Seneca Falls - REPORT of the Woman's Rights Convention.
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Report of the Woman's Rights Convention Held at Seneca Falls, N. Y., July 19th & 20th, 1848. Rochester [N.Y.]: Printed by John Dick at the North Star Office, 1848.
8vo; 9 pp.; original wrappers removed, disbound, else fine.
First of three editions of the report of the first woman's rights convention in the United States and in the world. There are also a 12-page edition (the second) and a larger edition (the third) with Stanton's 9-page address and the proceedings of the Rochester, August 2, 1848 meeting appended. Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were the moving spirits of the occasion, which was "to discuss the Social, Civil and Religious Condition of Woman." This account contains the Resolutions, the Declaration of Sentiments (modeled after the Declaration of Independence), names of signers of the Declaration, further resolutions and the like. Women signers of the Declaration include Mott, Stanton, Jane C. Hunt, Mary Ann McClintock, Martha Coffin Wright, Amy Post, Charlotte Woodward (the only signer who lived to see women get the vote) and numerous others. Among the thirty-two male signers men signers are James Mott and Thomas McClintock (whom the women had asked to be chairmen), William and Thomas Dell, and Frederick Douglass.
The story of the first women's rights convention, held in 1848 at Seneca Falls, New York, has taken on legendary dimensions. According to the standard accounts, a chance visit by Lucretia Mott to upstate New York provided the opportunity for her and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to put into effect the resolve they had taken earlier to someday hold a women's rights convention.
On the appointed day, July 19, 1848, a large crowd appeared (almost miraculously for it was early harvest season) and entered into extended discussion. On the second day, July 20, the Declaration of Sentiments was adopted unanimously. Mrs. Stanton, throwing caution to the wind and ignoring Mrs. Mott's objections - decided to press for a resolution demanding the vote for women. With the support of Frederick Douglass, former slave and formidable Abolitionist, she secured endorsement of the resolution by a narrow margin. A hundred brave souls, about a third of those present, signed the declaration and the convention ended.
The Declaration of Sentiments "condemns women's disfranchisement, their lack of a voice in the laws they must obey, restrictions on their education and employment opportunities, their subordination by the church, the use of a double moral standard, and the theft of married women's full property rights. The group then passes a series of general resolutions calling for women's equal rights, the final resolution being "equal participation with men in the various trades, professions, and commerce." Only one is controversial - a proposal to secure the vote for women - but it narrowly passes after strong argument by Stanton and Frederick Douglass. Douglass (whose speech is mentioned but not recorded here) had started the abolitionist newspaper the North Star in 1847 and lent his printer, John Dick, and North Star Office imprint to this rare pamphlet.
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