Women -- Suffrage -- History; Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History; Women's rights -- History; Women's rights -- United States -- History
Would there have been no unpleasant feelings in Wendell Phillips'
mind, had Frederick Douglass and Robert Purvis been refused their
seats in a convention of reformers under similar circumstances? and,
had _they_ listened one entire day to debates on their peculiar
fitness for plantation life, and unfitness for the forum and public
assemblies, and been rejected as delegates on the ground of color,
could Wendell Phillips have so far mistaken their real feelings, and
been so insensible to the insults offered them, as to have told a
Convention of men who had just trampled on their most sacred rights,
that "they would no doubt sit with as much interest behind the bar, as
in the Convention"? To stand in that august assembly and maintain the
unpopular heresy of woman's equality was a severe ordeal for a young
man to pass through, and Wendell Phillips, who accepted the odium of
presenting this question to the Convention, and thus earned the
sincere gratitude of all womankind, might be considered as above
criticism, though he may have failed at one point to understand the
feelings of woman. The fact is important to mention, however, to show
that it is almost impossible for the most liberal of men to
understand what liberty means for woman. This sacrifice of human
rights, by men who had assembled from all quarters of the globe to
proclaim universal emancipation, was offered up in the presence of
such women as Lady Byron, Anna Jameson, Amelia Opie, Mary Howitt,
Elizabeth Fry, and our own Lucretia Mott. The clergy with few
exceptions were bitter in their opposition. Although, as
Abolitionists, they had been compelled to fight both Church and Bible
to prove the black man's right to liberty, conscience forbade them to
stretch those sacred limits far enough to give equal liberty to woman.
The leading men who championed the cause of the measure in the
Convention and voted in the affirmative, were Wendell Phillips, George
Thompson, George Bradburn, Mr. Ashurst, Dr. Bowring, and Henry B.
Stanton. Though Daniel O'Connell was not present during the
discussion, having passed out with the President, yet in his first
speech, he referred to the rejected delegates, paying a beautiful
tribute to woman's influence, and saying he should have been happy to
have added the right word in the right place and to have recorded his
vote in favor of human equality..
William Lloyd Garrison, having been delayed at sea, arrived too late
to take part in the debates. Learning on his arrival that the women
had been rejected as delegates, he declined to take his seat in the
Convention; and, through all those interesting discussions on a
subject so near his heart, lasting ten days, he remained a silent
spectator in the gallery. What a sacrifice for a principle so dimly
seen by the few, and so ignorantly ridiculed by the many! Brave, noble
Garrison! May this one act keep his memory fresh forever in the hearts
of his countrywomen!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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