We Welcome the Fifteenth Amendment: Addresses Delivered in New York, New York, on May 12-13, 1869
WE WELCOME THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT: ADDRESSES
DELIVERED IN NEW YORK, NEW YORK, ON 12-13 MAY 1869
New York , 13, 14 May 1869. Other texts in New York , 20, 27 May 1869;
Stanton et al., , 2: 382-83; Foner, , 86-90.
The meeting of the American Equal Rights Association in New York’s Stein-
way Hall on 12-13 May 1869 heralded the collapse of the relatively unified
movement for woman suffrage. Presided over by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the
convention was plagued by dissension and a disregard for established pro-
cedure. Frequently there was almost complete disorder on both the floor and
the stage. As Susan B. Anthony stated, “We are in for a fight today.” The
heart of the conflict centered on whether to seek black male suffrage first,
black male and woman suffrage simultaneously. or, as Anthony and Stanton
desired, woman suffrage first. By May 1869 these differences were proving to
be less resoluble than they had been even six months earlier. The connection
of Stanton and Anthony with the wealthy negrophobe George Francis Train
and the characterizations by Stanton and other speakers of potential black
male voters as ignorant and brutish disgusted not only Douglass but William
Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, and Lucy Stone as well. Frustrated with the
exclusion of women from the Fifteenth Amendment’s guarantees, neither
Stanton nor Anthony wanted the convention to endorse its ratification, an act
that Douglass supported whenever he was allowed to speak amid the commotion.
Although Douglass's views were opposed to those of the convention’s
leaders and his resolutions were not adopted, none of the principal partici-
pants received as uniformly a warm reception as he did at various points
throughout the two days. The principal result of the meeting was the eventual
division of the woman suffrage movement into the National Woman Suffrage
Association, led by Stanton and Anthony, and the American Woman Suffrage
Association. New York , 13 May 1869; New York , 13, 14, 15
May 1869; New York , 15 May 1869; New York , 15 May 1869;
Eleanor Flexner, (Cambridge, Mass, 1959), 151-52; James M. McPherson,
“Abolitionists, Woman Suffrage, and the Negro, 1865-1869,” , 47: 40-47 (January 1965); Robert E. Riegel, “The Split of the
Feminist Movement in 1869,” , 49: 485-96 (December 1962).
MORNING SESSION
[Speeches by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, Octavius B. Frothingham,
Susan B. Anthony, Stephen S. Foster, and Mary A. Livermore.]
Mr. Frederick Douglass—Of course the vote of the Society just passed
does not prevent Mr. Foster proceeding in order.1Elizabeth Cady Stanton, as presiding officer of the convention, had declared Stephen S. Foster to be out of order for accusing Susan B. Anthony of mishandling funds of the American Equal Rights Association. Stanton then called for a vote of the convention that confirmed her ruling. New York , 13 May 1869. If, however, a different
understanding is to be given to it—that no one is to be allowed to criticise
the list of officers proposed, it is out of the question for me to utter a word
on such a platform.2Douglass alludes to the slate of proposed officers for the American Equal Rights Association nominated by the convention's committee on organization earlier that morning. New York , 20 May 1869. We are used to freedom of speech, and there is a
profound conviction in the minds of reformers in general, that error may be
safely tolerated, while truth is left free to counteract it.3Douglass loosely paraphrases the declaration of Thomas Jefferson's first inaugural address: “error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it." H. A. Washington, ed., , 8 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1853-54), 8: 3. What if Mr. Foster
does go on with his criticism of Miss Anthony,4Born in Adams, Massachusetts, Susan Brownell Anthony (1820-1906) joined the teaching profession while still in her teens. In the 1850s she became active in the temperance and antislavery movements and was recruited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton into the women‘s rights campaign. During the Civil War she and Stanton organized the Women's Loyal National League, which collected hundreds of thousands of signatures on pro-emancipation petitions. The collaboration of the two women continued after the war when Anthony served as publisher and Stanton as co-editor, with Parker Pillsbury, of the , a weekly woman suffrage newspaper published in New York City. When Stanton became president of the newly founded National Woman Suffrage Association in 1869, Anthony was chosen head of its executive committee. In 1872 Anthony gained publicity for the woman's movement by illegally voting in the elections of that year and then refusing to pay the fines after her conviction. Neither a talented speaker nor writer, Anthony remained the most tireless organizer of the woman suffrage campaign and succeeded Stanton as its head upon the latter's retirement in 1892. Alma Lutz, (Boston, 1959); James et al., , 1: 51-57. and Mrs. Stanton5The presiding officer of the convention was Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902), the best known feminist of her day. Born in Johnstown, New York, and educated at Emma Willard’s Troy Female Seminary, Stanton developed an interest in abolition and other reforms during visits to the home of her cousin Gerrit Smith. Stanton became determined to work to advance the status of women when she and other female delegates were barred from the World's Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840. Eight years later, Stanton, along with Lucretia Mott, organized the first-ever women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York, where Stanton had settled with her husband, Henry B. Stanton, the antislavery politician. During Reconstruction she opposed the ratification of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments because they granted equal rights and suffrage to black males but ignored all females. She held to this position in the , the woman suffrage weekly she edited with Parker Pillsbury, and in the platform of the National Woman Suffrage Association, which she and Susan B. Anthony founded in 1869. Besides presiding over the last organization for more than two decades, Stanton wrote numerous articles and several books, including the multivolume in collaboration with Anthony and Matilda Gage. Alma Lutz, (New York. 1940); Lois W. Banner, (Boston. 1980); James, , 3: 342-47. and the
.6The New York was a weekly woman suffrage newspaper financed largely by contributions from Democratic politician George Francis Train. Susan B. Anthony served as publisher and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Parker Pillsbury as co-editors. In his remarks Stephen S. Foster accused the Revolution of advocating “educated suffrage," which would eliminate many freedmen as voters while admitting literate women. New York , 13 May 1869; New York , 20 May 1869. While Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton and the Revolution
have tongues to speak, why not have free speech here about them?
[Speeches by Stephen S. Foster and Henry B. Blackwell.]
Mr. Douglass—I came here more as a listener than to speak, and I
listened with a great deal of pleasure to the eloquent address of the Rev.
Frothingham7After graduating from Harvard College and Harvard Divinity School, Octavius Brooks Frothingham (1822-95) followed his father into the Unitarian ministry. Influenced by his close friend Theodore Parker, Frothingham developed liberal views on theological questions and on the slavery issue. In 1867 he was one of the founders and the first president of the Free Religious Association, a society that advocated rationalist principles in theology. Poor health forced Frothingham to retire from preaching in 1879, and he devoted his later years to writing. He is best remembered for biographies of Parker, Gerrit Smith, George Ripley, and William Henry Charming. J. P. Quincy, “Memoir of Octavius Brooks Frothingham," , ser. 2, 10: 507-39 (1896); , 2: 423; , 7: 44. and the splendid address of the President. There is no name
greater than that of Elizabeth Cady Stanton in the matter of Woman’s
Rights and Equal Rights, but my sentiments are tinged a little against the
Revolution. There was in the address to which I allude. a sentiment in
reference to employment and certain names, such as “Sambo,” and the
gardener and the bootblack and the daughter of Jefferson and Washington,
and all the rest that I cannot coincide with.8In the major speech of the morning session, Elizabeth Cady Stanton asked whether the convention thought that “the daughters of Adams Jefferson, and Patrick Henry . . . will forever linger round the camp-fires of an old barbarism with no longings to join the grand army of freedom?" She then condemned the enfranchisement of "Patrick," “Hans,” and “Yung Tung," as well as of “Sambo," before that of educated women. New York , 13 May 1869. I have asked what difference
there is between the daughters of Jefferson and Washington and other
daughters. (Laughter) I must say that I do not see how any one can pretend
that there is the same urgency in giving the ballot to women as to the negro.
With us, the matter is a question of life and death. It is a matter of existence,
at least, in fifteen states of the Union. When women, because they are
women, are hunted down through the cities of New York and New Orleans;
when they are dragged from their houses and hung upon lamp-posts; when
their children are torn from their arms, and their brains dashed out upon the
pavement; when they are objects of insult and outrage at every turn; when
they are in danger of having their homes burnt down over their heads; when
their children are not allowed to enter schools; then they will have an
urgency to obtain the ballot equal to our own. (Great applause.)
A voice—Is that not all true about black women?
Mr. Douglass—Yes, yes, yes, it is true of the black woman, but not
because she is a woman but because she is black. (Applause) Julia Ward
Howe at the conclusion of her great speech delivered at the convention in
Boston last year, said, “I am willing that the negro shall get in before me.”
(Applause) Woman! why she has ten thousand modes of grappling with
her difficulties. I believe that all the virtue of the world can take care of all
the evil. I believe that all the intelligence can take care of all the ignorance.
(Applause) I am in favor of woman’s suffrage in order that we shall have
all the virtue and all the vice confronted. Let me tell you that when there
were few houses in which the black man could have put his head, this
woolley head of mine found a refuge in the house of Mrs. Elizabeth Cady
Stanton, and if I had been blacker than sixteen midnights, without a single
star, it would have been the same. (Applause)
THE RACE FOR SUFFRAGE BETWEEN NEGROES AND WOMEN.
Miss Anthony—I want to say a single word. The old anti-slavery
school and others have said that the women must stand back and wait until
the other class shall be recognized. But we say that if you will not give the
whole loaf of justice and suffrage to an entire people, give it to the most
intelligent first. (Applause) If intelligence, justice, and moralities are to
be placed in the government, then let the question of woman be brought
first and that of the negro last. (Applause) While I was canvassing the
State with petitions in my hand and had them filled with names for our
cause and sent them to the Legislature, a man dared to say to me that the
freedom of women was all a theory and not a practical thing. (Applause)
When Mr. Douglass mentioned the black man first and women last if he
had noticed he would have seen that it was the men that clapped and not the
women. There is not the woman born who desires to eat the bread of
dependence, no matter whether it be from the hand of father, husband, or
brother; for any one who dares so eat her bread places herself in the power
of the person from whom she takes it. (Applause) Mr. Douglass talks
about the wrongs of the negro; how he is hunted down, and the children’s
brains dashed out by mobs; but with all the wrongs and outrages that he to-
day suffers, he would not exchange his sex and take the place of Elizabeth
Cady Stanton. (Laughter and applause.) No matter, there is a glory—
(Loud applause, completely drowning the speaker’s voice.)
Mr. Douglass—Will you allow me—
Miss Anthony—Yes, anything; we are in for a fight to-day. (Great
laughter and applause.)
Mr. Douglass—I want to know if granting you the right of suffrage will
change the nature of our sexes. (Great laughter.)
MORNING SESSION
[Speeches by James W. Stillman, Mary A. Livermore, Elizabeth Cady Stan-
ton, Ernestine Rose, and Mercy B. Jackson]
Fred. Douglass said that as there is a most important question submit-
ted to the American people, he wanted to have a vote upon it from that
audience. He then read the following resolutions:
, That the American Equal Rights Association, in loyalty to
its comprehensive demands for the political equality of all American cit-
izens, without distinction of race or sex, hails the extension of suffrage to
any class heretofore disfranchised, as a cheering part of the triumph of our
whole idea.
, therefore, That we gratefully welcome the pending fifteenth
amendment, prohibiting disfranchisement on account of race, and earnest-
ly solicit the State Legislatures to pass it without delay.
, furthermore, That in view of this promised and speedy
culmination of one—half of our demands, we are stimulated to redouble our
energy to secure the further amendment guaranteeing the same sacred
rights without limitation to sex.
, That until the constitution shall know neither black nor
white, neither male nor female, but only the equal rights of all classes, we
renew our solemn indictment against that instrument as defective, unwor-
thy, and an oppressive character for the self-government of a free people.
(Applause and hisses.)
LAY THE NEGRO ON THE TABLE.
A Lady—I move that these resolutions be laid upon the table for future
consideration.
The President—Of course. You see these resolutions require discus-
sion: therefore, they had better be laid upon the table for future considera-
tion.
AFTERNOON SESSION
[Speeches by Lillie Peckham, Henry Wilson, Ernestine L. Rose, Sarah F.
Norton, Eleanor Kirk, Mary F. Davis, Susan B. Anthony, and Paulina W.
Davis]
Mr. Douglass was received with great applause. He said that all disin-
terested spectators would concede that this equal rights meeting had been
pre-eminently a woman’s rights meeting. (Applause) They had just heard
an argument with which he could not agree—that the suffrage to the black
man should be postponed to that of the women.9This opinion had been expressed in a speech to the convention by Paulina W. Davis, who spoke immediately before Douglass. New York , 27 May 1869. Here is a woman who,
since the day that the snake talked with our mother in the garden—from
that day to this, I say, she has been divested of political rights.10The story of Eve's encounter with the serpent in the Garden of Eden is found in Gen. 3: 1-6. What may
we expect, according to that reasoning, when women, when—(Loud
laughter and applause.)
MISS ANTHONY AND FRED. DOUGLASS.
Miss Anthony hereupon rose from her seat and made towards Mr.
Douglass, saying something which was drowned in the applause and
laughter which continued. Mr. Douglass was heard to say, however, “No,
no, Susan,” which again set the audience off in another audible smile, and
Miss Anthony took her seat.
IS THERE FAIR PLAY IN THE CONVENTION?
When silence was somewhat restored, Mr. Douglass continued, say-
ing: You see when women get into trouble how they act. Miss Anthony
comes to the rescue—(Laughter)—and these good people have not yet
learned to hear people through. (Laughter.) When anything goes against
them they are up right away. Now I do not believe the story that the slaves
who are enfranchised become the worst of tyrants.11Paulina W. Davis expressed this opinion immediately before Douglass spoke. New York , 27 May 1869. (A voice—“Neither
do I”; applause.) I know how this theory came about. When a slave was
made a driver he made himself more officious than the white driver, so that
his master might not suspect that he was favoring those under him. But we
do not intend to have any master over us. (Applause)
NOT ANOTHER MAN TO THE POLLS.
The President then took the floor and argued that not another man
should be enfranchised until enough women are admitted to the polls to
outweigh those who have the franchise. (Applause) She did not believe in
allowing ignorant negroes and ignorant and debased Chinamen to make
laws for her to obey. (Applause)
Mrs. Harper (colored) asked Mr. Blackwell to read the fifth resolution
of the series he submitted, and contended that that covered the whole
ground of the resolutions of Mr. Douglass.
Miss Anthony—Then I move that that resolution be reconsidered.
NO TRICKS.
Mr. Douglass—Oh! no; you cannot do that while the floor is occupied.