The History of Woman Suffrage Volume II Part 111

The American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation held in 1872 its fourth annual meeting, and celebrated its third anniversary at St.

Louis.

Dr. STONE, of Michigan, said: Friends of the cause of universal suffrage--We live in an era of common sense. Sir William Hamilton, who was a great philosopher, and who investigated all the systems of philosophy from Aristotle down to Descartes and Kant, who went to the lowest depths of philosophy, dived deep for pearls, sometimes bringing up also mud and clams, declared after all his survey of the various schools of philosophy, that the great regulating power of the human mind was common sense; that of all the faculties, that which controlled all others was common sense. That was the basis of his system of philosophy. Now it is just as appropriate as friends of social and political reform, that we should rely upon common sense, as it was for this great philosopher, and it is this on which we purpose to rely. Wherever there is a battle to be fought, they who make the best use and most continued exercise of common sense are sure to win. This is not only true in moral contests, in the strife of mind with mind, but it is true in those material contests such as we have recently had. It was true in the great contest between Germany and France. It was this the crusaders lacked, and the reason why they spent so many ages in doing nothing was that they did not exercise their common sense. When the Jews, by their follies, by their obduracy, had destroyed themselves, and the Almighty wished to bring them to their senses, he said, "Come, let us reason together." For he knew if they would exercise their common sense they would no longer be rebellious as they had been. And it is true at the present time. I think if we can succeed in inducing those who differ from us to reason--I mean to exercise that regulating power which the common mind as well as the philosophic mind possesses, if they would exercise their common sense, the battle would be fought and the victory would be won. Sometimes circ.u.mstances unexpectedly bring men to their senses in these matters. We know there has been a great deal of discussion on the subject of slavery, and we needed a Dred Scott decision to bring men to their senses. When they contemplated that in all its bearings and ultimate results, common sense said: It can never be endured; we have had enough of this going on. Let us come directly to the point. Is a negro a man? Is he a rational, accountable man or not? If a beast has rights we are bound to respect, and if a man for abusing it may be thrown into the penitentiary, is it possible that he who is made in the image of G.o.d is without rights? Does not common sense teach that we have some rights, and if our laws contradict such a decision as this it is time we have better laws, and such as common sense will approve. We want some one to rise in the cause of suffrage to cut the Gordian knot that binds the community, that binds churches, that binds good men everywhere, as well as those who are willing to be mistaken. A single word from Gen. Butler, who, whatever may have been charged against him, is not lacking in common sense, the single word "contraband," wrought a revolution in the midst of our rebellion, and to that we owe to a great extent our success in the war. We want such a gleam of light to burst upon the minds of the community, upon the great American people who are interested in the subject. The field is ours for the next four years, and we will strive to impress the doctrines of common sense upon all men and all women everywhere, until the atmosphere shall be full of it and all shall take it in by absorption.

Mrs. LONGLEY, of Cincinnati, said--_Ladies and Gentlemen_: In a country where "No taxation without representation" is a watchword, and where it is held that "all just governments derive their powers from the consent of the governed," it should be unnecessary to plead for the recognition of the right of half its people to partic.i.p.ate in making the laws by which they are taxed and governed. The justice of woman's claim to the ballot is so self-evident, and so entirely in accord with the spirit of our inst.i.tutions and the fundamental principles upon which they are based, that I often feel as though it were offering an insult to American men to undertake to argue the question. But, every election day reminds us that these fundamental principles which our forefathers fought to establish are outraged. "We, the people," they said, yet nearly a century finds half the people ignored, half the people taxed without being represented, and governed without their consent. I know it is held that the expression "the people" in the Const.i.tution does not include women, and should not be interpreted literally; but it appears to me that if we engage in this method of interpretation of const.i.tutions and laws we shall soon get things mixed. If the expression does not include women in the sense of voters it does not include them in the sense of tax-payers, nor in the sense of criminals, nor does it even include them as being ent.i.tled to the enjoyment of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"--as the Declaration of Independence declares "a people" to be ent.i.tled to these.

Surely it will not be said that the rights of half the people of the United States were ignored by the men who framed the Const.i.tution of the United States. It was evidently the object of the Const.i.tution to secure equal rights to all. The Const.i.tution of the United States recognizes the great principle of human equality, and the rights of women can not be delegated to or represented by their husbands. Women who believe that they are responsible to G.o.d only, are not willing to be circ.u.mscribed by men.

Mrs. HANNAH M. TRACY CUTLER said that this was a progressive, a growing, and a glorious country. All people came here and found protection under its generous shelter, more or less. We had been digging away at this suffrage question until, in her opinion, we are getting pretty near the foundation of government. We are pulling up the old ideas and throwing them out of the way and making room for the grand tree of liberty to grow. That tree has already grown to considerable size, and flourished more or less under the generous protection of our inst.i.tutions--less a good deal, the negro said a few years ago, though now he begins to realize that it is more.

We women are quite well protected. Sometimes we are protected a great deal more than we want to be. [Several ladies in the audience, "That's so!" and laughter.] The American men are the best men under the sun. Each one of them is a prince of the blood royal. That's a reasonably good compliment. Now, gentlemen, turn round and say to the women of America, "You are each and every one of you a princess by divine right, and we will give you even the half of our kingdom." That is all we ask. But they say, "Show us the precedent. The thing never has been done before. The women have been ignored in government from the earliest days until now," etc. Why, gentlemen, away back in the remote ages of history--so far that the memory of man runneth not distinctly thereto--we find that women not only lived and gave men to the world, but that they lived and gave laws to the world.

Mrs. STONE, the President, said she would like to speak to the delegates and friends, because she knew those who were here had been working in this cause for years. They are short of time, but all give it that deep, earnest baptism of work for the principles that underlie republican inst.i.tutions. They would work until that end is achieved, or until death relieved them from their labor.

She felt cheered on seeing the progress they had made. It was about twenty years since the speaker came to this city to deliver a course of lectures for woman's rights. They called it woman's rights in those days. They did not use the word suffrage at all; and, as she stood there now, her mind ran back over a score of years. When she counted the gains they had made, it seemed as if she had been in some fairy palace, and by charms the old wrongs had dropped away and new good had sprung up. They had fought for woman's rights, and had taken hold of the hands of little girls growing out of girlhood into womanhood--girls who must stand on their own feet and earn a living for themselves. When there was no father's hand or brother's arm to help, what could woman do?

She looked out into the great thoroughfares of industry open to all men, and almost all were shut against her. Woman was a teacher at a dollar a day, and had to board round. She was a seamstress with still smaller pay, or she was a housekeeper at her own house or somebody's else, where, so far as material gains were concerned, the results were small. Other industries were shut to her. The world is as full of women as men. They have to eat, drink, and be clothed, and, until other opportunities are obtained, their supplies are infinitely smaller than those offered to men. Why should women, whose supple fingers can set type--why should not they be type-setters? The printers joined together in bands and swore by all the G.o.ds they knew that women should not be printers. They joined together in a body and printed in a book that they would not work for any man who employed women as printers. They thought it would degrade the labor of man. The reformers asked for what was honest, good, and true, and found a response in the business interest of men, and the way was opened for women printers. Instead of brothers talking of supporting their sisters and making themselves poor they now worked side by side. A paper which they would have here for subscription--the _Woman's Journal_--came from an office where all the printers, with two exceptions, were girls; and the man who managed the office said it was an advantage, because the girls are always sober and never go on a spree. He could always be sure of having the paper out at the right time. The steady, honest, little women printers are always there. They asked why the women could not go into the stores and sell shoes, cloth, and dry goods, and why should not men build cities and sail ships and do what larger muscles fit them for? and they quoted the words of King Solomon, who spoke of a good wife sending out ships and dealing in merchandise. Women entered stores and became not only clerks but merchants, and some of the best stores she knew to-day were owned by women, who do not look to the time when they are to go to the workhouse or some worse place even, but were laying by some means to give them comfortable maintenance in their old age.

Fathers who had daughters looked forward with more courage, because there were more avenues for woman's industry and better pay to reward it.

When Chicago was burned, the telegraphic dispatches most promptly forwarded and accurately worded were sent by women, and a generous public appreciated the fact. In medical matters they said, "Here is a department--here is a field for which women are peculiarly adapted, and to which they would be welcomed in the hour of peril." They were laughed at and called "she doctors" by those who thought women would be scared by their vulgarity; and some young doctors threw stones and mud, literally, and tried to prevent women being physicians. But gentlemen who had wives and daughters looked in the faces of those half-bearded boys mocking at women wishing to study medicine, and asked, "Are these the fellows who wish to come to our homes and practice?" And when those boys knew they would not be welcome to those houses, they smoothed down their anger, went back to their studies, and have behaved better ever since. The speaker mentioned the case of a sister of the Fowlers who kept a horse and carriage, and a man to drive. She has a large practice, with $15,000 a year. They next asked that there should be women lawyers. She believed the day was not far off when women would as worthily fill that as any other profession. What they asked was, that woman should have a wider sphere of activity.

The speaker next alluded to the fact that the captain of a ship going to California had fallen sick and died. The captain's wife, who had been on many voyages, asked the sailors over the dead body of her husband to be as loyal to her as they had been to him, and every man swore fealty to the woman, whom they knew to be worthy of command. When she brought the ship safe to port, the grateful underwriters made up a purse for the woman who had saved the ship.

After relating a similar anecdote in relation to a ship that sailed from China, the speaker narrated the progress made by women in being admitted to the Christian ministry. When they had so many rights, they were sure they could earn their own bread; and they must have the right to vote in this Government, where they were taxed, and where their sons could be sent to fight in war. In a republican government they were ent.i.tled to vote; and now the Republican party--the great Republican party that had swept the country by such a magnificent vote--had made the cause its own and could carry them on to triumph; giving them the suffrage as it had given it to the negroes. The Convention at Philadelphia listened respectfully to their claim, and the Republican party of the State of Ma.s.sachusetts had put it in their platform. In the last campaign the suffragists won five hundred thousand votes of men who were bound to vote for them by and by, and they were sure to win. She believed the final hour of victory could not be far away.

Mrs. HOWE, chairman of the Executive Committee, gave a long and deeply interesting report. Mr. BLACKWELL read the following letters:

MRS. LUCY STONE:--_Dear Madam_--I should be glad to meet with you at St. Louis and to add my testimony to that of the n.o.ble band, who, after so long a conflict for another step in the advance of humanity, seem on the eve of seeing their wishes fulfilled. I have never been sanguine as to the near and rapid accomplishment of the admission of women to the right and duty of suffrage, but I have never doubted of its ultimate accomplishment, because I believe that every movement, founded in justice and wisdom, will at length prevail. The cause of woman suffrage never seemed to me more worthy of the consideration of thoughtful men than now. What it has suffered, all causes that strike at deep principles must expect to suffer in their early history. And it has been relieved of its hindrances sooner than might have been expected. The action of political conventions, State and National, has been significant. If the articles on suffrage are vague as to principle, they are striking as the record of the conclusions of observant politicians in respect to the currents and tendencies of the public mind. They felt the need of saying something, and if they did it reluctantly, it is all the more significant. While then I can not be with you personally, I am with you in sympathy, and in the firm faith of the justice of your cause and of its final victory. Very truly yours,

BROOKLYN, _November 9, 1872_. HENRY WARD BEECHER.

_My Dear_ MRS. HOWE _and_ LUCY STONE:--I am sorry that I must decline your kind invitation to attend the annual meeting of the American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation at St.

Louis. I am too old (approaching seventy-six) and infirm to make long journeys. Let woman be of good cheer. She will not have to wait for the ballot much longer. The arguments are unanswerable and will soon be crowned with success. Allow me to send you the enclosed twenty-five dollars toward defraying the expenses of the meeting. With great regard, Your friend,

PETERBORO, N. Y., _November 15, 1872_. GERRIT SMITH.

DEAR LUCY:--I am glad to hear that the American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation is to meet at St. Louis this month. The more women are brought to think on this subject, the more they will be convinced that their spiritual growth has been stinted by customs and opinions which have no real foundation in nature and truth; and the frank, free West is more courageous than the East in carrying its convictions promptly into practice. I rejoiced in the recent political action of women in Ma.s.sachusetts and elsewhere--first, because it was salutary for women themselves as all things are which promote the activity of their minds on important subjects; and, secondly, because the promptness and earnestness with which they almost universally took the right side has greatly helped to convince those who needed convincing that women are competent to examine into affairs of National interest and to form rational conclusions therefrom.

Although I feel grateful to the Republican party for treating our claims with more respectful consideration than any other party has done, yet my princ.i.p.al reason for earnestly desiring its continuance in power is, that it is essentially the party of progress. It owes its existence to progress, and its vitality has been preserved by its practical support of progressive ideas. It embodies a very large portion of the culture, the conscientiousness, and the enlightened good sense of the nation, and its elements are so harmonized as to produce a safe medium between old fogyism and radical rashness. It is natural for such a party to respect our claims, because they have become accustomed to respect what is founded on principles of justice. It was the learning of that lesson which originally made them a powerful party, and they can not be false to ideas of true progress without committing suicide. Of course, with changing events, party names will change; but I hope women will carefully notice what principles underlie these changes, and will conscientiously give their influence to whatever party proves itself most friendly to the largest freedom regulated by wise and equal laws.

With a cordial greeting to our sisters of the West and to our brothers also, I wish you G.o.d-speed on your mission of enfranchis.e.m.e.nt to half the human race.

WAYLAND, _November 12, 1872_. L. MARIA CHILD.

The Business Committee reported resolutions,[193] which after much discussion were adopted. Officers[194] for the ensuing year were then proposed and elected.

Miss EASTMAN was announced. As she stepped to the front she was received with applause. She gave an able address, answering the questions, "What is to be gained and what is to be lost, by giving women the ballot?" She confined her attention to the latter question princ.i.p.ally, by reviewing the condition of women in the past, and their condition in foreign countries. She answered the charge that women are unfit to use the ballot. There was quite an array of facts in her discourse, and extreme beauty in her language, though the latter covered at times exquisite sarcasm that was relished by all. She made a decided impression upon the audience, and concluded amid demonstrations of applause.

LUCY STONE made the closing speech, and said that after the golden words to which we had been listening, silence was most fitting; what she had to say, therefore, would be brief and without preliminary. The distinctions which are made on account of s.e.x are so utterly without reason, that a mere statement of them ought to be sufficient to secure their immediate correction.

For example, here are twins, a baby boy and girl; they rock in the same cradle; the same breast blesses their baby lips; the same hand guides their first tottering steps. A little later they play the same plays, recite the same lessons and hold the same rank as scholars. They ask admission to Harvard college. The boy is received, and the girl refused. Can any one tell me a good reason why? At twenty-one their father gives them each a house.

They both pay taxes on this real estate, but the young man has a voice, both in the amount of tax and its use, all of which is denied to the young woman. Can any one tell a good reason why?

They a.s.sume the marriage relation. The young husband can sell his house, give a good t.i.tle, convey his stocks, will his property according to his pleasure, have the guardianship and control of his children. The young wife can not sell her house, or give a valid t.i.tle; can not convey her stocks, or make a will of her property with the same freedom that the husband can, has no equal right to the control and guardianship of her children. Can any one tell a good reason why?

The man becomes a widower, but the house, the land, the furniture, and the children are all undisturbed. The woman becomes a widow. The property is divided in fractions, the contents of the cupboards and closets counted, valued, divided, and the widow's thirds (commonly known as the widow's inc.u.mbrance), are left to this woman. Can any one give a good reason why there should be such a difference between the rights of the widow and the widower? or why woman as a student, a wife, a mother, a widow, and a citizen, should be held at such a disadvantage?

The mere statement of the case shows the injustice, and the wrong which needs to be righted. There is only one way to remove this, and that is for woman to use her right to the ballot, and through it, protect herself. Oh, men of St. Louis! will you not use the power you hold, and the opportunity to make the application of our theory of government sure as far as in you lies, to each man's mother, sister, and daughter?

On motion of Mr. Blackwell, it was

_Resolved_, That the thanks of this Convention are extended to the citizens of St. Louis for the kind hospitality they have extended to the delegates of this Convention. Also to the representatives of the press for the candid and respectful reports which have appeared in the daily papers of the city.

The American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation held an introductory anniversary meeting Monday, October 13, 1873, in the large hall of the Cooper Inst.i.tute. A fine audience attended, the hall being nearly filled. Fully two-thirds of this audience were men.

Colonel T. W. HIGGINSON, the President of the a.s.sociation, said:

This is my last service as President of this a.s.sociation. Unlike other bodies, it only has a man for that office every other year, and this is the end of the other year. We meet here as a family, men and women, each ready to do his or her share of the talk. We stand here to speak neither for one nor the other, but for that great movement which is to sweep through the land and arouse one s.e.x to its rights and the other to its duties. Not to arouse man against woman, but in favor of the civilization which is to come.

It is more than twenty years since the Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation came up in an organized form. We entered into this movement with no ideas of immediate success. We had behind us only a few years of agitation after long centuries of prejudice and distrust.

Look through the long record of the great reforms of the world, and what a series of delays and discouragements you find! It is a history of defeats before victories. Men sometimes come to us with sympathy because we have been defeated in this Legislature or that convention. Sympathy! We thank heaven that it had got there to be defeated; that we are strong enough to be in a minority! Defeat is victory afterward. We have been defeated again and again, and again, and each time we find ourselves growing stronger.

Miss MARY F. EASTMAN, in an able address, stated the progress of the movement in different States, and insisted on the right of women to the exercise of the franchise, as a consequence of the Declaration of Independence. The elective franchise was the greatest blessing enjoyed by a free people, and the inability of any cla.s.s to exercise it indicated a description of servitude.

She said that the person was trying to erase G.o.d's finger mark upon the human soul who would prevent anybody, man or woman, from following natural bent and ability in any avocation. In the founding of Harvard and other early colleges, some provision was made for the education of Indians, but none for women. Already at Yale and West Point colored men have a fair chance, not yet the women. Miss Eastman thought that suffrage was the highway to all other reforms.

Mrs. LUCY STONE said: _Mr. President, Fellow-workers, Ladies, and Gentlemen:_--Our cause is half won when we find that people are willing to hear it, as you seem to be willing to hear it now. One of the best things we can have in meetings like this is to create a discontent that women are not permitted to enjoy all their rights. To-night while we are here, there are gathered in Plymouth Church, women who are laying plans to take part in the celebration of the Centennial, in 1876. At this point in the speaker's remarks, some confusion arose from the entry into the hall of about 200 young women.

Mr. DENNIS GRIFFIN rose and said these women were not the Cooper Inst.i.tute cla.s.s; they were parasol-makers who had been forced out of employment by their employers, and they had come, not as women suffragists but as women suffering, to ask of the audience their sympathetic support, and if when the lady had finished her speech the audience would permit the President of this a.s.sociation of working women to speak from the platform, she would explain their grievances.

Mrs. STONE then proceeded, saying that if one thing was surer than another, it was that woman suffrage would help every suffering sewing woman. It had been said that the ballot was worth fifty cents a day to a man; and, if so, it was worth just as much to a woman. All over the Union, as this night in Plymouth Church, women were preparing to take part in the coming Centennial to celebrate the Fourth of July, 1876. When she heard this she asked herself what part women had in such a celebration?

Just as men were oppressed previous to 1776, so were women oppressed to-day. I say that women should resolve to take no part in it. Let them shut their doors and darken their windows on that day, and let a few of the most matronly women dress themselves in black and stand at the corners of the streets where the largest procession is to pa.s.s, bearing banners inscribed, "We are governed without our consent; we are taxed without representation." The Declaration of Independence belonged to men. Let them have their masculine celebration and masculine glory all to themselves, and let the women, wherever they can get a church, go there and hold solemn service and toll the bell. "It will give us a chance for moral protest," she continued, "such as we shall never have again, for before another hundred years it must surely be that the growth of public sentiment will sweep away all distinctions based solely on s.e.x."

At the close of Mrs. Stone's remarks, the Chairman invited the representative of the parasol-makers to state her case, introducing her as Miss Leonard, of New York, President of the parasol-makers.

Miss LEONARD advanced to the front of the platform, and appeared to be much embarra.s.sed at fronting so large an audience. The hearty applause with which she was greeted a.s.suring her of a kindly reception, she became a little more at ease, and in a low tone of voice spoke as follows:

_My Worthy Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen:_ I was not prepared to meet an audience like this. In consequence of being oppressed by our employers we were obliged to leave their employ, because we can not earn our bread.

Consequently we held a meeting up stairs to-night, and knowing that you were here we thought we would let you know that there are hundreds of women suffering, not for the ballot but for bread. I have never wanted the ballot. I believe it belongs to the men who have it; but I come to ask you in the name of humanity if there can be any society organized that will repress the unscrupulous employers and let the public know they are oppressing the poor girls. Men are strong; they can get together and ask what they want; they can organize in large bodies, but the working women are the most oppressed race in the United States. I am thankful to you, gentlemen and ladies (I should have put the ladies first), for giving me your attention. I don't intend to detain you long, because your meeting is here for a different purpose, but I hope you will give me your sympathies. I can not make you an eloquent speech, for I, as a working woman, have had to labor eighteen hours a day for my bread, and therefore have had no time to educate myself as an orator.

HENRY B. BLACKWELL said: This audience is composed mostly of men.

I have a word to say to men especially. Why is it that labor is oppressed and that working women and working men are in some respects worse off than ever before? I answer; because our Government is Republican only in name. It is not even representative of men. The primary meetings which nominate the candidates and control the policy of parties are neglected by the voters. Not one man in fifty attends them. They are controlled in every locality by rings of trading politicians.

Now there is only one remedy for this. You must somehow contrive to interest the ma.s.s of the people in public business. You must reform the primary meetings by securing an attendance of the intelligent cla.s.ses of the community. There is only one way to do this. The same way you have already adopted in the churches, in charitable a.s.sociations, in society, everywhere except in politics, you must enlist the sympathy and co-operation of women.

Then the men who now stay away will go with their wives and sisters. The reason the better cla.s.s of men neglect to attend the primaries is this--civilized and refined men spend their evenings in the society of women; they go with them to church meetings, to concerts, to lectures. They do not break off these engagements to go down to some liquor saloon, or other unattractive locality, there, amid the fumes of tobacco and whisky, to find everything already cut and dried beforehand. They try it once or twice and then retire for life disgusted. We ask suffrage for women because they are different from men. Not better nor wiser on the whole, but better and wiser in certain respects. They are more temperate, more chaste, more economical. Their presence will appeal to the self-respect of men. Thus both will be improved, and politics will be redeemed and purified.

The second session of this Convention was held in Brooklyn, in Plymouth Church. At this meeting the Chairman of the Executive Committee, Mrs. Lucy Stone read her annual report, and then the delegates from the different States gave accounts of the cause in all parts of the Union, as carried on by means of the State societies. At the opening of the afternoon session Col. HIGGINSON read the following letters:

ANDOVER, Ma.s.s., Sept. 29, 1873.