"Woman and her Era," by Eliza Woodson Farnham, was another work that called out a general discussion on the status of the s.e.xes, Mrs.
Farnham taking the ground of woman"s superiority. The great social and educational work done by her in California, when society there was chiefly male, and rapidly tending to savagism, and her humane experiment in the Sing Sing (N. Y.), State Prison, a.s.sisted by Georgiana Bruce Kirby and Mariana Johnson, are worthy of mention.
In the State of New York, in 1845, Rev. Samuel J. May preached a sermon at Syracuse, upon "The Eights and Conditions of Women," in which he sustained their right to take part in political life, saying women need not expect "to have their wrongs fully redressed, until they themselves have a voice and a hand in the enactment and administration of the laws."
In 1847, Clarina Howard Nichols, in her husband"s paper, addressed to the voters of the State of Vermont a series of editorials, setting forth the injustice of the property disabilities of married women.
In 1849, Lucretia Mott published a discourse on woman, delivered in the a.s.sembly Building, Philadelphia, in answer to a Lyceum lecture which Richard H. Dana, of Boston, was giving in many of the chief cities, ridiculing the idea of political equality for woman. Elizabeth Wilson, of Ohio, published a scriptural view of woman"s rights and duties far in advance of the generally received opinions. At even an earlier day, Martha Bradstreet, of Utica, plead her own case in the courts of New York, continuing her contest for many years. The temperance reform and the deep interest taken in it by women; the effective appeals they made, setting forth their wrongs as mother, wife, sister, and daughter of the drunkard, with a power beyond that of man, early gave them a local place on this platform as a favor, though denied as a right. Delegates from woman"s societies to State and National conventions invariably found themselves rejected. It was her early labors in the temperance cause that first roused Susan B.
Anthony to a realizing sense of woman"s social, civil, and political degradation, and thus secured her life-long labors for the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of woman. In 1847 she made her first speech at a public meeting of the Daughters of Temperance in Canajoharie, N. Y.
The same year Antoinette L. Brown, then a student at Oberlin College, Ohio, the first inst.i.tution that made the experiment of co-education, delivered her first speech on temperance in several places in Ohio, and on Woman"s Rights, in the Baptist church at Henrietta, N. Y. Lucy Stone, a graduate of Oberlin, made her first speech on Woman"s Rights the same year in her brother"s church at Brookfield, Ma.s.s.
Nor were the women of Europe inactive during these years. In 1824 Elizabeth Heyrick, a Quaker woman, cut the gordian knot of difficulty in the anti-slavery struggle in England, by an able essay in favor of immediate, unconditional emanc.i.p.ation. At Leipsic, in 1844, Helene Marie Weber--her father a Prussian officer, and her mother an English woman--wrote a series of ten tracts on "Woman"s Rights and Wrongs,"
covering the whole question and making a volume of over twelve hundred pages. The first of these treated of the intellectual faculties; the second, woman"s rights of property; the third, wedlock--deprecating the custom of woman merging her civil existence in that of her husband; the fourth claimed woman"s right to all political emoluments; the fifth, on ecclesiasticism, demanded for woman an entrance to the pulpit; the sixth, upon suffrage, declared it to be woman"s right and duty to vote. These essays were strong, vigorous, and convincing. Miss Weber also lectured in Vienna, Berlin, and several of the large German cities. In England, Lady Morgan"s "Woman and her Master" appeared;--a work filled with philosophical reflections, and of the same general bearing as Miss Weber"s. Also an "Appeal of Women," the joint work of Mrs. Wheeler and William Thomson--a strong and vigorous essay, in which woman"s limitations under the law were tersely and pungently set forth and her political rights demanded. The active part women took in the Polish and German revolutions and in favor of the abolition of slavery in the British West Indies, all taught their lessons of woman"s rights. Madam Mathilde Anneke, on the staff of her husband, with Hon. Carl Schurz, carried messages to and fro in the midst of danger on the battle-fields of Germany.
Thus over the civilized world we find the same impelling forces, and general development of society, without any individual concert of action, tending to the same general result; alike rousing the minds of men and women to the aggregated wrongs of centuries and inciting to an effort for their overthrow.
The works of George Sand, Frederika Bremer, Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot, Catharine Sedgwick, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, in literature; Mrs. Hemans, Mrs. Sigourney, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, in poetry; Angelica Kauffman, Rosa Bonheur, Harriet Hosmer, in art; Mary Somerville, Caroline Hersch.e.l.l, Maria Mitch.e.l.l, in science; Elizabeth Fry, Dorothea Dix, Mary Carpenter, in prison reform; Florence Nightingale and Clara Barton in the camp--are all parts of the great uprising of women out of the lethargy of the past, and are among the forces of the complete revolution a thousand pens and voices herald at this hour.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] As showing woman"s ignorance and prejudice, Mrs. Davis used to relate that when she uncovered her manikin some ladies would drop their veils because of its indelicacy, and others would run from the room; sometimes ladies even fainted.
[2] The writer"s father, a physician, as early as 1843-4, canva.s.sed the subject of giving his daughter (Matilda Joslyn Gage) a medical education, looking to Geneva--then presided over by his old instructor--to open its doors to her. But this bold idea was dropped, and Miss Blackwell was the first and only lady who was graduated from that Inst.i.tution until its incorporation with the Syracuse University and the removal of the college to that city.
[3] Judge Hurlbut, with a lawyer"s prejudice, first prepared a paper against the rights of woman. Looking it over, he saw himself able to answer every argument, which he proceeded to do--the result being his "Human Rights."
[4] In the New York chapter a fuller account of the discussion and action upon these bills will be given.
[5] See Appendix.
CHAPTER II.
WOMAN IN NEWSPAPERS.
In newspaper literature woman made her entrance at an early period and in an important manner. The first _daily_ newspaper in the world was established and edited by a woman, Elizabeth Mallet, in London, March, 1702. It was called _The Daily Courant_. In her salutatory, Mrs.
Mallet declared she had established her paper to "spare the public at least half the impertinences which the ordinary papers contain." Thus the first daily paper was made reformatory in its character by its wise woman-founder.
The first newspaper printed in Rhode Island was by Anna Franklin in 1732. She was printer to the colony, supplied blanks to the public officers, published pamphlets, etc., and in 1745 she printed for the colonial government an edition of the laws comprising three hundred and forty pages. She was aided by her two daughters, who were correct and quick compositors. The woman servant of the house usually worked the press. The third paper established in America was _The Mercury_, in Philadelphia. After the death of its founder, in 1742, it was suspended for a week, when his widow, Mrs. Cornelia Bradford, revived it and carried it on for many years, making it both a literary and a pecuniary success. The second newspaper started in the city of New York, ent.i.tled the _New York Weekly Journal_, was conducted by Mrs.
Zeuger for years after the death of her husband. She discontinued its publication in 1748. The _Maryland Gazette_, the first paper in that colony, and among the oldest in America, was established by Anna K.
Greene in 1767. She did the colony printing and continued the business till her death, in 1775. Mrs. Ha.s.sebatch also established a paper in Baltimore in 1773. Mrs. Mary K. G.o.ddard published the _Maryland Journal_ for eight years. Her editorials were of so spirited and p.r.o.nounced a character that only her s.e.x saved her from sound floggings. She took in job work. She was the first postmaster after the Revolution, holding the office for eight years. Two papers were early published in Virginia by women. Each was established in Williamsburg, and each was called _The Virginia Gazette_. The first, started by Clementina Reid, in 1772, favored the Colonial cause, giving great offense to many royalists. To counteract its influence, Mrs. H. Boyle, of the same place, started another paper in 1774, in the interests of the Crown, and desirous that it should seem to represent the true principles of the colony, she borrowed the name of the colonial paper. It lived but a short time. The Colonial _Virginia Gazette_ was the first paper in which was printed the Declaration of Independence. A synopsis was given July 19th, and the whole doc.u.ment the 26th. Mrs. Elizabeth Timothee published a paper in Charleston, South Carolina, from 1773 to 1775, called _The Gazette_. Anna Timothee revived it after the Revolution, and was appointed printer to the State, holding the office till 1792. Mary Crouch also published a paper in Charleston, S. C., until 1780. It was founded in special opposition to the Stamp Act. She afterward removed to Salem, Ma.s.s., and continued its publication for several years. Penelope Russell printed _The Censor_ in Boston, Ma.s.s., in 1771. She set her own type, and was such a ready compositor as to set up her editorials without written copy, while working at her case. The most tragical and interesting events were thus recorded by her. The first paper published in America, living to a second issue, was the _Ma.s.sachusetts Gazette and North Boston News Letter_. It was continued by Mrs.
Margaret Draper, two years after the death of her husband, and was the only paper of spirit in the colony, all but hers suspending publication when Boston was besieged by the British. Mrs. Sarah G.o.ddard printed a paper at Newport, R. I., in 1776. She was a well-educated woman, and versed in general literature. For two years she conducted her journal with great ability, afterward a.s.sociating John Carter with her, under the name of Sarah G.o.ddard & Co., retaining the partnership precedence so justly belonging to her. _The Courant_ at Hartford, Ct., was edited for two years by Mrs. Watson, after the death of her husband, in 1777. In 1784 Mrs. Mary Holt edited and published the _New York Journal_, continuing the business several years. She was appointed State printer. In 1798, _The Journal and Argus_ fell into the hands of Mrs. Greenleaf, who for some time published both a daily and semi-weekly edition. In Philadelphia, after the death of her father in 1802, Mrs. Jane Aitkins continued his business of printing. Her press-work bore high reputation. She was specially noted for her correctness in proof-reading. The _Free Enquirer_, edited in New York by Frances Wright in 1828, "was the first periodical established in the United States for the purpose of fearless and unbiased inquiry on all subjects." It had already been published two years under the name of _The New Harmony Gazette_, in Indiana, by Robert Dale Owen, for which Mrs. Wright had written many leading editorials, and in which she published serially "A Few Days in Athens."
Sarah Josepha Hale established a ladies" magazine in Boston in 1827, which she afterward removed to Philadelphia, there a.s.sociating with herself Louis G.o.dey, and a.s.suming the editorship of _G.o.dey"s Lady"s Book_. This magazine was followed by many others, of which Mrs.
Kirkland, Mrs. Osgood, Mrs. Ellet, Mrs. Sigourney, and women of like character were editors or contributors. These early magazines published many steel and colored engravings, not only of fashions, but reproductions of works of art, giving the first important impulse to the art of engraving in this country.
Many other periodicals and papers by women now appeared over the country. Mrs. Anne Royal edited for a quarter of a century a paper called _The Huntress_. In 1827 Lydia Maria Child published a paper for children called _The Juvenile Miscellany_, and in 1841 a.s.sumed the editorship of _The Anti-Slavery Standard_, in New York, which she ably conducted for eight years. _The Dial_, in Boston, a transcendental quarterly, edited by Margaret Fuller, made its appearance in 1840; its contributors, among whom were Ralph Waldo Emerson, Bronson Alcott, Theodore Parker, Wm. H. Channing, and the nature-loving Th.o.r.eau, were some of the most profound thinkers of the time. Charlotte Fowler Wells, the efficient coadjutor of her brothers and husband for the last forty-two years in the management of _The Phrenological Journal_ and Publishing House of Fowler & Wells in New York city, and since her husband"s death in 1875 the sole proprietor and general manager, has also conducted an extensive correspondence and written occasional articles for the _Journal. The Lowell Offering_, edited by the "mill girls" of that manufacturing town, was established in 1840, and exercised a wide influence. It lived till 1849. Its articles were entirely written by the girl operatives, among whom may be mentioned Lucy Larcom, Margaret Foley, the sculptor, who recently died in Rome; Lydia S. Hall, who at one time filled an important clerkship in the United States Treasury, and Harriet J. Hansan, afterward the wife of W. S. Robinson (Warrington), and herself one of the present workers in Woman Suffrage. Harriet F. Curtis, author of two popular novels, and Harriet Farley, both "mill girls," had entire editorial charge during the latter part of its existence. In Vermont, Clarina Howard Nichols edited the _Windham County Democrat_ from 1843 to 1853. It was a political paper of a p.r.o.nounced character; her husband was the publisher. Jane G. Swisshelm edited _The Sat.u.r.day Visitor_, at Pittsburg, Pa., in 1848. Also the same year _The True Kindred_ appeared, by Rebecca Sanford, at Akron, Ohio. _The Lily_, a temperance monthly, was started in Seneca Falls, N. Y., in 1849, by Amelia Bloomer, as editor and publisher. It also advocated Woman"s Rights, and attained a circulation in nearly every State and Territory of the Union. _The Sybil_ soon followed, Dr. Lydia Sayre Hasbrook, editor; also _The Pledge of Honor_, edited by N. M. Baker and E. Maria Sheldon, Adrian, Michigan.
In 1849, _Die Frauen Zeitung_, edited by Mathilde Franceska Anneke, was published in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1850, Lydia Jane Pierson edited a column of the _Lancaster_ (Pa.) _Gazette_; Mrs. Prewett edited the _Yazoo_ (Miss.) _Whig_, in Mississippi; and Mrs. Sheldon the _Dollar Weekly_. In 1851, Julia Ward Howe edited, with her husband, _The Commonwealth_, a newspaper dedicated to free thought, and zealous for the liberty of the slave. In 1851, Mrs. C. C. Bentley was editor of the _Concord Free Press_, in Vermont, and Elizabeth Aldrich of the _Genius of Liberty_, in Ohio. In 1852, Anna W. Spencer started the _Pioneer and Woman"s Advocate_, in Providence, R. I. Its motto was, "Liberty, Truth, Temperance, Equality." It was published semi-monthly, and advocated a better education for woman, a higher price for her labor, the opening of new industries. It was the earliest paper established in the United States for the advocacy of Woman"s Rights. In 1853, _The Una_, a paper devoted to the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of woman, owned and edited by Paulina Wright Davis, was first published in Providence, but afterward removed to Boston, where Caroline H. Dall became a.s.sociate editor. In 1855, Anna McDowell founded _The Woman"s Advocate_ in Philadelphia, a paper in which, like that of Mrs. Anna Franklin, the owner, editor, and compositors were all women. About this period many well-known literary women filled editorial chairs. Grace Greenwood started a child"s paper called _The Little Pilgrim_; Mrs. Bailey conducted the _Era_, an anti-slavery paper, in Washington, D. C., after her husband"s death.
In 1868, _The Revolution_, a p.r.o.nounced Woman"s Rights paper, was started in New York city; Susan B. Anthony, publisher and proprietor, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Parker Pillsbury, editors. Its motto, "Principles, not policy; justice, not favor; men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less." In 1870 it pa.s.sed into the hands of Laura Curtis Bullard, who edited it two years with the a.s.sistance of Phebe Carey and Augusta Larned, and in 1872 it found consecrated burial in _The Liberal Christian_, the leading Unitarian paper in New York. From the advent of _The Revolution_ can be dated a new era in the woman suffrage movement. Its brilliant, aggressive columns attracted the comments of the press, and drew the attention of the country to the reform so ably advocated. Many other papers devoted to the discussion of woman"s enfranchis.e.m.e.nt soon arose. In 1869, _The Pioneer_, in San Francisco, Cal., Emily Pitts Stevens, editor and proprietor. _The Woman"s Advocate_, at Dayton, O., A. J. Boyer and Miriam M. Cole, editors, started the same year. _The Sorosis_ and _The Agitator_, in Chicago, Ill., the latter owned and edited by Mary A.
Livermore, and _The Woman"s Advocate_, in New York, were all alike short-lived. _L"Amerique_, a semi-weekly French paper published in Chicago, Ill., by Madam Jennie d"Hericourt, and _Die Neue Zeit_, a German paper, in New York, by Mathilde F. Wendt, this same year, show the interest of our foreign women citizens in the cause of their s.e.x.
In 1870, _The Woman"s Journal_ was founded in Boston, Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, and Henry B. Blackwell, editors. _Woodhull and Claflin"s Weekly_, an erratic paper, advocating many new ideas, was established in New York by Victoria Woodhull and Tennie C. Claflin, editors and proprietors. _The New Northwest_, in Portland, Oregon, in 1871, Abigail Scott Duniway, editor and proprietor. _The Golden Dawn_, at San Francisco, Cal., in 1876, Mrs. Boyer, editor.
_The Ballot-Box_ was started in 1876, at Toledo, O., Sarah Langdon Williams, editor, under the auspices of the city Woman"s Suffrage a.s.sociation. It was moved to Syracuse in 1878, and is now edited by Matilda Joslyn Gage, under the name of _The National Citizen and Ballot-Box_, as an exponent of the views of the National Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation. Its motto, "Self-government is a natural right, and the ballot is the method of exercising that right." Laura de Force Gordon for some years edited a daily democratic paper in California.
In opposition to this large array of papers demanding equality for woman, a solitary little monthly was started a few years since, in Baltimore, Md., under the auspices of Mrs. General Sherman and Mrs.
Admiral Dahlgren. It was called _The True Woman_, but soon died of inanition and inherent weakness of const.i.tution.
In the Exposition of 1876, in Philadelphia, the _New Century_, edited and published under the auspices of the Woman"s Centennial Committee, was made-up and printed by women on a press of their own, in the Woman"s Pavilion. In 1877 Mrs. Theresa Lewis started _Woman"s Words_ in Philadelphia. For some time, Penfield, N. Y., boasted its thirteen-year-old girl editor, in Miss Nellie Williams. Her paper, the _Penfield Enterprise_, was for three years written, set up, and published by herself. It attained a circulation of three thousand.
Many foreign papers devoted to woman"s interests have been established within the last few years. The _Women"s Suffrage Journal_, in England, Lydia E. Becker, of Manchester, editor and proprietor; the _Englishwoman"s Journal_, in London, edited by Caroline Ashurst Biggs; _Woman and Work_ and the _Victoria Magazine_, by Emily Faithful, are among the number. Miss Faithful"s magazine having attained a circulation of fifty thousand. _Des Droits des Femmes_, long the organ of the Swiss woman suffragists, Madame Marie Goegg, the head, was followed by the _Solidarite_. _L"Avenir des Femmes_, edited by M. Leon Richer, has Mlle. Maria Dairesmes, the author of a spirited reply to the work of M. Dumas, _fils_, on Woman, as its special contributor.
_L"esperance_, of Geneva, an Englishwoman its editor, was an early advocate of woman"s cause. _La Donna_, at Venice, edited by Signora Gualberti Alaide Beccari (a well-known Italian philanthropic name); _La Cornelia_, at Florence, Signora Amelia Cunino Foliero de Luna, editor, prove Italian advancement. Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands must not be omitted from the list of those countries which have published Woman"s Rights papers. In Lima, Peru, we find a paper edited and controlled entirely by women; its name, _Alborada_, _i.e._, the Dawn, a South American prophecy and herald of that dawn of justice and equality now breaking upon the world. The Orient, likewise, shows progress. At Bukarest, in Romaine, a paper, the _Dekebalos_, upholding the elevation of woman, was started in 1874. The _Euridike_, at Constantinople, edited by Emile Leonzras, is of a similar character.
The _Bengalee Magazine_, devoted to the interests of Indian ladies, its editorials all from woman"s pen, shows Asiatic advance.
In the United States the list of women"s fashion papers, with their women editors and correspondents, is numerous and important. For fourteen years _Harper"s Bazaar_ has been ably edited by Mary L.
Booth; other papers of similar character are both owned and edited by women. _Madame Demorest"s Monthly_, a paper that originated the vast pattern business which has extended its ramifications into every part of the country and given employment to thousands of women. As ill.u.s.trative of woman"s continuity of purpose in newspaper work, we may mention the fact that for fifteen years f.a.n.n.y Fern did not fail to have an article in readiness each week for the _Ledger_, and for twenty years Jennie June (Mrs. Croly) has edited _Demorest"s Monthly_ and contributed to many other papers throughout the United States.
Mary Mapes Dodge has edited the _St. Nicholas_ the past eight years.
So important a place do women writers hold, _Harper"s Monthly_ a.s.serts, that the exceptionally large prices are paid to women contributors. The spiciest critics, reporters, and correspondents to-day, are women--Grace Greenwood, Louise Chandler Moulton, Mary Clemmer. Laura C. Holloway is upon the editorial staff of the Brooklyn _Eagle_. The New York _Times_ boasts a woman (Midi Morgan) cattle reporter, one of the best judges of stock in the country. In some papers, over their own names, women edit columns on special subjects, and fill important positions on journals owned and edited by men.
Elizabeth Boynton Harbert edits "The Woman"s Kingdom" in the _Inter-Ocean_, one of the leading dailies of Chicago. Mary Forney Weigley edits a social department in her father"s--John W.
Forney--paper, the _Progress_, in Philadelphia. The political columns of many papers are prepared by women, men often receiving the credit.
Among the best editorials in the New York _Tribune_, from Margaret Fuller to Lucia Gilbert Calhoun, have been from the pens of women.
If the proverb that "the pen is mightier than the sword" be true, woman"s skill and force in using this mightier weapon must soon change the destinies of the world.
CHAPTER III.
THE WORLD"S ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION, LONDON, JUNE 12, 1840.
Individualism rather than Authority--Personal appearance of Abolitionists--Clerical attempt to silence Woman--Double battle against the tyranny of s.e.x and color--Bigoted Abolitionists--James G. Birney likes freedom on a Southern plantation, but not at his own fireside--John Bull never dreamt that Woman would answer his call--The venerable Thomas Clarkson received by the Convention standing--Lengthy debate on "Female" delegates--The "Females"
rejected--William Lloyd Garrison refused to sit in the Convention.
In gathering up the threads of history in the last century, and weaving its facts and philosophy together, one can trace the liberal social ideas, growing out of the political and religious revolutions in France, Germany, Italy, and America; and their tendency to subst.i.tute for the divine right of kings, priests, and orders of n.o.bility, the higher and broader one of individual conscience and judgment in all matters pertaining to this life and that which is to come. It is not surprising that in so marked a transition period from the old to the new, as seen in the eighteenth century, that women, trained to think and write and speak, should have discovered that they, too, had some share in the new-born liberties suddenly announced to the world. That the radical political theories, propagated in different countries, made their legitimate impress on the minds of women of the highest culture, is clearly proved by their writings and conversation. While in their ignorance, women are usually more superst.i.tious, more devoutly religious than men; those trained to thought, have generally manifested more interest in political questions, and have more frequently spoken and written on such themes, than on those merely religious. This may be attributed, in a measure, to the fact that the tendency of woman"s mind, at this stage of her development, is toward practical, rather than toward speculative science.
Questions of political economy lie within the realm of positive knowledge; those of theology belong to the world of mysteries and abstractions, which those minds, only, that imagine they have compa.s.sed the known, are ambitious to enter and explore. And yet, the quickening power of the Protestant Reformation roused woman, as well as man, to new and higher thought. The bold declarations of Luther, placing individual judgment above church authority, the faith of the Quaker that the inner light was a better guide than arbitrary law, the religious idealism of the Transcendentalists, and their teachings that souls had no s.e.x, had each a marked influence in developing woman"s self-a.s.sertion. Such ideas making all divine revelations as veritable and momentous to one soul, as another, tended directly to equalize the members of the human family, and place men and women on the same plane of moral responsibility.
The revelations of science, too, a.n.a.lyzing and portraying the wonders and beauties of this material world, crowned with new dignity, man and woman,--Nature"s last and proudest work. Combe and Spurzheim, proving by their Phrenological discoveries that the feelings, sentiments, and affections of the soul mould and shape the skull, gave new importance to woman"s thought as mother of the race. Thus each new idea in religion, politics, science, and philosophy, tending to individualism, rather than authority, came into the world freighted with new hopes of liberty for woman.
And when in the progress of civilization the time had fully come for the recognition of the feminine element in humanity, women, in every civilized country unknown to each other, began simultaneously to demand a broader sphere of action. Thus the first public demand for political equality by a body of women in convention a.s.sembled, was a link in the chain of woman"s development, binding the future with the past, as complete and necessary in itself, as the events of any other period of her history. The ridicule of facts does not change their character. Many who study the past with interest, and see the importance of seeming trifles in helping forward great events, often fail to understand some of the best pages of history made under their own eyes. Hence the woman suffrage movement has not yet been accepted as the legitimate outgrowth of American ideas--a component part of the history of our republic--but is falsely considered the willful outburst of a few unbalanced minds, whose ideas can never be realized under any form of government.
Among the immediate causes that led to the demand for the equal political rights of women, in this country, we may note three: