Women -- Suffrage -- History; Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History; Women's rights -- History; Women's rights -- United States -- History
I bid you and the women of the republic God-speed, and close in
the language of one who went before us, Mary Wollstonecraft, who
did so much in a thoughtless age to bring both men and women back
to virtue and religion. She says: "Contending for the rights of
woman, my main argument is built on this simple principle, that
if she be not prepared by education to become the companion of
man, she will stop the progress of knowledge and virtue; for
truth must be common to all or it will be inefficacious with
respect to its influence in general practice. And how can woman
be expected to cooeperate unless she know why she ought to be
virtuous; unless freedom strengthen her reason till she
comprehends her duty and sees in what manner it is connected with
her real good? If children are to be educated to understand the
true principle of patriotism, their mother must be a patriot; and
the love of mankind from which an orderly train of virtues
spring, can only be produced by considering the moral and civil
interests of mankind; but the education and situation of woman at
present, shuts her out from such investigations."
With the greatest possible interest in your celebration and
deliberations, and assuring you that I shall be with you in
thought and spirit, I am most earnestly and cordially yours,
CATHARINE A. F. STEBBINS.
ROCHESTER, N. Y., June 27, 1876.
MY DEAR SUSAN ANTHONY: I thank thee most deeply for the assurance
of a welcome to your deliberative councils in our country's
centennial year, to reannounce our oft-repeated protest against
bondage to tyrant law. Most holy cause! Woman's equality, why so
long denied?... I was ready at the first tap of the drum that
sounded from that hub of our country, Seneca Falls, in 1848,
calling for an assembly of men and women to set forth and
remonstrate against the legal usurpation of our rights.... I
cannot think of anything that would give me as much pleasure as
to be able to meet with you at this time. I am exceedingly glad
that you appreciate the blessings of frequent visits and wise
counsel from our beloved and venerated pioneer, Lucretia Mott. I
hope her health and strength will enable her to see and enjoy the
triumphant victory of this work, and I wish you all the blessings
of happiness that belong to all good workers, and my love to them
all as if named.
AMY POST.
POMO, Mendocino Co., California, June 26, 1876.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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