"Letters, curt, reproachful, and sometimes almost insulting, came with absolute refusals to have the names of the writers used, or added to the swelling list already in hand. There was astonishment at the temerity of the writer in presenting such a request.
"Some few there were, so cheering and so excellent, that it is but justice to give extracts from them:
""I doubt whether a more important movement has ever been launched, touching the destiny of the race, than this in regard to the equality of the s.e.xes. You are at liberty to use my name. WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON."
""You do me but justice in supposing me deeply interested in the question of woman"s elevation. CATHERINE M. SEDGWICK."
""The new movement has my fullest sympathy, and my name is at its service. WILLIAM HENRY CHANNING."
"None came with such perfect and entire fullness as the one from which I quote the closing paragraph:
""Yes, with all my heart I give my name to your n.o.ble call.
""ELIZABETH CADY STANTON."
""You are at liberty to append my own and my wife"s name to your admirable call, ""ANN GREEN PHILLIPS, ""WENDELL PHILLIPS."
"Rev. Samuel J. May"s letter, full of the warmest sympathy, well deserves to be quoted entire, but s.p.a.ce forbids; suffice it that we have always known just where to find him.
""Your business is to launch new ideas--not one of them will ever be wrecked or lost. Under the dominion of these ideas, right practice must gradually take the place of wrong, and the first we shall know we shall find the social swallowing up the political, and the whole governing its parts.
""With genuine respect, your co-worker, ""MRS. PAULINA W. DAVIS. ELIZUR WRIGHT."
"Letters from Gerrit Smith, Joshua R. Giddings, John G. Whittier, Ralph Waldo Emerson, A. Bronson Alcott, Caroline Kirkland, Ann Estelle Lewis, Jane G. Swisshelm, William Elder, Rev. Thomas Brainard, and many others, expressive of deep interest, are before us.
"The Convention came together in the bright October days, a solemn, earnest crowd of n.o.ble men and women.
"One great disappointment fell upon us. Margaret Fuller, toward whom many eyes were turned as the future leader in this movement, was not with us. The "hungry, ravening sea," had swallowed her up, and we were left to mourn her guiding hand--her royal presence. To her, I, at least, had hoped to confide the leadership of this movement. It can never be known if she would have accepted it; the desire had been expressed to her by letter; but be that as it may, she was, and still is, a leader of thought; a position far more desirable than a leader of numbers.
"The Convention was called to order by Mrs. Sarah H. Earl,[41] of Worcester, and a permanent list of officers presented in due order, and the whole business of the Convention was conducted in a parliamentary manner. Mrs. Earl, to whose memory we pay tribute to-day as one gone before, not lost, was one of the loveliest embodiments of womanhood I have ever known. She possessed a rare combination of strength, gentleness, and earnestness, with a childlike freedom and cheerfulness. I miss to-day her clear voice, her graceful self-poise, her calm dignity.
"From our midst another is missing: Mrs. Sarah Tyndale, of Philadelphia--one of the first to sign the call. Indeed, the idea of such a convention had often been discussed in her home, more than two years before, a home where every progressive thought found a cordial welcome. To this n.o.ble woman, who gave herself to this work with genuine earnestness, it is fitting that we pay a tribute of affectionate respect. She was, perhaps, more widely known than any other woman of her time for her practical talents; having conducted one of the largest business houses in her native city for nearly a quarter of a century. Genial and largely hospitable, there was for her great social sacrifice in taking up a cause so unpopular; but she had no shrinking from duty, however trying it might be. Strong and grand as she was, in her womanly nature, she had nevertheless the largest and tenderest sympathies for the weak and erring. She was prescient, philosophical, just, and generous. The mother of a large family, who gathered around to honor and bless her, she had still room in her heart for the woes of the world, and the latter years of her life were given to earnest, philanthropic work. We miss to-day her sympathy, her wise counsel, her great, organizing power.
"Many others there are, whose names well deserve to be graven in gold, and it is cause of thanksgiving to G.o.d that they are still present with us, their lives speaking better than words. Some are in the Far West, doing brave service there; others are across the water; others are withheld by cares and duties from being present; but we would fain hope none are absent from choice.
"Profound feeling pervaded the entire audience, and the talent displayed in the discussions, the eloquence of women who had never before spoken in public, surprised even those who expected most. Mrs.
C. I. H. Nichols, of Vermont, made a profound impression. There was a touching, tender pathos in her stories which went home to the heart; and many eyes, all unused to tears, were moistened as she described the agony of the mother robbed of her child by the law.
"Abby H. Price, large-hearted and large-brained, gentle and strong, presented an address on the social question not easily forgotten, and seldom to the present time bettered.
"Lucy Stone, a natural orator, with a silvery voice, a heart warm and glowing with youthful enthusiasm; Antoinette L. Brown, a young minister, met firmly the Scriptural arguments; and Dr. Harriot K.
Hunt, earnest for the medical education of woman, gave variety to the discussions of the Convention.
"In this first national meeting the following resolution was pa.s.sed, which it may be proper here to reiterate, thus showing that our present demand has always been one and the same:
""_Resolved_, That women are clearly ent.i.tled to the right of suffrage, and to be considered eligible to office; the omission to demand which, on her part, is a palpable recreancy to duty, and a denial of which is a gross usurpation on the part of man, no longer to be endured; and that every party which claims to represent the humanity, civilization, and progress of the age, is bound to inscribe on its banners, "Equality before the Law, without distinction of s.e.x or Color.""
"From North to South the press found these reformers wonderfully ridiculous people. The "hen convention" was served up in every variety of style, till refined women dreaded to look into a newspaper.
Hitherto man had a.s.sumed to be the conscience of woman, now she indicated the will to think for herself; hence all this odium. But, however the word was preached, whether for wrath or conscience sake, we rejoiced and thanked G.o.d.
"In July, following this Convention, an able and elaborate notice appeared in the _Westminster Review_. This notice, candid in tone and spirit, as it was thorough and able in discussion, successfully vindicated every position we a.s.sumed, reaffirmed and established the highest ground taken in principle or policy by our movement. The wide-spread circulation and high authority of this paper told upon the public mind, both in Europe and this country. It was at the time supposed to be by Mr. John Stuart Mill. Later we learned that it was from the pen of his n.o.ble wife, to whom be all honor for thus coming to the aid of a struggling cause. I can pay no tribute to her memory so beautiful as the following extract from a letter recently received from her husband:
""It gives me the greatest pleasure to know that the service rendered by my dear wife to the cause which was nearer her heart than any other, by her essay in the _Westminster Review_, has had so much effect and is so justly appreciated in the United States.
Were it possible in a memoir to have the formation and growth of a mind like hers portrayed, to do so would be as valuable a benefit to mankind as was ever conferred by a biography. But such a psychological history is seldom possible, and in her case the materials for it do not exist. All that could be furnished is her birth-place, parentage, and a few dates, and it seems to me that her memory is more honored by the absence of any attempt at a biographical notice than by the presence of a most meagre one.
What she was, I have attempted, though most inadequately, to delineate in the remarks prefaced to her essay, as reprinted with my "Dissertations and Discussions.""
""I am very glad to hear of the step in advance made by the Rhode Island Legislature in const.i.tuting a Board of Women for some important administrative purposes. Your intended proposal, that women be impaneled on every jury where women are to be tried, seems to me very good, and calculated to place the injustice to which women are at present subjected, by the entire legal system, in a very striking light.
""I am, dear madam, yours sincerely, ""MRS. PAULINA WRIGHT DAVIS. J. S. MILL."
"Immediately after the reports were published, they were sent to various persons in Europe, and before the second Convention was held, letters of cheer were received from Harriet Martineau, Marion Reid, and others.
"Thus encouraged, we felt new zeal to go on with a work which had challenged the understanding and constrained the hearts of the best and soundest thinkers in the nation; had given an impulse to the women of England and of Sweden--for Frederika Bremer had quoted from our writings and reported our proceedings; our words had been like an angel"s visit to the prisoners of State in France and to the wronged and outraged at home!
"Many letters were received from literary women in this country as well as abroad. If not always ready to be identified with the work, they were appreciative of its good effects, and, like Nicodemus, they came by night to inquire "how these things could be." Self-interest showed them the advantages accruing from the recognition of equality--self-ism held them silent before the world till the reproach should be worn away; but we credit them with a sense of justice and right, which prompts them now to action. The rear guard is as essential in the army as the advance; each should select the place best adapted to their own powers."
As Mrs. Davis has fallen asleep since writing the above, we have thought best to give what seemed to her the salient points of that period in her own words.
October 23, 1850, a large audience a.s.sembled in Brinley Hall, Worcester, Ma.s.s. The Convention was called to order by Sarah H. Earle, of Worcester. Nine States were represented. There were Garrison, Phillips, Burleigh, Foster, Pillsbury, leaders in the anti-slavery struggle; Frederick Dougla.s.s and Sojourner Truth representing the enslaved African race. The Channings, Sargents, Parsons, Shaws, from the liberal pulpit and the aristocracy of Boston. From Ohio came Mariana and Oliver Johnson, who had edited the _Anti-Slavery Bugle_, that sent forth many a blast against the black laws of that State, and many a stirring call for the woman"s conventions. From Ohio, too, came Ellen and Marion Blackwell, sisters of Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell.
Pennsylvania sent its Lucretia Mott, its Darlingtons, Plumlys, Hastings, Millers, Hicks, who had all taken part in the exciting divisions among the "Friends," as a sect. On motion of Mariana Johnson, a temporary chairman was chosen, and a nominating committee appointed, which reported the following list of officers adopted by the Convention:
_President_--PAULINA WRIGHT DAVIS, R. I.
_Vice-Presidents_--WILLIAM HENRY CHANNING, Ma.s.s.; SARAH TYNDALE, Pa.
_Secretaries_--HANNAH M. DARLINGTON, Pa.; JOSEPH C. HATHAWAY, N. Y.
The Call of the Convention was read. It contains so good a digest of the demands then made, in language so calm and choice, in thought so clear and philosophical, that we give it entire, that the women of the future may see how well their mothers understood their rights, and with what modesty and moderation they pressed their wrongs on the consideration of their rulers.
THE CALL.
A Convention will be held at Worcester, Ma.s.s., on the 23d and 24th of October next, to consider the question of Woman"s Rights, Duties, and Relations. The men and women who feel sufficient interest in the subject to give an earnest thought and effective effort to its rightful adjustment, are invited to meet each other in free conference at the time and place appointed.
The upward tending spirit of the age, busy in an hundred forms of effort for the world"s redemption from the sins and sufferings which oppress it, has brought this one, which yields to none in importance and urgency, into distinguished prominence. One-half the race are its immediate objects, and the other half are as deeply involved, by that absolute unity of interest and destiny which Nature has established between them. The neighbor is near enough to involve every human being in a general equality of rights and community of interests; but men and women in their reciprocities of love and duty, are one flesh and one blood; mother, sister, wife, and daughter come so near the heart and mind of every man, that they must be either his blessing or his bane. Where there is such mutuality of interests, such an interlinking of life, there can be no real antagonism of position and action. The s.e.xes should not, for any reason or by any chance, take hostile att.i.tudes toward each other, either in the apprehension or amendment of the wrongs which exist in their necessary relations; but they should harmonize in opinion and co-operate in effort, for the reason that they must unite in the ultimate achievement of the desired reformation.
Of the many points now under discussion, and demanding a just settlement; the general question of woman"s rights and relations comprehends these: Her education--literary, scientific, and artistic; her avocations--industrial, commercial, and professional; her interests--pecuniary, civil, and political; in a word, her rights as an individual, and her functions as a citizen.
No one will pretend that all these interests, embracing as they do all that is not merely animal in a human life, are rightly understood, or justly provided for in the existing social order.
Nor is it any more true that the const.i.tutional differences of the s.e.xes which should determine, define, and limit the resulting differences of office and duty, are adequately comprehended and practically observed.
Woman has been condemned for her greater delicacy of physical organization, to inferiority of intellectual and moral culture, and to the forfeiture of great social, civil, and religious privileges. In the relation of marriage she has been ideally annihilated and actually enslaved in all that concerns her personal and pecuniary rights, and even in widowed and single life, she is oppressed with such limitation and degradation of labor and avocation, as clearly and cruelly mark the condition of a disabled caste. But by the inspiration of the Almighty, the beneficent spirit of reform is roused to the redress of these wrongs.
The tyranny which degrades and crushes wives and mothers sits no longer lightly on the world"s conscience; the heart"s home-worship feels the stain of stooping at a dishonored altar.
Manhood begins to feel the shame of muddying the springs from which it draws its highest life, and womanhood is everywhere awakening to a.s.sert its divinely chartered rights and to fulfill its n.o.blest duties. It is the spirit of reviving truth and righteousness which has moved upon the great deep of the public heart and aroused its redressing justice, and through it the Providence of G.o.d is vindicating the order and appointments of His creation.
The signs are encouraging; the time is opportune. Come, then, to this Convention. It is your duty, if you are worthy of your age and country. Give the help of your best thought to separate the light from the darkness. Wisely give the protection of your name and the benefit of your efforts to the great work of settling the principles, devising the methods, and achieving the success of this high and holy movement.
This call was signed by eighty-nine leading men and women of six States.[42]