Women -- Suffrage -- History; Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History; Women's rights -- History; Women's rights -- United States -- History
Woman should be as free to marry, or remain single, and as
honorable in either relation, as man. There should be no stigma
attached to the single woman, impelling her to avoid the
possibility of such a position, by crushing her self-respect and
individual ambition. A true Christian marriage is a sacred union
of soul and sense, and the issues flowing from it are eternal.
All obstacles in the way of severing uncongenial marriages should
be removed, because such unions are unnatural, and must be evil
in their results. Divorce in such cases should be honorable,
without subjecting the parties to the shame of exposure in the
courts, or in the columns of the daily papers.
Much could be accomplished for the elevation of woman by
organizations clustering round a social principle, like those
already clustered round a religious principle, such as "Sisters
of Mercy," "Sisters of Charity," etc. There should be social
orders called "Sisters of Honor," having for their object the
interests of unfortunate women. From these would spring up
convents, where those who have escaped from false marriages and
illegal social relations would find refuge. These organizations
might send out missionaries to gather the despised Magdalens into
safe retreats, and raise them to the level of true womanhood.
Mr. Channing spoke at length on the civil and political position of
woman, eloquently advocating the rightfulness and expediency of
woman's co-sovereignty with man, and closed by reading a very eloquent
letter from Jeanne Deroine and Pauline Roland, two remarkable French
women, then in the prison of St. Lagare, in Paris, for their liberal
opinions.
Just as the agitation for woman's rights began in this country,
Pauline Roland began in France a vigorous demand for her rights as a
citizen. The 27th of February, 1848, she presented herself before the
electoral reunion to claim the right of nominating the mayor of the
city where she lived. Having been refused, she claimed in April of the
same year the right to take part in the elections for the Constituent
Assembly, and was again refused. On April 12, 1849, Jeanne Deroine
claimed for woman the right of eligibility by presenting herself as a
candidate for the Legislative Assembly, and she sustained this right
before the preparatory electoral reunions of Paris. On the 3d of
October Jeanne Deroine and Pauline Roland, delegates from the
fraternal associations, were elected members of the Central Committee
of the Associative Unions. This Central Committee was for the
fraternal associations what the Constituent Assembly was for the
French Republic in 1848.
_To the Convention of the Women of America_:
DEAR SISTERS:--Your courageous declaration of Woman's Rights has
resounded even to our prison, and has filled our souls with
inexpressible joy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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