161st Anniversary “Celebration”
By Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy on July 20, 2009 at 8:01 AM in Barack Obama, Delegates, Democratic National Convention, Electoral College, Feminism, Hillary Clinton, Misogyny, Rules and Bylaws Committee, Sexism, Women, Women's Suffrage
Sunday and Monday are the 161st Anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention, the first Women’s Rights Convention. As a refresher, here is a bit of history on that auspicious occasion:
The seed for the first Woman’s Rights Convention was planted in 1840, when Elizabeth Cady Stanton met Lucretia Mott at the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London, the conference that refused to seat Mott and other women delegates from America because of their sex. Stanton, the young bride of an antislavery agent, and Mott, a Quaker preacher and veteran of reform, talked then of calling a convention to address the condition of women. Eight years later, it came about as a spontaneous event.In July 1848, Mott was visiting her sister, Martha C. Wright, in Waterloo, New York. Stanton, now the restless mother of three small sons, was living in nearby Seneca Falls. A social visit brought together Mott, Stanton, Wright, Mary Ann McClintock, and Jane Hunt. All except Stanton were Quakers, a sect that afforded women some measure of equality, and all five were well acquainted with antislavery and temperance meetings. Lucretia Mott Fresh in their minds was the April passage of the long-deliberated New York Married Woman’s Property Rights Act, a significant but far from comprehensive piece of legislation. The time had come, Stanton argued, for women’s wrongs to be laid before the public, and women themselves must shoulder the responsibility. Before the afternoon was out, the women decided on a call for a convention “to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman.”
To Stanton fell the task of drawing up the Declaration of Sentiments that would define the meeting. Taking the Declaration of Independence as her guide, Stanton submitted that “all men and women had been created equal” and went on to list eighteen “injuries and usurpations” -the same number of charges leveled against the King of England-”on the part of man toward woman.”
You have to love the symmetry with which Stanton crafted the “Declaration of Sentiments.” And what an interesting choice of words for the Declaration, isn’t it? Stanton didn’t stop there:
Stanton also drafted eleven resolutions, making the argument that women had a natural right to equality in all spheres. The ninth resolution held forth the radical assertion that it was the duty of women to secure for themselves the right to vote. Elizabeth Cady Stanton afterwards recalled that a shocked Lucretia Mott exclaimed, “Why, Lizzie, thee will make us ridiculous.” Stanton stood firm. “But I persisted, for I saw clearly that the power to make the laws was the right through which all other rights could be secured.”The convention, to take place in five days’ time, on July 19 and 20 at the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Seneca Falls, was publicized only by a small, unsigned notice placed in the Seneca County Courier. “The convention will not be so large as it otherwise might be, owing to the busy time with the farmers,” Mott told Stanton, “but it will be a beginning.”
A crowd of about three hundred people, including forty men, came from five miles round. No woman felt capable of presiding; the task was undertaken by Lucretia’s husband, James Mott. All of the resolutions were passed unanimously except for woman suffrage, a strange idea and scarcely a concept designed to appeal to the predominantly Quaker audience, whose male contingent commonly declined to vote. The eloquent Frederick Douglass, a former slave and now editor of the Rochester North Star, however, swayed the gathering into agreeing to the resolution. At the closing session, Lucretia Mott won approval of a final resolve “for the overthrowing of the monopoly of the pulpit, and for the securing to woman equal participation with men in the various trades, professions and commerce.” One hundred women and men signed the Seneca Falls Declaration-although subsequent criticism caused some of them to remove their names.
How telling is that, that no woman felt “capable of presiding” at their own Rights Convention? Holy smokes. At least there were some supportive men there, including Lucretia Mott’s husband, to step up. But not everyone was supportive:
The proceedings in Seneca Falls, followed a few days later by a meeting in Rochester, brought forth a torrent of sarcasm and ridicule from the press and pulpit. Noted Frederick Douglass in the North Star: “A discussion of the rights of animals would be regarded with far more complacency by many of what are called the wise and the good of our land, than would be a discussion of the rights of woman.”But Elizabeth Cady Stanton, although somewhat discomforted by the widespread misrepresentation, understood the value of attention in the press. “Just what I wanted,” Stanton exclaimed when she saw that James Gordon Bennett, motivated by derision, printed the entire Declaration of Sentiments in the New York Herald. “Imagine the publicity given to our ideas by thus appearing in a widely circulated sheet like the Herald. It will start women thinking, and men too; and when men and women think about a new question, the first step in progress is taken.”
Stanton, thirty-two years old at the time of the Seneca Falls Convention, grew gray in the cause. In 1851 she met temperance worker Susan B. Anthony, and shortly the two would be joined in the long struggle to secure the vote for women. When national victory came in 1920, seventy-two years after the first organized demand in 1848, only one signer of the Seneca Falls Declaration-Charlotte Woodward, a young worker in a glove manufactory -had lived long enough to cast her ballot.
What a day that must have been for Charlotte Woodward, but how sad it took 72 years for women to get the right to vote after Seneca Falls, and that she was the only remaining one able to cast her vote. Still, what a joy that must have been for her. Can you imagine it?? WOw.
Let’s just see how far we have come in the past 161 years:
We have come nowhere near far enough. I can only imagine what Mott, Stanton, and the others, would have thought of this past primary season. On the one hand, no doubt, they would be thrilled that a woman would win the popular vote, would win almost all of the big states, many by a landslide. On the other, they most likely would have seen the treatment of that woman (and Sarah Palin, too), as more of the same. Forced by the powers-that-be to give up delegates she won fair and square for the inexperienced, younger man, forced to play by a different set of rules at the Convention than anyone else EVER, a different kind of convention from Seneca Falls, that’s for sure. It was one that failed to live by its OWN rules in order to put this woman firmly in her place. No doubt, what happened this past year would feel all too familiar to them. And to too many of us.
My deepest appreciation to these women who began this process. We have come a ways from that Convention 161 years ago, but we have far, far to go to achieve real equality in this country. One thing I do know - no one is going to hand it to us. We must keep fighting, like Hillary Clinton kept fighting in the face of the naysayers. And maybe next time, the best person, who happens to be a woman, will actually win…
(Release: November 13)
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has a spatula.)
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Now you’ve gone and done it, R3A. I am angry all over again.
The video features a fabulous quote from Tom Watson. Here’s the link to his blog.
http://tomwatson.typepad.com/tom_watson/2008/01/the-sexist-medi.html
He wrote these words in January 2008, days after BO celebrated his win in the IA caucus to the tune of Jay-Z’s “99 Problems and a Bitch Ain’t One.” Now, 19 (nineteen) months later, I keep saying,until people who call out to end misogyny point a finger of blame to BO, nothing will change. (Hey, if you can win the WH by being what we once referred to as a “male chauvinist pig” then,why should it.)
Oh, and one more thing…
You wrote
I could not care less whether people voted for BO for what I consider to be the wrong reason; they are as entitled to their vote for him as I am to my vote for her. I would change that last line to this: And maybe next time, the person who actually wins and happens to be a woman, will be President.
I hear ya, jbjd. And yes, maybe the next time the person who actually wins will claim the prize…
And sorry to make you angry again - oops!
I am still so upset about how the media treated Hillary. If they had given Obama the same amount of harrassment during the campaign, the accusation of “racism” would have been shouted from the rooftops! I don’t know how she is stomaching working with Barack. And I certainly could not even speak to Michelle Obama after all the hateful things she said! UGH!!! My blood pressure is going up as we speak! Please, someone, get a copy of Obama’s long version of his birth certificate and expose it for all the world to see!
Furthermore, I think we all need to write to his colleges and appeal to their patriotic duty to find a way to release his college records, which will undoubtedly reveal he applied as a “foreign student”. What say ye?
Disgusted (so am I)
If the R’s couldn’t get Bill C out of office (trying to impeach him) and if the D’s couldn’t get W out of office (for his illegal invasion) than unless Bambi gives the keys to Castro???? we’re stuck with him for term.
jmo - it’s very hard to get them OUT once they are IN (unless they go on their OWN like Nixon)
I’m praying 4 Palin personally! (and I rarely pray anymore)
I want a REAL proven leader!
PUMA W00T!
Lady- I am praying for Hillary. She is the only woman with the depth/breadth of knowledge base of the U.S. and the world, to hit the ground running and get us back on track. Because Lord knows, after 4 years with Obama, we will need to get back on track—quickly! The woman is frickin brilliant. I also travel around the world and she is more respected than any of her colleagues in Washington or anywhere else in the U.S. She should have been President, and I am praying that someday she will.
AMEN…………
No matter how tough it gets for Hillary, she stands firm and doesn’t allow the “good ol’ boy network” to curtail what she knows is the right thing to do. There are not many men or women who could boast that these days. Hillary has taken more hits in the past 19 years than any other woman in American history, and yet, because of her love for America, and wanting to make a difference, she keeps coming back to serve this wonderful country of ours. What a patriot she is! Actions speak louder than words, and she is a hero and role model to millions of women around the world. She is one tough cookie! Hillary for 2012!
Disgusted
I too love Hillary but I must admit lately she’s wearing OFF on me as I am realizing she is a total PARTY LEMMING.
Sorry, but Lady Sarah has proven to ME she has her OWN mind and is NOT afraid to stand up to the “good ole boys”
I saw Hillary take a beating from literally EVERYONE over the last decade and it’s been truly disgusting which makes me wonder WHY she’s taken it? or LET it continue??? She may not be tough enough in the end for this fight!
and the far left hate her still btw thinking she is too moderate for them - pffffffffft! Screw em!
I wish she’d put up more of a fight. I wished that about Al Gore too in 2000 with K Harris stopped the counting (early) in FLA!!! ARGH!
oh well - this is why I could never be in politics!! I can’t keep my mouth shut when people LIE, CHEAT & STEAL!!!
As much as I love hillary, last year she did allow the “good ol’ boy network” to curtail her right to a true role call at the convention. That cost her the Presidency because I do believe delegates were changing position and she would have been the true nominee. All of this could have been avoided had she chosen country over party. I do believe that Palin is choosing country over party and will surprise us with what she does. I adore hillary. I am beyond sad that she is not our President, but I will have a hard time voting for her in the future because of how she decided to fall in line, unlike many of us patriots here. I am sometimes baffled at how she can stay quiet and watch the destruction of this nation she says she loves. I could never do that and be quiet. I am not sure I’ll really be able to vote for her after this and I’m not sure she’ll stand a chance anyway with the bad name of the socialist, marxist, fascist democrats. She should have gone independent. I’m afraid she’ll go down the toilet with the turd Obama. I want her to be President, don’t get me wrong, but I think there won’t be another chance if she stays in Barrakula’s shadow. It’s pretty dark in that administration (meaning evil, not race thank you very much) even in front of the evildoer Obama, let alone in the shadows.
If you think the DNC leadership would have allowed this to happen, I fear you are kidding yourself. They knee capped her. Plain and simple. It makes me miserable to think so but that is that. If she thought she could have done what you are suggesting she would have. I have never seen a politician exhibit more courage than that lady out on the trail, outspent, in debt and trashed in the media daily, backstabbed by her own party. Those bastards deserve my anger. Not her.
I still believe she is doing the best she can to live to fight another day and continue working for our country. This is a marathon, not a sprint.
Much as I appreciate Sarah Palin — she has not proven herself yet to be one half of who Hillary is — let her be on the receiving end of this sh*t for 16 years, not nine months, and then come talk to me. Palin has much to offer now, but she still has much to learn. And unlike Obama, I think she is actually willing to hit the books to do it. Let’s hope so.
I’m just saying that it’s very risky what she is doing and I hope she has chosen the right path. Time will tell. I’m a huge Hillary fan and since I am sometimes wavering with my future feeling about her, it makes me wonder how many of those 18,000,000 also waver or were lost all together. We just have to wait and see, but I am very anxious about what’s ahead for Hillary and any of us really. I did not mean to offend anyone. I still have emotions all over the place from this situation we are in. I think many of us truly have post traumatic stress from the horros of 2008!
I’m just saying that it’s very risky what she is doing and I hope she has chosen the right path. Time will tell. I’m a huge Hillary fan and since I am sometimes wavering with my future feeling about her, it makes me wonder how many of those 18,000,000 also waver or were lost all together. We just have to wait and see, but I am very anxious about what’s ahead for Hillary and any of us really. I did not mean to offend anyone. I still have emotions all over the place from this situation we are in. I think many of us truly have post traumatic stress from the horrors of 2008!
That is dead on right.
Half the politician yes. Palin is twice the American and half the politician Hillary is. Therein lies the true reason Palin is hated. It isn’t all about gender, it’s more about being an outspoken American and being a politician “lite”. Palin threatens the very sham of a the two party system. That is why she is hated by both parties.
Sorry another comment I made went to spam. It will show up later most likely.
I will say this though, if anybody can turn it around if Hillary ends up on a bad end of this administration, it’s Hillary clinton!
I don’t think it’s a matter of “allowing” them to do what they did, I believe it’s more a matter of “do what we say, or we will destroy you.”
Sarah is going to find out just how powerful these guys are, especially if she gains major support for a run in 2012. I admire her spunk, and will support her efforts to position herself politically. However, I have no doubt that she is going to get a hard lesson in how this political game is played and if she wants to survive, will have to learn how to beat it at its own game, as I honestly believe Hillary is doing right now. Patience, my friends, patience!
Cynthia McKinney tried to these good ol boyz head on and they destroyed her political career in short order and got rid of any chance of her having any kind of power to affect real change.
How else do you guys think obama got into the WH? Because he won fair and square?
Wake up! These guys will not give up their power so easily and the fight to stop them will be bloody in the end.
Hillary is no “party lemming”! I ran campaigns for the Democratic Party for years. I can assure you, with her it is America first, party second. That is why she has taken all the crap for so long. It is about doing what is best for America and being around to fight the good fight for as long as she can, so that we can all live in a better America. She has and always will be deeply committed to America. Through my contacts, I was told she was threatened to take a back seat or she would not be able run as a candidate for anything else. Furthermore, just like the rest of us, she did not have definitive proof that Obama was not a “natural born citizen”, so she had to tread lightly on how far she could take it. She took it as far as she could, without the proof. I think she was hoping for the MSM to pick up the story more, but they were so in the tank for Obama, that no one stood a chance!
Those who know her, know she wants to accomplish things for America, and she cannot do that without being in certain positions to make those elements of change happen. I think the DNC had to intervene for her to even be SOS. Michelle and Barack Obama wanted nothing to do with her.
America is being manipulated by Obama, and the MSM are the channel in which that is occuring. Hillary is not the culprit here, Obama is.
VERY well said, disgusted!
And Ani, I’m with DOcElder - “dead on right”indeed!!
Lady–no offense but Sarah has not proven she can stand up to the heat. She left office after only 10 months! She could not even make it a year. People can say what they want about why she left, the fact still remains that she left! She abandoned her constituency. She could not take the heat. I don’t blame her, but let’s call a spade a spade! She could not stand up to the scrutiny of 19 years that Hillary has, this much is true. And let’s face it, she is a nice woman, but not Presidential material. She has no clue what is going on in the rest of the world and has very little experience. We are already in a mess because we brought someone on who had little/no experience to be President this time around. I for one don’t plan on seeing the mistake occur again in the next election. I hope America wakes up and elects someone with the knowledge base, the intellect, relationships around the world already, and the gumption to get the job done. That person is Hillary Clinton!
As for you “keeping your mouth shut” . . . DON’T! We need to speak what we feel as long as we are allowed to. Who knows what modifications Obama will try to make to the Constitution next!
Oops! Meant to say she left after 22 months.
Ok Disgusted you asked for it!
10 months????
you need to get your facts straight first!
Sarah was a Gov for 2.5 YEARS DUDE!!! GAWD the damn extreme right love to put out the lies! don’t buy them!
She had to get out to spare her state the mindless ethics complaints (something like 16 of them) the idiot lemming loony left are throwing at her in Alaska (Axelrove’s approval of course)
all complaints being THROWN OUT!!
don’t believe it unless you research it yourself DISGUSTED
Sarah is and has always stood up for herself her family and her state! She’s not a lemming party walker. She’s appointed pro choice judges to sit on the state court, she’s VETO’d bills trying to stop equal right for gays in her state, she’s passed MORE liberal bills than ANY dem recently!
look it up
disgusted I tried to post the TRUTH but the blog is eating it up
sorry you need to research what she’s done and the bills (many very liberal) she’s passed for her state
2.5 yrs
she only had 18 months to go on a 4 yr term!
Axelrove’s minnions have thrown 18 ethics complaints at her as well (all have been found to be frivolous and cost her state TIME and MONEY and she’s not wired that way)
If she wants to fight she needs to separate herself from the STATE so she can fight fairly and NOT be constantly answering to stupid anal lies!
They are soooo afraid of her it’s hilarious! Do you realize just how popular she is with MORE than just her base?
anyway, it will be a good show in 2012!
Lady–I have researched her since she came onto the national political scene. Her state budget is one of the smallest in the union and is less than most of our major cities on the mainland here. I admire her for challenging the status quo in her state, but she still let her constituency down by leaving early because she could not take the heat. That is the bottom line. People can say she left “because she is pursuing the Presidency in 2012″ or “because she is pursuing other opportunities”, but the bottom line is that she left her state in the lurch! She admits she left due to the pressures of the cases against her (in her speech) but it is beyond that. It doesn’t mean she is a bad person, she, like most people, cannot take the blaring spotlight and all its pressures for very long. The RNC will never put her up as they feel she was “an embarrassment for them” (to quote an RNC contact I knew from my DNC days) with her interviews illustrating her lack of knowledge of the rest of the world, its history, and our relationship with them. It will never happen. I am putting my energies in someone I know can win and that person is Hillary Clinton.
I agree it will be a good show in 2012!
in the lurch? hardly that’s ur opinion and you’re welcome to it
and the GOP are not in charge of Sarah deciding to run or not
if she wants to she will oh and I have some polls that show she’s ahead or dead even with the other GOP candidates at this point so whether she will or not is moot right now
I’m just saying I’d vote for a REAL person over a Party Lemming any day
we’ll see eh? lol
I was sitting on the beach yesterday pondering life. We women have lost our voice. We’ve allowed them to find one issue to divide us, never taking into consideration the many that unite us. That was all it took. One issue. Which has resulted in what we’ve been witnessing against Hillary, Sarah and other women.
I don’t know how we expect women around the world to find their voices. To speak out against the many wrongs, when they look to us in one of the freest countries in the world and we can’t find our own. We’ve allowed the powers that be to silence them…this deeply saddens me.
If it’s happening now in the 21st century, imagine how our daughter and granddaughters lives will be when they’re our age. For all the many steps our mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers and all the women who’ve come before them have taken for women everywhere…We’ve taken two steps back for our own daughters,granddaughters and all the women that will come after them.
Just as TBP Obama and the cultists betrayed the women of America in 2008, Douglass betrayed the feminists of the 19th century. Apparently he didn’t work very hard for women’s rights after he got his.
Already did, Lady! Get your facts straight and READ! I posted my correction almost immediately. I find it amazing how those who support Palin get so “in your face” when challenged. Usually people who are confident with their argument don’t need to do so! I am sure Palin is a nice woman, but she is by no stretch of the imagination, Presidential material. Those who are not able to recognize their mistakes are destined to repeat them over and over again. History has born that out. We already elected one “folksy, likeable person” with W and look how that turned out. We need someone with substance, an off the chart intellect, and someone who already has connections to get the job done. Palin is not that gal. It is that type of delusion that allowed George W to be elected a second time. People talk about Obama followers drinking Kool-aid!!! LOL! I was an insider and have inside information. I am not just talking off the cuff as you are. When you have more of an inside track and stop drinking the Palin Kool-aid, you will come to the same conclusion.
Bush was far from a folksy/likable person. There were an awful lot of people that hated the man. I never liked nor hated him. In no way shape or form would I compare him to Palin. To begin with Bush is far right. Sarah is not. Bush ignored the constitution. Sarah not only respects it she uses it when she’s signing onto anything being made into law. Sarah has never tried to take away any woman’s right. Bush would have done so in a heartbeat. She has stood up for gay rights, in fact vetoed a bill that would have done such a thing. Bush would never have. She made sure the people of Alaska were being taken care of by the oil companies. Bush went out of his way to help the oil companies screw us over. Etc…etc.
Ladydawnwelle has been far from a kool-aid drinker of anyone. In fact I’ve never seen her do anything but call it like she sees it.
“inside information”
LMAO yea sure!
I drink no koolaid for anyone
not even the almighty Hillary has enough for me to consume to just believe what ever anyone says good or bad
but - I do love the REAL person Sarah is and would vote for the REAL person (not the lemming) any day.
Hillary is a pro - she apparently knows the game cuz look where she is? Good job. But she’s pretty much lost any other chance at running imo cuz Bambi won’t EVER give it up for her. What good does it do now?
What good did it do for her to NOT stand up for herself MORE especially when they lied and called her hubby a racist???? I would have punched someone.
anyway we’ll see - if I’m still alive in 2012 I’ll be back to probably giggle about it all!
you may be inside but I read ALL sides~ and comments~
you’d be surprised what info spills out from people in the comments! yep yep!