J. Stuart to Frederick Douglass, March 3, 1854
Lora, Collingwood, Thornbury
P. O , C. W., March 3, '54.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS, ESQ: Dear Sir:—
Your peculiar circumstances, your character
as exhibited in your public writings, and
your pursuits, especially in the light of your
talented and uncompromising hostility to
that last and vilest of all earthly abominations, the slave system of your country, en-
dear and ennoble you to me. But there is
one point, on which you appear to me to err;
and on this point I wish to offer you my
opinions for publication. You will judge of
these opinions for yourself, independently;
as I hold them for myself; both deeply rememebering, I trust our responsibility, indi-
vidually, for our use or abuse of all His gifts,
to that great and holy God, before whose bar
of righteousness all mankind will soon appear for final judgment.
Let me premise, by telling you, that I am
a believer in the Scriptures, as a divine and
perfect rule of all human life, for principle
and practice; perfectly holy and just, good
and wise of itself, like God, its author; and
perfectly superior to all the fluctuating
phases of human belief, and free from all
the blemishes, whether intentional through
guilt or unintentional through error, by
which human corruption darkens or defames
it. For myself, I deeply feel that a divine
rule is indispensable, to screen me and the
world from that wild anarchy of lawless
opinions, in which, what is miscalled reason,
runs mad; each man's notions being his
standard; and each man having the same
wrong right to spurn the equally lawless no-
tions of his brother anarchist. A dreadful
state! in which all things, whether right or
wrong, good or evil, may be applauded or
condemned, with equal authority, or with
equal baselessness; since then, no standard
would exist, but the confident and groundless
presumption of the self-idolator.
Let any man press upon me, his own no-
tions, however sincere, for my standard, and
I pity his stupidity, or spurn his presump-
tion, and I tell him, in Montgomery's words,
"I worship not the sun at noon—the wander-
in stars or changing moon—the wind—the
flood—the flame! I will not bend the votive
knee to wisdom, genius, liberty, there is no
God, but God for me; Jehovah is His name!"
Let him cite me to the bar of his own
reason, or judgment, or virtue, as he deems
them, and he sends to me his folly or his
wickedness. But let him invite me to ac-
company him to the "word and to the tes-
timony," that is, to God's book, the Bible
that there with him I may reverently and
prayerfully seek for divine light and direc-
tion and earnestly and cheerfully will I go,
for that wisdom with man does not of him-
self possess.
With these aims, I wish to speak to you
and to the public thro' you; not in order to
urge or induce you or others, to adopt my
opinions; but to urge you and them, to resort
to God in the Scriptures, with me, for the
solution of the present, as well as of every
other possible question of moral virtue.
The question is, "What are the rights of
women, according to the Scriptures"?
I ask not in their filial relation, while
under age, I ask not, in their conjugal or
maternal relation, neither do I ask in their
domestic relation, as mistresses of families !
But, apart from these, whether modified by
them or not, as social and human beings,
the same as men in all respects, excepting
merely, that they are female and not male.
I also ask it not, in relation to those ex-
traordinary cases, such as I might point
out, which exist as exceptions to all general
rules, and which prove, instead of disproving
those rules. But, in relation to the female
world at large, "What are the rights of
women"? And to come at once to the point,
now so vehemently pressed upon the atten-
tion of the American public.
Ist. What are the rights of woman, to the
elective franchise, personally and not by
proxy, in the electing power, as well as in
the right to be elected, equally with man, to
public affairs?
2d. What, as to the public ministry of the
Gospel, under ecclesiastical regulations?
3d. And what, in relation to the duties
and rights, of the public platform, where
mind meets mind, irrespectively of sex, in
the fervent strife of individual or [party?]
the fervent strife of individual or party
opinions, indpendently of any Scriptural
standard?
But here, in order to avoid occupying any
undue portion of your present paper, as well
as to avoid wearying any of your readers,
who may please to peruse me, I will pause,
for the present; promising under the divine
blessing, to resume the subject, if you shall
think proper, to publish my opinions.
J. STUART.