History of Woman Suffrage Volume II Part 48

With every type and shade of manhood thus exalted above their heads, there never was a time when all women, rich and poor, white and black, native and foreign, should be so wide awake to the degradation of their position, and so persistent in their demands to be recognized in the government.

Woman's enfranchis.e.m.e.nt is now a practical question in England and the United States. With bills before Parliament, Congress, and all our State Legislatures--with such able champions as John Stuart Mill and George William Curtis, woman need but speak the word to secure her political freedom to-day.

We sincerely hope that in the coming National Anniversary every State and Territory, East and West, North and South, will be represented. We invite delegates, too, from all those countries in the Old World where women are demanding their political rights.

Let there be a grand gathering in the metropolis of the nation, that Republicans and Democrats may alike understand, that with the women of this country lies a political power in the future, that both parties would do well to respect.

The following speakers from the several States are pledged: Anna E.

d.i.c.kinson, Frederick Dougla.s.s, Mary A. Livermore, Madam Anneke, Lillie Peckham, Phoebe Couzins, M. H. Brinkerhoff, Mrs. Frances McKinley, Amelia Bloomer, Olive Logan, Mrs. E. Oakes Smith, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Henry Ward Beecher, Olympia Brown, Robert Purvis, Josephine S. Griffing, Lucy Stone, Ernestine L. Rose, Susan B. Anthony, Theodore Tilton, Rev. O. B. Frothingham.

LUCRETIA MOTT, _President_.

_Vice-Presidents_, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frederick Dougla.s.s, Henry Ward Beecher, Martha C. Wright, Frances D. Gage, New York; Olympia Brown, Ma.s.sachusetts; Elizabeth B. Chase, Rhode Island; Charles Prince, Connecticut; Robert Purvis, Pennsylvania; Antoinette B.

Blackwell, New Jersey; Josephine S. Griffing, Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C.; Thomas Garrett, Delaware; Stephen H. Camp, Ohio; Euphemia Cochrane, Michigan; Mary A. Livermore, Illinois; Mrs. I. H. Sturgeon, Missouri; Amelia Bloomer, Iowa; Mary A. Starrett, Kansas; Virginia Penny, Kentucky.

_Corresponding Secretary_, Mary E. Gage.

_Recording Secretaries_, Henry B. Blackwell, Harriet Purvis.

_Treasurer_, John J. Merritt.

_Executive Committee_, Lucy Stone, Edward S. Bunker, Elizabeth R.

Tilton, Ernestine L. Rose, Robert J. Johnston, Edwin A. Studwell, Anna Cromwell Field, Susan B. Anthony, Theodore Tilton, Margaret E.

Winchester, Abby Hutchinson Patton, Oliver Johnson, Mrs. Horace Greeley, Abby Hopper Gibbons, Elizabeth Smith Miller.

[117] See Appendix.

[118] On the platform were seated Ernestine L. Rose, of New York; Mary A. Livermore, of Chicago; Phoebe Couzins, of St. Louis; Lillie Peckham, of Milwaukee; Madam Anneke, of Milwaukee; Madam de Hericourt, of Chicago; Mrs. M. Joslyn Gage, of Syracuse; Frederick Dougla.s.s; Lucy Stone, of New Jersey; Olive Logan, of New York; Josephine Griffing, of Was.h.i.+ngton; Mrs. Paulina W. Davis; Mrs. Abby H. Patton; Mrs. Kate N.

Doggett; Eleanor Kirk; Mrs. Bachelder, of Boston; Mrs. Mary Macdonald, of Mount Vernon; Rev. Mrs. Hanaford; Rev. Antoinette L. Brown Blackwell, of New Jersey; Mrs. Jennette Brown Heath, of Kansas; Mrs.

Mary Newman, of Binghamton, N.Y.; Mrs. Mathilde Wendt, of New York; Andrew Jackson Davis; Mary F. Davis; Mrs. Caroline Morey Holmes, of Union Village, New York; Mrs. Phelps, of the Woman's Bureau, New York; Senator Pomeroy; Mrs. Longley, of Cincinnati; Mrs. Amelia Bloomer, of Council Bluffs, Iowa; Lizzie Boynton, of Ohio; Mary A. Gage, of Brooklyn; Mrs. Sarah Norton, of the New York Working-Women's a.s.sociation, and others.

The following committees, on motion of Miss Susan B. Anthony, were appointed by the Chair: Committee on Nominations--Edwin S. Bunker, Lydia Mott, Edwin A. Studwell, Abby H. Gibbons, Lucy Stone, Charles C.

Burleigh, and Lillie Peckham. Committee on Resolutions--Ernestine L.

Rose, Henry B. Blackwell, Anna C. Field, Mary A. Livermore, S. S.

Foster, Josephine S. Griffing, Madam Anneke, Madam Hericourt, and Phebe A. Hanaford. Committee on Finance--Susan B. Anthony, Anna C.

Field, Mary A. Gage, and R. J. Johnston.

[119] _President_:--Lucretia Mott.

_Vice-Presidents at Large_:--Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Ernestine L. Rose.

_Vice-Presidents for the States_:--John Neal, Maine; Armenia S. White, New Hamps.h.i.+re; James Hutchinson, Jr., Vermont; William Lloyd Garrison, Julia Ward Howe, Ma.s.sachusetts; Elizabeth B. Chase, Rhode Island; Isabella B. Hooker, Connecticut; Henry Ward Beecher, Frederick Dougla.s.s, Martha C. Wright, New York; Portia Gage, New Jersey; Robert Purvis, Pennsylvania; Mary A. Livermore, Illinois; George W. Julian, Indiana; Benjamin F. Wade, Ohio; Gilbert Haven, Michigan; Rev. A. L.

Lindsley, Oregon; Joseph H. Moore, California; Hon. J. Nye, Nevada; Hon. A. P. K. Safford, Arizona; Hon. James H. Ashley, Montana; Josephine S. Griffing, District of Columbia; Thomas Garrett, Delaware; Ellen M. Harris, Maryland; John C. Underwood, Virginia; Mrs. J. K.

Miller, North Carolina; Mrs. Pillsbury, South Carolina; Elizabeth Wright, Texas; Mrs. Dr. Hawkes, Florida; Hon. Guy Wines, Tennessee; Mrs. Francis Minor, Missouri; Hon. Charles Robinson, Kansas; Governor Fairchild and Madam Anneke, Wisconsin; Mrs. Harriet Bishop, Minnesota; Hon. Mr. Loughridge, Iowa.

_Executive Committee_:---Elizabeth R. Tilton, Lucy Stone, Edwin Studwell, Susan B. Anthony, Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Thomas W.

Higginson, Anna C. Field, Edward S. Bunker, Abby Hutchinson Patton, Oliver Johnson, Elizabeth Smith Miller, Margaret E. Winchester, Edward Cromwell, Robert J. Johnston, Mary A. Davis.

_Corresponding Secretaries_:--Mary A. Gage, Harriet Purvis, Henry B.

Blackwell.

_Treasurer_:--John J. Merritt.

[120] _Resolved_, That the extension of suffrage to woman is essential to the public safety and to the establishment and permanence of free inst.i.tutions; that the admission of woman to political recognition in our national reconstruction is as imperative as the admission of any particular cla.s.s of men.

_Resolved_, That as woman, in private life, in the partners.h.i.+p of marriage, is now the conservator of private morals, so woman in public life, in the partners.h.i.+p of a republican State, based upon Universal suffrage, will become the conservator of public morals.

_Resolved_, That the pet.i.tions of more than 200,000 women to Congress and to their State Legislature during the past winter, are expressions of popular sympathy and approval, everywhere throughout the land, and ought to silence the cavil of our opponents that "women do not want to vote."

_Resolved_, That while we heartily approve of the Fifteenth Amendment, extending suffrage to men, without distinction of race, we nevertheless feel profound regret that Congress has not submitted a parallel amendment for the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women.

_Resolved_, That any party professing to be democratic in spirit or republican in principle, which opposes or ignores the political rights of woman, is false to its professions, short-sighted in its policy, and unworthy of the confidence of the friends of impartial liberty.

_Resolved_, That we hail the report of the Joint Special Committee, just rendered to the Ma.s.sachusetts Legislature, in favor of woman suffrage, as a fresh evidence of the growth of public sentiment and we earnestly hope that Ma.s.sachusetts, by promptly submitting the question to a vote of her people, will maintain her historic pre-eminence in the cause of human liberty.

_Resolved_, That the thanks of the Convention are due to the Hon.

George W. Julian in the House of Representatives, and to the Hon.

Henry Wilson and the Hon. S. C. Pomeroy In the Senate of the United States, for their recent active efforts to secure suffrage for woman.

_Resolved_, That we recommend the men and women of every Ward, Town, County, and State, to form local a.s.sociations for creating and organizing public sentiment in favor of Suffrage for Woman, and to take every possible practical means to effect her enfranchis.e.m.e.nt.

[121] 1st. That we form a League of all women claiming their rights, both in America and Europe.

2d. The aim of this League, which shall be called the "Universal League for Woman's Rights and Universal Peace," is to extinguish prejudice between nations, to create a common interest through the influence of woman, in order to subst.i.tute the reign of humanity for the divisions and hatred and causes of war, and to give aid to the women of all nations in securing their rights.

3d. That in every country Emanc.i.p.ation Societies shall be organized, that a National Union may be formed which shall be in constant communication with other countries by means of journals, pamphlets, and books.

4th. That every year a General a.s.sembly of delegates from every country shall meet in one of the capitals by turn. These capitals might for the present be Was.h.i.+ngton, Paris, London, Florence, and one of the central cities of Germany.

5th. That at the stated meetings of the League there shall be an exhibition of works of art by women.

6th. That, in traveling, women should everywhere find friends.h.i.+p and aid in pursuing the end which they propose. Women, being sisters and daughters in the ranks of humanity, must feel themselves at home with their sisters of all nations. Among us there can be no foreigners, since we are not citizens.

[122] E. S. Bunker, Mrs. E. R. Tilton, Mrs. A. Field, Rev. J. W.

Chadwick, J. J. Merritt and Mrs. E. A. Studwell.

[123] The Woman's Bureau was located at No. 49 East Twenty-third Street, owned by Mrs. Elizabeth B. Phelps. Handsomely furnished apartments were rented to the proprietor of _The Revolution_, where much of the editorial work of that paper was done. Meetings were held in the s.p.a.cious parlors every week, where Mrs. Phelps also gave many pleasant receptions, breakfasts, luncheons, and dinners. It was a kind of ladies' exchange, where reformers were sure to meet each other.

These pleasant rooms in a fas.h.i.+onable part of the city gave a fresh impetus to our cause, and the regular meetings, seemingly so novel and _recherche_, called out several new speakers. This was the school where Lilie Devereux Blake, Dr. Clemence Lozier, Isabella Beecher Hooker, and others made their first attempts at oratory.

[124] In _The Revolution_ of May 20th we find the following:

NATIONAL WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE a.s.sOCIATION.--This organization was formed at the reunion held at the Woman's Bureau at the close of the Convention in New York. Delegates from nineteen States, including California and Was.h.i.+ngton Territory, were present on the occasion, and all felt the importance of an organization distinctively for Woman's Suffrage, in view of the fact that a Sixteenth Amendment to the Federal Const.i.tution to secure this is now before the people. The a.s.sociation has held several meetings to plan the work for the coming year. Committees are in correspondence with friends in the several States to complete the list of officers.

_President._--Elizabeth Cady Stanton. _Vice-Presidents._--Elizabeth B.

Phelps, New York; Anna E. d.i.c.kinson, Pennsylvania; Mrs. Kate N.

Doggett, Illinois; Madam Anneke, Wisconsin; Mrs. Lucy Elmes, Connecticut; Mrs. Senator Henderson, Missouri; Mattie Griffith Brown, Ma.s.sachusetts; Mrs. Nicholas Smith, Kansas; Lucy A. Snow, Maine; Elizabeth B. Schenck, California; Josephine S. Griffing, D.C.; Paulina W. Davis, Rhode Island; Miss Phoebe W. Couzins, Missouri.

_Corresponding Secretaries._--Mrs. Laura Curtis Bullard, Ida Greeley, Adelaide Hallock. _Recording Secretaries._--Abby Burton Crosby, Sarah E. Fuller. _Treasurer._--Elizabeth Smith Miller. _Executive Committee._--Ernestine L. Rose, Charlotte B. Wilbour, Mathilde F.

Wendt, Mary F. Gilbert, Susan B. Anthony. _Advisory Counsel._--Matilda Joslyn Gage, New York; Mrs. Francis Minor, Missouri; Adeline Thompson, Pennsylvania; Mrs. M. B. Longley, Ohio; Mrs. Dr. J. P. Root, Kansas; Lilie Peckham, Wisconsin.