The History of Woman Suffrage Volume I Part 74

SYRACUSE, _June 13, 1855_.

DEAR FRIEND:--I like your call to the Convention at Saratoga, and I shall endeavor to be there on my return from Ma.s.sachusetts, where I deliver an oration on education on the 8th of August. By all means put Judge Hay's name on the Central Committee. Invite Theodore Parker without delay.

In great haste, but very truly yours, SAMUEL J. MAY

PHILADELPHIA, _Sixth Mo., 11, 1855_.

MY DEAR SUSAN B. ANTHONY:--Returning home, I hasten to answer thy letter forwarded to me a week ago by sister M. C. Wright. It is always with regret that I have to answer any letter of the kind in the negative. But the time fixed for the Saratoga Convention renders it impracticable for me to be present. My husband and I hope to attend the National Convention at Cincinnati in October.

Thy active interest and exertions in this cause are greatly cheering. We are doing little hereaway. Pennsylvania is always slow in every reformatory movement. We have circulated many of the pamphlets.

Wishing you all success at the convention, and sure of thy "great recompense and reward,"

I am thine affectionately, LUCRETIA MOTT.

BOSTON, _June 6, 1855_.

DEAR FRIEND:--I have kept your letter by me, and omitted to reply, hoping, and indeed expecting, that though I give up all but two or three routine and neighboring engagements in the summer. I might plan so as to accept yours. But I find I can not come as you ask. My summer months must be devoted otherwise. I hope you will not nickname me _No_, for my so constantly using that monosyllable to you. Indeed, I will try to oblige you next winter.

With much regard, yours truly, WENDELL PHILLIPS.

HIGH ROCK, LYNN, Ma.s.s., _August 4, 1855_.

EARNEST FRIEND:--We have just received your hearty invitation to the Convention at Saratoga. Nothing would give us more pleasure than to be with you on that occasion. We are all interested in Woman's Rights, and in liberty for all humanity.

Long submission has smothered the hope and extinguished the desire in many for any change of condition. But the light of the nineteenth century should awake all to earnest battle for their G.o.d-given rights. We will consult together, and if we can make up a quartette we will try and be with you to sing once more our songs[141] of freedom for another struggling cla.s.s. With much esteem

I remain yours truly, JOHN W. HUTCHINSON, (for the family).

Following the Convention the usual attacks were made by the press, accusing the members of "infidelity and free love," which Miss Brown refuted through _The New York Tribune_. In this way, with conventions being continually held at the fashionable watering places[142] in the summer, and at the center of legislative a.s.semblies in the winter, New York was compelled to give some attention to the question. A Woman's Eights meeting and a hearing were of annual occurrence as regular as the convening of the Legislature.

ALBANY CONVENTION, 1855.

The second Convention at Albany was held in the Green Street Universalist Church, February 13 and 14, 1855. Martha C. Wright presided; the usual speakers[143] were present, and letters of sympathy were received from Wendell Phillips, T. W. Higginson, Elizabeth Oakes Smith, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, expressing regret at not being able to attend.

LETTER FROM HORACE GREELEY.

NEW YORK, _February 8, 1855_.

SUSAN B. ANTHONY.

DEAR FRIEND:--I can not be in Albany next week, because I some time since promised to speak on Wednesday in Maine, and must keep my engagement. Nor, indeed, can I deem it of any consequence that I should attend your Convention. You know, already, that I am thoroughly committed to the principle that _woman shall decide for herself_ whether she shall have a voice and a vote in legislation, or shall continue to be represented and legislated for exclusively by man.

My own judgment is that woman's presence in the arena of politics would be useful and beneficent; but I do not a.s.sume to judge for her. She must consider, determine, and act for herself. Whenever she shall in earnest have resolved that her own welfare and that of the race will be promoted by her claiming a voice in the direction of civil government, as I think she ultimately will do, then the day of her emanc.i.p.ation will be near. That day I will hope yet to see.

Yours, HORACE GREELEY.

Of the hearings before the Legislature which followed this Convention, we give the report from

_The Albany Register, February 17, 1855._

JUST AND EQUAL RIGHTS--HEARING BEFORE THE a.s.sEMBLY COMMITTEE.

The select Committee of the a.s.sembly, to which was referred the pet.i.tion for Woman's Rights, granted a bearing to the pet.i.tioners in the a.s.sembly Chamber on Sat.u.r.day evening, Ernestine L. Rose, Antoinette Brown, and Susan B. Anthony represented the pet.i.tioners. The arguments were able, and well received. Members of the 'Committee and others sent up a number of questions which the ladies promptly answered, with a due sprinkling of wit, logic, and sarcasm, greatly to the entertainment of the audience, which did not disperse until after eleven o'clock.

Mr. Rickerson, from the Select Committee, to whom was referred "The Pet.i.tion for the Right of Suffrage," stated that "after mature consideration the Committee unanimously report adversely to the prayer of the pet.i.tioners." Mr. Rickerson, from the same Committee to whom was referred--the pet.i.tion for the just and equal civil rights of woman, said: "The Committee have given the pet.i.tion that examination which time and circ.u.mstances would allow, and report favorably thereon, as embraced in the bill,"

which they introduced.[144]

The pet.i.tions of 1856 were referred to the Judiciary Committee, Samuel A. Foote, Chairman. Mr. Foote was at one time a member of the bar of New York, a.s.sociating with some of the first families in the State--a son, a husband, a father--and yet in his maturer years he had so little respect for himself, his mother, wife, and daughters as to present in a dignified legislative a.s.sembly the following report on a grave question of human rights--a piece of buffoonery worthy only a mountebank in a circus:

LEGISLATIVE REPORT ON WOMEN'S RIGHTS.

_The Register_, ALBANY, _March, 1856_.

Mr. Foote, from the Judiciary Committee, made a report on Women's Rights that set the whole House in roars of laughter:

"The Committee is composed of married and single gentlemen. The bachelors on the Committee, with becoming diffidence, have left the subject pretty much to the married gentlemen. They have considered it with the aid of the light they have before them and the experience married life has given them. Thus aided, they are enabled to state that the ladies always have the best place and choicest t.i.tbit at the table. They have the best seat in the cars, carriages, and sleighs; the warmest place in the winter, and the coolest place in the summer. They have their choice on which side of the bed they will lie, front or back. A lady's dress costs three times as much as that of a gentleman; and, at the present time, with the prevailing fashion, one lady occupies three times as much s.p.a.ce in the world as a gentleman.

"It has thus appeared to the married gentlemen of your Committee, being a majority (the bachelors being silent for the reason mentioned, and also probably for the further reason that they are still suitors for the favors of the gentler s.e.x), that, if there is any inequality or oppression in the case, the gentlemen are the sufferers. They, however, have presented no pet.i.tions for redress; having, doubtless, made up their minds to yield to an inevitable destiny.

"On the whole, the Committee have concluded to recommend no measure, except that as they have observed several instances in which husband and wife have both signed the same pet.i.tion. In such case, they would recommend the parties to apply for a law authorizing them to change dresses, so that the husband may wear petticoats, and the wife the breeches, and thus indicate to their neighbors and the public the true relation in which they stand to each other."

a.s.sEMBLY--WOMEN'S RIGHTS.

Mr. PRENDERGAST presented several pet.i.tions asking for an extension of Women's Rights. Mr. P. stated that undoubtedly the Judiciary was the proper Committee to receive these pet.i.tions; but the pet.i.tioners had signified to him that, from a recent manifestation on the part of the Chairman of that Committee (Judge Foote), they would prefer that the pet.i.tion should be referred to some other Committee. He therefore moved their reference to the Committee on Claims.

Mr. NORTHUP seconded the motion.

Mr. FOOTE remarked, that if there was any other Committee of this House that would or could uns.e.x the female s.e.x, he had no objection to the reference moved.

The motion prevailed.

Lydia Mott, in a letter to Susan B. Anthony, under date of Albany, March 15, 1856, says:

I mail a paper to you, containing the Hon. Samuel A. Foote's report on our pet.i.tions. I hardly expected any report this winter. I am glad he made one; am only sorry it was verbal. There ought to have been a large number printed for circulation. I hope you won't get discouraged; remember the good work goes bravely on, the Honorable Legislature to the contrary notwithstanding. We shall get all we demand one of these days. Our reform is so comprehensive, we must not expect a sudden change in public opinion. Only see how long we have been laboring to convert people to the one self-evident truth that a man has a right to himself; and where are we now after a quarter of a century? No; we must not be disheartened. Our labor has not been in vain. I see its good effects every day, and they will continue to multiply.

Only think, here in our midst we have a constant testimony borne to good audiences every Sunday. I don't know whether I wrote you what a true man we have in the Unitarian Church, and what a treat his sermons are to me. You remember A. D. Mayo, who has written letters to our Conventions; he doesn't come as an Unitarian, but as an Independent. It can not be otherwise than that he will do a world of good. He gave to day one of the boldest as well as finest sermons I have ever heard--full of n.o.ble thoughts. He always recognizes woman in every department. It amuses me to see the effect on Rome of the women as he portrays woman side by side with man, always making her his equal in every position. Mr. Mayo is the first minister who has filled the church, and the only one that has not seemed afraid of his own shadow. Mr. Garrison heard him when here; said he could not wish to change one word or to add one to his sermon. That from Garrison is saying a great deal.

The Hon. Wm. Hay, who always aided us and watched the Legislature very closely in its action upon our question, in a letter to Miss Anthony, dated March 20, 1856, said:

I write this in the a.s.sembly Chamber which has so recently been disgraced by an old fogy--Sam. A. Foote. He can not, however, prevent the agitation as to Woman's Rights. That of Suffrage has been discussed several times this week, incidentally, in both Houses, and will be up here again to-morrow directly....

March 21st, he says: The pet.i.tion from Milton, Ulster County, was presented yesterday, and referred to the Committee on Claims, instead of the Judiciary or a Select Committee. It is thus manifest that the cause is not to be put down or even pa.s.sed by with contemptuous silence, vulgar abuse, or conservative scorn.