Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, South Hadley, July 4th, 1851. The 75th anniversary of our National Independence was celebrated by the Teachers and Young Ladies of the Seminary, together with a large number of friends from the village, in the spacious Hall of the Institution. Dr Humphrey, of Pittsfield, presided. Dr Brooks, of Springfield, read the first Declaration of Independence. Dr H. made a few remarks, the purport of which was that while ample justice had been done on these occasions to the Fathers of the Revolution, the toils and privations and heroic endurance of the Mothers had been too much overlooked. He showed us that we were almost as much indebted to the women as to the men of that day, for the successful termination of that great National struggle. After the address, Mr C. Hartwell, from the East Windsor Theological Seminary, was called upon to read the new Declaration of Independence, which had been put into his hands, a copy of which was sent to the Springfield Republican, and was as follows:
When in the course of a domineering male administration, it becomes necessary for the down-trodden sex to throw off the yoke, which has galled and oppressed them till they can bear it no longer, by depriving them of the separate and equal station to which the laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinion of womankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.We hold these truths to be intuitive and indisputable, that all men and women are created free and equal, and endowed with certain inalienable rights, among which are independent self-control, and eligibility to all the offices of trust and profit in the State; and whenever male government denies or withholds these rights, it becomes the right and duty of the oppressed women to abolish it, and to institute such a new government, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes. But when usurpation on the part of legislators, husbands, and whoever else of the male sex, becomes intolerable, it is the bounden duty of the oppressed, to throw off the yoke, and provide new guards for their security. Such has been our patient sufferance, and such is now the necessity which constrains us to draw up and promulgate this declaration and appeal.
The history of the wrongs, inflicted by our male protectors, as they proudly and provokingly call themselves, will show that their steady aim has been to establish an absolute tyranny over us. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
They will not allow us to vote for any of our civil rulers, even though we should submit to the humiliation of promising to vote for men, which most certainly our self-respect and inalienable "woman's rights" would not allow us to do, till we have had our turn in governing them, as long as they have tyrannized over us.
They will not, as long as they can help it, permit us to hold the office of judge, juror or sheriff, for fear, as we strongly suspect, that we should hang, imprison, or send them to the whipping post, as so many of them richly deserve.
In short, whatever may be our known and acknowledged qualifications for the highest offices in the government, we have not the smallest chance of being elected Presidents, Governors, Senators, Secretaries of State, or even town representatives, or selectmen.
They will not tolerate us, on the platform, at the anniversaries, if they can possibly hustle or browbeat us off, because they very well know that we shall eclipse them there, just as we should in all other public assemblies, if we were allowed the liberty of speech, - and which we will have in a more private way in spite of them. Be it known to them that we have read and studied that immortal woman's classic Mrs Caudle's Lectures, to good purpose.
But to proceed with our grievances: they will not allow us, even, to be married, should we ever think of such a thing, unless we promise to obey our husbands, which we are resolved never to do, promise or no promise. And were there no statute laws to disfranchise and oppress us, such is the despotism of public opinion, that worst of all our tyrants, (the men and some of our own recreant sex who have created it, always excepted) that it shuts us out from almost every mechanical trade and lucrative branch of out-door business, and as the pretext for relieving us from toils which would be too severe for our physical strength, when the whole world knows that if we are not quite so strong as the men, we have an iron will which more than makes up for the deficiency.
Again we say, "let a candid world hear and judge." Such is the restraining and crushing power of this infamous public opinion, that it will not allow us to go into the field, with or without the men, to mow, or cradle, or pitch hay, or hoe corn, or dig potatoes, or any such thing; nor to ditch foul meadows, by the job or the day; nor to set up and tend coal pits, nor to cast out manure in the spring, under pain of its high displeasure. We may not keep livery stables, nor drive stages, nor break vicious colts, because, forsooth, we are women, and not men. It will not allow us to put on our frocks and leather aprons, and shoe horses, and tend trip-hammers, and earn our dollar a day in smelting pig iron, and forging anchors, and making steam engines, and casting paixhan guns, if they were ever so much wanted - nor to make brick, nor to stone up cellars, nor to shoulder the hod, and tend the masons, even in comfortable weather. It doesn't allow us the humble privilege of competing with Irish laborers in digging canals, and making railroads; and we very much doubt whether if then Hoosic mountains were to be bored, we could get a job in one of them. Indeed, such is the low and contemptible meddling of this Autocrat, public opinion, that it will not allow us to drive a dray, or trundle a wheelbarrow on the wharf, and we verily believe that not one of us could get the place of street scavenger, were we to underbid everybody else, and present ever so good testimonials of fitness for the place.
But to enumerate all our disfrancisements were impossible; and should we attempt it, the narrative would exhaust the indulgence of a sympathizing world. We wish we could stop here. But the foregoing are not all nor half the grievances which have prompted us to promulgate this our high declaration of Independence.
The same unbearable public opinion would fain shut us up and confine us forever to what it calls domestic duties, under the poor pretence that these are better suited to our sex and physical constitutions than public responsibilities and out-door labors. It first imprisons us, and after leading us through the cells and bidding us look around upon our new home, tells us that this is woman's palace, that here is her throne, that here she shines, as she can nowhere else, and then leaves us to scrub the floors, and make the bread, (if we can get anything to make it of,) and churn the butter, boil the pot, wash the dishes, mend the stockings, rock the cradle, receive and entertain company, and then, when tired and vexed beyond endurance, the wife must welcome her husband as he comes home from the field or the tavern, scolding because dinner aint ready, - her face all radiant with smiles, when it is more than half roasted over the kitchen stove.
All these injuries and vexations we have borne, and a thousand more, till forbearance and submission cease to be virtues.
We, therefore, the women of Amazonia in Congress assembled, having given up all hope of redress from our lordly oppressors, though we have often as humbly petitioned as is anyhow consistent with the maintenance of women's dignity and rights, do now solemnly publish and declare that we are, and of right ought to be, free from all male control and domination whatsoever, from henceforth, to go when and where we choose, and to do and say whatever we please, both in door and out. And for the support of this Declaration, we pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
Adopted unanimously, and given to the world, July 4, 1851.
Abby Comeouter, President.
Fanny Bloomer, Secretary
After this was read, to the no small amusement of the young ladies, some twenty or thirty impromptu sentiments were handed in and read by the Chairman, among which were the following:
Miss Lyon - Our mother in the nurture of female education. Her many daughters shall arise, and call her blessed.
The School Teacher - One, whose name the historian never mentions, but without whose influence he would have little pleasing to write.
Independence - The El Dorado conquered by our forefathers - guarded by their children. May the 7th Anniversary of the Amazonian Declaration of Independence be as happy as is ours.
Miss Lyon - The true expounder of woman's rights.
The writer of the Amazonian Declaration of Independence - As he has never suffered from the domination of an Amazonian, may he ever teach the true sphere of woman as successfully as he has to-day.
Miss Lyon - As we look upon Washington, and call him "the Father of our country," so may we look upon her, and exclaim, "Our Mother and Benefactress."
The Ladies - Their eyes enkindle a fire that cannot be extinguished, and against which there is no insurance.
The land we live in - They that don't like it, let them leave it.
The Fourth - May it never again be a study day in Holyoke Seminary.
Liberty and Union - Liberty only in union within these walls, and without, - the liberty of union.
The young ladies had, upon the shortest notice, decorated their hall in a very tasteful manner, and with appropriate emblems. The principal motto was Liberty and Union in large capitals over the platform.
We doubt whether there was a more rational and happy celebration anywhere in the land. It needed no sputtering of crackers, nor roar of cannon, nor popping of champaign, to give zest to the occasion. Every eye sparkled with delight, and every face was radiant with smiles.
South Hadley, July, 1851.