The Project Gutenberg eBook of History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II, by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

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 hospital, 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 command consideration.

The political significance of the war, and the prolonged discussions on the vital principles of government involved in the reconstruction, threw new light on the status of woman in a republic. Under a liberal interpretation of the XIV. Amendment, women, believing 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[Pg iv] attempting to practice law, being denied that right in the States, took their cases up to the Supreme Court of the United States for adjudication. 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 certain. 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 Assemblies.

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 XVI. 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.

LIST OF ENGRAVINGS.

CHAPTER XVI.

WOMAN'S PATRIOTISM IN THE WAR.

Our first volume closed with the period when the American people stood waiting with apprehension the signal of the coming 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 current 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 preparations 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 hospitals; 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 accomplished, 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.[Pg 2]

Think of the busy hands from the Atlantic to the Pacific, making garments, canning fruits and vegetables, packing boxes, preparing lint and bandages [1] 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 battles of freedom; of those month after month walking the wards of the hospital; 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 hills, 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 widowed, 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 patriotism 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 mothers of the race, who, however wise and far-seeing, have no voice in its administration, no power to protect themselves and their children 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 "irrepressible conflict" between freedom and slavery; between national 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[Pg 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 representative 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 hospital; 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, reflecting 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 patriotic 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 uncertain. 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

Miss Carroll was the means 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 herself 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 National Government," which was approved by him, and formed the basis of his subsequent action. In September, 1861, she also prepared 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 profoundest strategic movements of the ages. Strategy and generalship are two entirely distinct forms of the art of war. Many a general, good at following out a plan, is entirely incapable of forming 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[Pg 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 (November, 1861), Miss Carroll laid the following plan, accompanied by explanatory maps, before the War Department:

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 importance 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 expedition was abandoned, and the Tennessee made the point of attack. Both land and naval forces were ordered to mass themselves 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 railroad 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 Memphis and Charleston Railroad, also made its final destruction inevitable. At an early day the Government had neither a just conception 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.[Pg 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 situation took place in both the Senate and the House. It was acknowledged that the salvation of the country depended upon military success. 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 Republic 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 Government, 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. Lawrence 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[Pg 8] 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 evacuation 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 utmost 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.

During all this time the author of this plan remained unknown, except 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.[2] 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 Commodore Foote; Lossing's "Civil War" to the combined wisdom of Grant, Halleck, and Foote; Badeau's "History of the Civil War"[Pg 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,[3] Chairman of the Committee on the Conduct of the War; from Hon. Thos. A. Scott, Assistant Secretary of War; from Hon. L. D. Evans, former Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas (entrusted by the Government with an important secret mission during the war); from Hon. Orestes A. Bronson, and many other well-known public men; from conversations of President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton; and from reports of the Military Committee of the XLI., XLII., and XLVI. Congresses.[4] So anxious was the Government to keep the origin of the Tennessee campaign a secret, that Col. Scott, in conversation with Judge Evans, a personal friend of Miss Carroll, pressed upon him the absolute 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 belonging 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 [5] in the world's history, battles in which, says Hallam, a contrary result 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.[6] It opened the doors of liberty to the downtrodden and[Pg 10] oppressed among all nations, setting a seal of permanence on the assertion that self-government 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 conflict she continued to send plans and suggestions to the War Department. 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,[7] 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 Vicksburg. 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:

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

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.[Pg 12]

In October, 1862, Grant was appointed to the command of the forces from New Orleans to Vicksburg under the name of the "Department 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.[8]

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[Pg 13] country. She found her first work in nursing soldiers who had been wounded by the Baltimore mob.[9] 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.[10]

ELIZABETH BLACKWELL, M.D.

THE SANITARY COMMISSION.

It has been computed that since the historic period, fourteen thousand 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 privation, 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 we read of women, sometimes of noble birth, who followed the[Pg 14] soldiers to the field, treating the wounds of friend or lover with healing 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 it, received careful nursing.

In the ninth century an order of women, who consecrated themselves 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 devastating wars.

To Isabella of Spain,[11] 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 "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 heroism of a young English girl of high position, Florence Nightingale, who having passed through the course of training required for hospital nurses, voluntarily went out to the Crimea at the time when English soldiers, wounded and sick, were dying by scores and thousands 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[Pg 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,[12] to the aged matron of ninety, whose trembling hands scraped lint or essayed to knit socks and mittens 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.[13]

Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, returning to this country from England about the time of the breaking out of the war, fresh from an acquaintance with Miss Nightingale, and filled with her enthusiasm, at once called an informal meeting at the New York Infirmary [14] for Women and Children, where, on April 25th, 1861, the germ of the sanitary, known as the Ladies' Central Relief,[15] 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 organization. The society then received the name of the "Woman's Central 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 disbursements by tens of thousands, and the sum total of its income by millions." 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 Physicians and Surgeons of the hospitals of New York, and the New York[Pg 16] Medical Association for furnishing medical supplies. As the result of this address, the Sanitary Commission was established the 9th of June, 1861, under the authority of the Government, and went into immediate operation. Although acting under Government authorization, 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:

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 onerous duties, requiring accord with the Medical Bureau and War Department, 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 offensively shown by some of those male physicians with whom she was brought in contact, she chose to resign rather than allow sex-prejudice 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 [16] women of the country, and every city,[Pg 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 foreign 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.[17]

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

because back of them stood the patriotic women of the thirteen Colonies; 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[Pg 18] 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 possession. The grandest war poem, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," was the echo of a woman's voice,[18] while woman's prescience and power were everywhere manifested. She saw, before President, Cabinet, generals, or Congress, that slavery must die before peace could be established in the country.[19] Months previous to the issue by the President of the Emancipation Proclamation, women in humble homes were petitioning Congress for the overthrow of slavery, 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 sufficient 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 regiment, but from various parts of the Union, women were found giving their services and lives to their country among the rank and file of the army.[20] Although the nation gladly summoned their aid in camp and hospital, and on the battle-field with the ambulance corps, it gave them no recognition as soldiers, even denying them the rights of chaplaincy,[21] 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[Pg 19] dead bodies on the battle-field. Even the volumes especially devoted to an account of woman's work in the war, have mostly ignored 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.[22][Pg 20]

Gov. Yates, of Illinois, commissioned the wife of Lieut. Reynolds of the 17th, as Major, for service in the field, the document being made out with due formality, having attached to it the great seal of State. President Lincoln, more liberal than the Secretary[Pg 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 regiments, 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, the crackling of musketry, the thunder of artillery, through all this women were sustained by the enthusiasm born of love of country and liberty.

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 vessel and ironed, while a crew from the latter was put on the brigantine; the wife of the mate was left on board the brig with the pirate crew. Having cause to fear bad treatment at the hands of the prize-master [23] and his mate, this woman formed the bold plan of capturing the vessel. She succeeded in getting the officers intoxicated, handcuffed 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[Pg 22] country would have rung with praises of the daring deed, and history 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 army. Her father and three brothers fought against the Union which she loved, 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 home 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 Revolution, protested against the denial of representation to taxpaying 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,[24] then turned into a vast national[Pg 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 headboards marked "Unknown," hundreds are those of women obliged by army regulations to fight in disguise. Official records of the military authorities show that a large number of women recruits were discovered and compelled to leave the army. A much greater number 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 political questions compelled, and a desire for their own personal, individual 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 recognized 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 principally at home under direction of her brothers and sisters. At sixteen, 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 capacity, 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,[Pg 24] 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, commencing 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 pursuits. 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 administration which had removed her. She returned, as she had left, without 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 devoted herself to the assistance of suffering soldiers. Her work commencing 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 Spotsylvania, 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[Pg 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 for 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 Dorrence 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 Andersonville. 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, straighten 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 expense, to the extent of several thousand dollars, employing from 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 continued until 1869, and then a full report made and accepted by Congress. During the winter of 1867-8 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[Pg 26] 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 Geneva," and President of the American National Association of the Red Cross, honorary and only woman member of "Comité de Strasbourgeois"; 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 humanitarian 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 GRIFFING.
The National Freedman's Relief Association.
BY CATHARINE 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 England[Pg 27] 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 blessings 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 [25], 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 Freedmen. 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 defenders. In 1849 she began, with her husband, Chas. S. S. Griffing, her public labors in connection with the "American" and the "Western Anti-Slavery Societies," speaking at first to small audiences in school-houses, and when prejudice and bitterness gave way, to conventions, and mass-meetings; opposition and curiosity yielding finally 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 insurrection 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 occupations[Pg 28] 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 the West for the soldiers 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 during 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 necessities, 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 Columbia." 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;[26] a price was set on their labors,[Pg 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 educational and political interests must be established and encouraged. The stress of the situation can not be said ever to have relaxed during 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 testimony 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 active 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 Commissioner." She really held the position but a few weeks—in name, five months—a second military officer standing ready to take the appointment, 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 arduous and almost superhuman labors. The Bureau adopted her plan of finding homes in the North, sending the freedmen at Government charge, and of opening employment offices in New York City[Pg 30] and in Providence, R. I.; nevertheless it was necessary to supplement Government provision by private generosity; and moreover, that Congress 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.[27] "Shirley Dare," in writing to The New York World, after a little time spent with Mrs. G., said:

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 testimony, that the life-long teaching of the slaves had been, that no good[Pg 31] could come from Northern people,[28] and this led the many in their pitiable ignorance to believe that, somewhere in the North, the monsters 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 rations. 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 ironclad 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 gentle 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[Pg 32] past for emancipation. She was busy with her hands, busier with her brain, 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 things he wanted to do at once." Our friend always saw many more. Her mind was teeming not only with ideals as beautiful 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 "the manifest intention 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 wearing, 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 released, and had such full faith that she could, that it was a constant 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 daughter Emma, her official assistant. But the substance of what was done in these years may be found in the archives of the Government. On the calendar of both Houses of Congress, in the Congressional 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 ministrations 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[Pg 33] full of feeling, than her own account in a letter to Lucretia Mott,[29] 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. Her account is also in connection with the Bureau, of historical interest. During this long struggle her evenings were spent in writing letters 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 conventions 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 Congress—could tell of her great achievements, and their unbounded confidence in her, as the following letters show:

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

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 Suffrage Association, and was ever considered the organizing power at Washington. She first suggested the importance of annual conventions at the capital, in order to influence Congressional action.

Mrs. Griffing's last appearance in public was at the May Anniversary of the National Woman Suffrage Association, held in New York in 1871, 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 childhood, 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 herself to the uttermost, beyond nature's power to recuperate. In November 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 in gold; equal, including exchange, freight, insurance, 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 foreign 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[Pg 40] 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, Vice-President; Mrs. Rebecca Gillis and Miss Virginia Smith, Recording Secretaries; with ten Corresponding Secretaries, of whom Mrs. H. C. Ingersoll 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 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 Covenant, 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 significance of the great conflict, was Miss Dickinson, a young girl of Quaker ancestry, who possessed remarkable oratorical power, a keen[Pg 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.[31] 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 27, 1861, she addressed eight hundred people in Concert Hall, Philadelphia. This was her first appearance 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 notables and professional men present. Although it was considered a marvelous performance for a young girl, Miss 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 faithful to her duties and skillful in everything she undertook, soon becoming 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 meeting[Pg 42] 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. McClellan, 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 Republican Committee of Pennsylvania to this same town, to speak to the same people, in the same hall. In again summing up the incidents 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 inactive 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 dismissed her, he admitted that his reason was that Westchester speech, for at that time McClellan was the idol of the nation.[32]

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 popular 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 government; 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 individual histories, experiences, hardships, and sufferings; the motives[Pg 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 materials 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. In 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 incidents of her experiences in hospital life, and drew such vivid pictures of the horrors of both war and slavery, that by her pathos and logic, she melted her audience to tears, and forced the most prejudiced 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 Committee refused to invite her, he should do so on his own responsibility. But through his influence she was invited by the Republican 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 without interfering with you." But when the would-be honorable gentleman saw the furor she created, he changed his mind, and inundated 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 hardihood 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[Pg 44] news came that the Republicans had carried the State, due credit was awarded to Anna Dickinson. The Governor-elect made personal 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.

New 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. Democrats, in spite of the scurrilous attacks made on her by some of their leaders and editors, received her everywhere with the warmest 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 who could vote. There never was such enthusiasm over an orator in this country. The period of her advent, the excited condition of the people, her youth, beauty, and 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 moment 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[Pg 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.[33]

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 clergymen, 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 followed for Mr. Beecher; but he arose, and with great feeling and[Pg 46] 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 ballads, and the audience slowly dispersed, singing the John Brown song with thrilling effect, as they marched into the street.[34]

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 Wm. 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 personal 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 eloquence. The marked attention she has always received in her native 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 Philadelphia. 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 Penn. 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 rising, mingling its pale rays with those of the setting sun, and throwing a soft, mysterious light over the whole scene. The troops gathered 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 the republic; that slavery and war might end forever[Pg 47] 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.[35] To speak before the President, Chief-Justice, Judges, Senators, Congressmen, Foreign Diplomats, all the dignitaries and honorables of the Government 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 equal 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 comments[Pg 48] of the press [36] must have been satisfactory to her highest ambition as well as to that of her admiring countrywomen.

One of the most powerful and impressive appeals she ever made was 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, prevented 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-witness [37] 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 compressed, 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."[Pg 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 American history was written in the blood of its chief. Through the nation's agony was this young girl born into a knowledge of her[Pg 50] 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 rebellion. To this end they organized a National League, and rolled up a mammoth petition, urging Congress to so amend the Constitution 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.[38] The clearness of thinking women on the cause of the war; the true policy in waging it; their steadfastness in maintaining 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[Pg 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 immunities for themselves, had been uniformly denounced as "unwise," "imprudent," "fanatical," "impracticable." During the six years they held their own claims in abeyance to the slaves of the South, and labored 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 reconstruction 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 unquestioned; but when she dares to demand rights and privileges for herself, her motives, manners, dress, personal appearance, character, are subjects for ridicule and detraction.

In March, 1863, an appeal [39] to the women of the Republic, was[Pg 52] published in the New York Tribune, and in tract form extensively[Pg 53] circulated with "a call"[40] for a National Convention in New York, which assembled in Dr. Cheever'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 officers [41] 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 [42] which[Pg 54] 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 Government in the prosecution of this war to the glorious end of freedom. The President in introducing Angelina Grimké Weld, said:

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,[43] and said:

BUSINESS MEETING.

The lecture-room was crowded with representatives from the different 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:

This pledge was signed by nearly every woman present. Mrs. Stanton was elected president unanimously, and Miss Anthony, Secretary. Many women spoke ably and eloquently; women who had[Pg 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 assembled there, from the matron of threescore years and ten to the fair girl whose interest in the war had brought to her a premature sadness and high resolve. But of all who mourned the loss of husbands, brothers, sons, and lovers, no word of fear, regret, or doubt was uttered. 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 decided to adjourn, to meet the next afternoon.

EVENING SESSION.

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

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 number 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.

ANNIVERSARY 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 silence, 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 Recording Secretary read the following report of the Executive Committee:[Pg 81]

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

The debates throughout these Conventions show how well the leaders of the Loyal League understood the principles of republican government, and the fatal policy of some of those in power. They understood 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. Reviewing the varied efforts of the representative women [46] referred to in this chapter in the political, military, philanthropic, and sanitary departments of the Government, and the army of faithful assistants, behind them, all alike self-sacrificing and patriotic; 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[Pg 88] 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.[47]

Gen. Grant has the credit for the success of plans which were the outgrowth of the military genius of a woman; Gen. Howard received 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 medical profession.

Though to Anna Dickinson was due the triumph of the Republican 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 secure 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, forever involving the nations of the earth in war and violence; a lesson taught on every page of history, alike in every century of human 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![Pg 89]

Did the negro's rough services in camp and battle outweigh the humanitarian 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, ministering 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 patriotism, their courage 'mid danger, their endurance 'mid suffering, have rightly earned a voice in the laws they are compelled to obey, in the Government they are taxed to support; some personal consideration as citizens as well as the black man in the "Union blue."

FOOTNOTES:

[1] 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!

[2] Feb. 24, 1862.

[3] 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 civilian, 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 the 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."

[4] See Appendix.

[5] The ninth, known to the world as the battle of Orleans, fought in 1439, 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 eighteen, at which time she acquired her cognomen, "Maid of Orleans."

[6] 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 abeyance 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."

[7] 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 maintain, 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 sacrifice of life and treasure, and the time it took to take Richmond, furnish irrefragable proof of the inability 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 but 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."

[8] See Appendix.

[9] 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 soldiers 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?"

[10] 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—almost 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 highest of plaudits, "Well done, good and faithful servant!"—Woman's Work in the Civil War.

[11] When the Spanish minister, Señor 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."

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

[13] 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?"

[14] 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.

[15] 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, actively 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] 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 exhibition 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 forward dead.

"Indeed, we may safely 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 the War.

[17] The distinctive features in woman's work in that war, were magnitude, system, thorough co-operation with the other sex, distinctness of purpose, business-like thoroughness 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 exertion in the service of the country, there was some corresponding gathering of women to stir each other's hearts and fingers 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 considerations.... 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 probably 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 organized 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 so much.—Woman's Work in the Civil War. L. P. Brackett.

[18] Julia Ward Howe. See Appendix.

[19] See Appendix.

[20] During 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.

[21] 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 recognize 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, Congress at last making payment for her services.

[22] There are many and interesting records of women who served in Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, 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 sent as a 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, during 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 investigation 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, assuming the name of "Frank Miller." She served three months, and was mustered out without her sex being discovered. She then enlisted in the 90th Illinois, and was taken prisoner 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 respected 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 commission if she would enlist in the rebel army, but she preferred to fight as a private soldier 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 accomplishments. 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 in the shoulder, but fought gallantly and waded the Stone River into Murfreesboro on that memorable Sunday when 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 transmission home. She left the army of the Cumberland, resolved to enlist again in the first regiment she met. The Louisville Journal gave the following account of her under the head of

"Mustered Out.—'Frank Miller,' the young lady soldier, now at Barracks No. 1, will be mustered out of the service in accordance with the army regulations 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 permitted 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 filled. She is a true patriot and a gallant soldier."

"Frank," found the 8th Michigan at Bowling Green, in which she again enlisted, remaining connected with this company. She said she had discovered a great many women in the army, 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 St. Louis Times, sometime after the war, referring to a girl called as a witness before 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 service in the reconnoitering 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 Brownlow, of Tennessee, was familiar during the war for her daring exploits; also that of Miss Richmond, of Raleigh, North Carolina, who handled a musket, 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 Cushman 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 advertised 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 postponed on account of her illness. After lying in prison three months, she had an interview 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 commenced its forward march, and one fine day the rebel town in which she was imprisoned was 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 ladies of Nashville, hearing of this promotion, prepared a costly riding habit trimmed in military style, with 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 as assistant surgeon, but was refused by Surgeon-General Hammond because of her sex. Dr. Walker suffered imprisonment in Castle Thunder, Richmond, having been taken prisoner.

The special correspondent of the N. Y. Tribune, Headquarters Army of the Potomac, Sept. 15, 1863, 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."

[23] Gilbert Hay, shortly before released from Fort La Fayette.

[24] 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 beautiful panorama, with its one great feature, the new dome of the old capitol, surmounted by a bronze statue of Liberty armed, and with her back to him, gazing seaward.

From this he passed to the garden, and looked over the line of the officers' graves that bound its sides, saw the dying flowers and wilted borders and leaf strewn walks, and continuing after a slight pause, he stopped on the edge of the field where the sixteen thousand Union soldiers lie buried in lines, as if they had lain down after a review to be interred 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 astonishment. 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!"

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 beauty 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 desolation of the households, and all in vain. He stood there, old before his time, the nationality 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.

[25] 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 had 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.

[26] It was almost as thrilling a sight to me to see these earnest women together at work with their needles, 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 have known before how much such a vision would stir me. It was with great satisfaction that I took him by the hand and rejoiced with him in the progress of the Government toward equality.

[27] Mrs. Briggs ("Olivia") writing to the Sunday Morning Chronicle after Mrs. Griffing had departed this life, said in this connection: "Altogether $166,000 were given by Congress to the helpless who had been so long held in bondage, and for the great good accomplished, the sufferers were more indebted to Mrs. Griffing than to all the women of the country combined, for the larger proportion of the supplies purchased with this money, was distributed by her own hands."

[28] 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.

[29] See Appendix.

[30] The impeachment trial of President Johnson

[31] Forney's Press, in reporting a meeting at Kennett Square, said: "Miss Anna E. Dickinson, of Philadelphia, 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, were softened by her simplicity and solemnity. 'We are told,' said she, 'to maintain constitutions because they are constitutions, and compromises because they are compromises. But what are compromises, and what is laid down in those constitutions? Eminent lawyers have said 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.'"

[32] She has always said that that was the best service the Government could have rendered her, as it forced her to the decision to labor no longer with her hands for bread, but open some new path for herself.

[33] 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 campaign. 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 addressed herself to that end with singular adaptation. But when we add to this lawyerlike comprehension of the necessities of the case, her earnestness, enthusiasm, and personal 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 window-sills had their occupants, every foot of standing room was taken, and in the rear of the galleries men seemed to hang 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 district 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.

[34] Her profits on this occasion were about a thousand dollars.

[35] 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. Garfield,

Charles Sumner,   and sixteen other Henry C. Deming,

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

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. Accepting it, I would suggest the 16th of January as the time, desiring the proceeds to be devoted to the help of the suffering freedmen.

Anna E. Dickinson.

Truly yours,

1710 Locust St., Phila., June 7, 1864.

[36] 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 gratifying 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 introduced her in a neat speech, in which he happily compared her to the Maid of Orleans. 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 fervid passage in the lecture could repress the enthusiasm of the audience. Just as the President entered the hall Miss Dickinson was criticising with some sharpness his 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 sat meekly through it, not in the least displeased. Perhaps 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 1865. The popularity of the President in Washington was 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."

[37] James Redpath.

[38] See Appendix.

[39] 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 spoken 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 are 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 inspiration, 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 glory 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, and enjoy in foreign despotisms the customs which the genius of a Republic condemns.

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, religion, 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 sons 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 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 parents and children, husbands and wives, brothers 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 of 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-visaged war seems hard to come from women's lips; but better 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 our Republic, should plead no more for man. Every woman who appreciates the grand problem of national life must say war, pestilence, 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 carried in the hollow of God's hand across the mighty waters, and planted deep beneath the snow 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 recognized 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 freedom, 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.

[40] 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 accomplishment. 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 demanded. 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 faith 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 Puritans (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.

[41] Vice-Presidents.—Elizabeth Cady Stanton, of New York; Angelina Grimké Weld, of New Jersey; Fannie W. Willard, of Pennsylvania; Mary H. L. Cabot, of Massachusetts; Mary White, of Connecticut; Mrs. E. O. Sampson Hoyt, of Wisconsin; Eliza W. Farnham, of California; Mrs. H. C. Ingersol, of Maine.

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

Business Committee.—Susan B. Anthony; Ernestine L. Rose, New York; Rev. Antoinette B. Blackwell, New Jersey; Amy Post, New York; Annie V. Mumford, Penn.

[42] See Appendix.

[43] Resolved, 2. That we heartily approve that part of the President's Proclamation which decrees freedom to the slaves of rebel masters, and we earnestly urge him to devise measures for emancipating all slaves throughout the country.

Resolved, 3. That the national pledge to the freedmen must be redeemed, and the integrity of the Government in making it vindicated, at whatever cost.

Resolved, 4. That while we welcome to legal freedom the recent slaves, we solemnly remonstrate against all State or National legislation which may exclude them from any locality, 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, 7. That the women of the Revolution were not wanting in heroism and self-sacrifice, and we, their daughters, are ready in 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.

[44] 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	4,248	7,392	11,641
Pennsylvania	2,259	6,366	8,625
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
New Jersey	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	50	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. S. living in New Brunswick	19	17	36
	34,399	65,601	100,000

[45] The exact number of signatures, as ascertained by Senator Sumner's clerk was 265,314

[46] 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 labors of Abby Hopper Gibbons and Jane G. Swisshelm must not be forgotten. Three noble daughters, with hand and heart devoted to the work, made it possible for Josephine S. Griffing to accomplish what she did in the Freedman's Bureau. With Anna Dickinson 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 institutions.

[47] The facts that Miss Carroll planned the campaign on the Tennessee; that Dr. Elizabeth 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.

CHAPTER XVII.

CONGRESSIONAL ACTION.

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 appealing 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 principles of our Government, and the natural rights of man. The nation'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 historic 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 enfranchisement 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 proscriptive[Pg 91] 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 Constitution. After the generous devotion of such women as Anna Carroll and Anna Dickinson in sustaining the policy of the Republicans, 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 York, and related to them some of the amusing discussions. One of the Committee proposed "persons" instead 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 "negro 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 [48] for a constitutional amendment[Pg 92] to "prohibit the States from disfranchising any of their citizens on the ground of sex."[49]

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.[50] 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 National Anti-Slavery Standard its organ. Mr. Beecher promised to give a lecture (January 30th) for the benefit of this universal suffrage[Pg 93] movement. The New York Independent (Theodore Tilton, editor) gave the following timely and just rebuke of the proposed retrogressive legislation:

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 arouse the country to insist on the extinction of[Pg 94] 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 scattered. 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." Abolitionists refused to sign them, saying, "This is the negro's hour."[51][Pg 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 women 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 protect 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 possible, the introduction of the word "male" into the Federal Constitution, 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 broadcast, 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.[52] But even such Republicans[Pg 96] as Charles Sumner presented them, if at all, under protest. A petition from Massachusetts, with the name of Lydia Maria Child at the head, was presented by the great Senator under protest[Pg 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.[Pg 98]

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 [53] 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.[54][Pg 102]

The second session of the Thirty-ninth Congress is memorable for an able debate in the Senate on the enfranchisement of woman, on[Pg 103] the bill [55] "to regulate the franchise in the District of Columbia," which proposed extending the suffrage to the "males" of the colored 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,[56] 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 11th, 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:

FOOTNOTES:

[48] 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 making 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—intelligent, 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 in 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 the 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 emancipated slaves, we ask that you extend the right of Suffrage to Woman—the only remaining 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 partial application of Republican principles must ever breed a complicated legislation as well as a discontented people, we would pray your Honorable Body, in order to simplify the machinery of Government and ensure domestic tranquillity, that you legislate hereafter for persons, citizens, tax-payers, and not for class or caste. For justice and equality your petitioners will ever pray.

[49] 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 resolution before Congress to amend the Constitution.

Article 1st, Section 2d, reads thus: "Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union according to their respective number."

Mr. Broomall proposes to amend by saying "male electors," Mr. Schenck "male citizens," Mr. Jenckes "male citizens," Mr. Stevens "legal voters." There is no objection 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 amendment, 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, remembering 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 Federal 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 Washington as soon as possible.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

New York, January 2, 1866.

[50] Leaving Rochester October 11th, she called on Martha Wright, Auburn; Phebe Jones and Lydia Mott, Albany; Mrs. Rose, Gibbons, Davis, Stanton, New York; Lucy Stone and Antoinette Brown Blackwell, New Jersey; Stephen and Abby Foster, Worcester; 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 "Christmas 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.

[51] "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 serious 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 inalienable rights, may not be an added power to hold us at bay? Have not "black male citizens" 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 compeers? 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 justice 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 common enemy, an united front, accepted the compromise urged on them by South Carolina, 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 Cady Stanton.

New York, December 26, 1865.

[52] From the New York Evening Express.

Scenes in the House of Representatives.—Negroes are to Vote—Why not Coolies in California—Indians everywhere, and First of all, Fifteen Millions of our Countrywomen.

The following occurred in the House, Tuesday, upon Thaddeus Stevens' resolution, 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 suppose 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 well, 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 Chinese 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 according 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 resolution 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 punishes 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 sex too, and give them the right to representation? Will it be said that this sex does 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 from 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 convenience. 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?

Susan B. Anthony.

Respectfully yours,

Hon. James Brooks.

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 Livingston 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:

Provided, 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 excluded from the basis of representation.

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. Brooks: I am in favor of my own color in preference to any other color, and I 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 persons 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. Instead of general applause on the floor, gentlemen on the floor should set a good example.

[53] Women Politicians.—Mr. Lane, of Kansas, it is reported, has presented to the Senate 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 spectacles, and have files of The 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 thought of in the connection. Show us a woman who wants to mingle in the exciting and unpurified 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 break 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 Senate 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 eye. 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 petitioners complain of, is a wicker-work cradle and a dimple-cheeked baby.—The New York Tribune.

[54] 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.

Caroline H. Dall.

Very truly yours,

Boston, Jan. 20, 1866.

70 Warren Avenue, Boston, 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:

"We think the women of the United States ought to have the franchise 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 constitutional 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 Constitution 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 constitutional 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 relations 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 comforted, and cheered, and we warn 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.

Caroline Healey Dall.

[55] 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 person, 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, without any distinction on account of color or race.

[56] 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 champion 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 enfranchising 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 happened. 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 imperilled. 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.

[57] Mrs. Frances Dana Gage, of Ohio.

[58] Yeas—Messrs. Anthony, Brown, Buckalew, Cowan, Foster, Nesmith, Patterson, Riddle, Wade—9. Nays—Messrs. Cattell, Chandler, Conness, Creswell, Davis, Dixon, Doolittle, Edmunds, Fessenden, Fogg, Frelinghuysen, Grimes, Harris, Henderson, Hendricks, Howard, Howe, Kirkwood, Lane, Morgan, Morrill, Norton, Poland, Pomeroy, Ramsey, Ross, Saulsbury, Sherman, Sprague, Stewart, Sumner, Trumbull, Van Winkle, Willey, Williams, Wilson, Yates—37.

[59] Yeas—Ancona, Baker, Barker, Baxter, Benjamin, Boyer, Broomall, Bundy, Campbell, Cooper, Defrees, Denison, Eldridge, Farnsworth, Ferry, Finck, Garfield, 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, Sitgreaves, Starr, Stevens, Strouse, Taber, Nathaniel G. Taylor, Trimble, Andrew H. Ward, Henry D. Washburn, Winfield—49.

CHAPTER XVIII.

NATIONAL CONVENTIONS IN 1866-67.

The first Woman's Rights Convention [60] 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[Pg 153] Woman's Rights Societies, and as by the "Proclamation of Emancipation" the colored man was now a freeman, and a citizen; and as bills were pending in Congress to secure him in the right of suffrage, 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, President, 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 [61] of the Convention with hearty applause. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, President of the "National Woman's Rights Committee," called the Convention to order, and said:

Mr. Beecher, on rising, was received with hearty applause,[62] and spoke for an hour, in a strain of great animation, as follows:

Susan B. Anthony read the following appeal to the Congress of the United States for the enfranchisement of woman:[Pg 168]

Mr. Beecher was followed by Wendell Phillips, Frances Dana Gage, Frances Watkins Harper; the Financial Committee [64] meantime passed through the audience for the material aid to carry forward the work. Miss Anthony presented the following resolution, and moved its adoption, which was seconded by Martha C. Wright:

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, reported one which was considered article by article, and adopted. There was an interesting discussion relative to the necessity of a preamble, 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 outgrowth 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.[65] The motion was adopted. Miss[Pg 174] Anthony proposed a list of names as officers [66] 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. "I shall be happy as Vice-President to relieve my dear friend of the arduous duties of her office, if she will but give us the blessing 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 cover 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 Vice-President. The rest of the names were approved.

Miss Anthony seconded the resolution, and urged the importance of making a thorough canvass of the State with lectures, tracts, and petitions.[67] Mr. Powell, Mrs. Gage, and others, advocated the concentration[Pg 176] of all the energies of the Association for the coming year on the State of New York; after which the resolution was adopted.

A motion was made to adjourn, when the President, Lucretia Mott, made a few closing remarks, showing that all great achievements 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 responded to Theodore Tilton when he said, "this closing meeting of the Convention was one of the most beautiful, delightful, and memorable which any of its participants ever enjoyed."[Pg 178]

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 K. Whipple.

At the November election of this year, Mrs. Stanton offered herself 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":

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 petitions 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.[69]

THE AMERICAN EQUAL RIGHTS ASSOCIATION.

The labors of this year are well rounded out with a grand National Convention,[70] during Anniversary week, in New York, which[Pg 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 Vice-Presidents, will take the chair."

Lucretia Mott here entered the hall, and, at the request of Mr. Purvis, took the chair, and called for the Secretary's Report.

Mrs. Mott then introduced the venerable Sojourner Truth, who was greeted with loud cheers, after which she said:

Nearly the whole of the ladies present immediately arose. Indeed, those on the platform, could not see a single woman who retained her seat.

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.

SECOND DAY.

The meeting was called to order by the President, and the Secretary read some additional resolutions.[72][Pg 214]

EVENING SESSION.

Miss Anthony read another letter from Hon. S. N. Wood, of Kansas, received since the Morning Session.

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 humanity. The building is gone, the congregation scattered, but the name of George B. Cheever, so long the honored pastor, will not soon be forgotten.[74]

At the close of the Convention a memorial [75] to Congress was prepared, and signed by the officers of the Convention.[Pg 227]

In a letter to the National Anti-Slavery Standard, dated Concord, April 20, 1867, Parker Pillsbury, under the title, "The Face of the Sky," says:

FOOTNOTES:

[60] Call for the Eleventh National Woman's Rights Convention.—The Convention 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 Ernestine L. Rose, Frances D. Gage, Wendell Phillips, Theodore Tilton, Elizabeth 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 century 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 question 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 the 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, liberty 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 manhood, while we disfranchise fifteen million tax-payers, 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 Congress 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 republican 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 we now see in the State;—for, while our egotism, selfishness, luxury and ease are baptized 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 needs 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.

[61] Ernestine L. Rose, Wendell Phillips, John T. Sargeant, O. B. Frothingham, Frances D. Gage, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Theodore Tilton, Lucretia Mott, Martha C. Wright, Stephen S. and Abbey Kelley Foster, Margaret Winchester and Parker Pillsbury.

[62] As this was the first time Mr. Beecher had honored the platform, we give copious extracts from his speech in preference to those who were so often reported in the first volume. This speech is published in full in tract form, and can be obtained from the Secretary of the National Woman's Suffrage Association.

[63]

A COLLOQUY.

When Mr. Beecher took his seat, Mr. Tilton 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 gratification 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 them 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 the whole ten had, every man, a corkscrew in his pocket! (Laughter). Now, as there is no telling where a Brooklyn minister who made a temperance speech at Cooper Institute last night is likely to take his dinner 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 Galatians? (Laughter).

Mr. Beecher, after making some playful allusions 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.

[64] 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.

[65] CONSTITUTION OF THE AMERICAN EQUAL RIGHTS ASSOCIATION.

Preamble.—Whereas, by the war, society is once more resolved into its original elements, 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 revolution—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 Association.

Art. II.—The object of this Association shall be to secure Equal Rights to all American 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-Presidents, Corresponding 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, determine 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 Society. 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 become auxiliary to this Association. The officers of each auxiliary shall be ex officio members of the Parent Association, and shall be entitled to deliberate and vote in the transactions 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 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 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. 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 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.

[68] At a reception one evening in Washington 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 Douglass, 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 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 Democracy has interpreted the Declaration of Independence in the interest of slavery, restricting 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 chattelism, and a hundred battle fields attest his courage and patriotism. Half our population are disfranchised 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 and 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 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 Douglass, 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 Association,

LUCRETIA MOTT, President.

Susan B. Anthony, Cor. Secretary.
Henry B. Blackwell, Rec. Secretary.
New York, 12th March, 1867.

[71] 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 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 class 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.

[72] Resolved, That the ballot alike to women and men means bread, education, self-protection, self-reliance, and self-respect; to the wife it means the control of her own person, property, and earnings; to the mother it means the equal guardianship of her children; to the daughter it means diversified employment and a fair day's wages for a fair day's work; to all it means free access to skilled labor, to colleges and professions, and to every avenue of advantage and preferment.

Resolved, That Henry Ward Beecher, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Frederick Douglass, be 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 Tilton, and Horace Greeley, for the respectful mention of woman's right to the ballot in the journals through which they speak, we ask them now, when we are reconstructing both our State and National 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.

Resolved, 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 extending 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 Wisconsin, submitting to the people a proposition to extend the ballot to woman. 3. In the agitation 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, Russia, and Brazil; and encouraged by past successes and the present prospect, we pledge ourselves to renewed and untiring exertions, until equal suffrage and citizenship are acknowledged throughout our entire country, irrespective of sex or color.

[73] President, Lucretia Mott; Vice-presidents, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, N. Y., Frederick Douglass, N. Y., Henry Ward Beecher, N. Y., Charles Lenox Remond, Mass., Elizabeth B. Chace, R. I., C. Prince, Conn., Frances D. Gage, N. J., Robert Purvis, Penn., Josephine S. Griffing, D. C., Thomas Garret, Del., Stephen H. Camp, Ohio, Euphemia Cochrane, Mich., Mary A. Livermore, Ill., 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 Griffith, Caroline M. Severance; Treasurer, John F. Merritt; Executive Committee, Ernestine L. Rose, Edwin A. Studwell, 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.

[74] 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 minutes; 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 importance, and what we have in our minds must be said now or never. While we were explaining to Mrs. Cheever, the folding doors quietly 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.

[75] MEMORIAL OF THE AMERICAN EQUAL RIGHTS ASSOCIATION TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES.

The undersigned, Officers and Representatives of the American Equal Rights Association, 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 Republican Government, by proscriptive distinctions in rights of suffrage or citizenship, on account of color or sex. Your 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; nothing in their penalty. And hence we believe that all human legislation which is at variance with the divine code, is essentially unrighteous and unjust. Woman and the 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 Catherine of Russia 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 sufferance. 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 cease.

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 sex, and about one-eighth by the color of their skin; and thus a large majority have no voice in 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. Against such outrages on the very name of republican freedom, your memorialists do and must ever protest. And is not our protest pre-eminently as just against the tyranny of "taxation without representation," as was that thundered from Bunker Hill, when our revolutionary fathers fired the shot that shook the world?

And your Memorialists especially remember, at this time, that our country is still reeling under the shock 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 discriminations on account of sex or race may be removed; and that our Government may be republican in fact as well as form; a government by the people, and the whole people; for the people, and the whole people.

In behalf of the American Equal Rights Association,

Theodore Tilton,
Frederick Douglas,
Elizabeth Cady Stanton,

}

Vice-Presidents.

Lucretia Mott, President.
Susan B. Anthony, Secretary.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE KANSAS CAMPAIGN—1867.

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 generation. 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 stirred 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 greater faith did the crusaders of old seize their shields and start on their perilous journey to wrest from the infidel the Holy Sepulcher, than did these defenders of a sacred principle enter Kansas, and with hope sublime consecrate themselves to labor for woman's[Pg 230] 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 possible efforts to carry the Constitutional Amendment that was to enfranchise the women of the State. They looked confidently for encouragement, and inspiring editorials in certain Eastern journals. With Horace Greeley at the head of the New York Tribune, Theodore 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 proposition, 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 Republican State Central Committee adopted a resolution leaving all their party speakers free to express their individual sentiments, yet they selected men to canvass the State, who were known to be unscrupulous and disreputable, and violently opposed to woman suffrage.[76] The[Pg 231] Democratic party [77] 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 resolution [78] 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 [79] 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. Intelligent[Pg 232] black men, believing the sophistical statements of politicians, 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 perseverance. Besides undergoing every physical hardship, traveling night and day in carriages, open wagons, over miles and miles of the unfrequented prairies, climbing divides, and through deep ravines, 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 assembled.

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.[80]

Rev. Olympia Brown arrived in the State in July, where her untiring 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 leaving New York Miss Anthony published 60,000 tracts, which were distributed in Kansas with a liberal hand under the frank of Senators 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 "Woman and her Wishes," Henry Ward Beecher's "Woman's Duty to Vote," and Mrs. C. I. H. 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 eastern friends [81] enabled the "Equal Rights Association" to print and circulate.[Pg 240]

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 Olympia 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:

Seeing that the republican vote must be largely against the woman'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 effectively to the chivalry of the intelligent Irishmen, and the prejudices of the ignorant; conjuring them not to take the word "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.

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 Ross, 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 opponents, 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 enginery of the controlling party negro suffrage had a little over 10,000 votes, while woman suffrage without press or party, friends or politicians, had 9,000 and some over. And this vote for woman's enfranchisement represented the best elements in the State, men of character and conscience, who believed in social order and good government.

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 stood by their side amid all dangers, were saying, "if our women can not vote, the negro shall not;" they began to take in the situation, and a month before the election issued 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:

But the appeal was too late, the mischief done was irreparable. The action of the Republican party had created a hostile feeling between 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 question 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:

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.

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:

The day before the election immense meetings were held in all the chief cities. In Leavenworth Mr. Train spoke for two hours in Laing's Hall, and then took the evening train for Atchison. Mrs. Stanton entered the hall just as he left, and made only a short speech, reserving herself for the evening, when, Daniel R. Anthony in the chair, she made her final appeal to the voters of the State. She was followed by several of the leading gentlemen in short speeches, fully indorsing both amendments. The Bulletin, in speaking of the meeting, said:

Susan B. Anthony spoke to an equally large audience in Atchison, and Olympia Brown to another in an adjoining town.[Pg 262]

The morning of the election two spacious barouches containing the several members of the Hutchinson family—John, his son Henry and daughter Viola; 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 Convention, 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 respectful, and at the end of the speech or song there followed three hearty cheers for "woman suffrage."[89]

After speaking in all the chief cities from Leavenworth to New York,[90] Mrs. Stanton 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.[91] 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 Revolution, 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 carrying on a movement with the press, pulpit, politicians, and philanthropists all in the opposition.

Abolitionists were severe in their denunciations against these ladies, because, while belonging to anti-slavery associations, they affiliated 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 association, and you do not shut out all persons opposed to woman suffrage, 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, is humanity." Reformers can be as bigoted and sectarian and as ready to malign each other, as the Church in its darkest periods has been to persecute its dissenters.

So utterly had the women been deserted in the Kansas campaign by those they had the strongest reason to look to for help, that at times all effort seemed hopeless. The editors of the New York Tribune and the Independent can never know how wistfully, from day to day, their papers were searched for some inspiring editorials[Pg 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, Higginson, 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 distinctions 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 reconstruction, 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 themselves 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 aggravated 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 circumstances is impoverished and neglected; he sees small men, unscrupulous, hard, grinding men taking places of trust and influence, making palace homes for themselves and children, while his family in shabby 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[Pg 266] to-morrow. That glorious Scotch poet, Robert Burns, from the depths of his poverty and despair, might exclaim in an inspired moment on the divine heights where the human soul can sometimes mount:

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 Purvis, 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 amusements, 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 appreciate. In our day women carrying heavy burdens on their shoulders while men walk by their side smoking their pipes, or women harnessed 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 possessed 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 distinctions 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 genius; 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[Pg 267] his assumptions of headship and superiority, a superiority she never concedes, an authority she utterly repudiates. Words can not describe the indignation, the humiliation a proud woman feels for her sex in disfranchisement.

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 principles of a free government. When we remember that out of this degraded political status, spring all the special wrongs that have blocked woman's success in the world of work, and degraded her labor everywhere to one half its value; closed to her the college doors and all opportunities for higher education, forbade her to practice in the professions, made her a cipher in the church, and her sex, her motherhood 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 Kansas campaign; it was not from lack of chivalry that they thundered forth no protests, when they saw noble women, who had been foremost 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 demand 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 wonderful," says Swift, "with what patience some folks can endure the sufferings of others." Our liberal men counseled us to silence during 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, and were defeated. But standing alone we learned our power; we repudiated man's counsels forevermore; and solemnly vowed that there should never be another[Pg 268] 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 himself.

FOOTNOTES:

[76] Disagreements in the Republican State Central 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 because 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 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 protest:

The undersigned, a member of the Republican State Central Committee of Kansas, protests 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. Eskridge, 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 ungentlemanly, indecent, and infamously defamatory language, when alluding to a large and respectable portion of the women of Kansas, and to women now engaged in canvassing the State in favor of impartial suffrage.

R. B. TAYLOR.

[77] Democratic Resolution.—Resolved, That we are opposed to all the proposed amendments to our State Constitution, and to all unjust, intolerant, and proscriptive legislation, whereby a portion of our fellow citizens are deprived of their social rights and religious privileges.

[78] Action of the Germans.—St. Louis, Sept. 26.—A special dispatch to the Republican from Wyandotte, Kansas, says: "The German Convention, which was held at Topeka on Monday last, adopted resolutions against Sunday and temperance laws, and declared that 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."

[79] State Temperance Convention.—Lawrence, Kansas, Sept. 26.—A mass State Temperance Convention was held here last night, and was addressed by Senator Pomeroy, ex-Gov. Robinson, Elizabeth 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 23d.

[80] 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 Schuyler, 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 vitality of the Kansas movement is indisputable, and whether defeated or successful in the present contest, it will still hold strongly fortified ground." ...

[81] Mrs. Sarah B. Shaw, after having contributed $150 for Kansas, wrote the following:

North Shore, September 22, 1867.

Dear Miss Anthony:—If I were a rich woman I would inclose a check of $1,000 instanter. Mr. Gay read your letter and said he wished he had $500 to give. So you see if the right people only had the money how the work would be done. Mr. Shaw says: "Tell Miss Anthony if the women in Kansas vote on the schools and the dram shops, I think the work is done there." I have not in my mind one person who could give money who would, so I can not help you.... I am very sorry to send you only this dry morsel, a stone when you want bread, but I can only give you my earnest wishes, though I will not fail to do my best. I have already sent your letter to a rich friend, who has reformed all her life, but I do not know at all how she stands on the woman question. Believe me, dear Miss Anthony,

Sarah B. Shaw.

Sincerely yours,

Office of the American Equal Rights Association, }
No. 37 Park Row (Room 17). New York, Aug. 23, 1867. }

Dear Lydia:— ... I am just in from Staten Island, where Mrs. Gay had $10 from Frank Shaw waiting for me. I went on purpose to go to Mrs. Shaw, and persevered; the glorious result is $150 more. Such a splendid woman; worthy the noble boy she 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.

Susan B. Anthony.

Affectionately yours,

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.

T. C. Severance.

Yours truly,

Auburn, 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-sacrificing 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. Stanton 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 younger man for the duties he was no longer able to perform alone. He is so well beloved by his congregation that the probability is they will get an associate for him.

Martha C. Wright.

Your friend,

[82] E. D. Draper, Hopedale, Massachusetts.

[83] 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 Collyer, 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 Jersey; William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Samuel E. Sewell, Oakes Ames, Massachusetts; William Sprague, Thomas W. Higginson, Rhode Island; Calvin E. Stowe, Connecticut.

[84] Mrs. Starrett's father.

[85] All were prepared beforehand to do Mrs. Stanton homage for her talents and fame, but many persons who had formed their ideas of Miss Anthony from the unfriendly remarks of opposition papers in other States had conceived a prejudice against her. Perhaps I can not better illustrate how she everywhere overcame and dispelled this prejudice than by relating my own experience. A convention was called at Lawrence, and the friends of woman suffrage were called upon to entertain the strangers who might come from abroad. 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 me to know if I would entertain Mrs. Stanton. In those days houses were small, help was scarce and inefficient, and in our family were two babies and an invalid sister. But the pleasure and honor of entertaining 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 received a note from Ex-Gov. Robinson stating that Mrs. Stanton had found relatives in town with whom she would stop, but that Miss Anthony would come instead. I hastily put on bonnet and shawl saying, "I don't want Miss Anthony, and I won't have her, and I am going to tell Gov. Robinson so." At the gate I met a dignified, quaker looking lady with a small satchel and a black and white shawl on her arm. Offering her hand she said, "I am Miss Anthony, and I have been sent to you for entertainment during the Convention." I have often wondered if Miss Anthony remembers my confusion, and the apologies I stammered out about no help, sickness in the family, no spare room and how I was just on my way to tell Gov. Robinson that I could not entertain any one. Half disarmed by her genial manner and frank, kindly face, I led the way into the house and said I would have her stay to tea and then we would see what farther arrangements could be made. While I was looking after tea Miss Anthony won the hearts of the babies; and seeing the door of my sister's sick room open, she went in and in a short time had so won the heart and soothed instead of exciting the nervous sufferer, entertaining her with accounts of the outside world from which she had been so long shut off, that by the time tea was over, I was ready to do anything if Miss Anthony would only stay with us. And stay she did for over six weeks, and we parted from her as from a beloved and helpful friend. I found afterwards that in the same way she disarmed prejudice and made the most ardent friends wherever she became personally known.

H. E. S.

[86] 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 naturedly 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 evening of the Convention in Lawrence when the hall was crowded with an eager and expectant 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.

[87] See Appendix.

[88] Mrs. Gov. Charles Robinson, Mrs. Lieut-Gov. 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 Bickerdike," and many others.

[89] 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 Hutchinson family, and were received with hearty cheers for woman suffrage."

[90] This trip cost Mr. Train $2,500, as he paid all the expenses, advertising largely.

[91] The first number was published January 6, 1868, and ten thousand copies, under the frank of the Hon. James Brooks, were scattered throughout the country.

CHAPTER XX.

NEW YORK CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.

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 coming convention was intensified by the fact that such an opportunity for their enfranchisement would not come again in twenty years. The proposition of the republican party to strike the word "white" from the Constitution and thus extend the right of suffrage to all classes of male citizens, 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 advocate 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 opposition 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 everywhere that they too had some interest in the Constitution under which they lived, some duties to perform in deciding the future policy of 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[Pg 270] 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, Hans and Yung Fung to the ballot, to be lifted above their own heads? With their intelligence, education, knowledge of the science of government, and keen appreciation 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 Constitution over half a century, and it is fitting now that the constitutional door is open that we should enter with him into the political kingdom of equality. Through all these years he has been the only decent compeer we have had. Enfranchise him, and we are left outside 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 his 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 unrecognized, the oft-repeated pledges of leading Republicans and Abolitionists have not been redeemed.

As soon as the Constitutional Convention was called by the Legislature of New York, Mrs. Stanton appeared before that body asking not only that the word "male" be stricken from Sec. 1, Art. 2, but that women be permitted to vote for members to that Convention, 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 Legislature, and ladies of fashion greeted her. On being introduced by[Pg 271] the Hon. Chas. J. Folger,[92] Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mrs. Stanton said:

This speech was published in full by the Metropolitan press and many of the leading journals [93] of the State, with fair editorial comments.

On June 4th, 1867, the Constitutional Convention assembled in Albany, and on the 10th Mr. Graves of Herkimer, moved "that a committee 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 committee [94] on the "right of suffrage, and the qualifications for holding office."

The first petition brought before the committee in favor of suffrage for women was presented by George William Curtis, of Richmond Co., sent by the friends of Human Progress from their Annual meeting at Waterloo.

Martin I. Townsend next presented a petition from William Johnson, Chairman of the "Colored Men's State Committee," praying 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.

June 27th Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony were granted a hearing [96] 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.[97] On the 10th of July a hearing was granted to Lucy Stone,[98] which called out deep interest and consideration from the members of that body. Later still, George Francis Train [99] was most cordially received by the Convention.[Pg 285]

Horace Greeley, Chairman of the Committee, in his report, after recommending universal "manhood suffrage," said:

Mr. Cassidy presented a minority report urging a separate submission of the question of negro suffrage, in which he said:

The petitions [101] for woman suffrage were presented in the Convention 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 Democrats entered with great zest into the presentation. George William Curtis, at the special request [102] of the ladies, reserved his for the last,[Pg 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 petitions 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."[Pg 288]

Mr. Gould, of Columbia, followed with a long speech in opposition,[Pg 304] and the discussion [104] continued through several days; but Mr. Curtis's amendment, in the Committee of the Whole, received 24 ayes against 63 nays; and on the final vote in the Convention, 19 ayes [105] against 125 nays.

Mr. Greeley, seemingly to atone for the disappointment of the women of the State in his adverse report, published the following editorial in The Tribune of July 26th, 1867:

The New York Independent published the following criticism on Mr. Greeley's report a few days after its publication:

February 13, 1868, Mr. Graves offered a resolution: "That the article on suffrage be recommitted to be revised, by striking out the word 'male' after the word 'every' in the first line of Section 1, Article II."

The struggle in New York ended, all thoughts were turned towards Kansas, where, as already shown, the friends of woman suffrage were doomed to another disappointment. However, the year was one of active effort; tracts and petitions were diligently[Pg 309] circulated; a thorough campaign made in Kansas; a series of meetings held in all the chief cities from Leavenworth to New York, and a newspaper established, demanding far more time and money than its founders anticipated. Thus the intervening months were fully occupied until the May Anniversaries, when all religious and reformatory associations were accustomed to hold their annual meetings in New York city.

EQUAL RIGHTS ANNIVERSARY.

The American Equal Rights Association held its annual meeting in Cooper Institute, New York, May 14, 1868. Its officers [106], with but few changes, were the same as before.

FOOTNOTES:

[92] 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 nine members voted in its favor.

[93] The Albany Evening Journal of January 24th, says: "Mrs. Stanton had a large audience 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 be 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 believe that women would be elevated, either in usefulness, or dignity, by being transferred from the drawing room and the nursery to the ballot-box and the forum!!

[94] Horace Greeley, Westchester 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. Eudress, Livingston Co.

[95] 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 intelligent 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 Graves presented thirty-seven petitions—Brooklyn, 1; Mt. Morris, 4; Troy, 1; Lima, 1; New York City, 8; Buffalo, 3; Skaneateles, 2; Lockport, 1; Poughkeepsie, 1; Dutchess County, 1; Utica, 1; Fairfield, Herkimer Co., 1. In all, 2,040 persons asking for equal suffrage.

Friday, June 28th.—C. C. Dwight—Mrs. Eliza Wright Osborn and 22 others, of Auburn, asking suffrage for women. Mr. Cooke—Mrs. Lina Vandenburg and 350 others. Mr. Archer—Sundry citizens. Mr. Mead—Mrs. E. A. Kingsbury and 20 others. Mr. Schoonmaker—M. I. Ingraham and others. Mr. Houston—Lucia Sutton. Mr. Rathbun—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 constitutional 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.

[96] 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.

[97] 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.

[98] Mr. Folger offered a resolution—That the use of this Chamber be granted to the American Equal Rights Association for a meeting on the evening of Wednesday, the 10th inst.

[99] Geo. Francis Train 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 argument advanced by our chivalrous press is a sneer, a sarcasm, or an insult, that Mr. Train's defense of women voting was received by the Convention by loud and repeated applause. The following was the resolution, passed unanimously, offering the hall:

State of New York, in Constitutional Convention, }
Albany, December 4, 1867. }

On motion of Mr. Ballard:

Resolved, That the use of the Assembly Chamber be granted to Geo. Francis Train, Esq., at 4 p.m. this day.

Luther Caldwell, Secretary.

By order.

[100] 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 similar 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.

[101] July 1st.—Mr. Fowler 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. Murphy—Thomas N. Cashow and 20 others, of Kings County, for woman suffrage.

Mr. Fullerton—Mary J. Quackenbosh 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 extending the right of suffrage to woman.

Mr. Graves—Fifty-four ladies of New York City, asking suffrage for women.

July 11th.—Mr. Curtis—From Charles J. Seymour, Mrs. Mary Newman and 500 others from Broome County, for equal suffrage.

July 12th.—Mr. Corbett—Henry Ward Beecher, Edwin A. Studwell, and many others, of Kings County, for woman suffrage.

July 16th.—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. Greeley—From Mrs. Louisa Howland and many others, of Mt. Vernon, 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 31st.—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, Oneida County. Another from Julia M. Sherwood and 22 others, Westchester County, asking for woman suffrage.

[102] 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. Greeley'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 Cary'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 cordially, "Good evening, Mr. Greeley." But his hands hung limp and undemonstrative by his side, as he said in low and measured words, "You two ladies are the most maneuvering 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 presented, 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?" "Because," I replied, "I wanted all the world to know that it was the wife of Horace Greeley who protested against her husband's report." "Well," said he, "I understand the animus of that whole proceeding, and now let me tell you what I intend to do. I have given 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 individually 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.

[103] 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 inhabitant of this State 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 convicted of bribery, unless pardoned or otherwise restored to civil rights, shall not be entitled to vote....

[104] The Albany Evening Journal of July 25, 1867, in speaking of the "Suffrage Discussion," said: "All men and women have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If when deprived of the ballot the consequence is that this inalienable right is abridged, then society owes it to the class thus practically enslaved to bestow suffrage upon them. At the South there is no safety for the negro from oppressive laws but in the ballot. It is idle to argue ignorance. Political enfranchisement is the best educator."

[105] Beals, Bell, Corning, Curtis, Duganne, Farnum, Field, Folger, Fowler, Graves, Hadley, Hammond, Kinney, Lapham, M. H. Lawrence, Pond, Tucker, Vedder, Wales.

[106] President—Lucretia Mott.

Vice-Presidents—Elizabeth Cady Stanton, N.Y.; Frederick Douglass, N.Y.; Henry Ward Beecher, N.Y.; Martha C. Wright N.Y.; Elizabeth B. Chace. R.I.; C. Prince, Ct; Frances D. Gage, N.Y.; Robert Purvis, Penn.; Parker Pillsbury, N.H.; Antoinette Brown Blackwell, N.J.; Josephine S. Griffing, D.C.; Thomas Garrett, Del.; Stephen H. Camp, Ohio; Euphemia Cochrane, Mich.; Mary A. Livermore, Ill.; Mrs. Isaac H. Sturgeon, Mo.; Amelia Bloomer, Iowa; Helen Ekin Starrett, Kansas; Virginia Penny, Kentucky; Olympia Brown, Mass.

Corresponding Secretary—Mary E. Gage.

Recording Secretaries—Henry B. Blackwell, Hattie Purvis.

Treasurer—John J. Merritt.

Executive Committee—Lucy Stone, Edward S. Bunker, Elizabeth R. Tilton, Ernestine L. Rose, Robert J. Johnston, Edwin A. Studwell, Anna Cromwell Field, Susan B. Anthony, Theodore Tilton, Margaret E. Winchester, Abby Hutchinson Patton.

[107]

St. Louis, May 4, 1868.

Mrs. E. C. Stanton—Dear Friend: Our gentlemen friends urge us to memorialize Congress on the question of Suffrage in the District. Well knowing how a single petition is suffocated, would it not be well for all the States to unite, and be presented at the same time? New York, being the banner State, must head the move and be spokesman. Out list of names is waiting the interminable Impeachment to be handed in (oh, for old Ben. Wade in the White House), but it seems to me one State should not go alone; if all the State organizations were notified to send in their lists immediately to whoever you think will be most likely to do justice to the cause, we could make quite a formidable display combined.

Mrs. Francis Minor,

Your sincere friend,

President of the St. Louis Woman's Suffrage Association.

Enfranchisement in the District.—May 21, 1868.—To the Friends of Equal Rights: The whole government of the District of Columbia is to be revised by Congress, in consequence of the expiration of local charters, within the next nine months. A rare opportunity is thus afforded to bring the enfranchisement of woman to the attention of Congress and the country. We urge you to send in petitions as fast as possible, with as many signatures as you can obtain. They should be sent to Mrs. Josephine S. Griffing, 213 North Capitol street, Washington, D. C., who will acknowledge their receipt and attend to their presentation.

FORM OF PETITION.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress Assembled:

The undersigned ——, of the —— of ——, in the State of ——, respectfully petition, that in your revision of the government of the District of Columbia, you will protect the women of the District from being debarred the exercise of their right of suffrage.

CHAPTER XXI.

RECONSTRUCTION.

The war settled two questions: 1st. That we are a Nation, and not a mere confederacy of States. 2d. That all "persons" born or naturalized in the United States are "citizens," and stand equal before the law. Freedom, United States citizenship, the limit of State authority, and national protection of the fundamental rights of citizens in the several States, are clearly set forth in the following amendments:

The women understood the principles involved in these amendments, and accepted the logical conclusions. Under the first they applied to Congress for protection against the tyranny of the States in depriving them of the right of suffrage, but they were remanded to the States, and were told that Congress had no jurisdiction in the matter. Under the second, when women claimed the rights of citizens as tax-payers who helped to support the Government, they were told that neither the fathers nor their sons ever thought of women in framing their Constitutions, and that some special legislation was needed before their rights of citizenship could be recognized or accorded.

During the prolonged debates on these amendments, those who watched the progress of political sentiment and understood the drift of events, struck the key-note of reconstruction in "universal suffrage and universal amnesty," but they were speedily silenced or condemned. Abraham Lincoln saw that this was the true policy,[Pg 315] and counseled it in private. But he was influenced by those who misjudged the signs of the times, and for the success of his party and his own re-election, he yielded to weak counselors. Horace Greeley, with the suffering and humiliation of the South, as well as the guilt and selfishness of the North before him, declared "universal suffrage and universal amnesty" to be the true basis of reconstruction, but a few cracks of the party whip brought him into line. Henry Ward Beecher foreshadowed the same policy in an able letter, which called down upon him the nation's scorn and denunciation, for which he was stabbed by the friends of his own household. He was the one leading man in the nation who, in all his public speeches, demanded universal suffrage in the reconstruction. And by universal suffrage Mr. Beecher meant political equality for all, without distinction of race, color, or sex. Women would have been dull scholars indeed had they not readily seen that the watchword "universal suffrage" stripped of the limitations that lay in the minds of party politicians, included women also.

Under Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment they saw that being "persons" and born in the United States, they were "citizens," whom the National Government was bound to protect against the tyranny of the State.

Section 2 called their attention to another principle of justice, that those who were counted in the basis of representation should have a voice in the rulers whose election their numbers helped to secure. To be sure, the word "male" thrown in seemed to nullify all applications of the several amendments to one sex, nevertheless the women understood the breadth of the principle, and made their demands for an equal recognition on the ground that they too were counted in the basis of representation.

Again, in the discussion on removing the "political disabilities" of those who had made war on the Government, when the injustice of taxing that large class denied the suffrage was pointed out and the exercise of that right demanded for thousands of rebels, the women saw the application of that principle to themselves, and echoed the old war-cry in our first Revolution, "taxation without representation is tyranny." In the exhaustive discussions on the emancipation and enfranchisement of the black man and the restoration of the rebels to political equality, the fundamental principles of republican government were more clearly comprehended by the American people than ever before. Hence, it was in harmony with the order of events that educated women, appreciating the genius of our institutions, with their interest in politics intensified by all the[Pg 316] complications of the war, should think and reason and express their opinions on all these great questions of popular thought. They saw that "universal suffrage and universal amnesty" was the broad, safe foundation for the new republic. They saw that the enfranchisement of the women of the South would not only double the vote, but give a new impulse to thought and education throughout the Southern States, and mitigate the hostility they would naturally feel in seeing their slaves suddenly made their political superiors, their rulers, law-makers, judges, and jurors! They saw that with the incoming tide of ignorant voters from Southern plantations and from the nations of the Old World, that the Government needed the intelligent votes and moral influence of woman to outweigh the ignorance and vice fast crowding round our polling booths.

Seeing all this, they pressed with earnestness the well-considered demand for woman's enfranchisement, not from any selfish or personal considerations, but for the elevation of all womankind, and to vindicate the principles that underlie republican government. They who have the responsibility of action are usually more timid in counsel than those who can exert only an indirect influence. Hence the statesmen of that period did not dare to trust their own principles to their logical results, and instead of the broad demand of equal rights for all, they proposed reconstruction on the basis of "manhood suffrage"; a half-way measure that satisfied nobody, glossed over by the party in power as "universal suffrage," "equal suffrage," "impartial suffrage," until compelled to call the proposition by its true name, "manhood suffrage."

Having served the Government during the war in such varied capacities, and taken an active part in the discussion of its vital principles on so many reform platforms, women naturally felt that in reconstruction their rights as citizens should be protected and secured. They who had so diligently rolled up petitions for the emancipation and enfranchisement of the slaves now demanded the same liberties, not only for the white women of the nation, but for the newly made freed-women from Southern plantations, who had borne more grievous burdens and endured keener sufferings in the flesh and far more aggravating humiliations in spirit, than the man slave could ever know. And yet Abolitionists who had drawn their most eloquent appeals for emancipation from the hopeless degradation of woman in slavery, ignored alike the African and the Saxon in reconstruction, and refused to sign the petition for "woman suffrage." Even such just and liberal men as Gerrit Smith and Wendell[Pg 317] Phillips, in their haste to see the consummation of the black man's freedom, to which they had devoted their life-long efforts, lost sight of the ever-binding principles of justice, and accepted an amendment to the National Constitution that made all men rulers, all women subjects. Gerrit Smith, who had often said, "It is always safe to do right"; "now is the time for action, you can not be sure of to-morrow"; "speak the truth though the heavens fall," acted from policy rather than principle in refusing to sign the following petition:

As soon as we had a mouthpiece in The Revolution we found that many noble women in every State understood the situation, and saw that while the question of reconstruction was under debate, woman was false to herself not to put in her claims. In face of all opposition, those who did see the policy and justice of claiming this time as the woman's hour also, made the most persistent, brave fight possible. Again were appeals and petitions sent to Congress and the people, but now for woman's enfranchisement. When the whole nation was as it were resolved into its original elements, and the fundamental rights of citizens the topic for discussion in the halls of legislation and at every fireside, the time seemed so opportune for the settlement of the broad question of representation, that the persistency and determination of a few women to secure their rights was neither surprising nor unreasonable.

This was one of the most trying periods in the woman suffrage movement. Negro suffrage being a party measure, a political necessity and the culmination of the anti-slavery conflict, Republicans and Abolitionists could bid each other a most sincere and heartfelt Godspeed. And with them, too, stood the majority of the woman suffrage associations. Wives and daughters of Republicans and Abolitionists, imbued with the ideas of politicians, "one measure at a[Pg 320] time," "one reform for a generation," lost sight of the true philosophy, that justice is always in order, and the fact that "universal suffrage" was the one reform that belonged specifically to the period of reconstruction. But women educated to self-sacrifice and self-abnegation readily accepted the idea that it was divine and beautiful to hold their claims for rights and privileges in abeyance to all orders and classes of men. They forgot that the highest patriotism, and the best interests of man himself demanded the enfranchisement of woman.

The few who insisted on absolute right stood firmly together under a steady fire of ridicule and reproach even from their life-long friends most loved and honored. They knew their position was unassailable, for they had well learned the lesson taught in the early days of anti-slavery and the Republican party, that all compromises with principle are dangerous. Statesmen and reformers alike admitted that the demands of the women were just and proper, though not opportune. But when the whole question of suffrage was up for discussion, there could not be a better time to get all the agitation possible in regard to woman's claims. The subject once settled on the narrow ground of class, it would not be renewed for a generation. Time has proved their fears well grounded. Nearly twenty years have passed, and there has been no such agitation and excitement as then on the question. If all the women, to say nothing of the Republicans and Abolitionists who claimed to believe in the truth of the idea, had stood firm, woman would have been enfranchised with the negro. But few could withstand the persecution, the ridicule, the pathetic appeals to keep silent, and in a large measure when the Anti-Slavery Society disbanded the woman suffrage movement became the toy of the Republican party, and has been trifled with ever since, like the cat with the mouse in the fable.

But Democrats seeing the inconsistency of Republicans, did advocate our cause, present our petitions in Congress, and frank our documents to all parts of the country. And because these women, denied help and encouragement from other sources, accepted aid from the Democrats, they were called "Copperheads";[108][Pg 321] disloyal to the Government. Women who had been complimented by the Republican press as "wise," "prudent," "noble," while rolling up 300,000 petitions for emancipation, were now said to be "selfish," "impracticable," "unreasonable," because forsooth they demanded some new liberties for themselves. More over said the Republicans, "these Democrats are hypocritical, they do not believe in the extension of suffrage to any class." To this[Pg 322] the women replied, "If the Democrats advocate a grand measure of public policy which they do not believe, they occupy much higher ground than Republicans who refuse to press the same measure which they claim to believe. At all events the hypocrisy of Democrats serves us a better purpose in the present emergency than does the treachery of Republicans."

But with all their long-time friends against them; such as Charles Sumner and Henry Wilson in the Senate, William Lloyd Garrison and Gerrit Smith in reform, Horace Greeley and most of the Liberals in the press, the position of the women seemed so untenable to the majority that at times a sense of utter loneliness and desertion made the bravest of them doubt the possibility of maintaining the struggle or making themselves fairly understood. And yet, what was done was sound in principle and wise in policy. Every argument made by Republicans and Abolitionists for the enfranchisement of the negro was pertinent for woman. As Mr. Sumner said to us years after he made that great speech on "Equal rights to all," "substitute sex for color, and you have the best speech I could make on your platform." Our cause was wise too in policy, for never before had we such an opportunity to compel intelligent opposition in the halls of legislation and in conventions of the people. Black men were at the white heat of anxiety and expectation; Abolitionists, with bated breath, watched every move and vote in Congress; Republicans felt that on the success or defeat of "negro suffrage" hung the life or death of their party; and all alike feared the slightest influence that might turn the scale, and deplored the seeming coalition of the women and the Democrats. Hence what an hour to proclaim our principles of government upon their broadest basis, and to keep up the discussion of woman suffrage at every point with so formidable an opposition!

Few [109] only were equal to the emergency. Even in the Equal Rights Conventions the slightest opposition to the XIV Amendment called out hisses and denunciation, and all resolutions on that point were promptly voted down. Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony were waylaid again and again in the ante-rooms, and implored to avoid all discussions on the pending amendments, and were persistently opposed by black men, Abolitionists, Republicans and women who did not understand either the principle or policy involved in the discussion. This opposition of the few did not grow out of any hostility[Pg 323] to "negro suffrage," for they were all Abolitionists, and had labored untiringly for the emancipation of the slaves; but they were opposed to the enfranchisement of another class of ignorant men to be lifted above their heads, to be their law-makers and Governors; to prescribe the moral code and political status of their daughters. The hue and cry against those who claimed that "that was the woman's hour," for accepting the aid of Democrats in the establishment of a paper through which they could plead their own case, were so many plausible pretexts in the mouths of those who could not consistently attack their principles of action. But from this opposition on all sides true woman suffragists learned their power to stand alone, and to maintain the right against large and honorable majorities.

Again said our professed friends we can carry "negro suffrage" now; it is a political necessity; do not trammel us with another issue—this done, depend upon it, men have too much chivalry to forget the services of the loyal women all through the war, and through the long political struggle in Congress. Women in our conventions echoed the same assuring sentiments, and voted down resolutions of protest and rebuke. They were deceived with the plausible promises made by Republicans and Abolitionists—promises still unredeemed, for Republicans have been busy ever since trying to save the life of their party; and Abolitionists, with few exceptions, have thrown their influence into Labor Reform, Temperance, Finance, and Literature. But of what do you complain, asked our statesmen. Of many things, we replied:

1st. Our National Constitution was broad and liberal in letter and spirit, put no limits on suffrage, made no distinctions in sex, until the Republicans, by their amendments, introduced the word "male," and thus blocked woman's path to equality.

2d. Republicans in Congress either suppressed our petitions for suffrage, or presented them under protest, after holding them for weeks in their possession.

3d. By their speeches and votes in Congress, and their decisions in the courts on questions involving our civil and political rights, they have stultified their own grand declarations of the equal rights of citizens in a republic.

When the XIV Amendment was first proposed, the Hon. Charles Sumner opposed it, because, he said, there was already enough of Justice, Liberty, and Equality in the Constitution to protect the humblest citizen under our flag. He had always taken the ground that the Constitution was an Anti-Slavery document, hence to vote for an amendment was to contradict his former position. We opposed[Pg 324] the amendments because, in the Constitution as it was there were no distinctions of sex recognized, while the amendments declaring "manhood suffrage," established an aristocracy of sex. However, in due season, Mr. Sumner withdrew his opposition; and without changing his opinion, voted for the amendments because negro suffrage was a party measure, and the political necessity of the hour. We, having no party, no votes, no political right but to petition and discuss the measures up for consideration, saw no reason for changing our opinions, hence we used the best possible means to keep up the agitation until the amendments were passed, and beyond reconsideration. Nevertheless, in the midst of this general hostility, the sound policy of the agitation carried on against the Republican party and its measures was evident in the numerous bills some of its liberal members soon after presented in Congress. In The Revolution, December 10, 1868, we find the following:

As in the war women bravely assumed duties in many departments of labor unknown to them before, so in the reconstruction they gave more earnest thought to questions of public policy, and made many valuable suggestions. A well written speech on "Reconstruction and Universal Suffrage," was delivered by Mrs. M. C. Walling, of Texas, in the Senate chamber of the Capitol at Washington, May 10th, 1866; The first and last time that a woman was ever granted the privilege of speaking there.

To Anna Dickinson belongs the honor of suggesting a XV amendment. Although the XIV amendment to the National Constitution gave to that document for the first time a concise definition of a "citizen," and forbade any State to abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, yet this amendment was found inadequate to protect the political rights of the colored men; and the Republican party was anxiously casting about for a method of perfecting their work, when the puzzle was solved by a proposition for a XV amendment, which should prohibit disfranchisement on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. The suggestion for this amendment originated at the National Loyalists' Convention held at Philadelphia, September, 1866, in a consultation between Anna Dickinson, Frederick Douglass, and Theodore Tilton, and was in time accepted by the Republican party. It was reported in Congress Feb. 26, 1869, and received the necessary ratification March 30, 1870. Thus a woman and a colored man were two important factors in perfecting the work of reconstruction through a constitutional provision prohibiting disfranchisement on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

As when the XIV amendment was pending, the efforts of women were directed toward securing the omission of the invidious word "male," so on the submission of the XV amendment their efforts were again directed toward securing the enfranchisement of woman by the introduction of the word "sex" in the last line of Section 1. But Congress with the usual short-sightedness of injustice, refused to secure the political freedom of one half the entire people, even forgetting to enfranchise a portion of the colored race from their "previous condition of servitude" because of sex.

The sound position taken by Anna Dickinson at this period is substantiated by Frederick Douglass, not only in his "Life and Times," but in the following letters:[Pg 328]

When Anna Dickinson, Frederick Douglass, and Theodore Tilton pressed the question of negro suffrage on the Loyalists' convention, they were met by the same arguments and appeals against it, that were urged upon those who pressed woman suffrage when the Fourteenth Amendment was pending. Douglass knew that any reconstruction without political equality for the black man was a delusion; the women saw as clearly that any reconstruction without political equality for them was a delusion also, and their determination to have some recognition under government sprung from the same love of freedom and self-respect that moved Douglass when, with equal determination, he walked in the procession, and took his seat as a delegate, as he had a right to do, though warned that he would stir up a mob, and be a firebrand in the convention. The description of this scene by Mr. Douglass himself is a suggestive study for all oppressed classes:

This experience shows how little knowledge politicians have of what lies in the hearts of the people; that even statesmen seldom appreciate the many steps in progressive thought already achieved, before there is any popular demonstration. It shows, too, the commanding influence of personal dignity and lofty self-respect, incapable of being either flattered or coerced to take any position among men but one of absolute equality. And this was exactly the position taken by those women who opposed the Fourteenth Amendment. The Loyalists' Convention was held at a most critical period in the Nation's life; the policy and action of all the Southern States centered in its deliberations. Though Mr. Douglass would not hold the rightful representation of his race in abeyance to the success of the Convention, the pacification of the South, the policy of the border States, nor the life of the Nation, yet he too criticised the women who took precisely the same position in maintaining the dignity of sex against the action of the Republican party and the whole Northern policy of reconstruction. What to either class was the nation's life, so long as the flag gave them no protection against the humiliating distinctions of caste? What to them were boasted republican institutions, so long as their rights, privileges, and immunities as citizens were denied? White men could only be taught the lesson of a common humanity by just such resistance as these oppressed classes made. Protests and petitions, falling like seeds here and there on good ground, at last moved some liberal Republicans to action, and several bills recognizing the political existence of women were duly presented. The best results of the war have been the struggle and determination of black men and women for recognition in the reconstruction, for they have compelled the nation's consideration of the vital principles of republican government, and secured for both classes many rights and privileges heretofore unknown.[Pg 333]

The congressional action throughout this session proves that if all the friends of woman suffrage had been steadfast to their principles, and made a simultaneous effort against any further extension of "manhood suffrage" until woman too was recognized, the measure might have been carried; at least the agitation could have been prolonged and intensified in the halls of legislation fourfold. But in the general confusion as to what might or might not be sound policy, the most liberal took each onward step with doubt and hesitation. However, the persistent hostility to the amendments kept up the agitation in Congress, which at last culminated in a proposition for a Sixteenth Amendment, for which the National Woman Suffrage Association has, with one short interval, ever since petitioned.

Petitions for a Sixteenth Amendment were immediately printed and sent throughout the nation, and have been steadily rolling into Congress for the last thirteen years from all the State and National Woman Suffrage Associations. The Fortieth Congress was the first in which an amendment to the National Constitution in the interests of woman was ever proposed. In a series of editorials in The Revolution there was a decided expression of hostility towards the Fifteenth Amendment during all the time it was pending in Congress. In the issue of October 21, 1869, Mrs. Stanton said:

In this period of reconstruction the Woman Suffrage Associations sent their first delegates to National political conventions. The appointment of Susan B. Anthony to the Democratic Presidential Convention was a new and unlooked-for sensation.

The comments of the daily city press [110] on this "innovation" were[Pg 343] as varied as amusing. During the reading of this document, several members of the Equal Rights Association occupied conspicuous seats in the Convention. This was the first time in the history of that party that any effort had been made to secure the attendance of their mothers, wives, and daughters. But observing that women had been an element of enthusiasm in Republican meetings all through the war and the period of reconstruction, and seeing the improved tone and manner their presence had given to the speeches, and the general conduct of the proceedings, it was thought best to secure the same influence henceforth in Democratic conventions. The attempt at this time was quite satisfactory and successful. A large number of handsomely-dressed ladies helped to swell the immense audience that assembled in Tammany Hall, one of the most spacious and elegant[Pg 344] auditoriums in the city, to be dedicated on that day, July 4th, 1868, to Democratic principles.

As there were strong hopes that that party was about to take some new departure; some onward step; even to nominate for their leader so radical a man as Salmon P. Chase, a large number of Radicals and Liberals were present. Had the Democrats made that nomination, and put a woman suffrage plank in their platform, they would probably have carried the election. But they timidly clung to their old moorings, nominated a man who had an unpopular war record, and submitted a platform without one vital principle with which to rouse the enthusiasm of the people.

Thus was the movement inaugurated of sending women as delegates to both Republican and Democratic Presidential conventions, giving rise to the agitation of the suffrage question on new platforms. With what success the example has been followed, the records from time to time fully show.

FOOTNOTES:

[108] Going over to the Copperheads.—As we have received several letters from radical friends, warning us that we are going over to the copperheads, for their comfort and instruction we will state some part of our political creed.

1. We believe that suffrage is a natural right that belongs to every man and woman of sound mind, without any qualification of property, education, or sex, and moreover, that no reconstruction is worthy the name that does not secure this right to the humblest citizen under government.

2. We believe that both the spirit and the letter of the Federal Constitution and the Declaration of Independence give Congress the right to secure a republican form of government in every State in the Union, and if they had done their duty at the end of the war and proclaimed universal suffrage and universal amnesty, North and South, the Republican party would not have been floundering about in the fogs and mists of statesmanship to-day, without one inspiring party cry, or one grand motto inscribed upon their banners, to carry them through the coming Presidential campaign.

3. We believe that behind the rights of the Federal Government and the rights of the several States are fundamental rights more sacred than either, namely the rights of the individual to life, liberty, and happiness; that out of these rights all just governments flow, and whatever hinders the growth of the individual, restricts his liberty, and destroys his happiness, is tyranny, and it is his sacred duty to resist it to the death, as it is that of the State to resist the Federal Government, in order to secure larger liberty for its whole people. Rebellion in defense of justice, mercy, and the higher law is always in order. Inasmuch as the rights of the individual are above all constitutions, customs, creeds, and codes, it is the duty of the general government to protect these rights against all intermediate authorities.

4. While we have always demanded emancipation and enfranchisement for the African race, we have no great enthusiasm for "negro suffrage" as a party cry, because it is too narrow and partial for the hour. In '56, Republicans asked aid and comfort of Abolitionists, because they were opposed to the extension of slavery, but the Abolitionists, who demanded "immediate emancipation," scouted the proposition; non-extension, said they, is by no means grappling with the principle; shutting up slavery where it is, is a step in the right direction, and will eventually strangle the whole system, but to educate the people into an idea we need the enthusiasm of a principle. When we say "slavery is a sin," and therefore demand "immediate emancipation," we end the evil and its extension in the same breath. So we say, to-day, to the Abolitionists and Republicans, we can not accept your platform, because it is not based on the idea that suffrage is a natural right, we admit that "negro suffrage" is a step in the right direction, but to educate the people to this partial demand even, we need the enthusiasm of a principle, which you do not proclaim, so long as you ask simply the extension of suffrage to two million men, instead of its universal application to every citizen of the republic. As the greater includes the less, when we say universal enfranchisement, we claim all that the most radical Abolitionists and Republicans claim and much more. Now, if the copperheads are educated up to this point, we are happy to give them the right hand of fellowship, and shall hope to be one of the delegates to the Tammany Hall Convention. We have read their platform, as set forth in four mortal columns of the World, and really do not see much to choose between it and the Chicago platform. In fact, with the two Democratic candidates, Gen. Grant and Chief-Justice Chase, and their twin platforms, stump orators will have a hard task to prove why the people should prefer one candidate or party to the other. The aristocratic principle—the government of the many by the few—has been tried six thousand years in every latitude and longitude, and under every imaginable form, and the nations based on this principle have all alike perished. We have proclaimed the true democratic idea on this continent, but never lived it. Now the work of this generation is to realize what the fathers declared a government of equality. The ballot is the symbol of this idea, and it is not too much to demand to-day that it be placed in the hand of every citizen. It is not too much to ask that this idea, baptized in the blood of two revolutions, be now made the corner-stone of the republic, the test of loyalty to the Union, to justice, to humanity.—E. C. S. The Revolution, June 11, 1868.

[109] Lucretia Mott, Martha C. Wright, Robert Purvis, Olympia Brown, Josephine Griffing, Parker Pillsbury, Paulina Wright Davis, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Ernestine L. Rose, Clarina Howard Nichols.

[110] (New York Herald, July 1, 1868): The Women's Rights Women and the Democratic Convention.—The Central Committee of the Woman's Suffrage Association has prepared a woman's rights platform for the coming National Democratic Convention. This association was given the cold shoulder and completely ignored by the radicals at Chicago, and the Democrats have therefore a splendid opportunity to take wind out of the Republican sails on "womanhood suffrage" against "manhood suffrage," and for white women especially, as better qualified for an intelligent exercise of the suffrage than the thousands of black men just rescued from the ignorance of negro slavery. The Democratic Convention can turn the radical party out of doors upon this issue alone if only bold enough to take strong ground upon it in favor of at least the same political rights to white women that Congress has given to Southern niggers.

(World, July 1, 1868): The Woman's Suffrage Central Committee have spoken with a kindness which will be appreciated at its proper value; they propose to anticipate and obviate the labors of the National Democratic Convention by preparing a platform for the party in advance. To this platform we elsewhere give the benefit of our circulation. The document will not be amenable to censure for any lack of explicitness or novelty, and will doubtless receive all the attention to which its intrinsic merits entitle it, and which its exceptional comprehensiveness will challenge. Place aux dames!

(Evening Telegram, July 2, 1868): The Woman's Platform.—The Woman's Suffrage Association present to the Tammany Hall Fourth of July Democratic National Convention a platform of principles which contains some good sound planks and proves at all events that an educated white woman is more fit to be intrusted with the ballot than is the brutalized and ignorant negro who has been invested with political power by the radicals of Congress. The platform is the work of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, and the red men of the wigwam and their associates might do worse than indorse and adopt it entire. Besides, this declaration of principles on the part of the strong-minded females opens up a new feature in the campaign and may get rid of a serious difficulty. Why should not the Democratic Convention take the cow by the horns, nominate Elizabeth Cady Stanton or Susan B. Anthony as their candidate for the Vice-Presidency, and thus strike out at once in a bold revolutionary policy that would entirely overshadow the radicals and their niggers' rights and sweep the country from Maine to California? We invite the attention of Belmont and the National Committee to the suggestion. Chase and Stanton would be a wonderfully strong ticket and a remarkable association of names, and so, for that matter, would be Chase and Anthony. Besides, it might really bring about a great reform in the character of the Senate to be presided over by a female. There would be fewer disgraceful scenes in that body, and even Chandler, Nye, and poor maudlin Yates would feel the influence of woman's presence, and learn to behave themselves decently.

(Sun, July 2, 1868): The Revolution for this week is full of suggestive and entertaining, if not instructive, reading matter. Whether or not women ought to vote, it is very clear that those of the sex who are associated under the leadership of Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony can write in the most saucy and piquant fashion, and, moreover, know how to disarm by their wit and good humor the most ill-natured of their adversaries.

(Tribune, July 2, 1868): Woman Suffrage.—It is said that strong ground will be taken against the admission of Miss Susan B. Anthony as a delegate at large to represent the interests of American women in the Convention; but as that lady's ticket is already "impeticosed," and as she has a will of her own, and a number of brawny friends who will not see her deprived of her rights as a publisher, a woman, and an American citizen, it may be inferred that Miss Anthony will take a seat in due form, and will make herself heard when her turn comes.

(World, July 2, 1868): The ladies of the spirited woman's rights weekly, called The Revolution, with Miss Susan B. Anthony at their head, are setting their caps for the Democratic party. Availing themselves of the privilege conferred on their charming sex by leap-year, they are making the first advances if not a downright "proposal." Miss Anthony greets the National Convention by hanging out a fresh new sign in flaming red, brighter than the blushes of Aurora, and all the way up three flights of stairs to her office, visitors will encounter red signs to the right of them, red signs to the left of them, like the cannon at Balaklava. A conservative stranger needs all the courage of the immortal Light Brigade to run the gauntlet of the blazing word "Revolution" staring at him on so many sides. Miss Anthony has taken uncommon pains to make her paper this week captivating and irresistible, as will be seen by the advertisement she has inserted in this morning's World for the benefit of members of the Convention. But if she were a confiding miss of "sweet sixteen," instead of the "strong-minded woman" that she is, and the blushes of all those brilliant signs were transfused into her own lovely cheeks, we suspect (such is the infirmity or the perversity of "those odious men") that she would make more conquests than she can reasonably expect to do with the intellectual blaze and brilliancy of this week's Revolution—splendid new signs and all. We fear the time is rather distant when gallant young democrats will not surrender to soft eyes and modest feminine ways sooner than to a good piece of argumentation in a female mouth. Miss Anthony will be the author of a "Revolution" indeed, if she succeeds in persuading the well-dressed beaux to prefer wives to whom they would go to school. The members of the Convention are more mature, though we doubt if they are much more sensible. But Miss Anthony is not of a temper to be discouraged by small obstacles, and we applaud the spirit with which she attempts to "make hay while the sun shines."

(Evening Express, July 2, 1868): "The Revolution" and "the Woman."—The women—naturally enough malcontent when the inferior race of negroes is given the ballot; when Coolies are promised the ballot, and even Indians can not be refused equal and universal suffrage as "men and brethren"—insist now, more and more, upon women being taken into the Radical party. The Democracy acknowledge their right to equality with negroes and Coolies and Comanches—not much of an acknowledgment, by the way, but something in the way of progress, and far ahead of the Radicals. The last number of The Revolution is irresistible in argument against the Negro Suffrage Radicals, who will not give women equal rights with negroes.

CHAPTER XXII.

NATIONAL CONVENTIONS—1869.

In the Autumn of 1868 a call [111] was issued for the first Woman Suffrage Convention ever held in Washington. It was a period of intense excitement, as many important measures of reconstruction were under consideration. The XIV Amendment was ratified, the XV was still pending, and several bills were before Congress on the suffrage question. Petitions and protests against all amendments to the Constitution regulating suffrage on the basis of sex were being sent in by thousands in charge of the Washington Association, of which Josephine S. Griffing was President. A large number of persons from every part of the Union were crowding into the Capital. Many Southerners being present to whom the demand for woman suffrage was new, the arguments were listened to with interest, while the tracts and documents were eagerly purchased and distributed among their friends at home. All these things combined to make this Convention most enthusiastic and influential, not only in its immediate effect on those present, but from the highly complimentary reports of the press scattered over the nation. We find a brief summing up of the Convention in letters to The Revolution.

Mrs. Stanton's speech the first evening of the convention gave a fair statement of the hostile feelings of women toward the amendments; we give the main part of it. Of all the other speeches, which were extemporaneous, only meagre and unsatisfactory reports can be found.

This Convention was the first public occasion when the women opposed to the XIV Amendment, measuring their logic with Republicans, Abolitionists, and colored men, ably maintained their position. The division of opinion was marked and earnest, and the debate was warm between Messrs. Douglass, Downing, Hinton, Dr. Purvis, and Edward M. Davis on one side, and the ladies, with Robert Purvis [114] and Parker Pillsbury on the other. Edward M. Davis, the son-in-law of Lucretia Mott, was so hostile to the position of the women on the XIV Amendment that he refused to enroll his name as a member of the Convention. Nevertheless, Mrs. Mott in the chair, allowed him to criticise most severely the resolutions and the position of those with whom she stood. She answered his attacks with her usual gentleness, and advocated the resolutions.[115] Robert Purvis, differing with his own son and other colored men, denounced their position with severity. Yet good feeling prevailed throughout, and the Convention adjourned in order and harmony.[Pg 359]

The following objective view of the Convention, of the tone of the addresses, and the personnel of the platform, from the pen of one of our distinguished literary women—Sarah Clarke Lippincott—will serve to show that the leaders in the suffrage movement were not the rude, uncultured women generally represented by the opposition, but in point of intelligence, refinement, appearance, and all the feminine virtues, far above the ordinary standard. For the honor of this grand reform, we record the compliments occasionally bestowed.

The National Woman's Suffrage Convention held in Washington, January 18th and 19th, presented the following appeal to the District Committee:

Immediately after the convention in Washington, Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony made their first tour through the Western States, speaking at various points in Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Ohio, having been invited to attend several State Conventions. The editorial correspondence in The Revolution, gives a brief summary of this Western trip, so valuable in its results, in the organization of many suffrage associations. These meetings aroused the women who had been absorbed by the war to new and higher duties, showing them that although the battles of freedom had been fought and settled by the sword, many questions growing out of the conflict were still to be adjusted by discussion and legislation, and that, all important as their work had been in helping to save the life of the nation, there were other duties to themselves as citizens on which the perpetuation of our free institutions as fully depended.

To awaken women everywhere to a proper self-respect, was the special mission of the suffrage movement, and it was a labor, for the very elect were in favor of negro suffrage first, woman[Pg 368] suffrage afterwards, which meant the postponement of the latter question for another generation. The few who had the prescience to see the long years of apathy that always follow a great conflict, strained every nerve to settle the broad question of suffrage on its true basis while the people were awake to its importance, but the blindness of reformers themselves in playing into the hands of the opposition, made all efforts unavailing.

THE MAY ANNIVERSARIES IN NEW YORK AND BROOKLYN.

The Executive Committee of the Equal Rights Association issued a call [116] for the anniversary in New York, early in the spring of[Pg 379] 1869. Never for any Convention were so many letters [117] written to distinguished legislators and editors, nor so many promptly and fairly answered.

The anniversary commenced on Wednesday morning at Steinway Hall, New York. The opening session was very largely attended, the spacious hall being nearly full, showing that the era of anniversaries of important and useful societies, had by no means passed away.[118] In the absence of the president, Mrs. Lucretia Mott, the chair was taken by Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, First Vice-President. Rev. Mrs. Hanaford, of Massachusetts, opened the meeting with prayer.

The next speaker was Miss Phoebe Couzins, a young law student from St. Louis, who spoke in a most agreeable and forcible manner.[Pg 387]

The friends of woman's suffrage, including most of the delegates to the Equal Rights Convention in New York, met in mass meeting in the Academy of Music, Brooklyn, Friday morning, May 14th, at 10 o'clock. Mr. Edwin A. Studwell called the meeting to order and nominated Mrs. Anna C. Field for President. This lady was unanimously elected, and took the chair. Mrs. Celia Burleigh was elected Secretary. On motion of Mr. Studwell, a committee [122] was appointed to draft resolutions. Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was then introduced, and made the opening speech.

At the afternoon session addresses were made by Mrs. Livermore, Lucy Stone, Lilie Peckham, Rev. J. W. Chadwick, and Lucretia Mott. In the evening the building was crowded throughout, including stage and both galleries, with the very best of people. The Committee on organization reported for President, Mrs. Celia Burleigh, and for Vice-Presidents about twenty names. Mrs. Norton read an extract from a letter of Wm. Lloyd Garrison. Miss Olive Logan spoke in her own dramatic style. She dealt numerous severe blows at the other sex. Her many sarcastic and humorous hits elicited great applause. A resolution declaring woman entitled to vote and hold office under all conditions which it is proper to impose on man, was read and adopted, after which Lucretia Mott addressed the convention in her usual happy manner.

Miss Phoebe Couzins and Mr. Douglass made brief addresses. The Hutchinsons sang one of their soul-stirring songs. Lucy Stone closed the exercises with a most effective appeal.[Pg 400]

Out of these broad differences of opinion on the amendments, as shown in the debates, divisions grew up between Republicans and Abolitionists on the one side, and the leaders of the Woman Suffrage movement on the other. The constant conflict on the Equal Rights platform proved the futility of any attempt to discuss the wrongs of different classes in one association. A general dissatisfaction had been expressed by the delegates from the West at the latitude of debate involved in an Equal Rights Association. Hence, a change of name and more restricted discussions were strenuously urged by them. Accordingly, at the close of Anniversary week, a meeting was called at the Woman's Bureau,[123] which resulted in reorganization under the name of "The National Woman Suffrage Association."[124]

There had been so much trouble with men in the Equal Rights Society, that it was thought best to keep the absolute control henceforth in the hands of women. Sad experience had taught them that in trying emergencies they would be left to fight their own battles, and therefore it was best to fit themselves for their responsibilities by filling the positions of trust exclusively with women. This was not accomplished without a pretty sharp struggle. As it was, they had to concede the right of membership to men, in order to carry the main point, as several ladies would not join unless men also could be admitted. All preliminaries discussed and amicably adjusted, a list of officers was chosen and an organization completed, making a XVIth Amendment the special object of its[Pg 401] work and consideration. The regular weekly meetings of this Association were reported by the metropolitan press with many spicy[Pg 402] and critical comments, which did a great educational work and roused much thought on the whole question.

Conventions were held during the summer at Saratoga and Newport. The following letter from Celia Burleigh gives a bird's-eye view of that at Saratoga:

The Fourth of July this year was celebrated for the first time by members of the Woman Suffrage Association, in a beautiful grove in Westchester County. Edwin A. Studwell of Brooklyn made all the necessary arrangements. Speeches were made by Judge E. D. Culver, Mrs. Stanton, and Miss Anthony. The Woman Suffrage meetings at the Bureau were crowded every week. October 7th there was an unusually large attendance, to discuss the coming Industrial Congress at Berlin. The following letter to the Berlin Congress was read and adopted:

The following ladies were appointed delegates to the Woman's Industrial Congress called to meet at Berlin: Ernestine L. Rose, Laura C. Bullard, New York; Kate N. Doggett, Mary J. Safford, Illinois; Mary Peckenpaugh, Missouri. A letter from Mrs. Bullard [126] was listened to with interest.

During the Autumn of this year there was a secession from our ranks, and the preliminary steps were taken for another organization. Aside from the divisions growing out of a difference of opinion on the amendments, there were some personal hostilities among the leaders of the movement that culminated in two Societies, which were generally spoken of as the New York and Boston wings of the Woman Suffrage reform. The former, as already stated, called the "National Woman Suffrage Association," with Elizabeth Cady Stanton for President, organized in May; the latter called "The American Woman Suffrage Association," with Henry Ward Beecher for President, organized the following November. Most of those who inaugurated the reform remained in the National Association—Lucretia Mott, Martha C. Wright, Ernestine Rose, Clarina Howard Nichols, Paulina Wright Davis, Sarah Pugh, Amy Post, Mary H. Hallowell, Lydia Mott, Catharine A. F. Stebbins, Adeline Thomson, Josephine S. Griffing, Clemence S. Lozier, Rev. Olympia Brown, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony—and continued to work harmoniously together.

FOOTNOTES:

[111] A National Woman's Suffrage Convention will be held in Carroll Hall, Washington, D. C., on the 19th and 20th of January, 1869. All associations friendly to Woman's Rights are invited to send delegates from every State. Friends of the cause are invited to attend and take part in the discussions.

Committee of Arrangements.—Josephine S. Griffing, William Hutchinson, Lydia S. Hall, John H. Crane, Mary T. Corner, George F. Needham, James K. Wilcox.

[112] Speeches were made by Mrs. Griffing and Miss Clara Barton of Washington, Mrs. Wright and Susan B. Anthony of New York, Mr. Edward M. Davis and Mr. Robert Purvis of Pennsylvania, Dr. Charles Purvis, Mr. and Mrs. Stebbins, Mr. Wilcox, Mrs. Julia Archibald, Col. Hinton and Mr. George T. Downing of Washington, Mrs. Starrett, Dr. Root and Mrs. Archibald of Kansas, Mr. Wolff of Colorado, Mrs. Kingsbury of Vineland, New Jersey, Mrs. Dr. Hathaway of Massachusetts, Mrs. Minor of Missouri, and others.

[113] The amendment as proposed by the Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania, extended the right of suffrage to "all citizens," which included both white and black women. At the bare thought of such an impending calamity, the more timid Republicans were filled with alarm, and the word "male" promptly inserted.

[114] A circumstance at the Woman's National Convention served to impress me profoundly with the monstrousness of slavery, and of the prejudice it created and has left behind it, which I have been waiting a convenient opportunity to tell you about. Far into the first evening of the Convention, when the debate had waxed warm between Mrs. Stanton—who opposed the admission of any more men (referring to the negroes) to the political franchise, until the present arbiters of the question were disposed to admit women also—and Mr. Downing and Dr. Purvis, of Washington, an elegant looking gentleman arose upon impulse and began to talk in his seat, but, after a little hesitancy, accepted the invitation of Mrs. Mott and Miss Anthony to take the platform. As he stood up before the audience, he appeared a tall, slender, elderly gentleman, with the white hair and other marks of years, at least not less than sixty, graced with a handsome face of the highest type, strikingly fine in character. I have seen many nations and conditions of people, and I do not fear to say with some regard for my reputation as an observer—that I believe it one of the most benevolent and exalted faces—one of the most elevated and least mixed with the animal and earthly alloys of our humanity, that adorn the whole globe. He spoke but a few words. They were all of the character of the generous impulse upon which he rose. In his gratitude for what those noble women had done for the colored race, with which he was identified, he was willing to wait for the ballot for himself, his sons, and his race, until women were permitted to enjoy it. The speaker was Robert Purvis, of Philadelphia, Dr. Purvis's father. By the gas light of the hall, he not only appeared to be a white man, but a light complexioned white man. It may be that he has one thirty-second—possibly one-sixteenth—negro blood in his veins. There is so little in effect, that the whole make-up of the man is after the highest pattern of white men. Besides—to descend a little—Mr. Purvis is a gentleman of wealth and culture, and surrounds his family with all the gratifications of the intellectual, esthetic and moral desires, and carefully developed his children at home and at the best schools into which they could gain admission.—Correspondence of the Denver News.

[115] Resolved, That governments among men have hitherto signally failed, their history being but a series of revolutions, bloodshed, and desolation.

Resolved, That a democracy based on a republicanism which proscribes and disfranchises one part of the citizens for their sex, and another for their color, is a contradiction in terms more offensive and harder to be borne than despotism itself, under its true name, and vastly more dangerous by its seductive influence to human well-being.

Resolved, That we demand, as the only assurance of national perpetuity and peace, as well as a measure of Justice and right, that in the reconstruction of the Government suffrage shall be based on loyalty and intelligence, and nowhere be limited by odious distinctions on account of color, or sex.

Resolved, That we earnestly recommend to the friends of equal suffrage in all the States to call a convention at their respective capitals during the sessions of their Legislatures, and that committees be appointed to memorialize those bodies on the subject of suffrage alike impartial for men and women, and that as far as possible able and earnest women obtain a hearing before them, to urge the necessity and justice of their claim.

Resolved, That we denounce the proposition now pending in Congress to abolish the elective franchise in the District of Columbia, as it tends to make the disfranchisement of the 25,000 women of the District, and the lately enfranchised colored men perpetual.

Resolved, That in demanding the ballot for the disfranchised classes, we do not overlook the logical fact of the right to be voted for; and we know no reason why a colored man should be excluded from a seat in Congress, or any woman either, who possesses the suitable capabilities, and has been duly elected.

Resolved, That we demand of the Government, and of the public also, that women and colored people shall choose their own occupations, and be paid always equally with men for equal work.

Resolved, That a man's government is worse than a white man's government, because, in proportion as you increase the tyrants, you make the condition of the disfranchised class more hopeless and degraded.

Resolved, That as the partisan cry of a white man's government created the antagonism between the Irishman and the negro, culminating in those fearful riots in 1863, so the Republican cry of manhood suffrage creates the same antagonism between the negro and the woman, and must result, especially in the Southern States, in greater injustice toward woman.

[116] ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICAN EQUAL RIGHTS ASSOCIATION.

The American Equal Rights Association will hold its Anniversary in New York, at Steinway Hall, Wednesday and Thursday, May 12th and 13th, and in Brooklyn, Academy of Music, on Friday, the 14th.

After a century of discussion on the rights of citizens in a republic, and the gradual extension of suffrage, without property or educational qualifications, to all white men, the thought of the nation has turned for the last thirty years to negroes and women.

And in the enfranchisement of black men by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Federal Constitution, the Congress of the United States has now virtually established on this continent an aristocracy of sex; an aristocracy hitherto unknown in the history of nations.

With every type and shade of manhood thus exalted above their heads, there never was a time when all women, rich and poor, white and black, native and foreign, should be so wide awake to the degradation of their position, and so persistent in their demands to be recognized in the government.

Woman's enfranchisement is now a practical question in England and the United States. With bills before Parliament, Congress, and all our State Legislatures—with such able champions as John Stuart Mill and George William Curtis, woman need but speak the word to secure her political freedom to-day.

We sincerely hope that in the coming National Anniversary every State and Territory, East and West, North and South, will be represented. We invite delegates, too, from all those countries in the Old World where women are demanding their political rights.

Let there be a grand gathering in the metropolis of the nation, that Republicans and Democrats may alike understand, that with the women of this country lies a political power in the future, that both parties would do well to respect.

The following speakers from the several States are pledged: Anna E. Dickinson, Frederick Douglass, Mary A. Livermore, Madam Anneke, Lillie Peckham, Phoebe Couzins, M. H. Brinkerhoff, Mrs. Frances McKinley, Amelia Bloomer, Olive Logan, Mrs. E. Oakes Smith, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Henry Ward Beecher, Olympia Brown, Robert Purvis, Josephine S. Griffing, Lucy Stone, Ernestine L. Rose, Susan B. Anthony, Theodore Tilton, Rev. O. B. Frothingham.

Lucretia Mott, President.

Vice-Presidents, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frederick Douglass, Henry Ward Beecher, Martha C. Wright, Frances D. Gage, New York; Olympia Brown, Massachusetts; Elizabeth B. Chase, Rhode Island; Charles Prince, Connecticut; Robert Purvis, Pennsylvania; Antoinette B. Blackwell, New Jersey; Josephine S. Griffing, Washington, D. C.; Thomas Garrett, Delaware; Stephen H. Camp, Ohio; Euphemia Cochrane, Michigan; Mary A. Livermore, Illinois; Mrs. I. H. Sturgeon, Missouri; Amelia Bloomer, Iowa; Mary A. Starrett, Kansas; Virginia Penny, Kentucky.

Corresponding Secretary, Mary E. Gage.

Recording Secretaries, Henry B. Blackwell, Harriet Purvis.

Treasurer, John J. Merritt.

Executive Committee, Lucy Stone, Edward S. Bunker, Elizabeth R. Tilton, Ernestine L. Rose, Robert J. Johnston, Edwin A. Studwell, Anna Cromwell Field, Susan B. Anthony, Theodore Tilton, Margaret E. Winchester, Abby Hutchinson Patton, Oliver Johnson, Mrs. Horace Greeley, Abby Hopper Gibbons, Elizabeth Smith Miller.

[117] See Appendix.

[118] On the platform were seated Ernestine L. Rose, of New York; Mary A. Livermore, of Chicago; Phoebe Couzins, of St. Louis; Lillie Peckham, of Milwaukee; Madam Anneke, of Milwaukee; Madam de Hericourt, of Chicago; Mrs. M. Joslyn Gage, of Syracuse; Frederick Douglass; Lucy Stone, of New Jersey; Olive Logan, of New York; Josephine Griffing, of Washington; Mrs. Paulina W. Davis; Mrs. Abby H. Patton; Mrs. Kate N. Doggett; Eleanor Kirk; Mrs. Bachelder, of Boston; Mrs. Mary Macdonald, of Mount Vernon; Rev. Mrs. Hanaford; Rev. Antoinette L. Brown Blackwell, of New Jersey; Mrs. Jennette Brown Heath, of Kansas; Mrs. Mary Newman, of Binghamton, N.Y.; Mrs. Mathilde Wendt, of New York; Andrew Jackson Davis; Mary F. Davis; Mrs. Caroline Morey Holmes, of Union Village, New York; Mrs. Phelps, of the Woman's Bureau, New York; Senator Pomeroy; Mrs. Longley, of Cincinnati; Mrs. Amelia Bloomer, of Council Bluffs, Iowa; Lizzie Boynton, of Ohio; Mary A. Gage, of Brooklyn; Mrs. Sarah Norton, of the New York Working-Women's Association, and others.

The following committees, on motion of Miss Susan B. Anthony, were appointed by the Chair: Committee on Nominations—Edwin S. Bunker, Lydia Mott, Edwin A. Studwell, Abby H. Gibbons, Lucy Stone, Charles C. Burleigh, and Lillie Peckham. Committee on Resolutions—Ernestine L. Rose, Henry B. Blackwell, Anna C. Field, Mary A. Livermore, S. S. Foster, Josephine S. Griffing, Madam Anneke, Madam Hericourt, and Phebe A. Hanaford. Committee on Finance—Susan B. Anthony, Anna C. Field, Mary A. Gage, and R. J. Johnston.

[119] President:—Lucretia Mott.

Vice-Presidents at Large:—Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Ernestine L. Rose.

Vice-Presidents for the States:—John Neal, Maine; Armenia S. White, New Hampshire; James Hutchinson, Jr., Vermont; William Lloyd Garrison, Julia Ward Howe, Massachusetts; Elizabeth B. Chase, Rhode Island; Isabella B. Hooker, Connecticut; Henry Ward Beecher, Frederick Douglass, Martha C. Wright, New York; Portia Gage, New Jersey; Robert Purvis, Pennsylvania; Mary A. Livermore, Illinois; George W. Julian, Indiana; Benjamin F. Wade, Ohio; Gilbert Haven, Michigan; Rev. A. L. Lindsley, Oregon; Joseph H. Moore, California; Hon. J. Nye, Nevada; Hon. A. P. K. Safford, Arizona; Hon. James H. Ashley, Montana; Josephine S. Griffing, District of Columbia; Thomas Garrett, Delaware; Ellen M. Harris, Maryland; John C. Underwood, Virginia; Mrs. J. K. Miller, North Carolina; Mrs. Pillsbury, South Carolina; Elizabeth Wright, Texas; Mrs. Dr. Hawkes, Florida; Hon. Guy Wines, Tennessee; Mrs. Francis Minor, Missouri; Hon. Charles Robinson, Kansas; Governor Fairchild and Madam Anneke, Wisconsin; Mrs. Harriet Bishop, Minnesota; Hon. Mr. Loughridge, Iowa.

Executive Committee:—-Elizabeth R. Tilton, Lucy Stone, Edwin Studwell, Susan B. Anthony, Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Thomas W. Higginson, Anna C. Field, Edward S. Bunker, Abby Hutchinson Patton, Oliver Johnson, Elizabeth Smith Miller, Margaret E. Winchester, Edward Cromwell, Robert J. Johnston, Mary A. Davis.

Corresponding Secretaries:—Mary A. Gage, Harriet Purvis, Henry B. Blackwell.

Treasurer:—John J. Merritt.

[120] Resolved, That the extension of suffrage to woman is essential to the public safety and to the establishment and permanence of free institutions; that the admission of woman to political recognition in our national reconstruction is as imperative as the admission of any particular class of men.

Resolved, That as woman, in private life, in the partnership of marriage, is now the conservator of private morals, so woman in public life, in the partnership of a republican State, based upon Universal suffrage, will become the conservator of public morals.

Resolved, That the petitions of more than 200,000 women to Congress and to their State Legislature during the past winter, are expressions of popular sympathy and approval, everywhere throughout the land, and ought to silence the cavil of our opponents that "women do not want to vote."

Resolved, That while we heartily approve of the Fifteenth Amendment, extending suffrage to men, without distinction of race, we nevertheless feel profound regret that Congress has not submitted a parallel amendment for the enfranchisement of women.

Resolved, That any party professing to be democratic in spirit or republican in principle, which opposes or ignores the political rights of woman, is false to its professions, short-sighted in its policy, and unworthy of the confidence of the friends of impartial liberty.

Resolved, That we hail the report of the Joint Special Committee, just rendered to the Massachusetts Legislature, in favor of woman suffrage, as a fresh evidence of the growth of public sentiment and we earnestly hope that Massachusetts, by promptly submitting the question to a vote of her people, will maintain her historic pre-eminence in the cause of human liberty.

Resolved, That the thanks of the Convention are due to the Hon. George W. Julian in the House of Representatives, and to the Hon. Henry Wilson and the Hon. S. C. Pomeroy In the Senate of the United States, for their recent active efforts to secure suffrage for woman.

Resolved, That we recommend the men and women of every Ward, Town, County, and State, to form local Associations for creating and organizing public sentiment in favor of Suffrage for Woman, and to take every possible practical means to effect her enfranchisement.

[121] 1st. That we form a League of all women claiming their rights, both in America and Europe.

2d. The aim of this League, which shall be called the "Universal League for Woman's Rights and Universal Peace," is to extinguish prejudice between nations, to create a common interest through the influence of woman, in order to substitute the reign of humanity for the divisions and hatred and causes of war, and to give aid to the women of all nations in securing their rights.

3d. That in every country Emancipation Societies shall be organized, that a National Union may be formed which shall be in constant communication with other countries by means of journals, pamphlets, and books.

4th. That every year a General Assembly of delegates from every country shall meet in one of the capitals by turn. These capitals might for the present be Washington, Paris, London, Florence, and one of the central cities of Germany.

5th. That at the stated meetings of the League there shall be an exhibition of works of art by women.

6th. That, in traveling, women should everywhere find friendship and aid in pursuing the end which they propose. Women, being sisters and daughters in the ranks of humanity, must feel themselves at home with their sisters of all nations. Among us there can be no foreigners, since we are not citizens.

[122] E. S. Bunker, Mrs. E. R. Tilton, Mrs. A. Field, Rev. J. W. Chadwick, J. J. Merritt and Mrs. E. A. Studwell.

[123] The Woman's Bureau was located at No. 49 East Twenty-third Street, owned by Mrs. Elizabeth B. Phelps. Handsomely furnished apartments were rented to the proprietor of The Revolution, where much of the editorial work of that paper was done. Meetings were held in the spacious parlors every week, where Mrs. Phelps also gave many pleasant receptions, breakfasts, luncheons, and dinners. It was a kind of ladies' exchange, where reformers were sure to meet each other. These pleasant rooms in a fashionable part of the city gave a fresh impetus to our cause, and the regular meetings, seemingly so novel and recherché, called out several new speakers. This was the school where Lilie Devereux Blake, Dr. Clemence Lozier, Isabella Beecher Hooker, and others made their first attempts at oratory.

[124] In The Revolution of May 20th we find the following:

National Woman's Suffrage Association.—This organization was formed at the reunion held at the Woman's Bureau at the close of the Convention in New York. Delegates from nineteen States, including California and Washington Territory, were present on the occasion, and all felt the importance of an organization distinctively for Woman's Suffrage, in view of the fact that a Sixteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution to secure this is now before the people. The Association has held several meetings to plan the work for the coming year. Committees are in correspondence with friends in the several States to complete the list of officers.

President.—Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Vice-Presidents.—Elizabeth B. Phelps, New York; Anna E. Dickinson, Pennsylvania; Mrs. Kate N. Doggett, Illinois; Madam Anneke, Wisconsin; Mrs. Lucy Elmes, Connecticut; Mrs. Senator Henderson, Missouri; Mattie Griffith Brown, Massachusetts; Mrs. Nicholas Smith, Kansas; Lucy A. Snow, Maine; Elizabeth B. Schenck, California; Josephine S. Griffing, D.C.; Paulina W. Davis, Rhode Island; Miss Phoebe W. Couzins, Missouri. Corresponding Secretaries.—Mrs. Laura Curtis Bullard, Ida Greeley, Adelaide Hallock. Recording Secretaries.—Abby Burton Crosby, Sarah E. Fuller. Treasurer.—Elizabeth Smith Miller. Executive Committee.—Ernestine L. Rose, Charlotte B. Wilbour, Mathilde F. Wendt, Mary F. Gilbert, Susan B. Anthony. Advisory Counsel.—Matilda Joslyn Gage, New York; Mrs. Francis Minor, Missouri; Adeline Thompson, Pennsylvania; Mrs. M. B. Longley, Ohio; Mrs. Dr. J. P. Root, Kansas; Lilie Peckham, Wisconsin.

Constitution—Article 1. This organization shall be called the National Woman Suffrage Association.

Article 2. Its object shall be to secure the Ballot to the women of the nation on equal terms with men.

Article 3. Any citizen of the United States favoring this object, shall, by the payment of the sum of one dollar annually into the treasury, be considered a member of the Association, and no other shall be entitled to vote in its deliberations.

Article 4. The officers of the Association shall be a President, a Vice-President from each of the States and Territories, Corresponding and Recording Secretaries, Treasurer, an Executive Committee of not less than five nor more than nine members, located in New York City, and an Advisory Counsel of one person from each State and Territory, who shall be members of the National Executive Committee. The officers shall be chosen at each annual meeting of the Association.

Article 5. Any Woman's Suffrage Association may become auxiliary to the National Association by its officers becoming members of the Parent Association and sending an annual contribution of not less than twenty-five dollars.

Petition for Women Suffrage.—The following Petition was adopted by the National Woman Suffrage Association at their meeting held at the Woman's Bureau, June 1, 1869:

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:

The undersigned men and women of the United States ask for the prompt passage by your Honorable Bodies of a Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution, to be submitted to the Legislatures of the several States for ratification, which shall secure to all citizens the right of suffrage without distinction of sex.

The Revolution of May 27, 1869, said: "National Woman Suffrage Association.—It is with great pleasure that we announce that Anna E. Dickinson will deliver the inaugural address of the new National Woman Suffrage movement at the Cooper Institute to-morrow (Friday) evening at eight o'clock, also that Miss Dickinson consents to represent Pennsylvania in that Association as its Vice-President. The title of Anna Dickinson's lecture is "Nothing Unreasonable."

Chicago, Illinois.

Dear Miss Anthony: As to the new Society, God bless and speed it. Write me down for anything in which I can serve it. I feel like "a new hand," but I am not so dull but I can learn. Please put my name on your list of members, and also on your list of subscribers.

Kate N. Doggett.

With entire sympathy,

Manhattan, Kansas, June 3, 1869.

I shall be indeed proud to represent Kansas in the new National Woman Suffrage Association, whose formation meets my hearty approval. Definiteness of purpose is always conducive to success, and I think it would be well now to concentrate all our efforts upon the one idea of "Suffrage for Women." You may rely upon me to do whatever lies within my power and ability to further the cause.

Mary A. Humphrey.

Yours truly,

[125] National Woman Suffrage Convention at Newport, R.I.—A Woman Suffrage Convention will be held in the Academy of Music at Newport, R.I., on Wednesday and Thursday the 25th and 26th days of August next. The success attending the recent gathering at Saratoga warrants the most sanguine hopes and expectations from this also. The intense interest now everywhere felt on the great question renders all appeal for a full attendance unnecessary. Among the speakers will be Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mrs. Paulina Wright Davis, Mrs. Celia Burleigh, Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford, Mrs. Wilbour, and Miss Susan B. Anthony. The Misses Alice and Phoebe Cary, Mrs. Isabella Beecher Hooker, Mrs. E. H. Bullard, and many other of the most eminent women of the country will be in attendance. Names of other speakers will be announced hereafter.

In behalf of the National Woman Suffrage Association.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, President.

A. L. Norton, Paulina W. Davis, Advisory Counsel for the State of Rhode Island.

[126]

London, July 18, 1869.

Mrs. President and Members of the Woman's National Suffrage Association:

I send an account of the first woman suffrage meeting ever held in London. But if we may judge anything of the prospects of the movement from the list of men and women who have interested themselves in the cause, it will not be the last. When such men as John Stuart Mill, Charles Kingsley, Prof. Newman, and their peers, put the shoulder to the wheel, a cause is bound to move on and crush all obstacles in the way of its progress. No old stumbling blocks of prejudice, or deep ruts of conventionality can impede the onward movement. As in America, I find that intellect, genius, wealth, and fashion even, are beginning in England to fall into the ranks and push on the woman suffrage question. Miss Frances Power Cobbe writes me: "The uprising of a sex throughout the civilized world, is certainly an unique fact in history, and can hardly fail of some important results."

With the confident expectation that her prophecy will find a speedy and perhaps grander fulfillment than she or any of us dream of now, I remain yours, respectfully,

Laura C. Bullard, Cor. Sec'y N. W. S. Association.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE NEW DEPARTURE.

UNDER THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT.

Although with Charles Sumner many believed that under the original Constitution women were citizens and therefore voters in our Republic, much more bold and invincible were their claims when the XIV. Amendment added new barriers to the already strong bulwarks of the Supreme Law of the land.

The significance of these amendments in reference to women was first seen by Francis Minor, of Missouri, a member of the legal profession in St. Louis. He called attention to the view of the question, afterward adopted by many leading lawyers of the American bar, that women were enfranchised by the letter and spirit of the XIV. Amendment. On this interpretation the officers of the National Association began soon after to base their speeches, resolutions, and hearings before Congress, and to make divers attempts to vote in different parts of the country.

At a woman suffrage convention in St. Louis, October, 1869, the following suggestive resolutions were presented by Francis Minor, Esq., enclosed in the accompanying letter to The Revolution:

At this same convention Mrs. Virginia L. Minor, President of the Missouri State Association, in her opening address said:

Ten thousand extra copies of The Revolution containing these resolutions and this speech were published and sent to friends throughout the country, laid on every member's desk in Congress, and circulated at the Washington Convention of 1870. From this hour up to the time of the Supreme Court decision in the case of Virginia L. Minor in 1875, the National Woman Suffrage Association took this view in regard to the XIV. Amendment. Mrs. Stanton, fully accepting the new position, made her speech on that basis before the Congressional Committee [127] on the District of Columbia. In calling this Committee to order Senator Hamlin said:

Altogether the hearing was serious and impressive, and it was evident that the honorable gentlemen had already given the subject a thoughtful consideration. As each member of the Congressional Committee was presented by Senator Hamlin, the ladies had abundant opportunity for learning their individual opinions. Senator Sumner never appeared more genial, and said though he had been in Congress for twenty years, and through the exciting scenes of the Nebraska Act, Emancipation, District of Columbia Suffrage Act, and Reconstruction, he had never seen a committee in which were present so many Senators and Representatives, so many spectators, and so much interest manifested in the subject under discussion.

The following description (in the Hartford Courant) is from the pen of Mrs. Fannie Howland.

The second Washington Convention assembled at 10 o'clock, January 19th, 1870, in Lincoln Hall. Mrs. Stanton called the assemblage to order and invited the Rev. Samuel J. May to open the convention with prayer. Letters were read from John Stuart Mill, Robert Purvis, Clara Barton, and others. Miss Barton appealed to her soldier friends in behalf of woman's right of suffrage thus:

Senator Pomeroy, of Kansas, was introduced and made some very appropriate remarks:

Committees [128] were appointed. Mrs. Wright of Auburn, N. Y., stated that her sister, Lucretia Mott, had charged her with a message to the Convention, she sent her "God speed" to the movement, and regretted that she could not be present.

Paulina W. Davis read an interesting history of the woman's rights movement, giving a brief sketch of its leaders. Miss Anthony introduced a series of resolutions,[129] which were laid on the table for debate.

At the second evening session, letters [130] were read from Senators Ross, of Kansas, and Carpenter, of Wisconsin.

The President announced that so great was the interest evinced, that a third day's session had been arranged.

Third Day—Morning.—Among the large and fashionable audience present were the Governor of Wyoming Territory, many Senators and Members of Congress, as well as other distinguished persons. Mrs. Griffing read an interesting letter from Mrs. Frances D. Gage:

The Revolution of March 24, 1870, gives the following call for the May Anniversary of the National Woman's Suffrage Association, which held its regular annual meeting in Irving Hall, New York, May 10th and 11th:

The Convention was eventually held in Apollo Hall, the owners of Irving Hall annulling their contract when they learned that colored people were not only to be admitted to the audience, but welcomed to the platform as speakers. The Rev. Phebe Hanaford opened the meeting with prayer, Mrs. Charlotte Wilbour read the call, and announced the various committees, Miss Anthony reported the work done during the past year; excellent addresses were made by the many able speakers present, and strong resolutions were discussed and adopted.

It was during this convention that a proposition was made, that as the American Association had chosen Henry Ward Beecher for President, Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony should resign their offices for a season, and place some popular man at the head of the National Society. They readily assented, hoping thereby to heal the division so distracting to friends in every State, and unite all the forces in a grand Union Association. Theodore Tilton, editor of the Independent, was chosen for the position. He and Mr. Beecher exchanged amicable letters, and a meeting of pacification [132] was held at the Fifth Avenue hotel where both sides were fairly represented. Complimentary greetings were exchanged, but nothing was gained.

The one wise step in this episode was the meeting of the National Woman Suffrage Association: in Washington, January, 1871, as usual under its long-tried leaders, as if no mistaken policy had been suggested or considered. Emerson says the power of the human mind is shown in its ability to recover after a blunder. The Association showed its real strength in taking up again and carrying forward its grand National work.

THE SECOND DECADE CELEBRATION.

At half past ten o'clock Friday morning October 19, 1870, the twentieth anniversary convention assembled in Apollo Hall, New[Pg 428] York. A large number of the life-long friends were on the platform and a fine audience in attendance. Mrs. Stanton called the meeting to order and read the call.[133] She said, after due consultation the committee had decided that as Mrs. Davis had called the first National Convention twenty years ago, and presided over its deliberations, it was peculiarly fitting that she should preside over this also. A motion was made and seconded to that effect, and unanimously adopted. On taking the chair Mrs. Davis gave the following resumé of the Woman's Rights movement:

The speakers during the day gave many delightful reminiscences of the noble men and women who had given their earnest efforts to promote this great reform, and dwelt with hope on the many encouraging steps of progress that had marked the years since the initiative steps were taken. The day before the Convention an elegant reception was held at the St. James Hotel. Nearly two hundred persons called during the afternoon, and about forty sat down to a sumptuous dinner.[137]

The Washington Convention of 1871 [138] was thus described by The Republican of that city:[Pg 442]

This Convention was remarkable for the absence of the usual long series of resolutions covering every point of our demands.

Another peculiarity was the unusual amount of money that flowed into the treasury, as the following letter, among many others of the same character, shows:

Letters were read from Mrs. Esther Morris,[139] Justice of the Peace in Wyoming Territory, and from Mrs. Jane Graham Jones, of Chicago. Senator Nye, who presided at the evening session,[Pg 443] said, "He had not given much thought to the question of Woman Suffrage, but it was his opinion that in proportion as we elevated the mothers of voters, so were the voters themselves elevated." The audiences during this convention were large, and the press not only respectful but highly complimentary.

It was just before this enthusiastic convention that Victoria Woodhull presented her memorial to Congress and secured a hearing [140] before the Judiciary Committee of the House, which called out the able Minority Report, by William Loughridge, of Iowa, and Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts. The following is from the Congressional Globe of Dec. 21, 1870.

On January 20, 1871, in the House of Representatives, a bill for the better government of the District of Columbia came up. The Hon. George W. Julian, of Indiana, moved to strike out the word "male" in the section providing who shall vote, and supported his amendment as follows:

Mr. Cook, of Illinois, who had charge of the bill, objected to "cumbering it with such an amendment," and called the previous question, which being sustained, cut off all debate. Mr. Julian then called for the ayes and noes, thus making every man put himself square on the record. The vote stood 55 ayes [141], 117 noes, 65 not[Pg 483] voting. The next day the House met for general debate, and Hon. Aaron A. Sargent, of California, had an opportunity to express his views of the Amendment, which he had not been able to do the previous day.

During Mr. Sargent's candidacy for the Senate the following autumn, a California newspaper objected that he was in favor of woman's suffrage, and called for a denial of the truth of the damning charge. Mr. Sargent took no notice of it until a week or two later, when a suffrage convention met in San Francisco; he then went before that body and delivered a radical speech in favor of woman's rights, taking the most advanced grounds. When he was through he remarked to a friend, "They have my views now, and can make the most of them. I would not conceal them to be Senator." This bold stand ended the objection to him on the ground of his favor to woman's rights. He opened the political campaign in 1874 before an immense audience in Platt's Hall, San Francisco, by saying, as reported in the papers of the day:

The National Woman's Suffrage Association met in Apollo Hall, New York, Anniversary Week, May 11, 1871. The audiences were large and the speakers earnest.[142] Mrs. Griffing, the Corresponding Secretary of the Association, thus summed up the closing events of the past year:

The ladies then shook hands with each of these gentlemen, and added a few words of personal thanks, after which the committee adjourned.

That the position in regard to the rights of women under the XIV. and XV. Amendments was still maintained is shown in the call [144][Pg 493] and resolutions [145] as well as the speeches in the three days' convention held in Lincoln Hall, Washington, in January, 1872.[Pg 494]

One of the interesting episodes of this convention was the invitation extended by the Association to certain non-believers to appear in open session, and meet the champions of the cause in argument. Mrs. Gage wrote an invitation [146] to Mrs. Dahlgren, which she most courteously declined.[147] The idea was suggested to Mrs. Gage by the memorial which Mrs. General Sherman and Mrs. Admiral Dahlgren had presented to the Senate of the United States. Their petition was as follows:

Mrs. Isabella Beecher Hooker then presented the following report, in relation to the work of the Association for the past year:

Mrs. Hooker and other ladies united in a memorial, which was presented in the Senate and referred to the Judiciary Committee, asking for a recognition of the rights of women under the XIV. Amendment, and asking further that the advocates of the cause be heard at the bar of the Senate. Mr. Trumbull, the chairman of the committee, was not willing for this; but, at Mrs. Hooker's solicitation,[Pg 498] he agreed to lay the subject before the committee, and it was finally agreed that a hearing should be given on Friday morning, January 10th, at 11 o'clock.

Accordingly the hearing being granted, at the appointed hour the whole convention adjourned to the Capitol, crowding not only the committee room but the corridors, thousands of eager, expectant women struggling to gain admission. The committee,[148] seated round[Pg 499] a large table, manifested a respectful attention to each speaker in turn, complimenting them warmly at the close.

The National Woman Suffrage Association held its May Anniversary of 1872 in New York, at Steinway Hall. As can be seen by the call,[149] the intention was to form a political party, but the delegates, after some discussion, decided that nominees without electors were incongruous. As usual a large number of States were represented by delegates, California sending Laura de Force Gordon, and Oregon, Abigail Scott Duniway. This convention was chiefly remarkable as being the first at which the presidency changed hands—Miss Anthony, instead of Mrs. Stanton, being elected to fill the position of chief officer.[Pg 517]

A delegation, consisting of Mrs. Hooker, Mrs. De Force Gordon, and Miss Anthony, was sent by the National Woman Suffrage Association to the Presidential Conventions held by the Liberal Republicans at Cincinnati, the Democrats at Baltimore, and the Republicans at Philadelphia. The fruit of all the earnest labor of this delegation was a splinter in the Republican platform. This, however, was something to be grateful for, as it was the first mention of woman in the platform of either of the great political parties during our National existence. On the strength of this plank the following address was issued:

The Congressional Republican Committee published thousands of this appeal, and scattered them over the country. It also telegraphed to the President of the National Woman Suffrage Association, to go to Washington in order to consult with the committee as to what women could do to aid in the coming campaign. Miss Anthony's plan was cordially accepted, and liberal appropriations placed at her disposal by both the National and New York Republican Committees for carrying on a series of meetings.[150] The first of this series was at Rochester, and was presided over by Hon. Carter Wilder, Mayor of the city, the last in Cooper Institute, New York, at which meeting Luther R. Marsh occupied the chair.

Mrs. Livermore and Mrs. Stanton, by special invitation of Republican State Committees, also took part in the canvass in Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

FOOTNOTES:

[127] Honorables Hamlin, Sumner, Patterson, Rice, Vickers, Pratt, Harris, Cook, Welcker, Williams, Cowles, Bowles, Gilfillen.

[128] On Resolutions—Miss Susan B. Anthony, Dr. J. P. Root, Miss Phoebe Couzins, Rev. Samuel J. May, Mrs. M. E. J. Gage, Mrs. Colby, Mrs. Jacob Ela.

On Finance—Mrs. Paulina W. Davis, Miss S. B. Anthony, Mrs. B. Lockwood, Mrs. M. Wright, Mr. Wilcox.

On Credentials—Mrs. Josephine S. Griffing, Mr. Stillman, Mrs. A. D. Cridge.

[129] Resolved, That the National Woman's Suffrage Convention respectfully ask the XLI. Congress of the United States—

First. To submit to the Legislatures of the several States a XVI. Amendment to the Federal Constitution, prohibiting the disfranchisement of any of their citizens on account of sex.

Second. To strike the word "male" from the laws governing the District of Columbia.

Third. To enfranchise the women of Utah as the one safe, sure and swift means to abolish polygamy in that Territory.

Fourth. To amend the laws of the United States so that women shall receive the same pay as men for services rendered the government.

[130]

Washington, Jan. 19, 1870.

Miss Susan B. Anthony—Dear Madam:.... Accept my assurance of full and cordial sympathy with the movement to extend the right of suffrage to the women of the country, and my pledge to make that sympathy active on the first and all occasions that may arise for my official action.

E. G. Ross.

Very respectfully your obedient servant,

Washington, Jan 19.

Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton—Madam: Your favor of the 18th instant, inviting me to address the convention now in session in this city for the promotion of the cause of female suffrage, has been received. I regret that my official duties will not allow me the time to comply with this request; but I assure you, and the ladies with whom you are associated, that I am heartily in sympathy with the efforts you are making for the success of the cause which you especially have so long and so ably advocated. I beg further to say that the bestowal of the right of equal political suffrage upon the women of this republic can not, in my judgment, be much longer withheld, and that whatever influence I have shall be exerted, at every proper opportunity, to hasten the consummation for which you are laboring. I have the honor to be, very truly, yours,

Matt. H. Carpenter.

[131] Rev. Olympia Brown, Connecticut; E. H. Heywood and Jennie Collins, Massachusetts; M. Adele Hazlitt, Michigan; Mrs. Francis Minor and Phoebe Couzins, Missouri; Hon. Henry B. Stanton; Judge Barlow, Canastota; Josephine S. Griffing, Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford, Lizzie M. Boynton, Maud D. Molson, Susan B. Anthony, Gen. E. M. Lee, Act Gov. Wyoming; Hon. A. G. Riddle, Washington; Hon. Jas. W. Stillman, Rhode Island; Col. R. G. Ingersoll, Illinois; Hon. J. M. Scovill, New Jersey; Dr. James C. Jackson, New York; Mrs. Louisa H. Dent, New York; Lillie Peckham, Wisconsin; Mrs. M. E. J. Gage, New York; Mrs. Dr. S. Hathaway, Boston; and S. D. Dillaye, Syracuse.

[132] The Fifth Avenue Conference proposition was presented to the members of the National Association, duly discussed, and so far as one of the parties could do, accepted; that is, the National Society pledged itself to be merged into a Union Association, provided the American would make the same surrender at its first Anniversary. But as this overture for peace was rejected, the mission of the Union Society ended, leaving the National free to reassert itself and go forward with its catholic platform and persistent demands for "National protection for United States citizens," while the American devoted itself primarily to State legislation.

[133] Woman Suffrage Celebration.—The twentieth anniversary of the inauguration of the woman suffrage movement in this country, will be celebrated in Apollo Hall, in the city of New York, on the 19th and 20th of October, 1870. The movement in England, as in America, may be dated from the first National Convention, held at Worcester, Mass., October, 1850. The July following that convention, a favorable criticism of its proceedings and an able digest of the whole question appeared in the Westminster Review, written by Mrs. John Stuart Mill, which awakened attention in both hemispheres. In the call for that convention, the following subjects for discussion were presented: Woman's right to education, literary, scientific and artistic; her avocations, industrial, commercial and professional; her interests, pecuniary, civil and political: in a word, her rights as an individual, and her functions as a citizen. It is hoped that the Old and the New World will both be largely represented by the earlier advocates of this reform who will bring with them reports of progress and plans for future action. An extensive foreign correspondence will also add interest to the meetings. We specially invite the presence of those just awakening to an interest in this great movement, that from a knowledge of the past they may draw fresh inspiration for the work of the future and fraternize with a generation now rapidly passing away. As those who inaugurated a reform, so momentous and far reaching in its consequences, should hold themselves above all party considerations and personal antagonisms, and as this gathering is to be in no way connected with either of our leading woman suffrage organizations, we hope that the friends of real progress everywhere will come together and unitedly celebrate this Twentieth Anniversary of a great National Movement for Freedom.

Committee of Arrangements.—Lucretia Mott, Sarah Pugh, Elizabeth C. Stanton, Ernestine L. Rose, Samuel J. May, Mrs. C. I. H. Nichols. On behalf of the Committee,

Paulina W. Davis, Chairman.

[134] In 1843, John Neal, of Portland, Maine, gave a lecture in New York which roused considerable discussion; it was replied to by Mrs. Eliza W. Farnham, with all the objections which have ever been urged, and far more ably than by any of the later objectors. Mrs. Farnham lived long enough to retrace her ground and accept the highest truth. "Woman and her Era" fully refutes her early objections. Mr. Neal's lecture, published in The Brother Jonathan, was extensively copied, and as it reviewed some of the laws relating to woman and her property, it had a wide, silent influence, preparing the way for action. It was a scathing satire, and men felt the rebuke.

In this conflict for principle, the names of Wm. L. Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Edmund Quincy, Oliver Johnson, Parker Pillsbury, S. S. Foster, William Henry Channing, Samuel J. May, Charles Burleigh, James Mott, Frederick Douglass, Edmund M. Davis, and Robert Purvis, stand out conspicuously, and will so be remembered in all the future.

[135] Resolved, That at the close of over twenty years of persistent agitation, petitioning, State Legislatures and Congress for the right of suffrage, we, who inaugurated this reform, now demand the immediate adoption of a XVI. Amendment to the Federal Constitution, that shall prohibit any State from disfranchising its citizens on the ground of sex; and whatever national party does this act of justice, fastens the keystone in the arch of the Republic.

Resolved, That as neither free trade, finance, prohibition, capital and labor, nor any other political question, can be so vital to the existence of the Republic as the enfranchisement of women, it is clearly our duty to aid and support the great National party that shall first inscribe woman suffrage on its banner.

Resolved, That our thanks are due to the Democratic party of Utah and Wyoming for securing to woman her right of suffrage in those Territories.

Resolved, That the Democratic party of Kansas, in declaring, at its recent convention at Topeka, the enfranchisement of women in its judgment a most reasonable and timely enterprise, no longer to be justly postponed, is entitled to the hearty support of the friends of our cause in that State.

Resolved, That the American Equal Rights Association, in sending Susan B. Anthony to the National Democratic Convention in 1868, and the Massachusetts Suffrage Association, in sending Mary A. Livermore to the Republican State Convention in 1870, have inaugurated the right political action, which should be followed in the National and State Conventions throughout the country.

Resolved, That we rejoice in the fact that the Republican Legislatures of Iowa and other Western States have submitted to the people the proposition to strike the word "male" from their Constitutions.

Resolved, That it is as disastrous to human progress to teach women to bow down to the authority of man, as divinely inspired, as it is to teach man to bow down to the authority of Kings and Popes, as divinely ordained, for in both cases we violate the fundamental idea on which a Republican government and the Protestant religion are based—the right of individual judgment.

Whereas, The accident of sex no more involves the capacity to govern a family than does the accident of Papal election or royal birth the capacity to govern a dominion or a kingdom; therefore,

Resolved, That the doctrine of woman's subjection, enforced from the text, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your husbands," should be thrown aside, with the exploded theories of kingcraft and slavery, embodied in the injunction, "Honor the king," and "Servants, obey your masters."

Resolved, That as the gravest responsibilities of social life must ever rest on the mother of the race, therefore law, religion, and public sentiment, instead of degrading her as the subject of man, should unitedly declare and maintain her sole and supreme sovereignty over her own person."

[136] Married afterwards to Père Hyacinth.

[137] Chief among the guests were Mrs. Margaret Lucas, of Scotland, sister of John and Jacob Bright; Mrs. Governor Jewell, of Conn.; Mrs. Elmes, of Birmingham; Mrs. Caroline Stratton, and Miss Sarah Pugh, of Philadelphia; Lucretia Mott, Abby H. Price, Adelle Hazlett, Olympia Brown, Mrs. Davis, Mrs. Lucas, Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. Gage, and Miss Anthony; Mrs. Godbie, wife of one of the leading reform advocates of Utah; Mrs. Denman, of Quincy, Ill.; Mrs. Laura Curtis Bullard, and Dr. Clemence Lozier.

Among the gentlemen present were Alexander Delmar, Rev. Henry Powers, Mr. Lewis, of the National Intelligencer, Col. Hastings, Theodore Tilton, Oliver Johnson, Prof. Wilcox, and Mr. Packard, of the Business College, and others.

[138] Call for a National Suffrage Convention at Washington.—We, the undersigned, desiring to secure a full discussion of the question of the enfranchisement of women during the present session of Congress, with a view to the speedy passage of a XVI. Amendment to the Federal Constitution, invite all men and women desiring this change in the Constitution to meet us in convention for that purpose in the city of Washington on the 11th and 12th of January. Eminent speakers will be present from all parts of the country, including several members of Congress, and plans of work will be presented and discussed. We earnestly urge you, dear friends, to come together at this time in a spirit of unselfishness and of hard work, and let us take one another by the hand and move onward as never before.

Paulina W. Davis, Josephine S. Griffing, Isabella B. Hooker.

[139] Mrs. Esther Morris, a large fine-looking woman, administered justice in that Territory for nearly two years, and none of her decisions were ever questioned.

[140] The hearing took place in the committee room, which was crowded with a goodly assemblage of men and women. Judge Bingham, of Ohio, was chairman, Gen. B. F. Butler, of Mass., was prominent in favor of the cause. Messrs. Eldridge, B. C. Cook, I. A. Peters, Ulysses Morcur, Wm. Loughridge, Michael Kerr, S. W. Kellogg, and G. W. Hitchcock formed the rest of the committee. The claimants for woman suffrage were represented by Mrs. V. C. Woodhull and Mrs. L. D. Blake, New York; Mrs. I. B Hooker, Rev. O. Brown, Conn.; Mrs. P. W. Davis, Miss K. Stanton, Rhode Island; Mrs. J. Griffing, and Mrs. Lockwood, D. C.; and Miss Susan B. Anthony. The proceedings were opened by the reading of her memorial by Mrs. Woodhull. It was the first time the lady had ever appeared in public, and her voice trembled slightly with emotion which only made the reading the more effective. She claimed not a XVI. amendment; but that under the XIV. and XV. Amendments, women have already the right to vote, and prayed Congress merely to pass a declaratory resolution to that effect.—The Washington Republican.

[141] Yeas—Messrs. Allison, Arnell, Asper, Atwood, Banks, Barry, Buck, Buffinton, Burdett, Churchill, Amasa Cobb, Clinton L. Cobb, Coburn, Cullom, Darrall, Joseph Dixon, Ela, Farnsworth, Finkelnburg, Hamilton, Harris, Hawkins, Hoar, Alexander H. Jones, Julian, Kelley, Lawrence, Long, Loughridge, Maynard, Milnes, William Moore, Morey, Daniel J. Morrell, Negley, Orth, Packard, Paine, Pierce, Platt, Pomeroy, Porter, Prosser, Sargent, Scofield, Shanks, William J. Smith, Stevenson, Stoughton, Strickland, Twichell, Cadwallader C. Washburn, Willard, John T. Wilson, and Wolf.

[142] Among the speakers were Isabella Beecher Hooker, Paulina Wright Davis, Minnie Swayze, Mrs. Dr. Hallock, Josephine S. Griffing, Victoria C. Woodhull, Anna Middlebrook, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott.

[143] An Appeal to the Women of the United States by the National Woman Suffrage and Educational Committee, Washington, D. C.:

Dear Friends:—The question of your rights as citizens of the United States, and of the grave responsibilities which a recognition of those rights will involve, is becoming the great question of the day in this country, and is the culmination of the great question which has been struggling through the ages for solution, that of the highest freedom and largest personal responsibility of the individual under such necessary and wholesome restraints as are required by the welfare of society. As you shall meet and act upon this question, so shall these great questions of freedom and responsibility sweep on, or be retarded, in their course.

This is pre-eminently the birthday of womanhood. The material has long held in bondage the spiritual; henceforth the two, the material refined by the spiritual, the spiritual energized by the material, are to walk hand in hand for the moral regeneration of mankind. Mothers, for the first time in history, are able to assert, not only their inherent first right to the children they have borne, but their right to be a protective and purifying power in the political society into which those children are to enter. To fulfill, therefore, their whole duty of motherhood, to satisfy their whole capacity in that divine relation, they are called of God to participate with man in all the responsibilities of human life, and to share with him every work of brain and heart, refusing only those physical labors that are inconsistent with the exalted duties and privileges of maternity, and requiring these of men as the equivalent of those heavy yet necessary burdens which women alone can bear.

Under the Constitution of the United States justly interpreted, you were entitled to participate in the government of the country, in the same manner as you were held to allegiance and subject to penalty. But in the slow development of the great principles of freedom, you, and all, have failed both to recognize and appreciate this right; but to-day, when the rights and responsibilities of women are attracting the attention of thoughtful minds throughout the whole civilized world, this constitutional right, so long unobserved and unvalued, is becoming one of prime importance, and calls upon all women who love their children and their country to accept and rejoice in it. Thousands of years ago God uttered this mingled command and promise, "Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." May we not hope that in the general recognition of this right and this duty of woman to participate in government, our beloved country may find her days long and prosperous in this beautiful land which the Lord hath given her.

To the women of this country who are willing to unite with us in securing the full recognition of our rights, and to accept the duties and responsibilities of a full citizenship, we offer for signature the following Declaration and Pledge, in the firm belief that our children's children will with fond veneration recognize in this act our devotion to the great doctrines of liberty in their new and wider and more spiritual application, even as we regard with reverence the prophetic utterances of the fathers of the Republic in their Declaration of Independence:

Declaration and Pledge of the Women of the United States concerning their Right to and their Use of the Elective Franchise.

We, the undersigned, believing that the sacred rights and privileges of citizenship in this Republic were guaranteed to us by the original Constitution, and that these rights are confirmed and more clearly established by the XIV. and XV. Amendments, so that we can no longer refuse the solemn responsibilities thereof, do hereby pledge ourselves to accept the duties of the franchise in our several States, so soon as all legal restrictions are removed. And believing that character is the best safeguard of national liberty, we pledge ourselves to make the personal purity and integrity of candidates for public office the first test of fitness. And lastly, believing in God, as the Supreme Author of the American Declaration of Independence, we pledge ourselves in the spirit of that memorable Act, to work hand in hand with our fathers, husbands, and sons, for the maintenance of those equal rights on which our Republic was originally founded, to the end that it may have, what is declared to be the first condition of just government, the consent of the governed.

You have no new issue to make, no new grievances to set forth. You are taxed without representation, tried by a jury not of your peers, condemned and punished by judges and officers not of your choice, bound by laws you have had no voice in making, many of which are specially burdensome upon you as women; in short, your rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are daily infringed, simply because you have heretofore been denied the use of the ballot, the one weapon of protection and defense under a republican form of government. Fortunately, however, you are not compelled to resort to force in order to secure the rights of a complete citizenship. These are provided for by the original Constitution, and by the recent amendments you are recognized as citizens of the United States, whose rights, including the fundamental right to vote, may not be denied or abridged by the United States, nor by any State. The obligation is thus laid upon you to accept or reject the duties of citizenship, and to your own consciences and your God you must answer, if the future legislation of this country shall fall short of the demands of justice and equality.

The participation of woman in political affairs is not an untried experiment. Woman suffrage has within a few years been fully established in Sweden and Austria, and to a certain extent in Russia. In Great Britain women are now voting equally with men for all public officers except members of Parliament, and while no desire is expressed in any quarter that the suffrage already given should be withdrawn or restricted, over 126,000 names have been signed to petitions for its extension to parliamentary elections, and Jacob Bright, the leader of the movement in Parliament, and brother of the well known John Bright, says that no well-informed person entertains any doubt that a bill for such extension will soon pass.

In this country, which stands so specially on equal representation, it is hardly possible that the same equal suffrage would not be established by law, if the matter were to be left merely to the progress of public sentiment and the ordinary course of legislation. But as we confidently believe, and as we have before stated, the right already exists in our National Constitution, and especially under the recent amendments. The interpretation of the Constitution which we maintain, we can not doubt, will be ultimately adopted by the courts, although, as the assertion of our right encounters a deep and prevailing prejudice, and judges are proverbially cautious and conservative, we must expect to encounter some adverse decisions. In the meantime it is of the highest importance that in every possible way we inform the public mind and educate public opinion on the whole subject of equal rights under a republican government, and that we manifest our desire for and willingness to accept all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, by asserting our right to be registered as voters and to vote at the Congressional elections. The original Constitution provides in express terms that the representatives in Congress shall be elected "by the people of the several States," with no restrictions whatever as to the application of that term. This right, thus clearly granted to all the people, is confirmed and placed beyond reasonable question by the XIV. and XV. Amendments. The act of May, 1870, the very title of which, "An Act to enforce the rights of citizens of the United States to vote," is a concession of all that we claim, provides that the officers of elections throughout the United States shall give an equal opportunity to all citizens of the United States to become qualified to vote by the registry of their names or other prerequisite; and that where upon the application of any citizen such prerequisite is refused, such citizen may vote without performing such prerequisite; and imposes a penalty upon the officers refusing either the application of the citizen to be qualified or his subsequent application to vote. The Constitution also provides that "each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members." When, therefore, the election of any candidate for the lower House is effected or defeated by the admission or rejection of the votes of women, the question is brought directly before the House, and it is compelled to pass at once upon the question of the right of women to vote under the Constitution. All this may be accomplished without the necessity of bringing suits for the penalty imposed upon public officers by the act referred to; but should it be thought best to institute prosecutions where the application of women to register and to vote is refused, the question would thereby at once be brought into the courts. If it be thought expedient to adopt the latter course, it is best that some test case be brought upon full consultation with the National Committee, that the ablest counsel may be employed and the expenses paid out of the public fund. Whatever mode of testing the question shall be adopted, we must not be in the slightest degree discouraged by adverse decisions, for the final result in our favor is certain, and we have, besides, great reason to hope that Congress, at an early day, will pass a declaratory act affirming the interpretation of the Constitution which we claim.

The present time is specially favorable for the earnest presentation before the public mind of the question of the political rights of women. There are very positive indications of the approaching disintegration and reformation of political parties, and new and vital issues are needed by both the great parties of the country. As soon as the conviction possesses the public mind that women are to be voters at an early day, as they certainly are to be, the principles and the action of public parties will be shaping themselves with reference to the demands of this new constituency. Particularly in nominations for office will the moral character of candidates become a matter of greater importance.

To carry on this great work a Board of six women has been established, called "The National Woman Suffrage and Educational Committee," whose office at Washington it is proposed to make the center of all action upon Congress and the country, and with whom their Secretary, resident there, it is desired that all associations and individuals interested in the cause of woman suffrage should place themselves in communication. The Committee propose to circulate the very able and exhaustive Minority Report of the House Judiciary Committee on the constitutional right of woman to the suffrage, and other tracts on the general subject of woman suffrage. They also propose ultimately, and as a part of their educational work, to issue a series of tracts on subjects vitally affecting the welfare of the country, that women may become intelligent and thoughtful on such subjects, and the intelligent educators of the next generation of citizens.

The Committee are already receiving urgent appeals from women all over the United States to send them our publications. The little light they have already received concerning their rights under the Constitution, and the present threatening political aspect of the country, make them impatient of ignorance on these vital points. A single tract has often gone the rounds in a neighborhood until worn out, and the call is for thousands and thousands more.

A large printing fund will therefore be needed by the Committee, and we appeal first to the men of this country, who control so large a part of its wealth, to make liberal donations towards this great educational work. We also ask every thoughtful woman to send her name to the Secretary to be inserted in the Pledge-Book, and if she is able, one dollar. But as many workingwomen will have nothing to send but their names, we welcome these as a precious gift, and urge those who are able, to send us their fifties and hundreds, which we promise faithfully to use and account for. Where convenient, it is better that many names should be sent upon the same paper, and the smallest contributions in money can be put together and sent with them. Every signature and every remittance will be at once acknowledged by the Secretary, and one or more tracts enclosed with a circular as to the work to be done by individuals.

Isabella Beecher Hooker, President.	Paulina Wright Davis,
Josephine S. Griffing, Secretary.	Ruth Carr Dennison,
Mary B. Bowen, Treasurer.	Susan B. Anthony.

Washington, D. C., April 19, 1871.

[144] The National Woman Suffrage Association will hold its annual convention at Lincoln Hall, Washington, D. C., January 10th, 11th and 12th, 1872. All those interested in woman's enfranchisement are invited there to consider the "new departure"—women already citizens, and their rights as such, secured by the XIV. and XV. Amendments of the Federal Constitution.

Lucretia Mott.	Isabella Beecher Hooker.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton.	Susan B. Anthony.
Josephine S. Griffing.

[145]

RESOLUTIONS.

Whereas, in the adjustment of the question of suffrage now before the people of this country for settlement, it is of the highest importance that the organic law of the land should be so framed and constructed as to work injustice to none, but secure, as far as possible, perfect political equality among all classes of citizens; and whereas, all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and of the State wherein they reside; be it

Resolved, That the privileges and immunities of American citizenship, however defined, are National in character and paramount to all State authority.

That while the Constitution of the United States leaves the qualifications of electors to the several States, it nowhere gives them the right to deprive any citizen of the elective franchise which is possessed by any other citizen—the right to regulate, not including the right to prohibit the franchise.

That, as the Constitution of the United States expressly declares that "no State shall make or enforce any law that shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States," those provisions of the several State Constitutions that exclude women from the franchise on account of sex, are violative alike of the spirit and letter of the Federal Constitution.

That, as the subject of naturalization is expressly withheld from the States, and as the States clearly would have no right to deprive of the franchise naturalized citizens, among whom women are expressly included, still more clearly have they no right to deprive native-born women citizens of this right.

That justice and equity can only be attained by having the same laws for men and women alike.

That having full faith and confidence in the truth and justice of these principles, we will never cease to urge the claims of women to a participation in the affairs of government equally with men.

Resolved, That as the XIV. and XV. Amendments to the Constitution of the United States have established the right of woman to the elective franchise, we demand of the present Congress a declaratory act which shall secure us at once in the exercise of this right.

As the recognition of woman suffrage involves immediate political action, and as numbers as well as principles control parties,

Resolved, That we rejoice in the rapidly organizing millions of Spiritualists, labor reformers, temperance, and educational forces, now simultaneously waking to their need of woman's help in the cause of reform.

Resolved, That the movement for the enfranchisement of woman is the movement of universal humanity; that the great questions now looming upon the political horizon can only find their peaceful solution by the infusion of the feminine element in the councils of the nation. Man, representing force, would continue in the future, as in the past, in the New World as in the Old, to settle all questions by war, but woman, representing affection, would, in her true development, harmonize intellect and action, and weld together all the interests of the human family—in other words, help to organize the science of social, religious, and political life.

Resolved, That our thanks are due to Governor Campbell, of Wyoming, for his veto, and to the Republican members of the Legislature of Wyoming, for their votes against the bill disfranchising the women of that Territory.

Resolved, That the thanks of the women of America are due to Hon. Benjamin F. Butler for introducing so early in the present session of Congress, a bill to enfranchise woman under the Constitution, and also to Hon. Wm. Loughridge and to the Hon. Benjamin F. Butler for their admirable minority report, at the last session, sustaining the Woodhull memorial.

[146]

Washington, D. C., January 8, 1872.

Mrs. Admiral Dahlgren—Madam: The National Woman Suffrage Association is to hold a three days' convention the present week, in Lincoln Hall, commencing on the morning of Wednesday, the 10th. Nothing would afford the officers and speakers of the convention greater pleasure than to hold a debate, during some session, with yourself and your friends, upon the question of woman suffrage. As you have publicly expressed your opposition to woman's enfranchisement, not only through the papers, but also by a petition against it to Congress, we feel sure you will gladly accept our invitation and let us know your reason for the faith that is within you.

Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, as president of the association and convention, will afford you every opportunity for argument, and will herself enter the list against you. Not only Mrs. Stanton, but all members of the committee, cordially extend this invitation for debate, to be held at any session most convenient for yourself.

An early answer is desirable.

Matilda Joslyn Gage,

Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements.

[147] Mrs. Matilda Joslyn Gage, Chairman Committee of Arrangements—Madam: Mrs. Sherman and myself are this morning in receipt of a note from you in which you invite us, in the name "of the officers and speakers of the National Woman Suffrage Association," to hold a debate upon the question of "woman suffrage," and mention that "Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, as President of the association and convention, will afford every opportunity for argument, and will herself enter the lists," etc.

In reply to this invitation, for which we thank you, in so far as it may have been extended in a true desire to elicit fair argument, we would remind you that in the very fact of soliciting us to "hold debate" on a public platform, on this or any other question, you entirely ignore the principle that ourselves and our friends seek to defend, viz., the preservation of female modesty.

The functions of men and women in the State as citizens are correlative and opposite. They can not be made common without seriously impairing the public virtue.

Our men must be brave, and our women modest, if this country may hope to fulfill her true mission for humanity.

We protest against woman suffrage, because the right of petition may safely be considered as common to all, and its exercise most beneficial.

We publish written articles, giving "our reasons for the faith that is within us," because we may, consistently with the home life and its duties, make such use of whatever talents God may have confided to our keeping. To these printed articles, in which we have fully and at different times explained our views, we are happy to refer you.

We likewise hold that an appeal to the public made in this manner is much more likely to evolve a clear apprehension of this important subject, as presenting a strict issue to the reasoning faculties, and one undimmed by those personalities which generally are indulged in during the course of oral debate. I am, truly yours,

Madeline Victor Dahlgren.

Washington, January 9, 1872.

[148] Lyman Trumbull of Illinois, Chairman, Roscoe Conkling of New York, Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, Matthew Carpenter of Wisconsin.

[149] People's Convention.—The undersigned citizens of the United States, responding to the invitation of the National Woman Suffrage Association, propose to hold a Convention at Steinway Hall, in the city of New York, the 9th and 10th of May.

We believe the time has come for the formation of a new political party whose principles shall meet the issues of the hour, and represent equal rights for all.

As the women of the country are to take part for the first time in political action, we propose that the initiative steps in the convention shall be taken by them, that their opinions and methods may be fairly set forth, and considered by the representatives from many reform movements now ready for united action; such as the Internationals, and other Labor Reformers—the friends of peace, temperance, and education, and by all those who believe that the time has come to carry the principles of true morality and religion into the State House, the Court, and the market place.

This convention will declare the platform of the People's Party, and consider the nomination of candidates for President and Vice-President of the United States, who shall be the best possible exponents of political and industrial reform.

The Republican party, in destroying slavery, accomplished its entire mission. In denying that "citizen" means political equality, it has been false to its own definition of Republican Government; and in fostering land, railroad, and money monopolies, it is building up a commercial feudalism dangerous to the liberty of the people.

The Democratic party, false to its name and mission, died in the attempt to sustain slavery, and is buried beyond all hope of resurrection.

Even that portion of the Labor party which met recently at Columbus, proved its incapacity to frame a national platform to meet the demands of the hour.

We therefore invite all citizens who believe in the idea of self-government; who demand an honest administration; the reform of political and social abuses; the emancipation of labor, and the enfranchisement of woman, to join with us and inaugurate a political revolution which shall secure justice, liberty, and equality to every citizen of the United States.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Isabella Beecher Hooker,
Matilda Joslyn Gage.

[150] The speakers were Rev. Olympia Brown, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Susan B. Anthony, Isabella Beecher Hooker, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Dr. Clemence S. Lozier, Helen M. Slocum, Lillie Devereux Blake.

CHAPTER XXIV.

NATIONAL CONVENTIONS 1873, '74, '75.

The fifth Washington Convention was held in Lincoln Hall, January 16th and 17th, 1873. The President, Miss Anthony, in opening, said:

A series of resolutions [151] were reported, and discussed at great length.[Pg 522]

After the appointment of committees,[A] Matilda Joslyn Gage made the annual report. She said:

Mrs. Lockwood and Mrs. Spencer both gave interesting statements in regard to women voting in the District of Columbia, and ably argued their right to do so under the National Constitution. Mrs. Lockwood introduced the following resolution:

The call [152] for the annual May Convention in New York announced the interesting fact that it was the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Woman Suffrage movement. The speakers [153] represented many of the far Western States. Among the letters of interest was one from Madam Mathilde Francisca Anneke, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who accompanied her letter with a beautiful laurel wreath to be presented to the founder of the Woman's Rights movement, the venerable Lucretia Mott.[154] The resolutions embody the substance[Pg 534] of the various speeches made at that Convention. The following letters were read:

Miss Anthony gave the incidents of her arrest and trial to an immense audience in the evening, moving them alternately to laughter and indignation. At the close of this convention a large reception was given to the friends of woman suffrage by Dr. Clemence Lozier at her hospitable home in 34th street, New York. Her spacious parlors were crowded until a late hour. The occasion was enlivened with music, readings, and short, spicy speeches.

The National Woman Suffrage Association held its fifth convention at Washington in January, 1874. Before the arrival of the principal actors, the hall was filled with spectators. Soon after 11 o'clock the President, accompanied by a large number of speakers [155] and friends, came on the stage. Many interesting letters were received [156] and a series of resolutions [157] reported.[Pg 538]

Mrs. Gage occupied the evening with an address on Judge and Jury. The following brief sketch of the convention by Frances Ellen Burr is as good a summary of the proceedings as we find.

The correspondent of the Boston Commonwealth, after giving a pen-picture of the ladies on the platform, said:

The May Anniversary [158] of 1874 was held in Irving Hall, with the usual list of speakers.[159] The attendance was large throughout. Martha C. Wright, one of the most judicious and clear-sighted women in the movement, was elected president. A large number of letters [160] was received from nearly every State in the Union.

On May 28th, 1874, while the bill to establish the Territory of Pembina was pending in the Senate, Mr. Sargent, of California, moved to add "sex" to line 10 of section 5, which would make the clause read:

Though the measure was lost, and the women sad under repeated disappointments, yet the progress was noted with gratitude. In 1866 only nine Senators voted in favor of woman's enfranchisement after a three days' discussion of the measure. In 1874, after eight years of education, nineteen voted aye to the proposition.

The seventh Washington Convention was held January 14th and 15th, 1875, in Lincoln Hall as usual. Mrs. Stanton opened the proceedings by stating that owing to the death of the President of the association, Martha C. Wright, the duties of presiding officer devolved upon her. After paying a well-merited tribute to her noble coadjutor, she said that many of their noblest friends had passed away. Among them Dr. Harriot K. Hunt, Hon. Gerrit Smith, and Rev. Beriah Green.

This meeting comes at a most auspicious moment, when the entire Nation is wide awake to the rights of self-government now being trampled on in Louisiana. At such a crisis it would seem that liberty-loving statesmen might easily be converted to the idea of universal suffrage. On every principle that they now demand self-government for the people of Louisiana, they should extend the right of suffrage to the women of that State now in so unsettled a condition. The annual report and resolutions were discussed and speeches made by Miss Anthony and Mrs. Blake during the morning session. Letters were read from Robert Dale Owen, of Philadelphia, Rev. O. B. Frothingham, of New York, Paulina Wright Davis, of Providence, Dr. J. C. Jackson, of Dansville, N. Y., and Abby Smith, of Glastonbury, Conn. Miss Couzins' speech in the evening on the "Social Trinity" was a touching appeal for woman's moral, spiritual,[Pg 583] and æsthetic influence on humanity at large. Miss Carrie Burnham made an interesting argument showing that the disabilities of women might be directly traced to papal decrees; to the canon rather than the civil law. Miss Lillie Devereux Blake made a strong appeal on the duty of enfranchising the women of the Nation before celebrating the coming Centennial. She thought it would be an act of justice that would glorify that day as it could be done in no other manner. Belva A. Lockwood, Marilla M. Ricker, Catharine Stebbins, Lavinia Dundore, and Dr. Clemence Lozier, all took part in the discussion of the resolutions.

Letters were read from Dr. Mary Thomas, President of the Indiana Association, and from Clara Barton, then traveling in Italy, deploring the subject condition of women in foreign lands. The day after the Convention the ladies received their friends in the spacious parlors at Willard's Hotel. Congressmen, lawyers, clergymen, and many bright girls from the departments were among the guests. Nothing indicates the progress of a reform more readily than the cordial social recognition of its leaders. While pausing now and then to note the adverse winds we are compelled to encounter in the jealousies, discords, and divisions of friends, and in the ridicule and misrepresentation of enemies, a broader vision shows us that the great tidal waves of thought are all flowing in one direction.

May 11, 1875, the twenty-seventh anniversary of the suffrage movement was held in the new Masonic Temple, Twenty-third street, New York. This magnificent Hall for the first time echoed to the demands of woman for an equal share in the great interests of the world.

The convention was opened with prayer by the Rev. Olympia Brown, who referred most impressively to the coming Centennial, expressing the hope that the Fourth of July, 1876, might indeed be a day of jubilee, in which liberty and justice would be secured to the whole people. The resolutions [161] were discussed with great spirit by[Pg 585] the various speakers.[162] An interesting letter was read from Isabella Beecher Hooker, giving some of her experiences and observations in France.

The Hall was crowded in the evening to listen to Mr. Frothingham. His address was an able exposition of the injustice of the heavy taxes laid on women. He read several extracts from the reports of William I. Bowditch, of Boston, in regard to the large number of women in Massachusetts holding property, and in closing, depicted with great feeling the constant sacrifices women were compelled to endure because they had no representation in the Government. After a song by the Hutchinsons, the large audience slowly dispersed.

At a business meeting next day the officers [163] for the year were chosen, and arrangements made to canvass Iowa if, as was proposed, an amendment to the Constitution extending the right of suffrage to the women of that State, should be submitted to the people.

All thoughts were now turned to the Centennial year, as to what new forms of agitation could be suggested; what onward steps of progress accomplished, for after the untiring labors of thirty years, the leaders in this movement naturally felt that the great event of the century could not pass without bringing some new liberty to woman.

FOOTNOTES:

[151] 2. Resolved, That the present attempts in our courts, by a false construction of the National Constitution, to exalt all men as sovereigns, and degrade all women as slaves, is to establish the most odious form of aristocracy known in the civilized world—that of sex.

3. Resolved, That women are "persons" and "citizens," possessed of all the legal qualifications of voters in the several States—age, property, and education—and by the XIV. Amendment of the National Constitution have been secured the right of suffrage.

4.: Resolved, That it is the duty of Congress, by appropriate legislation, to protect women in their exercise of this right.

5. Resolved, That women are citizens, first of the United States, and second of the States and Territories wherein they reside; hence we claim National protection of our inalienable rights, against all State authority.

6. Resolved, That States may regulate all local questions of property, taxation, etc., but the inalienable personal rights of citizenship must be declared by the Constitution, interpreted by the Supreme Court, protected by Congress, and enforced by the arm of the Executive.

7. Resolved, That the criminal prosecution of Susan B. Anthony by the United States, for the alleged crime of exercising the citizen's right of suffrage, is an act of arbitrary authority, unconstitutional, and a blow at the liberties of every citizen of this nation.

Business Committee:—Matilda Joslyn Gage, New York; Belva A. Lockwood, District of Columbia; Lillie Devereux Blake, New York; Mrs. Mary Henderson, Missouri; Mrs. Lavinia Dundore, Maryland; Edward M. Davis, Pennsylvania; Mrs. Mary A. Dobyns, Kentucky; Mrs. Anna C. Savery, Iowa; Miss Phebe Couzins, St. Louis; Mrs. Jane Graham Jones, Illinois; Mrs. Helen M. Barnard, District of Columbia; Rev. Olympia Brown, Connecticut; Robert Purvis, District of Columbia.

Finance Committee:—Mrs. Ellen C. Sargent, Belva A. Lockwood; Edward M. Davis, Ruth Carr Dennison, Helen M. Barnard.

Committee on Resolution:—Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Belva A. Lockwood, Lillie Devereux Blake, Matilda Joslyn Gage.

[152] Woman Suffrage Anniversary.—National Woman Suffrage Association.—The Twenty-fifth Woman Suffrage Anniversary will be held in Apollo Hall, New York, Tuesday, May 6, 1873. Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who called the first Woman's Rights convention at Seneca Falls, 1848, will be present to give their reminiscences. That Convention was scarcely mentioned by the local press; now, over the whole world, equality for woman is demanded. In the United States, woman suffrage is the chief political question of the hour. Great Britain is deeply agitated upon the same topic; Germany has a princess at the head of its National Woman's Rights organization. Portugal, Spain, and Russia have been roused. In Rome an immense meeting, composed of the representatives of Italian democracy, was recently called in the old Coliseum; one of its resolutions demanded a reform in the laws relating to woman and a re-establishment of her natural rights. Turkey, France, England, Switzerland, Italy, sustain papers devoted to woman's enfranchisement. A Grand International Woman's Rights Congress is to be held in Paris in September of this year, to which the whole world is invited to send delegates, and this Congress is to be under the management of the most renowned liberals of Europe. Come up, then, friends, and celebrate the Silver Wedding of the Woman Suffrage movement. Let our Twenty-fifth Anniversary be one of power; our reform is everywhere advancing, let us redouble our energies and our courage.

Matilda Joslyn Gage, Ch'n Ex. Com.

Susan B. Anthony, Pres.

[153] Mrs. Elizabeth Avery Meriwether, Tennessee; Isabella Beecher Hooker, Connecticut; Francis Miller, Washington, D. C.; Sarah R. L. Williams, Toledo, Ohio; Mrs. C. M. Palmer, California; Carrie S. Burnham, Pennsylvania; Ellen C. Sargent, Washington; Le Grand Marvin, Buffalo, N. Y.; Carl Doerflinger, Wisconsin; Emily Pitts Stevens, editor of the Pioneer, San Francisco, Cal.; A. Jane Duniway, editor of the New Northwest, Portland, Oregon.

[154] Whereas, This being the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first combined effort of women for the recognition of their civil and political rights; and,

Whereas, The demands first publicly promulgated in an obscure village in the State of New York have now spread over the world; therefore,

Resolved, That while we congratulate women on the progress of this reform during a quarter of a century, we urge them not to grow discouraged or faint-hearted when obstacles arise in their attack upon hoary wrongs. We remind them that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, and that the nearer we come to victory the stronger will be the effort against us. But our cause is one of eternal justice, and must ultimately prevail.

Resolved, That Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton will evermore be held in grateful remembrance as the pioneers in this grandest reform of the age; that as the wrongs they attacked were broader and deeper than any other, so as time passes they will be revered as foremost among the benefactors of the race, and that we also hold sacred the memory of their co-laborers in the Convention of 1848.

Whereas, The underlying principle of our Government is equality of political rights, therefore,

Resolved, That in the prosecution and trial of Susan B. Anthony, a citizen of the United State, for having cast a ballot at the last election, the Government of the United States declares it is a crime to vote, thus attempting to undermine the very foundation of the Republic.

Resolved, That as in this trial Susan B. Anthony represents one-half of the people, the whole power of the United States is arrayed against the women of the nation—against law-abiding, tax-paying women citizens.

Resolved, That the trial of Susan B. Anthony, though ostensibly involving the political status of woman alone, in reality questions the right of every man to share in the Government; that it is not Susan B. Anthony, or the women of the Republic who alone are on trial to-day, but it is the Government of the United States, and that as the decision is rendered for or against the political rights of citizenship, so will the men of America find themselves free or enslaved.

Resolved, That the decisions of the courts in the case of Mrs. Bradwell, of Illinois, Mrs. Spencer and Mrs. Webster, of Washington; Mrs. Minor, of St. Louis; Miss Burnham, of Philadelphia, and others, are warnings to the people that their liberties are in danger.

Resolved, That it is because women are not voters, and, therefore, have no recognized political power, that the members of the Forty-second Congress, while raising their own salaries from $5,000 to $7,500, dared to reject an amendment to the same bill, which proposed to raise the salaries of the women employés of the Government from $900 to $1,200.

Resolved, That in the coming Centennial of our nation's birth it is mockery to ask woman to lend a helping hand without some pledge to right her wrongs; what cause has she for rejoicing unless the century shall round out with her enfranchisement, and the old liberty bell ring in equality for all.

Resolved, That the report of the Judiciary Committee of the Assembly of the State of New York in regard to a property suffrage qualification for women, is one of the signs of awakened thought toward our reform.

Resolved, That the rapid advance of Woman's Rights in foreign countries is a subject of gratulation, and as a matter of special cheer we call particular attention to the grand international Woman's Rights Congress, under the control of the liberals of Europe, to be held in Paris during the present year.

Whereas, The National Woman Suffrage Association has been requested to send delegates to the International Woman's Rights Congress to be held in Paris in October next; therefore,

Resolved, That this Association empower Ernestine L. Rose, Paulina Wright Davis, Mathilde F. Wendt, Jane Graham Jones, and Elizabeth Phelps Pearsall, to represent our woman suffrage movement in that congress.

[155] Mrs. Nettie C. Tabor, Cal.; Frances Ellen Burr, Hartford, Conn.; Mrs. Elizabeth B. Phelps, N. Y.; Mrs. E. Langdon, N. Y.; Jane B. Archibald, D. C.; Miss Jennie V. Jewell, D. C.; Mrs. Adeliah Gardiner, Baltimore; Kate C. Harris, Baltimore; Miss Laura Ewing, Baltimore; Phoebe W. Couzins; Edward M. Davis, Philadelphia; Matilda Joslyn Gage, Fayetteville, N. Y.; Lillie Devereux Blake, New York City; Ruth C. Dennison, D. C.; Sara Andrews Spencer, D. C.; Dr. Clemence S. Lozier, New York City; Belva A. Lockwood, Virginia L. Vaughn, James K. Wilcox, and the Hutchinson Family.

[156] Letters were received from Paulina Wright Davis, Providence, R. I.; Virginia L. Minor, St. Louis, Mo.; Hon. E. G. Lapham, Canandaigua, N. Y.; Vice-Pres. Henry Wilson, Natick, Mass.; John Van Vhoris, Rochester, N. Y.; Dr. James C. Jackson, Dansville, N. Y.; Hon. Henry R. Selden, Rochester, N. Y.; Hon. John A. Kasson, Iowa; Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Newport, R. I.; Ernestine L. Rose, London, England; Dr. Laura Ross Wolcott, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Carrie S. Burnham, Philadelphia, Pa.; Lewia C. Smith, Rochester, N. Y.; Asenath Coolidge, Watertown, N. Y.; Priscilla Holmes Drake, Alabama; Laura De Force Gordon, California; George F. Downing, Washington, D. C.; The Free Thinkers Club of Milwaukee; The Radical Democracy of Wisconsin.

[157] Resolved, That this convention, representing as it does all portions of our country, cordially sympathizes with the proposed efforts of the women of the District of Columbia to secure the practical enjoyment of their constitutional right to vote, as declared by the Supreme Court of said District, by the passage of an act of Congress amending the organic law of the District by striking out the word "male" from the seventh section of said act; and we earnestly request our senators and representatives to support a bill providing for such an amendment by speech and vote.

Resolved, That a committee of seven be appointed by the president of this convention to co-operate with the committee heretofore appointed by the women of the District of Columbia in their application to Congress for the passage of an act amendatory of the organic act of said District, as above indicated.

Resolved, That among the important events in our struggle for the equal rights of woman we place the trial of Miss Susan B. Anthony before Hon. Ward Hunt, a judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, at Canandaigua, New York, in June last, on an indictment for voting as a citizen at the general election in November, 1872; that the grossly partial course of Judge Hunt on that occasion, his seeming unacquaintance with the plainest rules of law, and his eagerness for the conviction of Miss Anthony, stand in marked contrast with the calm demeanor and clear apprehension of the facts and principles at issue which she exhibited on the trial, and their conduct respectively in this memorable contest affords proof that, though it may be possible that all women have not a constitutional right to be voters, it is very certain that some men are not fit to be judges.

Resolved, That waiving for the present moment the question whether or not Judge Hunt was correct in his decision concerning the constitutional right of women to vote for Federal officers, nevertheless, in the opinion of all sound lawyers and intelligent men, he committed a great outrage against Miss Anthony by assuming, without proof, that she voted for a candidate for Congress, and by arbitrarily refusing to allow the jury to pass upon the question of her innocence, and by peremptorily commanding them to render a verdict of guilty. That so plain is this to the minds of those who possess any clear knowledge of general principles of law, and of the ordinary duties of a criminal court, that Judge Hunt has shown by his conduct on that trial that he is too ignorant to fill his high position, or too arbitrary to be entrusted with its grave responsibilities; and, therefore, in either case, he ought to be impeached and removed from the bench.

Resolved, That by the death of John Stuart Mill, woman has lost a wise, brave friend. His great work for the enfranchisement of woman, and for the elevation of all mankind deserves the public thanks of this convention.

Resolved, That in Hon. John C. Underwood, lately removed from the bench by death, the women of his district have lost that rarest of public servants, a judge to whom the disfranchised could confidently look for justice.

Resolved, That by the death of John M. Morris, late editor of the Washington Chronicle, the cause of woman's freedom lost a tried and valued friend, whose faithfulness and judgment entitled him to the gratitude of the women of this Nation.

Miss Anthony submitted the following:

Resolved, That the thanks of the friends of woman suffrage are due to the Misses Smith, of Glastonbury, Connecticut, for their patriotic resistance to the tyranny of taxation without representation, and that all women tax payers through the country should follow their example.

Resolved, That the best means of agitating at the present hour is for all women to insist on their right of representation by actually presenting their votes at every election, and for all property-holding women to refuse to pay another dollar of tax until their right of representation is recognized.

Peterboro, January 5, 1874

Susan B. Anthony—My Dear Friend: As I am suffering from an attack of vertigo, I answer your letter by the hand of my wife. Enclosed is my contribution toward defraying the expenses of your convention. Strong as is the Constitutional argument for woman suffrage, I nevertheless hope that your convention will not tolerate the idea of measuring the rights of woman by a man-made constitution. Have you heard of a State in which women and women only bear rule, and the constitution of which was made by women only? Perhaps there is such a flagrantly unjust state, either on this or some other planet. If so, deep is the injury done to its men. But deeper the insult added to this injury if, when the men complain of being excluded from the government, the women apply to the measurement of man's rights the yardstick of a woman-made constitution. Constitutions are useful in settling ten thousand subordinate questions. But the great questions of primary and inherent human rights are to be submitted to no lower decisions than those of God's immutable and everlasting justice.

Gerrit Smith.

With high regard, your friend,

GEN. BUTLER'S LETTER.

Washington, December 1.

My Dear Madam: As a rule I have refused to take part in any convention in the District of Columbia about any matter which might come before Congress. I do not think it proper. I went far out of my way in this regard, having given evidence that I am most strongly committed to the legality, propriety and justice of giving the ballot to woman. I do not see how I can add anything to it by appearing on the platform in advocacy of any measure that may come before me as a Member of Congress, and I do not think my sense of propriety would over-balance such considerations. Hoping that your cause may succeed, I have the honor to be, very truly yours,

Ben. F. Butler.

[158] Annual Convention of the National Woman Suffrage Association.—For more than a quarter of a century the representative women of this nation have held annual meetings, demanding the recognition of their rights as citizens of the United States. In halls of legislation and courts of justice, as well as in Conventions, woman's equality with man in all civil and political rights, privileges and immunities, has been debated and variously decided by popular opinion, statute law and judicial decree, without arriving at any permanent settlement of the question. And until the world learns that there should be but one code of laws and morals for man and woman, this question never can be settled. But the discussion has roused woman herself to new thought and action, and kindled in her an enthusiasm that the best interests of the nation demand should be wisely directed and controlled.

The fact that women are already voting, holding office and resisting taxation, that thousands are enrolling in the Grange movement and Temperance Crusade, that Woman Suffrage is to be voted upon in Michigan at the next election, should warn the Government that the hour for its action has come. It must now determine whether woman's transition from slavery to freedom shall be through reformation or revolution, whether she shall be permitted to express her interest in national questions through law by the direct power of the ballot, or outside of law by indirect and irresponsible power; and thus, by a blind enthusiasm, plunge the nation into anarchy.

For an earnest discussion of the duty of the hour, we invite all persons interested in woman's enfranchisement to meet in Irving Hall, New York, on the 14th and 15th of May.

Susan B. Anthony, President.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Chairman Ex. Com.

[159] The speakers at this Convention were Ernestine L. Rose, Martha C. Wright, O. B. Frothingham, Rev. Olympia Brown, Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Elizabeth B. Phelps, Carrie S. Burnham, Sarah Andrews Spencer, Frances V. Hallock, Amanda Deyo, Dr. J. Mix, Mrs. Helen M. Slocum, Dr. Clemence S. Lozier, Lillie Devereux Blake, Susan B. Anthony.

[160] Letters were received at this May Anniversary (1874) from Lucinda B. Chandler, Vineland, New Jersey; Mrs. C. C. Hussey, Report of New Jersey; Mary F. Davis, New Jersey; Catherine F. Stebbins, Michigan; Mary J. Channing, Paulina Wright Davis, Rhode Island; Alfred H. Love, Edward M. Davis, Sarah Pugh, Philadelphia; Lorenza Haynes, Theological School, St. Lawrence University, Canton, N. Y.; Sarah R. L. Williams, Toledo, Ohio; Harriet S. Brooks, Report for Illinois; Catharine V. Waite, Illinois; Lizzie Boynton Harbert, Iowa; Virginia L. Minor, Missouri; Annie L. Quinby, Kentucky; Sarah Burger Stearns, Duluth, Minnesota; Hon. Benj. F. Butler, Massachusetts; Mrs. C. H. Baker, Mrs. H. K. Clapp, Nevada; Sarah J. Wallis, California; Mrs. C. I. H. Nichols, Pomo, California; Mariana Thompson Folsom, Foxboro, Mass.; Emily P. Collins, La.; Mary K. Spalding, Atlanta, Ga.; Mrs. Matilda Joslyn Gage, New York; Mary L. Booth, Harper's Bazar, New York; Ann T. Greeley, Ellsworth, Me.; Mary Olney Brown, Olympia, Washington Territory.

[161] Resolved, That as complete individual development depends on the harmonious exercise of our three-fold nature, and undue power given to either deranges and undermines the whole being, so in the nation, a complete experiment of self-government can be made only by the equal recognition of the rights of all citizens, and in their homogeneous education into the laws of national life.

Resolved, That the decision of Chief Justice Waite, in the case of Virginia L. Minor of Missouri, that according to the Federal Constitution woman is a citizen, but not entitled to the right of suffrage, is more infamous and retrogressive in principle at this hour, than was Chief-Justice Tancy's decision in the Dred Scott case, that a black man was not a United States citizen, and therefore not entitled to the rights of a citizen of every State.

Whereas, By the recent decisions of the Supreme Court in the case of Myra Bradwell of Illinois, and of Virginia L. Minor of Missouri, the Federal Constitution is declared powerless to protect the civil and political rights of woman.

Resolved, That it is the duty of Congress to take the necessary steps to secure an amendment to the Constitution that shall prohibit the several States from disfranchising citizens of the United States on account of sex.

Whereas, One of the strongest evidences of the degradation of disfranchised classes is the denial of their right to testify against their rulers in courts of justice (slaves could not testify against their masters; Chinamen in California to-day can not testify against white men, nor wives in cases of crim. con. against their husbands); therefore

Resolved, That the denial of Elizabeth R. Tilton's right to testify in the pending Brooklyn trial, is but proof of woman's need of the ballot in her own right for self-defence and self-protection.

Resolved, That as the proposition for woman's enfranchisement is to be submitted in Iowa, in 1876, the National Woman Suffrage Association will hold there 100 county conventions, and by lectures and the circulation of tracts, help the women of Iowa to make a thorough canvass of the State.

Resolved, That we congratulate the women of England for the large vote secured on the Woman's Disabilities Bill in the House of Commons. With a Queen on her throne, 400,000 women already voting, and her Premier in favor of the measure, England bids fair to take the lead in the complete enfranchisement of women.

[162] Rev. O. B. Frothingham, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Rev. Olympia Brown, Lillie Devereux Blake, Carrie S. Burnham, Mrs. Stanton, and Miss Anthony.

[163] Matilda Joslyn Gage, President; Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Vice-Presidents; Henrietta P. Westbrook, Recording Secretary; Isabella Beecher Hooker, Corresponding Secretary; Ellen Clark Sargent, Treasurer; Susan B. Anthony and fifteen others, Executive Committee.

CHAPTER XXV.

TRIALS AND DECISIONS.

We have already shown in previous chapters that by a fair interpretation of the XIV. Amendment women were logically secured in their right to vote. Encouraged by the opinions of able lawyers and judges, they promptly made a practical test of this question by registering and voting during the State and Presidential elections of 1871 and '72. This transferred the discussion, for a time, from the platform and halls of legislation to the courts for final adjudication.

The first woman to offer her vote was Marilla M. Ricker, of Dover, New Hampshire, a young widow of large property. In March,[164] 1870, the day previous to the election, she made application to the selectmen for registry. No objection being made, and one of the Board, promising to put her name on the check-list, she departed, leaving with them several copies of a speech she had prepared in case of a refusal. On election day she appeared at the polls and offered a straight Republican ticket. It was received by the moderator and her name called, but on examination of the list it was found that the selectman had been false to his promise, and her vote was refused. Extended comments were made by the press of the State, Democrats generally sustaining her, while Republicans were bitter in opposition. Mrs. Ricker in the meantime prepared to sue the selectmen, but being strongly opposed by her republican friends, she silently submitted to the injustice, and thus lost the opportunity of being the first woman to prosecute the authorities for refusing the vote of a citizen on the ground of sex. However, she still enjoys[Pg 587] the distinction of being the first woman to cast a vote under the XIV. Amendment, as the following spring she saw that her name was on the registry list, and her vote was received without opposition.

The next case was that of Nannette B. Gardner, in Detroit, Michigan. She registered her name in that city March 25, 1871, and voted,[165] unquestioned, April 3d. April 20th, of the same year, Sara Andrews Spencer and Sarah E. Webster, with seventy other women of the District of Columbia, marched in a body to the polls, but their votes were refused at the election as they had been previously refused registration. They immediately took steps to prosecute the Board of Inspectors, and suit was brought in the Supreme Court of the District at the general term, October, 1871. Albert G. Riddle and Francis Miller, able lawyers of the District, and well known advocates of woman suffrage, were retained by the plaintiffs, and in their defense made the following arguments:

Chief Justice Cartter then delivered the opinion of the court, sustaining the demurrer, which is as follows:

After the reading of the opinion of the Court by Chief Justice Cartter, Mr. Riddle, counsel for the plaintiffs, in open court, prayed an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States. And that highest tribunal affirmed the decision of Judge Cartter.

This contradictory decision of Judge Cartter averring that the XIV. Amendment clothed women with the capacity to become voters, but did not create them voters, afforded opportunity for criticism and ridicule. The Washington Sunday Morning Herald wittily reported [166] this trial in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia.[Pg 600]

On July 21st, 1871, Ellen Rand Van Valkenburg, of Santa Cruz, California, having applied for registration and been refused, brought suit against Albert Brown, of Brown County, who acted as Register upon this occasion. Although later suits exceeded this in interest it was notable for being the first decision under the new amendments.[167]

September 16, 1871, suit was brought by Carrie S. Burnham, an unmarried woman, residing in Philadelphia. She was duly assessed by the canvassers of the Fourteenth Ward of that city as a resident[Pg 601] of the Eleventh Election District of that ward. Two days afterwards she paid her tax, and her name was registered on the canvassers' printed list of legal voters in that division. Having complied with all the laws regulating suffrage in Pennsylvania, she presented her ballot in legal form at the proper time and place at the general election, but her vote was refused. Her argument in the Court of Common Pleas and the opinion of the judge, will be given in the Pennsylvania chapter.

Mrs. Catharine V. Waite, of Illinois, also instituted suit for the refusal of her vote proffered in the fall of 1871, and received an adverse decision, a report of which will be found in the Illinois chapter.

Two years previous to these suits for the recognition of the political rights of women a contest of a different character was commenced in Illinois. Mrs. Myra Bradwell, editor of the Chicago Legal News, in September, 1869, having passed the examination, and received the required certificate of qualification, applied for admission to the bar of that State, which was refused by its Supreme court, on the ground that she was a woman. She made this denial of her civil rights a test case by bringing a writ of error against the State of Illinois in the Supreme Court of the United States. We copy from the Legal News of February 5, 1870:

While these suits for the recognition of the political rights of women were pending, a contest of a different character took place in Illinois. Mrs. Myra Bradwell, editor of the Chicago Legal News, applied for admission to the bar of that State, and was refused. She made this denial of her civil rights a test case by bringing suit against the State of Illinois in the Supreme Court of the United States. The case was argued for the plaintiff in the December term, 1871, by the Hon. Matt. H. Carpenter, of Wisconsin, an eminent republican United States Senator. In addressing the Court Mr. Carpenter said:

The result of this suit taught woman that for her civil as well as political rights she had no National protection. This was the first case under the XIV. Amendment that was decided by the Supreme Court of the United States. This august body based its decision against Mrs. Bradwell on the ground of "no jurisdiction," declaring that the case rested with the Legislature of the State of Illinois. In language stripped of legal verbiage and obscurity, it decided that the civil rights of women could be extended and restricted at the caprice of any legislative body in the several States; that the methods for earning their daily bread, in the trades and professions, the use of their powers of mind and body, could be defined, permitted or denied for the citizen by State authorities.

In Norwalk, Connecticut, long known as the Gibralter of republicanism in that State, Mrs. Sarah M. T. Huntington was allowed to[Pg 627] register by sufferance of the selectmen whose objections she overcame by a logical argument upon the constitutional provisions under the XIV. Amendment, but she was not permitted to vote (see Connecticut chapter). At the same election several ladies voted in Nyack, New York, and in Toledo, Ohio, and many unsuccessful attempts were made by others in several States of the Union.

It was on November 1st, 1872, at her quiet home in Rochester, while reading her morning paper, that Miss Anthony's eye fell on the following editorial:

She immediately threw aside her journal, and asking one of her sisters to accompany her, made her determined way to the registration office. The inspectors were young men, entirely unversed in the intricacies of constitutional law, so that when Miss Anthony expounded to them the XIV. Amendment, they were utterly incapable of answering her legal argument. After some hesitation the two Republican members of the board agreed to receive her name, while the Democratic official remained obdurate. The United States Supervisor being present strongly advised the young men against refusing to allow Miss Anthony to register. A full report of this scene appeared in the afternoon papers with varying comments; the Republican paper inclined toward a favorable view of the right of women to vote, while the Democratic paper denounced these proceedings and warned all inspectors that if they received the names of women they would be liable to prosecution under the 19th section of the enforcement act.

Upon reading this article Miss Anthony hastened back to the registration office and assured the young men that she would be personally responsible for all costs growing out of any suit that might be instituted against them for having registered women. As an outgrowth of all this discussion about fifty women registered in the city, fourteen of them in Miss Anthony's own ward. As a whole, the tone of the press was so adverse that all the inspectors except those of the 8th ward were intimidated and refused to receive the votes of women on election day.

Bright and early on the morning of November 5th, Miss Anthony and six of the women presented themselves at the polling booth. The ladies went early not in order to vote often, but to avoid any disturbance which might result from so novel a scene if it were enacted when the streets had become crowded. Each of these new voters was in turn challenged, and each swore in her vote, except Rhoda De Garmo, who in true Quaker fashion refused either to "swear" or to "affirm," simply saying "I will tell the truth." Nevertheless her vote was also received.

The discussion of this action continued in the papers and on November 28th, Thanksgiving day, those fourteen offending citizens were informed that they were to be prosecuted by the United States Government, and that Commissioner Storrs wished them to call at his office. The ladies refusing to respond to this polite invitation, Marshal Keeney made the circuit to collect the rebellious forces. It was the afternoon of Thanksgiving day that Miss Anthony was summoned to her parlor to receive a visitor. As she entered she saw her guest was a tall gentleman in most irreproachable attire, nervously dandling in his gloved hands a well-brushed high hat. After some incidental remarks the visitor in a hesitating manner made known his mission. "The Commissioner wishes to arrest you" were his first words touching the object of his call. "Is this your usual method of serving a warrant," asked Miss Anthony; whereupon the Marshal summoned courage enough to serve the usual legal[Pg 629] paper.[168] He gallantly offered to leave his prisoner to go alone, but Miss Anthony refusing to take herself to Court, the United States official meekly escorted her to the Commissioner's office. When all the ladies had arrived, the Commissioner, after hours of waiting, announced that the Assistant District Attorney whom he had summoned to examine the culprits, was unable to reach the city that afternoon, and so the ladies were dismissed to appear the next morning.

The voters received their preliminary examination in the same small dingy office where, in the days of slavery, fugitives escaping to Canada had been examined and remanded to bondage. This historic little room is a double disgrace to the American Republic, as within its walls the rights of color and of sex have been equally trampled upon.

The fourteen women pleaded "not guilty," but the Commissioner ordered bail of $500 each for their appearance at the Albany term of the United States District Court January 21, 1873. Miss Anthony refused to give bail, and petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus. The Inspectors were also arrested, and had their final hearing the afternoon of the same day before Commissioner Ely,—Hon. John Van Voorhis their counsel—and were bound over to the Albany Term. The hearing on Miss Anthony's petition was had before Judge Hall. The decision was adverse, and bail of $1,000 demanded for her appearance at the May term at Rochester. The Grand Jury found a true bill of indictment against her, the fourteen other women, and the three Inspectors. Miss Anthony objected to giving bail, but was overruled by her counsel, Hon. Henry R. Selden, whose sense of gallantry made him feel it a disgrace to allow his client to go to jail. This was a source of deep regret to Miss Anthony, as it prevented her case going to the Supreme Court of the United States for final adjudication.

During the intermediate period between November 28, 1872, and January 21, 1873, Miss Anthony, in the eye of the law, was imprisoned, but the Marshal, though somewhat uneasy, left her free to fulfill her lyceum engagements and attend woman suffrage conventions.[Pg 630] A singularly anomalous position for a criminal, traveling about the country as a teacher of morals to the people! Learning that in case the jury returned a verdict of guilty the judge must declare the costs of the trial against the defendants, she determined to canvass Monroe County, in order to make a verdict of "guilty" impossible. She held meetings in twenty-nine of the post-office districts, speaking on the equal rights of all citizens to the ballot. Hearing that District Attorney Crowley threatened to move her trial out of that county, she sent him word that she would then canvass the next with an army of speakers.

The court sat in Rochester May 13th, but several days passed without calling the case. Finally, it was moved by District Attorney Crowley, merely to ask its adjournment to the June United States Circuit Court at Canandaigua. Counsel protested, but without avail, and both the women and the Inspectors were again required to answer the charge and renew bail. This motion for change of venue was made on Friday, and the following Monday night Miss Anthony held her first meeting in Ontario County. In the twenty-two days before the convening of the Court she made twenty-one speeches. Matilda Joslyn Gage came to her aid, and spoke in sixteen townships, thus together making a thorough canvass of that county. Miss Anthony's speech, "Is it a crime for a United States citizen to vote," and that of Mrs. Gage, "The United States on trial, not Susan B. Anthony," were most effective in rousing general thought on the vital principles of republican government, and did much toward enlightening the possible jury in the coming trial.

The last meeting of the series was held at Canandaigua on the evening before the trial. Strong resolutions against these acts of injustice toward woman were introduced by Mrs. Gage, and unanimously indorsed by the audience. Thus the case went to trial with ample opportunity for the District Attorney and the Judge to know the opinions of the people, and for the men of Ontario to be too generally enlightened on the subject to find any twelve who could be trusted to bring in a verdict of guilty against the women for voting, or the inspectors for receiving their votes.

The following is the argument which Miss Anthony made in twenty-nine of the post office-districts of Monroe, and twenty-one of Ontario, in her canvass of those counties, prior to her trial, June 17, 1873:

Miss Anthony's trial opened the morning of the 18th of June. The lovely village of Canandaigua, with its placid lake reflecting the soft summer sky, gave no evidence of the great event that was to make the day and the place memorable in history. All was still, the usual peaceful atmosphere pervaded that conservative town, and with the exception of a small group of men and women in earnest conversation at the hotel, few there were who thought or cared about the great principles of government involved in the pending trial. When the tolling of the Court House bell announced that the hour had arrived, Miss Anthony, her counsel and friends, promptly appeared, and were soon followed by the District Attorney and Judge, representing the power of the United States,—Miss Anthony to stand as a criminal before the bar of her country for having dared to exercise a freeman's right of self-government, and that country through its Judiciary to falsify its grand declarations as to the equality of its citizens by a verdict of guilty because of sex.

On the bench sat Judge Hunt, a small-brained, pale-faced, prim-looking man, enveloped in a faultless suit of black broadcloth, and a snowy white neck-tie. This was the first criminal case he had been called on to try since his appointment, and with remarkable forethought, he had penned his decision before hearing it. At times by his side sat Judge Hall, who had declared himself unwilling to try the suit. Within the bar sat Miss Anthony and counsel, the Hon. Henry R. Selden and Hon. John Van Voorhis, several of the ladies who had voted,[169] Mrs. Gage, and the United States District Attorney. Upon the right sat the jury, while all the remaining space was crowded with curious and anxious listeners, among whom were many men [170] prominent in public life.

The indictment [171] presented against Miss Anthony will be regarded[Pg 648] by the future historian as a remarkable document to have originated in a republic against one of its native-born citizens guilty of no crime.

District Attorney Crowley followed Judge Selden with an argument two hours in length. He stated that, in his view, the case simply presented questions of law, and that his argument, therefore, would be addressed strictly to the court, leaving the court to give such instructions to the jury upon the facts as he might deem proper. He contended that the right to vote was not included in "privileges and immunities," and was only given by State laws and State constitutions. He concluded his argument by saying that an honest mistake of the facts may sometimes excuse, but a mistake of the law never. The Court addressed the jury as follows:

On the next day a motion for a new trial was made and argued by Judge Selden, as follows:

The Court, after listening to an argument from the District Attorney, denied the motion for a new trial.

Immediately after the verdict, Miss Anthony, her counsel, her friends, and the jury, passed out together talking over the case. Said Judge Selden: "The war has abolished something besides slavery, it has abolished jury trial. The decision of Justice Hunt was most iniquitous. He had as much right to order me hung to the nearest tree, as to take the case from the jury and render the decision he did," and he bowed his head with shame at this prostitution of legal power.

The jury with freedom now to use their tongues, when too late, also canvassed the trial and the injury done. "The verdict of guilty would not have been mine, could I have spoken," said one, "nor should I have been alone. There were others who thought as I did, but we could not speak."

The decision of Judge Hunt was severely criticised.[172] Even among those who believed women had no right to vote, and who did not hesitate to say that Miss Anthony's punishment was inadequate, there was a wide questioning as to his legal right to take the case from the jury and enter the verdict of guilty, without permitting them in any way to indicate their opinion. It was deemed a tyrannical and arrogant assumption on the part of Judge Hunt, and one which endangered the rights of the whole people. It was pertinently asked, "If this may be done in one instance, why not in all?" and "If the courts may thus arbitrarily direct what verdicts shall be rendered, what becomes of the right to trial by an impartial jury, which the Constitution guarantees to all persons alike, whether male or female?" These questions were of the gravest importance, and[Pg 690] the more so because from this court there was no appeal. To deprive Miss Anthony of the benefit of jury trial seemed, however, in unison with every step taken in the cases of women under the XIV. Amendment.

The design of the Government was evidently to crush at once, and arbitrarily, all efforts of women for equality of rights with men. The principles of law and justice involved did not, however, apply to women alone, but to all persons alike. Where the rights of the most insignificant or humble are outraged those of all are endangered. The decisions in these cases are the more remarkable since they were based on the most ultra State Rights doctrine, and yet were rendered in every instance by members of the Republican party which held its position by reason of its recent success against the extreme demands of State sovereignty. The right of women to vote under national protection was but the logical result of the political guarantees of the war, and Republican leaders should have been anxious to clinch their war record by legislative and judicial decisions.

But a more thorough recognition of the State Rights theory never was presented than in the proceedings of this Judge of the Supreme Court in his verdict against Miss Anthony, nor a more absolute exhibition of National power in State affairs than his decision in the case of the Inspectors, who were State officers, working under State authority and State laws, and not under authority derived from the Constitution of the United States, but who were tried by an United States judge, and punished for what was held as a crime against the State of New York—a monstrous usurpation of National authority! Each of these trials was, in its way, an example of authority overriding law, and an evidence of the danger to the liberties of the people from a practically irresponsible judiciary. Men need to feel their indebtedness and their responsibility to those who place them in position; first, in order to preserve them from despotism; and, second, that they may be removed when infirmity demands the substitution of a competent person in their place.

Although for a period little has been said in regard to the usurpations of the judiciary, a time will come in the history of the country when the course of Justice Hunt will be recalled as a dangerous precedent.

It was more than a year after Miss Anthony's trial was completed before her case received notice in the chief legal journal of the State of New York. At that time, in an article entitled, "Can a Judge Direct a Verdict of Guilty?"[173] Judge Hunt's course in refusing to[Pg 691] poll the jury was reviewed and condemned as contrary to justice and law. To Mrs. Gage's review of this article, the Law Journal said, "If Mrs. Gage and Miss Anthony are not pleased with our laws, they had better emigrate." This would make real, in case of woman, Edward Everett Hale's story of the "Man Without a Country." Women are, by this advice, assumed to have no country; to be living in the United States upon sufferance, a species of useful aliens, which possesses no rights that man is bound to respect, which are not to be permitted to vote, nor even to protest when the dearest rights are trampled upon. While admitting that Justice Hunt usurped power in taking the case from the jury, the Albany Law Journal expressed a desire that it should have gone to the jury, not on the ground of legal right, but on the ground that the jury would have brought in a verdict of guilty.

But had the case been allowed to go to the jury, no verdict of guilty would have been rendered. The jury did not believe the defendant guilty, but they were not permitted to give their opinion. Their opinions counted for nothing; they were wronged as well as Miss Anthony.

It was said of the infamous Lord Jeffries, that when pre-determined upon a conviction he always wore a red cap. In such cases juries were useless appendages to his court. Justice Hunt, through this trial, wore an invisible red cap which only came into view at its close.

The effect of Miss Anthony's prosecution, conviction, and sentence, was in many ways advantageous to the cause of freedom. Her trial served to awaken thought, promote discussion, and compel an investigation of the principles of government. The argument of Judge Selden, clearly proving woman's constitutional right to vote, published [174] in all the leading papers, arrested the attention of legal minds as no popular discussions had done.

Thus the question of the abstract rights of each individual, their civil and political rights under State and National Constitutions, were widely discussed. And when the verdict, contrary to law, was rendered by the Judge, and the jury dismissed without having been permitted to utter a word, the whole question of woman's rights and wrongs was brought into new prominence through this infringement of the sacred right of jury trial.

A nolle prosequi was entered for the women who voted with Miss Anthony. Immediately after the decision in her case, the trial of the Inspectors took place before the same court. This was in reality[Pg 692] a continuation of the same question—a citizen's right to vote—and like that of Miss Anthony's was a legal farce, the decision in this case evidently having also been pre-determined. The indictment stated that:

Although the above indictment may have been legal in form, it clearly proved the inadequacy of man alone to frame just laws, holding, as it did, Susan B. Anthony to be "then and there a person of the female sex, contrary to the form of the statutes of the United States of America," etc.

Witnesses were first called on behalf of the United States; during whose examination it was again conceded that the women named in the indictment were women on the 5th day of November, 1872, thus again clearly showing the animus of these trials to be against sex—making sex a crime in the eye of United States laws. While the right to testify in her own behalf was denied to Miss Anthony it was granted to the Inspectors of election.

Beverly W. Jones, and each of the other defendants, was duly sworn as a witness in his own behalf, and Susan B. Anthony was called as a witness in behalf of the defendants.

Miss Anthony's emphatic reply and intimation that, although a condemned criminal for having voted, she still believed in her citizenship as securing that right to her, closed the lips of the Court, and she was summarily dismissed from the witness-box, and the case rested.

Mr. Van Voorhis addressed the Court at some length, submitting that there was no ground whatever to charge these defendants (the Inspectors) with any criminal offense,

These points were amplified by the counsel at some length, who closed by saying, "The defendants should be discharged by the Court." Mr. Crowley then rose to make his argument, when the Court said:

The jury retired for consultation, and the Court took a recess. The Court re-convened at 7 o'clock, when the clerk called the jury and asked them if they had agreed upon their verdict. The foreman replied in the negative.[Pg 696]

The jury retired, and after an absence of about ten minutes returned into court. The clerk called the names of the jury.

On the next day, June 19, 1873, the counsel for the defendants, Mr. John Van Voorhis, made a motion to the court for a new trial in behalf of Beverley W. Jones, Edwin T. Marsh, and William B. Hall. The following are the grounds of the motion:

The court denied the motion; then asked the defendants if they had anything to say why sentence should not be pronounced, in response to which they replied as follows:

The Court then sentenced the defendants to pay a fine of $25 each, and the costs of the prosecution.[175]

The following petition was presented in the Senate by Mr. Sargent, the present (1882) United States Minister to Germany, and in the House by Mr. Loughridge, of Iowa:

In the Senate of the United States, June 20, 1874, Mr. Edmunds submitted the following report:

Mr. Carpenter asked, and obtained, leave of the Senate to present the following as the views of the minority:

Mr. Tremaine, from the House Judiciary Committee, reported adversely on the prayer of Miss Anthony's Petition, and Benjamin F. Butler favorably.

The Inspectors were counseled to refuse to pay their fines, and take the consequences.

On Miss Anthony's return home, February 26, 1874, she found the three Inspectors lodged in jail. She at once called on Judge Selden, and after consultation with him as to what could be done for their protection, telegrams were sent to influential friends in Washington, to which the following reply was received:

More than a week elapsed before the arrival of President Grant's pardon papers, and during that time hundreds of the people of Rochester visited the "boys" in jail, and the best of dinners were furnished them daily by the fourteen women voters of the Eighth Ward.

Soon after the decision on Mrs. Minor's case, Mrs. Gage, in a convention at Washington, ably reviewed Judge Waite's opinion, showing that the United States has eight classes of voters. She said:

The following review of this important case is from the January number, 1876, of the Central Law Journal, St. Louis, Missouri:

Thus closed woman's struggle for National protection of her civil and political rights under the XIV. Amendment. In the case of Myra Bradwell, which was commenced in September, 1869, two years before the others, Chief-Justice Chase, one of the best and wisest Judges that ever honored the American bench, dissented from the opinion of the Supreme Court: that the fact of United States citizenship did not secure to woman the right to practice law, and[Pg 755] that a married woman rested under a special disability in regard to her civil rights, thus sustaining the action of Illinois in refusing to admit Mrs. Bradwell to the bar of that State.

The decision in the case of Mrs. Minor, that the political rights of women were wholly under the control of their respective States was still more emphatic and discouraging. Had Judge Chase lived, we have every reason to believe that in this case too, he would have dissented, and that his opinion would have had great weight in the general discussion. Although defeated at every point, woman's claim as a citizen of the United States to the Federal franchise is placed upon record in the highest court of the Nation, and there it will remain forever. As Milton so grandly says in Paradise Lost:

FOOTNOTES:

[164] The elections in New Hampshire were held in the spring in former years.

[165] An account of Mrs. Gardner's voting will be found in the Michigan chapter.

[166]

WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN THE COURTS.—SHAKESPEARE REVIVED.

In the case of Hamlet vs. Rex, Shakespeare's reports, occurs the following:

Scene—Churchyard.—Enter two clowns with spades.

First Clown. Is she to be buried in Christian burial that wilfully seeks her own salvation?

Second Clown. I tell thee, she is; therefore make her grave straight. The crowner hath set on her and finds it Christian burial.

First Clown. How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defense?

Second Clown. Why,'tis found so.

First Clown. It must be so, se offendendo; it can not be else. For here lies the point. If I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act; and an act has three branches—it is to act, to do, and to perform. Argal, she drowned herself wittingly.

Second Clown. Nay, but hear you good man, deliver.

First Clown. Give me leave. Here lies the water. Good. Here stands the man. Good. If the man goes to this water and drowns himself, it is nil he, will he, he goes. Mark you that. But if the water come to him and drown him, he drowns not himself. Argal, he that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life.

Second Clown. But is this law?

First Clown. Ay, marry is't, crowner quest law.

It hardly needed any better authority than the above to convince simple-minded people of the truth of the observation made by Blackstone that "law is the perfection of human reason." But if law is great, those who expound it are greater.

The woman suffrage trial came on. The judges endeavored to follow the arguments as far as possible, and to religiously earn their salaries by the attention given, if no more. The arguments were finally finished, and the women of the country waited expectantly to hear their legal status defined.

It took just one week for the united judicial wisdom of this District to consider this case in all its bearings, and then the decision came. It was about as follows:

Scene—District Court-room.—Enter Judges with law books.

First Judge. Women are voters but they can't vote. Voting is a privilege and not a natural right, and must be conferred; it has clearly been conferred by the supreme law of the land, therefore women can not vote. A little voting is a good thing, but too much voting is injurious to public interests, as is instanced in our large cities. If women vote, there would be more voting than at present, consequently women are not entitled to vote. The Constitution gives women the right to vote. The organic law of the district does not. The latter, of course, is void where it conflicts with the former, therefore can not women vote. Congress has clearly recognized woman's right to the ballot, wily or nily. But the ballot must come to the woman, not she to the ballot, or else the law is violated. Congress must go further, and point out to women how the ballot must come to her, or else will she not be given Christian reception at the polls who willfully seek to vote thereat. Therefore can not women vote.

Second Judge. Women are men, but men are not women. The former include the latter, but the latter won't be included. That is to say, the law regards men as women but not males as females. It is not every right which can be exercised, as society will not admit of it. The law, which is above society, says women shall vote, but society has not acceded, and hence this court can not interfere. Therefore, I concur that women can not vote.

Third Judge. I do not know but that the better way would have been for Congress to have done otherwise than it did. Why it did as it did is a question. But it did. It might have done more, or less, or both. It might have done otherwise. In either case it would have done so. And then it would have been. But as it is, it is perhaps as well as if it should have been. Therefore can not women vote.

Plaintiffs' Attorneys. But is this law?

The Three Judges. Verily is't the law of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia.

This parody was written by J. W. Knowlton, son-in-law of Mr. Riddle.

[167] A report of this trial will be found in the California chapter.

[168] Whereas, Complaint has this day been made by —— on oath before me, William C. Storrs, commissioner, charging that Susan B. Anthony, on or about the fifth day of November, 1872, at the city of Rochester, N. Y., at an election held in the eighth ward of the city of Rochester aforesaid, for a representative in the Congress of the United States, did then and there vote for representative in Congress in the United States, without having a lawful right to vote and in violation of Section 19 of an act of Congress approved May 31, 1870, entitled "An act to enforce the right of citizens of the United States to vote in the several States of this Union and for other purposes."

[169] The following ladies voted: Mrs. Hannah Anthony Mosher, Mrs. Mary S. Hebard, Mrs. Nancy M. Chapman, Mrs. Jane M. Cogswell, Mrs Martha N. French, Mrs. Margaret Leyden, Mrs. Lottie Bolles Anthony, Mrs. Hannah Chatfield, Mrs. Susan M. Hough, Mrs. Sarah Truesdale, Mrs. Mary Pulver, Mrs. Rhoda De Garmo, Mrs. Guelma Anthony McLean, Miss Mary S. Anthony, Miss Ellen T. Baker. The following ladies registered but were not allowed to vote: Mrs. Amy Post, Mrs. Mary Fish Curtis, Mrs. Dr. Dutton, Mrs. Charlotte Wilbur Griffing, Mrs. Dr. Wheeler, Mrs. Allen, Mrs. Lathrop.

[170] Ex-President Fillmore, Hon. Charles Sedgwick, Hon. E. G. Lapham, David Wright, Esq., of Auburn.

[171] Indictment against Susan B. Anthony—District Court of the United States of America, in and for the Northern District of New York.—At a stated session of the District Court of the United States of America, held in and for the Northern District of New York, at the City Hall, in the city of Albany, in the said Northern District of New York, on the third Tuesday of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, before the Honorable Nathan K. Hall, Judge of the said Court, assigned to keep the peace of the said United States of America, in and for the said District, and also to hear and determine divers Felonies, Misdemeanors and other offenses against the said United States of America, in the said District committed. Brace Millerd, James D. Wasson, Peter H. Bradt, James McGinty, Henry A. Davis, Loring W. Osborn, Thomas Whitbeck, John Mullen, Samuel G. Harris, Ralph Davis, Matthew Fanning, Abram Kimmey, Derrick B. Van Schoonhoven, Wilhelmus Van Natten, James Kenney, Adam Winne, James Goold, Samuel S. Fowler, Peter D. R. Johnson, Patrick Carroll, good and lawful men of the said District, then and there sworn and charged to inquire for the said United States of America, and the body of said District, do, upon their oaths, present, that Susan B. Anthony now or late of Rochester, in the county of Monroe, with force and arms, etc., to wit: at and in the first election district of the eighth ward of the city of Rochester, in the county of Monroe, in said Northern District of New York, and within the jurisdiction of this Court, heretofore, to wit: on the fifth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, at an election duly held at and in the first election district of the said eighth ward of the city of Rochester, in said county and in said Northern District of New York, which said election was for Representatives in the Congress of the United States, to wit: a Representative in the Congress of the United States for the State of New York at large, and a Representative in the Congress of the United States for the twenty-ninth Congressional District of the State of New York, said first election district of said eighth ward of said city of Rochester, being then and there a part of said twenty-ninth Congressional District of the State of New York, did knowingly, wrongfully, and unlawfully vote for a Representative in the Congress of the United States for the State of New York at large, and for a Representative in the Congress of the United States for said twenty-ninth Congressional District, without a lawful right to vote in said election district (the said Susan B. Anthony being then and there a person of the female sex), as she, the said Susan B. Anthony then and there well knew, contrary to the form of the statute of the United States of America in such case made and provided, and against the peace of the United States of America and their dignity.

Second Count—And the jurors aforesaid upon their oaths aforesaid do further present that said Susan B. Anthony, now or late of Rochester, in the county of Monroe, with force and arms, etc., to wit: at and in the first election district of the eighth ward of the city of Rochester, in the county of Monroe, in said Northern District of New York, and within the jurisdiction of this Court, heretofore, to wit: on the fifth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, at an election duly held at and in the first election district of the said eighth ward, of said city of Rochester, in said county, and in said Northern District of New York, which said election was for Representatives in the Congress of the United States, to wit: a Representative in the Congress of the United States for the State of New York at large, and a Representative in the Congress of the United States for the twenty-ninth Congressional District of the State of New York, said first election district of said eighth ward, of said city of Rochester, being then and there a part of said twenty-ninth Congressional District of the State of New York, did knowingly, wrongfully and unlawfully vote for a candidate for Representative in the Congress of the United States for the State of New York at large, and for Representative in the Congress of the United States for said twenty-ninth Congressional District, without having a lawful right to vote in said election district (the said Susan B. Anthony being then and there a person of the female sex), as she, the said Susan B. Anthony then and there well knew, contrary to the form of the statute of the United States of America in such case made and provided, and against the peace of the United States of America and their dignity.

Richard Crowley,
Attorney of the United States for the Northern District of New York.

(Endorsed). Jan. 24, 1873.
Pleads not guilty.

Richard Crowley,
U. S. Attorney.

[172] See Appendix.

[173] See Appendix.

[174] Thousands of copies were published in pamphlet form, with the Court report of the trial, and circulated throughout the country.

[175] See Appendix.

[176] To the same effect see former decisions in Massachusetts: Coffin vs. Coffin, 4 Mass., 25; Com. vs. Knapp, 10 Pic., 496; and see also State vs. Snow, 18 Maine, 346; Doss vs. Com., 1 Grattan, 557; Peo. vs. McFall, 1 Wheeler Crim. Rec., 108, note; Holder vs. The State, 5 Georgia, 443; State vs. Allen, 1 McCord, 525; State vs. Jones, 5 Alabama, 666; Armstrong vs. The State, 4 Blackford, 247; Patterson vs. The State, 2 English, 59.

[177] Gibbons vs. Ogden, 9th Wheaton, 221, Ch. J. Marshall. Ogden vs. Saunder, 12 Wheaton, 332, Ch. J. Marshall.

[178] More recent investigation shows that this clause was originated by Mr. Jefferson in 1784. See The Nation for May 4, 1882, and authorities there referred to. See Bancroft's "History of the United States." Vol. II, p. 115.

CHAPTER XXVI.

AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION.

It was during the summer of 1869 that the initiative steps in the formation of the American Woman Suffrage Association [179] were taken, and the following letter circulated:

FOOTNOTES:

[179] The history of this Association from its formation is compiled by Harriot E. Stanton, from reports in The Agitator and Woman's Journal.

[180] Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, of Chicago; Mrs. Caroline M. Severance, of Boston; A. J. Boyer, of Dayton; Mrs. H. T. Hazard, of Missouri; Mrs. C. G. Ames, of California; and H. B. Blackwell, of New Jersey.

[181] Mrs. Frances D. Gage, of N. J.; George W. Curtis, of N. Y.; George F. Downing, of the District of Columbia; Rev. Henry Blanchard, of Indianapolis; William Lloyd Garrison, of Boston; Mattie M. Griffith, of Iowa; Rev. R. Fisk, Canton, N. Y.; A. N. Fretz, of Virginia; Rev. Edward Eggleston, of Chicago; Hon. Sharon Tyndale, and Hon. George Fisher, of Illinois.

[182] New Hampshire—Nathaniel White, Armenia S. White, Miss Dr. Hunt, of Concord; Miss H. A. Simons, of Manchester. Massachusetts—Julia Ward Howe, Rev. Rowland Connor, Boston; Mrs. Caroline M. Severance, T. C. Severance, West Newton; Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford, Reading; Stephen S. Foster, Worcester; Rev. A. Bronson Olcott, Concord; Miss Ellen E. Miles, Waltham; F. B. Sanborn, Springfield. Rhode Island—Col. T. W. Higginson, Newport. New York—Mrs. Celia Burleigh, Mrs. Anna C. Field, A. E. Bradley, Miss Mary Hillard, Mrs. A. E. Bradley, N. Y. City; Mrs. Jennie F. Culver, Syracuse; Ira E. Davenport, Buffalo. New Jersey—Mrs. Lucy Stone, Henry B. Blackwell, Newark; Mary F. Davis, Andrew Jackson Davis, Orange; Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Somerville; John Gage, Portia Gage, Vineland. Pennsylvania—John K. Wildman and Mrs. Charles Pierce, Philadelphia. Delaware—Dr. John Cameron, Isabella H. Cameron, and Samuel D. Forbes, Wilmington. Ohio—Dr. Hannah M. Tracy Cutler, Mrs. D. R. Tilden, Miss Edwards, Mrs. Dr. Merrick, Mrs. H. H. Little, Miss Deane, Cleveland; Mrs. M. V. Longley, Miss Helen J. Wolfe, Cincinnati; A. J. Boyer, Dayton; Mrs. M. M. Cole, Sydney; Jane O. DeForest, Findlay; Rev. H. J. McConnel, Yellow Springs; Mrs. Joshua R. Giddings, Ashtabula; Mrs. Esther Walters, Oberlin; Mrs. Lucinda Poole, Brownville; Rev. G. S. Abbott, Willoughby; Mrs. Jennie R. M. Eagleson, Cadiz; Mrs. Mercy B. Lane, Braceville; Mrs. C. T. Crain, J. J. Belville, Dayton; Mrs. E. D. Stewart, Springfield; Mrs. Lyon Jefferson. Indiana—Amanda M. Way, Rev. Charles H. Marshall, Mrs. Emi Swank, Indianapolis; J. T. Sage, Danville; Miss Lizzie M. Boynton, Crawfordsville; Dr. Alice B. Stockham, Lafayette; Nettie M. Pease, New Albany. Illinois—Myra Bradwell, Hon. James B. Bradwell, Mrs. E. J. Loomis, Mary A. Livermore, Chicago; Rev. J. B. Harrison, Bloomington; Mrs. A. Steward, Plano; Mrs. M. S. Severance, Dixon. Michigan—Rev. Dr. J. B. Stone, Mrs. L. H. Stone, W. S. Blakeman, Mrs. D. C. Blakeman, Kalamazoo; Giles B. Stebbins, Catharine A. F. Stebbins, Mrs. Dr. S. L. Jones, Mrs. Booth, Detroit; Mr. and Mrs. T. J. Sanford, Ann Arbor. Wisconsin—Lillie Peckham, Julia Ford, Milwaukee; E. L. Cassels, Lone Rock; Harriet Leland, Elkhorn. Minnesota—Mrs. Addie L. Ballou. Iowa—Capt. Judson N. Cross, Lyons. Missouri—Mrs. W. S. Hazard, Mrs. Ida S. Fialla, Miss Ellen Palmer, St. Louis. Florida—Henry S. Campbell, St. Augustine. Kansas—Gov. J. P. Root, Lawrence. California—Mrs. C. G. Ames and Mrs. Jennie B. Ritter.

[183] From Ohio—Dr. Hannah M. Tracy Cutler, Chairman. Florida—Henry T. Campbell. Indiana—Amanda M. Way. Illinois—Mary A. Livermore. Massachusetts—F. W. Sanborn. Rhode Island—Colonel T. W. Higginson. New York—Celia Burleigh. New Jersey—Henry B. Blackwell. Pennsylvania—Mrs. C. Pierce. Michigan—Rev. Dr. Stone. Wisconsin—Lilie Peckham. Minnesota—Addie L. Ballou. Missouri—Mrs. W. T. Hazard. California—Mrs. C. G. Ames. New Hampshire—Mrs. A. White. Delaware—Dr. John Cameron.

[184] President—Thomas Wentworth Higginson, of Rhode Island.

Secretaries—Mrs. Myra Bradwell, of Illinois; Mrs. Mary F. Davis, of New York.

Vice-President—Hon. Nathaniel White, of New Hampshire; Mrs. Caroline M. Severance, of Massachusetts; Mrs. Annie C. Field, of New York; Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, of New Jersey; John K. Wildman, of Pennsylvania; Dr. John Cameron, of Delaware; Rev. Charles H. Marshall, of Indiana; Hon. James B. Bradwell, of Illinois; Rev. H. K. McConnell, of Ohio; Mrs. Addie L. Ballou, of Minnesota; Miss Lilie Peckham, of Wisconsin; Dr. L. H. Jones, of Michigan; Mrs. Ida Fialla, of Mississippi; Mrs. Ritter, of California; Captain Judson F. Cross, of Iowa; Mrs. Henry F. Campbell, of Florida.

Treasurer—William N. Hudson, of the Cleveland Leader.

[185] The discussions were participated in by Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, A. Bronson Alcott, Messrs. Bellville, Foster, Gage, Blackwell, Marshall, Connor, McConnell, Mesdames Ames, Howe, Livermore, Cutler, Stone, and Hanaford.

[186] Rev. James Freeman Clarke, Rev. Oscar Clute, Mrs. and Miss Beecher, Lucy Stone, Henry B. Blackwell, Julia Ward Howe, T. W. Higginson, Mary A. Livermore, Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford, Celia Burleigh, Antoinette B. Blackwell, Miriam M. Cole, Margaret V. Longley, Elizabeth K. Churchill, Margaret Campbell, Mrs. Oscar Clute, Agnes Kemp, Mary F. Davis, Andrew Jackson Davis, G. B. Stebbins, H. M. Tracy Cutler, Oliver Johnson, A. J. Boyer, Aaron M. Powell, Hon. George W. Julian, "Grace Greenwood," and others.

[187] Whereas, the Democratic party, in the days of Jefferson, abolished the political aristocracy of wealth and established "a white man's government;" and

Whereas, the Republicans have recently abolished the political aristocracy of race and established "manhood suffrage;" therefore

Resolved, That the progressive tendencies of the age demand the abolition of the political aristocracy of sex by a XVI. Amendment to the Federal Constitution, extending suffrage to women.

Resolved, That pending the adoption of the XVI. Amendment, we urge the friends of woman to work in their respective States for the establishment of this reform by State legislation, especially as the ratification of any Constitutional Amendment must finally depend upon the State Legislatures.

Resolved, That the American Woman Suffrage Association seeks a thorough organization of the friends of the cause throughout the country by the following method, viz.: A central organization (already existing), organized by delegates from State societies; they in turn being organized by delegates from local societies, and the whole originating in primary meetings of the friends of woman suffrage in every locality.

Resolved, That we remonstrate against the proposition now pending in the Senate of the United States to disfranchise the women of Utah, as a movement in aid of polygamy, against justice, and a flagrant violation of a vested right.

Resolved, That we congratulate the friends of woman suffrage upon the unexampled progress of the cause during the past year; upon the enfranchisement of women in Wyoming and Utah; upon the submission of the question in Vermont; upon its discussion in eleven State Legislatures, in numerous public meetings and in newspapers; upon the introduction of the XVI. Amendment in Congress; upon the extension of municipal suffrage to the women of Great Britain, and the passage of a bill to a second reading in Parliament removing all political disabilities on account of sex, and upon the rapid growth of public opinion in favor of woman's equality throughout the civilized world.

[188] Ohio—Mrs. M. V. Longley, Mrs. M. M. Cole, Mrs. J. O. De Forest, Mrs. R. A. S. Janney, Mrs. Mary Graham, Mrs. Harvey Sharpe, Mrs. Mary L. Strong, J. J. Belville, Mrs. H. M. Little, Miss Rebecca Rice, Mrs. Currier Brown, Mrs. Emmett, Mrs. Esther Wattles, Mrs. S. E. Newton, Mrs. E. Calt, Mary A. Currier, Olive C. Atkinson, Rebecca Ream, A. J. Boyer, Mrs. Hannah M. Clarke, Mrs. Agnes Cook; New York—Mrs. Celia Burleigh, Mrs. Rogers; Massachusetts—Margaret W. Campbell, Mrs. Hewitt, Lucy Stone, H. B. Blackwell; Rhode Island—T. W. Higginson; New Hampshire—Armenia S. White, Mrs. S. C. Pipher; New Jersey—Judge Whitehead, John Gage, Rev. Oscar Clute, Miss E. L. Bush; Missouri—Mrs. W. T. Hazard, Fanny Holy; Pennsylvania—John K. Wildman, Gulielma M. Jones, Dr. H. T. Child, Mrs. Ellen M. Child, Sarah Pearce, Miss M. W. Abbott, Mrs. E. S. Chapel, John Finlayson; Indiana—Mrs. Dr. Ellen B. Ferguson, Miss M. F. Burlingame, Miss Amanda M. Way; Michigan—Catharine A. F. Stebbins, Sarah C. Owen; Illinois—Hon. J. B. Bradwell, William D. Babbitt, Mrs. E. O. G. Willard, George M. Campbell; Delaware—S. D. Forbes, Mrs Forbes; Louisiana—Laura L. D. Jacobs; Nevada—Mary C. Hart. Total number of States represented, fourteen.

[189] 1. Resolved, That the ballot in government means power and freedom for all; that adult citizens in this republican country can not be free without it, or be properly clothed with the necessary means for their own protection; that woman needs this power and freedom, and therefore should be enfranchised.

2. Resolved, That the primary object of the American Woman Suffrage Association is to secure the ballot for woman, and its general object includes the establishment of her equality of rights in all directions.

3. Resolved, That the officers of this Association and of each of the auxiliary State Associations be requested to memorialize Congress for a XVI. Amendment to the Federal Constitution, prohibiting political distinction on account of sex. Also, that each State society be requested to memorialize its Legislature for a change in the organic law, so as to secure the extension of suffrage to women.

4. Resolved, That the ballot for woman means stability for the marriage relations, stability for the home, and stability for our republican form of government.

5. Resolved, That we recommend the appointment of a Committee of Conference, of like number with the one appointed by the Union Suffrage Association, with a view to the union of both organizations.

[190] 3. Resolved, That it is the duty of every woman to resent the cowardly indignity which classes educated, virtuous women as the political inferiors of the meanest and most degraded men; and that she should demand the ballot in order to help to make good laws and elect worthy representatives.

5. Resolved, That we recommend a concerted effort on the part of the woman suffragists to obtain from their respective Legislatures an act authorizing women to vote at the next Presidential election under the authority conferred by the first section of the second article of the Constitution of the United States.

6. Resolved, That we cordially approve of the effort to obtain suffrage for women in the District of Columbia, in Michigan, and elsewhere, under the provisions of the XIV. and XV. Amendments.

7. Resolved, That we urge upon Congress the passage of a XVI. Amendment, prohibiting political distinctions on account of sex, and also of a law conferring legal and political equality.

8. Resolved, That the claim of woman to participate in making the laws she is required to obey, and to equality of rights in all directions, has nothing to do with special social theories, and that the recent attempts in this city and elsewhere to associate the woman suffrage cause with the doctrines of free love, and to hold it responsible for the crimes and follies of individuals, is an outrage upon common sense and decency, and a slander upon the virtue and intelligence of the women of America.

[191] 8. Resolved, That the Executive Committee be instructed to address memorials in behalf of woman suffrage to Congress, and to the national conventions of every political party.

[192] Resolved, That suffrage means equality in the home, and therefore means greater constancy and greater permanency in marriage.

Resolved, That the agitation of the peace, temperance, and other reforms of the day is valuable as a means of creating a public sentiment in favor of woman suffrage, not only by convincing the men engaged in them of the necessity of co-operation at the ballot-box, but by educating woman to a sense of her obligation to avail herself of every power to secure their consummation.

Resolved, That the Executive Committee of the American Woman Suffrage Association be requested to appoint a deputation to address the Legislatures of the several States on the subject of woman suffrage, with the co-operation of the State societies.

[193] 3. Whereas women, as a class, have special interests to protect and special wrongs to remedy, and, as individuals, have peculiar feminine characteristics and developments in which they differ from man; therefore,

Resolved, That a government of men alone is neither republican nor representative, but is an aristocracy of sex inconsistent alike with the highest welfare of man, of woman, and of society.

4. And Whereas, The National Republican platform of 1872 affirms that the admission of woman to wider spheres of usefulness is viewed with satisfaction, and the honest demand of woman for additional rights should receive respectful consideration; and

Whereas, The Republicans have a large majority in both houses of Congress; therefore,

Resolved, That we call upon Congress to enact a law establishing impartial suffrage for all citizens irrespective of sex, in the District of Columbia and the Territories; also to declare woman eligible to all offices under Government, with equal pay for equal work: also to submit a XVI. Constitutional Amendment prohibiting political distinctions on account of sex.

5. Resolved, That we demand from the State Legislatures laws establishing equal suffrage for women in choosing electors of President and Vice-President of the United States, also in choosing municipal and State officers, in every case where the qualifications of voters are not restricted by the State Constitutions; also to amend the State Constitutions so as to establish equal rights for all.

6. And Whereas, many women have recently applied for registration as voters, and in some cases, have actually voted, and are now being prosecuted on the charge of having voted illegally; therefore,

Resolved, That we call upon the State and Federal courts to interpret all legal provisions that will admit of such a construction in favor of the equality of women.

8. Resolved, That the Executive Committee be instructed to address memorials to Congress, and State Legislatures, and National Conventions of every political party, in behalf of the legal and political equality of woman.

9. Resolved, That we rejoice at the recognition of the rights of woman in the National Republican platform, and at the explicit indorsement of woman suffrage by the Republican Convention of Massachusetts; we congratulate the Republican party upon having enlisted the heart and intellect and conscience of woman in its support, and we call upon the party, in this hour of victory, to consolidate its supremacy by establishing impartial suffrage for all citizens, irrespective of sex.

[194] President—Thos. Wentworth Higginson, R. I.

Vice-Presidents at Large—Julia Ward Howe, Hon. Henry Wilson, Mary A. Livermore, Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Mass.; Hannah M. Tracy Cutler, Ill.; Geo. Wm. Curtis, N. Y.; Mrs. M. T. Hazard, Missouri; Margaret V. Longley, Ohio.

Chairman of Executive Committee—Lucy Stone, Mass.

Foreign Corresponding Secretary—Kate N. Doggett, Ill.

Corresponding Secretary—Henry B. Blackwell, Mass.

Treasurer—John K. Wildman, Pa.

Recording Secretaries—Mary Grew, Pa.; Amanda Way, Kansas.

Vice Presidents Ex Officio—Mrs. Oliver Dennett, Me.; Armenia S. White, N. H.; Hon. C. W. Willard, Vt.; Jas. Freeman Clarke, Mass.; Elizabeth B. Chace, R. I.; Celia Burleigh, Conn.; Oliver Johnson, N. Y.; John Whitehead, N. J.; Passmore Williamson, Pa.; Mrs. Elizabeth Smith, Del.; Miriam M. Cole, Ohio; Mary F. Thomas, M.D., Ind.; Robert Collyer, Ill.; Augusta J. Chapin, Wis.; Stephen L. Brigham, Mich.; Mrs. A. Knight, Minn.; Mrs. Helen E. Starrett, Kansas; Amelia Bloomer, Iowa; Mrs. Beverly Allen, Mo.; Hon. Guy W. Wines, Tenn.; Seth Rogers, Fla.; Gen. Rufus Saxton, Oregon; Rev. Charles G. Ames, Cal.; Hon. John C. Underwood, Va.; Rufus Leighton, Wash. Ter.; A. K. P. Safford, Arizona; Sarah Jane Lippincott (Grace Greenwood), D. C.; Hon. D. K. Chamberlain, S. C.

Executive Committee Ex Officio—Mrs. T. B. Hussey, Me.; Hon. Nathaniel White, N. H.; Albert Clarke, Vt.; Margaret W. Campbell, Mass.; Mary F. Doyle, R. I.; Phebe A. Hanaford, Conn.; Anna C. Field, N. Y.; Mrs. C. C. Hussey, N. J.; Annie Shoemaker, Pa.; John Cameron, Del.; Mrs. Rebecca A. S. Janney, O.; Martha N. McKaye, Ind.; Myra Bradwell, Ill.; Mrs. Frank Leland, Wis.; Lucinda H. Stone, Mich.; Abby J. Spaulding, Minn.; Hon. Isaac H. Sturgeon, Mo.; John Ritchie, Kan.; Mrs Lizzie B. Read, Iowa; Rev. Charles G. Woodbury, Tenn.; Miss Lottie Rollin, S. C.; Fannie B. Ames, Cal.; Col. Edward Daniels, Va.; Mrs. Matilda G. Saxton, Oregon; Rev. Frederick Hinckley, D. C.; Mrs. C. I. H. Nichols, Cal.; Hon. John A. Campbell, Wyoming.

[195] Mrs. Howe was elected President.

[196] Resolved, That our thanks are due to the twenty-two United States Senators who, at the last session of Congress, voted and paired in favor of woman suffrage in the Territory of Pembina, and we rejoice at the submission of woman suffrage to the people by the Legislatures of Michigan and Iowa, as acts of enlightened statesmanship, which can not fail, whatever may be the immediate result, to hasten the day of woman's enfranchisement.

Resolved, That the recent indorsement of woman suffrage by the Methodist Convention of Michigan, by the Conferences of Iowa, and by various other religious bodies of these and other States, is evidence that the value of woman's work in the churches begins to be recognized, and in view of the fact that three-fourths of American church members are women, we cordially invite the aid of Christians of all denominations in securing woman's enfranchisement.

Resolved, That the recognition of the right of women to vote and hold office, by the Patrons of Husbandry in their Granges, by the Sovereigns of Industry in their Councils, and by the Good Templars in their Lodges, entitles us to regard these societies as practical auxiliaries of the woman suffrage movement.

Resolved, That we protest against the appropriation by Congress or by State Legislatures of one dollar of the public money, which is paid in part by women who are taxed without consent, for the purpose of celebrating the Centennial anniversary of a political independence in which women are not allowed to participate.

[197] President—Bishop Gilbert Haven, D.D.

[198] Among those on the platform were Bishop Gilbert Haven, Mrs. Lucy Stone, Miss Mary F. Eastman, Mrs. S. R. Hewitt, Mrs. Maria F. Walling, Thomas J. Lothrop, and H. B. Blackwell, of Mass.; Mrs. Rebecca Morse, Mrs. Margaret E. Winchester, Mrs. Halleck, Mrs. Frances D. Gage, Rev. Dr. Thompson, of New York; Mrs. Mary F. Davis, Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Mrs. Henrietta W. Johnson, of New Jersey; Mrs. Margaret V. Longley and Miss Jane O. De Forest, of Ohio; Mrs. Emma Malloy, of Indiana; Lelia E. Patridge and C. C. Burleigh, of Pa.; Mrs. Armenia S. White and Hon. Nathaniel White, of New Hampshire; Mrs. Frances E. W. Harper, of Md.; S. D. Forbes, of Delaware; and Charles Bradlaugh, of England.

[199] 1. The American Woman Suffrage Association, in its seventh annual meeting assembled, re-affirm the great self-evident principle of equal rights for women, and demand its practical application in the public and private life of the nation. We declare that women who obey laws should have a voice in their enactment; that women who pay taxes should have a voice in their expenditure. We protest against the subjection and disenfranchisement of woman as injurious to society, destructive of morals, corrupting to politics, and a reproach to civilization. We attribute the alarming increase of insults and personal outrages inflicted upon women to a public sentiment hostile to their individuality and equality of rights. We affirm that a Government of the people, by the people, for the people, must be a Government composed impartially of men and women, and that the co-operation of the sexes is essential alike to a happy home, a refined Society, a Christian Church, and a Republican State.

2. In view of the approaching Presidential election, in which a great party will struggle to retain possession of power, while all the elements of opposition are organizing for its overthrow, we urge our friends in each State to petition their Legislature for the enactment, next winter, of a law enabling women to vote in the Presidential election of 1876.

3. In view of the evident disintegration of parties, we rejoice at the steady growth of the new issue of woman suffrage, at its successful establishment in Wyoming and Utah, in England, Holland, Austria, and Sweden, and at the recent promise of the Republicans of Massachusetts, at their State Convention, that they "will support all measures regarding the promotion of equal rights for all American citizens, irrespective of sex."

And whereas, on the second day of July, 1776 (two days before the Declaration of Independence), the Provincial Congress of New Jersey, assembled at Burlington, extended suffrage to all inhabitants, men and women; therefore,

Resolved, That in commemoration of that notable event we hold a woman suffrage Centennial celebration at Burlington, N. J., on the 2d day of July, 1876, or at such other place as the Executive Committee may select.

Resolved, That heroic deeds done for justice and human rights deserve and should receive commemorative tribute from all those who love justice and respect human rights; that a Centennial celebration on the Fourth of July next, of the one-hundredth Anniversary of the Independence of the United States is in the highest degree proper, and is due to the brave dead who periled all they had to secure the right to govern themselves; nevertheless,

Resolved, That men who use their political and personal power to deprive women of their right to govern themselves, can not with consistency have any share in that Centennial celebration.

[200] President: Mrs. Mary A. Livermore.

[201] These facts are given in the chapter on New Jersey, Vol. I.

[202] Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Texas, Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, Colorado, California, Oregon, District of Columbia.

[203] Whereas, The United States Courts have affirmed that the regulation of suffrage belongs exclusively to the States, and that "women are citizens and, as such, may be made voters by appropriate State legislation;" and,

Whereas, A sixteenth amendment to the Federal constitution abolishing political distinctions on account of sex, although just and necessary, can be more easily obtained when several States have set the example; therefore,

3. Resolved, That we urge every existing State association to renewed effort upon the next and each following State Legislature; and in every State where no such association exists, we urge individual effort and the immediate formation of a State Society.

[204] President—Mrs. Rebecca N. Hazard, of Missouri.

[205] The President chosen for the ensuing year was Henry B. Blackwell.

[206] 1. Resolved, That we urge upon Congress the performance of three important duties in behalf of the women of America—

First, To enact a law giving women citizens of the United States, resident in the Territories, the same political rights as are exercised by the male citizens of the United States resident therein.

Second, To reform the laws affecting the rights of married women in the District of Columbia and the Territories.

Third, To submit to the States a constitutional amendment prohibiting political distinction on account of sex.

2. Resolved, That we advise our auxiliary State societies to petition their respective Legislatures to enact a law this winter conferring suffrage on women in Presidential elections under Section 2, Article 2, of the Federal Constitution.

Whereas, Since the last annual meeting of the Association, three eminent advocates of the claim of women for equal political rights have passed away—Lucretia Mott, Lydia Maria Child, and Nathaniel White—therefore,

3. Resolved, That the American Woman Suffrage Association records its grateful appreciation of their invaluable service and its sense of irreparable loss, now that the eloquent voice is silent, the ready pen dropped, and the generous hand is cold in death. In the wealth of their matured character and great achievement they have left us the permanent inspiration of a noble example.

[207] President, Dr. Mary F. Thomas, of Indiana.

APPENDIX.

CHAPTER XVI.

WOMAN'S PATRIOTISM IN THE WAR.

House of Representatives (46th Congress, 3d Session. Report No. 386).

Anna Ella Carroll.

March 3, 1881.—Committed to the Committee of the Whole House, and ordered to be printed.

Mr. Bragg, from the Committee on Military Affairs, submitted the following Report (to accompany bill H. R. 7,256):

The Committee on Military Affairs, to whom the memorial of Anna Ella Carroll was referred, asking national recognition and reward for services rendered the United States during the war between the States, after careful consideration of the same, submit the following:

In the autumn of 1861 the great question as to whether the Union could be saved, or whether it was hopelessly subverted, depended on the ability of the Government to open the Mississippi and deliver a fatal blow upon the resources of the Confederate power. The original plan was to reduce the formidable fortifications by descending this river, aided by the gun-boat fleet, then in preparation for that object.

President Lincoln had reserved to himself the special direction of this expedition, but before it was prepared to move he became convinced that the obstacles to be encountered were too grave and serious for the success which the exigencies of the crisis demanded, and the plan was then abandoned, and the armies diverted up the Tennessee River, and thence southward to the center of the Confederate power.

The evidence before this Committee completely establishes that Miss Anna Ella Carroll was the author of this change of plan, which involved a transfer of the National forces to their new base in North Mississippi and Alabama, in command of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad; that she devoted time and money in the autumn of 1861 to the investigation of its feasibility is established by the sworn testimony of L. D. Evans, Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas, to the Military Committee of the United States Senate in the 42d Congress (see pp. 40, 41 of memorial); that after that investigation she submitted her plan in writing to the War Department at Washington, placing it in the hands of Thomas A. Scott, Assistant Secretary of War, as is confirmed by his statement (see p. 38 of memorial), also confirmed by the statement of Hon. B. F. Wade, Chairman of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, made to the same Committee (see p. 38), and of President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton (see p. 39 of memorial); also by Hon. O. H. Browning, of Illinois, Senator during the war, in confidential relations with President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton (see p. 39, memorial); also that of Hon. Elisha Whittlesey, Comptroller of the Treasury (see p. 41, memorial); also by Hon. Thomas H. Hicks, Governor of Maryland, and by Hon. Frederick Feckey's affidavit, Comptroller of the Public Works of Maryland (see p. 127 of memorial); by Hon. Reverdy Johnson (see pp. 26 and 41, memorial); Hon. George Vickers, United States Senator from Maryland (see p. 41, memorial); again by Hon. B. F. Wade (see p. 41, memorial); Hon. J. T. Headley (see p. 43, memorial); Rev. Dr. R. J. Breckinridge on services (see p. 47, memorial); Prof. Joseph[Pg 864] Henry, Rev. Dr. Hodge, of Theological Seminary at Princeton (see p. 30, memorial); remarkable interviews and correspondence of Judge B. F. Wade (see pp. 23-26 of memorial).

That this campaign prevented the recognition of Southern independence by its fatal effects on the Confederate States is shown by letters from Hon. C. M. Clay (see pp. 40-43 of memorial), and by his letters from St. Petersburgh; also those of Mr. Adams and Mr. Dayton from London and Paris (see pp. 100-102 of memorial).

That the campaign defeated National bankruptcy, then imminent, and opened the way for the system of finance to defend the Federal cause, is shown by the debates of the period in both Houses of Congress (see utterances of Mr. Spalding, Mr. Diven, Mr. Thaddeus Stevens, Mr. Roscoe Conkling, Mr. John Sherman, Mr. Henry Wilson, Mr. Fessenden, Mr. Trumbull, Mr. Foster, Mr. Garrett Davis, Mr. John J. Crittendon, etc., found for convenient reference in appendix to memorial, pp. 47-59. Also therein the opinion of the English press as to why the Union could not be restored).

The condition of the struggle can best be realized as depicted by the leading statesmen in Congress previous to the execution of these military movements (see synopsis of debates from Congressional Globe, pp. 21, 22 of memorial).

The effect of this campaign upon the country and the anxiety to find out and reward the author are evidenced by the resolution of Mr. Roscoe Conkling, in the House of Representatives 24th of February, 1862 (see debates on the origin of the campaign, pp. 39-63 of memorial). But it was deemed prudent to make no public claim as to authorship while the war lasted (see Colonel Scott's view, p. 32 of memorial).

The wisdom of the plan was proven, not only by the absolute advantages which resulted, giving the mastery of the conflict to the National arms and evermore assuring their success even against the powers of all Europe should they have combined, but it was likewise proven by the failures to open the Mississippi or win any decided success on the plan first devised by the Government.

It is further conclusively shown that no plan, order, letter, telegram, or suggestion of the Tennessee River as the line of invasion has ever been produced, except in the paper submitted by Miss Carroll on the 30th of November, 1861, and her subsequent letters to the Government as the campaign progressed.

It is further shown to this Committee that the able and patriotic publications of memorialist, in pamphlets and newspapers, with her high social influence, not only largely contributed to the cause of the Union in her own State, Maryland (see Governor Hicks' letters, p. 27, memorial), but exerted a wide and salutary influence on all the Border States (see Howard's report, p. 33 and p. 75 of memorial).

These publications were used by the Government as war measures, and the debate in Congress shows that she was the first writer on the war powers of the Government (see p. 45 of memorial). Leading statesmen and jurists bore testimony to their value, including President Lincoln, Secretaries Chase, Stanton, Seward, Welles, Smith, Attorney-General Bates, Senators Browning, Doolittle, Collamer, Cowan, Reverdy Johnson, and Hicks, Hon. Horace Binney, Hon. Benjamin H. Brewster, Hon. William M. Meredith, Hon. Robert J. Walker, Hon. Charles O'Conor, Hon. Edwards Pierrepont, Hon. Edward Everett, Hon. Thomas Corwin, Hon. Francis Thomas, of Maryland, and many others found in memorial.

The Military Committee, through Senator Howard, in the Forty-first Congress, third session, document No. 337, unanimously reported that Miss Carroll did cause the change of the military expedition from the Mississippi to the Tennessee River, etc.; and the aforesaid Committee, in the Forty-second Congress, second session, document No. 167, as found in memorial, reported, through the Hon. Henry Wilson, the evidence and bill in support of this claim.

Again, in the Forty-fourth Congress, the Military Committee of the House favorably considered this claim, and General A. S. Williams was prepared to report, and being prevented by want of time, placed on record that this claim is incontestably established, and that the country owes to Miss Carroll a large and honest compensation, both in money and honors, for her services in the National crisis.

In view of all the facts, this Committee believe that the thanks of the nation are due Miss Carroll, and that they are fully justified in recommending that she be placed on the[Pg 865] pension rolls of the Government, as a partial measure of recognition for her public service, and report herewith a bill for such purpose and recommend its passage.

Hon. E. M. Stanton came into the War Department, in 1862, pledged to execute the Tennessee campaign.

Statement from Hon. B. F. Wade, Chairman of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, April 4, 1876.

Dear Miss Carroll:—I had no part in getting up the committee; the first intimation to me was that I had been made the head of it. But I never shirked a public duty, and at once went to work to do all that was possible to save the country. We went fully into the examination of the several plans for military operations then known to the Government, and we saw plainly enough that the time it must take to execute any of them would make it fatal to the Union.

We were in the deepest despair, until just at this time Colonel Scott informed me that there was a plan already devised that if executed with secrecy would open the Tennessee and save the National cause. I went immediately to Mr. Lincoln and talked the whole matter over. He said he did not himself doubt that the plan was feasible, but said there was one difficulty in the way, that no military or naval man had any idea of such a movement, it being the work of a civilian, and none of them would believe it safe to make such an advance upon only a navigable river with no protection but a gun-boat fleet, and they would not want to take the risk. He said it was devised by Miss Carroll, and military men were extremely jealous of all outside interference. I plead earnestly with him, for I found there were influences in his Cabinet then averse to his taking the responsibility, and wanted everything done in deference to the views of McClellan and Halleck. I said to Mr. Lincoln, "You know we are now in the last extremity, and you have to choose between adopting and at once executing a plan that you believe to be the right one, and save the country, or defer to the opinions of military men in command, and lose the country." He finally decided he would take the initiative, but there was Mr. Bates, who had suggested the gun-boat fleet, and wanted to advance down the Mississippi, as originally designed, but after a little he came to see no result could be achieved on that mode of attack, and he united with us in favor of the change of expedition as you recommended.

After repeated talks with Mr. Stanton, I was entirely convinced that if placed at the head of the War Department he would have your plan executed vigorously, as he fully believed it was the only means of safety, as I did.

Mr. Lincoln, on my suggesting Stanton, asked me how the leading Republicans would take it—that Stanton was so fresh from the Buchanan Cabinet, and so many things said of him. I insisted he was our man withal, and brought him and Lincoln into communication, and Lincoln was entirely satisfied; but so soon as it got out, the doubters came to the front, Senators and Members called on me, I sent them to Stanton and told them to decide for themselves. The gun-boats were then nearly ready for the Mississippi expedition, and Mr. Lincoln agreed, as soon as they were, to start the Tennessee movement. It was determined that as soon as Mr. Stanton came in the Department, that Col. Scott should go out to the western armies and make ready for the campaign in pursuance of your plan, as he has testified before committees.

It was a great work to get the matter started; you have no idea of it. We almost fought for it. If ever there was a righteous claim on earth, you have one. I have often been sorry that, knowing all this, as I did then, I had not publicly declared you as the author. But we were fully alive to the importance of absolute secrecy. I trusted but few of our people; but to pacify the country, I announced from the Senate that the armies were about to move, and inaction was no longer to be tolerated, and Mr. Fessenden, head of the Finance Committee, who had been told of the proposed advance, also stated in the Senate that what would be achieved in a few more days would satisfy the country and astound the world.

As the expedition advanced, Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Stanton, and myself, frequently alluded to your extraordinary sagacity and unselfish patriotism, but all agreed that you should be recognized for your most noble service, and properly rewarded for the same. The last time I saw Mr. Stanton he was on his death-bed; he was then most earnest in his desire to[Pg 866] have you come before Congress, as I told you soon after, and said if he lived he would see that justice was awarded you. This I have told you often since, and I believe the truth in this matter will finally prevail.

B. F. Wade.

From Hon. Elisha Whittlesey.

Found among his private papers, and transmitted to Miss Carroll in 1874.

Treasury Department, Comptroller's Office, }
February 20, 1862. }

This will accompany copies of two letters written by Miss Anna Ella Carroll to the War Department.

Having informed me of the contents of the letters, I requested her to permit me to copy her duplicates. When she brought them to me she enjoined prudence in their use. They are very extraordinary papers as verified by the result. So far as I know or believe, our unparalleled victories on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers may be traced to her sagacious observations and intelligence. Her views were as broad and sagacious as the field to be occupied. In selecting the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers instead of the Mississippi, she set at naught the opinions of civilians, of military and naval men.

Justice should be done her patriotic discernment. She labors for her country and her whole country.

Elisha Whittlesey.

Letters To Miss Carroll From Hon. Benjamin F. Wade.

Hon. Benjamin F. Wade, who during the war was Chairman of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, and during the last period of his services, after the assassination of President Lincoln had elevated Andrew Johnson to the Presidency, was acting Vice-President and President of the Senate, was a friend of Miss Carroll. He addressed the following letter to her in 1869, just before the close of his last Congressional session:

Washington, March 1, 1869.

Miss Carroll:—I can not take leave of my public life without expressing my deep sense of your services to the country during the whole period of our National troubles. Although a citizen of a State almost unanimously disloyal and deeply sympathizing with secession, especially the wealthy and aristocratic class of her people, to which you belonged, yet, in the midst of such surroundings, you emancipated your own slaves at a great sacrifice of personal interest, and with your powerful pen defended the cause of the Union and loyalty as ably and effectively as it has ever yet been defended.

From my position on the Committee on the Conduct of the War, I know that some of the most successful expeditions of the war were suggested by you, among which I might instance the expedition up the Tennessee River.

The powerful support you gave Governor Hicks during the darkest hour of your State's history, prompted him to take and maintain the stand he did, and thereby saved your State from secession and consequent ruin.

All those things, as well as your unremitted labors in the cause of reconstruction, I doubt not, are well known and remembered by the members of Congress at that period.

I also well know in what high estimation your services were held by President Lincoln: and I can not leave the subject without sincerely hoping that the Government may yet confer on you some token of acknowledgment for all these services and sacrifices.

B. F. Wade.

Very sincerely, your friend,

On the 28th of February, 1873, three years after his leaving public life, Judge Wade addressed the following letter:

To the Chairman of the Military Committee of the United States Senate:

Dear Sir:—I have been requested to make a brief statement of what I can recollect concerning the claim of Miss Carroll, now before Congress. From my position as Chairman of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, it came to my knowledge that the expedition that was preparing, under the special direction of President Lincoln, to descend the Mississippi River, was abandoned, and the Tennessee expedition was adopted by the Government in pursuance of information and a plan presented to the Secretary of War, I think the latter part of November, 1861, by Miss Carroll. A copy of this plan was put[Pg 867] into my hands immediately after the fall of Forts Henry and Donelson. With the knowledge of its author I interrogated witnesses before the Committee to ascertain how far military men were cognizant of the fact. Subsequently President Lincoln informed me that the merit of this plan was due to Miss Carroll; that the transfer of the armies from Cairo and the northern part of Kentucky to the Memphis and Charleston Railroad was her conception, and was afterwards carried out generally, and very much in detail, according to her suggestions. Secretary Stanton also conversed with me on the matter, and fully recognized Miss Carroll's service to the Union in the organization of this campaign. Indeed, both Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Stanton, the latter only a few weeks before his death, expressed to me their high appreciation of this service, and all the other services she was enabled to render the country by her influence and ability as a writer, and they both expressed the wish that the Government would reward her liberally for the same, in which wish I most fully concur.

B. F. Wade.

We give extracts from letters written Miss Carroll by Judge Wade, after his retirement from public life:

Jefferson, Ohio, Sept. 9, 1874.

This Congress may be mean enough to refuse to remunerate you for your services, but thank heaven they can not deprive you of the honor and consciousness of having done greater and more efficient services for the country in the time of her greatest peril than any other person in the Republic, and a knowledge of this can not long be suppressed, though I do not underrate the mighty powers that may be arrayed against you.

B. F. Wade.

Jefferson, Ohio, Aug. 14, 1876.

I rejoice that you are to have the testimony in your case published by Congress, as I can not but believe that Congress, when they have the facts properly before them, will be shamed into doing you justice, though late.

I fully appreciate and deeply regret the injustice done you as though the case were my own. The country almost in her last extremity was saved by your sagacity and unremitted labor; indeed your services were so great that it is hard to make the world believe it. Many have been most generously rewarded for services having no more proportion to yours than a mole hill to a mountain—and that all this great work should be brought about by a woman is inconceivable to vulgar minds, but I hope and believe that justice will triumph at last.

B. F. Wade.

Jefferson, Ohio, Oct. 3, 1876.

The truth is, your services were so great that they can not be comprehended by the ordinary capacity of our public men, and then again your services were of such a character that they threw a shadow over the reputation of some of our would-be great men. No doubt great pains has been taken in the business of trying to defeat you; but it has been an article of faith with me that truth and justice must ultimately triumph.

B. F. Wade.

Ever yours truly,

From Reverdy Johnson.

Westminster Palace Hotel }
London, Nov. 29, 1875. }

My Dear Miss Carroll:—I remember very well that you were the first to advise the campaign on the Tennessee River in November, 1861. This I have never heard doubted, and the great events which followed it demonstrate the value of your suggestions. That this will be recognized by the Government sooner or later I can not doubt....

Reverdy Johnson.

Sincerely your friend,

From Orestes H. Brownson.

Quincy, Ill., Sept. 17, 1873.

Miss A. E. Carroll:—During the progress of the war of the rebellion, from 1861 to 1865, I had frequent conversations with President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton in regard to the able and efficient part you had taken in behalf of the country, in all of which they expressed their admiration and gratitude for the patriotic and valuable services you had[Pg 868] rendered the cause of the Union. In the hope that you would be adequately recompensed by Congress....

O. H. Brownson.

I am your obedient servant,

Letter of Hon. Thomas A. Scott to Hon. Jacob M. Howard, Chairman of the Senate Military Committee upon Miss Carroll's claim for a pension after the close of the war:

Hon. Jacob M. Howard, United States Senate:—On or about the 30th of November, 1861, Miss Carroll, as stated in her memorial, called on me as Assistant Secretary of War, and suggested the propriety of abandoning the expedition which was then preparing to descend the Mississippi River, and to adopt instead the Tennessee River, and handed me the plan of the campaign as appended to her memorial, which plan I submitted to the Secretary of War, and its general ideas were adopted. On my return from the South-west in 1862, I informed Miss Carroll, as she states in her memorial, that through the adoption of this plan, the country had been saved millions, and that it entitled her to the kind consideration of Congress.

Thos. A. Scott.

Letter of Hon. Thomas A. Scott to Hon. Henry Wilson, Chairman of the Military Committee, United States Senate:

Philadelphia, May 1, 1872.

My Dear Sir:—I take pleasure in stating that the plan presented by Miss Carroll, in November, 1861, for a campaign up the Tennessee River and thence southerly, was submitted to the Secretary of War and President. And, after Secretary Stanton's appointment, I was directed to go to the western armies and arrange to increase their effective force as rapidly as possible. A part of the duty assigned to me was the organization and consolidation into regiments of all the troops then being recruited in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan, for the purpose of carrying through this campaign, then inaugurated.

This work was vigorously prosecuted by the army, and as the valuable suggestions of Miss Carroll, made to the Department some months before, were substantially carried out through the campaigns in that section, great successes followed, and the country was largely benefited in the saving of time and expenditure.

I hope Congress will reward Miss Carroll liberally for her patriotic efforts and services.

Thomas A. Scott.

Very truly yours,

Hon. Henry Wilson, Chairman of the Military Committee, United States Senate.

Letter from Hon. Thomas A. Scott to Mrs. Gage.

No. 233 South Fourth St., }
Philadelphia, Mar. 29, 1880. }

Dear Madam:—I have your letter of March 25th in regard to Miss Carroll's matter, and beg to say in reply that I do not know whether the old papers are on file in the War Department or not; I presume the only way to ascertain would be to apply to the Department direct. I have done all that I feel I can do in this matter, having given my evidence before the Committee in the most concise and direct form possible. I hope that Congress will do something for Miss Carroll, but with their present economical habits, I doubt very much whether they will.

Hoping that the Committee in charge of the matter may have success,

Thomas A. Scott.

I am, very truly yours,

Editorial from the National Citizen (Syracuse, N. Y.), September, 1881:

The Contrast.—"Look on this picture and on that." While President James A. Garfield lay dying, another American citizen, one to whom the country owes far more than it did to him, was stricken with an incurable disease. But in this case no telegram heralded the fact; no messages were cabled abroad; few newspapers made comment, and yet had it not been for the wisdom of this person whom the country forgets, we should have possessed no country to-day.

Anna Ella Carroll lies at her home near Baltimore, stricken with paralysis—perhaps already beyond the river. As the readers of the National Citizen well know, when the nation was in its hour of extreme peril, with a nearly depleted treasury, with England and France waiting with large fleets for a few more evil days in order to raise the blockade, with President, Congress, and people nearly helpless and despairing, there arose[Pg 869] this woman, who with strategic science far in advance of any military or naval officer on land or sea, pointed out the way to victory, sending her plans and maps to the War Department, which adopted them. Thus the tide of battle was turned, victory perched on the Union banner, and in accordance with the President's proclamation, the country united in a day of public thanksgiving.

But that woman never received recognition from the country for her services. The Military Committee of various Congresses has reported in her favor, but no bill securing her even a pension has ever been passed, and now she is dying or dead.

In another column will be found the report of the Military Committee of the Forty-sixth Congress, in her favor, March, 1881, which as a matter of important history we give in full, hoping no reader will pass it by. Under the circumstances we shall be pardoned for giving an extract from a letter of Miss Carroll to the editor of the National Citizen, accompanied by a copy of this report.

Miss Carroll says: "I am sure you retain your kind interest in the matter, and will be gratified by the last action of Congress, which is a complete recognition of my public service, on the part of military men; both Confederate and Union brigadiers belonging to the Military Committee."

While this bill was in no sense commensurable with the services rendered by Miss Carroll to the country, yet as the main point was conceded, it was believed it would secure one more consonant with justice at the next session of Congress.

The nation is mourning Garfield with the adulation generally given monarchs; General Grant is decorating his New York "palace" with countless costly gifts from home and abroad; yet a greater than both has fallen, and because she was a woman, she has gone to her great reward on high, unrecognized and unrewarded by the country she saved. Had it not been for her work, the names of James A. Garfield and of Ulysses S. Grant would never have emerged from obscurity. Women, remember that to one of your own sex the salvation of the country is due, and never forget to hold deep in your hearts, and to train your children to hold with reverence the name of Anna Ella Carroll.

WOMEN AS SOLDIERS.

A Female Soldier.

There is a female here appealing for five months' back pay due her as a soldier in the army. Her name is Mary E. Wise. She is an orphan, without a blood relative in the world, and was a resident of Jefferson Township, Huntington County, Indiana, where she enlisted in the 34th Indiana Volunteers under the name of William Wise. She served two years and eighteen days as a private, participating in six of the heaviest engagements in the West, was wounded at Chicamauga and Lookout Mountain, at the latter place severely in the side. Upon the discovery of her sex, through her last wound, she was sent to her home in Indiana. When she arrived there, her step-mother refused her shelter, or to assist her in any way. Having five months' pay due from the Government, she started for Washington, in the hope of collecting it, arriving in this city on the 4th instant. Here her troubles have only increased. She can not get her pay. Her colonel probably, under the circumstances, not deeming it necessary, failed to give her a proper or formal discharge, with the necessary papers. In her difficulties she has, repeatedly, endeavored to refer her case to the President, but, not having influential friends to back her, she has been disappointed in all her efforts to see him, and the Department can pay her only upon proper or formal discharge papers, etc. So she is here, without friends or means, wholly dependent upon the bounty of the Sanitary Commission.

NATIONAL FREEDMAN'S AID ASSOCIATION.

Josephine S. Griffing.

Washington, April 15, 1870.

Lucretia Mott—My Dear Friend:—Feeling that the exact condition of the worn-out slaves now in this District could be better understood by a little explanation that I can make, and knowing that you desire the truth in this matter of life-long interest to[Pg 870] you, I desire to refer to the following facts, which I trust you will present to the meeting of Friends (Quakers) in Philadelphia who sympathize with you.

In the year 1864, when urging upon Senator Sumner and our friends in Congress, the necessity of a bureau that could afford special aid to the emancipated slaves, the great fact that the old people were suddenly turned out of the possibility of a subsistence, was recognized by all. Mr. Sumner, in his first speech putting the bill in passage, urged this as sufficient ground alone, if no other existed, which was not the case. From the time of the organization of the Bureau till now, their special claim has been recognized by Congress, and notwithstanding they received, in common with all the freed people of this District, an allowance made to each in rations, blankets, clothes, fuel, Government buildings, medical treatment, and monthly visitation; they also have each year received from Congress special aid in an appropriation because of their age and infirmity, many of them being helpless as infants, and all too far spent in slavery to labor for a support.

In providing for the able-bodied freed people, only partial support was intended by the Bureau, to bridge over the transition from slavery to freedom. Then education and the ballot, added to their own industrial resources, came in, and furnished them a basis for self-support and citizenship. The Bureau was no longer a necessary department in the Government for this class, and was abolished, without a substitute for the aged and worn-out slaves, though they were now older and more infirm, and had lost in this change houses, food, fuel, clothing, medical treatment, and, excepting myself, visiting agents.

Since the discontinuance of the Bureau, I have acted, as before its creation, as "best friend" and as agent of the National Freedman's Relief Association of this District, in the care of the old, crippled, blind, and broken-down, of whom I have at this time in number eleven hundred, not one of whom is able to earn for himself the necessaries of life. At this moment, at least one hundred and fifty broken-down slaves are at this office, covering all the porches, sitting on all the stairs, forming an almost impassable barrier to the entrances—all with a story of want in their faces; in fact of want, from "the crown of the head to the sole of the half-naked feet," and all eager to say, "We has nobody to go 'pon." An old woman ninety-one, sat on the steps just after the sun rose this morning, so tired, she looked a pitying sight for angels. "Can you let me stay anywhere?" she said. "I'se had no home dis winter; dey let me stay in de wash-room last night, but der wasn't any blanket, and 'pears I got chilled through." Upon investigation I found it was true she had no friend or relative, and had been going on the outskirts of the city begging among the colored people (poor as herself, except in shelter) a lodging, and often doing with almost nothing to eat for two or three days at a time. Perfectly disabled for life by weakness (so common among the old women of slavery) and the infirmities of ninety years of hard life. Through the noble efforts of Rachel W. M. Townsend in behalf of these poor human beings, I was able to give her a bedtick and twenty-five cents for straw to fill it, a comforter, and a place to stay in the house with two others of the same class, for whom we have all winter paid rental. What less than this would the loving Saviour of men have done for one like her? What less would you, who have battled half a century for her freedom, have done in a case like that? She has now a bed and comforter, no pillow, nor bedstead, and not one garment to change with the ragged and filthy ones that have served for day and night apparel, for bed and outdoor wrappings, the last three months. She has no resource for bread, in herself, and none but God to whom she can say, "Give" me "this day" my "daily bread". This woman represents at least two hundred persons in every way as destitute, who look to me for help. Another class of two hundred are in a similar state of destitution, with this exception, they are sheltered by a fellow-servant or distant relative, and sometimes furnished a bed, but nothing more, and none of these can labor.

Two hundred more are equally destitute and as helpless, many of them as young children, needing the personal care that patients in our hospitals do, not excepting medical treatment and bathing. Add to these five hundred, who under the most favorable circumstances may, though do not generally, furnish their bread three months in the summer, by picking up bones and rags in the alleys and gutters, I believe I may safely say that out of the eleven hundred there are not one hundred who can do this, and pay house-rent[Pg 871] beside. And it must be remembered that none of these old people own a foot of ground in the city, or have a home they can call their own. A few of these only live with children, some of whom are also very old. Fanny Miner, one hundred and thirteen, lives with a daughter seventy-two. William Dennis, ninety-nine, lives with a daughter seventy-four. Anna Sauxter, one hundred and one, with a consumptive son of sixty, and has slept on an old table through the winter watching, as she says, two days and a night at one time, with no food at all. She was one of the slaves of Washington. Anna Ferguson, another of his slaves, emancipated when young, lives in a wretched garret, and has no one to give her a cup of water. She sent a child to me to-day, who said she went in to borrow some fire of "old auntie," and found her very sick, groaning with dreadful pain, with the message that she was perishing for something to eat; could I send her an Irish potato? She added in her message, "Tell her to come and see me, I'll not be here long."

I have just now returned from a visit on "the Island," where I have seen twenty-seven of these helpless persons, a few cases of which (could you see them) would leave no doubt in your mind in reference to the necessity of a change from the present state of things. I saw enough in this visit to fill a book, and could tongue or pen describe it—to convince the mind of a savage—of terrible inhumanity and lack of all charity. The morning was sunny and clear, and old Aunt Clara and Uncle John sat on broken chairs, under the rude perch of a miserable shanty. He, tall and athletic, his long white beard and snow-white head, impressive as the type of venerable age, was putting Aunt Clara's foot into a soft shoe as carefully as though it was the last time it could be dressed. She 74, neat and velvet-faced, was stone blind, and so paralyzed that the slightest touch on the arm or hand made her spring and cry like a child. The shock put out both her eyes, and made her as helpless as an infant in all particulars.

For one year she has been unable to feed herself, undress, or to do anything to relieve the monotony of utter helplessness. He had brought her out in the sun, there was no window in their room, and had spread a cloth on her lap, as she said, hoping somebody would come along who would comb her hair. Uncle John was 14, he says, when Washington died. Not a child or a friend to go to them, there they stay. They said they had nothing to eat last night, and were often two days without a pint of meal, and nothing like food in the house, for the old man said, "When mamma has her 'poor turns', I never leaves her, and nobody ever feeds her but me, or dresses or undresses her." I shall not forget how the tears dropped from her face, as she told the story of her life. "A woman once, but nobody now, comfort all gone, and hungry and cold the rest of my days." Her mind was unimpaired, and her faith unwavering.

Henry and Milly Lang were two squares away; persons between sixty and seventy, living in a shanty used in time of the war as a stable. For five years they have lived there, paying, in all but the last two months, four dollars a month rent. Milly is also stone blind, and sick and helpless. They were in great distress, had no food in the house, for Henry has hip disease, and for eleven weeks has not walked a step. On every side I could look through the open boards, and when the last storms came, they said the rain came down on the whole floor, covering it, so they sat on the pallet all day. The landlord has ordered them to leave the house in five days, to put in a cow instead! Friendless, homeless, penniless!!! and yet must eat or die. Three of those I saw were over one hundred—one had five children, when Washington died, lived in his county. Sixteen were over seventy. Not one of them had a child in this city. Five were over 80; and all of these whom I saw were as dependent as infants.

Johnny Scraper sat in rags, paralyzed from the top of his head to the soles of his feet, alone in a six-by-ten-foot room, unable to walk a step, yet is left entirely alone, sometimes for three days. If he has anything brought in to eat, he thanks God; if not, he must do without it. Tuesday and Saturday night he says a fellow-servant, living in a distant part of the city, came to see him, and sometimes brought a piece of fish or meat; this is all the chance he has for anything, except a little meal or dry bread. Every one of these old people complained that they were dying for some meat—were so weak. Aunt Dinah said that she went out on the street last week and begged of the school children, who gave her seven cents, and she went into a grocery to buy a piece of meat, and received[Pg 872] there five cents more. "Oh!" said she, "how that strengthened me, it lasted me three days."

I might go on and fill the sheet with incidents of these extremely aged pilgrims and strangers in this city, for whom nobody cares. But I should fail to convey to you any just idea of what they suffer, because you can see there is no parallel to their status. In no city on the globe can you find a people to whom the words of Wood (I think it is) so well apply—"paupers whom nobody owns." You must see them as they are to believe.

The Government says, "They need provisions, let the city be taxed." The city says, "We care for the multitude of legitimate paupers of the Government—pensioners, who die waiting for their claims, but these are special wards, brought to the capital by special legislation, not any of them voluntary residents. We are unable to provide for this surplus of poor." Turning to the people of the country, they say, "We have given them their freedom, let them take care of themselves!" To the Abolitionists, and they rebuke us for listening to their cry, and say, "It is no more than must be expected; let them alone and they will die off." Even the loudest professors have said to me, "As long as you will take care of these poor old creatures, so long you may; there are plenty of others to come." So turn which way we may, we are met with coldness and distrust.

I come now to you, and ask what is our duty to these worn-out slaves, whose labor we have enjoyed in the general prosperity, and whose destiny on earth we have fixed by legislation, over which they could have no control? In old age we have taken from their homes these people, and calling them "free," we have said to them, "Be ye warmed and clothed," and then gone on our way. Had I, like most others, have been so fortunate as not to have met these old people, on the day of arrival here as they came out from slavery, nor have listened to the thousand witnesses, that have each day testified to utter inability to live without charity, as a practical relief, I might as easily as they, perhaps, satisfy my conscience by the above reasoning; but one thing is sure, whoever stands in my place will find no half-way measure will answer. They can not look these people in the face, as they come, averaging under the present arrangements of the Secretary of War two hundred a day, to ask for bread and wood, and clothes and shoes and shelter, and bed and blanket and medicine, not one of whom can be satisfied without food.

One of the most distressing days we have seen was last Tuesday, when two hundred and fifty all broken down, stood and sat, three long hours, waiting and hoping that the Commissary would send bread or rations, but none came, and we could get only twenty-five loaves for them. Many came from the suburbs of the town, some from over the river, not less than five miles away, and had left an aged companion and orphan grandchildren on the alert for their return, with something for a dinner or a meal. But nothing came; and yet, as they left with sorrow in their faces, that almost breaks my heart to think of, in their meek way one after another said, "You'se done all you could, Honey, we'll do the best we can, and come again to-morrow."

You see, these people must eat. Bread must be furnished every day, rain or shine, hot or cold. I ask what is our duty? Will God perform a miracle to feed this multitude? I can not ask you, "Is it safe to leave them in the hands of the Government or the city?" I have for six years plead, as for the life of them, with both. None but God knows how earnestly I have laid their claims before officials in the highest departments. By the greatest efforts, and with the sympathy of a small number of friends, who in Congress see with us, and have from the beginning, that the repudiation of this claim must call down upon the Nation the just judgments of heaven, we have secured the special appropriations up to this time.

The history of the past warns us that unless the people, their constituents at home, recognize this duty, and work with us more earnestly by organized effort, and generous heartfelt contributions, the Government will ignore their claim altogether. Indeed I trembled at the prospect of this immediate result. Excepting the few noble men and women whose sympathy and aid I would have, and ever pronounce unparalleled in the history of benevolent work—but for these, Congress might well say, "The people do not demand it. They do nothing, why should we?" If you say, "Provision must be made[Pg 873] for them, they must not be left to starve and die, like Andersonville prisoners," then let us agree upon the best measures to relieve them, and put an end to the system of slow starvation under which so many have this winter suffered and died.

We need and must have a hospital-home building to gather in the scattered, helpless ones, who now live alone, and in distant localities. With such an institution we could with far greater economy than ever before, provide for them all. But I have trespassed too long upon your patience. I thank you and all the friends in Philadelphia for timely aid during the past winter, and trust you will lay this before your yearly meeting soon to convene, as an appeal for help in the future. Hoping to hear what you think is our duty in this emergency,

Josephine S. Griffing.

Faithfully and lovingly,

Roadside, near Philada. 5mo. 1st. '70.

My Dear Josephine:—Thy several sheets were duly received and read with heartfelt and thrilling attention. It may seem neglectful that no acknowledgment has been made before.

I have waited hoping to have more than a mere acknowledgment. I took the letter to our meeting, and added somewhat to the appeal made the week before, by our earnest, truly sympathetic R. W. M. Townsend.

Just at this time the approach of our yearly meeting, the claims of the Indians under the care of our Friends, the freedmen's schools at the South, also under our care—for whom thousands have been raised—and the Swarthmore College, just reporting its great need to pay off a debt, etc. All these pressing their claims, of course make it more difficult to collect beyond our city poor, who are ever appealing to us—many of whom also suffering from the effects of cruel slavery. Still thy account was too harrowing to be cast aside, and a few men took hold of it and called a meeting. So I will enclose the small sum of $20, which thou doubtless will find use for.

I was sorry not to have time to speak to thee before leaving that Fifth Avenue Woman Suffrage Meeting. My daughter, fearing we should miss the cars to take us twelve miles to her children at Orange, rather hurried me away.

I can not be in New York again now. Our yearly meeting occurs in Anniversary Week. My son, Edward M. Davis, took thy letter to have a copy taken before returning it to thee. He thought he might make some use of it for the benefit of those poor, aged sufferers.

Lucretia Mott.

Thine in haste and affectionately,

Letters to Mrs. Stebbins.

Emily Robinson, of Salem, Ohio, writes me that Mrs. Griffing "was for several years the honored, loved, and trusted agent of the Western Anti-Slavery Society. The fact is indelibly graven on my heart that she was one of the most faithful and indefatigable laborers in the Anti-Slavery cause; she brought a great mother-heart to the work. Under fearful discouragement, she was ever strong and persevering. I do hope that you knew her, even better than I did, and that the history will be a success. Be sure of my heartiest and kindliest sympathy. It is a beautiful work—the effort to preserve and embalm the memories of the sweet-souled moral heroes in special reforms, those in which we have been pioneers, though scores go out of life without, in the book of God's remembrance they are gathered, and their work will bear harvest forever and ever."

Mrs. Griffing's daughter says in a letter: "Mother lived till Feb. 18, 1872, and no one can ever know how faithfully she worked for every one but herself. Her very last words were, as she dropped her tired arms by her side, 'I have done the best I could,' and we knew she had."

Death of Mrs. Josephine S. Griffing.—Yesterday morning, at two o'clock, Mrs. Josephine S. Griffing departed to a higher life. A woman of rare beauty of character, of uncommon executive capacity and judgment, and ever inspired by a beautiful and self-sacrificing charity, she had warm friends among the best men and women, eminent in character, influence, and position, and a host of devoted friends also among the poor and aged freed people, to whom for years she has been a daily angel of mercy. Accomplished and cultivated, she has devoted herself to the wants of the poorest of the poor, visiting their homes and ministering to their wants with her own hands. She has disbursed many[Pg 874] thousands of dollars and a large amount of food and clothing furnished by the Government and by private benevolence, and done all wisely and well and for long periods of time without material fee or reward.

Rarely, indeed, do we find such tender charity, such ability for continuous labor, and such spiritual beauty of life as hers, and her departure is no doubt the result of her too severe and self-sacrificing career of good works.

From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. to-day the remains may be seen by her many friends at her late home, on Capitol Hill, and to-night her daughters go with all that is mortal of a most tender and loving mother to the family burial-place in her native town of Hebron, Conn.—Washington Chronicle.

Mrs. Griffing to Catharine F. Stebbins.

Washington, June 27, 1870.

My Dear Mrs. Stebbins:—Yours so kind and interesting came duly, and I thank you. I am sure you have seen how some genius, greater, more powerful than myself control me and forbids me to seek enjoyment in human friendships. If you comprehend my life, you will pardon long silence of the lips, and join me in the prayer, that the poor all taken into "Abraham's bosom," I may enjoy those I love, in heaven. I am pained when I think that not only you, but my dear father in his affliction, has been neglected, for it is now four long weeks since I have written a word of love and consolation to him. But the days are so full of work, and the nights of thinking, that all my vitality seems to be in requisition, and I sometimes think there is no reserve force left in me. Oh, how I wish our Christianity would be true to itself, and take to its heart the great questions of humanity, then would I turn over a precious few of the starving old people now calling upon God and me for their support, to churches, and enter the field for woman.

How grandly the tide is lashing the shore on both sides of the Atlantic, and its voice is the voice of God, commanding once more that ye "let my people go, that they may serve me." Only the foam and the surge are seen to-day—"Woman and the Ballot." But there is overturning and upheaving below, and the great depths shall ere long become the surface, and what is now seen in the social realm and believed in, as a religious creed, must enter into the formation, geologically conforming to fossilization and decay; so the last shall be first, and the first last. The last half century is a grand prophecy. How slavery went down, carrying away social and religious systems with it! There they lie, like dust and ashes in the rear. None are found so poor and benighted as to do homage at their shrine. It was the moral agitation that gave spiritual birth to the race enslaved. I remember to have felt great impatience at the tardy and conservative elements that entered into the struggle side by side with the radical leaders of 1845, when to me the issue was not with the Constitution, nor even with the pulpit, nor the Bible, but with Justice. It was man to man, stripped of all but the Divine within him. The lessons of moral and political formation in its slow but certain work, come to strengthen me now. To my mind the issue of to-day in the woman cause is clearly not what Paul taught and thought, nor what God has settled upon her as her dower, nor what the marriage contract makes her, but it is woman as a beneficent genius, next to the angels, against woman below the beasts, in human society under the heel of the Law, in the arms of brute force, crushed to death with passion and lust. Lucy Stone has made it obvious to the world that six plates, six teacups and saucers, and a guardian for her children, at the time of her husband's death, are not her only legitimate property. Mrs. Stanton goes further, and declares that not alone is her property sacred, and must be restored to her, but that personal freedom, subject to the Moral Law, not to the law of Society, nor of Government, if those powers contravene or interfere with God's Law as it is written in her own constitution.

In so much as woman is endowed by the Creator with the most loving and beneficent genius or nature capable of enduring the agonies of many deaths, to give life to many souls, in so much she is entitled to command, not left to obey. So says Mrs. Stanton; I agree with her. Both Lucy Stone and Mrs. Stanton are skilled workmen. Both representative women; representing the two wings in the cause of woman's freedom.

You speak of Mrs. Stanton's view in the McFarland-Richardson case. I knew but little of the real character of Mrs. Richardson, but if what is acknowledged to be true of[Pg 875] his,—I do agree with Mrs. S. in declaring this case a forcible argument—not against marriage,—such a thing can not be—but against the marriage contract, as interpreted in the courts. What a burlesque upon insanity! Poor Minnie Gaines, the colored girl who shot her seducer the other day, in my neighborhood, was cleared upon as doubtful insanity as McFarland's, and she enjoys the benefit of the doubt in the insane asylum, where she will remain unquestionably for a term of years; why does this man "go at large"? Neither of the Associations, nor journals, are ready to assume the high ground that Mrs. Stanton standing alone and leading, as she always has on this question, can and will do. With all my heart, I pray that true women and the angels will stand by and sustain her in this noble daring.

Our work (the Freedman's work) is as usual, every day painfully interesting and compensating. No money comes yet, and I have to raise some $2,000 soon, or lose our delightful home. (Yes, it is delightful). We have a bad city government, the colored people begin to feel the old rebel spirit. Hundreds thrown out of work, and I have nothing to hope from the City Council to compensate for my work. Some good friend said a few days since, that Congress would, if persons of influence would ask it, pay me. Now would Mr. Ward with Mr. Wade, do this, and so let me breathe and live? or not?

We can not go out of the city this summer. You will be in Philadelphia at the Decade meeting I hope, and I shall rejoice to be there too. You see the Peace Society is in "hot water" over the McFarland-Richardson discussion in the Band of Peace.

Thermometer stood at 107° yesterday, and very hot to-day. Write when you can, and believe me ever your attached friend,

J. S. Griffing.

THE WOMAN'S LOYAL LEAGUE.

Letters in Response to the Call for Meeting of the Loyal Women of the Country.

NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Hampton, N. H., May 4, 1863.

Miss Anthony—Dear Madam:—I cheerfully respond to the call, published in The Liberator, to the loyal women of the North, to meet on the 14th inst. I am sensible that you will have responses from many whose words will be more potent, and who can do braver deeds than I can do. But I want to add my feeble testimony, notwithstanding, to encourage this first effort of American women, in a national capacity, to sustain the Government, and help guide it through the perils which threaten its existence, thus demonstrating not only their loyalty, but their ability to understand its genius; the quickness of their perception of the cause and also of the remedies of the dangers which imperil the nation; and also their fitness to be admitted to take part in its deliberations. Not long since, men here at the North—loyal men—men who were not in favor of slavery, denied that they had any responsibility in regard to its existence. Marvelous, that they could not see that slavery is a moral pestilence, poisoning all the fountains of society, spreading infections over all the nation. Now the war teaches them that they have a responsibility, and that it would have been better had they seen it earlier. The right to take any responsibility in regard to it was denied to woman; it was out of her sphere; it ran into politics, which were unfit for woman, and into governmental affairs, which she was supposed incompetent to comprehend. But this painful hour of warfare crowds home upon us the conviction that woman's interests equally with man's are imperiled—private as well as public, individual as well as social. She must not only consent to the sacrifice of husbands and sons falling in their blood on the enemy's ground; but failing to conquer them there, these enemies are eager to change the scene of action, transfer the battle-field to our own doors, spread death and devastation, and then establish slavery as a legacy to us. Yes, let it be shown and sent home to the hearts of those who shall meet, that woman is equally interested and responsible with man in the final settlement of this problem of self-government.

Wishing that the women of every State may be largely represented by earnest and[Pg 876] faithful representatives, able to give wise counsel and efficient action, I am very cordially with you in spirit,

Clarissa G. Olds.

Bradford, N. H., May 10, 1863.

Mrs. Stanton—My Dear Madam:—I thank you for myself, and for thousands of women in our State, who may perhaps remain silent, for the clarion call you have rung through the land for a convention of the loyal women of the nation, to be held at New York on the 14th of the present month. God bless you for the rallying cry, and may there be such a gathering of patriotic women as the times demand. I trust the women of our State will be well and largely represented. I must believe that the women nurtured among our granite hills are ready for all earnest work and brave self-sacrifice, to help bear up and on the banner of freedom, till it waves in victory over all our beloved country. I wish you a hearty God-speed in all noble and patriotic efforts.

Mary J. Tappan.

Truly yours,

Debry, N. H.

We rejoice in your call to the women of our country to do something, in the great hour of her peril. They are generally too indifferent to her success or failure, lack zeal and earnestness, and need enlightenment on the true state of this contest. It is not a mere matter of triumph of arms, but of principle, which will affect us and future generations.

H. T. and M. Adams.

VERMONT.

Randolph, Vt., May 9, a.d. 1863.

The Ladies of Randolph to the Loyal Ladies assembled at New York, send Greeting:—

Thrillingly interested in all that concerns the great cause in which we, who love the inheritance our fathers bought for us at such a price of life and treasure, are now all embarked, the ladies of our Association desire, on this occasion, to manifest their oneness of spirit with you for everything that may promote loyal devotion to our country.

We who have offered up on her altars what is dearer to us than life—our fathers, husbands, sons, and brothers—so that almost every home has made its sacrifice, and the blood of many from among us has already been shed, while others come back crippled for life—need hardly tell you that we are of one heart and mind with them, and ready to be bound and offered up too.

May the God of our fathers hear our cry, and save our beloved country from those who would destroy all her liberties.

Mrs. R. Parkinson.

Very truly yours,

In behalf of the Ladies' Aid Society.

MASSACHUSETTS.

Pittsfield, May 12, 1863.

Miss Susan B. Anthony—Dear Madam:—In response to the thrilling and patriotic address of Mrs. "E. C. Stanton on behalf of the Women's Central Committee," accompanying the "Call for a Meeting of the Loyal Women of the Nation on the 14th inst.," I beg leave to say that my heart is with you in the great work of crushing the rebellion.

Our strength, clearly, is not "to sit still" at a time like the present. Although much has already been done by the women at the North, in their subordinate sphere, for the relief and comfort of the soldiers, yet the supineness of many of our sex has exposed us all to rebukes.

We hear of the enthusiasm of women at the South in aid of the Slave-holders' Rebellion, and can form some estimate of the "fierceness of their wrath"; but, God be thanked, the days approach when their mad passions will recoil upon themselves—the days approach when their evil cause must die. Let us unitedly pledge ourselves to stand by the Government, in our legitimate sphere, and out of it, if needs be. Let us, with womanly zeal, help to crush the power of its iniquitous assailants, remembering that the name of woman is in the list with those who "subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens."

Shall we not, in this "crisis of our country's destiny," imitate the example of these heroic worthies, if "hereunto we are called"?

Mrs. Sarah R. Barnes.

Very truly yours,

[Pg 877]

Worcester, April 20, 1863.

Dear Susan:—I see your call to the loyal women. Will you let me know distinctly if you propose to commit yourselves to the idea of loyalty to the present Government? I can not believe you do. But to me there is something equivocal in the call, if it does not mean that. I am sorry it is not explicit on that point.

You and I believe if the present Administration had done its duty, the rebellion would have been put down long ago. Hence, we hold it with its supporters responsible for the terrible waste of treasure and of blood thus far, and for that which is to follow. It needs strong rebuke instead of unqualified sympathy and support.

Abby Kelly Foster.

Hastily, yours as ever,

Natick, May 8, 1863.

Every loyal woman in America has a part to perform in this great struggle for the preservation of the nation. I trust that the coming meeting in the city of New York will inspire the women of the loyal States with new zeal and patriotism, and enable them to serve more efficiently their once prosperous, but now distracted, country.

Mrs. Henry Wilson.

Yours respectfully,

CONNECTICUT.

The Loyal Women of Manchester, Ct., to the Meeting of Loyal Women in New York, Greeting:—Patriotism in this town is in the ascendant. Impelled by the conduct of traitors, dupes, and cowards, the loyal women of Manchester formed themselves into a League, in which they resolved to be unconditionally loyal to the Government and its institutions; to abhor treason and cowardice in every form, and under every disguise; to encourage and sustain our brave soldiers by constant tokens of interest; to study carefully the great principles of civil liberty, which constitute the spirit and life of our Republican Government; and to publicly wear as the badge of the Loyal League the Union colors, until the day of our national triumph. We mean by this to occupy no doubtful position, and to express ourselves in no ambiguous words. We believe in the Union, one and inseparable, and stick to the motto, "E Pluribus Unum."

We find nothing to justify the rebellion, and have no sympathy with those who do. We long for peace, but believe in war as the only legitimate way to reach it; therefore hail the advance of our armies, and rejoice in every Union victory with unspeakable joy.

We believe, moreover, in the natural rights of man, and intend to stand by our President in his Emancipation Proclamation. We regard negro-hate and disloyalty as near akin, and feel that those who would not employ the black man to save the country are not over-anxious to save it themselves.

The Loyal League of Manchester numbers some five hundred members, and we mean by all within our power to cast our influence on the side of the Union, and its brave defenders.

In true sympathy with all who stand by the Government and repel its enemies, in behalf of the Executive Committee and members,

Mrs. S. M. Dorman.

NEW YORK.

Waterloo, N. Y.

I have read Mrs. Stanton's call to the loyal women of America, and can not resist telling you how valuable such a suggestion appears. For what is more meet, than that those upon whom fall the direst agonies of the war should with one voice cry out, "Give us a nation for whose preservation we may joyfully surrender our heart's dearest treasure; but swear by the green graves of our slaughtered brethren, that this sacrifice shall seal the doom of every trafficker in human flesh?"

Sarah Hunt.

Utica, N. Y., April 19, 1863.

We write to assure you that we appreciate the address of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, published in The Tribune of the 18th. We have long expected such a call, and regard it as the external manifestation of a wide-spread demand among women.

Mary Dean, and Seven other Women.

Waterloo, May 4, 1863.

My Dear Friend:—I read with great pleasure the "Call for a meeting of the Loyal[Pg 878] Women of the nation." I think such a gathering can not fail of great and good results. I hope you will have a correct and full report of the proceedings for the benefit of those who can not be present to see and hear for themselves.

Phebe B. Dean.

Sincerely yours,

Frey Chapel, May 1, 1863.

To Susan B. Anthony—Dear Madam:—In response to the call for a meeting of the loyal women of the nation in the City of New York, on Thursday, the 14th of May, the undersigned wish to be represented at the ten o'clock session.

Harriet Graham, Emily Frey, and 88 others.

NEW JERSEY.

Old Bridge, Middlesex County, N. J.

Mrs. E. C. Stanton:—Being unable to attend in person in answer to your stirring appeal to the loyal women of the nation, and feeling a deep interest in this cause, we can not forbear answering it in this manner at least. We do not believe there is a lack of enthusiasm in the mass of the women of the North; all we want is a common channel in which to pour it out. Do this, only point us the way, and you will find our efforts as irresistible as the tides of the ocean.

We believe now, if ever, Halleck's lines apply:

"Strike, till the last armed foe expires,
Strike, for our altars and our fires;
Strike for the green graves of our sires,
God, and our native land."

Hoping God may so direct you that our dear bleeding country may be cheered through the storm and darkness to a glorious peace, with our starry flag floating as of old from the Bay of Fundy to the far shores of the Pacific, and believing that freedom, truth, and right must prevail,

We are, for ourselves and numerous friends,

Mary E. Disdrow, Margaret M. Willis.

Respectfully and truly yours,

PENNSYLVANIA.

Columbia, Pa., May 8, 1863.

Susan B. Anthony—Dear Madam:—I beg that my name may be recorded with those of the Loyal Women of the Nation. Though we walk in darkness, tears, and blood all the days of this generation, let us not shrink; we have to do the most blessed duty ever laid upon a people. Though we see not the end, our deed shall be blessed. Let us rejoice that upon us is laid the glory of suffering for the good of mankind. Though all our dearest fall, though we are wrapt in woe, let us not flinch to the bitterest end. Right shall triumph. God shall cause the wrath of man to praise Him. Upon Northern traitors be unutterable and everlasting contempt. Highest honors, tenderest glory to our heroes, immortal in the heart of the nation.

Sophia Lyman Smith.

We wish to obtain the documents of the Ladies' National Union League, that we may be "transformed into the same image"; and also desire to wear the same badge.

Mary R. H. Haynes,
President Richwood Ladies' Union League.

Yours fraternally,

Pennsylvania State Normal School, }
Millersville, May 11, 1863. }

To the National Convention of Loyal Women:

Ladies:—I beg leave to introduce to you Miss Fannie W. Willard and Mrs. Annie V. Mumford, who have been elected by the ladies of this institution as delegates to represent them in your Convention. Hoping that, by word and work, your Convention may add strength to the arm that is now raised in defense of the nation's life, I am,

J. P. Wickersham, Principal.

Yours truly,

Green Grove, Luzerne Co., Pa., May 8, 1863.

Dear Madam:—With pleasure I read the "Call," and gladly would respond to it in person, but must be content with sending my name. Prospectively I see the places of[Pg 879] meeting filled to overflowing, every eye kindling with enthusiasm, every heart swelling with patriotism, all determined to aid in preserving our sacred legacy of liberty. The woman who is not truly loyal is unworthy the protection of our dear old flag.

May God bless all the efforts made in sustaining the best Government on earth!

Sarah J. Vosburgh.

Yours sincerely,

From the Loyal Ladies of Stevensville, Pa., to the Ladies assembled in Convention in New York:

Dear Sisters:—Although unable to co-operate with you in your noble efforts in behalf of our country by attending your Convention, we dare not remain silent when treason is in our very midst, and thousands, with blind fury, are trying to uproot the fair tree of Liberty which our fathers planted and watered with their blood. We have already sent our fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons to defend our country, and are willing to make still greater sacrifices if necessary. We heartily sustain the President in every effort he has made to put down the rebellion, and hope that the war may be prosecuted with renewed vigor, until every traitor, North or South, shall be subdued. We would express our sympathy for the brave soldiers in the field and for those who are languishing in prisons and hospitals, and pray that their sacrifices and sufferings may not be in vain. May the angel of Peace soon spread her wings over our unhappy country, is the prayer of your loyal sisters,

Mrs. Angie E. L. Stevens,
And Twenty-five other Women of Stevensville, Pa.

West Auburn, Pa., May 9, 1863.

In compliance with the call for a meeting of the Loyal Women, we, the undersigned, take this method to manifest our approbation of the President's Proclamation. Thinking we comprehend the principles involved in the nation's struggle for existence, we believe it the duty of every loyal woman to pledge herself to co-operate, in word and deed, for the benefit and encouragement of our brave men in the field, until our country is Free.

Lucy A. Seely,
And Thirty-five other Women of West Auburn, Pa.

Kennett Square, Pa.

Dear Mrs. Stanton:—The deep interest I feel in the subject to be considered in your Convention, prompts me to an expression of my sympathy in the movement. May you be able to speak God's truth in tones that shall arouse a nation's heart to a prompt performance of a nation's duty, will be the earnest prayer of many who are not privileged to meet with you in solemn convention.

Hannah M. Darlington.

Columbia, Pa.

Dear Miss Anthony:—Let me have the happiness of giving my name where are my heart and soul, with the loyal women of the nation.

Mrs. F. Boardman Wells.

OHIO.

To the Loyal Women, assembled in National Meeting in New York, the Loyal Women of Wilmington, Ohio, send Greeting:

We have heard your earnest call for a National Meeting of women, and our hearts respond as one to the call, and our hands willing to do more than has yet been done. Here, as everywhere in the North, we have formed societies and united our efforts in contributing what we might to soothe, encourage, and cheer. But we would not speak of what we have done, for it is but a mite compared to the need, and a drop among the millions that have been given our brave ones who are so gloriously defending our homes. But the wide future with its great destiny is before us, and we hope after earnest counseling you will decide what more can be done, and we will gladly work with you as sisters, as daughters of our kind All-Father, as children of our common country for the good of all.

We shall be glad to hear of the decision of your meeting, and doubt not it will waken many who are slumbering to a sense of the duty of immediate action in a cause so just, and fraught with untold interest, not only to our own beloved country, but to the whole world.

Louise McGregor, Secretary.

[Pg 880]

Martinsburg, Ohio, May 7, 1863.

To Susan B. Anthony:—I was rejoiced and encouraged on reading your call for an assembly of the loyal women of the nation, and feel constrained to address you a word. For although I may not be able to elucidate the principles on which a free government is founded, with the force and clearness of many others who will doubtless respond to your call, nor awake enthusiasm with that magic power that some of the anti-slavery women of the North possess in so high a degree, I shall at least give to Ohio and my country one more voice in favor of a united and free republic; and certainly no voice should be silent when called to speak for liberty.

It was fit that the first work of the women of the North should be for the comfort of those who are enduring the hardships of the camp, exposed to sickness, and to the deadly horrors of the battle-field, in their defence.

But this is not all that should be done by intelligent women living under a free government, when that government is in danger of being overthrown by wicked conspirators. Every power and influence granted us under the social and political regulations of our country should be unreservedly laid upon the altar of liberty and right. It is necessary that we fully understand the nature of the conflict in which we are engaged. Enthusiasm can elevate and sustain but for a moment, unless upheld by the power of a great principle. Not only is our welfare as a great nation at stake, but the oppressed of the world look anxiously and hopefully to us as holding the key to their prison doors, which we may unlock if we will.

In view of the greatness of the trust committed to us, let us not flag in our efforts to free our land from slavery and the rebellion inaugurated by its minions, that they might establish it on a firmer base.

By meeting as you are about to do, and giving expression to sentiments in favor of the perpetuation of our Government, and in behalf of those of our citizens who are denied the rights and privileges of citizenship, you will strengthen the hearts and hands of all among our rulers who are endeavoring to execute judgment and justice, and to save our Government under the guidance of Him who controls the destinies of nations.

Trusting that this is but the beginning of a good work among the true women of the nation, I subscribe myself, Yours for the interest of our common country,

Lizzie Welsh.

Medina County, Ohio, May 12, 1863.

Dear Miss Anthony:—This is no time to be idle now. Every true woman must do her whole duty, and buckle on the strong armor of Faith, to meet the enemy face to face. Let the traitors of the country hear our voices, and let Southern tyrants tremble in their high places. Let the prayers of the loyal women ascend to the throne on high. I trust you may have a decidedly good meeting—one, too, that will be remembered in future ages, when war and bloodshed shall have passed forever away, and sweet peace shall reign again in our beautiful land. We long for our brave brothers to return to their homes, but not till the Union is restored, and the traitors receive their just punishment. My heart is deeply engaged in the cause of human liberty and justice, and I have given my all in the struggle.

Emma C. Hard.

I remain, yours respectfully,

Richwood, May 9, 1863.

Susan B. Anthony—Dear Madam:—In The New York Tribune of April 25, 1863, we observed that a National Convention of the Ladies' Union League is to be held in the city of New York, on the 14th day of May. We were truly gratified with this intelligence, and should be very happy to be present on that occasion; but as that is among the impossibilities, we deem it a great privilege to represent the Richwood Ladies' Union League through epistolary correspondence. The cause is glorious, and is calculated to elevate woman to a higher sphere. Louder voices and holier motives urge us to duty as never before. At the time our Ladies' Union League was organized, we knew not that there was another in the world, or that there ever would be. Its infancy was feeble, as we must advance cautiously, if we would surely; but it was as a city set on a hill. The good work is still progressing.[Pg 881]

INDIANA.

Angola. Ind., May 6, 1863.

Miss Anthony:—The call for a Convention in New York to express the feelings of woman in view of the condition of the country, is timely. I regret that I can not be present to share the inspiration of the occasion, and as far as possible to aid in making an impression worthy of the hour. We call this an alarming crisis because it is a struggle involving our lives, our liberty, and our happiness. It must be borne in mind that this nation is great not simply from the number of States it has held in union, but from its creative genius. We are told that this is the best expression of a republican form of government. It is so because it is self-sustaining, self-reliant, and therefore may be self-governing. The stern, smooth-faced Puritan fled from religious persecution in the Old World to find room for an idea in the New; and the planting of one religious idea has yielded a rich harvest of sects, each an improvement on the last.

Yesterday politics had its center in a party; to-day, in the nation; to-morrow, it will find an equilibrium in the individual. This is a stern work, wearing furrows in the cheeks of statesmen, shaking the frame-work of the Government, letting the blood and drinking the treasure of the nation. It can not be avoided. God has said, "And unto you a child is born," and his name shall be called Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, the Holy of Holies, the Universal Republic. And as God rested after the first creation, so shall this nation find its Sabbath of rest when this struggle for freedom is over, and from the little child to the bowed-down man, all shall breathe through the new Constitution a fresher, more glorious life. Viewed from the daily papers, the battle is long, terrific, and uncertain. Go to the stricken hearthstones, and we exclaim, "Oh, that this cup might pass from us!" Visit the solemn battle-field, and in anguish we murmur, "My God, why hast Thou forsaken us?" Retiring to the high mountain of our faith, we see in this painful view the magnitude of our cause, and that slowly but surely this contest will end triumphantly. From this point we mark the milestones that show we have made indelible foot-prints toward Liberty and Union.

The choice by the people of a Republican President, the firing on Sumter, the defeat at Manassas, the recognition of Hayti, the treaty with England for the suppression of the foreign slave-trade, the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, the decision of Attorney-General Bates in favor of universal citizenship, the conversion to the anti-slavery sentiment of Dickinson and Butler, the President's Proclamation, and the arming of the blacks, are signs in the political zodiac, showing our revolution certain as that of the rolling suns in the material heavens. Only Liberty can be our watchword henceforth! To this standard alone will the country, both North and South, rally when a few more days of leadership are over. God saw to this in the frame-work of every living thing, when He made his wants to be a blessing with freedom and a curse without it. Open the cage-door to the pining fox, loathing his master's beef and pudding, and see if his instincts are not true as the needle to the pole. Lay the sweet babe before the starved lion, and his want will not bow to your compassion. So in slaves; it matters not whether slaves to rebellion or to aristocracy. So in all men and in all women, the want of liberty, as the want of bread, is a vital principle in the blood. It is the motive power. Without it man is but a log, and is suited to rule over frogs only; or, like the silent water, becomes a loathsome stagnation. You may suppress, but you can not appease or destroy this divine inheritance in man. On this uniform idea the laws of society depend, and union can have no other. Raise the banner of freedom to all, and you have an imperishable Constitution, supported by the gushing blood of the millions, and immortalized in the spirit of the nation. This is our work: To comprehend liberty, to establish a constitution, and perpetuate union. We began at union, the right-hand figure, borrowing ten, as in mathematics, from the next higher order, observing the rule of maintaining an equal difference by paying what is borrowed.

We saw that fighting for union and slavery left us just what we began with. So we borrowed from the Constitution Fremont's Proclamation, and carried the popular response to the next Congress, and under the second period we wrote the liberty of three millions! We have now to work out the main principle or highest order, to test the virtue of the people, to see whether, when rebellion is put down, the nation can survive;[Pg 882] and there is now left us no escape from death or disgrace except in the announcement of freedom as a principle. Do this, and you have enlisted new recruits from men who will nobly dare to die, but never will retreat. Do this, and the mothers of the country will continue to lay their precious sons upon the altar, not as "Union soldiers," as before, but as heroes of a new republic. Do this, and woman, the subtle architect of society, will teach you how to walk the very verge of death with an unflinching hope of life; her faith will separate your light from darkness, truth from error, liberty from slavery. She will demonstrate for you that self-reliance is the condition of all creations, that as "the flower looks to no power outside itself to unfold its tendrils and accomplish its mission," so this nation is self-sufficient. In its warm beating heart lies its folded banner, and each man and woman must unfurl it as the seaman unfurls his sail. Nail Freedom to your banner, and it shall bring a prostrate nation to its staff, and together with their loud applause, "the morning stars shall sing, and all the sons of God shall shout for joy."

Josephine S. Griffing.

To the Meeting of Loyal Women to be held in New York the 14th of May:

Miss S. B. Anthony:—Not being able to attend your meeting, I desire to convey to you personally my heartfelt appreciation of your work. If, as the call implies, your object is to help create and keep alive a loyal public sentiment, it is truly praiseworthy. This is what we need—a public sentiment that will not tolerate disloyalty anywhere. We want the rebel sympathizer to feel the society of intelligent women a constant rebuke to their unfaithfulness; we want to go still further, and make them feel that they can not be admitted to the social circle of loyal women; we want to make them feel that we will not patronize them in business relations; in short, that we will hold no communion with them whatever, except it may be to reform them as fallen brethren. As the Spartan mothers of old, as the mothers of the Revolution, did not shrink from whatever of trial, of sacrifice, and of toil was theirs to endure, so may we of the XIXth century, the mothers of the soldiers of freedom, grasp heroically the sword of truth, and wield it with a power that shall make the tyrant tremble. It is not enough that we scrape lint, make hospital stores, knit socks, make shirts, etc., etc.; all this we should do by all means, but we have also other duties connected with this war. Let us endeavor to perform them all faithfully. As the war is working out for woman a higher and nobler life, while it is destined in the providence of God to free the slave, it will also bring about in a great measure the enfranchisement of woman. Let us prove that women are intellectually and morally capable of laboring side by side with our brothers in the great struggle, and heaven will bless our efforts.

Mary F. Thomas.

Yours in the great work,

Richmond, Ind., May 11, 1863.

Pecor, Wabash Valley, Ind.

To the "Call for a meeting of the Loyal Women of the Nation," we most heartily respond. It is precisely what is needed at this time. There is a lack of enthusiasm here as elsewhere—not that our "Aid Societies" are not quite flourishing: but that we do after the manner of Miss Ophelia, "from a sense of duty." A lady says to me, "What more can be expected of women if men fail to some extent in our military affairs?" Well, they can arouse the smouldering fires of patriotism, help to raise the trailing banner, and stand devotedly by the dear old flag. If they enter into the work heart and soul, good results will follow. There is here a strong secession element; copperheads abound; the sky looks dark and threatening; but Gov. Morton's vigorous policy and Gen. Burnside's "Order No. 38," will show the traitors that we have a government—a strong one, too—that will bring them straight up to the mark.

Those who are disposed to criticise your meeting, who have a word to say about women taking part in political or public affairs, should have their memories refreshed a little. From a great many who have ruled in affairs of State, I select one who lived a long time ago. The record is from the highest authority. Deborah, the wife of Lapidoth, who judged Israel, had her canopy of State under the palm-tree in Mount Ephraim. At this time the children of Egypt had been mightily oppressed for twenty years by Jabin, King of Canaan. Hope is almost extinguished in Israel; not one man scarcely seems awake to his country's wrongs; patriotism is slumbering in every manly breast, yet glows[Pg 883] brightly in the heart of woman; and as the tribunal of judgment is deserted by manly virtue, ability, and zeal, Deborah takes the place, not by usurpation, but divine appointment. She instructs the people in the law and testimony of the living God, and inspires them with more than a common enthusiasm to go with Barak against the mighty host of Canaan. They go forth, and are victorious, completely routing the enemy. Sisera, the commander-in-chief of the great army of Jabin, is slain by the hand of woman! The mighty arm of the Lord of Hosts is seen in this conflict, for Jehovah has no attribute that will take sides with the oppressor!

Would it not be well for the women of to-day to emulate Deborah in her zeal and love of country? I trust your meeting will be productive of great good in arousing us to more correct views of our duties and responsibilities as members of the Republic. As Burke says, "I love agitation when there is a cause for it." The alarm-bell which startles the inhabitants of a city from their midnight slumbers, saves them from destruction.

Eliza B. Terrell.

Truly yours,

May 11, 1863.

E. M. Wilkinson, on behalf of the Soldiers' Aid Society in Laporte County, Ind., writes:

"We will labor with all our might, mind, and strength for a free country, where there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude. As our mothers stood by the Government in the Revolution, so we, like them, will stand by the present Administration. We believe the sin of slavery to be the cause of this horrid war, therefore we hailed with gladness the ninth section of the Confiscation law, and the Proclamation of Freedom by the President."

ILLINOIS.

Rosemond, Christian County, Ill., May 5, 1863.

Miss Susan B. Anthony—My Dear Christian Friend:—I observed with deep interest, in The Independent of April 16th, an article on "Women and the War," stating that meetings would be held in your city on the 14th of May, "to consider how woman's services may be more effectually engaged in promoting the war, supporting the Government, and advancing the cause of Freedom and the Union."

At that meeting I shall be most cordially present in spirit, while I am necessarily in body far from you; and for the result of your deliberations there I shall watch with eager interest. What can woman do? has been with me from the beginning of this war a question of the uppermost importance. I have asked it with tears again and again, and have watched every intimation upon this point in our journals, and from soldier friends, with a willing heart and ready hand; though I have sometimes observed with pain, that those who had given least for this great cause were least solicitous on this question, and less disposed to do, and to continue to do, than those very ones who, as they would say, had surely done enough, when they had given up husband or son, father or brother, or all of these, for the bloody conflict. But no, it is those who like me have given up their all, and perhaps like me are left by this war widowed and alone, helpless and in feeble health; such it is that cry, What can woman yet do for this sacred cause? Such may silently bear their lonely anxiety and sorrow, patiently toil and struggle to take care of themselves, and of those dependent upon them, as best they can, uncomplaining, asking not aid or sympathy, and all the while cheering their beloved ones yet spared in the conflict, and holding up their hands by words of encouragement and blessing. But such can not sit still, and feel that they have done enough. Such can not look with indifference upon the flowing tide of blood all around us; upon the thousands of hearths and homes as desolate as their own; upon the hardships and sufferings of our brave soldiers in field, or hospital, or camp; upon the hundreds of thousands of those poor freedmen, women and children, that have just begun to emerge from the house of their bondage, and come out empty, ignorant, and degraded, yet seeking liberty, protection, instruction, and offering their strong right arms for the defense of that wise and beneficent Government that has bid them go free. Methinks, every mother and every teacher should now take special care to instill into the minds of those committed to their instruction a holy and devoted patriotism; the sacred principles of liberty; liberty for all; the inestimable value of our free institutions; and the perpetuation of these as an end worthy of their[Pg 884] highest ambition. Teach them to honor the name of soldier, and to cherish sacredly the memory of those who have given their life's blood for the cementing and maintenance of this Union, and to be ready to stand up bravely for the right, when their turn may come.

I have written from the fullness of my heart, yet in much weakness and sorrow. My own beloved and noble husband was among the very first to offer his services at his country's call, and in less than one short year his sacrifice was owned of God, to whom he had early consecrated his life, and from the strife of the battle-field (at Donelson, in February, 1862) he was called up higher to rest in peace. In feeble health, I have returned to the asylum of a father's house, to which one beloved brother has just returned with his discharge, having wasted nearly to a skeleton in Southern hospitals, and two brothers are yet in the army. Should you have any printed circular of the result of your meetings, a copy would be very gratefully received; and if there is any way in which ladies at so great a distance can co-operate with you, in measures you may devise, you may be sure that this little town of Rosemond will furnish her full share of loyal women. I will almost venture to say, no other can be found here.

In behalf of all that makes our country

"The land of the free and the home of the brave,"

E. P. Weeks.

I am, yours very cordially,

Aurora, Ill., May 8, 1863.

There never was a time in the world's history when the strength and efforts of women, as well as men, were so imperatively demanded as now. Never before in the annals of time has there been a struggle of such momentous import, not only at home, but abroad, as this. The eye of every principality and power on the face of the earth is upon us, anxiously watching and awaiting the success or defeat of our armies to prove or disprove the practicability of a republican form of government. Let us work for the right and true

"All we can,
Every woman, every man."

Ellen Beard Harman.

For Freedom and Union,

Washington, Tazewell County, Ill., May 12, 1863.

Ladies:—Quickened by a call from our national metropolis, and prompted by the same loyalty that issued the call, a few of the women of this place have organized themselves into a Union League, for the maintenance of our Government and the encouragement and succor of our soldiers in the field. Our organization occurred too late, we fear, to enable us to report ourselves to the National Committee at the appointed meeting; but having opened, we propose to go forward, soliciting the co-operation of every individual woman of the place, so long as our Government is in peril and rebellion utters its voice in the nation.

Yours in the same cause,

Mrs. H. N. Kellogg, Pres't.

Mrs. S. W. Fish, Sec'y.

Asbury, Lasalle County, Ill., May 8, 1863.

Madam Anthony:—I call myself a loyal woman, and am glad that there is about to be made some extra effort by woman for the strengthening and upholding of our common Government in this present rebellion. For my own part, I should rather work hard and fare poor for a number of years, that the Government may have a share of my industry, than that we fail in this present war. Drops form the ocean; and if we all can be made to feel the greatness of small things added together, we can present a truly strengthening arm in this struggle; and I would suggest that we all lay aside our vanity and love of extravagance in dress, and save the money from some of our intended purchases for a war fund. Almost every person can spare five, ten, or twenty dollars. Let some one take the lead in every city and village by stimulating the people to a little self-denial, and I think we can raise a grand sum, to be applied where it is most needed. Just set this ball in motion in New York, and it may roll all over the North.

I do not wonder that woman lacks enthusiasm in matters of Government, for our laws, though they may be nearly just to white men, are very oppressive to women, particularly[Pg 885] those that deprive married women of the right to hold property and do business themselves. I think that man and woman both would live more happily if the laws were more equal; but as they are, they are a shame to this enlightened age. They make a married woman a beggar all her life, although she may have a rich husband, and a most pitiable one, if he is poor. Wipe out the law entirely that gives us a third of our husband's property; we can make better bargains than that ourselves with our husbands. The one-third law does us not a mite of good, unless our husband dies, and we do not all of us want to part with them, although the laws do make them our oppressors. But notwithstanding the mean position that we are compelled to occupy, I feel like upholding the Government as the best that is, feeling quite sure that the kindness and good sense of our rulers will give us something a little more like justice after a while.

Mariam H. Fish.

WISCONSIN.

To the Meeting of Loyal Women in the City of New York, Greeting:

It is now nearly three months since the loyal women of Madison, Wis., desiring to express their equal interest in the preservation of the Union and Government, and their abhorrence of all who by word and deed encourage the unholy rebellion which has filled our land with mourning, organized the first Ladies' Union League in the country, and pledged themselves, during the continuance of the war, to such individual persistent effort and self-sacrifice as should prove to our soldiers and their families that we have made common cause with them. Without delay we issued our preamble and constitution in the form of a circular-letter, inviting the co-operation of all loyal women of the State in the formation of similar organizations. Copies of this circular, inviting a full expression of feeling, and statement of cases of individual necessity, were sent to every company of infantry, artillery, and cavalry that have gone from the State; and the most gratifying letters from the army have proved the value which they put upon our efforts. We organized visiting committees, renewed every week, who examine into and report upon all cases of want in soldiers' families, many of whom have been cared for and relieved through the agency of these committees, thus obviating one of the most productive causes of discontent in the army. The ignorant woman who does not know what are the proper steps to take in securing her bounty, allotment, and pension; the discouraged wife who hears the low murmurs of treason to the Government on every side, whose appeals to her soldier in the field increase when they do not create the same feeling, are alike the objects of our care.

In addition to, and of more importance even than these home efforts, are those we make in encouraging the soldiers by correspondence. Does some officer distinguish himself by an act of personal bravery in the army of the West? we save the newspaper notices, cut these out, and inclose them, with a few hearty, earnest words, to some member of the army of the Potomac, and thus become a medium for the diffusion of all that can stimulate and inspire courage and loyalty.

We have deemed this brief statement of our organization and mode of operation the best expression of our sympathy with your meeting. We joyfully hail the formation of such associations in the great centers of influence, and believe that a cause to which the women of the country as one soul devote their time, their energies, and all they love best, will stand vindicated as the cause of God, of justice and humanity, before the whole world.

Mrs. W. A. P. Morris, President.
Mrs. E. S. Carr, Secretary.

Madison, Wis., May 9, 1863.

Cassville, Wis., May 4, 1863.

Lately noticing in the New York Tribune a call for a meeting of the loyal women of this nation, and believing woman as responsible for its destiny as man, I feel it my duty to make known to you my most sincere wishes for its success. As loyal women, and being under so much responsibility, it seems necessary that some effort should be made to exchange our views and form resolutions on this subject. Let us remember then our duty; let us unite ourselves by associations, that we may act in concert in our country's cause. We must not forget that knowledge is power, and that the minds of this country are molded and governed by the press; let us therefore, in whatever sphere we move, aid[Pg 886] and encourage the reading and circulation of loyal newspapers and public speakers of both sexes that labor for our country (the best diplomatists of Europe have confessed that the State papers of the Revolution did almost, if not quite as much, for us as our soldiery); and let us at the same time discountenance all disloyal reading, all disloyal sentiments, and all disloyal persons of whatever standing or relation, and let our object be our country, our whole country, and nothing but our country.

Mrs. Ursula Larned.

Baraboo, Wis., May 11, 1863.

Susan B. Anthony—Dear Madam:—I can not tell you with what joy I received through the Anti-Slavery Standard the account of the formation of the "Loyal Women's League of Hartford, Ct." I forthwith communicated with the women met for sanitary purposes, and we organized a "Loyal Women's League" here. Forty women signed at once, and others now are constantly added. All over this region the women seem to be waiting, longing for some soul to animate the body of work with which we have been so long and lovingly busying ourselves. We shall do what we can to encourage and inspire our soldiers, to comfort and cheer their families, and to make our influence tell on the right side at home and wherever it is felt. Our organization is auxiliary to the Madison League. We have adopted mainly their Constitution. We would be glad to be represented in person in the National Convention, where the true woman's heart of the nation will utter itself; but this may not be so. We send you this our pledge. The bells are ringing and guns firing for joy for our military victories. Thank God for them. But our woman's work of educating the children into the idea and practice of true and universal justice is ever to be done. Oh that we may be wise and faithful In our work, till our priceless heritage of liberty be enjoyed by every human being in our land.

Maria P. Codding.

Cordially yours,

IOWA.

Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Most gladly does my heart respond to the call, and most earnestly do I hope that the deliberations on that occasion will result in much good to women and to the cause you meet to promote. The women of the North are charged by the press with a lack of zeal and enthusiasm in the war. This charge may be true to some extent. Though for the most part they are loyal to their Government, and in favor of sustaining its every measure for putting down the rebellion; yet they do not, I fear, enter fully into the spirit of the women of the Revolution. There are many women in whose hearts the love of country and of justice is strong, and who are willing to incur any loss, and make almost any sacrifice, rather than the rebellion should succeed and the chains of the bondman be more firmly rivetted. If they manifest less enthusiasm than their patriotic brothers, it is because they have not so great opportunity for its exercise. The customs of society do not permit any strong or noisy demonstration of feeling on the part of woman; but the blood of Revolutionary sires flows as purely in her veins, and she can feel as deeply, suffer as intensely, and endure as bravely as her more favored brothers. But I would have her do more than suffer and endure; I would that she should not only resolve to stand by the Government in its work of defeating the schemes of its enemies, but that she should let her voice go forth in clear and unmistakable tones against any peace with rebels, except upon the basis of entire submission to the authority of the Government. Against the schemes and plans of the Peace party in the North, let loyal women everywhere protest. That your deliberations may be characterized by good judgment, sound wisdom, and true patriotism, is my heartfelt prayer.

Amelia Bloomer.

MINNESOTA.

Hokah, Houston Co., Minn., May 13, 1863.

To Susan B. Anthony—Dear Madam:— ... While the women of the South, with a heroism and self-denial worthy a better cause, have no doubt aided in fanning the flame of rebellion, it appears to me eminently proper that the loyal women of the North should meet in council to express their sentiments in regard to the great principles of humanity and justice. Many of us have sons and brothers on the tented field, and while we[Pg 887] deplore the stern necessity that drew them from the endearments of home; while we tremble with anxiety lest the mournful tidings that have saddened so many hearts should fall with crushing weight on ourselves, a voice from the army comes to us with thrilling earnestness that awakens with redoubled vigor the feeling of patriotism within us. Our noble soldiery are taking a stand on the broad platform of universal liberty and justice. With scathing words they have rebuked the traitors in our midst; and they now breathe out threatenings and slaughter to the miscreants who would rend the fair heritage transmitted to us by the heroes of the Revolution.

May every patriotic woman in the land do her utmost to uphold and strengthen the holy purpose that inspires the loyal heart of the army. For myself, I regard no sacrifice too great that will conduct to the comfort of the brave men who are risking life and limb in the sacred cause of freedom; and I am proud to say that this is the sentiment of every lady within the circle of my acquaintance. I most sincerely hope that some lady in your Convention will offer a resolution touching a great wrong that has been practiced toward our sick and wounded soldiers in some of the hospitals, namely, the neglect of the proper officers to affix their signatures to discharges made out, in many instances for a long time, until the hope of once more seeing the dear ones at home has faded from the heart of the poor soldier, and he has laid him down to die among strangers, when but for this cruel neglect his life might, perhaps, have been spared to bless the dear ones at home, or at least have given them the great boon of smoothing his passage to the grave. I believe this thing has done much to discourage enlistments. Is there no remedy? I leave it to those of more influence and superior judgment to decide.

With sentiments of respect, I subscribe myself a loyal woman,

Mary C. Pound.

KANSAS.

Quindaro, Kansas, May 4, 1863.

My Dear Miss Anthony:—Your call to the loyal women of the nation meets my hearty response. I have been feeling for months that their activities, in the crisis which is upon us, should not be limited to the scraping of lint and concocting of delicacies for our brave and suffering soldiers. Women, equally with men, should address themselves to the removing of the wicked cause of all this terrible sacrifice of life and its loving, peaceful issues. It is their privilege to profit by the lessons being taught at such a fearful cost. And discerning clearly the mistakes of the past, it is their duty to apply themselves cheerfully and perseveringly to the eradication of every wrong and the restoration of every right, as affecting directly or indirectly the progress of the race toward the divine standard of human intelligence and goodness. No sacrifice of right, no conservation of wrong, should be the rally-call of mothers whose sons must vindicate the one and expiate the other in blood! Negro slavery is but one of the protean forms of disfranchised humanity. Class legislation is the one great fountain of national and domestic antagonisms. Every ignoring of inherent rights, every transfer of inherent interest, from the first organization of communities, has been the license of power to robbery and murder, itself the embodiment of a thievish and murderous selfishness.

That the disenfranchisement of the women of '76 destroyed the moral guarantee of a pure republic, or that their enfranchisement would early have broken the chains of the slave, I may not now discuss. Yet it may be well to note that ever since freedom and slavery joined issue in this Government, the women of the free States have been a conceded majority, almost a unit, against slavery, as if verifying the declaration of God in the garden, "I will put enmity between thee (Satan) and the woman." Every legal invasion of rights, forming a precedent and source of infinite series of resultant wrongs, makes it the duty of woman to persist in demanding the right, that she may abate the wrong—and first her own enfranchisement. The national life is in peril, and woman is constitutionally disabled from rushing to her country's rescue. Robbery and arson invade her home; and though man is powerless to protect, she may not save it by appeals to the ballot-box.

A hundred thousand loyal voters of Illinois are grappling with the traitors of the South. If the hundred thousand loyal women left in their homes had been armed with ballots, copperhead treason would not have wrested the influence of that State to the aid and comfort[Pg 888] of the rebellion. If the women of Iowa had been legally empowered to meet treason at home, the wasteful expense of canvassing distant battle-fields for the soldiers' votes might have been saved. And it would have been easier for these women to vote than to pay their proportion of the tax incurred. Yankee thrift and shrewdness would have been vindicated if Connecticut had provided for the enfranchisement of her women by constitutional amendment, instead of wasting her money and butting her dignity against judicial vetoes in legislating for the absent soldiers' vote.

This war is adding a vast army of widows and orphans to this already large class of unrepresented humanity. Shall the women who have been judged worthy and capable to discharge the duties of both parents to their children, be longer denied the legal and political rights held necessary to the successful discharge of a part even of these duties by men? With these few hasty suggestions, and an earnest prayer for the highest wisdom and purest love to guide and vitalize your deliberations, sisters, I bid you farewell.

C. I. H. Nichols.

BUSINESS MEETING.

New York Tribune's Report of the Adjourned Business Meeting of the Woman's Loyal National League, held Friday Afternoon, May 15, 1863.

The Business Committee of the Loyal League of Women, with a number of ladies who take an interest in the formation of such a society, met yesterday afternoon in the Lecture-Room of the Church of the Puritans, for the purpose of agreeing upon some definite platform, and of determining the future operations of the League.

Miss Susan B. Anthony, as President of the Business Committee, took the chair, and at 3 o'clock called the meeting to order.

Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton rose to decline accepting the nomination she had received on Thursday, as President of the League. She could not pledge herself to unconditional loyalty to the Government—certainly not if the Government took any retrogressive step. As President of the National League, many might object to her on account of what they termed her isms, her radical Anti-Slavery and Woman's Rights, her demand for liberty and equality for women and negroes. She desired the vote by which she had been made President might be reconsidered.

Miss Anthony thought there were fears of the Government retrogressing in the policy of Freedom. The question is every day discussed in the papers as to what terms the South shall be received back again. She could not be Secretary of a League which was pledged to unconditional loyalty to the Government, until the Government was pledged to unconditional loyalty to Freedom. Miss Anthony then read the following pledge and resolutions, which had, on Thursday, been partially agreed to:

THE PLEDGE.

We, the undersigned women of the nation, do hereby pledge ourselves loyal to justice and humanity, and to the Government in so far as it makes the war a war for freedom.

RESOLUTIONS.

Resolved, That we rejoice in the local Women's Leagues already formed, and earnestly recommend their organization throughout the country; and that we urge the women everywhere to take the highest ground of patriotism—our country right, not wrong.

Resolved, That we hail the Conscription Act as necessary for the salvation of the country, and cheerfully resign to it our husbands, lovers, brothers, and sons.

Resolved, That inasmuch as this war must bring freedom to the black man, it is but just that he should share in the glory and hardships of the struggle.

Miss Anthony explained what a National League was, and what business and pecuniary responsibilities it entailed.

Mrs. Angelina G. Weld suggested that before entering on other matters, the question of officers should be settled.

Miss Anthony:—Will some one put the motion?

Mrs. Loveland took the floor. She stated that she had come there the day before with one idea—only one—and that she retained that one idea still, and that was that the women of the nation should pledge themselves to stand by the Conscription Act. Mrs. Loveland[Pg 889] trusted that the League would co-operate with the laws of the land, and strengthen the hands of the President in his efforts to vigorous prosecute the war. She thought the Government had made great advances in the path of progress. If the pledge required the war to be waged for freedom, that was all that was necessary. It would be desirable to secure the experience and ability of Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony in the offices to which they have been elected, she did not believe their isms would do any hurt. They were earnest and efficient workers, and the League needed them.

Miss Willard, of Pa., thought there was a way to get over the difficulty. The pledge is conditional to the extent of requiring the war to be a war for freedom. Miss Willard said she was a true patriot. She loved her country. She had borne with its defects, though she confessed she had sometimes desired to remove them. She believed in sustaining the Government, though if Vallandigham should chance to be elected President, she really didn't know what she should do.

Miss Willard seemed to think that the pledge offered would do under the existing Administration. When there is a change, we can have another League. She believed if the President was slow he was sure, and that he was the Moses who was to lead this people to their promised land of freedom.

Several desultory remarks were made in the audience. Presently an elderly lady—a Mrs. Maginley—arose and expressed her opinions. She had confidence in Mr. Lincoln, but denounced Gen. Banks, who, she said, was a hero in one place and a slave-driver in another. As next President, we may get a ditch-digger—(Mrs. M. evidently intended this as a sly allusion to a distinguished military chieftain)—and then what are we to do? She wished to know who, loving the black man, could take this pledge?

Miss Anthony read the pledge over previous to putting it on its passage. It was adopted without opposition.

Miss Anthony read the resolutions again.

Mrs. Spence asked if the Government had acted in a way to inspire confidence. She was not satisfied with the Emancipation Proclamation.

Mrs. Stanton had faith that the Government was moving in the right direction.

Mrs. Spence objected to Mr. Lincoln's grounds for issuing the Proclamation.

Mrs. Weld stated that he said he did it on the ground of justice.

Miss Willard believed Mr. Lincoln was working as fast as he could. A man going a journey of a mile did not do it all in one jump. He had to get over the ground step by step. Just so with the President. We must not expect him to do all at once.

The first resolution was unanimously passed. The resolution in regard to the Conscription Act was then taken up.

Mrs. Spence asked (for information) whether they were willing to receive the Conscription law as it was? What did they think of the $300 clause about substitutes? Some lovers (Mrs. Spence said lovers, not husbands) would certainly buy themselves off.

Mrs. Stanton would accept the Conscription law because it was necessary—not because it was just in all its provisions.

Mrs. Spence: If your husbands propose to pay three hundred dollars, would you urge them to go themselves?

Mrs. Stanton: We shall urge them to go as to the post of glory.

Mrs. Loveland would urge her husband. She was very severe on the skedaddlers to Canada and Europe. Still, all the European conscription laws permitted some kind of substitution. Her idea was that as the men must go to the war now, the women should give tone to its music.

A Lady: If the men would give themselves, why not freely? Is a conscription itself consistent with freedom?

Miss Willard, while believing in certain cases of exemption, liked the conscription because it would take in the copperheads. (Applause).

The Lady: What kind of soldiers would copperheads make?

Mrs. Loveland: Good soldiers! Men who have the courage they have to brave public opinion, would make good soldiers if put in the ranks with bayonets behind them. (Applause).

Mr. Giles B. Stebbins, of Rochester, reported, as information, the mistake lately[Pg 890] made in The New York Times that the $300 substitution indemnity was in the discretion of the Secretary of War.

The resolution was thereupon moved by Miss Willard, seconded by Mrs. Stanton, and passed unanimously.

An address to the soldiers, prepared by Angelina Grimké Weld, was then read.

Soldiers of our Second Revolution—Brethren:—A thousand of your sisters, in a convention representing the Loyal Women of the Nation, greet you with profound gratitude. Your struggles, sufferings, daring, heroic self-devotion, and sublime achievements, we exult in them all.

To you, especially, whose terms of service have expired, or are soon to expire, we desire to speak of the shifting scenes now acting in the nation's tragedy. This war of slavery against freedom did not begin with the first shot at Sumter, it did not begin when the slaveocracy broke up the Charleston Convention, in order to secure the election of Mr. Lincoln, and thus palm upon the Southern masses a false pretense for rebellion. It did not begin with nullification in 1832, nor in the Convention that framed the Federal Constitution; nor yet in that which adopted the Articles of Confederation; but it began in 1620, when the Mayflower landed our fathers on Plymouth Rock, and the first slave-ship landed its human cargo in Virginia. Then, for the first time, liberty and slavery stood face to face on this continent. From then till now, these antagonisms have struggled in incessant conflict. Two years since, the slaveocracy, true to their instincts of violence, after long and secret plotting, crowned their perfidy by perjury, by piratical seizures of Government property that cost $100,000,000, and then burst into open rebellion.

This war is not, as the South falsely pretends, a war of races, nor of sections, nor of political parties, but a war of Principles; a war upon the working-classes, whether white or black; a war against Man, the world over. In this war, the black man was the first victim; the workingman of whatever color the next; and now all who contend for the rights of labor, for free speech, free schools, free suffrage, and a free government, securing to all life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, are driven to do battle in defense of these or to fall with them, victims of the same violence that for two centuries has held the black man a prisoner of war. While the South has waged this war against human rights, the North has stood by holding the garments of those who were stoning liberty to death. It was in vain that a few at the North denounced the system, and called the people to repentance. In vain did they point to the progress of the slave power, and warn the people that their own liberties were being cloven down. The North still went on, throwing sop after sop to the Cerberus of slavery that hounded her through the wilderness of concession and compromise, until the crash of Sumter taught her that with the slaveocracy no rights are sacred. The Government, attacked by assassins, was forced to fight for its own life. The progress of the war has proved that slavery is the life-blood of the rebellion. Hence the necessity of the President's Proclamation of Freedom to the slaves.

The nation is in a death-struggle. It must either become one vast slaveocracy of petty tyrants, or wholly the land of the free. The traitors boast that they have swept from the national firmament one-third of its stars, but they have only darkened them with clouds, which the sun of liberty will scatter, revealing behind them the eternal pillars of Justice, emblazoned with liberty, equality, fraternity.

Soldiers of this revolution, to your hands is committed the sacred duty of carrying out in these latter days the ideal of our fathers, which was to secure to all "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," and to every State "a republican form of government." To break the power of this rebellion, calls for every available force. You know how extensively black men are now being armed. Some regiments are already in the field; twenty more are now under drill. Will you not, in this hour of national peril, gratefully welcome the aid which they so eagerly proffer, to overthrow that slave power which has so long ruled the North, and now, that you spurn its sway, is bent on crushing you? Will you not abjure that vulgar hate which has conspired with slavery against liberty in our land, and thus roll from the sepulcher, where they have buried it alive, the stone which has so long imprisoned their victim? The army of the North will thus become[Pg 891] the angel of deliverance, rescuing the nation from the shifting sands of compromise, and refounding it upon the rock of justice.

Some of you have been mustered out of service; many more are soon to return to your homes. All hail to you! Honor and gratitude for what you have done and suffered! Enough if you have only been fighting for the Union as it was. But is it enough, if the work for which the war is now prosecuted is not accomplished? Your country needs your power of soldierly endurance and accomplishment, your hard-earned experience, your varied tact and trained skill, your practiced eye and hand—in a word, all that makes you veterans, ripe in discipline and educated power. Raw recruits can not fill your places. Brave men! your mission, though far advanced, is not accomplished. You will not, can not, abide at home, while your brethren in arms carry victory and liberty down to the Gulf.

With joy and admiration we greet you on your homeward way, while your loved ones await your coming with mingled delight and pride. When, after a brief sojourn, you go back again, convoyed by the grateful acclaim and God-speed of millions, to consummate at Freedom's call her holy work, the mightiest of all time, and now so near its end, with exultant shouts your brothers in the field will hail your coming to share with them the glory of the final victory. It will be the victory of free government, sacred rights, justice, liberty, and law, over the perfidies, perjuries, lying pretenses, and frantic revelries in innocent blood, of the foulest national crime that ever reeked to heaven—the overthrow of the most atrocious yet the meanest despotism that ever tortured the groaning earth.

In behalf of the Women's National Loyal League.

E. Cady Stanton, President.

Susan B. Anthony, Secretary.

Mrs. Stanton: I suppose it is known to all present that Angelina Grimké Weld is the representative from South Carolina. Contrast her eloquent pleadings for freedom, throughout the sittings of our Convention, with the voice of South Carolina, when, at the framing of the Constitution, slavery, with its cruel creeds and codes, was fastened on the Republic just struggling into life. Here, for the first time in our history, have the women of the nation assembled to discuss the political questions of the day, and to decide where and how to throw the weight of their influence. I am proud to feel that from this meeting goes forth a united demand for freedom to all, for a true Republic, in which the rights of every citizen shall be recognized and protected.

THE PLATFORM OF THE LEAGUE.

Resolved, That our work as a National League is to educate the nation into the true idea of a Christian Republic.

This is the resolve finally adopted. Considerable preliminary debate, in which many ladies joined, took place on details of form and phraseology. The resolve as it stands was constructed by Mrs. Stanton, with the exception of the word "Christian."

There was an earnest discussion on the introduction of the word Christian; some argued that a true Republic, where every human being's rights were recognized, could but be Christian. A Mrs. McFarland seemed to settle the question, by stating a fact of history, that in olden times there were Pagan Republics.

Miss Anthony said: No matter if it were a mere tautology: it required repetition to make this nation, so steeped in crime against humanity, understand. She then spoke of the awful lie of this nation, in naming itself Civilized, Republican, Christian, while it had made barter of men and women, bought and sold children of the Good Father, and paid their price to send missionaries to the Fejee Islands and the remotest corners of the earth, while it stood bound to fine and imprison any man or woman who should teach any one of four millions of its own citizens at home to read the letters that spell the word God. It would take long years to educate this nation into the idea and practice of a true, Christian Republic. It was a momentous work the women of this National Loyal League had undertaken. And she hoped one and all would take in its full import, and dedicate themselves fully and earnestly to the work.

Officers of the Women's Loyal National League.—President, Mrs. E. Cady Stanton; Vice-Presidents, Mrs. Col. A. B. Eaton, Mrs. Edward S. Bates, Mrs. Mary S.[Pg 892] Hall; Secretary, Susan B. Anthony; Corresponding Secretary, S. E. Draper; Treasurer, Mrs. H. F. Conrad; Executive Committee, Miss Mattie Griffith, Miss R. K. Shepherd Mrs. B. Peters, Mrs. C. S. Lozier, M.D., Mrs. Mary A. Halsted, Mrs. Laura M. Ward, M.D., Mrs. Mary F. Gilbert.

Plan of Work Adopted by the Women's Loyal National League.—At a meeting of the Women's Loyal National League, held at their office, room 20, Cooper Institute, May 29, the following resolutions were adopted:

Resolved, That the following be the official title and the pledge of the League—the pledge to be signed by all applicants for membership: "Women's Loyal National League, organized in the city of New York, May 14, 1863."

We, the undersigned, women of the United States, agree to become members of the Women's Loyal National League, hereby pledging our most earnest influence in support of the Government in its prosecution of the war for freedom and for the restoration of the national unity.

Resolved, That for the present this League will concentrate all its efforts upon the single object of procuring to be signed by one million women and upward, and of preparing for presentation to Congress, within the first week of its next session, a petition in the following words, to wit:

"To the Senate and House of 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 descent held to involuntary service or labor in the United States."

Resolved, That in furtherance of the above object the Executive Committee of this League be instructed to cause to be prepared and stereotyped a pamphlet, not exceeding four printed octavo pages, briefly and plainly setting forth the importance of such a movement at the present juncture—a copy of the said pamphlet to be placed in the hands of each person who may undertake to procure signatures to the above petition, and for such further distribution as may be ordered by the said Executive Committee.

Resolved, That to a committee of nine, to be hereafter appointed by the President and Secretary of this League, be intrusted the duty of procuring subscriptions to defray the expenses connected with the preparation, and signature, and presentation of the said petition.

June 5.

Resolved, That all bills be submitted for approval to the Executive Committee, and if approved, shall be certified as such by the Chairman of that Committee.

Resolved, That for the amount of each bill so approved the Secretary shall draw on the Treasurer in favor of the person presenting such bill.

June 12.

Resolved, That as nearly the same labor and expense are required to obtain signatures of women alone as of both men and women, the Secretary be requested to prepare and circulate petitions for men also.

June 26.

Resolved, That the probable expense of preparing, circulating, and presenting our petitions, will amount to not less than one cent for each name; therefore,

Resolved, That we request those who circulate the petition, to solicit of each person signing a contribution of one cent, and forward the same with petition and signatures to our Secretary, Susan B. Anthony, Room No. 20, Cooper Institute, New York.

Resolved, That the Central League in New York will bestow their badge and membership, as a gift, upon each boy or girl, under eighteen, who shall collect and forward to them fifty or more names, and as many cents.

Resolved, also, That the Central League will bestow a handsomely bound copy of each of the celebrated and recently published works of Augustin Cochin on Slavery and Emancipation, on the person who shall collect and forward the largest number of signatures from any city of the Union having a population of twenty-five thousand; also, on the[Pg 893] person who shall collect the largest number of names in any of the States, outside of said cities.

Resolved, That each lady to whom the pledge and petition blanks are inclosed be requested to bring them to the notice of the clergymen and teachers in her vicinity, with a request that they shall take some action in the matter.

Resolved, That such ladies are earnestly requested to organize Auxiliary Leagues in their towns and neighborhoods, for the purposes of correspondence with the Central League, and of collecting and forwarding with facility names and money for the furtherance of the grand object in view; also, for holding meetings to discuss and elucidate the necessity of our demand for an act of Universal Emancipation.

A hearty co-operation from our women in all parts of the loyal States is most earnestly invited. We would urge upon them the formation of auxiliary Leagues, which shall receive from us blanks for petitions, and pledges, as well as any information or advice they may need. We ask them not only to form Leagues in their own towns and neighborhoods, but to send us up long lists of names as members of the Grand Central League.

We beg them also to solicit and send contributions, small and large, as they may be able, for the promotion of the object of the League, viz: to end this fearful war by the removal of its exciting cause—Slavery.

In making this call upon loyal women, we feel sure of meeting with a warm response from those whose hearts and energies have already so nobly sprung to meet their country's need in her hour of trial.

E. Cady Stanton,
President of the League.

Susan B. Anthony, Secretary.

COMMENTS OF THE PRESS.

The New York Tribune thus speaks of this enterprise:

A VAST ENTERPRISE PROPOSED BY WOMEN.

The "Women's Loyal National League," recently organized in this city, at a meeting held by them yesterday at the Cooper Institute, adopted the following resolutions:

Resolved, That for the present this League will concentrate all its efforts upon the single object of procuring to be signed by one million women and upward, and of preparing for presentation to Congress within the first week of its next session, a petition in the following words, to wit:

To the Senate and House of 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 descent held to involuntary service or labor in the United States.

The women of the League have shown practical wisdom in restricting their efforts to one object, the most important, perhaps, which any Society can aim at; and great courage in undertaking to do what, so far as we remember, has never been done in the world before, namely, to obtain one million of names to a petition. If they succeed, the moral influence on Congress ought and can not fail to be great. The passage by the next Congress of an act of general emancipation would do more than any one thing for the suppression of the rebellion. As things now stand with slaves declared free in eight States of the Union, with two more States (Virginia and Louisiana) partly free and partly slave, and with the Border States still slave, we have a state of affairs resulting in interminable confusion, and which, in the very nature of things, can not continue to exist. Congress may find a way out of such confusion by an act of Compensated Emancipation, with the consent of these States and parts of States. God speed the circulation and signatures of the Women's Petition! The pledge of the League is commendably brief and to the point, reading as follows:[Pg 894]

"We, the undersigned, women of the United States, agree to become members of the 'Women's Loyal National League,' hereby pledging our most earnest influence in support of the Government in its prosecution of the war for freedom and for the restoration of the national unity."

The office of the League is Room No. 20, Cooper Institute. Let all loyal women, friendly to Emancipation, join their ranks, and devote what spare time they may have to this noble work.

The New York Times published the following:

A MONSTER PETITION PROPOSED.

To the Editor of the New York Times:

Until the advent of the present struggle, the word loyalty was hardly known among us, and though we often spoke of the Union, we seldom used the term national unity. With new phases of society new terms come into vogue. We have now, springing up everywhere, Loyal National Leagues, and great good they are doing. They have, so far, been chiefly set on foot by men, but women are now bestirring themselves in the same direction. Quite recently, a Woman's Loyal National League has been organized in this city....

The prudence of the members of this League is to be commended, first, in selecting a single object on which to concentrate their exertions, and secondly, in selecting as that object the of procuring an act of Congress declaring general emancipation, than which nothing is more needed at the present time, not only as an endorsement of the President's Proclamation, but also as a remedy for the utter confusion produced by the present state of affairs, under which it would puzzle the shrewdest lawyer to determine who, among the fugitives that are daily flocking to us across the lines, is free, and who still a slave. As a permanent arrangement, no one believes that a few counties in one State, and a few parishes in another, can remain slave, while all around them emancipation has been accomplished; nor that slavery can endure, except for a brief season, along a narrow border-strip, bounded North and South by freedom.

Whether these ladies will succeed in the task of procuring one million of names to their petition, depends chiefly on their business talent in organizing the machinery of so great an undertaking. R.

The New York Evening Post says:

AN IMPORTANT UNDERTAKING.

It has sometimes been made a reproach to the women of the Northern States, that while their sisters of the South are the very life of the rebellion, exceeding the men in zeal and devotion and self-sacrifice, they, with a noble cause against a base one, show less zeal, less earnestness, do less to animate and inspire the combatants; in short, are less active in maintaining the Union than the ladies of the Slave States in working to destroy it.

If, however, the members of the "Women's Loyal National League," an association recently commenced in this city, succeed in what they have just undertaken, it will go far to show that there is neither lukewarmness nor lack of energy in the women of the North; and that, in practical industry exerted in aid of the war and the Government, they are not to be outmatched by the zeal of the fair mischief-makers who oppose both....

We learn that the League has already obtained several thousand names and addresses of persons and societies throughout the Northern and Border States who are favorable to emancipation, to whom they propose to address their circulars; and that they are organizing, after a business fashion, the machinery necessary to effect their object in the six months still intervening before the meeting of Congress. It is a great undertaking, this obtaining of one million signatures, such an undertaking as has seldom if ever been carried out before. If it succeeds it will obtain record in the history of the time as an enterprise most honorable to the sex which conceived and completed it.

The pledge of the League is well worded and judicious....

Such Leagues ought to be, and we trust will be, organized all over the country, in aid of the mammoth petition. Without having made any accurate calculation, we doubt[Pg 895] whether less than four stout men could carry the roll comprising a million names into the House to which it is addressed.

The Philadelphia Press says:

SPIRIT OF NORTHERN WOMEN.

It is a great country, this of ours. Great events occur in it. Great things are to be found in it. Where shall we find another Niagara? Where a cave of dimensions equal to those of the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky? Since California has been added we have her gigantic pines, towering above all other trees in the world. We can not make war, but we must carry it on upon a scale unknown since the days of Xerxes. Our women, too, it would seem, catch the spirit of the country. Until now they have chiefly been known, throughout the great national struggle, in the capacity of sisters of mercy, tenders in hospitals, collectors of comforts and of little luxuries for our sick and wounded. We find them laboring now in a new field. They, called the weaker sex, and properly so called, if thews and sinews constitute strength, have undertaken to do more than to care for the sick and wounded. They seek to aid in striking at the root of the evil whence has arisen the strife which causes the sickness of the hospital and the wounds of the battle-field. They have undertaken a task beyond that which the sturdy Chartists of England performed. The Chartist Petition, if we remember aright, had seven or eight hundred thousand names—the largest number ever obtained to a petition. But our Northern women have undertaken to procure one million of names to a Petition for Emancipation, and to complete their task in the next six months. The article from The Tribune, elsewhere, will be read with interest.

The National Anti-Slavery Standard comments:

THE WOMEN'S LOYAL LEAGUE—MAMMOTH PETITION TO CONGRESS.

The Women's Loyal National League, at a meeting held at their Room in the Cooper Institute on Friday, the 29th ult., changed the form of their pledge, so that it now reads as follows:

This, it strikes us, is a much happier wording than that of the former pledge....

The women of the League have embarked in an enterprise worthy of their energy and devotion, and we will not allow ourselves to doubt that they will meet with complete success. It will require some money and a great deal of hard work, but their courage and patience will be found adequate to the task. They will find a helper in every woman who loves justice and humanity, and realizes that there can be no permanent peace for the country until slavery is exterminated root and branch. The moral influence upon Congress and the nation of such a petition, signed by a million of women, will be incalculable; while the agitation attending the effort will be of the greatest benefit.

Women willing to aid in circulating the petition should send their address at once to Susan B. Anthony, Secretary of the League, 20 Cooper Institute, New York.

Office of the Women's Loyal National League, }
Room No. 20, Cooper Institute, New York, January 25, 1864. }

The Women's Loyal National League, to the Women of the Republic:—We ask you to sign and circulate this petition for the entire abolition of slavery. We have now one hundred thousand signatures, but we want a million before Congress adjourns. Remember the President's Proclamation reaches only the slaves of rebels. The jails of loyal Kentucky are to-day "crammed" with Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama slaves, advertised to be sold for their jail fees "according to law," precisely as before the war! While slavery exists anywhere there can be freedom nowhere. There must be a law abolishing slavery. We have undertaken to canvass the nation for freedom. Women, you can not vote or fight for your country. Your only way to be a power in the Government is through the exercise of this, one, sacred, constitutional "right of petition"; and we ask you to use it now to the utmost. Go to the rich, the poor, the high, the low,[Pg 896] the soldier, the civilian, the white, the black—gather up the names of all who hate slavery—all who love liberty, and would have it the law of the land—and lay them at the feet of Congress, your silent but potent vote for human freedom guarded by law.

You have shown true courage and self-sacrifice from the beginning of the war. You have been angels of mercy to our sick and dying soldiers in camp and hospital, and on the battle field. But let it not be said that the women of the republic, absorbed in ministering to the outward alone, saw not the philosophy of the revolution through which they passed; understood not the moral struggle that convulsed the nation—the irrepressible conflict between liberty and slavery. Remember the angels of mercy and justice are twin-sisters, and ever walk hand in hand. While you give yourselves so generously to the Sanitary and Freemen's Commissions forget not to hold up the eternal principles on which our republic rests. Slavery once abolished, our brothers, husbands, and sons will never again, for its sake, be called to die on the battle-field, starve in rebel prisons, or return to us crippled for life; but our country, free from the one blot that has always marred its fair escutcheon, will be an example to all the world that "righteousness exalteth a nation." The God of Justice is with us, and our word, our work—our prayer for freedom—will not, can not be in vain.

E. Cady Stanton, President.

Susan B. Anthony, Secretary W. L. N. League, Room 20, Cooper Institute, N. Y.

Office of the Women's Loyal National League }
Room No. 20, Cooper Institute, N. Y., April 7, 1864. }

Dear Friend:—With this you will receive a Form of a Petition 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 petition 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 petitions 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 God, 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 constitutional 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 bloody, desolating war shall be arrested and ended, by the immediate and final removal, by Statute Law and amended Constitution, 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."

Susan B. Anthony, Secretary.

In behalf of the Women's League,

[Pg 897]

FORM OF PETITION.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled:

The undersigned, citizens of ——, believing slavery the great cause of the present rebellion, and an institution 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 Constitution, 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, Saturday 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 petitions, then the assorting, 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 petitions 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 Emancipation or Amendment bill has yet passed 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 institutions 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 Institute.

Amend the Constitution.—The Women's National League have just sent out, all through the States, fifteen thousand petitions, with an appeal to have them filled up and returned as speedily as possible. The bill to amend the Constitution so as to prohibit the holding of slaves in any part of the country has passed 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 petition 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 petitions be mailed to Washington, 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.

The Necessity for Funds—The Delinquency of the Friends of the Negro—Miss Anthony on the Constitution—Fighting, a Barbaric way of Settling Questions.—About fifteen ladies and[Pg 898] half a dozen gentlemen were present at the meeting of the Woman's League, yesterday. Although more than one of the speakers bewailed the delinquency of the "friends of the negro" in failing to supply the League with the necessary funds, yet the piles of post-paid circulars on the tables, ready for the mail, were larger than ever. There was also a bundle of tracts on emancipation as the only means of peace.

The meeting being called to order, a committee reported a series of resolutions, the gist of which was that, whereas the League is continually receiving from its friends to whom it applies for pecuniary assistance communications stating that the day for petition and discussion is past, and that the bullet and bayonet are now working out the stern logic of events; nevertheless the League considers that such day is not past, and it urges the friends of the negro to come forward boldly and pour out of their abundance liberally for its aid.

SPEECH BY MISS SUSAN B. ANTHONY.

Miss Susan B. Anthony made a speech arguing that the decision of the anti-slavery question should not be left to the "stern logic of events" which is wrought by the bullet and the bayonet. More knowledge is needed. The eyes and the ears of the whole public are now open. It should be the earnest work of every lover of freedom to give those eyes the right thing to see and those ears the right thing to hear. It pains her to receive in answer to a call for assistance and funds, letters saying that the day for discussion and petition is past. It looks as if we had returned to the old condition of barbarism, where no way is known of settling questions except by fighting. Women, who are noted for having control of the moral department of society and for lifting the other half of the race into a higher moral condition, should not relapse into the idea that the status of any human being is to be settled merely by the sword. Miss Anthony then spoke of the constitutional right of Congress to pass an emancipation law. She read a letter from a lady who, on receiving documents from the League, first doubted the power of Congress to pass such a law; then she thought perhaps it had; then she compared the petition and the Constitution; then she thought it had no such power, and finally she concluded to circulate the petition anyhow. Miss Anthony proceeded at some length to expound the Constitution, showing that it does not say that slaves shall not be emancipated, and therefore concluding that they may. But if Congress can not emancipate slaves constitutionally, it should do so unconstitutionally. She does not believe in this red-tapism that can not find a law to suppress the wrong, but always finds one to oppress the innocent. If she was a mayor, or a governor, or a legislator, and there was no law to punish mobocrats, she thought she should go to work to make one pretty quick. She requested the opinion of some gentleman.

A gentleman present related a number of touching incidents about the recent mobbing of negroes in this city, most of which have already appeared in print in this and other papers. Miss Anthony held up two photographs to the view of the audience. One represented "Sojourner Truth," the heroine of one of Mrs. H. B. Stowe's tales, and the other the bare back of a Louisiana slave. Many of the audience were affected to tears. "Sojourner Truth" had lost three fingers of one hand, and the Louisiana slave's back bore scars of whipping. She asked every one to suppose that woman was her mother, and that man her father. In that case would they think the time past for discussion and petition? The resolutions were at once unanimously passed. The meeting adjourned.

Miss Anthony in Chicago.

Miss Susan B. Anthony is now on her homeward way from Kansas, where she has been spending several of the past months, and where she has performed much excellent service in the cause of the freedmen of the country generally. She has recently visited Chicago and given a lecture, which is highly commended by the Tribune and Republican of that city, the latter giving an extended report of it in its columns, besides pronouncing upon it very flattering encomiums, concluding with these words: "The audience dwelt with thoughtful and marked interest upon her words, and when occasionally her remarks called forth an irrepressible burst of feeling, the applause was marked and emphatic, without descending to a noisy disturbance." Of the lecture in general, the Chicago Tribune thus speaks:[Pg 899]

Last evening Miss Susan B. Anthony, of Rochester, N. Y., addressed an audience composed chiefly of colored people, in Quinn's Chapel. Her subject was "Universal Suffrage." Mrs. Jones, the President of the Ladies' Aid Society, in introducing her, said: "She was one of their old and firm friends; not one who had believed in sitting down to the communion first, and letting the negro come last. She was not one who needed to have her father or brothers starved in Southern prisons, to make her aware of the humanity of the black man."

Miss Anthony is a clear, logical speaker, earnest and truthful, and has long considered the questions of the day. Few men in this or any other city could more ably present the subject, or more closely chain the audience that listened to her noble utterances, and one could not but wish that she had spoken to thousands rather than hundreds. Miss A. is recently from Leavenworth, Kansas, where she has been spending some months past, aiding as she had opportunity, in the elevation of the freed people, and occasionally by lectures, contributing to form a true public sentiment in that new State. Consequently, she speaks from absolute knowledge of the present state of the freedmen. Her criticism of the theories of reconstruction was masterly, showing that the fundamental principles of this Government are set aside and really endanger all that we have seemed to gain by the war, and that nothing but the admission of the black man to the franchise can save the nation from future disgrace and ultimate ruin.—National Anti-Slavery Standard, August, 1865.

CHAPTER XVIII.

NATIONAL CONVENTIONS, 1866 AND 1867.

Report made to the Eleventh National Woman's Rights Convention.

BY CAROLINE H. DALL.

For the last five years the women of the United States have held few public discussions. They have done wisely. Circumstances have proved their friend. Nothing ever had done, nothing ever will do again, so great a service to woman in so short a time, as this dreadful war out of which we are so slowly emerging. Respect for woman came only with the absolute need of her, and so many women of distinguished ability made themselves of service to the Government, that we had no single woman to honor as England had honored Florence Nightingale. With us her name was legion. But with the prospect of peace comes the old duty of agitation, and we find ourselves again summoned to a Convention, and again anxiously awaiting its results—anxiously, for a convention of women is an object which still attracts the gaze of the curious, and the smallest indiscretion on the part of a single speaker has a retrograde effect which few women seem able to measure.

Our reform is unlike all others, for it must begin in the family, at the very heart of society. If it be not kindly, temperately, and thoughtfully conducted, men everywhere will be able to justify their remonstrances. Let us rather justify ourselves. My last report to any Convention was made to those called in Boston in 1859 and 1860. Between that time and 1863 I printed five volumes, which are nothing but reports upon the various interests significant to our cause. During the last four years I have watched the development of American industry in its relation to women, and have, through the newspapers, aroused public feeling in their behalf. My labor is naturally classed under the three heads of Education, Labor, and Law. A proper education must prepare woman for labor, skilled or manual; and the experience of a laborer should introduce her to citizenship, for it provides her with rights to protect, privileges to secure, and property to be taxed. If she is a laborer, she must have an interest in the laws which control labor. In considering our position in these three respects, it is impossible to offer you[Pg 900] a digest of all that has occurred during the last six years. What I have to say will refer chiefly to the events of the last two.

EDUCATION.

I wish it were in my power to furnish you with reports of the present condition of all the female colleges in the United States; but, while I receive from various foreign sources such reports, and am promptly informed of any educational movement in Europe, it never seems to occur to the government of such institutions in the United States that there is any necessary connection between them and the interests which this Convention represents. We are, consequently, dependent upon newspapers for our information.

The most important educational movement of the last year has been the formation of an American Social Science Association, with four departments, and two women on its Board of Directors. Subsequently, the Boston Social Science Association was organized, with seven departments, and seven women on its Board of Directors, one woman being assigned to each department, including that of law. Any woman in the United States can become a member of this Association. If the opportunities it offers are not seized, it will be the fault of women themselves.

During the past winter the Lowell Institute, in Boston, in connection with the government of the Massachusetts Technological Institute, took a step which deserves our public mention. They advertised classes for both sexes, under the most eligible professors, for instruction in French, mathematics, and natural science. As the training was to be thorough, the number of pupils was limited, and the women who applied would have filled the seats many times over. These classes have been wholly free, and have added to the obligation which the free Art School for women had already conferred.

Elmira College showed its enterprise last summer by a visit to Massachusetts, and Vassar College was organized and commenced its operations in September, with Miss Mitchell in the Chair of Mathematics, and Miss Avery in that of Physiology. I attempted to visit this institution last summer for the purpose of investigating the facilities its buildings and proposed courses might offer to foreign students. The reluctance of the Trustees to subject it to observation so early in its career interfered with my plan, but I have since received a letter from Miss Mitchell speaking of it in the most encouraging terms. "I have a class," she says, "of seventeen pupils, between the ages of 16 and 22. They come to me for fifty minutes every day. I allow them great freedom in questioning, and I am puzzled by them daily. They show more mathematical ability and more originality of thought than I had expected. I doubt whether young men would show as deep an interest. Are there seventeen students in Harvard College who take mathematical astronomy, do you think?" So Mr. Vassar's magnificent donation is drawing interest at last.

On the 25th of June, 1865, the Ripley College, at Poultney, Vermont, celebrated its commencement. Seventeen young ladies were graduated. Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered the literary address, and two days were devoted to the examination of incoming pupils. Feeling very little satisfaction in the success of Colleges intended for the separate sexes, I take more pleasure in speaking of the Baker University in Kansas, which was chartered by the Legislature of that State in 1857 as a University for both sexes. It has now been in active operation for seven years. A little more than a year ago Miss Martha Baldwin, a graduate of the Baldwin University at Berea, Ohio, was appointed to the chair of Greek and Latin. She is but twenty-one years of age, but was elected by the government to make the address for the Faculty at the opening of the commencement exercises, and seems to have given entire satisfaction during her professors' year. In France, the Imperial Geographical Society, which is in a certain sense a college, has lately admitted to membership Madame Dora D'Istra as the successor to Madame Pfeiffer. Madame D'Istra had distinguished herself by researches in the Morea.

On the 26th of October, 1864, a a Workingwomen's College was opened in London, with an address from Miss F. R. Malleson. It is governed by a council of teachers. In addition to the ordinary branches, it offers instruction in Botany, Physiology, and Drawing. Its fee is four shillings a year, and the coffee and reading-room, about which its social life centres, is open every evening from 7 to 11. But by far the most interesting[Pg 901] educational movement is Miss Nightingale's "Training-school for Nurses," which has been in operation for three years in Liverpool. It was founded after a correspondence with her, in strict conformity to her counsel. As a training-school it may be said to be self-supporting, but it is also a beneficent institution, and in that regard is sustained by donations. A most admirable system of district nursing is provided under its auspices for the whole city of Liverpool, all of whose suffering sick become, in this way, the recipients of intelligent care and of valuable instruction in cooking and all sanitary matters. It is too tempting an experiment to dwell upon, unless we could follow it into its details. Its Report occupies 101 pages.

As regards medical education, we know of two colleges, or rather of one college and one hospital, in Boston, where education is given. There is one in Springfield and one in Philadelphia. We should be glad to get more statistics of this kind, for Cleveland, where Dr. Zakrzewska took her degree, is no longer open to female students, and Geneva is contenting herself with the honor of having graduated Dr. Blackwell. There is a female Medical Society in London. This society wishes to open the way for thorough medical instruction, which will entitle its graduates to a degree from Apothecaries' Hall, and it offered lectures from competent persons in 1864, upon Obstetrics and General Medical Science. Madame Aillot's Hospital of the Maternity in Paris, still offers its great advantages to women, of which two of our countrywomen, Miss Helen Morton and Miss Lucy E. Sewall have taken creditable advantage. They are both of them Massachusetts girls. Miss Morton is retained in Paris, and Miss Sewall is the resident physician of the Hospital for Women and Children in Boston.

A very great interest has been felt in this country in the success of Miss Garrett in obtaining her degree from Apothecaries' Hall, after it had been refused to her by the medical colleges. We regret to say that this fact does not show any real advance in the public opinion of Great Britain, nor does it secure any permanent advantage for women. When the Apothecaries' Hall refused her, Miss Garrett looked up its charter. She found the old Latin word indicating to whom degrees were to be granted clearly indeterminate. Langues told her that the Hall must grant her a degree or surrender its charter. She was wealthy and in earnest. She pushed her advantage. The Apothecaries' Hall prescribed certain courses of instruction to be pursued and certified before the degree could be granted. These she attended in private, paying the most exorbitant fees to her teachers. In one instance, in which a man's fee would have been five guineas she paid fifty! I am credibly informed that the round cost of these preparatory steps must have been £2,000. All honor to Miss Garrett. Should her genius as a physician equal her energy and her wealth, she may yet gain something for the cause she has espoused. Apart from this, she may be said to have gained nothing. Bribery is not possible to ordinary mortals, and the conditions of the degree make it generally impracticable until the lecture-rooms are opened to students. At present, to obtain thorough instruction in any branch, women are obliged to pay exorbitant prices, and receive as the results of their training but half wages. In Boston Dr. Zakrzewska has again unsuccessfully asked permission to become a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society. Many physicians, however, extend the fellowship which the institution denies, and the Medical Journal expresses itself courteously on this point.

In 1863 there existed in St. Petersburg a stringent regulation which prohibited women from following the University courses. A Miss K., who had a decided taste for medicine without the means to pay for instruction, applied for such instruction to the authorities of Orenburg. Orenburg is partly in Europe and partly in Asia, and its territory includes the Cossack races of the Ural. These people have a superstitious prejudice against male physicians, and are chiefly attended in illness by sorceresses. Miss K. offered to put her medical knowledge at the service of the Cossacks, and received permission to attend the Academy of Medicine. The Cossacks promised her an annual stipend of 28 roubles, but when she passed the half-yearly examination as well as the male students, they sent her 300 roubles as a token of good will.

In France, a Mlle. Reugger, from Algeria, lately passed a brilliant examination, and received the degree of Bachelor of Letters. She appealed to the Dean of the Faculty at Montpellier for permission to follow the regular course, and was refused on account of[Pg 902] her sex. She then turned to the Minister of Public Instruction, who granted it on condition that she should pledge herself to practice only in Algeria, where the Arabs, like the Cossacks, refuse the attendance of male physicians. Unlike our Russian friend, she refused to give the pledge. She threw herself upon her rights, and appealed in person to the Emperor. This was in December last, and I have not been able to find his decision. It was doubtless given in her behalf, for Louis Napoleon will always yield as a favor what he would stubbornly refuse as a right. The physicians of this country have been occupied this winter in discussing the discovery by one of their number of the active infectant in fever and ague. It has been found in the dust-like spores of a marsh plant—the Pamella. In Paris, at the same time, a woman of rank claims to have discovered the cause of cholera in a microscopic insect, developed in low and filthy localities. Her details were so minute, that the Academy of Science, which began by laughing at the introduction of the matter, has been compelled to listen, and the subject is now under investigation.

THE PULPIT.

In spite of the bitter words of warning which John Ruskin has thought it his duty to speak to such women as enter upon theological studies, a good many women in Great Britain and this country have engaged in what is properly the work of the Christian ministry. The only ordained minister whose work has come under our notice since the marriage of Antoinette Blackwell, is the Rev. Olympia Brown, settled over the Universalist Society at Weymouth Landing, Mass. Her ministry has been highly successful, and is to be mentioned here chiefly on account of a legal decision to which it has given rise. The church at Weymouth Landing made an appeal to the Legislature last winter as to the legality of marriages solemnized by her. The Legislature gave the same general construction to the masculine relatives in the enactment which the English law gave to the old Latin word in the Charter of Apothecaries' Hall, deciding that marriages so solemnized are legal, and no further legislation necessary.

LABOR.

The advance of women, as regards all sorts of labor, in the United States, has been such as might be expected by watchful eyes, and yet reports on the general question will not read very differently from those published ten years ago. In New York, women are still reported as making shirts at 75 cents a dozen, and overalls at 50 cents. These women have two protective unions of their own, not connected with the workingmen's union, and most of them have naturally enough sympathized with the eight-hour movement, not foreseeing, apparently, that the necessary first result of that movement would be a decrease of wages proportioned to the limitation of time. Ever since the beginning of the war, women have been employed in the public departments North and South. It has been a matter of necessity, rather than choice. The same causes combined to drive women into field labor and printing-offices. All through Minnesota and the surrounding regions, women voluntarily assumed the whole charge of the farms, in order to send their husbands to the field. A very interesting account has been recently published of a farm in Dongola, Ill., consisting of two thousand acres, managed by a highly educated woman, whose husband was a cavalry officer. It was a great pecuniary success. In New Hampshire, last summer, I was shown open-air graperies wholly managed by women, in several different localities, and was very happy to be told that my own influence had largely contributed to the experiment. In England field labor is now recommended to women by Lord Houghton, better known as Mr. Monckton Milnes, who considers it a healthful resource against the terrible abuses of factory life. At a meeting of the British Association last fall, he produced a well-written letter from a woman engaged in brick-making. This letter claimed that brick-making paid three times better than factory labor, and ten times better than domestic service. In addition to persons heretofore mentioned in this country as employing women in out-door work, I would name Mr. Knox, the great fruit-grower, who, on his place near Pittsburg, Pa., employs two or three hundred. I have seen it stated that, during the last four years, twenty thousand women have entered printing-offices. I do not know the basis of this calculation, but judging from my local statistics, I should think it must be nearly correct. To the Committee[Pg 903] of the Massachusetts Legislature, on the eight-hour movement, the following towns report concerning the wages and labor of women:

Boston—Glass Co., wages from $4 to $8 a week. Domestics, from $1.50 to $3 per week; seamstresses, $1 a day; Makers of fancy goods, 40 to 50 cents a day. Brookline—Washerwomen, $1 a day. Charlestown and New Bedford are ashamed to name the wages, but humbly confess that they are very low. Chicopee—Pays women 90 per cent the wages of men. Concord—Pays from 8 to 10 cents an hour. Fairhaven—Gives to female photographers one-third the wages of men. Hadley—Pays three-fourths. To domestics, one-third; seamstresses, one-quarter to one-third. Holyoke—In its paper mills, offers one-third to one-half. Lancaster—Pays for pocket-book making from 50 to 75 cents a day. Lee—Pays in the paper mills one-half the wages of men. Lowell—The Manufacturing Co. averages 90 cents a day. The Baldwin Mills pay 60 to 75 cents a day. Newton—Pays its washerwomen 75 cents a day, or 10 cents an hour. North Becket—Pays to women one-third the wages of men. Northampton—Pays $5 a week. Salisbury—For sewing hats, $1 a day. South Reading—On rattan and shoe work, $5 to $10 a week. South Yarmouth—Half the wages of men, or less. Taunton—One-third to two-thirds the wages of men. Walpole—Pays two thirds the wages of men. Wareham—Pays to its domestics from 18 to 30 cents a day; to seamstresses, 50 cents to $1. Wilmington—Pays two-thirds the wages of men. Winchester—Pays dressmakers $1 a day; washerwomen, 12 cents an hour. Woburn—Keeps its women at work from 11 to 13 hours, and pays them two-thirds the wages of men.

On the better side of the question, Fall River testifies that women, in competition, earn nearly as much as men.

Lawrence—From the Pacific Mills, that the women are liberally paid. We should like to see the figures. The Washington Mills pays from $1 to $2 a day. Stoneham—Gives them $1.50 per week. Waltham—Reports the wages of the watch factory as very remunerative. In 1860 I reported this factory as paying from $2.50 to $4 a week. Here, also, we should prefer figures to a general statement. Boston—Has now many manufactories of paper collars. Each girl is expected to turn out 1,800 daily. The wages are $7 a week. In the paper-box factory, more than 200 girls are employed, but I can not ascertain their wages, and therefore suppose them to be low. I know individuals who earn here $6 a week, but that must be above the average.

The best looking body of factory operatives that I have ever seen are those employed in the silk and ribbon mills on Boston Neck, lately under the charge of Mr. J. H. Stephenson, and those at the Florence Silk Mills in Northampton, owned by Mr. S. L. Hill. The classes, libraries, and privileges appertaining to these mills, make them the best examples I know, and this is shown in the faces and bearing of the women. We are always referred to political economy, when we speak of the low wages of women, but a little investigation will show that other causes co-operate with those, which can be but gradually reached, to determine their rates.

1. The willfulness of women themselves, which when I see them in positions I have helped to open to them, fills me with shame and indignation.

2. The unfair competition proceeding from the voluntary labor, in mechanical ways, of women well to do.

For the first, we can not greatly blame the women whom employers chiefly choose for their good looks, for expecting to earn their wages through them, rather than by the proper discharge of their duties. Their conduct is not the less shameful on that account, but I seem to see that only time and death and ruin will educate them.

For the second, we must strive to develop a public sentiment which, while it continues to hold labor honorable, will stamp with ignominy any women who, in comfortable country homes, compete with the workwomen of great cities. There are thousands of wealthy farmers' wives to-day, who just as much drive other women to sin and death, as if they led them with their own hands to the houses in which they are ultimately compelled to take refuge. Still further it has come to be known to me that in Boston, and I am told in New York also, wealthy women who do not even do their own sewing, have the control of the finer kinds of fancy-work, dealing with the stores which sell such work under various disguises. I can not prove these words, but they will strike conviction to[Pg 904] the hearts of the women themselves, and I wish them to have some significance for men, for if these women had the pocket-money which their taste and position require, they would never dream of such competition. One thing these men should know, that such women are generally known to their employers, and their domestic relations are judged accordingly.

The recent investigations into factory labor in England concern rather the condition than the wages of women. At flower-making, 11,000 girls are employed from fourteen to eighteen hours daily. In hardware shops and factories, they work, from six years of age, fourteen hours daily. In glass factories, 5,000 women are employed from nine years of age and upwards, eighteen hours daily. In tobacco factories, 7,000 women are employed under conditions of great physical suffering. As knitters, from six years old, they work fourteen hours daily for 1s. 3d. a week! This terrible state of things is partly owing to competition with the labor of French machinery. A great deal of ignorant prejudice against machines is one of its results. In Sheffield files are still made by hand, while here in America we make watches by machinery. The disposition of the whole community, both here and in Great Britain, towards this labor question is kindly. It has become a momentous social problem. During the fifteen years that my attention has been riveted to this subject, I have seen a great change in public feeling.

I have received the Sixth Annual Report of the Society for the Employment of Women, of which the Earl of Shaftesbury is President, and Mr. Gladstone a Vice-President. This Society has trained some hair-dressers, clerks, glass engravers, book-keepers, and telegraph operators, but its greatest service consists in the constant issue of tracts, to bias developing public opinion. Such an association should be started in New York. I should have been glad to inaugurate in Boston, during the last six years, several important industrial movements. The war checked the enthusiasm I had succeeded in rousing, and I have not been able to pause in my special work of collecting and observing facts, to stimulate it afresh or to solicit personally the necessary means. How easy it would be for a few wealthy women to test these experiments. I would first establish a Mending-School, and having taught women how to darn and patch in a proper manner, I would scatter them through the country to open shops of their own. As it is, I do not know a city in which a place exists to which a housekeeper could send a week's wash, sure that it would be returned with every button-hole, button, hem, gusset and stay in proper condition. These mending-shops should take on apprentices, who should be sent to the house to do every sort of repairing with a needle. I would open another school to train women to every kind of trivial service, now clumsily or inadequately performed by men. If, for instance, you now send to an upholsterer to have an old window-blind or blind fixture repaired, his apprentice will replace the entire thing, at a proportionate cost, leaving the old screw-holes to gape at the gazer. I would train women to wash, repair, and replace in part, and to carry in their pockets little vials of white or red lead to fill the gaping holes. Full employment could be found for such apprentices.

LAW.

The number of laws passed the last six years affecting the condition of women has been very small. The New York Assembly in February, 1865, passed a law putting the legal evidence of a married woman on the same basis as if she were a "femme sole." The Massachusetts Legislature have legalized marriage ceremonies performed by an ordained woman, and in January, 1866, Mr. Peckham, of Worcester, moved for a joint Special Committee "to consider in what way a more just and equal compensation shall be awarded to female labor." On the 4th of April just passed Samuel E. Sewall and others petitioned for leave to appoint women on School Committees. It is difficult to conceive on what ground such petitioners had leave to withdraw. These things are only valuable as indicating that public attention is still alive. Some remarkable illustrations of the absurdity of old laws might be recorded. One of these is to be found in the family history of Mad. de Bedout, recently dead at Paris.

A very important convention came together at Leipsic, in September, 1865. One hundred and fifty women assembled, pledged to assert the right to labor, and to bridge the gulf between the compensations of the two sexes. Madame Louise Otto Peters opened[Pg 905] the conference in an able speech. She stated that there were five millions of women in Germany who could each earn, if allowed, three thalers a week. A thousand women might find employment as chemists, on salaries of one hundred and fifty thalers a year, exclusive of board and lodging. Another thousand might be employed as boot-closers. The foundation of industrial and commercial schools was urged. The weak point of the speech as reported, appeared to be, that it took no cognizance of the fact that an influx of five millions of laborers must necessarily lower the current rate of wages she proposed. I mention this convention in a legal connection, believing that it was intended to remove some local legal barriers.

SUFFRAGE.

Dr. Harriot K. Hunt, Sarah E. Wall, and a few other women, have continued their annual protests without intermission. In somewhat the same way have petitions recently been sent to Congress in behalf of Universal Suffrage. We had no expectation that any favorable reception would await such petitions, but it was a duty to put them on record. What fate they met in Congress, you have so recently heard that I have no occasion to record it. Minnesota, New York, and other States, have petitioned their Legislatures to the same effect.

PROGRESS.

The real gain of a reform, starting from the heart of the family, must necessarily be very slow. I remember that some years ago, when I printed my book on labor, one of my kindest critics congratulated the public that of my nine lectures, I had published only these. He thought it was useless to contend for more book-learning for women, and the subject of Civil Rights still disgusted his sensitive ear. The common sense of the book on labor ought to have shown him how I should treat the subject of education. He could not understand how the woman who gets an education which does not make her a "bread-winner," is essentially defrauded, nor how a woman well paid for her labor is essentially wronged, when she is denied the privilege of protecting it by her vote. There is, however, a surely growing sense of this shown in the substantial advance of her civil rights.

In the early part of 1865, the people of Victoria, in Australia, assembled to elect a member of Parliament, were surprised to find the whole female population voting. Some quick-sighted woman had discovered that the letter of the new law permitted it, and their votes were accepted and wisely given. The London Times, in the month of May, says that, in a country like Australia, it can easily believe that such an extension of the franchise will be a marked improvement, and thinks that the precedent will stand! The Government of Moravia has also, within the past year, granted the municipal franchise to widows who pay taxes. In January, 1864, the Court of Queen's Bench in Dublin, Ireland, restored to woman the old right of voting for Town Commissioners. The Justice (Fitzgerald) desired to state that ladies were 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 either duty repugnant to womanly habits.

The inhabitants of Ain (or Aisne) in France, lately chose nine women into their municipal council. At Bergeres, they elected the whole council, and the Mayor, not being prepared for such good fortune, resigned his office. A very remarkable autograph note of the Queen of England attracted my attention in 1865. It expressed to Lord John Russell the Queen's dissatisfaction with Lord Palmerston. It was a very distinct assertion of her regal prerogative, and as such Lord Palmerston submitted to it.

Our cause has found able advocates in John Stuart Mill, The New York Evening Post, and Theodore Tilton. If I were asked whether, in connection with this gain, we have lost any ground, I should reply that we have decidedly lost it in connection with the daily press. I do not know any newspaper, if I except The Boston Commonwealth, which will print a letter touching civil rights from any woman, precisely as it is written. I think what we need most is to purchase the right to a daily use of half a column of The New York Tribune.

RECORD AND OBITUARIES.

I have been accustomed to connect with reports of this kind, some honorable mention of distinguished women recently dead. I can not do this at any length after a pause of[Pg 906] so many years, but a few names must be mentioned, a few facts recorded. I had occasion, some years ago, to commemorate the services of Maria Sybilla Merian, painter, engraver, linguist, and traveler, who published, at Amsterdam, two volumes of engravings of insects and sixty magnificent plates, illustrating the metamorphoses of the insects of Surinam. I did not at that time know that some of her statements had been held open to suspicion. In the first place, she asserted that a certain fly, the Fulgoria Lantanaria, emitted so much light that she could read her books by its aid. Still further, that one of the large spiders called Mygale, entered the nests of the humming-bird in Surinam, sucked its eggs and snared the birds. To all the contention which arose over these statements, Madame Merian could oppose only her word. Men who knew that her statements in regard to Europe were indisputable, decided that her word could not be taken in Asia. A very common folly; but two hundred years have passed, 1866 arrives, and her justification with it. An English traveler named Bates, has recently rescued quite large finches from the Mygale, and poisoned himself with its saliva in preparing them for his cabinet.

I do not know how many years Madame Baring, the mother of the great banker, has been dead. It is only recently that I have ascertained that to her prudence, activity, and business habits, the family attribute the sure foundation of their habits. Matthew Baring came to Larkbeare, near Exeter, from Bremen. His wife superintended in his day, the long rows of "burlers," or women who picked over the woolen cloth he made. Her sons, John and Francis, sought a wider field for the fortune their father left, but did not forget to erect a monument to their mother's industry.

When I first investigated the labor of woman, I was told that the great manufacturing interest, represented by the button factories at Easthampton, Mass., had its origin in the persevering industry of a woman. Last summer I went personally to see the factories and their proprietor, and it was a pleasant surprise to find the woman of whom I had heard still living. Samuel Williston told me that he did not usually gratify the curiosity of his visitors, but added that if I thought it would be any stimulus to the industry of other women, he should be glad to tell me the story. About forty years ago he had been an unsuccessful speculator in Merino sheep, and his wife strained every nerve to help her family. On going one day to the country store for a supply of knitting, she expressed so much disappointment on being told that there was none for her, that a tailor in the establishment asked her if she would cover some buttons for him. She soon found that certain kinds of buttons were in steady demand. They were then made wholly by hand. She provided herself with materials, took the farmers' daughters for apprentices, and her husband went to Boston, Hartford, and New York to solicit orders. From this small beginning arose one of the most lucrative industries of Massachusetts.

About a year since Eliza W. Farnham laid down her weary head. I did not know her, nor did I sympathize in her theories. They were sustained by her imagination rather than her reason; by her impulses rather than any practical judgment. No moral superiority can justly be conferred on either sex of a being possessed of intellect and conscience. God has conferred no such superiority; yet I gladly name Mrs. Farnham here as a woman whose life—a bitter disappointment to herself—was useful to all women, and whose books, published since her death, show a marvelous mental range. I name her with sympathy and admiration. During the last year Madam Charles Lemonnier has died in Paris. She devoted her life to the professional education of women. For six years she found it so difficult to raise the necessary funds, that she had to content herself with sending her pupils to institutions in Germany. In 1862 the Society for the Professional Instruction of Women was at last constituted, and opened a school in the Rue de Perle. Two other schools have since been opened; one in the Rue de Val Sainte Catherine, the other in the Rue Roche. The morning is occupied in these schools with general studies, the afternoon with industrial drawing, wood engraving, the making up of garments, linen, etc. She died after initiating a thoroughly successful work.

In July, 1865, there died at Corfu a Dr. Barry, attached to the Medical Staff of the British Army. He was remarkable for skill, firmness, decision, and great rapidity in difficult operations. He had entered the army in 1813, and had served in all quarters of the globe with such distinction, as to insure promotion without interest. He was clever[Pg 907] and agreeable, but excessively plain, weak in stature, and with a squeaking voice which provoked ridicule. He had an irritable temper, and answered some jesting on this topic by calling out the offender and shooting him through the lungs. In 1840 he was made Medical Inspector, and transferred from the Cape to Malta. He went from Malta to Corfu, and when the English Government ceded the Ionian Islands to Greece, resigned his position in the army and remained at Corfu. There he died last summer, forbidding, with his latest breath, any interference with his remains. The women who attended him regarded this request with the shameless indifference now so common, and unable to believe that an officer who had been forty-five years in the British service, had received a diploma, fought a duel, and been celebrated as a brilliant operator, was not only a woman, but at some period in her life a mother; they called in a medical commission to establish these facts. A sad, sad picture which those of us, who inquire into the fortunes of women, can readily understand.

Last November deprived us of Lady Theresa Lewes and Mrs. Gaskell. Mrs. Gaskell has perhaps done more than any woman of this century, not confessedly devoted to our cause, to elevate the condition of her sex, and disseminate liberal ideas as to their needs and culture. The first part of her career was one of those brilliant successes which startle us into surprise and admiration. It was checked midway by the publication of her life of Charlotte Bronte, the best and noblest of her works. Checked, because condemned, in that instance, without a hearing. She could never afterward feel the elastic pleasure, which was natural to her, in composing and printing, and for three long years afterward never touched her pen. I would not allude to this subject if every notice of her since her death had not done so, repeating the old censure, as a matter of course. Here in America we may exculpate her. The public was wrong in the first place, inasmuch as it has come to demand biography before biography is possible. The publisher was wrong in the second, for he ought to have known, and could easily have ascertained, how plain a statement the English law would permit. The public was still further wrong when it attributed misapprehension and carelessness to a woman whom it very well knew to be incapable of either. I, for one, shall never forgive nor forget the officious censure of the Westminster Review—censure given by one who must have known that the legal apology tendered in Mrs. Gaskell's absence to protect her pecuniary interests, had the unfortunate effect to put her in a position where explanation and self-defence were alike impossible. Mrs. Gaskell had deserved the steady confidence of the public.

In Paris, recently, died Mrs. Severn Newton. She was the daughter of the artist Severn, the friend of Keats, and now British Consul at Rome. About five years since she married Charles Newton, Superintendent of Greek Antiquities at the British Museum. She was a person in whom power and delicacy were singularly blended. Ary Schæffer was accustomed to hold up her work as a model for his pupils. Her renderings of classic sculpture were so true that they were termed translations, and she had recently devoted herself to oil painting with great success. She died of brain fever at the early age of thirty-three, the most honored of female English artists.

I have kept till the last the name of Fredrika Bremer, whose good fortune it was to secure lasting benefits to her sex. God sent to her early years dark trials and privations. Her father's tyrannical hand crushed all power and loveliness out of her life. At first she rebelled against her sufferings, but when he died in her girlhood she was able to see that they lent strength to her efforts for her sex. It was the rumor of what we were doing in this country for women that first drew her hither. It is not the fashion for Miss Bremer's friends fully to recognize her position in this respect. I owe my own convictions on the subject of suffrage to the reflections she awakened. When I told her that my mind was undecided on this point, she showed her disappointment so plainly, that I was forced to reconsider the whole subject. Miss Bremer did not hurry her work. She had a serene confidence that she should be permitted to finish what she had begun. She secured popularity by her cheerful humor, her genuine feeling, her true appreciation of men, and her insight into the conditions of family happiness, before she made any direct appeal against existing laws. Those who will read her novels thoughtfully, however, will see that she was from the first intent upon making such an effort possible.[Pg 908] From the beginning she pleaded for the social independence of wives; asked for them a separate purse; showed that woman could not even give her love freely, until she was independent of him to whom she owed it. To a just state of society, to noble family relations, entire freedom is essential.

Under her influence females had been admitted to the Musical Academy. The Directors of the Industrial School at Stockholm had attempted to form a class, and Professor Quarnstromm had opened his classes at the Academy of Fine Arts to women. Cheered by her sympathy, a female surgeon had sustained herself in Stockholm, and Bishop Argardh indorsed the darkest picture she had ever drawn, when he pleaded with the state to establish a girls' school. It was at this juncture that Miss Bremer published Hertha. This book was a direct blow aimed at the laws of Sweden concerning women. By this time she had herself become in Sweden what we might fitly call a "crowned head." She was everywhere treated with distinction, and her sudden appearance in any place was greeted with the enthusiasm usually shown by such nations only to their princes. She said of her new book: "I have poured into it more of my heart and life than into anything which I have ever written," and, verily, she had her reward. She was at Rome, two years after, in 1858, when the glad news reached her that King Oscar, at the opening of the Diet, had proposed a bill entitling women to hold independent property at the age of twenty-five. All Sweden had read the book which moved the heart of the King, and the assembled representatives rent the air with their acclamations.

In the following spring the old University town of Upsala, where her friend Bergfalk occupies a chair, granted the right of suffrage to fifty women owning real estate, and to thirty-one doing business on their own account. The representative their votes went to elect was to sit in the House of Burgesses. Miss Bremer was not ashamed to shed happy tears when this news reached her. If she had ever reproached Providence with the bitter sorrow of her early years, she was penitent and grateful now. Then was fulfilled the prophecy which she had uttered, as she left our shores: "The nation which was first among Scandinavians to liberate its slaves shall also be the first to emancipate its women!"

Caroline H. Dall.

Boston, April 26, 1866.

P. S.—To add one word to this deeply interesting and able report may seem presumptuous, but it is fitting that something be said of those women in our own country in whom we feel a proper pride. In literature, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Lydia Maria Child are unsurpassed by any writers of our day. The former is remarkable for her descriptive powers, intuition of character, and rare common sense; the latter for patient research, sound reason, and high moral tone. No country has produced a woman of such oratorical powers as our peerless Anna Dickinson. Young, beautiful, and always on the right side of every question, her influence on the politics of this country for the last four years has been as powerful as beneficent. She has more invitations to speak before the first-class lyceums of the country, at two hundred dollars an evening, than she can accept, and draws crowded houses wherever she goes.

PHYSICAL CULTURE.

A friend who had visited Vassar College, after mentioning the fact of its two women professors—Miss Mitchell and Miss Avery—informed us that Elizabeth M. Powell is teacher of gymnastics there, and wonders whether success may not win for Miss Powell a place in the Faculty. There are literary societies in which the girls write and read essays, and give recitations, and have discussions, and President Raymond drills them in elocution or public entertainments. And yet, our friend says, "I dare say that it would be pronounced a very improper thing for women to speak in public, if the Faculty were to vote on the question." The influences of Vassar are altogether conservative.

Miss Mitchell is a woman of great force of character, the very soul of integrity, and entirely independent in her religious views. She thinks the theory of Woman's Rights all right, but her tastes are all against it. She dreads to be in the least conspicuous.

Miss Avery is a woman of great dignity and strength, and her presence and lectures can not fail to stimulate the girls to a noble womanhood. She tells them work is the necessity of the soul.[Pg 909]

Miss Powell, a remarkably earnest young woman of rare moral and intellectual worth, has a grand field, and opens her work with good promise. Her first aim is to do away with tight-dressing. She believes that when women have deeper breathing they will have higher aspirations. That when women will apply conscience to their dress, they will be prepared for more important truths.

In the great attention given to gymnasiums everywhere, we see the dawn of a new day of physical and mental power in woman. Mrs. Plumb's institution in this city, where hundreds of girls are trained every year, is a complete success.

EQUAL EDUCATION.

St. Lawrence University, Canton, N. Y., May 4, 1866.

Miss Anthony:—Your letter came into my hands after some delay. I hasten to reply to your inquiries. Our college is young yet. The first class of two graduated last year. Two young ladies are to graduate at the close of this term.

We receive ladies and gentlemen on the same terms and conditions; take them together into the recitation-room, where they recite side by side; require them to pursue the same course of study; and, when satisfactorily completed, give them degrees of the same rank and honor—Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts to gentlemen, Laureate of Science and Laureate of Arts to ladies. Both sexes are required to pursue the same course of study, with the exception of civil engineering and political economy, which are merely optional studies with the ladies.

We have two departments—Academical and Collegiate. The sexes are about equal in number in each department. We have only about twenty in the Collegiate Department. Half of these are ladies, among whom are some of our best in Mathematics, Languages, and Natural Sciences.

We have also a Theological Department, to which ladies have access. We have received applications from only two yet. One, Miss Olympia Brown, is pastor of a Society in Weymouth, Mass., and is succeeding very well. She is a graduate of Antioch College as well of our Theological department. The other is now here.

Lombard University, Galesburgh, Ill., receives ladies, and takes them through the same course as gentlemen, and gives them equal degrees. I deeply sympathize with you in your efforts to raise the character and improve the condition of woman, though, perhaps, I should not be quite so radical as some in your Convention. Your cause is a good one, and I pray Heaven that it do good.

J. S. Lee,

Principal of the Collegiate Department St. Lawrence University.

Genesee College at Lima, New York—a Methodist institution—opens its doors equally to women, and has graduated several young ladies. Then we must never forget to mention and bless Oberlin for its pioneer work in the equal education of women. It was Oberlin that gave us Lucy Stone, Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Sallie Holley, and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, to speak early and brave words for woman and the slave. And Antioch College that graduated the Rev. Olympia Brown. Mention too should be made of Rev. Lydia A. Jenkins, who has been a successful preacher among the Universalists for the last eight or ten years, and is now settled at Binghamton, New York.

Of the Medical Profession it should be stated for the encouragement of the young, that there are over three hundred graduates from the several medical colleges for women, and that there is scarcely a village throughout the country but has its woman physician of greater or less skill. In New York city there are many successful physicians besides the Drs. Blackwell. Dr. Clemence S. Lozier has a practice of $15,000 a year, and owns two fine houses, all the proceeds of her own perseverance. In Orange, New Jersey, Dr. Almira L. Fowler is very popular, with a paying practice of $5,000 per year, besides a large gratuitous service. In Philadelphia are Dr. Hannah E. Longshore, with a $10,000 per annum practice, then there are Drs. Ann Preston, R. Tressel, H. J. Sartain, E. Cleveland, J. Myres, and others, with practices ranging from $5,000 to $2,000. In Utica, New York, Dr. Pamelia Bronson is a successful physician. In Albion, is Dr. Vail. In Weedsport, Dr. Harriet E. Seeley. In Rochester, Dr. Sarah R. A. Dolley numbers among her patrons many persons of wealth and fashion, who but a few years ago ridiculed the idea[Pg 910] of a "lady doctor." Mrs. Dolley's practice brings her fully $3,000 a year. In a letter to one of our Committee Mrs. Dolley says, "May your labors be prospered, that the women of our country may have a sphere rather than a hemisphere! Dr. R. B. Glasson, of Elmira, Dr. S. Ivison, of Ithaca, New York, and Dr. Green, late of Clifton Springs, who has opened a water-cure somewhere in Western New York, all do a large amount of practice, and with the greatest acceptance to those who favor Hydropathic treatment. Dr. Ross, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has a large practice, and commands the respect of the profession. And, as Mrs. Dall says of the many noble women who served efficiently in our armies during the war without even sounding the name of the wonderful Clara Barton, so we have to say of our woman physicians, "their name is legion."

The following is an item from the Boston Commonwealth:

Further Progress in Woman's Rights.—Miss Stebbins, of Chickasaw County, Iowa, has received an appointment as Notary Public for that county. She is the first female ever having received such a commission, and is represented as eminently competent.

This from the National Anti-Slavery Standard:

Woman's Rights in Hungary.—A curious petition has been presented to the Hungarian Diet. It is signed by a number of widows and other women who are landed proprietors, and asks for them the same equality of political rights with the male inhabitants of the country as they possessed in 1848. These ladies represent that they have much more difficulty in bringing up their children and attending to their estates than men; that they have to bear the same State burdens; that they are not allowed to take part in the communal elections; and that, although many of them possess much more ground than the male electors, they have no political rights.

There is one point in the report open to objection. It is not fair to say that Mrs. Farnham's life "was a bitter disappointment to herself." Who does realize in life all that in starting was looked for? Who has nothing to regret? With a heart so generous and sympathizing as hers—a mind so disciplined and stored with general information—a life so rich in practical usefulness, she was not only a blessing to others, but she must have had a more than an ordinary share of that peace and happiness that gladdens every Christian life. I have just read her last great work. I took it up with prejudice, not believing her theory of the superiority of woman. I lay it down with a higher idea of woman's destiny, and a profound reverence for the author of the glorious thoughts that thrill my heart. I never met Mrs. Farnham on earth, but I know and honor and love her now, and from the celestial shores feel the pulsations of a true and noble soul.

E. C. S.

LETTERS.

Wayland, April 28.

Dear Mrs. Stanton:— ... What I most wish for women is that they should go right ahead, and do whatever they can do well, without talking about it. But the false position in which they are placed by the laws and customs of society, renders it almost impossible that they should be sufficiently independent to do whatever they can do well, unless the world approves of it. They need a great deal of talking to, to make them aware that they are in fetters. Therefore I say, success to your Convention, and to all similar ones!...

Lydia Maria Child.

I am very cordially yours,

New Castle, Del., April 21, 1866.

Dear Mrs. Stanton:— ... I am with you in heart and sympathy, rejecting with contempt the antiquated idea that woman is only fit for a plaything or a household drudge. Nor can I see how it is less dignified to go to a public building to deposit a vote than to frequent the concert-room, whirl through the waltz in happy repose on some roue's bosom, or mingle in any public crowd which is, in modern times, quite admissible in polite society. Dethrone the idol and raise the soul to its true and noble elevation, supported on a foundation of undying principle, and woman becomes a thing of life and[Pg 911] beauty—then only fit to raise sons to be rulers. Justice requires your success, and I hope the age will prove itself sufficiently enlightened to mete out to you the reward of your years of toil.

Jane Voorhees Leslie.

Yours sincerely,

Monday, April 22.

Dear Miss Anthony:—What I enclose is not much for the work you have to do, but it is all I can proportion out for it just now. You are quite right in relying on my regard for you, although I can not see the subject as you do, and I was pleased to get your note saying so. I am sure you take great interest in following Mr. Gladstone's bill for the extension of suffrage in England. His speech upon it is in great contrast to the shallow nonsense talked by many Americans against our democratic form of government.

Jessie Benton Fremont.

Very sincerely yours,

13 Chestnut St., Boston, April 19, 1866.

Dear Mrs. Stanton:—I have received yours of 14th inst., making eloquent and friendly appeal to me for the expression of my sympathy, written or spoken, in behalf of your forthcoming "Woman's Rights Convention." Surely you need not my assurance that I most heartily indorse all the claims and objects of your Association; that I earnestly advocate whatever would advance or insure the rights of humanity, whether for man or woman; that I as earnestly protest against any and all prejudices, limitations, or legislations which would interfere with those rights; that I claim for woman as ample social and civil privileges as are conceded to man, whether in the exercise of the franchise, the domain of our legislatures, or in the sphere of the professions. We are no true men if we deny or would barricade the exercise or the claim of those privileges, and have just so much less of manhood as we dare to question or infringe them. I agree with you, most fully, that the woman element is greatly needed in the present crisis of our affairs for the right reconstruction of our suffering Government. We have had, and still have, not men but too many brutes making a very "bear garden" of our congressional halls, rending and tearing this poor "body politic" of ours till, like the raving demoniacs of old, it is now foaming and wandering crazily around its own preconstructed tomb! while at the head of the Government we have only a surly, self-conceited despot in embryo! "The nation needs (as you say) at this hour the highest thought and inspiration of a true womanhood infused into every vein and artery of its life." There is no gainsaying your arguments on that head, for just so far, and only so far as the refining influence of that womanly element is so infused and felt in all our social and civil relations, will the consummation of our national peace and prosperity be effected.

J. T. Sargent.

Yours truly,

West Newton, May 6, 1866.

E. C. Stanton, President Executive Committee Women's Rights Association:

My Dear Mrs. S.:—I had hoped to be present at this, our eleventh anniversary, but find it impossible. And so, at the last moment, I hasten to express my earnest conviction that now, as never before, we are called upon for vigorous, united action—that we are left no alternative but an unflinching protest against the strange legislation by which a Republican Congress, so-called, assumes to engraft upon our national Constitution, as "amendments!" clauses which not only allow rebels to disfranchise loyal soldiers, who have borne the flag of the Republic victoriously against their treason and rebellion, but to keep the ballot from the hands of all women!

If not moved by an enlightened appreciation of the first principles of political economy and social justice in legislation touching them heretofore, we could scarcely believe that after the record made by both the proscribed classes during our late fearful struggle, our legislators could gravely stoop to brand them anew as "aliens" and outlaws! It is an act as discreditable to their hearts and their moral sense as to their statesmanship. And upon their shoulders must rest the responsibility of an agitation to which we are thus forced—an agitation which we have hesitated to arouse while so many vital questions touching the future of the negro were awaiting settlement, and in which we are acting strictly on the defensive. Under the magnificent utterance of our brave Senator Sumner—which[Pg 912] was an inspiration and a prophecy—we looked to see all faltering and compromise, so fatal in all our past, so fatal always and everywhere, swept like dew before the sun. But the old fears and falterings return sevenfold reinforced to renew a puerile and patch-work legislation, which, while asserting the truth, submits to, nay, invites a fresh struggle over each separate application of the same "self-evident truth." What remains for us, then, but to turn from a Congress from which we had hoped so much, which might have dared anything in the interest of loyalty and justice, as our brave brethren turned, from a recreant President to the people, whom he and Congress have not dared to trust, and resolve to do our utmost to awaken a public sentiment which only slumbers, but is not dead, and which shall make impossible such burlesques, such infamous "amendments" to our organic law. With undiminished hope and faith, yours,

Caroline M. Severance.

Hartford, April 22, 1866.

Dear Madam:—I learn by a circular I have received that a Woman's Rights Convention is to be held in New York in May. I can not have the pleasure of attending it, but I would like to take this opportunity of telling you I am with you, heart and soul, in this cause—of thanking you, and those with whom you are associated, for the noble work you have done, and are doing, in the cause of universal suffrage. There never was a more opportune time for calling a convention of this kind than the present, when it is evident that the United States Constitution is about to undergo some repairs—when all the so-called radicals in Congress are trying to have it so altered as to insure the disfranchisement of one-half the nation. They have so strangely perverted the meaning of the term "universal suffrage," that it is a misnomer as at present used by them. It is rather significant of the "universality" of the suffrage intended, that every one of these special guardians of freedom refused to present Congress a petition for woman's enfranchisement; that the Massachusetts Senator who leads the van of freedom's host, did, finally, most reluctantly present it with one hand, while taking good care to deal it a blow with the other that would prove a most effectual quietus to it; that a representative [Mr. Boutwell], after repeating the self-evident truth that "there can be no just government without the consent of the governed," says that "man is endowed by nature with the priority of right to the vote rather than woman or child;" that the two Senators from Massachusetts have each proposed amendments to the Constitution holding out inducements to the States to enfranchise all male inhabitants, but none to enfranchise women, when they could have included them by omitting one word; that that light of freedom, Mr. Greeley, of the Tribune, states that "men express the public sense as fully as if women voted" [speech in Suffield, Conn., last June]. These are a few of the straws pointing to that sham labeled "universal suffrage."

The conservatives of the slave-driving school have had an odious enough reputation, but I never heard of any of them taking measures to so amend the Constitution as to insure the perpetuation of the disfranchisement of sixteen millions of the nation, as would the proposed amendments of Messrs. Sumner and Wilson. And these Massachusetts Senators are called the foremost workers in the ranks of liberty's grand army. If these are the foremost, Heaven save us from those in the rear! Why does Mr. Boutwell try to make it appear that he believes that governments, to be founded on justice, should obtain "the consent of the governed," when he believes the consent of only one-half the governed should be obtained? when he classes adults as fully capable of exercising an enlightened judgment as himself with infants? If Mr. Greeley thinks it right for one-half the people to represent the wants, and speak as they may think best for the other half, that other half having no choice in the matter, he must admit, if he have a tithe of the sense of justice attributed to him, that it would be only fair to let each half take their turn—the men expressing the public sense a part of the time, then the women—thus alternating between the two, in order to balance the scales of justice with perfect equilibrium.

It seems rather a difficult matter for men to appreciate the fact that women are ordinary human beings, with the wants and reasoning faculties of the same. If women lived on the plane where sword and cannon are resorted to for the procuring of justice, men might then see the necessity of establishing equality of rights for all. But the power of[Pg 913] women lies in spiritual, not in brute force; therefore men have failed to comprehend them, or to see the necessity of granting rights that are not contested at the point of the bayonet. Add to this the ambitious but weak love of power—of having some one to rule—inherent in the natures of most men, and the causes of woman's bondage are pretty clear. In the light of the developments of the past few months it is plain that the most thorough faced abolitionists—those who wax eloquent for the negro—are as much in favor of continuing the slavery of women as were Southern planters of continuing negro slavery. There are a few exceptions to this, and but a few.

Even the Boston Commonwealth, perhaps as radical a paper as any now published, and which favors suffrage for women, is a good illustration of the difficulty of the most liberal-minded men seeing this question in its true light; for, in its issue of February 24, it says that "suffrage for women is not a political necessity of a republican government."

The Nation thinks women ought to be deprived of the franchise because they do not, as a general thing, express a wish for it, stating at the same time that they have as good a right to it as men. Remarkable logic this, to deprive the whole class of the power to obtain their dues because they do not en masse express a wish for them. There are men who do not care enough about the franchise to make use of it; therefore, according to this argument, they should be immediately disfranchised.

There is no compulsion in exercising the right to the vote—all can let it alone who choose; and did every woman in the land choose to let it alone, it would be no argument for withholding from her the power to make use of it whenever disposed. But the statement that they are opposed to it is untrue. No woman—whether teacher, or telegraph operator, or government clerk, or dry-goods clerk, all the way down to the poor needle-woman who lives under a reign of oppression as frightful as that in the manufacturing districts of England—is paid more than half or a third what she earns, or what a man would be paid performing the same services, and performing them no better, in many cases not so well; and the needle-women are paid no more than a tenth part of what they earn. And yet women do not rise up against the oppression that denies them the just compensation; therefore these logicians of the Nation's school must, to be consistent, argue that women do not wish to have just wages paid them, and they should not have just wages offered them—the right of accepting or refusing being at their own option.

It seems to be full time for the women of this country to demand a settlement of the question whether they are still to be treated as infants or as intelligent adults. If the former treatment is to be continued it would be very appropriate to present Congress with a protest against having one-half the basis of representation composed of those who are to remain in a state of perpetual infancy (which needs and can have representation; whose government must be as absolute as that of the Czar's, the very word "representative" implying a substitute chosen by another)—a protest that if they are too good—as often stated, too divine—to have any voice in such earthly matters as governments, they are also too good to be thrust just so far into the body politic as to swell the basis of representation one-half, merely for the furtherance of the interests of ambitious politicians, and then to be put one side and utterly ignored when the voice of a free intelligent being is required.

It seems to be full time for women to take soundings of the depth of the professions, and make calculations of the latitude and longitude of the party to which alone they have looked for redemption from the slavery in which they have ever been held, when the chief ones of that party—now that there is any possibility of attaining that object—utterly refuse all efforts in that direction, and, worse than that, give indications of taking positive measures in the opposite direction. It is important that Congress be flooded with petitions on this matter—that it be allowed no rest from them; and, in addition to petitions, a bill is needed excluding women from the basis of representation so long as they shall be excluded from the franchise—excluding them from the list of taxable persons and from those who are by law liable to the death-penalty.

Should such a bill be tabled by Congress; should they refuse all action on it that would place them in their true light, showing that they look upon this question the same as the Southern Congress under Polk, Pierce, and Buchanan looked upon the anti-slavery[Pg 914] movement—very much afraid of having the subject agitated; should they give it a decided veto, that would place them in their true light—greatly opposed to universal suffrage, although it is their policy to sail under that banner, like the pirate who sometimes finds an advantage in substituting for his own black flag some more respectable one. Should they pass such a bill it would place them in a better light than they have ever had the fortune to be in before, while it would make it for the interest of the States to have this bill followed up by another, giving women the franchise; and it is very doubtful whether we will ever obtain it in any other way than from motives of self-interest on the part of legislators—motives of pure justice and right occupying a secondary place.

The statutes of the land present a remarkable conglomeration of inconsistencies and injustice in regard to women, and show the utter failure of the plan of having one class govern another class without any consent or participation in the matter on the part of the class so governed. The law ought not in certain cases to treat women as infants and wholly irresponsible beings, merely to foster a weak ambition and love of power, and in other cases as wholly responsible adults. The infant regimen should be enforced thoroughly from the day of their birth to the day of their death, whether it be in one year or a hundred, or they should come, in all respects, under a system adapted to responsible, intelligent adults. Infants should not pay taxes and they should not be hung. It is the general opinion that the infant Surrat committed crimes equal in magnitude to those of any of the conspirators who were hung with her, but her state of infancy should have afforded her legal protection from the gallows. If this government is too weak to decide the qualifications of voters; too weak to extend freedom from the northern coast of Maine to the southern coast of Florida; too weak to prevent any State disfranchising its inhabitants; too weak to make ignorance, criminality, and non-age the only political limitations for man or woman, be they black or white, or a combination of all the hues of the rainbow; too weak to send tyranny to the wall and make liberty the universal rule for this broad land; then a party must and will arise of sufficient metal to infuse into it the requisite strength—a party that will "strengthen its weak hands and confirm its feeble knees."

Concentration of power for the establishment and extension of liberty is not a tendency to despotism. Despotisms are never built out of that material. But that is a despotism as bad as Austria that allows one-half its citizens to govern the other half without any consent of theirs; and it is none the less a despotism for being divided up into petty State despotisms than if carried on by the general government, so long as they are all agreed on disfranchising one-half the people. Thirty-six despotisms make a pretty good sized one taken in the aggregate. The party to inaugurate the reign of freedom must inevitably arise, for the elements to bring it into power are at work. Morally, it will tower as far above the present republican party as that did above the old ones—whig and democratic. There are true souls, women and men, in the Old World and the New, faithfully working and watching for its advent.

Some months ago we got word from over the water that John Stuart Mill had been elected to that formidable body of conservatism—the British Parliament. Another significant fact, but this time significant of good. The writings of Mill are illumined by the sun-clear radiance of that liberty for which he appeals—a liberty that shines with the steady light of a fixed star—and which I have watched for in vain in the writings and speeches of the most noted reformers on this continent. When men like him come into power I think we have good ground for taking fresh courage. I have written more than I intended, but the subject is one on which I do not feel like restricting myself, especially when writing to one who fully appreciates the situation. Sincerely hoping you may never weary in your good work.

F. Ellen Burr.

Yours respectfully,

Susan B. Anthony.

Albany, April 9, 1866.

My Dear Miss Anthony:—It will be out of my power to speak at your Convention—my health will not permit my attendance—but I cordially concur in your efforts to restore to woman her civil and political rights, and for her emancipation from slavery, her actual,[Pg 915] undeniable status at present in the Government. I can suggest no plan to effect this great object, except that of agitation and discussion, everywhere throughout the land. Whenever the public mind shall become sufficiently enlightened, and women themselves shall seriously and earnestly demand, on their own behalf, equal rights and equal laws, they will be accorded; and then we shall have, what the world has never yet had or seen, a true republican system of government. Excuse these hasty thoughts.

A. J. Colvin.

Truly yours,

To the President and Members of the Eleventh National Woman's Rights Convention in New York assembled:

Ladies:—I notice with pleasure the call for your annual convention The hour is pregnant with events, and this period is opportune for opening and pressing upon the public attention the questions with which you are occupied. As the claims of the slave in past years have furnished to so many espousing them the occasion of manifold and large emancipations little thought by them at first, so the claims of the emerging freedman will lay open the way to the study and solution of the gravest and widest social questions. The great problems of social order: government, its fit aims and happiest methods, the nature and just basis of suffrage, etc., are to be studied anew and brought to true adjustment; false barriers and artificial distinctions must be swept away, no child of Adam must be inhibited from wielding those prerogatives which by birthright or attainment he may be entitled to. The more obvious abuses, the flagrantly gratuitous distinctions, involving very gross inequalities and oppressions, will be the first to be exposed and abolished.

The natural and just basis of the right of suffrage is doubtless qualification, wisdom, and substantial honesty. The right to wield the ballot is not in the strict sense an inborn and original right, coeval with our being, except as any right to which we may by culture attain is of this character. It is ours potentially. It belongs to attainment and possession, as the right, for instance, in a particular case to survey land, or instruct minds. It is a right I am to rise to through intelligence, discipline, manhood. It is conditioned upon discernment and true faithfulness. Those too ignorant or uncaring to distinguish between rule and misrule, government and lawlessness, science and a juggle, supernal and infernal—those especially so profligate, who seek only to reach through government the sanction of law, the baptism of social order for their wickedness and misdeeds, have no business at any ballot-box, save that of recorded resolution to amend and repent. To put the ballot into the hands of the reckless, the besotted, and the profligate, is the sheerest abuse possible, and suicidal to all just protection and rule.

It may be a long day ere suffrage shall be adjusted carefully and strictly to the normal basis. But before this the Gospel must be preached to all nations, the rough places must be made smooth and the paths straight for the coming of the Most High. Whatever unjust barriers or factitious discrimination there may be against any must be abolished, and equality must be for all. Wisdom or virtue is not the monopoly of any class or sex or race. By all the proprieties of nature, woman should have with man a voice in the enactment of laws and the administration of government. She is the complement of man, essential for the due poise, the right wisdom, and conduct in family, in neighborhood, in Church or in State. Sharing in civil government, she will be a redemptive agency for society in many ways little thought at present. And agitation and overturning shall not cease until the final realization is reached. Society shall yet be rewrought and born again. All rule shall be justice, and obedience liberty. Government shall be the reflection of the infinite kingdom, the incarnation of truth, wisdom, benignity, power, the protector and help of all, inviting and assisting each to full realization of the utmost possibilities of attainment and strength for the individual soul, building to perfect freedom, building also to perfect unity. Service, sacrament, supreme reverence—this shall be the motto and norm of the world, all society become a church and all life worship, the broad anthem of souls. For this high consummation let us look and labor, trusting and working on to the perfect end.

Chas. D. B. Mills.

Yours sincerely,

Dwight, Ill., April 30, 1866.

My Dear Miss Anthony:—Your kind letter inviting me to attend the Convention on[Pg 916] the 10th of May, was duly received. I should be extremely happy to be with you in your deliberations, but so much of my time has of late been occupied in the work of the American Union Commission, that I can hardly spare a moment for even your good work. I, however, feel only selfish regrets, for I should be but a listener and partaker of the rich mental feasts that will there be freely offered to all who will partake. The great arguments have all been made by our opponents, and they concede all that we ask, save that they substitute expediency for principle. They have yet to learn that God will not be dethroned; that when He decrees a human soul, He surrounds it with all the dignity of free will and consequent responsibility. He therefore endows the soul with rights, the exercise and protection of which are the crown of humanity. We ask no new code of rights. We simply ask to be included in the general method of asserting and protecting them, which even the shadowy-browed children of bondage are now perceived to claim without presumption. It has been with no small degree of interest that I have seen that our wisest statesmen begin to so far see and feel the importance of the issue that lies inevitably in their path, that they stop to explain and apologize; but they dare not deny, lest the logic they use should be turned against themselves.

The great Christian doctrine of the equality of all before God, who is declared to be no respecter of persons, is the axe laid at the root of the tree of prejudice, which has for such long ages brought forth injustice and oppression in a multitude of forms. Our good and great men are reading with anointed eyes the declaration, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free," and we may hope they will soon read the final assertion, "Neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." In this full and broad assertion lies the completion of the great Christian scheme, not limited to any number of parts, but embracing the great whole, thus recognizing the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. What our cause now needs is the Christian advocacy of good and wise men and women. Legally, our position is conceded, so far as the logical sequences are concerned; but the pulpit, on which woman is prone to lean for all her opinions on questions of morality, has, with a few rare exceptions, been silent. Henry Ward Beecher has dared to speak out in a manly, Christian way; but even he has not laid upon the women of the Church that burden of responsibility concerning government that they ought to be made to feel. For what, let me ask, is to excuse them, if their want of intelligence and activity should lead to a thorough corruption of political morals such as we have seen in portions of our country during a few years past. Will they not be among those who hide their Lord's talent in the earth, and by and by come back with the little morsel carefully wrapped up in a napkin, all beautifully embroidered, it may be, and tender it back, saying, "Lo! there is thine own, take it!" In this religious aspect women must come to consider the question before it will become vital. Political action may give it a body, but God only can breathe into it the breath of life that will constitute it a living soul. Hence we see that without the best religious sanction, little progress can really be assured. I am conscious that my views are not identical with those of many who have reached the same general conclusions; but as many are disposed to regard the question from this standpoint, I have thought it best to express myself with great frankness. With many regrets that I can not partake in your deliberations,

Mrs. H. M. Tracy Cutler.

I remain, truly yours,

1710 Locust Street, Philadelphia, May 10, 1866.

My Very Dear Susan Anthony:—I fully intended coming to the meetings—gave up Washington, made all my arrangements, packed my bag—and stayed at home. Circumstances which I could not control, and which I can't very well explain, put utterly out of my power the duty and pleasure of coming. There's no use in saying how sorry I am, for it would waste paper and time to state all my regrets. Suffice it to declare that I have rarely been so extremely sorry and disappointed.

Anna E. Dickinson.

Affectionately and truly thine,

Office of Correspondence with the Friends of the Missing Men of }
United States Army, Washington, D. C.; April 3, 1866. }

Dear Miss Anthony:—I am glad that my too kind and partial friends have set me "right on the record." I am "with you," and with all who labor for the advancement[Pg 917] of humanity and the world through the proper channels—the elevation of woman. You have my heart, my sympathies (if needed), my prayers, and, best of all, my hopes, for the success of your every endeavor; and my poor words you should have, if they could add either strength or interest, but neither nature nor art have contributed me anything in this direction. I sometimes work a little, but it seems to me to be in the most common manner, and I am sure I could not speak at all. But no one knows how happy I should be to be present and listen to those who can; and if not prevented by duties of a very pressing and positive nature, I shall indulge myself so far. With assurances of the highest regard, believe me your friend,

Clara Barton.

Newport, R. I., May 14, 1866.

Miss Susan B. Anthony—Dear Friend:—It has proved impossible for me to attend the Convention; and I hope it is unnecessary, so far as my own position is concerned, for me to renew my allegiance to the Equal Rights movement. It seems to me the most glaring of logical absurdities to apply the name of Universal Suffrage to any system which does not include both sexes. It seems, in this point of view, a righteous retribution upon American men, that the disfranchisement of woman has put such a weapon into the hands of those who would disfranchise the negro also. I must say, however, that a still greater share of this responsibility rests upon American women, for it is their unwillingness to ask for their rights which chiefly renders our legislators unwilling to concede them.

Thomas Wentworth Higginson.

Cordially yours,

A letter declining to speak at the Boston Equal Rights meeting, says: "There has been a time when no one could do any better than I, to speak in favor of women physicians, and then I was willing to come forward and do my best. At present there are so many able and eloquent, however, on the platform to advocate what we need—political franchise—that I would appear presumptuous should I attempt to add myself to the list. There is no other right which I want besides the elective franchise, because the right to work on equality with man we can obtain, with nothing but energy and firm will. My own case as a physician illustrates that; while I am paying very nearly $400 taxes (State and national), without the right to vote. These enormous taxes come from money earned, dollar by dollar, on equality with men, and yet there are all round me here many physicians of the stronger sex, who do not pay half this amount of taxes, who vote and rule. I hope before long a republic in the true sense of the word will be our share in this glorious country. With sincere wishes for the best of results in your present movement,

M. E. Zakrzewska.

I am truly yours,

FREDERICK DOUGLASS.

In a letter, saying it would be impossible for him to attend the Boston Equal Rights meeting on the 31st of May, says, "My best and most earnest wishes for the success of your noble Convention. The cause which it aims to subserve is the cause of the whole human family, in a sense the broadest and most striking ever hit upon by any other association."

WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON,

In a letter stating that ill health prevented him from attending the National Woman's Rights Convention in New York, says: "In some way I will try to express my warm and hearty approval of the Equal Rights movement at the approaching meeting in Boston. I hail it with gladness, and as of far-reaching importance. The time has fully come to drop the phrase "Woman's Rights" for that of "Equal Rights."

The following appeal, written by Parker Pillsbury, was issued in behalf of the American Equal Rights Association in the autumn of 1866:

APPEAL FOR UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE.

In restoring the foundations of the Government, Justice, as the chief corner-stone, can alone secure a permanence of Peace and Prosperity. The eighteenth century gave the World the Declaration of Independence, the war of the Revolution, and the Constitution of the United States; but only in the light of the nineteenth are these[Pg 918] sublime phenomena to be interpreted to us. From the Government, the civilization, and religion of Great Britain, we derived our chattel slave system; but it survived the pen of Jefferson, the sword of Washington, and the wisdom, humanity, and statesmanship of the founders and framers of the Government; and until far louder thunders than Bunker Hill and Saratoga dashed it to the ground, and almost whelmed the Government itself with it in a common ruin. And the terrible lessons of the late war will all be in vain, should we now attempt to relay our foundations in injustice and oppression. Out of the jaws of rebellion and treason was the nation snatched by the hand of negro valor. And thus, surely, has that race earned the right of full citizenship and equality in the State. Even Jefferson declared, more than half a century ago, that whoever "fights and pays taxes" has the right of suffrage against the world. But the right of humanity, of manhood, is older and of higher and diviner appointment than any other. If the right of liberty and the pursuit of happiness be the gift and endowment of the Creator, then surely is the right to the ballot the only possible or conceivable assurance and guaranty of it in republican governments. And on this ground the claim of woman is no less than that of man. But base and degrading as has been the position of the negro in the Government, that of woman is far lower. At no price within human power to pay, can she arrive at equality in the Government she is compelled to support and obey. In the making or executing of no law, however deeply her womanly interest or happiness may be involved, can she bear a part. She is found guilty, not of a crime, not of a color, but of a sex; and all her appeals to courts or communities for equality and justice, are in vain, even in this democratic and Christian Republic. She is a native, free-born citizen, a property-holder, taxpayer, loyal and patriotic. She supports herself, and in proportionable part, the schools, colleges, universities, churches, poor-houses, jails, prisons, the army, the navy, the whole machinery of government; and yet she has no vote at the polls, no voice in the national councils. She has guided great movements of philanthropy and charity; has founded and sustained churches; established missions; edited journals; written and published invaluable treatises on history and economy, political, social, and moral, and on philosophy in all its departments; filled honorably professors' chairs; governed nations; led armies; commanded ships; discovered and described new planets; practiced creditably in the liberal professions; and patiently explored the whole realm of scientific research; and yet, because in life's allotment she is female, not male, woman, not man, the curse of inferiority cleaves to her through all her generations. Eden's anathema was to be removed on the coming of the second Adam; and in the new dispensation there was to be neither male nor female. Jewish outlawry from all the nations, continuing through almost twenty centuries, is repealed by common consent among all civilized governments. Nor does the curse of eternal attainder longer blast the Ethiopian race to degradation and slavery, through Canaan's sin and shame. But where shall woman look for her redemption in this auspicious hour, when new dawnings of liberty, new sunrises of human enfranchisement are illumining the world? A man once said, "where liberty is, there is my country." But on what continent or island, or in what vast wilderness shall woman find a nationality where she shall be taxed to support no government she did not aid in making, obey no law she did not help to enact, nor suffer any penalty until adjudged, by a jury, in part at least, of her peers? True, her privileges in some States have been, after long struggle and conflict, enlarged and increased. Like the Southern freedmen, she has had her Civil Rights bill. But all this is compatible with the Dred Scott decision itself. The power that gives can take away; but of that power woman is no part. Mr. Sumner says, "The ballot is the one thing needful to the emancipated slave." Without it, he declares, his liberty is but an illusion, a jack-o'lantern which he will pursue in vain. Without the ballot, he reiterates, the slave becomes only sacrifice. And shall it not also be pre-eminently so with woman? Formed by Almighty power a little lower than the angels, her ruling lords and masters have, by legislative proscription, plunged her not a little but immeasurably below myriads of the human race, whose only boast or claim is, that for some inscrutable reason they were so constituted as to stand men in the tables of the census.

In the American Equal Rights Association, it is determined to prosecute an agitation which shall wake the nation to new consciousness of the injustice long inflicted and still[Pg 919] suffered through proscriptive distinctions on account of sex and complexion. To the industrial, hard-toiling, property-producing, family-supporting women, this appeal is made to come to the rescue of their own long-lost rights. In New York the angel of a Constitutional Convention is soon to stir the waters. Let all who need healing hasten to the baptism. Nor is it one of the least cheering signs that multitudes of the intelligent women of the country are fast waking to a full consciousness of the wrongs they suffer. Even the war has taught invaluable lessons on the dignity and worth of woman in a thousand new spheres. Our Florence Nightingales have not been one, but many, yea thousands. Woman as well as the freedman saved the nation in its hour of peril, and invested herself with new dignity demanding new distinction. Now emphatically is her hour. But no comparison need be instituted, none surely should be urged, as to whose is the paramount claim. The great clock of humanity has struck the hour, and its tones are ringing across the continents, reverberating as well among the Alps as the Alleghanies, and mingling sweet music in both the hemispheres. We are coming to the rescue of justice and right, girded with the panoply of a divine and holy cause, and Omnipotence is pledged in our behalf. We propose to organize Equal Rights clubs or committees in every city, town, and village; to hold meetings for discussions and lectures; to circulate tracts and petitions, and to raise funds to enable the Association to carry forward its work for educating the popular sentiment. We shall endeavor to enlist the pulpit and the press. Truth, justice, reason, humanity, must and will triumph. Already a host is on our side, and our principles can never be defeated. The prospect before us is full of encouragement, and we confidently submit our enterprise to the heart and hand of a waiting and expectant people.

LETTERS TO THE MAY ANNIVERSARY OF 1867.

Lawrence, Kansas, May 6, 1867.

My Dear Miss Anthony:—I hope your Convention will not fail to set in its true light the position of those editors in New York who are branding as the "infamous thirteen" the men who, in the New Jersey Legislature, voted against negro suffrage, while they themselves give the whole weight of their journals against woman's right to vote. They use the terms "universal and impartial suffrage," when they mean only negro suffrage; and they do it to hide a dark skin and an unpopular client. They know that a "lie will keep its throne a whole age longer if it skulks behind the shadow of some fair seeming name." In New Jersey a negro father is legally entitled to his children, but no mother in New Jersey, black or white, has any legal right to her children. In New Jersey a widow may live forty days in the house of her deceased husband without paying rent, but the negro widower, just like the white widower, may remain in undisturbed possession of house and property. A negro man can sell his real estate and make a valid deed, but no wife in that State can do so without her husband's consent. A negro man in New Jersey may will all his property as he pleases, but no wife in the State can will her personal property at all, and if she will her real estate with her husband's consent, he may revoke that consent any time before the will is admitted to probate, and thus render her will null and void. The women of New Jersey went to the Legislature last winter on their own petition, for the right of suffrage. Twenty-three members voted for them, thirty-two voted against them. But the editors who now find unmeasured words to express their contempt for the "infamous thirteen" who voted against the negro, were as dumb as death when this vote was cast against woman. The Washington correspondent of the New York Tribune says that Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens give it as their opinion that New Jersey will not have a republican form of government until they put the word "white" out of their Constitution. Do these gentlemen mean to say that when New Jersey has given her 8,000 negro men the vote she will have a republican form of government, while 134,000 women of that State are still without it? and not only without it, but blasted by laws which are a disgrace to the civilization of the age; and of these laws not one afflicts or affects the negro man. The rebels who starved our brave boys in Andersonville, and made ornaments of their bones, these men, traitors, guilty of the highest crime known to our laws, are to be punished by having their right to vote taken away. Of what crime are American women guilty that they are[Pg 920] to be compelled to stand on a political platform with such men as these? Let no man dream that national prosperity and peace can be secured by merely giving suffrage to colored men, while that sacred right is denied to millions of American women. That scanty shred of justice, good as far it goes, is utterly inadequate to meet the emergency of this hour. Men of every race and color may vote, but if the women are excluded our legislation will still lack that moral tone, for want of which the nation is to-day drifting toward ruin. There is no other name given by which the country can be saved but that of woman. "Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." Women are governed, negroes are governed, and should give their consent. Will men never learn that a principle which God has made true He has also made it safe to apply? Aye, more, that a principle He has made true, it is not safe not to apply? The problem for the American statesmen to-day is no narrow question of races, but how to embody in our institutions a guarantee for the rights of every citizen. The solution is easy. Base government on the consent of the governed, and each class will protect itself. Put this one great principle of universal suffrage, irrespective of sex or color, into the foundation of our temple of liberty, and it will rise in fair and beautiful proportions, "without the sound of a hammer or the noise of any instrument," to stand at last "perfect and entire, wanting nothing." Omit it, and only "He who sees the end from the beginning" knows through what other national woes we must be driven, before we learn that the path of justice is the only path of peace and safety.

Lucy Stone.

Boston, May 5, 1867.

To the American Equal Rights Association:

Although not permitted to be present with you, yet, in spirit, I join you in all your efforts to secure justice and equality to all the children of God. I have so long felt deeply upon the subjects before you, that I wish to add my word to the voices of those who are more fortunate in being present. Since I was old enough to think upon important subjects, I have constantly felt the pressure of injustice that has borne so heavily upon my sex. At sixteen I earnestly desired to enter some college, that I might have the benefit of those helps to learning which were open to all boys, and I deeply felt the cruelty and injustice that closed the doors of the universities to me, who was longing and thirsting for knowledge, while they were invitingly open to the youth of the other sex, who often only used them to waste their time and give them the name of educated men. I could see no reason for this exclusion, nor could I imagine how it would harm any one to allow girls who desired to learn the privilege of going to the universities.

My next personal experience of the injustice done to women by the laws was, when a widow, I buried one of my little daughters, and found that I, who had borne her and nursed her and provided for all her wants, was not her heir, but her little sister, who had done nothing for her, and was still dependent on me for care, etc. This I felt very keenly, not on account of the property involved, for it was but little, but on account of the great injustice done to my maternal heart. My next personal lesson in the law's iniquity was, when about to marry the second time, both myself and husband desired to secure to me the property I possessed. I employed a great lawyer in Maine, Gov. Fessenden, the father of one of our senators, to make an instrument that would secure that end. After thinking on the subject a week, and doing the best he could, he handed me the paper, saying, "I have done my best; but I can not assure you that this instrument will secure to you your property if your husband should ever become insolvent!" This surely astonished me. The law not only did not protect women in their property rights, but did so much to prevent their getting or keeping them, that an able lawyer could not frame an instrument that would secure them even when signed by their intended husbands before marriage! This was more than thirty years ago, and some improvements have since been made in the laws in reference to women.

The next great wrong that pressed heavily upon me was when I again became a widow. I found myself yearly taxed for State and county, and later for revenue, without a voice in anything that concerned the raising of money, or in any of the elections to office in the great struggle that our country was passing through. With all the deep feeling of my brethren, a clear appreciation of the all-important issues at stake, and an intensely painful knowledge of the sin of slavery and its concomitant evils, I could not cast a vote[Pg 921] in favor of the right, but must look on with folded hands, and give my money to support the Government, without a chance of giving it an impetus, however slight, in the direction of justice and liberty! In view of all these wrongs, I felt that the women of America had as just cause for rebellion against the Government as our fathers had against the British Government when they resisted, on the ground that taxation and representation were one and inseparable. The three great desires of my life have been: That the halls of learning should be universally open to all souls who desire to enter them; that the property rights of all, without regard to sex, color, or race, should stand on the same foundation, and be equal; that every person twenty-one years old, who is a citizen of the United States, should have the ballot, unless disfranchised by crime, idiocy, or insanity. When these three things are granted, all else will follow in due time. But until these things are assured to the citizens of America, our Government presents the anomaly of being professedly founded upon the consent of the governed, and yet shutting out two-thirds of its citizens from all voice in it.

. . . . . . . . . .

Mercy B. Jackson, M.D.

Chicago, March 22, 1867.

Dear Miss Anthony:—I feel that I must do something for the "Woman's Suffrage" movement in the West. There is much interest here concerning it, but no movement is yet made. Matters are being prepared, and when the movement is made in the West, it will sweep onward majestically. Kansas and Iowa will first give women the right to vote before any other States, East or West. "Man proposes, but God disposes." I have always had a theory of my own concerning this suffrage question. Ever since I began to think of it, and that has been since Dr. Harriot Hunt's first protest against woman being taxed when she had no representation, I have believed that, in my day, woman would vote. But I have thought they would first obtain the right to work and wages, and that the right to vote would naturally follow. For woman's right to work and wages I have labored indefatigably. But I see that my plan is not God's plan. The right to vote is to come first, and work and wages afterwards, and easily. I "stumped" the Northwest during the war. Two women of us, Mrs. Hoge and myself, organized over 1,000 Aid Societies, and raised, in money and supplies, nearly $100,000 for the soldiers; and to do it, we were compelled to get people together in masses, and tell our story and our plans, and make our appeals to hundreds at a time. So I can talk here, and can help you here, when you are ready to lead. In the meanwhile, I have begun to work for the cause through my husband's weekly paper, which has a large circulation in the Northwest. I have announced myself as henceforth committed to the cause of woman suffrage, and have become involved, instanter, in a controversy on the subject. I am associate editor of the paper, and have been these dozen years. I have just completed a reply to an objector to the doctrine, which goes into this week's issue. In my way, I am working with you. I have always believed in the ballot for woman at some future time—always, since reading Margaret Fuller's "Woman in the Nineteenth Century," which set me to thinking a quarter of a century ago. Boston is my native city, and I lived there till my marriage, and had one or two talks with Theodore Parker which helped me wonderfully.

Mary A. Livermore.

Yours truly,

Topeka, Kansas, April 5, 1867.

Dear Madam:—We are now arranging for a thorough canvass of our State for impartial suffrage, without regard to sex or color. We are satisfied that an argument in favor of colored suffrage is an argument in favor of woman suffrage. Both are based upon the same principle. It is the doctrine of our fathers "that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." We "white men" have no right to ask privileges or demand rights for ourselves that we are unwilling to grant to the whole human family. There never has been, and never can be, an argument, based upon principle, against colored or woman suffrage. Sneers and attempts at ridicule are not arguments. Henry B. Blackwell, of New Jersey, and Mrs. Lucy Stone, are now canvassing our State for impartial suffrage. Some of the most eminent men and women of the United States have been invited, and promised to visit our State this summer and fall;[Pg 922] and we shall succeed. Kansas will be free, and occupy the proudest place, in all time to come, in the history of the world.

We desire to extend our meetings to every neighborhood in Kansas; reach, if possible, the ear of every voter. For this purpose we must enlist every home speaker possible. We shall arrange series of meetings in all parts of the State, commencing about September 1st, and running through September and October. We desire speakers to advocate the broad doctrine of impartial suffrage, but welcome those who advocate either. Those who desire colored suffrage alone, are invited to take the field; also those who favor only female suffrage. Each help the other. I am instructed by the State Impartial Suffrage Executive Committee to ask you to aid us, and speak at as many of our meetings as possible. Please answer at once, and let us know how much time you can spend in the campaign, and what part of the State you prefer to speak in.

S. N. Wood,
Cor. Sec'y Kansas Impartial Suffrage Association.

Yours truly,

Bangor, Me., May 9, 1867.

Dear Miss Anthony:—I should be truly glad to attend the Annual Meeting; but, as you see, I am far from New York. Mr. Davis and I are at work in another part of the great field of progress. While you and your noble friend, Mrs. Stanton, are endeavoring to move the adult population of our nation to just and righteous action, we are striving to establish on earth the beginning of the kingdom of heaven, by instituting a new and true method of moral and spiritual or religious education for the children and youth of the New Dispensation. Spiritualism, as a religious movement, has done more than any previous dispensation to give woman an equal career with man; and we trust that, through the influence of the "Children's Progressive Lyceums," the youth in our midst, rapidly advancing to the stage of action, will form a powerful phalanx on the side of "Equal Rights" and the elevation of humanity.

Mary F. Davis.

Yours fraternally,

Buffalo, April 14, 1867.

Dear Mrs. Stanton:—I thank you for your kind note.... I pray that God will bless you in the noble work you are in, and that woman will soon be admitted to her proper place where God intended she should be, and from which to exclude her must, like any other great wrong, bring misery and sorrow to the race.

Rufus Saxton.

Sincerely your friend,

148 Madison Avenue, Sunday Eve., April 14, 1867.

My Dear Mrs. Stanton:—your invitation to me to lift my voice at your Annual Convention in behalf of the cause for which you have worked so faithfully and so long, and, let me add, so efficiently, was duly received; but I have an universal excuse for neglect of duty in the multitudinous professional engagements that absorb my life and strength. Believing in the justice of your cause, and that better laws and better order would bless our race could they be submitted to the arbitrament of woman, I yet am not able, individually, to give the time to it now which would be requisite for an adequate public presentation of its claims, but must content myself with only such passing words of cheer as the moment calls forth in the daily intercourse of life. I am grateful that you thought me competent to advocate so great a principle; but he would be a bold man who would attempt to add anything to the masterly effort of Mr. Beecher at the last Convention.

Luther R. Marsh.

I am, as of old, your friend,

148 Madison Avenue, April 14, 1867.

Dear Mrs. Stanton:—Please accept the trifle enclosed, $20, as a token of my friendship to the good cause, whose mighty burden of enlightenment is to hold the growth of future cycles with an all-controlling destiny. I am glad to see that those who have been willing to wear the sackcloth and ashes are beginning to receive the crowns of the olive and the bay upon their consecrated heads. Many will find it very agreeable, now, to sail in upon the sunny and ardent tide of the rippling river, forgetting that once it was a[Pg 923] darksome, sluggish stream, not pleasant to launch forth upon. My father's [208] early championship of a despised cause taught me to hold very sacred those pioneers in holy efforts, which to embrace was to suffer the pangs of a daily martyrdom.

Jeannie Marsh.

Your friend, as of old,

May 29, 1867.

It is foolish to say that the advocates of the "Woman Movement" demand "special legislation" for woman, or desire to array her in hostility to man. It is the enemies of this movement who have made special legislation necessary, since they declare woman not to be the equal of man. We desire nothing but one common law alike for each, with woman holding the ballot, not as the enemy, but as the peer and friend of man.

Anna E. Dickinson.

Kenosha, Wis., May 1, 1868.

I saw your notice of the meeting of the American Equal Rights Association in that banner of freedom, the Boston Investigator. A thousand times I wish you success. We, in this State, intend to make a determined fight next year for female suffrage. The resolution submitting it to the people passed the Assembly and Senate by more than two to one (57 against 24. and 19 against 9); yet you must not suppose that our cause is so favorable as that. I send a few extracts, copied from the Racine Advocate; and to that number I am pleased to add the Milwaukee News, the leading Democratic paper of the State. Mr. Sholes, one of the leading Republicans of the State (elector on the last Presidential ticket), is warmly in support of your cause. Certainly the great car of progress is under motion, and no bigoted, conservative fogyism can long stay its progress. In the meantime, I really hope to see some of your best speakers in the Wisconsin field before the election of 1868. Where can I get some pamphlets containing the best arguments for universal suffrage? Go bravely on. Let not the scoffs and sneers of the low, mean, and vulgar intimidate, defeat, or discourage you.

R. F. Mills.

Most respectfully,

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

Receipts at the Eleventh National Woman's Rights Convention, held in New York, May 10, 1866.

Abby Hutchinson Patton	$50 00	Mrs. F. Knapp	$1 00
Jessie Benton Fremont	50 00	Mary M. Bingham	1 00
Mrs. C. Lozier, M.D.	20 00	Harriet Clisby	1 00
James and Lucretia Mott	10 00	Sarah E. Payson	1 00
Anna Densmore, M.D.	10 00	Christiana T. Wallace	1 00
Margaret E. Winchester	5 00	D. J. H. Wilcox	1 00
Eliza Wright Osborn	5 00	Albert O. Wilcox	1 00
Martha C. Wright	8 00	J. H. H. Wilcox	1 00
Gerrit and Nancy Smith	10 00	Frances D. Gage	1 00
Elizabeth Smith Miller	5 00	Louisa Humphrey	1 00
C. C. Williams	2 00	A. M. Odell	1 00
S. R. Ferris	50	Dr. J. E. Snodgrass	1 00
Mrs. L. M. Ward. M.D.	2 00	Gustavus Muller	1 00
M. P. Allen	1 00	Charles Lenox Remond	1 00
M. A. Halsted	1 00	Mary Curtis	1 00
Mrs. J. B. Mix	1 00	Jane P. Thurston	1 00
H. Phelps	1 00	Martha T. Ketchum	1 00
J. H. Smith	1 00	Sarah H. Hallock	1 00
Frances V. Hallock	1 00	Elizabeth Barton	1 00
Ella M. Clymer	1 00	Mrs. Geo. C. White	1 00
Sarah S. White	1 00	A. Raymond	1 00
Cordelia Curtis	1 00	Susan M. Davis	1 00
Mrs. D. T. Tompkins	1 00	A. M. Powell	1 00
Josephine S. Griffing	1 00	General collection	46 50

[Pg 924]

Receipts at the Equal Rights Convention, held at Boston, May 27, 1866.

Anna E. Dickinson	$100 00	Sarah H. Young, M.D.	$5 00
E. D. and Anna F. Draper	50 00	M. E. Woods	1 00
Geo. J. and Mary B. H. Adams	20 00	M. E. Jameson	1 00
Mr. and Mrs. A. M. McPhail	20 00	C. F. Haywood	1 00
Anna Davis Hallowell	10 00	H. A. Comly	2 00
C. Prince	5 00	Anna R. Southwick	1 00
Mrs. M. P. Snow	5 00	H. E. Sawyer	1 00
Caroline M. Severance	5 00	Richard Plummer	1 00
R. H. Ober	4 00	R. Howland	1 00
Mrs. L. Prang	1 00	S. R. Duzen	1 00
A. E. Heywood	2 00	F. A. Green	5 00
Parker Pillsbury	1 00	D. B. Morey	1 00
Mrs. E. D. Cheney	1 00	J. Wetherbe	1 00
L. H. Ober	1 00	Isaac H. Marshall	1 00
Mrs. M. H. Prince	3 00	Maria B. Clapp	1 00
John T. Sargent	2 00	J. E. Bruce	50
R. P. Hallowell	2 00	A. J. Patterson	50
Mrs. C. A. Baker	1 00	Cash	3 05
E. H. Merrill	1 00	T. B. Rice	50
Maria S. Page	2 00	Cash	1 00
Mary C. Shannon	50	Frances H. Drake	1 00
N. Allen	1 00	Kate C. Atkinson	50
S. Reynolds	50	Wilmot Wilson	1 00
R. T. Greene	50	Cash	50
M. Halliburton	50	Mary C. Sawyer	2 00
Harriet A. Foster	2 00	Elizabeth Mendum	5 00
A. B. Morey	50	H. W. Carter	50
C. S. Perry	50	L. F. Lalve, M.D.	50
A. S. Sisson	50	K. E. Walker	50
S. Boynton	50	Charles K. Whipple	1 00
Henry Abbott	2 00	Ruth Buffum	1 00
Lewis Ford	1 00	S. Cheney	50
Sarah J. Nowell	1 00	K. C. Atkins	50
Friend	35	Elizabeth M. F. Denton	5 00
Col. Wm. B. Green	5 00	H. N. Green	50
R. H. Morrill	2 00	M. E. Steward	1 00
Mrs. M. A. Dotcher	1 00	Margaret N. Wood	1 00
M. C. Wolson	1 00	Cash	2 50
Mary Willey	50	Kate Reynolds	2 00
Cash	1 15	John L. Whiting	1 00
Abby H. Stephenson	5 00	Universal Suffrage	1 00
Lewis McLaughlin	1 00	M. E. Darey	1 00
Mrs. S. D. Young	3 25	General collection	41 00

Receipts from June 1, 1866, to May 1, 1867.

Levi Coates	$1 00	Job Parker	5 00
Mrs. A. C. L. Hyde	1 00	Aaron Stedman	1 00
Jane Voorhees	25 00	Mrs. B. P. Markham	50
Harriet V. Rice	10 00	Mrs. D. F. Rogers	50
Mary F. Gilbert	1 00	Emily Rogers	50
F. A. Hinckley	1 50	Maggie Clemmer	25
Louisa Frost	2 00	James Eaton	1 00
M. B. Linton	10 00	Addison B. Tuttle	1 00
Olympia Brown	5 00	Anna H. McAvoy	25
Mary E. Ranks	1 00	Isadore Harrison	25
Mary E. Deuls	2 00	Joseph A. Sherman	1 00
Sarah H. Hallock	50	Frank Conway	25
Dansville E. R. Association (per James		Mary Jackson	25
C. Jackson, M.D.)	105 00	J. D. Cook	50
Gerrit Smith	100 00	J. G. Howe	2 00
James and Lucretia Mott	53 00	R. Lippis	50
C. S. Lozier, M.D.	50 00	H. W. Hale	25
Samuel E. Sewall	40 00	William Litch	50
Sinclair Tousey	10 00	Sarah Willis	1 00
G. P. Lowrey	10 00	Mrs. E. B. Judson	10 00
Dr. Dio Lewis	5 00	S. J. May	5 00
Martha C. Wright	5 00	Joseph Savage	5 00
Eliza W. Osborn	5 00	H. Delano	5 00
E. V. Dickey	6 00	T. G. White	3 00
Edward M. Davis	5 00	Dr. H. S. Sparks	2 00
Matilda E. J. Gage	5 00	Mr. and Mrs. L. Spalding	2 00
E. D. Hudson	5 00	J. M. Wieting	2 00
[Pg 925]Mrs. W. H. Williams	5 00	Sarah Smith	1 00
Anna Willets	5 00	J. N. Holmes	1 00
Emily Jaques	5 00	M. Merrick	1 00
Sarah E. Wall	5 00	Charles D. B. Mills	1 00
James Freeman Clarke	5 00	A. P. Brown	50
Parker Pillsbury	4 00	Mrs. F. L. Brown	50
Mrs. S. M. Doty	3 00	E. C. Lewis	1 00
Mary Grew	2 00	Mrs. L. H. Hinsdale	50
Sarah Pugh	2 00	Mrs. B. Brook	25
Margaret J. Burleigh	2 00	C. A. Abbott	25
Geo. H. Sisson	3 00	Fayette Clark	50
E. G. Folsom	2 00	Priscilla Clark	50
Joseph Carpenter	2 00	Louisa J. Phelps	1 00
Susan Ormsby	1 00	Lydia P. Savage	1 00
Frances Ellen Burr	1 00	Mrs. Charles B. Sedgwick	1 00
J. D. Stephenson	1 00	Mary A. Horton	25
Paulina Gerry	1 00	J. T. Williams	25
J. H. Root	1 00	Mrs. G. G. Sperry	50
Mrs. Avery	1 00	A. D. Waters	25
Martha Pierce	1 00	S. Brewer	50
James Pierce	1 00	H. C. Todd	25
A Friend	1 00	C. G. Alton	50
Equal Rights	1 00	Mrs. L. A. Strowbridge	3 00
Mrs. C. S. Lozier, M.D.	10 00	Martha C. Wright	5 00
Mrs. E. Sanderson	5 00	Eliza W. Osborn	5 00
Isaac Sherwood	5 00	Mrs. Dr. Hall	1 00
Mrs. P. L. Upham	5 00	Abby Thayer Chase	50
John B. Bassett	2 00	Philadelphia E. R. Convention	28 00
H. T. Douley	1 00	Esther Cole	1 00
Sarah F. Rice, M.D.	1 00	L. Kelsey	1 00
Joseph Post	1 00	J. S. Northrup	2 00
Huldah S. Warrington	1 00	Mrs. A. Leaton	1 00
Mary Styles	1 00	Samuel Sutton	50
M. Parish	25	Caroline Thompson	2 00
Mrs. Field	50	Elizabeth M. Atwell	2 00
Martha Hudson	1 00	Jacob and Eliza Powell	10 00
Sarah E. Johonnet	1 00	Zenus Brackett	10 00
John Lancaster	1 00	Mrs. Judge Owen	1 00
Dr. and Mrs. A. L. Ward	2 00	Margaret Vanderpool	75
Frances E. Smith	1 00	James McEntee	5 00
Mrs. Whitley	1 00	H. M. Crane	3 00
Mrs. D. B. Hontz	50	James G. Lindsley	1 00
J. Sinclair	50	Walter B. Crane	1 00
Anna Rice Powell	1 00	Horatio Falks	1 00
Mrs. Mix, M.D.	50	J. E. Lasher	1 00
Alice Hall	50	Mrs. Vantassell	1 00
Ella Clymer	1 00	Jonathan Buffum	10 00
Linda Dietz	1 00	Luther Melendy	5 00
Mrs. Dietz	50	Anson Lapham	40 00
Dr. James Burson	25	Mary S. Moses	3 00
L. A. Van Cort	25	Mrs. Oliver Dennett	10 00
William Russel	1 00	Mr. Armstrong	5 00
Sarah B. Perry	50	Elisabeth J. Vail, M.D.	1 00
D. H. Hoffman	50	Matilda T. Saxton	5 00
P. A. Neale	50	Rosanna Thompson	2 00
Edward Kingsley	2 00	Helen Philleo	1 00
Fanny M. Callow	2 00	James Halleck	1 10
L. Jenny Kellogg	1 00	P. H. Boyce	50
Caroline H. Sherwood	1 00	Ellis Ellis	1 00
Delia A. Barker	1 00	Charlotte M. Schofield	25
Gustavus Muller	3 00	John Cadawalder	10
William L. Jaycox	25	David Perry	25
E. P. Bailey	50	Le Grand Marvin	1 00
M. Newth	1 00	J. Van Vleck	1 00
Cynthia DeLong	5 00	Cyrus P. Lee	1 00
John Castor	25	Aaron R. Vail	2 00
W. R. and M. H. Hallowell	5 00	E. Cumming	31
Mary B. F. Curtis	5 00	Mrs. J. Watson	5 00

Receipts at the First Anniversary, May 9 and 10, 1867.

Elizabeth B. Chace	$25 00	Lydia Mott	25 00
Parker Pillsbury	25 00	Mrs. P. H. and M. Jones	25 00
Mrs. Luther Marsh	20 00	Susan B. Anthony	50 00
[Pg 926]Cora A. Syme	10 00	A. Noble, Sr.	1 00
Two Ladies, $5 each	10 00	C. B. Halsart	1 00
Frances D. Gage	13 00	E. Underhill	1 00
Samuel J. May	10 00	A. M. Powell	1 00
L. Francis	10 00	J. E. Snodgrass	1 00
Westchester E. R. Association (per		Mrs. Hibbard	1 00
E. A. Studwell)	15 00	Nellie Lord	1 00
Jane Clegg	15 00	D. B. and A. Morey	1 00
Joseph and Mary Post	10 00	R. Salmon	1 00
Charlotte D. Lozier, M.D.	5 00	Adolphus O. Johnson	1 00
Elizabeth W. Brown	5 00	Levi K. Joslin	1 00
Oliver Johnson	5 00	Mary F. Davis	1 00
A. O. Willcox	5 00	Wm. P. Bolles	1 00
J. K. H. Wilcox	5 00	Cash	1 00
E. Cummings	5 00	E. Ostrander	1 00
Mary C. Sawyer	5 00	Esther Titus	1 00
J. C. Fergusson	5 00	L. B. Humphrey	1 00
Fred. H. Hernan	5 00	Martha Hudson	1 00
Harry H. Hall	5 00	Susan M. Davis	1 00
Charles P. Somerby	5 00	Sojourner Truth	1 00
Robert J. Johnston	5 00	T. M. Newbold	1 00
Mrs. S. M. Chickering	5 00	M. E. Woodson	50
J. Miller McKim	5 00	Mrs. M. Johnson	50
Sarah E. Wall	3 00	Ann Ellsworth Hunt	50
R. F. Hudson	2 00	L. Blake	50
Mrs. Gayno	2 00	J. L. Langworthy	50
Mrs. Dodge	2 00	T. B. Pierce	50
Mrs. L. Francis	2 00	Esther C. Pierce	50
Mrs. Elmer Stone	2 00	E. Campbell	50
Hannah W. Bell	2 00	M. H. McKinnon	50
S. S. Foster	1 00	Mrs. J. B. Mix, M.D.	50
Mrs. Brown	5 00	Samuel D. Moore	25
T. W. Higginson	1 00	M. P. Allen	25
S. D. White	1 00	R. Williams	25
Cash	1 00	P. E. Kipp	25

Pledges.

Anna E. Dickinson	$100 00	Mrs. C. E. Collins	5 00
Margaret E. Winchester	100 00	Euphemia Cochrane	5 00
A. O. Wilcox	55 00	Melissa Johnson	5 00
C. and M. H. Prince	25 00	W. F. Douley	2 00
Gillis, Harney & Co.	25 00	Mrs. H. P. Baldwin	1 00
H. Hart	20 00	Dr. Chavau	1 00
D. B. and A. B. Morey	20 00	S. A. Turner	1 00
John Smith	10 00	Dio Lewis, M.D.	50 00
C. F. Wallace	5 00	R. C. Browning	30 00
C. E. Reason	5 00	George H. Taylor, M.D.	5 00

SOJOURNER TRUTH ON THE PRESS.

To the Editor of the World:—We have had the pleasure of entertaining Mrs. Stowe's "Lybian Sybil" at our home for the last week, and can bear our testimony to the marvelous wisdom and goodness of this remarkable woman. She was a slave in this State for forty years, and has devoted forty years of freedom to the best interests of her race. Though eighty years of age, she is as active and clear-sighted as ever, and "understands the whole question of reconstruction, all its 'quagmires and pitfalls,' as she says, as well as any man does."

The morning after the Equal Rights Convention, as the daily journals one by one made their appearance, turning to the youngsters of the household, she said: "Children, as there is no school to-day, will you read Sojourner the reports of the Convention? I want to see whether these young sprigs of the press do me justice. You know, children, I don't read such small stuff as letters, I read men and nations. I can see through a millstone, though I can't see through a spelling-book. What a narrow idea a reading qualification is for a voter! I know and do what is right better than many big men who read. And there's that property qualification! just as bad. As if men and women themselves, who made money, were not of more value than the thing they made. If I were a delegate to[Pg 927] the Constitutional Convention I could make suffrage as clear as daylight; but I am afraid these Republicans will 'purty, purty' about all manner of small things week out and week in, and never settle this foundation question after all." Sojourner then gathered up her bag and shawl, and walked into the parlor in a stately manner, and there, surrounded by the children, the papers were duly read and considered. The Express, the Post, the Commercial Advertiser, the World, the Times, the Herald, the Tribune, and the Sun, all passed in review. The World seemed to please Sojourner more than any other journal. She said she liked the wit of the World's reporter; all the little texts running through the speeches, such as "Sojourner on Popping Up," "No Grumbling," "Digging Stumps," "Biz," to show what is coming, so that one can get ready to cry or laugh, as the case may be—a kind of sign-board, a milestone, to tell where we are going, and how fast we go. The readers then call her attention to the solid columns of the other papers, and the versification of the World. She said she did not like the dead calm. She liked the breaking up into verses, like her songs. That is a good thing; it gives the reporter time to take breath and sharpen his pen, and think of some witty thing to say; for life is a hard battle anyway, and if we can laugh and sing a little as we fight the good fight of freedom, it makes it all go easier. "But, children, why did you not send for some of those wicked Democratic papers that abuse all good people and good things." "They are all here," said the readers in chorus. "We have read you all the Republicans and the Democrats say." "Why, children, I can't tell one from the other. The millennium must be here, when one can't tell saints from sinners, Republicans from Democrats. Is the World Horace Greeley's paper?" "Oh, no; the World is Democratic!" "Democratic! Why, children, the World does move! But there is one thing I don't exactly see; if the Democrats are all ready to give equal rights to all, what are the Republicans making such a fuss about? Mr. Greeley was ready for this twenty years ago; if he had gone on as fast as the Democrats he should have been on the platform, at the conventions, making speeches, and writing resolutions, long ago." "Oh," said some one of larger growth, "Mr. Greeley is busy with tariffs and protective duties. What do you think, Sojourner, of free trade? Do you not think if England and France have more dry-goods than they want that they had better send them to us, and we in turn send them our fruits and flowers and grains; our timber, iron, fish, and ice?" "Yes, I go for everything free. Let nature, like individuals, make the most of what God has given them, have their neighbors to do the same, and then do all they can to serve each other. There is no use in one man, or one nation, to try to do or be everything. It is a good thing to be dependent on each other for something, it makes us civil and peaceable. But," said Sojourner, "where is Theodore Tilton's paper?" "Oh, the Independent is a weekly, it came out before the Convention." "But Theodore is not a weekly; why did he not come to the Convention and tell us what he thought?" "Well, here is his last paper, with a grand editorial," and Sojourner listened to the end with interest. "That's good," said she, "but he don't say woman." "Oh, he is talking about sectarianism, not suffrage; the Church, not the State." "No matter, the Church wrongs woman as much as the State. 'Wives, obey your husbands,' is as bad as the common law. 'The husband and wife are one, and that one the husband.' I am afraid Theodore and Horace are playing bo-peep with their shadows. Did you tell me that Mr. Greeley is a delegate to the Constitutional Convention?" Yes, and I hope that he will soon wake up to the fact that the Democrats are going ahead of him, and instead of writing articles on 'Democracy run mad,' on tariffs and mining interests, it behooves him to be studying what genuine republicanism is, and whether we are to realize it in the Empire State this very year or not. "Speaking of shadows," said Sojourner, "I wish the World to know that when I go among fashionable people in the Church of the Puritans, I do not carry 'rations' in my bag; I keep my shadow there. I have good friends enough to give me clothes and rations. I stand on principle, always in one place, so everybody knows where to find Sojourner, and I don't want my shadow even to be dogging about here and there and everywhere, so I keep it in this bag." "I think," said one of the group, "the press should hereafter speak of you as Mrs. Stowe's Lybian Sybil, and not as 'old church woman.'" "Oh, child, that's good enough. The Herald used to call me 'old black nigger,' so this sounds respectable. Have you read the Herald too, children? Is that[Pg 928] born again? Well, we are all walking the right way together. I'll tell you what I'm thinking. My speeches in the Convention read well. I should like to have the substance put together, improved a little, and published in tract form, headed 'Sojourner Truth on Suffrage;' for if these timid men, like Greeley, knew that Sojourner was out for 'universal suffrage,' they would not be so afraid to handle the question. Yes, children, I am going to rouse the people on equality. I must sojourn once to the ballot-box before I die. I hear the ballot-box is a beautiful glass globe, so you can see all the votes as they go in. Now, the first time I vote I'll see if a woman's vote looks any different from the rest—if it makes any stir or commotion. If it don't inside, it need not outside. That good speech of Henry Ward Beecher's made my heart leap for joy; he just hit the nail right on the head when he said you never lost anything by asking everything; if you bait the suffrage-hook with a woman you will certainly catch a black man. There is a great deal in that philosophy, children. Now I must go and take a smoke!" I tell you in confidence, Mr. Editor, Sojourner smokes!

E. C. S.

Yours respectfully,

P. S.—She says she has been sent into the smoking-car so often she smoked in self-defense—she would rather swallow her own smoke than another's.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE KANSAS CAMPAIGN, 1867.

IMPARTIAL SUFFRAGE IN KANSAS—A VIGOROUS CANVASS ANTICIPATED.

St. Louis, April 3.

The Democrat's Topeka, Kansas, special says: "A large convention of those in favor of impartial suffrage is in session in this city. Lucy Stone and Dr. Blackwell, and delegates from different parts of the State are in attendance.

"An association has been formed for the purpose of canvassing the State thoroughly and distributing documents. The object is to carry the female suffrage clause as well as the negro. The officers of the association are Gov. Crawford, for President; Lieut. Gov. Green, for Vice-President; Judge S. N. Wood, for Corresponding Secretary; and an Executive Committee of fourteen, including such men as Chas. Robinson, J. P. Root, J. B. Abbot, Col. Moonlight, all the members of the Supreme Court, and other leading men of the State. Arrangements are made to have the most prominent advocates of impartial suffrage from the East to stump the State. Money will be raised to conduct the fall campaign, which will probably be the most vigorously conducted of any which has yet taken place."

The State Record, Kansas, says: "The opponents of woman suffrage use the argument very freely that its advocates are not in favor of negro suffrage. This is wickedly and wilfully false. The most earnest and influential supporters of woman suffrage in the State are equally anxious to give the negro his rights, and Republicans, generally, will vote for both propositions. We hope none will be deceived by these false charges made by those who write and speak in the interest of saloons, and who to turn expect to be elevated to office through their agency. The most bitter and relentless and united efforts now making against woman suffrage, are by those who are devoting their lives to degrading men and women too, and we are sorry to see a few respectable men keeping them company, under the foolish impression that the movement originated and is carried on by those who aim to defeat negro suffrage. We earnestly hope the day is near at hand when all men and women everywhere will be allowed to exercise their political rights."

Extract from a letter written by Mrs. S. N. Wood for the Lawrence Tribune, May, 1867: "The women of Cottonwood Falls have passed through this horrid furnace of an election,[Pg 929] and come out unscathed. Our laws require that a majority of all the legal voters in the district must vote to issue bonds to build a school-house, before bonds can be issued. As women were legal voters, to stay at home was to vote against bonds. The election had to be conducted exactly as other elections. It was a busy time; none of our men liked to leave their work to spend the day at the polls, so three women were chosen and qualified to act as judges. No guardians of the ballot-box ever acted with more ability or behaved with more propriety and dignity than they. There was not the least rudeness among the men; no brawling or swearing. Not a woman there lost a particle of refinement, or became a grain coarser, or neglected her family. Not one of the misguided women whose bad influences Mr. Reynolds, of the Journal, so much dreads, came to the polls. That kind of women, I judge, are literally opposed to women demoralizing themselves by voting. But if such lived in our district, and had offered to vote, I trust their votes would have been received and counted just the same as the votes of the men who support and encourage them in their wicked career. I never knew what men meant when talking about bonds, until I learned that I must vote on the subject. I wanted to vote intelligently; sought the requisite information; and I went to the polls feeling stronger and safer for that little knowledge gained. When I came home my little ones hailed me as lovingly as ever, and the same mother-love guided my hands for their comfort.

"In 1858, a 'woman's rights' man, in Kansas, believing that there should be a perfect equality as to property rights between men and women, wrote to Gerrit Smith, Wm. Goodell, Lucy Stone, and other advocates of woman's rights, asking them to send him a form of a law that would secure that object. Among others he received the framework of a law written by Lucy Stone. He wrote it over according to her pattern, and Lyman Allen introduced it into the Legislature. It became a law in February, 1859. The original in Lucy Stone's handwriting is yet in existence. The law is virtually the one that, to-day, on our statute book testifies to the honest sense of justice that their conflict with tyranny nurtured in our men in the early days of Kansas. It testifies to Lucy Stone's zeal in behalf of her sex."

The following address to the Southern people was largely circulated in Kansas during the spring campaign, by Mr. Blackwell.

WHAT THE SOUTH CAN DO.

How the Southern States can make themselves Masters of the Situation.

To the Legislatures of the Southern States:—I write to you as the intellectual leaders of the Southern people—men who should be able and willing to transcend the prejudices of section—to suggest the only ground of settlement between North and South which, in my judgment, can be successfully adopted.

Let me state the political situation. The radical principles of the North are immovably fixed upon negro suffrage as a condition of Southern State reconstruction. The proposed Constitutional Amendment is not regarded as a finality. It satisfies nobody, not even its authors. In the minds of the Northern people the negroes are now associated with the idea of loyalty to the Union. They are considered citizens. They are respected as "our allies." It is believed in the North that a majority of the white people of the South are at heart the enemies of the Union. The advocates of negro suffrage daily grow stronger and more numerous.

On the other hand, a majority of the Southern white population are inflexibly opposed to negro suffrage in any form, universal or qualified, and are prepared to resist its introduction by every means in their power. In alliance with the President and the Northern Democracy, they protest against any and all terms of reconstruction, demand unconditional readmission, and await in gloomy silence the Republican initiative.

This absolute and growing antagonism can only end, if continued, in one of two results, either in a renewal of civil war, or in a concession by the South of political equality to the negro. But in case of war, the South can not possibly succeed. The North is to-day far stronger in men and money, in farms and factories, than she was in 1860. She is now trained to war, conscious of overwhelming strength, flushed with victory, and respected, as never before, by the nations of Europe. Moreover, she is much more united in political sentiment. Do not again deceive yourselves. If you should resort to arms, the[Pg 930] North would be practically unanimous. The President would instantly be impeached and a radical successor appointed. The South has lost social unity with the loss of slavery. She can not fight better than before. And the braver her action, the more terrible would be her fate.

Gentlemen, these are facts—not theories. Wise men try to see things as they are, uncolored by opinion or preference. The interest of both North and South, since they must live together, is peace, harmony, and real fraternity. No adjustment can fully succeed unless it is acceptable to both sections. Therefore the statesman and patriot must find a common ground as a basis of permanent reconciliation.

Now the radicalism of the North is actual, organic, and progressive. Recognize the fact. But if "governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed"—if "taxation without representation is tyranny"—and "on these two commandments hang all the (Republican) law and the prophets"—then these propositions are as applicable to women as to negroes. "Consistency is a jewel." The principle is so broad that, if you accept it in its entirety, you can afford to lead—not follow.

The population of the late slave States is about 12,000,000; 8,000,000 white, 4,000,000 black. The radicals demand suffrage for the black men on the ground named above. Very good. Say to them, as Mr. Cowan said to the advocates of negro male suffrage in the District, "Apply your principle! Give suffrage to all men and women of mature age and sound mind, and we will accept it as the basis of State and National reconstruction."

Consider the result from the Southern standpoint. Your 4,000,000 of Southern white women will counterbalance your 4,000,000 of negro men and women, and thus the political supremacy of your white race will remain unchanged.

Think well of this. It is a calculation of the relative political influences of white women and of negroes which perhaps your people have not yet considered. Let us make the statement in figures. Estimating one male voter to every five persons, your present vote is:

White males	1,600,000
Add white females	1,600,000

Total white voters	3,200,000

Negro males	800,000
Negro females	800,000

Total negro voters	1,600,000

Suppose all the negroes vote one way and all the whites the other, your white majority would be 1,600,000—equal to your present total vote. Thus you would control your own State legislation. Meanwhile, your influence in the councils of the nation will be greater than ever before, because your emancipated slaves will be counted in the basis of representation, instead of as formerly, in the ratio of five for three. In the light of the history of your Confederacy, can any Southerner fear to trust the women of the South with the ballot?

But the propriety of your making the proposal lies deeper than any consideration of sectional expediency. If you must try the Republican experiment, try it fully and fairly. Since you are compelled to union with the North, remove every seed of future controversy. If you are to share the future government of your States with a race you deem naturally and hopelessly inferior, avert the social chaos, which seems to you so imminent, by utilizing the intelligence and patriotism of the wives and daughters of the South. Plant yourselves upon the logical Northern principle. Then no new demands can ever be made upon you. No future inroads of fanaticism can renew sectional discord.

The effect upon the North would be to revolutionize political parties. "Justice satisfies everybody." The negro, thus protected against oppression by possessing the ballot, would cease to be the prominent object of philanthropic interest. Northern distrust, disarmed by Southern magnanimity, would give place to the liveliest sentiments of confidence and regard. The great political desideratum would be attained. The negro question would be forever removed from the political arena. National parties would again crystallize upon legitimate questions of National interest—questions of tariff, finance, and foreign relations. The disastrous conflict between Federal and State jurisdiction would[Pg 931] cease. North and South, no longer hammer and anvil, would forget and forgive the past. School-houses and churches would be our fortifications and intrenchments. Capital and population would flow, like the Mississippi, toward the Gulf. The black race would gravitate by the law of nature toward the tropics. The memory and spirit of Washington would be cherished; and every deed of genuine gallantry and humanity would be treasured as the common glory of the republic.

Do you say that Northern Republicans would not accept such a proposition? They can not avoid it. The matter is in your own hands.

In New Jersey (then a slave State) from 1776 to 1807, a period of thirty-one years, women and negroes voted on precisely the same footing as white men. No catastrophe, social or political, ensued. The following is an extract from the New Jersey election law of 1797:

"Sec. 9. 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 person, or persons, for whom he or she votes," etc.

Your Southern Legislatures can extend suffrage on equal terms to "all inhabitants," as the New Jersey State Convention did in 1776. Then let the Republicans in Congress refuse to admit your Senators and Representatives, if they dare. If so, they will go under. Upon that issue fairly made up, the men of positive convictions would rally round the new and consistent Democratic party. The very element which has destroyed slavery would side with the victorious South, and "out of the nettle danger you would pluck the flower safety."

Henry B. Blackwell.

Respectfully yours,

New York, January 15, 1867.

SUPPRESSED PROCEEDINGS.

The Republican State Central Committee met last week in Leavenworth. The Leavenworth papers published or pretended to publish the proceedings of the Committee, but suppressed an important portion. Fortunately, Mr. Taylor, the honest and able editor of the Wyandotte Gazette, is a member of the Committee, and was present at the meeting. From his paper we get the following that was for some cause or other suppressed:

"Mr. Taylor offered the following resolution:

"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.

"Whiting moved to lay the resolution on the table.

"Ayes—Whiting, Eskridge—2.

"Noes—Taylor—1.

"Taylor moved to strike the name of I. S. Kalloch from the list of speakers in the Republican State Canvass.

"Ayes—Taylor—1.

"Noes—Whiting, Eskridge—2.

PROTEST OF MR. TAYLOR.

"The undersigned, a member of the Republican State Central Committee of Kansas, protests 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. Eskridge, 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 ungentlemanly, indecent, and infamously defamatory language, when alluding to a large and respectable portion of the women of Kansas, or to women now engaged in canvassing the State in favor of impartial suffrage.

"R. B. Taylor.

"Leavenworth, Sept. 18, 1867.

[Pg 932]

Address by the Women's Impartial Suffrage Association of Lawrence, Kansas.

To the Women of Kansas:—At the coming election on the 5th of November, questions of the greatest importance to every citizen of Kansas, whether man or woman, will be presented for the action of the people. Shall the right of suffrage be extended to negroes? Shall the right of suffrage be extended to women?

The question of the enfranchisement of the negro now mainly occupies the attention of the Republican party. Upon the same principle, viz: that of equal rights and equal justice to all, we ask the ballot for woman, and expect to obtain it.

One great obstacle that the advocates of female suffrage have to contend with is the declaration on the part of many good and intelligent women that they do not want to vote. They say they are contented with their present condition; they have all the rights they want, and do not need the ballot; and they will take no interest in the matter, except to deprecate its agitation by women. Women of Kansas, let us reason together for a little concerning this matter.

Honored wives and mothers, dwelling at ease in the comfortable homes your husbands provide for you, declare you do not want to vote, and would consider it almost a reflection on your husbands to desire such a thing, do you consider yourselves capable of forming a correct judgment in reference to any matter of public interest? You read the newspapers and are familiar with the literature of the day, and pride yourselves upon your general information and intelligence; can you then form a judgment as to the justness of any law, or the character of any candidate for office? Were any one to assert that you were not capable of this, you would resent it as an insult.

But, say you, we feel no interest in public measures, laws, candidates, etc.; our sphere, cares, and duties are at home. So thought thousands of American women five years ago; but war, as the result of public measures, laws and candidates, called from the hearthstones and hearts of these same women, husbands, brothers, sons, and slew them on the field of battle—in crowded hospitals—in rebel prisons. Think you the women of America then had no interest in public measures? Can it be that any woman who has given one of her household to save our country will declare that she takes no interest in the government and affairs of that country? Consider a moment whether you have any interest in matters more immediately pressing upon our attention. Is it of any importance to you whether the dram-shops be closed or not? Perhaps your husbands are safe—above suspicion or fear of temptation; but those little sons playing around your knee, that young brother who is about to leave the paternal roof, when the hour comes that they shall go forth into the world, is it of any concern to you whether temptation meet them at every corner? Said a rumseller who is bitterly opposed to female suffrage, "What more do you want? a man can not now get license to sell liquor without the names of a majority of all the women of the ward upon his petition." Very true, but mark this, unless the women of Kansas obtain the ballot, that law will soon be blotted from the statute book.

Again: the women of Kansas now vote on questions concerning the erection of school-houses and matters pertaining to the facilities for the education of their children. Where has this provision wrought anything but good? How many school districts now have commodious school-houses because the women of the district, who were mothers and wanted schools for their children, outnumbered the men, who, though large landholders, are not residents or had no children and did not want schools? Can it be that any woman who has felt and wielded the power for good that the ballot gave her, in this respect, will yet declare that she does not want to vote?

If, then, you are capable of forming opinions on matters of public interest, and if you admit that you are in some degree liable to be affected by public affairs, in the name of Heaven, of Right, of Home—in the name of Husband, Brothers, Sons, can you not—will you not, give your voice in favor of right, and against wrong? Begin now, if you have never done so before, to inquire into the character of our law-makers, the justness of our laws, the regard our country pays to the rights of all. If you do not feel the need of so doing for yourselves, yet for the sake of generations yet to come, interest yourselves, "that our officers may be peace and our exactors righteousness." If you are in circumstances of ease and comfort, because shielded from every rude wind by noble protectors—father[Pg 933] husband, son—yet listen to the cry of thousands of women less favored than yourselves, whose natural protectors, as we style them, the licensed dram-shop transforms into abusive tyrants, from whom they must be protected, or who, being deprived of husband and father, cry aloud of the injustice inflicted upon them in their dependent condition by laws framed in unrighteousness. Listen, we say, to their cry, and will you not desire, yea will you not demand the right to give your voice on all these questions in the only way in which you can effectually do so—the use of the ballot? Why, it would seem that every earnest, philanthropic woman would desire to do so, even were she obliged to go to the polls in their present condition instead of the reformed and purified state that will inevitably result from the enfranchisement of women.

The women of Kansas who, next to the Pilgrim mothers of America, have endured more privations and taken a more active part in public affairs than any other women of America, should of all others have a voice in controlling the affairs of State and framing the laws by which they shall be governed. Say some opposers, "the good and true women would not vote, but only the ignorant and vicious." What a monstrous libel upon the intelligence and public spirit of the women of Kansas! and just so certainly as women obtain the ballot, as far as the intelligent and virtuous outnumber the ignorant and abandoned, will the vote of women swell the majority for just and righteous measures—for the moral and upright man—the man who has never imbrued his hands in blood—who has never robbed woman of her virtue—whose senses are never drowned in the intoxicating bowl. Why! this is the great moral question of the day! It is not that the prominent opposers of this measure fear that it will drag women down; it is because they fear, and justly, that women will lift suffrage so far into the realm of purity and morality that they can never be able even to offer themselves as candidates for office. Then will the destinies of our country be no more decided at drunken orgies, amid scenes that our opponents say it would degrade us to witness, but all questions of public weal will be decided in the hearts and at the firesides of pure-hearted men and women, surrounded by those whose destinies are dearer than life, and that decision shall be enforced when men and women shall together go up to the temple of justice to deposit their ballots.

Whatever, then, may be the opinion of fair ladies who dwell in ceiled houses in our older Eastern States and cities, who like lilies, neither toil nor spin, whose fair hands would gather close their silken apparel at the thought of touching the homelier garments of many a heroine of Kansas—whatever they may say in reference to this question, we, the women of the Spartan State, declare, we want to vote.

By order of the Executive Committee.

Mrs. Hon. E. G. Ross,	Mrs. Griffith,
Mrs. Ex Gov. Robinson,	Mrs. R. S. Tenney,
Mrs. Judge Thacher,	Mrs. Rev. W. A. Starrett,
Mrs. Judge Miller,	Mrs. Rev. R. Cordley,
Mrs. Judge Burnett,	Mrs. Rev. G. S. Dearborn,
Mrs. Judge Hendry,	Mrs. Rev. J. S. Brown,
Mrs. H. M. Simpson,	Mrs. Rev. George Meyer,
Mrs. Robt. Morrow,	Mrs. J. H. Lane,
Mrs. Major Platt,	Mrs. James Horton,
Mrs. Major Whitney,	Mrs. F. W. Sparr,
Mrs. S. Denman,	Mrs. Jane B. Archibald,
Mrs. Hendersen,	Mrs. Cone,
Mrs. J. O. Adams,	Mrs. Welsh,
Mrs. Mary Whitcomb,	Mrs. Marsh,
Mrs. Thermutius Sutherland,

Committee on Address.

Lawrence, Sept. 24, 1867.

N. B.—Friends wishing tracts on the subject of equal rights, should address Equal Rights Office, 77 Massachusetts Street, Lawrence, Kansas.[Pg 934]

THE HUTCHINSONS' KANSAS SUFFRAGE SONG.

WORDS BY P. P. FOWLER AND J. W. H.

As sung at the meetings and concerts during ther grand campaign on the suffrage issue the season of 1867 in Kansas, and at the polls in Leavenworth, by the Tribe of John, on the day of election.

O, say what thrilling songs of fairies,
Wafted o'er the Kansas prairies,
Charm the ear while zephyrs speed 'em!
Woman's pleading for her freedom.

Chorus—Clear the way, the songs are floating;
Clear the way, the world is noting;
Prepare the way, the right promoting,
And ballots, too, for woman's voting.

We frankly say to fathers, brothers,
Husbands, too, and several others,
We're bound to win our right of voting,
Don't you hear the music floating?

We come to take with you our station,
Brave defenders of the nation,
And aim by noble, just endeavor
To elevate our sex forever.

By this vote we'll rid our nation
Of its vile intoxication.
Can't get rum? Oh, what a pity!
Dram-shops closed in every city.

Fear not, we'll darn each worthy stocking,
Duly keep the cradle rocking,
And beg you heed the words we utter,
The ballot wins our bread and butter.

All hail, brave Kansas! first in duty,
Yours, the meed of praise and beauty,
You'll nobly crown your deeds of daring,
Freedom to our sex declaring.

CHAPTER XXV.

TRIALS AND DECISIONS.

LETTER FROM MISS ANTHONY ANNOUNCING HER HAVING VOTED.

Rochester, November 5, 1872.

Dear Mrs. Stanton: Well, I have been and gone and done it! positively voted the Republican ticket—straight—this a.m. at seven o'clock, and swore my vote in, at that; was registered on Friday and fifteen other women followed suit in this ward, then in sundry other wards some twenty or thirty women tried to register, but all save two were refused. All my three sisters voted—Rhoda De Garmo, too. Amy Post was rejected, and she will immediately bring action against the registrars; then another woman who was registered, but vote refused, will bring action for that—similar to the Washington action. Hon. Henry R. Selden will be our counsel; he has read up the law and all of our arguments, and is satisfied that we are right, and ditto Judge Samuel Selden, his elder brother. So we are in for a fine agitation in Rochester on this question.[Pg 935]

I hope the morning telegrams will tell of many women all over the country trying to vote. It is splendid that without any concert of action so many should have moved here.

Thanks for the Hartford papers. What a magnificent meeting you had! Splendid climax of the campaign—the two ablest and most eloquent women on one platform and the Governor of the State by your side. I was with you in spirit that evening; the chairman of the Committee had both telegraphed and written me all about the arrangements.

Haven't we wedged ourselves into the work pretty fairly and fully, and now that the Republicans have taken our votes—for it is the Republican members of the board; the Democratic paper is out against us strong, and that scared the Democrats on the registry boards.

How I wish you were here to write up the funny things said and done. Rhoda De Garmo told them she wouldn't swear nor affirm, "but would tell them the truth," and they accepted that. When the Democrats said that my vote should not go in the box, one Republican said to the other, "What do you say, Marsh?" "I say put it in." "So do I," said Jones; "and we'll fight it out on this line if it takes all winter." Mary Hallowell was just here. She and Sarah Willis tried to register, but were refused; also Mrs. Mann, the Unitarian minister's wife, and Mary Curtis, sister of Catharine Stebbins. Not a jeer, not a word, not a look disrespectful has met a single woman.

If only now all the Woman Suffrage women would work to this end of enforcing the existing Constitutional supremacy of National law over State law, what strides we might make this very winter! But I'm awfully tired; for five days I have been on the constant run, but to splendid purpose; so all right. I hope you voted too.

Susan B. Anthony.

Affectionately,

JUDGE SELDEN TO MISS ANTHONY.

Rochester, November 27, 1872.

Miss Anthony—Dear Madam: The District Attorney says he can not attend to your case on any day but Friday. So it will be indispensable for you to be ready Friday morning, and I will do the best I can to attend to it.

I suppose the Commissioner will, as a matter of course, hold you for trial at the Circuit Court, whatever your rights may be in the matter.

In my opinion, however, the idea that you can be charged with a crime on account of voting, or offering to vote, when you honestly believed yourself to be a voter, is simply preposterous, whether your belief was right or wrong.

However, the learned (!) gentlemen engaged in this movement seem to suppose they can make a crime out of your honest deposit of your ballot, and perhaps they can find a respectable court or jury that will be of their opinion. If they do so I shall be greatly disappointed.

H. R. Selden.

Yours, truly,

(Boston Transcript.)

The last work came on the New York Calender; a person is discovered to have voted who had no right to; this is believed to be the first case of the kind ever heard of in New York, and its heinousness is perhaps aggravated by the fact that the perpetrator is a woman, who, in the vigorous language of the Court, "must have known when she did it that she was a woman." We await in breathless suspense the impending sentence.

The Rochester Evening Express of Friday, May 23, 1873, under the heading of "An Amiable Consideration of Miss Anthony's Case," said: United States District Attorney Crowley is a gallant gentleman, as gallant indeed as District Attorneys can afford to be, but he confesses himself no match for Miss Anthony. That lady has stumped Monroe County in behalf of impartial suffrage, and it appears that the Government very prudently declines to give her case to the jury in this county. The fact is, it is morally certain that no jury could be obtained in Monroe that would convict the lady of wrongdoing in voting, while it is highly probable that four juries out of five would acquit her. It is understood, of course, that the Court and prosecuting officers are merely fulfilling their official functions in recognizing this departure from ordinary practice at the polls, but would feel as deeply astonished at a verdict of guilty as the general public. The[Pg 936] District Attorney is fortunate in having as a contestant (defendant, he would professionally call her) in this friendly little duel, a lady who is the embodiment of American common sense, courage, and ability; and we are certain that after this tournament is adjourned he will accept, with his usual urbanity, the aid of ladies' ballots to lift him to some other place where his conceded abilities shall be more widely known.

The New York Commercial Advertiser, under the heading, "Miss Anthony and the Jury of her Peers," said: There is perplexity in the Northern District of New York. It was in that jurisdiction that Miss Susan B. Anthony and sundry "erring sisters" voted at the November election. For this they were arrested and indicted. The venue was laid in Monroe County and there the trial was to take place. Miss Anthony then proceeded to stump Monroe County and every town and village thereof, asking her bucolic hearers the solemn conundrum, "Is it a crime for a United States citizen to vote?" The answer is supposed generally to be in the negative, and so convincing is Sister Anthony's rhetoric regarded that it is supposed no jury can be found to convict her. Her case has gone to the jurymen of Monroe in her own persuasive pleadings before they are summoned. The District Attorney has, therefore, postponed the trial to another term of the Court, and changed the place thereof to Ontario County; whereupon the brave Susan takes the stump in Ontario, and personally makes known her woes and wants. It is a regular St. Anthony's dance she leads the District Attorney; and, in spite of winter cold or summer heat, she will carry her case from county to county precisely as fast as the venue is changed. One must rise very early in the morning to get the start of this active apostle of the sisterhood.

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: If Miss Anthony has converted every man in Monroe County to her views of the Suffrage question, as the District Attorney intimates in his recent efforts to have her case adjourned, it is pretty good evidence—unless every man in Monroe County is a fool—that the lady has done no wrong. "Her case," remarks the Auburn Bulletin, "will probably be carried over to another term, and all she has to do is to canvass and convert another county. A shrewd woman that! Again we say, she ought to vote."

The Syracuse Standard said: Miss S. B. Anthony is sharp enough for a successful politician. She is under arrest in Rochester for voting illegally, and she is conducting her case in a way that beats even lawyers. She stumped the county of Monroe and spoke in every school district so powerfully that she has actually converted nearly the entire male population to the Woman Suffrage doctrine. The sentiment is so universal that the United States District Attorney dare not trust his case to a jury drawn from that county, and has changed the venue to Ontario County. Now Miss Anthony proposes to stump Ontario immediately, and has procured the services of Mrs. Matilda Joslyn Gage, of Fayetteville, to assist her. By the time the case comes on Miss Anthony will have Ontario County converted to her doctrines.

The Rochester Union and Advertiser quoted the above and commented as follows: We give in another column to-day, from a legal friend, a communication which shows very clearly that Miss Anthony is engaged in a work that will be likely to bring her to grief. It is nothing more nor less than an attempt to corrupt the source of that justice, under law, which flows from trial by jury. Miss Anthony's case has passed from its gayest to its gravest character. United States Courts are not stages for the enactment of comedy or farce, and the promptness and decision of their judges in sentencing to prison culprits convicted before them shows that they are no respecters of persons.

SUSAN B. ANTHONY AS A CORRUPTIONIST.

To the Editors of the Union and Advertiser:

Gentlemen—I saw this morning with equal surprise and regret in the Democrat and Chronicle the following article:

"We understand that Miss Susan B. Anthony, in company with Mrs. Matilda Joslyn Gage, intends to lecture through Ontario County. She is confident that by June 16th a jury of twelve men can not be found in that county who will render a verdict of guilty against the women who are to be tried for illegal voting at the last fall election."[Pg 937]

I had learned from the same source that Miss Anthony had made such an effort in Monroe County, and it was stated elsewhere that her trial had been sent thence to Ontario County by reason of such efforts to persuade juries of the justice of her cause. I can scarcely credit these statements.

Reduced to simple terms, it is an attempt by public lectures and female influence, by an accused party so to affect jurors 'that a jury of twelve men can not be found in that county who will render a verdict of guilty.' If this may be a part of the administration of justice, then the United States Attorney may by similar or other means attempt beforehand to secure an opposite result; and the administration of justice is brought into contempt, and corruption has entered the jury-box.... There is a statute and common law offense known as embracery, which is defined to consist "in such practices as lead to affect the administration of justice, improperly working upon the minds of jurors." It seems clear, adds Russell in his Treatise on Laws and Misdemeanors, 'that any attempt whatever to corrupt or influence or instruct a jury in the cause beforehand, or any way incline them to be more favorable to the one side than the other, by money, letters, threats, or persuasions, except only by the strength of evidence and the arguments of the counsel in open Court at the trial of the cause, is a proper act of Embracery, whether the jurors upon whom the attempt is made give any verdict or not, and whether the verdict given be true or false.' ... I trust no merely temporary excitement in respect to female suffrage will lead good citizens to sanction any attempt whatever to influence jurors out of Court, either before or during the trial of a cause. It is alike an insult to the juror and an imputation on our public virtue.

Lex.

May 24, 1873.

[New York Sun, Saturday, January 4, 1873].

GOING TO JAIL FOR VOTING FOR GRANT.

The arrest of the fifteen women of Rochester, and the imprisonment of the renowned Miss Susan B. Anthony, for voting at the November election, afford a curious illustration of the extent to which the United States Government is stretching its hand in these matters. If these women violated any law at all by voting, it was clearly a statute of the State of New York, and that State might be safely left to to vindicate the majesty of its own laws. Is is only by an overstrained construction of the XIV. and XV. Amendments, that the National Government can force its long finger into the Rochester case at all.

But so it is. Eager to crowd in and regulate the elections at every poll In the Union, the power at Washington strikes down a whole State Government in Louisiana, and holds to bail a handful of women in New York. Nothing can escape its eye or elude its grasp. It can soar high; it can stoop low. It can enjoin a Governor in New Orleans; it can jug a woman in Rochester. Nothing is too big for it to grapple with; nothing is too small for it to meddle with.... By the by, we advise Miss Anthony not to go to jail. Perhaps she feels that she deserves some punishment for voting for General Grant, but it is a bailable offense. "Going to jail for the good of the cause" may do for poetry, but it becomes very prosaic when reduced to practice. Let Miss Anthony enter into bonds, adjust her spectacles, face her accusers, and argue her own case.

The Worcester Spy said: Miss Susan B. Anthony, whatever else she may be, is evidently of the right stuff for a reformer. Of all the woman suffragists she has the most courage and resource, and fights her own and her sisters' battle with the most wonderful energy, resolution, and hopefulness. It is well known that she is now under indictment for voting illegally in Rochester last November. Voting illegally in her case means simply voting, for it is held that women can not lawfully vote at all. She is to be tried soon, but in the meantime, while at large on bail, she has devoted her time to missionary work on behalf of woman suffrage, and has spoken, it is said, in almost every school district in Monroe County, where her trial would have been held in the natural course of things. She has argued her cause so well that almost all the male population of the county has been converted to her views on this subject. The District Attorney is afraid to trust the case to a jury from that county, and has obtained a change of venue to Ontario on the ground that a fair trial can not be had in Monroe.

Miss Anthony, rather cheered than discouraged by this unwilling testimony to the strength of her cause and her powers of persuasion, has made arrangements to canvass Ontario[Pg 938] County as thoroughly as Monroe. As county lines do not inclose distinct varieties of the human race, it is fair to presume that the people of the former county will be as susceptible to argument and appeal, as those of the latter, and by the time the case comes on, an Ontario jury will be as little likely to convict as a Monroe jury is now supposed to be. Some foolish and bigoted people who edit newspapers, are complaining that Miss Anthony's proceedings are highly improper, inasmuch as they are intended to influence the decision of a cause pending in the courts. They even talk about contempt of court, and declare that Miss Anthony should be compelled to desist from making these invidious harangues. We suspect that the courts will not venture to interfere with this lady's speech-making tour, but will be of the opinion that she has the same right which other people, male or female, have to explain her political views, and make converts to them if she can. We have never known it claimed before that a person accused of an offense was thereby deprived of the common right of free speech on political and other questions.

The New York Evening Post said: The proceedings of the Circuit Court of the United States at Canandaigua yesterday, before which Miss Susan B. Anthony was on trial for voting in Rochester at the late general election, were very remarkable. Hitherto the advocates of the right of our countrywomen to vote have hardly obtained a hearing, but Miss Anthony has made an important step in advance. It is a great gain to obtain a judicial hearing for her cause; to have the merits of woman suffrage carefully considered by careful and able men. The appearance of so eminent and distinguished a lawyer as Henry R. Selden in her defense will give to the question a new aspect in the minds of the people. The position he took is still more encouraging to those who think that women have a legal right to vote. The distinction he made between the absoluteness of this right and the belief of Miss Anthony that she possessed such a right, since the guilt relates only to the legal guilt in this particular instance, is of no general importance; but his emphatic testimony, irrespective of the present case, that all women have both an absolute and a legal right to vote, is a fact to command attention.

So convinced was Judge Selden of the validity of this opinion, that for the second time in his professional life, as he himself said, he was compelled to offer himself as a witness in behalf of his client. Being sworn, he testified that before the defendant voted she called on him for advice as to her legal right to vote; that he took time to examine the question very carefully, and then advised her that "she was as much a voter as I or any other man"; that he believed then that she had a legal right to vote, and he believed so now, and on that advice she voted. It seems likely that the decision of the Court will be in Miss Anthony's favor. If such be the result the advocates of woman suffrage will change places with the public. They will no longer be forced to obtain hearings from Congressional and Legislative Committees for their claims, but will exercise their right to vote by the authority of a legal precedent against which positive laws forbidding them from voting will be the only remedy. It is a question whether such laws can be passed in this country. A careful examination of the subject must precede any such legislation, and, the inference from the result of Judge Selden's investigation is that the more the subject is studied the less likely will any legislative body be to forbid those women who want to vote from so doing.

[The Rochester Evening Express, June 21st.]

THE NATIONAL CASES AT CANANDAIGUA.

The trial of Miss Anthony at Canandaigua on a charge of having voted illegally on the 5th of November last, in this city, has attracted attention throughout this country and in England. It was a great National trial, intended as Judge Hunt said, as the purpose of the act of voting in this case, to settle a principle. The eminence of the judge presiding and the reputation of the counsel engaged in the case, gave it further significance. All the counsel won new laurels in this contest. Judge Selden could scarcely increase the respect for his character and legal ability by any fresh contest in the forum, but he evinced the power of his logical faculties and his perfect acquaintance with law and legal precedent in his closely reasoned argument. Mr. Crowley, United States District Attorney, made a very able argument in reply, which all agree was worthy of his high position and of the cause in which he appeared for the Government. Mr. Van Voorhis showed legal erudition[Pg 939] careful examination of the case in hand, and of the law and decision of courts bearing upon it, making bold and strong points which commanded the attention and respect of the Court, and elicited the approbation of clients and people.

[Commercial Advertiser, June 18, 1873.]

THE FEMALE SUFFRAGISTS.

When a jurist as eminent as Judge Henry R. Selden testifies that he told Miss Anthony before election that she had a right to vote, and this after a careful examination of the question, the whole subject assumes new importance, and Mr. Selden at once becomes the central object of adoration by all the gentle believers in woman's right to the ballot. And when the same able lawyer advocates the cause of Miss Anthony in the United States Courts, there is abundant reason why other men, both lay and legal, should put themselves in an attitude, at least of willingness to change their convictions upon this topic, which now threatens to take on very enlarged proportions. The points made in the argument by Mr. Selden are that the defendant had a legal right to vote; that even if no such right existed, if she believed she had such right and voted in good faith, that she committed no offense; and lastly, he argued that she did vote in pursuance of such belief. The point that Miss Anthony had acted illegally only because she was a woman, was well put. Had her brother, under the same circumstances done the same thing, his act would have been not only innocent but laudable. The crime was, therefore, not in the act done, but in the sex of the person who did it. Women, remarked the Judge, have the same interest in the maintenance of good government as men. No greater absurdity, to use no harsher term, can be presented to the human mind than that of rewarding men and punishing women for the same act, without giving women any voice in the question of which shall be rewarded and which punished. How grateful to Judge Selden must all the suffragists be! He has struck the strongest and most promising blow in their behalf that has yet been given. Dred Scott was the pivot on which the Constitution turned before the war. Miss Anthony seems likely to occupy a similar position now.

[From Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, July, 1873.]

WOMEN'S MEETING.

A meeting of the women's tax-payers' association was held at the Mayor's office yesterday afternoon, the President, Mrs. Lewia C. Smith, in the chair. It had been expected that Judge Selden would address the meeting, but in consequence of professional engagements he had been unable to prepare such an address as he desired, but will speak at a future meeting.

Miss Susan B. Anthony was present, and addressed the meeting. She stated that she had received many letters urging her not to be disheartened by the result of her case, and she assured all that she was far from being discouraged. In fact, she considered that they had won a victory by showing to the world that in order to accomplish her defeat the courts were obliged to set aside everything, even the sacred right of trial by jury. Miss Anthony read extracts from letters received from Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Parker Pillsbury. Mrs. Stanton pours out her indignation in a letter to Mrs. Gage and Miss Anthony thus:

"To have my right to the earth and the fullness thereof equally with man; to do my work and say my say without his let or hindrance, or even question, has filled me with indignation ever since I began to think; and one more act of puny legislation, in line with all that has been done in the past, does not add a feather's weight to my chronic indignation.

"The insult of being tried by men—judges, lawyers, juries, all men—for violating the laws and constitutions of men, made for the degradation and subjugation of my whole sex; to be forever publicly impaled by the unwavering finger of scorn, by party press, and pulpit, so far transcends a petty verdict of a petty judge in a given case, that my continuous wrath against the whole dynasty of tyrants in our political, religious, and social life, has not left one stagnant drop of blood in my veins to rouse for any single act of insult.

"The outrage of trying intelligent, educated, well-bred, native-born American women by juries of men, made up of the riff-raff from the monarchies and empires of the old world, or ignorant natives of the new, who do not read the newspapers, nor form opinions[Pg 940] on current events or United States citizens' rights, so overtops the insult of any verdict they could possibly render, that indignation at what they might say is swallowed up in the outrage that they have the right to say anything in limiting the rights of women as citizens in this republic. What are Centennials and Fourth of Julys to us, when our most sacred rights can be made foot-balls for the multitude. Do not, therefore, argue from my silence, that I do not feel every fresh stab at womanhood. Instead of applying lint to the wounds, my own thought has been, how can we wrest the sword from the hand of the tyrant."

The following resolutions were then offered and adopted:

Resolved, That the gross outrage committed in the case of Miss Anthony by the United States Circuit Court, the stamping under foot by Justice Hunt of the Constitution of the United States, and all the forms of law, in order to defeat a woman who could not be defeated otherwise, has in no way discouraged the true friends of woman suffrage, but to the contrary, the unjustifiable means to which the Court was compelled to resort in order to convict Miss Anthony has not only aroused the old woman's rights women into new life and action, but shocked all thinking minds throughout the country, to a consideration of the vital question of American citizenship. Does it, or does it not give to the possessor the right to vote?

Resolved, That we arraign Ward Hunt, a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors in his office, committed on the trial of Susan B. Anthony, on a charge of knowingly voting illegally for a representative in Congress. He denied the right of trial by jury; he refused to permit her counsel to address the jury in her behalf; he refused the request of her counsel that the jury be polled; he directed the clerk to enter a verdict of guilty without consulting the jury; he had prejudged her case, and had written his opinion against her before he came to the Court, or had heard the evidence, or the arguments of her counsel. He tried her in a manner indicating that he had undertaken to accomplish a certain result, and that he must do in spite of law or evidence. His assertion that the facts were admitted in her case is false. No facts were admitted on Miss Anthony's trial, except that she was a woman and had voted. The one fact of consequence to the United States was, whether or not Miss Anthony voted for a representative in Congress. To prove this the United States District Attorney proved that she handed to the inspectors four folded ballots, the contents of which were unknown. It did not appear that the ballots were not blanks. There were six boxes, and each elector might cast six ballots. Upon such evidence Judge Hunt decided that it was proved that Miss Anthony voted for a representative in Congress, and refused to submit the case, or the question of fact, to the jury. Therefore,

Resolved, That a violation of the Constitution so palpable, a disregard of the forms of of law so flagrant, demand the impeachment of Justice Hunt, and his removal from a bench he has proved himself unfit to occupy.

Resolved, That we will petition Congress to reverse by Congressional enactment the judgments of Judge Hunt against Miss Anthony and the Inspectors of Election. These fiats of a judicial dictator must not be allowed to remain upon the records of the Court. Trial by jury must be restored to its throne, from which Judge Hunt has hurled it. A constitutional right so sacred must be vindicated by Congress. There is no other tribunal to which we can appeal. Therefore we shall confidently ask Congress to reverse these unjust judgments and rebuke and impeach this unjust judge.

Resolved, That to the Hon. Henry R. Selden for his able and earnest defense of their citizen's right to vote, the women of this country owe a debt of gratitude beyond their present power to pay or appreciate.

Resolved, That we tender our thanks to John Van Voorhis, counsel for the inspectors of the Eighth Ward, for his prompt and efficient defense of their right and duty to register the names and receive the votes of all United States citizens.

Resolved, That we bid Godspeed to our co-laborer, Susan B. Anthony, for the courage and persistence shown during her trial, and thank her for her assurance to the Court (which he did not need) of her unshaken conviction of the legality of her vote, and of her determination to persist in the exercise of her citizen's right of suffrage.

Resolved, That we tender our thanks to the inspectors of election of the Eighth Ward,[Pg 941] Messrs. Jones, Marsh, and Hall, for their manliness and courage in receiving the women's vote and maintaining their right and duty in so doing through their long and unfair trial."

A paper of considerable length was read by Mrs. Hebard, which was very fine, and set forth the woman question in a philosophical manner.

Mrs. L. C. Smith said that in stamping his seal of death upon trial by jury, Judge Hunt had proved beyond all cavil the inseparability of man's and woman's interests. For in order to withhold the right of franchise from woman he was obliged to abolish trial by jury, man's only safeguard against the tyranny of the bench.

The meeting then adjourned to meet at three o'clock p.m. on the 24th inst.

Miss Anthony received material sympathy from many persons who sent money to aid in the payment of her fine—Dr. E. B. Foote, of New York, sending $25, and Gerrit Smith, of Peterboro, $100, accompanied by a letter. Dr. Foote has kindly furnished Miss Anthony's reply to him for publication:

Rochester, July 2, 1873.

Dr. E. B. Foote—My Dear Sir: Your letter of June 18, inclosing the quarter of the United States Government's fine for my alleged violation of State law was most welcome, I have waited this acknowledgment from fact of my absence from home since the judge pronounced that verdict and penalty. What a comedy! Such a grave offense and such a paltry punishment!

Now if the United States Government would only demand the payment of the $100 and costs—but it will never do it, because all parties know I will never pay a dime—no, not one. It, is quite enough for me pay all the just claims of the trial; my own counsel, etc. I owe no allegiance to the Government's penalties until I have a voice in it, and shall pay none. What the Government can exact it may, whether of cash or imprisonment.

Do you know my one regret now is that I am not possessed of some real estate here in Rochester so that my name would be on the tax list, and I would refuse to pay the taxes thereon, and then I could carry that branch of the question into the Courts. Protests are no longer worth the paper they are written on. Downright resistance, the actual throwing of the tea overboard, is now the word and work. With many thanks for the $25.

Susan B. Anthony.

Sincerely yours,

WOMAN SUFFRAGE ABOVE HUMAN LAW.

LETTER FROM GERRIT SMITH.

Peterboro, August 15, 1873

Susan B. Anthony—Dear Friend: I have your letter. So you have not paid your fine; are not able to pay it; and are not willing to pay it! I send you herein the money to pay it. If you shall still decline doing so, then use the money at your own discretion, to promote the cause of woman suffrage.

I trust that you feel kindly toward Judge Hunt. He is an honest man and an able judge. He would oppress no person—emphatically, no woman. It was a light fine that he imposed upon you. Moreover, he did not require you to be imprisoned until it was paid. In taking your case out of the bands of the jury, he did what he believed he had a perfect right to do; and what (☞ provided there was no fact to be passed upon) he had precedents for doing. And yet Judge Hunt erred—erred as, but too probably, every other judge would, in like circumstances, have erred. At the hazard of being called, for the ten thousandth time, a visionary and a fanatic for holding opinions which, though they will be entirely welcome to the more enlightened future sense of men, are as entirely repugnant to their present sense, I venture to say that the Judge erred in allowing himself to look into the Constitution. Indeed, yours was a case that neither called for nor permitted the opening of any law-book whatever. You have not forgotten how frequently, in the days of slavery, the Constitution was quoted in behalf of the abomination. As if that paper had been drawn up and agreed upon by both the blacks and the whites, instead of the whites only; and as if slavery protected the rights of the slave instead of annihilating them. I thank God that I was withheld from the great folly and great sin of acknowledging a law for slavery—a law for any piracy—least of all for the superlative piracy. Nor have you forgotten how incessantly, in the late war, our enemies, Northern as well as Southern, were calling for this observance of the Constitution.[Pg 942] As if the purpose of that paper was to serve those whose parricidal hands were at the throat of our Nation. I recall but one instance in which I was ever reconciled to profanity. It was when, during the war, I was witnessing a heated conversation between a patriotic Republican and a rabid secession Democrat. The Republican was arguing that the Government should put forth all its powers to suppress the rebellion. At this stage the Democrat thrust in the stereotyped rebel phrase: "but only according to the Constitution." This interruption provoked the Republican to exclaim, as he hurried on, "Damn the Constitution!" The oath so happily helped to express my own feeling that I had no more heart to censure it than the recording angel had to preserve the record of Uncle Toby's famous oath.

And now, in your case, is another wrongful use of the Constitution. The instrument is cited against woman, as if she had united with man in making it, and was, therefore, morally bound by the flagrant usurpation, and legally concluded by it. Moreover, an excuse for turning the Constitution against her is that doing so deprives her of nothing but the pastime of dropping in a box a little piece of paper. Nevertheless, this dropping, inasmuch as it expresses her choice of the guardians of her person and property, is her great natural right to provide for the safety of her life and of the means to sustain it. She has no rights whatever, and she lives upon mere privileges and favors, if others may usurp her rights. In fact she lies at the mercy of men, if men only may choose into whose hands to put the control of her person and property.... I do not complain of Judge Hunt's interpretations of the Constitution on the suffrage question. I do not complain of his refusing to accept the constitutional recognition of woman's right to vote, though that right seems to lie on the very surface of the Constitution amongst her rights of citizenship. Nor do I complain of his passing by this recognition to dig down into the Constitution for proofs of there being two kinds of citizens—one that can vote and one that can not vote. What I complain of is that he did not hold as void, instead of arguing them to be valid, any words in the instrument which seemed to him to favor the disfranchisement of woman and consequent robbery and destruction of her rights. What I complain of is that, instead of his conscientious regard for his oath, he was not prepared to ignore and scout all human law so far as it is antagonistic to natural law and natural rights....

How striking and instructive is the following extract from a speech made a year or two ago in the Spanish Parliament: "Natural rights dwell essentially in the individual, and are derived directly from his own moral nature. They are therefore, so to speak, unlegislatable, since they do not arise from the law, do not depend on the law, and, not depending on the law, can not be abrogated by the law. Born of the organic constitution of the individual, with the individual they live and die, unless a tyrannical, unrighteous, and iniquitous law tears them from him, and then he will have the right to protest forever against this wrong and the iniquity of the law, and to rise against it whenever he can. Well, my lords, the inalienable rights of the Cubans have been torn from them by unrighteous, tyrannical, and iniquitous laws." Would that Judge Hunt and all our judges might, ere long, take the ground of this sublimely eloquent Spaniard, that natural rights are "unlegislatable".... Would that my much esteemed friend, Judge Hunt, had so far outgrown bad law and grown into good law, as to have pronounced at your trial the disenthralment of woman, and thus have set the name of Hunt in immortality by the side of the names of Brougham and Mansfield, and others who have had the wisdom and the courage to thrust aside false paper law and install in its place that sovereign law which is written upon the heart and upon the very foundations of human being! He does not doubt that they did right. He honors them for having done as they did. Nor can he doubt that to deny to woman all part in the making and executing of laws under which her life and property may be taken from her is a crime against her, which no paper law can sanction and which God's law must condemn.... This worship of the Constitution!—how blinding and belittling! I would that every judge who tends to this weakness (and nearly every judge, yes, and nearly every other person tends to it) might find his steps arrested by the warning example of Daniel Webster. This pre-eminently intellectual man, whom nature had fitted to soar in the high sphere of absolute and everlasting law, had so shrivelled his soul by his worship of the Constitution that he came,[Pg 943] at last, to desire no other inscription on his grave-stone than his shameless confession of such base worship. And all this, notwithstanding the Constitution was, in his eye, the great bulwark of slavery!

Be of good courage and good cheer, my brave and faithful sister! I trust our country is on the eve of great and blessed changes.... Best of all, the ballot can not much longer be withheld from woman. Men are fast coming to see that it belongs to her as fully as to themselves, and that the country is in perishing need of her wielding it. If the silly portion of our ladies will but cease from their silly apprehension that the plan is to make them vote whether they will or no, and also cease from their ignorant and childish admissions that they already have all the rights they want—then will the American women quickly be enfranchised, and their nation will rapidly achieve a far higher civilization than it is possible for any nation to arrive at which is guilty of the folly and the sin of clothing man with all political power and reducing women to a political cipher.

Gerrit Smith.

Cordially yours,

WASHINGTON NOTES.

BY GRACE GREENWOOD.

When I said that in the dull languor of our summer collapse we felt none of your fierce Northern excitements, I should have excepted the Anthony suffrage case. That touched nearly if not deeply. The ark of the holy political covenant resting here—the sacred mules that draw it being stabled in the Capitol for half a year at a time—the woman who has laid unsanctified hands upon it, is naturally regarded with peculiar horror. I did not take exception to the Times' article of June 19th on this case. It was mild and courteous in tone, and the view taken of the XIV. Amendment plea seems to me the only sound one. I certainly do not want to get into your political preserves by any quibble or dodge. I want my right there freely granted and guaranteed, and will be politely treated when I come, or I won't stay. The promised land of justice and equality is not to be reached by a short cut. I fear we have a large part of the forty years of struggle and zigzaging before us yet. I am pretty sure our Moses has not appeared. I think he will be a woman. Often the way seems dark, as well as long, when I see so much fooling with the great question of woman's claims to equal educational advantages with men; to just remuneration for good work, especially in teaching, and fair credit for her share in the patriotic and benevolent enterprises of the age. I do not say that equal pay for equal services will never be accorded to woman, even in the civil service, till she has the ballot to back her demand; but that is the private opinion of many high Government officials. I do not say that woman's right to be represented, as well as taxed, will never be recognized as a logical practical result of the democratic principle till the Democrats come in power. But it may be so. The Gospel was first offered to the Jews, but first accepted by the Gentiles.

In your article, fair as it was in spirit, you failed to touch upon two points which struck me rather painfully. It seems that Judge Hunt, after pronouncing a learned, and, I suppose, a sound opinion, peremptorily ordered the jury to bring the defendant in guilty. Now, could not twelve honest, intelligent jurymen be trusted to defend their birthright against one woman? Why such zeal, such more than Roman sternness? Again, in the trial of the inspectors of election, why were both judge and jurymen so merciful? No verdict of guilty was ordered, and the council of twelve who had seen fit to punish Miss Anthony by a fine of $100 and costs, merely mulcted in the modest sum of $25, each defenseless defendant sinning against light. Was it that they considered in their manly clemency the fact that women have superior facilities for earning money, or did they give heed to the old, old excuse, "The woman tempted me, and I did register"?

It surely is strange that such severe penalties should be visited on a woman, for a first and only indiscretion in the suffrage line, when a man may rise up on election morning and go forth, voting and to vote. If he be of an excitable and mercurial nature, one of the sort of citizens which sweet Ireland empties on us by the county, he may sportively flit about among the polls, from ward to ward, of the metropolis, and no man says to him nay; he may even travel hilariously from city to city, with free passes and free drinks—who treats Miss Anthony?—making festive calls, and dropping ballots for cards,[Pg 944] and no disturbance comes of it—he is neither fined nor confined. So, it would seem, "a little voting is a dangerous thing."

Say what you will, the whole question of woman's status in the State and the Church, in society and the family, is full of absurd contradictions and monstrous anomalies. We are so responsible, yet irresponsible—we are idols, we are idiots—we are everything, we are nothing. We are the Caryatides, rearing up the entablature of the temple of liberty we are never allowed to enter. We may plot against a government, and hang for it; but if we help to found and sustain a government by patriotic effort and devotion, by toil and hardship, by courage, loyalty, and faith, by the sacrifice of those nearest and dearest to us, and then venture to clutch at the crumbs that fall from the table where our Masters Jonathan, Patrick, Hans, and Sambo sit at feast, you arrest us, imprison us, try us, fine us, and then add injury to insult, by calling us old, ugly, and fanatical.

One is forcibly reminded of the sermon of the colored brother on woman, the heads of which discourse were: "Firstly. What am woman? Secondly. Whar did she come from? Thirdly. Who does she belong to? Fourthly. Which way am she gwine to?"

The law and the Gospel have settled the "secondly" and "thirdly." Woman came from man, and belongs to him by the mortgage he holds on her through that spare-rib; but "firstly" and "fourthly" remain as profound and unsolvable questions as they were before the Ethiopian divine wrestled with them. But perhaps this troublous and perplexed existence is our "be-all and end-all"; that in the life beyond, man may foreclose that old mortgage and re-absorb woman into his glorified and all-sufficient being.

I have never believed with Miss Anthony, that the XIV. Amendment was going to help us. I have never accepted certain other of her theories; but I believe in and accept her as a woman of intense convictions, of high courage and constancy; and I don't like to hear her ridiculed and abused. If anything can make me think meanly of my young brothers of the press, it is the way they pelt and pester Susan B. Anthony. For shame, boys! Never a one of you will make the man she is. Even some of our Washington editors turn aside from the fair game. Providence, in its inscrutable wisdom, has provided for them in the Board of Public Works, to vent their virtuous indignation and manly scorn of the woman they are determined shall stand in perpetual pillory in the market-place of this great, free Republic.—New York Times.

The Washington, D. C., Star says of Judge Hunt's opinion: "If his views are to prevail, of what effect are the suffrage amendments to the Federal Constitution."

[The County Post, Washington Co., N. Y., Friday, June 27, 1873].

NOT A VOTER.

The United States Courts have pronounced on Miss Anthony's case, which she so adroitly made by voting last fall, in company with fourteen others of her sex. The decision was adverse to the claim made by this devoted friend of female suffrage, that as the Constitution now stood, women had a right to vote. Accordingly the indomitable old lady was found guilty of violating the law regulating the purity of the ballot-box, and fined one hundred dollars and costs. A good many journals seem to regard this as a good joke on Susan B, as they call her, and make it the excuse for more poor jokes of their own. It may be stupid to confess it, but we can not see where the laugh comes in. If it is a mere question of who has got the best of it, Miss Anthony is still ahead; she has voted, and the American Constitution has survived the shock. Fining her one hundred dollars does not rub out that fact that fourteen women voted, and went home, and the world jogged on as before. The decision of the judge does not prove that it is wrong for women to vote, it does not even prove that Miss Anthony did wrong in voting. It only shows that one judge on the bench differs in opinion from other equally well qualified judges off the bench. It is not our province to find fault with this decision of the United States Court at Rochester. Miss Anthony may be wrong in attempting to vote; of that we are not certain. But of the greater question back of it, of Miss Anthony's inherent right to vote we have no question, and that after all is the more important matter. This Rochester breakwater may damn back the stream for a while, but it is bound to come, sweeping away all barriers. The opposition to extending the suffrage to the other sex is founded alone on prejudice arising from social custom. Reason[Pg 945] and logic are both against it. Women will not be voters possibly for some years to come; it is not desirable that the franchise should come too quick; but they are certain to have the full privilege of citizenship in the end.

[The Age, Thursday, July 31, 1873.]

KU-KLUX PRISONERS.

The Ku-Klux prisoners are, it seems, now to be released. They are persons some of whom had committed assaults and other offenses cognizable by the laws of the States where they lived, and the Ku-Klux legislation by Congress was a political device as unnecessary as it was unconstitutional. Perhaps the most ridiculous, as well as the most unjust prosecution under the Ku-Klux law was that instituted against Miss Anthony for voting in Rochester. Under her view of her rights, she presented herself at the polls, and submitted her claims to the proper officers, who decided that she had a right to vote. She practiced no fraud or concealment of any kind. She did what every good citizen here would do, if any doubt arose from assessment, registration, or residence, as to his right to vote. He would state the case to the election officers, and abide their decision. Yet this, we are told, is a criminal offense under the Ku-Klux law, for which a citizen who has done exactly what he ought to have done, may be fined and imprisoned as a criminal. Nay, if, as often happens, a point of doubt is submitted to our Court of Common Pleas and decided in favor of the applicant, he is still liable to criminal prosecution under the Federal Ku-Klux law, if a United States Commissioner or Judge differs from the State Judge in the construction of the State law. Since the victims of the Ku-Klux act are now receiving pardons, we hope the fine of $100 unlawfully imposed on Miss Anthony may be remitted. We do not think there was a case of more gross injustice ever practiced under forms of law, than the conviction of that lady for a criminal offense in voting, with the assent of the legal election officers to whom her right was submitted. If all the victims of this unconstitutional law were as innocent as she was, they can not be too soon released. Even those who were guilty of offenses cognizable by the State law, were unjustly tried and condemned under an unconstitutional statute passed for political effect.

[From the Philadelphia Age].

THE FUNNY CASE OF MISS ANTHONY.

The case of Miss Susan B. Anthony seems to be dismissed with a laugh by most of the press; but from the first institution of a prosecution against her under the Ku-Klux law, we have regarded the proceeding as one in which the injustice was not cloaked by the absurdity. The law was passed by Congress on a political cry that massacre and outrage menaced negroes at the polls in the Southern States, and now we have it used to oppress a woman in Rochester, New York. We are not debarred from saying "oppressed" because the judge left the fine to be levied on her property instead of imprisoning her person—in a State in which women have, we suppose, long been exempt from imprisonment for debt. But the chief outrage in the case is that it affords the first case, we believe, in the United States, or anywhere in modern times, of a conviction for a crime when there was no criminal intent. The proof, or the presumption of this, is essential to a crime in the criminal law of every civilized nation. The case of Miss Anthony was that of a lady who believed that the much vaunted amendments of the Federal Constitution extended to white women; and many lawyers and Congressmen have also avowed this opinion. We do not hold it, but we do not doubt that Miss Anthony does, very sincerely. We think as the Judge says in her case, that the Federal Constitution has nothing to do with the matter; that is wholly regulated by the Constitution of New York. But every word of his argument was equally strong to show that he, a Federal Judge, had nothing to do with the matter, and that it wholly belonged to the courts of New York. They know, we presume, no law that can create a crime without a criminal intention, and we deny the right of Congress or any earthly authority to pass so monstrous a law. Every day in criminal courts that point arises. If a man charged with larceny is proved to have taken the goods of another, but under some idea that he had a right to them, no matter how erroneous, the criminal prosecution is instantly dismissed.[Pg 946] Our eminent jurist, Judge King, used to say: "This is a civil suit run mad." Has any citizen of Philadelphia supposed that if there is a doubt as to his right to vote—one of those numerous doubts that arise in changes of residence, time of registration, naturalization, etc.—and wishing scrupulously to do right, he go to the window and fully and fairly state his case, and the election officers consider it, and adjudge that he should vote then and there, has any citizen heretofore known that he thus became liable to conviction for a crime under the Ku-Klux laws, if some judge of a court should think the election officers decided the point erroneously?

Yet that is the doctrine of Miss Anthony's case. Her garb and person sufficed to tell she was a woman when she approached the polls, and there was also argument over the matter, exhibiting afresh the fact notorious at her home, that she claimed a lawful right to vote under certain amendments of the Constitution. She was no repeater or false personator, or probably she would not be persecuted, and certainly she would be pardoned.

She submitted her right to the election officers, and they, the judges appointed by the law, decided in her favor. It is just the case we have supposed in Philadelphia, and which often really occurs here, and may occur anywhere. And now we are told the Ku-Klux law makes this hitherto laudable and innocent mode of procedure a crime, punishable with fine and imprisonment! This is the decision over which many journals are laughing because the first victim is a woman. We can not see the joke.

[Chicago Evening Journal, Dec. 1, 1874].

Mrs. Myra Bradwell, the editor and publisher of the Legal News, of this city, is a warm advocate of woman's rights. In the last number of the News, speaking of Susan B. Anthony, she declares that Judge Ward Hunt, of the Federal bench, "violated the Constitution of the United States more, to convict her of illegal voting, than she did in voting, for he had sworn to support it, she had not."

Sister Myra is evidently not afraid of being hauled up for contempt of court.

[St. Louis Daily Globe, Thursday, June 26, 1873].

MISS ANTHONY'S CASE.

JUDGE HUNT'S DECISION REVIEWED—SHE HAD A RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL.

Editor of St. Louis Globe:—I ask the favor of a small space in your paper to notice the very remarkable decision of Judge Hunt, in the case of the United States vs. Susan B. Anthony.

The Judge tells us "that the right of voting, or the privilege of voting, is a right or privilege arising under the constitution of the States, and not of the united States. If the right belongs to any particular person, it is because such person is entitled to it as a citizen of the State where he offers to exercise it, and not because of citizenship of the United States."

If this position be true (which I do not admit), then Judge Hunt should have pronounced the act of Congress unconstitutional, and dismissed the case for want of jurisdiction. If the matter belongs exclusively to the States, then the United States have nothing to do with it, and clearly have no right to interfere and punish a person for the (supposed) violation of a State law. But this is one of the least of the criticisms to which this opinion is exposed. A far graver one consists in the fact that the defendant was denied the right of a trial by jury.

The Supreme Court of the United States say: "Another guarantee of freedom was broken when Milligan was denied a trial by jury. The great minds of the country have differed on the correct interpretation to be given to various provisions of the Federal Constitution, and judicial decision has been often invoked to settle their true meaning; but, until recently, no one ever doubted that the right of trial by jury was fortified in the organic law against the power of attack. It is now assailed; but if ideas can be expressed in words, and language has any meaning, this right—one of the most valuable in a free country—is preserved to every one accused of crime, who is not attached to the army, or navy, or militia in actual service. The VI. Amendment affirms that in 'all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury,' language broad enough to embrace all persons and cases."—Ex parte Milligan, 4 Wallace, p. 122.[Pg 947]

It is true a jury was impaneled, but this was all, for we are informed that, at the conclusion of the opinion, Judge Selden requested that the case should be submitted to the jury upon the question of intent, and upon certain propositions of law; but the court declined to submit the case upon any question whatever, and directed them to render a verdict of guilty against the defendant.

I have been pained to witness, on the part of some of our newspapers, a disposition to treat this decision with indifference, by some even with levity. Has it come to this, that because she is a woman the defendant can not get a fair and impartial trial? The case of the inspectors was not treated in this way—but then they were men.

Justice.

[The Journal, Thursday, July 30, 1874].

THE ALBANY LAW JOURNAL ON SUSAN B. ANTHONY'S CASE.

To the Editor of the Syracuse Journal:—I wish to call the attention of the readers of The Journal, especially legal ones, to the underlying intent and unjust perversions of the Albany Law Journal of this month, in its leading article, entitled "Can a Judge direct a Verdict of Guilty?"

This Law Journal, which professes to lead the legal craft of the Empire State in the devious ways of legal justice, has but now, thirteen months after its date, a review of Miss Anthony's celebrated trial, as conducted by Judge Ward Hunt. Having taken a year and a month to get the first principles of justice and of constitutional law through his head, the belated editor of that law journal has come to the conclusion—self-evident as it ought to be to a child—that a judge has no legal right to take from an accused person the right of trial by jury. Sapient editor, wise man! No second Solomon, you. You, with all your legal lore, have at last managed to see, in a year and a month, what the veriest simple woman in the land, all uneducated as women are in the technicalities of the law, had no difficulty of seeing in an hour. Right of trial by jury holds all other legal rights within its grasp. Deprive a man or woman of that, and of what use is your habeas corpus act, of what use your law of penalties or acquittal? The terrors of the middle ages, the lettres de cachet, sequestration, confiscation, rayless dungeons, and iron masks at once rise in view.

We will, however, allow to this editor one grain of sense, as he acknowledges the dangerous power in the hands of judges of the United States Circuit Court, a power they possess outside of right, a power through which one of them can, as did Judge Ward Hunt in Miss Anthony's case, transcend his legal rights, to warp and bend constitutional guarantees to his own ends, and having so done that there is no legal appeal from his unwarrantable decision. A United States judge is practically irresponsible. Nothing can touch him for illegality in office but a Congressional impeachment, which from a combination of circumstances is difficult to bring about. He holds the dearest rights of American citizens at pleasure in his hands, and this is law and justice in the United States. These are solely and entirely man-made laws. No woman had finger or tongue in the matter.

But Mr. Albany Law Journal editor, after acknowledging their injustice toward accused persons, and their dangers to the liberties of every individual, tells Miss Anthony that "if she" is dissatisfied with "our laws," meaning, of course, man-made laws like these, "she would better adopt the methods of reform that men use, or, better still, emigrate." Was ever a more disreputable phrase penned? Disgraceful to its author, and doubly so, as he pretends to be a teacher of law. This is the language of a very Nero come to judgment.

"Our laws." Whose laws, pray? The laws of men made for "our" benefit alone. Is this what Mr. Editor of the Albany Law Journal means? Pray, Mr. Albany Law Journal, what are "the methods of reform that men use," when they are dissatisfied with "our laws," only to speak against such laws, and to vote for men to make better ones? Miss Anthony has tried both of "the methods of reform men use," and for doing the last was arrested, tried, fined, and all but imprisoned. It seems "the methods of reform men use" are, after all, not just the kind of methods for Miss Anthony and her friends to use. But then, Mr. Albany Law Journal allows Miss Anthony and Mrs. Gage one other alternative, which he deems a "better one," i.e., to "emigrate."[Pg 948]

Mr. Editor continues: "We can well afford to lose her who rehearsed the story of her wrongs in public addresses, in twenty-nine of the post-office districts of Monroe, and twenty-one of Ontario, in her canvass of those counties prior to her trial, and Mrs. Matilda Joslyn Gage, who made a speech on this subject in Canandaigua and sixteen other towns of Ontario County, previous to Miss Anthony's trial, June 17, 1873, with a view, of course, of influencing public opinion in that region, so that a conviction could not be had."

As Judge Hunt trampled on the citizen's right of trial by jury, so Mr. Albany Law Journal shows himself to be of the same ilk, by desiring to trample on that other guaranteed constitutional right of free speech. He would ostracise Miss Anthony and Mrs. Gage; he would banish them from the country because they dared to use one of "the methods of reform that men use," i.e., speaking of their "wrongs" in order to educate and enlighten public opinion. If old Greece could banish her best citizen, Aristides, simply because he was her most just one, Miss Anthony and myself certainly ought to consider it a matter of self-gratulation that we are deemed fit for banishment because of our demand for justice; justice not merely for ourselves, but for one-half the nation.

That editor's contempt of rights and justice, as shown in his article, is simply amazing. He might as well have said in so many words, "This country and its government is for the benefit of us males alone; you women are part and parcel of our property; if you are not suited with all things as we fix them for you, then get out from our country." This is the tenor of what Mr. Albany Law Journal editor says. Does not every honest lawyer's face tingle with shame when he reads this disgraceful sentiment in that journal to which he so constantly looks for instruction in the higher departments of justice? Does not his republicanism revolt from such a sentiment? Does he not here recognize the enunciation of a principle as directly opposed to liberty as even Judge Hunt's control of jury trial?

This journal shows that the right to do a thing and the power to do it are distinctly separate. Judge Hunt did what he had the power to do, but not the right to do. Mr. Law Journal possesses neither the right nor the power of banishing those citizens who do not conform to his wishes, but he has evinced a desire to hold such power, and did he have it, the country would find in him a tyrant of the same class as Judge Hunt.

As dilatory as this editor has been in reviewing this important case, he is equally timid in his criticism upon it. Currying to judicial and political power, he terms Judge Hunt's willful and knowing infraction of law "a mistake," but in regard to Miss Anthony, he says, "she intended deliberately to break the law." A large class of people believe just the contrary. We who know Miss Anthony well, and who believe with her, know that, on the contrary, she intended to do an act which is protected by the law, instead of breaking law; she was acting under authority of the law. Because Judge Hunt defied the law; because the editor of the Albany Law Journal is inexcusably ignorant of, or recklessly indifferent to the law, it does not follow that Miss Anthony belongs to that class, or should be judged by their corrupt standard. Miss Anthony, in common with hundreds, nay, thousands of other women, as well as of a large class of scholarly men—men of intelligence and a broad sense of justice—men, too, of political insight—fully believes that to woman, equally with man, does the Constitution secure political rights. These persons, this large class, believe that the XIII., XIV., and XV. Amendments to the national Constitution overrode and destroyed all those parts of State constitutions which were, or are now, by expression contrary to their provisions, and they believe that the fundamental right of citizens of the United States is the right to take part in making the laws which shall govern them; the exercise of this right to be regulated (not prevented) by States. They do not concede Miss Anthony to have been a law-breaker as the Albany Law Journal, the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives, and other friends of Judge Hunt concede her to have been. If the judiciary of the country is so far powerful, and so far irresponsible as to warp the law in favor of its own prejudices, even to the extent of preventing trial by jury, as Judge Hunt is conceded to have done, then our judiciary and not our criminals is our dangerous class. With such judges as Hunt, who has attempted to crush out the trial by jury, and make of the jury merely an ornamental tail to his judicial kite; with such teachers as the Albany Law Journal,[Pg 949] which, while acknowledging Hunt's outrageous illegality of action, yet calls it "a mistake," and speaks of him as "a good and pure" man, the administrators and the expounders of law have become the most dangerous enemies of the people. The eminent Judge Brady recognizes the low condition of legal honor, and in a recent speech, said he hoped to see the day when his legal brethren would understand that it was their duty to assist in the administration of justice, and not to lend themselves to degrading efforts to defeat it. We commend these remarks to the consideration of Judge Hunt and the editor of the Albany Law Journal.

With that lack of self-respect which seems to inhere in all opponents of woman suffrage, that editor, in addition to all else, tries to indulge in a little facetiousness over the threadbare witticisms that Miss Anthony "was a woman when she voted." Coming down through the lips of Judge Hunt and the United States District Attorney of the prosecution, it reaches the law editor in time for him to say that "on the trial of Miss Anthony she conceded that on the day of election she was a woman," and in a parenthesis ("we know that she generally was a woman, and are not surprised to learn that she was on election day.") What an amazing platitude this is to fall from the lips of a teacher of law. That the United States District Attorney engaged in the prosecution should degrade the dignity of the law by the question (to Judge Selden) "if it was conceded that on the day of election Miss Anthony was a woman?" to which the reply was, "Yes, now and ever heart and soul a woman"; that Judge Hunt should ask her "if she voted as a female"? to which he got the answer, "No, sir, I voted as a citizen of the United States"; those questions, I say, were not so much a matter of surprise under the peculiar forms of the trial, but that a law journal should so far forget its dignity; should so far descend from argument, from discussion of law to unseemly banter on the question of sex; that it should so far stoop from a canvass of the most important trial that ever took place, to a senile jest on woman, must be matter of astonishment to every candid mind in the legal fraternity, and certainly has a tendency to convince the female portion of the country that the male man is fast losing his right to the definition of "man, a reasoning animal."

In regard to that editor's expressed desire that the case of Miss Anthony should have gone to the jury, as they would have brought in a verdict of guilty, I will inform him that one of those jurymen told me his verdict would have been "not guilty" had he been allowed by Judge Hunt to express his opinions, "nor would he have been alone." This was just what Hunt knew and feared and was determined should not take place. Therefore he gagged the jury and ordered the verdict of guilty entered—a verdict which, as this editor acknowledges, was never rendered.

Matilda Joslyn Gage.

Fayetteville, N. Y.

ULYSSES S. GRANT,

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

To all to whom those Presents shall come, Greeting:

Whereas, at the June term, 1873, of the United States Circuit Court of the Northern District of New York, one Beverly W. Jones, one Edwin T. Marsh, and one William B. Hall were convicted of illegally registering certain persons as voters, and receiving their votes, and were sentenced each to pay a fine of twenty-five dollars,

And whereas, the Honorable H. A. Sargent asks that they be pardoned, in view of the peculiar circumstances of their offense,

Now, therefore, be it known, that I, Ulysses S. Grant, President of the United States of America, in consideration of the premises, divers other good and sufficient reasons me thereunto moving, do hereby grant to the said Beverly W. Jones, Edwin T. Marsh, and William B. Hall, a full and unconditional pardon.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto signed my name and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

[SEAL.]

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of March, a.d. 1874, and of the Independence of the United States the Ninety-eighth.

U. S. Grant.

By the President.

Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State.

[Pg 950]

CORRESPONDENCE FROM WASHINGTON—SPECIAL TO THE COMMONWEALTH.

Washington, April 14, 1874.

SUSAN ANTHONY'S CASE.

Speaking of women, reminds me that a report will soon be made by the Judiciary Committee upon the petition of Susan B. Anthony for a remission of her fine for voting in the last Presidential campaign for General Grant and Henry Wilson. The friends of woman's suffrage confidently expect a favorable report upon this subject from the committee. It was a clear case of a decision by a judge in excess of his authority, and acting without warrant of law. It will not be a decision if favorably made into which the right of suffrage will necessarily enter. Miss Anthony claims her conviction was unconstitutional under the law, the judge having refused her the right of trial by jury in that he directed the jury to bring in a verdict of guilty. She insists that this proceeding of the judge was in derogation of her legal right of trial by jury, and as by law she had no appeal in a criminal case from the decision of a single judge, that it is the duty, as it is in the power, of Congress to remit the fine which she has been ordered to pay with the costs. This simply involves a legal question, and one which the Judiciary Committee will be quite likely to decide in Susan's favor as she has both law and precedent on her side. If the committee report favorably to the House, it will be quite likely to pass on its merits as a legal question, giving many members an opportunity to vote as their sympathies would direct without committing themselves squarely to the question of woman's suffrage. It is a step that will pave the way to this in the future. Mr. Sargent has introduced a similar bill in the Senate, and Senator Carpenter is pledged not only to its support but announces himself ready to work for its passage.

The question of whether woman shall vote has become one of live issues in politics to-day, and must be met by parliaments and people whether they will or no. Susan B. Anthony, as the pioneer in this crusade, holds the respectful consideration of a large number of our public men. They have learned that she is in earnest in the advocacy of equal rights, social and political, for her sex. She has no other religion than work for this cause, unless it be war upon what she calls the male despotism of both church and State. She will have gained in this, the great cause to which she has consecrated her life, a substantial victory. Notwithstanding it does not bear directly upon the question of suffrage, it will be a recognition of the fact that judges can not with impunity make decisions that woman has no rights that they are bound to respect, and the rebuke that this remission of her fine, if ordered by Congress, will be to the judge presiding in her case is one that his associates throughout the country will be sure to heed. This will at the same time give courage and hope to the friends of equal rights to all regardless of race, sex, or previous condition of servitude.

MINOR vs. HAPPERSETT.

(Toledo Sunday Journal, April, 1875,)

We insert to-day a communication from a friend of equal rights, who highly condemns the interpretation of the Constitution by the Supreme Court—his opinion also being from a legal standpoint. There is no doubt but that although the mere letter of the Constitution may be adhered to, women not being specified as being people and not non-entities, the interpretation is clear behind the spirit of the Constitution. It is then the manifest duty of Congress, since the Supreme Court gives the conservative interpretation, to so amend the Constitution as to bring it up unmistakably to the design of the framers, which was representation for all the people.

The Great Usurpation.

President Woman's Suffrage Association, Toledo, Ohio:

Dear Madam: What a fraud is practiced by the administration of this government upon the provisions of the Constitution of the United States! As government is administered, the female portion of the public are defrauded of constitutional right, and made to become political slaves. Since the beginning, all the way down to the present day, woman has been debarred of all political privilege, though reckoned and accounted[Pg 951] as one of the people, in matters of census and taxation. Her disabilities in this behalf were removed by the adoption of the National Constitution; but nullification of that Constitution and a high handed usurpation on the part of the States, have ever hindered the enjoyment of her constitutional rights. But so long as she is classed by the Constitution as one of the people—so long as the people are the owners, the proprietors of the government established by the Constitution—so long as it provides for self-government, popular sovereignty—so long must she be entitled to take part in administration, though prevented from doing so by fine and imprisonment.

I am awakened to this subject of woman suffrage by a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, made at Washington this week. I have not seen the text of the opinion read by the Chief Justice, but I find this statement in the Court news of Monday last:

"No. 182.—Virginia L. Minor agt. Reese Happersett: in error to Supreme Court of Missouri.—The plaintiff in error instituted an action against Happersett, who was the judge of an election, for denying her the right to vote. She based her right to vote upon the ground that as a citizen of the United States she had that right under the Constitution. Mr. Chief Justice Waite delivered the opinion, holding, first, that women are and always have been citizens of the United States as well as men; second, the Constitution of the United States does not attach the right of voting to the right of citizenship; third, nor does the Constitution of any of the States make the right to vote coextensive with citizenship; fourth, consequently, women are not entitled to vote by virtue of the Constitution of the United States, when the State laws do not give the right. Affirmed."

The great usurpation is now affirmed, legalized, by the decree of the Judicial Department of this government! More than 20,000,000 of the people of this Nation have been declared without the pale of political rights secured to them by the Constitution of the fathers. This decision indorses the disfranchisement of every female in the land, so long endured by her. Her citizenship, which the National Constitution makes evidence of her copartnership, or tenancy in common, or proprietorship in the Government, is worthless—is only a name; and does not enable her to exercise the privileges and immunities of our system of self-government which that Constitution declares this government to be—a government by and for its citizens. Woman can not now exercise her constitutional right—she is only a cipher, important once in a decade, in numbering the people—she is only a political slave, a helpless Helot. Make ready, adorn your person, O woman, to celebrate the coming centennial of the Declaration of American Independence of the British throne! Mark! a woman sits upon that throne and wears the royal crown! But, glorious parchment is that old Declaration. That instrument marks an epoch in government and political philosophy. It certifies the rights of the human race. Its truths sounded in American ears on every fourth of July, for one hundred years, save one, have, nevertheless, failed in their realization, and, to-day, one half the population of this Nation can not exercise a political right. How happens this state of affairs?—not that the Constitution hinders woman and prevents her participation in matters of government, for it is abundant in its provisions in her behalf. Let me examine and try to ascertain the point of difficulty. I copy from the Constitution a provision which covers the entire question of woman's right of suffrage:

"The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year, by the people of the several States; and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature."—[Art. 1. Sec. 2.]

The law and logic of woman's right—her political right—to vote for members of Congress, President and Vice-President, appear thus in argument: These officers are to be chosen "by the people of the several States"—that is by the men and women of the Nation. The personality of the people, by the creative fiat, is distinguished by difference of sex, male and female. The choosers, the people of the several States, are required to have certain qualifications to enable them to choose, and these qualifications are to be subject to State regulations. The right to vote for these officers of the United States is anchored in the Constitution—no State may nullify that right—it can only regulate its exercise:—for example, prescribe, as qualifications for access to the ballot-box, that the[Pg 952] chooser or voter shall be twenty-one years old, a resident of the State for one year, of the county or town for thirty days, etc.—these are properly qualifications and such as the Constitution intends. Every State Constitution limits the right to a part only of the people, which is denial of right to the other portion of the people, and not regulation or the right by way of adjective qualifications, as illustrated above.

Can sex either qualify or disqualify a chooser, one of the people to cast a ballot for President? All the States, in unchecked nullification, pronounce in the affirmative and write it in their constitutions—the masculine qualifies, the feminine disqualifies—and this has just now been echoed by the Supreme Court of the United States! My mind and reason forbid my acceptance of such postulate.

The term "people" comprehends and includes female persons as well as male persons. It is impossible, therefore, that sex, either the one or the other, is contemplated by the Constitution as a qualification or disqualification for suffrage. There must be National officers, President, etc., else no government; they are to be chosen—this calls for choosers or voters; the "people" are to choose—the people are a majority of persons—these persons are, some male, some female—no limitation is indicated as to which shall belong the right to vote; sex, it seems, is out of the question, as the people are of both sexes, so both male and female must vote or choose at the polls. Let the States regulate the approaches to the ballot-box, but not deny the right of user, by the people of the Nation. The Constitution exacts all this—it is plain, it is positive—there is no hint in the same that there shall be had at the polls any preference on account of sex. Expulsion of woman from the polls by State nullification is a gigantic wrong—a villainous usurpation.

Again, some things carry in their very face the absurd, the incongruous, the ridiculous; States enacting laws and forming constitutions which are interpreted as warrants of right to vote—the masculine gender, this qualifies for voting—the feminine, this disqualifies the voter. How ridiculous! Virility the distinguishing qualification of voters in the United States! How queer this looks and sounds. Sex is elemental—inherent in all the people, and should never be deemed ground of qualification or disqualification to vote, any more than the height or weight of person. But the Supreme Court of the United States wink at the wickedness of the States as nullifiers, and allow the masculine usurpation to remain. Perhaps this grave body of learned Justices look upon the question of qualification in a broader or other sense than that taught by Dr. Webster. Their decision, it seems, turns upon the use and meaning of that word. This, then, is the solemn conclusion of the embodied justice of the land—qualification to vote, masculine gender!—and not things in common belonging to every person of the entire population, no matter what the sex; such as age, residence, etc.

Madam, you have no available political rights—the Constitution intends you shall have and exercise them, and it has made provisions accordingly—but the false interpretations of the courts, and the trespassing State Constitutions have hitherto hindered you. But I believe a day of revolution, call it reckoning if you please, is at hand—fast approaching. President Lincoln liberated by proclamation, three or four millions of chattel slaves. President Grant has the power, Constitutional power, to liberate, to-day, twenty millions of political slaves, of which, I am sorry to say, you are one. Let politicians and political parties beware how they treat this question of woman suffrage. What became of the old Whig Party, in consequence of its alliance with chattel slavery. Illium fuit.

Horace Dresser.

Sincerely yours, etc.,

[The Toledo Sunday Journal.]

The New York Evening Post has a long article relative to the decision of the Supreme Court regarding the right of women to vote under the Constitution of the United States, coinciding in the decision. It closes by saying: "The advocates of woman suffrage will scarcely be disappointed by this judgment. We do not believe that sincere friends of the proposed reform will regret the failure to secure it by trickery."

There are few who have maintained that the XIV. and XV. Amendments secured suffrage to women as well as to colored men, who would be willing to admit that they desired to obtain suffrage through trickery? Either it is, or is not, conveyed through the Constitution and the Amendments. Certainly if it is, they have a right to avail themselves of it; and even if it is not, it is nevertheless, a right. The woman suffragists believe that the withholdal from women of the right of suffrage is a fraud and an imposition. To secure them what is already their right, can not involve trickery. Every day and every hour that the right of suffrage is withheld from women, a monstrous wrong is practiced upon them. As long as there were no women who demanded the ballot, and by tacit consent it was relinquished, the fraud practiced by debarring them from it was merely of a negative character—but the privilege should have been left open; but from the moment that one woman demanded it, an outrage was practiced upon her by the entire people in denying it her, and the plea that it is not woman's sphere, which is sometimes made, is the most shallow subterfuge of any, for it is not for men, but for woman alone, to determine what that sphere is, or is not.

FOOTNOTES:

[208] Alvin Stewart, one of the noble pioneers in Anti-Slavery.

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Anna E. Dickinson	Frontispiece.
Clara Barton	page 25
Clemence S. Lozier, M. D.	153
Rev. Olympia Brown	265
Jane Graham Jones	313
Virginia L. Minor	409
Isabella Beecher Hooker	489
Belva A. Lockwood	521
Ellen Clark Sargent	553
Myra Bradwell	617
Lucy Stone	761
Julia Ward Howe	793

Hannibal Hamlin,	Ira Harris,	James A. Garfield,
Charles Sumner,	and sixteen other	Henry C. Deming,
Henry Wilson,	Senators.	R. B. Van Valkenburg,
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,

Elizabeth Cady Stanton.	Olympia Brown.
Isabella Beecher Hooker.	Susan B. Anthony.
Elizabeth L. Bladen.	Josephine S. Griffing.

Lucy Stone,	Caroline M. Severance,
T. W. Higginson,	Julia Ward Howe,
Geo. H. Vibbert.

Laura Curtis Bullard,	Isabella Beecher Hooker,
Gerrit Smith,	Samuel J. May,
Sarah Pugh,	Charlotte E. Wilbour,
Frederick Douglass,	Josephine S. Griffing,
Mattie Griffith Brown,	Theodore Tilton, ex officio.
James W. Stillman,

The Project Gutenberg eBook of History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II, Edited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

E-text prepared by Richard J. Shiffer and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)

HISTORY of Woman Suffrage.

EDITED BY

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, SUSAN B. ANTHONY, AND MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE.

ILLUSTRATED WITH STEEL ENGRAVINGS.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

1861-1876.

ALL PERSONS BORN OR NATURALIZED IN THE UNITED STATES, AND SUBJECT TO THE JURISDICTION THEREOF, ARE CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES.

SUSAN B. ANTHONY. 17 Madison St., Rochester, N. Y.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1881, by ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, SUSAN B. ANTHONY, AND MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE. In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

PREFACE.

CONTENTS.

LIST OF ENGRAVINGS.

CHAPTER XVI.

WOMAN'S PATRIOTISM IN THE WAR.

ANNA ELLA CARROLL.

THE TENNESSEE CAMPAIGN.

DOROTHEA DIX,

GOVERNMENT SUPERINTENDENT OF NURSES.

ELIZABETH BLACKWELL, M.D.

THE SANITARY COMMISSION.

WOMEN AS SOLDIERS.

CLARA BARTON.

MINISTERING ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE.

JOSEPHINE SOPHIE GRIFFING. The National Freedman's Relief Association. BY CATHARINE A. F. STEBBINS.

LETTERS ON THE FREEDMAN'S RELIEF ASSOCIATION.

THE LADIES' NATIONAL COVENANT.

THE PLEDGE.

ANNA ELIZABETH DICKINSON.

THE WOMAN'S NATIONAL LOYAL LEAGUE.

MAMMOTH PETITION.

BUSINESS MEETING.

EVENING SESSION.

THE PRAYER OF ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND.

ANNIVERSARY OF THE LOYAL WOMEN'S NATIONAL LEAGUE.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER XVII.

CONGRESSIONAL ACTION.

A LAW AGAINST WOMEN.

SUFFRAGE FOR WOMEN.

SUFFRAGE IN THE DISTRICT.

PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS.

SUFFRAGE IN THE DISTRICT.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER XVIII.

NATIONAL CONVENTIONS IN 1866-67.

ADDRESS TO CONGRESS.

THE AMERICAN EQUAL RIGHTS ASSOCIATION.

EVENING SESSION.

SECOND DAY.

EVENING SESSION.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER XIX.

THE KANSAS CAMPAIGN—1867.

REMINISCENCES BY HELEN EKIN STARRETT.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER XX.

NEW YORK CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.

WOMEN IN POLITICS.

CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.

BY ELIZABETH CADY STANTON.

EQUAL RIGHTS ANNIVERSARY.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER XXI.

RECONSTRUCTION.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER XXII.

NATIONAL CONVENTIONS—1869.

EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.

EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.

TO THE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

THE MAY ANNIVERSARIES IN NEW YORK AND BROOKLYN.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE NEW DEPARTURE.

UNDER THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT.

THE ST. LOUIS RESOLUTIONS.

THE SECOND DECADE CELEBRATION.

E-text prepared by Richard J. Shiffer
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net)

HISTORY

of

Woman Suffrage.

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON,
SUSAN B. ANTHONY, AND
MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE.

SUSAN B. ANTHONY.
17 Madison St., Rochester, N. Y.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1881, by
ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, SUSAN B. ANTHONY, AND
MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE.

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

JOSEPHINE SOPHIE GRIFFING.
The National Freedman's Relief Association.
BY CATHARINE A. F. STEBBINS.

ANNIVERSARY OF THE
LOYAL WOMEN'S NATIONAL LEAGUE.