Volume I Part 99 (1/2)
_Resolved_, That it is the duty of woman, whatever her complexion, to a.s.sume, as soon as possible, her true position of equality in the social circle, the Church, and the State.
_Resolved_, That we tender our grateful acknowledgment to the Trustees of the Unitarian Church, who have kindly opened their doors for the use of this Convention.
_Resolved_, That we, the friends who are interested in this cause, gratefully accept the kind offer from the Trustees of the use of Protection Hall, to hold our meetings whenever we wish.
SIGNATURES TO THE DECLARATION ADOPTED AT SENECA FALLS.
Firmly relying upon the final triumph of the Right and the True, we do this day affix our signatures to this Declaration:
Lucretia Mott, Hannah Plant, Harriet Cady Eaton, Lucy Jones, Margaret Pryor, Sarah Whitney, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mary H. Hallowell, Eunice Newton Foote, Elizabeth Conklin, Mary Ann McClintock, Sally Pitcher, Margaret Schooley, Mary Conklin, Martha C. Wright, Susan Quinn, Jane C. Hunt, Mary S. Mirror, Amy Post, Phebe King, Catharine F. Stebbins, Julia Ann Drake, Mary Ann Frink, Charlotte Woodward, Lydia Mount, Martha Underhill, Delia Matthews, Dorothy Matthews, Catharine C. Paine, Eunice Barker, Elizabeth W. McClintock, Sarah K. Woods, Malvina Seymour, Lydia Gild, Phebe Mosher, Sarah Hoffman, Catherine Shaw, Elizabeth Leslie, Deborah Scott, Martha Ridley, Sarah Hallowell, Rachel D. Bonnel, Mary McClintock, Betsy Tewksbury, Mary Gilbert, Rhoda Palmer, Sophronie Taylor, Margaret Jenkins Cynthia Davis, Cynthia Fuller, Mary Martin, Eliza Martin, P. A. Culvert, Maria E. Wilbur, Susan R. Doty, Elizabeth D. Smith, Rebecca Race, Caroline Barker, Sarah A. Mosher, Ann Porter, Mary E. Vail, Experience Gibbs, Lucy Spalding, Antoinette F. Segur, Lavinia Latham, Hannah J. Latham, Sarah Smith, Sarah Sisson.
The following are the names of the gentlemen present in favor of the movement:
Richard P. Hunt, Charles L. Hoskins, Samuel D. Tilman, Thomas McClintock, Justin Williams, Saron Phillips, Elisha Foote, Jacob Chamberlain, Frederick Dougla.s.s, Jonathan Metcalf, Henry W. Seymour, Nathan J. Milliken, Henry Seymour, S. E. Woodworth, David Spalding, Edward F. Underhill, William G. Barker, George W. Pryor, Elias J. Doty, Joel Bunker, John Jones, Isaac Van Ta.s.sel, William S. Dell, Thomas Dell, James Mott, E. W. Cap.r.o.n, William Burroughs, Stephen Shear, Robert Smalldridge Henry Hatley, Jacob Matthews, Azaliah Schooley.
Many persons signed the Declaration at Rochester, among them Daniel Anthony, Lucy Read Anthony, Mary S. Anthony, the officers of the Convention, and others.
CHAPTER VI.
OHIO.
_Salem Convention_, _April 19, 20, 1850_.
LETTER FROM ELIZABETH CADY STANTON.
SENECA FALLS, N. Y., _April 7_.
DEAR MARIANA:--How rejoiced I am to hear that the women of Ohio have called a Convention preparatory to the remodeling of their State Const.i.tution. The remodeling of a Const.i.tution, in the nineteenth century, speaks of progress, of greater freedom, and of more enlarged views of human rights and duties. It is fitting that, at such a time, woman, who has so long been the victim of ignorance and injustice, should at length throw off the trammels of a false education, stand upright, and with dignity and earnestness manifest a deep and serious interest in the laws which are to govern her and her country. It needs no argument to teach woman that she is interested in the laws which govern her. Suffering has taught her this already. It is important now that a change is proposed, that she speak, and loudly too. Having decided to pet.i.tion for a redress of grievances, the question is, _for what shall you first pet.i.tion?_ For the exercise of your right to the elective franchise--nothing short of this. The grant to you of this right will secure all others; and the granting of every other right, whilst this is denied, is a mockery. For instance: What is the right to property without the right to protect it? The enjoyment of that right to-day is no security that it will be continued to-morrow, so long as it is granted to us as a favor, and not claimed by us as a right. Woman must exercise her right to the elective franchise, and have her own representatives in our National councils, for two good reasons:
1st. Men can not represent us. They are so thoroughly educated into the belief that woman's nature is altogether different from their own, that they have no idea that she can be governed by the same laws of mind as themselves. So far from viewing us like themselves, they seem, from their legislation, to consider us their moral and intellectual antipodes; for whatever law they find good for themselves, they forthwith pa.s.s its opposite for us, and express the most profound astonishment if we manifest the least dissatisfaction. For example: our forefathers, _full of righteous indignation_, pitched King George, his authority, and his tea-chests, all into the sea, and because, forsooth, they were forced to pay taxes without being represented in the British Government. ”Taxation without representation,” was the text for many a hot debate in the forests of the New World, and for many an eloquent oration in the Parliament of the Old. Yet, in forming our new Government, they have taken from us the very rights which they fought and bled and, died to secure to themselves. They not only tax us, but in many cases they strip us of all we inherit, the wages we earn, the children of our love; and for such grievances we have no redress in any court of justice this side of Heaven. They tax our property to build colleges, then pa.s.s a special law prohibiting any woman to enter there. A married woman has no legal existence; she has no more absolute rights than a slave on a Southern plantation. She takes the name of her master, holds nothing, owns nothing, can bring no action in her own name; and the principle on which she and the slave is educated is the game. The slave is taught what is considered best for him to know--which is nothing; the woman is taught what is best for her to know--which is little more than nothing, man being the umpire in both cases. A woman can not follow out the impulses of her own mind in her sphere, any more than the slave can in his sphere.
Civilly, socially, and religiously, she is what man chooses her to be, nothing more or less, and such is the slave. It is impossible for us to convince man that we think and feel exactly as he does; that we have the same sense of right and justice, the same love of freedom and independence. Some men regard us as devils, and some as angels; hence, one cla.s.s would shut us up in a certain sphere for fear of the evil we might do, and the other for fear of the evil that _might be done to us_; thus, except for the sentiment of the thing, for all the good that it does us, we might as well be thought the one as the other. But we ourselves have to do with what we are and what we _shall_ be.
2d. Men can not legislate for us. Our statute books and all past experience teach us this fact. His laws, where we are concerned, have been, without one exception, unjust, cruel, and aggressive. Having denied our ident.i.ty with himself, he has no data to go upon in judging of our wants and interests. If we are alike in our mental structure, then there is no reason why we should not have a voice in making the laws which govern us; but if we are not alike, most certainly we must make laws for ourselves, for who else can understand what we need and desire? If it be admitted in this Government that all men and women are free and equal, then must we claim a place in our Senate Chamber and House of Representatives. But if, after all, it be found that even here we have cla.s.ses and caste, not ”Lords and Commons,” but lords and women, then must we claim a lower House, where our Representatives can watch the pa.s.sage of all bills affecting our own welfare, or the good of our country. Had the women of this country had a voice in the Government, think you our national escutcheon would have been stained with the guilt of aggressive warfare upon such weak, defenceless nations as the Seminoles and Mexicans? Think you we should cherish and defend, in the heart of our nation, such a wholesale system of piracy, cruelty, licentiousness, and ignorance as is our slavery? Think you that relic of barbarism, the gallows, by which the wretched murderer is sent with blood upon his soul, uncalled for, into the presence of his G.o.d, would be sustained by law? Verily, no, or I mistake woman's heart, her instinctive love of justice, and mercy, and truth!
Who questions woman's right to vote? We can show our credentials to the right of self-government; we get ours just where man got his; they are all Heaven-descended, G.o.d-given. It is our duty to a.s.sert and rea.s.sert this right, to agitate, discuss, and pet.i.tion, until our political equality be fully recognized. Depend upon it, this is the point to attack, the stronghold of the fortress--_the one_ woman will find the most difficult to take, _the one_ man will most reluctantly give up; therefore let us encamp right under its shadow; there spend all our time, strength, and _moral_ ammunition, year after year, with perseverance, courage, and decision. Let no sallies of wit or ridicule at our expense; no soft nonsense of woman's beauty, delicacy, and refinement; no promise of gold and silver, bank stock, road stock, or landed estate, seduce us from our position until that one stronghold totters to the ground. This done, the rest they will surrender _at discretion_. Then comes equality in Church and State, in the family circle, and in all our social relations.
The cause of woman is onward. For our encouragement, let us take a review of what has occurred during the last few years. Not two years since the women of New York held several Conventions. Their meetings were well attended by both men and women, and the question of woman's true position was fully and freely discussed. The proceedings of those meetings and the Declaration of Sentiments were all published and scattered far and near. Before that time, the newspapers said but little on that subject. Immediately after, there was scarcely a newspaper in the Union that did not notice these Conventions, and generally in a tone of ridicule. Now you seldom take up a paper that has not something about woman; but the tone is changing--ridicule is giving way to reason. Our papers begin to see that this is no subject for mirth, but one for serious consideration. Our literature is also a.s.suming a different tone. The heroine of our fas.h.i.+onable novel is now a being of spirit, of energy, of will, with a conscience, with high moral principle, great decision, and self-reliance.
Contrast Jane Eyre with any of Bulwer's, Scott's, or Shakespeare's heroines, and how they all sink into the shade compared with that n.o.ble creation of a woman's genius! The January number of _The Westminster Review_ contains an article on ”Woman,” so liberal and radical, that I sometimes think it must have crept in there by mistake. Our fas.h.i.+onable lecturers, too, are now, instead of the time-worn subjects of ”Catholicism,” ”The Crusades,” ”St. Bernard,”
and ”Thomas a Becket,” choosing Woman for their theme. True, they do not treat this new subject with much skill or philosophy; but enough for us that the great minds of our day are taking this direction. Mr.
Dana, of Boston, lectured on this subject in Philadelphia. Lucretia Mott followed him, and ably pointed out his sophistry and errors. She spoke to a large and fas.h.i.+onable audience, and gave general satisfaction. Dana was too sickly and sentimental for that meridian.
The women of Ma.s.sachusetts, ever first in all moral movements, have sent, but a few weeks since, to their Legislature, a pet.i.tion demanding their right to vote and hold office in their State. Woman seems to be preparing herself for a higher and holier destiny. That same love of liberty which burned in the hearts of our sires, is now being kindled anew in the daughters of this proud Republic. From the present state of public sentiment, we have every reason to look hopefully into the future. I see a brighter, happier day yet to come; but woman must say how soon the dawn shall be, and whether the light shall first s.h.i.+ne in the East or the West. By her own efforts the change must come. She must carve out her future destiny with her own right hand. If she have not the energy to secure for herself her true position, neither would she have the force or stability to maintain it, if placed there by another. Farewell!
Yours sincerely, E. C. STANTON.
LETTER FROM LUCRETIA MOTT.