Women -- Suffrage -- History; Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History; Women's rights -- History; Women's rights -- United States -- History
STEPHEN S. FOSTER said, Many seemed to think that the one
question for this hour was negro suffrage. The question for every
man and woman, he thought, was the true basis of the
reconstruction of our government, not the rights of woman, or the
negro, but the rights of all men and women. Suffrage for woman
was even a more vital question than for the negro; for in giving
the ballot to the black man, we bring no new element into the
national life--simply another class of men. And for one, he could
not ask woman to go up and down the length and breadth of the
land demanding the political recognition of any class of
disfranchised citizens, while her own rights are ignored. Thank
God, the human family are so linked together, that no one man can
ever enjoy life, liberty, or happiness, so long as the humblest
being is crippled in a single right. I have demanded the freedom
of the slave the last thirty years, because he was a human being,
and I now demand suffrage for the negro because he is a human
being, and for the same reason I demand the ballot for woman.
Therefore, our demand for this hour is equal suffrage to all
disfranchised classes, for the one and the same reason--they are
all human beings.
MARTHA C. WRIGHT said: Some one had remarked that we wished to
merge ourselves into an Equal Rights Association to get rid of
the odious name of Woman's Rights. This she repudiated as
unworthy and untrue. Every good cause had been odious some time,
even the name Christian has had its odium in all nations. We
desire the change, because we feel that at this hour our highest
claims are as citizens, and not as women. I for one have always
gloried in the name of Woman's Rights, and pitied those of my sex
who ignobly declared they had all the rights they wanted. We take
the new name for the broader work because we see it is no longer
woman's province to be merely a humble petitioner for redress of
grievances, but that she must now enter into the fullness of her
mission, that of helping to make the laws, and administer
justice.
Aaron M. Powell presented the following resolution:
_Resolved_, That in view of the Constitutional Convention to be
held in the State of New York the coming year, it is the duty of
this Association to demand such an amendment of the Constitution
as shall secure equal rights to all citizens, without distinction
of color, sex, or race.
Miss Anthony seconded the resolution, and urged the importance of
making a thorough canvass of the State with lectures, tracts, and
petitions.[67] Mr. Powell, Mrs. Gage, and others, advocated the
concentration of all the energies of the Association for the coming
year on the State of New York; after which the resolution was adopted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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