Women -- Suffrage -- History; Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History; Women's rights -- History; Women's rights -- United States -- History
Miss Matilda Hindman (Penn.) gave an address on As the Rulers, So the
People, well fortified with statistics. The Rev. Olympia Brown (Wis.)
made a stirring appeal under the title All Are Created Equal. Among
the many excellent addresses were those of Mrs. Colby, Mrs. Annie L.
Diggs (Kas.) and Dr. Alice B. Stockham (Ills.). The usual resolutions
were adopted, and the memorial called forth a number of eulogies:
_Resolved_, That in the death of the Hon. Henry Fawcett, of
England, Senator Henry B. Anthony, the Rev. William Henry
Channing, ex-Secretary of the Treasury Charles J. Folger, Bishop
Matthew Simpson, Madame Mathilde Anneke, Kate Newell Doggett,
Frances Dana Gage, Laura Giddings Julian, Sarah Pugh and
Elizabeth T. Schenck, the year 1884 has been one of irreparable
losses to our movement.
Among the many interesting letters written to the convention was one
from Wm. Lloyd Garrison, inclosing letters received in times past
expressing sympathy with the efforts of the suffrage advocates, from
his father, from Ralph Waldo Emerson and from the Rev. William Henry
Channing, whose body at this very time was being borne across the
ocean to its resting place in this country. A touching message was
read from that faithful and efficient pioneer, Clarina I. H. Nichols,
of California, which ended: "My last words in the good work for
humanity are, 'God is with us.' There can be no failure and no defeat
outside ourselves." The writer passed away before it reached the
convention. Other encouraging letters were received from the Reverends
Anna Garlin Spencer (R. I.), Ada C. Bowles and Phebe A. Hanaford
(Mass.); from Mrs. Julia Foster and her daughters, Rachel and Julia,
in Berlin; from Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick (La.), Mrs. Emma C. Bascom,
of Wisconsin University, and friends and workers in all parts of the
country.
The convention adopted a comprehensive plan of work submitted by Mrs.
Blake, Miss Hindman and Mrs. Colby.[27] At the last session Miss
Anthony made a strong, practical speech on the Present Status of the
Woman Suffrage Question, and Mrs. Stanton closed the convention.
A number of ministers on the following Sunday took as a text the
resolution which had been discussed so vigorously, and used it as an
argument against the enfranchisement of women, some of them going so
far as to denounce the suffrage advocates as infidels and the movement
itself as atheistic and immoral. They wholly ignored the facts--first,
that the resolution was merely against the dogmas which had been
incorporated into the creeds, and was simply a demand that Christian
ministers should teach and enforce only the fundamental declarations
of the Scriptures; second, that there was an emphatic division of
opinion among the members on the resolution; third, that by consent it
was laid on the table; and fourth, that even had it been adopted, it
was neither atheistic nor immoral.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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