MOASIC ESSAY

Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions[http://ecssba.rutgers.edu/docs/seneca.html]Woman's Rights Convention, Held at Seneca Falls,19-20 July 1848(published in Selected Papers, Volume 1, ©1997 Rutgers,The State University of New Jersey)On the morning of the 19th, the Convention assembledat 11 o'clock. . . . The Declaration of Sentiments,offered for the acceptance of the Convention, was thenread by E. C. Stanton. A proposition was made to haveit re-read by paragraph, and after much consideration,some changes were suggested and adopted. Thepropriety of obtaining the signatures of men to theDeclaration was discussed in an animated manner: avote in favor was given; but concluding that the finaldecision would be the legitimate business of the nextday, it was referred.[In the afternoon] The reading of the Declaration wascalled for, an addition having been inserted since themorning session. A vote taken upon the amendmentwas carried, and papers circulated to obtain signatures.The following resolutions were then read:Whereas, the great precept of nature is conceded to be,"that man shall pursue his own true and substantialhappiness," Blackstone, in his Commentaries, remarks,that this law of Nature being coeval with mankind, anddictated by God himself, is of course superior inobligation to any other.1

It is binding over all the globe,in all countries, and at all times; no human laws are ofany validity if contrary to this, and such of them as arevalid, derive all their force, and all their validity, and alltheir authority, mediately and immediately, from thisoriginal; Therefore,Resolved, That such laws as conflict, in any way, withthe true and substantial happiness of woman, arecontrary to the great precept of nature, and of novalidity; for this is "superior in obligation to any other.Resolved, That all laws which prevent woman fromoccupying such a station in society as her conscienceshall dictate, or which place her in a position inferior tothat of man, are contrary to the great precept of nature,and therefore of no force or authority.Resolved, That woman is man's equal—was intended tobe so by the Creator, and the highest good of the racedemands that she should be recognized as such.Resolved, That the women of this country ought to beenlightened in regard to the laws under which they live,that they may no longer publish their degradation, bydeclaring themselves satisfied with their presentposition, nor their ignorance, by asserting that they haveall the rights they want.Resolved, That inasmuch as man, while claiming forhimself intellectual superiority, does accord to womanmoral superiority, it is pre-eminently his duty toencourage her to speak, and teach, as she has anopportunity, in all religious assemblies.Resolved, That the same amount of virtue, delicacy, andrefinement of behavior, that is required of woman in thesocial state, should also be required of man, and thesame tranegressions should be visited with equalseverity on both man and woman.Resolved, That the objection of indelicacy andimpropriety, which is so often brought against womanwhen she addresses a public audience, comes with avery ill grace from those who encourage, by theirattendance, her appearance on the stage, in the concert,or in the feats of the circus.Resolved, That woman has too long rested satisfied inthe circumscribed limits which corrupt customs and aperverted application of the Scriptures have marked outfor her, and that it is time she should move in theenlarged sphere which her great Creator has assignedher.2Resolved, That it is the duty of the women of thiscountry to secure to themselves their sacred right to theelective franchise.3Resolved, That the equality of human rights resultsnecessarily from the fact of the identity of the race incapabilities and responsibilities.Resolved, therefore, That, being invested by the Creatorwith the same capabilities, and the same consciousnessof responsibility for their exercise, it is demonstrably theright and duty of woman, equally with man, to promoteevery righteous cause, by every righteous means; andespecially in regard to the great subjects of morals andreligion, it is self-evidently her right to participate withher brother in teaching them, both in private and inpublic, by writing and by speaking, by anyinstrumentalities proper to be used, and in anyassemblies proper to be held; and this being a1 self-evident truth, growing out of the divinely implantedprinciples of human nature, any custom or authorityadverse to it, whether modern or wearing the hoarysanction of antiquity, is to be regarded as self-evidentfalsehood, and at war with the interests of mankind. Thursday Morning.The Convention assembled at the hour appointed,James Mott, of Philadelphia, in the Chair. The minutesof the previous day having been read, E. C. Stantonagain read the Declaration of Sentiments, which wasfreely discussed . . . and was unanimously adopted, asfollows:Declaration of Sentiments.When, in the course of human events, it becomesnecessary for one portion of the family of man toassume among the people of the earth a positiondifferent from that which they have hitherto occupied,but one to which the laws of nature and of nature's Godentitle them, a decent respect to the opinions ofmankind requires that they should declare the causesthat impel them to such a course.We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men andwomen are created equal; that they are endowed by theirCreator with certain inalienable rights; that among theseare life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that tosecure these rights governments are instituted, derivingtheir just powers from the consent of the governed.Whenever any form of Government becomesdestructive of these ends, it is the right of those whosuffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insistupon the institution of a new government, laying itsfoundation on such principles, and organizing itspowers in such form as to them shall seem most likelyto effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed,will dictate that governments long established shouldnot be changed for light and transient causes; andaccordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind aremore disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, thanto right themselves by abolishing the forms to whichthey are accustomed. But when a long train of abusesand usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object,evinces a design to reduce them under absolutedespotism, it is their duty to throw off suchgovernment, and to provide new guards for their futuresecurity. Such has been the patient sufferance of thewomen under this government, and such is now thenecessity which constrains them to demand the equalstation to which they are entitled.The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuriesand usurpations on the part of man toward woman,having in direct object the establishment of an absolutetyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submittedto a candid world.He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienableright to the elective franchise.He has compelled her to submit to laws, in theformation of which she had no voice.He has withheld from her rights which are given to themost ignorant and degraded men—both natives andforeigners.Having deprived her of this first right of a citizen, theelective franchise, thereby leaving her withoutrepresentation in the halls of legislation, he hasoppressed her on all sides.He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civillydead.4He has taken from her all right in property, even to thewages she earns.5He has made her, morally, an irresponsible being, as shecan commit many crimes with impunity, provided theybe done in the presence of her husband. In thecovenant of marriage, she is compelled to promiseobedience to her husband, he becoming, to all intentsand purposes, her master—the law giving him power todeprive her of her liberty, and to administerchastisement.He has so framed the laws of divorce, as to what shallbe the proper causes of divorce; in case of separation, towhom the guardianship of the children shall be given; asto be wholly regardless of the happiness ofwomen—the law, in all cases, going upon the falsesupposition of the supremacy of man, and giving allpower into his hands.After depriving her of all rights as a married woman, ifsingle and the owner of property, he has taxed her tosupport a government which recognizes her only whenher property can be made profitable to it.He has monopolized nearly all the profitableemployments, and from those she is permitted tofollow, she receives but a scanty remuneration.2 He closes against her all the avenues to wealth anddistinction, which he considers most honorable tohimself. As a teacher of theology, medicine, or law, sheis not known.He has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorougheducation—all colleges being closed against her.6He allows her in Church as well as State, but asubordinate position, claiming Apostolic authority forher exclusion from the ministry, and, with someexceptions, from any public participation in the affairsof the Church.He has created a false public sentiment, by giving to theworld a different code of morals for men and women,by which moral delinquencies which exclude womenfrom society, are not only tolerated but deemed of littleaccount in man.He has usurped the prerogative of Jehovah himself,claiming it as his right to assign for her a sphere ofaction, when that belongs to her conscience and herGod.He has endeavored, in every way that he could todestroy her confidence in her own powers, to lessen herself-respect, and to make her willing to lead a dependentand abject life.Now, in view of this entire disfranchisement of one-halfthe people of this country, their social and religiousdegradation,—in view of the unjust laws abovementioned, and because women do feel themselvesaggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of theirmost sacred rights, we insist that they have immediateadmission to all the rights and privileges which belongto them as citizens of these United States.In entering upon the great work before us, we anticipateno small amount of misconception, misrepresentation,and ridicule; but we shall use every instrumentalitywithin our power to effect our object. We shall employagents, circulate tracts, petition the State and nationalLegislatures, and endeavor to enlist the pulpit and thepress in our behalf. We hope this Convention will befollowed by a series of Conventions, embracing everypart of the country.Firmly relying upon the final triumph of the Right andthe True, we do this day affix our signatures to thisdeclaration.At the appointed hour the meeting convened. Theminutes having been read, the resolutions of the daybefore were read and taken up separately. Some, fromtheir self-evident truth, elicited but little remark; others,after some criticism, much debate, and some slightalterations, were finally passed by a large majority.7[At an evening session] Lucretia Mott offered and spoketo the following resolution:Resolved, That the speedy success of our cause dependsupon the zealous and untiring efforts of both men andwomen, for the overthrow of the monopoly of thepulpit, and for the securing to woman an equalparticipation with men in the various trades, professionsand commerce.The Resolution was adopted.Report of the Woman's Rights Convention, Held atSeneca Falls, N.Y., July 19th and 20th, 1848 (Rochester,1848).Prepared for the Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stantonand Susan B. Anthony, vol. 1, In the School of Anti-Slavery,1840 to 1866, ed. Ann D. Gordon (New Brunswick,N.J., 1997). ©Rutgers, The State University of NewJersey.Notes:1

This entire paragraph and the sense of the onefollowing are taken from the section, "Of the Nature ofLaws in General," in the introductory book of WilliamBlackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England inFour Books (New York, 1841), 1:27-28. The quotationmarks are in Blackstone.2

From a resolution by Angelina Grimke adopted at thefemale antislavery convention of 1837. (Turning theWorld Upside Down: The Anti-Slavery Convention ofAmerican Women, Held in New York City, May 9-12,1837, ed. Dorothy Sterling [New York, 1987], 13.)3

New York's constitution of 1846, like that of manystates, defined eligible voters as "males." For white menit guaranteed universal suffrage. Black men could voteonly if they owned sufficient property. Prior to 1848,claims that women shared an equal right to the franchisearose not only in debates about their property rights butalso in connection with efforts to amend theconstitution and grant equal political rights toAfrican-American men. The restriction on black votingremained in place until after the Civil War. (New York3 Constitution of 1846, article II, section 1; JudithWellman, "Women's Rights, Republicanism, andRevolutionary Rhetoric in Antebellum New YorkState," New York History 69 [July 1988]: 353-84.)4

With this passage and the list of legal wrongs thatfollows, the authors join a debate about reformingAmerican law to remove remnants of English commonlaw. They point to the infamous passage in Blackstone'sCommentaries about the effect of marriage on thewoman: "By marriage, the husband and wife are oneperson in law: that is, the very being or legal existence ofthe woman is suspended during the marriage, or at leastis incorporated and consolidated into that of thehusband; under whose wing, protection, and cover, sheperforms every thing." From a considerable literatureabout married women's rights, legal reform, and thecommon law, the authors appear to have known thework of Elisha Powell Hurlbut especially well. Hurlbut(1807-?) was born and practiced law in HerkimerCounty, New York, until he moved to New York Cityin 1835. His Essays on Human Rights, and Their PoliticalGuaranties, published in 1845, is an extreme statement ofinalienable individual rights, informed by phrenologyand legal history and laced with sarcasm. Reformerskept the book in print. The Scottish phrenologistGeorge Combe added preface and notes for an editionpublished in Edinburgh in 1847, and the American firmof Fowlers and Wells reprinted Combe's editionbetween 1848 and 1853. Hurlbut was elected a judge ofNew York's Supreme Court at the same time as DanielCady in 1847, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton met him inAlbany in the 1840s. Like other legal reformers, Hurlbutrejected the English common law as a feudal artifactunsuited to modern America, but his criticism includeda scathing portrait of male domination that is echoed inthe Declaration of Sentiments. The common law, hewrote, was "the law of the male sex gathering untothemselves dominion and power at the sacrifice of thefemale." Its influence rendered the laws "touching theRights of Woman, . . . at variance with the laws of theCreator; and the question is, Which shall stand?" In hischapter on "The Rights of Woman," he describedwoman's civil death; "in the eye of the law" the womanwho marries "exists not at all," she is placed in a "legaltomb." Her property is conferred upon her husbandbecause "every body knows that the dead cannot keeptheir property—and the wife is legally dead." Theauthors of the Declaration followed Hurlbut in all theirexamples. Of woman's criminal impunity, he asked,"Has not woman a right to be ever regarded as a freemoral agent?" He condemned any coercion of a wife "asan inferior and dependent," no matter how mild, and hesingled out the male-defined laws of divorce andcustody as proof that women needed a voice inlegislation. (Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws ofEngland, 1:355; Elisha P. Hurlbut, Essays on HumanRights, and Their Political Guaranties [New York, 1848],120-21, 148, 161, 163, 167; Henry H. Hurlbut, TheHurlbut Genealogy, or Record of the Descendants of ThomasHurlbut, of Saybrook and Wetherefield, Conn. [Albany, 1888],232, 350-51; E. C. Stanton to Editor, Boston Index, 16October 1876, in P. G. Holland and A. D. Gordon,eds., Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B.Anthony, microfilm edition, reel 18, frames 1055-56.)5

This statement omits New York's new MarriedWomen's Property Act of 1848.6

Oberlin College was the exception; it admitted womenat its founding and granted them bachelor degrees in1841.7

Of this discussion and its outcome, E. W. Capronreported, the resolutions "were finally adopted, nearly asthey were originally drawn up" by the women meetingalone on Wednesday morning; not even the lawyerswho opposed "the equal rights of women, and whowere present," dissented. In the History of WomanSuffrage, Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote that only theresolution about the elective franchise "was notunanimously adopted." "Those who took part in thedebate," she recalled, "feared a demand for the right tovote would defeat others they deemed more rational,and make the whole movement ridiculous." She andFrederick Douglass, who saw that suffrage "was theright by which all others could be secured," carried theresolution "by a small majority." (Auburn NationalReformer, 3 August 1848; Stanton, Anthony, and Gage,History of Woman Suffrage, 1:73.)4 Address by Elizabeth Cady Stanton on Woman'sRights, September 1848[http://ecssba.rutgers.edu/docs/ecswoman1.html]Ladies and gentlemen, when invited someweeks ago to address you I proposed to a gentleman ofthis village to review our report of the Seneca Fallsconvention and give his objections to our Declaration,resolutions and proceedings to serve me as a text onwhich to found an address for this evening "thegentleman did so, but his review was so laconic thatthere was the same difficulty in replying to it as wefound in replying to a recent sermon preached at SenecaFalls—there was nothing of it.Should that gentleman be present this eveningand feel disposed to give any of his objections to ourmovement, we will be most happy to answer him.1I should feel exceedingly diffident to appearbefore you wholly unused as I am to public speaking,were I not nerved by a sense of right and duty—did Inot feel that the time had fully come for the question ofwoman's wrongs to be laid before the public—did I notbelieve that woman herself must do this work—forwoman alone can understand the height and the depth,the length and the breadth of her own degradation andwoe. Man cannot speak for us—because he has beeneducated to believe that we differ from him somaterially, that he cannot judge of our thoughts, feelingsand opinions by his own. Moral beings can only judgeof others by themselves—the moment they give adifferent nature to any of their own kind they utterlyfail. The drunkard was hopelessly lost until it wasdiscovered that he was governed by the same laws ofmind as the sober man. Then with what magic power,by kindness and love, was he raised from the slough ofdespond and placed rejoicing on high land. Let a manonce settle the question that woman does not think andfeel like himself and he may as well undertake to judgeof the amount of intellect and sensation of any of theanimal creation as of woman's nature. He can know butlittle with certainty, and that but by observation.Among the many important questions whichhave been brought before the public, there is none thatmore vitally affects the whole human family than thatwhich is technically termed Woman's rights.2

Everyallusion to the degraded and inferior position occupiedby woman all over the world, has ever been met byscorn and abuse. From the man of highest mentalcultivation, to the most degraded wretch who staggersin the streets do we hear ridicule and coarse jests, freelybestowed upon those who dare assert that womanstands by the side of man—his equal, placed here by herGod to enjoy with him the beautiful earth, which is herhome as it is his—having the same sense of right andwrong and looking to the same Being for guidance andsupport. So long has man exercised a tyranny over herinjurious to himself and benumbing to her faculties, thatbut few can nerve themselves against the storm, and solong has the chain been about her that however gallingit may be she knows not there is a remedy.The present social, civil and religious conditionof women is a subject too vast to be brought within thelimits of one short lecture. Suffice it to say for thepresent, that wherever we turn the history of woman issad and drear and dark, without any alleviatingcircumstances, nothing from which we can drawconsolation. As the nations of the earth emerge from astate of barbarism, the sphere of woman graduallybecomes wider but not even under what is thought tobe the full blaze of the sun of civilization is it what Goddesigned it to be. In every country and clime does manassume the responsibility of marking out the path forher to tread,—in every country does he regard her as abeing inferior to himself and one whom he is to guideand controul. From the Arabian Kerek whose wife isobliged to steal from her Husband to supply thenecessities of life,—from the Mahometan who forbidspigs dogs women and other impure animals to enter amosque, and does not allow a fool, madman or womento proclaim the hour of prayer,—from the German whocomplacently smokes his meerschaum while his wife,yoked with the ox draws the plough through itsfurrow,—from the delectable gentleman who thinks aninferior style of conversation adapted to women—tothe legislator who considers her incapable of sayingwhat laws shall govern her, is this same feelingmanifested.3

In all eastern countries she is a mere slavebought and sold at pleasure. There are many differencesin habits, manners, and customs, among the heathennations of the old world, but there is little change forthe better in woman's lot—she is either the drudge ofman to perform all the hard labour of the field and themenial duties of the hut, tent, or house, or she is theidol of his lust the mere creature of his ever varyingwhims and will. Truly has she herself said in her bestestate,I am a slave, a favoured slaveAt best to share his pleasure and seem veryblest,When weary of these fleeting charms and me,There yawns the sack and yonder rolls the sea,What! am I then a toy for dotards playTo wear but till the gilding frets away?45 In christian countries, boasting a more advanced state ofcivilization and refinement, woman still holds a positioninfinitely inferior to man. In France the Salic law5

tellsmuch although it is said that woman there has ever hadgreat influence in all political revolutions. In Englandshe seems to have advanced a little— There she has aright to the throne, and is allowed to hold some otheroffices and some women have a right to vote too— But in the United States of America 6

woman has noright either to hold office, nor to the elective franchise,we stand at this moment, unrepresented in thisgovernment—our rights and interests whollyoverlooked.Let us now glance at some of the popularobjections to this whole question. There is a class ofmen who believe in the natural inborn, inbredsuperiority both in body and mind and their fullcomplete Heaven descended right to lord it over thefish of the sea, the fowl of the air, the beast of the field7and last tho' not least the immortal being called woman.I would recommend this class to the attentive perusal oftheir Bibles—to historical research, to foreigntravel—to a closer observation of the manifestations ofmind about them and to an humble comparison ofthemselves with such women as Catharine of Russia,Elizabeth of England distinguished for theirstatesmanlike qualities, Harriet Martineau and Madamede Stael for their literary attainments, or CarolineHerschel and Mary Summerville for their scientificresearches, or for physical equality to that whole nationof famous women the Amazones.8

We seldom find thisclass of objectors among liberally educated persons,who have had the advantage of observing their race indifferent countries, climes, and under different phases,but barbarians tho' they be in entertaining such anopinion—they must be met and fairly vanquished.Notes:1

The revised text published in 1870 (referred tohereafter as 1870) omits the first two paragraphs of themanuscript text.2

Elizabeth Cady Stanton published paragraphs 4–6 as"Woman," Lily, January 1850, and the Address to theWomen of the State of New York, from the YearlyMeeting of Congregational Friends at Waterloo, in June1850, opened with variants of this and the nextparagraph. Stanton served on the committee to draft theaddress, along with Charles Lenox Remond, Eliab W.Capron, and Lydia Ann Jenkins. (Holland and Gordon,Papers, microfilm, 6:1032, 1056-65.)3

Elizabeth Cady Stanton's chief source for historicaland cross-cultural information about women in thissentence and throughout the speech was the twovolume History of the Condition of Women, in Various Agesand Nations, published in 1835 by Lydia Maria Child.Child's work supplied examples as well for SarahGrimke, Letters on the Equality of the Sexes. Both theKerek and Mohammedan examples are in Child'svolume about women of Asia and Africa (1:41, 68).Stanton may have coined the image of a Germancouple, though Grimke attributes similar behavior to anumber of nationalities (42-43). Child viewed Europeansociety more positively: it "differs from that of Asiaticnations or savage tribes in the comparative equality oflabor between the sexes; if poor women are obliged towork hard, poor men are so likewise; they do not, likeOrientals, sit in idleness, while women perform nearlyall the drudgery" (2:181). (Lydia Maria Child, The Historyof the Condition of Women, in Various Ages and Nations, 2vols. [Boston, 1835] and Sarah M. Grimke, Letters on theEquality of the Sexes and the Condition of Woman [1838;reprint, New York, 1970]).4

On the title page of Child's History of the Conditionof Women, from Lord Byron, "The Corsair," the firsttwo lines are found in canto 2, pt. 14, and the last fourin canto 3, pt. 8. Neither author copied Byron's linesprecisely. The "sack" alludes to purging the harem bytossing an unwanted woman into the Bosphorus in asack.5

By the Salic law, females were excluded from the lineof succession to the throne of France.6

Inserted here in 1870: "in a republic based on thetheory that no just government can be formed withoutthe consent of the governed . . . ."7

Genesis 1:28.8

This standard list of capable women can be found inboth Child and Grimke. Monarchs in Russia andEngland, Catherine II or Catherine the Great(1729-1796) ruled from 1762 to her death, andElizabeth I (1533-1603) ruled from 1558 to 1603. In thefield of letters, Harriet Martineau (1802-1876), a Britishwriter and ardent abolitionist, visited the United Statesfrom 1834 to 1836 and, under the influence of theGrimke sisters, became an advocate of woman's rights.Germaine de Stael (1766-1817), a French writer andleader of an intellectual and political salon, went intoexile during Napoleon's reign. British astronomers,Caroline Lucretia Herschel (1750-1848) and MaryFairfax Somerville (1780-1872) were honored for theirdiscoveries by the Royal Astronomical Society. Forevidence of women's physical potential, the mostpopular example was the Amazons, a tribe of warriorwomen in antiquity who fought the Greeks.6 Man superior, intellectually, morally and physically.1st Let us consider his intellectual superiority.9

Man's superiority cannot be a question until we havehad a fair trial. When we shall have had10

our colleges,our professions, our trades, for a century a comparisonmay then be justly instituted. When woman instead ofbeing taxed to endow colleges where she is forbidden toenter, instead of forming societies to educate youngmen shall first educate herself, when she shall be just toherself before she is generous to others—improving thetalents God has given her and leaving her neighbour todo the same for himself we shall not then hear so muchof this boasted greatness. How often now we see youngmen carelessly throwing away the intellectual food theirsisters crave. A little music that she may while an houraway pleasantly, a little French, a smattering of thesciences and in rare instances some slight classicalknowledge and a woman is considered highly educated.She leaves her books and studies just at the time ayoung man is entering thoroughly into his—then comesthe cares and perplexities of married life.11

Her spherebeing confined to her house and children, the burdengenerally being very unequally divided, she knowsnothing beside and whatever yearning her spirit mayhave felt for a higher existence, whatever may have beenthe capacity she well knew she possessed for moreelevated enjoyments—enjoyments which would notconflict with these but add new lustre to them—it is allburied beneath the weight that presses upon her. Menbless their innocence are fond of representingthemselves as beings of reason—of intellect— whilewomen are mere creatures of the affections— There isa self conceit that makes the possesser infinitely happyand one would dislike to dispel the illusion, if it werepossible to endure it. But so far as we can observe it ispretty much now-a-days as it was with Adam of old. Nodoubt you all recollect the account we have given us. Aman and a woman were placed in a beautiful garden.Every thing was about them that could contribute totheir enjoyment. Trees and shrubs, fruits and flowers,and gently murmuring streams made glad their hearts.Zephyrs freighted with delicious odours fanned theirbrows and the serene stars looked down upon themwith eyes of love.The Evil One saw their happiness and ittroubled him. He set his wits to work to know how heshould destroy it. He thought that man could be easilyconquered through his affection for the woman. But thewoman would require more management. She could bereached only through her intellectual nature. So hepromised her the knowledge of good and evil. He toldher the sphere of her reason should be enlarged, hepromised to gratify the desire she felt for intellectualimprovement, so he prevailed and she did eat. Did theEvil One judge rightly in regard to man? Eve took anapple went to Adam and said "Dear Adam taste thisapple if you love me eat." Adam stopped not so muchas to ask if the apple was sweet or sour. He knew he wasdoing wrong, but his love for Eve prevailed and he dideat. Which I ask you was the "creature of theaffections"?122nd Let us consider man's claims to superiorityas a moral being.13

Look now at our theologicalseminaries, our divinity students—the long line ofdescendents from our apostolic Fathers and what do wefind here? Perfect moral rectitude in every relation oflife, a devoted spirit of self sacrifice, a perfect union inthought opinion and feeling among those who professto worship the one God and whose laws they feelthemselves called upon to declare to a fallen race? Farfrom it. These persons all so thoroughly acquainted withthe character of God and of his designs made manifestby his words and works are greatly divided amongthemselves—every sect has its God, every sect has itsown Bible, and there is as much bitterness, envy, hatredand malice between these contending sects yea evenmore than in our political parties during periods of thegreatest excitement. Now the leaders of these sects arethe priesthood who are supposed to have passed theirlives almost in the study of the Bible, in variouslanguages and with various commentaries, in thecontemplation of the infinite, the eternal and theglorious future open to the redeemed of earth. Are theydistinguished among men for their holyaspirations—their virtue, purity, and chastity? Do theykeep themselves unspotted from the world? Is themoral and religious life of this class what we mightexpect from minds (said to be) continually fixed on suchmighty themes? By no means, not a year passes but wehear of some sad soul sickening deed perpetrated bysome of this class. If such be the state of the most holywe need not pause now to consider those classes whoclaim of us less reverence and respect. The lamentablewant of principle among our lawyers generally is toowell known to need comment—the everlastingbickering and backbiting of our physicians isproverbial— The disgraceful riots at our polls whereman in performing so important a duty of a citizenought surely to be sober minded. The perfect rowdyismthat now characterizes the debates in our nationalcongress—all these are great facts which rise up againstman's claim to moral superiority.In my opinion he is infinitely woman's inferior7 in every moral virtue, not by nature, but made so by afalse education. In carrying out his own selfishness, manhas greatly improved woman's moral nature, but by analmost total shipwreck of his own. Woman has now thenoble virtues of the martyr, she is early schooled to selfdenial and suffering. But man is not so wholly buried inselfishness that he does not sometimes get a glimpse ofthe narrowness of his soul, as compared with women.Then he says by way of an excuse for his degradation,God made woman more self denying than us, it is hernature, it does not cost her as much to give up herwishes, her will, her life even as it does us. We arenaturally selfish, God made us so. No! think not that hewho made the heavens and the earth, the wholeplanetary world ever moving on in such harmony andorder, that he who has so bountifully scattered, throughall nature so many objects that delight, enchant and fillus with admiration and wonder, that he who has madethe mighty ocean mountain and cataract, the bright andjoyous birds, the tender lovely flowers, that he whomade man in his own image, perfect, noble and pure,loving justice, mercy, and truth, think not that He hashad any part in the production of that creeping,cringing, crawling, debased selfish monster now extant,claiming for himself the name of man. No God'scommands rest upon man as well as woman, and it is asmuch his duty to be kind, gentle, self denying and full ofgood works as it is hers, as much his duty to absenthimself from scenes of violence as it is hers. A place ora position that would require the sacrifice of delicacyand refinement of woman's nature is unfit for man, forthese virtues should be as carefully guarded in him as inher.The false ideas that prevail with regard to thepurity necessary to constitute the perfect character inwoman and that requisite for man have done an infinitedeal of mischief in the world. We would not havewoman less pure, but we would have man more so. Wewould have the same code of morals for both. Moraldelinquencies which exclude women from the society ofthe true and the good should assign to man the sameplace. Our partiality towards man has been the fruitfulsource of dissipation and riot, drunkenness anddebauchery and immorality of all kinds. It has not onlyaffected woman injuriously by narrowing her sphere ofaction, but man himself has suffered from it. It hasdestroyed the nobleness, the gentleness that shouldbelong to his character, the beauty and transparency ofsoul the dislike of every thing bordering on coarsenessand vulgarity, all those finer qualities of our naturewhich raise us above the earth and give us a foretaste ofthe beauty and bliss, the refined enjoyments of theworld to come.3rd Let us now consider man's claims tophysical superiority. 14

Methinks I hear some say, surelyyou will not contend for equality here. Yes, we must notgive an inch lest you claim an ell, we cannot accord toman even this much and he has no right to claim it untilthe fact be fully demonstrated, until the physicaleducation of the boy and the girl shall have been thesame for many years. If you claim the advantage of sizemerely, why it may be that under any course of trainingin ever so perfect a development of the physique inwoman, man might still be the larger of the two, tho' wedo not grant even this. But the perfection of thephysique is great power combined with endurance. Nowyour strongest men are not always the tallest men, northe broadest, nor the most corpulent, but very often thesmall man who is well built, tightly put together andpossessed of an indomitable will. Bodily strengthdepends something on the power of will. The sight of asmall boy thoroughly thrashing a big one is not rare.Now would you say the big fat boy whipped wassuperior to the small active boy who conquered him?You do not say the horse is physically superior to theman—for although he has more muscular power, yetthe power of mind in man renders him his superior andhe guides him wherever he will.The power of mind seems to be in no wayconnected with the size and strength of body. Manymen of Herculean powers of mind have been small andweak in body. The late distinguished Dr Channing ofBoston was very small and feeble in appearance andvoice, yet he has moved the world by the eloquence ofhis pen. John Quincy Adams was a small man of butlittle muscular power, yet we know he had more couragethan all the northern dough faces15

of six feet high andwell proportioned that ever represented us at ourCapitol. We know that mental power depends muchmore on the temperament than the size of the head orthe size of the body. I have never heard that DanielLambert was distinguished for any great mentalendowments.16

We cannot say what the woman mightbe physically, if the girl were allowed all the freedom ofthe boy in romping, climbing, swimming, playing hoopand ball. Among some of the Tarter tribes of thepresent day the women manage a horse, hurl a javelin,hunt wild animals, and fight an enemy as well as themen.17

The Indian women endure fatigue and carryburthens that some of our fair faced, soft handed,mustachoed, young gentlemen would consider it quiteimpossible for them to sustain. The Croatian, andWallachian women perform all the agriculturaloperations, (and we know what physical strength such8 labours require) in addition to their own domesticconcerns;18

and it is no uncommon sight in our cities tosee the German immigrant with his hands in hispockets, walking complacently by the side of his wife,whilst she is bending beneath the weight of some hugepackage or piece of furniture,—physically as well asintellectually it is use that produces growth anddevelopement. But there is a class of objectors who saythey do not claim superiority, they merely assert adifference, but you will find by following them upclosely that they make this difference to be vastly infavour of man. The Phrenologist says that woman'shead has just as many organs as man's and that they aresimilarly situated. He says too that the organs that arethe most exercised are the most prominent. They do notdivide heads according to sex but they call all the fineheads masculine and all the ill shaped feminine, forwhen a woman presents a remarkably large welldeveloped intellectual region, they say she has amasculine head, as if there could be nothing remarkableof the feminine gender and when a man has a smallhead very little reasoning power and the affectionsinordinately developed they say he has a woman's headthus giving all glory to masculinity.Some say our heads are less.Some men's are small, not they the least of men;For often fineness compensates for size;Beside the brainis like the hand and grows,With using—-19Notes:9

This paragraph was included in "Man SuperiorIntellectually Morally Physically," pt. 1, Lily, February1850, Holland and Gordon, Papers, microfilm, 6:1037.10

Inserted here in 1870: "our freedom to find out ourown sphere, when we shall have had . . . ."11

Revised in 1870 to read: "Then comes the gay routineof fashionable life, courtship and marriage, theperplexities of house and children, and she knowsnothing beside."12

Sarah Grimke observed that Eve's temptation camefrom "a being with whom she was unacquainted."Adam fell "not through the instrumentality of asupernatural agent, but through that of his equal"; "itappears to me," she wrote, "that to say the least, therewas as much weakness exhibited by Adam as by Eve."(Grimke, Letters on the Equality of the Sexes, 6)13

"Man Superior Intellectually Morally Physically," pt. 2,Lily, March 1850, Holland and Gordon, Papers,microfilm, 6:1039, contains paragraphs 9-11.14

"Man Superior Intellectually Morally Physically," pt. 3,Lily, April 1850, Holland and Gordon, Papers,microfilm, 6:1044, contains paragraphs 12-13.15

That is, William Ellery Channing. John Quincy Adams(1767-1848), sixth president of the United States andcongressman, opposed the extension of slavery and thegag rule that stopped expressions of antislavery views.Northerners who voted with the South to protectslavery were dubbed "doughfaces."16

Daniel Lambert, a Londoner of immense weight whoexhibited himself as a curiosity, also appeared as acharacter in Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby (1839).17

This sentence from Child, History of the Condition ofWomen, 1:176.18

To this point the sentence from Child, History of theCondition of Women, 2:167.19

Alfred Lord Tennyson, "The Princess," pt. 2, lines131-35.9 We, the women of this state have met inconvention within the last few months both inRochester and Seneca Falls to discuss our rights andwrongs.20

We did not as some have supposed assembleto go into the detail of social life alone, we did notpropose to petition the legislature to make ourHusbands just, generous and courteous, to seat everyman at the head of a cradle and to clothe every womanin male attire, no none of these points howeverimportant they may be considered by humble minds,were touched upon in the convention. As to theircostume the gentlemen need feel no fear of ourimitating that for we think it in violation of everyprinciple of beauty taste and dignity andnotwithstanding all the contempt and abuse cast uponour loose flowing garments we still admire their easygraceful folds, and consider our costume as an object oftaste much more beautiful than theirs. Many of thenobler sex seem to agree with us in this opinion for allthe Bishops, Priests, Judges, Barristers, and LordMayors of the first nation on the globe and the Pope ofRome too, when officiating in their highest offices, theyall wear the loose flowing robes, thus tacitlyacknowledging that the ordinary male attire is neitherdignified nor imposing. No! we shall not molest you inyour philosophical experiments with stocks, pants,21high heeled boots and Russian belt. Yours be the gloryto discover by personal experience how long the kneepan can resist the terrible strapping down which youimpose—in how short time the well developed musclesof the throat can be reduced to mere threads by theconstant pressure of the stock, how high the heel of theboot must be to make a short man tall and how tightthe Russian belt may be drawn and yet have windenough to sustain life. Our ambition leads us neither todiscovery or martyrdom of this sort.But we did assemble to protest against a formof government existing without the consent of thegoverned, to declare our right to be free as man isfree—to be represented in the government which weare taxed to support—to have such disgraceful laws asgive to man the right to chastise and imprison hiswife—to take the wages which she earns,—the propertywhich she inherits and in case of separation the childrenof her love—laws which make her the mere dependenton his bounty—it was to protest against such unjustlaws as these and to have them if possible forever erasedfrom our statute books, deeming them a standing shameand disgrace to a professedly republican, christianpeople in the nineteenth century. We metTo uplift woman's fallen divinityUpon an even pedestal with man22And strange as it may seem to many we thenand there declared our right to vote according to theDeclaration of the government under which we live.This right no one pretends to deny. We need not proveourselves equal to Daniel Webster to enjoy this privilegefor the most ignorant Irishman in the ditch has all thecivil rights he has, we need not prove our muscularpower equal to this same Irishman to enjoy thisprivilege for the most tiny, weak, ill shaped, imbecilestripling of 21

has all the civil rights of the Irishman. Wehave no objection to discuss the question of equality,for we feel that the weight of argument lies wholly withus, but we wish the question of equality kept distinctfrom the question of rights, for the proof of the onedoes not determine the truth of the other. All men23

inthis country have the same rights however they maydiffer in mind, body, or estate. The right is ours. Thequestion now is, how shall we get possession of whatrightfully belongs to us. We should not feel so sorelygrieved if no man who had not attained the full statureof a Webster, Van Buren, Clay24

or Gerrit Smith couldclaim the right of the elective franchise, but to have therights of drunkards, idiots, horse-racing, rum sellingrowdies, ignorant foreigners, and silly boys fullyrecognised, whilst we ourselves are thrust out from allthe rights that belong to citizens—it is too grosslyinsulting to the dignity of woman to be longer quietlysubmitted to. The right is ours, have it we must—use itwe will. The pens, the tongues, the fortunes, theindomitable wills of many women are already pledged tosecure this right. The great truth that no justgovernment can be formed without the consent of thegoverned, we shall echo and re-echo in the ears of theunjust judge until by continual coming we shall wearyhim.But say some would you have woman vote?What refined delicate woman at the polls, mingling insuch scenes of violence and vulgarity—mostcertainly—where there is so much to be feared for thepure, the innocent, the noble, the mother surely shouldbe there to watch and guard her sons, who mustencounter such stormy dangerous scenes at the tenderage of 21. Much is said of woman's influence, might nother presence do much towards softening down thisviolence—refining this vulgarity? Depend upon it thatplaces that by their impure atmosphere are renderedunfit for woman cannot but be dangerous to her siresand sons. But if woman claims all the rights of a citizenwill she buckle on her armour and fight in defence ofher country? Has not woman already often shown10 herself as courageous in the field as wise and patriotic incounsel as man? But for myself—I think all war sinful. Ibelieve in Christ—I believe that command Resist notevil to be divine. Vengeance is mine and I will repaysaith the Lord—25

Let frail man, who cannot foreseethe consequences of an action walk humbly with hisGod—loving his enemies, blessing those who curse himand always returning good for evil. This is the highestkind of courage that mortal man can attain to and thismoral warfare with one’s own bad passions requires nophysical power to achieve. I would not have man go towar. I can see no glory in fighting with such weapons asguns and swords whilst man has in his possession theinfinitely superior and more effective ones ofrighteousness and truth.But what would you gain by voting. Man mustknow the advantages of voting for they all seem verytenacious about the right. Think you if woman had avoice in this government, that all those laws affectingher interests would so entirely violate every principle ofright and justice?26

Had we a vote to give might not theoffice holders and seekers propose some change inwoman's condition? Might not "woman's rights" cometo be as great a question as "free soil"? But are you notalready sufficiently represented by your Fathers,Husbands, Brothers and Sons. Let your statute booksanswer the question. We have had enough of suchrepresentation. In nothing is woman's true happinessconsulted, men like to call her an angel—to feed herwith what they think sweet food nourishing her vanity,to induce her to believe her organization is so muchfiner more delicate than theirs, that she is not fitted tostruggle with the tempests of public life but needs theircare and protection.27

Care and protection? such as thewolf gives the lamb—such as the eagle the hare hecarries to his eyrie. Most cunningly he entraps her andthen takes from her all those rights which are dearer tohim than life itself, rights which have been baptized inblood and the maintenance of which is even nowrocking to their foundations the kingdoms of the oldworld. The most discouraging, the most lamentableaspect our cause wears is the indifference indeed thecontempt with which women themselves regard ourmovement. When the subject is introduced among ouryoung ladies among those even who claim to beintelligent and educated it is met by the scornful curl ofthe lip and by expressions of disgust and ridicule. Butwe shall hope better things of them when they areenlighted in regard to their present position, to the lawsunder which they live—they will not then publish theirdegradation by declaring themselves satisfied nor theirignorance by declaring they have all the rights they want.They are not the only class of beings who gloryin their bondage. In the Turkish Harem where woman islittle above the brute of the field, where immortal mindis crushed and the soul itself is as it were blotted out,where beings God has endowed with a spirit capable ofenjoying the beauties which he has scattered over thebroad earth—a spirit whose cultivation would fit themfor a never ending existence, in those Seraglios whereintellect and soul are buried beneath the sensualism andbrutality which are the inevitable result of the belief inwoman's inferiority, even here she is not only satisfiedwith her position but glories in it.28

Miss Martineau inher travels in the East recently published says referringto the inmates of the Harems: Every where they pitiedus European women heartily, that we had to go abouttravelling and appearing in the streets without beingproperly taken care of, that is watched. They think usstrangely neglected in being left so free and boast oftheir spy system and imprisonment as tokens of thevalue in which they are held.29

Can women here,although her spiritual and intellectual nature isrecognized to a somewhat greater degree than amongthe Turks, and she is allowed the privilege of being inher nursery and kitchen, and although the Christianpromises her the ascendancy in Heaven as man has ithere, while the Mahomedan closes the golden gates ofthe Celestial city tight against her—can she be contentnotwithstanding these good things to remain debarredfrom an equal share with man in the pure enjoymentsarising from the full cultivation of her mind and heradmission into the rights and privileges which are hers.She must and will ere long, when her spirit awakens andshe learns to care less for theBarren verbiage current among menLight coin the tinsel clink of compliment30She must and will demandEvery whereTwo heads in counsel, two beside the hearthTwo in the tangled business of the worldTwo in the liberal offices of lifeTwo plummets dropped to sound the abyssOf science and the secrets of the mind.31Let woman live as she should, let her feel heraccountability to her Maker— Let her know that herspirit is fitted for as high a sphere as man's and that hersoul requires food as pure as refreshing as his—let herlive first for God and she will not make imperfect manan object of reverence and idolatry— Teach her her11 responsibility as a being of conscience and ofreason—that she will find any earthly support unstableand weak, that her only safe dependence is on the armof omnipotence.32

Teach her there is no sex in mind,that true happiness springs from duty accomplished andshe will feel the desire to bathe her brow heated fromthe struggles of an earthly existence in the cool streamthat flows fresh and sparkling from the Divine fountain.She will become conscious that each human being ismorally accountable for himself that no one can throwupon another his burden of responsibility, that neitherFather, Husband, Brother nor son, however willing theymay be, can relieve woman from this weight, can standin her stead when called into the presence of thesearcher of spirits.Notes:20

In 1870, the sentence reads: "We have met hereto-day to discuss our rights and wrongs, civil andpolitical, and not, as some have supposed, to go into thedetail of social life alone." "Woman's Rights," NationalReformer, 14 September 1848, contains paragraph 14,and "The Convention," Lily, June 1850, consists ofparagraphs 14, 15, and most of 16, Holland andGordon, Papers, microfilm, 6:764-65, 1066.21

Elements of men's fashionable attire, the stock was aclose-fitting cloth wrapped about the neck, and pantswere strapped down beneath the instep to retain a snugfit.22

Tennyson, "The Princess," pt. 2, lines 207-8.23

Both "The Convention" and 1870 read "All whitemen."24

Martin Van Buren (1782-1862), a New Yorker, waseighth president of the United States and the Free Soilparty candidate for president in 1848. Henry Clay(1777-1852), senator, Speaker of the House ofRepresentatives, secretary of state, and Whig candidatefor president in 1848, was regarded as one of the greatpoliticians of the age.25

Matthew 5:39 and Romans 12:19.26

"Should Women Vote," Lily, July 1850, Holland andGordon, Papers, microfilm, 6:1077-78, begins here andcontinues through most of paragraph 19.27

This and the two sentences following were used in theaddress of the Congregational Friends.28

Shortened in 1870 to read: "In the Turkish harem, inthose Seraglios, where intellect and soul are buriedbeneath the sensualism and brutality which are theinevitable results of woman's degradation, even there,she declares herself not only satisfied with her position,but glories in it."29

A paraphrase of Harriet Martineau, Eastern Life, Pastand Present (London, 1848), 2:164.30

Tennyson, "The Princess," pt. 2, lines 40-41.31

Tennyson, "The Princess," pt. 2, lines 155-60.32

From this point, 1870 reads: "omnipotence, and thattrue happiness springs from duty accomplished. Thuswill she learn the lesson of individual responsibility fortime and eternity. That neither father, husband, brotheror son, however willing they may be, can discharge herhigh duties of life, or stand in her stead when called intothe presence of the great Searcher of Hearts at the lastday."12 Methinks I hear some woman say, We mustobey our Husbands!!33

Who says so? Why the Bible. Noyou have not rightly read your Bible. In the opening ofthe Bible at the creation of our first parents, God calledtheir name Adam and gave them dominion over the fishof the sea, the fowl of the air and the beast of the field,but he says nothing to them about obedience to eachother. After the fall after Noah came out of the ark headdresses them in like manner.34

The chief support thatman finds in the Bible for this authority over woman hegets from the injunctions of Paul. It needs but littleattention to see how exceedingly limited that commandof St Paul must be even if you give it all the weightwhich is usually claimed for it. Wives obey yourHusbands in the Lord.35

Now as the command is givento me, I am of course to be the judge of what is in theLord and this opens a wide field of escape from anytroublesome commands. There can be no subordinationwhere the one to whom the command is given isallowed to sit in judgement on the character of thecommand. The Bible argument on this subject wouldafford of itself sufficient material for an entire lecture. Ishall not therefore attempt to go into it at this time,enough now to say that that best of Books is ever onthe side of freedom and we shrink not from pleadingour cause on its principles of universal justice and love.Let me here notice one of the greatest humbugsof the day, which has long found for itself a mostvaluable tool in woman. The education society.36

Theidea to me is monstrous and absurd of woman in herpresent condition of degradation and ignorance,forming a society for the education of young men—anorder of beings above themselves—claiming to begifted with superior powers of mind and body—havingall the avenues to learning, wealth, and distinctionthrown freely open to them and if they have but theenergy to avail themselves of all these advantages—theycan easily secure an education. Whilst woman poor andfriendless robbed of all her rights, oppressed on allsides, civilly, religiously, and socially, must needs goignorant herself—the idea of such a being working dayand night with her needle stitch, stitch, stitch, (for thepoor widow always throws in her mite for she is taughtto believe that all she gives for the decoration ofchurches and their black coated gentry is unto the Lord)to educate a great strong lug of man.I think a man who under the present state ofthings has the moral hardihood to take an education atthe hands of woman and at such an expense to her,ought as soon as he graduates with all his honours thickupon him take the first ship for Turkey and there passhis days in earnest efforts to rouse the inmates of theHarems to a true sense of their present debasement andnot as is his custom immediately enter our pulpits to tellus of his superiority to us "weaker vessels"37

hisprerogative to command, ours to obey—his duty topreach, ours to keep silence. Oh! for the generouspromptings of the days of chivalry—oh! for the poetryof romantic gallantry,—may they shine on us oncemore—then may we hope that these pious young menwho profess to believe in the golden rule, will clotheand educate themselves and encourage poor weakwoman to do the same for herself—or perchance theymight conceive the happy thought of reciprocating thebenefits so long enjoyed by them and form societies forthe education of young women of genius whose talentsought to be rescued from the oblivion of ignorance.There is something painfully affecting in the selfsacrifice and generosity of women who can neither reador write their own language with correctness goingabout begging money for the education of men. The lasttime an appeal of this kind was made to me I told theyoung lady I would send her to school a year if shewould go, but I would never again give one red cent tothe education society, and I do hope every christianwoman who has the least regard for her sex will makethe same resolve. We have worked long enough for manand at a most unjust, unwarrantable sacrifice of self, yethe gives no evidence of gratitude but has thus fartreated his benefactors with settled scorn ridicule andcontempt. But say they you do not need an education aswe do. We expect to shine in the great world, oureducation is our living. What let me ask is the real objectof all education? Just in proportion as the facultieswhich God has given us are harmoniously developed,do we attain our highest happiness and has not womanan equal right with man to happiness here as well ashereafter and ought she not to have equal facilities withhim for making an honest living whilst on thisfootstool?One common objection to this movement isthat if the principles of freedom and equality which weadvocate were put to practise, it would destroy allharmony in the domestic circle. Here let me ask howmany truly harmonious households have we now? Takeany village circle you know of and on the one hand youwill find the meek, sad looking, thoroughly subduedwife who knows no freedom of thought oraction—who passes her days in the dull routine ofhousehold cares and her nights half perchance inmaking the tattered garments whole and the other halfin slumbers oft disturbed by sick and restless children— She knows nothing of the great world without she hasno time for reading and her Husband finds more13 pleasure in discussing politics with men in groceries,taverns or Depots than he could in reading or telling hiswife the news whilst she sits mending his stockings andshirts through many a lonely evening, nor thinks heselfish being that he owes any duty to that perishingsoul, beyond providing a house to cover her head, foodto sustain life and raiment to put on and plenty of woodto [burn?].As to her little world within she finds not muchcomfort there. Her wishes should she have any must bein subjection to those of her tyrant—her will must be inperfect subordination, the comfort of the wife, children,servants one and all must be given up whollydisregarded until the great head of the house be firstattended to. No matter what the case may be he musthave his hot dinner. If wife or children are sick—theymust look elsewhere for care, he cannot be disturbed atnight, it does not agree with him to have his slumbersbroken it gives him the headache—renders him unfitfor business and worse than all her very soul is torturedevery day and hour by his harsh and cruel treatment ofher children. What mother cannot bear me witness toanguish of this sort? Oh! women how sadly you havelearned your duty to your children, to your own heart,to the God that gave you that holy love for them whenyou stand silent witnesses to the cruel infliction ofblows and strips from angry Fathers on the tremblingforms of helpless infancy— It is a mothers sacred dutyto shield her children from violence from whateversource it may come, it is her duty to resist oppressionwherever she may find it at home or abroad,38 by everymoral power within her reach. Many men who are wellknown for their philanthropy, who hate oppression on asouthern plantation, can play the tyrant right well athome. It is a much easier matter to denounce all thecrying sins of the day most eloquently too, than toendure for one hour the peevish moanings of a sickchild. To know whether a man is truly great and good,you must not judge by his appearance in the greatworld, but follow him to his home—where all restraintsare laid aside—there we see the true man his virtues andhis vices too.On the other hand we find the so calledHen-pecked Husband, oftimes a kind generous nobleminded man who hates contention and is willing to doanything for peace. He having unwarily caught a Tartertries to make the best of her. He can think his ownthoughts and tell them too when he feels quite sure thatshe is not at hand, he can absent himself from home asmuch as possible, but he does not feel like a free man.The detail of his sufferings I can neither describe norimagine never having been the confident of one of theseunfortunate beings.39

Now in such households as thesethere may be no open ruptures—they may seeminglyglide on without a ripple upon the surface—theaggrieved may have patiently resigned themselves tosuffer all things with christian fortitude—with sternphilosophy—but can there be harmony or happinessthere? oh! no far from it. The only happy householdswe now see are those in which Husband and wife shareequally in counsel and government. There can be notrue dignity or independence where there issubordination, no happiness without freedom.40Is it not strange that man is so slow to admit theintellectual power the moral heroism of woman. Howcan he with the page of history spread out before himdoubt her identity with himself. That there have beencomparatively a greater proportion of good queens thanof good kings is a fact stated by several historians.41

"Zenobia the celebrated queen of the East, is notexceeded by any king on record, for talent, courage, anddaring ambition. The Emperor Aurelian while besiegingher beautiful city of Palms, writes thus: The Romanpeople speak with contempt of the war I am wagingwith a woman. They are ignorant both of the characterand the power of Zenobia." She was possessed ofintellectual attainments very unusual in that age and wasa liberal patron of literature and science. Nocontemporary sovereign is represented as capable ofsuch high pursuits.42Notes:33

An "X" is lightly drawn across paragraph 21, thoughthe text is retained in 1870.34

Genesis 9:2. This paragraph leans on Grimke, Letterson the Equality of the Sexes, especially pages 10-11,94-95.35

Ephesians 5:22.36

Elizabeth Cady Stanton closely follows the discussionin Grimke, Letters on the Equality of the Sexes 120-21 inthis and the next paragraph.37

1 Peter 3:7.38

In 1870 sentence reads: "It is woman's mission toresist oppression wherever she may find it, whether ather own fireside, or on a Southern plantation, by everymoral power within her reach." The plantation isremoved from the next sentence about men.39

Here in 1870 is added: "but are not his sorrows allwritten in the book of the immortal Caudle, written byhis own hand, that all may read and pity the poor man,though feeling all through that the hapless Mrs. Caudlehad, after all, many reasons for her continual wail forsubstantial grief." She refers to Mrs. Caudle's Curtain14 Lectures, written by Douglas Jerrold for the Britishmagazine Punch and published in book form in 1845.40

Sentence added at end of paragraph in 1870: "Let usthen have no fears that this movement will disturb whatis seldom found a truly united and happy family."41

Sentence from Child, History of the Condition of Women,2:206.42

Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, came to the throne afterthe death of her husband and conquered Egypt, but theRoman Emperor Aurelian defeated and captured her in272. Child praised her as "the most remarkable amongAsiatic women," but omitted Aurelian's well-knowntribute (1:30-31). Elizabeth Cady Stanton could find it inthe classic textbook, Emma Willard, Universal Historyin Perspective, 12th ed. (New York, 1854), 158. She alsoconsulted Samuel L. Knapp, Female Biography;Containing Notices of Distinguished Women, inDifferent Nations and Ages (New York, 1834).Margaret Queen of Denmark, Norway andSweden, justly called the Semiramis of the north, by hertalent energy, firmness and foresight raised herself to adegree of power and grandeur then unequalled inEurope.43

No monarch has ever rivalled Isabella ofSpain in bravery sagacity political wisdom and a proudsense of honour. Yet these characteristics were unitedwith the purest modesty and the warmest feminineaffections. Ferdinand, her husband, was her inferior inmind, heart and nobility of character; but as a wife and amother she seems to have been a more perfect modelthan of a queen.44

Her treaty with the queen of Portugalwhen they met on the frontiers of the two kingdoms isprobably the only one of which it could be truly said:"The fair negotiators experienced none of theembarrassments usually incident to such deliberations,growing out of jealousy, distrust and a mutual desire toover reach. They were conducted in perfect good faithand a sincere desire on both sides to establish a cordialreconciliation."45

Austria has produced no wiser orbetter sovereign than Maria Theresa to whose strengthof character her nobles paid involuntary homage whenthey unanimously exclaimed "We will die for our KingMaria Theresa." She too was the most affectionate ofwives and most devoted of mothers.46

"In England itwas common to hear the people talk of King Elizabethand Queen James. Catharine of Russia bears honourablecomparison with Peter the Great. The annals of Africafurnish no example of a monarch equal to the braveintelligent and proud hearted Zinga, the negro Queen ofAngola. Blanche of Castile evinced great ability inadministering the government of France, during theminority of her son, and similar praise is due to Carolineof England, during the absence of her Husband."47What did woman not do what did she not suffer in ourrevolutionary struggle. In all great national difficultiesher heart has always been found to beat in the rightplace. She has ever been loyal to her country and hertyrants. He has said it and it must be right was theremark of Josephine in her happy days, when her ownjudgement suggested a change of course from the onemarked out to her by Napoleon, but she lived longenough to learn that her tyrant might both do and saymuch that was not right.48It has happened more than once that in a greatcrisis of national affairs, woman has been appealed tofor her aid. Hannah More one of the great minds of herday, at a time when French revolutionary and atheisticalopinions were spreading—was earnestly besought bymany eminent men to write something to counteractthese destructive influences—49

Her style was sopopular and she had shown so intimate a knowledge of15 human nature that they hoped much from her influence.Her village politics by Will Chip, written in a few hoursshowed that she merited the opinion entertained of herpower upon all classes of mind. It had as was expectedgreat effect. The tact and intelligence of this womancompletely turned the tide of opinion and many sayprevented a revolution, whether she did old Englandspoor any essential service by thus warding off whatmust surely come is a question—however she did it andthe wise ones of her day gloried in her success. Strangethat surrounded by such a galaxy of great minds, that sogreat a work should have been given with one accord toa woman to do.Where was the spirit found to sustain thatmighty discoverer Christopher Columbus in his darkhours of despair? Isabella of Arragon may be truly saidto be the mother of this western world. It was she whocontinued the constant friend and protector ofColumbus during her life, although assailed on all sidesyet she steadily and firmly rejected the advice ofnarrow-minded, timid counsellors and generouslybestowed her patronage upon that heroic adventurer. Inall those things in which the priests had no interest andconsequently did not influence her mind, she was everthe noble woman loving justice—the christian lovingmercy. The persecution of the Jews and theestablishment of the Inquisition cannot be said to havebeen countenanced by her, they were the result ofpriestly impudence. Torquemada the confessor of theQueen did not more fatally mislead her than do thepriests of our day mislead us, the cry of heretic was notmore potent in her day than that of Infidel in ours.50They burned the bodies of all those who differed fromthem we consign their souls to Hell fire.51The feeling we so often hear expressed ofdislike to seeing woman in places of publicity and trustis merely the effect of custom very like that prejudiceagainst colour that has been proved to be so trulyAmerican.52

What man or woman of you has a feeling ofdisapproval or disgust in reading the history of Joan ofArc. The sympathies of every heart are at once enlistedin the success of that extraordinary girl.53

Her historiantells us that when all human power seemed unavailing,the French no longer despised the supernatural aid ofthe damsel of Dom Remy. The last stronghold of theDauphin Charles was besieged, the discouraged Frenchwere about to abandon it when the coming of thissimple girl paralyzed the English and inspired thefollowers of Charles with the utmost courage. Hersuccess was philosophical in accordance with the lawsof mind. She had full faith in herself and inspired allthose who saw her with the same. Let us cultivate likefaith, like enthusiasm and we too shall impress all whosee and hear us with the same confidence which weourselves feel in our final success.There seems now to be a kind of moralstagnation in our midst. (Philanthropists have pulledevery string. War, slavery, drunkeness, licentiousnessand gluttony have been dragged naked before thepeople and all their abominations fully brought to light.Yet with idiotic laugh we hug these monsters to ourarms and rush on. Our churches are multiplying on allsides, our Sunday schools and prayer meetings are stillkept up, our missionary and tract societies have longlaboured and now the labourers begin to faint—theyfeel they cannot resist this rushing tide of vice, they feelthat the battlements of righteousness are weak againstthe mighty wicked, most are ready to raise the siege.54And how shall we account for this state of things?Depend upon it the degradation of woman is the secretof all this woe,—the inactivity of her head and heart.The voice of woman has been silenced, but man cannotfulfill his destiny alone—he cannot redeem his raceunaided, there are deep and tender chords of sympathyand love in the breasts of the down fallen the crushedthat woman can touch more skillfully than man. Theearth has never yet seen a truly great and virtuousnation, for woman has never yet stood the equal withman.55

(As with nations so with families. It is the wisemother who has the wise son, and it requires but littlethought to decide that as long as the women of thisnation remain but half developed in mind and body, solong shall we have a succession of men decrepit in bodyand soul, so long as your women are mere slaves, youmay throw your colleges to the wind, there is nomaterial to work upon, it is in vain to look for silver andgold from mines of copper and brass. How seldom nowis the Fathers pride gratified, his fond hopes realized inthe budding genius of the son—the wife isdegraded—made the mere creature of his caprice andnow the foolish son is heaviness to his heart. Truly arethe sins of the Fathers visited upon the children. God inhis wisdom has so linked together the whole humanfamily that any violence done at one end of the chain isfelt throughout its length.)Now is the time, now emphatically, for thewomen of this country to buckle on the armour that canbest resist the weapons of the enemy, ridicule and holyhorror. "Voices" were the visitors and advisers of Joanof Arc, "voices" have come to us, oftimes from thedepths of sorrow degradation and despair,—they havebeen too long unheeded. The same religious enthusiasmthat nerved her to what she deemed her work nownerves us to ours, her work was prophesied of, ours too16 is the fulfilling of what has long since been foretold. Inthe better days your sons and your daughters shallprophesy.56

Her struggle and triumph were alike short,our struggle shall be hard and long but our triumphshall be complete and forever. We do not expect thatour path will be strewn with the flowers of popularfavour—that our banner which we have flung to thewind will be fanned by the breath of popular applause,no we know that over the nettles of prejudice andbigotry will be our way, that upon our banner will beatthe dark stormcloud of opposition from those who haveentrenched themselves behind the strong bulwark ofmight, of force and who have fortified their position byevery means holy and unholy, but we steadfastly abidethe result. Unmoved we will bear it aloft—undauntedwe will unfurl it to the gale,—we know the stormcannot rend from it a shred, that the electric flash willbut more clearly show to us the glorious wordsinscribed upon it, "Equality of rights" and the rollingthunder will be sweet music in our ears, telling us of thelight [rest of line torn away] of the purer cleareratmosphere [rest of line torn away]A new era is dawning upon the world, when old mightto right must yield the battle blade to clerkly pen, whenthe millions now under the iron heel of the tyrant willassert their manhood, when woman yielding to thevoice of the spirit within her will demand therecognition of her humanity, when her soul, grown toolarge for her chains, will burst the bands around her setand stand redeemed regenerated and disenthralled.57The slumber is broken and the sleeper has risenThe day of the Goth and the Vandal is o'erAnd old earth feels the tread of freedom oncemoreWhile the globe resounds with the tramping of legionswho roused from their lethargy are resolved to be freeor perish—while old earth reels under the crashing ofthrones and the destruction of despotisms, hoary withage, while the flashing sunlight that breaks over usmakes dark so much that men have before revered andshows that to be good that had scarcely been dreamedof—while mind is investigating anxiously so much inpolitics, in science, in morals, while even the Indianrejoices in the bright light and throws from him hischieftainship shall we the women of this age be contentto remain inactive and to move in but a narrow andcircumscribed sphere, a sphere which man shall assignus?58

Shall we forget that God has given us the samepowers and faculties that he has conferred on him—thesame desires, the same hopes—the same trust inimmortality—that the same voice called us into being,that the same spark which kindled us into life is fromthe Divine and ever burning Fire—that we areresponsible to Him alone for the right cultivation andemployment of our minds and hearts and that it is notfor man to say "Thus far shalt thou go and no farther."Poor fallible man [rest of line torn away] up to him a[rest of line torn away] before him—as [word tornaway]juror? while the spirit within constantly whispers,Fools! will ye look to that that cannot satisfy you. Willyou waste your time and strength on lowering bucketsinto empty wells. Will you reverence that, that is of likenature with yourselves?Then fear not thou to wind thy horn,Though elf and gnome thy courage scorn.Ask for the castles King and Queen,Though rabble rout may rush between,Beat thee senseless to the ground,In the dark beset thee round,Persist to ask and it will come,Seek not for rest in humbler homeSo shalt thou see what few have seenThe palace home of King and Queen.Autograph Manuscript, Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers,Manuscript Division, Library of CongressPrepared for the Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stantonand Susan B. Anthony, vol. 1, In the School of Anti-Slavery,1840 to 1866, ed. Ann D. Gordon (New Brunswick,N.J., 1997). ©Rutgers, The State University of NewJersey.Notes:43

Both Child, History of the Condition of Women,2:206, and Willard, Universal History, 348, link thenames of these two queens. Margaret I (1353-1412)consolidated the crowns of Denmark, Norway, andSweden by 1398 and ruled a short-lived empire until herdeath. Semiramis was a mythical Assyrian queencredited with founding the city of Babylon andconquering many lands.44

Isabella (1451-1504), Spanish queen of Castile andLéon from 1474, married Ferdinand V of Castile, alsoknown as Ferdinand II of Aragon, (1442-1516), in 1469and reigned with him as sovereign of Castile. Theglorification of Isabella as grand but feminine, brave butmodest, and superior to her husband is consistent with17 Willard's interpretation in Universal History, 276.Elizabeth Cady Stanton also read William H. Prescott,History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, theCatholic, first published in 1837.45

Quotation from Prescott, History of Ferdinand andIsabella, in 1872 edition at 1:268. Isabella negotiatedwith Dona Beatriz of Portugal, her aunt, a mediator forthe queen of Portugal.46

Elizabeth Cady Stanton follows Samuel Knapp,Female Biography, 406, in translating the Latin as"king." Maria Theresa (1717-1780) came to theHapsburg throne in 1740. The pledge of the Hungariannobles enabled her to fight the war of Austriansuccession against the monarchs of Europe whodisputed her claim to the throne.47

Quotation from Child, History of the Condition of Women,2:206-7. Several queens are named. While Elizabeth Iruled England, James VI ruled Scotland. He laterbecame James I of England. Catherine the Great ismeasured against Peter the Great (1672-1725.) QueenZhinga (1582-1663) of Ndongo in western Angola ledher people in resistance to Portuguese domination. InFrance Blanche of Castile (1185?-1252), wife of LouisVIII, was regent during the minority of their son LouisIX and again when her son departed on a crusade.Caroline of Ansbach (1683-1737), wife of England'sGeorge II, served as her husband's regent repeatedlybetween 1729 and 1737.48

Josephine (1763-1814) was empress of France untilNapoleon Bonaparte arranged with the Pope for theirmarriage to be annulled in 1809. Victim of selfishmanhood, she became something of a sentimentalheroine in the 1830s and 1840s. Napoleon broke "theheart of the best of his friends," Willard's UniversalHistory (456) explained.49

Hannah More (1745-1833), English author andreformer, wrote Village Politics, Addressed to All theMechanics, Journeymen, and Day Labourers in GreatBritain (1792) under the name of "Will Chip, a countrycarpenter." In a dialogue two laborers dismiss therevolutionary ideas reaching England from France andcelebrate monarchy, deference, the gentry, and religiousfaith as the strengths of the English system. (MaryAlden Hopkins, Hannah More and Her Circle [NewYork, 1947], 205-9.)50

Again, Isabella of Castile, who supported theexplorations of Christopher Columbus (1451-1506).This willingness to regard Isabella as more victim thansovereign when considering the Inquisition prevailed inPrescott's biography and was echoed in Willard,Universal History. Tomas de Torquemada (1420?-1498),a Dominican monk, was made inquisitor general.51

Added at close of this sentence in 1870: "we consigntheir souls to hell-fire and their lives tomisrepresentation and persecution."52

Inserted here in 1870: "Where men make noobjections to women or negroes to serve or amuse themin public, but the claim of equality is what chagrins thetyrant. Man never rejects the aid of either, when theyserve him in the accomplishment of his work."53

Joan of Arc (1412?-1431), national heroine of France,claimed divine inspiration for her decision to rally thepeople to the aid of the dauphin, the future Charles VII(1403-1461) of France, who was kept from the throneby English armies. There were scores of books availableabout Joan, most of them interpreting her story as a testof faith. A few shared Elizabeth Cady Stanton'shumanistic interpretation of her charisma asself-confidence. Willard wrote: "Her own solemnpersuasion of the reality of her mission, which was, shesaid, communicated in visions, together with theintrepidity of her manner, made an impression of awe,even on the minds of the gay courtiers." (UniversalHistory, 254.)54

Added in 1870: "Verily, the world waits the coming ofsome new element, some purifying power, some spiritof mercy and love."55

This paragraph underwent considerable revision in1870 and became the final paragraph of the speech,followed by the closing verse.56

Joel 2:28.57

The address of the Congregational Friends usedparagraph 34, without the verse, as its penultimateparagraph, and the text marked by angle brackets isrestored to the torn manuscript from that source.58

The Friends omitted this reference to the work ofHicksite Friends with the Seneca Nation in westernNew York. In a constitution adopted in 1845 on therecommendation of the Friends, the Seneca replacedgovernment by chiefs with representative government.(Hugh Barbour et al., eds., Quaker Crosscurrents: ThreeHundred Years of Friends in the New York YearlyMeetings [Syracuse, N.Y., 1995], 96–99.)18