History of Woman Suffrage Volume I Part 102

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 ent.i.tled to a voice in its enactments; that every such person, whose property or labor is taxed for the support of the government, is ent.i.tled to a direct share in such government; therefore,

_Resolved_, That women are clearly ent.i.tled 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 s.e.x or color."

_Resolved_, That political rights acknowledge no s.e.x, and, therefore, the word "male" should be stricken from every State Const.i.tution.

_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 ent.i.tled 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 s.e.x, 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 una.s.suming, 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 a.s.sure 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_.

.... Circ.u.mstances 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 s.e.x, 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 pa.s.sing 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 pa.s.s for one of the male s.e.x; 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 a.s.sembly at Worcester.

By this means I think I could satisfy any liberal-minded person, of either s.e.x, 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 inst.i.tutions, 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 a.s.signed 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, Munic.i.p.al, State, and National, through legislative a.s.semblies, 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 ill.u.s.trate, 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 s.e.xton, J. Elizabeth Jones, William Elder, William Stedman, Emily Robinson, Abby H. Price, William Lloyd Garrison, Lucretia Mott, Ernestine L. Rose, Elizabeth C. Stanton, Angelina Grimke 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.