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diff --git a/43657-0.txt b/43657-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6f2d7ec --- /dev/null +++ b/43657-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14079 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43657 *** + + THE COLLEGE, THE MARKET, + + AND + + THE COURT; + + OR, + + WOMAN'S RELATION TO EDUCATION, LABOR, + AND LAW. + + BY CAROLINE H. DALL, + + AUTHOR OF "HISTORICAL SKETCHES," "SUNSHINE," "THE LIFE OF + DR. ZAKRZEWSKA," ETC. + + "Let this be copied out, + And keep it safe for our remembrance. + Return the precedent to these lords again."--KING JOHN. + + "How canst thou make me thy friend who in nothing am like thee? + Thy life and dwelling are under the waters; but my way of living + Is to eat all that man does!"--BATRACHOMYOMACHIA. + + BOSTON: + LEE AND SHEPARD. + 1867. + + + + + Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by + + LEE AND SHEPARD, + + In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of + Massachusetts. + + + CAMBRIDGE: + + STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON. + + + + + TO + LUCRETIA MOTT, + + FOR MORE THAN FIFTY YEARS A PREACHER AND REFORMER; SPOTLESS + ALIKE IN ALL PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RELATIONS; WHOSE + CHILDREN'S GRANDCHILDREN RISE UP TO + CALL HER BLESSED; + + This Book is Dedicated, + + SINCE SHE IS THE BEST EXAMPLE THAT I KNOW OF WHAT ALL WOMEN + MAY AND SHOULD BECOME. + + + "A woman + Leading with sober pace an armed man, + All bossed in gold, and thus the superscription: + 'I, Justice, bring this injured exile back + To claim his portion in his father's hall.'" + + SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. + + + + +A PREFACE + +TO BE READ AFTER THE BOOK. + + +When, some years ago, I delivered nine lectures upon the Condition of +Woman, I had no intention of printing them until time had matured my +judgments and justified my conclusions. Peculiar circumstances +afterwards induced me to modify this decision. The first course of +lectures, now printed as "The College," had proved unexpectedly popular, +and was many times repeated. At its close, I announced the second course +upon Labor, involving the subject of Prostitution as the result of Low +Wages; and a very unexpected opposition ensued. My files can still show +the large number of letters I received, beseeching me not to touch this +subject; and private intercession followed, on the part of those I hold +wisest and most dear, to the same effect. Why I did not yield to all the +clamor, I cannot tell,--except that I was not working for myself nor +_of_ myself. + +I thought it, however, necessary to take unusual precautions to prevent +these lectures from being misunderstood. I wrote private notes, +enclosing tickets, to almost all the leading clergymen, asking that +they would attend them as a personal favor to myself. I believe I did +not allude to the efforts which had been made to silence me, except when +I wrote to those who had joined in the outcry. In that case, I demanded +the attendance as an act of justice. These notes were kindly responded +to; and grateful tears started to my eyes, when I found on the seats +before me white-haired men, who set aside their prejudices for my sake. +Whatever might have been thought before, the delivery of the lectures +silenced all objections. They were fully attended and frequently +repeated; and I followed the delivery by the printing of this particular +course, in order that misunderstandings should not have time to +establish themselves. The book was well received, both at home and +abroad. Letters came to me from the far shores of India and Africa, +thanking me for its publication. The first edition was sold at once; and +I should have reprinted the book, but that I did not wish to re-issue +these lectures in an isolated form. I wanted them reprinted, if at all, +in their proper place, subordinated to my main thought. + +I smile a little as I look back. The remonstrances upon my file, dated +less than ten years ago, would now be earnestly repudiated by the dear +friends who wrote them. + +After the delivery of the third course, upon Law, local reasons decided +the publication of that book. Many efforts were being made in the +different States to change laws; and it was thought that the lectures +would give necessary information. + +Of the first course, nothing has ever been printed in this country. The +second lecture was printed, by a sympathizing friend in England, as a +tract, and widely circulated. Part of it was reprinted with approbation +in the "Englishwoman's Journal." The whole of this course is now given +to American readers in its proper connection, in which it is hoped, that +its bearing upon the later lectures will be seen, and a new significance +given to its suggestions. The history of these volumes seems to make it +necessary to reprint the original Prefaces in connection with the +lectures on Labor and Law. + + * * * * * + +In 1856, I conceived the thought of twelve lectures, to be written +concerning Woman; to embrace, in four series of three each, all that I +felt moved to say in relation to her interests. No one knew better than +myself that they would be only "twelve baskets of fragments gathered +up;" but I could not distrust the Divine Love which still feeds the +multitudes, who wander in the desert, with "five loaves and two small +fishes." + +In the first three of these lectures, I stated woman's claim to a civil +position, and asked that power should be given her, under a professedly +republican government, to protect herself. In them I thus stated the +argument on which I should proceed: "The right to education--that is, +the right to the education or drawing-out of all the faculties God has +given--_involves_ the right to a choice of vocation; that is, the right +to a choice of the end to which those faculties shall be trained. The +choice of vocation necessarily _involves_ the protection of that +vocation,--the right to decide how far legislative action shall control +it; in one word, the right to the elective franchise." + +Proceeding upon this formula, I delivered, in 1858, a course of lectures +stating "Woman's Claim to Education;" and this season I have condensed +my thoughts upon the freedom of vocations into the three following +lectures. There are still to be completed three lectures on "Woman's +Civil Disabilities." I should prefer to unite the twelve lectures in a +single publication; but reasons of imperative force have induced me to +hurry the printing of these "Essays on Labor." Neither Education nor +Civil Disability can dispute the public interest with this subject. No +one can know better than myself upon what wide information, what +thorough mental discipline, all considerations in regard to it should be +based. I have tried to keep my work within the compass of my ability, +and, without seeking rigid exactness of detail, to apply common sense +and right reason to problems which beset every woman's path. At the very +threshold of my work, I confronted a painful task. Before I could press +the necessity of exertion, before I could plead that labor might be +honored in the public eye, I felt that I must show some cause for the +terrible earnestness with which I was moved; and I could only do it by +facing boldly the question of "Death or Dishonor?" + +"Why not leave it to be understood?" some persons may object. "Why not +leave such work to man?" the public may continue. + +In answer to the first question, I would say, that very few women have +much knowledge of this "perishing class," except those actually engaged +in ministering to its despair; and that the information I have given is +drawn from wholly reliable sources, as the reader may see, but can be +obtained only by hours--nay, days and weeks--of painful and exhausting +study. Very gladly have I saved my audience that necessity: greatly have +I abbreviated whatever I have quoted. But I _meant_ to drive home the +reality of that wretchedness: I _wanted_ the women to whom I spoke to +feel for those "in bonds as bound with them;" and to understand, that to +save their own children, male and female, they must be willing to save +the children of others. It will be observed, that I have said very +little in regard to this class in the city of Boston; very little, also, +that was definite in regard to our slop-shops. The deficiency is +intentional. I would not have one woman feel that I had betrayed her +confidence, nor one employer that I had singled him out as a victim; and +it is almost impossible to speak on such subjects without finding the +application made to one's hand. I may say, in general, that a very wide +local experience sustains the arguments which I have based on published +statistics. + +It was also my earnest desire to prepare one article on this subject +that might be put into the hands of both sexes; that might be opened to +the young, and read in the family circle, without thrilling the reader +with any emotion less sacred than religious pity. This cannot be true of +the reports of any Moral Reform Society; for in them it is needful to +print details so gross in character as to be fit reading for none but +well-principled persons of mature age. It is not true of such a work as +Dr. Sanger's; for his historical retrospect furnishes every possible +excuse to the vices of youth, and is open to question on every page. + +From the highest sources in this community--from the lips of +distinguished clergymen, scholars, and men of the world--I have had +every private assurance, that, in this respect, I have not failed. + +It would be unjust not to state, that two powerful causes co-operate, in +the city of Boston, with low wages, to cause the ruin of women; I mean +the love of dress, and a morbid disgust at labor. + +The love of dress was a motive which obviously had no natural relation +to my subject. A disinclination to work, my readers may think, it was +proper I should have treated; but it is the natural reflection of a +state of things, in the upper classes, which would be a much fitter +subject of rebuke. + +So long as a lady will allow her guest to stand exposed to snow and +rain, rather than turn the handle of the door which she happens to be +passing; so long as neither bread nor water can be passed at table, +except at the omnipresent waiter's convenience,--servants will naturally +think that there is something degrading and repulsive in work. This +reform must begin in the higher classes. + +But, if this subject must be treated at all, why should it not be left +to men? Can women deal with it abstractly and fairly? The answer is +simple. In physics, no scientific observations are reliable, so long as +they proceed from one quarter alone; many observers must report, and +their observations must be compared, before we can have a trustworthy +result. So it is in social science. Men have been dealing with this +great evil, unassisted, for thousands of years. By their own confession, +it is as unapproachable and obstinate as ever. Conquered by its +perpetual re-appearance, they have come to treat it as an "institution" +to be "managed;" not an evil to be abolished, or a blasphemy to be +hushed. But these lectures are not written for atheists. The speculative +sceptic has retreated before the broad sunlight of modern civilization: +only two classes of atheists remain,--men of science, who fancy that +they have lost sight of the Creator in his works, and talk of the human +soul as the most noble result of material forces; and people of fashion, +who live "without God in the world." Why man should ever investigate the +material universe without a tender and reverent, nay, a growing +dependence on "the dear heart of God," we will not pause to inquire. The +child does not let go his father's hand when he first comprehends the +abundance of his resources. Neither the fountains of God's beauty, nor +the perplexities of his nicely ordered law, loosen man's loving grasp. +He clings all the closer in his joy, because he knows Him better. But +why should not the denizens of the fashionable world be atheists? When I +go among them, and listen to their heartless fooleries; when I see them +absorbed by the vain nothings of their coterie, rapt in endless +consultations about times and seasons, devoid of any real enjoyment, +hopeless of noble occupation, with the days all empty and the nights all +dark,--then I, too, shiver with doubt, and am ready to say in my heart, +"There is no God." We can never believe in any spiritual reality of +which our own souls do not receive some faint reflex. These people must +do the will of the Father, before they can believe in his love. I do not +write for them, but for thoughtful men and women, who rejoice in God's +presence, deny the permanence of evil institutions, and are anxious to +share with others the inheritance that belongs to the "child of the +kingdom,"--for those who have faith to remove mountains, and courage to +confess the faith. For them I shall not have spoken too plainly. + +Shortly after these essays were written,--in June, 1859,--I received +from London Mrs. Jameson's "Letter to Lord John Russell;" and I cannot +refrain from expressing the deep emotion with which I read what she had +written to him upon the same subject. Well may she wear the silver hairs +of her sixty years like a crown, if, only through their sanction, she +may speak such noble words. But-- + + "Earnest purposes do age us fast;" + +and many a true-hearted woman, far younger in years, would gladly bear +witness with her. + +I would not write, if I could, an "exhaustive" treatise. All I ask for +my work is, that it should be "suggestive." With that purpose, I have +worked out my schemes, in the last lecture, far enough to provoke +objection, to stimulate the spirit of adventure, to show how easily the +"work" may wait upon the "will." May the "Opening of the Gates" be near +at hand! + +It remains only to acknowledge my indebtedness to some English and +American friends: and first to the "Englishwoman's Journal;" not merely +for its own excellent articles, but for references and suggestions, most +valuable when followed out. The story of the young straw-braider was +drawn from its pages; and, disappointed in the arrival of original +material from Paris, long expected, I have been compelled to depend upon +it largely for my sketch of Félicie de Fauveau. To one of its editors, +Miss B.R. Parkes, and to Madame Bodichon in London, as well as to the +Rev. Mr. Higginson, I am under pleasant private obligations. I must rest +content to seem largely indebted to the "Edinburgh Review," of April +1859, for condensing the results of the census. My materials were +collected and arranged, when the article on "Female Industry" reached +me; and the differences in treatment were so few, that I at once drew my +pen through whatever was not sanctioned by its authority. The ladies who +first directed my attention to the Waltham watch-factory, and to the +inventors of artificial marble in France, will see from these few words +that I am not forgetful. + + BOSTON, November, 1859. + + * * * * * + +There seems, at first sight, a certain presumption in offering to an +American public, at this moment, any book which does not treat of the +great interests which convulse and perplex the United States. But +experience has shown, that neither the individual nor the national mind +can remain continually upon the rack; and both author and publisher have +thought that a book upon a serious subject, popular in form and low in +price, would find perhaps a more hearty welcome, under present +circumstances, than in those prosperous days, when romances and poems, +travels and biographies, were scattered over every table by the score. + +"Woman's Right to Labor" owed its warm welcome, not to any power or +skill in its author, but to the impatient interest of philanthropists in +every thing relating to that subject. It remains to be seen, whether as +large a portion of the public and the press are prepared to treat with +candid consideration the subject of Law. + +Both these volumes have been given to the world in their detached form, +that they might receive the benefit of general criticism; that errors, +inaccuracies, or misapprehensions, might be perceived and rectified +before they took a permanent position as part of a larger work. All +criticism, therefore, which is _honestly intended_, will be received +with patience and gratitude; but a great deal falls to the lot of the +author which cannot come under this head. + +If we are told that a "wider acquaintance with the history" of a certain +era will modify our views, it is natural to expect that an honest critic +will show _where_ the acquaintance fails, and how the views should be +modified. When we are told that certain scientific illustrations, +"though true in the main, are not accurate in detail," we may reasonably +hope to see at least _one_ error pointed out. When neither of these +things is done, we sweep such remarks aside, as alike unprofitable to us +and our readers. + +A wide and generous sympathy in my aims has given me, thus far, all that +I could desire of encouragement and appreciation; and this appreciation +has come, in several instances, from a "household of faith" far removed +from my own, and has been mingled in such cases with an outspoken +regret, that one who "wrote so well, and felt so warmly," should not +acknowledge on her pages the debt woman owes to Christianity, and unfurl +an evangelical banner above a Christ-like work. Because such friends +have spoken tenderly, I answer them respectfully; because I never saw +any church-door so narrow that I could not pass through it, nor so wide +that it would open to all God's glory, I answer them without fear. + +And, first, I believe in God, as the tender Father of all; as one who +cares for the least of his children, and does not turn from the +greatest; as one whose eye marks the smallest inequalities of happiness +or condition, and holds them in a memory which does not fail. I believe +in Christ as his authorized Teacher, anointed to reveal the fulness of +God's love through his own life of practical good-will. I do not expect +him to be superseded or set aside; and I do expect, that in proportion +as men grow wiser, humbler, and sweeter, their eyes will open only the +more widely to the great miracle of his spotless life, to the heavenly +nature of his so simple teachings. And, next, I believe in my own +work,--the elevation of woman through education, which is development; +through labor, which is salvation; through legal rights, which are only +freedom to develop and save,--as part of the mission of Jesus on the +earth, authorized by him, inspired of God, and sure of fulfilment as any +portion of his law. If at any time I have lost sight of this in +expression, it is because I have thought it impossible that the purpose +and character of my work should be mistaken. I am a slow and patient +worker,--patient, because one may well be patient, if God can; and +therefore no disappointment, no lack of appreciation, could sour or +disturb me. + +If I have justified the publication of this essay at the present moment, +it may be thought that I shall not be able to justify the principal +presumption; namely, that of a woman who undertakes to write upon law. + +Such a treatise as this would be valueless, in my eyes, if it were +written by a man. It is a woman's judgment in matters that concern women +that the world demands, before any radical change can be made. To +understand the laws under which I must live, no recondite learning, no +broad scholarship, no professional study, can be fitly required. Common +intelligence and common sense are all that society has any right to +claim of me. Because most women shrink from criticising this law, I have +criticised it. + +Very recently, the "London Quarterly" said, in speaking of the +republication of John Austin's work, that "English jurisprudence would +be indebted for one of its highest aids to the reverential affection of +a wife, and the patient industry of a refined and intelligent woman;" +and Mrs. Austin defends her undertaking on this very ground,--that, if +she had not superintended the work, _no one else would_. If John +Austin's firm and penetrating intellect could not hold a score of +persons about his lecturer's desk, and if it found its fit appreciation +only in the grave, a conscientious woman need not shrink from any branch +of his great subject, only because her audience will be small. + +In one of his lectures upon Art, John Ruskin says:-- + + "Every leaf we have seen, connects its work with the entire and + accumulated result of the work of its predecessors. Dying, it + leaves its own small but well-labored thread; adding, if + imperceptibly, yet essentially, to the strength, from root to + crest, of the trunk on which it has lived, and fitting that trunk + for better service to the next year's foliage." + +Let these words, printed on my titlepage, show the modesty of my aim, +and the conscientious steadfastness of my purpose. As the leaf is to the +tree, so is the individual to society. Tear away a single leaf from the +towering crest, and the trunk does not seem to suffer: nevertheless, one +small thread withers, one channel dries up, one source of beauty and use +fails; and, from that moment, a certain sidewise tendency marks the +growth. + +To compact carefully one "well-labored thread," is all that I have +sought to do,--to write a little book, that women might be won to read, +as conscientiously as if it were a heavy tome, to be endlessly consulted +by the bench. + +In writing these three lectures, I feel quite sure that I must have made +use of many significant expressions borrowed from those who have broken +the way for me. For many years an extemporaneous lecturer on this and +kindred topics, I have so wrought certain modes of expression into the +fabric of my thought, that I do not _know_ where to put my +quotation-marks. To Mrs. Hugo Reed, for instance, I know I must be +under great obligations; and I can only hope, that she will trust me +with her thoughts and words as generously as I desire to trust all my +readers with mine. It is little matter who does the work, so that it be +done; but I owe to one author, in particular, something like an +explanation. + +A few days before the third of these lectures was delivered in Boston +(that is, before Jan. 23, 1861), a gentleman from Paris brought me from +Madame d'Héricourt a book called "La Femme Affranchie," an answer to +Michelet, Proudhon, Girardin, and Comte, which its author kindly desired +I should translate for the American market. Unable to comply with her +request, some weeks elapsed before I opened the book. I was struck with +the energy, self-possession, and rapidity with which she seized the +various points of the subject, with the thoroughness of her assault, and +the temper of her argument. I did not sympathize in all her methods or +conclusions; but I was interested to observe, that, in what I had then +written and publicly spoken of the relations between suffrage and +humanity, I had, in several instances, used her very words, or she had +used mine. I did not alter my manuscript; but, with better times, we may +hope for a translation of her spirited volumes, and the public will then +do justice to her precedence. + +I have been anxious to have positive proof of my conjecture in regard to +the authorship of the "Lawe's Resolution of the Rights of Women;" but +persevering endeavors in England, in several directions, have only left +the matter as it stands in the text. It would be very interesting to +know something of the private history of the man who wrote that book. + +In the first of the following lectures, I have ventured a rhetorical +allusion to the blue-laws of Connecticut. Since it went to press, I have +seen it stated, on high authority, that any American writer who should +"profess to believe in the existence of the blue-laws of New Haven would +simply proclaim himself a dunce;" and the "Saturday Review" has been +handled without gloves for taking this existence for granted. + +I never supposed that the term "blue" applied to the color of the paper +on which such laws were printed, any more than I supposed "blue +Presbyterianism" referred to the color of the presbyters' gowns. I +supposed it was the outgrowth of a popular sarcasm, descriptive, not of +a "veritable code," nor of a "practical code unpublished," but of such +portions of the general code as were repugnant to common sense, and the +genial nature of man. This I still think will be found to be the case; +and it is certainly to Connecticut divines and Connecticut newspapers +that we owe the popular impression. + +It was in the forty-sixth year of the independence of the United States +that S. Andrus & Co., of Hartford, published a volume purporting to be a +compendium of early judicial proceedings in Connecticut, and especially +of that portion of the proceedings of the Colony of New Haven commonly +called the "blue-laws." Charles A. Ingersoll, Esq., testified to the +correctness of these copies of the ancient record. + +As I quote this title wholly from memory, I am unable to say whether the +colony ever fined a bishop for kissing his own wife on Sunday; but I +have read more than once of such fines; and, if no laws remain +unrepealed on the Connecticut statute-book quite as absurd in their +spirit and general tendency, there are many on those of Massachusetts +and New Hampshire: so I shall let my rhetorical flourish stand. + +To my English friends, to Mr. Herndon of Illinois, Mr. Higginson, and +Samuel F. Haven, Esq., of Worcester, I owe my usual acknowledgments for +books lent, and service proffered, with a generosity and graceful +readiness cheering to remember. + +Nor will I omit, in what may be a last opportunity, to bear faithful +testimony to the assistance rendered, in all my studies of this sort, by +my friend, Mr. John Patton, of Montreal. No single person has helped me +so much, so wisely, or so well. + +In order to secure technical accuracy, my manuscript and proofs have +been subjected to the revision of my friend, the Hon. Samuel E. Sewall. +The principal alteration which Mr. Sewall has made, has been the +substitution of the word "suffrage" for that of "franchise;" which +latter I used in the Continental fashion. I prefer it to "suffrage," +because it seems to have a broader signification; but I yield it to his +suggestion. + +I would gladly have dedicated this volume to the memory of the late John +W. Browne, whose pure purpose and eminent gifts made me rejoice, while +he was living, to call him friend. As, however, he never read the whole +of the manuscript, I have given it a dedication "to the friends of +forsaken women," which no one, who knew him well, will fail to perceive +includes him. + + BOSTON, Sept. 1, 1861. + + CAROLINE H. DALL + + 70, WARREN AVENUE, + BOSTON, January, 1867. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + + +THE COLLEGE. + + +I. + +THE CHRISTIAN DEMAND AND THE PUBLIC OPINION. + + Original Proposition. Objections to Republicanism. No Retrograde + Steps Possible. The Educational Rights of Women. A Share of + Opportunities the only Effectual Way. Both Sexes need the Oversight + of Women. Men need the Needle. Sydney Smith to Lady Holland. The + Education not Won till its Privileges are attained. Kapnist and the + Normal School. Low Wages. An Illustration. The Social Position of + the Teacher. The Spirit of Caste. Increase of Salaries. Is it Real + or Nominal? What is the Standard of Education? Niebuhr to Madame + Hensler. Cousin and Madame de Sablé. Examples of To-day do not + Cheer. Opinion of the Druses. Charles Lamb on Letitia Landon. + Coventry Patmore. Mrs. Jameson on the English Deficiency. Standard + of Italy. 500,000 Women in England. Dr. Gooch's Appeal. Opposition + to first School of Design. Note on Miss Garrett. B.L. Bodichon on + Jessie Meriton White and Medical Colleges. Need of a Medical + Society. John Adams on his Wife. Why has not the Standard advanced? + Alice Holliday in Egypt. Hekekyan Effendi speaking for the + Massachusetts Board of Education. Madame Luce in Algiers. Her + Workshop Discontinued. The Advance shown in such Lives. + Mrs. Griffith. Janet Taylor. Miss Martineau. "Aurora Leigh." + Maria Mitchell. Oread Institute. New-York Schools. Vassar College. + Michigan University. Duty of Literary Men and Women to invigorate + Public Opinion. What _is_ Public Opinion? Mary Patton. pp. 1-48. + + +II. + +HOW PUBLIC OPINION IS MADE. + + Existing Opinion. Proverbs. The Novel kept Faith with the Classics. + Social Customs. Newspapers. All form this Opinion. Individual + Influence must stem the United Current. The Classics. Aristophanes. + Iscomachus. Euripides. College Slang. St. John. Margaret Fuller on + her "Beloved Greeks." Buckle. From Greece to Rome. Ovid. No Need to + end Classical Study. Rather sanctify it. Perversions of History in + the Classical Spirit. Hypatia. Aspasia. Society in the Time of + Louis XIV. and Charles II. Lady Morgan on Alfred de Vigny. + Rousseau. Dr. Day, Dr. Gregory, and Dr. Fordyce. Margaret Fuller. + Association of Ideas. Fanny Wright. Captain Wallis and the Queen of + Otaheite. Peru and the Formosa Isles. African Customs. Mrs. + Kirkland on the Strong Box. Sir John Bowring on Marriage. Mrs. + Barbauld. The Newspapers. Impure Habits. pp. 49-82. + + +III. + +THE MEANING OF THE LIVES THAT HAVE MODIFIED PUBLIC OPINION. + + Mary Wollstonecraft and the Literature of the Eighteenth Century. + "Rights of Woman." "Not Empire, but Equality." Dr. Channing on Mrs. + Wollstonecraft. Her Unhappy Home. Fanny Blood. Breaks up her School. + Saves the French Crew. Provides for her Brothers and Sisters. + Translations. Answer to Burke. Fuseli. Paris. Imlay. Helen Maria + Williams. Happiness. Deserted in Eighteen Months. Attempted + Suicide. Goes to Norway. Final Separation. Marries Godwin. Birth of + Mrs. Shelley. Death of Mary. Her Husband's Testimony. No Fair + Statement recorded. Strength of Prejudice against her. A Republican + and a Unitarian. The Judgment of her own Time upon her. The Right of + Society to pass Judgment. Mr. Day and Maria Edgeworth. Lady Morgan. + Always True to Freedom. Harriet Martineau. Thorough Work. Mrs. + Jameson. Her Bravery and Truth. Woman's Rights Testimony. Mrs. + Gaskell. Fredrika Bremer. The Brownings. "Aurora Leigh." Charlotte + Bronté. "I Care for Myself." Our Abdiel. Margaret Fuller as a + Person. "Woman in the Nineteenth Century." "Truth-teller and + Truth-compeller." Rebuke to Harriet Martineau. Emerson's + Misapprehension. Florence Nightingale. Santa Paula. Mary Patton. + Miss Muloch libels Women. The Popular Idea of Love. Woman's Entire + Self-possession. Carlyle and Count Zinzendorf. Who refuses Strength + must miss Beauty. The Best Brains make the Best Housekeepers. The + Affections of the Woman prompt and dignify the Labors of the + Scholar. pp. 83-130. + + + + +THE MARKET. + + +I. + +DEATH OR DISHONOR. + + The Attar of Cashmere. Moral Force must change the Results of + History. Statement of Subject. Death or Dishonor the Practical + Question. An Honorable Independence the Way of Safety. The Forcing + Pump and Siphon. Women must Work for Pay. Success the Best Argument. + Competition in Rural Districts. Duchâtelet. Miss Craig. "Edinburgh + Review." Dressmakers and Sir James Clarke. Lace-makers. Manchester + Mantle-maker. 7,850 Ruined Women in New York. Society Responsible + for this Evil. Governesses. Mr. Mayhew to the "Morning Chronicle." + The Minister's Daughter. The Power of a Divine Love. Noble Natures + among the Fallen. The Glasgow Case. 1,680 Reformed French Women. The + Straw-braider. Have Women Strength to Labor? Marie de Lamourous. The + Young Laborer to be Protected by Social Influences. Women Hard + Workers from the Beginning. China. Hindostan. Bombay Ghauts. + Australia. Africa. Greece. Bertha of the Transjurane. Tyrolese + Escort of Women. Germany. Montenegro. Holland. France. Widow Brulow. + Nelly Giles. Ignacia Riso. Factory Labor in France. Sale of Wives at + Derby and Dudley. Women in the Coal-mines. Pinmakers. Anna Gurney. + Honduras. American Indians. Santa Cruz. Ohio and Pennsylvania. New + York. Women of Lawrence. Ship "Grotto." Thomas Garratt concerning + Sarah Ann Scofield. That all Men support all Women, an Absurd + Fiction. pp. 131-177. + + +II. + +VERIFY YOUR CREDENTIALS. + + Want of Employment lowers the Whole Moral Tone. Vigorous Women do + not Ask what they shall Do. Idleness the Curse of Heaven. Organized + Opposition on Man's Part. Mr. Bennett and the Watch-makers. Ribbon + Looms at Coventry. The School at Marlborough House. Miss Spencer. + Painting Crockery. Printing in America. Pennsylvania Medical + Society, 1859. Want of Respect for Labor. Census of the United + Kingdom. Agriculture. Mining. Fishing. Servants, &c. Reporters. + Bright Festival. Metal Workers. Gillott's Pens. Jewelry. + Screw-making. Button-making. Paper and Card Making. Engravers, + Printers, &c., &c. The Lower Classes need the Brains of the Upper. + Labor in the United States. Nantucket. Pennsylvania. Dr. Franklin's + Sister-in-law. Mrs. Hillman. Mrs. Johnson. Martha B. Curtis. Ann + Bent. Scientific Pursuits not Open. Clerks under Government. + Census. Waltham Watch Factory. Dentists. School Committees. + Postmistresses. Olive Rose. Semi-professions and Artists. + Shoe-making in Lynn. Condition of the Poor dependent on the Action + of the Rich. Happy Homes the Growth of Active Lives. The Pine and + Ænemone. Emily Plater. "Verify your Credentials." Encouragement from + Men; Faithfulness from Women. The Sorbonne. Madame Sirault. That + Career fated which Woman may not share. Influence of the Sexes on + each other. Baron Toermer and Félicie de Fauveau. pp. 178-220. + + +III. + +"THE OPENING OF THE GATES." + + The Drowning of Daughters. Teachers of Elocution and the Languages. + Inspectors. Physicians. Dr. Heidenreich. Wood Carving. Properzia + dei Rossi. Swiss Work. Elizabetta Sirani. Engravers. Barbers. + Candied Fruit for Christmas. Pickles. Fruit Sauces. Dishmops. + Gymnastics. Female Assistants in Jails, Prisons, Workhouses, not to + be had till Public Opinion honors Labor. Florence Nightingale an + Example. Parish Ministers. Deaconesses. Marian of the Seven Dials. + Reading Aloud to the Perishing Classes. St. Pancras. Mrs. Wightman. + A Training School. A Public Laundry and Bleaching Ground. + Ready-made Clothing. An Assistance to our Practical Charity. + Knitting Factory. Ornamental Work to be Avoided. Occupation for the + Young Ladies at the West End. Mrs. Ellen Woodlock and her + Industrial Schools. She takes Eighty Paupers out of the Poorhouse. + Mr. Buckle's Position to be Questioned. Mistaken Moral Effort a + Harm to Society. Want of Connection between the Employer and the + Employed. People who want "a Chance Lift." Defects in our Present + Intelligence-Offices. A Labor Exchange. The Argument Restated. Will + you tread out the Nettles? The Drosera. Purposes the Blossoms of + the Human Heart. pp. 221-261. + + + + +THE COURT. + + +I. + +THE ORIENTAL ESTIMATE AND THE FRENCH LAW. + + The Seat of the Law the Bosom of God? Of what Law? Legal + Restrictions constantly Outgrown. The Laws which relate to Woman. + Vishnu Sarma: the Hindoo Wife must use the Dialect of the Slave. + Ancient Chinese Writer. Köhl on Turkish Husbands. Convent to lock + up Ladies. The Island of Coelebes. The Garrows in the North-east + of India. The Muhar. Military Tribe of Nairs in Malabar. Later + Proverbs; used by the Satirists. The Four Points to Consider. + Discussion of Marriage and Divorce to be Deferred. The Public + Opinion which has educated Woman, and her Approximation to it. + Woman under Roman Law. Absence of well-tested Cotemporaneous + Evidence. Theodora. French Law. Bonaparte's Opinion. The Estimate + of a Double Character. Condition of the Peasant-woman. Need of Love + in the Upper Classes. Business-freedom. George Sand. Rosa Bonheur, + and the Claimants for Civil Rights. The Dotal founded on Roman Law; + the Communal founded on German. Dotal Law rejected throughout + Europe. Protection means Subordination. As a "Public Merchant," + Woman becomes a French Citizen. Position contradictory: not allowed + to rule the Household, which is called her Sphere. Civil Position. + No Right of Promotion. Laws of Louisiana. Estimate of Woman under + the "Code Napoléon:" tends to lower her Wages. List of Employments. + The Needle-women of Paris. pp. 263-286. + + +II. + +THE ENGLISH COMMON LAW. + + It contains All to which we have any Need to Object. Literature. + "The Lawe's Resolution of Woman's Rights." Inquiries as to its + Author. Probability points to Sir John Doderidge. The Law, for + Single Women, of Inheritance. Offices Open. Right to Vote, and Lady + Packington. Sheriff of Westmoreland. Lady Rous. Henry VIII. and + Lady Anne Berkeley. As Constable, and Overseer of the Poor. Female + Voter in Nova Scotia. Law relating to Seduction: its Profanity. The + French Law, as summed up by Legouvé. Woman's Opinion of this Law. + Objections. Laws concerning Married Women. Impossibility of + Divorce, from Hopeless Insanity. Instances where _Men_ have taken + the Law into their own Hands. Impossibility of Woman's ever doing + this. Marriage of a Minor. A Wife loses _all_ her Rights. Satire in + a London Court. Truth of this. Consequent Unwillingness of the + Honest Poor to Marry, and of Single Women of Rank to relinquish + Power. Freedwomen at the South. The Descendant of Morgan the + Buccaneer. Need of Equity. May make a Will by Permission. Nutriment + of Infants. The Law resists Maternal Influence, and denies Natural + Authority. Word not binding. Gifts Illegal. Indictments in the + Husband's Name. Divorces: only Three ever granted to Women. The + Widow recovers her Clothes and Jewels, but need not bury her + Husband. Christian on Suffrage. Moderate Correction. Property-laws. + The Hon. Mrs. Norton. Hungarian Freedom. Right to Vote. Experience + in America. Parisian Milliner. "Union is Robbery." The Heiress. + Longevity of the Wife. Woman discouraged from Labor by the + Influence of the Laws of Property. Sexual Legislation thoroughly + Immoral. Man's Adultery even a more Serious Evil than Woman's, so + far as State Morals and Interests are concerned. Canton Glarus. + "Courts have never gone that Length." Debate on the New Divorce + Bill. Man's Fidelity considered an Imbecility. The Compliments of + the Law. The Husband's Vigilance. Duplicity the Natural Result of + Slavery. The Right of Suffrage. Objections Answered. The Abstract + Right and the Practical Question. Suffrage to be limited by + Education, not Money nor Sex. The "Sad Sisterhood." Woman has never + had a Representative. Her Suffrage would put an End to Three + Classes of Laws. Harris _vs._ Butler. Delicate Matters to be + Discussed. The Duke of York's Trial. John Stuart Mill's Opinion. + Dedication of his Essay on Liberty. Women of Upsal. On Juries. Miss + Shedden. Russell on Female Evidence. Fate of the "Bulwarks of the + English Constitution." Power of Women not Disputed while it was + dependent on Property. It should depend on Humanity. Louis XIV. and + the Fish-women. Pauline Roland and Madame Moniot. Men borrow the + Suffrages of Women. Saxon Witas. Abbess Hilda. Council at + Benconceld. King Edgar's Charter. Abbesses in Parliament. Peeresses + in Parliament. East-India Stockholders. Stockholders in Banks. + Association for the Promotion of Social Science. Mrs. Mill's + Article. Florence Nightingale's Evidence. Petition to Parliament, + and its Signers. The New Divorce Bill. Buckle's Lecture. Canadian + Changes. Inconsistencies. Canadian Women as Voters. Pitcairn's + Island. pp. 287-341. + + +III. + +THE UNITED-STATES LAW, AND SOME THOUGHTS ON HUMAN RIGHTS. + + Condition of Women in Republics. Helvetia. Kent on the Law's + Estimate. "The Man's Notion." Property-laws, and Natural Obligations + of Husband and Wife. The Law's Indulgence. Marriage and Divorce in + the Different States. Variety of the Laws. "Cruelty." What have the + Woman's-Rights Party done?--changed the Law in nineteen States. The + Law of Illinois. Rhode Island on Property. Vermont. Connecticut. New + Hampshire. Massachusetts, and what remains to be done. Maine. Ohio. + Judge Graham's Decision. Mrs. Dorr's Claim. New-York Property-bill + of 1860, and its Supplement. Relief to 5,000 Women. Mrs. Stanton + before the Legislature. The Right of Suffrage in New Jersey. + Wisconsin. Michigan. Ohio. Kansas. Connecticut. Kentucky in + Reference to Suffrage. A Woman's Right to Life, Liberty, and the + Pursuit of Happiness. Mrs. John Adams and Hannah Corbin understood + its Worthlessness. Richard Henry Lee on a Woman's Security. "Woman's + Rights,"--a Phrase we all Hate: identical with "Human Rights,"--a + Phrase we all Honor. Reception of Woman in the Lyceum. Labor to be + honored through Woman. Trade to become a _Fine Art_. + Property-holders must have Political Power. Mr. Phillips on + Suffrage. The Lowell Mill. Dr. Hunt's Protests. Mean Men. Woman's + Duty to the State a Moral Duty. Woman's Right to _Man_ as Counsellor + and Friend. The Constitution of the Family. The Historical + Development of the Question. Mary Astell in the Seventeenth Century. + Mary Wollstonecraft in the Eighteenth, and the Customs of Australia. + Responses to her Appeal. Margaret Fuller in the Nineteenth. The + great Lawsuit in 1844. Convention at Seneca Falls in 1848. National + Association in 1850. Profane Inanity. Chinese Women. Does Power + belong to Humanity or to Property? Mahomet, and the Right to Rule. + Wendell Phillips and the Venetian Catechism. pp. 342-374. + + * * * * * + + +TEN YEARS. + + EDUCATION.--Absence of Discussion Wise. American Association for the + Promotion of Social Science. Lectures from the Lowell Institute. + Ripley College. Howard University. Professor Baldwin at Berea. St. + Lawrence University, N.Y. Lombard University, Ill. Oberlin. List of + Colleges it has Organized. Lane Seminary. President Finney. Ladies' + Library. Ladies' Hall. Miss Fanny Jackson. A Confession. Antioch. + Way thither. Yellow Springs. The Glen. Matins. Necessities. Changes + in Buildings, Books, &c. Missionary Work. The Professors. The + Brigadier-General. Literary Societies. A Southern Refugee. Vassar + College. Lawrence University, Kansas. Letter from Miss Chapin. A + Professor Elected. Michigan University. Miss Nightingale's + Training-School for Nurses, Liverpool. Schools in Calcutta. + Deaconesses. Kaiserworth. Strasburg. Basle. St. Loup. Geneva. + Faubourg St. Antoine. Passevant Hospital. Bishop Kerfoot's Schools. + pp. 377-429. + + MEDICAL EDUCATION.--New-York Medical Society. Medical Society in + London. Hospital of the Maternity in Paris. Miss Garrett and + Apothecaries' Hall. Dr. Zakrzewska and the Medical Society. Medical + Lectures at Harvard. Women and the Cossacks. Women and the + Algerines. Women in India. Cause of Cholera. Success of Female + Physicians. Dr. Ross. A Medical College Needed. New-England + Hospital. pp. 429-434. + + PULPIT.--Amélie von Braum. Mamsell Berg. Rev. Olympia Brown. Mrs. + Jenkins. Mrs. Booth. Mrs. Timmins. Ann Rexford. Nancy Gove Cram. + Abigail H. Roberts. Mrs. Hedges. The Church at Amsterdam, and its + Deaconesses. Resolution at Syracuse. Delegates to Local Conferences. + Mrs. Dall. Counsel to Women who desire to preach. pp. 434-447. + + ART SCHOOLS.--Lowell Institute. Cooper Institute. Miss Roundtree and + Miss Curtis. Coloring Photographs. Mrs. Elizabeth Murray and the + London Society of Female Artists. pp. 447-449. + + LABOR.--Statistics of Eight-hour Movement. Factory Labor in England. + Foreign Society for Employment of Women. Mending Schools. A Barber. + Public Clerks. Fanny Paine. Musical Careers. Charlotte Hill. + Williston Button-factory. Madam Clarke. A Capitalist. Mr. Thayer's + Lodging-house for Girls. Young Women's Christian Association. + Lodging-house in New York. Miss Hill's Ruskin Lodging-houses in + London. Female Printers. A Notary Public. pp. 450-468. + + LAW.--Married Women in New York. Right of an Ordained Woman to Marry + in Massachusetts. School Committees. Richmond. Are a Woman's Clothes + her own? State of Missouri. College. Where shall a Woman's Children + go to Church? Francis Jackson's Will. Conference at Leipsic. + Petition to enable Widows, Potter's County, Pa. Women as Bank + Directors. pp. 468-472. + + SUFFRAGE.--Kansas. Missouri in Congress. The Speaker of the House. + Mercantile Library in Philadelphia. Voting in New Jersey. Mr. Parker + at Perth Amboy. A Petition to Kentucky. Equal-Rights Association, + Petitions, &c. George Thompson's Objections. John Stuart Mill and + the Franchise. English Petition a Model. To be sustained by Able + Men. Mrs. Bodichon's Pamphlets. Women Ejected. Austria. Swedish + Reform Bill. Italian Law. The Hungarian Diet. pp. 472-486. + + CIVIL PROGRESS.--Australia. Moravia. Dublin. Aisne. Bergères. Need + of a Newspaper. pp. 486-488. + + OBITUARIES, &C.--Merian. Baring. Farnham. Lemonnier. Dr. Barry. Mrs. + Severn Newton. pp. 488-491. + + The Ballot will secure All Things. A Glimpse of the Wide West. + Vassar and Miss Lyman. Oberlin and Mrs. Dascomb. Dr. Glass. Female + Lecturers. Business Capacity of Women. The Ice in Fox River, Ill. + Cholera at Elgin. Quincy High School. Coloring Photographs at the + Cooper Institute. Conclusion. pp. 491-499. + + + + +THE COLLEGE; + +OR, + +WOMAN'S RELATION TO EDUCATION. + +IN THREE LECTURES. + + +I.--THE CHRISTIAN DEMAND AND THE PUBLIC OPINION. + +II.--HOW PUBLIC OPINION IS MADE. + +III.--THE MEANING OF THE LIVES THAT HAVE MODIFIED IT. + + + + + Now press the clarion on thy woman's lip, + (Love's holy kiss shall still keep consecrate,) + And breathe the fine, keen breath along the brass, + And blow all class-walls level as Jericho's + Past Jordan.... The world's old; + But the old world waits the hour to be renewed. + AURORA LEIGH. + + + _Two_ of far nobler shape, erect and tall,-- + Godlike erect, with native honor clad + In naked majesty,--_seemed lords of all:_ + _And worthy seemed;_ for in their looks divine + The image of their glorious Maker shone,-- + Truth, wisdom, sanctitude severe and pure; + Whence true authority in men. + MILTON. + + + + +THE COLLEGE. + + + + +I. + +THE CHRISTIAN DEMAND AND THE PUBLIC OPINION. + + "Since I am coming to that holy room, + Where, with the choir of saints for evermore, + I shall be made thy music; as I come, + I tune the instrument here at the door, + And what I must do then, think here before." + MACDONALD. + + +To propose an essay on education requires no little courage; for the +term has covered, with its broad mantle, every thing that is stupid, +perverse, and oppressive in literature. We will not tax ourselves, +however, to consider exact theories, or suggest formal dissertations. In +these lectures, let us take all the liberties of conversation; pass, in +brief review, a wide range of subjects; comment lightly, not thoroughly, +upon them; and trust to quick sympathies and intelligent apprehension to +follow out any really useful suggestions that may be made. + +Some time since, we laid down this proposition: "A man's right to +education--that is, to the education or drawing-out of all the faculties +God has given him--involves the right to a choice of vocation; that is, +to a choice of the end to which those faculties shall be trained. The +choice of vocation involves the right and the duty of protecting that +vocation; that is, the right of deciding how far it shall be taxed, in +how many ways legislative action shall be allowed to control it; in one +word, the right to the elective franchise." + +This statement we made in the broadest way; applying it to the present +condition of women, and intending to show, that, the moment society +conceded the right to education, it conceded the whole question, unless +this logic could be disputed. + +Men of high standing have been found to question a position seemingly so +impregnable, but only on the ground that republicanism is itself a +failure, and that it is quite time that Massachusetts should insist upon +a property qualification for voters. + +In this State, so remarkable for its intelligence and mechanical +skill,--a State which has sent regiment after regiment to the +battle-field, armed by the college, rather than the court,--in this +State, one somewhat eminent voice has been heard to whisper, that _men_ +have not this right to education; that the lower classes in this country +are fatally injured by the advantages offered them; that they would be +happier, more contented, and more useful, if left to take their chance, +or compelled to pay for the reading and writing which their employers, +in some kinds, might require. + +We need not be sorry that these objections are so stated. They are a +fair sample of all the objections that obtain against the legal +emancipation of _woman_, an emancipation which Christ himself intended +and prophesied,--speaking always of his kingdom as one in which no +distinctions of sex should either be needed or recognized. Push any +objector to the wall, and he will be compelled to shift his attitude. He +says nothing more about women, but shields himself under the old +autocratic pretension, that man, collectively taken, has _no_ right to +life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness; that republicanism itself is +a failure. + +Our hearts need not sink in view of this assertion, apparently sustained +by a civil war that fixes the suspicious eyes of autocratic Europe in +sullen suspense. A republic, whose foundations were laid in usurpation, +could not expect to stand, till it had, with its own right arm, struck +off its "feet of clay." It is not freedom which fails, but slavery. + +The course of the world is not retrograde. Massachusetts will not call a +convention to insist upon a property qualification for voters, neither +will she close her schoolhouses, nor forswear her ancient faith. The +time shall yet come when she shall free herself from reproach, and +fulfil the prophetic promise of her republicanism, by generous endowment +for her women, and the open recognition of their citizenship. + +It is not our purpose, however, to dwell upon facilities of school +education. More conservative speakers will plead, eloquently as we could +wish, in that behalf; and suggestions on other topics need to be made. + +We have already said, that the educational rights of women are simply +those of all human beings,--namely, "the right to be taught all common +branches of learning, a sufficient use of the needle, and any higher +branches, for which they shall evince either taste or inclination; the +right to have colleges, schools of law, theology, and medicine open to +them; the right of access to all scientific and literary collections, to +anatomical preparations, historical records, and rare manuscripts." + +And we do not make this claim with any particular theory as to woman's +powers or possibilities. She may be equal to man, or inferior to him. +She may fail in rhetoric, and succeed in mathematics. She may be able to +bear fewer hours of study. She may insist on more protracted labor. What +we claim is, that no one knows, as yet, what women are, or what they can +do,--least of all, those who have been wedded for years to that low +standard of womanly achievement, which classical study tends to sustain. +Because we do not know, because experiment is necessary, we claim that +all educational institutions should be kept open for her; that she +should be encouraged to avail herself of these, according to her own +inclination; and that, so far as possible, she should pursue her +studies, and test her powers, in company with man. We do not wish her to +follow _any_ dictation; not ours, nor another's. We ask for her a +freedom she has never yet had. There is, between the sexes, a law of +incessant, reciprocal action, of which God avails himself in the +constitution of the family, when he permits brothers and sisters to +nestle about one hearth-stone. Its ministration is essential to the best +educational results. Our own educational institutions should rest upon +this divine basis. In educating the sexes together under fatherly and +motherly supervision,[1] we avail ourselves of the highest example; and +the result will be a simplicity, modesty, and purity of character, not +so easy to attain when general abstinence from each other's society +makes the occasions of re-union a period of harmful excitement. Out of +it would come a quick perception of mutual proprieties, delicate +attention to manly and womanly habits, refinement of feeling, grace of +manner, and a thoroughly symmetrical development. If the objections +which are urged against this--the divine fashion of training men and +women to the duties of life--were well founded, they would have been +felt long ago in those district schools, attended by both sexes, which +are the pride of New England. The classes recently opened by the Lowell +Institute, under the control of the Institute of Technology, are an +effort in the right direction, for which we cannot be too grateful. +Heretofore, every attempt to give advanced instruction to women has +failed. Did a woman select the most accomplished instructor of men, and +pay him the highest fee, she could not secure thorough tuition. He +taught her without conscience in the higher branches; for he took it +upon himself to assume that she would never put them to practical use. +He treated her desire for such instruction as a caprice, though she +might have shown her appreciation by the distinct bias of her life. We +claim for women a share of the opportunities offered to men, because we +believe that they will never be thoroughly taught until they are taught +at the same time and in the same classes. + +The most mischievous errors are perpetuated by drawing masculine and +feminine lines in theory at the outset. The God-given impulse of sex, if +left in complete freedom, will establish, in time, certain distinctions +for itself; but these distinctions should never be pressed on any +individual soul. Whether man or woman, each should be left free to +choose its own methods of development. We pause, therefore, to show, +that, when we spoke of a certain use of the needle as a matter to be +taught to both sexes, we did so by no inadvertence. The use of the +sewing machine is even now common to both; but men, as well as women, +should be taught to use their fingers for common purposes skilfully. +Personal contact with the pauperism of large cities has sent this +conviction home to many practical minds. + +The rough tippets, mittens, and socks imported into the British +Colonies, are the work of the Welsh farmers and the Shetland fishermen +during the long tempestuous winter nights. In writing to Lady Holland, +Sidney Smith pens some pleasant words on this subject. + +"I wish I could sew," he says. "I believe one reason why women are so +much more cheerful than men is because they can work, and so vary their +employments. Lady ---- used to teach her boys carpet-work. All men ought +to learn to sew." + +All men! and so might the cares of many women be lightened. Let us +candidly confess our own indebtedness to the needle. How many hours of +sorrow has it softened, how many bitter irritations calmed, how many +confused thoughts reduced to order, how many life-plans sketched in +purple! + +Let us pass over that portion of our statement which hints at vocation, +and confine ourselves, for the present, to that part of it which looks +to an unrestricted mental culture. Nowhere is this systematically denied +to women. It is quite common to hear people say, "There is no need to +press that subject. Education in New England is free to women. In +Bangor, Portsmouth, Newburyport, and Boston, they are better Latin +scholars than the men. Nothing can set this stream back: turn and labor +elsewhere." + +We have shown to how very small an extent this statement is true. If it +were true of the mere means of education, education itself is not won +for woman, till it brings to her precisely the same blessings that it +bears to the feet of man; till it gives her honor, respect, and bread; +till position becomes the rightful inheritance of capacity, and social +influence follows a knowledge of mathematics and the languages. Our +deficiency in the last stages of the culture offered to our women made a +strong impression on a late Russian traveller. + +"Is that the best you can do?" said Mr. Kapnist, when he came out of the +Mason-street Normal School for Girls. "It is very poor. In Russia, we +should do better. At Cambridge, you have eminent men in every +kind,--Agassiz, Gray, Peirce. Why do they not lecture to these women? In +Russia, they would go everywhere,--speak to both sexes. At a certain +age, recitation is the very poorest way of imparting knowledge." + +To all adult minds, lectures convey instruction more happily than +recitation; and, when men and women are taught together, the lecture +system is valuable, because it permits the mind to appropriate its own +nutriment, and does not oppress the faculties with uncongenial food. + +To those who are familiar with the whole question, no theme is more +painful than that of the inadequate compensation and depressed position +of the female teacher. There is no need to harp on this discordant +string. Let us strike its key-note in a single story. + +A year ago, in one of the most beautiful towns of this neighborhood, +separated by a grassy common, shaded with drooping elms, rose two ample +buildings, dedicated to the same purpose. They were the High Schools for +the two sexes. + +They were taught by two persons, admirably fitted for their work. The +man, uncommonly happy in imparting instruction, was yet deficient in +mathematics, and considered by competent judges inferior to the woman. + +_She_ was an orphan, with a young sister dependent upon her for +instruction and support. She had been graduated with the highest honors +at one of the State Normal Schools. She was delicate and beautiful; not +in the least "strong-minded." Neither spectacles upon her nose, nor +wooden soles to her boots, appealed to the popular indignation. All who +knew her loved her; and the man whom we have named was not ashamed to +receive instruction from her in geometry and algebra. The two schools +were equal in numbers. The man was a bachelor, subject to no claim +beyond his own necessity. What did common sense and right reason demand, +but that these two persons should be treated alike by society, +prudential committees, and so on? You shall hear what was the fact. The +man was engaged at a salary of fifteen hundred dollars. The wealthiest +class in the community intrusted its sons to his charge without +question. Single, he was made much of in society, invited to parties, +and had his own corner at many a tea-table, which he brightened with his +pleasant jokes. He soon came to be a person in the town,--had his vote, +was valued accordingly; went to church, was put upon committees, had a +great deal to do with calling the new minister, and so, out of school, +had pleasant and varied occupation, which saved his soul from racking to +death over the ruts of the Latin grammar. Would we have it otherwise? +Was it not all right? Certainly it was, and our friend deserved it; +deserved, too, that when the second year was half over, and there were +rumors that a distant city had secured his services, the committee +should raise his salary two hundred and fifty dollars, and so keep him +for themselves. But let us look at the reverse of the picture. The +woman, burdened with the care of a younger sister, greatly this man's +superior in mathematics and possibly in other things, was engaged at six +hundred dollars. It was not customary for the wealthy families in that +neighborhood to trust their girls to the tender mercies of a public +school; so she had a class of pupils less elegant in manner, of more +ordinary mental training, and every way more difficult to control. Still +they were disciplined, and learned to love their teacher. A few of the +parents called upon her, and she was occasionally invited to their +homes. But these homes were not congenial to her tastes or habits. There +was no intellectual stimulus derived from them to brighten her life. +They offered neither pictures, statues, books, nor the results of +travel, to her delicate and yearning appreciation. She talked, for the +most part, of her pupils and their work; and the strain of her vocation, +always heavier on woman than on man, wore more and more upon her soul. +Society, as such, offered her no welcome.[2] + +_She_ was nothing to the town. She hired her seat, and went to church. +She had no vote, was never on a parish committee, had only one chance to +change her position. That was to remove to a more congenial +neighborhood, at a lower salary; but she thought of her young sister, +and refused. If the committee heard of it, they did not offer to +increase her salary. They were men incapable of appreciating her rare +and modest culture. There was a tendency to consumption in her frame. +Had she been happy, she might have resisted it for years, perhaps for +ever; but with the restless pining at her heart, that mental and moral +marasmus, the physical disease soon showed itself. In the commencement +of the third year of her teaching, she began to cough; and, in less than +three months from the day when she heard her last class, she lay in an +early but not unhonored grave. The deep affection of her classmates in +the Normal School had always followed her; and one who chanced to hear +of her illness brightened its rapid decline. This woman, herself +prematurely old, in consequence of twelve years of labor on the Red +River of Louisiana, the only place open to her, where her abilities were +appreciated to the extent of twelve hundred dollars a year, and would +enable her to support a widowed mother,--this woman, with her now-scanty +purse, supplied the invalid with fresh flowers and sweet pictures; and, +when her heavy eye grew weary of gazing, gently closed it in the sleep +of death, scattered rare and fragrant blossoms over her unconscious +form, and followed it to the grave. Those flowers! brought daily to her +teacher's-desk by a friendly or loving hand, they might have fed a +craving heart, and saved a precious life. + +It is no new story. You have heard it many times. Do not reply in the +stale maxims of political economy. Do not say that woman's labor is +cheaper than man's, because it is more abundant. Unskilled labor, we +will grant you, is more abundant; but such labor as is here offered must +always be rare and valuable. To the applicants who came to fill her +vacant place the committee said, "We do not expect to find another +capable as she was. We have only to select one that _will do_." Yet they +had not been ashamed to use that capacity without paying for it! Only +ignorance and prejudice and custom stood in the way of its appreciation; +only the want of that respect which a citizen can always command was at +the bottom of her social isolation. She never complained; but we +complain for her, sadly conscious, that, until men themselves perceive +what is fit, the remonstrances of women will be fruitless. One such word +as that spoken by the Hon. Joseph White at Framingham, in July, 1864, is +worth more than all that women can say. Nevertheless, we women have our +duty. It is to convince and stimulate men. Be on the watch, then, for +such women; and claim for them their place and remuneration. Help +society to understand its duty, to be frank and honorable. And if +certain services are worth, as in this case, seventeen hundred and fifty +dollars a year, pay for equal services, _by whomsoever rendered_, an +equal sum. + +Since I first began to speak upon this subject, a very great change has +taken place: women are put in places which require higher culture and +greater administrative capacity. They are also paid better wages: these +wages are not yet in fair proportion to what are paid to men for the +same work; and the shameful argument is still used, that we employ +women, chiefly because men will not work for the same price. The Roxbury +High School, the Shurtleff Grammar School in Chelsea, the Normal School +at St. Louis, and the Normal School at Framingham, are now under the +charge of women. In the list of teachers from the Oswego School, we find +four who are paid one thousand dollars a year, and eleven who are paid +seven hundred dollars. Our daily press is very well satisfied with this; +but, since 1860, what portion of a decent living will seven hundred +dollars provide to a cultivated woman? When the salaries of the St. +Louis teachers were raised in 1866, the principal was obliged to express +her indignation before her salary was raised to its present sum of two +thousand dollars. Had she been a man, she would certainly have had as +much as the principal of the High School; namely, twenty-seven hundred +and fifty dollars. A graduate of Antioch College, assisting in the High +School at St. Louis, has twelve hundred dollars, where a man would have +seventeen hundred dollars. Miss Brackett's own assistants in the Normal +School have eleven hundred dollars. + +The appointment of Miss Johnson to the head of the Normal School at +Framingham will open the way to a similar change in many quarters, if +what Governor Bullock has not disdained to call the "policy of +Massachusetts" is consistently carried out. I do not know what salary is +offered to Miss Johnson; but, if it were equal to that of the man who +preceded her, would not the newspapers have told us? The comparative +value of these salaries is not shown by the figures. It depends on the +prices of gold, and of food and provisions, each year. It cannot be half +as great as an inexperienced person would think. + +There is a great want of female teachers of Latin and French. School +committees assure me, that proficients in language would be certain of +good pay in our high schools. For the most part, women prefer to devote +themselves to mathematics. I used to say, with a smile, in the Western +States, that all the women could read the "Mécanique Céleste;" but they +found Cæsar and Télémaque equally uninteresting. Later, Colonel +Higginson bears witness to the impossibility of getting good classical +teachers. + +It is a common idea, that the standard of education is higher now than +it was thirty years ago. It may be doubted. More things are taught in +schools,--ologies, isms, and the like; but the most thorough teachers +are not the most popular, and it may be questioned, whether in the best +minds on the Continent, in England, or this country, so great progress +has been made as has been generally claimed. There is much more +liberality in regard to the general question, but no more in regard to +the ideal standard. + +In one of Niebuhr's letters to Madame Hensler, he says, in speaking of +Klopstock: "The character of the women is a remarkable feature of the +time of Klopstock's youth. The cultivation of the mind was carried +incomparably farther with them than with nearly all the young women of +our days; and this we should scarcely have expected to find in the +cotemporaries of our grandmothers. It was not, therefore, the influence +of our native literature; for that first rose into being along with, and +under the influence of, the love inspired by these charming maidens. For +some time after the Thirty Years' War, the ladies of Germany, +particularly those of the middle classes, were excessively coarse and +uneducated. This wonderful alteration must have taken place, therefore, +during eighty years,--between 1660 and 1740; though we are quite +ignorant how and when it began." + +Passing over to France, we encounter the reputation of Madame de Sablé; +a woman, let me remark, for the benefit of those who are afraid that the +march of education will deprive them of their dinners, as celebrated for +her exquisite cooking and delicate confections as she was for her +literary ability. In speaking of her, Cousin says: "All the literature +of maxims and thoughts, including those of La Rochefoucauld, grew up in +the _salon_ of a lovely woman withdrawn into a convent. Having no +earthly pleasure but that of reliving her life, she knew how to impart +her own taste to society, in which she met by chance an accomplished +wit, whom she contrived to turn into a great writer." He is speaking of +the early part of the seventeenth century; and, in spite of the +notorious dissipation of the period, many gifted and many virtuous women +crowded her _salon_,--the Princess Palatine, the Princesses of Condé, de +Conti, de Longueville, and Schomberg, Anna de Rohan, and Mademoiselle +herself. There the gentlemen carried the pages they wrote at home, and +not only bore with, but accepted, the criticisms of the women. They had +no compensation but their praises, unless, like La Rochefoucauld, they +were cunning enough to demand a carrot pottage or some preserved plums +in exchange for a page of literature. In England, it is not necessary to +avail ourselves of an exceptional education, like that of Lady Jane +Grey. Remembering the noble culture of Elizabeth Tudor and Mary Stuart, +of the sturdy women of the Commonwealth, we might surely expect a +greater progress in the national idea. But, if its average could be +found, neither the wife of John Hampden nor Lady Russell would accept +it. It would seem that our standard advances, if at all, by a series of +Hugh Miller's parabolic curves. What we find, depends upon the point at +which we happen to test the eccentric arc; and, when we enter the +nineteenth century, we are forced to take refuge in analogy, and ask, +"If the ancient Egyptians _ever_ mastered the Copernican idea, why +should Galileo be imprisoned to-day for insisting that the sun does not +move round the earth?" The stimulating examples of noble and educated +women, which now present themselves, do not cheer us as they should, +while they remain exceptions. In making what Dickens would call an +"indiscriminate and incontinent" excursion, into the regions of female +thought and literature, we find its atmosphere in a somewhat +unventilated condition, and are reminded of an opinion of the Druses +which does not seem to have been wholly impertinent, that "literature is +a mean and contemptible occupation, _fit only for women_." Twenty years +ago, when ties of an almost filial tenderness linked us to the household +of the late Judge Cranch, we have often followed him, unrecognized, of a +Saturday afternoon, when, returning from the bench, he climbed Capitol +Hill, one hand grasping the handle of some colored washerwoman's basket, +or slinging her heavy bundle over his shoulder on a stick. The dear +remembrance, sustained by all the sweet and delicate courtesies of his +private life, has always lain side by side in our mind with that +exquisite Essay of Elia to which he first directed our attention, in +which a noble reverence to woman is inculcated, and we are taught to +judge every man's respect for the sex by his demeanor towards its +humblest representative. Yet, if Judge Cranch never swerved from his +gracious dignity, Charles Lamb did. Woman had not gained, in his +lifetime, such a hold upon her intellectual rights, that a dinner +company dared chide him, when he said of Letitia Landon, "If she +belonged to me, I would lock her up, and feed her on bread and water, +till she gave up writing poetry. A female poet, or female author of any +kind, ranks below an actress, _I_ think." + +We do not quote these words so much against Lamb himself,--for the lips +of Mary Lamb's brother must have been thick with wine, when, with +"stammering, insufficient sound," he included her in so sweeping a +reprobation,--but to indicate the nature of that public opinion which is +even now dwarfing the ideals of the best men; to show how little +reliance is to be placed on the standard of the most generous, when a +remark like this, uttered in a large literary circle, passes without +criticism, and is recorded without conscious mortification,--recorded, +too, by the father of that Coventry Patmore, who has known how to offer +us, in later times, sugar-plums of his own _coloring_--let us add of his +own _poisoning_ also--under the alluring names of "betrothals" and +"espousals." How far the _facts_ are from the ideal standard, Mrs. +Jameson, in a lecture lately delivered, will help us to show. + +"With all our schools," she says, "of all denominations, it remains an +astounding fact, that _one-half_ of the women who annually become +_wives_, in this England of ours, cannot sign their names in the parish +register; and that this amount of ignorance in the lower classes is +accompanied with an amount of ill-health, despondency, inaptitude, and +uselessness in the so-called educated classes, which, taken together, +prove that our boasted appliances are to a great extent failures." + +The ancient standard of Italy was very high, even in the fifteenth +century, if we consider only the literary skill or mathematical culture +frequently desired and attained; but Anna Maria Mozzoni may congratulate +herself on having given a moral and social impetus to it, which it has +never before received. Her wise, considerate, philosophical suggestions +will meet the cordial welcome of all right-minded women. If followed +out, they will create nobler women than Tambroni or Laura Veratti.[3] + +There was no institution in England for the proper training of sick +nurses, when Florence Nightingale went to Kaiserworth, a small town near +Düsseldorf, on the Rhine, to prepare herself to take charge of the +Female Sanitorium. In Great Britain, at this moment, the excess of the +female population over the male amounts to five hundred thousand souls; +and from all directions we hear the cry, that _men_ need educated +assistants. What is the country doing to answer this cry, to educate her +five hundred thousand women? In 1825 Dr. Gooch made a noble appeal to +the English public, in behalf of educating women to be nurses; but there +was no response. When the first school of design was started, a petition +was drawn up and _signed_, praying that women might not be taught, at +the expense of the Government, arts which would interfere with the +employment of men, and "take the bread out of _their_ mouths"! + +Here was an absurd interference with the right of _feeding_, on the +part of these petitioners! As if women did not want bread as well as +men; and being, according to authority, the less intelligent and weaker +sex, one would suppose that to help them to find it might be a part of +that protection to which the Government stands pledged, and for which +their property is taxed. + +"But," says Mrs. Jameson, "if a petition were drawn up, and handed to +medical men, praying that women should not be trained as nurses, nor +taught the laws of health, I am afraid there are well-intentioned men, +who would, at the time, be induced to sign it; but I believe that +twenty, nay, even ten years hence, they would look back upon their +signatures with as much disgust and amazement as is now excited by the +attempt to explode and sneer down the school at Marlborough House." + +Another noble English woman, Mrs. Barbara Leigh Bodichon, in a recent +pamphlet called "Woman and Work," gives us the correspondence between +Jessie Meriton White and the various medical schools to which she +applied for admission. This lady had for several years had charge of two +little lame children, one of them her own nephew. The latter, on account +of some structural defect, had broken his leg sixteen times. Once, when +suitable attendance was not to be had, his aunt set and splintered it +herself. The physician who examined it advised her to apply for +instruction. She applied to fourteen medical institutions in the city +of London, asking sometimes for _private_ anatomical instruction. The +correspondence with four colleges in the year 1856 is given,--from the +St. George's, the Royal College of Surgeons, St. Bartholomew's Hospital, +and the University of London. It amply bears out her assertion, that she +was nowhere met with solid objections, or with sensible and logical +replies. Sometimes she was told of the _indelicacy_ of her request! The +University of London, which was legally bound by its charter to receive +her, treated her as coolly as the rest; and in no case was any +individual regret expressed for the official decision. + +Indelicacy, forsooth! Where can we find it, if not in the impure nature +which raises the objection, and the low manner of thinking in general +society which consents to receive it? May not the mother, who receives +her naked new-born child from the hand of God, fitly ask to understand +the liabilities of its little frame? May not the wife, called in seasons +of sickness to the most delicate and trying duties, modestly ask for +that thorough culture which alone can make those duties easy? And who +make this objection? Men who go shuddering and half-drunken into the +dissecting room, to scatter vile jests above that prostrate temple of +the Holy Ghost! Men who see nothing in the exquisite development of +God's creation, but the reflection of their own obscene lives! Students +who know no better way to steel their courage to the use of the scalpel +than to play at foot-ball on the college green with a human skull, +holding its dignity to the level of their own honor![4] + +The best hope that Jessie Meriton White has for England is, that some of +the most distinguished professors shall consent in time to take classes +of female students. + +The office of the physician is as holy as that of the priest: formerly +they were one; now, at least, the physician should be priest-like. +Irreverence and impurity should be banished from medical ranks. The +science of medicine stands in great need of the intuitive genius of +woman. In pursuing it, she will need the steady caution of man. In this +country and in France, earnest and devoted students of both sexes have +stood in the dissecting room to the benefit of both. So let them +continue to stand, till the spirit is known by its fruits. An impure man +is no better than an impure woman; but impurity among men may be +concealed. Let it come between the two sexes, and it will be brought at +once into antagonism with society, and will meet its true desert. The +objection reveals the secrets of the medical college, and is the +strongest argument ever offered for the medical education of women. + +If women are to practise as physicians, some means should be taken to +protect society against those who are imperfectly educated. _What a +degree means_ will always be doubtful, until men and women receive +their degrees in the same way and from the same hands. America stands +greatly in need of this protection. Crowds of unauthorized, +half-educated women, some of whom have not been ashamed to cross the +Atlantic, and have attracted such sympathy abroad as only a different +class of students deserve, are thronging the valley of the Mississippi, +as well as haunting with their empirical pretensions the purlieus of the +seaboard cities. If men had received properly trained women into their +colleges and medical societies, this would not have happened. Cannot +such physicians as Dr. Zakrzewska, Dr. Blackwell, Dr. Sewall, Dr. Tyng, +and Dr. Ross of Milwaukie, unite to organize a Woman's Medical Society, +with an examining board whose diploma shall attest the character of the +member? Dr. Storer's admirable pamphlet entitled "Why not?" points out +an evil, which will never be remedied by thrusting empirical women into +the positions now held by unscrupulous men.[5] + +And what have we to say of our own country? Has the American standard +reached a safe altitude, or must we admit that it has the same +limitations? A popular width of view we have certainly gained in the +last half-century; but have we made secure progress in the right +direction? Some eighty years ago, John Adams wrote of his wife, "This +lady was more beautiful than Lady Russell, had a brighter genius, more +information, and more refined taste, and was at least her equal in +virtues of the heart, in fortitude and firmness of character, in +resignation to the will of Heaven, and in all the virtues and graces of +the Christian life. Like Lady Russell, she never discouraged her husband +from running all hazards for the salvation of his country's liberties; +she was willing to share with me, and that her children should share +with us both, in all the dangerous consequences we had to hazard." + +Will America ever offer to the world a nobler picture? Is it at this +moment above or below our average ideal? "With such a mother," said John +Quincy Adams, in Boston, less than twenty years ago, "with such a +mother, it has been the perpetual instruction of my life to love and +reverence the female sex; but I have been taught also--and the lesson is +still more deeply impressed--I have been taught _not_ to flatter them." +Noble words! Gentlemen to whom it falls to deliver annually +Normal-school addresses would do well to take a lesson from them. They +would wince a little, could they hear the criticisms of the indignant +girls upon their actual advice and praise. How would these men have +liked it, if at fifteen they had been addressed as fathers of an unborn +generation, whose especial duty it was to adapt themselves to this +sphere? And why should men complain, that women look to marriage, and +marriage only, as salvation, if the whole tenor of their own influence +is used to emphasize it as woman's "manifest destiny"? "Are there not +_two_ married, and where is the one?" What propriety is there in +assuming, in advance, that the sphere which married life opens has a +stronger hold on one sex than the other? + +We have said enough to show, that in Germany, France, England, and +America, the ideal standard of education was sufficiently high over a +century ago. Why has not such actual progress been made as might have +been expected? + +Because _public opinion_ has constantly thwarted the ideal growth. +Educated women have, for the most part, wanted courage to do what is +right, unless sustained by men. In education, for the duties of which +they are acknowledged to be superior, they have never insisted on the +changes they knew to be necessary, but have uniformly succumbed to the +masculine idea. Shall we blame them? Is a conflict in the heart of a +family a pleasant thing? Certainly, the hand which the magnanimous +sympathy of men has set free cannot cast the first stone. The slowness +and faithlessness of men too often paralyzes the best efforts of women. +The faith which Isabella showed Columbus, would be, at this moment, a +grateful return from them. Charles Lamb has shown us how valueless to +the working woman the support of delicate sentiment may be. The ringing +of the glasses round a table dulled his exquisite ear to the fine +spheral harmonies it had once caught. He broke, in an after-dinner tilt, +the very lance with which he had pierced to the heart of the enemy's +shield. If the ideal standard makes no headway against public opinion, +what encouragement to our hopes does common life offer? + +As exquisite beauty of water, hill, and dale lies hidden in many a +country hamlet, unheeded by the guidebook, unsuspected by the traveller +on the turnpike road; so, in society, self-sacrifice, noble daring, and +saintly perseverance, nestle behind the prominent failure. We find them +everywhere, except where we should most naturally look for them. + +There is in England a Society for the Promotion of Female Education in +the East. It undertakes to do _abroad_ precisely the work that its +individual members refuse to assist the community to do at home. +Consequently, their printed schemes read like satires on their +individual convictions. In the year 1835, Miss Alice Holliday called the +attention of this society to the condition of women in Egypt and +Abyssinia. She asked their sanction to her attempt to educate the women +of Egypt, with an ultimate view to those of Abyssinia, whose condition +chiefly interested her. She had pursued a severe course of study, +unfriended and alone, before she asked this help. She had studied the +severe sciences, the antiquities and customs of the countries +themselves, and the Arabic and Coptic languages. She was fortunate also +in stirring the enthusiasm of a certain Miss Rogers, who, unable to +teach, was yet willing to accompany her friend, and devote her fortune +to their mutual support. As these ladies wanted no money from the +society they consulted, they were received as agents without difficulty, +and reached Alexandria in the autumn of 1836. At this time Miss Holliday +wrote: "The condition of the Coptic women is truly lamentable. Their +abodes are like the filthiest holes in London; yet their persons are +decked out in the most costly apparel. I have seen ladies sitting at +their latticed windows, their heads and necks adorned with pearls and +diamonds of the highest value, their bodies covered with the richest +silks and velvets, while the room they occupied was the most disgusting +scene you can imagine. Smoking and sleeping occupy their time. Female +schools have never had an existence, and the prejudice against them is +very strong." + +We can recall the argument used in those Eastern lands, and the answer +which civilization offered. "I am afraid to teach my women," said the +Turk: "they are already crafty and impure. To gather them into public +places is to offer a premium on immodesty, and a temptation to +misconduct." The Christian answered proudly, "We can trust our women; +yes, even in Paris and London." + +Soon after their arrival, Miss Rogers died; but her friend was not +discouraged. In the following March, an officer of state, Hekekyan +Effendi, came to inquire whether she would take charge of the royal +women, one hundred in number, and the nearest relatives of the +sovereign. Much depended, it was thought, upon the co-operation of the +oldest daughter, Nas-lee Hanoom; and it was His Highness's desire that +the heads of the family should be formed into a committee to extend +female schools. See how this Mohammedan officer writes to Miss Holliday. + +"You have no doubt read much about hareems," he says, "yet little, I +fear, that resembles the truth. We pay great respect to women and aged +persons, whatever may be our own rank. Our children, however, are +uneducated, in the European sense of the term. Besides being illiterate, +they know nothing of domestic economy; and, in the middling and lower +classes of the community, this ignorance is so profound as to endanger, +by its dire consequences, domestic health, peace, and prosperity. This +want is the first cause of slavery and its concomitant vices. In +seconding the illustrious efforts of Mehemet Ali, I have been able to +trace our debasement as a nation to _no other cause_ than the want of a +useful and efficient moral education for our women. In giving to them +enlightened education, we shall be striking at the root of the evils +that afflict us; we shall diminish the dangers and misfortunes which +proceed from ignorance and idleness. Habits of industry, cleanliness, +order, and economy, by increasing happiness, make us morally better, and +will secure that moral training to our children which no subsequent +effort is sufficient to replace." + +So true is it that the value of words is comparative, that all this +might have been written by some Secretary of the Board of Education in +Massachusetts. The arguments of the Turk and Effendi are very familiar +to us. Modern civilized society shuts women out of schools to protect +their modesty. Modern professors tell us how much they respect women, +and value material training, at the very moment when they bar the gates +of life against her. On the 27th of March, 1838, Miss Holliday went in +state to the hareem. She was preceded by the two janissaries attached to +the English Consulate, bearing their silver wands of office, and +accompanied by the wife of Hekekyan. In the ante-room they were regaled +with coffee out of golden cups set with diamonds. Young Georgian girls +of great beauty brought sherbet and massive pipes with amber +mouth-pieces. They were then introduced to the Princess Nas-lee, a +little woman about forty, simply dressed; and, before the interview +ended, Alice had promised to spend four hours of every day in the +hareem. She began with instruction that tended to civilize daily life; +and boxes of embroidery and baby-clothes, made for patterns in England, +excited the first lively interest. She declined all invitations to take +up her abode in the hareem, although promised entire liberty. She was +_humble_, and, as a consequence, _wise_. She did not expect great +results, or look for much enthusiasm, in the hareem. + +In August, she writes: "My visits have been attended with the most +cheering success. I am received and honored with every possible +distinction; but, added to my school, it is a great fatigue." Her +character in every way sustained the effect of her teaching. She was +offered thirty pounds a month for her attendance at the hareem, but +thought ten pounds sufficient, and would accept no more. In October, a +box of presents was received from England. When Hekekyan was invited to +look into this box, he seized upon some scientific plates sent to the +young princess. "Ah!" said he, "these are the things we need." The Pacha +was captivated, in his turn, by an orrery, and a model of the Thames +Tunnel. The hareem sent back a similar box, and Nas-lee herself worked a +scarf for the queen. Miss Holliday was soon ordered to translate some of +her books into Turkish; and her princesses wrote touching letters to +their English friends. Soon after, we find this indefatigable woman +teaching English, French, drawing, and writing, in the hareem of a late +Governor of Cairo. Education must begin with languages; for Egypt has no +literature to offer to her children. In 1840 Victoria sent to the hareem +a portrait of herself, which was carried in procession and hung with +proper honors by the side of that of the pacha. Very soon came an +Egyptian Society for the Promotion of Female Education. Scientific +instruments and books were ordered. An infant school began with one +hundred and fifty children. The hareem demanded another teacher, and +Mrs. Lieder was sent out. In 1844 a male school was formed, and European +teachers imported. The young girls, who had begun with needle-work eight +years before, were now studying Turkish, Persian, and Arabic, geography, +arithmetic, and drawing. "What a change," writes Alice in 1846,--"what a +change within the last ten years! When I came to Egypt, there was not a +woman who could read; and now some hundreds have not only the power, but +the best books. Year after year, I have been permitted to see the growth +of a new civilization. What a change has come over the royal family +since I first entered it! The desire for trifles is preparing the way +for our noblest gifts; and a fatal blow has been struck at the whole +system of hareems." It would be pleasant to trace this devoted woman +farther, to know whether she still lives, and if she has reached the +Abyssinian plains. In this humble way began the great educational +movement in Egypt, which gave strength and vitality to Mehemet Ali's +best-considered plans, which has sent scores of young princes to Paris, +and will eventually change the face of the whole land. + +Alice Holliday succeeded, because the "sinews of war"--namely, the +"purse-strings"--were in her own hands. Very similar in spirit was the +enterprise of Madame Luce in Algiers, of which Madame Bodichon has given +an interesting account. Madame Luce went to Algiers, soon after the +conquest, about 1834, and was probably a teacher in the family of one of +the resident functionaries. In 1845, nearly nine years after Alice had +begun her Egyptian labors, Madame Luce was a widow, with very little +money to devote to the work on which she had set her heart; namely, a +school to civilize the women of Algiers. Government was already +beginning to instruct the men; but the Mohammedan dread of proselytism +stood in their way. The women were in the worst state,--closely veiled, +taught no manual arts, having no skill in housekeeping even,--for the +simple life of a warm climate, the scanty furniture, give no scope for +such skill. To wash their linen, to clamber over the roofs to make +calls, to offer coffee and receive it, to dress very splendidly at +times, very untidily always, was the synopsis of their lives. They did +not know their own ages, yet were liable to be sold in marriage at the +age of ten. Upon such material, and at such a time,--when the value of a +Moorish woman was estimated, like that of a cow, _by her +weight_,--Madame Luce undertook to work. She had a Christian courage in +her heart, which might put many a man to shame. + +While laying her plans, she had perfected herself in the native tongue, +and now commenced a campaign among the families of her acquaintance, +coaxing them to trust their little girls to her for three or four hours +a day, that they might be taught to read and write French, and also to +sew neatly. Her presents, her philanthropic tact, her solemn promise not +to interfere in matters of religion, won for her, at length, four little +girls, whom she took to her own hired house without a moment's delay. As +the rumor of her success spread, one child after another dropped in, +till she had more than thirty. Finding the experiment answer beyond her +hopes, she was compelled to demand assistance of the local government. +Men have no faith in quixotic undertakings. As might have been expected, +they complimented Madame Luce upon her energy, saw no use in educating +Moorish women, and declined to assist her. She waited, in breathless +suspense, till the day on which the Council were to meet, bribing the +parents, clothing the children, and pursuing her noble work. "Surely," +she thought, "they _will_ devise some plan;" but the twilight of the +30th of December closed in, and they had not even alluded to her school. +On the 1st of January, 1846, it was closed. Nine hundred miles from +Paris, without the modern conveniences of transport, what do you suppose +this woman did? Could she give up? She scorned an offer of personal +remuneration made by a few gentlemen, and told them that what she wanted +was adequate support for a national work. She pawned her plate, her +jewels, even a gold thimble, and set off for Paris, where she arrived +early in February, and sent in her report to the Minister of War. She +went in person from deputy to deputy, detailing her plans. Poor Madame +Luce! her success was not quite so speedy as Alice Holliday's, whose +schools had doubtless stimulated her efforts. Everywhere she had to +combat the scepticism, the indifference, the inertia, of worldly men. +There was no Miss Rogers, with a kind heart and a long purse, to help +her on her way. Nor did Madame Luce desire that there should be. She +knew that individual efforts of such a kind can never last long; and she +was determined to make the government adopt and become responsible for +her work. Then it would outlive her. Then it might redeem the nation. At +last, daylight began to dawn. The government gave her three thousand +francs for her journey, and eleven hundred more on account of some claim +of her deceased husband. They urged her return to Algiers, and promised +still farther support. So perseveringly had she wrought, that, early in +June, she was able to re-open her school, amid the rejoicings of parents +and children. It was seven months before the government contrived to put +the school on a better foundation. During this time, her pupils +constantly increased, and she was put to the greatest straits to keep it +together. The Curé of Algiers gave her a little money and a great deal +of sympathy. The Count Guyot, high in office, helped her from his own +purse. When she was entirely destitute, she would send one of her +negresses to him, and he would send her enough for the day. On one +occasion, he sent a small bag of money, left by the Duc de Nemours for +the benefit of a journal which had ceased to exist. She found in this +two hundred francs, which she received as a direct gift from Heaven. +Thus she got along from hand to mouth. She engaged an Arab mistress, who +was remarkably cultivated, to assist her, and to train the children in +her own faith. Pledged as she was not to instruct them in Christianity, +she had the sense to see, what few would have admitted, that such +instruction was not only necessary, but desirable. It gave them the +knowledge of one God, and made clear distinctions between right and +wrong. At last, in January, 1847, the school was formally adopted, and +received its first visit of inspection. The gentlemen were received by +thirty-two pupils, and the Arab mistress _unveiled_; a great triumph of +common sense, if we consider how short a time the school had been +opened. Since that time, the work has steadily prospered. In 1858 it +numbered one hundred and twenty pupils, between the ages of four and +eighteen. The practical wisdom of Madame Luce led her to establish a +workshop, where the older pupils learned the value of their labor, and +earned a good deal of money. They had always a week's work in advance, +when the wise, slow government put an end to it, whether to save the +thirty-five pounds a year, which the salary of its superintendent cost, +or to prevent competition with the nunneries, Madame Luce has never +known. _She_ thought it the best part of her plan,--far better than +teaching the girls to turn a French phrase neatly for the satisfaction +of inspectors. The government are now beginning to understand her value. +They have established a second school in Algiers, and several in the +provinces. The results are not miraculous, but they plant new germs of +moral power and thought in every family circle which they touch. Such +names as those of Alice Holliday and Madame Luce have a great value. +These women and their labors are permeated by the Christian idea of +self-surrender. The preponderance of this idea in these examples +distinguishes them above women of the past, whether German _exaltadas_, +brilliant adventurers amid the perils of the Froude, or witty loiterers +in the _salon_ of Madame de Sablé. + +La Rochefoucauld, who was proud of Mademoiselle and her princesses, +would only have sneered at Madame Luce; nor would Lady Russell, nor Mrs. +John Adams, have followed Alice to Egypt cheerfully. Nor do these two +women belong to the army of saints and martyrs. A religious devotee has +in her a mistaken enthusiasm, and goes _away from_ the world. These +women are doing the work of saints and martyrs with a far higher +appreciation of God's providence, of the uses of this world, and with +all the hindrances that fall to the lot of simple human beings. It is +not our intention to multiply such instances here: they belong, rather, +to the illustrations of individual power. We must not forget, however, +the existence, in England, of that circle of women, of whom Mrs. +Bodichon, Mrs. Hugo Reid, Mrs. Browning, Mrs. Fox, Mrs. Jameson, and +Bessie Raynor Parkes, are honorable examples. We have such lives as +those of Mrs. Gaskell and Miss Evans; the scientific reputation not +alone of Mrs. Somerville, but of Mrs. Griffith, to whose masculine power +of research English marine botany may be said to owe its existence, and +who still survives, at an advanced age, to see that knowledge becomes +popular, in her cheerful and honored decline, which she pursued, for +many a year, unassisted and alone. We have Mrs. Janet Taylor, one of the +best and most popular teachers of navigation and nautical mathematics in +all England. Her classes have been celebrated and numerously attended by +men who have been long at sea, as well as by youths preparing for the +merchant service; and, still farther, we have in cultivated circles, to +balance the old prejudice, an encouraging liberality. A review, +published in the Westminster, after the issue of Miss Martineau's +pamphlet on the future government of India, shows conclusively that any +woman who will do _good_ work may feel sure of honest appreciation. If +she does poor work, she will only the more provoke the enemy. Nothing +could have been more ambitious than Miss Martineau's theme; but, when +she showed herself well qualified to handle it, no one had any +disposition to consider the choice unwomanly. Such criticisms are the +exponents of the century's experience. They betray the unconscious +drift of the public mind. A book is modest by the side of a pamphlet. +The former may wait its day: the latter aspires to immediate influence, +if it does any thing,--must mould the hour. It was once the chosen +weapon of Milton and Bolingbroke, later of Ward and Brougham. Is it +nothing, that a woman of advanced years, writing from an invalid's +chamber, feels herself competent to wield it? Was it nothing, when, by +her tracts on political economy, she gave an impulse to the middle +classes of her native land, for which busy political men could not find +time? + +Is it not Godwin who says that "human nature is better read in romance +than history"? Every actual life falls short of its ideal; but a poem +dares demand some approximation to its standard from the whole world. In +this way, "Aurora Leigh," into which Mrs. Browning confesses she has +thrown her whole heart, is a wonderful indication of human thought and +feeling. In this country, there are many significant signs of progress. +The name of Maria Mitchell in astronomy; of the women engaged in the +Coast Survey; of the professors at Antioch, Vassar, and Oberlin,--are +familiarly known, and have their own power. Only lately, a Nashua +factory-girl takes the highest honors at the Oread Institute; and its +principal is willing to put her and two other graduates into competition +with any three college graduates in New England for examination +according to the curriculum. When she finished the education she had +first earned the money to procure, she left her Worcester home, and, +with quiet right-mindedness, went back to Nashua to labor for an +indigent family. As she tends her loom on the Jackson Corporation, she +will have leisure to investigate her _right_ to these acquisitions. + +In support of this "exception," the superintendent of the New-York City +Schools, long ago, reported, that its female schools, whether by merit +of teachers or pupils or both, are of a much higher grade than the male +schools. Eighteen girls'-schools are superior, in average attainment, to +the very best boys'-school. He goes on to speak of the rapidity with +which women acquire knowledge, in terms which remind us of Margaret +Fuller, when she remarks of Dr. Channing, that it was not very pleasant +to read to him; "for," said she, "he takes in subjects more deliberately +than is conceivable to us feminine people, with our habits of ducking, +diving, or flying for truth." In speaking of her classes at Vassar +College, Miss Mitchell says (1865): "I have a class of seventeen pupils, +between the ages of sixteen and twenty-two. They come to me for fifty +minutes every day. I allow them great freedom in questioning, and I am +puzzled by them daily. They show more mathematical ability, and more +originality of thought, than I had expected. I doubt whether young men +would show as deep an interest. Are there seventeen students in Harvard +College who take mathematical astronomy, do you think?" + +At the session of the Michigan Legislature, held in 1857-8, petitions +were received, asking that women might be permitted to enjoy all the +advantages of the State University. The committee to whom the subject +was referred, took counsel with the older colleges at the East, whose +whole spirit and method is as much opposed to such an idea as that of +Oxford. The result was, that they reported against any change for the +present,--a report the more to be regretted, as Ann Arbor has a broader +University foundation than any institution within the limits of the +United States. The University has lately petitioned for a larger +endowment, and again an effort has been made to secure its advantages +for women; Theodore Tilton pleading before the committee in their +behalf, in February, 1867. We know of twenty-seven colleges in the +United States, open to men and women, of which Oberlin was the noble +pioneer.[6] + +The highest culture has been claimed for women: it has been shown, that, +for two centuries, the ideal of such a culture has existed, but has been +depressed by an erroneous public opinion. There has, however, been a +steady growth in the right direction, which entitles us to ask for a +"revised and corrected" public opinion. The influence of mental culture +is a small thing by the side of that insinuating atmospheric power and +the customs of society which it controls. All educated men and women, +all liberal souls, therefore, should do their utmost to invigorate +public opinion. To allow no weakness to escape us, to challenge every +falsehood as it passes, to brave every insinuation and sneer, is what +duty demands. Can you not bear to be called "women's-rights women"? To +whom has the name ever been agreeable? Society gives the lie to your +purest instincts, and you bear it. It calls the truths you accept hard +names, and you are dumb. It throws stones, and you shrink behind some +ragged social fence, leaving a few weak women to stand the assault +alone. + +What influence has the highest literary character of America, at this +moment, on the popular idea of women? "How much is there that we may not +say _aloud_," wrote Niebuhr to Savigny, "for fear of being stoned by the +stupid _good_ people!" and upon this principle the thinkers of our +society act; not a word escaping from their guarded homes to cheer the +more exposed workers. + +Prescott stabbed Philip II. to the heart without a qualm. Ticknor could +give a life to the romance of old Spain. Froude has defended Henry VIII. +Our best poets sing verses that enslave, since the song of beauty echoes +always among tropical delights. "Barbara Frietchie" alone has been +written for us. When George Curtis blows his clarion, a courtly throng +come at the call. We yield with the rest to the charm of the lips on +which Attic bees once clustered. What honor do we pay the fair +proportions of the simple truth? + +How can we settle questions of right and wrong for remote periods, +without knowing the faces of either in the street to-day? How shall any +one honor Margaret of Parma, and pity poor crazy Joan in Spain, and have +no heart for the heroism of Mary Patton? How unravel with patient study +the _tracasseries_ of Elizabeth Tudor and Mary Stuart, yet ignore the +complications of the life he himself lives? + +When Mary Patton had carried her ship round Cape Horn,--standing in a +parlor where the air was close, though the breezes that entered at its +open casement swept the Common as they came, a woman told, with newly +kindled enthusiasm, the story of that wonderful voyage. She gave her, in +warm words, her wifely and womanly due. "She saved the ship, God bless +her!" she said as she concluded; and another voice, that once was sweet, +responded, "More shame to her!" + +"'More shame to her!'" repeated the first speaker, as if she had been +struck a sudden blow; and turning quickly towards the girl, beautiful, +well educated, carefully reared, who, in the fulness of her twenty +summers, found time for church-going, for clothing the poor, for elegant +study, for every thing but sympathy,--"More shame!" she repeated: "What! +for saving life and property?"--"Better that they should all have gone +to the bottom," returned her friend, "than that one woman should step +out of her sphere!" Ah! the Infinite Father knows how to educate the +public opinion that we need. Now and then he lifts a woman, as he did +Mary Patton, against her will out of her ordinary routine; and, while +all the world gaze at her with tender sympathy, they half accept the +coming future. + +Does it sadden you, that we should repeat such words? They did not shock +the ears on which they fell; they met no farther rebuke than one +astonished question. Yet what did they represent? Not the public opinion +of Mary Patton. The New-York underwriters, when they voted her a +thousand dollars, were a fit gauge of that. It was the public opinion of +the "right of vocation" that the young girl unconsciously betrayed. +Harsh words die on our lips, as we think, "This girl's life is aimless. +_She_ would gladly do some noble work, but society does not help her. +She lacks courage to stand alone, and envies the very woman she +decries." + +"Public opinion is of slow growth," you retort: "do not charge its +corruptions on the people of to-day." + +The people of to-day are responsible for any corruptions which they do +not reject. + +We have seen that the standard of womanly education does not lead where +it should, because controlled by a public opinion which demands too +little. It becomes us here to investigate the origin of that public +opinion, and to ask the meaning of the lives which have been lived in +its despite. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] This does not mean the supervision of father and mother, but that + into colleges, universities, medical schools, and whatever educational + institutions may be named, the controlling and protecting influence of + both sexes should be carried. I believe that every university should + have a cultivated and elegant woman (not necessarily the _wife_ of any + of its officers), whose duty it should be to preside over its social + life, and offer such allurements to virtuous pleasure that + gambling-houses and worse shall lose their present fascinations. If + young men could associate with virtuous and lovely women, under + suitable sanction, in their college life, they would not, in general, + go out of it in search of the vicious and unlovely. No one who lives + within three miles of a large university need doubt the meaning of + this paragraph. An age and a religious faith which discards the + cloister, should discard a cloisteral fashion, wherever it exists. + + [2] "Society offered her no welcome." I am very well aware that this + statement, taken with what I shall elsewhere indicate, will be + considered an exaggeration; but, with a somewhat wide and varied + experience of the United States and of Canada, I maintain it to be + true. I am not to say what is true in the eyes of others, but what is + true in my own. "What!" some one will exclaim, "education not a + passport to social honor! Where was there ever a country where the + teacher was respected as she is in New England?" Theoretically, this + is true; and I have known a few instances in New England, in which + teachers of private schools, of good family, successful in acquiring + wealth (not necessarily through their schools), kept an eminent social + position. Men generally keep a fair position; women, rarely. To test + the truth of this, let me press the question. To whom do we all, to + whom does the Commonwealth, owe a sacred debt, if not to the teachers + of the primary and the grammar schools? Among these women, I have + found some of the most delicate, high-bred, and cultivated women whom + I have ever known of the same age. Let any one who sees them collected + on public occasions glance at them, and judge; but, in cities at + least, these women are never in society. Their meagre salaries prevent + them from dressing as ladies must be dressed for a large company. For + the same reason, their boarding-places are obscure and lonely. The + middle class of artisans, &c., who send their children to the public + schools, seek no intercourse with those whose refinement seems to + isolate them; the upper class look down upon them very kindly, but + never think of inviting them to meet distinguished people, of showing + them rare books or pictures, of stimulating their worn-out faculties + in any way. Why do we not make these teachers our first care? Should + we not be more than repaid--if pay we must have--by the cheer and + comfort added to the schoolroom in which our children are to be + taught? I have tried the experiment of bringing these tired souls into + contact with those who ought to refresh them. It does marvellously + well, until the crucial question is asked, "Who is she?" If I answer, + "The teacher of a primary school," what a change of countenance, what + a fading of the cordial smile, what passive indifference! and this, in + cases where, in refinement and delicacy of manner, the young lady + might pass unchallenged anywhere. But let the subject of my experiment + be a girl of genius; with such cultivation only as a Normal School + could add to the education of a country home; deficient still in the + minor graces of deportment; too energetic and adventurous, perhaps, to + be elegant; and who will take a motherly interest in her, draw her + within the charmed circle where she shall learn to carry herself with + reserve and dignity, and to veil her flashing powers, that they may + warm where they have hitherto consumed? + + No: I do not exaggerate. I believe we are all concerned to know in + what sort of homes, under what influences, with what helps to health + and happiness, these lonely and isolated girls pass the hours when + they are not engaged in teaching. It concerns us, in the first place, + of course, because theirs are the direct influences which mould our + children; but I scorn that argument. It concerns us far more because + they are the children of the same Father, engaged in the most trying + of human vocations, and entitled as women, especially as unprotected + women, to the sympathy of all mothers. + + Some years ago, a lady not yet out of her teens, and suddenly reduced + in fortune, went to Virginia to teach. She had letters from persons of + distinction, who had known her in her early home. The letters were + delivered; but there the matter ended. But she was one of those + persons who make a place for themselves; and, after the neighborhood + grew proud of her, she was called down one day to meet the wife of a + lieutenant in the navy, to whom one of her letters had been addressed. + "I am sorry I have not called before," apologized the visitor; "but + there are so many of _these teachers_!" She had no time to say more: + the young girl's cheek kindled. "Madam," said she, springing to her + feet, "I desire no attention from you which would not under any + circumstances be accorded to your daughter's teacher;" and she left + the room. It is a matter of small importance, that, in this case, the + young teacher was soon placed in a position in which her good-will + became important to the lieutenant's wife. + + "This," you will say, "was at the South. It grew out of that spirit of + 'caste' which died with slavery." Is it indeed dead? Is there no + spirit of caste in Massachusetts? + + [3] Un Passo Avanti nella Cultura Femminile Fesi e Progetto di Anna + Maria Mozzoni Mitano. 1866. + + [4] I would gladly expunge the bitter reproof of these lines; but they + record a fact which occurred at a medical school, where such an + application was made, and must stand as history. + + [5] The three parts of this book have been made to conform to the + census and statistics of the year 1850. To bring them up to the year + 1860 would require a repetition of all the labor originally devoted to + the question. That would be unwise if it were possible, for it could + not alter the bearing of any statements; and it is not possible, + because we have now no certain values in America. I had from the first + intended to indicate in notes any important changes that had taken + place in this decade. I had earnestly hoped to be able to contradict + here the statements in the text in regard to medical opportunities for + women, and the proper training of sick nurses, in England. But my + English correspondents assure me that I have no occasion to change any + thing; that the facts remain substantially what they were when my + manuscript was written. + + "But," says some watchful woman, "has not Miss Garrett taken her + degree from Apothecaries' Hall? and have not a few women at least been + trained as sick nurses?" + + There is still no _institution_ for the training of sick nurses, as + the text asserts. Some few have been trained in hospitals and the + like, on conditions of service, or to supply the need of such + institutions themselves. How does the matter stand with Miss Garrett? + The press has made the most of her success: it lies with us to exhibit + the naked truth. After applying in vain to the various medical + colleges, Miss Garrett went to Apothecaries' Hall. Here they refused + her; but she looked up their charter. She found the word indicating to + whom degrees should be granted indeterminate, with no character of sex + attached to it. Lawyers told her the hall must grant her a degree, or + surrender its charter. She was wealthy, and in earnest. She pushed her + advantage. "The Apothecaries' Hall" prescribed certain courses of + instruction to be pursued and certified before the degree could be + granted. These she pursued in private, paying the most exorbitant + rates for her instruction. In one instance, for a course of lectures, + to which a man's fee would have been _five_ guineas, she paid _fifty_; + and I am credibly informed that the round cost of these preparatory + steps must have amounted to two thousand pounds. All honor to Miss + Garrett! Should her genius as a physician equal her energy and her + wealth, she may gain something for the cause she has espoused, by the + honor and consideration she will win for her sex. Apart from this, it + will be seen, she has gained nothing. Bribery is not possible to + ordinary mortals; and the conditions of the degree, in the present + state of public feeling, would make it wholly impracticable. + + The case, as it has been stated to us, is an exemplification, on a + gigantic scale, of all that we complain of; and proves our statement, + that women have not won an education for themselves, till they win + with it its legitimate results. For their opportunities as things now + stand, all over the world, women pay a premium on the terms offered to + men. Let them take these opportunities as tools, and try to win their + bread with them, and the wages offered are, as a rule, a large + discount on those offered to men. Political economy has nothing to do + with the exceptional cases in which this is most evident,--only the + common, habitual idea, that the wages of women must be kept down; and + that, to do it, the value of superior labor must not be recognized, as + in the case of the female teacher quoted in the text. + + In the Report of St. Mary's Dispensary for Women and Children, in + Marylebone, I find Miss Elizabeth Garrett mentioned as the General + Medical Attendant. The Devonshire-square Nursing Institute, + established, I think, by Mrs. Fry, twenty years ago, sends out nurses + on the request of clergymen. Several sisters give their whole time to + it. + + King's College pays one thousand pounds annually for nurses to St. + John's Home. + + St. Thomas's Hospital, where nurses are being trained by the + Nightingale fund, rejected fifty applications in six months. + + The excitement in England has had a wholesome effect upon colonial + action. The East-Indian Government has lately given Lady Canning + twenty thousand rupees, to assist in building a home for the Calcutta + Nurses' Institute; and a movement is making in India to educate native + women as physicians. See, in the Appendix, the account of Miss + Nightingale's School for Nurses in Liverpool. + + Since the above was written, in January, 1867, three ladies have taken + their degrees at Apothecaries' Hall, having passed a good examination, + in Euclid, arithmetic, English history, and Latin. The _cost_ of these + degrees has not transpired. + + [6] See Appendix. + + + + +II. + +HOW PUBLIC OPINION IS MADE. + + "A governed thought, thinking no thought but good, + Makes crowded houses, holy solitude." + _Sanscrit Book of Good Counsels._ + + +The existing public opinion with regard to woman has been formed by the +influence of heathen ages and institutions, kept up by a mistaken study +of the classics,--a study so pursued, that Athens and Rome, Aristophanes +and Juvenal, are more responsible for the popular views of woman, and +for the popular mistakes in regard to man's position toward her, than +any thing that has been written later. + +This influence pervades all history; and so the study of history +becomes, in its turn, the source of still greater and more specious +error, except to a few rare and original minds, whose eccentricities +have been pardoned to their genius, but who have never influenced the +world to the extent that they have been influenced by it. + +The adages or proverbs of all nations are the outgrowths of their first +attempts at civilization. They began at a time which knew neither +letter-paper nor the printing-press; and they perpetuate the rudest +ideas, such as are every way degrading to womanly virtue. The influence +of general literature is impelled by the mingled current. For many +centuries, it was the outgrowth of male minds only, of such as had been +drilled for seven years at least into all the heathenisms of which we +speak. + +Women, when they first began to work, followed the masculine idea, +shared the masculine culture. As a portion of general literature, the +novel, as the most popular, exerts the widest sway. No educational +influence in this country compares with it; even that of the pulpit +looks trivial beside it. There are thousands whom that influence never +reaches; hardly one who cannot beg or buy a newspaper, with its story by +some "Sylvanus Cobb." + +From the first splash of the Atlantic on a Massachusetts beach to the +farthest cañon which the weary footsteps of the Mormon women at this +moment press; from the shell-bound coast of Florida, hung with garlands +of orange and lime, to the cold, green waters of Lake Superior, in their +fretted chalice of copper and gold,--the novel holds its way. On the +railroad, at the depot, in the Irish hut, in the Indian lodge, on the +steamer and the canal-boat, in the Fifth-avenue palace, and the +Five-Points den of infamy, its shabby livery betrays the work that it is +doing. + +Until very lately, it has kept faith with history and the classics; but +it is passing more and more into the hands of women,--of late into the +hands of noble and independent women; and there are signs which indicate +that it may soon become a potent influence of redemption. It has thus +far done infinite harm, by drawing false distinctions between the +masculine and feminine elements of human nature, and perpetuating, +through the influence of genius often _intensifying_, the educational +power of a false theory of love. + +Social customs follow in the train of literature; and sometimes in +keeping with popular errors, but oftener in stern opposition to them, +are the lives and labors of remarkable individuals of both sexes,--lives +that show, if they show nothing else, how much the resolute endeavor of +one noble heart may do towards making real and popular its own +convictions. + +The influence of newspapers sustains, of course, the general current +derived from all these sources. + +Public opinion, then, flows out of these streams,--out of classical +literature, history, general reading, and the proverbial wisdom of all +lands; out of social conventions, and customs and newspapers. These +streams set one way. Only individual influences remain, to stem their +united force. + +We must treat of them more at length, and first of the classics. Until +very lately, there were no proper helps to the study of Egyptian, Greek, +or Roman mythology. It was studied by the letter, and made to have more +or less meaning, according to the teacher who interpreted it. Lemprière +had no room for moral deductions or symbolic indications; his columns +read like a criminal report in the "New-York Herald." The Egyptian +mythology was, doubtless, an older off-shoot from the same stem. Many of +its ceremonies, its symbols, and its idols, must be confused by the +uninstructed mind with realities of the very lowest, perhaps we should +not be far wrong if we said, of the most revolting stamp. The Greek +classics, so far as I know them, present a singular mixture of +influences; but, where woman is concerned, the lowest certainly +preponderate. We should be sorry to lose Homer and Æschylus, Herodotus, +Thucydides, and Xenophon, from our library; but of how many poets and +dramatists, from the few fragments of Pindar and Anacreon down through +the tragic poets,--down, very far down, indeed, to Aristophanes,--can we +say as much? + +There need be no doubt about Aristophanes. The world would be the purer, +and all women grateful, if every copy of his works, and every coarse +inference from them, could be swept out of existence to-morrow. When we +find a _noble picture_ in Xenophon, it had a noble original, like +Panthea in Persia, as old perhaps as that fine saying in the Heetopades +which all the younger Veds disown. When we find an _ignoble thought_, it +seems to have been born out of his Greek experience. Transported by a +fair ideal, Plato asks, in his "Republic," "Should not this sex, which +we condemn to obscure duties, be destined to functions the most noble +and elevated?" But it was only to take back the words in his "Timæus," +and in the midst of a society that refused to let the wife sit at table +with the husband, and whose young wives were not "tame" enough to speak +to their husbands, if we may believe the words of Xenophon, until after +months of marriage. When Iscomachus, the model of an Athenian husband, +and the friend of Socrates, asked his wife if she knew whether he had +married her for love, "I know nothing," she replied, "but to be faithful +to you, and to learn what you teach." He responded by an exhortation on +"_staying at home_," which has come down to posterity, and left her, +with a kiss, for the saloon of Aspasia! Pindar and Anacreon, even when +they find no better representatives than Dr. Wolcott and Tom Moore, +still continue to crown the wine-cup, and impart a certain grace to +unmanly orgies. A late French writer goes so far as to call Euripides "a +woman-hater, who could not pardon Zeus for having made woman an +indispensable agent in the preservation of the species." In his +portraits of Iphigenia and Macaria, Euripides follows his conception of +_heroic_, not human nature. They are demi-goddesses; yet how are their +white robes stained! + +Iphigenia says,-- + + "More than a thousand women is one man + Worthy to see the light of day;" + +a sentiment which has prevailed ever since. + + "Silence and a chaste reserve + Is woman's genuine praise, and to remain + Quiet within the house," + +proceeds Macaria, and still farther:-- + + "Of prosperous future could I form + One cheerful hope? + A poor forsaken virgin who would deign + To take in marriage? Who would wish for sons + From one so wretched? Better, then, to die + Than bear such undeservèd miseries!" + +Here is the popular idea which curses society to-day,--no vocation +possible to woman, if she may not be a wife, and bear children: and +these are favorable specimens; they show the practical tendencies of the +very best of Euripides. The heroic portions are like Miriam's song, and +have nothing to do with us and our experiences. + +In speaking of Aristophanes, I do not speak ignorantly. I know how much +students consider themselves indebted to him for details of manners and +customs, for political and social hints, for a sort of Dutch school of +pen-painting. + +But if a nation's life be so very vile, if crimes that we cannot name +and do not understand be among its amusements, why permit the record to +taint the mind and inflame the imagination of youth? Why put it with our +own hands into the desks of those in no way prepared to use it? Would +you have wit and humor? Sit down with Douglas Jerrold, or to the genial +table spread by our Boston Autocrat, and you will have no relish left +for the coarse fare of the Athenian. One of the most vulgar assaults +ever made upon the movement to elevate woman in this country was made in +a respectable quarterly by a Greek scholar. It was sustained by +quotations from Aristophanes, and concluded by copious translations from +one of his liveliest plays, offered as a specimen of the "riot and +misrule" that we ambitious women were ready to inaugurate. Coarser words +still our Greek scholar might have taken from the same source to +illustrate his theory. He knew very well that the nineteenth century +would bear hints, insinuations, sneers, any thing but plain speaking. We +have limits: he observed them, and forbore. Women sometimes talk of +Aristophanes as if they had read his plays with pleasure; a thing for +which we can only account by supposing that they do not take the whole +significance of what they read,--and this is often the case with men. +But a college furnishes helps. The mysteries of the well-thumbed English +key are translated afresh into what we may call "college slang," +illustrated oftentimes by clever if vulgar caricatures, where a few +significant lines tell in a moment what a pure mind would have pondered +years without perceiving; and if, perchance, some modest woman finds her +friend or lover at this work, society says only: "You should not have +touched the young man's book. What harm for him to amuse himself?--only +women should never find it out! Keep them pure, no matter what becomes +of men. What business had you to know the meaning of those pencil +marks?" + +Even St. John does not hesitate to condemn Aristophanes.[7] "With an art +in which Shakespeare was no mean proficient," he begins, "he opens up a +more culpable source of interest in the frequent satire of vices +condemned as commonly as they are practised. He unveils the mysteries of +iniquity with a fearless and by no means an unreluctant hand. He +ventures fearlessly on themes which few before or since have touched, +despising the stern condemnation of posterity. He evidently shared in +the worst corruptions of his age, and, like many other satirists, +availed himself joyfully of the mask of satire to entertain his own +imagination with his own descriptions. No one, with the least +clear-sightedness or candor, can fail to perceive the depraved moral +character of Aristophanes. Only less filthy than Rabelais, his fancy +runs riot among the moral jakes and common sewers of the world, over +which, by consummate art and the matchless magic of his style, he +contrives unhappily to breathe a fragrance which should never be found +save where virtue is." + +When I first took up my pen, knowing well that I should speak of +Margaret Fuller's beloved Greeks in a tone somewhat different from hers, +I did not know that I should have the sympathy of a single eminent +scholar. + +It was with no common pleasure, therefore, that, opening her Life at +random, one day, I chanced upon these words from her own pen. She is +speaking of a class of private pupils:-- + +"I have always thought all that was said about the anti-religious +tendency of a classical education to be 'auld wives' tales.' But the +puzzles (of my pupils) about Virgil's notions of heaven and virtue, and +his gracefully described gods and goddesses, have led me to alter my +opinions; and I suspect, from reminiscences of my own mental history, +that, if all teachers do not think the same, it is from the want of an +intimate knowledge of their pupils' minds. I really find it difficult to +keep their _morale_ steady, and am inclined to think many of my own +sceptical sufferings are traceable to this source. I well remember what +reflections arose in my childish mind from a comparison of the Hebrew +history, where every moral obliquity is shown out with such _naïveté_, +and the Greek history, full of sparkling deeds and brilliant sayings, +and their gods and goddesses, the types of beauty and power, with the +dazzling veil of flowery language and poetical imagery cast over their +vices and failings."[8] + +We may be permitted also to quote, from the competent pen of Buckle, the +following words:-- + +"We have only to open the Greek literature," he says, in his lecture on +"The Condition of Women," "to see with what airs of superiority, with +what serene and lofty contempt, with what mocking and biting scorn, +women were treated by that lively and ingenious people, who looked upon +them _merely as toys_." + +Alas! we need no prophet to show that what pollutes the mind of youth +and lover, by polluting the ideal of society, must soon pollute the mind +of maiden and mistress. Is that a Christian country which permits this +style of thinking? and how many men of the world accept the stainless +virginity of Christ as the world's pattern of highest manliness? + +Passing from Greece to Rome, you will see that even as we owe to Roman +law, before the time of Justinian, almost all that is obnoxious in the +English, retaining still the strange old Latin terms which were applied +to our relations in a very barbarous state of society; so we owe to the +time of Augustus, to the influence of satirists like Horace and Juvenal, +almost all the wide-spread heresies in regard to human nature: if we had +but time to look at it, we might say Calvinism among the rest. + +The views of women are still lower. Cæsar and Cicero may be abstract +nullities to our young student; but what can he learn from Ovid? It is +not delicate to name the "Art of Love." In simple, honest truth, it is +the same to read the Metamorphoses. You cannot ventilate a gross man's +atmosphere; all the Betsy Trotwoods must toss their cushions on the lawn +when he leaves the room. It is the old difference between "Don Juan" and +"Childe Harold," only less. In the first, the unvarnished play of +passion may disgust you until it instructs; in the second, you have the +despairing misanthropy, the false philosophy, the devil in Gabriel's own +garment, which is always fascinating to the young, morbid with the +stimulus of growth, and which you might mistake for piety if you did not +know it was born of the lassitude left by excess. + +Latin mythology was but the corruption of the older types. What was +beauty once became here undisguised coarseness or worse. The gods who +once endured sin now patronized and made money by it. These things are +not without their influence. Above all, low images, witty slang, and +sharp satire, have force beyond their own, when slowly studied out by +the help of the lexicon. The women to whom I speak know this very well. +They know that the Molière, the Dante, the Schiller, studied at school, +are never forgotten. They smile to hear men call them hard to read: for +them they glow with clear and significant meaning. Striking passages are +indelibly impressed by associations of time or place or page, which can +never be forgotten. _I would not put an end to classical study; I would +only direct attention, through such remarks, to the dangers attendant on +the present manner of study. Classical teachers should not be chosen for +their learning alone. No Lord Chesterfield should teach manners, but +some one whose daily "good morning" is precious. So no coarse, +low-minded man should interpret Greek or Roman, but some noble soul, not +indifferent to social progress, capable of discriminating, and of +letting in a little Christian light upon those pagan times._ Where men +and women are taught together, this thing settles itself; and this is a +very strong argument for institutions like Antioch and Oberlin. + +Then might the period passed at the Latin school and the college become +of the greatest moral and intellectual use. Then would no graduating +students run the risk of hearing from their favorite doctor of +divinity, instead of sound scriptural exhortation, some doctrine whisked +out of Epicurus, by a clever but unconscious _leger-de-plume_. + +Do not tell us, O excellent man! that you have gone through all this +training, and come out with your soul unstained. We look at you, and see +a temperament cold as ice, passions and imagination that were never at a +blood-heat since you were born, that never translated the cold paper +image into the warm deed of your conscious mental life; and you shall +not answer for us, nor for our children. + +In leaving this branch of our subject to be more fitly pursued by +others, we ought to add that mental purity is not enough insisted upon +for either sex. It is only by the greatest faithfulness from the +beginning in this respect that we become capable of "touching pitch" at +a mature age, in a way to benefit either ourselves or the community. How +desirable it is to keep the young eye steadily gazing at the light till +it feels all that is lost in darkness, to keep the atmosphere serene and +holy till the necessary conflicts of life begin! For such a dayspring to +existence no price could be too high; and, if _desirable_ to all, it is +_essential_ to those who inherit degrading tendencies. + +We must speak now of history. For the most part, it has been written by +men devoid of intentional injustice to the sex; but, when a man sits in +a certain light, he is penetrated by its color, as the false shades in +our omnibuses strike the fairest bloom black and blue. If the positive +knowledge and Christian candor of the nineteenth century cannot compel +Macaulay to confess that he has libelled the name of William Penn, what +may be expected of the mistakes occasioned by the ignorance, the +inadvertence, or the false theories of the past? Clearly that they also +will remain uncorrected. + +If men start with the idea that woman is an inferior being, incapable of +wide interests, and created for their pleasure alone; if they enact laws +and establish customs to sustain these views; if, for the most part, +they shut her into hareems, consider her so dangerous that she may not +walk the streets without a veil,--they will write history in accordance +with such views, and, whatever may be the facts, they will be +interpreted to suit them. They will dwell upon the lives which their +theories explain: they will touch lightly or ignore those that puzzle +them. We shall hear a great deal of Cleopatra and Messalina, of the +mother of Nero and of Lucretia Borgia, of Catharine de Medicis and Marie +Stuart, of the beautiful Gabrielle and Ninon de L'Enclos. They will tell +us of bloody Mary, and that royal coquette, Elizabeth; and possibly of +some saints and martyrs, not too grand in stature to wear the +strait-jacket of their theories. + +If they think that purity is required of woman alone, and all license +permitted to man, they will value female chastity for the service it +does poetry and the state, but never maidenhood devoted to noble uses +and conscious of an immortal destiny. + +Hypatia of Alexandria, noble and queenly, so queenly that those who did +not understand, dared not libel her,--Hypatia, a woman of intellect so +keen and grasping, that she would have been eminent in the nineteenth +century, and may be met in the circles of some future sphere, erect and +calm, by the side of our own Margaret Fuller,--she, who died a stainless +virgin, torn in pieces by dogs, because she tried to shelter some +wretched Jews from Christian wrath, and could even hold her +Neo-Platonism a holier thing than that disgraced Christianity,--what do +we know of her? Only the little which the letters of Synesius preserve, +only the testimony borne by a few Christians, fathers of the Church +_now_, but outlawed _then_ by the popular grossness! Yet, a pure and +fragrant waif from the dark ocean of that past, her name was permitted +to float down to us, till Kingsley caught it, and, with the +unscrupulousness of the advocate, _stained_ it to serve his purpose.[9] + +It would have been no matter, had not genius set its seal on the work, +and so made it doubtful whether history has any Hypatia left. We must +not fail to utter constant protest against such unfairness; and to +assert again and again, that not a single weakness or folly attributed +to Hypatia by the novelist--neither the worship of Venus Anadyomene nor +the prospective marriage with the Roman governor, neither the +superstitious fears, the ominous self-conceit, nor the half conscious +personal ambition--is in the least sustained by the facts of history. +She was pure and stainless: let us see to it that such memories are +rescued. + +And there is still another name, deeply wronged by the prejudice and +party spirit of the past, which it is quite possible to redeem: I mean +that of Aspasia. For many centuries, the very sound of it suggested an +image of all womanly grace and genius, devoid of womanly virtue; the +insight of a seer, the eloquence of an orator, but the voluptuousness of +a courtesan. Very lately, the manly justice of Thirlwall and Grote, and +the exquisite taste and imagination of Walter Savage Landor, have +striven to repair the wrong. Her reputation fell a victim to the gross +puns of Aristophanes, himself the hired mouth-piece of a political party +that hated her, and whose misrepresentations were so contemptible in the +eyes of Pericles, that he would not interfere to prevent them. + +Would you have the history of that immortal marriage written truly? + +Imagine the Greek ruler married, for some years, to a woman of the +noblest Athenian blood, already the mother of two children, but one who, +if irreproachable in conduct, was utterly incapable of taking in the +scope of his plans, or sharing his lofty, adventurous thought. After +years of weariness passed in her society, with no rest for his heart and +no inspiration for his genius, there came to Athens a woman and a +foreigner, in whom he found his peer,--a woman who gathered round her +in a moment all that there was of free and noble in that world of +poetry, statesmanship, and art. She was from the islands of the +Archipelago, and, like the women of her country, walked the streets with +her face unveiled. + +Hardly had she come, before Socrates and Plato, and Anaxagoras the pure +old man, became her frequent guests, and honored her with the name of +friend. In such a society, Pericles saw that his own soul would grow; so +sustained, he should be more for Athens and himself. He was no Christian +to deny himself for the sake of that unhappy wife and children,--a wife +whose discontent had already infected the state. The gods he knew--Zeus +and Eros--smiled on the step he took. What if the laws of Athens forbade +a legal marriage with a foreigner? Pericles was Athens; and what he +respected, all men must honor. Aspasia had, so far as we know, a free +maiden heart; and Pericles shows us in what light he regarded her, by +divorcing his wife to consolidate their union, and subsequently forcing +the courts to legitimate her child. Had he omitted these proofs of his +own sincerity and her honor, not a voice would have been raised against +either. What need to take these steps, if she were the woman +Aristophanes would have us see? + +This divorce created or strengthened the political opposition to +Pericles. This opposition was headed by his two sons and their forsaken +mother, joined by the pure Athenian blood to which theirs was akin, and +gained all its strength and popularity from the wit and falsehood of +Aristophanes and the players. + +Follow the story as it goes, and see Aspasia, at last, summoned before +the Areopagus. What are the charges against her? The very same that were +preferred against her friends, Socrates and Anaxagoras. "She walks the +streets unveiled, she sits at the table with men, she does not believe +in the Greek gods, she talks about one sole Creator, she has original +ideas about the motions of the sun and moon; _therefore_ her society +corrupts youth." Not a word about vice of any sort. Is it for abandoned +women that the best men of any age are willing to entreat before a +senate? The tears which Pericles shed then for Aspasia glitter like gems +on the historic page. + +When the plague came, his first thought was for her safety; and, after +his death, her name shares the retirement of her widowed life. There was +a rumor that she afterward married a rich grazier, whom she raised to +eminence in the state. Not unlikely that such a rumor might grow in the +minds of those who had not forgotten the great men _she_ made, when they +saw the success of Lysicles; but other authors assert that his wife was +the Aspasia who was also known as a midwife in Athens. + +It is a noble picture, it seems to me; and when we consider the +prejudice of a Christian age and country, the mob that a Bloomer skirt +will attract in our own cities, we need not wonder that slander followed +an unveiled face in Athens. + +What do we know of the women of the age of Augustus?--of the galaxy that +spanned the sky of Louis XIV.? + +Do you remember, as you read of those crowds of worthless women, what +sort of public opinion educated them,--what sort of public opinion such +histories tend to form? Do you ever ask any questions concerning the men +of the same eras,--how they employed their time, and what part they took +in those games of wanton folly? It is time that some one should: and I +cannot help directing your attention to the significant fact, that while +the word "mistress," applied to a woman, serves at once to mark her out +for reprobation, there is no corresponding term, which, applied to man, +produces the same effect; and this because the interests of the state +are still paramount to the interests of the soul itself. + +In speaking of the court of Charles II., Dr. William Alexander says, in +1799: "Its _tone_ ruined all women: they were either adored as angels, +or degraded to brute beasts. The satirists, who immediately arose, +despised what they had themselves created, and gave the character to +every line that has since been written concerning women," down to the +verses of Churchill, and that often-quoted, well-remembered line of +Pope, with which we need not soil our lips. + +We may quote here a criticism upon the "Cinq-Mars" of Alfred de Vigny, +taken from Lady Morgan's "France." You will find it especially +interesting, because it bears on what has been suggested of the +influence of history, and may be compared with a portion of one of +Margaret Fuller's letters, in which she criticises the same work, and +makes, in her own way, parallel reflections. + +"I dipped also," says Lady Morgan, "into the 'Cinq-Mars' of Alfred de +Vigny, a charming production. It gives the best course of practical +politics, in its exposition of the miseries and vices incidental to the +institutions of the middle ages. Behold Richelieu and Louis XIII. in the +plenitude of their bad passions and unquestioned power, when-- + + 'Torture interrogates and Pain replies.' + +Behold, too, their victims,--Urbain, Grandier, De Thou, Cinq-Mars, and +the long, heart-rending list of worth, genius, and innocence immolated. +With such pictures in the hands of the youth of France, it is impossible +they should retrograde. How different from the works of Louis XV.'s +days, when the Marivaux, Crebillons, and Le Clos wrote for the especial +corruption of that society from whose profligacy they borrowed their +characters, incidents, and morals! Men would not now dare to name, in +the presence of virtuous women, works which were once in the hands of +every female of rank in France,--works which, like the novels of +Richardson, had the seduction of innocence for their story, and witty +libertinism and triumphant villany for their principal features. + +"With such a literature, it was almost a miracle that one virtuous woman +or one honest man was left in the country to create that revolution +which was to purify its pestiferous atmosphere. Admirable for its +genius, this work is still more so for its honesty." + +In the praise given to this new literature is implied the censure passed +upon the old. Of direct educational literature, we may say, that all +writers, from Rousseau to Gregory, Fordyce, and the very latest in our +own country, have exercised an enervating influence over public opinion, +and helped to form the popular estimate of female ability. Rousseau's +influence is still powerful. Let me quote from his "Emilius:" +"Researches into abstract and speculative truths, the principles and +axioms of science,--in short, every thing which tends to generalize +ideas,--is out of the province of woman. All her ideas should be +directed to the _study of men_. As to works of genius, they are beyond +her capacity. She has not precision enough to succeed in accurate +science; and physical knowledge belongs to those who are most active and +most _inquisitive_." + +Alas for Mary Somerville, Janet Taylor, and Maria Mitchell, as well as +for the popular idea that women are a _curious_ sex! He goes on: "Woman +should have the skill to incline _us_ to do every thing which her sex +will not enable her to do of herself. She should learn to penetrate the +real sentiments of men, and should have the art to communicate those +which are most agreeable to them, without _seeming to intend it_." + +This sounds somewhat barefaced; but it is the model of all the advice +which society is still giving. It is refreshing to catch the first gleam +of something better from the author of "Sandford and Merton." "If +women," says Mr. Day, "are in general feeble both in body and mind, it +arises less from nature than from education. We encourage a vicious +indolence and inactivity, which we falsely call delicacy. Instead of +hardening their minds by the severer principles of reason and +philosophy, we breed them to useless arts which terminate in vanity or +sensuality. They are taught nothing but idle postures and foolish +accomplishments." Dr. Gregory recommends dissimulation. Dr. Fordyce +advises women to increase their power by reserve and coldness! When we +hear of the educational restraints still exercised, of the innocent +amusements forbidden, the compositions which may be written, but not +read, lest the young girl might some time become the lecturer,--we +cannot but feel that the step is not so very long from that time and +country to this, and wonder at the folly which still refuses to trust +the laws of God to a natural development. It is mortifying, too, to +listen to the silly rhapsodies of Madame de Staël. "Though Rousseau has +endeavored," she says, "to prevent women from interfering in public +affairs, and acting a brilliant part in political life, yet, in speaking +of them, how much has he done it to _their satisfaction_! If he wished +to deprive them of some rights foreign to their sex, how has he for ever +asserted for them all those to which it has a claim! What signifies +it," she continues, "that his reason disputes with them for empire, +while his heart is still devotedly theirs?" + +What signifies it? It signifies a great deal. It signifies all the +difference between life in a solitary seraglio, and life with God's +world for an inheritance; all the difference between being the worn-out +toy of one sensualist, and the inspiration of an unborn age; all the +difference between the butterfly and the seraph, between the imprisoned +nun and Longfellow's sweet St. Philomel. When we read these words, we +thank Margaret Fuller for the very criticism which once moved a girlish +ire. "De Staël's name," she wrote, "was not clear of offence; she could +not forget the woman in the thought. Sentimental tears often dimmed her +eagle glance." What a grateful contrast to all such sentimentalism do we +find in Margaret's own sketch of the early life of Miranda! + +"This child was early led to feel herself a child of the spirit. She +took her place easily in the world of mind. A dignified sense of +self-dependence was given as all her portion, and she found it a sure +anchor. Her relations with others were fixed with equal security. With +both men and women they were noble; affectionate without passion, +intellectual without coldness. The world was free to her, and she lived +freely in it. Outward adversity came, and inward conflict; but that +self-respect had early been awakened, which must always lead at last to +an outward security and an inward peace." Here is the great difficulty +in the education of woman, to lead her to a point from which she shall +naturally develop self-respect, and learn self-help. Old prejudices +extinguish her as an individual, oblige her to renounce the inspiration +in herself, and yield to all the weaknesses and wickednesses of man. +Look at Chaucer's beau-ideal of a wife in the tale of Griselda, dwindled +now into the patient Grissel of modern story. In her a woman is +represented as perfect, because she ardently and constantly loved a +monster who gained her by guile, and brutally abused her. Put the matter +into plain English, and see if you would respect such a woman now. No: +and therefore is it somewhat sad, that, in Tennyson's new Idyll, he must +recreate this ideal in the Enid of Geraint; and that, out of four +pictures of womanly love, only one seems human and natural, and that, +the guilty love of Guinevère. The recently awakened interest in the +position of woman is flooding the country with books relating to her and +her sphere. They have, their _very titles_ have, an immense educational +influence. Let me direct your attention to one published in Boston by a +leading house last winter, and entitled "Remarkable Women of Different +Ages and Nations." Let us read the names of the thirteen women with +whose lives it seeks to entertain the public:-- + + Beatrice Cenci, the parricide. + Charlotte Corday, the assassin. + Joanna Southcote, the English prophetess. + Jemima Wilkinson, the American prophetess. + Madame Ursinus, the poisoner. + Madame Göttfried, the poisoner. + Mademoiselle Clairon, the actress. + Harriet Mellon, the actress. + Madame Lenormand, the fortune-teller. + Angelica Kauffman, the artist. + Mary Baker, the impostor. + Pope Joan, the pontiff. + Joan of Arc, the warrior. + +Look at the list! Assassins, parricides, and poisoners, fortune-tellers, +and actresses! Let us hope they will always remain _remarkable_! In this +list we have the name of one woman who never lived, and of four at least +who in this country would owe all their celebrity to the police court; +and this while history pants to be delivered of noble lives not known at +all, like the women of the House of Montefeltro, or little known, like +the pure and heroic wife of Condé, Clemence de Maillé. And by what black +art, let us ask, are such names as Beatrice, and Charlotte Corday, sweet +Joan of Arc, and dear Angelica Kauffman, a noble woman, whose happiness +was wrecked upon a fiendish jest, juggled into this list? As well might +you put Brutus who killed great Cæsar, and Lucretia of spotless fame, +and Andrea del Sarto who loved a faithless wife, into the same category. +Such association, however false, helps to educate the popular mind. + +Of the power of adages, and that barbaric experience and civilization of +which they are generally the exponent, we might write volumes; but the +subject must be dismissed in this connection without a word. We must +pass on to consider the force of social instincts and prejudices which +underlie this general literature, and are as much stronger than it as +the character of a man is stronger than his intellectual quality. A +lecturer once said, "that the first prejudice which women have to +encounter is one which exists before they are born, which leads fathers +instinctively to look forward to the birth of sons, and to leave little +room in their happy or ambitious schemes for the coming of a daughter." +Not long since, a highly educated Englishman told me that this remark +smote him to the heart. "I never expected to have any thing but a son," +he declared; "and, when my little Minnie was born, I had made no +preparation for her. I had neither a thought nor a scheme at her +service." + +Fanny Wright, in some essays published thirty years ago, says, "There +are some parents who take one step in duty, and halt at the second. Our +sons," they say, "will have to exercise political rights, and fill +public offices. We must help them to whatever knowledge there is going, +and make them as sharp-witted as their neighbors. As for our daughters, +they can never be any thing; in fact, they are nothing. We give them to +their mothers, who will take them to church and dancing-school, and, +with the aid of fine clothes, fit them out for the market. + +"But," she goes on to say, "let possibilities be what they will, no man +has a _right_ to calculate on them for his sons. He has only to consider +them as human beings, and insure them a full development of all the +faculties which belong to them as such. So, as respects his daughters, +he has nothing to do with the injustice of law, nor the absurdities of +society. His duty is plain,--to train them up as human beings, to seek +for them, and with them, all just knowledge. Who among _men_ contend +best with the difficulties of life and society,--the strong-minded or +the weak, the wise or the foolish? Who best control and mould opposing +circumstances,--the educated or the ignorant? What is true of them is +true of women also." + +In the customs of nations, women find the most discouraging educational +influences. While with us these customs all set one way, they are easily +broken through by the untutored races, who still rely on the force of +their primal instincts. When Captain Wallis went to see the Queen of +Otaheite, a marsh which crossed the way proved a formidable obstacle to +the puny Anglo-Saxon. No sooner did the queen perceive it, than, taking +him up as if he were a meal-bag, she threw him over her shoulder, and +strode along. Nobody smiled; even Captain Wallis does not appear to have +felt mortified. These people were accustomed to the physical strength of +their queen. It would be well if civilized nations could imitate them, +far enough at least to remember, that wherever strength, whether mental +or physical, is found, _there_ it certainly belongs. + +In Peru and the Formosa Isles, it is the women who choose their +husbands, and not the men who choose their wives; and, from the moment +of marriage, the man takes up his abode in his wife's family. Lord of +creation in every other respect, he still owes to her whatever social +standing and privileges he may possess. Such an exception is valueless, +save that it shows us that sex does not absolutely, of itself, determine +such customs. + +The African kings are permitted to have many wives; but they respect the +chastity of women, and require it. Dr. Livingstone tells us of an +instance in which the royal succession finally lapsed upon a woman. Her +counsellors forbade her to marry a single husband, telling her that it +would create jealousies and divisions in the tribe. She must follow the +royal custom. But pure womanly nature spoke louder than the counsellors. +The poor queen renounced marriage altogether, and associated a +half-brother in the government, upon whose children she settled the +succession. Let this beautiful fact shame those coward souls who fear to +trust to the instinctive purity of the sex. + +He goes on to state, in a recent letter, that he has found nothing more +remarkable, among the highly intelligent tribes of the Upper Sambesi, +than the respect universally accorded to women. + +"Many of the tribes are governed by a female chief. If you demand any +thing of a man," remarks the intrepid explorer, "he replies, 'I will +talk with my wife about it.' If the woman consents, your demand is +granted. If she refuse, you will receive a negative reply. Women vote in +all the public assemblies. Among the Bushwanas and Kaffirs, the men +swear by their fathers; but among the veritable Africans, occupying the +centre of the continent, they always swear by their mother. If a young +man falls in love with a maiden of another village, he leaves his own, +and takes up his dwelling in hers. He is obliged to provide in part for +the maintenance of his mother-in-law, and to assume a respectful +attitude, a sort of semi-kneeling, in her presence. I was so much +astonished at all these marks of respect for women, that I inquired of +the Portuguese if such had always been the habit of the country. They +assured me that such had always been the case." + +If women were unwise managers of money,--a statement frequently made, +but which we may safely deny,--it would be owing to the custom which +has, through long ages, put the purse in the hands of "their master;" a +custom so old, that to "husband" one's resources is a phrase which +expresses man's pecuniary responsibility, and is always equivalent to +locking one's money up. "It will be time enough," says Mrs. Kirkland, +"to expect from woman a just economy when she is permitted to +distribute a portion of the family resources. Witness those proud +subscription-lists where one reads, 'Mr. B., twenty dollars;' and, just +below, 'Mrs. B., ten dollars,'--which ten dollars Mrs. B. never saw, and +would ask for in vain to distribute for her own pleasure." + +And this custom has such educational force, that very liberal men refuse +the smallest pecuniary independence to their wives to their very dying +day. "The Turk does not lock up his wife with more care than the +Christian his strong box. To that lock there is ever but one key, and +that the master carries in his pocket. The case is not altered when the +wife is about to close her weary eyes in death. She may have earned or +inherited or saved the greater part of their common property, but +without his consent she cannot bequeath a dollar." This passage reminds +us of a criticism on the marriage service attributed to Sir John +Bowring. This eccentric man considers it wicked from beginning to end. +"Look at it," he says: "'with this ring I thee wed,'--that's sorcery; +'with my body I thee worship,'--that's idolatry; 'and with all my +worldly goods I thee endow,'--that's a lie!" + +It is the long customs of mankind which stand in the way of educating +women to trades and professions. These matters are mainly in woman's own +hands. One is glad to see in the English Parliament certain statements +made in this connection, and others also in a London pamphlet on the +nature of municipal government. In reply to the common argument that +women ought not to enter certain vocations, because they would +ultimately find themselves incompetent, it is stated, that, in all +delicate handicrafts, men do the same. Thus, of those who learn to make +watches and watchmakers' tools, not one-fifth continue in the trade; +and, in the decoration of that delicate ware called Bohemian glass, by +far the greater portion of apprentices give it up on account of natural +unfitness. + +It is the customs of society which sustain the prejudice against +literary women. When Dr. Aikin published his "Miscellaneous Pieces," Fox +met him in the street. "I particularly admire," said the orator, +complimenting him, "your essay on Inconsistency."--"That," said +Aikin, "is my sister's."--"Ah! well, I like that on Monastic +Institutions."--"That is also hers," replied the honest man; and, in a +tumult of confusion, Fox bowed himself away. Had public feeling been +right, how gracefully he might have congratulated the brother on his +sister's ability, how gladly might that brother have seen her excel +himself! This sister was that Mrs. Barbauld who afterward did such +womanly service, that we feel tempted to forgive the early fit of +sentimentality which found vent in that rhymed nonsense, concluding,-- + + "Your best, your sweetest empire is to please." + +The manners of men have their educational influence. The quiet +turning-aside from women when matters of business, politics, or science +are discussed; the common saying, "What have women to do with that? let +them mind their knitting, or their house affairs;" the short answer when +an interested question is asked, "You wouldn't understand it, if I told +you,"--all these depress and enervate, and, even if not _spoken_, the +spirit of them animates all social life. "Men are suspicious," wrote Dr. +Alexander in 1790, "that a rational education would open the eyes of +women, and prompt them to assert the rights of which they have always +been deprived." But education could not be withheld nor eyes closed for +ever; therefore the time has come to claim these rights. The Sorbonne is +already asked why it confers degrees upon women with one hand, while it +quietly locks Margaret Fuller out of Arago's lecture-room with the +other. Need we inquire what influence it would have upon society, if all +literature and scientific opportunities, if all societies devoted to +natural history and mathematics, if all colleges and public libraries +the world over, were thrown open to woman? + +In inferior circles, where no leading minds preside, it would be as it +is now: there would be much idle prating, much foolish delay, much +inconsequent discussion; but woman is quick to recognize genius, to +listen when wisdom speaks. She chatters, to be sure, in the presence of +fools; but, when earnest men come to know the value of her enthusiasm, +they will never be willing to lose it. When the great door of the +scholarly and scientific retreat is once thrown open, you will be +surprised to see the crowd ready to enter; and, when the sexes kindle +into intellectual life together, many a woman's coals will be modestly +laid upon an honored altar, and the flames will rise all the higher +because they have been so fed. + +How can we estimate sufficiently the corrupting influence of the +newspapers of the land? + +We may hope your prejudices will defend woman here, and you will +acknowledge that the minds cannot be kept pure before whom their details +are set. Let us go farther, and say that they cannot be kept pure, +coming in contact as they do with minds among men that gloat over such +records. God is just, and his compensations are terrible. If you do not +spare the purity of the lowest in the land, you cannot save that of your +wife and daughter. If you will not protect the vulgar against +themselves, you cannot protect the refined against the vulgar. He is not +a pure man, who, among his fellows, thinks a thought or utters a word he +would blush to have his sister hear. She is not a pure woman, who, in +the seclusion of her chamber, or gossip with her household, omits one of +the proprieties which delicacy requires. She has no title to _our_ +respect, who is not secure in _her own_. How can we reach such a +standard as this, if we invite pollution daily across our threshold, and +call it harmless because it dresses in printer's ink? It is not enough +that much of the obscenity is pure invention. The profit of the scandal +overbalances the cost of the libel. The simplest item is turned to gross +account. Even the intimation that the postmaster has placed a woman at +the ladies' window in New York has to be coupled with the insinuation +that she would have "done better at the gentlemen's." What business have +you or I with details that concern only judge and jury? What good does +it do society to quote high legal authority upon "flirtation," unless, +indeed, we learn thereby to estimate aright the corrupting power of the +first wrong step? Police reports, vulgar anecdotes, shocking accidents, +and trivial gossip a child might be ashamed to repeat, make up the mass +of our daily sheets. Happy is the editor who offers three columns of +common sense daily to his readers. When, alas! shall we have a public +willing to pay for common sense and pure reading alone? + +A woman ought to turn like a flash of light from a foul page, a coarse +and vulgar word. No wit should ever tempt her to read the one, or repeat +the other; and what I say of woman, I _mean_ of man. I have not two +separate moral standards for the sexes. + +Margaret Fuller speaks somewhere of certain habits of impure speech +which she had heard attributed to ladies in a New-York hotel. What +foundation that story had, we may never find; but all of us know some +women before whom we keep the coldest reserve, and with whom we would +never touch many a subject we should be willing to discuss with any +pure-minded man. Ladies! Not all the gold of Pactolus, not all the +beauty of Anadyomene, not all the wisdom of Minerva, could make such +women _ladies_! We cannot redeem the poor denizens of Five Points till +we have redeemed those of the Fifth Avenue. + +Our own children must prattle oaths, if we will not hush the drunken +brawler in the streets. + + NOTE.--When this lecture was first delivered, in 1858, it excited + more discussion than any "revolutionary notions" of which I have + ever been suspected. Since then, the same ideas, as applied to other + questions, have been expressed in various quarters. I think a + thorough classical education necessary to a college bred man. As far + as I have any opinions to express, they coincide with those + recently uttered by John Stuart Mill at St. Andrew's. + + I wish to sustain the remarks of the text by the following + quotations:-- + + "Many things with the Greeks and Romans most venerable have not + merely lost their sanctity in our eyes, but present contemptible and + even ludicrous ideas to us. Hence, any allusion to them, or any + expression of the feelings connected with them, or even a reference + to the habits of thinking which those feelings have produced, must + have an operation most unpropitious."--LORD BROUGHAM. + + "The fictions constituting the epic poetry of Homer, Virgil, and + their imitators, so far from being consonant with the taste and + sense of modern readers, are, on the contrary, often annoying, from + the absence of all moral or poetical justice."--"The gods who + preside in this scenic exhibition are tainted with every vice which + has since degraded their supposed subordinates of the human race. + Cruelty, revenge, deceit, hatred, unrelenting rancor, and unbridled + lust, are the qualities which call for approval in a generation + professing to feel and practise virtues of an opposite nature. An + exterminating war is undertaken for the sake of a vacillating + adulteress, and its heroes quarrel implacably about the possession + of their female slaves. Ulysses, on his return home, winds up the + 'Odyssey' by a wholesale slaughter of his disorganized subjects, + hangs up a dozen censurable females in a row, and puts Melanthius to + a lingering death by gradual mutilation."--"In their social + relations, the Greeks were licentious and exquisitely depraved. In + their domestic habits, they were primitive, destitute, and + uncleanly."--DR. JACOB BIGELOW. + + These words represent the re-action of Christian morality against + the abuses of classical study, to which I allude in my text. But let + the classics be taught properly, and morality will have no complaint + to make. We cannot understand the history of the world, without an + intelligent investigation of its beginnings; but we should be + carefully protected against assuming, as reasonable and proper, + either the habits and opinions or the sarcasms of an extinct + experience. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [7] Manners and Customs of Greece, vol. i. p. 337. + + [8] Memoirs of S.M. Fuller, vol. i. p. 337. + + [9] I have sustained this assertion in two articles on Hypatia, + published in "Historical Sketches," 1855. + + + + +III. + +THE MEANING OF THE LIVES THAT HAVE MODIFIED PUBLIC OPINION. + + "Speak! or I go no further. + I need a goal, an aim. I cannot toil, + _Because the steps are here_; in their ascent, + Tell me THE END, or I sit still and weep." + _Naturliche Tochter._ + + +We have considered the controlling influence exercised by consolidated +public opinion concerning women. We have asked from what sources this +opinion was derived. We have now to consider some individual lives which +have set it at defiance, and in that way done something towards its +reconstruction. + +Mary Wollstonecraft is chiefly known in this country as the wife of +Godwin, and the author of a "Vindication of the Rights of Woman." This +book is often accused of the most irreligious and libertine tendencies; +and, for many years, her name stood in my own mind as the representative +of an unfortunate woman of genius, unbalanced in character, and only to +be remembered by the obstacles she had laid in the path of her sex. I +turned instinctively from the idea I had somehow conceived of her; nor +was it till a singular literary fact, the exponent of her individual +power, arrested my attention, that I was tempted to take up the "Rights +of Woman." + +In making a rapid survey of English literature, to ascertain how many +women had made a decisive mark upon it, and how many works had been +published especially bearing upon woman's advancement, I at first +experienced a bitter disappointment. Upon approaching the year 1800, +however, I found a stream of literature rushing in, for which I could +not account. It united many rivulets of thought and life. Some volumes +were heavy and oppressive in a double sense; some were light as +pamphlets; some consisted of translations from other languages; some +were biographies; many were attempts at reconstruction on a rotten +foundation; others, an attempt at the rebuilding of society from its +very base. But these works all bore the same stamp, an impress powerful, +but healthy. It seemed as if one thought had animated all these workers +who had taken society by surprise; for the prejudice and bigotry they +must have aroused had left no corresponding trace. The prefaces +generally began, "On account of the interest lately excited," "The +public mind seeming now to be interested;" and I read very few volumes +before I discovered that the power which had aroused and interested was +no other than Mary Wollstonecraft's "Rights of Woman." + +These books ranged onward from 1790, and the force of the influence was +not spent for twenty years. Among them, I recall, at this moment, Dr. +Alexander's "History of Women" in two quarto volumes; Matilda Betham's +"Biographical Dictionary," an _honest_, if not a valuable, attempt to +supply a want still felt in English literature; and Cotton's translation +of the mathematical works of Maria Agnesi. These were born of a common +mother. I read the "Vindication," therefore, with persistent care; +looking with fruitless question for the second and third volumes that +were promised. Could this be the book which had been so abused for half +a century? The American edition had been published before garbling +became the fashion; but I took pains to collate it carefully with the +English. It was all in vain. I found only a simple, determined, eloquent +plea for a proper education for women, urged on social, moral, and +religious grounds; an earnest protest against Rousseau and Dr. Gregory; +and a demand that _men_ should be subject to the same moral laws as +women. Very revolutionary this! Reprint it, under modern sponsorship, +and you would find it perhaps too heavy to read. It would only repeat +what you all know, and you would miss the fanatical spice of our later +speech. Yet this book was so much needed when it appeared, that it acted +on the under-current of English thought and life like a subsoil plough, +and brought all manner of abominations to the surface. The preface alone +contains any allusion to woman's political rights. If is dedicated to +Talleyrand, who, in publishing a pamphlet on national education, had +admitted the inconsistency of debarring women from their exercise. From +this preface, the _world_ took fright, and _we_ may judge in what manner +she intended to follow up her plea for education. Let me quote a few +passages. "I earnestly wish," she says, "to point out in what true +dignity and human happiness consist. I wish to persuade women to acquire +strength both of mind and body, and to convince them, that the soft +phrases, 'susceptibility of heart,' 'delicacy of sentiment,' and +'refinement of taste,' are almost synonymous with epithets of weakness, +and that those beings who are the objects of pity, and that kind of love +which has been termed its sister, will soon become objects of +contempt."--"An air of fashion is but a badge of slavery."--"It +follows," she says farther on, "that women should either be shut up, +like Eastern princesses, or educated in such a manner as to think and +act for themselves."--"Suppose a woman trained to obedience, married to +a sensible man, who directs her judgment, without permitting her to feel +the servility of her position. She cannot ensure the life of her +protector. He may die, and leave her at the head of a large +family."--"It is not _empire_, but _equality_, woman should contend for. +When women are sufficiently enlightened to discover their real +interests, they will be very ready to resign all those prerogatives of +love _which are not mutual_ for the calm satisfactions of friendship and +the tender confidence of habitual esteem. Before marriage, they will not +assume any insolent airs, nor afterwards abjectly submit; but, +endeavoring to act like reasonable creatures in both relations, they +will not be tumbled from a throne to a stool." + +This is the character of the whole book. It contains nothing more +subversive of morality than these words. You cannot do better than read +it, and receive, as I did, a lasting lesson on the folly of prejudice. +As a work of art, it is irregular in method, and impulsive in execution; +facts not to be wondered at, since it was written and printed in the +brief space of six weeks. Dr. Channing once wrote of her: "I have lately +read Mary Wollstonecraft's posthumous works. Her letters towards the +close of the first volume are the best I ever read. They are superior to +Sterne's. I consider her the greatest woman of the age. Her 'Rights of +Woman' is a masculine performance, and ought to be studied by her sex; +the sentiments are noble and generous." + +What, then, was the character of the woman? Was it as strong and +generous as the sentiments she advocated? Her life broke down some +social barriers, and, though noble and heroic when viewed from within, +looks hampered and unsatisfactory from the common stand-point. Godwin +has erected an exquisite monument to her memory, in a sketch written +soon after her decease. Mary Wollstonecraft was born near London in the +year 1759. She came into an unhappy and uncongenial home. Her father was +a passionate tyrant; her mother, compelled to submit to his caprice, +became like every other slave, a tyrant where she had the power, and +ruled her children with a rod of iron. By defending her mother from her +husband's violence, Mary early extorted some degree of affection from +the one, and respect from the other. Her father had some property, which +he seems to have squandered by frequent changes of abode; and a day +school at Beverley, in Yorkshire, gave her her principal advantages of +education. An eccentric clergyman at Hoxton, named Clare, added some +farther instruction. Under his roof, she formed an intimacy with Frances +Blood, destined to influence her whole life. This girl was remarkably +accomplished, and, at the age of eighteen, supported her father and +mother and their family of younger children. She was delicately neat and +proper in all she did; and her influence was of the greatest benefit to +Mary, who had often desired to assist her family, but was deterred by +the helpless condition of her mother. She now went as companion to a +family at Bath, but soon relinquished the position, on account of her +mother's serious illness. Mrs. Wollstonecraft was exacting and +troublesome. Mary nursed her with devoted care, but, after her death, +bade a final farewell to her father's roof. His affairs had become +wretchedly involved; and, with Fanny Blood and her two sisters, she +proceeded to open a day school. At first, she had looked upon Fanny as +her superior, but her own force of character soon found its rightful +position. The health of her friend broke down under her unnatural +burden, and Mary's devotion to her for years was beautiful to see. Her +marriage and removal to Lisbon, in a vain search for health, soon put +this devotion to the test. + +At this point, Mary Wollstonecraft's reputation was unsullied. She was +an admirable manager, an efficient and successful teacher; yet, when +Fannie became seriously ill, she did not hesitate to risk her only means +of support, the prosperity of her school, to go to her. Her friend, Dr. +Price, the Unitarian minister, and Mrs. Burgh, were annoyed at what they +considered a quixotic devotion; but they supplied her with money, and +she went. A few days closed in death an intimacy of more than ten years, +which had been, until this time, Mary's tenderest interest in life. On +her way home, her moral energy saved the lives of a French crew in a +sailing vessel which she encountered, just about to founder. Her school +had suffered by her absence; and the pressing necessities of Fanny's +family, in which she still took an interest, induced her to have +recourse to literature. The first ten pounds received from her "Thoughts +on the Education of Daughters" went to their relief. Nothing can be +sadder than to see a young girl placed as Mary Wollstonecraft now +was,--compelled to fulfil the duties of a father and mother to younger +brothers and sisters. The position is unnatural. Gratitude might be +expected, but envy is more often felt. The personal advantages sought +for their sakes, and not to be transferred except as a pecuniary profit, +she is supposed to seek for her own. Affection partly yields, and +enthusiasm does not replace it; while she is urged by necessities which +make it difficult to bear the errors and intractabilities of those she +is providing for. Still loving, and desiring to provide for her +sisters, Mary thought it better to live apart from them, and accepted a +temporary position as governess in Lord Kingsborough's family. When they +left England, she went to Bristol, and published a novel, which, founded +on her ten years of friendly devotion, took the highest rank as a work +of sentiment. The next three years were spent in her own house, in +London, in the active service of the publisher, Johnson. She translated +from French, German, and Italian, wrote several books for children, and +took a large share in the conduct of the "Analytical Review." + +Her translation of Salzman's "Elements of Morality" led to an +interesting correspondence with its author, who repaid the service, +subsequently, by translating into German her "Rights of Woman." These +occupations, if they did little towards the discipline of her powers, +served to rouse her from the dejection into which the death of her +friend had plunged her. Her earnings were now devoted to her own family. +One sister she kept at Paris for two years to qualify her as a +governess; another she placed as parlor-boarder at a London school. Her +brother James she sent to Woolwich; afterward procuring for him a +position in the navy, where he soon rose to be a lieutenant. Her +favorite, Charles, she placed with a farmer for instruction; and then +fitted him out for America, where he grew wealthy on the basis she +provided. This brother must have left a large family in the State of +New York. Her brothers and sisters thus established, she attempted to +rescue a support for her father from his broken and confused fortunes. +This proving impossible, he was supported by her own labor, until his +death. The very great demands made upon her by such natural obligations +did not prevent her from assuming others. She adopted for her own the +child of a dead friend, the niece of John Hunter. Her brilliancy, her +personal beauty, her unselfish devotion, could not fail to win for her +many loving friends; and among them the French Revolution found her. The +work which first gave her her proper literary rank was her answer to +Burke's Reflections upon that movement. She wrote rapidly: her pamphlet +was the first of the many that appeared, and obtained extraordinary +success. The public applause warmed her, and her next production was her +celebrated "Vindication of the Rights of Woman." The startling energy +with which she exploded the system of gallantry, a miserable relic of +the Stuart courts, roused the popular indignation. It was hard to +reconcile the vigor of her rebuke to the tender sentiment which trembled +through the book, and also to the impression produced by Mary herself, +lovely in person, and, in the most engaging sense, feminine in her +manners. Her intimacy with the historical painter, Fuseli, followed. He +was a man of powerful genius and strong prejudices. His influence upon +Mary, if it was sometimes refreshing, could not always have been +beneficial. The reader of Haydon's Autobiography will remember this +man. A wider knowledge of the world would have protected her from his +influence: as it was, she pursued the intimacy with unsuspecting +delight; for Fuseli was a contented husband, and his wife was her +friend. She was now in her thirty-second year; she had arrived at a +period when domestic happiness of some sort becomes essential to the +strongest woman. The fullest-fruited laurel then withers before her +eyes, if it has not taken root at her own hearth. At the close of the +year 1792, Mary took refuge in Paris from the chagrin and restlessness +which began to oppress her. Her years of toil had left her sad and +lonely: she needed to rest for a little while in human affection. She +could not even write to her own satisfaction; for her morbid fatigue led +her to reproduce Fuseli's cynicism, and she dared not trust herself. She +entered the best circles of Parisian society, and became intimate with +the leaders of the Revolution. In four months after her arrival occurred +the most untoward event of her life,--her marriage to a worthless +American named Gilbert Imlay; a name rescued from oblivion only by his +temporary attachment to her. I say her _marriage_, for Imlay offered +himself in marriage, and was accepted as a husband; but, taking +advantage of a custom not unusual at Paris in those disorderly times, +Mary refused to consummate the legal forms. Mr. Imlay had no property. +Mary had a large family to support; and she neither wished to become +answerable for his debts, nor to make him responsible for hers. She +took the name of Imlay; and, expecting to follow her brother to America, +she obtained from our ambassador at Paris a certificate of American +citizenship, to serve as a temporary protection. In order that you may +comprehend the precise significance which this step had in that place +and at that time, let me remind you, that Helen Maria Williams, her +personal friend, and the ward of Dr. Rees of cyclopedic memory, was +married in the same way to a Mr. Edwards, then in Paris. She was a +well-known writer of that period; and we are still indebted to her for +some of the best hymns sung in our churches,--among them, that +well-known hymn, beginning, "While thee I seek, protecting Power." But +her husband was worthy of the trust she had reposed in him, and she +never turned a ready pen against the follies of society: so _her_ +character has never stood in the public stocks. + +It will be impossible to consider Mary's attachment to Imlay in any +degree rational, if we look only at her _character_, and keep out of +sight her peculiar personal _history_. + +The dawdling inefficiency and brutal temper of her father had disgusted +her alike with "men of spirit" and "men of straw." In her husband, she +saw, as she thought, a certain democratic manliness; and his daring +speculations seemed to be inspired by courage and genius. The affections +which had been roused by her admiring intercourse with Fuseli kindled +gladly on this new shrine, where no social duty, nor stern sense of +personal honor, contended against her warming fancy. For the first time +in her life, she found herself happy; and happiness gave her back the +beauty of early youth. She was playful, gentle, sympathetic. Her eyes +had new brightness, her cheeks new color, and the bewitching tenderness +of her smile fascinated the very women who approached her. She had been +married eighteen months, her love braving all the trials that must have +come, when Imlay left her for London. She had expected his quick return; +but delay followed delay, and Mary passed a year with a new-born child, +learning, by slow and painful degrees, that she had trusted this man +beyond his worth. At last, he sent for her to London, where his +misconduct affected her mind to such an extent, that she twice attempted +her own life, and was rescued the second time with difficulty. As soon +as she recovered from the fever which had induced delirium, her native +strength told her what she ought to do. Imlay had business in Norway, +which required a confidential and judicious agent. She determined to +take this upon herself; and hoped, by absence and success, to regain the +affection she had lost. The man was, in no sense, worthy of her. On her +return, she tried, for the sake of their child, to remain in the same +house with him. It was not possible; and, very soon, a final separation +took place. It would have taken place long before, but that Imlay was a +man who could not wholly escape from a fascination he had once felt. +After he became involved in low connections, he could never re-enter +her presence, without resuming, for the time, the sympathetic delicacy +befitting her lover. During all this time, Mary had occupied herself +with literary work. She never spoke of Imlay, and would allow no one to +blame him in her presence. Conscious of her own upright intentions, it +must have been no small mortification to find her insight and generosity +baffled. She felt that she was herself to blame for having placed an +impulsive man in a position to which he was wholly unequal. She was +everywhere received and treated as a married woman, and lost none of the +respect and affection she had well deserved. In April, 1797, she was +married to Godwin, the author of "St. Leon;" and this marriage deprived +her of two new friends, whom she held very dear. Godwin was so artless, +that he imagined his wife's social position would be improved by an +honorable marriage; but it obliged Mrs. Inchbald and Mrs. Siddons to +admit that the nature of her marriage to Imlay allowed her to take her +divorce into her own hands. + +Wonderful inconsistency of society, which, having interpreted truly her +upright nature through years of desertion, now condemned her,--whether +for her first wrong step, for assuming her own divorce, or for loving a +man of undoubted probity, who could tell? A short year of undisturbed +happiness followed, when the birth of their only child--the late Mrs. +Shelley--suddenly put an end to her life. + +A beautiful memorial survives her, in these words of her husband. "This +light," he says, "was lent me for a very little while, and it is now +extinguished for ever. The strength of Mary's mind lay in her intuition. +In a robust and unwavering judgment of this sort, there is a kind of +witchcraft. When it decides justly, it produces a responsive vibration +in every ingenuous mind. In this sense, my oscillation and scepticism +were often fixed by her boldness." I am very well aware how much courage +is required of any woman who shall seem to defend Mary Godwin from the +popular conception of her. I know that the woman should herself be +spotless who would attempt to rectify that conception, yet two +circumstances seem to compel explanation. In the first place, there is +no question, that if the views of woman which are now beginning to move +society originated with her scholarly, republican friend, Mrs. Catharine +Macaulay, yet the fire and eloquence of Mary's own words were needed to +give them currency. Society has been just so far as this, that it has +identified her with the subject of "Woman's Rights;" and all of us who +are carried forward by a momentum which she imparted, must desire to +understand the nature of the impulse which controls us. + +In the second place, Godwin's short Life of her has been long out of +print, and has now become very rare; and I have not been able to find a +single encyclopædia or biographical dictionary which gives the facts +correctly. Turn to them, and you will find that Mary Wollstonecraft had +a criminal but fruitless attachment for Fuseli; that she formed +another, of _the same kind_, for an American, who deserted her. I brand +these statements as malicious falsehoods, carelessly repeated now that +they have been long exploded: and, as I write these statements, the +tears rush to my eyes; for where are the descendants of the brothers and +sisters whom she reared? where are the kindred of Fannie Blood and John +Hunter, whose lives her generous efforts gladdened? Nay, might not one +man of the drowning crew she forced the captain of her ship to rescue, +speak a noble word in her behalf? I have narrated her life with some +detail, for you must understand the facts upon which you pass judgment; +and these details are many of them gathered from private sources. + +To understand the strength of the prejudice against Mary Wollstonecraft, +you should see that from all the autobiographies of the period her name +is excluded; as if the friends of those who had been intimate with her +while living, would not permit the association of names after death. I +have said, that, until her marriage to Godwin, she kept her place in +English society; and women of the most sensitive propriety, such as Mrs. +Siddons and Mrs. Inchbald, admitted her to their intimacy. How, then, +did such a prejudice grow up? It was probably forming in the popular +mind while she was happy in the affection of her friends; and, the +moment they found it conventionally needful to sacrifice her, the +outbreak was unrestrained. In the first place, she was an ardent +republican; a thing no less antagonistic to English feeling in her day, +than we have seen it prove in ours. In the second, she was a Unitarian; +and Unitarians were radicals in politics as well as in religion. In the +third place, being a republican, and a resident of Paris in its troubled +times, she was supposed to share the disorder of its morals; an +impression which her attempted suicides no doubt confirmed. + +We shall not share in this country in any prejudice which republicanism +or Unitarianism excited. We are, I trust, ready to admit that an attempt +at suicide could only come with delirium, for which she would be as free +from responsibility as for a typhoid fever or an Asiatic cholera. What +we have to do, then, is to understand her relation to the laws of +marriage, and to see how far her second marriage can be justified. When +she met Imlay at Paris, I do not think she had ever considered the +social bearing of these laws, except so far as her mother's experience +had pained her. That experience made her willing to do what other women +about her were doing, with no bad result that she could see, to keep +herself free from pecuniary entanglement. In one way, this was prudent; +in an other way, it was extremely imprudent; and the imprudence touched +a more vital point than the prudence: but that it was never considered +criminal by wise and candid judges, that she was never compromised in +any relation up to this, the intimacies we have recorded prove. Had she +been a weak, _immoral_ woman, she would have continued to live with +Imlay for her child's sake, but availing herself of the shelter of a +connection from which she recoiled. At this moment, she wrote to her +husband, "Your reputation shall not suffer. I shall never have a +confidant. I am content with the approbation of my own mind; and, if +there be a Searcher of hearts, mine will not be rejected." And again: +"My child may have reason to blush for her mother's want of prudence; +but she shall never despise me." These are not the words of a weak or +irreligious woman. So far, then, all was well, except that society had +no efficient outlawry for the man who had deserted her. She still +occasionally met him, but bore the unexpected trial, when it came, with +dignity and sweetness. When Godwin sought her in marriage, he knew, of +course, that no legal ties bound her. Mary saw no harm in using the +liberty that remained to her. "Why could she not have remained single?" +said the world; but had the world been so just and kind to her, that we +could expect her to resist the influence of a generous and courageous +love? Had she lived in this country, and been divorced by the laws of +Indiana, society would have been silent; but the real evil would have +been the same. + +"Never did there exist a woman," said her husband, "who might with less +fear expose her actions, and call upon the universe to judge them." I +believe this to be true so far as her own relations were concerned; and +I believe, that, by her second marriage, she meant to exercise a right +of protest against existing laws, which two of the most gifted children +of the nineteenth century have exercised again in our own time with +emphasis. It requires a philosophic mind to see the relation of the +individual to the state: heroic, indeed, is the spirit which, perceiving +it, braves the common expectation by a defiant life. On the other hand, +it is by no prejudice that we demand this account of each person's +private affairs. It is a demand born of an ill-defined, dimly +entertained, but still a just idea of the relations of God, the family, +and the state. I ought not to say so much, without adding that no one in +this country can adequately judge of the pressure of the marriage laws +as they still exist in England. What is resisted, is, in most instances, +what no American woman would be expected to bear; but for England, as +for this country, I rest in the confident hope that a right adjustment +of woman's relation to society will change healthfully all existing +legislation. Such legislation as that of Indiana does not seem to me an +advance, although it may have been demanded by an _advancing_ public +sentiment. + +I have said this honestly, with a tender pity in my heart, to clear the +memory of a much-abused woman. Does any one ask me if I would justify +the position in which she stood? I answer, frankly, No. We do not live +to ourselves alone; and if we are ever tempted to take a step against +the moral convictions of the world, believing that we can do as we will +with our own, one would think the possibility that children may be born +to inherit the obloquy we excite, without themselves deserving it, would +be enough to deter any right-minded woman. No love or care, or abject +self-sacrifice, can reconcile a child to the stain of illegitimacy. +"What does the Lord thy God require of thee?"--"To do justly, love +mercy, and walk humbly." It is not walking humbly to set up our own +conception of fitness against the accumulated experience of mankind. +Still farther: It is of very little importance what others may think of +us, when we are acting conscientiously; but what we think of others, our +own mood of mind towards God and man,--that is of the very greatest. + +The influence of the "Vindication of the Rights of Woman" was greatly +aided by the efforts of Mr. Day, and of Maria Edgeworth, whose literary +career began about the time of its publication. Following closely upon +these, and so nearly parallel in effort, and equal in varied ability, +that we hardly know in what order to name them, are Lady Morgan, Harriet +Martineau, and Mrs. Jameson. Sydney Morgan, sitting alone at the age of +fourscore in her tiny house at Dublin, filled like a museum with the +accumulation of her years of travel, projecting the publication of her +last work, was lately, like Mrs. Somerville at Florence, a pensioner of +Queen Victoria. But, from the hour of her first appearance as the author +of the "Wild Irish Girl," she has exercised a generous womanly +influence. Under the disguise of novels, books of travel, and the like, +she has published an immense number of volumes, filled with information +which may be a little too crowded for convenience, but always accurate, +always original, and, for the most part, received from historic sources, +in personal intercourse. Her warm hatred of tyranny made friends for +her, wherever she went. When a young girl, she took up the cause of her +own country with a vehemence which won the liberal party, and made her +fashionable before she was approved. "The wild Irish girl" and her harp +were essential to the success of every entertainment; and invitations +lay two or three deep for every evening. She entered society with +beauty, wit, and prestige. She might have done what she would. She chose +to remain faithful to unpopular opinions. After her marriage to Sir +Charles Morgan, they went, for economical reasons, to the Continent, +where they eventually spent many years. In France, Lafayette, Ségur, +Dénon, and L'Aguisseau were her intimate friends; and in the _salon_ of +the Princess de Salm she was always a welcome guest. In Germany, +Flanders, and Italy, not only the liberal youth, but the learned eld, +crowded her apartments, gave her minute information, and became devoted +cicerones. The friendship of cardinals and princes did not dim her +natural democracy of view; and her last words were as true to liberty as +her first. Her works on France and Italy were proscribed in both +countries; yet "Young France" and "Young Italy" contrived to obtain and +read them. She came into fashion in Paris whenever the Bourbons went +out; and, when she dined with Rothschild, his famous cook acknowledged +her friendship for the people in autographs of spun sugar! "We shall +meet at the breakfast of the Austrian ambassador," said a Parisian fop, +as he made his bow. "Not we," she laughed in answer: "it would be as +much as his place is worth to ask me." Wherever she went, and whatever +she did, her ears were always open to a woman's name; and, with the most +loyal interest, she gathered up every thing relating to their lives, +their influence, and their disabilities. What she was told as gossip, +was retained, studied out, and digested, before, with the piquancy of a +French woman and the warmth of an Irish, it was given to the world. The +first two volumes of her "History of Woman" do not touch a period of +universal interest; but, had she been able to complete the work, it +would have exhausted the subject. In the Béguine, she says: "Women +meddle with politics as well as tent-stitch, and, like Madame de +Maintenon, bring their work-bags to the Privy Council, and direct the +affairs of Europe while they trace patterns for footstools. The +influence of woman will ever be exercised directly or indirectly in all +good or evil. It is a part of the scheme of nature. Give her, then, such +light as she is capable of receiving. Educate her, whatever her station, +for taking her part in society. Her ignorance has often made her +interference fatal; her knowledge, never." The cordial sympathy of her +husband has made Lady Morgan's life beautiful. His legal knowledge and +antiquarian taste added their own charm to whatever she undertook. + +How great and worthy is the literary position of Harriet Martineau, we +all know. Its retro-actionary influence in favor of the ability and +freedom of her sex is what we are to indicate here. For whatever +immediate purpose she writes, her words bear indirectly on the widest +womanly emancipation. May this remark stimulate your curiosity, and keep +you on the alert for pregnant sentences! Such sentences tell more of the +progress of human thought than some of us suspect: they indicate its +natural, habitual poise. "Women especially," she writes, "should be +allowed the free use of whatever strength their Maker has seen fit to +give them. It is essential to the virtue of society, that they should be +allowed the freest moral action, unfettered by ignorance, and +unintimidated by authority; for it is an unquestioned and unquestionable +fact, that, if women were not weak, men would not be wicked, and that, +if women were bravely pure, there would be an end of the dastardly +tyranny of licentiousness." This passage will have all the more power +over observant readers, because it occurs unexpectedly, and marks the +opportunity seized to speak a necessary if unwelcome truth. + +What noble service Mrs. Jameson rendered in the field of art or letters +did not leave her indifferent to the interests of her sex. She was +placed in circumstances to make her see quickly and feel deeply all +that relates to womanly position and development. An early martyr to the +prejudices of society; married, I think at sixteen, to a man far beyond +her own rank in life, who left her at the altar,--she bore the title of +wife, and led the life of a celibate: but her first word for her sex was +as strong and true as her last, while her own path lay between lines of +living fire. Only lately did we hear of her as a lecturer and reformer; +but, nearly thirty years ago, we might have cut from her pages the +following words: "We are told openly by moralists and politicians, that +it is for the general good of society, nay, an absolute necessity, that +one-fifth part of the female sex should be condemned as the legitimate +prey of the other, predoomed to die in reprobation in the streets, in +hospitals, that the virtue of the rest may be preserved, and the pride +and the passions of men both satisfied. But I have a bitter pleasure in +thinking, that this most base and cruel conventional law is avenged upon +those who made and uphold it; that here the sacrifice of a certain +number of one sex to the permitted license of the other is no general +good, but a general curse, a very ulcer in the bosom of society." Can +you guess how brave and pure a woman was needed to write those words? +All the indirect tendency of her works is in keeping with them; and we +recognize the same voice, as she said in a later lecture:-- + +"When female nurses were to be sent to the Crimea, there was to be met +the mockery of the light-minded, the atrocious innuendoes of the +dissolute, the sneers of the ignorant, and the scepticism of the cold. I +have seen men who deem it quite a natural and proper thing that +women--_some women_ at least--should lead the life of a courtesan, put +on a look of offended propriety at the idea of a woman nursing a sick +soldier. I have seen men--ay, and women too--who deem it a matter of +course that our streets should be haunted by contagious vice, disgusted +at the idea of women turning apothecaries and _hôpitalières_. And, worse +than all, I have heard men--and women too--who acknowledge the gospel of +Christ, who call themselves by his name, who believe in his mission of +mercy, disputing about the exact shade of orthodoxy in a woman who had +offered up every faculty of her being at the feet of the Redeemer."[10] + +Remember that these words were spoken where they belonged, in the very +heart of Belgravia, to the very people who deserved them, and respect +the brave purity which compelled lips as well as pen to utterance. It +would scarce be honest not to say, in this connection, that Mrs. Jameson +took some pains, so long as she lived, to separate herself from the +American Woman's-Rights party--a party, it may be, only represented to +her by the vulgar pretension of travelling Bloomers. Some of us take +comfort in remembering how much more easily the misrepresentations of +the press, or the intrusions of unfit subjects on womanly discussion, +will float across the wide Atlantic, than our weightier works. When she +said, in the same breath, concerning a decree of the French Consulate, +"I confess, I should like to see a decree of _our_ Parliament beginning +with a recognition that women do exist as a part of the community, whose +responsibilities are to be acknowledged, and whose capabilities are to +be made available, not separately, but conjointly with those of men," we +know that she worked for us and with us, and forgive the want of +recognition in gratitude for the real service. + +Mrs. Gaskell has perhaps done more than any woman of this century, not +confessedly devoted to our cause, to elevate the condition of her sex, +and disseminate liberal ideas as to their needs and culture. The first +part of her career was one of those brilliant successes which startle us +into surprise and admiration. It was checked midway by the publication +of her life of Charlotte Bronté, the best and noblest of her works. +Checked, because condemned in that instance without a hearing, she could +never afterwards feel the elastic pleasure which was natural to her in +composing and printing; and, for three long years afterwards, never +touched her pen. I would not allude to this subject, if every notice of +her, since her death, had not done so; repeating the old censure, as a +matter of course. Here in America, we exculpate her. The public was +wrong, in the first place, inasmuch as it has come to demand biography +before biography is possible. The publisher was wrong, in the second; +for he ought to have known, and could easily have ascertained, how plain +a statement the English law would permit. The public was still further +wrong, when it attributed misapprehension and carelessness to a woman +whom it very well knew to be incapable of either. I, for one, shall +never forgive nor forget the officious censure given by one who must +have known that the legal apology tendered, in Mrs. Gaskell's absence, +to protect her pecuniary interests, had the unfortunate effect to put +her in a position where explanation and self-defence were alike +impossible. Mrs. Gaskell had deserved the steady confidence of the +public. + +I have kept till the last the name of Fredrika Bremer, whose good +fortune it was to secure lasting benefits to her sex. God sent to her +early years dark trials and privations. Her father's tyrannical hand +crushed all power and loveliness out of her life. At first, she rebelled +against her sufferings; but, when he died in her girlhood, she was able +to see that they lent strength to her efforts for her sex. It was the +rumor of what we are doing in this country for women that first drew her +hither. It is not the fashion for Miss Bremer's friends fully to +recognize her position in this respect. I owe my own convictions on the +subject of suffrage to the reflections she awakened. When I told her +that my mind was undecided on this point, she showed her disappointment +so plainly, that I was forced to reconsider the whole subject. Miss +Bremer did not hurry her work: she had a serene confidence that she +should be permitted to finish what she had begun. She secured popularity +by her cheerful humor, her genuine feeling, her true appreciation of +men, and her insight into the conditions of family happiness, before she +made any direct appeal against existing laws. Those who will read her +novels thoughtfully, however, will see that she was, from the first, +intent upon making such an effort possible. From the beginning, she +pleaded for the social independence of wives; asked for them a separate +purse; showed that woman could not even give her love freely, until she +was independent of him to whom she owed it. To a just state of society, +to noble family relations, entire freedom is essential. + +Under her influence, females had been admitted to the Musical Academy. +The directors of the Industrial School at Stockholm had attempted to +form a class, and Professor Quarnstromm had opened his classes at the +Academy of Fine Arts to women. Cheered by her sympathy, a female surgeon +had sustained herself in Stockholm; and Bishop Argardh indorsed the +darkest picture she had ever drawn, when he pleaded with the state to +establish a girls'-school. It was at this juncture that Miss Bremer +published "Hertha." This book was a direct blow aimed at the laws of +Sweden concerning women. By this time, she had herself become, in +Sweden, what we might fitly call a "crowned head." She was everywhere +treated with distinction; and her sudden appearance in any place was +greeted with the enthusiasm usually shown by such nations only to their +princes. She said of her new book, "I have poured into it more of my +heart and life than into any thing which I have ever written;" and +verily she had her reward. She was at Rome, two years after,--in +1858,--when the glad news reached her, that King Oscar, at the opening +of the Diet, had proposed a bill entitling women to hold independent +property at the age of twenty-five. All Sweden had read the book which +moved the heart of the king; and the assembled representatives rent the +air with their acclamations. + +In the following spring, the old University town of Upsala, where her +friend Bergfalk occupies a chair, granted the _right of suffrage_ to +fifty women owning real estate, and to thirty-one doing business on +their own account. The representative whom their votes went to elect was +to sit in the House of Burgesses. Miss Bremer was not ashamed to shed +happy tears when this news reached her. If she had ever reproached +Providence with the bitter sorrow of her early years, she was penitent +and grateful now. Then was fulfilled the prophecy which she had uttered, +as she left our shores, "The nation which was first among Scandinavians +to liberate its slaves, shall also be the first to emancipate its +women." + +This is not the place to unfold the delicate sheaths of meaning with +which flower-like Robert Browning invests his thought; but the man who +wrote the "Blot on the Scutcheon," and the exquisite sketch of "Pippa +Passes," has done such justice to the sex, and so far helped the cause +of right feeling and right thinking in respect to some of the most +delicate problems that concern it, that we are compelled to speak of him +gratefully. His marriage, too, is still fragrant; a full-fruited flower +of promise to the world, which makes us see the best things possible, +and believe that the time is coming when man and woman will not seldom +stand before the altar as equal and individual, yet sacredly one. To +Elizabeth Browning, to whom was given in her life that place of +pre-eminence among women which Shakespere must always hold among men, +we owe grateful thanks, for the scholarly achievement, the conscientious +study, the womanly zeal, which distinguished all her work. When theology +sometimes wrestled with poetry in her speech, we translated it into a +freer tongue, and thanked her all the same. In "Aurora Leigh" she +stabbed every conventional falsity to the heart, and held the ear +tenaciously till she had delivered all her oracle. + + "I read a score of books on womanhood, + To prove, if women do not think at all, + They may teach thinking,--books demonstrating + Their right of comprehending husband's talk, + When not too deep, and even of answering." + "I perceive + The headache is too noble for my sex: + You think the heartache would sound decenter." + "Such praise + As men give women, when they judge a book, + Not as mere _work_, but as mere _woman's work_, + Expressing the comparative respect, + Which means the absolute scorn." + +The woman who wrote these words counsels us from her grave; and, taught +by her, we do not hesitate to say,-- + + "Deal with us nobly, women though we be, + And honor us with truth, if not with praise." + +Yet these were all to a certain extent indirect influences. Can I utter +without trembling the two names which sit upon the thrones of female +power in the Old World and the New? I mean Charlotte Bronté and Margaret +Fuller. I wish I could confer a proper emphasis upon my words, when I +say that the publication of "Jane Eyre" formed the chief era in the +literature of women since that literature began. Into it was compressed +all the feeling and experience of a very remarkable life,--feeling and +experience entertained without the smallest sense of responsibility to +the conventional world. The life of the author touched the restrictions +of society, as the spheral curves touch the tangents which square them, +so slightly as never to impair its wonderful individuality. Who would +not seek a wife like Jane Eyre? Who does not rejoice in the smallest +detail of that sparkling and varied courtship? Think of those words of +Rochester, when, holding her with the grasp of a madman, he says, "Never +was any thing at once so frail and so indomitable. A mere reed she feels +in my hand. I could bend her with my finger and thumb. And what good +would it do, if I bent, if I uptore, if I crushed her? Consider that +eye; consider the wild, resolute, free thing looking out of it, defying +me with more than courage,--with a stern triumph. Whatever I do with its +cage, I cannot get at it, the savage beautiful creature! If I tear, if I +rend the slight prison, my outrage will only set the captive free. +Conqueror I might be of the house; but the inmate would escape to +heaven, before I could call myself possessor of its clay dwelling-place. +And it is you, spirit, with will and energy and virtue and purity, that +I want, not alone your brittle frame." + +And from what literature, of ancient or modern growth, shall we match +Jane's answer, when passion presses, crying, "Who in the world cares for +you? or who will be injured by what _you_ do?" + +"_I_ care for _myself_," is the indomitable reply: "the more solitary, +the more friendless, the more unsustained, I am, the more I will respect +myself. I will keep the law given by God, sanctioned by man. I will hold +by the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad, as I am +now. Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no +temptation. They are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise +in mutiny against their rigor. Stringent are they? Inviolate they shall +be. If, at my individual convenience, I might break them, what would be +their worth? They have a worth, so I have always believed; and, if I +cannot believe it now, it is because I am insane, with my veins running +fire, and my heart beating faster than I can count. Pre-conceived +opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand +by. _There_ I plant my foot!" + +Other women have been brave and pure, but this woman was an Abdiel. +Never had she faltered in her life, never encountered a sham but to +crush it. We did not know what freedom meant, till we had this book. Its +advent was an era, not merely in the literature, but in the life, of +woman. Its welcome, so profound, so stirring, betrayed the secrets of +womanly nature. Do you remember how you sat and discussed this book, far +into the night?--how you wondered whether man or woman wrote it?--how +the women it enfranchised _looked_ their scorn when you suggested the +first possibility?--how your temper and feeling, and sense of justice, +were roused by it? All this was because a life resolute and free poured +itself out between those covers. A woman delicate, cleanly, quaint, +secured the polished purity of every page. Will you start, if I ask you +who ever stated the Woman's-Rights' argument with the serene force of +the little lace-mender in the "Professor"? Do you not envy her and her +husband the happy English home secured by their united labors? Ah! when +she gave us later that exquisite miniature of her sister Emily which she +called "Shirley," that noble bit of Rubens color which she named +"Villette," the same flood of womanly thought and feeling poured through +the prayer,--_the same flood_, though we no longer started as when we +first heard society's signal gun, and saw her whole fleet hoist the flag +of distress. Women ought to buy that old stone house upon the hillside, +set in among the tombs, and framed in purple heather. The lives which +began and ended there have hedged it in with laurels. Read this life and +these works, and learn what fortunes hang upon a noble living. Read +them, that you may learn how to cheer the world with what is natural and +dignified, to do your Master's work, regardless of narrow criticism or +still disdain. The host of imitators who stand about Charlotte Bronté's +still-open grave are the best tribute to the power that went out from +her,--a power tempered by the sweetest personal graces, by a +housekeeping delicate and pure and tasteful, which never lets us dream +of Jane in her school at Morton, of Shirley in her peach-room parlor, of +the lace-mender at the professor's desk, or Lucy Snowe in the first +class of Paul Emanuel, as otherwise than brilliant in cleanliness and +order. I turn reluctantly from a life so well known, and now, thank God, +beginning to be so well understood. + +I do not treat of Margaret Fuller as a literary power; for, whatever may +be her rank in this respect, she does not exert a tithe of the influence +in this way, which attaches to the idea of her as a person, to _herself_ +as the centre of the radiant and shining group of women who were known +as "Margaret's friends." + +Her "Woman in the Nineteenth Century" is a scholarly, refined, and noble +plea for the freedom of her sex. In point of ability, no book can be +named with it, if we except that of Madame d'Héricourt. It has an +advantage over that of Mary Wollstonecraft, in being, so far as the +author could make it, a _complete_ statement; but it is written so much +more from the stand-point of thought and feeling, that it has had a far +more limited influence. There is not a word in the "Vindication" which +the most simple might not read as he ran, and, reading, understand; but +much of the "Nineteenth Century" depends upon a critical scholarship, +and an evasive delicacy of sentiment and thought, which elude the common +grasp. Precious passages have become axioms. "Let her be a sea-captain, +if she will," has a power in both hemispheres; for it has been justified +to learned and simple, by Captain Betsy, of the Scotch schooner, +"Cleotus," and the sweet and noble woman who so lately carried an +American ship round Cape Horn. The life of Margaret Fuller is in +everybody's hands; but not even Boston _women_ appreciate her personal +influence. Who _else_ could be expected to understand it? Her very +existence was a stimulus to endeavor; and hundreds of women become +practical "Exaltadas," because they saw the position she was permitted +to hold. "I always know a Boston woman," said a rough German miner to +me, beyond Lake Huron: "she always has Margaret Fuller's stamp upon +her;" and I felt that his words were true. We have missed her sadly +since she was taken from us. Ever memorable will be the "Life and +Writings," which revive our memories better than they satisfy our +demands. "It will be seen," she once wrote, "that my youth was not +unfriended, since those great minds came to me in kindness." We have not +been unfriended either, since she was permitted to come to us. If I were +to characterize her in two words, it would be as "Truth-teller and +Truth-compeller." She not only spoke what she thought, in her own way, +let it be abrupt or gentle, but she compelled us to do the same. There +was something in her presence which tore away all disguises: even +unconscious pretension could not bear it. We were soon made to feel +whether we had any right to our own thoughts. "What I especially admired +in her," says Dr. Hedge, "was her intellectual sincerity. Her judgments +took no bribe from her sex or sphere, nor from custom nor tradition nor +caprice. She valued truth supremely, both for herself and others. The +question with her was, not what _should_ be believed, nor what _ought_ +to be true, but what is true. Her 'yes' and 'no' were never +conventional; and she often amazed people by a cool and unsuspected +dissent from the commonplaces of popular acceptation." + +"Truth-teller and Truth-compeller,"--the words seem to fall like the +shadow of Omnipotence, a noble fillet for a woman's forehead. What a +noble _character_ that must have been, which inspired the remark made +after her marriage:-- + +"Her life, since she went abroad, is wholly unknown to me; but I have an +unshaken trust, that what Margaret did she can defend." An "unshaken +trust,"--such words are a challenge to all noble living. In great and +small matters, we are told, she was a woman of her word, and so gave +those who conversed with her the unspeakable comfort which flows from +plaindealing. "I walk over burning ploughshares, and they sear my feet, +yet nothing but truth will do," she says; and again, in a letter to a +friend: "My own entire sincerity in every passage of life gives me a +right to expect that I shall be met by no unmeaning phrases or +attentions." + +I enlarge upon this trait of character, for I think it Margaret's due. +Everybody here knows her reputation as a scholar: few know her character +as a woman. In beautiful keeping with this trait was her letter to Miss +Martineau, after the publication of her book upon this country. + +"When Jouffroy writes his lectures," she says, "I am not conversant with +all his topics; but I can appreciate his lucid style and admirable +method. When Webster speaks on the currency, I do not understand the +subject; but I do understand his mode of treating it, and can see what a +blaze of light flows from his torch. When Harriet Martineau writes about +America, I often cannot test that rashness and inaccuracy of which I +hear so much; but I can feel that they exist. A want of soundness and +patient investigation is found throughout the book; and I cannot be +happy in it, because it is not worthy of my friend. + +"I have thought it right to say all this to you, since I feel it. I have +shrunk from the effort, for I fear that I must lose you. If your heart +turn from me, I shall still love you; and I could no more have been +happy in your friendship, if I had not spoken out." + +What a noble pattern in that letter for us all! The electric power of +her womanhood, which claimed the inmost being of every one with whom she +came in contact, I can best express in the words of Emerson:-- + +"She had found out her own secret by early comparison, and knew what +power to draw confidence, what necessity to lead in every circle, +belonged of right to her. She had drawn to her every superior young man +or woman she had ever met; and whole romances of life and love had been +confided, counselled, thought, and lived through, in her cognizance and +sympathy. She extorted the secret of life which cannot be told without +setting heart and mind in a glow, and thus she had the best of those she +saw. She lived in a superior circle; for people suppressed all their +commonplaces in her presence. Her mood applied itself to the mood of her +companion, point to point, in the most limber, sinuous, vital way, and +drew out the most extraordinary narratives." + +When we remember this wealth of sympathy and appreciation, is it not sad +to hear her say, no one ever gave such invitation to her mind as to +tempt her to a full confession?--that she felt a power to enrich her +thought with such wealth and variety of embellishment as would no doubt +be tedious to such as she conversed with? + +A bitter reproach to us women, certainly. What better _could_ we do than +listen, while she embellished her thought with all wealth and variety +possible? And I quote the saying, because hers are not the only noble +lips which have a right to repeat it. Could we but be patient listeners! +In that way, we might educate powers of expression, and become possessed +of wealth of which we have very little idea. What does such a saying +record,--her egotism or our selfishness, her insatiable demand or our +bankruptcy? We may well confess to mortification when we read; but it is +not felt for _her_. Very beautiful is the conception of this Memoir of +Margaret, this triune testimony of independent minds. We should be more +grateful for the analytical skill shown in Emerson's contribution, did +it not bear witness to _power_, rather than _appreciation_. We see, +though he could not, what Margaret missed in her friend. She could not +exempt the finest thinker she knew from the customary tribute; but he +could not pay her in current coin,--only in some native ore, which it +cost her much to make available at need. Some time may _women_ write the +lives of women! Why not warm thy scalpel, O philosopher! out of regard +to what was once tender, quivering, human flesh? Rumor and prejudice +carried the news of Margaret's faults far enough while she was living: +what we need now is to send on the same wave the most abundant and +satisfying proof of her goodness and genius. When great men speak of +her, they should speak grandly, and find for what vulgar natures _must_ +misconceive, the noble and generous interpretation. I do not mean that +SHE would have shrunk from the boldest statement of the truth. It was in +her to invite it. "She could say," says Emerson, "as if she were stating +a scientific fact, in enumerating the merits of somebody, _he +appreciates me_;" and he refers this saying to the "mountainous _me_" of +hereditary organization, italicizing the offending monosyllable. But, in +Margaret's mind, the emphasis lay quite as often on the word +_appreciates_; and the statement was of a psychological fact, a +superiority to vulgar prejudice, which laid some claim to her generous +estimate in return. Ah! when those we love are gone for ever, their +faults drop away, like the garment, which was of the earth, earthy; but +to great and noble words, to heroic and womanly living, God has given a +power of blessing far beyond the grave. We lost her at a moment when we +could ill bear it,--when, instructed by the noble sympathies of Mazzini, +softened by her own sweet and tender ministrations in Italian hospitals, +revealed at length in loving beauty by a wife's and mother's experience, +she might have come home the woman she had often made us dream of. We +see the shadow of it all in that little picture which once hung on the +walls of the Boston Athenæum; and, God willing, we shall yet encounter +the glad reality beyond the reach of tempests, beyond the need of wreck, +lifted into true deserving of so great a privilege on the broad ocean of +an Infinite Love! + +Florence Nightingale is no exception in the history of her sex, only a +consummate flower of its daily bloom. Ever since the commencement of the +Christian era, whole armies of women have devoted themselves, not for a +few years only, like Florence Nightingale, but for their whole lives +long, to the same painful duties,--women who organized their bands with +an efficiency and thoroughness, felt to this very day, and which made +them the competent instructors of Florence Nightingale in the Crimea. +The holiest vocation fails to instruct the unprepared mind. The soil of +the nineteenth century is fallow; but in the year 385 a saintly woman +traversed those same Crimean shores. Of her it was written:-- + +"She was marvellous debonaire and piteous to them that were sicke and +comforted them, and served them right humbly, and gave them largely to +eat, such as they asked; but to herself she was hard in her sickness and +scarce, for she refused to eat flesh, how well she gave it to others, +and also to drink wine. She was oft by them that were sicke, and she +laid the pillows aright and in point, and she rubbed their feet, and +boiled water to wash them; and it seemed to her that the less she did to +the sicke in service, so much the less service did she to God, and +deserved the less mercy; therefore she was to them piteous, and nothing +to herself." + +The Church canonized this woman, who carried her own substance to the +work in which the British Government sustained Florence Nightingale so +many centuries later; but the public mind was not prepared, so the +world has never rung to the name of Santa Paula. + +Florence Nightingale's most heroic service lay in breaking open the +storehouses at Scutari. It may have cost her very little, but at that +moment the force of accumulated character made itself felt. An +everlasting reproach to all cowards of circumlocution offices, the duty +not a single commissioned officer had courage to assume has gently +crowned the woman with the woven suffrages of the world. + +The name of Mary Patton has with us also a true educational power. There +was no obstacle nor vulgar prejudice which this heroic girl was not +called to combat. Not twenty years old, with two little children +clinging to her skirts, and the great primal sorrow of her sex +overshadowing her afresh, with her husband bereft of reason, and neither +nurse nor physician at hand, she kept the ship's reckoning, overpowered +a mutinous mate, and carried her vessel triumphantly in to the destined +port. + +The author of "John Halifax" has so laid us under obligation by work +faithfully done, that it seems worth while to indicate the +inconsistencies which warp her "Thoughts about Women." + +She speaks of the "Woman's-Rights movement" in this country, as if it +were a movement to _force_ women into a certain position, instead of an +effort to set them _free_, to the end that they may ascertain whether +they have any capacity for it. She sneers at letters and account-books +kept by women; and we read her words in a country where women are widely +and creditably established as book-keepers, and where they hold classes +to instruct others in accounts! She tells us that more than one-half of +English women are obliged to provide for themselves; and gives a noble +example of two young women, who, on their father's death, continued to +carry on a disagreeable business, to keep books, manage stock, and +control agents. They sustained a delicate mother in ease, and never once +compromised their womanhood. What became of the womanly unfitness for +letters and accounts in that case? She speaks of the contemptible and +unwomanly habit of beating down, and says that men are less prone to it +than women. Who keeps the purse-strings of a family? Who condemn women +to the practical ignorance which makes them too uncertain of values to +turn at once from a manifest overcharge? + +But, sadder still, this woman brings against her sex the two grave +charges of common falsehood and disloyalty in friendship. We may pity +her for a social experience which seems to her to justify the statement; +but let us never repeat the libel. Let Margaret Fuller answer it, not +only by a life of radiant truth, but by the words in which she speaks of +the honor of which young hearts are capable, and the secret of her own +young life voluntarily kept by forty girls. + +In her chapter on "Lost Women," Miss Muloch does grateful service when +she draws attention to those who choose to dwell in the very gutters of +idle gossip and filthy scandal, who soil their lips and tongues while +they take selfishly faithful care of their reputations. This word needed +to be spoken. Better for a woman, that she should be a cast-away in a +city refuge, with a mind comparatively pure, than a woman in high +society, capable of catching or uttering the vile "double entendre," +always on the lookout for a possible vulgarism, wringing decency out of +human life as if it were only a wet napkin, and sceptical of the purity +and innocence she has not yet found in her own heart. + +In estimating the influences which modify public opinion concerning +women, I am not willing to be silent concerning the popular idea of +love. It is a common thing to hear it said, with a sort of sneer, that +no _man_ ever died for love,--as if it were a quite romantic and in +nowise _dis_creditable thing that many women should! + +Creditable and discreditable elements may enter into the assumed fact as +it regards man; but if he does not die for love because he more +thoroughly acknowledges his responsibility, keeping God in his right +place _above_, and his own heart and its idols in their right place +_below_, then we may drop the unwomanly sneer, and go and do likewise. + +I shall have little hope for woman, till _she_ learns to feel that to +die for love is not so much a pitiful as a disgraceful thing; that it +proves of itself that God was never to her what he should have been; +that life had no aim so holy as the weak indulgence of a sentiment or a +passion, or some generous longing for some duty God did not set before +her; that all the world's work and society's ambition was hidden from +her by a desire for personal happiness, spread like a film over her +moral vision. + +No better education do I claim for woman than her entire +_self-possession_, the ultimate endowment of all the promise she carries +in her nature. "The great law of culture," says Carlyle, "is, Let each +become all that he was created capable of being; expand, if possible, to +his full growth; and show himself in his own shape and stature, be they +what they may."--"The excellent woman," writes the Hindoo in Calcutta, +"is she who, if the father dies, can be father and provider to the +household." + +"Who," says Count Zinzendorf in Germany,--"who but my wife could have +been alternately servant and mistress without affectation and without +pride? Who could have maintained like her, in a democratic community, +all outward and inward distinctions? Who, without a murmur, would have +met such peril? Who could have raised such sums of money, and acquitted +them on her own credit?" + +To such women I think men will always offer generous help; and, even if +they did not, there are props of God's own disposing. Let woman once +reject the absurd notion that she was created for happiness, let her +constitute herself instead a creator of it, let her accept with joy the +fact that this is a working-day world; then she will no longer strive to +escape from labor, discipline, or sorrow, but will gladly hail each in +its turn as part of God's appointed teaching, a shadow crossing the +sunshine to show that it is bright. Perhaps such a life is not easy, +perhaps many feet must falter on such a path; but, indicating what I +earnestly believe to be the will and way of God for us all, I earnestly +entreat you to enter and walk therein. Some words written by John Ruskin +upon Art seem to me to have such force in this connection as to make it +justifiable to quote them. + +Speaking of a painter who could only paint the fair and graceful in +landscape, he says:-- + +"But such work had, nevertheless, its stern limitations, and marks of +everlasting inferiority. Always soothing and pathetic, it could never be +sublime, never freely nor entrancingly beautiful; for the man's narrow +spirit could not cast itself freely into any scene. The calm +cheerfulness which shrank from the shadow of the cypress and the +distortion of the olive, could not enter into the brightness of the sky +they pierced, nor the softness of the bloom they bore. For every sorrow +that his heart turned from, he lost a consolation. For every fear which +he dared not confront, he parted with a portion of his manliness. The +unsceptred sweep of the storm-clouds, the fair freedom of glancing +shower and flickering sunbeam, sunk into sweet rectitudes and decent +formalisms; and, before eyes that refused to be dazzled or darkened, the +hours of sunset wreathed their rays unheeded, and the mists of the +Apennines spread their blue veils in vain." + +Imagine these words written metaphorically of your own inner lives, and +accept the lesson they convey. Be earnest to inherit the whole of human +life. Insist on turning the golden shield, till you have, not merely the +iron lining full in view, but whatsoever Medusa's head the Divine hand +has traced thereon. + +See how many women have excelled in literature and art, in philosophy +and science, within the present century. Their literary contributions +owe their popularity to intrinsic excellence: they have sought and found +the light of day, without the pompous recommendations of institutions, +or the forced encouragement of a clique. There is no limit to womanly +attainment, other than the force of womanly desire. Bihéron, destined to +become an anatomist, becomes one, whether the college of dissectors +smile or frown. Wittembach, versed alike in the mysteries of ancient +tongues and modern physics, becomes the counsellor of the wisest men of +her time, without neglecting her pantry or her needle. There is no +excuse for neglecting any home duty for the most desirable foreign +pursuit. Let buttons and shirt-bosoms have their day, the lexicon or +grammar its own also. Let the dinner-table be carefully spread; the +food, not only well cooked, but gracefully laid,--before we seek the +more precious nutriment of culture: and this, not so much because any +one has a right to say it _shall_ be so, as out of our own tender regard +to the needs of others, and a desire, through every possible +self-sacrifice, to make the common road easier, and turn recreant public +opinion to its proper vent. Let a neatness as exquisite, as womanly and +as polished as that of Charlotte Bronté, pervade not only our homes, but +consecrate our own personal appearance; then may we safely wear the +livery of schools. It may be double-dyed in indigo; yet, with this +accessory, no man will assert that it is unbecoming, no woman have need +to comfort her own ignorance by an unsisterly sneer. + +If God intends woman to walk side by side with man wherever he sees fit +to go, the movement now beginning must materially develop civilization. +Finer elements will be poured into the molten metal of society; and, +when the next cast is taken, we shall see sharper edges, bolder reliefs, +and a finer lining, than we have been wont. Nor shall we miss the +gentler graces. The classical world bitterly mourned the young and +gifted lecturer, Olympia Morata; but not with the broken-hearted agony +of the husband whose strength and life she had always been. Clotilda +Tambroni was crowned, not only with the laurels of a Greek +professorship, but with modesty and every virtue. + +It was the tender appreciation of the WOMEN of Bologna that erected a +stately monument to Laura Veratti. + +In England, a woman writes admirable tales to endow a bishopric in a +distant land. In our country, it was a pleasant omen, that the woman who +first made literature a profession was urged to it, neither by +scholarly taste nor an eccentric ambition, but to fulfil a mother's duty +to four orphan children. Her literary career is not yet closed; and, +though not lofty in its range, has been steadily pursued, and deserves +the regard which it has won. + +The names of Sedgwick, Sigourney, Kirkland, and Child suggest womanly +excellences first of all. Let us pay the debt we owe these women, by +following hopefully in the paths they have opened, till we create a +public opinion without reproach. + + "If I speak untenderly, + This evening, my belovèd, pardon it; + And comprehend me, that I loved you so, + I set you on the level of my soul, + And overwashed you with the bitter brine + Of some habitual thoughts." + + "Alas! long-suffering and most patient God, + Thou need'st be surelier God to bear with us, + Than even to have made us! Belovèd, let us love so well, + Our works shall still be better for our love, + And still our love be sweeter for our work!" + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [10] In allusion to the Unitarianism of Florence Nightingale. + + + + + THE MARKET; + + OR, + + WOMAN'S POSITION AS REGARDS WAGES + AND WORK. + + IN THREE LECTURES, + + DELIVERED IN BOSTON, NOVEMBER, 1859. + + + I.--DEATH OR DISHONOR. + + II.--VERIFY YOUR CREDENTIALS. + + III.--"THE OPENING OF THE GATES." + + + + + "And could he find + A woman, in her womanhood, as great + As he was in his manhood, then, he sang, + The twain together well might change the world." + + "But he never mocks; + For mockery is the fume of little hearts." + + "For, in those days, + No knight of Arthur's noblest dealt in scorn; + But if a man were halt or hunched,--in him, + By those whom God had made full-fed and tall, + Scorn was allowed, as part of his defect." + + GUINEVERE, in _Idyls of the King_. + + + + +THE MARKET. + + + + +I. + +DEATH OR DISHONOR. + + "How high, beneficent, sternly inexorable, if forgotten, is the + duty laid, not on women only, but on every creature, in regard to + these particulars!"--T. CARLYLE. + + +The delicate ladies on Beacon Street, who order their ices and creams +flavored with vanilla or pear-juice, may not know that bituminous coal, +rope-ends, and creosote, furnish a larger proportion of the piquant +seasoning than the blossoming bean or the orchard-tree; but every man of +science does.[11] + +Already the chemist furnishes the attar of Cashmere from heaps of offal +that lie rotting by the way. It is as if God forced man face to face +with every repellent fact of nature, and said, "Slake thy thirst at this +turbid fountain, child of the dust; or the purer streams of the hillside +shall trickle for thee in vain." + +Somewhat so, I am compelled to turn your eyes to the most repulsive +side of human life. I do not do it willingly, but of a necessity; not +because I like it, but because it is essential to the argument. May the +contact prove, that the perfumed joy of later years has disguised +itself, for both of us, in the rotting accumulations of our social life! + +It rests with yourselves to decide. These lectures may be useless; they +may fill your minds with painful details, open hideous vistas, and blind +you to the tempting, heavenward ways which we love to see the young and +beautiful pursue. + +But, in such case, the responsibility is not mine. _I_ would have you +look on vice, that you may learn to loathe it; _I_ would have you +realize, that what a noble friend of ours has called the "perishing +classes" are made of men and women like yourselves. + +Bidding you trust, to a certain extent, to the truth of those terrible +statistics that crush Thomas Henry Buckle in their grasp, I would still +have you remember, that, beside the active laws of moral and material +life, there is ever the living God immanent in the world; and that it is +always for _you_ to change the results of history, at any given era, +according to the great first law,--none the less real because so often +forgotten,--that this living God helps or hinders you as you will, and +becomes, at any moment that you choose, an important element in each +calculation. + +The subject at present before us is "Woman's Claims to Labor." + +These claims rest upon three points:-- + +First, The absolute necessity of bread. + +Second, A natural ability, physical and psychical; and an attraction +inherent in the ability. + +Third, An absolute want of the moral nature. + +Having treated these in turn, I propose to show you what practical +opposition man offers to her advance; what fault lies in herself; how +much more numerous are the occupations open than is generally supposed; +and what social obstructions have prevented her taking advantage of +them. + +In this connection, I shall speak of those women who have opened a way +for their sex; and shall offer to you certain plans of action, by which, +it seems to me, the convenience and the happiness of the employer and +the employed may be materially advanced, especially as regards our own +city. Like a wise child, who from his fretful pillow takes the pill +first, and the conserve afterwards, I shall open the most painful branch +of my subject in this lecture, and turn from it as soon as the needed +impression has been made. + +I ask for woman, then, free, untrammelled access to all fields of labor; +and I ask it, first, on the ground that she needs to be fed, and that +the question which is at this moment before the great body of working +women is "death or dishonor:" for lust is a better paymaster than the +mill-owner or the tailor, and economy never yet shook hands with crime. + +Do you object, that America is free from this alternative? I will prove +you the contrary within a rod of your own doorstep. + +Do you assert, that, if all avenues were thrown open, it would not +increase the quantity of work; and that there would be more laborers in +consequence, and lower wages for all? + +Lower wages for _some_, I reply; but certainly higher wages for women; +and they, too, would be raised to the rank of partners, and personal ill +treatment would not follow those who had position and property before +the law. + +You offer them a high education in vain till you add to it the stimulus +of a free career. In this lecture, I undertake to prove to you, that a +large majority of women stand in such relations to their employers, that +they are compelled to death or a life of shame. Why not choose death, +then? + +So I asked once of a woman thus pressed to the wall. "Ah, madam!" she +answered, "I chose it long ago for myself; but what shall I do for my +mother and child?" + +The superior has a right to every advantage which he can honestly gain, +as well as the inferior; but he has no right to increase any natural +difference in his favor, if he believe it to exist, by laws or customs +which cripple the inferior. If, as political economists tell us, it is +chiefly by man, collectively taken, that the property of society is +created; and if, on that very ground, man's interest has the first claim +to consideration,--does it not follow, that every friend of woman will +try to induce her to become a capitalist, and open to her, as her first +path to safety, the way to honorable independence? And, in this +connection, I must repeat what some of you have often heard me say, that +a want of respect for labor, and a want of respect for woman, lies at +the bottom of all our difficulties, low wages included. + +I will not admit that the argument of the political economist has, as +yet, any rightful connection with the price of woman's work. "The price +of labor will always rise or fall," he says, "as the number of laborers +is small or large; and it is because there are too many women for a few +avenues of labor that the wages are so low." If man believes this, let +him help us to open new avenues, and so reduce the number in any one. +But I claim that he has increased the natural difference in his own +favor, supposing that there be any such, by laws and customs which +cripple woman; and that his own lust of gain stands in the way of her +daily bread. Just so in hydraulics, men tell us, that water rises +everywhere to the level of its source; but you may raise it a thousand +feet higher by the aid of your forcing-pump, or drop it from a siphon a +thousand feet below. And a forcing-pump and a siphon has man imposed +upon the natural currents of labor. If, in my correspondence with +employers last winter, one man told me with pride that he gave from +eight to fifty cents for the making of pantaloons, including the +heaviest doeskins, he _forgot_ to tell me what he charged his customers +for the same work. Ah! on those bills, so long unpaid, the eight cents +sometimes rises to thirty, and the fifty cents _always_ to a dollar or a +dollar and twenty-five cents. + +The most efficient help this class of workwomen could receive would be +the thorough adoption of the cash system, and the establishment of a +large workshop in the _hands of women_ consenting to moderate profits, +and superintended by those whose position in society would win respect +for labor. When I said, six months ago, that ten Beacon-street women, +engaged in honorable work, would do more for this cause than all the +female artists, all the speech-making and conventions, in the world, I +was entirely in earnest. + +It is pretty and lady-like, men think, to paint and chisel: +philanthropic young ladies must work for nothing, like the angels. _Let_ +them, when they rise to angelic spheres; but, here and now, every woman +who works for nothing helps to keep her sister's wages down,--helps to +keep the question of death or dishonor perpetually before the women of +the slop-shop. + +Why? Because she helps to depress the estimate of woman's ability. What +is persistently given for nothing is everywhere thought to be worth +nothing. I throw open a door here for some stifled sufferer at the West +End: let her open a clothing establishment, and employ her own sex; let +her make money by it, and watch for the end. When an Employment Society +or a Needle-woman's Friend becomes bankrupt in purse, it is bankrupt in +morals and argument as well. The wheels of the world move on the +grooves of good management, of success. Set these once firmly +underneath, and the outcry against our moral Fultons will be hushed. + +In country villages and farming districts, there is a great deal of +harmful competition with the girls of the slop-shops, which can never be +ended until it is considered respectable for women openly to earn money. +The stitching of wallets, hat-linings, and shoe-bindings, the more +delicate labor on linen collars and shirt-bosoms, is carried on now not +merely by so-called benevolent societies who want to build churches, +lecture-rooms, and so on, but by rich farmers' wives, who keep or do not +keep servants, in the long, summer afternoons and winter evenings, +because it is work that can be done privately, and is sought to supply +them with jewelry and dress. If they will not educate their minds by +profitable reading, it is earnestly to be desired they should work, but +openly, for money, and at such trades as naturally fall to their lot. +Herb and fruit drying, distilling, preserving, pickling, +market-gardening, may yet lay the foundations of ample fortune for many +a woman. I have passed a summer amid lovely landscapes, where the women +found neither fruit nor vegetables for their table, but let the brown +earth plead to them in vain; while they stitched, stitched, stitched the +long hours away, every broken needle bearing witness against the broken +lives of women who needed in distant cities, where they stood homeless +and starving, the work their sisters pilfered, sitting at their ease +beside the hearth-stone. Their ignorance was their excuse. Let it not be +ours. + +And, first, for a few general statements. + +An indispensable requisite for what the Germans call a "bread study" is, +that, for average talent, it should command moderate success. "Of all +causes of prostitution in Paris," says Duchâtelet, "and probably in all +great towns, none is so active as the want of work, or inadequate +remuneration. What are the earnings of our laundresses, seamstresses, +and milliners? Compare the price of labor with the price of dishonor, +and you will cease to be surprised that women fall. Out of 5,183 +prostitutes in Paris, I found that 2,696 had been driven to the streets +by starvation; and 89, to feed starving parents or children. That is 300 +over one-half of the whole number." + +"It is well known," writes Miss Craig, in Edinburgh, "how brief is the +career that our female criminals run. How they are recruited, it is not +hard to guess in a country where there are fifty thousand women working +for less than sixpence a day, and a hundred thousand for less than one +shilling." + +When, a few years ago, the "Edinburgh Review" collected the statistics +of female labor, it found the wages about half what were paid to men. +But no reason was assigned for this difference; only, one master +gardener ventured to assert, that women ate less than men! + +An advertisement in London for fifty dressmakers brought seven hundred +applicants to the door of the warehouse; and, after long waiting, a +police-officer brought the employer to explain why they could not all be +hired. Sir James Clarke tells us, that the results of the inquiry into +the condition of this class of women exceeded in horror those of the +factory commission. Eighteen hours a day was the allotted time for work; +and nothing but strong coffee enabled them to ply their needles. Fifteen +hundred employers keep fifteen thousand girls. In driving times, they +work all night. One girl testified that she had worked through the whole +Sunday fifteen times in two years. + +The lace-makers also work from twelve to twenty hours; and, in families +where a peculiar "knack" is thought to be transmitted, children are put +to this work from the age of two years. There is no regular time for +food or sleep in certain stages of the manufacture; and many of these +overworked women become vagrants. + +A terrible letter from a Manchester mantle-maker was lately published, +in which she pleads to be permitted to earn twopence an hour, when +compelled to work overtime (that is, over twelve hours a day); and says, +pitifully, that, if the present regulations go on, nothing but death can +save her from dishonor. + +A Persian traveller, who visited the bazaar in Soho, was greatly shocked +when he found that all those young women were earning their own living; +and plumed himself on the superior happiness of the women of his own +country. What would he have said, could he have followed the clergyman's +daughter, as we must do, from a happy home and fine sewing, down, +through all the degradations of the slop-shop, to the very gutter? + +But this is England. + +Out of two thousand women who work for their daily bread in New York, +five hundred and thirty-four receive a dollar a week. "How many men," +asks Dr. Chapin, "would keep off death and conquer the Devil on such +wages? One woman had to do it by making caps at two cents each! Think of +this, women who like to buy things cheap: for, if the veil could be +lifted from your eyes, _you_ would see--the angels _do_ see--on your +gay, white dresses many a crimson stain; and among the dewy flowers with +which you wreathe your hair, the grass that grows on graves!" + +Seven thousand eight hundred and fifty ruined women walk the streets of +New York,--five hundred ordinary omnibus-loads. They are chiefly young +women under twenty, and the average length of the lives they lead is +just four years. Every four years, then, seven thousand eight hundred +and fifty women are drawn from their homes, many of them from simple, +rural hearths, to meet this fate. What drives them to it? The want of +bread. + +Last October, two vagrant women came before a Liverpool court, who +testified that they had been driven to evil courses by blows, and forced +to support in idleness, by their vice, the father of one, and the +husband of the other. + +This statement shocks you: but poor pay strikes as heavy a blow as a +husband's right arm; and these seven thousand eight hundred and fifty +women in New York supported hundreds of men in ease, before they dropped +from the seamstress's chair to the curbstone and the gutter.[12] + +Tait says that the permanent prostitution of any city bears a recognized +numerical relation to its means of occupation. You ask for proof. + +Out of two thousand cases in the city of New York, five hundred and +twenty-five pleaded destitution as the cause. + +One of the police-officers testified of one girl, "She struggled hard +before she fell; living on bread and water, and sleeping in +station-houses. In three years, I have known more than fifty such +cases." + +A young girl of seventeen was left with the care of a sick, crippled +sister. They were left to touch the very brink of despair. A kindly, +fair-faced woman brought work which saved them from death. More was +promised, on conditions that you can guess; and the toils so skilfully +woven, that the young and healthy longed for her sister's sickly face +and broken limb to ward off her fate. + +"When a whole day's work brings only a few pennies," said another to +Dr. Sanger, "a smile will buy me a dinner." + +Out of these two thousand women, one thousand eight hundred and eighty +had been brought up "_to do nothing_:" but, of all the trades, +dressmaking furnished the largest proportion; and yet you think you pay +your dressmakers well! + +Out of the two thousand, all but fifty-one had been religiously +educated. + +"It has been shown elsewhere," says Dr. Sanger, "that the public are +responsible for this evil, because they persist in excluding women from +many kinds of employment for which they are fitted, while for work that +is open they receive inadequate compensation. The community are equally +responsible for non-interference with openly acknowledged evils." + +Thus far I have spoken of New York. I might speak to you of Philadelphia +and Boston, and tell you of ruin wrought under my own eyes; of the +daughter of a State-street merchant found in the gutters of Toronto +years ago; of a daughter whom that wealthy father dared not deny, when I +wrote to him, though he refused to furnish the bread that would have +kept her from sin. I know how hard it is for a true and good man to open +his eyes to the wickedness and misery near at hand. I have no desire to +draw down upon myself the local wrath of small clothiers and petty +officials. You know what wages are in England: let us go thither for our +concluding facts. + +There are five hundred thousand single women in England, and one out of +every thirteen is a thing of shame; that is, there are thirty-eight +thousand four hundred and sixty-one women of the town. + +Almost none of these women are drawn from domestic service. Many were +found in New York who had lived out for twenty-five cents a week, and +from that dropped to moral death. + +You know what to expect from the lot of English dressmakers, +mantlemakers, and laceweavers; but does it not chill you with horror to +think that the class of governesses and private teachers furnishes also +a certain number? + +There is in London a Governesses' Benevolent Institution. There were +lately before its committee a hundred and twenty candidates for +annuities of a hundred dollars a year. Ninety-nine were unmarried, +eighty-three were literally penniless, all of them were over fifty years +of age, and forty-nine of them were over sixty. + +One woman had labored for twenty-six years, supporting a mother and five +brothers and sisters, all of whom she had educated at her own expense; +but she had not saved a penny. Three were ruined by attempting to +sustain their fathers in business. Six had invalid sisters dependent +upon them. These are the histories of pure, untarnished names: fancy for +yourselves the tales told by dishonored lips. The labors of Mr. Mayhew +among this forsaken class of women are probably familiar by name to you +all. To deepen the impression which I wish to make, I shall quote some +of the evidence offered by him in his letters to the "Morning +Chronicle," and close this branch of my subject. Eleven thousand women +under twenty are employed in the slop-shops. If their own words do not +touch you, mine, of course, will fail. + +_1st Case._--"I work from six, A.M., to ten, P.M. In the best weeks, I +clear a dollar and fifty cents; but I only average seventy-five cents +the year round. My mother is sixty-seven, and seldom gets a day's work. +She scours pots for the publicans at thirty-seven cents a day, but is +otherwise dependent upon me. I was a good girl when I first went to +work, and struggled hard to keep pure; but I had not enough to eat. Then +I took up with a young man, turned of twenty, who said he would make me +his lawful wife; but I _hardly cared, so I could feed myself and +mother_.[13] Many young girls tempted me,--they were so happy with +enough to eat and drink. Could I have honestly earned enough for food +and clothes, I would never have gone wrong; no, never. I fought against +it to the last. If I had been born a lady, it would _not have been hard +to act like one_." + +_2d Case._--"I earn seventy-five cents a week clear. My husband has been +dead seven year, and I have buried three children. I was happy so long +as he lived (here she hid her face in a rusty shawl, and burst into +tears). I was always true to him, so help me God! I was an honest woman +up to the time my security[14] died. I swear it. I am glad my children +are dead; for I could not feed them." + +_3d Case._--"I was an honest woman till my husband died. I can put my +hand on my heart, and swear it. But I was penniless, and a baby to keep. +The world has drove me about so. When I want clothes, I _must_ go to the +streets." + +_4th Case._--"I am the daughter of a minister of the gospel; and I +pledge my word solemnly and sacredly, that it was the low price paid for +my labor that drove me to sin. I could only make thirty-four cents a +week at shirts, and should have starved but for the street. At last, I +swore to myself that I would keep from it for my boy's sake. I had +pawned my clothes, and slept in a shawl and petticoat under a butcher's +shed. I was trying to get to the workhouse. I had had no food for two +days. My baby's legs froze to my side, and I sank upon a doorstep. A +lady found us, and would have fed us; but I could not eat. She rubbed +the baby's legs with brandy. That night I got to the workhouse: but they +would not take me in without an order; so I went back to sin for one +month. It was the last. In my heart I hated it; my whole nature rebelled +at it; and nobody but God knows how I struggled to give it up. I pawned +my only gown more than once." + +Look at the frightful calmness of this story: "They would not admit me +to the workhouse without an order; _so I went back to sin for one +month_." When this girl told her story to Mr. Mayhew, she had been eight +years at service, honored by her employers. Her personal beauty was so +great, and the whole story so romantic, that Mr. Mayhew could hardly +believe that she had come to him of her own accord to save other women +from the same fate; and he took a day's journey into the country to +confirm the facts. Her employers spoke in high terms of her honesty, +sobriety, industry, and modesty. For her child's sake, she begged him to +conceal her name; and she told her story with her face hidden in her +hands, sobbing so as scarcely to be understood, and the tears dropping +through. + +If you do not realize the commonness of these tragedies, may God help +you! Some of you will assert that all this is necessary; that, in this +age, a certain proportion of women must meet this fate; and wall me up +with statistics. + +I tell you to bring the battering-ram of a Divine Love to bear on that +wall. You will find, then, that, just as much as it was decreed that +such women should be, it was decreed that an infinite saving power +should exist, and that you should help to make it available. You may +make these statistics what you will, not in an hour or a day, but in +_time_. + +Some of you will assert that women capable of falling thus can hardly be +worth saving. I know there is some wilful vice; I do not desire to blink +the truth: but, among those whom ill-paid labor forces into sin, there +are women nobler and more disinterested than many who remain pure. Look +at the stories I have told you,--women working for their kindred; a +young girl of seventeen ruined to find bread for a crippled sister. In +New York, the thirty-seven women supporting infirm parents; twenty-nine +providing for nephews and nieces; twenty-three, widows with the care of +young children. + +Those of you who have had personal experience of these women will not +need me to tell you that _they_ never pay low wages. The washerwomen and +starchers whom they employ are always well paid and well treated. They +give much in charity to save others, as they often say, from their fate, +and doubtless in the secret hope that God will permit them thus to atone +for their sin. A few years ago, three young girls lived together in +Glasgow. One of them, the youngest and frailest, a girl whose story was +like that of Mrs. Gaskell's "Ruth," had left a rural home for a +dressmaker's workroom. She fell into a decline, and, in her frequent +delirium, raved about the bleat of her father's sheep, the evening +cow-bell, and the crowing of the cock. In her lucid moments, the thought +that she must die in shame convulsed her with agony. The two remaining +girls took counsel. "There is no hope for us," they said; "but perhaps +God will forgive us if we save her. Let us send her into the country, +and work for her till she dies." And so they did, adding to the reckless +wear of their horrid life the toil of the needlewoman; but, believe me, +they never forgot the dying smile of her they had saved. Did you or I +ever make a sacrifice which would compare with that? It is painful for +me to stand here, and present this subject; it is, perhaps, painful for +you to listen: but, with such women among the ruined, only cowards, it +seems to me, would refuse to risk all things to save them.[15] + +In France, where all women of this class are registered, Duchâtelet +found 1,680 who had erased their names from the list, on the plea that +they had found honest occupation. He traced them: 108 had become +housekeepers; 864, seamstresses; 247, shopkeepers; and 461, domestics. + +The Society for the Rescue of Young Women, in London, admitted two +hundred members last year. It asks no questions of those who enter; and +the wisdom of this is shown in the fact, that its subscription-list +contains the names of sixty former inmates, whose subscriptions range +from twenty-five cents to twenty dollars per annum. + +A terrible account has lately been published of the straw-bonnet +warehouses in London, by one who has worked in them. One single story +will show you, how that _touch of truth_, which, far more than the touch +of genius, makes the "whole world kin," revealed a noble human nature in +the midst of what seemed utter depravity. + +One day, the worn-out women tried to compel a young, fresh worker to do +less than she was able, or to secrete a portion of her braid, instead of +making it up. They could not prevail. "Are you a Metherdis, miss?" asked +one woman. "I'm not a thief," she replied gently. A big, bad woman stole +her extra plait; but no one dared insult her. Once she fainted, and some +one offered her gin; but the big, bad woman started forward: "Would you +make her a devil like the rest of us?" she cried; "I'd sooner see her +stabbed!" and she got her a cup of tea from her own "screw."[16] When +they were kept late, this woman walked home with her, cautioning her +against gin, against young men, especially the gentry, and bidding her +not forget her prayers: "for," said she, "_you_ know how; _I_ was never +teached." As she parted from her one night, she said, "I don't expect +it's any use; but it would do no harm if you prayed _once_ for me." Who +will say that this woman was irreclaimable? And, in estimating the +chances of saving a depraved woman, you should always remember, that, in +nine cases out of twelve, she sold herself, not to vice, but to what +seemed, at least, to her longing heart, like _love_. Put yourself in her +place. Do not start: it will do you no harm. Think what it would be to +slave soul and body, day after day, for a crust and a cup of cold water. +Not so much would your failing body crave one nourishing meal, as the +aching, human heart within you one tender look, one loving word. If, in +your misery, you had kept some beauty; if you had known no gentler touch +than a drunken father's blow or a mother's curse,--how strong would be +the temptation when one above you pleaded for affection! See how like an +angel of light this demon would descend! O my sisters! you have never +read this story right. Such a woman is no monster, only a gentle-hearted +creature, unsupported by God's law, unrestrained by self-control. Your +scorn, the world's rejection, _may_ make her what you think. Meanwhile, +are you above temptation? Does not conscience enforce my plea? + +"Some positions," says Legouvé, "attract by their ease; but it is work +that purifies and fills existence. God permits hard trials; but he has +appointed labor, and we forget them all." A serious comforter, it gives +always more than it promises, and dries the bitterest tears. A pleasure +unequalled in itself, it is the salt of all other pleasures.[17] + +You have seen that a necessity to live demands of you new fields for +woman to work in; and the question arises, Is she fit for these new +duties?[18] + +I consider the question of intellectual ability settled. + +The volumes of science, mathematics, general literature, &c., which +women have given to the world, without sharing to the full the +educational advantages of man, seem to promise that they shall outstrip +him here, the moment they have a fair start. But I go farther, and state +boldly, that women have, from the beginning, done the hardest and most +unwholesome work of the world in all countries, whether civilized or +uncivilized; and I am prepared to prove it. I do not mean that rocking +the cradle and making bread is as hard work as any, but that women have +always been doing man's work, and that all the outcry society makes +against work for women is not to protect _women_, but a certain class +called _ladies_. Now, I believe that work is good for ladies; so let us +look at the truth. "Let it once be understood," says one of our English +friends, "that the young business-woman is shielded by the social +intercourse of those who are called ladies, and it would obviate many of +those grave objections which deter parents from consenting that their +children shall brave the world in shops and warehouses." + +Most certainly it would; and to this point we must frequently return. +Meanwhile, says Sydney Smith, "so long as girls and boys run about in +the dirt, and trundle hoop together, they are both precisely alike;" and +I shall proceed to show that large numbers have not only played but +worked in the dirt together, and trundled hoop, not merely through our +own lives, but ever since work and play began. + +I shall speak first of Asiatic women; and I can afford to begin by +quoting a Cochin-China proverb, to the effect that "a woman has nine +lives, and bears a great deal of killing." I do not know anything else +about the Cochin-China women; but this looks as if their lot were no +exception to the general rule. The Chinese peasant-woman goes to the +field with her male infant on her back, and ploughs, sows, and reaps, +exposed to all the changes of the weather. When her husband is proved +criminal, she must die as his accomplice; having, at least, strength +enough to suffer. In Calcutta, women are the masons who keep the roof +tight; and you may see them daily carrying their hods of cement, +spreading it on the tops of houses, and flattening it with a wooden +rammer like that with which our Irishmen pave the streets. + +You have heard of the Bombay ghauts. Ghaut is a native word, which means +"passage through;" and it is applied by the resident not only to the +railway cut between the hills, but to the hills themselves. These are of +volcanic origin,--a sort of trap. Formed beneath the water, the mass +cooled as it was thrown up, and the sides do not slope much. "When I +gained an elevation of two thousand feet," says my correspondent, "and +looked back, I saw hills of all shapes and sizes thrown up, and ravines +thousands of feet below, all looking like the dried bed of an ocean. The +table-land on which I stood is two thousand five hundred feet above the +level of the sea; and, as this is the elevation at Poonah, the railroad +from Campoolu winds as it can along the sides of the mountains. There +are twenty-five tunnels through the solid rock on this road, each half a +mile long or more. There are piers of solid stone, with arches spanning +forty feet, which rise a hundred above the valley. Part of the grade was +formed by lowering men with ropes, to drill the holes for blasting, a +thousand feet above the ravine. There are twenty thousand workmen +employed; and one-third, or about seven thousand, of these are"--what do +you think? In a country where no European man can labor, where the +native rests until compelled by his conqueror to work, in the year 1859 +behold seven thousand _women_ laboring in the ghauts! Climbing, +climbing, through the cloudless day, _women_ carry baskets of stone and +earth upon their heads, to creep to the edge of the ravines, and fill +with these tedious contributions thousands of perpendicular feet; and +the men who pay them, doubtless, talk to their daughters about _woman's_ +lack of physical strength! + +In Australia, the woman carries the burdens which man's indolence +refuses; and the deserts of Africa bear the same testimony in freedom +that we glean from the witness of slavery. In the West-India Islands, +the patient negress toils by the side of her mate, doing to the full as +hard a day's work, though encumbered by the weight of a child upon her +back; but she does not share, in the same way, his hours of rest. The +customs of Africa still prevail, and she offers her husband's food and +tobacco on her knees. + +Nor does the poetry of ancient Greece show us the so-long vaunted +delicacy of the sex. Homer's princesses beat linen on the rocks, and +Andromache shares all the functions of the groom:-- + + "For this, high fed in plenteous stalls ye stand, + Served with pure wheat, and by a princess' hand; + For this, my spouse, of great Actæon's line, + So oft hath steeped the strengthening grain in wine!" + +We have crossed the boundary line of Europe, without any change in the +indications; and we may drop from Homer to the middle ages, or modern +times, as well. + +The traveller who gazes admiringly upon the vineclad hills of the Jura, +rising, terrace upon terrace, till the eye can scarce distinguish the +limit between the work of man and the rock of ages which still crowns +the summit, will learn with surprise that the mind which conceived of +such stupendous labor, and the hand which held out honor and freedom as +its reward, were a woman's. + +Under a burning sun, or exposed to a bitter, glacial _bisè_, the first +cultivators, partly women, climbed slowly and painfully, by rocky ledges +or crevices, along those dangerous slopes and beetling cliffs, where +trees were to be hewn down and briers plucked up, raising by manual +efforts alone the stone necessary for the steps and walls, and the deep +tunnels for the safe passage of the torrents which vegetation now +conceals. And among them, wherever her donkey's foot could find a way, +went the woman who devised the work and bestowed the guerdon, with the +distaff on her saddle, which gives her to this day the name of Bertha +the spinner. + +Yes, it was Bertha, of the Transjurane, who, about the middle of the +tenth century, undertook this work; opened the old Roman roads; and, in +defending her people against the Saracen hordes, first devised, it may +be, the modern telegraph. A prolonged line from her Alps to the Jura is +still set with the solid stone towers from which Bertha's sentinels +warned each other.[19] + +On the 13th of April, 1809, the French and Bavarian prisoners held by +the Tyrolese at Steinach were marched to Schwatz, and thence to +Salzburg, under an escort of women: and the prisoners, at least, felt +sufficient confidence in the physical strength of the guard; for they +made no attempt to escape. + +"Not a year ago," writes Anna Johnson of Germany, "I saw a young girl +standing up to her knees in a manure-heap, which she shovelled into a +cart, and then drove to the field. She was hired to do this work at +fourteen dollars a year. On the mountains, the women were carrying soil +and manure to the vines in baskets, as Queen Bertha taught them nine +centuries ago." A still less pleasant picture may be drawn from Köhl's +"Reminiscences of Montenegro." "Down among the stones, on the banks of +the Fuimera," he says, "some Cattaro women and girls were washing and +scraping the entrails of the goats that the men had brought to market. +There was one tall, slender, handsome girl, dressed in a crimson +petticoat, and jacket embroidered with gold, and her hair elegantly +fastened with golden pins. A pair of richly wrought slippers lay on the +stone beside her; and she laughed and talked merrily as she washed and +scraped away. At last, she packed the whole into a tub, and lifted it on +her gayly dressed head to carry home. The next day was Sunday; and I met +her, radiant with beauty and gold embroidery, on her way to church. I +often met these girls carrying on foot the baggage of the +riding-parties." + +In 1850, a clergyman of this city tells me that he saw women, wearing +leathern breast-plates, harnessed to the canal-boats of the Low +Countries, and doing the work of oxen. + +In France, we find the same evidences of out-door work and physical +ability. Galignani tells us, that, in consequence of the success of a +certain Madame Isabelle in breaking horses for the Russian Army, the +French minister of war lately authorized her to proceed officially +before a commission of officers, with General Régnault de St. Jean +d'Angely at their head, to break some horses for the cavalry. After +twenty days, the animals were so completely broken, that the minister +immediately entered into an arrangement with her to introduce her system +into all the schools of cavalry in the empire, beginning with that of +Saumur. + +Marshal Baraguay d'Hilliers, at Nantes, recently made a distribution of +St. Helena medals to the old soldiers of the empire. Among the number +was a woman named Jeanne Louise Antonini, who had served ten years in +the navy, and fifteen in the infantry, where she obtained the rank of +non-commisioned officer in the seventieth regiment of the line. She +received nine wounds while bravely fighting. "It is not the _coat_ that +makes the man," said our marshal when he gave the medal. + +One of the great celebrities of the Invalides was buried, very lately, +with great pomp. This "old invalid" was an individual of the softer +sex,--the widow Brulow,--who entered the army, in 1792, as a soldier in +the forty-second regiment of infantry, authorized to enlist, in spite of +her sex, by General Casabianca. At Fort Gesco, she was promoted to the +rank of sergeant, after being severely wounded in the encounter which +took place. Perceiving that the troops were getting short of powder, she +set out alone at midnight for Calvi, roused the women of that place to +the number of sixty, and started them off for Gesco, laden with powder +and ammunition, which enabled the little fort to hold out eight and +forty hours longer, until relief came. A little after, at the siege of +Calvi, the widow Brulow, while in charge of a gun, was so desperately +wounded that she was forced to renounce her military career; and none +other was open to her but the retirement of the Invalides, where she was +admitted with the rank of sub-lieutenant. The present emperor, to whom +the widow Brulow was introduced on his visit to the Invalides, presented +her with the cross of the Legion of Honor and the medal of St. Helena; +her comrades, by acclamation, having designated her as most worthy of +the honor. By a decree, dated from the imperial headquarters, since our +first edition was printed, we learn that the race of heroines is not +extinct; for two other women, by that decree, obtained the military +medal for their courage at the battle of Magenta. + +There recently died, at Portsea, in England, a woman, ninety years of +age, named Nelly Giles. She was one of the few surviving witnesses of +the battle of the Nile; having been on board His Majesty's ship +"Bellerophon," in the command of Captain Darby, and in all subsequent +engagements under Nelson. During the action of the Nile, she was +surrounded by heaps of slain and wounded; and she nursed the latter +tenderly, undismayed by the horrors of the scene. Three days after the +battle, she gave birth to a son. + +The government, in consideration of her great attention to the sick and +wounded, and of the assistance she gave the surgeons, awarded her a +gratuity of seventeen pounds a year for her life. + +A young patriot, named Francisco Riso, was killed on April 4, 1862, at +Palermo, during a popular demonstration which took place before +Garibaldi's arrival. On April 20, his father, Giovanni Riso, sixty years +old, was shot by the Bourbon soldiers, without so much as the form of a +trial. On the very day that Garibaldi entered Palermo, a young and +beautiful nun, Ignacia Riso, the sister and daughter of the two Risos +named above, left the convent, and, amidst a shower of balls and +grape-shot,--a cross in one hand, and a poignard in the other,--placed +herself at the head of Garibaldi's column, crying, "Down with the +Bourbons! Death to the tyrant! Vengeance!" She kept her place as long as +the fighting lasted; and her courageous attitude electrified the +volunteers. Ever since that day, the name of Ignacia Riso has been held +sacred. When she passes in the street, the soldiers bow low, and bless +her with the most profound respect. Garibaldi himself pays her great +attention, and loves her as if she were his own daughter. + +From instances like these, refreshing because they tell of self-imposed +labor and eccentric character, we turn with less pleasure to the +statistics of the factories. Here men have left to women not only the +worst paid but the most unwholesome work of the respective mills. + +Women, in France, are employed in the manufacture of cotton, silk, and +wool. The cotton manufacture compels two processes which are very +injurious,--the beating of the cotton, which brings on a distressing +phthisis; and the preparation, or dressing, which needs a degree of heat +not to be endured after mature age. Both these departments are filled by +women paid at half-prices. + +The woollen manufacture compels only one unwholesome process,--that of +carding; but all the carders are women at half-wages. + +In the silk factories, again, there are two unwholesome processes +entirely carried on by women. The first is the drawing of the cocoons, +where the hands must be kept constantly in boiling water, and the odor +of the putrefying insects constantly fills the lungs; the second is +carding the floss, the fine lint of which affects the bronchial tubes. +Six out of every eight women so employed die in a few months. Healthy +young girls from the mountains soon develop tubercular consumption; and, +to complete the dreadful tale, they are kept upon the lowest wages; +being paid only twenty cents where a man would earn sixty.[20] + +The Anglo-Saxons, says the historian, "had not been long settled in +England before the more savage of their traits were softened down. The +wife continued to be regularly purchased by her husband, and the +contract was considered a mere money bargain, long subsequent to the +reign of Ethelbert." And why? Not because love was mercenary; but +because woman was regarded, in the first place, as a beast of burden, a +laborer. In the "Romany Rye," we are told that the sale of a wife with a +halter round her neck is still a legal transaction in England. "It must +be done in the cattle-market, as if she were a mare; all women being +considered as mares by the old English law, and, indeed, called mares in +certain counties where genuine old English law is still preserved." + +Such a sale as this was recently completed at Worcester, and the +agreement between the men was published in the "Worcester Chronicle." + +"Thomas Middleton delivered up his wife Mary Middleton to Philip Rostins +for one shilling and a quart of ale; and parted wholly and solely for +life, never to trouble one another. + + "Witness. (Signed) THOMAS × MIDDLETON, his mark. + Witness. MARY MIDDLETON, his wife. + Witness. PHILIP × ROSTINS, his mark. + Witness. S.H. STONE, Crown Inn, Friar St." + +I have preserved the old expression _mare_ in my quotation, to indicate, +not the degradation to which women fell, but that it was as a beast of +burden that men regarded her. Several cases of sales, such as is here +referred to, have occurred within a few years; but this is the only +certificate of transfer that I ever saw. I desire to direct your +attention to the remarkable fact, that, of the three parties to it, the +wife, who was sold, was the _only_ one who could write her name. The men +signed it by a mark.[21] "A generation back," says Cobbett, "it was a +common thing to see women, half naked, working like beasts, chained to +carts, upon the common roads of England." + +When Lord Ashley's Commission reported, in 1842, five thousand females +were at work, more than a thousand feet below the soil, in the +coal-mines of the north of England. These women were nearly naked, and +drew trucks, in harness, on all-fours, like beasts of burden. You cannot +have forgotten the remarkable description of such women in D'Israeli's +novel of "The Sibyl." + +"They come forth. The plain is covered with the swarming multitude: +bands of stalwart men, broad-chested and muscular, wet with toil, and +black as the children of the tropics; troops of youth, alas! of _both +sexes_, though neither their raiment nor their language indicates the +difference. All are clad in male attire, and oaths that men might +shudder to hear issue from lips born to breathe words of sweetness. Yet +these are to be, some _are_, the mothers of England! Can we wonder at +the hideous coarseness of their language, when we remember the savage +rudeness of their lives? Naked to the waist, an iron chain fastened to a +belt of leather runs between their legs, clad in canvas; while, on hands +and feet, an English girl, for twelve, sometimes for sixteen, hours a +day, hauls and hurries tubs of coal along subterranean roads, dark, +precipitous, and plashy." These women, _called_ free, were the wretched +slaves of capital. In the life of Stephenson, the railway engineer, you +will find a further account of them, and may read the chilling answer +given by a woman whom he asked if she had ever heard of Jesus, "that no +such hand had ever worked in her shaft!" Let the proprietors of English +mines remember! No such hand did ever work in those shafts, yet they +called themselves Christian men! True as death were the words. If the +_law_ is now free of reproach, the _evil_ has by no means ceased to +exist: the Master still stands knocking. + +"Children," wrote Lord Ashley, "are taken to work when only four years +old, girls as well as boys. Dragging the coal carriages requires the +whole strength of either sex. Young men and women, married women and +married men, work together through the same number of hours, almost, +sometimes quite, naked, constantly demoralizing each other. It stints +their growth and cripples their limbs." In the east of Scotland, they +still toil up steep ladders from the shafts. + +If it were my purpose to show you moral degradation, you could hardly +bear what I must say; but I desire only, at this moment, to show you +these men and women _working_, as Sydney Smith would say, _in the dirt +together_. In 1842, the Earl of Durham knew of this; and he and the set +with whom he lived dared, doubtless, to whisper to the ladies in their +halls, that women were not made to labor! + +In the calico-mills, girls grind and mix the colors. They are called +_teerers_. They begin at five years of age, and labor twelve hours a +day, sometimes sixteen; and are kept late into the night to prepare for +the following day. + +In Sedgely and Warrington, the fate of the female pinmakers is no +better. They begin at five years of age, and work from twelve to sixteen +hours a day. If refractory, they are struck at Wiltenhall with strap, +stick, hammer, or file, in spite of the delicacy of the sex. In Sedgely, +more women are employed than men; but they do not fare any better: their +bodies are seamed by blows given with bars of burning iron. + +O my sisters! why has God sheltered _us_ in quiet homes? What have we +done to deserve a happier fate? Why were we not left to writhe beneath +the blows of the smith, or the outrage of a market-sale? + +Because God has laid down a responsibility by the side of every +privilege, and requires us to labor not merely to set such women free, +but to establish a freedom and security _by law_,--the law of custom as +well as the law of courts, which we only possess through usurpation or +indulgence. + +I will not leave these English shores without alluding to the physical +strength shown by that lovely paralytic, Anna Gurney. Deprived of the +use of her limbs in very early life, she acquired the Latin, Greek, and +Hebrew, and finally the Teutonic tongues, with a facility and +thoroughness that her Anglo-Saxon translations show. Men might be +excused if they sheltered from contact with the world this infirm +creature, dependent upon artificial aid for every movement; but what did +she choose for herself? + +In 1825, after her mother's death, she went to live at Northrepps. At +her own expense, she procured one of Manby's apparatus for saving the +lives of seamen cast upon that dangerous coast; and, in cases of great +urgency and peril, she caused herself to be carried down to the beach, +and, from the sick chair which she wheeled over the sand, directed every +movement for the rescue and recovery of the half-drowned men. + +Look at the pictures! See that grimy, tangled woman in harness, +straining, in full health, along the coal-shafts! See, nearer, this +lovely cripple, the Quaker cap folded over her soft, brown hair, her +soul erect and noble, doing the duty of a Grace Darling! The first +labors like the brute beast, the victim of human misgovernment and +heathenish ignorance; the last chooses for herself a conflict with the +storm, and earns, with as full right as any brother, the meed of the +world. + +Let us pass over to America. The Caribs of Honduras are a hardy race, +and do not share the prejudices of Massachusetts on the subject of +labor. Each man has several wives. For each he clears a plantation and +builds a house. In a year, she has every kind of breadstuff under +cultivation; and hires creers, which she freights for Truxillo and +Belize, her husband often commanding for her. If her agricultural labors +prove too heavy, as a thrifty woman will sometimes make them, she hires +her husband to work for her at two dollars a week. + +So the Northern Indian glides nimbly through the woods; while the squaw +carries on her unlucky back their common food and covering, or perhaps +hauls the canoe across the portage. A Jesuit priest rebuked an Orinoco +woman for infanticide. "I wish _my_ mother had been brave enough to part +with me!" was her reply. "Our husbands go to hunt; and we drag after +them, one baby at the breast, another on our back. When we return, we +cannot sleep, but must grind maize all night for their chica. Drunken, +they beat us, or stamp us under foot; and, after twenty years of such +labor, a young wife is brought home to abuse us and such children as we +have not killed. What ought I to do?" + +At Santa Cruz, Theodore Parker writes to Francis Jackson that men and +women work together to repair the public highway; hoeing the earth into +trays, and throwing it into a cart which they drag and push together. + +In Ohio, last year, about thirty girls went from farm to farm, hoeing, +ploughing, and the like, for sixty-two and a half cents a day. At Media, +in Pennsylvania, two girls named Miller carry on a farm of three +hundred acres; raising hay and grain, hiring labor, but working mostly +themselves. These women are not ignorant: they at one time made +meteorological observations for an association auxiliary to the +Smithsonian Institute. But labor attracts them, as it would many women +if they were not oppressed by public opinion. + +"In New York," writes a late correspondent of the "Lily," "I saw women +performing the most menial offices,--carrying parcels for grocers, and +trunks for steamboats. They often sweep the crossings in muddy weather; +and I once saw one carrying brick and mortar for a mason." + +During the late terrible destruction of property at the Lawrence mills, +the women, heroic in every department, did not excuse themselves from +the severest labor. When, after hours of extreme exertion, the firemen, +worn down and quite exhausted, called for help, a bevy of ladies, who +were standing on the sidewalk in Canal Street, flew over to the engines, +and, "manning" the brakes, worked the machine, amid the cheers of the +firemen. + +You know what bodily strength and nervous energy carried Mary Patton +round Cape Horn. Well, on the 25th of June, 1858, the British ship +"Grotto" left Cuba; and, on the second day, the yellow-fever broke out +in the worst form. Seven days after, so many had died, that there +remained only the captain, his wife, and two of the crew. Then the +captain was taken ill; and, beside nursing him, the poor wife, who had +already nursed officers and men, took her station at the wheel, and +steered by his instructions for Sandy Hook. There the steam-tug +"Huntress" found them, the heroic woman at the wheel, the husband at +that moment struggling with death; and, when they reached New York, +three out of eleven, one of them the suffering wife, survived to tell +the tale, and show how a woman can work. So common are such instances +becoming, that you have hardly heard the name of this Mrs. Nichols, for +whom tender charity soon cared. + +A mutiny on board the ship "Maria," of New York, was put down Nov. 10, +1860, by the energy and decision of the wife of the master, Captain +Clark, who, with pistols in her hands, threatened to shoot one of the +mutineers if he did not desist. He was cowed into submission; and, a +signal being made to the revenue cutter, the mutineers were taken into +custody. The mate would have been killed, but for the heroic woman's +intrepidity. + +But all such labor is the result of compulsion,--compulsion of +barbarism, of slavery, of unfair competition, or dire disease. Let us +close this branch of our subject with a picture homely but attractive. +"According to thy request," writes a Quaker friend from Wilmington, +Del., "I send thee some facts concerning Sarah Ann Scofield. Some +fifteen years since, her father became very much involved in debt. He +owed some ten or twelve hundred dollars; having lost largely by working +for cotton and woollen mills. His business was making spindles and +fliers. His daughter, then just sixteen, proposed to go into her +father's shop and assist him; she being the oldest of seven children. He +accepted her offer, and told me himself, that, in twelve months, she +could finish more work, and do it better, than any man he had ever +trained for eighteen. She earned fifteen dollars a week at the rate he +then paid other hands. Her father died. Her two oldest brothers learned +the trade off her, and went away. She has now two younger sisters in +apprenticeship, and a brother fourteen years of age, all working under +her; turning, polishing, filing, and fitting all kinds of machinery. I +went out to see her last week. She was then making water-rams to force +streams into barns and houses. She is also beginning to make many kinds +of carriage-axles. She is her own draughtsman, and occasionally does her +own forging. To use her own words, 'What any man can do, I can but try +at.' She has a steam-engine, every part of which she understands; and I +know that her work gives entire satisfaction. When they have steady +employment, they clear sixty dollars a week; and she says she would +rather work at it for her bread, than at sewing for ten times the money. +The truth is, it is a business she is fond of." + +I have shown you that a very large number of women are compelled to +self-support; that the old idea, that all men support all women, is an +absurd fiction; and, if you require other evidence than mine, you may +find it in the English courts, under the working of the new Divorce +Bill. Nearly all the women who have applied for divorces have proved +that the subsistence of the family depended upon them. Out of six +million of British women over twenty-one years of age, one-half are +industrial in their mode of life, and more than two millions are +self-supporting in their industry like men. Put this fact fully before +your eyes. + +Driven to self-support, you have seen, also, that low wages and +comparatively few and overcrowded avenues of labor compel women to +vicious courses for their daily bread. The streets of Paris, London, +Edinburgh, New York, and Boston, tell us the same painful story; and in +glaring, crimson letters, rises everywhere the question,--"Death or +dishonor?" I have shown you that there is encouragement for moral +effort, because these women escape from vice as fast as they find work +to do. "Have they strength for the conflict," you ask, "or desire to +enter such fields?" Find your answer in what they have done from the +earliest ages, with the foot of Confucius and Vishnu, of capital and +interest, upon their necks. In the lovely lives of Bertha and Ann +Gurney, and the powerful attraction of Sarah Scofield, you have found +pleasanter pictures whereon to rest your eyes. Let no man taunt woman +with inability to labor, till the coal-mines and the metal-works, the +rotting cocoons and fuzzing-cards, give up their dead; till he shares +with her, equally at least, the perils of manufactures and the press of +the market. As partners, they must test and prove their comparative +power. + +We must next consider what need woman's moral nature has of work, and +what sort of opposition man practically offers her. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [11] "Now that we can produce artificially, and from waste and even + noisome materials, the ethereal liquids to which the fragrance of the + pear, the pineapple, and the melon are due, and can manufacture + spirits of wine from coal-gas and oil of vitriol, we can scarcely be + over-sanguine as to what we shall yet effect as competitors with + living organisms in the production of certain compounds."--GEORGE + WILSON'S _Life of Forbes_, p. 129. + + [12] What I mean here will be understood by a reference to Emile + Souvestre's "Philosophe sous les Toits." In a pretty story of two + women employed in a clasp-factory, he speaks of their low wages, and + says, that, having worked for thirty years, they had seen ten masters + grow wealthy and retire from business, without having changed, in any + degree, their own position. + + These claspmakers certainly supported these ten masters and their + families in ease; and, wonderful to relate, these two did not fall. + + An angel, clothed in white, sat on the sepulchre wherein their hopes + were buried, all through that thirty years. + + [13] This may strike some readers like the hardihood of willing vice; + but it is only callousness, born of exposure to hopeless cold and + hunger. + + [14] When a woman wishes to get slop-work, she must find some friend, + who will either deposit, or become responsible for, a sum equal to the + value of the work she is permitted to carry home. This person is + called her "security." The longer she works, the lower she falls; and, + on the death of the "security," it is often impossible to replace him. + The custom does not seem to be _general_ in this country. + + [15] Those who are unaccustomed to this class of women will be + inclined to think that the state of things represented in the text has + long passed away. People who know nothing of the value of money talk a + great deal about "increase of wages," and are apt to say that any + honest woman can now get a living. Women's wages are at this moment of + less value than they were before the war; and, to confirm the + foregoing statements, I add here the statements of my friend Mrs. + Corbin, which reach me as I go to press:-- + + "At a meeting of the Liberal Christian League, held at Rev. Robert + Collyer's church, on Sunday evening, Feb. 3, a report was read by the + Chairman of the Committee on Friendless Women, from which the + following is an extract:-- + + Your Committee aimed [in visiting houses of ill-fame], in Chicago, + to find out, as nearly as possible, the general facts concerning + the lives of this class of women. + + It was found that these women of pleasure, as they are called, + instead of leading the idle and luxurious life which many imagine, + are, in fact, the most steadily employed of any class in the + community, and have the least available leisure. Your Committee + have never yet visited a house of this kind, staying on the average + half an hour, but they have found male visitors, either there when + they entered, or coming in before they left; and this in the open + day. Inquiries put to the women concerning their hours of leisure + developed incidentally the fact, that it is only at certain times, + on certain days, that they can get out; and then it must be + strictly in the prosecution of their calling. The terms on which + these women are kept, are usually a certain stipulated sum per week + for room rent, and, over and above this, the half of their + earnings; which makes it necessary for the keepers to have a + constant eye upon the girls, to prevent their taking money outside. + The number of men supporting these houses is, moreover, so much + greater than the number of women supported therein, that every girl + is kept in constant requisition, either at the house, or as a + walking advertisement on the street and at public places. + + Your Committee, before making these visits, were constantly assured + that these women preferred this way of life, and would scout the + efforts of their own sex at reforming them. Your Committee take + great pleasure in reporting, that, in every instance, they have + found this charge _utterly unsustained_. Everywhere doors were + freely opened to them; they were treated with as much politeness + and cordiality as they have ever received in the most respectable + houses; and the conversation was of the freest and most + satisfactory character. + + 'Are you happy in this life?' was asked of a delicate girl in her + teens, who had been seen, five minutes before, dancing and singing + about a man in an adjoining apartment in the most wanton + manner,--'Are you happy in this life?' + + Tears, sudden and sincere, with a look of indignant protest, filled + her eyes, as she answered,-- + + 'Think how we have to treat the men: that of itself is enough to + prevent _any woman_ from being happy.' + + 'But you do not always talk this way to men?' was the reply. + + 'Oh, no!' she said; 'I would never tell a _man_ that. We always + tell the men that we like this life, and would not live any other, + if we could; but _women know_.' + + Another voluntarily mentioned the intemperance with which they are + universally and justly charged, as one of the hard necessities of + their position. Women ought not to drink, she admitted; but they + would die if they did not, or go mad with anguish and despair. + + Your Committee feel, that, at the present stage of investigation, + it may seem premature to speak of the causes of this terrible evil; + this slavery, which their observation assures them is more + degrading and horrible than any other upon the face of the earth: + but two causes have met them so constantly face to face, that they + cannot in justice refrain from mentioning them. + + The first is the terribly prevalent and everywhere tolerated + licentiousness of men. Your Committee believe it to be an admitted + fact, that, if to-day every woman of abandoned life could suddenly + be removed from the dens of this city and placed in a respectable + position, it would not be six months before their places would be + filled, from the ranks of women who are now virtuous; and they have + no faith in any system of reform which does not strike effectual + blows at this, the mainspring of the evil. + + Over against this, the first great pillar of the institution, + stands the almost equally colossal one of poverty, and the + exclusion of women from the ordinary fields of labor. + + 'Here is what I work for,' said a fine, strong-looking woman, as + she placed her hand on the head of a bright boy of two years. 'He + is my child. I have him to support. There is no other way in which + I could earn a comfortable subsistence for myself and him.' + + Another, the keeper of a house of ill-fame, an intelligent, + graceful, refined-looking woman,--a woman who would have been an + ornament to any society,--said:-- + + 'I was left suddenly poor, with my mother to support. I had never + been used to work, and there seemed no work I could do that would + support us both. The circumstances of my life seemed to force me + into this way of living;' which meant, of course, that some man + stood ready to offer her kindness, protection, support, every thing + but marriage, and she accepted it. 'My mother, to-day, is as + innocent of any knowledge of my way of life, as a saint in heaven. + I live in daily terror and solicitude lest she should find it out, + for it would kill her. I am going soon on a visit to her, and shall + carry with me twelve hundred and fifty dollars, with which to + secure her a home for life; so that, whatever happens to me, she + will be provided for.' + + In confirmation of this story, a hack came to the door while she + was speaking, to carry her to the train she had previously + indicated; which fact, together with her earnest and sincere + manner, left no doubt in the minds of your Committee concerning the + truthfulness of her story. + + In regard to the series of meetings proposed to be inaugurated, + your Committee are obliged for the present to report unfavorably, + for the following reasons:-- + + The proposition was everywhere cordially met among the women. They + readily agreed to the usefulness of the project, and mentioned only + one objection, and that to time. 'Sunday,' was the invariable + answer, 'is our busiest day. We could hardly get away at all on + that day; but we will try to do so.' Your Committee saw at once the + blunder they had made in forgetting that Sunday is the leisure day + of men; and therefore went to the first appointed meeting, through + a cold and blinding snowstorm, with little hope of success. They + found the room already occupied by some six or eight street roughs, + evidently waiting for what might transpire. They left the room very + soon, but took their station about the door, and remained there as + long as the Committee did. Subsequent inquiries confirmed the + impression, that they were sent there by some of the men who had + been in the houses at the time of the visits, to break up the + meetings, for which purpose, of course, only their presence would + be necessary. + + Beyond this determined opposition which would no doubt be + encountered at the hands of the male supporters of the institution, + your Committee see but one serious difficulty; and that is, the + deep-rooted scepticism which prevail among the women concerning any + general sentiment of Christian charity in their behalf. They have + so long been persecuted with unjust opprobrium, abandoned, outcast, + left to live or die as they might, without one word of pity or + encouragement, while the men who shared their sins, and were + oftentimes the guiltier partners, were the honored and trusted + associates of Christian women, pillars perhaps in Christian + churches, that they have naturally come to feel, that the sympathy + of one or two good women, however earnest and grateful it may be in + itself, will be of little avail against the malignity of the whole + banded world. + + Still your Committee have seen nothing, so far, to discourage them + in their efforts, but every thing to impress upon them the feeling + of imperative duty in this direction. + + (Signed) Mrs. C.F. CORBIN, Chairman. + + "The plan of action proposed by this Committee was to visit the women + in a friendly, Christ-like spirit, inaugurate a series of meetings + among them, organize efforts in the direction of saving their money, + so that they might be able to take an independent position, with only + such moral support as should be necessary to enable them to face the + opposition of the world, and to direct their lavish free-heartedness + into channels of benevolence toward the old and worn-out of their + number. Pure and healthful pleasures would also be provided for them, + good music, the reading of fine poems and interesting stories, and so + a beginning made toward introducing principles of steadiness and + sobriety into their now totally abandoned and desperate lives." + + [16] This expression, used in all such places to denote the food, tea, + coffee, or gin, used by the overstrained girls, is terribly + significant. + + [17] I do not know that any person has ever practically carried out + Legouvé's estimate of labor as a moral help, but Marie de Lamourous, + the foundress of the House of Mercy at Bourdeaux. This was a refuge + for ruined women, whom she trained to self-support. Some one offered + her a sum sufficient to insure her family a comfortable living; but + she wisely refused it. "No false pretences," she said: "if we are not + compelled to labor, we shall not labor. An idle mind makes its own + temptations. I can do nothing without work." + + [18] When woman's power to work is called in question, men almost + always remark, that she has shown no _inventive_ genius whatever. + Should a proper history of the arts ever be written, this will be + found to be an entire mistake. Patentees are not always inventors; and + many of these, after hopeless labor carried on for years, have owed a + final success to some woman's power of adaptation. We need not, + however, take refuge in general statement, nor in the traditional fact + that she invented spindle, distaff, needle, and scissors. Any new-born + barbarian, pressed by necessity, might accomplish so much. The most + delicate and beautiful obstetrical instruments were invented by Madame + Boivin. Madame Ducoudray invented the manikin; Madame Breton, the + system of artificial nourishment for babes; Morandi and Bihéron + adapted wax to the purposes of medical illustration; and it was to the + observations of Mademoiselle Bihéron, recorded in wax, that Dr. Hunter + owed the illustrations of his best work. He was her generous friend; + but she preceded him seven years in this direction, and may possibly + have given him the right to use her observations as his own. Madame + Rondet has, in the present century, invented a tube to be used in + cases of restoration from asphyxia. It is easy to quote these cases + from the history of medicine, because an honest French physician has + taken pains to preserve them; but the following instances of inventive + and mechanical power may be less known:-- + + In 1823, _the first patent of invention_ was taken out in Paris by + Madame Dutillet, for the formation of artificial marble. This was so + successful a patent, that she sold it in 1824; and the purchaser + renewed it, with still further improvements. + + In 1836, Burrows, an Englishman, took out a patent for cement. Madame + Bex, of Paris, found this cement a failure in damp places, and + published a method of less limited application, in which bitumen was + employed. + + In 1840, Mrs. Marshall, once of Manchester, England, and now of + Edinburgh, was struck with the idea, that the electric forces evolved + by decaying animal and vegetable matter, acting upon calcareous + substances, must have much to do with the natural formation of marble. + In five years, by upwards of ten thousand experiments, she perfected + an artificial marble, whose constituents and manufacture were entirely + within control, and which could be made in hours or months, at the + maker's volition. To this cement she gave the simple Italian name of + _intonuca_. It is singular that she should so intuitively have seized + this secret; for, under Madame Dutillet's patent, we are expressly + informed that all vegetable matter must be removed from the + composition, if we would have the cement indestructible. The example + is an interesting one; for the ten thousand disagreeable experiments + show that one woman at least possessed the power of persistent + application, of long-protracted labor, so often denied. + + Starch first came into use in England in 1564. It was carried thither + by a Mrs. Dinghen Vanden Plasse, of Flanders, who set up business as a + professed starcher, and instructed others how to use the article for + five pounds, and how to make it for twenty pounds. + + Side-saddles for ladies first came into use in 1138. Anne, queen of + Richard II., introduced these to the English ladies. + + The braiding of straw in this country was first begun in Providence, + in 1798, by Mrs. Betsey Baker, lately residing in Dedham, Mass. The + first bonnet she made was of seven straws with bobbin let in like + open-work, and lined with pink satin. + + I had hoped to add to these names that of a peasant woman, who + successfully drained a large estate in France after her own original + fashion, and was sent from Paris to do the same in French Guiana for + the government; but, although no phantom, she eludes my researches. + + [19] Historical Pictures of the Middle Ages, in Black and White. + + [20] Ernest Legouvé. + + [21] While these papers were preparing for the press, the record of + another such sale, in August, 1859, disgraced the English nation. + Opposite the brewery, at Dudley, in Staffordshire, not many miles from + Kidderminster and Birmingham, a man named Pensotte sold his wife, with + a halter round her neck, for sixpence. He had previously dragged + her--a three weeks' bride--three quarters of a mile in this state. It + is intimated in this case, that she was not faithful; but it is the + first time I ever saw such a charge attached to such an account. + Americans are anxious to understand this outrage. Is it possible that + a government which forbids the sale of a negro cannot forbid the sale + of a Saxon wife? What shadow of law sustains the custom? Is the woman + supposed to be sold into wifehood or servitude? I have taken it for + granted that the word "mare" shows that she is regarded as a beast of + burden. It is impossible for the fairest and loftiest woman in + England--nay, for Victoria herself--not to suffer, in some degree, + from the public opinion which such transactions, ever so rarely + occurring, tend to form. + + + + +II. + +VERIFY YOUR CREDENTIALS. + + "This hurts most, this ... that, after all, we are paid + The worth of our work, perhaps." + + E.B. BROWNING. + + +If low wages, by actually starving women and those dependent upon them, +force many into vicious courses, so does the want of employment lower +the whole moral tone, and destroy even the domestic efficiency of those +whose minds seek variety and freedom. More than once have I been to +insane asylums with young girls whom active and acceptable employment +would have saved from mania; and scores of times have young women of +fortune asked me, "What can you give me to do?" + +And to this question there is, in the present state of the public mind, +no possible answer. No woman of rank can find work, if she do not happen +to be philanthropic, literary, or artistic in her taste, without braving +the influence of home, or, what is next dearest, the social circle, and +earning for herself a position so conspicuous as to be painful to the +most energetic. The woman who is prepared for all this will not ask +anybody what she is to do: she will take her work into her own hands, +and do it. + +That was a pleasant time in the history of the world, when every woman +found, in spinning, weaving, and sewing, in the active labor of a small +or the skilful management of a large household, full employment for time +and thought, under the cheering shelter of a husband's or father's +smile. That was a pleasant time also, when, in the middle English +classes, women worked freely by a husband's side, with more regard to +his interest than heed of the world's talk. But with the wide +intellectual culture that America has been the first country in the +world to offer to women, individual tastes and wishes must develop in +single women; and all men who value the moral health of society must aid +this development. + +There is no greater enemy to body and soul than idleness, unless it be +the absurd public sentiment which compels to idleness. Thousands and +tens of thousands have fallen victims to it. The woman who will not +labor, rich or honored though she be, bends her head to the inevitable +curse of Heaven. + +This curse works in failing health, fading beauty, broken temper, and +weary days. Let her never fancy, that, being neither wife nor mother, +she is exempt from the law: she cannot balance that decree of God by the +foolish customs of society or the weak objections of her kindred. Never +let her say she does not need to labor. Disease, depression, moral +idiocy, or inertia, follow on an idle life. He who never rests has made +woman in His image; and health, beauty, force, and influence follow on +the steps of labor alone. + +I shall not pursue this subject; for it is far easier for you to think +it out, than to gather the facts I wish to bring before you. Read +"Shirley," and let the saddest hours of Caroline Helstone's life bear +witness for thousands who never find a vocation. Read the "Professor," +and let its sweet stimulus kindle in you some appreciation of the joy +which mutual labor can bring to a happy husband and wife. + +Sad, indeed, then, is it when man himself represses a woman's longing +for work, whether from false tenderness, from a dread of public opinion, +a shrinking from her ultimate independence, or a small personal +jealousy. That he does, in the aggregate and as an individual, so +repress it, is unfortunately matter of history: it is no invention of an +outraged inferior. I could offer you many private examples of this; but +those that carry proofs of their reality with them will, I fear, seem +very familiar. The first consists in the opposition shown to the attempt +of Mr. Bennett to establish young women as watchmakers. Honorary +Secretary to the Horological Department of the great Exhibition, he +could not help observing the superiority of the Genevese watches, in +cheapness and convenience of carriage. In England, watches are so dear +that only the privileged classes can carry them. It would be for the +interests of the manufacturers, of course, to be able to compete with +the Swiss; but they were too short-sighted to see it. Finding that +twenty thousand women and girls were employed in Switzerland in the +manufacture of watches and watchmakers' tools, Mr. Bennett undertook to +deliver a public lecture on the subject. It was interrupted by hisses, +and broken up like a New-York convention. Three well-educated women then +applied to him to be taught; but no Englishman could be found to take +them. A Swiss, settled in London, did. They made more progress in six +months than ordinary boys in six years; but they, as well as their +teacher, were so cruelly persecuted, that it was found necessary to +relinquish the attempt. My impression is, though I cannot find the +account in print, that a further effort was made on a more extended +scale, something like a school; and this was resisted by such combined +effort on the part of the trade, that Mr. Bennett and his friends began +to make a stir through the press. The "Edinburgh Review" mentions a +watchmaker's wife who wished to work with her husband in his special +department. Finding that it could not be done with the consent of the +trade, she undertook, instead, the engraving of the brass work; but, +though working in her own house, she was at last successful only under +the plea that she had been regularly apprenticed by her father, also in +the business. She persevered, and taught her two daughters; and so will +many others. + +Women in England must certainly make watches; and the time is not far +distant when the men of Coventry will yield to this demand, as they have +already yielded to others. A few years ago, winding silk, weaving +ribbon, and pasting patterns of floss upon cards, excited the same +opposition; but now thousands of women pursue these employments, and +the men look on as quietly as the grazing cattle in the fields. + +"The first steam factory in Coventry," says the "Edinburgh Review" for +October, 1859,--"a very small factory,--was burned down during a quarrel +about wages. Then there was an opposition to the employment of women at +the looms. To this day, one of the lightest and easiest processes in the +manufacture, which a child might manage, is engrossed by the men, under +heavy penalties." + +Fancy a strong man winding silk for a whole day, or sorting colors in +floss! How has he ever degraded himself to such girls' work? + +I need only remind you of the formal petition sent in at the time of the +opening of the School of Design at Marlborough House, to entreat the +Government not to instruct and aid women, lest the poor, helpless men +should starve! A similar prejudice, much more active than any in +America, prevents English women from qualifying themselves as +physicians. Dr. Spencer, of Bristol, really educated his daughter as an +accoucheuse; but the prejudice was so strong that she was not allowed to +practise, and became a governess instead. The same prejudice kept the +English Army suffering for months, while it delayed the departure of +female nurses to the Crimea. + +In Staffordshire, women are employed to paint crockery and china, which +they can do with more taste and grace than men. It seems hardly +credible, that the desire of the men to keep down their wages should +deprive the females of the customary hand-rest; which would, of course, +diminish the fatigue, and make the pencil-stroke more certain. I am +happy to believe that not an employer in the United States would submit +to this absurd demand; and the result of any such attempt on the part of +workmen would probably be a general permission to leave. We are, in this +country, much more free from the control of guilds and unions of various +sorts than the people of England; yet the conduct of our printers +furnishes a fair parallel to these foreign facts. Within a few years, +there have been more than twenty strikes in printing-offices, consequent +upon the employment of a few women; and the result has generally been an +entire change of hands, masters in America not enduring dictation. + +In August of 1854, the journeymen employed in the office of the +"Philadelphia Daily Register" left the office, in high dudgeon, because +the publisher had employed two women as type-setters in a separate +office. They acted in conformity to a resolve of the Printers' Union, +and were permitted to depart. But this was not all. Threats of personal +violence followed all who sought the waiting work, and an attempt was +made to cut the rope by which the forms are raised. The result would +have been to break up the type, prevent the issue of the paper, and run +the risk of endangering life. Complaints were lodged against the +printers; and, after a hearing, they were each held to bail in six +hundred dollars, to answer to the charge of conspiracy, at the Court of +Quarter Sessions. + +About the same time, a printer in the same establishment with the +"Lily," but working on the "Home Visitor," refused to give some +necessary instruction to a girl employed on the first paper. It was +found that all the hands had signed an agreement never to work with or +instruct a woman! The men, after proper remonstrance, were dismissed, +and their places supplied by four women and three men, who worked +harmoniously together. That was only five years ago, and now there are +hundreds of female printers in Ohio; and one orphan girl has risen from +type-setting to an editor's chair and a handsome competence. + +Jealousy in America sometimes takes a more comical form. Coming home +lately from a Female School of Design in another city, I expressed some +disappointment at the character of the work and management. A young man +in the room spoke of the impossibility of a woman's ever learning to +design, in terms so contemptuous that I did not think it worth while to +answer him. Making some inquiries, however, in private, I found that his +master had often reproached him with _falling behind the women_ at the +school; so that personal pique had more to do with the whole thing than +any real experience.[22] + +But, having made these remarks, I must recur to my previous +statement,--that, in the main, no jealousy of cliques, no legal +restrictions, prevent women from taking their proper place. A want of +respect for woman, and a want of respect for labor, latent and +unacknowledged in the public mind, must be overcome before she can do +it. The overworked and ill-paid woman has seized every chance to slight +her work; and an idea has gone abroad, that no slop-work will be fit for +sale unless a man inspects it. So New York and Paris have man-tailors +and man-milliners; and the poor, tempted, stricken girls are brought +into contact, in the pursuit of bread, with the very men most likely to +take advantage of every failure. Very sad stories could be told of work +rejected day after day, on account of pretended faults, till the +starving victim drops at the feet of the treacherous overseer, only to +be trampled, in the end, under those of the whole town. Educated, +respectable women should have the giving-out and the inspection of +woman's work; but educated and respectable women will never stand in +such a position till public opinion teaches them that all _labor_ is +honorable, and that no lady will ever sit with folded hands. How we rate +an idle boy! how we bear with a dawdling girl! That father grows +impatient whose son does not rise early, or show some desire for +employment; but the same man keeps his daughters in Berlin wool and +yellow novels, and looks to marriage as their salvation, even when he +blushes to be told of it. + +To prove this, let me show you that many employments have been open to a +degree not generally acknowledged; and a safe foundation for this +assertion will be found in the census of the United Kingdom and that of +the United States. + +It is a singular fact, that there are a great many more women in +England in business for themselves than employed as tenders or clerks; +while, in America, the fact, at the present day, is directly the +reverse. + +It was not so in the time of the Revolution. Then, as in France, the men +went to the war. Women of shrewdness and ability managed their husbands' +affairs,--the shops and trades of the nation,--and grew so independent +thereby, that even Mrs. John Adams had to rebuke her husband for the +absurd inequalities of privilege which his new government sustained. In +England, the deficient education of the lower classes makes it almost +impossible for the women to make change quickly, or keep accounts; and +we smile as we find the "Edinburgh Review" gravely contending that woman +may master the rule of three; that, at least, they ought to have a +chance to _try_: and we can afford to smile; for our public schools have +taught us how much quicker most women can count than most men. While, +therefore, the want of education has prevented a certain class of +English women from becoming clerks or book-keepers, the national habits +of thrift, and a certain respectable pride in a family shop or trade, +have induced thousands of a superior class to assume, upon a father's or +husband's death, the charge of his establishment, and so secure a +competence for the heirs. This is what we could wish our women to do. We +all know how frequently the whole social position of a family here +changes with the death of its head. Let our women prevent this for the +future, by cherishing a natural ambition to do for their children what +the fathers of those children would have done. + +The last census of the United Kingdom shows, that, while the female +population has increased in such proportion that there are now _eight +women_ where there were _seven_, there are _eight working_ women where +there were only _six_; that is, there are more new workers than new +women. There are 1,250,000 women earning their own bread as +independently as any men. Of these, there are-- + + 385,000 employed in Textile manufactures, + 40,000 in Metal-works, and + 128,418 in Agriculture. + +I hope these statements will not seem useless and superficial to you. + +This hour cannot be better employed than in opening to you some of the +mysteries of woman's work in England. + +Among the 128,418 women employed in Agriculture, there are 64,000 +dairy-women; not women who tend a single cow for a single family, but +women of muscle, who wield large tubs and heavy presses, who turn +cheeses and slap butter by the hundred-weight. Then there are +market-gardeners, who not only raise their stock, but drive it to the +town for sale; bee-mistresses and florists, of whom there are many among +the Quakers; flax-producers, who not only raise the pretty blue-eyed +flowers, but beat the silicious fibres apart; and they are followed by +hay-makers, reapers, and hop-pickers, gracefully garlanding the group. + +Naturally connected with this first interest of the soil is the second, +or Mining. It is no longer considered fit for women to work in shafts, +though the need of bread forces many to evade the law. The census, +however, cannot touch them: the seven thousand women it reports as +engaged in Mining are employed in dressing and sorting ore, and as +washers and strainers of clay for the potteries,--heavy and disagreeable +if not unfit work. + +The next largest interest is that of the Fisheries. The Pilchard fishery +employs many thousands of women. Jersey oysters alone employ over one +thousand. Then come the-- + + Herring, + Cod, + Whale, and + Lobster fisheries. + +The work in connection with the whale fishery consists chiefly in what +is done after the cargo is landed. Apart from the Christie +Johnstones,--the aristocrats of the trade,--the sea nurtures an heroic +class, like Grace Darling, who stand aghast, as she did, when society +rewards a deed of humanity, and cry out in expostulation, "Why, every +girl on the coast would have done as I did!" + +In natural connection with these come the-- + + Kelp-burners, the + Netters, and the + Bathers, + +or women who manage the bathing machines used on the coast. Then come +two hundred thousand female servants; of which, largest in number, +shortest in life, and, of course, the worst paid, are the general +housemaids, or unhappy servants-of-all-work. Then come-- + + Brewers, + Custom-house and Police searchers, + Matrons of jails, + Lighthouse-keepers, and + Pew-openers. + +I cannot mention the Matrons of jails, without a sigh, when I remember, +that at our common jail and at Charlestown there is no proper matron; +and sickness, death, and childbirth meet only with such care as women +detained as witnesses, or inebriates, can offer. Surely a Christian +community should furnish Christian, womanly ministrations to its +prisoners; and I would that some noble soul in an able body might be +found to take up this work! Pew-opening has never been a trade in this +community; but, as there are signs that it may become so, I advise our +women to keep an eye upon it! + +There are in the United Kingdom-- + + 500,000 business-women, + 94,000 shoemakers' wives, + 27,000 victuallers' wives, + 26,000 butcheresses, + 14,000 milk-women, + 10,000 beershop-keepers, + 9,000 innkeepers, and + 8,000 hack proprietors. + +The difference between the employers and the employed is shown in the +following numbers. There are-- + + 29,000 shopkeepers, and only + 1,742 shopwomen; + +since the lower class of English women are seldom taught writing or +accounts. + +Telegraphic Reporters, Phonographers, and Railway-clerks, are on the +increase. In reporting the Bright Festival at Manchester last year, the +speed and accuracy of the young women were thought very remarkable. Six +whole columns were transmitted at the rate of twenty-nine words a +minute, almost without mistake, although the subject of the speeches was +political, and so supposed to be beyond their comprehension! + +Several railways employ women as clerks and ticket-sellers, and the +results are more than satisfactory. Thus far the census; which has not +been without its interest, since, in English parlance, shoemaker-wife +means not merely the wife of a shoemaker, but a wife who shares her +husband's labor, or has succeeded to it on his death. Butcher-wife also +means a woman who can buy and sell stock, pickle meat, and perhaps drive +a cart through the town. + +Now for the results of some private letters. When I spoke of forty +thousand Metal-workers, your minds did not revert, I trust, to those +dens at Wiltenhall, where women have been struck with hammers, files, +and even bars of iron glowing at a white heat. + +Now, at least, let us visit a pleasanter scene. A man has forged and +rolled out the sheet which is soon to pass for a hundred gross of +Gillott's pens; but a woman cuts and bends and stamps, grinds, splits, +polishes, and packs it, so that her sisters may have pleasure in the +using. + +It was at Birmingham that your gold chain was made. A man's strength +drew out the precious wire; but hundreds of young girls cut it to the +required length, shaped it on a metal die to the required pattern, +soldered it invisibly over a jet of gas-light, ground the facets till +they gleamed and polished the whole length to tempt the gazer's eye. +Quiet, diligent, skilful, tidy, they sit; with polished slippers bobbing +along the floor; not quite so healthy as those who labor on the pens, +for the gas and solder do an unwholesome work. Others burnish the silver +plate, sort needles, paint iron and papier-maché trays; and hundreds +more are busy cutting and polishing screws,--a work mainly in their +hands, because men cannot be trusted with the delicate manipulation. + +There is a covered button, my brother, on your coat. Women cut the +metal, the cloth cover, the paper stuffing, the silk lining; a child +piles these in proper order; and, by one stroke of a magic press, a +woman throws them out a finished button. + +One young girl in London began life by designing for such buttons, till +she found that she had a soul above them, and cheerfully entered an +artistic career. + +Nail-cutting and hook-and-eye making employ others; and, if we take a +book into our hand, women follow us through all the stages of its +manufacture. A woman cut and cleaned the rags, counted the sheets of +paper, and set off the reams; a woman may have set the types; perhaps +some worn-out seamstress wrote the verses, or a female physician +composed the thesis: a woman _may_ print, a woman certainly _will_ fold +it down and stitch it for the binder. A woman will engrave on wood its +illustrations, or color in her own home its fine photographs or +drawings: at the very last, her white hand will touch with gleams of +gold its tinted edges or many-hued envelope. + +It is women who pack cards and throw off damaged paper. I have not +obtained any reliable account of English female card-makers; but there +must be many. In an old Nuremberg rate-book are the names of "Elizabeth +and Margaret," _Karten-mächerin_, reported in 1436 and 1438. Cards were +invented in 1361. In about seventy years, therefore, the manufacture had +passed into woman's hand. In my notes from the census, I find no mention +of wood-engravers: but, in 1839, Charlotte Nesbit, Marianne Williams, +Mary Byfield, Mary and Elizabeth Clint, held honorable positions among +English wood-engravers; while, at the close of the last century, +Elizabeth Blackwell executed botanical plates, and Angelica Kauffman +engraved on steel, to the satisfaction of Sir Joshua Reynolds. In +London, recently, one accomplished female engraver has turned her steel +plates into a pleasant country-house, which she means to furnish with +the proceeds of her delicate painting on glass. + +A whole volume might be written concerning English female printers. +Turning over some old books the other day in the Antiquarian Rooms at +Worcester, I came upon Elizabeth Bathurst's "Truth Vindicated," printed +and sold by Mary Hinde, at No. 2 in George's Yard, Lombard Street, 1774. +A little farther along, I found Sophia Hume's "Letters to South +Carolina," printed and sold by Luke Hinde, at the Bible in George's +Yard, Lombard Street, 1752. Good Quaker books, both of them; and the +titlepages told a pleasant story. Here, at the sign of the Bible, Luke +Hinde carried on his work in 1752. When he died, his widow kept the +establishment open, and taught her girls to stand at the forms; so, +twenty-two years after (in 1774), the place goes on in her name. No +change; only some dissenting wind has blown down the Old Bible, and a +gilded number two shines in its stead. It is the history of half the +business-women in England, and a very creditable history for Mary Hinde. + +On those dishes of Liverpool ware are pretty pictures in gray ink. Women +took them wet from the copperplate, and, laying them along the biscuit, +carried it to the furnace; there the paper burns away: while others +paint and gild, or, with hideous clatter of blood-stones, polish off the +finer ware. + +In the next street, hundreds of women make paperbags and pill-boxes, +without wasting a square inch of material. + +Not long ago, two young girls, whose father's clerkship was ill paid, +took to making artificial teeth, and succeeded so well as to obtain +constant orders and a competence. More cheering still: a young servant, +with strong elbows, took to French polishing, and gave desk and work-box +and inlaid cabinet a gloss that no varnish of man could match. For two +or three years she made contracts with upholsterers, and kept herself in +profitable work: then Cupid pinched the strong elbows, and she slipped +out of permanent reputation as a cabinetmaker's wife. + +In brushmaking, women sort the hair, and set it in the holes. The +delicate, cone-like arrangement of the badger's hair, in the modern +shaving-brush, can be made only by a woman's hand; and she who has skill +to do it well may ask her own wages. + +Then there are glove-cleaners; women who strain silk, in fluting, across +the old-fashioned work-bag or the parlor-organ front; women who shell +pease and beans at so much a quart, and who make the thousands of +baskets for the fruiterer's stall. Passing the white-lead factory at +meal-times, you will see fifty women file away, whose duty it is to pile +the lead for oxidation; and thousands, very different from these, sit +making artificial flowers, many of them cheap enough, but others, from +their exquisite grace and naturalness, bringing the artist's own price. + +I have purposely dwelt on all these avocations. As you have followed +me, has it seemed to you that we wanted more avenues for manual labor? +As many as you please. We are bound to inherit the whole earth. But it +seems to me that what is most needed is, first, respect for woman as a +laborer, and then respect for labor itself. + +When men respect women as human beings, consequently as laborers, they +will pay them as good wages as men; and then uncommon skill or power to +work will be set free from the old forcing-pump and siphon, and we shall +see what women can do. When men respect labor,--respect it so far, that +they hold a woman honored when she seeks it,--then women of a higher +rank will seek to invest their capital in mercantile experiments; will +establish factories or workshops; will organize groups of struggling +sisters; and the class that most needs to be helped, the idle rich, will +find happiness and honor, will find help, in offering opportunities to +the lowest. + +What the lowest class of women need is active brains to plan and think +for them. There are plenty of these active brains at the West End, +tingling with neuralgia, hot with idleness, dizzy with waltzing. Offer a +government testimonial to the first girl of rank who will carry her +brains to a market, and you will see what a throng of aspirants we shall +have; letting it be understood, mind you, that the public feeling +sustains the government testimonial. + +Let us ask, then, a few questions about the state of female labor in the +United States. Our census is by no means so complete as that of Great +Britain; and our statements will, therefore, be less accurate. + +At the close of the Revolution, there were in New England, and perhaps +farther south, many women conducting large business establishments, and +few females employed as clerks, partly because we were still English, +and had not lost English habits. Men went to the war or the General +Court, and their wives soon learned to carry on the business upon which +not only the family bread, but the fate of the nation, depended; while +our common schools had not yet begun to fit women for book-keepers and +clerks. + +The Island of Nantucket was, at the close of the war, a good example of +the whole country. Great destitution existed on the establishment of +peace. The men began the whale fishery with redoubled energy: some +fitted out and others manned the ships; while the women laid aside +distaff and loom to attend to trade. A very interesting letter from Mrs. +Eliza Barney to Mr. Higginson gives me many particulars. "Fifty years +ago," she says, "all the dry-goods and groceries were kept by women, who +went to Boston semi-annually to renew their stock. The heroine of +'Miriam Coffin' was one of the most influential of our commercial women. +She not only traded in dry-goods and provisions, but fitted vessels for +the merchant service. Since that time, I can recall near seventy women +who have successfully engaged in commerce, brought up and educated large +families, and retired with a competence. It was the influence of +capitalists from the Continent that drove the Nantucket women out of the +trade; and they only resumed it a few years since, when the California +emigration made it necessary. Five dry-goods and a few large groceries +are now carried on by women, as also one druggist's shop." Mrs. Gaskell, +in her "Life of Charlotte Bronté," mentions a woman living as a +druggist, I think, at Haworth; and I have always been surprised that +this business was not left to women. Our Nantucket druggist is doing +well. In Pennsylvania, the Quaker view of the duties and rights of women +contributed to throw many into trade at the same period. One lady in +Philadelphia transferred a large wholesale business to two nephews, and +died wealthy. I saw a letter the other day, which gave an interesting +account of two girls who got permission there to sell a little stock in +their father's shop. One began with sixty-two cents, which she invested +in a dozen tapes. The other had three dollars. In a few years, they +bought their father out. The little tape-seller married, and carried her +husband eight thousand dollars; while the single sister kept on till she +accumulated twenty thousand dollars, and took a poor boy into +partnership. + +I have spoken of English female printers. The first paper ever issued in +Rhode Island was printed by a brother of Dr. Franklin, at Newport. He +died early, and his widow continued the work. She was aided by her two +daughters, swift and correct compositors. She was made printer to the +Colony, and, in 1745, printed an edition of the laws, in 346 folio +pages. That she found time to do something else, you may judge from this +advertisement:-- + + "The printer hereof prints linens, calicoes, silk, &c., in figures, + in lively and durable colors, without the offensive smell which + commonly attends linen printed here." + +Margaret Draper printed the "Boston News Letter," and was so good a Tory +that the English Government pensioned her when the war drove her away. +Clementina Bird edited and printed the "Virginia Gazette," and Thomas +Jefferson wrote for her paper. Penelope Russell also printed the +"Censor," in Boston, in 1771. + +When we record these things, and think how women are pressing into +printing-offices in our time, it is pleasant to find a generous action +to sustain them. At a recent Printers' Convention held in Springfield, +Ill., the following resolution was adopted:-- + + "_Whereas_, The employment of females in printing-offices as + compositors has, wherever adopted, been found a decided benefit as + regards moral influence and steady work, and also as offering + better wages to a deserving class; therefore, be it-- + + "_Resolved_, That this Association recommends to its members the + employment of females whenever practicable." + +Mrs. Barney tells us that failures were very uncommon in Nantucket while +women managed the business; and some of the largest and safest fortunes +in Boston were founded by women, one of whom, I remember, rode in her +own chariot, and kept fifty thousand dollars in gold in the chimney +corner, lest the banks should not be as cautious in their dealings as +herself. While writing these pages, I have visited such a woman, still +living in Prince Street, at the age of ninety-five. Her name is Hillman. +She lived for sixty-four years in the same house, and made her property +by a large grocery business, and speculations on a strip of real estate. +Her father, Mr. William Haggo, was a nautical-instrument maker; and she +has a very remarkable head, and as conservative a horror of modern +changes--steam-bakeries, for instance--as any of you could wish.[23] +Some of you will remember the two sisters Johnson, who, for more than +half a century, kept a crockery-shop on Hanover Street, and separated +about two years ago,--one sister to retire on her earnings; the other to +rest in a quiet grave, at the age of fourscore. The spirit of modern +improvement has since seized hold of the old shop. + +It was one of the most distinguished of our female merchants--Martha +Buckminster Curtis--who planted, in Framingham, the first potatoes ever +set in New England; and you will start to hear that our dear and honored +friend Ann Bent entered on her business career so long ago as 1784, at +the age of sixteen. + +She first entered a crockery-ware and dry-goods firm; but, at the age +of twenty-one, established herself in Washington, north of Summer +Street, where we remember her. She soon became the centre of a happy +home, where sisters, cousins, nieces, and young friends received her +affectionate care. The intimacy which linked her name to that of Mary +Ware is fresh in all our minds. What admirable health she contrived to +keep we may judge from the fact, that she dined at one brother's table +on Thanksgiving Day for over fifty years. She was the valued friend of +Channing and Gannett; and her character magnified her office, ennobled +her condition, gave dignity to labor, and won the love and respect of +all the worthy. Less than two years ago, at the age of ninety, she left +us; but I wished to mention both her and Miss Kinsley in this +connection, because they were the first women in our society to confer a +merchantable value upon taste. + +Instead of importing largely themselves, they bought of the New-York +importers the privilege of selection, and always took the prettiest and +nicest pieces out of every case. As they paid for this privilege +themselves, so they charged their customers for it, by asking a little +more on each yard of goods than the common dealer. + +I know nothing for which it is pleasanter to pay than for taste. When +time is precious (and to all serious people it soon becomes so), it is a +comfort to go to one counter, sure that in ten minutes you can purchase +what it would take a whole morning to winnow from the countless shelves +of the town. + +Scientific pursuits cannot be said to be fairly opened to women here. +The two ladies at work on the Coast Survey were employed by special +favor, and probably on account of near relationship to the gentleman who +had charge of the department of latitudes and longitudes. Their work is +done at home. Some years ago, Congress made an appropriation for an +American nautical almanac; and Lieut. Davis was appointed to take charge +of it. Three ladies were at one time employed upon the lunar tables. +Lieut. Davis told one of them that he preferred the women's work, +because it was quite as accurate, and much more neat, than the men's. In +1854, Maria Mitchell was employed in computing for this almanac, with +the same salary that would be given to a man. I may say, in this +connection, that a great number of female clerks have been employed in +Washington for many years. The work has generally been obtained by women +who had lost a husband or a father in the service of his country; and, I +am proud to say, such women have usually been paid the same wages as +men. During Mr. Fillmore's administration, two women wrote for the +Treasury, on salaries of twelve hundred and fifteen hundred dollars a +year; but the succeeding administration reformed this abuse, and very +few are now at work. + +In 1845, there were employed in the Textile manufactures of the United +States, 55,828 men and 75,710 women. This proportion, or a still +greater preponderance of female labor,--that is, from one-third to +one-half,--appears in all the factory returns. As an _employed_ class, +women seem to be more in number than men: as _employers_, they are very +few. The same census reports them as-- + + Makers of gloves, + Makers of glue, + Workers in gold and silver leaf, + Hair weavers, + Hat and cap makers, + Hose-weavers, + Workers in India-rubber, + Lamp-makers, + Laundresses, + Leechers, + Milliners, + Morocco-workers, + Nurses, + Paper-hangers, + Physicians, + Picklers and preservers, + Saddle and harness makers, + Shoemakers, + Soda-room keepers, + Snuff and cigar makers, + Stock and suspender makers, + Truss-makers, + Typers and stereotypers, + Umbrella-makers, + Upholsterers, + Card-makers, and + Grinders of watch crystals. + 7,000 women in all. + +There is no mention of female wood-engravers, though we have had such +for twenty-five years; and pupils from the Schools of Design have +already achieved a certain success in this direction. To the enumeration +of the census, I may add, from my own observation,-- + + Photographists and daguerrotypists, + Phonographers, + House and sign painters, + Button-makers, + Fruit-hawkers, + Tobacco-packers, + Paper-box makers, + Embroiderers, + Fur-sewers; and, at the West, + Reapers and hay-makers. + +In a New-Haven clock factory, seven women are employed among seventy +men, on half-wages; and the manufacturer takes great credit to himself +for his liberality. At Waltham, also, a watch factory has been lately +started, in which many women are employed.[24] In the census of the city +of Boston for 1845, the various employments of women are thus given:-- + + Artificial-flower makers, + Boardinghouse-keepers, + Bookbinders, + Printers, + Blank-book makers, + Bonnet-dealers, + Bonnet-makers, + Workers in straw, + Shoe and boot makers, + Band and fancy box makers, + Brush-makers, + Cap-makers, + Clothiers, + Collar-makers, + Comb-makers, + Confectioners, + Corset-dealers, + Corset-makers, + Card-makers, + Professed cooks, + Cork-cutters, + Domestics, + Dress-makers, + Match-makers, + Fringe and tassel makers, + Fur-sewers, + Hair-cloth weavers, and + Map-colorers. + +I think you cannot fail to see, from this list, how very imperfect the +enumeration is: not a single washerwoman nor charwoman, for one thing, +upon it. Yet here you have the occupations of 4,970 women. Of these, +4,046 are servants,--a number which has, at least, doubled since then; +and which leaves only 924 women for all other avocations. + +In New York, Mr. Jobson, formerly surgeon-dentist to Victoria, offers to +instruct women in the duties of a dentist. I do not know that he has a +single practising pupil; but he asserts that some of the most +distinguished dentists in Europe are women. A few years since, the town +of Ashfield elected two women and three men to the duties of a School +Committee,--duties for which women are greatly to be preferred. A letter +from the senior lady shows that one of them at least never attempted to +do the actual work to which she was called, considering it _out_ of her +sphere! Does any one in this audience suppose that those women felt +incapable of the duty? We know better; but they were not of the stuff of +which martyrs are made, and, deferring to popular views, set aside a +sacred opportunity. They might have so done that work as to have secured +the election of women for ever after. + +The occupations of which the census takes no account may be classed as-- + + Professions, + Public Offices, + Semi-professions, and + Arts. + +Under the Professions come-- + + Physicians, + Lawyers, + Ministers, + +of which there are increasing numbers. + +Under Public Offices we find-- + + Postmistresses, + Registers of Deeds, + The few calculators at Washington, and + School-committee women at the West. + +It is probably known to you all how largely the rural post-office duties +are performed by women; petty politicians obtaining the appointment, and +leaving wives and daughters to do the work. There are several Registers +of Deeds; but I know only one,--Olive Rose, of Thomaston, Me. She was +elected in 1853, by 469 votes against 205; was officially notified, and +required to give bonds. Her emolument depends upon fees, and ranges +between three and four hundred dollars per annum. She continues to +perform the duties of her office, and, if an exquisitely clear +hand-writing is of service there, will probably never be displaced. + +Under the head of Semi-professions come-- + + Teachers, + Librarians, + Editors, + Lecturers, and + Matrons. + +Under that of Artists,-- + + Painters, + Sculptors, + Teachers of Drawing and the like, + Designers, + Engravers, + Public Singers, and + Actresses. + +I am sorry to conclude these attempts at statistics with one reliable +estimate, which holds, like a nutshell, the kernel of this question of +female labor. + +In 1850, there were engaged in shoemaking, in the town of Lynn, 3,729 +males and 6,412 females,--nearly twice as many women as men; yet, in the +monthly payment of wages, only half as much money was paid to women as +to men. The three thousand men received seventy-five thousand dollars a +month; and the six thousand women, thirty-seven thousand dollars: that +is, the women's wages were, on the average, only one-quarter as much as +those of the men. + +If we inquire into details, we may find many exceptional causes at work, +not perceptible at first sight: still this remarkable fact remains +essentially unchanged. + +In my first lecture, I showed you that women were starving, and that +vice is a better paymaster than labor. I showed you the awful falsity of +the cry, "Do not let women work: we will work for them. They are too +tender, too delicate, to bide the rough usage of the world." I showed +you that they were not only working hard, but had been working at hard +and unwholesome work, not merely in this century, but in all centuries +since the world began. I showed you how man himself has turned them +back, when they have entered a well-paid career. Practically, the +command of society to the uneducated class is, "Marry, stitch, die, or +do worse." + +Plenty of employments are open to them; but all are underpaid. They will +never be better paid till women of rank begin to work for money, and so +create a respect for woman's labor; and women of rank will never do this +till American men feel what all American men profess,--a proper respect +for Labor, as God's own demand upon every human soul,--and so teach +American women to feel it. How often have I heard that every woman +willing to work may find employment! The terrible reverses of 1837 +taught many men in this country that they were "out of luck:" how +absurd, then, this statement with regard to women! One reason why so +many young women are attracted to the Catholic Church is, that the +Catholic Church is a good economist, and does not tolerate an idle +member. In Catholic countries,--nay, in Protestant,--the gray hood of +the Sister of Charity is as sacred as a crown. + +When I think how happy human life might be, if men and women worked +freely together, I lose patience. Such marriages as I can dream +of,--where, household duties thriftily managed and speedily discharged, +the wife assumes some honorable trust, or finds a noble task for her +delicate hands; while the husband follows his under separate auspices! +Occupied with real service to men and each other, how happily would they +meet at night to discuss the hours they had lived apart, to help each +other's work by each other's wit, and to draw vital refreshment from the +caresses of their children! It is your distrust, O men! that prevents +your having such homes as poets fancy. You will not help women to form +them. The sturdy pine pushes through the tightest soil, and will grow, +though nothing more genial than a November sky bid it welcome; but +tender anemones--wind-flowers, as we call them--must be coaxed through +the loose loam sifted from thousands of autumn leaves, and tremble to +the faintest air. Yet are anemones fairer than the pine, and their +lovely blossoming a fit reward for Nature's pains. Follow Nature, and +offer the encouragement which those you love best daily need. Do it for +your own sakes; for proper employment will diffuse serenity over the +anxious faces you are too apt to see. Do not fancy that the conventions +of society can ever prevail over the will, it may be the freak, of +Nature. That stepdame is absolute. She set Hercules spinning, and sent +Joan of Arc to Orleans. She taught Mrs. John Stuart Mill political +economy, and Monsieur Malignon netting and lace-work. She enables women +to bear immense burdens, heat, cold, and frost; she sets them in the +thick of the battle even; while in South Carolina, and in the heart of +Africa, or among the Indians of the Rocky Mountains, old men croon over +forsaken babes till the milk flows in to their withered breasts.[25] + +Women want work for all the reasons that men want it. When they see +this, and begin to do it faithfully, you will respect their work, and +pay them for it. We are all taught that we are the children of God; only +Mohammedans deny their women that rank: yet we are left without duties, +as if such a thing were possible,--left without work that offers any +adequate _end_ as a stimulus to diligence or ambition; and, until "Work" +becomes man's cry of inspiration, woman will never train herself to do +her work well. + +It was Margaret Fuller, I think, who wrote of the Polish heroine, the +Countess Emily Plater, "_She_ is the figure I want for my frontispiece. +Short was her career. Like the Maid of Orleans, she only lived long +enough to _verify her credentials_, and then passed from a scene on +which she was probably a premature apparition." Ah! that is what all +women should do,--verify their credentials! "Say what you please," said +a young girl to her lover, as they passed out of a Woman's Convention; +"a woman that _can_ speak like Lucretia Mott, _ought_ to speak." And men +themselves cannot escape from this conviction. The duty of women, +therefore, is to inspire it by doing whatever they undertake worthily +and well; patient in waiting for opportunities, prompt to seize, +conscientious to profit by them. + +The Sorbonne, which still excludes woman from its courses and colleges, +has formed a separate course, and now institutes examinations, and +distributes diplomas for women. The Committee consists of three of the +Inspectors of the University, two Catholic priests, one Protestant +clergyman, and three ladies. + +A daughter of the greatest living French poet passed the examination +lately for the mere honor of it. Another girl, the daughter of one of +the highest public functionaries, passed the examinations; going through +the winter twilight every morning at five, that she might not only be +permitted to found a school on her estate, but secure the right to teach +in it. Aware that her rank would befriend her, she concealed her name +that she might owe nothing to favor. That is the right spirit. When a +majority, or even a plurality, of women are capable of it, farewell to +lecturers and lectures, to conventions, special pleadings, and the like! +The whole harvest will be open, and the laborers will come, bringing +their sheaves with them. + +In receiving lately a letter from a distinguished French author,--Madame +Sirault,--I was struck by the following sentence: "Every career from +which woman is steadily repulsed by man is, by this fact alone, marked +with the seal of death. The very repulse stigmatizes it. Man may not be +conscious of what he does; but the career which is too vile for a woman +to enter has outlived all chance of reform, and must perish with its +abuses." + +And, heroic as this statement may seem to you, it is a simple statement +of fact. Can man demand of woman a higher purity, a more ideal Christian +grace, than the letter of the Scripture, than the spirit of Christ, +demands of man himself?--"Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father in +heaven is also perfect." + +That was the clear command laid upon the simple fishermen, upon Luke the +physician and Matthew the publican, as well as upon Mary and Martha. The +world's eyes are slowly opening to the need of a pure life in men; and +it helps to show men what they ought to be, when women knock at the +doors of their workshops, and insist on entering. + +"What!" says the soldier, "must my sister follow me to the field to take +this blood-stained hand; to see me decked in the spoils of fallen men; +or hunting unprotected women like a brute beast, till they fall +senseless on the bodies of those they loved?" + +"Shut her out!" cries the minister of state. "Shall my _sister_ see +these hands, dripping with blood-money, bribed by a slave power or a +party interest, signing papers that condemn children yet unborn to the +miseries of hopeless war?" + +"Shut her out!" cries the advocate. "I am preparing to defend this man +for luring helpless innocence to the brink of hell, for building up a +fortune on dollars wrung from starving women, for putting a bullet +through his brother because he did not live a life purer than his own." + +"Turn her out!" cries the judge. "She will see that my scales are +loaded. She heard that railroad company offer me a bribe. She caught a +whisper just now from the husband of yonder outraged woman. She will +hear the liquor dealer's counsel, and see the golden lure that South +Carolina offers when the fugitive stands at the bar. Turn her out!" + +"Turn her out!" says the physician. "Shall she hear me jeer at what she +deems holy? Would you have her grow shameless also?" + +"Shut her out," says the trader, "while I mark my goods! This spool of +cotton is short fifty yards: mark it two hundred. This yard of muslin +was made at Manchester: sew on the Paris tack. This shawl was woven in +France: label it Cashmere. Color that cheese with annatto, weigh down +that butter with salt, dilute that rose-water from the spring, grate up +turnip to mix with that horseradish; but turn that woman out!" + +"Turn her out!" cries the priest, last of all. "Polemics and theology +have no charms for her. She will ask me why I do not do justly and love +mercy. Turn her out!" + +"Turn her out!" and, in the shudder which creeps over him while he +speaks, man sees not only how tender and strong is his love for the +sister that hung on the same maternal bosom; but he sees also what the +gospel without and the gospel within demand of the son no less than the +daughter of God. + +Farewell to war, to statecraft, to legal tricks, to shifts of trade; +farewell to bribery, to desecration, to idle controversy,--when woman +enters in to man's labor! + +You feel the doom falling, and strive to put it off. Not because God has +made woman of a diviner nature; not because he has made her more +precious, to be kept from the rough handling of the world,--does it +shrink from her pure gaze. No; but because God himself, in balancing the +world's forces, has blended her moral nature with her mental, purposely +to check her brother's aggressiveness, and moderate his lust of gain. So +has he given to man a cooler temper, a grander deliberateness, a +strength equal to every strain, which shall repair the fault of her warm +impulses, her "nimble" action, her unfitness, casual or universal, for +long-sustained effort. But what can either of you do alone? Impulse, +tenderness, and moral promptings, grow into tawdry sentimentalism, when +shut out from their fit arena, when untrained to emulate a brother's +active life. Coolness, forethought, and strength grow into cunning, +rapacity, and tyranny, when uninfluenced by that gentler element of your +nature which God has placed by your side. Helps-meet for each other you +were ordained: why hinder and obstruct each other's pathway? + +From this moment, put aside ignoble jealousy, inert sympathy, and stupid +indifference to your own moral position. Only by heartily accepting the +sweet juices and flavors of her life can you secure fragrant blossoms +and precious fruit to your own. The words are just as true when I turn +to counsel her. If ever this earth grows liker heaven, it will be when +the broad and generous sympathies prophesied by this new movement take +practical shape, and there are-- + + "Everywhere + Two heads in council, two beside the hearth, + Two in the tangled business of the world, + Two in the liberal offices of life, + Two plummets dropped for one, to sound the abyss + Of science, and the secrets of the mind: + Musician, painter, sculptor, critic, more: + And everywhere the broad and bounteous Earth + Shall bear a double growth of its best souls." + +I have often spoken, not only in this lecture, but in almost every one I +have ever given, of the great need of conscientious, painstaking woman's +work. During the last year, Baron Toermer has been borne by +torch-light to his last home, and the mediæval artist has been mourned +as a personal friend by many a crowned head. The torches of the priests +who bore him to his grave very likely startled to the window our two +young countrywomen, who are pursuing sculpture in the Eternal City. +Little did they guess, that, in the city of Florence, there was living +at that moment a woman as able, as renowned, though, for certain +reasons, not so well known to them, as the great artist just departed. I +will close this lecture with a brief sketch of Félicie de Fauveau, for +whose woman's work no apology will ever need to be made. + +Entering Florence by the Porta Romana, you find, in the Via della +Fornace, a dark-green door, which opens in to a paved court, once the +entrance to a convent. Beyond stretches a cool, quiet garden; and all +manner of birdcages and dovecotes remind you of Rosa Bonheur's fondness +for pets. Through that quiet garden, hedged with laurel and cypress, you +might have walked, but a little time ago, with a shrewd, sagacious, +life-loving French woman, an aristocrat and a Legitimist, whose eyes had +looked upon the guillotine, and who was proud of having suffered for her +faith and country. She would lead you to her small parlor, furnished +with ancient hangings, carved chairs, and gold-grounded Pre-Raphaelite +pictures of great value. Here she would introduce you to her daughter, +Félicie de Fauveau. + +A forehead low and broad; soft, brown eyes; an aquiline nose; a +well-cut, well-closed mouth; a flexible, fine figure; a velvet skirt and +jacket of the color of the "dead leaf;" a velvet cap of the same, drawn +over blonde hair, cut square across the forehead, as in the picture of +Faust,--this is what you see when you look at the artist; this is what +Ary Scheffer painted and valued so, that no gold would buy the portrait +while he lived. Fire, air, and water are in that organization: the +movements of the arms are angular; but the hands are soft, white, fine, +and royal. + +Born in Tuscany, she was early carried to Paris; whence she removed, +when very young, to Limoux, Bayonne, and Besançon. A great taste for +music and painting she inherited from her mother. Her studies were +profound, and among them she pursued archæology and heraldry. At +Besançon she painted in oils, but was not satisfied; and from the +workmen who carved for the churches she got her first hint towards +modelling. When her father died, she was ready to devote herself to the +support of her family. When people told her it was unbecoming, she drew +herself up: "Are you ignorant," she asked, "that an artist is a +gentlewoman?" + +Benvenuto Cellini was her prototype; and to her may be attributed that +revival of a taste for mediæval art which, proceeding from Paris, has +had, of late years, so great an influence on England. + +Her first work was a group called "The Abbot." Encouraged by unlimited +praise, she made a basso-relievo,--containing six figures, and +representing Christina of Sweden in the fatal galley with Monaldeschi. +This was in the last "Exposition des Beaux Arts," and received the gold +medal from Charles X. in person. + +Up to 1830, the young girl remained in Paris. Her mother was so +accomplished, Félicie herself so witty and profound a talker, that a +distinguished circle gathered round them; among them, Scheffer, +Delaroche, Giraud. All manner of fine artistic experiments in modelling +and drawing were improvised about their study-table. There she executed +for Count Pourtalès a bronze lamp of singular beauty. A bivouac of +archangels, armed as knights, were represented as resting round a +watch-fire, where St. Michael stood sentinel; round the lamp, in golden +letters, _Vaillant, veillant_,--"Brave, but cautious;" beneath, a +stork's foot holds a pebble surrounded by beautiful aquatic plants. +Many models were lost on the breaking-up of her Paris studio. She was +incessantly occupied with commissions for private galleries; she was to +have modelled two doors for the Louvre, and to have superintended the +decoration of a baptistery,--when the Revolution broke up her calm and +studious life. With the celebrated daughter of the Duras Family, she +retired to La Vendée, and, virtuous and honored, made herself as active, +politically, as the reckless women of the Fronde. To this day, the +peasantry know her as the Demoiselle. For those who remember her, there +will never be another. Finally came pursuit and capture. After a long +search, the two women were dragged from the mouth of an oven. Félicie +assisted her companion to escape; was watched more closely in +consequence, and remained seven months in prison at Angers. In prison +she designed a group representing the duel of the Lord of Jarnac before +Henry II., and a monument to Louis de Bonnechose. At the close of the +seven months, she returned to her studio at Paris. But very soon the +appearance of the Duchesse de Berri in La Vendée restored hope to all +Royalist hearts, and Félicie rushed to her side. + +"My opinions are dearer to me than my art," she said, and proved it by +heroic sacrifices. On the failure of this second attempt, she was exiled +by the government. In the very teeth of the authorities, she returned to +Paris, broke up her studio, and joined her mother in Florence, where +they have ever since resided, clad, not without significance, in colors +of the fallen leaf. No one but an artist can guess what loss is involved +in the sudden and forcible breaking-up of an old studio. At the very +moment when Félicie and her mother were all but starving in Florence, a +man in Paris made an almost fabulous fortune by selling walking-sticks +made from designs which she had sketched during the happy evenings of +her girlhood. The Fauveaus would not accept a dollar from the party they +had served; and Madame had as much pride as her daughter in establishing +the new studio. Félicie wrote, "We have manna, but only on condition +that we save none for the morrow." + +In her studio you find no Pagan traces, only Christian art,--St. +Dorothea lifting her lovely hands for the basket of fruit an angel +brings; a Santa Reparata, perfect in terra-cotta; exquisite +mirror-frames of wood, bronze, and silver. She has executed for Count +Zichy an Hungarian costume, a collar, belt, sword, and spurs, of finest +work. The Empress of Russia has ordered from her a silver bell. It is +decorated by twenty figures, the servants of a mediæval household; who +assemble at the call of three stewards, whose figures form the handle. +Round the bell is blazoned, in Gothic letters,-- + + "De bon vouloir servir le maître." + "With good will to serve the master." + +Beside the crowded labors of twenty-five years, Félicie has studied the +merely mechanical portions of her art, and tried to discover some old +artistic secrets. To cast a statue whole, so as to require no +after-touch of the chisel, has been her lifelong endeavor. She finally +succeeded in her St. Michael, though not till it had been recast seven +times. It is probable her experiments led the way for those by which +Crawford succeeded in casting his Beethoven. I cannot tell how many of +you have heard of Félicie de Fauveau. The fact that her works are +chiefly in private galleries and her own studio, screens her from +observation. The higher dignitaries of the church and the princes of art +are almost her only companions. She works constantly. About a year +since, the death of her devoted mother drew the veil still closer round +her daily life; but I retrace her story with honorable pride. + +Félicie de Fauveau is not merely an artist. She is the first artist in +the world, in her peculiar walk. As a worker in jewels, bronze, gold, +and silver, as a designer of monuments and mediæval furniture, she +stands without approach. + + "Witness that she who did these things was born + To do them; claims her license in her work." + +So let all women claim it. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [22] When I first began to lecture, many persons, sincerely interested + in my success, objected to what they called the "antagonistic" tone + occasionally adopted. They thought I ought to take for granted the + cheerful co-operation of the world, and that the woman's cause was the + loser whenever the audience was reminded of actual difficulties in the + way. But it would be hardly worth while for a woman to enter the desk, + only to hedge it in with compromise and evasion. The simple truth is + the "utmost skill" she needs to seek; and no reform built upon an + inaccurate survey can be lasting. Only by telling our brothers openly + what we think of their jealousy can we ever hope to shame them out of + it. That the day of opposition is _not_ passed; that the way of duty + cannot, even in America, be trod in satin slippers,--the following + extract, cut from a weekly paper while I am writing this note, will + plainly show:-- + + "The Pennsylvania Medical Society has exhibited a narrow-mindedness + altogether disgraceful to its members, by adopting a resolution + recommending 'the members of the regular profession to withhold from + the faculties and graduates of Female Medical Colleges all countenance + and support; and that they cannot, consistently with sound _medical + ethics_, consult or hold professional intercourse with their + professors or alumni.' The Female Medical Colleges of Pennsylvania, it + should be remembered, are strictly allopathic: so we are forced to + conclude, that the objection to them is founded _solely_ upon the fact + that they afford the means of education to women. We echo the + sentiment of the 'Philadelphia Sunday Dispatch:' 'Shame upon the men + who, while prating about their respectability, would combine to rob + women of the means of supporting themselves and their families! Such + infinitesimal littleness cannot benefit them. The public are ever + willing to aid the weak, and support them against the strong. The war + against women cannot be sustained by the public voice: it will recoil + upon and injure those who are so arbitrary and selfish as to endeavor + to interfere with them.'"--_Antislavery Standard_, July, 1859. + + "The medico-chirurgical school of Lisbon has granted the diploma of + _pharmacienne_ to Mesdames Marie Fajardo and Caroline de Matos, after + a legal examination. These illustrious _pharmaceuticas_ have a regular + knowledge of their business, and passed a preliminary examination in + 1859. 'The Gazette' does not say if they are _religieuses_ charged + with the management of a private pharmacy, or whether they are acting + as civil _pharmaciennes_. In one of the hospitals of the city is a + female dispenser, whose knowledge, accuracy, and care are said to be + reliable and satisfactory." + + [23] I first saw Mrs. Hillman the day after the destruction of the + steam-bakery at the North End. She was sitting up, reading the account + of it, without glasses, and eloquent in behalf of the trade, and + against innovations. Since the above passage was written, she has + passed away. + + [24] I do not dwell upon this watch factory in the text, because, + although fifty women are at work with one hundred and fifty men, they + are only "tending machines;" so that, although employment is open, a + career can hardly be said to be. The watches made at Waltham by + machinery are said to be so superior to all others, that they are used + by preference on the race-courses to time the horses. Men and women do + not compete with each other there; but both are at service, with a + steam-engine for their master. + + For the first two months, the women earn two dollars and fifty cents + _a week_; for the third, three dollars; and, after that, four dollars. + The men earn from five shillings to two dollars a _day_. It seems that + no special skill is required in the women, while the men in a few + departments are still paid according to their ability. The + steam-engine, it appears, has not yet learned how to cook dials! In + this case, the operator must hold the dial, turning it evenly, as if + he were a smoke-jack, which requires judgment and "faculty"! + + [25] Livingstone's "Africa." Paul Kane's "Travels in the North-west." + + + + +III. + +"THE OPENING OF THE GATES." + + "If such a day never come, then I perceive much else will never + come; heroic purity of heart and of eye, noble, pious valor to + amend _us and the age of bronze and lacquer_,--how can they ever + come?"--T. CARLYLE. + + +"To destroy daughters is to make war upon Heaven's harmony. The more +daughters you drown, the more daughters you will have; and never was it +known that the drowning of daughters led to the birth of sons." + +This passage from the treatise of Kwei Chunk Fu upon Infanticide may be +translated so as to apply to every Christian nation. The Chinese are not +the only people who drown daughters. England, France, and America, the +three leading intelligences of the world, are busy at it this moment. +The cold, pure wave of the Pacific is a sweeter draught than that social +flood of corruption and depression which, like a hideous quicksand, +buries your sisters out of your sight. "The more daughters you drown, +the more daughters you will have." Most certainly; and if, instead of +the word "daughters," you insert the words "weak and useless members of +society,"--which is what the Chinese mean by it,--you will see that Kwei +Fu is right. Let women starve; let them sink into untold depths of +horror, without one effort to save them; and, for every woman so lost, +two shall be born to inherit her fate. + +Nor need the careless and ignorant man of wealth fancy that his own +daughters shall escape while he continues heartlessly indifferent, +though he never actively wronged a human creature. When the spoiler is +abroad, he does not pause to choose his victims. The fairest and most +innocent may be the first struck down; for human passions find their +fitting type in the persecuted beast of the forest. It is not the hunter +alone who feels his teeth and talons, but the first human flesh his +lawless members seize. + +If these things are so, surely it is our duty to consider well this +question of work, to suggest all possible modes of relief, and, while +waiting for the final application of absolute principles, to help +society forward by all partial measures of amelioration; for only +partial can they be, so long as the present modes of thought and feeling +continue. How little any one person can contribute toward the solution +of our difficulties, I am well aware; yet I venture to make a few +suggestions. + +The "Edinburgh Review," whether prepared to recommend female preachers +and lecturers or not, _does_ propose women as teachers of Oratory; and +says distinctly, that, for this purpose, they are to be preferred to +men, as their voices are more penetrating, distinct, delicate, and +correct than those of men. I think it was a matter of surprise to +American audiences, when women first came forward as public speakers, +that, in so large a number of cases, the parlor _tone_ would reach to +the extremity of a large hall. Women, too, were heard at a disadvantage, +because popular curiosity compelled them to speak in the largest +buildings. There are a great many women, and there are also a great many +men, whose voices are wholly unfit for public exigencies; but, when you +consider that women have been wholly untrained so far, how great do +their natural advantages appear! Several female teachers of elocution in +our midst prove that this is gradually perceived. These remarks should +be extended so as to cover all instruction in the pronunciation of +languages. There may be men capable of distinguishing the delicate +shades of sound, so that a woman's voice can catch them; but such men +are rare exceptions to the common incompetency. The French nasals cannot +be distinguished accurately by a man's voice: the bass tone is too +broad, and the treble wavers in trying to find the middle rest. Pursue +the study of Italian for years with the best teacher that Boston can +furnish; and, when you first hear a cultivated Italian woman speak, you +will find that you have the whole thing to learn over again. So there +was never any teacher of the French language equal to Rachel, whose +nimble and fiery tongue never dropped an unmeaning accent nor tone; nor +of the English like Fanny Kemble, who, despite certain "stage tricks," +in vogue since the days of Garrick, shows us what delicate shades of +meaning lie hidden in the vowel sounds, and what power a slight +variation of a flexible voice confers upon a dull passage. The teaching +of oratory and of language, then, should devolve upon woman. + +"Why," asks Ernest Legouvé,--"why should not the immense variety of +bureaucrative and administrative employments be given up to women?" +Under this head would come the business inspection of hospitals, +barracks, prisons, factories, and the like; and the decision of many +sanitary questions. For all this, woman is far fitter than man. Her eye +is quick; her common sense ready: she sees the consequence in the cause, +and does not need to argue every disputed point. A shingle missing from +the roof is a trifle to a man; but, the moment a woman sees it, her +glance takes in the stained walls, the dripping curtains, wet carpets, +sympathetic ceilings, damp beds, and very possibly the colds and +illness, which this trifle involves. For this reason, she is a far +fitter inspector of all small abuses than man. + +Consider, then, Legouvé's proposition. The proprietor of the London +Adelphi advertised, at the opening of the last season, that his +box-openers, check-takers, and so on, would all be women. Throughout the +whole range of public amusements, there is a wide field for the +employment of girls, which this single step has thrown open. + +Women are so steadily pressing in to the medical profession, that I have +no need to direct your attention toward it; but I may say, that it is +much to be wished that women should devote themselves to the +specialities of that science. Until within a very few years, a Boston +physician has been expected to understand all the ills that flesh is +heir to; an eye-doctor or an ear-doctor or a lung-doctor must +necessarily be a quack. Women are entering, in medicine, a very wide +field. A few specially gifted may master every branch of practice; but +many will undoubtedly fail, from the want of _inherited_ habits of hard +study, of _transmitted_ power of investigation. I wish those who are in +danger of this would apply strenuously to one branch of practice; and a +great success in any one direction would do more for the general cause +than a thousand competences earned by an ordinary career. + +I do not suppose there is a city in the United States,--and, if not in +the United States, then certainly not in the world,--where, if you asked +the name of the first physician, you would be answered by that of a +woman.[26] I do not complain of this: it is too soon to expect it. +Colleges, schools of anatomy, clinical courses, have not yet been thrown +open; and success, so far, has been mastered mainly by original +endowment. Genius has held the torch, and shown the way; but I want +women to remember, that, in this department, all the teachings of nature +and experience show that they are bound to excel men. Let them, +therefore, take the best way to accomplish it. + +At the School of Design in New York, the other day, I pressed upon the +observation of the young wood-engravers the possibility of opening for +themselves a new career by wood-carving. It is quite common, in old +European museums, to see the stones of plums and peaches delicately +carved by woman's hand, and set in frames of gold and jewels. Sometimes +they are the work of departed saints or cloistered nuns; and a terrible +waste of time they seem to our modern eyes. Properzia dei Rossi,--whose +early history is so obscure, that no one knows the name of her parents; +while the cities of Bologna and Modena still dispute the honor of her +birth,--Properzia began her wonderful career by carving on peach-stones. +One she decorated with thirty sacred figures, holding the stone so near +the eye as to gain a microscopic power. On one still in the possession +of the Grassi Family, at Bologna, she chiselled the passion of our Lord; +where twelve figures, gracefully disposed, are said to glow with +characteristic expression. Properzia died a maiden, according to Vasari +and the best manuscript contemporaneous authority; and there seems to be +no ground for the vile stories that have clustered round her name, other +than the fact, that in her sculpture of Potiphar's wife, finished when +she knew that she was dying, she ventured to cut her own likeness. It +is not to the carving of cherry-stones, however, that I would direct the +attention of young women, but to the Swiss carving of paper-knives, +bread-plates, salad-spoons, ornamental figures, jewel-boxes, and so on. +On account of the care required in transportation, these articles bring +large prices; and I feel quite sure that many an idle girl might win a +pleasant fame through such trifles. No one will dispute the assertion, +who recalls the pranks of her young classmates at school. Do you +remember the exquisite drawings which once decorated the kerchiefs, the +linen collars and sleeves, of a certain schoolroom? The sun of the +artist set early; but I have often thought that a free maiden career in +the higher walks of art might have preserved her to us. The same fancy, +displayed in wood-carving, would have challenged the attention of the +world; and the cherry-stones also bore witness to her power. The only +practical difficulty would spring from the want of highly seasoned wood; +and that could be obviated by a little patience. Should any young girl +be tempted by my words into this career, I hope she will not give away +her carvings to indifferent friends, but carry them into the market at +once, and let them bring their price, that she may know her own value, +and that of the work. + +Properzia also excelled in engraving: so did Elizabetta Sirani in 1660. +Her engravings from Guido are still considered master-pieces. We have +female engravers on wood and steel, and also female lithographers. I +want some woman to apply herself to this work, with such energy and +determination as will place her at the head of it. Let her do this, and +she could soon establish a workshop, and take men and women into her +employ; standing responsible herself for the finish of every piece of +work marked with her name. Let some idle woman of wealth offer the +capital for such an experiment, and share some of its administrative +duties. "Success" is the best argument. It would be possible to organize +in Boston, at this moment, a shop of the best kind, where all the +designing and engraving should be done by women. Why can it not be +tried? Carvers on wood, and engravers then. + +I have known several English barbers,--not women of the decorative art, +like our sainted Harriet Ryan; but women actually capable of shaving a +man! Why, then, does the "Englishwoman's Journal" inform us, that, in +Normandy and Western Africa, there actually are female barbers? + +I think there is room in Boston for an establishment of this kind; a +place from which a woman could come to a sick-room to shave the heated +head or cut the beard of the dying; a place where women's and children's +wants could be attended to without necessary contact with men; and with +the absolutely necessary cleanliness, of which there is not now a single +instance in this city. + +When I mentioned wood-carving to women, I was thinking, in part, of the +immense annual demand for Christmas presents. In this connection, also, +I should like to direct the attention of our rural women to the art of +preserving and candying fruit. "But that is nothing new," you will say. +"Did not your Massachusetts census for 1845 enumerate certain picklers +and preservers?" Yes; but those women were merely in the employ of men +carrying on large establishments. What I would suggest is a domestic +manufacture to compete with French candies, and to occupy the minds of +our farmers' wives and daughters, to the exclusion of shirt-fronts and +shoe-binding. + +Every one of us, probably, fills more than one little stocking, on +Christmas night, with candied fruit. If we belong to the "first +families," and wish to do the thing handsomely, this fruit has cost from +seventy-five cents to a dollar a pound; we knowing, all the while, that +better could be produced for half or two-thirds the money. Last year, I +purchased one pound of the candy, and examined it with practical +reference to this question. Plums, peaches, cherries, apples, and pears, +all tasted alike, and had evidently been boiled in the same sirup. Apple +and quince marmalades alone had any flavor. Now, our farmers' daughters +could cook these fruits so as to preserve their flavor, could candy them +and pack them into boxes, quite as well as the French _men_; and so a +new and important domestic industry might arise. The experiment would be +largely profitable as soon as all risk of mistake were over; and +perishable fruit at a distance from market could be used in this way. A +few years ago, we had a rare conserve from Constantinople and Smyrna, +called fig-paste. Now we have a mixture of gum Arabic and flour, +flavored with essences; made for the most part at Westboro', and called +by the same name. Yes, we actually have fig-paste, spicy with +wintergreen and black-birch! Now, what is to prevent our farmers' +daughters from making this?--from putting up fruits in air-tight cans, +and drying a great many kinds of vegetables that cannot be had now for +love or money? Who can get Lima beans or dried sweet-corn, that does not +dry them from his own garden? + +Do not let our medical friends feel too indignant if I recommend to +these same women the manufacture of pickles. The use of pickles, like +the use of wine, may be a questionable thing; but, like liquors, they +are a large article of trade: and, if we must have them, why not have +them made of wholesome fruit, in good cider-vinegar, with a touch of the +grandmotherly seasoning that we all remember, rather than of stinted +gherkins, soured by vitriol and greened by copper? There are many sweet +sauces, too,--made of fruit, stewed with vinegar, spice, and +sugar,--which cannot be obtained in shops, and would meet a good market. +How easy the whole matter is, may be guessed from this fact, that, +sitting once at a Southern table,--the table of a genial grand-nephew of +George Washington, who bore his name,--I was offered twenty-five kinds +of candied fruit, all made by the delicate hands of his wife; and seven +varieties in form and flavor, from the common tomato. + +I looked through Boston in vain, the other day, to find a common +dish-mop large enough to serve my purpose. There was no such thing to be +found. Taking up one of the slender tassels offered me, I inquired into +its history, and was informed that it was imported from France. The one +I had been trying to replace had been made by some skilful Yankee hand +for a Ladies' Fair. Now, what are our poor women doing, that they cannot +compete with this French trumpery, and give us at least dish-mops fit +for use? + +As teachers of gymnastics, women are already somewhat employed. A wide +field would be opened, if a teacher were attached to each of our public +schools,--a step in physical education greatly needed. + +No conservative is so prejudiced, I suppose, as to object to placing +woman in all positions of moral supervision. Female assistants in jails, +prisons, workhouses, insane asylums, and hospitals, are seen to be fit, +and to have a harmonizing influence in every respect. How many more such +assistants are needed, we may guess from the fact that our City Jail and +Charlestown are still unsupplied. Women of a superior order are needed +for such posts; and when will they be found? Not till labor is +thoroughly respected; not till the popular voice says, "It is all very +well to be a Miss Dix, and go from asylum to asylum, suggesting and +improving; but it is just _as_ well, quite _as_ honorable, to work in +_one_ asylum, carrying out the wise ideas which a Miss Dix suggests, +and securing the faithful trial of her experiments." Many men in Beacon +Street would feel honored to call the moving philanthropist sister or +friend; but few would like to acknowledge a daughter in the post of +matron or superintendent. Why not? There is something "rotten in the +State" where such inconsistencies exist. How thoroughly men accept such +women, as soon as they are permitted to try their experiment, we may +judge from the case of Florence Nightingale and her staff. The very men, +whose scepticism kept the army suffering for months, would be the first +to send them now; and the soldiers, who kissed her shadow where it fell, +would fill the whole Commissariat with women. When her gentle but +efficient hand broke in the doors of the storehouses at Scutari, a +general huzza followed from the very men who were too timid to break the +trammels of office. The woman's keen sympathy with the advancing spirit +of her time, taught her what it was fit to do; and, if the rippling +smiles of suffering men had not rewarded her when the bedding and stores +were distributed, the warm encomiums of her Queen, whose heart she had +so truly read, must have done it. Following out this train of +reflection, I have often thought it would some day fall to women, and to +women alone, to exercise the function of parish minister! I do not mean +"parish preacher." I hold pulpit graces cheap by the side of that +fatherly walk among his people, which has made the name of Charles +Lowell sacred to the West Church. Go back to the history of the first +church in every town: see how the minister knew the story of every heart +in his parish; how he kept his eye on every lonely boy or orphan girl; +how widowed mothers took his counsel about schools and rents; how +forlorn old maids trusted to him to make all "things come round right;" +how the lad, inclining to wild courses, found no better friend than he. +How is it now? The minister has his Sunday sermons, his annual addresses +before certain societies, his weekly association. In the old time, such +things were done, yet not the other left undone. Now the lonely boy or +orphan girl must seek out the minister,--and how likely this is to +happen everybody knows; the mother must tell over the story of her +widowhood, pained to see how "in course" it falls upon that wearied ear; +the spinster must tell again how the boat floated empty and bottom +upward to shore long years ago, and so no one was "spared to keep all +right;" and the wild lad--alas! how many such do the clergy save now? + +As I see such things,--and I do see them often,--as I realize that +change in men and times, in manners and books, from which this change is +inseparable,--I confess I see a new[27] sphere opening for women. It +takes no remarkable gifts, in the common sense of those words; only a +kindly heart, a thoughtful head, a tender, reverent care-taking, wholly +apart from meddlesomeness. Not many are the ministers now who will +pause to explain to Martha that she is careful and troubled about many +things; and that really the visionary Mary, with her dreamy eyes, is +choosing the good part. Not many can see Nathanael standing under the +fig-tree, and remind him of it at the needful moment. But if, in every +religious household, there were a deaconess, called by nature and God to +her work,--one to whom the young felt a right to go with questions home +could not answer; one pledged to secret counsel, with whom the restless +and unhappy might confer,--it seems to me the wheels of life would move +more smoothly.[28] How the unlikeliest persons are sometimes raised up +to such a ministry, let the following story tell. In the dim and dreary +precincts of the Seven Dials in London, years ago, two orphan girls were +left lying on door-steps, fed by chance charity, to grow up as they +might. One died; and the other was finally adopted by an old man, an +atheist, who had been neighbor to her parents. She grew up an atheist +also, and married,--saved by God's mercy from what had seemed her +likeliest fate. Stepping into the passage of the Bloomsbury Mission Hall +to shelter herself from the rain, one night, a shaft, winged by the Holy +Spirit, struck to her empty heart. + +The next week, a lending library was to be opened in the district. +Marian was first at the door. "Sir," said she, "will you lend me a +Bible?"--"A Bible!" exclaimed the man. "We did not mean to _lend_ +Bibles; but I will get you one." + +How long she read, how she was at first moved, none but God can know. +But, whether from mental distress or from the sad vicissitudes of her +needy career, she became very ill, and went to a public hospital. While +there, she saw the sufferings of those who applied for its charity, and +observed that the filthy state of their persons needed a friendly female +hand. When she came out, she wrote to the missionary, and told him she +wished to dedicate all her spare time to the lost and degraded of her +own sex. "God's mercy," she writes, "has spared me from their fate: for +me their misery will have no terrors. I will clean and wash them, and +mend their linen. If they can get into a hospital, I will take care of +their clothes." You may suppose the missionary did not lose sight of +Marian, and you may guess how gladly she undertook to distribute Bibles; +going, where none of the gentry could go, into dens of misery known only +to the police-officers and herself. Spending her mornings in +distributing Bibles, and giving the kind and pastoral counsel everywhere +needed, she discovered, in the autumn of 1857, a new want, and devoted +her afternoons to teaching the ignorant women about her to cut and make +their children's clothes. Why _she_ knew better than _they_, who shall +tell? Then came the November panic and its wide-spread distresses; and, +seeing how food was wasted from ignorance, she opened a soup-kitchen of +her own. She used what is called vegetable stock: her wretched customers +liked it, and she sold it all through the winter for a price which just +paid the cost of cooking. Her noble work goes on. The stone which the +builders of our modern society would have rejected, is now the head of +the corner; and Seven Dials knows her as "Marian, the Bible-woman." + +Another mission has been begun at St. Pancras, where, in one of the +worst neighborhoods, the most profligate men have gathered together, +between church hours, to hear a young lady read the "Pilgrim's +Progress," and are thus softened and led to higher things. Would you +shut those sacred lips because they are a woman's? Would you quote St. +Paul to her, and blush for her career, if she were your own daughter? I +will not believe it. + +At the parish of St. Alkmunds, in Shrewsbury, the wife of the clergyman, +Mrs. Whitman, began by modest reading from house to house; a work which +has since been greatly blessed. Gently she won profligate men and women +to give up their beer, and the temptations of the "tap;" signing herself +the pledge which they alone needed. + +A very important work could be done in this city by the establishment of +a proper Training School for Servants. One reason why our house-work is +so miserably done is, that it is never regarded as a profession, in +which a certain degree of excellence must be attained, but rather as a +"make-shift," by the aid of which a certain number of years can be got +through. The only thorough servant I ever had was one who had been +educated at such a school in Germany. Here would be an admirable field +for some of the women who have money and time, but no object in life. +Such a school must be carried on in connection with a good-sized +boarding-house of a respectable kind; and beside the regular +superintendents, who will, of course, be hired for the different +departments, there must be committees of ladies who should see to the +practical working of the institution in turn. This is necessary to +secure that thorough working in every department which the best +housekeeping demands. Only by intelligent, refined oversight can +feathered "flirts" be hindered from taking the place of the tidy dusting +cloth; only so will a girl learn to sweep each apartment separately, +without dragging her accumulations from floor to floor; only so can +soap-suds be kept off your oil-cloths, soiled hands from your doors, and +dust from your shirt-fronts. I do not believe a better service could be +done to the community than the establishment of such a school, +especially in relation to cooking.[29] A good many such experiments have +been successfully tried in England, but none so thorough as that I would +propose in Boston. + +With regard to the lowest class of employed women, such as are employed +at home, we have, it seems to me, several distinct duties to perform. + +In the first place, we need a public but self-supporting Laundry. By +this I mean two large halls, with an adjacent area, built at the expense +of the city, and properly superintended, where, for so much an hour, +women of the lower class may wash, starch, dry, and iron the clothes +they take home. A bleaching-ground would be desirable; but, if it could +not be had, a steam drying-room would be the next best thing. Good +starch, soap, and indigo should be for sale upon the premises at +wholesale prices; it not being desirable that the city should make money +out of the necessities of its poor. If such an establishment could be +had, a great many women would be changed from paupers to decent +citizens. They are tired of seeking washing; for, in their one close +room, scented with boiling onions or rank meat, without a proper area +for drying, and compelled to pay high prices for poor soap and starch, +they cannot do decently the very work which philanthropy soon becomes +unwilling to intrust to them, and for which they are compelled to charge +higher than the best private laundry. The city could buy coal, wood, +soap, starch, and indigo at manufacturers' and importers' prices, and so +give them a fair chance for competition. I hope this project, long since +partially adopted in many cities of the Old World, may find favor with +my audience. + +There is in Boston no place, strange as it may seem, where plain, neatly +finished clothing can be bought ready-made. I can go down town, and buy +embroidered merinos, Paris hats with ostrich feathers, and lace-trimmed, +welted linen: but if I want a plain, cotton skirt for a child, whereof +the calico was eight cents a yard; if I want a plain, cotton print made +into a neatly fitting dress; if I want a boy's coarse apron,--such +things are not to be had, or only so very badly made that no one will +buy them. I do not want lace or embroidery or silk, or fine linen; but I +do want my button-holes nicely turned and strong, my hems even, my +gathers stroked, and, however plain and coarse, the whole finish of the +garment such as a mistress of the needle only would approve, such as no +lady need be ashamed to wear. So do others. The reasons given to explain +the non-existence of such a magazine in Boston are, first, That our +women of the middle class are, for the most part, accustomed to cut and +make their own clothes; second, That there is a prevalent but mistaken +idea, that clothes made for sale cannot possibly fit. With regard to the +first point, it may be said, that, as more and more avenues of labor are +opened for women, this class perceives that it is not good economy for +them to do their own sewing. Hands compelled to coarser or heavier labor +cannot sew quick or well, and those training to more delicate +manipulation lose practice by returning to it; so there will be a +constantly increasing class of purchasers. + +As to the impossibility of fitting, that is a vulgar mistake. The human +frame is quite as much the result of law as Mr. Buckle's statistics. Any +comely, healthy form is a good model for all other forms of the same +height and breadth. Who ever heard of a French bonnet or a bridal +trousseau that did not fit? yet these things are made by arbitrary +rules. Our superintendent could find every measure she would ever need +in one of the teeming houses on Sea Street. She must take her measures +from life, not books. Nor would I have the sewing done with machines, +unless those of the highest cost could be procured and ably +superintended. The best machine is as yet a poor substitute for the +supple, human hand; and many practical inconveniences must result from +its use. It requires more skill and intelligence to manage man's +simplest machine, than to control with a thought that complicated +network of nerve, bone, and fibre which we have been accustomed to use. + +Capital to start such an establishment as I refer to is all that is +needed. How desirable the thing is, you can easily see. In the first +place, if good common clothing could be so purchased, mothers need not +keep a large stock on hand: an accident could be readily repaired. In +the second, it would greatly simplify and expedite many a charitable +task. The terrible suffering which followed the panic of November, 1857, +you all remember. Purses, always open hitherto, were necessarily closed; +no Sister of Charity was willing to tread on the heels of the sheriff: +yet the need was greater than ever. Many persons who had dismissed their +servants were found willing to give a rough, untrained girl her board; +but who was to provide her with decent clothes? They could not be +bought, and to make them was the work of time and strength. May I always +remember to honor, as God will always surely bless, one woman possessed +of wealth and beauty, who did clothe from head to foot with her own +needle, in that dreadful winter, _three_ "wild Irish girls," and took +them successively into her own family; training them to habits of +tolerable decency, until others, less self-sacrificing, were found ready +to do their part! + +No people in our community suffer such inconvenience, loss, and +imposition, in having their clothes made, as our servant girls. If a +plentiful supply of calico sacks and skirts or loose dresses could be +anywhere found, few girls would ever employ a dressmaker. + +I have spoken of Public Laundry Rooms, and a Ready-made Clothing Room. +There is a class of women greatly to be benefited by the establishment +of a Knitting Factory. It is well known to every person in this room, +especially to physicians, that no knitting done by machinery can compete +with that done by the human hand, in durability, warmth, or stimulative +power. Invalids are now obliged to import the Shetland jackets, which +are always badly shaped; or to hire, at our fancy stores, the making of +delicate and very expensive fabrics. Men's socks and children's gloves +may be purchased; but the first cost from seventy-five cents to a dollar +a pair, and the last are of very inferior manufacture. We cannot give +out knitting to advantage, because of the dirt and grease it is liable +to accumulate where water is not plenty nor ventilation to be had; and +very good knitters of socks have not skill and intelligence to manage +the different sizes, or to shape the larger articles, such as drawers +and under-jackets for the two sexes. Coarse crocheting would answer +better than knitting for many articles. + +Let a large, airy room be hired, well supplied with Cochituate. Let all +sorts of material be kept on hand, and some coarse, warm kinds of +Shetland yarn imported that are not now to be had. Let at least two +superintendents be appointed from among the women, who work _best_ for +our fancy stores; let knitting-women be invited to use this room for +twelve hours a day, or less, as they choose,--receiving daily pay for +their daily needs; and in less than one year you would have an +establishment, for which not merely Boston, but all New England, would +be grateful. I should hope that neither this nor the Clothing Room would +ever offer very expensive or highly ornamental articles for sale. There +is no danger that the interests of the wealthy will suffer. What I +desire is to provide for the needs of the lowest women and the comfort +of the middle-class customer. + +The young girls in Beacon Street have now some thing to do. I offer them +the establishment of a Training School for Servants, of a public but +self-supporting Laundry, of a Ready-made Clothes Room, and a Knitting +Factory; all simple matters, entirely within their control, if they +would but believe it. + +A certain human faithlessness often interferes with the execution of +such plans. If my young friends doubt, let them go and talk to Harriet +Ryan about it. She will show them, how, having taken the first step +toward duty, God always leads the way to the second. To cheer them still +further, I will tell them--for I may never have a fitter opportunity--of +the splendid success of the industrial schools in Ireland, established +in 1850 by Ellen Woodlock,--a name destined to stand honorably by the +side of Florence Nightingale; nay, worthy to precede it, in so far as +preventive measures are always a greater good than remedial. Mrs. Ellen +Woodlock has powers of statement, according to the "London Times," equal +to her extraordinary powers of execution; and it is from her own account +of the work that I select what I have to offer you. + +In 1850, Mrs. Woodlock had placed her only child at school, and began to +look for something to do. A lady, who had started an industrial school +on a gift of $250 from a clergyman, asked for her help. She proposed to +teach young girls to do plain sewing. Very soon, there were more +seamstresses than customers; but God did not fail to open a way. One +poor, half-blind creature--very poor and very earnest--failed in the +plain sewing, and was put to make cabbage nets. She did it so well, that +Mrs. Woodlock taught her to make silk nets for the hair. The nets took: +other girls were taught; and Mrs. Woodlock went to all the shops in +Cork, and coaxed the merchants to buy of her. She very soon began to +make nets for exportation. Mrs. Woodlock's fashionable niece arrived +from Dublin, with a new style of crocheted net. Her aunt had a dozen +made directly; and, by showing these, got orders from all the merchants +for the new style. One day, a merchant came into the school, and saw a +little girl at work on a mohair net. He asked the price, and found that +she would make him twelve for the same money that he had paid for one +in London. So you may guess where his next orders went. + +Mrs. Woodlock then made interest with the "buyers," or young men who go +to London twice a year to purchase goods. They took over her patterns, +and returned with orders so large that their principals at once entered +into the business. Yellow nets were made for Germany. Many were sent to +England and America; and orders came so thick that they had to share +them with the convent schools. They paid out a hundred dollars weekly; +and alacrity and intelligence beamed where there had been, at first, +only hopeless suffering and imbecility. Of course, this point was not +reached without much self-sacrifice. At first, the children made awkward +work that would not sell. Then the lady patronesses got tired, and +dropped off. Worn and worried, Mrs. Woodlock fell ill. If you ever +undertake any of the schemes I have mentioned, you must be prepared for +all these things: they will certainly happen. No one ever fought a +revolutionary war, and established an independence, without one or two +defeats like that at Bunker Hill.[30] When they become historic, we call +them victories. When Mrs. Woodlock found that she was human and liable +to fall ill, she sent for some of the Sisters of Charity, and trained +several, so that they could, on an emergency, fill her place well. + +But Mrs. Woodlock did not stop here. She used to teach the Catechism in +the parish church; and, one day, she gave notice that a new school would +be opened in that neighborhood. The next morning, one hundred and fifty +girls, between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five, presented +themselves. Mrs. Woodlock asked every girl, who had ever earned any +money before, to hold up her hand. Four girls did so. They had sold +apples in the streets. One hundred and forty-six suffering creatures, +who had no way to earn a cent! Think what a class it was! Do you +remember what I told you, the other day, of eighteen hundred and eighty +women in New York who had never been taught to support themselves? Ten +of the best workers from the first school were taken to teach these +girls; and, for a salary, the teacher received the first _perfect_ dozen +of nets made by each of her pupils. This plan was not costly, and worked +well. There was no lack of faithfulness. Travellers came to see the +schools. There was no time wasted in looking for orders: they had more +than they could fill. Of course, they must keep these hands employed: so +other manufactures must be tried. Mrs. Woodlock thought she would try +fine shirt-fronts for the city dealers. What do you think the people +said? That it could not be done in all Ireland; that there was nobody to +wash and iron them properly; that they would have to be sent all the +way to Glasgow to be boxed in card boxes! Well, the nuns undertook the +first washing and ironing,--making apprentices, let us hope, of some of +the older pupils; and Mrs. Woodlock found a starving band-box maker, +whom she herself taught to make flat boxes. And look now at the blessing +which always follows wise work. This flat-box maker has had to take +apprentices, has opened another branch of her business in Limerick, and +has put money into the Savings' Bank. + +Mrs. Woodlock's account of her work would be a great help to any young +persons engaged in philanthropic effort. She lays the very greatest +stress upon her machinery,--her methods. Every industrial work ought to +support itself: if it does not, it is a failure. All her schools earn +their own bread, _in every sense_; and all reforming agencies must +always stand second to any institution which does that. See how she +carried this thought into her daily life. Mrs. Woodlock had a brother +who was one of the Board of Poor-Law Guardians. Seeing the success of +her work, he persuaded the other members to employ an embroidery +mistress in the Union School for a few months. + +When these children knew enough, Mrs. Woodlock took out six, and put +them into her industrial school, till she was sure they could support +themselves. Then she let them look up lodgings, and continued to give +them work from the school. In a few weeks, they got on so well that they +began to take their relations and friends out of that terrible +poorhouse. Three young girls took out their mother and cousin, and +supported them. Eighty girls were brought off the parish by the first +working of her schools. A house has also been opened for orphans, where +they are trained to support themselves. + +Now, my friends, the census, at the end of ten years, will report a +great change in the industrial condition of Ireland; and the beginning +of that change was Mrs. Woodlock's intelligent moral effort to benefit +her countrywomen,--in the first place, to teach one little sufferer to +make cabbage-nets. That element will enter into the statistics on which +Mr. Buckle bids you so confidently rely. Do not believe him when he says +that _moral_ effort can never help anybody but yourself, because it will +be balanced, in the long-run, by your neighbor's _immoral_ effort. Two +and two make four in all statistics, and always will while the world +stands; but two and two and one make five, and not four, as he asserts; +and the one which he forgets to enumerate is no other than the divine +Centre of life and action,--God himself. I value Mr. Buckle's book. I +see how clearly he thinks; how much he has read; and how much truer his +historical attitude than any ever before assumed. But when a man +separates goodness from knowledge; tells you that intelligence may reign +alone; does not see that the two are now and for ever one, equal +attributes of the divine nature,--then he makes a mistake which saps the +very foundation of his own work, and writes fallacy on every page. + +What he says is perfectly true of _mistaken, ignorant_ moral effort. +That does help yourself, and does _not_ help anybody else. It helps you, +because it develops your right-mindedness,--your generosity. It does not +help anybody else. It _hinders_ others who are clearer intellectually: +they see and despise the mistakes, and are not inspired by the purpose. +Had it been intelligent, they would have seen it to be divine. + +Mrs. Woodlock's work was both intelligent and moral. What inspired the +pupils was her moral force and disinterested love. They saw this, and +were kindled by it; while the community at large respected the +intelligence and common sense with which she laid her plans. +Intelligence made these plans self-supporting; intelligence gave them +solid pyramidal position in the world: but moral energy gave them their +prestige, and will win its way by the side of intelligence into the very +columns which Mr. Buckle's closing volume must quote. + +Do not be disheartened, then, as to the ultimate profit to others of any +kindly work you feel inclined to do. Let kindliness inspire, let +intelligence direct, your efforts. God has made your success certain +from the very foundations of the world. + +I cannot close such inadequate survey of this field as I have felt it my +duty to offer, without alluding to one other fact, and making one +parting suggestion. It cannot but be realized, by all the women to whom +I speak, how very casual is the communication between the laboring class +in this community and their employers. Suppose a housekeeper wants +additional service, how can she secure it? If she is not wealthy enough +to hire regularly, her "chance" is a very poor one; and she must take +the recommendation, in nine cases out of ten, of some one in the +charwoman's own rank of life. + +Suppose a maid of all work leaves a mistress alone early some busy +Monday morning, where can her place be filled? How can any one be found +who will work by the hour or the day, in a cleanly, respectable manner, +till a new servant can be deliberately chosen? Nobody knows of a +washerwoman who is out of work on Monday. The intelligence offices hold +no women so distressed that they will go out for less than a week, and +that on trial. Yet, somewhere in the city, there must be women pining +and longing for that waiting work. + +Suppose a sudden influx of visitors exhausts your household staff, and +makes a waiting-maid a necessity where none was kept before; suppose a +large group of relatives, passing quickly through the city, come for a +plain family dinner at a moment when your personal superintendence is +impossible,--where is the active, tidy girl who can be summoned, or the +decent woman of experience who can order matters in your kitchen as well +as you can yourself? + +Somewhere they sit waiting--suffering, it may be--for the opportunity +which never comes. The intelligence office will get them places; but +places they are not at liberty to seek. They need what they call "a +chance lift." + +I am well aware that wealthy and long-established families may not +suffer much from this cause. Old servants well married, or a variety of +well-paid servants with wide connections in the neighborhood, or +deserving objects of charity personally met and understood, often +prevent such persons from feeling any inconvenience; but for young +housekeepers, for new residents, for persons of small means and few +connections, there is no help. + +I need not enlarge on the subject. There is no kind of female labor of +which it is easy to get a prompt and suitable supply. To obviate this +difficulty, I think there should be a sort of "Labor Exchange;" and this +is a project which all classes would be glad to have carried out. How +shall it be done? That, of course, must be settled by those who have the +task in charge; but, to explain what I mean, I will offer a few +suggestions. In the first place, What are the defects in the +intelligence-offices now in existence?[31] There are several. They take +cognizance of domestic servants alone. They are kept by ignorant or +inexperienced persons, who often lose sight of the interests of both the +employer and the employed in their own pecuniary loss or gain. These +persons have necessarily little insight into character, and do not see +how to bring the right persons together. They will send a slow, dawdling +girl to an impatient, lively mistress;--a smart upstart to some meek, +little wife, who has hardly learned the way to order her own house; and +the natural misunderstandings will occur. Then the books of the office +are irregularly kept, and closed to the applicant, so that you have no +chance to select for yourself. Go down to an office, and ask for a +servant; tell the keeper not to send a raw girl, not to send one without +a recommendation, not to send a foreigner who cannot speak English; and +go home. The odds are, that, while you are taking off your bonnet, there +will be three rings at the bell. The first girl will be a barefooted imp +of Erin, just from the steerage. Some one at the office has been +watching three days for just such a hand to be broken into a +farm-kitchen. The second wears a flower-garden on her head, more +flounces than you do, and has, of course, no recommendation. Some +soda-room wants her; but you do not. The third is high Dutch, and, when +you ask her for the coal-hod, brings you, in her despair, the +bread-tray. Neither of these three is what you ordered or wanted. + +Do you ask me the reason of this bad management, and whether I think +it can be remedied? The reason of it is, that the superintendence of +these offices is not treated like a profession. People neither fit +themselves for it, nor are attracted to it by nature: they simply _do_ +it; and how they do it we feel. They want comprehensive insight, have no +business ways, and these difficulties are only to be obviated by +bringing a higher intelligence to bear upon the arrangements. + +Let us have a place where all kinds of female work can be sought and +found; an intelligent working committee first, who know what is wanted, +and how to get it, and who, most important of all, shall not be too wise +to accept diplomas from experience. + +Let us have a committee of five; its quorum to be three. Let these +persons hire a large, clean, airy room, and appoint an intelligent +superintendent,--one who will be interested to have the experiment +thoroughly successful. Let them line the walls, and screen off the room +with frames, having glass covers, to lock and unlock. Let one frame be +devoted to cooks; another, to laundresses; another, to washerwomen, +window-washers, charwomen, seamstresses, dressmakers, copyists, +translators, or what you will; and under the glass the notices should be +posted. Each should contain the name, age, and residence of the +applicant; the situation last held, and for how long; the full address +of the reference; and the date of posting. The date should be printed +and movable, and changed semi-weekly, on the personal application of the +poster. Each woman should pay five cents for the privilege of posting; +should lose this privilege from misconduct, from neglect to report +herself, from proved falsehood. No date should be left unchanged more +than a week, and the superintendent should be responsible for the strict +observance of the regulations. No woman, not even a charwoman, should be +allowed to use the posting privilege, unless she has a reference. +"What!" you will say, "is that kind?" Yes, it is kind: the want of it is +doubly cruel. A woman who needs work can afford to offer a day's free +work to get a reference; and referees should be required to tell the +simple truth. A lady who once recommended a dishonest or incapable +servant without the proper qualification should be struck off the books, +not allowed to testify again in that court. + +With regard to all transient labor, it should be the duty of the +superintendent to see that the references are reliable before posting, +so that those who apply in haste need not be delayed. + +If a dressmaker or charwoman inform the superintendent that she has +worked for A, B, and C, let a printed circular, addressed to such +persons, inquiring if they can recommend her, and to what degree, be +placed in her hands. To this she should bring written answers before +being allowed to post. + +If the institution became popular, books would have to be kept, +corresponding to these glass cases--one book for cooks, another for +housemaids, and so on; but the cases should never be given up. There +should always be as many as the room will hold. Ladies should pay a +certain sum for each servant they obtain; and the servant should pay for +every place she gets, at a rate proportioned to the wages received. In +most intelligence offices, the servants get two places for the same fee, +if they do not stay over a week in the place, and the lady gets two +girls or more on the same condition. This works like a premium on change +of place. The servant should prove to the Labor Exchange, that she did +not leave her place of her own will, and the lady should show that +incapacity or insubordination made it impossible to keep her. + +It should be a cash business, and a fee should be paid for each +application. Wanting a cook, you go down to the room, and consult the +proper frame. Finding, perhaps, forty posters, you select one that reads +like this:-- + + Matilda Haynes. + Irish. + Twenty-five years of age. + In the country four years. + Thoroughly understands plain cooking. + Expects two dollars. + Is willing to go out of town. + Lived last at No. 4, Pemberton Square. + Kept the place six months. + May refer to it. + Can be found at 24, High Street. + +You first go to Pemberton Square. It is quite possible that this girl +may not be what you want; but if she is, and your eye tells you that you +can trust the judgment of her referee, you have only to go to High +Street, and make your own terms. If you are already prejudiced in her +favor, you will go prepared to make some concessions, so that the chance +will be better for you both; and this process may be repeated without +loss of time, till you are supplied. + +You will see that this is quite a feasible plan, and has two advantages. +One is, that you have access to the books, and can choose for yourself; +the other is, that there would be no waiting-room for servants, where +they should talk with, prejudice, and morally harm each other. You would +also be saved the pain of rejecting servants to their faces, on the +ground of "greenness," or bodily unfitness. Such an institution would +offer this advantage over the present offices, that it would direct you +to temporary laborers, and give you in a moment the addresses of some +dozens. Such an institution would be a very great saver of time, and so +a great blessing. + +If, in the course of these lectures, any words that I have spoken have +touched your hearts, or carried conviction to your minds, do not put +aside, I beseech you, such impulse as they may have given. Remember +that, however feebly the subject has been treated, however presumptuous +may seem the attempt, the subject itself is the most important theme +that is presented to this generation. In my first lecture I showed you, +that while women, ever since the beginning of civilization, have been +sharing the hardest, and doing the most unwholesome work, they have also +done the _worst paid_ in the world. I showed you that this poor pay, +founded on a false estimate of woman's value as a human being, and +consequently as a laborer, was filling your streets with criminals, with +stricken souls and bodies, for whose blood society is responsible to +God. Having proved thus, that women need new avenues of labor, I tried +in my second lecture to show you, that, when she sought these, she had +been met too often by the selfish opposition of man. I showed also that +all such opposition proved, in the end, unavailing; that all the work +she asks will inevitably be given. I showed you, from the censuses of +Great Britain and America, how much labor is even now open to her; that +it is not half so necessary to open new avenues of labor as to make +work itself _respectable for women_; and I therefore entreated women to +learn to work thoroughly and well, that men might respect their labor in +the aggregate. "Woman's work" means nothing very honorable or +conscientious now. Alter its significance till it indicates the best +work in the world. + +In my present lecture I have indicated some of the steps that might be +taken to benefit the women in the heart of this city. To encourage you +to take them, I have briefly pointed out Ellen Woodlock's remarkable +success. Have I kindled any interest in your minds? Can you enter into +such labors? Have you strength or time or enthusiasm to spare? In the +ballads of Northern Europe, a loving sister trod out, with her bare +feet, the nettles whose fibre, woven into clothing, might one day +restore her brothers to human form. + +Your feet are shod, your nettles are gathered: will you tread them out +courageously, and so restore to your sisters the nature and the +privileges of a blessed humanity? + +Opportunity is a rare and sacred thing. God seldom offers it twice. In +the English fields, the little Drosera, or sundew, lifts its tiny, +crimson head. The delicate buds are clustered in a raceme, to the summit +of which they climb one by one. The top-most bud waits only through the +twelve hours of a single day to open. If the sun do not shine, it +withers and drops, and gives way to the next aspirant. + +So it is with the human heart and its purposes. One by one, they come to +the point of blossoming. If the sunshine of faith and the serene heaven +of resolution meet the ripe hour, all is well; but if you faint, repel, +delay, they wither at the core, and your crown is stolen from you,--your +privilege set aside. Esau has sold his birthright, and the pottage has +lost its savor. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [26] I am happy to find, on the authority of the "London Athenæum," + that this statement was, when I wrote it, untrue. "Germany," it says, + on the 23d of July, 1859,--"Germany has lost one of her most famed and + eminent female scholars. Frau Dr. Heidenreich, _née_ Von Siebold, died + at Darmstadt a fortnight ago. She was born in 1792, studied the + science of midwifery at the Universities of Göttingen and Giessen, and + took her doctor's degree in 1817; not, _honoris causâ_, by favor of + the Faculty, but, like any other German student, by writing the + customary Latin dissertation, as well as by bravely defending, in + public disputation, a number of medical theses. After that, she took + up her permanent abode at Darmstadt, indefatigable in the exercise of + her special branch of science, and universally honored as one of its + first living authorities." + + "Universally honored as one of its first living authorities," that was + what I was in search of; and French and German papers confirm the + statement. Dr. Heidenreich came of a family highly distinguished in + her specialty. It was ancient and noble: she was a baroness in her own + right. All readers of English works on midwifery know the authority + given to the name of Von Siebold. Her father founded the famous + hospital at Berlin; and her brother, still living, stands high in + medical fame, having written the best history of midwifery extant. + + Rosa Bonheur, also, is as unquestionably at the head of her department + as Sir Edmund Landseer. The three pictures Boston has had a chance to + see this autumn ought to fill every woman's bosom with a glow of + honest pride. + + I can find no better place than this, perhaps, to introduce the + following facts, to which my attention has been directed by the + kindness of Miss Mary L. Booth, of New York. + + In the History of Southold, N.Y.,--one of the oldest towns in the + United States,--it appears that women have practised there as + "doctresses" and "midwives" from the first settlement of the country. + From 1740 to the present time,--more than one hundred years,--the town + of Southold has had a trustworthy female physician. The first of + these, Elizabeth King, who practised from 1740 until her death in + 1780, attended at the birth of more than _one thousand_ children. + + During this time,--from 1760 to 1775,--a Mrs. Peck was also known in + the same town as an excellent midwife. The direct successor of Mrs. + King was, however, a Mrs. Lucretia Lester, who practised from 1745 to + 1779. Of her my authority says, "She was justly respected as nurse and + doctress to the pains and infirmities incident to her fellow-mortals, + _especially_ her own sex;" a remark which shows she attended _both_. + "She was, during thirty years, conspicuous as an angel of mercy; a + woman whose price was beyond rubies. It is said she attended at the + birth of _thirteen hundred_ children, and, of that number, lost but + two." + + A Mrs. Susannah Brown practised from 1800 to 1840, and attended at the + birth of _fourteen hundred_ children. From the number of patients + these women must have had, it would seem as if they were sustained by + the whole neighborhood. The book just published speaks highly of them, + as what Henry Ward Beecher would call a "means of grace," and pleads, + from the precedent, for the education of women to medicine. + + Southold is in Suffolk County, on Long Island; and was settled in the + early part of the seventeenth century. It has now three churches, and + less than five thousand inhabitants. + + The instance of so creditable a practice being maintained for a whole + century, by three women, stands alone, so far as I know, in this + country. Mrs. King probably studied abroad, and taught her next + successor, and possibly Mrs. Peck, who seems to have assisted both. + That three of the four women named should have practised forty years + each, seems very remarkable. + + [27] See Appendix, sketch of Mrs. Roberts, and other female + preachers. + + [28] I did not think, certainly, when I wrote the above passage, of + Arthur Helps's "Companions of my Solitude;" but, taking up the book + during a day of illness, I find a parallel passage in what he writes + of the "sin of great cities." In speaking of the many excuses which + ought to be made for fallen women, he says: "And then there is nobody + into whose ear the poor girl can pour her troubles, _except she comes + as a beggar_. This will be said to be a leaning, on my part, to the + confessional. I cannot help this: I must speak the truth that is in + me." + + It seems to me, that the "narrow" church, against which so much is + intimated in our times, is nowhere so narrow as in its human + sympathies. Oh that our clergymen knew how many utterly _friendless_ + souls sit before them clothed in "purple and fine linen"! It is not to + be taken for granted, that, because a woman has a home, a father and + mother, and a genial, social circle, she has a _friend_, or even a + counsellor. It is not the beggar-girl alone who needs a "Confessor" + within our Protestant churches. Many of the most refined, the most + noble, and the most wealthy, are hurried into unfit marriages, because + they dare not live alone, and think the superficial confidences of + common courtship only a prelude to something deeper which never comes. + + Why should not the "Comforter" have come to our churches, with some + special significance, before this? If stout-hearted Luther could say, + "When I am assailed with heavy tribulations, I rush out among my pigs, + rather than remain alone by myself," why should any of us blush to + confess our need of help? Herein, it seems to me, lies the vital want + of the modern church. Here and there, the rare personal gifts of a + single pastor lessen the evil; but what we want, in every religious + circle, is a friend to whom we can go, without the smallest danger of + being suspected of impertinence or egotism, under the sanction of the + divine words, "Bear ye one another's burdens." The burdens of + temptation _must_ be borne alone; but the burdens of poverty, + sickness, and grief, should be shared in every Christian church, + without regard to the social condition of the sufferer. Oftentimes the + rich man is poorer than the pauper. I know all the objections that + will be raised. I _feel_, to this day, how I saw one clergyman shrink, + years ago, from a tale which he ought to have heard from one agonized + woman's lips; and how others, admirable in the usual pulpit and + pastoral charge, will think themselves unfit for this. Under such + circumstances, let a clergyman call upon those of his congregation who + are willing to become the friends of the rest, to meet in his study. + From the half-dozen who will have at once the _modesty_ and the + courage to come forward, let a man and a woman be chosen to act as a + "Committee of Comfort." This might be done with the utmost quietness; + the minister alone need know the names of those willing to serve; but + if it were an understood thing, that every church had such officers, + the blessing would be beyond belief. + + In many cases, no actual help could be given, beyond patient + listening, a mutual prayer, or tender soothing; but in every church + there are souls that need these far more than eloquent + preaching,--souls that ask for nothing, except some one to hear and + consider _who is not in a hurry_, some one to appoint those to their + true uses who stand idle in a waiting world. I claim such an + institution for the sake of friendless _women_; but such substitutes + for it as the world has hitherto had, have been by no means useless to + _men_. + + [29] I must suggest, in this connection, a thought which I have not + had time to elaborate in the text. Very much needed in Boston is a + restaurant for the lower classes, presided over by the highest skill + and intelligence, where well-cooked, well-flavored, and _stimulating_ + food could be offered at all times; and where a judicious alternation + of pea soup, baked beans, and very simple dishes, with roast meat and + broths, might secure daily nourishment for a very low price. There is + a great deal of very cheap food, which an epicure might desire, but + which the poor have never been taught to prepare. Hundreds of wretched + families in Boston ought never to try to make a cup of tea for + themselves. In hot weather, the shavings and wood necessary to boil + the water are worth as much as the tea itself. Crime of all sorts, and + especially intemperance, will retreat before a proper provision of + nourishing and stimulating food for the lower classes. Gallons of + oyster liquor are thrown away every day by dealers who sell the fish + "solid," which would make the most nourishing of soups and stews; for + no food replenishes the vital essences so rapidly as the oyster: hence + its inseparable connection with all places of dissipation and vicious + resort. If men would only make a good instead of an evil use of the + few natural secrets they discover! With such a restaurant,--which + should, of course, be self-supporting,--a capital training-school for + cooks might easily be associated; and so it would become an infinite + blessing, in the end, to the kind hearts and wise heads of those who + should project it. + + [30] This allusion was made before an American audience, to show that + the defeats suffered in a noble cause are honored in time as + victories. So strong is our popular delusion on this point, that few + of the common people can be found willing to believe that we were + actually defeated at Bunker Hill. It was our "first battle." All honor + to all such! + + [31] I cannot allude to the subject of Intelligence-offices without + saying, that all such institutions ought to be brought, in some _new_ + and _effective_ manner, under public supervision and control. + + A private Intelligence-office, kept in the superintendent's own house, + cannot be interfered with, unless it can be proved a nuisance; and how + difficult it is to abate a nuisance I need not tell anybody who has + ever tried the experiment. + + The keeper of a General or Public Intelligence-office makes + application for a license to the city government, sustained by a + certain number of respectable vouchers, and pays, I believe, a yearly + fee of one dollar. + + This looks fair enough; and, if every officer of the city government, + from the lowest police-officer to the mayor, were immaculate, it would + be so; but we all know what the fact is. It is an open secret, that, + in all our largest cities, the marts of vice are stocked from these + places, and that they serve the purposes of bad men better than houses + of professedly vicious resort. One of the most excellent and + respectable women I know, who superintends one of these offices, told + me herself that four women made assignations on her premises, and went + out of her office to keep them, without her having power to prevent + it. She proved the correctness of her suspicions by employing one of + her vouchers to watch the result. If this happens under the eyes of + the virtuous and vigilant, what _may_ not happen when the head of the + establishment is in the pay of interested parties? I do not know in + what way this wickedness can be broken up; but, in the words of Dr. + Gannett, "what _must_ be done, can be." Is it not a terrible thought, + that fashionable women and tender girls should supply themselves with + servants from the very brink of that hell they believe they have never + touched? Is it not a far more terrible thought, that an innocent + stranger cannot seek her daily bread without running the risk of + certain perdition? How real these possibilities are, there are those + in this city able to testify. + + Ought not the ministers at large, of all denominations, and our + overseers of the poor, to unite in prompt and efficient action in this + regard? + + + + + THE COURT; + + OR, + + WOMAN'S POSITION UNDER THE LAW. + + IN THREE LECTURES, + + DELIVERED IN BOSTON, JANUARY, 1861 + + I.--THE ORIENTAL ESTIMATE AND THE FRENCH LAW. + + II.--THE ENGLISH COMMON LAW. + + III.--THE UNITED-STATES LAW, AND SOME THOUGHTS ON HUMAN + RIGHTS. + + + + + "Kind gentlemen, your pains + Are registered where every day I turn + The leaf to read them." + _Macbeth._ + + "Some reasons of this double coronation + I have possessed you with, and think them strong." + "Why do you bend such solemn brows on me? + Have I commandment on the pulse of life?" + _King John._ + + "According to the fair play of the world, + Let me have audience. I am sent to speak." + _King John._ + + "Let this be copied out, + And keep it safe for our remembrance. + Return the precedent to these lords again." + _King John._ + + + + +THE COURT. + + + + +I. + +THE ORIENTAL ESTIMATE AND THE FRENCH LAW. + + "It was not Zeus who uttered this decree, + Or Justice, dwelling with the gods below: + Nor did I think thy will such power possessed, + That thou, a mortal, could o'errule the laws + Unwritten and immovable of God." + _Antigone_: SOPHOCLES. + + "We seldom doubt that something in the large + Smooth order of creation, though no more + Than haply a man's footstep, has gone wrong." + E.B. BROWNING. + + "The law of God, positive law and positive morality, sometimes + _coincide_, sometimes _do not coincide_, and sometimes + _conflict_."--JOHN AUSTIN: _Province of Jurisprudence Defined_. + + +"Of Law, no less can be said than that her seat is the bosom of God; her +voice, the harmony of the spheres. All things in heaven and earth do her +reverence; the greatest as needing her protection, the meanest as not +afraid of her power." + +In reading this magnificent and well-known sentence from Hooker, the +imagination is easily kindled to a divine prescience. We accept the +definition. Fair before us rise the graceful proportions of eternal +order in society, upon which wait present peace and future progress; +towards which those bow most reverently who live most purely and see +most clearly. But alas! if the reader be a woman, her heart may well +sink when the enthusiasm of the moment has passed; and she must ask, +with a feeling somewhat akin to displeasure, "Of _what_ law realized on +earth, administered in courts, dealt out from legislatures or +parliaments, from republics or autocrats, were these sublime words +written?" + +Where in the soft shadows of Oriental hareems, in the gloom of Hindoo +caves, Egyptian pyramids, or Attic porches, sculptured by divinest art, +and luminous with marbles of every hue; where in the porticos echoing to +Roman stoicism, or the baths floating on Roman license; where in the +saloons of French society, or by the hearths of good old England; where, +alas! in the free States of America, whether North or South,--has a +system of law prevailed that women could think of, without blasphemy, as +sitting in the bosom of God, and so entitled to the reverence of man? + +We outgrow all things. Always the new patch breaks the fabric of the old +garment; always the new wine shatters the well-dried leathern pouch +which held the vintage of our ancestors. But most of all do we outgrow, +have we outgrown, our laws. They fall back, dead letters, into the abyss +of that past from which we have emerged. We put new laws upon the +statute-book, and do not pause to wipe out the old; finding our +protection in the public feeling and the public progress, if not in the +traditions of the elders. + +This, and this only, saves old systems from violent demolition. Were the +State of Connecticut at this moment to attempt to put in force such of +the blue-laws as are technically unrepealed, she would be met by the +open rebellion of her highest officer; and the chief-justice who should +attempt to fine a bishop for kissing his wife on Sunday might shake +hands cordially with the chief-justice who once ruled that a man might +beat his wife with a stick no bigger than his thumb! + +The laws which relate to woman are based, for the most part, on a very +old and a very Oriental estimate of her nature, her powers, and her +divinely ordained position. We shall see this, if we follow the course +of legal enactments or religious prohibitions from the beginning. When +the subject of Woman's Civil Rights first came to be considered, it was +customary to quote from the scholars one of the sayings of Vishnu Sarma: +"Every book of knowledge which is known to Oosana or to Vreehaspatee is +by nature implanted in the understandings of women." + +Nobody asked what sort of knowledge was known to these two deities; but +most readers took it for granted that it was divine: and ordinary people +asked why, if society began with this reverent faith, we had nothing +better now than the practical scepticism of priest and lawyer. When the +names of these two deities were translated into Venus and Mercury (that +is, into _love_ and _cunning_), the announcement seemed more in keeping +with the subsequent revelations of Vishnu Sarma:-- + + "Women, at all times," he says, "have been inconstant, even among + the Celestials." + + "Woman's _virtue_ is founded upon a modest countenance, precise + behavior, rectitude, and a _deficiency of suitors_." + + "In infancy, the father should guard her; in youth, her husband; in + old age, her children: for at no time is a woman fit to be trusted + with liberty." + + "Infidelity, violence, deceit, envy, extreme avarice, a total want + of good qualities, with impurity, are the innate faults of + womankind." + +These extracts will throw some light, perhaps, upon the knowledge of +Oosana and Vreehaspatee, and will save modern women from any very strong +desire to restore the "good old rule." After such a commentary on this +seeming compliment, we shall not think it strange, that, in a country +where dialect is the exponent of condition, the most ancient drama +represents the Hindoo wife as addressing her lord and master in the +dialect of a slave. + +"It is proper," says an ancient Hindoo scripture, "for every woman, +after her husband's death, to burn herself in the fire with his corpse." +I quote this saying here only to advert to the power of public opinion, +which has been strong enough for ages to compel this sacrifice. But for +it, many a woman, who had been burnt during her whole conjugal life in +the fires of tyranny, self-will, and arrogant dominion, might have +hailed with joy the hour of her release. Under it, such a woman went +calmly to the new martyrdom. + +An ancient Chinese writer tells us, that the newly married woman should +be but an echo in the house. Her husband may strike her, starve her, +nay, even _let her out_! Such was the spirit of most Oriental custom and +law. It has crossed the Ural; so that Köhl, the German traveller, tells +us that a Turk blushes and apologizes when he mentions his wife, as if +he had been guilty of a needless impertinence. The same thing is +reported of one of the Sclavic tribes, among whom it may have been +borrowed from their Ottoman conquerors. + +In the "London Quarterly" for October, 1860, we are told that the +convent of Nuestra Senhora da Ajuda in Rio was long employed for the +purpose of locking up ladies whose husbands were on their travels. This +has been forbidden by the present emperor. + +There were, however, singular exceptions to the prevailing estimate. In +the Island of Coelebes, where the government is republican in form, +the president, and four out of six councillors, are not unfrequently +women. In the diary of the Marquess of Hastings, we are told, that among +the Garrows, a populous and independent clan in the hill country in the +north-east of India, all property and authority descend in the female +line. On the death of the mother, the bulk of the possessions goes to +the favorite daughter, _so_ designated, without regard to primogeniture +in her lifetime. The widower has a stipend settled on him at the time of +marriage, and a moderate portion is given to each daughter. The sons are +expected to support themselves. A woman, called Muhar, is the chief of +each clan. Her husband is called Muharree, and has a representative +authority, but no right to her property. Should he incline to squander +it, the clan will interfere in her behalf. When the Duke of Wellington +fought the battle of Assaye, in 1803, against the Mahrattas, a woman, +the Begum of Lumroom, belonging to the military tribe of Nairs, fought +against him at the head of her cavalry. In this tribe the succession +follows, according to the duke's report, the female line. This was on +the coast of Malabar, south of Bombay, and in what we should call the +south-western part of the Deccan. In spite of the difference in +orthography, and the statement about the north-east, I think these +stories may refer to the same clan. An orthography so variously rendered +as the East Indian is a blind guide. + +Quite evident is it that the proverbs of more western and later-born +nations grew out of the estimate of Vishnu Sarma and his compeers. Look +at them:-- + + "A rich man is never ugly in the eyes of a girl." + "A beautiful woman, smiling, tells of a purse gaping." + "Every woman would rather be handsome than good." + "A house full of daughters is a cellar full of sour beer." + "Three daughters and the mother are four devils for the father." + "A man of straw is worth a woman of gold." + "A rich wife is a source of quarrel." + "'Tis a poor roost where the hen crows." + "A happy couple is a husband deaf and a wife blind." + +It is quite evident, I think, that men made these proverbs; and somewhat +mortifying, not to _women only_, but to our common humanity, that they +should have the run of society and the newspapers, in an age which has +given birth to Florence Nightingale, Mary Patton, and Dorothea +Dix,--women who have been born only to remind us that their counterparts +appeared a thousand years ago. + +Aristophanes and Juvenal, Boileau and Churchill, turn these slanderous +proverbs into verse, if not into poetry; and, in examining the laws of +more modern times, we shall constantly trace the effect of the old +Oriental estimate. In all such examinations, we have four points to +consider:-- + +1st, That estimate of woman on which her civil position is founded, and +those rights of property which are granted or refused to her +accordingly. + +2d, Such laws as relate to marriage and divorce. + +3d, Such laws or customs as keep woman out of office, off the jury, and +refuse her all authorized legitimate interference in public affairs. + +4th, Her right of suffrage. + +Of these points, the discussion of such laws as relate to marriage and +divorce is alone to be restricted by any considerations of prudence. It +has never seemed to me a wise thing to open needlessly this discussion; +and the opening of it by women is needless, while they are in no +position to discuss it equally with men. In the marriage relation, +whatever is the certain loss and misery of one sex is also the certain +loss and misery of the other. Whatever inequality and injustice +appertains to it will be best removed when the two sexes can consider it +together, like two equal and competent powers.[32] I shall advert to the +laws of marriage and divorce, only to point out mistakes or bad results +not generally perceived, and make no attempt to treat them at length. + +When we consider what sort of public opinion has educated woman, what +estimate has lain at the bottom of all the laws passed concerning her, +it does not seem strange, that, after living for ages in a false +position, she should somewhat approximate to this estimate; so that we +say with pain of the mass of women, that _they themselves_ need a change +quite as much as their circumstances. It is common, in treating of this +subject, to dwell on the position of woman under the Roman law; but very +little is gained by it. We can see by the literature of the nation what +estimate was put upon woman, and what share she took in the degradation +of society; but how far this was the consequence of bad law, what +changes were wrought from the time of Justinian, not merely in law, but +in moral soundness under the law, it is not easy to tell in a country +which had neither printing-presses nor newspapers. We have only the +judgment of a few men, themselves law-makers, to rely upon; and their +opinions had a very limited circulation in their lifetime, and could not +be tested by any cotemporaneous verdict. It is in vain that we listen to +testimony when no competent witnesses appear on the "other side." Women, +however, ought always to remember to whom they owe the changes made in +Justinian's time. The life of Theodora is yet to be written. The +scandalous anecdotes of a secret history must some day be balanced by +the public testimony of Procopius, and some good be told of the woman +whose first thought, when raised to empire, was for the companions of +her previous infamy, and whose influence over her husband never +faltered, and is visible in every modification of the laws relating to +her sex. If we could realize the corruptness of the higher classes of +society, we should not wonder at the emperor who chose his wife from the +streets; and the fact itself tells a story which he who _heeds_ need not +misunderstand.[33] + +The laws which most directly affect us here in America are +the laws of France and England: the laws of France, because they modify +the code of Canada, Florida, and Louisiana; the laws of England, because +in her common law, recognized all over the country by all the States, we +find the basis of all that is objectionable in our legislation. + +First, then, let us consider the estimate on which the French law is +based, and then its property-laws. Civil position and the right of +franchise can be disposed of in a few words the world over. "There is +one thing which is not French," said Bonaparte, as he closed a cabinet +council, while preparing his famous Code; "and that is, a woman who can +do as she pleases." + +The estimate of woman in France is of a double character. + +It is _low_, because marriage among the upper classes is, at the best, +only a well-made bargain. + +It is _high_, because women have been encouraged to enter trade, both by +law, which protects them in their capacity as merchants, and by the +military character of the nation, which prevents men from entering +business. + +It is _low_, because throughout the provinces there are remnants of old +feudal custom, which keep her in the position of a slave. The peasant's +wife rarely sits at table: she crouches in the chimney-corner, eating +from the stew-pan; while her husband sits at the table in state before +his porringer. Yet, in another respect, this very woman helps to raise +the estimate of her sex; for she works with her husband in the field, +while a wealthier wife is often only a burden. Like him, she is exposed +to all the changes of the weather. Pregnancy does not save her from the +plough or the vintage. While her husband rests at noon, she must nurse +her babe or prepare his meal. + +In most countries, it is desirable to turn the thoughts of women away +from love, and give them some healthier occupation. In France, it would +be well to stimulate the affections, because covetousness, a desire of +worldly position, or splendid wealth, is the main motive to a marriage. +With us, love constitutes the whole life of many a woman; while it may +be only an episode in that of her husband. + +In France, even woman seldom loves, but marries to establish herself in +life. It is against this greed that she needs to be cautioned, _not_ +against that emotion and sentiment which God meant should be both a +safeguard and a blessing. _Love_ must rescue woman from vanity, +self-indulgence, and empty show. Only through its divine power will she +come to perceive the true nature of that shameful bargain, by which she +surrenders what is most precious to appease the thirst of society. If we +would save and serve humanity _here_, we must let natural +susceptibilities have their full play. + +At the same time, the business freedom which women enjoy in France has +led many women to reflect thoroughly and act vigorously. The reading +world is deluged with books relating to woman,--her education, her +labor, and her civil rights. Out of this condition of things spring a +class who long to share the sorrow and responsibility as well as the joy +of liberty. They will not accept the tenderness and pity of such men as +Michelet, who veil a profound sensualism with the graces of an affected +sentimentality. Sometimes, like George Sand, these women break loose +from social ties, test the world for themselves, and, when they have +squeezed the orange which looked so tempting, show to others the empty, +bitter rind, and return gladly to the daily bread of Divine Ordinance. +Once, in Rosa Bonheur, fresh and wise, energetic and vigorous, the +French woman has challenged the attention of the civilized world. With +no womanish weaknesses, frank, loyal, and endowed with a serious and +reflective nature, this artist has asked no leave to be of church or +society. "I have no patience," she once said, "with women who ask +permission to think. Let women establish their claims by great and good +works, and not by conventions." She took the whole world in her two +brave woman's hands, _found_ her inheritance, and resolved to enjoy it. + +It is in France, too, that Clara Demars thinks out all the psychological +relations of love and marriage, and reminds us of Mrs. John Stuart Mill, +by saying that "truth will never reign over the world, nor between the +sexes, until, by being set free, woman loses all temptation to +dissimulate." + +There, too, Flora Tristan provokes a smile by echoing in prose the +rhythmic platitudes of Mr. Coventry Patmore, and claiming, not +_equality_, but sovereignty and autocracy, for woman. + +There Pauline Roland boldly claims that marriage shall never be +tolerated, till man as well as woman is compelled to keep the law of +chastity. + +There Madame Moniot claims her civil rights from the lecturer's desk; +and Désirée Gay, interesting herself practically in the question of +woman's labor, rules the women of the national workshops. + +When both sides of this picture are studied; when we look back, on the +one hand, to Marie Antoinette and Madame Récamier, and, on the other, to +Madame Roland, Madame de Staël, and Marie de Lamourous,--it is not +strange that the fanciful protectorship of such men as Michelet should +be balanced by a claim, made not only by Talleyrand, but Condorcet, for +woman's full equality as a laborer and a citizen. And this varying and +inconsistent estimate of woman, made evident in the social, industrial, +and literary spheres of France, is strangely sustained by her legal +enactments. The "Code Napoléon" is founded on the Roman, and is very +similar to the English common law, so far as it concerns woman: but +beside this law, which is called, in reference to married women, the +_dotal_, there is another, called the _communal_; and, before marriage, +parties may choose between these two. That contract once signed, they +must abide by their choice ever after. If the dotal law is founded on +Roman law and usage, and so came naturally enough to prevail in Southern +France until the time of the Revolution; so the communal law prevailed +at the North, and is founded on the German habits and laws, beneath +which always lay the idea, that, if not technically a laborer, the wife, +by care and industry,--the thrift of the housewife,--contributed to the +acquisition of property. + +It is very singular that all the nations of Continental Europe, with the +exception of Spain, have rejected the dotal or Roman law. The objection +to it seems to have arisen out of the fact, that it permits the wife's +property to be settled _solely_ on herself, and to be so secured against +her husband's debts. In the community of estates, the property of each +is liable for the debts of either. It was on this account, probably, +that, while the "Code Napoléon" elucidated and defined the dotal system, +it expressly provided for the right of choice in the parties, and +declared, that, if no choice were made, they should be supposed to be +living under the German or communal law. + +The Dutch law is essentially the same. When the "Code Napoléon" came +into force, there were not wanting French legislators to say, that woman +was now better _protected_ than ever before. But this _legal protection_ +is of a kind due only to minors and lunatics. This law, like our own, +suspects, not only the _intelligence_ of woman, but her integrity; and +aims not to protect _her_, but _man_, against her weakness or fraud. In +marriage, the husband administers for both, not only the common +property, but her personal possessions. That is to say, by _pretending +to protect it_, the law _takes away_ from woman her personal property. +It often happens, that a woman who has brought her husband a large +property is compelled to shift in narrow ways, like a beggar or a miser, +on account of his parsimony or personal ill-will. + +The wife cannot give away the smallest article, not even such as have +been gifts to her: and the 934th article of the "Code Napoléon" +declares, "that the wife may not accept a gift without the consent of +her husband; or, if he should refuse, without the approbation of a +magistrate." She cannot pledge their common property, even though it +were to set her husband free when imprisoned for debt; nor, in the event +of his absence, to secure necessaries for his children, without the same +magisterial authority. Commonly, this authority would be readily +obtained; but it is easy to see that many cases might arise, when, from +defeated purposes, personal enmity, or the influence of the husband +against her, it would be all but impossible. + +Even in case of bankruptcy, French legislators tell us, the rights of +the wife are protected. But this very protection is insulting; for it +treats the wife as if she must of necessity be either an inert +instrument in the hands of her husband, or a dupe, whose weakness he +might readily abuse. _Through_ such protection, the dishonest merchant +finds it easy to defraud his creditors. + +Now, this "Code Napoléon" says that "the husband owes protection to his +wife; and the wife, on her side, owes obedience to her husband:" but it +goes on to secure the obedience by giving an unlimited right to the +person of the wife, without in any way providing the promised +protection. + + "The wife must live with her husband, and follow him wherever he + sees fit to go. As for him, he must receive her, and furnish her + with necessaries according to her wealth and rank." + +Now, this clause actually constrains no one but the wife; for what would +be the condition of a woman who followed her husband against his will, +and remained _under_ his roof when he was determined that she should +quit it? Under such circumstances, his recognition of her wealth and +rank would be very apt to fall to the level of his own irritation. + +The French code will interfere to protect a wife against the total loss +of her property, if she can prove _some_ loss already experienced, +either from the improvidence or the bad conduct of her husband; but it +keeps her powerless to protect herself against that first loss. Having +thus, and for such reasons, obtained a separate jurisdiction over her +property, she cannot alienate, mortgage, or acquire a title to new +property, without her unworthy husband's consent in person or on paper. +The guardianship of the children is left to the survivor of the +marriage; but the mother's right in such case may be restrained by the +father's and husband's will. He can appoint a trustee to be associated +with her. As a business woman, even if separated in estate, the wife +cannot make or dissolve a contract without the consent of her husband. + +As a "public merchant" under the communal system,--that is, pledged in +_her own name_,--she is free from this restraint. As a citizen of the +French republic, she in that case supports, conjointly with her husband, +all State charges. She is taxed as much as he; for their common income +is diminished as much for one as for the other. She has no suffrage; +but, on the other hand, she is not liable for military service. She has +no rights; a state of things, which, if it be excusable when she is +absorbed into her husband's personality, is only absurd when she fulfils +all the functions of a citizen. Well may Legouvé exclaim, "that, if the +household be woman's own sphere, she ought to be queen in it; and her +own faculties should secure her this supremacy. Her opponents should be +forced, on their own principles, to emancipate her as daughter, wife, +and mother." The woman who owns an estate is, under this law, sole +mistress of it. She signs the leases and makes the bargains. She pays +the State tax, an additional rate to her own department, a town tax, and +a tax on roads. It is with her that the local or general government +treat, if they cut through her estate for public ends. Against them, if +wronged, she herself carries suit. By her influence as a proprietor, she +controls many votes; yet she is not permitted to cast one. She cannot +_directly_ control the position of the very representative who imposes +her taxes. She is in the same position with regard to all the higher +officers, who decide such questions as affect the value of her estate. +As citizen, therefore, under the communal law, her position is uncertain +and contradictory. + +So much for the estimate of woman in France; and so much for the rights +of property, of marriage, and of suffrage, founded upon that estimate. +What is her _civil position_? what office or employment is open to her? +Women are better off in France, it is again said, than ever before. As +merchants, fair chances, barred by some contradictions and anomalies, +await them; but whoever ponders their condition cannot fail to see, that +here, as elsewhere, the protection afforded by the law is merely the +vigilance of a police officer, which protects the criminal, not for _her +own_ sake, but for that of society, which her very existence is supposed +to endanger. + +The most desirable amelioration of her lot will be secured by the +admission of her free personality. When society strikes out from the +statute-book all distinctions of sex, and admits that she is a person +capable of thinking and acting for herself, she will lay the foundation +of a new civilization. + +In France, we are told, women sometimes fill public functions. They may +be postmistresses, and inspectors of schools; or they may take charge of +the bureaus of wood or tobacco. They may also be inspectors of public +asylums,--a right and a duty of very great importance. As a public +functionary, woman fills few and inferior posts; but in these she +exercises and possesses all the rights of a man, with one +exception,--that exception, alas! the very keystone on which all human +success must rest: I mean, the right of _promotion_. Do not smile, +prompted by an unworthy apprehension of my meaning. It is _not_ because +women are more greedy or more ambitious than men that I call the right +to promotion the keystone of their success. Only small and narrow +natures can be content in a treadmill. If constant motion will not carry +her over the top of the wheel, instinct prompts the reasoning creature +to abate her efforts. No man of his own free will turns into a road +which abuts upon a stone wall. The State turnpike is better, where the +wayfarer may die by a sunstroke, or perish of a frost; where endless +miles stretch over uncultivated wastes: better; for here, at least, the +way is open, the sky overhead. + +Before proceeding to speak of the English common law, it will perhaps be +well to turn from the "Code Napoléon" to the law of Louisiana, in which +the influence of the two forms of French law still shows itself. I do +not consider the laws of Canada, because they are complicated, not only +by the English common law, but by Canadian statutes, somewhat in the +spirit of our own recent enactments, and by curious archæological +remains of feudal law,--laws which would sound like the decrees of +Haroun al Raschid, were I to tax your soberness by setting them before +you. They are, let us be thankful, of small practical importance, as is +the great body of all law.[34] + +In Louisiana, according to the civil code of 1824, the partnership of +gains arising during coverture exists by law in every marriage, without +express stipulation to the contrary. But the parties may regulate their +married obligations as they please, provided they do nothing immoral. +The wife's property is "dotal." What she _brings_, her paraphernalia, is +"extra-dotal." The dowry belongs to the husband during marriage; and he +has the administration of the partnership, and may alienate his revenue, +without his wife's consent: but he cannot convey the common estate. If, +before marriage, he should stipulate that there should be no +partnership, his wife preserves the entire control of her own property. +Her heirs take her separate estate; even money received by her husband +on her account. If there be no agreement as to the expenses, the wife +contributes one-half of her income. Her landed estate, whether dotal or +not, is not affected by his debts. She is a privileged creditor, and has +the first mortgage on his property. + +If the parties have agreed to the "partnership of gains," the common +property is liable for the debts of either. On the death of either +party, one-half of the property goes to the survivor; the other, to the +heirs of the dead partner. + +You will perceive that this law seems a loose mixture of the Roman or +dotal system with the German communal law, based on the partnership of +gains; but the common law takes it for granted that the partnership +exists, where there is no express stipulation to the contrary. As a +public trader, the wife may bind herself in whatever relates to her +business, without her husband's consent,--may even make a will; and +reference is made to the "Code Napoléon," in the same way, to all +appearance, that we refer to the common law of England. + +The estimate of woman upon which the "Code Napoléon" is founded has the +same effect upon her earnings as the English common law. As, in +marriage, the policy has been to keep her subordinate and inferior; to +give her no privileges which should lead to independence: so, in +business, the effect of the law is to keep the price of her work down, +and give her as few escapes from household drudgery as may be; to offer +her, in fact, no _temptation_ to escape. + +As polishers, burnishers, and copper-workers; as glove-makers, +enamellers, and wire-drawers; as flax-beaters and soakers; as spinners, +gauze-workers, and winders; as basket-makers, and temperers of steel; as +knife-handlers, embroiderers, and wheel-turners; as velvet-makers, +cockle-gatherers, and ivory-workers; as packers, knitters, +satin-makers, and folders; as picture-colorers, and workers in wood; as +casters, weighers, and varnishers; as shoe-makers, strap-makers, +lace-makers, and cocoon-winders,--the French employ many women; and the +estimate of the law is practically indicated, there as well as here, in +the price of the labor done. + +The highest wages marked upon my list are those paid to the workers in a +porcelain factory, who received one franc and fifty centimes a day, or +thirty cents. The lowest are those paid to cockle-gatherers and +lace-makers; that is, from twenty to twenty-five centimes, or from four +to five cents a day. + +The fact that the poor lace-makers, who lose their eyesight and their +lives bending over their bobbins, are paid the same wages as the +loitering girls who pick up gay cockles on the beach, shows how little +the price of the labor depends on the value of the work done, and tells +the whole story in a breath. The wages of the needlewomen of Paris have +been diminishing ever since 1847, and, according to the "Revue des Deux +Mondes," now average only from twenty to twenty-five cents a day. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [32] Of course, I do not mean to be understood here as objecting to + any temperate and earnest attempt by men or women to _amend law_. + + [33] It will easily be conjectured that I do not feel competent to + treat the great subject of Roman legislation for women, in the noble + and extended manner which is at once, as it seems to me, necessary and + possible. Perhaps I shall never become so. + + It seems to me proper, however, that I should indicate my + dissatisfaction with existing methods in the clearest manner, and drop + a few hints, as I do in the text, as to the difficulties in the way. + + Roman sepulchral inscriptions, of the era generally considered the + most licentious, bear witness in the fullest manner to the existence + of chastity and domestic virtue. A sepulchral inscription, it may be + argued, is a poor witness to facts. I would suggest in reply, that a + nation ceases to commemorate the virtue which has ceased to exist, or + which it has, through a general depravity of manners, ceased to + respect. + + [34] The great body of all law is of small practical importance, + because, in spite of the five points of Calvinism and the long faces + of many bearded philosophers, the majority of mankind not only _obey_ + the law, but transcend it,--do better than it requires. It is only the + few who transgress; and thus many absurdities are never or very rarely + dragged into the light of a "decision." + + + + +II. + +THE ENGLISH COMMON LAW. + + "And we, perusing o'er these notes, + May know wherefore we took the sacrament, + And keep our faiths firm and inviolable." + _King John._ + + +In approaching the subject of English common law, we come nearer to our +own special interests. Twenty years ago, I am safe, I think, in +presuming that this law was the basis of all our legislation in regard +to woman, if we except that in French or Spanish territory; and, in +criticising its provisions, I shall criticise all that is objectionable, +whether in the laws that have been changed, or in the laws that remain +to be changed, in our own States. + +If we were to examine the literature of England with reference to this +subject, we should probably find from the beginning many protests +against the present position of woman. It is never safe, for instance, +to assume what poets may or may _not_ have said. If Dryden could get so +far as to say that there is "no sex in souls," one would think the +gentle Chaucer and heavenly-minded Daniel doubtless discerned still +deeper things; but of lawyers we may say with some truth, that their +early protests were so quietly made as scarcely to be recognized, or +were made for the most part by unread and anonymous writers. + +In the "Lawe's Resolution of Woman's Rights," published in the year +1632, there seems to be a distinct recognition of the true nature of the +law:-- + + "The next thing that I will show you," says the author, "is _this_ + particularity of law. In this consolidation which we call wedlock + is a locking together. It is true, that man and wife are one + person; but understand in what manner. When a small brooke or + little river incorporateth with Rhodanus, Humber, or the Thames, + the poore rivulet looseth her name; it is carried and recarried + with the new associate; it beareth no sway; it possesseth nothing + during coverture. A woman, as soon as she is married, is called + _covert_; in Latine, _nupta_,--that is, 'veiled;' as it were, + clouded and overshadowed: she hath lost her streame. I may more + truly, farre away, say to a married woman, Her new self is her + superior; her companion, her master." + + Still farther: "Eve, because she had helped to seduce her husband, + had inflicted upon her a special bane. See here the reason of that + which I touched before,--that women have no voice in Parliament. + They make no laws, they consent to none, they abrogate none. All of + them are understood either married or to be married, and their + desires are to their husbands. I know no remedy, though some women + can shift it well enough. The common lawe here shaketh hand with + divinitye." + +In this plain statement of the old black-letter book lies the root of +the evil with which we contend: "All of them are married or to bee +married, and their desires are to their husbands." Woman, single, +widowed, or pursuing an independent vocation, never seems to have +entered the head of the law, as a possible monster worth providing for. +The world of that day believed in the _sea-serpent_, but not in her. +This book, "The Lawe's Resolution of the Rights of Woman," was, so far +as I know, first brought under our notice by Mrs. Bodichon's quotation, +in her "Brief Summary of the English Law." Then a few copies found their +way to this country, and into the hands of curious persons. People began +to wonder who wrote the quaint old book. In pleading before our own +Legislature in the spring of 1858, I was myself asked by the committee +who was its author; and I think it but right to rescue from oblivion the +probable name of this early friend to woman and justice. It is always +difficult to trace an anonymous book, and, this time, more difficult +than usual, as it was probably published _after_ its author's death. + +Sir John Doderidge, to whom my attention was directed by an eminent +antiquarian, was an able lawyer, and an industrious compiler of +law-books of a special kind. He was from Devonshire, and admitted as a +barrister in 1603. He was successively appointed Solicitor-General, +Judge of the Common Pleas and of the King's Bench. Among the works known +to be his, yet not commonly included in the list of his works, are the +"Lawyer's Light," published in 1629; and "The Complete Parson," with the +laws relating to advowsons and livings, in 1670,--books of the same +class, character, and appearance as the "Lawe's Resolution." + +As he died in 1628, I was at first inclined to suspect the fairness of +this inference: but a further examination showed that all his +publications were _posthumous_; which accounts, perhaps, for the +_candor_ of their covert satire. A few particulars of his life and +standing may be gained from the new Life of Lord Bacon, where Hepworth +Dixon says that "the Solicitor-Generalship, vacant once more, is given, +over Francis Bacon's head, to Sir John Doderidge, Serjeant of the Coif." +In 1606, when Sir Francis Gawdy dies, "Coke goes up to the bench; and +Doderidge, the Solicitor-General, ought, by the custom of the law, to +follow Coke, leaving the post of Solicitor void: but Cecil raises Sir +Henry Hobart, his obscure Attorney of the Court of Wards, over both +Doderidge and Bacon's head, to the high place of Attorney-General." +Since that day, Bentham and Catharine Macauley, Mary Wollstonecraft, and +John Stuart Mill, have made the same complaint; sustaining it, however, +by vigorous argument for woman's full emancipation, and a demand for the +right of suffrage. + +Let us look at this English law. So far as it affects _single_ women, it +is very simple. + +A single woman has the same rights of property as a man; that is, she +may get and keep, or dispose of, whatever she can. She has a right, like +man, to the protection of the law, and has to pay the same taxes to the +State. + +"Duly qualified," she may _vote_ on parish questions and for parish +officers; and "duly qualified," in England, means that she shall have a +certain amount of property, and so a vested interest in the prosperity +of her parish. If her parents die without a will, she shares equally +with her brothers in the division of the personal property; but her +eldest brother and his issue, even if female, will take the real estate +as heirs-at-law. If she be an only child, she inherits both personal and +real, and becomes immediately that most pitiable of creatures, an +heiress. + +The church and all state offices are closed to women. They find some +employment in rural post-offices; but there is no important office they +can hold, if we except that of sovereign. This is sometimes spoken of as +an inconsistency; but if we reflect upon the position of a +constitutional sovereign, whose speeches are the work of her minister, +and whose actions indicate the average conscience of a cabinet council, +we shall find her legally but very little more independent than other +women technically classed with minors and idiots. + +There have been a few women governors of prisons, overseers of the poor, +and parish clerks; but public opinion still effectually bars most women +from seeking or accepting office. + +The office of Grand Chamberlain was filled by two women in 1822. That of +Clerk of the Crown, in the Court of Queen's Bench, has been granted to a +female; and, in a certain parish of Norfolk, a woman was recently +appointed parish clerk, because, in a population of six hundred souls, +no man could be found able to read and write! + +In an action at law, it has been determined that an unmarried woman, +having a freehold, might vote for members of Parliament. Mr. Higginson +tells us that a certain Lady Packington returned two. + +In all periods, there have been women who have held exceptional +positions, under peculiar influence of wealth or rank or circumstances; +and though this has not affected the position of other women, or given +them any more freedom, yet it is valuable in itself, because it has kept +the _possibility_ of their employment always open, and acted like a +practical protest against the law. + +The Countess of Pembroke was hereditary Sheriff of Westmoreland, and +exercised her office. In the reign of Queen Anne, Lady Rous did the +same, "girt with a sword." Henry VIII. once granted a commission of +inquiry, under the great seal, to Lady Anne Berkeley, who opened it at +Gloucester, and passed sentence under it. + +Some of the old legal writers averred, that a woman might serve in +almost any of the great offices of the kingdom. Lately we find it stated +that a woman may be elected as constable, since she can _hire a man_ to +serve for her; but she may _not_ be elected overseer of the poor, +because, in this case, substitution, if not impossible, would be +difficult! + +What were the peculiar political excitements which enabled Lady +Packington to return two members of Parliament, we are not told; but it +is quite certain that women of twenty-one, duly qualified, cannot and do +not vote for members of Parliament by virtue of that decision. In rural +districts, where personal influence weighed a good deal, such a vote +might be courteously winked at. A woman of property and standing, in +Nova Scotia, has in this manner, for more than forty years, cast her +annual vote, without rebuke or interruption; but, should any _number_ of +women act on this precedent, a legal restraint would doubtless be laid. + +No single woman, having been seduced, has any remedy at common law; +neither has her mother nor next friend. If her father can prove +_service_ rendered, he may sue for loss of service. + +In what "bosom of divinitye" does this law rest? Here is a remedy for +the loss of a few hours, but no penalty held up _in terrorem_, to warn +man that he may not trifle with honor, womanly purity, and childish +ignorance or innocence. + +In the eye of this law, female chastity is only valuable for the work it +can do. It must not be thought, however, that the English common law +stands alone in this moral deformity. Under the French law, female +chastity does not seem of any worth, even in consideration of the work +it can do. In honest indignation, Legouvé exclaims,-- + + "Let a man, who has seduced a child of fifteen years by a promise + of marriage, be brought before a magistrate. He has under the law a + right to say, 'There is my signature, it is true; but I deny it. A + debt of the heart is void before the law.'" + +Thus everywhere, in practice and theory, in society and in law, for rich +and poor, is public purity abandoned,--the bridle thrown upon the neck +of all restive and depraved natures. + +Manufacturers seduce their work-people; the heads of workshops refuse to +employ girls who will not sell themselves, soul and body, to them; +masters corrupt their servants. Out of 5,083 lost women counted by +Duchâtelet at Paris in 1830, there were 285 domestic servants seduced, +and afterwards dismissed by their employers. Commission-merchants, +officers, students, deceive the poor girls from the province or the +country, drag them to Paris, and leave them to perish. At all the great +centres of industry, as at Rheims and at Lille, are societies organized +to recruit the houses of sin in Paris. + +This is well known to be true of all the large English towns; yet the +law is powerless, and philanthropy interferes with no other result than +that of driving these societies from one post to another. + +Can women be expected to believe that the law would be powerless, if +there were a sound public opinion behind it to sustain the law; if there +were any _desire_ on the part of the majority of men that it should be +sustained? "Punish the young girl, if you will," continued Legouvé; +"but punish also the man who has ruined her. She is already +punished,--punished by desertion, punished by dishonor, punished by +remorse, punished by nine months of suffering, punished by the charge of +a child to be reared. Let him, then, be struck in his turn. If not, it +is no longer public modesty that you defend: it is the 'lord paramount,' +the vilest of the rights of the 'seigneur.'" + +In the laws which regard single women, we object, then,-- + +1. To the withholding of the elective franchise. + +2. To the law's preference of males, and the issue of males, in the +division of estates. + +3. We object to the estimate of woman which the law sustains, which +shuts her out from all public employment, for many branches of which she +is better fitted than man. + +4. We object to that estimate of woman's chastity which makes its +existence or non-existence of importance only as it affects the comfort +or income of man. + +We do not mean that the present _interpretation_ of the common law does +not _sometimes_ show a more liberal estimate than the law itself, but +rather that the existence of this law, unrepealed, _unchristianized_, is +a forcible restraint upon the progress of society. + +"A legal fiction," says Maine in his "Ancient Law," "signifies any +assumption which conceals, or affects to conceal, the fact, that a rule +of law has undergone alteration, its _letter_ remaining unchanged, while +its operation is modified." Such fictions may be useful in the infancy +of society; but, like absurd formulas and embarrassing technicalities, +they should give way before advancing common sense, before the +diffusion of general intelligence and a common-school system, which is +destined to qualify the humblest man for a full understanding of the law +under which he lives. + +We have now to consider the laws concerning _married women_. "On +whatsoever branch of jurisprudence may lie the charge," says a late +reviewer, "of working the heaviest sum of suffering, perhaps we shall +not err in saying that the sharpest and cruellest pangs are those which +have been inflicted by our marriage-laws." In making our abstracts, we +have need to avoid the absurd complications which confuse, not only +simple-minded people, but lawyers themselves; and, to avoid any charge +of ignorance or mistake, we will, as far as possible, adopt the language +of Mrs. Bodichon's "Summary," which has stood for six years before the +English public without impeachment. + +We shall not discuss the question, as to what constitutes fitness for +marriage in the eye of the law. In Scotland and in England, the consent +of the parties is said to be the "essence of marriage;" but, alas! in +how many cases is this "consent" taken for granted only, it being, in +fact, the most baseless of legal fictions! + +In commenting on the English law as compared with the Scotch, the +reviewer adds, "A code so unsatisfactory, so unsettled, and by every +alteration coming so palpably near to their own system, is one which +Scotchmen may be pardoned for declining further to consider, and which +certainly they cannot be expected to recognize as the model to which +their own should be conformed." + +The rule of the English law was, at the institution of the Divorce +Court, that the wife should have the same domicile as her husband, and +that within English territory. A dishonest domicile barred her claim to +divorce; and the husband who abandoned his wife, and fixed his residence +abroad, effectually bound her to him. Justice has of late been done, +because it was justice, heedless of the question of domicile. + +There are in relation to this subject many provisions which wrong men +and women alike; and, if there are any which especially wrong woman, +they wrong man in a still higher degree through her. As an example of +the former class, we may take the impossibility of release from a +hopelessly insane partner, which makes the point of the wonderful story +of "Jane Eyre." + +Now, several things are quite evident to the eye of common sense:-- + +_First_, That the insane partner should be properly provided for during +life, in the upper classes, by the sane partner; in the lower, by the +parish or state. + +_Second_, That as it is a sin against God and society to bring children +into the world, born of a hopelessly insane parent; so, on the other +hand, it is a sin against God and society to compel any man or woman to +a life of hopeless celibacy. + +_Third_, That, if the law does use this compulsion, it is responsible +for the vicious connections that inevitably grow out of it; "_car les +mauvaises lois produisent les mauvaises moeurs_."[35] I should not +turn aside from my main point to consider this, even for a moment, if it +were not a striking instance of the want of common _sense_ which +afflicts the common _law_, and if I had not in my own experience been +made aware of its frightful results. Within the limits of one small +parish in the city of Toronto, Canada West, I found four instances in +which men of the middle class had taken the right of divorce into their +own hands, and were illegally married a second time. These persons, if +not markedly religious, were respectable, orderly members of society, +living properly in their families, supporting the wives they had left, +and justifying the course they had taken. Two of them had left England +on account of the hopeless insanity of their wives, and two on account +of their hopeless immorality; the latter, cases in which the law would +have granted a divorce, but at an expense which the husband could not +pay. When I first heard this account of one person, I resented it as a +slander, and went to console the afflicted wife, who was overwhelmed by +the supposed rumor. + +The husband met me at the door, with an honest, unabashed, but +distressed face. "Don't deny it to her," said he. "I never committed but +one sin, and that was when I kept it from her. She was a sweet, pious +creature; and I feared she would not consent." + +This man told me that he sent six hundred dollars yearly to his insane +wife; that this kept her better than he could afford to keep himself and +his family: "but," said he, "her station was always higher than mine." + +In the other cases, the men had told their stories, and the wives had +consented to the arrangement. It is obvious, that, if a wife wished to +withdraw from a husband in this manner, she could not do it, on account +of property restrictions, and the common unfitness for self-support.[36] + +In the marriage of a minor, the consent of the father, or of a guardian +appointed by him, is necessary, but _not_ that of the _mother_: another +indication of the estimate the law puts upon woman, as compared with +man; and this estimate, whenever and wherever it shows itself, has the +effect to depress every woman's desire to fit herself to be a good +citizen; and, when she fails in citizenship, man must fail also, as is +ably shown by De Tocqueville. + +"A hundred times in the course of my life," he says, "I have seen weak +men display public virtue because they had beside them wives who +sustained them in this course, not by counselling this or that action in +particular, but by exercising a fortifying influence on their views of +duty and ambition. _Oftener still_, I have seen domestic influence +operating to transform a man, naturally generous, noble, and unselfish, +into a cowardly, vulgar, and ambitious self-seeker, who thought of his +country's affairs only to see how they could be turned to his own +private comfort or advancement; and this simply by daily contact with an +honest woman, a faithful wife, a devoted mother, from whose mind the +grand notion of public _duty_ was entirely absent."[37] + +A man and wife are one person in law: _a wife loses all her rights_ as a +single woman. Her husband is legally responsible for her acts: so she is +said to live under his cover. A woman's body belongs to her husband. She +is in his custody, and he can enforce his right by a writ of _habeas +corpus_. + +_This last_ is one of the points in which the public feeling is so far +before the law, that the latter could never be wholly enforced. + +If a woman were unlawfully restrained of her liberty, her husband might +take advantage of a _habeas corpus_ to get possession of her; but it is +not probable that any court, in England or this country, would _now_ +grant one to compel a wife to live with her husband against her will. +Still, the estimate of the marriage relation which such laws sustain is +so low, that one never can tell what will happen. + +In the year 1858, a curious but _unintentional_ satire on the judicial +position of the husband occurred in one of the London courts. A +delicate, much-abused woman, unmarried, but who had been, in her own +phrase, "living for some time" with a man, brought an action against him +for assault. Erysipelas had inflamed her wounds, and endangered her +life. + +"Had she died, sirrah," said the magistrate, addressing the criminal, +"you must have taken your trial for murder. What have you to say in your +defence?" + +"I was in liquor, sir," pleaded the man. "I gave her some money to go to +market. I told her to look sharp; but she was gone more than an hour, +your worship: so, when she came back, I--I was in liquor, your honor." + +The magistrate leaned over his desk, and, speaking in the most +impressive manner, thus endeavored to cut short the defence:-- + +"This woman is not your slave, man. She is not accountable to you for +every moment of her time. She is not," he continued with increasing +fervor, but a growing embarrassment,--"she is not--she is not"-- + +He paused; but the throng of wretched women who crowded the court +interpreted the pause aright, and were not likely to forget the lesson. + +A suppressed titter ran through the court: for every married man knew +that the words, "she is not your wife," were those which had sprung +naturally to the worthy magistrate's lips; and must have passed them, +had not honest shame prevented. + +The man then attempted to defend himself on the ground of jealousy: but +this was instantly set aside; the unmistakable impression left on the +mind of the court-room being, that the illegality of the relation was +wholly in the woman's favor. + +Since the war, freed-women at Beaufort, S.C., have refused marriage for +this very reason. + +Women long ago understood this, and literary gossip gives us a late +instance in a maiden aunt of Sir Charles Morgan. This woman, descended +from Morgan the buccaneer, has more than once turned the scales of an +Irish election. When she once arrested a robber on her own premises, and +held him fast till the arrival of an officer, the gentlemen of the +neighborhood advised her not to prosecute. + +"It is well known," they argued, "that you refuse to employ a single +man on your premises, and you may be marked out for the revenge of the +gang." + +"Justice is justice," she exclaimed in reply; "and the villain shall go +hang!" + +It was quite natural that we should find this woman telling Lady +Caroline Lamb that no _man_ should ever have legal rights over her, or +her property. A wife's money, jewels, and clothes become absolutely her +husband's; and he may dispose of them as he pleases, whether he and his +wife live together or not. Her chattels real--that is, estates held for +a term of years--and presentations of church livings become absolutely +his; but, if she survive him, she may resume them. + +Under such a common law as this, it is not surprising to find something +needed which is called _equity_. Therefore, if a wife, on her marriage, +gives all her property to her husband, the said _equity_ (Heaven save +the mark!) will, under certain circumstances, oblige him to make a +settlement upon her. That is, when the wife has an interest in property +which can only be reached by the husband through a court of equity, that +court will aid him to enjoy it, _only_ on condition that such part as it +thinks proper shall be settled on the wife. + +The civil courts in England cannot compel a man to support his wife: +_that_ is left to the action of the church, and her own parish. + +A husband has a freehold estate in his wife's lands as long as they both +live. + +Money earned by a married woman belongs absolutely to her husband. + +By her husband's particular permission, she may make a will; but he may +revoke his permission at any time before probate,--that is, before the +will is exhibited and proved,--even if _after_ the wife's death. + +The custody of a child belongs to the father. The mother has no right of +control. The father may dispose of it as he sees fit. If there be a +legal separation, and no special order of the court, the custody of the +children (except the nutriment of infants) belongs legally to the +father. + +_Except the nutriment of infants!_ Here is a hint from the good God +himself. Should we not think, that the first time these words were +written down, and men were compelled to see the natural dependence of +the child upon the mother,--to detect the obvious laws of nurture, +natural and spiritual,--the right of a good mother to her child would +have made itself clear? + +Yet, to this day, there are many States of our own Union where a mother +can better authenticate her right to a negro slave than to the young +daughter who is bone of her bone, and flesh of her flesh! + +If the direct influence of Christianity did not, in some measure, modify +the influence of the law in social life, there would be no such thing as +a mother's exercising maternal authority over a son. No matter how wise, +how old, how experienced, she may be, she never possesses, in the eye +of the law, the dignity of a boy who has just attained his majority. +Sufficiently instructed in legal maxims, he can always resist her, under +the influence of the most besotted or unprincipled of fathers. + +The word of a married woman is not binding in law, and persons who give +her credit have no remedy against her. + +The moral results of such a law are sufficiently obvious, not only in +England, but in our own country. The statute-book does not, cannot, +stand absolved, because public opinion in the present day abhors and +contemns the woman who assists her husband to defraud his creditors, or +takes refuge from her own debts behind this disgraceful cover. Yet, if +the law gives her husband her property, it ought surely to hold _him_ +responsible for her debts. And this is what society calls _protection_! + +As a wife is always presumed to be under the control of her husband +(numerous instances to the contrary notwithstanding), she is not +considered guilty of any crime which she commits in his presence. + +When a woman has consented to a proposal of marriage, she cannot give +away the smallest thing. If she do so without her betrothed husband's +consent, the gift is illegal; and, after marriage, he may avoid it as a +fraud on him: a strong temptation to any woman, one would think, to give +away her all. You see here what estimate the law puts on property, as +an inducement to marriage. This provision evidently grew out of the +exigencies of the time, when marriage among the Anglo-Saxons was a +_pure_ matter of bargain. + +As a protection against the common law, it is usual to have some +settlement of property made upon the wife; and, in respect to _this_ +property, the courts of equity regard her as a single woman. Such +settlements are very intricate, and should be made by an experienced +lawyer. + +The wife's property belonging to the husband, should her scissors, +thimble, or petticoats be stolen, the indictment must describe either of +these articles as his! + +Of divorce it is only necessary to say, that a divorce from the bonds of +matrimony in England could be obtained only by act of Parliament; the +right of investigation resting with the House of Lords alone. Until the +passage of the New Divorce Bill, only three such divorces had ever been +granted to a woman's petition. The expense of the most ordinary bill was +between three and four thousand dollars. + +Nor need we dwell long on such laws as relate to _widows_. You may be +interested to hear, that, _after_ her husband's death, the widow +recovers her right to her own clothes and jewels; also that the law does +not compel her to bury him, that being the duty of his legal +representative. + +The indignation which we might naturally feel at the suggestion that a +wife _could_ forsake her unburied dead, cools a little as the law goes +on to state, that a husband _can_, of _course_, deprive a wife of all +share in his personal estate. Very graciously, also, the widow is +permitted to remain forty days in her husband's house, provided that she +do not _re_-marry within that time! + +The result of a great deal of reading of a great many law-books is only +this,--that we are more firmly convinced than ever, that the most +necessary reform is a simple erasure from the statute-book of whatever +recognizes distinctions of sex. You should make woman, in the eye of the +law, what she has always been in the eye of God,--a responsible human +being; and make laws which such beings, male or female, can obey. + +Even Christian, in his edition of Blackstone, said long ago, that there +was no reason why civil rights should be refused to single women. In +every respect but this, the single woman is independent; but let her +take to herself a husband, and the law steps in to protect her, and she +finds herself in a position of what is called "reasonable restraint." He +may give her, says Blackstone, _moderate correction_; he may adopt any +act of coercion that does not endanger life; he may beat her, but not +violently. She may, by her labor, support him: but she cannot prevent +him from bestowing her earnings, should he happen to die, upon those who +have most wronged her in life; his mistress, it may be, or his +illegitimate children. Do you tell me that men of good feeling never +act on such laws? Why, then, should men of good feeling be unwilling to +wipe them from the statute-book? + +For the most part, it is upon women of the lower class that the +property-laws most hardly press. It was the suffering of this class, +years ago, when the common law of Massachusetts was the same as that of +England, that first roused my interest, and excited my indignation; but +the story which the Hon. Mrs. Norton tells us shows that this class of +women are not the _only_ sufferers. + + "I have learned the law piecemeal," she says, "by suffering all it + could inflict. I forgave my husband's wickedness again and again, + and found too late, that, in the eye of the law, practical + Christianity, the forgiving unto seventy times seven, was a + condonation which deprived me of all protection. My children were + stolen from me, and put into the vilest custody, where one of them + afterwards died for want of a mother's commonest care. My husband + brought an action against his kindest friend, of whom he borrowed + money and received office. The jury listened with disgust, and gave + their verdict against him. Then I was told that I might _write_ for + my bread, _or_ my family might support me. My children were kept + away, as their residence with me would make him liable for my + debts. + + "When my mother died, and left me, through my brother, a small + income, he balanced the first payment by arbitrarily stopping his + own allowance. For the last three years, I have not received a + farthing from him. He retains all my personal property which was + left in his home, the gifts of the royal family on my marriage, + articles bought with my own earnings, and presents from Lord + Melbourne. He receives from my trustees the income which my father + bequeathed to me, which the 'non-existent' wife must resign to + the 'existent' husband. + + "I have also the power of earning by literature; but even this + power, the gift of God, not the legacy of man, bears fruit only for + him. Let him _subpoena_ my publishers, and enjoy his triumph: he + has shown me that I was not meant to write novels and tales, but to + rouse the nation against such men as he, and such laws as they + sustain. Let him eat the bread I earn; but it shall be bought with + the price of his own exposure. If law will not listen to me, to + literature I will devote my power, and secure for others what I + have not been able to secure for myself." + +No wonder that provident parents circumvent such a common law by a +settlement before marriage! There is no chance for a partnership of +gains or losses in England. + +As we have already said, all sexual laws ought to be wiped off the +statute-book; but the Hungarian law which was in force until 1849, when +the German law was introduced into Hungary, is a comment on the +absurdity of the English. + +"No countrywoman of mine," said a proud sister of Kossuth, "would ever +submit to such a marriage settlement as is common in England." In +Hungary, inherited property could not be devised by will, and all +unmarried women were considered minors. As soon as she married, a woman +came of age, and into the full control of her estates. She could make a +will, and sign deeds; and was not responsible for her husband's debts or +the family expenses. As a widow, she was guardian of her children, and +administrator on her husband's property. So long as she bore his name, +she could exercise all his political rights. She could vote in the +county elections, and for deputies to the Diet. Trained up under such a +law, what could the Hungarian woman think who found herself for the +first time in the power of the English law? + +Among the refugees whom the misfortunes of a leading Hungarian family +drove to these shores was one woman of the highest natural gifts, the +best social station. She was married to a man, handsome, accomplished, +and reckless, but hardly patriotic enough to have need to fly with her. +In the city of New York she opened a boarding-house of the highest +class, by which she strove to support herself and her children. A +fascinating hostess, a skilful manager, she succeeded, as might be +expected. Soon her improvident husband followed her. At first, he did +not attempt to annoy her; but, in time, some one was found cruel enough +to expound to him the English common law. He stared, refused to believe; +but finally entered his wife's house, seized her earnings, compelled her +boarders to pay their money into his hands, stripped her of all power to +pay her rent and provide for her family, and then took himself off, +enraptured, doubtless, with his brief experience of English and American +liberty. Stripped of peace, position, and property, the injured wife had +no longer courage to struggle. In underhand ways, to evade the unjust +law, her personal friends settled her upon a little farm, where her +shattered hopes found a short repose. + +A few years ago, an American woman of captivating address gained great +reputation in Paris as a milliner. She had a profligate husband, whom +she invited to tea every Sunday, supplying him at that time with a sum +for his weekly expenses. In an evil day, seduced by promises of high +patronage, she went to London. She was very successful; but in a few +months her husband surprised her, seized all she possessed, and, turned +adrift on the streets, she went back to a country where the law would +protect her industry. Marriage has been sought only to legalize a +theft,--to apply the words of Wendell Phillips, when "_union was +robbery_." A respectable servant, who had laid by a considerable sum, +was sought in marriage by an apparently suitable person. On the day +before the marriage, she put her bank-book into his hands. After the +ceremony, he said to her, "I am not well in health, and do not feel +equal to supporting a family: you had better go back to service." +Naturally indignant, she responded, "Give me, then, my bank-book."--"I +am too feeble to spare the money," he replied. She went back to service, +and has never seen him since; but, of course, she has been often obliged +to change her name and residence to protect herself from a long +succession of extortions. + +We see thus, that if a woman is able to conquer her fate, and to gain a +livelihood in spite of a dissolute or incompetent husband, her home is +not her own. Her husband's folly may, at any moment, deprive her +children of bread. + +I have said that there was no woman so pitiable as an heiress. I said it +advisedly. I thought of the long persecution she must bear from +unwelcome suitors,--of all appreciation of her personality, ever so +lovely or gifted or individual, sunk, as it must be, in the mire of her +money. + +Mrs. Reid says, justly, that this money is not so much her own as a +perquisite attached to her person for the benefit of her _future +husband_; the larger portion of which will eventually pass to his heirs, +whether of her blood or not. If forced from ill treatment to leave his +roof, the law will return her but a scanty pittance. + +The nature of the law itself, and that estimate of woman on which it is +based, are so identical, that we are compelled, as we turn over its +pages, to treat these two points as one. + +"For one-half the human race," said Mrs. Reid years ago, "the highest +end of civilization is to _cling_ like a weed upon a wall;" a curious +instance of the power that the use of language has over a fact. There is +nothing captivating in clinging like a "weed to a wall;" but most women +are satisfied to hang like the "vine about the oak." + +It is a great misfortune, that this estimate of woman not only governs +the courts in their decisions, but enters into and moulds all the +movements of society. Such an estimate leads to constant +contradictions; being, as it is, directly the opposite of the _fact_ in +so many cases, and of the Divine Will in all. In a book on woman +recently published by a lawyer in England, I found a pithy paragraph to +this point, concluding some observations on the comparative longevity of +the sexes: "The wife," he says, "_fitly survives the husband_, both to +take care of _his_ premature infirmity, and to consummate the rearing of +their offspring"!--a creative effort of the imagination which certainly +entitles the writer to the laurels of the century. + +One reason that the wages of women are kept down is, that, for the most +part, women do not begin to labor early; do not devote themselves _in +youth_ to any trade or profession, so as to compete with men who have. +The plodding and steady habits of the man of business, he has acquired +in his early years; and they are developed by the fact, that he is sole +master of what he can earn, and can dispose of it as he thinks proper: +but his wife has been brought up in no such school,--has no such motive +to industry. Should she toil on for ever, she cannot possess what she +acquires, nor lay out the smallest part of it, without another's leave. +Even when man says to her with the sanction of the church and in the +presence of God, "With all my worldly goods I thee endow," it means only +that she is invited to enjoy, not possess them. This estimate of her +rights, her position, and her ability, made manifest in every law-book, +in the church itself, and obvious in every social form, discourages her +whenever she would devote herself to any lucrative employment; so that +it is only in desertion and despair, for the most part, that she becomes +a laborer. She is not always conscious of this discouragement. She +quiets the Cerberus within by a three-times-repeated "It is not proper," +without pausing to analyze the conventional instinct. Here we find the +real significance of the proverb, "A man of straw is worth a woman of +gold;" for the "man of straw" is, at least, worth such money as he may +hereafter earn, which the "woman of gold" is not. + +We hear a great deal about laws for the _protection_ of women; but we +cannot urge too often the remark of James Davis in his Prize Essay of +1854, "that all early legislation for woman was founded, not on her own +rights, but on those of her husband and children, and the _State over +her_." + +When one remembers that the "seat of the law is the bosom of God," it +strikes one strangely, that moral consequences to character have so +little to do with what one may call "sexual legislation." + +In speaking of the frequenting of disreputable houses, neither +Montesquieu, nor Dr. Wood in his "History of Civil Law," finds a single +word to say as to the moral degradation of the race, of the special +degradation of woman involved in it, but both grow eloquent concerning +the ruin of the State. It requires a sounder mode of thinking than most +men possess to see the relation between the ruin of the State and their +own bad habits, the loss of one man's purity. Thus the laws concerning +adultery, or divorce for that cause, bring the heaviest penalties, +social and legal, upon the head of an offending woman. The legal excuse +for this positive injustice is the safety of the family and the +State,--the great crime of imposing upon a family false representatives +of its name and honor; but a woman's brain and conscience are too clear +to rest in this masculine decision. + +If a man cannot bring a false representative into _his own family_, he +can carry it into his neighbor's, when his profligate life violates the +social compact; and, as to his own family, his vices may injure it far +more than the infidelity of his wife. At the worst, her misconduct will +only bring into the shelter of his home a child who grows up protected +socially by her fraud; but, if _he_ choose to "spend his substance in +riotous living," his wife and children may, while the law gives him +exclusive right to their common property, be deserted, or driven from +their homes, to make room for those who are the companions of his guilt. +It is quite possible, it will be seen, therefore, to show another side +to this matter, in no better light than that of expediency. One canton +of Switzerland (the Canton Glarus) possesses laws in regard to such +matters, in marked contrast to those of the whole civilized world. The +consequence is, that the falsehood and crime so common elsewhere are +here unknown.[38] + +"Perhaps it would be just," says Poynter on "Marriage and Divorce," in +1824,--"_perhaps_ it would be just, that where the husband violates the +matrimonial compact, and the property originally belonged to the wife, +he should give back the whole of it. Courts, however, have never gone +that length." + +One would think, nevertheless, that husbands themselves might go that +length, and that men who aspire to the credit of decency would be +ashamed to eat the bread of her they have betrayed and wounded. How is +it that they have deceived themselves from the beginning, and have +fancied that God requires of woman a fidelity and purity that was not of +the smallest consequence to themselves? + +In the late debate in Parliament on the New Divorce Bill, when a member +objected to the introduction of a clause equalizing the relief of +divorce to both sexes, he asked, "If this clause were adopted, I should +like to know how many married men there would be in this house?" He was +answered by shouts of laughter. + +Would these men have laughed, think you, if they had been asked how many +_pure wives_ could be found in their family circles? and, if _not_, +would it have been because they were capable of estimating the value of +womanly virtue? No: _he_ cannot estimate that who has never known the +worth of manly purity. The spectres of illegitimacy and civil ruin are +what would stare them in the face, and turn their very lips so white. + +In France, says the "Westminster Review," fidelity on the part of the +husband is considered a sort of imbecility. What is thought of it in +England? Does this scene in Parliament, printed for all our girls to +read, suggest any higher view? + +"The frequenting of disreputable places," says Davis, "was once an +indictable offence in a _man_; but that is now obsolete." Obsolete? and +why? A lawyer once told me, that the most obscene publication he had +ever read was a book upon divorce. I can well believe it. I thought I +knew how corrupt modern society could be; but I did not know how +unsoundness had darted to its very core, till I began to read law, and +to understand the estimate which that puts upon woman and chastity. + +When I think of these things, I wonder that this platform is not +thronged with the ghosts of dead and ruined women, crowding here to +second my appeal to beseech you to grant human justice, to require human +virtue! And all this sin is sheltered under the plea of protection! "How +many delicious morsels I should miss if it were not for _thy_ care, O +most excellent jackal!" + +"Lawyers," says Johnson in 1777,--"lawyers often pay women the high +compliment of supposing them proof against all temptations combined." + +Certainly, whatever the _lawyers_ may do, the _law itself_ confidently +expects of them a superhuman strength. It gives them no defence but +immaculateness. It offers them no shelter but God's temple, no robe but +spotless ermine; and then, turning the page, it says, "A _husband_ is +expected to be vigilant, and so prevent his own dishonor:" as if his +_vigilance_ and quick-wittedness could save the woman whom his _love_ +had not blessed. + +Ah! these lawyers are but blind guides, after all. Centuries of +discomfiture and defeat have not sufficed to teach them how little +security is to be found in suspicion and scepticism. If I do not want my +groceries stolen, I must leave my storeroom open. The very servant who +would not scruple to pick my locks will know better than to pick that of +her own heart. "A thorough-bred woman," says Mrs. Reid, "is good only so +far as her husband suggests and allows;" and, so long as _this_ is the +standard, woman's duplicity may well match man's utmost expectation, and +there is not a privilege of his open vice that she will not secure by +stealth. + +There was a time when all the women at the court of France blushed for +one of their number who unluckily made use of a hard word in a _proper_ +place. In like manner, the woman who reads law blushes to find herself +even tolerably sincere and modest. It is not expected of her. Why has +she never done any of the bad things the law so confidently predicts? + +All thinking people must see how easily we turn from the consolidated +law of ages, with its false views, its untrue estimate of woman and +duty, to the question of the right of suffrage. + +In 1848 and 1850, we used to hear a great deal of three objections to +conferring this right upon women:-- + + 1st, Its incompatibility with household care and the duties of + maternity. + + 2d, Its hardening effect on the character; politics not being fit + for woman. + + 3d, The inexpediency of increasing competition in the already + crowded fields of labor and office. + +To these three points we gave short and summary answers:-- + + 1st, There are a great many women who will never be mothers and + housekeepers; and, if there were not, suffrage is no more + incompatible with maternity and housekeeping than it is with + mercantile life and the club-room. + + 2d, If it hardens women, it will harden men; and the politics which + are not fit for her are not fit for him, nor will they become so + till her presence gives men a motive to purify them. + + 3d, At the worst, competition could only go so far, that a man + _and_ a woman would earn as little together as the man now does + alone. This would be better than the present condition of things; + for they would then be equal partners, and no longer master and + slave. Both would work, and neither need pine. + +These answers, whether logical or not, have practically silenced the +objections. We hear no more of _this_ nonsense. But, on the other hand, +a respectable daily says, "As to the abstract right of a woman to vote +because she is a human being and pays taxes, there is no such abstract +right in any human being, male or female: the extent of the elective +franchise is, and must ever be, limited by considerations of +expediency." + +Then a distinguished review goes on to say, "that while the question of +suffrage stands where it now does, so unsettled that every Congress and +Parliament discuss it anew, we are glad that any thing should prevent +the discussion as to conferring on woman a duty, the grounds of which +are very vague and undetermined so far as regards men;" and a critic of +Rosa Bonheur's magnificent pictures advises the "sad sisterhood of +women's-rights advocates to visit the exhibition, and sigh to think how +much one silent woman's hand outvalues for their cause the pathos and +the jeers of their unlovely platform." + +Such remarks as these are easily met. To the first objector, who +declares, although the professed advocate of a republican government, +that _there is no such thing_ as any abstract right to vote, we reply, +that in this particular discussion we don't care about _abstract +rights_: what we want is our _own share_ of the tangible acknowledged +right which human governments confer. If in England this right depends +on a property qualification, then we claim that there the property +qualification shall endow woman as well as man with the right of +suffrage. If in America it depends upon an inalienable right to life, +liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, then we demand that our +government recognize woman as so endowed, and receive her vote. + +To the reviewer we say also, If the grounds of suffrage are vague and +undetermined in _theory_, they may remain so, so far as our interference +is concerned. What we ask to share is the steady right to vote, which +has been actually granted, and never disputed, since our government was +founded; and sufficiently pressed, we might add, that, if there is ever +any chance of limiting the right of suffrage, we shall do all we can to +secure its dependence on a certain amount of education, in preference to +a certain amount of wealth. + +As to the art critic, we thank him for calling us the "sad sisterhood." +We should be sorry to be otherwise, when pleading for women _before_ +men; sorry to find matter for jesting in those purlieus of St. Giles and +Five Points and the Black Sea, beating up remorselessly against these +very doors, which lie at the very heart of our effort. As to the matter +of going to see the Horse Fair and the Highland Cattle, it will probably +be found to be a fact, that, in every city where those great pictures +have been exhibited, "_women's-rights women_" have been their _earliest_ +visitors; and, standing before the canvas, have thanked God, with an +earnestness the art critic never dreamt of, for that silent woman's +hand, that glorious woman's life. It was not necessary for him to remind +us of what Solomon had said so much better three thousand years ago; +namely, that "speech is silvern, and silence is golden." Nathless, +silver is still current in all markets; and, God willing, we are not +ashamed to use it. + +We intend to claim, in words, the right of suffrage; and why? + +Turning from that wretched estimate of woman, and of man's duty toward +woman, which the law-books have just offered us, we claim the right of +suffrage, because only through its possession can women protect +themselves; only through its exercise can both sexes have equality of +right and power before the law. Whenever this happened, character would +get its legitimate influence; and it is just possible that men might +become rational and virtuous in private, if association with women +compelled them to _seem so_ in public. + +It is noticeable, that every man disclaims at his own hearth, and in the +presence of women, whatever there is of disgraceful appertaining to +political or other public meetings. _Somebody_ must be responsible for +these things; and yet, if we are to believe witnesses, nobody ever does +them. The bare fact of association must take all the blame. + +The laws already existing prove conclusively to woman herself, that she +has never had a real representative. What she seeks is to utter her own +convictions, so that they shall redeem and save, not merely her own sex +but the race. + +That the right of suffrage would be a protection to women, we see from +this fact, that it would at once put an end to three classes of laws:-- + +I. Those that protect her from violence. + +II. Those made to protect her from fraud. + +III. Those that protect society from the passions of both sexes. + +The moment woman began to exercise this right, I think we should see +moral significance streaming from every statute. We should no longer +hear that seduction was to be sued as "loss of service:" it would become +loss of honor to _more_ than one. We should no longer hear that consent +or temptation excused it: we should find that God demanded chastity of +both sexes, and had made man the guardian of his own virtue. We should +find, that, if its punishment admitted of degrees, it should be +_heaviest_ where a man committed it in defiance or abuse of a positive +trust. + +Let us look at a single decision in the light of these principles. Let +us take the case of Harris _versus_ Butler, reported in the notes to +Davis's Prize Essay. + +A man named Harris had apprenticed his daughter to a milliner named +Butler, paying as an entrance-fee a sum equivalent to a hundred and +fifty dollars. After a short time, the girl was seduced by her +mistress's husband. She became seriously ill, and was returned to her +father, who lost not only his hundred and fifty dollars, but all the +benefits of her apprenticeship, and was obliged to provide her with +board, medicine, and nursing. + +Why the father became liable for the care of his child under such +circumstances does not appear. Common sense would suggest that the court +might have required this at the hands of the Butlers; but, +unfortunately, law has very little to do with common sense. + +The father brought an action against Butler: but the defence urged, that +he could only sue for "loss of service;" that her "services" were not +his after she was apprenticed to Mrs. Butler; that Mrs. Butler and her +husband were "one person in law;" and that, if Butler chose to deprive +himself of her services for his own ends, the law had no remonstrance to +make, no redress to afford. + +The prosecution urged, that the "care of morals" was one of the duties +involved in the very system of apprenticeship; but the court denied the +claim, unless it were distinctly set forth on the articles signed. + +This is but one case out of hundreds accessible to you all. The moment +woman becomes a law-maker, such records will be wiped out of your life. +They may make a certain sort of show in your law-books; but what have +the unbending laws of God to do with this "one person in law," this plea +for "loss of service"? At the eternal bar, no man will dare to echo that +plea, no judge rehearse that verdict. Such law rests not in the "bosom +of God;" its voice chimes not in keeping with the harmony of his +countless spheres. + +You object to seeing women in Parliament. English lords tell us that +delicate matters have to be discussed there, with which women would +hardly care to meddle. The natural growth of society opens the area of +all proprieties. Delicate matters come to be discussed in most +households; and it is reasonable to suppose that they would be more +delicately and rationally discussed if they were sometimes _publicly_ +met. It is my opinion, that no subject is fit for discussion at all that +cannot be discussed between men and women. It is separating the sexes in +such cases, that opens the way to indecency. All great themes of human +thought and human virtue, men and women ought to be trained to consider +seriously together; and where better than in the Congress or the +Parliament? Think only of the debate which I have quoted on the New +Divorce Bill! Could such a scene have taken place in the presence of +women? Recur to the trial of Queen Caroline; or to that of the Duke of +York, when accused of conniving at the corrupt sale of military +commissions by his mistress, Mrs. Clarke. + +Under date of Feb. 16, 1809, Freemantle writes: "The scene which is +going on in the House of Commons is so disgusting, and at the same time +so alarming, that I hardly know how to describe it to you. Of course, +while this ferment lasts (and God knows when it is to end), no attention +will be paid to the business of the country." + +In these instances, high-bred men showed a taste for low scandal; +battening day after day on the same loathsome details, which the +presence of a single woman must have checked. Here was a woman, too, +this very Mrs. Clarke, somewhat debased and hardened, who had never a +seat in Parliament, who had never dreamed of exercising the right of +suffrage, yet was quite equal, as the evidence showed, to any political +venality, striving in her way to outdo the very jobbers of Downing +Street itself! Why _should_ elections be scenes of tumult, or +parliaments free fields for imbecile improprieties? Why should not a +peeress feel herself as properly placed among her peers as the Queen +seated at her Council? + +We are not likely to withdraw our claim while it is sustained by such a +man as John Stuart Mill, who, in his late essay on "Political +Representation," advises this extension of the suffrage: "All +householders, without distinction of sex," he says, "might be adopted +into the constituency, on proving to the registrar's officer that they +have fifty pounds a year, and can read, write, and calculate." + +"The almost despotic power of husbands over wives," Mr. Mill adds in his +"Essay on Liberty," "needs not to be enlarged upon here, because nothing +more is needed for the complete removal of the evil than that wives +should have the same rights, and should receive the protection of the +law in the same manner, as all other persons; and because, on this +subject, the defenders of established injustice do not avail themselves +of the plea of liberty, but stand forth openly as the champions of +power." + +The dedication of this "Essay on Liberty" ought to be preserved in these +pages; for it is full of historic significance:-- + + "To the beloved and deplored memory of her who was the inspirer, + and in part the author, of all that has been best in my writings; + the friend and wife, whose exalted sense of truth and right was my + strongest excitement, and whose approbation was my chief reward,--I + dedicate this volume. + + "Like all that I have written for many years, it belongs as much to + her as to me; but the work, as it stands, has had, in a very + insufficient degree, the inestimable advantage of her revision; + some of the most important portions having been reserved for a more + careful re-examination, which they are now never destined to + receive. Were I but capable of interpreting to the world one-half + the great thoughts and noble feelings which are buried in her + grave, I should be the medium of a greater benefit to it than is + ever likely to arise from any thing that I can write, unprompted + and unassisted by her all but unrivalled wisdom." + +I said that this dedication ought, for many reasons, to be preserved in +these pages. What is better fitted than such a tribute to check the +jeering scepticism of the crowd as to the ability and purity of the sex? +What could lay a better foundation for a better estimate on the part of +the law? Necker, in his report to the French Government, publicly +awarded to his wife the credit of the recent retrenchment in the +expenses of the Government; Bowditch dedicated his translation of the +"Mécanique Céleste" to the wife who aided him to prepare, and by her +self-denial opened a way for him to publish it: but where, in the +records of the past, shall we find such a tribute offered by such a man, +as honorable in itself to the first political economist of our time as +it is a gracious adornment to the name of the woman he loved? Does it +not promise in itself the dawning of a brighter future for woman, when +no "sad sisterhood" shall be needed either to proclaim woman's rights or +redress her wrongs?[39] + +About two years since (1858), the Stockholm "Aftonblad," a Swedish +newspaper, stated that "the authorities of the old university-town of +Upsal had granted the right of suffrage to fifty women owning real +estate, and to thirty-one doing business on their own account. The +representative that their votes assisted in electing was to sit in the +House of Burgesses." + +This is the way the matter is to begin. By and by, the interests of +labor and trade will force the authorities of Bristol and Manchester, +Newcastle and Plymouth, to do the same thing; and, after women have gone +on for some twenty years electing members of Parliament, no one of us +will be surprised to find some women sitting in that body. "But," +objects somebody, "if that ever happens, we shall have women on juries, +women pleading at the bar, women as attorneys, and so on." And this is +exactly what we want. Women are very much _needed_ on juries, and +_female_ criminals will never be tried by their peers until they are +there. It is very seldom that a criminal case in which women are +implicated is brought forward, when women could not be of immense +service in clearing up evidence, and showing to the male jurors on the +panel the absurdity or impossibility of some of the statements. The +recent instance of Miss Shedden, who took up, at a moment's notice, a +case which five well-feed lawyers of distinction declared themselves +unprepared to defend, might be quoted in confirmation of our view. Mr. +Russell said at the Liverpool Assizes lately, in a case which involved +some peculiar evidence, "The evidence of women is, in some respects, +superior to that of men. Their power of judging of minute details is +better; and when there are more than two facts, and something be +wanting, their intuitions supply the deficiency." And precisely the +qualities which fit them to give evidence, fit them to sift and test it. +Women often have occasion to smile, sometimes sadly, sometimes +mischievously, at the verdicts passed upon their own sex. If women were +to enter into the practice of law, or become law-makers, an immense +change would take place in all that relates to it. Absurd technicalities +would be swept off its papers. One hundred words would no longer do duty +for one. Simple, common-sense forms of expression would take the place +of obsolete Latin and Norman-French. Daylight would be let into +indictments, and flaws would soon be hard to find. No woman ever +existed, whose patience would stand, in cases where meaning and law are +evident, the absurd delays of chancery courts, or the still absurder +"filing of objections," or "defining of terms," with which lawyers amuse +a jury, and which Sir Leicester Dedlock, we are told, considered as the +bulwarks of the English Constitution. This impatience of woman might not +be very valuable, if she were to legislate alone; but, controlled by +man's conservative caution, it will be of the greatest service. + +We are perpetually met by the opposition extended to _any thing_ that is +new. It ought to be our object, therefore, to show, that for woman to +claim and possess the right of suffrage is by no means a new thing. It +is easy to show from the records of most nations, that women held and +exercised political power so long as power was supposed to inhere +_chiefly_ in property, and so long as women, either single or in +association, possessed property not represented by men. Thus the +suppression of religious houses in England put an end to the +representation of abbesses. "Truly, we think more of money than of +love," said one of the St. Simoniens: "we have more consideration for +bags of dollars than human dignity. We emancipate women in proportion as +they are property-holders; but, in proportion as they are women, our +laws declare them inferior to us." It was only when the republican idea +had crept to a certain extent into monarchical governments themselves, +that women gradually dropped a recognized public influence which had +depended on rank and wealth. What men have to do is, not to reconcile +themselves to a woman's right to vote,--a right acknowledged hundreds of +years ago, which is still covertly acknowledged when woman means +property,--but to reconcile themselves to the idea that woman is a human +being, and that _humanity_ has a right to vote. Wherever governments +decide that every individual has a right to life, liberty, and the +pursuit of happiness, they must admit the right of the individual woman +to vote, or deny the fact of her humanity. There is the dilemma. In +support of this statement, I should have shown you, that in France, as +early as the reign of Louis XIV., the political rights of property were +respected in the persons of women. At the present day, the remains of +the old feudal and communal system still secure a kind of political +influence to certain women in the provinces, and often confer upon their +husbands a right of franchise. In the reign of Louis XIV., the women who +hawked and vended fish took up the business of the "insolvent +fishmongers," and managed so well, that they acquired wealth, married +their children into the first families, and finally became an estate of +the realm. + +"Les Dames de la Halle," or "Dames of the Market," as they are called, +have a corporate existence; and, if corporations have no souls, they +ordinarily possess _franchises_! They have their queen, their laws, and +a language peculiar to themselves. They take part in revolutions, and +send deputations to the foot of the throne. Nor am I alluding now to +long-past feudal or re-actionary crises. Louis Napoleon treats them as +civilly as he does the clergy. When he was married, and when the young +prince was born, they went to the Tuileries in their court-dress. Their +princesses--and we are told that their blood-royal claims the higher +privilege of beauty also--their princesses took the front rank in the +procession, and offered bouquets to their imperial majesties. In +response, Louis Napoleon gave to them what he gives to all +corporations,--a very diplomatic speech. + +I have told you what was granted at Upsal in 1858. It is a curious fact, +that, just at the moment when this question of suffrage was first +agitated by the women of the United States assembled in convention at +Seneca Falls in 1848, Pauline Roland and Madame Moniot publicly claimed +their civil rights in Paris. Pauline went herself to the ballot, and, +when her vote was refused, published a protest after the fashion of our +tax-payers. Very absurd English society found woman's first demand for +the suffrage; yet what Englishmen refuse contemptuously to _give to_ +woman, certain men of the mean sort, yet calling themselves respectable, +have not been ashamed in that very country to _borrow of_ her. Even +"Blackwood" helps out our argument, when it says, in November, 1854, "I +believe, Eusebius, I speak of a notorious fact, when I say, that it is +less than a century since, for election purposes, parties were +unblushingly married in cases where _women_ conveyed a right of freedom, +a political franchise to their husbands, and parted, after the election, +by shaking hands over a tombstone, as an act of dissolution of the +contract, under cover of the words, 'Until death do us part.'"[40] The +men who looked calmly on this profane and absurd fraud may well dread +the moral influence of woman on elections. As to the historical argument +for England, ladies of birth and quality, we are told, sat in council +with the Saxon Witas. The Abbess Hilda _presided_ in an ecclesiastical +council. "In Wightfred's great council at Benconceld in 694," says +Gurdon in his "Antiquities of Parliament," "the abbesses sat and +deliberated; and five of them signed decrees of that council, with the +king and bishops:" and that illuminated prebendary of Sarum, old Thomas +Fuller, thus further chronicles the same event:-- + + "A great council (for so it is titled) was held at Becanceld + (supposed to be Beckingham in Kent) by Withred, King of Kent, and + Bertuald, Archbishop of Britain, so called therein (understand, him + of Canterbury), wherein many things were concluded in favor of the + church. Five Kentish abbesses--namely, Mildred, Ethelred, Æte, + Wilnolde, Heresinde--were not only present, but subscribed their + names and crosses to the constitutions concluded therein; and we + may observe, that their subscriptions are not only placed before + and above all presbyters, but also above that of Botred, a bishop + present in this great council. It seems it was the courtesy of + England to allow the upper hand to the weaker sex, as in their + sitting, so in their subscription." + +King Edgar's charter to the Abbey of Crowland, in 961, was with consent +of the nobles and _abbesses_ who signed that charter. In Henry the +Third's and King Edward the First's time, four abbesses were summoned to +Parliament; namely, of Shaftesbury, of Winchester, of Berking, and of +Wilton. In the thirty-fifth year of Edward the Third, were summoned--by +writ of Parliament, to sit in person or by their proxies--Mary, Countess +of Norfolk; Alienor, Countess of Ormond; Anna Despenser; Philippa, +Countess of March; Johanna Fitzwater; Agneta, Countess of Pembroke; Mary +de St. Paul; Mary de Roos; Matilda, Countess of Oxford; Catharine, +Countess of Athol. + +As to the offices which women can hold in Great Britain, we have already +quoted something from Mr. Higginson, in speaking of the prohibitions of +the law. Lady Packington's estate has probably, by this time, passed +into male hands: so _she_ elects no more members of Parliament. Those +who have read the plea of Lady Alice Lille, when she was forbidden to +speak by attorney, will find no great difficulty in imagining that a +woman could manage a government debate. + +Such women as have purchased or inherited East-India stock have always +had the privilege of voting at the meetings of the company, and so have +assisted to govern that unhappy country. In the provincial English +towns, if I may judge from the indirect testimony of novels and +newspapers, women appear to attend all stockholders' meetings; certainly +those held by the banks. In the United States, they are notified, _but +not expected to attend_; a cool kind of insult, which I wish some women +might astonish them by retaliating. If any bank were established by, or +had a majority of, female stockholders, it would be quite easy to notify +men, without expecting _them_ to attend; and the alternative of trusting +their own property to the judgment of _women_ might possibly open the +eyes of men to the absurdity of the present custom. + +As we withdraw our eyes from the past, it is natural to inquire, What +late changes have taken place in Great Britain? and what is the strength +of the reform tendency? I have often said, yet I must repeat it here, +that nothing has ever promised such noble usefulness for woman, nothing +has ever occurred to change the popular estimate of her character, in +the same degree as the formation of that _out-of-door Parliament_,--the +Association for the Advancement of Social Science. It offers a position +of entire equality to woman. It encourages her to express herself in the +presence and with the sympathy of the wisest men, and gives her an +opportunity to speak to the actual Parliament through her own influence +exerted on its best members. It has been well said (I think, by Mrs. +Mill), that the very best opportunities of education will be opened to +woman in vain, until she is practically invited to turn them to account. +Here, in this association, is her first practical invitation in Great +Britain. God grant that she may understand the responsibility it +involves, and bear it well! But the formation of this association in +1857 was preceded by other steps. It was on the 13th of February, 1851, +that a petition of women, agreed to by a public meeting at Sheffield, +and claiming the elective franchise, was laid before the House of Lords +by the Earl of Carlisle; and, in July of the same year, Mrs. Mill's +admirable article on the "Enfranchisement of Women," now become +commonplace on account of the extensive and thorough use that has been +made of it, appeared in the "Westminster." + +The examination of Florence Nightingale before a commission of inquiry +bore witness no less to the surpassing ability of the woman than to the +increasing value of such ability to all governments. In connection with +it, one could not but smile at the distress felt by certain journals +over a single mistake on the part of the lady as to the proper title of +a subordinate officer. + +In the month of March, 1856, the "London Times" published a petition to +both Houses of Parliament in behalf of an amendment of the English +property-laws. This petition was signed by many women whose names are +well known and dear to us,--by the late Anna Jameson, so well known to +the world as an accomplished critic in literature and art; by the wife +and sister of the poet Browning,--Elizabeth Browning, herself the first +poet among women, so far; by Bessie Raynor Parkes and Matilda Hayes, the +editors of the "Englishwoman's Journal," the establishment of which of +itself constitutes an era in the progress of human thought; by Barbara +Bodichon, the well-known artist; by Harriet Martineau, distinguished in +political economy; by Mary Howitt, the womanly story-teller and +ballad-maker; and Mrs. Gaskell, the author of "Mary Barton." The +petition was supported in the House of Lords by Lord Brougham, and in +the House of Commons by Sir Erskine Perry. + +After the close of the session in April, 1857, a dinner was offered to +Lord Brougham in acknowledgment of the distinguished ardor with which he +had pressed this bill,--the Married Woman's Property Act of 1857. This +bill did not apply to Ireland or Scotland, nor to pre-existing +contracts; that is, to marriages solemnized before the first day of +January, 1858. It was not passed; but a clause for the protection of the +earnings and savings of married women was introduced into the New +Divorce Bill, and has already proved a blessing to hundreds. This +clause, however, operates _only_ in cases of desertion,--a charge easily +evaded.[41] + +The New Divorce Bill passed in 1858: the Divorce and Matrimonial Causes +Act Amendment Bill passed in July, 1858; and since then, the Divorce +Court Bill in August, 1859; both of these last having been made +necessary by the first change in the law. It was in April, 1858, that +Mr. Buckle delivered his lecture on "Civilization;" an important +contribution to that estimate of woman, which is beginning to act +powerfully on all legislation. The Law-Amendment Society also published +a report, urging a thorough reform of the law. + +In connection with the reforms effected in the mother-country, it may be +well to state, that similar reforms are being effected in Canada. +Legislators there turn for their precedents to England; but there can be +no doubt that the agitation in the United States largely contributes +towards these changes. + +A Married Woman's Property Act passed the Council in May, 1858; but as +these changes are still in progress, and a progress much interrupted by +political fluctuations, it seems hardly worth while to enter into their +details. + +In one respect, the statutes of Canada are marked by a singular +inconsistency. They record the only instance, within my knowledge, in +which a government distinctly _forbids_ women to vote; and almost the +only instance of a government _conferring_ that right, even to a limited +extent. In the twelfth year of Victoria, the Canadian Government passed +a statute in these words: "No woman is or _shall be_ entitled to vote at +any election for any electoral division whatever." What spasm of +autocratic terror, what momentary rebellion against their liege lady, +inspired this act, we are left uninformed. For the most part, in all +countries, women wait to be told that they _may vote_; and their +ineligibility is decided by the introduction of the word "male," or the +popular construction of the word "citizen," which, it is quite evident, +does not mean a woman. But it was in Canada also that a distinct +electoral privilege was conferred by intention in 1850; an intention, +however, which indicated no enlargement of views, nor desire of reform, +nor recognition of woman at her human value: it was simply an intention +on the part of the Protestants to secure a little more political power. +Not _humane_, then, but interested motives dictated the omission of the +word "male" in that section of the statutes which provides for the +election of school trustees. It was desired thus to bring the influence +of female property-holders and Protestants to check the Roman-Catholic +demand for separate schools. Three things made it easy for Canadian +women to vote under this provision:-- + +1st, The great degree of individual independence seen everywhere in +English-born women, as compared with American. + +2d, The respect felt, in all countries where distinctions of rank exist, +for the mere property-holder. + +3d, The political excitement of the local Protestant Church, which +sustained them to the uttermost. + +They have voted for ten years; and a four-years' residence among them +was sufficient to convince me, that no greater derangement to society +would occur if the full right were conferred. In connection with English +government and English colonies, I ought to speak of the government of +Pitcairn's Island. It was the mutinous crew of his majesty's ship +"Bounty" that settled Pitcairn's Island. Adams, the boatswain, was the +father of the little community, and drew up the simple code of laws by +which the islanders are still governed. On Christmas Day, a magistrate +and councillor are elected for the ensuing year; men and women over +sixteen being allowed to vote. The women assist in the cultivation of +the ground, and take no inconsiderable share in the municipal debates. +The fate of this experiment is not yet decided; so I have thought it +worth while to preserve the statement. You will have already seen, that +in England, as elsewhere, so long as the right of suffrage depended upon +possession of property, upon hard pieces of eight, or broad acres of +land, there was no dispute of woman's privilege. It is no new thing for +woman to vote in England: it is a very _old_ thing. It is only a +question whether she shall vote upon the ground of her humanity. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [35] A curious instance of the immoral result of holding marriage + sacramental, and indissoluble under all circumstances, comes within my + personal experience while I am correcting these pages for the press, + Oct. 11, 1861. + + A young Catholic girl was divorced some years ago, immediately after + marriage, on account of the bad conduct of her husband. She was + received into the family of a brother-in-law, in every way highly + respectable. For the last two years, she has been courted by an + officer in the navy of the United States; but nowhere in New England + could a Catholic priest be found willing to marry them. The church + still holds her responsible to her first vows. The officer honestly + desired to marry her; but the natural result of her ignorance and + perplexity followed. Expecting to become a mother, and rejected by her + family, she came to me for advice. As the officer is a Protestant, I + recommended that they should be married by a minister of that faith. + She again consulted her priest, and was told that it was less sinful + for her to remain in her present relation to her lover than to receive + a sacrament from unholy hands; the priest ignoring utterly the _legal_ + protection and maintenance which she might thus receive. + + [36] The only excuse for considering this point, in an essay pleading + especially for women, is that the law bears unequally on the two + sexes; pressing hardest on woman, on account of her pecuniary + dependence, and general subordination to man. + + A woman, every reader will understand, would find it impossible to + free herself from her obligations, like the men referred to in the + text; nor is it desirable that she should _free herself_, but that the + law should free her. + + [37] National Rev., Apr. 1861, pp. 291, 292. + + [38] "A man who is guilty of adultery is branded by public opinion as + a forger or bigamist is elsewhere, and is not eligible to public + office during the whole of his life; which, under such a government, + is the greatest punishment that can be inflicted. A man who breaks his + promise of betrothal, or who in any way betrays a woman to + mortification and shame, is heaped with the same scorn that women + receive elsewhere. The woman who is betrayed is censured; but the man + is henceforth an outcast."--_Cottages of the Alps_, p. 288. + + [39] In reprinting for his collected works Mrs. Mill's article on "The + Enfranchisement of Women," Mr. Mill more lately says, "All the more + recent of these papers were the joint production of myself, and one + whose loss, even in a merely intellectual point of view, can never be + repaired or alleviated. But the following essay is hers in a peculiar + sense; my share in it being little more than that of editor or + amanuensis. Its authorship having been known at the time, and publicly + attributed to her, it is proper to state, that she never regarded it + as a complete discussion of the subject which it treats of; and, + highly as I estimate it, I would rather it remained unacknowledged, + than that it should be read with the idea, that even the faintest + image can be found in it of a mind and heart, which, in their union of + the rarest, and what are deemed the most conflicting excellences, were + unparalleled in any human being that I have known or read of. While + she was the light, life, and grace of every society in which she took + part, the foundation of her character was a deep seriousness, + resulting from the combination of the strongest and most sensitive + feelings with the highest principles. All that excites admiration, + when found separately, in others, seemed brought together in her,--a + conscience at once healthy and tender; a generosity bounded only by a + sense of justice, which often forgot its own claims, but never those + of others; a heart so large and loving, that whoever was capable of + making the smallest return of sympathy always received tenfold; and, + in the intellectual department, a vigor and truth of imagination, a + delicacy of perception, an accuracy and nicety of observation, only + equalled by her profundity of speculative thought, and by a practical + judgment and discernment next to infallible. So elevated was the + general level of her faculties, that the highest poetry, philosophy, + oratory, or art, seemed trivial by the side of her, and equal only to + expressing some part of her mind; and there is no one of these modes + of manifestation in which she could not easily have taken the highest + rank, had not her inclination led her for the most part to content + herself with being the inspirer, prompter, and unavowed co-adjutor, of + others. + + "The present paper was written to promote a cause which she had deeply + at heart; and, though appealing only to the severest reason, was meant + for the general reader. The question, in her opinion, was in a stage + in which no treatment but the most calmly argumentative could be + useful; while many of the strongest arguments were necessarily + omitted, as being unsuited for popular effect. Had she lived to write + out all her thoughts on this great question, she would have produced + something as far transcending in profundity the present essay, as, had + she not placed a rigid restraint upon her feelings, she would have + excelled it in fervid eloquence. + + "Yet nothing that even she could have written on any single subject + would have given an adequate idea of the depth and compass of her + mind. As, during life, she detected, before any one else had seemed to + perceive them, those changes of time and circumstances, which, ten or + twelve years later, became subjects of general remark; so I venture to + prophesy, that, if mankind continue to improve, their spiritual + history for ages to come will be the progressive working out of her + thoughts, and the realization of her conceptions." + + Such tributes, borne by noble men to noble women, are so frequently + hidden away in the heavy volumes which lie out of ordinary reach, that + I take pleasure in bringing them to support my own plea; and I only + wish I could as easily add to that in the text the charming + acknowledgments of Alexis de Tocqueville to his wife. + + [40] In an article in the "Edinburgh Weekly Journal" for Jan. 10, + 1827, written by Sir Walter Scott, the following allusion is made to + abuses which had crept into the army in the middle of the eighteenth + century:-- + + "To sum up this catalogue of abuses, _commissions_ were in some + instances bestowed upon _young ladies_, when pensions could not be + had. We know ourselves one fair dame who drew the pay of a captain in + the ---- dragoons, and was probably not much less fit for the service + than some who at that period actually did duty." + + [41] "In the little brown duodecimo which contains the jottings of + 'that famous lawyer, William Tothill, Esquire,' there is the following + entry, of the date of James I.:-- + + "'Fleshward _contra_ Jackson. Money given to a _feme covert_ for her + maintenance, because her husband is an unthrift. The husband pretends + the money to be his; but the court ordered the money to be at her own + disposal.'"--_London Quarterly_, July, 1861. A very ancient germ of a + "Married Woman's Property Law." + + + + +III. + +THE UNITED-STATES LAW, AND SOME THOUGHTS ON HUMAN RIGHTS. + + "Men often think to bring about great results by violent and + unprepared effort; but it is only in fair and forecast order, 'as + the earth bringeth forth her bud,' that righteousness and praise + may spring forth before the nations."--JOHN RUSKIN. + + +In passing last to the United States of America, one is tempted to ask, +with Anna Brewster when rehearsing the hardships of Helvetian women, +"Can it be true, as the advocates of despotic government often say, that +under no government are women so harshly treated, so stripped of all +independent rights, as under a republic? In republican Helvetia, the +Vaudois peasant woman leaves all household care, to stand, spring, +summer, and autumn, in her vineyard; but not a bunch of grapes can she +gather for the market, without her husband's leave. _He_ may have +loitered and smoked through every sunny day, while _she_ has dug and +dressed and watered; but she may not sell one grape to buy bread for her +children." + +And this is a picturesque statement of the English common law, on which +the common law of the United States still rests in the main, and on +which it has rested entirely until within the last ten years. + +A few passages from Chancellor Kent will indicate,-- + +I. The estimate of woman formed by this law, and the property-laws built +upon this estimate. + +II. The laws which regulate divorce. We shall have to consider,-- + +III. Woman's general civil position; and,-- + +IV. The right of suffrage. + +Fortunately for us, Chancellor Kent talks plain English. He tells us +exactly what the law means, and sets it forth as if it were written to +be understood; which is not exactly the case with all his predecessors. + +As to the estimate of woman on which the laws are based, we have, in +connection with what we have already quoted from English law-books, the +following statement:-- + + "But as the husband is the guardian of the wife, and bound to + protect and maintain her, the law has given him a reasonable + superiority and control over her person; and he may even put gentle + restraints upon her liberty, if her conduct be such as to require + it. The husband is the best judge of the wants of the family, and + the means of supplying them; and, if he shifts his domicile, the + wife is bound to follow him."--_Kent's Commentaries_, vol. ii. p. + 180. + +The best comment on this is found, I think, in a story told by Mrs. +Stowe, who says that she once saw a little hut perched on a barren ledge +of the Alps, out of reach of human help, and without pasture; but a +little below it were stretches of sweet Alpine grass, inviting to eye +and foot, and capable of affording sustenance to goats and sheep. "How +long have you lived here?" asked Mrs. Stowe of the old woman. "Above +forty years."--"And what made you come so far up? Don't you like the +meadow?"--"I don't know," was the reply: "it was the _man's notion_." + +It is somewhat questionable, whether this man _would_ be the best judge +of the wants of his family, Chancellor Kent to the contrary +notwithstanding; as also what might be his idea of "gentle restraint," +in case the wife had refused "to shift her domicile." As to property, +Kent proceeds:-- + +The general rule is, that the husband becomes entitled, on the marriage, +to all the goods and chattels of the wife, and to the rents and profits +of her lands; and he becomes liable to pay her debts and perform her +contracts. + +1. If the wife have an inheritance in land, he takes the rents and +profits during their joint lives. He may sue in his own name for an +injury to the profits of the land; but, if the husband himself chooses +to commit waste, the wife has no redress at common law. + +2. If the wife, at the time of her marriage, hath an estate for her +life, the husband becomes seized of such an estate, and is entitled to +the profits during marriage. + +3. The husband also becomes possessed of the chattels real of the wife; +and the law gives him power, _without her consent_, to sell, assign, +mortgage, or otherwise dispose of, the same as he pleases. Such chattels +real are liable to be sold on execution for his debts (vol. ii. p. +133). If he survive his wife, the law gives him her chattels real by +survivorship. + +4. If debts are due to the wife before marriage, and are recovered by +the husband afterward, the money becomes, in most cases, absolutely his +own. + +On the other hand, the husband is,-- + +1st, Obliged to provide for his wife out of his fortune, or her own +that he has taken into his custody, of what the court calls +"necessaries,"--these again, of course, to be dependent on the "_man's +notion_"! and,-- + +2d, Becomes liable for her frauds and torts during coverture,--the law +understanding, as well as a merchant, that it is useless to "sue a +broken bench." + +The _indulgence_ of the law toward the wife, we are then told, is +founded on the idea of force exercised by the husband; a presumption +only, which may be repelled. What this indulgence is, we may well be +puzzled to guess, unless the phrase indicate that she is not to be +prosecuted for theft, where _both_ are guilty; and yet, if the +presumption that he compelled her to steal be _repelled_, she _may_ be +prosecuted, and found guilty. + +A wife cannot devise her lands by will; nor can she make a testament of +chattels, except it be of those which she holds _en autre droit_, +without the license of her husband. It is not strictly a will, then, +only an appointment, which the husband is bound to allow (vol. ii. p. +170). + +The laws are essentially the same in Pennsylvania, Virginia, North +Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, and New York; in the latter State, +of course, only as applicable to marriages contracted before the passage +of the new bill. It is the same in all the States, with one or two +Western exceptions; because the passage of a new law never annuls +_pre-existing_ contracts. In consequence, practice becomes contradictory +and intricate; and most lawyers not only _feel_, but _show_, a great +dislike to new laws on that account. + +In regard to marriage and divorce, Kent says that the English practice +was, not to grant divorce for unfaithfulness on the part of the +_husband_; and the early settlers of Massachusetts made the same +distinction, creating a difference at the very outset in the moral +responsibility of the two, fatal alike to happiness and civilization. + +In 1840, the policy of South Carolina continued so strict, that there +had been no instance, since the Revolution, of a divorce pronounced by a +court of justice, or an act of the legislature. + +In Massachusetts, the law was, that divorce could only be had for +criminality. In Vermont, New Jersey, Kentucky, Mississippi, and +Michigan, divorce from "bed and board" may be had for extreme cruelty; +and, in Michigan, for wilful desertion for three years. + +In Indiana, it is rendered for any cause, at the judgment of the court. + +In Illinois, divorce may be had for the usual causes, and for +drunkenness or cruelty, or such other cause as the court shall think +right; and, in such cases, the wife does not lose her dower. These +differences in statute law indicate, one would think, a variety +sufficient to test in time all the theories of reformers and +experimentalists. + +As to the consistency of the law, Poynter says,-- + + "It is singular to see a marriage _annulled_ on account of the + misspelling or suppressing of a name, which would be held _valid_ + against the lasting misery of the parties." + +By cruelty is meant "reasonable apprehension of bodily hurt." Mere +austerity of temper, petulance of manners, rudeness of language, a want +of civil attention, even _occasional_ sallies of passion, do not amount +to that cruelty which the law can relieve. The wife must disarm her +husband by the _weapons of kindness_! + +I have shown you upon what estimate the general common law of the United +States is based, as regards both property and divorce. It is needless to +say that this estimate is very little to be preferred to that of older +countries; but, when the reformers of our cause are tauntingly asked +what good they have done, they may reply proudly, though they should +point to the changes of legislation during the last ten years alone. +Since 1850, the laws have been changed in at least nineteen States. The +credit of this change should certainly rest with the men and women of +this reform; for, in every State, its sympathizing friends helped to +frame the new laws. + +Whether justly or not, Rhode Island claims the honor of leading the way +in such changes. In 1844, the Hon. Wilkins Updike introduced a bill into +her legislature, securing to married women their property under certain +regulations. The step was in the right direction. In 1847, Vermont +passed similar enactments. In 1848-9, Connecticut, New York, and Texas +followed; in 1850, Alabama; in 1853, New Hampshire. In 1855, +Massachusetts passed an act of a still more comprehensive kind. It was +essentially the same as that introduced into her Senate, in 1852, by the +Hon. S.E. Sewall. It was not wholly satisfactory to those who prepared +it, but was the best it was thought possible to pass.[42] In 1856 and +1857, the Legislatures of Kentucky, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Rhode +Island, and Maine, altered their property-laws,--Rhode Island advancing +somewhat on her first step.[43] Wisconsin and Iowa have followed; and it +is not likely that any new States, unless they should be slave States, +will repeat the old barbarisms. + +I have given Rhode Island the precedence she claims; but there are +certain statutes of the State of Illinois, as early in date as January, +1829, which deserve to be alluded to, on account of their unusual +liberality. + +If married, and over the age of eighteen years, a woman in Illinois +may, _in spite_ of her husband, devise her real estate, and bequeath her +personal estate, to any one for ever. + +The wife may administer on her deceased husband's estate, in preference +to all others, if she apply within sixty days. On her husband's death, +she inherits one-half of his real estate in fee-simple, absolute; and +the whole of his personal estate, with her rights of dower in addition. + +The wife has not _legally_ the first title to the guardianship of her +child on the demise of her husband; but she has it by a kind of +_comity_, the consent of public opinion and the courts. + +In reference to the wife's inheriting from the husband, my +correspondent, the Hon. William H. Herndon, says,-- + + "You will perceive a difference in the two sections relating to the + wife and husband as inheriting from one another, favorable to the + wife apparently. In the twenty-second section you will find, that, + in case of the wife's death without children, the husband inherits + one-half of her real estate in fee-simple, absolute; but nothing is + said about her personal. This is because the common law has already + given him her personal estate on her marriage." + +So we see that the State of Illinois did not quite divest itself of the +barbarisms of the common law. + +In a later letter, Mr. Herndon continues:-- + + "Our Illinois Legislature has this winter (1860-61) enacted a law, + allowing women (married women) all their property,--real, personal, + mixed,--free from all debt, contract, obligation, and control of + their husbands. This law puts man and woman in the same position, + as far as property-rights and their remedies are concerned. This is + right,--just as it should be. For my life, I cannot see why there + should be any distinction between men and women, when we speak of + rights under government. A woman's rights are identical with a + man's. Where he is limited, she should be; where she is limited, he + should be." + +In Rhode Island, the civil existence of the husband and wife is but one; +and, though the letter of the law considers her property acquired by +trade or inheritance as technically her own, still it is no longer under +her single control. If, as a wife, she sells merchandise, the buyer +becomes a debtor to her _husband and herself_. If she makes a purchase, +her note is good for nothing, unless her husband's signature is affixed +to it. He can dispose of the whole of her personal estate, unless the +buyer has been previously notified by _her_, in writing, that the +property is exclusively her own. Her real estate the husband cannot +sell: but _even of this_ she cannot dispose by will; so, perhaps, it +might as well be sold. The absurdity becomes ludicrous, when we remember +that the law makes her competent to devise any number of millions, so +long as it is invested in bank-stock or merchandise. + +In the State of Vermont, there are three peculiar provisions:-- + +_First_, If the husband abscond without making sufficient provision for +his wife, she is _permitted_ (!) to use her own property and earnings, +or the earnings of her minor children, to secure a support. This +_permission_ indicates the tender mercies of the common law, and reminds +us of the Helvetian peasant-woman. + +_Second_, She is exempted from personal restraint during the pendency of +a divorce suit. + +_Third_, A mother and her illegitimate child may inherit from each +other. + +A married woman may devise her real estate, and it is exempt from +attachment for the sole debts of her husband. She may have her husband's +life insured, the insurance to be made payable to her or her children. +If he should be put into the penitentiary, she may transact business as +if she were a _feme sole_. + +The laws of inheritance are liberal; and the common law prevails by +statute, when not repugnant to any recorded statute. + +In Connecticut, in 1855, all the real estate owned at the time of +marriage, or subsequently inherited by the wife, rests absolutely in +her. All her personal estate passes to her husband; but all that she may +afterward receive remains in her right, her husband being only her legal +trustee. Her earnings are subject to his trusteeship, and nothing more. +She is the guardian of her own children; and the court always confirms +this right, unless she is incapacitated. In case of divorce, the father +is entitled to the children, unless objection is made. On the decease of +the husband childless, one-half of his personal estate goes to the +wife, and a life-interest in one-third of the real; or the whole, if it +be needed for her support. + +In New Hampshire, the common law prevails for the most part. What +express enactments she passed in 1853 seem to refer rather to making the +position of a deserted wife equivalent to that of a _feme sole_ than any +thing else. + +As regards Massachusetts, it is common to say that the legislation of +1855 leaves very little to be desired, beside the right of suffrage; but +a keen eye still detects more than one shortcoming. The custody of the +wife's person still vests in the husband. + +With reference to the guardianship of children, the custom is in advance +of the law; while her power to make a will is so carefully guarded, that +it might as well be surrendered. + +A married woman in Massachusetts can make no contract to bind her, +except one strictly relating to her trade, business, or property. She +cannot, for instance, indorse a note, or be a surety for another person +in any way. + +In Maine, since 1857, a wife may hold the wages of her own labor. + +In Ohio, at the same date, the law gave this right only _under +conditions_. Long before any such changes took place, however, the +current of public opinion often forced courts to decide against the +common law, and in accordance with equity,--equity not technically, but +divinely, considered. + +Judge Graham, of the Court of Common Pleas in Perry County, Penn., made +such a decision in a suit where a wife claimed return of earnings loaned +by her to her husband, and accumulated _after_ marriage. The legal +question brought before Judge Graham was, "Can a wife maintain a suit +against her husband?" He decided that she could legally hold him to a +contract of the kind under consideration; and a verdict was rendered for +the woman, in the sum of $2,508. + +In August, 1859, Mrs. Dorr put in a claim for $40,000 on her husband's +estate, in the Court of Insolvency in Worcester County. The court +objected to entertaining the claim until after the choice of an +assignee. The hearing was never completed; some private adjustment +taking its place. The claim was said to be the first of the kind in the +Commonwealth. + +We come now to the consideration of the Property Bill, passed in the +spring of 1860 by the State of New York. Not only as the latest act of +specific legislation, but as the most complete provision ever made by +any government to outwit the common law, it demands our attention. After +it was passed, a deficiency relating to the rights of guardianship was +discovered, and a supplement was added. By these two acts, the "New-York +Tribune" tells us that at least five thousand women in that State are +redeemed from pauperism, and established in peaceful homes. + +But the supplement bears on one important point, which should be alluded +to. According to the common law, as I showed in referring to England, a +daughter owes service _only_ to her father. The mother, who bore and +nursed her; who has trained her up, it may be by painful sacrifices, to +habits of propriety and thrift,--has no claim upon her service, even in +her minority. By conferring on the mother, in case of the father's +decease, all the rights, remedies, privileges, and responsibilities in +law appertaining to the father, the new act meets the difficulty. + +Before quitting the subject, we cannot refrain from alluding to the +fact, that, as early as 1849, the State of New York had passed a +qualified measure in regard to property; and directing your attention to +the manifest truth, that every imperfect act of legislation constitutes +a new set of exceptions to general rules, and very undesirably +complicates legal practice. + +If reforms are not to be unpopular, they should be simple and +complete.[44] + +In commenting on the passage of these bills, advocated by Mrs. Stanton +before the committees of the Assembly and the Senate, the "New-York +Tribune" says,-- + + "Mrs. Stanton talked forcibly. It is needless for me to say that she + talked earnestly of woman's sufferings, sweetly of her endurance, + eloquently of her rights. When she talked of her right to be + protected in the enjoyment of her property, of her right to be + released from the bondage of an ill-assorted marriage, she was + listened to with marked favor. She pleaded these demands with the + feeling of a true woman; and she carried the conviction, that she + was not asking more than policy, as well as justice, demanded should + be conceded. When she claimed that her voice should be heard on the + hustings, and her vote be received at the ballot-box, she was + earnest and eloquent and _plausible_; but she must have felt that + she was not convincing her audience, and she did not." + +Here the single word _plausible_ vitiates, as cunning reporters well +know how to do, the whole effect of the sentence. Far more reasonably, +the "Tribune" might have said she was earnest, eloquent, and _sensible_; +and so have spurred its readers to thought instead of ridicule. His +criticism, however, launches fairly our last subject of discussion. It +is needless to say, that nowhere in the United States has woman the full +power of suffrage. + +In New Jersey, women formerly possessed, and often exercised, this +right. By the Constitution, adopted July 2, 1776, the privilege of +voting was accorded to all inhabitants, of full age and clear estate, +who had resided for a certain time in the country, and who had fifty +dollars in proclamation-money. + +In 1790, a Quaker member of the Assembly had the act so drawn as to read +"he or she." Until 1807, women often voted, especially in times of great +political excitement; at such times, for the most part, "under +influence," we may presume. Many voted in the presidential contest of +1800; and a newspaper of that period thanks them for unanimously +supporting John Adams in opposition to Jefferson. So they were supposed, +at times, to act independently. At an election in Hunterdon County in +1802, the ballots of some colored women elected a member of the +legislature. Probably this fact, by stimulating the local prejudice +against color, and the fading-out of all aristocratic distinctions, +which left no property qualifications on the statute-book, led to a +change; for, in 1807, an act was passed, limiting the right of suffrage +to "free white male citizens of twenty-one years."[45] + +In later times, committees of intelligent men, in Wisconsin, Michigan, +and Ohio, have reported in favor of granting to women the right of +suffrage; but the question was lost in the ballot which followed. + +If the constitution prepared for Kansas should be accepted by the +people, single women will be empowered to vote there. In Nebraska, the +lower house passed a vote, conferring the privilege; but it was too late +in the session for the question to come before the upper branch. + +In 1858, a proposition to amend the Constitution of the State of +Connecticut, so as to extend the franchise to women, received eighty-two +votes in the House of Representatives. It was defeated by a majority of +forty-five. In 1852, the Kentucky Legislature, in providing for the +election of school-trustees, enacted that "any widow, having a child +between six and eighteen years, may vote in person or by proxy." + +A provision thus limited by public opinion and prejudice would probably +have very little force. I have understood that such a provision has +taken effect in some parts of Michigan, and it has also been recommended +to the State of Massachusetts. Very early in the history of our +government, its inconsistencies became a matter of comment among women +themselves. How could it be otherwise? How can she be said to have a +right to _life_, who has never consented to the laws which may deprive +her of it, who is steadily refused a trial by her peers, who has no +voice in the election of her judges? How can she be said to have a right +to _liberty_, whose person, if not yet in custody, almost inevitably +becomes so on her maturity, who does not own her earnings, who can make +no valid contract, and is taxed without representation? How can that +woman be said to possess either the right or the reality of _happiness_, +who is deprived of the custody of her own person, of the guardianship of +her children, of the right to devise or share her property? + +The government is tyrannical which leaves a single citizen in this +predicament. What is to be said of a government which enforces it upon +half its subjects? + +It is not strange then, that, half in jest, half in earnest, the wife of +John Adams wrote to him in 1776 to ask if it "were generous in American +men to claim absolute power over wives at a moment when they were +emancipating the whole earth." Nor was it strange, that, in a more +serious mood, Hannah Corbin of Virginia should write to her brother, +Richard Henry Lee, on the same subject. + +The American Colonies were struggling against the mother-country, on the +ground that taxation and representation should be inseparable. + +The "National Intelligencer" has to confess, when it tells the story, +that it was not strange if "strong-minded" women of that era, finding +themselves _taxed_, should wonder why they could not vote. + +Mr. Lee wrote from Chantilly in reply, March 17, 1778:-- + + "I do not see," he says, "that any thing prevents widows, having + large property, from voting, notwithstanding it has never been the + case either here or in England. Perhaps it was thought unbecoming + for women to press into tumultuous assemblies.... Perhaps it was + thought, that, as all those who vote for taxes must bear the tax, + none would be imposed, except for the public good. + + "For both the widow and the single woman," he continues, "I have + the highest respect; and would, at any time, give my consent to + secure to them the franchise, though I do not think it would + increase their security. + +"The Committee of Taxation," he adds, "are regularly chosen by the +freeholders and housekeepers; and, in the choice of them, you have as +legal a right to vote as any person." + +Mr. Lee thinks, that, in a few minutes' conversation, he could "content" +his sister upon the subject; but eighty years have passed away, and the +question is still unsettled. + +What he calls a "woman's security" is proved to be no security, even in +the small matter of money; for men are constantly imposing taxes, the +burden of which _they_ are never to bear. As I have shown, in treating +of labor, what position women hold toward the State in the matter of +employment, I will not repeat the statement here. Let these pages bear +no other burden than that of woman's civil rights,--"woman's rights,"--a +phrase which we _all_ hate; which soils the lips that use it; which +women speak with such unction as a slave might clank his chains! + +Soil the lips? Not because it is a phrase which stirs the ridicule and +the contempt of the weak-minded; not because _you_ consider it only the +second term of the Bloomer equation: but because the necessity to use it +shows how little has yet been done; shows that men still dwell on +distinctions of sex, in preference to identities of duty; that women are +play-things still in the popular estimate,--creatures of the nursery and +the drawing-room, but not angels of God, joint-heirs of immortality. + +We have not laid a secure foundation for any statement on this subject, +unless we have made it clear that "woman's rights" are identical with +"human rights;" that what men do for women, they do in far _wider_ +measure for themselves; that no father, brother, or husband can have all +the privileges ordained for him of God, till mother and sister and wife +are set free to secure them according to instinctive individual bias. + +The subject would have no interest for me, if it were but a selfish +clamor of one class for advantages over another; but it does interest +me,--interest beyond all earthly debate,--because, in its evolution, +there unfolds also the highest interest of our common humanity. + +That public opinion has been somewhat conquered, the reception given to +women in the lyceum is alone sufficient to show. When a woman of good +social standing struggles with convention on the one hand, and womanly +affection on the other, she still stands _on the platform_ somewhat as +she _did at the stake_; but, on the other hand, the awakening public +interest has nurtured a class of women who owe all that they have and +are to the platform itself. + +With no oppressive restrictions in their circumstances,--endowed with +strong good sense and a vigorous talent,--they have won their way to the +public esteem; and are stronger and healthier than most women, only +because they have had an object for life and thought to grasp. + +What will most help women in the matter of labor, and, through labor, to +their "civil rights," is a new conception of the dignity of labor on the +part of the educated classes, men as well as women. + +Harriet Hosmer comes back from Rome to queen it over our men; Rosa +Bonheur drives a tandem of Flemish horses through a square of canvas, +and over the very necks of her critics: but we want women who shall turn +the trades into fine arts. Do you smile at the expression? It is +legitimate. France has already answered my demand. A finer statue than +the "Moses" of Michael Angelo would be one womanly model of patient +thoroughness. A finer picture than the glowing pencils of Titian and +Claude ever fused into a canvas would be the prospective elevation of +manual labor. + +The fine arts are already obedient to woman's will. To _what_ woman is +it reserved to make the useful arts pay tribute? Dependent upon the +"right to labor," as we have already seen, is "woman's civil equality." +If all the fields of human labor are thrown absolutely open (and you +admit that they ought to be); if women enter and grow wealthy therein; +if every second woman, for instance, were an intelligent +property-holder,--is it credible that she, or her husband for her, would +remain contented in her present minority? Would she not want a seat in +the legislature to protect her property, a vote to control +appropriations and taxes? There are no revolutionists like the +industrial classes. + +It was the discontent of merchants and artisans which hunted Charles +Stuart to the block, and paved the way for English freedom. It was the +discontent of trade, a long-entertained moral disgust, culminating in +indignant contempt at a Stamp Act, which secured American +_independence_,--I wish we could say, American _freedom_ as well. +Create, then, a class of wealthy working women, you who are ambitious of +a female franchise, and society will be forced to give you your desire. + +Wendell Phillips says, that, when woman is once brought to the +ballot-box, men will cry out, "Educate her!" in self-preservation. If +this be true (and I am not sure that it is; for a great many popular +elections are at this moment carried in the Middle and Southern States, +to come no nearer home, by the _un_educated class, partly by the +dram-shops indeed),--if this _be_ true, however, it is a "poor rule +which does not work both ways;" and we may go farther than Mr. Phillips, +and say, he will also cry out, "Give her something to do!" that she may +understand the interests of property, and be qualified to plead for +them. Mr. Phillips plants himself upon the right of suffrage, and _goes +back_ to secure education and free labor, for State reasons. He has +every right to do it; but, on the other hand, _we_ may rest upon our +undoubted right to education, and go _forward_, with safe, strong steps, +to claim the right of suffrage. When a majority of women find the means +of thorough education open, then a much greater number will seek actual +employment, and immediately the interests of property will compel them +to clamor for suffrage. Do not misunderstand me. It is not a nation of +paid underlings, of ever so intelligent clerks and apprentices, men or +women, that will control the springs of government, and overthrow +institutions as well as prejudices, if they stand in their way: it is +the heads of firms, the movers in great undertakings, the proprietors of +mills, the builders of ships, the contractors for supplies, persons +conversant with large interests, and quick to see their jeopardy, which, +as women no less than men, must secure the elective right. + +How I should rejoice to see a large Lowell mill wholly owned and managed +by women! What is to make it possible?--only, that the unoccupied women +of wealth and rank, at this moment in the Commonwealth, should combine +to build or buy such a mill. Suppose it _well_ managed, representing +ultimately a million of dollars: do you believe it would long remain +without political power? Just as the testy trade of Upsal demanded the +franchise for its eighty-one women, so would the Lowell mill. + +Every year, these ten years, our sturdy friend Dr. Hunt has sent up her +protest to the city assessors. She has not quite had the heart, as I +wish some woman had, to let them sell her household goods over her head, +for non-payment of taxes; but the City Government sits as serene and +patient under her inflictions as if she had never spoken. Her protests +probably go back to the pulp of the paper-mill; and, but for the +newspaper, we should never know that they were written. But five +thousand female property-holders, calling their own caucus, and storming +the City Hall with well-concerted words, would compel any government to +listen; would compel committees to sit, and departments to act. Let it +be your first duty, then, to add to the number of intelligent female +workers. + +Last summer, I heard one of our friends say, that the reason that men +did not wish women to enter medical societies, and receive medical +diplomas, was, that they were unwilling to be detected in their own +double-dealing and malpractice. I should not be willing to indorse a +statement so broadly made. Mean men may justify it: but the men I have +known, the men who have been at once my inspiration and my +strength,--these men were not mean; yet among them even the bravest +doubted, at first, as to the expediency of our discussion. + +These men have felt a tender reverence for moral purity in woman. They +have seen laborers of the lower class fall as if smitten by a +pestilence. They had not faith to save the world at such a cost. From +the malpractice and guilty dread of mean men, then; from the sensitive +horror of the noblest, let us learn, at least, that the duty woman owes +the State is a _moral_ duty. A full understanding of this will give her +courage to press her claims. It is the power of conscience and love +which she is to bring to bear on the ballot-box, and which is to mould, +with her aid, questions and interests hitherto untouched by any higher +impulse than the love of gain. + +I cannot leave this statement of human rights, without claiming for +woman one right of which men very commonly deprive her; in behalf of +which society makes no clamor, and about which the most radical +reformers say very little. I mean woman's right to find man in his +proper place, as counsellor and friend. + +As _father_, to find him interested, equally with his wife, in the +spiritual custody and training of his daughters; giving thus some +portion of each day to imbuing young womanly souls with manly strength. + +As _brother_, to find in him wise respect for womanhood, and helpful +free communion. + +As _husband_, to find him, unless there is manifest interposition of +Providence, always at the head of his family, always the support and +counsellor of his wife, as she in turn is to be his; making his love her +shelter, his strength her dependence, his experience her guide, his +manliness the complement of her womanliness. + +As a _son_, to find him always anxious and ready to minister, provident +to think, patient to bear, and willing to act; never shirking, from +idleness, the duty which an active mother does not shrink from bending, +perhaps _breaking_, beneath. + +Society sets man free from every conceivable family duty, without a +word. On the other hand, it binds women down to them with cords of iron, +and is pitiless if a single one be snapped. I do not ask society to +require less of woman, but _more_ of man. There is an immense amount of +cant, intentional and unintentional, talked upon this subject. Last +January, I heard one of our wisest and best public teachers speak upon +the constitution of the family; and, when he had spoken whole pages of +solid sense, he said this foolish thing,--that the life of the family +rested in the mother; that, when _she_ died, the children must scatter, +the father could not hold them alone, but that the father might be +faithless or dissipated, might abide in foreign countries, might wander +for years a stranger, and still the family sacredness be unbroken. I do +not believe it. I protest against such a view of the family, as a great +public evil, and one which no public teacher should strengthen by any +heedless or sentimental words. + +No man has a right to ask any woman to be his wife, who means to +sacrifice her life to his own love of business or pleasure or vagrancy; +who does not mean to stand strong at her side till death. I speak for +the heart of all womanhood when I say, that no good woman would ever +accept such an offer, if she supposed she were to be idly left to fulfil +its duties alone. If God had intended to rear women independent of manly +influence, he would never have constituted the family. It is because +every woman needs every man that its laws are absolute. If the physical +legitimacy of the family depend upon the mother, the spiritual +legitimacy depends upon the holy faithfulness of the father. When death +or sickness or imperative duty takes her beloved ones from her, God +sends to woman the Comforter, who helps her to bear and do her double +duty. Yet even this angel is born of a voiceless sorrow. It was in +recognition of this human need, as much as of the divine love, that +Theodore Parker was accustomed to pray to Him who is _both_ Father and +Mother. + +Do you object, that, under the present constitution of society, man +cannot find time for this fidelity? When woman becomes an active worker, +adding to the resources of the household, man is set free from a portion +of his care. The future offers him ample time; the present, more than +he uses. I wish I could see him as anxious to make acquaintance with his +own young children as with the gay society of his neighborhood. + +The actual guardianship of society is now thrown into woman's hands. It +does not belong to her: it belongs to men _and_ women.[46] + +Individual men shrink from the idea of being "governed by their wives." +From traditional indolence, however, and that sentimental respect which +does not permit a man to sit in a woman's presence, the "world" has +certainly come to be governed by "_its_ wife." Worst of all, nobody +punishes it even by a sneer. + +The historical development of woman's social progress corresponds to the +logical statement upon which I have insisted. + +Nearly two centuries ago, Mary Astell would have established a college +for women; but the bigotry of Bishop Burnet defeated her plans. The +niece of a beneficed clergyman, she had not the courage to press her +schemes against the open opposition of the church. Many other efforts, +like hers, to secure and make use of education, led the way to a +recognition of a decided bias in the individual: so when, a century +later, Mary Wollstonecraft was born, the way was open for the assertion +of the right to labor. This assertion is hardly indicated in her most +celebrated work; but it gives pungency and effect to the dreariest pages +of her novels. + +In Australia, when a female child is born, the natives break her +finger-joints; an artificial distinction, which _they_ seem to think +more decisive and enduring than God's own limit of sex. + +Mary Wollstonecraft saw, that civilized society, enslaved by tradition +and custom, imposed conditions quite as arbitrary, and, to all practical +purposes, broke _every_ joint in a woman's body; leaving her helpless, +to depend on the strength and skill and affection of man. + +A passionate and thriftless father, who spent more than three daughters +could earn, and whom she nevertheless protected to her dying day, did +not give her a very high idea of the security of such dependence. The +response to her appeal was heard in a myriad of distinguished voices, +and seen in the consecutive, chosen, and persevering labors of Harriet +Martineau in political economy, of Anna Jameson in artistic criticism, +of Mary Carpenter in the reformation of criminals, of Florence +Nightingale in sanitary reform, of Caroline Chisholm in emigration, of +Mrs. Griffith in marine botany (a special study, which she may almost be +said to have created), of Janet Taylor in practical philanthropy among +seamen, and nautical astronomy. + +This selection of duty shows the advance of the movement. Formerly a +woman might be literary in a general sense: now she had the oversight of +the field, and might choose the place and kind of her work. + +All this prepared the way for the advent of Margaret Fuller, and brought +about the condition of which she was the exponent. She caught the rumor +which floated in subtle discord all around her. Her quick insight +detected every true and living germ of thought in the confused social +deposits and exhalations. Out of the discord, she wrought a quaint and +scholarly music; out of the refuse, she enriched a fragrant garden: and +this song, this outgrowth, had an essential music and beauty, and were +caught at once to the popular heart. + +That the division of labor was already taking place, was obvious enough +to her: so she claimed, in advance, the right of suffrage. Society was +already prepared to make this claim, but only discovered its readiness +as it listened to her enthusiastic song. Like Deborah, our friend struck +her cymbals; and, when the heart of the people shouted consent, they +"made her a judge over them." + +Although it was doubtless owing to many older causes, it seemed as if +her statement of the "great lawsuit" in 1844 led to the first Woman's +Convention at Seneca Falls in 1848; and, in 1850, the National +Woman's-rights Association began the yearly work in which it has ever +since persevered. + +Man, as well as woman, has been forced to respect this work, moved by +the moral destitution in the lowest, and the profane inanity in the +highest, ranks of life, which is the result of our social depravity. + +_Profane inanity_, I repeat; for every helpless woman is a living, +intolerable blasphemy against the Most High. Not more a blasphemy than +every helpless man; but society neither expects, defends, nor provides +for, helpless _men_. It is only the helpless woman who is expected and +approved. + +Often do we hear it said, that no law forbids American women to _work_. + +Neither, it has been responded, is there any _law_ which forbids Chinese +women to _walk_; but the careful ligatures, so closely pressed by +unsuspecting mothers about those tender feet, do not do their work more +surely than the inevitable restrictions of society. + +In summing up this constantly accruing list of influences and changes, I +must again direct your attention to the fact, that, from the earliest +dawn of modern civilization, women have been, in some nations at least, +invested with political power. + +The mock-marriage, by which the woman's entailed suffrage served a +fraudulent purpose; the abbesses called to Parliament in right of +abbey-lands, the permission accorded to the eighty-one women of Upsal, +the position of the French "Dames de la Halle," the female stockholders +in the East-India Company, that one persistent female property-holder in +Nova Scotia, the fifty-dollar proclamation-money in New Jersey,--all +indicate that there never _has_ been, and never _will_ be, any serious +difficulty about woman's voting in any age or any country where the +right to vote depends upon the possession of property, and where she +herself professes to desire it. + +Understand, then, that the abstract right to vote is not the question +for you to consider: that was settled some hundreds of years ago. + +The practical question for American men to put to themselves is, whether +their own democratic experiment is a failure. Will you go back to the +property basis for your own franchise? or do you still profess to +believe, that man--as man, as child of God--has a right to reign, which +does not depend upon broad doubloons or broad acres? And, if man has +this right upon a simple human ground, how can you deny it to woman? + +Will you say that she is not human,--that she has no soul? + +Even Mahomet did better than that. Some one once asked him if the +marriage-tie were immortal, and if a husband might claim his wife in the +next world:-- + + "If the man be the superior being," he replied, "he can claim his + wife or not, as he chooses; but, if the woman be the superior, the + decision must rest with her." + +And what Mahomet thus prophesied of the world to come is clearly true of +the world that is. There is no such thing as cheating either God or +humanity. + +Let him who aspires to rule _make himself superior_ in understanding and +moral purpose, and he _will_ rule. + +No possibilities, visible or invisible, need daunt him; but, let him be +false by one hair's breadth, and he carries his doom in his own bosom as +certainly as the flawed crystal at the approach of frost. + +You are, then, to base your demand for woman's civil rights upon her +simple humanity,--the value of the soul itself. + +If you deny this foundation for her, you deny it for yourselves, and the +Declaration of Independence is only an impertinent pretence. + +It may not be easy to push this truth home, and force your friends and +neighbors to consider it; but, once convinced in your own minds, you +cannot escape from the responsibility. + +Wendell Phillips once told us of an old catechism, printed, I think, at +Venice in 1563, which contained the following question and answer:-- + + _Q._ How shall I show my obedience to God? + + _A._ By never doing any thing which is disagreeable to my neighbor. + +Is it possible that this catechism is still in general use? + +Fashionable morality is of so loose a sort, that to do any thing +disagreeable to one's neighbor is still, in the estimation of most +people, the unpardonable sin. People who are capable of hesitating on +that account need not be greatly anxious about their responsibility. + +Our cause does not need them; resting, not on timid self-deceivers, but +on immutable truth, and the hallowed recognition of woman herself. + +Society still cries, like King John in the play,-- + + "If not, fill up the measure of her will; + Yes, in some measure, satisfy her so, + That we shall stop her _exclamation_!" + +And woman, serener than Constance, may whisper back,-- + + "Wherefore, since law is perfect wrong, + Why should the law forbid my tongue to cry?" + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [42] A law, apparently favorable to all widows, passed the + Massachusetts Legislature at the last session. It seems to me, + however, to bear the marks of a law passed for a special case. I have + made several applications in the proper quarters for information + concerning it, but have received nothing in return. + + CHAP. 164.--AN ACT CONCERNING THE PROVISIONS FOR WIDOWS IN CERTAIN CASES. + + _Be it enacted, &c., as follows_:-- + + SECT. 1.--When a man dies, having lawfully disposed of his estate + by will, and leaving a widow, she may, at any time within six + months after the probate of the will, file in the probate-office, + in writing, her waiver of the provisions made for her in the will; + and shall, in such case, be entitled to such portion of his real + and personal estate as she would have been entitled to if her + husband had died intestate: _provided, however_, that, if the share + of the personal estate to which she would thus become entitled + shall exceed the sum of ten thousand dollars, she shall, in such + case, be entitled to receive in her own right the said amount of + ten thousand dollars, and to receive the income only of the excess + of said share above said sum of ten thousand dollars during her + natural life. If she makes no such waiver, she shall not be endowed + of his lands, unless it plainly appears by the will to have been + the intention of the testator that she should have such provisions + in addition to her dower. + + SECT. 2.--Upon application, made by the widow or any one interested + in the estate, the judge of probate may appoint one or more + trustees, to receive, hold, and manage, during the lifetime of the + widow, the portion of the personal estate of her deceased husband, + exceeding ten thousand dollars, of which she is entitled to receive + under this act. + + SECT. 3.--The twenty-fourth section of the ninety-second chapter of + the General Statutes is hereby repealed. + + Approved April 9, 1861. + + In a case on trial in the Superior Court to-day (Oct. 3, 1861), + Chief-Justice Allen ruled, that the law of 1855, allowing married + women to do business on their own account, separate and apart from + their husbands, did not exclude them from entering into + business-partnerships with men other than their husbands. + + [43] On the 7th of April, 1861, the Ohio Legislature passed a bill + concerning the Rights and Liabilities of Married Women. + + SECT. 1 conveys the impression, that all married women may control + their rents and issues of real estate belonging to them at marriage, + or separately received after. + + SECT. 5, however, says "that this law shall not affect any + rights which may have _become_ vested in any person at the time of + its taking effect;" which, of course, cuts off from its beneficial + results all persons previously married. + + It seems a perfectly simple matter to a woman to obviate the + difficulties and disappointments which arise in this way. + + Let parties married under the old law, but desiring to benefit by the + new, go before a magistrate, and state their wish; and then let the + decision in their favor be published in the regular way. + + Such a method would not benefit parties at variance; but it would + benefit a large class of women engaged, or desiring to engage, in + independent business. + + The Ohio law repeals a former law of 1857, which secured to all + married women the control of the sale or the disposal of personal + property exempt from execution: so its benefits are of a nature by no + means unmixed. + + [44] See note, page 349. + + [45] See Appendix. + + [46] This passage was originally prompted by some reflections on the + changes which have occurred in domestic life in Boston. + + Here the family, even among those of the highest social rank, had once + a sacred simplicity pleasant to remember. Men were accustomed to take + their three meals with their wives and children. The latest + dinner-hour was two, p.m.; and suppers were unheard of. The evening + party began at seven; and young girls went freely and uninvited from + house to house, with their needle or their book. + + How greatly all this is changed, my readers, many of them, feel still + more deeply than I; and, with this change, the formation of "clubs" of + various kinds has brought about others far more important. + + A young married lady of rank and fashion was lately lamenting to me + the isolation of husbands and wives, fathers and children, consequent + upon club-life. + + "But," she concluded with a sigh, "if my husband had no club, he would + expect a hot supper for a friend two or three times a week; and how + could I ever accomplish that?" + + This _indolence_ of _women_ lies at the bottom of many serious social + evils. The woman who will not, health and fortune permitting, make + herself responsible in such a case for any number of hot suppers, + deserves to see her own happiness wither, her own hearth made + desolate. + + It is needless to add, that if women would educate themselves to be + true and noble companions to their husbands, and resign on their own + part all that is unsound, and therefore unbecoming, in fashionable + life, hot suppers would cease to be a desideratum, and men would pass + pleasant evenings without them. + + + + +TEN YEARS: + +AN APPENDIX. + + +"The only respect in which all men continue for ever to be equal, is +that of the equal right which every man has to defend himself; but this +involves a source of much inequality in respect to the things which any +one may have a right to defend."--ADAM FERGUSON. + + + + +TEN YEARS: + +AN APPENDIX. + + "To go on working, I consider the only thing to do; and, when + friends urge this after every fresh effort, their doing so in + itself contains a kind of verdict."--FELIX MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY. + + +There are some items of interest, that have come under my observation, +for the first time, during the last few years, which I have not found it +possible to add to the preceding lectures without destroying their +symmetry. I therefore offer them in an Appendix. They are not placed +here because they are unimportant, but simply that the later progress of +public opinion may be set forth by itself. + +For the last five years, the women of the United States have held few +public discussions. They have done wisely. Circumstances have proved +their friend. Nothing ever had done, nothing ever will do again, so +great a service to woman, in so short a time, as this dreadful war, out +of which we are so slowly emerging. Respect for woman came only with the +absolute need of her; and so many women of distinguished ability made +themselves of service to the government, that we had no single woman to +honor as England had honored Florence Nightingale. With us, her name +was _legion_. But with the prospect of peace comes the old duty of +agitation; and we find ourselves again summoned to our work, and again +anxiously awaiting its results,--_anxiously_, for the public work of +women is an object which still attracts the gaze of the curious; and the +smallest indiscretion on the part of a single woman has a retrograde +effect, which very few seem able to measure. + +Our reform is unlike all others; for it must begin in the family, at the +very heart of society. If it be not kindly, temperately, and +thoughtfully conducted, men everywhere will be able to justify their +remonstrances. Let us rather justify _ourselves_. My last report to any +convention was made to those called in Boston in 1859 and 1860. Between +that time and 1863, I printed five volumes, which are nothing but +reports upon the various interests significant to our cause. During the +last four years, I have watched the development of American industry in +its relation to women, and have, through the newspapers, aroused public +feeling in their behalf. My labor is naturally classed under the three +heads of Education, Labor, and Law. A proper education must prepare +woman for labor, skilled or manual: and the experience of a laborer +should introduce her to citizenship; for it provides her with rights to +protect, privileges to secure, and property to be taxed. If she be a +laborer, she must have an interest in the laws which control labor. + +In considering our position in these three respects, it is impossible +to offer a digest of all that has occurred during the last six years. +What I have to say will refer chiefly to the events of the last two. + + +EDUCATION. + +The most important educational movement of the last two years has been +the formation of an American Association for the Promotion of Social +Science, with four departments, and two women on its Board of Directors. +Subsequently, the Boston Association was organized, with seven +departments, and seven women on its Board of Directors; one woman being +assigned to each department, including that of law. Any woman in the +United States can become a member of the American association. If the +opportunities it offers are not seized, it will be the fault of women +themselves. + +During the past winter, the Lowell Institute in Boston, in connection +with the government of the Massachusetts Technological Institute, took a +step which deserves public mention. They advertised classes for both +sexes, under the most eligible professors, for instruction in French, +mathematics, and natural science. As the training was to be thorough, +the number of pupils was limited, and the _women_ who applied would have +filled the seats many times over. These classes have been wholly free, +and have added to the obligation which the free Art School for women had +already conferred. + +On the 25th of June, 1865, the Ripley College, at Poultney, Vt., +celebrated its Commencement. Seventeen young ladies were graduated. +Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered the literary address, and two days were +devoted to the examination of incoming pupils. Feeling very little +satisfaction in the success of colleges intended for the separate sexes, +I take more pleasure in speaking of the Baker University, in Kansas, +which was chartered by the Legislature of that State in 1857, as a +university for both sexes. It has now been in active operation for seven +years. A little more than a year ago, Miss Martha Baldwin, a graduate of +the Baldwin University at Berea, Ohio, was appointed to the chair of +Greek and Latin. She is but twenty-one years of age, but was elected by +the government to make the address for the faculty at the opening of the +Commencement exercises, and seems to have given entire satisfaction +during the year. + +Howard University was chartered at the last session of Congress, for the +education of all classes of students, without distinction of sex, race, +or color. It has purchased three acres of land in a pleasant part of +Washington, and is now ready to receive about twenty-five students. Rev. +Dr. Boynton, chaplain of the House of Representatives, is President of +the Board of Trustees. + +St. Lawrence University, Canton, N.Y., a university still very young, +graduates both men and women, on precisely the same conditions. Civil +engineering and political economy are the only optional studies with +the women. It reports one theological student. Lombard University, +Galesburg, Ill., does the same; but I know nothing of its standard of +scholarship. It is only within the last year that I have been able to +visit the most conspicuous colleges in this country in which women are +taught with men. I consider the system of mixed classes an immense +advantage, as it secures the standard of scholarship, prevents all +foolish hazing, and places personal character and moral deportment in +their right relations to classic study. It prevents also such +instruction in the classics as must necessarily deprave the estimate of +woman. + + +OBERLIN. + +About all that I knew of Antioch, before I went West, was this,--that it +was a college for the instruction of both sexes. I would like to have my +readers know more of Antioch than I did, and to feel, without seeing it, +the same intense interest that warms me now. They have heard of Oberlin, +I suppose,--heard of it as a sort of fanatical way-station between the +district school and Harvard University, where men, women, and "colored +people" are all taught together. If I should show them what Oberlin has +actually _done_, I think they may see more plainly what it is possible +for Antioch to do: so I shall begin with some account of this college, +which has "saved the North-west." + +It is no idle boast: and, when I had stayed a week at Antioch, and was +thoroughly roused to a sense of its immense importance; when I had seen +how admirably fitted was Dr. Hosmer for the work given him to do,--I +decided this in my own mind; namely, that if any one thing had stood in +the way of Antioch hitherto, if any thing had prevented her complete +work, it was the Eastern prejudice, the idea that men and women could +not be educated together. And, as they had been trying this experiment +at Oberlin for thirty-two years, I thought I would go there, and see how +it had worked. If I had known then, what I know now, that out of the +bosom of Oberlin twenty-two colleges had sprung, and that, of the +twenty-two, ten are at this moment officered by her own graduates, I +think I might have spared myself the trouble. Here are their names; for +you will care more for Oberlin, if you get some glimpse of the work she +has done, before I tell you the details of her story. I have put an +asterisk against the names of the colleges whose presidents are +graduates of Oberlin. All of those named receive pupils of both sexes. + + _Ohio._--Baldwin University, Berea, three colleges and one + university, 326 pupils, 1846; Heidelberg College, Tiffin; Antioch + College, Yellow Springs; Mount Union College, Alliance; Otterbein + College, Westerville, a Gallery of Fine Arts forming, 360 students. + + _Michigan._--*Olivet College, 308 pupils; *Hillsdale College, 609 + pupils; *Albion College; *Adrian College, with an endowment of + $300,000. + + _Wisconsin._--Madison University; *Ripon College, 87 pupils. + + _Illinois._--Wheaton College, 219 pupils; Lombard University. + + _Indiana._--*Union Christian College, Mecom, 115 graduates. + + _Minnesota._--*Northfield College. + + _New York._--Genesee College, Lima; Elmira College. + + _Kentucky._--Berea College. + + _Kansas._--State University, Lawrence; Lincoln College, Topeka; + Baker University. + + _Iowa._--Grenell College; *Tabor College, 192 pupils. + +To these we may add Oberlin herself, with 1,145 pupils for the term +which has just closed, and the prospect of a college in Missouri, which +her president has recently been solicited to organize. Wherever I have +obtained the catalogues of 1866, I have recorded the present number of +students in these colleges. To those I have not marked, it will be fair +to allow an average of 210 students. Those are not high schools, be it +understood, but colleges in the proper sense. There is no doubt, that +Oberlin, as the principal educational influence in Ohio, imposed upon +Antioch and all other "Christian" colleges the necessity of educating +both sexes. + +In 1832, Oberlin was a little religious colony, born into a complete +wilderness out of the Presbyterian Church. The plan of the colony +involved a school, for which a tract of five hundred acres was given. +The sale of the remainder of a tract of six thousand acres furnished a +small fund with which to begin teaching. A year later, the students of +Lane Seminary determined to hold an antislavery prayer meeting. The +trustees forbade it. "You are right," said old Dr. Beecher, when the +mutinous lads appealed to him,--"you are right; but we are too weak to +hold Lane Seminary on antislavery principles. Go and make it possible +for us." They went--Theodore Weld and Henry B. Stanton among them--to +speak the truth at Oberlin. Arthur Tappan called from the Broadway +Tabernacle the man who had been in the front of the great awakening +which has swept through the land, instinct in every fibre of his being +with the spirit of aggressive Christian work. "Go," he wrote to +President Finney,--"go and teach the young men whom Lane refuses." One +hundred thousand dollars was pledged by the merchants. Oberlin studied +in summer that her pupils might teach all winter. So, promising to +return to New York for the winter seasons, President Finney found his +way, one muddy spring morning, to Oberlin. What he found there was two +frame-houses in the midst of the forest, and half a dozen log-cabins. He +found also his sixty students. + +Very soon they had no end of difficulties to contend with. A jealous +college, that had wanted Dr. Finney for its president, did its best to +break down Oberlin. The crash of 1837 came; and Arthur Tappan, and the +rest who had not paid out capital, ceased to pay interest. It was +necessary to raise $50,000, and President Finney went to England and did +it. Every man's hand was against them. The cross-roads were ornamented +with pictures of fugitive slaves, pursued by lions and tigers, and +running in the direction of Oberlin. But when Oberlin became a station +on the underground railroad, and the slave-hunters actually came there +after their chattels, the case altered. The neighborhood took part with +the college, as if by miraculous conversion, and the offensive pictures +disappeared. Then a thousand scholarships were instituted, at $100 each. +Some were perpetual; some for six, eight, or ten years. On the interest +of this investment the college now lives. The scholarships, as they fall +in, increase its means. It costs $15,000 per annum, and $15 is the +student's yearly fee. He rents his scholarship of a broker in the town. +The college is managed with exquisite economy, and the most perfect +attention to essential neatness. + +For twenty years the college sent out into the West five hundred +antislavery pupils yearly, to take the post of teachers, ministers, +editors, and lawyers. They were heretics, so they were pushed farther +and farther West. For the last fifteen years, it has sent out a thousand +yearly. In all, twenty-five thousand men and women have gone out from +her bosom, who have eaten and drank and recited at the same board with +the colored man. Through all her pecuniary troubles, her original +teachers have stayed by her, have given up all else for her sake; and +President Finney has never been without a colored student at his table. +There are two large churches in the town; for a population of four +thousand persons has grown up to supply the wants of the college, which +has the great advantage of still retaining the services of those who +originally created it. Last year, Dr. Finney, now nearly eighty years +old, resigned his position as president, but still remains at the head +of the Theological School. I had always thought Oberlin bigoted to +evangelical ways. I did not find it so. I was made as welcome to +cross-question classes as if I had been an ordained graduate of their +own. All theological teaching is done by discussion; and the fact that +the colleges which have grown up under her graduates are of all +persuasions, from the Methodist to the Christian, will show that +doctrine is not urged. In all the recitation-rooms, questions were +freely asked by both sexes; and this questioning is encouraged by all +the professors but one, a young man from Yale. "Yes," said President +Fairchild, himself a graduate of Oberlin, when I had pointed this out; +"yes, that is what remains of New-England stiffness. Six months will +convert him: we shall let him take his own time." I have never seen any +thing like the enthusiasm this college inspires in those who labor for +it. Would that I could see a man bred at Harvard with the same patient +fire in his soul as President Finney! As I knelt by his side morning and +evening, I felt that under his ministry the very _stones_ must cry out. +The twenty-five thousand men sent out from Oberlin did not go out as +citizens merely, but as _teachers_. I was not surprised to find, that, a +few months before the Proclamation of Emancipation, a letter had gone to +Washington, from President Finney, entreating Mr. Lincoln to "recognize +the hand of the Lord in this matter." In Oberlin, it is believed to have +substantially modified the proclamation. Oberlin sent eight hundred and +fifty men into the field during the rebellion. Professor Peck, our +minister to Hayti, is the man who was once imprisoned by slave-hunters +in Cleveland jail. An indignant mass-meeting was held in that city. Six +hundred sabbath-school children went from Oberlin to greet their +imprisoned superintendent, and the prosecuting attorney thought it best +to give up the case. Professor Monroe, married to a daughter of +President Finney, is our consul at Rio, and is well known as a +controlling political power in Ohio. One of the faculty headed the first +Oberlin regiment; a graduate of the Theological School, the second; +Colonel Cooper, of the third, who went through with Sherman, is still +doing antislavery work in Arkansas; and the present Governor of Ohio, +Major-General Cox, also married to a daughter of Mr. Finney, has a +record so brilliant, that it demands a volume in itself. + +During the war, the college realized one unexpected advantage from the +presence of women. The female pupils kept the college working! In the +original constitution of Oberlin, it was stated that its main object was +"to diffuse pure religion throughout the Mississippi Valley, and to +elevate the female character." To both these objects it has been +religiously faithful. In the Ladies' Library Room I saw a picture of +Camp Dennison. It was drawn by one of the graduates; was sent from camp +to college, with the inscription beneath, "From the boys at Camp +Dennison to the girls of '61,--the dearest girls in all the world." It +was not put out of sight, but proudly shown to me. I have never been in +any educational institution where the interests of the _pupils_ so +evidently rule. The vacation comes in winter, that the pupils may pass +it in teaching; but the professors do not then take a vacation. They +open a winter school, where students who are behindhand may make up +deficiencies. I do not mean that all the pupils go through the entire +college course: many cannot afford it. They stay as long as they can, +and go reluctantly away. + +They follow the fashions at Oberlin: the Continental pronunciation took +possession of the Greek and Latin class-rooms last year. They employ +undergraduates to teach the preparatory students at thirty cents an +hour. The common or town school has 830 pupils, 180 of whom are colored. +In the college, the colored pupils are 5 to 100, and the female pupils +40 out of 50. There are scarcely any rules. The few that are printed are +enforced as friendly advice. President Finney says he has often known a +year to pass without an opportunity for a presidential admonition. The +management of the girls seems to me admirable. The teachers _feel_ no +doubt of their method; therefore they show none. Once a fortnight the +lady principal meets the ladies, and talks with them privately on all +questions of womanly habits and manners. The splendid endowment of +Vassar College could not give to Oberlin a woman better suited to this +purpose than Mrs. Dascomb. Once a week there is a religious meeting. + +The college has just now the brightest prospects. Its old buildings were +far less convenient than those at Antioch; but at a late Commencement an +appeal was made, and by a spasmodic response, like that which recently +gave us $30,000 for Meadville, the graduates subscribed as much for a +new "Ladies' Hall." The contracts were made before the war, the expenses +managed with scrupulous prudence; and now a beautiful brick building, +121 feet by 121, is opened. It has a library, reading-room, and parlors; +and a dining-hall, to which the male students are admitted, and where +truly excellent board is given for three dollars a week. The kitchen +would do anybody's heart good. On every floor is a wood and water room, +where the wood and ashes go up and down on a dumb-waiter, where water is +carried up in a well-protected pipe, and slops may be thrown into a +sink. Two excellent new buildings for recitations will be ready for the +spring term. Some idea of the admirable tact and prudence which have +prevailed at Oberlin may be gleaned from the following anecdote: +Thirty-three years passed before a colored _teacher_ was employed in the +Preparatory School. "We knew," said President Fairchild, "that we must +not try the experiment till it was sure to be a magnificent success." In +1865, Oberlin had in Miss Fanny Jackson a pupil worthy of the +experiment. She had been a slave in the District of Columbia, and so +puny, that, at an early age, she was sold to her own aunt, a freedwoman, +for a trivial sum. She was sent here, and with fear and trembling now +yielded to the wish of the president. That no one might be compelled to +enter her class, _two_ advanced classes in English grammar were +organized, one under the present wife of Dr. Finney. On the first day, +an over-grown lad came to the president, and said, "My father would not +like it very well if he knew I was taught by a woman,--but a woman and a +negro!" "Stay in the class three days to please me," said the president; +and, at the end of that time, the boy refused to be removed. After a +day's absence from illness, Miss Jackson was received with cheers; and, +when her class had to be subdivided, the heart-burnings of those who had +to leave it were pitiable. She is now teaching in the Colored High +School in Philadelphia, where she will remain till she has paid the +price of her freedom. The brilliancy of her classical teaching is +considered very remarkable in Philadelphia. + +It remains only to consider the double system. Everybody at Oberlin was +loud in its praise; no one would teach now in any other sort of college. +The presence of women secured discipline. There was no chance for hazing +or any other antiquated folly. Pupils and teachers who had gone from +Oberlin to Vassar both missed the pleasant excitement of the old life. + +"But," said President Finney, when I turned from all the rest to him, +"it must not be forgotten that we have had great advantages. We came +here for a religious reason; our pupils _came_ for years. It is only +lately that they have been _sent_. I expect that some difficulties may +arise, but none worse than would arise in a neighborhood-school. It is +God's way to rear us." The old man showed me, with great emotion, a +confession, signed by three young girls, and read at college prayers in +1837. They had been walking, and met one of the students with an +improvised sledge; without thinking, they jumped on and took a drive. +There were no rules against it; but, when they came home, they +remembered how much depended on their prudence as members of an +antislavery institution, and wrote the confession of their own accord. +One of these lovely women is now the wife of President Fairchild. + +I record with pride the history of Oberlin, the first college which +undertook to teach resident pupils of both sexes. I feel that it has +been a great success. I am ashamed of the half-denominational prejudice +which kept me from taking a warmer interest in it, in advance; and I +greet its new life under President Fairchild, a graduate of the +institution, with the warmest feelings of hope and admiration. + +It has just received $25,000 from the executors of the estate of the +Rev. Charles Avery, of Pittsburg, who left $150,000 in trust, to be +devoted, according to the best judgment of the directors, to the +"education and elevation of the colored people in the United States and +Canadas." The conditions are, that the college shall never make any +discrimination, on account of color, against colored students, and that +it shall furnish free tuition to fifty of its most needy colored +students who may apply for it; preference being given to twenty to be +nominated by the American Missionary Association. + + +ANTIOCH. + +The road to Antioch is hard to find: indeed, it would seem as if the +trustees had specially secluded it,--made interest, perhaps, with the +railroads to prevent the cars from stopping there, for the special +protection of the young people! From Cincinnati, we wind along the +lovely banks of the little Miami, through nurseries and hillside +terraces, through groves of oak and sycamore, and birch-trees stretching +out white, bewildered arms. Pigs are quietly grazing in the woods, as if +it were their nature to "chew the cud;" there are groups of tiny +powder-houses, made small, the people say, because they are "expected to +blow up once a fortnight"! Heavy loads of corn and hay wind along the +terraced roads; a gay-looking negro on horseback takes off his hat; two +children are pulling a boat across the Miami; there are no houses along +the shore, only safe-looking spits of sand jut out here and there; and, +at last, having come the ten miles from Xenia in a private carriage, we +roll on to Antioch Plain. I had heard that the college was on high land; +so I was a little disappointed to find it on a table among the hills, +which did not command any marvellous extent of country. As for the +college, it has evidently made its toilet for posterity. I could not get +a glimpse of its two fine towers and broad front, till I wandered down +to the railroad track, and looked at it from the vicinity of a lime-kiln +and a sorghum-mill. For some unknown reason, it turned its back on the +village in the beginning, and pranks its beauty in full sight of that +cursive population which travels by steam. + +Yellow Springs is a pretty little place to live in,--an economical one, +certainly, for there isn't a thing in it to buy; and, when we have +looked at two or three little churches and Judge Mills's pretty park, we +are quite content to go through the grounds of the Yellow Springs House, +look down on the glen from the quaint, long, low southern piazza of the +Neff House, and finally get home as we may, by log-bridges, and banks of +moss, over which the walking-fern is striding. Ten miles of hedge, made +of the Osage orange, surround the Neff Place, which a wealthy family in +Cincinnati refuse to sell; but which is destined, in the far future, for +a large hotel. In the little glen,--where a beautiful cascade falls, and +tortuous rapids sputter and foam, and tiny fish dart up and down, and +great graceful trees bend to shelter us,--we may find all the beauty of +the White-Mountain passes. Two or three miles off, there are persimmons +in the woods, and fossils under the soil; and, on Saturdays, pleasant +parties go with Mr. Orton or Professor Clarke to find them. The "Yellow +Spring," which gives the town its name, is of course largely +impregnated with iron. It is imprisoned in a stone tank, which it colors +brown; and it changes a rusty iron ladle to gold. It is a tonic; and, +not far from the spot where it bubbles up, there is a pretty +summer-house, where those who come to drink may sit and rest. As we +walked toward it, a little brown rabbit skipped across the grass. From +every high point in the glen, there are lovely views of the college and +town. + +Dr. Hosmer has just introduced a change into the Sunday-morning service +at the chapel. He has taken the service-book of James Freeman Clarke, +and, between reading and chanting, devised a matin service of great +beauty. No musical professors could have done greater credit to the +first performance than the students themselves. It made the bare, +whitewashed walls of the chapel seem as sacred as a grand cathedral. + +I did not look into the books at Antioch. Those at Oberlin I thoroughly +investigated; and the strict economy the figures showed would +distinguish honorably any institution in any land. But, as far as I can +judge from oral testimony, the fees of the students and the interest of +the endowment fund here amount to $13,000, and do not _quite_ provide +for the annual expenses. There is, therefore, no fund for _repairs_, +none for _scientific instruments_, none for the _library_; and, while +the president and professors feel that a further endowment will sometime +be needed,--nay, is needed _now_,--yet they also feel that they must +show what work Antioch can do, before they ask further sympathy. Still, +there are some few things which the wise prudence of the trustees, the +thoughtfulness of loving friends, the surplus of full purses, can, in a +quiet way, provide. + +The pupils at Antioch make no complaint of their commons this year; yet +it is undeniable that they should be better than they are. The commons +are provided at Oberlin and Antioch in the same way; that is, by a +family entirely disconnected with the college. At Oberlin, the table +presents an attractive appearance. It would be grateful to any hungry +person, and board is furnished at $3 a week. At Antioch, a pleasant and +friendly woman has charge of things; but no great variety seems to be +offered, and the board is $3.50 per week. Both these prices seem to me, +after investigating Western markets, _starvation prices_; but it is +evident, that, on this point, we have something to learn from Oberlin. +If the president and faculty of Antioch should visit Oberlin, where they +would be most kindly received, they would see, perhaps, that the +difficulty lies in the cooking-apparatus. Oberlin offers a first-rate +kitchen; Antioch, one very far behind what most of the pupils would find +at home. I suppose no one will deny, that, when the average social +standing of the students in these Western colleges is considered, it is +desirable that they should find at the college-table a standard of +cooking and serving which is a little in advance of that to which they +have been used. The food may be plain and without variety, but it should +be thoroughly nice and inviting of its kind. The ladies of any one of +our city churches might undertake to furnish the kitchen at Antioch, and +they could not have a better model than the kitchen at Oberlin. To +advance the standard over previous experience, is, I think, a necessary +part of education here. + +Still farther, cisterns should be built in the upper stories of the +dormitories, into which the waste-water may run from the roofs. Pipes +leading downward from this should supply one sink on each story, and +this sink should also carry away the waste-water from the rooms. A large +"dumb waiter"--I use the word for want of a better--should be provided +in each dormitory to carry up wood, and carry down ashes and dry dirt. I +have already shown that this is done at Oberlin; and, if cisterns are +not possible, then reservoirs and a forcing-pump should take their +place. + +There are but two dormitories,--one for men, and one for women; and when +we consider, that, beside studying, the pupils have to help themselves +by sawing wood and other manual labor, it will be acknowledged, that to +bring their own wood and water up two or three flights of stairs is more +than we can ask of them. + +The library and scientific apparatus are very deficient for present +needs. In the scientific department, some means of protecting the +apparatus already obtained is greatly wanted. Microscopes are needed +for scientific investigation. In the library, a translation of the +"Mécanique Céleste," modern scientific books generally, Smith's "Bible +Dictionary," and the leading works on English literature, are required. +Trench, Müller, Taine, have not yet found their way to Yellow +Springs.[47] + +It seems to me, that, before Antioch, there now opens a great career. If +her trustees and her faculty will but keep faith in her methods, surely +we are bound to help them to the utmost. The personal friends of Dr. +Hosmer also, who realize the nobility of that enthusiasm which made him +willing to accept such a post while "looking towards sunset," ought, I +think, to make the position as easy as possible, by anticipating these +practical wants. Five hundred dollars would supply the most necessary +books to the library. + +But, if Oberlin does such noble work, what need of Antioch? Why should +we strive to sustain an institution at such a continual cost, if one +already established is competent to do its work? Let us get a glimpse of +what Antioch can do, and then we shall be better able to answer these +questions. In the first place, we are in possession of buildings worth +now $180,000, and of twenty acres of land, worth $10,000. The land was a +donation, in the beginning, from Judge Mills, the great man of the +village, who perhaps fancied that a growing college would increase the +value of his real estate; and for this property, worth now nearly +$200,000, we gave $50,000. For its proper appropriation we are +responsible; and I think we have work enough to do, though Oberlin has +saved the North-west, and though her new halls should be crowded thrice +over. + +In the first place, Antioch is to be a missionary station. No one who +has not travelled through the West can imagine the thirst of the people +for spiritual food. I think those who know least about it are the +Western ministers themselves. I always found them sceptical about it, +when I spoke to them; and I could not very well say, what I was +sometimes compelled to feel, "It is because you could never satisfy this +want, that it does not show itself to you." To Dr. Hosmer, however, with +his warm, genial soul, with a temper conciliatory and discreet, the +people are willing to speak. Beside the daily college prayers, there are +services in the chapel on Sunday at half-past eight in the morning, and +at three in the afternoon. During the last year, the audiences at the +Sunday preaching had dwindled to a score: since Dr. Hosmer's arrival, it +averages about two hundred and fifty; and, of course, townspeople, who +come to the chapel regularly, grow in sympathy with the college and its +purposes. Dr. Hosmer has promised to supply the Christian pulpit in +Yellow Springs for eight Sundays, which gives Mr. McConnell liberty to +do missionary work for the same time. The little town of Troy has some +difficulty in keeping a minister. Dr. Hosmer promises him four Sundays, +that he may go away, and so add to his substance. He goes also himself +to the Universalist church in Columbus; and at Cleveland, where about +twenty Unitarian families are hoping sometime to have a church, he +promises them an occasional service if they will pay the expenses of +transit. Professor Hosmer, whose preaching is thoroughly appreciated in +the neighborhood, has also preached in Marietta; and either he or his +father stands ready to supply Mr. Mayo's pulpit when that gentleman +undertakes the missionary work, which has already made him one of the +most useful of the Western clergy. + +Who are the people that have this college in charge? What sort of pupils +are likely to benefit by the education we offer? If we know a little +about them, perhaps it will kindle a warmer interest. Beside the two +Hosmers whom we know, there is Dr. Craig, Professor Weston and his wife, +Professor Clarke, and Mr. Orton, with four teachers under him in the +preparatory department. Dr. Craig was the man whom Horace Mann thought +it constituted an era in his life to know. For fifteen years he was the +minister of the church at Blooming Grove, Orange County, N.Y., a church +which has existed for more than a hundred years without a creed, and +which is governed by seven deacons and seven deaconesses. Professor +Weston and his wife divide the classical department between them, having +both taken the degree of A.M. at Oberlin. + +Professor Clarke is the son of the famous Methodist minister in Chicago. +He was professor of mathematics in Michigan University, and went abroad +for two years to fit himself more thoroughly for his work. The war +called him home; he raised a company, was made major, and, being taken +prisoner, was thrown into Libby. There, he says, one of our Boston boys +saved his life by sharing his supplies with him. He was removed to +Macon, and, while sharing all the horrible experience of the stockade, +succeeded in digging a tunnel, through which he would have escaped; but +some other prisoners doing the same thing, and the escape of one being +sure to lead to the detection of all, he waited honorably for the second +tunnel to be completed. Meanwhile he was removed to Charleston, and put +under Gilmore's fire, where, at last, his exchange was effected. When +Professor Clarke left Michigan University to come to Antioch, he made a +sacrifice born of the true missionary spirit. May we share his spirit +sufficiently to strengthen his hands in the new work! Mr. Orton is most +admirably fitted to his department, and has an excellent corps of +teachers under him. Among them is one, the daughter of a mechanic, that +went from Worcester to assist in building the college, who got her own +education at Antioch by alternate years of study and teaching, having to +earn one year what she spent the next. A more exquisite model school +than that connected with the college, I never saw. + +Among the older pupils of Antioch is the Christian minister of Yellow +Springs, the Mr. McConnell of whom I spoke, who may be called, if you +prefer it, a brigadier-general. He was born humbly, in Ohio, had only +the rudest schooling, was a Christian minister before he was twenty, and +married before he was twenty-one. He was preaching in Troy when the +first gun was fired at Sumter. He raised a company at once, and got a +lieutenant's commission. In actual service, he was soon made a captain. +He kept with General Grant throughout his Western campaign, and returned +from Pittsburg Landing the colonel of his regiment; then re-enlisted for +the war, went back to the front, kept with the Western army, and, at the +close of the war, was mustered out a brigadier-general. He did signal +service in many battles, but especially before Nashville, where his +brigade, assisted by a negro brigade, broke Hood's centre by a very +gallant charge. He went to Atlanta with Sherman, and could never weary +of telling me how the Sanitary and Educational Commission followed the +army with their fostering care, ever present, it seemed to him, like the +blood which supplies with food the minutest nervous fibre of the human +frame. When he returned, the people would have carried him into +Congress; but he declined. Then they offered to make him a judge of +probate, with a salary of $2,500 a year; but he told them he had chosen +the pulpit for his field: and now, preaching in Yellow Springs, he comes +into the college classes, and, hoping to take his degree, keeps +faithfully all the college rules. + +Still another pupil, now thirty years old, raised a company for the war. +He was at the fall of Vicksburg, had not been at school since he was ten +years old, but made $1,800 by buying and selling grain, and brought it +here to carry him through college. When I cross-examined him in Greek +history, I found he had read Grote! The teacher of the village school at +Yellow Springs has had a more vexatious experience. He had finished his +third year at Antioch, when he went into the army. He became an aid to +three Western generals successively, and was with Grant when Lee +surrendered. He saved $800 of his pay to carry him through his last +college year, but had only been home a few days when a burglar stole it! +He has taken the village school for $900 this year, studies hard; and +the faculty have voted, that, when he can stand a certain examination, +he shall take his degree. + +It is for such students that Antioch is open. One-third of her present +pupils are women. Pleasant levees are held once a fortnight at the +president's house, where the two sexes mingle gracefully. The girls have +a literary society, which they call the Crescent; the young men, two +societies, the Star and the Adelphian. The Star and the Crescent have +fitted up one room under the gambrel very tastefully. The Adelphians +rival them. The folding-doors in the hall of the latter society open +into a pretty alcove, where a good library is beginning. These two rooms +are the only glimpse of tasteful, home-like comfort that one gets in any +public room at Antioch. I attended the meetings of the three societies. +Before the Crescents, I heard a graceful little essay on "A Rail-fence," +from a girl of fifteen. From the Stars, I heard a discussion of Roman +funerals. The Adelphians discussed the possibility of obeying an +unrighteous law, very much as I have heard their elders do in Congress. +Each society had a censor, who took notes of papers and discussions, and +quietly criticised each performance when it ended. It was noticeable, +that the performances of the women, making due allowance for age and +opportunity, were far more graceful and able than those of the men, and +a most valuable help to the latter. Coming home one night from the +Adelphians, I found at Dr. Hosmer's a Southern refugee, who is educating +her children at Antioch. + +Sometime before the war, Mrs. Palmer and her husband went to East +Tennessee from New York, carrying with them $50,000. I think they must +have opened a store; for she spoke of having on hand a valuable stock of +millinery and medicines. Being Northerners, they were constantly +threatened, and at last consented to barricade their house. Three times +the rebels stole their horse, a colt only two years old; and three times +Mrs. Palmer's perseverance got it back. At last they surrounded the +house at night, firing on the peaceable inmates; and Mr. Palmer, +attempting to escape over the roof, got three bullets in his arm. The +next day the party came back, robbed the house, and burned up the +stores. The medicine was a great loss: there was no more within reach +for rebel or loyalist. Mrs. Palmer succeeded in hiding her meat and +meal. For eight days she and her family hid in the rocks, only venturing +back to the house at night to cook and eat a little food. One night, +when the poor wife was so employed, her feverish, half-delirious husband +followed her, and, in some way, attracted the attention of the enemy. A +terrible battle followed, and Mr. Palmer lay on the kitchen floor with +eight wounds in his body. When the malice of the rebels was spent, Mrs. +Palmer went out with her children, and called the cattle. By keeping +them between her and the house, she succeeded in getting her husband +into the woods. A Union man finally received and fed him; but it was +many days before his wounds could be dressed. She then escaped with her +children and the colt, on which they rode by turns. She had picked up +some of the ends of her burnt millinery, which she used to barter for +food as they went along. She came at last to an old schoolhouse, where +she lay down; and here she nursed her children through the measles. +Here, after many weeks, her husband came to see her, but was taken +prisoner as he crept away, and was sent to Libby. She saw many terrible +things while she lingered here: one of her neighbors had his bowels cut +out while he was still alive! When she started afresh, she had seven +hundred miles to travel before she reached Bardstown. One of her five +children ultimately died of the fatigue and hunger. + +"How did you get food?" I asked. + +"I prayed for it," she answered; "and I always felt sure of enough for +the hour." + +"Who would shelter you?" I continued. + +"I never lay out but one night," she answered. "I used to tell them, +wherever I went, that the Union soldiers must win in the end; that I was +going to them, and would report whoever used me ill. So they would let +me lie on the kitchen floor." At Bardstown, Morgan's men destroyed her +last thing; and then a United-States sutler found her, and carried her +to Louisville. + +The children of many such women will hereafter seek Antioch. Let them +find there a generous provision. + + +VASSAR COLLEGE. + +Mr. Vassar's magnificent donation is drawing interest at last; and, +though I do not feel as much confidence in any institution founded for +women alone as I do in mixed colleges, we ought all to be grateful for +the advanced standard lifted at Poughkeepsie. + +Malt has always been a beneficent agent in the civilization of mankind. +Ever since Mr. Thrale looked kindly on old Sam Johnson, brewers have +seemed to have a generous pride in conquering human selfishness, and +leaving something better than a family of children to interest +posterity. Mr. John Guy, of Liverpool, a wealthy brewer without +children, founded there the great "Guy's Hospital." He was the +great-uncle of Matthew Vassar, also a great brewer in Poughkeepsie, +N.Y. By and by, Matthew Vassar found his property close upon a million; +and, as he had no children, he began to think what he should do with it. +He had a good many poor relations, and those who were industrious and +deserving he did not forget. One of them, a young niece, supported +herself by school-teaching. He built her a schoolhouse, and did what he +thought right to ease her way. At last, sinking in a decline, she came +home to die. As she lay on the sofa, day after day, she watched him +walking back and forth, and talking over his plans. Now and then she +would say gently, "Uncle Matthew, do something for women." After she was +gone, Matthew Vassar went to see Guy's Hospital. His connections advised +him not to give away his money. His Baptist friends in Edinburgh and +Liverpool laughed at the idea of a college for women, which had already +entered his mind. He came home, and tried to plan a hospital; he got up, +and went to bed with the idea uppermost; but all the time he seemed to +hear the voice of his niece, "Do something for women, Uncle Matthew." +Mr. Vassar has two houses: one, in the heart of Poughkeepsie, which is +opposite the brewery, and, with a long range of comfortable +outbuildings, looks as steadfast and English as ever Mr. Thrale's own +house could do; the other, a modest little country box, set on a hill +among extensive grounds, and commanding, from various points, lovely +views of the town and river. The peculiarity of this place is, that it +is ornamented with all manner of punchinellos cut in dull gray +limestone, and leering or grinning from every corner of the park. I did +not find out who was responsible for this grim joke. In 1860, Mr. +Vassar, with the humility and common sense which belong to his +character, obtained a charter, and called together thirty trustees. To +them he transferred more than half his actual property. When the opening +of the war occasioned the failure of the contractors, he did not draw +back, but gladly gave the additional $150,000 which the increased +expense demanded. + +The building is planned after the palace of the Tuilleries, having at +each end the chateau roof and mansard windows. It is 500 feet long, and +170 deep. The only drawback to its architectural effect is the entrance, +which should have been a magnificent double stairway, but is, for the +present, only an ordinary private door. This building stands in the +midst of two hundred acres of lovely sloping and swelling land. To the +right, and quite visible at the porter's lodge, is the gymnasium and +hippodrome under one roof; to the left, the graceful observatory, which +is also the home of Miss Mitchell and her father. + +In the two wings of the building with chateau roofs are five private +dwellings, rented for a moderate sum to the resident professors. In the +centre, just behind the entrance, are the dining-hall, the chapel, the +art-gallery, and the library; also the large drawing-rooms, where pupils +and teachers receive their friends, and the parlor and office of +president and principal. Connecting this centre with each wing, on four +floors, run long corridors with sunshine and bright windows on one side, +and clusters of students' rooms and recitation-rooms on the other. The +rooms are in pretty groups of four. Three bedrooms open into one study, +the latter made pleasant and home-like by the united treasures of the +occupants. The music-rooms are "deadened," so that the noise hardly +strays beyond the walls; and the cabinet, where the students in natural +history prepare specimens, is full of cases to preserve the work. The +best that I can say of the building will hardly do justice to the +intention of the founder, which no one can comprehend who has seen only +such institutions as Harvard and Yale. There is no occasion here to wish +for any thing which may perhaps come when the college is rich enough. +Mr. Vassar's intention was and is to have the endowment perfect. The +building is fire-proof, every partition wall being of solid brick. There +are four pairs of fire-walls, into which iron doors run on rollers; and +between these are fire-proof stairways, always safe, even if the wood +work should catch fire. There is the physiological cabinet, with every +thing for the use of the professor, including various manikins and wax +preparations. The library, chiefly of books of reference, holds three +thousand volumes, to be increased at the rate of five hundred per annum, +and is also used as a reading-room, where newspapers and reviews may +always be found. The art-gallery, purchased at an extra cost of $20,000, +is such as no college in the country possesses. It consists of good +copies in oil, fine water-colors, including six real Turners, large +portfolios of original sketches, and a perfect library of works on art +and engravings,--in all, about a thousand volumes. Besides the five +hundred pictures, this gallery contains a few busts and casts; among +them, Palmer's Sappho in marble, an ancient wrought brazen shield, and +specimens of ancient stained glass. The chapel seats seven hundred +persons, and might hold a thousand. Over the altar is a beautiful copy +of the Dresden Madonna, by Miss Church, of New York. There is also a +fine organ. + +The music-rooms accommodate a "conservatory" on the Charles Auchester +plan, as well as separate pupils. Thirty-two pianos are in use. + +The building on the outside is laid with brick in black cement, and has +dark stone trimmings, which prevent its glaring on the eye like a new +brick building. To the right is the riding-school, one hundred feet by +sixty, where thirty horses are kept; and, in the same building, a +gymnastic hall, thirty feet by seventy. + +The observatory, eighty feet long and fifty high, rests on the rock, as +well as the great pier. It contains a telescope made by Fitz, whose +focal length is seventeen feet, and its object-glass is twelve and a +half inches. There is also a smaller instrument, for the constant use of +pupils, and, on the roof, a good comet-seeker. There is a beautiful +transit circle, made by James, of Philadelphia, which Miss Mitchell +considers invaluable of its kind; and a very perfect sidereal clock and +chronograph, from the Bonds of Boston. + +Between the observatory and the riding-school, four hundred feet from +the main building, is the gas and boiler building, from which the +college is lighted and warmed. Beside these, twenty miles of water-pipe +travel up and down the corridors to supply culinary and domestic needs. +Let us follow them into the kitchen, and we shall find there every +possible convenience of a good hotel, to the steam-filled table on which +the food is carved. + +And now, the building once ready for its inmates, was Mr. Vassar +rewarded for the sacrifice he had made? for all the time and thought +bestowed on the outfit? No one had supposed that the school would be +full when it opened in September, 1865; but there were 353 pupils on +hand the first day, and the work of organizing was no trifle. When I +looked at the teachers and principals in this institution, many of whom +I had known before visiting it, it seemed to me that each one had been +providentially fitting for the very work Mr. Vassar now offered. Of the +thirty persons employed, I saw no one that I should have desired to +change. Maria Mitchell, Hannah Lyman, and the admirable resident +physician, Alida Avery, are now too well known to need any praise of +mine. These persons are all of the faculty; and their names indicate how +liberal all the decisions of the faculty must be. I visited the +institution at the beginning of the second year, in October, 1866. It +had already outrun its bounds. There was talk of still another +dormitory. Four hundred pupils, well born, well bred, in good health, +with more than ordinary education (for the tests are severe), and with +ample means, had come to meet those teachers. They had come, between the +ages of seventeen and twenty-two, at the very time when society holds +out every attraction. Vassar is no charity school. Its necessary fees +amount to four hundred dollars; and a girl should have six hundred to +feel happy and at ease. It paid every bill the first year, but had +nothing left for repairs and additions. To create a fund for this +purpose, the fees have been increased to the above-named sum. When the +first rush of pupils occurred, Mr. Vassar was almost dismayed. "God +sometimes gives great thoughts to very little men," he said, and +trembled; but, when the year came to a close, he lifted his hands in +serene gratitude. I arrived at night; and the procession filing past me +to enter the handsome dining-hall, supported by light pillars, about +which were circular stands for the urns, occupied seven minutes. When I +saw more than four hundred young women seated in groups of twenty, saw +them bow their handsome heads in silent grace,--a suggestion which came, +I think, from Miss Mitchell's Quaker father,--I felt excited with +happiness. After tea, I walked round and through the groups of tables; +and the bright faces smiled back at me either consciousness or question. +When they left the dining-hall, they went to the chapel, where Miss +Lyman offers an evening prayer, and, no gentlemen being present, talks +to the ladies in reference to all matters of decorum; a practice I hope +to see followed at Antioch. After breakfast the next morning, I went to +President Raymond's short matin service, and then walked over to the +observatory. There I saw the graceful figures of the girls bending to +the instrument, as they recorded the spots on the sun. I saw the daily +diagrams in which they had recorded the position of these spots for the +last year, and other diagrams of lunar eclipses. "Women make better +observers than men," said old Mr. Mitchell. "They have more patience, +more accuracy. I had been observing thirty years, when Maria took it up, +and I thought, mebbe, 'twas only Maria; but it is just the same with +these girls. They do better than I did." I don't wonder Miss Mitchell is +proud of her seventeen mathematical astronomers. She is a tender +daughter, as well as a capable "observer;" and she would not come to +Vassar without her father. All the girls come to the white-haired old +man with their joys and troubles; and I saw a letter from an old pupil +to Miss Mitchell when I was there, which contained this audacious +sentence, left to tell its own story: "Was it not good of God to put it +into Mr. Vassar's heart to spend his whole fortune in making your +father's last years perfectly happy?" In the art gallery I found, one +morning, twenty-five pupils copying; and, in the musical conservatory, +one hundred and seventy-five. The gymnasium was not quite ready for use; +so I went down to see the girls rowing on the pretty lake. After school +hours, the floral clubs were busy in the grounds. I cannot say any thing +better of Professor Tenney's pupils, than that they work over their +specimens as enthusiastically as boys. In chemical analysis, under +Professor Farrar, the girls are greatly interested. The curriculum is +such as we find adopted at all colleges, except that far more time is +devoted to science than is usual at Yale or Harvard, and room is left +for music. Riding, driving, rowing, &c., are extras, only allowed in the +time allotted to out-door exercise. The resident physician, Dr. Avery, +in whom the college is conscious that it possesses a great treasure, +gives a regular course of physiological lectures. + +Matthew Vassar was seventy-six years old on the 29th of April, and that +day is a perpetual festival for the pupils. Could you see him meet the +scholars in the grounds, you would think them all his children. I had +interviews with the president, trustees, and the teachers; but was most +attracted toward this noble old man. He told me that he meant to go on +endowing the college until he died. "Then," he said, "I shall leave +nothing for executors to quarrel about: money will be safe in brick and +stone." He asked me to talk with him about a culinary and household +college for the proper training of housewives, which he still wishes to +erect. His last gift to the college was its magnificent cabinet of +stones and fossils; one of the best, Professor Dana thinks, that he ever +saw. Beside the beautiful specimens shown under glass, there are, in +drawers beneath the glass cases, similar specimens which may be handled. + +In furnishing Vassar College, no one has had to think what any thing +would cost. When shall we have an institution for wealthy persons, of +both sexes, with an outfit as splendid? It is a sight which Oberlin has +earned the right to see. + + +LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY, KANSAS. + +But a still more interesting story is that connected with the +establishment of the State University in Kansas. Its name will be seen +on the list of colleges which owe their existence to Oberlin. This +university is one of those whose _character_ was determined by the +excitement the success of Oberlin had aroused; but its _existence_ was +due to two ladies from Western New York. It will have been seen, by some +details in the body of this work, that an attempt was made to secure for +woman a share in the noble State endowment at "Ann Arbor," Michigan, but +without success. I will tell a part of the story in the language of Miss +Mary Chapin, then of Milwaukie, the lady who, with the assistance of her +sister, carried the work out in Kansas. + +"Some years ago," she says, "the Legislature of Michigan decided that +girls might be admitted as pupils to the State University. The faculty +of that institution consulted the 'wise men of the East' on the subject, +and excluded women on the ground of expediency. If it were necessary to +make it a mixed school, in order to admit them, perhaps they acted +wisely. It is no more just and wise to give the charge of endowed +schools for girls to men, than it would be to put Harvard and Yale into +the hands of women. Girls need incentives to study, even more than +facilities for it. The fact, that the real education of the boy begins +where that of the woman ends, is not so depressing as the 'hard work and +low wages' which await her as a teacher. In 1863, Kansas accepted the +grant of land from Congress for the endowment of a State University. The +citizens of Lawrence secured its location in that city, by the gift of +forty acres for a site. The college was not organized; and it seemed the +time and place to decide whether women should enter endowed schools on +equal terms with men, as pupils and teachers. Many of the most +influential men of Kansas thought it both just and expedient to give +women an equal share of the benefits of the university, and voted for +such a result. To obviate the objection which closed the Michigan +University to women, a bill was drawn up, organizing a double school; +that for girls to be taught by women. Some objection was made to this +unusual provision, and the time was too short to urge its necessity: so +the bill merely reads, that it _may_ be taught by women. The date of +this law is February, 1864. A school-building was finished last summer +(1866), and the college opened in September. The regents elected a +president and three professors at the outset, one of the latter being a +lady. There is some danger that the two schools will become one, by an +act of the Legislature. If this occurs, nothing important is gained; +but, if the present organization continues, woman may here show what a +true feminine culture implies: for, while woman differs widely from man, +like him she needs _development through her own work_." + +I have altered none of the statements in this admirable letter. It will +be seen that Miss Chapin went to Kansas, desiring to accomplish two +things: she not only wanted education, but position and _compensation_, +for women, from the State fund. I want these also; but I only ask for +the first, for I am certain the rest will follow. Neither do I think it +wise to insist that women shall be taught only by women, until +universities have done the necessary work of preparation. In all the +colleges mentioned on the Oberlin list, women are employed as teachers: +there are already a good number of professors of Greek and mathematics. +Nor is the welfare of _women_ alone a sufficient motive for me. I am +satisfied, that humanity and civilization gain, in the mixed college, +more than either sex can lose. It remains for me to give a few of the +personal details which Miss Chapin's modesty has omitted. When she first +thought it her duty to press this matter, she knew that she must be in +Lawrence, in order to do the "talking" which must precede an act of +legislation in America. She corresponded with Governor Robinson, in +reference to a day-school in Lawrence, and started with her sister to +take charge of it. On their way, they were startled by the terrible +news of the Kansas raid. They hesitated for a little; but, thank God, in +spite of raids, the work of the world goes on. Miss Mary went on herself +in September, and, after a week's residence, decided to defer the +opening of her school. In December, both sisters went, and began their +daily teaching, and the gentle agitation which was to yield the great +result. They also tried, at the East, to raise money to realize at once, +on a small scale, their ideal of a practical course of study for women, +especially of a scientific school. "Science," says Miss Chapin, "has not +yet been applied to the arts of domestic life. The ordering of home, as +a centre of comfort and culture, has yet to be considered. Architecture +has much to do with civilization. The laws of health and the means of +social progress lie entirely in woman's province. Horticulture will do +more for her than calisthenics. She is ready to do useful work, but has +no means. A very wasteful economy denies her this, to lavish thousands +on her folly and ostentation." + +I cannot detail all the obstacles which Miss Chapin's effort +encountered. Mr. Charles Chadwick, of Lawrence, drew up the bill; +General Dietzler and Governor Robinson pushed it. At the last moment, +the original bill was carried off in the pocket of an opposing member; +but the wit and quick memory of a woman saved it. + +It has been mentioned, that, after its passage, a lady was elected +professor, with a salary of $1,600, and the same for her assistant. It +is almost needless to say, this was Miss Caroline Chapin. She has not +yet accepted the position. The two sisters are at the head of a high +school in Quincy, Ill., which has this peculiarity: there is attached to +it a school in modelling, under the charge of a professed sculptor. + +In the first part of this volume, I have intimated that a new effort has +been made, sustained by the pleading of Theodore Tilton, to open +Michigan University to female students. At the moment when these pages +go to press, it seems uncertain whether this resolution will prevail +with the present Legislature, or whether a motion for a university for +women, under the same regents, will supersede it. The Greek professor +has practically solved the difficulty, by admitting his own daughter to +his classes, without asking the faculty. This example was set him, years +ago, by Mr. Magill, in the Boston Latin School. + +As these pages go to press, an anonymous statement appears, to the +effect that there have passed examinations for the University of +Cambridge, England,--Junior boys, 1,126; Junior girls, 118; Senior boys, +212; Senior girls, 84. It would seem that the conditions of the opening +of this university are hardly understood. If I am right, these +examinations confer a certain rank on the female scholars, but do not +admit them afterward to the university. + + +SCHOOL FOR NURSES. + +The most interesting educational movement, at this moment, in that +country, is Miss Nightingale's "Training-school for Nurses," which has +been in operation for three years in Liverpool. It was founded, after a +correspondence with her, in strict conformity to her counsel. As a +training-school, it may be said to be self-supporting; but it is also a +beneficent institution, and, in that regard, is sustained by donations. +A most admirable system of district nursing is provided, under its +auspices, for the whole city of Liverpool, all of whose suffering sick +become, in this way, the recipients of intelligent care, and of valuable +instruction in cooking and all sanitary matters. It is too tempting an +experiment to dwell upon, unless we could follow it into its details. +Its report occupies a hundred and one pages. + +It seems worth while to look into this report, and examine in detail its +method of dealing with sickness among the poor. When Miss Nightingale +drew especial attention to the want of such schools in England in 1861, +some ladies and gentlemen in Liverpool came together, and entered into +correspondence with her. Out of that correspondence grew the Liverpool +school. The Liverpool Infirmary, the most considerable hospital in that +city, entered into the plan, and offered its wards for the instruction +of the nurses. The society proposed to itself three objects:-- + +1. To provide thoroughly trained nurses for hospitals. + +2. To provide district or missionary nurses for the poor. + +3. To provide trained nurses for private families. + +Nowhere are hospital and private nurses so badly trained as in England; +and Miss Nightingale well says that half the symptoms which are +considered symptoms of disease are, in reality, indications of a want of +air, light, warmth, quiet, or cleanliness, which properly instructed +nurses would know how to supply. A want of punctuality in administering +food, and of watchful care in detecting its effects upon the patient, +create other classes of symptoms. The beer-drinking habits of the people +lead to much intoxication; and we ourselves have seen ladies of quality +lying on a sick-bed, where they suffered for the attention which a +thoroughly stupefied nurse was incapable of giving. No amount of wealth, +as Miss Nightingale testifies, can secure such nurses as wealthy +patients often need, and for which a thorough hospital-training is +required. The society strengthens her appeal by extracts from Dr. +Howson's paper, read at the meeting of the Social Science Association in +1858. + +The Liverpool school has erected a building, to carry out its purpose, +eighty-five feet by forty. It has three stories, each of them eleven +feet high; and, by a single glance at the plans which accompany the +pamphlet, one sees that the arrangements for bathing and ventilation are +what those of our new city hospital ought to be. One lady +superintendent, with three servants, has charge of this building. It has +thirty-one nurses under training. By the wages which they earn in the +second and third years, the expenses of this Home are nearly paid, +leaving a margin of about three hundred pounds to be supplied by +donations. It is expected to be a self-supporting institution, except so +far as it becomes a benevolent charity, by supplying to the poor, food +and nursing. When the institution was ready to begin its work, the lady +superintendent having been some months in training at St. John's College +and the London Hospital, where the nurses educated by the Nightingale +Fund are to be found, took possession of her building. Her head-nurses +had been thoroughly educated. Pupils then offered: they were engaged for +three years, the first year to be strictly probationary. Each head-nurse +was to take charge of an entire ward of the hospital, to be responsible +for the medicines and stimulants, always assisted by one pupil. Each +pupil went first for two months to a surgical ward; then for two to the +medical; then four at the surgical, and four again at the medical,--one +course helping the other, and both filling the entire year under a +thoroughly trained head. For the next two years, the pupil is employed +without such superintendence wherever need is; and, for each of the +three years, receives, in addition to board and lodgings, seventy +dollars. At the Home there is a good library, and evening classes are +held for the disengaged pupils. A superannuation fund has been started, +to encourage respectable women to enter the Home. At the end of the +third year, the Home has twenty-eight pupils under training, fourteen +hospital nurses, fourteen district or gratuitous nurses, and ten +employed in private families. + +This gives an idea of the training process; but our chief interest lies +in the district nursing. As soon as the Home had nurses it felt willing +to trust, one of the experiments recommended by Miss Nightingale was +tried. The wife of a Scripture-reader undertook to prepare sago, +necessaries, &c.; the clergyman of the parish furnished a list of +patients, and a central lodging for the nurse. The Home sent her out, +supplied with cushions, blankets, and bed-rests. She went into the +families, showed them what to do, and helped with her own hands. At the +end of the first week, she came back, crying and begging to be relieved; +she thought she never could bear the sight of the misery she +encountered. But, in a short time, she was so strengthened by seeing the +results of her labor, that she positively refused to take employment +among the rich. It is easy to see what great advantages wait on this +form of charity. As instruction is precisely what she comes to give, the +poor cannot resent this from the nurse; she fears no imposition, for she +is in the house at all hours of the day and night; her little gifts do +not wound, but cheer like neighborly kindnesses. It is Miss +Nightingale's idea, that such nursing is a far greater good than the +establishment of hospitals. In six months, this nurse found two cases +where the prolonged sickness of the wife had made drunkards of two +otherwise steady husbands, and brought their families to the brink of +ruin. The wives were cured, the husbands reformed, the families saved. A +leaf from her report of cases will show what she did. + + 1. _Asthma and bed-sores._--Lying on a floor; so thin, had to lift + her on a sheet. Dirt, bad air: two children. Husband said he "was + forsaken by God and man." Our nurse goes in, washes her, changes + linen; lends bedstead and bedding, and air-cushions; cleans and + whitewashes. The woman now sits up, and the man is again hopeful. + + 2. _Internal cancer._--Nurse attended to the surgical operation, + and administration of subsequent remedies. The woman is now at + work. + + 3. _Paralysis._--Nurse attended; gave instruction and food. + Recovery complete. + + 4. A girl--as the doctor said--in a consumption. Hospital refused + her as incurable. Beef-tea, wine, sago, and cod-liver oil supplied; + and, in one month, she could walk to the nurse's lodging. + +Out of all this success, the perfect plan developed. It had been proved, +that the poor were willing to be taught _how_ to nurse, and to keep +their houses clean; that intense distress might be mitigated, and coming +poverty arrested. It was also proved, that the nurse so employed could +notify the health commissioners of incipient epidemics, and obtain for +ignorant tenants, in return, necessary whitewashing, drainage, &c. + +The city of Liverpool was now divided into eighteen districts, each of +which, for practical convenience, was made to correspond to two church +cures. The Home undertook to furnish a nurse to each district, provided +it would elect for itself a lady superintendent, and raise a +subscription for food, medicines, and necessaries. As soon as the +superintendent is found, meetings are held to interest the district; +each district having an average population of twenty-four thousand and +over. A central lodging is then to be supplied for the nurse, and the +district must furnish, for loan and use, the following articles:-- + + One iron bedstead, six pairs of sheets, six blankets, cushions, + bed-gowns, shirts, flannels, wine, meat, sago, bread, coals, + arrow-root, preserves, and vinegar. + +If any thing excites one's envy in the current expenses, it is the +amount of coals required. To think of warming forty people for one year +for twenty-six pounds! + +The superintendent is supplied with a map of the district, forms of +recommendation, rules for patients and nurses, and slates and pencils to +be hung at the head-board, to receive the directions of the doctor, and +the inquiries of the nurse. In seven of the districts, the lady +superintendents furnish the supplies at their own cost! How gladly ought +any wealthy woman to avail herself of so sure a method! A strong woman +is hired for scrubbing; and very often the first thing a nurse does is +to demand whitewashing and repairs of the Board of Health. In each +district, a person is provided to cook the necessary food; the nurse +giving notice, through the superintendent, of her wants. The nurse +herself confers with the doctors, waits on the surgeons, changes and +cleanses the patient, and administers poultices, blisters, leeches, +enemas, and the like. One Liverpool lady defrays the whole cost of +washing the loaned linen for the eighteen districts! A registry of it is +kept by the nurse. + +We need not be surprised to find that this admirable plan has such +marked success, that all the Liverpool charities are eager to play into +its hands. Each district superintendent is appointed locally; but the +Home has an out-door inspector, who looks after the district nurses. The +superintendents make quarterly reports to the Home, and hold meetings of +conference by themselves. + +There is, at the seaside town of Southport, a hospital, which furnishes +sea-bathing to invalids. + +The Committee of Central Relief for the city of Liverpool are so +delighted with this nursing charity, that they have already offered +butcher's meat, three weeks of seaside bathing at Southport, and coals +and money to any convalescing patient when deemed needful. The +workingmen's dining-rooms offer, on proper application, warm dinners to +convalescents; and the Home, through its inspector, superintendents, and +nurses, makes sure there is no waste nor misuse. + +The statistics for 1864 were as follows:-- + + Apparently cured 936 + Partially restored 456 + Relieved before death 488 + Still hopeful 180 + Hopeless 9 + Dismissed 289 + ----- + Total 2,358 + +Such a record as this makes one wish to emigrate to the land where such +things are done. The rapid increase of the charity may be judged from +the fact, that, in the previous year, only one thousand seven hundred +and seventy-six patients were _treated_, and only six hundred and +seventy-two were _cured_. This report comes to us with a letter and +notes from Miss Nightingale. It is prepared with the most beautiful +modesty. The names of the paid officers are given; but we cannot tell +from its pages whose were the kind hearts and clear heads which first +responded to Miss Nightingale's call. Nowhere has benevolent action +accomplished so much as in Great Britain. Such a work as this may well +challenge the gratitude and admiration of the world. + +The "Arnott Scholarship" of Queen's College, London,--founded by Mrs. +Arnott in 1865, for the promotion of the study of natural philosophy, +and the highest scholarship open to women in England--has just been +gained by Miss Matilda Ballard, a young lady of seventeen, daughter of +Dr. W.R. Ballard, a native of New York, and, for some years, the leading +American dentist in London. The prize, the money value of which is not +far from two hundred dollars, consists of one year's free instruction +and perpetual free admission to certain lectures, always interesting and +instructive. + +The ladies' classes at Oxford have proved a great success, and the +committee have just issued a programme for the present term. The course +of instruction includes Latin, French, Arithmetic, Euclid, German, &c. +The Rev. W.C. Sedgwick, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of Merton College, has +undertaken to deliver a course of lectures on the Italian Republics of +the Middle Ages. + +On the 26th of October, 1864, a Working-women's College was opened in +London, with an address from Miss F.R. Malleson. It is governed by a +council of teachers. In addition to the ordinary branches, it offers +instruction in botany, physiology, and drawing. Its fee is four +shillings a year; and the Coffee and Reading Room, about which its +social life centres, is open every evening from seven to eleven. + +In France, the Imperial Geographical Society, which is, in a certain +sense, a college, has lately admitted to membership Madame Dora d'Istra +as the successor to Madame Pfeiffer. Madame d'Istra had distinguished +herself by researches in the Morea. + +In Calcutta, Miss Mary Carpenter has been starting schools for Hindoo +women, free from all religious character or sectarian denomination. + + +DEACONESSES' INSTITUTIONS. + +This seems the proper place also to insert some details about schools +like those at Kaiserworth, which I could not procure in an authentic +form in 1858. The Kaiserworth school opened under Dr. Fliedner, in 1822, +with "one table, two beds, a chair, and one discharged prisoner"! In +1852, the King of Prussia laid the foundation of a home for the aged +deaconesses who have served as teachers and nurses. + +The school at Strasburg, under Pastor Härber, began, in 1842, with one +sister from a higher rank of life. It undertakes to train servants, and +is chiefly under women's control. Assistance is also given to clergymen +in seeking out cases of temporal and spiritual distress, in detecting +imposture, in attending the sick in their own houses, in teaching the +poor how to nurse and how to cook, in promoting the attendance of +children at school, in co-operating with charitable institutions to +superintend sewing and mending schools, in influencing, for good, +factory girls and servants; and, in the hospital at Mühausen, the women +taught here make up bandages and prescriptions, cook for the poor and +sick, receive the patients, and do out-door visiting. At Basle, there is +a Deaconess House, under the charge of a daughter of a Basle +manufacturer. It looks after the laboring classes, and provides for the +sick. + +The house opened at St. Loup, under Pastor Germond, in 1842, takes +charge of sick children. At Geneva, a deaconess has had charge for six +years; through whom five hundred servants get their places, and with +whom they find homes when out of health or work. In 1859, twenty-one +were nursed in the institution. + +A house in the Faubourg St. Antoine, Paris, was proposed by M. Vermeil, +in 1830. In 1840, Mademoiselle Malvesin offered to conduct it; her +letter to Vermeil, and his to her, crossing each other. Holland and +Sweden have opened several of these schools. In our own country, the +Rev. Mr. Passevant, a Lutheran minister of Pittsburg, Pa., is +establishing hospitals in every State, under the care of women. They are +supported by contributions in all the city churches, except the +Catholic. These hospitals are under the care of a sisterhood, who +cannot, _as yet_, compete with the Sisters of Charity. It seems to me, +that Mr. Passevant has erred in a most noble work, by drawing his +sisters from the _uncultivated_ classes. Such a work should bear the +right stamp in the beginning. In Western Pennsylvania, also, Bishop +Kerfoot has begun the noble work of endowing his whole diocese with +suitable high schools for girls, where they may obtain at home, for one +hundred dollars annually, what it would cost five times as much to +procure at a distance. + + +MEDICAL EDUCATION. + +As regards medical education, we know of two colleges, or, rather, of +one college and one hospital, in Boston, where education is given. There +is one in Springfield, and one in Philadelphia. We should be glad to get +more statistics of this kind; for Cleveland, where Dr. Zakrzewska took +her degree, is no longer open to female students, and Geneva is +contenting herself with the honor of having graduated Dr. Blackwell. +Nine women were graduated at the New-York Medical School for Women, in +February of this year. Professor Willis then stated that there are three +hundred female physicians in the country, earning incomes of from ten to +twenty thousand dollars. + +There is a female medical society in London. This society wishes to open +the way for thorough medical instruction, which will entitle its +graduates to a degree from Apothecaries' Hall; and it offered lectures +from competent persons, in 1864, upon obstetrics and general medical +science. Madame Aillot's Hospital of the Maternity, in Paris, still +offers its great advantages to women; of which two of our countrywomen, +Miss Helen Morton and Miss Lucy E. Sewall, have taken creditable +advantage. They are both of them Massachusetts girls. Miss Morton is +retained in Paris, and Miss Sewall is the resident physician of the +Hospital for Women and Children, in Boston. + +At present, to obtain thorough instruction in any branch, women are +obliged to pay exorbitant prices, and receive, as the results of their +training, but half-wages. In Boston, Dr. Zakrzewska has again +unsuccessfully asked permission to become a member of the Massachusetts +Medical Society. Many physicians, however, extend the fellowship which +the institution denies, and the "Medical Journal" expresses itself +courteously on this point. Efforts, sustained by the influential name of +the Hon. Charles G. Loring, are at this moment making to secure the +advantages of the Harvard-College lectures to women intending to become +physicians.[48] + +In 1863, there existed in St. Petersburg a stringent regulation, which +prohibited women from following the university courses. A Miss K., who +had a decided taste for medicine, without the means to pay for +instruction, applied for such instruction to the authorities of +Orenburg. Orenburg is partly in Europe and partly in Asia, and its +territory includes the Cossack races of the Ural. These people have a +superstitious prejudice against male physicians, and are chiefly +attended in illness by sorceresses. Miss K. offered to put her medical +knowledge at the service of the Cossacks, and received permission to +attend the Academy of Medicine. The Cossacks promised her an annual +stipend of twenty-eight roubles; but, when she passed the half-yearly +examination as well as the male students, they sent her three hundred +roubles as a token of good-will! + +In France, a Mademoiselle Reugger, from Algeria, lately passed a +brilliant examination, and received the degree of Bachelor of Letters. +She appealed to the Dean of the Faculty at Montpellier for permission to +follow the regular course, and was refused on account of her sex. She +then turned to the Minister of Public Instruction, who granted it, on +condition that she should pledge herself to practise only in Algeria, +where the Arabs, like the Cossacks, refuse the attendance of male +physicians. Unlike our Russian friend, she refused to give the pledge. +She threw herself upon her rights, and appealed in person to the +emperor. This was in December last, and I have not been able to find his +decision. It was doubtless given in her behalf; for Louis Napoleon will +always yield, as a favor, what he would stubbornly refuse as a right. + +A female medical mission is to be despatched to Delhi, for the same +reason. The physicians sent out are,-- + +1. To attend native ladies in the Zenanas. + +2. To set on foot a dispensary for women only. + +3. To train native women as nurses. + +Of the medical profession, it should be stated, for the encouragement of +women, that there are over three hundred graduates from the several +medical colleges for women; and that there is scarcely a village +throughout the country but has its woman physician, of greater or less +skill. In New-York City, there are many successful physicians beside the +Drs. Blackwell. Dr. Lozier has a practice of $15,000, and owns two fine +houses, earned by her own perseverance. In Orange, N.J., Dr. Fowler is +very popular, and has a paying practice of $5,000 a year. In +Philadelphia is Dr. Hannah Longshore, with a practice worth $10,000 per +annum; then there are Drs. Preston, Tressel, Sartain, Cleveland, and +Myres, with incomes ranging from $5,000 to $2,000. In Utica, N.Y., Dr. +Pamela Bronson is a successful physician. In Albion is Dr. Vail; in +Weedsport, Dr. Harriet E. Seeley. In Rochester, Dr. Sarah Dolley numbers +among her patrons many persons of wealth and fashion, who, but a few +years ago, ridiculed the idea of a "female physician." Mrs. Dolley's +practice brings her fully $3,000 a year. + +Dr. Gleason of Elmira, Dr. Ivison of Ithaca, and Dr. Green, late of +Clifton Springs, who has opened a water-cure somewhere in Western New +York, all have a large amount of practice, and prescribe with the +greatest acceptance for those who favor hydropathic treatment. + +At Milwaukee, in the autumn of 1866, I found Dr. Ross. She is one of the +consulting physicians of the Passevant Hospital and of the Orphans' +Home. She has practised with steadily increasing reputation for ten +years. She understands what is due to her position, and has had a hard +struggle with the empirical women of the medical profession that crowd +the great thoroughfares of the West. But she would neither lower her +fees nor abate her requirements to compete with this class. She came of +the best surgical blood. Her grandmother was Mercy Warren, married to +Darling Huntress, of Newbury, and first cousin to General Warren, of +Bunker's Hill. Our famous Boston surgeons of the same family might be +proud of her reputation. She has established her practice and her +character, and would agree with all that I have stated in the body of +this book in regard to the great need of medical societies to guard the +position of well-educated physicians, which is now at the mercy of a +worthless college diploma. Dr. Ross goes to the Paris Exposition of this +year (1867), as an agent for the State of Wisconsin. She deserves the +honor; and the State has done itself credit by the choice. The +professional position of the physicians at the New-England Hospital for +Women and Children in Boston, is also a matter for general +congratulation. + +The English Female Medical Society reports (June, 1866) twenty students +and good results. + +The physicians of this country have been occupied this winter in +discussing the discovery, by one of their number, of the active +infectant in fever and ague. It has been found in the dust-like spores +of a marsh plant, the Pamella. In Paris, at the same time, a woman of +rank claims to have discovered the cause of cholera, in a microscopic +insect, developed in low and filthy localities. Her details were so +minute, that the Academy of Science, which began by laughing at the +introduction of the matter, has been compelled to listen; and the +subject is now under investigation. + + +THE PULPIT. + +A very interesting account has lately been published of Amélie von +Braum, an educated Swedish lady, the daughter of an army officer. She +began to preach in 1843, at Carlshamm, where she lived, in the lowest +dens of vice and misery. She carried with her a clean cloth and lighted +candles, which give a festive impulse to the Swedish mind; and her +serious words produced an extraordinary effect. In 1856 she removed to +Stockholm, and was earnestly entreated to go to Dalecadin, and instruct +the people. From that time, she has acted as an itinerant evangelist, +preaching in summer in the open air. People listen to her for hours in +rapt attention. + +In Sweden, there is also Mamsell Berg,[49] a brave young woman, who +thought herself moved by the Holy Spirit to teach the young Laps. She +could not get away from the thought that she ought to do it. A +clergyman, to whom she spoke upon the matter, counselled her wisely: +"Endeavor to shake off the feeling; if you cannot, then accept it as a +vocation from God, and try it for six months." She said, "If I go, it +shall not be for six months, but for three years." She went; and the +three years became seven. She seems also to have been a noble and +beautiful creature. She gathered the children around her, under the most +difficult circumstances, expending her little property in putting up a +schoolhouse for them, and laying in sacks of potatoes, that she might +feed the half-famishing; learning herself the Laplandish language, +teaching them the Swedish, and discoursing to them about the love of +God. + +In spite of the bitter words of warning which John Ruskin has thought it +his duty to speak to such women as enter upon theological studies, a +good many women in Great Britain and this country have engaged in what +is properly the work of the Christian ministry. The only ordained +minister whose work has come under our notice since the marriage of +Antoinette Blackwell is the Rev. Olympia Brown, settled over the +Universalist Society at Weymouth Landing, Mass., and lately called to +Newburgh in New York. Her ministry has been highly successful, and is to +be mentioned here chiefly on account of a legal decision to which it has +given rise. The church at Weymouth Landing made an appeal to the +Legislature, last winter, as to the legality of marriages solemnized by +her. The Legislature gave the same general construction to the masculine +relatives in the enactment which the English law gave to the old Latin +word in the charter of Apothecaries' Hall; deciding that marriages so +solemnized are legal, and no further legislation necessary. + +Mention, too, should be made of Rev. Lydia A. Jenkins, who has been a +successful preacher among the Universalists for the last eight or ten +years, and is now settled at Binghamton, N.Y. + +Very recently, during the illness of her husband, the minister at +Bethesda Chapel, Newcastle, England, a Mrs. Booth occupied the pulpit, +to the great interest and profit of the congregation. Among the +Methodists and "Christians,"[50] as well as among the Quakers, women +have always been received as preachers. In October, 1866, I found a Mrs. +Timmins settled as the pastor of Ebenezer Church, three miles from +Yellow Springs, Ohio, where she had been for three years. Ann Rexford is +mentioned as an effective preacher among the Christians. Her preaching +attracted large crowds in the State of New Jersey, some thirty years +ago. + +But the most remarkable record, if we except those to be found among +the Quakers, of any single woman's work in the ministry, is that of +Abigail Hoag Roberts, who was the settled minister of a church built for +her at Milford, N.J., and who died in 1841, at the age of forty-nine. + +With her ministry is interlinked that of two other women,--that of Nancy +Gore Cram, of Weare, N.H., and a Mrs. Hedges. Mrs. Cram began life as a +Free-will Baptist, and undertook a mission to the Oneida Indians. The +spiritual destitution of Central New York in the year 1812 affected her +profoundly. Not a preacher of her own denomination in New Hampshire +could be induced to go there. Disappointed in them, she hurried to +Woodstock, Vt., and laid the case before a conference of "Christian" +elders and ministers, then in session. They understood her better. She +hurried back to the field she had left; and, when the ministers followed +her, they were astonished at her work. A church was built for her at +Ballston Spa. She is described as a delicate, blue-eyed woman, with dark +hair, dressing plainly in black silk, with her hair in a silk net; her +whole appearance and manner befitting her work. She died in 1816, +suddenly, in the fortieth year of her age. Mrs. Roberts was one of her +converts,--a woman who was a constant preacher, from June, 1814, to the +June of 1841, in which she died, and, for many years, a settled pastor +over the church at Milford, where a monument has been erected to her. +More than once she defended the unity of God in public discussion with +the clergy, whom she brought to ignominious defeat. She travelled +through the three States of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, +where her name is still a household word. More than once, she was +threatened by her own sex with "tar and feathers." She seems to have +been, like Ann Hutchinson, a witty woman. "If you feel called to +preach," said one minister to her, "why do you not go to the +heathen?"--"So far as I can judge," she answered, "I am in the midst of +them." She had a large family of children, and was distinguished for her +household skill. She was quite famed for delicate clear-starching, and, +on one occasion, wove with a hand-shuttle twenty-four yards of woollen +cloth between early morning and nine o'clock at night. Many people +sought her for information. Disliking one woman's vulgarity, she said to +her, "If you believe in the Holy Ghost, why not use the _language_ that +the Holy Ghost uses?" She was a great sufferer in her latter years, but +continued to preach at the Milford church, where she had four hundred +communicants, and a congregation, at times, of twelve hundred persons, +even after she was compelled to lean upon a staff. The Rev. Eli Fay +preached her funeral sermon, and bore testimony to her great ability. +The life from which I have drawn these particulars was written by her +son, and printed at Irvington, N.J. + +Her colleague, Mrs. Hedges, died before her; but a singular anecdote is +related of her. She was exercised with some doubts as to the separate +existence of the soul, and besought God in prayer to satisfy her mind. +It seemed to her, after retiring to rest, that her soul left her body, +passed through locked doors, and found several unusual adjustments of +furniture in the house, and at last returned to the pale form upon the +bed. She rose happy, but, on trying to prove her vision, found every +thing in its usual place. A thorough inquiry in the household, however, +showed that the changes she had observed had actually occurred in the +night, and continued for some time. Her experience was the not uncommon +one of the Seeress of Prevorst. + +It will be remembered, that, in the first edition of "Woman's Right to +Labor," I proposed a deaconess in every church; and I found, the other +day, a little record in reference to the old church at Amsterdam, in +Holland, which I copy here:-- + + "In the church at Amsterdam, there were about three hundred + communicants; and they had for pastors two admirable men, Smith and + Robertson, and four ruling elders, as well as one aged woman as + deaconess, who served them many years, though she was sixty years + old when she was chosen. She filled her office honorably, and was an + honor to the congregation. She sat commonly in a convenient place in + the church, with a little birchen rod in her hand, and held the + little children in much awe, so that they disturbed not the + assembly. She diligently visited the sick and the infirm, especially + women, and called on younger sisters, in case of need, to watch + over them at night, and to give other assistance that might be + required; and, if they were poor, she made collections for them, + among those who were in a condition to give, or informed the deacons + of the case. She was obeyed as a mother in Israel, and a true + handmaid of the Lord." + +With the exception of "keeping the little children in much awe," which +might or might not have been desirable, these are precisely the +functions which I desire to see formally renewed. The church at Blooming +Grove, Orange County, N.Y., has existed, for more than a hundred years, +without a creed, and is governed by seven deacons and seven +deacon_esses_. + +The following resolution was introduced by the Rev. S.J. May, at the +Unitarian Conference which met at Syracuse, N.Y., in the first week of +October 1866:-- + + "Whereas women were among the first, the most steadfast, and the + most fearless disciples of Jesus Christ; whereas women have been, + in all ages, the most ready to embrace the religion of the gospel, + and the most constant and devoted members of the Christian Church; + and whereas, in several denominations, women have been among the + most effective preachers of Christianity: therefore, _Resolved_, + That we, Liberal Christians, should do well to encourage those + women among us who are moved by the Holy Spirit to devote + themselves to the ministry, and should assist them to prepare + themselves in the same manner, and to the same extent, as we deem + necessary for young men." + +The convention, having just passed a resolution to admit female +delegates to the session of 1868, rather shrank from this second vote. +Yet of what use to receive delegates, unless they feel free to join in +discussion? and what woman, likely to be sent as a delegate by any +Unitarian church, will ever address the convention until it _more_ than +welcomes the above resolution? To the local conferences, women are +already being elected, and will do great good if they can get courage to +accept their membership practically, and to speak when they have any +thing to say. + +It would not be quite honest nor fair to those women who seek to enter +the pulpit, if I did not here record my own experience in connection +with it. + +I know very well where my natural sphere of work lay, and could I have +had a theological education in my youth, or had even the paths of the +ministry at large been open to women, I have every reason to believe +that I should be at this moment a settled minister. As it was, it never +entered my head that the thing was possible; and except that I taught +steadily in Sabbath schools, and visited as steadily among the city +poor, I never turned toward ministerial work. In the first year of my +marriage, now twenty-two years ago, my husband was settled in the city +of Baltimore, as minister at large to the degraded population, which has +a special character (or want of character) in a large city, in a +slaveholding State. I say _has_, for I cannot yet speak in the past +tense. He had daily schools of girls and women, and nightly schools of +boys and men. The latter were of all ages from six to forty, and had +been gathered together by a great personal effort. In this state of +things, my husband was taken ill. It fell to me, in the first place, not +only to nurse him, but to take charge of his night-school. The ladies +could do very well without me in the day-school; but there was no +clergyman, nor leading man of character and culture, who could be +depended upon to take the _general_ charge of the men and boys, among +whom were some desperate characters. I went first in a very stormy +night; and my Irish servant took her knitting, and sat upon the steps of +the platform while I addressed them. It happened that not a single +teacher braved the storm; and the school, when I called the roll, +responded to the number of eighty. I told them that I knew how dearly +they loved my husband, that he was very ill, and that the only way in +which they could help him was to behave so well that he need feel no +anxiety about his work. They responded at once to this appeal, and I +carried home the best possible account. As Sunday drew near,--this +night-school having been held on Monday,--my husband grew more ill and +more anxious. He thought of the large, mixed congregation, which met him +every week, and for which no provision had been made. We were on an +outpost of our faith; we could not have summoned assistance in season, +nor without an expense we could not well bear. I thought the matter +over; said to myself that it was only like a large Sunday school; that +the fashionable ladies, who often dropped in to hear the preaching, +would certainly stay away, knowing my husband to be ill: so I told him +quietly that I had made arrangements for the Sunday service. He was too +weak to make inquiries, but was comforted at once. He was sick several +weeks,--long enough for me to relinquish reading, and take to +exhortation in pure despair; but he did not find a small congregation +when he resumed his place, and that was my reward. Perhaps no such step +was ever taken more simply, or with less idea of its natural +consequences. When I came back to Boston, radical country ministers took +pains to ask me to their pulpits. I shall not soon forget the first time +I preached to a large Unitarian audience, with a good mixture of city +people. It was at South Hingham; the church was crowded; the country +covered with a crystalline mantle of snow, over which a clear moon +glimmered. The beauty of that night is a permanent possession. So it +went on, till I became, I believe in the winter of 1859 and 1860, the +superintendent of the Sunday school at Indiana-place Chapel, in Boston, +where I remained for five years. This broke up my preaching, for I could +not leave town on Sundays; but it led to my addressing various +Sunday-school gatherings, and my being asked to address Sunday schools +when away from home in the summer. My addressing a Sunday school in +Greenfield in the summer of 1865, while the pastor of the church was +absent with his regiment, led, by his kind sympathy, to my preaching in +the summer of 1866 in the regular Unitarian churches at Rowe and +Warwick, as well as doing irregular service in many other places. The +church at Florence had always shown me a generous appreciation; and I +was often asked to preach for Theodore Parker's people at the Music Hall +and the Melodeon. I always declined to speak for this last society, not +because I do not sympathize with their purposes in the main, but because +I would not consent to be advertised for a religious and especially a +devotional service in the city which I make my home. There may be women +who, in the present state of things, can do this innocently and +properly; but _I_ cannot go into the pulpit myself, except in the +regular sequence of my work, and at the call of duty. The gaping crowd +of curious people who would come to look at a woman in the pulpit, would +disturb the sphere in which it is alone possible for me to work. It was +the custom of the Music-Hall society to advertise for every Sunday, and +they declined to relinquish this advertisement on my account. The +delivering a course of lectures in Hollis-street Vestry in connection +with the Suffolk Sunday-school Union, in April, 1866, showed me that +there was a work of criticism to be done,--and necessary to be +done,--which I could do: so in going West to examine the condition of +certain colleges, in October, 1866, I gave it to be understood, that, if +I were in any Western city over Sunday, I should prefer to preach for +the Unitarian minister--giving him a "labor of love"--to addressing an +audience at an evening lecture. This interfered with my pecuniary +advantage; but I believed it was in my power to enter some pulpits that +would not be offered to all women, and I desired to do what I could to +create a demand for the preaching of women. In this way, I preached for +Robert Collyer in Chicago, for Carlton Staples in Milwaukee, for Mr. +Hunting in Quincy, and in the chapels of Oberlin and Antioch Colleges. I +took the whole service, accepting no assistance in the reading or the +prayer; for it is not well that a woman who fills the pulpit should seem +to shrink from any service there, and sensitive women will always find +their self-possession impaired by any second influence. I received the +kindest sympathy and appreciation from the churches I have mentioned; +and, in every instance but one, I received the usual fee for my service, +voluntarily tendered. I think at least twenty other churches would have +been open to me, could I have gone to them. + +I do not offer this explanation of the manner in which I have been led +into the pulpit, stupidly, in ignorance of the charge of egotism and +folly that may be made against me by those who read it. I have borne +harder things than that charge, for the truth's sake; and I hope that +the real motive of this statement will be transparent to honest and +gentle hearts. + +I long to see women preparing for this work, for there are very few men +in the field; and, if there were more than enough, the pulpit is still +an eminently fit place for a woman. The encouragement I have received, +will show young women what is open to them. With a few words of counsel +to those who may desire to speak in churches, I leave the subject. The +dress of a woman in the pulpit should be such as will attract absolutely +no attention; yet it should be thoroughly graceful and lady-like. A +black silk well made, with collar and cuffs of fine linen, is the best, +with no ornament whatever save the needful brooch. Peculiarity should be +avoided. When we are trying to win souls for heaven, we must not lose +them, because of a "dress reform," which may wait patiently, until more +important things are achieved. + +Again, if the woman who enters the pulpit is a temperance, an +antislavery, or a woman's-rights lecturer, it will be better for her to +give lectures on these subjects in the week. In the pulpit, she should +subordinate these subjects to theological reform, moral appeal, and that +attempt to stimulate religious interest and faith in which most men +fail. Nor would I have her, whatever her station in society, refuse the +fee, small or large, which shall be tendered her. If she has no need of +it, her "poor" will have; and it is important to let the ministry of +women fall into the same social and congregational relations as that of +men. + +There has been a great change in public feeling since the day, not +twelve years since, when I heard Dr. Parkman refuse Lucretia Mott +permission to speak in the old Federal-street Church. + +Among historical instances of the theological influence of woman, that +of the Countess Matilda stands pre-eminent; but a book by Capefigue, +recently published at Paris, shows, that Madame de Krudener was the +first to conceive the idea of the Holy Alliance, and her influence over +the Emperor Alexander was sufficient to induce him to propose what his +allies had no power to decline. Her purpose was finally accomplished, +by her engaging the emperor in prayer. She was finally exiled, and died, +I believe, in the Crimea. It was pretended that her preaching was +dangerous; but, as she spoke only in French, that could hardly be true. + + +ART SCHOOLS. + +An art school, which started some years ago in Boston, in private hands, +finally surrendered its casts, lithographs, and so forth, to the +teachers of the Free Art School of the Lowell Institute. The female +classes of this school are always crowded, and are doing a great deal of +good. Artists are accustomed to say very disparaging things of the +school at the Cooper Institute; but I visited it in December, 1866, and +found a very great improvement within a few years. Under Dr. Rimmer, a +most admirable lecturer on anatomy, there has been an infusion of new +life. The drawings from casts looked better than I have ever seen them. +They have a good master in color, and the drawing and engraving on wood +by the pupils find a ready market. Two of them, Miss Roundtree and Miss +Curtis, are said to have a high reputation. I was delighted to find a +large class coloring photographs; for heretofore it has been almost +impossible for women to receive decent instruction in this art. The +classes are all full; and three times the number of pupils might be +received, if there were more light in the large rooms. It is to be hoped +Mr. Cooper may some time divide them, and put in gas. + +I have taken advantage of the residence in this country of a well-known +member of the Royal Academy, Mrs. Elizabeth Murray, to ascertain what +circumstances led to the formation of the Society of Female Artists, in +London. To Mrs. Grote, the wife of the historian, and Mrs. Murray +herself, this society owed its existence, somewhere in the winter of +1854 and 1855. There is no objection to it, so far as I know, except one +apparent on its catalogues, the present preponderance of distinguished +amateur artists on the Board of Direction. I insert here Mrs. Murray's +letter in reply to my inquiries. The best artists, such as Rosa Bonheur +and Mrs. Murray herself, exhibit with this society. + + MY DEAR MRS. DALL,--On my return to England, after an absence of + many years, I found that women labored under very disheartening + conditions; their professional occupations consisting chiefly of + teaching, music and singing, literature and the fine arts. In the + latter department, they came more under my own personal + observation; and I found, that, although they were countenanced by + men individually, collectively they were persecuted by men, seldom + being permitted membership with any public body, or, when admitted, + were not allowed the full privileges accorded to men. + + For instance: At the Royal Academy of London, women are not + admitted at all to membership. On the walls of that exhibition may + be seen the works of women, which rank among the best; but here + their privilege ends. They assist in bringing their quota of the + entrance fees, the main source of income of the academy, while they + are debarred from all privileges and emoluments. + + The two water-color societies profess to admit women as members, + which they do to a very limited extent; but even here they are + subject to the same restrictions. Under these circumstances, the + project occurred to me of founding a separate and independent + society, which should include only the works of female artists, in + order to give to those excluded from other societies, opportunities + of asserting their own powers. + + The first step was to get up an exhibition to excite public sympathy + in favor of the scheme. This was a most difficult undertaking, as + opposition was met with, not only from men, but from the very women + whose interests were at stake; those who were strong in the + profession fearing to lose caste, and the weaker ones being afraid + to act independently. + + After much perseverance and explanation, several large-minded + persons of the more moneyed and influential ranks in society came + forward, and assisted, by their cordial co-operation, in + establishing a temporary committee. Money was freely contributed; + and the society had a fair start, opening to the public a very + creditable exhibition of the works of female artists. + + Finding that, for the future, I must necessarily be absent from + England, I retired from the Committee of Direction. + + The society has continued in a more or less prosperous condition up + to the present time, although my plan of establishing an adequate + school of art has not been carried out. Much private good has been + the result; and I think the class of women for whom the society was + founded, have been raised in position. + + Believe me, dear madam, + Very truly yours, + (Signed) ELIZABETH MURRAY. + + 13, Pemberton Square, Dec. 22, 1866. + +In Paris, Rosa Bonheur is now the directress, under the government, of +the École Impériale de Dessein, established exclusively for young +women. + + +LABOR.[51] + +The advance of women, as regards all sorts of labor, in the United +States, has been such as might be expected by watchful eyes; and yet +reports on the general question will not read very differently from +those published ten years ago. In New York, women are still reported as +making shirts at seventy-five cents a dozen, and overalls at fifty +cents. These women have two Protective Unions of their own, not +connected with the Workingmen's Union; and most of them have, naturally +enough, sympathized with the eight-hour movement, not foreseeing, +apparently, that the necessary first result of that movement would be a +decrease of wages, proportioned to the limitation of time. Ever since +the beginning of the war, women have been employed in the public +departments, North and South. It has been a matter of necessity, rather +than of choice. The same causes combined to drive women into field-labor +and printing-offices. All through Minnesota and the surrounding regions, +women voluntarily assumed the whole charge of the farms, in order to +send their husbands to the field. A very interesting account has been +recently published of a farm in Dongola, Ill., consisting of two +thousand acres, managed by a highly educated woman, whose husband was a +cavalry officer. It was a great pecuniary success. In New Hampshire, +last summer, I was shown open-air graperies, wholly managed by women, in +several different localities; and was very happy to be told that my own +influence had largely contributed to the experiment. In England, +field-labor is now recommended to women by Lord Houghton, better known +as Mr. Monckton Milnes, who considers it a healthful resource against +the terrible abuses of factory life. At a meeting of the British +Association, last fall, he produced a well-written letter from a woman +engaged in brick-making. This letter claimed that brick-making paid +three times better than factory labor, and ten times better than +domestic service. In addition to persons heretofore mentioned, in this +country, as employing women in out-door work, I would name Mr. Knox, the +great fruit-grower, who, on his place near Pittsburg, Pa., employs two +or three hundred. I have seen it stated, that, during the last four +years, twenty thousand women have entered printing-offices. I do not +know the basis of this calculation; but, judging from my local +statistics, I should think it must be nearly correct. + +To the Committee of the Massachusetts Legislature on the eight-hour +movement, the following towns report concerning the wages and labor of +women, in 1866:-- + + BOSTON.--Glass Company, wages from $4.00 to $8.00 a week. + Domestics, from $1.50 to $3.00 per week. Seamstresses, $1.00 a day. + Makers of fancy goods, 40 to 50 cents a day. + + BROOKLINE.--Washerwomen, $1.00 a day. + + CHARLESTOWN and NEW BEDFORD are ashamed to name the wages, but + humbly confess that they are very low. + + CHICOPEE pays women 90 per cent the wages of men. + + CONCORD pays from 8 to 10 cents an hour. + + FAIRHAVEN gives to female photographers one-third the wages of men. + + HADLEY pays three-fourths; to domestics, one-third; seamstresses, + one-quarter to one-third. + + HOLYOKE, in its paper-mills, offers one-third to one-half. + + LANCASTER pays for pocket-book making from 50 to 75 cents a day. + + LEE pays in the paper-mills one-half the wages of men. + + LOWELL.--The Manufacturing Company averages 90 cents a day. The + Baldwin Mills pay 60 to 75 cents a day. + + NEWTON pays its washerwomen 75 cents a day, or 10 cents an hour. + + NORTH BECKET pays to women one-third the wages of men. + + NORTHAMPTON pays $5.00 a week. + + SALISBURY, for sewing hats, $1.00 a day. + + SOUTH READING, on rattan and shoe work, $5.00 to $10.00 a week. + + SOUTH YARMOUTH, half the wages of men, or less. + + TAUNTON, one-third to two-thirds the wages of men. + + WALPOLE pays two-thirds the wages of men. + + WAREHAM pays to its domestics from 18 to 30 cents a day; to + seamstresses, 50 cents to $1.00. + + WILMINGTON pays two-thirds the wages of men. + + WINCHESTER pays dressmakers $1.00 a day; washerwomen, 12 cents an + hour. + + WOBURN keeps its women to work from 11 to 13 hours, and pays them + two-thirds the wages of men. + + On the better side of the question, FALL RIVER testifies that + women, in competition, earn nearly as much as men. + + LAWRENCE, from the Pacific Mills, that the women are _liberally_ + paid. We should like to see the figures. The Washington Mills pay + from $1.00 to $2.00 a day. + + STONEHAM gives them $1.50 per week. + + WALTHAM reports the wages of the watch-factory as very + _remunerative_. In 1860, I reported this factory as paying from + $2.50 to $4.00 a week. Here, also, we should prefer figures to a + general statement. + + BOSTON has now many manufactories of paper collars. Each girl is + expected to turn out 1,800 daily. The wages are $7.00 a week. In + the paper-box factory, more than 200 girls are employed; but I + cannot ascertain their wages, and therefore suppose them to be low. + I know individuals who earn here $6.00 a week; but that must be + _above_ the average. + +The best-looking body of factory operatives that I have ever seen are +those employed in the silk and ribbon mills on Boston Neck, lately under +the charge of Mr. J.H. Stephenson, and those at the Florence Silk Mills +in Northampton, owned by Mr. S.L. Hill. The classes, libraries, and +privileges appertaining to these mills make them the best examples I +know; and this is shown in the faces and bearing of the women. + +We are always referred to political economy, when we speak of the low +wages of women; but a little investigation will show that other causes +co-operate with those, which can be but gradually reached, to determine +their rates. + +1. The wilfulness of women themselves, which, when I see them in +positions I have helped to open to them, fills me with shame and +indignation. + +2. The unfair competition, proceeding from the voluntary labor, in +mechanical ways, of women well to do. + +For the first, we cannot greatly blame the women whom employers choose +for their _good looks_, for expecting to earn their wages through them, +rather than by the proper discharge of their duties. Their conduct is +not the less shameful on that account; but I seem to see that only time +and death and ruin will educate them. + +For the second, we must strive to develop a public sentiment, which, +while it continues to hold labor honorable, will stamp with ignominy any +women who, in comfortable country homes, compete with the workwomen of +great cities. There are thousands of wealthy farmers' wives to-day, who +just as much drive other women to sin and death as if they led them with +their own hands to the houses in which they are ultimately compelled to +take refuge. Still further, it has come to be known to me, that in +Boston, and I am told in New York also, wealthy women, who do not even +do their own sewing, have the control of the finer kinds of fancy work, +dealing with the stores which sell such work, under various disguises. I +cannot prove these words, but they will strike conviction to the hearts +of the women themselves, and I wish them to have some significance for +men; for, if these women had the pocket-money which their taste and +position require, they would never dream of such competition. One thing +these men should know, that such women are generally known to their +employers, and their domestic relations are judged accordingly. + +The recent investigations into factory labor in England concern rather +the condition than the wages of the women. At _flower-making_, 11,000 +girls are employed from fourteen to eighteen hours daily. In _hardware_ +shops and factories, they work, from six years of age, fourteen hours +daily. In _glass_ factories, 5,000 women are employed, from nine years +of age and upwards, eighteen hours daily. In _tobacco_ factories, 7,000 +women are employed, under conditions of great physical suffering. As +_knitters_, from six years old, they work fourteen hours daily for 1s. +3d. a week! + +This terrible state of things is partly owing to competition with the +labor of French machinery. A great deal of ignorant prejudice against +machines is one of its results. In Sheffield, _files_ are still made by +_hand_; while here, in America, we make _watches_ by _machinery_! The +disposition of the whole community, both here and in Great Britain, +towards this labor question, is kindly. It has become a momentous social +problem. During the fifteen years that my attention has been riveted to +this subject, I have seen a great change in public feeling. + +I have received the Sixth Annual Report of the Society for the +Employment of Women, of which the Earl of Shaftesbury is President, and +Mr. Gladstone a Vice-President. This society has trained some +hair-dressers, clerks, glass-engravers, book-keepers, and telegraph +operators; but its greatest service consists in the constant issue of +tracts, to influence developing public opinion. Such an association +should be started in New York. + +I should have been glad to inaugurate in Boston, during the last six +years, several important industrial movements. The war checked the +enthusiasm I had succeeded in rousing; and I have not been able to pause +in my special work of collecting and observing facts to stimulate it +afresh, or to solicit personally the necessary means. How easy it would +be for a few wealthy women to test these experiments! + +I would first establish a mending-school; and, having taught women how +to darn and patch in a proper manner, I would scatter them through the +country, to open shops of their own. As it is, I do not know a city, in +which a place exists to which a housekeeper could send a week's wash, +sure that it would be returned with every button-hole, button, hem, +gusset, and stay in proper condition. These mending-shops should take on +apprentices, who should be sent to the house to do every sort of +repairing with a needle. + +I would open another school to train women to every kind of trivial +service, now clumsily or inadequately performed by men. If, for +instance, you now send to an upholsterer to have an old window-blind or +blind-fixture repaired, his apprentice will replace the entire thing at +a proportionate cost, leaving the old screw-holes to gape at the gazer. +I would train women to wash, repair, and replace in part, and to carry +in their pockets little vials of white or red lead to fill the gaping +holes. Full employment could be found for such apprentices. + +At Milwaukee, in October, 1866, I found a young woman well established +as a hair-dresser. She belonged to a superior class of society, and +encountered great opposition in carrying out her plan. "People would +treat her much better," said a resident clergyman to me, in detailing +her struggles, "if she were the willing mistress of a rich man." She had +no taste for teaching, but I found in her a cultivated and pleasant +companion. Since the war began, a good many women have been employed as +clerks in the public offices at Washington. There is now some talk of +their removal. If this should occur, it would be in consequence of unfit +appointments, and the habits and annoyances which demoralized women have +imposed upon the departments. The proper place to begin removals is +obviously with the corrupt men, who have pensioned their mistresses out +of the public coffers. + +In Chicago, I found Fanny Paine, a girl of thirteen, acting as paymaster +to the Eagle Works Manufacturing Company. She will, in one year, pay out +a quarter of a million of dollars. She keeps the time-sheets, pay-roll, +and account-book of each of the four hundred men employed. She receives +about five thousand dollars a week from the bank, and makes the proper +balances with the cashier, after paying her men. She knows every man, +earns six hundred and twenty-five dollars per annum, and is represented +as perfectly robust. It gave me no pleasure to find so young a girl in a +position so exposed. I would have her uncommon faculties mature in +quiet. The "London Athenæum" lately said, "A phenomenon worthy of +consideration is the increasing number of female players on stringed +instruments in France. At the examination of the conservatory this year, +Mademoiselle Boulay gained a first, Mademoiselle Castellan a second +prize. The violoncello has its professional students among the gentler +sex. Madame Viardot is about to turn her experience to account, by +editing a classical selection of music." + +A very dear friend of mine,--Charlotte Hill, of West Gouldsborough, in +Maine,--born a farmer's daughter, too deaf to teach, and too delicate to +sew, had an intense love for music. She taught herself the violin. She +then made a profession for herself by offering to play it at rustic +parties; and one year, in the pursuit of this profession, she travelled +more than eight hundred miles, and laid by three hundred dollars. This +money was not spent on jewelry, but on the best books that our best +publishers could furnish. It takes a genius to do a thing like +that,--trust in one's self, and a far deeper trust in God; but there are +multitudes of women whom suggestion and sympathy would lead into such +thriving ways. + +I have heard recently of a young girl in Shirley, who supports herself +and her father by gunning. She not only sends game to market, but +prepares the breasts of birds for ornamental purposes. She has bought +her own house by her profits. + +When I was at Florence, Mass., in the summer of 1865, I drove over to +the famous button-factory at Easthampton. This great industry was +founded by a woman; and, as I had often heard mythical stories about it, +I wished to get at the facts. I found Samuel Williston, a very good +specimen of a fine old English gentleman. He is a man between sixty and +seventy, with hair and beard as white as snow. I found him in a blue +coat with bright buttons, a buff waistcoat, and white pants, and very +willing to tell his wife's story, if it would "encourage other women." + +"My wife's father," he went on to say, "was a Mr. Graves. He was a poor +man, with a large family of children. His wife and daughters used to go +over to Northampton to get knitting from the stores. One day, all the +knitting had been given out; and Mrs. Graves showed her disappointment +so plainly that the shopman asked her to take some buttons to cover. In +those days, all our buttons came from England, where they were made by +hand; but our tailor had got out, and wanted some for coats and vests in +a hurry. Mrs. Graves made about a gross, all her daughters helping, and +did it so well that the work was continued. Then my wife took it up. She +got some of the work from her mother. That was in 1825-26,--forty years +ago. I had invested in merino sheep. I had ninety ewes and a large farm; +but I was a young man, and found it hard to get along. It looked as +though this business would help. My wife wanted to control the work. She +hired girls to help her, and took all the orders that came. J.D. Whitney +and Hayden & Whitney sold all she could make. When she had had the +business a year, I went to Boston, Providence, Hartford, New Haven, New +York,--in short, I went _all round_,--with samples. I got my orders at +first hand, and from that the business began. + +"When we heard that machine-made buttons had been introduced into +England, we sent over to buy the right to make them, and Mr. Hayden +introduced them here. + +"Every man must have his small beginnings," added Mr. Williston, with an +embarrassed blush; "but, when a man has such a wife as mine, he is +lucky." + +It is said that nearly a million of dollars is invested in this button +business at Easthampton. The Willistons are Congregational Christians; +and the "Round Table" stated lately, that the wealth thus accumulated, +besides being of great local value in developing the resources of the +State, had established one seminary, built three churches, and assisted +colleges and schools without number. + +It is very rare that the labor of women becomes consolidated into +capital; but there is no reason why it should not. The mother of James +Freeman Clarke, whose name I use here in compliance with her own +expressed desire, was a wonderful illustration of what common sense and +determination will accomplish. The petted darling of a wealthy family, +Madame Clarke found herself summoned, by her husband's illness and early +death, to retrieve, almost unaided, the fortunes of six children. The +first money which she could lay aside, at the head of a boarding-house, +lifted the mortgage from a small property which she knew she was to +inherit, and which she felt sure would increase in value. For this +property she ultimately received her own price, being, to the great +amazement of applicants, her own "man of business" in all negotiations. +The small sum it yielded she put out at interest in new States, where +money was scarce, and multiplied it tenfold before she died, not by +careless speculation, but by investing it wisely in the heart of the +great cities of Chicago and Milwaukee, by buying what she saw with her +own eyes to be valuable. "I want women to know how to manage their own +concerns as I did," she would say. "It only takes a little common sense. +Women ought not to give up their property to men, or even ask their +advice about it. The best men will prop up their shaky plans with a +woman's money; but women should watch men, see where shrewd men put +their money, and do as they _do_, not as they _say_." + +I am sorry that the purpose of this volume does not permit me to show +how this noble woman used the money she made for the profit, the +religious advancement, and the bodily comfort of those who seemed to +need its aid. + +One other woman, whose name I am not permitted to mention, deserves to +be spoken of in this connection. She was an orphan, and began life as a +factory girl with twelve cents and a half. Her father had never dreamed +of any need to educate a daughter. She took a sister into the factory +with her; and, while one worked, the other went to school,--my friend +opening a dressmaker's shop, at times, to speed the process. While in +the mills, she secured, by a wise firmness, many privileges for the +girls. She married, and, after the death of an only child, sought to +make herself happy, by being of use; and opened, for the girls whose +wages had been reduced, a Protective Union shoe-store, taking all that +one man and eight apprentices could make daily. At last, she borrowed a +hundred dollars, and went to Lynn,--the first woman that ever bought +goods there. She soon controlled the prices of the trade, opened a +second store, and finally bought out the Union. + +Part of her store she devoted to fancy goods, and, for seven years and a +half, did all the buying in Boston. She then went to Philadelphia, +leaving the stores in her husband's charge, and took her degree at +Pennsylvania College. After this, she lectured on Physiology throughout +New England, being often profitably employed by the corporations to +lecture to the girls. By this time, she owned her horse and carriage, +her house, and twenty thousand dollars, beside having a good practice in +a country town. Circumstances then carried her to California, where, in +three years and a half, she made thirteen thousand dollars, partly by +her profession, and partly by buying up Government vouchers, in which +the men at the Navy Yard were paid. She gave gold, and received +greenbacks. Before she left the State, one of its most eminent +physicians came to her to know by what secret she cured patients whom he +had given up. She showed him the errors of his own practice; and, when +she returned to New England, left, with perfect faith, her patients in +his hands. + +If this woman were not still living, I should wish to record the details +of her life; but they suggest so much, that I have not thought it right +to suppress them altogether. + +Mr. Thayer and two ladies have lately attempted, in Boston, at No. 28, +Ash Street, a small experiment in the way of a lodging-house for girls. +This was first suggested to the ladies, by the misfortunes of a young +woman who came under their notice. They tried to hire a house, but found +it cheaper to buy; Mr. Thayer being responsible for half the expense, +and each of the ladies for one-quarter. The house was furnished at the +cost of friends. It has gas and water in nearly every room, and shelters +29 girls. They pay for light, rent, lodging, and fire, repairs and +service, $1.50 per week, and $1.25. There are two single beds in most of +the rooms. The matron keeps an exact account of her expenditure; and +each week the stores are weighed by one of the ladies, the waste being +charged, as well as the marketing, to the girls. + +The board, so managed, costs each girl $1.75 a week. Some of the girls +wash for themselves in the evening, and a woman is hired for the house +once a week. They take care of their own rooms. The matron employs a +cook. There are only two rules,--that every girl shall be in at 10 P.M., +and that a week's notice shall be given when any inmate desires to +leave. No supervision is exercised except of the stores and the matron's +accounts. The house was opened Dec. 15, 1866, and is a success according +to its plan. + +Grateful as I am to see this attempt made, I cannot feel that this plan +should be followed for the future. Girls do not wish to receive charity, +nor can any experiment be thoroughly successful, which does not pay, in +the long-run, a fair percentage on the cost of house and furniture. Now, +$4.00 a week is, in my estimation, only the fair cost price of the style +of board and living which these girls receive; and it could not be kept +at that under average management. + +I do not know the cost of the house, but it would certainly rent for +$600. The taxes upon it would be, at least, $120. + +Now, let us suppose that 30 girls occupy it, each paying the highest +rent, of $1.50 per week, which is $45 a month. In 13 months, they would +pay $585;--a sum less than the rent alone; the house and water taxes, +light, lodging, fire, repairs, and service, being thrown in gratis. I am +sure my estimate of the rent and taxes is beneath the real value of +both; and it is evident, that no efforts to benefit this class, on a +large scale, will succeed, unless made to pay better: companies will +undertake only profitable work. I want to see girls unite to furnish +themselves, in a still more modest way, with what they need; and I wish +to see a system of cooking-houses established, which shall simplify the +whole matter. + +In New York, a Working-women's Home is about to be established, the plan +of which was long since submitted to the public. A building has been +purchased on Elizabeth Street, which will afford accommodations for four +hundred persons. For this, $100,000 has been paid, and $25,000 more will +be expended in fitting it up. Half the amount has already been raised; +and the managers are making strong efforts to collect the remainder. Of +its objects, the "Evening Post" says,-- + + "In this Home will be found clean, well-ventilated rooms, wholesome + food, and facilities for education and self-improvement. Girls + exposed to the temptations of a city life will be surrounded by + both moral and Christian influences. + + "The institution is intended to benefit a class of women who now + find it impossible, with their slender means, to procure + comfortable homes, and are forced to live where moral purity, as + well as health, is endangered. + + "It is well known that families and boarding-house keepers almost + always object to female boarders, and that many thousands of + sewing-women find it difficult to obtain quarters. Artificial + flower-makers, book-folders, hoop-skirt manufacturers, packers of + confectionery, &c., are compelled, if deprived of parental shelter, + to accept such homes and accommodations as their very limited + resources will command. + + "It is not intended to make this a charitable institution; but the + prices will be made so moderate as to be within the means of those + who are to be benefited by it, while, at the same time, the + establishment will be self-sustaining." + +Mr. Halliday says of it,-- + + "The whole expense of first purchase, alterations, and furniture, + will be about $140,000. Messrs. Peter Cooper, James Lenox, James + Brown, Stewart Brown, William H. Aspinwall, E.J. Woolsey, and Mrs. + C.L. Spencer, have, unsolicited, each contributed one thousand + dollars. Twenty thousand dollars has been appropriated on condition + that we obtained a like amount in donations. We expect to have + accommodations for nearly five hundred, and the charge for board + and washing will be from three dollars and a quarter to three and a + half per week. + + "There will be parlors, reading room and free library, and ample + bathing rooms. None of good reputation will be refused admission; + no others can become members of the family." + +It is hoped to open the institution by the first of June. + +A Young Women's Christian Association was organized in Boston in May, +1866, under the auspices of Mrs. Henry F. Durant. Furnished rooms have +been provided at 27, Chauncy Street, where young women can obtain +information in regard to employment, boarding-houses, and so on. The +applications average one hundred a month; and the association seeks to +establish a home, where there will be a restaurant for furnishing meals, +at cost, to _young women only_, a free reading and library room, +evening schools, rooms for social purposes, and temporary lodging-rooms. +This is a most desirable thing to do; but it will not be of permanent +benefit, if it puts into a false position any girls capable of +self-support. The funds of wise and kind people must start all such +movements; but, to be useful, they must be, not only in appearance, but +in reality, self-supporting. + +During the summer of 1866, Octavia Hill, of London, a grand-daughter of +the celebrated Dr. Southwood Smith, reports that, after conferring with +John Ruskin, she had hired houses for poor tenants. She put them into +good order, and kept them in it. She would allow, in her tenants, +neither overcrowding nor arrears of rent. She had no middle-men. The +experiment was wholly successful, and paid at once five per cent. + +Mr. Ruskin's lodging-houses, as they are called, are the best that have +ever been established in London. They furnish the cheapest and cleanest +lodgings for the poor, yet pay a good dividend. They are entirely in the +hands of Miss Hill, as Mr. Ruskin himself is more skilful to remedy any +social excrescence than patient to bear with it. He forgets, I think, +what he once wrote concerning the soul that denies itself an encounter +with pain. + +I have mentioned, in the body of this book, the great number of women +who have entered printing-offices since 1860. I have thought that it +might help women in some other departments of labor, to understand how +some of these changes were effected, and in what manner advantages have +been secured, which might easily have been lost. In a town that I know +of, a weekly religious paper was printed by eight women. The most +experienced acted as foreman; and when, in the second year of the war, +strikes began in the printing-offices, a friend directed her attention +to the fact, and showed her how to meet a strike should it come, as it +did, into her own town. As soon as she heard of it, she consulted with +the rest of the hands. Seeing a possible though by no means a certain +advantage, they agreed to be bound by her action in such an event. At +last, the hands employed on the daily evening paper of the town struck, +and the publisher knew not what to do. The girl went to him, told him +she would bring seven able hands with her, and was accepted at once. He +was mean enough to offer half-pay, which she peremptorily refused. The +eight women entered the office on full pay. They had not been there a +week, before every body rejoiced in the change. There was no swearing +and no drinking, but a quiet workroom. At the end of a month, the +disappointed men offered to return: their services were declined, but +the publisher was mean enough to go to his foreman. "My men are ready to +come back," said he: "I have no fault to find with _you_, but I can no +longer give you full wages."--"Do as you please," replied the girl: "you +cannot have us for any less;" and, as the whole seven said amen, the +publisher had nothing to do but to keep them. The advantage that flowed +from union and good sense in this case are evident, and could easily be +imitated in many directions. During the past winter, Miss Stebbens, of +Chickasaw County, Iowa, has been appointed notary public; such +appointments being still so rare as to make the fact worth recording. + + +LAW. + +The "British Medical Journal" was lately reported to have said that more +English women seek for admission to the bar than for entrance into +medical practice. If this be true, it is in marked contrast to the state +of things in this country. Some women have studied law here; many have +written in lawyers' offices; but, so far as I know, not one has desired +to be admitted to the bar: and, in England itself, so far as I know, +Miss Shedden remains the single example of a woman pleading in a court +of law. + +The number of laws passed the last six years, affecting the condition of +women, has been very small. + +The New-York Assembly in February, 1865, passed a law putting the legal +evidence of a married woman on the same basis as if she were a _feme +sole_. The Massachusetts Legislature have legalized marriage ceremonies +performed by an ordained woman; and in January, 1866, Mr. Peckham, of +Worcester, moved for a joint special committee "to consider in what way +a more just and equal compensation shall be awarded to female labor." On +the 4th of April, just past, Samuel E. Sewall and others petitioned for +leave to appoint women on school committees. It is difficult to +conceive on what ground such petitioners had leave to withdraw. These +things are only valuable as indicating that public attention is still +alive. + +In Richmond, Va., recently, a charge of stealing was sustained against a +woman, who was afterwards acquitted, by appeal, on the ground that no +married woman could own her own clothing, and the consequent flaw in the +indictment. In consequence, a bill to secure the rights of property to a +married woman, as if she were a _feme sole_, has been offered in the +House, to the horror of members who gravely assert that there can be no +marriages, if a man does not own his wife's wardrobe! + +In Missouri, the new Constitution confers on women the right to make a +will; and the Legislature is considering the subject of introducing +women to the State University. + +In England, a curious decision has recently been made, in the case of a +clergyman, of the Church of England, who left his children to the +guardianship of his wife, without expressing any opinion as to their +religious education. Joint guardian with the wife was a brother +clergyman, who brings action to have it decided by the Court where the +children shall attend church. The mother, and a son of thirteen, desire +to attend a dissenting chapel; but Sir J. Stuart, Vice-Chancellor, +decided that the _father's_ religious faith must decide the matter for +the children! Such absurdity will do more than any argument to secure +the future freedom of woman. The family history of Madame de Bedout, +recently dead at Paris, furnishes, also, a remarkable illustration of +the absurdity of the old laws. + +The will of Francis Jackson, of Boston, has been recently brought before +our courts to obtain instructions as to its construction. Mr. Jackson's +bequest for the purpose of creating an antislavery sentiment has been +sustained; but the decision reads, February, 1867:-- + + "The gift in the sixth article, to create a trust, unrestricted in + point of time, to secure the passage of laws granting to women + different rights from those belonging to them under the existing + Constitution and laws, does not constitute a legal charity, and is + therefore void, and is remitted to the testator's heirs-at-law." + +The gift in question was intended to aid the publication of such books +as the reader now holds in his hand. + +A very important convention came together at Leipsic, in September, +1865. One hundred and fifty women assembled, pledged to assert the right +to labor, and to bridge the gulf between the compensations of the two +sexes. Madame Louise Otto Peters opened the conference in an able +speech. She stated that there were five millions of women in Germany, +who could each earn, if allowed, three thalers a week. A thousand women +might find employment as chemists, on salaries of one hundred and fifty +thalers a year, exclusive of board and lodging. Another thousand might +be employed as boot-closers. The foundation of industrial and +commercial schools was urged. The weak point of the speech, as reported, +appeared to be, that it took no cognizance of the fact, that an influx +of five millions of laborers must necessarily lower the current rate of +wages she proposed. I mention this convention in a legal connection, +believing that it was intended to remove some local legal barriers. + +A petition from sixty women of Potter County, Penn., has just been +presented to the Legislature of that State, praying for the passage of +an act to enable widows, on the death of a husband, to control the +property acquired by joint labor, in the same manner as the husband does +on the death of the wife. + +When Freeman Clarke was Comptroller of the United-States Currency, he +decided that a woman, not being a _citizen_, could not be a bank +director. I consider this logical and satisfactory. I wish more +decisions of this kind could be made. If the position that woman is not +a citizen were pushed to its extreme, it would become untenable, her +property could not be taxed, and the necessary remedy would be applied. +One bank remonstrated against the comptroller's decision, desiring to +retain the services of women "hitherto satisfactory." I see, by a +Washington paper, that another national bank desires leave to diminish +the number of its directors; so many of its shares being held by women, +that nine men could not be found to fill the office. + +Now, let some bright women buy up, through a broker, all the shares of +such a bank, elect their own president and directors, and see what the +Government can do. The absurdity of such a position, practically, is +evident to all who know how business is done in our country towns. + + +SUFFRAGE. + +Dr. Hunt and a few other women have continued their annual protests, +without intermission. In somewhat the same way have petitions recently +been sent to Congress in behalf of universal suffrage. We had no +expectation that any favorable reception would await such petitions; but +it was a duty to put them on record, if we could do it without +perplexing public business. What fate they met in Congress, you have so +recently heard, that I have no occasion to record it. Minnesota, New +York, and other States, have petitioned their Legislatures to the same +effect. + +On the 7th of February, 1867, the House of Representatives in Kansas +decided, in concurrence with the Senate, to amend a resolution for the +amendment of the Constitution, by striking out the words "white" and +"male," and making intelligence the basis of suffrage after 1870. This +action has been since rescinded in some way, only the word "_white_" +being stricken out. In Congress, Mr. Noel, of Missouri, offered a series +of resolutions in favor of extending suffrage to women, and authorizing +the calling of a convention to amend the Constitution in the State of +Missouri. The acting Vice-President, the Speaker of the Senate, in +recording his protest against the Suffrage Bill of the District of +Columbia, said, "Make it _intelligent_ suffrage, and I will not only +vote for that, but for _women_ also." + +At the recent election of officers for the Philadelphia Mercantile +Library, the female stockholders were admitted to the ballot. + +The "New-York Express" says:-- + + "The exercise of the elective franchise for women was practically + illustrated in the election of officers for the Mercantile Library, + Philadelphia, on Tuesday. A poll was opened for the female + stockholders, who, to the number of a hundred and fifty-six, cast + their votes. Both sexes voted together; and the proceedings were + conducted with the utmost propriety, there being no confusion or + disorder, as is too often the case where men vote alone. The ladies + walked up, and deposited their ballots with as much _sang froid_ as + if they were accustomed to the privilege. As illustrating how the + thing _might be done_, this voting at the library election should + be noted." + +Some doubts having been expressed as to the fact of women having voted +in New Jersey, first published by me, on information given by Thomas +Garratt, in my lectures upon Law, I append here a history of the +Constitution of New Jersey in that regard, which has been gathered by +Lucy Stone and Antoinette Blackwell, as well as an account of my own +recent interview with a member of the House of 1807, which finally +repealed the obnoxious clause. + +During the recent important discussion in the Senate upon the +proposition to extend the ballot to the women of the District of +Columbia, New Jersey was alluded to as a precedent. The precedent being +disputed, the following statement was published in the "Newark Daily +Advertiser:"-- + + "In 1709 a provincial law confined the privilege of voting to 'male + freeholders having one hundred acres of land in their own right, or + fifty pounds current money of the province in real and personal + estate;' and, during the whole of the colonial period, these + qualifications continued unchanged. + + "But on the 2d of July, 1776 (two days before the Declaration of + Independence), the Provincial Congress of New Jersey, at + Burlington, adopted a Constitution, which remained in force until + 1844, of which sect. 4 is as follows: 'Qualifications of Electors + for Members of Legislatures. _All inhabitants of this colony_, of + full age, who are worth fifty pounds proclamation-money, clear + estate in the same, and have resided within the county in which + they claim a vote for twelve months immediately preceding the + election, shall be entitled to vote for representatives in Council + and Assembly, and also for all other public officers that shall be + elected by the people of the county at large.' + + "Sect. 7 provides that the Council and Assembly jointly shall elect + _some fit person within the colony_ to be Governor. This + Constitution remained in force until 1844. + + "Thus, by a deliberate change of the terms 'male freeholder' to + 'all inhabitants,' suffrage and ability to hold the highest office + in the State were conferred both on women and negroes. + + "In 1790, a committee of the Legislature reported a bill regulating + elections, in which the words '_he or she_' are applied to voters; + thus giving legislative indorsement to the alleged meaning of the + Constitution. + + "In 1797 the Legislature passed an act to regulate elections, + containing the following provisions:-- + + "Sect. 9. 'Every voter shall openly, and in full view, deliver _his + or her ballot_, which shall be a single written ticket, containing + the names of the person or persons for whom _he or she votes_,' &c. + + "Sect. 11. 'All free inhabitants of full age, who are worth fifty + pounds proclamation-money, and have resided within the county in + which they claim a vote for twelve months immediately preceding the + election, shall be entitled to vote for all public officers which + shall be elected by virtue of this act; and no person shall be + entitled to vote in any other township or precinct than that in + which he or she doth actually reside at the time of the election.' + + "Mr. William A. Whitehead, of Newark, in a paper upon this subject, + read by him in 1858 before the New-Jersey Historical Society, + states that, in this same year (1797), women voted, at an election + in Elizabethtown, for members of the Legislature. 'The candidates + between whom the greatest rivalry existed were John Condit and + William Crane, the heads of what were known, a year or two later, + as the "Federal Republican" and "Federal Aristocratic" parties, the + former the candidate of Newark and the northern portions of the + county, the latter that of Elizabethtown and the adjoining country, + for Council. Under the impression that the candidates would poll + nearly the same number of votes, the Elizabethtown leaders thought, + that, by a bold _coup d'état_, they might secure the success of Mr. + Crane. At a late hour of the day, and, as I have been informed, + just before the close of the poll, a number of females were brought + up, and, under the provisions of the existing laws, allowed to + vote. But the manoeuvre was unsuccessful; the majority for Mr. + Condit in the county being ninety-three, notwithstanding.' + + "The 'Newark Sentinel,' about the same time, states that 'no less + than seventy-five women were polled at the late election in a + neighboring borough.' In the presidential election of 1800, between + Adams and Jefferson, 'females voted very generally throughout the + State; and such continued to be the case until the passage of the + act (1807) excluding them from the polls. At first, the law had + been so construed as to admit single women only: but, as the + practice extended, the construction of the privilege became + broader, and was made to include females eighteen years old, + married or single, and even _women of color_; at a contested + election in Hunterdon County in 1802, the votes of two or three + such actually electing a member of the Legislature. + + "That women voted at a very early period, we are informed by the + venerable Mr. Cyrus Jones, of East Orange, who was born in 1770, and + is now ninety-seven years old. He says that 'old maids, widows, and + unmarried women very frequently voted, but married women very + seldom;' that 'the right was recognized, and very little said or + thought about it in any way.' + + "In the spring of 1807, a special election was held in Essex County, + to decide upon the location of a court-house and jail; Newark and + its vicinity struggling to retain the county buildings, + Elizabethtown and its neighborhood striving to remove them to + 'Day's Hill.' + + "The question excited intense interest, as the value of every man's + property was thought to be involved. Not only was every legal voter, + man or woman, white or black, brought out; but, on both sides, gross + frauds were practised. The property qualification was generally + disregarded; aliens, and boys and girls not of full age, + participated; and many of both sexes 'voted early, and voted often.' + In Aquackanonk Township, thought to contain about three hundred + legal voters, over eighteen hundred votes were polled, all but seven + in the interest of Newark. + + "It does not appear that either _women or negroes_ were more + especially implicated in these frauds than the white men. But the + affair caused great scandal, and they seem to have been made the + scapegoats. + + "When the Legislature assembled, they set aside the election as + fraudulent; yet Newark retained the buildings. Then they passed an + act (Nov. 15, 1807), restricting the suffrage to white male adult + citizens twenty-one years of age, residents in the county for the + twelve months preceding, and worth fifty pounds proclamation-money. + But they went on, and provided that all such whose names appeared + on the last duplicate of State or county taxes should be considered + worth fifty pounds; thus virtually abolishing the property + qualification. + + "In 1820, the same provisions were repeated, and maintained until + 1844, when the present State Constitution was substituted. + + "Thus it appears, that, from 1776 to 1807,--a period of thirty-one + years,--the right of women and negroes to vote was _admitted and + exercised_; then from 1807 to 1844--by an arbitrary act of the + Legislature, which does not seem to have been ever contested--the + constitutional right was _suspended_, and both women and negroes + excluded from the polls for thirty-seven years more. The extension + of suffrage, in the State Constitution of 1776, to 'all + inhabitants' possessing the prescribed qualifications, was + doubtless due to the Quaker influence, then strong in West Jersey, + and then, as now, in favor of the equal rights of women. + + "Since 1844, under the present Constitution, suffrage is conferred + upon 'every white male citizen of the United States, of the age of + twenty-one years, who shall have been a resident of this State one + year, and of the county in which he claims a vote five months next + before the election,' excepting paupers, idiots, insane persons, + and criminals. + + "This Constitution is subject to amendment by a majority of both + Houses of two successive Legislatures, when such amendment is + afterward ratified by the people at a special election. + + "LUCY STONE, + H.B. BLACKWELL." + +In a recent visit to Perth Amboy, a friend directed my attention to a +figure in a broad-brimmed hat, very much like that which used to adorn +the cover of Poor Richard's Almanac. "That man is ninety-five years +old," said he. "He spent his youth in preventing the New-Jersey people +from running their slaves off South. A prospective emancipation act had +been passed, which made the young negroes a poor investment; but our +friend Parker, there, looked after them without any fee. We think he +looks like Benjamin Franklin." The next day, I took a drive with Mr. +Parker himself, and I found he possessed another claim on my interest. +The original Constitution of New Jersey, adopted in 1776, left women +free to vote, by leaving out the word "male." In 1790, when the +Constitution was revised, a Quaker member, "Friend Hooper," rose to say +that among his people the women were allowed their natural share of +influence. At his instance, the matter was made clearer by the insertion +of the words "he or she." In 1807, after an election contested with +singular virulence, these words were expunged, and the word "male" +inserted. I had never expected to see a member of the Legislature who +repealed this phrase; but Friend Parker was there, and helped do it. He +assured me that the women were not at that time anxious to retain the +privilege; but that, if they had been, the Legislature was so irate, +that the change would have taken place. Lads, both white and colored, +and under age, had dressed in women's clothes, to swell the ballot, +which was more than double what it should have been; the irritating +question being the possible removal of the county buildings. + +A few days since, I cut from the paper the following paragraph:-- + + "In the Kentucky House of Representatives, on Friday last, an + address was received by the Speaker, from Mrs. ----, of New York, + and read by the Clerk, asking the Legislature of the Southern + States to grant suffrage to white women in the South, so as to give + the Democratic party the advantage over the negro votes, if + Congress passes a general negro-suffrage law. By following out this + plan, Mrs. ---- thinks the South can govern the country, as in the + days of Jefferson." + +I suppress the name, which was printed in full, in this paragraph, +because it is the name of a woman I respect; and I earnestly hope the +whole charge is false. If women seek to advance their own cause by mean +and meretricious tricks,--such as those which have dishonored the policy +of men,--may God for ever disappoint their hope! I would rather be +defeated with the friends of liberty than crowned with its foes. It is +because I believe woman strong enough to withstand the low and loose and +degrading temptations of public life that I would lead her towards it. +If she cannot enter it as an inspiration, may she be for ever shut out! + +Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony, assisted by Lucy Stone and Antoinette +Blackwell, have been busy in agitating all legal questions, and +especially the right of suffrage, ever since the formation of the +Equal-Rights Association, in New York, in May, 1866. Wherever there is +any prospect of a convention to change a State Constitution, it would +seem wise to agitate the matter; but here, in Massachusetts, almost +every thing has been done that should be to protect women, except to +give them the right of suffrage. That question we are too wise to +agitate, until the country recovers somewhat from the anxieties and +perplexities of the war. We have no desire to win from an unjust judge, +for our importunity's sake, a right which could never be useful, unless +it were accorded with the hearty sympathy of the best part of the +community. On March 16, 1867, a motion was made in the Massachusetts +House to instruct the Judiciary Committee to report an amendment to the +State Constitution, granting the right of suffrage to women. The yeas +and nays were taken, and the motion was lost: yeas 44, nays 97. + +In New York, Illinois, and Michigan, the question is to be brought +before the Constitutional Convention. Wisconsin is our banner State, +both branches of her government having concurred, April 4, 1867, in a +resolution to submit it to the people. In New York, last year, Mrs. +Stanton proposed herself as a candidate for Congress, and received, I +think, thirty votes. It was so well understood that her election was +impossible, that her card excited neither ridicule nor discussion. No +one cared to turn aside from more pressing interests to consider it. It +was therefore a waste of strength. I saw, with pain, that some women +did not shrink from employing last year a politician's trick, and sent +to Democratic members of the Senate and House the petitions for the +right of suffrage for women, with which they knew them to possess no +sympathy. Had these petitions been sent to Republican members of either +House, they might have been overlooked in the press of graver anxieties. +Mischievously sent to men like Cowan, women must have known that the +petition would be produced, if it was only to annoy and perplex our +honest friends of the Republican party. In what would our influence upon +politics be better than that of men, if we resort to such measures? +During the past year, I drew up, and forwarded to the Hon. Charles +Sumner, a petition for the right of suffrage, and afterwards sustained +it by two or three letters. I think Mr. Sumner never brought it forward; +but I gladly defer to his judgment as to that. It was my duty to keep +the subject in mind, and see that we did not appear, even in the tumult +left by civil war, to lose sight of our claim. I am glad to offer public +thanks to the Hon. George Thompson, who, in the meeting of the +Equal-Rights Association, held in Philadelphia on Jan. 17, 1867, +defeated a resolution of thanks to Mr. Cowan, and condemnation to Mr. +Sumner, on precisely these grounds. "To thank men like Cowan, who did +not _desire_ to enfranchise woman any more than the negro, was to +stultify ourselves," he said. "To condemn Sumner, because he did not +think _this_ the time to push the claims of woman, was not honorable to +the long-tried friend of human progress." + +Abroad, such things look better. The clean hands of John Stuart +Mill--which no noble woman need fear to touch--have presented to +Parliament the petition of fifteen hundred women for the right of +franchise. This petition is so moderate and sensible, that it deserves +to be preserved. + + "The humble petition of the undersigned showeth,-- + + "That it having been expressly laid down by high authorities, that + the possession of property, in this country, carries with it the + right to vote in the election of representatives in Parliament, it + is an evident anomaly, that some holders of property are allowed to + use this right, while others, forming no less a constituent part of + the nation, and equally qualified by law to hold property, are not + able to exercise this privilege; that the participation of women in + the government is consistent with the principles of the British + Constitution, inasmuch as women in these islands have always been + held capable of sovereignty, and women are eligible for various + public offices. + + "Your petitioners, therefore, humbly pray your honorable House to + consider the expediency of providing for the representation of all + householders, without distinction of sex, who possess such property + or rental qualification as your honorable House may determine. And + your petitioners will ever pray. + + "Mrs. W.B. CARPENTER, 56, Regent's Park Road, London, N.W. + C.M. CLARKSON, Hatfield Road, Wakefield. + FRANCES POWER COBBE, 26, Hereford Square, London, S.W. + ELIZABETH GARRETT, L.S.A., 20, Upper Berkeley Street, London, W. + MARY ANN GASKELL, Plymouth Grove, Manchester. + MATILDA M. HAYS, Great Malvern. + MARY HOWITT, West Hill Lodge, Highgate, N. + M.S. KINGLAKE, 50, Upper Brunswick Place, Brighton. ISA CRAIG + KNOX, 14, Clyde Terrace, New Cross, S.E. S.J. LEWIN, Birkenhead. + HARRIET LUPTON, St. Asaph. ELIZABETH MALLISON, Camp Cottage, + Wimbledon. HARRIET MARTINEAU, The Knoll, Ambleside. JANE MARTINEAU, + 21, Tariton Street, London, W.C. JANE MOXON, 1, Cundall's Yard, + Leeds. MRS. ELIZABETH PEASE NICHOL, Huntly Lodge, Edinburgh. BESSIE + R. PARKES, 15, Wimpole Street, London, W. ELIZABETH PROCTOR, Polam + Hall, Darlington. C. STURCH, Cumberland Terrace, Regent's Park, + London, N.W. MRS. THOMAS TAYLOR, Aston House, Oxfordshire. SARAH + UNWIN, Hale Lodge, Edgeware, Middlesex. ANNA MARY HOWITT WATTS, 24, + Grove Terrace, Highgate Road." + +I append to the above petition a few of the fifteen hundred names, which +will serve to give it identity, and interest in this country. We miss, +among the names, many names of the beloved dead; and many would +doubtless be there that we know, could it be signed by any save +property-holders. + +A very powerful influence was brought to sustain this petition in +Parliament; and among its advocates were James Martineau, Herbert +Spencer, Professor Huxley, and Goldwin Smith. Mr. Mill seems to have +presented a second petition, headed by Lady Goldschmid, and signed by +three thousand persons; and another was offered, at the same time, by +Mr. Russell Gurney. On April 11, 1867, the subject of female suffrage +was first discussed in the House of Commons without being greeted with a +laugh. A petition presented by Mr. Duncan Maclaren, from Edinburgh, was +signed by eight university professors, six doctors of law, eighteen +clergymen, eight barristers, ten physicians, ten officers, and two +thousand other persons. Two women are said to have been lately elected +parish overseers: Mrs. Slocomb for Brittadon, and Mrs. Craig for Bratton +Fleming. The step-daughter of John Stuart Mill, Miss Helen Taylor, +contributed to the January number of the "Westminster" an article which +worthily sustained the far more comprehensive statement of her mother in +1851. It would be difficult to imagine a paper, however, that would +appeal more forcibly to the English people. There is in England a +Woman-Suffrage Association, which proposes to circulate that article as +a tract. Mrs. P.A. Taylor and Frances Power Cobbe are among its most +active members. Mrs. Bodichon has recently brought out two pamphlets on +this subject. They contain one instance, which is not familiar, of the +inconvenience of withholding the franchise from English women. Owners of +estates seek to further their own interest through the voting power of +their tenantry, and frequently eject women from farms, to replace them +by men who have a freehold. On one Suffolk farm, seven women have been +ejected. Among the instances which Mrs. Bodichon adduces to show the +need of female votes are the neglect of female education; the refusal of +leases, or the ejection of old tenants; the want of proper public +spirit, which women might be expected to infuse into affairs; and the +condition of workhouses, and charitable appropriations in general. In +Austria, information furnished to one of Mrs. Bodichon's papers seems to +show that the women have the same electoral rights as men, only that in +a few cases they are compelled to vote by proxy. They vote as nobles, in +their corporate capacity as nuns, and as tax-payers or merchants; but I +need not say that there is much uncertainty in the Austrian +administration of such a law. + +In connection with the name of Fredrika Bremer, I have mentioned the +great changes in Swedish law, mainly due to her influence. An indirect +right of suffrage was further granted to women in 1862; but in December, +1865, the Reform Bill gave the election of members of the Upper Chamber +to municipal and county bodies. In the election of these bodies, women +take part. They must be unmarried or widows, be twenty-five years old, +and have more than four hundred rixdollars per annum. + +Article 15 of the Italian electoral law provides "that the taxation paid +by a widow, or by a wife separated from her husband, shall give a vote +to whichever of her children or near relatives she may select." + +A curious petition has been lately presented to the Hungarian Diet. It +is signed by a number of widows and other women who are landed +proprietors, and asks for them the same equality of political rights +with the male inhabitants of the country, as they possessed in 1848. +These ladies represent that they have much more difficulty in bringing +up their children, and attending to the estates, than men; that they +have to bear the same State burdens; that they are not allowed to take +part in the communal elections; and that, although many of them possess +much more ground than the male electors, they have no political rights. + +In 1848, these women were, for the first time, excluded from the +franchise. + + +PROGRESS. + +The real gain of a reform, starting from the heart of the family, must +necessarily be very slow. I remember, that some years ago, when I +printed my book on Labor, one of my kindest critics congratulated the +public, that, of my nine lectures, I had published only these. He +thought it was useless to contend for more book-learning for women, and +the subject of civil rights still disgusted his sensitive ear. The +common sense of the book on Labor ought to have shown him how I should +treat the subject of education. He could not understand how the woman +who gets an education which does not make her a "bread-winner," is +essentially defrauded, nor how a woman, well paid for her labor, is +essentially wronged, when she is denied the privilege of protecting it +by her vote. There is, however, a surely growing sense of this, shown in +the substantial advance of her civil rights. + +1. In the early part of 1865, the people of Victoria, in Australia, +assembled to elect a member of Parliament, were surprised to find the +whole female population voting. Some quick-sighted woman had discovered +that the letter of the new law permitted it; and their votes were +accepted, and wisely given. The "London Times," in the month of May, +says, that, in a _country like Australia_, it can easily believe that +such an extension of the franchise will be a _marked improvement_, and +thinks that the precedent will stand! + +2. The government of Moravia has also, within the past year, granted the +municipal franchise to widows who pay taxes. + +3. In January, 1864, the Court of Queen's Bench in Dublin, Ireland, +restored to woman the _old right_ of voting for town commissioners. The +justice (Fitzgerald) desired to state that ladies were entitled to sit +as town commissioners as well as to vote for them; and the chief-justice +took pains to make it clear that there was nothing in either duty +repugnant to womanly habits. + +4. The inhabitants of Ain (or Aisne), in France, lately chose nine women +into their municipal council. + +5. At Bergères, the whole council consisted of women; and the mayor, not +being prepared for such good fortune, resigned his office. + +6. Our cause has found able advocates in John Stuart Mill, the "New-York +Evening Post," and Theodore Tilton. If I were asked, whether, in +connection with this gain, we have lost any ground, I should reply that +we have decidedly lost it in connection with the daily press. I do not +know any newspaper, if I except the "Boston Commonwealth," which will +print a letter touching civil rights, from any woman, precisely as it is +written. I think what we need most is to purchase the right to a daily +use of half a column of the "New-York Tribune." + + +RECORD AND OBITUARIES. + +I have been accustomed to connect with reports of this kind some +honorable mention of distinguished women obscure or recently dead. I +cannot do this at any length, after a pause of so many years; but a few +names must be mentioned, a few facts recorded. + +I had occasion, some years ago, to commemorate the services of Maria +Sybilla Merian, painter, engraver, linguist, and traveller, who +published, at Amsterdam, two volumes of engravings of insects and sixty +magnificent plates, illustrating the metamorphoses of the insects of +Surinam. I did not, at that time, know that some of her statements had +been held open to suspicion. In the first place, she asserted, that a +certain fly, the Fulgoria Lantanaria, emitted so much light, that she +could read her books by its aid; still further, that one of the large +spiders, called Mygale, entered the nests of the humming-bird in +Surinam, sucked its eggs, and snared the birds. To all the contention +which arose over these statements, Madame Merian could oppose only her +word. Men who knew that her statements in regard to Europe were +indisputable decided that her word could not be taken in Asia. A very +common folly; but two hundred years have passed, 1866 arrives, and her +justification with it. An English traveller, named Bates, has recently +rescued quite large finches from the Mygale, and poisoned himself with +its saliva, in preparing them for his cabinet. + +I do not know how many years Madam Baring, the mother of the great +banker, has been dead. It is only recently that I have heard, that to +her prudence, activity, and business habits, the family attribute the +sure foundation of their fortunes. Matthew Baring came to Larkbeare, +near Exeter, from Bremen. His wife superintended, in his day, the long +rows of "burlers," or women who picked over the woollen cloth he made. +Her sons, John and Francis, sought a wider field for the fortune their +father left, but did not forget to erect a monument to their mother's +industry. + +About a year since, Eliza W. Farnham laid down her weary head. I did not +know her, nor did I sympathize in her theories. They were sustained by +her imagination rather than her reason; by her impulses rather than any +practical judgment. No moral superiority can justly be conferred on +either sex of a being possessed of intellect and conscience. God has +conferred no such superiority; yet I gladly name Mrs. Farnham here as a +woman whose life--a bitter disappointment to herself--was useful to all +women, and whose books, published since her death, show a marvellous +mental range. + +During the last year, Madame Charles Lemonnier died in Paris. She +devoted her life to the professional education of women. For six years +she found it so difficult to raise the necessary funds, that she had to +content herself with sending her pupils to institutions in Germany. In +1862 the Society for the Professional Instruction of Women was at last +constituted, and opened a school in the Rue de Perle. Two other schools +have since been opened,--one in the Rue de Val Sainte Catherine; the +other, in the Rue Roche. The morning is occupied in these schools with +general studies; the afternoon, with industrial drawing, wood-engraving, +the making-up of garments, linen, &c. She died after initiating a +thoroughly successful work. + +In July, 1865, there died at Corfu a Dr. Barry, attached to the medical +staff of the British army. He was remarkable for skill, firmness, +decision, and great rapidity in difficult operations. He had entered the +army in 1813, and had served in all quarters of the globe, with such +distinction as to ensure promotion without interest. He was clever and +agreeable, but excessively plain, weak in stature, and with a squeaking +voice which provoked ridicule. He had an irritable temper, and answered +some jesting on the topic by calling out the offender, and shooting him +through the lungs. In 1840 he was made medical inspector, and +transferred from the Cape to Malta. He went from Malta to Corfu; and, +when the English Government ceded the Ionian Islands to Greece, resigned +his position in the army, and remained at Corfu. There he died last +summer, forbidding, with his latest breath, any interference with his +remains. The women who attended him regarded this request with the +shameless indifference now so common; and unable to believe, that an +officer, who had been forty-five years in the British service, had +received a diploma, fought a duel, and been celebrated as a brilliant +operator, was not only a woman, but at some period in her life a +_mother_; they called in a medical commission to establish these facts. +A sad, sad picture, which those of us who inquire into the fortunes of +women can readily understand. + +Last November deprived us of Mrs. Gaskell and Fredrika Bremer, of whom a +fuller record will be found in the body of this work. + +In Paris recently died Mrs. Severn Newton. She was the daughter of the +artist Severn, the friend of Keats, who is now British Consul at Rome. +About five years since, she married Charles Newton, Superintendent of +Greek Antiquities at the British Museum. She was a person in whom power +and delicacy were singularly blended. Ary Scheffer was accustomed to +hold up her work as a model for his pupils. Her renderings of classic +sculpture were so true that they were termed translations; and she had +recently devoted herself to oil painting with great success. She died of +brain fever at the early age of thirty-three, one of the most honored of +female English artists. + +The common sense of society accepts the need of education for women. It +begs that they may be permitted to earn their bread; but let society +once grant the suffrage to woman, and she will take care of her own +interests. She will found colleges, distribute opportunities, and +protect vocations. + +Education must, in time, earn independence for most women. Independence, +taxed and made a citizen of, will insist, in the course of years, upon +its suffrage; but whoso will help to reverse the process, and grant +suffrage, so that woman may herself indicate what education she wishes +to receive, and what labor she wishes to perform, will speed the process +by scores of years. + +It was pleasant to see four hundred young women, of the highest health, +the best breeding, of good social standing, and abundant means, +blossoming like so many tulips, at Vassar,--we must add, also, of good +ability, and more than average education; for only good scholars could +pass the rigid examination required of those who enter. It was pleasant +to see, that between the ages of seventeen and twenty-two, when society +offers its greatest allurements, four hundred wealthy girls could be +found, ready to devote themselves in seclusion, and without even the +stimulus existing at Oberlin or Antioch, to higher things. And then, if +the want of public sympathy makes it a painful work to be always pushing +the interests of women, such teachers and officers as one finds at +Vassar compensate one for any amount of struggle. Miss Hannah Lyman, who +is now the principal; Miss Mitchell, the astronomer; Dr. Avery, the +resident physician; and Miss Powell, the professor of gymnastics,--it +is only necessary to name to Eastern ears: but, besides these women, +Vassar employs twenty others, in whom it would be hard to find a fault, +and some of whom, we were glad to see, had taken their degree at +Oberlin. Going westward to Antioch, it was pleasant to find other women +who had taken their degrees, and were now teaching Greek and Latin. One +of the graduates, employed as a teacher of mathematics, had won her own +education in the college by teaching one year,--sometimes in distant +district-schools,--and studying the next. At Oberlin, the picture was +still more inspiring: for Oberlin has, I suppose, more pupils than any +college in the land, if we except Michigan University; and one-half of +them are girls and women. The practical working of this college is +beautiful to see. It has been fortunate in the magnificent faith +communicated to it by Dr. Finney. Most of the women who were its early +students, and stamped its character, so that no scandal dared invade its +borders, are now the wives of its professors, and many of them are still +engaged in teaching. Mrs. Dascomb, who is the wife of the professor of +chemistry, has been with the college from the beginning: she is as fine +a person for her position, as lady-principal, as Miss Lyman; yet how +differently have the two been trained! Mrs. Dascomb, by isolation, +persecution, contact with the rudest elements in Western life, yet +keeping, through all, a noble faith in manhood and womanhood; Miss +Lyman, starting from the most distinguished social circle in +Northampton, holding a high place among what Dr. Holmes would call the +"Brahmins" of Montreal, and finally polished by a European tour, and +holding control with a power as imperceptible as it is firm. At +Milwaukee, beside Dr. Ross, to whose ten years of successful practice I +have alluded, I found another physician, in happy partnership with one +of the _brothers_ of the craft, a Dr. Glass. He has lately moved from +Minnesota to Wisconsin, where he has been several years in partnership +with Miss Fairchild, and testifies that he has never seen her superior +as a practical physician. Here, also, a young lady, of one of the best +families, has lately opened a hair-dresser's store. Dr. Ross gives her +sweet sympathy and cheer; but, as a proof that the world still needs +converting, she has had a good deal of that insolence to subdue which +pains just as much as if it were _worth_ minding. Any thing like the +number of female lecturers which I heard of in Illinois, I had never +imagined. The medical women are readily accepted in most places, even +without proper vouchers; and it is astonishing, how far common sense +contrives to supply the place of education. But the want of vouchers is +a serious evil, which must soon be met. In Chicago I heard wonderful +stories of the business capacity of certain women. One lady, very well +known on Michigan Avenue, brought one hundred thousand dollars' worth of +Chicago City bonds to Boston and New York, and safely sold them for her +husband. A farmer's wife, from the centre of the State, came up, while I +was there, to speculate in corn. She said her husband had lost money +several years in succession, and now _she_ was going to try. By her +first speculation, she made five thousand dollars; and this she put into +competent hands, for re-investment. It gained her twenty thousand +dollars. The Chicago merchants thought that she would go on speculating +until she lost it all; but I do not. I think our Pleasant-street +Hospital has proved that women are more cautious than men, and are +willing to bear a good deal of obloquy rather than permit rash ventures +to be made. + +In the country, everywhere, I heard charming anecdotes of the vigor and +self-sacrifice women showed in the early settlement of the States. + +It happened one spring, that, when the ice broke up on the Fox River, a +terrible storm of wind and sleet and rain came with it. Not a man in the +State, however great the emergency, would have thought that he could +cross. In this state of things, a woman was taken in childbirth, some +two or three miles from the ferry. Just as the ferry-woman was going to +bed, in the "outer darkness" of that terrible storm, she heard her name +shouted from the opposite bank. She listened, and a grievous story was +shouted across. She went to the stable and saddled her mare, and, all +alone, forded the stream: the floating ice, heaped into walls, struck +the sides of the faithful beast, and tore the woman's skirt to tatters. +Now and then a flash of lightning showed her what progress she had made. +At last, she struggled to the bank, and gave the needful help. Nobody +ever asked how she got back. On the grass about Elgin, a whole ship's +load died of cholera, nearly forty years ago. All the neighborhood stood +back in dread; but I saw one aged woman, who closed the eyes of nine, +and received the foreign blessing, which she felt, although she could +not understand. In Quincy, I found two ladies just establishing a high +school for girls, whom I have previously mentioned as having pushed +through the endowment, for women, of the State University at Lawrence, +and having opened a class in modelling in clay, under Professor Volkers. +At the Cooper Institute I found more women at work than ever before, and +to better advantage. A large class had just been formed to color +photographs on glass, porcelain, and paper. Under such circumstances, we +need not be disheartened because an ignorant woman, in a man's costume, +has found the way to attract some attention in Europe and some contempt +from Tom Hughes. Neither need it dismay us that the "Boston Advertiser" +thinks the Equal-Rights meetings, in New York, have not been largely +attended. There are those who want the suffrage, who do not care to +encourage women to offer themselves for Congress before public opinion +can accept them, and who are sufficiently disgusted by what looks like a +mannish coalition with Democrats, to keep away from public meetings. + +Meanwhile, the women of Parma clamor for the right to vote for Victor +Emanuel. A freedwoman, Charlotte Scott, proposes a monument, on behalf +of her emancipated race, to President Lincoln; and the noble +inspiration of Harriet Hosmer carries out the thought. + +But the very things we turn from force the necessary issues on the +world. Wise action would never have brought the recent debate in +Congress; nor prudent measures have secured thirty votes for Mrs. +Stanton, and nine senatorial ballots for female suffrage. Once agitated +in these quarters, the matter draws nearer to a final test. + + "Ride on! the prize is near." + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [47] These have been supplied since my return to Boston. + + [48] The application is declined, as we go to press, on the ground + that no provision has been made at Cambridge for women. + + [49] I believe I am indebted for some of these items to Miss Howitt's + book, but I have not yet seen it. + + [50] This word distinguishes a peculiar Unitarian Church, something + like the Methodist. + + [51] I wish to say in advance, that while the statistics in "The + College" and "The Market" are based on a gold value, and are wholly + reliable, I place no reliance on those furnished in this Appendix. The + varying price of gold, and of the cost of provision and clothing, at + the time the tables are made, are nowhere given, and are important + elements in a sound calculation. + + + + +L'ENVOI. + + + My Song, I do believe that there are few + Who will thy reasoning rightly understand, + To them so hard and dark is thy discourse. + Hence, peradventure, if it come to pass + That thou shouldst find thyself with persons who + Appear unskilled to comprehend thee well, + I pray thee, then, my young and well-beloved, + Be not discomforted; but say to them, + "Take note, at least, how _beautiful_ I am!" + + DANTE, _from the_ "_Banquet._" + + + Art thou not beautiful, my new-born Song? + Then thou art piteous, and shalt go thy way. + + _Rime Apocrife_, G.G. + + + +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ + | | + | Transcriber's notes: | + | | + | | + | P.139. 'not vegetables' changed to 'nor vegetables'. | + | P.142. 'before a a Liverpool', removed extra 'a'. | + | P.151. 'househeepers' changed to 'housekeepers'. | + | P.175. trade 'of' her changed to 'off'. | + | P.307. within 'tha' time changed to 'that'. | + | P.364. 'gods' changed to 'goods'. | + | P.497. 'neigborhood' changed to 'neighborhood'. | + | Fixed various punctuation. | + | Some inconsistent hypens are found in this text and left as in | + | the original. | + | Emphasis Notation: _Italic_ and =Bold=; | + | | + +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The College, the Market, and the Court, by +Caroline H. Dall + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43657 *** |