[*Elizabeth Cady Stanton SPEECHES & WRITINGS FILE Speech: First speech on suffrage campaign in Kansas, 1867*] [*Manuscript Draft of first speech by Elizabeth Cady Stanton in Suffrage Campaign in Kansas 1867.*] How shall I find fitting words to express all I would say as I stand for the first time before an audience on the sacred soil of Kansas. As the pious Catholic on entering his Cathedral kneels & with holy water makes the sign of the cross upon his brow, before [opening] lifting his eyes to [all the splendors of] the Holy of Holies [the temple], so would I reverently tread this soil as the vestabule to our great Temple of Liberty of the the opening vista to all the future grandeur of the new republic. future greatness & grandeur of this nation. Here the youngest civilization in the world is about to establish a government on that divine idea of equality uttered in the cries 1800 years ago: echoed by the Fathers in '76, and already twice baptized in blood within one century. Here scouting Kings and Thrones. principalities and ponds are all citizens to stand equal before the law. Here the mother of the race the most important [person] character in the grand drama of life is for the first time in the history of the world to stand the peer of man. Here the idea to which nuturers have been struggling up through the centuries, & for which we have earnestly hoped and prayed our lives all through, is at last to be realized. When the telegraphic wires brought us the news last winter thinking that our state which was & had been for 20 [f???ment] in its legislation for woman must be the first to finish the work of a proposition before your Legislature to take the words "white male" from your constitution, we were holding meetings all through N. Y. preparatory to our Am. con. as soon as I heard the good news from Kansas I said well, if we fail to secure our rights in N. Y. we will shake the dust of the Empire State off us and go out towards the setting sun where Kansas the young and beautiful hero of the West is already beckoning us to her rich fields & rolling prairies that we may at least lay our bones beneath a soil sacred to freedom and equality. Yes, we loves those white, male fossils with their [odines?] statutes and constitution to find a common grave, while that state becomes one vast scene of desolation without the ghost of a woman to shed a tear over their downfall. It is fitting that the corner stone of the new republic should be laid here where the first battles of liberty were fought and won over the monster slavery, that most deadly enemy of free institutions. For forty years the slave power ruled this country with a high hand. It gave us in quick succession the annexation of Texas, the Fugitive Slave law, the denial of the right of petition in Congress, & of free speech in all the northern states, the repeal of the Missouri compromise & mob law throughout the Union culminating in the Le Compton Constitution, the dynasty of Atchinson & the enrolling of voters from the Cincinnatti register, inaugurating a long and bloody political struggle here in Kansas, where Southern tyrants were taught for the first time [that] at the feet of the brave men and women of [Kansas] this state that freedom was stronger than slavery. And now these precious seeds of equality - garnered from the sufferings of our forefathers under a British yoke, brought in the May Flower to these western shores are to find here for the first time a rich soil and genial atmosphere and with woman to help in the planting you may look for a full fruition and harvests of plenty. On the rock bound coast of New England where they export nothing but ice and codfish, there was no soil for seed like this. Fresh from the corrupting influences of Kings & Courts it was a great thing for our Fathers to get the idea of equality on paper, to send forth a Declaration of rights that made every crowned head in Europe tremble on his throne. But it is a greater thing for you to day to plant it deep in your soil, and show the world the beneficence of its growth and protection in the government of a mighty state. As John Stuart Mill in his letter to the Hon. S.N. Wood has well said "If your citizens next November give "effect to the enlightened views "of your Legislature, history will "remember that one of the youngest "states in the civilized world, has "been the first to adopt a measure "of liberation destined to extend "all over the earth, and to be looked "back to as is my fixed conviction "as one of the most fertile in beneficial "consequences of all the improvements "yet effected in human affairs." Sojourner Truth expresses the same opinion when she says "where is the use of the world walking on one leg when it has two." When you come to know that ideas as much as human beings need the mother soul for their growth and development you will appreciate how much has been lost in the world of morals and intellect, through the ignorance and degradation of woman. In the discipline of the great principles of government for the last thirty years, the question of individual rights has come to be so well understood that we are pretends to base an argument when any ground but universal suffrage, in fact on the republican theory there are no arguments on the other side. It is not arguments we find ourselves called on to meet but prejudices. And I propose today to take these popular prejudices one by one and show you what they are worth. One of the chief concerns I hear expressed on all sides is the total wreck of the "feminine element" Men seem to think that if women voted, marriage would be annulled, cradles annihilated and stockings mended by the state. That conjugal love is based on mouldy statutes and the maternal instinct in the state constitution. We need as a nation to be more concerned to day about the "masculine element." In a country like this with its mighty rivers, majestic forests and inexhaustible mines of wealth we meet manly men, to shoulder their axes, instead of grinding them as men at Washington to come out and explore this western world, to cut down forests turn up rich prairies drain marshes, to plough sub soil and under drain to be creators of wealth to build bridges, railroads linking the Atlantic & Pacific, the Allegheny & Rocky Mountains together, milling the eastern and western civilizations unto one we need manly men to develop the resources of this continent, to build states and nations on the immutable foundations of justice and equality, when men are what they should be we will have no more complaint about "strong minded" women, the "feminine element" will take care of itself. Go into our eastern cities. look at the truths of men who know nothing beyond their horizon spending their days in ships and offices, see their tiny hands, legs & brains, no wonder they dread "strong minded women". Sidney Smith tells us. & c, xx Dolls & dumdies, school boy from Lima, In the present undeveloped state of the race we know but little of what the true masculine & feminine element is, With one half the race degraded. how could the other half reach its true proportions until woman is lifted up, man can never be made whole. But it would take woman out of her sphere to give her the ballot to make her man's political equal God has clearly marked out woman's sphere there let her remain & be satisfied Well if that be so then woman won't be kept in her sphere by God's laws. If is folly said Daniel Webster to reenact God's laws. You might as well have laws to keep Venus the beautiful morning star, from refreshing herself by an occasional promenade on the broad belt of Saturn, Natures laws are immutable; no planet or immortal being can ever get out of its prescribed orbit. Again the condition of woman in all ages has differed materially, and differs at this moment among the various nations of the earth. Now which of all these conditions think you is in accordance with the will of God Enervated and voluptuous by confinement as she is in the Turkish harem, or exhausted by excessive toil and outdoor labour as she is in Switzerland and Germany. With her feet compressed in iron boots to the smallest possible dimensions, depending on man to carry her about as she is in China, or standing all day in the intense heat of a summers sun as she is in Christian American or Plantations. - With the crown and secptre ruling the might -iest nation on the globe as in England: or burning on the funeral pile of her husband a useless relic of her lordly dead as she is in India?: Who can decide which of all these is woman's true sphere Long fellow: North Pole: Fish: It would disturb the functions of the sexes. What particular function does it require to vote Does the simple fact of manhood [h????er] brains ignored or degraded, fit a human being for the high duties of legislation while that of womanhood however wealthy, virtuous or wise makes it unsafe or inexpedient. From the likeness of the sexes, we argue that they have the same physical moral and spiritual wants from the difference we argue the necessity of a union of the two everywhere. There is a marked physical difference in men and women yet have they the same wants and needs. Both sexes alike are subject to hunger & thirst heat and cold, pain & pleasure So although in a division of labors they may occupy different positions under government, they feel alike. justice & injustice, dependence & independence, freedom & slavery Political equality will undoubtedly change the present relations of the sexes in many important respects greatly to the advantage of both parties. Whenever we change and modify our laws, the sphere of the mother who can depend on a Husband for necessities comforts & luxuries will undoubtedly be home, but that need not necessarily shut her from all thought, and interest in the outside world. We banish all the rest of womankind into no sphere at all. Our claim will no doubt expect man's ideas of his function. [that] to rule woman with a high hand, to subject her body & soul to his will and wish to have his headship in the state, the church and the home called in question to [final?] x x x x "Two heads "in council. Two beside the hearth "Two in the tangled business of the "world. Two plummets dropped "to sound the abyss of science "and the mind." "But it would degrade women to go to the polls. "It would double the vote!! "The measure is so new & revolutionary," "There must be a head." " The sexes must be separated. " in schools, work, government "intellectual rivalry puts "all tender feelings to end Familiarity breeds contempt" Would you annul marriage because in so many cases Husband & wives treat each other with disrespect or the family because brothers, sisters quarrel No man is great to his Valet. Professer Webster. But how would the ballot remedy woman's wrongs. ((Show that disfranchised classes are degraded classes the world over. John Bright Negroes Irishman. Look how the Irishman is improved under our free institutions. Look how the shape of his head and features are changed in freedom. The ballot gives dignity & self-respect Look what enfranchisement has already done for the freedmen of the south When men vote all are interested in their education. Had the mass of Englishmen been voters, the Lord Derby's would have seen the need of having schools for the masses long ago. Disenfranchised classes are always neglected classes. Now if women had had a voice in legislature, men would have seen the need of educating them as thoroughly as boys, & we would not have been taxed to build colleges where we are forbidden to enter. You see this principle all plain enough as applied to men but you do not see it for women. And women themselves do not see the connection between bread and the ballot. This is the only nation that the majority do not demand it today. Now if any one will tell me the reason why woman is [clas?sed] in the Constitution with criminals, paupers, idiots, why the statute laws if all the states at one time gave her no right of property person wages children, why she had no profitable places under government, why the colleges are all shut to her, why she is [?] in the world of work with a few half paid employments, and why were she is and why she [?] by the [?] of men she is but half paid for [her] the same work. I say it is because she does not hold the bullet. Now if anyone knows a better reason or any other reason I will give way & let him state it. If the men cannot see this why should we expect the women to see it. I remember of being in an immense meeting of the working men of England. When one of the leading speakers was trying to show them that the extension of the suffrage was the remedy for their wrongs, they broke up the meeting in a run. Give us bread said they we do not care for the ballot. But John Bright has taught them better and to day they ask the ballot. Lo when women came to see that the ballot is the remedy for the wrongs & injustice done them, they too will demand the true remedy Why are not the 10,000 offices mere sinecurescures under gov. filled by women Why are women half paid in schools. Men vote salaries now the result of all this is to make woman dependent on man for support and here you have the three grand reasons for our mind vice. 1st The isolation of the sexes stimulates the passions, 2nd Shutting woman out from political offices & professions crowds them into a few employments where the supply is greater than the demand hence low wages 3rd No work and poor pay she must look to man for support. "Alexander Hamilton" Did you ever see an honest high toned man that willingly lived on the bounty of Father Brother or son. We never think much of a young man that lies round [sponging?] on somebody after he has got an education. We never think much of men who fear to speak out their real opinions for fear of losing their bread & butter Men are never free until they hold both bread & the ballot in their own right Hence all men are educated with the idea of self- support, & labour for all men is honorable & rich Fathers provide labor of some kind for their sons while they nurture their daughters in idleness. Now we can never make labour honorable for all women until all women feel the responsibility the dignity of self-support. When Emerson tells us that "Work is Worship" he sees as every philosopher must that labour is the formulation of all the cardinal virtues Now I would not be understood to claim in any way superiority for women. Nor to admit inferiority but simply equality - nothing more nothing less. Man is no way to blame for the conditions in which we find ourselves. We have not to create a sense of justice in his soul . That is already there. All we have to do to secure our rights is to learn to plead our cause in Court & as soon as we do that every Judge & Jury will bring in a verdict in our favor. I find many minds querying with themselves, if woman was intended by God to be equal with man, how comes it that she has always been in subjection I might in turn gentlemen ask you the question if God intended that your moral & religious nature should guide govern & lead you in the paths of virtue, how comes it that the mass to day are born slaves to their grosser animal appetites. Now I liken the degradation of woman to that of the moral & religious nature to the animal appetites the subordination of spirit to matter. We have lived thus far under a dynasty of brute force, but in the last century the sceptre has been fast passing into other hands. Woman has begun to assert herself in literature, theology, & politics, & has already worked a perceptible change in the world of thought, modifying our laws, humanizing our religion & purifying our social life Man has been the prince in the material world, & the world of thought, of matter & mind. Force energy & power are the distinctive characteristics of his being with which he has subjugated the elements to his will & brought order out of chaos, & now with woman we get the harmony beauty & love necessary to perfect his work. Just as men take possession of new countries, they build governments. The men go above & explore, cut down forests turn up the sail plant [trees] fruits & grains live in a dreary unsatisfying way in some miserable shanty, in dirt & disorder unshaven & shorn, until woman comes to spark them into new life. Then they make haste to build the comfortable big house & supply the clean table with food then they remember to wash their faces, hands comb their tangled locks & curb then rude rough speech to loving gentle women So will the cunning of women transform____, _______, the man, idea, is (harsh)______, self, ________, it has _____ to protect the proud, acquaint the strong to (provide) for the musal & spiritual wants of the race, but to make the strong stronger, the sick Sicker, cunning, and force trampling everyone ( everywhere) over _____ & mercy dethroning the divine, in the human ( woman), crushing the weak & grinding _____ between the ___ ____ millstones, the ______ of Capital, ___ __ ___ bare appetites, But (with) cunning of women, we should see a higher idea of individual rights of the (presentiment) of individual life. Woman knows the cost of life better than man does, hence where he is just alone she would be merciful man generalizes, woman individualizes, hence he has all along sacrificed the immortal being to creed, codes, institutions the dungeon, the rack the stake the inquisition the scaffold the horrors of war & the hellish blackness, infamy & cruelty of our Libby prison & Andersonville men all cry out it is not good for man to be alone. When woman is restored to her rightful throne, we shall war on vice not one another. we shall subjugate brute force to moral ideas, our conquests will not be of boundless territories & bleeding nations, but in the world of thought in and science philosophy & government We shall learn self respect each one remembering that he was made in the image of God will feel it his highest duty to bring out that divine likeness. We shall learn self control remembering that he that ruleth his own spirit is greater than he that taketh a city. When woman has a voice in government education, health, morality religion, labour, our schools homes amusements & employments, will occupy for none of the thoughts & time of our Legislators, while our trade, commerce [labours roads canals?] & banking interests will sink into comparative insignificance. Our whole criminal legislation will be eventually changed. If we look through God's government we find no such thing as punishment by direct-[trial?] it is everywhere cause & effect, a violated law brings its own punishment. Ignorance & brutality begets ignorance, brutality, & must to the end, & what is the remedy. To scurge choke & imprison the product we end the supply by planting school [hostels?] churches, places of innocent amusements, homes gardens public parks & baths, libraries picture galleries orchards & vineyards. The food & surroundings of men degrade & exalt them You may pass laws to take the rum [back?], the gambleing saturn & the brothel from men but your laws are powerless until you supply them with higher sources of pleasure, & fit them for their enjoyment. When we plant orchards & vineyards, & supply the poor with all the apples peaches & grapes they can eat they will give up pork tobacco & rum When learned men, & women, make science philosophy theology beautiful, attractive & easy to be understood, men & boys will leave low pleasures & crowd into the universities Now in this country man has at last struck the key note of government equality. Here we have echoed back the divine idea proclaimed in Palestine We have tried every form of government during the long push based on the aristocratic idea, but in that of equality no experiment has thus yet been made. And now it is proposed for the first time in the history of the world to build a government on this broad foundation of justice equality on ideas not force. Strong not in its army & navy but in the [voice] of its people. As the ages of this rock-ribbed earth are clearly marked to the naturalist, by the different layers of rock the different petrifactions of plants animals that have lived & passed away, so to the philosopher are the ages of the moral world as clearly marked by the great ideas of the centuries. The lessons of the past taught again & again in the mortality of nations was at last expressed in the axiom "all men are created equal" and the world ready for the thought -- accepted our grand utterance, and the nations of the earth are fast bringing themselves into line with our declaration. This is the idea of the 19th cen. that now expresses itself in this demand everywhere for an extension of the suffrage. The peasantry of England that but yesterday asked only for bread, with a new found dignity, to day demand a voice in the laws that govern them. 22,000 000 Russian serfs just emancipated unchained from the soil as they stretch their palsied limbs & gaze on the stars for the first time in freedom: cry out for enfranchisement. The freedmen in our land while yet [signing] over the proclamation of emancipation, craved still another boon to make his freedom sure and the nation said Amen & gave him the ballot. The crown citizenship the sceptre of protection & defence. And now that man has pioneered this thought through centuries of blood & carnage overturning despotisms monarchies, empires thus bringing their [your] legislation up to the Constitution, not the Constitution down to their [your] party sensibilities. The only tennible ground in regard to representation is universal suffrage, as the principle of equal rights to all can only in this way be recognized & the final blow given to caste & class All prohibitions, except age, whether based on color, sex property or intelligence are equally violations of the republican idea If the best minds in the country can give no arguments more transparent & satisfactory against the extension of suffrage than & ushered in this triumphant hour when all men [have] tasted liberty, shall woman instead of entering into these new found joys instead of joining the grand [claiming her] army of freedom to [rightful place as the] promised land [flush of great things] [?] [?] the camp fires of the old civilization vainly searching mid the ashes [rubbish] of the past for aught to satisfy or adorn. Let the dead past bury its dead, as the golden gates to the new republic roll back [we shall] behold "two heads in Council two beside the hearth two in the tangled business of the world two plummets dropped to sound the abyss of science & the mind" Men & women of the Republic. To my mind there are three good reasons for demanding the enfranchisement of woman 1st Woman's inalienable right as a citizen to a voice in the government 2nd The matron needs the [element] moral power of a true womanhood in the church, the state & the home 3rd Woman needs a larger sphere of thought & action, for health & happiness of body & mind. It is not necessary to rehearse the oft repeated arguments in the natural rights of men & citizens, pressed as they have been on the nation's 2 conscience for the last thirty years: in securing freedom for the black man, & so grandly echoed on the floor of Congress during the past winter, for these argument are as familiar as household words to every American citizen. I cannot add one line one precept to the inexhaustible speech recently made by Charles Sumner in the Senate to prove that no just government can be formed without the consent of the governed, to prove the dignity the education, the power, the necessity, the salvation of the ballot, in the hand of every 3 man & woman, to prove that a good government & pure religion rest alike on the sacred rights of the individual. But our work is to urge on you the practical application of these universal principles without respect to color class or sex. You have now the power & opportunity hence it is your duty to take an onward step in legislation that need never be retraced. The nations of the earth stand watching & waiting to see if the ideas proclaimed on the cross & echoed by the Fathers, "All men are 4 created equal" can be realized in government. Do not by another compromise, crush the million hopes that hang on our success [?] entail in us another bloody war. Men & parties must pass away; but justice is eternal& they only who work in harmony with its land are immortal. All who have carefully noted the proceedings of this Congress & [contracted?] the speeches with those made under the regime of slavery must see the added power & eloquence that greater freedom gives [3] But still they propose no action on your grand ideas, your [*] & solutions do not reflect their [*your*] highest thought. The Constitution in barring representatives in respective numbers covers a broader ground than any they have proposed. The only amendment needed to [*] [*] "Sec. 2nd" is to strike out the exceptions which follow "respective numbers" The duty of Congress in order to [*[?] duty*] secure[*ity*] a republican form of government to every state is to see that these respective numbers "are made up of enfranchised citizens, thus 6. thus bringing their legislation up to the Constitution, not the Constitution down to their party possibilities. The only tenable ground in regard to representation is universal suffrage, as the principle of equal rights to all can only in this way be recognized & the final blow given to caste & class. All prohibitions, except age, whether based on color, sex, property or intelligence are equally violations of the republican idea. If the best minds in the country can give no arguments more triumphant & satisfactory against the extension of suffrage than 7. those already produced in Congress this session they must not only have convinced the people but themselves that all positions opposed to universal suffrage are alike illogical & unjust. All proposed qualifications are but so many plausible pretexts to debar new classes from the ballot box. The qualifications of property & intelligence, though unfair can be met, as with freedom must come a repeal of the statute laws that deny schools & wages to the negro, [so?] time makes him a voter. But color & sex! 8. Ah! There's the rub! Time cannot make black white, nor woman man!! Our congressmen claim to be the representatives of fifteen million women as well as men. American citizens who already possess every attainable qualifications for the ballot. Women read, write, hold many offices under government, own full half the property of the country, pay taxes & the penalties of crime & yet they are allowed to exercise in the government but the one sole right of petition. For twenty years we have been trying to bring the statute laws of the 9. several states into harmony with the broad principles of the constitution; & have been so far successful. That in many little remains to be done but to secure the exercise of the right of suffrage. Hence our prompt protest against the Joint Resolutions before Congress to introduce the worst "male" into the Federal Constitution, which if successful would block all state action in giving the ballot to woman. As the only way disfranchised citizens could appear before Congress, we 10. availed ourselves of the sacred right of petition, as our representatives it was their duty to give those petitions a respectful reading & a serious consideration. How well a republican senate performed that duty is already inscribed on the page of history. Some tell us it is not judicious to press our claims now, that this is not the time. Time! When they propose such amendments, so fatal to our best interests, shall we be silent till the deed is done? No. As we love republican .11. ideas we must resist tyranny. As we honor the position of American senator we must appeal from the politician to the man. With man woman shared the dangers of the May flower on a stormy sea; the dreary landing on Plymouth rock; the hardships of a New England winter, & the privations of a seven years war. With him she bravely threw off a British yoke; felt every frustration of his heart for freedom, & inspired the 12. [glowing?] eloquence that main -tained it through the century. With you we have just passed through the agony & death the resurrection & triumph of another revolution, doing all in our power to mitigate its horrors & gild its glories. And now think you we have no souls to fire, no brains to weigh your arguments; that after education such as this, the women of the nation can stand silent witnesses while you sell their birthright of liberty to save from a 13. timely death an effete political organization In the oft repeated experiments of class & caste who can number the nations that have risen but to fall Do not imagine you came one line nearer the demand of justice by enfranchising another shade of manhood for in denying representation to woman you still cling to the same principle on which all the governments of the past have been wrecked The right way, the safe way 14. is so clear, the path of duty is so straight & simple, that we who are equally interested with yourselves in the result conjure you to act not for the passing hour, not with reference to transient benefits but do now the one grand deed that shall mark the progress of the century "Proclaim equal rights to all." We make our demand for the ballot at this time in no selfish narrow [?] [captions?] spirit: from no contempt for the black man's rights 15. nor antagonism with you who in the progress of civilization are now the privileged ruler; but for the highest [?] of every citizen, for the safety of the republic & the benefit of a spotless example to the nations of the earth. 16 2nd The nation needs the moral power of a true womanhood in the state the church & the home The common idea is that the state, the church & the home should be three distinct spheres of life, governed by different orders of mind, wisely to be kept separate & uninfluenced by each other. The most vigorous & ambitious minds, it is said, take to themselves the realm of state They construct the destiny of nations all that relates to commerce politics economy & jurisprudence. This class it is thought desirable should .17. be thoroughly worldly, descried from God & spiritual things for religion they say makes men visionary & impracticable in politics finance & trade. A good heart is very well when men go to church, or are about to die, but a smart head is the one thing needful for affairs of state. The higher law, liberty & equality are good themes for sermons & orations, but in Congressional debates ask nothing more than party possibilities & worldly wisdom such as govern men in the market place, Wall St or the exchange. .18. As to churchmen their legitimate sphere is to set forth the glories & terrors of the next life, to deal in doctrines, speculations & abstracting leaving all questions of time & sense to those less holy than themselves. The ballot even was at one time considered a desecration in Apostolic hands. Hence when a [Tyny?], a Beecher or a Cheever, who were men before they were Priest, express their opinions on great national questions, criticize the policy of our rulers, or urge them to carry their religion into politics, the secular press raps .19. them on the head & bids them go prepare sinners for Heaven as if politicians were not sinners, & justice the opening wedge to Heaven. As to the Home its sovereigns occupy a singularly anomolous position, in an ideal world of purity, innocence & exaltation above man & the work of life, objects simply for admiration, worship & love while by law, custom & the facts of life they are everywhere denied equality even with man; as citizens they are taxed but not represented, amenable to law 20. yet denied the ballot. As Christians they are subject to church discipline but have no voice in its ecclesiastical councils. They may be devout worshippers in the temple, but must never themselves obey the [movings?] of the spirit to pray, prophesy, teach. The fatal consequences in thus [?] the state, the church & the home are there: the leaders in state accept the dogmas of the popular religion, & give no thought or influence towards a [freer?] theology. Our rulers in Church ignore grave questions of national life & sustain 21. the popular government whatever it may be, whether despotism monarchy, or a share-holding republic, & are specially careful never to rebuke the sins of their own day while the sovereigns of the home accept both state & church as alike ordained of God, perfect & immutable as the solar system & hence blindly resist all progress in either. Thus we give each of these classes a one sided education, a fake code of morals & a narrow range of thought & action, unfitting each alike for the great work of life, for one cannot do the duties of either, unless he understands 22 the demands of all, as in individual life the laws of spirit, mind, & matter, must be all obsessed to secure the perfection of either, so in the state & the church, & the family which are but associated expressions of individual growth, subject to the same laws of life: to meet the responsibilities of either we must have a knowledge of all. Hence we claim for the welfare of the nation that its women have a broader, deeper, more scientific, education 23. that in a knowledge of the history of state & church & family & their steady progress to greater freedom liberality & purity, she may understand the law by which a still higher point of excellence may be attained and thus learning that she too holds a place & [?] in the grand march of civilization, became a teacher of the true philosophy of life. Woman in her best worldly condition constitutes the moral form of aristocracy in any country. Through the influence of blind sentiments & passions, she holds 24. a false position, a lofty intuition where she proudly entrenches herself, & with false views of her own rights & duties, makes society exclusive, religion bigoted, and government aristocratic. With the exception of the few who devote themselves to art service, literature & benevolence, this class of women give their whole time, force & ambition to frivolous externals, dreamy speculations, or a self-culture that has no practical outworkings but is viewed simply as an added [?] power, to attract & rule 25. all who come within their sphere. Woman loves power & wields it at this hour with terrible influence against the very idea that our young nation has already twice baptized in blood. This class have no faith in the dignity of labour, nor respect for those who represent its success. They are opposed to the genius of republican institutions a government of equality & a religion of [?]. Nor is this type of womanhood all below Mason's & Dixon's line, for in the North we often 26. hear intelligent women exalting the society & government of Great Britain above our own. They declare republicanism a failure deplore the insolence of our labouring classes & sigh for the hommage of a King & Court. As the south the principle of caste & class has been taught persistently, in [?], [?] & press, - as the North lived & glorified, while no class of people have been so reverently courted as the rich & powerful slave-holders who represent the idea. In a simpler, purer better life in similar ideas, broader usefulness 27. & higher activity, the women of this nation might be made to see the beneficence of republican institutions & to rejoice in a dynasty of equal rights to all. It is of vital importance that the educated women of a nation should have a true philosophy of politics, morals & religion that the powerful influence they necessarily have in a nation should all be given in the best direction. Has not woman all equal interest with man in humanity & the nation? Then why limit her hopes & fears, interests to the family, her love, sacrifice to the narrow bounds of home 28. Is not her influence needed in the world without & the world needed to feed her thought How can they who have never measured the evil results of the dwarfing of their own powers, on social & public morals hold up before their brothers, husbands & sons the true standard of manhood. How can they whose lives are devoted to the beauty order & arrangement of externals wisely weigh a nation's destiny? How can mothers educate their sons for statesmen & saints who know nothing of the necessary elements to form such 29. characters? & how can they get this knowledge but in sharing the duties of this three-fold life. In representing the interests of all classes we secure in government the peculiar virtues incident to different conditions & sex, for individual [power], skill, influence & use is as varied as the human face. In making power wealth & manhood the basis of representation, we infuse grasping ambition, hard selfishness boundless love of gain, purse proud imbecility or excessive luxury into our legislative & social life. 30. We would modify this with those virtues, moral heroism & self sacrifice that conditions of trial call out with that energy, skill, & genius that necessity creates, with those noble elements of womanhood now dormant or perverted. So long as every stripling of eighteen can look his mother in the face & triumphantly say I shall vote before you however wise she may be her opinions will have but little weight with him. Man gets no added [?] in association with one he 31 deems his inferior. Though woman's lips were touched with live coals from the altar of Heaven so long as man regards her sentiments, passions, & thoughts but as the idiosyncrasies of a weaker sex, they cannot have their legitimate weight on his actions. Man can never fulfill his destiny until woman is made whole, when the mighty multitude of fallen angels come down from the garrets & up from the cellars: from the haunts of vice & ignorance from the largest houses of disease. in a row. Give us bread said they we do not care for the ballot. But John Bright has taught them better and today they ask the ballot. Lo when women came to see that the ballot is the remedy for the wrongs & injustice done them, they too will demand the true remedy Why are not the 10,000 offices mere sinecures under gov. filled by women Why are women half paid in schools. Men vote salaries, 32. & death, clothed in their right mind, to vote themselves bread & wages & a virtuous place on the earth we should see a new type of manhood a new glory in republican institutions. But say you man has had the ballot all along yet where is he? Is he not also in the slough of vice ignorance & poverty? With one half the race in the fetters of idleness selfishness & [?] is poverty ignorance & vice, with such a millstone round the neck man can never rise one inch above 33. the dust from which he sprang 3rd Woman needs for her own health & vigor of body & soul a more extended sphere of thought & action None doubt that the ballot is the best educator a nation can give its citizens. George Combe in travelling through this country years ago said that the greatest blessing he saw in republican institutions was the individual education that the responsibility of governing gave to every man. The education of books is merely theoretical & 34. & may or may not be incorporated with our thought & action, but that which comes from the practical uses of life must be an integral part of our being. Hence if you would educate woman into the republican idea, you must give her an interest in its workings which she can only have by sharing its responsibilities. And for this reason we claim the ballot. Some say we share in these responsibilities now, that we influence our Husbands, Brothers, sons. How can we exert the right influence on subjects of which we are profoundly ignorant. You might as well 35. talk of an ignorant housekeeper training good servants, or of one who has no knowledge of the art teaching another to make good bread, all by the magic of influence!! Where have the women manifested an intellectual interest in the proceedings of Congress this winter. Where are the many tongues& pens that should have glowed with liberty? Have our literary women turned aside from their poetry & fiction to instruct their representatives what they would have them do. Have these even who for twenty years have claimed the ballot been awake 36. to the momentous consequences of inaction, on the nation's enthusiasm for freedom? Have the gay & fashionable paused in the giddy round of pleasure to echo back the thrilling eloquence of senators on equal rights? Have they [?] deeply interested in the events of this hour, they on whom a nation's sins & sorrows fall most heavily, the plodding daughters of care & want "have they prayed even thy kingdom come" Or are all alike ignorant & indifferent to the glorious dawning of this day of equality where light shall cover the earth, I prefer to base our [*.37.*] claim on duties rather than rights as [the present] christianity & philosophy alike teach that in search of duties rather than rights we would reach the perfect stature of men & women. If then we follow the beautiful life given us for example we would invert the order of duties now pressed on us by custom & a narrow selfishness & in considering the interests of Humanity, Country Family & self in their relative importance, we should end where we now begin. Instead of demanding the rights of our self-hood, we would make the broader claim, for that [*38*] education that shall best fit us to do our duty to the race Instead of the satisfaction we now feel when all is well in the home we should let our sympathies go forth with the outer world. we would peer into the garrets & cellers of our great cities, into the jails prisons, & asylums, with the dens of vice & folly, for a wise selfishness would teach us there are duties here, However beautiful our homes may be; however pure the atmosphere; however carefully guarded our sons & daughters now are by our [*39*] example advice & prayers, they must soon be transplanted to the world without. Our fairest daughters may yet earn their daily bread & in the marts of trade, from hard grinding men sue for work & wages. Who should tell the mother she has no interest in plucking the thorns from the paths, where their young feet so soon should tread Is it nothing to the gardener where his rare plants are to grow whether bathed in sunshine & dew, or bleached in dampness & shade. The outer world as well as the home needs woman to look [*40*] after the order & beauty of its arrangements, its sanitary conditions & improvements. If christian women had a voice in our land the criminal code would be [eventuilly?] modifed. our prisons changed from gloomy abodes of filth, vice, solitude & depair into moral seminaries, where the weak would be made strong to resist temptation, the wicked to be the bounty of righteousness & the hopeless inspired with soon courage to begin a better life. Think you woman would leave her sons in gloomy dungeons when she had the power to [*41*] vote them sunshine & books & the teachings of holy men. Would she have her sons for years in dreary idleness, & solitude. That most cruel wrong that so unfits man for all return to life. if she couldvote them a more rational punishment for there faults & follies. We need the angel of mercy in the nation to stand between stern justice& her erring sons, & in the family we need a Father's justice that mercy run not to license. In the present divorce of man & woman, the nation as [*42*] well as the family is in a condition of half orphanage. But say you woman has already exerted a powerful influence in this direction as the faithful labours of Elizabeth Fry & Dorethea Dix so well attest Their individual efforts tended but to instigate suffering, while mith the ballot in the hands of the thousands of women who sympathized with them, the gross social wrongs out of which so many monstrous evils grow might have been voted out of existence long ago. Direct responsibility would [*43*] give woman a deeper education a holier enthusiasm & an added power for good. God made woman to be a help mate for man. He armed & equipped her with brains, two hands & powers of locomotion, that she should be a self-sustaining self-poised being: a creator of wealth, a moral power in the universe of mind & she has no right to be anything less than this. To a certain extent all men & women must ever be mutually dependent on each other. But to educate every girl 44) to indolence, with the prospect that some man is to provide for her bread & clothes & shelter, is not only to rob her of all stimulus to action, but to overtax him who has this added responsibility, & take from both We see how fortune enervates man himself. It is not the sons of ease & luxury who do the great deeds in this world, necessity is the creator of genius, skill, wealth & power. Those who resources lie outside of themselves never depend on their own mind of individual life. Woman knows the cost of life better than man does, hence where he is just alone she would be merciful Man generalizes, woman individualizes, hence he has all along sacrificed the immortal being to creed, codes, institutions, the dungeon, the rack, the stake the inquisition the scaffold the horrors of war & the hellish blackness, infamy [*45*] & muscle. Hence she should never know what true womanly character is until she is educated to self-dependence to feel a personal responsibility in all the affairs of life. Yes woman needs the health & vigor which a broader range of thought & action would give Let her feel she has an interest & responsibility, in the government, religion, & education of the country a voice in the laws & administration of justice, _ that she has the power to introduce a higher code of morals, & more genial theology in our colleges & seminaries [*46?]seminaries of learning & that in moulding the elements of society her influence for weal or woe would pervade every department of life & she should no longer feel that she was made to chase phantoms through her whole earthly career. Since the beginning of the rebellion there has been a remarkable decrease in cases of insanity in the female sex which is attributed to the various charitable & benevolent operations necessitated by the war, these having called out the loving sympathy & earnest action of [*47*] woman. Statistics show that there is more [insanity?] among farmers wives, these any other class of women, owing to the dull routine & monotony of their lives. The wider the field of activity, the more perfect & harmonious is individual growth. If woman is narrow, unreasonable, frivolous, or unhappy it only shows she has not enough in her prescribed sphere for head & heart to feed upon. In laying on her, the stern hard duties of life, equally with man, it is evidently the design of Providence, that all the energies [*48*] of her being should be called out. by contact with realities When we reflect that it takes all that ever hase & ever will exist to make up the human mind & that nature never repeats herself, we appreciate the calamity to all in the constant blotting out of one half the race in the utter vacuity of the existence they lead. The real difficulity in getting an honest hearing on this question is found in the fact that public sentiment as regards woman has been in advance of law for centuries Whilst woman weak & ignorant in the beginning has been slowly passing from the mere toy or drudge of man to an equal companion by his side in art science, literature & government the laws have not been essentially changed from those of feudal times This has given the advocates of woman in our day a twofold task. 1st Civilized man feeling that in the nature of things there can be no real antigonism between himself & woman. That they are [eventuilly?] in the divine arrangement one & indivisible, knowing that his heart is loyal to her, he is justly indignant at the mention of barbarius laws & customs, he had no will to make or wish to execute Would Fathers Husbands & Sons legislate against their own daughters wives & mothers? - the very idea is monstrous & revolting to all true men & women. For barbarius as the whole code is in regard to women it is after all founded in the true idea of the unity of the sexes. & if all men were chivalrous & just, there would be no civil, political or social wrongs to right & the laws that have come down to us & from the dark ages would be a dead letter. Laws made under the dynasty that might makes right are wholly out of place in a christian civilization, where ideas & not force controul nations 2nd Women of wealth, intelligence & refinement constituting in themselves an aristoracy, in contact with liberal minds in a republican civilization, would not know of [?] laws in pretends to base an argument upon any ground but universal suffrage. in fact in the republican theory there are no arguments on the other side. It is not arguments we find ourselves called on to meet but prejudices. And I propose to-day to take there popular prejudices one by one and show you what they are worth. One of the chief concerns I hear expressed on all sides is the total wreck of the "feminie element" their statute books, nor in their narrow selfishness care, so long as their paths in life were strewn with flowers, for the thousand outside that charmed circle who suffer that they may shine. These whisper in the ears of statesmen, judges, merchants, bankers, "we have all the rights we want." Clothed in purple & fine linen & faring sumptuously every day, what thought or interest have they in a government of equality or a religion of sacrifice. Hence only these who through misfortune When you came to know that ideas as well as human beings need the mother soul for their growth and development you will appreciate, how much has been lost in the world of morals and intellect, through the ignorance and degradation of woman In the discipline of the great principles of government for the last thirty years, the question of individual rights has come to be so well understood that no one have felt the iron grip law are awake to the barbarous code under which we live, in the social sentiment that ignorantly traces all wrongs, to a want of wisdom, discretion or refinement in those who suffer, & not the inequality in the civil, political, & social condition of the sexes. The favourites of fortune are never the class to propose reform or improvement, for those in power fear any change lest they be losers In such a state of society the demand of suffrage for woman is as startling as that of emancipation cipation was to the south. The higher classes of women scorn the idea as the aristocrat does labour, the lower classes are too apathetic to aspire to a voice in the laws that govern them hence the small minority from all classes who make the demand find their best support in man himself. Happily for the unfortunate the withered the oppressed there are always those in every generation who have the conscience to resist injustice & the imagination to make the wrongs of others their own Then by earnest thought trace customs abuses & follies to their true causes & by steady action right every wrong. In this view we ask man to change his laws, & we ask women to dictate what this change should be. We see all this special legislation in the past has not resulted in her education, independence & happiness Grant that man has acted from the present motives, that he has buried the civil political & social rights of women in himself. that he might guard his with his watchful care shelter her from the world's rude minds, he must see that he has failed to realize the object he desired as the 10,000s of women who toil & beg & sell themselves for bread but too sadly prove If he could secure to every woman silk, power, beauty to attract & hold as willing slave some chivalrous knight ever ready to break a lance in her defense the plan might do. But as it is many are witless, penniless with beauty, grace or power to charm & when forsaken of man just, & equal laws must be her protection. Already the ablest men both in Europe & America have responded to our demand for the ballot & given their deliberate judgement in favour of our claim. As there is a truth & sameness in the religions of all times & latitudes however [buried?] the form, each recognizing a God & immortality, as has the great idea of justice & equality been foreshadowed in every form of government. The blinded despot has had visions of justice & has sometimes exalted the subject to places of trust. Even woman though viewed in all ages as either toy or slave, has yet been worshipped as goddess Prophetess Priestess, leader of armies or ruler of nations. Hence our work is not to create a [?] of justice - that already exists in every such, nor to make man loyal to woman that he has ever been according to his highest ideas founded on what he saw of the women of his times & the positions they seemed naturally to take he has but built his philosophy on the facts of life. True he has not kept pace with changing facts, for we are all more governed by the ideas & prejudices of the generation that has preceded us than by the ablest opinions of those who share the same sunlight with ourselves. the petty feelings of envy & rivalry that so often lead us to distrust the wisdom by our side effects not our faith in the opinions of the dead. Our work then is to raise man's ideas by a new & higher set of facts, by a nobler type of womanhood than any generation has yet realized. future greatness & grandeur of this nation. Here the youngest civilization in the world is about to establish a government in that divine idea of equality uttered on the cross 1800 years ago: echoed by the Fathers we [?] and already twice baptized in blood within one century. [?] [?], principalities and powers are all citizens to stand equal before the law. Here the mother As I behold how nature has freely scattered the bounties on the silk untravelled prairie, I think how like the humble wrens in the vaste places of life they blossom as bountiful though unseen unknown. Ah, could man but bring himself into harmony with the law of beauty & order how soon our moral world would be like a paradise in harmony with nature, Sr. new is revolutionary N. Y. property laws. Spencer Birds change places. [Schinn] good [unmove] election day Nov 5th republican idea failure. Naples Mr. Horace Greeley demands suffrage 14000 . majority Democrat Sheba fate of suffrage party 11 Sam 28 Transcribed and reviewed by volunteers participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.