In order to develop such women, our present method of educating girls, which is an injurious waste of time, must be entirely remodeled, and I shall look forward with great interest to any plan of action that may be suggested by your Convention.
With hearty sympathy in every aspiration, and the right hand of fellowship to every conscientious worker, believe me,
Very truly yours, ELIZABETH BLACKWELL.
LETTER FROM PAULINA WRIGHT DAVIS.
It is also often asked if women want more rights, why do they not take them? Let us see how that may be. Does a woman desire a _thorough_ medical education, where is the inst.i.tution fully and property endowed to receive her? Two women, it is true, have made their way through two separate colleges, and when they had honorably won their diplomas, and even the voice of scandal could not cast a shadow upon them, they were publicly insulted by having the doors of those inst.i.tutions closed upon all others of their s.e.x. If she desires a course of thorough disciplinary study for any purpose whatsoever, where is she to find means or the inst.i.tution to receive her? The academic shades are forbidden ground to her, while their ma.s.sive doors turn with no harsh grating sound at the magic word of man for man. If we did not feel too deeply the injustice of this, we might comfort ourselves with the idea that our brains are so superior that we do not need the same amount of study and discipline as the other s.e.x....
When Socrates was advocating the equal education of women for governmental offices, he was met by ridicule. His words in consideration of it are full of wisdom. Says the sage, "The man who laughs at women going through their exercises, reaps the unripe fruit of a ridiculous wisdom, and seems not rightly to know at what he laughs, or why he does it, for that ever was and will be deemed a n.o.ble saying, that the profitable is beautiful and the hurtful base."....
The harmony, unity, and oneness of the race, can not be secured while there is cla.s.s legislation; while one half of humanity is cramped within a narrow sphere and governed by arbitrary power. This unrecognized half desires these fact.i.tious restraints removed, and to be placed side by side with the other, simply that there may be full, free, and equal development in the future. The moral life which urges this claim is the G.o.d within us. The force which opposes it, it matters not whence it comes, "is of the earth, earthy."....
LETTER FROM WM. H. AND MARY JOHNSON.
The influence of woman as a wife and a mother has been so often portrayed, that it would be difficult to find a moral writer who has not indulged in the fruitful theme, but we can not omit the occasion of quoting the sentiments of the eloquent Wm. Wirt on this subject: "Is not _our_ conduct toward this s.e.x ill-advised and foolish in relation to our own happiness? Is it not to reject a boon which Providence kindly offers to us, and which, were we to embrace and cultivate it with skill, would refine and enlarge the sources of our own enjoyment, and purify, raise, and enn.o.ble our own character beyond the power of human calculation?
"As the companion of a man of sense and virtue, as an instrument and partner of his earthly happiness, what is the most beautiful woman in the world without a mind--without a cultivated mind, capable of an animated correspondence with his own, and of reciprocating all his thoughts and feelings?
Is not our conduct on this head ungenerous and ign.o.ble to the other s.e.x? Do we not deprive them of the brightest and most angelic portion of their character, degrade them from the rank of intelligence which they are formed to hold; and instead of making them the partners of our souls, attempt to debase them into mere objects of sense?
"Is not our conduct mean and dastardly? Does it not look as if we were afraid that, with equal opportunities, they would rival us in intelligence, and examine and refute our pretended superiority?"
We congratulate the Convention on the selection of the place for holding their deliberations. In no part of the State could a community be found better qualified to appreciate the objects of such a meeting, or the means for their accomplishment. Chester has undoubtedly taken the lead of all her sister counties in educational movements, as may be witnessed in her numerous flourishing schools for both s.e.xes, which are attracting, as to a common focus, pupils from all parts of the country. And it affords us unmingled pleasure to observe the numerous female schools that have been established in this quarter, and the patronage that has been extended toward them. These are sure indications of an improved public sentiment in relation to the development of the female mind.
But there are other indications of advancement in this particular still more encouraging, because they exhibit fruits of the most enn.o.bling powers of the human understanding. We allude to those benevolent a.s.sociations particularly for promoting temperance, in which the females of Chester County have borne such a conspicuous and effective part. The reflection is, indeed, animating, that at a period when almost all kindred a.s.sociations in the State, among the other s.e.x, had languished, and intemperance seemed likely once more to overwhelm the land with more desolating evils than had ever yet been known, there was yet to be found in Chester County an a.s.sociation of females who were n.o.bly bearing the standard of total abstinence, and by their well-timed labors giving evidence that there was yet vitality in the cause! Thus we have seen not only in this, but in other fields of moral reform, that the progress has uniformly been commensurate with the intellectual and moral culture of the female mind. Let the s.e.x, then, give their influence in promoting a system of education that will, if carried out, secure to every woman in the land the blessings of thorough practical instruction. May the deliberations of the Convention tend to the promotion of this most desirable object.
With such developments as must result from the more general diffusion of knowledge, not only rights, but duties that have been hidden by the suggestions of ignorance and bigotry will be brought to light, and the s.e.x will realize the n.o.ble sentiment of one of New England"s gifted sons, that
"New occasions teach new duties--Time makes ancient good uncouth, They must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of Truth!"
Desiring that your discussions may be guided by that spirit which has heretofore characterized them, we remain your friends,
WM. H. JOHNSON AND MARY JOHNSON.
RESOLUTIONS OF THE WESTCHESTER CONVENTION, 1852.
_Resolved_, That every party which claims to represent the humanity, the civilization, or the progress of the age, is bound to inscribe on its banner, "Equality before the laws, without distinction of s.e.x."
_Resolved_, That the science of government is not necessarily connected with the violence and intrigue which are now frequently practised by party politicians, neither does the exercise of the elective franchise, or the _PROPER_ discharge of governmental duties necessarily involve the sacrifice of the refinement or sensibilities of true womanhood.
_Resolved_, That in demanding for women that equal station among their brethren to which the laws of nature and of nature"s G.o.d ent.i.tle them, we do not urge the claim in the spirit of an adverse policy, or with any idea of separate advantages, or in any apprehension of conflicting interests between the s.e.xes.
_Resolved_, That while we regret the antagonism into which we are necessarily brought to some of the laws, customs, and monopolies of society, we have cause to rejoice that the exposure of the great wrongs of woman has been so promptly met by a kind spirit, and a disposition to redress these wrongs, to open avenues for her elevation, and to co-operate for her entire enfranchis.e.m.e.nt.
_Resolved_, That the greatest and most varied development of the human mind, and the widest sphere of usefulness, can be obtained only by the highest intellectual culture of the whole people, and that all obstructions should be removed which tend to prevent women from entering, as freely as men, upon the study of the physical, mental, and moral sciences.
_Resolved_, That we can not appreciate the justice or generosity of the laws which require women to pay taxes, and thus enable legislators richly to endow colleges and universities for their own s.e.x, from which the female s.e.x is entirely excluded.
_Resolved_, That the growing liberality of legislation and judicial construction, in regard to the property rights of married women, affords gratifying evidence of the equity of our demands and of their progress in public sentiment.
_Resolved_, That the disposition of property by law as affecting married parties, ought to be the same for the husband and the wife, "that she should have, during life, an equal control over the property gained by their mutual toil and sacrifices; and be heir to her husband, precisely to the extent that he is heir to her."
_Resolved_, That the mother being as much the natural guardian of the child as the father, ought so to be recognized in law, and if it is justly the province of the court to appoint guardians for minors, want of qualification in the surviving parent should be the required condition of the appointment.
_Resolved_, That the inequality of the remuneration paid for woman"s labor compared with that of man, is unjust and degrading, for so long as custom awards to her smaller compensation for services of equal value, she will be held in a state of dependence, not by any order of nature, but by an arbitrary rule of man.
_Resolved_, That the distinctive traits of female character, like its distinct physical organism, having its foundation in nature, the widest range of thought and action, and the highest cultivation and development of all its varied powers, will only make more apparent those sensibilities and graces which are considered its peculiar charm.
_Resolved_, That in claiming for woman all the rights of human beings we are but a.s.serting her humanity, leaving the differences actually existing in the male and female const.i.tutions to take care of themselves, these differences furnishing no reason for subjecting one s.e.x to the other.
_Resolved_, That a Committee be appointed to prepare and circulate pet.i.tions, asking of our Legislature such a change in the Const.i.tution and laws of this State, as shall extend to woman the privilege of the elective franchise, and equality in the division and inheritance of property.
_Resolved_, That said Committee be instructed to collect information upon the rights acknowledged and privileges guaranteed to women by other States and Governments, publishing it in such way as by them shall be deemed best for promoting political and legal equality between the s.e.xes.
_Resolved_, That H. M. Darlington, P. E. Gibbons, Hannah Wright, Mary Ann Fulton, Sarah E. Miller, Lea Pusey, and Ruth Dugdale be the Committee.
Oliver Johnson offered a resolution expressing the satisfaction afforded to the members of the Convention by the presence and labors of those friends who had come from their distant homes in other States to be with us on this occasion. It was unanimously adopted.
The Convention adjourned _sine die_.
FOURTH NATIONAL W. R. CONVENTION, PHILADELPHIA, OCTOBER 18, 19, 20, 1854.
RESOLUTIONS.
_Resolved_, That we congratulate the true friends of woman upon the rapid progress which her cause has made during the year past, in spite of the hostility of the bad and the prejudices of the good.
_Resolved_, That woman"s aspiration is to be the only limit of woman"s destiny.
_Resolved_, That so long as woman is debarred from an equal education, restricted in her employments, denied the right of independent property if married, and denied in all cases the right of controlling the legislation which she is nevertheless bound to obey, so long must the woman"s rights agitation be continued.
_Resolved_, That in perfect confidence that what we desire will one day be accomplished, we commit the cause of woman to G.o.d and to humanity.
_Resolved_, That in demanding the educational rights of woman, we do not deny the natural distinctions of s.e.x, but only wish to develop them fully and harmoniously.
_Resolved_, That in demanding the industrial rights of woman, we only claim that she should have "a fair day"s wages for a fair day"s work,"
which is, however, impossible while she is restricted to few ill-paid avocations, and unable (if married) to control her own earnings.
_Resolved_, That in demanding the political rights of woman, we simply a.s.sert the fundamental principle of democracy--that taxation and representation should go together, and that, if this principle is denied, all our inst.i.tutions must fall with it.
_Resolved_, That our present democracy is an absurdity, since it deprives woman even of the political power which is allowed to her in Europe, and abolishes all other aristocracy only to establish a new aristocracy of s.e.x, which includes _all_ men and excludes all women.
_Resolved_, That it is because we recognize the beauty and sacredness of the family, that we demand for woman an equal position there, instead of her losing, as now, the control of her own property, the custody of her own children, and, finally, her own legal existence, under laws which have all been p.r.o.nounced by jurists "a disgrace to a heathen nation."
_Resolved_, That we urge it upon the women of every American State: First, to pet.i.tion the legislatures for universal suffrage and a reform in the rights of property; second, to use their utmost efforts to improve female education; third, to open as rapidly as possible new channels for female industry.