Authors, American -- 19th century -- Biography; Feminists -- United States -- Biography; Howe, Julia Ward, 1819-1910
Among my most valued recollections are those of the many legislative
hearings in which I have had the privilege of taking part, and which
cover a period of more than twenty years. Mr. Garrison, Lucy Stone, and
Mr. Blackwell long continued to be our most prominent advocates,
supported at times by Colonel Higginson, Wendell Phillips, and James
Freeman Clarke. Mrs. Livermore was with us whenever her numerous lecture
engagements allowed her to be present. Mrs. Cheney, Judge Sewall, and
several lawyers of our own sex gave us valuable aid. These hearings were
mostly held in the well-known Green Room of the Boston State House, but
a gradual _crescendo_ of interest sometimes led us to ask for the use of
Representatives' Hall, which was often crowded with the friends and
opponents of our cause. Among the remonstrants who spoke at these
hearings occasionally appeared some illiterate woman, attracted by the
opportunity of making a public appearance. I remember one of these who,
after asking to be heard, began to read from an elaborate manuscript
which had evidently been written for her. After repeatedly substituting
the word "communionism" for "communism," she abandoned the text and
began to abuse the suffragists in language with which she was more
familiar. When she had finished her diatribe the chairman of the
legislative committee said to our chairman, Mr. Blackwell, "A list of
questions has been handed to me which the petitioners for woman suffrage
are requested to answer. The first on the list is the following:--
"If the suffrage should be granted to women, would not the ignorant and
degraded ones hasten to crowd the polls while those of the better sort
would stay away from them?"
Mr. Garrison, rising, said in reply, "Mr. Chairman, it seems to me that
the question just propounded is answered by the present occasion. Here
are education, character, intelligence, asking for suffrage, and here
are ignorance and vulgarity protesting against it." This crushing
sentence was uttered by Mr. Garrison in a tone of such bland simplicity
that it did not even appear unkind.
On a later occasion a lady of excellent character and position appeared
among the remonstrants, and when asked whether she represented any
association replied rather haughtily, "I think that I represent the
educated women of Massachusetts," a goodly number of whom were present
in behalf of the petition.
The remonstrants had hearings of their own, at one of which I happened
to be present. On this occasion one of their number, after depicting at
some length the moral turpitude which she considered her sex likely to
evince under political promise, concluded by saying: "No woman should be
allowed the right of suffrage until _every_ woman shall be perfectly
wise, perfectly pure, and perfectly good."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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