NAWSA GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE Bird, Charles S. Charles Sumner Bird East Walpole Massachusetts March 6, 1950 My dear Mrs. Stantial: I thought I sent you some years ago a lot of papers concerning the latter years of the suffrage campaign from my mother's files. I shall look to see if I have anything further. With kind regards. Yours sincerely, Charles S. Bird Mrs. Guy W. Stantial #21 Ashmont Street Melrose 76, Massachusetts CSB/d P.S. I have just been looking over my mother's files and I did not find anything further on suffrage. There are a great many speeches of which the enclosed are a sample. I could send these to you if you would care to have them. They state the principle behind the suffrage movement quite well. These are only samples and I do not have the dates on all of them. CHARLES SUMNER BIRD East Walpole Massachusetts April 21st, 1950 My dear Mrs. Stantial: I enclose an address delivered August 13th, 1918 at the Lucy Stone cellabration celebration. I have a lot of addresses of this kind which I will send to you from time to time if you think they are worth having. Yours sincerely, C S Bird Mrs. Guy W. Stantial #21 Ashmont Street Melrose 76, Massachusetts CSB/d enc. -1- Address by Mrs. Charles Sumner Bird at the Lucy Stone Celebration, August 13, 1918 It is our bounden duty to keep in remembrance the lives and service of the noble men and women who, by their vision, courage and faith, have led us to a larger fulfillment of life, and who, by their influence, have brought us nearer to that perfect law of liberty which shall set us free. And so we have come to honor the memory of Lucy Stone for what she did for liberty and for justice. It was Jesus Christ who led the world in democratic idealism and its fight for freedom, and since then, from time to time, someone like a living fountain of the free spirit of humanity has given bold utterance to wrongs too long endured, and has made a demand for some God given right - a demand most obviously just. "It is thus that the spirit of a single mind makes that of multitude take one direction." And we who are benefiting by their sacrifices and labors must not forget them, and must not only lay our gifts on memory's altar, but take up the fight for that perfect and impartial liberty to which they so splendidly devoted themselves, and do our utmost to carry it to victory. True, we have gone a long way since Lucy Stone, who together with that inspired, brave, and faithful band of women, took the stand for immediate and unconditional emancipation. At that time it was almost impossible for the daughters of men to get a college education; in fact education for them was limited in every way, physical, mental and moral, and it was considered "a shame for women to speak in meeting - it would bring evil and -2- ruin our country," if they left the domestic hearth and attended to the affairs of state. Today we have women on State and National committees. Here in this state we have a woman at the head of the women's state committee for National Defense, and for the Liberty Loan, both opposed to equal suffrage, yet speaking everywhere, at meetings both large and small, and no one questions the fitness of their efforts. Least of all themselves, we are sure if you were able to ask them if this work had not broadened and enlarged their lives; if it had not been a keen satisfaction to be able to be of such service as they have, they would confess that it had and yet we wonder if they ever stop to consider that they could not have done these things but for such women as Lucy Stone and the work they did for women's emancipation. We have come to the time when it is superfluous to prove the basic truth of equal suffrage, and where the weight of disproof lies upon those who deny. The spirit of Sanhedrin, Hierarchies and the Pauline attitude toward women still persists, but if we read the signs of the times aright a new and more liberal day is at hand. We have reached the point where we must decide whether we shall be governed by Prussianism or democratic ideals. There is no question in our minds as to which shall prevail and though victory requires a cruel sacrifice of all we hold most dear, yet we unflinchingly pledge all that is needed, not grudgingly, but with the whole hearted fervor of true patriots. In the history of our race, in the great emergencies of humanity, in those imminent crises which have tried men's souls, -3- and from which we date the signal advance of civilization, women have always been conspicuous at the martyr's stake, in the councils of church and state and even in the conduct of armies, and now, as always, they give their services with an anger and consuming passion to help win this war - this fearful and wonderful fight for freedom. Let there be no mistake. The times demand democracy, and democracy, if it means anything, means government by the people and imposed only by general consent of the governed. Women's capacity for government and self-government, no one will deny, and now as never before her co-operation in public affairs is needed and when we come to the "new day" which are are now facing, still more shall we need her kind of intelligence, her home discipline and her point of view. "There are going to be," as Dr. Eliot has said, "tremendous possibilities open to women." Newer and vaster fields of opportunity in every walk of life. We no longer need to discuss whether or not suffrage for women is a natural right. It is now a duty. The goal is close at hand in every civilized country of the world. We have to strive but a few months more and victory will be ours. CHARLES SUMNER BIRD East Walpole Massachusetts June 22, 1943 My dear Mrs. Stantial: I am sending under separate cover a file of clippings and material on Women Suffrage. My mother had a lot of this sort of material. Would you look over it and let me know if you would care to have anymore. I am also sending to you the book you mentioned. I have the history of Woman Suffrage in four large volumes which I would be glad to send to Radcliffe College as well as a number of other books of this kind. Would you let me know if you would care to have them, and if so where you would care to have me send them. Yours sincerely, Charles S Bird Mrs. Guy W. Stantial 21 Ashmont Street Melrose, Massachusetts CSB/elr Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.