I have received thy letter inviting me to attend the Convention in behalf
of Woman's Suffrage, at Newport, R. I., on the 25th inst. I do not see
how it is possible for me to accept the invitation; and, were I to do so,
the state of my health would prevent me from taking such a part in the
meeting as would relieve me from the responsibility of seeming to
sanction anything in its action which might conflict with my own views of
duty or policy. Yet I should do myself great injustice if I did not
embrace this occasion to express my general sympathy with the movement.
I have seen no good reason why mothers, wives, and daughters should not
have the same right of person, property, and citizenship which fathers,
husbands, and brothers have.
The sacred memory of mother and sister; the wisdom and dignity of women
of my own religious communion who have been accustomed to something like
equality in rights as well as duties; my experience as a co-worker with
noble and self-sacrificing women, as graceful and helpful in their
household duties as firm and courageous in their public advocacy of
unpopular truth; the steady friendships which have inspired and
strengthened me, and the reverence and respect which I feel for human
nature, irrespective of sex, compel me to look with something more than
acquiescence on the efforts you are making. I frankly confess that I am
not able to forsee all the consequences of the great social and political
change proposed, but of this I am, at least, sure, it is always safe to
do right, and the truest expediency is simple justice. I can understand,
without sharing, the misgivings of those who fear that, when the vote
drops from woman's hand into the ballot-box, the beauty and sentiment,
the bloom and sweetness, of womankind will go with it. But in this
matter it seems to me that we can trust Nature. Stronger than statutes
or conventions, she will be conservative of all that the true man loves
and honors in woman. Here and there may be found an equivocal, unsexed
Chevalier D'Eon, but the eternal order and fitness of things will remain.
I have no fear that man will be less manly or woman less womanly when
they meet on terms of equality before the law.
On the other hand, I do not see that the exercise of the ballot by woman
will prove a remedy for all the evils of which she justly complains. It
is her right as truly as mine, and when she asks for it, it is something
less than manhood to withhold it. But, unsupported by a more practical
education, higher aims, and a deeper sense of the responsibilities of
life and duty, it is not likely to prove a blessing in her hands any more
than in man's.
With great respect and hearty sympathy, I am very truly thy friend.
