Part 1178

"The Witenagemot or assembly of the wise. This [in old English history] is the supreme council of the nation, whether the nation be Kent or Mercia as in the earlier, or the whole gens Anglorum et Saxonum, as in the later history. The character of the national council testifies to its history as a later development than the lower courts, and as a consequence of the institution of royalty. The folkmoot or popular assembly of the shire is a representative body to a certain extent: it is attended by the representatives of the hundreds and townships, and has a representative body of witnesses to give validity to the acts that are executed in it. … The council of the aggregated state is not a folkmoot but a witenagemot. … On great occasions … we must understand the witenagemot to have been attended by a concourse of people whose voices could be raised in applause or in resistance to the proposals of the chiefs. But that such gatherings shared in any way the constitutional powers of the witan, that they were organised in any way corresponding to the machinery of the folkmoot, that they had any representative character in the modern sense, as having full powers to act on behalf of constituents, that they shared the judicial work, or except by applause and hooting influenced in any way the decision of the chiefs, there is no evidence whatever. … The members of the assembly were the wise men, the sapientes, witan; the king, sometimes accompanied by his wife and sons; the bishops of the kingdom, the ealdormen of the shires or provinces, and a number of the king's friends and dependents. … The number of the witan was thus never very large."

_W. Stubbs, Constitutional History of England, chapter 6, sections 51-52 (volume 1)._

The constitution and powers of the witenagemot are very fully discussed by Mr. Kemble, who gives also a list of the recorded witenagemots, with comments on the business transacted in them.

_J. M. Kemble, The Saxons in England, book 2, chapter 6 (volume 2)._

ALSO IN: _R. Gneist, The English Parliament._

See, also, PARLIAMENT, THE ENGLISH: EARLY STAGES OF ITS EVOLUTION; and ENGLAND: A. D. 958.

WITIGIS, King of the Ostrogoths.

See ROME: A. D. 535-553.

WITT, John De, The administration and the murder of.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1647-1650; 1651-1660, to 1672-1674.

WITTELSBACH, The House of.

See BAVARIA: A. D. 1180-1356.

WITTENBERG, Luther at.

See PAPACY: A. D. 1017, and after.

WITTENBERG UNIVERSITY.

See EDUCATION, MEDIÆVAL: GERMANY.

WITTENWEIHER, Battle of (1638).

See GERMANY: A. D. 1634-1639.

WITTSTOCK, Battle of (1636).

See GERMANY: A. D. 1634-1639.

WITUMKAS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: MUSKHOGEAN FAMILY.

WIZA.

See THRACIANS.

WOCCONS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SIOUAN FAMILY.

WOIPPY, Battle of.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1870 (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER).

WOIWODES, VOIVODES, WAIWODES.

See POLAND: A. D. 1078-1652; and BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: A. D. 1341-1356 (SERVIA).

WOLFE, General, Victory and death of.

See CANADA: A. D. 1759.

WOLFENBÜTTEL, Duchy of.

See SAXONY: A. D. 1178-1183.

WOLSEY, The ministry and fall of.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1513-1529; and 1527-1534.

WOMAN ORDER, General Butler's.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (MAY-DECEMBER: LOUISIANA).

WOMAN'S RIGHTS: Start--------

WOMAN'S RIGHTS. WOMAN SUFFRAGE: A. D. 1790-1849. The pioneer advocates.

"In 1790, Mary Wollstonecraft's 'Vindication of the Rights of Women,' published in London, attracted much attention from liberal minds. She examined the position of woman in the light of existing civilizations, and demanded for her the widest opportunities of education, industry, political knowledge, and the right of representation. … Following her, came Jane Marcet, Eliza Lynn, and Harriet Martineau—each of whom in the early part of the 19th century exerted a decided influence upon the political thought of England. … Frances Wright, a person of extraordinary powers of mind, born in Dundee, Scotland, in 1797, was the first woman who gave lectures on political subjects in America. When sixteen years of age she heard of the existence of a country in which freedom for the people had been proclaimed; she was filled with joy and a determination to visit the American Republic where the foundations of justice, liberty, and equality had been so securely laid. In 1820 she came here, traveling extensively North and South. She was at that time but twenty-two years of age. … Upon her second visit she made this country her home for several years. Her radical ideas on theology, slavery, and the social degradation of woman, now generally accepted by the best minds of the age, were then denounced by both press and pulpit, and maintained by her at the risk of her life. … In 1832, Lydia Maria Child published her 'History of Woman,' which was the first American storehouse of information upon the whole question, and undoubtedly increased the agitation. In 1836, Ernestine L. Rose, a Polish lady—banished from her native country by the Austrian tyrant, Francis Joseph, for her love of liberty—came to America, lecturing in the large cities North and South upon the 'Science of Government.' She advocated the enfranchisement of woman. Her beauty, wit, and eloquence drew crowded houses. {3657} About this period Judge Hurlbut, of New York, a leading member of the Bar, wrote a vigorous work on 'Human Rights,' in which he advocated political equality for women. This work attracted the attention of many legal minds throughout that State. In the winter of 1836, a bill was introduced into the New York Legislature by Judge Hertell, to secure to married women their rights of property. This bill was drawn up under the direction of Honorable John Savage, Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court, and Honorable John C. Spencer, one of the revisers of the statutes of New York. It was in furtherance of this bill that Ernestine L. Rose and Paulina Wright at that early day circulated petitions. The very few names they secured show the hopeless apathy and ignorance of the women as to their own rights. As similar bills were pending in New York until finally passed in 1848, a great educational work was accomplished in the constant discussion of the topics involved. During the winters of 1844-5-6, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, living in Albany, made the acquaintance of Judge Hurlbut and a large circle of lawyers and legislators, and, while exerting herself to strengthen their convictions in favor of the pending bill, she resolved at no distant day to call a convention for a full and free discussion of woman's rights and wrongs. … In 1840, Margaret Fuller published an essay in the Dial, entitled 'The Great Lawsuit, or Man vs. Woman: Woman vs. Man.' In this essay she demanded perfect equality for woman, in education, industry, and politics. It attracted great attention and was afterward expanded into a work entitled 'Woman in the Nineteenth Century.' … In the State of New York, in 1845, Reverend Samuel J. May preached a sermon at Syracuse, upon 'The Rights and Conditions of Women,' in which he sustained their right to take part in political life, saying women need not expect 'to have their wrongs fully redressed, until they themselves have a voice and a hand in the enactment and administration of the laws.' … In 1849, Lucretia Mott published a discourse on woman, delivered in the Assembly Building, Philadelphia, in answer to a Lyceum lecture which Richard H. Dana, of Boston, was giving in many of the chief cities, ridiculing the idea of political equality for woman. … It was her early labors in the temperance cause that first roused Susan B. Anthony to a realizing sense of woman's social, civil, and political degradation, and thus secured her life-long labors for the enfranchisement of woman. In 1847 she made her first speech at a public meeting of the Daughters of Temperance in Canajoharie, New York. The same year Antoinette L. Brown, then a student at Oberlin College, Ohio, the first institution that made the experiment of co-education, delivered her first speech on temperance in several places in Ohio, and on Woman's Rights, in the Baptist church at Henrietta, New York. Lucy Stone, a graduate of Oberlin, made her first speech on Woman's Rights the same year in her brother's church at Brookfield, Massachusetts. Nor were the women of Europe inactive."

_E. C. Stanton, S. B. Anthony, and M. J. Gage, editors, History of Woman Suffrage, chapter 1._

WOMAN'S RIGHTS: A. D. 1804-1891. The higher Education of women in America.

See EDUCATION, MODERN: REFORMS &C.: A. D. 1804-1891.

WOMAN'S RIGHTS: A. D. 1839-1848. Legal emancipation of women in the United States.

See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1839-1848.

WOMAN'S RIGHTS: A. D. 1840-1890. The organized agitation.

"In 1840 a 'World's Antislavery Convention' was held in London, and all Antislavery organizations throughout the world were invited to join in it, through their delegates. Several American societies accepted the invitation, and elected delegates, six or eight of whom were women, Lucretia Mott and Mrs. Wendell Phillips among them. The excitement caused by their presence in London was intense, for the English Abolitionists were very conservative, and never dreamed of inviting women to sit in their Convention. And these women who had come among them had rent the American Anti-slavery Societies in twain, had been denounced from the pulpit, anathematized by the press, and mobbed by the riffraff of the streets. … A long and acrimonious debate followed on the admission of the women. … When the vote was taken, the women delegates were excluded by a large majority. William Lloyd Garrison did not arrive in London until after the rejection of the women. When he was informed of the decision of the Convention he refused to take his seat with the delegates. And throughout the ten days' sessions he maintained absolute silence, remaining in the gallery as a spectator. … The London Convention marked the beginning of a new era in the woman's cause. Hitherto, the agitation of the question of woman's equal rights had been incidental to the prosecution of other work. Now the time had come when a movement was needed to present the claims of woman in a direct and forcible manner, and to take issue with the legal and social order which denied her the rights of human beings, and held her in everlasting subjection. At the close of the exasperating and insulting debates of the 'World's Antislavery Convention,' Lucretia Mott and Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton agreed to hold a Woman's Rights Convention on their return to America, and to begin in earnest the education of the people on the question of woman's enfranchisement. Mrs. Stanton had attended the Convention as a bride, her husband having been chosen a delegate. Accordingly the first Woman's Rights Convention of the world was called at Seneca Falls, New York, on the 19th and 20th of July, 1848. It was attended by crowds of men and women, and the deepest interest was manifested in the proceedings. 'Demand the uttermost,' said Daniel O'Connell, 'and you will get something.' The leaders in the new movement, Lucretia Mott and Mrs. Stanton, with their husbands, and Frederick Douglass, acted on this advice. They demanded in unambiguous terms all that the most radical friends of women have ever claimed. … The Convention adjourned to meet in Rochester, New York, August 2, 1848. … A third Convention was held at Salem, Ohio, in 1850; a fourth in Akron, Ohio, in 1851; a fifth in Massillon, Ohio, in 1852; another at Ravenna, Ohio, in 1853, and others rapidly followed. The advocates of woman suffrage increased in number and ability. Superior women, whose names have become historic, espoused the cause—Frances D. Gage, Hannah Tracy Cutler, Jane G. Swisshelm, Caroline M. Severance, Celia C. Burr, who later be·came Mrs. C. C. Burleigh, Josephine S. Griffing, Antoinette L. Brown, Lucy Stone, Susan B. Anthony, Paulina W. Davis, Caroline H. Dall, Elizabeth Oakes Smith, Ernestine L. Rose, Mrs. C. H. Nichols, Dr. Harriot K. Hunt; the roll-call was a brilliant one, representing an unusual versatility of culture and ability. {3658} The First National Woman Suffrage Convention was held in Worcester, Massachusetts, October 23 and 24, 1850. It was more carefully planned than any that had yet been held. Nine States were represented. The arrangements were perfect—the addresses and papers were of the highest character—the audiences were at a white heat of enthusiasm. The number of cultivated people who espoused the new gospel for women was increased by the names of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Theodore Parker, Bronson and Abby May Alcott, Thomas W. Higginson, William I. Bowditch, Samuel E. and Harriet W. Sewall, Henry Ward Beecher, Henry B. Blackwell, Ednah D. Cheney, Honorable John Neal, Reverend William H. Channing, and Wendell Phillips. … A dozen years were spent in severe pioneer work and then came the four years Civil War. All reformatory work was temporarily suspended, for the nation then passed through a crucial experience, and the issue of the fratricidal conflict was national life or national death. The transition of the country from peace to the tumult and waste of war was appalling and swift, but the regeneration of its women kept pace with it. … The development of those years, and the impetus they gave to women, which has not yet spent itself, has been wonderfully manifested since that time. … It has been since the war, and as the result of the great quickening of women which it occasioned, that women have organized missionary, philanthropic, temperance, educational, and political organizations, on a scale of great magnitude. … In 1869, two great National organizations were formed. One styled itself 'The National Woman Suffrage Association,' and the other was christened 'The American Woman Suffrage Association.' The first established its headquarters in New York, and published a weekly paper, 'The Revolution,' which was ably edited by Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony. 'The American' made its home in Boston, and founded 'The Woman's Journal,' which was edited by Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, Mrs. Lucy Stone, William Lloyd Garrison and Thomas W. Higginson. … After twenty years of separate activities, a union of the two national organizations was effected in 1890, under the composite title of 'The National American Woman Suffrage Association.'"

_M. A. Livermore, Woman in the State (Woman's Work in America, chapter 10)._

WOMAN'S RIGHTS: A. D. 1842-1892. Women in the Medical profession.

"The first advocate for women medical students, Miss Elizabeth Blackwell, after many years of struggle obtained entrance into the medical faculty of Geneva in 1842; in 1847 she received her doctor's degree, and went to England, Germany, and finally to Paris, to complete her studies. Her example fired others. In that same year a medical college for women was founded in Boston, in 1850 a similar one in Philadelphia, one in New York in 1868, and in Chicago in 1870. Soon after, the greater number of universities in America were thrown open to women, and by this their studies were largely extended. The difficulties proved far greater in Europe. The universities of Zurich in 1864, and of Berne in 1872, were the first to receive lady students for the study of medicine. In 1868 the Medical Faculty of Paris, chiefly through the intervention of the Empress Eugenie, first admitted lady students to follow the medical course. In Italy, in 1876, they obtained equal success; in Russia, an ukase of the Czar Alexander II., of November 2nd, 1872, conferred upon ladies the right to attend the medical courses in the Medico-Chirurgical Academy of St. Petersburg, but this permission was subsequently withdrawn on political grounds, on the accession of a new government. In 1874 the first school of medicine for women was started in London; in 1876 they were admitted to the study of medicine in Dublin. In Germany and Austro-Hungary women are not allowed to enter the universities, although ladies' associations have obtained thousands of signatures to petition both parliaments on the subject. From statistical sources, we learn that there are seventy lady doctors in practice in London, five in Edinburgh, and two in Dublin. Seven hundred lady doctors practise in Russia, of whom fifty-four are the heads of clinical schools and laboratories. In Italy, at the same time, there were only six. Spain has but two qualified lady doctors. Roumania, also, has two. Sweden, Norway, and Belgium have likewise comparatively few. In Berlin there are Dr. Franziska Tiburtius and Dr. Lehmus (who founded a poly-clinical school which is increasing year by year), Dr. Margaret Mengarin-Traube and Fraulein Kuhnow. In Austria, Dr. Rosa Kerschbaumer is the sole possessor of Government authority to practise her profession. In India, where native religion forbids their women calling in men doctors, there has been a strong movement in favour of ladies, and they have now one hundred lady doctors, three of whom are at the head of the three most important hospitals. The largest number of women practising medicine is in America."

_A. Crepaz, The Emancipation of Women, pages 99-103._

"The medical faculty of the University of Paris opened its doors to women in 1868, but at first only a very few availed themselves of the privileges thus offered. In 1878 the number in attendance was 32; during the next ten years (1878-1888) it increased to 114, and is at present 183, of whom the great majority (167) are Russians. The remainder are Poles, Rumanians, Servians, Greeks, and Scotch, and only one German."

_The Nation, February 14, 1895._

WOMAN'S RIGHTS: A. D. 1865-1883. The higher Education of Women in England.

See EDUCATION, MODERN: REFORMS &c.: A. D. 1865-1883.

WOMAN'S RIGHTS: A. D. 1869-1894. Progress in Europe and America.