Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1856-12-10

The New York Tribune gives a full report of the
proceedings of this interesting body, that assem-
bled in that city few days since. As niggerism
subsidies some other fanaticism must supply its
place. A convention of Spritualists is likely to
be the next in order, then FreeLoveism, Agrarian-
ism, and so on ad irnitun until another Presiden-
tiaI election fuses the whole into another grand
political organization, such as know-nothingism or
black republicanism. The Tribune reports about
one thousand delegates in attendance; quite res
pectable number.
A second declaration of rights, set forth in
series of resolutions, and number of most STIR
ring speeches, compose the proceedings of the
meeting. For the benefit of our lady readers we
copy brief report of these speeches:
Mrs. MARY F. DAVIS having been introduced
commenced with sketch of the condition of wo-
man in the earlier and more barbarous ages; when
man little thought that the passive being by his
SIDE whom he regarded as scarcely better than his
horse, was to be his redeeming angel, and traced
the progress of the emancipation of woman in
knowledge and action, bringing the memory of
queens and suthoresses to witness and illustrate
it. In the material realm woman's power was very
great 1t was in great measure by the women of
England that the abolition of Slavery on English
soil was effected and she hoped that this influence
of woman would soon make itself felt over the
land of the free and the home of the brave But
more than this was Der influence spiritual and ar
tistic In the far future woman would be able to
love without standardization at the shrine of her
devotion. But there was long work to do first
She read passages from Judge Reeves statement
of the law in relation to woman asserting the right
of the husband to the person Of his wife, which
was, under the law, as complete as that Of a mas
Ter TO his slave. If she could bind herself by a
contract she would be liable to imprisonment for
violating it. and might thus be taken from her hus-
band This the law would not allow ; therefore,
she must not have the right to make contract4-
This right of the husband to the person of the
woman, Mrs Davis thought, one of the most pro
life causes of woman's woes producing, as it did
a mass of legsIzed RIGHTEOUSNESS, which wag rs
destructive to the health and morals of the offspring
as to the health and happiness of the wife. A
beautiful woman, whose husband was q rich and
influential man. and who had a number of beautiful
children, took prussic acid not long ago. People
wondered why she, the favored one, should do the
fearful deed. She Mrs. Davis had read her heart
and she knew that the marble halls in which she
lived were q prison to her, and her silken robes
were chains that bound her to tyrant's lust. How
many wretched woman trembled at the sound OF
familiar voice, which should fl her soul with mus
should send the sunshine dancing to her heart
How many went to their lords like menials for the
pittauce which their necessities required, and felt
all their nature outraged by the sense of beggary
forced on them by the grudgingness of the bestowa
How many more found themselves chained for life
to monsters of incompetence and vice, who robbed
them of their earnings under the sanction of the
law, and forced them into the untold tortures of
unwilling maternity cursing their offspring in the
very begettng with the internal inheritance of
physical and moral pollution. This deprivation
of personal liberty had, through all ages, been
working with terrible effect on the destiny of wo-
nan and the race Out of this assumption had
esownup with the marriage institution q system
license to sensual indulgence, degrading to tha
level of mere animal life, while it robbed woman
of beauty, health and vgor, turned the sweetness
and loneliness of her nature to the bitterness of
discomfort and changed all her love to loatbing.
Let her be rescued from this PROCLAMATION give her
the supreme control of her most sacred function,
and would the world longer be peoped with such
swarms of haf-made wretches, the offspring of
bitterness and hate, as now oozed out from the
pestilentia dens Of our thronged cities to be thrust
into the charnelhouse or throtted on the gallows?