Women -- Suffrage -- History; Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History; Women's rights -- History; Women's rights -- United States -- History
If the present arrangements of society will not admit of woman's
free development, then society must be remodeled, and adapted to
the great wants of all humanity. Our race is one, the interests
of all are inseparably united, and harmonic freedom for the
perfect growth of every human soul is the great want of our time.
It has given me heartfelt satisfaction, dear madam, that you
sympathize in my effort to advance the great interests of
humanity. I feel the responsibility of my position, and I shall
endeavor, by wisdom of action, purity of motive, and unwavering
steadiness of purpose, to justify the noble hope I have excited.
To me the future is full of glorious promise, humanity is
arousing to accomplish its grand destiny, and in the fellowship
of this great hope, I would greet you, and recognize in your
noble spirit a fellow-laborer for the true and the good.
ELIZABETH BLACKWELL.
MRS. EMILY COLLINS.
But, it was the proceedings of the Convention, in 1848, at Seneca
Falls, that first gave a direction to the efforts of the many women,
who began to feel the degradation of their subject condition, and its
baneful effects upon the human race. They then saw the necessity for
associated action, in order to obtain the elective franchise, the only
key that would unlock the doors of their prison. I wrote to Miss Sarah
C. Owen, Secretary of the Women's Protective Union, at Rochester, as
to the line of procedure that had been proposed there. In reply, under
date of October 1, 1848, she says:
Your letter has just reached me, and with much pleasure I reply
to the echo of inquiry, beyond the bounds of those personally
associated with us in this enterprise. It is indeed encouraging
to hear a voice from South Bristol in such perfect unison with
our own.
Possibly, extracts from my next letter to Miss Owen, dated Oct. 23,
1848, will give you the best idea of the movement:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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