Woman and the Republic: A Survey of the Woman-Suffrage Movement in the United States and a Discussion of the Claims and Arguments of Its Foremost AdvocatesJohnson, Helen Kendrick
History
Woman and the Republic: A Survey of the Woman-Suffrage Movement in the United States and a Discussion of the Claims and Arguments of Its Foremost Advocates
Johnson, Helen Kendrick
Women -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- United States; Women -- Suffrage -- United States
Suffrage leaders lose no opportunity to represent the Church as an enemy
to woman's advancement. Nothing can be further from the truth; and in
striking evidence stand the colleges, which, while unsectarian in spirit
and in method, have been established and cared for by special religious
denominations. Dr. Jacobi, in her book "Common Sense," takes up the tale
and says: "The Mount Holyoke Seminary, the immediate successor of that at
Troy, was opened in 1837 by Miss Lyon, in spite of the opposition of the
clergy." Many besides the clergy were opposed to the plan for which Miss
Lyon was endeavoring to raise money. Her idea that the entire domestic
work of the establishment could be done by pupils and teachers, was
thought unwise and hopeless. In that noble school, where thousands of
women have been educated, a great number have become missionaries. When a
Suffrage convention in session in Worcester wrote to Miss Lyon, asking her
to interest herself in the wrongs of her sex, she answered, "I cannot
leave my work." Neither was Vassar College founded from any impulse or
suggestion of Suffrage agitators, but in a spirit exactly the opposite.
The real impetus to its founding came from Milo Parker Jewett, who was
born in Vermont in 1808, and was graduated at Dartmouth College and at
Andover Theological Seminary. He was active in the formation of the
common-school system of Ohio, and in 1839 he founded The Judson Female
Institute in Marion, Alabama. He established a seminary for girls in
Poughkeepsie in 1855. He had studied law, and became the friend and legal
adviser of Matthew Vassar, who, being unmarried, was casting about for a
method of disposing of his fortune. He suggested to Mr. Vassar an endowed
college for women, and visited the universities and libraries of Europe
with a plan of organization in mind. Mr. Vassar gladly accepted this great
enlargement upon an idea that had lain dormant in his own mind, and Vassar
College was founded, Dr. Jewett becoming its first president in 1862.
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