_Marie’s contact with “transcendentalism” and the Know-Nothing
movement--Meets Dr. Harriot K. Hunt, of Boston--Why Harriot and her
sister began to study medicine in 1830--In 1847, Harriot applies to
Harvard for permission to attend medical lectures and is refused--In
1850, she renews her application and receives permission--Harvard
medical students send two petitions of protest to the faculty: one
against admission of negro men students; one against admission
of women students--The faculty requests Harriot to withdraw her
application--Marie’s father opposes her study of medicine, denounces
her leaving “woman’s sphere” and demands her return to New York or to
Germany. (Twenty-five years of age: 1854-1855.)_
Retracing these later steps for a moment, I wish to add that the
years 1840 to 1860 form the period of what is now called the
“transcendentalism of New England.” What has given rise to this mode of
thinking and acting of the people has been explained by many an able
writer. I, arriving in America in 1853, experienced the effect of this
phase of spiritual life when it was on the wane; when phalansteries had
been tried and had failed; when social reforms were discussed in all
parts of the country by those who led the van from Boston, New York,
Philadelphia, and Cleveland.
Groups of reformers existed in the churches and schools as well as
in political and social circles. Women, still timid and under the
pressure of social propriety, hailed every one who dared to give
expression to their wishes and longings for a sphere beyond that of
domesticity.
The broader religious preaching of William Ellery Channing and of
Theodore Parker encouraged many to join these men in their efforts,
while transcendental thinking and reading had prepared their minds to
accept any new theory of life and its aims, for the individual woman as
well as for the whole sex.
The first impressions received from the few acquaintances I had, after
arriving, were depressing in the highest degree; for I found that the
life of the New World had not only confirmed my countrymen in their Old
World prejudices but it had even a reactionary result upon their mode
of thinking, leading them to ridicule the American ways and modes in
social, religious and political forms of life.
The Know-Nothing party had just been established; and those immigrants
who were exiled after the revolutionary efforts of the years following
1848, created a prejudice among themselves against the English-speaking
people of New York, especially against all reformers, which included
the Know-Nothings.
And, yet, it was through the accidental acquaintance of these
Know-Nothings that I was introduced to the so-called reformers; and,
strange to say, the family giving firm adherence to the Know-Nothing
principles was of German birth, their parents having emigrated after
the year 1830, when exiled following the student revolt.
This family opened the path to the first acquaintance to whom I could
show my credentials, verified by letters from the American Secretary of
Legation at Berlin, Theodore S. Fay.[2]
A new world seemed to appear before my eyes when I was first introduced
to the different circles of reformers. It seemed to me then as if the
whole social and religious life was undermined, and that a labyrinth
of ways ran confusedly in all sorts of directions. All that education,
habit and custom had nurtured in my perception of life seemed to
crumble into pieces.
That negro slavery was still in full force I soon learned, and that
women declared their incapability to speak freely and openly against it
shocked me beyond comprehension. On the other hand, I was shocked that
a Mrs. Wright and others had demanded the emancipation of women. That
a Woman’s Rights Convention was held in New York State seemed to me so
ridiculous that I found the expression in one of the New York papers,
“The hens which want to crow,” quite appropriate.
However, I had tried to crow as hard as any of these women without
realizing it, for I had been quite enthusiastic when I received the
news that ways and means had been found through the efforts of Dr.
Elizabeth Blackwell for me to enter the medical school of the Western
Reserve College, at Cleveland. It was not a week after my arrival when
through a visit from Dr. Harriot Kezia Hunt to the house of my hostess
and protector, Mrs. Caroline M. Severance, I learned to my great
astonishment that the “crowing hens” of Cleveland had taken me under
their wings to shelter me and to promote my efforts.[6]
[As Marie became better acquainted with the “woman’s rights” question
her logical mind was impressed by the arguments in favor of the
movement, and she eventually accepted it and became associated with
its ardent advocates, though never herself taking the position of a
militant suffragist.]
A few details regarding Dr. Hunt will be of interest here. Harriot
Kezia Hunt and her sister, Sarah Augusta, had their minds withdrawn
from their profession of teaching and turned towards medicine, in 1830,
by the prolonged illness of Sarah and her ineffective treatment by the
regular medical profession. “After forty-one weeks of sickness and
one hundred and six professional calls, my sister was roused to more
thought on this subject. We talked it over together; she obtained some
medical works; and finally, she came to the conclusion that her case
was not understood.”
The sisters continued the study of medicine by themselves, and Harriot
first thought of _woman_ as a _physician_ when, in 1833,
Mrs. Mott and her husband, two irregular practitioners who had come to
Boston from England, were called to see if they could in any way help
Sarah. As Harriot writes: “... it did not occur to us that to die under
regular practice, and with medical etiquette, was better than any other
way.”
Sarah soon began to improve and Harriot then decided to become a
physician, giving up her teaching so that she might have more time
to study. Sarah’s new treatment eliminated the rather drastic use
of drugs then prevalent in medical practice, and confined itself
principally to attention to the somewhat neglected laws of hygiene,
combined with cheering assurances of a cure. As her health became
established, Sarah joined in the study, and in October, 1835, the two
sisters formally began practice by advertising the fact in the daily
papers. Sarah later married and became the mother of six children,
gradually withdrawing from the practice which Harriot continued alone.
Harriot persevered in her studies while building up a very successful
practice in Boston, and, in 1847, she applied to Harvard College
for permission to attend medical lectures but was refused. In 1850,
she renewed her application and this time she received the desired
permission, five of the seven members of the Faculty voting in the
affirmative.
Of the two men who voted in the negative (Drs. James Jackson and
Jacob Bigelow), it was Dr. Jackson who had introduced into Boston the
midwife, Mrs. Janet Alexander. “Thus,” comments Dr. Putnam-Jacobi, “it
would seem that his objection was not to women but to _educated_
women who might aspire to rank among regularly educated men physicians.”
But again Dr. Hunt’s hopes met disappointment for, as noted in a
previous chapter, the men students sent to the Faculty two petitions of
remonstrance--one against the admission of negro men students, and one
against the admission of women students.
The Faculty referred these petitions to a committee of which Dr. Jacob
Bigelow (one of the two members originally voting against Dr. Hunt’s
admission) was chairman. This committee reported the following votes
regarding the petition against women students (and this report was
accepted):
_Voted_, that the Faculty are at all times anxious to promote the
gratification and welfare of the members of the medical class so far
as their duty and the great interests of medical education permit.
_Voted_, that the female student who had applied for liberty to
attend the lectures having by advice of the Faculty withdrawn her
petition, no further action on this subject is necessary.
In 1853, Dr. Hunt received the honorary degree of M.D. from the Female
Medical College of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia.
I found among those whom Mrs. Severance had interested in my behalf,
kind and intelligent as well as sympathizing friends who were willing
to assist me even financially in my studies. These good people, I saw
well, pitied my benightedness concerning the emancipation of women,
without trying to proselyte, but leaving me in good faith that I would
work out my own salvation and see the righteousness of their demands
for a larger sphere for women.
Another tie of sympathy soon became apparent, namely, the religious
tendency which was prevailing in the Severance circle of acquaintances.
Mr. and Mrs. Severance were the leading spirits of a small Universalist
congregation who held their meetings in the only public hall which
Cleveland then possessed. This assembly was inspired by Rev. A. D. Mayo
who had recently been called by them. They were adverse to Calvinism as
well as to Episcopalianism, yet they felt the want and need of some
form of church union.
This congregation was the most heterogeneous imaginable. Most of
the people were in a transition stage from the darkest orthodoxy to
atheism, neither of these extremes satisfying their ideals. There were
also reformers in other directions dissatisfied with all existing
codes of religion and law who sought refuge in the companionship of
malcontents. Thus, we had not only Unitarians and Universalists to
meet, but also Spiritualists, Magnetists, Fourierists, Freelovers,
Women’s Rights advocates, Abolitionists--in fact, followers of all
kinds of _isms_ then existing.
Every theory had its representatives and advocates when a couple of
dozen men and women gathered in alternate houses, socially or for
discussing problems in general. A woman medical student was a new
element and was welcomed by all the factions. Fortunately, I could
not speak the English language, so I belonged to the class of patient
listeners. I thus received attention from all groups, learning a great
deal of what was agitating the intelligent and thinking ones, and being
befriended by many in the expectation of swelling their numbers by one
more in support of their specific beliefs or theories.
However, as these people seemed to be the only group of human beings
who were not afraid of female medical students, I decided to avail
myself of the customary opportunity of calling on New Year’s Day, 1855,
at the house of Mr. Mayo, Mrs. Severance having inspired me with the
courage to do so. To my great surprise, after arriving there I found
that I could speak English well enough to be understood.
[At a later date Mr. Mayo writes of this call:
Among my visitors at my home in Cleveland, at the New Year’s reception
of 1855, was a young woman whose face I recognized as a bright
presence in the Sunday congregations that waited on my ministry.
Despite her impossible Polish name and her picturesque pronunciation
of the English language, she became at once the notable guest of the
evening. Her cheerful voice, reinforced by her magnetic womanhood,
sent every sentence to the right place and won our hearts.]
My roommate and fellow student, Mrs. Chadwick, refused to accompany
me on this New Year’s call. Mr. Mayo was too liberal for her. Such is
the inconsistency of human nature; she herself did not hesitate to don
the robe of a reformer as medical student, yet she did not dare to
speculate on new theories in the realm of thought.
Thus the new year began very promisingly, as it opened to me the chance
of entering somewhat into social relations which to my nature were
absolutely necessary in order to keep up my hopes and aspirations.
Besides, this connection gave me the opportunity to observe the habits
and customs of this new life, both in the intellectual and the domestic
spheres, during the little time that I could spare from my studies.
In the autumn of 1854, after deciding to go to Cleveland to resume my
medical studies, I wrote to my parents to tell them of my hopes and
aims. These letters were not received with the same pleasure with which
they had been written.
My father, who had encouraged me before my entrance upon a public
career, was not only grieved by my return to my old mode of life but
greatly opposed to it, and manifested this in the strongest words in
the next letter that I received from him. My mother, on the contrary,
who had not been at all enthusiastic in the beginning, was rather glad
to receive the news.
As I had left many good friends among the physicians of Berlin, my
letters were always circulated, after their arrival, by one of their
number who stood high in the profession; and, though I did not receive
my father’s approbation, he sent me several letters from strangers who
approved my conduct, and who, after hearing my letters, had sent him
congratulations upon my doings in America.
How he received the respect thus manifested to him, you can judge from
a passage in one of his letters, which I will quote to you:
I am proud of you, my daughter; yet you give me more grief than any
other of my children. If you were a young man, I could not find words
in which to express my satisfaction and pride in respect to your acts;
for I know that all you accomplish you owe to yourself: but you are a
woman, a weak woman; and all that I can do for you now is to grieve
and to weep. O my daughter! return from this unhappy path. Believe me,
the temptation of living for humanity _en masse_, magnificent
as it may appear in its aim, will lead you only to learn that all is
vanity; while the ingratitude of the mass for whom you choose to work
will be your compensation.
Letters of this sort poured upon me; and when my father learned that
neither his reasoning nor his prayers could turn me from a work which
I had begun with such enthusiasm, he began to threaten; telling me
that I must not expect any pecuniary assistance from him; that I would
contract debts in Cleveland which I should never be able to pay, and
which would certainly undermine my prospects; with more of this sort.
My good father did not know that I had vowed to myself, on my arrival
in America, that I would never ask his aid; and besides, he never
imagined that I could go for five months with a single cent in my
pocket. Oh, how small all these difficulties appeared to me, especially
at a time when I began to speak English! I felt so rich that I never
thought money could not be had whenever I wanted it in good earnest.
But with the closing of the term, which occurred early in March,
the financial assistance in paying for my board ceased, and further
provision had to be made for my support.
Shortly before this period, a letter was received from my father
denouncing my leaving my sisters, my despising the sphere of woman, and
my entering upon a field which so entirely belonged to men; he demanded
my return to New York or to Germany and he utterly refused me any
financial aid. After reading this letter to Mrs. Severance and asking
her counsel, I retired to my room almost in despair.
That same evening, I attended a meeting which had been announced from
all the pulpits and which was being held for the purpose of discussing
how to aid the Cherokee Indians. Representatives of this tribe were
sojourning in Cleveland on the way to Washington in order to see the
Great White Father and to implore his help in their troubles.
During this meeting, I resolved to follow my father’s advice and give
up man’s sphere, and offer myself as one of the missionaries to the
Indians for which the leader pleaded as so necessary to civilize the
squaws. Thus would I carry the working out of woman’s sphere to the
wilderness of the Indian Territory. The next morning I told my decision
to Mrs. Shepard, to my fellow students and to Mr. Mayo; and in the
evening I began a letter to my sisters who were now well established,
my sister Anna having married a very estimable young man whose parents
were friends and neighbors of ours in Berlin.
If I had not been visited in the morning of the next day by Dr. Seelye,
a friend of my fellow student, Miss Greene, and an hour later by Mrs.
Severance, my fate as an Indian missionary would have been decided by
the arrival of the afternoon hour appointed for the meeting of all
those interested in the Indian troubles. However, these two friends not
only dissuaded me from any such change, but promised to provide in some
way or other, means for my continuing my studies.
Dr. Seelye insisted on my first writing to Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell,
showing me that I was under special obligation to her. The Indians
had to leave before I received her reply. She was indignant at my
proposition and requested me to return to New York immediately after my
graduation the middle of the next March.