Congregational Church on Tenth street. Before the hour appointed,
there was quite a gathering at the church, and the notables, as
fast as they arrived, took their seats on the platform. With those
assembled on the topmost round of expectation, the coming woman
was seen marching up the aisle, wearing the jolly form of Senator
Pomeroy. In the modest aspect of this distinguished man, one could
see the embryo of the first female President; and Senator Nye
following close behind showed that he meant to come in for the second
best time on record. All the lights of the morning were on the
platform except Tennie Claflin of the Wall-street firm. Miss Claflin
must be one of the most charming little brigands in Wall street,
else her peaked hat and chubby face tell a wrong story. Her merry
brown eyes twinkle like the peepers of Santa Claus or old Nick; and
worst of all she keeps her mouth shut, and this proves the brewing
of mischief. Tennie looks like one of the women in the picture of
the “Merry Wives of Windsor,” and she seems to be the one above all
others fitted to sustain her position in Wall street.
Senator Nye arose to open the meeting. He said he had yielded to
the pressing invitation of a woman on the platform to preside at
the meeting, and had given a reluctant consent. He had never seen a
good reason why the mothers of voters should not vote. One thing is
certain, as mothers are elevated, so are the children; as women are
degraded, the rule holds the same. But he felt that he was out of
place in presiding over a meeting of ladies; that he was more in the
habit of being presided over by them.
He then introduced Miss Kate Stanton, of Rhode Island, as one of
the fairest daughters of the State. Senator Nye added that she had
undertaken to work in a field where strong men often fail, but
he trusted, in her case, that she would meet with success. Miss
Stanton then came forward, half hesitating, her eyes brilliant with
excitement and true carnation in her cheek. This was the second
time in her life that she had faced an audience, and the ordeal was
quite as much as she could bear. She commenced reading her lecture,
and when she became accustomed to her own voice she glided along
gracefully, as only a truly gifted woman can. Miss Stanton will be
one of the stars in the lecture field if she speaks equally well
on other subjects as the one at present under discussion. She has
a remarkably clear, fine voice, a most pleasing personal presence,
an unusually cultivated mind, and the true vim of a young American
woman. It is true she did not give us any new ideas about woman
suffrage, but she treated the subject in a natural, girlish way; and
if sentiment predominated, it seemed a halo around her head, for
young people are romantic, and when they are otherwise, the gloss of
youth has gone forever. Miss Stanton’s great point in her so-called
argument may be summed up in a few words. The laws made by man are
fractional. The woman must be added to make the unit.
After Miss Stanton’s logic was finished, Senator Nye introduced Mr.
Riddle. The lawyer went over exactly the same ground traversed in
the morning before the Judiciary Committee. It is true he enlarged
here, cropped off there, but it was the same thing altogether. He
commenced by asserting that women were as broadly and deeply citizens
as the men of this nation. That the right of government is a natural
right. The right to govern is inherent in the people. That there is
no right to be conferred, for there is nothing to confer; and that
all who stand in the way would have to get out or else get crushed.
Mr. Riddle did not make his case clear, and the audience yawned in
his presence for applause.
After he had finished, Mrs. Hooker arose and said she did not agree
with Mr. Riddle in his denunciation of men; that women equally were
to blame for the state of things. “A great many women say they do
not wish the ballot, but I can prove to them that they do wish to
vote. There are three vital questions equally dear to every woman’s
heart: First, there is temperance. Are women indifferent to this?
Then, there is education. Are not all women interested in the manner
it shall be brought about, whether it shall be secular or religious,
or whether education shall be compulsory or otherwise? And there
is a third, of most absorbing interest, and this is chastity. The
Bible says, ‘The wages of sin is death.’ Sin is sin, no matter who
is the sinner. In England, a country governed by a queen, has been
the battle-ground of great strife. It has attempted on behalf of the
military to pass laws that should make the passage of vice easy, and
the wages of sin not death. By some secret iniquity these laws passed
Parliament, and then the attempt was made to include the cities
with the military, but such women as Harriet Martineau and Florence
Nightingale, as well as those belonging to royal families, went to
work to prevent this great wrong. Petitions were gotten up, signed
by thousands of the workingmen’s wives and daughters, and these
petitions were brought to the feet of Parliament and they have, for
a time at least, prevented the wrong. France sends word to England
that her downfall in a great measure is owing to her social crimes.
This subject is now being agitated in our own country. St. Louis and
Cincinnati are shaking with doubts. Would you, women of America, have
the passage to iniquity and sin made easy for your husbands and sons?
These are the great questions upon you which we are obliged to think
and speak.” When Mrs. Hooker finished, a kind of awe took possession
of her hearers; and whilst this woman dwelt upon this last subject
she spoke with all the force of a Beecher and with the purity and
delicacy of an angel.
OLIVIA.
AN OPPOSING PETITION.
SIGNATURES OF NOTABLE LADIES AGAINST GRANTING THE BALLOT TO WOMEN.
WASHINGTON, _January 13, 1871_.
A bitter contest is going on in Washington between the women who do
want their rights and those who do not. The following petition has
been handed into the Senate, signed by a thousand of our countrywomen.
THE PETITION AGAINST WOMAN SUFFRAGE.
To the Congress of the United States, protesting against an
extension of woman suffrage:
We, the undersigned, do hereby appeal to your honorable body, and
desire respectfully to enter our protest against an extension
of suffrage to woman; and in the firm belief that our petition
represents the sober conviction of the majority of the women of
the country. Although we shrink from the notoriety of the public
eye, yet we are too deeply and painfully impressed by the grave
perils which threaten our peace and happiness in these proposed
changes in our civil and political rights to longer remain silent.
Because the Holy Scripture inculcates a different and for us a
higher sphere, apart from public life.
Because as women we find a full measure of duties, cares and
responsibilities devolving upon us, and we are therefore
unwilling to bear other and heavier burdens, and those unsuited
to our physical organization.
Because we hold that an extension of suffrage would be adverse to
the interests of the workingwomen of the country, with whom we
heartily sympathize.
Because these changes must introduce a fruitful element of
discord in the existing marriage relation, which would tend to
the infinite detriment of children, and increase the already
alarming prevalence of divorce throughout the land.
Because no general law, affecting the conditions of all women,
should be framed to meet exceptional discontent.
For these, and many more reasons, we do beg of your wisdom that
no law extending suffrage to women may be passed, as the passage
of such a law would be fraught with danger grave to the general
order of the country.
Should the person receiving this approve of the object in view,
his or her aid is respectfully requested to obtain signatures to
the annexed petition, which may, after having been signed, be
returned to either of the following named persons:
Mrs. Gen. W. T. Sherman, Mrs. John A. Dahlgren, Mrs. Jacob D.
Cox, Mrs. Joseph Henry, Mrs. Rev. Dr. Butler, Mrs. Rev. Dr.
Rankin, Mrs. Rev. Dr. Boynton, Mrs. Rev. Dr. Samson, Mrs B.
B. French, Miss Jennie Carroll, Mrs. C. V. Morris, Mrs. Hugh
McCulloch, all of Washington, D. C.; Mrs. Senator Sherman,
Mansfield, Ohio; Mrs. Senator Scott, Huntingdon, Pa.; Mrs.
Senator Corbet, Portland, Ore; Mrs. Senator Edmunds, Burlington,
Vt.; Mrs. Luke P. Poland, St. Johnsbury, Vt.; Mrs. Samuel J.
Randall, Philadelphia, Pa.; Mrs. Catharine E. Beecher, 69 West
Thirty-eighth street, New York City.
Please attach to this a paper for signatures.
Amongst this proud array of titled names it will be noticed that it
is not headed by our “first lady,” and that none of the wives of
the present Cabinet are enrolled amongst the same. When one of the
leaders of this movement laid this petition before a Cabinet dame,
asking her signature, this gracious lady answered, “I have all the
rights I want; I find more than I can do in my own sphere of duties,
but this subject is too deep, and too broad to be acted upon, except
after the most serious reflection. Although I coincide with Catherine
Beecher’s views, I think if we come out with our petitions we are
doing that which we so much condemn in the strong-minded. Besides, I
dare not accept the responsibility of speaking for the poor and lowly
of my own sex. Let them talk if they want to; this is a free country,
and they have a right to be heard.”
During one of the sessions of the convention, Mrs. Hooker alluded to
this petition, and said she was glad that women were beginning to
think. That anything was better than this apathy and indifference,
for just as soon as women began to think about the subject all doubts
concerning the success of the movement would be brushed away. She
was glad that Miss Murdoch had been heard upon the same subject.
These same strong-minded women had opened the platform to their sex,
and they were willing that women should now come forward to help
extinguish that power.
The morning of the last day’s session opened with every star of the
movement, both great and small, twinkling upon the stage, if we
except one pale sister. This was the mischief, Tennie Claflin, of the
Wall-street firm. Susan B. Anthony, who means to be close-mouthed,
had opened her lips, and out came some useful information. She said
that Mrs. Woodhull had been up whispering in the President’s ear,
but just exactly what did take place at the White House would only
be known to those who were present. Mrs. Victoria Woodhull sat
sphinx-like during the talk of Miss Anthony. General Grant himself
might learn a lesson of silence from the pale, sad face of the
unflinching woman. Other women have talked during this convention,
but Mrs. Woodhull has read what she had to say from printed slips
of paper. No chance to send an arrow through the opening seams of
her mail. Apparently she has had little to do in this campaign, and
yet everything has revolved around her. She reminds one of the force
in nature behind the storm, and if her veins were opened they would
be found to contain ice. When money was needed to carry on this
movement, she headed the list with ten thousand dollars. She did this
without the least emotion perceptible on her face unless it seemed to
say, “I have planted, but I can wait.”
But where was Tennie Claflin? The roguish, peaked hat and dainty
coat-tails were besieging the doors of Congress. Whilst women were
wasting breath in the convention, she was anywhere and everywhere to
be found, where a worker ought to “turn up.” Oh, the irresistible
Tennie! Congress has never been so tried since Vinnie Ream succeeded
in getting a stone contract, and if Tennie would be modest, and ask
only for ten thousand dollars’ worth of folly, she would win like her
predecessor. If Tennie is bold, this quality in her is so original
in its kind that it disarms criticism in the opposite sex, and Mrs.
Woodhull must have chosen her for a partner for the same reason that
she whispered in the President’s ear.
Senator Warner, of Alabama, presided at this session; but, as it is
feared that, sooner or later, he will become a woman, a description
of his person may not be out of place. Originally he must have been
as plump as a Baldwin apple; but the exigencies of the war and
Senatorial duties must have had a trying effect upon him. Already
signs are visible of his shrinking in size, yet abundance of material
is left for all family purposes. A pleasant sound issues from the
side of his head, which Susan B. Anthony takes advantage of, at the
same time saying, “If men are not good for something in the ‘cause,’
pray what are they good for?”
Mrs. Halitz, a professor from one of the universities of Michigan,
addressed the audience, and spoke in a very effective manner.
Occasionally we heard the true click of the metal of oratory.
She is a small woman, but filled to the brim with the pluck of
determination. She burdened the air with javelins of wit as well as
anathema, and she sat down amidst a round of applause.
Miss Anthony then arose and eulogized Mrs. Hooker because she
belonged to the Beecher family; and the State of Michigan on account
of its universities. It had sent out more strong-minded women than
any other State. She then proposed a good old-fashioned love-feast to
diversify the meeting.
An ominous silence prevailed for a little time; then Madame Ellis,
clairvoyant and fortune-teller, proceeded to make herself heard in
a loud voice. She commenced by declaring herself a convert to the
doctrine, made so the previous night, but instead of reading the
future fortune of the movement as laid in the horoscope of the stars,
she kept on talking as if she was only a common mortal. But she
finally reached the bottom of her mind and sat down, and Susan B.
Anthony clapped her hands.
Mrs. Hooker then came forward and wanted Miss Susan to tell her
experience in Richmond. Miss Susan hesitated, for there was other
work to be done, but she finally began by saying that she saw twenty
black men in their seats on the floor of the legislature. She went
there to invite all the members to attend a meeting in the evening,
where she was expected to speak. Some one of the legislature moved
that she might be invited to occupy the Speaker’s platform, but this
could not be accomplished unless the rules were suspended in order to
take a vote. A vote to suspend the rules was taken and lost--38 to
29; but amongst those who voted in her favor was every black man upon
the floor. One of the white men upon the floor said if it had been
Fred Douglass, instead of a white woman, he would have got the place.
Mrs. Hooker read an extremely interesting letter from Mrs. Justice
Morris, late justice of Wyoming Territory. According to this letter,
office-holding by a woman was a perfect success. Only one appeal was
taken from her decision, and that was decided in her favor. Mrs.
Morris’s family consisted of a husband and three sons, and all these
were more willing to help her in official rather than in her domestic
affairs. Mrs. Justice Morris was sixty years of age when she took
upon herself the cares of official life.
OLIVIA.
UPHOLDING THE BANNER.
THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION AND ITS LEADING PARTICIPANTS.
WASHINGTON, _January 14, 1871_.
The last evening’s session of the woman suffrage convention opened
with Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts, on the stage. Although this
Senator has greatest faith in Catharine Beecher’s views, it would
be in direct opposition to all the acts of his past life to turn a
cold cheek to the appeal of loving humanity; so his broad, genial
face stood out from its luminous background like the moon attended
by its starry host. The first person introduced to the audience was
Mrs. Cora L. V. Hatch (now Tappan), and, judging by what followed,
she must have been entranced. It could not be ascertained whether
or not her mental machinery had been wound up with the expectation
that it would run down at the end of a given period, but at any rate
she kept on ticking until Senator Wilson drew an instrument out of a
side pocket, apparently for no other reason but to find out whether
she was gaining or losing time. Mrs. Hooker, in the meantime, looked
anxious and weary, and Susan B. Anthony, like Banquo’s ghost, stalked
across the stage. This seemed to bring the “medium” to her senses,
and she closed after it was known that she had been innocent of
having anything to say.
As if to reward the audience for its late patience, Miss Anthony came
forward to give it some food for thought. She said the object of this
convention is to prevail on Congress to decide on Mrs. Woodhull’s
definition of the fourteenth amendment. “If we fail in this it is
our intention to apply for registration in the different districts
where we belong, and if we are refused this privilege, suits will at
once be commenced, and the case be followed up until it is decided by
the highest court in the land. But suppose we fail to obtain justice
under the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the Constitution, we
can go back to our good old sixteenth, and work until our undertaking
is crowned with success.” She then read the name of a grand central
working committee, every name a well-tried, faithful servant of the
cause. She said no name would be placed on that paper because she was
a Mrs. Senator This or a Mrs. Rev. That. The names were then read:
NATIONAL CENTRAL COMMITTEE.
President, Mrs. Isabella Beecher Hooker, Hartford, Conn.;
Secretary, Mrs. Josephine S. Griffing, Washington, D. C.; Susan
B. Anthony, Rochester, N. Y.; Victoria C. Woodhull, New York
City; Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Tenaphy, N. J.; Lucretia Mott,
Philadelphia, Pa.; Olympia Brown, Bridgeport. Conn.; Mrs. Emily
Stevens, San Francisco, Cal.; Mrs. Harriet W. Sewall, Melrose,
Mass; Mrs. Mary K. Spalding, Atlanta, Ga.; Mrs. Anna Bodeker,
Richmond, Va.; Mrs. Francis Pillsbury, Charleston, S. C.; Mrs.
Senator Gilbert, St. Augustine, Fla.; Paulina Wright Davis,
Providence, R. I.; M. Adele Hazlett, Hillsdale, Mich.; Mrs. Dr.
Ferguson, Richmond, Ind.; Jane G. Jones, Chicago, Ill.; Lillie
Peckham, Wisconsin; Mrs. Francis Miner, St. Louis, Mo.; Mrs. J.
M. Spear, San Francisco, Cal.; Mrs. C. I. H. Nichols, Wyandotte,
Kans.; Mrs. Laura De Force, Gordon, Nev.; Mrs. M. E. Post,
Cheyenne, Wyo.; Mrs. Mary McCook, Colo.
“The business of this committee is to go to work and get money to
defray the expense of printing documents. Congress will be asked to
make an appropriation to this end, but in case of disappointment from
that quarter we shall fall back on the national central committee.
We shall also ask the members to frank these documents, and we hope
to fill Uncle Sam’s mail-bags with the same until they groan. Among
all my acquaintances in Congress, I never found but one man who would
allow me the use of his frank, and this was Brooks, of New York. Yes,
Congressman Brooks. I know he is a Democrat, but I find Democrats
just as much inclined to give us the ballot as the Republicans. And
why should they not, for they are all of them nothing but men? She
said the strongest kind of appeals would be made for money during the
coming campaign. Mrs. Victoria Woodhull had subscribed ten thousand
dollars, and would any man in the country do the same?”
Miss Lillie Peckham, of Wisconsin, was then introduced by Senator
Wilson. Miss Lillie confined her remarks closely to the labor
question, and her efforts this time were a marked improvement upon
the last. She told her hearers all about the difficulties in the way
of women when they attempt to enter the field of science and art.
Harriet Hosmer had to go the length and breadth of this land before
she could find a college where she was allowed to study anatomy; Rosa
Bonheur was obliged to pursue her studies in the butcher shambles
of Paris, and Myra Bradwell was not allowed to practice before the
courts of Illinois because she was a married woman, and as such could
not be recognized, in consequence of technicalities of the law. Ben
Butler had said that women should not hold clerkships under the
Government because they were needed for wives in the far West; Mr.
Rodgers, of Arkansas, had introduced a law too infamous to mention.
In forcible terms she painted the narrow field in which women who
have no protectors must necessarily struggle and die. At the magic
touch of her voice thousands of lowly women left their wretched
basements and attics, folded their rags about them and stood on the
stage. She went on to say, if the ballot improves the workingman’s
condition, in Heaven’s name why not the workingwoman’s? Are they not
the same flesh and blood, warmed by the same heat, frozen by the same
cold, and subject to the same laws of life and death?
After Miss Peckham had finished Miss Anthony came to the financial
point again, and appointed a committee of two persons to receive the
amount which any were disposed to give. Senators Wilson and Pomeroy
made their donation in the most modest possible way, and a few others
followed the example, and this brought the woman suffrage convention
to an end.
It will be remembered that it was called and organized by three
prominent women, and so far as it was a success it must be attributed
to them. It is safe to say that the woman suffrage conventions at the
capital are steadily improving in social refinement and intellectual
culture as they succeed each other year after year. Women with
pantaloons and men with long hair have taken the back seats, and if
peaked hats and coat-tails are visible, these badges are confined
exclusively to Wall street, and there may be a necessity for the
peaked hats in this awful locality which the innocent world knows
nothing about. Senators of the United States have presided at every
session, and quite a number of members have attended the meetings
from time to time. Occasionally the head of a bureau has peeped out
from the audience, and a slight sprinkling of clerks has been noticed
now and then, whilst the most perfect order has reigned from the
beginning to the end.
When the question was asked Miss Kate Stanton, why the woman
suffragists did not bring all their weapons to bear upon the women of
the country, instead of wasting their ammunition upon the men, she
replied: “It is of no use; we must make the movement popular with the
men, and they will educate the women up to it.”
Owing to the misfortune that some of the delegates from a long
distance did not reach Washington in time for the convention, a
meeting took place in the lecture-room of the Young Men’s Christian
Association building the following day. No business of importance
took place. Mrs. Brooks, a small, timid woman, undertook to give a
report of what was progressing in the West. But this she found was
too much for her modesty, so she gave way for one of the masculine
gender by the name of Jones, who feelingly gave the Western picture.
Mrs. Post, of Wyoming, gave her experience of voting, and this of
necessity was very interesting. She had “electioneered,” been to
caucus meetings and to the polls side by side with the men, and,
so far as she knew, her womanhood was just as good as ever, and
matters had become greatly improved since woman suffrage was a fixed
fact in Wyoming. Miss Anthony followed in one of her best speeches.
Miss Peckham said that Senator Carpenter, of Wisconsin, was fully
committed to the cause, and Mrs. Josephine Griffing was willing to
pledge herself for the District. Mrs. Pauline Davis eulogized Rhode
Island, and Mrs. Hazlett, of Michigan, spoke in her usual bright,
crispy way. She said she would present her name for registration
under the law of the fourteenth amendment, and had no fear as to the
result. Mrs. Dr. Lockwood moved a vote of thanks to the reporters
of the Washington press for their courtesy, kindness, and ability
displayed during the convention, and the meeting adjourned _sine die_.
OLIVIA.
CHAMPIONS OF THE SUFFRAGE CAUSE.
MRS. LUCRETIA MOTT, MRS. CADY STANTON, AND MRS. JOSEPHINE S. GRIFFING.
WASHINGTON, _January 19, 1871_.