History of Woman Suffrage Volume II Part 123

DEATH OF MRS. JOSEPHINE S. GRIFFING.--Yesterday morning, at two o'clock, Mrs. Josephine S. Griffing departed to a higher life. A woman of rare beauty of character, of uncommon executive capacity and judgment, and ever inspired by a beautiful and self-sacrificing charity, she had warm friends among the best men and women, eminent in character, influence, and position, and a host of devoted friends also among the poor and aged freed people, to whom for years she has been a daily angel of mercy. Accomplished and cultivated, she has devoted herself to the wants of the poorest of the poor, visiting their homes and ministering to their wants with her own hands. She has disbursed many thousands of dollars and a large amount of food and clothing furnished by the Government and by private benevolence, and done all wisely and well and for long periods of time without material fee or reward.

Rarely, indeed, do we find such tender charity, such ability for continuous labor, and such spiritual beauty of life as hers, and her departure is no doubt the result of her too severe and self-sacrificing career of good works.

From 10 A.M. to 4 P.M. to-day the remains may be seen by her many friends at her late home, on Capitol Hill, and to-night her daughters go with all that is mortal of a most tender and loving mother to the family burial-place in her native town of Hebron, Conn.--_Washington Chronicle._

MRS. GRIFFING TO CATHARINE F. STEBBINS.

WASHINGTON, _June 27, 1870_.

MY DEAR MRS. STEBBINS:--Yours so kind and interesting came duly, and I thank you. I am sure you have seen how some _genius_, greater, more powerful than myself control me and forbids me to seek enjoyment in human friendships. If you comprehend my life, you will pardon long silence of the _lips_, and join me in the prayer, that the poor all taken into "Abraham's bosom," I may _enjoy_ those I love, in heaven. I am pained when I think that not only _you_, but my dear father in his affliction, has been neglected, for it is now four long weeks since I have written a word of love and consolation to him. But the days are so full of work, and the nights of thinking, that all my vitality seems to be in requisition, and I sometimes think there is no reserve force left in me. Oh, how I wish our Christianity would be true to itself, and take to its heart the great questions of humanity, then would I turn over a precious few of the starving old people now calling upon G.o.d and me for their support, to churches, and enter the field for woman.

How grandly the tide is lashing the sh.o.r.e on both sides of the Atlantic, and its voice is the voice of G.o.d, commanding once more that ye "let my people go, that they may serve me." Only the foam and the surge are seen to-day--"Woman and the Ballot." But there is overturning and upheaving below, and the great depths shall ere long become the surface, and what is now seen in the social realm and believed in, as a _religious creed_, must enter into the formation, geologically conforming to fossilization and decay; so the last shall be first, and the first last. The last half century is a grand prophecy. How _slavery_ went down, carrying away social and religious systems with it! There they lie, like dust and ashes in the rear. None are found so poor and benighted as to do homage at their shrine. It was the moral agitation that gave spiritual birth to the race enslaved. I remember to have felt great impatience at the tardy and conservative elements that entered into the struggle side by side with the radical leaders of 1845, when to me the issue was not with the Const.i.tution, nor even with the pulpit, nor the Bible, but with Justice. It was man to man, stripped of all but the Divine within him.

The lessons of moral and political formation in its slow but certain work, come to strengthen me now. To my mind the issue of to-day in the woman cause is clearly not what Paul taught and thought, nor what G.o.d has settled upon her as her dower, nor what the marriage contract makes her, but it is woman as a beneficent genius, next to the angels, against woman below the beasts, in human society under the heel of the Law, in the arms of brute force, crushed to death with pa.s.sion and l.u.s.t. Lucy Stone has made it obvious to the world that six plates, six teacups and saucers, and a guardian for her children, at the time of her husband's death, are not her only legitimate property. Mrs.

Stanton goes further, and declares that not alone is her property sacred, and must be restored to her, but that _personal freedom_, subject to the Moral Law, not to the law of Society, nor of Government, if those powers contravene or interfere with G.o.d's Law as it is written in her own const.i.tution.

In so much as woman is endowed by the Creator with the most loving and beneficent genius or nature capable of enduring the agonies of many deaths, to give life to many souls, in so much she is ent.i.tled to command, not left to obey. So says Mrs. Stanton; I agree with her.

Both Lucy Stone and Mrs. Stanton are skilled workmen. Both representative women; representing the two wings in the cause of woman's freedom.

You speak of Mrs. Stanton's view in the McFarland-Richardson case. I knew but little of the real character of Mrs. Richardson, but if what is acknowledged to be true of his,--I do agree with Mrs. S. in declaring this case a forcible argument--not against _marriage_,--such a thing can not be--but against the marriage _contract_, as interpreted in the courts. What a burlesque upon insanity! Poor Minnie Gaines, the colored girl who shot her seducer the other day, in my neighborhood, was cleared upon as doubtful insanity as McFarland's, and she enjoys the benefit of the doubt in the insane asylum, where she will remain unquestionably for a term of years; why does this _man "go at large"_? Neither of the a.s.sociations, nor journals, are ready to a.s.sume the high ground that Mrs. Stanton standing alone and leading, as she always has on this question, can and will do. With all my heart, I pray that true women and the angels will stand by and sustain her in this n.o.ble daring.

Our work (the Freedman's work) is as usual, every day painfully interesting and compensating. _No money comes yet_, and I have to raise some $2,000 soon, or lose our delightful home. (Yes, it is delightful). We have a bad city government, the colored people begin to feel the old rebel spirit. Hundreds thrown out of work, and I have nothing to hope from the City Council to compensate for my work. Some good friend said a few days since, that Congress would, if persons of influence would ask it, pay me. Now would Mr. Ward with Mr. Wade, do this, and so let me breathe and live? or not?

We can not go out of the city this summer. You will be in Philadelphia at the Decade meeting I hope, and I shall rejoice to be there too. You see the Peace Society is in "hot water" over the McFarland-Richardson discussion in the _Band of Peace_.

Thermometer stood at 107 yesterday, and very hot to-day. Write when you can, and believe me ever your attached friend,

J. S. GRIFFING.

THE WOMAN'S LOYAL LEAGUE.

LETTERS IN RESPONSE TO THE CALL FOR MEETING OF THE LOYAL WOMEN OF THE COUNTRY.

NEW HAMPSHIRE.

HAMPTON, N. H., _May 4, 1863_.

MISS ANTHONY--DEAR MADAM:--I cheerfully respond to the call, published in _The Liberator_, to the loyal women of the North, to meet on the 14th inst. I am sensible that you will have responses from many whose words will be more potent, and who can do braver deeds than I can do.

But I want to add my feeble testimony, notwithstanding, to encourage this first effort of American women, in a national capacity, to sustain the Government, and help guide it through the perils which threaten its existence, thus demonstrating not only their loyalty, but their ability to understand its genius; the quickness of their perception of the cause and also of the remedies of the dangers which imperil the nation; and also their fitness to be admitted to take part in its deliberations. Not long since, men here at the North--loyal men--men who were not in favor of slavery, denied that they had any responsibility in regard to its existence. Marvelous, that they could not see that slavery is a moral pestilence, poisoning all the fountains of society, spreading infections over all the nation. Now the war teaches them that they have a responsibility, and that it would have been better had they seen it earlier. The right to take any responsibility in regard to it was denied to woman; it was out of her sphere; it ran into politics, which were unfit for woman, and into governmental affairs, which she was supposed incompetent to comprehend. But this painful hour of warfare crowds home upon us the conviction that woman's interests equally with man's are imperiled--private as well as public, individual as well as social.

She must not only consent to the sacrifice of husbands and sons falling in their blood on the enemy's ground; but failing to conquer them there, these enemies are eager to change the scene of action, transfer the battle-field to our own doors, spread death and devastation, and then establish slavery as a legacy to us. Yes, let it be shown and sent home to the hearts of those who shall meet, that woman is equally interested and responsible with man in the final settlement of this problem of self-government.

Wishing that the women of every State may be largely represented by earnest and faithful representatives, able to give wise counsel and efficient action, I am very cordially with you in spirit,

CLARISSA G. OLDS.

BRADFORD, N. H., _May 10, 1863_.

MRS. STANTON--MY DEAR MADAM:--I thank you for myself, and for thousands of women in our State, who may perhaps remain silent, for the clarion call you have rung through the land for a convention of the loyal women of the nation, to be held at New York on the 14th of the present month. G.o.d bless you for the rallying cry, and may there be such a gathering of patriotic women as the times demand. I trust the women of our State will be well and largely represented. I must believe that the women nurtured among our granite hills are ready for all earnest work and brave self-sacrifice, to help bear up and on the banner of freedom, till it waves in victory over all our beloved country. I wish you a hearty G.o.d-speed in all n.o.ble and patriotic efforts.

Truly yours, MARY J. TAPPAN.

DEBRY, N. H.

We rejoice in your call to the women of our country to do something, in the great hour of her peril. They are generally too indifferent to her success or failure, lack zeal and earnestness, and need enlightenment on the true state of this contest. It is not a mere matter of triumph of arms, but of principle, which will affect us and future generations.

H. T. and M. ADAMS.

VERMONT.

RANDOLPH, Vt., _May 9, A.D. 1863_.

_The Ladies of Randolph to the Loyal Ladies a.s.sembled at New York, send Greeting:_--

Thrillingly interested in all that concerns the great cause in which we, who love the inheritance our fathers bought for us at such a price of life and treasure, are now all embarked, the ladies of our a.s.sociation desire, on this occasion, to manifest their _oneness_ of _spirit_ with you for everything that may promote loyal devotion to our country.

We who have offered up on her altars what is dearer to us than life--our fathers, husbands, sons, and brothers--so that almost every home has made its sacrifice, and the blood of many from among us has already been shed, while others come back crippled for life--need hardly tell you that we are of one heart and mind with them, and ready to be bound and offered up too.

May the G.o.d of our fathers hear our cry, and save our beloved country from those who would destroy all her liberties.

Very truly yours, MRS. R. PARKINSON.

In behalf of the Ladies' Aid Society.

Ma.s.sACHUSETTS.

PITTSFIELD, _May 12, 1863_.

MISS SUSAN B. ANTHONY--DEAR MADAM:--In response to the thrilling and patriotic address of Mrs. "E. C. Stanton on behalf of the Women's Central Committee," accompanying the "Call for a Meeting of the Loyal Women of the Nation on the 14th inst.," I beg leave to say that my heart is with you in the great work of crushing the rebellion.

Our strength, clearly, is not "to sit still" at a time like the present. Although much has already been done by the women at the North, in their subordinate sphere, for the relief and comfort of the soldiers, yet the supineness of many of our s.e.x has exposed us all to rebukes.

We hear of the enthusiasm of women at the South in aid of the Slave-holders' Rebellion, and can form some estimate of the "fierceness of their wrath"; but, G.o.d be thanked, the days approach when their mad pa.s.sions will recoil upon themselves--the days approach when their evil cause must die. Let us unitedly pledge ourselves to stand by the Government, in our legitimate sphere, and _out of it_, if needs be. Let us, with womanly zeal, help to crush the power of its iniquitous a.s.sailants, remembering that the name of woman is in the list with those who "subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens."

Shall we not, in this "crisis of our country's destiny," imitate the example of these heroic worthies, if "hereunto we are called"?

Very truly yours, MRS. SARAH R. BARNES.

WORCESTER, _April 20, 1863_.

DEAR SUSAN:--I see your call to the loyal women. Will you let me know distinctly if you propose to commit yourselves to the idea of loyalty to the present Government? I can not believe you do. But to me there is something equivocal in the call, if it does not mean that. I am sorry it is not explicit on that point.