Man has asserted and assumed authority over us. Now a new and vast sphere of usefulness is opened to the American woman and she is pressed by surrounding circumstances to come up to the help of the Lord against the giant sins which desolate our beloved country. I entreat my sisters to arise in all the dignity of immortal beings, and plant themselves, side by side, on the platform of human rights, with man. Many women are now supported, in idleness and extravagance , by the industry of their husbands, fathers, or brothers, who are compelled to toil out their existence, at the counting house, or in the printing office, or some other laborious occupation, while the wife and daughters and sisters take no part in the support of the family, and appear to think that their sole business is to spend the hard bought earnings of their male friends. It will scarcely be denied, I presume, that, as a general rule, men do not desire the improvement of women.
Woman has no political existence.
With the single exception of presenting a petition to the legislative body, she is a cipher in the nation. Men frame the laws, and, with few exceptions claim to execute them on both sexes. Although looked upon as an inferior, when considered as an intellectual being, woman is punished with the same severity as man, when she is guilty of moral offences. In the wealthy classes of society, and those who are in comfortable circumstances, women are exempt from great corporeal exertion , and are protected by public opinion, and by the genial influence of Christianity, from much physical ill treatment. Still, there is a vast amount of secret suffering endured, from the forced submission of women to the opinions and whims of their husbands.