Volume II Part 129 (1/2)
_Dear Friend:_--With this you will receive a Form of a Pet.i.tion to Congress, the object of which you can not mistake nor regard with indifference. To procure on it the largest possible number of adult names, at the earliest practicable moment, it is hoped you will regard as less a duty than a pleasure. Already we have sent one installment of our pet.i.tion forward, signed by one hundred thousand persons; the presentation of which, by Senator Sumner, produced a marked effect on both Congress and the country. We hope to send a million before the adjournment of Congress, which we shall easily do and even more, if you and the twenty thousand others to whom we have sent pet.i.tions will promptly, generously co-operate with us. For nearly three years has the scourge of war desolated us; sweeping away at least three hundred thousand of the strength, bloom, and beauty of our nation. And the war-chariot still rolls onward, its iron wheels deep in human blood!
The G.o.d, at whose justice Jefferson long ago trembled, has awaked to the woes of the bondmen.
”For the sighing of the oppressed, and for the crying of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord.” The redemption of that pledge we now behold in this dread Apocalypse of war. Nor should we expect or hope the calamity will cease while the fearful cause of it remains.
Slavery has long been our national sin. War is its natural and just retribution. But the war has made it the const.i.tutional right of the Government, as it always has been the moral duty of the people, to abolish slavery. We are, therefore, without excuse, if the solemn duty be not now performed. With us, the people, is the power to achieve the work by our agents in Congress. On us, therefore, rests the momentous responsibility. Shall we not all join then in one loud, earnest, effectual prayer to Congress, which will swell on its ear like the voice of many waters, that this b.l.o.o.d.y, desolating war shall be arrested and ended, by the immediate and final removal, by Statute Law and amended Const.i.tution, of that crime and curse which alone has brought it upon us? Now surely is our accepted time. On our own heads will be the blood of our thousands slain, if, with the power in our own hands, we do not end that system forever, which is so plainly autographed all over with the Divine displeasure. In the name of justice and of freedom then let us rise and decree the destruction of our destroyer. Let us with myriad voice _compel_ Congress to
”Consign it to remorseless fire!
Watch till the last faint spark expire; Then strew its ashes on the wind, Nor leave one atom wreck behind.”
In behalf of the Women's League, SUSAN B. ANTHONY, _Secretary_.
FORM OF PEt.i.tION.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress a.s.sembled:_
The undersigned, citizens of ----, believing slavery the great cause of the present rebellion, and an inst.i.tution fatal to the life of Republican Government, earnestly pray your Honorable Bodies to immediately abolish it throughout the United States; and to adopt measures for so amending the Const.i.tution, as forever to prohibit its existence in any portion of our common country.
MEN. | WOMEN.
_Anniversary Meeting, May 14, 1864._--The adjourned meeting convened in the lecture-room of the Church of the Puritans, Sat.u.r.day P.M., May 14th. The President in the chair.
The Secretary read the report of the Executive Committee, which was unanimously adopted. The resolutions were then read, and motion taken to act upon them separately. The 2d, 7th, and 8th elicited a long and earnest discussion, but were at last adopted, with but one or two dissenting votes.
The Committee then presented a list of women to serve as officers the coming year, who were unanimously elected.
Officers of the Women's National League:--_President_, Elizabeth Cady Stanton; _Vice-Presidents_, L. M. Brownson, Mary Bates, Mrs. Col. A.
B. Eaton, S. A. Fayerweather; _Corresponding Secretary_, Charlotte B.
Wilbour; _Recording Secretaries_, Susan B. Anthony, Elvira Lane; _Treasurer_, Mary F. Gilbert; _Executive Committee_, Mrs. L. M.
Brownson, Mrs. H. M. Jacobs, Mary O. Gale, Mattie Griffith, Redelia Bates, Rebecca K. Shepherd, Frances V. Halleck, Mrs. C. S. Lozier, M.D.; Laura M. Ward, M.D.; Malvina A. Lane.
_The Women's National League to its Members and Friends_:--The folding, directing, and sending out 20,000 pet.i.tions, then the a.s.sorting, counting, and rolling up, each State by itself, 300,000 signatures, has been an herculean task, that only those who have witnessed it could fully appreciate. Remember that paper, printing, postage, office, and clerks, all require money. At the last meeting of the Executive Committee we resolved to ask each of our 5,000 members to send us the small sum of fifty cents to carry on the work.
Let the pet.i.tions be thoroughly circulated during the summer, throughout the country, that the people may speak in thunder-tones to our next Congress at its earliest sittings. Neither the Emanc.i.p.ation or Amendment bill has yet pa.s.sed the House, and the recent vote on the Montana question shows the animus of the Administration. If the majority of our voters propose to re-elect such men to rule over us, those who believe in free inst.i.tutions must begin the work of educating the nation into the idea that a stable government must be founded on justice--that freedom and equality are rights that belong to every citizen of a republic.
SUSAN B. ANTHONY, _Secretary_, 20 Cooper Inst.i.tute.
_Amend the Const.i.tution._--The Women's National League have just sent out, all through the States, fifteen thousand pet.i.tions, with an appeal to have them filled up and returned as speedily as possible.
The bill to amend the Const.i.tution so as to prohibit the holding of slaves in any part of the country has pa.s.sed the Senate. Now comes the struggle in the House. If every one of the fifteen thousand persons--at least ten thousand of them ministers--will but gather up one hundred or more names, _a million-voiced pet.i.tion_ may yet pour into the Representatives' Hall; and such a voice from _the people_ can not but make sure the vote, and leave the bill ready for the President's signature, and Congress disposed to recommend that a special session of each State Legislature be called immediately to act upon the question; and thus the hateful thing--Slavery--be buried out of sight before the opening of the Presidential campaign. Let the pet.i.tions be mailed to Was.h.i.+ngton, direct, to some member, or to Hon.
Thomas D. Eliot, Chairman of Committee on Slavery and Freedmen. There is not a day to be lost. Let all work.--_The National Anti-Slavery Standard_, May 28, 1864.
_The World._
NEW YORK CITY, _July 25, 1864_.
WOMEN'S LOYAL NATIONAL LEAGUE.