It is his belief that the question of woman's status should receive more notice than the sporadic attention that legislators and thinkers have bestowed upon it. Most public men only re-echo the shallow retorts of the mob to any strong-minded petitioner's demand for justice. If the woman petitioner insists upon having a voice in the disposal of the money taken from her by taxation, she is liable to imprisonment for unseemly conduct. The unthinking person will answer that women are adequately represented in governmental affairs by their husbands. But thousands of women do not marry; they are still subject to man-made laws. Are they not entitled, as rational human beings, to a voice in shaping those laws?15 Mr. Greeley believes that no satisfactory answer to that question can be made. He continues with a rational discussion of the Property Law and the limitations it imposes on woman's own possessions. She is not regarded as a soul, he says, but as a mere body devoted to the unreasoning service of her husband. "The state gives no answer to Woman's questions, and the champions of her policy evince wisdom in imitating her silence."1 During his earlier years, Mr. Greeley believed that the abuses to which woman was subject could be removed by calm, dispassionate discussion. The causes of complaint had only to be known to be remedied. He expressed his views in a letter in the editorials of the Tribune in the Spring of 1843: If our champions of the Political Rights of women would only address themselves directly to the removal of the flagrant wrongs under which they suffer, the fruits of their labors would be earlier and less equivocal in character. It is not necessary to the redress of these grievances that our women shoulder muskets or cast ballots. All that is required is simply that they know their wrongs and firmly, mildly petition for their redress." It is interesting to compare this letter with the spirited enunciation's contained in the "Preface" to Woman in the Nineteenth Century. Perhaps his association with Margaret Fuller had much to do with his later ideas on the subject. However that may be, very few years were to elapse before Horace Greeley became convinced that more radical measures than "mild petitions" were necessary to secure the legal recognition of woman. "I'oman in the Nineteenth Century, "Preface." 18 Ibid. "Quoted by Daggett in A Down-East Yankee, page 36. CHAPTER VIII WHITTIER, EMERSON, AND OTHERS One unique feature of the woman question was that its cause was twined inextricably-perhaps consciously-with the slavery issue. During the years 1838 and 1839, when the entire Abolitionist Party was threatened with disaster, woman's place at the public meetings became one of the issues. The leaders of the rival factions were John Greenleaf Whittier and William Lloyd Garrison. Whittier had espoused the Liberty Party (later the Free-Soilers, and finally the Republican Party), and had employed all his persuasive powers in organizing and conciliating. Garrison, with his gift of oratory, led the opposing group-the Garrisonians, or Disunionists. For the most part, the anti-slavery women followed Garrison's lead, for the experienced politicians. who had joined the Liberty Party looked with distrust upon all non-voters. Owing to this situation, Whittier was accused of frowning upon woman's participation in open meetings. In a letter to his friend, Elizabeth Neall, Whittier shows that his sympathies as a member of the Society of Friends were always with woman speakers. So, then, two of the youngest members of The Woman's Society are to hold forth..... Shade of the Apostle Paul! What is this world coming to? Never mind, 'I like it hugely,' as Tristam Shandy said of Yorick's sermon, and would like it better to see them wield in their delicate fingers the thunderbolts of abolition oratory....... Seriously, I see no good reason why they should not speak as well as their elders. Let the daughters prophesy,' agreeably to the prophet Joel, and let the doors be thrown open to all without distinction of sex, and then another part of the promise will be verified, 'the young men shall see visions.' I go the whole length as regards the rights of women, however, although I sometimes joke a little about it. I am afraid it is a besetting sin of mine to do so in reference to many things in which I feel a sober and real interest. I have repented of it a thousand times, especially as it gave those who were not intimately acquainted with me a false idea of my character.1 'Pickard, S. T., Life and Letters of J. G. Whittier, vol. I, page 218. The policy of allowing women the right to speak and vote in the meetings of the Anti-Slavery Association was the most mooted question in the years 1839 and 1840. It not only caused a division in the American group, but it greatly disturbed the World's Anti-Slavery Convention, which was held in London. The convention refused to recognize the women delegates, among whom were Elizabeth Neall and Lucretia Mott. Garrison arrived in London too late to take part in the debate on the admission of the women. After presenting his credentials, he refused to take his seat with the other authorized delegates and withdrew with his American compatriots to the gallery. Thus, for the sake of his convictions as to the status of woman, Garrison forfeited the opportunity of speaking on a subject so near his heart as abolition of slavery.2 Whittier had had the opportunity to go to London, but ill health prevented him. How Whittier would have comported himself in regard to the exclusion of women is a matter for conjecture. Subsequent letters, however, point to the conclusion that, while admiring Garrison's courage, he would, under like circumstances, have sought some means of compromise. It is certain that he would not have allowed the affront to go unchallenged; for it was his ringing voice which thus administered a stinging rebuke to the Congregational divines when, in the "Yearly Pastoral Letter," they had censured Sarah and Angelina Grimké for appearing before mixed audiences: THE PASTORAL LETTER Your fathers dealt not as ye deal With non-professing "frantic teachers;" And flayed the backs of female preachers. Old Newbury, had her fields a tongue, And Salem's streets could tell their story Gashed by the whip, accursed and gory! 'One result of the exclusion of women from the World's Anti-Slavery Convention was the design of holding a woman's rights conference in America. The plans were made by Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Martha C. Wright, and Mary Ann McClintock. The convention was held at Seneca Falls, New York, on July 19, 1848. And will ye ask me why this taunt Of memories sacred from the scorner? And suffering and heroic woman. No, for yourselves alone I turn The pages of intolerance over, Ye haply may your own discover! To silence Freedom's voice of warning, But ye, who scorn the thrilling tale Of Carolina's high-souled daughters, Of sorrow from Edisto's waters, Close while ye may the public ear, With malice vex, with slander wound them; The pure and good shall throng to hear, And tried and manly hearts surround them. Even if Whittier had written nothing more on this subject, "The Pastoral Letter" would have definitely aligned him with the advocates of woman's rights. The poem was not, however, his last enunciation of his stand. In 1850, he wrote to the Woman's Suffrage Convention at Worcester: In the event of the repeal of certain ungenerous, not to say, unmanly enactments, limiting and abridging the rights and privileges of women, we may safely confide in the adaptive powers of Nature. Let us, then, not be afraid to listen to the claims and demands of those who, in some sort at least, represent the feelings and interests of those nearest and dearest to us." Some years later, when the movement had become more popular. Whittier again addressed a communication to the Suffrage Association. It appears that the poet had been invited to address the Convention of 1869, at Newport, Rhode Island. He 'O. Johnston, William Lloyd Garrison and His Times, page 265. "Thomas Wentworth Higginson, John Greenleaf Whittier, page 91 pleaded the state of his health as his reason for declining the honor, yet he wished to embrace this occasion to express his general sympathy with the movement. He gave as reasons for his acquiescence with the suffrage movement the memory of his mother, the wisdom and dignity of Quaker women, who had always enjoyed a measure of freedom,-the self-sacrificing spirit of his co-workers in the anti-slavery cause, and the loyal friendship of many true women. He believed that the ballot was a right which should be given immediately. "It is," he asserted, "something less than manhood to withhold it." On hearing a speech by Miss Alice Freeman, Whittier wrote, as late as 1881: "Miss Freeman's speech was eloquent and wise...... Perhaps even Francis Parkman might think she could be safely trusted to vote."5 It is, therefore, obvious that Whittier's opinions on the subject of equality of the sexes were not mere transitory things, but deep, honest convictions. He made his first declaration in his letter to Miss Neall, in 1839; his last, in 1881. Thus his opinions endured, unchanged, nearly half a century. Although not an active worker, Whittier must have exerted great influence in favor of woman's cause. The very name of a foremost American poet must have had some weight with the masses, and lent a certain amount of prestige to the movement. Then, too, Whittier made constructive suggestions: he would have women-and men-receive practical education; he would have higher aims incalculated during childhood; and lastly, he would impress upon every citizen, male and female, a deeper sense of responsibility. By nature a man of kindly impulses, his early training in the ranks of the Anti-Slavery Society gave him a humanitarian outlook on life that was at once broad and deep. A friend and co-worker of Whittier was Lydia Maria (Francis) Child (1802-1880), whose importance in American literature consists chiefly in her authorship of a series of historical romances contemporary with Cooper's earliest work, which progressively improved through Hobomok (1821) and The Rebels (1822), dealing with New England history, to Philothea, a tale Op. cit., page 93. |