity, not power, is lawful arbiter of its own rights. The

man, unwashed, unmended, unlearned, is yet a safer judge of his

own interests, than is all the rank, the wealth, or the wisdom of

men or angels. Thomas Simms is a better witness as to his own

need of freedom than the combined wisdom of all the Boston

lawyers, judges, and statesmen. We can keep ice and fire upon

the same planet, but it never does to bring them too near

together. A nation proclaiming to the astonished world that

governments derive all just powers solely from the consent of the

governed, yet in the very face of this assertion enslaving the

black man, and disfranchising half its white citizens, besides

minor things of like import and consistency--do you wonder that

eighty years of such policy culminated in rebellion?

Do we expect the whole-hearted sympathy of any monarchy? Cannot

they see, also, that two entire opposing civilizations are

mustered into the conflict? They may hate slavery, and since we

have found the courage to point our cannon more directly against

the heart of that, they may rejoice so far; but do they desire to

establish the subordination of any government to the rights of

the very meanest of its subjects? Are they in love with our

plebeian heresy, that all the magnificent civil machinery of

nations is but so much base clay in the hands of the multitude of

royal potters? We are now testing the practical possibilities of

democratic theories; and there are those who would a thousand

times rather see these shattered into hopeless fragments than any

other result which could possibly transpire in the national

affairs of all Christendom. Let our democracy prove shallow,

weak, inefficient, unfitted for emergencies, and incapable of

sustaining itself under the test of determined opposition, to

them it is enough. Our great national axiom, is, _per se_, the

eternal foe of all monarchies, aristocracies, oligarchies, of all

possible despotism, because it is the fulcrum of a mighty lever

which must one day overturn them all, if it be not itself jostled

from its resting-place.

What are we to do with our conquered provinces of the South? Give

them all the franchises which we hold ourselves, assuredly--as

many personal rights and as many State rights--provided always

that they cease to encroach upon our liberties, and are no longer

rebels against the common Government. Now that the issue is

forced upon us, let us apply our principles unsparingly to all,

and conclude by making the slaves, men and women too, as free and

equal in all civil and political functions as their male masters.

Secretary Chase has seized the occasion of our heavy financial

troubles to give us a general national banking system; so out of

the nettle Danger to our liberal institutions let us pluck the

flower Safety to the interest of the feeblest subject. It is thus

that the darkest evil is often made nurse to the brightest good.

The black mud at its roots nourishes the pure white water-lily.

When the Southern people, white and black, male and female, are

all voters together, by simple virtue of their human needs and

rights, then, but not till then, will I consent to their freely

voting themselves into an independent nation, if they are so

disposed. Even then, democracy requires that the question shall

be decided by the suffrage of the whole country, North as well as

South. A republic can never be dismembered except by the consent

of a majority of all its citizens....

ERNESTINE L. ROSE, a native of Poland, was next introduced; she

said: Louis Kossuth told us it is not well to look back for

regret, but only for instruction. I therefore intend slightly to

cast my mind's eye back for the purpose of enabling us, as far

as possible, to contemplate the present and foresee the future.

It is unnecessary to point out the cause of this war. It is

written on every object we behold. It is but too well understood

that the primary cause is Slavery; and it is well to keep that in

mind, for the purpose of gaining the knowledge how ultimately to

be able to crush that terrible rebellion which now desolates the

land. Slavery being the cause of the war, we must look to its

utter extinction for the remedy. (Applause).

We have listened this evening to an exceedingly instructive, kind

and gentle address, particularly that part of it which tells how

to deal with the South after we have brought them back. But I

think it would be well, at first, to consider how to bring them

back!

Abraham Lincoln has issued a Proclamation. He has emancipated all

the slaves of the rebel States with his pen, but that is all. To

set them really and thoroughly free, we will have to use some

other instrument than the pen. (Applause). The slave is not

emancipated; he is not free. A gentleman once found himself of a

sudden, without, so far as he knew, any cause, taken into prison.

He sent for his lawyer, and told him, "They have taken me to

prison." "What have you done?" said the lawyer. "I have done

nothing," he replied. "Then, my friend, they can not put you in

prison." "But I am in prison." "Well, that may be; but I tell

you, my dear friend, they can not put you in prison." "Well,"

said he, "I want you to come and take me out, for I tell you, in

spite of all your lawyer logic, I am in prison, and I shall be

until you take me out." (Great laughter). Now the poor slave has

to say, "Abraham Lincoln, you have pronounced me free; still I am

a slave, bought and sold as such, and I shall remain a slave till

I am taken out of this horrible condition." Then the question is,

_How?_ Have not already two long years passed over more than a

quarter of a million of the graves of the noblest and bravest of

the nation? Is that not enough? No; it has proved not to be

enough. Let us look back for a moment. Had the Proclamation of

John C. Fremont been allowed to have its effect; had the edict of

Hunter been allowed to have its effect, the war would have been

over. (Applause). Had the people and the Government, from the

very commencement of the struggle, said to the South, "You have

openly thrown down the gauntlet to fight for Slavery; we will

accept it, and fight for Freedom," the rebellion would long

before now have been crushed. (Applause). You may blame Europe as

much as you please, but the heart of Europe beats for freedom.

Had they seen us here accept the terrible alternative of war for

the sake of freedom, the whole heart of Europe would have been

with us. But such has not been the case. Hence the destruction of

over a quarter of a million of lives and ten millions of broken

hearts that have already paid the penalty; and we know not how

many more it needs to wipe out the stain of that recreancy that

did not at once proclaim this war a war for freedom and humanity.

And now we have got here all around us Loyal Leagues. Loyal to

what? What does it mean? I have read that term in the papers. A

great many times I have heard that expression to-day. I know not

what others mean by it, but I will give you my interpretation of

what I am loyal to. I speak for myself. I do not wish any one

else to be responsible for my opinions. I am loyal only to

justice and humanity. Let the Administration give evidence that

they too are for justice to all, without exception, without

distinction, and I, for one, had I ten thousand lives, would

gladly lay them down to secure this boon of freedom to humanity.

(Applause). But without this certainty, I am not unconditionally

loyal to the Administration. We women need not be, for the law

has never yet recognized us. (Laughter). Then I say to Abraham

Lincoln, "Give us security for the future, for really when I look

at the past, without a guarantee, I can hardly trust you." And

then I would say to him, "Let nothing stand in your way; let no

man obstruct your path."

Much is said in the papers and in political speeches about the

Constitution. Now, a good constitution is a very good thing; but

even the best of constitutions need sometimes to be amended and

improved, for after all there is but one constitution which is

infallible, but one constitution that ought to be held sacred,

and that is the human constitution. (Laughter). Therefore, if

written constitutions are in the way of human freedom, suspend

them till they can be improved. If generals are in the way of

freedom, suspend them too; and more than that, suspend their

money. We have got here a whole army of generals who have been

actually dismissed from the service, but not from pay. Now, I say

to Abraham Lincoln, if these generals are good for anything, if

they are fit to take the lead, put them at the head of armies,

and let them go South and free the slaves you have announced

free. If they are good for nothing, dispose of them as of

anything else that is useless. At all events, cut them loose from

the pay. (Applause). Why, my friends, from July, 1861, to

October, 1862--for sixteen long months--we have been electrified

with the name of our great little Napoleon! And what has the

great little Napoleon done? (Laughter). Why, he has done just

enough to prevent anybody else from doing anything. (Great

applause). But I have no quarrel with him. I don't know him. I

presume none of you do. But I ask Abraham Lincoln--I like to go

to headquarters, for where the greatest power is assumed, there

the greatest responsibility rests, and in accordance with that

principle I have nothing to do with menials, even though they are

styled Napoleons--but I ask the President why McClellan was kept

in the army so long after it was known--for there never was a

time when anything else was known--that he was both incapable and

unwilling to do anything? I refer to this for the purpose of

coming, by and by, to the question, "What ought to be done?" He

was kept at the head of the army on the Potomac just long enough

to prevent Burnside from doing anything, and not much has been

done since that time. Now, McClellan may be a very nice young

man--I haven't the slightest doubt of it--but I have read a

little anecdote of him. Somebody asked the president of a Western

railroad company, in which McClellan was an engineer, what he

thought about his abilities. "Well," said the president, "he is a

first-rate man to build bridges; he is very exact, very

mathematical in measurement, very precise in adjusting the

timber; he is the best man in the world to build a good, strong,

sound bridge, but after he has finished it, he never wishes

anybody to cross over it." (Great laughter). Well, we have

disposed of him partially, but we PAY him yet, and you and I are

taxed for it. But if we are to have a new general in his place,

we may ask, what has become of Sigel? Why does that

disinterested, noble-minded, freedom-loving man in vain ask of

the Administration to give him an army to lead into the field?

A VOICE: Ask Halleck.

Halleck! If Halleck is in the way, dispose of him. (Applause). Do

you point me to the Cabinet? If the Cabinet is in the way of

freedom, dispose of the Cabinet--(applause) some of them, at

least. The magnitude of this war has never yet been fully felt or

acknowledged by the Cabinet. The man at its head--I mean

Seward--has hardly yet woke up to the reality that we have a war.

He was going to crush the rebellion in sixty days. It was a mere

_bagatelle_! Why, he could do it after dinner, any day, as easy

as taking a bottle of wine! If Seward is in the way of crushing

the rebellion and establishing freedom, dispose of him. From the

cause of the war, learn the remedy, decide the policy, and place

it in the hands of men capable and willing to carry it out. I am

not unconditionally loyal, until we know to what principle we are

to be loyal. Promise justice and freedom, and all the rest will

follow. Do you know, my friends, what will take place if

something decisive is not soon done? It is high time to consider

it. I am not one of those who look on the darkest side of things,

but yet my reason and reflection forbid me to hope against hope.

It is only eighteen months more before another Presidential

election--only one year before another President will be

nominated. Let the present administration remain as indolent, as

inactive, and, apparently, as indifferent as they have done; let

them keep generals that are inferior to many of their private

soldiers; let them keep the best generals there are in the

country--Sigel and Fremont--unoccupied--(applause); let them keep

the country in the same condition in which it has been the last

two years, and is now, and what would be the result, if, at the

next election, the Democrats succeed--I mean the sham Democrats?

I am a democrat, and it is because I am a democrat that I go for

human freedom. Human freedom and true democracy are identical.

Let the Democrats, as they are now called, get into office, and

what would be the consequence? Why, under this hue-and-cry for

Union, _Union_, UNION, which is like a bait held out to the mass

of the people to lure them on, they will grant to the South the

meanest and the most contemptible compromises that the worst

slaveholders in the South can require. And if they really accept

them and come back--my only hope is that they will not--but if

the South should accept these compromises, and come back, slavery

will be fastened, not only in the South, but it will be

nationally fastened on the North. Now, a good Union, like a good

Constitution, is a most invaluable thing; but a false Union is

infinitely more despicable than no Union at all; and for myself,

I would vastly prefer to have the South remain independent, than

to bring them back with that eternal curse nationalized in the

country. It is not enough for Abraham Lincoln to proclaim the

slaves in the South free, nor even to continue the war until they

shall be really free. There is something to be done at home; for

justice, like charity, must begin at home. It is a mockery to say

that we emancipate the slaves we can not reach and pass by those

we can reach. First, free the slaves that are under the flag of

the Union. If that flag is the symbol of freedom, let it wave

over free men only. The slaves must be freed in the Border

States. Consistency is a great power. What are you afraid of?

That the Border States will join with the now crippled rebel

States? We have our army there, and the North can swell its

armies. But we can not afford to fight without an object. We can

not afford to bring the South back with slavery. We can not

compromise with principle. What has brought on this war? Slavery,

undoubtedly. Slavery was the primary cause of it. But the great

secondary cause was the fact that the North, for the sake of the

Union, has constantly compromised. Every demand that the South

made of the North was acceded to, until the South came really to

believe that they were the natural and legitimate masters, not

only of the slaves, but of the North too.

Now, it is time to reverse all these things. This rebellion and

this war have cost too dear. The money spent, the vast stores

destroyed, the tears shed, the lives sacrificed the hearts broken

are too high a price to be paid for the mere _name_ of Union. I

never believed we had a Union. A true Union is based upon

principles of mutual interest, of mutual respect and reciprocity,

none of which ever existed between the North and South. They

based their institutions on slavery; the North on freedom.

I care not by what measure you end the war, if you allow one

single germ, one single seed of slavery to remain in the soil of

America, whatever may be your object, depend upon it, as true as

effect follows cause, that germ will spring up, that noxious weed

will thrive, and again stifle the growth, wither the leaves,

blast the flowers, and poison the fair fruits of freedom. Slavery

and freedom can not exist together. Seward proclaimed a truism,

but he did not appreciate its import. There is an irrepressible

conflict between freedom and slavery. You might as well say that

light and darkness can exist together as freedom and slavery. We,

therefore, must urge the Government to do something, and that

speedily, to secure the boon of freedom, while they yet can, not

only in the rebel States, but in our own States too, and in the

Border States. It is just as wrong for us to keep slaves in the

Union States as it ever was in the South. Slavery is as great a

curse to the slaveholder as it is a wrong to the slaves; and yet

while we free the rebel slaveholder from the curse, we allow it

to continue with our Union-loving men in the Border States. Free

the slaves in the Border States, in Western Virginia, in

Maryland, and wherever the Union flag floats, and then there will

be a consistency in our actions that will enable us to go to work

earnestly with heart and hand united, as we move forward to free

all others and crush the rebellion. We have had no energy yet in

the war, for we have fought only for the purpose of reuniting,

what has never been united, restoring the old Union--or rather

the shadow as it was. A small republic, a small nation, based

upon the eternal principle of freedom, is great and powerful. A

large empire based upon slavery, is weak and without foundation.

The moment the light of freedom shines upon it, it discloses its

defects, and unmasks its hideous deformities. As I said before, I

would rather have a small republic without the taint and without

the stain of slavery in it, than to have the South brought back

by compromise. To avert such calamity, we must work. And our work

must mainly be to watch and criticise and urge the Administration

to do its whole duty to freedom and humanity. (Applause).

THE PRESIDENT then said: I suppose all the loyal women will agree

with me that we owe to the President and the Government in these

hours of trial, whether they make mistakes or whether they do

not, words of cheer and encouragement; and, as events occur one

after another, our criticisms should not be harshly made. When we

find willful departure from what is just and true, when we find

treason, we should not hesitate to speak the word of strongest

denunciation against both the treason and the traitor. But where

there is evident intention to be and to do right, where there is

loyalty, there all good men and all good women should give a word

of cheer and encouragement.

Women have their share in the responsibilities of this hour; in

the reconstruction of the Government. The battles now being

fought on Southern soil, will be fought again in the Capitol at

Washington, when we shall need far-seeing statesmen to base the

new Union on justice, liberty, and equality. Ours is the work of

educating the people to make this demand.

The entire year was spent in rolling up the mammoth petition. Many

hands were busy sending out letters and petitions, counting and

assorting the names returned. Each State was rolled up separately in

yellow paper, and tied with the regulation red tape, with the number

of men and women who had signed, endorsed on the outside. Nearly four

hundred thousand were thus sent, and may now be found in the archives

at Washington. The passage of the Thirteenth Amendment made the

continuance of the work unnecessary. The first installment of 100,000

was presented by Charles Sumner, in an appropriate speech, Feb. 9th,

1864.

THE PRAYER OF ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND.

_Speech of Hon. Chas. Sumner on the Presentation of the First

Installment of the Emancipation Petition of the Woman's National

League._

In the Senate of the United States, Tuesday, February 9, 1864.

MR. SUMNER.--Mr. President: I offer a petition which is now lying

on the desk before me. It is too bulky for me to take up. I need

not add that it is too bulky for any of the pages of this body to

carry.

This petition marks a stage of public opinion in the history of

slavery, and also in the suppression of the rebellion. As it is

short I will read it:

"TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES:

"The undersigned, women of the United States above the age of

eighteen years, earnestly pray that your honorable body will pass

at the earliest practicable day an act emancipating all persons

of African descent held to involuntary service or labor in the

United States."

There is also a duplicate of this petition signed by "men above

the age of eighteen years."

It will be perceived that the petition is in rolls. Each roll

represents a State.[44] For instance, here is New York with a

list of seventeen thousand seven hundred and six names; Illinois

with fifteen thousand three hundred and eighty; and Massachusetts

with eleven thousand six hundred and forty-one. These several

petitions are consolidated into one petition, being another

illustration of the motto on our coin--_E pluribus unum_.

This petition is signed by one hundred thousand men and women,

who unite in this unparalleled number to support its prayer. They

are from all parts of the country and from every condition of

life. They are from the sea-board, fanned by the free airs of the

ocean, and from the Mississippi and the prairies of the West,

fanned by the free airs which fertilize that extensive region.

They are from the families of the educated and uneducated, rich

and poor, of every profession, business, and calling in life,

representing every sentiment, thought, hope, passion, activity,

intelligence which inspires, strengthens, and adorns our social

system. Here they are, a mighty army, one hundred thousand

strong, without arms or banners; the advance-guard of a yet

larger army.

But though memorable for their numbers, these petitioners are

more memorable still for the prayer in which they unite. They ask

nothing less than universal emancipation; and this they ask

directly at the hands of Congress. No reason is assigned. The

prayer speaks for itself. It is simple, positive. So far as it

proceeds from the women of the country, it is naturally a

petition, and not an argument. But I need not remind the Senate

that there is no reason so strong as the reason of the heart. Do

not all great thoughts come from the heart?

It is not for me, on presenting this petition, to assign reasons

which the army of petitioners has forborne to assign. But I may

not improperly add that, naturally and obviously, they all feel

in their hearts, what reason and knowledge confirm: not only that

slavery _as a unit_, one and indivisible, is the guilty origin of

the rebellion, but that its influence everywhere, even outside

the rebel States, has been hostile to the Union, always impairing

loyalty, and sometimes openly menacing the national government.

It requires no difficult logic to conclude that such a monster,

wherever it shows its head, is a _national enemy_, to be pursued

and destroyed as such, or at least a nuisance to the national

cause to be abated as such. The petitioners know well that

Congress is the depository of those supreme powers by which the

rebellion, alike in its root and in its distant offshoots, may be

surely crushed, and by which unity and peace may be permanently

secured. They know well that the action of Congress may be with

the co-operation of the slave-masters, or even without the

co-operation, under the overruling law of military necessity, or

the commanding precept of the Constitution "to guarantee to every

State a Republican form of government." Above all, they know well

that to save the country from peril, especially to save the

national life, there is no power, in the ample arsenal of

self-defense, which Congress may not grasp; for to Congress,

under the Constitution, belongs the prerogative of the Roman

Dictator to see that the Republic receives no detriment.

Therefore to Congress these petitioners now appeal. I ask the

reference of the petition to the Select Committee on Slavery and

Freedmen.

It was referred, after earnest discussion, as Mr. Sumner

proposed.

ANNIVERSARY OF THE LOYAL WOMEN'S NATIONAL LEAGUE.

The Anniversary of the Women's National League was held at the Church

of the Puritans, Thursday morning, May 12, 1864. The President,

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, called the meeting to order, and requested the

audience to observe a few moments of silence, that each soul might

seek for itself Divine guidance through the deliberations of the

meeting. The Corresponding Secretary, Charlotte B. Wilbour, read the

call for the meeting. The Recording Secretary read the following

report of the Executive Committee:

One year ago we formed ourselves into a League, with the declared

object of EDUCATING THIRTY MILLIONS OF PEOPLE INTO THE TRUE IDEA

OF A CHRISTIAN REPUBLIC, by means of tracts, speeches, appeals,

and petitions for emancipation. Whilst as women, we might not

presume to teach men statesmanship and diplomacy, we felt it our

duty to call the nation back to the a, b, c of human rights. In

looking over the history of the Republic we clearly saw IN

SLAVERY the cause not only of all our political and financial

convulsions, but of the terrible rebellion desolating our country

and our homes. To do this was a work of time and money; and we

were compelled to assume a debt of FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS in

starting--the item of postage alone amounting to _one

thousand_--all of which we are happy to say has been duly paid.

Our thanks are due to Robert Dale Owen, Gerrit Smith, Bradhurst

Schieffelin, Wendell Phillips, Jessie Benton Fremont, Frederick

Douglass, Henry Ward Beecher, and the Hovey Trust Fund Committee

of Boston, for their timely contributions and liberal words of

cheer. But still more are we indebted to the numberless, nameless

thousands of the honest, earnest children of toil, throughout the

country, for their responses to our call, their words of hearty

God-speed, and their "mite" offerings, ranging from five cents to

five dollars; amounting in all to $5,000. From these petitions,

thus widely scattered, we have already sent to Congress the names

of over two hundred thousand men and women, demanding an

amendment of the Constitution and an act of emancipation. And

thousands are still returning to us daily, and we hope to roll up

another hundred thousand before the close of the present session.

Leaving, then, all minor questions of banks and mints and public

improvements for Congressmen to discuss at the rate of $3,000 a

year, we decided the first work to be done was to end slavery,

and ring the death knell of caste and class throughout the land.

To this end, as a means of educating the people, we sent out

twenty thousand emancipation petitions, with tracts and appeals,

into different districts of the free States, and into the slave

States wherever our armies had opened the way.

The Woman's National League now numbers FIVE THOUSAND MEMBERS.

And in the west, where we have employed two lecturing

agents--Josephine S. Griffing, and Hannah Tracy Cutler--a large

number of auxiliary Leagues have been formed.

We have registered on our books the names of TWO THOUSAND men and

women, boys and girls, who have circulated these petitions. We

have on file all the letters received from the thousands with

whom we have been in correspondence, feeling that this canvass of

the nation for freedom will be an important and most interesting

chapter in our future history. These letters, coming from all

classes and all latitudes, breathe one prayer for the downfall of

slavery.

Massachusetts' noble Senator, Charles Sumner, who has so

reverently received, presented, and urged these petitions, has

cheered us with kind messages, magnifying the importance of our

labors. His eloquent speech, made in the Senate on presenting our

first installment--_the prayer of one hundred thousand_--we have

printed in tract form and scattered throughout the country. We

have flooded the nation with letters and appeals, public and

private, and put forth every energy to rouse the people to

earnest, persistent action against slavery, the deadly foe of all

our cherished institutions.

We proposed to ourselves in the first moments of enthusiasm to

secure, at least, _a million_ signatures--one thirtieth part of

our entire population. We thought the troubled warnings of a

century--the insidious aggressions of slavery, with its

violations of the sacred rights of _habeas corpus_, free speech,

and free press, with its riots in our cities, and in the councils

of the nation striking down, alike, black men and brave Senators,

all culminating, at last, in the horrid tragedies of war--must

have roused the dullest moral sense, and prepared the nation's

heart to do justice and love mercy. But we were mistaken. Sunk in

luxury, corruption, and crime--born and bred into the "guilty

phantasy that man could hold property in man," we needed the

clash of arms, the cannon's roar, the shrieks and groans of

fallen heroes, the lamentations of mothers for their first-born,

the angel's trump, the voices of the mighty dead, to wake this

stolid nation from its sleep of death.

In circulating our petition many refused to sign because they

believed slavery a divine institution, and therefore did not wish

to change the status of the slave. Others, who professed to hate

slavery, denied the right of Congress to interfere with it in the

States; and yet others condemned all dictation, or even

suggestion to Congress or the President. They said, "_Let the

people be still_ and trust the affairs of State to the management

of the rulers they, themselves, have chosen." And many of our

"old Abolitionists," believing _their_ work done, that the war

had killed slavery, knocked the bottom out of the tub, not only

declared our work one of supererogation, but told us that

petitioning, as a means of educating the people or influencing

Congress, had become obsolete.

Under all these discouragements, with neither press nor pulpit to

magnify our work, without money or the enthusiasm of numbers, in

simple faith, into the highways and hedges we sent the Gospel of

Freedom, and as of old, the people heard with gladness. A very

large majority of our petitioners are from the unlettered masses.

They who, knowing naught of the machinery of government or the

trickery of politics, believe that, as God reigns, there is

justice on the earth. As yet, none of our large cities have been

thoroughly canvassed; but from the savannahs of the South and the

prairies of the West--from the hills of New England and the

shores of our lakes and gulfs, have we enrolled the soldiers of

freedom; they who, when the rebels shall lay down their arms,

with higher, holier weapons must end the war. Through us, two

hundred thousand[45] people--the labor and virtue of the

Republic--have spoken in our national Capitol, where their voices

were never heard before.

Those unaccustomed to balance influences, who judge of the

importance of movements by their apparent results, may deem our

efforts lost, because the Amendment and Emancipation bills have

not yet passed the House; but _we_ feel that our labors for the

past year, in the circulation of tracts and petitions and

appeals--in our lectures and letters, public and private, have

done as much to kill the rebellion, by educating the people for

the final blow, as any other organization, civil, political,

military, or religious, in the land. Could you but read the many

earnest, thrilling letters we have received from simple men and

women, in their rural homes, you would have fresh hope for the

stability of our Republic; remembering that the life of a nation

depends on the virtue of its people, and not on the dignity of

its rulers.

One poor, infirm woman in Wisconsin, who had lost her husband and

all her sons in the war, traveled on foot over _one hundred

miles_ in gathering _two thousand names_. Her letter was filled

with joy that she, too, had been able to do something for the

cause of liberty. Follow her, in imagination, through sleet and

snow, from house to house; listen to her words--mark the pathos

of her voice, as she debates the question of freedom, or tells

some tale of horror in the land of slavery, or asks her neighbors

one by one, to give their names to end such wrongs. Aside from

all she says, the _fact_ that she comes in storm, on foot, is to

all an argument, that there is something wrong in the republic,

demanding haste and action from every citizen. You who, in

crowded towns, move masses by your eloquence, scorn not the

slower modes. Remember the seeds of enthusiasm you call forth

have been planted by humbler hands--by the fireside, the old

arm-chair in the workshop, at the plow--wherever man communes

alone with God.

Our work for the past year--and what must still be our

work--involves the vital question of the nation's life. For,

until the old Union with slavery be broken, and our Constitution

so amended as to secure the elective franchise to all its

citizens who are taxed, or who bear arms to support the

Government, we have no foundations on which to build a true

Republic. We urge our countrywomen who have shown so much

enthusiasm in the war--in Sanitary and Freedmen's

Associations--now to give themselves to the broader, deeper,

higher work of reconstruction. The new nation demands the highest

type of womanhood. It is a holy mission to minister to suffering

soldiers in camp and hospital, and on the battle-field; to hold

the heads and stanch the wounds of dying heroes; but holier

still, by the magic word of freedom, to speak a dying nation into

life.

Four years ago the _many_ thought all was well in the land of the

free and the home of the brave; but _we_ knew the war was raging

then through all the Southern States. We knew the secrets of that

bastile of horrors; we heard, afar off, the shrieks and groans of

the dying, the lamentations of husbands and wives, parents and

children, sundered forever from each other. _Then_ we fed, and

clothed, and sheltered the fugitives in their weary marches where

the North Star led, and crowned with immortal wreaths the panting

heroes, pursued by the bloodhounds from the everglades of

Florida, who asked but to die in freedom under the shadow of a

monarch's throne.

Yes, the rebellion has been raging near a century on every cotton

field and rice plantation. Every vice, hardship, and abomination,

suffered by our soldiers in the war, has been the daily life in

slavery. Yet no Northern volunteers marched to the black man's

help, though he stood alone against such fearful odds, until John

Brown and his twenty-three men threw themselves into the deadly

breach. What a sublime spectacle! Behold! the black man,

forgetting all our crimes, all his wrongs for generations, now

nobly takes up arms in our defence. Look not to Greece or Rome

for heroes--to Jerusalem or Mecca for saints--but for the highest

virtues of heroism, let us worship the black man at our feet.

Mothers, redeem the past by teaching your children the limits of

human rights, with the same exactness that you now teach the

multiplication table. That "all men are created equal" is a far

more important fact for a child to understand, than that twice

two makes four.

Had we during the past century as fondly guarded the tree of

liberty, with its blessed fruits of equality, as have Southern

mothers the deadly upas of slavery, the blood of our sires and

sons, mingled with the sweat and tears of slaves, would not now

enrich the tyrant's soil, our hearthstones would not all be

desolate, nor we, with shame, behold our Northern statesmen in

the nation's councils overwhelmed with doubt and perplexity on

the simplest question of human rights. A mariner without chart or

compass, ignorant of the starry world above his head, drifting on

a troubled sea, is not more hopeless than a nation, in the throes

of revolution, without faith in the immutability and safety of

truth and justice.

Behold in the long past the endless wreck of nations--Despotisms,

Monarchies, Republics--alike, they all sprang up and

bloomed--then drooped and died, because not planted with the

seeds of life; and on their crumbling ruins the black man now

plants his feet, and as he proudly breaks his chains declares,

"MAN ABOVE ALL HUMAN GOVERNMENT."

WENDELL PHILLIPS was introduced and made an eloquent appeal in

behalf of the object of the League. He congratulated the Society

on the progress it had made, contrasted the past with the

present, referred to his experience at former meetings, and

argued that woman should have a voice and a vote in the affairs

of the nation. He showed the importance of woman's moral power

infused into the politics of the country, and of the independence

of those outside of party lines, who neither vote or hold office,

to criticise the shortcomings of our rulers. He eulogized the

manner in which Anna Dickinson had arraigned both men and

measures before the judgment-seat of the people; deplored the

slavery of party, that puts padlocks on the lips of leading

politicians. While the sons of the Puritans, with bated breath,

see in the violation of the most sacred rights of citizens the

swift-coming destruction of the Republic, and in silence wait the

shock, an inspired girl comes forward, sounds the alarm, raises

the signal of distress, and fearlessly calls the captain, pilot,

crew, and all to duty, for the Ship of State is drifting on a

rock-bound coast. Again and again is this young girl put forward

to tell the people what men in high places dare not say

themselves.

The following resolutions were then read and submitted for

discussion:

1. _Whereas_, The testimony of all history, the teachings of all

sound philosophy, and our national experience for almost a

hundred years, have demonstrated that in the Divine economy there

is an "irrepressible conflict" between slavery and freedom; and

WHEREAS, The present war is but the legitimate fruit of this

unnatural union; therefore

_Resolved_, That any attempt to reconstruct the Government with

any root or branch of the slave system remaining, will surely

prove disastrous, and therefore should be met at the outset with

the stern rebuke of every true patriot and friend of humanity.

2. _Resolved_, That this Government _still_ upholds slavery by

military as well as civil power, and is, therefore, itself, still

in daring rebellion against the GOD OF JUSTICE, before whom

Jefferson "trembled" and whose "exterminating thunders" he warned

us would be our destruction, unless, by "the diffusion of light

and liberality," we were led to exterminate it forever from the

land.

3. _Resolved_, That until the old union with slavery be broken,

and the Constitution so amended as to secure the elective

franchise to all citizens who bear arms, or are taxed to support

the Government, we have no foundations on which to build a TRUE

REPUBLIC.

4. WHEREAS, The _Anti_ or _Pro_-slavery character of the

Constitution has long been a question of dispute among statesmen

and judges, as well as reformers, therefore

_Resolved_, That we demand for the NEW NATION a NEW CONSTITUTION,

in which the guarantee of liberty and equality to every human

being shall be so plainly and clearly written as never again to

be called in question.

5. _Resolved_, That we demand for black men not only the right to

be sailors, soldiers, and laborers under equal pay and protection

with white men, but the right of suffrage, that only safeguard of

civil liberty, without which emancipation is but mockery.

6. _Resolved_, That women now acting as nurses in our hospitals,

who are regular graduates of medicine, should be recognized as

physicians and surgeons, and receive the same remuneration for

their services as men.

7. _Resolved_, That the failure of the Administration to protect

our black troops against such outrages as were long ago

officially threatened, and fearfully perpetrated at Port Hudson,

Milliken's Bend, Olustee, and Fort Pillow, is but added proof of

its _heartless character_ or _utter incapacity_ to conduct the

war.

8. _Resolved_, That when the men of a nation, in a political

party, consecrate themselves to "Freedom and Peace" and declare

their high resolve to found a Republic on the principles of

justice, they have lifted politics into the sphere of morals and

religion, where it is the duty of women to be co-workers with

them in giving immortal life to the NEW nation.

9. _Resolved_, That our special thanks are due to Robert Dale

Owen, who aided us in the inauguration of our work; and to

Charles Sumner, who so earnestly and eloquently presented our

petitions in the Senate of the United States.

10. WHEREAS, From official statistics, it appears that our annual

national expenditures for imported broadcloths, silks, laces,

embroideries, wines, spirits, and cigars, are more than one

hundred million dollars; therefore

_Resolved_, that we recommend the formation of leagues of

patriotic men and women throughout the country, whose object

shall be to discountenance and prevent the indulgence of all

these, and similar useless luxuries during the war; thereby

encouraging habits of economy, stimulating American industry,

diminishing the foreign debt, and increasing our ability to meet

the vast expenditures of the present crisis.

The following letters were read by Miss Anthony:

LETTER FROM EMILE PRETORIUS.

ST. LOUIS, MO., _April 29, 1864_.

MADAM:--Your favor of 23d inst. has come to hand with your call,

which was published and endorsed by our paper, as you will see by

the enclosed slip. Your sentiments are so high and noble that to

doubt a favorable result and response from the West would be like

doubting whether our women had courage enough to follow the

truest instincts, the best impulses of their own pure nature. I,

for one, have no such idea, no such fears; and if I should ever

believe that the Cornelias and Thuseneldas were only to be found

by going back thousands of years in history, and would not and

could not be rivalled by patriotic mothers and heroic wives in

this present crises of ours, I then would renounce at once all

hopes of a national resurrection. Liberty, it is true, is

immortal; but we would be bound to look for her in some other

part of our globe, if we fail on American soil to enlist in our

struggle the full heart of our women.

But there is no such thing as failure in battling for all that is

high and good and sacred, and there is no such thing as failure

in appealing for so good a cause to woman's noble mind and true

heart. They will be with us, every one of them will, and whether

a majority of our people be up to our standard this time or not,

still, in the eyes of our women we would be what our German poet

calls, "the conquering defeated."

Yours for Fremont and Freedom, EMILE PRETORIUS.

LETTER FROM CHARLES SUMNER.

SENATE CHAMBER, _May 6, 1864_.

MADAM:--I can not be with you in New York, according to the

invitation with which you have honored me; for my post of duty is

here. I am grateful to your Association for what you have done to

arouse the country to insist on the extinction of slavery. Now is

the time to strike, and no effort should be spared. And yet there

are many who lap themselves in the luxury of present success, and

hold back. This is a mistake. The good work must be finished; and

to my mind nothing seems to be done while anything remains to be

done. There is one point to which attention must be directed. No

effort should be spared to castigate and blast the whole idea of

_property in man_, which is the corner-stone of the rebel

pretension, and the constant assumption of the partisans of

slavery, or of its lukewarm opponents. Let this idea be trampled

out, and there will be no sympathy with the rebellion; and there

will be no such abomination as _slave-hunting_, which is beyond

question the most execrable feature of slavery itself. Accept my

thanks, and believe me,

Madam, faithfully yours,

MISS SUSAN B. ANTHONY. CHARLES SUMNER.

Speeches were then made by George Thompson, Lucretia Mott, and

Ernestine L. Rose; after which, in adjourning the Convention, the

President said:

This is the only organization of women that will have a

legitimate cause for existence beyond the present hour. The

Sanitary, Soldiers' Aid, Hospital, and Freedmen's Societies all

end with the war; but the soldier and negro in peace have yet to

be educated into the duties of citizens in a republic, and our

legislators to be stimulated by a higher law than temporary

policy. This is the only organization formed during the war based

specifically on universal emancipation and enfranchisement.

Knowing that in this great national upheaval women would exert an

influence for good or evil, we felt the importance of

concentrating all their power on the side of liberty. To this end

we have urged them to use with zeal and earnestness their only

political right under the Constitution: the right of petition.

During the past year the petitions for freedom have been quietly

circulating in the most remote school districts of all the free

States and Territories, in the Army, the Navy, and some have

found their way to the far South. And now they are coming back by

the thousands, with the signatures of men and women, black and

white, soldiers and civilians, from every point of the compass,

to be presented in mammoth rolls again in the coming Congress. I

urge every one present to help spread the glad tidings of liberty

to all, by signing and circulating these petitions, remembering

that while man may use the bullet and the ballot to enforce his

will, this is woman's only weapon of defence to-day in this

Republic. The Convention is now adjourned.

The debates throughout these Conventions show how well the leaders of

the Loyal League understood the principles of republican government,

and the fatal policy of some of those in power. They understood the

situation, and clearly made known their sentiments. The character of

the discussions and resolutions in their Conventions was entirely

changed during the war; broader ideas of constitutional law; the

limits of national power and State rights formed the basis of the new

arguments. They viewed the questions involved in the great conflict

from the point of view of statesmen, rather than that of an ostracised

class. Reviewing the varied efforts of the representative women[46]

referred to in this chapter in the political, military, philanthropic,

and sanitary departments of the Government, and the army of faithful

assistants, behind them, all alike self-sacrificing and patriotic;

with a keen insight into the policy of the Government and the

legitimate results of the war; the question naturally suggests itself,

how was it possible that when peace was restored they received no

individual rewards nor general recognition for their services, which,

though acknowledged in private, have been concealed from the people

and ignored by the Government.[47]

Gen. Grant has the credit for the success of plans which were the

outgrowth of the military genius of a woman; Gen. Howard received a

liberal salary as the head of the Freedman's Bureau, while the woman

who inspired and organized that department and carried its burdens on

her shoulders to the day of her death, raised most of the funds by

personal appeal for that herculean work.

Dr. Bellows enjoyed the distinction as President of the Sanitary

Bureau, which originated in the mind of a woman, who, when the

machinery was perfected and in good working order, was forced to

resign her position as official head through the bigotry of the

medical profession.

Though to Anna Dickinson was due the triumph of the Republican party

in several of the doubtful States at a most critical period of the

war, yet that party, twenty years in power, has refused to secure her

in the same civil and political rights enjoyed by the most ignorant

foreigner or slave from the plantations of the South.

The lessons of the war were not lost on the women of this nation;

through varied forms of suffering and humiliation, they learned that

they had an equal interest with man in the administration of the

Government, enjoying or suffering alike its blessings or its miseries.

When in the enfranchisement of the black man they saw another ignorant

class of voters placed above their heads, and with anointed eyes

beheld the danger of a distinctively "male" government, forever

involving the nations of the earth in war and violence; a lesson

taught on every page of history, alike in every century of human

experience; and demanded for the protection of themselves and

children, that woman's voice should be heard, and her opinions in

public affairs be expressed by the ballot, they were coolly told that

the black man had earned the right to vote, that he had fought and

bled and died for his country!

Did the negro's rough services in camp and battle outweigh the

humanitarian labors of woman in all departments of government? Did his

loyalty in the army count for more than her educational work in

teaching the people sound principles of government? Can it be that

statesmen in the nineteenth century believe that they who sacrifice

human lives in bloody wars do more for the sum of human happiness and

development than they who try to save the multitude and teach them how

to live? But if on the battle-field woman must prove her right to

justice and equality, history abundantly sets forth her claims; the

records of her brave deeds mark every page of fact and fiction, of

poetry and prose.

In all the great battles of the past woman as warrior in disguise has

verified her right to fight and die for her country by the side of

man. In camp and hospital as surgeon, physician, nurse, ministering to

the sick and dying, she has shown equal skill and capacity with him.

There is no position woman has not filled, no danger she has not

encountered, no emergency in all life's tangled trials and temptations

she has not shared with man, and with him conquered. If moral power

has any value in the balance with physical force, surely the women of

this republic, by their self-sacrifice and patriotism, their courage

'mid danger, their endurance 'mid suffering, have rightly earned a

voice in the laws they are compelled to obey, in the Government they

are taxed to support; some personal consideration as citizens as well

as the black man in the "Union blue."

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Before one man was slain the lint and bandages were so piled up in

Washington, that the hospital surgeons in self-defence cried out,

enough!

[2] Feb. 24, 1862.

[3] In a conversation with Miss Carroll, in February, 1876, Mr. Wade

said: "I have sometimes reproached myself that I had not made known

the author when they were discussing the resolution in Congress to

find out, _but Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Stanton were_ opposed to its being

known that the armies were moving under the plan of a civilian,

directed by the President as Commander-in-Chief. Mr. Lincoln said it

was that which made him hesitate to inaugurate the movement against

the opinion of the military commanders, and he did not wish to risk

the effect it might have upon the armies if they found out some

outside party had originated the campaign; that he wanted the armies

to believe they were doing the whole business of saving the country."

[4] See Appendix.

[5] The ninth, known to the world as the battle of Orleans, fought in

1439, which brought the hundred years' war between France and England

to an end, securing the independent existence of France, possessed for

its organizer and leader, Joan of Arc, then but eighteen, at which

time she acquired her cognomen, "Maid of Orleans."

[6] It has been well said: "That assumption of man that as feud is the

origin of all laws; that as woman does not fight she shall not vote,

that her rights are to be forever held in abeyance to his wishes, was

forever silenced by the military genius of Anna Ella Carroll in

planning this brilliant campaign. Proving, too, that as right is of no

sex, so genius is of no sex."

[7] Hon. L. D. Evans said: "Nothing is more certain than that the

rebel power was able to resist all the forces of the Union, and keep

her armies from striking their resources and interior lines of

communication, upon any of the plans or lines of operation on which

the Union arms were operating. Geographically considered, there was

but one line which the National armies could take and maintain, and

that was _unthought_ of and _unknown_, and could not have been found

out, in all human probability, in time to have prevented a collapse,

or warded off recognition and intervention, but for Miss Carroll. The

failure to reduce Vicksburg from the water, after a tremendous

sacrifice of life and treasure, and the time it took to take Richmond,

furnish irrefragable proof of the inability of the Union to subdue the

rebellion on the plan of our ablest generals.... England and France

had resolved that duty to their suffering operatives required the

raising of the blockade for the supply of cotton, and nothing

prevented that intervention but the progress of the National arms up

the Tennessee.... This campaign must, therefore, take rank with those

few remarkable strategic movements in the world's history, which have

decided the fate of empires and nations."

[8] See Appendix.

[9] But as early as she was thus engaged, one woman had already

preceded her. When the first blood of the war was shed by the attack

upon the Massachusetts troops passing through Baltimore that memorable

April 19, 1861, but one person in the whole city was found to offer

them shelter and aid. Ann Manley, a woman belonging to what is called

the outcast class, with a pity as divine as that of the woman who

anointed the feet of our Lord and wiped them with the hair of her

head--took the disabled soldiers into her own house, and at the hazard

of her life, bound up their wounds. In making up His jewels at the

last great day, will not the Lord say of her as of one of old, "She

has loved much, and much is forgiven her?"

[10] There was no penalty for disobedience, and persons disaffected,

forgetful, or idle, might refuse or neglect to obey with impunity. It

indeed seems most wonderful--almost miraculous--that under such

circumstances, such a vast amount of good was done. Had she not

accomplished half so much, she still would richly have deserved that

highest of plaudits, "Well done, good and faithful servant!"--_Woman's

Work in the Civil War._

[11] When the Spanish minister, Señor Don Francisco Barca, was

presented to the President, he spoke of America as the "splendid and

fortunate land dreamed of, for the service of God and of human

progress, by the greatest of all Spanish women, before others

conceived of it."

[12] On a pair of socks sent to the Central Association of Relief, was

pinned a paper, saying: "These socks were knit by a little girl five

years old, and she is going to knit some more, for mother said it

would help some poor soldier."

[13] The Christian Commission, an organization of later date, never

succeeded in so fully gaining the affection of the soldiers, who, in

tent or hospital, hailed the approach of medicine or delicacy, with an

affectionate "How are you, Sanitary?"

[14] Organized seven years previously by Dr. Blackwell as an

institution where women might be treated by their own sex, and for

co-ordinate purposes, and out of which the New York Medical College

for Women finally grew.

[15] Women in many other parts of the country were active at as early

a date as those of New York. A Soldiers' Aid Society was formed in

Cleveland, Ohio, April 20, 1861, five days after the President's

proclamation calling for troops. This association, with a slight

change in organization, remained in existence a long time after the

close of the war, actively employed in securing pensions and back pay

to crippled and disabled soldiers. At two points in Massachusetts,

meetings to form aid societies were called immediately upon the

departure of the Sixth Militia of that State for Washington.

[16] Women as loyal as these were to be found in the South, where an

expression of love for the Union was held as a death offence. Among

the affecting incidents of the war, was that of a woman who, standing

upon the Pedee River bank, waved her handkerchief for joy at seeing

her country's flag upon a boat passing up the stream, and who for this

exhibition of patriotism was shot dead by rebels on the shore. During

the bread riots in Mobile a woman was shot. As she was dying she took

a small National flag from her bosom, where she had kept it hidden,

wrapped it outside a cross, kissed it, and fell forward dead.

"Indeed, we may safely say that there is scarcely a loyal woman in the

North who did not do something in aid of the cause--who did not

contribute time, labor, and money, to the comfort of our soldiers and

the success of our arms. The story of the war will never be fully or

fairly written if the achievements of woman in it are left untold.

They do not figure in the official reports; they are not gazetted for

deeds as gallant as ever were done; the names of thousands are unknown

beyond the neighborhood where they live, or the hospitals where they

loved to labor; yet there is no feature in our war more creditable to

us as a nation, none from its positive newness so well worthy of

record."--_Women of the War._

[17] The distinctive features in woman's work in that war, were

magnitude, system, thorough co-operation with the other sex,

distinctness of purpose, business-like thoroughness in details, sturdy

persistency to the close. There was no more general rising among the

men than among the women, and for every assembly where men met for

mutual exertion in the service of the country, there was some

corresponding gathering of women to stir each other's hearts and

fingers in the same sacred cause.... And of the two, the women were

clearer and more united than the men, because their moral feelings and

political instincts were not so much affected by selfishness, or

business, or party considerations.... It is impossible to

over-estimate the amount of consecrated work done by the loyal women

of the North for the army. Hundreds of thousands of women probably

gave all the leisure they could command, and all the money they could

save and spare, to the soldiers for the whole four years and more of

the war.... No words are adequate to describe the systematic,

persistent faithfulness of the women who organized and led the

Branches of the United States Sanitary Commission. Their voluntary

labor had all the regularity of paid service, and a heartiness and

earnestness which no paid service can ever have.... Men were ashamed

to doubt where women trusted, or to murmur where they submitted, or to

do little where they did so much.--_Woman's Work in the Civil War_.

L. P. BRACKETT.

[18] Julia Ward Howe. See Appendix.

[19] See Appendix.

[20] During all periods of the war instances occurred of women being

found in the ranks fighting as common soldiers, their sex remaining

unsuspected.--_Women of the War._

[21] After the close of the war a bill was passed by Congress

authorizing the payment of salary due Mrs. Ella F. Hobart, for

services as chaplain in the Union army. Mrs. Hobart was chaplain in

the First Wisconsin Volunteer Artillery. The Governor of Wisconsin

declined to commission her until the War Department should consent to

recognize the validity of the commission. This Secretary Stanton

refused to do on account of her sex, though her application was

endorsed by President Lincoln, though not by the Government. Mrs.

Hobart continued in her position as religious counselor, Congress at

last making payment for her services.

[22] There are many and interesting records of women who served in

Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, New York,

and Pennsylvania Regiments, in the armies of the Potomac, the

Cumberland, the Tennessee, with the Indian Rangers, in cavalry,

artillery, on foot. A woman was one of the eighteen soldiers sent as a

scout at Lookout Mountain--whose capture was deemed impossible--to

ascertain the position of General Bragg's forces; and a woman

performed one of the most daring naval exploits of the war. It was a

woman of Brooklyn, N. Y., who, inspired with the idea that she was to

be the country's savior, joined the army in spite of parental

opposition, and, during the bloody battle of Lookout Mountain, fell

pierced in the side, a mortal wound, by a minie ball. Elizabeth

Compton served over a year in the 25th Michigan cavalry; was wounded

at the engagement of Greenbrier Bridge, Tennessee, her sex being

discovered upon her removal to the hospital, at Lebanon, Kentucky,

where, upon recovery, she was discharged from the service. Ellen

Goodridge, although not an enlisted soldier, was in every great battle

fought in Virginia, receiving a painful wound in the arm from a minie

ball. Sophia Thompson served three years in the 59th O. V. I. Another

woman soldier, under the name of Joseph Davidson, also served three

years in the same company. Her father was killed fighting by her side

at Chickamauga. A soldier belonging to the 14th Iowa regiment was

discovered, by the Provost-Marshal of Cairo, to be a woman. An

investigation being ordered, "Charlie" placed the muzzle of her

revolver to her head, fired, and fell dead on open parade-ground. No

clue was obtained to her name, home, or family.

Frances Hook, of Illinois, enlisted with her brother in the 65th Home

Guards, assuming the name of "Frank Miller." She served three months,

and was mustered out without her sex being discovered. She then

enlisted in the 90th Illinois, and was taken prisoner in a battle near

Chattanooga. Attempting to escape she was shot through one of her

limbs. The rebels in searching her person for papers, discovered her

sex. They respected her as a woman, giving her a separate room while

she was in prison at Atlanta, Ga. During her captivity, Jeff. Davis

wrote her a letter, offering her a lieutenant's commission if she

would enlist in the rebel army, but she preferred to fight as a

private soldier for the stars and stripes, rather than accept a

commission from the rebels. This young lady was educated in a superior

manner, possessing all the modern accomplishments. After her release

from the rebel prison, she again enlisted in the 2d East Tennessee

Cavalry. She was in the thickest of the fight at Murfreesboro, and was

severely wounded in the shoulder, but fought gallantly and waded the

Stone River into Murfreesboro on that memorable Sunday when the Union

forces were driven back. Her sex was again disclosed upon the dressing

of her wound, and General Rosecrans was informed, who caused her to be

mustered out of the service, notwithstanding her earnest entreaty to

be allowed to serve the cause she loved so well. The General was

favorably impressed with her daring bravery, and himself superintended

the arrangements for her transmission home. She left the army of the

Cumberland, resolved to enlist again in the first regiment she met.

The _Louisville Journal_ gave the following account of her under the

head of

"MUSTERED OUT.--'Frank Miller,' the young lady soldier, now at

Barracks No. 1, will be mustered out of the service in accordance with

the army regulations which prohibit the enlistment of females in the

army, and sent to her parents in Pennsylvania. This will be sad news

to Frances, who has cherished the fond hope that she would be

permitted to serve the Union cause during the war. She has been of

great service as a scout to the army of the Cumberland, and her place

will not be easily filled. She is a true patriot and a gallant

soldier."

"Frank," found the 8th Michigan at Bowling Green, in which she again

enlisted, remaining connected with this company. She said she had

discovered a great many women in the army, one of them holding a

lieutenant's commission, and had at different times assisted in

burying three women soldiers, whose sex was unknown to any but

herself.

The _St. Louis Times_, sometime after the war, referring to a girl

called as a witness before the Police Court of that city, says: