The History of Woman Suffrage Volume II Part 112

MY DEAR MRS. STONE:--My regret at not being able to attend the meetings of the American Suffrage a.s.sociation this year, is not consoled by the pleasure of expressing, by letter, my warmest sympathy with their objects; but, if we can not do the thing we would, we must do the next best thing to it.

To say that I believe in womanhood suffrage with my whole head and heart, is very imperfectly to express the eagerness with which I hope for it, and the confidence with which I expect it. It will come, as other right things come, because it is right. But those forces which "make for righteousness"

make haste slowly. Do we not often trip up ourselves in our pilgrimage toward truth, by attributing our own sense of hunger and hurry and heat to the fullness and leisure and calm in which the object of our pa.s.sionate search moves forward to meet us? There is something very significant to the student of progress, in the history of the forerunners of revolutions. Their eager confidence in their own immediate success, their pathetic bewilderment at the mystery of their apparent failures, are rich with suggestion to any one who means work for an unpopular cause. No reform marches evenly to its consummation. If it does not meet apparent overthrow, it must step at times with the uneasiness of what George Eliot would call its "growing pains." But growing pains are not death-throes. In the name of growth and decay let us be exact in our diagnosis!

I have fallen into this train of thought, because there seems to have been a concerted and deliberate attempt, this past year, on the part of certain of those opposed to the thorough elevation of women, to a.s.sert that our influence is distinctly losing ground. Irresponsible a.s.sertion is the last refuge of the force whose arguments have fallen off in the fray, and "unconscious annihilation" is as yet a very agreeable condition. It might be replied, in the language of the hymn-book:

"If this be death, 'Tis sweet to die!"

Perhaps to the onlookers this has not been one of our fast years. No one actually engaged in the struggle to improve the condition of women can for an instant doubt that it has been a strong one. A silent, sure awakening of women to their own needs is taking place on every hand; and it is becoming evident that until the ma.s.ses of women are thus awakened, the movement to enfranchise them must not antic.i.p.ate any very vivid successes. Let us be content if our strength runs for a time to the making of muscle, not to the trial of speed.

I am, Madam, very sincerely, ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS.

CONCORD, Oct. 1, 1873.

DEAR MRS. STONE:--I am so busy just now proving "woman's right to labor," that I have no time to help prove "woman's right to vote."

When I read your note aloud to the family, asking "What shall I say to Mrs. Stone?" a voice from the transcendental mist which usually surrounds my honored father instantly replied, "Tell her you are ready to follow her as leader, sure that you could not have a better one." My brave old mother, with the ardor of many unquenchable Mays shining in her face, cried out, "Tell her I am seventy three, but I mean to go to the polls before I die, even if my three daughters have to carry me." And two little men, already mustered in, added the cheering words, "Go ahead, Aunt Weedy, we will let you vote as much as ever you like."

Such being the temper of the small Convention of which I am now president, I can not hesitate to say that though I may not be with you in body, I shall be in spirit, and am as ever, hopefully and heartily yours,

LOUISA MAY ALCOTT.

Letters from William Lloyd Garrison and Lydia Maria Child were also read, expressing deep sympathy and hope for the cause.

Mr. BLACKWELL, as Chairman of the Business Committee, reported the resolutions, of which the last was:

6. _Resolved_, That the woman suffrage movement, like every other reform of the age, laments the loss and honors the memory of its most powerful advocate, John Stuart Mill.

MATILDA J. HINDMAN, of Pittsburgh, made an address explaining the origin of the movement for woman suffrage, a.s.serting its verity and necessity. She gave many reasons for woman's needing the ballot.

Mrs. LUCY STONE gave instances of oppressive laws with reference to statutes relative to widows which are in force in some New England States, and which bear very hard upon women because they can not vote.

Mrs. ABBA G. WOOLSON, of Ma.s.sachusetts, author of "Woman in American Society," gave an exceedingly interesting description of her tour through Wyoming, her hour and a half conversation in the cars with Gov. Campbell, whose testimony was positive in favor of all the new privileges given to women, by which Wyoming has distinguished herself. Mrs. Woolson came home happy to have for the first time set her foot on Republican soil; "for," said she, "no State in the Union is a republic, but it is to me an absolute monarchy."

Rev. CELIA BURLEIGH, demonstrated that this Government is not a republic, but an aristocracy so long as the suffrage is denied to woman.

Mrs. MARY A. LIVERMORE found much encouragement for the cause in various signs of the times. She would have women act as if they already bore the responsibilities of voters; would have them put off frivolity and every other cause of offense to opponents, and put on a soberness of spirit and a gracious gravity of mien as behooved those in whose hearts a great work lay. She exhorted them to remember that they were not arrayed against men as foes, but that they were working with fathers, brothers, husbands and sons for the best interests of the whole race.

An audience of at least 1,200 persons was present at the closing session.

The following letter from Miriam M. Cole was read:

OTTERBEIN UNIVERSITY, WESTERVILLE, O., Oct. 4, 1873.

DEAR MR. BLACKWELL--Much as I wish to be with you the 13th and 14th, I can not. My work in the University can not be given to another, and I have no right to leave it undone. I hope your meeting will be profitable and successful. It is said, "Interest in woman suffrage is dying out." This is not true, so far as I know. There is more sober, candid talk on the subject in private circles, here in Ohio, than ever before. Our students in the University are asking questions, with a desire for intelligent answers, and at home, in Sydney, before I left, many experienced politicians confessed it to be the one thing needful. I am sure it is gaining ground among our quiet, sensible people. The stir may not be so demonstrative in cities as formerly, but through the country there is a general awakening. If we can only have patience to wait, we shall not be disappointed.

Right, sooner or later, will come into its kingdom. Women are no longer children to be frightened by imaginary bears, neither will they be satisfied with playthings, who ask for better. The distance between men and women is lessening every year. Colleges are bringing them on to the same plane, and the agitation of this question of woman's right to a voice in the government, has given and is giving men new ideas respecting the strength of woman's intellect and her determination to be more than a doll in this busy world.

Whether we are made voting citizens or not, let no man beguile himself with the thought that the old order of things will be restored. They who step into light and freedom will not retrace their steps. This end is equality, civil, religious and political--there is no stopping-place this side of that. My best wishes are with you and yours.

MIRIAM M. COLE.

Miss HULDAH B. LOUD, of East Abington, Ma.s.s., was the first speaker: Scorned by the Democrats and fawned upon by the Republicans, who profess but to betray, under these circ.u.mstances we come again to the fight. We believe in liberty in the highest degree, such liberty as our fathers fought for, and this struggle will go on until that liberty is gained; liberty is the pursuit of life, health, and happiness. We look in vain for honesty in political life. We turn in disgust from the meaningless plat.i.tudes of the Republican Convention at Worcester, from the incidental admission of a plank in the platform which means nothing.

If we would be recognized as a power by political parties, every suffragist should withhold his ballot, and thus politicians would be brought to their senses. If we labor for anything, if we mean anything, we mean woman suffrage, and let us not give a moral or material support, politically, to the man who is not in harmony with the principle of free suffrage in its broadest significance.

We are called unwomanly for our advocacy of this priceless boon to women. We are willing that our womanly character should stand by the side of those who oppose this movement. Do you call Lucy Stone, the woman reformer of the world, with her eloquence, her soft voice, her matchless, unwearied work for all that is good, with her motherly appearance, do you call such a woman unwomanly?

Or Margaret Fuller, or Julia Ward Howe, do you call these women unwomanly? Then let us take our place by them, cast in our lot with them and be called unwomanly. It is said, and it is sadly true, that many women do not want the ballot; and it is no less sadly true that many of our most bitter opponents are our sister women. But if they do not want the ballot, if you deprive me of the right you do me a grievous wrong. It is said that if we were given the privilege of the ballot, we would not use it. Is it any reason if I do not choose to avail myself of my rights that I should be deprived of them? Why do you consult women if this right shall be given them? You did not consult the slave in regard to his freedom, but you said he was wanted for the salvation of the country, and you took him and forced freedom upon him.

Mrs. JULIA WARD HOWE and Mrs. MARY A. LIVERMORE spoke alike with great force and earnestness upon the moral and religious phases of the movement.

Mrs. FRANCES WATKINS HARPER, of Philadelphia, made the closing speech. She showed that much as white women need the ballot, colored women need it more. Although the women of her race are no longer sold on the auction block, they are subjected to the legal authority of ignorant and often degraded men. She rejoiced in the progress already made, but pleaded for equal rights and equal education for the colored women of the land.

The PRESIDENT said--Ladies and gentlemen, the letters have been read, the reports accepted, the resolutions adopted, the officers[195] for the ensuing year chosen, and there being no further business before the Convention, it is moved and seconded that we adjourn _sine die_.

The Sixth Annual Meeting of the American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation a.s.sembled at the Opera House in Detroit, Tuesday morning, Oct. 13, 1874.

Col. W. M. FERRY, of Grand Haven, Chairman of the State Executive Committee of the Michigan Suffrage a.s.sociation, called the meeting to order, and made a brief address of welcome. He spoke of the pleasure the Convention afforded many of the advocates of woman suffrage in this city who have the cause deeply at heart.

He then alluded to the auth.o.r.ess of the well-known hymn, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, and introduced her as the President of the American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation.

The Rev. Mrs. GILLETTE, of Rochester, Mich., opened the meeting with prayer.

The President, Mrs. HOWE, then delivered the Annual Address:

_Ladies and Gentlemen of the American Woman Suffrage Convention:_

It is my office on the present occasion to welcome you to this scene of our happy and harmonious meeting. In this great country many families do not gather their members together oftener than once in a year. When they accomplish this they ordain a festival, and call it Thanksgiving Day.

This a.s.sociation is in some sense a family, whose members are widely scattered. East, West, North and South claim and contain us. But when the sacred call for our Annual Meeting is issued, distances are forgotten, business and pleasures are interrupted. Like the wave of a magician's wand, the touch of a common sympathy summons us and keeps us in sight.

Our first feeling, I suppose, is one of great pleasure at looking each other in the face again. This is our Suffrage Thanksgiving, and we hope to keep it right cordially.

Welcome, dear friends, faithful sisters and brothers.

Welcome, one and all. In this world of death we still live.

In this world of doubt we still believe in even-handed justice, and in pure law. So, with one breath, we give G.o.d thanks for our continued life and faith, and wish each other and our great cause G.o.dspeed.

But we are met for something more than a mere expression of feeling, however cordial and timely that might be. We meet here to take counsel for the spiritual welfare to which each one of us stands pledged. How goes the good fight? Let each department of our little army tell. What victories have been achieved, what defeats suffered with patience? How shall we improve the one? What shall we learn from the other? Oh! let us feel that these rare moments of our meeting are precious.

Here we must compare notes and learn what has been done.

Here, too, we must briefly survey what is yet to do and how it is to be done. May no moment in this too brief season be wasted! May we all speak and act in view of great necessities and of high hopes. We may take for our text the words: "Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed."

But we must also acknowledge that the end is not yet.

Every year that sees us banded together in pursuit of our present object sees a wonderful growth in its prominence and recognized importance. Opposition has grown with our efforts. People at first said, "n.o.body will resist you."

This was when people thought we were in fun. But when it appeared that we were in sad and bitter earnest, opposition was not wanting. Wherever we came to plead the cause of human freedom, the enemies of human freedom met and withstood us. All the professions have befriended--all, too, have opposed us. We have stood before powers and dignitaries to maintain what we believe; and while we have asked that the right of suffrage be recognized in the persons of women, women learned and unlearned have stood up to ask that our pet.i.tion should not be granted. We need not say that for one woman who has done this, hundreds and thousands have risen up to bless the woman suffrage cause and its champions. And for every doctor, lawyer and priest who has shrieked forth or set forth our presumptive disabilities, a tenfold number of men in all of these callings have arisen to do battle for the right, and to tell us on the authority of their special knowledge and experience, that the reform we ask for is congenial to nature and founded on right. Goldwin Smith, a man knowing naught of woman, airs his irrational views in the English _Fortnightly_, and Frances Power Cobbe and Prof. Cairnes, and a host of others, unravel the net of his flimsy statements. Drs. Clarke and Maudsley dogmatize from their male view of the female const.i.tution; and from men and women throughout the country an indignant protest rises up. Men and women say alike: "It is not education that demoralizes and diseases our women. It is want of education, want of object, want of right knowledge of ends and methods." And how shall we acquire this unless we are taught? And how shall we be taught unless provision is made for us? And how shall provision be made for us unless we make it ourselves by voting for it?

Some mention is due to the place in which we meet. We are in the State of Michigan, a State in which the question of impartial suffrage has been carefully canva.s.sed and presented during the past year. Within a short distance from us is the University of Michigan, liberal to men and to women, whose scholarly claims and merits its Professors and its President openly and earnestly attest. We claim that inst.i.tution as our potent ally. It furnishes the remedy to all that we complain of. Equal education for the s.e.xes is the true preparation for equality in civil and social ordinances. Even at this distance we breathe something of that pure air in which the woman grows to her full intellectual stature, untrammeled by artificial limitation of object and of method. We boast our own Boston, its culture and its conscience, but while Harvard persistently closes its doors to women, we blush too for New England, and sorrowfully wish it better enlightenment and better behavior.

Having spoken of the East and the West, let me say how welcome to us of the East are occasions which make us better acquainted with our fellow-workers and believers of the West. The late Mr. Seward once said that slavery was sectional and freedom National. This was true in a larger sense than that in which he said it. All that is slavish tends to keep up sectional prejudice and isolation. All that is liberal tends to sympathy and union. East and West are the two hands of this mighty country--let the harmony of the present occasion show that they have but one heart between them. Are not all our chief possessions held in common? We gave you Sumner and you gave us Lincoln. We fought together the war of our late enfranchis.e.m.e.nt, and when G.o.d shall give us impartial suffrage as an established fact, it will be hard to discriminate between our work and yours. But the two hands will then be clasped, and the one heart uplifted with a throb of thankfulness that shall make our whole Nation one, and that forever. For the present moment, while we workers for woman suffrage can make no boast as to the final adoption of our method, we can yet rejoice in the results which already crown our work. Christ, in the very infancy of his mission, looked abroad and saw the fields already white with the harvest.

The different agencies employed by this and kindred a.s.sociations have plowed and furrowed the land far and near.