History of Woman Suffrage Volume II Part 128

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 subst.i.tution. Her idea was that as the men must go to the war now, the women should give tone to its music.

A LADY: If the men would give themselves, why not freely? Is a conscription itself consistent with freedom?

Miss WILLARD, while believing in certain cases of exemption, liked the conscription because it would take in the copperheads. (Applause).

The LADY: What kind of soldiers would copperheads make?

Mrs. LOVELAND: Good soldiers! Men who have the courage they have to brave public opinion, would make good soldiers if put in the ranks with bayonets behind them. (Applause).

Mr. GILES B. STEBBINS, of Rochester, reported, as information, the mistake lately made in _The New York Times_ that the $300 subst.i.tution indemnity was in the discretion of the Secretary of War.

The resolution was thereupon moved by Miss Willard, seconded by Mrs.

Stanton, and pa.s.sed unanimously.

An address to the soldiers, prepared by Angelina Grimke 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 grat.i.tude. 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 s.h.i.+fting 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 ma.s.ses a false pretense for rebellion. It did not begin with nullification in 1832, nor in the Convention that framed the Federal Const.i.tution; 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-s.h.i.+p 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-cla.s.ses, 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 a.s.sa.s.sins, 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 crus.h.i.+ng 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 s.h.i.+fting 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 grat.i.tude for what you have done and suffered! Enough _if_ you have only been fighting for the Union as it _was_. But is it enough, if the work for which the war is _now_ prosecuted is not accomplished? Your country needs your power of soldierly endurance and accomplishment, your hard-earned experience, your varied tact and trained skill, your practiced eye and hand--in a word, all that makes you veterans, ripe in discipline and educated power. Raw recruits _can not_ fill your places. Brave men!

your mission, though far advanced, is _not_ accomplished. You will not, can not, abide at home, while your brethren in arms carry victory and liberty down to the Gulf.

With joy and admiration we greet you on your homeward way, while your loved ones await your coming with mingled delight and pride. When, after a brief sojourn, you go back again, convoyed by the grateful acclaim and G.o.d-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.

SUSAN B. ANTHONY, _Secretary._ E. CADY STANTON, _President._

Mrs. STANTON: I suppose it is known to all present that Angelina Grimke 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 Const.i.tution, 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 a.s.sembled 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 repet.i.tion 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 G.o.d. 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 Inst.i.tute, May 29, the following resolutions were adopted:

_Resolved_, That the following be the official t.i.tle and the pledge of the League--the pledge to be signed by all applicants for members.h.i.+p: "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 pet.i.tion 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 pa.s.s, at the earliest practicable day, an act emanc.i.p.ating 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 pet.i.tion, 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 pet.i.tion.

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 pet.i.tions for men also.

JUNE 26.

_Resolved_, That the probable expense of preparing, circulating, and presenting our pet.i.tions, will amount to not less than one cent for each name; therefore,

_Resolved_, That we request those who circulate the pet.i.tion, to solicit of each person signing a contribution of one cent, and forward the same with pet.i.tion and signatures to our Secretary, Susan B.

Anthony, Room No. 20, Cooper Inst.i.tute, New York.

_Resolved_, That the Central League in New York will bestow their badge and members.h.i.+p, 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 Emanc.i.p.ation, 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.