Women -- Suffrage -- History; Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History; Women's rights -- History; Women's rights -- United States -- History
PARKER PILLSBURY: Perhaps we ourselves do not appreciate the
magnitude of the enterprise we are here to inaugurate. If
successful, we close to-day one epoch in human history, and enter
on another of results more millennial than have been seen before.
We give now a new definition to the word Liberty. We clothe our
divinity with new honors. The ancients worshiped in her temple,
but to them all, even the devoutest, she was ever an "Unknown
God." In all ages, men sing her praises, but know not her law.
Our revolutionary fathers were blind as others--blinder than many
others. They declared all men free and equal. They fought long
and valiantly for their evangel, baptizing it in the blood of
many battles, came home triumphant, and then constructed a
despotism which their own immortal Jefferson declared was fraught
with more woes in one hour, to myriads of its citizens, than
would be endured in whole ages of the worst they themselves had
ever known! That government they named a Republic. Under it we
held millions of slaves, and were providing to hold many millions
more, when God sent a thunderbolt and dashed it in pieces before
our eyes and gave our slaves their freedom. Now our wise men and
counselors, our statesmen and sages, are seeking how the
government and Union may be reconstructed. But they are laying
again false foundations. Of three immense classes, they proscribe
two and provide for one; and that one perhaps a minority of the
whole. Half our people are degraded for their sex; one-sixth for
the color of their skin. And this is the republican and
democratic definition of freedom. The ruling class boasts two
qualities, in virtue of which it claims the right to rule all
others. It is male, not female--white, not colored. For neither
of these surely is it responsible. For being women and colored,
the proscribed classes are no more responsible. A more cruel,
unrighteous, unjust distinction was never made under heaven. By
it we are driven into this new revolution; a revolution which is
to eclipse all that have gone before, as far as the glories of
Calvary outshone the shadows and terrors of Sinai. Even the
Anti-Slavery Society can only demand equality for the _male_ half
of mankind. And the Woman's Rights movement contemplated only
_woman_ in its demand. But with us liberty means freedom,
equality, and fraternity, irrespective of sex or complexion. It
is a gospel that was unknown to the ancients; hidden even from
the wise and prudent among our revolutionary fathers.
Revolutionary _mothers_ we seem never to have had. As in Eden,
"Adam was first found, then Eve," so in our revolution; but Eve
has come to-day, demanding her portion of the equal inheritance,
a mystery, a wonder, a "_new thing under the sun_," the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account