society exists for men only; for women, merely in so far as they are
represented by some man, are in the _mundt_, or keeping of some man
(_Descriptive Sociology, England, Herbert Spencer_). In England, as
late as the seventeenth century, husbands of decent station were not
ashamed to beat their wives. Gentlemen arranged parties of pleasure to
Bridewell, for the purpose of seeing the wretched women who beat hemp
there whipped. It was not until 1817 that the public whipping of woman
was abolished in England.--_Ibid._
[205] WIVES IN RUSSIA.--A peasant in the village of Zelova Baltia,
having reason to doubt the fidelity of his spouse, deliberately
harnessed her to a cart in company with a mare--a species of double
harness for which the lady was probably unprepared when she took the
nuptial vow. He then got into the cart in company with a friend, and
drove the ill-assorted team some sixteen versts (nearly eleven English
miles), without sparing the whip-cord. When he returned from his
excursion he shaved the unlucky woman's head, tarred and feathered
her, and turned her out of doors. She naturally sought refuge and
consolation from her parish priest; but he sent her back to her lord
and master, prescribing further flagellation. An appeal to justice by
the poor woman and her relatives resulted in a non-suit, and any
recourse to a higher court will probably terminate in the same manner.
WOMAN'S LOT IN RUSSIA.--Here and there the popular songs hear traces
of the griefs which in the rough furrows of daily life the Russian
woman finds it prudent to conceal. "Ages have rolled away," says the
poet Nekrasof; "the whole face of the earth has brightened; only the
sombre lot of mowjik's wife God forgets to change." And the same poet
makes one of his village heroines say, _apropos_ of the
enfranchisement of the serfs, "God has forgotten the nook where He hid
the keys of woman's emancipation."
[206] One of the powerful German Electors, who formerly made choice of
the Emperor of Germany.
[207] Even as late as the sixteenth century a plurality of wives was
allowed in some of the Christian countries of Europe, and the German
reformers were inclined to permit bigamy as not inconsistent with the
principles of the Gospel.--"_Woman in all Countries and Nations_,"
Nichols.
[208] See report of the Seney trial in Ohio, 1879, in which the judge
decided against the prosecuting wife, upon the ground of her lack of
the same ownership over the husband that the husband possessed over
the wife.
[209] The Birchall case.
[210] "History," says Voltaire, "is only a parcel of tricks we play
with the dead."
[211] JOHN MILTON AND HIS DAUGHTERS.--Milton's Oriental views of the
function of women led him not only to neglect, but to positively
prevent the education of his daughters. They were sent to no school at
all, but were handed over to a schoolmistress in the house. He would
not allow them to learn any language, saying, with a sneer, that "for
a woman one tongue was enough." The Nemesis, however, that follows
selfish sacrifice of others is so sure of stroke that there needs no
future world of punishment to adjust the balance. The time came when
Milton would have given worlds that his daughters had learned the
tongues. He was blind, and could only get at his precious book--could
only give expression to his precious verses--through the eyes and
hands of others. Whose hands and whose eyes so proper for this as his
daughters? He proceeded to train them to read to him, parrot-like, in
five or six languages, which he (the schoolmaster) could at one time
have easily taught them; but of which they could not now understand a
word. He turned his daughters into reading-machines. It is appalling
to think of such a task. That Mary should revolt, and at last, after
repeated contests with her taskmaster, learn to hate her father--that
she should, when some one spoke in her presence of her father's
approaching marriage, make the dreadful speech that "it was no news to
hear of his wedding, but if she could hear of his death, that were
something"--is unutterably painful, but not surprising.--_The
Athenæum_.
[212] Mrs. Robinson, of Indiana, and Mrs. E. S. Whitney, of New York.
[213] While in the midst of correcting proof, March 22d, the New York
press comes with an article showing how generally women are rousing to
their rights. It is headed:
"WOMEN AT THE CHURCH POLL--_What Came of Reviving an Old Statute in
Portchester_.--The trustees of the Presbyterian Church in Portchester,
although elected on the 24th of February last, did not organize until
about ten days ago. The reason for this delay lies in the claim made
by some of the congregation that the election was irregular, owing to
women having been allowed to vote. Some of the trustees who held over
were at first inclined to resign, and the matter has been much
discussed. When opposition was made to women voting, H. T. Smith
produced the statute of 1818, which says that any member of the church
at full age shall have a right to vote for trustees. There is nothing
in the act prohibiting women from voting. There are, I believe,
statutes forbidding women to vote in the Dutch Reformed and Episcopal
Churches; but this is a regular Presbyterian Church. It seems to me
that the women have worked hard for this church, and that they ought
to have a vote at the election of trustees and other officers. A Sun
reporter called upon the ladies for their version of the troubles.
Miss Pink, who is a school teacher, said: 'We women do four-fifths of
the work, and contribute more than one-half the money to support the
church. Two years ago we were allowed to vote for a minister, and we
don't see why we shouldn't vote for trustees and at other elections.'
Miss Camp gave similar reasons for voting. Mrs. Montgomery Lyon said:
'If the old trustees didn't know that we had a right to vote, it isn't
our fault. We women do all the work, and why shouldn't we vote!' Women
will vote for President, soon."
[214] The above is article xiv. of the by-laws of the society
connected with the aforesaid church. Thus the society undertakes to
dictate to the church who shall have a voice in the selection of a
pastor. It is a matter of gratitude that the society, if it forbids
females to vote in the church, yet allows them to pray and to help the
society raise money.--_Independent_, _N. Y._, _Feb. 24, 1881_.
[215] BROKEN DOWN.--Mrs. Van Cott, the woman evangelist, has retired
from the field, probably forever. Her nervous system is broken down.
During the fourteen years of her ministry she has traveled 143,417
miles, has preached 4,294 sermons, besides conducting 9,333 other
religious meetings, and writing 9,853 letters.--_Ex_.
[216] But this Conference, which could not recognize woman's equality
of rights in the Church, adjourned in a body to Chicago, before its
business was completed, by its presence there to influence the
Republican Nominating Convention in favor of General Grant's name for
the Presidency.
[217] A professor of theology said a while ago, how sorry he should be
to have the law recognize that one-half of the income of the family
belonged to his wife, "it would establish such a mine-and-thine
relation." It evidently seemed to him, somehow, more harmonious, less
of the earth, earthy, that he could say, "All mine, my love," and that
she could sweetly respond, "All thine, dearest."--_State
Prohibitionist_, _Des Moines, Ia._, _Jan. 28, 1881_.
[218] The great botanist, Linnæus, was persecuted when he first
presented his sexual system in vegetation to the world.
[219] The legal subordination of one sex to another is wrong in
itself, and now one of the chief hindrances to human improvement; it
ought to be replaced by a principle of perfect equality, admitting no
powers or privileges on the one side or disability on the
other.--_Subjection of Woman, John Stuart Mill_.
[220] The _Worcester Chronicle_ of recent date gives an account of a
wife sale in England. Thomas Middleton delivered up his wife Mary M.
to Philip Rostius, and sold her for one shilling and a quart of ale,
and parted from her solely and absolutely for life, "not to trouble
one another for life." Philip Rostius made his mark as a witness. A
second witness was S. H. Shore, Crown Inn, Trim street.
[221] In the peace made by the Sabines with the Romans, after the
forcible abduction of the Sabine maidens, one of the provisions was
that no labor, except spinning, should be required of these Roman
wives.
[222] THE FAIR SEX IN THE ALPS.--The farmers In the Upper Alps, though
by no means wealthy, live like lords in their houses, while the
heaviest portion of agricultural labors devolves on the wife. It is no
uncommon thing to see a woman yoked to the plough with an ass, while
her husband guides it. An Alpine farmer accounts it an act of
politeness to lend his wife to a neighbor who has too much work, and
the neighbor in return lends his wife for a few days' labor whenever
requested.
[223] Lord Shaftesbury bringing the subject before Parliament.
[224] A STORY OF IRELAND IN 1880.--Recently, a young girl named
Catherine Cafferby, of Belmullet, in County Mayo--the pink of her
father's family--fled from the "domestic service" of a landlord as
absolute as Lord Leitrim, the moment the poor creature discovered what
that "service" customarily involved. The great man had the audacity to
invoke the law to compel her to return, as she had not given
statutable notice of her flight. She clung to the door-post of her
father's cabin; she told aloud the story of her terror, and called on
God and man to save her. Her tears, her shrieks, her piteous pleadings
were all in vain. The Petty Sessions Bench ordered her back to the
landlord's "service," or else to pay £5, or two weeks in jail. This is
not a story of Bulgaria under Murad IV., but of Ireland in the reign
of the present sovereign. That peasant girl went to jail to save her
chastity. If she did not spend a fortnight in the cells, it was only
because friends of outraged virtue, justice, and humanity paid the
fine when the story reached the outer world.
[225] The son of the late William Ellery Channing, in a recent letter
to a friend on this point, says: "Religions like the Jewish and
Christian, which make God exclusively _male_, consign woman logically
to the subordinate position which is definitely assigned to her in
Mahometanism. History has kept this tradition. The subjection of woman
has existed as an invariable element in Christian civilization. It
could not be otherwise. If God and Christ were both represented as
male (and the Holy Ghost, too, in the pictures of the old masters), it
stood to reason and appealed to fanaticism that the male form was the
Godlike. Hence, logically, intellect and physical force were exalted
above the intuition of conscience and attractive charm. The male
religion shaped government and society after its own form. Theodore
Parker habitually addressed God as our Father and Mother. What we call
God is the infinite ideal of humanity. The preposterous, ridiculous
absurdity of supposing God so defined to be of the male sex, and to
call God 'him,' does not need a word to make it apparent. This ideal
which we all reverence, and for which we yearn, necessarily enfolds in
_One_ the attributes which, separated in our human race, express
themselves in Manhood and Womanhood."
[226] Some person, over the signature of "A Bible Reader," writing in
the _Sun_ of March 16, says: "I would be sincerely glad to know what
guarantee we have that ere long we shall not have another revision of
Scripture? It is not so long ago since the discovery of Tischendorf of
an important manuscript of the New Testament, which gave a number of
new readings. There may be in existence other and older manuscripts of
the Bible than any we now have, from which may be omitted the
narratives of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. Should we then
have to give these up? If the revisers act consistently they would
certainly have to do so.
"It appears that already the Calvinists and the Trinitarians have been
deprived by the revisers of the texts they relied upon to uphold their
peculiar doctrines. It remains to be seen how the Universalists,
Baptists, and other Christian sects will fare."
APPENDIX.
CHAPTER I.
PRECEDING CAUSES.
MARGARET FULLER possessed more influence upon the thought of America,
than any woman previous to her time. Men of diverse interests and
habits of thought, alike recognized her power and acknowledged the
quickening influence of her mind upon their own. Ralph Waldo Emerson
said of her: "The day was never long enough to exhaust her opulent
memory; and I, who knew her intimately for ten years, never saw her
without surprise at her new powers."
William R. Channing, in her "Memoirs," says: "I have no hope of
conveying to my readers my sense of the beauty of our relation, as it
lies in the past, with brightness falling on it from Margaret's risen
spirit. It would be like printing a chapter of autobiography, to
describe what is so grateful in memory--its influence upon oneself."
Rev. James Freeman Clarke says: "Socrates without his scholars, would
be more complete than Margaret without her friends. The insight which
Margaret displayed in finding her friends; the magnetism by which she
drew them toward herself; the catholic range of her intimacies; the
influence which she exerted to develop the latent germ of every
character; the constancy with which she clung to each when she had
once given and received confidence; the delicate justice which kept
every intimacy separate, and the process of transfiguration which took
place when she met any one on this mountain of friendship, giving a
dazzling lustre to the details of common life--all these should be at
least touched upon and illustrated, to give any adequate view of these
relations." Horace Greeley, in his "Recollections of a Busy Life,"
said: "When I first made her acquaintance she was mentally the best
instructed woman in America."
When Transcendentalism rose in New England, drawing the brightest
minds of the country into its faith, Margaret was accepted as its
high-priestess; and when _The Dial_ was established for the expression
of those views, she was chosen its editor, aided by Ralph Waldo
Emerson and George Ripley. Nothing could be more significant of the
place Margaret Fuller held in the realm of thought than the fact, that
in this editorship she was given precedence over the eminent
philosopher and eminent scholar, her associates.
She sought to unveil the mysteries of life and enfranchise her own sex
from the bondage of the past, and while still under thirty planned a
series of conversations (in Boston) for women only, wherein she took a
leading part. The general object of these conferences, as declared in
her programme, was to supply answers to these questions: "What are we
born to do?" and "How shall we do it?" or, as has been stated, "Her
three special aims in those conversations were, To pass in review the
departments of thought and knowledge, and endeavor to place them in
one relation to one another in our minds. To systematize thought and
give a precision and clearness in which our sex are so deficient,
chiefly, I think, because they have so few inducements to test and
classify what they receive. To ascertain what pursuits are best suited
to us, in our time and state of society, and how we may make the best
use of our means of building up the life of thought upon the life of
action."
These conversations continued for several successive winters, and were
in reality a vindication of woman's right to think. In calling forth
the opinions of her sex upon Life, Literature, Mythology, Art,
Culture, and Religion, Miss Fuller was the precursor of the Woman's
Rights agitation of the last thirty-three years. Her work, "The Great
Lawsuit; or, Man _vs._ Woman, Woman _vs._ Man," was declared by Horace
Greeley to be the loftiest and most commanding assertion made of the
right of woman to be regarded and treated as an independent,
intelligent, rational being, entitled to an equal voice in framing and
modifying the laws she is required to obey, and in controlling and
disposing of the property she has inherited or aided to acquire. In
this work Margaret said: "It is the fault of MARRIAGE and of the
present relation between the sexes, that the woman _belongs_ to the
man, instead of forming a whole with him.... Woman, self-centered,
would never be absorbed by any relation; it would only be an
experience to her, as to Man. It is a vulgar error that love--_a_
love--is to Woman her whole existence; she is also born for Truth and
Love in their universal energy. Would she but assume her inheritance,
Mary would not be the only virgin mother."
Margaret Fuller was the first woman upon the staff of _The New York
Tribune_, a position she took in 1844, when she was but thirty-four.
Mrs. Greeley having made Margaret's acquaintance, attended her
conversations and accepted her leading ideas, planned to have her
become a member of the Greeley family, and a writer for _The Tribune_;
a position was therefore offered her by Mr. Greeley upon his wife's
judgment. It required but a short time, however, for the great editor
to feel her power, although he failed to fully comprehend her
greatness. It has been declared not the least of Horace Greeley's
services to the nation, that he was willing to entrust the literary
criticisms of _The Tribune_ to one whose standard of culture was so
far above that of his readers or his own.
Margaret Fuller opened the way for many women, who upon the editorial
staff of the great New York dailies, as literary critics and as
reporters, have helped impress woman's thought upon the American mind.
Theodore Parker, who knew her well, characterized her as a critic,
rather than a creator or seer. But whether we look upon her as critic,
creator, or seer, she was thoroughly a woman. One of her friends wrote
of her, "She was the largest woman, and not a woman who wanted to be a
man." Woman everywhere, to-day, is a critic. Enthralled as she has
been for ages, by both religious and political despotism, no sooner
does she rouse to thought than she necessarily begins criticism. The
hoary wrongs of the past still fall with heavy weight upon
woman--their curse still exists. Before building society anew, she
seeks to destroy the errors and injustice of the past, hence we find
women critics in every department of thought.
* * * * *
CHAPTER IV.
NEW YORK.
_Seneca Falls and Rochester Conventions._
WOMEN OUT OF THEIR LATITUDE.
We are sorry to see that the women in several parts of this State are
holding what they call "Woman's Rights Conventions," and setting forth
a formidable list of those Rights in a parody upon the Declaration of
American Independence.
The papers of the day contain extended notices of these Conventions.
Some of them fall in with their objects and praise the meetings
highly; but the majority either deprecate or ridicule both.
The women who attend these meetings, no doubt at the expense of their
more appropriate duties, act as committees, write resolutions and
addresses, hold much correspondence, make speeches, etc., etc. They
affirm, as among their rights, that of unrestricted franchise, and
assert that it is wrong to deprive them of the privilege to become
legislators, lawyers, doctors, divines, etc., etc.; and they are
holding Conventions and making an agitatory movement, with the object
in view of revolutionizing public opinion and the laws of the land,
and changing their relative position in society in such a way as to
divide with the male sex the labors and responsibilities of active
life in every branch of art, science, trades, and professions.
Now, it requires no argument to prove that this is all wrong. Every
true hearted female will instantly feel that this is unwomanly, and
that to be practically carried out, the males must change their
position in society to the same extent in an opposite direction, in
order to enable them to discharge an equal share of the domestic
duties which now appertain to females, and which must be neglected, to
a great extent, if women are allowed to exercise all the "rights" that
are claimed by these Convention-holders. Society would have to be
radically remodelled in order to accommodate itself to so great a
change in the most vital part of the compact of the social relations
of life; and the order of things established at the creation of
mankind, and continued _six thousand years_, would be completely
broken up. The organic laws of our country, and of each State, would
have to be licked into new shapes, in order to admit of the
introduction of the vast change that it contemplated. In a thousand
other ways that might be mentioned, if we had room to make, and our
readers had patience to hear them, would this sweeping reform be
attended by fundamental changes in the public and private, civil and
religious, moral and social relations of the sexes, of life, and of
the Government.
But this change is impracticable, uncalled for, and unnecessary. _If
effected_, it would set the world by the ears, make "confusion worse
confounded," demoralize and degrade from their high sphere and noble
destiny, women of all respectable and useful classes, and prove a
monstrous injury to all mankind. It would be productive of no positive
good, that would not be outweighed tenfold by positive evil. It would
alter the relations of females without bettering their condition.
Besides all, and above all, it presents no remedy for the _real_ evils
that the millions of the industrious, hard-working, and much suffering
women of our country groan under and seek to redress.--_Mechanic's_
(Albany, N. Y.) _Advocate_.
INSURRECTION AMONG THE WOMEN.
A female Convention has just been held at Seneca Falls, N. Y., at
which was adopted a "declaration of rights," setting forth, among
other things, that "all men and _women_ are created equal, and endowed
by their Creator with certain inalienable rights." The list of
grievances which the _Amazons_ exhibit, concludes by expressing a
determination to insist that woman shall have "immediate admission to
all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the
United States." It is stated that they design, in spite of all
misrepresentations and ridicule, to employ agents, circulate tracts,
petition the State and National Legislatures, and endeavor to enlist
the pulpit and the press in their behalf. This is _bolting_ with a
vengeance.--_Worcester_ (Mass.) _Telegraph_.
THE REIGN OF PETTICOATS.
The women in various parts of the State have taken the field in favor
of a petticoat empire, with a zeal and energy which show that their
hearts are in the cause, and that they are resolved no longer to
submit to the tyrannical rule of the _heartless_ "lords of creation,"
but have solemnly determined to demand their "natural and inalienable
right" to attend the polls, and assist in electing our Presidents, and
Governors, and Members of Congress, and State Representatives, and
Sheriffs, and County Clerks, and Supervisors, and Constables, etc.,
etc., and to unite in the general scramble for office. This is right
and proper. It is but just that they should participate in the
beautiful and feminine business of politics, and enjoy their
proportion of the "spoils of victory." Nature never designed that they
should be confined exclusively to the drudgery of raising children,
and superintending the kitchens, and to the performance of the various
other household duties which the cruelty of men and the customs of
society have so long assigned to them. This is emphatically the age of
"democratic progression," of _equality_ and _fraternization_--the age
when all colors and sexes, the bond and free, black and white, male
and female, are, as they by right ought to be, all tending downward
and upward toward the common level of equality.
The harmony of this great movement in the cause of freedom would not
be perfect if women were still to be confined to petticoats, and men
to breeches. There must be an "interchange" of these "commodities" to
complete the system. Why should it not be so? Can not women fill an
office, or cast a vote, or conduct a campaign, as judiciously and
vigorously as men? And, on the other hand, can not men "nurse" the
babies, or preside at the wash-tub, or boil a pot as safely and as
well as women? If they can not, the evil is in that arbitrary
organization of society which has excluded them from the practice of
these pursuits. It is time these false notions and practices were
changed, or, rather, removed, and for the political millennium
foreshadowed by this petticoat movement to be ushered in. Let the
women keep the ball moving, so bravely started by those who have
become tired of the restraints imposed upon them by the antediluvian
notions of a Paul or the tyranny of man.--_Rochester_ (N. Y.) _Daily
Advertiser_, Henry Montgomery, Editor.
"PROGRESS," is the grand bubble which is now blown up to balloon bulk
by the windy philosophers of the age. The women folks have just held a
Convention up in New York State, and passed a sort of "bill of
rights," affirming it their right to vote, to become teachers,
legislators, lawyers, divines, and do all and sundries the "lords"
may, and of right now do. They should have resolved at the same time,
that it was obligatory also upon the "lords" aforesaid, to wash
dishes, scour up, be put to the tub, handle the broom, darn stockings,
patch breeches, scold the servants, dress in the latest fashion, wear
trinkets, look beautiful, and be as fascinating as those blessed
morsels of humanity whom God gave to preserve that rough animal man,
in something like a reasonable civilization. "Progress!" Progress,
forever!--_Lowell_ (Mass.) _Courier_.
To us they appear extremely dull and uninteresting, and, aside from
their novelty, hardly worth notice.--_Rochester Advertiser_.
This has been a remarkable Convention. It was composed of those
holding to some one of the various _isms_ of the day, and some, we
should think, who embraced them all. The only practical good
proposed--the adoption of measures for the relief and amelioration of
the condition of indigent, industrious, laboring females--was almost
scouted by the leading ones composing the meeting. The great effort
seemed to be to bring out some new, impracticable, absurd, and
ridiculous proposition, and the greater its absurdity the better. In
short, it was a regular _emeute_ of a congregation of females gathered
from various quarters, who seem to be really in earnest in their aim
at revolution, and who evince entire confidence that "the day of
their deliverance is at hand." Verily, this is a progressive
era!--_Rochester Democrat_.
THE WOMEN OF PHILADELPHIA.
Our Philadelphia ladies not only possess beauty, but they are
celebrated for discretion, modesty, and unfeigned diffidence, as well
as wit, vivacity, and good nature. Whoever heard of a Philadelphia
lady setting up for a reformer, or standing out for woman's rights, or
assisting to man the election grounds, raise a regiment, command a
legion, or address a jury? Our ladies glow with a higher ambition.
They soar to rule the hearts of their worshipers, and secure obedience
by the sceptre of affection. The tenure of their power is a law of
nature, not a law of man, and hence they fear no insurrection, and
never experience the shock of a revolution in their dominions. But all
women are not as reasonable as ours of Philadelphia. The Boston ladies
contend for the rights of women. The New York girls aspire to mount
the rostrum, to do all the voting, and, we suppose, all the fighting
too.... Our Philadelphia girls object to fighting and holding office.
They prefer the baby-jumper to the study of Coke and Lyttleton, and
the ball-room to the Palo Alto battle. They object to having a George
Sand for President of the United States; a Corinna for Governor; a
Fanny Wright for Mayor; or a Mrs. Partington for Postmaster.... Women
have enough influence over human affairs without being politicians.
Is not everything managed by female influence? Mothers, grandmothers,
aunts, and sweethearts manage everything. Men have nothing to do but
to listen and obey to the "of course, my dear, you will, and of
course, my dear, you won't." Their rule is absolute; their power
unbounded. Under such a system men have no claim to rights, especially
"equal rights."
A woman is nobody. A wife is everything. A pretty girl is equal to ten
thousand men, and a mother is, next to God, all powerful.... The
ladies of Philadelphia, therefore, under the influence of the most
serious "sober second thoughts," are resolved to maintain their rights
as Wives, Belles, Virgins, and Mothers, and not as Women."--_Public
Ledger and Daily Transcript_.
WOMAN'S RIGHTS CONVENTION.
This is the age of revolutions. To whatever part of the world the
attention is directed, the political and social fabric is crumbling to
pieces; and changes which far exceed the wildest dreams of the
enthusiastic Utopians of the last generation, are now pursued with
ardor and perseverance. The principal agent, however, that has
hitherto taken part in these movements has been the rougher sex. It
was by man the flame of liberty, now burning with such fury on the
continent of Europe, was first kindled; and though it is asserted that
no inconsiderable assistance was contributed by the gentler sex to the
late sanguinary carnage at Paris, we are disposed to believe that such
a revolting imputation proceeds from base calumniators, and is a libel
upon woman.
By the intelligence, however, which we have lately received, the work
of revolution is no longer confined to the Old World, nor to the
masculine gender. The flag of independence has been hoisted, for the
second time, on this side of the Atlantic; and a solemn league and
covenant has just been entered into by a Convention of women at Seneca
Falls, to "throw off the despotism under which they are groaning, and
provide new guards for their future security." Little did we expect
this new element to be thrown into the cauldron of agitation which is
now bubbling around us with such fury. We have had one Baltimore
Convention, one Philadelphia Convention, one Utica Convention, and we
shall also have, in a few days, the Buffalo Convention. But we never
dreamed that Lucretia Mott had convened a fifth Convention, which, if
it be ratified by those whom it purposes to represent, will exercise
an influence that will not only control our own Presidential
elections, but the whole governmental system throughout the world....
The declaration is a most interesting document. We published it in
_extenso_ the other day. The amusing part is the preamble, where they
assert their equality, and that they have certain inalienable rights,
to secure which governments, deriving their just powers from the
consent of the governed, are instituted; and that after the long train
of abuses and usurpations to which they have been subjected, evincing
a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right,
it is their duty, to throw off such government.
The declaration is, in some respects, defective. It complains of the
want of the elective franchise, and that ladies are not recognized as
teachers of theology, medicine, and law.... These departments,
however, do not comprise the whole of the many avenues to wealth,
distinction, and honor. We do not see by what principle of right the
angelic creatures should claim to compete with the preacher, and
refuse to enter the lists with the merchant. A lawyer's brief would
not, we admit, sully the hands so much as the tarry ropes of a
man-of-war; and a box of Brandreth's pills are more safely and easily
prepared than the sheets of a boiler, or the flukes of an anchor; but
if they must have competition in one branch, why not in another? There
must be no monopoly or exclusiveness. If they will put on the
inexpressibles, it will not do to select those employments only which
require the least exertion and are exempt from danger. The laborious
employments, however, are not the only ones which the ladies, in right
of their admission to all rights and privileges, would have to
undertake. It might happen that the citizen would have to doff the
apron and buckle on the sword. Now, though we have the most perfect
confidence in the courage and daring of Miss Lucretia Mott and several
others of our lady acquaintances, we confess it would go to our hearts
to see them putting on the panoply of war, and mixing in scenes like
those at which, it is said, the fair sex in Paris lately took
prominent part.
It is not the business, however, of the despot to decide upon the
rights of his victims; nor do we undertake to define the duties of
women. Their standard is now unfurled by their own hands. The
Convention of Seneca Falls has appealed to the country. Miss Lucretia
Mott has propounded the principles of the party. Ratification meetings
will no doubt shortly be held, and if it be the general impression
that this lady is a more eligible candidate for the Presidential chair
than McLean or Cass, Van Buren or old "Rough and Ready," then let the
Salic laws be abolished forthwith from this great Republic. We are
much mistaken if Lucretia would not make a better President than some
of those who have lately tenanted the White House.--_New York Herald_,
James Gordon Bennett, Proprietor.
MRS. STANTON'S REPLY.
In answer to all the newspaper objections, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, in
an article published in the _National Reformer_, Rochester, N. Y.,
Geo. G. Cooper, Editor, Sept. 14, 1848, said as follows:
There is no danger of this question dying for want of notice. Every
paper you take up has something to say about it, and just in
proportion to the refinement and intelligence of the editor, has this
movement been favorably noticed. But one might suppose from the
articles that you find in some papers, that there were editors so
ignorant as to believe that the chief object of these recent
Conventions was to seat every lord at the head of a cradle, and to
clothe every woman in her lord's attire. Now, neither of these points,
however important they be considered by humble minds, were touched
upon in the Conventions.... For those who do not yet understand the
real objects of our recent Conventions at Rochester and Seneca Falls,
I would state that we did not meet to discuss fashions, customs, or
dress, the rights or duties of man, nor the propriety of the sexes
changing positions, but simply our own inalienable rights, our duties,
our true sphere. If God has assigned a sphere to man and one to woman,
we claim the right to judge ourselves of His design in reference to
_us_, and we accord to man the same privilege. We think a man has
quite enough in this life to find out his own individual calling,
without being taxed to decide where every woman belongs; and the fact
that so many men fail in the business they undertake, calls loudly for
their concentrating more thought on their own faculties, capabilities,
and sphere of action. We have all seen a man making a jackass of
himself in the pulpit, at the bar, or in our legislative halls, when
he might have shone as a general in our Mexican war, captain of a
canal boat, or as a tailor on his bench. Now, is it to be wondered at
that woman has some doubts about the present position assigned her
being the true one, when her every-day experience shows her that man
makes such fatal mistakes in regard to himself?
There is no such thing as a sphere for a sex. Every man has a
different sphere, and one in which he may shine, and it is the same
with every woman; and the same woman may have a different sphere at
different times. The distinguished Angelina Grimké was acknowledged by
all the anti-slavery host to be in her sphere, when, years ago, she
went through the length and breadth of New England, telling the people
of her personal experience of the horrors and abominations of the
slave system, and by her eloquence and power as a public speaker,
producing an effect unsurpassed by any of the highly gifted men of her
day. Who dares to say that in thus using her splendid talents in
speaking for the dumb, pleading the cause of the poor friendless
slave, that she was out of her sphere? Angelina Grimké is now a wife
and the mother of several children. We hear of her no more in public.
Her sphere and her duties have changed. She deems it her first and her
most sacred duty to devote all her time and talents to her household
and to the education of her children. We do not say that she is not
_now_ in her sphere. The highly gifted Quakeress, Lucretia Mott,
married early in life, and brought up a large family of children. All
who have seen her at home agree that she was a pattern as a wife,
mother, and housekeeper. No one ever fulfilled all the duties of that
sphere more perfectly than did she. Her children are now settled in
their own homes. Her husband and herself, having a comfortable
fortune, pass much of their time in going about and doing good.
Lueretia Mott has now no domestic cares. She has a talent for public
speaking; her mind is of a high order; her moral perceptions
remarkably clear; her religious fervor deep and intense; and who shall
tell us that this divinely inspired woman is out of her sphere in her
public endeavors to rouse this wicked nation to a sense of its awful
guilt, to its great sins of war, slavery, injustice to woman and the
laboring poor. As many inquiries are made about Lucretia Mott's
husband, allow me, through your columns, to say to those who think he
must be a _nonentity_ because his wife is so distinguished, that James
Mott is head and shoulders above the greater part of _his sex_,
intellectually, morally, and physically. As a man of business, his
talents are of the highest order. As an author, I refer you to his
interesting book of travels, "Three Months in Great Britain." In
manners he is a gentleman; in appearance, six feet high, and
well-proportioned, dignified, and sensible, and in every respect
worthy to be the companion of Lueretia Mott.
MRS. C. I. H. NICHOLS.
Miss Barber, of _The Madison_ (Ga.) _Visitor_, promises to "sit in the
corner and be a good girl," if we will admit her to our next
"editorial _soirée_." Indeed we will, and brother Lamb, of _The
Greenfield Democrat_, shall sit in the other corner and "cast sheep's
(Lamb's) eyes" at her; for he copies her naughty declaration of
inferiority, and adds that she "is just the editress for him"; that he
"don't like Mrs. Swisshelm, Mrs. Pierson, and that class." We will let
him off with a whispered reminder that there is a _Mr._ Swisshelm,
_Mr._ Pierson, and more of the same sort for "_that class_." He has
nobody on his side but the musty, fusty old bachelors of the ----, and
----, and ----, who, never having wanted for anything but _puddings_
and _shirts_, imagine, as Mrs. Pierson says, that "a shirt and a
pudding are the two poles of woman's sphere."
But we can not let Miss Barber off so lightly. She says "it is written
in the volume of inspiration, as plainly as if traced in sunbeams,
that man, the creature of God's own image, is superior to woman, who
was afterward created to be his companion. He has a more stately form,
stronger nerves and muscles, and, in nine cases out of ten, a more
vigorous intellect."
In the first place, it is paying no great compliment to man to suppose
that God created an inferior to be his companion. But a man, "_the_
creature of God's own image!" And was the material for God's image all
worked up in creating Adam? And if so, whose images are the men of
to-day, who can't possibly lay claim to more of the original stock
than mother Eve, who set up existence with an _entire rib_! And what
has it to do with the question of her intellectual equality, that she
was created _afterward_? If precedence in creation gave any advantage
intellectually, the inferior animals may claim superiority of
intellect over both man and woman. It would be quite as sound logic to
maintain, as some do, that, as last in the series which commenced in
nothing (?) and rose by gradations to image God, woman's superiority
to all that preceded her in the creation, is probable.... Again, if
women have less nerves and muscles, the ox and the ass have a great
deal more--while God and angels and disembodied spirits have none at
all; so that nerves and muscles are of no more significance in this
question of the intellectual equality or inequality of the sexes, than
is the beard that grows on a man's face and not on a woman's. And
arguments drawn from such premises always remind us of the profound
logic of a gentleman we once met in a stage coach, and who is now
holding a high office under Government at Washington. He professed to
set great store by whiskers and mustaches--he had none himself--and
gave as a reason why the beard should be tenderly cherished, that "it
was given to man as a badge of his superiority over woman." We were
young and mischievous then, and so we told him, most complacently,
that the ladies would readily concede the point, and give him the full
benefit of his argument and of his beard, since men shared their
"badge of superiority" with goats, monkeys, and many other inferior
animals. Some fifteen years have passed, but we never think of the
honorable gentleman or see his name attached to official reports,
without a laugh.
Miss Barber assumes woman's entire intellectual equality, in claiming
that she "may mould the mind of the future statesman into _whatsoever_
she will--that "through him she _can_ and _will_ make the laws." And
we only regret that she should speak so lightly of "depositing a
little strip of paper in the ballot-box." To us it is a serious thing,
that the depositing of that strip of paper gives and takes the rights,
whose possession is the means of the highest intellectual and moral
culture and enjoyment.--_Windom County Democrat_, Brattleboro,
Vermont.
MRS. JANE G. SWISSHELM.
A MISTAKE.--_Dear Brother Wright_:--In printing my former letter,
there was a mistake made which I intended to let pass; but as some of
your cotemporaries have taken an agony over the letter, it may be as
well to set it right. The last sentence reads, "Now, I move Grace be
let alone, and her moral power be no longer invoked by those who have
set her and all the rest of her sex, down on a stool mid-way between
free negroes and laborers." I wrote it "between free negroes and
_baboons_," and meant just what I said. Man, in his code of laws, has
assigned woman a place somewhere between the rational and irrational
creation. Our Constitutions provide that all "free white male
citizens" of a certain age shall have a right to vote. Here Indians,
negroes, and women stand side by side. Our gallant legislators
excluded the "inferior races" from the elective franchise because of
their inferiority; and just threw their wives and mothers into the
same heap, because of their great superiority! One was excluded
because they hated them, the other because they loved them so very
well. Yet one sentence covers both cases. Women and negroes stand side
by side in this case, and also in that of exclusion from our colleges.
A negro can not be admitted into one of our colleges or seminaries of
the highest class. Neither can a woman. Witness the refusal of some
half dozen of your medical colleges to admit Miss Blackwell.
But free negroes can acquire property, can sell it, keep it, give it
away, or divide it. A baboon has no such rights; neither has a woman
in her highest state of existence here. The right to acquire and hold
property is a distinguishing trait between mankind and the brute
creation. Woman is deprived of that distinction; for all that she has
and all she can acquire, belongs to her master. Custom says she should
be fed and clothed, dandled and fondled, her freaks borne with and her
graces admired; it awards the same attentions, in a little different
degree, to a pet monkey. So woman has been "set down mid-way between
free negroes and baboons."
Your good-tempered friend and sister,
JANE G. SWISSHELM.
BORDERS OF MONKEYDOM, _Sept. 28, 1848_.
P. S.--There is a man who edits _The Sunday Age_ of New York--H. P.
Grattan--who appears to be in a peck of trouble about "Blue-Stocking
Effusions" in general, and my letter to you in particular. He says,
"We love woman. We bow down to them in adoration. But they have their
proper place; but the moment they step from the pedestal upon which
heaven stood them, they fail to elicit our admiration," etc. Then, to
show what the pedestal is on which he adores them, he adds, "If they
gave evidence of a knowledge of puddings and pies, how much happier
they might be," in the sunlight of his admiration, of course. Well,
freedom of conscience in this free land! The Faithful may bow to his
prophet; the Persian adore his sun; the Egyptian may kneel to his
crocodile; and why should not Mr. Grattan go into rhapsodies before
his cook, as the dispenser of the good things of this life? The good
book speaks of "natural brute beasts who make a god of their bellies,"
and it might be natural to transfer the homage to her who ministers to
the stomach. I can see his chosen divinity now, mounted on her
"pedestal," a kitchen stool, her implements before her, crowned with a
pudding-pan, her sceptre a batter spoon, and Mr. Grattan down, in rapt
adoration, with eyes upturned, and looks of piteous pleading! Poor
fellow! Do give him his dinner! J. G. S.--_Saturday Visitor_,
Pittsburg, Penn.
Here are some of the titles of editorials and communications in
respectable papers all over the country: "Bolting among the Ladies,"
"Women Out of their Latitude," "Insurrection among the Women," "The
Reign of Petticoats," "Office-Seeking Women," "Petticoats _vs._
Boots." The reader can judge, with such texts for inspiration, what
the sermons must have been.
RESOLUTIONS AT ROCHESTER.
The following resolutions, which had been separately discussed, were
again read. Amy Post moved their adoption by the meeting, which was
carried with but two or three dissenting voices:
1. _Resolved_, That we petition our State Legislature for our right to
the elective franchise, every year, until our prayer be granted.
2. _Resolved_, That it is an admitted principle of the American
Republic, that the only just power of the Government is derived from
the consent of the governed; and that taxation and representation are
inseparable; and, therefore, woman being taxed equally with man, ought
not to be deprived of an equal representation in the Government.
3. _Resolved_, That we deplore the apathy and indifference of woman in
regard to her rights, thus restricting her to an inferior position in
social, religious, and political life, and we urge her to claim an
equal right to act on all subjects that interest the human family.
4. _Resolved_, That the assumption of law to settle estates of men who
die without wills, having widows, is an insult to woman, and ought to
be regarded as such by every lover of right and equality.
5. WHEREAS, The husband has the legal right to hire out his wife to
service, collect her wages, and appropriate it to his own exclusive
and independent benefit; and,
WHEREAS, This has contributed to establish that hideous custom, the
promise, of obedience in the marriage contract, effectually, though
insidiously, reducing her almost to the condition of a slave, whatever
freedom she may have in these respects being granted as a privilege,
not as a right; therefore,
_Resolved_, That we will seek the overthrow of this barbarous and
unrighteous law; and conjure women no longer to promise obedience in
the marriage covenant.
_Resolved_, That the universal doctrine of the inferiority of woman
has ever caused her to distrust her own powers, and paralyzed her
energies, and placed her in that degraded position from which the most
strenuous and unremitting effort can alone redeem her.
Only by faithful perseverance in the practical exercise of those
talents, so long "wrapped in a napkin and buried under the earth," she
will regain her long-lost equality with man.
_Resolved_, That in the persevering and independent course of Miss
Blackwell, who recently attended a series of medical lectures in
Geneva, and has now gone to Europe to graduate as a physician, we see
a harbinger of the day when woman shall stand forth "redeemed and
disenthralled," and perform those important duties which are so truly
within her sphere.
_Resolved_, That those who believe the laboring classes of women are
oppressed, ought to do all in their power to raise their wages,
beginning with their own household servants.
_Resolved_, That it is the duty of woman, whatever her complexion, to
assume, as soon as possible, her true position of equality in the
social circle, the Church, and the State.
_Resolved_, That we tender our grateful acknowledgment to the Trustees
of the Unitarian Church, who have kindly opened their doors for the
use of this Convention.
_Resolved_, That we, the friends who are interested in this cause,
gratefully accept the kind offer from the Trustees of the use of
Protection Hall, to hold our meetings whenever we wish.
SIGNATURES TO THE DECLARATION ADOPTED AT SENECA FALLS.
Firmly relying upon the final triumph of the Right and the True, we do
this day affix our signatures to this Declaration:
Lucretia Mott, Hannah Plant,
Harriet Cady Eaton, Lucy Jones,
Margaret Pryor, Sarah Whitney,
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mary H. Hallowell,
Eunice Newton Foote, Elizabeth Conklin,
Mary Ann McClintock, Sally Pitcher,
Margaret Schooley, Mary Conklin,
Martha C. Wright, Susan Quinn,
Jane C. Hunt, Mary S. Mirror,
Amy Post, Phebe King,
Catharine F. Stebbins, Julia Ann Drake,
Mary Ann Frink, Charlotte Woodward,
Lydia Mount, Martha Underhill,
Delia Matthews, Dorothy Matthews,
Catharine C. Paine, Eunice Barker,
Elizabeth W. McClintock, Sarah K. Woods,
Malvina Seymour, Lydia Gild,
Phebe Mosher, Sarah Hoffman,
Catherine Shaw, Elizabeth Leslie,
Deborah Scott, Martha Ridley,
Sarah Hallowell, Rachel D. Bonnel,
Mary McClintock, Betsy Tewksbury,
Mary Gilbert, Rhoda Palmer,
Sophronie Taylor, Margaret Jenkins
Cynthia Davis, Cynthia Fuller,
Mary Martin, Eliza Martin,
P. A. Culvert, Maria E. Wilbur,
Susan R. Doty, Elizabeth D. Smith,
Rebecca Race, Caroline Barker,
Sarah A. Mosher, Ann Porter,
Mary E. Vail, Experience Gibbs,
Lucy Spalding, Antoinette F. Segur,
Lavinia Latham, Hannah J. Latham,
Sarah Smith, Sarah Sisson.
The following are the names of the gentlemen present in favor of the
movement:
Richard P. Hunt, Charles L. Hoskins,
Samuel D. Tilman, Thomas McClintock,
Justin Williams, Saron Phillips,
Elisha Foote, Jacob Chamberlain,
Frederick Douglass, Jonathan Metcalf,
Henry W. Seymour, Nathan J. Milliken,
Henry Seymour, S. E. Woodworth,
David Spalding, Edward F. Underhill,
William G. Barker, George W. Pryor,
Elias J. Doty, Joel Bunker,
John Jones, Isaac Van Tassel,
William S. Dell, Thomas Dell,
James Mott, E. W. Capron,
William Burroughs, Stephen Shear,
Robert Smalldridge Henry Hatley,
Jacob Matthews, Azaliah Schooley.
Many persons signed the Declaration at Rochester, among them Daniel
Anthony, Lucy Read Anthony, Mary S. Anthony, the officers of the
Convention, and others.
* * * * *
CHAPTER VI.
OHIO.
_Salem Convention_, _April 19, 20, 1850_.
LETTER FROM ELIZABETH CADY STANTON.
SENECA FALLS, N. Y., _April 7_.
DEAR MARIANA:--How rejoiced I am to hear that the women of Ohio have
called a Convention preparatory to the remodeling of their State
Constitution. The remodeling of a Constitution, in the nineteenth
century, speaks of progress, of greater freedom, and of more enlarged
views of human rights and duties. It is fitting that, at such a time,
woman, who has so long been the victim of ignorance and injustice,
should at length throw off the trammels of a false education, stand
upright, and with dignity and earnestness manifest a deep and serious
interest in the laws which are to govern her and her country. It needs
no argument to teach woman that she is interested in the laws which
govern her. Suffering has taught her this already. It is important now
that a change is proposed, that she speak, and loudly too. Having
decided to petition for a redress of grievances, the question is, _for
what shall you first petition?_ For the exercise of your right to the
elective franchise--nothing short of this. The grant to you of this
right will secure all others; and the granting of every other right,
whilst this is denied, is a mockery. For instance: What is the right
to property without the right to protect it? The enjoyment of that
right to-day is no security that it will be continued to-morrow, so
long as it is granted to us as a favor, and not claimed by us as a
right. Woman must exercise her right to the elective franchise, and
have her own representatives in our National councils, for two good
reasons:
1st. Men can not represent us. They are so thoroughly educated into
the belief that woman's nature is altogether different from their own,
that they have no idea that she can be governed by the same laws of
mind as themselves. So far from viewing us like themselves, they seem,
from their legislation, to consider us their moral and intellectual
antipodes; for whatever law they find good for themselves, they
forthwith pass its opposite for us, and express the most profound
astonishment if we manifest the least dissatisfaction. For example:
our forefathers, _full of righteous indignation_, pitched King George,
his authority, and his tea-chests, all into the sea, and because,
forsooth, they were forced to pay taxes without being represented in
the British Government. "Taxation without representation," was the
text for many a hot debate in the forests of the New World, and for
many an eloquent oration in the Parliament of the Old. Yet, in forming
our new Government, they have taken from us the very rights which they
fought and bled and, died to secure to themselves. They not only tax
us, but in many cases they strip us of all we inherit, the wages we
earn, the children of our love; and for such grievances we have no
redress in any court of justice this side of Heaven. They tax our
property to build colleges, then pass a special law prohibiting any
woman to enter there. A married woman has no legal existence; she has
no more absolute rights than a slave on a Southern plantation. She
takes the name of her master, holds nothing, owns nothing, can bring
no action in her own name; and the principle on which she and the
slave is educated is the game. The slave is taught what is considered
best for him to know--which is nothing; the woman is taught what is
best for her to know--which is little more than nothing, man being the
umpire in both cases. A woman can not follow out the impulses of her
own mind in her sphere, any more than the slave can in his sphere.
Civilly, socially, and religiously, she is what man chooses her to be,
nothing more or less, and such is the slave. It is impossible for us
to convince man that we think and feel exactly as he does; that we
have the same sense of right and justice, the same love of freedom and
independence. Some men regard us as devils, and some as angels; hence,
one class would shut us up in a certain sphere for fear of the evil we
might do, and the other for fear of the evil that _might be done to
us_; thus, except for the sentiment of the thing, for all the good
that it does us, we might as well be thought the one as the other. But
we ourselves have to do with what we are and what we _shall_ be.
2d. Men can not legislate for us. Our statute books and all past
experience teach us this fact. His laws, where we are concerned, have
been, without one exception, unjust, cruel, and aggressive. Having
denied our identity with himself, he has no data to go upon in judging
of our wants and interests. If we are alike in our mental structure,
then there is no reason why we should not have a voice in making the
laws which govern us; but if we are not alike, most certainly we must
make laws for ourselves, for who else can understand what we need and
desire? If it be admitted in this Government that all men and women
are free and equal, then must we claim a place in our Senate Chamber
and House of Representatives. But if, after all, it be found that even
here we have classes and caste, not "Lords and Commons," but lords and
women, then must we claim a lower House, where our Representatives can
watch the passage of all bills affecting our own welfare, or the good
of our country. Had the women of this country had a voice in the
Government, think you our national escutcheon would have been stained
with the guilt of aggressive warfare upon such weak, defenceless
nations as the Seminoles and Mexicans? Think you we should cherish and
defend, in the heart of our nation, such a wholesale system of piracy,
cruelty, licentiousness, and ignorance as is our slavery? Think you
that relic of barbarism, the gallows, by which the wretched murderer
is sent with blood upon his soul, uncalled for, into the presence of
his God, would be sustained by law? Verily, no, or I mistake woman's
heart, her instinctive love of justice, and mercy, and truth!
Who questions woman's right to vote? We can show our credentials to
the right of self-government; we get ours just where man got his; they
are all Heaven-descended, God-given. It is our duty to assert and
reassert this right, to agitate, discuss, and petition, until our
political equality be fully recognized. Depend upon it, this is the
point to attack, the stronghold of the fortress--_the one_ woman will
find the most difficult to take, _the one_ man will most reluctantly
give up; therefore let us encamp right under its shadow; there spend
all our time, strength, and _moral_ ammunition, year after year, with
perseverance, courage, and decision. Let no sallies of wit or ridicule
at our expense; no soft nonsense of woman's beauty, delicacy, and
refinement; no promise of gold and silver, bank stock, road stock, or
landed estate, seduce us from our position until that one stronghold
totters to the ground. This done, the rest they will surrender _at
discretion_. Then comes equality in Church and State, in the family
circle, and in all our social relations.
The cause of woman is onward. For our encouragement, let us take a
review of what has occurred during the last few years. Not two years
since the women of New York held several Conventions. Their meetings
were well attended by both men and women, and the question of woman's
true position was fully and freely discussed. The proceedings of those
meetings and the Declaration of Sentiments were all published and
scattered far and near. Before that time, the newspapers said but
little on that subject. Immediately after, there was scarcely a
newspaper in the Union that did not notice these Conventions, and
generally in a tone of ridicule. Now you seldom take up a paper that
has not something about woman; but the tone is changing--ridicule is
giving way to reason. Our papers begin to see that this is no subject
for mirth, but one for serious consideration. Our literature is also
assuming a different tone. The heroine of our fashionable novel is now
a being of spirit, of energy, of will, with a conscience, with high
moral principle, great decision, and self-reliance.
Contrast Jane Eyre with any of Bulwer's, Scott's, or Shakespeare's
heroines, and how they all sink into the shade compared with that
noble creation of a woman's genius! The January number of _The
Westminster Review_ contains an article on "Woman," so liberal and
radical, that I sometimes think it must have crept in there by
mistake. Our fashionable lecturers, too, are now, instead of the
time-worn subjects of "Catholicism," "The Crusades," "St. Bernard,"
and "Thomas à Becket," choosing Woman for their theme. True, they do
not treat this new subject with much skill or philosophy; but enough
for us that the great minds of our day are taking this direction. Mr.
Dana, of Boston, lectured on this subject in Philadelphia. Lucretia
Mott followed him, and ably pointed out his sophistry and errors. She
spoke to a large and fashionable audience, and gave general
satisfaction. Dana was too sickly and sentimental for that meridian.
The women of Massachusetts, ever first in all moral movements, have
sent, but a few weeks since, to their Legislature, a petition
demanding their right to vote and hold office in their State. Woman
seems to be preparing herself for a higher and holier destiny. That
same love of liberty which burned in the hearts of our sires, is now
being kindled anew in the daughters of this proud Republic. From the
present state of public sentiment, we have every reason to look
hopefully into the future. I see a brighter, happier day yet to come;
but woman must say how soon the dawn shall be, and whether the light
shall first shine in the East or the West. By her own efforts the
change must come. She must carve out her future destiny with her own
right hand. If she have not the energy to secure for herself her true
position, neither would she have the force or stability to maintain
it, if placed there by another. Farewell!
Yours sincerely,
E. C. STANTON.
LETTER FROM LUCRETIA MOTT.
DEAR FRIENDS:--The call for this Convention, so numerously signed, is
indeed gratifying, and gives hope of a large attendance. The letter of
invitation was duly received, and I need scarcely say how gladly I
would be present if in my power. Engagements in another direction, as
well as the difficulty to travel at this season of the year, will
prevent my availing myself of so great a privilege. You will not,
however, be at a loss for speakers in your midst, for among the
signers to the call are the names of many whose hearts "believe unto
righteousness"; out of their abundance, therefore, the mouth will make
"confession unto salvation."
The wrongs of woman have too long slumbered. They now begin to cry for
redress. Let them be clearly pointed oat in your Convention; and then,
not _ask_ as _favor_, but _demand_ as _right_, that every civil and
ecclesiastical obstacle be removed out of the way.
Rights are not dependent upon equality of mind; nor do we admit
inferiority, leaving that question to be settled by future
developments, when a fair opportunity shall be given for the equal
cultivation of the intellect, and the stronger powers of the mind
shall be called into action.
If, in accordance with your call, you ascertain "the bearing which the
circumscribed sphere of woman has on the great political and social
evils that curse and desolate the land," you will not have come
together in vain.
May you, indeed, "gain strength" by your contest with "difficulty!"
May the whole armor of "Right, Truth, and Reason" be yours; Then will
the influence of the Convention be felt in the assembled wisdom of
_men_ which is to follow; and the good results, as well as your
example, will ultimately rouse other States to action in this most
important cause.
I herewith forward to you a "Discourse on Woman," which, though
brought out by local circumstances, may yet contain principles of
universal application.
Wishing you every success in your noble effort,
I am yours, for woman's redemption and consequent elevation,
LUCRETIA MOTT.
PHILADELPHIA, _4th mo., 13, 1850_.
LETTER FROM LUCY STONE.
_For the Woman's Rights Convention:_
DEAR FRIENDS:--The friends of human freedom in Massachusetts rejoice
that a Woman's Rights Convention is to be held in Ohio. We hail it as
a sign of progress, and deem it especially fitting that such a
Convention should be held _now_, when a State Constitution is to be
formed.
It is easier, when the old is destroyed, to build the _new_ right,
than to right it _after_ it is built.
The statute books of every State in the Union are disgraced by an
article which limits the right to the elective franchise to "male
citizens of twenty-one years of age and upwards," thus excluding
one-half the population of the country from all political influence,
subjecting woman to laws in the making of which she has neither vote
nor voice. The lowest drunkard may come up from wallowing in the
gutter, and, covered with filth, _reel_ up to the ballot-box and
deposit his vote, and his right to do so is not questioned. The
meanest foreigner who comes to our shores, who can not speak his
mother-tongue correctly, has secured for him the right of suffrage.
The negro, crushed and degraded, as if he were not a brother man, made
the lowest of the law, even he, in some of the States, can vote; but
woman, in every State, is politically plunged in a degradation lower
than _his_ lowest depths.
Woman is taxed under laws made by those who profess to believe that
taxation and representation are inseparable, while, in the use and
imposition of the taxes, as in representation, she is absolutely
without influence. Should she hint that the profession and practice do
not agree, she is gravely told that "Women should not talk politics."
In most of the States the married woman loses, by her marriage, the
control of her person and the right of property, and, if she is a
mother, the right to her children also: while she secures what the
town paupers have--the right to be maintained. The legal disabilities
under which women labor have no end: I will not attempt to enumerate
them. Let the earnest women who speak in your Convention enter into
the detail of this thing, nor stop to "patch fig-leaves for the naked
truth," but "before all Israel and the sun," expose the atrocities of
the laws relative to women, until the ears of those who hear shall
tingle. So that the men who meet in Convention to form the new
Constitution for Ohio, shall, for very shame's sake, make haste to put
away the last remnant of the barbarism which your statute book (in
common with other States) retains in its inequality and injustice to
woman. We know too well the stern reform spirit of those who have
called this Woman's Eights Convention, to doubt for a moment that
what can be done by you to secure equal rights for all, will be done.
Massachusetts _ought_ to have taken the lead in the work you are now
doing, but if she chooses to linger, let her young sisters of the West
set her a worthy example; and if the "Pilgrim spirit is not dead,"
_we'll pledge Massachusetts to follow her_.
Yours, for Justice and Equal Rights,
LUCY STONE.
SOUTHAMPTON, _April 10, 1850_.
LETTER FROM SARAH PUGH
"Lawrencian Villa is extremely beautiful; the grounds full of
shrubbery and flowers; the splendid dairy, the green-houses and
conservatories--four or five of them appropriated to fruit, flowers,
and rare plants in large numbers--the whole presenting great taste and
skill. Mrs. Lawrence's improvements are not completed; she is
extending her shrubbery and walks. She is undoubtedly one of the most
skillful cultivators and florists in the country (a country abounding
with them), and carries off more prizes at the horticultural
exhibitions than almost any one else. I am told Mr. Lawrence is an
eminent surgeon in London, and that the whole of the country place is
under Mrs. Lawrence's management."--_Colman's Letters from Europe_.
DEAR FRIENDS:--As I finished reading this paragraph, your letter,
inviting me to your Convention, to be held on the 19th inst., was
received. I can not, as I gladly would, be with you. That my mite may
not be wanting in aid of the cause, taking the above extract for my
text, I would add as a commentary, that, according to the laws and
usages of a large portion of Christendom, in the event of the death of
Mr. Lawrence, Mrs. Lawrence, the one whose skill and taste has formed
this elegant establishment, would be left by the will of Mr. Lawrence
an income from a part of the estate, and the "privilege" of occupying
"during her natural life," two or three rooms in the large mansion,
but powerless as a stranger in the beautiful demesne made valuable by
her industry and skill! This is not "supposing" a case, only in the
application of it to Mrs. L. In this country, where, as a general
rule, women take their full share of the labor and responsibility of a
household, and thus by their constant assiduity contribute their full
proportion to the means by which a comfortable competence is secured,
do we not see the disposal of it assumed as a matter of right by the
male partner of the firm?
That women contribute their full share in the building-up of an estate
by _labor_--the only rightful mode--no one that is capable of taking
an enlightened view of the prevailing condition of things will deny.
True, she may not wield the axe or guide the plough, braced by the
invigorating air, for hers is the wearisome task, and the one which
requires the most skill to attend to the complicated machinery within
doors; she may not handle the awl or the plane for "ten hours a day,"
with but a small tax on the intellectual, but by her _perpetual_
oversight and unvarying labor she may make one dollar, two, or more.
This is one form of the many grievances to which women are subjected,
all arising from the false assumption of their inferiority by nature
and by the "ordination of Providence." May your Convention aid in
dispelling this delusion from the minds of men, but chiefly from the
minds of women; for to themselves, in a great degree, is their
degraded position owing. Rouse them to a belief in their natural
equality, and to a desire to sustain it by cultivation of their
noblest powers.
There is much that crowds on me for utterance, but there will be those
among you that will be able to give a fuller and fitter expression to
the thoughts that cluster around this all-important question, the
"Rights and Duties of Women"--her rights equal to those of men--she
alone the judge of her duties.
May your Convention hasten the day when these rights shall be
acknowledged as equal to those of man and independent of him, and when
men and women shall equally co-operate for the good of all mankind.
With great interest, your friend,
SARAH PUGH.
_To the Ohio Convention of Women, Phila., April 15, 1850._
RESOLUTIONS OF THE SALEM (OHIO) CONVENTION, 1850.
6th. _Resolved_, That in those laws which confer on man the power to
control the property and person of woman, and to remove from her at
will the children of her affection, we recognize only the modified
code of the slave plantation; and that thus we are brought more nearly
in sympathy with the suffering slave, who is despoiled of all his
rights.
16th. _Resolved_, That we regard those women who content themselves
with an idle, aimless life, as involved in the guilt as well as the
suffering of their own oppression; and that we hold those who go forth
into the world, in the face of the frowns and the sneers of the
public, to fill larger spheres of labor, as the truest preachers of
the cause of Woman's Rights.
19th. _Resolved_, That, as woman is not permitted to hold office, nor
have any voice in the Government, she should not be compelled to pay
taxes out of her scanty wages to support men who get eight dollars a
day for _taking_ the right to _themselves_ to enact laws _for_ her.
20th. _Resolved_, That we, the women of Ohio, will hereafter meet
annually in Convention, to consult upon and adopt measures for the
removal of the various disabilities--political, social, religious,
legal, and pecuniary--to which women, as a class, are subjected, and
from which results so much misery, degradation, and crime.
After the Akron Convention in 1851, _The New York Sunday Mercury_
published a woodcut covering a whole page, representing the
Convention. Every woman in coat and breeches and high-heeled boots,
sitting cross-legged smoking cigars (truly manly arguments for equal
political rights). There was not a Bloomer present.
ELIZABETH CADY STANTON.
_To the Woman's Convention, held at Akron, Ohio, May 25, 1851:_
DEAR FRIENDS:--It would give me great pleasure to accept your
invitation to attend the Convention, but as circumstances forbid my
being present with you, allow me, in addressing you by letter, to
touch on those points of this great question which have, of late, much
occupied my thoughts. It is often said to us tauntingly, "Well, you
have held Conventions, you have speechified and resolved, protested
and appealed, declared and petitioned, and now, what next? Why do you
not do something?" I have as often heard the reply, "We know not what
to do."
Having for some years rehearsed to the unjust judge our grievances,
our legal and political disabilities and social wrongs, let us glance
at what we may do, at the various rights of which we may, even now,
quietly take possession. True, our right to vote we can not exercise
until our State Constitutions are remodelled; but we can petition our
legislators every session, and plead our cause before them. We can
make a manifestation by going to the polls, at each returning
election, bearing banners, with inscriptions thereon of great
sentiments handed down to us by our revolutionary fathers--such as,
"No Taxation without Representation," "No just Government can be
formed without the consent of the Governed," etc. We can refuse to pay
all taxes, and, like the English dissenters, suffer our goods to be
seized and sold, if need be. Such manifestations would appeal to a
class of minds that now take no note of our Conventions or their
proceedings; who never dream, even, that woman thinks herself
defrauded of a single right. The trades and professions are all open
to us; let us quietly enter and make ourselves, if not rich and
famous, at least independent and respectable. Many of them are quite
proper to woman, and some peculiarly so. As merchants, postmasters,
and silversmiths, teachers, preachers, and physicians, woman has
already proved herself fully competent. Who so well fitted to fill the
pulpits of our day as woman? All admit her superior to man in the
affections, high moral sentiments, and religious enthusiasm; and so
long as our popular theology and reason are at loggerheads, we have no
need of acute metaphysicians or skillful logicians in our pulpits. We
want those who can make the most effective appeals to our
imaginations, our hopes and fears.
Again, as physicians. How desirable are educated women in this
profession! Give her knowledge commensurate with her natural
qualifications, and there is no position woman could assume that would
be so pre-eminently useful to her race at large, and her own sex in
particular, as that of ministering angel to the sick and afflicted; an
angel, not capable of sympathy merely, but armed with the power to
relieve suffering and prevent disease. The science of Obstetrics is a
branch of the profession which should be monopolized by woman. The
fact that it is now almost wholly in the hands of the male
practitioner, is an outrage on common decency that nothing but the
tyrant _custom_ can excuse. "From the earliest history down to 1568,
it was practiced by women. The distinguished individual first to make
the innovation on this ancient, time-sanctified custom, was no less a
personage than a court prostitute, the Duchess of Villiers, a favorite
mistress of Louis XIV. of France." This is a formidable evil, and
productive of much immorality, misery, and crime. But now that some
colleges are open to woman, and the "Female Medical College of
Pennsylvania" has been established for our sex exclusively, I hope
this custom may be abolished as speedily as possible, for no excuse
can be found for its continuance, in the want of knowledge and skill
in our own sex. It seems to me, the existence of this custom argues a
much greater want of delicacy and refinement in woman, than would the
practice of the profession by her in all its various branches.
But the great work before us is the education of those just coming on
the stage of action. Begin with the girls of _to-day_, and in twenty
years we can revolutionize this nation. The childhood of woman must be
free and untrammeled. The girl must be allowed to romp and play,
climb, skate, and swim; her clothing must be more like that of the
boy--strong, loose-fitting garments, thick boots, etc., that she may
be out at all times, and enter freely into all kinds of sports. Teach
her to go alone, by night and day, if need be, on the lonely highway,
or through the busy streets of the crowded metropolis. The manner in
which all courage and self-reliance is educated _out_ of the girl, her
path portrayed with dangers and difficulties that never exist, is
melancholy indeed. Better, far, suffer occasional insults or die
outright, than live the life of a _coward_, or never move without a
protector. The best protector any woman can have, one that will serve
her at all times and in all places, is _courage_; this she must get by
her own experience, and experience comes by exposure. Let the girl be
thoroughly developed in body and soul, not modeled, like a piece of
clay, after some artificial specimen of humanity, with a body like
some plate in Godey's book of fashion, and a mind after the type of
Father Gregory's pattern daughters, loaded down with the traditions,
proprieties, and sentimentalities of generations of silly mothers and
grandmothers, but left free to be, to grow, to feel, to think, to act.
Development is one thing, that system of cramping, restraining,
torturing, perverting, and mystifying, called education, is quite
another. We have had women enough befooled under the one system, pray
let us try the other. The girl must early be impressed with the idea
that she is to be "a hand, not a mouth"; a worker, and not a drone, in
the great hive of human activity. Like the boy, she must be taught to
look forward to a life of self-dependence, and early prepare herself
for some trade or profession. Woman has relied heretofore too entirely
for her support on the _needle_--that one-eyed demon of destruction
that slays its thousands annually; that evil genius of our sex, which,
in spite of all our devotion, will never make us healthy, wealthy, or
wise.
Teach the girl it is no part of her life to cater to the prejudices of
those around her. Make her independent of public sentiment, by showing
her how worthless and rotten a thing it is. It is a settled axiom with
me, after much examination and reflection, that public sentiment is
false on every subject. Yet what a tyrant it is over us all, woman
especially, whose very life is to please, whose highest ambition is to
be approved. But once outrage this tyrant, place yourself beyond his
jurisdiction, taste the joy of free thought and action, and how
powerless is his rule over you! his sceptre lies broken at your feet;
his very babblings of condemnation are sweet music in your ears; his
darkening frown is sunshine to your heart, for they tell of your
triumph and his discomfort. Think you, women _thus_ educated would
long remain the weak, dependent beings we now find them? By no means.
Depend upon it, they would soon settle for themselves this whole
question of Woman's Rights. As educated capitalists and skillful
laborers, they would not be long in finding their true level in
political and social life.
E. C. STANTON.
SENECA FALLS, _May 1861._
RESOLUTIONS OF THE MASSILON (OHIO) CONVENTION, 1852.
1st. _Resolved_, That in the proposition affirmed by the nation to be
self-evidently true, that "all men are created equal," the word "MEN"
is a general term, including the whole race, without distinction of
sex.
2d. _Resolved_, That this equality of the sexes must extend, and does
extend, to rights personal, social, legal, political, industrial, and
religious, including, of course, representation in the Government,
the elective franchise, free choice in occupations, and an impartial
distribution of the reward of effort; and in reference to all these
particulars, woman has the same right to choose _her_ sphere of
action, as man to choose _his_.
3d. _Resolved_, That since every human being has an individual sphere,
and that is the largest he or she can fill, no one has the right to
determine the proper sphere of another.
4th. _Resolved_, That the assertion of these rights for woman, equally
with man, involves the doctrine that she, equally with him, should be
_protected in their exercise_.
5th. _Resolved_, That we do not believe any legal or political
restriction necessary to preserve the distinctive character of woman,
and that in demanding for women equality of rights with their fathers,
husbands, brothers, and sons, we neither deny that distinctive
character, nor wish them to avoid any duty, or to lay aside that
feminine delicacy which legitimately belongs to them as mothers,
wives, sisters, and daughters.
6th. _Resolved_, That to perfect the marriage union and provide for
the inevitable vicissitudes of life, the individuality of both parties
should be equally and distinctively recognised by the parties
themselves, and by the laws of the land; and, therefore, justice and
the highest regard for the interests of society require that our laws
be so amended, that married women may be permitted to conduct business
on their own account; to acquire, hold, invest, and dispose of
property in their own separate and individual right, subject to all
corresponding and appropriate obligations.
7th. _Resolved_, That the clause of the Constitution of the State of
Ohio, which declares that "all men have the right of acquiring and
possessing property," is violated by the judicial doctrine that the
labor of the wife is the property of the husband.
8th. _Resolved_, That in the general scantiness of compensation of
woman's labor, the restrictions imposed by custom and public opinion
upon her choice of employments, and her opportunities of earning
money, and the laws and social usages which regulate the distribution
of property as between men and women, have produced a pecuniary
dependence of woman upon man, widely and deeply injurious in many
ways; and not the least of all in too often perverting marriage, which
should be a holy relation growing out of spiritual affinities, into a
mere bargain and sale--a means to woman of securing a subsistence and
a home, and to man of obtaining a kitchen drudge or a parlor ornament.
9th. _Resolved_, That sacred and inestimable in value as are the
rights which we assert for woman, their possession and exercise are
not the ultimate end we aim at; for rights are not ends, but only
means to ends, implying duties, and are to be demanded in order that
duties may be performed.
10th. _Resolved_, That God, in constituting woman the mother of
mankind, made her a living Providence, to produce, nourish, guard, and
govern His best and noblest work from helpless infancy to adult years.
Having endowed her with faculties ample, but no more than sufficient,
for the performance of her great work, He requires of her, as
essentially necessary to its performance, the full development of
those faculties.
11th. _Resolved_, That we do not charge woman's deprivation of her
rights upon man alone, for woman also has contributed to this result;
and as both have sinned together, we call on both to repent together,
that the wrong done by both may, by the united exertions of both, be
undone.
FIFTH NATIONAL WOMAN'S RIGHTS CONVENTION, CLEVELAND, OHIO, 1853.
1st. _Resolved_, That by Human Rights, we mean natural Rights, in
contradistinction to conventional usages, and that because Woman is a
Human being, she, _therefore_, has Human Rights.
2d. _Resolved_, because woman is a human being, and man is no more,
she has, by virtue of her constitutional nature, equal rights with
man; and that state of society must necessarily be wrong which does
not, in its usages and institutions, afford equal opportunities for
the enjoyment and protection of these Rights.
4th. _Resolved_, the common law, by giving the husband the custody of
the wife's person, does virtually place her on a level with criminals,
lunatics, and fools, since these are the only classes of adult persons
over which the law-makers have thought it necessary to place keepers.
5th. _Resolved_, That if it be true, in the language of John C.
Calhoun, that "he who digs the money out of the soil, has a right to
it against the universe," then the law which gives to the husband the
power to use and control the earnings of the wife, makes robbery
legal, and is as mean as it is unjust.
6th. _Resolved_, That woman will soonest free herself from the legal
disabilities she now suffers, by securing the right to the elective
franchise, thus becoming herself a lawmaker; and that to this end we
will petition our respective State Legislatures to call conventions to
amend their Constitutions, so that the right to the elective franchise
shall not be limited by the word "male."
7th. _Resolved_, That there is neither justice nor sound policy in the
present arrangements of society, restricting women to so comparatively
a narrow range of employments; excluding them from those which are
most lucrative; and even in those to which they are admitted, awarding
them a compensation less, generally by one-half or two-thirds, than is
paid to men for an equal amount of service rendered.
8th. _Resolved_, That, although the question of the intellectual
strength and attainments of woman has nothing to do with the
settlement of their rights, yet in reply to the oft-repeated inquiry,
"Have women, by nature, the same force of intellect with men?" we will
reply, that this inquiry can never be answered till women shall have
such training as shall give their physical and intellectual powers as
full opportunities for development, by being as heavily taxed and all
their resources as fully called forth, as are now those of man.
Mr. Garrison, on being called for, replied that the resolutions would
do for his speech to-night, and read as follows:
1st. _Resolved_, That the natural rights of one human being, are those
of every other, in all cases equally sacred and inalienable; hence the
boasted "Rights of Man," about which we hear so much, are simply the
"Rights of Woman," of which we hear so little; or, in other words,
they are the Rights of Humanity, neither affected by, nor dependent
upon, sex or condition.
2d. _Resolved_, That those who deride the claims of woman to a full
recognition of her civil rights and political equality, exhibit the
spirit which tyrants and usurpers have displayed in all ages toward
the mass of mankind; strike at the foundation of all truly free and
equitable government; contend for a sexual aristocracy, which is as
irrational and unjust in principle, as that of wealth and hereditary
descent, and show their appreciation of liberty to be wholly one-sided
and supremely selfish.
3d. _Resolved_, That for the men of this land to claim for themselves
the elective franchise, and the right to choose their own rulers and
enact their own laws, as essential to their freedom, safety, and
welfare, and then to deprive all the women of all these safeguards,
solely on the ground of a difference of sex, is to evince the pride of
self-esteem, the meanness of usurpation, and the folly of a
self-assumed superiority.
4th. _Resolved_, That woman, as well as man, has a right to the
highest mental and physical development; to the most ample educational
advantages; to the occupancy of whatever position she can reach, in
Church and State, in science and art, in poetry and music, in painting
and sculpture, in civil jurisprudence and political economy, and in
all the varied departments of human industry, enterprise, and skill;
to the elective franchise, and to a voice in the administration of
justice, and the passage of laws for the general welfare.
5th. _Resolved_, That to pretend that the granting of these claims
would tend to make woman less amiable and attractive, less regardful
of her peculiar duties and obligations as wife and mother, a wanderer
from her proper sphere, bringing confusion into domestic life, and
strife into the public assembly, is the cant of Papal Rome as to the
discordant and infidel tendencies of the right of private judgment in
matters of faith; is the outcry of legitimacy as to the incapacity of
the people to govern themselves; is the false allegations which
selfish and timid conservatism is ever making against every new
measure of reform, and has no foundation in reason, experience, fact,
or philosophy.
6th. _Resolved_, That the consequences arising from the exclusion of
woman from the possession and exercise of her natural rights and the
cultivation of her mental faculties, have been calamitous to the whole
human race; making her servile, dependent, unwomanly; the victim of a
false gallantry on the one hand, and of tyrannous subjection on the
other; obstructing her mental growth, crippling her physical
development, and incapacitating her for general usefulness; and thus
inflicting an injury upon all born of woman, and cultivating in man a
lordly and arrogant spirit, a love of dominion, a disposition to
lightly regard her comfort and happiness, all which have been indulged
to a fearful extent, to the curse of his own soul and the desecration
of her nature.
7th. _Resolved_, That so long as the most ignorant, degraded, and
worthless men are freely admitted to the ballot-box, and practically
acknowledged to be competent to determine who shall be in office and
how the Government shall be administered, it is preposterous to
pretend that women are not qualified to use the elective franchise,
and that they are fit only to be recognized, politically speaking, as
_non compos mentis_.
REBECCA M. SANFORD TO THE CLEVELAND CONVENTION.
NEW LONDON, HURON CO., O., _October 3, 1853_.
FRIENDS OF REFORM:--Not being present at the Convention, I can but
express my interest by a few lines.
The mere question of woman's civil rights is not a deep one, for it is
a natural one, and closely follows her mission in this world. She was
not created anything else than a helpmeet to man, and where to limit
that assistance there is no rule in nature, except her physical
functions; _there is a limit in law_, but whether the law has the
right to place her where she is, is the question. It must be conceded
that the law has drawn too great an inference from her ancient social
attitude, and from present custom and prejudice. But has the law the
right to be prejudiced--ought it not to stand pure, and noble, and
magnanimous, founded on the natural rights of the human soul? The law
grants woman protection; it also grants negroes, animals, and property
protection in their certain spheres. It gives no more to woman.
Woman's sphere is her capability of performing her duty to herself,
her family, and to society, taking self-preservation as the first law
of her nature. At present she does not fully act in her sphere. The
lid of the ballot-box shuts out more than one-half of her duty to
herself, family, and society. The eye of the law is diseased, and
woman must be made assistant occulist, to render that eye pure and
single-sighted. Let not this Convention close until some way and means
are decided upon to secure woman's vote at the polls. The propriety or
impropriety of the same place and box and other objections, can be
disposed of in a short time, as occasion requires.
This done, the monster evils of society, Intemperance, etc., can be
handled with ungloved hands.
At this time, as far as custom, made potent by law, permits woman to
lead her sons on in the journey of life, she keeps them pure and
unspotted from the world; but where she leaves off, hell's avenues are
opened, and man too often leads them through.
Allow me, as one who has been obliged to look upon our Conventions
from many points of observation, and to note their effects upon the
community by actual communication with that community; as one who
feels identified in principle and purpose, to suggest perfect unity
and but few resolutions, and those well-digested and fully acted upon.
Beware of _ultraisms_. Give a high tone and elevation to your
deliberations; bring out the true, the beautiful, the divine of your
own souls, to meet the true, the grand, the divine inspirations of
this agitation.
One thing else I would strongly recommend. Let no gentleman be
appointed to office in the Convention, or by the Convention. You will
then secure yourselves from outside coarseness, and secure to
yourselves greater respect from the public at large. If you do not
come to this _now_, you will be obliged to come to it before you
receive the credit for a _wisdom_ you justly deserve.
May God guide you and bless you.
Yours, strong in the right,
REBECCA M. SANFORD.
SIXTH NATIONAL WOMAN'S RIGHTS CONVENTION, CINCINNATI, OHIO, 1856.
OFFICERS:
_President_--Martha C. Wright, New York.
_Vice-Presidents_--Ernestine L. Rose, New York; James Mott,
Pennsylvania; Frances D. Gage, Missouri; Hannah Tracy Cutler, Emily
Robinson, Ohio; Euphemia Cochrain, Michigan; Paulina Wright Davis,
Rhode Island.
_Business Committee_--Lucy Stone Blackwell, Ohio; Lucretia Mott,
Pennsylvania; Josephine S. Griffing, Adelaide Swift, Henry B.
Blackwell, Ohio.
_Secretaries_--Rebecca Plumly, Pennsylvania; Wm. Henry Smith, editor
of _The Type of the Times_.
RESOLUTIONS.
WHEREAS, All men are created equal and endowed with certain
inalienable rights, and that among these are life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness; and,
WHEREAS, To secure these rights governments are instituted among them,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; therefore
_Resolved_, That the legislators of these United States are
self-convicted of the grossest injustice and of inconsistency with
their own admitted principles, while they refuse these rights to
women.
_Resolved_, That taxation without representation is tyranny.
_Resolved_, That in accordance with an universally admitted and
self-evident truth, woman should possess the elective franchise, as a
basis of all legal and political rights, as the only effective
protection of their interests, as a remedy against present oppression,
and as a school for character.
_Resolved_, That the right to acquire knowledge should be limited only
by the capacity of the individual; and, therefore, we deprecate,
especially, that social usage, inexorable as a written statute, which
excludes woman from all our best colleges, universities, schools of
law, medicine, and divinity, and that we demand equal scholastic
advantages for our daughters and our sons; that while only three out
of the one hundred and fifty American colleges are open to women, and
while every avenue to scientific and professional culture is closed
against her, it is unfair to judge woman by the same intellectual
standard as man, and impossible to define a limit to her capacities
and talents.
_Resolved_, That the inadequate compensation which the labor of women
now commands, is the source of inexpressible individual misery and
social demoralization; that inasmuch as the law of supply and demand
will always regulate the remuneration of labor, the diversity of
female employments and her free access to every branch of business,
are indispensable to the virtue, happiness, and well-being of society.
* * * * *
CHAPTER VIII.
MASSACHUSETTS.
_First Worcester Convention, 1850._
NAMES OF PERSONS WHO SIGNED THE CALL OF 1850.
MASSACHUSETTS.
Lucy Stone, B. S. Treanor, Dr. Seth Rogers,
Wm. H. Channing, Mary M. Brooks, Eliza F. Taft,
Harriot K. Hunt, T. W. Higginson, Dr. A. C. Taft,
A. Bronson Alcott, Mary E. Higginson, Charles K. Whipple,
Nathaniel Barney, Emily Winslow, Mary Bullard,
Eliza Barney, R. Waldo Emerson, Emma C. Goodwin,
Wendell Phillips, William L. Garrison, Abby Price,
Ann Greene Phillips, Helen E. Garrison, Thankful Southwick,
Adin Ballou, Charles F. Hovey, Eliza J. Kenney,
Anna Q. T. Parsons, Sarah Earle Louisa M. Sewall,
Mary H. L. Cabot, Abby K. Foster Sarah Southwick.
RHODE ISLAND.
Sarah H. Whitman, Sarah Brown, George Clarke,
Thomas Davis, Elizabeth B. Chace, Mary Adams,
Paulina W. Davis, Mary Clarke, George Adams.
Joseph A. Barker, John L. Clarke,
NEW YORK
Gerrit Smith, Charlotte G. Coffin, Joseph Savage,
Nancy Smith, Mary G. Taber, L. N. Fowler,
Elizabeth C. Stanton, Elizabeth S. Miller, Lydia Fowler,
Catharine Wilkinson, Elizabeth Russell, Sarah Smith,
Samuel J. May, Stephen Smith, Charles D. Miller.
Charlotte C. May, Rosa Smith,
PENNSYLVANIA.
William Elder, Jane G. Swisshelm, Myra Townsend,
Sarah Elder, Charlotte Darlington, Mary Grew,
Sarah Tyndale, Simon Barnard, Sarah Lewis,
Warner Justice, Lucretia Mott, Sarah Pugh,
Huldah Justice, James Mott, Hannah Darlington,
William Swisshelm, W. S. Pierce, Sarah D. Barnard.
MARYLAND.
Mrs. Eliza Stewart.
OHIO.
Elizabeth Wilson, Mary Cowles, Benjamin S. Jones,
Mary A. Johnson, Maria L. Giddings, Lucius A. Hine,
Oliver Johnson, Jane Elizabeth Jones, Sylvia Cornell.
RESOLUTIONS.
Wendell Phillips presented, from the Business Committee, the following
resolutions:
_Resolved_, That every human being of full age, and resident for a
proper length of time on the soil of the nation, who is required to
obey law, is entitled to a voice in its enactments; that every such
person, whose property or labor is taxed for the support of the
government, is entitled to a direct share in such government;
therefore,
_Resolved_, That women are clearly entitled to the right of suffrage,
and to be considered eligible to office; the omission to demand which
on her part, is a palpable recreancy to duty, and the denial of which
is a gross usurpation, on the part of man, no longer to be endured;
and that every party which claims to represent the humanity,
civilization, and progress of the age, is bound to inscribe on its
banners, "Equality before the law, without distinction of sex or
color."
_Resolved_, That political rights acknowledge no sex, and, therefore,
the word "male" should be stricken from every State Constitution.
_Resolved_, That the laws of property, as affecting married parties,
demand a thorough revisal, so that all rights may be equal between
them; that the wife may have, during life, an equal control over the
property gained by their mutual toil and sacrifices, be heir to her
husband precisely to the same extent that he is heir to her, and
entitled at her death to dispose by will of the same share of the
joint property as he is.
_Resolved_, That since the prospect of honorable and useful
employment, in after life, for the faculties we are laboring to
discipline, is the keenest stimulus to fidelity in the use of
educational advantages, and since the best education is what we give
ourselves in the struggles, employments, and discipline of life;
therefore, it is impossible that woman should make full use of the
instruction already accorded to her, or that her career should do
justice to her faculties, until the avenues to the various civil and
professional employments are thrown open to arouse her ambition and
call forth all her nature.
_Resolved_, That every effort to educate woman, until you accord to
her her rights, and arouse her conscience by the weight of her
responsibilities, is futile, and a waste of labor.
_Resolved_, That the cause we have met to advocate--the claim for
woman of all her natural and civil rights--bids us remember the two
millions of slave women at the South, the most grossly wronged and
foully outraged of all women; and in every effort for an improvement
in our civilization, we will bear in our heart of hearts the memory of
the trampled womanhood of the plantation, and omit no effort to raise
it to a share in the rights we claim for ourselves.
FROM MILDRED A. SPOFORD.
PAULINA WRIGHT DAVIS.--_Dear Madam_:--I take the liberty of enclosing
you an extract from a long epistle I have just received from Helene
Marie Weber. It speaks of matter interesting to us all, and I ask of
you the favor to submit it to the Convention. Miss Weber, as a
literary character, stands in the front rank of essayists in France.
She has labored zealously in behalf of her sex, as her numerous tracts
on subjects of reform bear testimony. No writer of the present age,
perhaps, has done more to exalt woman than she has by her powerful
essays. My personal knowledge of Miss Weber enables me to speak
confidently of her private character. It is utterly false that she is
a masculine woman. Her deportment is strictly lady-like, modest, and
unassuming, and her name is beyond reproach. She is a Protestant of
the Lutheran order; exemplary in all her religious duties, and
unaffectedly pious and benevolent.
She is, as you are doubtless aware, a practical agriculturist. The
entire business of her farm is conducted by herself, and she has been
eminently successful. She has proved the capacity of woman for
business pursuits. Her success in this vocation is a practical
argument worth a thousand theories. I find no difficulty with her
because she dresses like a man. Her dress has not changed her nature.
Those who censure her for abandoning the female dress, make up their
judgment without proper reflection. She has violated no custom of her
own country, and has merely acted according to the honest dictates of
her mind--"_Honi soit qui mal y pense._"
Miss Weber is now about twenty-five years of age. She is a ripe
scholar, and has a perfect command of the English language. I am
decidedly of the opinion that her visit among us will do a vast deal
of good to our cause, and we ought to give her a hearty welcome when
she comes. I can assure our most rigid friends that they will all be
reconciled to her attire on five minutes' acquaintance....
I remain, dear madam, yours sincerely,
MILDRED A. SPOFORD.
_Extract from a Letter of_ H. M. WEBER.
LA PELOUSE, _August 8, 1850_.
.... Circumstances place it out of my power to visit America during
the present season.... The newspapers, both of England and America,
have done me great injustice. While they have described my apparel
with the minute accuracy of professional tailors, they have seen fit
to charge me with a disposition to undervalue the female sex, and to
identify myself with the other. Such calumnies are annoying to me. I
have never wished to be an Iphis--never for a moment affected to be
anything but a woman. I do not think any one ever mistook me for a
man, unless it may have been some stranger who slightly glanced at me
while passing along the street or the highway. I adopted male attire
as a measure of convenience in my business, and not through any wish
to appear eccentric or to pass for one of the male sex; and it has
ever been my rule to dress with the least possible ostentation
consistent with due neatness. I have never had cause to regret my
adoption of male attire, and never expect to return to a female
toilette. I am fully aware, however, that my dress will probably
prejudice the great body of our friends in America against me, while
present impressions on that subject exist; and it was with the view of
allaying this feeling that I wished to address the assembly at
Worcester.
By this means I think I could satisfy any liberal-minded person, of
either sex, that there is no moral or political principle involved in
this question, and that a woman may, if she like, dress in male
habiliments without injury to herself or others.... Those who suppose
that woman can be "the political, social, pecuniary, religious equal
of man" without conforming to his dress, deceive themselves, and
mislead others who have no minds of their own. While the superiority
of the male dress for all purposes of business and recreation is
conceded, it is absurd to argue that we should not avail ourselves of
its advantages.
There are no well-founded objections to women dressing, as we term it,
_en cavalier_. The only two I ever heard are these: "To do so is
contrary to law, both human and divine," and, "The male dress is
_outre_ and less graceful than our own." These objections may be
answered in a few words. The human statutes on this subject should be
repealed, as they surely will be in due time, or be regarded as they
now are in European States--as dead letters. The practice is not
contrary to divine law. The alleged prohibition, as contained in the
fifth book of Moses, had reference to a religious custom of the
Amorites, and was limited in its application to the children of
Israel, who had by Divine command dispossessed that pagan nation of
their territory, and destroyed their temples of idolatrous worship.
The context will show two other prohibitions on this subject. In the
11th and 12th verses of the same chapter (Deut, xxii.) it is forbidden
to "wear garments of divers sorts, as of woolen and linen together,"
and to wear fringes on the vesture. These prohibitions are all of the
same character, and had an obvious reference to the ceremonies used by
the pagans in their worship of idols. If one of these prohibitions be
binding upon nations of the present age, the others are not less so.
To the second objection, it may be said that beauty and grace in
matters of dress are determined by no rules, and if the fashion of
men's clothes be awkward it can easily be improved.
Women who prefer the gown should, of course, consult their own
pleasure by continuing to wear it; while those whose preference is a
male dress, ought not to be blamed for adopting it. I close this
homily by recording my prediction, that in ten years male attire will
be generally worn by the women of most civilized countries, and that
it will precede the consummation of many great measures which are
deemed to be of paramount importance. I hope to visit America next
year. Thanks to the invention of steam, a voyage across the ocean is
now a mere _bagatelle_. I have not much of the spirit of travel
remaining. My agricultural pursuits confine me at home nearly the
whole year, but my captivity is a delightful one.
Affectionately yours,
H. M. WEBER.
William Henry Channing, from the Business Committee, suggested a plan
for organization, and the principles which should govern the movement
for establishing woman's co-sovereignty with man, and reported the
following:
_Resolved_, That as women alone can learn by experience and prove by
works, what is their rightful sphere of duty, we recommend, as _next
steps_, that they should demand and secure:
1st. _Education_ in primary and high-schools, universities, medical,
legal, and theological institutions, as comprehensive and exact as
their abilities prompt them to seek and their capabilities fit them to
receive.
2d. _Partnership_ in the labors, gains, risks, and remunerations of
productive industry, with such limits only as are assigned by taste,
intuitive judgment, or their measure of spiritual and physical vigor,
as tested by experiment.
3d. A _co-equal share_ in the formation and administration of law,
Municipal, State, and National, through legislative assemblies,
courts, and executive offices.
4th. _Such unions_ as may become the guardians of pure morals and
honorable manners--a high court of appeal in cases of outrage which
can not be, and are not touched by civil or ecclesiastical
organizations, as at present existing, and a medium for expressing the
highest views of justice dictated by human conscience and sanctioned
by holy inspiration.
_Resolved_, That a Central Committee be appointed by this Convention,
empowered to enlarge its numbers, on (1st) Education; (2d) Industrial
Avocations; (3d) Civil and Political Rights and Regulations; (4th)
Social Relations; who shall correspond with each other and with the
Central Committee, hold meetings in their respective neighborhoods,
gather statistics, facts, and incidents to illustrate, raise funds for
the movement; and through the press, tracts, books, and the living
agent, guide public opinion upward and onward in the grand social
reform of establishing woman's co-sovereignty with man.
_Resolved_, That the Central Committee be authorized to call
Conventions at such times and places as they see fit, and that they
hold office until the next Annual Convention.
To carry out the plan suggested by Mr. Channing, the following
Committees were appointed:
MEMBERS OF COMMITTEES.
_Central Committee_.--Paulina W. Davis, Chairman; Sarah H. Earle,
Secretary; Wendell Phillips, Treasurer; Mary A. W. Johnson, Wm. H.
Channing, Gerrit Smith, John G. Forman, Martha H. Mowry, Lucy Stone,
Abby K. Foster, Pliny Sexton, J. Elizabeth Jones, William Elder,
William Stedman, Emily Robinson, Abby H. Price, William Lloyd
Garrison, Lucretia Mott, Ernestine L. Rose, Elizabeth C. Stanton,
Angelina Grimké Weld, Antoinette L. Brown, Harriot K. Hunt, Emma R.
Coe, Clarina I. H. Nichols, Charles C. Burleigh, Adin Ballou, Sarah H.
Hallock, Joseph A. Dugdale.
_Educational Committee_.--Eliza Barney, Chairman; Marian Blackwell,
Secretary; Elizabeth C. Stanton, Eliza Taft, Clarina I. H. Nichols,
Calvin Fairbanks, Hannah Darlington, Ann Eliza Brown, Elizabeth Oakes
Smith.
_Industrial Committee_.--Elizabeth Blackwell, Harriot K. Hunt,
Benjamin S. Treanor, Ebenezer D. Draper, Phebe Goodwin, Alice Jackson,
Maria Waring, Sarah L. Miller.
_Committee on Civil and Political Functions_.--Ernestine L. Rose, Lucy
Stone, Wendell Phillips, Hannah Stickney, Sarah Hallock, Abby K.
Foster, Charles C. Burleigh, Elizabeth C. Stanton, William L.
Garrison.
_Committee on Social Relations_.--Lucretia Mott, William H. Channing,
Anna Q. T. Parsons, William H. Fish, Rebecca Plumley, Elizabeth B.
Chace, John G. Forman, Henry Fish, Mary Grew.
_Committee on Publication_.--Wm. Henry Channing, Chairman; Ernestine
L. Rose, Charlotte Fowler Wells.
MEMBERS WORCESTER CONVENTION, 1850.
_Massachusetts_.--James N. Buffam, W. A. Alcott, A. H. Johnson, W. H.
Harrington, E. B. Briggs, A. C. Lackey, Ora Ober, Olive W. Hastings,
Thomas Provan, Rebecca Provan, A. W. Thayer, M. M. Munyan, W. H.
Johnson, G. W. Benson, Mrs. C. M. Carter, H. S. Brigham, E. A. Welsh,
Mrs. J. H. Moore, Margaret S. Merritt, Martha Willard, A. N. Lamb,
Mrs. Chaplin, N. B. Hill, K. H. Parsons, C. Jillson, L. Wait, Chas.
Bigham, J. T. Partridge, Eliza C. Clapp, Daniel Steward, Sophia Foord,
E. A. Clarke, E. H. Taft, Mrs. E. J. Henshaw, Edward Southwick, E. A.
Merrick, Mrs. C. Merrick, Lewis Ford, J. T. Everett, Loring Moody,
Sojourner Truth, E. Jane Alden, Elizabeth Dayton, Lima H. Ober, Thomas
Hill, Elizabeth Frail, Eli Belknap, M. M. Frail, Valentine Belknap,
Mary R. Metcalf, R. H. Ober, D. A. Mundy, Dr. S. Rogers, Elizabeth
Earle, G. D. Williams, Dorothy Whiting, Emily Whiting, Abigail Morgan,
Susan Fuller, Thomas Earle, Allen C. Earle, Martha B. Earle, Anne H.
Southwick, Joseph A. Howland, Adeline H. Howland, O. T. Harris, Julia
T. Harris, John M. Spear, E. D. Draper, D. R. P. Hewitt, L. C.
Wilkins, J. H. Binney, Mary Adams, Anna Goulding, E. A. Parrington,
Mrs. Parrington, Harriot K. Hunt, Chas. F. Hovey, Mrs. J. G. Hodgden,
C. M. Shaw, Ophelia D. Hill, Mrs. P. Allen, Anna Q. T. Parsons, C. D.
McLane, W. H. Channing, Wendell Phillips, Abby K. Foster, S. S.
Foster, Effingham L. Capron, Frances H. Drake, E. M. Dodge, Eliza
Barney, Lydia Barney, Wm. D. Cady, C. S. Dow, E. Goddard, Mary F.
Gilbert, Josiah Henshaw, Andrew Wellington, Louisa Gleason, Paulina
Gerry, Lucy Stone, Mary Abbot, Anna E. Fish, C. G. Munyan, Maria L.
Southwick, F. H. Underwood, J. B. Willard, Perry Joslin, Elizabeth
Johnson, Seneth Smith, Marian Hill, Wm. Coe, E. T. Smith, S. Aldrich,
M. A. Maynard, S. P. R., J. M. Cummings, Nancy Fay, M. Jane Davis, D.
R. Crandell, E. M. Burleigh, Sarah Chafee, Adeline Perry, Lydia E.
Chase, J. A. Fuller, Sarah Prentice, Emily Prentice, H. N. Fairbanks,
Mrs. A. Crowl, Dwight Tracy, J. S. Perry, Isaac Norcross, Julia A.
McIntyre, Emily Sanford, H. M. Sanford, C. D. M. Lane, Elizabeth
Firth, S. C. Sargeant, C. A. K. Ball, M. A. Thompson, Lucinda Safford,
S. E. Hall, S. D. Holmes, Z. W. Harlow, N. B. Spooner, Ignatius
Sargent, A. B. Humphrey, M. R. Hadwen, J. H. Shaw, Olive Darling, M.
A. Walden, Mrs. Chickery, Mrs. F. A. Pierce, C. M. Trenor, R. C.
Capron, Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Emily Loveland, Mrs. S. Worcester, Phebe
Worcester, Adeline Worcester, Joanna R. Ballou, Abby H. Price, B.
Willard, T. Pool, M. B. Kent, E. H. Knowlton, G. Valentine, A. Prince,
Lydia Wilmarth, J. G. Warren, Mrs. E. A. Stowell, Martin Stowell, Mrs.
E. Stamp, C. M. Barbour, Annie E. Ruggles, T. B. Elliot, A. H.
Metcalf, Eliza J. Kenney, Rev. J. G. Forman, Andrew Stone, M.D.,
Samuel May, Jr., Sarah R. May, M. S. Firth, A. P. B. Rawson, Nathaniel
Barney, Sarah H. Earle, F. C. Johnson.
_Maine_.--Anna R. Blake, Ellen M. Prescott, Oliver Dennett, Lydia
Dennett.
_New York_.--Frederick Douglass, Lydia Mott, S. H. Hallock, Ernestine
L. Rose, Joseph Carpenter, Pliny Sexton, J. C. Hathaway, Lucy N.
Colman, Antoinette L. Brown, Edgar Hicks.
_New Hampshire._--P. B. Cogswell, Julia Worcester, Parker Pillsbury,
Sarah Pillsbury, Asa Foster.
_Vermont._--Clarina I. Howard Nichols. Mrs. A. E. Brown.
_Pennsylvania._--Hannah M. Darlington, Sarah Tyndale, Emma Parker,
Lucretia Mott, S. L. Miller, Isaac L. Miller, Alice Jackson, Janette
Jackson, Anna R. Cox, Jacob Pierce, Lewis E. Capen, Olive W. Hastings,
Rebecca Plumley, S. L. Hastings, Phebe Goodwin.