The History of Woman Suffrage Volume II Part 64

Miss SUSAN B. ANTHONY--DEAR MADAM:.... Accept my a.s.surance of full and cordial sympathy with the movement to extend the right of suffrage to the women of the country, and my pledge to make that sympathy active on the first and all occasions that may arise for my official action.

Very respectfully your obedient servant, E. G. ROSS.

WASHINGTON, Jan 19.

Mrs. ELIZABETH CADY STANTON--MADAM: Your favor of the 18th instant, inviting me to address the convention now in session in this city for the promotion of the cause of female suffrage, has been received. I regret that my official duties will not allow me the time to comply with this request; but I a.s.sure you, and the ladies with whom you are a.s.sociated, that I am heartily in sympathy with the efforts you are making for the success of the cause which you especially have so long and so ably advocated. I beg further to say that the bestowal of the right of equal political suffrage upon the women of this republic can not, in my judgment, be much longer withheld, and that whatever influence I have shall be exerted, at every proper opportunity, to hasten the consummation for which you are laboring. I have the honor to be, very truly, yours,

MATT. H. CARPENTER.

[131] Rev. Olympia Brown, Connecticut; E. H. Heywood and Jennie Collins, Ma.s.sachusetts; M. Adele Hazlitt, Michigan; Mrs. Francis Minor and Phoebe Couzins, Missouri; Hon. Henry B. Stanton; Judge Barlow, Canastota; Josephine S. Griffing, Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford, Lizzie M.

Boynton, Maud D. Molson, Susan B. Anthony, Gen. E. M. Lee, Act Gov.

Wyoming; Hon. A. G. Riddle, Washington; Hon. Jas. W. Stillman, Rhode Island; Col. R. G. Ingersoll, Illinois; Hon. J. M. Scovill, New Jersey; Dr. James C. Jackson, New York; Mrs. Louisa H. Dent, New York; Lillie Peckham, Wisconsin; Mrs. M. E. J. Gage, New York; Mrs. Dr. S.

Hathaway, Boston; and S. D. Dillaye, Syracuse.

[132] The Fifth Avenue Conference proposition was presented to the members of the National a.s.sociation, duly discussed, and so far as one of the parties could do, accepted; that is, the National Society pledged itself to be merged into a Union a.s.sociation, provided the American would make the same surrender at its first Anniversary. But as this overture for peace was rejected, the mission of the Union Society ended, leaving the National free to rea.s.sert itself and go forward with its catholic platform and persistent demands for "National protection for United States citizens," while the American devoted itself primarily to State legislation.

[133] WOMAN SUFFRAGE CELEBRATION.--The twentieth anniversary of the inauguration of the woman suffrage movement in this country, will be celebrated in Apollo Hall, in the city of New York, on the 19th and 20th of October, 1870. The movement in England, as in America, may be dated from the first National Convention, held at Worcester, Ma.s.s., October, 1850. The July following that convention, a favorable criticism of its proceedings and an able digest of the whole question appeared in the _Westminster Review_, written by Mrs. John Stuart Mill, which awakened attention in both hemispheres. In the call for that convention, the following subjects for discussion were presented: Woman's right to _education_, literary, scientific and artistic; her _avocations_, industrial, commercial and professional; her _interests_, pecuniary, civil and political: in a word, _her rights_ as an individual, and her _functions_ as a citizen. It is hoped that the Old and the New World will both be largely represented by the earlier advocates of this reform who will bring with them reports of progress and plans for future action. An extensive foreign correspondence will also add interest to the meetings. We specially invite the presence of those just awakening to an interest in this great movement, that from a knowledge of the past they may draw fresh inspiration for the work of the future and fraternize with a generation now rapidly pa.s.sing away. As those who inaugurated a reform, so momentous and far reaching in its consequences, should hold themselves above all party considerations and personal antagonisms, and as this gathering is to be in no way connected with either of our leading woman suffrage organizations, we hope that the friends of real progress everywhere will come together and unitedly celebrate this Twentieth Anniversary of a great National Movement for Freedom.

Committee of Arrangements.--Lucretia Mott, Sarah Pugh, Elizabeth C.

Stanton, Ernestine L. Rose, Samuel J. May, Mrs. C. I. H. Nichols. On behalf of the Committee,

PAULINA W. DAVIS, Chairman.

[134] In 1843, John Neal, of Portland, Maine, gave a lecture in New York which roused considerable discussion; it was replied to by Mrs.

Eliza W. Farnham, with all the objections which have ever been urged, and far more ably than by any of the later objectors. Mrs. Farnham lived long enough to retrace her ground and accept the highest truth.

"Woman and her Era" fully refutes her early objections. Mr. Neal's lecture, published in _The Brother Jonathan_, was extensively copied, and as it reviewed some of the laws relating to woman and her property, it had a wide, silent influence, preparing the way for action. It was a scathing satire, and men felt the rebuke.

In this conflict for principle, the names of Wm. L. Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Edmund Quincy, Oliver Johnson, Parker Pillsbury, S. S.

Foster, William Henry Channing, Samuel J. May, Charles Burleigh, James Mott, Frederick Dougla.s.s, Edmund M. Davis, and Robert Purvis, stand out conspicuously, and will so be remembered in all the future.

[135] _Resolved_, That at the close of over twenty years of persistent agitation, pet.i.tioning, State Legislatures and Congress for the right of suffrage, we, who inaugurated this reform, now demand the immediate adoption of a XVI. Amendment to the Federal Const.i.tution, that shall prohibit any State from disfranchising its citizens on the ground of s.e.x; and whatever national party does this act of justice, fastens the keystone in the arch of the Republic.

_Resolved_, That as neither free trade, finance, prohibition, capital and labor, nor any other political question, can be so vital to the existence of the Republic as the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women, it is clearly our duty to aid and support the great National party that shall first inscribe woman suffrage on its banner.

_Resolved_, That our thanks are due to the Democratic party of Utah and Wyoming for securing to woman her right of suffrage in those Territories.

_Resolved_, That the Democratic party of Kansas, in declaring, at its recent convention at Topeka, the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women in its judgment a most reasonable and timely enterprise, no longer to be justly postponed, is ent.i.tled to the hearty support of the friends of our cause in that State.

_Resolved_, That the American Equal Rights a.s.sociation, in sending Susan B. Anthony to the National Democratic Convention in 1868, and the Ma.s.sachusetts Suffrage a.s.sociation, in sending Mary A. Livermore to the Republican State Convention in 1870, have inaugurated the right political action, which should be followed in the National and State Conventions throughout the country.

_Resolved_, That we rejoice in the fact that the Republican Legislatures of Iowa and other Western States have submitted to the people the proposition to strike the word "male" from their Const.i.tutions.

_Resolved_, That it is as disastrous to human progress to teach women to bow down to the authority of man, as divinely inspired, as it is to teach man to bow down to the authority of Kings and Popes, as divinely ordained, for in both cases we violate the fundamental idea on which a Republican government and the Protestant religion are based--the right of individual judgment.

_Whereas_, The accident of s.e.x no more involves the capacity to govern a family than does the accident of Papal election or royal birth the capacity to govern a dominion or a kingdom; therefore,

_Resolved_, That the doctrine of woman's subjection, enforced from the text, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your husbands," should be thrown aside, with the exploded theories of kingcraft and slavery, embodied in the injunction, "Honor the king," and "Servants, obey your masters."

_Resolved_, That as the gravest responsibilities of social life must ever rest on the mother of the race, therefore law, religion, and public sentiment, instead of degrading her as the subject of man, should unitedly declare and maintain her sole and supreme sovereignty over her own person."

[136] Married afterwards to Pere Hyacinth.

[137] Chief among the guests were Mrs. Margaret Lucas, of Scotland, sister of John and Jacob Bright; Mrs. Governor Jewell, of Conn.; Mrs.

Elmes, of Birmingham; Mrs. Caroline Stratton, and Miss Sarah Pugh, of Philadelphia; Lucretia Mott, Abby H. Price, Adelle Hazlett, Olympia Brown, Mrs. Davis, Mrs. Lucas, Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. Gage, and Miss Anthony; Mrs. G.o.dbie, wife of one of the leading reform advocates of Utah; Mrs. Denman, of Quincy, Ill.; Mrs. Laura Curtis Bullard, and Dr.

Clemence Lozier.

Among the gentlemen present were Alexander Delmar, Rev. Henry Powers, Mr. Lewis, of the _National Intelligencer_, Col. Hastings, Theodore Tilton, Oliver Johnson, Prof. Wilc.o.x, and Mr. Packard, of the Business College, and others.

[138] CALL FOR A NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION AT WASHINGTON.--We, the undersigned, desiring to secure a full discussion of the question of the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women during the present session of Congress, with a view to the speedy pa.s.sage of a XVI. Amendment to the Federal Const.i.tution, invite all men and women desiring this change in the Const.i.tution to meet us in convention for that purpose in the city of Washington on the 11th and 12th of January. Eminent speakers will be present from all parts of the country, including several members of Congress, and plans of work will be presented and discussed. We earnestly urge you, dear friends, to come together at this time in a spirit of unselfishness and of hard work, and let us take one another by the hand and move onward as never before.

PAULINA W. DAVIS, JOSEPHINE S. GRIFFING, ISABELLA B. HOOKER.

[139] Mrs. Esther Morris, a large fine-looking woman, administered justice in that Territory for nearly two years, and none of her decisions were ever questioned.

[140] The hearing took place in the committee room, which was crowded with a goodly a.s.semblage of men and women. Judge Bingham, of Ohio, was chairman, Gen. B. F. Butler, of Ma.s.s., was prominent in favor of the cause. Messrs. Eldridge, B. C. Cook, I. A. Peters, Ulysses Morcur, Wm.

Loughridge, Michael Kerr, S. W. Kellogg, and G. W. Hitchc.o.c.k formed the rest of the committee. The claimants for woman suffrage were represented by Mrs. V. C. Woodhull and Mrs. L. D. Blake, New York; Mrs. I. B Hooker, Rev. O. Brown, Conn.; Mrs. P. W. Davis, Miss K.

Stanton, Rhode Island; Mrs. J. Griffing, and Mrs. Lockwood, D. C.; and Miss Susan B. Anthony. The proceedings were opened by the reading of her memorial by Mrs. Woodhull. It was the first time the lady had ever appeared in public, and her voice trembled slightly with emotion which only made the reading the more effective. She claimed not a XVI.

amendment; but that under the XIV. and XV. Amendments, women have already the right to vote, and prayed Congress merely to pa.s.s a declaratory resolution to that effect.--The Washington _Republican._

[141] _Yeas_--Messrs. Allison, Arnell, Asper, Atwood, Banks, Barry, Buck, Buffinton, Burdett, Churchill, Amasa Cobb, Clinton L. Cobb, Coburn, Cullom, Darrall, Joseph Dixon, Ela, Farnsworth, Finkelnburg, Hamilton, Harris, Hawkins, h.o.a.r, Alexander H. Jones, Julian, Kelley, Lawrence, Long, Loughridge, Maynard, Milnes, William Moore, Morey, Daniel J. Morrell, Negley, Orth, Packard, Paine, Pierce, Platt, Pomeroy, Porter, Prosser, Sargent, Scofield, Shanks, William J. Smith, Stevenson, Stoughton, Strickland, Twich.e.l.l, Cadwallader C. Washburn, Willard, John T. Wilson, and Wolf.

[142] Among the speakers were Isabella Beecher Hooker, Paulina Wright Davis, Minnie Swayze, Mrs. Dr. Hallock, Josephine S. Griffing, Victoria C. Woodhull, Anna Middlebrook, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Susan B.

Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott.

[143] _An Appeal to the Women of the United States by the National Woman Suffrage and Educational Committee, Washington, D. C._:

DEAR FRIENDS:--The question of your rights as citizens of the United States, and of the grave responsibilities which a recognition of those rights will involve, is becoming the great question of the day in this country, and is the culmination of the great question which has been struggling through the ages for solution, that of the highest freedom and largest personal responsibility of the individual under such necessary and wholesome restraints as are required by the welfare of society. As you shall meet and act upon this question, so shall these great questions of freedom and responsibility sweep on, or be r.e.t.a.r.ded, in their course.

This is pre-eminently the birthday of womanhood. The material has long held in bondage the spiritual; henceforth the two, the material refined by the spiritual, the spiritual energized by the material, are to walk hand in hand for the moral regeneration of mankind. Mothers, for the first time in history, are able to a.s.sert, not only their inherent first right to the children they have borne, but their right to be a protective and purifying power in the political society into which those children are to enter. To fulfill, therefore, their whole duty of motherhood, to satisfy their whole capacity in that divine relation, they are called of G.o.d to partic.i.p.ate with man in all the responsibilities of human life, and to share with him every work of brain and heart, refusing only those physical labors that are inconsistent with the exalted duties and privileges of maternity, and requiring these of men as the equivalent of those heavy yet necessary burdens which women alone can bear.

Under the Const.i.tution of the United States justly interpreted, you were ent.i.tled to partic.i.p.ate in the government of the country, in the same manner as you were held to allegiance and subject to penalty. But in the slow development of the great principles of freedom, you, and all, have failed both to recognize and appreciate this right; but to-day, when the rights and responsibilities of women are attracting the attention of thoughtful minds throughout the whole civilized world, this const.i.tutional right, so long un.o.bserved and unvalued, is becoming one of prime importance, and calls upon all women who love their children and their country to accept and rejoice in it.

Thousands of years ago G.o.d uttered this mingled command and promise, "Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy G.o.d giveth thee." May we not hope that in the general recognition of this right and this duty of woman to partic.i.p.ate in government, our beloved country may find her days long and prosperous in this beautiful land which the Lord hath given her.

To the women of this country who are willing to unite with us in securing the full recognition of our rights, and to accept the duties and responsibilities of a full citizenship, we offer for signature the following Declaration and Pledge, in the firm belief that our children's children will with fond veneration recognize in this act our devotion to the great doctrines of liberty in their new and wider and more spiritual application, even as we regard with reverence the prophetic utterances of the fathers of the Republic in their Declaration of Independence:

DECLARATION AND PLEDGE OF THE WOMEN OF THE UNITED STATES CONCERNING THEIR RIGHT TO AND THEIR USE OF THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE.

We, the undersigned, believing that the sacred rights and privileges of citizenship in this Republic were guaranteed to us by the original Const.i.tution, and that these rights are confirmed and more clearly established by the XIV. and XV. Amendments, so that we can no longer refuse the solemn responsibilities thereof, do hereby pledge ourselves to accept the duties of the franchise in our several States, so soon as all legal restrictions are removed. And believing that character is the best safeguard of national liberty, we pledge ourselves to make the personal purity and integrity of candidates for public office the first test of fitness. And lastly, believing in G.o.d, as the Supreme Author of the American Declaration of Independence, we pledge ourselves in the spirit of that memorable Act, to work hand in hand with our fathers, husbands, and sons, for the maintenance of those equal rights on which our Republic was originally founded, to the end that it may have, what is declared to be the first condition of just government, the consent of the governed.

You have no new issue to make, no new grievances to set forth. You are taxed without representation, tried by a jury not of your peers, condemned and punished by judges and officers not of your choice, bound by laws you have had no voice in making, many of which are specially burdensome upon you as women; in short, your rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are daily infringed, simply because you have heretofore been denied the use of the ballot, the one weapon of protection and defense under a republican form of government. Fortunately, however, you are not compelled to resort to force in order to secure the rights of a complete citizenship. These are provided for by the original Const.i.tution, and by the recent amendments you are recognized as citizens of the United States, whose rights, including the fundamental right to vote, may not be denied or abridged by the United States, nor by any State. The obligation is thus laid upon you to accept or reject the duties of citizenship, and to your own consciences and your G.o.d you must answer, if the future legislation of this country shall fall short of the demands of justice and equality.

The partic.i.p.ation of woman in political affairs is not an untried experiment. Woman suffrage has within a few years been fully established in Sweden and Austria, and to a certain extent in Russia.

In Great Britain women are now voting equally with men for all public officers except members of Parliament, and while no desire is expressed in any quarter that the suffrage already given should be withdrawn or restricted, over 126,000 names have been signed to pet.i.tions for its extension to parliamentary elections, and Jacob Bright, the leader of the movement in Parliament, and brother of the well known John Bright, says that no well-informed person entertains any doubt that a bill for such extension will soon pa.s.s.

In this country, which stands so specially on equal representation, it is hardly possible that the same equal suffrage would not be established by law, if the matter were to be left merely to the progress of public sentiment and the ordinary course of legislation.

But as we confidently believe, and as we have before stated, the right already exists in our National Const.i.tution, and especially under the recent amendments. The interpretation of the Const.i.tution which we maintain, we can not doubt, will be ultimately adopted by the courts, although, as the a.s.sertion of our right encounters a deep and prevailing prejudice, and judges are proverbially cautious and conservative, we must expect to encounter some adverse decisions. In the meantime it is of the highest importance that in every possible way we inform the public mind and educate public opinion on the whole subject of equal rights under a republican government, and that we manifest our desire for and willingness to accept all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, by a.s.serting our right to be registered as voters and to vote at the Congressional elections. The original Const.i.tution provides in express terms that the representatives in Congress shall be elected "by the people of the several States," with no restrictions whatever as to the application of that term. This right, thus clearly granted to all the people, is confirmed and placed beyond reasonable question by the XIV. and XV.