“We left home on Saturday the second instant for Harford, where we were engaged asorator for the celebration on the Fourth. The weather was fine and the trip up the lake a delightful one, made doubly so by meeting some old acquaintances and the forming of some new ones on the boat. Arrived at Ithaca we found friends awaiting from Harford, and were soon on our way to that place, where we arrived after a pleasant carriage ride of sixteen miles at about ten o’clock in the evening. The glorious Fourth was ushered in by a salute at daybreak and another at sunrise. At an early hour people began to arrive from the country, and the streets soon presented a lively appearance. At ten o’clock the procession was formed in front of the Union Church and, the Good Templars and Sons of Temperance in the regalia of their orders first, led by a band of music and followed by the people, proceeded to a grove where seats and a stand handsomely decorated had been prepared for the occasion. We were escorted by a committee of ladies all in short dresses to the stand, where after the usual exercises came the address; but of the merits of this it becometh us not to speak. Suffice it to say that the large audience of fifteen hundred or two thousand persons listened to us throughout with the most earnest attention, and judging from their countenancesthe novelty of hearing a woman was lost in the interest excited by the subject.”
“We left home on Saturday the second instant for Harford, where we were engaged asorator for the celebration on the Fourth. The weather was fine and the trip up the lake a delightful one, made doubly so by meeting some old acquaintances and the forming of some new ones on the boat. Arrived at Ithaca we found friends awaiting from Harford, and were soon on our way to that place, where we arrived after a pleasant carriage ride of sixteen miles at about ten o’clock in the evening. The glorious Fourth was ushered in by a salute at daybreak and another at sunrise. At an early hour people began to arrive from the country, and the streets soon presented a lively appearance. At ten o’clock the procession was formed in front of the Union Church and, the Good Templars and Sons of Temperance in the regalia of their orders first, led by a band of music and followed by the people, proceeded to a grove where seats and a stand handsomely decorated had been prepared for the occasion. We were escorted by a committee of ladies all in short dresses to the stand, where after the usual exercises came the address; but of the merits of this it becometh us not to speak. Suffice it to say that the large audience of fifteen hundred or two thousand persons listened to us throughout with the most earnest attention, and judging from their countenancesthe novelty of hearing a woman was lost in the interest excited by the subject.”
Mrs. Bloomer’s toast at the dinner was as follows:
“By Mrs. Bloomer: ‘The Women of the Revolution. Although they toiled along with the men of the Revolution for independence and freedom yet they failed, when the struggle was over, to secure an equality in those rights and duties which are the common birthright of all. May their daughters of the present generation be more fortunate in their struggle for rights so long withheld!’”
“By Mrs. Bloomer: ‘The Women of the Revolution. Although they toiled along with the men of the Revolution for independence and freedom yet they failed, when the struggle was over, to secure an equality in those rights and duties which are the common birthright of all. May their daughters of the present generation be more fortunate in their struggle for rights so long withheld!’”
After several sentences laudatory of her hosts, Mrs. Bloomer continues:
“On our return home we were escorted as far as Homer by our friends from Harford. Homer is our native village, and as we had not been there since the days of our childhood we took advantage of our stay to stroll through the place in quest of our old home around which clustered many fond recollections. We had no one to guide us in the search, but the impressions left on our mind at six years of age were so strong that we could not be mistaken.The place was soon found and, though much altered, it still retained enough of its former likeness to enable us to identify it after an absence of twenty-nine years. Emotions both pleasurable and painful were awakened as we gazed upon the spot where we first drew breath and where we spent the early years of our life. Scenes long since forgotten arose in memory as clearly as though but yesterday enacted. Not to the old home only has change come, to us and ours Time has brought much of change and somewhat of sorrow; yet upon us personally has his hand rested lightly, to us he has imparted kindness and blessing far more liberally than sorrow. With saddened feelings we returned to the hotel where we left our friends. Here we were soon surrounded by those who had known us in childhood and were intimate friends of our parents. Somehow, they had gotten notice of our being there and came forward to offer congratulations and welcome us back to our early home. Intercessions were made for us to remain with them for the night and give them a lecture, which we decided to do. After bidding adieu to our kind friends from Harford, who now turned their steps homeward, we were escorted to the mansion of William Sherman who with his estimable wifeand family contributed largely to the pleasures of our visit to Homer.“The Presbyterian church was at once opened to us, and notice of the meeting circulated as fully as possible in the brief time that remained before the evening. The house though large was densely filled with an attentive and intelligent audience. On the earnest invitation of a committee of gentlemen we remained over another day and spoke in the same church on the following evening, when the body of the house and the large gallery were again as full as could be comfortably seated. Though we interspersed our lecture pretty freely with woman’s rights, or rather we might say with woman’s wrongs, no one seemed at all alarmed; but, if we may believe the assertions of the people, new trains of thought were awakened and a most favorable impression made on the minds of the community.”
“On our return home we were escorted as far as Homer by our friends from Harford. Homer is our native village, and as we had not been there since the days of our childhood we took advantage of our stay to stroll through the place in quest of our old home around which clustered many fond recollections. We had no one to guide us in the search, but the impressions left on our mind at six years of age were so strong that we could not be mistaken.The place was soon found and, though much altered, it still retained enough of its former likeness to enable us to identify it after an absence of twenty-nine years. Emotions both pleasurable and painful were awakened as we gazed upon the spot where we first drew breath and where we spent the early years of our life. Scenes long since forgotten arose in memory as clearly as though but yesterday enacted. Not to the old home only has change come, to us and ours Time has brought much of change and somewhat of sorrow; yet upon us personally has his hand rested lightly, to us he has imparted kindness and blessing far more liberally than sorrow. With saddened feelings we returned to the hotel where we left our friends. Here we were soon surrounded by those who had known us in childhood and were intimate friends of our parents. Somehow, they had gotten notice of our being there and came forward to offer congratulations and welcome us back to our early home. Intercessions were made for us to remain with them for the night and give them a lecture, which we decided to do. After bidding adieu to our kind friends from Harford, who now turned their steps homeward, we were escorted to the mansion of William Sherman who with his estimable wifeand family contributed largely to the pleasures of our visit to Homer.
“The Presbyterian church was at once opened to us, and notice of the meeting circulated as fully as possible in the brief time that remained before the evening. The house though large was densely filled with an attentive and intelligent audience. On the earnest invitation of a committee of gentlemen we remained over another day and spoke in the same church on the following evening, when the body of the house and the large gallery were again as full as could be comfortably seated. Though we interspersed our lecture pretty freely with woman’s rights, or rather we might say with woman’s wrongs, no one seemed at all alarmed; but, if we may believe the assertions of the people, new trains of thought were awakened and a most favorable impression made on the minds of the community.”
Mrs. Bloomer then proceeded by stage to Glen Haven where she received a most cordial welcome from Dr. Jackson, and at his request:
“We addressed the patients and other inmates of the house in a large sitting room on Thursday evening, and at his solicitation concludedto accept the invitation of Judge Osborn, of Scott, to return to that place and speak on Friday evening, instead of returning home as we had intended to do. Accordingly on Friday evening we rode over to Scott, a distance of three or four miles. The church in which the meeting was held was densely filled, and we could but wonder where all the people came from in so small a place. Many warm though strange friends gathered around us here, and bade us a hearty God-speed in our mission. They would have kept us for another night, but home after a week’s absence was doubly endeared to us and we could be detained no longer; so we again took the stage for the Glen on Saturday morning, and from thence on steamboat and cars returned home on Saturday evening. Altogether the excursion was a delightful one and we have no cause to regret that we were induced to accept the invitation of our Harford friends to join with them in celebrating the 77th anniversary of the birthday of our National Independence.”
“We addressed the patients and other inmates of the house in a large sitting room on Thursday evening, and at his solicitation concludedto accept the invitation of Judge Osborn, of Scott, to return to that place and speak on Friday evening, instead of returning home as we had intended to do. Accordingly on Friday evening we rode over to Scott, a distance of three or four miles. The church in which the meeting was held was densely filled, and we could but wonder where all the people came from in so small a place. Many warm though strange friends gathered around us here, and bade us a hearty God-speed in our mission. They would have kept us for another night, but home after a week’s absence was doubly endeared to us and we could be detained no longer; so we again took the stage for the Glen on Saturday morning, and from thence on steamboat and cars returned home on Saturday evening. Altogether the excursion was a delightful one and we have no cause to regret that we were induced to accept the invitation of our Harford friends to join with them in celebrating the 77th anniversary of the birthday of our National Independence.”
Mrs. Bloomer’s activities during the year had been so unremitting that she now needed rest.Small in person and fragile in health, she had been enabled to endure so much only by her indomitable courage and the spirit of perseverance which ever controlled all her actions. This needed rest she therefore sought at Dr. Jackson’s water cure, on the beautiful shores of Skaneateles Lake. Here secluded from public gaze she spent some weeks in retirement; and yet not entirely so, for she was there invited and consented to deliver her lecture on Woman’s Enfranchisement to the inmates of the cure.
This lecture had been prepared during the early months of the year and the closing months of 1852. She delivered it on many occasions in subsequent years in various parts of the country, rewriting it several times in whole or in part for that purpose. Towards the closing years of her life she revised it once more, fully setting forth her ideas and convictions on the subject of woman suffrage; and in this completed form it is printed in full in theAppendix of this work. It is believed to be one of the strongest arguments that has ever been written in favor of woman’s right to the ballot. Mrs. Bloomer also prepared lectures on woman’s right to employment and education as fully in all respects as that enjoyed by the other sex. These lectures, she delivered to audiences in different parts of the country as occasion offered. They were radical in their claims for equality for woman in all the employments and acquirements of life with man, for at that time this claim was only just beginning to be discussed. No colleges were then open to women. No universities offered her the literary advantages of their halls and lecture rooms, and the general opinion was entertained among the mass of the people that the three studies of reading, writing and arithmetic were enough for her. So also there was little for women to do but to sew and stitch, and occasionally teach school for wages far below those paid to men. There were no women lawyers, no women preachers, except among the Quakers, no typewriters, no clerks in the stores, no publicoffices filled by women. Mrs. Bloomer in her lectures insisted that all this was wrong. She argued that the schoolroom, the workshop, the public office, the lawyer’s forum and the sacred desk should be opened to her sex on entire equality with man. These were then unpopular doctrines to promulgate either in the public press or on the lecturer’s platform; but Mrs. Bloomer was spared long enough to see her rather radical ideas on this subject brought into practical application, for at the end of 1894 woman’s right to both education and employment on an equality with man had come to be almost universally recognized.
Mrs. Bloomer derived much mental culture from attending the conversation-club which had been organized through Mrs. Stanton’s exertions and was led by her. It followed largely the line of thought and action set forth in the Life of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, published about that time, who had conducted clubs oflike character some years before in Boston. It met from time to time in the parlors of prominent residents of the village and many questions social, literary and even political were freely discussed at its meetings, each member being required to take some part in the conversation. It was not exactly a ladies’ club, for gentlemen also were invited to attend and did so to some extent; but the attendance and discussions were mainly confined to the other sex. Mrs. Stanton was eminently qualified to lead the club as she was and is a woman of great general information, of large culture and literary attainments, and an excellent talker. Occasionally an essay was read by some member previously appointed, and on the whole the club added greatly to the mental attainments of its members. Seneca Falls as a village was noted at that time for its liberality in all reformatory movements. It was the residence of Mrs. Stanton, of Bascom, of Tellman, and other leaders in liberal thought, to say nothing of the Bloomers.