Anna Dickinson SPEECHES & WRITINGS FILE  SPEECH FILE  Misc.
1
Said the Great Corsican "It is not I 
that makes Marshals, it is victories"
So say we to day, - it is not a 
President that can make or mar the 
destiny of America, but Americans themselves.
I recognize what we owe to the 
patience and sagacity of Grant--the fire &
dash of Sheridan — the Generalship of 
Sherman, the heroic brilliancey of
Farragut — Sharp still, as his name 
well implies!  — is the key to be 
struck  by Fremont, to the [fit?] and
spoken in season by Butler, to the 
large & tender heart that vivified the 
pain, made clear the comprehension,
& thrilled the [wiser ?]
that spoke into freedom 3000000 
of slaves. — I say I recognize 
to the full what we owe
to these men and others, in the battles
fought — & the victories won in the
 past. — Yet I see quite as clearlywhat the nation owes to itself, — that
it was general as well as army, —
planner as well as executor, — that 
the heart led those who were supposed
to be its head. — that it was not 
one — nor two, but Americans who 
saved America, — that it is the 
stature of a people not of a person
that must be lifted to the clouds in
commemoration of great deeds, of 
noble daring, of triumph won through 
pain & loss.

My friends, if one man, 
however noble & commanding could
not save us, be sure one man can
not destroy us, however infamous &
humble he may be.

To day the power that 
crowns or dethrones us, — that 
honors or debases us, that saves 
our liberty or destroys the Am. Republic
lies not in the hands of an assassin
made President, but in the hearts &
consciences of the men & women before me.

2

Does he fling himself in the scale with 
oppression,  — weigh down the side of
 justice till you toss him as a feather to 
the [skies] clouds, does he strike hands with
aristocracy — make Democracy a 
living truth in America & no lie, — it
 will overwhelm him, — does he sound
oppression through the trumpet of law 
shout for Liberty 'till his puny voice is
lost in [the] its time, & then would be echoes
In the sound. Let the north strike one 
united blow for freedom & equality with the ballot between now & 
next December & it will [strike] crush him &
his policy like a thunderbolt.

Said a great General once, —"The
business of a battle is victory, but to day I 
fought for life." — What stands at stake
 in the pending conflict is not a  partisan
 triumph, —  is not the success or defeat of 
a man, is not a party victorious or 
overthrown, — the loyal masses are as 
literally fighting for life to-day asWhen Lee faced Grant on the field, &
hostile armies met in shock of battle,
it is the life of Am Liberty & through it of
American Independence that is assailed, it
is freedom that is threatened, & the Republic
that will die if it be struck down.

Between us be truth; [let me honestly
present this case as I see it & I beg of you to as honestly
[consider] listen / I desire in nothing]  to extenuate
nor to set down aught in Malice, & keeping this in view
believ I am honestly presenting this whole
case to you when I say that the relative position
of [affairs] parties has not changed within the last
18 months, - that treason and bitterness are
as rampant in the south now as then,
that hatred of American [Lies?], and Am
Liberty is as fierce there, now as then,
that traitors in the north are quite as mean &
perhaps more dangerous now as then, that
loyalists in the two sections are fighting
the spirit of rebellion and slavery as desperately
and with as much need now as then, - that
the only change that has occurred has been
in a change of commanders in the part of our


3
enemies they having substituted Andrew
Johnson for Jefferson Davis, - the White
House at Washington being better headquarters
for their leader than a prison cell at
Fortress Monroe.

For can it be said that the contest
has been adjourned from the field to the
forum - that the civil war is ended. -
that ballots have been substituted for bullets
back of these ballots  in the south lie bullets, -
- "my policy" has its triumphs in blood
if not at the polls, - the proclamation of
peace was in reality a proclamation of
war, the cause that was [?] in
Maine [stood] was triumphant in the streets of [at] New Orleans,

Are the one hand [Andrew Johnson] the Pres
backed by a party of traitors and office holders
on the other the loyal masses, with [&] their Representatives
in Congress. Said  the Richmond
Examiner on the 3. of last May will Sumner
and Sephens dare to go with Andrew Johnson
to the supreme forum of the people when
the contest must at last be decided?"
They have so dared, to the people they
have appealed, the people have answered, - the contest has beendecided in Vermont & has been decided in Maine - will be 
decided next Tuesday in Pa. -- will be 
decided in the north within the next 30 
days.
     Shall later traitors, dictate terms of 
settlement to their loyal [victors] conquerors, -- 
shall rebellion defeated in battle, rule
in the councils of the nation it failed  
to destroy. -- Shall slavery crushed in 
war revive in peace, -- shall liberty be 
made odious & treason respectable, 
the defenders of the republic punished & its 
this is the controversy between the
assailants honored 
President & Congress, -- this the controversy
which the people are to entangle or to end.

Our great need & pressing necessity
[a Congress] 
is to elect a fourtieth Congress that shall know the right -- & knowing dare maintain, strong 
enough, -- whether it use its strength
or not. -- Strong enough I say to
impeach Andrew Johnson, to try & to
unbench him at the bar of the people 
he has betrayed, & of the cause of liberty & 
law he has outraged & trampled underfoot.
--a Congress so overwhelming 

4

in the majority against the Pres. [him] that it 
care enough to scorn his St Louis threat
to veto every measure it may send to 
him for approval, a Congress so united
in its devotion to the proper that not a 
man in its insignificant minority will 
dare to join with the southern 
representatives in the coalition planned by 
by the Pres. & shadowed forth by Raymond 
& Blair. -- a congress &c.

Consider my friends what the 
result will be if the matter be otherwise 
decided. -- if the 40 Congress be meeker
than the 39. -- if the party inaugurated 
him on the 14. of last August, be successful 
in augmenting its strength at
the Capitol. -- what is this party. --
who consitute it. -- what reps did it send
to the convention that [which] built the platform 
of principles in which it stands. -- It 
sent Rives Pollard & John Forsythe who did 
as much with their respective papers to sustain 
the cancer of the South as did an army 
in the field & who to-day mourn over it as 
a lost cause, -- lost to be found again. --is sent from Florida, (with such men as
 Joshua Hill within call) but three men 
who had not been in the rebel army as
volunteer officers.  Is sent  [from Ar]
Albert Pike who organized the first Indian
force used during the war, &  who  [commanded]
at  Pea Ridge commanded the Indian Brigade that
murdered and scalped our  heroic blue coated
boys.  Beside him stood the man Boudinot, 
who as a member of the State Secession Con. , 
drew a revolver on the noble old man., now 
Gov.  Murphy when he refused to sign the
abominable ordinances,  —From N.C. It  sent 18 men, -
but three of whom had not been engaged
either as a civil  or military officer of the
Confederacy -  Is sent the  Gov of S. C. - a state which 
was fin several times refused to repudiate the rebel war debt
                                   It sent Blair, driven ignominously
from Abraham Lincoln's Cabinet
         
Alex Stephens. - Vice - President of the rebel
Gov. -  Harris  censured by Congress for praying
that the South might never be defeated 
 & who in his last speech boasted that 
rebels could walk over the graves of northern
union soldiers,  Dick Taylor, the brother in
law of Jeff Davis,  who first compelled union


                       5
men to dig their own graves [then]& had
them shot where they stood. - It sent the 
recorder of Memphis who urged the mob in
the midst of its carnival of blood to new
acts of violence, Hughes who six years 
ago [urged] counselled the division of north from south,
the union of Pa with the south, —Parker
who declared the  streets of N. J. should 
flow with blood  before a regiment should
leave it's boundaries to fight the south. -
Pendleton, Vallandigham, Wood, Brooks
Seymour. -  [men who refer]  Chosen champions  all of the
organization  too cowardly to defend it's principles
in open combat, -  an organization that
stabbed the Gov from the rear while it
was engaged in the front, fought with 
the weapons of treachery & assassination
& is most fitting represented by the man
who made A. J. Pres of the U. L. -  it
it sent . - Re of whom let us be silent x [Henry Raymond & James] Cowan Doolittle
Hon gentlemen thrice requested by the  respective legislators
of this states to ' resign the posts they were
dishonouring, -  who make their own welfare
their  unswervd from law, - who observe

x  we will speak no evil of the dead.the rules of honor as we observe the stars
from afar off, & who make us comprehend
to what depths of meanness
human nature can descend. When 
pocket, policy & patronage combine to 
tempt it.

These being types of the men who form 
the party [what] of Andrew Johnson what work do they purpose to do.
 - - for work their master has for them or
must find them, else [he] will he be in the
condition of those in the old stories who 
evoked the fiends, when once the evil
spirit was called up it must be kept employed
or it would tear [them] its evoker in pieces.

I but quote from their own authorities
when I say that they purpose to ostracize 
& expatriate & if necessary exterminate loyal 
white men in the South. -- persecute, outrage, 
oppress, re-enslave loyal black ones. --
silence free speech, [muz] crush a free press. --
make a farce of free labor. -- prevent the
introduction of free schools. -- that they 
purpose to assume their old places in 
Congress, dictate their own terms, -- make a
compound of their rebel debt & our national

6
one, -- recuperate their strength, replenish 
their pockets, liven their energies, & replay 
the game with cannon balls in which 
they have just so signally lost, -- failing 
in this plan to coalesce with the Lucrative
Party of the north in a new Congress, -- to
set at defiance that of the people. -- to ignore or 
nullify its acts through the last five
years -- to go forth with their President 
as the government. to a contest with 
public opinion in which they will have
[as weapons] of arguments or [defens] reason, of 
common sense or law arms neither offensive
 or defensive, -- Having recourse to 
force they will find it vain yet will succeed in plunging the country  
    into a second civil war beside whose kind
brief they will present a most miserable
   horrors the first will pale its ineffectual fires.
spectacle of impotent ambition, of little 
men whose lot has falen upon a great 
crisis, of infamous men bringing a 
[great] majestic empire to misery, to woe, to 
anguish, if not to destruction & 
death itself. --
I present to you to no fanatical 
ravings, -- no phantasms of fever, of imaginationimagination, or of a distempered radical

                 when I make this assertion
brain, —& quote for you Raymond, Blair, 
the Richmond Ed., the Memphis Avalanche, 
the lewd fellow of the baser sort, - vide St Paul.
--  Whom men call President.
Listen for a moment, -- said the 
chosen mouthpiece of this new-nameless
party, in the times of July 66.  "The 
whole South will send whoever they please 
to the next Congress. These reps uniting [c?]
with northern Dems will organize the 
next Congress."  The best means of 
which I know to prevent such a 
consummation is to permit so few 
Dems to go, - [as to necessitate such] that one may say of them 
[for them with a microscope] telescope - as did 
the Irish Priest of his congregation, "The 
present company affairs to be mostly 
absent.
Montgomery Blair in the 18 of last 
July threatened that if the next Congress 
dared to continue [their] its excusion of
the Southern states from its floor, the
Democracy with the Southern states would
co-alesce, & we will have two presidents

7
and two Congresses one recognized by the
Radicals, the other by the Con. - What
then. - the he asserts war will follow
- a war which will not be in the South
but in the north, - in Pa. & in Mass.

-- What says the South to this, -or the 
17 of July the Rich Whig called for a 
fresh Proc. from the Pres. - announcing
 that as the right of each state to rep had 
assured, through the Dec of Peace, -   he
 could no longer under his oath to obey 
the Con. acknowledge as a Congress a
 body which by denying admission to the 
Reps of certain states failed  to come up to 
the requirements of the law which gives
 existence to Congress."-
So [say] speak his supporters, -- [what says] how speaks 
the man himself, — {that he has resolved
 to ruin or to rule the State. is clear to the 
dullest apprehension. — let all good 
men pray that God may confound the
 judgments of the wicked & then set about

[*90000  14,000,000
13*](to secure the fulfillment of their petitions)
It is needless  [& useless] to sum up the 
vulgar, the disgusting, the infamous, [the] vituperation
poured out by him on the heads of the Reps
of the people assembled in the 39. Congress. -
Needless to offend your ears by a repetition 
of the epithets by which he sought to 
heap odium on the heads of the noble &
admirable men who compose[d] it. - We
have heard them called a tyrannical &
domineering Congress.  a Kennel of radical
hounds. - a body of crazy tyrants foul whelps of sin -. - a
pack of slanderers & caluminators of usurpers
 & tyrants, till our ears stunned by
the manifold repetition fail to comprehend
the coarseness &  enormity of the falsehoods [& slanders,]
through familiarity with their sound. 
Not content with calling the lawfully & 
Constitutionally elected Sen and Reps of the U.S. 
usurpers, he declares that they are endeavoring 
to break up the Gov. -that by 
shutting the door in three Southern states 
They make of themselves disunionists- 
Northern secessionists & disunionists- 



8
that they are partisans who have no respect 
for the Con. of their Country, that their 
present course will establish a despotism 
& eventually a monarchy- that they 
have made every effort to prevent the 
restoration of peace & harmony to the 
Union. Nay more that then every step has tended
to perpetuate disunion, & make a disruption
of the states inevitable. That all this wickedness
of theirs were rendered doubly odious
from the fact that they were enacted by
a body hanging on the verge of the
Gov. a body called or which assumes
to be the Congress of the U.S. but in fact 
a Congress of only part of the states."
Towards what does all this lend?
Says a Chinese proverb, Sin has many 
tools but a lie is the handle that fits them 
all."  If Andrew Johnson can convince 
others that this body of men is indeed a 
body of tyrants traitors& usurpers, in 
fact no Congress at all,- then it is 
clearly the right and the duty of the Pres. of 
the U.S. to treat them accordingly & to 
recognize another Congress in its place. 
Nay more he will, he tells us, stand8
alone in opposition to their machinations & 
evil designs.  These men trespass on the 
rights & dignities of the sovereign people.  
Andrew Johnson, the Tribune of the people, 
will defend them.  it reminds me 
of the hungry Cat [who] that paid a 
sympathizing visit to a sick chicken, -
Should it do this, should it prescribe 
that.  Should it perform the other, -
it was full of kindness, - solicitude, 
anxiety, help - in behalf of [its]her friend. -
Thank you said the Chicken, -
looking at the lean and wolfish pains of 
[her]its visitor.  Thank you kindly, but I 
think I would do quite well if you 
would leave me alone.

Nay he goes beyond this, -The
boasts of his magnanimity - his unselfish 
will, - his devotion to the people in 
refusing to be their dictor, "If I wanted 
authority," said he to the delegates from 
the 14 of Aug. Convention - or if I wished 
to perpetuate my own power, how easy 
would it have been to hold & wield that 
which was placed in my hands by 

_________________________________________________________________

9
the Freedman's Bureau Bill.  With 50,0
00 000000 of approbations at my disposal
Machinery to be worked in my own hands 
with my satraps & dependents in every 
town & village, with the Civil Rights bill
following as an auxiliary in connection 
with all the other appliances of the Gov.  I 
could have proclaimed myself dictator"(-
Whereupon - the idiots who dithered
cried that's so,-  & gave three cheers for 
the President.)  Such an unheard 
of event was it for a member of their 
party not to steal, - money or power.  
When he had the opportunity, that their 
appreciation of the fact broke forth in 
cheers & acclamations.
To be sure the President's assertions 
are somewhat incongruous. - Congress 
usurps powers.- Yet delegates the usurped
power to him. - Congress would trespass on his authority ignore
his & even exultance. - Yet would make of 
him, by the acts a dictator for the land. 
- Congress outraged & denied even his limited authority as President 
- yet would give to him authority autocratic& uncontrolled.  The story is as old as the generation. Yet
   bears the repetition,- Mrs Smith returned Mrs Jones
   iron kettle with a hole therein, sued for its value
   her lawyer put in this unanswerable defence.-
   "Your kettle was broken when we receved it. 
   Your kettle was whole when we returned it., -  
   We never had your kettle. 
Consistency - consistency
has it not somewhere been said
that thou are a jewel. --
And then the intolerable arrogances 
&  insolence of the declaration that all that 
stood between him and Dictatorship was his 
own immaculate purity, rectitude, & patriotism, 
- a second Daniel come to judgment, -
forsooth - 
Why - has he grown to such a bat like 
blindness as not to perceive that 20,000,000 
of people stood between him & 
such a coup d'etat. or does he 
suppose that the stuff of which these 
heroic, intelligent, magnificent northern 
masses is made, is like unto the 
worthless and miserable compound which 
consitutes himself. — To have a tyrant 
there must be slaves, [There are now] We are not yet 



10
ready to have his stamp in our foreheads, nor 
to wear his chains on our limbs.
No! No!  I fear no such 
consummation as this, that I fear 
the entrance into Congress of his friends from the South, & 
a consequent modification of the Legislation I 
will not deny, - yet not largely, -  I believe 
the people are awake to the danger in this 
quarter, & fully armed for defense. - Like 
the Roman soldier who before a long march 
shod himself with sandals of lead, that 
upon throwing them off might feel all fatigue 
light.  They have so clung fast to, & upheld 
their rights through danger & death in battle, 
that [the] present alertness & vigor [demanded] 
are as child's play to be rendered. — If 
people do not wish to be overheard they should 
not speak too loudly, - if they would cheat 
at cards they should not show their hand to 
their adversary across the boards.  — Said the N.Y. news
some time since "The first thing for the 
South to do is to secure a foothold in 
Congress.  They must get into the arena before 
they strike effectively for their cause.  Letthem march in with flying colors, by virtue of 
their rights if possible.  If not let them crawl 
in, climb in, push in, pry themselves in, bribe
themselves in or steal in - get in what way 
they can so that the next session of Congress 
finds them there." -  What to do? - and
we ask,-  look for a moment at the 
South to-day.  We are told that they 
are loyal, - peaceful, - liberty loving, -
that free speech, - a free press, - a free 
ballot [bill] are everywhere guaranteed within 
their boundaries.  We are in favor of 
Republican institutions they cry. - then by 
speeches & papers, by legal enactments & 
mobs, assail & destroy free schools 
wherever established.   We guarantee 
free speech, telegraphs Trust [to] & the Memphis 
meeting.- then the Memphis Avalanche 
published a black list, - [men] marked 
for ruin & death, - of men who dared 
to attend the Con. that honored our 
city on the 3. of [last month] September past.  The 
Richmond Whig calls the same class of 
men Radical Zefirs.  Blatant Beasts


11
Demons of Sin & Slaughter. & says that the 
only wonder is that men so  [disorderly] base
disorderly & so hostile to Southern people 
were permitted to live in safety in 
Southern communities. — Their 
penitence & remorse for past sins are 
painted in most exquisite & enticing 
colors.  "We (of the South) cannot take the 
oath, said Henry A. Wise in July last 
at Norfolk Va. because it implies that we 
have been rebels & traitors & that there has 
been a rebellion, that we have been 
false to the Con & the Union, whereas the 
reverse is true.  The asking of pardon 
admits guilt, & for myself I am conscious 
of no guilt, I have but obeyed those who 
had the right to command."   In 
speaking of the Resolutions & address of 
the 14 of Aug. Con. every Southern paper 
with one voice repudiates the confession 
that the Southern's were traitors, that the 
war was a rebellion, that they fought foranything save Constitutional rights & the 
resisting of unlawful authority, that the 
National Gov fought in self-defense, that 
the doctrine of Secession is wrong & that 
the war destroyed it, & each & all proclaim:- while
demanding a restoration of their rights in
Congress. -that their failure
to secede was but a failure to succeed. -
that the late war simply demonstrated
that a weaker power is unable to resist
one of greater momentum,- that the
doctrine of secession is as clear as
truth to the South now as during the
war, & that the contest having been adjourned
from Congress to the battlefield, undecided
then, has him unadjourned to the original
battle ground.[in]- R not deemed my
friends,- as Sir Thomas Moore answered
when congratulated by his daughter that the
charges against him had been dropped.-
"In faith my, what is put off is not
given up."
And we are told that peace has
spred her hood wings over the south &
tranquillity settled within her [lands?]- So
says the President in his Press of power.-



12
So say his friends North & South in their complaints
that the Radicals are as if we were
still in a state of war.- What [as] is the worth of
those [P???s] & Declarations  [with].- Let the
hundreds [of] murdered in Texas, since
the close of the war- answer.- Let the
robbings, [shootings] burnings, ostracizings
banishings, mobbings, shortings, hangings,
of which every Southern paper is full. [&]
& which within every Southern hugs answer.-
let the thousands of peaceful
citizens crowding into Northern streets.-
escaping with poverty & ruin- from death- answer.- Let
[the lurid flames] the falling buildings,
the shrieks of the wounded, the groans of
the dying, the ghastly stillness of the
dead reared & run through the lurid glass of
Memphis answer. Let a usurping
state official,- a [treasonable] traitor mayor a rebel
regiment, clad in a civil instead of a
military uniform, a planned attack,- an organized assault
a merciless massacre, a street flowingwith blood, a body of heroes glorified by
martyrdom, a battle roll of [dead &] wounded & dead
a [p???ired], President responsible for this scene
which men call New Orleans answer-
Answer & tell a wondering & horror stricken
world, that the price of power, meant a
war of extermination ,waged on loyal men
meant ruin & death for the friends of the
republic at the hands of the enemies,- meant
license to destroy & liberty to kill the supporters of
the Gov. while the Gov should be made helpless
to aid or to save.
If there ever was a complete
yielding up of the whole point as issue it was
by Andrew Johnson in this same list of New
Orleans.- These states he declares are states,-
Absolute in power & rights,- & as such
Congress has no right to force the terms upon
them as to compel them to adopt its plans
or amendments in their up take seats
on the floor. Absolute in power &
rights- from whence there came
his authority to interfere in a city riot,-
what would we have thought, if the other



13
day when the crowd fell out, & the roughs
fought with the police,- What I say would
we have thought if the Pres had interfered
from Washington, & had used civil &
military authority to enforce his plans-
I [fairly] think he would have been quickly informed [quickly determined]
that we had a municipal government,
within a state upon with which he had
nothing to do,- & proved how at last discovered that we had such an
officer as a mayor with whom he would
not interfere.
If La. be as he declares a state in
the Union with [which] the internal affairs
of which Congress has no right to interfere,
from which comes no authority to interfere 
in such internal affairs. The Convention 
to [sit] be held was either a legitimate or
an illegitimate body.- if it was the first,
no man from the Pres.-up had the right
to interfere with its meeting or its deliberations if it was the second, it
was simply an informal body of citizens
who had a perfectly legal right to
assemble & consider their own trouble, &
the troubles of their state- or if theauthorities thought them dangerous the
members would be subject to arrest under 
State laws & by state officers of justice--
--but all of them,--no great a service
[difficulty] matter one would suppose to
[arrest] take them one & all in custody.
     who made the Pres. the judge of the
legality of a State Con.?--When did he
hear evidence upon the matter? from
where derived he his authority to interfere
By the Con. The U.S. shall protect each
State against invasion, & on application
of the Legislature (or of the Executive whenever
the Leg cannot be convened) against domestic
violence. "-- when was the invasion?
when [was] the domestic violence--when the
application of the Legislature or of the Executive?
--When  indeed,-- so far from such
application, the Pres ignored the very exist-
ance of the Executive, & sent his incendiary
dispatches to a Subordinate State,-- nay
him to a city official-- If A. J. Pres of the
U.S. can so far interfere in the affairs of a 
State recently in rebellion, as to ignore in his




                              14
dealings with it, its Gov., pass by the Leit
Gov. recognizes as its head the attorney
general ^place a Major General & loyal [man] troops of the U.S. ^ decide upon the legalities  [&ill] of
assemblies within the boundaries ^under the order of an [?] whose officers^ drives
the municipal officers & police of its cities, &
all this for the purpose of supporting my
policy & his friends [It will] the traitors in such
State,-- Congress can with equal
authority interfere for the [self] [safety] [defence of the
Republic] , the safety [def] of the Republic the defense of the liberties & lives of
the faithful defenders & friends. Either La. is
not a State as the Pres. declares, or he is
Clearly impeachable  for trampling on the Con-
stitutional authorities & laws. 
 In the face of such facts as these
--violence, bloodshed, murder on the one side,
his own actions on the other, he denounces
Congress & its Con. amend, --both because it
is so unjust to our repentant & loyal bretheren
& so illegal & unwarranted an interference
in the affairs of their States.
    It is a curious if not an instructive
study to watch the attitudes of these same
brethren of ours, in certain matters of doubledealing -- If, as they declare, the doctrine 
of Secession is a truth, -- if they by their own 
act went out of the union, we cannot understand 
how so paltry an accident as 
victory or defeat in a war with the U.S 
could alter their position -- or what right 
one of their citizens could have in the 
Legislative halls of a foreign, not to say 
hostile power. If they went out as they 
declare they did, they must be let in, & 
on such terms as may be [decided] determined upon 
by the authority whose right it is to decide.
This Congress believes. -- & so believing puts 
certain plain propositions to the people for 
their reading & decision.- That no authority 
shall ever be sufficient to repudiate the 
debt incurred in defense of the republic 
has to pay that made to silence the destruction 
& overthrow. - That no man 
who had him fed & clothed by the National
Gov., [who then endowed] & has repayed its benefits [& aid]  by an attempt 
to end its cause, shall [silen] receive its blessings 
or hold authority under its power more -- 
That a voter in S. C. shall count in 
the national representation as a voter in



15
in Pa.- & that all persons born or naturalized
in the U.S. shall from henceforth be as [enjoy the
bless] counted its citizens.
One might suppose that Phila are
one & all too clear & plain as matters of common
sense & justice to rend explanation or defense.-
oft it is [upon] one of them.- the franchise &
representative clause on which pins august hopes North & South are [that is] the rock which
acts as the contending pivot of a storm. The excluded
states in 1860.- had a population of 4,620,498 
whites,- 125,460 for colored,- 3,245,391 slaves.
- & their representatives in Congress numbered
fifty-three,- 15 of whom were based upon
[the 3/5] slaves.-in slave counting as 3/5 of a
man when he could add to the power of his
master,- as a chattle when his own rights
are concerned,- by liberating him- Counting
him as a person in the documented population a representative is added
to these states, [if] by omitting him, 13 are
lost to them.- In other words when the
blacks were slaves the South had 53 reps.-
by counting them as free men & where it willhave 61. - by excluding them entirely
from consideration they will have 40.-
how the true question at issue is not the
humiliation of the South, is not a deprivation
of political power,- it simply shall
the war redound to their aggrandizement
& benefit as opposed to it,- is whether they shall
[they] be pleased precisely on a line with the
truth,- [or shall they] neither above it or below it in the
matter [of population] of where, a basis of representation
& consequent power in Congress.
[Are these men to gain a toe hold by
the war,-] And this question is being
most decidedly answered in the
affirmation the [tr] Tribune & Herald alike
declare that this is the least the [South?]
will accept in a settlement of these difficulties:-
from the Herald- up or down-
the papers of the opposition are beginning
to consider this fact & to lay their plans
accordingly,- Why?- because they
are clear & keen enough of sight to
perceive that if the present state of affairs
continues in the South,-& we still hold



16
national jurisdiction over it, the North
will be shocked & outraged into putting
political power in the hands of our only
friends & allies [in the bounds] then found. In brief they
recognize that the South must conclude to
utterly ignore the existance of the black
man in politics, as the North will make
of him a citizen & a power with the
ballot in his hand.- Make of him
nothing cry they to the South, or the
Radicals will make of him everything.
They recognize the significance
of past [Did this] events as applied to the
present.- In 1861- terms even offered to
the South whereby they were simply to lay
down their arms, submit to the Gov, &
their rights should be left untouched, their
pet institution slavery protected forever,-
These were the terms in 1861, offered by the
North & rejected by the South.
In 1863.- Terms were offered on a basis
of gradual emancipation, of apprenticeship,
of compensation for slaves by the
U.S. Gov.- offered by the North & by theSouth repulsed. --  In 1864 the  abolition 
of slavery was tendered them -- but 
with no personal right infringed, no 
privilege abridged, no penalty inflicted 
tendered by the North, & refinement by the 
South -  by the very men who clamored 
at Phila in Aug & are clamoring over the land 
to day. -- These clear & clear sighted 
politicians, the Northern allies of treason, 
[sec] remembering these facts, see fully 
well how after each proposal & its rejection, 
after each storm & its ensuing calm 
we have drawn nearer the ultimatum 
nearer the logical sequence, [the] have the final & 
inevitable ending of the war -- [equality] Nearer
the high water mark of American [Ind] Institutions & 
& liberty -- the absolute equality of all 
the citizens before the law. 
To-day the North says to the South, 
do what you will with 300000 of your 
people at home, only do not presume to 
use them as a weapon against me & I 
will not interfere -- this rejected, this at-


17
tempt made to so use them, [&] representatives
demanded for them,- I will assent but
they shall have the liberty of selecting their
own men, of voting for their own representatives,
they shall send friends of the Republic to
Washington, not serve as machinery to
lift the enemies into power."
Progress is the mode of man.- The
general life of the human man may be
well called progress.- Progress marches,-
it makes the great human & terrestrial journey 
towards the divine. [It has its faults when
it rallies its scattering & divided forces,-
it has the rests when after long [march] toil &
weary conflict, [it recuperates its numbers,-
recovers on [over] the dead martyrs & but welcomed the living who shall take their places & rejoices over
its living heroes,- it has its] it looks
forward with dazzled & almost bewildered
eyes at the glories unveiling before its sight-
Alas! alas! it has its weight when it ships,-
but the day dawns, & the live moves forward ever more.-]
It may pause but it never retreats.- It
is because Democracy North has learned this
fact,- because it realizes this idea, that itI'm beginning to cry to the South, - "Seize thy opportunity 
while the Column holds,- else
will it move forward to crush them & thy
opportunity lost can never be regained."
[I would God the] I wish that here &
now God would endow me with Eloquence,
with fire, with passion of utterances that
would think the coldest,- now the storms,
inspire the [most] timid, strengthen the
faltering, enlighten the blind, rouse the
dormant, make courageous the weak &
invincible the strong,- as I cry aloud
the Northern men & women in behalf of the Republic,
in behalf of humanity that you destroy this
opportunity offered them at once & forever,-
that you speak in such majestic terms, that
you with the voice of the people shall be
indeed the voice of God, as it proclaims
Equality throughout the land, unto all
the inhabitants thereof.
For what can it be,- Why hands
hi, fearing to go up  & passes this New Canaan.-



16
Anniling before our sight.
What reason can be urged, what land
assigned,- what events offered for this
failure to keep our pledge to our friends,- to
preserve the nations life & the nations house
by the enactments of common sense &
righteous law?
Will you wait to refute the arguments of
your opponents,- the enemies of the republic,-
arguments,- they are no arguments,- they
deal in vituperation, in prejudice & in
passion,- reasoning may be answered but
they do not reason,- now down on all sides  folks with theories [by
judgment], they still fight on blindly, yet with
desperate hardihood. To argue with them is
like [no] chaining the minds, or stabbing
the waters as they flow by.
Will you wait till the South yields to
the situation, through appeals. Through prayers,
through the kindness & favor of the passing
years,- vain,- vain all.- In Ireland,
when the priests pray over the little [patches] sections
of ground belonging to the peasantry [they] one comes
[come] to a peculiarly hard & sterile [one] patch,- & pausing
with uplifted brush & hand & holy water saidin dispair - Brethren there is no use in
praying here - this rude manner." - there
is no use in praying on or to the south. -
spanking them [fairly] gently, - entreating them
[kindly](pinduly?), - that has been tried to the full, -
the good seed falls on stony places, &
having no root withers away. - it is not
misplaced kindness to rebels, but  simple
justice to loyalists that will make a ground
in the south capable of bearing harvests of
future good & growth to the Republic. 
     Will you wait till peace settles in the 
South & order is maintained through all its
Indus. - till the husks of passion & prejudice
swept aside they shall see clearly  what is
right - [& justis] - & make their vision reality. -
—[Wait till peace & order is established &]
or at least till the inequalities of representation so press
upon them that they are perforce driven to do justice.
That was tried in the early days & failed. -
the selfishness of human nature was appealed
to in the 3/5 clause & resulted in a rent &
agonized country. - a desolating war. - some
hundreds of thousands slain. - "the
mills of the Gods grind slowly but they grind

19
exceeding fine." - [Shall we wait merely to 
show to all the world how little we have
profitted by out recent experiences, shall
we wait till we hit the eval[s] point when
we can neither refuse with authority] Left
      [*Will the future when eyes come - One may*]
to them & their decisions - beware my friends, -
      [*well as this question looking southward at*]
as the second revolution for Liberty surrpassed
      [*its terrible gloom & shadow, - sullen face to*]
the first - for Independence, in just such
     [* face of the selfish and the miserable*]
measure will the third - for equality - surpass
[that] them both. - Independence, - Liberty,
Equality, - while being fought for & won, in
     [*Wait for the slaveholder to do justice to his victim &*]
God's good time fraternity will settle
     [*fold our hands idly meanwhile - So seek a palpable*]
down, - after, the fire & the whirlwind,
     [*good, and a palpable aim is one thing, to embrace an*]
a still small voice, - Wait for the 
      [*ideal flock of theories is another. - You mean*]
decision of the South given in the midst of
      [*climbing the cloud with ropes of sand, - I mean*]
quietude, of war,  - of people, — What
     [* blasting a rock with rational materials & sciences.*]
order? - What peace is this of which we
speak - Linas & here - Athans [confirm] answer,
Peace in the calm of martyr grave
Order - the husk of hooding slave.
Will you wait till there is but one
united voice to cry advance, - There be thosewho are always [dull] slow of [sight] sight, of hearing
& of courage. Men who this that the sight too grandly
proclaimed is disquieting. Men who would
take precautions against too much success. Will you wait for these.
Will you let these wrights clog the wheels
reeling forward. So Dan.- Progress is
at that price. The poorblind see not the
receding shore, not that to which the bold man
wafted them o'er", it is forward not backward 
the North is to look,- it is of the
future, not of the past, that America is to
take counsel- it is courage advance,
not slowness & faltering that are needed
in this hour.
[Will] Ever worried by past conflicts
will you wait till you have slept & grown
strong.- While they slept behold the
enemy sowed [bans?]. I know how hard
this hero conflict seems to the multitude who
love quietude & ease. What then. As
sailors who [have] after long toiling with the deep approach [toiled against land
& war] shore, see the lights shine, the marble glow- the forms move up & down. Can
[almost] hear dimly the cries of welcome, an almost
home & rest, the storm rises & dries them
out to renewed buffetings with the sea [winds &
wane.] So, we [almost made] hear our harken
of peace, have been tossed out once more to



2
the mercy of winds & wans. Shall we
therefore ship.- before us is the shore to be
gained by revered & courageous effort- behind
us is the illimitable deep wherein Empire
after Empire has gone down, & which yearns
with hungry & cruel pains to swallow us.
Will we wait till the gales of passion
& heat have blown by, & we can reason together
in the calm[s]. After the blast will we settle
down,- beware my countrymen. [After] There
are as many shipwrecks from the fogs as
from the winds.- The safety of America was
in less danger while cannon boomed, than
now while politicians wrangle.
Will you wait till Congress speaks the
word. [how did people have a more
willing servant.] Congress is your mouthpiece.
[Why you] Are you ready [&] do you demand it,
the end will be speedily pronounced. I confess to
looking with amazement on the spectacle which
Congress & the office holders of the Country
have been preventing for the last [eight] [twelve] ten monthshim, I this was there a Congress that endured
I thoroughly to understand he has credence of 
the country & shines so earnestly to promote it
here one comprised of men who in forming
their arrangements, & enacting their pro-
visions thought so much of what they could 
do for others, & so little of what they could 
get for themselves. Here a public body
so assailed by hatred with calumny, is [libr???]-
ation Is persecution that carried itself 
with such surpassing mildness, courage &
dignity. - I want to do full justice to them
& their compatiable miserably in after. --
men who in so [mi??] display the effect 
which stubborn has somewhere
I [a??ddiable] in every individual who has occupied
the position. that 
which he have in the mighty arm of the
Republic his own proper [shingable?] departs
from him. --- Such has not been the
case with them. --- They have been subjected to 
the severest trial that tyranny could invent to 
make them full to themselves. & the proper
whole servants they were - in vain. --
Her tyranny is bad, but the world is that whilst
woke with the machinery of persons [?ub??n]
idation is corruption in the hands world double

21
some form, stripped of every [hautyy?], of every
grab, of everything that has the appearance
of liberality & good humour. -- a hard
strict cruel correction, seeking by means
most foul, a most loathsome end: it is
corruption [inking?] by barbarity. -- Tis made
unhappily the easiest & cheapest of all. Can
corruption by gifts were something, but corrup
tion by threats were nothing but the crime.
So is infurribly more trying to. -- in as much 
as it is much more easy to refuse that which
a man here had, than to submit to the 
pillage of that which he is accustomed to
have. -- This they find ordeal which the offend
of you, -- the servants of the world have every
By the men of the proper they were
when had, marked to them, thank and
sought into server, of that which they have suffered
for the nobility of the American Character
in power, they [whind?] from power. Rubbing
has almost everywhere failed with no
than her by the proper who hushed them.
Smell of flame upon this garments.

I think there can be no question that
the men hold the hand & [cilform?] of their country
above all else. From wherever there clingsthe slowness to truth this vital question of its
safety._ This unreadiness to redeem the faith &
word of the nation as pledged to its best friends.
This alacrity to relay the foundations of state without
their only sure corner stone?   That there are
small, & weak, & unworthy ones I know, &
of these great things are not to be expected, 
but the granite I think pause & hesitate [less] fearing
the people will not sustain them in their 
crusade for liberty, will not respond to the[ir] 
watch and of absolute equality before the 
law. right a wrong they fear the verdict of 
the people on any such act.”
Is this strange?- They hear many views
from many sides.- our wise says.- huddle
not with the Constitution,- change it, if at
all as slightly as possible.- let us now.
our ancestors though[t] not condemn them by mangling their work.- A slow
voice  is this the same,- what men call fogyish.-
[Honor [condemn] our ancestors! I [agreed to that] not by
adhering to what they under other circumstances
did, but by doing what they in other
circumstances would have done.- [Dishonor] Condemn
our ancestors?] Are not the men of the



22
present day better enabled to decide political
questions than the men of the past,- Government
is a matter which must always be determined
by experiment & it is the essence of every
experimental science that it shall be
progressive. [*Consider my friends*] Take Chemistry, botany, surgery,
or any science in which ingenuity & invention
are necessary, & there is no one in this house
who would reject improvements in these, because
these improvements did not comport with the
wisdom of our forefathers-  let us by all
means honor our ancestors, not by adhering to
what they under other circumstances did, but
by doing what they in our circumstances would
have done.- Not interfere with their work?
but this reform proposes to truth any one thing
which the people actually esteem, respect, or
[believe?].- but it takes from the Con. anything
but those which may fully be called [can be more fully called an]
its unjust & shameful parts?
[I hear] another view cries Be not in 
haste- work well done should be done slowly-
so important a matter should be made carefullyconsidered & undid, it may be a good measure
in time, but we have nought to lose by letting it
wait. Nothing to lose. Is delay [so] evil?
Is prolonged incitement no evil. Is it no evil
that the honor of the nation is tarnished, the health of
a great people made sick by deferred hope? Is
it thus that second thoughts are proverbially held,
but there are emergencies which do not admit
of second thoughts. There is a Scotch proverb
which says, "It [is] should be ill talking upon a full
man & a falting," while to amend laws
in safety. The houses of our friends are burned
over them, & their slaughtered blood cries
aloud to God from the ground. I grieve
that there are great objections to legislating in
troubled times, but reformers are compelled
to legislate full heaven conservative will
not legislate early, --reformers are compelled
to legislate in times of strife, because conservatives
will not legislate in times of peace.
had the past done its link with dignity in
should not have to do once with haste. [if we] If [they] it
[cannot take our time it is] had reformed gradually, he might have
reformed gradually, but we are compelled to 
know full heaven [they] it would but know at all.



23
at this stage, in such a labor, & so near its
completion, hash is produced. Is it him &c.
Sure but after all -- cure another
wish, are these friends of ours capable of
understanding & rightly exercising the great
[*would it not be well for them to wait & learn the value*]
gift placed in their hands? My friend I have
[*of the franchise. would it not be equally well my*]
two things to say to that -- when a man is assailed
[*friend for traitors to wait to learn the value of that*]
& some one comes to him with a weapon, he knows
[*which they used for years to their own injury &*]
how to use & does use it against the enemy who
[*ours & which six years ago they flung away as they*]
has assaulted, & not against the friend who
[*would a worthless rag?*]
had [?] him. -- Further when you
ask him if he will understand all the fine &
delicate machinery of the weapon [?] which we
call the ballot, I say probably not. -- but a
traitor is as effectively put out of the way by
a blow from the butt end of it by a rough
black hand, as by a ball artistically send
from the other end of it by a delicate white one.

Ah, cries another & a very loud
voice, but the wounding of tender vanity, the
humiliation, the degradation heaped on our
defeated foe, -- they have suffered, how greatlyThey have been most amply punished by the 
suffering trials of the last five years, let us
not make this cup of bitterness overflow. I 
grant you that the feelings of any class, even of 
rebels is to be regarded, but only so far as this 
consideration makes no evil or injury to other
people. I grant you that every man has a 
right to all that may condense to his pleasure
if it does not inflict pain on any one else. 
When the question is whether a white rebel 
shall have his feelings hurt, or a white &
black loyalist shall lie slaughtered &
unavenged at his feet - I think there is
no room for hesitancy. Regard the
feelings of these men,- not compel them
to go to the polls with their en slaves. Why 
my Northern friends do not trouble yourself.
Said the Charleston Mercury on the 2d of Jan 63.
"Better a thousand times to come under the 
dominion of free negroes, than under the
vile, sensual, animal, brutal, infidel
superstitious democracy of the Linkin States. 
As between a government by Congress, & a government 
of their freedmen - you hear their
verdict pronounced. 



24
Their feelings to be regarded because they have
suffered, --whose fault was that,- & beyond
what has their suffering been, entailed on
themselves, compared with the suffering they have
entailed on others. I know of [the] few more wonderful
spectacles than that presented by the loyal men
of the South. Their houses burned, their money
stolen, their lands laid waste, their children 
slain, their lives made desolate, their comrades
destroyed.- death following hard on their
footsteps,- though hunger, through cold,
through weariness, [danger] through loathsome imprisonments,
through [two] dismal tidings & wanderings,
through the Valley of the Shadow of death, these
men held fast the profession of their faith
without wavering, [& while clinging to] true to
Country & humanity alike. What have [this] they
to stand between them & evils a death save this.
Simple act of justice to their friends. Surrounded 
on all sides by men who make as tho
but to break them,- take pledges but to ignore
them. Standing alone, with no constituency
to back them, their last debate will be
worse than their first. Your Con Amend,
Oh plan of Congress, & these men, willbe overridden & trampled in the dust.
Six years ago the greater number of  
these men were Slaveholders.-- There was 
fine gold in them somewhere however & the
fires of persecution purified it & thought, it fresh
as Hercules who when he laid himself down 
in his funeral pyre was watched afar off 
by his friends expecting to see him consumed
to their amazement they beheld but the earthly
part derived from his mother, disappear while 
the diviner part behind [equal] from his father [fore]
seemed to shoot forth with unusual rigor to
assume a more lofty part & a more awful
dignity--So we watching these men afar
off have seen the selfish & wicked imperatives
& prejudices burnt away in the
finer furnace of affliction, & their noble
& diviner qualities shine with a light that 
transfigures the darkness wherein they shined.
One month ago they gathered in
Convention here in our dear old city &
spoke upon this subject- a speaking
alone which now should be placed &
upon which power should be heard.
"he affirms (say they)" he affirms that the loyalists
of the South look to Congress with affectionate



25
gratified & confidences as the only means to
save us from persecution evils & death itself
& we also declare that there can be no security
for us or our children there can be no
safety for the country against the full spirit
of slavery now organized in the form of
serfdom, unless the Gov by National & appropriate
legislation, enforced by National
authority shall confer on every citizen in
the states to represent the Am. birthright of
impartial suffrage, & equality before the
law,- This is the one all sufficient
remedy."  Hear it,oh brethren proper,-
hear it, & for their sake. [for your own
sake], for the sake of the Republic [of the Republic & of humanity] 
beyond.
If these men should be heard &
answered- what shall be said of their
allies, the four million of our countrymen
whose dumb appeal cries to harm against
us with such increasing & awful power.-
I confess my inability to do them justice. I
confess my incapacity to render homage
due their faith, their wrongs, their devotion,
-Oh long hurt & much enduring hope,the wronged, persecuted, & outraged race--
Here shall I honor thee
How shall I freely speak
In terms so poor & weak 
Of honestness & patience such as theirs, 
how shall I make the careless understand
this, the indifferent care for them, convert their
enemies to [the] friends by making them 
comprehend what thou art. — Fain the effort, 
Great God wilt show much the eye of these
people that they see, & the ears of these people that
they hear, when the needy cry & the faithful 
and are made a prey.
I came not here  to-night to condemn
but to entreat, —to beg of you oh countrymen &
women, that you pause not in the race you are 
running so grandly, — remember that the eyes of
the world are upon you, & that safety live with pretense at
the goal,—to beseech of, you that you as the ground
gained by hard fighting in the past, not as a 
land of repose, but as vantage ground upon which 
to fight [more] with greater splendor, more important
battles —to implore of you that you hold full to the end. 
I have more than once to night spoken of the wish
[I have] So many kinds heard from all parts of the land. I have one
more. —looking [Southward] into the street[s] of a Southern city. —I
[see it behold in] In it crimsoned with blood, 
crowded [with] by a bustling multitude of
murderers & victims, —its stones slippery



its air heavy with the sighs and groans of  
wounded & dying man. —In the midst —
with curses smiting upon his ears. — with 
faces glaring hate upon him, with hands
[& fate] raining blows [upon] &  feet trampling
upon him, —with comrades black & white
strewed dead about him, —mangled, bruised
broken, tortured, dying, I hear clear & 
thrilling, alarm, shouts & groans, [alarm cries &]
[& sighs] alarm , petitions &  blows, [& prayers] alarm curses & sighs, a wish that 
cries let the good [work] fight go on.— It is 
the  loyal South that speaks, it is martyrdom 
that prays,—Oh, loyal north respond. —
In the sake of such men as these— black 
& white, —for the sake of the dead lying 
within four hundred thousand graves, 
dead that [the] Liberty might live, for
the sake of humanity, for the sake ofthe future and the world, [Simplu of you
do] let the good fighter go on.1
My work tonight - is one of conscience, I 
have no metric [satire], no mirth, no [rhetoric] satire to offer.
I come, a woman, sorrowful by reason of the 
sorrow I see about me, to say a word of
questions which pluck us all by the skirt, &
which will one day so completely bar
our road that it would be wise to look
them in the face, & know what they 
demand of us.

You cannot read paper or book --
listen to conversation, speech or sermon
without muting the cry 

What is becoming of homes?
are they ended?
and wives & mothers are they to be
no more?

This woman agitation -- this movement
of emancipation,  is it to free  women of all
marital restraint,-  is it to [break down] destroy
all the love, all the happiness, all the 
sanctity of the marriage too?

If that be so say men, we stand
to oppose it,-- we have rights & we will
defend them. --2
You have rights? True - I propose to
define them. - If I do so without
circumlocution, - If I demonstrate
that rights have equivalent duties. - Without
the performance of which latter the former [they] are forfeited
If without compromise I [dem] say to men
[who] an eye for an eye & a tooth for a tooth is a
fair law of exchange, tis because they, in
defending their own have been selfish &
merciless. - because their religion of
trade has been to grasp all they can & to
give as little as possible in return. -
because, while crying - chivalry, deference,
reverence [with one breath, - with the
bent they seem more to these and] they
tread under foot reason & conscience
science, & facts, call to their aid, all
the ignorance, all the despotism of
the past to mislead the people with
regard to this great question which
affects the whole human race.
You have the right to be loved, to have
a wife, children, a home. - What
man or woman shall say you nay. -
What creature dare dispute you?



3
Have you then?
Yet down into the silence of your
own souls, - Go away from the glare
of society, the false light of custom, [the
din of] to the darkness where you are
alone with your own life & with God. -
Put the question to yourself over more.
Have you then.
I am not the mouthpiece
you would select. - let me for the moment
answer for you. -
It is only God who loves with
the love of Infinity, & is patient with
the everlasting patience in waiting a
return.
Give & take is the law of humanity.
You have no right to love if you do not
bestow it.
No right to a wife if you are
not in very truth a husband.
No right to children & home, if
you do not your full share of duty towards4
each. - No right - to loyalty, faith, 
devotion, fidelity, if you do not give
all these to the full.
You love? - You do not. - Love
is friendship, companionship, understanding, 
tastes & likings in common, - unselfish
seekings for the others good, & happiness, &
peace. - tis not a moment's spirit. - 
passion, glow.- tis a thing for time 
& Eternity. It begins there, it goes on. Through 
life, - through death, through the Eternal
ages.- since love is the essence of God &
must be immortal as himself. 
This & that may be easily satisfied, 
but "the thirst that from the soul doth rise
doth ask a drink divine." 
You have frittered yourself away, 
on small passions, paltry flirtations, a
little here, a little there til you have 
spent your sum of good. - or have narrowed
your capacity to the limits of your life. 
Or "you have never neglected, when
once it was present an opportunity of pleasing



5
yourself." - You have let the poison taint 
the springs of your life. - I do not say [you] that
[cannot] having touched pitch & been defiled
you cannot wash away all stain. - I do
say that you cannot persistantly breathe
poison without having the whole circulation
vitiated, the whole existence tainted.
You will bring not the scent, freshness
of your life to this woman.
"A young man married is a
man that's married."
"Get a wife Love & reform."
"Sow wild oats" ["Live to settle."]
["Better have a home." Tired of knocking
about me."] - Coming to her with this
dross what right have you to gold in
return.
Say you want it - no doubt. The
want is commendable. - Say you
reverence purity & the rest of it in
woman. & know love when you see it.
- say you get it. - I ask have you the
right to it.6
If you love at last, well & good. -
Whatever your past life, tho' it be hell, you have the
right to heaven. - for love sanctifies all
things. - There will be sorrow & remorse
& anguish in your own love. - Good
that is your own concern, but giving
her love & loyalty, you have the right to
the like in return. - but say,  your
life has been clean, pure, - & you come
with these lurid claims. "Time to settle."
"Better have a home." "Tired of boarding."
"Knocking about" "Like good housekeeping"
&c.
You do not marry for the sole & only
reason that can excuse marriage. - Because
you two cannot live without one another.
Because you are the halves of a whole.
Is that your idea, or ideal, young
man?
You marry out of a [moments] passing fancy, a
pretty face, convenience, - a moments
passion. -



10
Make yourself of the inordinate
vanity of supposing all girls marry because
you are irresistible. -
Give her the opportunity to choose.
The poor girl with a trade, could, select
as the rich one does & would, not marry
for support. - Look at full many of these
lives, - idle, slatternly, miserable.
The rich girl would not marry
from ennuy - What not? -
The ambitious girl would not
do as she does to day. - A fine establishment
or worse. - unwomanly if she has a
noble & legitimate work. - But - what
woman is most sought, most courted,
most flattered & admired. - The notorious
coquette. - the one with her sting of
scalps. - [*Beatrix Edmond & Duke Hamilton*]
And yet - is there sir no dishonor
in the smile of a woman when men
gazing on her can shudder & say in that smile is a grain."11
So she does him more harm than she
does herself. We hear of broken hearts &c.-
for the woman can gather up something
from the wreck--but a man who has
honestly given his heart to be used as
a football, hardens, embitters--gone to 
the devil. Give to this woman
full play of all her faculties, & what
she would bring--a love that
would make life seemed ended & 
heaven begun. 
Love vanity & selfishness
drive this woman to falsehood for success.
Any woman can get married who
wants to.--If she knows how to 
play her cards.--Judicious flattery
& not judicious, 'tis a trap that
catches wary & unwary alike -- a
woman likes it no doubt -- but she
wants the [wd?] & the pretty colors &
the delicate odors of the sugar plumbs
but your man will sit down & eat



12
his piece of bread rich deep with the
butter of it, unwinking.-  In England
I am told "says the 'Citizen' "both sides
use every art to conceal their defects
from each other before marriage &
the rest of their lives may be regarded
as doing penance for their former
dissimulation."
 
Our own deeds are our doomsmen. 
We reap as we sow. Do men
gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?
You bite into golden fruit. You spit out
a mouthful of cinders.
 What can this woman give
you even if she has love?
You have no home, no proper
training for your children, no companionship.
You are rightly lured . You
[have] live in the house of your own planning & making.
You do not want a friend. You want
love, roses, nightingales, the rest of it. -13
By and by you come to some sure
straight in life, business, you
want seasonable and sensible help.
What has she to give, 
or you want a good, sensible, thorough
going woman, no nonsense about her
you know, You go down by & bye
with the deep places of experience alone, 
Say you have not a housekeeper, 
but a home maker. How then - all
culture, all art, all knowledge, all
experience of life, all comprehension
of men will go to help her.
But say she has not love. How then.
Extravagance
Life in Hotels & Boarding Houses, 
No quiet.
No bearing of burthens, 
No children
No home.
Well, have you the right to aright better.



14
Look at the lives young americans 
had. Cigars, clubs, suppers, theatres,
worse. How much of this life goes on
after marriage.
You spend the best part of yourself
in business if not in dissipation.
You bring home the dregs -- 'tis bitter
in her mouth.
Realize what your duty is to 
your home. Not merely in providing 
food, fuel, clothes, but in the
finer & subtler ways. - It takes but
little to make a woman happy, a
man can go to heaven with half the
pains it costs him to purchase hell.
You have had your cares. So has
she. You bring from your exhaustion
frowns & expect to meet her from her 
exhaustion with smiles. Expect it no
longer. -15
You have no children. - Look at our
American homes.
Men care to have their lives admired
& do not wish brethren. good this is 
the return.
Or they go & spend their time, money
admiration on other women, their lives
being no longer lovely in their eyes,, -
she will emulate them.
Or they will not trouble themselves 
about the children. - They will exact of 
them obedience, & enforce command, 
not the duties, sure of the material sent
are the mothers. Naught said of
a father's love &c. Ye What says
the prayer "Mother?" or "Our Father
in Heaven"?
You will exact of her, in brief, faith
love, loyalty, purity. You will give 
nothing or just what you please in
return. What you exact is your right



16
What you give is a privilege a
generous bestowal. She has no
lawful claim upon that you demand.
Oh! You exaggerate!
No. I do not.
Here is the epitome of the whole matter: -
Luther Dowling. Ruffian Dance
Saloon. Beaten wife &c.
"It was not the proper place for 
her to go."
"It was a proper place for you, I suppose."
"Any place is proper for men."
"Do you really think so?"
"Yes."
"Well then, I will send you to the
penitentiary for 3 months."
Oh nonsense! Come now. You do
not mean to say that ruffian spoke
for Beacon St. & Fifth Avenue?"
Yes. I do.
Pauline Bailey, Buffalo. Girl of 18.
Married man of 40 -- she six months17
in house of correction. He sent home to 
his family. 
Melissa Keys, Cortland . NY. - 
Wife drowned herself. Husband unmolested 
Melissa taken out by 200 young men, 
tarred feathered, left in cold to die, 
unless the blind & dumb elements 
were more merciful than man. 

Ah! but these are peculiar cases. 
Exceptions. 

You will not dare to hold these 
up as types. 

Well then : - 
[A man] We will take a case at which 
America presided. It was not the man 
the people [A man] even so much interested 
in, but the principles, the morality, the 
Social questions involved in the case. 
The whole community was the jury, & 
the twelve men who delivered the verdict 
were but the exponents of public sentiment. 



18
A man, brutal, profane, drunken. - 
What so loathesome as a drunken 
man, idle - a vagabond personally abusive 
a disquietingly uxorious by turns. 

A woman, fine, strong, sweet, 
courageous, - wifely duty, motherly 
care. - Such friends as she had. - 
Such devotion to children & home. 
Worn to the last point of sorrow & 
endurance. - Faith dead, hope 
dead, love dead, destroyed by him, 
Breaking down utterly. 

Another man. - [one] A few  times 
in a century comes a great man, - 
a great general, author, orator, 
artist, statesman, - once in a 
while [g] God gives to the world a great 
lover. This dead lover makes 
cold living men. 

He is full of care for her, tender 
chivalrous, generous, - She gives what is hers,19
to give, love reverence, her husband's
no longer, forfeited long ago by him.
He is threatened, followed, shot at -
Generosity stays the hand in return,
watched, pursued. - all plans made
sure, every door left wide for the
assassin, Shot  - and escape.
The trial, - the Recorders opening
charge, the selection of jurymen, the bullying
of witnesses, the outrage & indecencies
of all kinds, the charge which made
of jury trial a farce. - the laborious
effort through it all to prove the man
insane. - the Jury thrust the whole
effort to one side, & declare in the 
face of all testimony, that a cool,
planned &c murder was right, - "not
guilty" is the verdict of the jury.
& of the dead man in his grave
"served him right."



20
a parcel of brutes and fools, - Some, selected
because they never read the newspapers,
upon a question convulsing society
 had no opinion (liars or idiots) &
did not go to a certain church. 

Brow beaten by Graham &c. -
No, what stood back of this was 
public opinion. - low, vile, beastly -
True, but back of this stood the
respectability, the wealth, the religion.
Editors, merchants, ministers
from their pulpits -- every church
journal in the land -- "Served him 
right."
We are all responsible.
In alike write ourselves down
murderers  -- & while I am addressing
you, there is perhaps a soul above
our heads that accuses us, in the
presence of a judge that watches us.21
What did that verdict mean?
Not that he had seduced her love.
That had long before been forfeited.
Not that he had seduced her 
allegience. She owed him none, &
outraged the best part of herself by staying 
with him.  A woman has no right,
for her own sake & the sake of her children
to remain with a libertine, a drunkard, 
a brute.

Not that he had destroyed a home. -
There was none save of her making.
Not that he had seduced her person.
Her own husband repeated again & again
that he believed in her purity. Every effort
to show Richardson vile failed. (Kansas.)

Guilty only of impulsive & imprudent 
conduct.
[This verdict] Every decency & every 
right was broken down to prove & sustain the
monstrous [theory] doctrine of "property" in


22
the wife.
This verdict means that the wife
is the absolute property of the husband
& not to be regarded as an individual
a responsible being.
It means a practical fugitive
slave law for women, no friendly
hand shall dare at the risk of 
life & reputation to help this slave.
It means you say the sanctity of the
marriage tie -- that is that the 
ends shall be gripped by wife's hand
stiffening in death, but those
of the husband flung wide & free.
It means sanctity of home
Every man, however vile has sole
right to wife. Zion's Herald.
It means, when his honor is, or he
supposes it to be touched he is at once
constituted detective, counsel, judge, 
jury & executioner. -- With God's
purogative of life & of death. --23
how courts, & rulings, & charges, & judges, &
counsel, from laws, & customs, &
society established, governed by men, 
I appeal to common sense, to justice,
to God. 
I will not be silenced, -- no 
threat shall intimidate, no fear 
deter me. No opposition break me
down. 
I stand here to say enough
has been said about the rights 
of the husband,  --let us have
the rights of the wife. 
About the outraged honor of the 
husband -- that of the wife. 
Against the fine pictures drawn by  
infamous men of the stricken man,
the bereaved, father, the insane husband, 
I will summon witnesses for the 



24
other side. The disease, the poverty, the 
sorrow, anguish heart break, the 
sighs, & groans of despair, treasured 
by him, to be repayed in his own good 
time. "You are merciless." No, I know that
[I stand here to say to men that
the woman of the present is not the 
woman of the past. She giving 
bread will not be satisfied with a
stone.]
tis hard to fight & easy to fall . Ah what
a dangerous journey it is & how the 
bravest may stumble & the strongest fail. 
But "He who holds himself is well held."

But I do stand to demand 
that impartial justice be dealt. God
never ordained two codes of morality
one for women & the other for men. He 
who is no respector of persons holds
men & women alike responsible to 
an equal & awful accountability
for their crime.
I stand here to say to men 
that the woman of the present is not the
woman of the past. She giving bread25
will not be satisfied with a stove.
I give you fair warning, you 
cannot pay homage to vice without
tempting virtue.
You cannot break the house
band & find the house secure.
You cannot measure to
woman without having justice
meted you in turn
Ah, I pray you listen to me.
Do not think me a man
hater  -- I have a father
dead in his grave. -- I have 
a brother --
Do not think me your 
enemy I speak as your sister
your friend.
I pray you not to scoff but
to help me.



26
as I look at the lot of the multitude
poor, suffering sad,  burthens to urge
forward, burthens to drag, burthens
to bear.  I cry out, Ah my God why
were these born.   - I cannot bear it."1
A plenty of people [in the world] demanding for women 
- aplenty of women for themselves, that they have an equal 
chance at the work of the world, the profits & wealth of 
the same.
A plenty of people are answering - Well - What's 
to Hinder? 

20 years ago, a universal howl against it - 
Stay at home. That is her place - work but work in
silence & obscurity & work without thought of pecuniary
recompense.

All things have a period. - this has had,  - & now 
there is no law human nor divine recognized that 
would prevent a woman doing whatsoever she has
the desire & the capacity to accomplish. 
authors - editors
Sing, act, speak, artists, law (St. Louis, Ann Arbor) 
divinity (Sarah Smiley) If God calls & women obey the[y]
way will be opened) medicine -- a selfish class interest
against which [jea???s] men protest -- since women will
have them, men will see that they are properly educated if
they will come to the front). Nice trades (printers) -- clerks,
bookkeepers -- telegraph operators, ticket sellers &c.
The doors are open. -  What is to hinder her entering it?
Rough paths, -- brutality, selfishness a plenty in the world.-
But the chief opponent to her entering is herself -- & the
chief cause of lack of success hers, as in the old established
pathways is herself.

Three fourths of the whole mischief in women's lives
arises from excepting themselves from the rule of training
considered necessary for men. T.N.: "notes on nursing
It is safe to say 2000 letters & applications in the
course of a year -- Begging their noisy ways. Asking What
they shall do.
First of all know   If you know what you want to do & have
any will it is good- Absolutely2

Or they can get nothing to do where they are
& wish money to come where I am, or to go
elsewhere. - 
If they knew how to do. they could find work &
ample pay without change of scene.
If they wished change of scene, they could change without
pauperizing themselves & find to do where they will.
Nothing to do, and no compensation.
[*867. 324*]
Servants & housekeepers -- any price & can't get them.
"Degradation" -- all careers are desirable for those who know
how to make them so." Home making & keeping a fine art.
Seamstresses & dressmakers (out of 1,836,000) 181,000 nearly 
200,000 -- Hoods pathetic song of the shirt -- no need nor
cause for it here. -- They do not know how to do. The machine
runners in the large establishments -- the sewers for dress
makers, the plain sewers for home -- want something
better than that? Very good. The testimony of Mrs Proctor &
others as to the utter impossibility of finding designers
-- a fine art -  forewomen who can be trusted to cut to plan
etc. without constant supervision.
--And then the advance to be mistresses themselves--
Teachers 89,000 -- as a rule do not fit themselves for
the highest places. -- When they do "Women are steadily
assuming higher places in schools, principals of normals
&c. in place of Harvard graduates & with gain." I'll keep
Telegraph operators. The report made to me by dif officers
P.T.H & C - & my own experience at home. How to send
them back &c.
Clerks in shops. -- saleswomen -- careless, indifferent -- do
not respect themselves in their work.- [] & his profess
If a woman went at it in that spirit - with faith -- 
"faith does not reason , it acts." her employer would soon see
her worth & advance her.
Bookkeepers. -- Asked me to find him two. Couldn't
do it. -- fit yourself perfectly. Nothing to prevent. Commercial 
college open to all. -- Take less, it will be better than
something else, & better than if you did it badly. Take all
you can get & try for more.- others will do the same- the result
will be inevitable.



3
Nothing to prevent a girl from learning a nice trade
If she will give the time & care.- line upon line,precept upon
precept, here a little & there a little to the perfect rounding out
of a life. Become mothers in time. Money & power & independence
here. Do not want this. Want something higher.- Act- It is
all upon you. If you have genius & patience.-
Americanism aggravated. "French in 12 Lessons". A
royal road. Is none such. Girls who write for acads
of Music. (How I began & how only I know)- Mary Livermore
-in small places &c.
So much for those who really desire to work, as well
as to have returns.
What is the cause. Herself- What lies back of herself?
Her training. What lies round herself? Serenity
Every child will have a training of some sort:- of what sort?
Her training.- The order that is deemed in a boy &c.
The reverse in a girl. Discipline of study.- Difference in that
given to a boy & a girl.- (Ann Arbor &c, an improvement, but
not the thing of it.) 
Her subjogation (Chinese porcelain vase. No lid or bottom, day time upright, right-side, grim, grotesque &c!) lack of independence of thought &
action. (Do not ever dutifulness &c.- increase here.) The
office of all gov. paternal or otherwise is self sacrifice, & not
selfish advantage, & the perfect method of fulfilling that self
sacrifice, is gradually to render its own office unnecessary.
To both its subjects not merely to obey it, but to do without it.
Fear of the world. "The world's dead laugh." The distinction
depends on the world that is meant. ("When the world laughs at
me, I laugh at the world, & so we are even. Citizen of the world.)
Fiery dragon descending side of distant mountain starting
back in terror up reached line point of perspective, humiliate
of spiders, serving itself too near for right vision.
Father & Mother will be glad in the end. Indeed more
[Other women will like the retinue & respect for for the
same] they have more on daughter than son. What if strong
arm as men as courageous sure & faithful react.- Men will
respect.- act & care for you.- Man likes sensible woman after
all. Wins him, will hold him, & that she has the means of self
support will be no draw back.- [f????] creature? No.- But a
rich girl has plenty of cleaners & this is equivalent to riches
Other women will like the returns. & envy & respect you for4
the same, -  & if they don't what need you care, conscious of 
every sort of superiority? 
After all why argue this. --- The great body of women
content. - Laziness is a crime. -- That for one thing. -- for 
another then is dire need. If women do not want to work 
they are growing more & more eager for the fruits of work, 
money, elegance, etc.
Even if young men were ready, an evil & horrible 
thing. - "Has she made a good match?" - "Who can tell"
said Cicero "but that the people may come to believe that
these stones  & pictures are the gods themselves."  Just that
came to pass. 
The vulgar display of wedding presents &c. Marriage 
a means of support. 
A horrible desecration. -- Blasphemy of what should 
be a sacrament. 
Hurried to it. - Father eager to get rid of the 
support he says is his right. Early marriages. -- Bad
things tho'  they be recommended. No physical stamina,
no mental stamina.- No experience of life & its training
- no opportunity to be fitted in body & brain for life to 
come (all nice trades &c  have apprenticeship. this needs
it most of all.) -  Cannot judge well. - Should judge 
after consideration as profound at least as that given 
to a business transaction. - There would then be less 
need of "assimilating" afterwards. 
But they are not ready. - There is markedly a
more & more growing unreadiness on the part of young
men, rich or poor, to take wives unto themselves - on 
the grounds that they cannot afford it. 
A growing disinclination on the one hand to support
the extravagance of a wife--an unwillingness to give
up dress, cards, cigars, wines, fast horses, mistresses for such 
a wife as they are to secure. Not a home and a home maker, 
a wife & a mother, but the thing that they have helped to 
make & then flee from. 
A growing disinclination on the other hand to support
the extravagance of a wife, - an unwillingness to give
up dress, cards, cigars, wines, fast horses, mistresses for such
a wife as they are to secure. - Not a home & a home maker,
a wife & a mother, but the thing that they have helped
make & then flee from.
A growing disinclination on the other hand to give
up these things for marriage, or to give them up for wifehood,
& motherhood after marriage.  


5
Whilst a multitude who love ease, display, freedom, 
money, generosity sell themselves without the 
intervention of a priest. 
As honorable -- nay more honorable than the
other, for no pledge broken, & now vows annulled. 
All these desires are legitimate--give them a 
legitimate means of gratification. Men for lust, women
for gold, - not for itself alone. - Generous to a fault. -
"Never take change" Washerwomen seamstresses &c
& their bills. Locust St. house & the $720. - Liberal &
large natures, with great forces undrilled  & trained only 
to idleness. - Save them for their own sakes & the sake 
of the world. 
{ Pecuniary independence. Go to the depths. --"I 
{ learned a great deal rather by his  mistress. I don't wish to 
{ live as my mother did. I can get away now when 
{ I cant stand it any longer."
Prevent, & save from the first false step. - No hope
when they are down more than for a drunkard hopelessly 
besotted. 80,000, 8,000 Gough. & what sort of blood & 
health had these -- As abominable to condemn these
as to condemn the young man to a drunkard's life &
a drunkard's death because he has gone over at at 
dinner party. 
Not the same. - Something essential & sacred
 - Stuff. --Tis their stock in trade. The estimate they
place on virtue is the price it will bring  in the 
marriage market. -- Innocent young girls, horror of 
vice. Look at their brothers, look at the men with
whom they associate in society & dance with half
undressed, & value the more for their little irregularities
-- sport to one sex at the cost of death to another.) It 
is not their virtue, but virtue in their own sex, &
that for its rewards. The woman who really loves
purity, loves it. - The woman who respects herself in 
herself, & not in the value of another demands the
enforcement of God's laws. - No respecter of persons. -6
Prevent. That is best of all.-- 
The pivot--on which hangs goodness for 
women, happiness, however is  pecuniary independence.

What! Are women to be made into men? 
No. but into women. They have hitherto been less
than that. 
She was made for herself. -- Round out herself. 
Let her live to the full. Make a complete 
woman of her in every respect. 
Happy as a young girl, helpful to herself & 
to others. -- Able to select her own husband, to give
him love, & not  pauperism. Able to be a mother. 
-- Is not now. - She, hanging upon another for will 
& law, how can she fill to the full the august
dignity of motherhood. -- Cannot even physically,
Children die. "afflictions" "misfortunes" "will of God."
These  resolved simply signify stupid ignorance, 
stupid neglect, stupid indulgence. Horrible thing for a 
child to die. A thing more terrible than war (&
more destructive) is outraged nature. Nature
declares no war. Liberty, by the same means 
by which she makes alive, she kills. --A child in 
knowledge how should she train or save. & what
of the eager field of the mind.--the heart, the soul, 
--able to be wife, companion, friend, to hold a 
man close in  time when youth and all of youth's bloom &
blandishments have fled away. 
[I speak]   We all know there is canker, disease
death. We all know it. --The jeers, the sermons,   the 
satire, the plays, the press, the pulpit, the divorce
court. -- Let us recognize the cause. -  "In short" as Fenelon
wrote to Louis 14, "the truth must be [told] spoken. Woe to 
those who speak it not, & woe to you if you are not worthy
of hearing it. "
I take up this cause because I have the right to 
plead, & because it is in dire need of pleading. -- I 



7
present it before all judges, all juries , every sort 
of justice.-- I see  girls  [with]  as fair gardens
overgrown with weeds. -- I see [those] girls  with the
bloom rubbed off. -- Girls who see themselves at the
altar to misery,  or elsewhere to shame. I see abilities 
uncultured, powers [resting]  not called into action, 
harvest fields unsown. -- I see those who hesitate to 
falter life away for want of steady purpose. -- I see
those who sleep; & sleeping with the long unhappy 
dream would  end, yet have no power to waken. I 
In [such as sit] them that did feed delicately, desolate
in the streets, -- & made a prey. I see such as sit in 
darkness & the shadow of death, being bound [in]
hopeless in sin & shame. --I demand help for them all. 
I speak in behalf of men. As their friend tho'
they may know it not. For the life & happiness of which 
they are defrauded. For the stimulus for larger
manhood & noble growth. 
I speak for time & eternity. Fulfillment of 
purpose is the great end of life. Discipline the 
worth of existence. [Put here not to take our ease, or
pleasure  or idleness. Not to do whatsoever our
hand findeth to do. With our might." 
Put  her, not to smell a rose, or lie on a 
bed of flowers. Or dream the hours of a summer time
away. -- These for the rest & refreshing, not for other 
sum & substances. 
No living soul was put here to take its ease, 
to smell a rose, or dream away the hours  of a summer
time, or find its pleasure in sunny idleness. -- No. No.
But to work when it is  called to day. - to do whatsoever 
the hand findeth  to do with its might, to clamber 
mountain peaks, in life, that at death it may 
be  near  to heaven,  to toil in a harvest  field,  to plant
in a vineyard, the bread & the wine of which shall
be eaten at last in the eternities of God.My theme tonight is one before which greater
souls might well bow down awed by its
grandeur, - its pathos, - its majesty-, [from] in 
the discussion of which wiser tongues &  
more eloquent lips might well falter & fail 
unable to plunge to the profoundest depths, 
incapable of rising to the sublimest heights
of this great argument. - Our Past of 
          our future, life glorious & immortal, or death infamous & eternal, as 
Sin, -  Our Present of Regeneration, [A
          we today shall decide. 
[From radiating light & warmpth, glory &
blessing as the great ages onward roll, -
a wandering star to whom is around
the blackness of darkness.]
A theme wide as the universe, for its results
affect the world,  - far reaching as time for its
issues of blessing or cursing will stretch on through
the ages & centuries, & will end only with the
ending of the years.
To-day as children we gather about
the bier of a loving & tender father, unnumbered
eyes are dim with tears for him, unnumbered hearts 
ache for his loss, unnumbered voices choke and breakas they try to pronounce his name, for when two
weeks ago, the assassin's hand, struck out the life
of Abraham Lincoln [then died a man greatly
beloved & mourned], a brave & tender & patient heart
ceased to beat, a true & honest & upright
soul went up to meet its maker. No words of
mine, tho in the past I have said hard things of him when I thought
hard things were needed can justly tell the 
story of this man's life or fitly praise him, earnest
in feeling, noble in thought, good in nature
So pure & true in life that a little child might
read the record without wavering, so brave
in defense of the right so loving to all.
A man who never sold the truth to serve the hour
Nor falter'd with eternal God for power
Who let the turbid steams of rumor flow
Through either babbling world of high or low,
Whose life was work, whose language rife
With rugged maxims hewn from life
Who never spoke against a foe.
What wonder that this man died unutterably
beloved & mourned, - what marvel that a 
people, his own, stands as chief mourners
& humanity wraps around his grave.And yet let us not deceive ourselves, it is 
not simply the death of a man however high his 
station, — however grand his attributes, however 
foully murdered that tortures us today -- It is
liberty that was assailed in the person of our
Chief, it is the Country that bleeds, and put it
how we will it is slavery that inflicts the blow
it is we the freedom-loving who are the
victims aimed at, —  [then]
Then you, & I, & all of us, fell down
And bloody treason flourished over us.
But there be those found who announce,
& even loyal men & papers to assent to the
announcement, that this deed was “prompted
by no partisan malevolence” that it is not to 
be associated with the record of civil strife
further than as the act of a murderer whose criminality
goes not beyond his own individuality,” — 
that “both parties to this contest will alike loathe
and denounce it - soldiers on whichever side they
may stand having no sympathy with assassins.
The sta[te]tement specious and hypocritical is asfalse as the hearts that conceived & the life that
altered it; __ It was no personal hate that inflamed
the heart & severed the arm of the assassin of [L]
[Lincoln] our President - as a man none could hate him -
his life, tender, trusty, & true, was one to win 
friends, & to gather blessings rather than curses.
it was the thrust of the dagger when the sword
arm had failed and the baffled Hate stood at
bay with its Doom.
In all the annals of Time History never
has, never will, record a scene, or paint a
picture in which the outgrowths the embodiments
of two systems of society, two principles of government
[will be] are more clearly sketched, more vividly 
drawn, than in this death scene, __this picture
of murdered & murderer, victim & slayer,
Abraham Lincoln & John Wilkes Booth.
[The first beginning [his] life in poverty &
sustaining it by toil, taught at his mother's knee &
by his father's side that work is [honorable] a blessing & labor
[blessing] good, _ learning purity of nature, __ experienced
by the buffetings of life, humility through the companionship
of equals, seeing the duty that lay nearest
& performing it. _ doing whatever his hands found]




The first a man of the people:  type of the
new race of men raised when Slavery has
never tainted the air on Western prairies & in
backwoods, & among the mountains, God's
bulwarks of Freedom.
The bulk of American character & the
influence of American institutions as shown
in Eastern cities & communities, - overborne by
foreign elements & numbers, - filled with the
cockneyism of Europe, cursed by the wretched
transcript of effete civilizations & Western aristocracies,
-- an agglomoration of elements held
together by the single thread of toil and gain.
This is not America tho' some of
the noblest elements of American life & nature
be found therein, & irradiate their surroundings
by the light they shed.
But out yonder a fresh generation of 
men has been finding growth, -- Americans
born, & moulded by the majestic influences
of nature of their own great land, --broadened
by its prairies, --- solemnized by its forests,elevated by its mountains, growing as the universalnous,
under God's eye alone, _[untrammeled]
compassing their own surroundings, - establishing
their own governments,_ [having] making their pretense &
securing their future away from old time laws &
traditions, untrammeled by dead weights &
precedents.
There is the result of Liberty in America, _
There are free Americans, - a [slavery, &] firm, &
enduring substratum for building, a corner stone
to support humanity, - a race rough-hewn, many
angled, ungainly, _ [but with the bone & muscle]
[the [st?] & sincere], the lives marking perfect
proportion & strength, - that filled out & covered
at last by the slow gatherings of centuries
will make as will perfect beauty. 
This [life] was embodied in [our President] Abraham Lincoln. 
[?] [Our President was] Our President was the legitimate outgrowth
of this society that recognizes no divine
right law that of Justice. - no aristocracy but
that of mind. _ Born to poverty, inured to toil, _
respecting labor, reverencing man. God's image;
Learning purity of nature, strength & experiences
through the buffetings of life, _ humility by the
companionship of equals, with whom equality &
fraternity were not men harmed in the



republic but who holding its highest place
of power & trust & united for its course to speak &
claimed the [promise?] as a brother.  Not a man of
transcendent genius, of rare insight, of a restless
force of character that bends everything to its
will, not in any sense a tyrant or a despot, nor
yet with the elements that go to make one, just
a man whose foot kept step with the march of the
people & whose honest heart throbbed strong &
true with the great popular heart about him.
And now that the foot has paused, the
busy hand dropped its hold, _ the warm brave
heart & thought worn have ceased from their
labor, - History taking him gently up
places him in a niche which [shall] will be to after
times a holy of holies, _ & writes over it in characters
that shall never grow dim nor [opposed?]
American Liberty.
If Abraham Lincoln be the type of Am. Lib
John Booth is no less the type of Am. Slavery __ A
system begotten in Sin, & supported by horrors, abuses
& crimes unnumbered & indescribable, _ nay which
is in itself the illness of all horror, abuse &
crime that can be perpetrated upon man. _ A
system which blasts the soil, - dishonors labor, -degrades the laboring man, _ dulls invention, _
darkens understanding, palsies will, _ perverts
judgment, _ mocks at mercy & sends justice to the
halter, _ that elevates all that is base, & depresses
all that is noble in man, _ that ignores the
plainest dictates of  humanity [ignores] defies the laws of 
man & outrages those of God, _ that lifts up
the few by the degradation & despair of the many, _
that makes an aristocracy of sloth, of indolence,
of selfishness, of fraud, of oppression, of cowardice,
of dastardly meaness, & monstrous cruelty, - a
man chaining, woman whipping, child-stealing
 aristocracy __ an aristocracy that
feeds at your board & puts poison in your
cup, that walks by your side & stabs you in the
ribs, - that holds your hand & plunges a 
dagger to your heart - that grinds the faces of the poor, makes theft respectable, &  murder honorable, _ if the victim be [poor] or defenseless, -
pledges its word to break it, makes oathes to trample upon
them, dishonors its flag & betrays its country.
__a systim that has
culminated in a government of thieves, a navy of 
pirates, an army of murderers that robs the dead
& starves the living foe.
What can such a system as this could
have produced a man capable of the brutal, 
the cowardly, the hideous murder of two weeks
ago, a man who had not, as indeed have now
with whom he sympathized the merit of honest

if misguided belief, - of the dignity of actual
faith in the fiendish doctrines [they] he [with them]  pro[fess]claimed.
and he indeed believed the country oppressed
by a tyrant & [he]  himself its avenger, - a second
Brutus bringing to death a second Caesar. -
he would have done his deed in the sight of the
world, &, stood till the righteous fury of the 
[mob] people tore him asunder, rejoicing in the death that
would set the seal of honesty & faith to his life: __ but -
every door was left open, - every obstacle removed, -
every path made straight, - invention was taxed,
to preserve the life of the destroyer of life, to save
this merciless, treacherous, - brutal & cowardly
assassin escaping from his carnival of
blood. __ There he stands, __ look at him, __
a scion of Southern Chivalry, - the offspring
of Slavery, - abhorred by the good, despised by
the bad, - a blot in God's sunshine, -- [a creature]
[of the earth], - [rapidly hearing]  having reached its last his
shameful & ignominious end. __ a sight
from which coming ages will veil their eyes, -
& shrink with unutterable loathing, - while
they had [over judgment] above it the verdict of history, written in
letters of [darkness] blackness & flame, American Slavery.
I repeat it, - It is Slavery that should at
the bar of the world, - a convicted criminal, theassassin of this type man of freedom, & in the
blindness of hate has, with the blow it aimed at
its opponent, destroyed itself, _ for if before it had
found its last ditch it has now furnished the
earth with which to cover it so that not even
the disgusting body may taint freedom's air, -
It has changed largely at least the Copper of Democracy into the
iron of the hardest & blackest republicanism, it 
has made liberty sure, sure, it has [made] turned over loss to
[our] eternal gain, & has compelled us to lose
our life that we might find it again.
For this crowning act of the Rebellion cries
aloud for vengeance, _ it demands not simply 
the execration of the civilized world, it requires [the]
terrible punishment for the perpitrators thereof —
Perpitrators, I say, _ for this man Booth [was] [is] was not the
hand that struck the blow,  - the body of which is 
composed of every intelligent traitor in the land. -
It is but one of a long series of acts aimed at
the life of the nation.
As a man who has taken the life of a fellow 
man, - [this] he [pays] has [the] forfeited [with] his own __ [as a]
[murderer U S -hung], it is the fate decreed him & the world says well done  if this be his fate what then
shall be that of those who have destroyed wholy hecatombs of
lives, - who have aimed at the heart of the Republic


nay more,  who [have] not content with the attempted
ruin of a people, have warred openly against
God & have striven to efface the cause of humanity
itself from this earth.
X  I will not pause here, _ I will not outrage
your ears, nor soil my [mouth] lips by denunciations 
of hate & rage, however just & righteous upon the
the wretched miscreant, who cowering in by-ways from the light of
day & the eyes of man [over whom hangs suspended] has miserably escaped at last the
awful arm of avenging law, __ I will not bring
proof from a thousand traitorous sources, north &
south to show how this act in itself, was but the
doing what multitudes [of others] had hoped & prayed might
be done, & how the men & papers striving today to shield themselves from popular fury by [the] bars & protestations of grief, 
who called our 
President, a knave, an imbecile, a usurper, & a
an ape, a gorilla, a disgrace to [the world] humanity, a master
tyrantant who cursed the country with his Adm.
& of whom the world would be well rid __ stand as
absolutely responsible for this murder as the man
who executed their wills__ There is no lack of
feeling on this point, no need to arouse indignation
or to incite to punishment, more punishment still possible.
The answer comes to us in myriads of 
voices, __ furnish them with kindness, _ overcome
them with good, __ crush them with mercy. __
As well [say when] [have said had] say were this assassin [if found] [been taken] alive, - clothe
him in beautiful garments, - heap wealth abouthim, shower blessings upon his head, clasp his hands,
place him in power & trust _ next to the Presidents,
nay [make] as President [of him] himself, _ & call this
punishment, __as well [have] expect[ed] thus to overcome his [evil] callous heart, & 
the evil he has wrought, as will [have] hope[d] thus to crush his soul in
[crime] despair & repay the crime he has done. Monstrous thought!
Humanity shrinks [with] from it in horror [from such a]
[thoughts] the nations of the earth would [have] learn[ed] from
us in loathing, _ [&] the world would [have] declared a
nation of murderers, & [lay] [laid] lay this [guilt] death at the door of
every soul consenting to such infamy & shame.
Mercy in such a case would [have]  be ineffable crime.
[Yet what] the treatment we refuse to bestow [do to the] upon the one we propose to give to
the many, _ We virtually assent to the assertion of 
Howell Cobb, _ that "when traitors (or murderers for in this instance they
are the same) become numerous enough, treason (or
murder) becomes respectable."
These leaders of a rebellion, falling to pieces
are convicted criminals standing at the bar of
an outraged law, _ robbers, pirates, murderers, _
their mouths filled with cursing, their hands
dripping blood, their hearts saturated with
deathly & eternal hate, had they succeeded
Heaven would have veiled its face in [fears?] & Hell laughs 
aloud at the coming of its own Kingdom upon



the earth, __ shall we make of these mouths
once more the utterance of law, __ shall we trust
Liberty to these hands, shall we allow these 
hearts to decide the fate of the Republic.
Law lifts its outraged front, & hurls its
curses at a nation that would so desecrate its
majesty, __ Liberty in America once more stretches
out its hands for the manacles & clanks its 
chains over the graves of its martyrs, -- The Republic
swoons to death as its enemies once more
tear asunder, & thrust poison into its slowly
healing wounds.
I cannot speak too strongly, _ nay I
cannot speak strongly enough, words fail me,
language is dumb, & thought itself pauses
in its flight, as I strain to comprehend &
paint the weakness, the apathy, or the
wickedness of the north that would allow
these monsters to go unwhipped of justice.
Is it not sufficient that their power be
broken, the blessed Son of God was not content
with overthrowing the tables of those, who 
committed sin & desecrated his father's house, --
he [scourged] drove them from it with whips & scourgings.
"They that plow iniquity & sow
wickedness shall reap the same." __ Shall
mortal man be more just than God?Just, aye that is the word! It is only justice
that I demand. __ The right when it triumphs
has no need to be violent. __ I do not
appeal to any such feeling, or unworthy thought
in man or woman. __ Let us not confound.
Vengeance is not revenge, justice is not
cruelty, the vindication of outraged law
is not vindictiveness. __ If John Booth should
[be] have been hung how much more [should Jefferson] Davis
[Robert Lee] & Toombs, Yancey & Foote, Cobb, Moseby,
Lee & a host of others, __ who knew [better even] what they did
[than we the guilt they have & are committing]
& are doing, - & comprehend better even than we their
[crimes] sins against God & man.
If there is any virtue in hanging these men
should be hung, __ as a punishment for their
crimes, __ as a preventative of their repetition
in the future, _ as a warning to those who
might be tempted (by their otherwise flowery fate)
to follow in their footsteps, & commit the same
crime of crimes against coming ages & generations
yet unborn.
[Again] I question from Whence [arises] then arises this mercy to rebels & again not
comes more from [our own past] the precedents of our [own] past,
We have stood by calmly, smiling & [nodding] assenting
[approval] while rebels against tyranny, vice & cruelty, so



frightful [that even] that they would have compelled the very stones [would have] to making
[rebelled] [rebelling] rebels for life, for liberty, for manhoods 
honor & womanhoods purity, have been
hunted, outlawed, torn of dogs, branded with
irons, - starved with famine, hung upon gibbets, -
bound to the stake & burned. __ We did not
interfere [then], we did not object, we did not protest,
then, __ nay if a voice was raised in behalf
of these sufferers, we drowned it with cries of 
law, order, -- the dignity of the Constitution, --
the inviolability of Law, -- the preservation of
the Union threatened by such a prayer.
I do not ask you to measure to these
men as they have meted to others, __ I do not
beseech you to punish the rebellion of the oppressors
against liberty, as they have punished
the rebellion of the oppressed against
slavery. - [Humanity] [Deacency] [Religion] Civilization forbids. __ But I do [ask]
entreat, nay as a pleader for the cause of 
truth, justice, & good government I demand __ that
when the plea of humanity is urged as a
reason for our leniency we remember our
position in the past towards these others rebels, &
for the sake of deacincy forbear.Can it be that we have crawled till we can no
longer walk as men, have knelt till we can no
longer stand erect, Is it possible that we have
helped to bind [chains on] others till we ourselves
are bound in chains that cannot be broken.
Is it true then that even the experience of
this war. __ Our dishonored flag, __ our
outraged Gov. -- our country rent asunder,
__ the 300 000 untimely dead, __ the shattered & mangled
remains of heroes, __ the dim eyes of fathers, [of]
the broken hearts of mothers, the wailings of
widows & orphans, more & worse, the horrors of
Southern prisons & lazar houses, __ the 60,000
dead of starvation, _ the wrecks of body & mind escaping
 therefrom, - the murder of our own
president, - can it be true I ask, that
[all these] even these [barbarisms]displays & results of barbarism of 
malignant cowardice & cruelty _ have
not taught us to respect ourselves, _ our
manhood & womanhood, _ our system of life, - &
the effects of [the] free government & society.
Are we still eaters of dirt?
No! you exclaim, no!
How else shall I explain the nauseous &
disgusting sight & sound of loyal [paper] presses & speakers, --
serving in these libels upon humanity, these
monsters of cruelty, - gentlemen _ refined &

high-toned, _ soldiers, brave & honorable, _ a
gracious, a superior, a courtly people with understands
 somewhat darkened no doubt but after all, right
underneath, __
If there was aught of excuse in the past
for such blindness of abject servility, what
excuse is there in the present. - If in time
gone these whited sepulchures stood fair &
beautiful to outward seeming, so that we saw
not beneath this surface the dead men's bones
& all uncleaness with which they were filled,
& admired them accordingly, _ what [excuse] reason
for such admiration can be urged [to]
[[day] now, when the door has been rent away,
& the loathsome secrets of these charnel
houses, stand revealed, sickeningly revealed
in the light of day.
Yet you & I saw our papers not long ago, &
read therein, that while in Washington our
martyred President was lying dead, __ Richmond
rang with the shouts of traitors over the
almost triumphant entry of their defeated chief, _ beaten leader, _
who is, we are informed treated with the utmost kindness
& courtesy
to whom our officers & men lift their caps in 
recognition of & tribute to his genius & honesty
in standing true to his state.
And yet of these two [this man]Robert Lee stands a
viler murderer than John Booth. —-Nay
Convicted of more crimes than were probably ever
dreamt of in the other’s philosophy.
 His reputed Chivalrous honesty for which he [is]
receives honor, — [if true,] what is it save the
proof of more utterly mean [vile] & causeless treason than
that of others, - he had not even the excuse
of Independence, —- "Struggle against Despotism,' - 
"Security Of Property.” —- Safety of the
Peculiar Ins”— & all the manifold words
with which they endeavor [strive] to make reasonable
& beautiful their infamous [mon] crime. — He stands
a betrayer of his flag. — a deserter from his 
army post, a traitor to his country, a breaker of
oft-repeated othes —found struggling against 
the Republic, striving to compass the [striving against the] destruction
of the nation's life, carrying upon his soul the
maiming or murder of half a million of men,
& all this because his honor commanded
him to cast his lot with his native State
when that State became a wandering Star
& plunged out into the blackness of darkness.—
   Nay he has not even the merit,— if merit
it be of holding full to the [his] promise that he
would fight only for, & in his own state, for it
was broken when he commanded at Antietam 



in Maryland, & at Gettysburg in our own 
State. — This for his honesty & honor, what of
the genius demanding our homage. - Is it-
not true that [it has been] the power of his brain
& will have him more than armies or navies to
their side, — [is it not true] that his very name
has been an inspiration in their midst [to their hosts]— that 
his transcendent ability had lengthened a 
cruel, costly, & terrible [infamous] struggle from
months to years,- that we owe to him more
than to any other [man] our tens of thousands slain in battle, — to him
alone, as commander in chief, issuing uncontrovertable
 orders, — the protracted agony of 
hunger & thirst, heat & cold, - a long long
death of torture & despair in life, - for some [mercifully] 
ending in the [ground], — for others in shattered 
health, idiocy, or insanity for life. 
    Is this the genius we are to reverence, - this
the soldier we are to admire, [this] the man we are
to respect, — Is it not rather true that the full
knowledge of crime, & the [extent] magnitude of its execution,
adds to the guilt of the criminal, the infamy of
his name, & the might of his punishment.—
   I have spoken thus at length [of him] of his man because in
his person, & in our treatment & talk of him, — we have
the established type of a Southern Gentleman,
of our own inveterate habit of grovelling and self-abasement.
But our Charity goes beyond this -- it gives Gov food
to those who would rather go naked than wear
Gov Clothing, -- it [sits] stands guards at the doors of those
who would rather die than walk under the dear
old flag, -- it lets loose an immense army , to
plunder, pillage & burn whatsoever their hands
can find to seize or destroy.  x It proposes to bring northward at the expense of the Gov (otherwise
of the people) multitudes of disarmed traitors to [seize] usurp the
places, the pay, & the food of loyal Northern laboring men,
& to load our communities & ballot boxes with their
treasonable influence numbers & votes.- it induces a
General the glory of whole pale- fame renders
deeper the blackness of his present infamy to
ignore all for which the war has been fought,
to fling aside the gain of four years of battles
and blood-shed- to trample on laws framed
by the Legislative power, on orders issued by
the Executive, to forget his duty as a man
his allegiances to his country, his honor as a
soldier, and usurping the powers of a dictator
or an autocrat, to use them for the purpose
of strengthening the weak hands & conferring the feeble knees of a slaveholding
rebellion,- Of [confirming] establishing the traitorous
government [they] we had swaps,- of
permitting to escape the foulest traitor of them
all, from the watchful [arm] eyes & outstretched
arm that would seize only to crush.



Such charity as this to the guilty is cruelty
to the innocent, it is an outrage to common
sense- common safety, & common law,- it is
an insult to humanity & the world.- Such
conduct, such failure to see & enforce the
plainest- & most ordinary debate of good
governments,- [that crime must be punished] the punishment of crime
can result only in the breaking down in
community not simply an appreciation &
horror of guilt,- but of law of order of safety,- by
[making] rendering sin respectable & the criminal secure.
And what induces this charity towards
traitors?--Is it that we question our
right to convict & condemn?- Let us see.
What is our record of the past,- Let us call
up a picture,- an old man filled with the
divine frenzy of hate against wrong &
oppression, struggling not for himself, but
for the salvation of the oppressed & the elevation
of man,- right about him, eleven living
[men] followers to back him,- bleeding, covered with
wounds, two sons dead at his feet,- contending
with hundreds [captured] conquered & a prisoner
at last,- What then,- A court-room,-
this same old man stretched on a [bench] palatebleeding from his sin wounds till his bed
was saturated, — too weak to stand or to sit
almost bereft of hearing,- form of his  comrades, 
mangled & torn by his side,— an
attorney (Hunter,) a judge (Parker) a jury
(forsworn)— a trial covered in indecent 
haste,- garbled documents produced, 
the defense cut sort, scarce any 
delay allowed, witnesses for the prisoner 
shut-out, — two guns loaded with grape
planted inside the doors, — 40 minutes
for deliberation, 3 sentences to death, — the
gallows with half a dozen of his followers.
      It was not the Judge who [that] presided, —
the Attorney who plead, — the Jury that
condemned,— the executioner who adjusted
the rope, [that] it was the American people that hung
John Brown, — for Treason, — for levying
war against the U.S. — North & South said
Amen to the Sentence, & the great-apostle
of Republicanism, of liberty wrote over
against his name justly Hung.
   It cannot be that— we question [the] right
to punish reason & traitors.




    If I had aright, the signs, I think this
most-foul taking off of our President has
incited us, not to cruelty but to the enforcement of
justice.— his death has crushed the last hope
of Slavery [for].
        It was that fatal & perfidious task
Built-in the ellipse & rigged with causes dark
that sunk so low that sacred head of thine.
You know it, & are determined that [the] task
& officers shall go down together, & that the
habits, not of oblivion, but of infamy to
eternal death shall roll over them.
        But beyond this there is a higher duty for as
to perform, to ourselves, & to those we have systematically
wronged.
        So long as we are filled with an insolent,
a vulgar, & a cruel hate of the negro, finding its 
expression in the denial of his rights as a man & 
a citizen, in Northern Street cars, or at Southern 
ballot boxes, — so long we strike hands with the
assassins of liberty, make slaves of ourselves, since
to wrong, & endanger the safety of the republic, 
not merely by placing it in the hands of its enemies
by inviting the judgments of GodLet me re-iterate what you know, that
such a court, is but a repetition of base folly &
Sin,- it is building our safety on on rotten
foundation stones that will not sin,- endeavoring
to form [cement] form a union of North & South by
Shaking hands over the prostrate body of the
Negro.— Does not our experience suffice, —
as God swept away our first refuge of lies
as he took this matter in his own hand &
divided our first-covenant of iniquity, so
let us be assured he will rend asunder our
Second, — for he is a God of justice & truth.
        I will not beg this question of the
rights of the black man upon you at extended 
length,— I will not plead it on the pitiful bad
ground of safety to ourselves— I will not
demonstrate a self evident force that even
if he be ignorant- an ignorant loyal man
is better to hold the fate of the Republic, than an ignorant disloyal one,—
an ignorant soldier of the union is better
than an ignorant disarmed traitor.— or
that- if any in our midst- are to serve a
probation to prove their fitness [to hold] to
this great power & rights of the franchise
it should be those who have lifted their




hand against the nation, defend its laws
& trampled its institutions under foot.
     But standing by the grave of our
martyred president, - martyred for Liberty, I 
implore you that we have highly resolved that this
dead shall not have died in vain.  [*Let this dead man speak more loudly to our hearts than living man ever shouts in our ears.*] I
recognize that we have loved him,  & now his 
memory so well because we have seen in him 
a mirror of our better selves,- because he has 
stood the high water mark of justice &
[liberty] mercy in the land— let [him] us still find [stand] in 
him a mirror of ourselves as he goes on from
[height] Glory to Glory [height] in the eternities, let us lift
ourselves in Truth, in [Justice] Integrity, in Liberty, in the
Grandeur of goodness as a nation, — let us still
find in him our high water mark of Justice & Mercy, - and as he 
heard the cry, — come up higher, — & ascend 
the celestial mountains of eternity, — So may
the rising tide bearing upon it, — enduring 
faith in the rights of man, unselfish devotion 
to the cause of humanity,- walk his feet
even on such elevation, lightened by the
blessing of heaven & illuminated by the 
approving smile of God.1
Who here is not familiar with  the
infinitely pathetic story which Charles Dickens
tells of poor little Oliver Twist taking his
porrenger in his thin weak hands & going
up to beg in his trembling hungry voice for
"more" __ [of] the [well fed]  horror & amazement of Mr. Bumble
at the boy's audacity. __ of the exclamation
of the gentleman in the white waistcoat, _ when
he at last finds his voice, gazing with astonishment
meanwhile at the little shivering wretch & his small empty bowl. "That
boy will be hung I know that that boy will be hung." __ [who here is so familiar but
 that has read the sad
pitiful story tale has not felt hot tears gathering
under their his eyelids,] 
I misdoubt me
 if there be man or woman here who ever
read that tale but with hot tears gathering
under the eyelids, & a sense of indignation
filling the heart, __ sorrow & wrath commingled
over the suffering & wrong.
Yet start not, nor refuse to
listen, my friends, when I say that there
is more than one Mrs. Corney, _ more than oneMr. Bumble right here within sound of my
voice, who would mourn over the fictitious
tale, yet help to make the real tragedy. __
for mark you there are poor houses over
which the law has no jurisdiction, -- there
are hungry mouths, & hungry souls too
clamoring in our streets, [&] looking dumbly at
our doors, __ for something to eat, __ for
something to fill them, for something to do.
__ & the very people who draw breath hard
as they read of Oliver's woe. __ smile sneeringly
stand by silently answer harshly & jeeingly if at all. __ a poor house
in England with a few boys in it I grant
you is bad. __ a poor house in America
[with hundreds of thousands] holding multitudes of women [in]
[it] suffering in body & mind is infinitely
worse.
According to the fair play of the world
Let me have audience - I am sure to shriek
To- night I stand the mouth piece of many,
-- women who toil in garrets all day long
for a crust of bread & a bed of straw, __ women
who strain & fight & struggle for room to
stand. - twenty seeking to crowd themselves
into the space for one. __ women who do the



2
same work as the men beside them, & receive
but a fraction of his pay. __ women who [do] labor 
in that they detest, & are shut out from that to
which their inclination & fitness tend. __
women who long to know many things & are
but told that ignorance is their lot, & [knowledge] wisdom
unfeminine. __ women whose hands are full of
gold & whose lives are [crowded] dust & dross, women who live
in palaces, clad in glittering array, whose days
go on idle, empty, useless, [confine?] & death settling [living a death in] [falling]
[life] like a black veil over each noblest faculty for
want of an aim, of an ambition, of something
to do. __
To night I [take] strive to gather all these
voices of women into my one voice, all their
want, all their suffering, all their pain to thrill
it, as holding out the poor empty porrengers
of their lives I cry for "more." More work,
more money, more knowledge, [more intelligence],
more culture, more opportunity,
more freedom, more justice for them at
the hands of the world.1
[Tis an old tale & often told, that 
Hood has put into his Song of the Shirt.— it
seems like an idle & useless waste of time, of 
your hearing & my speech to recapitulate the
number of women who are working.]
     I demand this. —- I claim
this right for woman because it is full
time to make this 19. Century ashamed of its
culpable denial of justice to one half the
human species, because it is full time
for the intelligent, the thoughtful to recognize 
if the flippant & gay will not. that labor
cannot be a law without also being a
right, that any being, compelled to live
[has] should have full liberty to him as he or she [they]
best can because it is full time to indicate
the self-evident fact, — however denied.
that functions belong to those who prove
an aptitude for them & not to an abstraction
called [?e?].
      In urging these claims I comprehend
[full] what it is that I face. what it is that
opposes me before. & that drags me down from 
behind, — men on the one side, — women on


                            3
the other, — active warfare & passive indifference, 
the insolence of strength, the
fear of weakness.— the brutality of ignorance,
 the polished sneer that cuts as a knife. —
the great might of public opinion that would
[cruch &] overwhelm,—- comprehending  this I stand
but the closer [now] to my game, & fire away at
the one point sure in the end to make some
loophole for entrances.— “I am often laughed
at by Prof. A. said an eminent man of
science [for being a person of] because I have but one idea. — he
reads everything knows everything,  talks of
everything, but I long ago learned that if
I make any breach I must aim my guns
continually at one point.”—  with him
I recognize that one can do great things
towards moulding public opinion. & compel
men & women [people] to consider certain subjects simply by
accustoming people to hear them them
mentioned,— persistancy, a woman’s quality they say with right to
luck it is invincible. 
        In nothing has this wish been morethoroughly vindicated, than in the history of
the so called woman agitation of [of through] the last
fifteen years.— The women who spoke
there large of pain, earnest of nature as many
of them were, even hooted at, derided, 
pelted with foul words & even with stones
to day, a woman uttering the same
statements, making the same plea with augmented boldness is
listened to with Attention & courtesy, if not with friendly
interest & care. — they have established the
fact that there is somewhere a great wrong
by the argument they have provoked, for there
is no discussions when there is no wrong.
        Twenty years ago [men &] Society
said nothing of the condition of laboring 
women.— 15 years ago it declared there was
nothing to be altered or amended therein [in it]—
to-day there is not one with any claim to [a man or woman] who
respectability would dare venture to defend it. 
       Through scorn, contumely, [the]
bitterness of opposition, __ through hootings &
revilings, through sneers of unwomanly, unfeminine, 
- an absurdity, a vulgarity,— an
unsexing,—- strong-minded, a gross dilution


                           4
an outrage on nature, this question [profane]
began [did] in obscurity, has resolved itself with
the profoundest social problem [question] of the
age. Whatever is popular, says Mackintosh 
deserves attention- whatever is right- is 
sure in the long run to get it. tho it do harm
to wait. I do not intend to recapitulate
the facts & figures which I have before 
given in the hearing of many who to night compose
my audience. — facts & figures as familiar 
with many as household words.— “Tis an
old tale & often told.” that Hood has sung in
Song of the Shirt.— nobody in this day is
ignorant of the fact that multitudes of
women are toiling in garrets & cellars &
dens of the earth for a pittance [barely] of bread, for
scanty garments & insufficient fire.—
working day by day on the verge of a
crumbling precipice, which day by day brake
on the edge, & like one & another fall in
the abyss beneath.
       And yet I would fain, for a
little while dwell upon this same misery. degredations
& despairs.— & it is good for a man oror woman to be brought, once at last in
his or her life face to face with fact, — alternate
fact, however horrible it may be,, & have
to confess shuddering what things are 
possible when God’s earth, [where his
righteous laws are disregarded, & ]
Is it the fashion of the world to
talk of woman’s place. [&] woman’s duty [&] 
woman’s purity, & influences, — to declare that she should 
be an angel in poverty as in wealth. a
ministering spirit for good in the shanty
as in the palace. — airy [hands as [light] as]
feathers [are my friends],— spin to these women. food,
air, light, — treat them as well as God has
treated the leasts__before [If] we require of them to
be angels we must give them [at last] an opportunity to
be respectable humans.— I demand this of 
you, for them.— & you cry out innovation,
fanaticism, — womans rights. — heavy
horrors.— meanwhile the great wheel turns &
turns, & this woman & that goes down to
perdition with its revolutions.— & you say
— “Dreadful creature, let her go, — push her
down, she has dropped from her high estate
   

                          
5
& privilege of woman, for her there is neither 
hope nor [help] aid.”       
Come with me Sir, — come with me 
madam, into a few of the lanes & by ways of
this great & wicked world. [&] look with me
for a little while at what you may there behold,—
[Is it good — &c.] Look at this squalor, this 
poverty, this filth & degradation, — “Vainly
attempt to think of any simple plant, or
flower or wholesome weed, that set in this
foetid bed, could have its natural growth 
or put its little leaves forth to the sun as
God designed it, — [And] then calling up
some young girl, who has here grown from
a miserable childhood to a miserable maturity
hold forth on her unnatural depravity, & 
lament her being so far away from purity & 
heaven— but think a little of her having been
conceived & born & bred in Hell.”— Look
at all this, __ It is good &c. __ Look at
all this, oh man, oh woman, of means &
power & influences look at it & remember thattho’ you may but survey these masses in the
gross as subjects for statistics, for reports,
for a [name] horror not to be named. & here is
one above who knows every thirst & ache
& sorrow & temptation of each slattern & 
gin drinker & Street-girl. The day will come
when he will require an account of these
neglects of yours— not in the gross.
Come with me to behold one who
carefully harried & hand, has felt prop after
prop fall away from her & finds herself [stands] at last
alone in the world, mother & friend in the 
grave,— mark this motherless girl whose 
fingers thin push from her faintly want
& sin, toiling on from Monday morning 
till Saturday night, with no advice [word of], no council,
no encouragement, no consolation, no assistance 
no support of any kind from any one whatever,
till heart & flesh at last give way, & the darkness
settles down, — then uplift thy shameless
brow, gather thy spotless robe about thee.— turn
thy face from this shame of womanhood, 
this disgrace to her sin, but hear in thy air 
most heart the sentence, — “Inasmuch as ye



6
did not to them my little ones ye did it
not to me.— I know ye not.
             I tell you of these tens of thousands
of women.— I point out to you these multitudes
of blasted lives, — [do] I expect you then
for to go amongst them, to visit, clothe, help,
them. — to Alleviate misery, & check crime
by the ministrations of mercy, & the linkings
of charity,— so I second labor associations
& working woman’s leagues. — these be good.—
well enough in their way, & as far as they
reach.— but they are but attempts to dip
out the ocean with a pint cup. — they
do not touch the core of the cancer nor
pluck out the whole of the disease.  To your
man who speak of mercy. — Nay do justice
to you woman who would soothe yourself by
deeds of charity to others, I say, “Heal thyself.”
      [Did the [evil effect of] degrading of woman's labor & of the woman
herself who works. — [in any way whatever did], as a consequence, 
[this] class has no other [evil] fruit than this suffering & want in a large this [same]
social class horror of which we fear to speak, — Swing
while in all their monstrosity? & hideousness. I 
say they would be small matters, as compared][with the] Looking at this  [evil] want & shame in all its
horror, all its monstrosity. I say that it is a 
slight matter compared with the universal & deep
seated evil growing out of the degradation of
woman's [work] toil. __ & the loss of each to any
woman who works.
Hawthorne tells us in his wondrous
story of the Scarlet Letter that when Hester
approached any who had sinned in silent
thought & deed tho' with outward lives of
purity & truth, the fiery figure burned &
scorched on her bosom, & to her wondering
& horror struck eyes appeared its counter
part on the outwardly spotless lot that
pulled her by. __  I too wear a letter
stamped upon me, that would shut me
out from every honorable avenue of labor
& profit, __ that would [shut] close upon me the
door to advancement, __ that would put
burthens on my shoulders & clogs upon
my feet when I strive to climb, __ that
would [shut] close my [live?] into a dull routine
with empty & barren surroundings, __
that would make men give me a stone
when I cry for bread. -- that would dwarf
my faculties, crush my ambition, belittle my

7
life, & cramp my soul. __ the letter that
marks me a woman as distinct from
a man. __ by this same sign I read
the lives about me. __ I look into the
faces of wives & maidens, of mothers &
daughters, __ smiling faces, gracious faces,
faces that are trained consciously & unconsciously
to lie. __ masks to hide emptiness, __
dust & ashes, __ vague desires, nameless longings, useless powers,
wasted vitality, & seeing these women -
Come with lives that come to nothing
Come with deeds as well undone. __
Seeing what God meant them to be, & the
world has made them, scorches till I am in torture, the letter burns till I
am all aflame. __ & [flinging] covering up my face,
I cry aloud in agony & despair of soul. __
questioning in regard to the whole race of
womanhood is existence after all worth
accepting save to the happiest among them.
__ Such [uselessness among the many. __ such
suffering & pain & contractedness among the
multitudes. __ no thoughtful soul can
consider this problem without sadness, discerning
 such an almost hopeless task to be done— as a first step the whole system of
society to be torn down & built anew, -
the very nature of man or his long hereditary 
habit, which has become like nature to be
essentially modified ere woman can assume
what seems to be a fair & suitable
position, -- finally all other difficulties
obviated woman herself cannot take advantage
of these preliminary reforms until she
herself shall have undergone a change, wherein,
 it may be I know not, something shall
have disappeared which shall be like [the] a
perfume vanished in an [delic] ethereal essence
exhaled.—- only [the] experience & the years can show that.
What reform would you work, — 
What then is it that you desire? do you ask.—
What is this thing you would demand [do] for woman?
What reform would I work? — I would 
understand [make every man understand] & everywoman
comprehend that she is born for herself & not for
another, every man comprehend that he
has no more right to dictate to or govern
this woman than she has to dictate to or
govern him .— no large brained, large
hearted thoughtful man needs to be told
this.— man is arrogant in proportion to
his ignorance, — his natural tendency is to
Egotism.— in his infancy of knowledge he
thinks that the universe was made to

8
minister unto him, the sun to warm him, 
the stars to give him light.— not till the
years pass, & information gathers, & wisdom
grows does he comprehend that these are
before & will be after him. — that he stands in 
their midst but an atom in the infinite.
— not till the years pass, the gates of death
are passed, & the larger light of Eternity
closes him round will it be revealed to the
most that this love be bound, commanded
thou to rule & to mould is his  peer, — equal
before God. — it is towards this clean
day & better knowledge. I would have my [this] 
work tend, this the reform I desire. — What
is this thing I demand for woman?—
Everything that will tend to her elevation,
her growth, everything that her intellectual 
& moral faculties may desire. — work for 
her hands, for her head, for her nature, —
Something to do for those who in spite of
petty cares, & small duties yet sit idle, —
dimming & rusting the fine gold of their
existance.
Would you have a woman an artistan actor, a merchant, a physician, a 
machinist, a lawyer, an artisan, -- a
farmer, a shop-keeper -- a minister, __ Yes
I say, -- would you take her away from
household cares & employments. __ no, I
say. __ these things will settle themselves.__
I would have her do just that for which
she has largest aptitude. __ I know a 
woman in my own city whose husband
is capable of earning $1000 a year. __ She
might stay at home. __ work, consider
economize. __ with the help of one servant
& contrivances get the work done & make both
ends meet at the end of the year. __ but
this woman has a genius for medicine. --
She studied it, she practices it. __ She
earns $12000 a year by it. __ She has good
servants. -- an admirable housekeeper,
she is well & bright & happy, -- her
husband sees as much of her as he
would were he at his place of business all
day & she at home. -- Does she neglect any
duty therefore. -- find me any woman
in this house or in all your circle of
acquaintances whose husbands income
is $12000 a year. & you will find me


9
one who has servants, perhaps a housekeeper [& help] who troubles
herself no man about the domestic details
& household matters than does my medical
friend, __ & who [does not] indeed knows not
half so much about them, for she in her
poverty seemed to them a most faithful & protracted
apprenticeship.  Would I therefore make
all women physicians? -- this woman
has a fitness for this life. __ 99 women
have a fitness & inclination to stay at
home. __ let the 99 [who] gratify their nature
& stay at home. let the hundredth gratify
her nature & go abroad. __ that is a
reasonable & fair request my friends. __ [I never
yet found a man who could do the work of
four hands with two.  if he's a farmer [physician] he
can't be a housekeeper [lawyer], __ if a woman finds
that her duty as a wife & mother, for it is as a married woman this argument alone applies, comes in 
conflict with her labor in the world, the one
or the other must be yielded]
This argument against a woman
studying any lead profession or calling because
her marriage would interfere with it
carries its folly & absurdity on its face.there are multitudes of women who are not
married multitudes who never will be.—
— many who being [yet] once married are
widowed.— & other men who comprehend
with a curious distinctness [that] that it
is easier to support one than two, —[are they]
What are these to do?— gracefully stay at [stay at] home & beautify
it, __ many of them [they] have no home & in that themselves [they] provide. __
be a comfort to their fathers & mothers, — many 
of them feel themselves weights & burthens on
already overworked lives. — [cheer & brighten]
[their husbands lives.] — Devote themselves to
their husbands. — these are not even so well
provided as a Mormon with a fraction of one?
— What folly is this of which you talk—
I go onto the street & I meet a woman
walking wearily from school. — a woman
who has no liking or fitness for her toil. &
her toil wears & lays her accordingly. —
a woman growing old before her time.—
earning 2 or 300 a year.— I watch this
woman & I see that she has the clear eye.—
the calculating brain. the financeiring intellect
that would make her a merchant with a
noble income.— where is the merchant
who would put her behind his counter—
place [mount] her in his office. — Send her
here & yon,to buy,- to acquire,- to
practice,- what would public opinion


                         10
say to this unparalleled performance &
singular audacity.
       I see a woman hastening through
the lesson she is giving the girl before her, from
the music role lying upon, — mechanically 
with little interest or care, — [I w] taking
her five dollars a week therefore. — paid her
more unwillingly than the cook in the
kitchen.— I watch this woman. — I mark 
her constructive faculty, her mechanical 
ingenuity, I see in her a machinist. — an
inventor, — a master artisan. — Where
is the shop open to her. Where the tools placed
at her disposal. — where the opportunity to
learn & to practice. — how stands public 
opinion disposed towards this woman who 
has soiled her garments & grimed her hand
with toil.—
            I stroll through your west end.—
I see women with the honorable signet of
marriage upon their hands. — false to honor
to duty,— to husbands,— infinitly ever to
themselves.- Squandering money [wasting] ruining
fortunes [fortune], wasting the years, — filling their [flirting]days with flirting, coquetting, sentiment - out of all this—
whited sepuchures - under their glittering gorgeous out of all this 
Iwould God with nothing worse. - Simply
 dazzling array of death uncleaness.
Sheer inanity & emptiness, - because they
have never been taught the solemnity of 
living.— the duty of existance, — because
they [have] not had. & do not now have
something, — anything — of value & worth in the world
to do.   Eat & sleep & go up to God &c
           I look at young girls. [with the]
[peach bloom on their cheeks] faded & old &
artificial before their time, — sick yet with
no disease, — invalids yet with no ailment,—
irritable & fitful yet with no suffering [disease?] [??] as
excuse, — & I confess to you as I look I
find tears blinding me, & sobs choking in
my throat. — vitality & nerve & life, cramped
& starved, — feeding on themselves. — wearing
& rasping themselves. — you cannot treat
this wonderful mechanism of body, this
marvellous  motive power of mind as you
would an insensate machine with vents
& stops to put on & take off at pleasure, —
more delicate handling. — Looking at
these girls I remember what I pray you
not to forget that it is impossible to find 
ground which produces nothing - if it a thing wherein is not cultivated  we feel there is some hidden want
does not has grain & flowers, a harvest of
tares & weeds will spring up.—-  


        Mark you in all this I am not
disparaging the home duties, the homes
tiese.— the home work.— I am saying 
nothing about them because there is no
need to speak any word about them. —
women hear of them [till they] enough. —
if a woman does her duty she needs no
talking to from you nor from me. — if she
doesn’t I shall  not add one more to this
millions of voices that are telling it her. 
     I go into houses— no homes. —
Wherein I find women whose hands &
lives are full. —  who have found their
niche & fill it, who have found their
place& honor it, -who have found their
work & do it sweetly & well , - what have 
my words to do with these— nothing, —
I am talking of those whole hands &
lives are empty. Who are seeking for their
niches — seeking for their places, whose
work is lying undone.
      These are the exceptional women 
you say. — if they are exceptional in
character, they should have the exceptional
careers that such character demands,—
if they are unlike other women, you need 
not be afraid if they enter a certain[Eat & sleep & dress]    11
         I see other young girls, with muscles 
that swell, & blood that throbs? — & large
wide open eyes that look out into life earnestly
& askingly.— the mournful spectacle.— 
earnest eyes that see the work to be done.— 
heart that thrills to do it.— Muscles & vitality 
strong to accomplish & perform. — chained,
held - back. silenced, rendered useless,  —
for noble deeds— dress.— for earnest efforts —
fashion, — for work grandly done.—
flirtation — a sight over which the angels
might well weep. With gifts of wit & ornaments of nature.
        Ah [but] [of] man you cry. — “You
are measuring these women in their estimate 
of life, in this desires & wishes, by your
estimate of life,— your own wishes & decline [desires & wishes], —
they are satisfied & content.— I deny it.—
    the thirst that from the soul doth  rise 
do you insult my womanhood up telling
me that the majority of women are content 
with idleness, uselessness & husks. — & if
they are there then what urgent need, — what
pressing necessity for the sake of all that is
good & admirable in humanity, to awake 
them, — to stir them up to high thoughts to
noble lives.—


                            12
life that the masses of women would 
rush in after them.— but I deny the
proposition. — that there are but few women
who will make artists, [singers], physicians , lawyers
ministers, orators  I grant. — I recognize
 quite as plainly that there are but few
men who make any of these things. — 
with the same opportunity I misdoubt me,
if their moved to any large discrepency
between the two. Will they not take work from men? that there are a multitude
a great mass, — a majority of women who
would like to & should, throught at least some
portion of their lives, do some work, — fill
some place. earn some money, when there may be no moneyed need, in the world, —
 [When there may be no person] I do most 
earnestly believe & assert. — they are not exceptional 
women, what you make the great proportion of 
women exceptional from themselves. 
      “Gentlemen “ I beseech of you with
good old Izaak Walton — “let not prejudice
prepossess you; — and I beg of you to create
an imaginary type of woman to make it thestandard of your judgment of real women,
if you would study women a little more, &
your own convenience & love of rule a little less,-
if you would seek out the laws of nature, instead
of imposing your own little laws upon
her, we should come to a better understanding
of this matter.
Be undesired my friend, do not strive
to arrogate all the best qualities of human
nature to your own test, you see one woman
scream or faint foolishly before a calamity in 
the force of which a hundred [women] would
stand collectedly & firm, & you cry out
there's a woman for you, You see one
woman who wins her husband by foolish
extravagance to 100 who have patiently &
willingly toiled to aid & help theres & again
you cry theres a woman for you. You
In one woman shielding herself from
merited blame at the expense of somebody
else to a hundred who bear their penalty
unfaltingly,- & you cry theres a woman
for you. Cowardly & not over cries in
sense of honor.  You see one woman who



13
without advantage, without aid help, education
assistance compete with a hundred men
who have advantage aid help, education,
the assistance & countenance of society &
the world to back them.  You see unity  
of them fail & say nothing. You see her
succeed & this one woman fail, & you
cry out derisively theres a woman for you
[so you see her succeed & exclaim]
You see her attempt & succeed.-
paint pictures & sell them. Carve marble
& grow famous,- with books that every
one reads- practice medicine so admirably
that crowds come to her. Make
speeches to which multitudes listen.- &
you cry behold the exception.-  Mark the
masculinity of genius, of mind, of life
this woman displays,- if a woman
does a small thing smally, it is done as a
woman,-  if she done a grand thing
grandly, it is done as a man. I protest
against all this,- naught but the vanity
& conceit of man.  the ignorance & habit of
subservience of women could under suchshaking possible. — # the man who
says to a woman who does a large deed or work—
“You are a man.” — if an ignorant &
vain glorious boaster — if Miss Flora
McFlimsy is a type of woman so is Harriet
Hosmer.— Rosa Ronheur is a woman
as Wendell Phillips is a man - all women
cannot paint marvellous pictures; — all
men cannot give [make] utterence to marvellous
eloquences.— Rosa Ronheur no
more becomes a man by the first, than
Wendell Phillips becomes a demigod by
the second.
              You cry largely about breaking the 
laws of nature & fighting against facts
— as if facts were not made to be fought 
against & conquered & put out of the way
whenever they interfere in the least
with the welfare of any human being.—
the drowning man is not to strike out for
his life, least by keeping his head above
water he interferes with the laws of 
gravitation.— if the facts you have 
established, the laws which society has
imposed upon nature, — not which she
has made for herself, - Stand in the way


                           14
of the happiness [eleva] will bring or elevation
of woman they should be trodden under
fool as ruthlessly as you tread under foot
these city stones.
           You tell me that this is not 
merely however the verdict of man. — that
wherever a woman has had large success 
in the world her judgment of the masses of
women has almost always coincided with 
the opinion of men.— ah my friends, do
not expose poor human nature, — almost 
always weak & selfish, in spots if not as
a whole.— it is not strange. — to elevate
others is to risk being lost oneself in the crowd
& everyone is not capable of this degree of 
abrugation. To combat for the right of the
weak when men have admitted you to their
ranks is to prepare for yourself a rough 
way & a heavy cross. — it is not easy to 
shrug our shoulders in the face of raillery &
scorn on the one side & jealousy on the other,—
- Still I do not see that the temperament of 
heroes & martyrs is more largely developed 
among men than among women, as I lookover the world. - granted in part that
the statement is true what does that prove
save the imperfection of soul to which
most [human] men as well as women
are liable.
Nor does your argument prove
aught that women do not do their work
as men - nobody wants them to -
her [speech] picture, her speech, her
book says the critic was marked by
female peculiarities of [thought] touch thought
utterance - & having said that the things
all [I] has been said. That the ultimatum of 
crushing scorn & judgment has been
reached. - My wise critic do you comprehend
that the being can only be incomplete
or [deliberate] when it differs from its type. - 
masculinity - femininity - it would
be as valuable to [say that] sneer at a
mans speech because it was not excellent
in the excellent points of a woman's, - 
as to sneer at her speech because it was
not cast in the mould of a man's. - Rachel
[stayed] rendered woman's [parts] character in a womans way, - 
Kean [played] rendered man's [parts] character in a mans way,
was Rachel inferior to Kean therefore. - 
or Kean inferior to Rachel. - different



-15-
yet equally great.- for myself, & I speak
it with all humility when I read some of the 
words which men write about my words. & say
they were thought & spoken as a woman. I 
thank heaven [I than] that it has saved
me from being placed in the catalogue with
them.
Do you tell me that my work must
fail, my effort fall dead in the face of a
public opinion that has decided against it,
Public opinion - so. - & is not public
opinion known to be in these last days. The
Ithuriels spear which is to unmask &
destroy all the folliess superstitions &
cruelties of the universe. - That for
public opinion, - it is a baby. - four
fifths of it, so called is no opinion whatever
for you will find on pressing a matter
that four out of every five neither know
nor care anything about it, take ready
made opinions & either sit still or follow
like sheep a leader has his own endto gain, or who understands as little 
as they, — a blind leader of the blind. —
 be not frightened my earnest hearted girl.
— public opinion - fight it down if thou
canst — if thou [you] cannot stand still  [in thy plot] -
possess thy soul in patience. — in the words
of the wise man go not after the world- for if
thou stand still long enough the world
will come round to thee. [*A timid Eden is sort of gimlet every year gives it an additional turn.*] - what is public opinion worth in such a work as this to
stop or stay it. — What  matters, habit, —
what matters tradition, — there is an
authority more powerful than the consent
of society, of habit, of tradition— of the human
race itself. — that is the right.
            With right & ability both on their
side do you ask me why these women do not
take what they desire. — do you tell me that they are free
— that naught hinders them. — 
    They are but free as sorrow is
To dry her tears to laugh to talk
And free as sick men are I wis
To rise & walk.
There are chains stronger than iron, —
doors harder to pass than prisons bolted ones


                        16
To be warped, often unconsciously, by the
magnetic influence of all around,  is the destiny
to a certain extent of even the greatest souls.—
it is harder for these women to thwart 
the short [affec?] sighted affection of those [some one]
dear to them than to face the world, —
[harder to] beyond this you have keept their feet in
bondage from babyhood, — their limbs
in [cramping] [&] confinement for a lifetime
then [suddenly releasing them] when they at least break away & are but learning to stand, you [talk] fret at them for not
of running a race [to one whose feet] with
tender feet & limits that tremble beneath
them.
         Do you think I am blind to this 
fact, — Slow to see that women are asleep, -
are afraid, - are slow to move, - when at
last aroused, - .— that I do not comprehend 
that there are some who with 
intelligence, gifts, social power,—  riches
use all these to help men. & to degrade 
women.— I have seen some such women 
over whom I could cry as a child, — I
have seen others whom I could annihilate.
          Is it useless here to reiterate 
what all know that the cause of so muchdiscomfort, — mischief, grief. Shame in the
world is owing to the few avenues of labor
open to women.— & the want of fitness 
among women themselves to go into new
once. — every one understands [knows] that to so enter
these new paths.— to lift themselves upward. 
to essentials are needed In first natural
ability & will. — second culture. — yet how 
few schools are there in which a woman 
can fit to train herself property for 
any delicate [nice] & difficult work. There are
plenty of women of liberal means who
might rectify this wrong & fill this want 
— instead of so doing, instead of helping 
their own sex, - assisting one another 
they are continually doing for men, who 
have already too much done without any
help of theirs, — Miss Catherine Beecher
has gathered certain facts bearing on
this point,- this among them.- that in
Maine, an endowed institution had 
received $14,000 from one woman,— that
one in Mass had within the last
30 years received 68,000, as the gift of



                            17
five women.— another in the same
State 65,000 from 3 women alone.—
In Albany a woman has recently
given 105,000 to educate one man, to
teach a certain branch of science & to
purchase a building with the necessary
apparatus. In Iowa women have 
given 30,000 to endow institutions for
men, & Ill has acquired a college in
which certain branches are to be taught
by four professors through the gift of
300,000 at the hands of one woman.
Would it not have been infinitely better
if with the innumerable academies, terms,
Ins. colleges & universities in the land.
for the sole & exclusive benefit of men.—
these women & other women with an
abundance to bestow, had given &
would give to build & endow schools,
wherein women who want to know might
acquire.— wherein women could learn 
to be something more than drudges, — or
butterflies,- [in] wherein women might fit
themselves for many a business & calling fromwhich they are at present debarred by want
of knowledge & preparation. -- Oh  ye
women of wealth, & social power. -- what
harm ye do. -- What good ye leave
undone by your degrading estimate
of labor.-- [by your selfishness] by the
treatment you bestow upon the woman
who toils with head or hands.-- What
ability is yours to win the gratitude of 
our half-  & through it the other half of 
the human race.--  There is no law
human nor divine to debar women 
from doing 500 things when they do 5-
-- there is naught to prevent them save
this our incapacity or want of opportunity
the incapacity can be overcome , the
opportunity can be made by women of
wealth & high standing & influence.
If some women who do not depend
on others for the money they spend--
who have no fear of the world's dread
laugh because of their assured
position, no care for the criticisms of
vulgar & impertinent people-- would
but  take up work, much of it fine &
delicate & beautiful which women
might do-- but do not, -- first thoroughly
fitting themselves for success, the end 



                    18
would be accomplished -- & women who
could not make the way for themselves--
being too poor to wait while they struggled
will follow after.-- blessed in the opportunity
made, passing easily the door,
opened by a magic key, against
which their poor strength would 
have beaten in vain. -- My dainty friend
sheltered about from the cold, upon whose cheek
even the airs of heaven may not blow too
roughly, remember that the good things thou
possessest [are] should but be held in store for the
benefit of those thou mayst aid. -- As I look
into these faces of the favored few of fortune, 
& beyond them to the multitude they might 
help yet help not.-- I realize how terrible a
a thing it is to be happy. -- How pleased we are
with it. -- How all sufficient we think it
How being in possession of the false aim
of life-- happiness.-- to forget the true
aim duty.--  ah my delicate one. I
do not wish to be hard with thee nor
harsh in the judgment I fall upon thee.--
but beside & around thee I see faces whitewith suffering,--[eyes]  hands that 
do  their [duty] work unflinchingly, surmounted
by eyes that look into the future with a
patience only to be compared with long
agony,-- eager young lives & ambitions
wasting & smouldering away, a little 
word from them, - thy countenance,-- thy 
[sham] seal of respectability,-- how many 
burthens lightened-- how many obstacles 
overcome.
                  Should that I had words at command an eloquence,-
full of plainness & clearness without shadow of strain
clearness divine- as I strive to make
[women] the careless more in earnest in
their own lives, in the aid & help they
can give to others in the work that needs to 
be done,-- in making them see & know that 
God has many aims to compass, many 
       messages to send
And his instruments are fitted each
         to some distinctive end 
Earth is full of groaning spirits hearts
         that bear a galling chain
Minds designed for noble causes bondaged
           to the lust of gain  
Love ever beautiful in Whiteness, crimsoned
  with corruptions stain 
& seeing & knowing this that they would 
make of themselves instruments to do the
divine work first of elevating themselves



19
then all those that [have] are fallen or have
need.
How fine women seem to comprehend
that ones duty is first to oneself. That nothing
is to be gained by others- or the world at large
by dwarfing or thwarting or belittling the
powers placed in the machinery of brain
or nature by the great artificer. I am
sick of seeing women immolate themselves
their strength, their aspirations, the beauty
harmony perfection of their natures on the
altar which senseless fashion & foolish
custom has raised. I am sick of knowing
women told that they are not to do this, nor
to indulge in that- are not to gratify this
desire nor to accomplish that design because
centuries of habit forbid & Mrs. Gundy
would be shocked. I am sick of hearing
women told & sicken of seeing them
accept the telling that obscenity is
their true glory, insignificance their
distinction, ignorance their lot
& passive obedience the perfection of
their natures.- I grow sad to my heartscore as I watch the poison of this talk 
distil itself, in fresh young eager
lives.--
   Oh my little girl,-- my bright
[young] beautiful maiden, I look into 
thy clear eyes, clasp  thy strong young  hands &  beseech of
thee to remember [that] with Novalis, "That
character is destiny.--do not let thine
be dwarfed or perverted.-- do not bow
that bright young head of thine to the 
idles set up in every street & mart.-- do  
not renounce the right of living for thyself
 for the trouble of living for [those] persons 
who care not a straw for thee.-- do not 
expect that some convulsion will occur
or earth quake will happen to change
the face of affairs for thee while thou
meanwhile shall slip on that [go] loose-- 
old easy slovenly bed-gown-laziness,
& expect somehow that thy work will be
done without interference from thee. 
           Fortune is the measure of intelligence
 said the little barefoot singing 
girl grown to be the wonder of the world's 
stage.-- had she added earnestness
the definition would have been complete