History of Woman Suffrage Volume II Part 132

Last November deprived us of Lady Theresa Lewes and Mrs. Gaskell. Mrs.

Gaskell has perhaps done more than any woman of this century, not confessedly devoted to our cause, to elevate the condition of her s.e.x, and disseminate liberal ideas as to their needs and culture. The first part of her career was one of those brilliant successes which startle us into surprise and admiration. It was checked midway by the publication of her life of Charlotte Bronte, the best and n.o.blest of her works. Checked, because condemned, in that instance, without a hearing. She could never afterward feel the elastic pleasure, which was natural to her, in composing and printing, and for three long years afterward never touched her pen. I would not allude to this subject if every notice of her since her death had not done so, repeating the old censure, as a matter of course. Here in America we may exculpate her. The public was wrong in the first place, inasmuch as it has come to demand biography before biography is possible. The publisher was wrong in the second, for he ought to have known, and could easily have ascertained, how plain a statement the English law would permit. The public was still further wrong when it attributed misapprehension and carelessness to a woman whom it very well knew to be incapable of either. I, for one, shall never forgive nor forget the officious censure of the _Westminster Review_--censure given by one who must have known that the legal apology tendered in Mrs. Gaskell's absence to protect her pecuniary interests, had the unfortunate effect to put her in a position where explanation and self-defence were alike impossible. Mrs. Gaskell had deserved the steady confidence of the public.

In Paris, recently, died Mrs. Severn Newton. She was the daughter of the artist Severn, the friend of Keats, and now British Consul at Rome. About five years since she married Charles Newton, Superintendent of Greek Antiquities at the British Museum. She was a person in whom power and delicacy were singularly blended. Ary Schaeffer was accustomed to hold up her work as a model for his pupils.

Her renderings of cla.s.sic sculpture were so true that they were termed translations, and she had recently devoted herself to oil painting with great success. She died of brain fever at the early age of thirty-three, the most honored of female English artists.

I have kept till the last the name of Fredrika Bremer, whose good fortune it was to secure lasting benefits to her s.e.x. G.o.d sent to her early years dark trials and privations. Her father's tyrannical hand crushed all power and loveliness out of her life. At first she rebelled against her sufferings, but when he died in her girlhood she was able to see that they lent strength to her efforts for her s.e.x. It was the rumor of what we were doing in this country for women that first drew her hither. It is not the fas.h.i.+on for Miss Bremer's friends fully to recognize her position in this respect. I owe my own convictions on the subject of suffrage to the reflections she awakened. When I told her that my mind was undecided on this point, she showed her disappointment so plainly, that I was forced to reconsider the whole subject. Miss Bremer did not hurry her work. She had a serene confidence that she should be permitted to finish what she had begun. She secured popularity by her cheerful humor, her genuine feeling, her true appreciation of men, and her insight into the conditions of family happiness, before she made any direct appeal against existing laws. Those who will read her novels thoughtfully, however, will see that she was from the first intent upon making such an effort possible. From the beginning she pleaded for the social independence of wives; asked for them a separate purse; showed that woman could not even give her love freely, until she was independent of him to whom she owed it. To a just state of society, to n.o.ble family relations, entire freedom is essential.

Under her influence females had been admitted to the Musical Academy.

The Directors of the Industrial School at Stockholm had attempted to form a cla.s.s, and Professor Quarnstromm had opened his cla.s.ses at the Academy of Fine Arts to women. Cheered by her sympathy, a female surgeon had sustained herself in Stockholm, and Bishop Argardh indorsed the darkest picture she had ever drawn, when he pleaded with the state to establish a girls' school. It was at this juncture that Miss Bremer published Hertha. This book was a direct blow aimed at the laws of Sweden concerning women. By this time she had herself become in Sweden what we might fitly call a "crowned head." She was everywhere treated with distinction, and her sudden appearance in any place was greeted with the enthusiasm usually shown by such nations only to their princes. She said of her new book: "I have poured into it more of my heart and life than into anything which I have ever written," and, verily, she had her reward. She was at Rome, two years after, in 1858, when the glad news reached her that King Oscar, at the opening of the Diet, had proposed a bill ent.i.tling women to hold independent property at the age of twenty-five. All Sweden had read the book which moved the heart of the King, and the a.s.sembled representatives rent the air with their acclamations.

In the following spring the old University town of Upsala, where her friend Bergfalk occupies a chair, granted the _right of suffrage_ to fifty women owning real estate, and to thirty-one doing business on their own account. The representative their votes went to elect was to sit in the House of Burgesses. Miss Bremer was not ashamed to shed happy tears when this news reached her. If she had ever reproached Providence with the bitter sorrow of her early years, she was penitent and grateful now. Then was fulfilled the prophecy which she had uttered, as she left our sh.o.r.es: "The nation which was first among Scandinavians to liberate its slaves shall also be the first to emanc.i.p.ate its women!"

BOSTON, _April 26, 1866_. CAROLINE H. DALL.

P. S.--To add one word to this deeply interesting and able report may seem presumptuous, but it is fitting that something be said of those women in our own country in whom we feel a proper pride. In literature, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Lydia Maria Child are unsurpa.s.sed by any writers of our day. The former is remarkable for her descriptive powers, intuition of character, and rare common sense; the latter for patient research, sound reason, and high moral tone. No country has produced a woman of such oratorical powers as our peerless Anna d.i.c.kinson. Young, beautiful, and always on the right side of every question, her influence on the politics of this country for the last four years has been as powerful as beneficent. She has more invitations to speak before the first-cla.s.s lyceums of the country, at two hundred dollars an evening, than she can accept, and draws crowded houses wherever she goes.

PHYSICAL CULTURE.

A friend who had visited Va.s.sar College, after mentioning the fact of its two women professors--Miss Mitch.e.l.l and Miss Avery--informed us that Elizabeth M. Powell is teacher of gymnastics there, and wonders whether success may not win for Miss Powell a place in the Faculty.

There are literary societies in which the girls write and read essays, and give recitations, and have discussions, and President Raymond drills them in elocution or public entertainments. And yet, our friend says, "I dare say that it would be p.r.o.nounced a very improper thing for women to speak in public, if the Faculty were to vote on the question." The influences of Va.s.sar are altogether conservative.

Miss Mitch.e.l.l is a woman of great force of character, the very soul of integrity, and entirely independent in her religious views. She thinks the theory of Woman's Rights all right, but her tastes are all against it. She dreads to be in the least conspicuous.

Miss Avery is a woman of great dignity and strength, and her presence and lectures can not fail to stimulate the girls to a n.o.ble womanhood.

She tells them work is the necessity of the soul.

Miss Powell, a remarkably earnest young woman of rare moral and intellectual worth, has a grand field, and opens her work with good promise. Her first aim is to do away with tight-dressing. She believes that when women have deeper breathing they will have higher aspirations. That when women will apply conscience to their dress, they will be prepared for more important truths.

In the great attention given to gymnasiums everywhere, we see the dawn of a new day of physical and mental power in woman. Mrs. Plumb's inst.i.tution in this city, where hundreds of girls are trained every year, is a complete success.

EQUAL EDUCATION.

ST. LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY, CANTON, N. Y., _May 4, 1866_.

MISS ANTHONY:--Your letter came into my hands after some delay. I hasten to reply to your inquiries. Our college is young yet. The first cla.s.s of two graduated last year. Two young ladies are to graduate at the close of this term.

We receive ladies and gentlemen on the same terms and conditions; take them together into the recitation-room, where they recite side by side; require them to pursue the same course of study; and, when satisfactorily completed, give them degrees of the same rank and honor--Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts to gentlemen, Laureate of Science and Laureate of Arts to ladies. Both s.e.xes are required to pursue the same course of study, with the exception of civil engineering and political economy, which are merely optional studies with the ladies.

We have two departments--Academical and Collegiate. The s.e.xes are about equal in number in each department. We have only about twenty in the Collegiate Department. Half of these are ladies, among whom are some of our best in Mathematics, Languages, and Natural Sciences.

We have also a Theological Department, to which ladies have access. We have received applications from only two yet. One, Miss Olympia Brown, is pastor of a Society in Weymouth, Ma.s.s., and is succeeding very well. She is a graduate of Antioch College as well of our Theological department. The other is now here.

Lombard University, Galesburgh, Ill., receives ladies, and takes them through the same course as gentlemen, and gives them equal degrees. I deeply sympathize with you in your efforts to raise the character and improve the condition of woman, though, perhaps, I should not be quite so radical as some in your Convention. Your cause is a good one, and I pray Heaven that it do good.

J. S. LEE, _Princ.i.p.al of the Collegiate Department St. Lawrence University_.

Genesee College at Lima, New York--a Methodist inst.i.tution--opens its doors equally to women, and has graduated several young ladies. Then we must never forget to mention and bless Oberlin for its pioneer work in the equal education of women. It was Oberlin that gave us Lucy Stone, Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Sallie Holley, and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, to speak early and brave words for woman and the slave. And Antioch College that graduated the Rev. Olympia Brown.

Mention too should be made of Rev. Lydia A. Jenkins, who has been a successful preacher among the Universalists for the last eight or ten years, and is now settled at Binghamton, New York.

Of the MEDICAL PROFESSION it should be stated for the encouragement of the young, that there are over three hundred graduates from the several medical colleges for women, and that there is scarcely a village throughout the country but has its woman physician of greater or less skill. In New York city there are many successful physicians besides the Drs. Blackwell. Dr. Clemence S. Lozier has a practice of $15,000 a year, and owns two fine houses, all the proceeds of her own perseverance. In Orange, New Jersey, Dr. Almira L. Fowler is very popular, with a paying practice of $5,000 per year, besides a large gratuitous service. In Philadelphia are Dr. Hannah E. Longsh.o.r.e, with a $10,000 per annum practice, then there are Drs. Ann Preston, R.

Tressel, H. J. Sartain, E. Cleveland, J. Myres, and others, with practices ranging from $5,000 to $2,000. In Utica, New York, Dr.

Pamelia Bronson is a successful physician. In Albion, is Dr. Vail. In Weedsport, Dr. Harriet E. Seeley. In Rochester, Dr. Sarah R. A. Dolley numbers among her patrons many persons of wealth and fas.h.i.+on, who but a few years ago ridiculed the idea of a "lady doctor." Mrs. Dolley's practice brings her fully $3,000 a year. In a letter to one of our Committee Mrs. Dolley says, "May your labors be prospered, that the women of our country may have a _sphere_ rather than a _hemi_sphere!

Dr. R. B. Gla.s.son, of Elmira, Dr. S. Ivison, of Ithaca, New York, and Dr. Green, late of Clifton Springs, who has opened a water-cure somewhere in Western New York, all do a large amount of practice, and with the greatest acceptance to those who favor Hydropathic treatment.

Dr. Ross, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has a large practice, and commands the respect of the profession. And, as Mrs. Dall says of the many n.o.ble women who served efficiently in our armies during the war without even sounding the name of the wonderful Clara Barton, so we have to say of our woman physicians, "their name is legion."

The following is an item from the Boston _Commonwealth_:

FURTHER PROGRESS IN WOMAN'S RIGHTS.--Miss Stebbins, of Chickasaw County, Iowa, has received an appointment as Notary Public for that county. She is the first female ever having received such a commission, and is represented as eminently competent.

This from the National Anti-Slavery _Standard_:

WOMAN'S RIGHTS IN HUNGARY.--A curious pet.i.tion has been presented to the Hungarian Diet. It is signed by a number of widows and other women who are landed proprietors, and asks for them the same equality of political rights with the male inhabitants of the country as they possessed in 1848. These ladies represent that they have much more difficulty in bringing up their children and attending to their estates than men; that they have to bear the same State burdens; that they are not allowed to take part in the communal elections; and that, although many of them possess much more ground than the male electors, they have no political rights.

There is one point in the report open to objection. It is not fair to say that Mrs. Farnham's life "was a bitter disappointment to herself."

Who does realize in life all that in starting was looked for? Who has nothing to regret? With a heart so generous and sympathizing as hers--a mind so disciplined and stored with general information--a life so rich in practical usefulness, she was not only a blessing to others, but she must have had a more than an ordinary share of that peace and happiness that gladdens every Christian life. I have just read her last great work. I took it up with prejudice, not believing her theory of the superiority of woman. I lay it down with a higher idea of woman's destiny, and a profound reverence for the author of the glorious thoughts that thrill my heart. I never met Mrs. Farnham on earth, but I know and honor and love her now, and from the celestial sh.o.r.es feel the pulsations of a true and n.o.ble soul.

E. C. S.

LETTERS.

WAYLAND, _April 28_.

DEAR MRS. STANTON:-- ... What I most wish for women is that they should go right ahead, and do whatever they can do well, without talking about it. But the false position in which they are placed by the laws and customs of society, renders it almost impossible that they should be sufficiently independent to do whatever they can do well, unless the world approves of it. They need a great deal of talking to, to make them aware that they are in fetters. Therefore I say, success to your Convention, and to all similar ones!...

I am very cordially yours, LYDIA MARIA CHILD.

NEW CASTLE, DEL., _April 21, 1866_.

DEAR MRS. STANTON:-- ... I am with you in heart and sympathy, rejecting with contempt the antiquated idea that woman is only fit for a plaything or a household drudge. Nor can I see how it is less dignified to go to a public building to deposit a vote than to frequent the concert-room, whirl through the waltz in happy repose on some roue's bosom, or mingle in any public crowd which is, in modern times, quite admissible in polite society. Dethrone the idol and raise the soul to its true and n.o.ble elevation, supported on a foundation of undying principle, and woman becomes a thing of life and beauty--then only fit to raise sons to be rulers. Justice requires your success, and I hope the age will prove itself sufficiently enlightened to mete out to you the reward of your years of toil.

Yours sincerely, JANE VOORHEES LESLIE.

MONDAY, _April 22_.

DEAR MISS ANTHONY:--What I enclose is not much for the work you have to do, but it is all I can proportion out for it just now. You are quite right in relying on my regard for you, although I can not see the subject as you do, and I was pleased to get your note saying so. I am sure you take great interest in following Mr. Gladstone's bill for the extension of suffrage in England. His speech upon it is in great contrast to the shallow nonsense talked by many Americans against our democratic form of government.

Very sincerely yours, JESSIE BENTON FREMONT.

13 CHESTNUT ST., BOSTON, _April 19, 1866_.