The History of Woman Suffrage Volume IV Part 23

It is in the grand order of these ideas that I stand here to advocate the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of my s.e.x. Morally, socially, intellectually equal with men, it is right that we should be politically equal with them in a society which claims to recognize and uphold one equal humanity. I do not say it is _our_ right. I say it is right--G.o.d's right and the world's.

In the name of high sentiment then, in the name of all that good men profess, I ask that the gracious act may be consummated which will admit us to the place that henceforth befits us, that of equal partic.i.p.ants with you in the sovereignty of the people. Do this in the spirit of that mercy whose quality is not strained.

Remember that the neglect of justice brings with it the direst retribution. Make your debt to us a debt of honor, and pay it in that spirit; if you do not pay it, dread the proportions which its arrears will a.s.sume. Remember that he who has the power to do justice and refrains from doing it, will presently find it doing itself, to his no small discomfiture....

Women, trained for the moral warfare of the time, armed with the fine instincts which are their birthright, are not doomed to sit forever as mere spectators in these great encounters of society.

They are to deserve the crown as well as to bestow it; to meet the powers of darkness with the powers of light; to bring their potent aid to the eternal conquest of right. And let me say here to those women who not only hang back from this encounter but who throw obstacles in the way of true reform and progress, that the shallow ground upon which they stand is within the belt of the moral earthquake, and that what they build upon it will be overthrown....

The Rev. Miss Shaw, in an address filled with humor as well as logic, treated of Our Unconscious Allies, among whom she included clergymen who oppose equal suffrage, the women remonstrants with their weak doc.u.ments, the colleges which try to keep out girls, and the many cases of outrage and wrong committed by "our motherless Government."

The Rev. Olympia Brown replied to the question, Where is the Mistake?

With great power and earnestness she pointed out the mistakes made by our Government during the century of its existence and demanded the correction of the greatest one of all--the exclusion of women.

The address of Mrs. Zerelda G. Wallace (Ind.), A Whole Humanity, aroused the universal sympathy and appreciation of the audience, permeated as it was with the spirit of love, charity and justice:

....The animus of this movement for woman's freedom has been mistaken in the idea that it meant compet.i.tion between women and men; to my thought it simply means co-operation in the work of the world. The man is to bring the physical forces, and he has done that work magnificently. I never go over this continent and see what men have done, that I do not feel like bowing my head in reverence to their wisdom, their strength, their power, and I think the nearest thing we see to divinity is the incarnation of the G.o.d-head in a grand good man.

But there are other forces which must be brought into subjection to humanity before we reach the highest development, and those are the moral and spiritual forces. That is woman's share largely, not that I exempt man, but pre-eminently woman is the teacher of the race; in virtue of her motherhood she is the character builder; she forms the soul life; she rears the generations. It is not part of woman's work to contend with man for supremacy over the material forces. It was never told to woman that she should earn her bread by the sweat of her brow.

That was man's curse. He was to earn his bread and woman's too, if he faithfully performed his duty, and we are not "dependents"

even if he does that. I never allow a man to say in my presence that he "supports" his wife, and I want every woman to take the same position. I would correct any man and tell him he was mistaken in his phraseology if he should say anything of that kind. You have something different to do, my sisters. You shall hate evil, was said to woman, and evil shall hate you. There shall go forth from you an influence which shall ultimately exterminate evil.... The men of this nation would never have made the success they have in the material world, if some stronger force had limited them on all sides.

I said a moment ago that I do not like the idea of dependence of women on men, or the dependence of men on women. I do not like the word independence, but I do like the word interdependence. It is said of this beautiful country, "United we stand, divided we fall." It is the same with men and women. Men without women would go back to barbarism, and women without men would be most frivolous and vain. If we work not in compet.i.tion but in co-operation and harmony we shall bring the race to its ultimate inheritance, which is rulers.h.i.+p over the universe.

Now to deprive woman of the right to express her thought with authority at the ballot-box in regard to the laws under which she is governed, puts a mark of imbecility upon her at once. So far as the Government is concerned we are held in perpetual tutelage, we are minors always, and while good men will act justly towards women, it is an excuse for every bad and foolish man to oppress them, and every unfledged boy to make them the subject of ridicule....

I believe the great majority of American men love our free inst.i.tutions; I believe they have hope and pride in the future of this nation; but as sure as you live, every argument you use against the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women deals a death-blow against the fundamental principle which lies at the base of our government, and it is treason to bring an argument against it.

Another thing which you permit is reacting now to the detriment of our free inst.i.tutions; if from prejudice or expediency you think you have a right to withhold the ballot from the women of this nation, you have but to go one step further and deprive any other cla.s.s of a right they already have, should you think it expedient to do so. It is beginning to bear its fruit now in your elections. You are becoming demoralized; ballots are bought and sold; you have your blocks of five; and in some entire communities the men are deprived of the right of suffrage. It is simply a question of time how long you will be able to maintain the freedom you cherish for yourselves.

If we women are citizens, if we are governed, if we are a part of the people, according to the plain declarations of the fundamental principles which underlie this nation, we are as much ent.i.tled to vote as you, and you can not make an argument against us that would not disfranchise yourselves.

I feel this phase of the question more acutely than any other because I think from a fundamental standpoint the progress of the race is bound up in republican inst.i.tutions. It is not a question of woman's rights, it is a question of human rights, of the success or failure of these inst.i.tutions, and the more highly cultured a woman is the more deeply she feels this humiliation....

I do not think it weakness to say that women love, and that love predominates in their nature, because, my friends, love is the only immortal principle in the universe. Love is to endure forever. Faith will be swallowed up in knowledge after a while, and hope in fruition, but love abides forever. It is peculiarly an attribute of our feminine nature to love our offspring over everything else; for them we would peril our lives; and for the men of this nation, under our form of government, to say to us that we shall not have the power which will enable us through laws and legislation to decide the conditions which shall surround them, and throw the mother love around these children from the cradle to the grave, is an inhuman use of their authority....

The Was.h.i.+ngton _Star_ said: "If the first day of the convention was Mrs. Stanton's, the rest have belonged to Miss Anthony, 'Saint Susan,'

as her followers love to call her. As vice-president-at-large she presided over every session, and never was in better voice or more enthusiastic spirits. As she sat by the table clad in a handsome dress of black satin, she was the life and soul of the meetings.... She does not make much noise with her gavel,[80] nor does she have to use it often, but she manages to keep the organization over which she presides in a state of order that puts to shame many a convention of the other s.e.x. Business is transacted in proper shape, and every important measure receives its due share of attention. There is no filibustering. The speakers who have been invited to address the convention are listened to with attention and interest. When speeches are on the program they are made. When resolutions are desired they are presented, discussed, rejected or adopted as the case may be....

There are no attempts to push through unsuitable measures in haste and without the necessary attention. If any of those who have not attended the meetings of the a.s.sociation are of the opinion that serious breaches of parliamentary usage are committed through ignorance or with intent, they are laboring under a decided delusion."

The business meeting devoted to a discussion of Our Att.i.tude toward Political Parties proved to be the most exciting of the series. Among the speakers were Mr. Foulke, Mrs. Sewall, Mrs. Howe, Miss Blackwell, Mrs. Blake, the Rev. Mr. Hinckley, Mrs. Alice M. A. Pickler, Mrs.

Ellen Sully Fray, Mr. Blackwell, Miss Shaw, Mrs. Martha McClellan Brown, the Rev. Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Martha E. Root and Miss Mary Desha.

Without exception the sentiment was in favor of keeping strictly aloof from all political alliances. It was pointed out that repeatedly the promises made by politicians were violated and the planks in the platforms ignored; it was shown that the suffrage can be gained only through the a.s.sistance of men in all parties; and it was proved beyond doubt that in the past, where members had allied themselves with a political party it had injured the cause of woman suffrage.

In addition to the speakers already mentioned Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Col.

D. R. Anthony, Ellen Battelle Dietrick, Laura Clay, the Hon. J. A.

Pickler, Sallie Clay Bennett, Margaret W. Campbell, Laura M. Johns, Frances Ellen Burr, Frances Stuart Parker, Dr. Frances d.i.c.kinson and others partic.i.p.ated in the various discussions of the convention.

A deep interest was felt in the pending woman suffrage amendment in South Dakota. The subject was presented by Representative and Mrs.

Pickler, national speakers were appointed to canva.s.s the State and a fund of over $5,000 was eventually raised.

Tributes of respect were paid to Caroline Ashurst Biggs and Margaret Bright Lucas of England, U. S. Senator Elbridge G. Lapham, Maria Mitch.e.l.l, the great astronomer, Prudence Crandall Philleo, Harriet Winslow Sewall, Amy Post, Wm. D. Kelley, M. C., Dinah Mendenhall, Emerine J. Hamilton, Amanda McConnell and other friends and supporters of woman suffrage who had pa.s.sed away during the year.

The vote for officers of the united a.s.sociation, which was limited strictly to delegates, stood as follows: For president, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 131; Susan B. Anthony, 90; scattering, 2: for vice-president-at-large, Susan B. Anthony, 213; scattering, 9.[81]

Rachel Foster Avery was elected recording secretary; Alice Stone Blackwell, corresponding secretary; Jane H. Spofford, treasurer; Lucy Stone, chairman of the executive committee by unanimous vote; Eliza T.

Ward and the Rev. Frederick A. Hinckley, auditors. The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw was appointed national lecturer.

FOOTNOTES:

[76] See History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. II, p. 464.

[77] The other members in favor of this report were Ezra B. Taylor, O., _Chairman_; George E. Adams, Ill.; James Buchanan, N. J.; Albert C. Thompson, O.; H. C. McCormick, Penn., and Joseph R. Reed, Ia. The six members from the Southern States were opposed.

[78] National:--May Wright Sewall, _Chairman_; Isabella Beecher Hooker, Harriette R. Shattuck, Olympia Brown, Helen M. Gougar, Laura M. Johns, Clara Bewick Colby, Virginia L. Minor, Abigail Scott Duniway, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Mary B. Clay, Mary F. Eastman, Clara Neymann, Sarah M. Perkins, Jane H. Spofford, Lillie Devereux Blake, Elizabeth Boynton Harbert, Rachel Foster Avery, _Secretary_.

American:--Julia Ward Howe, _Chairman_; Wm. Dudley Foulke, Margaret W.

Campbell, Anna Howard Shaw, Mary F. Thomas, Hannah M. Tracy Cutler, Henry B. Blackwell, _Secretary_.

[79] The resolutions declared the const.i.tutional right of women to vote, and continued:

_Resolved_, That as the fathers violated the principles of justice in consenting to a three-fifths representation, and in recognizing slavery in the Const.i.tution, thereby making a civil war inevitable, so our statesmen and Supreme Court Judges by their misinterpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment, declaring that the United States has no voters and that citizens.h.i.+p does not carry with it the right of suffrage, not only have prolonged woman's disfranchis.e.m.e.nt but have undermined the status of the freedman and opened the way for another war of races.

WHEREAS, It is proposed to have a national law, restricting the right of divorce to a narrower basis, and

WHEREAS, Congress has already made an appropriation for a report on the question, which shows that there are 10,000 divorces annually in the United States and the majority demanded by women, and

WHEREAS, Liberal divorce laws for wives are what Canada was for the slaves--a door of escape from bondage, therefore,

_Resolved_, That there should be no farther legislation on this question until woman has a voice in the State and National Governments.

_Resolved_, That the time has come for woman to demand of the Church the same equal recognition she demands of the State, to a.s.sume her right and duty to take part in the revision of Bibles, prayer books and creeds, to vote on all questions of business, to fill the offices of elder, deacon, Sunday school superintendent, pastor and bishop, to sit in ecclesiastical synods, a.s.semblies and conventions as delegates, that thus our religion may no longer reflect only the masculine element of humanity, and that woman, the mother of the race, may be honored as she must be before we can have a happy home, a rational religion and an enduring government.

They concluded with a demand that the platform of the suffrage a.s.sociation should recognize the equal rights of all parties, sects and races.

[80] There is no woman in the world who has wielded the gavel at as many conventions as has Miss Anthony.

[81] For account of Miss Anthony's determination not to accept the presidency see her Life and Work, p. 631.

CHAPTER XI.

THE NATIONAL-AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1891.

Immediately preceding the Twenty-third annual suffrage convention in 1891, the first triennial meeting took place of the National Council of Women, which had been formed in 1888. It was held in Albaugh's Opera House, Was.h.i.+ngton, beginning Sunday, February 22, and continuing four days, an a.s.semblage of the most distinguished women of the nation in many lines of work. Miss Frances E. Willard presided and the other officers contributed to the success of the Council--Miss Susan B.

Anthony, vice-president; Mrs. May Wright Sewall, corresponding secretary; Miss Mary F. Eastman, recording secretary; Mrs. M. Louise Thomas, treasurer. Ten national organizations were represented by official delegates and forty sent fraternal delegates.

The Sunday services were conducted entirely by women, the Rev. Ida C.

Hultin giving the sermon from the text, "For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth". The program of the week included Charities, Education, Temperance, Religion, Organized Work, Political Status of Women, etc.[82] On Sat.u.r.day evening Mrs. Jane H. Spofford gave a large reception at the Riggs House to the Council and the Suffrage a.s.sociation. The latter held its sessions February 26-March 1, occupying the same beautifully decorated opera house which had been filled for four days by audiences in attendance at the Council, who kept on coming, scarcely knowing the difference.