Elizabeth Cady Stanton SPEECHES & WRITINGS FILE Speech: "New York Constitutional Convention in 1867" c 18933 [*237 This is an account which was written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and printed about 1893 in regard to the Greeley incident in the N.Y. State Constitutional Convention of 1867.*] New York Constitutional Convention in 1867 In a recent number of The Sun some correspondent asks the question, "why did Horace Greeley oppose a Woman Suffrage Amendment in the Constitutional Convention, when he had always before been in favor of that reform"? Because he feared it might embarrass his party in their efforts to carry "negro suffrage" the great republican measure at that time As soon as The Convention was called the Woman Suffrage Association, decided to make a thorough canvas of the state, to hold meetings, scatter tracts & circulate petitions to get the word "male [*238*] 2 from Article 2nd Section I of the constitution. Mrs. Stanton & Miss Anthony [they] called on Mr Greeley & asked him to give them space to advocate the measure in the Tribune. He said no, emphatically, "you must not get up any agitation now for that measure. You are good republicans, help us to get the word "white" out of the constitution, this is the negroes hour, your turn will come next." No, no, we replied, we shall not have another chance in twenty years. We have stood with the negro in the constitution for a century; the only decent compact we have had; & now when the constitutional door is open we should go into the kingdom together. How would you look Mr Greeley holding meetings to advocate negro suffrage [*239*] 3 if you were disfranchised yourself? "Oh! that is a different question." Yes, just the difference between two human souls that have an equal love for liberty. Well ladies he said "I give you fair warning, that if you do persist in agitating your demands, I shall oppose you both in the convention & in The Tribune." Mrs. Greeley however was equally determined to do what she could & saw that petitions were diligently circulated in Westchester County Horace Greeley, Westchester Co., Leslie W. Russel, Lawrence Co., William Cassidy, Albany Co., William H. Merrill, Wyoming Co., George Williams, Oneida Co., John G. Schumaker, Kings Co., Isaac L. Endress, Livingston Co. The first petition brought before the committee in favor of suffrage for women was presented by George William Curtis, of Richmond Co., sent by the friends of Human Progress from their Annual meeting at Waterloo. [*241*] [*242*] June 27th Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony were granted a hearing* before the Convention, and at the close of their addresses were asked by different members to reply to various objections that readily suggested themselves. Among others, Mr. Greeley said: "Ladies, you will please remember that the bullet and ballot go together. If you vote, are you ready to fight?" "Certainly," was the prompt reply. "We are ready to fight, sir, just as you fought in the late war, by sending our substitutes." The colloquy between the members and the ladies, prolonged until a late hour, was both spicy and instructive. On the 10th of July a hearing was granted to Lucy Stone, which called out deep interest and consideration from the members of that body. I give a few of the petitions* to show that many leading men & women twenty years ago did believe in woman suffrage. There were presented the first hour of the morning in which session Mr Greeley followed with his report. Nearly every member was armed with a petition & as a number of ladies whom Mr Greeley met from week to week at Miss Alice Cary's receptions had come up from New York to hear his report. The great editor was somewhat embarrassed. The top of his head was as red as a beet as the petitions poured in from full half the counties of the state & when Mrs Greeleys was read signed by 300 women from Westchester, he gave a fierce look at the gallery as if he wished to annihilate us one & all. Horace Greeley, Chairman of the Committee, in his report, after recommending universal "manhood suffrage," said: Having thus briefly set forth the considerations which seem to us decisive in favor of the few and moderate changes proposed, we proceed to indicate our controlling reasons for declining to recommend other and in some respects more important innovations. Your committee does not recommend an extension of the elective franchise to women. However defensible in theory, we are satisfied that public sentiment does not demand and would not sustain an innovation so revolutionary and sweeping, so openly at war with a distribution of duties and functions between the sexes as venerable and pervading as government itself, and involving transformations so radical in social and domestic life. Should we prove to be in error on this head, the Convention may overrule us by changing a few words in the first section of our proposed article. Nor have we seen fit to propose the enfranchisement of boys above the age of eighteen years. The current ideas and usages in our day, but especially in this country, seem already to set too strongly in favor of the relaxation, if not total overthrow of parental authority, especially over half-grown boys. With the sincerest good-will for the class in question, we submit that they may spend the hours which they can spare from their labors and their lessons more usefully and profitably in mastering the wisdom of the sages and philosophers who have elucidated the science of government, than in attendance on midnight caucuses, or in wrangling around the polls. ALBANY, June 28, 1867. HORACE GREELY, Chairman, WM. H. MERRILL, LESLIE W. RUSSELL, GEO. WILLIAMS. 244 After Mr. Greeley's report, Mr. Graves made several efforts to get his resolution adopted in time for the women to vote upon it in the spring of 1868. Mr. Weed, of Clinton, also desired that the vote for the measure should consist of the majority of the women of the State. The great event of the Convention was the speech of George William Curtis on the report of the "Committee on the right of suffrage and the qualifications to hold office." 245 After the Convention adjourned that day, some of the ladies lingered in the vestibule to congratulate Mr. Greeley on his conservative report ; but he had disappeared through some side door, and could not be found. A few weeks after he met Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony at one of Alice Cary's Sunday evening receptions. They noticed him slowly making his way toward them, and prepared for the coming storm. As he approached, both arose, and with extended hands, exclaimed most cordially, "Good evening, Mr. Greeley." But his hands hung limp and undemonstrative by his side, as he said in low and measured words, "You two ladies are the most maneuvering politicians in the State of New York. You set out to annoy me in the Constitutional Convention, and you did it effectually. I saw in the manner my wife's petition was presented, that Mr. Curtis was acting under instructions. I saw the reporters prick up their ears and knew that my report and Mrs. Greeley's petition would come out together, with large headings in the city papers, and probably be called out by the newsboys in the street." Turning to Mrs. Stanton, he said, "You are so tenacious about your own name, why did you not inscribe my wife's maiden name, Mary Cheney Greeley on her petition?" "Because," I replied, "I wanted all the world to know that it was the wife of Horace Greeley who protested against her husband's report." "Well," said he, "I understand the animus of that whole proceeding, and no word of praise shall ever again be awarded you in the Tribune, and that if your name is ever necessarily mentioned, it shall be as Mrs. Henry B. Stanton !" And so it has been ever since. From that time Mr. Greeley was seemingly hostile to the woman suffrage movement, just as he was toward the anti-slavery cause, after the Abolitionists in rolling up 60,000 votes for James G. Birney, defeated Henry Clay, and gave the ascendency to the Democrats by electing Polk. Clay being a strong Protectionist was a great favorite with Mr. Greeley, and his defeat was a sore disappointment, and for years he denounced Abolitionists individually and collectively in his scathing editorials. Still in his happier moods he firmly believed in the civil and political equality of both women and negroes. 246 * June 20, 1867.--Mr. CORBETT presented a memorial from citizens of Syracuse for securing the right of suffrage for women on equal terms with men. Mr. GRAVES--Petition of Mrs. F. D. Fish and 180 other citizens--worthy and intelligent men and women--of the city of Utica, asking equal suffrage for men and women. Referred to the Committee on Suffrage. June 26, 1867.--Mr. RATHBUN--Petition for universal suffrage for women as well as men. C. E. PARKER--Petition for citizens of Tioga County. Mr. CURTIS--A petition from Mrs. Daniel Cady, of Johnstown, and 200 others, asking to have "male" stricken from the State Constitution. E. G. LAPHAM presented a petition. Mr. EZRA GRAVES presented thirty-seven petitions--Brooklyn, 1 ; Mt. Morris, 4 ; Troy, 1 ; Lima, 1 ; New York City, 8 ; Buffalo, 3 ; Skaneateles, 2 ; Lockport, 1 ; Poughkeepsie, 1 ; Dutchess County, 1 ; Utica, 1; Fairfield, Herkimer Col, 1. In all, 2,040 persons asking for equal suffrage. * Mr. GREELEY, June 26th, from the Committee on Suffrage, offered a resolution that "The use of this hall on the 27th, Thursday evening of this week, be granted to the Standing Committee on the Right of Suffrage, that they may accord a public hearing to the advocates of female suffrage," which was adopted. 247 Friday, June 28th.--C. C. DWIGHT--Mrs. Eliza Wright Osborn and 22 others, of Auburn, asking suffrage for women. Mr. COOKE--Mrs. Lina Vandenburg and 350 others. Mr. ARCHER--Sundry citizens. Mr. MEAD--Mrs. E. A. Kingsvury and 20 others. Mr. SCHOONMAKER--M. I. Ingraham and others. Mr. HOUSTON--Lucia Sutton. Mr. RATHSUN --Mrs. A. H. Sabin and 20 others. J. BROOKS--Emma Suydam and 15 others. 248 July 12th.--Mr. CORBETT--Henry Ward Beecher, Edwin A. Studwell, and many others, of Kings County, for woman suffrage. July 16th.--Mr. FOLGER presented a petition from Emily P. Collins, of Rochester, and others, asking that women be granted the privilege of voting, that in 1869 the proposition be submitted for all who can read and write. July 18th.--Mr. GREELEY--From Mrs. Louisa Howland and many others, of Mt. Vernon, Westchester County, for woman suffrage. Mr. CURTIS--From Mrs. Eliza Benton and others of New York City, asking for equal suffrage. Another from Caroline E. Hubbard and 20 others , of Westchester County. July 31st.--Mr. POTTER--Lydia Baldwin, F. Brucklin, and others, of Erie County, asking for the extension of the suffrage to women. Mr. GRAVES--Jane E. Turner, Rev. C. H. Bebee, and 56 others, Bridgewater, Oneida County. Another from Julia M. Sherwood and 22 others, Westchester Country, asking for woman suffrage. 249 July 1st.--Mr. FOWLER presented a petition from Miss Laura Bosworth and others for woman suffrage. July 9th.--From Gerrit Smith and 180 others of Madison County, for female suffrage. Mr. ENDRESS--Emma C. Lawrence and 50 others of Westchester, for female suffrage. Mr. MURPHY--Thomas N. Cashow and 20 others, of Kings County, for woman suffrage. Mr. FULLERTON--Mary J. Quackenbosh and many others, from Newburgh. Mr. VAN CAMPEN--Mary E. Mead and many others, of Westchester County. Mr. BEADLE--Mrs. W. S. Shute, Mary C. Bristol, and 120 others from Horse Heads. Mr. HAMMOND--Mrs. J. C. Holmes and many others from Westchester County. July 10th.--Mr. TUCKER--A petition from a large number of men and women for extending the right of suffrage to woman. Mr. GRAVES--Fifty-four ladies of New York City asking suffrage for women. July 11th.--Mr. CURTIS--From Charles J. Seymour, Mrs. Mary Newman and 500 others These petitions will be highly prized by the next generation when woman suffrage is achieved, showing that their ancestors signed, presented the petitions 251 The petitions for woman suffrage were presented in the Convention until they reached in round numbers 20,000. The morning Mr. Greeley gave his report the galleries were crowded with ladies, and every member present, Democrat as well as Republican, was supplied with a petition. As it had been rumored about that Mr. Greeley's report would be against suffrage for women, the Democrats entered with great zest into the presentation. George William Curtis, at the special request [?] of the ladies, reserved his for the last, and when he arose and said : "Mr. President, I hold in my hand a petition from Mrs. Horace Greeley and three hundred other women citizens of Westchester, asking that the word 'male' be stricken from the Constitution," the sensation throughout the house was as profound as unexpected. Mr. Greeley's chagrin was only equaled by the amusement of the other members, and of the ladies in the gallery. As he arose to read his report, it being the next thing in order, he was evidently embarrassed in view of such a flood of petitions from all parts of the State; from his own wife, and most of the ladies in his immediate social circle, by seeming to antagonize the measure. On June 4th, 1867, the Constitutional Convention assembled in Albany, and on the 10th Mr. Graves of Herkimer, moved "that a committee of five be appointed by the chair to report at an early day whether the Convention should provide that when a majority of women voted that they wanted the right of suffrage, they should have it," and on the 19th the President, William A. Wheeler, appointed the committee+ on the "right of suffrage, and the qualifications for holding office." Transcribed and reviewed by volunteers participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.