We Now Demand Our Right to Vote Elizabeth Cady Stanton

In 1848,  Lucretia Mott  and  Elizabeth Cady Stanton  organized the  Seneca Falls Womens Rights Convention, the first such convention to call for womens rights. The issue of  women voting  was the most difficult to pass in the  resolutions  passed at that convention; all the other resolutions passed unanimously, but the idea that women should vote was more controversial.   The following is Elizabeth Cady Stantons defense of the call for womens suffrage in the resolutions that she and Mott had drafted and the assembly passed. Notice in her argument that she alleges that women already  have  the right to vote.   She argues that women are not demanding some new right, but one that should already be theirs by right of citizenship. Original: We Now Demand Our Right to Vote, July 19, 1848 Summary of We Now Demand Our Right to Vote I. The specific purpose of the convention is to discuss civil and political rights and wrongs. Social life, such as making husbands just, generous, and courteous and to have men take care of infants and dress like women, is not the topic.Women value their loose, flowing garments as more artistic than mens, so men should not fear that women are going to try to change their attire.   And perhaps men do know that such attire is preferable -- look at the religious, judicial, and civil leaders who wear loose flowing robes, including the Pope.   Women will not molest you in experimenting with clothing, even if it is restrictive. II. The protest is against a form of government existing without consent of the governed. Women want to be free in the same way men are, want to have representation in government since women are taxed, want to change laws that are unfair to women and permit male privileges such as punishing their wives, taking their wages, property and even children in a separation.Such laws as men have passed to control women are disgraceful.In particular, women demand the right to vote. Objections based on weakness are not logical, as weak men are able to vote.   All white men in this country have the same rights, however they may differ in mind, body, or estate.   (Stanton, who was also active in the abolition movement, was well aware that such rights as she is talking about applied to white men, not to slaves or many freed black men.) III. Stanton declares that the vote already is a womans right. The question is how to get the vote.Women are not able to exercise a right to vote despite many men who are ignorant or silly are able to do so, and that is insulting to the dignity of women.Women have pledged with pens, tongues, fortunes and wills to achieve this right.Women shall repeat the truth that no just government can be formed without the consent of the governed until they have won the vote. IV. The times are seeing many moral failures and the tide of vice is swelling, and threatens the destruction of everything.... The world thus needs the a purifying force.Because the voice of woman has been silenced in the state, the church, and the home, she cannot help man to improve society.Women are better at connecting with the oppressed and disadvantaged than men are. V. The degradation of women has poisoned the very fountains of life and so America cannot be a truly great and virtuous nation. When women are treated like slaves, they cannot educate their sons.Humans are interconnected so violence against women, degradation of women, affects all. VI.   Women need to find their voices, like Joan of Arc did, and similar enthusiasm. Women need to speak, even if greated with bigotry, prejudice, opposition.Women need to oppose entrenched custom and authority.Women need to carry the banners of their cause even against the storm, with lightning showing clearly the words on the banners, Equality of Rights. Original:  We Now Demand Our Right to Vote, July 19, 1848 Learn more about the 1848 Convention: Seneca Falls Womens Rights Convention - 1848Seneca Falls Declaration of SentimentsSeneca Falls Resolutions Lucretia Mott  - a biography Learn more about Womens Suffrage: Womens Suffrage 101 - What You Need to KnowLong Road to Suffrage Learn more about Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Elizabeth Cady Stanton  - a biographyElizabeth Cady Stanton Quotes Solitude of Soul - Elizabeth Cady Stanton  - 1892 speech delivered to the Committee of the Judiciary of the United States Congress