to give arguments for the cause of woman suffrage, it seems like
the old times when we were asked to give arguments for the
freedom of the slave. It is enough for me to know that the
charter of our Nation states that "taxation without
representation is tyranny," and that "all just government is
founded on the consent of the governed." No woman wrote those
words. They were written by men. I stood recently at a woman
suffrage meeting in Boston, and I heard a gentleman say, "I am
willing, on certain conditions, that women shall vote. When women
shall suppress intemperance, I am willing they shall have the
ballot." I don't know how he was going to ascertain whether they
would suppress it or not. I know that men who have held the
ballot all their lives have not suppressed it; and I don't think
there is any one here who would say that women would suppress it.
What is woman going to do with the ballot? I don't know; I don't
care; and it is of no consequence. Their right to the ballot does
not rest on the way in which they vote. This, however, must be
admitted, and that is, that there are women in this country who
will vote much more wisely than some men in New York and
Philadelphia. You, my brothers, claim the right to vote because
you are taxed, because you are one of the governed; and you know
if an attempt was made to touch your right to vote, you would
sacrifice everything to defend it. What would money be worth to
you without it? You call it the symbol of your citizenship; and
without it you would be slaves--not free. Listen, then, when a
woman tells you that her freedom is but nominal without it. And
when you ask what women are going to do with it, ask yourselves
what you want it for and what you are going to do with it. There
never was a class of people able to take care of the rights of
another class....
Mrs. LUCY STONE next addressed the meeting briefly: If you have a
man, said she, who is a fool or a felon, you put him over the
line alongside of your mother. Every man of you before he sleeps
should go on his knees to his mother, and beg her pardon, and you
should tell her you are ashamed of yourselves.
The Rev. WASHINGTON GLADDEN, one of the editors of the
_Independent_, rose to answer Mrs. Grew's question--why the
_Tribune_ does not inquire about these ignorant men who are
abusing the franchise? He could inform her. It is because they
can not afford to. They are all politicians there. They want
votes. They can not afford to tell the truth about these ignorant
and vicious voters. He proceeded to give a sad picture of the
political world at present and to show how little conscience,
culture, or common honesty finds its way to the ballot-box. He
didn't think the ballot had done anything for the education of
the ignorant foreigner who had come to this country; he doubted
whether it would do anything for the education of woman. He
didn't wish to be classed with the opposers to woman suffrage,
and yet he didn't see his way clear to espouse it as others on
the platform did. He believed in impartial suffrage--impartial
for men and women, but not universal. He would have men and women
fitted for the suffrage before they exercised it.
GRACE GREENWOOD gave a sketch of society in Washington.
Mrs. LIVERMORE, referring to Mr. Gladden's remarks, said there
was nothing so painful to her as the lack of faith in
republicanism among cultivated American gentlemen. Political
atheism seemed to be rife among them. What wonder that political
corruption exists to such an extent, when the clergymen, the
doctors, professors of colleges, members of churches, the
educated and cultivated, refuse to exercise the rights of
citizenship by going to the polls to vote--when intelligence and
morality are to so great a degree eliminated from public affairs?
At a late Presidential election in Massachusetts it was
ascertained that but 54 per cent. of the legal voters actually
went to the polls. Among the 46 per cent. who staid away were the
clergymen, the physicians, and the professional men. There was a
fearful political apathy among the educated classes in reference
to the discharge of their political duties. If educated and good
men, as a body, would interest themselves in the primary meetings
and the caucuses, politics would be improved, even before women
got the suffrage.
It was proposed that the Convention should adjourn by singing the
doxology, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow." The great
audience rose and joined as with one voice in singing the grand
centuries-old doxology, and then adjourned, many urging that the
Convention should hold over another day.
In the autumn of 1871 the American Woman Suffrage Association
held conventions at Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, and
Pittsburgh. The annual meeting in Philadelphia was held in
National Hall, and presided over by Mrs. Tracy Cutler, who made
the opening address. The number of the delegates to this
Convention was sixty-two, representing fourteen States.
Mrs. LUCY STONE, Chairman of the Executive Committee, read her
report, in which, among other things, she said--Petitions from
each of our auxiliary State societies, asking for the ballot,
were sent to their respective State Legislatures, and a hearing
granted whenever it was asked. This is a great gain upon some
previous years, when, as once in Rhode Island, our petitions were
referred to "a committee on burial grounds."
The following letter was read from WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON:
BOSTON, November 18, 1871.
DEAR MR. BLACKWELL--Lest some persons might be disappointed
at my non-attendance, I regretted to see myself positively
announced among the speakers at the annual meeting of the
American Woman Suffrage Association, to be held at
Philadelphia next week. I certainly desired and hoped to be
present, even to the last moment; but circumstances oblige
me to remain at home, and I can do no more (and assuredly no
less) than to send a word of cheer by letter. Though I was
careful not to commit myself as to my personal presence at
the meeting, I am willing to be everywhere known as
committed to the cause of Woman Suffrage, with all my
understanding, heart, and soul. I regard its claims to be as
reasonable, just, and valid as any ever presented in behalf
of any portion of the human race, suffering from the
exercise of usurped powers. Until it can be shown that women
have not, by nature and destiny, the same common rights and
interests as men--have not as much at stake in all matters
pertaining to an impartial administration of government as
men--are not held to the same allegiance as men--and are not
made amenable to the same penal laws, even to the extent of
being hanged, as men--their right to the ballot, and to an
equal participation in all municipal, judicial, and
legislative proceedings can not be sensibly denied. The mere
statement of the case is its strongest argument, furnishing
as it does a self-evident proposition. It is a disgrace to
our democratic professions that there is yet a portion--ay,
one half of our population, legally discrowned and outraged
on account of a natural and necessary distinction of sex,
which alters nothing in regard to moral obligations and
duties, or to political rights and privileges, in the courts
of justice and common sense.
It is amazing to see what insulting flings are made, what
ridiculous things are uttered, in derogation of the claim of
women to an equal voice in making and administering the laws
of the land, in quarters where we had a right to look for
perfect courtesy, fair treatment, and an intelligent
understanding; to say nothing of the nonsense and ribaldry
proceeding from haunts of vice and "lewd fellows of the
baser sort." But what great reformatory movement was ever
treated any better at the outset? Still, it requires a large
stock of patience to be calm under such trying provocations;
and the consideration that, after all, they are
indispensable to the success of the righteous object sought,
can alone impart serenity.
What is the question? Not whether many or few women are
demanding political enfranchisement; not whether the
marriage institution, as now regulated, is right or wrong;
not whether this woman, or that, advocates "free love," so
called, or anything else; not whether a wife will continue
to be true to her marriage vows, or a mother faithful to her
maternal instincts; not whether the cradle will be rocked,
the pot boiled, and household affairs dutifully looked
after; not whether women are better or worse than men; not
whether they will vote wisely or foolishly, if allowed the
ballot. These and a thousand similarly absurd issues are but
mockeries. The one question to be settled is, shall the
principles and doctrines of the Declaration of Independence
be reduced to practice, so that taxation and representation
shall go hand in hand, and the grand truth be made
practically, as well as theoretically valid, that all are
equally endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable
rights, and that all governments derive their just powers
from the consent of the governed?
Yours for equal rights, WM. LLOYD GARRISON.
Letters were also read from George W. Julian, Frances D. Gage,
and Oliver Johnson. The Committee on Business then reported the
resolutions,[191] which were unanimously adopted, after a short
speech by Col. T. W. Higginson.
Mrs. JULIA WARD HOWE referred to the organization of the
association and the necessity for it. We had felt that existing
associations had failed to represent the methods and convictions
which belonged to our way of thinking. No right of a free society
is more valuable than the right of free association, in virtue of
which those who are able and willing to work can choose their own
fellow-workers and adopt the center of activity which best
corresponds with their feeling and with their homes. The
experience of two years has confirmed our opinion of the
propriety of the measures then adopted. We made no attempt to
cajole or allure those who did not belong to us.
I am sure that as our work in common has gone on we have grown in
good-will. We are fighting our battle still, but do not see our
victory yet. We are not opposing men and women, but the enemies
of men and women--ignorance, prejudice, and injustice. Many
people bring into a new movement the whole intensity and unreason
of their personal desires and discontents, and the train of
progress must carry all this luggage along with it. Woman
suffrage means equality in and out of marriage.
Mrs. Howe referred to the fact that women had been educated not
to depend upon themselves, and drew a graphic picture of their
condition should the tide of prosperity ebb from under them.
Remember, too, I pray you, that power to do ill can not be denied
without including the power to do good. The question as to
whether men, in case that women should vote, would be less polite
to women, was touched upon. The speaker said, "that if ladies
wish to retain this deference, they certainly pay a dear price
for it." The speaker was opposed to arguing that the right of
woman suffrage was guaranteed in the XIV. and XV. Amendments. I
go further back and find the spirit of all liberality in every
liberal clause, and the spirit of all freedom.
ROBERT DALE OWEN followed, and said woman suffrage was the only
means of rectifying the injustice of the laws. His attention was
first called to the value of suffrage when he endeavored to get a
modification of the property laws for married women in 1836. As a
member of the Indiana Legislature, he tried three successive
years in vain to obtain for wives a right to their own earnings.
He was fifteen years in effecting it. When the law was passed
securing married women in their earnings, one of his
fellow-members solemnly warned him that homes would be broken up
and family happiness ruined, and that for all this unmeasured
misery he would hereafter be held responsible. But the law still
stood upon the statute book of Indiana, and homes were not
destroyed.
The Rev. Mrs. CELIA BURLEIGH was the next speaker. She pictured,
in a witty, epigrammatic manner, the progress of freedom in
womankind. The picture drawn was of an Asiatic seraglio, where
the spirit of revolution crept in, and the ladies commenced their
incendiarism by walking abroad, and then followed up the direful
unsexing of themselves by gradually removing the inviolable veil
first from one eye and then the other--and last and most
horrible of all--from the nose. But it made her none the less
lovely.
Mr. EDWARD M. DAVIS then spoke briefly, and was followed by Mrs.
LUCRETIA MOTT, who gave some interesting reminiscences of the
contempt for women manifested by the World's Convention in 1840,
from which women delegates were excluded, and of which William
Lloyd Garrison, in consequence, refused to become a member.
The President, Mrs. CUTLER, said: It seems clear to me that the
XIV. and XV. Amendments recognize our rights. The XIV. Amendment
was passed in the interest of a special class, but we must not
forget that the passage of a general law for a particular class
also guarantees whatever rights can be found to come under that
same general idea. [Applause.] First, we have the definition of
citizenship, which applies to us fairly and squarely under the
phrase all "persons." Then comes the right to vote. Some say it
is not a right but a privilege. I maintain the contrary. I say it
is an inalienable right. You can not maintain a republican form
of government and deny to half the population its right to vote.
This may not be settled to-day or to-morrow, but the truth, like
a mighty rock, stands there impregnable against all assault. We
do not need to be in too much haste. Let the matter be sifted
thoroughly. I do not object, therefore, to the phraseology of the
resolution.
Mr. CHARLES BURLEIGH said: I have never yet been able to see that
the right of voting is secured legally to women under any
instrument which is recognized as having the force of law. A
republican form of government does not mean universal suffrage.
We know that the framers of the Constitution never dreamed that
the idea of a republic would include even all the males of the
country. If this is not a correct idea I answer that when you
make an affirmation you must accept that affirmation as the
makers of it understood it. I hold we have no right to go to any
use of legal quibbling in the matter. If we stand on simple
right, let us stand there; if on constitutional authority, we
have no right to warp that authority. So with the question of
citizenship. It does not imply a voice in the government, by any
means, to be a citizen.
Mr. BLACKWELL, on behalf of the Business Committee, offered some
resolutions.[192]
Dr. H. T. CHILD spoke upon the second resolution. As a peace man
and as a temperance man he was in favor of the resolution.
Colonel HIGGINSON said: If the resolution that has just been read
commits this body to the peace, temperance, or any other
movement, I would oppose it. Every great moral movement must
stand by itself. Napoleon said that the next worse thing to a bad
general was two good generals. I do not oppose it as an
intemperate man, nor as a war man, for I served too long in the
army not to wish for peace. I simply want my wife to vote, and
how she votes can be dictated by her conscience. I don't believe
in hitching the woman question to anything. Emerson said if you
want to succeed you must hitch your wagon to a star, but two
stars will only cause confusion.
Mr. EDWARD M. DAVIS opposed the temperance, etc., resolutions. We
had better not, he said, pass anything but suffrage on this
platform.
Mrs. GOUGH said the resolution did not indorse the peace and
temperance movements. It simply opens up a channel of education.
Woman needs the growth and development coming from the exercise
of higher powers than she now possesses. The resolutions were
then unanimously adopted.
At the afternoon session the officers for the next year were
elected. The presidency was accorded to Mrs. Lucy Stone. The
speakers at this meeting were Dr. Stone, of Michigan; Mrs. Lillie
Devereux Blake, of New York; John Cameron, of Delaware; John
Ritchie, of Kansas; Mrs. Margaret V. Longley, Mrs. M. W. Coggins,
Miss Matilda Hindman, Mrs. Cutler, Miss Mary Grew, Mrs. Lucas,
sister of John Bright, and others.
Mrs. JULIA WARD HOWE, at the evening session offered resolutions
of thanks for the hospitality extended to the members of the
Association by the citizens of Philadelphia, and also for the
able and impartial manner in which the proceedings of the
Association had been reported by the press of the city. In a
brief address, Mrs. HOWE then summed up the proceedings of the
Association, saying that she had never attended a convention
where such entire harmony had prevailed, and where such an amount
of good work had been accomplished. Every one, she was sure,
would go away happy and contented.
The President, Mrs. CUTLER, then made the valedictory address,
complimenting the audience for the attention they had shown and
the interest they had manifested in the proceedings. She alluded
to the fight for freedom in the days gone by--a fight in which
nearly all present had taken a part, and prophesied that as they
had won that fight they would win the fight in which they were
now engaged. In conclusion she said that in the name of justice,
in the name of humanity, in the name of love, she demanded that
the rights which woman desired should be accorded to her. The
Convention then adjourned.
The following extract is from an editorial in the _Woman's
Journal_:
The Convention of the American Woman Suffrage Association in
Washington [1871] was in every sense a success.
It made a calm, deliberate statement of the reasons that
make the exercise of suffrage woman's right and duty. It
made a strong and earnest appeal to the intellect and
conscience of the country in behalf of equal rights for all.
The speakers were selected beforehand, and came prepared to
do justice to their subject. Accordingly the proceedings
were orderly, harmonious, and effective, and the influence
exerted was serious and impressive. The resolution adopted
at the annual meeting in Philadelphia, a fortnight before,
affirming that woman suffrage, which means equality in the
home, means also greater purity, constancy, and permanence
in marriage, was reaffirmed.
Hon. Geo. F. Hoar made an admirable argument in behalf of
suffrage at the closing session. A large number of Senators
and Representatives attended the meetings. Many of these,
among others Senators Morton and Wilson, assured us of their
hearty sympathy with our movement. The most kindly and
genial hospitality was extended to the speakers by the
citizens of Washington, and nothing occurred to mar the
pleasure or diminish the influence of the meetings, which
were very largely attended, the audiences averaging one
thousand.
We have just reason to complain of the spirit of the
Washington press, as manifested in their reports of the
Convention. The sole exception was the _Daily Chronicle_,
which was fair and friendly. The other reports amounted to
little more than a burlesque, and the editorial comments
consisted chiefly of denunciation and ridicule. The N.Y.
_Tribune_, finding nothing to ridicule in our proceedings,
suppressed all mention of the Convention, not publishing
even the brief notices of the Associated Press. Having
charged woman suffrage with hostility to marriage, the
_Tribune_ has carefully refrained from informing its readers
that the American Woman Suffrage Association, representing
thirteen organized State societies, has held for the first
time a Convention in Washington, solely to urge the claim of
woman to legal and political equality. We wait to see
whether the _Tribune_ will be equally reticent, hereafter.
But neither the silence nor the misrepresentations of our
opponents will check the steady growth and progress of the
woman suffrage movement.
H. B. B.
The following is a short extract from the able address of Hon. G.
F. Hoar, Representative from Massachusetts, who said:
He would prefer the subject left to the leaders on the
platform and only be a follower in the ranks, but on command
of those having the matter in hand he had come to show his
colors. As he understood the subject, it was to assure the
American people that it was right to admit women to
participate in the affairs of government. They were using
the best minds and brains to draw out the arguments on this
subject, and some of our wisest fellow-citizens have been
unable to see any favorable argument for granting this
privilege. He then proceeded to give the ideas entertained
by citizens of the different foreign countries as to what
was the object of the republic, and said that this country
was made up of the aggregate personal worth of the people.
There could not be in a State a man having the right to
compel another to be subject to him without being unjust.
Therefore it is said that all men are created equal. Is it
right and safe that the women of this country should have a
voice in its administration? The only way to find out would
be by having the understanding of those persons who are to
accomplish it and carry it into effect. If there was
anything in which woman excelled man it was her penetration
and correct judgment of persons at first sight. It by no
means follows that because woman has the right to vote, that
entitles her to hold office. That right is vested in the
judgment of our fellow-citizens, who, if they regard us as
worthy and capable, will elect us to the offices.
Upon the Convention held in Baltimore, the following editorial
appeared in the _Woman's Journal_:
In no one State of the Union has there been a more rapid
advance in public sentiment, during the last ten years, upon
all public questions, than in the State of Maryland. In 1861
a woman suffrage meeting in Baltimore would have been a
failure. In 1871 the Convention of the American Woman
Suffrage Association has proved the very reverse. Two
evening sessions and two intermediate day sessions were well
attended. The speakers were Lucy Stone, Margaret W.
Campbell, Elizabeth K. Churchill, and Henry B. Blackwell.
Notwithstanding the disappointment felt by the audience at
the unexpected absence of Mrs. Julia Ward Howe and Rev.
James Freeman Clarke, great interest was manifested, and the
newspapers of the city gave the meetings candid and
respectful notices. We were more than gratified by the
unusual fairness and courtesy displayed by the press of
Baltimore. Indeed, to this and especially to the generous
aid of that admirable paper, the Baltimore _American_, are
largely due the success of our meetings. We feel all the
more bound to notice this frank and generous treatment of a
new and unpopular movement by the press of Maryland because
we have felt it our duty to condemn the striking contrast
exhibited in other quarters. In Baltimore competent
reporters made a conscientious abstract of the speeches they
professed to report. When this is done in New York and
Washington, the woman suffrage cause will have less
difficulty in enlisting public attention.
We were also exceedingly gratified to find that the laws of
Maryland for wives, mothers, and widows, though still far
from equitable, are greatly in advance of those of
Massachusetts and of most Northern States. We are promised
by one of the most eminent lawyers of Baltimore a full
statement of the legal status of married women in Maryland.
We shall publish it in the _Woman's Journal_, as an evidence
that equity and liberality are not bounded by "Mason and
Dixon" or any other geographical line.
H. B. B.
A mass convention of the American Woman Suffrage Association at
Apollo Hall, New York, on the 9th of May, 1872, was an
interesting and successful meeting. Mrs. LUCY STONE presided, and
made the opening address. Rev. James Freeman Clarke, Charlotte B.
Wilbour, Mary F. Eastman, Rev. Edward Eggleston, Helen M.
Jenkins, Henry B. Blackwell, Amanda Deyo, and others addressed
the Convention.
Some disappointment was felt at the unavoidable absence of Mr.
Garrison, Mrs. Bowles, and Mrs. Livermore, the two former being
detained by severe indisposition. In consequence of an error of
dates on the part of the proprietors of Steinway Hall, the
meeting was held at an unusual place; nevertheless, the number of
persons in attendance at the three sessions averaged seven
hundred, and was composed, for the most part, of substantial,
reliable friends of the movement. The notices of the Press were
brief, but respectful. The Convention declined to take any
separate political action, arraigned the so-called "Liberal
Republicans" for their illiberal exclusion of women, and appealed
to the approaching National Conventions at Philadelphia and
Baltimore for a recognition of the rightful claims of woman to
legal and political equality.
The American Woman Suffrage Association held in 1872 its fourth
annual meeting, and celebrated its third anniversary at St.
Louis.
Dr. STONE, of Michigan, said: Friends of the cause of universal
suffrage--We live in an era of common sense. Sir William
Hamilton, who was a great philosopher, and who investigated all
the systems of philosophy from Aristotle down to Descartes and
Kant, who went to the lowest depths of philosophy, dived deep for
pearls, sometimes bringing up also mud and clams, declared after
all his survey of the various schools of philosophy, that the
great regulating power of the human mind was common sense; that
of all the faculties, that which controlled all others was common
sense. That was the basis of his system of philosophy. Now it is
just as appropriate as friends of social and political reform,
that we should rely upon common sense, as it was for this great
philosopher, and it is this on which we purpose to rely. Wherever
there is a battle to be fought, they who make the best use and
most continued exercise of common sense are sure to win. This is
not only true in moral contests, in the strife of mind with mind,
but it is true in those material contests such as we have
recently had. It was true in the great contest between Germany
and France. It was this the crusaders lacked, and the reason why
they spent so many ages in doing nothing was that they did not
exercise their common sense. When the Jews, by their follies, by
their obduracy, had destroyed themselves, and the Almighty wished
to bring them to their senses, he said, "Come, let us reason
together." For he knew if they would exercise their common sense
they would no longer be rebellious as they had been. And it is
true at the present time. I think if we can succeed in inducing
those who differ from us to reason--I mean to exercise that
regulating power which the common mind as well as the philosophic
mind possesses, if they would exercise their common sense, the
battle would be fought and the victory would be won. Sometimes
circumstances unexpectedly bring men to their senses in these
matters. We know there has been a great deal of discussion on the
subject of slavery, and we needed a Dred Scott decision to bring
men to their senses. When they contemplated that in all its
bearings and ultimate results, common sense said: It can never be
endured; we have had enough of this going on. Let us come
directly to the point. Is a negro a man? Is he a rational,
accountable man or not? If a beast has rights we are bound to
respect, and if a man for abusing it may be thrown into the
penitentiary, is it possible that he who is made in the image of
God is without rights? Does not common sense teach that we have
some rights, and if our laws contradict such a decision as this
it is time we have better laws, and such as common sense will
approve. We want some one to rise in the cause of suffrage to cut
the Gordian knot that binds the community, that binds churches,
that binds good men everywhere, as well as those who are willing
to be mistaken. A single word from Gen. Butler, who, whatever may
have been charged against him, is not lacking in common sense,
the single word "contraband," wrought a revolution in the midst
of our rebellion, and to that we owe to a great extent our
success in the war. We want such a gleam of light to burst upon
the minds of the community, upon the great American people who
are interested in the subject. The field is ours for the next
four years, and we will strive to impress the doctrines of common
sense upon all men and all women everywhere, until the atmosphere
shall be full of it and all shall take it in by absorption.
Mrs. LONGLEY, of Cincinnati, said--_Ladies and Gentlemen_: In a
country where "No taxation without representation" is a
watchword, and where it is held that "all just governments derive
their powers from the consent of the governed," it should be
unnecessary to plead for the recognition of the right of half its
people to participate in making the laws by which they are taxed
and governed. The justice of woman's claim to the ballot is so
self-evident, and so entirely in accord with the spirit of our
institutions and the fundamental principles upon which they are
based, that I often feel as though it were offering an insult to
American men to undertake to argue the question. But, every
election day reminds us that these fundamental principles which
our forefathers fought to establish are outraged. "We, the
people," they said, yet nearly a century finds half the people
ignored, half the people taxed without being represented, and
governed without their consent. I know it is held that the
expression "the people" in the Constitution does not include
women, and should not be interpreted literally; but it appears to
me that if we engage in this method of interpretation of
constitutions and laws we shall soon get things mixed. If the
expression does not include women in the sense of voters it does
not include them in the sense of tax-payers, nor in the sense of
criminals, nor does it even include them as being entitled to
the enjoyment of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness"--as the Declaration of Independence declares "a
people" to be entitled to these.
Surely it will not be said that the rights of half the people of
the United States were ignored by the men who framed the
Constitution of the United States. It was evidently the object of
the Constitution to secure equal rights to all. The Constitution
of the United States recognizes the great principle of human
equality, and the rights of women can not be delegated to or
represented by their husbands. Women who believe that they are
responsible to God only, are not willing to be circumscribed by
men.
Mrs. HANNAH M. TRACY CUTLER said that this was a progressive, a
growing, and a glorious country. All people came here and found
protection under its generous shelter, more or less. We had been
digging away at this suffrage question until, in her opinion, we
are getting pretty near the foundation of government. We are
pulling up the old ideas and throwing them out of the way and
making room for the grand tree of liberty to grow. That tree has
already grown to considerable size, and flourished more or less
under the generous protection of our institutions--less a good
deal, the negro said a few years ago, though now he begins to
realize that it is more.
We women are quite well protected. Sometimes we are protected a
great deal more than we want to be. [Several ladies in the
audience, "That's so!" and laughter.] The American men are the
best men under the sun. Each one of them is a prince of the blood
royal. That's a reasonably good compliment. Now, gentlemen, turn
round and say to the women of America, "You are each and every
one of you a princess by divine right, and we will give you even
the half of our kingdom." That is all we ask. But they say, "Show
us the precedent. The thing never has been done before. The women
have been ignored in government from the earliest days until
now," etc. Why, gentlemen, away back in the remote ages of
history--so far that the memory of man runneth not distinctly
thereto--we find that women not only lived and gave men to the
world, but that they lived and gave laws to the world.
Mrs. STONE, the President, said she would like to speak to the
delegates and friends, because she knew those who were here had
been working in this cause for years. They are short of time, but
all give it that deep, earnest baptism of work for the principles
that underlie republican institutions. They would work until that
end is achieved, or until death relieved them from their labor.
She felt cheered on seeing the progress they had made. It was
about twenty years since the speaker came to this city to deliver
a course of lectures for woman's rights. They called it woman's
rights in those days. They did not use the word suffrage at all;
and, as she stood there now, her mind ran back over a score of
years. When she counted the gains they had made, it seemed as if
she had been in some fairy palace, and by charms the old wrongs
had dropped away and new good had sprung up. They had fought for
woman's rights, and had taken hold of the hands of little girls
growing out of girlhood into womanhood--girls who must stand on
their own feet and earn a living for themselves. When there was
no father's hand or brother's arm to help, what could woman do?
She looked out into the great thoroughfares of industry open to
all men, and almost all were shut against her. Woman was a
teacher at a dollar a day, and had to board round. She was a
seamstress with still smaller pay, or she was a housekeeper at
her own house or somebody's else, where, so far as material gains
were concerned, the results were small. Other industries were
shut to her. The world is as full of women as men. They have to
eat, drink, and be clothed, and, until other opportunities are
obtained, their supplies are infinitely smaller than those
offered to men. Why should women, whose supple fingers can set
type--why should not they be type-setters? The printers joined
together in bands and swore by all the gods they knew that women
should not be printers. They joined together in a body and
printed in a book that they would not work for any man who
employed women as printers. They thought it would degrade the
labor of man. The reformers asked for what was honest, good, and
true, and found a response in the business interest of men, and
the way was opened for women printers. Instead of brothers
talking of supporting their sisters and making themselves poor
they now worked side by side. A paper which they would have here
for subscription--the _Woman's Journal_--came from an office
where all the printers, with two exceptions, were girls; and the
man who managed the office said it was an advantage, because the
girls are always sober and never go on a spree. He could always
be sure of having the paper out at the right time. The steady,
honest, little women printers are always there. They asked why
the women could not go into the stores and sell shoes, cloth, and
dry goods, and why should not men build cities and sail ships and
do what larger muscles fit them for? and they quoted the words of
King Solomon, who spoke of a good wife sending out ships and
dealing in merchandise. Women entered stores and became not only
clerks but merchants, and some of the best stores she knew to-day
were owned by women, who do not look to the time when they are to
go to the workhouse or some worse place even, but were laying by
some means to give them comfortable maintenance in their old age.
Fathers who had daughters looked forward with more courage,
because there were more avenues for woman's industry and better
pay to reward it.
When Chicago was burned, the telegraphic dispatches most promptly
forwarded and accurately worded were sent by women, and a
generous public appreciated the fact. In medical matters they
said, "Here is a department--here is a field for which women are
peculiarly adapted, and to which they would be welcomed in the
hour of peril." They were laughed at and called "she doctors" by
those who thought women would be scared by their vulgarity; and
some young doctors threw stones and mud, literally, and tried to
prevent women being physicians. But gentlemen who had wives and
daughters looked in the faces of those half-bearded boys mocking
at women wishing to study medicine, and asked, "Are these the
fellows who wish to come to our homes and practice?" And when
those boys knew they would not be welcome to those houses, they
smoothed down their anger, went back to their studies, and have
behaved better ever since. The speaker mentioned the case of a
sister of the Fowlers who kept a horse and carriage, and a man to
drive. She has a large practice, with $15,000 a year. They next
asked that there should be women lawyers. She believed the day
was not far off when women would as worthily fill that as any
other profession. What they asked was, that woman should have a
wider sphere of activity.
The speaker next alluded to the fact that the captain of a ship
going to California had fallen sick and died. The captain's wife,
who had been on many voyages, asked the sailors over the dead
body of her husband to be as loyal to her as they had been to
him, and every man swore fealty to the woman, whom they knew to
be worthy of command. When she brought the ship safe to port, the
grateful underwriters made up a purse for the woman who had saved
the ship.
After relating a similar anecdote in relation to a ship that
sailed from China, the speaker narrated the progress made by
women in being admitted to the Christian ministry. When they had
so many rights, they were sure they could earn their own bread;
and they must have the right to vote in this Government, where
they were taxed, and where their sons could be sent to fight in
war. In a republican government they were entitled to vote; and
now the Republican party--the great Republican party that had
swept the country by such a magnificent vote--had made the cause
its own and could carry them on to triumph; giving them the
suffrage as it had given it to the negroes. The Convention at
Philadelphia listened respectfully to their claim, and the
Republican party of the State of Massachusetts had put it in
their platform. In the last campaign the suffragists won five
hundred thousand votes of men who were bound to vote for them by
and by, and they were sure to win. She believed the final hour of
victory could not be far away.
Mrs. HOWE, chairman of the Executive Committee, gave a long and
deeply interesting report. Mr. BLACKWELL read the following
letters:
MRS. LUCY STONE:--_Dear Madam_--I should be glad to meet
with you at St. Louis and to add my testimony to that of the
noble band, who, after so long a conflict for another step
in the advance of humanity, seem on the eve of seeing their
wishes fulfilled. I have never been sanguine as to the near
and rapid accomplishment of the admission of women to the
right and duty of suffrage, but I have never doubted of its
ultimate accomplishment, because I believe that every
movement, founded in justice and wisdom, will at length
prevail. The cause of woman suffrage never seemed to me more
worthy of the consideration of thoughtful men than now. What
it has suffered, all causes that strike at deep principles
must expect to suffer in their early history. And it has
been relieved of its hindrances sooner than might have been
expected. The action of political conventions, State and
National, has been significant. If the articles on suffrage
are vague as to principle, they are striking as the record
of the conclusions of observant politicians in respect to
the currents and tendencies of the public mind. They felt
the need of saying something, and if they did it
reluctantly, it is all the more significant. While then I
can not be with you personally, I am with you in sympathy,
and in the firm faith of the justice of your cause and of
its final victory. Very truly yours,
BROOKLYN, _November 9, 1872_. HENRY WARD BEECHER.
_My Dear_ MRS. HOWE _and_ LUCY STONE:--I am sorry that I
must decline your kind invitation to attend the annual
meeting of the American Woman Suffrage Association at St.
Louis. I am too old (approaching seventy-six) and infirm to
make long journeys. Let woman be of good cheer. She will not
have to wait for the ballot much longer. The arguments are
unanswerable and will soon be crowned with success. Allow me
to send you the enclosed twenty-five dollars toward
defraying the expenses of the meeting. With great regard,
Your friend,
PETERBORO, N. Y., _November 15, 1872_. GERRIT SMITH.
DEAR LUCY:--I am glad to hear that the American Woman
Suffrage Association is to meet at St. Louis this month. The
more women are brought to think on this subject, the more
they will be convinced that their spiritual growth has been
stinted by customs and opinions which have no real
foundation in nature and truth; and the frank, free West is
more courageous than the East in carrying its convictions
promptly into practice. I rejoiced in the recent political
action of women in Massachusetts and elsewhere--first,
because it was salutary for women themselves as all things
are which promote the activity of their minds on important
subjects; and, secondly, because the promptness and
earnestness with which they almost universally took the
right side has greatly helped to convince those who needed
convincing that women are competent to examine into affairs
of National interest and to form rational conclusions
therefrom.
Although I feel grateful to the Republican party for
treating our claims with more respectful consideration than
any other party has done, yet my principal reason for
earnestly desiring its continuance in power is, that it is
essentially the party of progress. It owes its existence to
progress, and its vitality has been preserved by its
practical support of progressive ideas. It embodies a very
large portion of the culture, the conscientiousness, and the
enlightened good sense of the nation, and its elements are
so harmonized as to produce a safe medium between old
fogyism and radical rashness. It is natural for such a party
to respect our claims, because they have become accustomed
to respect what is founded on principles of justice. It was
the learning of that lesson which originally made them a
powerful party, and they can not be false to ideas of true
progress without committing suicide. Of course, with
changing events, party names will change; but I hope women
will carefully notice what principles underlie these
changes, and will conscientiously give their influence to
whatever party proves itself most friendly to the largest
freedom regulated by wise and equal laws.
With a cordial greeting to our sisters of the West and to
our brothers also, I wish you God-speed on your mission of
enfranchisement to half the human race.
WAYLAND, _November 12, 1872_. L. MARIA CHILD.
The Business Committee reported resolutions,[193] which after
much discussion were adopted. Officers[194] for the ensuing year
were then proposed and elected.
Miss EASTMAN was announced. As she stepped to the front she was
received with applause. She gave an able address, answering the
questions, "What is to be gained and what is to be lost, by
giving women the ballot?" She confined her attention to the
latter question principally, by reviewing the condition of women
in the past, and their condition in foreign countries. She
answered the charge that women are unfit to use the ballot. There
was quite an array of facts in her discourse, and extreme beauty
in her language, though the latter covered at times exquisite
sarcasm that was relished by all. She made a decided impression
upon the audience, and concluded amid demonstrations of applause.
LUCY STONE made the closing speech, and said that after the
golden words to which we had been listening, silence was most
fitting; what she had to say, therefore, would be brief and
without preliminary. The distinctions which are made on account
of sex are so utterly without reason, that a mere statement of
them ought to be sufficient to secure their immediate correction.
For example, here are twins, a baby boy and girl; they rock in
the same cradle; the same breast blesses their baby lips; the
same hand guides their first tottering steps. A little later they
play the same plays, recite the same lessons and hold the same
rank as scholars. They ask admission to Harvard college. The boy
is received, and the girl refused. Can any one tell me a good
reason why? At twenty-one their father gives them each a house.
They both pay taxes on this real estate, but the young man has a
voice, both in the amount of tax and its use, all of which is
denied to the young woman. Can any one tell a good reason why?
They assume the marriage relation. The young husband can sell his
house, give a good title, convey his stocks, will his property
according to his pleasure, have the guardianship and control of
his children. The young wife can not sell her house, or give a
valid title; can not convey her stocks, or make a will of her
property with the same freedom that the husband can, has no equal
right to the control and guardianship of her children. Can any
one tell a good reason why?
The man becomes a widower, but the house, the land, the
furniture, and the children are all undisturbed. The woman
becomes a widow. The property is divided in fractions, the
contents of the cupboards and closets counted, valued, divided,
and the widow's thirds (commonly known as the widow's
incumbrance), are left to this woman. Can any one give a good
reason why there should be such a difference between the rights
of the widow and the widower? or why woman as a student, a wife,
a mother, a widow, and a citizen, should be held at such a
disadvantage?
The mere statement of the case shows the injustice, and the wrong
which needs to be righted. There is only one way to remove this,
and that is for woman to use her right to the ballot, and through
it, protect herself. Oh, men of St. Louis! will you not use the
power you hold, and the opportunity to make the application of
our theory of government sure as far as in you lies, to each
man's mother, sister, and daughter?
On motion of Mr. Blackwell, it was
_Resolved_, That the thanks of this Convention are extended
to the citizens of St. Louis for the kind hospitality they
have extended to the delegates of this Convention. Also to
the representatives of the press for the candid and
respectful reports which have appeared in the daily papers
of the city.
The American Woman Suffrage Association held an introductory
anniversary meeting Monday, October 13, 1873, in the large hall
of the Cooper Institute. A fine audience attended, the hall being
nearly filled. Fully two-thirds of this audience were men.
Colonel T. W. HIGGINSON, the President of the Association, said:
This is my last service as President of this association. Unlike
other bodies, it only has a man for that office every other year,
and this is the end of the other year. We meet here as a family,
men and women, each ready to do his or her share of the talk. We
stand here to speak neither for one nor the other, but for that
great movement which is to sweep through the land and arouse one
sex to its rights and the other to its duties. Not to arouse man
against woman, but in favor of the civilization which is to come.
It is more than twenty years since the Woman Suffrage Association
came up in an organized form. We entered into this movement with
no ideas of immediate success. We had behind us only a few years
of agitation after long centuries of prejudice and distrust.
Look through the long record of the great reforms of the world,
and what a series of delays and discouragements you find! It is a
history of defeats before victories. Men sometimes come to us
with sympathy because we have been defeated in this Legislature
or that convention. Sympathy! We thank heaven that it had got
there to be defeated; that we are strong enough to be in a
minority! Defeat is victory afterward. We have been defeated
again and again, and again, and each time we find ourselves
growing stronger.
Miss MARY F. EASTMAN, in an able address, stated the progress of
the movement in different States, and insisted on the right of
women to the exercise of the franchise, as a consequence of the
Declaration of Independence. The elective franchise was the
greatest blessing enjoyed by a free people, and the inability of
any class to exercise it indicated a description of servitude.
She said that the person was trying to erase God's finger mark
upon the human soul who would prevent anybody, man or woman, from
following natural bent and ability in any avocation. In the
founding of Harvard and other early colleges, some provision was
made for the education of Indians, but none for women. Already at
Yale and West Point colored men have a fair chance, not yet the
women. Miss Eastman thought that suffrage was the highway to all
other reforms.
Mrs. LUCY STONE said: _Mr. President, Fellow-workers, Ladies, and
Gentlemen:_--Our cause is half won when we find that people are
willing to hear it, as you seem to be willing to hear it now. One
of the best things we can have in meetings like this is to create
a discontent that women are not permitted to enjoy all their
rights. To-night while we are here, there are gathered in
Plymouth Church, women who are laying plans to take part in the
celebration of the Centennial, in 1876. At this point in the
speaker's remarks, some confusion arose from the entry into the
hall of about 200 young women.
Mr. DENNIS GRIFFIN rose and said these women were not the Cooper
Institute class; they were parasol-makers who had been forced out
of employment by their employers, and they had come, not as women
suffragists but as women suffering, to ask of the audience their
sympathetic support, and if when the lady had finished her speech
the audience would permit the President of this Association of
working women to speak from the platform, she would explain their
grievances.
Mrs. STONE then proceeded, saying that if one thing was surer
than another, it was that woman suffrage would help every
suffering sewing woman. It had been said that the ballot was
worth fifty cents a day to a man; and, if so, it was worth just
as much to a woman. All over the Union, as this night in Plymouth
Church, women were preparing to take part in the coming
Centennial to celebrate the Fourth of July, 1876. When she heard
this she asked herself what part women had in such a celebration?
Just as men were oppressed previous to 1776, so were women
oppressed to-day. I say that women should resolve to take no part
in it. Let them shut their doors and darken their windows on that
day, and let a few of the most matronly women dress themselves in
black and stand at the corners of the streets where the largest
procession is to pass, bearing banners inscribed, "We are
governed without our consent; we are taxed without
representation." The Declaration of Independence belonged to
men. Let them have their masculine celebration and masculine
glory all to themselves, and let the women, wherever they can get
a church, go there and hold solemn service and toll the bell. "It
will give us a chance for moral protest," she continued, "such as
we shall never have again, for before another hundred years it
must surely be that the growth of public sentiment will sweep
away all distinctions based solely on sex."
At the close of Mrs. Stone's remarks, the Chairman invited the
representative of the parasol-makers to state her case,
introducing her as Miss Leonard, of New York, President of the
parasol-makers.
Miss LEONARD advanced to the front of the platform, and appeared
to be much embarrassed at fronting so large an audience. The
hearty applause with which she was greeted assuring her of a
kindly reception, she became a little more at ease, and in a low
tone of voice spoke as follows:
_My Worthy Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen:_ I was not
prepared to meet an audience like this. In consequence of
being oppressed by our employers we were obliged to leave
their employ, because we can not earn our bread.
Consequently we held a meeting up stairs to-night, and
knowing that you were here we thought we would let you know
that there are hundreds of women suffering, not for the
ballot but for bread. I have never wanted the ballot. I
believe it belongs to the men who have it; but I come to ask
you in the name of humanity if there can be any society
organized that will repress the unscrupulous employers and
let the public know they are oppressing the poor girls. Men
are strong; they can get together and ask what they want;
they can organize in large bodies, but the working women are
the most oppressed race in the United States. I am thankful
to you, gentlemen and ladies (I should have put the ladies
first), for giving me your attention. I don't intend to
detain you long, because your meeting is here for a
different purpose, but I hope you will give me your
sympathies. I can not make you an eloquent speech, for I, as
a working woman, have had to labor eighteen hours a day for
my bread, and therefore have had no time to educate myself
as an orator.
HENRY B. BLACKWELL said: This audience is composed mostly of men.
I have a word to say to men especially. Why is it that labor is
oppressed and that working women and working men are in some
respects worse off than ever before? I answer; because our
Government is Republican only in name. It is not even
representative of men. The primary meetings which nominate the
candidates and control the policy of parties are neglected by the
voters. Not one man in fifty attends them. They are controlled in
every locality by rings of trading politicians.
Now there is only one remedy for this. You must somehow contrive
to interest the mass of the people in public business. You must
reform the primary meetings by securing an attendance of the
intelligent classes of the community. There is only one way to do
this. The same way you have already adopted in the churches, in
charitable associations, in society, everywhere except in
politics, you must enlist the sympathy and co-operation of women.
Then the men who now stay away will go with their wives and
sisters. The reason the better class of men neglect to attend the
primaries is this--civilized and refined men spend their evenings
in the society of women; they go with them to church meetings, to
concerts, to lectures. They do not break off these engagements to
go down to some liquor saloon, or other unattractive locality,
there, amid the fumes of tobacco and whisky, to find everything
already cut and dried beforehand. They try it once or twice and
then retire for life disgusted. We ask suffrage for women because
they are different from men. Not better nor wiser on the whole,
but better and wiser in certain respects. They are more
temperate, more chaste, more economical. Their presence will
appeal to the self-respect of men. Thus both will be improved,
and politics will be redeemed and purified.
The second session of this Convention was held in Brooklyn, in
Plymouth Church. At this meeting the Chairman of the Executive
Committee, Mrs. Lucy Stone read her annual report, and then the
delegates from the different States gave accounts of the cause in
all parts of the Union, as carried on by means of the State
societies. At the opening of the afternoon session Col. HIGGINSON
read the following letters:
ANDOVER, MASS., Sept. 29, 1873.
MY DEAR MRS. STONE:--My regret at not being able to attend
the meetings of the American Suffrage Association this year,
is not consoled by the pleasure of expressing, by letter, my
warmest sympathy with their objects; but, if we can not do
the thing we would, we must do the next best thing to it.
To say that I believe in womanhood suffrage with my whole
head and heart, is very imperfectly to express the eagerness
with which I hope for it, and the confidence with which I
expect it. It will come, as other right things come, because
it is right. But those forces which "make for righteousness"
make haste slowly. Do we not often trip up ourselves in our
pilgrimage toward truth, by attributing our own sense of
hunger and hurry and heat to the fullness and leisure and
calm in which the object of our passionate search moves
forward to meet us? There is something very significant to
the student of progress, in the history of the forerunners
of revolutions. Their eager confidence in their own
immediate success, their pathetic bewilderment at the
mystery of their apparent failures, are rich with suggestion
to any one who means work for an unpopular cause. No reform
marches evenly to its consummation. If it does not meet
apparent overthrow, it must step at times with the
uneasiness of what George Eliot would call its "growing
pains." But growing pains are not death-throes. In the name
of growth and decay let us be exact in our diagnosis!
I have fallen into this train of thought, because there
seems to have been a concerted and deliberate attempt, this
past year, on the part of certain of those opposed to the
thorough elevation of women, to assert that our influence is
distinctly losing ground. Irresponsible assertion is the
last refuge of the force whose arguments have fallen off in
the fray, and "unconscious annihilation" is as yet a very
agreeable condition. It might be replied, in the language of
the hymn-book:
"If this be death,
'Tis sweet to die!"
Perhaps to the onlookers this has not been one of our fast
years. No one actually engaged in the struggle to improve
the condition of women can for an instant doubt that it has
been a strong one. A silent, sure awakening of women to
their own needs is taking place on every hand; and it is
becoming evident that until the masses of women are thus
awakened, the movement to enfranchise them must not
anticipate any very vivid successes. Let us be content if
our strength runs for a time to the making of muscle, not to
the trial of speed.
I am, Madam, very sincerely, ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS.
CONCORD, Oct. 1, 1873.
DEAR MRS. STONE:--I am so busy just now proving "woman's
right to labor," that I have no time to help prove "woman's
right to vote."
When I read your note aloud to the family, asking "What
shall I say to Mrs. Stone?" a voice from the transcendental
mist which usually surrounds my honored father instantly
replied, "Tell her you are ready to follow her as leader,
sure that you could not have a better one." My brave old
mother, with the ardor of many unquenchable Mays shining in
her face, cried out, "Tell her I am seventy three, but I
mean to go to the polls before I die, even if my three
daughters have to carry me." And two little men, already
mustered in, added the cheering words, "Go ahead, Aunt
Weedy, we will let you vote as much as ever you like."
Such being the temper of the small Convention of which I am
now president, I can not hesitate to say that though I may
not be with you in body, I shall be in spirit, and am as
ever, hopefully and heartily yours,
LOUISA MAY ALCOTT.
Letters from William Lloyd Garrison and Lydia Maria Child were
also read, expressing deep sympathy and hope for the cause.
Mr. BLACKWELL, as Chairman of the Business Committee, reported
the resolutions, of which the last was:
6. _Resolved_, That the woman suffrage movement, like every
other reform of the age, laments the loss and honors the
memory of its most powerful advocate, John Stuart Mill.
MATILDA J. HINDMAN, of Pittsburgh, made an address explaining the
origin of the movement for woman suffrage, asserting its verity
and necessity. She gave many reasons for woman's needing the
ballot.
Mrs. LUCY STONE gave instances of oppressive laws with reference
to statutes relative to widows which are in force in some New
England States, and which bear very hard upon women because they
can not vote.
Mrs. ABBA G. WOOLSON, of Massachusetts, author of "Woman in
American Society," gave an exceedingly interesting description of
her tour through Wyoming, her hour and a half conversation in the
cars with Gov. Campbell, whose testimony was positive in favor of
all the new privileges given to women, by which Wyoming has
distinguished herself. Mrs. Woolson came home happy to have for
the first time set her foot on Republican soil; "for," said she,
"no State in the Union is a republic, but it is to me an absolute
monarchy."
Rev. CELIA BURLEIGH, demonstrated that this Government is not a
republic, but an aristocracy so long as the suffrage is denied to
woman.
Mrs. MARY A. LIVERMORE found much encouragement for the cause in
various signs of the times. She would have women act as if they
already bore the responsibilities of voters; would have them put
off frivolity and every other cause of offense to opponents, and
put on a soberness of spirit and a gracious gravity of mien as
behooved those in whose hearts a great work lay. She exhorted
them to remember that they were not arrayed against men as foes,
but that they were working with fathers, brothers, husbands and
sons for the best interests of the whole race.
An audience of at least 1,200 persons was present at the closing
session.
The following letter from Miriam M. Cole was read:
OTTERBEIN UNIVERSITY, WESTERVILLE, O., Oct. 4, 1873.
DEAR MR. BLACKWELL--Much as I wish to be with you the 13th
and 14th, I can not. My work in the University can not be
given to another, and I have no right to leave it undone. I
hope your meeting will be profitable and successful. It is
said, "Interest in woman suffrage is dying out." This is not
true, so far as I know. There is more sober, candid talk on
the subject in private circles, here in Ohio, than ever
before. Our students in the University are asking questions,
with a desire for intelligent answers, and at home, in
Sydney, before I left, many experienced politicians
confessed it to be the one thing needful. I am sure it is
gaining ground among our quiet, sensible people. The stir
may not be so demonstrative in cities as formerly, but
through the country there is a general awakening. If we can
only have patience to wait, we shall not be disappointed.
Right, sooner or later, will come into its kingdom. Women
are no longer children to be frightened by imaginary bears,
neither will they be satisfied with playthings, who ask for
better. The distance between men and women is lessening
every year. Colleges are bringing them on to the same plane,
and the agitation of this question of woman's right to a
voice in the government, has given and is giving men new
ideas respecting the strength of woman's intellect and her
determination to be more than a doll in this busy world.
Whether we are made voting citizens or not, let no man
beguile himself with the thought that the old order of
things will be restored. They who step into light and
freedom will not retrace their steps. This end is equality,
civil, religious and political--there is no stopping-place
this side of that. My best wishes are with you and yours.
MIRIAM M. COLE.
Miss HULDAH B. LOUD, of East Abington, Mass., was the first
speaker: Scorned by the Democrats and fawned upon by the
Republicans, who profess but to betray, under these circumstances
we come again to the fight. We believe in liberty in the highest
degree, such liberty as our fathers fought for, and this struggle
will go on until that liberty is gained; liberty is the pursuit
of life, health, and happiness. We look in vain for honesty in
political life. We turn in disgust from the meaningless
platitudes of the Republican Convention at Worcester, from the
incidental admission of a plank in the platform which means
nothing.
If we would be recognized as a power by political parties, every
suffragist should withhold his ballot, and thus politicians would
be brought to their senses. If we labor for anything, if we mean
anything, we mean woman suffrage, and let us not give a moral or
material support, politically, to the man who is not in harmony
with the principle of free suffrage in its broadest significance.
We are called unwomanly for our advocacy of this priceless boon
to women. We are willing that our womanly character should stand
by the side of those who oppose this movement. Do you call Lucy
Stone, the woman reformer of the world, with her eloquence, her
soft voice, her matchless, unwearied work for all that is good,
with her motherly appearance, do you call such a woman unwomanly?
Or Margaret Fuller, or Julia Ward Howe, do you call these women
unwomanly? Then let us take our place by them, cast in our lot
with them and be called unwomanly. It is said, and it is sadly
true, that many women do not want the ballot; and it is no less
sadly true that many of our most bitter opponents are our sister
women. But if they do not want the ballot, if you deprive me of
the right you do me a grievous wrong. It is said that if we were
given the privilege of the ballot, we would not use it. Is it any
reason if I do not choose to avail myself of my rights that I
should be deprived of them? Why do you consult women if this
right shall be given them? You did not consult the slave in
regard to his freedom, but you said he was wanted for the
salvation of the country, and you took him and forced freedom
upon him.
Mrs. JULIA WARD HOWE and Mrs. MARY A. LIVERMORE spoke alike with
great force and earnestness upon the moral and religious phases
of the movement.
Mrs. FRANCES WATKINS HARPER, of Philadelphia, made the closing
speech. She showed that much as white women need the ballot,
colored women need it more. Although the women of her race are no
longer sold on the auction block, they are subjected to the legal
authority of ignorant and often degraded men. She rejoiced in the
progress already made, but pleaded for equal rights and equal
education for the colored women of the land.
The PRESIDENT said--Ladies and gentlemen, the letters have been
read, the reports accepted, the resolutions adopted, the
officers[195] for the ensuing year chosen, and there being no
further business before the Convention, it is moved and seconded
that we adjourn _sine die_.
* * * * *
The Sixth Annual Meeting of the American Woman Suffrage
Association assembled at the Opera House in Detroit, Tuesday
morning, Oct. 13, 1874.
Col. W. M. FERRY, of Grand Haven, Chairman of the State Executive
Committee of the Michigan Suffrage Association, called the
meeting to order, and made a brief address of welcome. He spoke
of the pleasure the Convention afforded many of the advocates of
woman suffrage in this city who have the cause deeply at heart.
He then alluded to the authoress of the well-known hymn, "The
Battle Hymn of the Republic," Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, and
introduced her as the President of the American Woman Suffrage
Association.
The Rev. Mrs. GILLETTE, of Rochester, Mich., opened the meeting
with prayer.
The President, Mrs. HOWE, then delivered the Annual Address:
_Ladies and Gentlemen of the American Woman Suffrage
Convention:_
It is my office on the present occasion to welcome you to
this scene of our happy and harmonious meeting. In this
great country many families do not gather their members
together oftener than once in a year. When they accomplish
this they ordain a festival, and call it Thanksgiving Day.
This Association is in some sense a family, whose members
are widely scattered. East, West, North and South claim and
contain us. But when the sacred call for our Annual Meeting
is issued, distances are forgotten, business and pleasures
are interrupted. Like the wave of a magician's wand, the
touch of a common sympathy summons us and keeps us in sight.
Our first feeling, I suppose, is one of great pleasure at
looking each other in the face again. This is our Suffrage
Thanksgiving, and we hope to keep it right cordially.
Welcome, dear friends, faithful sisters and brothers.
Welcome, one and all. In this world of death we still live.
In this world of doubt we still believe in even-handed
justice, and in pure law. So, with one breath, we give God
thanks for our continued life and faith, and wish each other
and our great cause Godspeed.
But we are met for something more than a mere expression of
feeling, however cordial and timely that might be. We meet
here to take counsel for the spiritual welfare to which each
one of us stands pledged. How goes the good fight? Let each
department of our little army tell. What victories have been
achieved, what defeats suffered with patience? How shall we
improve the one? What shall we learn from the other? Oh! let
us feel that these rare moments of our meeting are precious.
Here we must compare notes and learn what has been done.
Here, too, we must briefly survey what is yet to do and how
it is to be done. May no moment in this too brief season be
wasted! May we all speak and act in view of great
necessities and of high hopes. We may take for our text the
words: "Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed."
But we must also acknowledge that the end is not yet.
Every year that sees us banded together in pursuit of our
present object sees a wonderful growth in its prominence and
recognized importance. Opposition has grown with our
efforts. People at first said, "Nobody will resist you."
This was when people thought we were in fun. But when it
appeared that we were in sad and bitter earnest, opposition
was not wanting. Wherever we came to plead the cause of
human freedom, the enemies of human freedom met and
withstood us. All the professions have befriended--all,
too, have opposed us. We have stood before powers and
dignitaries to maintain what we believe; and while we have
asked that the right of suffrage be recognized in the
persons of women, women learned and unlearned have stood up
to ask that our petition should not be granted. We need not
say that for one woman who has done this, hundreds and
thousands have risen up to bless the woman suffrage cause
and its champions. And for every doctor, lawyer and priest
who has shrieked forth or set forth our presumptive
disabilities, a tenfold number of men in all of these
callings have arisen to do battle for the right, and to tell
us on the authority of their special knowledge and
experience, that the reform we ask for is congenial to
nature and founded on right. Goldwin Smith, a man knowing
naught of woman, airs his irrational views in the English
_Fortnightly_, and Frances Power Cobbe and Prof. Cairnes,
and a host of others, unravel the net of his flimsy
statements. Drs. Clarke and Maudsley dogmatize from their
male view of the female constitution; and from men and women
throughout the country an indignant protest rises up. Men
and women say alike: "It is not education that demoralizes
and diseases our women. It is want of education, want of
object, want of right knowledge of ends and methods." And
how shall we acquire this unless we are taught? And how
shall we be taught unless provision is made for us? And how
shall provision be made for us unless we make it ourselves
by voting for it?
Some mention is due to the place in which we meet. We are in
the State of Michigan, a State in which the question of
impartial suffrage has been carefully canvassed and
presented during the past year. Within a short distance from
us is the University of Michigan, liberal to men and to
women, whose scholarly claims and merits its Professors and
its President openly and earnestly attest. We claim that
institution as our potent ally. It furnishes the remedy to
all that we complain of. Equal education for the sexes is
the true preparation for equality in civil and social
ordinances. Even at this distance we breathe something of
that pure air in which the woman grows to her full
intellectual stature, untrammeled by artificial limitation
of object and of method. We boast our own Boston, its
culture and its conscience, but while Harvard persistently
closes its doors to women, we blush too for New England, and
sorrowfully wish it better enlightenment and better
behavior.
Having spoken of the East and the West, let me say how
welcome to us of the East are occasions which make us better
acquainted with our fellow-workers and believers of the
West. The late Mr. Seward once said that slavery was
sectional and freedom National. This was true in a larger
sense than that in which he said it. All that is slavish
tends to keep up sectional prejudice and isolation. All that
is liberal tends to sympathy and union. East and West are
the two hands of this mighty country--let the harmony of the
present occasion show that they have but one heart between
them. Are not all our chief possessions held in common? We
gave you Sumner and you gave us Lincoln. We fought together
the war of our late enfranchisement, and when God shall give
us impartial suffrage as an established fact, it will be
hard to discriminate between our work and yours. But the two
hands will then be clasped, and the one heart uplifted with
a throb of thankfulness that shall make our whole Nation
one, and that forever. For the present moment, while we
workers for woman suffrage can make no boast as to the final
adoption of our method, we can yet rejoice in the results
which already crown our work. Christ, in the very infancy of
his mission, looked abroad and saw the fields already white
with the harvest.
The different agencies employed by this and kindred
associations have plowed and furrowed the land far and near.
They have dropped everywhere the seed of a true word, of a
right feeling. How small a thing may this dropping of a seed
seem to a careless observer! Yet it is the very life of the
world which the patient farmer sows and reaps. So, our
laborious meetings and small measures; our speeches, soon
forgotten; our writings, soon dismissed; our petitions to
Legislatures, never entertained; all these seem small things
to do. The world says: "Why do you not labor to build up
fortunes and reputations for yourselves if you will labor?
Why do you waste your time and efforts on this ungrateful
soil?" But we may reply that we have the joy of Christ in
our hearts. In every furrow, some seed springs up; from
every effort, some sympathy, some conviction results. When
we look about us and see the number of suffrage associations
formed in the different States, we too can say that the
fields are white already to harvest.
White already. Yet centuries of martyrdom lay between the
sowing of Christ and the harvest which we reap to-day. All
of those centuries brought and took away faithful souls who
continued the work, who gathered and reaped and sowed again.
And we, too, know not what years of patient endeavor may yet
be in store for us before we see the end of our suffrage
work. We know not whether most of us shall not taste of
death before we do see it, passing away on the borders of
the promised land, with its fair regions still unknown to
us. And yet we see the end as by faith. By faith we can
prophesy of what shall come. The new state, in which for the
first time ideal justice shall be crowned and recognized;
the new church, in which there shall be neither male nor
female; but the new creature that shall represent on either
side free and perfect humanity. Like a bride coming down
from Heaven, like a resurrection coming out of the earth, it
shall appear and abide. And we, whether we shall see it as
living souls or as quickening spirits, shall rejoice in it.
Miss EASTMAN read the following letter:
LARAMIE CITY, W. T., Sept. 22, 1874.
Mrs. LUCY STONE, _Chairman of the Executive
Committee:_--Your favor of the 12th inst. is received. I
wish I could be with you at your meeting in Detroit next
month, but I am so crowded with engagements here that I do
not think I can get away. We have just had another election,
and at no time have we had so full a vote. Our women have
taken a lively interest, and have voted quite as universally
as the men. Their influence has been felt more than ever and
generally on the side of the best men. Several candidates
have been defeated on account of their want of good
characters, who expected success on party grounds. It is the
general sentiment with us now that it will not do to
nominate men for whom the women will not vote. Is not this a
great step in advance? When candidates for office must come
with a character that will stand the criticism of the women
or be sure of defeat, we shall have a higher tone of
political morals.
I hear it urged abroad that woman suffrage is not popular in
Wyoming, but I hear nothing of the kind here. All parties
now favor it. Those who once opposed it oppose it no longer,
while its friends are more and more attached to it, as they
see its practical benefits and feel its capacity for good.
No one that I hear of wishes it abolished, and no one would
dare propose its repeal. The women are beginning to feel
their power and influence, and are growing up to a wider and
stronger exertion of it. I think I can see a conscious
appreciation of this in a higher dignity and a better
self-respect among them. They talk and think of graver
subjects and of responsibilities which ennoble them. A woman
will not consent to be a butterfly when she can of her own
choice become an eagle! Let her enjoy the ambitions of life;
let her be able to secure its honors, its riches, its high
places, and she will not consent to be its toy or its simple
ornament.
Very respectfully, J. W. KINGMAN.
Miss EASTMAN said that this letter presented just the evidence on
the result and experience of woman suffrage that was wanted. She
said that women were very inconsiderate and indifferent to this
question. Women, until they are brought to think upon the matter,
generally say they do not want to vote. She spoke of the laws of
some States which allow the taking away from a mother of her
children, by a person who had been appointed as their guardian,
in place of her dead husband, and of the laws severe in other
respects which States have made in relation to women. She wished
all persons had the question put to them conscientiously whether
woman had all the power she wanted. We do want, she said, every
legitimate power, and we shall never be content with a tithe less
than we can command.
Gen. A. C. VORIS, of Ohio, read letters from the following
persons, regretting their inability to attend the Convention:
Bishop Gilbert Haven, D.D., of the Methodist Episcopal Church;
from Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Judge Wm. H. West, of Ohio; Hon.
C. W. Willard, of Vermont; Hon. G. W. Julian, of Indiana; Hon. D.
H. Chamberlain, of South Carolina; William Lloyd Garrison, George
William Curtis, the Smith sisters, Richard Fiske, Jr.
Rev. Mrs. GILLETTE, of Rochester, Mich., said every woman as well
as every man should speak for what she believes to be necessary
for her own well-being and for the well-being of the community.
Charles Sumner once said that a woman's reason was the reason of
the heart. She would give a few womanly reasons why she wanted
the voters of Michigan to give the ballot to women. The want of
the ballot prevents woman from possessing knowledge and power. If
a woman performs the most menial services for the sake of her
children, to eke out for them a subsistence, she does not do it
because the law demands it, but because there is no other way
open to her to obtain a livelihood. She did not ask for the
ballot because the laws of the State are barbarous. She did not
believe that men can make laws that will answer to the needs of
women. Only when men and women together make laws can they be
just and equal, and for that reason there should be both men and
women in the Legislature.
Mrs. BLACKWELL read some additional resolutions[196] to those
that had been adopted at an earlier stage of the Convention.
At the first evening session Mrs. Lucy Stone presiding, Mrs.
JULIA WARD HOWE, of Boston, was the first speaker. In opening she
spoke of the silent weary work, of the results of which the
afternoon's reports told, and showed that the equal suffragists'
labor is not comprised in facing pleasant audiences and listening
to the applause which so many say is the one thing for which the
women in this movement work. Her entire speech was in a tone that
could not fail to convince all, that she, at least, works for
something higher.
Mrs. STONE said that in every time of need, wherever the womanly
workers for woman go, they find men to whom their gratitude flows
as the rivers flow to the sea--they are the men who stand up to
speak in woman's name in behalf of woman's rights. As one of
these men she introduced Gen. Voris, of Ohio, the champion of
equal suffrage in the Ohio Constitutional Convention. The speech
of Gen. Voris was a close, logical argument. It reviewed the
entire question of suffrage, and bristled with points. He was so
frequently interrupted by applause that he was obliged to ask the
audience to withhold their tokens of approbation till he got
through, but it was to little purpose, for enthusiastic
suffragists couldn't help letting their hands tell their ears how
good the General's hard hits at the anti-suffragists made them
feel, and the applause would still break out once in a while.
Mrs. MARY A. LIVERMORE was next introduced. She was greeted with
applause, and commenced by an allusion to the Scandinavian origin
of our race, and their characteristic bravery, vigor, and love of
freedom. The Scandinavians were distinguished from other races by
their regard for their wives. With them the woman stood nearer to
heaven than the man. She was in some sense a priest, a law-giver,
and a physician, and she was worthy of the position. Is it
strange that with such foremothers we should love liberty?
Something of this spirit has always marked the race. And now
women ask for the right of suffrage, not because they are abused,
but because they are half of humanity--the other half of man.
They want simply equality, not superiority. She spoke of laws in
the statute-books which do absolute injustice to men, and asked
whether if the men could not legislate better than that for
themselves, it was not a little ridiculous for them to assume to
legislate for themselves and the women too? Mrs. Livermore spoke
of some of the injustice of the law to women. The law is not for
you, gentlemen, who are a law to yourselves, and who care for
your wives so that they forget the injustice of the law. They are
for the poor and down-trodden women, the wives of drunkards and
wife-beaters. Make them what they should be. But the main claim
of women to the ballot is that it is the symbol of equality.
Women can never be made men. There is no danger of woman losing
her womanhood. In fact we do not dream yet what womanhood can be.
Women are now obsequious. Many who want to vote, in awe of
husbands, fathers, sons, the pulpit, the press, ruled by men, do
not say so. They have been taught through all the centuries that
patience is the highest attribute of woman. She spoke of the
division of masculine and feminine attributes. They complement
each other, and together make the perfect whole. The assertion
that women are slaves is nonsense. The great reason for woman
suffrage is that it will aid a higher and grander civilization.
The following letter was read:
BOSTON, 148 Charles Street, October 10, 1874.
H. B. BLACKWELL, Esq.: My dear sir--I am sorry my first
letter never reached you, for I said in that just what I
wanted to express of my own convictions touching suffrage
for women. My opinion will go for very little, but whenever
an opportunity occurs I wish to say just this if nothing
more. It is my firm conviction that all who oppose so just a
cause as woman suffrage know not what they do; and, if they
are not dead within five years, will repent their opposition
in deep and mortifying self-reproach.
"The seed of the thistle," says Tyndall, "always produces
the thistle," and our opponents will have a prickly time of
it with their own consciences, when the day dawns in
righteousness over the American ballot-box. God prosper the
struggle and give you heart and hope, for your triumph is
sure as sunrise, and will win that final mastery which
heaven unfailingly accords to everlasting truth. Cordially
yours,
JAMES T. FIELDS.
Short speeches were then made by Giles B. Stebbins, Mrs.
Blakeman, Miss Strickland, Miss Patridge, and Mrs. Dr. Mary F.
Thomas. Mr. BLACKWELL reported the list of officers[197] for the
ensuing year.
Afterward addresses were made by Mr. Blackwell, Mrs. Elizabeth R.
Churchill, Mrs. Samm, Miss M. Adele Hazlett, and Gen. Voris.
Mrs. MARGARET W. CAMPBELL, of Chicago, said she came before the
audience to speak upon the most important question of the day,
important to one half, and through them to the other half of the
community. This movement is no crusade of women against men, but
an honest effort of both men and women to make one sex equal in
all respects with the other. When our forefathers attempted to
secure their own liberty they adopted the principle that all men
are created free and equal, and are endowed with certain
inalienable rights. Notwithstanding this, the Government allowed
the maintenance of slavery for over three-quarters of a century.
Rights are God-given. If any man can tell where a man gets his
right to vote, he will find that woman obtained hers in the same
place. The ballot, she claimed, was a means of educating the
class who exercise the power of such ballot.
Mrs. MARGARET V. LONGLEY, of Ohio, said this question of woman
suffrage was one that was claiming the attention of the best
minds of Europe and America. Women think they have as good a
right to the ballot as men, and this right they want to exercise.
Lunatics and idiots are deprived of the ballot because they do
not know how to use it. Criminals are denied it because they are
outcasts of society and have proved themselves unworthy of it.
Women are deprived of it because of their womanhood. The sexes,
she said, were never made to be antagonistic. Experience proves
that what is of interest to women is of interest to men. There is
no branch of business or of industry in which concession is
granted to women on account of their sex. Nobody will pay more to
a woman for any work than they will to men for the same work, and
in the making of a suit of clothes it is seen that they pay a man
more than double the amount they will to a woman for the same
work.
Prof. ESTABROOK said that he was a recent convert to this
movement. He had read the Bible, Bushnell, and Fairchild, and
some others, and was convinced that women ought not to vote. When
the question was submitted to the people by the Legislature, he
commenced to read the Bible and Bushnell and others again. He
found that Bushnell proved too much, and that the objections
urged against women voting were equally good against nine-tenths
of the men. The question of propriety--whether women should go to
the polls--was another question which he considered. He did not
now see why it was improper for woman to go where her husband or
her son must go; and if the polls are not good places, decent men
ought not to go there. He had all his life debated the question
whether the University should be opened to ladies, and his first
vote, cast as a Regent of the University, was in favor of the
admission of women to the University. He was then opposed to
their entering the medical department. But they next applied for
admission to the law department, and he voted for that, and then,
when they applied for admission to the medical department, he had
to vote for that. He had never found out what right a man
possesses to the ballot that a woman has not; and if anybody
could convince him that the right of woman to vote did not come
from the same source as man's right came from, he would be glad
to have it done.
Miss MARY F. EASTMAN said it was a hard thing to stand and demand
a right to which we were all born. It has been said by Dr. Chapin
that woman's obligations compel her to demand her rights. There
is a great cry going up from humanity, and only woman's nature
can answer it. As she recently stood at the corner of the five
streets which make the Five Points of New York, and looked at the
crowd of miserable people about her, she was aghast. But she took
courage when she learned that the mission-house and the long
block of tenement houses on one side of the street were built by
women, who daily feed 400 poor children, and that this was done
by women, who took up the work after the Methodist Church had
made a vain effort to do something to ameliorate the condition of
those poor starving creatures.
On motion of Mr. H. B. Blackwell a vote of thanks was tendered to
the citizens of Detroit, to the Detroit Suffrage Association and
to the press of the city for favors and courtesies shown to the
Association and its members during its meeting in this city, and
for the full and fair reports of the Convention. The Association
then adjourned.
* * * * *
The seventh Annual Meeting of the American Woman Suffrage
Association was held at New York, in 1875. There was a large
audience,[198] not less than 1,000 persons were present.
Bishop GILBERT HAVEN, President of the Society, took the chair,
and called upon Rev. Dr. THOMPSON, of Brooklyn, to open the
meeting with prayer. After which Mr. HAVEN said: In appearing
before you to-night as the official head, for a very few hours,
of the society which holds its annual meeting here, I deem it
proper to burden you before you get at the richness of the feast
that will follow, with a few thoughts that are in my own mind
connected with this reform. The inevitable effect of every true
idea is that it shakes off everything that hinders it and rises
far superior to all associations. Woman suffrage has reached that
development, and the public of America and England are beginning
to appreciate it. Now, what is this idea? It is simply this--that
the right of suffrage has no limitation with the male portion of
the human race; that it belongs alike to the whole human family.
I am a Democrat, a Jeffersonian Democrat, and I believe in the
right of every man to have a voice in public affairs. It is a
right that belongs to the very system of our government.
Monarchical governments recognize the nation as belonging to a
family; but the democratic system recognizes a government by the
people and for the people, and, if this be the government, every
person in the nation has a right to participate in its
administration. There is no partiality possible in such a
conception of the system of government under which we live.
Charles Sumner said that "equality of rights is the first of
rights," and this will reveal itself in every department of
citizenship. Our Government requires the expression of the views
of the whole people upon every national question; it is a human
right belonging to the political status of every individual, the
woman as well as the man. The history of Christianity has been a
history of the gradual enlarging of the sphere of woman; and this
meeting to-night is one of the effects of Christianity. We stand
now at the beginning of a new century; the last has been one of
great development, and yet the very root fact of our national
being lies in the first line of the Declaration. When we declared
ourselves to be a Nation, we declared equality for all men, and
we never meant by that, equality simply for all males. Jefferson
never had that narrow view of human nature. He knew it meant all
the people of America. Every one had a right to life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness, the woman as well as the man.
It is said women can not rule. Not rule! look through history.
Where are Cleopatra and Semiramis, and Zenobia and Catharine, and
Elizabeth and Victoria? Not rule? Did not Joan of Arc save France
when the king had fled, and the armies were scattered, and
English soldiers did their will in all that land? So Elizabeth
picked up a prostrate nation, lowest of the low, despised of
emperor, king, and Pope, and made it the sovereign power of
Europe. So Victoria held back Palmerston and Russell and
Gladstone and Derby, who would have plunged England into war with
us, and left us free to subdue our enemy. Had not a woman ruled
England we should have had a harder task than we did by far.
Christianity has lifted woman to a level with man. It has given
her liberty of movement, of faith, of life. It also demands her
political deliberation. May this beginning of our second
Centennial see the perfection of our political system, in this
admission of woman to all the rights and duties of citizenship.
It has worked well in Wyoming. It will everywhere. Let it come.
Rev. ANTOINETTE BROWN BLACKWELL, of Somerville, N. J., said: A
few days ago, in one of the New York dailies, I saw the
announcement that one subject which now occupies the minds of the
American people can never be settled till it is settled right.
Knowing that this Convention was just at hand, I mentally
exclaimed, "It is certainly woman suffrage!" But no! it was the
question of the National currency. Well, the currency question
did suggest great moral issues, and it was vital enough in
character to justify the editorial claim. I believe it never can
be settled till it is settled right. But what is the currency
problem to a direct question of human rights, involving the
highest moral and civil interests not only of all the women in
the country, but of all the men likewise? This suffrage question
never can be settled till it is settled right. So surely as the
law of justice must yet prevail, it will continue to vex and
trouble the whole nation continually.
Because the sexes are so unlike in their natures and in all their
relations to the State, there is imperative need of
representation for both. Women in beleaguered cities have again
and again stood heroically side by side with men, suffering
danger and privation without a murmur, ready to endure hunger
and every form of personal discomfort rather than surrender to
the enemy. What women have done in the past they would willingly
do again in the future in like circumstances. They are everywhere
as patriotic as men, and as willing to make sacrifices for their
country.
But their relations to the government in war are of necessity
widely unlike. If men as good citizens are bound to peril their
lives and to endure hardships to aid the country in its hour of
need, yet women peril their lives and devote their time and
energy in giving to the country all its citizens, whether for
peace or war. And if the liberties of the nation were in real
peril, they would freely devote their all for its salvation. In
any just warfare it is fitting that the young men should first
march to battle, and if all these were swept away, then the old
men and the old women might fitly go out together side by side,
and, last of all, the young mothers, leaving their little
children to the very aged and to the sick, should be and would be
ready in their turn to go also, if need be, even to the
battle-field rather than suffer the overthrow of a righteous
government. But woman's relations to war are intrinsically unlike
man's. Her natural attitude toward law and order and toward all
public interests must always differ from his. Women would never
be the producers of wealth to the same extent with men. The time
devoted by the one class to earning money would be given by the
other to rearing children. Yes, this question touches too many
vital interests ever to be settled till it is settled right. We
mean to live, to keep well and strong, and to continue to trouble
the whole country until it is settled and settled to stay. There
can be no rest from agitation till this is done.
LUCY STONE spoke particularly of the need of using the
opportunity the Centennial gives, to show that, if it was wrong
for George III. to govern the colonies a hundred years ago
without their consent, it is just as wrong now to govern women
without their consent; that if taxation without representation
was tyranny then it is tyranny now, and no less tyranny because
it is done to women than if it were done to men; that the
usurpation of the rights of women is as high-handed a crime as
was the usurpation of the rights of the colonists by the British
Parliament, and will be so regarded a hundred years hence. She
claimed that this occasion ought to be used to show men that the
deeds of their ancestors, of which they are so proud, are worthy
of their own imitation; she urged women to refrain from joining
in the Centennial, and to show no more respect for the power
which governs them without their consent, than did their brave
ancestors a century ago.
The PRESIDENT said--I understand there is among the audience the
famous Democrat of England, CHARLES BRADLAUGH, and I will call
upon him to say a few words.
Mr. BRADLAUGH at once came forward from the rear of the hall,
where he had been sitting, and mounting the platform, said: I
only came forward in obedience to a call which it would be
impertinence to refuse here to-night. I came to be a listener and
with no sort of intention of making any speech at all, and the
only right I should have upon this platform is, that for the last
twenty-five years of my short life I have pleaded for those
rights which you plead for to-night. The woman question is no
American question, no national question; it is a question for the
whole world, and the best men of every country and of every age
have held one view upon it, and the worst men have naturally held
the other view. It is not a question of mere taxation; it is a
question of thorough humanity; a question not of mere
geographical limitation, not of America, not of England, not of
France, not of Italy, not of Spain; but, were it a question in
any of these countries, a woman would stand up to show you that
woman can do woman's work of making man truer and purer; and
there is no age of the world in which you can not find some woman
who has shone out in the darkness of night to show you that,
though other stars were obscured, she could still shine; and
whenever woman suffrage is debated, my voice is at their service,
for the grander woman is made, the purer will man be.
At the next session the report of the Executive Committee was
made by the Chairman, Mrs. Lucy Stone. After which letters were
read from Lydia Maria Child, Mrs. H. M. Tracy Cutler, Elizabeth
Stuart Phelps, Hon. H. A. Voris, and Miss Lavinia Goodell. The
Committee on Resolutions[199] reported a long list of stirring
appeals to those who have the real interests of humanity at
heart. Their adoption was urged in an able speech by Mr.
Blackwell. The following session was principally devoted to the
hearing of the reports from the auxiliary societies. The
delegates, 159 in number, represented twelve States.
Rev. CHARLES G. AMES, of Pennsylvania, in reply to Mrs. Stone,
said he thought it both impolitic and unreasonable to come into
collision with the awakening spirit of the country in the matter
of the Centennial. The American Revolution did great things for
us all, woman included; and although it did not give her a
political status, yet it established organic principles which
make woman suffrage possible, logical and ultimately certain. No
event has yet brought suffrage to woman; shall she therefore
regard all history up to date as a failure, as if there were
nothing in it worth celebrating? Rather may we rejoice that all
the past is a series of steps leading up to the present; and
still we mount! Woman suffrage is present in the institutions of
our country as a germ; it is growing. In not affirming it the
fathers did no conscious or intentional wrong; and only a few
cultivated women of the Revolutionary period, like Mrs. Adams and
a lady friend of Richard Henry Lee, felt the inconsistency of
affirming the equality of all human beings and then ignoring half
of them. But in days of war and slavery, Mr. Seward said,
"Liberty is in the Union"; so we may say, Suffrage is in the
Union. The negroes who fought for the Union, while it was only a
white man's Union, were winning their own enfranchisement; the
women who celebrate American Independence are doing honor to
principles which will some day bring justice to all the
inhabitants of the land.
The discussions on this subject of suffrage have disclosed to the
American people their own low estimate of the ballot, as a coarse
and uncertain instrument for procuring only coarse and doubtful
benefits. They ought to thank us for bringing to light this
dangerous skepticism, and for compelling attention to those
deeper principles of justice and equality which alone can work
the timely cure. To refuse to follow those principles when their
new application becomes obvious, is to give up the Republic.
Yet there has been a relative decline of politics. The "powers
that be," or the ruling forces of the country are not seated
alone at Washington and the State capitals; new and mightier
lawgivers have arisen. Civilization has come to include and
employ other than political agents for the maintenance of order
and the promotion of welfare. The power of opinion as generated
by education, literature, religion, business or social life, and
as announced through the press, and propagated in the widening
circles of personal influence--this rules the rulers and masters
the country. Thus, within the nation and fostered by its freedom,
there has grown up a grander republic of thought and sentiment,
which has also blossomed into many a fair institution. Of this
more glorious republic, woman is a welcome and unquestioned
citizen. Her opportunities for self-help and for helping others,
her share in the common burdens and her dividend of the common
benefits, must be far larger, in our country and now, than in any
other land or time. All this, the thoughtful friends of suffrage
will gladly admit.
But does this concession belittle the importance of woman's
political rights? Exactly not! A part in the government becomes
important to any class in proportion as they become large
stockholders in common affairs and as they become aware of their
own interests and their own powers. The ballot is of little
value to an unawakened, unaspiring people; their masters will
look after matters. But American women are not unawakened or
unaspiring. To many of them, life has grown painful, because
their advancing ideal is dishonored by a sense of violated
justice. Along with large freedom has come developed faculty,
awakened desire, conscious power and public spirit. Precisely
because their actual freedom is so large and sweet, they are
galled by every rusty link of the old political chain. Not the
mere handling of a ballot do they crave, but the position of
unchallenged and unqualified equality, and the removal of the old
brand of inferiority, which weakens alike their self-respect and
their hold on the respect of others.
At present, the position of woman in the State is false,
contradictory and uncomfortable. She has ceased to be a nobody;
but she is not yet conceded to be a somebody. As she has gained
many rights which were once denied, the old theory which made her
a slave is overthrown; as she has not gained the absolute and
chartered right of self-government, the new theory of her
equality is not yet established. Of that equality suffrage is the
symbol, as in this country it is now the symbol for men. She
demands to be the custodian of her own affairs, and not to hold
them by sufferance. She demands to be equal behind the law and in
the law, as well as before the law.
The Committee on Nominations reported the list of officers[200]
for the ensuing year.
Miss EASTMAN said: There are many questions of profound interest
occupying the minds of the community, and people come together to
unravel if possible the complications of business and human
obligations; questions of railroads, of tariffs, of the
protection of dumb animals, and, most important of all, of the
delicate relations of society to the unfortunate classes, and of
equity between man and man. All these need the consideration
which is made possible by the accumulated wisdom of centuries and
the insight which eighteen hundred years' study of Christian
principles have developed. But I shall never get over a sense of
anachronism, of being out of time, in arguing at this late day a
claim for so fundamental a thing as human freedom. I rub my eyes
to make sure that I have not been in a Rip Van Winkle slumber for
a few centuries, and am not coming before a nineteenth century
audience with an untimely protest against a wrong long since
abolished, and of which children only hear nowadays in their
study of history, or when their parents draw a picture of the sad
old times when an injustice prevailed against one half the
people, and these the mothers, wives, and daughters. But no! we
have none of us been permitted to betake ourselves to a mount of
delight and to rest in enchanted slumber while the great wrongs
righted themselves. We are here on the hither side of the
conflict and must put our puny human strength into the work.
Though this is the nineteenth century after Christ, we are
here--in the most civilized, or perhaps I should better say, the
least uncivilized country on the face of the globe--to urge the
right of one half the human race to the same personal freedom and
voice in the control of its own and the general interests as are
possessed by the other half.
Mrs. FRANCES WATKINS HARPER was the last speaker. She said that
she had often known women who wished they had been born men, but
had known only one man who wished he had been born a woman, and
that was during the war when he was in danger of being drafted
into the army. He then not only expressed the wish that he had
been born a girl, but even went further, and longed to be a
girl-baby at that. Mrs. Harper gave a touching description of the
disabilities to which women, and especially colored women, are
subjected, and looked forward to their enfranchisement as the
dawn of a better era alike for men and for women. At the
conclusion of Mrs. Harper's address the Convention adjourned
_sine die_.
* * * * *
The anniversary of the recognition of the equal political rights
of women by the Constitutional Convention of New Jersey, July 2,
1776, celebrated in 1876 by the American Woman Suffrage
Association, was as bright and beautiful as the fact it
commemorated. Notwithstanding the heat of the weather and the
varied attractions of the Exhibition and the great procession, an
intelligent audience assembled at Philadelphia in Horticultural
Hall. It contained many representatives of Pennsylvania, but was
mainly composed of several hundred friends of woman suffrage from
all parts of the country. The meeting was called to order by
Henry B. Blackwell, Secretary of the Society, who read the call
and introduced Mrs. LUCY STONE as Chairman of the meeting. Mrs.
Stone prefaced her address by a historical statement of the
interesting facts of woman's enfranchisement and disfranchisement
in New Jersey.[201]
The HUTCHINSON family sang with thrilling power and sweetness
"The Prophecy of Woman's Future."
Mr. BLACKWELL said: The Philadelphia newspapers are discussing
the question whether the second or the fourth day of July is the
real anniversary of American Independence. I give my vote for the
second of July for a reason which has not been generally named.
On this day the men of New Jersey, for the first time in the
world's history, organized a State upon the principles of
absolute justice. For the first time, they established equal
political rights for men and women. This was a greater event than
the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration only announced
the principle that "governments derive their just powers from the
consent of the governed," but the men of New Jersey applied the
principle alike to women and negroes. By as much as practice is
worth more than theory and life more than raiment, by so much is
the event we celebrate more glorious than any other in the annals
of the Revolution. It was the prophecy and the guarantee of our
national future.
Some people say that we celebrate a failure, because thirty-one
years later the franchise was taken away from the women of New
Jersey. But the generation which enacted woman suffrage did not
repeal it. New Jersey was first settled by the Puritans and
Quakers--educated and intelligent, full of the spirit of liberty.
Soon after the State was organized, this population was
overwhelmed by an ignorant immigration from Continental Europe.
Slavery became a power. Free schools did not exist. Another body
of men supplanted the intelligent founders of the State and
lowered its institutions to meet the lower level of character and
purpose.
Another lesson we should never forget is, that the women of New
Jersey lost the franchise because they voted against extending
this right to others. The women were generally Federalists. They
were said to have given the electoral votes of the State to John
Adams against Thomas Jefferson in 1800. The Democratic party was
bent upon enfranchising the poor white men who were excluded by a
property-qualification. The women, then as now conservative in
character, opposed this extension of suffrage. In 1807, when the
Democrats got possession of the State Government, they put out
the women and colored men and introduced the poor white men. With
this warning before us, let us rejoice that American women have
taken so warm an interest in the emancipation and enfranchisement
of the slaves--that every colored delegate whom I met at the
National Republican Conventions of 1872 and 1876 recognized the
women as their friends, and were ready to help put a woman
suffrage plank into the platform.
Also, let me congratulate you that the Prohibitionists and
Republicans have each adopted our principle of equal rights for
women in their party creeds, and that in the nomination of
Rutherford B. Hayes, a woman suffragist, we have a man whose
first public reputation was won as the champion of a wronged and
friendless woman.
The HUTCHINSONS gave a spirited song. Mr. RAPER, of England, was
then called, and gave an interesting sketch of the progress of
woman suffrage in England. The afternoon meeting was opened by a
song, "One Hundred Years Hence," by the HUTCHINSONS.
CHARLES G. AMES said: This meeting stands for something good and
necessary--better than anything we can say. The advocates of
impartial suffrage are the most consistent friends of the
principles upon which our institutions are founded, because they
alone propose to apply them. All others shrink from this
application. They distrust human nature. They are afraid to move
for fear of what may follow. They are like the Frenchman, who,
being a little drunk, had dropped his hat and apostrophized it
thus: "If I try to pick you up, I shall myself fall down. If I
fall down, you can not pick me up. Therefore I will go on without
you." But woman's enfranchisement will open every college door
and every avenue of employment. Every woman will be cared for, as
every man is now cared for. A government without justice is
tyranny, piracy, and despotism. A society without justice would
be a hell. The lower elements of appetite and passion exist in
society. They must be overcome by the higher elements of justice.
With justice will come heavenliness, purity, and peace. Thus, in
opening the proceedings of this afternoon, we represent in 1876
the principles of 1776--the principles which will triumph more
clearly and gloriously in 1976.
Mrs. HOWE said: Heaven gives each of us two human hands. One is
meant to receive the gifts of Providence, and one is meant to
give largely of what we receive to others. Ignorant, selfish
human beings too often hold out but the one hand. They receive,
and are satisfied with that; but they do not give. They seem to
say to divine Providence, "What is yours is mine, and what is
mine is my own." Nevertheless, in the order of this same
Providence, what we give is as important to our happiness as what
we receive. The rich man who has done nothing to enrich the
community in which he lives, has really profited very little by
the wealth he has amassed and inherited. Himself commanding the
means of refinement and luxury, he lives surrounded by poverty,
barbarism, and crime; and these, from the beginning of his career
to the end, poison the very sources of his life. As much worse is
it with those who receive liberty and do not give it, as liberty
is better than money. "Give me liberty or give me death!" says
Patrick Henry. He receives it. Does he give it to his slave? No.
To his wife? Still less. What does he have of it, then? Only one
half--the selfish half of possession, not the joyous and generous
side of sympathy and participation.
These Jerseyites, it seems, were wiser than any in their day and
generation. They saw the anomaly, the contradiction between a
free manhood and an enslaved womanhood. They saw it taking effect
at the sacred hearth, beside the tender cradle. And they saw
their way out of it. What they received and valued as the
greatest of God's gifts, they gave to their women, rational,
human creatures like themselves, bone of their bone and flesh of
their flesh, only made to exemplify that peaceable and loving
side of human nature whose beauty has been always felt, and whose
triumph is written among the eternal prophecies which time only
fulfills. Honor then, to-day, to those truly brave and generous
men who, with their own hands unbound, were not afraid to unbind
the hands of their wives and mothers! Honor, too, to the women
who were intelligent enough to appreciate the gift, and wise and
brave enough to use it. No scandal accompanied its exercise.
There was no talk in that time of the women deserting their
household fires, their tender children, to fulfill their duty to
the State. In that State, in those women, culminated the success
and significance of the American Revolution. Remember the other
States did not think so, neither did the men or the women who
planned the International Exhibition of to-day think so. But it
was so, none the less. And we to-day must light our torches at
that very topmost flame of freedom, or they will smoke instead of
burning.
Mrs. ANTOINETTE L. BROWN BLACKWELL said she came as a
representative from New Jersey, her adopted State, whose unique
suffrage endowment, one hundred years ago, we are here to
celebrate. The ebb and flow which is the law of all progress, has
temporarily deprived our women of the franchise. But it will be
restored in the near future. "I have neighbors, whose mothers and
grandmothers voted, and who are beginning to recall the fact with
pride and satisfaction." Ex-Governor Bullock, of Massachusetts,
has well said that "Historically, woman, in America, is now at
the acme of her power." But at our next Centennial, men and women
will stand together, acknowledged peers, at the acme of human
achievement.
Mrs. ELIZABETH K. CHURCHILL said: The right of suffrage is always
either inherited or earned. The women of America have earned
their right by their work in the Revolution and in the Civil War.
The inertia of women themselves is the greatest obstacle of our
movement. But, in order to perform the duties which fall upon
them in humane and charitable work, women need that their rights
should be guaranteed by the franchise.
Miss HINDMAN urged the importance of suffragists working inside
the churches. Here is where the sympathies of society center. We
have eight million professed Christians, church-members;
three-fourths of these are women. Miss Hindman gave very
encouraging accounts of success in enlisting the pastors and
women of the churches in the suffrage work, also of the growth of
woman suffrage sentiment among the temperance women of the West.
The HUTCHINSONS sang "The Star Spangled Banner," the audience
joining in the chorus.
Mrs. STONE uttered her dissent for the words and spirit of the
song so long as women are without political rights. In conclusion
she offered the following resolutions:
1. _Resolved_, That on this Centennial Anniversary of
American Freedom, we re-affirm the principle that
"Governments derive their just powers from the consent of
the governed"--and that "Taxation without representation is
tyranny." Yet women are governed without consent, and taxed
without representation.
2. _Resolved_, That we celebrate the establishment of woman
suffrage in New Jersey, a hundred years ago, as the prophecy
and forerunner of the American future. We point with pride
to the existence of woman suffrage in Wyoming and Utah, and
we declare that as the first century of Independence has
achieved equal rights and impartial suffrage for men, so the
next century will achieve equal rights for all American
citizens irrespective of sex.
The resolutions were unanimously adopted, and the meeting
adjourned.
* * * * *
The Eighth Annual Meeting of the American Woman Suffrage
Association commenced on October 2, 1876, at Handel and Haydn
Hall, Philadelphia. Mrs. MARY A. LIVERMORE presided and made the
opening address.
The Committee on Credentials made a partial report, showing one
hundred and three delegates present, representing twenty-three
States and Territories. Two other States reported themselves at
the close of the morning meeting, making in all twenty-five
States and Territories[202] represented. Brief addresses were
made by Mrs. Howe and Mrs. Frances W. Harper. Letters were read
from William Lloyd Garrison, and J. W. Kingman, of Wyoming. The
Chairman of the Committee on Resolutions reported the following,
which were accepted for separate consideration:
The American Woman Suffrage Association affirms: That
woman's right to vote already exists in theory under a
government based upon the consent of the governed; that her
right to vote implies her right to take part in the
nomination of her representatives in the primary meetings of
the parties, and that this right can be granted at any time,
by the State Convention of any party, without any change of
constitution or laws.
We therefore recommend the suffragists of each State to
address a memorial to every political convention, asking for
the adoption of a resolution. "That hereafter, women who are
identified in principle with the party, and who possess the
qualifications of age and residence required of male voters,
are invited to take part in its primary meetings, with an
equal voice and vote in the nomination of candidates and the
transaction of business."