Seneca Falls Convention, 1848 Declaration of Sentiments PDF

Seneca Falls Convention...

Seneca Falls Convention The "Declaration of Sentiments" reads, "We hold these truths to be self-ev- ident: that all men and women are created equal." It is a line that does not seem so radical today, but it shook the foundations of the U.S. government in 1848. Coauthored by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Coffin Mott, Matilda Gage, Martha Coffin Wright, and Mary Ann McClintock, the "Declaration," one of the most important examples of women's collaborative writing, was presented All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. at Seneca Falls, New York, the site of the first convention to address women's rights in the United States. These collaborators described the event as "a con- vention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of women." The outcomes of the convention were even greater than the organiz- ers imagined. The hostile press coverage backfired, serving only to educate and mobilize women across the nation. The Seneca Falls Convention sparked others like it, and its format became a model for other conventions of the women's movement. Although the authors were all white women, their movement had its origins in the abolitionist cause, which had demonstrated to them the limitations of their rights as women and provided them a trope through which to figure their own oppression. Wilma Mankiller, former chief of the Cherokee Nation, notes also the important influence Native American matrilineal and matriarchal tribal structures had on emerging feminist ideas, especially since Stanton and Gage both lived in the Iroquois country of upstate New York. In their mimicry of the "Declaration of Independence," the authors of the "Declaration of Sentiments" appealed to their audience's sense of patriotism while illuminating the injustices and inequalities of American citizenship. M- ter outlining the injuries women suffer as citizens, spouses, workers, and hu- mans, the "Declaration" ends with twelve resolutions. The resolutions demand that women have "immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States." The most controversial res- olution was number nine, which demanded that women pursue their right to "elective franchise." Mter Frederick Douglass spoke on behalf of this res- Copyright 2001. University of Pittsburgh Press. olution, the convention adopted it. The authors anticipated the opposition of the press and public in their "Dec- laration" and called for "zealous and untiring efforts." Despite their plea, many convention participants removed their names from the document after mali- cious attacks by the press. However, as a manifesto of the women's movement, EBSCO Publishing : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 1/25/2024 9:01 AM via STANFORD UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES AN: 829578 ; Joy Ritchie, Kate Ronald.; Available Means : An Anthology Of Women'S Rhetoric(s) Account: s4392798.main.ehost  SENECA FALLS CONVENTION 139 the "Declaration of Sentiments" served as the touchstone for the next seventy- one years of women's suffrage efforts. "Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions" When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of na- ture and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of man- kind requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to such a course. We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes destruc- tive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government, laying its founda- tion on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they were accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their duty to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of the women under this government, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to demand the equal station to which they are entitled. The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise. Reprinted from History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. 1 (1848-1861), edited by Elizabeth Cady Stan- ton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage, 70-73. New York: Fowler and Wells, 1881. EBSCOhost - printed on 1/25/2024 9:01 AM via STANFORD UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use  140 SENECA FALLS CONVENTION He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice. He has withheld from her rights which are given to the most ignorant and degraded men-both natives and foreigners. Having deprived her of this first right of a citizen, the elective franchise, thereby leaving her without representation in the halls of legislation, he has op- pressed her on all sides. He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead. He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she earns. He has made her, morally, an irresponsible being, as she can commit many crimes with impunity, provided they be done in the presence of her husband. In the covenant of marriage, she is compelled to promise obedience to her hus- band, he becoming, to all intents and purposes, her master-the law giving him power to deprive her of her liberty, and to administer chastisement. He has so framed the laws of divorce, as to what shall be the proper causes of divorce; in case of separation, to whom the guardianship of the children shall be given; as to be wholly regardless of the happiness of women-the law, in all cases, going upon a false supposition of the supremacy of man, and giving all power into his hands. Mter depriving her of all rights as a married woman, if single and the owner of property, he has taxed her to support a government which recognizes her only when her property can be made profitable to it. He has monopolized nearly all the profitable employments, and from those she is permitted to follow, she receives but a scanty remuneration. He closes against her all the avenues to wealth and distinction, which he considers most honorable to himself. As a teacher of theology, medicine, or law, she is not known. He has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorough education-all col- leges being closed against her. He allows her in Church, as well as State, but a subordinate position, claim- ing Apostolic authority for her exclusion from the ministry, and, with some ex- ceptions, from any public participation in the affairs of the Church. He has created a false public sentiment, by giving to the world a different code of morals for men and women, by which moral delinquencies which ex- clude women from society, are not only tolerated but deemed of little account inman. He has usurped the prerogative of Jehovah himself, claiming it as his right to assign for her a sphere of action, when that belongs to her conscience and to her God. He has endeavored, in every way that he could, to destroy her confidence in her own powers, to lessen her self-respect, and to make her willing to lead a de- pendent and abject life. Now, in view of this entire disfranchisement of one-half the people of this EBSCOhost - printed on 1/25/2024 9:01 AM via STANFORD UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use  SENECA FALLS CONVENTION 141 country, their social and religious degradation,-in view of the unjust laws above mentioned, and because women do feel themselves aggrieved, op- pressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States. In entering upon the great work before us, we anticipate no small amount of misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule; but we shall use every instru- mentality within our power to effect our object. We shall employ agents, circu- late tracts, petition the state and national legislatures, and endeavor to enlist the pulpit and the press in our behalf. We hope this Convention will be fol- lowed by a series of Conventions, embracing every part of the country. Firmly relying upon the final triumph of the Right and True, we do this day affix our signatures to this declaration. [Names followed.} Resolutions Whereas, The great precept of nature is conceded to be, "that man shall pursue his own true and substantial happiness." Blackstone, in his Commentaries re- marks, that this law of Nature being coeval with mankind, and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times; no human laws are of any validity if con- trary to this, and such of them as are valid, derive all their force, and all their validity, and all their authority, mediately and immediately, from this original; therefore, Resolved, That such laws as conflict, in any way, with the true and substan- tial happiness of woman, are contrary to the great precept of nature, and of no validity; for this is "superior in obligation to any other." Resolved, That all laws which prevent woman from occupying such a station in society as her conscience shall dictate, or which place her in a position infe- rior to that of man, are contrary to the great precept of nature, and therefore of no force or authority. Resolved, That woman is man's equal-was intended to be so by the Crea- tor, and the highest good of the race demands that she should be recognized as such. Resolved, That the women of this country ought to be enlightened in regard to the laws under which they live, that they may no longer publish their degra- dation, by declaring themselves satisfied with their present position, nor their ignorance, by asserting that they have all the rights they want. Resolved, That inasmuch as man, while claiming for himself intellectual superiority, does not accord to woman moral superiority, it is pre-eminently his duty to encourage her to speak, and teach, as she has an opportunity, in all re- ligious assemblies. Resolved, That the same amount of virtue, delicacy, and refinement of be- havior, that is required of woman in the social state, should also be required of EBSCOhost - printed on 1/25/2024 9:01 AM via STANFORD UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use  142 SENECA FALLS CONVENTION man, and the same transgressions should be visited with equal severity on both man and woman. Resolved, That the objection of indelicacy and impropriety, which is so of- ten brought against woman when she addresses a public audience, comes with a very ill-grace from those who encourage, by their attendance, her appearance on the stage, in the concert or in feats of the circus. Resolved, That woman has too long rested satisfied in the circumscribed limits which corrupt customs and a perverted application of the Scriptures have marked out for her, and that it is time she should move in the enlarged sphere which her great Creator has assigned her. Resolved, That it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to them- selves their sacred right to the elective franchise. Resolved, That the equality of human rights results necessarily from the fact of the identity of the race in capabilities and responsibilities. Resolved, therefore, That, being invested by the Creator with the same capa- bilities, and the same consciousness of responsibility for their exercise, it is de- monstrably the right and duty of woman, equally with man, to promote every righteous cause, by every righteous means; and especially in regard to the great subjects of morals and religions, it is self-evidently her right to participate with her brother in teaching them, both in private and in public, by writing and by speaking, by any instrumentalities proper to be used, and in any assemblies proper to be held; and this being a self-evident truth, growing out of the di- vinely implanted principles of human nature, any custom or authority adverse to it, whether modern or wearing the hoary sanction of antiquity, is to be re- garded as a self-evident falsehood, and at war with mankind. Resolved, That the speedy success of our cause depends upon the zealous and untiring efforts of both men and women, for the overthrow of the mo- nopoly of the pulpit, and for the securing to woman an equal participation with men in the various trades, professions, and commerce. FOR FURTHER READING Bacon, Margaret Hope. Valiant Friend: The Life of Lucretia Matt. New York: Walker and Co., 1980. Griffith, Elisabeth. In Her Own Right: The Life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984. Mankiller, Wilma, Gwendolyn Mink, Marysa Navarro, Barbara Smith, and Gloria Stei- nem, eds. The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998. Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. Eighty Years and More: Reminiscences, 1815-1897. 1898; New York: Schocken Books, 1971. EBSCOhost - printed on 1/25/2024 9:01 AM via STANFORD UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use