Part 19
Because these changes must introduce a fruitful element of discord in the existing marriage relation, which would tend to the infinite detriment of children, and increase the already alarming prevalence of divorce throughout the land.
Because no general law, affecting the conditions of all women, should be framed to meet exceptional discontent.
For these, and many more reasons, we do beg of your wisdom that no law extending suffrage to women may be passed, as the passage of such a law would be fraught with danger grave to the general order of the country.
Should the person receiving this approve of the object in view, his or her aid is respectfully requested to obtain signatures to the annexed petition, which may, after having been signed, be returned to either of the following named persons:
Mrs. Gen. W. T. Sherman, Mrs. John A. Dahlgren, Mrs. Jacob D. Cox, Mrs. Joseph Henry, Mrs. Rev. Dr. Butler, Mrs. Rev. Dr. Rankin, Mrs. Rev. Dr. Boynton, Mrs. Rev. Dr. Samson, Mrs B. B. French, Miss Jennie Carroll, Mrs. C. V. Morris, Mrs. Hugh McCulloch, all of Washington, D. C.; Mrs. Senator Sherman, Mansfield, Ohio; Mrs. Senator Scott, Huntingdon, Pa.; Mrs. Senator Corbet, Portland, Ore; Mrs. Senator Edmunds, Burlington, Vt.; Mrs. Luke P. Poland, St. Johnsbury, Vt.; Mrs. Samuel J. Randall, Philadelphia, Pa.; Mrs. Catharine E. Beecher, 69 West Thirty-eighth street, New York City.
Please attach to this a paper for signatures.
Amongst this proud array of titled names it will be noticed that it is not headed by our “first lady,” and that none of the wives of the present Cabinet are enrolled amongst the same. When one of the leaders of this movement laid this petition before a Cabinet dame, asking her signature, this gracious lady answered, “I have all the rights I want; I find more than I can do in my own sphere of duties, but this subject is too deep, and too broad to be acted upon, except after the most serious reflection. Although I coincide with Catherine Beecher’s views, I think if we come out with our petitions we are doing that which we so much condemn in the strong-minded. Besides, I dare not accept the responsibility of speaking for the poor and lowly of my own sex. Let them talk if they want to; this is a free country, and they have a right to be heard.”
During one of the sessions of the convention, Mrs. Hooker alluded to this petition, and said she was glad that women were beginning to think. That anything was better than this apathy and indifference, for just as soon as women began to think about the subject all doubts concerning the success of the movement would be brushed away. She was glad that Miss Murdoch had been heard upon the same subject. These same strong-minded women had opened the platform to their sex, and they were willing that women should now come forward to help extinguish that power.
The morning of the last day’s session opened with every star of the movement, both great and small, twinkling upon the stage, if we except one pale sister. This was the mischief, Tennie Claflin, of the Wall-street firm. Susan B. Anthony, who means to be close-mouthed, had opened her lips, and out came some useful information. She said that Mrs. Woodhull had been up whispering in the President’s ear, but just exactly what did take place at the White House would only be known to those who were present. Mrs. Victoria Woodhull sat sphinx-like during the talk of Miss Anthony. General Grant himself might learn a lesson of silence from the pale, sad face of the unflinching woman. Other women have talked during this convention, but Mrs. Woodhull has read what she had to say from printed slips of paper. No chance to send an arrow through the opening seams of her mail. Apparently she has had little to do in this campaign, and yet everything has revolved around her. She reminds one of the force in nature behind the storm, and if her veins were opened they would be found to contain ice. When money was needed to carry on this movement, she headed the list with ten thousand dollars. She did this without the least emotion perceptible on her face unless it seemed to say, “I have planted, but I can wait.”
But where was Tennie Claflin? The roguish, peaked hat and dainty coat-tails were besieging the doors of Congress. Whilst women were wasting breath in the convention, she was anywhere and everywhere to be found, where a worker ought to “turn up.” Oh, the irresistible Tennie! Congress has never been so tried since Vinnie Ream succeeded in getting a stone contract, and if Tennie would be modest, and ask only for ten thousand dollars’ worth of folly, she would win like her predecessor. If Tennie is bold, this quality in her is so original in its kind that it disarms criticism in the opposite sex, and Mrs. Woodhull must have chosen her for a partner for the same reason that she whispered in the President’s ear.
Senator Warner, of Alabama, presided at this session; but, as it is feared that, sooner or later, he will become a woman, a description of his person may not be out of place. Originally he must have been as plump as a Baldwin apple; but the exigencies of the war and Senatorial duties must have had a trying effect upon him. Already signs are visible of his shrinking in size, yet abundance of material is left for all family purposes. A pleasant sound issues from the side of his head, which Susan B. Anthony takes advantage of, at the same time saying, “If men are not good for something in the ‘cause,’ pray what are they good for?”
Mrs. Halitz, a professor from one of the universities of Michigan, addressed the audience, and spoke in a very effective manner. Occasionally we heard the true click of the metal of oratory. She is a small woman, but filled to the brim with the pluck of determination. She burdened the air with javelins of wit as well as anathema, and she sat down amidst a round of applause.
Miss Anthony then arose and eulogized Mrs. Hooker because she belonged to the Beecher family; and the State of Michigan on account of its universities. It had sent out more strong-minded women than any other State. She then proposed a good old-fashioned love-feast to diversify the meeting.
An ominous silence prevailed for a little time; then Madame Ellis, clairvoyant and fortune-teller, proceeded to make herself heard in a loud voice. She commenced by declaring herself a convert to the doctrine, made so the previous night, but instead of reading the future fortune of the movement as laid in the horoscope of the stars, she kept on talking as if she was only a common mortal. But she finally reached the bottom of her mind and sat down, and Susan B. Anthony clapped her hands.
Mrs. Hooker then came forward and wanted Miss Susan to tell her experience in Richmond. Miss Susan hesitated, for there was other work to be done, but she finally began by saying that she saw twenty black men in their seats on the floor of the legislature. She went there to invite all the members to attend a meeting in the evening, where she was expected to speak. Some one of the legislature moved that she might be invited to occupy the Speaker’s platform, but this could not be accomplished unless the rules were suspended in order to take a vote. A vote to suspend the rules was taken and lost--38 to 29; but amongst those who voted in her favor was every black man upon the floor. One of the white men upon the floor said if it had been Fred Douglass, instead of a white woman, he would have got the place.
Mrs. Hooker read an extremely interesting letter from Mrs. Justice Morris, late justice of Wyoming Territory. According to this letter, office-holding by a woman was a perfect success. Only one appeal was taken from her decision, and that was decided in her favor. Mrs. Morris’s family consisted of a husband and three sons, and all these were more willing to help her in official rather than in her domestic affairs. Mrs. Justice Morris was sixty years of age when she took upon herself the cares of official life.
OLIVIA.
UPHOLDING THE BANNER.
THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION AND ITS LEADING PARTICIPANTS.
WASHINGTON, _January 14, 1871_.
The last evening’s session of the woman suffrage convention opened with Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts, on the stage. Although this Senator has greatest faith in Catharine Beecher’s views, it would be in direct opposition to all the acts of his past life to turn a cold cheek to the appeal of loving humanity; so his broad, genial face stood out from its luminous background like the moon attended by its starry host. The first person introduced to the audience was Mrs. Cora L. V. Hatch (now Tappan), and, judging by what followed, she must have been entranced. It could not be ascertained whether or not her mental machinery had been wound up with the expectation that it would run down at the end of a given period, but at any rate she kept on ticking until Senator Wilson drew an instrument out of a side pocket, apparently for no other reason but to find out whether she was gaining or losing time. Mrs. Hooker, in the meantime, looked anxious and weary, and Susan B. Anthony, like Banquo’s ghost, stalked across the stage. This seemed to bring the “medium” to her senses, and she closed after it was known that she had been innocent of having anything to say.
As if to reward the audience for its late patience, Miss Anthony came forward to give it some food for thought. She said the object of this convention is to prevail on Congress to decide on Mrs. Woodhull’s definition of the fourteenth amendment. “If we fail in this it is our intention to apply for registration in the different districts where we belong, and if we are refused this privilege, suits will at once be commenced, and the case be followed up until it is decided by the highest court in the land. But suppose we fail to obtain justice under the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the Constitution, we can go back to our good old sixteenth, and work until our undertaking is crowned with success.” She then read the name of a grand central working committee, every name a well-tried, faithful servant of the cause. She said no name would be placed on that paper because she was a Mrs. Senator This or a Mrs. Rev. That. The names were then read:
NATIONAL CENTRAL COMMITTEE.
President, Mrs. Isabella Beecher Hooker, Hartford, Conn.; Secretary, Mrs. Josephine S. Griffing, Washington, D. C.; Susan B. Anthony, Rochester, N. Y.; Victoria C. Woodhull, New York City; Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Tenaphy, N. J.; Lucretia Mott, Philadelphia, Pa.; Olympia Brown, Bridgeport. Conn.; Mrs. Emily Stevens, San Francisco, Cal.; Mrs. Harriet W. Sewall, Melrose, Mass; Mrs. Mary K. Spalding, Atlanta, Ga.; Mrs. Anna Bodeker, Richmond, Va.; Mrs. Francis Pillsbury, Charleston, S. C.; Mrs. Senator Gilbert, St. Augustine, Fla.; Paulina Wright Davis, Providence, R. I.; M. Adele Hazlett, Hillsdale, Mich.; Mrs. Dr. Ferguson, Richmond, Ind.; Jane G. Jones, Chicago, Ill.; Lillie Peckham, Wisconsin; Mrs. Francis Miner, St. Louis, Mo.; Mrs. J. M. Spear, San Francisco, Cal.; Mrs. C. I. H. Nichols, Wyandotte, Kans.; Mrs. Laura De Force, Gordon, Nev.; Mrs. M. E. Post, Cheyenne, Wyo.; Mrs. Mary McCook, Colo.
“The business of this committee is to go to work and get money to defray the expense of printing documents. Congress will be asked to make an appropriation to this end, but in case of disappointment from that quarter we shall fall back on the national central committee. We shall also ask the members to frank these documents, and we hope to fill Uncle Sam’s mail-bags with the same until they groan. Among all my acquaintances in Congress, I never found but one man who would allow me the use of his frank, and this was Brooks, of New York. Yes, Congressman Brooks. I know he is a Democrat, but I find Democrats just as much inclined to give us the ballot as the Republicans. And why should they not, for they are all of them nothing but men? She said the strongest kind of appeals would be made for money during the coming campaign. Mrs. Victoria Woodhull had subscribed ten thousand dollars, and would any man in the country do the same?”
Miss Lillie Peckham, of Wisconsin, was then introduced by Senator Wilson. Miss Lillie confined her remarks closely to the labor question, and her efforts this time were a marked improvement upon the last. She told her hearers all about the difficulties in the way of women when they attempt to enter the field of science and art. Harriet Hosmer had to go the length and breadth of this land before she could find a college where she was allowed to study anatomy; Rosa Bonheur was obliged to pursue her studies in the butcher shambles of Paris, and Myra Bradwell was not allowed to practice before the courts of Illinois because she was a married woman, and as such could not be recognized, in consequence of technicalities of the law. Ben Butler had said that women should not hold clerkships under the Government because they were needed for wives in the far West; Mr. Rodgers, of Arkansas, had introduced a law too infamous to mention. In forcible terms she painted the narrow field in which women who have no protectors must necessarily struggle and die. At the magic touch of her voice thousands of lowly women left their wretched basements and attics, folded their rags about them and stood on the stage. She went on to say, if the ballot improves the workingman’s condition, in Heaven’s name why not the workingwoman’s? Are they not the same flesh and blood, warmed by the same heat, frozen by the same cold, and subject to the same laws of life and death?
After Miss Peckham had finished Miss Anthony came to the financial point again, and appointed a committee of two persons to receive the amount which any were disposed to give. Senators Wilson and Pomeroy made their donation in the most modest possible way, and a few others followed the example, and this brought the woman suffrage convention to an end.
It will be remembered that it was called and organized by three prominent women, and so far as it was a success it must be attributed to them. It is safe to say that the woman suffrage conventions at the capital are steadily improving in social refinement and intellectual culture as they succeed each other year after year. Women with pantaloons and men with long hair have taken the back seats, and if peaked hats and coat-tails are visible, these badges are confined exclusively to Wall street, and there may be a necessity for the peaked hats in this awful locality which the innocent world knows nothing about. Senators of the United States have presided at every session, and quite a number of members have attended the meetings from time to time. Occasionally the head of a bureau has peeped out from the audience, and a slight sprinkling of clerks has been noticed now and then, whilst the most perfect order has reigned from the beginning to the end.
When the question was asked Miss Kate Stanton, why the woman suffragists did not bring all their weapons to bear upon the women of the country, instead of wasting their ammunition upon the men, she replied: “It is of no use; we must make the movement popular with the men, and they will educate the women up to it.”
Owing to the misfortune that some of the delegates from a long distance did not reach Washington in time for the convention, a meeting took place in the lecture-room of the Young Men’s Christian Association building the following day. No business of importance took place. Mrs. Brooks, a small, timid woman, undertook to give a report of what was progressing in the West. But this she found was too much for her modesty, so she gave way for one of the masculine gender by the name of Jones, who feelingly gave the Western picture. Mrs. Post, of Wyoming, gave her experience of voting, and this of necessity was very interesting. She had “electioneered,” been to caucus meetings and to the polls side by side with the men, and, so far as she knew, her womanhood was just as good as ever, and matters had become greatly improved since woman suffrage was a fixed fact in Wyoming. Miss Anthony followed in one of her best speeches. Miss Peckham said that Senator Carpenter, of Wisconsin, was fully committed to the cause, and Mrs. Josephine Griffing was willing to pledge herself for the District. Mrs. Pauline Davis eulogized Rhode Island, and Mrs. Hazlett, of Michigan, spoke in her usual bright, crispy way. She said she would present her name for registration under the law of the fourteenth amendment, and had no fear as to the result. Mrs. Dr. Lockwood moved a vote of thanks to the reporters of the Washington press for their courtesy, kindness, and ability displayed during the convention, and the meeting adjourned _sine die_.
OLIVIA.
CHAMPIONS OF THE SUFFRAGE CAUSE.
MRS. LUCRETIA MOTT, MRS. CADY STANTON, AND MRS. JOSEPHINE S. GRIFFING.
WASHINGTON, _January 19, 1871_.
Stirring events are shaking the national capital. Scarcely have the colored lights of the country folded their tents and stolen away from their convention before Washington is visited by another dazzling meteoric shower. To-day, the great national woman’s rights convention has met and occupies its position upon the world’s stage. Senator Pomeroy, of Kansas, seems to be the central figure around which this planetary system of women revolve. As early as 10 o’clock a. m. a great number of the so-called weaker sex were seen hurrying along toward Carroll Hall, the place designated for the meeting. It was observed by all that these early comers were not those sisters of the community who wear silk and satin, and who fare sumptuously every day. They seemed to come from the even plain of society; they seemed to be the wives and daughters of the thrifty tradesmen and well-to-do mechanics. Some of them came in timidly, and took seats near the door, while others marched in boldly, being handsomely flanked or guarded by the “lords of creation.” Curiosity and suppressed mirthfulness characterized the appearance of the latter; at the same time these men had provided themselves with newspapers, into which they could plunge whenever it should seem the most convenient thing to do.
In a little side room at the right hand of the platform were gathered a handful of combustibles of sufficient strength and tenacity of purpose to move the world, if, like Archimedes, they had only a point upon which to place the fulcrum. This fulcrum appeared to them to be the ballot. Before the patience of the medium-sized audience was entirely exhausted, Senator Pomeroy filed out of the side room, followed by the venerable Lucretia Mott, Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Miss Susan B. Anthony, Mrs. Josephine S. Griffing, and a host of lesser lights; some few of the latter shining on the platform by reflection alone.
As it may be possible that some of the readers of the _Republican_ have never seen Pomeroy, a brief description of the man so long identified with this movement may not be out of place. It must first be acknowledged that he stood alone on the platform with this handful of pioneer women by his side. We mean by this that no other Congressmen were gathered there. Though Senator Pomeroy has not advanced to the snows of age, he has outlived the fiery turbulence of manhood. Nature did not cast him in her finest mould, but she gave him breadth of shoulder, and a brow broad and capacious enough for Jupiter; a brown eye, which twinkles as steadily as a fixed star; a good-sized American nose, and a mouth which has ever been devoted to the cause of the gentler sex, and which any woman of taste would approve. Senator Pomeroy called the meeting to order, and then remarked, “While one plants and another sows, it is God who giveth the increase.”
Prayer followed by the Rev. Dr. Gray, who committed the sad mistake of alluding to the scripture verse which says that woman was made of the rib of a man. As soon as the prayer was finished, a Mrs. Davis, of Philadelphia, undertook to take exception to the prayer, but Mrs. Lucretia Mott said though the audience might differ in the theological views, she questioned the good taste of discussing the subject at this convention. This was oil to the troubled waters, and peace followed forthwith. A very mother in Israel seemed this venerable woman, now advanced beyond her eightieth year. As she appeared before the audience in her prim Quaker garb, her voice, pure and distinct as the notes of a bell, seemed more like the tones of a spirit issuing from some crumbling ruin than that of a representative woman on the world’s stage to-day. Those who remember Thaddeus Stevens in his last days will recall a striking resemblance, both mental and physical, between these two individuals of a past generation, both belonging to the same State of the Union. Miss Anna Dickinson is very much like Mrs. Mott, and it may be well to remember that only the Quaker element, which centuries ago made it just as proper for the women to speak in public as the men, could produce two such marvels of oratory.
Following in the wake of Mrs. Lucretia Mott, up rose the brilliant Mrs. Cady Stanton, of the Revolution, one of the most beautiful and socially gifted women of the day; also a very firebrand in the camp of the enemy. What the poet says about roses in the snow finds a living embodiment in Mrs. Stanton. Have you never seen the heavens aglow with purple and gold before the sunset? And who would exchange these mellow beams for the pale, weak morning rays, or the sultry, stifling noon? Now add a voice of rare melody, sweet, persuasive, and enchanting as a flute, and you see a woman as potent in her way as Queen Elizabeth; an intellectual princess “to the manor born,” and who is fated to fill a niche in the history of our Republic. And now, reader, you see before you a woman stern, solid, aggressive. Her whole personnel is suggestive of the power of nature, strength, force. You can not help but feel that the good Dame Nature for once made a blunder. She put a man’s head on a woman’s shoulders; the massive brain and square brow, the large gray eyes that are set at cross purposes with each other, the clear cut, thinly chiseled lips, that, when brought together, seem to have the firm grip of a vise; a woman to command; a woman to suffer and die for opinion’s sake. Reader, you see Susan B. Anthony. You see the woman who would go to the edge of a fiery caldron, or a Democratic convention, to accomplish a purpose. If there is a pillar of strength among woman, upon which the weak, the degraded, the down-trodden can lean, it must be upon Miss Susan B. Anthony. If every State in the Union were blessed with two such women, the existing factions between the sexes would suddenly expire. Miss Anthony is a fine public speaker, choosing her words daintily from the pure Anglo-Saxon, and her voice is just the kind an orator would desire.
Another woman arises to address the audience. It is Mrs. Josephine S. Griffing, so long identified with the Freedmen’s Bureau. A fine-faced, sweet-voiced, elegant woman. You feel that she is thoroughly in earnest. You seem to know that she is the last one who would seek notoriety. You feel that you are listening to a woman who has to fight the battle of life for herself and little ones alone. In the depths of your heart you realize that it is such as she who breathe the breath of life into this unpopular cause; and her well-chosen words sink into your soul like dew in the honeyed corolla of a flower. If space would admit, other pictures might be added, but these shall be reserved for another day.
OLIVIA.
MRS. GRANT’S TUESDAY AFTERNOONS.
JESSIE BENTON FREMONT AMONG THE NOTABLES IN THE BLUE ROOM.
WASHINGTON, _January 31, 1871_.