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013 - Pioneer Women in America · Labor and Freedom

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  Speaker 1: Pioneer Women in America by Eugene V. Debs. This Libervox
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  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Progressive Woman, April nineteen twelve.
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  Speaker 1: In looking over some old letters a day or two ago,
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  Speaker 1: I found a postal card which Susan B. Anthony had
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  Speaker 1: written to me over thirty years ago, And strangely enough,
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  Speaker 1: it was held fast by a letter that was written
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  Speaker 1: to me about the same time by Wendell Phillips, as
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  Speaker 1: if these two epistles had been attracted to each other
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  Speaker 1: and held together in the bonds of mutualism, as were
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  Speaker 1: the great souls who had written them in their heroic
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  Speaker 1: struggle for human enfranchisement. The fated and time worn old
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  Speaker 1: card carried me back to the day I met Miss
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  Speaker 1: Anthony at the Depot on her arrival at Terre Hate,
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  Speaker 1: where she was to speak in public for her sex.
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  Speaker 1: At that time, miss Ida Houstad Harper, who afterward became
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  Speaker 1: Miss Anthony's confidential friend and authorized biographer, and I and
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  Speaker 1: two or three others were about the only people in
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  Speaker 1: Terre Hate who believed that woman was a human being
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  Speaker 1: and entitled to the rights of citizenship. We had arranged
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  Speaker 1: these meetings for Miss Anthony and her three active coadjutors
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  Speaker 1: in woman's cause at the time, and they arrived according
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  Speaker 1: to the schedule. I shall never forget how Miss Anthony
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  Speaker 1: impressed me. She had all the charm of a real
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  Speaker 1: woman and all the strength of a perfect man style
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  Speaker 1: personal adornment. She did not know. Vanity found no lodgment
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  Speaker 1: in her great soul. She was born with a heroic purpose,
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  Speaker 1: and she set out in fulfillment of that purpose with
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  Speaker 1: a spirit of dauntless valor and determination which knew no
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  Speaker 1: variableness or shadow of Turning to the day that ended
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  Speaker 1: her consecrated life, and she passed from the scenes of men. Trials, privations,
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  Speaker 1: insults borne by this grand old pioneer will never be
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  Speaker 1: known by those who are in the ranks today. An
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  Speaker 1: event characteristic of the struggle in which she engaged almost
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  Speaker 1: single handedly for so many years was her arrest and
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  Speaker 1: trial for voting in the presidential election of eighteen seventy two.
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  Speaker 1: A fine of one hundred dollars in costs was imposed
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  Speaker 1: upon her, which she vowed she would not pay, even
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  Speaker 1: if she were sent to jail. When Miss Anthony said
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  Speaker 1: a thing, she meant it. That fine was never paid.
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  Speaker 1: It was after all a stroke of good fortune that
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  Speaker 1: Miss Anthony was the victim of this barbarous indignity. It
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  Speaker 1: inspired one of the greatest speeches of her life. In
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  Speaker 1: opening this dramatic plea and protest, she said, Friends and
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  Speaker 1: fellow citizens, I stand before you tonight, under indictment for
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  Speaker 1: the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential
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  Speaker 1: election without having a lawful right to vote. It shall
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  Speaker 1: be my work this evening to prove to you that
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  Speaker 1: in thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but
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  Speaker 1: instead simply exercised my citizens' rights guaranteed to me and
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  Speaker 1: all the United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond
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  Speaker 1: the power of any state to deny. She then quoted
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  Speaker 1: from the preamble of the Federal Constitution, we the People
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  Speaker 1: of the United States, et cetera, and proceeded. It is
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  Speaker 1: we the people, not we the white male citizens, nor
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  Speaker 1: yet we the male citizens, but we the whole people,
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  Speaker 1: who formed the Union. And we formed it not to
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  Speaker 1: give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them, not
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  Speaker 1: to the half of ourselves, in the half of our posterity,
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  Speaker 1: but to the whole people, women as well as men.
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  Speaker 1: And it is a downright mockery to talk to women
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  Speaker 1: of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty, while they
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  Speaker 1: are denied the youth of the only means of securing
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  Speaker 1: them provided by this democratic republican government, the ballot. The
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  Speaker 1: early journals of Congress showed that when the Committee reported
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  Speaker 1: to that body the original Articles of Confederation, the very
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  Speaker 1: first article which became the subject of discussion was that
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  Speaker 1: respecting equality of suffrage. Article four said, the better to
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  Speaker 1: secure perpetual mutual friendship and intercourse between the people of
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  Speaker 1: the different states of the Union, the free inhabitants of
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  Speaker 1: each of the states, paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from justice excepted,
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  Speaker 1: shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of
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  Speaker 1: the free citizen of the several states. Thus, at the
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  Speaker 1: very beginning did the Father see the necessity of the
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  Speaker 1: universal application of the great principle of equal rights to all,
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  Speaker 1: in order to produce the desired results a harmonious union
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  Speaker 1: and a homogeneous people. Miss Anthony then quoted the New
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  Speaker 1: York State Constitution. No member of this State shall be
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  Speaker 1: disenfranchised or deprived of the rights or privileges secure to
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  Speaker 1: any citizen thereof, unless by the law of the land
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  Speaker 1: of the judgment of its peers. She then proceeded with
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  Speaker 1: her argument, which has never been and never will be answered.
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  Speaker 1: It is to be regretted that space forbids more ample
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  Speaker 1: quotation in this article. Here is a glowing paragraph from
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  Speaker 1: her impassioned plea, which is characteristic of the entire address
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  Speaker 1: to them, women, dis government has no just powers derived
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  Speaker 1: from the consent of the governed. To them, this government
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  Speaker 1: is not a democracy, It is not a republic. It
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  Speaker 1: is an odious aristocracy, a hateful oligarchy of sex, the
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  Speaker 1: most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe.
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  Speaker 1: An oligarchy of wealth where the rich govern the poor,
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  Speaker 1: an oligarchy of learning where the educated govern the ignorant,
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  Speaker 1: or even an oligarchy of race where the Saxon ruled
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  Speaker 1: the African, might be endured. But this oligarchy of sex,
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  Speaker 1: which makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the oligarch over the
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  Speaker 1: mother and sisters, the wife and daughters of every household,
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  Speaker 1: which ordains all men's sovereigns, all women's subjects, carries dissension, discord,
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  Speaker 1: and rebellion into every home of the nation. There has
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  Speaker 1: never been a more logical, unanswerable argument for the political
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  Speaker 1: enfranchisement of women than was here made by Miss Anthony.
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  Speaker 1: And yet only a few of the people were fair
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  Speaker 1: enough to listen, intelligent enough to understand, or candid enough
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  Speaker 1: to give approval if they did. Susan B. Anthony's whole
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  Speaker 1: career was one tempestuous struggle for the rights of her sex.
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  Speaker 1: She never wavered, and she never wearied in the conflict.
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  Speaker 1: She had the moral courage of a martyr, and she
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  Speaker 1: was as certain as any that ever perished at the stake.
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  Speaker 1: On my visit to Jonestown, New York recently, the comrades
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  Speaker 1: pointed out the spot where Elizabeth Kady Stanton, another pioneer
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  Speaker 1: heroine of the movement, was born. Miss Stanton has long
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  Speaker 1: since been gathered to her father's but her work remains
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  Speaker 1: an imperishable monument in memory of her achievements. It was
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  Speaker 1: that the first Woman's rights convention ever held in the
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  Speaker 1: United States July nineteenth, eighteen forty eight, that missus Stanton
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  Speaker 1: delivered an oration that will forever have a place in
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  Speaker 1: the literature of woman's struggle for freedom. The doctrine she
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  Speaker 1: advocated was at the time little less than treason. But
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  Speaker 1: she knew it was true, and she boldly took her
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  Speaker 1: stand and maintained it to the end. In her speech
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  Speaker 1: at this first convention, she said, how is the time
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  Speaker 1: for the women of this country if they would save
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  Speaker 1: our free institutions to defend the right to buckle on
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  Speaker 1: the armor that can best resist the keenest weapons of
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  Speaker 1: the enemy, contempt and ridicule. The same religious enthusiasm that
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  Speaker 1: nerved Joan of Arc to her work nerves us to ours.
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  Speaker 1: In every generation, God calls some men and women for
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  Speaker 1: the utterance of the truth a heroic action, and our
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  Speaker 1: work today is the fulfilling of what has long since
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  Speaker 1: been foretold by the prophet. We do not expect our
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  Speaker 1: path will be strewn with the flowers of popular applause,
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  Speaker 1: but over the thorns of bigotry and prejudice will be
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  Speaker 1: our way, And on our banner will beat dark storm
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  Speaker 1: clouds of opposition from those who have intrenched themselves behind
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  Speaker 1: the stormy bulwarks of custom and authority, and who have
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  Speaker 1: fortified their position by every means wholly and unholy. But
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  Speaker 1: we will steadfastly abide the result, unmoved. We will bear
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  Speaker 1: it aloft hunted, we will unfurl it to the gale,
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  Speaker 1: for we know that the storm cannot rend from it
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  Speaker 1: a shred that the electric flash will, but more clearly
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  Speaker 1: show us the glorious words inscribed upon it, equality of rights.
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  Speaker 1: There was a thrilling power in the burning eloquence of
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  Speaker 1: Miss Stanton, But only they who had a part in
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  Speaker 1: the struggle at that time could have any conception of
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  Speaker 1: what bitter hatred, blind prejudice, and malign persecution there were
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  Speaker 1: to overcome. In February eighteen fifty four, Miss Stanton made
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  Speaker 1: a notable plea for the political rights of women to
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  Speaker 1: the Legislature of New York. In mentally invoicing an average
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  Speaker 1: legislature today, one gets some idea of the self imposed
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  Speaker 1: task of this brave old pioneer, and the indomitable spirit
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  Speaker 1: required to undertake it, of arousing a body of sodden
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  Speaker 1: bourgeois legislators ward politicians to recogn is the right of
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  Speaker 1: women to breathe the air of civilized citizenship and belong
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  Speaker 1: to themselves. In this thoroughly militant and inspiring appeal, she said,
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  Speaker 1: the tyrant custom has been summoned before the bar of
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  Speaker 1: common sense. His majesty no longer owes the multitude. His
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  Speaker 1: scepter is broken, his crown is trampled in the dust,
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  Speaker 1: the sentence of death is pronounced upon him. All nations, ranks,
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  Speaker 1: and classes have in turn questioned and repudiated his authority.
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  Speaker 1: And now that the monster is chained and caged, timid
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  Speaker 1: woman on tiptoe comes to look him in the face,
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  Speaker 1: and to demand of her brave sires and sons, who
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  Speaker 1: have struck stout blows for liberty, if in this change
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  Speaker 1: of dynasty, she too shall find relief. We demand the
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  Speaker 1: full recognition of all our rights as citizens of the
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  Speaker 1: Empire state. We are persons, natives, free born citizens, property holders, taxpayers.
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  Speaker 1: Yet we are denied the exercise of our right to
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  Speaker 1: the elective franchise. We support ourselves and impart your schools, colleges, churches,
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  Speaker 1: your poorhouses, jails, prisons, the army, the navy, the whole
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  Speaker 1: machinery of government, and yet we have no voice in
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  Speaker 1: your councils. We have every qualification required by the Constitution
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  Speaker 1: necessary to the legal voter, but the one of sex.
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  Speaker 1: We are moral, virtuous, and intelligent, and in all respects
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  Speaker 1: quite equal to the proud white man himself, and yet
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  Speaker 1: by your laws we are classed with idiots, lunatics, and negroes.
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  Speaker 1: These two sturdy pioneers and women's struggle present a magnificent
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  Speaker 1: picture in the perspective. They did not know the meaning
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  Speaker 1: of discouragement. They were strangers to weakness and fear. Both
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  Speaker 1: were of heroic mold, Both were born and endowed for
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  Speaker 1: great service, and both made their name synonymous with the
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  Speaker 1: struggle of their sex to shake off the fetters of
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  Speaker 1: the centuries. Miss Stanton was born in eighteen fifteen, and
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  Speaker 1: to dating Miss Anthony by five years. They were inseparable friends,
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  Speaker 1: and they who saw them together say that their love
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  Speaker 1: and fealty toward each other was so beautiful and touching
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  Speaker 1: that it was an inspiration to all their coworkers, and
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  Speaker 1: shame to silence all their bickerings and petty jealousies. They
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  Speaker 1: both lived to be over eighty years. After full half
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  Speaker 1: a century of unrelaxing fidelity to their principles and unceasing
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  Speaker 1: battle for their cause, they saw but the beginning of
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  Speaker 1: the glorious fruition of their consecrated service. Such has been
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  Speaker 1: the fate of all who, like these greats souls loved
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  Speaker 1: principle better than popularity, and humanity more than themselves. The
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  Speaker 1: women who are in the ranks today may well rejoice
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  Speaker 1: that these grand women and others who shared in their
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  Speaker 1: bitter persecution, blaze the way through the dense wilderness of ignorance, prejudice,
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  Speaker 1: and hatred for what is now a world movement with
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  Speaker 1: millions proudly bearing its banner, inscribed with the conquering shibboleth
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  Speaker 1: equal freedom and equal opportunities for all mankind. End of
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  Speaker 1: pioneer women in America