CHAPTER THIRD.

Women up to this time had never, or very seldom, indeed, come forward as public speakers in behalf of Temperance or any other reform movements. True, Abby Kelly Foster had made her appearance on the platform as an abolition lecturer, but her speeches were so radical and denunciatory in their character that they added little strength to the position or popularity of women speakers. The Quaker preachers were of both sexes; of these Lucretia Mott was the recognized leader among the gentler sex, and the purity of her character and the mildness of her addresses, compared with those of Mrs. Foster, made her popular with all classes. Mrs. Bloomer heard both of these women, and her husband wellremembers that, on one occasion after she had been listening to Mrs. Foster’s radical criticisms on an article which appeared in the editorial columns of his paper, she came home greatly distressed and with tears in her eyes over the denunciations, to which she had listened. She learned in subsequent years to take such things more calmly.

But though public sentiment did not then sanction the appearance of women speakers even to advocate so good a cause as Temperance, yet they could use their pens in its support. Mrs. Bloomer did this quite freely as we have seen, but the little society in Seneca Falls concluded that it must have a paper of its own, and on the 1st of January, 1849, such a paper was commenced in that place.

Mrs. Bloomer herself tells the story of its birth and her connection with it as follows:

“Up to about 1848-9 women had almost no part in all this temperance work. They could attend meetings and listen to the eloquenceand arguments of men, and they could pay their money towards the support of temperance lecturers, but such a thing as their having anything to say or do further than this was not thought of. They were fired with zeal after listening to the Washingtonian lecturers and other speakers on temperance who then abounded, and in some instances held little private meetings of their own, organized societies and passed resolutions expressive of their feelings on the great subject. It was at a meeting of this kind in Seneca Falls, N. Y., which was then my home, that the matter of publishing a little temperance paper, for home distribution only, was introduced. The ladies caught at the idea and at once determined on issuing the paper. Editors were selected, a committee appointed to wait on the newspaper offices to learn on what terms the paper could be printed monthly, we furnishing all the copy. The president was to name the paper, the report to be made at next meeting by committee. And so we separated, satisfied and elated with our doings. But on my reporting my proceedings to my husband on my return home he ‘threw cold water’ on the whole thing. He said we women did not know what wewere talking about, that it cost a good deal of money to print a paper, and that we could not carry on such an enterprise and would run ourselves into debt, get into trouble and make a failure of it. He advised that I counsel the ladies to abandon all thought of such a movement. At the next meeting I reported all he said, but it was of no avail. The ladies had their hearts set on the paper and they determined to go ahead with it. They were encouraged thereto by a temperance lecturer who was traveling over the state. He promised to get subscribers for them and greatly help them. He kept his word so far as sending us a goodly list of names, but the money did not accompany them and we never saw the man or the money afterwards. This was very discouraging, and the zeal of the ladies abated wonderfully. They began to realize that they had been hasty in incurring a great responsibility for which they were not fitted, and very soon the society decided to give up the enterprise altogether. But meantime we had been getting subscribers and money, had issued a prospectus, and every arrangement was made at the printing office for bringing out the paper January 1, 1849. We had even ordered a head from New York. I could not so lightlythrow off responsibility. Our word had gone to the public and we had considerable money on subscriptions. Besides the dishonesty of the thing, people would say it was ‘just like women’; ‘what more could you expect of them?’ As editor of the paper, I threw myself into the work, assumed the entire responsibility, took the entire charge editorially and financially, and carried it successfully through.”

The following is taken from the first editorial in the new paper, written by Mrs. Bloomer:

“It is woman that speaks throughThe Lily. It is upon an important subject, too, that she comes before the public to be heard. Intemperance is the great foe to her peace and happiness. It is that above all which has made her home desolate and beggared her offspring. It is that above all which has filled to its brim her cup of sorrow and sent her moaning to the grave. Surely she has a right to wield the pen for its suppression. Surely she may, without throwing aside the modest retirement which so much becomes her sex, use her influence to lead her fellow-mortals away from the destroyer’s path. It is this which she proposes to do in the columns of this paper. Like the beautifulflower from which it derives its name, we shall strive to make theLilythe emblem of ‘sweetness and purity;’ and may heaven smile upon our attempt to advocate the great cause of Temperance reform!”

With the birth of this little journal, a new life opened before Mrs. Bloomer. She was at once initiated into all the mysteries and details of an editor and publisher. She had to make contracts for the printing and publication, to send out circulars to friends asking for their assistance in extending its circulation, place the papers in proper covers and send them to subscribers through the mails, to prepare editorials and other matter for its columns, to read the proofs and, in short, to attend to all the details of newspaper publication. She gave herself heartily and earnestly to the work. Of the first issue of theLilynot over two or three hundred copies were printed, but the number of its subscribers steadily increased. Many friends came forward from different parts ofthe state to help in adding new names to its lists. Among these none were more zealous and earnest than Miss Susan B. Anthony, then a very competent school-teacher in the city of Rochester, but whose name has since become one of world-wide fame as that of the great leader in the cause of woman’s emancipation. Mrs. Mary C. Vaughan, a most estimable lady and fine writer, also came forward both with her pen and lists of new subscribers to help in the great Temperance reform to which theLilywas devoted.

TheLilywas very nearly, if not quite, the first journal of any kind published by a woman. Mrs. Nichols, in Vermont, and Mrs. Swishelm, in Pennsylvania, were connected with newspapers published in each case by their husbands, and they wrote vigorous editorials for their papers, but neither of them took upon herself the entire charge of the publication. Mrs. Bloomer did this to the fullest extent, and it therefore may be justly claimed that she wasthe pioneer woman editor and proprietor. True, her journal was not a very large one, yet it labored zealously in the cause to which it was devoted and prepared the way for other and more pretentious publications to follow, under the charge of women. It showed what women could do when their thoughts and energies were directed to some practical and beneficial purpose, and so made ready for the great advance which has since taken place in opening for her wider fields of usefulness.

Mrs. Bloomer herself writes as follows:

“TheLilywas the first paper published devoted to the interests of woman and, so far as I know, the first one owned, edited and published by a woman. It was a novel thing for me to do in those days and I was little fitted for it, but the force of circumstances led me into it and strength was given me to carry it through. It was a needed instrumentality to spread abroad the truth of the new gospel to woman, and I could not withhold my hand to stay the work I had begun. I saw not the end from the beginning and little dreamed whereto my proposition to the society would lead me.”

Among those who soon became writers for theLilywas Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a resident of Seneca Falls. One day during the summer of 1849, she came into the post office where the editor of theLilywas busily engaged and introduced herself to Mrs. Bloomer, and proposed to write for the columns of her paper. The offer was gladly accepted, and very soon articles began to appear in the columns of theLilyover the signature of “Sunflower.” They were forcibly written and displayed not a little wit and many sharp hits at some of the prevailing “fads” of the day. At first they were on Temperance and literary subjects, and the duties of parents in bringing up their children. The various theories of education were also vigorously analyzed and some new ideas put forth. By and by, as months went by, her readers were apprised as to her views on Woman’s Rights, so called. They learned something from her of the unjust laws relating to marriedwomen, and saw that the writer was about right in asking that they should be changed and made better. And then the paragraphs moved further along and intimated that women should vote also for her rulers and legislators. Mrs. Bloomer herself became a convert to these views. How this came around, she herself tells in the two following paragraphs:

“When a child of fifteen years, my feelings were deeply stirred by learning that an old lady, a dear friend of mine, was to be turned from her home and the bulk of her property taken from her. Her husband died suddenly, leaving no will. The law would allow her but a life interest in one-third of the estate, which had been accumulated by the joint earnings and savings of herself and husband through many years. They had no children and the nearest relative of the husband was a second or third cousin, and to him the law gave two-thirds of her property, though he had never contributed a dollar towards its accumulation, and was to them a stranger. Later, other similar cases coming to my knowledge made me familiarwith the cruelty of the law towards women; and when the Woman’s Rights Convention put forth its declaration of sentiments, I was ready to join with that party in demanding for women such change in the laws as would give her a right to her earnings, and her children a right to wider fields of employment and a better education, and also a right to protect her interests at the ballot-box.”

“In the spring of 1849, my husband was appointed postmaster at Seneca Falls, N. Y. He proposed that I should act as his deputy. I accepted the position, as I had determined to give a practical demonstration of woman’s right to fill any place for which she had capacity. I was sworn in as his deputy, and filled the position for four years, during the administration of Taylor and Fillmore. It was a novel step for me to take in those days, and no doubt many thought I was out of woman’s sphere; but the venture was very successful and proved to me conclusively that woman might, even then, engage in any respectable business and deal with all sorts of men, and yet be treated with the utmost respect and consideration.”

During the first year of its existence, theLilybore at its head the words “published by a committee of ladies”; but the truth was that no person, save Mrs. Bloomer herself, had any responsible share in its management or control. Therefore, at the beginning of the new year 1850 that fiction was dropped, and her name alone appeared as publisher and editor, and at its head stood the legend “devoted to the interests of woman.” Says Mrs. Bloomer:

“I never liked the name of the paper, but the society thought it pretty and accepted it from the president. It started with that name, and became known far and wide. It had been baptized with tears and sent forth with anxious doubts and fears. It was not easy to change, and so it remainedThe Lilyto the end, pure in motive and purpose as in name. * * * It was never the organ of any society, party or clique, or of any individual but myself. That it was always loyal to temperance is evidenced by the fact that its files are sought after bywriters of temperance history. That subject was never lost sight of in a single number, as its files will show. Mrs. Stanton became a contributor to theLilynear the close of its first year. Her subjects were temperance and woman’s rights. Her writings added interest to the paper and she was welcome to its columns, as were Frances D. Gage, Mary C. Vaughan, and many others who came to my aid. She occupied the same position as any other contributor, and she never attempted to control the paper in any way.”

The year 1850 was a quiet one for Mrs. Bloomer. Early in the spring, her husband purchased a modest cottage. This had to be fitted up and occupied, and took up a good deal of her attention. Then several hours each day were spent in the post office in the work of receiving and delivering letters. Once a month theLilycontinued to make its appearance, filled with good, substantial temperance arguments and pleadings, and occasional articles pointing strongly in the direction of the new doctrines of woman’s rights then coming more and more into prominence. Hereditorials were written plainly but with a good deal of spirit, and whoever attacked her position on either of these subjects was sure to receive a sharp rejoinder from her pen. Several weeks during the summer were spent at a sanatorium in Rochester, from which she returned greatly improved in health. Sometime during the year a great anti-slavery meeting was held in the town, attended by the celebrated English orator, George Thompson, and many prominent abolitionists of the state. Among others came Susan B. Anthony, who was the guest of Mrs. Bloomer and whom she introduced to Mrs. Stanton, and then commenced that life-long intimacy of these two celebrated women.

During the winter of 1849-50 Mrs. Bloomer visited the city of New York for the first time, accompanied by her husband. They passed up Cayuga Lake on a steamer, and from there were in the first railroad cars, by special invitation,over the Erie railroad from that village to the metropolis. It is remembered that several of the men who afterwards became distinguished as railroad magnates were on that train, and their conversation was listened to with a great deal of interest. That was long before the days of sleeping cars, and they had to pass the night as comfortably as they could in their seats in the passenger coach. In the city, they spent three or four days visiting some of the noted places, including Barnum’s Museum on Broadway, then one of the great attractions of the growing town. They returned by the sameroutein the midst of a great snowstorm which, with the high wind that came along with it, made their trip down the lake somewhat hazardous.

Mrs. Bloomer wrote of this trip as follows:

“We traveled by therouteof the lake and the New-York-and-Erie railroad. Those who have not been over this road can form no idea of its sublimity and grandeur. To one who like myself had never been beyond the level country of western New York, it presents a grand, imposingspectacle. The prospect is at one moment bounded on either side by lofty mountain peaks covered with evergreens, and the next by solid masses of rock towering higher than the eye can reach, and through which at an enormous expense and great amount of labor the road has been cut. The water pouring over these rocks from above had frozen in its descent, and now hung in masses and irregular sheets down their perpendicular sides, forming a beautiful contrast to their surface. Occasionally you come into a more open country, while at one spot you find yourself on the summit of a mountain where you have a view of ten miles in extent through the valley below. * * * Winter had robed all in her snowy mantle on our return, adding new beauty to the scene. Summer, we think, would lend enchantment to the picture; and should we ever take a trip over this road again, we shall aim to do so at a more mild and genial season.“We were fortunate in meeting several directors of the road on our downward trip from Ithaca. To them, and especially to Mr. Dodge, of New York City, we are indebted for much information concerning the road. Every attention was shown us by this enterprisinggentleman from the time we left Ithaca until we shook hands with him at parting upon our arrival in the city.”

“We were fortunate in meeting several directors of the road on our downward trip from Ithaca. To them, and especially to Mr. Dodge, of New York City, we are indebted for much information concerning the road. Every attention was shown us by this enterprisinggentleman from the time we left Ithaca until we shook hands with him at parting upon our arrival in the city.”

Mrs. Bloomer, in later years, wrote:

“It was in the spring of 1850 that I introduced Susan B. Anthony to Mrs. Stanton. Miss Anthony had come to attend an anti-slavery meeting in Seneca Falls, held by George Thompson and William Lloyd Garrison, and was my guest. Returning from the meeting, we stopped at the street corner and waited for Mrs. Stanton, and I gave the introduction which has resulted in a life-long friendship. Afterwards, we called together at Mrs. Stanton’s house and the way was opened for future intercourse between them. It was, as Mrs. Stanton says in her history, an eventful meeting that henceforth in a measure shaped their lives. Neither would have done what she did without the other. Mrs. Stanton had the intellectual, and Susan the executive, ability to carry forward the movement then recently inaugurated. Without the push of Miss Anthony, Mrs. Stanton would probably neverhave gone abroad into active life, or achieved half she has done; and without the brains of Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony would never have been so largely known to the world by name and deeds. They helped and strengthened each other, and together they have accomplished great things for woman and humanity. The writer is glad for the part she had in bringing two such characters together.”

The columns of theLilyduring the first year of its publication were almost exclusively filled with articles bearing upon the great purpose for which it was established, the promotion of the Temperance cause. True, some other questions were touched upon by Mrs. Stanton, and perhaps by other correspondents; but Mrs. Bloomer’s editorials were all directed to that end. With the MarchLilyfor 1850 she struck out in a new direction, as will appear from the following article which appeared in the editorial columns for that month:

“The legislature of Tennessee have in their wisdom decided after gravely discussing the question that women have no souls, and no right to hold property. Wise men these, and worthy to be honored with seats in the halls of legislation in a Christian land. Women no souls! Then, of course, we are not accountable beings: and if not accountable to our Maker, then surely not to man. Man represents us, legislates for us, and now holds himself accountable for us! How kind in him, and what a weight is lifted from us! We shall no longer be answerable to the laws of God or man, no longer be subject to punishment for breaking them, no longer be responsible for any of our doings. Man in whom iniquity is perfected has assumed the whole charge of us and left us helpless, soulless, defenseless creatures dependent on him for leave to speak or act.“We suppose the wise legislators consider the question settled beyond dispute, but we fear they will have some trouble with it yet. Although it may be an easy matter for them to arrive at such a conclusion, it will be quite another thing to make women believe it. We are not so blind to the weakness or imperfections of man as to set his word above that ofour Maker, or so ready to yield obedience to his laws as to place them before the laws of God. However blindly we may be led by him, however much we may yield to his acquired power over us, we cannot yet fall down and worship him as our superior. Some men even act as though women had no souls, but it remained for the legislature of Tennessee to speak it to the world.“We have not designedourselfsaying much on the subject of ‘Woman’s Rights;’ but we see and hear so much that is calculated to keep our sex down and impress us with a conviction of our inferiority and helplessness, that we feel compelled to act on the defensive and stand for what we consider our just rights. If things are coming to such a pass as that indicated by the above decision, we think it high time that women should open their eyes and look where they stand. It is quite time that their rightsshould be discussed, and that woman herself should enter the contest.“We have ever felt that in regard to property, and also as to many other things, the laws were unjust to women. Men make laws without consulting us, and of course they will make them all in their own favor, especially as we are powerless and cannot contend for our rights.We believe that most women are capable of taking care of their own property, and that they have the right to hold it, and to dispose of it as they please, man’s decision to the contrary notwithstanding. As for ourselves, we have no fears but we could take care of a fortune if we had one, without any assistance from legislators or lawyers, and we should think them meddling with what did not concern them should they undertake to control it for us.“The legislature of our own state has taken a step in advance on this subject and granted to women the right to their own property. We trust this is but a forecast of the enlightened sentiment of the people of New York, and that it will pave the way to greater privileges, and the final elevation of women to that position in society which shall entitle her opinions to respect and consideration.”

“We suppose the wise legislators consider the question settled beyond dispute, but we fear they will have some trouble with it yet. Although it may be an easy matter for them to arrive at such a conclusion, it will be quite another thing to make women believe it. We are not so blind to the weakness or imperfections of man as to set his word above that ofour Maker, or so ready to yield obedience to his laws as to place them before the laws of God. However blindly we may be led by him, however much we may yield to his acquired power over us, we cannot yet fall down and worship him as our superior. Some men even act as though women had no souls, but it remained for the legislature of Tennessee to speak it to the world.

“We have not designedourselfsaying much on the subject of ‘Woman’s Rights;’ but we see and hear so much that is calculated to keep our sex down and impress us with a conviction of our inferiority and helplessness, that we feel compelled to act on the defensive and stand for what we consider our just rights. If things are coming to such a pass as that indicated by the above decision, we think it high time that women should open their eyes and look where they stand. It is quite time that their rightsshould be discussed, and that woman herself should enter the contest.

“We have ever felt that in regard to property, and also as to many other things, the laws were unjust to women. Men make laws without consulting us, and of course they will make them all in their own favor, especially as we are powerless and cannot contend for our rights.We believe that most women are capable of taking care of their own property, and that they have the right to hold it, and to dispose of it as they please, man’s decision to the contrary notwithstanding. As for ourselves, we have no fears but we could take care of a fortune if we had one, without any assistance from legislators or lawyers, and we should think them meddling with what did not concern them should they undertake to control it for us.

“The legislature of our own state has taken a step in advance on this subject and granted to women the right to their own property. We trust this is but a forecast of the enlightened sentiment of the people of New York, and that it will pave the way to greater privileges, and the final elevation of women to that position in society which shall entitle her opinions to respect and consideration.”

And from that time on, a considerable part of theLilywas devoted to the same subject. The above article related simply to property rights, but Mrs. Bloomer’s views rapidly widened out until she took the position, also,that women should be granted the right of suffrage and thus possess a controlling influence in the passage of all laws. Nevertheless, she remained true and faithful to her temperance principles and firm in their advocacy. Witness the following written and printed in her paper in 1853:

“We think it all-important that woman obtain the right of suffrage, but she cannot do this at once. She must gradually prepare the way for such a step by showing that she is worthy of receiving and capable of exercising it. If she do this, prejudices will gradually give way and she will gain her cause. We cannot consent to have woman remain silent on the Temperance question till she obtain her right of suffrage. Great as is our faith in the speedy triumph of temperance principles were women allowed their right of franchise, and strong as is our hope that this right will be granted ere many years, we feel that the day is too far distant for her to rest all her hopes and labors on that issue. Let her work with her whole heart in this cause and, while she demands a law that entirely prohibits the traffic in strong drink, let her also obtain aright to a voice in making all laws by which she is to be governed.”

On the ninth of May, 1851, Mrs. Bloomer addressed an elaborate letter to the women’s convention held at Akron, O., in that month, in which she discussed at great length the position of woman as regards her education, her right to employment, and the laws relating to her property rights. She first takes up the liquor traffic and shows wherein it was unjust to woman in her dearest privilege,—the enjoyment of children, family and home. She “unfolds the great wrong done to woman in her circumscribed sphere of industry, and the meagre wages she receives for her industry.” Passing on from this, the property rights of married women are considered, and their unjust provisions are pointed out. She concludes as follows:

“But woman is herself aroused to a sense of her wrongs, and sees the necessity of action on her part if she would have justice done her.A brighter day has dawned for her. A spirit of inquiry has awakened in her bosom, which neither ridicule nor taunts can quench. Henceforth her course is upward and onward. Her mind is capable of grasping things hitherto beyond her reach and she will not weary of the chase until she has reached the topmost round in the ladder. She will yet prove conclusively that she possesses the same God-given faculties which belong to man, and that she is endowed with powers of mind and body suitable for any emergency in which she may be placed.”

During this year, Mr. T. S. Arthur published a book bearing this title, in which he undertook to define the duties of the wife of a hard-hearted, thoughtless man, and to show that even under the most shocking circumstances of injustice it was still the wife’s duty to submit and obey. Mrs. Bloomer took exception to this position. Mr. Arthur answered her, and she then wrote in reply in part as follows:

“I have too good an opinion of my sex to admit that they are such weak, helpless creatures,or to teach them any such ideas. Much rather would I arouse them from their dependent, inferior position, and teach them to rely more upon themselves and less upon man, so that when called upon, as many of them are and ever will be, to battle with the rough things of the world, they may go forth with confidence in their own powers of coping successfully with every obstacle and with courage to meet whatever dangers and difficulties may lie in their way. The more you impress this upon their minds, the more you show that she is man’s equal, and not his slave, so much the more you do to elevate woman to her true position. The present legal distinctions between the sexes have been made by man and not by God. Man has degraded woman from her high position in which she was placed as his companion and equal, and made of her a slave to be bought and sold at his pleasure. He has brought the Bible to prove that he is her lord and master, and taught her that resistance to his authority is to resist God’s will. I deny that the Bible teaches any such doctrine. God made them different in sex, but equal in intellect, and gave them equal dominion. You deny that they are ‘intellectually equal.’ As a whole, I admit that at the present day theyare not; though I think there have been individual cases where woman’s equality cannot be denied. But at her creation no difference existed. It is the fault of education that she is now intellectually inferior. Give her the same advantages as men, throw open the door of our colleges and schools of science and bid her enter, teach her that she was created for a higher purpose than to be a parlor ornament or mere plaything for man, show her that you regard her as an equal and that her opinions are entitled to consideration, in short, treat her as an intelligent, accountable being, and when all this has been done, if she prove herself not man’s equal in intellect I will yield the point and admit her inferiority. It is unjust to condemn her as inferior when we consider the different education she has received and the estimation in which she has ever been held. We are by the laws and customs of society rendered dependent and helpless enough, at the best; but it is both painful and mortifying to see our helplessness shown up to the world in such colors, and by such a writer as yourself. If, instead of leading Mrs. Long into such difficulties after she had left her husband, you had allowed her to hire out as a servant, if nothing better presented itself, you would have donejustice to woman, set her a better example, and more truly drawn her character.”

The above presents very fully the views of Mrs. Bloomer at that time (1850). She was pleading for the elevation of woman, for her redemption from the curse of drink, for a better education for her, and wider fields for the work of her hands. She had not yet troubled herself much about the suffrage question,—the right to the ballot; that came along later in life, as we have already seen.

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