Elizabeth Cady Stanton,from her speech "Solitude of Self", portrayed by Elizabeth Garrison
Mrs. Stanton was the heart and mind of the Seneca Falls Convention. She was passionate about women's rights and became the driving force of the movement. In her obituary, the major accomplishments of her life were stated as such:
"Mrs. Stanton was born Nov. 12, 1815, in Johnstown, N. Y. She was the daughter of Supreme Court Judge Daniel Cady and wife of the late Henry Brewster Stanton, noted abolitionist and journalist. She began her education at the Johnstown Academy, and later became a pupil at Emma Willard's Seminary, in Troy, a school noted then throughout the country. She was graduated with the class of '32. Eight years later, while attending a world's anti-slavery convention in London, she made the acquaintance of Lucretia Mott, which resulted in the joint issuance of a call for a woman's rights convention. Mrs. Stanton was on her wedding trip at this time. The convention was held at her home, Seneca Falls, July 19 and 20, 1848. The first formal claim for suffrage for women was then made. |
In 1854 she appeared before the New York Legislature and addressed it on "The Rights of Married Women." Six years later she took the stand that drunkenness should constitute a cause for divorce. She was instrumental in having the question of woman suffrage submitted to Kansas in 1867 and Michigan in 1874. She was President of the National Committee of her party from 1855 to 1865. She was also identified with the Women's Loyal League and was President of the National Women's Suffrage Association unit 1883. In 1868 she sought to become an actual political factor by entering the lists for Congress. For the past quarter of a century and over she had annually addressed a committee of Congress in favor of an amendment for women to the Constitution of the United States. At the time of her death she was honorary President of the National Women's Suffrage Association."
- Obituary of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, The New York Times, October 27, 1902
In Seneca Falls, she lived a normal lifestyle with her husband and children. She watched other people and sympathized with their struggles. She became passionate about helping others and preserving equality throughout the nation and the world. In her own words, she describes her inspiration for her work:
"I now fully understood the practical difficulties most women had to contend with in the isolated household, and the impossibility of woman's best development if in contact, the chief part of her life, with servants and children. Fourier's phalansterie community life and co-operative households had a new significance for me. Emerson says, "A healthy discontent is the first step to progress." |
The general discontent I felt with woman's portion as wife, mother, housekeeper, physician, and spiritual guide, the chaotic conditions into which everything fell without her constant supervision, and the wearied, anxious look of the majority of women impressed me with a strong feeling that some active measures should be taken to remedy the wrongs of society in general, and of women in particular. My experience at the World's Anti-slavery Convention, all I had read of the legal status of women, and the oppression I saw everywhere, together swept across my soul, intensified now by many personal experiences. It seemed as if all the elements had conspired to impel me to some onward step. I could not see what to do or where to begin–my only thought was a public meeting for protest and discussion."
- Eighty Years And More: Reminiscences 1815-1897 by Elizabeth Cady Stanton
- Eighty Years And More: Reminiscences 1815-1897 by Elizabeth Cady Stanton
In one of her most famous speeches, entitled "The Solitude of Self" that was delivered to the U.S. Congress in 1892, she talked about the ideas and reasons why she believed in the equality of women. These ideas were the underlying principles of the entire suffrage movement and were the inspiration for millions of women.
"The point I wish plainly to bring before you on this occasion is the individuality of each human soul; our Protestant idea, the right of individual conscience and judgment--our republican idea, individual citizenship. In discussing the rights of woman, we are to consider, first, what belongs to her as an individual, in a world of her own, the arbiter of her own destiny, an imaginary Robinson Crusoe with her woman Friday on a solitary island. Her rights under such circumstances are to use all her faculties for her own safety and happiness.
Secondly, if we consider her as a citizen, as a member of a great nation, she must have the same rights as all other members, according to the fundamental principles of our Government.
Thirdly, viewed as a woman, an equal factor in civilization, her rights and duties are still the same--individual happiness and development.
Fourthly, it is only the incidental relations of life, such as mother, wife, sister, daughter, that may involve some special duties and training. In the usual discussion in regard to woman's sphere, such as men as Herbert Spencer, Frederic Harrison, and Grant Allen uniformly subordinate her rights and duties as an individual, as a citizen, as a woman, to the necessities of these incidental relations, some of which a large class of woman may never assume. In discussing the sphere of man we do not decide his rights as an individual, as a citizen, as a man by his duties as a father, a husband, a brother, or a son, relations some of which he may never fill. Moreover he would be better fitted for these very relations and whatever special work he might choose to do to earn his bread by the complete development of all his faculties as an individual.
Just so with woman."
- Solitude of Self. Address Delivered by Mrs. Stanton before the Committee of the Judiciary of the United States Congress, Monday, January 18, 1892
"The point I wish plainly to bring before you on this occasion is the individuality of each human soul; our Protestant idea, the right of individual conscience and judgment--our republican idea, individual citizenship. In discussing the rights of woman, we are to consider, first, what belongs to her as an individual, in a world of her own, the arbiter of her own destiny, an imaginary Robinson Crusoe with her woman Friday on a solitary island. Her rights under such circumstances are to use all her faculties for her own safety and happiness.
Secondly, if we consider her as a citizen, as a member of a great nation, she must have the same rights as all other members, according to the fundamental principles of our Government.
Thirdly, viewed as a woman, an equal factor in civilization, her rights and duties are still the same--individual happiness and development.
Fourthly, it is only the incidental relations of life, such as mother, wife, sister, daughter, that may involve some special duties and training. In the usual discussion in regard to woman's sphere, such as men as Herbert Spencer, Frederic Harrison, and Grant Allen uniformly subordinate her rights and duties as an individual, as a citizen, as a woman, to the necessities of these incidental relations, some of which a large class of woman may never assume. In discussing the sphere of man we do not decide his rights as an individual, as a citizen, as a man by his duties as a father, a husband, a brother, or a son, relations some of which he may never fill. Moreover he would be better fitted for these very relations and whatever special work he might choose to do to earn his bread by the complete development of all his faculties as an individual.
Just so with woman."
- Solitude of Self. Address Delivered by Mrs. Stanton before the Committee of the Judiciary of the United States Congress, Monday, January 18, 1892