WOMAN'S RIGHTS CONVENTION.

(From the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat.)


...... The President then called on Mr. Nell to read his essay, which he did. During the reading a lady called upon him to speak "louder," which created some suppressed merriment. After the reading Lucretia Mott stated her objections to a portion of the paper read. She did not believe in holding up woman us a superior to man, because it was untrue—she was only an equal. When invested with power, women as well as men, was tyrannical. Mr Nell briefly replied.

Mrs Elizabeth Stanton, of Seneca Falls, read the declaration adopted at the meeting held in that village, and the discussion of that document appeared to be the principal business of the forenoon session.—The President having called for remarks for and against the sentiments it embodied, one gentleman said his objection was that there was too much truth in it ! Mr. Burtis approved of the declaration, and was glad to see the women asserting their rights —Mr Colton, of New Haven briefly stated his objections, which appeared to be of a general nature.

Lucretia Mott wished to know what the speaker considered the proper sphere of woman. It was not strange that he thought she should not be in the pulpit, he having been educated in New Haven, Connecticut. He should read his Bible again, as he may have pinned his faith upon the sleeve of some minister.

W. C. Bloss, Esq , made some very humourous remarks, which were received with much applause. He said this was a novel and interesting subject, one in which the experienced have much advantage of the novices. It was a new thing, the last in the crucible ; but there need be no fear, if we have a revolution, that it will be a bloody one. He wished for light on the subject, and what he said would be with a view to draw information from those better informed. He then went on to show the different tastes of male and female children, and inquired whether these were not in accordance with the instincts of nature. He alluded to the subject of the elective franchise ; the question was, not whether in the abstract it was a right of woman : but would she under all the circumstances and embarrassments which surround its exercise, think it worth while to assert it and go to the polls ?

Mrs Sandford, of Michigan, made a brief, but forcible and eloquent address, in which she contended for the right of women to exercise the elective franchise, and their eligibility to office. It might, she said, be for women to break the bands of slavery, and she urged them to nerve for the effort. One of the consequences of the proposed enfranchisement of women would be less extravagance and waste in dress-fashion would be neglected. They could be as daughters, as wives, as mothers, dutiful, gentle and submissive, even if we hang the domestic wreath upon the eagle's talons! Her remarks called forth considerable applause.

At the suggestion of Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth M'Clintock read a poetical composition, by Mrs. Chapman, of Boston.

Mr. Cutting objected to that part of the declaration which held out the idea that voting was the first right of women. He regarded education as the first right, and it was the peculiar province of women to teach. If mothers teach their sons, wives their husbands, and sisters their brothers, how to vote, it was all the same as though they voted themselves. It made no difference whether the voting was done by few or many, if it was well done. No political glory could give women that real satisfaction she derived from a consciousness of having imparted useful lessons to those upon whom they can exert their influence.

Mr. Sanford deprecated the usurpation of so much time by the men. He hoped the ladies would assert their rights.

When we went in at the afternoon session, the house was crowded, and Mrs. Owen was reading a report upon some part of the business of the Convention. It was well written, and some part of it interesting. It appeared also that several resolutions had been offered, of which we believe the following are copies ;

Resolved, That we regret the apathy and indifference with which women regard the encroachment upon their rights, and wish to inspire them with a more exalted courage and unabated zeal in seeking to establish and maintain their privileges.

There is an admitted principle of American Law that all just authority arises from the consent of the governed, and that the right of taxation and representation are inseparably connected; therefore we will use our best efforts to secure for ourselves the right of suffrage.

That as obedience and submission to the husband is taught and enjoined in the marriage service, we will hereafter use our endeavours to have such a law entirely abrogated.

That the assumption of law in the settlement of the estates of widows, is an unwarrantable interference with, and violation of, the rights of woman.

Lucretia Mott objected to them, as being too milk and water. She was not only for declaring, but for taking and maintaining her rights, and something more than these tame resolutions was necessary. She rejoiced at the great change in public sentiment, and at the passage of the law protecting the property of married women—it was a partial uprooting of a system of robbery. She read a remonstrance of forty-four women of Wyoming and Genesee, presented to the last legislature, denouncing the present laws and usages of society, by which women were degraded and made of no more account than children, lunatics, and idiots, and asking for the repeal of all laws of this nature, and the passage of such as recognise her in all her particulars as the equals of men. In the course of her remarks, Lucretia said she was not a theologian, but yet she believed that people were as much inspired now as in former times—that inspiration was not limited to 1800 years ago, or to any previous or subsequent period. She made a long, fluent, eloquent, and remarkable speech, which she concluded by hoping that some more stirring resolutions would be presented.

Mrs. Roberts made a report in relation to the condition of females who are employed as seamstresses in the city, setting forth the hardships under which they labour, &c. She said they were compelled to work fourteen or fifteen hours a day to earn from 31 to 38 cents ; that they seldom earned 60 cents, or if they did, it was by the most extreme exertion. It appeared that those who can endure the most, are only able to save some 50 cents per week beyond their board, &c.

Mrs. Stanton offered another resolution, asserting that it is the duty of those who believe females are oppressed in their wages, to pay them better prices.

Lucretia Mott thought little good would be done by efforts to improve the physical condition of woman. The axe must be laid at the root of the corrupt tree. A radical change must be effected in her civil conduct before much improvement would be visible " Overturn " " overturn " " overturn " must be the motto, until these changes are effected, until all classes are levelled to the same common platform of equality. A slave, however, treated, cannot be materially bettered until made free. It is the nature of slavery to debase. Just so with woman, and so long as the present usages of society prevailed, nothing would be done by passing resolutions.

Mrs Stanton offered another resolution, asserting that it is the duty of women, whatever their complexion, to assume as soon as possible their true position of equality, in the social circle, in church and in state.

Other resolutions were also offered, when Mrs Owen proposed the appointment of a committee to form a society for redressing the wrongs and hardships of labouring females but Lucretia Mott thought this was foreign to the objects of the Convention. Such matters had better be left to the caucus of Rochester. The proposition was however renewed from several other quarters, and we believe finally adopted.

Lucretia Mott addressed the Convention in the evening, but we did not hear her.

This has been a remarkable Convention. It was composed of those holding to some of the various isms of the day, and some we should think who embraced them all. The only practical good proposed—the adoption of measures for the relief and amelioration of the condition of indigent, industrious, labouring females—was almost scouted at by the leading ones composing the meeting. The great effort seemed to be, to bring out some new, impracticable, absurd and ridiculous proposition, and the greater its absurdity the better. In short, it was a regular emeute of a congregation of females gathered from various quarters, who seem to be really in earnest in their aim at revolution and who evince entire confidence that " the day of their deliverance " is at hand ! Verily, this is a "progressive" era !

 smh 28/1/1850  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60276717