ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, MRS. HORACE GREELEY,} _Central Com._ SUSAN B. ANTHONY, ABBY HOPPER GIBBONS, }
_To the President and Members of the National Democratic Convention_:
GENTLEMEN:--I address you by letter to ask the privilege of appearing before you during the sittings of this Convention, to demand the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of the women of America, the only cla.s.s of citizens wholly unrepresented in the Government, the only cla.s.s (not guilty of crime) taxed without representation, tried without a jury of their peers, governed without their consent. And yet in this cla.s.s are found many of your most n.o.ble, virtuous, law-abiding citizens, who possess all the requisite qualifications of voters. Women have property and education. We are not "idiots, lunatics, paupers, criminals, rebels," nor do we "bet on elections." We lack, according to your const.i.tutions, but one qualification--that of s.e.x--which is insurmountable, and, therefore, equivalent to a deprivation of the suffrage; in other words, the "tyranny of taxation without representation."
We desire to lay before you this violation of the great fundamental principle of our Government for your serious consideration, knowing that minorities can be moved by principles as majorities are only by votes. Hence we look to you for the initiative step in the redress of our grievances.
The party in power have not only failed to heed our innumerable pet.i.tions, asking the right of suffrage, poured into Congress and State Legislatures, but they have submitted a proposition to the several States to insert the word "male" in the Federal Const.i.tution, where it has never been, and thereby put up a new barrier against the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of woman. This fresh insult to the women of the Republic, who so bravely shared the dangers and sacrifices of the late war, has roused us to more earnest and persistent efforts to secure those rights, privileges, and immunities that belong to every citizen under Government. As you hold the Const.i.tution of the fathers to be a sacred legacy to us and our children forever, we ask you to save it from this desecration, which deprives one-half our citizens of the right of representation in the Government. Over this base proposition the nation has stood silent and indifferent. While the dominant party has with one hand lifted up two million black men and crowned them with the honor and dignity of citizenship, with the other it has dethroned fifteen million white women--their own mothers and sisters, their own wives and daughters--and cast them under the heel of the lowest orders of manhood.
We appeal to you, not only because you, being in a minority, are in a position to consider principles, but because you have been the party heretofore to extend the suffrage. It was the Democratic party that fought most valiantly for the removal of the "property qualification" from all white men, and thereby placed the poorest ditch-digger on a political level with the proudest millionaire. This one act of justice to workingmen has perpetuated your power, with but few interruptions, from that time until the war. And now you have an opportunity to confer a similar boon on the women of the country, and thus possess yourselves of a new talisman that will insure and perpetuate your political power for decades to come.
While the first and highest motive we would urge on you, is the recognition in all your action of the great principles of justice and equality that are the foundation of a republican government, it is not unworthy to remind you that the party that takes this onward step will reap its just reward. It needs but little observation to see that the tide of progress in all countries is setting toward the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of woman, and that this advance step in civilization is destined to be taken in our day.
We conjure you, then, to turn from the dead questions of the past to the vital issues of the hour. The brute form of slavery ended with the war. The black man is a soldier and a citizen. He holds the bullet and the ballot in his own right hand. Consider his case settled. Those weapons of defense and self-protection can never be wrenched from him. Yours the responsibility now to see that no new chains be forged by bondholders and monopolists for enslaving the labor of the country.
The late war, seemingly in the interest of slavery, was fought by unseen hands for the larger liberties of the whole people. It was not a war between North and South, for the principle of cla.s.s and caste knows neither lat.i.tude or longitude. It was a war of ideas--of Aristocracy and Democracy--of Capital and Labor--the same that has convulsed the race through the ages, and will continue to convulse future generations, until Justice and Equality shall reign upon the earth.
I desire, therefore, an opportunity to urge on this Convention the wisdom of basing its platform on universal suffrage as well as universal amnesty, from Maine to California, and thus take the first step toward a peaceful and permanent reconstruction.
In behalf of the Woman"s Suffrage a.s.sociation,
Respectfully yours, SUSAN B. ANTHONY.
The comments of the daily city press[110] on this "innovation" were as varied as amusing. During the reading of this doc.u.ment, several members of the Equal Rights a.s.sociation occupied conspicuous seats in the Convention. This was the first time in the history of that party that any effort had been made to secure the attendance of their mothers, wives, and daughters. But observing that women had been an element of enthusiasm in Republican meetings all through the war and the period of reconstruction, and seeing the improved tone and manner their presence had given to the speeches, and the general conduct of the proceedings, it was thought best to secure the same influence henceforth in Democratic conventions. The attempt at this time was quite satisfactory and successful. A large number of handsomely-dressed ladies helped to swell the immense audience that a.s.sembled in Tammany Hall, one of the most s.p.a.cious and elegant auditoriums in the city, to be dedicated on that day, July 4th, 1868, to Democratic principles.
As there were strong hopes that that party was about to take some new departure; some onward step; even to nominate for their leader so radical a man as Salmon P. Chase, a large number of Radicals and Liberals were present. Had the Democrats made that nomination, and put a woman suffrage plank in their platform, they would probably have carried the election. But they timidly clung to their old moorings, nominated a man who had an unpopular war record, and submitted a platform without one vital principle with which to rouse the enthusiasm of the people.
Thus was the movement inaugurated of sending women as delegates to both Republican and Democratic Presidential conventions, giving rise to the agitation of the suffrage question on new platforms. With what success the example has been followed, the records from time to time fully show.
FOOTNOTES:
[108] GOING OVER TO THE COPPERHEADS.--As we have received several letters from radical friends, warning us that we are going over to the copperheads, for their comfort and instruction we will state some part of our political creed.
1. We believe that suffrage is a natural right that belongs to every man and woman of sound mind, without any qualification of property, education, or s.e.x, and moreover, that no reconstruction is worthy the name that does not secure this right to the humblest citizen under government.
2. We believe that both the spirit and the letter of the Federal Const.i.tution and the Declaration of Independence give Congress the right to secure a republican form of government in every State in the Union, and if they had done their duty at the end of the war and proclaimed universal suffrage and universal amnesty, North and South, the Republican party would not have been floundering about in the fogs and mists of statesmanship to-day, without one inspiring party cry, or one grand motto inscribed upon their banners, to carry them through the coming Presidential campaign.
3. We believe that behind the rights of the Federal Government and the rights of the several States are fundamental rights more sacred than either, namely the rights of the individual to life, liberty, and happiness; that out of these rights all just governments flow, and whatever hinders the growth of the individual, restricts his liberty, and destroys his happiness, is tyranny, and it is his sacred duty to resist it to the death, as it is that of the State to resist the Federal Government, in order to secure larger liberty for its whole people. Rebellion in defense of justice, mercy, and the higher law is always in order. Inasmuch as the rights of the individual are above all const.i.tutions, customs, creeds, and codes, it is the duty of the general government to protect these rights against all intermediate authorities.
4. While we have always demanded emanc.i.p.ation and enfranchis.e.m.e.nt for the African race, we have no great enthusiasm for "negro suffrage" as a party cry, because it is too narrow and partial for the hour. In "56, Republicans asked aid and comfort of Abolitionists, because they were opposed to the extension of slavery, but the Abolitionists, who demanded "immediate emanc.i.p.ation," scouted the proposition; non-extension, said they, is by no means grappling with the principle; shutting up slavery where it is, is a step in the right direction, and will eventually strangle the whole system, but to educate the people into an idea we need the enthusiasm of a principle. When we say "slavery is a sin," and therefore demand "immediate emanc.i.p.ation," we end the evil and its extension in the same breath. So we say, to-day, to the Abolitionists and Republicans, we can not accept your platform, because it is not based on the idea that suffrage is a natural right, we admit that "negro suffrage" is a step in the right direction, but to educate the people to this partial demand even, we need the enthusiasm of a principle, which you do not proclaim, so long as you ask simply the extension of suffrage to two million men, instead of its universal application to every citizen of the republic. As the greater includes the less, when we say universal enfranchis.e.m.e.nt, we claim all that the most radical Abolitionists and Republicans claim and much more. Now, if the copperheads are educated up to this point, we are happy to give them the right hand of fellowship, and shall hope to be one of the delegates to the Tammany Hall Convention. We have read their platform, as set forth in four mortal columns of the _World_, and really do not see much to choose between it and the Chicago platform. In fact, with the two Democratic candidates, Gen.
Grant and Chief-Justice Chase, and their twin platforms, stump orators will have a hard task to prove why the people should prefer one candidate or party to the other. The aristocratic principle--the government of the many by the few--has been tried six thousand years in every lat.i.tude and longitude, and under every imaginable form, and the nations based on this principle have all alike perished. We have proclaimed the true democratic idea on this continent, but never lived it. Now the work of this generation is to realize what the fathers declared a government of equality. The ballot is the symbol of this idea, and it is not too much to demand to-day that it be placed in the hand of every citizen. It is not too much to ask that this idea, baptized in the blood of two revolutions, be now made the corner-stone of the republic, the test of loyalty to the Union, to justice, to humanity.--E. C. S. _The Revolution_, June 11, 1868.
[109] Lucretia Mott, Martha C. Wright, Robert Purvis, Olympia Brown, Josephine Griffing, Parker Pillsbury, Paulina Wright Davis, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Ernestine L.
Rose, Clarina Howard Nichols.
[110] (_New York Herald_, July 1, 1868): THE WOMEN"S RIGHTS WOMEN AND THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION.--The Central Committee of the Woman"s Suffrage a.s.sociation has prepared a woman"s rights platform for the coming National Democratic Convention. This a.s.sociation was given the cold shoulder and completely ignored by the radicals at Chicago, and the Democrats have therefore a splendid opportunity to take wind out of the Republican sails on "womanhood suffrage" against "manhood suffrage," and for white women especially, as better qualified for an intelligent exercise of the suffrage than the thousands of black men just rescued from the ignorance of negro slavery. The Democratic Convention can turn the radical party out of doors upon this issue alone if only bold enough to take strong ground upon it in favor of at least the same political rights to white women that Congress has given to Southern n.i.g.g.e.rs.
(_World_, July 1, 1868): The Woman"s Suffrage Central Committee have spoken with a kindness which will be appreciated at its proper value; they propose to antic.i.p.ate and obviate the labors of the National Democratic Convention by preparing a platform for the party in advance. To this platform we elsewhere give the benefit of our circulation. The doc.u.ment will not be amenable to censure for any lack of explicitness or novelty, and will doubtless receive all the attention to which its intrinsic merits ent.i.tle it, and which its exceptional comprehensiveness will challenge. _Place aux dames!_
(_Evening Telegram_, July 2, 1868): THE WOMAN"S PLATFORM.--The Woman"s Suffrage a.s.sociation present to the Tammany Hall Fourth of July Democratic National Convention a platform of principles which contains some good sound planks and proves at all events that an educated white woman is more fit to be intrusted with the ballot than is the brutalized and ignorant negro who has been invested with political power by the radicals of Congress. The platform is the work of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, and the red men of the wigwam and their a.s.sociates might do worse than indorse and adopt it entire. Besides, this declaration of principles on the part of the strong-minded females opens up a new feature in the campaign and may get rid of a serious difficulty. Why should not the Democratic Convention take the cow by the horns, nominate Elizabeth Cady Stanton or Susan B. Anthony as their candidate for the Vice-Presidency, and thus strike out at once in a bold revolutionary policy that would entirely overshadow the radicals and their n.i.g.g.e.rs" rights and sweep the country from Maine to California? We invite the attention of Belmont and the National Committee to the suggestion. Chase and Stanton would be a wonderfully strong ticket and a remarkable a.s.sociation of names, and so, for that matter, would be Chase and Anthony. Besides, it might really bring about a great reform in the character of the Senate to be presided over by a female. There would be fewer disgraceful scenes in that body, and even Chandler, Nye, and poor maudlin Yates would feel the influence of woman"s presence, and learn to behave themselves decently.
(_Sun_, July 2, 1868): _The Revolution_ for this week is full of suggestive and entertaining, if not instructive, reading matter.
Whether or not women ought to vote, it is very clear that those of the s.e.x who are a.s.sociated under the leadership of Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony can write in the most saucy and piquant fashion, and, moreover, know how to disarm by their wit and good humor the most ill-natured of their adversaries.
(_Tribune_, July 2, 1868): WOMAN SUFFRAGE.--It is said that strong ground will be taken against the admission of Miss Susan B. Anthony as a delegate at large to represent the interests of American women in the Convention; but as that lady"s ticket is already "impeticosed,"
and as she has a will of her own, and a number of brawny friends who will not see her deprived of her rights as a publisher, a woman, and an American citizen, it may be inferred that Miss Anthony will take a seat in due form, and will make herself heard when her turn comes.
(_World_, July 2, 1868): The ladies of the spirited woman"s rights weekly, called _The Revolution_, with Miss Susan B. Anthony at their head, are setting their caps for the Democratic party. Availing themselves of the privilege conferred on their charming s.e.x by leap-year, they are making the first advances if not a downright "proposal." Miss Anthony greets the National Convention by hanging out a fresh new sign in flaming red, brighter than the blushes of Aurora, and all the way up three flights of stairs to her office, visitors will encounter red signs to the right of them, red signs to the left of them, like the cannon at Balaklava. A conservative stranger needs all the courage of the immortal Light Brigade to run the gauntlet of the blazing word "_Revolution_" staring at him on so many sides. Miss Anthony has taken uncommon pains to make her paper this week captivating and irresistible, as will be seen by the advertis.e.m.e.nt she has inserted in this morning"s _World_ for the benefit of members of the Convention. But if she were a confiding miss of "sweet sixteen,"
instead of the "strong-minded woman" that she is, and the blushes of all those brilliant signs were transfused into her own lovely cheeks, we suspect (such is the infirmity or the perversity of "those odious men") that she would make more conquests than she can reasonably expect to do with the intellectual blaze and brilliancy of this week"s _Revolution_--splendid new signs and all. We fear the time is rather distant when gallant young democrats will not surrender to soft eyes and modest feminine ways sooner than to a good piece of argumentation in a female mouth. Miss Anthony will be the author of a "Revolution"
indeed, if she succeeds in persuading the well-dressed beaux to prefer wives to whom they would go to school. The members of the Convention are more mature, though we doubt if they are much more sensible. But Miss Anthony is not of a temper to be discouraged by small obstacles, and we applaud the spirit with which she attempts to "make hay while the sun shines."
(_Evening Express_, July 2, 1868): "THE REVOLUTION" AND "THE WOMAN."--The women--naturally enough malcontent when the inferior race of negroes is given the ballot; when Coolies are promised the ballot, and even Indians can not be refused equal and universal suffrage as "men and brethren"--insist now, more and more, upon women being taken into the Radical party. The Democracy acknowledge their right to equality with negroes and Coolies and Comanches--not much of an acknowledgment, by the way, but something in the way of progress, and far ahead of the Radicals. The last number of _The Revolution_ is irresistible in argument against the Negro Suffrage Radicals, who will not give women equal rights with negroes.
CHAPTER XXII.
NATIONAL CONVENTIONS--1869.
First Convention in Washington--First hearing before Congress--Delegates Invited from Every State--Senator Pomeroy, of Kansas--Debate between Colored Men and Women--Grace Greenwood"s Graphic Description--What the Members of the Convention Saw and Heard in Washington--Robert Purvis--A Western Trip--Conventions in Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Springfield and Madison--Editorial Correspondence in _The Revolution_--Anniversaries in New York and Brooklyn--Conventions in Newport and Saratoga.
In the Autumn of 1868 a call[111] was issued for the first Woman Suffrage Convention ever held in Washington. It was a period of intense excitement, as many important measures of reconstruction were under consideration. The XIV Amendment was ratified, the XV was still pending, and several bills were before Congress on the suffrage question. Pet.i.tions and protests against all amendments to the Const.i.tution regulating suffrage on the basis of s.e.x were being sent in by thousands in charge of the Washington a.s.sociation, of which Josephine S. Griffing was President. A large number of persons from every part of the Union were crowding into the Capital. Many Southerners being present to whom the demand for woman suffrage was new, the arguments were listened to with interest, while the tracts and doc.u.ments were eagerly purchased and distributed among their friends at home. All these things combined to make this Convention most enthusiastic and influential, not only in its immediate effect on those present, but from the highly complimentary reports of the press scattered over the nation. We find a brief summing up of the Convention in letters to _The Revolution_.
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.
WASHINGTON, JANUARY 22, 1869.
DEAR REVOLUTION:--The first National Woman"s Suffrage Convention ever held in Washington, closed on Wednesday night. There were representatives from about twenty States, and the deepest interest was manifested through all the sessions, increasing to the end[112]. On the morning of the Convention the business committee a.s.sembled in the ante-room of Carroll Hall, to discuss resolutions, officers, etc. As Senator Pomeroy, of Kansas, was present, it was decided that he should open the meeting and preside as long as his public duties would permit. This gave us a.s.surance of a healthy repose in the chair, which greatly helps to take off the chill in opening a convention. After a grave discussion of resolutions, permanent officers, etc., Mr. Pomeroy led the way to the platform, called the meeting to order, and made an able speech, taking the broad ground that as suffrage is a natural, inalienable right, it must, of necessity, belong to every citizen of the republic, black and white, male and female.
Mrs. Mott was chosen President, resolutions were reported, and when everything was in fine working order (except the furnace) Mr. Pomeroy slipped off to his senatorial duties, to watch the grand Kansas swindle now on the tapis, and to protect, if possible, the interests of the people.
Whatever elements or qualities combine to render any popular convention every way successful, were most felicitously blended in this gathering in Washington. In numbers, interest, earnestness, variety and especially ability, there was surely little left to be desired. As to numbers in attendance, from Maine, California, and all the way between, it is sufficient to say that although the first session was most encouragingly large, there was a constant increase till the last evening, when the s.p.a.cious hall was crowded in every part, until entrance was absolutely impossible, long before people ceased coming. Of the interest in the proceedings, it may be said that it was proposed to hold three sessions each day, with a brief recess at noon. But twelve o"clock and all o"clock were forgotten, and the day session continued until after four; the only regret seeming then to be that there were not more hours, and that human nature had not greater power of endurance.
The harmony that prevailed was all that could reasonably have been expected (if not even desired), considering the nature of the questions in hand, and the large number and variety of opinions entertained and expressed in the different sessions. On the one vital point, that suffrage is the inalienable right of every intelligent citizen who is held amenable to law, and is taxed to support the government, there was no difference expressed. The issue that roused the most heated debate was whether the colored man should be kept out of the right of suffrage until woman could also be enfranchised. One young, but not ineffectual speaker, declared he considered the women the bitterest enemies of the negro; and asked, with intense emotion, shall they be permitted to prevent the colored man from obtaining his rights? But it was not shown that women, anywhere, were making any effort toward that result. One or two women present declared they were unwilling that any more men should possess the right of suffrage until women had it also. But these are well known as most earnest advocates of universal suffrage, as well as the long-tried and approved friends of the colored race.
The discussion between colored men on the one side and women on the other, as to whether it was the duty of the women of the nation to hold their claims in abeyance, until all colored men are enfranchised, was spicy, able and affecting. When that n.o.ble man, Robert Purvis of Philadelphia, rose, and, with the loftiest sense of justice, with a true Roman grandeur, ignored his race and s.e.x, rebuked his own son for his narrow position, and demanded for his daughter all he asked for his son or himself, he thrilled the n.o.blest feelings in his audience. Is has been a great grief to the leading women in our cause that there should be antagonism with men whom we respect, whose wrongs we pity, and whose hopes we would fain help them to realize. When we contrast the condition of the most fortunate women at the North, with the living death colored men endure everywhere, there seems to be a selfishness in our present position. But remember we speak not for ourselves alone, but for all womankind, in poverty, ignorance and hopeless dependence, for the women of that oppressed race too, who, in slavery, have known a depth of misery and degradation that no man can ever appreciate.
That there were representatives of both political parties present, was very apparent, and sometimes forms of expression betrayed a little unnecessary partisan preference; but there was not one who bore any part in the long and intensely exciting discussions, who could be justly charged with any wish, however remote, to hold personal prejudice or party preference above principle and religious regard to justice and right. There was one feature in the convention that we greatly deplore, and that was an impatience, not only with the audience, but with some on the platform whenever any man arose to speak. We must not forget that men have sensibilities as well as women, and that our strongest hold to-day on the public mind is the fact that men of eloquence and power on both continents are pleading for our rights. While we ask justice for ourselves, let us at least be just to the n.o.ble men who advocate our cause. It is certainly generous in them to come to our platforms, to help us maintain our rights, and share the ridicule that attends every step of progress, and it is clearly our duty to defend their rights, at least when speaking in our behalf.
We had a brief interview with Senator Roscoe Conkling. We gave him a pet.i.tion signed by 400 ladies of Onondaga County, and urged him to make some wise remarks on the subject of woman"s suffrage when he presented it. We find all the New York women are sending their pet.i.tions to Senator Pomeroy. He seems to be immensely popular just now. We think our own Senators need some education in this direction. It would be well for the pet.i.tions of the several States to be placed in the hands of their respective Senators, that thus the attention of all of them might be called to the important subject. It is plain to see that Mr. Conkling is revolving this whole question in his mind. His greatest fear is that coa.r.s.e and ignorant women would crowd the polls and keep the better cla.s.s away.
Parker Pillsbury"s speech on "The Mortality of Nations," was one of the best efforts of his life, and as grand an argument on the whole question of Republican government as was ever made on the woman suffrage platform. Although he had been one of the earliest and most enthusiastic Abolitionists, yet the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of woman had always in his mind seemed of equal importance to that of the black man. In Mr. Pillsbury"s philosophy on both questions, the present was ever the time for immediate and absolute justice.
One great charm in the convention was the presence of Lucretia Mott, calm, dignified, clear and forcible as ever. Though she is now seventy-six years old, she sat through all the sessions, and noted everything that was said and done. It was a satisfaction to us all that she was able to preside over the first National Woman"s Suffrage Convention ever held at the Capitol. Her voice is stronger and her step lighter than many who are her juniors by twenty years. She preached last Sunday in the Unitarian Church to the profit and pleasure of a highly cultivated and large audience. We were most pleased to meet ex-Governor Robinson, the first Governor of Kansas, in the convention. He says there is a fair prospect that an amendment to strike out the word "male"
from the Const.i.tution will be submitted again in that State, when, he thinks, it will pa.s.s without doubt. Mrs. Minor, President of the Woman"s Suffrage a.s.sociation of Missouri, and Mrs. Starrett of Lawrence, Kansas, gave us a pleasant surprise by their appearance at the convention. They took an active part in the deliberations, and spoke with great effect. Senator Wilson was present, though he did not favor us with a speech. We urged him to do so, but he laughingly said he had no idea of making himself a target for our wit and sarcasm. We asked him, as he would not speak, to tell us the "wise, systematic, and efficient way" of pressing woman"s suffrage. He replied, "You are on the right track, go ahead." So we have decided to move "on this line"
until the inauguration of the new administration, when, under the dynasty of the chivalrous soldier, "our ways will, no doubt, be those of pleasantness, and all our paths be peace." New Jersey was represented by Deborah Butler of Vineland, the only live spot in that benighted State, and we thought her speech quite equal to what we heard from Mr. Cattell in the Senate. During the evening sessions, large numbers of women from the several departments were attentive listeners. Lieutenant-Governor Root of Kansas read the bill now before Congress demanding equal pay for women in the several departments where they perform equal work with the men by their side. He offered a resolution urging Congress to pa.s.s the bill at once, that justice might be done the hundreds of women in the District, for their faithful work under government.