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H I S T O R Y 



OK 



WOMAN SUFFRAGE 



EDITED BY 



ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, 

SUSAN 11. ANTHONY, AND 

MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE. 



ILLUSTRATED WITH STEEL ENGRAVINGS. 



IN TlfKER rOLUMES. 
VOL. II. 



1861-1876. 



'All. I'KHSONS l!i)KN OR N ATI:K AI.I/KI) IN THK UNITED STATUS, AND SUBJECT TO THE. JURISDICTION 
THKKKOI-, AUK CITI/ICNS (>! THK UNITED STATES." 



SUSAN B. ANTHONY. 

ROCHESTEU, N. Y.: CHARLES MANN. 

LONDON: 25 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 

PARIS : G. FISCHHACHER, 33 RUE DE SEINE. 

1887. 



Copyright, 1881, by 

ELI/.ABF.TH ('AOV STANTON, SUSAN B. ANTHONY, AND 
MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE. 



Copyright, 1886, by SUSAN B. ANTHONY. 




K. O. JENKINS 
rrimtrr amj .S 
> NORTH * II II AM sr., NEW YORK. 



PREFACE. 



IN presenting to our readers the second volume of the " History 
of Woman Suffrage," we gladly return our thanks to the press for the 
many favorable notices we have received from leading journals, both 
in the old world and the new. The words of cordial approval from a 
large circle of friends, and especially from women well known in 
periodical literature, have been to us a constant stimulus during the 
toilsome months we have spent in gathering material for these pages. 
It was our purpose to have condensed the records of the last twenty 
years in a second volume, but so many new questions in regard to 
Citizenship, State rights, and National power, indirectly bearing 
on the political rights of women, grew out of the civil war, that the 
arguments and decisions in Congress and the Supreme Courts have 
combined to swell these pages beyond our most liberal calculations, 
with much valuable material that can not be condensed nor ignored, 
making a third volume inevitable. 

By their active labors all through the great conflict, women learned 
that they had many interests outside the home. In the camp and hos- 
pital, and the vacant places at their firesides, they saw how intimately 
the interests of the State and the home were intertwined ; that as 
war and all its concomitants were subjects of legislation, it was only 
through a voice in the laws that their efforts for peace could com- 
mand consideration. 

The political significance of the war, and the prolonged discus- 
sions on the vital principles of government involved in the recon- 
struction, threw new light on the status of woman in a republic. 
Under a liberal interpretation of the XIY. Amendment, women, be- 
lieving their rights of citizenship secured, made several attempts to 
vote in different States. Those who succeeded were arrested, tried, 
and convicted. Those who were denied the right to register their 
names and deposit their votes, sued the Inspectors of Election. Others 

(iii) 



iv Preface. 

attempting to practice law, being denied that right in the States, 
took their cases up to the Supreme Court of the United States for ad- 
judication. Others invaded the pulpit, asking to be ordained, which 
brought the question of woman's right to preach before ecclesiastical 
assemblies. These various attempts to secure her political and civil 
rights have called forth endless discussions on woman's true position 
in the State, the church, and the world of work. 

While gratefully accepting the generous praises of our friends, we 
must briefly reply to some strictures by our critics. Some object to 
the title of our work ; they say you can not write the " History of 
Woman Suffrage" until the fact is accomplished. We feel that 
already enough has been achieved to make the final victory cer- 
tain. Women vote in England, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, 
Sweden, Switzerland, and even India, on certain interests and 
qualifications ; in Wyoming and Utah on all questions, and on the 
same basis as male citizens ; and in a dozen States of the Union on 
school affairs. Moreover, women are filling many offices, such as Clerks 
of Courts, Notaries Public, Masters in Chancery, State. Librarians, 
School Superintendents, Commissioners of Charity, Post Mistresses, 
Pension Agents, Engrossing and Enrolling Clerks in Legislative As- 
semblies. 

After years of persistent effort a resolution was passed in both 
Houses, during the present session of Congress (1882), securing 
"a select committee on the political Rights and Disabilities of 
Woman " the first time in the history of our Government that a 
special committee to look after the interests of woman was ever 
appointed. A proposition for a XYI. Amendment to the National 
Constitution, to secure to women the right of suffrage, is now 
pending in Congress. Some phase of this question is being debated 
every year in State Legislatures. Propositions for so amending their 
constitutions as to extend the elective franchise to women will be 
voted upon by the people in four of the Western States within the 
coming two years. These successive steps of progress during forty 
years are as surely a part of the History of Woman Suffrage as will 
be the events of the closing period in which victory shall at last 
crown the hard fought battles of half a century. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XVI. 
WOMAN'S PATRIOTISM IN THE WAR. 

PAGB 

The first gun on Sumter, April 12, 1861 Woman's military genius Anna Ella 
Carroll The Sanitary Movement Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell The Hospitals- 
Dorothea Dix Services on the battle-field Clara Barton The Freedman's 
Bureau Josephine Griffing Ladies' National Covenant Political campaigns 
Anna Dickinson The Woman's Loyal National League The Mammoth Petition 
Anniversaries The Thirteenth Amendment 1 

CHAPTER XVII. ' 

CONGRESSIONAL ACTION. 

First Petitions to Congress December, 1865, against the word " male" in the 14th 
Amendment Joint resolutions before Congress Messrs. Jenckes, Schenck, 
Broomall, and Stevens Republicans protest in presenting petitions The women 
seek aid of Democrats James Brooks in the House of Representatives 
Horace Greeley on the petitions Caroline Healy Dall on Messrs. Jenckes and 
Schenck The District of Columbia Suffrage Bill Senator Cowan, of Pennsyl- 
vania, moved to strike out the word "male" A three days' debate in the Sen- 
ate The final vote nine in favor of Mr. Cowan's amendment, and thirty-seven 
against 90 

CHAPTER XVIH. 

NATIONAL CONVENTIONS IN 1866-67. 

The first National Woman Suffrage Convention after the war Speeches by Ernes- 
tine L. Rose, Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Henry Ward Beecher, Frances D. 
Gage, Theodore Tilton, Wendell Phillips Petitions to Congress and the Con- 
stitutional Convention Mrs. Stanton a candidate to Congress Anniversary of 
the Equal Rights Association . 152 

CHAPTER XIX. 

THE KANSAS CAMPAIGN 1867. 

The Battle Ground of Freedom Campaign of 1867 Liberals did not Stand by their 
Principles Black Men Opposed to Woman Suffrage Republican Press and 
Party Untrue Democrats in Opposition John Stuart Mill's Letters aud 
Speeches Extensively Circulated Henry B. Blackwell and Lucy Stone Opened 
the Campaign Rev. Olympia Brown Followed 60,000 Tracts Distributed Ap- 
peal Signed by Thirty -one Distinguished Men Letters from Helen E. Starrett, 
Susan E. Wattles, Dr. R. S. Tenney, Lieut.-Governor J. B. Root, Rev. Olympia 
Brown The Campaign closed by ex-Governor Robinson, Elizabeth CadyStuuton, 

(v) 



vi Contents. 

PAGE 

Susan B. Anthony, and the Hutehfnson Family Speeches and Songs at the 
Polls In every Ward in Leavenworth Election Day Both Amendments lost 
9,070 Votes for Woman Suffrage, 10,843 for Negro Suffrage 229 

CHAPTER XX. 

NEW YORK CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 

Constitution Amended once in Twenty Tears Mrs. Stanton before the Legislature 
Claiming Woman's Right to Vote for Members to the Convention An Immense 
Audience in the Capitol The Convention Assembled June 4th, 1867. Twenty 
Thousand Petitions Presented for Striking the Word " Male " from the Constitu- 
tion " Committee on the Right of Suffrage, and the Qualifications for Holding 
Office " Horace Greeley, Chairman Mr. Graves, of Herkimer, Leads the De- 
bate in favor of Woman Suffrage Horace Greeley's Adverse Report Leading 
Advocates Heard before the Convention Speech of George William Curtis on 
Striking the Word "Man" from Section 1, Article 11 Final Vote, 19 For, 125 
Against^Equal Rights Anniversary of 1868 269 

CHAPTER XXI. 

RECONSTRUCTION. 

The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments Universal Suffrage and Universal Am- 
nesty the Key-note of Reconstruction Gerrit Smith and Wendell Phillips hesi- 
tate A Trying Period in the Woman Suffrage Movement -Those Opposed to the 
word " Male " in the Fourteenth Amendment Voted Down in Conventions The 
Negro's Hour Virginia L. Minor on Suffrage in the District of Columbia 
Women 'Advised to be Silent The Hypocrisy of the Democrats preferable to 
that of the Republicans Senator Pomeroj''s Amendment Protests against a 
Man's Government Negro Suffrage a Political Necessity Charles Sumner Op- 
posed to the Fourteenth Amendment, but Voted for it as a Party Measure Woman 
Suffrage for Utah Discussion in the House as to who Constitute Electors Bills 
for Woman Suffrage presented by the Hon. George W. Julian and Senators 
Wilson and Pomeroy The Fifteenth Amendment Anna E. Dickinson's Sug- 
gestion Opinions of Women on the Fifteenth Amendment The Sixteenth 
Amendment Miss Anthony chosen a Delegate to the Democratic National Con- 
vention July 4, 1868 Her Address Read by a Unanimous Vote Horatio Sey- 
mour in the Chair Comments of the Press TJie Revolution . 313 



CHAPTER XXII. 

NATIONAL CONTENTIONS 1869. 

First Convention in Washington First hearing before Congress Delegates Invited 
from Every State Senator Pomeroy, of Kansas Debate between Colored Men 
and Women Grace Greenwood's Graphic Description What the Members of 
the Convention Saw and Heard in Washington Robert Purvis A Western Trip 
Conventions in Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Springfield, and Madison Edi- 
torial Correspondence in The Revolution Anniversaries in New York and Brook- 
lynConventions in Newport and Saratoga 345 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE NEW DEPARTURE UNDER THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT. 

Francis Minor's Resolutions Hearing before Congressional Committee Descrip- 
tions by Mrs. Fannie Rowland and Grace Greenwood Washington Convention, 



Contents. vii 

PAGE 

1870 Rev. Samuel J. May Senator Carpenter Professor Sprague, of Cornell 
University Notes of Mrs. Hooker May Anniversary in New York The Fifth 
Avenue Conference Second Decade Celebration Washington, 1871 Victoria 
Woodhull's Memorial Judiciary Committee Majority and Minority Reports- 
George W. Julian and A. A. Sargent in the House May Anniversary, 1871 
Washington in 1872 Senate Judiciary Committee Benjamin F. Butler The 
Shennan-Dahlgren Protest Women in Grant and Wilson Campaign . . . 407 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

NATIONAL CONVENTIONS 1873, '74, '75. 

Fifth Washington Convention Mrs. Gage on Centralization May Anniversary in 
New York Washington Convention, 1874 Frances Ellen Burr's Report Rev. 
O. B. Frothingham in New York Convention Territory of Pembina Discussion 
in the Senate Conventions in Washington and New York, 1875 Hearings be- 
fore Congressional Committees 521 

CHAPTER XXV. 
TRIALS AND DECISIONS. 

Women Voting under the XVI. Amendment Appeals to the Courts Marilla M. 
Ricker, of New Hampshire, 1870 Nannette B. Gardner, Michigan Sara An- 
drews Spencer, District of Columbia Ellen Rand Van Valkenburgh, Cali- 
forniaCatherine V. Waite, Illinois Carrie S. Burnham, Pennsylvania Sarah 
M. T. Huntingdon, Connecticut Susan B. Anthony, New York Virginia L. 
Minor, Missouri Judges McKee, Jameson, Sharswood, Cartter Associate Jus- 
tice Hunt Chief Justice Waite Myra Brad well Hon. Matt. H. Carpenter 
Supreme Court Decisions 586 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION. 

Circular Letter Cleveland Convention Association Completed Henry Ward 
Bcecher, President Convention in Steinway Hall, New York George William 
Curtis Speaks The First Annual Meeting held in Cleveland Mrs. Tracy Cutler, 
President Mass Meeting in Steinway Hall, New York, 1870 State Action Recom- 
mended Moses Ooit Tyler Speaks Mass Meetings in 1871 in Philadelphia, 
Washington, Baltimore, Pittsburgh Memorial to Congress Letters from Wil- 
liam Lloyd Garrison and others Hon. G. F. Hoar Advocates Woman Suffrage 
Anniversary celebrated at St. Louis Dr. Stone, of Michigan Thomas Went- 
worth Higgtnson, President, 1872 Convention in Cooper Institute, New York 
Two Hundred Young Women march in Meeting in Plymouth Church Letters 
from Louise May Alcott and Elizabeth Stuart Phelps The Annual Meeting in 
Detroit Julia Ward Howe, President Letter from James T. Field Mary F. 
Eastman Addresses the Convention. Bishop Gilbert Haven President for 1875 
Convention in Steinway Hall, New York lion. Charles Bradlaugh Speaks Cen- 
tennial Celebration, July 3d Petition to Congress for a XVI. Amendment 
Conventions in Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Washington, and Louisville . . . 756 

Appendix 863 



LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. 



VOL. II. 



ANNA DICKINSON Frontispiece. 

CLARA BARTON page 25 

CI.KMENCE S. LOZIER, M. D 153 

REV. OLYMPIA BROWN 265 

JANE GRAHAM JONES 313 

VIRGINIA L. MINOR 409 

ISABELLA BEECHER HOOKER 489 

BF.LVA A. LOCKWOOD 521 

ELLEN CLARK SARGENT 553 

MYRA BRADWELL 617 

LC1 STONE 761 

JULIA WARD HOWE 793 



CHAPTER XVI. 
WOMAN'S PATRIOTISM IN THE WAR. 

The first gun on Sumter, April 12, 1861 Woman's military genius Anna Ella Carroll 
The Sanitary Movement Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell The Hospitals Dorothea Dix 
Services on the battle-fieldClara Barton The Freedman's Bureau Josephine Grif- 
fing Ladies' National Covenant Political campaigns Anna Dickinson The Woman's 
Loyal National League The Mammoth Petition Anniversaries The Thirteenth 
Amendment. 

OUR first volume closed with the period when the American 
people stood waiting with apprehension the signal of the com- 
ing conflict between the Northern^ and Southern States. On April 
12, 1861, the first gun was fired on Sumter, and on the 14th it was 
surrendered. On the 15th, the President called out 75,000 militia, 
and summoned Congress to meet July 4th, when 400,000 men and 
$400,000,000 were voted to carry on the war. 

These startling events roused the entire people, and turned the cur- 
rent of their thoughts in new directions. While the nation's life 
hung in the balance, and the dread artillery of war drowned alike 
the voices of commerce, politics, religion and reform, all hearts were 
filled with anxious forebodings, all hands were busy in solemn prep- 
arations for the awful tragedies to come. 

At this eventful hour the patriotism of woman shone forth as 
fervently and spontaneously as did that of man ; and her self- 
sacrifice and devotion were displayed in as many varied fields of 
action. While he buckled on his knapsack and marched forth to 
conquer the enemy, she planned the campaigns which brought the 
nation victory ; fought in the ranks when she could do so without 
detection ; inspired the sanitary commission ; gathered needed 
supplies for the grand army; provided nurses for the hospi- 
tals ; comforted the sick ; smoothed the pillows of the dying ; 
inscribed the last messages of love to those far away; and marked 
the resting-places where the brave men fell. The labor women ac- 
complished, the hardships they endured, the time and strength they 
sacrificed in the war that summoned three million men to arms, can 
never be fully appreciated. 



2 Utxtory of Woman Suffrage. 

Think of tlie busy hands from the Atlantic to the Pacific, making 
garment*, canning fruits and vegetables, packing boxes, preparing 
lint and bandages* for soldiers at the front ; think of the mothers, 
wives and daughters on the far-off prairies, gathering in the harvests, 
that their fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons might fight the bat- 
tles of freedom ; of those month after month walking the wards 
of the hospital j and those on the battle-field at the midnight hour, 
ministering to the wounded and dying, with none but the cold 
stars to keep them company. 

Think of the multitude of delicate, refined women, unused to 
care and toil, thrown suddenly on their own resources, to struggle 
evermore with poverty and solitude ; their hopes and ambitions all 
freighted in the brave young men that marched forth from their 
native hijls, with flying flags and marshal music, to return no 
more forever. The untiring labors, the trembling apprehensions, 
the wrecked hopes, the dreary solitude of the fatherless, the wid- 
owed, the childless in that great national upheaval, have never been 
measured or recorded ; their brave deeds never told in story or in 
song, no monuments built to their memories, no immortal wreaths 
to mark their last resting-places. 

How much easier it is to march forth with gay companions and 
marshal music ; with the excitement of the battle, the camp, the 
ever-shifting scenes of war, sustained by the hope of victory ; the 
promise of reward ; the ambition for distinction ; the fire of patriot- 
ism kindling every thought, and stimulating every nerve and muscle 
to action ! How much easier is all this, than to wait and watch alone 
with nothing to stimulate hope or ambition. 

The evils of bad government fall ever most heavily on the moth- 
ers of the race, who, however wise and far-seeing, have no voice in 
its administration, no power to protect themselves and their chil- 
dren against a male dynasty of violence and force. 

"While the mass of women never philosophize on the principles 
that underlie national existence, there were those in our late war who 
understood the political significance of the struggle: the "ir- 
repressible conflict " between freedom and slavery ; between na- 
tional and State rights. They saw that to provide lint, bandages, 
and supplies for the army, while the war was not conducted on a 
wise policy, was labor in vain ; and while many organizations, active, 
vigilant, self-sacrificing, were multiplied to look after the material 



* Before one man was slain the lint and bandages were so piled up in Washington, 
that the hospital surgeons in self-defence cried out, enough ! 



Anna Ella Carroll. 3 

wants of the army, these few formed themselves into a National 
Loyal League to teach sound principles of government, and to press 
on the nation's conscience, that " freedom to the slaves was the only 
way to victory." Accustomed as most women had been to works of 
charity, to the relief of outward suffering, it was difficult to rouse 
their enthusiasm for an idea, to persuade them to labor for a principle. 
They clamored for practical work, something for their hands to do ; 
for fairs, sewing societies to raise money for soldier's families, for 
tableaux, readings, theatricals, anything but conventions to discuss 
principles and to circulate petitions for emancipation. They could 
not see that the best service they could render the army was to 
suppress the rebellion, and that the most effective way to accomplish 
that was to transform the slaves into soldiers. This Woman's Loyal 
League voiced the solemn lessons of the war : liberty to all ; national 
protection for every citizen under our flag ; universal suffrage, and 
universal amnesty. 

As no national recognition has been accorded the grand women 
who did faithful service in the late war ; no national honors nor 
profitable offices bestowed on them, the noble deeds of a few repre- 
sentative women should be recorded. The military services of Anna 
Ella Carroll in planning the campaign on the Tennessee ; the labors 
of Clara Barton on the battle-field ; of Dorothea Dix in the hos- 
pital ; of Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell in the Sanitary ; of Josephine S. 
Griffing in the Freedman's Bureau ; and the political triumphs of Anna 
Dickinson in the Presidential campaign, reflect ing as they do all honor 
on their sex in general, should ever be proudly remembered by their 
countrywomen. 

ANNA ELLA CARROLL. 

THE TENNESSEE CAMPAIGN. 

Anna Ella Carroll, the daughter of Thomas King Carroll formerly 
Governor of Maryland, belongs to one of the oldest and most pa- 
triotic families of that State. Her ancestors founded the city of 
Baltimore ; Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, one of the signers of the 
Declaration of Independence, was of the same family. 

At the breaking out of the civil war, Maryland was claimed by 
the rebellious States, and for a long time her position seemed un- 
certain. Miss Carroll, an intimate friend of Gov. Hicks, and at that 
time a member of his family, favored the national cause, and by her 
powerful arguments induced the Governor to remain firm in his 
opposition to the scheme of secession. Thus, despite the siren 
wooing of the South, in its plaint of 

" Maryland, my Maryland," 



4 History of Woman Suffrage. 

Miss Carroll was the meaus of preserving her native State to the 
Union. Although a slave-owner, and a member of that class which 
so largely proved disloyal, Miss Carroll freed her slaves, and devoted 
hersi-lt' throughout the war to the cause of liberty. She replied to 
the secession speech of Senator Breckenridge, made during the July 
session of Congress 1861, with such lucid and convincing arguments, 
that the War Department not only circulated a large edition, 
but the Government requested her to prepare other papers 
upon unsettled points. In response she wrote a pamphlet entitled 
" The War Powers of the Government," published in December, 
1861. By the especial request of President Lincoln she also prepared 
a paper entitled " The Relation of Revolted Citizens to the Na- 
tional Government," which was approved by him, and formed the 
basis of his subsequent action. In September, 1861, she also pre- 
pared a paper on the Constitutional power of the President to make 
arrests, and to suspend the writ of habeas corpus ; a subject upon 
which a great conflict of opinion then existed, even among persons 
of unquestioned loyalty. 

Early in the fall of 1861, Miss Carroll took a trip to St. Louis to 
inspect the progress of the war in the West. A gun-boat fleet, under 
the special authorization of the President, was then in preparation 
for a descent of the Mississippi. An examination of this plan by 
Miss Carroll showed its weakness, and the inevitable disaster it 
would bring to the National arms. Her astute military genius led 
her to the substitution of another plan, upon which she baSed great 
hopes of success, and its results show it to have been one of the pro- 
foundest strategic movements of the ages. Strategy and general- 
ship are two entirely distinct forms of the art of war. Many a 
general, good at following out a plan, is entirely incapable of form- 
ing a successful one. Napoleon stands in the foremost ranks as a 
strategist, and is held as the greatest warrior of modern times, yet 
he led no forces into battle. So entirely was he convinced that 
strategy was the whole art of war, that he was accustomed to speak 
of himself as the only general of his army, thus subordinating the 
mere command and movement of forces to the art of strategy. 
Judged by this standard, which is acknowledged by all military 
men, Anna Ella Carroll, of Maryland, holds foremost rank as a 
military genius. On the 12th of November, 1861, while still in St. 
Louis, Miss Carroll wrote to Hon. Edward Bates at Washington (the 
member of the Cabinet who first suggested the expedition down the 
Mississippi), that from information gained by her she believed this 
plan would fail, and urged him, instead, to have the expedition 



Miss Carroll's plans and maps. 5 

directed up the Tennessee River, as the true line of attack. She also 
dispatched a similar letter to Hon. Thomas A. Scott, at that time 
Assistant Secretary of War. On the 30th of this month (Novem- 
ber, 1861), Miss Carroll laid the following plan, accompanied by ex- 
planatory maps, before the "War Department : 

The civil and military authorities seem to me to be laboring under a 
great mistake in regard to the true key of the war in the South-west. It 
is not the Mississippi, but the Tennessee River. Now, all the military 
preparations made in the West indicate that the Mississippi River is the 
point to which the authorities are directing their attention. On that 
river many battles must be fought and heavy risks incurred, before any 
impression can be made on the enemy, all of which could be avoided by 
using the Tennessee River. This river is navigable for medium-class 
boats to the foot of Muscle Shoals in Alabama, and is open to naviga- 
tion all the year, while the distance is but two hundred and fifty miles 
by the river from Paducah on the Ohio. The Tennessee offers many 
advantages over the Mississippi. We should avoid the almost impreg- 
nable batteries of the enemy, which can not be taken without great 
danger and great 1 risk of life to our forces, from the fact that our forces, 
if crippled, would fall a prey to the enemy by being swept by the current 
to him, and away from the relief of our friends. But even should we suc- 
ceed, still we have only begun the war, for we shall then have to fight 
the country from whence the enemy derives his supplies. 

Now an advance up the Tennessee River would avoid this danger; for, if 
our boats were crippled, they would drop back with the current and escape 
capture. But a still greater advantage would be its tendency to cut the en- 
emy's lines in two, by reaching the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, 
threatening Memphis, which lies one hundred miles due west, and no de- 
fensible point between ; also Nashville, only ninety miles north-east, and 
Florence and Tuscumbia in North Alabama, forty miles east. A movement 
in this direction would do more to relieve our friends in Kentucky, and 
inspire the loyal hearts in East Tennessee, than the possession of the 
whole of the Mississippi River. If well executed, it would cause the evac- 
uation of all those formidable fortifications on which the rebels ground 
their hopes for success; and in the event of our fleet attacking Mobile, 
the presence of our troops in the northern part of Alabama, would be 
material aid to the fleet. 

Again, the aid our forces would receive from the loyal men in Tennes- 
see would enable them soon to crush the last traitor in that region, and 
the separation of the two extremes would do more than one hundred bat- 
tles for the Union cause. The Tennessee River is crossed by the Mem- 
phis and Louisville Railroad, and the Memphis and Nashville Railroad. 
At Hamburg the river makes the big bend on the east, touching the north- 
east corner of Mississippi, entering the north-west corner of Alabama, form- 
ing an arc to the south, entering the State of Tennessee at the north-east 
corner of Alabama, and if it does not touch the north-west corner of 
Georgia, comes very near it. It is but eight miles from Hamburg to the 
Memphis and Charleston Railroad, which goes through Tuscumbia, only 



6 History of Woman Suffrage. 

two miles from the river, which it crosses at Decatur thirty miles above, 
intersecting with the Nashville and Chattanooga road at Stephenson. The 
Tennessee never has less than three feet to Hamburg on the " shoalest " 
bar, and during the fall, winter, and spring months, there is always water 
for the largest boats that are used on the Mississippi River. It follows, 
from the above facts, that in making the Mississippi the key to the war 
in the West, or rather in overlooking the Tennessee River, the subject 
is not understood by the superiors in command. 

The War Department looked over these papers, and Col. Scott, 
the Assistant Secretary, possessing a knowledge of the railroad 
facilities and connections of the South, unequaled perhaps by any 
other man in the country at that time, at once saw the vital im- 
portance of Miss Carroll's plan. He declared it to be the first 
clear solution of the difficult problem, and was soon sent West 
to assist in carrying it out in detail. The Mississippi expe- 
dition was abandoned, and the Tennessee made the point of 
attack. Both land and naval forces were ordered to mass them- 
selves at this point, and the country soon began to feel the wisdom 
of this movement. The capture of Fort Henry, an important 
Confederate post on the Tennessee River serving to defend the rail- 
road communication between Memphis and Bowling Green, was the 
first result of Miss Carroll's plan. It fell Feb. 6, 1862, and was 
rapidly followed by the capture of Fort Donelson, which, after a 
gallant defense, surrendered to the Union forces Feb. 16th, and the 
name of Ulysses S. Grant, as the general commanding these forces, 
for the first time became known to the American people. By these 
victories the line of Confederate fortifications was broken, and the 
enemy's means of communication between the East and the West 
were destroyed. 

All the historians of our civil war concede that the strategy which 
made the Tennessee River the base of military operations in the South- 
west, thus cutting the Confederacy in two by its control of the Mem- 
phis and Charleston Railroad, also made its final destruction inevi- 
table. At an early day the Government had neither a just concep- 
tion of the rebellion, nor of the steps necessary for its suppression. 
It was looked upon from a political rather than a military point of 
view, and much valuable time was wasted in suggestions and plans 
worse than futile. But while the national Government had 
been blind to the real situation, the Confederacy had every hour 
strengthened its position both at home and abroad, having so far 
secured the recognition of France and England as to have been 
acknowledged belligerents, while threats of raising the blockade 
were also made by the same powers. 



The Nation } s peril. 7 

In order to a more full understanding of our national affairs at 
that time, we will glance at the proceedings of Congress. When 
this body met in December, 1861, a " Committee on the Conduct of 
the War " was at once created, and spirited debates upon the situa- 
tion took place in both the Senate and the House. It was acknowl- 
edged that the salvation of the country depended upon military suc- 
cess. It was declared that the rebellion must be speedily put down 
or it would destroy the resources of the country, as $2,000,000 a 
day were then required to maintain the army in the field. Hon. 
Mr. Dawes compared the country to a man under an exhausted 
. receiver gasping for breath, and said that sixty days of the present 
state of things must bring about an ignominious peace. Hon. Geo. 
W. Julian declared that the country was in imminent danger of a 
foreign war, and that in the opinion of many the great model Re- 
public of the world was in the throes of death. The credit of the 
nation was then so poor as to render it unable to make loans of 
money from foreign countries. The treasury notes issued by the 
Government were falling in the market, selling at five and six per 
cent, discount. Mr. Morrill, in the Senate, gave it as his opinion 
that in six months the nation would be beyond hope of relief. 

England was anxiously hoping for our downfall. The London 
Post, Lord Palmerston's paper, the organ of the English Govern- 
ment, prophesied our national bankruptcy within a short time. The 
London Times denounced us in language deemed too offensive to 
be read before the Senate. It urged England's direct interference ; 
counseled the pouring of a fleet of gun-boats through the St. Law- 
rence into the lakes with the opening of spring, " to secure, with 
the mastery of these waters, the mastery of all," and declared that 
three months hence the field would be all England's own. At 
that time the British Government had already sent some thirty 
thousand men into its colonies in North America, preparatory to an 
assault upon our north-western frontier. The nation seemed upon 
the point of being lost, and the hopes of millions of oppressed 
men in other lands destroyed by the disintegration of the 
Union. The war had been waged six months, but with the 
exception of West Virginia, the battle had been against the 
Union. The fact that military success alone could turn the scale, 
though now acknowledged, seemed to Congress as far as ever from 
consummation. Our military commanders, quite ignorant of both 
the geographical and topographical outlines of our vast country, were 
unable to formulate the plan necessary for a decisive blow. 

Such was the situation at the time Miss Carroll sent her plan of 



8 History of Woman Suffrage. 

the Tennessee campaign to the War Department. Fortunately for 
civilization this plan was adopted, and with the fall of Fort Henry, 
the enemy's center was pierced, the decisive point gained. From 
that hour the nation's final success was assured. Its fall opened the 
Tennessee River, and its capture was soon followed by the evacua- 
tion of Columbus and Bowling Green. Fort Donelson was given 
up, its rebel garrison of 14,000 troops marched out as prisoners of 
war, and hope sprang up in the hearts of the people. Pittsburg 
Landing and Corinth soon followed the fate of the preceding forts. 
The President declared the victory at Fort Henry to be of the ut- 
most importance. North and South its influence was alike felt. Gen. 
Beauregard was himself conscious that this campaign sealed the fate 
of the " Southern Confederacy." The success of the Tennessee 
campaign rendered intervention impossible, and taught those foreign 
enemies who were anxiously watching for our country's downfall, 
the power and stability of a Republic. Missouri was kept in 
the Union by its means, Tennessee and Kentucky were restored, 
the National armies were enabled to push to the Gulf States 
and secure possession of all the great rivers and routes of internal 
communication through the heart of the Confederate territory. 

On the 10th of April, 1862, the President issued the following 
proclamation : 

It has pleased Almighty God to vouchsafe signal victories to the land 
and naval forces engaged in suppressing an internal rebellion ; and at the 
same time to avert from our country the damages of foreign intervention 
and invasion. 

During all this time the author of this plan remained unknown, ex- 
cept to the President and his Cabinet, who feared to reveal the fact 
that the Government was proceeding under the advice and plan of 
a civilian, and that civilian a, woman. Shortly after the capture 
of Forts Henry and Donelson a debate as to the author of this 
campaign took place in the House of Representatives.* The Senate 
discussed its origin March 13. It was variously ascribed to the 
President, to the Secretary of War, and to different naval and 
land commanders, Halleck, Grant, Foote, Smith, and Fremont. 
The historians of the war have also given adverse opinions as 
to its authorship. Draper's "History of the Civil War "ascribes 
it to Gen. Halleck ; Boynton's " History of the Navy " to Com- 
modore Foote; Lossing's "Civil War" to the combined wisdom 
of Grant, Halleck, and Foote ; Badeau's " History of the Civil War " 

* Feb. 24, 1862. 



The Author of the Tennessee Campaign. 9 

credits it to Gen. C. F. Smith ; and Abbott's " Civil War," to Gen. 
Fremont. 

But abundant testimony exists proving Miss Carroll's authorship of 
the plan, in letters from Hon. B. F.Wade,* Chairman of the Committee 
on the Conduct of the War ; from Hon. Thos. A. Scott, Assistant Secre- 
tary of War ; from Hon. L. D. Evans, former Chief -Justice of the 
Supreme Court of Texas (entrusted by the Government with an im- 
portant secret mission during the war) ; from Hon. Orestes A. Bron- 
son, and many other well-known public men ; from conversations of 
President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton ; and from reports of the 
Military Committee of the XLL, XLIL, and XL VI. Congresses, f 
So anxious was the Government to keep the origin of the Ten- 
nessee campaign a secret, that Col. Scott, in conversation with Judge 
Evans, a personal friend of Miss Carroll, pressed upon him the ab- 
solute necessity of Miss Carroll's" making no claim to the authorship 
while the struggle lasted. In the plenitude of her self-sacrificing 
patriotism she remained silent, and saw the honors rightfully be- 
longing to her heaped upon others, although she knew the country 
was indebted to her for its salvation. 

Previous to 1862 historians reckoned but fifteen decisive battles^: 
in the world's history, battles in which, says Hallam, a contrary re- 
sult would have essentially varied the drama of the world in all its 
subsequent scenes. Professor Cressy, of the chair of Ancient and 
Modern History, University of London, has made these battles the 
subject of two grand volumes. The battle of Fort Henry was the 
sixteenth, and in its effects may well be deemed the most important 
of all. It opened the doors of liberty to the downtrodden and 



* In a conversation with Miss Carroll, in February, 1876, Mr. Wade said : " I have 
sometimes reproached myself that I had not made known the author when they 
were discussing the resolution in Congress to find out, but Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Stanton 
were opposed to its being known that the armies were moving under the plan of a civil- 
ian, directed by the President as Commander-in-Chief. Mr. Lincoln said it was that 
which made him hesitate to inaugurate the movement against the opinion of th6 military 
commanders, and he did not wish to risk the effect it might have upon the armies if they 
found out some outside party had originated the campaign ; that he wanted the armies 
to believe they were doing the whole business of saving the country." 

tSee Appendix. 

I The ninth, known to the world as the battle of Orleans, fought in 1429, which brought 
the hundred years' war between France and England to an end, securing the independent 
existence of France, possessed for its organizer and leader, Joan of Arc, then but eight- 
een, at which time she acquired her cognomen, " Maid of Orleans." 

It has been well said : " That assumption of man that as feud is the origin of all 
laws ; that as woman does not fight she shall not vote, that her rights are to be 
forever held in abi-yance to his wishes, was forever silenced by the military genius of 
Anna Ella Carroll in planning this brilliant campaign. Proving, too, that as right is of no 
sex, so genius is of no sex." 

VOL. H. 2. 



10 History of Woman Suffrage. 

oppressed among all nations, setting a seal of perrnanance on the 
assertion tint *i'lf-'_rv<'niment is the natural right of every person. 

But it was not alone through her plan of the Tennessee campaign 
that Miss Carroll exhibited her military genius ; throughout the'con- 
flict she continued to send plans and suggestions to the War Depart- 
ment. The events of history prove the wisdom of those plans, and 
that had they been strictly followed, the war would have been 
brought to a speedy close,* and millions of men and money saved 
to the country. 

Upon the fall of Fort Henry, February, 1862, she again addressed 
the War Department, advising an immediate advance upon Mobile 
or Yicksburg. In March, 1862, she presented a memorial and maps 
to Secretary Stanton in person, in regard to the reduction of Island 10, 
which had long been a vain effort by the Union forces, in which 
she said: 

The failure to take Island 10, which thus far occasions much disap- 
pointment to the country, excites no surprise to me. When I looked at 
the gun-boats at St. Louis, and was informed as to their powers, and that 
the current of the Mississippi at full tide runs at the rate of five miles per 
hour, which is very near the speed of our gun-boats, I could not resist 
the conclusion that they were not well fitted to the taking of batteries 
on the Mississippi River, if assisted by gun-boats perhaps equal to our 
own. Hence it was that I wrote Col. Scott from there, that the Tennes- 
see River was our strategic point, and the successes at Forts Henry and 
Donelson establish the justice of these observations. Had our victorious 
army, after the fall of Fort Henry, immediately pushed up the Tennessee 
River and taken position on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, be- 
tween Corinth, Miss., and Decatur, Ala., which might easily have been 
done at that time with a small force, every rebel soldier in Western Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee would have fled from every position south of that 
railroad. And had Buell pursued the enemy in his retreat from Nash- 
ville, without delay, into a commanding position in North Alabama, on 



* Hon. L. D. Evans said : " Nothing is more, certain than that the rebel power was able 
to resist all the forces of the Union, and keep her armies from striking their resources 
and interior lines of communication, upon any of the plans or lines of operation on 
which the Union arms were operating. Geographically considered, there was but one 
line which the National armies could take and Tnaintain, and that was unthought of and 
unknown, and could not have been found out, in all human probability, in time to have 
prevented a collapse, or warded off recognition and intervention, but for Miss Carroll. 
The failure to reduce Vicksburg from the water, after a tremendous sacriflce of life and 
treasure, and the time it took to take Richmond, furnish irrefragable proof of the ina- 
bility of the Union to subdue the rebellion on the plan of our ablest generals. .... 
England and France had resolved that duty to their suffering operatives required the 
raising of the blockade for the supply of cotton, and nothing prevented that intervention 

bat the progress of the National arms up the Tennessee This campaign must, 

therefore, take rank with those few remarkable strategic movements in the world's 
history, which have decided the fate of empires and nations." 



The attack on Vieksburg. 11 

the railroad between Chattanooga and Decatur, the rebel government at 
Richmond would necessarily have been obliged to retreat to the cotton 
States. I am fully satisfied that the true policy of General Halleck is to 
strengthen Grant's column by such a force as will enable him at once to 
seize the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, as it is the readiest means of 
reducing Island 10, and all the strongholds to Memphis. 

In October, 1862, observing the preparations for a naval attack 
upon Vicksburg, Miss Carroll again addressed the Secretary of War 
in the following memorial : 

As I understand an expedition is about to go down the river, for the 
purpose of reducing Vicksburg, I have prepared the enclosed map in 
order to demonstrate more clearly the obstacles to be encountered in the 
contemplated assault. In the first place, it is impossible to take Vicks- 
burg in the front without too great a loss of life and material, for the 
reason that the river is only about half a mile wide, and our forces would 
be in point-blank range of their guns, not only from their water-batteries 
which line the shore, but from the batteries that crown the hills, while 
the enemy would be protected from the range of our fire. 

By examining the map I enclose, you will at once perceive why a place 
of so little apparent strength has been enabled to resist the combined 
fleets of the Upper and Lower Mississippi. The most economical plan 
for the reduction of Vicksburg now, is to push a column from Memphis 
or Corinth down the Mississippi Central Railroad to Jackson, the capital 
of the State of Mississippi. The occupation of Jackson, and the com- 
mand of the railroad to New Orleans, would compel the immediate 
evacuation of Vicksburg, as well as the retreat of the entire rebel 
army east of that line ; and by another movement of our army from 
Jackson, Miss., or from Corinth to Meridan, in the State of Mississippi, 
on the Ohio and Mobile Railroad, especially if aided by a movement 
of our gun-boats on Mobile, the Confederate forces, with all the disloyal 
men and slaves, would be compelled to fly east of the Tombigbee. 
Mobile being then in our possession, with 100,000 men at Meridan, 
would redeem the entire country from Memphis to the Tombigbee River. 
Of course I would have the gun-boats with a small force at Vicksburg, 
as auxiliary to this movement. With regard to the canal, Vicksburg 
can be rendered useless to the Confederate army upon the very first rise 
of the river;. but I do not advise this, because Vicksburg belon'gs to the 
United States, and we desire to hold and fortify it, for the Mississippi 
N River at Vicksburg and the Vicksburg and Jackson Railroad will be- 
come necessary as a base for our future operations. Vicksburg might 
have been reduced eight months ago, as I advised after the fall of Fort 
Henry, and with much more ease than it can be done to-day. 

It will be recollected that after a month's attack upon Vicksburg, 
commencing June 28, 1862, by the combined Farragut fleet, Porter 
mortar flotilla and the gun-boat fleet under Capt. C. H. Davis, the 
bombardment of the city was suspended, it being found impossible 
to capture and hold it with the forces at command. 



12 History of Woman Suffrage. 

In October, 1862, Grant was appointed to the command of the 
forces from New Orleans to Vicksburg under the name of the " De- 
partment of Tennessee," and the capture of this " Gibraltar of the 
Confederacy " was once more attempted. This was the period of 
Miss Carroll's memorial above given, and the results proved the 
wisdom of her suggestions, as it was not until the army, by an 
attack upon its rear, were enabled to capture this stronghold, July 
4, 1863, more than a year after the first demand of Farragut's fleet 
for its capitulation. Had it been attacked immediately after the 
fall of Fort Henry, according to Miss Carroll's plan, many lives, 
costly munitions of war, and much valuable time would have alike 
been saved. Miss Carroll's claim before Congress in connection with 
the Tennessee campaign of 1862, shows that the Military Committee 
of the United States Senate at the third session of the 41st Congress, 
reported (document 337), through Senator Howard, that Miss Carroll 
" furnished the Government the information which caused the 
change of the military expedition which was preparing in 1861 to 
descend the Mississippi, from that river to the Tennessee River." 
The same committee of the 42d Congress, second session (document 
167), reported the evidence in support of this claim. For the House 
report of the 46th Congress, third session, see document 386.* 

No fact in the history of our country is more clearly proved 
than that its very existence is due to the military genius of Miss 
Carroll, and no more shameful fact in its history exists, than that 
Congress has refused all recognition and reward for such patriotic 
services because they were rendered by a woman. While in the past 
twenty years thousands of men, great and small, have received 
thanks and rewards from the country she saved for work done in 
accordance with her plans Grant, first made known at Donelson, 
having twice received the highest office in the gift of the nation 
having made the tour of the world amid universal honors having 
received gifts of countless value at home and abroad Miss Carroll 
is still left to struggle for a recognition of her services from that 
country which is indebted to her for its very life. 

DOROTHEA DIX, 

GOVERNMENT SUPERINTENDENT OF NURSES. 

Upon the breaking out of the war, Miss Dix, who for years had 
been engaged in philanthropic work, saw here another requirement 
for her services and hurried to Washington to offer them to her 

* See Appendix. 



Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell. 13 

country. She found her first work in nursing soldiers who had 
been wounded by the Baltimore mob.* Upon June 10, 1861, she 
received 'from the War Department, Simon Cameron at that time 
its head, an appointment as the Government Superintendent of 
Women Nurses. Secretary Stanton, succeeding him, ratified this 
appointment, thus placing her in an extraordinary and exceptional 
position, imposing numerous and onerous duties, among them that 
of hospital visitation, distributing supplies, managing ambulances, 
adjusting disputes, etc. But while appointed to this office by the 
Government, Miss Dix found herself as a member of a disfranchised 
class, in a position of authority without the power of enforcing 
obedience, and the subject of jealousy among hospital surgeons, 
which largely militated against the efficiency of her work.f 

ELIZABETH BLACKWELL, M.D. 
THE SANITARY COMMISSION. 

It has been computed that since the historic period, fourteen thou- 
sand millions of human beings have fallen in the wars which men have 
waged against each other. From careful statistics it has also been 
estimated that four-fifths of this loss of life has been due to priva- 
tion, exposure, and want of care. At an early day the mortality 
from sickness was evidently far greater than the above estimate; 
as late as the Crimean War, this mortality reached seven-eighths 
of the whole number of deaths. Military surgery was formerly but 
little understood. The wounded and sick of an army were indebted 
to the chance aid of friend or stranger, or were left to perish from 
neglect. Nothing has ever been held so cheap as human life, unless, 
indeed, it were human rights. But even from times of antiquity 
wo read of women, sometimes of noble birth, who followed the 



* But as early as she was thus engaged, one woman had. already preceded her. When 
the first blood of the war was shed by the attack upon the Massachusetts troops passing 
through Baltimore that memorable April 19, 1861, but one person in the whole city was 
found to offer them shelter and aid. Ann Manley, a woman belonging to what is 
called the outcast class, with a pity as divine as that of the woman who anointed the 
feet of our Lord and wiped them with the hair of her head took the disabled solilit-rs 
into her own house, and at the hazard of her life, bound up their wounds. In making 
up His jewels at the last great day, will not the Lord say of her as of one of old, " She 
has loved much, and much is forgiven her ?" 

t There was no penalty for disobedience, and persons disaffected, forgetful, or idle, 
might refuse or neglect to obey with impunity. It indeed seems most wonderful al- 
most miraculous that under such circumstances, such a vast amount of good was done. 
Had she not accomplished half so much, she still would richly have deserved that high- 
est of plaudits, "Well done, good and faithful servant! " Woman's Work intfu Civil 
War. 



14 History of Woman Suffrage. 

soldiers to the field, treating the wounds of friend or lover with 
Inkling balms or rude surgical appliance. To woman is the world 
indebted for the first systematic efforts toward relief, through the 
establishment of hospitals for sick or wounded soldiers. As early 
as the fifth century, the Empress Helena erected hospitals on the 
routes between Rome and Constantinople, where soldiers requiring 
cived careful nursing. 

In the ninth century an order of women, who consecrated them- 
selves to field work, arose in the Catholic Church. They were called 
Beguines, and everywhere ministered to the sick and wounded of 
the armies of Continental Europe during its long period of devas- 
tating wars. 

To Isabella of Spain,* she who sold her jewels to fit Columbus 
for the discovery of a New "World, is modern warfare most indebted 
for a mitigation of its horrors, through the establishment of the first 
regular Camp Hospitals. During her war with the Moors she 
caused a large number of tents to be furnished at her own charge, 
with the requisite medicines, appliances, and attendants for the 
wounded and sick of her army. These were known as the u Queen's 
Hospitals," and formed the inception of all the tender care given in 
army hospitals by the most enlightened nations of to-day. 

It is but a few years since Christendom was thrilled by the hero- 
ism of a young English girl of high position, Florence Nightingale, 
who having passed through the course of training required for hos- 
pital nurses, voluntarily went out to the Crimea at the time when 
English soldiers, wounded and sick, were dying by scores and thou- 
sands without medicine or care, broke over the red-tape rules of the 
army, and with her corps of women nurses, brought life in place of 
death, winning the gratitude and admiration of her country and 
mankind by her self-sacrifice and her powers of organization. Rev. 
Henry Kinglake. in his " History of the Crimea,'' says she brought 
a priceless reinforcement of brain power to the nation at a time 
when the brains of Englishmen had given signs of inanition. 

A few years later brought our own civil war, and the wonderful 
sanitary commission, more familiarly known as "The Sanitary," 
the public records of which are a part of the history of the 
war; its sacrifices and its successes have burned themselves deep 
into the hearts of thousands upon thousands. Its fairs in New 



* When the Spanish minister, Senor Don Francisco Barca, was presented to the 
President, he spoke of America as the " splendid and fortunate land dreamed of, for the 
service of God and of human progress, by the greatest of all Spanish women, before 
others conceived of it." 



Woman inspired the Sanitary Commission. 15 

York, New England, and the Northwest, were the wonders of 
the world in the variety and beauty of their exhibits and the vast 
sums realized from them. Scarcely a woman in the nation, from 
the girl of tender years,* to the aged matron of ninety, whose 
trembling hands scraped lint or essayed to knit socks and mit- 
tens for "the boys in blue," but knows its work, for of it they 
were a part. But not a hundred of all those thousands who toiled 
with willing hands, and who, at every battle met anew to prepare or 
send off stores, knows that to one of her own sex was the formation 
of the Great Sanitary due.f 

Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, returning to this country from England 
about the time of the breaking out of the war, fresh from an acquaint- 
ance with Miss Nightingale, and tilled with her enthusiasm, at once 
called an informal meeting at the New York Infirmary;}: for Women 
and Children, where, on April 25th, 1861, the germ of the sanitary, 
known as the Ladies' Central Relief, was inaugurated. A public 
meeting was held April 26, 1861, at the Cooper Union, its object 
being to concentrate scattered efforts by a large and formal organi- 
zation. The society then received the name of the " Woman's Cen- 
tral Relief Association of New York." Miss Louisa Lee Schuyler 
was chosen its president. She soon sent out an appeal to women 
which brought New York into direct connection with many other 
portions of the country, enabling it " to report its monthly disburse- 
ments by tens of thousands, and the sum total of its income by mil- 
lions." But very soon after its organization, Miss Schuyler saw the 
need of more positive connection with the Government. A united 
address was sent to the Secretary of War from the Woman's Central 
Relief Association, the Advisory Committee of the Board of Physi- 
cians and Surgeons of the hospitals of New York, and the New York 



* On a pair of socks sent to the Central Association of Relief, was pinned a paper, say- 
ing : " These nocks were kuit by a little girl five years old, and she is going to knit some 
more, for mother said it would help some poor soldier." 

t The Christian Commission, an organization of later date, never succeeded in so fully 
gaining the affection of the soldiers, who, in tent or hospital, hailed the approach of 
medicine or delicacy, with an affectionate " How are you, Sanitary ? " 

J Organized seven years previously by Dr. Blackwell as an institution where women 
might be treated by their own sex, and for co-ordinate purposes, and out of which the 
New York Medical College for Women finally grew. 

Women in many other parts of the country were active at as early a date as those of 
New York. A Soldiers' Aid Society was formed in Cleveland, Ohio, April 20, 1861, five 
days after the President's proclamation calling for troops. This association, with a slight 
change in organization, remained in existence a long time after the close of the war, act- 
ively employed in securing pensions and back pay to crippled and disabled soldiers. At 
two points in Massachusetts, meetings to form aid societies were called immediately upon 
the departure of the Sixth Militia of that State for Washington. 



16 History of Woman Suffrage. 

Medical Association for furnishing medical supplies. As the result 
of this address, the Sanitary Commission was established the 9th of 
Jane, 1861, under the authority of the Government, and went into 
immediate operation. Although acting under Government author- 
ization, this commission was not sustained at Government expense, 
but was supported by the women of the nation. It was organized 
under the following general rules : 

1. The system of sanitary relief established by army regulations was to 
b adopted; the Sanitary Commission was to acquaint itself fully with 
those rules, and see that its agents were familiar with all the plans and 
methods of the army system. 

2. The Commission was to direct its efforts mainly to strengthening the 
regular army system, and work to secure the favor and co-operation of 
the Medical Bureau. 

3. The Commission was to know nothing of religious differences or 
State distinctions, distributing without regard to the place where troops 
were enlisted, in a purely national spirit. 

Under these provisions the Sanitary Commission completed its 
full organization. Dr. Blackwell, in the Ladies' Relief Association, 
acted as Chairman of the Registration Committee, a position of oner- 
ous duties, requiring accord with the Medical Bureau and War De- 
partment, and visited Washington in behalf of this committee. But 
the Association soon lost her services by her own voluntary act of 
withdrawal. Professional jealousy of women doctors being offen- 
sively shown by some of those male physicians with whom she was 
brought in contact, she chose to resign rather than allow sex-preju- 
dice to obstruct the carrying on of the great work originated by her. 
The Sanitary, with its Auxiliary Aid Societies, at once presented a 
method of help to the loyal * women of the country, and every city, 



* Women as loyal as these were to be found in the South, where an expression of love 
for the Union was held as a death offence. Among the affecting incidents of the war, was 
that of a woman who, standing upon the Pedee River bank, waved her handkerchief for 
joy at seeing her country's flag upon a "boat passing up the stream, and who for this ex- 
hibition of patriotism was shot dead by rebels on the shore. During the bread riots in 
Mobile a woman was shot. As she was dying she took a small National flag from her 
bosom, where she had kept it hidden, wrapped it outside a cross, kissed it, and fell for- 
ward dead. 

" Indeed, we may nafcly say that there is scarcely a loyal woman in the North who did 
not do something in aid of the cause who did not contribute time, labor, and money, 
to the comfort of our soldiers and the success of our arms. The story of the war will 
never be fully or fairly written if the achievements of woman in it are left untold. They 
do not figure in the official reports ; they are not gazetted for deeds as gallant as ever 
were done ; the names of thousands are unknown beyond the neighborhood where they 
live, or the hospitals where they loved to labor ; yet there is no feature in our war more 
creditable to us as a nation, none from its positive newness so well worthy of record. 
Women of ihe War. 



Women made powder for tlie Army. 17 

village, and hamlet soon poured its resources into the Commission. 
Through it $92,000,000 were raised in aid of the sick and wounded 
of the army. Nothing connected with the war so astonished for- 
eign nations as the work of the Sanitary Commission. 

Dr". Henry Bellows, its President at the close of the war, declared 
in his farewell address, that the army of women at home had been as 
patriotic and as self-sacrificing as the army of men in the field, and 
had it not been for their aid the war could not have been brought 
to a successful termination.* 

At every important period in the nation's history, woman has 
stood by the side of man in duties. Husband, father, son, or broth- 
er have not suffered or sacrificed alone. 

' ' The old Continentals 
In their ragged regimentals 
Faltered not," 

because back of them stood the patriotic women of the thirteen Col- 
onies ; those of the north-eastern pine-woods, who aided in the first 
naval battle of the Revolution ; those of Massachusetts, Daughters 
of Liberty, who formed anti-tea leagues, proclaimed inherent rights, 
and demanded an independency in advance of the men ; those of 
New York, who tilled the fields, and, removing their hearth-stones, 
manufactured saltpetre from the earth beneath, to make powder 
for the army ; those of New Jersey, who rebuked traitors ; those of 
Pennsylvania, who saved the army ; those of Virginia, who protested 
against taxation without representation ; those of South Carolina, 
who at Charleston established a paper in opposition to the Stamp 
Act ; those of North Carolina, whose fiery patriotism secured for 



*The distinctive features in woman's work in that war, were magnitude, system, thor- 
ough co-operation with the other sex, distinctness of purpose, business-like thorough- 
ness in details, sturdy persistency to the close. There was no more general rising among 
the men than among the women, and for every assembly where men met for mutual ex- 
ertion in the service of the country, there was some corresponding gathering of women 

to stir each other's hearts and flngeis in the same sacred cause And of the two, 

the women were clearer and more united than -the men, because their moral feelings and 
political instincts were not so much affected by selfishness, or business, or party consid- 
erations It is impossible to over-estimate the amount of consecrated work done 

by the loyal women of the North for the army. Hundreds of thousands of women prob- 
ably gave all the leisure they could command, and all the money they could save and 

spare, to the soldiers for the whole four years and more of the war No words 

are adequate to describe the systematic, persistent faithfulness of the women who organ- 
ized and led the Branches of the United States Sanitary Commission. Their voluntary 
labor had all the regularity of paid service, and a heartiness and earnestness which no 

paid service can ever have Men were ashamed to doubt where women trusted, or 

to murmur where they submitted, or to do little where- they did BO much. Woman' ' 

Work in the Civil War. L. P. BKACKETT. 



18 History of Woman Suffrage. 

the counties of Rowan and Mecklenberg the derisive name of " The 
Hornet's Nest of America." The women of the whole thirteen 
Colonies everywhere showed their devotion to freedom and their 
choice of liberty with privation, rather than oppression with luxury 
and ease. 

The civil war in our own generation was but an added proof 
of woman's love for freedom and her worthiness of its posses- 
sion. The grandest war poem, " The Battle Hymn of the Repub- 
lic," was the echo of a woman's voice,* while woman's prescience 
and power were everywhere manifested. She saw, before Presi- 
dent, Cabinet, generals, or Congress, that slavery must die before 
peace could be established in the country, f Months previous to the 
issue by the President of the Emancipation Proclamation, women in 
humble homes were petitioning Congress for the overthrow of slav- 
ery, and agonizing in spirit because of the dilatoriness of those in 
power. Were proof of woman's love of freedom, of her right to 
freedom needed, the history of our civil war would alone be suf- 
ficient to prove that love, to establish that right. 

WOMEN AS SOLDIERS. 

Many women fought in the ranks during the war, impelled by 
the same patriotic motives which led their fathers, husbands, and 
brothers into the contest. Not alone from one State, or in one regi- 
ment, but from various parts of the Union, women were found giv- 
ing their services and lives to their country among the rank and file 
of the army.;}: Although the nation gladly summoned their aid in 
camp and hospital, and on the batte-field with the ambulance corps, 
it gave them no recognition as soldiers, even denying them the rights 
of chaplaincy, and by " army regulations " entirely refusing them 
recognition as part of the fighting forces of the country. 

Historians have made no mention of woman's services in the war ; 
scarcely referring to the vast number commissioned in the army, 
whose sex was discovered through some terrible wound, or by their 

* Julia Ward Howe. See Appendix. f See Appendix. 

t Daring all periods of the war instances occurred of women being found in the ranks 
fighting as common soldiers, their sex remaining unsuspected. Women of the War. 

8 After the close of the war a bill was passed by Congress authorizing the payment of 
salary due Mrs. Ella F. Hobart, for services as chaplain in the Union army. Mrs. 
Hobart was chaplain in the First Wisconsin Volunteer Artillery. The Governor of 
Wisconsin declined to commission her until the War Department should consent to recog- 
nize the validity of the commission. This Secretary Stanton refused to do on account 
of her sex, though her application was endorsed by President Lincoln, though not by 
the Government Mrs. Hobart continued in her position as religious counselor, Con- 
gress at last making payment for her services. 



Women as Soldiers. 19 

dead bodies on the battle-field. Even the volumes especially de- 
voted to an account of woman's work in the war, have mostly ig- 
nored her as a common soldier, although the files of the newspapers 
of that heroic period, if carefully examined, would be found to 
contain many accounts of women who fought on the field of battle.* 

* There are many and interesting records of women who served in Iowa, Ohio, Mich- 
igan, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, New York, and Pennsylvania Regiments, in 
the armies of the Potomac, the Cumberland, the Tennessee, with the Indian Rangers, in 
cavalry, artillery, on foot. A woman was one of the eighteen soldiers seat as u scout at 
Lookout Mountain whose capture was deemed impossible to ascertain the position of 
General Bragg's forces ; and a woman performed one of the most daring naval exploits 
of the war. It was a woman of Brooklyn, N. Y., who, inspired with the idea that she 
was to be the country's savior, joined the army in spite of parental opposition, and, dur- 
ing the bloody battle of Lookout Mountain, fell pierced in the side, a mortal wound, by 
a minie ball. Elizabeth Compton served over a year in the 25th Michigan cavalry ; was 
wounded at the engagement of Greenbrier Bridge, Tennessee, her sex being discovered 
upon her removal to the hospital, at Lebanon, Kentucky, where, upon recovery, she was 
discharged from the service. Ellen Goodridge, although not an enlisted soldier, was in 
every great battle fought in Virginia, receiving a painful wound in the arm from a minie 
ball. Sophia Thompson served three years in the 59th O. V. I. Another woman soldier, 
under the name of Joseph Davidson, also served three years in the same company. Her 
father was killed fighting by her side at Chickamauga. A soldier belonging to the 14th 
Iowa regiment was discovered, by the Provost-Marshal of Cairo, to be a woman. An in. 
vestigation being ordered, " Charlie " placed the muzzle of her revolver to her head 
fired, and fell dead on open parade-ground. No clue was obtained to her name, home, or 
family. 

Frances Hook, of Illinois, enlisted with her brother in the 65th Home Guards, assum- 
ing the name of " Frank Miller." She served three months, and was mustered out with- 
out her sex being discovered. She then enlisted in the 90th Illinois, and was taken pris- 
oner in a battle near Chattanooga. Attempting to escape she was shot through one of 
her limbs. The rebels in searching her person for papers, discovered her sex. They re- 
spected her as a woman, giving her a separate room while she was in prison at Atlanta, 
Ga. During her captivity, Jeff. Davis wrote her a letter, offering her a lieutenant's com- 
mission if she would enlist in the rebel army, but she preferred to fight as a private sol- 
dier for the stars and stripes, rather than accept a commission from the rebels. This 
young lady was educated in a superior manner, possessing all the modern accom- 
plishments. After her release from the rebel prison, she again enlisted in the 2d East 
Tennessee Cavalry. She was in the thickest of the fight at Murfreesboro, and was severely 
wounded iu the shoulder, but fought gallantly and waded the Stone River into Murfrces- 
boro on that memorable Sunday whrn the Union forces were driven back. Her sex was 
again disclosed upon the dressing of her wound, and General Rosecrans was informed, who 
caused her to be mustered out of the service, notwithstanding her earnest entreaty to be 
allowed to serve the cause she loved so well. The General was favorably impressed 
with her daring bravery, and himself superintended the arrangements for her transmis- 
sion home. She left the army of the Cumberland, resolved to enlist again in the first reg- 
iment she met. The Louisville Journal gave the following account of her under the head of 

" MUSTERED OUT. ' Frank Miller,' the yonng lady soldier, now at Barracks No. 1, will 
be mustered out of the service in accordance with the army ren'ulations which prohibit 
the enlistment of females in the army, and sent to her parents in Pennsylvania. This 
will be sad news to Frances, who has cherished the fond hope that she would be per- 
mitted to serve the Union cause during the war. She has been of great service as a 
scout to the army of the Cumberland, and her place will not be easily tilled. She is a 
true patriot and a gallant soldier." 

"Frank," found the 8th Michigan at Bowling Green, in which she again enlisted, re- 
maining connected with this company. She said she had discovered a great many women 



20 History of Woman Suffrage. 

Gov. Yates, of Illinois, commissioned the wife of Lieut. .Rey- 
nolds of the 17th, as Major, for service in the field, the document 
U-ing made out with due formality, having attached to it the great 
seal of State. President Lincoln, more liberal than the Secretary 



in the arm}-, one of them holding a lieutenant's commission, and had at different times 
assisted in burying three women soldiers, whose sex was unknown to any but herself. 

The Ht. Louis Times, sometime after the war, referring to a girl called as a witness be- 
fore the Police Court of that city, says : 

" This lady is a historical character, having served over two years in the Federal army 
during the war ; fifteen months as a private in the Illinois cavalry, and over nine months 
as a teamster in the noted Lead mine regiment, which was raised in Washburne district 
from the counties of Jo Daviess and Carrol. She was at the siege of Corinth, and was on 
duty during most of the campaign against Vicksburg. At Lookout Mountain she formed 
one of the party of eighteen selected to make a scout and report the position of General 
Bragg's forces. She was an attache of General Blair's seventeenth corps during most of 
the campaign of the Tennessee, and did good sen-ice in the recounoitering operations 
around the Chattahochie River, at which time she was connected with General Davis' 
fourteenth corps. She went through her army life 'under the cognomen of 'Soldier 
Tom.' " 

The name of Miss Browulow, of Tennessee, was familiar during the war for her daring 
exploits ; also that of Miss Richmond, of Raleigh, North Carolina, who handled a mus- 
ket, rifle, or shot-gun with precision and skill, fully equal to any sharp-shooter, and 
who was at any time ready to join the clan of which her father, a devoted Unionist, was 
leader, in an expedition against the rebels, or on horseback, alone in the night, to thread 
the wild passes of the mountains as a bearer of information. 

Major Pauline Cushcian and Dr. Mary Walker were also noted for their devotion to 
the Union. No woman suffered more or rendered more service to the national cause than 
Major Cushman, who was employed in the secret service of the Government as scout 
and spy. She carried letters between Louisville and Nashville, and was for many months 
with the army of the Cumberland, employed by General Rosecrans, rendering the army 
invaluable service. She was three times taken prisoner, once by John Morgan, and ad- 
vertised to be hung in Nashville as a Federal spy, but she escaped by singular daring 
and courage. The third time she was tried and condemned, but her execution was post- 
poned on account of her illness. After lying in prison three months, she had an inter- 
view with General Bragg, who assured her that he would, make an example of her and 
hang her as soon as she got well enough to be hung decently. 

While she remained in this condition of suspense, the grand army of Rosecrans com- 
menced its forward march, and one fine day the rebel town in which she was imprisoned 
Taa surprised and captured by the Union troops under General Gordon Granger, and she 
was released. After hearing an account of the sufferings she had undergone for the Union 
cause, General Granger determined to bestow upon her a testimonial of appreciation for 
her services, and she was accordingly formally proclaimed a Major of cavalry. The la- 
dles of Nashville, hearing of this promotion, prepared a costly riding habit trimmed in 
military style, vith dainty shoulder-straps, etc., and presented the dress to Miss Cushman. 

Dr. Mary Walker gave her services on the field as surgeon, winning an acknowledged 
reputation in the Second corps, army of the Potomac, for professional .superiority. She 
applied for a commission aa assistant surgeon, but was refused by Surgeon-General Ham- 
mood because of her sex. Dr. Walker suffered imprisonment in Castle Thunder, Rich- 
mond, having been taken prisoner. 

The special correspondent of the JV. T. Tribune, Headquarters Army of the Potomac, 
Sept. 15, 1868, said : " She applied to both Surgeon-Generals Finlay and Hammond for 
a commission as assistant surgeon. Her competence was attested and approved, yet as 
the Army Regulations did not authorize the employment of women as surgeons,. her 
petition was denied. A Senator from New York, with an enlightenment which did him. 
honor, urged her appointment to the Secretary of War, but without success." 



A brave Woman on /Shipboard. 21 

of War, himself promoted the wife of another Illinois officer, 
named Gates, to a majorship, for service in the hospital and bravery 
on the field. 

One young girl is referred to who served in seven different regi- 
ments, participated in several engagements, was twice severely 
wounded ; had been discovered and mustered out of service eight 
times, but as many times had re-enlisted, although a Canadian by 
birth, being determined to fight for the American Union. 

Hundreds of women marched steadily up to the mouth of a hundred 
cannon pouring out fire and smoke, shot and shell, mowing down 
the advancing hosts like grass ; men, horses, and colors going down 
in confusion, disappearing in clouds of smoke ; the only sound, the 
screaming of shells, tne crackling of musketry, the thunder of ar- 
tillery, through all this women were sustained by the enthusiasm 
born of love of countiy and liberty. 

Amid ' ' sighing shot and shrieking shell 
And the splintered fire of the shattered hell, 
And the great white breaths of the cannon smoke 
As the growling guns by the battery spoke. 

Right up to the guns, black-throated and grim, 
Right down on the hedges bordered with steel," 

bravely marched hundreds of women. 

Nor was the war without its naval heroines. Among the vessels 
captured by the pirate cruiser Retribution, was the Union brigantine, 
J. P. Ellicott, of Bucksport, Maine, the wives of the captain and mate 
being on board. Her officers and crew were transferred to the pirate ves- 
sel and ironed, while a crew from the latter was put on the origan tine ; 
the wife of the mate was left on board the brig with the pira^crew. 
Having cause to fear bad treatment at the hands of the prize-master* 
and his mate, this woman formed the bold plan of capturing the 
vessel. She succeeded in getting the officers intoxicated, hand- 
cuffed them and took possession of the vessel, persuading the crew, 
who were mostly colored men from St. Thomas, to aid her. Having 
studied navigation with her husband on the voyage, she assumed 
command of the brig, directing its course to St. Thomas, which she 
reached in safety, placing the vessel in the hands of the United 
States Consul, who transferred the prize-master, mate, and crew to 
a United States steamer, as prisoners of war. Her name was not 
given, but had this bold feat been accomplished by a man or boy, the 



* Gilbert Hay, shortly before released from Fort La Fuyette. 



22 History of Woman Suffrage. 

country would have rung with praises of the daring deed, and his- 
tory would have borne the echoes down to future generations. 

Not alone on the tented field did the war find its'patriotic victims. 
Many women showed their love of country by sacrifices still greater 
than enlistment in the army. Among these, especially notable for 
her surroundings and family, was Annie Carter Lee, daughter of 
Gen. Robert E. Lee, Commander-in-Chief of the rebel array. Her 
father and three brothers fought against the Union which she lovc-1, 
and to which she adhered. A young girl, scarcely beyond her teens 
when the war broke out, she remained firm in her devotion to the 
National cause, though for this adherence she was banished by her 
father as an outcast from that elegant hom^ once graced by her 
presence. She did not live to see the triumph of the cause she loved 
so well, dying the third year of the war, aged twenty-three, at Jones 
Springs, North Carolina, homeless, because of her love for the Union, 
with no relative near her, dependent for care and consolation in her 
last hours upon the kindly services of an old colored woman. In 
her veins ran pure the blood of " Light-Horse Harry " and that 
of her great aunt, Hannah Lee Corbin, who at the time of the Rev- 
olution, protested against the denial of representation to taxpay- 
ing women, and whose name does much to redeem that of Lee from 
the infamy, of late so justly adhering to it. When her father, after 
the war, visited his ancestral home,* then turned into a vast national 

* LEE AT ARLINGTON. Visitors to this noted place are so frequent that his appearance 
attracted no attention. He walked through the dreary hall, and looked in on the wide, 
vacant rooms, and passing to the front, stood for some time gazing out over the beauti- 
ful panorama, with its one great feature, the new dome of the old capitol, surmounted 
by a bronz^tatue of Liberty armed, and with her back to him, gazing seaward. 

From^his he passed to the garden, and looked over the line of the officers' graves that 
bonnd fre sides, saw the dying flowers and wilted borders and leaf strewn walks, and con- 
tinuing after a slight pause, he stopped on the edge of the field where the sixteen thou- 
sand Union soldiers lie buried in lines, as if they had lain down after a review to be in- 
terred in their places. Some negroes were at work here raking up the falling leaves, and 
one old man stopped suddenly and stared at the visitor as if struck mute with astonish- 
ment. He continued to gaze in this way until the stranger, walking slowly, regained his 
horse and rode away, when he dropped his rake and said to his companions : "Shuah as 
de Lord, men, dat was ole Massa Lee I " 

One hastens to imagine the thoughts and feelings that must have agitated this fallen 
chief as he stood thus, like Marius amid the ruins of Carthage, on the one spot of all 
others, to realize the fact of the Lost Cause and its eventful history. About him were 
the scenes of his youth, the home of his honored manhood, the scenery that gave beau- 
ty to the peaceful joys of domestic life. They were nearly all the same, and yet between 
then and now, came the fierce war, the huge campaigns and hundred battles loud with 
the roar of mouthing cannons and rattling musketry, and stained into history by the blood 
of thousands, the smoke of burning houses, the devastation of wide States, and the des- 
olation of the households, and all in vain. He stood there, old before his time, the na- 
tionality so fiercely struggled for, unrecognized ; the great confederacy a dream, his home 
a grave-yard, and the capitol he sought to destroy grown to twice its size, with the bronze 
goddess gazing calmly to the East. Correspondence of the Cincinnati Commercial, 1866. 



Annie Carter Lee. 23 

cemetery, it would seem as though the spirit of his Union-loving 
daughter must have floated over him, whispering of his wrecked 
hopes, and piercing his heart with a thousand daggers of remorse as 
he recalled his blind infatuation, and the banishment from her home 
of that bright young life. 

Of the three hundred and twenty-eight thousand Union soldiers 
who lie buried in national cemeteries, many thousands with head- 
boards marked " Unknown," hundreds are those of women obliged 
by army regulations to fight in disguise. Official records of the mil- 
itary authorities show that a large number of women recruits were 
discovered and compelled to leave the army. A much greater num- 
ber escaped detection, some of them passing entirely through the 
campaigns, while others were made known by wounds or on being 
found lifeless upon the battle-field. The history of the war which 
has never yet been truly written is full of heroism in which woman 
is the central figure. 

The social and political condition of women was largely changed 
by our civil war. Through the withdrawal of so many men from 
their accustomed work, new channels of industry were opened to 
them, the value and control of money learned, thought upon politi- 
cal questions compelled, and a desire for their own personal, indi- 
vidual liberty intensified. It created a revolution in woman herself, 
as important in its results as the changed condition of the former 
slaves, and this silent influence is still busy. Its work will not have 
been accomplished until the chains of ignorance and selfishness are 
everywhere broken, and woman shall stand by man's side his recog- 
nized equal in rights as she is now in duties. 

CLARA BARTON. 

MINISTERING ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE. 

Clara Barton was the youngest child of Capt. Stephen Barton, of 
Oxford, Mass., a non-commissioned officer under " Mad Anthony 
Wayne." Captain Barton, who was a prosperous farmer and leader 
in public affairs, gave his children the best opportunities he could 
secure for their improvement. Clara's early education was princi- 
pally at home under direction of her brothers and sisters. At six- 
teen, she commenced teaching, and followed the occupation for 
several years, during which time she assisted her oldest brother, 
Capt. Stephen Barton, Jr., a man of fine scholarship and business ca- 
pacity, in equitably arranging and increasing the salaries of the 
large village schools of her native place, at the same time having 
clerical oversight of her brother's counting-house. Subsequently, 



24 History of Woman Suffrage. 

she finished her school education by a very thorough course of study 
at Clinton, N. Y. Miss Barton's remarkable executive ability was 
manifested in the fact that she popularized the Public School System 
in New Jersey, by opening the first free school in Bordentown, com- 
mencing with six pupils, in an old tumble-down building, and at the 
close of the year, leaving six hundred in the fine edifice at present 
occupied. 

At the close of her work in Bordentown, she went to Washington, 
D. C., to recuperate and indulge herself in congenial literary pur- 
suits. There she was, without solicitation, appointed by Hon. 
Charles Mason, Commissioner of Patents, to the first independent 
clerkship held by a woman under our Government. Her thoroughness 
and faithfulness fitted her eminently for this position of trust, which 
she retained until after the election of President Buchanan, when, 
being suspected of Republican sentiments, and Judge Mason having 
resigned, she was deposed, and a large part of her salary withheld. 
She returned to Massachusetts and spent three years in the study of 
art, belles-lettres, and languages. Shortly after the election of Abraham 
Lincoln, she was recalled to the Patent Office by the same adminis- 
tration which had removed her. She returned, as she had left, with- 
out question, and taking up her line of duty, awaited developments. 

When the civil war commenced, she refused to draw her salary 
from a treasury already overtaxed, resigned her clerkship and devo- 
ted herself to the assistance of suifering soldiers. Her work com- 
mencing before the organization of Commissions, was continued 
outside and altogether independent of them, but always with most 
cordial sympathy. Miss Barton never engaged in hospital service. 
Her chosen labors were on the battle-field from the beginning, until 
the wounded and dead were attended to. Her supplies were her 
own, and were carried by Government transportation. Nearly four 
years she endured the exposures and rigors of soldier life, in action, 
always side by side with the field surgeons, and this on the hardest 
fought fields ; such battles as Cedar Mountain, second Bull Run, 
Chantilly, Antietam, Falmouth, and old Fredericksburg, siege of 
Charleston, on Morris Island, at Wagner, Wilderness and Spotsylva- 
nia, The Mine, Deep Bottom, through sieges of Petersburg and 
Richmond, with Butler and Grant ; through summer without shade, 
and winter without shelter, often weak, but never so far disabled as 
to retire from the field ; always under fire in severe battles ; her 
clothing pierced with bullets and torn by shot, exposed at all times, 
but never wounded. 

Firm in her integrity to the Union, never swerving from her 






J 

' O &-UJ 



Search for Missing Men. 25 

belief in the justice of the cause for which the North was fighting, 
on the battle-field she knew no North, no South ; she made her 
work one of humanity alone, bestowing her charities and her care 
indiscriminately upon the Blue and the Gray, with an impartiality 
and Spartan firmness that astonished the foe and perplexed the 
friend, often falling under suspicion, or censure of Union officers 
unacquainted with her motives and character if or her tender care 
and firm protection of the wounded captured in battle. Their home- 
thrusts were met with the same calm courage as were the bullets of 
the enemy, and many a Confederate soldier lives to bless her for care 
and life, while no Union man will ever again doubt her loyalty. 
All unconsciously to herself she was carrying out to the letter in 
practice the grand and beautiful principles of the Red Cross of 
Geneva (of which she had never heard), for the entire neutrality 
of war relief among the nations of the earth, that great international 
step toward a world-wide recognized humanity, of which she has 
since become the national advocate and leader in this country. 

At the close of the war she met exchanged prisoners at Annapolis. 
Accompanied by Dorrcnce Atwater, she conducted an expedition, sent 
at her request by the United States Government to identify and mark 
the graves of the 13,000 soldiers who perished at Ahdersonville. 
From Savannah to that point, as theirs were the first trains which 
had passed since the destruction of the railroads by Sherman, they 
were obliged to repair the bridges and the embankments, straight- 
en bent rails, and in some places make new roads. The work 
was completed in August, 1865, and her report of the expedition 
was issued in the winter of 1866. . % 

The anxiety felt by the whole country for the fate of those whom 
the exchange of prisoners and the disbanding of troops failed to 
reveal, stimulated her to devise the plan of relief, which, sanctioned 
by President Lincoln, resulted in the " search for missing men," 
which (except the printing) was carried on entirely at her own ex- 
pense, to the extent of several thousand dollars, employing froin ten 
to fifteen clerks. In the winter of '66, when she was on the point, 
for want of further means to carry out her plan, of turning the search 
over to the Government, Congress voted $15,000 for reimbursing 
moneys expended, and carrying on the work. The search was con- 
tinued until 1869, and then a full report made and accepted by Con- 
gress. During the winter of 186T-8 Miss Barton was called on to 
lecture before many lyceums regarding the incidents of the war. 

In 1869, her health failing, she went to Switzerland to rest and 
recover, where she was at the breaking out of the Franco-Prussian, 
VOL. II. 3. 



26 I I! dory of Woman Suffrage. 

war, and immediately tendered her services there, as here, on the 
battle-field, under the auspices of the Red Cross of Geneva. Her Royal 
Highness the Grand Duchess of Baden, daughter of the Emperor 
of Germany, invited Miss Barton to aid her in the establishment of 
her noble Badise hospitals, a work which consumed several months. 
On the fall of Strasburg she entered the city with the German 
army, organized labor for women, conducting the enterprise herself, 
employing remuneratively a great number, and clothing over thirty 
thousand. She entered Metz with hospital supplies the day of its 
fall, and Paris the day after the fall of the Commune. Here she 
remained two months, distributing money and clothing which she 
carried, and afterward met the poor in every besieged city in France, 
extending succor to them. 

She is a representative of the " International Red Cross of Ge- 
neva," and President of the American National Association of the 
Red Cross, honorary and only woman member of " Comite de Stras 
bourgeois "; was decorated with the " Gold Cross of Remembrance " 
by the Grand Duke and Duchess of Baden, and with the " Iron 
Cross of Merit " by the Emperor and Empress of Germany. 

Miss Barton may be said to have given her whole life to humani 
tarian affairs, largely national in character. The positions she has 
occupied, whether remunerative or not and she has filled but few 
paid positions have been pioneer ones, in which her efforts and 
success have been to raise the standard of woman's work and its 
recognition and remuneration. Her time, her property, and her 
influence have been held sacred to benevolence of that character that 
will assist in true progress. Nevertheless, she is one of the most 
retiring of women, never voluntarily coming before the world except 
at the call of manifest duty, and shrinking with peculiar sensitiveness 
from anything verging on notoriety. 

Her summers are passed at her pleasant country residence at 
Dansville, New York, where she has regained in a most gratifying 
degree her shattered health and war-worn strength, and her winters 
in Washington in the interests and charge of the great International 
movement which she represents in America. 

JOSEPHINE SOPHIE GRIPPING. 
The National Freedmaris Relief Association. 

BY CATHARIIfE A. F. STEBBINS. 

Josephine Sophie White was born at Hebron, Conn., December, 
1816, and was educated in her native State. She grew* to young 
womanhood in the pure and religious atmosphere of the New En- 



National Freedmarfs Relief Association. 27 

gland hills, and developed a strength, of constitution and character 
which was the basis of her truly beneficent life-work. Refined, 
sympathetic, and conscientious, with the golden rule for her text, 
her career was ever marked with deeds of kindness and charity to 
the oppressed of every class. Taking an active part in both the 
" Anti-slavery " and " Woman's Rights " struggles, she early learned 
the very alphabet of liberty. With her the perception of its bless- 
ings and its glory was also a rich inheritance, and the vigilance and 
courage to conquer and secure it for others was not less a noble 
legacy. The love of liberty flowed down to her through two streams 
of life. On the mother's side she was descended from Peter Waldo,* 
after whom the Waldenses were named ; and on the father's, from 
Peregrine White, who was born in Massachusetts in 1620, the first 
child of Pilgrim parents. It is not strange she was by temperament 
and constitution a reformer, and a protestant against all despotisms, 
whether of mind, body, or estate. In the agitation for human rights of 
one class after another, in their historical order, she enlisted with the 
Abolitionists, with the Woman Suffragists, with the Loyal League 
and sanitary workers, and after the war, in relief of the Freedraen. 
Her interest in her own sex began early, and continued to the last. 

At the age of twenty-two she married, and about the year 1842 
removed with her family to Ohio, where her home soon became 
the refuge of the fugitive slave, and the resting-place of his de- 
fenders. In 1849 she began, with her husband, Chas. S. S. Griffing, 
her public labors in connection with the " American " and the " West- 
ern Anti-Slavery Societies," speaking at first to small audiences in 
school-houses, and when prejudice and bitterness gave way, to con- 
ventions, and mass-meetings ; opposition and curiosity yielding final- 
ly to sympathy and aid. But- for years the meetings were often 
broken up by mobs. The effort to uproot slavery was pronounced 
either absurd, treasonable, or irreligious ; that it would incite insur- 
rection of the slaves ; or if successful, bring great responsibility 
upon the Abolitionists, and disaster to the whole country. 

In 1861, Mrs. Griffing, prompted by the same loyal spirit that 
moved all the women of the nation, turned from the ordinary occu- 

* Peter Waldo, a merchant of Lyon, of the 12th century, was less the founder of a sect, 
than the representative and leader of a wide-spread struggle against the corruptions of 
the clergy. The church would have tolerated him, had he not trenched upon ground 
dangerous to the hierarchy. But he hud the four Gospels translated and (like Wicklyffe) 
maintained that laymen had the right to read them to the people. He exposed thus the 
ignorance and the immorality of the clergy, and brought down their wrath upon himself. 
His opinions were condemned by a General Council, and he retired to the valleys of the 
Cottian Alps. Long persecutions followed, but his disciples could not be forced to 
yield their opinions. The protest of the Waldenses related to practical questions. Encyc, 



28 



History of Woinan Suffrage. 



pations of life to see what she could do to mitigate the miseries of 
the war. She united at once with " The National Woman's Loyal 
League," lecturing and organizing societies in tho West for the sol- 
diers and freedmen, to whom large quantities of clothing and other 
supplies were sent, and circulating petitions to Congress for the 
emancipation of slaves as a war measure. 

While thus engaged, her thoughts naturally turned to the large 
number of Southern slaves coming with the army into Washington, 
whose future she foresaw would be beset with distress and want dur- 
ing the long period of change from chattelism to the settled habits 
of freedom. They were coming by the hundreds and thousands in 
1863, with a vague idea of being cared for by "the Governor," but 
the Government had as yet made no provision, separate from that for 
the soldiers, when Mrs. Griffing went to Washington and began her 
labors for them, which were continued until her death. 

She at once counseled with President Lincoln and Secretary 
Stanton as to the best methods for immediate relief ; proposed plans 
which they approved, and received from them every aid possible in 
their execution. Her first step was to open three ration-houses, 
where she fed at least a thousand of the old and most destitute of 
the freed people daily. She visited hundreds in the alleys and old 
stables, in attics and cellars, and in almost every place where shelter 
could be found, and became acquainted personally with their neces- 
sities, and the best means of supplying them. There were 30,000 
in the capital at this time, and it would be difficult to give an idea 
to one not there, of the time and labor it cost to hunt out the old 
barracks and get them transformed into shelters for these outcasts. 
Upon the personal order of the Secretary of War, she was allowed 
army blankets and wood, which she distributed herself, going with 
the army wagons to see that those suffering most were first supplied. 
This ''temporary relief " was necessarily continued for some time, 
during which Mrs. Griffing was made the General Agent of "The 
National Freedman's Relief Association of the District of Colum- 
bia." She opened a correspondence with the Aid societies of the 
Northern and New England States, which resulted in her receiving 
supplies of clothing and provisions, which were most acceptable. 
These were carefully dispensed by herself and two daughters, who 
were her assistants. Mrs. Griffing opened three industrial schools, 
where the women were taught to sew ;* a price was set on their labors, 

* It was almost as thrilling a sight to me to see these earnest women together at work 
with their noodles, as it was to see the first colored soldier in the Union blue. He was from 
Camp Reed, near Boston. I met him in the church of Rev. Mr. Grimes, and could not 



Mrs. Griffing the real Head. 29 

and they were paid in ready-made garments. The Secretary aided in 
the purchase of suitable cloth, and with that sent from the North, 
such outfits were supplied as could be afforded. 

It was soon apparent to Mrs. Griffing that the Government 
must provide for the old and the infirm, and that until labor could 
be found, even a majority of the strong must be included in the 
provision with the understanding, however, that they must seek 
employment and exert themselves to find homes and that educa- 
tional and political interests must be established and encouraged. 
The stress of the situation can not be said ever to have relaxed dur- 
ing our friend's life, except as to numbers at any rate in the early 
years ; but as soon as some system grew out of the confusion, and 
all that could be, were supplied with bread and shelter, she turned 
her attention in part to the larger plan, and urged a bureau under 
Government ; a department for these freedmen's interests. This 
plan was favored by Messrs. Sumner, Wade, Wilson, and a few 
other Senators and Members of Congress, and in December, 1863, a 
bill for a Bureau of Emancipation was introduced in the House of 
Representatives by Hon. Mr. Elliot, of Massachusetts. It received 
no welcome ; few cared to listen to the details of the necessity, and 
it was only through Mrs. Griffing's brave and unwearied efforts that 
the plan was accepted, and carried through in March, 1865, under 
the title of " The Freedman's Bureau." The writer has had testi- 
mony to the truth of this from Senators Wade of Ohio, Howard 
of Michigan, and others, as well as to the fact that a majority of the 
Congressional Committee in charge of the bill, wished that Mrs. 
Griffing should be made Commissioner (among whom, and most act- 
ive in support of the bill, was Senator Henry Wilson), but it was 
decided to place the Bureau in the War Department, with a military 
man at the head, Mrs. Griffing being appointed " Assistant Com- 
missioner." She really held the position but a few weeks in name, 
five months a second military officer standing ready to take the ap- 
pointment, as men have ever done, and as they will always crowd 
women aside so long as they are held political inferiors, without the 
citizen's charter to sustain their claim. This officer had the title and 
drew the pay, while our noble friend went on as before in her ardu- 
ous and almost superhuman labors. The Bureau adopted her plan 
of finding homes in the North, sending the freedmen at Govern- 
ment charge, and of opening employment offices in New York City 

have known before how much such a vision would stir me. It was with great satisfac- 
tion that I took him by the hand and rejoiced with him in tie progress of the Govern- 
ment toward equality. 



30 History of Woman Suffrage. 

and in Providence, R. 1. ; nevertheless it was necessary to supplement 
Government provision by private generosity ; and moreover, that Con- 
gress should provide temporary relief for the helpless in the District. 
Appropriations were made in sums of $25,000, amounting in all to 
nearly $200,000, for the purchase of supplies, a very large proportion 
of which were distributed by Mrs. Griffing in person from her own 
residence.* " Shirley Dare," in writing to The New York World, 
after a little time spent with Mrs. G., said : 

"I sat an hour this morning in Mrs. Grifflng's office during the dis- 
tribution of rations, and a curious scene it was. There was not a sound 
creature among the crowd which filled the yard, and which hangs about 
all day from nine till four, and which the neighborhood calls ' Mrs. Grif- 
fing's signs.' It reminded me of another crowd of impotent folk, lame, 
halt, and blind, which filled the loveliest space in Jerusalem, and was 
a sign of joy and charity in the place. Queer, tender, wistful faces, so 
earnest one forgets their grotesque character and ragged, faded forms, 
cluster in the porch ; such a set as one might once have seen put up at 
auction as a ' refuse lot ' of plantation negroes. The men wear old 
army cloaks, while the women, with dresses in every stage of decay, 

are so comic, one struggles between the ludicrous and the pitiful 

The faith of this class seems to be fastened nowhere so strongly as 
upon Mrs. Griffing. Salutations follow her along the streets, enough to 
satisfy the proudest Pharisee, and it provokes one between a smile and 
a tear, to see the women waiting timidly, yet eagerly, for a word from 
her, to set their faces all aglow. They used to say, persistently, ' We be- 
longs to you,' and no efforts could induce them to change that phrase. 
' Who has we but the Lord and you ? ' was the simple argument which 
stayed protest from the kind, proud woman who was their benefactress. 
A few words from her will draw out histories simple, funny, and sad be- 
yond question.'' * 

Our friend had a strong belief that the able in body could sustain 
themselves if labor were provided, which it could not be there, so 
she urged them to go to the North, which greatly needed laborers to 
fill the places of Northern men in the army. Woman's help, too, 
was as much in demand, for in many places large farms were wholly 
managed by women in the absence of husbands and sons ; but it 
was learned by Mrs. Griffing and daughters through repeated testi- 
mony, that the life-long teaching of the slaves had been, that no good 



* Mrs. Briggs (" Olivia") writing to the Sunday Morning Uhronicle after Mrs. Griffing 
had departed this life, said in this connection : " Altogether $166,000 were given by Con- 
press to the helpless who had been so long held in bondage, and for the grent good ac 
complishcd, the sufferers were more indebted to Mrs. Grifflng than to all the women of 
the country combined, for the larger proportion of the supplies purchased with this 
money, was distributed by her gwn bauds." 



Finding homes for the Freedmen. 31 

could come from Northern people,* and this led the many in their 
pitiable ignorance to believe that, somewhere in the North, the mon- 
sters surely lived who were waiting to destroy them, and that the kind 
few whom they had met were of a different race ; that " the North" 
was beyond the sea, and they could never return, nor hear from 
their friends left behind ; so persistent argument was needed to 
convince the most ignorant of their false notions, and many of them 
never were, until some had gone and returned with good tidings. 
The first company prepared to go numbered sixty persons, for whom 
Mrs. Griffing procured Government transportation and a day's ra- 
tions. She went with them to New York City, and as they passed 
from the cars the sight was a new and strange one. Filing through 
the streets, the anxious, wondering women dressed partly in neat 
garments given them, with others of their own selection in less good 
taste ; while on the men an occasional damaged silk hat topped off 
a coat that would have made Joseph's of old look plain ; with iron- 
clad army shoes ; or a half-worn wedding swallow-tail, eked out by a 
plantation broad-brim, and boots too much worn for either comfort or 
beauty. This motley band, led by a gontle and spiritual-faced woman, 
will not soon be forgotten by those who saw it depart. Leaving a few 
at one depot, and a few at another, to be met at the journey's end by 
their employer, Mrs. Griffing took those remaining to Providence, 
near which place homes had been provided. After these sent 
messages back to friends, others went more readily, and during a 
little more than two years over seven thousand freed people left 
Washington under Mrs. Griffing's special supervision and direction 
for homes in the North. I wish I could say how many parties she 
actually convoyed on the journey, and how many miles she traveled, 
but I know that she went as far as New York with a great many ; 
and as I have seen them start, knew and felt that it was too much 
for her, and longed that some stronger person should appear to 
share her burdens, and relieve her from these exhausting duties. 
Perhaps she had written letters till twelve o'clock the night 'before ; 
had taken a long walk beyond the Navy- Yard cars, in the afternoon, 
to visit her centenarians ; or had received calls, and talked till her 
voice had almost given out. 

But she had the comfort of knowing that many remained where 
they had been sent, some buying homes and planting vines about 
the roof-tree. To behold this, she had wrought heroically in the 

* This would at first thought seem to conflict with the knowledge of " the North Star " 
and " Canada," but, as elsewhere, we must draw the line between the ignorant and the 
Intelligent. 



32 Ilixtory of Woman Suffrage. 

past for emancipation. She was busy with her hands, busier 
with her bruin, and her spiritual nature was like a spring of sweet 
waters, overflowing in bounteous blessing on all around. Of the 
great painter Leonardo da Vinci, his biographer says : " He always 
saw four tilings he wanted to do at once." Our friend always saw 
many more. Her mind was teeming not only with ideals as beauti- 
ful as those of the great artist, but with practical plans to educate 
the ignorant, and lift them to self-support and self-protection. Her 
being was instinct with constructive and spiritual force. 

It would be hard to find any sphere of woman's activity in which 
she had not been leader. Believing that u the manifest inten- 
tion of nature is the perfection of man," she faithfully did her 
part. In the laborious and the menial she served the colored poor, 
while she neglected no opportunity to open their spiritual vision. 
She fed, warmed, and clothed them ; ministered to the sick ; attended 
the dying ; procured their coffins ; spoke the comforting words, and 
sung the hymns at their funerals. She instructed them in their 
Sunday meetings, and gained release for those in prison for petty 
offences, or for those unjustly accused. Soldiers often appealed to 
her to assist and aid them. Her work at the jails was very wear- 
ing, for the poor creatures, not unfrequently the mother of an infant 
left at home, arrested for an imaginary offense, or for stealing bread 
to avert starvation, would plead so hard for her to get them re- 
leased, and had such full faith that she could, that it was a con- 
stant tax upon her sympathy and strength, as was all her work 
connected with them. 

Josephine Griffing had to deal too much with the realities of life 
and death to make many records of her work, save those required 
in the routine of her office. These were mostly kept by her daugh- 
ter Emma, her official assistant. But the substance of what was 
done in these years may be found in the archives of the Govern- 
ment. On the calendar of both Houses of Congress, in the Con- 
gressional Globe, in the War Office, in the Freedman's Bureau, in 
the offices of District Government and District Courts, and perhaps 
in the prisons, the future historian may find abundant records of the 
patient and humane labors of this merciful, vigilant, and untiring 
woman. Whether he finds them in her name is not so certain ! 

Mrs. Griffing not only devoted to these people the six days of the 
week allotted to labor, but her Sundays were given to public minis- 
trations as well as private visits to the distant and aged, unable to 
come to the Relief rooms during the week. But for a real picture 
of the condition of these people, nothing can be more graphic or 



Testimonials of Congressmen. 33 

full of feeling, than her own account in a letter to Lucretia Mott,* 
intended as an appeal to the Society of Friends in Philadelphia. 
It, with others, had early responded, and with its contributions 
in part, she had established the soup-houses before noted. Pier 
account is also in connection with the Bureau, of historical interest. 
During this long struggle her evenings were spent in writing let- 
ters to the North, framing bills, petitions, and appeals to amend 
the laws of the District. As she was interested in all the reforms 
of the day, she was frequently called upon for active service in con- 
ventions and political gatherings. 

Of the public men whom she consulted, two at least, I know, made 
everybody and everything yield when she appeared ; these were 
Secretary Stanton and Chas. Sumner so interested were they in 
the objects of her devotion, and so sure that Mrs. Griffing would 
not take their time without sufficient reason. Benj. F. Wade and 
Henry Wilson would not yield the palm in their respect to her, and 
Senator Howard, of Michigan, was also one of her most friendly 
helpers. Stevens, Julian, Dawes, Ashley all the friends in Con- 
gress could tell of her great achievements, and their unbounded 
confidence in her, as the following letters show : 

WASHINGTON, D. C., March 11, 1865. 
To the Commissioner of the Freedmari's Bureau: 

SIR: I take pleasure in giving my influence to this application for a 
place at the head of freedmen's affairs in the District of Columbia for 
Mrs. Josephine S. Griffing, believing her to be eminently qualified to de- 
velop the resources of the freed people in this District, inost of whom are 
women and children secure the national interest, and give satisfaction 
to the country. Mrs. Griffing has given successful public and private 
efforts in behalf of the colored race for IE any years, and has devoted 
the entire time of the last year to an investigation of the condition 
and best method of giving relief to the multitudes of freed people in and 
around the National Capital. Finding many thousands of women with 
families without employment or the means of self-support, she has con- 
ferred with the President and Governors of the Northwestern States 
upon the practicability of encouraging their emigration. To meet the 
destitution of these people in this city during the past winter, Mrs. 
Griffing has disbursed from the Government about $25,000 in wood and 
blankets and rations, and $5,000 in clothing and money from the public 
charity. I believe the appointment of Mrs. J. S. Grifflng to a chief clerk- 
ship or general agency for the District in this Bureau will be creditable 
to the Government and satisfactory to the freed people. 
Z. CHANDLER. 

* See Appendix. 



34 History of Woman Suffrage. 

I fully concur with my colleague. Mrs. Grifflng is both worthy and ca- 
pable, and I trust her services will be secured. J. M. HOWARD. 

If I had this appointment to make, I would make Mrs. Grifflng Com- 
missioner. "^- ASHLEY. 

I know Mrs. Grifflng to be capable and humane, and very devoted to 
the colored race. I hope that her services may be secured. 

CHARLES SUHNER. 
I most cheerfully join in this recommendation. H. WILSON, 

J. N. GRIMES. 

I fully concur in the above, and hope that Mrs. Griffing will receive a 
conspicuous place in the Freedman's Bureau. She is the best qualified 
of any person within my knowledge; her whole heart is in the work. 

B. F. WADE, SOLOMON FOOT, 

IRA HARRIS, E. D. MORGAN. 

W. P. FESSENDEN, 

I most fully concur. J. V. DRIGGS, 

T. W. FERRY. 

I fully concur in all that is said within in behalf of Mrs. Griffing, and 
earnestly commend her to the favor* sought. GEO. W. JULIAN. 

WASHINGTON, July 9, 1869. 

Airs. Grifflng has for several years devoted herself with great industry, 
intelligence, and success to the freed people in the District of Columbia, 
and in this service she has accomplished more good than any other one 
individual within my acquaintance. When the War Department was in 
my charge, she rendered very efficient aid of a humane character to re 
lievethe wants and sufferings of destitute freed people, and was untiring 
in her benevolent exertions. Property for distribution was often placed 
in her hands, or under her directions, and she was uniformly trustworthy 
and skillful in its management and administration. In my judgment, 
she is entitled to the most full confidence and trust. 

EDWIN M. STANTON. 
JEFFERSON, OHIO, Nov. 12, 1869. 

MY DEAR MRS. GRIFFING : On my return from Washington I found your 
kind letter of the 28th, ult. I regret much that I did not meet with you at 
Washington. I know your merits. I know that no person in America has 
done so much for the cause of humanity for the last four years as you have. 
Your disinterested labors have saved hundreds of poor human beings 
not only the greatest destitution and misery, but from actual starvation 
and death. I also know that in doing this you have not only devoted 
your whole time, but all the property you have. And I know, too, that 
your labors are just as necessary now as they ever have been. Others 
know all this as well as I do. Secretary Stanton can vouch for it all, and 
I can not doubt that Congress will not only pay you for what you have 
done, but give you a position where this necessary work may be done by 
you effectually. This is the very thing that ought to be done at once. 
Since the Bureau has been abolished it will be impossible to get along 
with the great influx of imbecility and destitution which gathers and 



Hon. Charles Sumner. 35 

centers in Washington every winter, without some one being appointed 
to see to it, and certainly everybody knows that there is no one so com- 
petent for this work as yourself. To this end I will do whatever I can, 
but you know that I ain now out of place, and have no influence at Court, 
but whatever I can do to effect so desirable an object will be done. 

Truly yours, B. F. WADE. 

SENATE CHAMBER, April 2. 

DEAR MADAM : I have your note of the 31st, and am very sorry to 
hear that there is so much distress in the city. I shall endeavor to 
bring the charter up as soon as I have an opportunity; but while this 
trial is pending,* it is improbable that any legislative business will be 
done. I am as anxious as you are to secure its adoption. 

Yours truly, CHARLES SUMNER. 

MRS. J. S. GRIFFING, Washington. 

BOSTON, 27th July, 1869. 

DEAR MADAM: The statement or memorial which you placed in my 
hands was never printed. It is, probably, now on the files of the Senate. 
I wish I could help your effort with the Secretary of War. You must 
persevere. If Gen. Rawlins understands the case, he will do all that you 
desire. Accept my best wishes, and believe me, faithfully yours, 

CHARLES SUMNER. 

Will Mrs. Grifflng let Mr. Suuiner know what institution or person 
should disburse the money appropriated ? 
SENATE CHAMBER, 

Tuesday. 

LETTERS ON THE FREEDMAN's BELIEF ASSOCIATION. 

WASHINGTON, April 8, '71. 

To the Mayor and Board of Common Council, City of Washington, District 
of Columbia : 

MESSRS. : I have the honor to state that the aged, sick, crippled, and 
blind persons, for whom the National Freedman's Relief Association of 
this District partially provides, are at this time in very great destitution, 
many of them in extreme suffering for want of food and fuel. The Asso- 
ciation has provided clothing. It is now twelve weeks since the Govern- 
ment appropriation for their temporary support for the last year was 
exhausted. This Association has by foliciting contributions, up to this 
time, relieved the most extreme cases, that otherwise must have died ; 
but the want of food is so great among at least a thousand of these, not 
one of whom is able to labor for a support, that it is impossible to pro- 
vide the absolute relief they musk have, by further contributions from, 
the charitable and the humane. 

I \|ould therefore most earnestly appeal in their behalf, that the Hon. 
Council and Mayor will appropriate from the market fund for their 
temporary relief one thousand dollars, to be disbursed by the above- 
named association, which sum will enable these destitute persons to sub- 
sist until, as is hoped and believed, Congress will make the usuaLspecial 



The impeachment trial of President Johnson. 



36 History of Woman Suffrage. 

appropriation for their partial temporary support. This Association to 
report the use of such money to the Mayor and Common Council of the 
City of Washington, D. C. Very respectfully, J. S. GRIFFING, 

General Agent N. F. R. Association, D. C. 

TRIBUNE OFFICE, NEW YORK, Sept. 7, 1870. 

MRS. GRIFFING: In my judgment you and others who wish to befriend 
the blacks crowded into Washington, do them great injury. Had they 
been told years ago," You must find work; go out and seek it, "they would 
have been spared much misery. They are an easy, worthless race, tak- 
ing no thought for the morrow, and liking to lean on those who be- 
friend them. Your course aggravates their weaknesses, when you should 
raise their ambition and stimulate them to self-reliance. Unless you 
change your course speedily and signally, the swarming of blacks to the 
District will increase, and the argument that Slavery is their natural 
condition will be immeasurably strengthened. So long as they look to 
others to calculate and provide for them, they are not truly free. If 
there be any woman capable of earning wages who would rather some 
one else than herself should pay her passage to the place where she can 
have work, then she needs reconstruction and awakening to a just and 
honest self-reliance. Yours, HORACE GREELET. 

MRS. J. S. GRIFFING, Washington, D. C. 

HORACE GREELEY : Sept. 12, 1870. 

DEAR SIR: Much as I respect your judgment, and admire your can- 
dor, I must express entire dissent with your views in reference to those 
who are laboring to befriend the Freedmen, and also of your estimate 
of the character of the black race. 

When you condemn my work for the old slaves, who can not labor, 
and are " crowded into Washington " by force of events uncontrollable, 
as a "great injury," I am at a loss to perceive your estimate of any and 
all benevolent action. If, to provide houses, food, clothing, and other 
physical comforts, to those broken-down aged slaves whom we have 
liberated in their declining years, when all their strength is gone, and 
for whom no home, family friendship, or subsistence is furnished; if 
this is a "great injury," in my judgment there is no call for alms-house, 
hospital, home, or asylum in human society, and all appropriations ot 
sympathy and material aid are worse than useless, and demand your 
earnest rebuke and discountenance, and to the unfortunates crowded 
into these institutions, you should say, "You must find work, go out 
and seek it." So far as an humble individual can be, I am substituting 
to these a freedman's (relief) bureau; sanitary commission; church 
sewing society, to aid the poor; orphan* asylum; old people's home; 
hospital and alms-house for the sick and the blind; minister-at-larg>e, to 
visit the sick, console the dying, and bury the dead; and wherein I 
fail, and perhaps you discriminate, is the want of wealthy, popular, and 
what is called honorable associations. Were these at my command, with 
the field before me, it would be easy to illustrate the practical use as 
well as the divine origin of the Golden Rule. 

If, in your criticism, you refer to my secondary department in which 



Mrs. Griffing's Reply to Horace Greeley. 37 

I have labored to furnish employment to the Freedmen both in the 
District and out, is it not a direct reflection upon all efforts made for 
the distribution of labor 2 Is my course more aggravating to the weak- 
ness of destitute unemployed freed people, than emigrant societies, 
intelligence offices, benevolent ladies' societies, and young men's Chris- 
tian associations, to give work to the poor of all nations ; and lastly 
the Government Indian department, that has wisely called to its aid 
the American missionary, and the Quaker societies, to farm out the 
poor Indians? or, if the measures put forth by these admissible agents 
can raise the ambition and stimulate to self-reliance their beneficiaries, 
will you be good enough to show wherein the same means, which I 
claim to employ, must have the opposite effect upon the freedmen 
crowded into Washington. 

Is it possible that the swarming of the Irish, Swiss, and German poor, 
to the city of New York, is attributable to the intelligence offices and 
immigration societies of your city, and not, as we have supposed, to the 
want of work and, bread at home, and is there really a danger, that in 
providing and calculating for them, we shall strengthen the argument of 
race, while our institutions of charity are filled with descendants of the 
Saxon, the Norman, the G-oth, and the Vandal? I think not. 

Respectfully yours, JOSEPHINE S. GRIFFING. 

From the New National Era. 

MRS. JOSEPHINE S. GRIFFING THE ORIGINATOR OF THE FREKDMEx's 

BUREAU. 

This truly excellent and noble woman was fitly spoken of in the New 
National Era just after her death, but at that early date it was not pos- 
sible to obtain the facts to prove the statement at the head of this article, 
which is but simple truth and historic justice. 

Mrs. Griffing was engaged in an arduous work for the Loyal League in 
the Northwest in 1862, and foresaw the need of a comprehensive system 
of protection, help, and education, for the slaves in the trying transition 
of freedom. She sought counsel and aid from fit persons in Ohio and 
Michigan, and came here only in 1863 to begin her work of urging the 
plan of a Bureau for that purpose. Nothing daunted by coldness or in- 
difference she nobly persisted, until in December, 1863, a bill for a Bu- 
reau of Emancipation was introduced in the House of Representatives 
b^" Hon. T. D. Elliott, of Massachusetts. After some changes in the bill, 
and a committee of conference of the House and Senate, and the valua- 
ble aid of Sumner, Wilson, and other Senators, the bill for the Freed- 
man's Bureau finally passed in March, 1865, and was signed by President 
Lincoln just before his assassination. 

The original idea was Mrs. Grifflng's ; her untiring efforts gave it life, 
and it is but just that the colored people, of the South especially, should 
bear in grateful remembrance this able and gentle woman, whose life and 
strength were spent for their poor sufferers, and who called into useful 
existence that great national charity, the Freed man's Bureau. 



38 History of Woman Suffrage. 

The following letter from William Lloyd Garrison to Giles B. 
Stebbins, then in Washington, corroborates the above statements : 

ROXBTJRY, MASS., March 4, 1872. 

MY DEAR FRIEND: I was glad to see the well-merited tributes 

paid by yourself and others to the memory of Mrs. Josephine S. Grifflng. 
She was, for a considerable period, actively engaged in the anti-slavery 
struggle in Ohio, where by her rare executive ability and persuasiveness 
as a public lecturer, she aided greatly in keeping the abolition flag flying, 
enlightening and changing public sentiment, and hastening the year 
of jubilee. With what unremitting zeal and energy did she espouse the 
cause of the homeless, penniless, benighted, starving freedmen, driven 
by stress of circumstances into the national capital in such overwhelming 
numbers ; and what a multitude were befriended and saved through her 
moving appeals in their behalf ! How like an angel of mercy must she 
have seemed to them all ! No doubt the formation of the Freedman's 
Bureau was mainly due to her representations as to its indispensable 
necessity ; and how much good was done by that instrumentality in giv- 
ing food, clothing, and protection to those who were so suddenly brought 
out of the house of bondage, as against the ferocity of the rebel element, 
it is difficult to compute because of its magnitude. She deserves to be 
gratefully remembered among "the honorable women not a few," who, 
in their day and generation, have been 

" Those starry lights of virtue that diffuse, 
Through the dark depths of time their vital flame," 

whose self-abnegation and self-sacrifice in the cause of suffering human- 
ity having been absolute, and who have nobly vindicated every claim 
made by their sex to full equality with men in all that serves to dignify 
human nature. Her rightful place is among "the noble army of martyrs, " 
for her life was undoubtedly very much shortened by her many cares and 
heavy responsibilities and excessive labors in behalf of the pitiable ob- 
jects of her sympathy and regard. , 

Very truly yours, WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 

PARKEK PILLSBURY, in a letter to Mrs. Stebbins says : "The anti-slav- 
ery conflict could never boast a braver, truer, abler advocate than Jose- 
phine Griffing. It was always an honor and inspiration to stand by her 
side, no matter how fierce the encounter. I have seen her when an in- 
furiated mob assailed our Conventions, and dashed down doors, win- 
dows, seats, stoves, tables, everything that would yield to their demoniac 
rage, stand amid the ruins calm and unmoved, and with her gentle words 
of remonstrance shame the intruders, until one by one they shrank 
away, glad to get out of her sight. 

Her beautiful home hospitalities ; her warm welcome ever extended 
to the faithful friends of freedom and humanity, were equal to her un- 
shaken courage and self-control in public assemblies. We used to call 
that humble home in Litchfleld, 'The Saint's Rest,' and such it was to 
many a fugitive slave, as well as soldier in his cause. 



Parker PiZfabwnfs Letter. 39 

To the first demand for the enfranchisement of women in 1848, 
Mrs. Griffing heartily responded, and in this reform she was ever 
untiring in effort, wise in counsel, and eminent in public speech. 
In 1867 she helped to organize the Universal Franchise Association 
of the District of Columbia, of which she was president) for years. 
She was also Corresponding Secretary of the National Woman Suf- 
frage Association, and was ever considered the organizing power at 
Washington. She first suggested the importance of annual conven- 
tions at the capital, in order to influence Congressional action. 

Mrs. Griffing's last appearance in public was at the May Anniver- 
sary of the National Woman Suffrage Association, held in New York 
in 18 71, and so feeble was her condition that a screen was placed 
behind her to enable the audience to hear her voice. At the 
close of the Convention she went to the home of her child- 
hood, in Hebron, Conn., hoping that the bracing air of the New 
England hills would give her new life and strength, until she could 
finish her work. But it was already finished. She had taxed her- 
self to the uttermost, beyond nature's power to recuperate. Tn No- 
vember she returned to Washington, and enjoyed the sweet presence 
and tender care of her daughters until she passed away on Feb. 18, 
1872. 



THE LADIES' NATIONAL COVENANT. 



After the war was fairly inaugurated, the manufactories of the 
country largely turned their attention to the production of material 
required by the army, which, combined with the immense number 
of volunteers from such avocations, and the rise in prices of all home 
manufactures, created an immense import of foreign goods, which, 
pouring into our country when gold was at the highest, brought to our 
doors a danger no less formidable than that of the Rebellion. It 
was shown from official returns, in 1863, that during a period of 
nine months, the imports, at the port of New York alone, amounted 
to $160,000,000 iji gold ; equal, including exchange, freight, insur- 
ance, etc., to twice that sum, while our exports amounted to only 
$120,000,000 in paper. 

This ruinous state of our trade brought on us the taunts of for. 
eign enemies, and roused the attention of the country to devise some 
method of meeting the new danger; Congress temporarily raised 
duties fifty per cent, in hopes of stemming the tide of importation. 
The patriotic women of the nation, ever on the alert for methods of 



40 Uixtory of Woman Suffrage. 

aiding the country, early in 1864 called a meeting of the loyal 
women of Washington, at which time an association, pledging 
women to the use of home manufactures, was formed under the 
name of " The Ladies' National Covenant," with offices in every State 
and Territory within the national lines. Mrs. General Jas. Taylor 
was elected President; Mrs. Stephen A. Douglas, Yice-Presi dent; 
Mrs. Rebecca Gillis and Miss Virginia Smith, Recording. Secreta- 
ries ; with ten Corresponding Secretaries, of whom Mrs. II. C. In- 
gersoll was the most active. 

This association, formed for the purpose of encouraging domestic 
manufactures, was composed at its first meeting of the wives of 
members of the Cabinet and of Senators and Representatives, 
women of fashion, popular authoresses, mothers who had lost their 
sons, and wives who had lost their husbands. An Advisory and 
Organizing Committee was appointed, consisting of women from 
each State and Territory within the national line. An ADDRESS 
TO THE WOMEN OF AMERICA was issued, and a constitution consisting 
of eleven sections, together with the following pledge, was adopted : 

THE PLEDGE. 

For three years, or during the war, we pledge ourselves to each other 
and the country, to purchase no imported goods where those of Ameri- 
can manufacture can be obtained, such as " dress goods of velvet, silks, 
grenadines, India crape, and imported organdies, India lace and broche 
shawls, fine wrought laces and embroideries, watches and precious 
stones, hair ornaments, fans, artificial dowers and feathers, carpets, fur- 
niture, silks and velvets, painted china, ormolu, bronze, marble, orna- 
ments, and mirrors." 

The emblem of this Covenant was a black or gilt bee, worn as a 
pin fastening the national colors, upon the hair, arm, or bosom, as a 
public recognition of membership. In August of the same year the 
Secretary stated that orders for the emblem, the badge of the Cov- 
enant, were received by the manufacturer of the pin from all parts 
of the Union. A meeting was held in New York, rooms opened in 
Great Jones Street, and the Covenant was in a fair way to assume 
large proportions. When Lee's capitulation was announced the 
necessity for the Covenant ended, and with peace, trade was allowed 
to drift into its natural channels. 

ANNA ELIZABETH DICKINSON. 

Foremost among the women who understood the political signifi- 
cance of the great conflict, was Miss Dickinson, a young girl of 
Quaker ancestry, who possessed remarkable oratorical power, a keen 



Anna E. Dickinson. 41 

sense of justice, and an intense earnestness of purpose. In the 
heated discussions of Anti-Slavery Conventions, she had acquired a 
clear comprehension of the province of laws and constitutions ; of 
the fundamental principles of governments, and the rights of man. 
Like a meteor, she appeared suddenly in the political horizon, as if 
born for the eventful times in which she lived, and inspired by the 
dangers that threatened the life of the republic. 

At the very beginning of the war her radical utterances were heard 
at different points in her native State.* Her admirable speech on 
the higher law, first made at Kennett Square, and the discussion 
that followed, in which Miss Dickinson maintained her position 
with remarkable clearness and coolness for one of her years, were a 
surprise to all who listened. The flattering reports of this meeting 
in several of the Philadelphia journals introduced her at once to the 
public. 

On the evening of February 2T, 1861, she addressed eight hun- 
dred people in Concert Hall, Philadelphia. This was her first ap- 
pearance before so large an assembly, and the first time she had the 
sole responsibility of entertaining an audience for an entire evening. 
She spoke two full hours extemporaneously, and the lecture was 
pronounced a success, not only by the press, but by the many nota- 
bles and professional men present. Although it was considered a 
marvelous performance for a young girl, M^ss Dickinson herself was 
mortified, as she said, with the length of her speech and its lack of 
point, order, and arrangement. 

Soon after, she entered the United States Mint, to labor from seven 
o'clock in the morning to six at night. Although she was ever faith- 
ful to her duties and skillful in everything she undertook, soon be- 
coming the most rapid adjuster in the Mint, her radical criticisms 
on the war and its leaders cost her the loss of the place. At a meet- 



* Forney 1 & Press, in reporting a meeting at Kennett Square, said : " Miss Anna E, Dick- 
inson, of Pli 11 ad el pb la, aged seventeen years, handsome, of an expressive countenance, 
plainly dressed, and eloquent beyond her years, made the speech of the occasion. After 
the listless, monotonous harangues of the day, the distinct, earnest tones of this juvenile 
Joan of Arc were very sweet and charming. During her discourse, which was frequently 
interrupted, Miss Dickinson maintained her presence of mind, and uttered her radical 
sentiments with augmented resolution and plainness. Those who did not sympathize 
with her remarks, provocative as they were of numerous unmanly interruptions, wore 
softened by her simplicity and solemnity. ' We arc told,' said she, 'to maintain consti- 
tutions because they are constitutions, and compromises because they are compromises. 
But what are compromises, and what is laid down in those constitutions ? Eminent law- 
yers have paid that certain great fundamental ideas of right are common to the world, 
and that all laws of man's making which trample on these ideas, are null and void wrong 
to obey ; right to disobey. The Constitution of the United States recognizes human 
slavery, and makes the souls of men articles of purchase and of sale.' " 
YOL. II. 4. 



42 History of Woman Suffrage. 

ing just after the battle of Ball's Bluff, in summing up the record, after 
exonerating Stone and Baker, she said, " Future history will show 
that this battle was lost not through ignorance and incompetence, but 
through the treason of the commanding general, George B. McClel- 
lan, and time will vindicate the truth of my assertion." She was 
hissed all over the house, though some cried, " Go on ! " " Go on ! " 
She repeated this startling assertion three times, and each time was 
hissed. 

When Gen. McClellan was running against -Lincoln in 1864, after 
she had achieved a world-wide reputation, she was sent by the Re- 
publican Committee of Pennsylvania to this same town, to speak to 
the same people, in the same hall. In again summing up the inci- 
dents of the war, when she came to Ball's Bluff, she said, " I say 
now, as I said three years ago, history will record that this battle 
was lost, not through ignorance or incompetence, but through the 
treason of the commanding general, George B. McClellan." " And 
time has vindicated your assertion," was shouted all over the house. 

It was the speech made in 1861, that cost her her place in the mint, 
for while laboring there daily with her hands, her mind was not in- 
active nor indifferent to the momentous events transpiring about 
her. She kept a close watch of the progress of the war, and the 
policy of the Republican leaders. "When ex-Governor Pollock dis- 
missed her, he admitted^hat his reason was that Westchester speech, 
for at that time McClellan was the idol of the nation.* 

With remarkable prescience all through the war, and the period of 
reconstruction, Miss Dickinson took the advance position. Wendell 
Phillips used to say that " she was the young elephant sent forward 
to try the bridges to see if they were safe for older ones to cross." 
When wily politicians found that her criticisms were applauded by 
immense audiences, they gained courage to*follow her lead. As pop- 
ular thought was centering .everywhere on national questions, Miss 
Dickinson thought less of the special wrongs of women and negroes 
and more of the causes of revolutions and the true basis of govern- 
ment; hence she spoke chiefly on the political aspects of the war, 
and thus made herself available in party politics at once. 

In the intervals of public speaking, she made frequent visits to the 
Government hospitals, and became a most welcome guest among our 
soldiers. In long conversations with them, she learned their indi- 
vidual histories, experiences, hardships, and sufferings ; the motives 

* She has always said that that was the best service the Government could have rendered 
her, aa It forced her to the decision to labor no longer with her hands for bread, but open 
some new path (or herself. 



The New Hampshire Campaign. 43 

that prompted them to go into the army ; what they saw there ; 
what they thought of war in their hours of solitude, away from the 
camp and the battle-field. Thus she acquired an insight into the 
soldier's life and feelings, and from these narratives drew her mate- 
rials for that deeply interesting lecture on hospital life, which she 
delivered in many parts of the country. 

This lecture, given in Concord, New Hampshire, in the autumn 
of 1862, was the turning-point of her fortunes. Iri this speech she 
proved slavery to be the cause of the war, that its continuance would 
result in prolonged suffering to our soldiers, defeat to our armies, 
and the downfall of the Republic. She related many touching in- 
cidents of her experiences in hospital life, and drew such vivid pict- 
ures of the horrors of both war and slavery, that by her pathos and 
logic, she melted her audience to tears, and forced the most prej- 
udiced minds to accept her conclusions. 

It was on this occasion that the Secretary of the State Central 
Committee heard her for the first time. He remarked to a friend 
at the close of the lecture, " If we can get this girl to make that 
speech all through New Hampshire we can carry the Republican 
ticket in the coming election." Fully appreciating her magnetic 
power over an audience, he resolved at once, that if the State Com- 
mittee refused to invite her, he should do so on his own responsi- 
bility. But through his influence she was invited by the Republi- 
can Committee, and on the first of March commenced her regular 
campaign speeches. During the four weeks before election she 
spoke twenty times, everywhere to crowded, enthusiastic audiences. 
Her march through the State was a succession of triumphs, and 
ended in a Republican victory. 

The member in the first district having no faith that a woman 
could influence politics, sent word to the Secretary, " Don't send 
that damn woman down here to defeat my election." The Secretary 
replied, " We have work enough for her to do in other districts with- 
out interfering with you." But when the would-be honorable gen- 
tleman saw the furor she created, he changed his mind, and inun- 
dated the Secretary with letters to have her sent there. But the 
Secretary replied, " It is too late ; the programme is arranged and 
published throughout the State ; you would not have her when you 
could, and now you can not have her when you will." 

It is pleasant to record that this man, who had the moral hardi- 
hood to send a profane adjective over the wires, with the name of 
this noble girl, lost his election. While all other districts went 
strongly Republican, his was lost by a large majority. When the 



44 



History of Woman Suffrage. 



news came that the Republicans had carried the State, due credit 
was awarded to Anna Dickinson. The Governor-elect made per- 
sonal acknowledgment that her eloquent speeches had secured his 
election. She was serenaded, feasted, and feted, the recipient of 
many valuable presents, and eulogized by the press and the people. 
JSTew Hampshire safe, all eyes were now turned to Connecticut. 
The contest there was between Seymour and Buckingham. It was 
generally conceded that, if Seymour was elected, Connecticut would 
give no more money or troops for the war. The Republicans were 
completely disheartened. They said nothing could prevent the 
Democrats from carrying the State by four thousand, while the 
Democrats boasted that they would carry it by ten thousand. 
Though the issue was one of such vital importance, there seemed so 
little hope of success, that the Republicans were disposed to give it up 
without making an effort. And no resistance to this impending 
calamity was made until Anna Dickinson went into the State, and 
galvanized the desponding loyalists to life. She spent two weeks 
there, and completely turned the tide of popular sentiment. Demo- 
crats, in spite of the scurrilous attacks made on her by some of 
their leaders and editors, received her everywhere with the warm- 
est welcome, tore off their party badges, substituted her likeness, 
and applauded whatever she said. The halls where she spoke were 
so densely packed, that Republicans stayed away to make room 
for the Democrats, and the women were shut out to give place to 
those Avho could vote. There never was such enthusiasm over an 
orator in this country. The period of her advent, the excited con- 
dition of the people, her youth, beauty, aud remarkable voice, and 
wonderful magnetic power, all heightened the effect of her genius, 
and helped to produce this result. Her name was on every lip ; 
ministers preached about her, prayed for her, as a second Joan of 
Arc, raised up by God to save that State to the loyal party, and 
through it the nation to freedom and humanity. As the election 
approached, the excitement was intense ; and when at last it was 
announced that the State was saved by a few hundred votes, the joy 
and gratitude of the crowds knew no bounds. They shouted and 
hurrahed for Anna Dickinson, serenaded her with full bands of 
music, sent her books, flowers, and ornaments, manifesting in every 
way their love and loyalty to this gifted girl, who through so 
many years had bravely struggled with poverty to this proud mo- 
ment of success in her country's cause. Some leading gentlemen 
of the State who had invited her there presented her a gold watch 
and chain, a hundred dollars for every night she had spoken, and 



Great Speech in Cooper Institute. 45 

four hundred for the last night before election, in Hartford. The 
comments of the press, though most flattering, give the reader but 
a faint idea of the enthusiasm of the people.* 

Fresh from the victories in New Hampshire and Connecticut, she 
was announced to speak in Cooper Institute, New York. That 
meeting, in May, 1862, was the most splendid ovation to a woman's 
genius since Fanny Kemble, in all the wealth of her youth, beauty, 
and wonderful dramatic power, appeared on the American stage for 
the first time. There never was such excitement over any meeting 
in New York ; hundreds went away unable even to get standing places 
in the lobbies and outer halls. The platform was graced with the 
most distinguished men and women in the country, and so crowded 
that the young orator had scarce room to stand. There were clergy- 
men, generals, admirals, judges, lawyers, editors, the literati, and 
leaders of fashion, and all alike ready to do homage to this simple 
girl, who moved them alternately to laughter and tears, to bursts of 
applause and the most profound silence. 

Henry Ward Beecher, who presided, introduced the speaker in his 
happiest manner. For nearly two hours she held that large audience 
with intense interest and enthusiasm, and when she finished with a 
beautiful peroration, the people seemed to take a long breath, as if 
to find relief from the intensity of their emotions. Loud cries fol- 
lowed for Mr. Beecher ; but he arose, and with great feeling and 

* The highest compliment that the Union men of this city could pay Miss Anna E. 
Dickinson, was to invite her to make the closing and most important speech in this cam- 
paign. They were willing to rest their case upon her efforts. She may go far and speak 
much ; she will have no more flattering proof of the popular confidence in her eloquence, 
tact, and power, than this. Her business being to obtain votes for the right side, she ad- 
dressed herself to that end with singular adaptation. But when we add to this lawyer- 
like comprehension of the necessities of the case, her earnestness, enthusiasm, and per- 
sonal magnetism, we account for the effect she produced on that vast audience Saturday 
night. 

Allyn Hall was packed as it never was before. Every seat was crowded. The aisles 
were full of men who stood patiently for more than three hours ; the wiudow-sills had 
their occupants, every foot of standing room was taken, and in the rear of the galleries 
men seemed to hung in swarms like bees. Such was the view from the stage. The stage 
itself and the boxes were filled with ladies, giving the speaker an audience of hundreds 
who could not see her face. Hardly a listener left the hall during her speech. Her power 
over that audience was marvellous. She seemed to have that absolute mastery of it 
which Joan of Arc is reported to have had of the French troops. They followed her 
with that deep attention which is unwilling to lose a word, greeting her ever and anon 
with bursts of applause. The speech in itself and its effect was magnificent. The work 
of the campaign is done, and it only remains In the name of all loyal men in this dis- 
trict to express to Miss Dickinson most heartfelt thanks for her inspiring aid. She has 
aroused everywhere respect, enthusiasm, and devotion, not to herself alone, but to our 
country also. While such women are possible in the United States, there is not a spot 
big enough for her to stand on, that will not be fought for so long as there is a man left. 
Hartford Courant. 



46 History of Woman Suffrage. 

solemnity, said : " Let no man open his lips here to-night ; music is 
the only fitting accompaniment to the eloquent utterances we have 
heard." The Hutchinsons closed with one of their soul-stirring bal- 
lads, and the audience slowly dispersed, singing the John Brown 
song with thrilling effect, as they marched into the street.* 

After her remarkable success in New York, the Philadelphia 
Union League invited her to speak in that city. The invitation, 
signed by leading Republicans, she readily accepted. Judge Win. 
D. Kelley presided, and a most appreciative audience greeted her. 
In this address, reviewing the incidents of the war, she criticised 
General McClellan as usual, with great severity. Some of his per- 
sonal friends, filled with indignation, left the house, while a derisive 
laugh followed them to the door. The Philadelphia journals vied 
with each other in their eulogiums of her grace, beauty, and elo- 
quence. The marked attention she has always received in her na- 
tive city has been most grateful to her, and honorable to her fellow- 
citizens. 

In July, 1862, the first move was made to enlist colored troops in 
Pennsylvania. A meeting was called for that purpose in Philadel- 
phia. Judge Kelley, Frederick Douglass, and Anna Dickinson were 
there, and made strong appeals to the people of that State to grant 
to the colored man the honor of bearing arms in defence of his 
country. The effort was successful. A splendid regiment was 
raised, and the first duty they discharged was to serenade the young 
orator, who had spoken so eloquently for their race all through the 
war. 

In September a field-day was announced at Camp William Perm. 
General Pleasanton reviewed the troops. It was a brilliant and 
interesting occasion, as many were about to leave for the seat of 
war. At the close of the day when the people began to disperse it 
was noised round that Miss Dickinson was there ; a cry was heard at 
once on all sides, " A speech ! a speech ! " The moon was just ris- 
ing, mingling its pale rays with those of the setting sun, and throw- 
ing a soft, mysterious light over the whole scene. The troops gath- 
ered round with bristling bayonets and flags flying, the band was 
hushed to silence, and when all was still, mounted on a gun-wagon, 
with General Pleasanton and his staff on one side, General Wagner 
and his staff on the other, this brave girl addressed " our boys in 
blue." She urged that justice and equality might be secured to 
every citizen in t'he republic ; that slavery and war might end for- 



Her profits on this occasion were about a thousand dollars. 



The Grandest Occasion of Her Life. 47 

ever and peace be restored ; that our country might indeed be the 
land of the free and the home of the brave. 

As she stood there uttering words of warning and prophecy, it 
seemed as if her lips had been touched with a live coal from the 
altar of heaven. Her inspired words moved the hearts of our young 
soldiers to deeds of daring, and gave fresh courage to those about 
her to bid their loved ones go and die if need be for freedom and 
their country. The hour, the mysterious light, the stillness, the 
novel surroundings, the youth of the speaker, all gave a peculiar 
power to her words, and made the scene one of the most thrilling 
and beautiful on the page of history. 

In January, 1864, she made her first address in Washington. 
Though she now felt that her success as an orator was established, 
yet she hesitated long before accepting this invitation.* To speak 
before the President, Chief- Justice, Judges, Senators, Congressmen, 
Foreign Diplomats, all the dignitaries and honorables of the Gov- 
ernment was one of the most trying ordeals in her experience. She 
had one of the largest and most brilliant audiences ever assembled 
in the Capitol, and was fully equ^l to the occasion. She made a 
profound impression, and her speech was the topic of conversation 
for days afterward. At the close of her address she was presented 
to many of the distinguished ladies and gentlemen, and chief among 
them the President. This was one of the grandest occasions of her 
life. She was honored as no man ever had been before. The coin- 



* CORRESPONDENCE. 
To Miss ANNA E. DICKINSON, Philadelphia, Pa. : 

Miss DICKINSON : Heartily appreciating the value of your services in the campaigns in 
New Hampshire, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New York, and the qualities that have 
combined to give you the deservedly high reputation you enjoy ; and desiring as well to 
testify that appreciation, as to secure to ourselves the pleasure of hearing you, we unite 
in cordially inviting you to deliver an address at the capital this winter, at some time 
suited to your own convenience. 

WASHINGTON, D. C., Dec. 16, 1863. 

Hannibal Hamlin, Ira Harris, James A. Garfleld, 

Charles Sumner, and sixteen other Henry C. Deming, 

Henry Wilson, Senators. R. B. Van Valkonburg, 

Benjamin F. Wade, Schuyler Colfax, A. C. Wilder, 

John Sherman, Thaddeus Stephens, and seventy other 

James Dixon, William D. Kelley, Representatives. 

H. B. Anthony, Robert C. Schenck, 

GENTLEMEN : I thank you sincerely for the great and most unexpected honor which 
you have conferred upon me by your kind invitation to speak in Washington. Accept- 
ing it, I would suggest the 16th of January as the time, desiring the proceeds to be 
devoted to the help of the suffering freedmen. 

Truly yours, ANNA E. DIOKINSON. 

1710 LOCUST ST., Phila., June 7, 1864. 



48 Jliatory of Woman Suffrage. 

ments of the press* must have been satisfactory to her highest am- 
bition as well as to that of her admiring countrywomen. 

< )ne of the most powerful and impressive appeals she ever made 
w.-is in the Convention of Southern Loyalists held in Philadelphia 
in September, 1866. In this Convention there was a division of 
opinion between the Border and the Gulf States. The latter wanted 
to incorporate negro suffrage in their platform, as that was the only 
means of success for the Liberal party at the South. The former, 
manipulated by Northern politicians, opposed that measure, lest it 
should defeat the Republican party in the pending elections at the 
North. This stultification of principle, of radical public sentiment, 
stirred the soul of Miss Dickinson, and she desired to speak. But 
a rule that none but delegates should be allowed that privilege, pre- 
vented her. However, as the Southern men had never heard a 
woman speak in public, and felt great curiosity to hear her, they 
adjourned the Convention, resolved themselves into a committee of 
the whole, and invited her to address them. 

An eye-witnessf thus describes the scene : " As the young maiden 
stepped forward to deliver a speech as denunciatory as was ever 
listened to against the action of the Border States, on her right sat 
Brownlow, on her left John Minor Botts with his lips tightly com- 
pressed, and his face telling plainly that he remained there from 
courtesy, and would remain a patient listener to the end. She began ; 
and for the first time since it met, the Convention was so still that 
the faintest whisper could be heard." 

* The New York Evening Post in describing the occasion said : " Miss Dickinson's 
lecture in the Hall of the House of Representatives last night, was a gratif ying success, 
and a splendid personal triumph. She can hardly fail to regard it the most flattering 
ovation for such it was of her life. At precisely half- past seven Miss Dickinson came 
in, escorted by Vice-President Hamlin and Speaker Colfax. A platform had been built 
directly over the desk of the official reporters and in front of the clerk's desk, from 
which she spoke. She was greeted with loud cheers as she entered. Mr. Hamlin intro- 
duced her in a neat speech, in which he happily compared her to the Maid of Or- 
leans. The scene was one to test severely the powers of a most accomplished orator, 
for the audience was not composed of the enthusiastic masses of the people, but rather 
of loungers, office-holders, orators, critics, and men of the fashionable world. At eight 
o'clock Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln entered, and not even the utterance of a fen-id passage in 
the lecture could repress the enthusiasm of the audience. Just as the President entered 
tin- hall Miss Dickinson was criticising with some sharpness hie Amnesty Proclamation 
and the Supreme Court ; and the audience, as if feeling it to be their duty to applaud a 
just sentiment, even at the expense of courtesy, sustained the criticism with a round of 
deafening cheers. Mr. Lincoln pat meekly through it, not in the least displeased. Per- 
haps he knew there were sweets to come, and they did come, for Miss Dickinson soon 
alluded to him and his course as President, and nominated him as his own successor in 
18(jo. The popularity of the President in Washington wa* duly attested by volleys of 
cheers. The proceeds of the lecture over a thousand dollars were appropriated at Miss 
Dickinson's request to the National Freedman's Relief Society." 

t James Redpath. 



Convention of Southern Loyalists. 49 

She had not spoken long before she declared that Maryland had 
no business in the Convention, but should have been with delegates 
that came to welcome. There was vehement applause from the 
Border States. " This is a direct insult," shouted a delegate from 
Maryland. She went on in spite of interruptions, reviewing the 
conduct of the Border States with scorn, and an eloquence never 
equalled in any of her previous efforts, in favor of an open, manly 
declaration of the real opinion of the Convention for justice to the 
colored Loyalist, not in the courts only, but at the ballot-box. The 
speech was in Miss Dickinson's noblest style throughout bold, but 
tender, and often so pathetic that she brought tears to every eye. 
Every word came from her heart, and it went right to the hearts of 
all. Kentucky and Maryland now listened as eagerly as Georgia 
and Alabama ; Brownlow's iron features and Botts' rigid face soon 
relaxed, and tears stood in the old Virginian's eyes ; while the noble 
Tennesseean moved his place, and gazed at the inspired girl with 
an interest and wonderment which no other orator had moved 
before. She had the audience in hand, as easily as a mother holds 
her child, and like the child, this audience heard her heart beat. It 
was a marvelous speech. Its greatness lay in its manner and effect, 
as well as its argument. When she finished, one after another of 
the Southern delegates came forward and pinned on her dress the 
badges of their States until she wore the gifts of Alabama, Missouri, 
Tennessee, Texas, Florida, Louisiana, and Maryland. 

And thus it was from time to time that this remarkable girl 
uttered the highest thought in American politics in that crisis of our 
nation's history. While in camp and hospital she spoke words of 
tenderness and love to the sick and dying, she did not hesitate to 
rebuke the incapacity and iniquity of those in high places. She 
was among the first to distrust McClellan and Lincoln, and in a 
lecture, entitled "'My Policy," to unveil his successor, Andrew 
Johnson, to the people. She saw the scepter of power grasped by 
the party of freedom, and the first gun fired at Sumter in defence 
of slavery. She saw our armies go forth to battle, the youth, the 
promise, the hope of the nation two millions strong and saw them 
return with their ranks thinned and broken, their flags tattered and 
stained, the maimed, the halt and the blind, the weary and worn ; 
and this, she said, is the price of liberty. She saw the dawn of the 
glorious day of emancipation when four million African slaves were 
set free, and that night of gloom when the darkest page in Amer- 
ican history was written in the blood of its chief. Through the 
nation's agony was this young girl born into a knowledge of her 



50 History of Woman Suffrage. 

power ; and she drew her inspiration from the great events of her 
day. 

THE WOMAN'S NATIONAL LOYAL LEAGUE. 

MAMMOTH PETITION. 

Those who had been specially engaged in the Woman Suffrage 
movement, suspended their Conventions during the war and gave their 
time and thought wholly to the vital issues of the hour. Seeing the 
political significance of the war, they urged the emancipation of the 
slaves as the sure, quick way of cutting the gordion knot of the re- 
bellion. To this end they organized a National League, and rolled 
up a mammoth petition, urging Congress to so amend the Constitu- 
tion as to prohibit the existence of slavery in the United States. 

From their headquarters in Cooper Institute, New York, they 
sent out their appeals to the President, Congress, and the people at 
large ; tracts and forms of petition, franked by members of Congress, 
were scattered like snowflakes from Maine to Texas. Meetings 
were held every week, in which the policy of the Government was 
freely discussed, approved or condemned. Robert Dale Owen, 
chairman of the Freedman's Commission, then residing in New York, 
aided and encouraged this movement from the beginning, frequently 
speaking in the public meetings. 

That this League did a timely educational work, is manifested by 
the letters received from generals, statesmen, editors, and from 
women in most of the Northern States, fully endorsing its action and 
principles.* The clearness of thinking women on the cause of the 
war ; the true policy in waging it ; their steadfastness in maintain- 
ing the principles of freedom, are worthy of consideration. With 
this League, Abolitionists and Republicans heartily co-operated. In a 
course of lectures secured for its benefit in Cooper Institute, we find 
the names of Horace Greeley, George William Curtis, William D. 
Kelly,Wendell Phillips, E. P.Whipple, Frederick Douglass, Theodore 
D. Weld, Rev. Dr. Tyng, Dr. Bellows, and Mrs. Frances D. Gage. 
Many letters are on its files from Charles Sumner, approving its 
measures, and expressing great satisfaction at the large number of 
emancipation petitions being rolled into Congress. The Republican 
press, too, was highly complimentary. The New York Tribune 
said : " The women of the Loyal League have shown great practical 
wisdom in restricting their efforts to one object, the most important 
which any society can aim at, in this hour, and great courage in 

* Bee Appendix. 



Appeal to the Women of the Republic. 51 

undertaking to do what never has been done in the world before, to 
obtain one million of names to a petition." 

The leading journals vied with each other in praising the patience 
and prudence, the executive ability, the loyalty, the patriotism of 
the women of the League, and yet these were the same women, who 
when demanding civil and political rights, privileges, and immuni- 
ties for themselves, had been uniformly denounced as " unwise," " im- 
prudent," " fanatical," " impracticable." During the six years they 
held their own claims in abeyance to the slaves of the South, and la- 
bored to inspire the people with enthusiasm for the great measures 
of the Republican party, they were highly honored as " wise, loyal, 
and clear-sighted." But again when the slaves were emancipated 
and they asked that women should be recognized in the re- 
construction as citizens of the Republic, equal before the law, all 
these transcendent virtues vanished like dew before the morning 
sun. And thus it ever is so long as woman labors to second man's 
endeavors and exalt his sex above her own, her virtues pass unques- 
tioned ; but when she dares to demand rights and. privileges for her- 
self, her motives, manners, dress, personal appearance, character, are 
subjects for ridicule and detraction. 

In March, 1863, an appeal* to the women of the Republic, was 



* When our leading journals, orators, and brave men from the battle-field, complain 
that Northern women feel no enthusiasm in the war, the time has come for us to pledge 
ourselves loyal to freedom and our country. Thus far, there has been no united expression 
from the women of the North as to the policy of the war. Here and there one has spo- 
ken and written nobly. Many have vied with each other in acts of generosity and self- 
sacrifice for the sick and wounded in camp and hospital. But we have, as yet, no means 
of judging where the majority of Northern women stand. 

If it be true that at this hour the women of the South arc more devoted to their cause 
than we are to ours, the fact lies here. They see and feel the horrors of the war ; the foe 
is at their firesides ; while we, in peace and plenty, live as heretofore. There is an inspi- 
ration, too, in a definite purpose, be it good or bad. The women of the South know 
what their sons are fighting for. The women of the North do not. They appreciate the 
blessings of slavery ; we not the blessings of liberty. We have never yet realized 
the trlory of those institutions in whose defence it is the privilege of our sons -to bleed 
and die. They are aristocrats, with a lower class, servile and obsequious, intrenched 
in feudal homes. We are aristocrats under protest, who must go abroad to indulge our 
tastes, uud enjoy in foreign despotisms the customs which the genius of a Republic con- 
demns. 

But, from the beginning of the Government, there have been women among us who, 
with the mother of the immortal John Quincy Adams, have lamented the inconsistencies 
of our theory and practice, and demanded for ALL the people the exercise of those rights 
that belong to every citizen of a republic. The women of a nation mold its morals, relig- 
ion, and politics. The Northern treason, now threatening to betray us to our foes, is 
hatched at our own firesides, where traitor snobs, returned from Europe and the South, 
out of time and tune with independence and equality, infuse into their sous the love of 
caste and class, of fame and family, of wealth and ease, and baptize it all in the name of 
Republicanism and Christianity.'' Let every woman understand that this war involves the 



52 History of Woman Suffrage. 

published in the New York Tribune, and in tract form extensively 

same principles that have convulsed the nations of the earth from Pharaoh to Lincoln 
liberty or slavery democracy or aristocracy equality or caste and choose, this day, 
whether our republican institutions shall be placed on an enduring basis, and an eternal 
peace secured to our children, or whether we shall leap back through generations of 
light and experience, and meekly bow again to chains and slavery. 

Shall Northern freemen yet stand silent lookers-on when through Topeka, St. Paul, 
Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, and New York, men and women, little boys and girls, chained 
in gangs, shall march to their own sad music, beneath a tyrant's lash ? On our sacred 
soil shall we behold the auction-block babies sold by the pound, and beautiful women 
for the vilest purposes of lust ; where parenta and children, husbands and wives, broth- 
ers and sisters, shall be torn from each other, and sent East and West, North and South ? 
Shall our free presses and free schools, our palace homes, colleges, churches, and stately 
capitols all be leveled to the dust ? Our household gods be desecrated, and our proud 
lips, ever taught to sing peans to liberty, made to swear allegiance to the god ot slavery ? 
Such degradation shall yet be ours, if we gird not up our giant freemen now to crush 
this rebellion, and root out forever the hateful principle of caste and class. Men who, in 
the light of the nineteenth century, believed that God made one race all booted and spurred, 
and another to be ridden ; who would build up a government with slavery for its corner- 
stone, can not live on the same continent with a pure democracy. To counsel grim-vis- 
aged war seems hard to come from women's lips ; but tetter far that the bones of our 
sires and sons whiten every Southern plain, that we do their rough work at home, than 
that liberty, struck dumb in the capital of ou Kepublic, should plead no more for man. 
Every woman who appreciates the grand problem of national life must say war, pesti- 
lence, famine, anything but an ignoble peace. 

We are but co-workers now with the true ones of every age. The history of the past 
is but one long struggle upward to equality. All men, born slaves to ignorance and 
fear, crept through centuries of discord now one race dominant, then another but in 
this ceaseless warring, ever wearing off the chains of their gross material surroundings 
of a mere animal existence, until at last the sun of a higher civilization dawned on the 
soul of man, and the precious seed of the ages, garnered up in the Mayflower, was car- 
ried in the hollow of God's hand across the mighty waters, and planted deep beneath the 
enow and ice of Plymouth Rock with prayers and. thanksgivings. And what grew there ? 
Men and women who loved liberty better than life. Men and women who believed that 
not only in person, but in speech should they be free, and worship the God who had 
brought them thus far according to the dictates of their own conscience. Men and 
women who, like Daniel of old, defied the royal lion in his den. Men and women who 
repudiated the creeds and codes of despots and tyrants, and declared to a waiting 
world that all men are created equal. And for rights like these, the Fathers fought for 
seven long years, and we have no record that the women of that Revolution ever once 
cried, "hold, enough," till the invading foe was conquered, and our independence rec- 
ognized by the nations of the earth. 

And here we are, the grandest nation on the globe. By right no privileged caste or 
class. Education free to all. The humblest digger in the ditch has all the civil, social, 
and religious rights with the highest in the land. The poorest woman at the wash-tub 
may be the mother of a future President. Here all are heirs-apparent to the throne. 
The genius of our institutions bids every man to rise, and use all the powers that God 
has given him. It can not be, that for blessings such as these, the women of the North 
do not stand ready for any sacrifice. 

A sister of Kossuth, with him an exile to this country, In conversation one day, called 
my attention to an iron bracelet, the only ornament she wore. " In the darkest days of 
Hungary," said she, "our noble women threw their wealth and jewels into the public 
treasury, and clasping iron bands around their wrists, pledged themselves that these 
should be the only jewels they would wear till Hungary was free." If darker hours than 
these should come to us, the women of the North will count no sacrifice too great. 
What are wealth and jewels, home and ease, sires and sons, to the birthright of free- 



A Convention of Loyal Women. 53 

circulated with " a call "* for a National Convention in !N"ew York, 
which assembled in Dr. Cheaver's church May 14th. An immense 
audience, mostly women, representing a large number of the States, 
crowded the house at an early hour. Miss Susan B. Anthony called 
the Convention to order and nominated Lucy Stone for President ; 
the other officersf of the Convention being chosen, Mrs. Stanton 
made the opening address, and stated the objects of the meeting. 
Miss Anthony having received large numbers of letters;}: which 



dom, secured to us by the heroes of the Revolution ? Shall a priceless heritage like this 
be wrested now from us by Southern tyrants, and Northern women look on unmoved, 
or basely bid our freemen sue for peace ? No ! No ! The vacant places at our firesides, 
the void in every heart says No ! ! Such sacrifices must not be in vain ! ! The cloud that 
hangs o'er all our Northern homes is gilded with the hope that through these present 
sufferings the nation shall be redeemed. ELIZABETH CADY STANTON. 

* The call for a meeting of the Loyal Women of the Nation : 

In this crisis of our country's destiny, it is the duty of every citizen to consider the 
peculiar blessings of a republican form of government, and decide what sacrifices of 
wealth and life are demanded for its defence and preservation. The policy of the war, 
our whole future life, depends on a clearly-defined idea of the end proposed, and 
the immense advantages to be secured to ourselves and all mankind, by its accom- 
plishment. No mere party or sectional cry, no technicalities of Constitution or military 
law, no mottoes of craft or policy are big enough to touch the great heart of a nation in 
the midst of revolution. A grand idea, such as freedom or justice, is needful to kindle 
and sustain the fires of a high enthusiasm. 

At this hour, the best word and work of every man and woman are imperatively de- 
manded. To man, by common consent, is assigned the forum, camp, and field. What 
is woman's legitimate work, and how she may best accomplish it, is worthy our earnest 
counsel one with another. We have heard many complaints of the lack of enthusiasm 
among Northern women ; but, when a mother lays her son on the altar of her country, 
she asks an object equal to the sacrifice. In nursing the sick and wounded, knitting 
socks, scraping lint, and making jellies, the bravest and best may weary if the thoughts 
mount not in fnith to something beyond and above it all. Work is worship only when a 
noble purpose fills the soul. Woman is equally interested and responsible with man in 
the final settlement of this problem of self-government ; therefore let none stand idle 
spectators now. When every hour is big with destiny, and each delay but complicates 
our difficulties, it is high time for the daughters of the revolution, in solemn council, to 
unseal the last will and testament of the Fathers lay hold of their birthright of freedom, 
and keep it a sacred trust for all coming generations. 

To this end we ask the Loyal Women of the Nation to meet in the church of the Puri- 
tans (Dr. Cheever's), New York, on. Thursday, the 14th of May next. 

Let the women of every State be largely represented both in person and by letter. 
On behalf of the Woman's Central Committee, 

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON. 
SUSAN B.. ANTHONY. 

t Vice-Presidents Elizabeth Cady Stanton, of New York ; Angelina Grimke* Weld, of 
New Jersey ; Fannie W. Willard, of Pennsylvania ; Mary H. L. Cabot, of Massachusetts ; 
Mary White, of Connecticut ; Mrs. E. 0. Sampson Hoyt, of Wisconsin ; Eliza W. Farn- 
ham, of California ; Mrs. H. C. Ingersol, of Maine. 

Secretaries. Martha C. Wright, of New York, and Lucy N. Colman, of New York. 

Businest Committee. Susan B. Anthony; Ernestine L. Rose, New York ; Rev. An- 
toinette B. Blackwell, New Jersey ; Amy Post, New York ; Annie V. Mumford, Penn. 

J See Appendix. 



54 History of Woman Suffrage. 

it was impossible to read, said that the one word which had come 
up from all quarters showed an earnestness of purpose on the 
part of women to do everything in their power to aid the Govern- 
ment in the prosecution of this war to the glorious end of freedom. 
The President in introducing Angelina Grimke Weld, said : 

This lady, once a South Carolina slaveholder, not only gave freedom 
to all her slaves twenty years ago, but has spent the strength of her 
younger years in going up and down among the people, urging the 
Northern States to make their soil sacred to freedom, to so amend their 
laws and constitutions that slavery can find no protection within their 
borders. 

MRS. WELD said : I came here with no desire and no intention to speak ; 
but my heart is full, my country is bleeding, my people are perishing 
around me. But I feel as a South Carolinian, I am bound to tell the 
North, go on! go on! Never falter, never abandon the principles which 
you have adopted. I could not say this if we were now where we stood 
two years ago. I could not say thus when, it was proclaimed in the 
Northern States that the Union was all that we sought. No, my friends, 
such a Union as we had then, God be praised that it has perished. Oh, 
never for one moment consent that such a Union should be re-established 
in our land. There was a time when I looked upon the Fathers of the 
Revolution with the deepest sorrow and the keenest reproach. I said to 
their shadows in another world, " Why did you leave this accursed sys- 
tem of slavery for us to suffer and die under? why did you not, with a 
stroke of the pen, determine when you acquired your own independ- 
ence that the principles which you adopted in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence should be a shield of protection to every man, whether he be 
slave or whether he be free?" But, my friends, the experience of sixty 
years has shown me that the fruit grows slowly. I look back and see 
that great Sower of the world, as he traveled the 'streets of Jerusalem and 
dropped the precious seed, "Do unto others as ye would that others 
should do unto you." I look at all the contests of different nations, and 
see that, whether it were the Patricians of Rome, England, France, or 
any part of Europe, every battle fought gained something to freedom. 
Our fathers, driven out by the oppression of England, came to this 
country and planted that little seed of liberty upon the soil of New En- 
gland. When our Revolution took place, the seed was only in the pro- 
cess of sprouting. You must recollect that our Declaration of Inde- 
pendence was the very first National evidence of the great doctrine of 
brotherhood and equality. I verily believe that those who were the true 
lovers of liberty did all they could at that time. In their debates in the 
Convention they denounced slavery they protested against the hypoc- 
risy and inconsistency of a nation declaring such glorious truths, and 
then trampling them underfoot by enslaving the poor and oppressed, 
because he had a skin not colored like their own ; as though a man's skin 
should make any difference in the recognition of his rights, any more 
than the color of his hair or of his eyes. This little blade sprouted as it 
were from the precious seeds that were planted by Jesus of Nazareth. 



Angelina Grwike Weld. 55 

But, my friends, if it took eighteen hundred years to bring forth the little 
blade which was seen in our Declaration, are we not unreasonable to 
suppose that more could have been done than has been done, looking at 
the imperfections of human nature, looking at the selfishness of man, 
looking at his desire for wealth and his greed for glory? 

Had the South yielded at that time to the freemen of the North, we 
should have had a free Government; but it was impossible to over- 
come the long and strong prejudices of the South in favor of slavery. I 
know what the South is. I lived there the best part of my life. I never 
could talk against slavery without making my friends angry never. 
When they thought the day was far off, and there was no danger of 
emancipation, they were willing to admit it was an evil; but when God 
in His 1 providence raised up in this country an Anti-slavery Society, pro- 
testing against the oppressions of the colored man, they began to feel 
that truth which is more powerful than arms that truth which is the 
only banner under which we can successfully fight. They were compara- 
tively quiet till they found, in the election of Mr. Lincoln, the scepter had 
actually departed from them. His election took place on the ground that 
slavery was not to be extended that it must not pass into the Territories. 
This was what alarmed them. They saw that if the National Government 
should take one such step, it never would stop there ; that this princi- 
ple had never before been acknowledged by those who had any power 
in the nation. 

God be praised. Abolitionists never sought place or power. All they 
asked was freedom; all they wanted was that the white man should 
take his foot off the negro's neck. The South determined to resist the 
election of Mr. Lincoln. They determined if Fremont was elected, they 
would rebel. And this rebellion is like their own Republic, as they call 
it; it is founded upon slavery. As I asked one of my friends one day, 
" What are you rebelling for ? The North never made any laws for you 
that they have not cheerfully obeyed themselves. What is the trouble 
between us?" Slavery, slavery is the trouble. Slavery is a "divine in- 
stitution." My friends, it is a fact that the South has incorporated 
slavery into her religion; that is the most fearful thing in this rebel- 
lion. They are fighting, verily believing that they are doing God serv- 
ice. Most of them have never seen the North. They understand very 
little of the working of our institutions; but their politicians are stung 
to the quick by the prosperity of the North. They see that the in- 
stitution which they have established can not make them wealthy, can 
not make them happy, can not make them respected in the world at 
large, and their motto is, "Rule or ruin." 

Before I close, I would like, however strange it may seem, to utter a 
protest against what Mrs. Stanton said of colonizing the aristocrats in 
Liberia. I can not consent to such a thing. Do you know that Liberia 
has never let a slave tread her soil ? that when, from the interior of the 
country, the slaves came there to seek shelter, and their heathen masters 
pursued them, she never surrendered one ? She stands firmly on the 
platform of freedom to all. J am deeply interested in this colony of Li- 
beria. I do not want it to be cursed with the aristocracy of the South, or 



5@ History of Woman Suffrage. 

any other aristocracy, and far less with the Copperheadism of the "North. 
(Laughter). If these Southern aristocrats are to be colonized, Mrs. 
President, don't you think England is the best place for them? England 
is the country which has sympathized most deeply with them. She has 
allowed vessels to be built to prey upon our commerce ; she has sent them 
arms and ammunition, and everything she could send through the West 
India Islands. Shall we send men to Liberia who are ready to tread the 
black man under their feet? No. God bless Liberia for what she has 
done, and what she is destined to do. (Applause). 

I am very glad to say here, that last summer I had the pleasure of en- 
tertaining several times, in our house, a Liberian who was well educated 
in England. He had graduated at Oxford College, and had a high posi- 
tion there. His health broke down, and he went to Liberia. " When I 
went to Liberia," said he, " I had a first-rate education, and I supposed, of 
course, I would be a very superior man there ; but I soon found that, 
though I knew a great deal more Greek and Latin and mathematics than 
most of the men there, I was a child to them in the science of government 
and history. Why," said he, " you have no idea of the progress of Liberia. 
The men who go there are freemen citizens; the burdens of society are 
upon them; and they feel that they must begin to educate themselves, 
and they are self-educated men. The President of Liberia, Mr. Benson, 
was a slave about seven years ago on a plantation in this country. He 
went to Liberia. He was a man of uncommon talents. He educated 
himself to the duties which he found himself called upon to perform as a 
citizen. And when Mr. Benson visited England a year ago, he had a per- 
fect ovation. The white ladies and gentlemen of England, those who 
were really anti-slavery in their feelings who love liberty followed him 
wherever he went. They opened their houses, they had their soirees, 
and they welcomed him by every kind of demonstration of their good 
wishes for Liberia." 

Now, Mrs. President, the great object that I had in view in rising, was 
to give you a representative from South Carolina. (Applause). I mourn 
exceedingly that she has taken the position she has. I once had a 
brother who, had be been there, would have stood by Judge Pettigrew 
in his protest against the action of the South. He, many years ago, dur- 
ing the time of nullification in 1832, was in the Senate of South Carolina, 
and delivered an able address, in which he discussed these very points, 
and showed that the South had no right of secession ; that, in becoming 
an integral part of the United States, they had themselves voluntarily 
surrendered that right. And he remarked, "If you persist in this con- 
test, you will be like a girdled tree, which must perish and die. You 
can not stand.'' (Applause). 

THE PRESIDENT (Lucy Stone) : Mrs. Weld thinks it would be too bad 
to send the Southern aristocrats and Northern copperheads to Liberia : 
"I do not know but it would. I am equally sure that it would be 
too bad to send them among the laboring people of England, who are 
thoroughly, heartily, and wholly on the side ol the loyal North. They 
ought not to be sent there. I would suggest, when they are fairly sub- 
dued, that we should send them to London to make a part of the staff of 



The Huicliinson Family. 57 

the London Times. I think they would do better there than anywhere 
else. (Laughter). 

The Hutchinson Family being present, varied the proceedings 
with their inspiring songs. Lucy Stone, in introducing them, said 
Gen. McClellan was not willing they should sing on the other side 
of the Potomac, but we are glad to hear them everywhere. Susan 
B. Anthony presented a series of resolutions,* and said : 

There is great fear expressed on all sides lest this war shall be made a 
war for the negro. I am willing that it shall be. It is a war to found an 
empire on the negro in slavery, and shame on us if we do not make it a 
war to establish the negro in freedom. against whom the whole nation, 
North and South, East and West, in one mighty conspiracy, has com- 
bined from the beginning. 

Instead of suppressing the real cause of the war, it should have been 
proclaimed, not only by the people, but by the President, Congress. Cab- 
inet, and every military commander. Instead of President Lincoln's 
waiting two long years before calling to the side of the Government the 
four millions of allies whom we have had within the territory of rebel- 
dom, it should have been the first decree he sent forth. Every hour's delay, 
every life sacrificed up to the proclamation that called the slave to free- 
dom and to arms, was nothing less than downright murder by the Gov- 
ernment. For by all the laws of common-sense to say nothing of laws 
military or national if the President, as Commander-in-Chief of the 
Army and Navy, could have devised any possible means whereby he 
might hope to suppress the rebellion, without the sacrifice of the life of one 
loyal citizen, without the sacrifice of one dollar of the loyal North, it was 
clearly his duty to have done so. Every interest of the insurgents, every 
dollar of their property, every institution, however peculiar, every life in 
every rebel State, even, if necessary, should have been sacrificed, before one 
dollar or one man should have been drawn from the free States. How 
much more, then, was it the President's duty to confer freedom on the 
four million slaves, transform them into a peaceful army for the Union, 
cripple the rebellion, and establish justice, the only sure foundation of 



* Resolved, 2. That we heartily approve that part of the President's Proclamation which 
decrees freedom to the slaves of rebel musters, and we earnestly urge him to devise meas- 
ures for emancipating all slaves throughout the country. 

Resolved, 8. That the national pledge to the freedmen must be redeemed, and the integ- 
rity of the Government in making it vindicated, at whatever cost. 

Resolved, 4. That while we welcome to legal freedom the recent slaves, we solemnly re- 
monstrate against all State or National legislation which may exclude them from any lo- 
cality, or debar them from any rights or privileges as free and equal citizens of a common 
Republic. 

Resolved, 5. There never can be a true peace in this Republic until the civil and political 
rights of all citizens of African descent and all women are practically established. 

Resolved, 1. That the women of the Revolution were not wanting in heroism and self- 
sacrifice, and we, their daughters, are ready to this war to pledge our time, our means, our 
talents, and our lives, if need be, to secure the final and complete consecration of America 
to freedom. 

VOL. H. 5. 



58 History of Woman Suffrage. 

peace! I therefore hail the day when the Government shall recognize 
that it is a war for freedom. We talk about returning to the old Union 
"the Union as it was," and "the Constitution as it is" about "restor- 
ing our country to peace and prosperity to the blessed conditions that 
existed before the war! " I ask you what sort of peace, what sort of pros- 
perity, have we had? Since the first slave-ship sailed up the James River 
with its human cargo, and there, on the soil of the Old Dominion, sold it 
to the highest bidder, we have had nothing but war. When that pirate 
captain landed on the shores of Africa, and there kidnapped the first stal- 
wart negro, and fastened the first manacle, the struggle between that 
captain and that negro was the commencement of the terrible war in the 
midst of which we are to-day. Between the slave and the master there 
has been war, and war only. This is only a new form of it. No, no ; we 
ask for no return to the old conditions. We ask for something better. 
We want a Union that is a Union in fact, a Union in spirit, not a sham. 
(Applause). 

By the Constitution as it is, the North has stood pledged to protect 
slavery in the States where it existed. We have been bound, in case of 
insurrections, to go to the aid, not of those struggling for liberty, but 
of the oppressors. It was politicians who made this pledge at the 
beginning, and who have renewed it from year to year to this day. 
These same men have had control of the churches, the Sabbath-schools, 
and all religious influences; and the women have been a party in com- 
plicity with slavery. They have made the large majority in all the 
different religious organizations throughout the country, and have with- 
out protest, fellowshiped the slave-holder as a Christian ; accepted pro- 
slavery preaching from their pulpits; suffered the words "slavery a 
crime" to be expurgated from all the lessons taught their children, in 
defiance of the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would that others 
should do unto you." They have had no right to vote in their churches, 
and, like slaves, have meekly accepted whatever morals and religion the 
selfish interest of politics and trade dictated. 

Woman must now assume her God-given responsibilities, and make 
herself what she is clearly designed to be, the educator of the race. Let 
her no longer be the mere reflector, the echo of the worldly pride and 
ambition of man. (Applause). Had the women of the North studied to 
know and to teach their sons the law of justice to the black man, regard- 
less of the frown or the smile of pro-slavery priest and politician, they 
would not now be called upon to offer the loved of their households to 
the bloody Moloch of war. And now, women of the North, I ask you to 
rise up with earnest, honest purpose, and go forward in the way of right, 
fearlessly, as independent human beings, responsible to God alone for 
the discharge of every duty, for the faithful use of every gift, the good 
Father has given you. Forget conventionalisms ; forget what the world 
will say, whether you are in your place or out of your place; think your 
best thoughts, speak your best words, do your best works, looking to 
your own conscience for approval. 

Mrs. HOYT, of Wisconsin : Thus far this meeting has been conducted 
in such a way as would lead one to suppose that it was an anti-slavery 



The Fifth Resolution. 59 

convention. There are ladies here who have come hundreds of miles to 
attend a business meeting of the Loyal Women of the North ; and good 
as anti-slavery conventions are, and anti-slavery speeches are, in their 
way, I think that here we should attend to our own business. 

Mrs. CHALKSTONE, of California: My speech shall be as brief as possi- 
ble, and I ask for an excuse for my broken language. Our field is very 
small, and God has given us character and abilities to follow it out. We 
do not need to stand at the ballot-boxes and cast our votes, neither to 
stand and plead as lawyers; but in our homes we have a great office. I 
consider women a great deal superior to men. (Laughter and applause). 
Men are physically strong, but women are morally better. I speak of 
pure women, good women. It is woman who keeps the world in the 
balance. 

I am from Germany, where my brothers all fought against the Govern- 
ment and tried to make us free, but were unsuccessful. My only son, 
seventeen years old, is in our great and noble army of the Union. He 
has fought in many of the battles here, and I only came from California to 
see him once more. I have not seen him yet ; though I was down in the 
camp, I could not get any pass. But I am willing to lay down all this 
sacrifice for the cause of liberty. We foreigners know the preciousness 
of that great, noble gift a great deal better than you, because you never 
were in slavery, but we are born in it. Germany pines for freedom. In 
Germany we sacrificed our wealth and ornaments for it, and the women 
in this country ought to do the same. We can not fight in the battles, 
but we can do this, and it is all we can do. The speaker, before me, 
remarked that Abraham Lincoln was two years before he emancipated 
slaves. She thought it wrong. It took eighteen hundred years in Eu- 
rope to emancipate the Jews, and they are not emancipated now. 
Among great and intelligent peoples like Germany and France, until 
1814 no Jew had the right to go on the pavement; they had to go in the 
middle of the street, where the horses walked 1 It took more than two 
years to emancipate the people of the North from the idea that the 
negro was not a human being, and that he had the right to be a free 
man. A great many will find fault in the resolution that the negro shall 
be free and equal, because our equal not every human being can be ; 
but free every human being has a right to be. He can only be equal in 
his rights. (Applause). 

Mrs. ROSE called for the reading of the resolutions, which after a spir- 
ited discussion, all except the fifth, were unanimously adopted. 

Mrs. HOYT, of Wisconsin, said: Mrs. President I object to the passage 
of the fifth resolution, not because I object to the sentiment expressed; 
but I do not think it is the time to bring before this meeting, assembled 
for the purpose of devising the best ways and means by which women 
may properly assist the Government in its struggle against treason, any- 
thing which could in the least prejudice the interest in this cause which 
is so dear to us all. We all know that Woman's Rights as an ism has 
not been received with entire favor by the women of the country, and I 
know that there are thousands of earnest, loyal, and able women who 
will not go into any movement of this kind, if this idea is made promi- 



60 History of Woman Suffrage. 

nent. (Applause). I came here from Wisconsin hoping to meet the ear- 
nest women of the country. I hoped that nothing that would hi any 
way damage the cause so dear to us all would be brought forward by 
any of the members. I object to this, because our object should be to 
maintain, as women properly may, the integrity of our Government; 
to vindicate its authority; to re-establish it upon a far more endur- 
ing basis. We can do this if we do not involve ourselves in any purely 
political matter, or any ism obnoxious to the people. The one idea 
should be the maintenance of the authority of the Government as it is, 
and the integrity of the Republican idea. For this, women may properly 
work, and I hope this resolution will not pass. 

SARAH H. HALLECK, of Milton, N. Y.: I would make the suggestion 
that those who approve of this resolution can afford to give way, and 
allow that part of it which is objectionable to be stricken out. The 
negroes have suffered more than the women, and the women, perhaps, 
can afford to give them the preference. Let it stand as regards them, 
and blot out the word "woman." It may possibly be woman's place to 
suffer. At any rate, let her suffer, if, by that means, raawkind may suf- 
fer less. 

A VOICE : You are too self-sacrificing. 

ERNESTINE L. ROSE : I always sympathize with those who seem to be 
in the minority. I know it requires a great deal of moral courage to 
object to anything that appears to have been favorably received. I 
know very well from long experience how it feels to stand in a minority 
of one; and I am glad that my friend on the other side (Mrs. Halleck) 
has already added one to make a minority of two, though that is by far 
too small to be comfortable. I, for one, object to the proposition to 
throw woman out of the race for freedom. (Applause). And do you 
know why? Because she needs freedom for the freedom of man. (Ap- 
plause). Our ancestors made a great mistake in not recognizing woman 
in the rights of man. It has been justly stated that the negro at present 
suffers more than woman, but it can do him no injury to place woman 
in the same category with him. I, for one, object to having that term 
stricken out, for it can have no possible bearing against anything that 
we want to promote ; we desire to promote human rights and human 
freedom. It can do no injury, but must do good, for it is a painful fact 
that woman under the law has been in the same category with the slave. 
Of late years she has had some small privileges conceded to her. Now, 
mind, I say conceded; for publicly it has not yet been recognized by the 
laws of the land that she has a right to an equality with man. In that 
resolution it simply states a fact, that in a republic based upon freedom, 
woman, as well as the negro, should be recognized as an equal with the 
whole human race. (Applause). 

AXGELINE G. WELD: Mrs. President I rejoice exceedingly that that 
resolution should combine us with the negro. I feel that we have been 
with him; that the iron has entered into our souls. True, we have not 
felt the slave-holder's lash; true, we have not had our hands manacled, 
but our hearts have been crushed. Was there a single institution in this 
country that would throw open its doors to the acknowledgment of worn- 






Afraid of WomarCs Rights. 61 

an's equality with man in the race for science and the languages, until 
Oberliu, Antioch, Lima, and a very few others opened their doors, twenty 
years ago ? Have I not heard women say I said thus to my own broth- 
er, as I used to receive from him instruction and reading: " Oh, brother, 
that I could go to college with you ! that I could have the instruction 
you do ! but I am crushed ! I hear nothing, I know nothing, except in 
the fashionable circle." A teacher said to a young lady, who had been 
studying for several years, on the day she finished her course of instruc- 
tion, "I thought you would be very glad that you were so soon to go 
home, so soon to leave your studies." She looked up, and said, "What 
was I made for ? When I go home I shall live in a circle of fashion and 
folly. I was not made for embroidery and dancing; I was made a woman ; 
but I can not be a true woman, a full-grown woman, in America." 

Now, my friends, I do not want to find fault with the past. I believe 
that men did for women the best that they knew how to do. They did 
not know their own rights; they did not recognize the rights of any man 
who had a black face. We can not wonder that, in their tenderness for 
woman, they wanted, to shelter and protect her, and they made those 
laws from true, human, generous feelings. Woman was then too unde- 
veloped to demand anything else. But woman is full-grown to-day, 
whether man knows it or not, equal to her rights, and equal to the re- 
sponsibilities of the hour. I want to 'be identified with the negro; until 
he gets his rights, we never shall have ours. (Applause). 

SUSAN B. ANTHONY : This resolution brings in no question, no ism. It 
merely makes the assertion that in a true democracy, in a genuine re- 
public, every citizen who lives under the government must have the 
right of representation. You remember the maxim, " Governments derive 
their just powers from the consent of the governed." This is the funda- 
mental principle of democracy ; and before our Government can be a true 
democracy before our republic can beplaced'upon lasting and enduring 
foundations the civil and political rights of every citizen must be 
practically established. This is the assertion of the resolution. It is a 
philosophical statement. It is not because women suffer, it is not be- 
cause slaves suffer, it is not because of any individual rights or wrongs 
it is the simple assertion of the great fundamental truth of democ- 
racy that was proclaimed by our Revolutionary fathers. I hope the 
discussion will no longer be continued as to the comparative rights 
or wrongs of one class or another. The question before us is: Is 
it possible that peace and union shall be established in this country ; is 
it possible for this Government to be a true democracy, a genuine re- 
public, while one-sixth or one-half of the people are disfranchised? 

MRS. HOYT: I do not object to the philosophy of these resolutions. I 
believe in the advancement of the human race, and certainly not in a 
retrograde movement of the Woman's Rights question ; but at the same 
time I do insist that nothing that has become obnoxious to a portion of 
the people of the country shall be dragged into this meeting. (Ap- 
plause). The women of the North were invited here to meet in conven- 
tion, not to hold a Temperance meeting, not to hold an Anti-Slavery 
meeting, not to hold a Woman's Rights Convention, but to consult as to 



62 History of Woman Suffrage. 

the best practical way for the advancement of the loyal cause. To my 
certain knowledge there are ladies in this house who have come hun- 
dreds of miles, who will withdraw from this convention, who will go 
home disappointed, and be thrown back on their own resources, and 
form other plans of organization ; whereas they would much prefer to 
co-operate with the National Convention if this matter were not intro- 
duced. This movement must be sacred to the one object of assisting 
our Government. I would add one more remark, that though the 
women of the Revolution did help our Government in that early strug- 
gle, they did not find it necessary to set forth in any theoretical or 
clamorous way their right to equal suffrage or equal political position, 
though doubtless they believed, as much as any of us, in the advance- 
ment of woman. 

A LADY : I want to ask the lady who j ust spoke if the women of the 
Revolution found it necessary to form Loyal Leagues? We are not 
bound to do just as the women of the Revolution did. (Applause and 
laughter). 

LUCY N. COLEMAN, of Rochester, N. Y. : I wish to say, in the first 
place, something a little remote from the point, which I have in my mind 
just now. A peculiar sensitiveness seems to have come over some of the 
ladies here in reference to the anti-slavery spirit of the resolutions. It 
seems to me impossible that a company of women could stand upon this 
platform without catching something of the anti-slavery spirit, and 
without expressing, to some extent, their sympathy with the advance- 
ment of human rights. It is the Anti-Slavery women and the Woman's 
Rights women who called this meeting, and who have most effectually 
aided in this movement. Their hearts bleed to the very core that our 
nation is to-day suffering to its depths, and they came together to de- 
vise means whereby they could help the country in its great calamity. 
I respect the woman who opposed this resolution, for daring to say so 
much. She says that it is an Anti-Slavery Convention that is in session. 
So it is, and something more. (Applause). She says it is a Woman's 
Rights Convention. So it is, and even more than that: it is a World's 
Convention. (Applause). Another woman (I rejoice to hear that lisping, 
foreign tongue) says that our sphere is so narrow that we should be 
careful to keep within it. All honor to her, that she dared to say even 
that. I recognize for myself no narrow sphere. (Applause). Where 
you may work, my brother, I may work. I would willingly stand upon 
the battle-field, and would be glad to receive the balls in my person, if 
in that way I could do more for my country's good than in any other. I 
recognize no right of any man or of any woman to say that I should 
not stand there. Our sphere is not narrow it is broad. 

In reference to this resolution, Mrs. Halleck thinks it might be well to 
leave out woman. No, no. Do you remember, friends, long, long ago 
here in New York, an Anti-Slavery convention broke up in high dudgeon, 
because a woman was put upon a committee? But that Anti-Slavery 
Society, notwithstanding those persons who felt so sensitive withdrew 
from it, has lived thirty years, and to-day it has the honor of being cred- 
ited as the cause of this war. Perhaps if the principle which was then 



Clamor for Compromise. 63 



at stake that a woman had a right to be on a committee had been 
waived, from the very fact that the principle of right was overruled, 
that Society would have failed. I would not yield one iota, one particle, 
to this clamor for compromise. Be it understood that it is a Woman's 
Rights matter; for the Woman's Rights women have the same right to 
dictate to a Loyal League that the Anti- Woman's Rights women have, 
and the side that is strongest will carry the resolution, of course. But 
do not withdraw it. Do not say, " We will take it away because it is 
objectionable." 

I want the people to understand that this Loyal League because it is 
a Loyal League must of necessity bring in Anti-Slavery and Woman's 
Rights. (Applause). Is it possible that any of you believe that there is 
such a being in this country to-day as a loyal man or womau who is not 
anti-slavery to the backbone ? (Applause). Neither is there a loyal man 
or woman whose intellect is clear enough to take in a broad, large idea, 
who is not to the very core a Woman's Rights man or woman. (Applause). 

MRS. HOYT : As I have said before, I am not opposed to Anti-Slavery. 
I stand here an Abolitionist from the earliest childhood, and a stronger 
anti-slavery woman lives not on the soil of America. (Applause). I 
voted Yea on the anti-slavery resolution, and I would vote it ten times 
over. But, at the same time, in the West, which I represent, there is a 
very strong objection to Woman's Rights; in fact, this Woman's Rights 
matter is odious to some of us from the manner in which it has been 
conducted; not that we object to the philosophy we believe in the phi- 
losophy but object to this matter being tacked on to a purely loyal con- 
vention I will make one more statement which bears upon the 

point which I have been trying to make. I have never before spoken 
except hi private meetings, and therefore must ask the indulgence of the 
audience. The women of Madison, Wisconsin, feeling the necessity and 
importance of doing something more than women were doing to assist 
the Government in this struggle, organized a Ladies' Union League, 
which has been in operation some time, and is very efficient. 

A VOICK: What are they doing ? Please state. 

MRS. HOYT: In Madison we had a very large and flourishing " Soldiers' 
Aid Society." We wore the headquarters for that part of the State. A great 
many ladies worked in our Aid Society, and assisted us, who utterly re- 
fused to join with the Loyal League, because, they said, it would damage 
the Aid Society. We recognized that fact, and kept it purely distinct as 
a Ladies' Loyal League, for the promotion of the loyal sentiment of the 
North, and to reach the soldiers in the field by the most direct and 
practical moans which were in our power. We have a great many very 
flourishing Ladies' Loyal Leagues throughout the West, and we have 
kept them sacred from Anti-Slavery, Woman's Rights, Temperance, and 
everything else, good though they may be. In our League we have three 
objects in view. The first is, retrenchment in household expenses, to the 
end that the material resources of the Government may be, so far as 
possible, applied to the entire and thorough vindication of its authority. 
Second, to strengthen the loyal sentiment of the people at home, and 
instil a deeper love of the national flag. The third and most important 



64 Histwy of Woman Suffrage. 

object is, to write to the soldiers in the field, thus reaching nearly every 
private in the army, to encourage and stimulate him in the way that 
ladies know how to do. I state again, it is not an Anti-Slavery objection. 
I will vote for every Anti-Slavery movement in this Convention. I ob- 
ject to the Woman's Rights resolutions, and nothing else. 

ERNESTINE L. ROSE: It is exceedingly amusing to hear persons talk 
about throwing out Woman's Rights, when, if it had not been for 
Woman's Rights, that lady would not have had the courage to stand 
here and say what she did. (Applause). Pray, what means "loyal"? 
Loyal means to be true to one's highest conviction. Justice, like charity, 
begins at home. It is because we are loyal to truth, loyal to justice, 
loyal to right, loyal to humanity, that woman is included in that resolu- 
tion. Now, what does this discussion mean? The lady acknowledges 
that tt is not against Woman's Rights itself; she is for Woman's Rights- 
We are here to endeavor to help the cause of human rights and human 
freedom. We ought not to be afraid. You may depend upon it, if there 
are any of those who are called copperheads but I don't like to call 
names, for even a copperhead is better than no head at all (laughter) 
if there are any copperheads here, I am perfectly sure they will object 
to this whole Convention; and if we want to consult them, let us adjourn 
sine die. If we are loyal to our highest convictions, we need not care 
how far it may lead. For truth, like water, will find its own level. No, 
friends, in the name of consistency let us not wrangle here simply be- 
cause we associate the name of woman with human justice and human 
rights. Although I always like to see opposition on any subject, for it 
elicits truth much better than any speech, still I think it will be exceed- 
ingly inconsistent if, because some women out in the West are opposed 
to the Woman's Rights movement though at the same time they take 
advantage of it that therefore we shall throw it out of this resolution. 

Mrs. SPENCE, of New York: I didn't come to this meeting to partici- 
pate only to listen. I don't claim to be a Northerner or a Southerner; 
but I claim to be a human being, and to belong to the human family. 
(Applause). I belong to no sect or creed of politics or religion; I stand 
as an individual, defending the rights of every one as far as I can see 
them. It seems to me we have met here to come to some unity of action. 
If we attempt to bring in religious, political, or moral questions, we all 
must of necessity differ. We came here hoping to be inspired by each 
other to lay some plan by which we can unite in practical action. I have 
not heard such a proposition made; but I anticipate that it will be. 
(Hear, hear). Then if we are to unite on some proposition which is to 
be presented, it seems to me that our, resolutions should be practical 
and directed to the main business. Let the object of the meeting be 
unity of action and expression in behalf of what we feel to be the highest 
right, our highest idea of liberty. 

THE PRESIDENT (Lucy Stone) : Every good cause can afford to be just. 
The lady from Wisconsin, who differs from some of us here, says she is an 
Anti-Slavery woman. We ought to believe her. She accepts the princi- 
ples of the Woman's Rights movement, but she does not like the way in 
which it has been carried on. We ought to believe her. It is not, then, 



A Man in tlie Audience. 65 

that she objects to the idea of the equality of women and negroes, but 
because she does not wish to have anything "tacked on" to the Loyal 
League, that to the mass of people does not seem to belong there. She 
seems to me to stand precisely in the position of those good people just 
at the close of the war of the Revolution. The people then, as now, had 
their hearts aching with the memory of their buried dead. They had had 
years of war from which they had garnered out sorrows as well as hopes; 
and when they came to establish a Union, they found that one black, un- 
mitigated curse of slavery rooted in the soil. Some men said, "We can 
have no true Union where there is not justice to the negro. The black man 
is a human being, like us, with the same equal rights." They had given 
to the world the Declaration of Independence, grand and brave and 
beautiful. They said, "How can we form a true Union?" Some people 
representing the class that Mrs. Hoyt represents, answered, "Let us 
have a Union. We are weak; we have been beset for seven long years; 
do not let us meddle with the negro question. What we are for is a 
Union; let us have a Union at all hazards." There were earnest men, 
men of talent, who could speak well and earnestly, and they persuaded 
the others to silence. So they said nothing about slavery, and let the 
wretched monster live. 

To-day, over all our land, the unburied bones of our fathers and sons 
and brothers tell the sad mistake that those men made when long ago 
they left this one great wrong in the land. They could not accomplish 
good by passing over a wrong. If the right of one single human being is to 
be disregarded by us, we fail in our loyalty to the country. All over this 
land women have no political existence. Laws pass over our heads that 
we can not unmake. Our property is taken from us without our consent. 
The babes we bear in anguish and carry in our arms are not ours. The 
few rights that we have, have been wrung from the Legislature by the 
Woman's Rights movement. We come to-day to say to those who are ad- 
ministering our Government and fighting our battles, "While you are 
going through this valley of humiliation, do not forget that you must be 
true alike to the women and the negroes." We can never be truly "loyal " 
if we leave them out. Leave them out, and we take the same backward 
step that our fathers took when they left out slavery. If justice to the 
negro and to woman is right, it can not hurt our loyalty to the country 
and the Union. If it is not right, let it go out of the way; but if it is 
right, there is no occasion that we should reject it, or ignore it. We 
)iuike the statement that the Government derives its just powers from 
the consent of the governed, and that all human beings have equal 
rights. This is not an ism it is simply an assertion that we shall be true 
to the highest truth. 

A MAN IN THE AUDIENCE: The question was asked, as I entered this 
house, "Is it right for women to meet here and intermeddle in our pub- 
lic affairs? " It is the greatest possible absurdity for women to stand on 
that platform and talk of loyalty to a Government in which nine-tenths 
of. the politicians of the land say they have no right to interfere, and 
still oppose Woman's Rights. The very act of standing there is an en- 
dorsement of Woman's Rights. 



66 History of Woman Suffrage. 

A VOICE : I believe this is a woman's meeting. Men have no right to 
speak here. 

THE GENTLEMAN" CONTINUED : It is on woman more than on man that 
the real evils of this war settle. It is not the soldier on the battle-field 
that suffers most; it is the wife, the mother, the daughter. (Applause. 
Cries of " Question, question "). 

A VOICE: You are not a woman, sit down. 

SUSAN B. ANTHONY: Some of us who sit upon this platform have many 
a time been clamored down, and told that we had no right to speak, and 
that we were out of our place in public meetings; far be it from us, when 
women assemble, and a man has a thought in his soul, burning for utter- 
ance, to retaliate upon him. (Laughter and applause). 

The resolution was then put to vote. 

A VOICE : Allow me to inquire if men have a right to vote on this 
question ? 

THE PRESIDENT : I suppose men who are used to business know that 
they should not vote here. We give them the privilege of speaking. 

The resolution was carried by a large majority. 

SUSAN B. ANTHONY: The resolution recommending the practical work, 
has not yet been prepared. We have a grand platform on which to 
stand, and I hope we shall be able to present a plan of work equally grand. 
But, Mrs. President, if we should fail in doing this, we shall not fail to 
enunciate the principles of democracy and republicanism which under- 
lie the structure of a free government. When the heads and hearts of 
the women of the North are fully imbued with the true idea, their hands 
will find a way to secure its accomplishment. 

There is evidently very great earnestness on the part of all present to 
settle upon some practical work. I therefore ask that the women from 
every State of the Union, who are delegates here from Loyal Leagues and 
Aid Societies, shall retire, at the close of this meeting, to the lecture- 
room of this church, and there we will endeavor to fix upon the best pos- 
sible plan we can gather from, the counsels of the many. I hope this en- 
thusiasm may be directed to good and legitimate ends, and not allowed 
to evaporate into thin air. I hope we shall aid greatly in the establish- 
ment of this Government on the everlasting foundation of justice to all. 

BUSINESS MEETING. 

The lecture-room was crowded with representatives from the dif- 
ferent States Susan B. Anthony in the chair. There was a general 
expression in favor of forming a Woman's Loyal National League, 
which ended in the adoption of the following resolution : 

Resolved, That we, loyal women of the nation, assembled in convention 
in New York, this 14th day of May, 1863, do hereby pledge ourselves one 
to another in a Loyal League, to give support to the Government in so 
far as it makes the war for freedom. 

This pledge was signed by nearly every woman present. Mrs. 
Stanton was elected president unanimously, and Miss Anthony, Sec- 
retary. Many women spoke ably and eloquently ; women who had 



Address to Abraham Lincoln. 67 

never before heard their own voices in a public meeting, discussed 
nice points of law and constitution in a manner that would have 
done credit to any legislative assembly. A deep religious tone of 
loyalty to God and Freedom pervaded the entire meeting. It was 
an occasion not soon to be forgotten. Women of all ages were as- 
sembled there, from the matron of threescore years and ten to the 
fair girl whose interest in the war had brought to her a premature sad- 
ness and high resolve. But of all who mourned the loss of husbands, 
brothers, sons, and lovers, no word of fear, regret, or doubt was ut- 
tered. All declared themselves ready for any sacrifice, and expressed 
an unwavering faith in the glorious future of a true republic. The 
interest in the meeting kept up until so late an hour that it was de- 
cided to adjourn, to meet the next afternoon. 

EVENING SESSION. 

The evening session was held in Cooper Institute, Mrs. Stan- 
ton presiding. An address to the President was read by Miss An- 
thony, which was subsequently adopted and sent to him. 

T?ie Loyal Women of the Country to Abraham Lincoln, President of the 

United States. 

Having heard many complaints of the want of enthusiasm among 
Northern women in the war, we deemed it fitting to call a National Con- 
vention. From every free State, we have received the most hearty re- 
sponses of interest in each onward step of the Government as it ap- 
proaches the idea of a true republic. From the letters received, and the 
numbers assembled here to-day, we can with confidence address you in 
the name of the loyal women of the North. 

We come not to criticise or complain. Not for ourselves or our friends 
do we ask redress of specific grievances, or posts of honor or emolument. 
We speak from no considerations of mere material gain ; but, inspired 
by true patriotism, in this dark hour of our nation's destiny, we come 
to pledge the loyal women of the Republic to freedom and our country. 
We come to strengthen you with earnest words of sympathy and encour- 
agement. We come to thank you for your proclamation, in which the 
nineteenth century seems to echo back the Declaration of Seventy-six. 
Our fathers had a vision of the sublime idea of liberty, equality, and 
fraternity ; but they failed to climb the heights that with anointed eyes 
they saw. To us, their children, belongs the work to build up the living 
reality of what they conceived and uttered. 

It is not our mission to criticise the past. Nations, like individuals, 
must blunder and repent. It is not wise to waste one energy in vain re- 
grot, but from each failure rise up with renewed conscience and courage 
for nobler action. The follies and faults of yesterday we oast aside as the 
old garments we have outgrown. Born anew to freedom, slave creeds 
and codes and constitutions must now all pass away. "For men 
do not put new wine into old bottles, else the bottles break, and 



68 History of Woman Suffrage. 

the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish ; but they put new wine 
into new bottles, and both are preserved." 

Our special thanks are due to you, that by your Proclamation two 
millions of women are freed from the foulest bondage humanity ever suf- 
fered. Slavery for man is bad enough, but the refinements of cruelty 
must ever fall on the mothers of the oppressed race, defrauded of all the 
rights of the family relation, and violated in the most holy instincts of 
their nature. A mother's life is bound up in that of her child. There 
center all her hopes and ambition. But the slave-mother, in her degra- 
dation, rejoices not in the future promise of her daughter, for she knows 
by experience what her sad fate must be. No pen can describe the un- 
utterable agony of that mother whose past, present, and future are all 
wrapped in darkness ; who knows the crown of thorns she wears must 
press her daughter's brow ; who knows that the wine-press she now 
treads, un watched, those tender feet must tread alone. For, by the law 
of slavery, " the child follows the condition of the mother." 

By your act, the family, that great conservator of national virtue and 
strength, has been restored to millions of humble homes, around whose 
altars coming generations shall magnify and bless the name of Abraham 
Lincoln. By a mere stroke of the pen you have emancipated millions 
from a condition of wholesale concubinage. We now ask you to finish 
the work by declaring that nowhere under our national flag shall the 
motherhood of any race plead in vain for justice and protection. 
So long as one slave breathes in this Republic, we drag the chain with 
him. God has so linked the race, man to man, that all must rise or fall 
together. Our history exemplifies this law. It was not enough that we 
at the North abolished slavery for ourselves, declared freedom of speech 
and the press, built up churches, colleges, and free schools, studied the 
science of morals, government, and economy, dignified labor, amassed 
wealth, whitened the sea with our commerce, and commanded the re- 
spect and admiration of the nations of the earth, so long as the South, 
by the natural proclivities of slavery, was sapping the very foundations 
of our national life 

You are the first President ever borne on the shoulders of freedom in- 
to the position you now fill. Your predecessors owed their elevation to 
the slave oligarchy, and in serving slavery they did but obey their mas- 
ters. In your election, Northern freemen threw off the yoke. And with 
you rests the responsibility that our necks shall never bow again. At no 
time in the annals of the nation has there been a more auspicious mo- 
ment to retrieve the one false step of the fathers in their concessions to 
slavery. The Constitution has been repudiated, and the compact broken 
by the Southern traitors now in arms. The firing of the first gun on 
Sumter released the North from all constitutional obligations to slavery. 
It left the Government, for the first time in our history, free to carry out 
the Declaration of our Revolutionary fathers, and made us hi fact what 
we have ever claimed to be, a nation of freemen. 

"The Union as it was'' a compromise between barbarism and civili- 
zation can never be restored, for the opposing principles of freedom 
and slavery can not exist together. Liberty is life, and every form of 



FremonCs Proclamation. 69 

government yet tried proves that slavery is death. In obedience to this 
law, our Republic, divided and distracted by the collisions of caste and 
class, is tottering to its base, and can only be reconstructed on the sure 
foundations of impartial freedom to all men. The war in which we are 
involved is not the result of party or accident, but a forward step in the 
progress of the race never to be retraced. Revolution is no time for tem- 
porizing or diplomacy. In a radical upheaving, the people demand eter- 
nal principles to stand upon. 

Northern power and loyalty can never be measured until the purpose 
of the war be liberty to man ; for a lasting enthusiasm is ever based on 
a grand idea, and unity of action demands a definite end. At this time 
our greatest need is not in men or money, valiant generals or brilliant 
victories, but in a consistent policy, based on the principle that " all gov- 
ernments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." 
And the nation waits for you to say that there is no power under our 
declaration of rights, nor under any laws, human or divine, by which 
free men can be made slaves ; and therefore that your pledge to the 
slaves is irrevocable, and shall be redeemed. 

If it be true, as it is said, that Northern women lack enthusiasm in this 
war, the fault rests with those who have confused and confounded its 
policy. The page of history glows with incidents of self-sacrifice by 
woman in the hour of her country's danger. Fear not that the daughters 
of this Republic will count any sacrifice too great to insure the triumph 
of freedom. Let the men who wield the nation's power be wise, brave, 
and magnanimous, and its women will be prompt to meet the duties of 
the hour with devotion and heroism. 

When Fremont on the Western breeze proclaimed a day of jubilee to 
the bondmen within our gates, the women of the nation echoed back a loud 
Amen. When Hunter freed a million men, and gave them arms to fight our 
battles, justice and mercy crowned that act, and tyrants stood appalled. 
When Butler, in the chief city of the Southern despotism, hung a 
traitor, we felt a glow of pride ; for that one act proved that we had a 
Government, and one man brave enough to administer its laws. And 
when Burnsido would banish Vallandigham to the Dry Tortugas, let the 
sentence be approved, and the nation will ring with plaudits. Your 
Proclamation gives you immortality. Be just, and share your glory with 
men like these who wait to execute your will. 

In behalf of the Women's National Loyal League, 

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, President. 
SUSAN B. ANTHONY, Secretary. 

Rev. ANTOINETTE BROWN BLACKWELL : Possibly there may be nations, 
like individuals, that are without definite ideas or purposes. They sprang 
into being by accident, and they continue to live by the sufferance of 
circumstances. Our American Republic is not of this type. We were 
born to the heritage of one great idea; we were created by it and for it, 
and it is mightier than we; it must annihilate us, or it must establish us 
a nation us lasting as the ages. 

Our ante-revolutionary statesmen were dissatisfied with an inadequate, 
partial, unjust representation. The thought grew in them till it devel- 
oped the broad principle of self-government by the people. They per- 



70 History of Woman Suffrage. 

ceived and asserted that truth; they fought for it, and died or lived for 
it, as the case might be. So they constructed this great Republic, 
grounding it firmly upon a deep and wide democracy. Its frame-work 
was essentially democratic, but there were a few great beams and joists, 
and plenty of paint and mortar used, which were as purely aristocratic. 

We, here at the North, have been accustomed to look at the strength 
of the foundations, and of the consistent massive frame-work; they, at 
the South, admired the incongruous ornaments and decorations, and 
they did not forget any of the exceptional timbers. We were shocked 
when the great structure seemed ready to tumble about our ears; they 
expected it all the time, and were working for it, ready to perish in the 
general downfall, if that were inevitable. I have seen a drop of water 
spread over a small orifice in a layer of melting ice, which was brilliant 
red in color to me, but it was the intensest blue to my friend, who was 
standing at my side. The moral vision is quite as largely dependent 
upon the angle at which it receives its rays of reflected light. North 
and South represent the extremes of the moral spectrum. The equaliz- 
ing of labor and capital, which is a beautiful violet to us, is a very angry 
red to them ; and the soft-toned hues of their system of servitude are 
crimson with blood-guiltiness to ourselves. If we stood where the per- 
fect and undivided sunbeams could fall upon us, we should see all men 
under the common radiance of that pure white light, of which Provi- 
dence has an unlimited supply. 

No more unanimity of sentiment or principle existed among our own 
people in the war of the Revolution, than in this. Democracy, asserting 
its rights, brought on the conflict then, though aristocracy, goaded by 
the instinct of self-preservation and self-interest, joined hands and aided 
it to its consummation. Patriotism grew in the hearts of each, and held 
us together as a nation for about eighty years ; but the subordi- 
nate antagonism, tortured by its unnatural alliance during all those 
years, now in turn strikes also for independence. Predominance, prec- 
edence, pre-eminence, might have satisfied it for a time ; but, from the 
nature of our institutions, that was impossible. It encroached at every 
point, and was generally rewarded for its self-assertion; but it was inher- 
ently and constitutionally subordinate, and must have remained so for- 
ever in the federation of the United States. It struck for independence, 
and it did well ! It did all it could do, if it would not die inanely. One 
must always admire that instinct of the grub which leads it to weave its 
own winding-sheet, and lie down fearlessly in its sepulcher, preparatory 
to its resurrection as a butterfly ; but immeasurably more to be admired 
is the calculating courage of men who are ready to stake their all upon 
any issue even upon one so mistaken, so false, so partial to one class 
and so unjust to another, as the cause of the slave-holders. Every ear- 
nest purpose must have its own baptism of blessings. 

We, the inheritors of a sublime truth, have been grievously wanting in 
faith in our heritage ! wanting in aim and purpose to maintain its in- 
tegrity ! No wonder the land is still washed with tears of the widowed 
and fatherless, and that stricken mothers refuse to be comforted. Give 
us a living principle to die for. " Make this a war for emancipation !" 
cries anti-slavery England, "and our sympathies will be with you !" 



Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell. 71 

They demand much; but, that demand granted, it yet falls infinitely 
below the real point at issue. It is immeasurably short of the great 
conflict which we are actually waging. It is one phase of it the most 
acute phase, undoubtedly; but not, therefore, the broadest and most 
momentous one. Slavery was the peculiar institution of the South; 
but we, as a nation, have an incomparably greater peculiar institution 
of our own. The one is only peculiarly exceptional to our general pol- 
icy; the other is essentially and organically at war with it. It is the 
only thing which pointedly distinguishes us from a dozen other nations. 
The consent of the governed is the sole, legitimate authority of any 
government ! This is the essential, peculiar creed of our republic. That 
principle is on one side of this war; and the old doctrine of might makes 
right, the necessary ground- work of all monarchies, is on the other. It 
is a life-and-death conflict between all those grand, universal, man- 
respecting principles, which we call by the comprehensive term democ- 
racy, and all those partial, person-respecting, class-favoring elements 
which we group together under that silver-slippered word aristocracy. 
If this war does not mean that, it means nothing. 

Slavery is malignantly aristocratic, and seems therefore to absorb all 
other manifestations of the principle into itself. It is Pharaoh's lean 
kine, which devour all the others of their species, and yet are no better 
favored than before. But if slavery were dead to-day, aristocracy might 
still grind our republic to powder. Men may cease to be slaves, and yet 
not be enfranchised. Although they are no longer bondmen, yet they 
may be governed without their own consent. But when you deny the 
universal enfranchisement of our people, you deny the one distinctive 
principle of our Government, and the only essential, fore-ordained fact 
in the future of our national institutions. We do not at all compre- 
hend this. 

There was one who builded wiser than he knew, Emerson says, and I 
think that result is not uncommon. The little Indian boy in the pleas- 
ant fable, who ran on eagerly in advance of his migrating tribe, to plant 
his single, three-cornered beech-nut in the center of a great prairie, 
scarcely foresaw the many acres of heavy timber which was to confront 
the white pioneer hundreds of years afterward, as the outgrowth of his 
childish deed. Many soldiers are fighting our battles upon a basis 
broader than they know. There are men who believe that they are 
solely engaged in putting down the rebellion; others are maintaining 
the disputed courage and honor of the "mudsills"; some are fighting to 
uphold our present Northern civilization and its institutions; and a 
handful have set out definitely to carry these into the South, to give 
them to the slave, and to the master also, in spite of himself. All love 
the Union, and are ready to fight, perhaps to die, for it. Aye ! but what 
does that mean ? Something as antagonistic in the interpretation thereof 
as the decisions touching an ancient oracle, a disputed biblical text, or 
a knotty passage from our own venerated Constitution. 

If victory should come just as she is summoned by each class of our 
patriotic and brave Union volunteers, would she most favor the rebels 
01 the Government ? Look at some of her conflicting purposed achieve- 
ments : 



72 History of Woman Suffrage. 

1. To preserve slavery unharmed, without so much as the smell of fire 
upon its garments, when it shall emerge from the ordeal of war. 

2. To gratuitously establish slavery forever, by solemn and unchang- 
ing guarantees. 

3. To leave slavery to perish slowly and ingloriously, as it must when 
unprotected. 

4. To cripple and destroy slavery by a long guerrilla warfare against 
its special manifestations. 

5. To kill slavery at a blow, by right of an imperious and undoubted 
military necessity. 

6. To exterminate slavery without compromise or weighing of con- 
sequences, because it is a gross moral wrong. 

These are a few of the many platforms upon which husbands, brothers 
and sons are fighting to-day. No two opposing armies ever wearied 
heaven with asking more impossible cross-purposes than does this fra- 
ternal, Union army of ours. The bread and fish of these, are stones and 
scorpions to those. We are a practical people, but we are fighting for 
practical paradoxes. Do we expect any massive concentration of re- 
sults? Our wavering, anaconda system of warfare is typical of our 
moral status as a people. It is the spontaneous and legitimate exponent 
of our aims and motives. Many or decisive victories I despair of, till we 
are better educated in the early lesson of the fathers. But from the 
President God bless him that he seems to be more teachable than many 
others down to the youngest drummer-boy of the army, the severe dis- 
cipline of this war is schooling us into a better appreciation of our her- 
itage as a peculiar people. 

All governments, said the fathers, are subordinate to the people, not 
the people to their governments. The distinct enunciation of that prin- 
ciple was the net result of the war of the Revolution. Born of the long- 
suffering and anguish of bleeding nations, its worth is yet incomparably 
greater than the cost, for it is the sublimest principle which has ever en- 
tered into the governmental relations of men. It must turn and over- 
turn till, as rightful sovereign, it is placed securely upon the throne of 
all nations, for, from the inherent nature of things, it is destined to be- 
come the mightiest revolutionist of the ages. The reinstating of that 
principle in the chair of our Republic will be the net result of this war 
of the Rebellion! 

When the statesmen of '76 sought to embody this principle in the com- 
plicated machinery of a vast government, there they partially failed 
there they designedly failed. The minority seceded from it in that day 
as in this, and then they compromised. The antagonism which they 
engrafted on the young Republic, assuming, as it does, that power, 
not humanity, is statute-maker, could not be more diametrically op- 
posed to the axiom which asserts, that humanity, not power, is lawful 
arbiter of its own rights. The man, unwashed, unmended, unlearned, is 
yet a safer judge of his own interests, than is all the rank, the wealth, 
or the wisdom of men or angels. Thomas Simms is a better witness as 
to his own need of freedom than the combined wisdom of all the Bos- 
ton lawyers, judges, and statesmen. We can keep ice and fire upon the 



Testing Democratic Theories. 73 

same planet, but it never does to bring them too near together. A 
nation proclaiming to the astonished world that governments derive 
all just powers solely from the consent of the governed, yet in the 
very face of this assertion enslaving the black man, and disfranchising 
half its white citizens, besides minor things of like import and consist- 
encydo you wonder that eighty years of such policy culminated in re- 
bellion? 

Do we expect the whole-hearted sympathy of any monarchy ? Cannot 
they see, also, that two entire opposing civilizations are mustered into 
the conflict? They may hate slavery, and since we have found the 
courage to point our cannon more directly against the heart of that, 
they may rejoice so far; but do they desire to establish the subordina- 
tion of any government to the rights of the very meanest of its sub- 
jects? Are they in love with our plebeian heresy, that all the magnificent 
civil machinery of nations is but so much base clay in the hands of the 
multitude of royal potters? We are now testing the practical possibili- 
ties of democ-rat.ic theories; and there are those who would a thousand 
times rather see these shattered into hopeless fragments than any other 
result which could possibly transpire in the national affairs of all Chris- 
tendom. Let our democracy prove shallow, weak, inefficient, unfitted 
for emergencies, and incapable of sustaining itself under the test of de- 
termined opposition, to them it is enough. Our great national axiom, 
is, per se, the eternal foe of all monarchies, aristocracies, oligarchies, of 
all possible despotism, because it is the fulcrum of a mighty lever which 
must one day overturn them all, if it be not itself jostled from its resting- 
place. 

What are we to do with our conquered provinces of the South? Give 
them all the franchises which we hold ourselves, assuredly as many 
personal rights and as many State rights provided always that they 
cease to encroach upon our liberties, and are no longer rebels against the 
common Government. Now that the issue is forced upon us, let us ap- 
ply our principles unsparingly to all, and conclude by making the slaves, 
men and women too, as' free and equal in all civil and political functions 
as their male masters. Secretary Chase has seized the occasion of our 
heavy financial troubles to give us a general national banking system; 
so out of the nettle Danger to our liberal institutions let us pluck the 
flower Safety to the interest of the feeblest subject. It is thus that the 
darkest evil is often made nurse to the brightest good. The black mud 
at its roots nourishes the pure white water-lily. When the Southern 
people, white and black, male and female, are all voters together, by 
simple virtue of their human needs and rights, then, but not till then, 
will I consent to their freely voting themselves into an independent na- 
tion, if they are so disposed. Even then, democracy requires that the 
question shall be decided by the suffrage of the whole country, North as 
well as South. A republic can never be dismembered except by the con- 
sent of a majority of all its citizens 

ERNESTINE L. ROSE, a native of Poland, was next introduced; she 
said : Louis Kossuth told us it is not well to look back for regret, 
but only for instruction. I therefore intend slightly to cast my mind's 
VOL. II. 6. 



74 History of Woman Suffrage. 

eye back for the purpose of enabling us, as far as possible, to contem- 
plate the present and foresee the future. It is unnecessary to point out 
the cause of this war. It is written on every object we behold. It is 
but too well understood that the primary cause is Slavery; and it is well 
to keep that in mind, for the purpose of gaining the knowledge how ul- 
timately to be able to crush that terrible rebellion which now desolates 
the land. Slavery being the cause of the war, we must look to its utter 
extinction for the remedy. (Applause). 

We have listened this evening to an exceedingly instructive, kind and 
gentle address, particularly that part of it which tells how to deal with 
the South after we have brought them back. But I think it would be 
well, at first, to consider how to bring them back ! 

Abraham Lincoln has issued a Proclamation. He has emancipated all 
the slaves of the rebel States with his pen, but that is all. To set them 
really and thoroughly free, we will have to use some other instrument 
than the pen. (Applause). The slave is not emancipated; he is not 
free. A gentleman once found himself of a sudden, without, so far as 
he knew, any cause, taken into prison. He sent for his lawyer, and told 
him, "They have taken me to prison." "What have you done?" said 
the lawyer. "I have done nothing," he replied. "Then, iny friend, 
they can not put you in prison." " But I am in prison." "Well, that 
may be; but I tell you. my dear friend, they can not put you in prison." 
" Well," said he, " I want you to come and take me out, for I tell you, 
in spite of all your lawyer logic, I am in prison, and I shall be until you 
take me out." (Great laughter). Now the poor slave has to say, "Abra- 
ham Lincoln, you have pronounced me free; still I am a slave, bought 
and sold as such, and I shall remain a slave till I am taken out of this 
horrible condition." Then the question is, How ? Have not already 
two long years passed over more than a quarter of a million of the graves 
of the noblest and bravest of the nation ? Is that not enough ? No; it 
has proved not to be enough. Let us look back for a moment. Had 
the Proclamation of John C. Fremont been allowed to have its effect; 
had the edict of Hunter been allowed to have its effect, the war would 
have been over. (Applause). Had the people and the Government, 
from the very commencement of the struggle, said to the South, "You 
have openly thrown down the gauntlet to fight for Slavery; we will 
accept it, and fight for Freedom," the rebellion would long before now 
have been crushed. (Applause). You may blame Europe as much as 
you please, but the heart of Europe beats for freedom. Had they seen 
us here accept the terrible alternative of war for the sake of freedom, 
the whole heart of Europe would have been with us. But such has not 
been the case. Hence the destruction of over a quarter of a million of 
lives and ten millions of broken hearts that have already paid the pen- 
alty; and we know not how many more it needs to wipe out the stain of 
that recreancy that did not at once proclaim this war a war for freedom 
jand humanity. 

And now we have got here all around us Loyal Leagues. Loyal 
to what ? What does it mean ? I have read that term in the 
papers. A great many times I have heard that expression to-day. I 



Ernestine L. Hose. 75 

know not what others mean by it, but I will give yon my interpretation 
of what I am loyal to. 1 speak for myself. I do not wish any one else 
to be responsible for my opinions. I am loyal only to justice and human- 
ity. Let the Administration give evidence that they too are for justice 
to all, without exception, without distinction, and I, for one, had I ten 
thousand lives, would gladly lay them down to secure this boon of free- 
dom to humanity. (Applause). But without this certainty, I am not 
unconditionally loyal to the Administration. We women need not be, 
for the law has never yet recognized us. (Laughter). Then I say to 
Abraham Lincoln, "Give us security for the future, for really when I 
look at the past, without a guarantee, I can hardly trust you." And 
then I would say to him, "Let nothing stand in your way; let no man 
obstruct your path." 

Much is said in the papers and in political speeches about the 
Constitution. Now, a good constitution is a very good thing ; but 
even the best of constitutions need sometimes to be amended and 
improved, for after all there is but one constitution which is infallible, 
but one constitution that ought to be held sacred, and that is the human 
constitution. (Laughter). Therefore, if written constitutions are in the 
way of human freedom, suspend them till they can be improved. If 
generals are in the way of freedom, suspend them too; and more than 
that, suspend their money. We have got here a whole army of generals 
who have been actually dismissed from the service, but not from pay. 
Now, I say to Abraham Lincoln, if these generals are good for anything, 
if they are fit to take the lead, put them at the head of armies, and let 
them go South and free the slaves you have announced free. ,If they are 
good for nothing, dispose of them as of anything else that is useless. 
At all events, cut them loose from the pay. (Applause), Why, my friends, 
from July, 1861, to October, 1862 for sixteen long months we have 
been electrified with the name of our great little Napoleon ! And what 
has the great little Napoleon done ? (Laughter). Why, he has done 
just enough to prevent anybody else from doing anything. (Great 
applause). But I have no quarrel with him. I don't know him. I 
presume none of you do. But I ask Abraham Lincoln I like to 
go to headquarters, for where the greatest power is assumed, there the 
greatest responsibility rests, and in accordance with that principle 
I have nothing to do with menials, even though they are styled 
Napoleons but I ask the President why McClellan was kept in the 
army so long after it was known for there never was a time when 
anything else was known that he was both incapable and unwilling 
to do anything? I refer to this for the purpose of coming, by and by, 
to the question, "What ought to be done?" He was kept at the head of 
the army on the Potomac just long enough to prevent Burnside from 
doing anything, and not much has been done since that time. Now, 
McClellan may be a very nice young man I haven't the slightest doubt 
of it but I have read a little anecdote of him. Somebody asked the 
president of a Western railroad company, in which McClellan was an 
engineer, what he thought about his abilities. ' ' Well," said the president , 
"he is a first-rate man to build bridges; he is very exact, very mix the- 



76 History of Woman Suffrage. 

matical in measurement, very precise in adjusting the timber; he is the 
best man in the world to build a good, strong, sound bridge, but after he 
has finished it, he never wishes anybody to cross over it." (Great laugh- 
ter). Well, we have disposed of him partially, but we PAY him yet, and 
you and I are taxed for it. But if we are to have a new general in his 
place, we may ask, what has become of Sigel? Why does that disinter- 
ested, noble-minded, freedom-loving man in vain ask of the Adminis- 
tration to give him an army to lead into the field? 

A VOICE : Ask Halleck. 

Halleck! If Halleck is in the way, dispose of him. (Applause). Do 
you point me to the Cabinet? If the Cabinet is in the way of freedom, 
dispose of the Cabinet (applause) some of them, at least. The magni- 
tude of this war has never yet been fully felt or acknowledged by the 
Cabinet. The man at its head I mean Seward has hardly yet woke up 
to the reality that we have a war. He was going to crush the rebellion 
in sixty days. It was a mere bagatelle! Why, he could do it after din- 
ner, any day, as easy as taking a bottle of wine ! If Seward is in the way 
of crushing the rebellion and establishing freedom, dispose of him. From 
the cause of the war, learn the remedy, decide the policy, and place it in 
the hands of men capable and willing to carry it out. I am not uncondi- 
tionally loyal, until we know to what principle we are to be loyal. Prom- 
ise justice and freedom, and all the rest will follow. Do you know, my 
friends, what will take place if something decisive is not soon done ? It 
is high time to consider it. I am not one of those who look on the dark- 
est side of things, but yet my reason and reflection forbid me to hope 
against hope. It is only eighteen months more before another Presidential 
election only one year before another President will be nominated. Let 
the present administration remain as indolent, as inactive, and, appar- 
ently, as indifferent as they have done ; let them keep generals that are 
inferior to many of their private soldiers : let them keep the best generals 
there are in the country Sigel and Fremont unoccupied (applause) ; 
let them keep the country in the same condition in which it has been the 
last two years, and is now, and what would be the result, if, at the next 
election, the Democrats succeed I mean the sham Democrats? I am a 
democrat, and it is because I am a democrat that I go for human free- 
dom. Human freedom and true democracy are identical. Let the Dem- 
ocrats, as they are now called, get into office, and what would be ,the 
consequence? Why, under this hue-and-cry for Union, Union, UNION, 
which is like a bait held out to the mass of the people to lure them on, 
they will grant to the South the meanest and the most contemptible com- 
promises that the worst slaveholders in the South can require. And if 
they really accept them and come back my only hope is that they will 
not but if the South should accept these compromises, and come back, 
slavery will be fastened, not only in the South, but it will be nationally 
fastened on the North. Now, a good Union, like a good Constitution, is 
a most invaluable thing; but a false Union is infinitely more despicable 
than no Union at all; and for myself, I would vastly prefer to have the 
South remain independent, than to bring them back with that eternal 
curse nationalized in the country. It is not enough for Abraham Lincoln 



Seward proclaimed a Truism. 77 

to proclaim the slaves in the South free, nor even to continue the war un- 
til they shall be really free. There is something to be done at home ; for 
justice, like charity, must begin at home. It is a mockery to say that we 
emancipate the slaves we can not reach and pass by those we can reach. 
First, free the slaves that are under the flag of the Union. If that flag is 
the symbol of freedom, let it wave over free men only. The slaves must 
be freed in the Border States. Consistency is a great power. What are 
you afraid of? That the Border States will join with the now crippled 
rebel States? We have our army there, and the North can swell its 
armies. But we can not afford to fight without an object. We can not 
afford to bring the South back with slavery. We can not compromise 
with principle. What has brought on this war? Slavery, undoubtedly. 
Slavery was the primary cause of it. But the great secondary cause was 
the fact that the North, for the sake of the Union, has constantly com- 
promised. Every demand that the South made of the North was acceded 
to, until the South came really to believe that they were the natural and 
legitimate masters, not only of the slaves, but of the North too. 

Now, it is time to reverse all these things. This rebellion and this war 
have bost too dear. The money spent, the vast stores destroyed, the 
tears shed, the lives sacrificed, the hearts broken, are too high a price to 
be paid for the mere name of Union. I never believed we had a Union. 
A true Union is based upon principles of mutual interest, of mutual 
respect and reciprocity, none of which ever existed between the North 
and South. They based their institutions on slavery; the North on 
freedom. 

I care not by what measure you end the war, if you allow one single 
germ, one single seed of slavery to remain in the soil of America, what- 
ever may be your object, depend upon it, as true as effect follows cause, 
that germ will spring up, that noxious weed will thrive, and again stifle 
the growth, wither the leaves, blast the flowers, and poison the fair fruits 
of freedom. Slavery and freedom can not exist together. Seward pro- 
claimed a truism, but he did not appreciate its import. There is an ir- 
repressible conflict between freedom and slavery. You might as well say 
that light and darkness can exist together as freedom and slavery. We, 
therefore, must urge the Government to do something, and that speedily, 
to secure the boon of freedom, while they yet can, not only in the rebel 
States, but in our own States too, and in the Border States. It is just 
as wrong for us to keep slaves in the Union States as it ever was in the 
South. Slavery is as great a curse to the slaveholder as it is a wrong to 
the slaves; and yet while we free the rebel slaveholder from the curse, 
we allow it to continue with our Union-loving men in the Border States. 
Free the slaves in the Border States, in Western Virginia, in Maryland, 
and wherever the Union flag floats, and then there will be a consistency 
in our actions that will enable us to go to work earnestly with heart and 
hand united, as we move forward to free all others and crush the rebel- 
lion. We have had no energy yet in the war, for we have fought only for 
the purpose of reuniting, what has never been united, restoring the old 
Union or rather the shadow as it was. A small republic, a small nation, 



78 History of Woman Suffrage. 

based upon the eternal principle of freedom, is great and powerful. A large 
empire based upon slavery, is weak and without foundation. The moment 
the light of freedom shines upon it, it discloses its defects, and unmasks its 
hideous deformities. As I said before, I would rather have a small re- 
public without the taint and without the stain of slavery in it, than to 
have the South brought back by compromise. To avert such calamity, 
we must work. And our work must mainly be to watch and criticise and 
urge the Administration to do its whole duty to freedom and humanity. 
(Applause). 

THE PRESIDENT then said: I suppose all the loyal women will agree 
with me that we owe to the President and the Government in these 
hours of trial, whether they make mistakes or whether they do not, 
words of cheer and encouragement; and, as events occur one after an- 
other, our criticisms should not be harshly made. When we find willful 
departure from what is just and true, when we find treason, we should 
not hesitate to speak the word of strongest denunciation against both the 
treason and the traitor. But where there is evident intention to be and 
to do right, where there is loyalty, there all good men and all good women 
should give a word of cheer and encouragement. 

Women have their share in the responsibilities of this hour; in the 
reconstruction of the Government. The battles now being fought on 
Southern soil, will be fought again in the Capitol at Washington, when 
we shall need far-seeing statesmen to base the new Union on justice, lib- 
erty, and equality. Ours is the work of educating the people to make 
this demand. 

The entire year was spent in rolling up the mammoth petition. 
Many hands were busy sending out letters and petitions, counting and 
assorting the names returned. Each State was rolled up separately in 
yellow paper, and tied with the regulation red tape, with the num- 
ber of men and women who had signed, endorsed on the outside. 
Nearly four hundred thousand were thus sent, and may now be 
found in the archives at Washington. The passage of the Thirteenth 
Amendment made the continuance of the work unnecessary. The 
first installment of 100,000 was presented by Charles Sumner, in an 
appropriate speech, Feb. 9th, 1864. 

THE PRAYER OF ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND. 

Speech of Hon. Chas. Sumner on the Presentation of the First Installment 
of the Emancipation Petition of the Woman 1 s National League. 

In the Senate of the United States, Tuesday, February 9, 1864. 

Mr. SUMXER. Mr. President: I offer a petition which is now lying on 
the desk before me. It is too bulky for me to take up. I need not add 
that it is too bulky for any of the pages of this body to carry. 

This petition marks a stage of public opinion in the history of slavery, 
and also in the suppression of the rebellion. As it is short I will read it : 



The Mammoth Petition. 79 

"To THE SENATE AND HOUSE OP 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 pass at the 
earliest practicable day an act emancipating all persons of African de- 
scent held to involuntary service or labor in the United States." 

There is also a duplicate of this petition signed by "men above the 
age of eighteen years." 

It will be perceived that the petition is in rolls. Each roll represents 
a State.* For instance, here is New York with a list of seventeen thou- 
sand seven hundred and six names; Illinois with fifteen thousand three 
hundred and eighty; and Massachusetts with eleven thousand six hun- 
dred and forty-one. These several petitions are consolidated into one 
petition, being another illustration of the motto on our coin E pluribus 
unum. 

This petition is signed by one hundred thousand men and women, who 
unite in this unparalleled number to support its prayer. They are from 
all parts of the country and from every condition of life. They are from 
the sea-board, fanned by the free airs of the ocean, and from the Mis- 
sissippi and the prairies of the West, fanned by the free airs which fer- 
tilize that extensive region. They are from the families of the educated 
and uneducated, rich and poor, of every profession, business, and call- 
ing in life, representing every sentiment, thought, hope, passion, activity, 
intelligence which inspires, strengthens, and adorns our social system. 



The following is the abstract : ' 

State. Men. Women. Total. 

New York 6,519 11,187 17,706 

Illinois 6,382 8,998 15,380 

Massachusetts 4,348 7,393 11,641 

Pennsylvania 2,259 6,366 8,635 

Ohio 3,676 4,654 8,330 

Michigan 1,741 4,441 6,182 

Iowa 2,025 4,014 6,039 

Maine 1,225 4,362 5,587 

Wisconsin 1,639 2,391 4,030 

Indiana "... 1,075 2,591 3,666 

New Hampshire 393 2.261 2,654 

NewJerscy 824 1,709 2,533 

Rhode Island 827 1,451 2,278 

Vermont. 375 1,183 1.558 

Connecticut 393 1,162 1,555 

Minnesota 396 1,094 1,490 

West Virginia 82 100 182 

Maryland 115 60 165 

Kansas 84 74 158 

Delaware 67 70 137 

Nebraska 13 20 33 

Kentucky 21 21 

Louisiana (New Orleans) 14 14 

Citizens of the U. 8. living in Now Brunswick.. 19 17 36 



34,399 65,601 100,000 



80 History of Woman Suffrage. 

Here they are, a mighty army, one hundred thousand strong, without 
arms or banners ; the advance-guard of a yet larger army. 

But though memorable for their numbers, these petitioners are more 
memorable still for the prayer in which they unite. They ask nothing 
less than universal emancipation ; and this they ask directly at the hands 
of Congress. No reason is assigned. The prayer speaks for itself. It is 
simple, positive. So far as it proceeds from the women of the country, 
it is naturally a petition, and not an argument. But I need not remind 
the Senate that there is no reason so strong as the reason of the heart. 
Do not all great thoughts come from the heart ? 

It is not for me. on presenting this petition, to assign reasons which 
the army of petitioners has forborne to assign. But I may not im- 
properly add that, naturally and obviously, they all feel in their hearts, 
what reason and knowledge confirm : not only that slavery as'a unit, one 
and indivisible, is the guilty origin of the rebellion, but that its influence 
everywhere, even outside the rebel States, has been hostile to the Union, 
always impairing loyalty, and sometimes openly menancing the national 
government. It requires no difficult logic to conclude that such a mon- 
ster, wherever it shows its head, is a national enemy, to be pursued and 
destroyed as such, or at least a nuisance to the national cause to be aba- 
ted as such. The petitioners know well that Congress is the depository 
of those supreme powers by which the rebellion, alike in its root and in 
its distant offshoots, may be surely crushed, and by which unity and 
peace may be permanently secured. They know well that the action of 
Congress may be with the co-operation of the slave-masters, or even 
without the co-operation, under the overruling law of military necessity, 
or the commanding precept of the Constitution '' to guarantee to every 
State a Republican form of government." Above all, they know well that 
to'save the country from peril, especially to save the national life, there 
is no power, in the ample arsenal of self-defense, which Congress may 
not grasp ; for to Congress, under the Constitution, belongs the preroga- 
tive of the Roman Dictator to see that the Republic receives no detri- 
ment. Therefore to Congress these petitioners now appeal. I ask the 
reference of the petition to the Select Committee on Slavery and Freed- 
men. - v - 

It was referred, after earnest discussion, as Mr. Sumner proposed. 

AN1STVERSARY OF THE 

LOYAL WOMEN'S NATIONAL LEAGUE. 

The Anniversary of the "Women's National League was held at 
the Church of the Puritans, Thursday morning, May 12, 1864. 
The President, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, called the meeting to 
order, and requested the audience to observe a few moments of si- 
lence, that each soul might seek for itself Divine guidance through 
the deliberations of the meeting. The Corresponding Secretary, 
Charlotte B. Wilbour, read the call for the meeting. The Record- 
ing Secretary read the following report of the Executive Committee : 



Anniversary of the Loyal League. 81 

One year ago we formed ourselves into a League, with the declared 
object of EDUCATING/ THIRTY MILLIONS OF PEOPLE INTO THE TRUE IDEA 
OF A CHRISTIAN REPUBLIC, by means of tracts, speeches, appeals, and 
petitions for emancipation. Whilst as women, we might not presume to 
teach men statesmanship and diplomacy, we felt it our duty to call the 
nation back to the a, b, c of human rights. In looking over the history 
of the Republic we clearly saw IN SLAVERY the cause not only of all our 
political and financial convulsions, but of the terrible rebellion desolat- 
ing our country and our homes. To do this was a work of time and 
money; and we were compelled to assume a debt of FIVE THOUSAND 
DOLLARS in starting the item of postage alone amounting to one thou- 
sand all of which we are happy to say has been duly paid. 

Our thanks are due to Robert Dale Owen, Gerrit Smith, Bradhurst 
Schieffelin, Wendell Phillips, Jessie Benton Fremont, Frederick Doug- 
lass, Henry Ward Beecher, and the Hovey Trust Fund Committee of 
Boston, for their timely contributions and liberal words of cheer. But 
still more are we indebted to the numberless, nameless thousands of the 
honest, earnest children of toil, throughout the country, lor their re- 
sponses to our call, their words of hearty God-speed, and their " mite " 
offerings, ranging from five cents to five dollars ; amounting in all to 
*">, 000. From these petitions, th.us widely scattered, we have already sent 
to Congress the names of over two hundred thousand men and women, 
demanding an amendment of the Constitution and an act of emancipa- 
tion. And thousands are still returning to xis daily, and we hope to roll 
up another hundred thousand before the close of the present session. 

Leaving, then, all minor questions of banks and mints and public im- 
provements for Congressmen to discuss at the rate of $3,000 a year, we 
decided the first work to be done was to end slavery, and ring the death 
knell of caste and class throughout the land. To this end, as a means 
of educating the people, we sent out twenty thousand emancipation pe- 
titions, with tracts and appeals, into different districts of the free States, 
and into the slave States wherever our armies had opened the way. 

The Woman's National League now numbers FIVE THOUSAND MEMBERS. 
And in the west, where we have employed two lecturing agents Jose- 
phine 8. Griffing, and Hannah Tracy Cutler a large number of auxil- 
iary Leagues have been formed. 

We have registered on our books the names of TWO THOUSAND men and 
women, boys and girls, who have circulated these petitions. We have 
on file all the letters received from the thousands with whom we have 
been in correspondence, feeling that this canvass of the nation for free- 
dom will be an important and most interesting chapter in our future 
history. These letters, coming from all classes and all latitudes, breathe 
one prayer for the downfall of slavery. 

Massachusetts' noble Senator, Charles Sumner, who has so reverently 
received, presented, and urged these petitions, has cheered us with kind 
messages, magnifying the importance of our labors. His eloquent speech, 
made in the Senate on presenting our first installment the prayer of one 
hundred thousand we have printed in tract form and scattered through- 
out the country. We have flooded the nation with letters and appeals, 



82 History of Woman Suffrage. 

public and private, and put forth every energy to rouse the people to 
earnest, persistent action against slavery, the deadly foe of all our 
cherished institutions. 

We proposed to ourselves in the first moments of enthusiasm to secure, 
at least, a million signatures one thirtieth part of our entire population. 
"We thought the troubled warnings of a century the insidious aggres- 
sions of slavery, with its violations of the sacred rights of habeas corpus, 
free speech, and free press, with its riots in our cities, and in the coun- 
cils of the nation striking down, alike, black men and brave Senators, 
all culminating, at last, in the horrid tragedies of war must have roused 
the dullest moral sense, and prepared the nation's heart to do justice 
and love mercy. But we were mistaken. Sunk in luxury, corruption, and 
crime born and bred into the "guilty phantasy that man could hold 
property in man," we needed the clash of arms, the cannon's roar, the 
shrieks and groans of fallen heroes, the lamentations of mothers for 
their first-born, the angel's trump, the voices of the mighty dead, to 
wake this stolid nation from its sleep of death. 

In circulating our petition many refused to sign because they believed 
slavery a divine institution, and therefore did not wish to change the 
status of the slave. Others, who professed to hate slavery, denied the 
right of Congress to interfere with it in the States ; and yet others con- 
demned all dictation, or even suggeston to Congress or the President. 
They said, "Let the people be still and trust the affairs of State to the 
management of the rulers they, themselves, have chosen." And many 
of our " old Abolitionists," believing their work done, that the war had 
killed slavery, knocked the bottom out of the tub, not only declared our 
work one of supererogation, but told us that petitioning, as a means of 
educating the people or influencing Congress, had become obsolete. 

Under all these discouragements, with neither press nor pulpit to mag- 
nify our work, without money or the enthusiasm of numbers, in simple 
faith, into the highways and hedges we sent the Gospel of Freedom, 
and as of old, the people heard with gladness. A very large majority of 
our petitioners are from the unlettered masses. They who, knowing 
naught of the machinery of government or the trickery of politics, be- 
lieve that, as God reigns, there is justice on the earth. As yet, none of 
our large cities have been thoroughly canvassed; but from the savan- 
nahs of the South and the prairies of the West from the hills of New 
England and the shores of our lakes and gulfs, have we enrolled the 
soldiers of freedom ; they who, when the rebels shall lay down their 
arms, with higher, holier weapons must end the war. Through us, two 
hundred thousand* people the labor and virtue of the Republic have 
spoken in our national Capitol, where their voices were never heard 
before. 

Those unaccustomed to balance influences, who judge of the impor- 
tance of movements by their apparent results, may deem our efforts lost, 
because the Amendment and Emancipation bills have not yet passed the 
House; but we feel that our-labors for the past year, in the circulation 



The exact number of signatures, as ascertained by Senator Sumner's clerk was 365,314, 



Secretary's Report of tlw Year's Work. 83 

of tracts and petitions and appeals in our lectures and letters, public 
and private, have done as much to kill the rebellion, by educating 
the people for the final blow, as any other organization, civil, political, 
military, or religious, in the land. Could you but read the many earnest, 
thrilling letters we have received from simple men and women, in their 
rural homes, you would have fresh hope for the stability of our Republic ; 
remembering that the life of a nation depends on the virtue of its people, 
and not on the dignity of its rulers. 

One poor, infirm woman in Wisconsin, who had lost her husband and 
all her sons in the war, traveled on foot over one hundred miles in 
gathering two thousand names. Her letter was filled with joy that she, 
too, had been able to do something for the cause of liberty. Follow her, 
in imagination, through sleet and snow, from house to house ; listen to 
her words mark the pathos of her voice, as she debates the question of 
freedom, or tells some tale of horror in the land of slavery, or asks her 
neighbors one by one, to give their names to end such wrongs. Aside 
from all she sajs, the fact that she comes in storm, on foot, is to all an 
argument, that there is something wrong in the republic, demanding 
haste and action from every citizen. You who, in crowded towns, move 
masses by your eloquence, scorn not the slower modes. Remember the 
seeds of enthusiasm you call forth have been planted by humbler hands 
by the fireside, the old arm-chair in the workshop, at the plow wherever 
man communes alone with God. 

Our work for the past year and what must still be our work involves 
the vital question of the nation's life. For, until the old Union with slav- 
ery be broken, and our Constitution so amended as to secure the elective 
franchise to all its citizens who are taxed, or who bear arms to support 
the Government, we have no foundations on which to build a true Repub- 
lic. We urge our countrywomen who have shown so much enthusiasm in 
the war in Sanitary and Freedmeri's Associations now to give them- 
selves to the broader, deeper, higher work of reconstruction. The new 
nation demands the highest type of womanhood. It is a holy mission to 
minister to suffering soldiers in camp and hospital, and on the battle- 
field ; to hold the heads and stanch the wounds of dying heroes ; but 
holier still, by the magic word of freedom, to speak a dying nation into 
life. 

Four years ago the many thought all was well in the land of the free 
and the home of the brave ; but we knew the war was raging then 
through all the Southern States. We knew the secrets of that bastile of hor- 
rors ; we heard, afar off, the shrieks and groans of the dying, the lamen- 
tations of husbands and wives, parents and children, sundered forever 
from each other. Then we fed, and clothed, and sheltered the fugitives 
in their weary marches where the North Star led, and crowned with im- 
mortal wreaths the panting heroes, pursued by the bloodhounds from 
the everglades of Florida, who asked but to die in freedom under the 
shadow of a monarch's throne. 

Yes, the rebellion has been raging near a century on every cotton field 
and rice plantation. Every vice, hardship, and abomination, suffered by 
our soldiers in the war, has been the daily life in slavery. Yet no North- 



84 History of Woman Suffrage. 

era volunteers marcher! to the black man's help, though he stood alone 
against such fearful odds, until John Brown and his twenty-three men 
threw themselves into the deadly breach. What a sublime spectacle ! 
Behold ! the black man, forgetting all our crimes, all his wrongs for gener- 
ations, now nobly takes up arms in our defence. Look not to Greece 
or Rome for heroes to Jerusalem or Mecca for saints but for the highest 
virtues of heroism, let us worship the black man at our feet. Mothers, 
redeem the past by teaching your children the limits of human rights, 
with the same exactness that you now teach the multiplication table. 
That "all men are created equal" is a far more important fact for a 
child to understand, than that twice two makes four. 

Had we during the past century as fondly guarded the tree of liberty, 
with its blessed fruits of equality, as have Southern mothers the deadly 
upas of slavery, the blood of our sires and sons, mingled with the sweat 
and tears of slaves, would not now enrich the tyrant's soil, our hearth- 
stones would not all be desolate, nor we, with shame, behold our North- 
ern statesmen in the nation's councils overwhelmed with doubt and per- 
plexity on the simplest question of human rights. A mariner without 
chart or compass, ignorant of the starry world above his head, drifting on 
a troubled sea, is not-more hopeless than a nation, in the throes of revolu- 
tion, without faith in the immutability and safety of truth and justice. 

Behold in the long past the endless wreck of nations Despotisms, 
Monarchies, Republics alike, they all sprang up and bloomed then 
drooped and died, because not planted with the seeds of Ufa ; and on their 
crumbling ruins the black man now plants his feet, and as he proudly 
breaks his chains declares, "MAN ABOVE ALL HUMAN GOVERNMENT. 

WENDELL PHILLIPS was introduced and made an eloquent appeal in be- 
half of the object of the League. He congratulated the Society on the 
progress it had made, contrasted the past with the present, referred to 
his experience at former meetings, and argued that woman should have 
a voice and a vote in the affairs of the nation. He showed the importance 
of woman's moral power infused into the politics of the country, and of 
the independence of those outside of party lines, who neither vote or hold 
office, to criticise the shortcomings of our rulers. He eulogized the man- 
ner in which Anna Dickinson had arraigned both men and measures before 
the judgment-seat of the people ; deplored the slavery of party, that puts 
padlocks on the lips of leading politicians. While the sons of the Puri- 
tans, with bated breath, see in the violation of the most sacred rights 
of citizens the swift-coming destruction of the Republic, and hi silence 
wait the shock, an inspired girl comes forward, sounds the alarm, raises 
the signal of distress, and fearlessly calls the captain, pilot, crew, and all 
to duty, for the Ship of State is drifting on a rock-bound coast. Again 
and again is this young girl put forward to tell the people what men in 
high places dare not say themselves. 

The following resolutions were then read and submitted for discussion; 

1. Whereas, The testimony of all history, the teachings of all sound 
philosophy, and our national experience for almost a hundred years, 
have demonstrated that in the Divine economy there is an " irrepressible 
conflict " between slavery and freedom ; and 



Thanks due Robert Dale Owen. , 85 

WHEREAS, The present war is but the legitimate fruit of this unnatural 
union; therefore 

Resolved, That any attempt to reconstruct the Government with any 
root or branch of the slave system remaining, will surely prove disas- 
trous, and therefore should be met at the outset with the stern rebuke 
of every true patriot and friend of humanity. 

2. Resolved, That this Government still upholds slavery by military as 
well as civil power, and is, therefore, itself, still in daring rebellion 
against the GOD OF JUSTICE, before whom Jefferson "trembled" and 
whose "exterminating thunders" he warned us would be our destruc- 
tion, unless, by " the diffusion of light and liberality," we were led to exter- 
minate it forever from the land. 

3. Resolved, That until the old union with slavery be broken, and 
the Constitution so amended as to secure the elective franchise to all cit- 
izens who bear arms, or are taxed to support the Government, we have 
no foundations on which to build a TRUE REPUBLIC. 

4. WHEREAS, The Anti or Pro-slavery character of the Constitution has 
long been a question of dispute "among statesmen and judges, as well as 
reformers, therefore 

Resolved, That we demand for the NEW NATION a NEW CONSTITUTION, 
in which the guarantee of liberty and equality to every human being 
shall be so plainly and clearly written as never again to be called in 
question. 

5. Resolved, That we demand for black men not only the right to be 
sailors, soldiers, and laborers under equal pay and protection with white 
men, but the right of suffrage, that only safeguard of civil liberty, with- 
out which emancipation is but mockery. 

6. Resolved, That women now acting as nurses in our hospitals, who 
are regular graduates of medicine, should be recognized as physicians and 
surgeons, and receive the same remuneration for their services as men. 

7. Resolved, That the failure of the Administration to protect our black 
troops against such outrages as were long ago officially threatened, and 
fearfully perpetrated at Port Hudson, Milliken's Bend, Olustee, and Fort 
Pillow, is but added proof of its heartless character or utter incapacity to 
conduct the war. 

8. Resolved, That when the men of a nation, in a political party, conse- 
crate themselves to "Freedom and Peace " and declare their high resolve 
to found a Republic on the principles of justice, they have lifted politics 
into the sphere of morals and religion, where it is the duty of women to 
be co-workers with them in giving immortal life to the NEW nation. 

9. Resolved, That our special thanks are due to Robert Dale Owen, who 
aided us in the inauguration of our work ; and to Charles Sumner, who 
so earnestly and eloquently presented our petitions in the Senate of the 
United States. 

10. WHEREAS, From official statistics, it appears that our annual na- 
tional expenditures for imported broadcloths, silks, laces, embroideries, 
wines, spirits, and cigars, are more than one hundred million dollars ; 
therefore 

Resolved, that we rqcominend the formation of leagues of patriotic men 



86 History of Woman Suffrage. 

and women throughout the country, whose object shall be to discounte- 
nance and prevent the indulgence of all these, and similar useless luxu- 
ries during the war ; thereby encouraging habits of economy, stimulating 
American industry, diminishing the foreign debt, and increasing our 
ability to meet the vast expenditures of the present crisis. 

The following letters were read by Miss Anthony : 

LETTER FROM EMILE PRETORIUS. 

ST. Louis, Mo., April 29, 1864. 

MADAM : Your favor of 23d inst. has come to hand with your call, which 
was published and endorsed by our paper, as you will see by the enclosed 
slip. Your sentiments are so high and noble that to doubt a favorable re- 
sult and response from the West would be like doubting whether our women 
had courage enough to follow the truest instincts, the best impulses of their 
own pure nature. I, for one, have no such idea, no such fears ; and if I 
should ever believe that the Cornelias and Thuseneldas were only to be 
found by going back thousands of years in history, and would not and 
could not be rivalled by patriotic mothers and heroic wives hi this pres- 
ent crises of ours, I then would renounce at once all hopes of a national 
resurrection. Liberty, it is true, is immortal ; but we would be bound 
to look for her in some other part of our globe, if we fail on American 
soil to enlist in our struggle the full heart of our women. 

But there is no such thing as failure in battling for all that is high and 
good and sacred, and there is no such thing as failure in appealing for so 
good a cause to woman's noble mind and true heart. They will be with 
us, every one of them will, and whether a majority of our people be up 
to our standard this time or not, still, in the eyes of our women we would 
be what our German poet calls, "the conquering defeated." 

Yours for Fremont and Freedom, EMILE PRETORIUS. 

LETTER FROM CHARLES SUMNER. 

SENATE CHAMBER, May 6, 1864. 

MADAM: I can not be with you in New York, according to the invita- 
tion with which you have honored me ; for my post of duty is here. I 
am grateful to your Association for what you have done to arouse the 
country to insist on the extinction of slavery. Now is the time to strike, 
and no effort should be spared. And yet there are many who lap them- 
selves in the luxury of present success, and hold back. This is a mis- 
take. The good work must be finished ; and to my mind nothing seems 
to be done while anything remains to be done. There is one point to 
which attention must be directed. No effort should be spared to casti- 
gate and blast the whole idea of property in man, which is the corner- 
stone of the rebel pretension, and the constant assumption of the parti- 
sans of slavery, or of its lukewarm opponents. Let this idea be tram- 
pled out, and there will be no sympathy with the rebellion ; and there 
will be no such abomination as slave-hunting, which is beyond question 
the most execrable feature of slavery itself. Accept my thanks, and 
believe me, Madam, faithfully yours, 

Miss SUSAN B. ANTHONY. CHARLES SUMNER. 



The Women Understood the Situation. 87 

Speeches were then made by George Thompson, Lucretia Mott, and 
Ernestine L. Rose ; after which, in adjourning the Convention, the Pres- 
ident said : 

This is the only organization of women that will have a legitimate cause 
for existence beyond the present hour. The Sanitary, Soldiers' Aid, Hos- 
pital, and Freeduien's Societies all end with the war v , but the soldier and 
negro in peace have yet to be educated into the duties of citizens in a re- 
public, and our legislators to be stimulated by a higher law than tempo- 
rary policy. This is the only organization formed during the war based 
specifically on universal emancipation and enfranchisement. Knowing 
that in this great national upheaval women would exert an influence for 
good or evil, we felt the importance of concentrating all their power on 
the side of liberty. To this end we have urged them to use with zeal and 
earnestness their only political right under the Constitution: the right 
of petition. During the past year the petitions for freedom have been 
quietly circulating in the most remote school districts of all the free 
States and Territories, in the Army, the Navy, and some have found their 
way to the far South. And now they are coming back by the thousands, 
with the signatures of men and women, black and white, soldiers and 
civilians, from every point of the compass, to be presented in mammoth 
rolls again in the coming Congress. I urge every one present to help 
spread the glad tidings of liberty to all, by signing and circulating these 
petitions, remembering that while man may use the bullet and the ballot 
to enforce his will, this is woman's only weapon of defence to-day in this 
Republic. The Convention is now adjourned. 

The debates throughout these Conventions show how well the lead- 
ers of the Loyal League understood the principles of republican gov- 
ernment, and the fatal policy of some of those in power. They un- 
derstood the situation, and clearly made known their sentiments. 
The character of the discussions and resolutions in their Conventions 
was entirely changed during the war ; broader ideas of constitutional 
law ; the limits of national power and State rights formed the basis of 
the new arguments. They viewed the questions involved in the great 
conflict from the point of view of statesmen, rather than that of an 
ostracised class. He viewing the varied efforts of the representative 
women* referred to in this chapter in the political, military, philan- 
thropic, and sanitary departments of the Government, and the army 
of faithful assistants, behind them, all alike' self-sacrificing and patri- 
otic; with a keen insight into the policy of the Government and the 
legitimate results of the war ; the question naturally suggests itself, 
how was it possible that when peace was restored they received 



* Behind Clara Barton stood Frances D. Gage and others aiding and encouraging her 
in the consummation of her plans ; with Dorothea Dix in the Hospitals, the untiring la- 
bors of Abby Hopper Gib: ons and Jane G. 8wishelm must not be forgotten. Three no- 
ble daughters, with hand and heart devoted to the work, made it possible for Josephina 



88 History of Woman Suffrage. 

no individual rewards nor general recognition for their services, 
which, though acknowledged in private, have been concealed from 
the people and ignored by the Government.* 

Gen. Grant has the credit for the success of plans which were the 
outgrowth of the military genius of a woman ; Gen. Howard re- 
ceived a liberal salary as the head of the Freedman's Bureau, while 
the woman who inspired and organized that department and carried 
its burdens on her shoulders to the day of her death, raised most of 
the funds by personal appeal for that herculean work. 

Dr. Bellows enjoyed the distinction as President of the Sanitary 
Bureau, which originated in the mind of a woman, who, when the 
machinery was perfected and in good working order, was forced to 
resign her position as official head through the bigotry of the medi- 
cal profession. 

Though to Anna Dickinson was due the triumph of the Republi- 
can party in several of the doubtful States at a most critical period 
of the war, yet that party, twenty years in power, has refused to se- 
cure her in the same civil and political rights enjoyed by the most 
ignorant foreigner or slave from the plantations of the South. 

The lessons of the war were not lost on the women of this nation ; 
through varied forms of suffering and humiliation, they learned that 
they had an equal interest with man in the administration of the 
Government, enjoying or suffering alike its blessings or its miseries. 
When in the enfranchisement of the black man they saw another 
ignorant class of voters placed above their heads, and with anointed 
eyes beheld the danger of a distinctively " male " government, for- 
ever involving the nations of the earth in war and violence ; a les- 
son taught on every page of history, alike in every century of hu- 
man experience ; and demanded for the protection of themselves and 
children, that woman's voice should be heard, and her opinions in 
public affairs be expressed by the ballot, they were coolly told that 
the black man had earned the right to vote, that he had fought and 
bled and died for his country ! 

S. Grifflng to accomplish what she did in the Freedman's Bureau. With Anna Dickin- 
Bon stood hosts of women identified with the Anti-Slavery and the liberal republican 
movement ; and behind the leaders of the National Woman's Loyal League stood 300,000 
petitioners for freedom and equality to the black man, and the select body demanding the 
right of suffrage for woman, who thoroughly understood the genius of republican insti- 
tutions. 

The facts that Miss Carroll planned the campaign on the Tennessee ; that Dr. Eliza- 
beth Blackwell originated the Sanitary movement ; and that those Senators most active 
in carrying the measure for a Freedman's Bureau through Congress, intended that Mrs. 
Griffing should be its official head, are known only to the few behind the scenes, facts 
published now on the page of history for the first time. 



Woman Earned her Right to Vote. 89 

Did the negro's rough services in camp and battle outweigh the hu- 
manitarian labors of woman in all departments of government ? Did 
his loyalty in the army count for more than her educational work in 
teaching the people sound principles of government ? Can it be that 
statesmen in the nineteenth century believe that they who sacrifice 
human lives in bloody wars do more for the sum of human happiness 
and development than they who try to save the multitude and teach 
them how to live ? But if on the battle-field woman must prove 
her right to justice and equality, history abundantly sets forth her 
claims; the records of her brave deeds mark every page of fact 
and fiction, of poetry and prose. 

In all the great battles of the past woman as warrior in disguise 
has verified her right to fight and die for her country by the side of 
man. In camp and hospital as surgeon, physician', nurse, minister- 
ing to the sick and dying, she has shown equal skill and capacity 
with him. There is no position woman has not filled, no danger 
she has not encountered, no emergency in all life's tangled trials and 
temptations she has not shared with man, and with him conquered. 
If moral power has any value in the balance with physical force, 
surely the women of this republic, by their self-sacrifice and patriot- 
ism, their courage 'mid danger, their endurance 'mid suffering, have 
rightly earnsd a voice in the laws they are compelled to obey, in 
the Government they are taxed to support ; some personal consider- 
ation as citizens as well as the black man in the " Union blue." 
VOL. H. 7. 



CHAPTEK XVII. 



CONGRESSIONAL ACTION. 

First petitions to Congress December, 1865, against the word " male " in the 14th Amend- 
mentJoint resolutions before Congress Messrs. Jenckes, Schenck, Broomall, and 
Stevens Republicans protest in presenting petitions The women seek aid of 
Democrats James Brooks in the House of Representatives Horace Greeley on the 
petitions Caroline Healy Dall on Messrs. Jenckes and Schenck The District of Co- 
lumbia Suffrage bill Senator Cowan, of Pennsylvania, moved to strike out the word 
"male" A three days' debate in the Senate The final vote nine in favor of Mr. 
Cowan's amendment, and thirty-seven against. 

LIBERTY victorious over slavery on the battle-field had now more 
powerful enemies to encounter at Washington. The slave set free ; 
the master conquered ; the South desolate ; the two races standing 
face to face, sharing alike the sad results of war, turned with ap- 
pealing looks to the General Government, as if to say, " How stand 
we now ? " " What next ? " Questions, our statesmen, beset with 
dangers, fears for the nation's life, of party divisions, of personal 
defeat, were wholly unprepared to answer. The reconstruction of 
the South involved the reconsideration of the fundamental princi- 
ples of our Government, arid the natural rights of man. The na- 
tion's heart was thrilled with prolonged debates in Congress and 
State Legislatures, in the pulpits and public journals, and at every 
fireside on these vital questions, which took final shape in three his- 
toric amendments. 

The first point, his emancipation, settled, the political status of 
the negro was next in order ; and to this end various propositions 
were submitted to Congress. But to demand his enfranchisement 
on the broad principle of natural rights, was hedged about with 
difficulties, as the logical result of such action must be the enfran- 
chisement of all ostracised classes ; not only the white women of 
the entire country, but the slave women of the South. Though our 
Senators and Representatives had an honest aversion to any pro- 
90 



"Male" in the Constitution. 91 

scriptive legislation against loyal women, in view of their varied and 
self-sacrificing work during the war, yet the only way they could 
open the constitutional door just wide enough to let the black man 
pass in, was to introduce the word " male " into the national Consti- 
tution. After the generous devotion of such women as Anna Car- 
roll and Anna Dickinson in sustaining the policy of the Repub- 
licans, both in peace and war, they felt it would come with an ill- 
grace from that party, to place new barriers in woman's path to 
freedom. But how could the amendment be written without the 
word " male " ? was the question. 

Robert Dale Owen, being at Washington and behind the scenes 
at the time, sent copies of the various bills to the officers of the 
Loyal League in New Tork, and related to them some of the amus- 
ing discussions. One of the Committee proposed "persons" in- 
stead of " males." " That will never do," said another, " it would 
enfranchise all the Southern wenches." " Suffrage for black men 
will be all the strain the Republican party can stand," said another. 
Charles Sumner said, years afterward, that he wrote over nineteen 
pages of foolscap to get rid of the word " male" and yet keep "ne- 
gro suffrage" as a party measure intact ; but it could not be done. 

Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton, ever on the watch-tower for 
legislation affecting women, were the first to see the full significance 
of the word "male" in the 14th Amendment, and at once sounded 
the alarm, and sent out petitions* for a constitutional amendment 



* FORM OF PETITION. To the Senate and House of Representatives : The undersigned 
women of the United States, respectfully ask an amendment of the Constitution that shall 
prohibit the several States from disfranchising any of their citizens on the ground of sex. 

In unking our demand for Suffrage, we would call your attention to the fact that we 
represent fifteen million people one-half the entire population of the country intelli- 
gent, virtuous, native-born American citizens ; and yet stand outside the pale of political 
recognition. The Constitution classes us as " free people," and counts us whole persons 
lu the basis of representation ; and yet are we governed without our consent, compelled 
to pay taxes without appeal, and punished for violations of law without choice of judge 
or juror. The experience of all ages, the Declarations of the Fathers, the Statute Laws 
of our own day, and the fearful revolution through which we have just passed, all prove 
tlie uncertain tenure of life, liberty, and property so long as the ballot the only weapon 
of self-protection is not in the hand of every citizen. 

Therefore, as you are now amending the Constitution, and, in harmony with advancing 
civilization, placing new safeguards round the individual rights of four millions of eman- 
cipated slaves, we ask that you extend the right of Suffrage to Woman the only remain- 
ing class of disfranchised citizens and thus fulfill your constitutional obligation " to 
guarantee to every State in the Union a Republican form of Government." As all par- 
tial application of Republican principles must ever breed a complicated legislation as 
well as a discontented people, we would pray your Honorable Body, in onlcr to simplify 
the machinery of Government and ensure domestic tranquillity, that you legislate IUTC- 
after for persons, citizens, tax-payers, and not for class or caste. For justice and equality 
your petitioners will ever pmy. 



92 History of Woman Suffrage. 

to " prohibit the States from disfranchising any of their citizens on 
the ground of sex."* 

Miss Anthony, who had spent the year in Kansas, started for 
New York the moment she saw the propositions before Congress 
to put the word "male" into the National Constitution, and made 
haste to rouse the women in the East to the fact that the time had 
come to begin vigorous work again for woman's enfranchisement.f 
Mr. Tilton (December 27, 1865) proposed the formation of a National 
Equal Rights Society, demanding suffrage for black men and women 
alike, of which "Wendell Phillips should be President, and the Na- 
tional Anti-Slavery Standard its organ. Mr. Beecher promised to 
give a lecture (January 30th) for the benefit of this universal suffrage 



* JOINT RESOLUTIONS BEFORE CONGRESS AFFECTING WOMEN. 

To the Editor of the Standard Sir: Mr. Broomall, of Pennsylvania ; Mr. Schenck, of 
Ohio ; Mr. Jenckes, of Rhode Island ; Mr. Stevens, of Pennsylvania, have each a reso- 
lution before Coagress to amend the Constitution . 

Article 1st, Section 3d, reads thus : " Representatives and direct taxes shall be appor- 
tioned among the several States which may be included within this UniQn according to 
their respective number." 

Mr. Broomall proposes to amend by saying " male electors," Mr. Schenck " male citi- 
zens," Mr. Jeuckes "male citizens," Mr. Stevens " legal voters." There is no' objec- 
tion to the amendment proposed by Mr. Stevens, as in process of time women may be 
made " legal voters " in the several States, and would then meet that requirement of the 
Constitution. But those urged by the other gentlemen, neither time, effort, nor State 
Constitutions could enable us to meet, unless, by a liberal interpretation of the amend- 
ment, a coat of mail to be worn at the polls might be judged all-sufficient. Mr. Jenckes 
and Mr. Schenck, in their bills, have the grace not to say a word about taxes, remember- 
ing perhaps that "taxation without representation is tyranny." But Mr. Broomall, 
though unwilling to share with us the honors of Government, would fain secure us a 
place in its burdens ; for while he apportions representatives to " male electors " only, 
he admits "all the inhabitants" into the rights, privileges, and immunities of taxation. 
Magnanimous M. C. ! 

I would call the attention of the women of the nation to the fact that under the Fed- 
eral Constitution, as it now exists, there is not one word that limits the right of suffrage 
to any privileged class. This attempt to turn the wheels of civilization backward, on 
the part of Republicans claiming to be the Liberal party, should rouse every woman in 
the nation to a prompt exercise of the only right she has in the Government, the right 
of petition. To this end a committee in New York have sent out thousands of petitions, 
which should be circulated in every district and sent to its Representative at Washing- 
ton as soon as possible. ELIZABETH CADT STANTON. 

NEW YORK, January 2, 1866. 

t Leaving Rochester October llth, she called on Martha Wright, Auburn ; Phebe 
Jones and Lydia Mott, Albany ; Mrs. Rose, t Gibbons, Davis, Stanton, New York ; Lucy 
Stone and Antoinette Brown Black well, New Jersey ; Stephen and Abby Foster, Worces- 
ter ; Mrs. Severance, Dall, Nowell, Dr. Harriot K. Hunt, Dr. Zakzyewska, Mr. Phillips and 
Garrison, in Boston, urging them to join in sending protests to Washington against the 
pending legislation. Mr. Phillips at once consented to vote $500 from the "Jackson 
Fund " to commence the work. Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton spent all their " Christ- 
mas holidays " in writing letters and addressing appeals and petitions to every part of the 
country, and before the close of the session of 1865-66 ten thousand signatures were 
poured into Congress. 



Retrogressive Legislation. 93 

movement. The New York Independent (Theodore Tilton, editor) 
gave the following timely and just rebuke of the proposed retrogres- 
sive legislation : 

A LAW AGAINST WOMEN. 

The spider-crab walks backward. Borrowing this creature's mossy legs, 
two or three gentlemen in Washington are seeking to fix these upon the 
Federal Constitution, to make that instrument walk backward in like 
style. For instance, the Constitution has never laid any legal disabili- 
ties upon woman. Whatever denials of rights it formerly made to our 
slaves, it denied nothing to our wives and daughters. The legal rights 
of an American woman for instance, her right to her own property, as 
against a squandering husband; or her right to her own children, as 
against a malicious father have grown, year by year, into a more" gen- 
erous and just statement in American laws. This beautiful result is 
owing in great measure to the persistent efforts of many noble women 
who, for years past, both publicly and privately, both by pen and speech, 
have appealed to legislative committees, and to the whole community, 
for an enlargement of the legal and civil status of their fellow-country 
women. Signal, honorable, and beneficent have been the works and 
words of Lucretia Mott, Lydia Maria Child, Paulina W. Davis, Abby Kelly 
Foster, Frances D. Gage, Lucy Stone, Caroline H. Dall, Antoinette Brown 
Blackwell, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and many others. 
Not in all the land lives a poor woman, or a widow, who does not owe 
some portion of her present safety under the law to the brave exertions 
of these faithful laborers in a good cause. 

Now, all forward-looking minds know that, sooner or later, the chief 
public question in this country will be woman's claim to the ballot. The 
Federal Constitution, as it now stands, leaves this question an open one 
for the several States to settle as they choose. Two bills, however, now 
lie before Congress proposing to array the fundamental law of the land 
against the multitude of American women by ordaining a denial of the 
political rights of a whole sex. To this injustice we object totally ! 
Such an amendment is a snap judgment before discussion; it is an 
obstacle to future progress; it is a gratuitous bruise inflicted upon the 
most tender and humane sentiment that has ever entered into American 
politics. If the present Congress is not called to legislate for the rights 
of women, let it not legislate against them. 

But Americans now live who shall not go down into the grave till they 
have left behind them a Republican Government; and no republic is 
Republican which denies to half its citizens those rights which the 
Declaration of Independence, and which a true Christian Democracy 
make equal to all. Meanwhile, let us break the legs of the spider-crab ! 

"While the 13th Amendment was pending, Senator Sumner wrote 
many letters to the officers of the Loyal League, saying, " Send on 
the petitions ; they give me opportunity for speech." " You are 
doing a noble work." " I am grateful to your Association for what 
you have done to areuse the country to insist on the extinction of 



94 History of Woman Suffrage. 

slavery." And our petitions were sent again and again, 300,000 
strong, and months after the measure was carried, they still rolled 
in from every quarter where the tracts and appeals had been scat- 
tered. But when the proposition for the 14th Amendment was 
pending, and the same women petitioned for their own civil and 
political rights, they received no letters of encouragement from 
Republicans nor Abolitionists ; and now came some of the severest 
trials the women demanding the right of suffrage were ever called 
on to endure. Though loyal to the Government and the rights of 
the colored race, they found themselves in antagonism with all 
with whom they had heretofore sympathized. Though Unionists, 
Republicans, and Abolitionists, they could not without protest see 
themselves robbed of their birth-right as citizens of the republic by 
the proposed amendment. Republicans presented their petitions 
in a way to destroy their significance, as petitions for " universal 
suffrage," which to the public meant " manhood suffrage.'' Aboli- 
tionists refused to sign them, saying, " This is the negro's hour."* 



* "THIS is THE NEGRO'S HOUR." 

To the Editor of the Standard Sir : By an amendment of the Constitution, ratified by 
three-fourths of the loyal States, the black man is "declared free. The largest and most 
influential political party is demanding suffrage for him throughout the Union, which 
right in many of the States is already conceded. Although this may remain a question for 
politicians to wrangle over for five or ten years, the black man is still, in a political point 
of view, far above the educated women of the country. The representative women of 
the nation have done their uttermost for the last thirty years to secure freedom for the 
negro, and so long as he was lowest in the scale of being we were willing to press his 
claims ; but now, as the celestial gate to civil rights is slowly moving on its hinges, it 
becomes a sertous question whether we had better stand aside and see "Sambo" walk 
into the "kingdom first. As self-preservation is the first law of nature, would it not be 
wiser to keep our lamps trimmed and burning, and when the constitutional door is open, 
avail ourselves of the strong arm and blue uniform of the black soldier to walk in by his 
side, and thus make the gap so wide that no privileged class could ever again close it 
against the humblest citizen of the republic ? 

" This is the negro's hour." Are we sure that he, once entrenched in all his inalien- 
able rights, may not be an added power to hold us at bay ? Have not "black male citi- 
zens " been heard to say they doubted the wisdom of extending the right of suffrage to 
women ? Why should the African prove more just and generous than his Saxon com- 
peers ? If the two millions of Southern black women are not to be secured in their 
rights of person, property, wages, and children, their emancipation is but another form 
of slavery. In fact, it is better to be the slave of an educated white man, than of a 
degraded, ignorant black one. We who know what absolute power the statute laws of 
most of the States give man, in all his civil, political, and social relations, demand that 
in changing the status of the four millions of Africans, the women as well as the men 
shall be secured in all the rights, privileges, and immunities of citizens. 

It is all very well for the privileged order to look down complacently and tell us, 
"This is the negro's hour ; do not clog his way ; do not embarrass the Republican party 
with any new issue ; be generous and magnanimous ; the negro once safe, the woman 
comes next." Now, if our prayer involved a new set of measures, or a new train of 
thought, it would be cruel to tax " white male citizens" with even two simple questions 
at a time ; but the disfranchised all make the same demand, and the same logic and jus- 



Democrats help Figlit the Battle. 95 

Colored men themselves opposed us, saying, do not block our chance 
by lumbering the Republican party with Woman Suffrage. 

The Democrats readily saw how completely the Republicans were 
stultifying themselves and violating every principle urged in the 
debates on the 13th Amendment, and volunteered to help the wom- 
en fight their battle. The Republicans had declared again and again 
that suffrage was a natural right that belonged to every citizen that 
paid taxes and helped to support the State. They had declared 
that the ballot was the only weapon by which one class could pro- 
tect itself against the aggressions of another. Charles Sumner had 
rounded out one of his eloquent periods, by saying, " The ballot is 
the Columbiad of our political life, and every citizen who holds it 
is a full-armed monitor." 

The Democrats had listened to all the glowing debates on these 
great principles of freedom until the argument was as familiar as 
a, b, c, and continually pressed the Republicans with their own 
weapons. Then those loyal women were taunted with having gone 
over to the Democrats and the Disunionists. But neither taunts 
nor persuasions moved them from their purpose to prevent, if pos- 
sible, the introduction of the word " male " into the Federal Consti-" 
tution, where it never had been before. They could not see the 
progress in purging the Constitution of all invidious distinctions 
on the ground of color while creating such distinctions for the 
first time in regard to sex. 

In the face of all opposition they scattered their petitions broad- 
cast, and in one session of Congress they rolled in upwards of ten 
thousand. The Democrats treated the petitioners with respect, and 
called attention in every way to the question.* But even such Re- 

tice that secures suffrage to one class gives it to all. The struggle of the last thirty 
years has not been merely on the black man as such, but on the broader ground of his 
humanity. Our Fathers, at the end of the first revolution, in their desire for a speedy 
readjustment of all their difficulties, and in order to present to Great Britain, their com- 
mon enemy, an united front, accepted the compromise urged on them by South Caro- 
lina, and a century of wrong, ending in another revolution, has been the result of their 
action. This is our opportunity to retrieve the errors of the past and mould anew the 
elements of Democracy. The nation is ready for a long step in the right direction ; 
party lines are obliterated, and all men are thinking for themselves. If our rulers have 
the justice to give the black man suffrage, woman should avail herself of that new-born 
virtue to secure her rights ; if not, she should begin with renewed earnestness to educate 
the people into the idea of universal suffrage. ELIZABETH CAUT STANTON. 

NEW YORK, December 26, 1865. 

* From the New York Evening Express, 

SCENES IN THE HOUSE OF REPBESKNTATIVBB. Negroes are to Vote Why not Coolies in 
California Indians everywhere, and First of all, Fifteen Millions of our Country women. 
The following occurred in the House, Tuesday, upon Thaddeue Stevens' resolution, 



96 History of Woman Suffrage. 

publicans as Charles Sumner presented them, if at all, under pro- 
test. A petition from Massachusetts, with the name of Lydia Maria 
Child at the head, was presented by the great Senator under protest 

from the Reconstruction Committee, to deprive the South of representation, unless the 
South lets the negroes vote there . 

Mr. CHANDLER, of New York, having the floor for an hour, said : Before proceeding with 
my remarks, I will yield the floor for ten minutes to my colleague [Mr. Brooks]. 

Mr. BROOKS : Mr. Speaker, I do not rise, of course, to debate this resolution, in the 
few minutes allowed me by my colleague, nor, in my judgment, does the resolution 
need any discussion unless it may be for the mere purpose of agitation. I do not sup- 
pose that there is an honorable gentleman upon the floor of this House who believes for 
a moment that any movement of this character is likely to become the fundamental law 
of the land, and these propositions are, therefore, introduced only for the purpose of 
agitation. If the honorable gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Stevens] had been quite 
confident of adopting this amendment, he would at the start have named what are States 
of this Union. The opinion of the honorable gentleman himself, that there are no States 
in this Union but those that are now represented upon this floor, I know full wel! 4 but 
he knows as well that the President of the United States recognizes thirty- six States of 
this Union, and that it is necessary to obtain the consent of three-fourths of those thirty- 
six States, which number it is not possible to obtain. He knows very well that if his 
amendment should be adopted by the Legislatures of States enough, in his judgment, to 
carry it, before it could pass the tribunal of the Executive Chamber it would be obliged 
to receive the assent of twenty-seven States in order to become an amendment to the 
Constitution. The whole resolution, therefore, is for the purpose of mere agitation. It 
is an appeal from this House to the outside constituencies that we know by the name of 
buncombe. Here it was born, and here, after its agitation in the States, it will die. 
Hence, I asked the gentleman from Pennsylvania this morning to be consistent in his 
proposition. In one thing he is consistent, and that is in admitting the whole of the 
Asiatic immigration, which, by the connection of our steamers with China and Japan 
and the East Indies, is about to pour forth in mighty masses upon the Pacific coast to 
the overwhelming even of the white population there. 

Mr. STEVENS : I wish to correct the gentleman. I said it excluded Chinese. 

Mr. BROOKS : How exclude them, when Chiuese are to be included in the basis of 
representation ? 

Mr. STEVENS : I say it excludes them. 

Mr. BROOKS : How exclude them ? 

Mr. STEVENS : They are not included in the basis of representation. 

Mr. BROOKS : Yes, if the States exclude them from the elective franchise ; and the 
States of California and Oregon and Nevada are to be deprived of representation accord- 
ing to their population upon the floor of this House by this amendment. I asked him, 
also, if the Indian was not a man and a brother, and I obtained no satisfactory answer 
from the honorable gentleman. I speak now, in order to make his resolntion consistent; 
for no one hundred thousand coolies or wild savages, but I raise my voice here in behalf 
of fifteen million of our countrywomen, the fairest, brightest portion of creation, and I 
ask why they are not permitted to vote for Representatives under this resolution ? Why, 
in organizing a system of liberality and justice, not recognize in the case of free women 
as well as free negroes the right of representation ? 

Mr. STEVENS : The gentleman will allow me to say that this bill does not exclude 
women. It does not say who shall vote. 

Mr. BROOKS : I comprehend all that ; but the whole object of this amendment is to 
obtain votes for the negroes. That is its purport, tendency, and meaning ; and it pun- 
ishes those who will not give a vote to the negroes in the Southern States of our Union. 
That is the object of the resolution, and the ground upon which it is presented to this 
House and to the country. This is a new era ; this is an age of progress. Indians are not 
only Indians, but men and brothers ; and why not, in a resolution like this, include the fair 
eex too, and give them the right to representation ? Will it be said that this sex does 



Hon. James Brooks Presents Petitions. 97 

as " most inopportune ! " As if there could be a more fitting time 
for action than when the bills were pending. 

During the morning hour of February 21st, Senator Henderson, 
of Missouri, presented a petition from New York. 

not claim a right to representation ? Many members here have petitions from these 
fifteen millions of women, or a large portion of them, for representation, and for the 
right to vote on equal terms with the stronger sex, who they say are now depriving 
them of it. To show that such is their wish and desire, I will send to the Clerk's desk 
to be read certain documents, to which I ask the attention of the honorable gentleman 
irom Pennsylvania [Mr. Stevens], for in one of them he will find he is somewhat interested. 

The Clerk read as follows : 

STANDARD OFFICE, 48 Beekman Street, New York, Jan. 20, 1866. 

Dear Sir : I send you the inclosed copy of petition and signatures sent to Thaddeus 
Stevens last week. I then urged Mr. Stevens, if their committee of fifteen could not 
report favorably on our petitions, they would, at least, not interpose any new barrier 
against woman's right to the ballot. 

Mrs. Stanton has sent you a petition I trust you will present that at your earliest con- 
venience. The Democrats are now in minority. May they drive the Republicans to do 
good works not merely to hold the rebel States in check until negro men shall be 
guaranteed their right to a voice in their governments, but to hold the party to a logical 
consistency that shall give every responsible citizen in every State equal right to the 
ballot. Will you, sir, please send me whatever is said or done with our petitions ? Will 
you also give me the names of members whom you think would present petitions for us ? 

Hon. JAMES BROOKS. Respectfully yours, SUSAN B. ANTHONIT. 

A PETITION FOR UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE. 

To the Senate and House of Representatives : [The petition here presented has been 
already in The Express. The following are the signatures to the petition sent to Mr. 
Stevens] : Elizabeth Cady Stanton, New York ; Susan B. Anthony, Rochester, N. Y. ; 
Antoinette Brown Blackwell, New York ; Lucy Stone, Newark, N. J. ; Ernestine L. Rose, 
New York ; Joanna S. Morse, 48 Livingston St., Brooklyn ; Elizabeth R. Tilton, 48 Liv- 
ingston St., Brooklyn ; Ellen Hoxie Squier, 34 St. Felix St., Brooklyn ; Mary Fowler 
Gilbert, 294 West 19th St., New York ; Mary E. Gilbert, 294 West 19th St., New York ; 
Mattie Griffith, New York. 

The SPEAKER : The ten minutes of the gentleman from New York [Mr. Brooks] have 
expired. 

Mr. BROOKS : I will only say that at the proper time I will move to amend or if I do 
not I would suggest to some gentleman on the other side to move it this proposed 
amendment by inserting the words " or sex " after the word " color," so that it will read : 

Providefl, That whenever the elective franchise shall be denied or abridged in any State 
on account of race or color or sex, all persons of such race or color or sex shall be ex- 
cluded from the basis of representa'tion. 

Mr. STEVENS : Is the gentleman from N. Y. [Mr. Brooks] in favor of that amendment ? 

Mr. BROOKS : I am if negroes are permitted to vote. 

Mr. STEVENS : That does not answer my question. Is the gentleman in favor of the 
amendment he has indicated ? 

Mr. BROOKS : I suggested that I would move it at a convenient time. 

Mr. STEVENS : Is the gentleman in favor of his own amendment ? 

Mr. BKOOKS : I am in favor of my own color in preference to any other color, and 1 
prefer the white women of my country to the negro. [Applause on the floor and in the 
galleries promptly checked by the Speaker]. The Speaker said he saw a number of per- 
sons clapping in the galleries. He would endeavor, to the best of his ability, whether 
supported by the House or not, to preserve order. Applause was just as much out of 
order as manifestations of disapproval, and hisses not more than clapping of hands. In- 
stead of general applause on the floor, gentlemen on the floor should set a good example. 



98 



History of Woman Suffrage. 



SUFFRAGE FOB WOMEN". 

Mr. HENDERSON : I present the petition of Mrs. Gerrit Smith and twenty- 
seven other ladies of the United States, the most of them from the State 
of New York, praying that the right of suffrage be granted to women. 
Along with the petition I received a note, stating as follows: 

[ notice in the debates of to-day that Mr. Yates promises, at the " proper time" to tell 
you why the women of Illinois are not permitted to vote. To give you an opportunity 
to press him on this point I send you a petition, signed by twenty -eight intelligent women 
of this State, who are native-born Americans read, write, and pay taxes, and now claim 
representation ! I was surprised to-day to find Mr. Sumner presenting a petition, with 
an apology, from the women of the republic. After his definition of a true republic, 
and his lofty peans to " equal rights " and the ballot, one would hardly expect him to 
ignore the claims of fifteen million educated tax-payers, now taking their places by the 
side of man in art, science, literature, and government. I trust, sir, you will present 
this petition in a manner more creditable to yourself and respectful to those who desire 
to speak through you. Remember, the right of petition is our only right in the Govern- 
ment ; and when three joint resolutions are before the House to introduce the word 
"male" into the Federal Constitution, "it is the proper time" for the women of the 
nation to be heard, Mr. Sumuer to the contrary notwithstanding. 

The right of petition is a sacred right, and whatever may be thought 
of giving the ballot to women, the right to ask it of the Government 
can not be denied them. I present this petition without any apology. 
Indeed, I present it with pleasure. It is respectful in its terms, and is 
signed by ladies occupying so high a place in the moral, social, and intel- 
lectual world, that it challenges at our hands, at least a respectful con- 
sideration. The distinguished Senators from Massachusetts and from 
Illinois must make their own defense against the assumed inconsistency 
of their position. They are abundantly able to give reasons for their 
faith in all things; whether they can give reasons satisfactory to the 
ladies in this case, I do not know. The Senators may possibly argue that 
if women vote at all, the right should not be exercised before the age of 
twenty-one ; that they are generally married at or before that age, and 
that when married, they become, or ought to become, merged in their 
husbands; that the act of one must be regarded as the act of the other; 
that the good of society demands this unity for purposes of social 
order; that political differences should not be permitted to disturb the 
peace of a relation so sacred. The honorable Senators will be able to 
find authority for this position, not only in the common law, approved 
as it is by the wisdom and experience of ages, but in the declaration of 
the first man, on the occasion of the first marriage, when he said, "This 
is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh." It may be answered, 
however, that the wife, though one with her husband, at least constitutes 
his better half, and if the married man be entitled to but one vote, the 
unmarried man should be satisfied with less than half a vote. [Laugh- 
ter]. Having some doubts, myself, whether beyond a certain age, to 
which I have not yet arrived, such a man should be entitled to a vote 
or even half a vote, I leave the difficulty to be settled by my friend from 
Massachusetts and the fair petitioners. The petitioners claim, that as 
we are proposing to enfranchise four million emancipated slaves, equal 
and impartial justice alike demands the suffrage for fifteen million worn- 



Missouri^ Democratic Senator. 99 

en. At first view the proposition can scarcely be met with denial, yet 
reasons "thick as blackberries" and strong as truth itself may be urged 
in favor of the ballot in the one case, which can not be urged in the other. 

Mr. SAULSBUBY : I rise to a point of order. My point of order is, that 
a man who has lived an old bachelor as long as the Senator from Mis- 
souri has, has no right to talk about women's rights. [Laughter]. 

The PRESIDENT pro tern. : The chair moves that is not a point of order; 
and the Senator from Missouri will proceed. 

Mr. HENDEKSON: I had no idea that that was a point of order, sir. 
Whatever may be said theoretically about the elective franchise as a 
natural right, in practice at least, it has always been denied in the most 
liberal States to more than half the population. It is withheld from 
those whose crimes prove them devoid of respect for social order, and 
generally from those whose ignorance or imbecility unfits them for an 
intelligent appreciation of the duties of citizens and the blessings of 
good government. To women the suffrage has been denied in almost all 
Governments, not for the reasons just stated, but because it is wholly 
unnecessary as a means of their protection. In the government of nat- 
ure the weaker animals and insects, dependent on themselves for safety 
and life, are provided with means of defense. The bee has its sting and 
the despised serpent its deadly poison. So, in the Governments of men, 
the weak must be provided with power to inspire fear at least in the 
strong, if not to command their respect. Political power was claimed 
originally by the people as a means of protecting themselves against the 
usurpations of those in power, whose interests or caprices might lead to 
their oppression. Hence came the republican system. But it was never 
thought the interests or caprices of men could lead to a denial of the 
civil rights or social supremacy of woman. People of one race have 
always been unjust to those of another. The ignorant and sordid Jew 
despised the Samaritan and scoffed at the idea of his equality. To him 
the learned and accomplished Greek was a barbarian, and all rights 
were denied him except those simple rights accorded to the most de- 
graded Gentile. Chinamen, to-day, believe as firmly in the superiority 
of the celestial race as Americans do in the superiority of the Anglo- 
Saxon. All races of men are unjust to other races. They are unjust 
because of pride. That very pride makes them just to the women of 
their own race. There maybe men who have prejudice against race; 
they are less than men who have prejudice against sex. The social 
position of woman in the United States is such that no civil right can 
be denied her. The women here have entire charge of the social and 
inoral world. Hence she must be educated. First impressions are those 
which bend the mind to noble or ignoble action, and these impressions 
are made by mothers. To have intelligent voters we must have intel- 
ligent mothers. To have free men we must have free women. The 
voter from this source receives his moral and intellectual training. 
Woman makes the voter, and should not descend from her lofty sphere 
to engage in the angry contests of her creatures. She makes statesmen, 
and her gentle influence, like the finger of the angel pointing to the path 
of duty, would be lost in the controversies of political strife. She makes 



100 History of Woman Suffrage. 

the soldier, infuses courage and patriotism in his youthful heart, and 
hovers like an invisible spirit over the field of battle, urging him on to 
victory or death in defense of the right. Hence woman takes no musket 
to the battle-field. Here, as in politics, her personal presence would de- 
tract from her power. Galileo, Newton, and La Place could- not fitly 
discuss the laws of planetary motion with ignorant rustics at a country 
inn. The learned divine who descends from the theological seminary to 
wrangle upon doctrinal points with the illiterate, stubborn teacher of a 
small country flock must lose half his influence for good. Our Govern- 
ment is built as our Capitol is built. The strong and brawny arms of 
men, like granite blocks, support its arches; but woman, lovely woman, 
the true goddess of Liberty, crowns its dome. 

Mr. TATES: I wish to ask the Senator from Missouri a question. I un- 
derstand that he has introduced a resolution to amend the Constitution 
of the United States so that there shall be no distinction on account of 
color. Will the gentleman accept an amendment to that resolution that 
there shall be no distinction in regard to sex ? 

Mr. HENDERSON : I have given my views, I think, very distinctly, as 
the Senator would have found if he had listened, in the latter part of 
what I have just stated in reference to the question of voting. In reply 
to what he has said, I will say that I do not think that on the mere pre- 
sentation of a petition it is in order to discuss the merits of the petition. 
I hope, therefore, that the Senator will not insist upon entering into a 
question of that sort now. 

Mr. YATES : I shall not do so. I only wish to say that I am not propos- 
ing to amend the Constitution. I simply desire to give rights to those 
who have rights under the Constitution as it has been amended. When 
I propose to amend the Constitution then the question will come up 
whether I will allow women to vote or not. 

Mr. SUMKEK: Before this petition passes out of sight I wish to make 
one observation, and only one. The Senator from Missouri began by an 
allusion to myself and to a remark which fell from me when I presented 
the other day a petition from women of the United States praying for 
the ballot. I took occasion then to remark that in my opinion the peti- 
tion at that time was not judicious. That was all that I said. I did not 
undertake to express my opinion on the great question whether women 
should vote or should not vote. I did venture to say that in my opinion 
it was not judicious for them at this moment to bring forward their 
" claims so as to compromise in any way the great question of equal rights 
for an enfranchised race now before Congress. The Senator has quoted 
a letter suggesting that I did not present the petition in a creditable 
way. I have now to felicitate my excellent Mend on the creditable way 
in which he has performed his duty. [Laughter]. 

Mr. YATES : Allow me to say that I think the two gentlemen, one of 
whom has arrived at the age of forty-nine and the other sixty-three, 
have no right to discuss the question of women's rights in the Senate. 
[Laughter]. 

The PRESIDENT pro tern. : Will the Senator from Missouri suggest the 
disposition he wishes made of this petition ? 



Greeley's Panacea for Disfrancliisement. 101 

Mr. HENDERSON : Let it lie on the table. 

The PRESIDENT pro tern. : That order will be made. 

The wriggling, the twisting, the squirming of the Republicans 
at this crisis under the double fire of the Democrats and the women, 
would have been laughable, had not their proposed action been so 
outrageously unjust and ungrateful. The tone of the Republican 
press* was stale, flat, and unprofitable. But while their journals 
were thus unsparing in their ridicule and criticism of the loyal 
women who had proved themselves so patriotic and self-sacrificing, 
they would grant them no space in their columns to reply, f 

* WOMEN POLITICIANS. Mr. Lane, of Kansas, it is reported, has presented to the Sen- 
ate the petition of " one hundred and twenty-four beautiful, intelligent, and accomplished 
ladies of Lawrence," praying for a constitutional amendment that shall prohibit States 
from disfranchising citizens on account of sex. That trick will not do. We wager a big 
apple that the ladies referred to are not " beautiful " or accomplished. Nine of every 
ten of them are undoubtedly passe. They have hook-billed noses, crow's-feet under 
their sunken eyes, and a mellow tinting of the hair. They are connoisseurs in the matter 
of snuff. They discard hoops, waterfalls, and bandeaux. They hold hen conventions, 
to discuss and decide, with vociferous expression, the orthodoxy of the minister, the 
regularity of the doctor, and the morals of the lawyer. They read the Tribune with spec- 
tacles, and have flies of Tiie Liberator and Wendell Phillips' orations, bound in sheepskin. 
Heaven forbid that we should think of any of the number as a married woman, without 
a fervent aspiration of pity for the weaker vessel who officiates as her spouse. As to 
rearing children, that is not to be chought of in the connection. Show us a woman who 
wants to mingle in the exciting and unpurifled squabble of politics, and we will show 
you one who has failed to reach and enjoy that true relation of sovereignty which is held 
by her " meek and lowly " sisters ; who, though destitute of such panting aspirations, 
hold the scepter of true authority in those high and holy virtues which fascinate while 
they command in their undisputed empire the social circle. What iconoclast shall 
biv:ik our idol, by putting the ballot in woman's hand ? Albany Evening Journal. 

A CRY FROM THE FEMALES. Mr. Sumner yesterday presented a petition to the Sen- 
ate from a large number of the women of New England, praying that they may not be 
debarred from the right of suffrage on account of sex. Our heart warms with pity 
toward these unfortunate creatures. We fancy that we can see them, deserted of men, 
and bereft of those rich enjoyments and exalted privileges which belong to women, 
languishing their unhappy lives away in a mournful singleness, from which they can 
escape by no art in the construction of waterfalls or the employment of cotton-padding. 
Talk of a true woman needing the ballot as an accessory of power, when she rules the 
world by a glance of her ey<\ There was sound philosophy in the remark of an Eastern 
monarch, that his wife was sovereign of the Empire, because she ruled his little ones, 
and his little ones ruled him. The sure panacea for such ills as the Massachusetts peti- 
tioners complain of, is a wicker-work cradle and a dimple-cheeked baby. The New York 
Tribune. 

t WOMAN SUFFRAGE. Editor Commonwealth : Enclosed is a letter I sent to the editor 
of The Nation. As I consider his allusion to it insufficient, will you have the kindness to 
print it, no paper but yours, that I know of, being now open to the subject. All that the 
editor of The Nation has a right to say is, that he has not investigated the statistics. Most 
of the women who have signed the petitions are women who have not a male relative in, 
the world interested in the matter. Very truly yours, 

BOSTON, Jan. 20, 1866. CAROLINE H. DALL. 

70 WARREN AVENUE, HOSTON, Jan. 6, 1866. 

To the Editor of The Nation: I saw with surprise in The Nation, received to-day, a 
paragraph on " Universal Suffrage," which contained the following lines : 



102 History of Woman Suffrage. 

The second session of the Thirty-ninth Congress is memorable for 
an able debate in the Senate on the enfranchisement of woman, on 



" We think the women of the United States ought to have the franchiBe if they desire 
it, and we think they ought to desire it. But until they do desire it, and show that they 
do, by a general expression of opinion, we are opposed to their being saddled with it on 
grounds of theoretical fitness, etc." 

Surely,. it is difficult to explain such a sentence in a professedly far-seeing and deep- 
thinking Journal ! That argument will serve as well for the lately enfranchised blacks as 
for women, for no one will pretend that of the millions set free, a bare majority would of 
themselves contend for the franchise. That argument might have refused them freedom 
itself, for a large majority of Southern slaves knew too little of it to desire it, however 
they may have longed to be rid of a taskmaster and the pangs which slavery brought. 
During the last four years women have been silent about their "rights " in the several 
States, because pressed by severe duties. Desirous to establish a reputation for discretion, 
we have refrained from complicating the perplexities of any Senator; but now that a con- 
stitutional amendment is pending we must be careful, even if we gain no franchise, to 
lose no opportunity. 

Hitherto the Constitution of the United States has contained no word that would shut 
women out from future suffrage. Mr. Schenck, of Ohio, and Mr. Jenckes, of Rhode 
Island, propose to limit a right to " male citizens " which should rest, as it now does, 
simply on "legal voters." This would oblige women to move to amend the Constitu- 
tion of the United States after each separate State was carried. We have no inclination 
for this unnecessary work, and here, in Boston, we are preparing a petition basing the 
necessity of our present interference on this fact alone. How much women desire the 
suffrage, Mr. Editor, you ought to perceive from the conduct of the women of Australia. 
Carelessly enough, her male legislators omitted the significant adjective from their con- 
stitutional amendment, and, without a word of warning, on election day, every woman, 
properly qualified, was found at the polls. There was no just reason for refusing them 
the privilege, and The London Times says the precedent is to stand. 

A very absurd article in The Evening Post has lately given us an idea that New York 
contains some remarkable women. Women born to be looked at ! women who do their 
whole duty if they blossom like the roses, and like the roses die. Let us hope they fulfill 
the functions of this type by as short a sojourn on this earth as may be, lingering, as 
Malherbe would have it, only for "the space of a morning." It may be among them 
that you find the women who " look persistently to married life as a means of livelihood." 
Here, in Massachusetts, we do not acknowledge any such. Fashion has her danglers 
among men and women, but we pity those whose lot has thrown them into intimate rela- 
tions with such women as you describe. They are not of our sort. We think that if the 
writer in The Evening Post were tested, he would be forced to admire most the hands 
which could do the best work. It would be small comfort to him, when Bridget and John 
had simultaneously departed, when the baby was crying and the fire out, that his wife sat 
lonely, in one corner of the apartment, with serene eyes and unstained hands. Men who 
talk such nonsense in America, must remember that neither wealth nor gentle blood can 
here protect them from such a dilemma. As to suffrage, we are not now talking of 
granting it to a distinct race ; if we were, they might manifest a " general " desire for it. 
Women, who love their husbands and brothers, can not all submit to bear the reproach 
which clings to their demand for justice. A few of us must suffer sharply for the sake 
of that great future which God shows us to be possible, when goodness shall join hands 
with power. But we do not like our pain. We would gladly be sheltered, and com- 
forted, and cheered, and we waru you, by what passes in our own hearts, that women 
will never express a " general " desire for suffrage until men have ceased to ridicule and 
despise them for it ; until the representatives of men have been taught to treat their 
petitions with respect. There would be no difficulty in obtaining this right of suffrage 
if it depended on a property qualification. It is consistent democracy which bars our way. 

CABOLINE HEALEY DAIX,. 



Senator Cowan's Amendment. 103 

the bill* " to regulate the franchise in the District of Columbia," 
which proposed extending the suffrage to the " males " of the col- 
ored race. On Monday, December 10, 1866, Senator Cowan, of 
Pennsylvania, moved to amend the amendment by striking out the 
word " male " before the word person. This debate in the Senate 
lasted three entire days, and during that time the comments of the 
press were as varied as they were multitudinous. Even Horace 
Greeley,f who had ever been a true friend to woman, in favor of 
all her rights, industrial, educational, and political, said the time had 
not yet come for her enfranchisement. 

From The Congressional Globe of December llth, 12th, 13th, 
1866, we give the debates on Mr. Cowan's amendment. In moving 
to drop the word "male" from the District of Columbia Suffrage 
bill, he said : 

Mr. PRESIDENT : It is very well known that I have always heretofore 
been opposed to any change of the kind contemplated by this bill ; but 
while opposing that change I have uniformly asserted that if it became 
inevitable, if the change was certain, I should insist upon this change 

* Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America 
in Congress assembled : That, from and after the passage of this act, each and every male per- 
son, excepting paupers and persons under guardianship, of the age of twenty-one years 
and upward, who has not been convicted of any infamous crime or offence, and who is a 
citizen of the United States, and who shall have resided in the said District for the period 
of six months previous to any election therein, shall be entitled to the elective franchise, 
and shall be deemed an elector and entitled to vote at any election in said District, with- 
out any distinction on account of color or race. 

t The New York Tribune, Dec. 12, 1866, contains the following editorial comments': 
The Senate devoted yesterday to a discussion of the right of women to vote a side 
question, which Mr. Cowan, of Pennsylvania, interjected into the debate on suffrage for 
the District of Columbia. Mr. Cowan chooses to represent himself as an ardent cham- 
pion of the claim of woman to the elective franchise. It is not necessary to question his 
sincerity, but the occasion which he selects for the exhibition of his new-born zeal, subjects 
him to the suspicion of being considerably more anxious to embarrass the bill for en- 
frachising the blacks, than to amend it by conferring upon women the enjoyment of the 
same right. Mr. Cowan was once a Republican. He abandoned his party, has been 
repudiated by his State, and may well be casting about for some new issue by which to 
divert attention from his faithlessness on the old. We have heard that Mr. Cowan affects 
the classics ; we are sure, therefore, that he will thank us for reminding him of that 
familiar story out of Plutarch respecting Alcibiades. When the dissolute Athenian had 
cut off the tail of his dog, which was the dog's principal ornament, and all Athens cried 
out against him for the act, Alcibiades laughed, and said : " Just what I wanted has hap- 
pened. I wished the Athenians to talk about this that they might not say something 
worse of me." 

We are not to be suspected of indifference to the question whether woman shall vote. 
At a proper time we mean to urge her claim, but we object to allowing a measure of 
urgent necessity, and on which the public has made up its mind, to be retarded and im- 
perilled. Nor do we think the Radical majority in the Senate need be beholden to the 
enemy's camp for suggestions as to their policy. We want to see the ballot put in the 
hands of the black without one day's delay added to the long postponement of his just 
claim. When that is done, we shall be ready to take up the next question. 



104 History of Woman Suffrage. 

as an accompaniment. It is agreed for I suppose when my honorable 
friend from Rhode Island [Mr. Anthony] and myself agree to it, it will be 
taken to be the universal sentiment of the body that the right of suffrage 
is not a natural right, but a conventional right, and that it may be lim- 
ited by the community, the body-politic, in any manner they see fit and 
consistent with their sense of propriety and safety. 

The proposition now before the Senate is to confer on the colored peo- 
ple of this District the right of franchise; that is, the advocates of the 
bill say that that will be safe and prudent and proper, and will contrib- 
ute, of course, to the happiness of the mass of the inhabitants of the 
District ; and they further say thab no reason can be given why a man 
of one color should not vote as well as a man of another color, especially 
when both are equally members of the same society, equally subjected 
to its burdens, equally to be called upon to defend it in the field, and 
all that. I agree to a great portion of that. I do not know and never 
did know any very good reason why a black man should not vote as well 
as a white man, except simply that all the white men said, "We do not 
like it." I do not know of any very good reason why a black woman 
should not marry a white man, but I suppose the white man would give 
about the same reason, he does not like to do it. There are certain 
things in which we do not like to go into partnership with the people of 
different races and between whom and ourselves there are tribal antipa- 
thies. It is now proposed to break down that barrier, so far as political 
power may be concerned, and admit both equally to share in this privi- 
lege; and since the barrier is to be broken down, and since there is to 
be a change, I desire another change, for which I think there is quite as 
good a reason, and a little better, perhaps, than that offered for this. I 
propose to extend this privilege not only to males, but to females as well; 
and I should like to hear even the most astute and learned Senator upon 
this floor give any better reason for the exclusion of females from the 
right of suffrage than there is for the exclusion of negroes. I want to 
hear that reason. I should like to know it. 

Now, for my part, I very much prefer, if the franchise is to be widened, 
if more people are to be admitted to the exercise of it, to allow females 
to participate than I would negroes; but certainly I shall never give my 
consent to the disfranchisement of females who live in society, who pay 
taxes, who are governed by the laws, and who have a right, I think, even 
in that respect, at times to throw their weight in the balance for the pur- 
pose of correcting the corruptions and the viciousness to which the male 
portions of the family tend. I think they have a right to throw their 
influence into the scale; and I should like to hear any reason to be 
offered why this should not be. Taxation and representation ought to 
go hand in hand. That we have heard here until all ears have been 
wearied with it. If taxation and representation are to go hand in hand, 
why should they not go hand in hand with regard to the female as well 
as the male ? Is there any reason why Mrs. Smith should be governed 
by a goat -head of a mayor any more than John Smith, if he could cor- 
rect it ? He is paid by taxes levied and assessed on her property just in 
the same way as he is paid out of taxes levied on the property of John. 



Senator Cowan Opens the Debate. 105 



If she commits an offense she is subjected to be tried, convicted, and 
punished by the other sex alone ; and she has no protection whatever in 
any way either as to her property, her person, or to her liberty very 
often. There is another thing, too. A great many reflections have been 
made upon the white race keeping the black in slavery. I should like 
to know whether we have not partially kept the female sex in a condi- 
tion of slavery, particularly that part of them who labor for a living ? I 
do not know of any reason hi the world why a woman should be confined 
to two dollars a week when a man gets two dollars a day and does not 
do any more work than she does, and does not do that which he does 
do quite so well at all times. 

Mr. President, if we are to venture upon this wide sea of universal suf- 
frage, I object to manhood suffrage. I do not know anything specially 
about manhood which dedicates it to this purpose more than exists 
about womanhood. Womanhood to me is rather the more exalted of 
the two. It is purer; it is higher; it is holier; and it is not purchasable 
at the same price that the other is, in my judgment. If you want to 
widen the franchise so as to purify your ballot-box, throw the virtue of 
the country into it ; throw the temperance of the country into it ; throw 
the purity of the country into it; throw the angel element, if I may so 
express myself, into it. [Laughter]. Let there be as little diabolism as 
possible, but as much of the divinity as you can get. Therefore, Mr. 
President, I put this as a serious question for the consideration of this 
body. In the presence of the tendencies of the age and in recognition of 
this movement, which my honorable friend from Massachusetts is always 
talking about, and of which he seems to have had premonition long be- 
fore it came to any of the rest of us I say in the face of this movement 
and in recognition of it, I earnestly beg all patriots here to think of this 
proposition. It is inevitable. How are you to resist when it is made the 
demand of fifteen million American females for this right, which can be 
granted and which can be as safely exercised in their hands as it can in 
the hands of negroes ? And I would ask gentlemen while they are be- 
stowing this ballot which has such merit in it, which has such a healing 
efficacy for all ills, which educates people, and which elevates them above 
the common level of mankind, and which, above all, protects them, how 
they will go home and look in the face their sewing women, their labor- 
ing women, their single women, their taxed women, their overburdened 
women, their women who toil till midnight for the barest subsistence, 
and say to them, "We have it not for you; we could give it to the negro, 
but we could not give it to you." 

How would the honorable Senator from Massachusetts face the recent 
meeting of the Equal Rights Society in Philadelphia ? How would he 
answer the potent arguments which were offered there and which chal- 
lenge an answer even from the Senate of the United States, when made 
by women of the highest intellect, perhaps, on the planet, and women 
who are determined, knowing their rights, to maintain them and to 
secure them ? I ask honorable Senators of his faith how they are to an- 
swer those ladies there ? If this is refused, how are Senators to answer, 
especially those who recognize the onward force of this movement, who 
VOL. IL 8. 



106 History of Woman Suffrage. 



are up to the tendencies of the times, who desire to keep themselves in 
front of the great army of humanity which is marching forward just as 
certainly to universal suffrage as to universal manhood suffrage. There- 
fore, Mr. President, I offer this amendment and ask for the yeas and 
nays upon it. 

The yeas and nays were ordered. 

Mr. ANTHONY: I move that the Senate do now adjourn. [" Oh, no! "] 

Mr. WILSON: I hope not. 

The PRESIDENT pro tern.: The motion is not debatable and must be 
put unless withdrawn. 

The motion was agreed to; and the Senate adjourned. 

SUFFRAGE IN THE DISTRICT. 

IN SENATE, TUESDAY, Dec. 11, 1866. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore : If there be no further morning business, 
and no motion is interposed, the chair, although the morning hour has 
not expired, will call up the unfinished business, which is the bill (S, No. 
1) to regulate the elective franchise in the District of Columbia, the pend- 
ing question being on the amendment of the Senator from Pennsylvania 
[Mr. Cowan] to strike out the word "male " before the word " person " 
in the second line of the first section of the amendment, reported by the 
Committee on the District of Columbia as a substitute for the original bill. 

Mr. ANTHONY: I suppose the Senator from Pennsylvania introduced 
this amendment rather as a satire upon the bill itself, or if he had any 
serious intention it was only a mischievous one to injure the bill; but it 
will not probably have that effect, for I suppose nobody will vote for it 
except the Senator himself, who can hardly avoid it, and I, who shall 
vote for it because it accords with a conclusion to which I have been 
brought by considerable study upon the subject of suffrage. I do not 
contend for female suffrage on the ground that it is a natural right, be- 
cause I believe that suffrage is a right derived from society, and that 
society is competent to impose upon the exercise of that right whatever 
conditions it chooses. I hold that the suffrage is a delegated trust a 
trust delegated to certain designated classes of society and that the 
whole body-politic has the same right to withdraw any part of that trust, 
that we have to withdraw any part of the powers or the trusts that we 
have imposed upon any executive officer, and that it is no more a pun- 
ishment to restrict the suffrage, and thereby deprive certain persons of 
the exercise of that right who have heretofore exercised it, than it is a 
punishment on the Secretary of the Treasury if we should take from him 
the appointment of certain persons whose appointment is now vested in 
him. The power that confers in each case has the right to withdraw. 

The true basis of suffrage, of course, is intelligence and virtue; but as 
we can not define those, as we can not draw the line that shall mark the 
'amount of intelligence and virtue that any individual possesses, we come 
as near as we can to it by imperfect conditions. It certainly will not be 
contended that the feminine part of mankind are so much below the 
masculine in point of intelligence as to disqualify them from exercising 
the right of suffrage on that account. If it be asserted and conceded 



Senator IL B. Anthony's Speech. 107 

that the feminine intellect is less vigorous, it must also be allowed that 
it is more acute ; if it is not so strong to strike, it is quicker to perceive. 
But at all events, it will not be contended that there is such a difference 
in the intellectual capacity of the sexes as that that alone should be a 
disqualification from the exercise of the right of suffrage. Still less will 
it be contended that the female part of creation is less virtuous than the 
masculine. On the contrary, it will be conceded by every one that 
morality and good order, religion, charity, and all good works appertain 
rather more to the feminine than to the masculine race. 

The argument that women do not want to vote is no argument at all, 
because if the right to vote is conferred upon them they can exercise it 
or not, as they choose. It is not a compulsory exercise of power on their 
part. But I think that argument is partly disproved by the Convention 
to which the Senator from Pennsylvania referred yesterday, whose argu- 
ments he said were worthy of consideration even in this Chamber. I 
think they are, and I think it would be very difficult for any one in this 
Chamber to disprove them. Nor is it a fair statement of the case to say 
that the man represents the woman in the exercise of suffrage, because 
it is an assumption on the part of the man; it is an involuntary repre- 
sentation so far as the woman is concerned. Representation implies a 
certain delegated power, and a certain responsibility on the part of the 
representative toward the party represented. A representation to which 
the represented party does not assent is no representation at all, but is 
adding insult to injury. When the American Colonies complained that 
they ought not to be taxed unless they were represented in the British 
Parliament, it would have been rather a singular answer to tell them 
that they were represented by Lord North, or even by the Earl of Chat- 
ham. The gentlemen on the other side of the Chamber who say that 
the States lately in rebellion are entitled to immediate representation 
in this Chamber would hardly be satisfied if we should tell them that my 
friend from Massachusetts represented South Carolina, and my friend 
from Michigan represented Alabama. They would hardly be satisfied, I 
think, with that kind of representation. 

Nor have we any more right to assume that the women are satisfied 
with the representation of the men. Where has been the assembly at 
which this right of representation was conferred ? Where was the com. 
pact made? What were the conditions? It is wholly an assumption. 
A woman is a member of a manufacturing corporation; she is a stock- 
holder in a bank; she is a shareholder in a railroad company; she 
attends all those meetings in person or by proxy, and she votes, and 
her vote is received. Suppose a woman offering to vote at a meeting of 
a railroad corporation should be told by one of the men " we represent 
you, you can not vote," it would be precisely the argument that is now 
used that men represent the women in the exercise of the elective 
franchise. A woman pays a large tax, and the man who drives her 
coach, the man who waits upon her table, goes to the polls and decides 
how much of her property shall go to support the public expenses, 
and what shall be done with it. She has no voice in the matter what- 
ever; she is taxed without representation. 



108 



History of Woman Suffrage. 



The exercise of political power by women is by no means an experi- 
ment. There is hardly a country in Europe I do not think there is any 
one that has not at some time of its history been governed by a woman, 
and many of them very well governed too. There have been at least three 
empresses of Russia since Peter the Great, and two of them were very 
wise rulers. Elizabeth raised England to the very height of greatness, 
and the reign of Anne was illustrious in arms and not less illustrious in 
letters. A female sovereign supplied to Columbus the means of discov- 
ering this country. He wandered foot-sore and weary from court to court, 
from convent to convent, from one potentate to another, but no man on 
a throne listened to him, until a female sovereign pledged her jewels to 
fit out the expedition which " gave a new world to the kingdoms of Cas- 
tile and Leon." Nor need we cite Anne of Austria, who governed France 
for ten years, or Marie Theresa, whose reign was so great and glorious. 
We have two modern instances. A woman is now on the throne of Spain, 
and a woman sits upon the throne of the mightiest empire in the world. 
A woman is the high admiral of the most powerful fleet that rests upon 
the seas. Princes and nobles bow to her, not in the mere homage of gal- 
lantry, but as the representative of a sovereignty which has descended 
to her from a long line of sovereigns, some of the most illustrious of them 
of her own sex. And shall we say that a woman may properly command 
an army, and yet can not vote for a Common Councilman in the city of 
Washington ? I know very well this discussion is idle and of no effect, 
and I am not going to pursue it. I should not have introduced this ques- 
tion, but as it has been introduced, and I intend to vote for the amend 
ment, I desire to declare here that I shall vote for it in all seriousness, 
because I think it is right. The discussion of this subject is not confined 
to visionary enthusiasts. It is now attracting the attention of some of 
the best thinkers in the world, both in this country and in Europe, and 
one of the very best of them all, John Stuart Mill, in a most elaborate 
and able paper, has declared his conviction of the right and justice of 
female suffrage. The time has not come for it, but the time is coming. 
It is coming with the progress of civilization and the general ameliora- 
tion of the raqe, and the triumph of truth and justice and equal rights. 

Mr. WILLIAMS : Mr. President, to extend the right of suffrage to the 
negroes in this country I think is necessary for their protection ; but to 
extend the right of suffrage to women, in my judgment, is not necessary 
for their protection. For that reason, as well as for others, I shall vote 
against the amendment proposed by the Senator from Pennsylvania, 
and for the amendment as it was originally introduced by the Senator 
from Ohio [Mr. Wade]. Negroes in the United States have been enslaved 
since the formation of the Government. Degradation and ignorance 
have been their portion; intelligence has been denied to them; they 
have been proscribed on account of their color; there is a bitter and 
cruel prejudice against them everywhere, and a large minority of the 
people of this country to-day, if they had the power, would deprive them 
of all political and civil rights and reduce them to a state of abject servi- 
tude. Women have not been enslaved. Intelligence has not been de- 
nied to them; they have not been degraded; there is no prejudice 



Senator Williams' Speech. 109 

against them on account of their sex; but, on the contrary, if they do- 
serve to be, they are respected, honored, and loved. Wide as the poles 
apart are the conditions of these two classes of persons. Exceptions 1 
know there are to all rules ; but, as a general proposition, it is true that 
the sons defend and protect the reputation and rights of their mothers; 
husbands defend and protect the reputation and rights of their wives; 
brothers defend and protect the reputation and rights of their sisters ; 
and to honor, cherish, and love the women of this country is the pride 
and the glory of its sons. 

When women ask Congress to extend to them the right of suffrage it 
will be proper to consider their claims. Not one in a thousand of them 
at this time wants any such thing, and would not exercise the power if 
it were granted to them. Some few who are seeking notoriety make a 
fesble clamor for the right of suffrage, but they do not represent the sex 
to which they belong, or I am mistaken as to the modesty and delicacy 
which constitute the chief attraction of the sex. Do our intelligent and 
refined women desire to plunge into the vortex of political excitement 
and agitation ? Would that policy in any way conduce to their peace, 
their purity, and their happiness ? Sir, it has been said that "the hand 
that rocks the cradle rules the world 1 '; and there is truth as well as 
beauty in that expression. Women in this country, by their elevated 
social position, can exercise more influence upon public affairs than they 
could coerce by the use of the ballot. When God married our first 
parents in the garden, according to that ordinance they were made 
"bone of one bone and flesh of one flesh"; and the whole theory of 
government and society proceeds upon the assumption that their inter- 
ests are one, that their relations are so intimate and tender that what- 
ever is for the benefit of the one is for the benefit of the other; whatever 
works to the injury of the one works to the injury of the other. I say, 
sir, that the more identical and inseparable these interests and relations 
can be made, the better for all concerned : and the woman who under- 
takes to put her sex in an antagonistic position to man, who undertakes by 
the use of some independent political power to contend and fight against 
man, displays a spirit which would, if able, convert all the now har 
monious elements of society into a state of war, and make every home a 
hell upon earth. Women do not bear their proportion and share, they 
can not bear their proportion and share of the public burdens. Men 
represent them in the Army and in the Navy; men represent them at the 
polls and in the affairs of the Government; and though it be true that 
individual women do own property that is taxed, yet nine-tenths of the 
property and the business from which the revenues of the Government 
are derived are in the hands and belong to and are controlled by the 
men. Sir, when the women of this country come to be sailors and sol- 
diers; when they come to navigate the ocean and to follow the plow; 
when they love to be jostled and crowded by all sorts of men in the thor- 
oughfares of trade and business; when they love the treachery and the 
turmoil of politics; when they love the dissoluteness of the camp and 
the smoke and the thunder and the blood of battle better than they love 
the enjoyments of home and family, then it will be time to talk about 



110 History of Woman Suffrage. 

making the women voters ; but until that time the question is not fairly 
before the country. 

Mr. COWAN : Mr. President, I had not intended to say anything on this 
subject beyond what I offered to the Senate yesterday evening, and I 
should not do so if it were not for the suggestion of a friend, and I am 
glad to say a friend who believes as I do, that it is the general supposi- 
tion that I am not serious and not in earnest in the amendment which I 
have moved ; and I only rise now for the purpose of disabusing the minds 
of Senators and others from any impression they may have had of that 
sort. 

I am perfectly free to admit that I have always been opposed to change. 
I do not know why it is. Whether I have felt myself old or not, I have 
not ranged myself in the category of " old fogies " as yet. Although I 
feel an indisposition to exchange the "ills we suffer" for "those we 
know not of," and am not desirous to launch myself away from that 
which is ascertained and certain, and adventure myself upon a sea of ex- 
periment, at the same time I feel as muck of that strength, that elastic- 
ity, that vigor, and that desire for the advancement of my race, my coun- 
trymen, and my kind as anybody can feel. I yield to no one in that 
respect. All I have asked, and all I have desired heretofore, is that we 
go surely. I believe with my fathers and my ancestors that to base suf- 
frage upon the white males of twenty-one years of age and upward was 
a great stride in the world's affairs ; that it would be well for the world 
if its government could progress, could advance upon that basis, and that 
all the rest of the world who did not happen to be white males of the age 
of twenty-one years and upward could very well afford to stand back and 
witness the effect of our experiment. I was of that opinion, I lived in the 
light of it, and I rejoiced in its success; and when I saw this Rebellion, 
when I witnessed the differences of opinion which convulsed this part of 
the Continent; when I saw the fact that one-half of the United States 
was upon the one side and th# other half upon the other side as to the 
understanding of the true theory of this Government of ours, simple as 
it may be to the lawyer, complex as it may be when examined more thor- 
oughly, I was more than ever disinclined to widen the suffrage, to intrust 
the franchise to a larger number of people. I trembled for the success of 
the experiment ; I hesitated as to where it would end. I may say, Mr. 
President, that I hesitate yet. The question is by no means settled, the 
difficulty is by no means ended, the controversy is by no means yet con- 
cluded. 

But the first step taken, from the very initiative of that step, I have 
announced my ground and my determination. When a bill was up here 
before, proposing to enlarge and widen the franchise in this District, I 
stated that if negroes were to vote I would persist in opening the door 
to females. I said that if the thing were to be taken away from the feudal 
realms and from feudal reasons, which went on the idea that the man 
who bore arms,and he alone, was entitled to the exercise of political power, 
and if it was to be put upon the ground of logic, and if we were to be 
asked to give a reason for it, and if we were to be compelled to give that 
reason, I said then, and I say now, ' If I have no reason to offer why a 



Senator Cowan on the Ballot and Bullet. Ill 

negro man shall not vote, I have no reason to offer why a white woman shall 
not vote." If the negro man is interested in the Government of the coun- 
try, if he can not trust to the masses of the people that the Government 
shall be a fair and just Government and that it shall do right to him, 
then the woman is also interested that this Government shall be fair to 
woman and fair to the interests of woman. Why not, Mr. President ? 
Are not these interests equal to those of the negro and of his race ? I 
know it has been said that the woman is represented by her husband, 
represented by the male ; and yet we know how she has been represented 
by her husband in bygone times; we know how she is represented by her 
barbarian husband ; and let him who wants to know how she is repre- 
sented by her civilized husband go to her speeches made in the recent 
Woman's Rightb Convention. We know how she has been represented 
by her barbarian husband in the past and is even at the present. She 
bears his burdens, she bears his children, she nurses them, s"he does his 
work, she chops his wood, and she grinds his corn; while he, forsooth, 
by virtue of this patent of nobility that he has derived, in consequence 
of his masculinity, from Heaven, confines himself to the manly occupa- 
tions of hunting and fishing and war. 

I should like to hear my honorable friend from Maine [Mr. Morrill], so 
apt, so pertinent, so eloquent on all questions, discourse upon the title 
which the male derives in consequence of the fact that he has been a 
fisher and a hunter and a warrior all the. time; and then I should like to 
know how he would discriminate between that fisher and hunter and' 
warrior, and those Amazons who burnt their right breasts in order that 
they might the more readily draw the bow and against whose onset no 
troops of that day were able to stand. I should also like to know from 
him how it was that the female veterans of the army of Dahomey recently, 
within the last three or four years, in the face of an escarpment that 
would have made European veterans, aye, and I might say American 
veterans tremble, scrambled over that escarpment and carried the city 
sword in hand. 

Now, Mr. President, it is time that we look at these things, and that 
we look them full in the face. I am always glad and willing to stand 
upon institutions that have been established in the past; that have been 
sanctified by time ; that have given to men liberty and protection with 
which they were satisfied. But, sir, when the time comes that we are to 
make a step forward, then another -and different question arises. I am, 
utterly astonished at my honorable friend from Rhode Island who 
doubted my sincerity in this movement. Why should I not be sincere ? 
Have I not as many interests at stake as be has ? 

My honorable friend from Oregon [Mr. Williams] thinks this is entirely 
preposterous. I have no doubt he does, and I give him all credit for 
honesty and sincerity in the remarks that he has made; but the 
trouble with him is, and with a great many others perhaps it is with 
myself upon some subjects is that he directs his gaze too long upon a 
particular point. It is remarkable that when a man who looks long and 
steadily upon one subject to the exclusion of every other, that subject 
at last becomes to him the universe itself. I have met fellow-politicians 



112 History of Woman Suffrage. 

fellow-Senators, and fellow-coworkers in the great battle of life, who 
really had so long contemplated one subject that it was not within their 
capacity to see any others. 

But it unfortunately happens that in this world there are others be- 
sides the negro who suffer. When you have told of the injuries and out- 
rages which prevail on the earth in regard to the negro you have not 
finished. Another, and in my judgment a much more important person- 
age, comes upon the scene ; she lifts the curtain and reveals to you a new 
drama, and she tells you distinctly that you have not only been tyran- 
nizing over your brother, your sable brother, your brother at the other 
end of the national antipodes, your troublesome antipathic brother; you 
have not only been drenching the earth from the East to the far West 
with the blood of savages of a different color from yours ; you have not 
only left your blood-stained marks in Japan, in China, in the East Indies, 
everywhere, and in the West, where one of your Christian bishops boasted 
that six million Mexicans at one time had been sacrificed, and what for ? 
To make them Christians ; to make the rest Christians after the six mil- 
lions had gone. I say this new personage who makes her appearance 
upon the drama of human affairs informs you that you and your religion, 
under the conduct of the male, generative, fecundative principle of the 
sex, have filled the world with blood from one end to the other of it. 
What for ? To give her liberty. She complains to-day ; she complains 
in your most intelligent high places; she complains in your most refined 
cities; she complains in your halls decorated with a more than Grecian 
beauty of architecture; she complains where all of past civilization, all 
of past adornment, and all of past education comes down to satisfy us 
that we stand upon the very acme of human progress ; she complains 
that you have been tyrant to her. Mr. President, let me read from the 
proceedings of the Twenty-ninth Annual Meeting of the Pennsylvania 
Anti-Slavery Society. I propose to read from the remarks of Mrs. Gage, 
a woman, a lady, a lady of brain and intellect, of courage and force ; and 
whether I am in earnest or not, whether I may be charged with being 
serious or not, no man dare charge Mrs. Gage with not being serious. 
Mrs. Frances D. Gage said : I have read speeches and heard a great deal 
said about the right of suffrage for the freedmen." So have we all, Mr. 
President; and the probability is that we have been even more afflicted 
if that can be said to be a punishment, and there is very great difficulty 
now to ascertain what is punishment in this world. If that can be said 
to be a punishment, I think this Senate can with at least equal propriety 
with Mrs. Gage, complain of its extraordinary infliction upon them with- 
out any previous trial and conviction. [Laughter]. " What does it 
mean ? Does it mean the male freedman only, or does it mean the 
freedwoman also ? I was glad to hear the voice of Miss Anthony in be- 
half of her sex." I am glad, Mr. President, that we have a male of that 
name in this body who emulates the virtues of his more humble sister 
[laughter], and stands up equally here for the broad rights of humanity 
as she does. "I know it is said that this is bringing in a new issue." 
Yes, that is what was said about me yesterday evening. Gentlemen said 
it was a new issue ; we had not talked about this thing here before ; no- 



Cowan Rebukes Senators Wilson and Sumner. 113 

body had thought about it. Why had nobody thought about it ? Be- 
cause nobody was thinking about the actual, real sufferings which human 
beings were subjected to in this world. Persons thought about such 
things just in proportion as they reflected themselves upon their future 
political career. If it became necessary, in order to elect a dozen Sena- 
tors to this body this winter, that the women should be treated as 
women ought to be treated, that they should be put upon an equal foot- 
ing with the men in all respects and enjoy equal rights with men, then 
I should have great hopes of carrying my amendment, and carrying it in 
spite of everybody, because then and in that light it would be seen by 
Senators, and they would be thereby guided. "I know it is said that 
this is bringing in a new issue. We must bring in new issues." 

Now, I want to know what the honorable Senator from Massachusetts 
[Mr. Wilson] will say when he finds me advocating this new issue that 
must be brought in while he lags behind. My honorable friend from 
Delaware [Mr. Saulsbury] will have immensely more the advantage of 
him to-day than he had yesterday ^f he dares lag, because I put the 
question to him now distinctly, and I do not leave it to his sense of pro- 
priety as to whether he shall speak or not speak on this question ; I de- 
mand that he do speak. I demand that that voice which has been so 
potential, that voice which has had so much of solemn, I do not say 
sepulchral wisdom in it heretofore, shall now be heard on the one side 
or the other of this important question, which involves the fate, the des- 
tiny, the liberty of one-half of the people who inhabit this Continent. 
I know from the generous upswelling of the bosom, which I almost per- 
ceive from here in my brother, that he will respond to this sentiment, 
and make a response of which his State and her progress, having two 
negroes in the Legislature now [laughter], will be proud. I feel assured 
of it, and I feel that when suffering humanity in any shape or form, 
whether it be male or female, whether it be black or white, red or yel- 
low, appeals to him, the appeal will not be in vain, but that he will come 
to the rescue, and that, he will strike the shield of the foremost knight 
on the other side and defy him to the combat. 

" We must [said Mrs. Gage] * bring in new issues. I sat in the Senate 
Chamber last winter." 

And now I beg pardon of my honorable friend from Massachusetts, the 
other Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. Sumner], for any offence that I 
may do to his modesty; but when I come to consider the recent change 
which has taken place in his life and habits, I am the better assured 
that he will endure it. At any other time I should not have dared to 
introduce this quotation : " I sat in the Senate Chamber last winter [said 
Mrs. (rage. Last winter, remember] "and heard Charles Sumner's grand 
speech, which the whole country applauded." 

And Mr. President, they did, too, and they did it properly. It was a 
great, a grand, and a glorious speech ; it was the ultimate of all speeches 
in that direction; and I too applauded with the country, although I too 
might not have agreed with every part of the speech: I might not have 



* Mrs. Frances Dana Gage, of Ohio. 



114 History of Woman Suffrage. 

agreed with the speech in general, but it was a great, grand, proud, high, 
and intellectual effort, at which every American might applaud, and I 
pardon Mrs. Gage for the manner in which she speaku of it. She has 
not excelled me in the tribute which I offer here to the honorable Sena- 
tor from Massachusetts, and which I am glad to lay at his feet: " I sat 
in the Senate Chamber last winter, and heard Charles Sumner's grand 
speech which the whole country applauded; and I heard him declare 
that taxation without representation was tyranny to the freedman." 

That was the ring of that speech; that was its key-note; it was the 
same key-note which stirred his forefathers in 1776 ; it was the same bugle- 
blast which called them to the field of Lexington and Bunker Hill ninety 
years ago; and it is. no wonder that Mrs. Gage picks that out as being 
the residuum, that which was left upon her ear of substance after the 
music of the honorable Senator's tones had died away, after the brill- 
iancy of his metaphors had faded, after the light which always encircles 
him upon this subject had gone away. It is no wonder that all that re- 
mained of it was that taxation without representation was* tyranny. Let 
me commend it to the honorable Senator, with his keen eye. his good 
taste, his appreciation of that which is effective, and that which strikes 
the American heart to the core ; let me commend it to him who desires 
to be the idol of that heart. 

"When" Now, Mr. President, sic transit gloria mundi. "When I 
afterwards found that he meant only freedom for the male sex, I learned 
that Charles Sumner fell far short of the great idea of liberty." 

All this outpouring, all this magnificent burst of eloquence, all this 
eclectic combination drawn from all the quarters of the earth, all the 
sublime talk about the ballot, was merely meant for the question of 
trousers and petticoats? " Tyranny to the male sex," says Mrs. Gage, 
and now she goes on, and this right to the point. The proposition here 
is to give to the male freedman a vote and to ignore the female freed- 
woman, to be tautological: "I know something of the freedwomen South. 
Maria I do not know that she had any other name when liberated 
from slavery at Beaufort went to work, and before the year was out she 
had laid up $1,000." 

That is a magnificent Maria, that is a practical Maria. She puts 
Sterne's Maria and all other Marias, except Ave Maria, in the shade. 
[Laughter]. 

" I never heard of any southern white making $1,000 in a year down 
there. Shall Maria pay a tax and have no voice ? " Shall Maria pay a 
tax and have no voice where the principle is admitted, where the prin- 
ciple is thundered forth, where it is axiomatic, where none dare gainsay 
it, that taxation without representation is tyranny ? " Shall Maria pay 
a tax and have no voice ? " That is the question. That, Mr. President, 
is the question before the Senate. 

"Old Betty" There is not so much of the classic, not so much of 
the euphonious, not so much of the salva rosa about Betty as about Maria 
" Old Betty, while under my charge, cleared more than that amount 
free from taxation, and I presume is worth $3,000 to-day." 

Think of Betty ! "Is she to be taxed in South Carolina to support 



Mr. Cowan Quotes Mrs. Gage's Negro Testimony. 115 

the aristocracy ?" Betty lives in South Carolina, it seems. "Will you 
be just, or will you be partial to the end of time ! " 

The marriage relation was alluded to by Mrs. Gage. 

And here is a most important part, to which I would direct the atten- 
tion of my brother Senators as fundamental in two respects funda- 
mental in the testimony it furnishes of the character of those you now 
propose to invest with the right of suffrage, fundamental in its charac- 
ter as to the use which they will make of it as to one-half of the people 
who are in this bill presumed to be the objects of your especial care. 
The marriage relation was alluded to by Mrs. Gage. '' When the posi- 
tive order was sent to me to compel the marriage of the colored people 
living together, the women came to me with tears, and said, ' We don't 
want to be married in the church, because when we are married in the 
church our husbands treat us just as old massa used to, and whip us if 
they think we deserve it ; but when we ain't married in the church they 
knows if they tyrannize over us we go and leff 'em.' " 

That is the class of male, gentlemen, to whom you propose to give suf- 
frage. These poor women who have to be whipped if the males think 
they deserve it, are the people to whom you deny it. These are the gen- 
tlemen who are to fabricate and make your laws of marriage, who are to 
fix the causes of divorce in these several States. These are the men, in 
other words, who are to enact, if it so please them, that upon the mar- 
riage the husband becomes seized of all his wife's property, of the per- 
sonalty absolute and the realty as tenant by courtesy; or perhaps they 
will have no courtesy about it and I should not wonder if they had 
not and give it to him in fee. 

"And the men" I beg the Senate to remember that I am read- 
ing the testimony of Mrs. Gage; unexceptionable testimony: "And the 
men came to me and said: ' We want you to compel them to be married, 
for we can't manage them unless you do.' " 

I am not certain whether they can always bo managed even after they 
are married. [Laughter]. But this is worse a great deal than before: 
" 'They goes and earns just as much money as we does, and then they 
goes and spends it, and never asks no questions. Now we wants 'em 
married in the church, 'cause when they's married in the church we 
makes em mind.' So in San Domingo establishing the laws of marriage 
made tyranny for these redeemed slave women." 

Mrs. Gage continues: "I would not say one word against marriage, 
God forbid. It is the noblest institution we have in this country. But 
let it be a marriage of equality. Let the man and woman stand as equals 
before the law. Let the freedwoman of the South own the money she 
earns by her own labor, and give her the right of suffrage ; for she knows 
as much as the freedman. Bring in these elements, and you will achieve 
a success. But I will stand firmly and determinedly against the oppres- 
sion that puts the newly emancipated colored woman of South Carolina 
under subjection to her husband required by the marriage laws of South 
Carolina. I demand equality on behalf of the freodwoman as well as the 
freedman." 

I might follow Mrs. Gage further; I might detain the Senate here hour 



116 History of Woman Suffrage. 

after hour reading extracts from the various speeches and essays which 
have been delivered and made upon this subject within the last few 
years, and I may again make the challenge which I made yesterday. 
Let us have a reason why these are not potent to influence our action. 
Let us be told wherein the object of this argument is defective. Let us 
be shown why it is, if these things are rights, natural or conventional, 
that those who have interests are not to participate in them. 

I listened to the eloquent and ingenious remarks of my honorable 
friend from Maine [Mr. Morrill] old, time-worn, belonging to the region 
of paleontology, far behind the carboniferous era. I would not under- 
take to go back there and answer them. All I can do with them is to 
refer them to the next meeting of the Equal Rights Society, which more 
than likely will meet in Albany or Boston the next time. There they 
will be attended to, and there they will be answered in such satisfactory 
phrase, I have no doubt, as would pale any poor effort of mine in the 
attempt. I have also listened to my honorable friend from Oregon [Mr. 
Williams], and still there are the same ancient foot-prints, the same old 
arguments, the same things that satisfied men thousands of years ago, 
and which never did satisfy any woman that I know of, the same travel- 
ing continually of the tracks of the lion into the cave along with his vic- 
tim, and nulla retrorsum vestigia, not a step ever came back. But let 
me say to my friends that Mrs. Eh'zabeth Cady Stanton, Mrs. Frances D. 
Gage, Miss Susan B. Anthony, are upon your heels. They have their ban- 
ner flung out to the winds ; they are after you ; and their cry is for justice, 
and you can not deny it. To deny is to deny the perpetuity of your race. 

Now, Mr. President, in regard to this District and this city, here is a 
fan* proposition. It proposes to confer upon all persons above the age 
of twenty-one years the right to participate in the city government. Is 
any one afraid of it ? Is my honorable friend from Maine afraid of it ? 
He says it shall be confined to the males. He and my friend from Ore- 
gon have gone on to tell you that the white males of this city are in a 
very bad condition; indeed, some of them in such a terrible condition 
that we are called upon to pass a bill of attainder, or a bill of pains and 
penalties, and a little ex post facto law in order to reach their tergiver- 
sations and perverseness. If that be true, why not incorporate some 
other element ? I do not know much about the female portion of the 
negroes of this District except what I have seen, and I must confess that 
although there are a great many respectable persons among the negroes, 
and many for whom I have considerable regard, yet as a mass they have 
not impressed me as being a very high style of human development. 

When I look along the pavements and about the walks and see them 
lounging, I am free to say that, without having been previously enlight- 
ened on the subject by so much as we have heard upon it recently, I 
should have had great doubts about conferring on them the right of suf- 
frage. And when I reflect that they have a Freedmen's Bureau to make 
their contracts for them and to keep them in order,and,it is said, to protect 
them against the enmity of their white neighbors, even where they have 
a majority, or nearly a majority, I am not strengthened in my partiality 
for them by that. And when I reflect that just about this time last year 



Senator B. F. Wadds Letter. 117 

we had great hesitation about adjourning, for fear that the people repre- 
sented by these males who are now to be invested with the franchise 
were in an actually starving condition in this District, and that the chief 
authorities of the District, moved, I have no doubt, by that humanity 
which ought to characterize them everywhere, investigated the matter and 
reported to us, we were obliged to appropriate $25,000 to relieve them in 
their immediate wants ; I do not think that speaks so well for the male 
portion of the African population of this city. 

I believe if it were to come to the last resort, that the female Africans 
of the District of Columbia have more merit, more industry, more of all 
that which is calculated to make them good and virtuous members of 
society than the males have. Why should you not throw them in ? Why 
should you throw this batch of males into the ballot-box without any 
countervailing element which would be efficacious to qualify it and make 
it better ? 

To me it is perfectly plain. I have reconciled my mind to negro suffrage, 
but while I reconcile myself to negro suffrage as inevitable, I hold it to 
be my bounden duty to insist upon female suffrage at the same time. 
I am happy to say that in this opinion I am not alone ; that while I favor 
universal suffrage limited by the age of twenty-one years so far, there are 
others who have been led to this same train of thought with myself. I 
beg, therefore, to read a letter dated Jefferson, Ohio, November 14, 1866: 

" MAT>AM: Yours of the 9th instant is received, and I desire to say in 
reply that I am now and ever have been the advocate of equal and impartial 
suffrage of all citizens of the United States who have arrived at the age 
of twenty-one years, who are of sound mind, and who have not disquali- 
fied themselves by the commission of any offence, without any distinc- 
tion on account of race, color, or sex. Every argument that ever has 
been or ever can be adduced to prove that males should have the right 
to vote, applies with equal if not greater force to prove that females 
should possess the same right ; and were I a citizen of your State I should 
labor with whatever of ability I possess to ingraft those principles in its 
constitution. Yours, very respectfully, B. F. WADE. 

" To SUSAN B. ANTHONY, Secretary American Equal Rights Association" 

Now, Mr. President, I ask whether this has not an orthodox sanction 
at least. I should like to know who would question, who would dare to 
question, the orthodoxy of the honorable Senator from Ohio, and who 
dares tell me that this is such a novelty that it is not to be introduced 
here as serious, as in earnest ? Sir, I say that I am perfectly in earnest, 
and I say that if this amendment be incorporated in this bill I shall vote 
for it with all my heart and soul. I beg to be understood that I would 
not inaugurate the movement, I would not make the change by my own 
mere motion, because I would not venture upon the change anywhere. 
That change must rise out of, spring out of, and come up from society 
generally. It is that thing which the poet has called the vox populi, 
and which he likens to tho vox Dei. When the community spontaneously 
demands this call, when the community spontaneously demands this 
action, I yield to it. It is so in this instance. While I yield to the de- 



118 History of Woman Suffrage. 

mand for negro suffrage, I demand ab the same time female suffrage; and 
when I yield to the question of manhood suffrage, I feel assured I throw 
along the antidote to all the poison which I suppose would accompany 
the first proposition. 

I am not afraid of negro suffrage if you allow female suffrage to go 
hand hi hand with it. I believe that if there is any one influence in the 
country which will break down this tribal antipathy, which will make 
the two races one in political harmony and political action, not in 
actuality as races by amalgamation, but which will induce that harmony 
and that co-operation which may bring about the highest state, perhaps, 
of social civilization and development, it is the fact that woman and not 
man must interfere in order to smooth the pathway for these two races 
to go along harmoniously together. And it is for that reason that I in- 
sist that when you do make this step, this step forward which once made 
can never be retrieved, you must do that other thing which assures its 
success after it is made. Let the negro male vote now, and you open the 
arena of strife and contention ; let both sexes vote, and then you close 
that arena of strife, you bring in that element which subdues all strife, 
which has made America what she is, which has made the American 
political meeting, which has made the American political convention, 
not the scene of strife or angry contention, where armed men met to- 
gether to settle political differences, as in the Polish Diet, but a conven- 
tion where all were subjected to reason, influenced, as it might properly 
be, by eloquence and by that "feast of reason" which is "the flow of 
the soul " to those who enjoy it. And therefore, Mr. President, I beg to 
assure everybody, and especially my honorable friend from Rhode Island, 
who agrees with me, I know, upon this topic, that I am serious and in 
earnest in urging this amendment; in dead earnest, in good earnest, and 
why not ? I am not so blind as to mistake the signs of the times. 

I might have refused to believe long ago. when my honorable friend 
from Ohio [Mr. Wade] predicted that this was coming. I might have 
disbelieved when my honorable friend from Massachusetts [Mr. Wilson] 
predicted this was coming; when he blew his bugle-blast and announced 
what an army was coming behind to enforce his doctrine and his princi- 
ples. I might, like Thomas of old, have doubted; but now I have had 
my fingers in the very wounds of which he spoke. I know of a certainty 
now that this movement is in progress, and that this movement will go 
on. I know of a certainty that black men must vote in the District of 
Columbia. Who can doubt it ? Those who are in favor of that measure 
here are in force sufficient to carry it constitutionally beyond all ques- 
tion. Well, if it is to be I am reconciled to it, but at the same time I 
want to throw about it as many safeguards as are possible under the cir- 
cumstances, and among those safeguards I think that of allowing females 
suffrage to be not only the best, but the only one which will be effica- 
cious in this behalf. Mr. President, I have trespassed a great deal longer 
upon the Senate than I intended. I beg to return my thanks for the 
indulgence they have exhibited in listening to what I had to say. 

Mr. MORRILL: Mr. President, the honorable Senator began by saying 
that he was in earnest, and he concludes by affirming the same thing. 



Senator Morrill, of Maine, Speaks. 119 

Doubtles he had made the impression upon his own inind that after all 
he had said, there might be a doubt in the minds of the Senate on that 
point. Does any one who has heard the speech, somewhat extraordinary, 
of the honorable Senator, suppose that he is at all in earnest or sincere in 
a single sentiment he has uttered on this subject ? I do not imagine he 
believes that any one here is idle enough for a moment to suppose so. 
Now, his attempt at being facetious has not been altogether a failure. 
I think he has succeeded in being amusing; he has evidently amused 
himself; and if he could afford the sacrifice, I admit he has amused the 
galleries and probably the most of us ; but that he has convinced any- 
body that he was arguing to enlighten the Senate or the public mind on 
a question which he says is important, he does not believe and he does 
not expect anybody else to believe it. If it is true, as he intimates, that 
he is desirous of becoming a Radical, I am not clear that I should not 
be willing to accept his service, although there is a good deal to be re- 
pented of before he can be taken into full confidence. [Laughter]. 

When a man has seen the error of his ways and confesses it, what 
more is there to be done except to receive him seventy and seven times ? 
Now if this is an indication that the honorable Senator means to out- 
radical the Radicals, " Come on, Macduff." nobody will object provided 
you can show us you are sincere. That is the point. If it is mischief 
you are at, you will have a hard time to get ahead. While we are radical 
we mean to be rational. While we intend to give every male citizen of 
the United States the rights common to all, we do not intend to be forced 
by our enemies into a position so ridiculous and absurd as to be broken 
down utterly on that question, and whoever comes here in the guise of 
a Radical and undertakes to practice that, probably will not make much 
by the motion. I am not surprised that those of our friends who went 
out from us and have been feeding on the husks, desire to get in ahead; 
but I am surprised at the indiscretion and the want of common sense 
exercised in making so profound a plunge at once! If these gentlemen 
desire to be taken into companionship and restored to good standing, I 
am the first man to reach out the hand and say, " Welcome back again, 
so that you are repentant and regenerated ; " but, sir, I am the last man 
to allow that you shall indorse what you call radicalism for the purpose 
of breaking down measures which we propose! 

So much for the radicalism of my honorable friend. Now, sir, what is 
the sincerity of this proposition ? What is the motive of my honorable 
friend in introducing it ? Is it to perfect this bill ? Is it to vindicate a 
principle in which he believes ? Not a bit of it. It is the old device of 
the enemy if you want to defeat a measure, make it as hateful and 
odious and absurd as possible and you have done it. That is the pro- 
position. Does he believe in the absolute right of women to vote ? Not 
a bit of it, for he has said here time and again in the beginning, middle, 
and end of his discourse that he does not believe a word of it. 

Mr. COWAN : And never did. 

Mr. MORRILL: He says it is no natural right whatever either to man 
or woman, and therefore he does not stand here to vindicate a right. 

Mr. COWAN : I should like to ask the honorable Senator whether he be 
lieves it is a natural right either in man or woman. 



120 History of Woman Suffrage. 

Mr. MORRILL: I have said distinctly on a former occasion that I did 
not; and therefore I am not to be put in the attitude of so arguing. 
The Senator does not believe that; he is not here urging a principle in 
which he believes. What is he doing ? Trying to do mischief; trying to 
make somebody believe he is sincere. That is labor lost here. It will 
not succeed, of course. Now, what is his position ? " I do not believe 
in woman suffrage, and do not believe in negro suffrage, but if you will 
insist upon male negro suffrage I will insist upon woman negro suffrage." 
That is his position exactly. "If you insist that the male negro shall 
vote, I insist the female shall." That is his attitude, nothing more nor 
less. Mr. President, I do not think there is much force in the position. 
He has not offered an argument on the subject. He has read from a 
paper. He has introduced here the discourse of some ladies in some 
section of the country, upon what they esteem to be their own rights, in 
illustration; that is all; not as argument; he does not offer it as an argu- 
ment, but to illustrate his theme and to put us in an attitude, as he sup- 
poses, of embarrassment on that subject. He has read papers which are 
altogether foreign from his view of this subject, and which he for a mo- 
ment will not indorse. He offers these as an illustration with a view of 
illustrating his side of the question, and particularly with a view of em- 
barrassing this measure. 

Mr. COWAX : Well, now, Mr. President, I desire to answer a question 
of the Senator. He alleges that I am not serious in the amendment I 
have moved, that I am not in earnest about it. How does he know ? 
By what warrant does he undertake to say that a brother Senator here 
is not serious, not in earnest. I should like to know by what warrant he 
undertakes to do that. He says I do not look serious. I have not per- 
haps been trained in the same vinegar and persimmon school [laughter] ; 
I have not been doctrinated into the same solemn nasal twang which 
may characterize the gentleman, and which may be considered to be the 
evidence of seriousness and earnestness. I generally speak as a man, 
and as a good-natured man, I think. I hope I entertain no malice to- 
ward anybody. But the honorable gentleman thinks I want to become 
a radical. Why, sir, common charity ought to have taught the honor- 
able Senator better than that. I think no such imputation, even on the 
part of the most virulent opponent that I may have, can with any jus- 
tice be laid to my door. I have never yielded to his radicalism; I have 
never truckled to it. Whether it be right or wrong, I have never bowed 
the knee to it. From the very word "go" I have been a conservative; 
I have endeavored to save all in our institutions that I thought worth 
saving. 

I suppose, in the opinion of the gentleman, I have made sacrifices; 
I suppose I am in the condition of Dr. Caius : " I have had losses." Cer- 
tainly if any man has given evidence of the sincerity of his doctrines, I 
have done so; I have lost all of that, perhaps, which the Senator from 
Maine may think valuable; I have lost all the feathers that might have 
adorned my cap by opposition to radicalism ; and now I stand perfectly 
free and independent upon this floor; free, as I supposed, not only from 
all imputation of interest, but free from all imputation of dishonor. I 



Mr. Cowan Repels tlie Charge of Insincerity. 121 

am out of the contest. If I had chosen to play the radical ; if I had chosen 
to out-Herod Herod, I could have out-Heroded Herod perhaps as well as 
the honorable gentleman, and I could have had quite as stern and vigorous 
a following as he or any other man, more than likely without asserting 
any very large amount of vanity to myself [Mr. Morrill rose] ; but now, 
when I stand here, as, I think, free, unquestionably free from all impu- 
tation either of interest or dishonor, to be told this is If the Senator 
wants to say anything I will hear him. 

Mr. MOHBILL: The honorable Senator will allow me to say that I do 
not think this line of argument is open to him, because to-day once or 
twice he certainly repeated that this was a race of radicalism, and he did 
not intend to be outdone. My remark was predicated simply on the 
assumption of the honorable Senator that he was disposed to enter into 
the race, arid rather in a disposition to welcome than discourage him. 

Mr. COWAN : Mr. President, I agree that if you will allow the gentle- 
man to put arguments in my mouth, and to furnish me theories as his 
fancy paints them, he can demolish them. I will not agree that he is my 
master in any particular; but I do agree that he can take a pair of old 
pantaloons out in the country and stuff them, and make a man of straw, 
and that he can overthrow it and trample upon it and kick it about with 
the utmost impunity. But I do not choose to allow the honorable Sen- 
ator to make either my theories or my arguments, nor do I allow him to 
make quotations from me unless he does it fairly. I gave utterance to 
no such idea as that which he has just attributed to me. I did not say 
that in this race of radicalism I was determined to be in front. I said 
no such thing. I said that there was an onward movement, that I 
yielded to that movement, and that while I yielded to it against my own 
better opinion that any change was impolitic, yet that change was inev- 
itable, I wanted it to be as perfect as possible, and I wanted it to be 
made with all the safeguards possible. 

That was my argument. I said so yesterday; I said so to-day; I say 
so now; and I appeal to my friends here who have talked about this 
onward movement, this progress of things, this inevitable which was in 
the future, to stand now upon their theories and upon their doctrines. 
That was my ground, ground simply stated, and for that I am not to be 
charged here with a desire to conciliate the honorable gentleman, or his 
faction, or his party, or any other party in this country. Mr. President, I 
am not a proud man, I hope ; not a vain man, I hope ; but I would rather 
be deprived of the right of suffrage, high punishment as it is, I would 
rather suffer all the penalties that would be inflicted even by the most 
malignant lawgiver, than to cower or cringe or yield to anything of mor- 
tal mould on this planet, except by duress and by force. No man dare 
charge me with that. I have endeavored to act here as an honest man 
feeling his own responsibilities, feeling the responsibilities of the oath 
upon him when he took it ; obliged to interpret the Constitution as he him- 
self understands it; feeling that that Constitution was a restraint upon 
him, a restraint upon the people, a restraint upon everybody ; that we were 
sent here for the purpose of standing upon it even against the rage of 
the people, even against their desire to trample it under foot. Feeling 
VOL. H. 9. 



122 



History of Woman Suffrage. 



all these things, I have stood here, and appeal to my fellow-Senators to 
know if any one of them can say that at any time I have manifested the 
smallest disposition to yield in any one particular. I scorn the imputa- 
tion ; I would rather have the approval of my own conscience, I would 
rather walk in the star-light and look up to them and to the God who 
made me free and independent, than to seek the highest station upon 
the earth by truckling to any man or to any set of people, or giving up 
my free opinions. 

And yet I propose not to be irrational in this matter. As I said yes- 
terday, and as I said to-day, I have struggled against change ; but if it is 
to be made I wish to direct it properly. I made in my own person, two 
or three years ago, a motion which passed this body by, I think, a vote 
of precisely two to one I believe it was 28 to 14 that the voters of the 
District of Columbia should be confined to white males; but upon that 
occasion I stated and the debates will bear me out, I think that if the 
door of the franchise was to be opened, if it was thought that the safety 
of the country required more people to cast ballots, more people to enjoy 
this privilege, I would open it to the women of the country sooner than 
I would open it to the negroes. I say so to-day. You are determined to 
open it to the negroes. I appeal to you to open it to the women. You say 
there is no danger in opening it to the negroes. I say there is no dan- 
ger then in opening it to the women. You say that it is safe in the hands 
of the negroes. I say it is equally safe in the hands of our sisters, and 
more safe in the hands of our wives and our mothers. I say more to you. 
I say you have not demonstrated that it is safe to confer the franchise 
upon men just emerged from the barbarism of slavery; I say you have 
not demonstrated that it is safe to give the ballot to men who require a 
Freedmen's Bureau to take care of them, and who it is not pretended 
anywhere have that intelligence which is necessary to enable them to 
comprehend the questions which agitate the people of this nation, and 
of which the people are supposed to have an intelligent understanding. 
I say you have not demonstrated all that ; but you have expressed your 
determination. You are determined to do it, and when you are deter- 
mined to do it I want to put along with that element, that doubtful ele- 
ment, that ignorant element, that debased element, that element just 
emerged from slavery, I want you to put along with it into the ballot-box, 
to" neutralize its poison if poison there be, to correct its dangers if 
danger there be, the'female element of the country. 

That is my position. If you abandon the whole project I have no 
objection. 1 am willing to rest the safety of the country where it is and 
has been so far. I am open to conviction, open to argument, open to 
reason even upon that subject; but I am willing to leave this question 
of suffrage where our fathers left it, where the world leaves it to-day, 
where all wise men leave it. If, however, it is to be opened, if there is to 
be a new era, if political power is to be distributed per capita according 
to a particular age, then I am for extending it to women as well as men. 
Let me tell the honorable Senator I am not alone in this opinion ; the 
Senator from Ohio with me is not alone ; one of the first intellects of this 
age, perhaps the first man of the first country of the earth, is of the same 



Mr. Wade Introduced the Original Bill. 123 

opinion. I allude to John Stuart Mill, of Great Britain. He is now agi- 
tating for this very thing in England. So that it need not seem surpris- 
ing that I should be in earnest in this; and I trust that after the explana- 
tion I have made of my position and my doctrines. I shall not be charged 
either with insincerity or with a desire to ingratiate myself with the ma- 
jority of this body, with the majority of the people, or with any one, be- 
cause, thank God, I am free from all entanglements of that kind at this 
present speaking, and if I retain my senses I think I shall keep free. 

Mr. WADE : Mr. President, I did not intend to say a word upon this subject, 
because on the first day of the last session of Congress I introduced the original 
bill now before the Senate, to which the Committee have proposed several 
amendments, and that action on my part I supposed demonstrated sufficiently 
to all who might read the bill what were my views and sentiments upon the 
question of suffrage ; and, sir, they are of no sudden growth. I have always 
been of the opinion that in a republican government the right of voting ought 
to be limited only by the years of discretion. I have always believed that when 
a person arrived at the age when by the laws of the country he was remitted 
to the rights of citizens, when the laws fixed the age of majority when the per- 
son was supposed to be competent to manage his own affairs, then he ought to 
be suffered to participate in the Government under which he lives. Nor do I 
believe that any such rule is unsafe. I imagine that safety is entirely on the 
other side, for just in proportion as you limit the franchise, you create in the 
same degree an aristocracy, an irresponsible Government ; and gentlemen must 
be a little tinctured with a fear of republican sentiment when they fear the 
extension of the right of suffrage. 

If I believed, as some gentlemen do, that to participate in Government re- 
quired intellect of the highest character, the greatest perspicacity of mind, the 
greatest discipline derived from education and experience, I should be con- 
vinced that a republican form of government could not live. It is because I 
believe that all that is essential in government for the welfare of the com- 
munity is plain, simple, level with the weakest intellects, that I am satisfied 
this Government ought to stand and will stand forever. Who is it that ought 
to be protected by these republican governments ? Certainly it is the weak and 
ignorant, who have no other manner of defending their rights except through 
the ballot-box. 

The argument for aristocracies and monarchies has ever been that the masses 
of the people do not know enough to take care of the high concerns of gov&rn- 
ment. If they do not, the human race is in a miserable condition. If, indeed, 
the great masses of mankind, who are permitted to transact their own business, 
are incompetent to participate in government, then farewell to the republican 
system of government ; it can not stand a day; it is a wrong foundation. Our 
principles of government are radically wrong if gentlemen's fears on this sub- 
ject are well grounded. Thank God, I know they are nQt. I know that all 
the defects and evils of our Government have not come from the ignorant 
masses ; but the frauds and the devices of the higher intellects and the more cul- 
tivated minds have brought upon our Government all those scars by which it has 
been disfigured. 

Why, sir, look at the administration of the Southern governments in the 
seceded States, where their public men were advocates of the doctrine that 



124 History of Woman Suffrage. 

suffrage should be restricted, and generally that republican governments were 
wrong. I had a great deal of private conversation with the gentlemen who 
were formerly in these halls representing those governments, and I hardly ever 
conversed with a single man of them from that part of the country who be- 
lieved that a republican government could or ought to stand. Some of them 
used to say, " How can the mechanic, how can the laboring man understand- 
ingly participate in these high and complicated affairs of Government ? " 
Those men at heart were aristocrats or monarchists ; they did not believe in 
your republican Government. I, on the other band, believe that the safety of 
our Government depends on unlimited franchise, or, rather, I should say, on 
franchise limited only by that discretion which fits a man to manage his own 
concerns. Let a man arrive at the years of majority, when the Government 
and the experience of the world say that he has attained to such an age and 
such discretion that it is safe to intrust him with his own affairs, and then if 
he can not be permitted to participate in the Government, I say again, farewell 
to republican government ; it can not stand. 

It was for these reasons that, when I introduced the original bill, I put it 
upon the most liberal principles of franchise except as to females. The ques- 
tion of female suffrage had not then been much agitated, and I knew the com- 
munity had not thought sufficiently upon it to be ready to introduce it as an 
element in our political system. While I am aware of that fact, I think it will 
puzzle any gentleman to draw a line of demarkation between the right of the 
male and the female on this subject. Both are liable to all the laws you pass ; 
their property, their persons, and their lives are affected by the laws. Why, 
then, should not the females have a right to participate in their construction as 
well as the male part of the community ? There is no argument that I can 
conceive or that I have yet heard, that makes any discrimination between the 
two on the question of right. 

Why should there be any restriction ? Is it because gentlemen apprehend 
that the female portion of the community are not as virtuous, that they are not 
as well-calculated to consider what laws and principles of the Government will 
conduce to their welfare as men are ? The great mass of our educated females 
understand all these great concerns of government infinitely better than that 
great mass of ignorant population from other countries which you admit to the 
polls without hesitation. 

But, sir, the right of suffrage, in my judgment, has bearings altogether be- 
yon*d any rights of persons or property that are to be vindicated by it. I lay 
it down that in any free community, if any particular class of that community 
are excluded from this right they can not maintain their dignity ; it is a brand 
of Cain upon their foreheads that will sink them into contempt, even in their 
own estimation. My judgment is that if this right was accorded to females, 
you would find that they would be elevated in their minds and in their intel- 
lects. The best discipline you can offer them would be to permit and to require 
them to participate in these great concerns of Government, so that their rights 
and the rights of their children should depend in a manner upon the way in 
which they understand these great things. 

What would be the effect upon their minds ? Would it not be, I ask you, 
sir, to lead them from that miserable amusement of reading frivolous books and 
novels and romances that consume two-thirds of their time now, from which 



Senator Wade Says the Ballot is Discipline. 125 

they learn nothing, and draw their attention to matters of more moment, more sub- 
stance, better calculated to well-discipline the mind ? In my judgment it would. 
I believe it would tend to educate them as well as the male part of the population. 
Take the negroes, who, it is said, are ignorant, the moment you confer the 
franchise on them it will led them to struggle to get an understanding of the 
affairs of Government, so as to be able to participate intelligently in them. They 
will then understand that they are made responsible for the Government under 
which they live. In my judgment, this is the reason why the fact exists, which 
is acknowledged everywhere, that the great mass of our population rise im- 
mensely higher in intellect and every quality that should adorn human nature, 
above the peasantry and working-classes of the Old World. Why is this ? I 
think much of it results from the fact that the people of this country are com- 
pelled to serve on juries, to participate in the government of their own locali- 
ties in various capacities, and finally to take part in all the great concerns of 
Government. That elevates a man, and makes him feel his own consequence in 
the community in which he lives. 

It is for these reasons as much as any other, that I wish to see the franchise 
extended to every person of mature age and discretion who has committed no 
crime. I know very well that prejudices against female voting have descended 
legitimately to us from the Old World ; yea, more than anything else, from that 
common law which we lawyers have all studied as the first element in juris- 
prudence. That system of law really sank the female to total contempt and 
insignificance, almost annihilated her from the fare of the earth. It made her 
responsible for nothing. So far was she removed from participating in any- 
thing or being responsible for anything, that if she even committed a crime in 
the presence of her husband she was not by that old law answerable for it. He 
was her guardian ; he had the right to correct her as the master did his slave 
in the South. Such was the chivalry of that old common law from which we 
derive our judicial education. A vast remnant of that old prejudice is still 
lurking in the minds of our community. It is a mere figment of proscription 
and nothing else, descended to us, and we have not overcome it. It is not 
founded in reason ; it is not founded in common sense ; and it is being done 
away with very fast too. 

I know that those women who have taken these things into consideration, 
with minds as enlightened and as intelligent as our own, have done immense 
good to their sex by agitating these great subjects against all the ridicule and 
all the contempt that has been wielded against them from the time they com- 
menced the agitation. I know that in my own State we had, a few years ago, 
a great many laws on our statute-book depriving females of a great many righ's 
without the least reason upon earth. Perhaps it was because the question was 
not agitated, and because it did not particularly concern the males, that they 
did not turn their attention to it ; but when agitated in the Women's Rights 
Conventions that have been BO abused and ridiculed throughout the country, 
man could no longer shut his eyes to the glaring defects that existed in our 
system, and our Legislature has corrected many of those abuses, and placed the 
rights of the female upon infinitely higher grounds .than they occupied there 
thirty years ago; I believe this remark is us applicable to many o-lier States as 
it is to Ohio. I tell you the agitation of these subjects has been salutary and 
good ; and our male population would no more go back to divest women of the 



126 History of Woman Suffrage. 

rights they have acquired, than they would go back now to slavery itself, in 
the advance we have lately made. 

What do I infer, then, from all this ? Seeing that their rights rest upon the 
same foundation and are only kept down by proscription and prejudice, I think 
I know that the time will come not to-day, but the time is approaching 
when every female in the country will be made responsible for the just govern- 
ment of our country as much as the male ; her right to participate in the Gov- 
ernment will be just as unquestioned as that of the male. I know that my 
opinions on this subject are a little in advance of the great mass, probably, of 
the community in which I live ; but I am advancing a principle. I shall give 
a vote on this amendment that will be deemed an unpopular vote, but I am not 
frightened by that. I have been accustomed to give such votes all uiy life 
almost, but I believe they have been given in the cause of human liberty and 
right and in the way of the advancing intelligence of our age ; and whenever 
the landmark has been set up the community have marched up to it. I think 
I am advocating now the same kind of a principle, and I have no doubt that 
sooner or later it will become a fixed fact, and the community will think it just 
as absurd to exclude females from the ballot-box as males. 

I do not believe it will have any unfavorable effect upon the female character, 
if women are permitted to come up to the polls and vote. I believe it would 
exercise a most humane and civilizing influence upon the roughness and rude- 
ness with which men meet on these occasions, if the polished ladies of the land 
would come up to the ballot-box clothed with these rights and participate in 
the exercise of the franchise. It has not been found that association with 
ladies is apt to make men rude and uncivilized ; and I do not think the reflex 
of it prevents that lady-like character which we all prize so highly. I do not 
think it has that effect. On the other hand, in my judgment, if it was popular 
to-day for ladies to go to the polls, no man would regret their presence there, 
and the districts where their ballots were given would be harmonized, civilized, 
and rendered more gentlemanly, if I may say so, on the one side and on the 
other, and it would prevent the rude collisions that are apt to occur at these 
places, while it would reflect back no uncivilizing or unlady-like influence upon 
the female part of the community. That is the way I judge it. Of course, as 
it has never been trijed in this country, it is more or less of an experiment ; but 
here in this District is the very place to try your experiment. 

I know that the same things were said about the abolition of slavery. I was 
here. Gentlemen know very well that there was a strong desire entertained by 
many gentlemen on this floor that emancipation, if it took place, should be very 
gradual, very conservative, a little at a time. I was the advocate of striking 
off the shackles at one blow, and I said that the moment you settled on that 
the community would settle down upon this principle of righteousness, justice, 
and liberty, and be satisfied with it, but just as long as you kept it in a state of 
doubt and uncertainty, going only half way, just so long it would be an irrita- 
ting element in our proceedings. It is just so now with this question. Do not 
understand that I expect that this amendment will be carried. I do not. I do 
not know that I would have agitated it now, although it is as clear to me as the 
sun at noonday, that the time is approaching when females will be admitted to 
this franchise as much as males, because I can see no reason for the distinction. 
I agree, however, that there is not the same pressing necessity for allowing 



Mr. Wade Knows no Difference between Them. 127 

females as there is for allowing the colored people to vote, because the ladies 
of the land are not under the ban of a hostile race grinding them to powder. 
They are in high fellowship with those who do govern, who, to a great extent, 
act. as their agents, their friends, promoting their interests in every vote they 
give, und, therefore, communities get along very well without conferring this 
right upon the female. But when you speak of it as a right, and as a great 
educational power in the hands of females, and I am called on to vote on the 
subject, I will vote that which I think under all circumstances is right, just, and 
proper. I shrink not from the question because I am told by gentlemen that it 
is unpopular. The question with me is, is it right ? Show me that it is wrong, 
and then I will withhold my vote ; but I have heard no argument that con- 
vinces me that the thing is not right. 

There has been something said about this right of voting, as to whether it 
is a natural or a conventional right. I do not know that there, is much differ- 
ence between a natural and a conventional right. Right has its hold upon the 
conscience in the inevitable fitness of things, and whether it springs from nat- 
ure or from any other cause right is right, and a conventional right is as sacred 
as a natural right. I can not distinguish them ; I know of no difference be- 
tween them. It certainly does not seem to me that it would be right now if a 
new community is about to set up a government, for one-third of them to seize 
upon that government and say they will govern, and the rest shall have noth- 
ing to do with it. It seems to me there is a wrong done to those who are shut 
out from any participation in the Government, and that it is a violation of their 
rights ; and what odds does it make whether you call it a natural, or conven- 
tional, or artificial right ? I contend that when you set up a Government you 
shall call every man who has arrived at the years of discretion, who has com- 
mitted no crime, into your community and ask him to participate in setting up 
that Government ; and if you shut him out without any reason, you do him a 
wrong, one of the greatest wrongs that you can inflict upon a man. If it is to 
be done to me or to my posterity, I say to you take their lives, but do not de- 
prive them of the right of standing upon the same foothold, upon the same 
platform in their political rights with any other man in the community. I will 
compromise no such principles. I contend before God and man ever, always, 
that they shall stand upon the same platform in setting up their governments, 
and in continuing them after they are set up, and I will brand it as a wrong 
and an injustice in any man to deprive any portion of the population, unless it 
be for crime or offence, from participating in the Government to the same ex- 
tent that he participates himself. If they are ignorant, so much the greater 
necessity that they have this weapon in their hands to guard themselves against 
the strong. The weaker, the more ignorant, and the more liable they are to be 
imposed upon, the greater the necessity of having this great weapon of self- 
defence in their hands. 

I know very well that great prejudices have existed against colored people ; 
but my word for it, the moment they are admitted to the ballot-box, especially 
about the second Tuesday of October in our Slate, you will find them as gen- 
teel a set of men as you know anywhere ; as much consideration will be awarded 
to them ; they will be men ; they will be courted ; their rights will be awarded 
to them ; they will be made to feel, and it will go abroad that they are not the 
subjects of utter contempt that can be treated as men see fit to treat them ; but 



128 History of Woman Suffrage.' 

they -will rise in the scale of the community, and finally occupy a platform 
according to their merits, which they never can obtain ; and you will never be 
able to make anything of any portion of the community, black or white, while 
you exclude them from the ballot-box. 

These, sir, are the reasons why I introduce this bill, and to vindicate them I 
have spoken. I know I am not able to set forth anything new on this subject. 
Every American citizen has reflected upon it until his mind is made up, and 
the thing itself is so universally approved by our community, that the only 
wonder is that when we propose to extend this franchise to all the people alike 
anybody is found in opposition to it. 

Mr. YATES : Mr. President, I propose to occupy the time of the Senate for 
but a few moments by way of explanation of my position on this subject. Hon- 
oralile Senators seem to think there is some little embarrassment in the position 
in which we are placed upon this question. There is certainly none whatever 
to my mind. I must confess, after an- examination of this question, that logic- 
ally there are no reasons in my mind which would not permit women to vote 
as well as men, according to the theory of our Government a Government of 
the people, by the people, and for the people. 

But, sir, that question as to whether ladies shall vote or not is not an issue 
now. That was not the question at the last election. That was not the question 
that was argued in another part of this Capitol. That was not embraced in the bill 
now before us for consideration. Questions of a different character engross our 
attention; and, sir, we have but one straightforward course to pursue in this 
matter. While I may and do indorse, I believe, substantially all that my hon- 
orable friend from Ohio has said, and while I can not state perhaps a good reason 
why under our form of government all persons, male and female, should not 
exercise the right of suffrage, yet we have another matter on hand now. We 
have fought the fight, and our banners blaze victoriously in the sky. The hon- 
orable Senator from Pennsylvania stands humbled and overcome at his defeat, 
and he might just as well bow his head before the wheels of that Juggernaut 
of which he spoke, which has crushed him to the earth, and say, let the vox 
populi, which is the vox Dei, be the rule of this land. 

I believe that this issue will come, and if the gentleman proposes to make it in 
the next elections, I shall be with him perhaps on the question of universal suf- 
frage ; for, sir, I am for universal suffrage. I am not for qualified suffrage ; I 
am not for property suffrage ; I am not for intelligent suffrage, as it is termed ; 
but I am for universal suffrage. That is my doctrine. But, sir,when it is proposed 
to crush out the will of the American people by an issue which certainly is not 
made in sincerity and truth, then I have no difficulty whatever. While I do 
not commit myself against the progress of human civilization, because I believe 
that time is coming, in voting " no " on this amendment I only vote to main- 
tain the position for which I have fought, and for which my State has fought. 
My notions are peculiar on this subject. I confess that I am for universal suf- 
frage, and when the time comes I am for suffrage by females as well as males ; 
but that is not the point before us. 

Mr. WILSON : The Senator from Pennsylvania demands that I shall express 
my concurrence in or my opposition to his amendment. I tell him. without the 
least hesitation, I shall vote' against it. I am opposed to connecting together 
these two questions, enfranchisement of black men and the enfranchisement of 
women, and therefore shall vote against his amendment. 



Senator Wilsorfs Speech. 129 

These ladies in the conventions recently held seem to have made a great im- 
pression upon the Senator from Pennsylvania. While I heard him reading 
their speeches, I could not but regret that the Senator had not read the 
speeches of some of those ladies and the speeches of some of those gentlemen 
who attended those recent meetings, before he came into the Senate. If he 
had read the speeches of the ladies and gentlemen who have attended these 
conventions during the past few years, their speeches might have made as great 
an impression on him at an earlier day as they seem to have done at this ; and 
if they had done so, the Senator might have made a record for liberty, justice, 
and humanity he would have been proud of after he leaves the Senate. I have, 
sir, quite the advantage of the honorable Senator. I have been accustomed to 
attend the meetings of some of these ladies and gentlemen for many years, 
and read their speeches too. I read these speeches for the freedom of all, and 
for the enfranchisement of all, woman included. Before I came to the Senate 
of the United States, I entertained the conviction that it would be better for 
tliis country, that our legislation would be more humane, more for liberty, more 
for a high civilization, if the women of the country were permitted to vote, and 
every year of my life has confirmed that conviction. I have been' more than 
evtr convinced of it since I have read the opinions of one of the foremost men 
of this or any other age John Stuart Mill. 

But I say to the Senator from Pennsylvania that while these are my opin- 
ions, while I will vote now or at any time for woman suffrage, if he or any 
other Senator will offer it as a distinct, separate measure, I am unalterably 
opposed to connecting that question with the pending question of negro suf- 
frage. The question of negro suffrage is now an imperative necessity; a neces- 
sity that the negro should possess it for his own protection ; a necessity that he 
should possess it that the nation may preserve its power, its strength, and its 
unity. We have fought that battle, as has been stated by the Senator from 
Illinois; we have won negro suffrage for the District of Columbia, and I say I 
believe we have won for all the States ; and before the 4th of March, 1869, be- 
fore this Administration shall close, I hope that the negro in all the loyal States 
will be clothed with the right of suffrage. That they will be in the ten rebel 
States I can not doubt, for patriotism, liberty, justice, and humanity demand it. 

This bill, embodying pure manhood suffrage, is destined to become the Jaw 
in spite of all opposition and all lamentations. I am opposed, therefore, to 
associating with this achieved measure the question of suffrage for women. 
That question has been discussed for many years by ladies of high intelligence 
and of stainless character ladies who have given years of their lives to the 
cause of liberty, to the cause of the bondman, to the cause of justice and hu- 
manity, to the improvement of all and the elevation -of all. No one could have 
heard them or have read their speeches years ago, without feeling that they 
were in earnest. They have made progress ; these women have instructed the 
country ; women, and men too, have been instructed ; progress is making in 
that direction ; but the public judgment is not so pronounced in any one State 
to-day in favor of woman suffrage, as to create any large and general movement 
for it. Time is required to instruct the public mind and to carry forward and 
to concentrate the public judgment in favor of woman suffrage. All public 
men are not in its favor as is the Senator from Ohio, as has already been proved 
in this debate. I am, therefore, sir. for keeping these questions apart. I am 



130 History of Woman Suffrage. 

for securing the needed suffrage for the colored race. I am for enfranchising 
the black man, and then if this other question shall come up in due time, and 
I have a vote to give, I shall be ready to give my vote for it. But to vote for 
it now is to couple it with the great measure now pressing upon us, to weaken 
that measure and to endanger its immediate triumph, and therefore I shall vote 
against the amendment proposed by the Senator from Pennsylvania, made, it is 
too apparent, not for the enfranchisement of woman,but against the enfranchise- 
ment of the black man. 

Mr. JOHNSON ; The immediate question before the Senate, I understand, is 
upon the amendment offered by the honorable member from Pennsylvania, 
which, if I am correctly informed, is to strike out the word " male," so as to 
give to all persons, independent of sex, the right of voting. It is, therefore, a 
proposition to admit to the right of suffrage all the females in the District of 
Columbia who may have the required residence and are of the required age. 
I am not aware that the right is given to that class anywhere in the United 
States. I believe for a very short time my friend from New Jersey will inform 
me if I am correct it was more or Jess extended to the women of New Jersey ; 
but, if that be an exception, it is, as far as I am informed, the only exception ; 
and there are a variety of reasons why, as I suppose, the right has never been 
extended as now proposed. 

Ladies have duties peculiar to themselves which can not be discharged by 
anybody else ; the nurture and education of their children, the demands upon 
them consequent upon the preservation of their household ; and they are sup- 
posed to be more or less in their proper vocation when they are attending to 
those particular duties. But independent of tbat, I think if it was submitted 
to the ladies I mean the ladies in the true acceptation of the term of the United 
States, the privilege would not only not be asked for, but would be rejected. I do 
not think the ladies of the United States would agree to enter into a canvass, and 
to undergo what is often the degradation of seeking to vote, particularly in the 
cities, getting up to the polls, crowded out and crowded in. I rather think 
they would feel it, instead of a privilege, a dishonor. There is another reason 
why the right should not be extended to them, unless it is the purpose of the 
honorable member and of the Senate to go a step further. The reason why 
the males are accorded the privilege, and why it was almost universal in the 
United States with reference to those of a certain age, is that they may be 
called upon to defend the country in time of war or in time of insurrection. 
I do not suppose it is pretended that the ladies should be included in the mili- 
tia organization or be compelled to take up arms to defend the country. That 
must be done by the male sex, I hope. 

But I rose not so much- for the purpose of expressing my own opinion, or 
reasoning rather upon the opinion, as to refer to a sentence or two in a letter 
written many years ago, by the elder Adams, to a correspondent in Massachu- 
setts. It was proposed at that time in Massachusetts to alter the suffrage. It 
was then limited in that State.- That limitation, it was suggested, should be 
taken away in whole or in part, and the correspondent to whom this letter was 
addressed seems to have been in favor of that change. Mr. Adams, under date 
of the 26th of May, 1776, writes to his correspondent, Mr. James Sullivan, a 
name famous in the annals of Massachusetts, and well known to the United 
States, a long letter, of which I shall read only a sentence or two. It is to be 



Senator Johnson, of Maryland. 131 

found in the ninth volume of the works of John Adams, beginning at page 
375. In that letter Mr. Adams, among other tbings, says: "But let us first 
suppose that the whole community, of every age, rank, sex, and condition, has 
a right to vote. This community is assembled. A motion is made and carried 
by a majority of one voice. The minority will not agree to this. Whence 
arises the right of the majority to govern and the obligation of the minority 
to obey ? 

"From necessity, you will say, because there can be no other rule. But why 
exclude women ? 

" You will say, because their delicacy renders them unfit for practice and ex- 
perience in the great businesses of life and the hardy enterprises of war, as well 
as the arduous cares of state. Besides, their attention is so much engaged 
with the necessary nurture of their children, that nature has made them fittest 
for domestic cares. And children have not judgment or will of their own. 
True." 

And he closes the letter by saying : " Society can be governed only by gen- 
eral rules. Government can not accommodate itself to every particular case as 
it happens, nor to the circumstances of particular persons. It must establish 
general comprehensive regulations for cases and persons. The only question 
is, which general rule will accommodate most cases and most persons. De- 
pend upon it, sir, it is dangerous to open so fruitful a source of controversy and 
altercation as would be opened by attempting to alter the qualifications of vot- 
ers ; there will be no end of it. New claims will arise ; women will demand a 
vote ; lads from twelve to twenty-one will think their rights not enough 
attended to ; and every man who has not a farthing will demand an equal 
voice with any other in all acts of state. It tends to confound and destroy all 
distinctions, and prostrate all ranks to one common level." 

The honorable member from Ohio seems to suppose that the right should be 
given as a means, if I understood him, of protecting themselves and as a means 
of elevating them intellectually. I had supposed the theory was that the woman 
was protected by the man. If she is insulted she is not expected to knock the 
man who insults her down, or during the days of the duello to send him a chal- 
lenge. She goes to her male friend, her husband or brother or acquaintance. 
Nature has not made her for the rough and tumble, so to speak, of life. She is 
intended to be delicate. She is intended to soften the asperities and roughness 
of the male sex. She is intended to comfort him in the days of his trial, not 
to participate herself actively in the contest either in the forum, in the council 
chamber, or on the battle-field. As to her not being protected, what lady has 
ever said that her rights were not protected because she had not the right of 
suffrage ? There are women, respectable I have no doubt in point of character, 
moral and virtuous women 110 doubt, but they are called, and properly called; 
the li strong-minded " ; they are in the public estimation contradistinguished 
from the delicate ; they are men in women's garb, ready, I have no doubt, such 
people would be and I deem it no disparagement to them ; I have no doubt 
they are conscientious to go upon the battle-field. Such things have happened. 
They are willing to take an insult, and horse-whip and chastise the man who 
has extended the rudeness to them ; but they are exceptions to the softness 
which is the charm of the female character. 1 appeal to my friend from New 
York [Mr. Morgan] I can speak for Baltimore and to the member from 



132 History of Woman Suffrage. 

Pennsylvania [Mr. Cowan] who I suppose can speak for Philadelphia, would 
they have their wives and their daughters seeking to get up to the poll on a 
hotly-contested election, driven with indignation at times from it, insulted, 
violence used to them, as is often the case, rudeness of speech sure to be 
indulged in 

Mr. WADE : I should like to know if that is the character of your city ? 

Mr. JOHNSON : Yes. 

Mr. WADE : Then it is very different from the community in which I live. 

Mr. JOHNSON : I rather think you might make Cincinnati an exception from 
what I have heard. I am not speaking for the country, though I have seen 
it pretty rough in the country ; and they have been rough occasionally in 
Ohio. If they were all of the same temper with my honorable friend who 
interrupts me of course it would be different, and all could'have their rights 
accorded them. 

Mr. COWAN : I should like to ask whether the presence of ladies on an occa- 
sion of that kind would not tend to suppress everything of that sort ? Would 
it: not turn the blackguard into a gentleman, so that we should have nothing 
but good conduct ? 

Mr. JOHNSON : No, sir ; you can not turn a blackguard into a gentleman. 

Mr. COWAN : Except by a lady. 

Mr. JOHNSON : No, sir ; by no means known to human power. There may 
be some revulsion that will cause him to cease to be a blackguard for the mo- 
ment, but as to a lady making a gentleman of a man who insults her it has not 
happened that I know of anywhere. He may be made somewhat of a gentle- 
man by being cowhided. But the question I put I put in all seriousness. I 
have seen the elections in Baltimore, where they are just as orderly as they are 
in other cities ; but we all know that in times of high party excitement it is 
impossible to preserve that order which would be sufficient to protect a deli- 
cate female from insult, and no lady would venture to run the hazard of being 
subjected to the insults that she would be almost certain to receive. 

They do not want this privilege. As to protecting themselves, as to taking 
a part in the Government in order to protect themselves, if they govern those 
who govern, is not that protection enough ? And who does not know that 
they govern us ? Thank God they do. But what more right has a woman, as 
a mere matter of right independent of all delicacy, to the suffrage than a boy 
who is just one day short of twenty-one ? You put him in your military service 
when he is eighteen; you may put him in it at a younger age if you think 
proper ; but you will not let him vote. Why ? Only upon moral grounds ; 
that is all ; not because that boy may not be able to exercise the right, but be- 
cause, in the language of Mr. Adams, there must be some general rule, which 
must be observed, because in the absence of such general rule, if you permit 
excepte.d cases you might as well abolish all rules, and then where are we, as 
he properly asks. 

I like to learn wisdom from the men of 1776. I know we have had the 
advantage of living in an age which they did not witness. I have lived a good 
many years and watched the public men of the day, and I do not think, and I 
have never been able with all my disposition to think that we are any better 
than were the men of 1776 and our predecessors on this floor, the men who 
participated in the deliberations of the Convention which led to the adoption 



Senator Wade Answers Senator Johnson^ 133 

of the Constitution of the United States, the men who were the authors of the 
State papers which were issued during that period, and which filled the world 
with admiration and amazement. 

From the days of colonization down to the present hour no such proposition 
as t! is has received, so far as I am aware, any support, unless it was for a short 
time in the State of New Jersey. It has nothing to do with the right of negroes 
to vote. That is perfectly independent. If I dedred because I am opposed to 
that to defeat the bill, I might perhaps, as a mere party scheme, as a measure 
known to party tactics which govern occasionally some 1 do not say that they 
have not governed me heretofore vote for this amendment with a view to de- 
feat the bill : but I have lived to be too old and have become too well satisfied 
of what I think is my duty to the country to give any vote which I do not be- 
lieve, if it should be supported by the votes of a sufficient number to carry the 
measure into operation, would redound to the interests and safety and honor of 
the country. 

Mr. WADE : The gentleman seems to suppose that the only reason females 
should have the right to vote is that they might defend themselves with a cow- 
hide against those who insult them. I do not suppose that giving them the 
right to vote will add anything to their physical strength or courage. That is 
the argument of the Senator, and the whole of his argument : but I did not 
propose that they should vote on such hypothesis or with any view that it 
should have any such effect. But I do know that as the law stood until very 
recently in many of the States a husband was not the best guardian for his 
wife in many cases, and frequently the greatest hardships that I have ever 
known in the community have arisen from the fact that a good-for-nothing, 
drunken, miserable man had married a respectable lady with property, and 
your law turned the whole of it right over to him and left her a pauper at 
his will. While I was at the bar I was more conversant with the manner in 
which these domestic affairs were transacted than I am now ; and I knew in- 
stances of the greatest hardship arising from the fact that the law permitted 
such things to be done. I have known a drunken, miserable wretch of a hus- 
band take possession of a large property of a virtuous, excellent woman, who 
had a family of small children depending upon her, and turn her out to sup- 
port her family by sewing and by manual labor ; and it is not an uncommon 
case. The legislators, the males having the law-making power in their hands, 
especially were not very prompt to correct these evils ; they were very slow in 
doing so. They continued from the old common law, when the memory of 
man did not run to the contrary, down to a time that is within the recollection 
of us all ; and I do not know but that in some of the States this absurd rule 
prevails even now. It would not have prevailed if ladies had been permitted 
to vote for their legislators. They would have instructed them, and would 
have withheld their votes from every one who would not correct these most 
glaring evils. 

The Senator tells us that the community in which he lives is so barbarous 
and rude that a lady could not go to the polls to perform a duty which the law 
permitted without insult and rudeness. That is a state of things that I did 
not believe existed anywhere. I do not believe that it exists in Baltimore to- 
day. I do not believe if the ladies of Baltimore should go up to the polls 
clothed with the legal right to select their own legislators that there is any- 



134 History of Woman Suffrage. 

body in Baltimore who would insult them on their way in performing that 
duty. I do not believe that our communities have got to that degree of 
depravity yet that such kind of rascally prudence is necessary to be exercised 
in making laws. On the other hand, I have always found wherever I have gone 
that the rude and the rough in their conduct were civilized and ameliorated 
by the presence of females ; for I do believe, as much as I believe anything else, 
that, take the world as it is, the female part of it are really more virtuous than 
the males. I think so ; and I think if we were to permit them to have this 
right, it would tend to a universal reform instead of the reverse ; and I do not 
believe any lady would be insulted in any community that I know anything 
about while on her way to perform this duty. 

As I can see no good reason to the contrary, I shall vote for this proposition. 
I shall vote as I have often voted, as the Senator from Massachusetts has often 
voted, what he believed to be right ; not because he believed a majority were 
with him, but because he believed. the proposition which he was called upon 
to vote for was right, just, and proper. It is because I can not see that this 
is not so that I vote for it. It comes from a Senator who does not generally 
vote with us ; it is a proposition unlocked for from his general course of action 
in this body, being, as he says, on the conservative list, and generally for hold- 
ing things just as they are. "Well, sir, I am for holding them just as they are, 
when I think they are right, and when I think they are not, I am for changing 
them and making them right. I do not think it is right to exclude females 
from the right of suffrage. . As I said before, I do not expect that public opin- 
ion will be so correct at this time that my vote will be effective ; but neverthe- 
less it would be no excuse for me that I did not do my part toward effecting a 
reform that I think the community requires, because I did not see that the 
whole world was going with me. I do not wait for that. I am frequently in 
minorities. I would as lief be there as anywhere else, provided I see that I am 
right ; and I do not wait for the majority to go with me when I think a propo- 
sition is right. Therefore I shall vote for this amendment if nobody else votes 
for it, trusting that if I am right the world will finally see it and come up to 
the mark where I am ; if I am wrong, on further investigation and further 
thought I shall be left in the lurch. Believing that I am right, and believing 
that the world will come up to this standard finally, I am ambitious to make 
my mark upon it right here. 

Mr. FRELINGHTJYSEN : Mr. President, the Senator from Maryland has made 
an inquiry as to the law of New Jersey in reference to women voting. There 
was a period in New Jersey when, in reference to some local matters, and those 
only, women voted; but that period has long since passed away ; and I think 
I am authorized in saying that the women of New Jersey to-day do not desire 
to vote. Sir, I confess a little surprise at the remark which has been so fre- 
quently made in the Senate, that there is no difference between granting suf- 
frage to colored citizens and extending it to the women of America. The 
difference, to my mind, is as wide as the earth. As I understand it, we legis- 
late for classes, and the women of America as a class do vote now, though there 
are " exceptions from the peculiar circumstances of individuals. Do not the 
American people vote in this Senate to-day on this question ? Do they not vote 
in the House of Representatives ? So the women of America vote by their faith- 
ful and true representatives, their husbands, their brothers, their sons ; and no 



Senator FrelingJiuy sen's Home Angel. 135 

true man will go to the polls and deposit his ballot without remembering that 
true and loving constituency that he has at home. More than that, sir, ninety- 
nine out of a hundred, I believe nine hundred and ninety-nine out of a thou- 
sand, of the women in America do not want the privilege of voting in any other 
manner than that which I have stated. In both these regards there is a vast 
difference between the situation of the colored citizen and the women of America. 

But, Mr. President, besides that, the women of America are not called upon 
to serve the Government as the men of America are. They do not bear the 
bayonet, and have not that reason why they should be entitled to the ballot ; 
and it seems to me as if the God of our race has stamped upon them a milder, 
gentler nature, which not only makes them shrink from, but disqualifies them 
for the turmoil and battle of public life. They have a higher and a holier mis- 
sion. It is in retirement, to make the character of the coming men. Their mission 
is at home, by their blandishments and their love to assuage the passions of 
men as they come in from the battle of life, and not themselves by joining in 
the contest to add fuel to the very flames. The learned and eloquent Senator 
from Pennsylvania said, yesterday, with great beauty, that he wanted to cast the 
angel element into the suffrage system of America. Sir, it seems to me that it 
would be ruthlessly tearing the angel element from the homes of America, for 
the homes of the people of America are infinitely more valuable than any suf- 
frage system. It will be a sorry day for this country when those vestal fires of 
piety and love are put out. Mr. President, it seems to me that the Christian 
religion, which has elevated woman to her true position as a peer by the side 
of man from which she was taken ; that religion which is a part of the common 
law of this land, in its very spirit and declarations recognizes man as the repre- 
sentative of woman. The very structure of that religion which for centuries 
has been being built recognizes that principle, and it is written on its very 
door-posts. The woman, it is true, was first tempted ; but it was in Adam that 
we all died. The angel, it is true, appeared to Mary ; but it is in the God-man 
that we are all made alive. I do not see that there is any parity of reasoning 
between the case of the women of America, entitling them or making it desir- 
able that they should have suffrage, and that of the colored citizens of the 
United States. 

Mr. CONNESS : It does not appear that we can come to a vote to-night upon 
this proposition, and I therefore rise to propose an adjournment. 

Mr. MOUKILL: Perhaps we can get a vote on this simple amendment. 

Mr. BROWN and others : Oh, no ; let us adjourn. 

Mr. MORRILL : I doubt whether there is any inclination to talk further on 
this amendment, and I should be glad to get a vote on it before we adjourn. 

Mr. CONNESS : If the Senate will come to a vote, I will not move an adjourn- 
ment. 

Mr. BROWN : Mr. President 

Mr. DOOLITTLE : If the honorable Senator from Missouri will give way, I 
will renew the motion to adjourn. 

Mr. BROWN : I do not care particularly to detain the Senate. I have but a 
very few remarks to make. 

Several SENATORS : Let us adjourn. 

Mr. DOOHTTLE : If the honorable Senator will give way, I will renew the mo- 
tion to adjourn. 



136 History of Woman Suffrage. 

The PRESIDENT pro tern. : Does the Chair understand the Senator from Mis- 
souri as yielding the floor ? 
Mr. BKOWN: Yes, sir. 

Mr. DOOLITTLE: I move that the Senate do now adjourn. 
The motion was agreed to ; and the Senate adjourned. 

IN SENATE, WEDNESDAY, December 12, 1866. 

Prayer by the Chaplain, Rev. E. H. Gray. 

The Journal of yesterday was read and approved. 

PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS. 

The PRESIDENT pro tern, : The Chair has received, and takes this op- 
portunity to lay before the Senate, the memorial of William Boyd, of 
Washington City, District of Columbia, the substance of which, stated 
in his own words, is : 

I humbly ask your Honorable Body that you make no distinctions in regard to either 
color or sex if you should think proper to extend the elective franchise in this District, 
which 1 beg of your Honorable Body to do immediately ; so that hereafter there shall be 
no distinction of race or sex. I am among those who believe that slavery will never die, 
until all laws are so constructed as to hold all mankind as equal before the law. 

SUFFRAGE IN THE DISTRICT. 

The PRESIDENT pro tern. : The unfinished business is the bill (S. No. 1) 
to regulate the elective franchise in the District of Columbia which is 
now before the Senate as in Committee of the Whole. The pending 
question is on the motion of the Senator from Pennsylvania [Mr. Cowan], 
to amend the amendment reported by the Committee on the District of 
Columbia, by striking out in the second line of its first section the word 
"male" before "person." Upon this question the Senator from Missouri 
is entitled to the floor. 

Mr. BROWN : Mr. President, I do not believe that the pending amend- 
ment to the bill extending the franchise to women in the District of Co- 
lumbia, offered by the Senator from Pennsylvania, was designed to be 
carried out into practical legislation at this time or in this connection. 
I think it was rather intended to elicit an expression of opinion from 
members of the Senate upon the general proposition involved. If it 
were to go into practical effect, I am one of those who belieVe that it 
would be necessary to accompany it by a good deal of other legislation 
to prevent it from degenerating into abuse, and perhaps corrupting 
many of those it designs to advance in position and influence. But 
accepting the matter in the light which I have stated, for one I am will- 
ing to express an opinion very freely on the subject. I have to say then, 
sir, here on the floor of the American Senate, I stand for universal suf- 
frage, and as a matter of fundamental principle do not recognize the 
right of society to limit it on any ground of race, color, or sex. I will go 
further and say that I recognize the right of franchise as being intrinsic- 
ally a natural right; and I do not believe that society is authorized to 
impose any limitation upon it that does not spring out of the necessities 
of the social state itself. These may seem, Mr. President, extreme views, 
but they conform to the rigid logic of the question, and I defy any Sena- 



Senator Gratz Brown, of Missouri. 137 

tor here who abides that logic to escape that conclusion. Sir, I have 
been shocked, yes, shocked, during the course of this debate at expres- 
sions which I have heard so often fall from distinguished Senators, and 
apparently with so little consideration of what the heresy irresistibly 
leads to, saying in substance that they recognize in this right of franchise 
only a conventional or political arrangement that may be abrogated at 
will and taken from any; that it is simply a privilege yielded to you and 
me and others by society or the Government which represents society; 
that it is only a gracious boon from some abstract place and abstract 
body for which we should be proud and thankful ; in other words, that 
it is not a right in any sense, but only a concession. Mr. President, I do 
not hold my liberties by any such tenure. On the contrary, I beh'eve 
that whenever you establish that doctrine, whenever you crystalize that 
idea in the public mind of this country, you ring the death-knell of 
American liberties. You take from each, what is perhaps the highest 
safeguard of all, the conviction that there are rights of men embracing 
their liberty in society, and substitute a skepticism on all matters of 
personal freedom and popular liberties which will lay them open to be 
overthrown whenever society shall become sufficiently corrupted by 
partyism or whenever constitutional majorities shall become sufficiently 
exasperated by opposition. 

Mr. President, so important, yea, so crucial, so to speak, do I deem 
this position, that I trust I may be pardoned by the Senate if I refer to 
the abstract grounds, the invincible agreement upon which I deem it to 
rest. I do this the more readily because in my belief the metaphysical 
always controls ultimately the practical in all the affairs of. life. Now, 
what are abstract rights ? And are there any intrinsic necessary condi- 
tions that go to constitute liberty in society ? I believe that there are, 
and that those conditions are as determinable as the liberties they pro- 
tect. The foundation upon which all free government rests, and out of 
which all natural rights flow as from a common center, has been well 
stated by Mr. Herbert Spencer in a late work on "Social Statics," to be 
"the liberty of each limited by the like liberty of all." As the fundamental 
truth originating and yet circumscribing the validity of laws and consti- 
tutions, it can not be stated in a simpler form. As the rule in conformity 
with which society must be organized, and which distinguishes where 
the rightful subordination terminates, and where tyranny, whether of 
majorities or minorities, begins, it can not be too much commended. 
"Every man has freedom to do all that he wills, provided ho infringes 
not the equal freedom of any other man," is stated as the law of just 
social relationships, and in it the rights of individual liberty of thought, 
of speech, of action, find their complete expression. It will be observed 
that equality is the essence of it all. In fact, any recognition of an in- 
equality of rights is fatal to liberty. 

Observe, furthermore, that those rights inhere in the individual, are 
part of his existence, and not the gift of any man or aggregation of men. 
If they were, equality under a despotism might find its justification in 
the postulate just as well as equality under a republic. Csesarean De- 
mocracy could claim like paternity with American Democracy. The 

VOL. n. 10. 



138 History of Woman Suffrage. 

assumption, then, that freedom in any of its forms is a privilege conceded 
by society is utterly unwarrantable, because society itself is a concession 
from the individual the liberty of each limited by the like liberty of all 
and such limitation is what society or Government represents. And it 
is in this sense, and flowing from this axiom, that the rights of franchise 
originally appertain to all alike; for franchise is in itself nothing more 
than a mode of participating in the common Government, and represents 
only the interest each has therein. That limitations may attach thereto, 
just as they attach to freedom of speech or freedom of action, is perfectly 
true; but they must be equal limitations, applicable to all alike, grow- 
ing out of the social relation, and not leveled at the inherent right of 
any individual or class. Thus the exclusion of criminals from the fran- 
chise, the designation of terms of minority as connected with the exercise 
of political duties, the regulation of the admission to citizenship of per- 
sons coming from foreign countries, find their justification in a principle 
which, so far from recognizing in Government or society a purely arbi- 
trary control of the rights and exercise of self-government or personal 
liberty, brings it down within rigid and narrow limits of equality and 
necessity. 

There are those, and I am sorry some such have arisen in the Senate 
to-day, who seek to escape this conclusion, and put the blush upon all 
free government by affirming, as I have said, that the right of franchise 
is a purely political right, neither inherent nor inalienable, and may be 
divested by the citizen or the State at will. The consideration mentioned, 
that the right of franchise is neither more nor less than the right of self- 
government as exercised through a participation in the common govern- 
ment of all, shows, however, that if it be not a natural right it will be 
difficult to say in what a natural right consists. Indeed, it is perhaps 
the most natural of any of our rights, inasmuch as its denial is the denial 
of all right to personal liberty, for how can such latter right exist when 
the right to maintain it among men and the societies of men is denied ? 
Again, if the right to share in the joint government is not inherent, from 
whence does it come ? Who can give the right to govern another ? and 
how can any give what he has not got ? Society is but the aggregate of 
individuals, and in its authority represents only the conceded limitations 
on all, not any reservoir of human rights, otherwise human rights would 
vary with every changing association. Still again, if the right of a man 
as regards Government can be divested either by himself or Government 
at will, then Government has no limit to its rightful tyranny it may 
divest not only one man, but a hundred or a thousand; indeed, why not 
all but the chosen few or the imperial one, thus arriving logically at oli- 
garchic or despotic rule. And if a man may divest himself of this right, 
what right is sacred from his renunciation ? That a man may refuse to 
exercise any right is true, and that in changing his abode he may sever 
his political and social relations is equally true ; but these facts only prove 
that his natural rights inhere in his person, go with him in his movement, 
subject always to be exercised under the conditions and limitations 
before recited. After all, to demonstrate the utter falsity and pernicious 
consequence of the idea that the right to share in the common Govern- 



The- Rights of Women the same as those of Men. 139 

ment (which is only a synonym for the right of franchise) is a privilege 
to be farmed out by Government at discretion and to whom it chooses, 
it is only necessary to ask, if that be so, whence comes the right to rep- 
resentation ? Wherein is the foundation for any democratic society, 
predicated on the rights of individuals? That various mixed Govern- 
ments do undertake to limit the franchise to the few as a privilege com- 
ing from the body-corporate, has nothing to do with the question, for I 
am discussing now rights, not practices; republics, not aristocracies. 

Such I believe, Mr. President, to be the principles on which our per- 
sonal rights, our liberties in society repose. It is true the argument 
carries us very far, but not farther, I apprehend, than republican gov- 
ernment must go whenever it undertakes to conform its practice to its 
logic. And having examined the general reasoning that controls the 
whole question of franchise, let me now advert more particularly to the 
bearing of that argument upon the proposition submitted by the Sena- 
tor from Pennsylvania. I know that many affirm that the results to 
which such reasoning as that I have adduced would lead are themselves 
conclusive against its force. But that is scarcely a fair mode of judging 
of the strength and invincibility of any argument, far less one touching 
interests so momentous in character. To give the objection its greatest 
force it maybe said, "If suffrage be the right of all men, why is it not also 
the right of all women, of all children ?" "Are they not equally inter- 
ested in good government, and are they not equally capable of express- 
ing through a vote their wish in relation to public affairs?" Do they 
not come within the category, the equal liberty of each limited by the 
like liberty of all, and if so, can the infringement of their liberty by dis- 
franchisement be justified ! " To such questions, and, in fact, to the 
whole inquiry, it may be replied that as freedom finds the expression of 
its limits in the social relation itself, so long as the marital and paternal 
state remain as they are now, essential parts to that social relation, so 
long will there be more or less of constraint involved in their expression 
through governmental forms. And it may be added also that in so far 
as marriage and paternity establish an identity of interest between 
husband and wife, or parent and child, so far the participation of the 
one in the Government is virtually the participation of both, the fran- 
chise of one the franchise of both. Such identity is not always true or 
equable, but it nevertheless approximates truth, and is therefore the 
more readily accepted as such in practical affairs. 

That the rights of women, however, are intrinsically the same with 
those of men, may not be consistently denied; and that all the advance 
of modern civilization has been toward according them greater equality 
of condition is attested by the current history of every nation within its 
pale. Rights of married women and minors are constantly finding new 
expression in our laws and new force in our public opinion, which is only 
law in process of formation. While it will not bo necessary, therefore, to 
go into those deeper and anterior questions of social life involving the 
substitution of voluntary for compulsory modes which are agitating so 
profoundly the intellect of this age, it is important to note that of the 
three great departments of control in human affairs, namely, morals or 



140 



History of Woman Suffrage. 



conscience, manners or society, governments or laws, the two former 
have been unreservedly conceded to the full and equal participation of 
women. And furthermore, I venture to affirm with all confidence, that 
although the social relation, as it- embraces a recognition of family de- 
pendence, may present obstacles to an equal influence under present 
forms of government and to the full exercise of citizen rights on the part 
of women, yet that the purity, the refinement, the instinctive reading of 
character, the elegant culture of the women of our land, if brought to 
bear upon the conduct of political affairs, would do much to elevate 
them in all their aims, and conform them to higher standards of justice. 

Mr. President, I have listened in vain for the argument on which is 
predicated the assertion that sex alone affords a rightful ground for 
exclusion from the rights of franchise. 1 do not find anything to justify 
that view, even in the position of those who contend that franchise is a 
mere political privilege and not founded in any right, for that would 
apply to men equally as to women, and does not touch the question of 
relative rights. The position would still remain to be established why 
the franchise should be given to the one and not to the other. It would 
remain still to present grounds of principle on which that right as such 
may be denied to her and not denied to him. I have heard reasons of 
policy, reasons of sentiment, reasons of precedent advanced to justify 
this exclusion; but in all frankness, and with no disrespect intended, I 
must say that those which have been presented during this debate seem, 
to me trivial, illogical, and contradictory of one another. 

First, it has been said that if women are entitled to the rights of fran- 
chise they would correspondingly come under the obligation to bear 
arms. But, sir, I do not know that there is any necessary connection 
between the right of franchise and the requirement of service in your 
army. On the contrary, I do know that all Governments which have 
existed among men do now recognize the fact that there is no necessary 
connection between the two; and I do know that no Government has 
more distinctly recognized this position than the Government of the 
United States. Are there not large classes even among men in this coun- 
try who are exempt from service in our armies for physical incapacity 
and for other reasons? And if exemptions which appertain to males 
may be recognized as valid, why not similar exemptions for like reason 
when applied to females? Does it not prove that there is nothing in the 
argument so far as it involves the question of right? There are Quakers 
and other religious sects; there are ministers of the gospel persons 
having conscientious scruples; indeed, all men over a certain age who 
under the laws of many of the States are released from service of that 
character. Indeed, it is the boast of the republic that ours is a volun- 
teer military establishment. Hence I say there is nothing in the position 
that because she may not be physically qualified for service in your 
army, therefore you have the right to deny her the franchise on the 
score of sex. It might be an inquiry of very great interest and worthy 
of being pursued much further than I have the time or the ability to 
pursue it just now, how far, if the ballot should be extended to all the 
women in this land, it would go to modify existing opinion and action 



Senator Brown Answers the Objections. 141 

and relationship among States so as to obliterate in a great degree the 
very necessity for your army and navy. I believe, sir, that a very large 
majority of the wars that have been waged in this world have been wars 
that were condemned by the moral sense of the nations on both sides; 
wars that would have been terminated forthwith if that moral sense 
could have had its rightful influence in controlling the affairs of Govern- 
ment; and I say it is a question that is worthy of consideration how far 
such an element introduced into your political control would go to ob- 
viate these barbarous resorts to force which you now deem essential and 
which we all deplore, but which it is a folly, if not a crime, to say con- 
stitute a reason woman should bo denied any right to which she would 
be otherwise entitled. 

Mr. President, a second objection has been taken to any extension of 
the franchise in this direction, and it is one that perhaps has more seem- 
ing force in it than the other. It has been said with a great deal of 
pathos by the Senator from New Jersey: what, would you have your 
wives and your daughters mingle in the scenes at the election-booths, 
go into the riotous demonstrations that attend upon the exercise of the 
ballot, and become participants in the angry and turbulent strifes that 
are so characteristic of our political modes. I say with frankness that I 
would not have wife or daughter mingle in any such scene; I would 
be loth to have their purity and their virtue exposed to such demoral- 
ized surroundings, surroundings that are only too apt to corrupt even 
the males that mingle in the political arena. But, sir, I contend that 
that is an argument against the ballot and the hustings and the polling- 
booths, and not against the rights of woman. It is an argument against 
those corruptions that you have permitted to grow and fasten upon your 
political methods and appliances, and not an argument against her rights 
as contrasted with the rights of man. What ! usurp an exclusive control 
then degrade the modes of exercising power, and after that say the 
degradation is reason why the usurpation should continue unchallenged. 
What profanation of the very powers of thought is that! On the con- 
trary, I am prepared to say that I see no reason, I never have seen any 
reason, why there might not be changes introduced in your modes of 
taking the sense of the community, of ascertaining public opinion upon 
public measures, of making selection even of its individuals for impor- 
tant offices, that would conform them far more to those refinements and 
those elevations which should characterize and control them, purifica- 
tions that must render them appropriate for participation in by the 
most refined of the land, whether male or female. I see no reason why 
it should not be done. The change has been constant already from the 
very rudest forms to the forms which we now have, and which I am 
sorry to say, are sufficiently rude to disgrace the civilization of the age. 
Why not further amelioration and adaptation? Are we to have no prog- 
ress in the modes of government among men? Are we and future gener- 
ations to be ever imprisoned in the uncouth alternative of monarchical 
or democratic forms as they now obtain?^ I can not believe it. For five 
years past we have had revolution enough among us to satisfy even the 
most conservative that the present is no ultimatum, either of form or 



142 History of Woman Suffrage. 

substance in political or social affairs. I will go further and venture to 
say, that there are now seething underneath all the forms of this Gov- 
ernment, revolutions still more striking than any one of us have yet wit- 
nessed. Beneath all these methods and appliances of administrations 
and controls among men, I believe there is under our very feet a heaving, 
unsteady ocean of aroused questioning in which many modes now prac- 
ticed will sink to rise no more, and out of which other adaptations will 
emerge that will render far more perfect the reflection of the will of the 
people; that will perhaps represent minorities as well as majorities; that 
will disarm, corruptions by dispensing with party organizations. It is the 
very witching hour of change. 

And, sir, I do not dread change. Why should we? Is not change the 
primal condition on which all life is permitted to exist? Change is the 
very essence of all things pure, the sign and token of the divinity that is 
within us, and conservatism per se is infidelity against the ordination of 
God. When, therefore, we see such change in all things that are around 
us, in fashions and customs and laws and recognitions and intellectuali- 
ties, even to the supremest generalizations of science, in all things save 
the elemental principles of our being and by consequence of our rights, 
why shall we say that these forms into which we have cast administra- 
tion and government, shall not obey the great law of development and 
take upon themselves ameliorations better suited to the changing society 
of mankind, to the wants of a more truthful representation, to the par- 
ticipation by all in the Government that is over all. Mr. President, I 
am of those who believe that they will. When I look around on the 
incongruities and corruptions that surround our present system, when I 
see what politics and government and administration actually are, if I 
believed there was to be no progress in that direction I should be bereft 
of all hope and desolate of faith. On the contrary, rnethinks I can seo 
in the adown vista of the future the golden apples hanging on the tree 
of promise. It seems to me that the light of the morning is already 
streaming in upon us that shall illuminate further advancements in the 
science of government. And why should not even Republican govern- 
ment take to itself other modes of administration without infraction of 
its fundamental liberties? Why should not large reductions transpire in 
those opportunities that invite the most sinister combination for offices 
and spoils? Is there any reason why the emoluments of place should 
more than repay the labor it calls for? Is there any reason why large 
abolitions of executive patronage may not transpire ; why Government 
may not generate through examining commissioners, best agencies of its 
own for the functional work it is called to perform, leaving appeals to 
the community to pass rather upon controlling measures and general 
policies and legislative functionaries ? Is there any reason why that 
should not take place? Sir, already, if I mistake not, in the large cities 
of this land, which are the local points of your domestic political system, 
the necessity for such a change is being felt and acted upon, and large 
branches of executive work and supervision are being necessarily put in 
commission. Mr. President, I think what I have said sufficiently shows 
that the argument which is advanced, that the present surroundings are 



Mr. Brown Quotes Mrs. C. H. Doll. 143 

such that woman could not properly participate in your elections, is an 
argument that does not go to the right of the woman, but does go to the 
wrong of the man. It is a criticism, perhaps a satire upon the civiliza- 
tion of your political system, not a justification for any exclusions prac- 
ticed under it. 

There is one other line of remark that has been indulged in, and only 
one other so far as I have heard, which calls for any special rejoinder, 
and that affirms the precedents of the past to be all against any such 
proposition as that now submitted. It is said that there is no precedent, 
that it is not customary in any of our governments, that it is not one of 
the recognitions of our society, that it has never been signified as such 
in the past. I do not know that such an argument amounts to anything 
at best, but I do know that the allegation itself has no foundation in 
fact. I know that in many cases and on many occasions this impassable 
barrier that is now set forth as dividing the natural rights of man and 
woman has been broken down and trampled upon, and that, too, with- 
out any injury to the society from so doing. Perhaps I can best illus- 
trate this point by what an accomplished lady, who has given much 
thought and research to the subject, has presented. I read from a con- 
tribution she has made to one of our leading public prints. She says : 

So long as political power was of an absolute and hereditary character women shared 
it whenever they happened, by birth, to hold the position to which it was attached. In 
Hungary, in some of the German States, and in the French Provinces to this day, certain 
women, holding an inherited right, confer the franchise upon their husbands, and in 
widowhood empower some relative or accredited agent to be the legislative protector of 
their property. In 1858, the authorities of the old university town of Upsal granted the 
right of suffrage to fifty women owning real estate, and to thirty-one doing business on 
their own account. The representative that their votes elected was to sit in the House 
of Burgesses. In Scotland, it is less than a century since, for election purposes, parties 
were unblushiugly married in rases where women conveyed a political franchise, and 
parted after the election. In Ireland, the court of Queen's Bench, Dublin, restored to 
women, in January, 1864, the old right of voting for town commissioners. The Justice, 
Fitzgerald, desired to state that ladies were also entitled to sit as town commissioners, 
as well as to vote for them,, and the chief-justice took pains to make it clear that there 
was nothing in the act of voting repugnant to their habits. 

In November, 1864, the Government of Moravia decided that all women who were tax- 
payers had the right to vote. In the Government of Pitcatrn's Island, women over six- 
teen have voted ever since its settlement. In Canada, in 1850, a distinct electoral priv- 
ilege was conferred on women, in the hope that thereby the Protestant might balance 
the lioman Catholic power in the school system. I lived where I saw this right exer- 
cised by female property holders for four years. I never heard the most cultivated man, 
not even that noble gentleman, the late Lord Elgin, object to its results. In New Jer- 
sey, the Constitution adopted in 1776, gave the right of suffrage to all inhabitants, of 
either sex, who possessed fifty dollars in proclamation money. In 1790, to make it 
clearer, the Assembly inserted the words " he or she." Women voted there till 1888, 
when, the votes of some colored women having decided an election, the prejudice against 
the negro came to the aid of lordly supremacy, and an act was passed limiting the right 
of suffrage to "free white male citizens." In 1853, the Kentucky Legislature conferred 
the right on widows with children in matters relating to the school system. The same 
right was conferred in Michigan ; and full suffrage waa given to women in the State 
constitution submitted to Kansas in I860. 

I think that is a list of illustrations sufficient to dispose of any argu- 
ment that may arise on such a score. And now, Mr. President, permit 



144 History of Woman Suffrage. 

me to say, in concluding the remarks I have felt called upon to make 
here, that I have spoken rather as indicating my assent to the principle 
than as expecting any present practical results from the motion in ques- 
tion. In the earliest part of my political life, when first called upon to 
represent a constituency in the General Assembly of Missouri, in looking 
around, after my arrival at the seat of Government at those matters that 
seemed to me of most importance in legislation, I was struck with two 
great classes of injustices, two great departments in which it seemed to 
me the laws and the constitutions of my State had done signal wrong. 
Those were one as respects the rights of colored persons; the other as 
respects the rights of married women, minors, and females; and I there 
and then determined that whenever and wherever it should be in my 
power to aid in relieving them, of those inequalities and those injustices, 
I would do so to the extent of my humble ability. Since then I have 
labored zealously in those two reforms as far and as fast as a public 
opinion could be created or elicited to enforce them, and I can say from 
my own observation that each step of advance taken has been fruitful 
of all good and productive of no evil. Emancipation of the colored race 
in Missouri has been achieved in a most thorough manner, substantially 
achieved even before the war; and to-day the community is ripe for the 
declaration that all are created equal, and that there is no reason to ex- 
clude from any right, civil or political, on the ground of race or color. I 
feel proud to say likewise that Missouri has gone further, and wiped from 
her statute-book large portions of that unjust and unfair and illiberal 
legislation which had been leveled at the rights and the property of the 
women of the State. Believing that that cause which embraces and em- 
bodies the cause of civil liberty will go forward still triumphing and to 
triumph, I will never, so help me God, cast any vote that may be con- 
strued as throwing myself in the face of that progress. Even though I 
recognize, therefore, the impolicy of coupling these two measures in this 
manner and at this time, I shall yet record my vote in the affirmative as 
an earnest indication of my belief in the principle and my faith in the 
future. 

Mr. DAVIS: Mr. President, our entire population, like that of all other 
countries, is divided into two great classes, the male and the female. 
By the census of 1860 the white female population of the United States 
exceeded thirteen millions, and the aggregate negro population, of both 
sexes, was below four and a half millions. That great white population, 
and all its female predecessors, have never had the right of suffrage, or, 
to use that cant phrase of the day, have never been enfranchised ; and 
such has also been the condition of the negro population. That about 
one negro in ten thousand in four or five States have been allowed to 
vote, is too insignificant to be dignified with any consideration as an 
exception. But now a frenzied party is clamoring to have suffrage given 
to the negro, while they not only raise no voice for female suffrage, but 
frown upon and repel every movement and utterance in its favor. Who 
of the advocates of negro suffrage, in Congress or out of it, dare to stand 
forth and proclaim to the manhood of America, that the free negroes are 
fitter arid more competent to exercise transcendent political power, the 



Senator Davis Opposes Suffrage for Women. 145 

right of suffrage, than their mothers, their wives, their sisters, and their 
daughters? The great (rod who created all the races and in every race 
gava to man woman, never intended that woman should take part in 
national government among any people, or that the negro, the lowest, 
should ever have co-ordinate and equal power with the highest, the 
white race, in any government, national or domestic. To woman in 
every race He gave correlative, and as high, as necessary, and as essen- 
tial, but different faculties and attributes, intellectual and moral, as He 
gave to man in the same race; and to both, those adapted to the equally 
important but different parts which they were to play in the dramatic 
destinies of their people. The instincts, the teachings of the distinct 
and differing, but harmonious organism of each, led man and woman in 
every race and people and nation and tribe, savage and civilized, in all 
countries and ages of the world, to choose their natural, appropriate, 
and peculiar field of labor and effort. Man assumed the direction of 
government and war, woman of the domestic and family affairs and the 
care and the training of the child; and each have always acquiesced in 
this partition and choice. It has been so from the beginning, through- 
out the whole history of man, and it will continue to be so to the end, 
because it is in conformity to nature and its laws, and is sustained and 
confirmed by the experience and reason of six thousand years. 

I therefore, Mr. President, am decidedly and earnestly opposed to the 
amendment moved by my friend from Pennsylvania. There is no man 
more deeply impressed with or more highly appreciates the important 
offices which woman exercises over the destiny of race than I do. I con- 
cede that woman, by her teachings and influence, is the source of the 
large mass of the morality and virtue of man and of the world. The 
benignant and humanizing and important influence which she exercises 
upon the whole race of man in the proper discharge of her functions and 
duties can not be overestimated ; but that woman should properly per- 
form these great duties, this inappreciably valuable task, it is necessary 
that she should be kept pure. The domestic altar is a sacred fane where 
woman is the high and officiating priestess. This priestess should be 
virtuous, she should be intelligent, she should be competent to the per- 
formance of all her high duties. To keep her in that condition of purity, 
it is necessary that she should be separated from the exercise of suffrage 
and from all those stern and contaminating and demoralizing duties that 
devolves upon the hardier sex man. 

What is the proposition now before the Senate? To make pure, culti- 
vated, noble woman a partisan, a political hack, to lead her among the 
rabble that surround and control by blackguardism and brute force PO 
many of the hustings of the United States. Mr. President, if one greater 
evil or curse could befall the American people than any other, in my 
judgment it would be to confer upon the women of America the right of 
suffrage. It would be a great step in the line of mischief and evil, and it 
would lead to other and equally fatal steps in the same direction. Sir, 
if ever in the depths and silence of night I send up my secret orisons to 
my Maker, one of the most fervent of my prayers would be that the 
women of my country should be saved and sheltered by man from this 



146 History of Woman Suffrage. 

great contamination. It is not necessary to the proper influence and to 
the legitimate power of woman. A cultivated, enlightened, delicate, re- 
fined, and virtuous woman at the family altar is the persuasive and at 
the same time plastic power that sways and fashions the principles and 
character of her children, and thus makes her impress upon the future 
men of America, the Phocians, the Timoleons, the Washingtons, who are 
the honor of the race, and whose destiny it is to elevate and ennoble it. 
Mr. President, in proportion as man becomes civilized so increases the 
power and the influence of woman. In the tribes and nations of the low- 
est ignorance and barbarism this influence is least it is most potent 
where there is the greatest intellectual and moral cultivation of man. I 
want this gentle and holy influence to continue pure and uncontami- 
nated by keeping it within the domestic fane and afar from party poli- 
tics. But, sir, it has become the fashion, the philosophy, the frenzy of 
the day to coin catch-words that carry a seemingly attractive principle, 
but at the same time alluring and mischievous, and among them is this 
cry for woman's rights and also for negro suffrage and manhood suffrage 
and universal suffrage. It is all nothing but slang and deinagoguery, 
and is fraught with naught but evil, mischief, and degradation, individ- 
ually and nationally. For these reasons, sir, one of the last propositions, 
or if gentlemen choose, principles which have been or may be propounded 
to the people of America, or as an amendment to the Constitution of 
the United States, to which I shall ever give my acceptance, is female 
suffrage. 

I do not deny that our national family properly and wisely compre- 
hends all of the nationalities of Europe who may come here, according 
to the terms of our naturalization laws, and their posterity; but I assert 
that negroes, Indians, Mongolians, Chinese, and Tartars ought not and 
can not safely be admitted to the powers and privileges of citizenship. 

I have no doubt that my honorable friend from Pennsylvania desires 
that the right of suffrage should be given to women ; and if he had the 
power to transfer all the women of the conservative States into and to 
become residents of the radical States, who imagines that if that were 
done the Radicals of this House and of the nation would shout in favor 
of giving to women the right of suffrage? If the Radicals in Congress 
and out of Congress knew with the certainty of truth that every vote 
which they will enfranchise by conferring the right of suffrage on the 
negro, would be cast against that party, in favor of their late southern 
masters, in favor of the Democracy, in hostility to the schemes of ambi- 
tion and spoils which are now animating the heart and mind of the great 
radical organization, who doubts that this party and every mother's son 
of them would shout for withholding suffrage from the negro? 

Mr. SPRAGUE : I know the Senate is impatient for a vote. I know they 
are determine^ to vote favorably. When it is necessary that women shall 
vote for the support of liberty and equality I shall be ready to cast my 
vote in their favor. The black man's vote is necessary to this at this 
time 

Mr. BUCKALEW: I desire to say before the vote is taken on this amend- 
ment that I shall vote in favor of it because of the particular position 



Senator Buckalew States His Reasons. 147 

which it occupies. A vote given for this amendment is not a final one. I 
understand it to pronounce an opinion upon the two propositions which 
have been undergoing consideration in the Senate, in a comparative 
manner, if I may use the expression. In voting for this proposition I 
affirm simply that the principles and the reasonings upon which the bill 
itself, as reported by the committee, is based, would apply with equal, 
if not increased force, to the particular proposition contained in the 
amendment. If that be affirmed, then recurs the question whether it is 
proper, whether it is expedient at this time to increase, and very exten- 
sively increase, suffrage in this country. I do not understand that the 
general argument on that question is involved in the present motion. I 
do not understand that it comes up of necessity in considering the propo- 
sition covered by the amendment of my colleague which stands simply in 
contrast with that contained in the bill. I presume there are several 
gentlemen, members of this body, who will vote with reference to this 
consideration and who will reserve their opinion, either openly or in 
their own consciousness, upon the general or indirect question of the 
extension of suffrage to the females ^of the United States. 

But the occasion invites some remarks beyond the mere statement of 
this point. The debates which have been going on for three days in this 
Chamber will go out to the country. They will constitute an element in 
the popular discussions of the times and awaken a large amount of pub- 
lic attention. This is not the last we shall hear of this subject. It will 
come to us again ; and I am persuaded that one reason why it will come 
again is that the arguments against the proposed extension of suffrage 
have not been sufficient ; they have been inadequate ; they have been 
placed upon grounds which wi}l not endure debate. Those who are 
in favor of the extension of suffrage to females can answer what has been 
said in this Chamber, and they can answer it triumphantly; and you 
will eventually be obliged to take other grounds than those which have 
been here stated. From, the beginning of this debate there has been 
either an open or an implied concession of the principle upon which the 
extension of suffrage is asked; and that is, that there is some natural 
right or propriety in extending it further than it was extended by those 
who formed our State and Federal Constitutions; that there is some 
principle of right or of propriety involved' which now appeals powerfully 
to us in favor of extended and liberal action in behalf of those large 
classes who have been hitherto disfranchised; upon whom the right of 
suffrage has not been heretofore conferred. 

Having made this concession upon the fundamental ground of the in- 
quiry, or at all events intimated it, the opponents of an extended fran- 
chise pass on to particular arguments of inconvenience or inexpediency 
as constituting the grounds of their opposition. 

Now, sir, I venture to say that those who resist the extension of suf- 
frage in this country will be unsuccessful in their opposition ; they will 
be overborne, unless they assume grounds of a more commanding char- 
acter than those which they have here iiiiiiiitaincd. This subject of the 
extension of suffrage must be put upon practical grounds and extricated 
from the sophisms of theoretical reasoning. Gentlemen must get out of 
f 



148 History of Woman 



the domain of theory. They must come back again to those principles 
of action upon which our fathers proceeded in framing our constitutional 
system. They lodged suffrage in this country simply in those whom they 
thought most worthy and most fit to exercise it. They did not proceed 
upon those humanitarian theories which have since obtained and which 
now seem to have taken a considerable hold on the public mind. They 
were practical men, and acted with reference to the history and expe- 
rience of mankind. They were no metaphysicians; they were not reform- 
ers hi the modern sense of the term; they were men who based their 
political action upon the experience of mankind, and upon those practi- 
cal reflections with reference to men and things in which they had 
indulged in active life. They placed suffrage then upon the broad com- 
mon-sense principle that it should be lodged in and exercised by those 
who could use it most wisely and most safely and most efficiently to 
serve the great ends for which Government was instituted. They had 
no other ground than this, and their work shows that they proceeded 
upon it, and not upon any abstract or transcendental notion of human 
rights which ignored the existing facts of social life. 

Now, sir, the objection which I have to a large extension of suffrage 
in this country, whether by Federal or State power, is this: that thereby 
you will corrupt and degrade elections, and probably lead to their com- 
plete abrogation hereafter. By pouring into the ballot-boxes of the 
country a large mass of ignorant votes, arid votes subjected to pecuniary 
or social influence, you will corrupt and degrade your elections and lay 
the foundation for their ultimate destruction. That is a conviction of 
mine, and it is upon that ground that I resist both negro suffrage and 
female suffrage, and any other proposed form of suffrage which takes 
humanity in an unduly broad or enlarged sense as the foundation of an 
arrangement of political power. 

Mr. President, I proposed before the debate concluded, before this 
subject should be submitted to the Senate for its final decision, to pro- 
test against some of the reasoning by which this amendment was resisted. 
I intended to protest against particular arguments which were sub- 
mitted; but I was glad this morning that that duty which I had pro- 
posed to myself was discharged, and well discharged by the Senator 
from Missouri [Mr. Brown]. For instance, the argument that the right 
of suffrage ought not to be conferred upon this particular class because 
they did not or could not bear arms a consideration totally foreign and 
irrelevant, in my opinion, to the question which we are discussing. 

But, sir, passing this by, I desire to add a few words before I conclude 
upon another point which was stated or suggested by the Senator from 
Missouri, and that is the question of reform or improvement in our elec- 
tion system ; I mean in the machinery by which or plans upon which 
those elections proceed. After due reflection given to this subject, my 
opinion is that our electoral systems in this country are exceedingly 
defective, and that they require thorough revision, that to them the 
hand of reform must be strongly applied if republican institutions are 
to be ultimately successful with us. 

I would see much less objection to your extension of the right of suf- 



More Voters will Increase the Corruption. 149 

frage very largely to classes now excluded if you had a different mode of 
voting, if you did take or could take the sense of thepe added classes in 
a different manner from that which now obtains in popular voting. You 
proceed at present upon the principle or rule that a mere majority of 
the electoral community shall possess the whole mass of political power; 
and what are the inevitable results? First, that the community is di- 
vided into parties, and into parties not very unequal in their aggregate 
numbers. What next? That the balance of power between parties is 
held by a very small number of voters ; and in practical action what is 
the fact? That the struggle is constantly for that balance of power, and 
in order to obtain it, all the arts and all the evi) influences of elections are 
called into action. It is this struggle for that balance of power that 
breeds most of the evils of your system of popular elections. Now, is 
it not possible to have republican institutions and to eliminate or de- 
crease largely this element of evil? Why, sir, take the State of Penn- 
sylvania, whose voice, perhaps, in this Government is to give direction 
to its legislation at a given time and take a pecuniary interest in the 
country largely interested in your laws, looking forward upon the eve of 
a hotly contested election to some particular measures of Government 
which shall favor it, with what ease can that interest throw into the 
State a pecuniary contribution competent to turn the voice of that 
powerful State and change or determine the policy of your Government. 
And why so? It is only necessary that this corrupt influence should be 
exerted very slightly indeed within that State from abroad in order to 
turn the sca^ because you are only to exert your pernicious power upon 
a small number of persons who hold the balance of power between par- 
ties therein. Sir, that organization of our system which allows such a 
state of things to occur must be inherently vicious. Instead of this 
being a Government of the whole people, which is our fundamental prin- 
ciple, which is our original idea, it is a Government, in the first place, of 
a majority only of the people; and in the next place, it is in some sort a 
Government of that small number of persons who give preponderance 
to one party over another, and who may be influenced by fanaticism, 
corruption, or passion. 

This being our political state at present with reference to electoral action, 
what do you propose ? We have a great evil. Electoral corruption is the 
great danger in our path. It is the evil in our system against which we must 
constantly struggle. Every patriot and every honest man here and in his own 
State is bound to lift his voice and to strike boldly again.st it in all its forms, 
and it requires for its repression all the efforts and all the exertion we can put 
forth. Now what is proposed by the reformers of the present time? We 
have our majority rule it is not a principle ; it is an abuse of all terms to call 
it a principle we have our majority rule in full action, presenting an invitation 
to corrupt, base, and sinister influences to attach themselves to our system ; we 
have great difficulties with which we now struggle arising from imperfect 
arrangements, and what do you propose? To reform existing evils and abuses? 
To correct your system ? To study it as patriots, as men of reflection and good 
sense ? No, sir. You propose to introduce into our electoral bodies "new ele- 
ments of enormous magnitude. You propose to take the base of society, ex- 



150 History of Wo'man Suffrage. 

eluded now, and build upon it, and upon it alone or mainly, because the intro- 
duction of the enormous mass of voters proposed by the reformers will wholly 
change the foundations upon which you build. 

Will not these new electors you propose to introduce be more approachable 
than men who now vote to all corrupt influences ? Will they not be more pas- 
sionate, and therefore more easily influenced by the demagogue ? "Will they 
not be more easily caught and enraptured by superficial declamation, because 
more incapable of profound reflection ? Will not their weakness render them 
subservient to the strong and their ignorance to the artful ? 

I shall not, however, detain you with an elaborate argument upon this ques- 
tion of suffrage. I only feel myself called upon to say enough to indicate 
the general direction ot my reflections upon the questions before us ; to show 
why it is that I am immovably opposed at this time to extending our system 
of suffrage in the District of Columbia or elsewhere so as to include large 
classes of persons who are now excluded ; and to state my opinion that reform 
or change should be concerned with the correction of the existing evils of our 
electoral system, instead of with the enlargement of its boundaries. 

Mr. DOOLITTLE : I move that the Senate do now adjourn. 

Several SENATORS : Oh, no ; let us have a vote. 

The motion was not agreed to. 

Mr. DOOLITTLE : Mr. President, this amendment, in my judgment, opens a 
very grave question ; a question graver than it appears at the blush ; a ques- 
tion upon which the ablest minds are divided here and elsewhere : a question, 
however, on which we are called upon to vote, and therefore one upon which 
I desire very briefly to state the views which control my judgment when I say 
that I shall vote against the amendment which is now offered. 

For myself, sir, after giving some considerable reflection to the subject of 
suffrage, I have arrived at the conclusion that the true base or foundation upon 
which to rest suffrage in any republican community is upon the family, the 
head of the family ; because in civilized society the family is the unit, not the 
individual. What is meant by "man" is man in that relation where he is 
placed according to nature, reason, and religion. If it were a new question 
and it were left to me to determine what should be the true qualification of a 
person to exercise the right of suffrage, I would fix it upon that basis that the 
head of a family, capable of supporting that family, and who had supported 
the family, should be permitted to vote, and no other. 

While I know that the question is not a new one ; while it is impossible for 
me to treat it as a new question because suffrage everywhere has been extended 
beyond the heads of families, yet the reason, in my judgment, upon which it 
has been extended is simply this : if certain men have been permitted to vote 
who were not the heads of families it was because they were the exceptions to 
the general rule, and because it was to be presumed that if they were not at the 
time heads of families they ought to be, and probably would be. I say that 
according to reason, nature, and religion, the family is the unit of every society. 
So far as the ballot is concerned, in my judgment, it represents this fundamental 
element of civilized society, the family. It therefore should be cast by the 
head of. the family, and according to reason, nature, and religion man is the 
head of the family. In that relation, while every man is king, every woman is 
queen ; but upon him devolves the responsibility of controlling the external 



Senator Pomeroy Explains His "JVo." 151 

relations of this family, and those external relations are controlled by the bal- 
lot ; for that ballot or vote which he exercises goes to choose the legislators 
who are to make the laws which are to govern society. Within the family man 
is supreme ; he governs by the law of the family, by the law of reason, nature, 
religion. Therefore it is that I am not in favor of conferring the right of suf- 
frage upon woman 

Mr. President, I have stated very briefly that I shall not be able to vote for 
the proposition of my honorable friend from Pennsylvania [Mr. Cowan], I sha 1 ! 
not be able to vote for this bill if it be a bill to give universal suffrage to the 
colored men in this District without any restriction or qualification. I have 
been informed that some other Senator intends before this bill shall have passed 
in the Senate to propose an amendment which will attach a qualification, and 
perhaps, should that meet the views of the Senate, I might give my support 
to the bill. I shall not detain the Senate further now on this subject. 

Mr. POMEBOT : I desire to say in just a brief word that I shall vote against 
the amendment of the Senator from Pennsylvania, simply because I am in favor 
of this measure, and I do not want to weigh it clown with anything else. There 
are other measures that I would be glad to support in their proper place and 
time ; but this is a great measure of itself. Since I have been a member of the 
Senate, there was a law in this District authorizing the selling of colored men. 
To have traveled in six years from the auction-block to the ballot with these 
people is an immense stride, and if we can carry this measure alone of itself we 
should be contented for the present. I am for thig measure religiously and 
earnestly, and I would vote down and vote against everything that I thought 
weakened or that 1 thought was opposed to it. It is simply with this view, 
without expressing any opinion in regard to the merits of the amendment, that 
I shall vote against it and all other amendments. 

The PRESIDENT pro tern. : The question is on the amendment of the Senator 
from Pennsylvania [Mr. Cowan], to strike out the word " male " before the 
word "person,'' in the second line of the first section of the amendment 
reported by the Committee on the District of Columbia as a substitute for the 
whole bill, and on that question the yeas and nays have been ordered. Yeas, 
9. Nays, 37.* 

In the House, January 28, 1867, Mr. Noell, of Missouri, introduced a bill to 
amend the suffrage act of the District of Columbia, which, after the second 
reading, he moved should be referred to a select committee of five, and on that 
motion demanded the previous question, and called for the yeas and nays, 
which resulted in 49 yeas,t 74 nays 68 not voting. 



* TEAS Messrs. Anthony, Brown, Bnckalew, Cowan, Foster, Nesmtth, Patterson, 
Riddle, Wade 9. NATS Messrs. Cattell, Cliandlcr, Conness, Crcs\\ ell, Davis, Dixon, Doo- 
littlc, Edmunds, Fessenden, Fogg, Frclinghuysen, Grimes, Hurris, Henderson, Hendricks, 
Howard, Howe, Kirkwood, Lane, Morgan, Morrill, Norton, Poland, Pomeroy, Ramsey, 
Ross, Saulsbury, Sherman, Sprngue, Stewart, Sumner, Trumbull, Van Winkle, Willey, 
Williams, Wilson, Tales 37. 

t TEAS Ancona, Baker, Barker, Baxter, Benjamin, Boyer, Broomall, Bundy, Camp- 
bell, Cooper, Defrees, Denison, Eldridge, JFarnsworth, Ferry, Finck, Garfleld, Hale, 
Hawkins, Hise, Chester D. Hubbard, Edwin .N. Hubbell, Humphrey, Julian, Kasson, 
Kelley, Kelso, Le Blond, Coan, McClurg, McKee, Miller, Newell, Niblock, Noell, Orth, 
Ritter, Rogers, Ross, Sitgreavcs, Starr, Stevens, Strouse, Taber, Nathaniel G. Taylor, 
Trimble, Andrew H. Ward, Henry D. Washburn, Winfleld 49. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

NATIONAL CONVENTIONS IN 1866-67. 

The first National Woman Suffrage Convention after the war Speeches by Ernestine L. 
Eose, Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Henry Ward Beecher, Frances D. Gage, Theodore 
Tiltbn, Wendell Phillips Petitions to Congress and the Constitutional Convention 
Mrs. Stanton a candidate to Congress Anniversary of the Equal Rights Association. 

The first Woman's Rights Convention* after the war was held in 
the Church of the Puritans, New York, May 10th, 1866. 

As the same persons were identified with the Anti-slavery and 



* CALL FOE THE ELEVENTH NATIONAL WOMAN'S RIGHTS CONVENTION. The Conven- 
tion will be held in the City of New York, at the Church of the Puritans, Union Square, 
on Thursday, the 10th of May, 1866, at 10 o'clock. Addresses will be delivered by ER- 
NESTINE L. ROSE, FRANCES D. GAGE, WENDELL PHILLIPS, THEODORE TILTON, ELIZA- 
BETH CADY STANTON, and (probably) LUCRETIA MOTT and ANNA E. DICKINSON. 

Those who tell us the republican idea is a failure, do not see the deep gulf between 
our broad theory and partial legislation ; do not see that our Government for the last cen- 
tury has been but the repetition of the old experiments of class and caste. Hence, the 
failure is not in the principle, but in the lack of virtue on our part to apply it. The ques- 
tion now is, have we the wisdom and conscience, from the present upheavings of our 
political system, to reconstruct a government on the one enduring basis that has never 
yet been tried " EQUAL RIGHTS TO ALL." 

From the proposed class legislation in Congress, it is evident we have not yet learned 
wisdom from thft experience of the past ; for, while our representatives at Washington 
are discussing the right of suffrage for the black man, as the only protection to life, lib- 
erty and happiness, they deny that " necessity of citizenship " to woman, by proposing 
to introduce the word " male " into the Federal Constitution. In securing suffrage but 
to another shade of mawhood, while we disfranchise fifteen million tax-pa3 r ers, we come 
not one line nearer the republican idea. Can a ballot in the hand of woman, and dignity 
on her brow, more unsex her than do a scepter and a crown? Shall an American- Con- 
gress pay less honor to the daughter of a President than a British Parliament to the 
daughter of a King ? Should not our petitions command as respectful a hearing in a repub- 
lican Senate as a speech of Victoria in the House of Lords ? Do we not claim that here 
all men and women are nobles all heirs apparent to the throne? The fact that this 
backward legislation has roused so little thought or protest from the women of the 
country, but proves what some of our ablest thinkers have already declared, that the 
greatest barrier to a government of equality was the aristocracy of its women. For, 
while woman holds an ideal position above man and the work of life, poorly imitating 
the pomp, heraldry, and distinction of an effete European civilization, we as a nation can 
never realize the divine idea of equality. 

To build a true republic, the church and the home must undergo the same upheavings 
(152) 



Merge tlie Societies into One. 153 

Woman's Rights Societies, and as by the " Proclamation of Eman- 
cipation " the colored man was now a freeman, and a citizen ; and 
as bills were pending in Congress to secure him in the right of suf- 
frage, the same right women were demanding, it was proposed to 
merge the societies into one, under the name of " The American 
Equal Rights Association," that the same conventions, appeals, and 
petitions, might include both classes of disfranchised citizens. 
The proposition was approved by the majority of those present, and 
the new organization completed at an adjourned session. Though 
Mr. Garrison, with many other abolitionists, feeling that the Anti- 
slavery work was finished, had retired, and thus partly disorganized 
that Society, yet, in its executive session, Wendell Phillips, Presi- 
dent, refused to entertain the proposition, on the ground that such 
action required an amendment to the constitution, which could not 
be made without three months previous notice. Nevertheless there 
was a marked division of opinion among the anti-slavery friends 
present. 

At an early hour Dr. Cheever's church was well filled with an 
audience chiefly of ladies, who received the officers and speakers* 
of the Convention with hearty applause. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 
President of the "National Woman's Rights Committee," called 
the Convention to order, and said : 

We have assembled to-day to discuss the right and duty of women to 
claim and use the ballot. Now in the reconstruction is the opportunity, 
perhaps for the century, to base our government on the broad principle 
of equal rights to all. The representative women of the nation feel that 
they have an interest and duty equal with man in the struggles and tri- 
umphs of this hour. 

we now see in the State ; for, while our egotism, selfishness, luxury and ease are bap- 
tized in the name of Him whose life was a sacrifice, while at the family altar we are 
taught to worship wealth, power and position, rather than humanity, it is vain to talk of 
a republican government : The fair fruits of liberty, equality and fraternity must be 
blighted in the bud, till cherished in the heart of woman. At this hour the nation nr'eds 
the highest thought and inspiration of a true womanhood infused into every vein and 
artery of its life ; and woman needs a broader, deeper education, such as a pure religion 
and lofty patriotism alone can give. From the baptism of this second revolution should 
she not rise up with new strength and dignity, clothed in all those " rights, privileges 
and immunities " that shall best enable her to fulfill her highest duties to Humanity, her 
Country, her Family and Herself ? 

On behalf of the National Woman's Rights Central Committee, 

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, President 

SUSAN B. ANTHONY, Secretary. 

New York (48 Beekman street), March 31, 1866. 

* Ernestine L. Rose, Wendell Phillips, John T. Sargennt, O. B. Frothingham, Frances 
D. Gage, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Theodore Tilton, Lucrctia Mott, 
Martha C. Wright, Stephen S. and Abbey Kelloy Foster, Margaret Winchester and Purker 
Pillsbury. 

VOL. H, 11. 



154 History of Woman Suffrage. 

It may not be known to all of you that, during the past year, thousands 
of petitions, asking the ballot for woman, have been circulated through 
the Northern States and sent to Congress. Onr thanks are due to the 
Hon. James Brooks for his kindness in franking our petitions, and his 
skill in calling to them the attention of the nation. As we have lost this 
champion in the House, I trust his more fortunate successor will not 
dodge his responsibilities to his countrywomen who are taxed but not re- 
presented. This should be a year of great activity among the women of 
this State. As New York is to have a constitutional convention in '67, it 
behooves us now to make an earnest demand, by appeals and petitions, 
to have the word "male" as well as "white" stricken from our Consti- 
tution. 

SUSAN B. ANTHONY, presented several resolutions for consider- 
ation. 

5. Resolved, That disfranchisement in a republic is as great an anomaly, if not cruelty, as 
slavery itself. It is, therefore, the solemn duty of Congress, in" guaranteeing a republican 
form, of government to every State of this J7iore," to see that there be no abridgment of 
suffrage among persons responsible to law, on account of color or sex. 

6. Resolved, That the Joint Resolutions and report of the " Committee of Fifteen," now be- 
fore Congress, to introduce the word " male " into the Federal Constitution, are a desecra- 
tion of the last will and testament of the Fathers, a violation of the spirit of republicanism, 
and cruel injustice to the women of the nation. 

7. Resolved, That while we return our thanks to those members of Congress who, re- 
cognizing the sacred right of petition, gave our prayer for the ballot a respectful consid- 
eration, we also remind those who, with scornful silence laid them on the table, or with 
flippant sentimentality pretended to exalt us to the clouds, above man, the ballot and 
the work of life, that we consider no position more dignified and womanly than on an 
even platform with man worthy to lay the corner-stone of a republic in equality and 
justice. 

8. Resolved, That we recommend to the women of the several States to petition their 
Legislatures to take the necessary steps to so amend their constitutions as to secure the 
right of suffrage to every citizen, without distinction of race, color or sex ; and especially 
in those States that are soon to hold their constitutional conventions. 

THEODORE TLLTON said: According to the programme, it is now my 
friend Mr. Beecher's turn to speak, but I observe that this gentleman, 
like some of the rest of the President's friends, occupies a back seat. 
[Laughter]. While, therefore, he is sitting under the gallery, I will oc- 
cupy your attention just long enough to give that modest man a chance 
to muster nerve enough to make his appearance in public. [Laughter]. 
First of all, I have an account to settle with Mrs. Stanton. In her speech 
on taking the chair, she said that editors are not good housekeepers a 
remark which no editor would think of retorting upon herself. [Laugh- 
ter]. But, however dingy my editorial office may sometimes be, it is 
always a cheerful place when Mrs. Stanton visits it. [Applause]. More- 
over, I think the place she invited me out of is no darker than this place 
which she invited me into ! [Laughter]. In fact, I think the press has 
generally as much illumination as the church. [Applause]. 

Mrs. President, this convention is called to consider the most beautiful 
and humane idea which has ever entered into American politics the right 
of woman to that ballot which belongs equally to all citizens. What is the 



Hosalind^s Name Cut into the Bark. 155 

chief glory of our democratic institutions ? It is, that they appeal equally 
to the common interest of all classes to high and low, to rich and poor, 
to white and black, to male and female. And never, until the political 
equality of all these classes is fully recognized by our laws, shall we have 
a government truly democratic. The practical instrument of this equality 
is the ballot. Now what is the ballot ? Mr. Frothingham gave us one 
definition; Mr. Phillips gave us another. But the ballot is so large a 
thing that it admits of many definitions. The ballot is what the citizen 
thinks of the government. The government looks to the ballot to know 
the popular will. I do not mean to say that the little piece of white 
paper which we hold in our hand on election day is the only means 
whereby we can, utter an opinion that shall be heard in "Washington. 
We can speak by the pen; we can speak by the voice. A wise govern- 
ment will give heed to the public press, and to the popular voice. But 
there is no spoken voice, there is no written word, which the government 
is legally bound to heed except the ballot. When they see the ballot, they 
know they are served with official notice. When you talk to a govern- 
ment, you talk as to a tree ; but when you vote at it, you scratch your 
name on the bark. Now, I want to see Rosalind's name cut into the bark 
of the government. [Applause]. Who ought to possess the ballot ? Our 
President is right I mean this President. [Applause]. She does not 
claim the ballot for women as women, but for women as citizens. That 
is the true ground. The ballot belongs not to the white man, not 
to the black man, not to the woman, but to the citizen. Shall the min- 
ister vote ? No. Shall the lawyer ? No. Shall the merchant ? No. 
Shall the rich man ? No. Shall the poor man ? No. None of these 
shall vote. There is only one person who shall vote, and that is the citi- 
zen. [Applause]. Now I trust the day is not far distant when our insti- 
tutions shall practically recognize this idea when civil prerogative shall 
be limited not only by no distinction of color, but by no distinction of sex. 
Are women politically oppressed that they need the ballot for their 
protection ? I leave that question to be answered by women themselves. 
I demand the ballot for woman, not for woman's sake, but for man's. 
She may demand it for her own sake ; but to-day, / demand it for my 
sake. We shall never have a government thoroughly permeated with 
humanity, thoroughly humane, thoroughly noble, thoroughly trust- 
worthy, until both men and women shall unite in forming the public 
sentiment, and in administering that sentiment through the government. 
[Applause], The church needs woman, society needs woman, literature 
needs woman, science needs woman, the arts need woman, politics need 
woman. [Applause]. A Frenchman once wrote an essay to prove wo- 
man's right to the alphabet. She took the alphabet, entered literature, 
and drove out Dean Swift. When she takes the ballot, and enters 
politics, she will drive out Fernando Wood. [Applause]. But, shall we 
have a woman for President ? I would thank God if to-day we had a 
man for President. [Laughter]. Shall women govern the country ? 
Queens have ruled nations from the beginning of time, and woman has 
governed man from the foundation of the world 1 [Laughter]. I know 
that Plato didn't have a good opinion of women ; but probably they were 



156 History of Woman Suffrage. 

not as amiable in his day as in ours. They undoubtedly have wrought 
their full share of mischief in the world. The chief bone of contention 
among mankind, from the earliest ages down, has been that rib of Adam 
out of which God made Eve. [Laughter]. And I believe in holding wo^ 
men to as great a moral accountability as men. [Laughter]. I believe, 
also, in holding them to the same intellectual accountability. Twenty 
years ago, when Macaulay sat down to review Lucy Rushton's no, I mean 
Lucy Aiken's (laughter) "Life of Addison," he was forced to allude to 
what was a patent fact, that a woman's book was then to be treated 
with more critical leniency than a man's. But criticism nowadays never 
thinks of asking whether a book be a woman's or a man's, as a prelim- 
inary to administering praise or blame. In the Academv of Design, the 
critic deals as severely with a picture painted by a woman as with one 
painted by a man. This is right. Would you have it otherwise? Not at 
all! We are to stand upon a common level. 

The signs of the times indicate the progress of woman's cause. Every 
year helps it forward visibly. The political status of woman was never 
so seriously pondered as it is now pondered by thoughtful minds in this 
country. By and by, the principles of Christian democracy will cover 
the continent nay, will cover the world, as the equator belts it 
with summer heat! [Applause]. Until which time, we are called to dili- 
g3nt and earnest work. "Learn to labor an d~to wait," saith the poet. 
There will be need of much laboring and of long waiting. Sir William 
Jones tells us that the Hindoo laws declared that women should have no 
political independence and there is many a backward Yankee who don't 
know any better than to agree with the Hindoos. Salatri, the Italian, 
drew a design of Patience a woman chained to a rock by her ankles, 
while a fountain threw a thin stream of water, drop by drop, upon the 
iron chain, until the link should be worn away, and the wistful prisoner 
be set fre'e. In like manner the Christian women of this country are 
chained to the rock of Burmese prejudice; but God is giving the morning 
and the evening dew, the early and the latter rain, until the ancient fet- 
ters shall be worn away, and a disfranchised sex shall leap at last into 
political liberty. [Applause]. And now for Mr. Beecher. 

MR. BEECHER, on rising, was received with hearty applause,* and 
spoke for an hour, in a strain of great animation, as follows : 

It may be asked why, at such a time as this, when the attention of the 
whole nation is concentrated upon the reconstruction of our States, we 
should intrude a new and advanced question. I have been asked " Why 
not wait for the settlement of the one that now fills the minds of men? 
Why divert and distract their thoughts?" I answer, because the ques- 
tions are one and the same. We are not now discussing merely the 
right of suffrage for the African, or his status as a new-born citizen. 
Claiming his rights compels us to discuss the whole underlying question 



* As this was the first time Mr. Beecher had honored the platform, we give copious ex- 
tracts from his speech in preference to those who were so often reported in the first vol- 
ume. This speech is published in full in tract form, and can be obtained from the Sec- 
retary of the National Woman's Suffrage Association. 



Henry Ward Beecher. 157 

of government. This is the case in court. But when the judge shall have 
given his decision, that decision will cover the whole question of civil 
society, and the relations of every individual in it as a factor, an agent, 
an actor , 

All over the world, the question to-day is, Who has a right to con- 
struct and administer law? Russia gelid, frigid Russia can not escape 
the question. Yea, he that sits on the Russian throne has proved him- 
self a better democrat than any of us all, and is giving to-day more 
evidence of a genuine love of God, and of its partner emotion, love to 
man, in emancipating thirty million serfs, than many a proud democrat 
of America has ever given. (Applause.) And the question of emancipa- 
tion in Russia is only the preface to the next question, which doubtless 
he as clearly as any of us foresees namely, the question of citizenship, 
and of the rights and functions of citizenship. In Italy, the question 
of who may partake of government has arisen, and there has been an 
immense widening of popular liberty there. Germany, that freezes at 
night and thaws out by day only enough to freeze up again at night, has 
also experienced as much agitation on this subject as the nature of the 
case will allow. And when all France, all Italy, all Russia, and all Great 
Britain shall have rounded out into perfect democratic liberty, it is to be 
hoped that, on the North side of the fence where it freezes first and the 
ice thaws out last, Germany will herself be thawed out in her turn, and 
come into the great circle of democratic nations. Strange, that the 
mother of modern democracy should herself be stricken with such a 
palsy and with such lethargy ! Strange, that in a nation in which was 
born and in which has inhered all the indomitableness of individualism 
should be so long unable to understand the secret of personal liberty ! 
But all Europe to-day is being filled and agitated with this great ques- 
tion of the right of every man to citizenship; of the right of every man 
to make the laws that are to control him ; and of the right of every man 
to administer the laws that are applicable to him. This is the question 
to-day in Great Britain. The question that is being agitated from the 
throne down to the Birmingham shop, from the Atlantic to the North 
Sea, to-day, is this : Shall more than one man in six in Great Britain 
be allowed to vote? There is only one in six of the full-grown men in 
that nation that can vote to-day. And everywhere we are moving to- 
ward that sound, solid, final ground namely, that it inheres in the -rad- 
ical notion of manhood that every man has a right which is not given 
to him by potentate nor by legislator, nor by the consent of the commu- 
nity, but which belongs to his structural idea, and is a divine right, to 
make the laws that control him, and to elect the magistrates that are to 
administer those laws. It is universal. 

And now, this being the world-tide and tendency, what is there in 
history, what is there in physiology, what is there in experience, that 
shall say to this tendency, marking the line of sex, "Thus far shalt thou 
go. and no farther?" I roll the argument off from my shoulders, and I 
challenge the man that stands with me, beholding that the world- 
thought to-day is the emancipation of the citizen's power and the prepa- 
ration by education of the citizen for that power, and objects to extend- 



158 History of Woman Suffrage. 

ing the right of citizenship to every human being, to give me the reasons 
why. (Applause). To-day this nation is exercising its conscience on the 
subject of suffrage for the African. I have all the time favored that: not 
because he was an African, but because he was a man; because this right 
of voting, which is the symbol of everything else in civil power, inheres 
in every human being. But I ask you, to-day, "Is it safe to bring in a 
million black men to vote, and not safe to bring in your mother, your 
wife, and your sister to vote?" (Applause). This ought ye to have done, 
and to have done quickly, and not to have lejft the other undone. (Re- 
newed applause). 

To-day politicians of every party, especially on the eve of an election, 
are in favor of the briefest and most expeditious citizenizing of the Irish- 
men. I have great respect for Irishmen when they do not attempt to 
carry on war! (Laughter). The Irish Fenian movement is a ludicrous 
phenomenon past all laughing at. Bombarding England from the shore 
of America! (Great laughter). Paper pugnation! Oratorical destroy- 
ing! But wh'en wind- work is the order of the day, commend me to 
Irishmen! (Renewed laughter). And yet I am in favor of Irishmen 
voting. Just so soon as they give pledge that they come to America, in 
good faith, to abide here as citizens, and forswear the old allegiance, and 
take on the new, I am in favor of their voting. Why? Because they 
have learned our Constitution? No; but because voting teaches. The 
vote is a schoolmaster. They will learn our laws, and learn our Consti- 
tution, and learn our customs ten times quicker when the responsibility 
of knowing these things is laid upon them, than when they are permitted 
to live in carelessness respecting them. And this nation is so strong 
that it can stand the incidental mischiefs of thus teaching the wild 
rabble that emigration throws on our shores for our good and upbuild- 
ing. We are wise enough, and we have educational force enough, to 
carry these ignorant foreigners along with us. We have attractions that 
will draw them a thousand times more toward us than they can draw us 
toward them. And yet, while I take this broad ground, th^t no man, 
even of the Democratic party (I make the distinction because a man 
may be a democrat and be ashamed of the party, and a man may be of 
the party and not know a single principle of democracy), should be de- 
barred from voting, I ask, is an Irishman just landed, unwashed and 
uncombed, more fit to vote than a woman educated in our common 
schools? Think of the mothers and daughters of this land, among 
whom are teachers, writers, artists, and speakers! What a throng could 
we gather if we should, from all the West, call our women that as educa- 
tors are carrying civilization there ! Thousands upon thousands there 
are of women that have gone forth from the educational institutions of 
New England to carry light and knowledge to other parts of our land. 
Now, place* this great army of refined and cultivated women on the one 
side, and on the other side the rising cloud of emancipated Africans, and 
in front of them the great emigrant band of the Emerald Isle, and is 
there force enough in our government to make it safe to give to the 
African and the Irishman the franchise? There is. We shall give it to 
them. (Applause). And will our force all fail, having done that? And 



The Vote all-Important for Women. 159 

shall we take the fairest and best part of our society ; those to whom we 
owe it that we ourselves are civilized; our teachers; our companions; 
those to whom we go for counsel in trouble more than to any others; 
those to whom we trust everything that is dear to ourselves our chil- 
dren's welfare, our household, our property, our name and reputation, 
and that which is deeper, our inward life itself, that no man may men- 
tion to more than one shall we take them and say, "They are not, after 
all, fit to vote where the Irishman votes, and where the African votes? " 
T am scandalized when I hear men talk in the way that men do talk 
men that do not think. 

If therefore, you refer to the initial sentence, and ask me why I intro- 
duce this subject to-day, when we are already engaged on the subject of 
suffrage, I say, This is the greatest development of the suffrage question. 
It is more important that woman should vote than that the black man should 
vote. It is important that he should vote, that the principle may be vin- 
dicated, and that humanity may be defended; but it is important that 
woman should vote, not for her sake. She will derive benefit from vot- 
ing; but it is not on a selfish ground that I claim the right of suffrage for 
her. It is God's growing and least disclosed idea of a true human society 
that man and woman should not be divorced in political affairs anymore 
than they are in religious and social affairs. I claim that women should 
vote because society will never know its last estate and true glory until 
you accept God's edict and God's command long raked over and cov- 
ered in the dust until you bring it out, and lift it up, and read this one 
of God's Ten Commandments, written, if not on stone, yet in the very 
heart and structure of mankind, Let those that God joined together not be 
put asunder. (Applause.) 

When men converse with me on the subject of suffrage, or the vote, 
it seems to me that the terminology withdraws their minds from the depth 
and breadth of the case to the mere instruments. Many of the objections 
that are urged against woman's voting are objections against the me- 
chanical and physical act of suffrage. It is true that all the forces of 
society, in their final political deliverance, must needs be. born through 
the vote, in our structure of government. In England it is not so. It 
was one of the things to be learned there that the unvoting population 
on any question in which they are interested and united are more pow- 
erful than all the voting population or legislation. The English Parlia- 
ment, if they believed to-day that every working man in Great Britain 
staked his life on the issues of universal suffrage, would not dare a month 
to deny it. For when a nation's foundations are on a class of men that ' 
do not vote, and its throne stands on forces that are coiled up and liable 
at any time to break forth to its overthrow, it is a question whether it is 
safe to provoke the exertion of those forces or not. With us, where all 
men vote, government is safe; because, if a thing is once settled by a fair 
vote, we will go to war rather than give it up. As when Lincoln was 
elected, if an election is valid, it must stand. In such a nation as this, 
an election is equivalent to a divine decree, and irreversible. But in 
Great Britain an election means, not the will of the people, but the will 
of rulers and a favored class, and there is always under them a great 



160 



History of Woman Suffrage. 



wronged class, that, if they get stirred up by the thought that they are 
wronged, will burst out with an explosion that not the throne, nor par- 
liament, nor the army, nor the exchequer can withstand the shock. And 
they wisely give way to the popular will when they can no longer resist 
it without running too great a risk. They oppose it as far as it is safe to 
do so, and then jump on and ride it. And you will see them astride of 
the vote, if the common people want it. But in America it is not so. 
The vote with us is so general that there is no danger of insurrection, 
and there is no danger that the government will be ruined by a wronged 
class that lies coiled up beneath it. When we speak of the vote here, 
it is not the representative of a class, as it is in England, worn like a star, 
or garter, saying, "I have the king's favor or the government's promise of 
honor." Voting with us is like breathing. It belongs to us as a common 
blessing. He that does not vote is not a citizen, with us. 

It is not the vote that I am arguing, except that that is the outlet. 
What I am arguing, when I urge that woman should vote, is that she 
should do all things back of that which the vote means and enforces. 
She should be a nursing mother to human society. It is a plea that I 
make, that woman should feel herself called to be interested not alone in 
the household, not alone in the church, not alone in just that neighbor- 
hood in which she resides, but in the sum total of that society to which 
she belongs; and that she should feel that her duties are not discharged 
until they are commensurate with the definition which our Saviour gave in 
the parable of the good Samaritan. I argue, not a woman's right to vote : 
I argue woman's duty to discharge citizenship. (Applause.) I say that 
more and more the great interests of human society in America 
are such as need the peculiar genius that God has given to woman. 
The questions that are to fill up our days are not forever to be mere 
money questions. Those will always constitute a large part of politics ; 
but not so large a portion as hitherto. We are coming to a period when 
it is not merely to be a scramble of fierce and belluine passions in the 
strife for power and ambition. Human society is yet to discuss questions 
of work and the workman. Down below privilege lie the masses of men. 
More men, a thousand times, feel every night the ground, which is their 
mother, than feel the stars and the moon far up in the atmosphere of 
favor. As when Christ came the great mass carpeted the earth, instead 
of lifting themselves up like trees of Lebanon, so now and here the great 
mass of men are men that have nothing but their hands, their heads, and 
their good stalwart hearts, as their capital. The millions that come from 
1 abroad come that they may have light and power, and lift their children 
up out of ignorance, to where they themselves could not reach with the 
tips of their fingers. And the great question of to-day is, How shall 
work find leisure, and in leisure knowledge and refinement ? And this 
question is knocking at the door of legislation. And is there a man who 
does not know, that when questions of justice and humanity are blended, 
woman's instinct is better than man's judgment? From, the moment a 
woman takes the child into her arms, God makes her the love-magistrate 
of the family ; and her instincts and moral nature fit her to adjudicate 
questions of weakness and want. And when society is on the eve of ad- 



Woman's Duty to Vote. 161 

judicating such questions as these, it is a monstrous fatuity to exclude 
from them the very ones that, by nature, and training, and instinct, are 
best fitted to legislate and to judge. 

For the sake, then, of such questions as these, that have come to their 
birth, I feel it to be woman's duty to act in public affairs. I do not stand 
here to plead for your rights. Eights compared with duties, are insignif- 
icant are mere baubles are as the bow on your bonnet. It seems to 
me that the voice of God s providence to you to-day is, " Oh messenger 
of mine, where are the words that I sent you to speak ? Whose dull, 
dead ear has been raised to life by that vocalization of heaven, that was 
given to you more than to any other one ? " Man is sub-base. A thirty- 
two feet six-inch pipe is he. But what is an organ played with the feet, 
if all the upper part is left unused ? The flute, the hautboy, the finer 
trumpet stops, all those stops that minister to the intellect, the imagina- 
tion, and the higher feelings these must be drawn, and the whole organ 
played from top to bottom ! (Applause.) 

More than that, there are now coming up for adjudication public ques- 
tions of education. And who, by common consent, is the educator of 
the world ? Who has been ? Schools are to be of more importance than 
railroads not to undervalue railroads. Books and newspapers are to be 
more vital and powerful than exchequers and banks not to undervalue 
exchequers and banks. In other words, as society ripens, it has to ripen in 
its three departments, in the following order: First, in the animal; second, 
in the social ; and third, in the spiritual and moral. We are entering the 
last period, in which the questions of politics are to be more and more 
moral questions. And I invoke those whom God made to be peculiarly con- 
servators of things moral and spiritual to come forward and help us in that 
work, in which we shall falter and fail without woman. We shall never per- 
fect human society without her offices and her ministration. We shall 
never round out the government, or public administration, or public pol- 
icies, or politics itself, until you have mixed the elements that God gave 
to us in society namely, the powers of both men and women. (Applause.) 
I, therefore, charge my countrywomen with this duty of taking part in 
public affairs in the era in which justice, and humanity, and education, 
and taste, and virtue are to be more and more a part and parcel of public 
procedure. * * * * 

In such a state of society, then, as the present, I stand, as I have said, 
on far higher ground in arguing this question than the right of woman. 
That I believe in ; but that is down in the justice's court. I go to the 
supreme bench and argue it, and argue it on the ground that the na- 
tion needs woman, and that woman needs the nation, and that woman 
can never bec6rne what she should be, and the nation can never become 
what it should be, until there is no distinction made between the sexes 
as regards the! rights and duties of citizenship until we come to the 
28th verse of the third chapter of Galatians. What is it? [turning to Mr. 
Tilton, who said, " I don't know! "] Don't know ? If it- was Lucy Rush- 
ton, you would ! (Great laughter). 

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male 
nor female ; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 



162 History of Woman Suffrage. 

And when that day comes; when the heavenly kingdom is ushered in 
with its myriad blessed influences ; when the sun of righteousness 
shall fill the world with its beams, as the natural sun coming from the 
far South fills the earth with glorious colors and beauty, then it will 
come to pass that there shall be no nationality, no difference of classes, 
and no difference of sexes. Then all shall be one in Christ Jesus. Hold 
that a minute, please [handing Mr. Tilton a pocket Testament from which 
he had read the foregoing passage of Scripture]. Theodore was a most 
excellent young man when he used to go to my church; but he has es- 
caped from my care lately, and now I don't know what he does. (Laughter). 

I urge, then, that woman should perform the duty of a citizen in vot- 
ing. You may, perhaps, ask me, before I go any further, " What is the 
use of preaching to us that we ought to do it, when we are not permitted 
to do it?" That day in which the intelligent, cultivated women of 
America say, "We have a right to the 'ballot" will be the day in which 
they will have it. (Voices "Yes." " That is so "). There is no power 
on earth that can keep it from them. [Applause]. The reason you have 
not voted is because you have not wanted to. [Applause]. It is because 
you have not felt that it was your duty to vote. You have felt yourselves 
to be secure and happy enough in your privileges and prerogatives, and 
have left the great mass of your sisters, that shed tears and bore bur- 
dens, to shirk for themselves. You have felt that you had rights more 
than you wanted now. O yes, it is as if a beauty in Fifth Avenue, hear- 
ing one plead that bread might be sent to the hungry and famishing, 
should say, "What is this talk about bread for? I .have as much bread 
as I want, and plenty of sweetmeats, and I do not want your loaves." 
Shall one that is glutted with abundance despise the wants of the starv- 
ing, who are so far below them that they do not hear their cries, not one 
of which escapes the ear of Almighty God? Because you have wealth 
and knowledge and loving parents, or a faithful husband, or kind broth- 
ers, and you feel no pressure of need, do you feel no inward pressure of 
humanity for others ? Is there no part of God's great work in providence 
that should lead you to be discontented with your ease and privileges 
until you are enfranchised? You ought to vote; and when your under- 
standing and intellect are convinced that you ought to do it, you will 
have the power to do it; and you never will till then. 

I. Woman has more interest than man in the promotion of virtue and 
purity and humanity. Half, shall I say? Half does not half measure 
the proportion of those sorrows that come upon woman by reason of her 
want of influence and power. All the young men that, breaking down, 
break fathers' and mothers' hearts ; all those that struggle near to the 
grave, weeping piteous tears of blood, it might almost be said, and that at 
last, under paroxysms of despair, sin against nature, and are swept out of 
misery into damnation; the spectacles that fill our cities, and afflict and 
torment villages what are these but reasons that summon woman to 
have a part in that regenerating of thought and that regenerating of 
legislation which shall make vice a crime, and vice-makers criminals? 
Do you suppose that, if it were to turn on the votes of women to-day 
whether rum should be sold in every shop in this city, there would be 



Look beyond th# Meal-Tub. 163 

one moment's delay in settling the question? What to the oak lightning 
is that marks it and descends swiftly upon it, that woman's vote would 
be to miscreant vices in these great cities. [Applause]. Ah, I speak that 
which I do know. As a physician speaks from that which he sees in the 
hospital where he ministers, so I speak from that which I behold in my 
professional position and place, where I see the undercurrent of life. I 
hear groans that come from smiling faces. I witness tears that when 
others look upon the face are all swept away, as the rain is when one 
comes after a storm. Not most vocal are our deepest sorrows. Oh, the 
sufferings of wives for husbands untrue ! Oh, the sufferings of mothers 
for sons led astray! Oh, the sufferings of sisters for sisters gone! Oh, 
the sufferings of companions for companion-women desecrated! And I 
hold it to be a shame that they, who have the instinct of purity and of 
divine remedial mercy more than any other, should withhold their hand 
from that public legislation by which society may be scoured, and its 
pests cleared away. And I declare that woman has more interest in legis- 
lation than man, because she is the sufferer and the home-staying, ruined 
victim. 

II. The household, about which we hear so much said as being woman's 
sphere, is safe only as the community around about it is safe. Now and 
then there may be a Lot that can live in Sodom ; but when Lot was 
called to emigrate, he could not get all his children to go with him. 
They had been intermarried and corrupted. A Christian woman is said 
to have all that she needs for her understanding and to task her powers 
if she will stay at home and mend her husband's clothes, if she has a 
husband, and take care of her children, if she has children. The welfare 
of the family, it is said, ought to occupy her time and thoughts. And 
some ministers, in descanting upon the sphere of woman, are wont to 
magnify the glory and beauty of a mother teaching some future chief- 
justice, or some president of the United States. Not one whit of glory 
would I withdraw from such a canvas as that; but I aver that the power 
to teach these children largely depends upon the influences that surround 
the household. So that she that would take the best care of the house 
must take care of that atmosphere which is around the house as well. And 
every true and wise Christian woman is bound to have a thought for the 
village, for the county, for the State, and for the nation. [Applause]. 
That was not the kind of woman that brought me up a woman that 
never thought of anything outside of her own door-yard. My mother's 
house was as wide as Christ's house ; and she taught me to understand 
the words of Him that said, "The field is the world; and whoever needs 
is your brother." A woman that is content to wash stockings, and make 
Johnny-cake, and to look after and bring up her boys faultless to a but- 
ton, and that never thinks beyond the meal-tub, and whose morality is 
so small as to be confined to a single house, is an under-grown woman, 
and will spend the first thousand years after death in coming to that 
state in which she ought to have been before she died. [Laughter]. Tell 
me that a woman is fit to give an ideal life to an American citizen, to en- 
large his sympathies, to make him wise in judgment, and to establish 
him in patriotic regard, who has no thought above what to eat and 



164 History of Woman Suffrage. 

drink, and wherewithal to be clothed. The best housekeepers are they 
that are the most widely beneficent. "Seek first the kingdom of God 
and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." 
God will take care of the stockings, if you take care of the heads! 
[Laughter and applause]. Universal beneficence never hinders anybody's 
usefulness in any particular field of duty. Therefore, woman's sphere 
should not be limited to the household. The public welfare requires 
that she should have a thought of affairs outside of the household, and 
in the whole community. 

III. Woman brings to public affairs peculiar qualities, aspirations, and 
affections which society needs. I have had persons say to me, "Would 
you, now, take your daughter and your wife, and walk down to the polls 
with them?" If I were to take my daughter and my wife, and walk 
down to the polls with them, and there was a squirming crowd of bloated, 
loud - mouthed, blattering men, wrangling like so many maggots .on 
cheese, what would take place, but that, at the moment I appeared with 
my wife and daughter walking by my side with conscious dignity 
and veiled modesty, the lane would open, and I should pass through the 
red sea unharmed ? [Great applause]. Where is there a mob such that 
the announcement that a woman is present does not bring down the 
loudest of them? Nothing but the sorcery of rum prevents a man from 
paying unconscious, instant respect to the presence of a woman .... 

IV. The history of woman's co-operative labors thus far justifies the 
most sanguine anticipations, such as I have alluded to. Allusion has 
been made to the purification of literature. The influence of women has 
been a part of the cause of this, unquestionably; but I would not ascribe 
such a result to any one cause. God is a great workman, and has a 
chest full of tools, and never uses one tool, but always many ; and hi the 
purification of literature, the elevation of thought, the advancement of 
the public sentiment of the world hi humanity, God has employed more 
than that which has been wrought in their departments. And that which 
the fainily has long ago achieved that, in more eminence and more won- 
drous and surprising beauty, the world will achieve for itself in public 
affairs, when man and woman co-operate there, as now they are co-oper- 
ating in all other spheres of taste, intellection, and morality 

It is said, a "woman's place is at home." Well, now, since compro- 
mises are coming into vogue again, will you compromise with me, and 
agree that until a woman has a home she may vote? [Laughter]. That 
is only fair. It is said, " She ought to stay at home, and attend to home 
duty, and minister to the wants of father, or husband, or brothers." 
Well, may all orphan women, and unmarried women, and women that 
have no abiding place of residence vote? If not, where is the argument? 
But, to look at it seriously, what is the defect of this statement? It is 
the impression that staying at home is incompatible with going abroad. 
Never was there a more monstrous fallacy. I light my candle, an d it gives me 
all the light I want, and it gives all the light you want to you, and to you, 
and to you, and to every other one in the room ; and there is not one single 
ray that you get there which cheats me here; and a woman that is doing 
her duty right in the family sheds a beneficent influence out upon the village 



Fire the Rifle Yourself. 165 

in which she dwells, without taking a moment's more time. My cherry- 
trees are joyful in all their blossoms, and thousands go by them and see 
them in their beauty day by day; but I never mourn the happiness that 
they bestow on passers-by as having been taken from me. I am not 
cheated by the perfume that goes from my flowers into my neighbor's 
yard. And the character of a true woman is such that it may shine 
everywhere without making her any poorer. She is richer in proportion 

as she gives away And it is just because woman is woman that 

she is fitted, while she takes care of the household, to take care of the 
village and the community around about her. 

But it is said, "She ought to act through her father, or husband, or 
brother, or son." Why ought she? Did you ever frame an argument to 
show why the girl should use her father to vote for her, and the boy who 
is younger, and not half so witty, should vote for himself ? It does not 
admit of an argument. If the grandmother, the mother, the wife, and 
the eldest daughter, are to be voted for by the father, the husband, and 
the eldest brother, then why are not the children to be voted for in com- 
plete family relation by the patriarchal head? Why not go back to the 
tribal custom of the desert, and let the patriarch do all the voting? To 
be sure, it would change the whole form of our government ; but, if it is 
good for the family, it is just as good for classes. 

In a frontier settlement is a log-cabin, and it is in a region which is in- 
fested by wolves. There are in the family a broken-down patient of a 
man, a mother, and three daughters. The house is surrounded by a pack 
of these voracious animals, and the inmates feel that their safety requires 
that the intruders should be driven away. There are three or four rifles 
in the house. The man creeps to one of the windows, and to the mother 
and daughters it is said, " You load the rifles, and hand them to me, and 
let me fire them." But they can load all the four rifles, and he can not 
fire half as fast as they can load; and I say to the mother, "Can you 
shoot ? " She says, "Let me try; " and she takes a gun, and points it at 
the wolves, and pulls the trigger, and I see one of them throw his feet up 
in the air. " Ah I " I say, " I see you can ghoot ! You keep the rifle, and 
fire it yourself." And I say to the oldest daughter, "Can you shoot?" 
"I guess I can," she says. "Well, dare you ? " "I dare do anything to 
save father and the family." And she takes one of the rifles, and pops 
over another of the pack. And I tell you, if the wolves knew that all the 
women were firing, they would flee from that cabin instanter. (Laughter). 
I do not object to a woman loading a man's rifle and letting him shoot; 
but I say that, if there are two rifles, she ought to load one of them, and 
shoot herself. And I do not see any use of a woman's influencing a in.m 
and loading him with a vote, and letting him go and fire it off at the bal- 
lot-box. (Laughter and applause). 

It is said, again, "Woman is a creature of such an excitable nature 
that, if she were to mingle with men in public affairs, it would introduce 
a kind of vindictive acrimony, and politics would become intolerable." 
Oh, if I really thought so; if I thought that the purity of politics would 
be sullied, I would not say another word ! (Laughter). I do not want to 
take anything from the celestial graces, of politics 1 (Renewed laughter). 



166 History of Woman Suffrage. 

I will admit that woman is an excitable creature, and I will admit that 
politics needs no more excitement; but sometimes, you know, things are 
homoeopathic. A woman's excitement is apt to put out a man's; and if 
she should bring her excitability into politics, it is likely that it would 
neutralize the excitement that is already there, and that there would be 
a grand peace ! (Laughter). But, not to trifle with it, woman is ex- 
citable. Woman is yet to be educated. Woman is yet to experience the 
reactionary influence of being a public legislator and thinker. And let 
her sphere be extended beyond the family and the school, so that she 
should be interested in, and actively engaged in, promoting the welfare 
of the whole community, and in the course of three generations the re- 
action on her would be such that the excitement that she would bring 
into public affairs would be almost purely moral inspiration. It would 
be the excitement of purity and disinterested benevolence. 

It is said, furthermore, " Woman might vote for herself, and take 
office." Why not ? A woman makes as good a postmistress as a man does 
a postmaster. Woman has been tried in every office from the throne to 
the position of the humblest servant; and where has she been found re- 
miss ? I believe that multitudes of the offices that are held by men are 
mere excuses for leading an effeminate life; and that with their superior 
physical strength it behooves them better to be actors out of doors, where 
the severity of climate and the elements is to be encountered, and leave 
indoor offices to women, to whom they more properly belong. But, wo- 
men, you are not educated for these offices. I hear bad reports of you. 
It is told me that the trouble in giving places to women is that they will 
not do their work well ; that they do not feel the sense of conscience. 
They have been flattered so long, they have been called " women " so long, 
they have had compliments instead of rights so long, that they are spoiled ; 
but when a generation of you'ng women shall have been educated to a 
stern sense of right and duty, and shall take no compliments at the ex- 
pense of right, we shall have no such complaints as these. And when a 
generation of women, working with the love of God and true patriotism 
in their souls, shall have begun to hold office, meriting it, and being 
elected to it by those that would rather have a woman than a man in 
office, then you may depend upon it that education has qualified them 
for the trusts which are committed to them. We have tried "old wo- 
men" in office, and I am convinced that it would be better to have real 
women than virile old women in public stations. (Laughter and applause). 
For my own sake, give me a just, considerate, true, straight-forward, 
honest-minded, noble-hearted woman, who has been able, in the fear of 
God, to bring up six boys in the way they should go, and settle them in 
life. If there is anything harder in this nation than that, tell me what it 
is. A woman that can bring up a family of strong-brained children, and 
make good citizens of them, can be President without any difficulty. 
(Applause). 

Let me now close with one single thought in connection with this ob- 
jection. I protest in the name of my countrywomen against the asper- 
sion which is cast upon them by those who say that woman is not fit to 
hold office or discharge public trusts. The name of what potentate to- 



Clergymen and Corkscrews. 167 

day, if you go round the world, would probably, in every nation on the 
earth, bring down most enthusiasm and public approbation ? If I now, ' 
here in your midst, shall mention the name of Queen Victoria, your cheers 
will be a testimony to your admiration of this noble woman. (Great ap- 
plause). Though it be in a political meeting, or any other public gather- 
ing, no man can mention her name without eliciting enthusiasm and to- 
kens of respect. It is a controversy to-day between woman aristocratic 
and woman democratic (applause); and I claim that what it is right for 
an aristocratic woman to do what it is right for a duchess, or a queen, 
or an empress to do it is right for the simplest and plainest of my coun- 
trywomen to do, that has no title, and no credentials, except the fact 
that God made her a woman. All that I claim for the proudest aristocrat 
I claim for all other women. (Applause). I do not object to a woman's be- 
ing a queen, or a president, if she has the qualifications which fit her to 
be one. And I claim that, where there is a woman that has the requisite 
qualifications for holding any office in the family, in the church, or in the 
state, there is no reason why she should not be allowed to hold it. And 
we shall have a perfect crystal idea of the state, with all its contents, 
only when man understands the injunction, " What God hath joined to- 
gether let no man put asunder." * (Great applause). 

SUSAN B. ANTHONY read the following appeal to the Congress of 
the United States for the enfranchisement of woman : 



A COLLOQUY.* 

When Mr. BEECHER took his seat, Mr. TII/TON rose and said : 

Mrs. PRESIDENT : In the midst of the general hilarity produced throughout the house 
by my friend's speech, I myself have been greatly solemnized by being made (as you have 
witnessed) the public custodian of his New Testament. (Laughter). At first I shared in 
your grntilication at seeing that he carried so much of the Scripture with him. (Laughter). 
But I found, on looking at the fly-leaf, that the book after all, was not his own, but the 
property of a lady I will not mention her name. (Laughter). I have, therefore, no right 
to accept my friend's gift of what is not his own: Now I remember that when he came 
home from England, he told me a story of a company of ten ministers who sat down to 
dine together. A dispute arose among tht-m as to the meaning of a certain passage of 
Scripture for aught I know the very passage in Galatians which he just now tried to 
quote, but couldn't. (Laughter). Some one said, " Who has a New Testament ? " It was 
found that no one had a copy. Pretty soon, however, when the dinner reached the point 
of champagne, some one exclaimed, "Who has a corkscrew?" And it was found that 
tin; whole ten had, every man, a corkscrew in his pocket ! (Laughter). Now, as there IB 
no telling where a Brooklyn minister who made a temperance speech at Cooper Institute 
last night is likely to take his dirmer to-day, I charitably return the New Testament into 
my friend's own hands. (Great merriment). 

Mr. BEECHER Now I know enough about champagne to know that it don't need any 
corkscrew. (Laughter). 

Mr. TILTON How is.it that you know so much more about corkscrews than about 
Galatiaou? (Laughter). 

Mr. BEECHER, after making some playful allusiDns to the story of the ten ministers, 
remarked that he gave it as it was given to him, but that he could not vouch for its 
truthfulness, as he was not present on the occasion. 



168 History of Woman Suffrage. 

ADDRESS TO CONGRESS. 

Adopted by the Eleventh National Woman's Rights Convention, held in New York City, Thurs- 
day, May 10, 1866. 

To the Senate and House of Representatives : 

We have already appeared many times during the present session be- 
fore your honorable body, in petitions, asking the enfranchisement of wo- 
man ; and now, from this National Convention we again make our appeal, 
and urge you to lay no hand on that "pyramid of rights," the Constitu- 
tion of the Fathers," unless to add glory to its height and strength to its 
foundation. 

We will not rehearse the oft-repeated arguments on the natural rights 
of every citizen, pressed as they have been on the nation's conscience for 
the last thirty years in securing freedom for the black man, and so 
grandly echoed on the floor of Congress during the past winter. We 
can not add one line or precept to the inexhaustible speech recently 
made by Charles Sumner in the Senate, to prove that "no just govern- 
ment can be formed without the consent of the governed ; " to prove 
the dignity, the education, the power, the necessity, the salvation of 
the ballot in the hand of every man and woman ; to prove that a just 
government and a true church rest alike on the sacred rights of the 
individual. 

As you are familiar with that speech of the session on "EQUAL 
RIGHTS TO ALL," so convincing in facts, so clear in philosophy, and 
so elaborate in quotations from the great minds of the past, without re- 
producing the chain of argument, permit us to call your attention to a 
few of its unanswerable assertions on the ballot : 

I plead now for the ballot, as the great guarantee ; and the only sufficient guarantee be- 
ing In itself peacemaker, reconciler, schoolmaster and protector to which we are bound 
by every necessity and every reason ; and I speak also for the good of the States lately in 
rebellion, as well as for the glory and safety of the Republic, that it may be an example 
to mankind. 

Ay, sir, the ballot is the Columbiad of our political life, and every citizen who has it is 
a full-armed Monitor. 

The ballot is schoolmaster. Reading and writing are of inestimable value, but the ballot 
teaches what these can not teach. 

Plutarch records that the wise men of Athens charmed the people by saying that Equal- 
ity causes no war, and " both the rich and the poor repeated it." 

The ballot is like charity, which never faileth, and without which man is only as sound- 
in- brass or a tinkling cymbal. The ballot is the one thing needful, without which 
rights of testimony and all other rights will be no better than cobwebs, which the master 
will break through with impunity. To him who has the ballot all other things shall be 
given protection, opportunity, education, a homestead. The ballot is like the Horn of 
Abundance, out of which overflow rights of every kind, with corn, cotton, rice, and all 
the fruits of the earth. Or, better still, it is like the hand of the body, without which 
man, who is now only a little lower than the angels, must have continued only a little 
above the brutes. They are fearfully and wonderfully made ; but as is the hand in the 
work of civilization, so is the ballot in the work of government. " Give me the ballot, 
and I can move the world." 

Do you wish to see harmony truly prevail, so that industry, society, government, civili- 
zation, may all prosper, and the Republic may wear a crown of true greatness ? Then 
d(> not neglect the ballot. 



Address to Congress. 169 

Lamartine said, " Universal Suffrage is the first truth and only basis of every national 
republic." 

In regard to "Taxation without representation," Mr. Sumner quotes 
from Lord Coke : 

The Supreme Power cannot take from any man any part of his property witJiout con- 
sent in person, or by representation. 

Taxes are not to be laid on the people, but by their consent in person, or by represen- 
tation. 

I can see no reason to doubt but that the imposition of taxes, whether on trade, or on 
land, or houses, or ships, or real or personal, fixed or floating, property in the colonies, 
is absolutely irreconcilable with the rights of the colonies, as British subjects, and an 
men. I say men, for in a state of nature no man can take any property from me without 
my consent. If he does, he deprives me of my liberty and makes me a slave. The very act 
of taxing, exercised over those who are not represented, appears to me to deprive them 
of one of their most essential rights as freemen, and if continued seems to be in effect an 
entire disfranchisement of every civil right. For what one civil right is worth a rush, 
after a man's property is subject to be taken from him at pleasure without his consent ? 

In demanding suffrage for the black man you recognize the fact that 
as a freedman he is no longer a "part of the family," and that, therefore, 
his master is no longer his representative ; hence, as he will now be lia- 
ble to taxation, he must also have representation. Woman, on the con- 
trary, has jiever been such a " part of the family " as to escape taxation. 
Although there has been no formal proclamation giving her an individual 
existence, she has always had the right to property and wages, the right 
to make contracts and do business in her own name. And even married 
women, by recent legislation, have been secured in these civil rights. 
Woman now holds a vast amount of the property in the country, and 
pays her full proportion of taxes, revenue included. On what principle, 
then, do you deny her representation ? By what process of reasoning 
Charles Sumner was able to stand up in the Senate, a few days after 
these sublime utterances, and rebuke 15, 000, 000 disfranchised tax-payers 
for the exercise of their right of petition merely, is past understanding. 
If he felt that this was not the time for woman to even mention her right 
to representation, why did he not take breath in some of his splendid 
periods, and propose to release the poor shirtmakers, milliners and 
dressmakers, and all women of property, from the tyranny of taxation ? 

We propose no new theories. We simply ask that you secure to ALL 
the practical application of the immutable principles of our govern- 
ment, without distinction of race, color or sex. And we urge our de- 
mand now, because you have the opportunity and the power to take this 
onward step in legislation. The nations of the earth stand watching and 
waiting to see if our Revolutionary idea, "all men are created equal," 
can be realized in government. Crush not, we pray you, the million 
hopes that hang on our success. Peril not another bloody war. Men and 
parties must pass away, but justice is eternal. And they only who work 
in harmony with its laws are immortal. All who have carefully noted 
the proceedings of this Congress, and contrasted your speeches with 
those made under the old regime of slavery, must have seen the added 
power and eloquence that greater freedom gives. But still you propose 
no action on your grand ideas. Your Joint Resolutions, your Recon- 
VOL. H 12. 



170 History of Woman Suffrage. 

struetion Reports, do not reflect your highest thought. The constitu- 
tion, in basing representation on " respective numbers," covers a broader 
ground than any you have yet proposed. Is not the only amendment 
needed to Article 1st, Section 3d, to strike out the exceptions which fol- 
low "respective numbers ? " And is it not your duty, by securing a re- 
publican form of government to every State, to see that these "respec- 
tive numbers " are made up of enfranchised citizens ? Thus bringing 
your legislation up to the Constitution not the Constitution down to 
your party possibilities ! ! The only tenable ground of representation is 
UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE, as it is only through Universal Suffrage that the 
principle of "Equal Rights to All" can be realized. All prohibitions 
based on race, color, sex, property, or education, are violations of the 
republican idea; and the various qualifications now proposed are but so 
many plausible pretexts to debar new classes from the ballot-box. The 
limitations of property and intelligence, though unfair, can be met ; as 
with freedom must come the repeal of statute-laws that deny schools and 
wages to the negro. So time makes him a voter. But color and sex ! 
Neither time nor statutes can make black white, or woman man ! You 
assume to be the representatives of 15,000,000 women American citizens 
who already possess every attainable qualification for the ballot. 
Women read and write, hold many offices under government, t>ay taxes, 
and the penalties of crime, and yet are allowed to exercise but the one 
right of petition. 

For twenty years we have labored to bring the statute laws of the sev- 
eral States into harmony with the broad principles of the Constitution, 
and have been so far successful that in many, little remains to be done 
but to secure the right of suffrage. Hence, our prompt protest against 
the propositions before Congress to introduce the word "male " into the 
Federal Constitution, which, if successful, would block all State action 
in giving the ballot to woman. As the only way disfranchised citizens 
can appear before you, we availed ourselves of the sacred right of peti- 
tion. And, as our representatives, it was your duty to give those peti- 
tions a respectful reading and a serious consideration. How well a 
Republican Senate performed that duty, is already inscribed on the 
page of history. Some tell us it is not judicious to press the claims of 
women now ; that this is not the time. Time ? When you propose legis- 
lation so fatal to the best interests of woman and the nation, shall we 
be silent till the deed is done ? No ! As we love republican ideas, we 
must resist tyranny. As we honor the position of American Senator, we 
must appeal from the politician to the man. 

With man, woman shared the dangers of the Mayflower on a stormy 
sea, the dreary landing on Plymouth Rock, the rigors of a New England 
winter, and the privations of a seven years' war. With him she bravely 
threw off the British yoke, felt every pulsation of his heart for freedom, 
and inspired the glowing eloquence that maintained it through the cen- 
tury. With you, we have just passed through the agony and death, the 
resurrection and triumph, of another revolution, doing all in our power 
to mitigate its horrors and gild its glories. And now, think you we have 
no souls to fire, no brains to weigh your arguments ; that, after educa- 



The Right Way. 171 

tion such as this, we can stand silent witnesses while you sell our birth- 
right of liberty, to save from a timely death an effete political organiza- 
tion ? No, as we respect womanhood, we must protest against this dese- 
cration of the magna charta of American liberties : and with an impor- 
tunity not to be repelled, our demand must ever be: " No compromise of 
human rights" "No admission in the Constitution of inequality of 
rights, or disfranchisement on account of color or sex." 

In the oft-repeated experiments of class and caste, who can number 
the nations that have risen but to fall ? Do not imagine you come one 
line nearer the demand of justice by enfranchising but another shade of 
manhood ; for, in denying representation to woman you still cling to the 
same principle on which all the governments of the past have been 
wrecked. The right way, the safe way, is so clear, the path of duty is so 
straight and simple, that we who are equally interested with yourselves 
in the result, conjure you to act not for the passing hour, not with refer- 
ence to transient benefits, but to do now the one grand deed that shall 
mark the progress of the century proclaim EQUAI/ RIGHTS TO ALL. We 
press our demand for the ballot at this tune in no narrow, captious or 
selfish spirit ; from no contempt of the black man's claims, nor antago- 
nism with you, who in the progress of civilization are now the privileged 
order; but from the purest patriotism, for the highest good of every citi- 
zen, for the safety of the Republic, and as a spotless example to the na- 
tions of the earth. 

Mr. Beecher was followed by Wendell Phillips, Frances Dana 
Gage, Frances Watkins Harper ; the Financial Committee* mean- 
time passed through the audience for the material aid to carry for- 
ward the work. Miss Anthony presented the following resolution, 
and moved its adoption, which was seconded by Martha C. Wright : 

Whereas, By the act of Emancipation and the Civil Rights bill, the negro and woman 
now hold the same civil and political status, alike needing only the ballot; and whereas 
the same arguments apply equally to both classes, proving all partial legislation fatal to 
republican institutions, therefore, 

Resolved, That the time has come for an organization that shall demand UNIVERSAL 
SUFFRAGE, and that hereafter we shall be known as the " AMEBICAN EQUAL RIGHTS 
ASSOCIATION." 

Miss ANTHONY said: Our friend Mrs. Mott desire's me to explain the 
object of this change, which she would gladly do but for a severe cold, 
which prevents her from making herself heard. For twenty years we 
have pressed the claims of woman to the right of representation in the 
government. The first National Woman's Rights Convention was held 
in Worcester, Mass., in 1850, and each successive year conventions were 
held in different cities of the Free States Worcester, Syracuse, Cleve- 
land, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and New York until the rebellion. Since 
then, till now, we have held no conventions. Up to this hour, we have 
looked to State action only for the recognition of our rights ; but now, by 



* Susan B. Anthony, Frances E. W. Harper, Sarah H. Hallock, Edwin A. Studwell, 
Dr. C. S. Lozier, Margaret E. Winchester, Mary F. Gilbert, Dr. Laura A. Ward, Edward 
M. Davis, Mrs. Calhoun. 



172 History of Woman Suffrage, 

the results of the war, the whole question of suffrage reverts back to Con- 
gress and the U. S. Constitution. The duty of Congress at this moment is 
to declare what shall be the basis of representation in a republican form of 
government. There is, there can be, but one true basis ; and that is that 
taxation must give representation ; hence our demand must now go be- 
yond woman it must extend to the farthest bound of the principle of the 
" consent of the governed," as the only authorized or just government. 
We, therefore, wish to broaden our Woman's Rights platform, and make 
it in name what it ever has been in spirit & Human Rights platform. 
It has already been stated that we have petitioned Congress the past 
winter to so amend the Constitution as to prohibit disfranchisement on 
account of sex. We were roused to this work by the several propositions 
to prohibit negro disfranchisement in the rebel States, which at the same 
time put up a new bar against the enfranchisement of women. As 
women we can no longer seem to claim for ourselves what we do not for 
others nor can we work in two separate movements to get the ballot for 
the two disfranchised classes the negro and woman since to do so 
must be at double cost of time, energy, and money. 

New York is to hold a Constitutional Convention the coming year. 
We want to make a thorough canvass of the entire State, with lectures, 
tracts, and petitions, and, if possible, create a public sentiment that 
shall send genuine Democrats and Republicans to that Convention who 
shall strike out from our Constitution the two adjectives " white male,'' 
giving to every citizen, over twenty-one, the right to vote, and thus make 
the Empire State the first example of a true republican form of govern- 
ment. And what we propose to do in New York, the coming eighteen 
months, we hope to do in every other State so soon as we can get the 
men, and the women, and the money, to go forward with the work. 
Therefore, that we may henceforth concentrate all our forces for the 
practical application of our one grand, distinctive, national idea UNI- 
VERSAL SUFFRAGE I hope we will unanimously adopt the resolution 
before us, thus resolving this Eleventh National Woman's Rights Conven- 
tion into the ' ' AMERICAN EQUAL RIGHTS ASSOCIATION." 

The Resolution was unanimously adopted. 

STEPHEN S. FOSTER said : I wish to suggest that it will be necessary, 
first, to adopt a form of Constitution, and that it is a very important 
question. Upon it will depend much of the success of our movement. 
We have been deeply thrilled by the eloquence of our friend, Mr. Beecher. 
We have all felt that his utterances were the essential truth of God; and 
the bright picture he drew before us is a possibility, if we do our duty. 
But this state of things will never be realized by us, unless it is from a 
united, persevering effort, giving a new impetus to the Woman's Rights 
movement. I think it necessary that we should have a more perfect or- 
ganization than we can prepare this morning, at this late hour, and I 
therefore move that we adjourn to meet in the vestry this afternoon at 
four o'clock, to perfect an organization, and take such further measures 
for the prosecution of our cause as may then and there be deemed expe- 
dient. (The motion was carried.) 



The Constitution. 173 

A large audience assembled in the Lecture-room, at four o'clock. 
Susan B. Anthony took the Chair and said, the first thing, in order 
to complete the new organization, would be to fix upon a form of 
Constitution. Parker Pillsbury, from the Business Committee, re- 
ported one which was considered article by article, and adopted. 
There was an interesting discussion relative to the necessity of a pre- 
amble, in which the majority sympathized with LUCRETIA MOTT, who 
expressed herself specially desirous that there should be one, and 
that it should state the fact that this new organization was the out- 
growth of the Woman's Rights movement. Mrs. Stanton gave her 
idea of what the preamble should be ; and Mrs. Mott moved that 
Mrs. Stanton write out her thought, and that it be accepted as the 
preamble of the Constitution.* The motion was adopted. Miss 

* CONSTITUTION OF THE AMERICAN EQ0AL RIGHTS ASSOCIATION. 

PREAMBLE. Whereas, by the war, society is once more resolved into its original ele- 
ments, and in the reconstruction of our government we again stand face to face with the 
broad question of natural rights, all associations based on special claims for special classes 
are too narrow and partial for the hour ; Therefore, from the baptism of this second revo- 
lution purified and exalted through suffering seeing with a holier vision that the peace, 
prosperity, and perpetuity of the Republic rest on EQUAL RIGHTS TO ALL, we, to-day, 
assembled in our Eleventh National Woman's Rights Convention, bury the woman in the 
citizen, and our organization in that of the American Equal Rights Association. 

ARTICLE I. This organization shall be known as The American Equal Rights Associ- 
ation. 

ART. II. The object of this Association shall be to secure Equal Rights to all Ameri- 
can citizens, especially the right of suffrage, irrespective of race, color, or sex. 

ART. III. Any person who consents to the principles of this Association and contributes 
to its treasury, may be a member, and be entitled to speak and vote in its meetings. 

ART. IV. The Officers of this Association shall be, a President, Vice-Presidente, Cor- 
responding Secretaries, a Recording Secretary, a Treasurer, and an Executive Committee 
of not less than seven, nor more than fifteen members. 

ART. V. The Executive Committee shall have power to enact their by-laws, fill any 
vacancy in their body and in the offices of Secretary and Treasurer ; employ agents, de- 
termine what compensation shall be paid to agents, and to the Corresponding Secretaries, 
direct the Treasurer in the application of all moneys, and call special meetings of the So- 
ciety. They shall make arrangements for all meetings of the Society, make an annual 
written report of their doings, the expenditures and funds of the Society, and shall hold 
stated meetings, and adopt the most energetic measures in their power to advance the 
objects of the Society. 

ART. VI. The Annual Meeting of the Association shall be held each year at such time 
and place as the Executive Committee may direct, when the accounts of the Treasurer 
shall be presented, the annual report read, appropriate addresses delivered, the officers 
chosen, and such other business transacted as shall be deemed expedient. 

ART. VII. Any Equal Rights Association, founded on the same principles, may be- 
come auxiliary to this Association. The officers of each auxiliary shall be <*t <>jR<-i<> mem- 
bers of the Parent Association, and shall be entitled to deliberate and vote in the trans- 
actions of its concerns. 

ART. VIII. This constitution may be amended, at any regular meeting of the Society, 
by a vote of two-thirds of the members present, provided the amendments proposed have 
been previously submitted in writing to the Executive Committee, at least one month be- 
fore the meeting at which they are to be proposed. 

Done in the City of New York on the tenth day of May, in the year 1868. 



174 



History of Woman Suffrage. 



Anthony proposed a list of names as officers* of the Association. 
Mrs. Stanton thanked the Convention for the honor proposed, to' 
make her President, but said she should prefer to see Lucretia Mott 
in that office ; that thus that office might ever be held sacred in the 
memory that it had first been filled by one so loved and honored by 
all. u I shall be happy as Yice-President to relieve my dear friend 
of the arduous duties of her office, if she will but give us the bless- 
ing of her name as President." Mrs. Stanton then moved that Mrs. 
Mott be the President, which was seconded by many voices, and 
carried by a unanimous vote. 

Mrs. Mott, escorted to the Chair by Stephen S. Foster, remarked 
that her age and feebleness unfitted her for any public duties, but 
she rejoiced in the inauguration of a movement broad enough to 
covet class, color, and sex, and would be happy to give her name and 
influence, if thus she might encourage the young and strong to carry 
on the good work. On motion of Theodore Tilton, Mrs. Stanton 
was made first Yice-President. The rest of the names were approved. 

Mrs. STANTON said, It had been the desire of her heart to see the Anti- 
Slavery and Woman's Rights organizations merged into an Equal Rights 
Association, as the two questions were now one. With emancipation, all 
that the black man asks is the right of suffrage. With the special leg- 
islation of the last twenty years, all that woman asks is the right of suf- 
frage. Hence it seems an unnecessary expenditure of force and sub- 
stance for the same men and women to meet in convention on Tuesday 
to discuss the right of one class to the ballot, and on Thursday to dis- 
cuss the right of another class to the same. Has not the time come, Mrs. 
President, to bury the black man and the woman in the citizen, and our 
two organizations in the broader work of reconstruction ? They who have 
been trained in the school of anti-slavery; they who, for the last thirty 
years, have discussed the whole question of human rights, which involves 
every other question of trade, commerce, finance, political economy, ju- 
risprudence, morals and religion, axe the true statesmen for the new re- 
public the best enunciators of our future policy of justice and equality. 
Any work short of this is narrow and partial and fails to meet the re- 
quirements of the hour. What is so plain to me, may, I trust, be so to 
all before the lapse of many months, that all who have worked together 
thus far, may still stand side by side in this crisis of our nation's history. 

JAMES MOTT said, he rejoiced that the women had seen fit to re-organ- 



* President, Elizabeth Cady Stanton ; Vice-Presidents, Frederick Douglass, Frances D. 
Gage, Robert Purvis, Theodore Tilton, Josephine S. Griffing, Martha C. Wright, Rebecca 
W. Mott; Corresponding Secretaries, Susan B. Anthony, Mattie Griffith, Caroline M. Sev- 
erance ; Recording Secretary, Henry B. Blackwell ; Treasurer, Lucllow Patton ; Execu- 
tive Committee, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, Edwin A. Studwell, Margaret E. 
Winchester, Aaron M. Powell, Susan B. Anthony, Parker Pillsbury, Elizabeth Gay, Mary 
F. Gilbert, Stephen S. Foster, Lydia Mott, Antoinette B. Blackwell, Wendell Phillips 
Garrison. 



The True Basis of Reconstruction. 175 

ize their movement into one for equal rights to all, that he felt the time 
had come to broaden our work. He felt the highest good of the nation 
demanded the recognition of woman as a citizen. We could have no true 
government until all the people gave their consent to the laws that gov- 
ern them. 

STEPHEN S. FOSTER said, Many seemed to think that the one question 
for this hour was negro suffrage. The question for every man and woman, 
he thought, was the true basis of the reconstruction of our government, 
not the rights of woman, or the negro, but the rights of all men and wo- 
men. Suffrage for woman was even a^more vital question than for the 
negro; for in giving the ballot to the black man, we bring no new ele- 
ment into the national life simply another class of men. And for one, 
he could not ask woman to go up and down the length and breadth of 
the land demanding the political recognition of any class of disfranchised 
citizens, while her own rights are ignored. Thank God, the human family 
are so linked together, that no one man can ever enjoy life, liberty, or 
happiness, so long as the humblest being is crippled in a single right. I 
have demanded the freedom of the slave the last thirty years, because 
he was a human being, and I now demand suffrage for the negro because 
he is a human being, and for the same reason I demand the ballot for 
woman. Therefore, our demand for this hour is equal suffrage to all dis- 
franchised classes, for the one and the same reason they are all human 
beings. 

MARTHA C. WRIGKHT said : Some one had remarked that we wished to 
merge ourselves into an Equal Rights Association to get rid of the odious 
name of Woman's Rights. This she repudiated as unworthy and untrue. 
Every good cause had been odious some time, even the name Christian 
has had its odium in all nations. We desire the change, because we feel 
that at this hour our highest claims are as citizens, and not as women. I 
for one have always gloried in the name of Woman's Rights, and pitied 
those of my sex who ignobly declared they had all the rights they wanted. 
We take the new name for the broader work because we see it is no longer 
woman's province to be merely a humble petitioner for redress of griev- 
ances, but that she must now enter into the' fullness of her mission, 
that of helping to make the laws, and administer justice. 

Aaron M. Powell presented the following resolution : 
Resolved, That in view of the Constitutional Convention to be held in 
the State of New York the coming year, it is the duty of this Association 
to demand such an amendment of the Constitution as shall secure equal 
rights to all citizens, without distinction of color, sex; or race. 

Miss Anthony seconded the resolution, and urged the importance 
of making a thorough canvass of the State with lectures, tracts, and 
petitions.* Mr. Powell, Mrs. Gage, and others, advocated the eon- 

* Miss Anthony reported from the Finance Committee the receipt of 1255.50, as fol- 
lows : Jessie Benton Fremont, $50; Abby Hutchinson Patton, $50; Dr. Clemence 8. 
Lozier, $20 ; Gerrit Smith, $10 ; Mrs. Dr. Dcnsmore, $10 ; James and Lucretla Mott, $10 



176 History of Woman Suffrage. 

centration of all the energies of the Association for the coming year 
on the State of New York ; after which the resolution was adopted. 

PARKER PLLLSBURY : Perhaps we ourselves do not appreciate the mag- 
nitude of the enterprise we are here to inaugurate. If successful, we 
close to-day one epoch in human history, and enter on another of results 
more millennial than have been seen before. We give now a new defini- 
tion to the word Liberty. We clothe our divinity with new honors. The 
ancients worshiped in her temple, but to them, all, even the devoutest, she 
was ever an " Unknown God." In all ages, men sing her praises, but know 
not her law. Our revolutionary fathers were blind as others blinder than 
many others. They declared all men free and equal. They fought long 
and valiantly for their evangel, baptizing it in the blood of many battles, 
came home triumphant, and then constructed a despotism which their 
own immortal Jefferson declared was fraught with more woes in one 
hour, to myriads of its citizens, than would be endured in whole ages of 
the worst they themselves had ever known! That government they 
named a Republic. Under it we held millions of slaves, and were pro- 
viding to hold many millions more, when God sent a thunderbolt and 
dashed it in pieces before our eyes and gave our slaves their freedom. 
Now our wise men and counselors, our statesmen and sages, are seeking 
how the government and Union may be reconstructed. But they are 
laying again false foundations. Of three immense classes, they proscribe 
two and provide for one; and that one perhaps a minority of the whole. 
Half our people are degraded for their sex ; one-sixth for the color of 
their skin. And this is the republican and democratic definition of 
freedom. The ruling class boasts two qualities, hi virtue of which it 
claims the right to rule all others. It is male, not female white, not 
colored. For neither of these surely is it responsible. For being women 
and colored, the proscribed classes are no more responsible. A more cruel, 
unrighteous, unjust distinction was never made under heaven. By it 
we are driven into this new revolution ; a revolution which is to eclipse 
all that have gone before, as far as the glories of Calvary outshone the 
shadows and terrors of Sinai. Even the Anti-Slavery Society can only 
demand equality for the male half of mankind. And the Woman's 
Rights movement contemplated only woman in its demand. But with 
us liberty means freedom, equality, and fraternity, irrespective of sex or 
complexion. It is a gospel that was unknown to the ancients; hidden 
even from the wise and prudent among our revolutionary fathers. Rev- 
olutionary mothers we seem never to have had. As in Eden, " Adam was 
first found, then Eve," so in our revolution; but Eve has come to-day, 
demanding her portion of the equal inheritance, a mystery, a wonder, a 
"new thing under the sun," the declaration of King Solomon to the con- 



Martha C. Wright, $8 : Elizabeth S. Miller, $5 ; Eliza W. Osborn, $5 ; Margaret E. Win- 
chester, $5 ; and the balance in sums of $1 each, from as many different persons, whose 
names were enrolled as members of the Equal Rights Association. Miss A. further stated 
that the proceedings would be published in pamphlet form at the earliest possible day, 
and that announcement of their place of sale would be made through the Tribune, Anti- 
Slavery Standard, and other papers. 



Are we Only a Handful? 177 

trary notwithstanding. And here and to-day we lay new foundations. 
For the first time, law and liberty are to be founded in nature and the 
government of the moral universe. For the first time is it demanded 
that JUSTICE be made our chief corner-stone. The ancient republics, 
not thus underpinned, fell. Our old foundations, too, are fallen. In 
God's wisdom, not in man's foolishness, let us henceforth build. And 
the work of our hands, feeble as we seem to-day, shall survive all the 
present kingdoms and dominions of the world. 

Miss ANTHONY remarked that Theodore Tilton was in the house, and 
' had not yet spoken. She would like to hear his opinion. 

Mr. TILTON replied that of course Miss Anthony was speaking in pleas- 
antly when she thus ingeniously pretended not to know his opinion. 
This pretense was only a piece of strategy to compel him to make a 
speech. Both she and he had lately been co-workers in a local associa- 
tion for just such a purpose as to-day's enterprise meditated " The New 
York Equal Rights Association," of which he had had the honor to be 
president, and Miss Anthony to be secretary an association which both 
its secretary and its president were only too glad to see superseded by a 
larger and more general movement. The apple tree bears more blossoms 
which fah 1 off than come to fruit. Our local association was the neces- 
sary first blossom which had to be blown away by the wind. No he 
would rather say it was a blossom which had ripened to-day into golden 
fruit. And now, said he, in this consecrated house, at this sunset hour, 
amid these falling shadows, with a president in the chair whose well- 
spent life has been crowned with every virtue, let us make a covenant 
with each other such as was made by the original members of the Ameri- 
can Anti-Slavery Society a mutual pledge of diligent and earnest labor, 
not for the abolition of chattel slavery, but for the political rights of all 
classes, without regard to color or sex. Are we only a handful ? We are 
more than formed the Anti-Slavery Society which grew into a force that 
shook the nation. Who knows but that to-night we are laying the corner- 
stone of an equally grand movement ? Let us, therefore, catch at this 
moment the cheering pretoken of the prophecy that declares, ''At even- 
ing time there shall be light 1" 

A motion was made to adjourn, when the President, Lucretia 
Mott, made a few closing remarks, showing that all great achieve- 
ments in the progress of the race must be slow, and were ever 
wrought out by the few, in isolation and ridicule but, said she, let 
us remember in our trials and discouragements, that if our lives are 
true, we walk with angels the great and good who have gone before 
us, and God is our Father. As she uttered her few parting words 
of benediction, the fading sunlight through the stained windows, 
fell upon her pure face, a celestial glory seemed about her, and a 
sweet and peaceful influence pervaded every heart. And all re- 
sponded to Theodore Tilton when he said, " this closing meeting of 
the Convention was one of the most beautiful, delightful, and mem- 
orable which any of its participants ever enjoyed." 



178 



History of Woman Suffrage. 



The Convention adjourned to meet in Boston May 31, 1866, 
where a large, enthusiastic meeting was held, of which we find the 
following report by Charles 3L Whipple. 

From the National Anti-Slavery Standard of June 9, 1866. 

The meeting next in interest as in time, among the crowded as- 
semblies of Anniversary week, was that of the Equal Rights Association, 
called and managed by those intelligent and excellent women who have 
for years labored in behalf of "Woman's Rights. A large portion of the 
community have been accustomed to sneer at these ladies as self-seeking 
and fanatical. The new position they have taken shows, on the contrary, 
the largeness of their views, the breadth of their sympathy, and the prac- 
tical good sense which govern their operations. Their proceedings show 
their full appreciation of the fact that the rights of men and the rights 
of women must stand or fall together. 

Mrs. Dall called the meeting to order, and introduced as its president, 
Martha C. Wright, of Auburn, N. Y., in the absence of Lucretia Mott, the 
president of the Association. Mrs. Wright made some well-chosen in- 
troductory remarks; Miss Susan B. Anthony read letters of friendly 
greeting from Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison, and then 
a very admirable report was read by Mrs. Dall, summing up the advance 

made in the woman's cause the past year The freedom of the 

platform was an admirable feature of this Convention. Early in the 
proceedings it was announced that any member of the audience, male or 
female, was entitled to speak on the topics under debate, and would be 
made welcome. Among those who addressed the Convention were 
Parker Pillsbury, Henry C. Wright, Aaron M. Powell, Dr. Sarah Young, 
Rev. Olympia Brown (minister of a church at Weymouth), Susan B. An- 
thony, Stephen S. Foster, Mr. Tooker, Ira Stewart, Charles C. Burleigh, 
Wendell Phillips, Frances Ellen Harper, Anna E. Dickinson. The men- 
tion of these names is enough to indicate that there was abundance of 
good speaking. No time was lost, and the hours of three sessions were 
pleasantly and profitably filled. 

Mr. Pillsbury said the word " male," as a restriction upon the action 
of women, is unknown to the Federal Constitution, as well as the word 
" black," and that its introduction into that document should be resisted 
in the most strenuous manner, since we can never have a true democracy 
while the work of government is monopolized by a privileged class. 
.... Wendell Phillips, admitting that the suffrage is the great qiiestion 
of the hour, thought, nevertheless, that in view of the peculiar circum- 
stances of the negro's position, his claim to this right might fairly be 

considered to have precedence This hour, then, is preeminently 

the property of the negro. Nevertheless, said Mr. Phillips, I willingly 
stand here to plead the woman's cause, because the Republican party 
are seeking to carry their purpose by newly introducing the word 
"male" into the Constitution. To prevent such a corruption of the 
National Constitution, as weU as for the general welfare of the commu- 
nity, male and female, I wish to excite interest everywhere in the main- 



Your Throne is the World of Fashion. 

tenance of woman's right to vote. This woman's meeting was well con- 
ducted, and met with success in every way 

FRANCES D. GAGE, in a letter to the National Anti-Slavery Standard, 
May 26, 1866, speaking of her attendance of the anniversary meetings in 
New York, said: " If the Anti-Slavery work has fallen somewhat behind 
our hope, that of the Woman's Rights movement has far outstripped 
our most sanguine expectations. When the war-cry was heard in 1861, 
the advance-guard of the Woman's Rights party cried ' halt ! ' And for 
five years we have stood waiting while the grand drama of the Rebellion 
was passing. Not as idle spectators, but as the busiest and most un- 
wearied actors on the boards. We have, as our manly men assert, fought 
half the battle, and helped to win the victory. 

" Wendell Phillips said, ' Women made this war! ' By the same pro- 
cess of reasoning women may claim that 'they made the peace,' that 
'they broke the chains of the slave, and redeemed the land from its 
most direful curse.' Be this true or otherwise, one fact is patent to 
every mind woman to-day is an acknowledged power! And when we 
met at the Church of the Puritans last week, we found Woman's Rights 
filling its halls and galleries as never before; with a Beecber and a Til- 
ton to defend our cause, but not one sneerer or opposer fco open his or 
her lips. Who now will dare call us ' infidels,' since Bishop Simpson, 
Henry Ward Beecher, and Dr. Tyng champion our cause, and proclaim 
it ' woman's duty to vote for the good of humanity'? Who will now dare 
sneer while the leading minds of Europe among them Ruskin, John 
Stuart Mill, Mazzini, Victor Hugo must share the odium with those 
hitherto called ' strong-minded ? ' 

" It was with pain that I heard Wendell Phillips say on our platform, 
'Albany can not help you; your throne is the world of fashion!' mean- 
ing women. If we are given over to fashion, frivolity, and vice, does it 
follow that rights arid privileges, duties and responsibilities will not help 
us? If just governments derive their powers from the consent of the 
governed, and taxation without representation is tyranny, then Albany 
can help us in just so much as a good and just government will help 
the people who live under its rules and laws. No one would at this day, 
if a friend to the negro, say to him, 'A vote can not help you!' Then 
why say it to women? 

" Our Woman's Rights Convention has now taken the broad platform 
of 'Equal Rights,' and upon that will work in time to come. And our 
meeting in New York seemed proof if proof was wanting that all we 
need now is to ask and receive. Our worst enemy, our greatest hin- 
drance, is woman herself; and her indifference is the legitimate result of 
long-denied privileges and responsibilities of which she 1ms not learned 
the necessity. If, as Mr. Beecher asserted, 'to vote is a duty,' then it is 
the duty of every man and woman to work to secure" that right to every 
human being of adult years. 

"Since our meeting, the House of Representatives at Washington has 
passed, by more than three to one, the amendment of the Reconstruc- 
tion Committee. If the Senate concurs, then, to save the four million 
negroes of the South, or rather to save the Republican party (the people 



180 History of Woman Suffrage. 

agreeing), seventeen millions of women, governed without their own con- 
sent, are proclaimed a disfranchised class by the Constitution of the 
"United States, hitherto unpolluted by any such legislation. Let us , 
then, work for this, too, that seventeen million women shall not be left 
without the power considered so necessary to the negro for his preserva- 
tion and protection ; the power to help govern himself. Let us never 
forget his claim, but strengthen it, by not neglecting our own." 

At the November election of this year, Mrs. Stanton offered her- 
self as a candidate for Congress ; in order to test the constitutional 
right of a woman to run for office. This aroused some discussion 
on this phase of the question, and many were surprised to learn 
that while women could not vote, they could hold any office in 
which their constituents might see fit to place them. Theodore 
Tilton gives the following graphic description of this event in " The 
Eminent Women " : 

In a cabinet of curiosities I have laid away as an interesting relic, a 
little white ballot, two inches square, and inscribed : 



For Representative to Congress, 
ELIZABETH CADY STANTON. 



Mrs. Stanton is the only woman in the United States who, as yet, has 
been a candidate for Congress. In conformity with a practice prevalent 
in some parts of this country, and very prevalent in England, she nomi- 
nated herself. The public letter in which she proclaimed herself a can- 
didate was as follows : 

To the Electors of the Eighth Congressional District : 

Although, by the Constitution of the State of New York woman is de- 
nied the elective franchise, yet she is eligible to office; therefore, I pre- 
sent myself to you as a candidate for Representative to Congress. Be- 
longing to a disfranchised class, I have no political antecedents to rec- 
ommend me to your support, but my creed is free speech, free press, free 
men, and free trade, the cardinal points of democracy. Viewing all 
questions from the stand-point of principle rather than expediency, there 
is a fixed uniform law, as yet unrecognized by either of the leading par- 
ties, governing alike the social and political life of men and nations. 
The Republican party has occasionally a clear vision of personal rights, 
though in its protective policy it seems wholly blind to the rights of 
property and interests of commerce ; while it recognizes the -duty of be- 
nevolence between man and man, it teaches the narrowest selfishness in 
trade between nations. The Democrats, on the contrary, while holding 
sound and liberal principles on trade and commerce, have ever in their 
political affiliations maintained the idea of class and caste among men 
an idea wholly at variance with the genius of our free institutions and 
fatal to high civilization. One party fails at one point and one at an- 
other. 



Representative for Congress. 181 

In asking your suffrages believing alike in free men and free trade I 
could not represent either party as now constituted. Nevertheless, as an 
Independent Candidate, I desire an election at this time, as a rebuke to 
the dominant party for its retrogressive legislation in so amending the 
National Constitution as to make invidious distinctions on the ground 
of sex. That instrument recognizes as persons all citizens who obey the 
laws and support the State, and if the Constitutions of the several States 
were brought into harmony with the broad principles of the Federal 
Constitution, the women of the Nation would no longer be taxed without 
representation, or governed without their consent. Not one word should 
be added to that great charter of rights to the insult or injury of the 
humblest of our citizens. I would gladly have a voice and vote in the 
Fortieth Congress to demand universal suffrage, that thus a republican 
form of government might be secured to every State in the Union. 

If the party now in the ascendency makes its demand for "Negro Suf- 
frage " in good faith, on the ground of natural right, and because the 
highest good of the State demands that the republican idea be vindica- 
ted, on no principle of justice or safety can the women of the nation 
be ignored. In view of the fact that the Freedmen of the South and 
the millions of foreigners now crowding our shores, most of whom 
represent neither property, education, nor civilization, are all in the 
progress of events to be enfranchised, the best interests of the nation de- 
mand that we outweigh this incoming pauperism, ignorance, and degra- 
dation, with the wealth, education, and refinement of the women of the 
republic. On the high ground of safety to the Nation, and justice to 
citizens, I ask your support in the coming election. 

NKW YORK, Oct. 10, 1866. ELIZABETH CADY STANTON. 

The New York Herald, though, of course, with no sincerity, since that 
journal is never sincere in anything warmly advocated Mrs. Stanton's 
election. "A lady of fine presence and accomplishments in the House 
of Representatives," it said (and said truly), " would wield a wholesome 
influence over the rough and disorderly elements of that body." The 
Anti-Slavery Standard, with genuine commendation, said : "The electors 
of the Eighth District would honor themselves and do well by the coun- 
try in giving her a triumphant election." The other candidates in the 
same district were Mr. James Brooks, Democrat, and Mr. Le Grand B. 
Cannon, Republican. The result of the election was as follows: Mr. 
Brooks received 13,816 votes, Mr. Cannon 8,210, and Mrs. Stanton 24. 
It will be seen that the number of sensible people in the district was lim- 
ited! The excellent lady, in looking back upon her successful defeat, 
regrets only that she did not, before it became too late, procure the 
photographs of her two dozen unknown friends.* 



* At a reception one evening in Washington at the residence of Hon. Schnyler Colfax, 
he rallied Mrs. Stanton on her defeat, regretting that as Speaker of the House he had 
never had the pleasure of introducing "the Lady from New York." Hon. William D. 
Kelly, standing near, remarked by way of consolation, " There Is still hope for Mrs. Stan- 
ton ; she received the same number of votes I did the first time I ran for Congress 
(2,400), the only difference is, her ciphers were on the wrong side (0034). 



182 History of Woman Suffrage. 

The years of 1866 and '67 were marked by unusual activity among 
the friends of this movement in both England and America. John 
Stuart Mill, a member of Parliament, proposed an amendment to 
the " Household Suffrage Bill," by striking out the word " man," 
sustained by many able speeches, which finally carried the measure 
triumphantly there. New York held a Constitutional Convention, 
Michigan a Commission, and Kansas submitted the proposition of 
woman suffrage to a vote of her people. Twenty thousand peti- 
tions were rolled up and presented in the Constitutional Convention, 
asking that the word " male " be stricken from Article II, sec. 1, 
and as many more were poured into Congress and the Legislatures 
of several of the States. A series of conventions, commencing in 
Albany, were held in all the chief cities of New York.* 

THE AMERICAN EQUAL BIGHTS ASSOCIATION. 

The labors of this year are well rounded out with a grand Na- 
tional Convention,-}- during Anniversary week, in New York, which 



* The speakers were Rev. Olympia Brown, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, 
Lucy Stone, Frederick Douglass, Henry B. Blackwell, Sarah P. Remond, Parker Pillsbnry, 
Jane Elizabeth Jones, Charles Lenox Remond, Bessie Bisbee, and Louise Jacobs. 

tTHE CALL. 

THE first Annual Meeting of the AMERICAN EQUAL RIGHTS ASSOCIATION will be held 
in the City of New York, at the Church of the Puritans, on Thursday and Friday, the 9th 
and 10th of May, 1867, commencing on Thursday morning, at 10 o'clock. 

The object of this Association is to " secure Equal Rights to all American citizens, 
especially the Right of Suffrage, irrespective of race, color, or sex." American Democ- 
racy has interpreted the Declaration of Independence in the interest of slavery, restrict- 
ing suffrage and citizenship to a white male minority. 

The black man is still denied the crowning right of citizenship, even in the nominally 
free States, though the fires of civil war have melted the chains of chattelisin, and a hun- 
dred battle fields attest his courage and patriotism. Half our population are disfran- 
chised on the ground of sex ; and though compelled to obey the laws and taxed to support 
the government, they have no voice in the legislation of the country. 

This Association, then, has a mission to perform, the magnitude and importance of 
which can not be over-estimated. The recent war has unsettled all our governmental 
foundations. Let us see that in their restoration, all these unjust proscriptions are 
avoided. Let Democracy be defined anew, as the government of the people, AND THE WHOLE 

PEOPLE. 

Let the gathering, then, at this anniversary be, in numbers and character, worthy, in 
some degree, the demands of the hour. The black man, even the black soldier, is yet 
but half emancipated, nor will he be, until full suffrage ajid citizenship are secured to him 
in the Federal Constitution. Still more deplorable is the condition of the black woman; 
and legally, that of the white woman is no better ! Shall the sun of the nineteenth cen- 
tury go down on wrongs like these, in this nation, consecrated in its infancy to justice 
and freedom ? Rather let our meeting be pledge as well as prophecy to the world of 
mankind, that the redemption of at least one great nation is near at hand. 

There will be four sessions Thursday, May 9th, at 10 o'clock A. M., and 8 o'clock p. 
M. ; Friday, May 13th, at 10 A. M., and 8 P. M. The speakers will be Elizabeth Cady 
Stanton, Gen. Rufus Saxton, Frances D. Gage, Parker Pillsbury, Robert Purvis, Mary 



Susan B. Anthony's Report. 183 

assembled at the Church of the Puritans, May 9th, 1867, at 10 
o'clock A. M. Elizabeth Cady Stanton called the meeting to order, 
and said : " In the absence of our venerable President (Lucretia Mott), 
Robert Purvis, one of the Yice-Presidents, will take the chair." 

Mr. PURVIS said : I regret the absence of Mrs. Mott. It is needless to 
say that no one has higher claims upon the nation's gratitude for what 
has been accomplished in the glorious work of Anti-Slavery, and for what 
is now being accomplished in the still greater, because more comprehen- 
sive work for freedom contemplated by this Society, than our honored 
and beloved President, Lucretia Mott. (Applause). It is with no ordin- 
ary feelings that I congratulate the friends of this Association on the 
healthful, hopeful, animating, inspiring signs of the times. Our simple 
yet imperative demand, founded upon a just conception of the true idea 
of our republican government, is equality of rights for all, without re- 
gard to color, sex, or race; and, inseparable from the citizen, the posses- 
sion of that power, that protection, that primal element of republican 
freedom the ballot. 

Lucretia Mott here entered the hall, and, at the request of Mr. 
Purvis, took the chair, and called for the Secretary's Report. 

SUSAN B. ANTHONY said: It is my duty to present to you at this time 
a written Report of all that has been done during the past year; but 
those of us who have been active in this movement, have been so occu- 
pied in doing the work, that no one has found time to chronicle the pro- 
gress of events. With but half a dozen live men and women, to canvass 
the State of New York, to besiege the Legislature and the delegates to 
the Constitutional Convention with tracts and petitions, to write letters 
and send documents to every State Legislature that has moved on this 
question, to urge Congress to its highest duty in the reconstruction, by 
both public and private appeals, has been a work that has taxed every 
energy and dollar at our .command. Money being the vital power of all 
movements the wood and water of the engine and, as our work through 
the past winter has been limited only by the want of it, there is no diffi- 
culty in reporting on finance. The receipts of our Association, during the 
year, have amounted to $4,096.78; the expenditures, for lectures and con- 
ventions, for printing and circulating tracts and documents, to $4,714,11 
leaving us in debt $617.33. 

The Secretary then rapidly rehearsed the signs of progress. She spoke 
of the discussion in the United States Senate on the Suffrage bill, through 
three entire days, resulting in a vote of nine Senators in favor of extend- 



Grew, Ernestine L. Rose, Charles Lenox Remond, Frederick Douglass, Lucy Stone, 
Henry B. Blackwcll, Rev. Olympla Brown, Sojourner Truth (Mrs. Stowe's "Lybian 
Sybil "), Rev. Samuel J. May, and others. 
On behalf of the American Equal Rights Association, 

LUCRETIA MOTT, President 
SUSAN B. ANTHONT, Cor. Secretary. 
HENKT B. BLACKWELL, Rec. Secretary. 
New York, 12th March, 1867. 



184 



History of Woman Suffrage. 



ing suffrage to the women as well as black men of the District of Colum- 
bia; of the action of the Legislatures of Kansas and Wisconsin to strike 
the words " white male " from their constitutions; of the discussions and 
minority votes in the Legislatures of Maine, Massachusetts, New York, 
Ohio, and Missouri ; of the addresses of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucy 
Stone before the Judiciary Committees of the New York and New Jersey 
Legislatures; of the demand for household suffrage by the women of En- 
gland, earnestly maintained by John Stuart Mill in the British Parlia- 
ment all showing that the public mind everywhere is awake on this 
question of equal rights to all. Every matl brings urgent requests from 
the West for articles for their papers, for lectures and tracts on the ques- 
tion of suffrage. In Kansas they are planning mass conventions, to be 
held throughout the State through September and October; and they 
urge us to send out at least a dozen able men and women, with 100,000 
tracts, to help them educate the people into the grand idea of universal 
suffrage, that they may carry the State at the November election. 

Two of our agents, Lucy Stone and Henry B. Blackwell, are already in 
Kansas, speaking in all her towns and cities in churches, school-houses, 
barns, and the open air; traveling night and day, by railroad, stage, and 
ox-cart; scaling the rocky divides, and fording the swollen- rivers their 
hearts all aglow with enthusiasm, greeted everywhere by crowded audi- 
ences, brave men and women, ready to work for the same principles for 
which they have suffered in the past, that Kansas, the young and beauti- 
ful hero of the West, may be the first State in the Union to realize a genu- 
ine Republic. The earnest, loyal people of Kansas have resolved to teach 
the nation to-day the true principle of reconstruction, as they taught the 
nation, twelve years ago, the one and only way in which to escape from 
the chains of slavery. They ask us to help them. So" do Wisconsin, Illi- 
nois, Michigan, and New York. But for this vast work, as I have already 
shown' you, we have an empty treasury. We ask you to replenish it. If 
you will but give your money generously if you will but oil the ma- 
chinery this Association will gladly do the work that shall establish 
universal suffrage, equal rights to all, in every State in the Union. 

The PRESIDENT (Mrs. MOTT) said: The report which we have had, 
although not written, is most interesting. A great deal of it is new to me. 
There are so many actively engaged in the cause,' that it is fitting that 
some of us older ones should give place to them. That is the natural 
order, and every natural order is divine and beautiful. Therefore, I feel 
glad of the privilege although my filling the office of President has been 
a mere nominal thing to withdraw from the chair and to yield the place 
to our friend Robert Purvis, one of our Vice-Presidents. The cause is 
dear to my heart, and has been from my earliest days. Being a native of 
the island of Nantucket, where women were thought something of, and 
had some connection with the business arrangements of life, as well as 
with their homes, I grew up so thoroughly imbued with woman's rights 
that it was the most important question of my life from a very early day. 
I hail this more public movement for its advocacy, and have been glad 
that I had strength enough to co-operate to some extent. I have attended 
most of the regular meetings, and I now feel almost ashamed, old as I am, 



Suffrage a Natural Right. 18o 

to be so ignorant of what has happened during the last year. We need a 
paper an organ that shall keep those who can not mingle actively in our 
public labors better informed. The Standard has done much; and I 
flnd in many other papers a disposition to do justice, to a great extent, 
to our cause. It is not ridiculed as it was in the beginning. We do not 
have the difficulties, the opposition, and the contumely to confront that 
we had at an early day. I am very glad to find such an audience here to-- 
day; and far be it from me to occupy the time so as to prevent Mr. May, 
Mr. Burleigh, and others, from having their proper place. 

Mr. PURVIS resumed the chair, and introduced Mrs. Stanton, who 
spoke to the following resolutions: 

Jtesolved, That government, of all sciences, Is the most exalted and comprehensive, In- 
cluding, ns it does, all the political, commercial, religious, educational, and social inter- 
ests of the race. 

Sesolvetl, That to speak of the ballot as an "article of merchandise," and of the science 
of government as the " muddy pool of politics," is most demoralizing to a nation based 
on universal suffrage. 

In considering the question of suffrage, there are two starting points: 
one, that this right is a gift of society, in which certain men, having in- 
herited this privilege from some abstract body and abstract place, have 
now the right to secure it for themselves and their privileged order to the 
end of time. This principle leads logically to governing races, classes, 
families; and, in direct antagonism to our idea of self-government, takes 
us back to monarchies and despotisms, to an experiment that has been 
tried over and over again, 6,000 years, and uniformly failed. 

Ignoring this point of view as untenable and anti-republican, and tak- 
ing the opposite, that suffrage is a natural right as necessary to man 
under government, for the protection of person and property, as are air 
and motion to life we hold the talisman by which to show the right of 
all classes to the ballot, to remove every obstacle, to answer every objec- 
tion, to point out the tyranny of every qualification to the free exercise 
of this sacred right. To discuss this question of suffrage for women and 
negroes, as women and negroes, and not as citizens of a republic, implies 
that there are some reasons for demanding this right for these classes 
that do not apply to " white males." 

The obstinate persistence with which fallacious and absurd objections 
are pressed against their enfranchisement as if they were anomalous 
beings, outside all human laws and necessities is most humiliating and 
insulting to every black man and woman who has one particle of healthy," 
high-toned self-respect. There are no special claims to propose for wo- 
men and negroes, no new arguments to make in their behalf. The same 
already made to extend suffrage to all white men in this country, the 
same John Bright makes for the working men of England, the same made 
for the emancipation of 22,000,000 Russian serfs, are all we have to make 
for black men and women. As the greater includes the less, an argument 
for universal suffrage covers the whole question, the rights of all citizens. 
In thus relaying the foundations of government, we settle all these side 
issues of race, color, and sex, end class legislation, and remove forever 
the fruitful cause of the jealousies, dissensions, and revolutions of the 
VOL. II. 13. 



18C History of Woman Suffrage. 

past. This is the platform of the American Equal Rights Association. 
"We are masters of the situation." Here black men and women are 
buried in the citizen. As in the war, freedom was the key-note of vic- 
tory, so now is universal suffrage the key-note of reconstruction. 

"Negro suffrage" may answer as a party cry for an effete political or- 
ganization through another Presidential campaign ; but the people of this 
country have a broader work on hand to-day than to save the Republi- 
can party, or, with some abolitionists, to settle the rights of races. The 
battles of the ages have been fought for races, classes, parties, over and 
over again, and force always carried the day, and will until we settle the 
higher, the holier question of individual rights. This is our American 
idea, and on a wise settlement of this question rests the problem 
whether our nation shall live or perish. 

The principle of inequality in government has been thoroughly tried, 
and every nation based on that idea that has not already perished, 
clearly shows the seeds of death in its dissensions and decline. Though 
it has never been tried, we know an experiment on the basis of equality 
would be safe ; for the laws in the world of morals are as immutable as 
in the world of matter. As the Astronomer Leverrier discovered the 
planet that bears his name by a process of reason and calculation 
through the variations of other planets from known laws, so can the true 
statesman, through the telescope of justice, see the genuine republic of 
the future amid the ruins of the mighty nations that have passed away. 
The opportunity now given us to make the experiment of self-govern- 
ment should be regarded by every American citizen as a solemn and a 
sacred trust. When we remember that a nation's life and growth and 
immortality depend on its legislation, can we exalt too highly the dig- 
nity and responsibility of the ballot, the science of political economy, 
the sphere of government ? Statesmanship is, of all sciences, the most 
exalted and comprehensive, for it includes all others. Among men we 
find those who study the laws of national life more liberal and enlight- 
ened on all subjects than those who confine their researches in special 
directions. When we base nations on justice and equality, we lift gov- 
ernment out of the mists of speculation into the dignity of a fixed sci- 
ence. Everything short of this is trick, legerdemain, sleight of hand. 
Magicians may make nations seem to live, but they do not. The New- 
tons of our day who should try to make apples stand in the air or men 
walk on the wall, would be no more puerile in their experiments than 
are they who build nations outside of law, on the basis of inequality. 

What thinking man can talk of coming down into the arena of poli- 
tics ? If we need purity, honor, self-sacrifice and devotion anywhere, 
we need them in those who have in their keeping the life and prosperity 
of a nation. In the enfranchisement of woman, in lifting her up into 
this broader sphere, we see for her new honor and dignity, more liberal, 
exalted and enlightened views of life, its objects, ends and aims, and an 
entire revolution in the new world of interest and action where she is 
soon to play her part. And in saying this, I do not claim that woman is 
better than man, but that the sexes have a civilizing power on each 
other. The distinguished historian, Henry Thomas Buckle, says : " The 



The Symbol of Equality. 187 

turn of thought of women, their habits of mind, their conversation, in- 
variably extending over the whole surface of society, and frequently pen- 
etrating its intimate structure, have, more than all other things put to- 
gether, tended to raise us into an ideal world, and lift us from the dust 
into which we are too prone to grovel." And this will be her influence 
in exalting and purifying the world of politics. When woman under- 
stands the momentous interests that depend on the ballot, she will make 
it her first duty to educate every American boy and girl into the idea 
that to vote is the most sacred act of citizenship a religious duty not 
to be discharged thoughtlessly, selfishly or corruptly ; but conscientiously, 
remembering that, in a republican government, to every citizen is en- 
trusted the interests of the nation. Would you fully estimate the re- 
sponsibility of the ballot, think of it as the great regulating power of a 
continent, of all our interests, political, commercial, religious, educa- 
tional, social and sanitary ! 

To many minds, this claim for the ballot suggests nothing more than 
a rough polling-booth where coarse, drunken men, elbowing each other, 
wade knee-deep in mud to drop a little piece of paper two inches long 
into a box simply this and nothing more. The poet Wordsworth, 
showing the blank materialism of those who see only with their outward 
eyes, says of his Peter Bell : 

" A primrose on the river's brim 
A yellow primrose was to him, 
And it was nothing more." 

So our political Peter Bells see the rough polling-booth in this great 
right of citizenship, and nothing more. In this act, so lightly esteemed 
by the mere materialist, behold the realization of that great idea strug- 
gled for in the ages and proclaimed by the Fathers, the right of self-gov- 
ernment. That little piece of paper dropped into a box is the symbol of 
equality, of citizenship, of wealth, of virtue, education, self-protection, 
dignity, independence and power the mightiest engine yet placed in 
the hand of man for the uprooting t>f ignorance, tyranny, superstition, 
the overturning of thrones, altars, kings, popes, despotisms, monarchies 
and empires. What phantom can the sons of the Pilgrims be chasing, 
\vln-n they make merchandise of a power like this ? Judas Iscariot, sell- 
ing his Master for thirty pieces of silver, is a fit type of those American 
citizens who sell their votes, and thus betray the right of self-government. 
Talk not of the " muddy pool of politics," as if such things must need be. 
Behold, with the coming of woman into this higher sphere of influence, the 
dawn of the new day, when politics, so called, are to be lifted into the 
world of morals and religion; when the polling-booth shall be a beauti- 
ful temple, surrounded by fountains and flowers and triumphal arches, 
through which young men and maidens shall go up in joyful procession 
to ballot for justice and freedom ; and when our election days shall bo kept 
like the holy feasts of the Jews at Jerusalem. Through the trials of this 
second revolution shall not our nation rise up, with new virtue and 
strength, to fulfill her mission in leading all the peoples of the earth to 
the only solid foundation of government, " equal rights to all." .... 



188 History of Woman Suffrage. 

Our danger lies, not in the direction of despotism, in the one-man 

power, in centralization ; but in the corruption of the people 

It is in vain to look for a genuine republic in this country until the 
women are baptized into the idea, until they understand the genius of 
our institutions, until they study the science of government, until they 
hold the ballot in their bands and have a direct voice in our legislation. 
What is the reason, with the argument in favor of the enfranchisement 
of women all on one side, without an opponent worthy of consideration 
while British statesmen, even, are discussing this question the North- 
ern men are so dumb and dogged, manifesting a studied indifference to 
what they can neither answer nor prevent ? What is the reason that 
even abolitionists who have fearlessly claimed political, religious and so- 
cial equality for women for the last twenty years, should now, with bated, 
breath, give her but a passing word in their public speeches and editor- 
ial comments as if her rights constituted but a side issue of this grave 
question of reconstruction ? All must see that this claim for male suf- 
frage is but another experiment in class legislation, another violation of 
the republican idea. With the black man we have no new element in 
government, but with the education and elevation of women we have a 
power that is to develop the Saxon race into a higher and nobler life, 
and'thus, by the law of attraction, to lift all races to a more even plat- 
form than can ever be reached in the political isolation of the sexes. 
Why ignore 15,000,000 women in the reconstruction ? The philosophy 
of this silence is plain enough. The black man crowned with the rights 
of citizenship, there are no political Ishmaelites left but the women. 
This is the last stronghold of aristocracy in the country. Sydney Smith 
says: " There always has been, and always will be, a class of men in the 
world so small that, if women were educated, there would be nothing 
left below them." 

It is a consolation to the "white male," to the popinjays in all our 
seminaries of learning, to the ignorant foreigner, the boot-black and bar- 
ber, the idiot for a " white male" may vote if he be not more than 
nine-tenths a fool to look down on women of wealth and education, 
who write books, make speeches, and discuss principles with the savans of 
their age. It is a consolation for these classes to be able to say, " well, if 
woman can do these things, they can't vote after all." I heard some boys 
discoursing thus not long since. I told them they reminded me of a story I 
heard of two Irishmen the first time they saw a locomotive with a train of cars. 
As the majestic fire-horse, with all its grace and polish, moved up to a sta- 
tion, stopped, and snorted, as its mighty power was curbed, then slowly 
gathered up its forces again and moved swiftly on " be jabers," says Pat, 
" there's muscle for you. What are we beside that giant ? " They watched 
it intently till out of sight, seemingly with real envy, as if oppressed with a 
feeling of weakness and poverty before this unknown power ; but rallying at 
last, one says to the other : " No matter, Pat ; let it snort and dash on it 
can't vote, after all." 

Poor human nature wants something to look down on. No privileged 
order ever did see the wrongs of its own victims, and why expect the " white 
male citizen " to enfranchise woman without a struggle by a scratch of the 



Ignorant of the Power of the Ballot. 189 

pen to place themselves on a dead level with their lowest order ? And what 
a fall would that be, my countrymen. In none of the nations of modern 
Europe is there a class of women so degraded politically as are the women of 
these Northern States. In the Old World, where the government is the 
aristocracy, where it is considered a mark of nobility to share its offices and 
powers there women of rank have certain hereditary rights which raise 
them above a majority of the men, certain honors and privileges not granted 
to serfs or peasants. In England woman may be Queen, hold office, and 
vote on some questions. In the Southern States even the women were not 
degraded below their working population, they were not humiliated in see- 
ing their coachmen, gardeners, and waiters go to the polls to legislate on 
their interests ; hence there was a pride and dignity in their bearing not 
found in the women of the North, and pluck in the chivalry before which 
Northern doughfaceism Jias ever cowered. But here, where the ruling class, 
the aristocracy, is " male," no matter whether washed or unwashed, lettered 
or unlettered, rich or poor, black or white, here in this boasted northern civ- 
ilization, under the shadow of Bunker Hill and Faneuil Hall, which Mr. 
Phillips proposes to cram down the throat of South Carolina here women 
of wealth and education, who pay taxes and are amenable to law, who may 
be hung, even though not permitted to choose the judge, the juror, or the 
sheriff who does the dismal deed, women who are your peers in art, science, 
and literature already close upon your heels in the whole world of thought 
are thrust outside the pale of political consideration with traitors, idiots, 
minors, with those guilty of bribery, larceny, and infamous crime. What a 
category is this in which to place your mothers, wives, and daughters. " I 
ask you, men of the Empire State, where on the footstool do you find such a 
class of citizens politically so degraded ? Now, we ask you, in the coming 
Constitutional Convention, to so amend the Second Article of our State 
Constitution as to wipe out this record of our disgrace. 

"But," say you, "women themselves do not make the demand." Mr. 
Phillips said on this platform, a year ago, that "the singularity of this 
cause is, that it has to be carried on against the wishes and purposes of 
its victims," and he has been echoed by nearly every man who has spoken 
on this subject during the past year. Suppose the assertion true, is it a 
peculiarity of this reform? .... Ignorant classes always resist innova- 
tions. Women looked on the sewing-machine as a rival for a long time. 
Years ago the laboring classes of England asked bread ; but the Cobdt'n.-, 
the Brights, the Gladstones, the Mills have taught them there is a po\\T 
behind bread, and to-day they ask the ballot. But they were tnutrlit it- 
power first, and so must woman be. Again, do not those far-seeing phi- 
losophers who comprehend the wisdom, the beneficence, the morality of 
free trade urge this law of nations against the will and wishes of the 
victims of tariffs and protective duties ? If you can prove to us that 
women do not wish to vote, that is no argument against our demand. 
There are many duties in life that ignorant, selfish, unthinking women 
do not desire to do, and this may be one of tlu-in. 

"But," says Rev. O. B. Frothinghaui, in a recent sermon on this 
subject, ''they who first assume political responsibilities must nec- 
essarily lose something of the feminine element." In the education 



190 History of Woman Suffrage. 

and elevation of woman we are yet to learn the true manhood and 
womanhood, the true masculine and feminine elements. Dio Lewis is 
rapidly changing our ideas of feminine beauty. In the large waists and 
strong arms of the girls under his training, some dilettante gentleman 
may mourn a loss of feminine delicacy. So in the wise, virtuous, self- 
supporting, common-sense women we propose as the mothers of the fu- 
ture republic, the reverend gentleman may see a lack of what he consid- 
ers the feminine element. In the development of sufficient moral forc*e 
to entrench herself on principle, need a woman necessarily lose any 
grace, dignity, or perfection of character? Are not those who have ad- 
vocated the rights of women in this country for the last twenty years as 
delicate and refined, as moral, high-toned, educated, just, and generous 
as any women in the land? I have seen women in many countries and 
classes, in public and private ; but have found none more pure and no- 
ble than those I meet on this platform. I have seen our venerable Pres- 
ident in converse with the highest of English nobility, and even the 
Duchess of Sutherland did not eclipse her in grace, dignity, and conver- 
sational power. Where are there any women, as wives and mothers, 
more beautiful in their home life than Lucretia Mott and Lucy Stone, or 
Antoinette Brown Blackwell? Let the freedmen of the South Sea Islands 
testify to the faithfulness, the devotion, the patience, and tender mercy 
of Frances D. Gage, who watched over their interests, teaching them to 
read and work for two long years. Some on our platform have struggled 
with hardship and poverty been slaves even in "the land of the free 
and the home of the brave," and bear the scars of life's battle. But is a 
self-made woman less honorable than a self-made man? Answer our ar- 
guments. When the Republic is in danger, no matter for our manners. 
When our soldiers came back from the war, wan, weary, and worn, 
maimed, halt, blind, wrinkled, and decrepit their banners torn, their 
garments stained with blood who, with a soul to feel, thought of any- 
thing but the glorious work they had done? What if their mothers on 
this platform be angular, old, wrinkled, and gray? They, too, have 
fought a good fight for freedom, and proudly bear the scars of the battle. 
We alone have struck the key-note of reconstruction. While man talks 
of ' ' equal, impartial, manhood suffrage," we give the certain sound, 
"universal suffrage." While he talks of the rights of races, we exalt the 
higher, the holier idea proclaimed by the Fathers, and now twice bap- 
tized in blood, "individual rights." To woman it is given to save the 
Republic. 

SUSAN B. ANTHONY, on behalf of the Executive Committee, reported 
several resolutions.* 



* Resolved, That as republican institutions are based on individual rights, and not on 
the rights of races or sexes, the first question for the American people to settle in the re- 
construction of the government, is the RIGHTS OF INDIVIDUALS. 

Resolved, That the present claim for "manhood suffrage," marked with the words 
"equal," "impartial," "'universal," is a cruel abandonment of the slave women of the 
South, a fraud on the tax-paying women of the North, and an insult to the civilization of 
the nineteenth century. 

Resolved, That the proposal to reconstruct our government on the basis of manhood 



Rev. Samuel J. May. 191 

Rev. SAMUEL J. MAY said : I wish to give my testimony most earnestly 
and solemnly to the conviction, which has continually increased in my 
soul since my attention was first called to the subject, that this is a fun- 
damental question. How can we expect that our government will be well 
conducted when one-half, and that too what we have been accustomed 
to call the "better half," of its constituency is disfranchised, and unable 
to influence it as it should? It is now twenty-two years since I delivered 
my first public discourse on this subject; and when I have insisted, as I 
have done during that time, that women should be allowed to take part 
in the government, it has always been thrown in my teeth that women 
were governing the nation after all through their influence over their hus- 
bands, brothers, and sons. I was delighted with the remarks of Mrs. 
Stanton on this subject. In the first place, women can not influence 
their husbands, nor educate their sons, as they should do, because they 
are not properly informed, and have no inducement to become informed. 
Were they to feel a responsibility, doubtless the better part of them would 
prepare themselves to discharge their duty ; but knowing that they have 
nothing to do with the government of the country, you can hardly per- 
suade our young women to study the subject. Years ago I insisted that 
the Constitution of the United States should be introduced into the 
common schools of the city where I live, to be studied by girls as well as 
boys. Yet I hardly know half a dozen girls there who have taken the 
least interest in it. Why ? Because, when any allusion is made to wom- 
en's participation in the government, it has been met with a sneer, 
which so many dread more than they do a bullet; and this has doubtless 
deterred them from it. 

I was glad, too, to hear the reply so successfully made to the objection 
that women do not demand this right. That is no reason why they 
should not be required to exercise it. It is their right because.it is their 
duty. It is their duty because it is their right. We have the most glori- 
ous inheritance that God ever gave to a nation, the privilege of governing 
ourselves. Where does self-government begin ? Where does it reside ? 
In the individual. No individual that can not govern himself can con- 
tribute in the least toward the government of the country in which he 
lives. He becomes a burden, if not a curse. Knowing that women have 
the same moral powers as men, the same intellectual powers, the same 
affections, that they are governed by the same laws, and amenable to the 
same government, who can doubt that if they were made sensible of their 
responsibilities in the government of the country, and that they can not 
contribute in the least to the well-being of the community unless they 



suffrage, which emanated from the Republican party and has received the recent sanction of 
the American Anti-Slavery Society, is but a continuation of the old system of class and 
caste legislation, always cruel and prescriptive in itself, and ending in all ages in national 
degradation and revolution. 

On motion of Mies Anthony, a Finance Committee was appointed, consisting of Har- 
riet Purvis, Mary F. Gilbert, Charles Lenox Rcmond, and Anna Rice Powi-11. 

On motion of Charles C. Burleigh, a Business Committee was appointed, consisting of 
Ernestine L. Rose, Susan B. Anthony, Parker Pillsbury, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frances 
D. Gage, and Samuel J. May. 



192 



History of Woman Suffrage. 



can contribute those virtues and graces which constitute the true gov- 
ernment of one's self; this would have the most inspiring and elevating 
influence upon them ? Think you they would continue to be the ser- 
vants of mere fashion, as too many of them now are ? By our refusal to 
act in accordance with the eternal principles of righteousness set forth in 
the Declaration of Independence and in the preamble of the Constitu- 
tion of the country, we have been brought into a terrible civil war,, 
which has resulted in a disorganized condition requiring reconstruction. 
Why should we not see to it that our country as a whole, and that each 
individual State of the country, shall be reconstructed on this true basis, 
so that, if possible, nothing may be left to be done hereafter to improve 
the foundations on which this nation rests ? 

Many say, " One thing at a time. You have been struggling for the 
abolition of slavery and obtained that ; and now claim the political rights 
of the colored men, and will undoubtedly get them. Why can't you be 
satisfied ?" Because that would leave a tremendous wrong at the foun- 
dation of our country. What will be the consequence, God only knows, 
should we dare to go on with such a fatal mistake in the basis of our in- 
stitutions. It is presumption to suppose that we can do this without 
incurring, sooner or later, awful consequences. We can not predict what 
they will be ; but that they will be great our past experiences should 
teach us. It was thought a very little matter to leave our Constitution 
indefinite as to the rights of colored men. Our fathers in the meetings 
held to ratify the Constitution, said they had done all that could be ex- 
pected, said that the death-blow was struck at the institution of slavery, 
that it would soon die a natural death ; and thus they quieted those who 
were distrustful because slavery was not explicitly abolished in the Con- 
stitution. The people, engaged in their various pursuits, ambitious for 
office, eager for wealth, let this seed of wrong become a mighty upas tree 
that covered our republic all over, and scattered everywhere its poison- 
ous fruits. Shall we dare to go on for another period of our national ex- 
istence knowing that at the foundation of our government there is a 
tremendous wrong ? 

What should the government of a nation be? Ought it not to be as 
much as possible like the government of a well-ordered family? Can 
you think of any model so good as the divine model set before us in the 
family? What would the family be with a father and without a mother? 
To whom do you owe the most your father or your mother? Who con- 
trolled the family most effectually? Some thirty years ago, being chair- 
man of the Board of Education in my district, I proposed to put a wom- 
an into a school where the male teachers had been set at nought year 
after year. It stood the lowest in rank when she took it; but in less 
than a month its character was obviously changed, and at the end of the 
term it stood number three in point of character as well as in scholar- 
ship. Men are not governed by the fear of punishment. They are gov- 
erned by a strong, persistent manifestation of the consciousness of a 
right to govern them; and that is pressed upon them more effectually 
by the influence of a mother or a sister than of a father or a brother. 
Just so it will be in the government of our country, when women shall 



Sojourner Truth Speaks. 193 

educate and prepare themselves to take part in that government, with 
their almost instinctive perception of the right, the true, and the good. 
And if our fathers and mothers were what they might and should be, 
the children would be so well trained that they would govern themselves, 
and there would be very little need of the instrumentality of a political 
organization. If women understood that it was not only their right, but 
their duty, to educate themselves to be citizens of the State, we should 
have, instead of the trifling topics which now occupy their attention in 
our domestic circles, the consideration of great' questions; and doubtless 
their finer perceptions often would help to settle great questions aright; 
and they who should go forth from that family circle into the various 
relations of life, would go prepared to advocate the right, to illustrate 
the truth, and at the ballot-box to give their votes for the true and the 
right. It is my first conviction respecting the future well-being of our 
country, that it is to be measured exactly by our treatment of the col- 
ored man. My second conviction is that the well-being of our country 
never will be effectually provided for until the better half of humanity 
is educated and instructed, and required to take part in the enactment 
of the laws and in their administration. 

Mrs. Mott then introduced the venerable Sojourner Truth, who 
was greeted with loud cheers, after which she said : 

My friends, I am rejoiced that you are glad, but I don't know how you 
will feel when I get through. I come from another field the country 
of the slave. They have got their liberty so much good luck to have 
slavery partly destroyed; not entirely. I want it root and branch de- 
stroyed. Then we will all be free indeed. I feel that if I have to answer 
for the deeds done in my body just as much as a man, I have a right to 
have just as much as a man. There is a great stir about colored men 
getting their rights, but not a word about the colored women ; and if 
colored men get their rights, and not colored women theirs, you see the 
colored men will be masters over the women, and it will be just as bad 
as it was before. So I am for 'keeping the thing going while things are 
stirring; because if we wait till it is still, it will take a great while to get 
it going again. White women are a great deal smarter, and know more 
than colored women, while colored women do not know scarcely any- 
thing. They go out washing, which is about as high as a colored woman 
gets, and their men go about idle, strutting up and down ; and when the 
women come home, they ask for their money and take it all, and then 
scold because there is no food. I want you to consider on that, cliii'n. 
I call you chil'n; you are somebody's chil'n, and I am old enough to be 
mother of all that is here. I want women to have their rights. In the 
courts women have no right, no voice; nobody speaks for them. I wish 
woman to have her voice there among the pettifoggers. If it is not a fit 
place for women, it is unfit for men to be there. 

I am above eighty years old ; it is about time for me to be going. I 
have been forty years a slave and forty years free, and would be here 
forty years more to have equal rights for all. I suppose I am kept here 
because something remains for me to do; I suppose I am. yet to help to 






194 History of Woman Suffrage. 

break the chain. I have done a great deal of work ; as much as a man, 
but did not get so much pay. I used to work in the field and bind grain, 
keeping up with the cradler; but men doing no more, got twice as much 
pay; so with the German women. They work in the field and do as 
much work, but do not get the pay. We do as much, we eat as much, 
we want as much. I suppose I am about the only colored woman that 
goes about to speak for the rights of the colored women. I want to keep 
the thing stirring, now that the ice is cracked. What we want is a little 
money. You men know that you get as much again as women when 
you write, or for what you do. When we get our rights we shall not have 
to come to you for money, for then we shall have money enough in our 
own pockets; and may be you will ask us for money. But help us now 
until we get it. It is a good consolation to know that when we have got 
this battle once fought we shall not be coming to you any more. You 
have been having our rights so long, that you think, like a slave-holder, 
that you own us. I know that it is hard for one who has held the reins 
for so long to give up; it cuts like a knife. It will feel all the better 
when it closes up again. I' have been in Washington about three years, 
seeing about these colored people. Now colored men have the right to 
vote. There ought to be equal rights now more than ever, since colored 
people have got their freedom. I am going to talk several times while I 
am here ; so now I will do a little singing. I have not heard any singing 
since I came here. 

Accordingly, suiting the action to the word, Sojourner sang, "We are 
going home." "There, children," said she, "in heaven we shall rest 
from all our labors ; first do all we have to do here. There I am deter- 
mined to go, not to stop short of that beautiful, place, and I do not mean 
to stop till I get there, and meet you there, too." 

CHARLES C. BURLEIGH said: I consider it among the good omens 
with which the Society enters upon its new year of labor, that its work- 
ers have been so busy, as appears from the informal report of the Secre- 
tary this morning, that really they have not had time to let the left hand 
know what the right hand was doing. It shows an earnestness, a deter- 
mination, a vigor, an industry, which can not co-exist with a cause of 
righteousness like the one before us without hopeful results. There is no 
narrow question here. We are not contending for Woman's Suffrage or 
Negro Suffrage, but for a broad principle of right applicable to the whole 
race. Those in opposition to us have really nothing to stand upon. 
While we may fairly assume that the burden of proof lies upon those 
who urge objections, that ours is the affirmative case, and all that we are 
bound to do is to answer objections; yet in this reform, as in others 
which have preceded it, its enemies not being willing to take the burden 
of proof, we have undertaken to do then* work as well as our own. We 
are willing, therefore, for the sake of meeting every cavil, for the sake of 
fighting every shadow of objection, to take the laboring oar which the 
other side should take, and to prove the objections unfounded which 
they have not yet attempted to prove well-founded. 

We are told sometimes that women ought not to share with men in the 
rights we claim for humanity, because of the difference of sex ; that there 



Wlio Govern the ChMfenf 195 

is a sex of soul as well as of body. This is an objection practically cut- 
ting its own throat ; because if it is true that there is a diversity of sex 
in soul which ought to be recognized in political institutions as well as in 
social arrangements, how can you rightly determine woman's proper 
place in society by the standard of a man's intellect ? How can man's 
intellect determine what kind of legislation suits the condition of wo- 
man ? The very fact, then, of the diversity of the masculine under- 
standing and masculine spirit, proves the necessity of assigning to wo- 
man a share in the work which is to be done affecting woman. Manifestly 
one of these two things must be true : Either there is no such essential 
difference worthy to be taken into account, in which case woman has 
the same rights as man, and there is no necessity for making a distinc- 
tion ; or there is an essential difference, in which case man is not compe- 
tent to do the work of legislating for the whole of society without the 
aid of woman. We might just as well let one effigy stand in the tailor's 
shop, as the standard of measurement of every garment the tailor is to 
make, and also of every garment the dressmaker is to make, as to found 
the legislation for all upon one standard. If you recognize a difference, 
let your legislation proceed from both elements of the body politic 
which your legislation is to affect. 

It is said also, that if you allow women to vote, the logic of your ar- 
gument will go further and require that women shall be voted for, and 
they may chance to receive votes enough for election; and they may 
even go to the State Legislature or to Congress. Suppose such a thing 
should happen, would a city which is represented in the Congress of the 
United States by John Morrissey and Fernando Wood, have reason to 
blush if by some singular good fortune she should cbance to be repre- 
sented by Elizabeth Cady Stanton ? (Applause.) Would the halls of 
Congress suffer any loss of dignity, or any loss of efficiency, even if John 
Morrissey's place should be vacated to make room for Mrs. Stanton, or 
if some Pennsylvania Democrat should be allowed to remain at home 
while Lucretia Mott occupied his chair ? (Applause.) Is it so terrible 
that women who can utter sentiments as noble and elevating as those to 
which you have listened, who can sustain them by logic as clear, and who 
can expose with such delicate wit the ridiculous absurdity of the opposite 
side, should have a voice in the counsels of the nation ? Somebody saya 
that " the child is father to the man." You know who govern the chil- 
dren. Who governed you when you were children ? Is it not as safe 
that woman should govern in the halls of national legislation as in the 
family and in the school ? You will find in hundreds of schools, gov- 
erned a few years ago by men, only women for teachers to-day. I re- 
member that in a building which contained some three hundred pupils, 
the last man employed as a teacher was an assistant teacher un l.-r th<> 
supervision of a woman as principal; a woman who has vindicated her 
right to the place by her admirable administration, and hn- admirable 
adaptation to the business of teaching, so that she has become, as it 
were, a fixture in that schoolhouso. And that is only one case among 
many. And if woman excels in government in those spheres in which 
she has had an opportunity to prove her ability, it is at least safe to try 
the experiment further. 



196 



History of Woman Suffrage. 



We have just seen one folly, one absurdity refuted by the simple pro- 
cess of trying an experiment. The time was when it was deemed alto- 
gether unwomanly, and repugnant to female delicacy and refinement, 
for a woman to ink the ends of her fingers in handling a pen ; for a wo- 
man to be what was derisively called a "blue-stocking," or a literary 
woman. It was thought that nothing but pedantry, nothing but slat- 
ternly habits and neglected housekeeping, could come of it. But who 
would be willing to banish from the literary world to-day such names as 
Browning, Henians, Stowe, and Gage ? And if I were to fill out the cata- 
logue of names, I might close my speech at the end of it, having tired you 
all with the length of the recital. So it was said that women should not 
appear on the public platform. But who now would banish the women 
who have delighted such vast congregations, and who have drawn such 
applause from all classes and conditions of men? Who, to-day, considers 
it improper for Lucy Stone, Anna Dickinson, Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. Gage, 
to appear upon a public platform ? Who is willing to shut the pulpit 
against Mrs. Mott, when she has filled it with such acceptance, in so many 
places, and on so many occasions ? Step by step, woman has advanced 
toward her right position. Step by step, as she advanced, she has proved 
her right, to the satisfaction of caviling skepticism itself 

She would now go a step further. She demands the rights, not of wo- 
manhood, but of humanity. And I feel just as confident that what she 
demands will be conceded, in reference to her political rights, as that it 
has been conceded with regard to these other rights, which are now set- 
tled in the estimation of thinking and reasoning people. The tide sets 
that way, clearly and strongly. Kansas is not to go alone, in granting 
this right to woman. The agitation is to go on ; and the more you resist 
the current of events, the more earnestly will the agitation be continued 
until reason shall be convinced; until prejudice shall be overcome by the 
power of conviction ; until men are constrained, from very shame, to with- 
draw from a position which no argument, no experience can justify, which 
no consideration of decency will palliate. 

One objection to our claim is, that the right of voting should not be- 
long to human beings as individuals, but rather to households of human 
beings. This is not a denial of equality in all respects, but an allegation 
that the right belongs neither to the man nor to the woman, but to the 
household; and that for the household, as its representative, the man 
casts the ballot. Suppose I concede that, what then ? Why should the 
head of the household, or rather the hand of the household, be masculine 
rather than feminine ? We have heard the argument over and over again 
that woman should leave to man the counting-house, the work-bench, 
and all the duties supposed peculiarly to appertain to masculine human- 
ity, and should attend to "household" matters. If, then, suffrage is a 
household matter, why should not woman attend to it, in her feminine 
capacity, as peculiarly within her domestic province, and relieve man 
from the interruption of his appropriate duties ? 

Rev. Mr. RAY inquired what was the basis for the right of suffrage, if 
suffrage was not, as Mr. Burleigh had said yesterday in another place, a 
natural right. If it does not belong to the individual whence does it come? 



Nancy Works in the Cotton-field. 197 

The Sultan of Turkey may claim that the right belongs to him, and that 
he may delegate that right to whomsoever he will to assist him in the gov- 
ernment of the people. But in a Republic the right must be in the indi- 
vidual; and if so, it belongs to woman as well as to man, to black as well 
as to white persons. If the right of suffrage is not a natural right, why 
has not the Constitutional Convention about to meet the right to limit 
the suffrage, if they think it will secure the best interest of the State ? 

FRANCES D. GAGE said : I have but little to say because it is almost two 
o'clock, and hungry and weary people are not good listeners to speeches. 
I shall confine my remarks therefore to one special point brought up this 
morning and not fully discussed. Sojourner Truth gave us the whole 
truth in about fifteen words : " If I am responsible for the deeds done in 
my body, the same as the white male citizen is, I have a right to all the 
rights he has to help him through the world." I shall speak for the slave 
woman at the South. I have always lifted my voice for her when I have 
spoken at all. I will not give up the slave woman into the hands of man, 
to do with her as he pleases hereafter. I know the plea that was made 
to me in South Carolina, and down in the Mississippi valley. They said, 
'' You give us a nominal freedom, but you leave us under the heel of our 
husbands, who are tyrants almost equal to our masters." The former 
slave man of the South has learned his lesson of oppression and wrong 
of his old master; and they think the wife has no right to her earnings. 
I was often asked, "Why don't the Government pay my wife's earnings 
to me ? " When acting for the Freedman's Aid Society, the orders came 
to us to compel marriage, or to separate families. I issued the order as 
I was bound to do, as General Superintendent of the Fourth Division 
under General Saxton. The men came to me and wanted to. be married, 
because they said if they were married in the church, they could manago 
the women, and take care of their money, but if they were not married 
in the church the women took their own wages and did just as they 
had a mind to. But the women came to me and said, " We don't want 
to be married in the church, because if we are our husbands will whip the 
children and whip us if they want to; they are no better than old mas- 
ters." The biggest quarrel I had with the colored people down there, 
was with a plantation man because I would not furnish a nurse for his 
child. "No, Nero," said I, "I can not hire a nurse for your child whilo 
Nancy works in the cotton field." "But what is we to do? I'se a poor 
miserable man and can't work half the time, and Nancy is a good strong 
hand; and we must have a nurse." He went away in utter disgust, and 
declared to the people outside that I had got the miserablest notion he 
had ever heard, to spoil a good field hand like his Nancy to nurse her 
own baby. 

We were told the other day by Wendell Phillips, upon the Anti-Slavery 
platform, that it takes people forty years to outgrow an old idea. The 
slave population of the South is not yet removed a hundred years from 
the barbarism of Africa, whore women have no rights, no privileges, but 
are trampled under foot in all the savageism of the past. And the slave 
man has looked on to sec his master will everything a.s lie willed, and he 
baa learned the lesson from his master. Mr. Higginson told us that the 



198 History of Woman Suffrage. 

slave-master never understood the slave. I know that to be the fact. 
Neither does man understand woman to-day, because she has always been 
held subservient to him. Now it is proposed to give manhood the suf- 
frage in all these Southern States, and to leave the poor slave woman 
bound under the ban of the direst curse of slavery to him who is the 
father of her children. It is decreed upon all the statute books of slavery, 
that the child shall follow the condition of the mother. That has been 
the decree from the beginning of this awful slave system ; that the whitest 
woman, the child of a slave mother, whose hair curled down to her waist, 
and whose blue eyes of beauty were a lure to the statesmen of the South, 
should be a slave, though the Governor of the State were her father. 
Are you to leave her there yet, and desecrate marriage, by making it 
such a bond of slavery that the woman shall say, " I do not want to be 
married, to suffer oppression ! " Are you to force prostitution and wrong 
upon those people by these unjust laws ? Are you to compel wickedness 
and crime ? Are you going to let it stand upon the statute books of the 
Southern States that the only woman free to work for her own child shall 
be the mother of illegitimate children ? That is the consequence of what 
you are doing to the people who in all time past, since they have lived 
upon this continent, have been denied the right of sacred marriage ; and 
who must have, as Wendell Phillips tells us, forty years to outgrow the 
past, or to educate them. 

We are told by Mr. Phillips to flood the South with spelling-books. Who 
is to carry them there ? Who, to-day, is teaching the Southern people ; 
for I am talking now in behalf of the colored woman of the South, forget- 
ting my own degradation. Who have carried the spelling-book to the South ? 
The womenof the North, gathering up their strength, have been sent down 
by all these great societies to teach. The colored men of the South are to 
vote, while they deny the ballot to their teacher ! It is said that women do 
not want to vote in this country. I tell you, it is a libel upon womanhood. 
I care not who says it. I am in earnest. They do want to vote. Fifty-two 
thousand pulpits in this country have been teaching women the lesson that 
has been taught them for centuries, that they must not think about voting. 
But when 52,000 pulpits, or 52,000 politicians, at the beginning of this war, 
lifted up their voices and asked of women, " Come out and help us," did they 
stand back ? In every hamlet, in every village, in every cabin, and every pal- 
ace, in every home in the whole United States, they rose up and went to 
work. They worked for the Government ; they worked for the nation ; they 
worked for their sons, their husbands, their fathers, their brothers, their 
friends. They worked night and day. Who found women to stand back 
when this great public opinion that had been crushing them so long and for- 
bidding them to work, at last lifted itself up and said, " You may work " ? 
(Applause). 

I have been traveling all winter long, with a few intervals of rest, talking 
not upon Equal Rights, but upon the subject of Temperance ; and whenever 
I said to my crowded audiences that we must give to woman the right to vote 
that she may purify the nation of this great sin, there went up shouts and 
clapping of hands of men and women. They are ready for this work. What 
we want is to crystallize the public opinion of all ranks of society in its favor. 



Frances D. Gage on Self -Support. 199 

There is great fear that if woman is allowed to vote, she will lose something 
of her high and excellent character. If it is right for woman to have the suf- 
frage, it is not right to talk of expediency. If giving woman the ballot will 
cause her to lose her prestige, it is because she ought to lose it. If she gains 
physical strength and loses that effeminate delicacy that provides for noth- 
ing and cares for nothing but its own selfish, quiet enjoyment, I shall rejoice 
with joy unspeakable. My strong hands have tilled the fields ; and in my early 
childhood have harnessed the horse, and brought the wood to the door ; have 
led him to the blacksmith's shop to be shod. These are things I do not often 
tell in public. I have braved public opinion ; I have tilled my garden ; I have 
brought myself up from fainting weakness occasioned by accident and broken 
bones. I have taken care of myself, supported myself, and asked nothing 
from the world ; I find my womanhood not one bit degraded. (Applause). A 
thousand times in the last years, in this struggle for bread, have I been asked", 
" Why don't you let your sons support you ? " My answer is, " My six sons 
have their own duties. My six boys have their own labors. God gives me 
strength to earn my own bread, and I will do it as long as I can." (Applause). 
That is what I want to teach the womanhood of the country. I did not mean 
to talk so long ; but I assure you I talk in earnest. If I sometimes, by a slip 
of the tongue, make some little mistake for I have not been educated in the 
schools, (a log cabin schoolhouse in the wilderness gave me all I have) you 
will excuse me, for I mean no injustice to any one. And if to-night it will 
not crowd some better woman or man from the platform, I shall be glad to 
speak to you again. 

Mrs. MOTT. The argument that has been made that women do not want 
to vote is like that which we had to meet in the early days of the Anti- 
Slavery enterprise, that the slaves did not want to be free. I remember that 
in one of our earliest Woman's Rights Conventions, in Syracuse, a resolution 
was offered to the effect that as the assertion that the slave did not want his 
freedom, and would not take it if offered to him, only proved the depth of his 
degradation, so the assertion that woman had all the rights she wanted only 
gave evidence how far the influence of the law and customs, and the perverted 
application of the Scriptures, had encircled and crushed her. This was fifteen 
or twenty years ago. Times are altered since. In the temperance reformation, 
and in the great reformatory movements of our age, woman's powers have 
been called into action. They are beginning to see that another state of things 
is possible for them, and they are beginning to demand their rights. Why 
should this church be granted for such a meeting as this, but for the progress 
of the cause ? Why are so many women present, ready to respond to the 
most ultra and most radical sentiments here, but that woman has grown and 
is able to assume her rights ? 

In many of the States the laws have been so modified that the wife now 
stands in a very different position as regards the right of property and other 
rights, from that which she occupied fifteen or twenty years ago. You see 
the same advance in the literary world. I remember when Maria Edgeworth 
and her sister first published their works, that they were afraid to publish 
their own name, and borrowed the name of their father. So Frances Power 
Cobbe was not able to write over her own name, and she issued her " Intu- 
itive Morals " without a name ; and her father was so much pleased with the 



200 History of Woman Suffrage. 

work, without knowing it was his daughter's, that it led to an acknowledg- 
ment after a while. 

STEPHEN S. FOSTER : Will you give us the evidence that the statement 
that the women of this country do not want the ballot is not true ? I should 
be glad to believe that ; but in my experience the worst opposition to the 
progress of Woman's Rights has come from woman herself. The greatest 
indifference to the cause is to be found among women, and not among men. 
I wish it were not so. I hope I am mistaken. But I believe nine out of every 
ten of our public speakers will tell you that they find more help, more sym- 
pathy from men than from women. 

Rev. S. J. MAY : I should like to have that question settled, so far as the 
women present are concerned. Will as many of you as will -vote when the 
right is awarded to you, please to manifest it by rising. 

Nearly the whole of the ladies present immediately arose. In- 
deed, those on the platform, could not see a single woman who re- 
tained her seat. 

Mrs. GAGE : During the last fifteen years, with the utmost industry I could 
use in ascertaining the public opinion in this country, I have never found 
one solitary instance of a woman, whom I could meet alone by her fireside, 
where there was no fear of public opinion, or the minister, or the law-maker, 
or her father, or her husband, who did not tell me she would like to vote. 
[Applause]. I never found a slave in my life, who, removed from the eye 
of the people about him, would not tell me he wanted liberty never 
one. I have been in the slave States for years. I have been in the slave- 
pens, and upon the plantations, and have stood beside the slave as he 
worked in the sugar cane and the cotton-field ; and I never found one 
who dared in the presence of white men to say he wanted freedom. When 
women and young girls are asked if they want to vote, they are almost 
always in just that situation where they are afraid to speak what they 
think ; and no wonder they so often say they do not want to vote. 

EVENING SESSION. 

The meeting was called to order by the President, Mrs. Mott, who 
introduced as the first speaker Col. Charles E. Moss, of Missouri. 

Mr. Moss said : This is a subject upon which I have thought for a number 
of years ; and I have become fully convinced that no reason can be assigned 
for extending the right of suffrage to any of the male sex, that does not 
equally apply to the female. 

When our fathers formed the national Constitution, they made it their 
duty to secure to every State a republican form of government. No govern- 
ment can be republican in form, unless it is so in substance and in fact ; 
based upon the consent of the governed. After the troublesome war we 
have just passed through, we are called upon not only to reconstruct the ten 
unrepresented States of the nation, but to purify the republicanism of our 
government in the Northern States and make it more consistent with our 
professions. It is a fit time, then, to take up the subject of suffrage, and to 



The Mortality of Nations. 201 

base it upon a well-established principle. Some say that the right of suf- 
frage is a privilege, to be given or withheld at pleasure. That does not seem 
to me a very safe foundation for so important a right. It is either a privi- 
lege or a natural right. If we recognize it as a natural right we have a 
peaceable, safe, legal mode of resistance against the disfranchisement of the 
people. If we admit it to be a privilege to be granted or withheld, no man 
and no woman has any legal right to interpose any objection to his own dis- 
franchisement. But I see that our friend has come in who was expected 
first to address you, and I will not take up more of your time. 

PARKER PILLSBURY was next introduced and said : The resolutions just 
read refer to the comparative longevity of nations and of individual men, and 
of their respective performance, while existence lasts. 

Among nations have arisen Franklins and Washingtons, Humboldts and 
Howards ; but what individual nation of any period has been the Plato or 
Pythagoras, the-Howard or the Humboldt of all the rest? or has achieved 
proportionally, so long a life? or expired at last in sunsets of serenity 
and glory, and been embalmed and enshrined in the tears and gratitude 
of mankind? It is often said that the life of a nation is as the life of 
an individual; with beginning, progress, decay, and dissolution. But the 
resemblance holds only in part. Consciousness comes to an individual, and 
self-respect ; and from that hour growth and greatness (it may be) begin. 
But with nations it is not so. The world has not made the same demand of 
nations as of individuals, and so nothing is expected of them. Nations, 
hitherto, were badly brought up. In the light of a thousand years hence, the 
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries will be " darker ages " than the eighth 
and ninth are to-day. Accepting three-score and ten as the common life of 
an individual, a degree at least of honorable manhood is often achieved, both 
in personal virtues, and in noble performance. 

The canticles of the Almanac used to run : 

At ten, a child ; at twenty, wild ; 
At thirty, strong, if ever ; 
At forty, wise ; at fifty, rich ; 
At sixty, good, or never. 

But at what age has any nation of any period or place become wise, rich, 
or even strong ; to say nothing of good ? 

The Roman Catholic Church is older than any civilized government on 
the globe. Lord Macaulay says : 

ft is the only institution left standing which carries the mind back to the time when 
the smoke of sacrifice rose from the Pantheon, and when tigers and camel leopards 
bounded in the Flavian Amphitheatre. The proudest royal houses are but of yesterday, 
compared with the line of the supreme Pontiffs, traced back in unbroken series, from the 
Pope who crowned Napoleon in the nineteenth century, to the Pope who crowned 
Pepin in the eighth ; and fur beyond stretches the august dynasty, until it fades into the 
twilight of fable ! She saw the commencement of all the governments on the globe, and 
of all the ecclesiastical establishments now existing ; and there is no nssurancc that she 
Is not destined to see the end of them all ! " 

The world has an accepted chronology of six thousand years. Its history 
and experience in government reach back forty centuries. It would be an 
interesting inquiry with what results governments have existed so long, espe- 

VOL. n. 14. 



202 History of Woman Suffrage. 

cially in the later periods and among the most enlightened of the nations. 
Charles the Fifth boasted that his empire saw no setting sun. It included 
Spain and all her vast American provinces, over large part of wh'ich to-day 
wave our own Stars and Stripes. The national escutcheon bore two globes ; 
and the coin, the two Pillars of Hercules, the then acknowledged boundary 
of the Eastern world, with the motto " More beyond." Spain, under Philip 
Second, dictated law, learning, religion, especially religion, to unknown mil- 
lions, not alone in Europe, but in North and South America, Africa and all 
the Indies. And now in the remote south-western corner of Europe is all 
that remains of this mighty power of the sixteenth century. 

France in the eighth century under Charlemagne, was another mistress of 
the globe. And Charlemagne was crowned by the Pope, " Sovereign of the 
New Empire of the West." And yet, in less than fifty years all that mount- 
ain of magnificence exploded ; and many rival nations sprang from its lava 
streams of blood and ashes ! A remnant, too, of France wa"s preserved ; and 
its history for almost eight hundred years, " may be traced, like the tracks 
of a wounded man through a crowd, by the blood ; " until it culminated in 
the French Revolution ("suicide of the eighteenth century," as Carlyle calls 
that terrible phenomenon) and Napoleon Bonaparte ! And he also sum- 
moned to his coronation the Roman Pontiff, like his great predecessor of a 
thousand years before. And beneath the solemn arches and arcades of Notre 
Dame, was crowned by Pope Pius the Seventh "The high and mighty 
Napoleon, the first Emperor of the French ! " Plunging remorselessly into 
the most desolating wars, he soon astonished the civilized world with his 
successes. He made himself master of almost half the globe. The reign of 
Napoleon was an earthquake which, for fifteen years, shook the sea and the 
land, carrying down innumerable human lives in the general cataclysm. But 
he sunk at last ! He aspired to the very heaven of heavens in his ambitions ; 
and his conquests were the wonder and terror of mankind. But he left France 
smaller, weaker, -poorer, and more debased and depraved than he found her. 

Just eight hundred years ago last September, William the Norman landed 
in Britain and commenced its subjugation. Since that period, the history 
of Great Britain has not differed materially from that of other European 
nations. As the sun is said never to set on the British domain, so the thun- 
. der of its war-guns has reverberated almost continually in some corner of 
the globe. To trace her history, however rapidly, even had we time, could 
give no pleasure to this audience, and would add nothing to my present ar- 
gument. It is sufficient to say that, with real estate almost immeasurable, 
with personal property incalculable, with a wealth of material resources of 
every conceivable description, absolutely unknown and unknowable, she yet 
contrives to support her costly establishment by a system of oppressive tax- 
ation almost unparalleled in the annals of the human race. Some of you 
must remember the graphic but not exaggerated description of British tax- 
ation given by Sidney Smith in the Edinburgh Review. It was almost fifty 
years ago ; but no less revenue must be raised in some way, still. He said : 

We have taxes upon everything which enters into the mouth, or covers the back, or 
Is placed under the feet ; taxes upon everything which it is pleasant to see, hear, feel, 
smell, or taste ; taxes upon warmth, light, and locomotion ; taxes on every thing on earth, 
and in the waters under the earth ; taxes on everything that comes from abroad, or ia 



Parker Pillsbury's Speech. 203 

grown at home ; taxes on the raw material, taxes on every fresh value added to it by the 
industry of man ; taxes on the sauces which pamper man's appetite, and the drugs that 
restore him to health ; taxes on the ermine which decorates the judge, and on the rope 
which hangs the criminal ; on the poor man's salt and the rich man's spice ; on the rib- 
bons of the bride, on the shroud of the corpse, and the brass nails of the coffin. The 
school-boy whips his taxed top ; the beardless youth rides his taxed horse, with a taxed 
saddle and bridle, on a taxed road ; and the dying Englishman, pouring his medicine, 
which has paid seven per cent., into a spoon that has paid fifteen per cent., flings him- 
self back upon his chintz-bed, which has paid twenty-two per cent., and expires in the 
arms of an apothecary who has paid a license of a hundred pounds for the privilege of 
putting him to death. His whole property is then taxed from two to ten per cent. Be- 
sides the probate, large fees are demanded for burying him in the chancel. His virtues 
are then handed down to posterity on taxed marble, and he is gathered to his fathers, to 
be taxed no more ! 

And we are told, what is doubtless true, that the enormous debt of Great 
Britain is the chain that binds its many parts together, and preserves its na- 
tionality. No nation, then, ever maintained a more precarious existence. 
Chartism in Scotland, Repeal in Ireland, Trades Strikes everywhere, East 
India Wars, Irish Famines, Fenianism, Reform Leagues, Reform Riots, 
Bread Riots all these attest how volcanic is its under stratum, and what 
dangers impend above. In some of the gloomy gorges of the Alps, there 
are seasons of the year when no traveler passes but at the expense of life, 
on account of the terrible " thunderbolts of snow " that hang suspended on 
the sides or summits of the mountains. None can know their hour ; but 
descend they must, by all the laws of gravitation, with resistless energy, 
sweeping all before them. At such times, all who pass creep along with 
trembling caution. They move in single file, at a distance from each other, 
hurrying fast as possible, with velvet step, avoiding all noise, even whispers 
the guides meanwhile muffling the bells of the mules, lest the slightest 
vibration communicated to the air should untie the tremulous mass over- 
head and entomb them forever. Great Britain, with her frightful debt, her 
terrible taxation, her dissatisfied, restless, beggared myriads of the lower 
working classes, her remorseless aristocracy, her bloated spirit of caste, her 
enforced but heartless religion, has hung a more terrible avalanche over her 
head than ever leaped down the heights of the Tyrol. 

Such are examples of success or failure in attempts at government, among 
the proudest and most prosperous nations of the Old World, in modern and 
what are called enlightened times. If seventy years be the life of a man, 
what should be the life of a nation ? Half the children born die under five 
years old. But proportionably a greater mortality prevails among nations 
and governments. Not one nation has ever yet attained an honorable man- 
hood. There is something rotten in the state of every Denmark. 

Will you tell me Democracy, Republicanism, consecrated by Christianity, 
is the remedy for all these ills? Let us look, then, at the best example. 
Our own nation is not yet a hundred years old, but it had behind it in the 
beginning, the chronicles of forty or sixty centuries, written mostly in tears 
and blood. At the end of an eight years' revolutionary war, our new gov- 
ernmental columns were reared, not, like some pagan temples, on human 
skulls, but on the imbruted bodies and extinguished souls of five hundred 
thousand chattel slaves. We had our Declaration of Independence, our war 
of Revolution, and a new Constitution and code of laws. We had a Wash- 



204 History of Woman Suffrage. 

ington for our first President, a John Jay for Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Court, and a constellation of senators, statesmen, and sage's who challenged 
the respect and admiration of mankind. We closed that dispensation with 
James Buchanan as Chief Magistrate, and Roger B. Taney as Chief-Justice, 
with his diabolical Dred Scott Decision, and with a war of Treason and 
Rebellion which deluged the land in the blood of more than half a million 
of men. We had multiplied our slaves to four millions, with new cruelties 
and horrors added to the system, and at least ten generations of them were 
lost in unknown graves. The new Republican President pledged his official 
word and honor to the rebels already in arms, that, would they but return to 
their allegiance, he would favor amendments to the Constitution that should 
not only render slave property more secure than ever before, but also make 
all its old guarantees and safeguards, Fugitive Slave law and all, forever 
" irrevocable " by any act or decree of Congress ! So were we endeavoring 
to bulwark and balustrade our slave-system about, in the name of a Chris- 
tian Republicanism, when it was struck by the lightnings of a righteous 
retribution, and the world is rid of it forever. And our old nationality went 
down in the ruin. Now we are divided, distracted, deranged in currency, 
commerce, diplomacy, with State and Federal liabilities resting on the peo- 
ple, amounting to not less than six thousand millions of dollars, not to speak 
of current expenditures which are also appalling ; with a President whose 
weakness finds no parallel but in his wickedness, with a Secretary of State 
who has become his full counterpart in both, and a Senate too cowardly, or 
too corrupt, to impeach the one or to seek the removal of the other ! 

For more than two years we have been attempting to restore the frag- 
ments of our once boasted Union. With the history and experience of forty 
centuries shining back upon us, so far we have failed. And under any exist- 
ing or proposed policy we shall fail. By all the claims of justice and right- 
eousness, we deserve to fail ; for we are still defying those claims. The son 
of Priam, a priest of Apollo, was commissioned to offer a sacrifice to pro- 
pitiate the god of the sea. But the offering not being acceptable, there 
came up two enormous serpents from the deep and attacked the priest and 
his two sons who stood with him at the altar. The father attempted to de- 
fend his sons ; but the serpents falling upon him, enfolded him and them in 
their complicated coils, and strangled them to a terrible death. Let this 
government beware. The very union proposed will only bind and hold us 
together as in the deadly folds of a serpent more fearful than all the fabled 
monsters of the past ! And so, hitherto, republics are no exception to the 
general law. Rickets in- infancy, convulsions in childhood, or premature 
rheumatisms, have brought the nations of history to untimely deaths. Ma- 
terial interests may flourish, and nations grow great and powerful, make wars 
and conquests, and rule the world. The ancients did all this, but where are 
those haughty omnipotences now? Charlemagne did but little less, and in 
half a century his magnificence was brought to nought. Spain survived 
a little longer in its glory and grandeur; but now the scanty blood- 
splash on the map describes it well. The United States, young among 
the nations, the mother earth six thousand years old at their birth, wet- 
nursed by forty centuries of history, and schooled by all the experience of 
the ages, with almost half a globe for their inheritance, with Christianity, 



It is Time to Change. 205 

faith and Republicanism their form of government, they survived a pre- 
cocious childhood and then fell a victim to their own vices and crimes. 
To-day they are in the hands of many physicians, though of doubtful rep- 
utation, who seem far less desirous to cure the patient than to divide and 
share the estate. 

My main point is this we have had enough of the past in government. 
It is time to change. Literally almost, more than metaphorically, the " times 
are rotten ripe." We come to-day to demand first an extension of the 
right of suffrage to every American citizen, of whatever race, complexion or 
sex. Manhood or mate-hood suffrage is not a remedy for evils such as we 
wish removed. The Anti-Slavery Society demands that; and so, too, do 
large numbers of both the political parties. Even Andrew Johnson at first 
recommended it, in the reconstruction of the rebel States, for three classes 
of colored men. The New York Herald, in the exuberance of its religious 
zeal, demanded that " members of Christian Churches " be added as a fourth 
estate to the three designated by the President. The Woman's Rights So- 
ciety contemplated suffrage only for woman. But we, as an EQUAL RIGHTS 
Association, recognize no distinctions based on sex, complexion or race. 
The Ten Commandments know nothing of any such distinctions. No more 
do we. The right of suffrage is as old, as sacred and as universal as the right 
to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is indeed the complement 
and safeguard of these and all civil and political rights to every citizen. The 
right to life would be nothing without the right to acquire and possess the 
means of its support. So it were mockery to talk of liberty and the pursuit 
of happiness, until the ballot in the hand of every citizen seals and secures it. 
The right of the black man to a voice in the government was not earned at 
Olustee or Port Hudson. It was his when life began, not when life was paid 
for it under the battle-axe of war. It was his with Washington and Jeffer- 
son, James Buchanan and Abraham Lincoln. Not one of them could ever pro- 
duce a higher, holier claim. Nor can any of us. We are prating about giving 
the right of suffrage to black male citizens, as complacently as we once gave 
our compassion and corn to famishing Ireland. But this famine of freedom 
and justice exists because we have produced it. Had our fleets and armies 
robbed Ireland of its last loaf, and left its myriads of inhabitants lean, 
ghastly skeletons, our charity would not have been more a mockery when 
we sent them bread to preserve them alive, than it is now when we talk of 
giving the ballot to those whom God created free and equal with ourselves. 

And in the plenitude of our generosity, we even propose to extend the 
gift to woman also. It is proposed to make educated, cultivated, refined, 
loyal, tax-paying, government-obeying woman equal to the servants who 
groom her horses, and scour the pots and pans of her kitchen. Our Maria 
Mitchells, our Harriet Hosmers, Harriet Beecher Stowes, Lydia Maria Childs, 
and Lucretia Motts, with millions of the mothers and matrons of quiet homes, 
where they preside with queenly dignity and grace, are begging of besotted, 
debauched white male citizens, legal voters, soaked in whisky, simmered in 
tobacco, and parboiled in every shameless vice and sin, to recognize them 
also as human, and graciously accord to them the rights of intelligent beings ! 

And, singularly enough, in some of the States, it is proposed to grant the 
prayer. But the wisest and best men have no idea that they are only restor- 



206 History of Woman Suffrage. 

ing what they have so long held by force, based on fraud and falsehood. 
They only propose \.ogive woman the boon which they claim was theirs by 
heavenly inheritance. But they are too late with their sublime generosity. 
For God gave that when he gave life and breath, passions, emotions, con- 
science, and will. Give gold, give lands, give honors, give office, give title of 
nobility, if you must ; but talk not of giving natural, inalienable and heaven- 
derived endowments. God alone bestows these. He alone has them to 
give. Our trade in the right of suffrage is contraband. It is bold bucca- 
neering on the commerce of the moral universe. If we have our neighbor's 
right of suffrage and citizenship in our keeping, no matter of what color, or 
race, or sex, then we have stolen goods in our possession and God's search- 
warrant will pursue us forever, if those goods be not restored. And then 
we impudently assert that " all just governments derive their powers from 
the consent of the governed." But when was the consent of woman ever 
asked to one single act on all the statute books ? We talk of " trial by jury 
of our peers ! " In this country of ours, women have been fined, imprisoned, 
scourged, branded with red hot irons and hung ; but when, or where, or for 
what crime or offense, was ever woman tried by a jury of her peers ? 

Suffrage was never in the hands of tyrants or of governments, but by 
usurpation. It was never given by them to any of us. We brought it ; not 
bought it ; nor conquered it ; nor begged it ; nor earned it ; nor inherited it. 
It was man's inalienable, irrepealable, inextinguishable right from the begin- 
ning. It is so still ; the same yesterday, to-day, and while earthly govern- 
ments last. It came with the right to see and hear ; to breathe and speak ; 
to think and feel ; to love and hate ; to choose and refuse ; or it did not 
come at all. The right to see came with the eye and the light ; did it not ? 
and the right to breathe, with the lungs and the air ; and all these from the 
same infinite source. And has not also the moral and ' spiritual nature its 
inalienable rights ? Have the mere bodily organs, which are but the larder 
of worms, born of the dust, and dust their destiny have they power and 
prerogative that are denied to the reason, the understanding, the conscience, 
the will, those attributes which constitute responsibility, accountability, and 
immortality ? Or shall God give the power to choose, or refuse obedience to 
his law and reign, leaving the human will free as his own ; and must mortal 
man, the mushroom of yesterday and perished to-morrow, usurp a higher 
and more dreadful prerogative, and compel support of and submission to laws 
in which the subject has no voice in making, executing, or even consenting, 
on pain of perpetual imprisonment, banishment, or death ? 

Must a brave soldier fight and bleed for the government, and, pruned of 
limbs, plucked of eyes, and scarred all over with the lead and iron hail of 
war must he now hobble on his crutches up to a Republican, Democratic, 
yea, and a Christian throne, and beg the boon of a ballot in that government, 
in defense of which he periled all, and lost all but bare life and breath, only 
because an African instead of a more indulgent sun looked upon him or his 
ancestors in their allotment of life? And then, when the claim of immortal 
manhood is superadded, the inalienable rights of the soul, in and of them- 
selves, the rights of the reason, the understanding, the conscience, the will 
what desperation is that which treads down all these claims, and rushes into 
seats of higher authority than were ever claimed by the eternal God, and 



No White Male Citizen Born with Three Ballots. 207 

denies him that right altogether ! No white male citizen was ever born with 
three ballots in his hand, one his own by birthright, and to be used without 
restraint, the others to be granted, given to women and to colored men at 
his pleasure or convenience ! Such an idea should never have outraged our 
common humanity. And any bill or proposal for what is called " manhood 
suffrage," while it ignores womanhood suffrage, whether coming from the 
President or the Republican party and sanctioned by the Anti-Slavery So- 
ciety, should be repudiated as at war with the whole spirit and genius of a 
true Democracy, and a deadly stab into the very heart of justice itself. 

I have referred to the age of the Roman Catholic Church. LordMacaulay, 
in accounting for her astonishing longevity as compared with other institu- 
tions, turns with felicitous insight to female influence as one of the principal 
causes. In her system, he says, she assigns to devout women spiritual func- 
tions, dignities, and even magistracies. In England, if a pious and devout 
woman enter the cells of a prison to pray with the most unhappy and de- 
graded of her sex, she does so without any authority from the Church. In- 
deed, the Protestant Church places the ban of its reprobation on any such 
irregularity. " At Rome, the Countess of Huntingdon would have a place 
in the calendar as St. Selina, and Mrs. Fry would be Foundress and First 
Superior of the Blessed Order of Sisters of the Jails." But even Macaulay 
overlooks another element of power and permanence in the economy of the 
Catholic Church. God, as Father, and as Son, and as Holy Ghost, might 
inspire reverence and dread only in hearts that, at the shrine of the ever 
blessed Mary, Mother of. God, would kindle into humble, holy and lasting 
love. Frances Power Cobbe, though deprecating the doctrine of " Mariol- 
atry," as she terms the worship of the Virgin, yet says of it, " The Catholic 
world has found a great truth, that love, motherly tenderness and pity is a 
divine and holy thing, worthy of adoration What does this wide- 
spread sentiment regarding this new divinity indicate ? It can surely only 
point to the fact that there was something lacking in the elder creed, which, 
as time went on, became a more and more sensible deficiency, till at last the 
instinct of the multitude "filled it up in this amazing manner." When Theo- 
dore Parker, in his morning prayer on a beautiful summer Sunday, addressed 
the All-loving as " Our Father and our Mother," he struck a chord which 
will one day vibrate through the heart of universal humanity. It was a 
thought worth infinitely more than all the creeds of Christendom. 

What if woman should even abuse the use of the ballot at first ? Man has 
been known to fail at first in a new pursuit. A maker of microscopes told 
me that, in a new attempt on a different kind of object-glass, he failed forty- 
nine times, but the fiftieth was a complete success. The poet of Scotland 
intimates that even Creative Nature herself improved at a second trial ; 

" Her 'prentice hand she tried on man ; 
And then she made the lasses, o 1 " 

Must we be told that woman herself does not ask the ballot? Then I 
submit to such, 'if such there be, the question is not one of privilege, but of 
duty of solemn responsibility. If woman does not desire the ballot, de- 
mand it, take it, she sins against her own nature and all the holiest instincts 
of humanity, and can not too soon repent. After all, the question of suffrage 



208 History of Woman Suffrage. 

is one of justice and right. Unless human government be in itself an unnat- 
ural and impious usurpation, whoever renders it support and submission has 
a natural right to an equal voice in enacting and executing the laws. Nor can 
one man, or millions on millions of men acquire or possess the power to with- 
hold that right from the humblest human being of sane mind, but by usurpa- 
tion, and by rebellion against the constitution of the moral universe. It would 
be robbery, though the giving of the right should induce all the predicted 
and dreaded evils of tyrants, cowards and white male citizens. Be justice 
done though the heavens fall and the hells arise ! Nay, it is only justice, 
reared as a* lightning-rod, that can shield any governmental fabric when the 
very heavens are falling in righteous retribution. 

The past mortality must last among nations, so long as they set at nought 
the Divine economy and purpose in their formation. The human body may 
yield to decay and die, though the soul be imperishable and eternal. But 
nations, like souls, need not die. Streams of new life flow into them, like 
rivers into the sea; and why should not the sea and the nations on its 
shores, roll on together with the ages ? When governments shall learn to 
lay their foundations in righteousness, with eternal justice the chief corner- 
stone ; when equal and impartial liberty shall be the acknowledged birthright 
of all, then will national life begin to be prolonged ; and the death of a na- 
tion, were it possible, should be as though more than a Pleiad had expired. 
No more would nation then lift up sword against nation ; and the New Jeru- 
salem would indeed descend from God out of heaven and dwell among men. 

SUSAN B. ANTHONY made an appeal for contributions to the funds of the 
Association, to enable it to carry on its work, especially in Kansas. 

Mrs ROSE said : After all, we come down to the root of all evil to money. It 
is rather humiliating, after the discourse that we have just heard, that told us 
of the rise, and progress, and destruction of nations, of empires, and of re- 
publics, that we have to come down to dollars and cents. We live in an en- 
tirely practical age. I can show you in a few words that if we only had suf- 
ficient of that root of all evil in our hands, there would be no need of hold- 
ing these meetings. We could obtain the elective franchise without making 
a single speech. Give us $1,000,000, and we will have the elective franchise 
at the very next session of our Legislature. (Laughter and applause). But 
as we have not the $1,000,000 we want 1,000,000 voices. There are always 
two ways of obtaining an object. If we had had the money, we could -have 
bought the Legislature and the elective franchise long before now. But as we 
have not, we must create a public opinion, and for that we must have voices. 

I have always thought I was convinced not only of the necessity but of the 
great importance of obtaining the elective franchise for woman ; but recently 
I have become satisfied that I never felt sufficiently that importance until 
now. Just read your public papers and see how our Senators and our mem- 
bers of the House are running round through the Southern States to hold 
meetings, and to deliver public addresses. To whom ? To the freedmen. 
And why now, and why not ten, fifteen, or twenty years ago ? Why do they 
get up meetings for the colored men, and call them fellow-men, brothers, 
and gentlemen ? Because the freedman has that talisman in his hands which 
the politician is looking after ? Don't you perceive, then, the importance of 
the elective franchise ? Perhaps when we have the elective franchise in our 



H/rnestine L. Rose. 209 

hands, these great senators will condescend to inform us too of the im- 
portance of obtaining our rights. 

You need not be afraid that when woman has the franchise, men will ever 
disturb her. I presume there are present, as there always are such peo- 
ple, those of timid minds, chicken-hearted, who so admire and respect wo- 
man that they are dreadfully afraid lest, when she comes to the ballot-box, 
rude, uncouth, and vulgar men will say something to disturb her. You may 
set your hearts all at rest. If we once have the elective franchise, upon the 
first indication that any man will endeavor to disturb a woman in her duty 
at the polls, Congress will enact another Freedman's Bureau I beg pardon, 
a Freedwoman's Bureau to protect women against men, and to guard the 
purity of the ballot-box at the same time. I have sometimes been asked, 
even by sensible men, " If woman had the elective franchise, would she go to 
the polls to mix with rude men ? " Well, would I go to the church to mix 
with rude men ? And should not the ballot-box be as respectable, and as re- 
spected, and as sacred as the church ? Aye, infinitely more so, because it is 
of greater importance. Men can pray in secret, but must vote in public. 
(Applause). Hence the ballot-box, of the two, ought to be the most respected ; 
and it would be if women were once there ; but it never will be until they are 
there. 

Our rights are as old as humanity itself. Yet we are obliged to ask man to 
give us the ballot, because he has it in his own hand. It is ours, and at the 
same time we ask for it ; and have sent our petitions to Congress. We have 
been told that the Republic is not destroyed : it has been destroyed root and 
branch, because, if it were not, there would be no need to reconstruct it. And 
we have asked Congress, in the reconstruction, to place it upon a sound 
foundation. Why have all former republics vanished out of existence? 
Simply because they were built upon the sand. In the erection of a building, 
in proportion to the height of the walls must be the depth and soundness of 
the foundation. If the foundation is shallow or unsound, the higher you raise 
your superstructure the surer its downfall. That is the reason a republic has 
not existed as long as a monarchy, because it embraced principles of human 
rights in its superstructure which it denied in its foundation. Hence, before 
this Republic could count a hundred years, it has had one of the mightiest 
revolutions that ever occurred in any country or in any period of human ex- 
istence. Its foundation was laid wrong. It made a republic for white men 
alone. It discriminated against color ; it discriminated against sex; and'at 
the same time it pronounced that all men are created free and equal, and en- 
dowed with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness. It raised its superstructure to the clouds ; and it has 
fallen as low as any empire could fall. It is divided. A house divided against 
itself can not stand. A wrong always operates against itself and falls back on 
the wrong-doer. We have proclaimed to the world universal suffrage ; but 
it is universal suffrage excluding the negro and the woman, who are by far 
the largest number in this country. It is not the majority that rules here, 
but the minority. White men are in the minority in this nation. White wo- 
men, black men, and black women compose the large majority of the nation. 
Yet in spite of this fact, in spite of common sense, in spite of justice, while 
our members of Congress can prate so long about justice, and human rights, 



210 



History of Woman Suffrage. 



and the rights of the negro, they have not the moral courage to say anything 
lor the rights of woman. 

In proportion to power is responsibility. Our Republican senators and 
members of Congress have taken upon themselves great power. They have 
made great professions. There is a very good maxim, " Of him to whom 
much is given, much shall be required." In proportion to their claims to be 
friends of human freedom, lovers of human rights, do we demand of them 
our rights and justice. 

It is a shame to talk about licensing a social evil. It is a shame to this Re- 
public. It is a violation of woman's nature. It is an insult to womanhood ; and 
if woman has one drop of pure blood stirring in her heart, she must revolt 
against it. At the same time, I say to the Legislature that, if you enact 
laws against social evils, whatever those laws are, let them be alike for man 
and for woman. (Applause.) If you want to derive a revenue from the cor- 
ruption of the community, let it be drawn alike from both sexes. The social 
evil belongs to both;' the social remedy must belong to both. Do not de- 
grade woman any more than she is already degraded. Perchance she is 
driven, through your injustice, to that step to maintain her wretched exist- 
ence, because every office of emolument is barred against her. Let woman 
have the franchise ; let all the avenues of society be thrown open before her, 
according to her powers and her capacities, and there will be no need to talk 
about social evils. 

Major JAMES HAGGERTY said : It is no new thing for me to be found 
among Anti-Slavery people. I believe it was among Anti-Slavery people 
that I received my American culture. I see the old faces here upon this 
platform and in this house some that I first met when I landed in this 
country, in 1856 Parker Pillsbury, as remorseless as ever; Mrs. Stanton, as 
bold and strong for the truth as ever. I see the same uncompromising peo- 
ple here, and I feel that I have been as uncompromising as any of them ; for, 
although I have been and am identified with the Republican party in poli- 
tics, no man ever heard me, on any platform, compromise the rights of an- 
other. Woman's Rights is an idea against which my prejudices array them- 
selves, but my logic says, if you would be a true man, you must raise your 
voice for equal rights. (Applause.) I have seen the effect of the suffrage. 
In the District of Columbia, during the election, I saw men who had been 
called doughfaces walk up to the black man and profess to be so much more 
Anti-Slavery than the best Anti-Slavery men, that I have got the idea that 
it will not be five years before the northern Democrat will be swearing to 
the black men that he has negro blood in his veins. (Laughter.) .... 

I come upon this platform to-night to identify myself with this new effort. 
I hope you may prosper ; and so far as a dollar of mine, or my voice may 
go, you shall have it. I confess candidly that it is logic that drives me 
here, in spite of my prejudices. It is the discourses of Mrs. Stanton, of 
Mrs. Mott, of others that have spoken and written ; and it is coming in con- 
tact with strong womanly mind. If we accept the convictions that come to 
us, we shall be all right ; and I will do as the lady who has just spoken said 
that she would do not be governed by mere party, but by the moral bear- 
ings of the questions that arise, and vote upon the side of God and justice. 
(Applause.) 



What Put the Dram-Bottle out of ike Home f 211 

FRANCES D. GAGE said : Mrs. President It seems to be my fate to come 
in at the eleventh hour. We have been talking about the right to the bal- 
lot. Why do we want it ? What does it confer ? We closed our argument 
at three o'clock to-day by a discussion whether the women of tnis country 
and the colored men of this country wanted the ballot. I said it was a libel 

on woman to say she did not want it ; and I repeat that assertion 

Last evening I attended the meeting of the National Temperance Associa- 
tion at Cooper Institute. A great audience was assembled there to listen to 
the arguments against the most gigantic evil that now pervades the Ameri- 
can Republic. Men took the position that only a prohibitory law could put an 
end to the great evil of intemperance. New York has its two hundred mil- 
lions of invested capital to sell death and destruction to the men of this 
country who are weak enough to purchase. There are eight thousand li- 
censed liquor establishments in this city, to drag down humanity. It was 
asserted there by Wendell Phillips that intemperance had its root in our 
Saxon blood, that demanded a stimulus ; and he argued from that standpoint. 
If intemperance has its root in the Saxon blood, that demands a stimulus, 
why is it that the womanhood of this nation is not at the grog-shops to-day ? 
Are women not Saxons ? It was asserted, both by Mr. Phillips and Presi- 
dent Hopkins, of Union College, that the liquor traffic must be regulated 
by law. A man may do what he likes in his own house, said they ; he may 
burn his furniture ; he may take poison ; he may light his cigar with his 
greenbacks ; but if he carries his evil outside of his own house, if he in- 
creases my taxes, if he makes it dangerous for me or for my children to walk 
the streets, then it may be prohibited by law. I was at Harrisburgh, a few 
days ago, at the State Temperance Convention. Horace Greeley asserted 
that there was progress upon the subject of temperance ; and he went back 
to the time when ardent spirits were drank in the household, when every 
table had its decanter, and the wife, children, and husband drank together. 
Now, said he, it is a rare thing to find the dram-bottle in the home. It has 
been put out. But what put the -dram-bottle out of the home ? It was put 
out because the education and refinement and power of woman became so 
strong in the home, that she' said, " It must go out ; we can't have it here." 
(Applause.) Then the voters' of the United States, the white male citizens, 
went to work and licensed these nuisances that could not be in the home, 
at all the corners of the streets. I demand the ballot for woman to-day, 
that she may vote down these nuisances, the dram-shops, there also, as she 
drove them out of the home. (Applause.) 

What privilege does the vote give to the "white male citizen" of the 
United States ? Did you ever analyze a voter hold him up and see what 
he was ? Shall I give you a picture of him ? Not as my friend Parker Pills- 
bury has drawn the picture to-night will I draw it. What is the " white male 
citizen " the voter in the Republic of the United States ? More than any 
potentate or any king in all Europe. Louis Napoleon dares not walk the 
streets of his own city without his body-guard around him with their bayo- 
nets. The Czar of Russia is afraid for his own life among his people. 
Kings and potentates are always afraid ; but the " free white male citizen " 
of the United States, with the ballot in his hand, goes where he lists, does 
what he pleases. He owns himself, his earnings, his genius, his talent, his 



212 History of Woman Suffrage. 

eloquence, his power, all there is of him. All that God has given him is 
his, to do with as he pleases, subject to no power but such lavrs as have an 
equal bearing upon every other man in like circumstances, and responsible 
to no power but his own conscience and his God. He builds colleges ; 
he lifts up humanity or he casts it down. He is the lawgiver, the maker as 
it were of the nation. His single vote may turn the destiny of the whole 
Republic for good or ill. There is no link in the chain of human possibili- 
ties that can add one single power to the "white male citizen " of America. 

Now we ask that you shall put into the hands of every human being this 
same power to go forward and do good works wherever it can. The country 
has rung within the last few days because one colored girl, with a little 
black blood in her veins, has been cast out of the Pittsburgh Methodist Col- 
lege. It ought to ring until such a thing shall be impossible. . But when 
Cambridge and Yale and Union and all the other institutions of the country, 
West Point included, aided by national patronage, shut out every woman in 
the land, who has anything to say? There is not a single college instituted 
by the original government patronage of lands to public schools and colleges, 
that allows a woman to set her foot inside of its walls as a student. Is this 
no injustice ? Is it no wrong ? When men stand upon the public platform and 
deliver elaborate essays on women and their right of suffrage, they talk about 
their weakness, their devotion to fashion and idleness. What else have they 
given women to do ? Almost every profession in the land is filled by men ; 
every college sends forth the men to fill the highest places. When the law 
said that no married woman should do business in her own name, sue or 
be sued, own property, own herself or her earnings, what had she to do ? 
That laid the foundation for precisely the state of things you see to-day. 
But I deny that, as a class, the women of America, black or white, are idle. 
We are always busy. What have we done ? Look over this audience, go 
out upon your streets, go through the world where you will, and every hu- 
man soul you meet is the work of woman. She has given it life ; she has 
educated it, whether for good or evil, because God gave her the holiest mis- 
sion ever laid upon the heart of a human soul the mission of the mother. 

We are told that home is woman's sphere. So it is, and man's sphere, too, 
for I tell you that that is a poor home which has not in it a man to feel that 
it is the most sacred place he knows. If duty requires him to go out into 
the world and fight its battles, who blames him, or puts a ban upon him ? 
Men complain that woman does not love home now ; that she is not satisfied 
with her mission. I answer that this discontent arises out of the one fact, 
that you have attempted to mould seventeen millions of human souls in one 
shape, and make them all do one thing. Take away your restrictions, open 
all doors, leave women at liberty to go where they will. The caged 
bird forgets how to build its nest. The wing of the eagle is as strong 
to soar to the sun as that of her mate, who never says to her, " back, feeble 
one, to your nest, and there brood in dull inactivity until I give you permis- 
sion to leave ! " But when her duties called her there, who ever found her 
unfaithful to her trust ? The foot of the wild roe is as strong and swift in 
the race as that of her antlered companion. She goes by his side, she feeds in 
the same pasture, drinks from the same running brook, but is ever true also 
to her maternal duties and cares. If we are a nation of imbeciles, if woman- 



The Old Master Bowed Low. 213 

hood is weak, it is the laws and customs of society which have made us what 
we are. If you want health, strength, energy, force, temperance, purity, hon- 
esty, deal justly with the mothers of this country ; then they will give you 
nobler and stronger men than higgling politicians, or the grog-shop emissa- 
ries that buy up the votes of your manhood. It has been charged upon 
woman that she does nothing well. What have you given us to do well ? 
What freedom have you given us to act independently and earnestly? 
When I was in San Domingo, I found a little colony of American colored 
people that went over there in 1825. They retailed their American cus- 
toms, and especially their little American church, outside of the Catholic, 
which overspread the whole country. In an obscure room in an old ruin 
they sung the old hymns, and lived the old life of the United States. I 
asked how this thing was, and they answered that among those that went 
over so long ago were a few from Chester County, Pennsylvania, who were 
brought up among the Quakers, and had learned to read. Wherever a mother 
had learned to read, she had educated all her children so that they could 
read ; but wherever there was a mother that could not read, that family had 

lapsed off from the old customs of the past 

A friend of mine, writing from Charleston the other day, just after the 
ballot went down there, says that he was told by a colored man, " I met my 
old master, and he bowed so low to me I didn't hardly know which was the 
negro and which was the white man." When we hold the ballot, we shall 
stand just there. Men will forget to tell us that politics are degrading. 
They will bow low, and actually respect the women to whom they now talk 
platitudes, and silly flatteries ; sparkling eyes, rosy cheeks, pearly teeth, ruby 
lips, the soft and delicate hands of refinement and beauty, will not be the 
burden of their song ; but the strength, the power, the energy, the force, the 
intellect, and the nerve, which the womanhood of this country will bring to 
bear, and which will infuse itself through all the ranks of society, must make 
all its men and women wiser and better. [Applause]. 

The Association then adjourned until Friday morning, 10 o'clock. 

SECOND DAY. 

FRIDAY MORNING, May 10, 1867. 

The meeting was called to order by the President, and the Secre- 
tary read some additional resolutions.* 



* Iteiwlved, That the ballot alike to women and men means bread, education, self-pro- 
tection, self-reliance, and self-respect; to the wife it means the control of her own per- 
son, property, and earnings ; to the mother it means the equal guardianship of her chil- 
'livn ; to the (laughter it HUMUS diversified employment and a fair day's wages for a fuir 
day's work ; to all it means free access to skilled labor, to colleges and professions, aud 
In every avenue of advantage and preferment. 

/,', W/v,/, Tlmt llniry Ward Boecher, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Frederick Douglass, 
tn 1 invited to represent the Equal Rights Association in the Constitutional Convention to 
be held In this State in the month of June next. 

Resolved, That while we are grateful to Wendell Phillips, Theodore Tllton, and Horace 
Oreclcy, for the respectful mention of woman's right to the ballot in the journals through 
v.'hich they speak, we ask them now, when we are reconstructing both our State and Na- 



214 



History of Woman Suffrage." 



CHARLES L. REMOND objected to the last of the resolution, and desired 
that the word "colored" might be stricken out. It might be that colored 
men would obtain their rights before women ; but if so, he was confident 
they would heartily acquiesce in admitting women also to the right of suf- 
frage. 

The PRESIDENT (Mrs. Mott) said that woman had a right to be a little 
jealous of the addition of so large a number of men to the voting class, for 
the colored men would naturally throw all their strength upon the side of 
those opposed to woman's enfranchisement. 

GEORGE T. DOWNING wished to know whether he had rightly understood 
that Mrs. Stanton and Mrs. Mott were opposed to the enfranchisement of the 
colored man, unless the ballot should also be accorded to woman at the same 
time. 

Mrs. STANTON said : All history proves that despotisms, whether of one 
man or millions, can not stand, and there is no use of wasting centuries of 
men and means in trying that experiment again. Hence I have no faith or 
interest in any reconstruction on that old basis. To say that politicians 
always do one thing at a time is no reason why philosophers should not 
enunciate the broad principles that underlie that one thing and a dozen 
others. We do not take the right step for this hour in demanding suffrage 
for any class ; as a matter of principle I claim it for all. But in a narrow view 
of the question as a matter of feeling between classes, when Mr. Downing 
puts the question to me, are you willing to have the colored man enfran- 
chised before the woman, I say, no ; I would not trust him with all my rights ; 
degraded, oppressed himself, he would be more despotic with the governing 
power than even our Saxon rulers are. I desire that we go into the kingdom 
together, for individual and national safety demand that not another man be 
enfranchised without the woman by his side. 

STEPHEN S. FOSTER, basing the demand for the ballot upon the natural 
right of the citizen, felt bound to aid in conferring it upon any citizen de- 
prived of it irrespective of its being granted or denied to others. Even, there- 
fore, if the enfranchisement of the colored man would probably retard the 
enfranchisement of woman, we had no right for that reason to deprive him 
of his right. The right of each should be accorded at the earliest possible 
moment, neither being denied for any supposed benefit to the other. 



tional Governments, to demand that the right of suffrage be secured to all citizens to 
women as well as black men, for, until this is done, the government stands on the unsafe 
basis of class legislation. 

Besdved, That on this our first anniversary we congratulate each other and the country 
on the unexampled progress of our cause, as seen : 1. In the action of Congress extend- 
ing the right of suffrage to the colored men of the States lately in rebellion, and in the 
very long and able discussion of woman's equal right to the ballot in the United States 
Senate, and the vote upon it. 2. In the action of the Legislatures of Kansas and Wiscon- 
sin, submitting to the people a proposition to extend the ballot to woman. 3. In the agi- 
tation upon the same measure in the Legislatures of several other States. 4. In the 
friendly tone of so large a portion of the press, both political and religious ; and finally, 
in the general awaking to the importance of human elevation and enfranchisement, 
abroad as well as at home ; particularly in Great Britain, Kussia, and Brazil ; and encour- 
aged by past successes and the present prospect, we pledge ourselves to renewed 
and untiring exertions, until equal suffrage and citizenship are acknowledged through- 
out our entire country, irrespective of sex or color. 



Charles Lenox Remond. 215 

CHARLES L. REMOND said that if he were to lose sight of expediency, he 
must side with Mrs. Stanton, although to do so was extremely trying ; for 
he could not conceive of a more unhappy position than that occupied by 
millions of American men bearing the name of free.dmen while the rights 
and privileges oifree men are still denied them. 

Mrs. STANTON said : That is equaled only by the condition of the women 
by their side. There is a depth of degradation known to the slave women 
that man can never feel. To give the ballot to the black man is no security 
to the woman. Saxon men have the ballot, yet look at their women, crowded 
into a few half-paid employments. Look at the starving, degraded class in 
our 10,000 dens of infamy and vice if you would know how wisely and gener- 
ously man legislates for woman. 

Rev. SAMUEL J. MAY, in reply to Mr. Remond's objection to the resolu- 
tion, said that the word " colored " was necessary to convey the meaning, 
since there is no demand now made for the enfranchisement of men, as a 
class. His amendment would take all the color out of the resolution. No 
man in this country had made such sacrifices for the cause of liberty as 
Wendell Phillips ; and if just at this moment, when the great question for 
which he has struggled thirty years seemed about to be settled, he was un- 
willing that anything should be added to it which might in any way preju- 
dice the success about to crown his efforts, it was not to be wondered at. He 
was himself of the opinion, on the contrary, that by asking for the rights of 
all, we should be much more likely to obtain the rights of the colored man, 
than by making that a special question. He would rejoice at the enfran- 
chisement of colored men, and believed that Mrs. Stanton would, though 
that were all we could get at the time. Yet, if we rest there, .and allow the 
reconstruction to be completed, leaving out the better half of humanity, we 
must expect further trouble ; and it might be a more awful and sanguinary 
civil war than that which we have just experienced. 

GEORGE T. DOWNING desired that the Convention should express its 
opinion upon the point he had raised ; and, therefore, offered the following 
resolution : 

Resolved, That while we regret that the right sentiment, which would secure to women 
the ballot, Is not as general as we would have it, nevertheless we wish it distinctly un- 
derstood that we rejoice at the increasing sentiment which favors the enfranchisement 
of the colored mnn. 

Mr. DOWNING understood Mrs. Stanton to refuse to rejoice at a.#art. of 
the good results to be accomplished, if she could not achieve the whole, and 
he wished to ask if she was unwilling the colored man should have the vote 
until the women could have it also ? He said we had no right to refuse an 
act of justice upon the assumption that it would be followed by an act of in- 
justice. 

Mrs. STANTON replied she demanded the ballot for all. She asked for re- 
construction on the basis of self-government ; but if we are to have further 
class legislation, she thought the wisest order of enfranchisement was to take 
the educated classes first. If women are still to be represented by men, then 
I say let only the highest type of manhood stand at the helm of State. But 
if all men are to vote, black and white, lettered and unlettered, washed and 
unwashed, the safety of the nation as well as the interests of woman demand 



216 History of Woman Suffrage. 

that we outweigh this incoming tide of ignorance, poverty, and vice, with the 
virtue, wealth, and education of the women of the country. With the black 
man you have no new force in government it is manhood still ; but with the 
enfranchisement of woman, you have a new and essential element of life and 
power. Would Horace Greeley, Wendell Phillips, Gerrit Smith, or Theodore 
Tilton be willing to stand aside and trust their individual interests, and the 
whole welfare of the nation, to the lowest strata of manhood ? If not, why 
ask educated women, who love their country, who desire to mould its institu- 
tions on the highest idea of justice and equality, who feel that their enfran- 
chisement is of vital importance to this end, why ask them to stand aside 
while 2,000,000 ignorant men are ushered into the halls of legislation ? 

EDWARD M. DAVIS asked what had been done with Mr. Burleigh's amend- 
ment. 

The CHAIR No action was taken upon it, as no one 'seconded it. 

ABBY KELLY FOSTER said : I am in New York for medical treatment, 
not for speech-making ; yet I must say a few words in relation to a remark 
recently made on this platform that " The negro should not enter the king- 
dom of politics before woman, because he would be an additional weight 
against her enfranchisement." Were the negro and woman in the same 
civil, social, and religious status to-day, I should respond aye, with all 
my heart, to this sentiment. What are the facts ? You say the negro has 
the civil rights bill, also the military reconstruction bill granting him suf- 
frage. It has been well said, " he has the title deed to liberty, but is not yet 
in the possession of liberty." He is treated as a slave to-day in the several 
districts of the South. Without wages, without family rights, whipped and 
beaten by thousands, given up to the most horrible outrages, without that 
protection which his value as property formerly gave him. Again, he is lia- 
ble without farther guarantees, to be plunged into peonage, serfdom or even 
into chattel slavery. Have we any true sense of justice, are we not dead to 
the sentiment of humanity if we shall wish to postpone his security against 
present woes and future enslavement till woman shall obtain political rights? 

Rev. HENRY WARD BEECHER said : It seems that my modesty in not lend- 
ing my name has been a matter of some grief. I will try hereafter to be less 
modest. When I get my growth I hope to overcome that. I certainly should 
not have been present to-day, except that a friend said to me that some who 
were expected had not come. When a cause is well launched and is pros- 
pering, I never feel specially called to help it. When a cause that I believe 
to be just is in the minority, and is struggling for a hearing, then I should 
always be glad to be counted among those who were laboring for it in the 
days when it lacked friends. I come to bear testimony, not as if I had not 
already done it, but again, as confirmed by all that I have read, 'whether of 
things written in England or spoken in America, in the belief that this 
movement is not the mere progeny of a fitful and feverish ism that it is 
not a mere frothing eddy whose spirit is but the chafing of the water upon 
the rock but that it is a part of that great tide which follows the drawing 
of heaven itself. I believe it to be so. I trust that it will not be invidious 
if I say, therefore, I hope the friends of this cause will not fall out by the 
way. If the division of opinion amounts merely to this, that you have two 
blades, and therefore can cut, I have no objection to it ; but if there is such 



The Barrier is out of the Way. 217 

a division of opinion in respect to mere details, how important those details 
are, among friends that are one at the bottom where principles are, that there 
is to be a falling out there, I shall exceedingly regret it ; I shall regret that our 
strength is weakened, when we need it to be augmented most, or concen- 
trated. 

All my lifetime the great trouble has been that in merely speculative 
things theologians have been such furious logicians, have picked up their 
premises, and rushed with them with race-horse speed to such remote con- 
clusions, that in the region of ideas our logical minds have become accus- 
tomed to draw results as remote as the very eternities from any premises 
given. My difficulty on the other hand, has been that in practical matters, 
owing to the existence of this great mephitic swamp of slavery, men have 
been utterly unwilling to draw conclusions at all ; and that the most fa- 
miliar principles of political economy or politics have been enunciated, and 
then always docked off short. Men would not allow them to go to their 
natural results, in the class of questions in society. We have had raised up 
before us the necessity of maintaining the Union by denying conclusions. 
The most dear and sacred and animating principles of religion have been re- 
strained, because they would have such a bearing upon slavery, and men felt 
bound to hold their peace. Our most profound and broadly acknowledged 
principles of liberty have been enunciated and passed over, without carrying 
them out and applying them to society, because it would interrupt the peace 
of the nation. That time is passed away ; and as the result of it has come 
in a joy and a perfect appetite on the part of the public. 

I have been a careful observer for more than thirty-five years, for I came 
into public life, I believe, about the same time with the lady who has just 
sat down (Mrs. Foster), although I am not so much worn by my labors as 
she seems to have been. For thirty-five years I have observed in society 
its impetus checked, and a kind of lethargy and deadness in practical ethics, 
arising from fear of this prejudicial effect upon public economy. I have 
noticed that in the last five years there has been a revolution as perfect as if 
it had been God's resurrection in the graveyard. The dead men are living, 
and the live men are thrice alive. I can scarcely express my sense of the 
leap the public mind and the public moral sense have taken within this 
time. The barrier is out of the way. That which made the American mind 
untrue logically to itself is smitten down by the hand of God; and there is 
just at this time an immense tendency in the public mind to carry out all 
principles to their legitimate conclusions, go where they will. There never 
was a time when men were so practical, and so ready to learn. I am not a 
farmer, but I know that the spring comes but once in the year. When the 
furrow is open is the time to put in your seed, if you would gather a harvest 
in its season. Now, when the red-hot plowshare of war has opened a fur- 
row in this nation, is the time to put in the seed. If any man says to me, 
" Why will you agitate the woman's question, when it is the hour for the 
black man ? " I answer, it is the hour for every man, black or white. (Ap- 
plause.) The bees go out in the morning to gather the honey from the 
morning-glories. They take it when they are open, for by ten o'clock they 
are shut, and they never open again until the next crop comes. When the 
public mind is open, if you have anything to say, say it. If you have any 
VOL. II. 15. 



218 History of Woman Suffrage. 

radical principles to urge, any organizing wisdom to make known, don't 
wait until quiet times come. Don't wait until the public mind shuts up alto- 
gether. 

War has opened the way for impulse to extend itself. But progress goes 
by periods, by jumps and spurts. We are in the favored hour ; and if you 
have great principles to make known, this is the time to advance those 
principles. If you can organize them into institutions, this is the time to 
organize them. I therefore say, whatever truth is to be known for the next 
fifty years in this nation let it be spoken now let it be enforced now. The 
truth that I have to urge is not that women have the right of suffrage not 
that Chinamen or Irishmen have the right of suffrage not that native born 
Yankees have the right of suffrage but that suffrage is the inherent right 
of mankind. I say that man has the right of suffrage as I say that man has 
the right to himself. For although it may not be true under the Russian 
government, where the government does not rest on the people, and although 
under our own government a man has not a right to himself, except in ac- 
cordance with the spirit and action of our own institutions, yet our institu- 
tions make the government depend on the people, and make the people de- 
pend on the government ; and no man is a full citizen, or fully competent to 
take care of himself, or to defend himself, who has not all those rights that 
belong to his fellows. I therefore advocate no sectional rights, no class 
rights, no sex rights, but the most universal form of right for all that live 
and breathe on the continent. I do not put back the black man's emanci- 
pation ; nor do I put back for a single day or for an hour his admission. I 
ask not that he should wait. I demand that this work shall be done, not 
upon the ground that it is politically expedient now to enfranchise black 
men ; but I propose that you take expediency out of the way, and that you 
put a principle that is more enduring than expediency in the place of it 
manhood and womanhood suffrage for all. That is the question. You may 
just as well meet it now as at any other time. You never will have so fa- 
vorable an occasion, so sympathetic a heart, never a public reason so willing 
to be convinced as to-day. If anything is to be done for the black man, or 
the black woman, or for the disfranchised classes among the whites, let it be 
done, in the name of God, while his Providence says, " Come ; come all, and 
come welcome." 

But I take wisdom from some with whom I have not always trained. If 
you would get ten steps, has been the practical philosophy of some who are 
not here to-day, demand twenty, and then you will get ten. Now, even if I 
were to confine as I by no means do my expectation to gaining the vote 
for the black man, I think we should be much more likely to gain that by 
demanding the vote for everybody. I remember that when I was a boy Dr. 
Spurzheim came to this country to advocate phrenology, but everybody held 
up both hands " Phrenology ! You must be running mad to have the idea 
that phrenology can be true !" It was not long after that, mesmerism came 
along ; and then the people said, " Mesmerism ! We can go phrenology ; 
there is some sense in that ; but as for mesmerism ! " Very soon spiritual- 
ism made its appearance, and then the same people began to say, " Spiritual- 
ism ! Why it is nothing but mesmerism ; we can believe in that ; but as for 
spiritualism ! " (Laughter.) The way to get a man to take a position is to 



Self -Government Intended for All. 219 

take one in advance of it, and then he will drop into the one you want him 
to take. So that if, being crafty, I desire to catch men with guile, and desire 
them to adopt suffrage for colored men, as good a trap as I know of is to 
claim it for women also. Bait your trap with the white woman, and I think 
you will catch the black man. (Laughter.) I would not, certainly, have it 
understood that we are standing here to advocate this universal application 
of the principle merely to secure the enfranchisement of the colored citizen. 
We do it in good faith. I believe it is just as easy to carry the enfranchise- 
ment of all as the enfranchisement of any class, and easier to carry it than 
carry the enfranchisement of class after class class after class. (Applause.) 
I make this demand because I have the deepest sense of what is before us. 
We have entered upon an era such as never before has come to any nation. 
We are at a point in the history of the world where we need a prophet, and 
have none to describe to us those events rising in the horizon thick and fast. 
Sometimes it seems to me that that Latter Day glory which the prophets 
dimly saw, and which saints have ever since, with faintness of heart, longed 
for and prayed for with wavering faith, is just before us. I see the fountains 
of the great deep broken up. I think we are to have a nation born in a day 
among us, greater in power of thought, greater in power of conscience, 
greater therefore in self-government, greater still in the power of material 
development. Such thrift, such skill, such enterprise, such power of self- 
sustentation I think is about to be developed, to say nothing of the advance 
already made before the nations, as will surprise even the most sanguine 
and far-sighted. Nevertheless, while so much is promised, there are all the 
attendant evils. It is a serious thing to bring unwashed, uncombed, untu- 
tored men, scarcely redeemed from savagery, to the ballot-box. It is a dan- 
gerous thing to bring the foreigner, whose whole secular education was un- 
der the throne of the tyrant, and put his hand upon the helm of affairs in 
this free nation. It is a dangerous thing to bring men without property, or' 
the expectation of it, into the legislative halls to legislate upon property. It 
is a dangerous thing to bring woman, unaccustomed to and undrilled in 
the art of government, suddenly into the field to vote. These are dangerous 
things ; I admit it. But I think God says to us, " By that danger I put every 
man of you under the solemn responsibility of preparing these persons ef- 
fectually for their citizenship." Are you a rich man, afraid of your money? 
By that fear you are called to educate the men who you are afraid will vote 
against you. We are in a time of danger. I say to the top of society, just 
as sure as you despise the bottom, you shall be left like the oak tree that re- 
belled against its own roots better that it be struck with lightning. Take 
a man from the top of society or the bottom, and if you will but give him- 
self to himself, give him his reason, his moral nature, and his affections; 
take him with all his passions and his appetites, and develop him, and you 
will find he has the same instinct for self-government that you have. God 
made a man just as much to govern himself as a pyramid to stand on its 
own bottom. Self-government is a boon intended for all. This is shown in 
the very organization of the human mind, with its counterbalances and 

checks We are underpinning and undergirding society. Let us put 

under it no political expediency, but the great principle of manhood and 
womanhood, not merely cheating ourselves by a partial measure, but carry- 



220 History of Woman Suffrage. 

ing the nation forward to its great and illustrious future, in which it will en- 
joy more safety, more dignity, more sublime proportions, and a health that 
will know no death. (Applause.) 

HENRY C. WRIGHT said that circumstances had made Wendell Phillips 
and others, leaders in the Anti-Slavery movement, as they had made Mrs. 
Stanton and others leaders in this ; and while they all desired the enfran- 
chisement of both classes, it was no more than right that each should de- 
vote his energies to his own movement. There need not be, and should not 
be any antagonism between the two. 

Miss ANTHONY said The question is not, is this or that person right, but 
what are the principles under discussion. As I understand the difference 
between Abolitionists, some think this is harvest time for the black man, 
and seed-sowing time for woman. Others, with whom I agree, think we 
have been sowing the seed of individual rights, the foundation idea of a re- 
public for the last century, and that this is the harvest time for all citizens 
who pay taxes, obey the laws and are loyal to the government. (Applause.) 

Mr. REMOND said : In an hour like this I repudiate the idea of expe- . 
diency. All I ask for myself I claim for my wife and sister. Let our action 
be based upon the rock of everlasting principle. No class of citizens in this 
country can be deprived of the ballot without injuring every other class. I 
see how equality of suffrage in the State of New York is necessary to main- 
tain emancipation in South Carolina. Do not moral principles, like water, 
seek a common level ? Slavery in the Southern States crushed the right of 
free speech in Massachusetts and made slaves of Saxon men and women, 
just as the $250 qualification in the Constitution of this State degrades and 
enslaves black men all over the Union. 

Mr. PILLSBURY protested against the use of the few last moments of this 
meeting in these discussions. We should be now only "a committee of ways 
and means," and future work should be the business in hand. Mr. Downing 
presented an unnecessary issue. Government will never ask us which should 
enter into citizenship first, the woman or the colored man, or whether we 
prefer one to the other. Indeed government has given the colored man the 
ballot already. We are demanding suffrage equally, not unequally. Mrs. 
Stanton's private opinion, be it what it may, has nothing to do with the gen- 
eral question. The white voters are mostly opposed to woman's suffrage. 
So will the colored men be, probably ; at least so she believes, as Mrs. Mott 
also suggested very strongly, and a million or more of them added to the 
present opposition and indifference, are not a slight consideration. Mrs. 
Stanton does not believe in loving her neighbor better than herself. Justice 
to one class does not mean injustice to another. Woman has as good a 
right to the ballot as the black man no better. Were I a colored man, and 
had reason to believe that should woman obtain her rights she would use 
them to the prejudice of mine, how could I labor very zealously in her be- 
half? It should be enough for Mr. Downing and all who stand with him 
that Mrs. Stanton does not demand one thing for herself as to rights, or time 
of obtaining them, which she does not cheerfully, earnestly demand for all 
others, regardless of color or sex. 

Miss ANTHONY read the following telegram from Lucy Stone : 



Telegrams from Kansas. 221 

" ATCHISON, KANSAS, May 10, 1867. 

" Impartial Suffrage, without regard to color or sex, will succeed by over- 
whelming majorities. Kansas leads the world ! LUCY STONE." 

Miss ANTHONY also read a hopeful and interesting letter from Hon. S. N. 
Wood, of Kansas, showing his plans for the canvass of that State. 

JOSEPHINE GRIPPING said: I am well satisfied that this Convention ought 
not to adjourn until a similar plan is laid out for all the States in the Union, 
and especially for the District of Columbia. This being a national conven- 
tion, it seems peculiarly appropriate that it should begin its work at the Dis- 
trict of Columbia. The proposition has already been made there, and the 
parties have discussed its merits. The question of the franchise arose from 
the great fact that at the South there were four millions of people unrepre- 
sented. The fact of woman's being also unrepresented is now becoming 
slowly understood. It is easier now to talk and act upon that subject in the 
District of Columbia than ever before, or than it will be again. Even the 
President has said that if woman in the District of Columbia shall intelli- 
gently ask for the right of franchise, he shall by no means veto it. To my 
mind the enfranchisement of woman is a settled fact. We can not recon- 
struct this government until the franchise shall be given not merely to the 
four millions but to the fifteen millions. We can not successfully recon- 
struct our government unless we go to the foundation. Let us apply all the 
force we can to the lever, for we have a great body to lift. No matter how 
ready the public is, we can accomplish nothing unless we have some plan, 
and unless we have workers. I presume none of us are aware how many 
laws there are upon the statute books disabling our rights. When the 
Judges in the District of Columbia were to decide who were to vote and who 
were not to vote, the question arose who could be appointed officers of the 
city ; and it was found that there was a law that no one could be appointed 
a judge of elections who had not paid a tax upon real estate in the District 
of Columbia, a law which almost defeats all the work which has been done 
during the canvass of the last eight weeks in that District. There is work 
yet to be done there, and so we shall find it at every step. I am thankful with 
all my heart and soul that the people have at last consented to the enfran- 
chisement of two millions of black men. I recognize that, as the load is 
raised one inch, we must work by degrees, accepting every inch, every 
hair's breadth gained toward the right. I welcome the enfranchisement of 
the negro as a step toward the enfranchisement of woman. 

Miss ANTHONY said we seem to be blessed with telegrams, with cheering 
news from Kansas, and read the following from S. N. Wood : 

ATCHISON, KANSAS, May 10, 18(>7. 

" With the help of God and Lucy Stone, we shall carry Kansas ! The 
world moves ! SAM WOOD." 

These telegrams were received with much applause. The resolutions were 
then put to vote, and unanimously carried, and officers were elected for the 
ensuing year.* 



* President, Lucretla Mott ; VIce-prcsldonta, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, N. Y., Frederick 
Douglass, N. Y., Henry Ward Beecher, N. Y M Charles Lenox Rcmond, Mass., Elizabeth 
B. Chace, R. I., C. Prince, Conn., Frances D. Gage, N. J., Robert Purvis, Penn., Jose- 
phine 8. Grilling, D. C., Thomas Garret, Del., Stephen H. Camp, Ohio, Euphemla Coch- 



222 History of Woman Suffrage. 

SOJOURNER TRUTH was called for and said : I am glad to see that men are 
getting their rights, but I want women to get theirs, and while the water is 
stirring I will step into the pool. Now that there is a great stir about col- 
ored men's getting their rights is the time for women to step in and have 
theirs. I am sometimes told that " Women aint fit to vote. Why, don't you 
know that a woman had seven devils in her : and do you suppose a woman 
is fit to rule the nation ? " Seven devils aint no account ; a man had a legion 
in him. [Great laughter]. The devils didn't know where to go ; and so they 
asked that they might go into the swine. They thought that was as good a place 
as they came out from. [Renewed laughter]. They didn't ask to go into 
sheep no, into the hog ; that was the selfishest beast ; and man is so selfish 
that he has got women's rights and his own too, and yet he won't give 
women their rights. He keeps them all to himself. If a woman did have 
seven devils, see how lovely she was when they were cast out, how much she 
loved Jesus, how she followed Him. When the devils were gone out of the 
man, he wanted to follow Jesus, too, but Jesus told him to go home, and 
didn't seem to want to have him round. And when the men went to look 
for Jesus at the sepulchre they didn't stop long enough to find out whether 
he was there or not ; but Mary stood there and waited, and said to Him, 
thinking it was the gardener, " Tell me where they have laid Him and I will 
carry Him away." See what a spirit there is. Just so let women be true to 
this object, and the truth will reign triumphant. 

ALFRED H. LOVE (President of the Universal Peace Society) said : Your 
President paid the Universal Peace Society two visits ; and some of us, in 
turn, are here to reciprocate. The Universal Peace Society, knowing that 
we must have purity before we can have peace, knowing that we need our 
mothers, wives, and daughters with us, knowing that we need the morality, 
the courage, and the patience of the colored man with us, adopted as our 
first resolution that the ballot is a peacemaker, and that with equality there 
can be no war ; and in another resolution we have said that women and col- 
ored men are entitled to the ballot. Therefore, you have us upon the same 
platform, working for you in the best way we can. We mean no cowardly 
peace ; we mean such a peace as demands justice and equality, and world- 
wide philanthropy. I put the ballot of to-day under my foot, and say I can 
not use it until the mother that reared me can have the same privilege ; until 
the colored man, who is my equal, can have it. 

E. H. HEYWOOD, of Boston, said he could hardly see what business men 
had upon this platform, considering how largely responsible they are for the 
conditions against which women struggle, except to confess their sins. Men 
had usurped the government, and shut up women in the kitchen. It was a 
sad fact that woman did not speak for herself. It was because she was 



rane, Mich., Mary A. Livermore, 111., Mrs. Isaac H. Sturgeon, Mo., Amelia Bloomer, 
Iowa, Sam N. Wood, Kansas, Virginia Penny, Kentucky ; Recording Secretaries, Henry 
B. Blackwell, Hattie Purvis ; Corresponding Secretaries, Susan B. Anthony, Mattie Grif- 
fith, Caroline M. Severance ; Treasurer, John F. Merritt ; Executive Committee, Ernes- 
tine L. 'Rose, Edwin A. Stud well, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Martha C. Wright, Lucy 
Stone, Parker Pillsbury, Elizabeth Gay, Theodore Tilton, Mary F. Gilbert, Edward S. 
Bunker, Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Susan B. Anthony, Margaret E. Winchester, Aaron 
M. Powell, James Haggarty, George T. Downing. 



The Last Speech of Frances D. Gage. 223 

crowded so low that she could not speak. Woman wanted not merely the 
right to vote, but the right to labor. The average life of the factory girl in 
Lowell was only four years, as shown by a legislative investigation. New ave- 
nues for labor must be opened. It is said that the women on this platform 
are coquetting with the Democrats. Why shouldn't they ? The Democrats 
say, " Talk of negro suffrage, arid then refuse women the right to vote. All 
I have to say is, when the negroes of Connecticut go to the polls, my wife and 
daughter will go, too." 

EVENING SESSION. 

The meeting was called to order by Mrs. Stanton. 
Miss Anthony read another letter from Hon. S. N". Wood, oi 
Kansas, received since the Morning Session. 

FRANCES D. GAGE was then introduced : It is not to-day as it was before 
the war. It is not to-day as it was before woman took her destiny in her 
hand and went out upon the battle-fields, and into the camp, and endured 
hunger and cold for the sake of her country. The whole country has been 
vitalized by this war. What if woman did not carry the bayonet on the bat- 
tle-field ? She carried that which gave more strength and energy. Travel- 
ing through Illinois, I saw the women bind the sheaf, bring in the harvest 
and plow the fields, that men might fight the batties. When such women 
come up now and ask for the right of suffrage, who will deny their request? 
In the winter of 1860, the law was passed in New York giving to married 
women the right to their own earnings. It was said frequently then that 
women did not want the right to their own earnings We were asked if we want- 
ed to create separation in f am ilies. But did any revolution or any special trouble 
grow out of this recognition of woman's right? You see women everywhere 
to-day earnestly striving to find a place to earn their bread. Madame Dem- 
orest has become a leader of fashion, teaching women to make up what 
Stewart imports ; and she has a branch establishment in every large city in 
the Union clear to Montana. I do not know but some of those ladies cut- 
ting out garments, and setting the fashions of the day, might aspire to the 
Presidential chair ; and perhaps they would be quite as capable as the pres- 
ent incumbent a tailor. [Applause]. 

Three years ago I found myself without the means of life. I wanted a 
home. I had read about the beauties of a home, and woman's appropriate 
sphere ; and so I got a little home, and went into it, and tried to get work. 
My old eyes would not see to sew nicely, I was too feeble to wash, and so I 
tended the garden. After a year had gone by I found that staying in this 
beautiful home, and placing myself in woman's sphere had not brought me 
a dollar to pay my bills. So setting all these theories at defiance, I said I 
will go and lecture ; and I went out into the lecturing field. I have money 
to pay my bills to-day ; but I could not have it were I to cling to the sphere 
of home. If a woman is doing the work of a good man's home, she is do- 
ing her part, and she will not desire to go out from it for any ordinary cause. 
But if she can make two dollars to his one, allowing him to carry out his 
part of the appointments of life, why should not she do it? When we can 
be allowed to do the thousand things that womanly hands can do as well as 



224 jfistory of Woman Suffrage. 

those of men, we shall make our lives useful. But take my word for it, as 
an old mother, with her grandchildren gathered about her, you will not find 
woman deserting the highest instincts of her nature, or leaving the home of 
her husband and children. 

Why do you scold us, poor weak women, for being fashionable and dressy t 
when snares are set at every corner to tempt us ? What would become of 
your dry-goods merchants and your commerce if we did not wear handsome 
dresses if the'women of this country were to become thus sensible to-day ? 
Your great stores on Broadway would be closed, and your stalwart six-feet 
men would have to find something else to do besides measuring tapes and 
ribbons. The whole country would undergo a transformation. But it 
would be better for the country. It would not take five years to pay the 
national debt, interest and all, if you will apply the money spent by men for 
tobacco and whisky if men will learn to be decent. I think it is a great 
deal better to wear a pretty flower or ribbon than to smoke cigars. It is a 
great deal better, and less damaging to the consience, to wear a handsome 
silk dress, than for a man to put " an enemy into his mouth to steal away his 
brains." 

I honestly and conscientiously believe that we ought to make the rights 
of humanity equal for all classes of the community of adult years and of 
sound mind. I clo not ask that the girl should vote at eighteen, but at 
twenty-one the same age with the boy ; and having raised both boys and 
girls, I think I have a right to say that. Give us freedom from these miser- 
able prejudices, these restrictions and tyrannies of society, and let us judge 
for ourselves. If it is true, as science asserts, that girls inherit more of the 
character of their father, while the boys follow in a more direct line their 
mother, then how is it possible that women should not have the same aspi- 
rations as men ? I was born a mechanic, and made a barrel before I was 
ten years old. The cooper told my father, " Fanny made that barrel, and 
has done it quicker and better than any boy I have had after six months' 
training." My father looked at it and said, " What a pity that you were not 
born a boy, so that you could be good for something. Run into the house, 
child, and go to knitting." So I went and knit stockings, and my father 
hired an apprentice boy, and paid him two dollars a week for making bar- 
rels. Now, I was born to make barrels, but they would not let me. Thou- 
sands of girls are born with mechanical fingers. Thousands of girls have a 
muscular development that could do the work of the world as well as men ; 
and there are thousands of men born to effeminacy and weakness. 

Mrs. ST ANTON then addressed the meeting. As her line of argument was 
a summary of that recently made before the Judiciary Committee of the 
Legislature, and already published, it need not here be repeated. 

Miss ANTHONY announced that they would have another opportunity to 
hear Sojourner Truth, and, for the information of those who did not know, 
she would say that Sojourner was for forty years a slave in this State. She 
is not a product of the barbarism of South Carolina, but of the barbarism of 
New York, and one of her fingers was chopped off by her cruel master in 
a moment of anger. 

SOJOURNER TRUTH said : I have lived on through all that has taken place 
these forty years in the anti-slavery cause, and I have plead with all the force 



Henry B. Stanton. 225 

I had that the day might come that the colored people might own their soul 
and body. Well, the day has come, although it came through blood. It 
makes no difference how it came it did come. (Applause). I am sorry it 
came in that way. We are now trying for liberty that requires no blood 
that women shall have their rights not rights from you. Give them what 
belongs to them ; they ask it kindly too. (Laughter). I ask it kindly. Now, 
I want it done very quick. It can be done in a few years. How good it 
would be. I would like to go up to the polls myself. (Laughter). I own a 
little house in Battle Creek, Michigan. Well, every year I got a tax to pay. 
Taxes, you see, be taxes. Well, a road tax sounds large. Road tax, school 
tax, and all these things. Well, there was women there that had a house as 
well as I. They taxed them to build a road, and they went on the road and 
worked. It took 'em a good while to get a stump up. (Laughter). Now, that 
shows that women can work. If they can dig up stumps they can vote. 
(Laughter). It is easier to vote than dig stumps. (Laughter). It doesn't seem 
hard work to vote, though I have seen some men that had a hard time of it. 
(Laughter). But I believe that when women can vote there won't be so many 
men that have a rough time gettin' to the polls. (Great laughter). There is 
danger of their life sometimes. I guess many have seen it in this city. 
I lived fourteen years in this city. I don't want to take up time, but I cal- 
culate to live. Now, if you want me to get out of the world, you had better 
get the women votin' soon. (Laughter). I shan't go till I can do that. 

CHARLES LENOX REMOND said : It requires a rash man to rise at this 
stage of the meeting, with the hope of detaining the audience even for a few 
moments. But in response to your call I rise to add my humble word to the 
many eloquent words already uttered in favor of universal suffrage. The pres- 
ent moment is one of no ordinary interest. Since this platform is the only 
place in this country where the whole question of human rights may now be 
considered, it seemed to me fitting that the right of the colored man to a vote 
should have a place at the close of the meeting ; and especially in this State, 
since the men who are to compose the Convention called for the amendment 
of the Constitution of this State, will, within a few short weeks, pass either 
favorably or unfavorably upon that subject. I remember that Henry B. Stan- 
ton once said at a foreign Court, " Let it be understood that I come from a 
country where every man is a sovereign." At that time the language of our 
friend was but a glittering generality, for there were very many who could 
not be styled sovereigns in any sense of the term. But I desire that the .re- 
mark of Mr. Stanton shall be verified in the State of New York this very year. 
I demand that you so amend your Constitution as to recognize the equality 
of the black man at the ballot box, at least until he shall have proved him- 
self a detriment to the interests and welfare of our common country. It is 
no novelty that two colored men were members of the last Legislature of 
Massachusetts ; for more than forty years ago a black man was a member of 
the Massachusetts Legislature. People seem to have forgotten our past his- 
tory. The first blood shed in the Revolutionary war ran from the veins of a 
black man ; and it is remarkable that the'first blood shed in the recent re- 
bellion also ran from the veins of a black man. What does it mean, that 
black men, first and foremost in the defense of the American nation and in 
devotion to the country, are to-day disfranchised in the State of Alexander 
Hamilton and John Jay? 



226 History of Woman Suffrage. 

These were the last conventions ever held in " the Church of the 
Puritans," as it soon passed into other hands, and not one stone 
was left upon another ; not even an odor of sanctity about the old 
familiar corner where so much grand work had been done for human- 
ity. The building is gone, the congregation scattered, but the name 
of George B. Cheever, so long the honored pastor, will not soon be 
forgotten.* 

At the close of the Convention a memorialf to Congress was pre- 
pared, and signed by the officers of the Convention. 



* The night before Dr. Cheever was to preach his farewell sermon to his people in the 
Church of the Puritans, Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton, walking slowly up Broadway 
arm in arm, cogitating, as usual, where a good word could be said for woman, bethought 
themselves of the Doctor's forthcoming sermon. As he had fought a grand battle for 
anti-slavery in his church, they felt that it would be peculiarly fitting for him, in his last 
sermon, to make some mention of the rights of women. 

Accordingly they turned into University Place, and soon found themselves in his parlor, 
where they were heartily welcomed by Mrs. Cheever. Miss Anthony, who was generally 
the spokesman on all audacious errands, said, " We want to see the Doctor just five min- 
utes ; we know that it is Saturday evening, that he is busy with' his sermon, and sees no 
one at this time, but our errand is one of momentous imporlance, and what we have in 
our minds must be said now or never. While we were explaining to Mrs. Cheever, the 
folding doors quietl y rolled back, and there stood the Doctor. He laughed heartily when we 
made known our mission, and said, " I have the start of you this time ; what you ask is 
already written in my sermon ; come into my library and you shall hear it. We listened 
with great satisfaction, expressed our thanks and started, when Miss A. suddenly turned 
and said, "That is excellent, Doctor, now pray do not forget to give it with unction to- 
morrow." 

Many wondered that Dr. Cheever, a rigid blue Presbyterian, should express such radical 
sentiments on so unpopular a reform. But his conversion was due, no doubt, to the fact 
that the women of his church had nobly sustained him all through his anti-slavery battle 
while the wealth and conservatism of the congregation forbade the discussion of that 
subject in the pulpit. The votes of the women, year after year, secured his position, until 
his failing health ended the contest, and the sale of the edifice changed the Church of the 
Puritans into Tiffany's brilliant jewelry establishment. 

t MEMORIAL OP THE AMERICAN EQUAL RIGHTS ASSOCIATION TO THE CONGRESS 
OF THE UNITED STATES. 

The undersigned, Officers and Representatives of the American Equal Pwghts Associa- 
tion, respectfully but earnestly protest against any change in the Constitution of the 
United States, or legislation by Congress, which shall longer violate the principle of Re- 
publican Government, by proscriptive distinctions in rights of suffrage or citizenship, 
on account of color or sex. Tour Memorialists would respectfully represent, that neither 
the colored man's loyalty, bravery on the battle field and general good conduct, nor 
woman's heroic devotion to liberty and her country, in peace and war, have yet availed 
to admit them to equal citizenship, even in this enlightened and republican nation. 

We believe that humanity is one in all those intellectual, moral and spiritual attributes, 
out of which grow human responsibilities. The Scripture declaration is, " so God created 
man in his own image : male and female created he them." And all divine legislation 
throughout the realm of nature recognizes the perfect equality of the two conditions. 
For male and female are but different conditions. Neither color nor sex is ever discharged 
from obedience to law, natural or moral ; written or unwritten. The commands, thou 
shalt not steal, nor kill, nor commit adultery, know nothing of sex in their demands j 
nothing in their penalty. And hence we believe that all human legislation which is at 



What the Three most Liberal Editors Say. 227 

In a letter to the National Anti-Slavery Standard, dated Con- 
cord, April 20, 1867, Parker Pillsbury, under the title, " The Face of 
the Sky," says : 

I have just read in the papers of last week what follows : 
Mr. Phillips, in the Anti-Slavery Standard says : " All our duty is to press 
constantly on the nation the absolute need of three things. 1st. The exercise of 
the whole police power of the government while the seeds of republicanism 
get planted. 2d. The Constitutional Amendment securing universal suf- 
frage in spite of all State Legislation. 3d. A Constitutional Amendment 
authorizing Congress to establish common schools, etc. To these neces- 
saries," Mr. Phillips adds, "we must educate the public mind." 

Mr. Greeley in the Tribune says : " We are most anxious that our present 
State Constitution shall be so amended as to secure prompt justice through 

variance with the divine code, is essentially unrighteous and unjust. Woman and thQ 
colored man are taxed to support many literary and humane institutions, into which they 
never come, except in the poorly paid capacity of menial servants. Woman has been 
fined, whipped, branded with red-hot irons, imprisoned and hung ; but when was woman 
ever tried by a jury of her peers ? 

Though the nation declared from the beginning that "all just governments derive 
their power from the consent of the governed," the consent of woman was never asked 
to a single statute, however nearly it affected her dearest womanly interests or happiness. 
In the despotisms of the old world, of ancient and modern times, woman, profligate, 
prostitute, weak, cruel, tyrannical, or otherwise, from Semiramis and Messalina, to Cath- 
erine of Rusnia and Margaret of Anjou, have swayed, unchallenged, imperial scepters ; 
while in this republican and Christian land in the nineteenth century, woman, intelligent, 
refined in every ennobling gift and grace, may not even vote on the appropriation of 
her own property, or the disposal and destiny of her own children. Literally she has no 
rights which man is bound to respect ; and her civil privileges she holds only by suffer- 
ance. For the power that gave, can take away, and of that power she is no part. In 
most of the States, these unjust distinctions apply to woman, and to the colored man 
alike. Your Memorialists fully believe that the time has come when such injustice should 



Woman and the colored man are loyal, patriotic, property-holding, tax-paying, liberty- 
loving citizens ; and we can not believe that sex or complexion should be any ground for 
civil or political degradation. In our government, one-half the citizens are disfranchised 
by their M-X, and about one-eighth by the color of their skin ; and thus a large majority 
have no voice iu enacting or executing the laws they are taxed to support and compelled 
to obey, with the same fidelity as the more favored class, whose usurped prerogative it is 
to rule. A-aiiHt such outrages on the very name of republican freedom, your mcmorial- 
lst do and imi>t ever protest And Is not our protest pre-eminently as just ugainst the 
tyrjmiy of " taxation without representation," a* was that thundered from Bunker Hill, 
\vlicn our revolutionary fathers fired the shot that shook the world ? 

And your Memoiialists especially remember, at this time, that our country is still reel- 
Ing under MIC shod* of a terrible civil war, the legitimate result and righteous retribution 
of the vilest slave system ever suffered among men. And in restoring the foundations 
of our nationality, your memorialists most respectfully and earnestly pray that all dis- 
criminations on account of sex or race may be removed; and that our Government 
may be republican In fact as well as form; A GOVERNMENT BT TIIK PEOPLE, AND THB 

WHOLE PKOPLR ; FOR TUB PEOPLE, AND THE WHOLE PEOPLE. 

In behalf of the American Equal Rights Asaociatlon, 

THI-ODOKE TILTON, ) LuoRETiA MOTT, President 

FREDERICK DOUGLASS, V Vice-PresideuU. SUSAN B. ANTHONY, Secretary. 
ELIZABEZU CADT STANTON, ) 



228 History of Woman Suffrage. 

the courts, preclude legislative and municipal corruption, and secure respon- 
sibility by concentrating executive power." Through the approaching Con- 
stitutional Convention, he says the people " can secure justice through re- 
formed courts, fix responsibility for abuses of executive power ; in short, 
they can increase the value of property and the reward of honest labor." 

Mr. Tilton, in The Independent, in allusion to the recent Republican defeat 
in Connecticut, concludes ; " the policy of negro suffrage is clearly seen to 
be the only policy for the National welfare." . . . . " What then, is the next 
step," he asks, " in the progress of reconstruction ? " In italics he answered, 
" We must make Impartial Suffrage the rule and practice of the Northern as 
well as the Southern States." He proposes a new amendment to the Fed- 
eral Constitution which will secure to every American citizen, black and 
white, North and South, the American citizen's franchise. What is meant 
in this article of the Independent by impartial suffrage is understood by these 
words in another part of it. " The Republican party in Connecticut was 
abundantly strong enough to secure Impartial Suffrage. But it chose, in- 
stead, to insult its black-faced brethren, and refused their alliance." Mr. 
Raymond, in the New York Times, speaks without a stammer on the suf- 
frage question. It declares, " In New York suffrage is now absolutely uni- 
versal for all citizens except the colored people ; and upon them it is only 
restricted by a slight property qualification." 

A correspondent of the Boston Congregationalist, in a letter from New 
York, tells us, " A Constitutional Convention is to be held shortly in this 

State, and we expect to see universal suffrage adopted The Strong- 

Minded Women aim to secure female voting, but they will fail, as they 
should." The Congregationalist has also an editorial article headed, " The 
steps to Reconstruction," in which it speaks excellently of " a millennium of 
Republican governments," and of Impartial Suffrage in them, as near at 
hand. But it too speaks only of freedmen to be clothed with the rights of 
citizenship in the millennial, latter-day glory so soon to be. Over the black 
male citizen this editor shouts, " chattel, contraband, soldier, citizen, voter, 
counselor, magistrate, representative, senator, these all shall be the suc- 
cessive steps of his wonderful progress ! ! " 

I have produced these as the best representatives of the different styles or 
types of the radical or progressive movement in the work of reconstructing the 
government. That the Standard and Independent believe fully in the right 
of women to Equal Suffrage and citizenship is known to every attentive 
reader of those journals. But at an hour like this, it is painful to witness 
anything like agreement even, with the language of the others I have cited. 
.... To rob the freed slave of citizenship to-day is as much a crime as was 
slavery before the war on Sumter ; and to withhold the divinely conferred 
gift from woman is every way as oppressive, cruel, and unjust as if she were 
a black man. . 



CHAPTER XIX. 
THE KANSAS CAMPAIGN 1867. 

The Battle Ground of Freedom Campaign of 1867 Liberals did not Stand by their 
Principles Black Men Opposed to Woman Suffrage Republican Press and Party Un- 
true Democrats in Opposition John Stuart Mill's Letters and Speeches Extensively 
Circulated Henry B. Blackwell and Lucy Stone Opened the Campaign Rev. Olympia 
Brown Followed 60,000 Tracts Distributed Appeal Signed by Thirty-one Distin- 
guished Men Letters from Helen E. Starrett, Susan E. Wattles, Dr. R. 8. Tenney, 
Lieut. Governor J. P. Root, Rev. Olympia Brown The Campaign closefl by ex-Gover- 
nor Robinson, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and the Hutchinson Family 
Speeches and Songs at the Polls in every Ward in Leavenworth Election Day 
Both Amendments lost 9,070 Votes for Womau Suffrage, 10,843 for Negro Suffrage. 

As Kansas was the historic ground where Liberty fought her first 
victorious battles with Slavery, and consecrated that soil forever to 
the freedom of the black race, so was it the first State where the 
battle for woman's enfranchisement was waged and lost for a genera- 
tion. There never was a more hopeful interest concentrated on the 
legislation of any single State, than when Kansas submitted the two 
propositions to her people to take the words " white " and " male " 
from her Constitution. 

Those awake to the dignity and power*of the ballot in the hands 
of all classes, to the inspiring thought of self-government, were stir- 
red as never before, both in Great Britain and America, upon this 
question. Letters from John Stuart Mill and other friends, with 
warm words of encouragement, were read to thousands of audiences, 
and published in journals throughout the State. Eastern women 
who went there to speak started with the full belief that their hopes 
so long deferred were at last to be realized. Some even made 
arrangements for future homes on that green spot where at last the 
sons and daughters of earth were to stand equal before the law. 
With no "reater faith did the crusaders of old seize their shields and 

C3 

start <>n their perilous journey to wrest from the intidel the Holy 
Sepulcher, than did these defenders of a sacred principle enter Kan- 
sas, and with hope sublime consecrate themselves to labor for wo- 



230 History of Woman Suffrage. 

man's freedom ; to roll off of her soul the mountains of sorrow and 
superstition that had held her in bondage to false creeds, and codes, 
and customs for centuries.. There was a solemn earnestness in the 
speeches of all who labored in that campaign. Each heart was thrilled 
with the thought that the youngest civilization in the world was about 
to establish a government based on the divine idea the equality of 
all mankind proclaimed by Jesus of Nazareth, and echoed by the 
patriots who watched the dawn of the natal day of our Republic. 
Here at last the mothers of the race, the most important actors in 
the grand drama of human progress were for the first time to stand 
the peers of men. 

These women firmly believed that Republicans and Abolitionists 
who had advocated their cause for years would aid them in- all pos- 
sible efforts to carry the Constitutional Amendment that was to en- 
franchise the women of the State. They looked confidently for en- 
couragement, and inspiring editorials in certain Eastern journals. 
With Horace Greeley at the head of the New York Tribune, Theo- 
dore Tilton of the Independent, and Wendell Phillips of the Anti- 
Slavery Standard, they felt they had a strong force in the press of 
the East to rouse the men of Kansas to their duty. But, alas ! they 
all preserved a stolid silence, and the Liberals of the State were in a 
measure paralyzed by their example. Though the amendment to take 
the word "male" from the Constitution was a Republican measure, 
signed by a Republican Governor, and advocated by leading men of 
that party throughout the campaign, yet the Republican party, as 
such, the Abolitionists and black men were all hostile to the propo- 
sition, because they said to agitate the woman's amendment would 
defeat negro suffrage. 

Eastern politicians warned the Republicans of Kansas that " negro 
suffrage " was a party measure in national politics, and that they must 
not entangle themselves with the " woman question." On all sides 
came up the cry, this is " the negro's hour." Though the Republi- 
can State Central Committee adopted a resolution leaving all their 
party speakers free to erpress their individual sentiments, yet they 
selected men to canvass the State, who were known to be unscrupu- 
lous and disreputable, and violently opposed to woman suffrage.* The 

* DISAGREEMENTS IN THE REPUBLICAN STATE CENTKAL COMMITTEE THE SUFFRAGE 
QUESTION. The Kansas State Journal publishes a letter from Judge SAMUEL N. WOOD, 
in which he declares himself unqualifiedly in favor of impartial suffrage. He says : 

" I have not opposed, and shall not oppose negro suffrage. It should be adopted be- 
cause they are a part of the governed, and must have a voice in the Government, just as 
much as women should. What I have had to do with is the inconsistency and hypocrisy 
of those who advocate negro suffrage and oppose Woman suffrage ; the inconsistency and 



AH Parties against Woman Suffrage. 231 

Democratic party* was opposed to both amendments and to the new 
law on temperance, which it was supposed the women would actively 
support. 

The Germans in their Conventions passed a resolutionf against 
the new law that required the liquor dealers to get the signatures of 
one-half the women, as well as the men, to their petitions before the 
authorities could grant them license. In suffrage for women they saw 
rigid Sunday laws and the suppression of their beer gardens. The 
liquor dealers throughout the State were bitter and hostile to the 
woman's amendment. Though the temperance party had passed a 
favorable resolution;}: in their State Convention, yet some of their 
members were averse to all affiliations with the dreaded question, as 
to them, what the people might drink seemed a subject of greater 
importance than a fundamental principle of human rights. In- 

hypocrisy of those negroes who claim rights for themselves that they are not willing 
other human beings with equal intelligence should also enjoy." 

The same paper says that at the meeting of the Republican State Central Committee in 
Leavenworth, last week, the following resolution was offered and laid on the table, by a 
vote of two yeas to one "nay : 

Resolved, That the Republican State Central Committee do not indorse, but distinctly 
repudiate, as speakers, in behalf and under the auspices of the Republican party, such 
persons as have defamed, or do hereafter defame, in their public addresses, the women 
of Kansas, or those ladies who have been urging upon the people of Kansas the propriety 
of enfranchising the women of the State. 

Mr. TAYLOR, who offered the resolution, has accordingly published the following pro- 
test : 

The undersigned, a member of the Republican State Central Committee of Kansas, pro- 
tests against the action of the Committee this day had, so far as relates to the placing of 
the names of I. S. KALLOCH, C. V. ESKUIDOE, and P. B. PLUMB, on the list of speakers 
to canvass the State in behalf of Republican principles, for the reason that they have 
within the last few weeks, in public addresses, published articles, used ungcntlemanly, 
indecent, and infamously defamatory language, when alluding to a large and respecta- 
ble portion of the women of Kansas, and to women now engaged in canvassing the State 
In favor of impartial suflrnge. R. B. TAYLOR. 

DEMOCRATIC RESOLUTION. Resolved, That we are opposed to all the proposed amend- 
ments to our State Constitution, and to all unjust, intolerant, and prescriptive legislation, 
whereby a portion of our fellow citizens are deprived of their social rights and rcligfous 
privileges. 

t ACTION OF THE GERMANS. ST. Louis, Sept. 28. A special dispatch to the Republican 
from \Vyanclotti-, Kansas, says: "The German Convention, which was held at Topeka on 
Monday last, adopted resolutions against Sunday and temperance laws, and deel.m-il th.it 
they would not support any man for State, Legislative, or municipal office who would 
not give his written pledge to oppose such laws. An unsuccessful effort was made to 
commit the Germans to negro suffrage. The female suffrage question was not touched." 

JSTATE Ti MI i H\NCE CONVENTION. LAWRENCE, KANSAS, Sept. 38. A mass State 
Temperance C'onv>>iitji>n was held here last night, and was addressed by Senator Pome* 
roy. ex-Qov. Robinson, Kli/alu-th Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony. Resolutions 
were passed committing the Temperance people to female suffrage, and to prevent the 
repeal of the Temperance law of last winter, to the abrogation of which the Germans 
pledged themselves in their Convention on the 33d. 



232 History of Woman Suffrage. 

telligent black men, believing the sophistical statements of politi- 
cians, that their rights were imperiled by the agitation of woman 
suffrage, joined the opposition. Thus the campaign in Kansas was 
as protracted as many sided. 

From April until November, the women of Kansas, and those 
who came to help them, worked with indomitable energy and perse- 
verance. Besides undergoing every phys-ical hardship, traveling 
night and day in carriages, open wagons, over miles and miles of 
the unfrequented prairies, climbing divides, and through deep ra- 
vines, speaking in depots, unfinished barns, mills, churches, school- 
houses, and the open air, on the very borders of civilization, where- 
ever two or three dozen voters could be assemble'd. 

Henry B. Blackwell and Lucy Stone opened the campaign in 
April. The following letters show how hopeful they were of success, 
and how enthusiastically they labored to that end. Even the New 
York Tribune prophesied victory.* 

AT Gov. ROBINSON'S HOUSE, FOUR MILES NORTH OF 
LAWRENCE, KANSAS, April, 5, 1867. 

DEAR MRS. STANTON : We report good news ! After half a day's earnest 
debate, the Convention at Topeka, by an almost unanimous vote, refused to 
separate " the two questions " male and white. A delegation from Lawrence 
came up specially to get the woman dropped. The good God upset a simi- 
lar delegation from Leavenworth bent on the same object, and prevented 
them from reaching Topeka at all. Gov. Robinson, Gov. Root, Col. Wood, 
Gen. Larimer, Col. Ritchie, and " the old guard " generally were on hand. 
Our coming out did good. Lucy spoke with all her old force and fire. Mrs. 
Nichols was there a strong list of permanent officers was nominated and a 
State Impartial Suffrage Association was organized. The right men were put 
upon the committees, and I do not believe that the Negro Suffrage men can 
well bolt or back out now. 

The effect is wonderful. Papers which have been ridiculing woman suf- 
frage and sneering at " Sam Wood's Convention " are now on our side. We 
have made the present Gov. Crawford President of the Association, Lieut.- 
Gov. Green Vice-President. Have appointed a leading man in every judi- 
cial district member of the Executive Committee, and have some of the 



* The New York Tribune, May 29, 1867 : " Womanhood suffrage is now a progressive 
cause beyond fear of cavil. It has won a fair field where once it was looked upon as an 
airy nothing, and it has gained champions and converts without number. The young 
State of Kansas is fitly the vanguard of this cause, and the signs of the agitation therein 
hardly allow a doubt that the citizenship of women will be ere long recognized in the 
law of the State. Fourteen out of twenty newspapers of Kansas are in favor of making 
woman a voter. Governor Crawford, ex-Governors Robinson and Root, Judge Schnyler, 
Col. Ritchie, and Lieut.-Gov. Green, are the leaders of the wide-spread Impartial League, 
which has among its orators Mistresses Stanton, Stone, and Susan B. Anthony. The vi- 
tality of the Kansas movement is indisputable, and whether defeated or successful in the 
present contest, it will still hold strongly fortified ground." .... 



Henry B. BlackwelVs Kansas Letters. 233 



leading Congregational, Old School, and New School Presbyterian ministers 
committed for both questions ; have already secured a majority of the news- 
papers of the State, and if Lucy and I succeed in " getting up steam " as we 
hope in Lawrence, Wyandotte, Leavenworth, and Atchison, the woman and 
the negro will rise or fall together, and shrewd politicians say that with 
proper effort we shall carry both next fall. 

During the Convention Lucy got a dispatch from Lawrence as follows : 
" Will you lecture for the Library Association ? State terms, time, and sub- 
ject." Lucy replied : " Will lecture Saturday evening ; subject, ' Impartial 
Suffrage ' ; terms, one hundred dollars, payable to Kansas State Impartial 
Suffrage Association." The prompt reply was : " We accept your terms." 
Gen. Larimer, of Leavenworth, went down next day to try to arrange a 
similar lyceum meeting there. In the afternoon came a dispatch from D, R. 
Anthony, saying : " Meeting arranged for Tuesday night." This is especially 
good, because we were informed that he had somewhat favored dropping the 
woman, but whether this was so or not, he will now be all right as befits the 
brother of Susan B. Anthony. 

We are announced to speak every night but Sundays from April 7 to May 
5 inclusive. We shall have to travel from twenty to forty miles per day. If 
our voices and health hold out, Col. Wood says the State is safe. We had a 
rousing convention three sessions at Topeka, and a crowded meeting the 
night following. We find a very strong feeling against Col. S. N. Wood 
among politicians, but they all respect and dread him. He has warmer 
friends and bitterer enemies than almost any man in the State. But he is 
true as steel. My judgment of men is rarely deceived, and I pronounce S. 
N. Wood a great man and a political genius. Gov. Robinson is a masterly 
tactician, cool, wary, cautious, decided, and brave as a lion. These two men 
alone would suffice to save Kansas. But when you add the other good and 
true men who are already pledged, and the influences which have been com- 
bined, I think you will see next fall an avalanche vote " the caving in of 
that mighty sandbank " your husband once predicted on a similar occasion. 

Now, Mrs. Stanton, you and Susan and Fred. Douglass must come to this 
State early next September; you must come prepared to make sixty speeches 
each. You must leave your notes behind you. These people won't have 
written sermons. And you don't want notes. You are a natural orator, and 
these people will give you inspiration ! Everything has conspired to help 
us in this State. Gov. Robinson and Sam. Wood have quietly set a ball in 
motion which nobody in Kansas is now strong enough to stop. Politicians' 
hair here is fairly on end. But the fire is in the prairie behind them, and 
they are getting out their matches in sclf-defcnsc to fire their foreground. 
This is a glorious country, Mrs. S., and a glorious people. If we succeed 
here, it will be the State of the Future. 

With kind regard*, HENRY B. BLACKWELL. 

P. S. So you see we have the State Convention committed to the ri^ht 
side, and I do believe we shall carry it. All the old settlers are for it. It is 
only the later comers who say, " If I were a black man I should not want 
the woman question hitched to me." These men tell what their wives have 
done, and then ask, shall such women be left without a vote ? L. S. 

VOL. H 16. 



234 History of Woman Suffrage. 

D. R. ANTHONY'S HOUSE, LEAVENWORTH, 

April 10, 1867. 

DEAR MRS. STANTON : We came here just in the nick of time. The pa- 
pers were laughing at " Sam Wood's Convention," the call for which was in 
the papers with the names of Beecher, Tilton, Ben Wade, Gratz Brown, E. 
C. Stanton, Anna Dickinson, Lucy Stone, etc., as persons expected or invited 
to be at the convention. The papers said : " This is one of Sam's shabbiest 
tricks. Not one of these persons will be present, and he knows it," etc., etc. 
Our arrival set a buzz going, and when I announced you and Susan and Aunt 
Fanny for the fall, they began to say " they guessed the thing would carry." 
Gov. Robinson said he could not go to the Topeka Convention, for he had 
a lawsuit involving $1,000 that was to come off that very day, but we talked 
the matter over with him, showed him what a glorious hour it was for Kansas, 
etc., etc., and he soon concluded to get the suit put off and go to the con- 
vention. Ex-Gov. Root, of Wyandotte, joined with him and us, though he 
had not intended to go. We went to Topeka; and the day and even- 
ing before the convention, pulled every wire and set every honest 
trap. Gov. Robinson has a long head, and he arranged the " platform " so 
shrewdly, carefully using the term " impartial," which he said meant right, 
and we must make them use it, so that there would be no occasion for 
any other State Association. In this previous meeting, the most prominent 
men of the State were made officers of the permanent organization. When 
the platform was read, with the names of the officers, and the morning's dis- 
cussion was over, everybody then felt that the ball was set right. But in the 
P.M. came a Methodist minister and a lawyer from Lawrence as delegates, 
" instructed " to use the word "impartial," "as it had been used for the last 
two years," to make but one issue, and to drop the woman. The lawyer 
said, " If I was a negro, I would not want the woman hitched on to my skirts," 
etc. He made a mean speech. Mrs. Nichols and I came down upon him, 
and the whole convention, except the Methodist, was' against him. The 
vote was taken whether to drop the woman, and only the little lawyer from 
Lawrence, with a hole in his coat and only one shoe on, voted against the 
woman. After that it was all one way. The papers all came out right, I 
mean the Topeka papers. One editor called on us, said we need not men- 
tion that he had called, but he wanted to assure us that he had always been 
right on this question. That the mean articles in his paper had been writ- 
ten by a subordinate in his office in his absence, etc. That the paper was fully 
committed, etc., etc. That is a fair specimen of the way all the others have 
done, till we got to this place. Here the Republicans had decided to drop the 
woman, Anthony with the others, and I think they are only waiting to see 
the result of our meetings, to announce their decision. But the Democrats 
all over the State are preparing to take us up. They are a small minority, 
with nothing to lose, and utterly unscrupulous.while all who will work with Sam 
Wood will work with anybody. I fully expect we shall carry the State. But 
it will be necessary to have a good force here in the fall, and you will have to 
come. Our meetings are everywhere crowded to overflowing, and in every 
case the papers speak well of them. We have meetings for every night till 
the 4th of May. By that time we shall be well tired out. But we shall see 
the country, and I hope have done some good. There is no such love of 



Lucy Stands Kansas Letters. 235 

principle here as I expected to find. Each man goes for himself, and " the 
devil take the hindmost." The women here are grand, and it will be a shame 
past all expression if they don't get the right to vote. One woman in Wyan- 
dotte said she carried petitions all through the town for female suffrage, and 
not one woman in ten refused to sign. Another in Lawrence said they sent 
up two large petitions from there. So they have been at the" Legislature, 
like the heroes they really are, and it is not possible for the husbands of such 
women to back out, though they have sad lack of principle and a terrible 
desire for office. Yours, L. S. 

JUNCTION CITY, KANSAS, April 20. 
DEAR MRS. STANTON: 

We have had one letter from you, and have written you twice. To-day I 
inclose an article by Col. Wood, which is so capital that it ought to be printed. 
I wish you would take it to Tilton (not Oliver), and if he says he will pub- 
lish it, let him have it ; but if he hesitates, send it at once to the Chicago 
Republic, and ask them to mark the article in some of their exchanges. Per- 
haps the Northern Methodist, The Banner of Light, and the Liberal Christian 
would insert it. I shall not be back to the May meeting ; indeed, it would 
be better if we could stay till June 1st, and go all along the Northern tier of 
counties. I think this State will be right at the fall election. The Independent 
is taken in many families here, and they are getting right on the question of 
impartial suffrage. But there will have to be a great deal of work to carry 
the State. We have large, good meetings everywhere. If the Independent 
would take up this question, and every week write for it, as it does for the 
negro, that paper alone could save this State ; and with this, all the others. 

What a pity it does not see the path that would leave it with more than 
Revolutionary honors ! I am thankful beyond expression for what it does, 
but I am pained for what it might do. With its 75,000 subscribers, and five 
times that number of readers, what can the poor little Standard do for us, 
compared with that ? I shall try and write a letter to the convention. May 
strike the true note ! I hope not a man will be asked to speak at the con- 
vention. If they volunteer very well, but I have been for the last time on my 
knees to Phillips or Higginson, or any of them. If they help now, they should 
ask us, and not we them. Is Susan with you ? L. S. 

JUNCTION CITY, KANSAS, April 21, 1867. 
DEAR FRIENDS, E. C. STANTON AND SUSAN B. ANTHONY: 

You will be glad to know that Lucy and I are going over the length and 
breadth of this State speaking every day, and sometimes twice, journeying 
from twenty-five to forty miles daily, sometimes in a carriage and sometimes 
in an open wagon, with or without springs. We climb hills and dash down 
ravines, ford creeks, and ferry over rivers, rattle across limestone ledges, 
struggle through muddy bottoms, fight the high winds on the high rolling 
upland prairies, and address the most astonishing (and astonished) audiences 
in the most extraordinary places. To-night it may be a log school house, to- 
morrow a stone church ; next day a store with planks for scats, and in one 
place, if it had not rained, we should have held forth in an unfinished court 
house, with only four stone walls but no roof whatever. 

The people are a queer mixture of roughness and intelligence, reck- 



236 History of Woman Suffrage. 

lessness, and conservatism. One swears at women who want to wear the 
breeches ; another wonders whether we ever heard of a fellow named Paul ; 
a third is not going to put women on an equality with niggers. One woman 
told Lucy that no decent woman would be running over the country talking 
nigger and woman. Her brother told Lucy that " he had had a woman 
who was under the sod, but that if she had ever said she wanted to vote he 
would have pounded her to death ! " 

The fact is, however, that we have on our side all the shrewdest politicians 
and all the best class of men and women in this State. Our meetings are do- 
ing much towards organizing and concentrating public sentiment in our 
favor, and the papers are beginning to show front in our favor. We fought 
and won a pitched battle at Topeka in the convention, and have possession 
of the machine. By the time we get through with the proposed series of 
meetings, it will be about the aoth of May, if Lucy's voice and strength hold 
out. The scenery of this State is lovely. In summer it must be very fine 
indeed, especially in this Western section the valleys are beautiful, and the 
bluffs quite bold and romantic. 

I think we shall probably succeed in Kansas next fall if the State is 
thoroughly canvassed, not else. We are fortunate in having Col. Sam N. 
Wood as an organizer and worker. We owe everything to Wood, and he is 
really a thoroughly noble, good fellow, and a hero. He is a short, rather thick 
set, somewhat awkward, and " slouchy " man, extremely careless in his dress, 
blunt and abrupt in his manner, with a queer inexpressive face, little blue 
eyes which can look dull or flash fire or twinkle with the wickedest fun. He 
is so witty, sarcastic, and cutting, that he is a terrible foe, and will put the 
laugh even on his best friends. The son of a Quaker mother, he held the 
baby while his wife acted as one of the officers, and his mother another, in a 
Woman's Rights Convention seventeen years ago. Wood has helped off more 
runaway slaves than any man in Kansas. He has always been true both to 
the negro and the woman. But the negroes dislike and distrust him be- 
cause he has never allowed the word white to be struck out, unless the word 
male should be struck out also. He takes exactly Mrs. Stanton's ground, 
that the colored men and women shall enter the kingdom together, if at all. 
So, while he advocates both, he fully realizes the wider scope and far greater 
grandeur of the battle for 'woman. Lucy and I like Wood very much. We 
have seen a good deal of him, first at Topeka, again at Cottonwood Falls, his 
home, and on the journey thence to Council Grove and to this place. Our 
arrangements for conveyances failed, and Wood with characteristic energy 
and at great personal inconvenience brought us through himself. It is worth 
a journey to Kansas to know him for he is an original and a genius. If he 
should die next month I should consider the election lost. But if he live, 
and we all in the East drop other work and spend September and October in 
Kansas, we shall succeed. I am glad to say that our friend D. R. Anthony 
is out for both propositions in the Leavenivorth Bulletin. But his sympathies 
are so especially with the negro question that we must have Susan out here 
to strengthen his hands. We must have Mrs. Stanton, Susan, Mrs. Gage, and 
Anna Dickinson, this fall. Also Ben Wade and Carl Schurz, if possible. We 
must also try to get 10,000 each of Mrs. Stanton's address, of Lucy Stone's 
address, and of Mrs. Mills article on the Enfranchisement of Women, printed 
for us by the Hovey Fund. 



This will be the Way with Us. 237 

Kansas is to be the battle ground for 1867. // must not be allowed to fail. 

The politicians here, except Wood and Robinson, are generally "on the 
fence." But they dare not oppose us openly. And the Democratic leaders 
are quite disposed to take us up. If the Republicans come out against us the 
Democrats will take us up. Do not let anything prevent your being here 
September 1 for the campaign, which will end in November. There will be 
a big fight and a great excitement. After the fight is over Mrs. Stanton will 
never have use for notes or "written speeches any more. 

Yours truly, HENRY B. BLACKWELL. 

FORT SCOTT, May 1, 1867. 
DEAR SUSAN : 

I have just this moment read your letter, and received the tracts ; the 
" testimonies " I mean. We took 250 pounds of tracts with us, and we have 
sowed them thick ; and Susan, the crop will be impartial suffrage in the fall. 
It will carry, beyond a doubt, in this State. Now, as I can not be in New 
York next week, I want you to see Aunt Fanny and Anna Dickinson, and 
get them pledged to come here in the fall. We will raise the pay somehow. 
You and Mrs. Stanton will come, of course. I wish Mrs. Harper to come. I 
don't know if she is in New York ; please tell her I got her letter, and will 
either see or correspond with her when I get home. There is no time to 
write here. We ride all day, and lecture every night, and sometimes at noon 
too. So there is time for nothing else. I am sorry there is no one to help 
you, Susan, in New York. I always thought that when this hour of our bit- 
ter need come this darkest hour before the dawn Mr. Higginson would 
bring his beautiful soul and his fine, clear intellect to draw all women to his 
side ; but if it is possible for him to be satisfied at such an hour with writing 
the best literary essays, it is because the power to help us has gone from him. 
The old lark moves her nest only when the farmer prepares to cut his grass 
himself. This will be the way with us ; as to the Standard, I don't count 
upon it at all. Even if you get it, the circulation is so limited that it amounts 
almost to nothing. I have not seen a copy in all Kansas. But the Tribune 
and Independent alone could, if they would urge universal suffrage, as they 
do negro suffrage, carry this whole nation upon the only just plane of equal 
human rights. What a power to hold, and not use ! I could not sleep the 
other night, just for thinking of it ; and if I had got up and written the 
thought that burned my very soul, I do believe that Greeley and Tilton 
would have echoed the cry of the old crusaders, " God wills it ; " and rushing 
to our half-sustained standard, would plant it high and firm on immutable 
principles. They MUST take it up. I shall see them the very first thing when 
I go home. At your meeting next Monday evening, I think you should in- 
sist that all of the Hovey fund used for the Standard and Anti-Slavery pur- 
poses, since slavery is abolished, must be returned with interest to the three 
causes which by the express terms of the will were to receive all of the fund 
when slavery was abolished. You will have a good meeting, I am sure, and 
I hope you will not fail to rebuke the cowardly use of the terms " universal, 1 ' 
.tin! " impartial," and " equal," applied to hide a dark skin, and an unpopular 
client. All this talk about the infamous thirteen who voted against " negro 
suffrage " in New Jersey, is unutterably contemptible from the lips or pen of 



238 History of Woman Suffrage. 

those whose words, acts, and votes are not against ignorant and degraded 
negroes, but against every man's mother, wife, and daughter. We have 
crowded meetings everywhere. I speak as well as ever, thank God ! The 
audiences move to tears or laughter, just as in the old time. Harry makes 
capital speeches, and gets a louder cheer always than I do, though I believe 
I move a deeper feeling. The papers all over the State are discussing pro 
and con. The whole thing is working just right. If Beecher is chosen dele- 
gate at large to your Constitutional Convention, I think the word male will 
go out before his vigorous cudgel. I do not want to stay here after the 
4th, but Wood and Harry have arranged other meetings up to the iSth or 
2oth of May, so that we shan't be back even for the Boston meetings. 

Very truly, LUCY STONE. 

In a letter dated Atchison, May 9, 1867, Lucy Stone says : I should be so 
glad to be with you to-morrow, and to know this minute whether Phillips 
has consented to take the high ground which sound policy as well as justice 
and statesmanship require. I can not send you a telegraphic dispatch as you 
wish, for just now there is a plot to get the Republican party to drop the 
word " male," and also to agree to canvass only for the word " white." There 
is a call, signed by the Chairman of the State Central Republican Commit- 
tee, to meet at Topeka on the 15th, to pledge the party to the canvass on 
that single issue. As soon as we saw the call and the change of tone of some 
of the papers, we sent letters to all those whom we had found true to princi- 
ple, urging them to be at Topeka and vote for both words. This effort of 
ours the Central Committee know nothing of, and we hope they will be de- 
feated, as they will be sure to be surprised. So, till this action of the Repub- 
licans is settled, we can affirm nothing. Everywhere we go we have the larg- 
est and most enthusiastic meetings, and any one of our audiences would give 
a majority for woman suffrage. But the negroes are all against us. There 
has just now left us an ignorant black preacher named Twine, who is very 
confident that women ought not to vote. These men ought not to be allowed 
to vote before ive do, because they will be just so much more dead weight to 
lift. 

Mr. Frothingham's course of lectures, happily, is over. Were you ever so 
cruelly hurt by any course of lectures before ? " If it had been an enemy I 
could have borne it." But for this man, wise, educated, and good, who thinks 
he is our friend, to do just the things that our worst enemies will be glad of, 
is the unkindest cut of all. Ninety-nine pulpits out of every hundred have 
taught that women should not meddle in politics ; as large a proportion of 
papers have done the same ; and by every hearthstone the lesson is repeated 
to the little girl ; and when she has learned it, and grows up, and does not 
throw away the teaching of a life time, Mr. Frothingham accepts this effect 
for a cause, and blames the unhappy victim, when he should stand by her 
side, and with all his power of persuasion win her away from her false teach- 
ing, to accept the truth and the nobler life that comes with it. But, thank 
God, the popular pulse is setting in the right direction. 

We must see Wade, and Garfield, and Julian, and when Sumner proposes, 
as he says he shall, to make negro suffrage universal, they must insist upon 
our claim ; urged not for our sake merely, but that the government may be 



Ofympia Brown and the Hutchinsons. 239 

based upon the consent of the governed. There is safety in no other way. 
We shall leave for home on the 20th. We had the largest meeting we have 
yet had in the State at Leavenworth night before last. Your brother and his 
wife called upon us at Col. Coffin's. They are well. But Dan don't want the 
Republicans to take us up. Love to Mrs. Stanton. LUCY STONE. 

P. S. The papers here are coming down on us, and every prominent re- 
former, and charging us with being Free Lovers. I have to-day written a 
letter to the editor, saying that it has not the shadow of a foundation. 

Rev. Olympia Brown arrived in the State in July, where her un- 
tiring labors for four months were never equaled by man or woman. 
Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony, and the Hutchinson family followed 
her early in September. "What these speakers could not do with 
reason and appeal, the Hutchinsons, by stirring the hearts of the 
people with their sweet ballads, readily accomplished. Before leav- 
ing New York Miss Anthony published 60,000 tracts, which were 
distributed in Kansas with a liberal hand under the frank of Sena- 
tors Ross and Pomeroy. Thus the thinking and unthinking in 
every school district were abundantly supplied with woman suffrage 
literature, such as Mrs. Mill's splendid article in the Westminster 
Review, the best speeches of John Stuart Mill, Theodore Parker, 
Wendell Phillips, George William Curtis, Elizabeth Cady Stanton's 
argument before the Constitutional Convention, Parker Pillsbury's 
" Mortality of Nations," Thomas Wentworth Higginson's " Wom- 
an and her Wishes," Henry Ward Beecher's " Woman's Duty to 
Vote," and Mrs. C. I. II. Nichols' "Responsibility of Woman." 
There was scarcely a log cabin in the State that could not boast 
one or more of these documents, which the liberality of a few east- 
ern friends* enabled the " Equal Rights Association " to print and 
circulate. 



* Mrs. Sarah B. Shaw, after having contributed $150 for Kansas, wrote the following : 

NORTH SHOKE, September 22, 1867. 

DEAR MIBB ANTHONY : If I were a rich woman I would inclose a check of $1,000 in- 
Btanter. Mr. Gay read your letter and said he wished he had $500 to give. So you see If 
HP riylit pro|,ir niiiy had the money how the work would be done. Mr. Shaw says: 
" T II Miss Anthony If tin: women In Kansas vote on the schools and the dram shops, I 
think tin- work is done there." I have not In my mind one person who could give money 

who would, so I can not help yon I am very sorry to send you only this dry nn>r- 

flc-1, a Htoiui when you want bread, but I Can only give you my cannot wishes, though I 
will not full tc, do my best I have already ami yotir 1,-ttrr to a rich friend, who has r- 
/>-i/i. 'I all In-r life, but I do not know at all how she stands on the woman question. Be* 
li'\ .- me, dear Miss Anthony, Sincerely yours, SARAH B. SHAW. 

OFFICE OP THE AMERICAN EQUAL RIGHTS ASSOCIATION, 
No. 37 Park Row (Room 17). NEW YORK, Avg. 23, 1867. ' 

I>KAR LTDIA : . . . . I am just in from Stnten Island, where Mrs. Gay had $10 from 
Fnink Shaw waiting for me. I went on purpose to go to Mrs. Shaw, aiid |H r^.-vi-red ; 
the glorious result ia $150 more. Such a splendid woman ; worthy the noble boy she 



240 History of Woman Suffrage. 

The opposition were often challenged to debate this question in 
public, but uniformly refused, knowing full well, since their powder 
in this battle consisted of vulgar abuse and ridicule, that they had 
no arguments to advance. But it chanced that on one occasion by 
mistake, a meeting was appointed for the opposing forces at the 
same time and place where Olyinpia Brown was advertised to speak. 
This gave her an opportunity of testing her readiness in debate with 
Judge Sears. Of this occasion a correspondent says : 

DISCUSSION AT OSKALOOSA. To the Editor of the Kansas State Journal: 
For the first time during the canvass for Universal Suffrage, the opponents 
of the two wrongs, " Manhood Suffrage " and " Woman Suffrage," met in 
open debate at this place last evening. The largest church in the place was 
crowded to its utmost, every inch of space being occupied. Judge Gilchrist 
was called to the chair, and first introduced Judge Sears, who made the fol- 
lowing points in favor of Manhood Suffrage : 

1st. That in the early days of the Republic no discrimination was made 
against negroes on account of color. 

He proved from the constitutions and charters of the original thirteen 
States, that all of them, with the exception of South Carolina, allowed the 
colored freeman the ballot, upon the same basis and conditions as the white 
man. That we were not conferring a right, but restoring one which the 
fathers in their wisdom had never deprived the colored man of. He showed 



gave in the war, and worthy her noble son-in-law, George William Curtis. Lydia, we shall 
go on to triumph in Kansas ! The St. Louis Democrat publishes Mr. Curtis' speech in 
full, with a splendid editorial. The St. Louis Journal gives the speech and the Democrat's 
editorial "as a matter of news." I have 60,000 tracts now going to press ; all the old 
editions were gone, and we have to begin new with an empty treasury ; but I tell them 
all, "go ahead ;" we must, and will, succeed. 

Affectionately yours, SUSAN B. ANTHONY. 

TEMPLETON, MASS., Sept. 21, 1867, ) 
On way to Green Mountains. > 

DEAR Miss ANTHONY : Mrs. Severance desires me to inclose to you this check, $50, 
and say that it is a contribution by friends at and about Boston, to aid you in the good 
work of reconstruction on the subject of woman's right to the ballot in Kansas. 

Yours truly, T. C. SEVERANCE. 

AuBtTRN, Sept. 17, 1867. 

DEAR MR. PILLSBURY : You may be very sure I would have answered Susan's letter 
sooner if I had been able to inclose any such sum as she hoped to obtain. All that I can 
do is to inclose a draft for $30 ten from our daughter Eliza, ten from William and Ellen, 
and ten from myself. .... We can only feel grateful for the self-sacriflcing labors of 
those who have gone to Kansas, and hopeful that better success may attend the efforts 

there, than here or in Michigan I was very glad that Mrs. Stantou could go 

We shall miss Mrs. Frances D. Gage. I always considered her word as effective as any on 

our Woman's Rights platform. Her rest has come Our children were in Syracuse 

on Sunday ; they heard a beautiful valedictory from Samuel J. May, recounting the varied 
incidents of his life, lamenting his short-comings, and advising them to choose a youiiger 
man for the duties he was no longer able to perform alone. He is so well belcved by his 
congregation that the probability is they will get an associate for him. 

Your friend, MARTHA C. WRIGHT. 



Judge Sears Vanquished. 241 

how the word white had been forced into the State constitutions, and advo- 
cated that it should be stricken out, it being the last relic of the " slave 
power." 

2d. That the negro needed the ballot for his protection and elevation. 

8d. That he deserved the ballot. He fought with our fathers side by side 
in the war of the revolution. He did the same thing in the war of 1812, 
and in the war of the rebellion. He fought for us because he was loyal and 
loved the old flag. If any class of men had ever earned the enjoyment of 
franchise the negro had. 

4th. The Republican party owed it to him. 

5th. The enfranchisement of the negro was indispensable to reconstruc- 
tion of the late rebellious States upon a basis that should secure to the loyal 
men of the South the control of the government in those States. Congress 
had declared it was necessary, and the most eminent men of the nation had 
failed to discover any other means by which the South could be restored to 
the Union, that should secure safety, prosperity, and happiness. There was 
not loyalty enough in the South among the whites to elect a loyal man to an 
inferior office. 

Upon each one of these points the Judge elaborated at length, and made 
really a fine speech, but his evident disconcertion showed that he knew what 
was to follow. It was expected that when Miss Brown was introduced many 
would leave, owing to the strange feeling against Female Suffrage in and 
about Oscaloosa ; but not one left, the crowd grew more dense. A more elo- 
quent speech never was uttered in this town than Miss Brown delivered : for 
an hour and three-quarters the audience was spell-bound as she advanced from 
point to point. She had been longing for such an opportunity, and had be- 
come weary of striking off into open air; and she proved how thoroughly 
acquainted she was with her subject as she took up each point advanced by 
her opponent, not denying their truth, but showing by unanswerable logic 
that if it were good under certain reasons for the negro to vote, it was ten 
times better for the same reasons for the women to vote. 

The argument that the right to vote is not a natural right, but acquired as 
corporate bodies acquire their rights, and that the ballot meant " protection," 
was answered and explained fully. She said the ballot meant protection ; it 
meant much more ; it means education, progress, advancement, elevation 
for the oppressed classes, drawing a glowing comparison between the work- 
ing classes of England and those of the United States. She scorned t;he 
idea of an aristocracy based upon two accidents of the body. She paid an 
eloquent tribute to Kansas, the pioneer in all reforms, and said that it would 
be the best advertisement that Kansas could have to give the ballot to 
women, for thousands now waiting and uncertain, would flock to our State, 
and a vast tide of emigration would continually roll toward Kansas until 
her broad ami f< rtili- prairies would be peopled. It is useless to attempt to 
report her address, as she could hardly find a place to stop. When she had 
done, her opponent had nothing to say, he had been beaten on his own 
ground, and retired with his feathers drooping. After Miss Brown had 
closed, some one in the audience called for a vote on the female proposition. 
The vote was put, and nearly every man and woman in the house rose simul- 
taneously, men that had fought the proposition from the first arose, even 



242 History of Woman Suffrage. 

Judge Sears himself looked as though he would like to rise, but his princi- 
ples, much tempted, forbade. After the first vote, Judge Sears called for a 
vote on his, the negro proposition, when about one-half the house arose. 
Verily there was a great turning to the Lord that day, and many would have 
been baptized, but there was no water. When Mrs. Stanton has passed 
through Oscaloosa, her fame having gone before her, we can count on a 

good majority for Female Suffrage 

* * * * 

OSCALOOSA, October 11, 1867. 

SALINA, KANSAS, Sept. 12, 1867. 

DEAR FRIEND : We are getting along splendidly. Just the frame of a 
Methodist church with sidings and roof, and rough cotton-wood boards for 
seats, was our meeting place last night here ; and a perfect jam it was, with 
men crowded outside at all the windows. Two very brave young Ken- 
tuckian sprigs of the law had the courage to argue or present sophistry on the 
other side. The meeting continued until eleven o'clock. To-day we go to Ells- 
worth, the very last trading post on the frontier. A car load of wounded 
soldiers went East on the train this morning ; but the fight was a few miles 
West of Ellsworth. No Indians venture to that point. 

Our tracts gave out at Solomon, and the Topeka people failed to fill my 
telegraphic order to send package here. It is enough to exhaust the pa- 
tience of any " Job " that men are so wanting in promptness. Our tracts do 
more than half the battle ; reading matter is so very scarce that everybody 
clutches at a book of any kind. If only reformers would supply this demand 
with the right and the true come in and occupy the field at the beginning 
they might mould these new settlements. But instead they wait until every- 
thing is fixed, and the comforts and luxuries obtainable, and then come to 
find the ground preoccupied. 

Send 2,000 of Curtis' speeches, 2,000 of Phillips', 2,000 of Beecher's, and 
1,000 of each of the others, and then fill the boxes with the reports of our 
last convention ; they are the best in the main because they have every- 
body's speeches together. S. B. A. 

HOME OF Ex-Gov. ROBINSON, 
LAWRENCE, KANSAS, Sept. 15, 1867. 

I rejoice greatly in the $100 from the Drapers.* That makes $250 paid 
toward the tracts. I am very sorry Mr. J. can not get off Curtis and Beecher. 
There is a perfect greed for our tracts. All that great trunk full were sold 
and given away at our first fourteen meetings, and we in return received 
$110, which a little more than paid our railroad fare eight cents per mile 
and hotel bills. Our collections thus far fully equal those at the East. I 
have been delightfully disappointed, for everybcdy said I couldn't raise 
money in Kansas meetings. I wish you were here to make the tour of this 
beautiful State, in which to live fifty years hence will be charming; but 
now, alas, the women especially see hard times ; to come actually in contact 
with all their discomforts and privations spoils the poetry of pioneer life. 



* E. D. Draper, Hopedale, Massachusetts. 



George Francis Train at Ottawa. 243 

The opposition, the "Anti-Female Suffragists," are making a bold push 
now ; but all prophesy a short run for them. They held a meeting here the 
day after ours, and the friends say, did vastly more to make us converts 
than we ourselves did. The fact is nearly every man of the movers is like 
Kalloch, notoriously wanting in right action toward woman. Their opposi- 
tion is low and scurrilous, as it used to be fifteen and twenty years ago at 
the East. Hurry on the tracts. As ever, S. B. A. 

Seeing that the republican vote must be largely against the wom- 
an's amendment, the question arose what can be done to capture 
enough democratic votes to outweigh the recalcitrant republicans. 
At this auspicious moment George Francis Train appeared in the 
State as an advocate of woman suffrage. He appealed most effect- 
ively to the chivalry of the intelligent Irishmen, and the prejudices 
of the ignorant ; conjuring them not to take the word u white " out 
of their constitution unless they did the word " male " also ; not to 
lift the negroes above the heads of their own mothers, wives, sisters, 
and daughters. The result was a respectable democratic vote in favor 
of woman suffrage. 

In a discussion with General Blunt at a meeting in Ottawa, Mr. 
Train said : 

You say, General, that women in politics would lower the standard. 
Are politicians so pure, politics so exalted, the polls so immaculate, 
men so moral, that woman would pollute the ballot and contaminate 
the voters? Would revolvers, bowie-knives, whisky barrels, profane oaths, 
brutal rowdyism, be the feature of elections if women were present? 
Woman's presence purifies the atmosphere. Enter any Western hotel and 
what do you see, General ? Sitting around the stove you will see dirty, un- 
washed-looking men, with hats on, and feet on the chairs ; huge cuds of to- 
bacco on the floor, spittle in pools all about ; filth and dirt, condensed to- 
bacco smoke, and a stench of whisky from the bar and the breath (applause, 
and "that's so,") on every side. This, General, is the manhood picture. 
Now turn to the womanhood picture ; she, whom you think will debase and 
lower the morals of the elections. Just opposite this sitting room of the King, 
or on the next floor, is the sitting room of the Queen, covered chairs, dean 
curtains, nice carpets, books on the table, canary birds at the window, every- 
thing tidy, neat and beautiful, and according to your programme the occu- 
pants of this room will so demoralize the occupants of the other as to com- 
pletely undermine all society. 

Did man put woman in the parlor? Did woman put man in that bar 
room ? Are the instincts of woman so low that unless man puts up a bar, 
she will immediately fall into man's obscene conversation and disreputable 
habits? No, General, women are better than men, purer, nobler, hence 
m<>re exalted, and so far from falling to man's estate, give her power and 
slu- will elevate man to her level. 

One other point, General, in reply to your argument. You say woman's 
sphere is at home with her children, and paint her as the sovereign of her 



244 History of Woman Suffrage. 

own household. Let me paint the picture of the mother at the washtub, 
just recovering from the birth of her last child as the Empress. Six little 
children, half starved and shivering with cold, are watching and hoping that 
the Emperor will arrive with a loaf of bread, he having taken the wash 
money to the baker's. They wait and starve and cry, the poor emaciated 
Empress works and prays, when lo ! the bugle sounds. It is the Emperor 
staggering into the yard. The little famished princesses' mouths all open 
are waiting for their expected food. Your friend, General, the Emperor, 
however, was absent minded, and while away at the polls voting for the 
license for his landlord, left the wash money on deposit with the bar-keeper 
(laughter) who wouldn't give it back again, and the little Queen birds must 
starve another day, till the wash-tub earns them a mouthful of something to 
eat. Give that woman a vote and she will keep the money she earns to 
clothe and feed her children, instead of its being spent in drunkenness and 
debauchery by her lord and master 

You say, General, that you intend to vote for negro suffrage and against 
woman stiffrage. In other words, not satisfied with having your mother, 
your wife, your sisters, your daughters, the equals politically of the negro 
by giving him a vote and refusing it to woman, you wish to place your fam- 
ily politically still lower in the scale of citizenship and humanity. This par- 
ticular twist, General, is working in the minds of the people, and the demo- 
crats, having got you where Tommy had the wedge, intend to hold you 
there. Again you say that "Mrs. Cady Stanton was three days in advance of 
you in the border towns, calling you the Sir John Falstaff of the campaign. 
I am under the impression, General, that these strong minded woman's 
rights women are more than three days in advance of you. (Loud cheers.) 
Falstaff was a jolly old brick, chivalrous and full of gallantry, and were he 
stumping Kansas with his ragged regiment, he would do it as the champion 
of woman instead of against her. (Loud cheers.) Hence Mrs. Stanton 
owes an apology to Falstaff, not to General Blunt. (Laughter and cheers.) 

One more point, General. You have made a terrific personal attack on 
Senator Wood, calling him everything that is vile. I do not know Mr. Wood. 
Miss Anthony has made all my arrangements ; but perhaps you will allow 
me to ask you if Mr. Wood is a democrat ? (Laughter and applause from the 
democrats.) Gen. Blunt No, he is a republican, (laughter) and chairman of 
the woman suffrage committee. Mr. Train Good. I understand you 
and your argument against Wood is so forcible, (and Mr. Train said 
this with the most biting sarcasm, every point taking with the au- 
dience.) I believe with you that Wood is a bad man, (laughter) a 
man of no principle whatever. (Laughter.) A man who has committed 
all the crimes in the calendar, (loud laughter) who, if he has done what you 
have said, ought to be taken out on the square and hung, and well hung too. 
(Laughter and cheers.) Having admitted that I am converted to the fact 
of Wood's villainy, (laughter; and you having admitted that he is not a dem- 
ocrat, but a republican, (laughter) I think it is time the honest democratic 
and republican voters should rise up in their might and wipe off all thosS 
corrupt republican leaders from the Kansas State committee. (Loud cheers.) 
Democrats do your duty on the fifth of November and vote for woman suf- 
frage. (Applause.) The effect of turning the General's own words back up- 



Yet He Keeps all the Money. 245 

on his party was perfectly electric, and when the vote was put for woman's 
suffrage it was almost unanimous. Mr. Train saying amid shouts of laugh- 
tet, that he supposed that a few henpecked men would say " No " here, 
because they didn't dare to say their souls were their own at home 

Mr. TRAIN continued : Twelve o'clock at night is a late hour to take up 
all your points, General ; but the audience will have me talk. Miss Anthony 
gave you, General, a very sarcastic retort to your assertion that every woman 
ought to be married. (Laughter.) She told you that to marry, it was es- 
sential to find some decent man, and that could not be found among the 
Kansas politicians who had so gallantly forsaken the woman's cause. (Loud 
laughter.) She said, as society was organized there was not one man in a 
thousand worthy of marriage marrying a man and marrying a whisky bar- 
rel were two distinct ideas. (Laughter and applause.) Miss Anthony tells 
me that your friend Kalloch said at Lawrence that of all the infernal hum- 
bugs of this humbugging Woman's Rights .question, the most absurd was that 
woman should assume to be entitled to the same wages for the same amount of 
labor performed, as man. Do you mean to say that the school mistress, who 
so ably does her duty, should only receive three hundred dollars, while the 
school master, who performs the same duty, gets fifteen hundred ? (Shame.) 
All the avenues of employment are blocked against women. Embroidering, 
tapestry, knitting-needle, sewing needle have all been displaced by machin- 
ery ; and women speakers, women doctors, and women clerks, are ridiculed 
and insulted till every modest woman fairly cowers before her Emperor 
Husband, her King, her Lord, for fear of being called "strong minded." 
(Laughter and applause.) Why should not the landlady of that hotel over 
the way share the profits of their joint labors with the landlord ? She works 
as hard yet he keeps all the money, and she goes to him, instead of being 
an independent woman, for her share of the profits, as a beggar asking for 
ten dollars to buy a bonnet or a dress. (Applause from the ladies.) Noth- 
ing is more contemptible than this slavery to the husband on the question 
of money. (Loud applause.) Give the sex votes and men will have more 
respect for women than to treat them as children or as dolls. (Applause.) 
The ten-year old boy will say to his women relatives, " Oh you don't know 
anything, you arc only a woman," and when man wishes to insult his fellow 
man, he calls him a woman and if the insult is intended to be more severe, 
he will speak of a cabinet statesman even as an " old woman." The General 
and Mr. Kalloch arc afraid that women will be corrupted by going to the 
polls, yet they as lawyers have no hesitation in bringing a young and beauti- 
ful girl into court where a curiosity seeking audience are staring at her; 
where the judge makes her unveil her face, and the jury watch every fea- 
ture, turning an honest blush into guilt. (Applause.) 

Woman first, and negro last, is my programme; yet I am willing thai in- 
telligence should be the test, although some men have more brains in tlu-ir 
hands than others in their heads. (Laughter.) Emmert's Resolution, intro- 
duced into your Legislature last year, disfranchising, after July 4, 1870. all 
of age who can not read the American Constitution, the State Constitution. 
.ind UK Hible, in the language in which he was educated, (applause) expresses 
my views. 

Again you alluded to the Foreign Emissary who had no interest in Kan- 



246 History of Woman Suffrage. 

sas. Do you mean me, General? General Blunt No, sir. Thank you 
The other four Foreign Emissaries are women, noble, self - sacrificing 
women, bold, never-tiring, unblemished reputation ; women who have 
left their pleasant Eastern homes for a grand idea, (loud applause,) and to 
them and them alone is due the credit of carrying Kansas for woman suf- 
frage. General Blunt It won't carry. Train Were I a betting man I 
would wager ten thousand dollars that Kansas will give 5,000 majority for 
women. (Loud cheers from Blunt's own audience of anti-women men.) As 
an advertisement to this beautiful State, it is worth untold millions. 

Kansas will win the world's applause, 
As the sole champion of woman's cause. 
So light the bonfires ! Have the flags unfurled, 
To the Banner State of all the World ! 

(Loud cheers.) 

No, General, these women are no foreign emissaries. They came expect- 
ing support. They thought the republicans honest. They forgot that the 
democrats alone were their friends. (Applause.) They forgot that it was the 
Republican party that publicly insulted them in Congress. That it was 
Charles Sumner who wished to insert the word " male " in the amendment 
of the Federal Constitution two years ago, when the old Constitution, by 
having neither male nor female, had left it an open question. No, Mrs. 
Cady Stanton, Miss Susan B. Anthony, Mrs. Lucy Stone, and Miss Olympia 
Brown are the "foreign emissaries" that will alone have the credit of eman- 
cipating women in Kansas. Your trimming politicians left them in the 
lurch. Not one of you was honest. (Applause.) Even those who assumed 
to be their friends by saying nothing on the woman, and everything on the 
negro, are worse than you and Kalloch. (Applause.) Mr. Kalloch and Leg- 
gett and Sears have helped the woman's cause by opposing it, (cheers,) 
while the milk-and-water republican committee and speakers and press have 
damaged woman by their sneaking, cowardly way of advocacy. (That's so.) 

Mr. TRAIN at Leavenworth, the day before the election : " A great 
empire, and little minds go ill together," said Lord Bacon. " The so- 
ber second thought of the people/' said Van Buren, " is never wrong, 
and always efficient." To-morrow it will be shown by voting for our 
mother and our sister. (Loud applause.) Never before were so many 
rats fleeing from a sinking ship. (Laughter.) A few staunch men will re- 
ceive their reward. Falsehood passes away. Truth is eternal. (Applause.) 
The woman suffrage association wants a few thousand dollars to pay off 
this expensive canvass. Miss Anthony has distributed two thousand pounds 
weight of tracts and pamphlets. (Applause.) Mrs. Stanton, Miss Olympia 
Brown and Mrs. Lucy Stone, have been for months in all parts of the State. 
Kansas has furnished no part of the fund which makes her to-morrow the 
envy of the world. (Cheers.) For the benefit of the Association I have 
promised on my return from Omaha to make seven speeches in the largest 
cities ; the entire proceeds to be given to this grand cause I paying my 
own expenses as in this campaign. (Loud cheers for Train.) We com- 
mence at St. Louis about the 20th, thence to Chicago, Cleveland, Cin- 
cinnati, Philadelphia, Boston and New York. (Cheers.) The burden 
of my thought will be the future of America ; my mission, with the aid 



The Appeal Came too Late. 247 

of women, to reconstruct the country and save the nation. (Cheers.) To- 
morrow our amendment will pass with a startling majority. The other 
two will be lost. (Applause.) The negro can wait and go to school. 
And as all are now loyal, the war over, and no rebels exist, no American in 
this land must be marked by the stain of attainder or impeachment. 
(Cheers.) No so-called rebel must be disfranchised. ' I represent the peo- 
ple, and they speak to-morrow in Kansas, emancipating woman, (loud 
cheers), and declaring that no Hungary, no Poland, no Venice, no Ireland 
crushed and disheartened shall exist in New America. (Loud cheers.) 

But Kansas being republican by a large majority, there was no 
chance of victory. For although the women were supported by 
some of the best men in the State, such as Gov. Crawford, Ex-Gov. 
Robinson, United States Senators Pomeroy and Itoss, and a few of 
the ablest editors, the opposition was too strong to be conquered. 
With both parties, the press, the pulpit and faithless liberals as op- 
ponents, the hopes of the advocates -of woman suffrage began to 
falter before the election. 

The action of the Michigan Commission, in refusing to submit a 
similar amendment to her people, and the adverse report of Mr. 
Greeley in the Constitutional Convention of New York, had also 
their depressing influence. Nevertheless, when election day came, 
the vote was nearly equal for both propositions. "With all the en- 
ginery of the controlling party negro suffrage had a little over 10,000 
votes, while woman suffrage without press or party, friends or poli- 
ticians, had 9,000 and some over. And this vote for womarr's en- 
franchisement represented the best elements in the State, men of 
character and conscience, who believed in social order and good gov- 
ernment. 

When Eastern "Republicans learned that the action of their party 
in Kansas was doing more damage than the question of woman to 
the negro, since the pioneers, who knew how bravely the women had 
8too<l ly their H<lo amid all dangers, wore saying, " if our women can 
not vote, the negro shall not ; " they began to take in the situation, 
and a month before the election issue. 1 the following appeal, signed 
by some of the most influential men of the nation. It was published 
in the New York Tribune October 1st, and copied by most of the 
papers throughout the State of Kansas : 
To the Voters of the United States : 

In this hour of national reconstruction we appeal to good men of all parties, 
to Conventions for amending State Constitutions, to the Legislature of every 
State, and to the Congress of the United States, to apply the principles of 
the Declaration of Independence to women ; " Governments derive their 
just powers from the consent of the governed." The only form of consent 



248 History of Woman Suffrage. 

recognized under a Republic is suffrage. Mere tacit acquiescence is not 
consent ; if it were, every despotism might claim that its power is justly held. 
Suffrage is the right of every adult citizen, irrespective of sex or color. Women 
are governed, therefore they are rightly entitled to vote. 

The problem of American statesmanship is how to incorporate in our in- 
stitutions a guarantee of the rights of every individual. The solution is 
easy. Base government on the consent of the governed, and each class will 
protect itself.* 

But the appeal was too late, the mischief done was irreparable. 
The action of the Republican party had created a hostile feeling be- 
tween the women and the colored people. The men of Kansas in 
their speeches would say, " What would be to us the comparative 
advantage of the amendments ? If negro suffrage passes, we will be 
flooded with ignorant, impoverished blacks from every State of the 
Union. If woman suffrage passes, we invite to our borders people 
of character and position, of wealth and education, the very element 
Kansas needs to-day. Who can hesitate to decide, when the ques- 
tion lies between educated women and ignorant negroes ? " Such 
appeals as these were made by men of Kansas to hundreds of 
audiences. On this appeal the New York Tribune said editorially : 

KANSAS WOMAN AS A VOTER. We publish herewith an appeal, most in- 
fluentially signed, to the voters of Kansas, urging them to support the pend- 
ing Constitutional Amendment whereby the Right of Suffrage is extended 
to Women under like conditions with men. The gravity combined with the 
comparative novelty of the proposition should secure it the most candid and 
thoughtful consideration. 

We hold fast to the cardinal doctrine of our fathers' Declaration of Inde- 
pendence that "governments derive their just powers from the consent 
of the governed." If, therefore, the women of Kansas, or of any other State, 
desire, as a class, to be invested with the Right of Suffrage, we hold it their 
clear right to be. We do not hold, and can not admit, that a small minority 
of the sex, however earnest and able, have any such right. 

It is plain that the experiment of Female Suffrage is to be tried ; and, 
while we regard it with distrust, we are quite willing to see it pioneered by 
Kansas. She is a young State, and has a memorable history, wherein her 
women have borne an honorable part. She is preponderantly agricultural, 
with but one city of any size, and very few of her women are other than pure 
and intelligent. They have already been authorized to vote on the question 



* James W. Nye, Nevada; Charles Robinson, S. N. Wood, Samuel C. Pomeroy, E. G. 
Ross, Sidney Clark, S. G. Crawford, Kansas ; Wm. Loughridge, Iowa ; Robert C'ollyer, 
Illinois ; Geo. W. Julian, H. D. Washburn, Indiana ; R. E. Trowbridge, John F. Driggs, 
Michigan ; Benjamin F. Wade, Ohio ; J. W. Broomall, William D. Kelley, Pennsylvania ; 
Henry Ward Beecher, Gerrit Smith, George William Curtis, New York ; Dudley S 
Gregory, George Polk, John G. Foster, James L. Hayes, Z. H. Pangborn, New Jersej' ; 
William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Samuel E. Sewell, Oakes Ames, Massachusetts; 
William Sprague, Thomas W. Higginson, Rhode Island ; Calvin E. Stowe, Connecticut 



John A. Martin, of Atchison. 249 

of liquor license, and in the choice of school officers, and, we are assured, 
with decidedly good results. If, then, a majority of them really desire to 
vote, we, if we lived in Kansas, should vote to give them the opportunity. 

Upon a full and fair trial, we believe they would conclude that the right 
of suffrage for woman was, on the whole, rather a plague than a profit, and 
vote to resign it into the hands of their husbands and fathers. We think so, 
because we now so seldom find women plowing, or teaming, or mowing 
(with machines), though there is no other obstacle to their so doing than 
their own sense of fitness, and though some women, under peculiar circum- 
stances, laudably do all these things. We decidedly object to having ten 
women in every hundred compel the other ninety to vote, or allow the ten 
to carry elections against the judgment of the ninety ; but, if the great body 
of the women of Kansas wish to vote, we counsel the men to accord them 
the opportunity. Should the experiment work as we apprehend, they will 
soon be glad to give it up. 

"NVheivupoTi, the Atchison Daily Champion, John A. Martin, 
editor, retorted : 

TAKE IT YOURSELVES. Thirty-one gentlemen, all but six of whom live in 
States that have utterly refused to have anything to do with the issue of 
" female suffrage," unite in an address, to apply, as they say, the " principles 
of the Declaration of Independence to women ; " and make a specious, flim- 
sy, and ridiculous little argument in favor of their appeal. 

It is a pity that comments in the main so sensible, should be marred by a 
few statements as ridiculous as is the trashy address to which the article re- 
fers. It is the old cry that " female suffrage," a novel proposition, although 
justly regarded with distrust and suspicion by all right-thinking people ; al- 
though not demanded by even a considerable minority of the women 
themselves; and although an "experiment" which may rudely disturb 
the best elements of our society and civilization, may be tried in Kan- 
sas ! " We regard it with distrust," says the Tribune, " but are quite 
willing to see it tried in Kansas." " Upon a full and fair trial," it continues, 
" we believe they (the women) would conclude that the right of suffrage for 
women was, on the whole, rather a plague than a profit, and vote to resign 
it into the hands of their husbands and fathers." But it "decidedly objects 
to having ten women in every hundred compel the other ninety to vote, or 
to allow the ten to carry elections against the judgment of ninety." These 
ssions of grave doubt as to the expediency of "female suffrage," to- 
r with the fact that the editor of the Tribune, in his report as chairman 
< f til- SuiTragc Committee in the New York Constitutional Convention, de- 
clared this new hobby " an innovation revolutionary and sweeping, openly 
at war with a distribution of duties and functions between the sexes as ven- 
le and pervading as government-itself," make the Tribunes recommenda- 
tion that we shall " try the experiment in Kansas " rather amusing as well as 
Impudent. 

There is not a man nor a woman endowed with ordinary common sense 

who does not know that Kansas is the last State that should be asked to try 

this (laru^rrinis and doubtful experiment. Our society is just forming, our 

institutions arc crude. Ever since the organization of the Territory, we have 

VOL. II. 17. 



250 History of Woman Suffrage; 

lived a life of wild excitement, plunging from one trouble into another so 
fast that we have never had a breathing-spell, and we need, more than any 
other people on the globe, immunity from disturbing experiments on novel 
questions of doubtful expediency. We can not afford to risk our future pros- 
perity and happiness in making an innovation so questionable. We want 
peace, and must have it. Let Massachusetts or New York, or some older 
State, therefore, try this nauseating dose. If it does not kill them, or if it 
proves healthful and beneficial, we guarantee that Kansas will not be long 
in swallowing it. But the stomach of our State, if we may be permitted to 
use the expression, is, as yet, too tender and febrific to allow such a fearful 
deglutition. 



REMINISCENCES BY HELEN EKIN STARRETT. 

After the first Constitutional Convention in which Mrs. C. I. H. Nichols did 
such valuable service for the cause of woman, the question of woman suffrage 
in some shape or other was introduced into every succeeding Legislature. 
In January, 1867, the Legislature met at Topeka. Immediately upon the 
organization of the Senate on the 9th, Hon. B. F. Simpson of Miami Co., 
introduced an amendment to strike the word " white " from the suffrage clause 
of the State Constitution. Hon. S. N. Wood, Senator from Chase Co., within 
five minutes introduced a resolution to strike the word " male " from the 
same clause. This resolution was made the special order for Thursday the 
10th, when it passed the Senate by a vote of nineteen to five. Of the five 
noes, four were Republicans, the other a Democrat. Thus Mr. Wood, although 
he started second, got ahead in the passing of his resolution. The resolution 
of Hon. B. F. Simpson was referred to the committee of the whole. When 
it came up Hon. S. N. Wood moved to amend by also striking out the word 
" male," and in this shape it passed. 

The House amended by striking out the amendment of Mr. Wood. The 
Senate, however, insisted on its re-instatement ; the Democrats and a ma- 
jority of the Republicans standing by Mr. Wood. The fight continued for 
over a month. The question came up in all stages and shapes from the 
House ; but Mr. Wood was always ready for them with his woman suffrage 
amendment, and the Senate stood by him. The friends of negro suffrage 
tried hard to get him to yield and let their resolution through, but he was 
firm in his refusal, saying he advocated both, " but if we can have but one, 
let the negro wait." On the 12th day of February Hon. W. W. Updegraff, 
a member of the House and an ardent supporter of both woman and negro 
suffrage, went to Mr. Wood and urged a compromise. After a long discus- 
sion two separate resolutions were prepared by Mr. Wood, one for woman 
suffrage, the other for negro suffrage, and these Mr. Updegraff introduced 
into the House the same day. The next day the vote on the woman suffrage 
resolution came up and stood fifty-two to twenty-five. Not being a two-thirds 
vote, the resolution was lost. 

On the 14th the negro suffrage resolution came up and passed by a vote 
of sixty-one to fourteen. The vote on woman suffrage was then re-considered, 
and after an assurance from Mr. Updegraff that negro suffrage could be 
secured in no other way, it passed by a vote of sixty-two to nineteen, getting 



Helen Eldn Starr ett. 251 

one more vote than negro suffrage. These resolutions were promptly re- 
ported to the Senate, and on motion of S. N. Wood, the woman suffrage 
resolution was passed by over a two-thirds vote. The negro suffrage resolu- 
tion was amended, and after a bitter fight was passed. Thus these 
separate resolutions were both submitted to a vote of the people. The Leg- 
islature adjourned about the 12th of March. Hon. S. N. Wood immediately 
prepared a notice of a meeting to be held in Topeka on the 2d of April to 
organize a canvass for impartial suffrage without regard to sex or color. 
This was published in the State Record with the statement that it was by 
the request of Hon. S. N. Wood ; it was copied by all the papers of the State. 
Mr. Wood, ex-Governor Robinson, and others, wrote to many prominent 
advocates East asking them to be present at the Topeka meeting. It was 
soon known that Lucy Stone and Henry B. Blackwell would be there, and a 
very great and general interest was aroused on the question. 

April 2d at length arrived, and although it was a season of terrible mud 
and rain, and there were no railroads, a very large audience assembled. Hon. 
S. N. Wood rode eighty miles on horseback to attend the meeting. Lucy 
Stone and Mr. Blackwell were present. A permanent organization was 
effected, with Governor S. J. Crawford as President ; Lieutenant-Governor 
Green, Vice-President ; Rev. Lewis Bodwell and Miss Mary Paty, Recording 
Secretaries ; and S. N. Wood, Corresponding Secretary. A letter was at once 
prepared and addressed to all the prominent men in the State, asking them 
to aid in the canvass. Letters in reply poured in from the gentlemen 
addressed, giving assurance of sympathy and declaring themselves in favor 
of the movement. A thorough canvass of the State was at once inaugurated. 
Lucy Stone was invited and lectured in Lawrence, Leavemvorth, Topeka, and 
Atchison, to crowded houses, giving the proceeds to the cause. 

Hon. S. N. Wood gave his whole time to the canvass, speaking with Lucy 
Stone and Mr. Blackwell in nearly all the towns in the western and north- 
ern part of the State. Mrs. Stone and Mr. Blackwell visited nearly every 
organized county. As we have said before, there were no railroads, and it 
was at an immense expense of bodily fatigue that they accomplished their 
neys, often in the rudest conveyances and exposed to the raw, blustering 
winds of a Kansas spring. Their meetings, however, were "ovations." Men 
and women everywhere were completely won by the gentle, persuasive, earn- 
est addresses of Lucy Stone, while their newly aroused interest was informed 
and strengthened by the logical arguments and irresistible facts of Mr. Black- 

The religious denominations in Kansas from the first gave their counte- 
nance to the movement, and clergymen of all denominations were found 
speaking in its favor. At Olathc, the Old School Presbytery was in ses 
at the time of Lucy Stone's meeting there. It was an unheard-of occurrence 
t hat the body adjourned its evening session to allow her to occupy the church. 
All tin- members of the Presbytery who heard her were enthusiastic in her 
[raise. We remember a meeting in Topeka at which the Rev. Dr. Ekin,* 
thm pastor of the Old School Presbyterian church, Very effectively summed 
up in a public address all the arguments of the opposition by relating the 
story of the Canadian Indian who, when told of the greatness of En- 

* Mrs. Starrett'8 father. 



252 History of Woman Suffrage. 

gland, and also that it was governed by a queen, a woman, turned away 
with an incredulous expression of contempt, exclaiming, " Ugh ! Squaw ! " 
The effect upon the audience was tremendous. At the same time letters of 
cheer and encouragement were pouring in from prominent workers all over 
the country. John Stuart Mill, of England, wrote to Hon. S. N. Wood full 
of hope and interest for the success of the movement : 

BLACKHEATH PARK, KENT, ENGLAND, June 2, 1867. 

DEAR SIR : Being one who takes as deep and as continuous an interest in 
the political, moral, and social progress of the United States as if he were 
himself an American citizen, I hope I shall not be intrusive if I express to 
you as the executive organ of the Impartial Suffrage Association, the deep 
joy I felt on learning that both branches of the Legislature of Kansas had, 
by large majorities, proposed for the approval of your citizens an amendment 
to your constitution, abolishing the unjust political privileges of sex at one 
and the same stroke with the kindred privilege of color. We are accustomed 
to see Kansas foremost in the struggle for the equal claims of all human be- 
ings to freedom and citizenship. I shall never forget with what profound 
interest I and others who felt with me watched every incident of the prelim- 
inary civil war in which your noble State, then only a Territory, preceded 
the great nation of which it is a part, in shedding its blood to arrest the ex- 
tension of slavery. 

Kansas was the herald and protagonist of the memorable contest, which 
at the cost of so many heroic lives, has admitted the African race to the 
blessings of freedom and education, and she is now taking the same advanced 
position in the peaceful but equally important contest which, by relieving 
half the human race from artificial disabilities belonging to the ideas of a 
past age, will give a new impulse and improved character to the career of 
social and moral progress now opening for mankind. If your citizens, next 
November, give effect to the enlightened views of your Legislature, history will 
remember that one of the youngest States in the civilized world has been the 
first to adopt a measure of liberation destined to extend all over the earth, 
and to be looked back to (as is my fixed conviction) as one of the most fer- 
tile in beneficial consequences of all the improvements yet effected in human 
affairs. I am, sir, with the warmest wishes for the prosperity of Kansas, 

Yours very truly, J. STUART MILL. 

To S. N. Wood, Topeka, Kansas, U. S. A. 

Rev. Olympia Brown came to Kansas the 1st of July, and made an effec- 
tive and extensive canvass of the State, often holding three meetings a day. 
Other speakers, both from home and abroad, were vigorously engaged in the . 
work, and the friends of the movement believed, not without cause, that Kan- 
sas would be the first State to grant suffrage to women. Had the election 
been held in May while the tide of public opinion ran so high in their favor, 
there is little doubt that both resolutions would have been carried unani- 
mously. To explain the causes that led to the defeat of both propositions, 
I quote from a letter of Hon. S, N. Wood, in reply to questions addressed 
him as to certain facts of the campaign. He writes : " About May 2d, C. V. 
Eskridge of Emporia wrote a very scurrilous article against woman suffrage. 
It filled three columns of The News. In it he denounced the lady speak- 



Miss Anthony at the Gate. 253 

crs in the most abusive manner, ridiculing them with insulting epithets. 
About the middle of May F. H. Drenning, Chairman of the Republican State 
Committee, called a meeting of that committee to make arrangements to 
canvass the State for negro suffrage. The committee met and published an 
address in favor of manhood suffrage, and said nothing as to woman suffrage. 
Shortly afterwards the same committee summoned C. V. Eskridge, T. C. 
Seers, P. B. Plumb, I. D. Snoddy, B. F. Simpson, J. B. Scott, H. N. Bent, 
Jas. G. Blunt, A. Akin, and G. W. Crawford all opposed to woman suffrage 
to make a canvass for negro suffrage. They were instructed that " they 
would be allowed to express their own sentiments on other questions." This 
meant that these men would favor negro suffrage, but would oppose woman 
suffrage. This at once antagonized the two questions, and we all felt that 
the death blow had been struck at both." 

Early in September, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony came 
to the State to assist in the canvass ; and certainly if indefatigable labor and 
eloquent addresses could have repaired the mischief done by the State Repub- 
can Committee, the cause would yet have triumphed. At all places where 
they spoke they had crowded houses, and everywhere made the warmest 
friends by their truly admirable personal qualities.* The amount of work per- 
formed by these two ladies was immense. Mrs. Stanton, escorted by Ex- 
Gov. Robinson spoke in nearly every county of the State. Miss Anthony 



* All WIT.- |.ivp;uvii beforehand to do Mrs. Stanton homage for her talents and fame, 
hut many persons who had formed their ideas of Miss Anthony from the unfriendly re- 
marks of opposition papers In other States had conceived a prejudice against her. Per- 
haps I can not better Illustrate how she everywhere overcame and dispelled this preju- 
dice than by relating my own experience. A convention was called at Lawrence, and 
ttu- friends of WO.TUUJ suffrage were called upon to entertain the strangers who might 
come from ubrniul. Ex-Gov. Robinson, who from the first had given his influence to the 
movement, was now giving his whole time to the canvass. He called upon mo to know 
if I \vuM entertain M rs. Stan ton. In those days houses were small, help was scarce and 
tin Dicient, and in our family were two babies and an invalid sister. But the pleasure and 
.<f cut. -rt -lining Mrs. Stanton was too great to allow these circumstances to prevent. 
We prepared our own room for the guest chamber and had all things in readiness when I 
, ed a note from i:\-i, ..v. Itohinson -tiling that Mrs. Stanton had found relatives in 
town witli whom she would atop, but that Miss Anthony would come instead. ( hastily 
put on bonnet and shawl Haying, "I don't want Miss Anthony, and I won't have her, 
and I am going '" t<-ll (Jov. Robinson so." At the gate I met a dignified, quaker looking 
lady with a small nutchel and a black and white shawl on Iu-r arm. Offering her hand 
tbe aid, " I an Miss Anthony, and 1 huve been sent to you for entertainment during the 
< "iivntion." I ha\.- oft.-u wondered if Miss Anthony remembers my confusion, and 
:.-4 I stammered out about no hrlp, sickness in the family, no spare room and 
how I was* Just on my way to tell Goy. Robinson thnt I could not entertain any one. 
II. ill ili-.mni-d b> IHT filial munnrr and frank, kindly face, I led the way into the house 
and mild I would ha\c her stay to tea and then we would seo what further urrangri; 
could be made. While I was looking after tea Miss Anthony won the hearts of the 

.111,' tin- do..r of my M-tter's sick room open, she went In and in a 

time had <>, w..ii the he irt mil smithed instead of excl'ing the nervous sufferer, enter- 
taining her wlUi necoiintrt of the outside world from which nlie had been so long shut 
<>!T, ill it by the time tea was over, I was. ready to do anything if Miss Anthony 
would only sHy with us. And slay -he did for over m\ :d we parted from her 

as from a beloved and helpful friend. I found afterward* that In the same way she dl*. 
armed prejudice and made tbe most ardent friends wherever she became personally 
known. H. E. 8, 



254 History of Woman Suffrage. 

remained at Lawrence working indefatigably in planning and advertising 
meetings, distributing tracts, sending posters to different places, and at- 
tending to all the minutiae and drudgery of an extensive campaign. Often 
have I regarded with admiration the self-sacrificing spirit with which, she 
arranged matters for others, did the hard and disagreeable work, and then 
saw others carry off the honor and glory, without once seeming to think of 
her services or the recognition due them.* 

In a letter, summing up the campaign, Hon. S. N. Wood said, " On the 
25th of September, an address was published signed by over forty men, the 
most prominent in the State ; such men as Senator Pomeroy, Senator Ross, 
Gov. Crawford, Lt. Gov. Green, Ex-Gov. Robinson, and others, in favor of 
woman suffrage, but the cause of both began to lag. Sears, Eskridge, Kal- 
loch, Plumb, Simpson, Scott, Bent, and others, made a very bitter campaign 
against woman suffrage. About the middle of October George Francis 
Train commenced a canvass of the State for woman suffrage and the ques- 
tions became more and more antagonized. The last few days a regular 
Kilkenny fight was carried on." I will here take occasion to record that sev- 
eral of the gentlemen who then canvassed the State against woman suffrage 
have since announced a reconsideration of their views ; some of them have 
even stated that were the question to come up again they would publicly 
advocate it. 

An address was prepared by the Woman's Impartial Suffrage Association 
of Lawrencet which was widely circulated and copied even in England. 
This address was signed by a large number of the prominent ladies of Law- 
rence. Miss Anthony often said that Lawrence was the headquarters of 
the movement. Every clergyman, every judge, both the papers and a large 
proportion of the prominent citizens were in favor of it. And with our 
State University located here with over three hundred students, one half 
of whom are ladies, we still claim Lawrence as the headquarters of the 
friends of woman suffrage. 

The work of George Francis Train has been much and variously com- 
mented upon. Certainly when he was in Kansas he was at the height of 
his prosperity and popularity, and in appearance, manners and conversation, 
was a perfect, though somewhat unique specimen of a courtly, elegant gen- 
tleman. He was full of enthusiasm and confident he would be the next 
President. He drew immense and enthusiastic audiences everywhere, and 
was a special favorite with the laboring classes on account of the reforms 



* Of course it is nothing new to say that Mrs.Stanton was the object of admiration and 
honor everywhere. Miss Anthony looked after her interests and comfort in the most 
cheerful and kindly manner, occasionally complaining good natureclly of Mrs. Stanton's 
carelessness in leaving various articles of her wearing apparel scattered over the 
State, and of the trouble she had in recovering a gold watch which Mrs. Stanton had 
left hanging on the bed post in a little hotel in Southern Kansas. I remember one even- 
ing of the Convention in Lawrence when the hall was crowded with an eager and ex- 
pectant audience. Miss Anthony was there early, looking after everything, seats, lights, 
ushers, doorkeepers, etc. Presently Gov. Robinson came to her and said, " Where's 

Mrs. Stanton ? It's time to commence." " She's at Mrs. waiting for some of you 

men to go for her with a carriage," was the reply. The hint was quickly acted upon and 
Mrs. Stanton, fresh, smiling and unfatigued, was presented to the audience. H. E. S. 

t See Appendix. 



Susan K Wattles. 255 

he promised to bring about when he should be President. Well do I re- 
member one poor woman, a frantic advocate of woman suffrage, who but- 
ton-holed everybody who spoke a word against Train to beg them to desist ; 
assuring them " that he was the special instrument of Providence to gain 
for us the Irish vote." 

Both propositions got about 10,000 votes, and both were defeated. After 
the canvass the excitement died away and the Suffrage Associations 
fell through, but the seed sown has silently taken root and sprung up every- 
where. Or rather, the truths then spoken, and the arguments presented, 
sinking into the minds and hearts of the men and women who heard them, 
have been like leaven, slowly but surely operating until it seems to many 
that nearly the whole public sentiment of Kansas is therewith leavened. 
A most liberal sentiment prevails everywhere toward women. Many are 
engaged in lucrative occupations. In several counties ladies have been 
elected superintendents of public schools. In Coffey County, the election 
of Mary P. Wright, was contested on the ground that by the Constitution 
a woman was ineligible to the office. The case was decided by the Supreme 
Court in her favor. By our laws women vote on all school questions and 
avail themselves very extensively of the privilege. Our property laws are 
conceded to be the most just to women of any State in the Union. It is 
believed by many that were the question of woman suffrage again submit- 
ted to the people it would be carried by an overwhelming majority. 

The following letter from Susan E. "Wattles, the widow of the 
pioneer, Augustus Wattles, shows woman's interest in the great 
struggle to make Kansas the banner State of universal freedom and 

franchise. 

MOUND CITY, December 30, 1881. 

MY DEAR Miss ANTHONY : Here, as in New York, the first in the woman 
suffrage cause were those who had been the most earnest workers for free- 
dom. They had come to Kansas to prevent its being made a slave State. 
The most the women could do was to bear their privations patiently, such 
as living in a tent in a log cabin, without any floor all winter, or in a cabin 
ten feet square, and cooking out of doors by the side of a log, giving up their 
beds to th<- si k, and being ready, night or day, to feed the men who were 
running for their lives. Then there was the ever present fear that their hus- 
bands would be shot. The most obnoxious had a price set upon their heads. 
A few years ago a man said : " I could have got $1,000 once for shooting 
' les, and I wish now I had done it." When in Ohio, our house was often 
the tem|M>rury home of the hunted slave; but in Kansas it was the white 
man who ran from our door to the woods because he saw strangers coming. 

After the question of a free State seemed settled, we who had thought and 
talked on woman's rights before we came to Kansas, concluded that now was 
the woman's hour. We determined to strive to obtain Constitutional rights, 
as they would be more secure than Legislative enactments. On the 18th of 
February, 1858, we organized the Moneka Woman's Rights Society. There 
only twelve of us, but we went to work circulating petitions and writ- 
ing to every one in the Territory whom we thought would aid us. Our num- 
ber was afterwards increased to forty ; fourteen of them were men. We sent 



256 History of Woman Suffrage. 

petitions to Territorial Legislatures, Constitutional Conventions, State Leg- 
islatures, and Congress. Many of the leading men were advocates of wo- 
men's rights. Governor Robinson, S. N. Wood, and Erastus Heath, with 
their wives, were constant and efficient workers. Mrs. Robinson wrote a 
book on " Life in Kansas." " Allibone's Dictionary of Authors " says : " Mrs. 
Robinson is an accomplished lady, the wife of Governor Robinson. She pos- 
sessed the knowledge of events and literary skill necessary to produce an 
interesting and trustworthy book, and one which will continue to have a 
permanent value. The women of Kansas suffered more than the men, and 
were not less heroic. Their names are not known ; they were not elected to 
office ; they had none of the exciting delights' of an active out-door life on 
these attractive prairies ; they endured in silence ; they took care of the 
home, of the sick. If ' home they brought her warrior dead, she nor swooned 
nor uttered sigh.' It is fortunate that a few of these truest heroes have left 
a printed record of pioneer life in Kansas." 

The last vigorous effort we made in circulating petitions was when Con- 
gress was about extending to the colored men the right to vote. Many 
signed then for the first time. One woman said, " I know my husband does 
not believe in women voting, but he hates the negroes, and would not want 
them placed over me." I saw in The Liberator that a bequest to the woman's 
rights cause had been made by a gentleman in Boston, and I asked Wendell 
Phillips if we could have some of it in Kansas. He directed me to Susan 
B. Anthony, and you gave us $100. This small sum we divided between 
two lecturers, and paying for tracts. John O. Wattles lectured and distributed 
tracts in Southern Kansas. We were greatly rejoiced when we found, by 
corresponding with 'Mrs. Nichols, that she intended to work for our cause 
whether she had any compensation or not. Kansas women can never be half 
thankful enough for what she did for them. There has never been a time 
since, when the same amount of effort would have accomplished as much ; 
and the little money we gave her could scarcely have paid her stage fare. 

When the question was submitted in 1867, and the men were to decide 
whether women should be allowed to vote, we felt very anxious about the re- 
sult. We strongly desired to make Kansas the banner State for Freedom. 
We did all we could to secure it, and some of the best speakers from the East 
came to our aid. Their speeches were excellent, and were listened to by 
large audiences, who seemed to believe what thev heard ; but when voting 
day came, they voted according to their prejudices, and our cause was de- 
feated. My work has been'very limited. I have only been able to talk and 
circulate tracts and papers. I took The Una, The Lily, The Sybil, The Pitts- 
burg Visitor, The Revohition, Woman's Journal, Ballot Box, and National 
Citizen; got all the subscribers I could, and scattered them far and near. 
When I gave away The Revolution, my husband said, " Wife, that is a very 
talented paper ; I should think you would preserve that." I replied : " They 
will continue to come until our cause is won, and I must make them do all the 
good they can." I am delighted with the " Suffrage History." I do not think 
you can find material to make the second volume as interesting. I knew of 
most of the incidents as they transpired, yet they are full of interest and 
significance to me now. My book is now lent where I think it will be highly 
appreciated. 



Mrs. E. S. Tenney, M.D. 257 

Mrs. R. S. Tenney, M.D., one of the most earnest and efficient 
women of Lawrence, adds another testimony to the spirit of that 
historic canvass : INDEPENDENCE, KANSAS, Nov. 23, 1881 . 

DEAR Miss ANTHONY: So you and Mrs. Stanton are about to burn at 
the stake the injustice of the men and measures of Kansas in 1867, and 
would like me to help pile on the fagots, which I will most gladly do, be- 
lieving it right that the wrong and wickedness of every clime and nation 
should be stabbed or burned till they are entirely dead. While the oppo- 
nents of woman suffrage in 1867 thought they had achieved a great victory, 
it was only an overwhelming defeat for a future day, a day when Col. John A. 
Martin, Judge T. C. Sears, Col. D. W. Houston, G. H. Hoyt, then Attorney- 
General, Col. J. D. Snoddy, Benj. F. Simpson, Hon. P. B. Plumb, Jacob 
Stottler, Rev. S. E. McBurney, of the Methodist church, and Rev. I. S. Kal- 
loch, of the Baptist, and a host of others I might mention, will be ashamed 
of the position which they occupied, and the doctrines they advocated. 

Although the question of woman suffrage was submitted to the people by a 
Republican Legislature, prominent Republicans refused to recognize it as a 
party measure, and the consideration the Legislature bestowed upon the in- 
telligent wives and mothers of the young commonwealth, was evidenced by 
associating them in a bill with ex-slaves and traitors. Rev. Richard Cord- 
ley said that " if the women had waited till the negroes were enfranchised, 
he would have worked for their cause most heartily." As though women 
were the arbiters of their own fate ; had convened in legislative assembly 
and submitted their own case to the people. Revs. McBurney and Kalloch, 
C. V. Eskridge and Judge Sears were in the field working with might and 
main against woman suffrage ; while Gov. Crawford was President of the Im- 
partial Suffrage Association of the State, and Judge Wood, Secretary. Such 
old time radicals as Hon. Chas. Robinson, the first Free State Governor of 
Kunsas, worked hard and well. Prof. John Horner, Senator Ross, Rev. Wm. 
Starrett, Mr. J. M. Chase, and many others also did good work. Hon. Sidney 
Clark left his post in the House of Representatives at Washington, and can- 
vassed the State for a re-election, having it in his power to say many things 
and do much good for the cause of woman, but he did it not. He returned 
to his own city, Lawrence, to make his last great speech on the eve of elec- 
tion, to find to his great consternation, that the only hall had been engaged 
by the President of the Woman Suffrage Association of the city for a meet- 
ing of their party on that eve. In vain did the honorable gentleman and his 
friends strive to get possession of that hall. It was paid for and booked to 
. R. S. Tenney. Poor Sidney then sought permission to address their woman 
suffrage audience, but being refused, he was obliged to betake himself to a 
dry-goods box in the street, where he tried to interest the rabble, while Col. 
Horner, Rev. Mr. Starrett, and others, had a fmr, large audience in the hall. 

It is to be greatly regretted that the Republican party that had accom- 
plished such great good when the nation was in its hour of trouble, should 
have allowed such discord to enter its ranks and thereby defeat both woman 
and negro suffrage. But Kansans have made great progress since 1867, 
and many who voted against the proposition then would to-day vote 
and work heartily for it, and doubtless, if submitted again it would be car- 



258 History of Woman Suffrage. 

ricd by a large majority. A recent conversation with Ex-Gov. Potter, who 
voted against it, confirms this opinion, and Senator Plumb is softening. A 
noticeable feature of the meetings of the political campaign of 1880, was the 
presence of large numbers of women. On the eve of the election, at a full 
meeting in the largest hall in this place, a woman surprised the people by 
asking the chairman's permission to speak, and amid rounds of applause, 
poured forth such sentiments as compelled quite a number of prominent 
Republican men to declare themselves in favor of woman suffrage, an issue 
which was voluntarily recommended by many speakers in both Democratic 
and Greenback meetings. Gov. J. P. St. John is now making himself heard 
in his temperance speeches in favor of woman suffrage. The recent passage 
of the Prohibitory Amendment is significant that our people are awake and 
ready to welcome the greatest good to the greatest number, which means 
equal rights to all at an early day. R. S. TENNEY. 

MARCH 14, 1882. 

DEAR FRIENDS : God bless the women that worked for woman's suf- 
frage in Kansas ! Foremost among those who were residents of the State 
was Mrs. C. I. H. Nichols, of Wyandotte, and to her, more than all other 
Kansas women, was due the influence which gave woman even the small 
recognition in the constitution under which the State was admitted, above 
what is found in other State constitutions of the nation ; for this Mrs. 
Nichols labored with the zeal and heroism born of a great noble heart, 
whose every pulsation is for humanity in the elevation of woman to her 
proper political as well as social position. It was largely through her in- 
strumentality that such God-ordained women as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 
Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, and Olympia Brown, came to Kansas as elo- 
quent missionaries in the great work of attempting to give the women of 
this State the legal right to vote with their husbands, sons and brothers. 
And though, through the opposition of unwise and prejudiced men, the 
desired majority for woman's suffrage was not then obtained ; the seed sown 
by these self-sacrificing angels of humanity will yet bring forth most glori- 
ous results. The efforts of the Hutchinson troupe of sweet singers in this 
direction will not be forgotten. John, the patriarch, with his bright son 
Henry and beautiful daughter Viola, made a musical trio whose soul-stir- 
ring songs were only excelled in pui ity of thought and delightful harmony 
of execution,' by their intense, whole-hearted desire that the cause for 
which they prayed and sang with so much earnestness might be crowned 
with success. Mr. Henry B. Blackwell, Lucy Stone's husband, was inde- 
fatigable in his efforts, working early and late for the good cause. Of the 
women of the State of Kansas who were active, a large number of names 
might be given.* But Kansas best remembers and most honors in the 
remembrance, those women who left their comfortable and elegant homes 
on the Atlantic slope, and with no hope of reward save the consciousness 
of having worked for God and humanity, traveled over the then wild prairies 



* Mrs. Gov. Charles Robinson, Mrs. Lient-Gor. J. P. Root, Mrs. R. B. Taylor, Mrs. Mary 
T. Gray whose husbands were also active workers Mrs. Lucy B. Armstrong, Mrs. 
Judge Humphrey, Mrs. Starrett, Mrs. Archibald, Mrs. Elsie Stewart, " Mother Bicker- 
dike," and many others. 



Rev. Olympia Brown's Letter. 259 

of Kansas in all sorts of rude vehicles, talking in groves, school-houses, and 
cabins, eating and sleeping as pioneers sleep and eat, for weeks and months, 
making the beautiful rolling prairies, filled with fertile valleys and flowery 
knolls, vocal with their eloquent, earnest appeals in behalf of woman's 
rights and against woman's wrongs ; and through the vote carried for wom- 
an s wrongs the fervid, eloquent words then uttered by woman's tongue, 
welling up as they did from noble hearts heated to redness in the furnace 
of love for human justice, left an influence which has steadily and surely 
increased, and will thus continue until Kansas shall give woman equal 
rights and privileges with man. 

Sincerely yours, J. P. ROOT. 

RACINE, WISCONSIN, March 16, 1882. 

DEAR SUSAN : You ask me to write an account of my experiences in 
Kansas ; with unquestioning obedience I attempt what you require, although 
many records and documents are wanting which should have been kept, 
had I anticipated your command. But when in Kansas, I no more thought 
of appearing in history, than the butterfly flitting from flower to flower 
thinks of being dried and put in a museum. 

I have never kept a diary, have never counted the number of miles I 
have traveled, the meals eaten, calls made, pages written, or words spoken. 
I have tried to do the pressing duty of each hour, leaving the results and 
records to take care of themselves. You will not, therefore, be surprised 
that I am unable to furnish even the " round unvarnished tale," but must 
be content with glimpses as memory, after the lapse of fourteen years, sup- 
plies them. 

I am glad to have an opportunity, through your valuable history, of pay- 
ing my respects to the good people whom I met in Kansas,- few of whom I 
shall ever see again in this life, but whose earnest words go with me every 
day, a constant source of encouragement and of strength. It would be but 
justice to record the names of all those who gave generous aid and sym- 
pathy in the woman suffrage campaign of '67 ; brave pioneers they were, 
who hud learned loyalty to principle through many bitter experiences ; 
some of tin-in had been friends and companions of brave old John Brown, 
and, trained in the great Anti-Slavery struggle, filled with the love of lib- 
erty, they knew how to stand for the right. But their names are recorded 
on hi^h in letters of living light, and they little need our poor faltering tes- 
timony. " Their reward is with them, and their reward is sure." To-day, 
looking back over the years, Kansas is to me a memory of grand, rolling 
prairies stretching far away; of fertile fields; of beautiful osage orange 
hedges ; of hospitable homes ; of brave and earnest women ; kind and true 
men ; and of some of the most dishonest politicians the world has ever seen. 

I went t Kan as, through an arrangement made by Lucy Stone with 
eaders of the Republican party there, whereby they were to furnish com- 
fortable conveyance over the State, with a lady as traveling companion, and 
also to arrange and preside over all the meetings; these were to be Repub- 
lican meetings in which it was thought best that a woman should present 
the claims of the woman suffrage amendment, which had been submitted to 
the vote of the men of the State by a strongly Republican Legislature. 



260 History of Woman Suffrage. 

The Kansas Republicans so far complied with their part of this arrange- 
ment that on my arrival, the 1st of July, I found appointments made and 
thoroughly advertised for the whole of July and August; two lectures for 
every week day, and a preaching service for every Sunday. As it proved, 
these appointments were at great distances from each other, often requiring 
a journey of twenty, thirty, forty, and even fifty miles across a country 
scarcely settled at all, to reach some little village where there wonld be a 
school-house or some public building in which a meeting could be held. 
All were eager to hear, and the entire settlement would attend the lecture, 
thus giving an astonishingly large audience in proportion to the size of the 
place. 

The country was then new and public conveyances few, and the Republi- 
cans having failed to furnish the stipulated carriage and escort, the speaker 
was dependent almost entirely upon the people in each little place for the 
means to pursue the journey. Many a time some kind man, with a genuine 
chivalry worthy of the days of knighthood, has left his half-mown field or 
his sorghum boiling in the kettle, to escort the woman suffrage advocate to 
the next appointment. ; and although the road often seemed long and peril- ' 
ous and many an hour was spent in what appeared a hopeless endeavor to 
find our way over the almost trackless prairie, yet somehow we always came 
to the right place at last ; and I scarcely recollect an instance of failure to 
meet an appointment from July 1st to Nov. 5th. 

In those four months I traveled over the greater part of Kansas, held two 
meetings every day, and the latter part of the time three meetings every 
day, making in all between two and three hundred speeches, averaging an 
hour in length ; a fact that tends to show that women can endure talk and 
travel at least, as well as men ; especially when we recollect how the Hon. 
Sidney Clark, then candidate for Congress, canvassed, in the beautiful autumn 
weather, a small portion of the State which I had traveled over amid 
the burning heat of July and August ; he spoke once a day instead of twice ; 
he rested on Sundays ; he had no anxiety about the means of travel, his con- 
veyance being furnished at hand ; he was supported by a large constituency, 
and expected to be rewarded by office and honors ; yet with all these ad- 
vantages, he broke down in health and was obliged to give up a part of his 
appointments, and the Republican papers said : " It was not strange, as no 
human being could endure without loss of health such constant speaking, 
with such long and tedious journeys as Mr. Clark had undertaken." 

It is deemed, in certain quarters, wicked heresy to complain of or criticise 
the Republican party, that has done so much in freeing the slaves and in 
bringing the country victoriously through the war of the rebellion ; but if 
there is to be any truth in history we must set it down, to stand forever a 
lasting disgrace to the party that in 1867, in Kansas, its leaders selfishly 
and meanly defeated the woman suffrage amendment. 

As the time for the election drew nigh, those political leaders who had 
been relied upon as friends of the cause were silent, others were active in 
their opposition. The Central Committee issued a circular for the purpose 
of preventing loyal Republicans from voting for woman suffrage ; not con- 
tent with this, the notorious I. S. Kalloch, and others of the same stripe, 
were sent out under the auspices of the Republican party to blackguard 



The Night be/ore Election. 261 

and abuse the advocates of woman's cause while professedly speaking upon 
" manhood suffrage." And Charles Langston, the negro orator, added 
his mite of bitter words to make the path a little harder for women, who 
had spent years in pleading the cause of the colored man. 

And yet, with all the obstacles which the dominant party could throw in 
our way ; without organization, without money, without political rewards 
to offer, without any of the means by which elections are usually carried, 
we gained one-third of all the votes cast ! Surely it was a great triumph of 
principle ; and had the leading Republicans, even one or two of them, 
stood boldly for the measure which they themselves had submitted, Kansas 
might have indeed been a " free State " ; the first to enfranchise women ; 
the advance guard in the great progressive movements of the time ; and 
her leading politicians might have gone down in history as wise, far-seeing 
statesmen who loved principles better than office, and who gained the re- 
wards of the world because they sought " first the kingdom of God and 
His righteousness.'' As it was, their favorite measure, " negro suffrage," 
was defeated for that time, and several of those who sold their birthright 
of truth and justice for a miserable mess of pottage in the shape of office 
and emoluments, lost even the poor reward for which they had trafficked. 

As for us, the advocates of suffrage who labored there in that first wom- 
an's suffrage campaign, we have forgotten, in part, the bitterness of disap- 
pointment and defeat ; we think no more of the long and wearisome journeys 
under the hot sun of southern Kansas ; the anxiety and uncertainty ; the 
nervous tremor when night has overtaken us wandering on the prairie, not 
knowing what terrible pitfalls might lie before ; the mobs which sometimes 
made the little log school-house shake with their missiles ; the taunts and 
jeers of the opposition ; all this is passed, but the great principle of human 
rights which we advocated remains, commending itself more and more to 
the favor of all good men, confirmed by every year's experience, and des- 
tined at no distant day to find expression in law. 

Sincerely Yours, OLYMPIA BROWN. 

The day hefore the election immense meetings were held in all 
tin- chief cities. In Leavenworth Mr. Train spoke for two hours in 
iir's Hall, and then took the evening train for Atchison. Mrs. 
Stanton entered the hall just as he left, and made only a shcJrt speech, 
reserving herself for the evening, when, Daniel II. Anthony in the 
ch.-iir, she made her Hii.il appeal to the voters of the State. She was 
followed by several of the leading p-ntlemen in short, speeches, fully 
indorsiu^ hoth amendments. The Ruttetin, in speaking of the 
nil-. !,): 

Laing's Hall was crowded to overflowing last evening to listen to a discourse 
from Mrs. St.mton, on the main issues pending in this State, and to be de- 
cided to-day. The speech of Mrs. Stanton was mainly in behalf of female 
suffrage. Speeches were also made by Col. J. C. Vaughan, Col. Jennison, Col. 
Moonlight, and Col. Anthony. The Btet of feeling prevailed throughout. 

Su.-an P.. Anthony spoke to an equally lar^e audience in Atchi- 
son, and Olyinpia Brown to another in an adjoining town. 



262 History of Woman Suffrage. 

The morning of the election two spacious barouches containing 
the several members of the Hutchinson family John, his son 
Henry and daughter Yiola; with Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony, 
Mrs. Daniel R. and Mrs. J. Merritt Anthony, visited in succession the 
four polling booths in Leavenworth and addressed the voters in short, 
earnest speeches as to their duty as citizens. Mrs. Stanton made a 
special appeal to Irishmen, quoting to them the lofty sentiments of 
Edmund Burke on human liberty. She told them of visiting 
O'Connell in his own house, and attending one of his great repeal 
meetings, of his eloquent speech in the World's Anti-Slavery Con- 
vention, and his genial letters to Lucretia Mott, in favor of woman's 
right to vote. After three cheers for O'Connell, they shouted, " Go 
on, go on." The Hutchinsons then sang their stirring ballad, 
" The good time coming." The reception at each booth was re- 
spectful, and at the end of the speech or song there followed three 
hearty cheers for " woman suffrage."* 

The Leavenworth Commercial of Nov. 14, 1867, had the follow- 
ing editorial : 

A CONTRAST. Miss Susan B. Anthony and Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton 
left yesterday afternoon for St. Louis, from whence they go to Omaha, and 
from that place, in company with Geo. Francis Train, start on a general 
lecturing tour through the principal cities of the West and East. Their sub- 
ject, of course, in all the places at which they will speak, will be, " Woman 
Suffrage " ; and we believe they will speak with far more than ordinary 
encouragement. Kansas, the only State in which the subject was ever sub-" 
mitted though under the most adverse of circumstances has spoken in a 
manner which has rather nerved than dispirited these tried and faithful 
champions of their own sex. 

The two propositions were submitted, in this State, under circumstances 
wholly dissimilar. While negro suffrage was specially championed and 
made the principal plank in the Republican party made almost a test of 
membership and of loyalty to it and the government female suffrage 
stood, riot simply as an ignored proposition, but as one against which was 
arrayed all party organizations, whether Republican, Democratic or German. 
And yet, notwithstanding this ignoring of the question, notwithstanding 
the combined and active opposition of these powerful and controlling 
organizations, nearly as many votes were cast for female suffrage as for 
negro suffrage. 

And if we go outside of our State, and take a look at the influences that 

* Nov. 6, 1867. The associated press item in The Evening Journal said : " Leavenworth, 
Kansas, Nov. 5th. Out of about 3,500 registered voters, only 2,600 voted here to-day. 
Negro suffrage received only about 700. Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony, who have been 
. canvassing the State, visited the polls in each ward and addressed the voters, probably 
the first occurrence of the kind in this country. They were accompanied by the Hutch- 
inson family, and were received with hearty cheers for woman suffrage." 



"The Leavenworth Commercial" 263 

were brought to bear upon our citizens, the result seems still more striking 
and remarkable. On the side of negro suffrage stood Congress, and its 
policy in the South ; also all the leading radical journals in the country, 
and that branch of the pulpit to which radicals had been taught to look for 
political wisdom as well as orthodox religious sermons. The whole engine- 
ry of the radical party, and of that party's tactics, was brought to bear 
upon the State. Party pride, party prejudices, and religious beliefs were 
each and all fervidly appealed to on behalf of negro suffrage. But in re- 
spect to woman suffrage, matters were far different. Even those in the 
East, whose eminence and eloquence had served to throw broadcast the 
ideas that it was sought to give form and reality to in this State, as the final 
testing hour neared, gradually withdrew their aid and counsel ; and in a 
manner sympathiless and emotionless as marble statuary, from their calm 
Eastern retreats watched the unequal contest. When Stephen A. Douglas 

said he "didn't care a d n whether slavery was voted up or voted down 

in Kansas," he but expressed in a forcible and emphatic manner the feelings 
of many of the Eastern " friends " of woman suffrage in the recent cam- 
paign. We repeat then, when we consider the many obstacles thrown in 
the way of the advocates of this measure, of the indifference with which 
the masses look upon anything new in government, and their indisposition 
to change, that the degree of success of these advocates is not only re- 
markable, but one in which they have a just right to feel proud and tri- 
umphant. 

And to these two ladies, to their indomitable wills and courage, to their 
eloquence and energies, is due much of the merit of the work performed in 
the State. We would not rob others of their glories, or their triumphs. 
Yet these two came to us as pioneers. Through the highways and byways 
of all the long years of their past lives we find the tracings of their deep 
earnestness and devotion to the principles which first found ways and means 
of development in Kansas. We find them giving utterance to these thoughts 
in the days of their first inception, and in words of burning eloquence clos- 
ing the campaign which gave them over for decision and arbitrament to 
the great jury and final arbiter, the people. But in the recent election, as 
is well known, these ladies were not successful to the full extent of their 
They have the proud consciousness of knowing, however, that their 
work has been commensurate with the combined efforts of party organiza- 
tions, Congressmen, Senators, presses, ministers, etc., and that the people of 
Kansas are not more averse to giving the franchise to woman than to the 
negro. With this evidence of the result of their efforts they can afford to 
wait, and, in the spirit of a Lowell, found their faith in the future, as when he 
says: 

Bat humanity sweeps onward 1 where to-day the mnrtyr stands, 

On the morrow crouches Judas with the sllvrr in his hands. 

F:ir in fn.nt the cross stands ready, and the crackling fragments bam, 

\Vhili- tin- hunting mob of yesterday In silent awe return, 

To gl.'un up the scattered ashes Into history's golden urn. 

And again 

Careless seema the great avenger ; history's pages but reo.nl 

One death-struggle In the grapple 'twlxt old systems and the Word. 



264 History of Woman Suffrage. 

Truth forever on the scaflold, wrong forever on the throne ; 
Tet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown 
Standeth God in the darkness keeping watch above His own. 

After speaking in all the chief cities from Leavenworth to New 
York,* Mrs. Stan ton and Miss Susan B. Anthony turned their 
attention to the establishment in the city of New York of a 
woman suffrage paper, called The Revolution.^ The funds for 
this enterprise were provided by two Democrats, David Melliss, 
the financial editor of the World, and George Francis Train. The 
editors were Parker Pillsbury and Elizabeth Cady Stanton ; the 
owner and publisher, Susan B. Anthony. This affiliation with Mr. 
Train and other Democrats, together with the aggressive tone of The 
Resolution, called down on Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton severe 
criticism from some of their friends, while they received sincere 
praise from others. In reviewing the situation, they have had no 
reason to regret their course, feeling that their determination to push 
their cause, and accept help from whatever quarter it was proffered, 
aroused .lukewarm friends to action, who, though hostile at first to 
the help of Democrats, soon came to appreciate the difficulty of car- 
rying on a movement with the press, pulpit, politicians, and philan- 
thropists all in the opposition. 

Abolitionists were severe in their denunciations against these la- 
dies, because, while belonging to anti-slavery associations, they affil- 
iated with the bitter enemies of the negro and all his defamers. 
To which they replied : " So long as opposition to slavery is the only 
test for a free pass to your platform and membership of your asso- 
ciation, and you do not shut out all persons opposed to woman suf- 
frage, why should we not accept all in favor of woman suffrage to 
our platform and association, even though they be rabid pro-slavery 
Democrats? Your test of faithfulness is the negro, ours is the 
woman ; the broadest platform, to which no party has as yet risen, if 
humanity." Reformers can be as bigoted and sectarian and as read 
to malign each other, as the Church in its darkest periods has bee 
to persecute its dissenters. 

So utterly had the women been deserted in the Kansas campa' 
by those they had the strongest reason to look to for help, tha ( 
times all effort seemed hopeless. The editors of the New ^" 
Tribune and the Independent can never know how wistfully, 
day to day, their papers were searched for some inspiring edi' 

* This trip cost Mr. Train $2,500, as he paid all the expenses, advertising larg< 
t The first number was published January 6, 1868, and ten thousand copies, t> 
frank of the Hon. James Brooks, were scattered throughout the country. 



The Double Curse of Sex and Color. 265 

on the woman's amendment, but naught was there ; there were no 
words of hope and encouragement, no eloquent letters from an 
Eastern man that could be read to the people ; all were silent. Yet 
these two papers, extensively taken all over Kansas, had they been 
as true to woman as to the negro, could have revolutionized the 
State. But with arms folded, Greeley, Curtis, Tilton, Beecher, Hig- 
ginson, Phillips, Garrison, Frederick Douglass, all calmly watched 
the struggle from afar, and when defeat came to both propositions, 
no consoling words were offered for woman's loss, but the women who 
spoke in the campaign were reproached for having "killed negro 
suffrage." 

We wondered then at the general indifference to that first 
opportunity of realizing what all those gentlemen had advocated 
so long ; and, in looking back over the many intervening years, we 
still wonder at the stolid incapacity of all men to understand that 
woman feels the invidious distinctions of sex exactly as the black 
man does those of color, or the white man the more transient dis- 
tinctions of wealth, family, position, place, and power ; that she feels 
as keenly as man the injustice of disfranchisement. Of the old 
abolitionists who stood true to woman's cause in this crisis, Robert 
Purvis, Parker Pillsbury, and Rev. Samuel J. May were the only 
Eastern men. Through all the hot debates during the period of re- 
construction, again and again, Mr. Purvis arose and declared, that he 
would rather his son should never be enfranchised, unless his 
daughter could be also, that, as she bore the double curse of sex and 
color, on every principle of justice she should first be protected. 
These were the only men who felt and understood as women them- 
selves do the degradation of disfranchisement. 

Twenty years ago, as now, the Gibraltar of our difficulties was 
the impossibility of making the best men feel that woman is aggra- 
vated by the endless petty distinctions because of sex, precisely 
as the most cultivated man, black or white, suffers the distinctions 
of color, wealth, or position. Take a man of superior endowments, 
once powerful and respected, who through unfortunate circum- 
stances is impoverished and neglected ; he sees small men, unscru- 
pulous, hard, grinding men taking places of trust and influence, mak- 
ing palace homes for themselves and children, while his family in shab- 
by attire are ostracised in the circle where by ancestry and intelligence 
they belong, made to feel on all occasions the impassable gulf that lies 
between riches and poverty. That man feels for himself and doubly 
for his children the humiliation. And yet with the ever-turning 
wheel of fortune such distinctions are transient ; yours to-day, mine 
VOL. II. 18. 



266 History b/ Woman Suffrage. 

to-morrow. That glorious Scotch poet, Robert Burns, from the 
depths of his poverty and despair, might exclaim in an inspired mo- 
incut on the divine heights where the human soul can sometimes 

mount : 

" A man's a man for a' that." 

But the wail through many of his sad lines shows that he had tasted 
the very dregs of the cup of poverty, and hated all distinctions 
based on wealth. 

When a colored man of education and wealth like Robert Pur- 
vis, of Philadelphia, surrounded with a family of cultivated sons and 
daughters, was denied all social communion with his neighbors, equal 
freedom and opportunity for himself and children, in public amuse- 
ments, churches, schools, and means of travel because of race, he 
felt the degradation of color. The poor white man might have said, 
If I were Robert Purvis, with a good bank account, and' could live 
in my own house, ride in my own carriage, and have my children 
well fed and clothed, I should not care if we were all as black as 
the ace of spades. But he had never tried the humiliation of color, 
and could not understand its peculiar aggravations, as he did those 
of poverty. It is impossible for one class to appreciate the wrongs 
of another. The coarser forms of slavery all can see and deplore, 
but the subjections of the spirit, few either comprehend or appre- 
ciate. In our day women carrying heavy burdens on their shoulders 
while men walk by their side smoking their pipes, or women har- 
nessed to plows and carts with cows and dogs while men drive, are 
sights which need no eloquent appeals to move American men to 
pity and indignation. But the subtle humiliations of women possess- 
ed of wealth, education, and genius, men on the same plane can not 
see or feel, and yet can any misery be more real than invidious dis- 
tinctions on the ground of sex in the laws and constitution, in the 
political, religious, and moral position of those who in nature stand 
the peers of each other ? And not only do such women suffer these 
ever-recurring indignities in daily life, but the literature of the world 
proclaims their inferiority and divinely decreed subjection in all 
history, sacred and profane, in science, philosophy, poetry, and 
song. 

And here is the secret of the infinite sadness of women of gen- 
ius ; of their dissatisfaction with life, in exact proportion to their 
development. A woman who occupies the same realm of thought with 
man, who can explore with him the depths of science, comprehend 
the steps of progress through the long past and prophesy those of 
the momentous future, must ever be surprised and aggravated with 



An Anomalous Position. 267 

his assumptions of headship and superiority, a superiority she never 
concedes, an authority she utterly repudiates. "Words can not de- 
scribe the indignation, the humiliation a proud woman feels for her 
sex in disf ranch isement. 

In a republic where all are declared equal an ostracised class of 
one half of the people, on the ground of a distinction founded in 
nature, is an anomalous position, as harassing to its victims as it is 
unjust, and as contradictory as it is unsafe to the fundamental prin- 
ciples of a free government. When we remember that out of this de- 
graded political status, spring all the special wrongs that have blocked 
woman's success in the world of work, and degraded her labor ev- 
erywhere to one half its value ; closed to her the college doors and all 
opportunities for higher education, forbade her to practice in the pro- 
fessions, made her a cipher in the church, and her sex, her mother- 
hood a curse in all religions ; her subjection a text for bibles, a target 
for the priesthood ; seeing all this, we wonder now as then at the 
indifference and injustice of our best men when the first opportunity 
offered in which the women of any State might have secured their 
enfranchisement. 

It was not from ignorance of the unequal laws, and false public 
sentiment against woman, that our best men stood silent in this Kan- 
sas campaign ; it was not from lack of chivalry that they thundered 
forth no protests, when they saw noble women, who had been fore- 
most in every reform, hounded through the State by foul mouthed 
politicians ; it was not from lack of money and power, of eloquence 
of pen and tongue, nor of an intellectual conviction that our cause 
was just, that they came not to the rescue, but because in their heart 
of hearts they did not grasp the imperative necessity of woman's de 
mand for that protection which the ballot alone can give ; they did 
not feel for her the degradation of disfranchisement. 

The fact of their silence deeply grieved us, but the philosophy of 
their indifference we thoroughly comprehended for the first time 
and saw as never before, that only from woman's standpoint could 
the battle be successfully fought, and victory secured. "It is won- 
derful," says Swift, " with what patience some folks can endure the 
sufferings of others." Our liberal men counseled us to silence dur- 
ing the war, and we were silent on our own wrongs ; they counseled 
us again to silence in Kansas and New York, lest we should defeat 
" negro suffrage," and threatened if we were not, we might fight the 
battle alone. We chose the latter, arid were defeated. But stand- 
ing alone we learned our power ; we repudiated man's counsels f or- 
evermore ; and solemnly vowed that there should never be another 



268 History of Woman Suffrage. 

season of silence until woman had the same rights everywhere on 
this green earth, as man. 

While we hold in loving reverence the names of such men as 
Charles Sumner, Horace Greeley, William Lloyd Garrison, Gerrit 
Smith, Wendell Phillips and Frederick Douglass, and would urge 
the rising generation of young men to emulate their virtues, we 
would warn the young women of the -coming generation against 
man's advice as to their best interests, their highest development. 
We would point for them the moral of our experiences: that 
woman must lead the way to her own enfranchisement, and work 
out her own salvation with a hopeful courage and determination 
that knows no fear nor trembling. She must not put her trust in 
man in this transition period, since, while regarded as his subject, his 
inferior, his slave, their interests must be antagonistic. 

But when at last woman stands on an even platform with man, his 
acknowledged equal everywhere, with the same freedom to express 
herself in the religion and government of the country, then, and 
not till then, can she safely take counsel with him in regard to her 
most sacred rights; privileges, and immunities ; for not till then will 
he be able to legislate as wisely and generously for her as for him- 
self. 



CHAPTER XX. 

NEW YORK CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 

Constitution Amended once in Twenty Tears Mrs. Stanton Before the Legislature 
Claiming Woman's Right to Vote for Members to the Convention An Immense Au- 
dience in the Capitol The Convention Assembled June 4th, 1867. Twenty Thousand 
Petitions Presented for Striking the Word " Male " from the Constitution " Commit- 
tee on the Right of Suffrage, and the Qualifications for Holding Office." Horace 
Greeley, Chairman Mr. Graves, of Herkimer, Leads the Debate in favor of Woman 
Suffrage Horace Greeley's Adverse Report Leading Advocates Heard before the 
Convention Speech of George William Curtis on Striking the Word " Man " from 
Section 1, Article 11 Final Vote, 19 For, 125 Against Equal Rights Anniversary of 
1868. 

THIS was the first time in the history of the woman suffrage 
movement that the Constitution of New York was to be amended, 
and the general interest felt by women in the coining convention 
was intensified by the fact that such an opportunity for their enfran- 
chisement would not come again in twenty years. The proposition 
of the republican party to strike the word " white " from the Consti- 
tution and thus extend the right of suffrage to all classes of male cit- 
izens, placing the men of the State, black and white, foreign and 
native, ignorant and educated, vicious and virtuous, all alike, above 
woman's head, gave her a keener sense of her abasement than she 
had ever felt before. But having neither press nor pulpit to advo- 
cate her cause, and fully believing this amendment would pass as a 
party measure, she used every means within her power to arouse and 
strengthen the agitation, in the face of the most determined opposi- 
tion of friends and foes. Meetings were held in all the chief towns 
and cities in the State, and appeals and petitions scattered in every 
school district ; these were so many reminders to the women every- 
where that they too had some interest in the Constitution under which 
they lived, some duties to perform in deciding the future policy ot 
the Government. 

This campaign cost us the friendship of Horace Greeley and the 
support of the New York Tribune, heretofore our most powerful 
and faithful allies. In an earnest conversation with Mrs. Stanton 

(209) 



270 History of Woman Suffrage. 

and Miss Anthony, Mr. Greeley said : " This is a critical period for 
the Republican party and the life of the Nation. The word " white " 
in our Constitution at this hour has a significance which " male " has 
not. It would be wise and magnanimous in you to hold your 
claims, though just and imperative, I grant, in abeyance until the 
negro is safe beyond peradventure, and your turn will come next. 
I conjure you to remember that this is "the negro's hour," and your 
first duty now is to go through the State and plead his claims." 
" Suppose," we replied, "Horace Greeley, Henry J. Raymond and 
James Gordon Bennett were disfranchised ; what would be thought 
of them, if before audiences and in leading editorials they pressed 
the claims of Sambo, Patrick, Plans and Yung Fung to the ballot, 
to be lifted above their own heads? With their intelligence, edu- 
cation, knowledge of the science of government, and keen apprecia- 
tion of the dangers of the hour, would it not be treasonable, rather 
than magnanimous, for them, leaders of the metropolitan press, to 
give the ignorant and unskilled a power in government they did not 
possess themselves ? To do this would be to place on board the ship 
of State officers and crew who knew nothing of chart or compass, of 
the safe pathway across the sea, and bid those who understand the. 
laws of navigation to stand aside. No, no, this is the hour to press 
woman's claims ; we have stood with the black man in the Constitu- 
tion over half a century, and it is fitting now that the constitutional 
door is open that we should enter with him into the political king- 
dom of equality. Through all these years he has been the only de- 
cent compeer we have had. Enfranchise him, and we are left out- 
side with lunatics, idiots and criminals for' another twenty years." 
" "Well," said Mr. Greeley, " if you persevere in your present plan, 
you need depend on no further help from me or the Tribune" And 
he kept hi& word. We have seen the negro enfranchised, and twenty 
long years pass away since the war, and still woman's turn has not 
yet come ; her rights as a citizen of the United States are still un- 
recognized, the oft-repeated pledges of leading Republicans and 
Abolitionists have not been redeemed. 

As soon as the Constitutional Convention was called by the Leg- 
islature of New York, Mrs. Stanton appeared before that body ask- 
ing not only that the word " male " be stricken from Sec. 1, Art. 2, 
but that women be permitted to vote for members to that Conven- 
tion, giving many precedents and learned opinions in favor of her 
demand. In the Assembly Chamber on the afternoon of Jan. 23, 
1867, an immense audience of judges, lawyers, members of the Leg- 
islature, and ladies of fashion greeted her. On being introduced by 



The Legislature of New York. 271 

the Hon. Chas. J. Folger,* Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Com- 
mittee, MRS. STANTON said : 

Gentlemen of the Judiciary Committee and Members of the Legislature : 

I appear before you at this time, to urge on you the justice of securing to 
all the people of the State the right to vote for delegates to the coming Con- 
stitutional Convention. The discussion of this right involves the consider- 
ation of the whole question of suffrage ; and especially those sections of your 
Constitution which interpose insurmountable qualifications to its exercise. 
As representatives of the people, your right to regulate all that pertains to 
the coming Constitutional Convention is absolute. It is for you to say when 
and where this convention shall be held; how many delegates shall be 
chosen, and what classes shall be represented. This is your right. It is the 
opinion of many of the ablest men of the country that, in a revision of a 
constitution, the State is, for the time being, resolved into its original ele- 
ments, and that all disfranchised classes should have a voice in such revision 
and be represented in such convention. To secure this to the people of the 
State, is clearly your duty. 

Says Judge Beach Lawrence, in a letter to Hon. Charles Sumner : " A 
State Constitution must originate with and be assented to by a majority of 
the people, including as well those whom it disfranchises as those whom it 
invests with the suffrage." And as there is nothing in the present Constitu- 
tion of the State of New York to prevent women, or black men from voting 
for, or being elected as delegates to a Constitutional Convention, there is no 
reason why the Legislature should not enact that the people elect their dele- 
gates to said Convention irrespective of sex or color. The Legislatures of 
1801 and 1821 furnish you a precedent for extending to disfranchised classes 
the right to vote for delegates to a Constitutional Convention. Though the 
Constitution of the State restricted the right of suffrage to every male inhabi- 
tant who possessed a freehold to the value of 20, or rented a tenement at 
the yearly value of forty shillings, and had been rated and actually paid taxes 
to the State, the Legislatures of those years passed laws setting aside all 
property limitations, and providing that all men black and white, rich and 
poor should vote for delegates to said Conventions. The act recommend- 
ing a convention for the purpose of considering the parts of the Constitution 
of this State, respecting the number of Senators and Members of Assembly 
and also for the consideration of the 23d article of said Constitution, rela- 
tive to the right of nomination to office "but with no other power or au- 
thority whatsoever," passed April 6, 1801. Session Laws 1801, chap. 69, page 
190, sec. 2, says: 

And be it further enacted, that the number of delegates chosen shall be the same as 
the number of Members of Assembly from the respective cities and counties of the State, 
and that all free male citizens of this State, of the age of twenty-one years and upward, 
shall be admitted to vote for such delegates, and that any person of that description 
shall be eligible. 



* Following this hearing, Mr. Folger presented a resolution in the Senate for the 
women of the State to vote for delegates to the Constitutional Convention, and uino 
members voted in its favor. 



272 History of Woman Suffrage. 

The above law was passed by the Legislature of 1801, which derived its au- 
thority from the first Constitution of the State. 

The act recommending a convention of the people of this State, passed 
March 13, 1821. Session Laws of 1821, act 90, page 83, sec. 1. " Persons en- 
titled to vote " : 

All free male citizens, of the age of twenty-one years or upward, who shall possess a 
freehold in this State, or who shall have been actually rated and paid taxes to this State, or 
who shall have been actually enrolled in the militia of this State, or in a legal, volunteer, 
or uniform corps, and shall have served therein either as an officer or private, or who shall 
have been or now are, by law, exempt from taxation or militia duty, or who shall have 
been assessed to work on the public roads and highways, and shall, have worked thereon, 
or shall have paid a commutation therefor according to law, shall be allowed during the 
three days of such election to vote by ballot as aforesaid in the town or ward in which 
they shall actually reside. 

Extract from Sec. 6th, Act 90 : 

And be it further enacted, that the number of delegates to be chosen shall be the same 
as the number of Members of Assembly from the respective cities and counties of this 
State, and that the same qualification for voters shall be required on the election for dele- 
gates, as is prescribed in the first section of this act, and none other And that all 

persons entitled to vote by this law for delegates, shall be eligible to be elected. 

Extracts from the first Constitution of the State of New York, under and 
by virtue of which the Legislatures sat, which passed the acts of 1801 and 
1821, from which the extracts above are taken. Sec. 7. Qualification of 
electors : 

That every male inhabitant of full age, who shall have personally resided for six months 
within one of the counties of this State, immediately preceding the day of election, shall 
at such election be entitled to vote for representatives of the said county in Assembly, if 
during the time aforesaid, he shall have been a freeholder possessing a freehold of the 
value of 20, within the said county, or have rented a tenement therein of a yearly value 
of forty shillings, and been rated and actually paid taxes to this State. 

SEC. 10. And this Convention doth further, in the name and by the authority of the 
good peeple of this State, ordain, determine, and declare that the Senate of the State of 
New York shall consist of twenty-four freeholders, to be chosen out of the body of the 
freeholders, and they be chosen by the freeholders of this State, possessed of freeholds 
of the value of 100 over and above all debts charged thereon. 

By section 17, the qualifications for voters for Governor are made the same as those for 
Senators. 

The laws above quoted show this striking fact : Those men, black and 
white, prohibited from voting for members of the Assembly, were permitted 
to vote for delegates to said Conventions ; and more than this, on each oc- 
casion they were eligible to seats in the body called to frame the fundamen- 
tal law the fundamental law from which Governors, Senators, and Members 
derive their existence. 

The Constitutional Convention of Rhode Island, in 1842, affords another 
precedent of the power of the Legislature to extend the suffrage to disfran- 
chised classes. 

The disfranchisement of any class of citizens is in express violation of the 
spirit of our own Constitution. Art. 1, sec. 1 : 

No member of this State shall be disfranchised or deprived of any of the rights or 
privileges secured to any citizen thereof, unless by the law of the land and the judgment 
of his peers. 



The Law of tlie Land is Equality. 273 

Now, women, and negroes not worth two hundred and fifty dollars, how- 
ever weak and insignificant, are surely "members of the State." The law of 
the land is equality. The question of disfranchisement has never been sub- 
mitted to the judgment of their peers. A peer is an equal. The " white 
male citizen " who so pompously parades himself in all our Codes and Con- 
stitutions, does not recognize women and negroes as his equals ; therefore, 
his judgment in their case amounts to nothing. And women and negroes 
constituting a majority of the people of the State, do not recognize a "white 
male " minority as their rightful rulers. On our republican theory that the 
majority governs, women and negroes should have a voice in the government 
of the State ; and being taxed, should be represented. 

In the recent debate in the Senate of the United States, on the question 
of suffrage, Senator Anthony, of Rhode Island, said : 

Nor is it a fair statement of the case to say, that the man represents the woman, be- 
cause it is an assumption on the part of the man it is an involuntary representation on 
the part of the woman. Representation implies a certain delegated power, and a 
certain responsibility on the part of the representative toward the party represented. A 
representation to which the represented party does "not assent, is no representation at 
all ; but if adding insult to injury. When the American Colonies complained that they 
ought not to be taxed unless they were represented in the British Parliament, it would 
have been rather a singular answer to tell them that they were represented by Lord North, 
or even by the Earl of Chatham. The gentlemen on the other side of the Chamber, 
who say that the States lately in rebellion are entitled to immediate representation in this 
Chamber, would hardly be satisfied if we should tell them that my friend from Massa- 
chusetts represented South Carolina, and my friend from Michigan represented Alabama. 
They would hardly be satisfied with that kind of representation. Nor have we any more 
right to assume that the women are satisfied with the representation of the men. Where 
has been the assembly at which this right of representation was conferred? Where was 
the compact made ? It is wholly an assumption. 

" White males " are the nobility of this country ; they are the privileged 
order, who have legislated as unjustly for women and negroes as have the no- 
bles of England for their disfranchised classes. The existence of the En- 
glish House of Commons is a strong fact to prove that one class can not 
legislate for another. Perhaps it may be necessary, in this transition period 
of our civilization, to create a Lower House for women and negroes, lest the 
dreadful example of Massachusetts, nay, worse, should be repeated here, and 
women, as well as black men, take their places beside our Dutch nobility in 
the councils of the State. If the history of England has proved that white 
men of different grades can not legislate with justice for one another, how 
can you, Honorable Gentlemen, legislate for women and negroes, who, by 
your customs, creeds and codes, are placed under the ban of inferiority ? If 
you dislike this view of the case, and claim that woman is your superior, and, 
therefore, you place her above- all troublesome legislation, to shield her by 
your protecting care from the rough winds of life, I have simply to say, your 
statute books are a sad commentary on that position. Your laws degrade, 
rather than exalt woman ; your customs cripple, rather than free ; your sys- 
tem of taxation is alike ungenerous and unjust. 

In demanding suffrage for the black man of the South, the dominant party 
recognizes the fact that as a freedman he is no longer a part of the family, 
therefore his master is no longer his representative, and as he will now 



274 History of Woman Suffrage. 

be liable to taxation, he must also have representation. Woman, on the 
contrary, has never been such a part of the family as to escape taxation. 
Although there has been no formal proclamation giving her an individual ex- 
istence, unmarried women have always had the right to property and wages ; 
to make contracts and do business in their own name. And even married 
women, by recent legislation in this State, have been secured in some civil 
rights, at least as well secured as those classes can be who do not hold the 
ballot in their own hands. Woman now holds a vast amount of property in 
the country, and pays her full proportion of taxes, revenue included ; on 
what principle, then, do you deny her representation ? If you say women 
are "virtually represented " by the men of their household, I give you Sena- 
tor Sumner's denial, in his great speech on Equal Rights in the First Session 
of the 30th Congress. Quoting from James Otis, he says : " No such phrase 
as virtual representation was known in law or constitution. It is altogether 
a subtlety and illusion, wholly unfounded and absurd. We must not be 
cheated by any such phantom or any other fiction of law or politics, or any 
monkish trick of deceit or hypocrisy." 

In regard to taxation without representation, Lord Coke says : " The su- 
preme power can not take from any man any part of his property without 
his consent in person or by representation. Taxes are not to be laid on the 
people" (are not women and negroes people ?) " without their consent in 
person or by representation. The very act of taxing those who are not 
represented appears to me to deprive them of one of their most essential 
rights as freemen, and if continued, seems to be in effect an entire disfran- 
chisement of every civil right ; for what one civil right is worth a rush, 
after a man's property is subject to be taken from him without his con- 
sent ? " In view of such opinions, is it too much to ask the men of New 
York, either to enfranchise women of wealth and education, or else release 
them from taxation ? If we can not be represented as individuals, we should 
not be taxed as individuals. If the " white male " will do all the voting, let 
him pay all the taxes. There is no logic so powerful in opening the eyes of 
men to their real interests as a direct appeal to their pockets. Such a re- 
lease from taxation can be supported, too, by your own Constitution. In 
Art. 2, Sec. 1, you say, "And no person of color shall be subject to direct 
taxation, unless he shall be seized and possessed of such real estate as afore- 
said," referring to the $250 qualification. Now, a poor widow who owns a 
lot worth a hundred dollars or less, is taxed. Why this partiality to the 
black man ? He may live in the quiet possession of $249 worth of property, 
and not be taxed a cent. Is it on the ground of color or sex, that the black 
man finds greater favor in the eyes of the law than the daughters of the 
State? In order fully to understand this partiality, I have inquired into 
your practice with regard to women of color. I find that in Seneca Falls 
there lives a highly estimable colored woman, by the name of AbbyGomore, 
who owns property to the amount of a thousand dollars, in village lots. 
She now pays, and always has paid, from the time she invested her first hun- 
dred dollars, the same taxes as any other citizen just in proportion to the 
value of her property, or as it is assessed. After excluding women and " men 
of color " not worth $250, from representation, your Constitution tells us what 
other persons are excluded from the right of suffrage. Art. 2, Sec. 2. 



The Ballot- Box the Holy of Holies. 275 

Laws may be passed excluding from the right of suffrage all persons who have been 
or may be convicted of bribery, or larceny, or of any infamous crime, and for depriving 
every person who shall make, or become directly or indirectly interested in any bet or 
wager depending upon the result of any election, from the right to vote at such election. 

How humiliating ! For respectable and law-abiding women and " men 
of color," to be thrust outside the pale of political consideration with those 
convicted of bribery, larceny, and infamous crime ; and worse than all, with 
those who bet on elections for how lost to all sense of honor must that 
" white male citizen " be who publicly violates a wise law to which he has 
himself given an intelligent consent. We are ashamed, Honored Sirs, of 
our company. The Mohammedan forbids a " fool, a madman, or a woman " 
to call the hours for prayers. If it were not for the invidious classification, 
we might hope it was tenderness rather than contempt that moved the 
Mohammedan to excuse woman from so severe a duty. But for the ballot, 
which falls like a flake of snow upon the sod, we can find no such excuse 
for New York legislators. Art. 2, Sec. 3, should be read and considered by 
the women of the State, as it gives them a glimpse of the modes of life and 
surroundings of some of the privileged classes of "white male citizens "who 
may go to the polls : 

For the purpose of voting, no person shall be deemed to have gained or lost a residence 
by reason of his presence or absence while employed iu the service of the United States ; 
nor while engaged in navigating the waters of the State, or of the United States, or of the 
high seas ; nor while a student of any seminary of learning ; nor while kept at any alms- 
house or other asylum, at public expense ; nor while confined in any public prison. 

What an unspeakable privilege to have that precious jewel the human 
soul in a setting of white manhood, that thus it can pass through the prison, 
the asylum, the alms-house, the muddy waters of the Erie canal, and 
come forth undimmed to appear at the ballot-box at the earliest opportu- 
nity, there to bury its crimes, its poverty, its moral and physical deformities, 
all beneath the rights, privileges, and immunities of a citizen of the State. 
Just imagine the motley crew from the ten thousand dens of poverty and 
vice in our large cities, limping, raving, cringing, staggering up to the polls, 
while the loyal mothers of a million soldiers whose bones lay bleaching on 
every Southern plain, stand outside sad and silent witnesses of this whole- 
sale desecration of republican institutions. When you say it would degrade 
woman to go to the polls, do you not make a sad confession of your irrelig- 
ious mode of observing that most sacred right of citizenship? The ballot- 
box, in a republican government, should be guarded with as much love and 
care as was the Ark of the Lord among the Children of Israel. Here, where 
we have no heaven-anointed kings or priests, law must be to us a holy 
thing ; and the ballot-box the holy of holies ; for on it depends the safety 
and stability of our institutions. I, for one, gentlemen, am not willing to 
be thus represented. I claim to understand the interests of the nation bet- 
ter than yonder pauper in your alms-house, than the unbalanced graduate 
from your asylum and prison, or the popinjay of twenty-one from your sem- 
inary of learning, or the traveler on the tow-path of the Erie canal. No 
wonder that with such voters as Art. 2, Sec. 3 welcomes to the polls, we 
have these contradictory laws and constitutions. No wonder that with 
such voters, sex and color should be exalted above loyalty, virtue, wealth, 



276 History of Woman Suffrage. 

and education. I warn you, legislators of the State of New York, that you 
need the moral power of wise and thoughtful women in your political coun- 
cils, to outweigh the incoming tide of poverty, ignorance, and vice that 
threatens our very existence as a nation. Have not the women of the re- 
public an equal interest with yourselves in the government, in free institu- 
tions, in progressive ideas, and in the success of the most liberal political 
measures? Remember, in your last election, the republican majority in 
this State was only fourteen thousand, all told. If you would not see the 
liberal party swamped in the next Presidential campaign, treble your ma- 
jority by enfranchising those classes who would support it in all just and 

merciful legislation 

The extension of suffrage is the political idea of our day, agitating alike 
the leading minds of both continents. The question of debate in the long 
past has been the rights of races. This, in our country, was settled by the 
war, when the black man was declared free and worthy to bear arms in de- 
fense of the republic, and the last remnants of aristocracy were scattered 
before our northern hosts like chaff in the whirlwind. We have now come 
to the broader idea of individual rights. An idea already debated ably in 
Congress and out, by Republicans, Democrats and Abolitionists, who, in com- 
mon with the best writers and thinkers of the day the world over, base all 
rights of society and government on those of the individual. Each one of 
you has a right to everything in earth and air, on land and sea, to the whole 
world of thought, to all that is needful for soul and body, and there is no 
limit to the exercise of your rights, but in the infringement of the rights 
of another; and the moment you pass that limit you are on forbidden 
ground, you violate the law of individual life, and breed disorder and con- 
fusion in the whole social system. Where, gentlemen, did you get the right 
to deny the ballot to all women and black men not worth $250 ? If this 
right of suffrage is not an individual right, from what place and body did 
you get it ? Is this right of franchise a conventional arrangement, a privi- 
lege that society or government may grant or withhold at pleasure ? In 
the Senate of the United States, in the recent discussion on the "bill to 
regulate the elective franchise in the District of Columbia," GRATZ BROWN 
said : 

Mr. President, I say here on the floor of the American Senate, I stand for universal 
suffrage ; and, as a matter of fundamental principle, do not recognize the right of so- 
ciety to limit it on any ground of race or sex. I will go farther and say, that I recognize 
the right of franchise as being intrinsically a natural right. I do not believe that so- 
ciety is authorized to impose any limitations upon it that do not spring out of the neces- 
sities of the social state itself. Sir, I have been shocked, in the course of this debate, to 
hear Senators declare this right only a conventional and political arrangement, a privilege 
yielded to you and me, and others ; not a right in any sense, only a concession ! Mr. 
President, I do not hold my liberties by any such tenure. On the contrary, I believe that 
whenever you establish that doctrine ; whenever you crystallize that idea in the public 
mind of this country, you ring the death-knell of American liberties ! ! 

The demand we to-day make, is not the idiosyncrasy of a few discon- 
tented minds, but a universal movement. Woman is everywhere throw- 
ing off the lethargy of ages, and is already close upon you in the whole 
realm of thought in art, science, literature and government. Everything 
heralds the dawn of the new era when moral power is to govern nations. 



Women in Politics at an Early Day. 277 

In asking you, Honorable Gentlemen, to extend suffrage to woman, we do 
not press on you the risk and responsibility of a new step, but simply to 
try a measure that has already proved wise and safe the world over. So 
long as political power was absolute and hereditary, woman shared it with 
man by birth. In Hungary and some provinces of France and Germany, 
women holding this inherited right confer their right of franchise on their 
husbands. In 1858, in the old town of Upsal, the authorities granted the 
right of suffrage to fifty women holding real estate, and to thirty-one doing 
business in their own name. The representative their votes elected was 
to sit in the House of Burgesses. In Ireland, the Court of Queen's Bench, 
Dublin, restored to women, in 1864, the old right of voting for town com- 
missioners. In 1864, too, the government of Moravia decided that all 
women who are tax-payers had the right to vote. In Canada, in 1850, an 
electoral privilege was conferred on women, in the hope that the Protestant 
might balance the Roman Catholic power in the school system. " I lived," 
says a friend of mine, " where I saw this right exercised for four years by 
female property holders, and never heard the most cultivated man, even 
Lord Elgin, object to its results." Women vote in Austria, Australia, Hol- 
land and Sweden, on property qualifications. There is a bill now before 
the British Parliament, presented by John Stuart Mill, asking for house- 
hold suffrage, accompanied by a petition from eleven thousand of the best 
educated women in England. 

Would you be willing to admit, gentlemen, that women know less, have 
less virtue, less pride and dignity of character under Republican institutions 
than in the despotisms and monarchies of the old world ? Your Codes and 
Constitutions savor of such an opinion. Fortunately, history furnishes a few 
saving facts, even under our Republican institutions. From a recent exam- 
ination of the archives of the State of New Jersey we learn that, owing to a 
liberal Quaker influence, women and negroes exercised the right of suffrage 
in that State thirty-one years from 1776 to 1807 when "white males" ig- 
nored the constitution, and arbitrarily assumed the reins of government. 
This act of injustice is sufficient to account for the moral darkness that seems 
to have settled down upon that unhappy State. During the dynasty of 
women and negroes, does history record any social revolution peculiar to that 
period ? Because women voted there, was the institution of marriage an- 
nulled, the sanctity of home invaded, cradles annihilated, and the stockings, 
like Governor Marcy's pantaloons, mended by the State ? Did the -men of 
that period become mere satellites of the dinner-pot, the wash-tub, or the 
spinning-wheel ? Were they dwarfed and crippled in body and soul, while 
their enfranchised wives and mothers became giants in stature and intellect? 
Did the children, fully armed and equipped for the battle of life, spring, 
Minerva-like, from the brains of their fathers? Were the laws of nature sus- 
pended? Did the sexes change places? Was everything turned upside 
down ? No, life went on as smoothly in New Jersey as in any other State in 
the Union. And the fact that women did vote there, created so slight a rip- 
ple on the popular wave, and made so ordinary a page in history, that prob- 
ably nine-tenths of the people of this country never heard of its existence, 
until recent discussions in the United States Senate brought out the facts of 
the case. In Kansas, women vote for school officers and are themselves eli- 



278 History of Woman Suffrage. 

gible to the office of trustee. There is a resolution now before the Legisla- 
ture of Ohio to strike the words "white male " from the Constitution of that 
State. The Hon. Mr. Noel, of Missouri, has presented a bill in the House of 
Representatives to extend suffrage to the women of the District of Columbia. 

I think, Honorable Gentlemen, I have given you facts enough to show 
that you need not hesitate to give the ballot to the women of New York, on 
the ground that it is a new thing ; for, as you see, the right has long ago been 
exercised by certain classes of women in many countries. And if it were a 
new thing, and had never been heard of before, that would be no argument 
against the experiment. Had the world never done a new thing, Columbus 
would not have discovered this country, nor the ocean telegraph brought our 
old enemy Great Britain within friendly speaking distance. When it was 
proposed to end slavery in this country, croakers and conservatives pro- 
tested because it was a new thing, and must of necessity produce a social 
convulsion. When it was proposed to give woman her rights of property 
in this State, the same classes opposed that on the same ground ; but the 
spirit of the age carried both measures over their heads and " nobody was 
hurt." 

You Republicans can not oppose our demand on that ground, for your 
present party-cry " negro suffrage " is a new thing, and startling too, in the 
ears of the Southern States, and a very inconsistent thing, so long as the 
$250 qualification remains in your Constitution. " If you would know your 
faults," says Cicero, "ask your enemies." Hear his Excellency Andrew 
Johnson, in his veto on the District of Columbia Bill ; he says : " It hardly 
seems consistent with the principles of right and justice, that representatives 
of States where suffrage is either denied the colored man or granted to him 
on qualifications requiring intelligence or property, should compel the peo- 
ple of the District of Columbia to try an experiment which their constituents 
have thus far shown an unwillingness to try for themselves." Senator Sum- 
ner, a leading radical, expresses the same opinion. In the debate on the ad- 
mission of Nebraska, he says : " When we demand equal rights of the South- 
ern States, we must not be so inconsistent as to admit any new State with a 
constitution disfranchising citizens on account of color. Congress must be 
itself just, if it would recommend it to others. Reconstruction must begin 
at home." Consistency is a jewel. Every thoughtful person must see that 
Northern representatives are in no condition to reconstruct the South until 
their own State Constitutions are purged of all invidious distinctions among 
their citizens. As the fountain rises no higher than its source, how can New 
York press on South Carolina a civilization she has never tried herself. But 
say you, we can coerce the South to do what we have no right to force on a 
loyal State. Has not each State a right to amend her own Constitution and 
establish a genuine republic within her own boundaries? "Let each man 
mend one," says the old proverb, " and the world is mended." Let each 
State bring its own Constitution into harmony with the Federal Constitu- 
tion, and the Union will be a republic. 

We are soon to hold a convention to revise the Constitution of the State 
of New York ; and it is the duty of the people to insist that it be so amended 
as to make all its citizens equal before the law. Could the Empire State 
now take the lead in making herself a genuine republic, all the States would, 



A Genuine Republic. 279 

in time, follow her example, and the problem of reconstruction be thus set- 
tled to the satisfaction of all. Example is more powerful than precept in all 
cases. Were our constitutions free from all class distinctions, with what 
power our representatives could now press their example on the Southern 
States. Is there anything more rasping to a proud spirit than to be rebuked 
for shortcomings by those who are themselves guilty of the grossest viola- 
tions of law and justice ? Does the North think it absurd for its women to 
vote and hold office, the South thinks the same of its negroes. Does the 
North consider its women a part of the family to be represented by the 
" white male citizen," so views the South her negroes. And thus viewing 
them, the South has never taxed her slaves ; but our chivalry never fails 
to send its tax-gatherers to the poorest widow that owns a homestead. 
Would you press impartial suffrage on the South, recognize it first at home. 
Would you have Congress do its duty in the coming session, let the action 
of every State Legislature teach it what that duty is. The work of this 
hour is a broader one than the reconstruction of the Rebel States. It is the 
lifting of the entire nation into higher ideas of justice and equality. It is the 
realization of what the world has never yet seen, a GENUINE REPUBLIC. 

As the ballot is the key to reconstruction, a right knowledge of its use and 
power is the first step in the work before us. Hence, the consideration of 
the question of suffrage is the duty of every American citizen. 

The legal disabilities to the exercise of suffrage (for persons of sound mind 
and body) in the several States, are five age, color, sex, property and edu- 
cation. As age depends on a fixed law, beyond the control of fallible man, 
viz., the revolution of the earth around the sun, it must be impartial, for, 
nolens volens, all men must revolve with their native planet ; and as no Re- 
publican or Democratic majority can make the earth stand still, even for a 
Presidential campaign, they must in time perform that journey often enough 
to become legal voters. As the right to the ballot is not based on intelli- 
gence, it matters not that some boys of eighteen do know more than some 
men of thirty. Inasmuch as boys are not bound by any contract except 
marriage can not sell a horse, or piece of land, or be sued for debt until 
they are twenty-one, this qualification of age seems to be in harmony with 
the laws of the land, and based on common sense. 

As to color and sex, neither time, money or education can make black 
white, or woman man ; therefore such insurmountable qualifications, not to 
be tolerated in a republican government, are unworthy our serious consider- 
ation. " Qualifications," says Senator Sumner, " can not be in their nature 
permanent or insurmountable. Color can not be a qualification any more 
than size, or quality of the hair. A permanent or insurmountable qualifica- 
tion is equivalent to a deprivation of the suffrage. In other words, it is the 
tyranny of taxation without representation ; and this tyranny, I insist, is not 
intrusted to any State in the Union." 

As to property and education, there are some plausible arguments in favor 
of such qualifications, but they are all alike unsatisfactory, illogical and un- 
just. A limited suffrage creates a privileged class, and is based on the false 
idea that government is the natural arbiter of its citizens, while in fact it is the 
creature of their will. In the old days of the colonies when the property quali- 
fication was five pounds that being just the price of a jackass Benjamin 



280 History of Woman Suffrage. 

Franklin facetiously asked, " If a man must own a jackass in order to vote, 
who does the voting, the man or the jackass ? " If reading and money-mak- 
ing were a sure gauge of character, if intelligence and virtue were twin sis- 
ters, these qualifications might do ; but such is not the case. In our late 
war black men were loyal, generous and heroic without the alphabet or mul- 
tiplication table, while men of wealth, educated by the nation, graduates of 
West Point, were false to their country and traitors to their flag. There 
was a time in England's history, when the House of Lords even, could 
neither read nor write. Before the art of printing, were all men fools ? Were 
the Apostles and martyrs worth 250 ? The early Christians, the children of 
art, science and literature, have in all ages struggled with poverty, while 
they blessed the world with their inspirations. The Hero of Judea had not 
where to lay His head ! ! As capital has ever ground labor to the dust, is it 
just and generous to disfranchise the poor and ignorant because they are so? 
If a man can not read, give him the ballot, it is schoolmaster. If he does 
not own a dollar give him the ballot, it is the key to wealth and power. Says 
Lamartine, " universal suffrage is the first truth and only basis of every na- 
tional republic." " The ballot," says Senator Sumner, " is the columbiad of 
our political life, and every citizen who has it is a full-armed monitor." 

But while such grand truths are uttered in the ears of the world, by an 
infamous amendment of the Federal Constitution, the people have sanc- 
tioned the disfranchisement of a majority of the loyal citizens of the nation. 
With sorrow we learn that the Legislature of New York has ratified this 
change of the Constitution. 

Happily for the cause of freedom, the organization we represent here to- 
day, "THE AMERICAN EQUAL RIGHTS ASSOCIATION," has registered its 
protest in the archives of the State against this desecration of the last will 
and testament of the Fathers. It was a mistake for you to confirm to-day 
what Congress proposed a year ago. Recent debates in the Senate show a 
hearty repentance for their past action, and an entire revolution in their 
opinions on this whole question. It was gratifying to find in the discussion 
of the District Franchise Bill, how unanimously the Senate favored the ex- 
tension of suffrage. The thanks of the women of the Nation are especially 
due to Senator Cowan for his motion to strike out the word " male," and to 
the nine distinguished Senators who voted for his amendment. It was pleas- 
ant to see into what fraternal relations this question at once brought all oppos- 
ing elements. The very able and exhaustive manner in which both Repub- 
licans and Democrats pressed their claims to the ballot, through two entire 
sessions of the Senate, is most encouraging to the advocates of the political 
rights of women. 

In view of this liberal discussion in the Senate, and the recent action of 
Congress on the Territories, it is rather singular that our Republican Gov- 
ernor, in referring to the Constitutional Convention in his late message, 
while recommending consideration of many minor matters, should have failed 
to call attention to Art. 2d, Sec. 1, of the Constitution, which denies the fun- 
damental rights of citizenship. As the executive head of the party in this 
State whose political capital is " negro suffrage," it would have been highly 
proper for our worthy Governor to have given his opinion on that odious 
$250 clause in the Constitution. No doubt our judiciary, our criminal legis- 



Women and Negroes a Majority. 281 

lation, our city governments need reforming; our railroads, prisons and 
schools need attention ; but all these are of minor consideration to the per- 
sonal and property rights of the man himself. Said Lalor Shiels, in the 
House of Commons, " strike the Constitution to the center and the lawyer 
sleeps in his closet. But touch the cobwebs in Westminster Hall and the 
spiders start from their hiding places." 

I have called your attention, gentlemen, to some of the flaws in your Con- 
stitution that you may see that there is more important work to be done in 
the coming Convention than any to which Governor Fenton has referred in 
his message. I would also call your attention to the fact, that while His 
Excellency suggests the number of delegates at large to be chosen by the 
two political parties, he makes no provision for the representatives of women 
and " men of color " not worth $250. I would, therefore, suggest to your 
honorable body that you provide for the election of an equal number of del- 
egates at large from the disfranchised classes. But a response to our present 
demand does not legitimately thrust on you the final consideration of the 
whole broad question of suffrage, on which many of you may be unpre- 
pared to give an opinion. The simple point we now press is this : that in a 
revision of our Constitution, when the State is, as it were, resolved into its 
original elements, ALL THE PEOPLE should be represented in the Convention 
which is to enact the laws by which they are to be governed the next twenty 
years. Women and negroes, being seven-twelfths of the people, are a ma- 
jority ; and according to our republican theory, are the rightful rulers of the 
nation. In this view of the case, honorable gentlemen, is it not a very un- 
pretending demand we make, that we shall vote once in twenty years in re- 
vising and amending our State Constitution ? 

But, say you, the majority of women do not make the demand. Grant it. 
What then ? When you proclaimed emancipation, did you go to slave- 
holders and ask if a majority of them were in favor of freeing their slaves ? 
When you ring the changes on " negro suffrage " from Maine to California, 
have you proof positive that a majority of the freedmen demand the ballot ? 
On the contrary, knowing that the very existence of republican institutions 
depends on the virtue, education and equality of the people, did you not, as 
wise statesmen, legislate in all these cases for the highest good of the indi- 
vidual and the nation ? We ask that the same far-seeing wisdom may guide 
your decision on the question now before you. Remember, the gay and 
fashionable throng who whisper in the ears of statesmen, judges, lawyers, 
merchants, " We have all the rights we want," are but the mummies of civ- 
ilization, to be brought back to life only by earthquakes and revolutions. 
Would you know what is in the soul of woman, ask not the wives and 
daughters of merchant princes ; but the creators of wealth those who earn 
their bread by honest toil those who, by a turn in the wheel of fortune, 
stand face to face with the stern realities of life. 

" If you would enslave a people," says Cicero, " first, through ease and lux- 
ury, make them effeminate." When you subsidize labor to your selfish in- 
terests, there is ever a healthy resistance. But, when you exalt weakness 
and imbecility above your heads, give it an imaginary realm of power, illim- 
itable, unmeasured, unrecognized, you have founded a throne for woman on 
pride, selfishness and complacency, before which you may well stand ap- 
VOL. II. 19. 



282 History of Woman Suffrage. 

palled. In banishing Madame De Stael from Paris, the Emperor Napoleon, 
even, bowed to the power of that scepter which rules the world of fashion. 
The most insidious enemy to our republican institutions, at this hour, is 
found in the aristocracy of our women. The ballot-box, that great leveler 
among men, is beneath their dignity. "They have all the rights they want." 
So, in his spiritual supremacy, has the Pope of Rome ! But what of the 
multitude outside the Vatican ! ! ! 

This speech was published in full by the Metropolitan press and 
many of the leading journals* of the State, with fair editorial com- 
ments. 

On June 4th, 1867, the Constitutional Convention assembled in 
Albany, and on the 10th Mr. Graves of Herldmer, moved " that a com- 
mittee of five be appointed by the chair to report at an early day 
whether the Convention should provide that when a majority of 
women voted that they wanted the right of suffrage, they should 
have it," and on the 19th the President, William A. Wheeler, 
appointed the committeef on the " right of suffrage, and the quali- 
fications for holding office." 

The first petition brought before the committee in favor of suf- 
frage for women was presented by George William Curtis, of Rich- 
mond Co., sent by the friends of Human Progress from their Annual 
meeting at Waterloo. 

Martin I. Town send next presented a petition from William John- 
son, Chairman of the " Colored Men's State Committee," pray- 
ing for " equal manhood suffrage." Similar petitions, without any 
concert of action between the parties, were presented simultaneously 
whenever any discussion arose on the suffrage question. But in this 
Convention the demands made by the women were more pressing 
and multitudinous. 

Mr. GRAVES, June 21st, 1867, moved to take up his resolution, " That a 
committee of five be appointed by the chair to report to the convention at 
as early a day as possible, whether, in their opinion, a provision should be 
incorporated in the Constitution authorizing the women in this State to ex- 
ercise the elective franchise, when they shall ask that right by a majority of 



* The Albany Evening Journal of January 34th, says : " Mrs. Stanton had a lar-re audi- 
ence to hear her argument in favor of so amending the Constitution as to permit women and . 
colored men to vote and hold office. She said all that could he said and said it well in 
support of her position, but it is still a problem whether the Judiciary Committee were 
convinced. Like most men of old-fashioned notions, they are slow to believi that women 
would be elevated, either in usefulness, or dignity, by being transferred from the draw- 
ing room and the nnrsery to the ballot-box and the forum ! ! 

t Horace Greeley, Westchestcr Co., Leslie W. Russel, Lawrence Co., William Cassidy, 
Albany Co., William H. Merrill, Wyoming Co., George Williams, Oneida Co., John G 
Schumaker, Kings Co., Isaac L. Etidress, Livingston Co. 



Four Classes of Petitioners. 283 

all the votes given by female citizens over twenty-one years of age, at an 
election called for that purpose, at which women alone shall have the right 
to vote." 

Mr. GRAVES said : Mr. President. I do not desire at this time to discuss 
the merits of' the resolution ; but allow me to suggest that there are four 
classes of persons interested in the questions involved in it. The first class 
is what is opprobriously known as "strong-minded women," who claim the 
right to vote upon the ground that they are interested and identified with 
ourselves in the stability and permanency of our institutions, and that 
their property is made liable for the maintenance of our Government, while 
they have no right to choose the law-makers or select the persons who are 
to assess the value of their property liable to taxation. They claim that they 
are not untaught in the science of government to which the right of admin- 
istration is denied to them. 

The second class includes both males and females who sympathize with 
the first class, and who claim that there is no disparity in the intellect of 
men and women, when an equal opportunity is afforded by education for 
progress and advancement. They also claim that our country is diminish- 
ing all the time in moral integrity and virtue, and ask that a new element 
be introduced into our governmental affairs by which crime shall be les- 
sened and the estimate of moral virtue be made higher. 

The third class urges that there should be no distinction between males 
and females in the exercise of the elective franchise, and they claim that it is 
anti-democratic that there should be a minority in this country to rule its 
destinies. 

There is a fourth class who believe that the right to exercise the elective 
franchise is not inherent, but permissive, and that the people are the Gov- 
ernment, and that this power of the elective franchise is under their imme- 
diate control, and they claim the right to become part and parcel of the 
Government which they help to support and maintain. 

Now these four classes, differing in opinion upon this great question, 
constitute a very large body of worthy, high-minded, and intelligent men 
and women of this State who have long sought to enlarge the elective 
franchise, and they claim the deliberate consideration of this body upon 
the ground of equality, as their innumerable petitions* to this Convention 



* June 20, 1867. Mr. CORBETT presented a memorial from citizens of Syracuse for 
securing the right of suffrage for women on equal terms with men. 

Mr. GRAVES Petition of Mrs. F. D. Fish and 180 other citizens worthy and intelli- 
gent men and women of the city of Utica, asking equal suffrage for men and women. 

Referred to the Committee on Suffrage. 

June 26, 1867. Mr. RATHBUN Petition for universal suffrage for women as well as 
men. 

C. E. PARKER Petition for citizens of Tioga County. 

Mr. CURTIS A petition from Mrs. Daniel Cady, of Johnstown, and 200 others, asking 
to have " male " stricken from the State Constitution. 

E. G. LAPHAM presented a petition. 

Mr. EZRA GRAVKS presented thirty-seven petitions Brooklyn, 1 ; Mt. Morris, 4 ; 
Troy, 1 ; Lima, 1 ; New York City, 8 ; Buffalo, 8 ; Skaneateles, 2 ; Lockport, 1 ; Pough- 
kecpsie, 1 ; Dutchess Connty, 1 ; Utica, 1 ; Fairfleld, Herkimer Co., 1. In all, 2,040 per- 
sons asking for equal suffrage. 



284 History of Woman Suffrage. 

fully show. This resolution gives to women themselves the power of dis- 
cussing and comparing of minds to settle the question whether they will 
avail themselves of the desired right to exercise the power of voting. And 
as it differs from all other questions which have originated here with refer- 
ence to this right of women to vote, I submit it is a proper resolution to be 
referred to a select committee to be appointed for that purpose. 
Mr. Graves' resolution was referred to the Committee on Suffrage. 

June 27th Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony were granted a 
hearing* before the Convention, and at the close of their addresses 
were asked by different members to reply to various objections that 
readily suggested themselves. Among others, Mr. Greeley said : 
" Ladies, you will please remember that the bullet and ballot go 
together. If you vote, are you ready to fight ? " " Certainly," was 
the prompt reply. " We are ready to fight, sir, just as you fought 
in the late war, by sending our substitutes." The colloquy between 
the members and the ladies, prolonged until a late hour, was both 
spicy and instructive. f On the 10th of July a hearing was granted 
to Lucy Stone,:}: which called out deep interest and consideration 
from the members of that body. Later still, George Francis Train 
was most cordially received by the Convention. 



Friday^ June 28th. C. C. DWIGHT Mrs. Eliza Wright Osborn and 22 others, of Au- 
burn, asking suffrage for women. Mr. COOKE Mrs. Lina Vandenburg and 850 others. 
Mr. ARCHER Sundry citizens. Mr. MEAD Mrs. E. A. Kingsbury and 20 others. Mr. 
SCHOONMAKER M. I. Ingraham and others. Mr. HOUSTON Lucia Button. Mr. RATH- 
BUS Mrs. A. H^Sabin and 20 others. J. BROOKS Emma Suydam and 15 others. 

Mr. GRAVES Two memorials. 1st. Schoharie County, 204 men and women for consti- 
tutional amendment prohibiting sale of intoxicating liquors. 2d. Lucia Humphrey and 
30 others for equal suffrage. All went to Committee on Suffrage, except Mr. Graves' 
first, which went to Committee on Adulterated Liquors. 

*Mr. GREELEY, June 26th, from the Committee on Suffrage, offered a resolution that 
" The use of this hall on the 27th, Thursday evening of this week, be granted to the 
Standing Committee on the Right of Suffrage, that they may accord a public hearing to 
the advocates of female suffrage," which was adopted. 

t The Albany Evening Journal of June 28, 1867, says, editorially : 

WOMANHOOD SUFFRAGE. The Assembly Chamber was well filled last evening to listen 
to Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony. Mrs. Stanton made a stirring appeal, and Miss Anthony 
followed. In response to queries, she said she expected that women would yet serve as 
jurors and be drafted. Several hundred had fought in the late war, but when their sex 
was discovered they were dismissed in disgrace ; and to the shame of the Government 
be it said, they were never paid for their services. 

t Mr. Folger offered a resolution That the use of this Chamber be granted to the 
AmeriQan Equal Rights Association for a meeting on the evening of Wednesday, the 
10th inst. 

GEO. FRANCIS TRIAN BEFORE THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION AT ALBANY .The 
Constitutional Convention at Albany has not had many variations from its customary 
slate of topics, but it Is a noteworthy fact that no New York paper mentioned that Geo. 
Francis Train addressed the Convention for two hours on the subject of woman voting 
and the financial policy of the nation. Mr. Train having been the only man to volunteer 
his services in Kansas and before the Convention, it is worthy of note, when the argu- 
ment advanced by our chivalrous press is a sneer, a sarcasm, or an insult, that Mr. 



Horace Greeley's Report. 285 

C. C. DWIGHT, June 26th, offered a resolution that " The Standing Com- 
mittee on the Right of Suffrage be instructed to provide for women to vote 
as to whether they wanted the right to vote after the adoption of the New 
Constitution. 

Mr. MERRITT, July llth, moved that " The question of Woman Suffrage 
be submitted at the election of 1868 or 1869. Referred to the Committee 
of the Whole. 

Horace Greeley, Chairman of the Committee, in his report, after 
recommending universal " manhood suffrage," said : 

Having thus briefly set forth the considerations which seem to us decisive 
in favor of the few and moderate changes proposed, we proceed to indicate 
our controlling reasons for declining to recommend other and in some re- 
spects more important innovations. Your committee does not recommend 
an extension of the elective franchise to women. However defensible in 
theory, we are satisfied that public sentiment does not demand and would 
not sustain an innovation so revolutionary and sweeping, so openly at war 
with a distribution of duties and functions between the sexes as venerable 
and pervading as government itself, and involving transformations so radical 
in social and domestic life. Should we prove to be in error on this head, 
the Convention may overrule us by changing a few words in the first section 
of our proposed article. 

Nor have we seen fit to propose the enfranchisement of boys above the 
age of eighteen years. The current ideas and usages in our day, but espe- 
cially in this country, seem already to set too strongly in favor of the relax- 
ation, if not total overthrow of parental authority, especially over half-grown 
boys. With the sincerest good-will for the class in question, we submit that 
they may spend the hours which they can spare from their labors and their 
lessons more usefully and profitably in mastering the wisdom of the sages 
and philosophers who have elucidated the science of government, than in 
attendance on midnight caucuses, or in wrangling around the polls. 

ALBANY, June 28, 1867. 

HORACE GREELEY, Chairman, WM. H. MERRILL, 
LESLIE W. RUSSELL, GEO. WILLIAMS. 

Mr. Cassidy presented a minority report urging a separate sub- 
mission of the question of negro suffrage, in which he said : 

If the regeneration of political society is to be sought in the incorporation of 
this element into the constituency, it must be done by the direct and ex- 
plicit vote of the electors. We are foreclosed from any other course by the 



Train's defense of women voting was received by the Convention bj- loud and repeated 
applause. The following was the resolution, passed unanimously, offering the hall : 

STATE OF NEW YOKE, IN CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION, > 
ALBANY, December 4, 1867. > 
On motion of Mr. Ballard : 

Sesolved, That the use of the Assembly Chamber be granted to Geo. Francis Train, 
Esq., at 4 P.M. this day. 

By order. LUTHBU CALDWELL, Secretary. 



286 History of Woman Suffrage. 

repeated action* of the State It would be unfaii to the people to de- 
clare that whereas they have again and again refused to accept this change, 
therefore we will incorporate it into the Constitution, and compel them either 
to repeal that instrument, or to accept this measure As to the exten- 
sion of suffrage to women, the undersigned reserve, for the present, any ex- 
pression of opinion. WILLIAM CASSIDY, 

JOHN G. SCHUMAKER. 

The petitionsf for woman suffrage were presented in the Conven- 
tion until they reached in round numbers 20,000. The morning 
Mr. Greeley gave his report the galleries were crowded with ladies, 
and every member present, Democrat as well as Republican, was 
supplied with a petition. As it had been rumored about that Mr. 
Greeley's report would be against suffrage for women, the Demo- 
crats entered with great zest into the presentation. George William 
Curtis, at the special request:}: of the ladies, reserved his for the last. 



* In 1846 the question of negro suffrage was submitted to a popular vote, and negatived 
by 223,884 to 85,306 ; in 1850 it was again defeated by a vote of 337,984 to 197,503 ; a simi- 
lar submission was provided for by a concurrent resolution of the Legislature of 1859, 
which by neglect of the State officer to provide for its publication, was defeated ; but its 
fate may fairly be regarded as further evidence of the indifference of the public toward a 
change. 

t July 1st. Mr. FOWLEB presented a petition from Miss Laura Bosworth and others for 
woman suffrage. 

July 9th. From Gerrit Smith and 180 others of Madison County, for female suffrage. 

Mr. ENDRESS Emma C. Lawrence and 50 others of Westchester, for female suffrage. 

Mr. MUBPHT Thomas N. Cashow and 20 others, of Kings County, for woman suffrage. 

Mr. FULLERTON Mary J. Quackenbo&h and many others, from Newburgh. 

Mr. VAN CAMPEN Mary E. Mead and many others, of Westchester County. 

Mr. BEADLE Mrs. W. S. Shute, Mary C. Bristol, and 120 others from Horse Heads. 

Mr. HAMMOND Mrs. J. C. Holmes and many others from Westchester County. 

July 10th. Mr. TUCKER A petition from a large number of men and women for ex- 
tending the right of suffrage to woman. 

Mr. GRAVES Fifty-four ladies of New York City, asking suffrage for women. 

July llth. Mr. CUBTIS From Charles J. Seymour, Mrs. Mary Newman and 500 others 
from Broome County, for equal suffrage. 

July 12th. Mr. CORBETT Henry Ward Beechcr, Edwin A. Studwell, and many others, 
of Kings County, for woman suffrage. 

July IQth. Mr. FOLGER presented a petition from Emily P. Collins, of Rochester, and 
others, asking that women be granted the privilege of voting, that in 1869 the proposition 
be submitted for all who can read and write. 

July 18th. Mr. GBEKLEY From Mrs. Louisa Howland and many others, of Mt. Ver- 
non, Westchester County, for woman suffrage. 

Mr. CURTIS From Mrs. Eliza Benton and others of New York City, asking for equal 
suffrage. Another from Caroline E. Hubbard and 20 others, of Westchester County. 

July Slst. Mr. POTTER Lydia Baldwin, F. Brucklin, and others, of Erie County, 
asking for the extension of the suffrage to women. 

Mr. GRAVES Jane E. Turner, Rev. C. H. Bebee, and 56 others, Bridgewater, Onelda 
County. Another from Julia M. Sherwood and 22 others, Westchester County, asking for 
woman suffrage. 

J The ladies suggested to Mr. Curtis to present Mrs. Greeley's petition last, and with 
emphasis, that it might attract the attention of the reporters, and thus have Mrs. Gree- 



An Amusing Encounter. 287 

and when he arose and said : " Mr. President, I hold in my hand a 
petition from Mrs. Horace Greeley and three hundred other women 
citizens of Westchester, asking that the word 'male' be stricken 
from the Constitution," the sensation throughout the house was as 
profound as unexpected. Mr. Greeley's chagrin was only equaled 
by the amusement of the other members, and of the ladies in the 
gallery. As he arose to read his report, it being the next thing in 
order, he was evidently embarrassed in view of such a flood of pe- 
titions from all parts of the State ; from his own wife, and most of 
the ladies in his immediate social circle, by seeming to antagonize 
the measure. 

After Mr. Greeley's report, Mr. Graves made several efforts to 
get his resolution adopted in time for the women to vote upon it in 
the spring of 1868. Mr. Weed, of Clinton, also desired that the 
vote for the measure should consist of the majority of the women of 
the State. The great event of the Convention was the speech of 
George William Curtis on the report of the " Committee on the 
right of suffrage and the qualifications to hold office." 

ley's petition and Mr. Greeley's report to antidote each other, and appear side by side in 
the Metropolitan journals. After the Convention adjourned that day, some of the ladies 
lingered in the vestibule to congratulate Mr. Greeley on his conservative report ; but he 
had disappeared through some side door, and could not be found. A few weeks after he 
met Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony at one of Alice Gary's Sunday evening receptions. 
They noticed him slowly making his way toward them, and prepared for the coming 
storm. As he approached, both arose, and with extended hands, exclaimed most cor- 
dially, " Good evening, Mr. Greeley. 1 ' But his hands hung limp and undemonstrative by 
his side, as he said in low and measured words, " You two ladies are the most maneuver- 
ing politicians in the State of New York. You set out to annoy me in the Constitutional 
Convention, and you did it effectually. I saw in the manner my wife's petition was pre- 
sented, that Mr. Curtis was acting under instructions. I saw the reporters prick up their 
ears and knew that my report and Mrs. Greeley's petition would come out together, with 
large headings in the city papers, and probably be called out by the newsboys in the 
street." 

Turning to Mrs. Stanton, he said, " You are so tenacious about your own name, why did 
you not inscribe my wife's maiden name, Mary Cheney Greeley on her petition ?." " Be- 
cause," I replied, "I wanted all the world to know that it was the wife of Horace Gree- 
ley who protested against her husband's report." " Well," said he, "I understand the 
animus of that whole proceeding, and now let me tell you Avhat I intend to do. I have 
Hivc'ii positive instructions that no word of praise shall ever again be awarded you in the 
Tribune, and that if your name is ever necessarily mentioned, it shall be as Mrs..Henry B. 
Stanton ! " And so it has been ever since. 

From that time Mr. Greeley was seemingly hostile to the woman suffrage movement, just 
as he was toward the anti-slavery cause, after the Abolitionists in rolling up 60,000 votes 
for James G. Birney, defeated Henry Clay, and gave the ascendency to the Democrats by 
electing Polk. Clay being a strong Protectionist was a great favorite with Mr. Greeley, 
and his defeat was a sore disappointment, and for years he denounced Abolitionists in- 
dividually and collectively in his scathing editorials. Still in his happier moods he firmly 
believed in the civil and political equality of both women and negroes. 



288 History of Woman Suffrage. 

GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS offered the following amendment :* 
" In the first section, strike out the word ' man ' ; and wherever in that 
section the word ' he ' occurs, add ' or she ' ; and wherever the wocd ' his ' 
occurs, add ' or her.' " 

Mr. CURTIS said : In proposing a change so new to our political practice, 
but so harmonious with the spirit and principles of our Government, it is 
only just that I should attempt to show that it is neither repugnant to 
reason nor hurtful to the State. Yet I confess some embarrassment ; for, 
while the essential reason of the proposition seems to me to be clearly 
defined, the objection to it is vague and shadowy. From the formal open- 
ing of the general discussion of the question in this country, by the Con- 
vention at Seneca Falls in 1848, down to the present moment, the opposi- 
. tion to the suggestion, so far as I am acquainted with it, has been only the 
repetition of a traditional prejudice, or the protest of mere sentimentality ; 
and to cope with these is like wrestling with a malaria, or arguing with the 
east wind. I do not know, indeed, why the Committee have changed the 
phrase " male inhabitant or citizen," which is uniformly used in a constitu- 
tional clause limiting the elective franchise. Under the circumstances, the 
word " man " is obscure, and undoubtedly includes women as much as the 
word " mankind." But the intention of the clause is evident, and the report of 
the Committee makes it indisputable. Had they been willing to say directly 
what they say indirectly, the eighth line and what follows would read, 
" Provided that idiots, lunatics, persons under guardianship, felons, women, 
and persons convicted of bribery, etc., shall not be entitled to vote." In 
their report, the Committee omit to tell us why they politically class the 
women of New York with idiots and criminals. They assert merely that 
the general enfranchisement of women would be a novelty, which is true 
of every step of political progress, and is therefore a presumption in its 
favor ; and they speak of it in a phrase which is intended to stigmatize it 
as unwomanly, which is simply an assumption and a prejudice. I wish to 
know, sir, and I ask in the name of the political justice and consistency of 
this State, why it is that half of the adult population, as vitally interested 
in good government as the other half, who own property, manage estates, 
and pay taxes, who discharge all the duties of good citizens, and are per- 
fectly intelligent and capable, are absolutely deprived of political power, 
and classed with lunatics and felons. The boy will become a man and a 
voter ; the lunatic may emerge from the cloud and resume his rights ; the 
idiot, plastic under the tender hand of modern science, may be moulded 
into the full citizen ; the criminal, whose hand still drips with the blood of 
his country and of liberty, may be pardoned and restored ; but no age, no 



* This amendment was on the following section of Mr. Greeley's Report : 
SECTION I. Every man of the age of twenty-one years who shall have been an inhabi- 
tant of this Stsvte for one year next preceding an election, and for the last thirty days a 
citizen of the United States, and a resident of the election district where he may offer his 
vote, shall be entitled to vote at such election, in said district and not elsewhere, for all 
officers elected by the people. 

Provided, That idiots, lunatics, persons under guardianship, felons, and persons con- 
victed of bribery, unless pardoned or otherwise restored to civil rights, shall not be en- 
titled to vote. . 



George William Ciirtid Speech. 289 

wisdom, no peculiar fitness, no public service, no effort, no desire, can re- 
move from woman this enormous and extraordinary disability. Upon what 
reasonable grounds does it rest ? Upon none whatever. It is contrary to 
natural justice, to the acknowledged and traditional principles of the Amer- 
ican Government, and to the most enlightened political philosophy. The 
absolute exclusion of women from political power in this State is simply 
usurpation. " In every age and country," says the historian Gibbon, nearly 
a hundred years ago, " the wiser or at least the stronger of the two sexes 
has usurped the powers of the State, and confined the other to the cares 
and pleasures of domestic life." 

The historical fact is that the usurping class, as Gibbon calls them, have 
always regulated the position of women by their own theories and conve- 
nience. The barbaric Persian, for instance, punished an insult to the 
woman with death, not because of her but of himself. She was part of him 
And the civilized English Blackstone only repeats the'barbaric Persian 
when he says that the wife and husband form but one person that is the 
husband. Sir, it would be extremely amusing, if it were not tragical, to 
trace the consequences of this theory on human society and the unhappy 
effect upon the progress of civilization of this morbid estimate of the im- 
portance of men. Gibbon gives a curious instance of it, and an instance 
which recalls the spirit of the modern English laws of divorce. There was 
a temple in Rome to the goddess who presided over the peace of marriages. 
" But," says the historian, " her very name, Viriplaca the appeaser of hus- 
bands shows that repentance and submission were always expected from 
the wife," as if the offense usually came from her. In the " Lawe's resolu- 
tion of Women's Rights," published in the year 1632, a book which I have 
not seen, but of which there are copies in the country, the anonymous and 
quaint author says, and with a sly satire : " It is true that man and woman 
are one person, but understand in what manner. When a small brooke or 
little river incorporateth with Rhodanus, Humber, or the Thames, the poor 
rivulet looseth her name ; it is carried and recarried with the new associate 
it beareth no sway it possesseth nothing during coverture. A woman as 
soon as she is married is called covert in Latine, nupta that is, veiled ; as 
it were overclouded and shadowed ; she hath lost her streame. I may more 
truly, farre away, say to a married woman, her new self is her superior ; her 

companion her master See here the reason of that which I touched 

before that women have no voice in Parliament ; they make no laws ; 
they consent to none ; they abrogate none. All of them are understood 
either married or to be married, and their desires are to their husbands." 

From this theory of ancient society, that woman is absorbed in man ; 
that she is a social inferior and a subordinate part of man ; springs the sys- 
tem of laws in regard to women which in every civilized country is now in 
course of such rapid modification, and it is this theory which so tenaciously 
lingers as a traditional prejudice in our political customs. But a State 
which, like New York, recognizes the equal individual rights of all its 
members, declaring that none of them shall be disfranchised unless by the 
law of the land or the judgment of his peers, and which acknowledges 
women as property-holders and taxable, responsible citizens, has wholly 
renounced the old Feudal and Pagan theory, and has no right to continue 



290 History of Woman Suffrage. 

the evil condition which springs from it. The honorable and eloquent 
gentleman from Onondaga said that he favored every enlargement of the 
franchise consistent with the safety of the State. Sir, I heartily agree with 
him, and it was the duty of the Committee in proposing to continue the 
exclusion of women, to show that it is necessary to the welfare and safety 
of the State that the whole sex shall be disfranchised. It is in vain for the 
Committee to say that I ask for an enlargement of the franchise and must, 
therefore, show the reason. Sir, I show the reason upon which this fran- 
chise itself rests, and which, in its very nature, forbids arbitrary exclusion ; 
and I urge the enfranchisement of women on the ground that whatever 
political rights men have women have equally. 

I have no wish to refine curiously upon the origin of government. If any 
one insists, with the honorable gentleman from Broome, that there are no 
such things as natural political rights, and that no man is born a voter, I 
will not now stop to argue with him ; but as I believe the honorable gen- 
tleman from Broome is by profession a physician and surgeon, I will sug- 
gest to him that if no man is born a voter, so no man is born a man, for 
every man is born a baby. But he is born with the right of becoming a 
man without hindrance ; and I ask the honorable gentleman, as an Ameri- 
can citizen and political philosopher, whether, if every man is not born a 
voter, he is not born with the right of becoming a voter upon equal terms 
with other men ? What else is the meaning of the phrase which I find in 
the New York Tribune of Monday, and have so often found there, " The 
radical basis of government is equal rights for all citizens." There are, as 
I think we shall all admit, some kinds of natural rights. This summer air 
that breathes benignant around our national anniversary, is vocal with the 
traditional eloquence with which those rights were asserted by our fathers. 
From all the burning words of the time, I quote those of Alexander Ham- 
ilton, of New York, in reply, as my honorable friend the Chairman of the 
Committee will remember, to the Tory farmer of Westchester : " The sacred 
rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or 
dusty records. They are written as with a sunbeam in the whole volume 
of human nature by the hand of the Divinity itself, and can never be erased 
or obscured by mortal power." In the next year, Thomas Jefferson, of 
Virginia, summed up the political faith of our fathers in the Great Declara- 
tion. Its words vibrate through the history of those days. As the lyre of 
Amphion raised the walls of the city, so they are the music which sing 
course after course of the ascending structure of American civilization into 
its place. Our fathers stood indeed upon technical and legal grounds when 
the contest with Great Britain began, but as tyranny encroached they rose 
naturally into the sphere of fundamental truths as into a purer air. Driven 
by storms beyond sight of land, the sailor steers by the stars ; and our 
fathers, compelled to explore the whole subject of social rights and duties, 
derived their government from what they called self-evident truths. Des- 
pite the brilliant and vehement eloquence of Mr. Choate, they did not deal 
in glittering generalities, and the Declaration of Independence was not the 
passionate manifesto of a revolutionary war, but the calm and simple state- 
ment of a new political philosophy and practice. 

The rights which they declared to be inalienable are indeed what are 



The Consent of the Governed. 291 

usually called natural, as distinguished from political rights, but they are 
not limited by sex. A woman has the same right to her life, liberty and 
property that a man has, and she has consequently the same right to an 
equality of protection that he has ; and this, as I understand it, is what is 
meant by the phrase, the right of suffrage. If I have a natural right to that 
hand, I have an equal natural right to everything that secures to me its 
use, provided it does not harm the equal right of another ; and if I have a 
natural right to my life and liberty, I have the same right to everything 
that protects that life and liberty which any other man enjoys. I should 
like my honorable friend, the Chairman of this Committee, to show me any 
right which God gave him, which he also gave to me, for which God gave 
him a claim to any defense which He has not given to me. And I ask the 
same question for every woman in this State. Have they less natural right 
to life, liberty, and property than my honorable friend the Chairman of the 
Committee ; and is it not, to quote the words of his report, an extremely 
" defensible theory " that he can not justly deprive the least of those women 
of any protection of those rights which he claims for himself ? No, sir, the 
natural, or what we call civil right, and its political defense, go together. 
This was the impregnable logic of the Revolution. Lord Gower sneered in 
Parliament at the American Colonists a century ago, as Mr. Robert Lowe 
sneers at the English Reformers to-day : " Let the Americans talk about 

their natural and divine rights I am for enforcing these measures." 

Dr. Johnson bellowed across the Atlantic, " Taxation, no Tyranny." James 
Otis spoke for America, for common sense, and for eternal justice, in say- 
ing, " No good reason, however, can be given in any country, why every 
man of a sound mind should not have his vote in the election of a repre- 
sentative. If a man has but little property to protect and defend, yet his 
life and liberty are things of some importance." And long before James 
Otis, Lord Somers said to a committee of the House of Commons, that the 
possession of the vote is the only true security which an Englishman has 
for the possession of his life and property. 

Every person, then, is born with an equal claim to every kind of protection 
of his natural rights which any other person enjoys. The practical ques- 
tion, therefore, is how shall this protection be best attained ? and this is 
the question of government which, according to the Declaration, is estab- 
lished for the security of these rights. The British theory was that they 
could be better secured by an intelligent few than by the ignorant and 
passionate multitude. Goldsmith expressed it in singing: 

" For just experience shows in ever soil, 
That those who think must govern those who toil." 

But nobody denies that the government of the best is the best govern- 
ment ; the only question is how to find the best, and common sense replies : 

" The good, 'tis true, are heaven's peculiar care ; 
But who but heaven shall show us who they are?" 

Our fathers answered the question of the best and surest protection of 
natural right by their famous phrase, " the consent of the governed." That 
is to say, since every man is born with equal natural rights, he is entitled 



292 History of Woman Suffrage. 

to an equal protection of them with all other men ; and since government 
is that protection, right reason and experience alike demand that every 
person shall have a voice in the government upon perfectly equal and 
practicable terms ; that is, upon terms which are not necessarily and abso- 
lutely insurmountable by any part of the people. 

Now these terms can not rightfully be arbitrary. But the argument of 
the honorable gentleman from Schenectady, whose lucid and dignified dis- 
course needs no praise cf mine, and the arguments of others who have 
derived government from society, seemed to assume that the political peo- 
ple may exclude and include at their pleasure ; that they may establish 
purely arbitrary tests, such as height, or weight, or color, or sex. This was 
substantially the squatter sovereignty of Mr. Douglas, who held that the 
male white majority of the settlers in a territory might deprive a colored 
minority of all their rights whatever ; and he declared that they had the 
right to do it. The same right that this Convention has to hang me at this 
moment to that chandelier, but no other right. Brute force, sir, may do 
anything ; but we are speaking of rights, and of rights under this Govern- 
ment, and I deny that the people of the State of New York can rightfully, 
that is, according to right reason and the principles of this Government 
derived from it, permanently exclude any class of persons or any person 
whatever from a voice in the Government, unless it can be clearly estab- 
lished that their participation in political power would be dangerous to the 
State ; and, therefore, the honorable gentleman from Kings was logically 
correct in opposing the enfranchisement of the colored population, upon 
the ground that they were an inferior race, of limited intelligence, a kind 
of Chimpanzee at best. I think, however, sir, the honorable and scholarly 
gentleman even he will admit, that at Pillow, at Milliken's Bend, at Fort 
Wagner, the Chimpanzees did uncommonly well ; yes, sir, as gloriously and 
immortally as our own fathers at Bunker Hill and Saratoga. " There 
ought to be no pariahs," says John Stuart Mill, " in a full grown and civil- 
ized nation ; no persons disqualified except through their own default 

Every one is degraded, whether aware of it or not, when other people, 
without consulting him, take upon themselves unlimited power to regulate 
his destiny." " No arrangement of the suffrage, therefore, can be perma- 
nently satisfactory in which any person or class is peremptorily excluded ; 
in which the electoral privilege is not open to all persons of full age who 
desire it." (Rep. G., p. 167.) And Thomas Hare, one of the acutest of 
living political thinkers, says that in all cases where a woman fulfills the 
qualification which is imposed upon a man, " there is no sound reason for 
excluding her from the parliamentary franchise. The exclusion is probably 
a remnant of the feudal law, and is not in harmony with the other civil 
institutions of the country. There would be great propriety in celebrating 
a reign which has been productive of so much moral benefit by the aboli- 
tion of an anomaly which is so entirely without any justifiable foundation." 
(Hare, p. 280.) 

The Chairman of the Committee asked Miss Anthony, the other evening, 
whether, if suffrage was a natural right, it could be denied to children. Her 
answer seemed to me perfectly satisfactory. She said simply, " All that we 
ask is an equal and not an arbitrary regulation. If you have the right, we 



OUT Interests are Identical. 293 

have it." The honorable Chairman would hardly deny that to regulate the 
exercise of a right according to obvious reason and experience is one thing, 
to deny it absolutely and forever is another. And this is the safe practical 
rule of our government, as James Madison expressed it, that " it be derived 
from the great body of the people, not from an inconsiderable portion or 
favored class of it." When Mr. Gladstone, in his famous speech that startled 
England, said in effect, that no one could be justly excluded from the fran- 
chise, except upon grounds of personal unfitness or public danger, he merely 
echoed the sentiment of Joseph Warren, which is gradually seen to be the 
wisest and most practical political philosophy : " I would have such a gov- 
ernment as should give every man the greatest liberty to do what he chooses, 
consistent with restraining him from doing any injury to another." Is not 
that the kind of government, sir, which we wish to propose for this State ? 
And if every person in New York has a natural right to life, liberty, and 
property, and a co-existent claim to a share in the government which defends 
them, regulated only by perfectly equitable conditions, what are the practi- 
cal grounds upon which it is proposed to continue the absolute and hopeless 
disfranchisement of half the adult population ? 

It is alleged that women are already represented by men ? Where are 
they so represented ? and when was the choice made ? If I am told that 
they are virtually represented, I reply, with James Otis, that " no such phrase 
as virtual representation is known in law or Constitution. It is altogether a 
subtlety and illusion, wholly unfounded and absurd." I repeat, if they are 
represented, when was the choice made ? Nobody pretends that they have 
ever been consulted. It is a mere assumption to the effect that the interest 
and affection of men will lead them to just and wise legislation for women 
as well as for themselves. But this is merely the old appeal for the political 
power of a class. It is just what the British parliament said to the colonies 
a hundred years ago. " We are all under the same government," they said : 
" Our interests are identical ; we are all Britons ; Britannia rules the wave ; 
God save the King ! and down with sedition and the Sons of Liberty ! " The 
colonies chafed and indignantly protested, because the assumption that there- 
fore fair laws were made was not true ; because they were discovering for 
themselves what every nation has discovered the truth that shakes England 
to-day, and brings Disraeli and the Tory party to their knees, and has al- 
ready brought this country to blood that there is no class of citizens, and 
no single citizen, who can safely be intrusted with the permanent and 
exclusive possession of political power. "There is no instance on record," 
says Buckle, in his history of civilization in England, " of any class possess- 
ing power without abusing it." It is as true of men as a class as it is of an 
hereditary nobility, or of a class of property-holders. Men are not wise 
enough, nor generous enough, nor pure enough, to legislate fairly for wom- 
en. The laws of the most civilized nations depress and degrade women. 
The legislation is in favor of the legislating class. In the celebrated debate 
upon the Marriage Amendment Act in England, Mr. Gladstone said that 
" when the gospel came into the world woman was elevated to an equality 
with her stronger companion." Yet, at the very time he was speaking, the 
English law of divorce, made by men to regulate their domestic relations 
with women, was denounced by the law lords themselves as " disgusting and 



294 History of Woman Suffrage. 

demoralizing " in its operation, " barbarous," " indecent," " a disgrace to the 
country," and "shocking to the sense of right." Now, if the equality of 
which Mr. Gladstone spoke had been political as well as sentimental, does 
he or any statesman suppose that the law of divorce would have been what 
it then was, or that the law of England to-day would give all the earnings of 
a married woman to her husband, or that of France forbid a woman to re- 
ceive any gift without her husband's permission ? 

We ask women to confide in us, as having the same interests with them. 
Did any despot ever say anything else ? And, if it be safe or proper for 
any intelligent part of the people to relinquish exclusive political power to 
any class, I ask the Committee, who proposed that women should be com- 
pelled to do this ? To what class, however rich, or intelligent, or honest, 
they would themselves surrender their power ? and what they would do if 
any class attempted to usurp that power? They know, as we all know, as 
our own experience has taught us, that the only security of natural right is 
the ballot. They know, and the instinct of the whole loyal land knows, that, 
when we had abolished slavery, the emancipation could be completed and 
secured only by the ballot in the hands of the emancipated class. Civil 
rights were a mere mocking name until political power gave them substance. 
A year ago, Gov. Orr of South Carolina told us that the rights of the freed- 
men were safest in the hands of their old masters. " Will you walk into my 
parlor, said the spider to the fly ? " New Orleans, Memphis, and countless 
and constant crimes, showed what that safety was. Then, hesitating no lon- 
ger, the nation handed the ballot to the freedmen, and said, " Protect your- 
selves ! " And now Gov. Orr says that the part of wisdom for South Caro- 
lina is to cut loose from all parties, and make a cordial alliance with the col- 
ored citizens. Gov. Orr knows that a man with civil rights merely is a 
blank cartridge. Give him the ballot, and you add a bullet, and make him 
effective. In that section of the country, seething with old hatreds and 
wounded pride, and a social system upheaved from the foundation, no other 
measure could have done for real pacification in a century what the mere 
promise of the ballot has done in a year. The one formidable peril in the 
whole subject of reconstruction has been the chance that Congress would 
continue in the Southern States the political power in the hands of a class, 
as the report of the Committee proposes that we shall do in New York. 

If I am asked what do women want the ballot for, I answer the question 
with another, what do men want it for? Why do the British workmen at 
this moment so urgently demand it ? Look into the British laws regulating 
labor, and you will see why. They want the ballot because the laws affecting 
labor and capital are made by the capitalist class alone and are therefore un- 
just. I do not forget the progressive legislation of New York in regard to 
the rights of women. The Property Bill of 1860, and its supplement, ac- 
cording to the New York Tribune, redeemed five thousand women from 
pauperism. In the next year, Illinois put women in the same position 
with men, as far as property rights and remedies are concerned. I mention 
these facts with pleasure, as I read that Louis Napoleon will, under certain 
conditions, permit the French people to say what they think. But, if such 
reforms are desirable, they would certainly have been sooner and more 
wisely effected could women have been a positive political power. Upon 



A. Revolutionary Innovation. 295 

this point one honorable gentleman asked Mrs. Stanton whether the laws 
both for men and women were not constantly improving, and whether, there- 
fore, it was not unfair to attribute the character of the laws about women to 
the fact that men made them. The reply is very evident. If women alone 
made the laws, legislation for both men and women would undoubtedly be 
progressive. Does the honorable gentleman think, therefore, that women 
only should make the laws ? 

It is true, Mr. Chairman, that, in the ordinary and honorable sense of the 
words, women are represented. Laws are made for them by another class, 
and upon the theories which that class, without the fear of political opposi- 
tion, may choose to entertain, and in direct violation of the principles upon 
which, in their own case, they tenaciously insist. I live, sir, in the county of 
Richmond. It has a population of some 27,000 persons. They own prop- 
erty, and manage it. They are taxed, and pay their taxes ; and they fulfill the 
duties of citizens with average fidelity. But if the Committee had intro- 
duced a clause into the section they propose to this effect, " Provided that 
idiots, lunatics, persons under guardianship, felons, inhabitants of the county 
of Richmond, and persons convicted of bribery, shall not be entitled to vote," 
they would not have proposed a more monstrous injustice, nor a grosser in- 
consistency with every fundamental right and American principle, than in 
the clause they recommend ; and in that case, sir, what do you suppose would 
have been my reception had I returned to my friends and neighbors, and 
had said to them, " The Convention thinks that you are virtually represented 
by the voters of Westchester and Chautauqua " ? 

Mr. Chairman, I have no superstition about the ballot. I do not suppose 
it would immediately right all the wrongs of women, any more than it has 
righted all those of men. But what political agency has righted so many ? 
Here are thousands of miserable men all around us ; but they have every 
path opened to them. They have their advocates ; they have their votes ; 
they make the laws, and, at last and at worst, they have their strong right 
hands for defense. And here are thousands of miserable women pricking 
back death and dishonor with a little needle ; and now the sly hand of sci- 
ence is stealing that little needle away. The ballot does not make those 
men happy nor respectable nor rich nor noble ; but they guard it for them- 
selves with sleepless jealousy, because they know it is the golden gate to 
every opportunity ; and precisely the kind of advantage it gives to one sex, 
it would give to the other. It would arm it with the most powerful weapon 
known to political society ; it would maintain the natural balance of the 
sexes in human affairs, and secure to each fair play within its sphere. 

But, sir, the Committee tell us that the suffrage of women would be a rev- 
olutionary innovation ; it would disturb the venerable traditions. Well, sir, 
about the year 1790, women were first recognized as school-teachers in 
Massachusetts. At that time, the New England " school-marm " (and I use 
the word with affectionate respect) was a revolutionary innovation. She 
has been abroad ever since, and has been by no means the least efficient, 
but always the most modest and unnoticed, of the great civilizing influences 
in this country. Innovation ! why, sir, when Sir Samuel Romilly proposed 
to abolish the death-penalty for stealing a handkerchief, the law officers of 
the crown said it would endanger the whole criminal law of England. When 



296 History of Woman Suffrage. 

the bill abolishing the slave-trade passed. the House of Lords, Lord St. Vin- 
cent rose and stalked out, declaring that he washed his hands of the ruin of 
the British empire. When the Greenwich pensioners saw the first steamer 
upon the Thames, they protested that they did not like the steamer, for it 
was contrary to nature. When, at the close of the reign of Charles II., Lon- 
don had half a million of people, there was a fierce opposition to street- 
lamps, such is the hostility of venerable traditions to an increase of light. 
When Mr. Jefferson learned that New York had explored the route of a 
canal, he benignly regarded it, in the spirit of our Committee, as, doubtless, 
" defensible in theory " ; for he said that it was " a very fine project, and 
might be executed a century hence." And, fifty-six years ago, Chancellor 
Livingston wrote from this city, that the proposition of a railroad, shod with 
iron, to move heavy weights four miles an hour, was ingenious, perhaps " the- 
oretically defensible " ; but, upon the whole, the road would not be so cheap 
or convenient as a canal. In this country, sir, the venerable traditions are 
used to being disturbed. America was clearly designed to be a disturber of 
traditions, and to leave nobler precedents than she found. So, a few months 
ago, what the committee call a revolutionary innovation was proposed by 
giving the ballot to the freedmen in the District of Columbia. The awful 
results of such a revolution were duly set forth in one of the myriad veto 
messages of the President of the United States. But they have voted. If 
anybody proposed to disturb the election, it was certainly not the new vot- 
ers. The election was perfectly peaceful, and not one of the presidential 
pangs has been justified. So with this reform. It is new in the extent pro- 
posed. It is as new as the harvest after the sowing, and it is as natural. The 
resumption of rights long denied or withheld never made a social convul- 
sion : that is produced by refusing them. The West-Indian slaves received 
their liberty, praying upon their knees ; and the influence of the enfranchise- 
ment of women will glide into society as noiselessly as the dawn increases 
into day. 

Or shall I be told that women, if not numerically counted at the polls, do 
yet exert an immense influence upon politics, and do not really need the bal- 
lot. If this argument was seriously urged, I should suffer my eyes to rove 
through this chamber and they would show me many honorable gentlemen 
of reputed political influence. May they, therefore, be properly and justly 
disfranchised ? I ask the honorable Chairman of the Committee, whether he 
thinks that a citizen should have no vote because he has influence ? What 
gives influence ? Ability, intelligence, honesty. Are these to be excluded 
from the polls ? Is it only stupidity, ignorance and rascality which ought to 
possess political power ? 

Or, will it be said that women do not want the ballot and ought to be 
asked ? And upon what principle ought they to be asked ? When natural 
rights or their means of defense have been immemorially denied to a 
large class, does humanity, or justice, or good sense require that they should 
be registered and called to vote upon their own restoration ? Why, Mr. 
Chairman, it might as well be said that Jack the Giant Killer ought to have 
gravely asked the captives in the ogre's dungeon whether they wished to be 
released. It must be assumed that men and women wish to enjoy their nat- 
ural rights, as that the eyes wish light or the lungs an atmosphere. Did we 



To Vote is Unladylike. 297 

wait for emancipation until the slaves petitioned to be free ? No, sir, all our 
lives had been passed in ingenious and ignominious efforts to sophisticate 
and stultify ourselves for keeping them chained ; and when war gave us a 
legal right to snap their bonds, we did not ask them whether they preferred 
to remain slaves. We knew that they were men, and that men by nature 
walk upright, and if we find them bent and crawling, we know that the pos- 
ture is unnatural whether they may think so or not. In the case of women 
we acknowledge that they have the same natural rights as ourselves we see 
that they hold property and pay taxes, and we must of necessity suppose 
that they wish to enjoy every security of those rights that we possess. So 
when in this State, every year, thousands of boys come of age, we do not 
solemnly require them to tell us whether they wish to vote. We assume, of 
course, that they do, and we say to them, " Go, and upon the same terms with 
the rest of us, vote as you choose." But gentlemen say that they know a great 
many women who do not wish to vote, who think it is not ladylike, or what- 
ever the proper term may be. Well, sir, I have known many men who have 
habitually abstained from politics because they were so " ungentlemanly," 
and who thought that no man could touch pitch without defilement. Now 
what would the honorable gentlemen who know women who do not wish to 
vote, haye thought of a proposition that I should not vote, because my 
neighbors did not wish to ? There may have been slaves who preferred to 
remain slaves was that an argument against freedom ? Suppose that there 
are a majority of the women of this State who do not wish to vote is that 
a reason for depriving one woman who is taxed of her equal representation, 
or one innocent person of the equal protection of his life and liberty ? 

Shall nothing ever be done by statesmen until wrongs are so intolerable that 
they take society by the throat ? Did it show the wisdom of British Con- 
servatism that it waited to grant the Reform bill of 1832 until England hung 
upon the edge of civil war ? When women and children were worked sixteen 
hours a day in English factories, did it show practical good sense to delay a 
" short time " bill until hundreds of thousands of starving workmen agreed to 
starve yet more, if need be, to relieve the overwork of their families, and 
until the most pitiful procession the sun ever shone upon, that of the factory 
children, just as they left their work, marched through the streets of Man- 
chester, that burst into sobs and tears at the sight ? Yet if, in such instances, 
where there was so plausible an adverse appeal founded upon vested' inter- 
ests and upon the very theory of the government, it was unwise to wait until 
a general public outcry imperatively demanded the reform, how wholly need- 
less to delay in this State a measure which is the natural result of our most 
cherished principles, and which threatens to disturb or injure nothing what- 
ever. The amendment proposes no compulsion like the old New England 
law, which fined every voter who did not vote. If there are citizens of the 
State who think it unladylike or ungentlemanlike to take their part in the 
government, let them stay at home. But do not, I pray you, give them au- 
thority to detain wiser and better citizens from their duty. 

But I shall be told, in the language of the Report of the Committee, that 

the proposition is openly at war with the distribution of functions and duties 

between the sexes. Translated into English, Mr. Chairman, this means that 

it is unwomanly to vote. Well, sir, I know that at the very mention of the 

VOL. H. 20. 



298 History of Woman Suffrage. 

political rights of women, there arises in many minds a dreadful vision of a 
mighty exodus of the whole female world, in bloomers and spectacles, from 
the nursery and kitchen to the polls. It seems to be thought that if women 
practically took part in politics, the home would be left a howling wilderness 
of cradles, and a chaos of undarned stockings and buttonless shirts. But how 
is it with men ? Do they desert their workshops, their plows, and offi- 
ces, to pass their time at the polls ? Is it a credit to a man to be called a 
professional politician ? The pursuits of men in the world, to which they are 
directed by the natural aptitude of sex, and to which they must devote their 
lives, are as foreign from political functions as those of women. To take an 
extreme case : there is nothing more incompatible with political duties in 
cooking and taking care of children than there is in digging ditches or mak- 
ing shoes, or in any other necessary employment, while in every superior in- 
terest of society growing out of the family, the stake of women is not less 
than men, and their knowledge is greater. In England, a woman who owns 
shares in the East-India Company may vote. In this country she may vote 
as a stockholder upon a railroad from one end of the country to another. 
But if she sells her stock, and buys a house with the money, she has no voice 
in the laying out of the road before her door, which her house is taxed to 
keep and pay for. And why, in the name of good sense, if a responsible 
human being may vote upon specific industrial projects, may she not vote 
upon the industrial regulation of the State ? There is no more reason that 
men should assume to decide participation in politics to be unwomanly than 
that woman should decide for men that it is unmanly. It is not our preroga- 
tive to keep women feminine. I think, sir, they may be trusted to defend the 
delicacy of their own sex. Our success in managing ours has not been so con- 
spicuous that we should urgently desire more labor of the same kind. Nat- 
ure is quite as wise as we. Whatever their sex incapacitates women from do- 
ing they will not do. Whatever duty is consistent with their sex and their 
relation to society, they will properly demand to do until they are permitted. 
The reply to the assertion that participation in political power is unwom- 
anly, and. tends to subvert the family relation, is simple and unanswerable. 
It is that we can not know what is womanly until we see the folly of insisting 
that the theories of men settle the question. We know now what the con- 
venience and feelings of men decide to be womanly. We shall know what is 
womanly in the same sense that we know what is manly, only when women 
have the same equality of development and the same liberty of choice as 
men. The amendment I offer is merely a prayer that you will remove from 
women a disability, and secure to them the same freedom of choice that we 
enjoy. If the instincts of sex, of maternity, of domesticity, are not persua- 
sive enough to keep them in the truest sense women, it is the most serious 
defect yet discovered in the divine order of nature. When, therefore, the 
Committee declare that voting is at war with the distribution of functions 
between the sexes, what do they mean ? Are not women as much interested 
in good government as men ? There is fraud in the Legislature ; there is cor- 
ruption in the courts ; there are hospitals, and tenement-houses, and prisons ; 
there are gambling-houses, and billiard-rooms, and brothels ; there are grog- 
shops at every corner, and I know not what enormous proportion of crime in 
the State proceeds from them ; there are 40,000 drunkards in the State, and 



Sit Barenecked in Public. 299 

their hundreds of thousands of children all these things are subjects of leg- 
islation, and under the exclusive legislation of men the crime associated with 
all these things becomes vast and complicated. Have the wives, and moth- 
ers, and sisters of New York less vital interest in them, less practical knowl- 
edge of them and their proper treatment, than the husbands and fathers ? No 
man is so insane as to pretend it. Is there then any natural incapacity in 
women to understand politics ? It is not asserted. Are they lacking in the 
necessary intelligence ? But the moment that you erect a standard of intel- 
ligence which is sufficient to exclude women as a sex, that moment most of 
the male sex would be disfranchised. Is it that they ought not to go to pub- 
lic political meetings ? But we earnestly invite them. Or that they should 
not go to the polls ? Some polls, I allow, in the larger cities, are dirty and 
dangerous places ; and those it is the duty of the police to reform. But no 
decent man wishes to vote in a grog-shop, nor to have his Head broken while 
he is doing it, while the mere act of dropping a ballot in a box is about the 
simplest, shortest, and cleanest that can be done. Last winter Senator Fre- 
linghuysen, repeating, I am sure thoughtlessly, the common rhetoric of the 
question, spoke of the high and holy mission of women. But if people, with 
a high and holy mission, may innocently sit bare-necked in hot theatres to 
be studied through pocket-telescopes until midnight by any one who chooses, 
how can their high and holy mission be harmed by their quietly dropping a 
ballot in a box ? What is the high and holy mission of any woman but 
to be the best and most efficient human being possible ? To enlarge the 
sphere of duty and the range of responsibility, where there are adequate 
power and intelligence, is to heighten, not to lessen, the holiness of life. 

But if women vote, they must sit on juries. Why not ? Nothing is plainer 
than that thousands of women who are tried every year as criminals are not 
tried by their peers. And if a woman is bad enough to commit a heinous 
crime, must we absurdly assume that women are too good to know that there 
is such a crime ? If they may not sit on juries, certainly they ought -not to 
be witnesses. A note in Howell's State Trials, to which my attention was 
drawn by one of my distinguished colleagues in the convention, quotes an 
ancient work, " Probation by Witnesses," by Sir George Mackenzie, in which 
he says : " The reason why women are excluded from witnessing must be 
either that they are subject to too much compassion, andjo ought not to be 
more received in criminal cases than in civil cases ; or else the law was un- 
willing t to trouble them, and thought it might learn them too much confi- 
dence, and make them subject to too much familiarity with men and stran- 
gers, if they were necessitated to vague up and down at all courts upon all 
occasions." Hume says this rule was held as late as the beginning of the 
eighteenth century. But if too much fymiliaritywith men be so pernicious, 
are men so pure that they alone should make laws for women, and so honor- 
able that they alone should try women for breaking them ? It is within a 
very few years at the Liverpool Assizes in a case involving peculiar evidence, 
that Mr. Russell said : " The evidence of women is, in some respects, superior 
to that of men. Their power of judging of minute details is better, and when 
there are more than two facts and something be wanting, their intuitions 
supply the deficiency." " And precisely the qualities which fit them to give 
evidence," says Mrs. Dall, to whom we owe this fact, "fit them to sift and 
test it." 



300 History of Woman Suffrage. 

But, the objectors continue, would you have women hold office ? If they 
are capable and desirous, why not ? They hold office now most acceptably. 
In my immediate neighborhood, a postmistress has been so faithful an officer 
for seven years, that when there was a rumor of her removal, it was a mat- 
ter of public concern. This is a familiar instance in this country. Scott's 
" Antiquary " shows that a similar service was not unknown in Scotland. In 
" Notes and Queries," ten years ago (Vol. II., Sec. 2, 1856, pp. 83, 204), Alex- 
ander Andrews says : " It was by no means unusual for females to serve the 
office of overseer in small rural parishes," and a communication in the same 
publication (First Series, Vol. II., p. 383) speaks of a curious entry in the 
Harleian Miscellany (MS. 980, fol. 153) : " The Countess of Richmond, mother 
to Henry VII., was a Justice of the Peace. Mr. Atturney said if it was so, it 
ought to have been by commission, for which he had made many an hower's 
search for the record, but could never find it, but he had seen many arbitri- 
ments that were made by her. Justice Joanes affirmed that he had often 
heard from his mother of the Lady Bartlett, mother to the Lord Bartlett, 
that she was a Justice of the Peace, and did set usually upon the bench with 
the other Justices in Gloucestershire ; that she was made so by Queen Mary, 
upon her complaint to her of the injuries she sustained by some of that 
county, and desiring for redress thereof ; that as she herself, was Chief-Jus- 
tice of all England, so this lady might be in her own county, which accord- 
ingly the Queen granted. Another example was alleged of one Rowse, 

in Suffolk, who usually at the assizes and sessions there held, set upon the 
bench among the Justices gladio ctncta." The Countess of Pembroke was 
hereditary sheriff of Westmoreland, and exercised her office. Henry the 
VHIth granted a commission of inquiry, under the great seal, to Lady Ann 
Berkeley, who opened it at Gloucester, and passed sentence under it. Henry 
VIII's daughter, Elizabeth Tudor, was Queen of England, in name and in 
fact, during the most illustrious epoch of English history. Was Elizabeth in- 
competent ? Did Elizabeth unsex herself ? Or do you say that she was an 
exceptional woman ? So she was, but no more an exceptional woman than 
Alfred, Marcus Aurelius, or Napoleon were exceptional men. It was held by 
some of the old English writers that a woman might serve in almost any of 
the great offices of the kingdom. And, indeed, if Victoria may deliberate in 
council with her ministers, why may not any intelligent English woman de- 
liberate in Parliament, or any such American woman in Congress ? I men- 
tion Elizabeth, Maria Theresa, Catherine, and all the famous Empresses and 
Queens, not to prove the capacity of women for the most arduous and re- 
sponsible office, for that is undeniable, but to show the hollowness of the 
assertion that there is an instinctive objection to the fulfillment of such offi- 
ces by women. Men who say so do not really think so. The whole history 
of the voting and office-holding of women shows that whenever men's theo- 
ries of the relation of property to the political franchise, or of the lineal suc- 
cession of the government, require that women shall vote or hold office, the 
objection of impropriety and incapacity wholly disappears. If it be unwom- 
anly for a woman to vote, or to hold office, it is unwomanly for Victoria to 
be Queen of England. Surely if our neighbors had thought they would be 
better represented in this convention by certain women, there is no good rea- 
son why they should have been compelled to send us. Why should I or any 



Theory of Stephen A. Douglas. 301 

person be forbidden to select the agent whom we think the most competent 
and truly representative of our will ? There is no talent or training required 
in the making of laws which is peculiar to the male sex. What is needed is 
intelligence and experience. The rest is routine. 

The capacity for making laws is necessarily assumed when women are per- 
mitted to hold and manage property and to submit to taxation. How often 
the woman, widowed, or married, or single, is the guiding genius of the fam- 
ily educating the children, directing the estate, originating, counseling, 
deciding. Is there anything essentially different in such duties and the 
powers necessary to perform them from the functions of legislation ? In New 
Jersey the Constitution of 1776 admitted to vote all inhabitants of a certain 
age, residence, and property. In 1797, in an act to regulate elections, the 
ninth section provides : " Every voter shall openly and in full view deliver 
his or her ballot, which shall be a single written ticket, containing the names 
of the persons for whom he or she votes." An old citizen of New Jersey says 
that " the right was recognized, and very little said or thought about it in 
any way." But in 1807 the suffrage was restricted to white male adult citi- 
zens of a certain age, residence, and property, and in 1844 the property quali- 
fication was abolished. At the hearing before the committee, the other 
evening, a gentleman asked whether the change of the qualification exclud- 
ing women did not show that their voting was found to be inconvenient or 
undesirable. Not at all. It merely showed that the male property-holders 
out-voted the female. It certainly showed nothing as to the right or expedi- 
ency of the voting of women. Mr. Douglas, as I said, had a theory that the 
white male adult squatters in a territory might decide whether the colored 
people in the territory should be enslaved. They might, indeed, so decide, 
and with adequate power they might enforce their decision. But it proved 
very little as to the right, the expediency, or the constitutionality of slavery 
in a territory. The truth is that men deal with the practical question of 
female suffrage to suit their own purposes. About twenty-five years ago the 
Canadian government by statute rigorously and in terms forbade women to 
vote. But in 1850, to subserve a sectarian purpose, they were permitted to 
vote for school trustees. I am ashamed to argue a point so plain. What 
public affairs need in this State is "conscience," and woman is the con- 
science of the race. If we in this convention shall make a wise Constitution, 
if the Legislatures that follow us in this chamber shall purify the laws and see 
that they are honorably executed, it will be just in the degree that we shall 
have accustomed ourselves to the refined, moral, and mental atmosphere in 
which women habitually converse. 

But would you, seriously, I am asked, would you drag women down into 
the mire of politics ? No, sir, I would have them lift us out of it. The duty 
of this Convention is to devise means for the improvement of. the govern- 
ment of this State. Now, the science of government is not an ignoble 
science, and the practice of politics is not necessarily mean and degrading. 
If the making and administering of law has become so corrupt as to justify 
calling politics filthy, and a thing in which no clean hands can meddle without 
danger, may we not wisely remember, as we begin our work of purification, 
that politics have been wholly managed by men ? How can we purify them ? 
Is there no radical method, no force yet untried, a power not only of skillful 



302 



History of Woman Suffrage. 



checks, which I do not undervalue, but of controlling character ? Mr. Chair- 
man, if we sat in this chamber with closed windows until the air became 
thick and fetid, should we not be fools if we brought in deodorizers if we 
sprinkled chloride of lime and burned assafcetida, while we disdained the 
great purifier? If we would cleanse the foul chamber, let us throw the 
windows wide open, and the sweet summer air would sweep all impurity 
away and fill our lungs with fresher life. If we would purge politics let us 
turn upon them the great stream of the purest human influence we know. 

But I hear some one say, if they vote they must do military duty. Un- 
doubtedly when a nation goes to war it may rightfully claim the service of 
all its citizens, men and women. But the question of fighting is not the 
blow merely, but its quality and persistence. The important point is, to 
make the blow effective. Did any brave Englishman who rode into the jaws 
of death at Balaklava serve England on the field more truly than Florence 
Nightingale ? That which sustains and serves and repairs the physical force 
is just as essential as the force itself. Thus the law, in view of the moral 
service they are supposed to render, excuses clergymen from the field, and 
in the field it details ten per cent of the army to serve the rest, and they do 
not carry muskets nor fight. Women, as citizens, have always done, and al- 
ways will do that work in the public defense for which their sex peculiarly 
fits them, and men do no more. The care of the young warriors, the name- 
less and innumerable duties of the hospital and home, are just as essential 
to the national safety as fighting in the field. A nation of men alone could 
not carry on a contest any longer than a nation of women. Each would be 
obliged to divide its forces and delegate half to the duties of the other sex. 

But while the physical services of war are equally divided between the 
sexes, the moral forces are stronger with women. It was the women of the 
South, we are constantly and doubtless very truly told, who sustained the 
rebellion, and certainly without the women of the North the Government 
had not been saved. From the first moment to the last, in all the roaring 
cities, in the remote valleys, in the deep woods, on the country hill-sides, on 
the open prairie, wherever there were wives, mothers, sisters, lovers, there 
were the busy fingers which, by day and by night, for four long years, like 
the great forces of spring-time and harvest, never failed. The