History of Woman Suffrage Volume I Part 42

_Resolved_, That we urgently solicit those having care of pet.i.tions, to make use of every opportunity to obtain men's and women's names in different columns, or on separate pet.i.tions, and thus aid the Chester County Temperance Society in procuring the names of those favorable to obtaining a prohibitory law.

_Resolved_, That Hannah c.o.x, Sidney Peirce, Ann Preston, Mary c.o.x, Mary Ann Fulton, Dinah Mendenhall, Mary K. Darlington, Mary S. Agnew, and Hannah M. Darlington, be a committee to call meetings of the people in different neighborhoods, at which to read the addresses to men and women, obtain signatures to pet.i.tions, etc.

_Resolved_, That we offer the proceedings of this meeting for publication in the County papers and _Temperance Standard_.

_Resolved_, That we adjourn to meet in Kennett Square, on Sat.u.r.day, the 3d of February, 1849.

MARTHA HAYHURST, _President_.

SIDNEY PEIRCE } } _Secretaries_.

HANNAH PENNOCK }

At their next Convention in Kennett Square, another stirring appeal was issued, and the following resolutions adopted:

WHEREAS, The peace of our homes, the security of our property, and our inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, are all jeoparded by intemperance; and whereas, this monstrous vice, with all its attendant train of evils, will continue to spread its ravages over our fair country so long as the traffic in intoxicating drinks is supported and sanctioned by law; and,

WHEREAS, The people have the same right to be protected from the desolations of this vice, that they have to be protected from the depredations of the incendiary, the robber, and the murderer, whose deeds are but too often instigated by it; therefore,

_Resolved_, That we demand of the Representatives of the people, at the next session, a law for the total prohibition of the traffic in intoxicating drinks as a beverage, within the limits of Chester County.

_Resolved_, That we see neither reason nor consistency in the conduct of our law-makers in restraining the thief, the burglar, the counterfeiter, and the robber, while they let loose upon society the legalized rum-seller.

"Will they the felon fox restrain, And yet take oft the tiger's chain?"

_Resolved_, That we hail with joy the appearance of a recent pastoral letter issued by the Synod of the Free Church of Cincinnati, containing sentiments in regard to the advancement of this reform, which meet our hearty approval, and which, if adopted by all religious bodies, would insure the speedy triumph of temperance, with all the blessings that follow in its train.

_Resolved_, That we adjourn to meet at Old Kennett, on Sat.u.r.day, the 8th of December, 1849.

HANNAH M. DARLINGTON, _President_.

ALICE LEWIS } }_Secretaries_.

MARY S. AGNEW, }

NORTH AMERICAN AND UNITED STATE GAZETTE, FEB. 6, 1852.

The ladies of the City and County of Philadelphia, and all other persons who feel impressed with the importance of PEt.i.tIONING THE LEGISLATURE TO ENACT A LAW PROHIBITING THE USE OF ALL INTOXICATING DRINKS as a beverage, are earnestly requested to attend a meeting to be held at the CHINESE MUSEUM, corner of NINTH and GEORGE STREETS, on SAt.u.r.dAY EVENING, Feb. 7th, at 7-1/2 o'clock.

The meeting will be addressed by the REV. ALBERT BARNES, REV.

JOHN CHAMBERS, JUDGE KELLEY, DR. JAS. BRYAN, and WM. J. MULLEN.

JUDGE ALLISON will preside. The LADIES' TEMPERANCE UNION is particularly invited to attend. Admittance five cents, to defray expenses.

Two weeks after this, Feb. 21st, a Woman's Temperance Ma.s.s Meeting was held in Philadelphia; an immense a.s.semblage of both s.e.xes.

_The Pennsylvania Freeman_ of March 4, 1852, says: "A large number of pet.i.tions from various parts of the State, most of them numerously signed, asking for the pa.s.sage of the Maine Anti-Liquor Law, have been presented in both Houses. On Tuesday, in the Senate, one was presented from this city signed by 15,580 ladies; and another in the House, signed by 14,241 ladies. What the Legislature will do we shall not venture to predict."

It is interesting to note the same successive steps in every State, and how naturally, in laboring for anti-slavery and temperance, women have at last in each case demanded freedom for themselves. In the anti-slavery school, 'mid violence and persecution they learned the a, b, c of individual rights; in the temperance struggle they learned that the ultimate power in moral movements is found in wise legislation, and in graduating on the woman suffrage platform, they have learned that prayers and tears are worth little until coined into law, and that to command the attention of legislators, pet.i.tioners must represent votes.

A moral power that has no direct influence on the legislation of a nation, is an abstraction, and might as well be expended in the clouds as outside of codes and const.i.tutions, and this has too long been the realm where women have spent their energies fighting shadows. The power that makes laws, and baptizes them as divine at every church altar, is the power for woman to demand now and forever.

WESTCHESTER CONVENTION. _June 2, 1852_.

The first Woman's Rights Convention held in Pennsylvania was called in the leafy month of June, in the quiet Quaker town of West Chester, in one of the loveliest regions of that State. Chester County had long been noted for its reform movements and flouris.h.i.+ng schools, in which the women generally took a deep interest.

It was among these beautiful hills that Bayard Taylor lived and wrote his "Hannah Thurston," a most contemptible burlesque of his own neighbors and the reforms they advocated.

Kennett Square and Longwood have for years been noted for their liberal religious meetings, in which the leading reformers of the nation have in turn been annually represented. In those gatherings of the Progressive Friends, all the questions of the hour were freely discussed, and their printed testimonies sent forth to enlighten the people.

The Convention a.s.sembled at ten o'clock in Horticultural Hall, and was called to order by Lucretia Mott, and the following officers chosen:

PRESIDENT.--Mariana Johnson.

SERVICE-PRESIDENTS.--Mary Ann Fulton, William Jackson, Chandler Darlington.

SECRETARIES.--Sarah L. Miller, Hannah Darlington, Sidney Peirce, Edward Webb.

BUSINESS COMMITTEE.--James Mott, Ann Preston, Lucretia Mott, Frances D. Gage, Sarah D. Barnard, Dr. Harriot K. Hunt, Joseph A.

Dugdale, Margaret Jones, Ernestine L. Rose, Alice Jackson, Jacob Painter, Phebe Goodwin.

FINANCE COMMITTEE, appointed by the Chair.--Hannah Darlington, Jacob Painter, Isaac Mendenhall, Elizabeth Miller.

Mrs. Mott read the following call:

The friends of Justice and Equal Rights are earnestly invited to a.s.semble in Convention, to consider and discuss the present position of Woman in Society, her Natural Eights and Relative Duties.

The reasons for such a Convention are obvious. With few exceptions, both the radical and conservative portions of the community agree that woman, even in this progressive age and country, suffers under legal, educational, and vocational disabilities which ought to be removed. To examine the nature of these disabilities, to inquire into their extent, and to consider the most feasible and proper mode of removing them, will be the aim of the Convention which it is proposed to hold.

If it shall promote in any degree freedom of thought and action among women; if it shall a.s.sist in opening to them any avenues to honorable and lucrative employment (now unjustly and unwisely closed); if it shall aid in securing to them more thorough intellectual and moral culture; if it shall excite higher aspirations; if it shall advance by a few steps just and wise public sentiment, it will not have been held in vain.

The elevation of woman is the elevation of the human race. Her interests can not be promoted or injured without advantage or injury to the whole race. The call for such a Convention is therefore addressed to those who desire the physical, intellectual, and moral improvement of mankind. All persons interested in its objects are respectfully requested to be present at its sessions and partic.i.p.ate in its deliberations.

THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS

The position in which woman has been placed is an anomaly. On the one hand she is constantly reminded of duties and responsibilities from which an angel might shrink. The world is to be saved by her prayers, her quiet and gentle efforts. Man, she is told, is ruled by her smiles; his whole nature subdued by the potency of her tears. Priests, politicians, and poets a.s.sure her with flattering tongue, that on her depend the progress and destiny of the race. On the other hand, she is told that she must lovingly confide in the strength and skill of man, who has been endowed with superior intellectual powers; that she must count it her highest honor to reflect upon the world the light of his intelligence and wisdom, as the moon reflects the light of the sun!

We may congratulate one another on this occasion in view of the cheering indications so manifest on every hand that the ignorance and darkness which have so long brooded over the prospects of woman, are beginning to give place to the light of truth. In the summer of 1848, in the village of Seneca Falls, a small number of women, disregarding alike the sneers of the ignorant and the frowns of the learned, a.s.sembled in Convention and boldly claimed for themselves, and for their s.e.x, the rights conferred by G.o.d and so long withheld by man. Their courageous words were the expression of sentiments which others had felt as deeply as themselves, but which the restraints imposed by long-established custom had taught them to suppress. But now the hour had come, and the world stood prepared for the reception of a new thought, which is destined to work a revolution in human society, more beneficent than any that has preceded it. The seeds of truth which that Convention planted in faith and hope were not left to perish. In many thoughtful minds they germinated apace and brought forth fruit. That fruit was seen in the large Convention held in Ohio in the spring of 1850, in that held in Ma.s.sachusetts in the autumn of the same year, and in those which have followed since in New England and the West.

Woman at length is awaking from the slumber of ages. Many of the s.e.x already perceive that knowledge, sound judgment, and perfect freedom of thought and action are quite as important for the mothers as for the fathers of the race. They weary of the senseless talk of "woman's sphere," when that sphere is so circ.u.mscribed that they may not exert their full influence and power to save their country from war, intemperance, slavery, licentiousness, ignorance, poverty, and crime, which man, in the mad pursuit of his ambitious schemes, unchecked by their presence and counsel, permits to desolate and destroy all that is fair and beautiful in life and fill the world with weeping, lamentation, and woe. Woman begins to grow weary of her helpless and dependent position, and of being treated as if she were formed only to cultivate her affections, that they may flow in strong and deep currents merely to gratify the self-love of man.

She does not listen with delight, as she once did, when she hears her relations to her equal brother represented by the poetical figure of the trellis and creeping tendril, or of the oak and the gracefully clinging vine. No, she feels that she is, like him, an accountable being--that the Infinite Father has laid responsibilities upon her which may not be innocently transferred to another, but which, in her present ignorance, she is not prepared to meet. She is becoming rapidly imbued with the spirit of progress, and will not longer submit, without remonstrance, to the bondage of ancient dogmas and customs. In the retirement and seclusion of life, the stirring impulse of the times has reached even the heart of woman, and she feels the necessity of a more thorough culture and a wider field of usefulness. She sees the glaring injustice by which she has long been deprived of all fair opportunity to earn an independent livelihood, and thus, in too many instances, constrained to enter the marriage relation, as a choice of evils, to secure herself against the ills of impending poverty. The wrong she so deeply feels she is at length arousing herself to redress.

What, then, is the substance of our demand? I answer, we demand for woman equal freedom with her brother to raise her voice and exert her influence directly for the removal of all the evils that afflict the race; and that she be permitted to do this in the manner dictated by her own sense of propriety and justice. We ask for her educational advantages equal to those enjoyed by the other s.e.x; that the richly endowed inst.i.tutions which she has been taxed to establish and support, may be open alike to all her children. We claim for her the right to follow any honorable calling or profession for which she may be fitted by her intellectual training and capacity. We claim for her a fair opportunity to attain a position of pecuniary independence, and to this end that she receive for her labor a compensation equivalent to its recognized value when performed by the other s.e.x.

These demands, we think, must be admitted to be essentially wise and just. We make them in no spirit of selfish antagonism to the other s.e.x, but under a deep conviction that they are prompted by an enlightened regard for the highest welfare of the race. Some one has justly said that G.o.d has so linked the human family together that any violence done at one end of the chain is felt throughout its length. The true interests of the s.e.xes are not antagonistic, but harmonious. There can be no just conflict between their respective rights and duties. For the coming of the day when this great truth shall be universally received, we must work and pray as we have opportunity. When that day shall arrive, it will be clearly perceived that in the true Harmonic Order "woman and her brother are pillars in the same temple and priests of the same wors.h.i.+p."

The Secretary, SIDNEY PEIRCE, read the following letter from