The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-11-13
Celebrating the Seventeen Anniversary
of Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
The Equal Sufragists Pay Tribute to the
Champion of Woman's Rights, at a
Largely-Attended Meeting Last Night.

tainment, Mrs. May Wright Sewall presiding.
After few words by the president, DR.. Ryland
L. Brown read the following poem, on Mrs Stan
toms birthday:
In midnight gloom the ages fed
And war its bloody trophies won
The earth was stained with carnage red,
And deeds of foul oppression done.
IL booted not. In war, that m was brave
No glory came while woman was q slave.
Though pyramids in, Egypt rose,
And letterd OBJ isks piercd the sky
Though Chaldea's arms defed their foes
They thought their fame would never die;
Yet all their grandeur found early grave,
For home was not-and woman was slave.
Greece strove to win immortal fame
In letters and in matchess art;
But vice beclouds her peerless name
The mind she trained but not the heart;
For man withheld the light his science gave
From woman's mind and soul-she was his slav \.
But not mental drudge alone
The noblest work of God. he made;
The light in him that brightly shone
In her he left in darkest shade
OF ignorance. An undeveloped ray
That shines not in that boosted classic day.
Nor scarce the blessed evangel sent
To raise the lowly and to break
The tyrant's chain. had, as it went
In mercy forth, the power to wake
TIE smother'd energies of woman 8 SOUL
And give to her the helm OF self control.
Anon, afitful CLEAN of light
phosphorescence ghostly pale,
In flashes, lit the gloom OIL night
And startled man awoke to hail
In woman S angel form. type divine
And gallant knighthood worshipped at her shrine.
But yet, he failed to see the place
wise Creator has assign'd
To woman in this dual race
This equal twofold human kind,
Where each, without the other, fails to be
perfect mold of God humanity.
But now dawn lights ND the night
The harbinger of coming day,
When woman may assert her right
To be, and know, and do and say. @
This dawning light is spreading wide and far,
And Madam Stanton is the Morning Star.
Following DR.. Browns poem, Miss Emily S.
Bingham gave readings from Mrs. Stanton's
first suffrage resolutions, and from the poet
Whittier's Pastoral Letter." the latter being
called out by re, son of the opposition of the
clergy to woman suffrage, at the time Mrs
Stanton began her great work, when a pastoral
letter was issued directing pastors to close the
doors of their churches and lecture-rooms
against her.
Elk Governor Porter was expected to be pres
ent, but on account of the iilness of his wife
was unable to attend. Mrs z. G. Wallace was
also unavoidably absent. Hon. w. d. Foulke,
of Richmond, made brief but glowing speech,
in which he showed the great advance made in
the condition of woman by advancing civiliza-
ton. After citing the fact of The opprobrium
which greeted the cause of woman suffrage in
its infancy, he showed that it was
not only tolerated, but popular, as, at
least, one would think from SO
large and intelligent an audience as that assem-
bled before him. In the matter of suffrage, he
said, few wedges have already been driven.
These would be driven further and further, and
the day was coming. and was not far distant
when the sexes would be equal in the enjoyment
of all privileges under the Constitution
Hon. Stanton j. Peelle said he was present to
give his hearty appreciation of the occasion
aud the subject of it. He said it had been we'll
said that Mrs. Stanton had devoted her life for
nearly seventy years to the elevation of her sex.
1t was, perhaps, in her visits to the law Office of
her father, Judge Cady, that she learned the
inequalities of law as applied to her SEX She
| there, in early childhood, determined that. in so
far as she could the law should be remedied for
the mutual benefit of both sexes. For
more than a generation she has been an
active agent in the dissemination of truths in
regard to woman suffrage. and on the platform,
and by her pen has enlightened not only the
people of this country but those on the other
side of the water. She believed that good citi-
Zenship largely depended upon the responsibility
of each member of society," and certain it is that
in proportion to the responsibility of the peo-
pie. governments become purified and are res
cued from the hands of corrupt and designing
men. He thought that all that women needed
to be able to exercise the rights of citizenship
properly was merely to be invested with the
right
| Five minute addresses were also made by Rev.
Reuben Jeffery. Rev. j. A. Rondthaler, Frank
| II. Blackledge. Edward M. Winston, James M
! Leathers, Miss Harriet Noble, A. c. Harris Miss
| Hautie Harrington, Mrs. j. M Judah
| and Mrs. Helen NJ Cougar Mrs
| Cougar said that in the Mohammedan law
we read that women, dogs, pigs and other ami
| mails must not enter the mosque In the old En-
| glish law We read that wife and husband are one
! and that one is the husband. Under that law
| Mrs. Stanton came into active life. She heard
of the wrongs of woman in her fathers Office as
a child. and, in her childish way, thought it was
something in the books that did the damage
| and if she could only mark the bad passages
| with pencil and cut them out with the scissors
| she would end the sorrows of women in the
| State of New York. And since that day she has
been cutting out those unjust laws Wonder
| fully have the rights Of women been enlarged
| so that now she may say that almost every thi ne
| is accomplished, except the one of simple
| GROWING iustice-the right of franchise
Mrs. Grace lowering sung Thine Eyes &c
| Blne and Tender" with fine voice and express
sion, and the Apollo Quartet sung serenade
| Sleep Gentle Lady"
| Poems were read by Mrs L. May Wheeler ani
| Miss Mary II. hrout, and the meeting closed a
| a late hour.
A Pacific View of the Mugwump.