History of Woman Suffrage Volume II Part 9

Our thanks are due to Robert Dale Owen, Gerrit Smith, Bradhurst Schieffelin, Wendell Phillips, Jessie Benton Fremont, Frederick Dougla.s.s, Henry Ward Beecher, and the Hovey Trust Fund Committee of Boston, for their timely contributions and liberal words of cheer. But still more are we indebted to the numberless, nameless thousands of the honest, earnest children of toil, throughout the country, for their responses to our call, their words of hearty G.o.d-speed, and their "mite" offerings, ranging from five cents to five dollars; amounting in all to $5,000. From these pet.i.tions, thus widely scattered, we have already sent to Congress the names of over two hundred thousand men and women, demanding an amendment of the Const.i.tution and an act of emanc.i.p.ation. And thousands are still returning to us daily, and we hope to roll up another hundred thousand before the close of the present session.

Leaving, then, all minor questions of banks and mints and public improvements for Congressmen to discuss at the rate of $3,000 a year, we decided the first work to be done was to end slavery, and ring the death knell of caste and cla.s.s throughout the land.

To this end, as a means of educating the people, we sent out twenty thousand emanc.i.p.ation pet.i.tions, with tracts and appeals, into different districts of the free States, and into the slave States wherever our armies had opened the way.

The Woman's National League now numbers FIVE THOUSAND MEMBERS.

And in the west, where we have employed two lecturing agents--Josephine S. Griffing, and Hannah Tracy Cutler--a large number of auxiliary Leagues have been formed.

We have registered on our books the names of TWO THOUSAND men and women, boys and girls, who have circulated these pet.i.tions. We have on file all the letters received from the thousands with whom we have been in correspondence, feeling that this canva.s.s of the nation for freedom will be an important and most interesting chapter in our future history. These letters, coming from all cla.s.ses and all lat.i.tudes, breathe one prayer for the downfall of slavery.

Ma.s.sachusetts' n.o.ble Senator, Charles Sumner, who has so reverently received, presented, and urged these pet.i.tions, has cheered us with kind messages, magnifying the importance of our labors. His eloquent speech, made in the Senate on presenting our first installment--_the prayer of one hundred thousand_--we have printed in tract form and scattered throughout the country. We have flooded the nation with letters and appeals, public and private, and put forth every energy to rouse the people to earnest, persistent action against slavery, the deadly foe of all our cherished inst.i.tutions.

We proposed to ourselves in the first moments of enthusiasm to secure, at least, _a million_ signatures--one thirtieth part of our entire population. We thought the troubled warnings of a century--the insidious aggressions of slavery, with its violations of the sacred rights of _habeas corpus_, free speech, and free press, with its riots in our cities, and in the councils of the nation striking down, alike, black men and brave Senators, all culminating, at last, in the horrid tragedies of war--must have roused the dullest moral sense, and prepared the nation's heart to do justice and love mercy. But we were mistaken. Sunk in luxury, corruption, and crime--born and bred into the "guilty phantasy that man could hold property in man," we needed the clash of arms, the cannon's roar, the shrieks and groans of fallen heroes, the lamentations of mothers for their first-born, the angel's trump, the voices of the mighty dead, to wake this stolid nation from its sleep of death.

In circulating our pet.i.tion many refused to sign because they believed slavery a divine inst.i.tution, and therefore did not wish to change the status of the slave. Others, who professed to hate slavery, denied the right of Congress to interfere with it in the States; and yet others condemned all dictation, or even suggestion to Congress or the President. They said, "_Let the people be still_ and trust the affairs of State to the management of the rulers they, themselves, have chosen." And many of our "old Abolitionists," believing _their_ work done, that the war had killed slavery, knocked the bottom out of the tub, not only declared our work one of supererogation, but told us that pet.i.tioning, as a means of educating the people or influencing Congress, had become obsolete.

Under all these discouragements, with neither press nor pulpit to magnify our work, without money or the enthusiasm of numbers, in simple faith, into the highways and hedges we sent the Gospel of Freedom, and as of old, the people heard with gladness. A very large majority of our pet.i.tioners are from the unlettered ma.s.ses.

They who, knowing naught of the machinery of government or the trickery of politics, believe that, as G.o.d reigns, there is justice on the earth. As yet, none of our large cities have been thoroughly canva.s.sed; but from the savannahs of the South and the prairies of the West--from the hills of New England and the sh.o.r.es of our lakes and gulfs, have we enrolled the soldiers of freedom; they who, when the rebels shall lay down their arms, with higher, holier weapons must end the war. Through us, two hundred thousand[45] people--the labor and virtue of the Republic--have spoken in our national Capitol, where their voices were never heard before.

Those unaccustomed to balance influences, who judge of the importance of movements by their apparent results, may deem our efforts lost, because the Amendment and Emanc.i.p.ation bills have not yet pa.s.sed the House; but _we_ feel that our labors for the past year, in the circulation of tracts and pet.i.tions and appeals--in our lectures and letters, public and private, have done as much to kill the rebellion, by educating the people for the final blow, as any other organization, civil, political, military, or religious, in the land. Could you but read the many earnest, thrilling letters we have received from simple men and women, in their rural homes, you would have fresh hope for the stability of our Republic; remembering that the life of a nation depends on the virtue of its people, and not on the dignity of its rulers.

One poor, infirm woman in Wisconsin, who had lost her husband and all her sons in the war, traveled on foot over _one hundred miles_ in gathering _two thousand names_. Her letter was filled with joy that she, too, had been able to do something for the cause of liberty. Follow her, in imagination, through sleet and snow, from house to house; listen to her words--mark the pathos of her voice, as she debates the question of freedom, or tells some tale of horror in the land of slavery, or asks her neighbors one by one, to give their names to end such wrongs. Aside from all she says, the _fact_ that she comes in storm, on foot, is to all an argument, that there is something wrong in the republic, demanding haste and action from every citizen. You who, in crowded towns, move ma.s.ses by your eloquence, scorn not the slower modes. Remember the seeds of enthusiasm you call forth have been planted by humbler hands--by the fireside, the old arm-chair in the workshop, at the plow--wherever man communes alone with G.o.d.

Our work for the past year--and what must still be our work--involves the vital question of the nation's life. For, until the old Union with slavery be broken, and our Const.i.tution so amended as to secure the elective franchise to all its citizens who are taxed, or who bear arms to support the Government, we have no foundations on which to build a true Republic. We urge our countrywomen who have shown so much enthusiasm in the war--in Sanitary and Freedmen's a.s.sociations--now to give themselves to the broader, deeper, higher work of reconstruction. The new nation demands the highest type of womanhood. It is a holy mission to minister to suffering soldiers in camp and hospital, and on the battle-field; to hold the heads and stanch the wounds of dying heroes; but holier still, by the magic word of freedom, to speak a dying nation into life.

Four years ago the _many_ thought all was well in the land of the free and the home of the brave; but _we_ knew the war was raging then through all the Southern States. We knew the secrets of that bastile of horrors; we heard, afar off, the shrieks and groans of the dying, the lamentations of husbands and wives, parents and children, sundered forever from each other. _Then_ we fed, and clothed, and sheltered the fugitives in their weary marches where the North Star led, and crowned with immortal wreaths the panting heroes, pursued by the bloodhounds from the everglades of Florida, who asked but to die in freedom under the shadow of a monarch's throne.

Yes, the rebellion has been raging near a century on every cotton field and rice plantation. Every vice, hardship, and abomination, suffered by our soldiers in the war, has been the daily life in slavery. Yet no Northern volunteers marched to the black man's help, though he stood alone against such fearful odds, until John Brown and his twenty-three men threw themselves into the deadly breach. What a sublime spectacle! Behold! the black man, forgetting all our crimes, all his wrongs for generations, now n.o.bly takes up arms in our defence. Look not to Greece or Rome for heroes--to Jerusalem or Mecca for saints--but for the highest virtues of heroism, let us worship the black man at our feet.

Mothers, redeem the past by teaching your children the limits of human rights, with the same exactness that you now teach the multiplication table. That "all men are created equal" is a far more important fact for a child to understand, than that twice two makes four.

Had we during the past century as fondly guarded the tree of liberty, with its blessed fruits of equality, as have Southern mothers the deadly upas of slavery, the blood of our sires and sons, mingled with the sweat and tears of slaves, would not now enrich the tyrant's soil, our hearthstones would not all be desolate, nor we, with shame, behold our Northern statesmen in the nation's councils overwhelmed with doubt and perplexity on the simplest question of human rights. A mariner without chart or compa.s.s, ignorant of the starry world above his head, drifting on a troubled sea, is not more hopeless than a nation, in the throes of revolution, without faith in the immutability and safety of truth and justice.

Behold in the long past the endless wreck of nations--Despotisms, Monarchies, Republics--alike, they all sprang up and bloomed--then drooped and died, because not planted with the seeds of life; and on their crumbling ruins the black man now plants his feet, and as he proudly breaks his chains declares, "MAN ABOVE ALL HUMAN GOVERNMENT."

WENDELL PHILLIPS was introduced and made an eloquent appeal in behalf of the object of the League. He congratulated the Society on the progress it had made, contrasted the past with the present, referred to his experience at former meetings, and argued that woman should have a voice and a vote in the affairs of the nation. He showed the importance of woman's moral power infused into the politics of the country, and of the independence of those outside of party lines, who neither vote or hold office, to criticise the shortcomings of our rulers. He eulogized the manner in which Anna d.i.c.kinson had arraigned both men and measures before the judgment-seat of the people; deplored the slavery of party, that puts padlocks on the lips of leading politicians. While the sons of the Puritans, with bated breath, see in the violation of the most sacred rights of citizens the swift-coming destruction of the Republic, and in silence wait the shock, an inspired girl comes forward, sounds the alarm, raises the signal of distress, and fearlessly calls the captain, pilot, crew, and all to duty, for the Ship of State is drifting on a rock-bound coast. Again and again is this young girl put forward to tell the people what men in high places dare not say themselves.

The following resolutions were then read and submitted for discussion:

1. _Whereas_, The testimony of all history, the teachings of all sound philosophy, and our national experience for almost a hundred years, have demonstrated that in the Divine economy there is an "irrepressible conflict" between slavery and freedom; and

WHEREAS, The present war is but the legitimate fruit of this unnatural union; therefore

_Resolved_, That any attempt to reconstruct the Government with any root or branch of the slave system remaining, will surely prove disastrous, and therefore should be met at the outset with the stern rebuke of every true patriot and friend of humanity.

2. _Resolved_, That this Government _still_ upholds slavery by military as well as civil power, and is, therefore, itself, still in daring rebellion against the G.o.d OF JUSTICE, before whom Jefferson "trembled" and whose "exterminating thunders" he warned us would be our destruction, unless, by "the diffusion of light and liberality," we were led to exterminate it forever from the land.

3. _Resolved_, That until the old union with slavery be broken, and the Const.i.tution so amended as to secure the elective franchise to all citizens who bear arms, or are taxed to support the Government, we have no foundations on which to build a TRUE REPUBLIC.

4. WHEREAS, The _Anti_ or _Pro_-slavery character of the Const.i.tution has long been a question of dispute among statesmen and judges, as well as reformers, therefore

_Resolved_, That we demand for the NEW NATION a NEW CONSt.i.tUTION, in which the guarantee of liberty and equality to every human being shall be so plainly and clearly written as never again to be called in question.

5. _Resolved_, That we demand for black men not only the right to be sailors, soldiers, and laborers under equal pay and protection with white men, but the right of suffrage, that only safeguard of civil liberty, without which emanc.i.p.ation is but mockery.

6. _Resolved_, That women now acting as nurses in our hospitals, who are regular graduates of medicine, should be recognized as physicians and surgeons, and receive the same remuneration for their services as men.

7. _Resolved_, That the failure of the Administration to protect our black troops against such outrages as were long ago officially threatened, and fearfully perpetrated at Port Hudson, Milliken's Bend, Ol.u.s.tee, and Fort Pillow, is but added proof of its _heartless character_ or _utter incapacity_ to conduct the war.

8. _Resolved_, That when the men of a nation, in a political party, consecrate themselves to "Freedom and Peace" and declare their high resolve to found a Republic on the principles of justice, they have lifted politics into the sphere of morals and religion, where it is the duty of women to be co-workers with them in giving immortal life to the NEW nation.

9. _Resolved_, That our special thanks are due to Robert Dale Owen, who aided us in the inauguration of our work; and to Charles Sumner, who so earnestly and eloquently presented our pet.i.tions in the Senate of the United States.

10. WHEREAS, From official statistics, it appears that our annual national expenditures for imported broadcloths, silks, laces, embroideries, wines, spirits, and cigars, are more than one hundred million dollars; therefore

_Resolved_, that we recommend the formation of leagues of patriotic men and women throughout the country, whose object shall be to discountenance and prevent the indulgence of all these, and similar useless luxuries during the war; thereby encouraging habits of economy, stimulating American industry, diminishing the foreign debt, and increasing our ability to meet the vast expenditures of the present crisis.

The following letters were read by Miss Anthony:

LETTER FROM EMILE PRETORIUS.

ST. LOUIS, MO., _April 29, 1864_.

MADAM:--Your favor of 23d inst. has come to hand with your call, which was published and endorsed by our paper, as you will see by the enclosed slip. Your sentiments are so high and n.o.ble that to doubt a favorable result and response from the West would be like doubting whether our women had courage enough to follow the truest instincts, the best impulses of their own pure nature. I, for one, have no such idea, no such fears; and if I should ever believe that the Cornelias and Thuseneldas were only to be found by going back thousands of years in history, and would not and could not be rivalled by patriotic mothers and heroic wives in this present crises of ours, I then would renounce at once all hopes of a national resurrection. Liberty, it is true, is immortal; but we would be bound to look for her in some other part of our globe, if we fail on American soil to enlist in our struggle the full heart of our women.

But there is no such thing as failure in battling for all that is high and good and sacred, and there is no such thing as failure in appealing for so good a cause to woman's n.o.ble mind and true heart. They will be with us, every one of them will, and whether a majority of our people be up to our standard this time or not, still, in the eyes of our women we would be what our German poet calls, "the conquering defeated."

Yours for Fremont and Freedom, EMILE PRETORIUS.

LETTER FROM CHARLES SUMNER.

SENATE CHAMBER, _May 6, 1864_.

MADAM:--I can not be with you in New York, according to the invitation with which you have honored me; for my post of duty is here. I am grateful to your a.s.sociation for what you have done to arouse the country to insist on the extinction of slavery. Now is the time to strike, and no effort should be spared. And yet there are many who lap themselves in the luxury of present success, and hold back. This is a mistake. The good work must be finished; and to my mind nothing seems to be done while anything remains to be done. There is one point to which attention must be directed. No effort should be spared to castigate and blast the whole idea of _property in man_, which is the corner-stone of the rebel pretension, and the constant a.s.sumption of the partisans of slavery, or of its lukewarm opponents. Let this idea be trampled out, and there will be no sympathy with the rebellion; and there will be no such abomination as _slave-hunting_, which is beyond question the most execrable feature of slavery itself. Accept my thanks, and believe me,

Madam, faithfully yours, MISS SUSAN B. ANTHONY. CHARLES SUMNER.

Speeches were then made by George Thompson, Lucretia Mott, and Ernestine L. Rose; after which, in adjourning the Convention, the President said:

This is the only organization of women that will have a legitimate cause for existence beyond the present hour. The Sanitary, Soldiers' Aid, Hospital, and Freedmen's Societies all end with the war; but the soldier and negro in peace have yet to be educated into the duties of citizens in a republic, and our legislators to be stimulated by a higher law than temporary policy. This is the only organization formed during the war based specifically on universal emanc.i.p.ation and enfranchis.e.m.e.nt.

Knowing that in this great national upheaval women would exert an influence for good or evil, we felt the importance of concentrating all their power on the side of liberty. To this end we have urged them to use with zeal and earnestness their only political right under the Const.i.tution: the right of pet.i.tion.

During the past year the pet.i.tions for freedom have been quietly circulating in the most remote school districts of all the free States and Territories, in the Army, the Navy, and some have found their way to the far South. And now they are coming back by the thousands, with the signatures of men and women, black and white, soldiers and civilians, from every point of the compa.s.s, to be presented in mammoth rolls again in the coming Congress. I urge every one present to help spread the glad tidings of liberty to all, by signing and circulating these pet.i.tions, remembering that while man may use the bullet and the ballot to enforce his will, this is woman's only weapon of defence to-day in this Republic. The Convention is now adjourned.

The debates throughout these Conventions show how well the leaders of the Loyal League understood the principles of republican government, and the fatal policy of some of those in power. They understood the situation, and clearly made known their sentiments. The character of the discussions and resolutions in their Conventions was entirely changed during the war; broader ideas of const.i.tutional law; the limits of national power and State rights formed the basis of the new arguments. They viewed the questions involved in the great conflict from the point of view of statesmen, rather than that of an ostracised cla.s.s. Reviewing the varied efforts of the representative women[46]

referred to in this chapter in the political, military, philanthropic, and sanitary departments of the Government, and the army of faithful a.s.sistants, behind them, all alike self-sacrificing and patriotic; with a keen insight into the policy of the Government and the legitimate results of the war; the question naturally suggests itself, how was it possible that when peace was restored they received no individual rewards nor general recognition for their services, which, though acknowledged in private, have been concealed from the people and ignored by the Government.[47]

Gen. Grant has the credit for the success of plans which were the outgrowth of the military genius of a woman; Gen. Howard received a liberal salary as the head of the Freedman's Bureau, while the woman who inspired and organized that department and carried its burdens on her shoulders to the day of her death, raised most of the funds by personal appeal for that herculean work.

Dr. Bellows enjoyed the distinction as President of the Sanitary Bureau, which originated in the mind of a woman, who, when the machinery was perfected and in good working order, was forced to resign her position as official head through the bigotry of the medical profession.