History of Woman Suffrage Volume II Part 129

_Resolved_, That each lady to whom the pledge and pet.i.tion blanks are inclosed be requested to bring them to the notice of the clergymen and teachers in her vicinity, with a request that they shall take some action in the matter.

_Resolved_, That such ladies are earnestly requested to organize Auxiliary Leagues in their towns and neighborhoods, for the purposes of correspondence with the Central League, and of collecting and forwarding with facility names and money for the furtherance of the grand object in view; also, for holding meetings to discuss and elucidate the necessity of our demand for an act of Universal Emanc.i.p.ation.

A hearty co-operation from our women in all parts of the loyal States is most earnestly invited. We would urge upon them the formation of auxiliary Leagues, which shall receive from us blanks for pet.i.tions, and pledges, as well as any information or advice they may need. We ask them not only to form Leagues in their own towns and neighborhoods, but to send us up long lists of names as members of the Grand Central League.

We beg them also to solicit and send contributions, small and large, as they may be able, for the promotion of the object of the League, viz: to end this fearful war by the removal of its exciting cause--Slavery.

In making this call upon loyal women, we feel sure of meeting with a warm response from those whose hearts and energies have already so n.o.bly sprung to meet their country's need in her hour of trial.

E. CADY STANTON, _President of the League_.

SUSAN B. ANTHONY, _Secretary_.

COMMENTS OF THE PRESS.

The _New York Tribune_ thus speaks of this enterprise:

A VAST ENTERPRISE PROPOSED BY WOMEN.

The "Women's Loyal National League," recently organized in this city, at a meeting held by them yesterday at the Cooper Inst.i.tute, adopted the following resolutions:

_Resolved_, That for the present this League will concentrate all its efforts upon the single object of procuring to be signed by one million women and upward, and of preparing for presentation to Congress within the first week of its next session, a pet.i.tion in the following words, to wit:

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:_ The undersigned, women of the United States, above the age of eighteen years, earnestly pray that your honorable body will pa.s.s, at the earliest practicable day, an act emanc.i.p.ating all persons of African descent held to involuntary service or labor in the United States.

_Resolved_, That in furtherance of the above object the Executive Committee of this League be instructed to cause to be prepared and stereotyped a pamphlet, not exceeding four printed octavo pages, briefly and plainly setting forth the importance of such a movement at the present juncture--a copy of the said pamphlet to be placed in the hands of each person who may undertake to procure signatures to the above pet.i.tion, and for such further distribution as may be ordered by the said Executive Committee.

The women of the League have shown practical wisdom in restricting their efforts to one object, the most important, perhaps, which any Society can aim at; and great courage in undertaking to do what, so far as we remember, has never been done in the world before, namely, to obtain ONE MILLION of names to a pet.i.tion. If they succeed, the moral influence on Congress ought and can not fail to be great. The pa.s.sage by the next Congress of an act of general emanc.i.p.ation would do more than any one thing for the suppression of the rebellion. As things now stand with slaves declared free in eight States of the Union, with two more States (Virginia and Louisiana) partly free and partly slave, and with the Border States still slave, we have a state of affairs resulting in interminable confusion, and which, in the very nature of things, can not continue to exist. Congress may find a way out of such confusion by an act of Compensated Emanc.i.p.ation, with the consent of these States and parts of States. G.o.d speed the circulation and signatures of the Women's Pet.i.tion! The pledge of the League is commendably brief and to the point, reading as follows:

"We, the undersigned, women of the United States, agree to become members of the 'Women's Loyal National League,' hereby pledging our most earnest influence in support of the Government in its prosecution of the war for freedom and for the restoration of the national unity."

The office of the League is Room No. 20, Cooper Inst.i.tute. Let all loyal women, friendly to Emanc.i.p.ation, join their ranks, and devote what spare time they may have to this n.o.ble work.

_The New York Times_ published the following:

A MONSTER PEt.i.tION PROPOSED.

_To the Editor of the New York Times:_

Until the advent of the present struggle, the word _loyalty_ was hardly known among us, and though we often spoke of the Union, we seldom used the term national unity. With new phases of society new terms come into vogue. We have now, springing up everywhere, Loyal National Leagues, and great good they are doing. They have, so far, been chiefly set on foot by men, but women are now bestirring themselves in the same direction. Quite recently, a Woman's Loyal National League has been organized in this city....

The prudence of the members of this League is to be commended, first, in selecting a single object on which to concentrate their exertions, and secondly, in selecting as that object the of procuring an act of Congress declaring general emanc.i.p.ation, than which nothing is more needed at the present time, not only as an endors.e.m.e.nt of the President's Proclamation, but also as a remedy for the utter confusion produced by the present state of affairs, under which it would puzzle the shrewdest lawyer to determine who, among the fugitives that are daily flocking to us across the lines, is free, and who still a slave.

As a permanent arrangement, no one believes that a few counties in one State, and a few parishes in another, can remain slave, while all around them emanc.i.p.ation has been accomplished; nor that slavery can endure, except for a brief season, along a narrow border-strip, bounded North and South by freedom.

Whether these ladies will succeed in the task of procuring _one million_ of names to their pet.i.tion, depends chiefly on their business talent in organizing the machinery of so great an undertaking. R.

_The New York Evening Post_ says:

AN IMPORTANT UNDERTAKING.

It has sometimes been made a reproach to the women of the Northern States, that while their sisters of the South are the very life of the rebellion, exceeding the men in zeal and devotion and self-sacrifice, they, with a n.o.ble cause against a base one, show less zeal, less earnestness, do less to animate and inspire the combatants; in short, are less active in maintaining the Union than the ladies of the Slave States in working to destroy it.

If, however, the members of the "Women's Loyal National League," an a.s.sociation recently commenced in this city, succeed in what they have just undertaken, it will go far to show that there is neither lukewarmness nor lack of energy in the women of the North; and that, in practical industry exerted in aid of the war and the Government, they are not to be outmatched by the zeal of the fair mischief-makers who oppose both....

We learn that the League has already obtained several thousand names and addresses of persons and societies throughout the Northern and Border States who are favorable to emanc.i.p.ation, to whom they propose to address their circulars; and that they are organizing, after a business fashion, the machinery necessary to effect their object in the six months still intervening before the meeting of Congress. It is a great undertaking, this obtaining of one million signatures, such an undertaking as has seldom if ever been carried out before. If it succeeds it will obtain record in the history of the time as an enterprise most honorable to the s.e.x which conceived and completed it.

The pledge of the League is well worded and judicious....

Such Leagues ought to be, and we trust will be, organized all over the country, in aid of the mammoth pet.i.tion. Without having made any accurate calculation, we doubt whether less than four stout men could carry the roll comprising a million names into the House to which it is addressed.

_The Philadelphia Press_ says:

SPIRIT OF NORTHERN WOMEN.

It is a great country, this of ours. Great events occur in it. Great things are to be found in it. Where shall we find another Niagara?

Where a cave of dimensions equal to those of the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky? Since California has been added we have her gigantic pines, towering above all other trees in the world. We can not make war, but we must carry it on upon a scale unknown since the days of Xerxes. Our women, too, it would seem, catch the spirit of the country. Until now they have chiefly been known, throughout the great national struggle, in the capacity of sisters of mercy, tenders in hospitals, collectors of comforts and of little luxuries for our sick and wounded. We find them laboring now in a new field. They, called the weaker s.e.x, and properly so called, if thews and sinews const.i.tute strength, have undertaken to do more than to care for the sick and wounded. They seek to aid in striking at the root of the evil whence has arisen the strife which causes the sickness of the hospital and the wounds of the battle-field. They have undertaken a task beyond that which the st.u.r.dy Chartists of England performed. The Chartist Pet.i.tion, if we remember aright, had seven or eight hundred thousand names--the largest number ever obtained to a pet.i.tion. But our Northern women have undertaken to procure _one million_ of names to a Pet.i.tion for Emanc.i.p.ation, and to complete their task in the next six months. The article from _The Tribune_, elsewhere, will be read with interest.

_The National Anti-Slavery Standard_ comments:

THE WOMEN'S LOYAL LEAGUE--MAMMOTH PEt.i.tION TO CONGRESS.

The Women's Loyal National League, at a meeting held at their Room in the Cooper Inst.i.tute on Friday, the 29th ult., changed the form of their pledge, so that it now reads as follows:

"We, the undersigned, women of the United States, agree to become members of the 'Women's Loyal National League,' hereby pledging our most earnest influence in support of the Government in its prosecution of the war for freedom and for the restoration of the national unity."

This, it strikes us, is a much happier wording than that of the former pledge....

The women of the League have embarked in an enterprise worthy of their energy and devotion, and we will not allow ourselves to doubt that they will meet with complete success. It will require some money and a great deal of hard work, but their courage and patience will be found adequate to the task. They will find a helper in every woman who loves justice and humanity, and realizes that there can be no permanent peace for the country until slavery is exterminated root and branch.

The moral influence upon Congress and the nation of such a pet.i.tion, signed by a MILLION of women, will be incalculable; while the agitation attending the effort will be of the greatest benefit.

Women willing to aid in circulating the pet.i.tion should send their address at once to Susan B. Anthony, Secretary of the League, 20 Cooper Inst.i.tute, New York.

OFFICE OF THE WOMEN'S LOYAL NATIONAL LEAGUE, } Room No. 20, Cooper Inst.i.tute, New York, _January 25, 1864_. }

_The Women's Loyal National League, to the Women of the Republic:_--We ask you to sign and circulate this pet.i.tion for the entire abolition of slavery. We have now one hundred thousand signatures, but we want a million before Congress adjourns. Remember the President's Proclamation reaches only the slaves of rebels. The jails of loyal Kentucky are to-day "crammed" with Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama slaves, advertised to be sold for their jail fees "according to law,"

precisely as before the war! While slavery exists anywhere there can be freedom nowhere. There must be a law abolishing slavery. We have undertaken to canva.s.s the nation for freedom. Women, you can not vote or fight for your country. Your only way to be a power in the Government is through the exercise of this, one, sacred, const.i.tutional "right of pet.i.tion"; and we ask you to use it now to the utmost. Go to the rich, the poor, the high, the low, the soldier, the civilian, the white, the black--gather up the names of all who hate slavery--all who love liberty, and would have it the law of the land--and lay them at the feet of Congress, your silent but potent vote for human freedom guarded by law.

You have shown true courage and self-sacrifice from the beginning of the war. You have been angels of mercy to our sick and dying soldiers in camp and hospital, and on the battle field. But let it not be said that the women of the republic, absorbed in ministering to the outward alone, saw not the philosophy of the revolution through which they pa.s.sed; understood not the moral struggle that convulsed the nation--the irrepressible conflict between liberty and slavery.

Remember the angels of mercy and justice are twin-sisters, and ever walk hand in hand. While you give yourselves so generously to the Sanitary and Freemen's Commissions forget not to hold up the eternal principles on which our republic rests. Slavery once abolished, our brothers, husbands, and sons will never again, for its sake, be called to die on the battle-field, starve in rebel prisons, or return to us crippled for life; but our country, free from the one blot that has always marred its fair escutcheon, will be an example to all the world that "righteousness exalteth a nation." The G.o.d of Justice is with us, and our word, our work--our prayer for freedom--will not, can not be in vain.

E. CADY STANTON, _President_.

SUSAN B. ANTHONY, _Secretary_ W. L. N. League, Room 20, Cooper Inst.i.tute, N. Y.