# History of Woman Suffrage/Volume 2/Index

Contents
APPENDIX.
CHAPTER XVI.
WOMAN'S PATRIOTISM IN THE WAR.
House of Representatives (46th Congress, 3d Session. Report No. 386).
Anna Ella Carroll.
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 Etta 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. 83), 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. 89, 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. Reverend 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 ​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 cf 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. 89-63 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. 82 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 80th 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 (sec Governor Hicks' letters, p. 27, memorial), but exerted a wide and salutary influence on all the Border States (gee Howard's report, p. 83 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, Wellies, Smith, Attorney-General Bates, Senators Browning, Doolittle, Collamer, Cowan, Reverdy Johnson, and Hicks, Hon. Horace Binney, Hon. Benjamin H. Brewater, 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. 8. 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 Mises Carroll, and that they are fully justified in recommending that she be placed on the ​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 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 ​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.
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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.
Very sincerely, your friend,B. F. Wade.
On the 28th of February, 1872, 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 ​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.
Ever yours truly, B. F. Wade.
From Reverdy Johnson.
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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. ....
Sincerely your friend, Reverdy Johnson.
From Orestes H. Brownson.
Quincy, Ill., Sept. 17, 1878.
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 ​rendered the cause of the Union. In the hope that you would be adequately recompensed by Congress, ....
I am your obedient servant, O. H. Brownson.
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 Southwest 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 Wison, Chairman of the Military Committee, United States Senate:
Philadelphia, May 1, 1672.
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.
Very truly yours, Thomas A. Scott,
Hon. Henry Wilson, Chairman of the Military Committee, United States Senate.
Letter from Hon. Thomas A. Scott to Mrs. Gage.
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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,
I am, very truly yours, Thomas A, Scott.
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 fora few more evil days in-order to raise the blockade, with President, Congress, and people nearly helpless and despairing, there arose ​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 8. 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 84th 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 ​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 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 Sanxter, 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 nick, 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, Ill 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— +o 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, bis 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 24, 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, us 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 re​ceived 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 ts 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 [ 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. j
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 ​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 fur 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,
Faithfully and lovingly, Josephine S. Griffing.
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.
Thine in haste and affectionately, Lucretia Mott.
Letters To Mrs. Stebbins.
Emily Robinson, of Salem, Ohio, writes me that Mrs. Griffing "was for several year. 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 ​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 controls me and forbids me to seek enjoyment in human friendships. If you comprehend my life, you will pardon long silence of the tips, 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 ​his,—I do agree with Mrs. 8. 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 ​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.
Truly yours, Mary J. Tappan.
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 future, lack zeal and earnestness, and need enlightenment ou the true state of this contest. It is nota 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 some 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.
Very truly yours,Mrs. R. Parkinson.
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 dove 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, ont 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"?
Very truly yours,Mrs. Sarah R. Barnes.
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.
Hastily, yours as ever, Asby Kelly Foster.
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.
Yours respectfully,Mrs. Henry Wilson.
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 ou 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 ​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.
Sincerely yours,Phebe B. Dean.
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,
Respectfully and truly yours,Mary E. Disbrow, Margaret M. Willis.
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 Norther 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.
Yours fraternally, Mary R. H. Haynes, President Richwood Ladies' Union League.
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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,
Yours truly,J. P. Wickersham, Principal.
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 ​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!
Yours sincerely, Sarah J. Vosburgh.
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 cf 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 iu 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 80 just, and fraught with untold interest, not only to our own beloved country, but to the whole world.
Louise Mcgregor, Secretary.
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 po 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. si 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.
I remain, yours respectfully, Emma C. Hard.
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, of 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.
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; ​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 mun 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 wrath, 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 ail 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 ns 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.
Richmond, Ind., May 11, 1863, Yours in the great work, Mary F. Thomas.
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 ​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.
May 11, 1863.Truly yours, Eliza B. Terrell.
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 ive 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 ​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 tarn 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 yon, 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,"
I am, yours very cordially, E. P. Weeks.
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."
For Freedom and Union, Ellen Beard Harman,
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. S. W. Fish, Sec'y.Mrs. H. N. Kellogg, Pres't.
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, [ 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 jay 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 he nearly just to white men, are very oppressive to women, particularly ​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 individua] 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, Madison, WisMadison, Wis., May 9, 1863.Mrs. E. S. Carr, Secretary.
Cassville, Wis., May 4, 1883.
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 go 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 ​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.
Cordially yours, Maria P. Codding.
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 ​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 ​of the rebellion. If the women of Iowa bad 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.
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 ​trusted that the League would co-operate with the laws of the land, and strengthen the hands of the President in his efforts to vigorously 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 it a 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, us information, the mistake lately ​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 ​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 fs 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, yon 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.
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. ​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 al] 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 ​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.
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.
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 each 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.
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 for 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: ​"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, succced 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
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 ​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 1o 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, m 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 battlefield. 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 fur 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 ;
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.”
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. Tho 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, | $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ |
| Room No. 20, Cooper Institute, New York, January 25, 1864. | $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ |
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, ​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 Freedmen'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, | $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ |
| Room No. 20, Cooper Institute, N. Y., April 7, 1864. | $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ |
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."
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. Laue.
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 ​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 o: 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 sears 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: ​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 ope 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 . in 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 our 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 ns 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 1808 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 ​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 au 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 ​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 ​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 Com​mittee 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 en 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 18 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 $2a 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 $4a 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 ure 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, fils 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 go 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 set 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 om 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 ​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 ls. 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. Chis 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, yon now send to au 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 cf 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 sanie basis us 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 lays 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 ​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 propose d. 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 bave lost any ground, | should reply that we have decidedly lost it to connection with the dally 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 ts 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 ​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 "buriers," 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 ​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 ber 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 up 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, ​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!"
Boston, April 26, 1866.Caroline H. Dall.
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. ​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 terme 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 Rey. 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. Sartaln, 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 ​of a "lady doctor."? Mrs. Dolley's practice brings her fully $3,000 a year. Ina 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 water-cure somewhere in Western New York, all doa 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, 80 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 0 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! . . .
I am very cordially yours, Lydia Maria Child.
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 fs 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 ​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.
Yours sincerely, Jane Voorhees Leslie.
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.
Very sincerely yours, Jessie Benton Fremont.
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 pre-constructed 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.
Yours truly,J. T. Sargent.
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 t
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 us 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 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 bave 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 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 ​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 cf 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 ex 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 needlewoman 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 du 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 liane 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 ​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.
Yours respectfully,F. Ellen Burr.
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, ​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, 2 true republican system of government. Excuse these hasty thoughts.
Truly yours,A. J. Colvin.
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 publie 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 sheer est 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 fur 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, benignly, 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.
Yours sincerely, Chas. D. B. Mills,
Dwight, Ill., April 30, 1866.
My Dear Miss Anthony:—Your kind letter inviting me to attend the Convention on ​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 ont in a manly, Christian way; but even ho 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,
I remain, truly yours, Mrs. H. M. Tracy Cutler.
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 ont 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.
Affectionately and truly thine,Anna E. Dickinson.
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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 ​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 yon 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, 1886.
Miss Susan B. Anthony—Dear Friend:—It has proved impossible fur 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.
Cordially yours,Thomas Wentworth Higginson.
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 [ was willing to come forward and do my best. At present there are so many able and eloquent, however, or 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 lam 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,
I am truly yours, M. E. Zakrzewska,
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 on 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-stones 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 ​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 ​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 ​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 ​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.
Yours truly,Mary A. Livermore.
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; ​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.
Yours truly,S. N. Wood,
Cor. Sec'y Kansas Impartial Suffrage Association.
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.
Yours fraternally, Mary F. Davis.
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.
Sincerely your friend,Rufus Saxton.
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.
I am, as of old, your friend, Luther R. Marsh.
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 ​darksome, sluggish stream, not pleasant to launch forth upon. My father's 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.
Your friend, as of old,Jeannie Magee.
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.
Most respectfully,R. F. Mills,
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.
Receipts at the Eleventh National Woman's Rights Convention, held in pew 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 | J. H. 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 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 |
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, shes aid: "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 ​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 ​born again? Well, we are all walking the right way together. Ill 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!
Yours respectfully, E. C. S.
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 8.
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 us the negro. The officers of the association are Gov. Crawford, for President; Lient.-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 iv the interest of saloons, and who in 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 tu 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. 8. N. Wood for the Lawrence Tribune, May, 1867; "The women of Cottonwood Falls have passed through this horrid furnace of an elec​tion, 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 ut 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 she 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, today, on our statute book testifies to the honest sense of justice that their conflict with tyranny nurtured in our men {n 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 lenders 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 munch more united in political sentiment. Do not again deceive yourselves. If you should resort to arms, the ​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 mule 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 60 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 ​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."
Respectfully yours,. Henry B. Blackwell,
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, bot 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 Caucus.
"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.
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 schoolhouses and matters pertaining to the facilities for the education of their children. Where has this provision wrought anything hut 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 publie affairs, in the name of Heaven, of Right, of Home—in the name of Husband, Brothers, Sons, can you not—wilt you not, give your voice in favor of right, and against wrong? Begin now, if you have never done 80 before, to inquire into the character of our law-makers, the justices 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, ​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 affaire 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 caudidates for office. Then will the destinies of our country be no more decided at druuken orgics, 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, | Mus. Rev. J. S. Brown, |
| Mrs. H. M. Simpson, | Mrs. Rev. George Meyer, |
| Mrs. Robt Morrow, | Mrs. J. H. Lane, |
| Mrs, Major Piatt, | Mrs. James Horton, |
| Mrs. Mason Whitney, | Mrs, F. W. Sparr, |
| Mrs. S. Denman, | Mrs, Jane B. Archibald, |
| Mrs. Henderson, | Mrs. Cong, |
| Mrs. J. O. Adam, | Mrs. Welsh, |
| Mrs. Mary Whitcomb, | Mrs. Marsh, |
| Mrs. Thermutius Sutherland, | |
Lawrence, Sept. 24, 1867.Committee on Address.
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’! 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. 80 we are in for a fine agitation in Rochester on this question. ​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.
Affectionately, Susan B. Anthony.
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 shall be greatly disappointed.
Yours, truly, H. R. Selden,
(Boston Transcript.)
The last work came on the New York Calendar; 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 Mies 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 ​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."
​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 On ​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 ​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 ​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, ​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 philosphical 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: Tour 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.
Sincerely yours,Susan B. Anthony
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 hands 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 eneimes, Northern as well as Southern, were calling for this observance of the Constitu​tion. 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, ​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.
Cordially yours,Gerrit Smith.
WASHINGTON NOTES.
By Grace Greenwood,
WHEN I said that in the dull langour 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 moles 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. Ido 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 til 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 men say a to him nay; he may even travel hilariously from city to city, with free paseos and free drinks—who treats Miss Anthony?—making festive calls, and dropping ballots for cards, ​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 ​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, 1878.]
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 must 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 te 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, be 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 outraze 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 bold 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 ides that he had a right to them, no matter how erroneous, the criminal prosecution ls instantly dis​missed. Our emineut 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.
​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."
​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, ​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.
ULYSSES B. GRANT,
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
To all to whom these 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.
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.
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 ac​Counted 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 ​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.
Sincerely yours, etc.,Horace Dresser.
[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.