MRS. BLOOMER THINKS ABOUT IT.
Mrs. Bloomer, at the time these meetings were held, was residing quietly at her home in Seneca Falls, engaged in a modest way in religious and temperance work. She had not yet thought much on the subject of women’s rights, so called, except so far as it related to the obstacles which the laws as then formed threw in the way of securing the triumph of total-abstinence principles. The Washingtonian movement had continued to exert its influence upon the community. Now total-abstinence societies sprang up, among them the Sons and Daughters of Temperance,—separate organizations, but including within their lists of members many thousands of both sexes. The Temperance Star of Rochester was an organ of these organizations, and Mrs. Bloomer wrote freely and frequently for its columns. She attended the Mott-Stanton convention in Seneca Falls, but took no part in its proceedings and did not sign either the resolutions or declaration of independence.
But the principles promulgated in those documents began to have an effect upon her thoughts and actions, as they did upon those of many other women of that day. They realized, almost for the first time, that there was something wrong in the laws under which they lived, and that they had something to do in the work of reforming and improving them. Hence they moved slowly out of the religious circles in which their activities had hitherto been confined and, while not neglecting these, yet began in a modest way to organize societies in which they could work for the improvement of their surroundings and the moral regeneration of society. In Seneca Falls a Ladies’ Temperance Society was organized for the first time in 1848. Mrs. Bloomer became a member of it and one of its officers. Whether she ever became a member of the “Daughters of Temperance” lodges is not now remembered, but it is thought no lodge of that order had been organized in the place of her residence.
Of some of these movements, Mrs. Bloomer in later years wrote as follows:
“In 1848 or ‘49, after the order of the ‘Sons’ was started, which order excluded women, some one among them conceived the idea of starting a similar order for women. This was probably as a salve to the wounded feelings of the women, just as Masons and Odd Fellows at this day will not admit women to their lodge-rooms, but to pacify them have branches called Star of Hope and Daughters of Rebekah, composed of women. Be this as it may, the order of the Daughters of Temperance was started, composed of women entirely. It continued many years and may still be in existence, though I have not heard of it for years. The order was planted in twenty-four states and in England and the British provinces. The daughters held state and national conventions, issued addresses and appeals to the women of the state, circulated petitions to the legislature, and were very zealous in good works. In 1851 this order numbered over twenty thousand members. It was a secret society, and no one could gain admittance to their meetings without the password. This, so far as I know, was the first organized movement ever made by women to make themselves felt and heard on the great temperance question, which was then agitating the minds of the people as it never had done before. And so long as they kept to themselves and held secret meetings they were not molested, their right to talk and resolve was not called in question. But as the years rolled on, women became more earnest and self-reliant, and were not satisfied with these secret doings. They wanted to let their light be seen. So a few prominent daughters, with Susan B. Anthony (who up to that time had only been known as a Daughter of Temperance, an earnest temperance worker and a school-teacher) as leader, called an open temperance meeting at Albany. This was not largely responded to, women not daring to come out openly after having so long heard ‘let you women keep silence’ sounded in their ears from the sacred desk. This meeting was conducted so quietly it hardly caused a ripple of excitement, and passed almost unnoticed by the press.”