NAWSA     GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE    GRIMKE, ANGELINA

May 18th
Dear Lucy -
I have read the long & interesting letter
you enclosed to us twice over & am very much
obliged to you for it.  I have never seen a stronger
appeal on the score of art to those who have artistic
taste & we cant help thinking if it is a
true statement of Alices extraordinary voice,
that those who have formed such an exalted
opinion of her abilities would be willing to
make some part of the sacrifices on her behalf -
The best thing to be done is for her candidly
to state her case to her great admirers there,
as her father & other relative here cannot guarantee
the money for a whole years board &c -
& let us see what the artists there will do for her
for there will be her field of labor at first &
there will her anticipated success be achieved
& the money made to pay the debts she must
contract -  By the way, I see no reason to

doubt the statement made by Mr Earle that he is
very much press'd for money & cannot keep
Alice in Europe any longer, for I suppose
the pressure is almost universal, & he may
have so invested his money as to be unable
to command his funds or promise anything
ahead, for altho' he may have a great deal of
money due to him, yet he cannot depend upon
its being paid - at least this is the case
with ourselves & those who owe us.
I must say that so far as we have known
the Earls as a family, Mr & Mrs E as representatives -
we found them unreliable - i.e.
by their enthusiastic anticipation of what
they thought that Theodore could do for their children -
they promised them all to us for several
years, thereby inducing us to enter into
engagements & make alterations in our house
which we never would have tho't of - In three
months they were all taken from us, & we
left to bear our pecuniary disappointment as
we might.  Alice was so undeveloped while

here for us to judge of her sense of justice, but my
experience in life has taught me, that this is
a very rare virtue & that generosity often exists
where this is utterly lacking. & my opinion
is that, whoever does advance this
money ought not hold it, unless they can afford
to lose it, altho' it is very likely it will
be most scrupulously returned. & I must
say that were we so situated, we would be
quite willing to venture $500. in a loan to
Alice & would gladly do it, for we were very
much interested in all the girls, but we are
ourselves suffering so much from bad debts
that we utterly unable to do any thing for her.
Then is A. of age if not has any one a legal
right to give her the means of staying in Europe
without his knowledge & consent -Wld
it not be safer & better in every respect to write
to him frankly on the subject  - if it be true
that he is unable to keep her there, then he
may be very glad that her friends will help
her - It goes very much against me to do any

thing in an underhanded way, especially between
a father & child -
With regard to the Concert dear Lucy
whilst feeling greatly interested in all efforts
in the cause of woman yet we feel unable
to make the effort of attending an evening
concert - I myself am nearly 70
years old & sister Sarah is past 80 -

 Hyde Park (Mass)
Gazette - Times
July 18 1946
Brief Biographies
By JOHN F HURLEY
ANGELINE (GRIMKE) WELD
Angelina Grimke, the youngest
daughter of Judge Grimke of
the Supreme Court of South
Carolina, was born in Charleston,
South Carolina, February
20, 1805.  His elder sister, Sarah
had united with the Friends in
Philadelphia and she joined in
1830.  In 1833 they attached to
the American Anti-Slavery Society.
Angelina Grimke was a
frail and slender woman, graceful,
gentle and retiring.  She
possessed a rare gift of eloquence,
a calm power of persuasion
and a magnetic influence
over those who listened to her.
There was no more effective and
loquent worker in the anti-
slavery cause than she.  In the
spring of 1837 the sisters came
to Boston, speaking before
women only.  But when Angelina
Grimke went to Lynn to address
the women, men crowded 
in with their wives and daughters.
This was the beginning of
women's speaking to mingled
crowds or assembles in Massachusetts.
She spoke with extrodinary 
power to crowded audiences
in the Odeon, then the
largest hall of its kind in Boston,
and in the old Boston Theatre
at the corner of Federal and
Franklin sts.  She was the first
woman to whom the halls of the
Massachusetts Legislature were
open and there she spoke to the
best of culture and character of
Massachusetts.  She was the 
first woman to speak in the
church for the slaves.
In 1838 she married Theodore
D. Weld.  He had been among
the most eloquent and effective
advocats of the anti-slavery
movement.  In 1864 she and Mr.
Weld moved to Hyde Park.  She
died in Hyde Park, November 27,
1879.
Her funeral services were held
at the family home, 108 Fairmount
ave., on September 29
1879.  The Rev. Dr. Morrison of
Boston spoke in deep appreciation
of the character of the deceased,
her life and special work.
Elizur Wright, the first corresponding
secretary and editor of
The American Anti-Slavery society;

Robert F. Wallcut, who
was for 30 years the publisher of
the Liberator and was a fellow
worker of William Lloyd Garrison
in the Boston anti-slavery
office, and Mrs. Lucy Stone spoke
of the great work she had done. 
Wendell Phillips was also present
and paid her an eloquent
and beautiful tribute.  The services
closed with the hymn
"Nearer My God to Thee."  Burial
was at Mt. Hope Cemetery.

From "The Grimke Sisters" - Birney
p.316 - At funeral of Angelina Grimke Weld,
1879. those who spoke were Elizur Wright, Robt. F.
Walcutt, Wendell Phillips and Lucy Stone  The
latter said: "The women of to-day owe more than
they ever will know to the high courage, the rare insight,
and fidelity to principle of this woman, by
whose suffering easy paths have been made for
them.  Her example was a bugle-call to all
other women.  Who can tell how many have been
quickened in a great life purpose by the heroism
and self-forgetting devotion of her whose voice
we shall never hear again, but who, 'being
dead, yet speaketh.'"

Memorandum for Mrs. Catt:
Re:  Angelina Grimke.

"Early in her married life, she was twice
severely injured.  These injuries, though
wholly unlike, were, in their effect, a
unit--one causing, the other intensifying
a life-long weakness.  Together they shattered
incurably, her nervous system; the
one internal, the other a deep wound which
never healed.  Ever after, she was forced to
avoid exciting scenes and topics.  "My mission
is over" she said; "he who gave it, has taken
it".
From one of the speeches made at a
Memorial Meeting in her honor.

Hurrah for you - for sending that cable!
I am very proud of my sex,
when some of its members
can think to act as intelligently
as this.
Devotedly
Grace B Hanse

(From Memorial published in book form & in
Boston Public Library.)  For private circulation.
Angelina Grimke Weld
The funeral services of Angelina
Grimke Weld were held at the family residence
on Fairmount Avenue, in Hyde Park,
Mass., Oct. 29, 1879
They opened with the touching chant, the
pathos of resignation, "Thy Will Be Done."  The
Rev. Doctor Morrison, of Boston, followed
with a prayer, so reverent and tender that
it seemed to hallow the hour......
The next speaker was Elizur Wright, the
first corresponding secretary and editor of
the American Anti-Slavery Society.  Before him
were gathered many veteran co-workers
in the anti-slavery cause and conflict.  As
he rose, memories of mutual struggles, perils
and triumphs so thronged upon him that
for a moment he stood silent, emotion
stifling speech.
The Rev. Robert F. Wallcutt followed.

For thirty years he was the publisher of the
Liberator, and the beloved fellow-worker of
William Lloyd Garrison, in the Boston Anti-
Slavery office.  Unbowed by the weight of eighty-
three years, he rose and vividly recalled his
impressions of Angelina Grimke, as she
swayed the crowds in the Representatives'
Hall of the State House in Boston, by her
anti-slavery plea before a committee
of the Massachusetts Legislature.  He described
also, the scene when she spoke in the old
Boston Theatre, its great four-galleried auditorium
crowded during six evenings with throngs absorbed and silent.
As Mr. Wallcutt ended, Mrs. Lucy Stone,
delayed till then by an accident on the way,
arrived and was passed through the crowd
to a seat beside the coffin.  Looking down
upon those closed eyes, tears filled her
own as she rose to speak.  Her special


topic was that great first work done for
women by Angelina and Sarah Grimke and
Abby Kelley, - their self sacrifice in those earliest
days of struggle which wrung their souls, and
pressed to their unshrinking lips that cup
of trembling.  She devoutly thanked God that
he had sent in advance his chosen pioneers,
to break a pathway for those waiting feet
eager to follow.  As her voice ceased, its
pathos lingered in the silence.  After a 
brief pause, the spell of that silence was
interpreted by Wendell Phillips.....
Remarks of Lucy Stone
Arriving too late to hear most of what
others have said, I yet wish to add my
tribute of love for this departed friend.  She
will always be hallowed in the memory and
held in the hearts of those who knew her.  But
outside of her home circle, the generation that
is alive to-day did not know her.  The frail

and slender woman who went in and out before
her neighbors here carried no sign of the heroine
who for the sake of justice had successfully confronted
and assaulted the gigantic system of
slavery forty-three years before, who encountered
and overcame the custom and prejudice and
religious teaching which commanded and demanded
the silence and the subjection of
women.  To those around her she seemed a
quiet, gentle woman, devoted to her home, her
husband, and her children.  And such she 
was.  But those whose memory goes back to the
time of fiery trials, in the early anti-slavery
days, know that the world never held a nobler
woman.  The slaves' cause was her cause.  she
had counted the cost, renouncing everything.
For their sake, she endured all the persecution
which sectarian bigotry and pro-slavery hatred
could devise against the first woman who
dared to "speak in the church", or any

where else in public, even for the slaves.
It was at such a time that this
sainted woman and her sister Sarah Grimke
came with one great purpose to "remember
those in bonds as bound with them," with the cry,
"Woe is me if I preach not this gospel."  The
eloquence which is born of earnestness in a noble
purpose gave her annointed lips.  That purpose
set around her a defence so high and strong
that all the shafts and arrows of pro-slavery
malignity fell harmless at her feet.  She 
never stopped to think of herself.  "Silence!"
cried the Pulpit.  She spoke right on. "Shame!"
said the Press.  "You are seeking noteriety," said
all the gossips, "and getting out of your sphere."
How like forgotten echoes those words come
back!  Angelina Grimke, if she heard, did not
heed.  A friend who knew her singleness of
purpose, stung by the injustice and meanness
of these attacks, prepared a reply.  But when

Angelina heard of it, she refused to permit its
publication, saying, "It is not necessary."  Like
the moral heroine that she was, she held on
the "even tenor of her way," answering nothing.
The women of to-day owe more
than they will ever know to the high courage,
the rare insight, and fidelity to principle of
this woman, by whose suffering easy paths have 
been made for them.
Neither the justice of her cause, nor its great
need, nor the quiet, persuasive eloquence with
which she plead the cause of the slave, saved her
and her equally noble coadjutors, Sarah M.
Grimke and Abby Kelley Foster, from the pitiless
scorn of men and women
But if for once their lips had
turned white with fear, or their feet fled
before the mob, the banner for equal rights
of women, which now floats plain in
sight, would still be furled.  Her

example has a bugle-call to all other
women.  Who can tell how many may have
been quickened in a great life purpose
by the heroism and self-forgetting devotion
of her example, whose silent voice we shall
never hear, but who, "being dead yet
speaketh."

Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.