FOOTNOTES:
[127] Honorables Hamlin, Sumner, Patterson, Rice, Vickers, Pratt, Harris, Cook, Welcker, Williams, Cowles, Bowles, Gilfillen.
[128] On Resolutions—Miss Susan B. Anthony, Dr. J. P. Root, Miss Phoebe Couzins, Rev. Samuel J. May, Mrs. M. E. J. Gage, Mrs. Colby, Mrs. Jacob Ela.
On Finance—Mrs. Paulina W. Davis, Miss S. B. Anthony, Mrs. B. Lockwood, Mrs. M. Wright, Mr. Wilcox.
On Credentials—Mrs. Josephine S. Griffing, Mr. Stillman, Mrs. A. D. Cridge.
[129] Resolved, That the National Woman's Suffrage Convention respectfully ask the XLI. Congress of the United States—
First. To submit to the Legislatures of the several States a XVI. Amendment to the Federal Constitution, prohibiting the disfranchisement of any of their citizens on account of sex.
Second. To strike the word "male" from the laws governing the District of Columbia.
Third. To enfranchise the women of Utah as the one safe, sure and swift means to abolish polygamy in that Territory.
Fourth. To amend the laws of the United States so that women shall receive the same pay as men for services rendered the government.
Washington, Jan. 19, 1870.
Miss Susan B. Anthony—Dear Madam:.... Accept my assurance of full and cordial sympathy with the movement to extend the right of suffrage to the women of the country, and my pledge to make that sympathy active on the first and all occasions that may arise for my official action.
E. G. Ross.
Very respectfully your obedient servant,
Washington, Jan 19.
Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton—Madam: Your favor of the 18th instant, inviting me to address the convention now in session in this city for the promotion of the cause of female suffrage, has been received. I regret that my official duties will not allow me the time to comply with this request; but I assure you, and the ladies with whom you are associated, that I am heartily in sympathy with the efforts you are making for the success of the cause which you especially have so long and so ably advocated. I beg further to say that the bestowal of the right of equal political suffrage upon the women of this republic can not, in my judgment, be much longer withheld, and that whatever influence I have shall be exerted, at every proper opportunity, to hasten the consummation for which you are laboring. I have the honor to be, very truly, yours,
Matt. H. Carpenter.
[131] Rev. Olympia Brown, Connecticut; E. H. Heywood and Jennie Collins, Massachusetts; M. Adele Hazlitt, Michigan; Mrs. Francis Minor and Phoebe Couzins, Missouri; Hon. Henry B. Stanton; Judge Barlow, Canastota; Josephine S. Griffing, Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford, Lizzie M. Boynton, Maud D. Molson, Susan B. Anthony, Gen. E. M. Lee, Act Gov. Wyoming; Hon. A. G. Riddle, Washington; Hon. Jas. W. Stillman, Rhode Island; Col. R. G. Ingersoll, Illinois; Hon. J. M. Scovill, New Jersey; Dr. James C. Jackson, New York; Mrs. Louisa H. Dent, New York; Lillie Peckham, Wisconsin; Mrs. M. E. J. Gage, New York; Mrs. Dr. S. Hathaway, Boston; and S. D. Dillaye, Syracuse.
[132] The Fifth Avenue Conference proposition was presented to the members of the National Association, duly discussed, and so far as one of the parties could do, accepted; that is, the National Society pledged itself to be merged into a Union Association, provided the American would make the same surrender at its first Anniversary. But as this overture for peace was rejected, the mission of the Union Society ended, leaving the National free to reassert itself and go forward with its catholic platform and persistent demands for "National protection for United States citizens," while the American devoted itself primarily to State legislation.
[133] Woman Suffrage Celebration.—The twentieth anniversary of the inauguration of the woman suffrage movement in this country, will be celebrated in Apollo Hall, in the city of New York, on the 19th and 20th of October, 1870. The movement in England, as in America, may be dated from the first National Convention, held at Worcester, Mass., October, 1850. The July following that convention, a favorable criticism of its proceedings and an able digest of the whole question appeared in the Westminster Review, written by Mrs. John Stuart Mill, which awakened attention in both hemispheres. In the call for that convention, the following subjects for discussion were presented: Woman's right to education, literary, scientific and artistic; her avocations, industrial, commercial and professional; her interests, pecuniary, civil and political: in a word, her rights as an individual, and her functions as a citizen. It is hoped that the Old and the New World will both be largely represented by the earlier advocates of this reform who will bring with them reports of progress and plans for future action. An extensive foreign correspondence will also add interest to the meetings. We specially invite the presence of those just awakening to an interest in this great movement, that from a knowledge of the past they may draw fresh inspiration for the work of the future and fraternize with a generation now rapidly passing away. As those who inaugurated a reform, so momentous and far reaching in its consequences, should hold themselves above all party considerations and personal antagonisms, and as this gathering is to be in no way connected with either of our leading woman suffrage organizations, we hope that the friends of real progress everywhere will come together and unitedly celebrate this Twentieth Anniversary of a great National Movement for Freedom.
Committee of Arrangements.—Lucretia Mott, Sarah Pugh, Elizabeth C. Stanton, Ernestine L. Rose, Samuel J. May, Mrs. C. I. H. Nichols. On behalf of the Committee,
Paulina W. Davis, Chairman.
[134] In 1843, John Neal, of Portland, Maine, gave a lecture in New York which roused considerable discussion; it was replied to by Mrs. Eliza W. Farnham, with all the objections which have ever been urged, and far more ably than by any of the later objectors. Mrs. Farnham lived long enough to retrace her ground and accept the highest truth. "Woman and her Era" fully refutes her early objections. Mr. Neal's lecture, published in The Brother Jonathan, was extensively copied, and as it reviewed some of the laws relating to woman and her property, it had a wide, silent influence, preparing the way for action. It was a scathing satire, and men felt the rebuke.
In this conflict for principle, the names of Wm. L. Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Edmund Quincy, Oliver Johnson, Parker Pillsbury, S. S. Foster, William Henry Channing, Samuel J. May, Charles Burleigh, James Mott, Frederick Douglass, Edmund M. Davis, and Robert Purvis, stand out conspicuously, and will so be remembered in all the future.
[135] Resolved, That at the close of over twenty years of persistent agitation, petitioning, State Legislatures and Congress for the right of suffrage, we, who inaugurated this reform, now demand the immediate adoption of a XVI. Amendment to the Federal Constitution, that shall prohibit any State from disfranchising its citizens on the ground of sex; and whatever national party does this act of justice, fastens the keystone in the arch of the Republic.
Resolved, That as neither free trade, finance, prohibition, capital and labor, nor any other political question, can be so vital to the existence of the Republic as the enfranchisement of women, it is clearly our duty to aid and support the great National party that shall first inscribe woman suffrage on its banner.
Resolved, That our thanks are due to the Democratic party of Utah and Wyoming for securing to woman her right of suffrage in those Territories.
Resolved, That the Democratic party of Kansas, in declaring, at its recent convention at Topeka, the enfranchisement of women in its judgment a most reasonable and timely enterprise, no longer to be justly postponed, is entitled to the hearty support of the friends of our cause in that State.
Resolved, That the American Equal Rights Association, in sending Susan B. Anthony to the National Democratic Convention in 1868, and the Massachusetts Suffrage Association, in sending Mary A. Livermore to the Republican State Convention in 1870, have inaugurated the right political action, which should be followed in the National and State Conventions throughout the country.
Resolved, That we rejoice in the fact that the Republican Legislatures of Iowa and other Western States have submitted to the people the proposition to strike the word "male" from their Constitutions.
Resolved, That it is as disastrous to human progress to teach women to bow down to the authority of man, as divinely inspired, as it is to teach man to bow down to the authority of Kings and Popes, as divinely ordained, for in both cases we violate the fundamental idea on which a Republican government and the Protestant religion are based—the right of individual judgment.
Whereas, The accident of sex no more involves the capacity to govern a family than does the accident of Papal election or royal birth the capacity to govern a dominion or a kingdom; therefore,
Resolved, That the doctrine of woman's subjection, enforced from the text, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your husbands," should be thrown aside, with the exploded theories of kingcraft and slavery, embodied in the injunction, "Honor the king," and "Servants, obey your masters."
Resolved, That as the gravest responsibilities of social life must ever rest on the mother of the race, therefore law, religion, and public sentiment, instead of degrading her as the subject of man, should unitedly declare and maintain her sole and supreme sovereignty over her own person."
[136] Married afterwards to Père Hyacinth.
[137] Chief among the guests were Mrs. Margaret Lucas, of Scotland, sister of John and Jacob Bright; Mrs. Governor Jewell, of Conn.; Mrs. Elmes, of Birmingham; Mrs. Caroline Stratton, and Miss Sarah Pugh, of Philadelphia; Lucretia Mott, Abby H. Price, Adelle Hazlett, Olympia Brown, Mrs. Davis, Mrs. Lucas, Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. Gage, and Miss Anthony; Mrs. Godbie, wife of one of the leading reform advocates of Utah; Mrs. Denman, of Quincy, Ill.; Mrs. Laura Curtis Bullard, and Dr. Clemence Lozier.
Among the gentlemen present were Alexander Delmar, Rev. Henry Powers, Mr. Lewis, of the National Intelligencer, Col. Hastings, Theodore Tilton, Oliver Johnson, Prof. Wilcox, and Mr. Packard, of the Business College, and others.
[138] Call for a National Suffrage Convention at Washington.—We, the undersigned, desiring to secure a full discussion of the question of the enfranchisement of women during the present session of Congress, with a view to the speedy passage of a XVI. Amendment to the Federal Constitution, invite all men and women desiring this change in the Constitution to meet us in convention for that purpose in the city of Washington on the 11th and 12th of January. Eminent speakers will be present from all parts of the country, including several members of Congress, and plans of work will be presented and discussed. We earnestly urge you, dear friends, to come together at this time in a spirit of unselfishness and of hard work, and let us take one another by the hand and move onward as never before.
Paulina W. Davis, Josephine S. Griffing, Isabella B. Hooker.
[139] Mrs. Esther Morris, a large fine-looking woman, administered justice in that Territory for nearly two years, and none of her decisions were ever questioned.
[140] The hearing took place in the committee room, which was crowded with a goodly assemblage of men and women. Judge Bingham, of Ohio, was chairman, Gen. B. F. Butler, of Mass., was prominent in favor of the cause. Messrs. Eldridge, B. C. Cook, I. A. Peters, Ulysses Morcur, Wm. Loughridge, Michael Kerr, S. W. Kellogg, and G. W. Hitchcock formed the rest of the committee. The claimants for woman suffrage were represented by Mrs. V. C. Woodhull and Mrs. L. D. Blake, New York; Mrs. I. B Hooker, Rev. O. Brown, Conn.; Mrs. P. W. Davis, Miss K. Stanton, Rhode Island; Mrs. J. Griffing, and Mrs. Lockwood, D. C.; and Miss Susan B. Anthony. The proceedings were opened by the reading of her memorial by Mrs. Woodhull. It was the first time the lady had ever appeared in public, and her voice trembled slightly with emotion which only made the reading the more effective. She claimed not a XVI. amendment; but that under the XIV. and XV. Amendments, women have already the right to vote, and prayed Congress merely to pass a declaratory resolution to that effect.—The Washington Republican.
[141] Yeas—Messrs. Allison, Arnell, Asper, Atwood, Banks, Barry, Buck, Buffinton, Burdett, Churchill, Amasa Cobb, Clinton L. Cobb, Coburn, Cullom, Darrall, Joseph Dixon, Ela, Farnsworth, Finkelnburg, Hamilton, Harris, Hawkins, Hoar, Alexander H. Jones, Julian, Kelley, Lawrence, Long, Loughridge, Maynard, Milnes, William Moore, Morey, Daniel J. Morrell, Negley, Orth, Packard, Paine, Pierce, Platt, Pomeroy, Porter, Prosser, Sargent, Scofield, Shanks, William J. Smith, Stevenson, Stoughton, Strickland, Twichell, Cadwallader C. Washburn, Willard, John T. Wilson, and Wolf.
[142] Among the speakers were Isabella Beecher Hooker, Paulina Wright Davis, Minnie Swayze, Mrs. Dr. Hallock, Josephine S. Griffing, Victoria C. Woodhull, Anna Middlebrook, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott.
[143] An Appeal to the Women of the United States by the National Woman Suffrage and Educational Committee, Washington, D. C.:
Dear Friends:—The question of your rights as citizens of the United States, and of the grave responsibilities which a recognition of those rights will involve, is becoming the great question of the day in this country, and is the culmination of the great question which has been struggling through the ages for solution, that of the highest freedom and largest personal responsibility of the individual under such necessary and wholesome restraints as are required by the welfare of society. As you shall meet and act upon this question, so shall these great questions of freedom and responsibility sweep on, or be retarded, in their course.
This is pre-eminently the birthday of womanhood. The material has long held in bondage the spiritual; henceforth the two, the material refined by the spiritual, the spiritual energized by the material, are to walk hand in hand for the moral regeneration of mankind. Mothers, for the first time in history, are able to assert, not only their inherent first right to the children they have borne, but their right to be a protective and purifying power in the political society into which those children are to enter. To fulfill, therefore, their whole duty of motherhood, to satisfy their whole capacity in that divine relation, they are called of God to participate with man in all the responsibilities of human life, and to share with him every work of brain and heart, refusing only those physical labors that are inconsistent with the exalted duties and privileges of maternity, and requiring these of men as the equivalent of those heavy yet necessary burdens which women alone can bear.
Under the Constitution of the United States justly interpreted, you were entitled to participate in the government of the country, in the same manner as you were held to allegiance and subject to penalty. But in the slow development of the great principles of freedom, you, and all, have failed both to recognize and appreciate this right; but to-day, when the rights and responsibilities of women are attracting the attention of thoughtful minds throughout the whole civilized world, this constitutional right, so long unobserved and unvalued, is becoming one of prime importance, and calls upon all women who love their children and their country to accept and rejoice in it. Thousands of years ago God uttered this mingled command and promise, "Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." May we not hope that in the general recognition of this right and this duty of woman to participate in government, our beloved country may find her days long and prosperous in this beautiful land which the Lord hath given her.
To the women of this country who are willing to unite with us in securing the full recognition of our rights, and to accept the duties and responsibilities of a full citizenship, we offer for signature the following Declaration and Pledge, in the firm belief that our children's children will with fond veneration recognize in this act our devotion to the great doctrines of liberty in their new and wider and more spiritual application, even as we regard with reverence the prophetic utterances of the fathers of the Republic in their Declaration of Independence:
Declaration and Pledge of the Women of the United States concerning their Right to and their Use of the Elective Franchise.
We, the undersigned, believing that the sacred rights and privileges of citizenship in this Republic were guaranteed to us by the original Constitution, and that these rights are confirmed and more clearly established by the XIV. and XV. Amendments, so that we can no longer refuse the solemn responsibilities thereof, do hereby pledge ourselves to accept the duties of the franchise in our several States, so soon as all legal restrictions are removed. And believing that character is the best safeguard of national liberty, we pledge ourselves to make the personal purity and integrity of candidates for public office the first test of fitness. And lastly, believing in God, as the Supreme Author of the American Declaration of Independence, we pledge ourselves in the spirit of that memorable Act, to work hand in hand with our fathers, husbands, and sons, for the maintenance of those equal rights on which our Republic was originally founded, to the end that it may have, what is declared to be the first condition of just government, the consent of the governed.
You have no new issue to make, no new grievances to set forth. You are taxed without representation, tried by a jury not of your peers, condemned and punished by judges and officers not of your choice, bound by laws you have had no voice in making, many of which are specially burdensome upon you as women; in short, your rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are daily infringed, simply because you have heretofore been denied the use of the ballot, the one weapon of protection and defense under a republican form of government. Fortunately, however, you are not compelled to resort to force in order to secure the rights of a complete citizenship. These are provided for by the original Constitution, and by the recent amendments you are recognized as citizens of the United States, whose rights, including the fundamental right to vote, may not be denied or abridged by the United States, nor by any State. The obligation is thus laid upon you to accept or reject the duties of citizenship, and to your own consciences and your God you must answer, if the future legislation of this country shall fall short of the demands of justice and equality.
The participation of woman in political affairs is not an untried experiment. Woman suffrage has within a few years been fully established in Sweden and Austria, and to a certain extent in Russia. In Great Britain women are now voting equally with men for all public officers except members of Parliament, and while no desire is expressed in any quarter that the suffrage already given should be withdrawn or restricted, over 126,000 names have been signed to petitions for its extension to parliamentary elections, and Jacob Bright, the leader of the movement in Parliament, and brother of the well known John Bright, says that no well-informed person entertains any doubt that a bill for such extension will soon pass.
In this country, which stands so specially on equal representation, it is hardly possible that the same equal suffrage would not be established by law, if the matter were to be left merely to the progress of public sentiment and the ordinary course of legislation. But as we confidently believe, and as we have before stated, the right already exists in our National Constitution, and especially under the recent amendments. The interpretation of the Constitution which we maintain, we can not doubt, will be ultimately adopted by the courts, although, as the assertion of our right encounters a deep and prevailing prejudice, and judges are proverbially cautious and conservative, we must expect to encounter some adverse decisions. In the meantime it is of the highest importance that in every possible way we inform the public mind and educate public opinion on the whole subject of equal rights under a republican government, and that we manifest our desire for and willingness to accept all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, by asserting our right to be registered as voters and to vote at the Congressional elections. The original Constitution provides in express terms that the representatives in Congress shall be elected "by the people of the several States," with no restrictions whatever as to the application of that term. This right, thus clearly granted to all the people, is confirmed and placed beyond reasonable question by the XIV. and XV. Amendments. The act of May, 1870, the very title of which, "An Act to enforce the rights of citizens of the United States to vote," is a concession of all that we claim, provides that the officers of elections throughout the United States shall give an equal opportunity to all citizens of the United States to become qualified to vote by the registry of their names or other prerequisite; and that where upon the application of any citizen such prerequisite is refused, such citizen may vote without performing such prerequisite; and imposes a penalty upon the officers refusing either the application of the citizen to be qualified or his subsequent application to vote. The Constitution also provides that "each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members." When, therefore, the election of any candidate for the lower House is effected or defeated by the admission or rejection of the votes of women, the question is brought directly before the House, and it is compelled to pass at once upon the question of the right of women to vote under the Constitution. All this may be accomplished without the necessity of bringing suits for the penalty imposed upon public officers by the act referred to; but should it be thought best to institute prosecutions where the application of women to register and to vote is refused, the question would thereby at once be brought into the courts. If it be thought expedient to adopt the latter course, it is best that some test case be brought upon full consultation with the National Committee, that the ablest counsel may be employed and the expenses paid out of the public fund. Whatever mode of testing the question shall be adopted, we must not be in the slightest degree discouraged by adverse decisions, for the final result in our favor is certain, and we have, besides, great reason to hope that Congress, at an early day, will pass a declaratory act affirming the interpretation of the Constitution which we claim.
The present time is specially favorable for the earnest presentation before the public mind of the question of the political rights of women. There are very positive indications of the approaching disintegration and reformation of political parties, and new and vital issues are needed by both the great parties of the country. As soon as the conviction possesses the public mind that women are to be voters at an early day, as they certainly are to be, the principles and the action of public parties will be shaping themselves with reference to the demands of this new constituency. Particularly in nominations for office will the moral character of candidates become a matter of greater importance.
To carry on this great work a Board of six women has been established, called "The National Woman Suffrage and Educational Committee," whose office at Washington it is proposed to make the center of all action upon Congress and the country, and with whom their Secretary, resident there, it is desired that all associations and individuals interested in the cause of woman suffrage should place themselves in communication. The Committee propose to circulate the very able and exhaustive Minority Report of the House Judiciary Committee on the constitutional right of woman to the suffrage, and other tracts on the general subject of woman suffrage. They also propose ultimately, and as a part of their educational work, to issue a series of tracts on subjects vitally affecting the welfare of the country, that women may become intelligent and thoughtful on such subjects, and the intelligent educators of the next generation of citizens.
The Committee are already receiving urgent appeals from women all over the United States to send them our publications. The little light they have already received concerning their rights under the Constitution, and the present threatening political aspect of the country, make them impatient of ignorance on these vital points. A single tract has often gone the rounds in a neighborhood until worn out, and the call is for thousands and thousands more.
A large printing fund will therefore be needed by the Committee, and we appeal first to the men of this country, who control so large a part of its wealth, to make liberal donations towards this great educational work. We also ask every thoughtful woman to send her name to the Secretary to be inserted in the Pledge-Book, and if she is able, one dollar. But as many workingwomen will have nothing to send but their names, we welcome these as a precious gift, and urge those who are able, to send us their fifties and hundreds, which we promise faithfully to use and account for. Where convenient, it is better that many names should be sent upon the same paper, and the smallest contributions in money can be put together and sent with them. Every signature and every remittance will be at once acknowledged by the Secretary, and one or more tracts enclosed with a circular as to the work to be done by individuals.
| Isabella Beecher Hooker, President. | Paulina Wright Davis, |
| Josephine S. Griffing, Secretary. | Ruth Carr Dennison, |
| Mary B. Bowen, Treasurer. | Susan B. Anthony. |
Washington, D. C., April 19, 1871.
[144] The National Woman Suffrage Association will hold its annual convention at Lincoln Hall, Washington, D. C., January 10th, 11th and 12th, 1872. All those interested in woman's enfranchisement are invited there to consider the "new departure"—women already citizens, and their rights as such, secured by the XIV. and XV. Amendments of the Federal Constitution.
| Lucretia Mott. | Isabella Beecher Hooker. |
| Elizabeth Cady Stanton. | Susan B. Anthony. |
| Josephine S. Griffing. | |
RESOLUTIONS.
Whereas, in the adjustment of the question of suffrage now before the people of this country for settlement, it is of the highest importance that the organic law of the land should be so framed and constructed as to work injustice to none, but secure, as far as possible, perfect political equality among all classes of citizens; and whereas, all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and of the State wherein they reside; be it
Resolved, That the privileges and immunities of American citizenship, however defined, are National in character and paramount to all State authority.
That while the Constitution of the United States leaves the qualifications of electors to the several States, it nowhere gives them the right to deprive any citizen of the elective franchise which is possessed by any other citizen—the right to regulate, not including the right to prohibit the franchise.
That, as the Constitution of the United States expressly declares that "no State shall make or enforce any law that shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States," those provisions of the several State Constitutions that exclude women from the franchise on account of sex, are violative alike of the spirit and letter of the Federal Constitution.
That, as the subject of naturalization is expressly withheld from the States, and as the States clearly would have no right to deprive of the franchise naturalized citizens, among whom women are expressly included, still more clearly have they no right to deprive native-born women citizens of this right.
That justice and equity can only be attained by having the same laws for men and women alike.
That having full faith and confidence in the truth and justice of these principles, we will never cease to urge the claims of women to a participation in the affairs of government equally with men.
Resolved, That as the XIV. and XV. Amendments to the Constitution of the United States have established the right of woman to the elective franchise, we demand of the present Congress a declaratory act which shall secure us at once in the exercise of this right.
As the recognition of woman suffrage involves immediate political action, and as numbers as well as principles control parties,
Resolved, That we rejoice in the rapidly organizing millions of Spiritualists, labor reformers, temperance, and educational forces, now simultaneously waking to their need of woman's help in the cause of reform.
Resolved, That the movement for the enfranchisement of woman is the movement of universal humanity; that the great questions now looming upon the political horizon can only find their peaceful solution by the infusion of the feminine element in the councils of the nation. Man, representing force, would continue in the future, as in the past, in the New World as in the Old, to settle all questions by war, but woman, representing affection, would, in her true development, harmonize intellect and action, and weld together all the interests of the human family—in other words, help to organize the science of social, religious, and political life.
Resolved, That our thanks are due to Governor Campbell, of Wyoming, for his veto, and to the Republican members of the Legislature of Wyoming, for their votes against the bill disfranchising the women of that Territory.
Resolved, That the thanks of the women of America are due to Hon. Benjamin F. Butler for introducing so early in the present session of Congress, a bill to enfranchise woman under the Constitution, and also to Hon. Wm. Loughridge and to the Hon. Benjamin F. Butler for their admirable minority report, at the last session, sustaining the Woodhull memorial.
Washington, D. C., January 8, 1872.
Mrs. Admiral Dahlgren—Madam: The National Woman Suffrage Association is to hold a three days' convention the present week, in Lincoln Hall, commencing on the morning of Wednesday, the 10th. Nothing would afford the officers and speakers of the convention greater pleasure than to hold a debate, during some session, with yourself and your friends, upon the question of woman suffrage. As you have publicly expressed your opposition to woman's enfranchisement, not only through the papers, but also by a petition against it to Congress, we feel sure you will gladly accept our invitation and let us know your reason for the faith that is within you.
Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, as president of the association and convention, will afford you every opportunity for argument, and will herself enter the list against you. Not only Mrs. Stanton, but all members of the committee, cordially extend this invitation for debate, to be held at any session most convenient for yourself.
An early answer is desirable.
Matilda Joslyn Gage,
Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements.
[147] Mrs. Matilda Joslyn Gage, Chairman Committee of Arrangements—Madam: Mrs. Sherman and myself are this morning in receipt of a note from you in which you invite us, in the name "of the officers and speakers of the National Woman Suffrage Association," to hold a debate upon the question of "woman suffrage," and mention that "Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, as President of the association and convention, will afford every opportunity for argument, and will herself enter the lists," etc.
In reply to this invitation, for which we thank you, in so far as it may have been extended in a true desire to elicit fair argument, we would remind you that in the very fact of soliciting us to "hold debate" on a public platform, on this or any other question, you entirely ignore the principle that ourselves and our friends seek to defend, viz., the preservation of female modesty.
The functions of men and women in the State as citizens are correlative and opposite. They can not be made common without seriously impairing the public virtue.
Our men must be brave, and our women modest, if this country may hope to fulfill her true mission for humanity.
We protest against woman suffrage, because the right of petition may safely be considered as common to all, and its exercise most beneficial.
We publish written articles, giving "our reasons for the faith that is within us," because we may, consistently with the home life and its duties, make such use of whatever talents God may have confided to our keeping. To these printed articles, in which we have fully and at different times explained our views, we are happy to refer you.
We likewise hold that an appeal to the public made in this manner is much more likely to evolve a clear apprehension of this important subject, as presenting a strict issue to the reasoning faculties, and one undimmed by those personalities which generally are indulged in during the course of oral debate. I am, truly yours,
Madeline Victor Dahlgren.
Washington, January 9, 1872.
[148] Lyman Trumbull of Illinois, Chairman, Roscoe Conkling of New York, Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, Matthew Carpenter of Wisconsin.
[149] People's Convention.—The undersigned citizens of the United States, responding to the invitation of the National Woman Suffrage Association, propose to hold a Convention at Steinway Hall, in the city of New York, the 9th and 10th of May.
We believe the time has come for the formation of a new political party whose principles shall meet the issues of the hour, and represent equal rights for all.
As the women of the country are to take part for the first time in political action, we propose that the initiative steps in the convention shall be taken by them, that their opinions and methods may be fairly set forth, and considered by the representatives from many reform movements now ready for united action; such as the Internationals, and other Labor Reformers—the friends of peace, temperance, and education, and by all those who believe that the time has come to carry the principles of true morality and religion into the State House, the Court, and the market place.
This convention will declare the platform of the People's Party, and consider the nomination of candidates for President and Vice-President of the United States, who shall be the best possible exponents of political and industrial reform.
The Republican party, in destroying slavery, accomplished its entire mission. In denying that "citizen" means political equality, it has been false to its own definition of Republican Government; and in fostering land, railroad, and money monopolies, it is building up a commercial feudalism dangerous to the liberty of the people.
The Democratic party, false to its name and mission, died in the attempt to sustain slavery, and is buried beyond all hope of resurrection.
Even that portion of the Labor party which met recently at Columbus, proved its incapacity to frame a national platform to meet the demands of the hour.
We therefore invite all citizens who believe in the idea of self-government; who demand an honest administration; the reform of political and social abuses; the emancipation of labor, and the enfranchisement of woman, to join with us and inaugurate a political revolution which shall secure justice, liberty, and equality to every citizen of the United States.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Isabella Beecher Hooker,
Matilda Joslyn Gage.
[150] The speakers were Rev. Olympia Brown, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Susan B. Anthony, Isabella Beecher Hooker, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Dr. Clemence S. Lozier, Helen M. Slocum, Lillie Devereux Blake.
