This came about in a simple and matter-of-fact way. Local societies, of which there was one in Seneca Falls, were doing their specific work. Mr. Bloomer was already in the newspaper field as editor of the village press. To his editorial duties he joined the duties of maintaining a paper called the Water Bucket, as the organ of the local society. Another element came in the shape of a religious awakening, following the Washingtonian movement, and growing out of it. While the air was ringing with eloquent words of precept, there was forced upon the mind that which was equally eloquent, viz., personal example. Mr. and Mrs. Bloomer were baptized and confirmed by Bishop Delancey in the parish church of Seneca Falls in the year 1842. Henceforth, to the rationale of the movement was added the religious motive.
In response to her husband’s earnest and persuasive appeals to ‘lend a hand,’ she modestly and even reluctantly contributed articles to the paper. With repeated protestations, she complied with other demands. She did not desire to reveal her identity as her contributions became subject to favorable comment and wide quotation. She hid herself under a round of names, now masculine, now feminine, in order to avoid publicity. But behind them there was a personality that could not be hidden long. A keen and powerful mind, and brimming sentiments of a woman’s heart, intense and moving, came to the surface. The flashing of a bright pen, tempered and pointed as a Damascus blade, was probing its way to the forefront of discussion, and into the vitals of opposing argument, and lo! a woman stepped forth into the arena, a champion of woman’s side in the conflicting controversy!
With her lifeboat thus pushed out into the current of this mental activity, and thrown upon her own resources, latent powers came to her support. These were reabsorbed, again developed, and carried on to renewed struggles. It is surprising to note how resolutely and with what eminent capability she met the varied demands of true sentiment, sound judgment and business tact.
She had great regard for the principles she advocated; for her self-respect as an advocate; and for her pledged or promised word. Thinking that woman was capable of originating an enterprise, that she had capacity for conducting it, her ruling passion was to show to the world that woman could do as woman, be accountable to self, and had the right potential to do what she could. That she esteemed woman a responsible creature is indicated in the manner in which her paper The Lily was launched upon society. A woman’s temperance club had planned the paper, the president of the society had named it; another was appointed editress, Mrs. Bloomer to be associate; the first issue to appear January 1, 1849. A woman’s convention which had assembled in 1848 in the village, and the first on record, may have stimulated the project. But as the time approached to undertake the issue faintheartedness dashed the scheme. Not even prospectuses and money received could stay the retreat. Mrs. Bloomer was left alone. Her own words are: ‘My position was a most embarrassing one. * * * * I could not so lightly throw off responsibility. There was no alternative but to follow the example of the others and let the enterprise prove a miserable failure as had been predicted it would, or to throw myself into the work, bare my head to the storm of censure and criticism that would follow, and thereby make good our promises to the public and save the reputation of the society. It was a sad, a trying hour, for one all inexperienced in such work, and at a time when public action in woman was almost unknown. So unprepared was I for the position I found myself in, so lacking in confidence and fearful of censure, that I withdrew my name from the paper and left standing the headline: “Published by a Committee of Ladies.”’ With such splendid courage, integrity and determination, we can almost predicate in advance the eminent success which attended this effort during a period of six years.
The study of woman’s condition incident to aggressive measures against intemperance and the direct appeal to woman’s sympathies, without doubt, widened the scope of vision. That woman often stood in need of independence was enforced cogently. Having succeeded in a limited temperance work and become useful agents in lifting the burdens of sisters, the idea of relief in other directions followed hard apace. Some of these burdens were of woman’s own placing, some were forced upon her by the inequalities of law, and others were in deference to a wrong public opinion.
The power of the Press did not suffice for the complete extension of the aims which the woman’s association had in view. The human voice, than which there is nothing more potential in moving us, was now raised to make the battlecry of reform more effective. The last wonder of the world had come—for woman appeared as her own advocate. Amelia Bloomer had gathered strength and reliance for a new phase of her work. She more deeply realized that she had to cope with other evils than the horrors of intemperance. The rising questions were still more difficult, from their inherent nature and there being no public sentiment to support them. As the issue confronted her the same distrust of self, yet the same unfaltering courage and devotion to a cause, prepared her for the rostrum as armed her for the editress’ chair. She had faith in the justice of men, and believed that God was on her side. She overstepped mere conventionality, not that she spurned good, but to show that conventionalism is sometimes a tyrant, and harmful. She could brave the strictures of public opinion, knowing that it is not always right. But that she could do this does not indicate that there was no cost to herself, or that the cruel arrows of ridicule when proceeding from unkindness did not reach tender sensibilities. Had she but her own glory to seek, or were it but a vain notoriety in order to puff up the mind, she could not have ‘bared her head to the storm’ which a canvass of woman’s rights and woman’s wrongs brought upon her.
It is for us to learn the lesson of her life: that, conspicuously, she was unselfish. A conviction had come to her—may it not have been true inspiration?—that what was wrong in practice might be righted by promulgation of true principles. She had the courage of her convictions, if ever any one had. Like a true reformer, she had to furnish the principles and disclose the facts upon which they were based, in order that correction might obtain. That which sent her to the principal cities of her native and adopted states and to cities far beyond, to legislative halls, to the use of her trenchant and vigorous pen, was love for her own sex. To win for one was gain for all. It was a doing for others all along. What though abstract justice, statue-like, could point the index at inequalities? There was no voice to awaken and plead!
In this part of her career she was as eminent a success as in the other. She was mistress of argumentative persuasion, and could turn the shafts of opponents with consummate skill. The extravagance of rhetoric into which excited feelings are prone to lead a controversialist, she met with good-natured repartee. It may be said that she was advance-courier of ‘temperance literature,’ her sprightly contributions being original matter, and in turn becoming texts for other writers and publishers. She had other helpers in creating a literature of woman’s rights, notably Mrs. Stanton, who was one of others who accompanied her on a tour of lectures. Her contention as to woman’s place was that she is created man’s intellectual, moral and spiritual equal.
It certainly would have been derogatory to the Almighty Creator to have bestowed on man an inferior partner for life. Genesis discloses to us that the word for man and woman is the same, save that a feminine termination is added to the latter. The true rise of woman is centred in the Incarnation of our Blessed Lord. From that time the dawn of woman’s elevation has been breaking into a cloudless sky. Mrs. Bloomer rightly caught the gleaming light in attributing to that august event a possibility for the broader and higher sphere of woman’s action. With this she was wont to silence Old-Testament quotations of opponents, and for that matter the handlers of New-Testament writings which referred to a condition closely approximating the old order of ignorance; the enlightenment of Christianity not then having bathed the nations. She never countenanced levity respecting the married state, or suffered the intrusion of degrading theories respecting the domicile of home. Her interpretation of a ‘help’ meet for man ranged along the high lines of being a help in all that man does for the good of the world, self, and actions that bear fruit of moral freedom.