Volume II Part 25 (1/2)

ART. VIII.--This const.i.tution 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 before 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 1866.

[66] President, Elizabeth Cady Stanton; Vice-Presidents, Frederick Dougla.s.s, 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. Severance; Recording Secretary, Henry B. Blackwell; Treasurer, Ludlow Patton; Executive 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.

[67] Miss Anthony reported from the Finance Committee the receipt of $255.50, as follows: Jessie Benton Fremont, $50; Abby Hutchinson Patton, $50; Dr. Clemence S. Lozier, $20; Gerrit Smith, $10; Mrs. Dr.

Densmore, $10; James and Lucretia Mott, $10 Martha C. Wright, $8: Elizabeth S. Miller, $5; Eliza W. Osborn, $5; Margaret E. Winchester, $5; and the balance in sums of $1 each, from as many different persons, whose names were enrolled as members of the Equal Rights a.s.sociation. 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.

[68] At a reception one evening in Was.h.i.+ngton at the residence of Hon.

Schuyler 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.

Stanton; 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 (0024).

[69] The speakers were Rev. Olympia Brown, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Frederick Dougla.s.s, Henry B. Blackwell, Sarah P. Remond, Parker Pillsbury, Jane Elizabeth Jones, Charles Lenox Remond, Bessie Bisbee, and Louise Jacobs.

[70] THE CALL.

The first Annual Meeting of the AMERICAN EQUAL RIGHTS a.s.sOCIATION 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 a.s.sociation is to ”secure Equal Rights to all American citizens, especially the Right of Suffrage, irrespective of race, color, or s.e.x.” American Democracy has interpreted the Declaration of Independence in the interest of slavery, restricting suffrage and citizens.h.i.+p to a _white male minority_.

The black man is still denied the crowning right of citizens.h.i.+p, even in the nominally free States, though the fires of civil war have melted the chains of chattelism, and a hundred battle fields attest his courage and patriotism. Half our population are disfranchised on the ground of s.e.x; and though compelled to obey the laws and taxed to support the government, they have no voice in the legislation of the country.

This a.s.sociation, 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 emanc.i.p.ated, nor will he be, until full suffrage and citizens.h.i.+p _are secured to him in the Federal Const.i.tution_. 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 century 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 Grew, Ernestine L. Rose, Charles Lenox Remond, Frederick Dougla.s.s, Lucy Stone, Henry B.

Blackwell, Rev. Olympia Brown, Sojourner Truth (Mrs. Stowe's ”Lybian Sybil”), Rev. Samuel J. May, and others.

On behalf of the American Equal Rights a.s.sociation,

LUCRETIA MOTT, President.

SUSAN B. ANTHONY, Cor. Secretary.

HENRY B. BLACKWELL, Rec. Secretary.

New York, 12th March, 1867.

[71] _Resolved_, That as republican inst.i.tutions are based on individual rights, and not on the rights of races or s.e.xes, the first question for the American people to settle in the reconstruction 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 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 cla.s.s and caste legislation, always cruel and prescriptive in itself, and ending in all ages in national degradation and revolution.

On motion of Miss Anthony, a Finance Committee was appointed, consisting of Harriet Purvis, Mary F. Gilbert, Charles Lenox Remond, and Anna Rice Powell.

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.