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WOMEN^S RIGHTS: . 
 
 OR, A TREATISE ON 
 
 Clje litalintaiiU ^tigljts d Mmtn, 
 
 CAREFULLY INVESTIGATED, 
 
 AND INSCRIBED TO THE 
 
 FEMALE COMMUNITY OF THE U. S. OF AMERICA. 
 
 By JOSEPH SAYERS. 
 
 CINCINNATI: 
 
 PUBLISHED FOB THE AUTHOR, 
 
 BY APPLEGATE & CO. 
 
 1856. 
 
^i-'-- 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 185G, 
 
 By JOSEPH SAYERS. 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for 
 
 the Southern District of Ohio. 
 
 ^ 
 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Man braves the storms and dangers of his fate; 
 But woman is the mother of the State. 
 
 It is my intention, in the following pages, to show to the 
 female sex their inalienable rights and just claims- to a free 
 participation in all the privileges and advantages pertaining 
 to any civilized people or country, in due accordance with 
 their sex and sphere of action in life. Notwithstanding there 
 have been some things said and lectured on, and published 
 in the journals and periodicals of the day, touching this 
 important subject, yet, in my opinion, it has not received 
 that due research and that strict investigation which its 
 intrinsic value and its high importance to the succeeding 
 generations so justly merit. 
 
 Never was there a time when this subject, blended as it is 
 with the moral, the virtuous, and the well-being of our 
 enlightened country, needed more strict discussion and pure 
 investigation than at the present. 
 
 When we see our happy and free continent inundated with 
 vice, crime, and depravity, the time is matured that the 
 genial and enlightened mind of both Male and Female of our 
 community should inquire into the causes and the sources 
 from which such torrents of evils emanate, and establish 
 permanently such remedies as would evidently produce the 
 opposite happy results. ^ 
 
 To investigate the fountains from whence these deleterious 
 evils flow, and to demonstrate the means whereby, as torrents 
 of vice, they may be disimbedded from their deep-worn chan- 
 nels, shall be my duty, in the following pages, to illustrate. 
 
 That the param,ount right of women to an equalization of 
 literary and moral instruction in their sphere of action, as 
 much as man receives in his sphere, speaking comparatively, 
 has not for centuries, nor for ages past, nor is it at the 
 present time universally communicated to the female youth, 
 shall be my charge to investigate. 
 
 iii 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 This I shall prove, hj incontrovertible, logical, and present 
 existing facts, to be the greatest barrier to personal safety, 
 to the advancement of moral and scientific improvement, and 
 the greatest deterioration to the honor and dignity of our 
 nation. 
 
 That a liberal literary, moral, and virtuous female educa- 
 tion is the only detergent remedy for vice, crime, and immor- 
 ality, I shall also prove. That the present condition of 
 female society, in point of education, is below the mediocrity 
 of man's position in the great scale of humanity, and that 
 she is and w^as divinely intended to be co-equal to man, I 
 shall also prove, beyond a contradiction. That as touching 
 pecuniary rights in point of remuneration for manual labor 
 (for such of the female community as do and must ply the 
 manipulations of their delicate fingers for a livelihood), are 
 not recognized by judicial authority, nor secured by law 
 equally to women as they are to men, I shall in due place 
 advert to this point. 
 
 With these views in contemplation, I shall fearlessly, and 
 untrammeled in mind, lay my thoughts before a discrimi- 
 nating public, advocating, as far as in me lies, an equaliza- 
 tion of rights to the free and enlightened people of the 
 United States of America, and particularly the paramount 
 justice of equal educational instruction, and all other advan- 
 tages under our glorious Constitution, to the female commu- 
 nity, compatible with their sex, and to which their position 
 and dignity in the great scale of being so justly entitle them. 
 
 To escape the lash of the pedant and the demagogue, and 
 evade the vituperation of the scrutinizing satirist, any more 
 than other writers have done before me, I can scarcely 
 expect ; but should I fall a victim to my sentiments, in the 
 Elysian field of Women's Rights, I shall fall convinced of the 
 justice of my cause, breathing on my last respirations the 
 justice of the inalienable Rights of Women. 
 
 Investigating these sentiments, then, with due care and 
 deliberation, I am happy to subscribe myself the advocate of 
 Women's Rights, 
 
 JOSEPH SAYEPvS. 
 
WOMEN^S RIGHTS. 
 
 The depravity of the world, the degeneracy of the 
 times, and the demoralization of the community, have 
 ever been found to be conflicting enemies to the social 
 happiness of humanity. It is rational then to conclude, 
 that these predominant evils must be the unhappy 
 results of some unforeseen or long neglected causes. 
 The sources from which they flow must be corrupt and 
 morbid in themselves, or the torrents which issue from 
 them would not be so deplorable in their conse- 
 quences. 
 
 That these lamentable evils generate and fructify 
 under the penumbral clouds of ignorance, is manifest 
 to the investigating mind. 
 
 The wise and enlightened part of our community, 
 who denounce these things as derogatory and dan- 
 gerous to our safety and well-being, and who have 
 power in their hands, should in due time investigate 
 those evils and their sources, and adopt such detergent 
 means as would eventually eradicate them from our 
 happy land, or at least mitigate the velocity of their 
 
 (5) 
 
6 women's rights. 
 
 career. To effect such a desirable and important 
 change in the state of society, requires some time, and 
 the combined energy of the enlightened and moral part 
 of the community. 
 
 But if efficient measures were adopted, and the basis 
 of a literary, moral, and virtuous female education 
 universally established, soon, very soon would society 
 feel the consoling happiness* of the results, and vice, 
 crime, and depravity would disappear before its mighty 
 influence. As nothing but a pure, moral, and literary 
 education, and a proper training of the mind, can 
 enable us to discard vice and denounce crime, so, in 
 my opinion, they are the best antidotes against evil 
 propensities, and the surest remedies to secure peace, 
 safety, and harmony to the people of any nation. 
 
 If a thorough organization of literary, moral, and 
 virtuous female education were properly disseminated 
 and established throughout our country, soon would 
 the cheering beams of the light of instruction irradiate 
 our land, soon would its utility and balmy influence be 
 felt, and soon, very soon Avould the march of female 
 intellect, in literature, in the arts and sciences, and in 
 every thing grand and great in their sphere of action, 
 extend with electric velocity from state to state, and 
 from shore to shore. Then would the state of society 
 be improved; then would the march of education 
 receive a fresh impulsive pathos; then would the 
 sciences extend; then would our glorious and free 
 
WOMEN'S RIGHTS. 7 
 
 institutions flourish in prosperity, and then would the 
 blessings of Heaven descend upon our people. 
 
 When the Eternal and All- wise Creator of all things 
 willed that man should become a living soul, He 
 endowed him with all the essential requisites whereby 
 he could sustain himself in his exalted position above 
 all the rest of the creation. It is rational to believe 
 that Adam was an emblem of divine perfection, 
 emanating as he did from the omnipotent hand of 
 Divinity, and made after the image and likeness of 
 God Himself. That Adam possessed all the physical 
 and mental functions of human organization, it is also 
 rational to believe. We have every reason to possess 
 the implicit belief, that he was majestic, noble, and 
 beautiful, walking upright, superior to all other animals, 
 and composed of perfect purity of soul and of body. 
 For his greater security and comfort his Almighty 
 Maker prepared for him a terrestrial paradise, wherein 
 He placed him, and held frequent converse with him. 
 In order then to carry into perfection the inscrutable 
 will of Almighty God in His divine dispensation, and 
 as Adam was destined to be the parent of the human 
 family, the Eternal Jehovah seeing him alone and in 
 solitude, and wishing to consummate his happiness here 
 on earth more fully, willed to give him a consort and 
 companion made from himself, " bone of his bone, and 
 flesh of his flesh," equal and co-equal with himself — 
 two bodies distinct in themselves, but hypostatically 
 
8 women's rights. 
 
 united in one. " They shall be no longer twain but 
 one flesh." And from these two, in accordance to the 
 divine ordinance, all the generations of the earth have 
 emanated. 
 
 Let it be remembered that these two, Adam and 
 Eve, the original parents of the entire human race, are 
 no longer twain but one, and whose example the human 
 family have followed, and will continue to follow to the 
 consummation of time in the union of the sexes, and 
 in due concurrence with the divine command in order 
 to propagate and perpetuate generation, and that any 
 thing tending to deteriorate or elevate one of the sexes, 
 tends in the same degree of ratio to afiect the other. 
 Hence, then, while I advocate the Rights of Women, 
 I by no means depreciate or interfere with men's rights ; 
 nay, on the contrary, if my subject has any tendency 
 to elevate women in their present position, it must have 
 the same bearing on men, since to elevate one is to 
 raise the other, and to depreciate one is to sink the 
 other. According to a natural philosophical law, if two 
 bodies be united, and any intensity of force or power 
 be applied to either of the bodies, both must obey and 
 go into motion, and according to the ratio of intensity 
 applied will the velocity of their motion be. So it is 
 with the sexes ; if we elevate one, we must raise both, 
 and if one be sunk the other can not rise. To the mind 
 of intelligence, this must be conspicuously palpable, 
 and every close observer must see, that unless the 
 
women's rights. 9 
 
 female sex be liberally educated and properly trained 
 up in virtue, morality, and literature, the male sex can 
 not sustain their position in the scale of existence. 
 
 I have said that Adam was majestic, noble, pure, 
 and beautiful, and who can contradict it ? — the handi- 
 work of God himself. But if Adam was beautiful, 
 I may justly aver that Eve was still more so. From 
 the external appearance of both sexes, and making 
 a rational comparison, the female sex have justly 
 attained the character of being the more fair. It is 
 indubitably believed by historians and antiquarians of 
 deepest research and celebrity, that in the person of 
 Eve were blended all the loveliness, beauty, and 
 prepossessing charms that ever woman possessed. 
 Unaided by artificial decoration, her fascinating 
 qualities — pure as they were delightful to behold — 
 were most alluring and irresistible. Her silken hair, 
 of the finest hue and texture, rolled artlessly in ring- 
 lets over her pellucid neck and shoulders, leaving 
 interstices through which the clear surface ap- 
 peared whiter than the virgin snow. Her spark- 
 ling orbs of vision, clearer than the transparent 
 diamond's glow, beamed with expressive intelligence, 
 and indicated superior wisdom. Her blooming cheeks 
 bore the tint of the freshest blushing roses, and ex- 
 celled the hue of the clearest touch of the brilliant 
 vermilion. Her ruby lips, transcending the purest 
 coral, were bedewed with the nectar of nature's purest 
 
10 
 
 production. Her teeth, in even rows, excelled the 
 clearest polished ivory. Her heavenly voice commu- 
 nicated thrilling intelligence to the ear and to the 
 heart. Her graceful motion and majestic demeanor 
 combined to highten all her other perfections, for 
 angelic like she moved. The graces seemed to play 
 on her delightful person, and all contributed to con- 
 stitute her a living, moving angel — unequaled on this 
 side of heaven. 
 
 Well and truly might a stanza of the memorable 
 and ingenious Phillips be applied to this consum- 
 mate gem of perfection. Yes — 
 
 "She was charming, young, and fair; 
 None, none, on earth above her; 
 As pure in thought as angels are — 
 To see her, was to love her." 
 
 But whilst I, or any other writer, would aim at 
 eulogizing Eve, I would say that it would be in vain 
 and a waste of time — for all the encomiums which 
 the ingenious eloquence of man could lavish on the 
 excellence of Eve would not pin one wreath of glory 
 on her brow, nor attach one attribute of perfection 
 to her consummate, exalted, and intrinsic dignity. 
 Nor has any of this transcending superiority of 
 external appearance, nor of fascinating beauty and 
 loveliness, nor of intrinsic worth and dignity, departed 
 from her sex. They have retained them in succession, 
 perfect and inviolate, through all the preceding 
 
women's rights. 11 
 
 generations down to the present time, and will to the 
 consummation of the world. We can behold and 
 prove this fact by occular demonstration, in a com- 
 parison of the sexes, now, as well as heretofore, 
 beyond a contradiction. Hence, then, a superiority 
 in the external physical organization, in the sympa- 
 thetic feelings and affections, and in the gracefulness, 
 demeanor, and dignity of humanity, must in justice 
 and candor be awarded and allowed to the female 
 sex. Also a perfect equality in— every attribute of 
 mental organization, in the fineness of perception, in 
 the delicacy of touch, and in every function and 
 attribute of intellectual and corporeal knowledge, 
 reason and understanding, and even a superiority in 
 the susceptibility of receiving mental instruction, 
 which I will hereafter clearly demonstrate. 
 
 That these things must be seen and known to the 
 investigating mind of the discerning thinker, is an 
 indubitable fact. But it is, on the other hand, a 
 lamentable fact, and as true as it is deplorable, that 
 the intrinsic merit of the great faculties and powers 
 combined in the physical and mental organization of 
 the female sex, do not receive from the male part 
 of our species that degree of regard and attention 
 due to their worth. I would be here understood that 
 they do not receive that due degree of educational 
 attention (universally speaking) which would enable 
 them to develop those latent powers of intellect 
 
12 
 
 whereby they could apply them to utility to themselves 
 and the world around them. 
 
 Now, as these two illustrious personages, Adam and 
 Eve, were endowed with similar mental gifts and 
 intellectual powers, the very smallest of which was 
 superior in virtue and merit to all bestowed on the 
 rest of the creation, we may rationally aver, and we 
 have the unerring words of truth for this inference, 
 that these beneficent endowments were equal in both 
 sexes, and not imperfect in the one more than in the 
 other. The most incontrovertible and conspicuous 
 demonstrations of this have been manifested in the 
 female sex through the long lapse of time, ages, and 
 generations, down to the present day. It would be 
 egregiously absurd to think that the mind, containing 
 the most valuable gifts of God to man, would be 
 given to woman for useless purposes, and vague and 
 incapable of receiving the necessary instruction. This 
 would be preposterous blasphemy against the omnipo- 
 tence of God; for, as the Creator of all things made 
 nothing in vain, so neither did He, in his beneficent 
 wisdom, endow woman with an incapacious mind. 
 Nay, on the contrary, I will show beyond a contra- 
 diction that, in many cases, and, I believe, in a 
 majority of cases, that the mental powers of women 
 are not inferior to those of men, but that they are of 
 a finer perception, and on many occasions more easily 
 instructed and enlightened than are those of men. 
 
13 
 
 Throughout my familiarity with and an actual 
 experience of thirty years in school education, I have 
 invariably found the female department of my schools 
 to excel in every branch of literature and science 
 under investigation — of the same age and under the 
 same degree of instruction. Even in mathematics 
 and in the classics their progress was better than 
 male pupils of similar ages. Females will undoubt- 
 edly learn more in the same time, and with less 
 instruction, than males will do. I appeal to old and 
 experienced teachers for the truth of this assertion, 
 which I make paradoxically, that it may be noticed, 
 and I am confident of the concurrence of judicious, 
 candid men. •' 
 
 The mental perception of females is better, their 
 patience under intricate study is better, their attention 
 and diligence are much better, and they will arrive 
 at the archetype of the idea advanced with less 
 elaborate instruction, and in less time than males of 
 the same age will do. In difficult investigation, in 
 analysis, in composition, in calculation, in grammar, 
 logic, or rhetoric, and in every other study, but more 
 particularly so in any thing where manual dexterity is 
 required, they equal, if they do not surpass, the male 
 sex of similar ages in all school institutions. 
 
 In the abstract reflection of this part of my subject, I 
 think myself warranted in saying that the female sex 
 in the great scale of humanity are as susceptible of 
 
14 women's rights. 
 
 receiving ample literary education, and in every point 
 of congruity regarding the aptitude of taking instruc- 
 tion as quick and as well (and in a majority of cases 
 more so), as the male part of our species are. Hence, 
 then, the great and paramount right which women 
 claim is an equality on this essential point. That this 
 important right has been denied and neglected in a 
 great degree, comparatively speaking of the whole 
 female sex, for centuries of time immemorial down to 
 the present day, is manifest to all; a circumstance, 
 truly, which involves the mysterious theorem, namely, 
 whence originates and have originated the amount and 
 enormity of vice, crime, and demoralization which have 
 delugefl and at present inundates the world, and more 
 especially these United States, to the great detriment 
 of the interests, peace, personal safety, and prosperity 
 of society? 
 
 I will now undertake to demonstrate this mysterious 
 problem. Mysterious indeed it may be to some, but to 
 me it appears obviously palpable. In the first place, 
 female education is in most places and cases limited 
 and defective, whereas it should be universal and equal 
 if not superior to men's. Why so? Because from 
 childhood to maturity the mother has almost entirely 
 the responsibility of bringing up and instructing her 
 family. 
 
 Comparatively speaking, the children are nine tenths 
 of the time in the society and under the immediate 
 
women's rights. 15 
 
 inspection of the mother. The father is absent, or 
 attending to the ordinary avocations of a domestic or 
 a public life, and consequently he can not devote his 
 time and attention to the instruction, training, and 
 bringing up of his family. Hence, then, all this im- 
 portant task devolves on the mother, who is ever with 
 them, and whose sole care, time, instruction, and solici- 
 tude are entirely devoted to their edification, to their 
 mental and physical growth and improvement, and to 
 every thing that tends to improve, extend, and promote 
 their future happiness and well-being. All that 
 the mother knows is communicated to the children; 
 and often, very often, she is more solicitous to procure 
 for her children, male and female, an ample and pure 
 education than their father is. What instruction she 
 received in her youth they know before they arrive at 
 maturity, and had she known more, the entire store 
 of her knowledge would have been deposited in the 
 minds of her* children. 
 
 This is paramount among the many reasons why 
 women should be amply educated; their children would 
 be educated too ; and thus, education and its irradiating 
 beams of splendor, would extend and enlighten the 
 growing youth from generation to generation. Had 
 women a proper pure education, virtue, morality, in- 
 dustry, and the pure love of God (which are the 
 legitimate offsprings of a sound education), would be 
 inculcated in their families ; and the hideous monsters, 
 
16 
 
 sin, vice, crime, and depravity (the anti- Christian 
 concomitants of infidelity), would be denounced and 
 extirpated from the land. The torrents of vice, fraud, 
 burglary, thefts, murders, and crime of impurity, 
 Would soon disappear, which now seem to increase and 
 generate, and like a pestiferous contagion spread car- 
 nage and devastation around, and sadden the aspiring 
 hopes of the virtuous and the good. All this is the de- 
 leterious result of the neglect of a moral, literary, and 
 pure education in the female sex of the present as well 
 as the past generation, whereby ignorance, and conse- 
 quently the vices have been allowed to extend and 
 generate the baneful disease of morbid immorality. 
 
 Nothing can ever eradicate crime and demoralization 
 but a true, a pure moral education, and that extended to 
 both sexes universally. Behold its happy results on 
 individuals, on communities, and on nations, which 
 have arisen to eminence, power, and grandeur; whilst 
 none devoid of it can rise at all, and just in proportion 
 to the ratio of moral and scientific ecmcation possessed 
 by an individual, by a community, or by a nation, wili 
 that individual, that community, or that nation, rise to, 
 or ever arrive at, a climax in the acme of perfection, 
 or of eminence in the world. Behold, on the contrary, 
 savage nations : they rise, they generate, they wallow, 
 and they fall under the penumbral cloud of their own 
 depravity. 
 
 According to the present state of demoralization in 
 
women's rights. 17 
 
 this country, the laws of the land are the only barriers 
 against crime ; nothing else is feared, nothing else is 
 talked or thought of. If the eye of the law can be 
 evaded, immorality, vice, sin, crime, nor a fear of di- 
 vine eternal punishment for sin or crime, is ever 
 mentioned or contemplated ; not at all. 
 
 The youth of our community talks of crimes of a hori- 
 fying nature, even robbery, burglary, arson, and mur- 
 der, w^ithout emotion, and ingeniously (the result of 
 study) shows how such crimes might be perpetrated 
 without detection, and to the utter defiance of the law. 
 But never does he once recognize these crimes or any 
 of them to be sinful, or in the least degree derogatory 
 to the laws or commandments of God, nor does he 
 speak of eternal punishment due to sin at all. My 
 gentle reader, this is the unhappy result of the want of 
 a proper moral education. But he goes on, he talks 
 of crime as he would of any thing else without fear, 
 without emotion or dread, unless for the laws**of the 
 country. He commits crime, even murder, and all that 
 is contemplated is a fear of the law. He transacts it 
 like any other ordinary business w^ithout remorse, or 
 any deterioration from divine vengeance, which the 
 oracles of truth assure us does follow sin, and that 
 " the wages of sin is death." He studiously cultivates 
 a competent knowledge of the use of the knife and the 
 revolver, and with these implements of death his person 
 is equipped day and night. 
 2 
 
18 women's rights. 
 
 His unfortunate antagonist (often innocent and 
 unconscious of danger), he provokes to violate the law ; 
 and then, daemon-like, he cuts or shoots him down ; and, 
 notwithstanding a murderer in heart, he is acquitted 
 by the law, and goes at large again, a living, moving, 
 acting fiend. All this is for the want of a moral, pure 
 education, and a proper training and bringing up in 
 his youth — and with these, and such emissaries of Satan, 
 our country is infested. 
 
 It may be said of me in these few sentences on the 
 deplorable results of immorality (the legitimate parent 
 of crime), that I am too severe, and have run into exag- 
 geration, but I deny the charge. I appeal to the 
 public statistics for the veracity of these remarks. It 
 may also be alleged that the present state of morality 
 is not so depraved in the United States as I represent 
 it to be. I say it is, and I will prove it. I refer my 
 readers, or those who doubt my assertions, to the con- 
 scripts of the judicial authorities. There you will find 
 the aggregate number of willful murders for the last 
 year, ending January 1st, 1855, from thirty States and 
 the annexed Territories. The assassinations, convicted, 
 tried, and recorded, were 2,775. The lowest number of 
 convicts in any State or Territory being 30, and the 
 highest 120. Beside this appalling statement, think 
 of the number of murders, which, from the nature and 
 secresy of their committal, rendered it impossible for 
 the lawful authorities to bring the perpetrators to con- 
 
women's rights. 19 
 
 dign punishment. This is a terrible account of a civil- 
 ized country, but no less terrific than it is a lamented 
 fact. Beside, there is an incalculable amount of other 
 capital and inferior crime which it is entirely out of the 
 power of the law to recognize or to prevent. 
 
 Such, then, is the state of our own country, one of 
 the happiest and greatest gifted countries on the habit- 
 able globe. And this lamentable state of morality 
 is not mitigating, but is rapidly on the increase. What 
 is this to be attributed to? And what is the true 
 remedy ? This is a syllogism in which the validity of 
 argument is most conspicuously evident, and which 
 involves our very best interests and our most deliberate 
 considerations. 
 
 It is palpable that these growing evils must originate 
 in the morbid fountains of degraded ignorance; and 
 that their sources are in the deep recesses of depravity, 
 produced from similar causes, from which the polluted 
 torrents of corruption incessantly flow. The true 
 remedy for these grievances, therefore, is a universal 
 dissemination of pure, literary education, than which 
 no other remedy will avail. 
 
 Let the female youth be educated, and trained up fit 
 for her sphere of life, and in maturity, and in due time 
 will she impart it to her ofispring. Thus education 
 will increase, it will extend, it will become universal, 
 and its salutary efiects will soon be felt in society. 
 
 When I say education, I would not be understood to 
 
20 women's rights. 
 
 be confined to a scientific or to a classical education. 
 I "would import that a pure, female education should 
 embrace not only literature, but virtue, morality, and 
 religion combined, and all that is found to be essential 
 to the character and dignity of a lady. Of such quali-. 
 fications then as the lady possesses, so also will her 
 family possess: for a mother conceals none of her 
 acquisitions or her qualifications from her children 
 •which are calculated to promote their respectability, 
 usefulness, and happiness in time and in eternity. That 
 remarkable passage in the sacred Scripture is verified 
 in this, ^'the tree is known by its fruit, and from 
 brambles you can not gather figs," etc. " A good tree 
 produceth good fruit, and an evil tree evil fruit.'' 
 
 Thus from the w^ant of a proper education on the 
 part of the female, generally speaking, the children are 
 allowed to grow into maturity untaught and unprepared 
 to make an honest or a respectable living for them- 
 selves, and consequently they become dangerous mem- 
 bers of society. So, in succession, do the lamentable 
 evils generate and fructify from one generation to 
 another. 
 
 If females were only as well educated as men gene- 
 rally are, there would be a very visible change in 
 society, in virtue and morality, and in the various 
 departments of improvement, etc., connected with their 
 sex and station in life ; and the amount of vice and 
 crime would be mitigated, if not extirpated; and virtue 
 
women's rights. 21 
 
 and morality, planted in tlieir place, to the happiness 
 and comfort of the present and succeeding generations. 
 Soon, very soon, would the torrents of vice be stemmed, 
 and soon would society realize the happy results. For 
 wherever education, morality, and virtue are planted, 
 from thence vice, depravity, and crime must depart. 
 
 The essential and imperative necessity of Women's 
 Rights in point of education, and every thing in connec- 
 tion with their sex that would tend to promote and 
 elevate them in the scale of being, must be obvious to 
 all who investigate or review the present state of 
 society. It is of intrinsic utility to the world, to man 
 as well as woman. For if men wish to sustain or 
 elevate themselves, they must sustain and elevate 
 women first. When I say Women's Rights, I mean an 
 inalienable right of the sex to an equal share of literary 
 education with the male sex, comparatively speaking, 
 compatible w^ith their respective positions and pecuniary 
 circumstances, and a just and fair participation in every 
 right and privilege, and in the distribution of every 
 right and privilege, pertaining to women in their own 
 sphere of action. This would not at all interfere with 
 men's rights and privileges and happiness in their 
 various vocations of life ; not at all. It, on the 
 contrary, would enable women to be the better calcu- 
 lated to promote the happiness of men, and conse- 
 quently their mutual consolations would be augmented. 
 Women, by being properly educated and trained up in 
 
22 women's rights. 
 
 literary, scientific, and moral studies, would then be the 
 co-equal consorts of men, brought up in a similar man- 
 ner, and, by course of reason, they would be more 
 intelligent and useful to themselves, their husbands, and 
 families, and to the circle of society in which they 
 moved. They would then be fitted and prepared to 
 fill their places in the community with utility, and 
 humanity would be advantaged by it. This would not 
 only be the means to raise women to dignity and 
 usefulness in the scale of being, but it would raise men 
 also ; for surely, whatever elevates one sex, elevates 
 the other, and whatever depresses one sex, depresses 
 the other. * 
 
 It has been said and argued by men that a little 
 education was sufficient for a woman. Egregiously 
 preposterous and unholy was the saying — the baneful 
 results of which embitter the cup of human happiness 
 in the present as well as in past generations, and 
 will continue to do so to the end of time, as long as 
 men hearken to the injustice and absurdity of that 
 saying. And never will the torrents of vice, immor- 
 ality, and crime, which at present deluge the world, 
 be stemmed, until by a general and equal difi'usion of 
 a pure elementary, literary, and scientific female 
 education. I would ask the advocates of the above 
 absurd and wicked sophism, hoTV an educated man 
 could properly raise a family from an unlettered 
 woman ? They can not answer this query. The avo- 
 
23 
 
 cations of life and business call this man away from 
 home, and he can not attend to the private instruction 
 of his family. They grow up to maturity devoid of 
 education and the other requisites which parents 
 (particularly the mother) should inculcate, because 
 the mother did not possess them herself. 
 
 But there is a low, narrow, and contracted, disin- 
 genious cunning in the above unhallowed saying, 
 which some men use and have used as a pretext for 
 not educating the female part of their families, while 
 at the same time they lavished money and riches in 
 profusion in procuring a liberal education for their 
 sons. Now, I would ask the rational parent (father I 
 mean) who is blessed with sons and daughters, as 
 most of husbands are, which sex of his family 
 does he love the better, or which is the nearer of kin 
 to him ? He can not tell me. For, as they are all of 
 his own flesh and blood, and as he is bound by the 
 laws of God and consanguinity to love and nurture 
 both sexes of his family, so he must, in obedience to 
 these unerring laws, and in point of justice, make 
 no distinction. Nay, on the contrary, as the female 
 child is the more lovely, and the more delicate part 
 of his family, she therefore becomes the more endear- 
 ing and the more interesting to him, and demands, 
 if any the least distinction can be drawn, the more 
 tender care and solicitude of her father. She should 
 be cared for as the apple of his eye, as the greatest 
 
24 women's rights. 
 
 gem of treasure and happiness whicli he could pos- 
 sess, and bj neglecting her proper bringing up, he 
 unfits her, in all probability, for the great and meri- 
 torious office which nature and the God of nature 
 destined her to fill. Fathers should think maturely 
 how they bring up the female part of their families. 
 If they neglect their early training and education, 
 they send them into the world to entail misery, not 
 only on their own, but on generations yet unborn. 
 
 Yet, with regard to this, notwithstanding the female 
 requires the more care and education, still there is 
 a distinction made in education, and very often in 
 inheritance, too, in favor of the son instead of the 
 daughter. The son is amply educated, and at a vast 
 amount of expense, at schools and colleges, until he has 
 acquired a competent, if not a liberal professional, clas- 
 sical education, for fifteen or twenty years ; and the 
 lovely and interesting girl, his sister, from the same 
 father and the same mother, completes her education 
 (and is said to be competent), in some country school 
 in a period of three or four years and sometimes less. 
 Her talents, and her intellectual faculties, and her 
 taste, and all her mental powers are as good, perhaps 
 better, than her brother's abilities are, but that un- 
 godly, unjust, and irrational saying, which has got to 
 be proverbial and almost hereditary, namely, that a 
 "little learning is sufficient for a woman," is applied 
 and brought to bear upon this amiable, promising, 
 
25 
 
 and interesting young girl. She probably can read 
 and write a little, has some superficial knowledge of 
 the language of her country, and but little or no idea 
 of figures or calculations, or of any of the advanced 
 sciences so essential to be known by all females. 
 But when the windo^YS of the depository of her men- 
 tal powers had just been opened, and the beams of 
 instruction had began to irradiate her intelligent soul, 
 and her glowing genius to generate into ideas, then 
 was she just snatched from school, and pronounced 
 to be educated. A few years elapse, and, according 
 to existing circumstances, she becomes a wife and a 
 mother. In all probability she gets a husband as 
 destitute of learning as she herself is, and they in 
 time raise a large family; and, just as they them- 
 selves were raised, in an unlettered state, and imbe- 
 cility of mind and morals. Thus, by the impious and 
 unholy act of not educating and instructing women 
 as well as men, or at least properly in their own 
 orbit or circle, the morbid inheritance of ignorance 
 is entailed on the human family, with all its delete- 
 rious results from age to age. 
 
 This lady's brother, whom I have been just de- 
 scribing, is now a professional gentleman of rank and 
 dignity — a governor, a lawyer, a doctor, a theologian, 
 a judge, a senator or congressman. He is making 
 a figure in the active and polite world — no doubt 
 
 useful and interesting, and eminently good for himself 
 3 
 
2^ women's eights. 
 
 and for his country; for he was educated so to do, 
 and thereby enabled to develop his natural and tal- 
 ented genius to the highest utility to himself and the 
 "world around him: while his fair sister, no less 
 meritorious, and no less susceptible of instruction 
 than he was, is now left to remain in ignorance, 
 comparatively speaking of their two educations — 
 snatched away from school in an embryo state, seven 
 or ten years before her brother was, and forever 
 shut out from the light of instruction; and in this 
 unenlightened state left to raise a family, which she 
 has accomplished with the diligence and love of a 
 tender mother, but which she was obliged to leave as 
 she was left, nominally speaking, without education. 
 This is but one case, which I introduce for example, 
 out of the many millions of such and similar cases 
 extant in the world. How then can ignorance, vice, 
 crime, and depravity disappear from among us, when 
 men of inteUigence, wealth, and honor, will thus 
 neglect the education of the female department of 
 their own household — their own family ? Now, I 
 would ask the enlightened man of intelligence and of 
 justice in heart, did this father do' right toward his 
 son and his daughter? Certainly not. He gifted 
 one, his son, with the most precious gems and trea- 
 sures of the world — education, in all its beauties and 
 charms ; and he almost disinherited the other, his 
 fairer daughter, of all these precious treasures, and 
 
women's rights. 27 
 
 « 
 
 this, too, in most of cases, unconsciously, without 
 cause or provocation on the part of the female, and 
 without the slightest reflection that he had been 
 guilty of a wrong, or any act of injustice in his own 
 family. But such is the fact; and no less lament- 
 able than it is remarkable, that, because ignorance 
 has grown into a custom, men will thus wrong the 
 female part of their families, and deprive them forever 
 of one of the greatest blessings under heaven — a sound, 
 a moral, a good education. By this act of negligence 
 (for it is negligence more than necessity), in comply- 
 ing with the aforesaid blasphemous saying, and not 
 properly educating the female youth of our country, 
 the hot-beds of ignorance are cultivated and perpetu- 
 ated — wherein crime, in all its hideous deformities, is 
 engendered and fructifies, to the great deterioration 
 of the peace, safety, and happiness of the community 
 at large. 
 
 Let it not be understood that I mean that all 
 females are uneducated. Not all. There are in the 
 United States as well educated and accomplished 
 ladies as there are gentlemen, or as there are in the 
 world — many of whom are now making a conspicuous 
 figure in the field of literature, and proving to the 
 world that, when educated, the female sex can ele- 
 vate themselves, and will thereby elevate and dignify 
 the whole scale of humanity. This is their great and 
 just claim — their paramount right, which they are 
 
28 women's rights. 
 
 justly entitled to, and which no man of justice can 
 deny or deprive them of. But what are the few who 
 are educated properly in the United States, or in the 
 entire civilized word, to the myriads who are in a 
 manner almost entirely destitute of education ? Edu- 
 cation is not so equally nor universally given to 
 female youth as it is given to the male sex. This 
 is the first and great right which all women claim 
 and ought to have — an equal share or portion of 
 education, comporting with their position and circum- 
 stances in life. Wherever we find an educated lady, 
 her family is educated likewise; and were females 
 educated as they ought to be, the dissemination of 
 learning and knowledge would become universal. 
 Education would have its undisturbed, pure channels 
 to flow in from one generation to another; and crime, 
 vice, and immorality, would surely disappear. 
 
 A man who is blessed with a family of children 
 (for that is one of his primary earthly blessings), is 
 bound by every law, divine, human, and natural, to 
 raise, educate, and instruct his family equally in every 
 regard, compatible with his judgment, pecuniary 
 means, and ability, and no more. But in no case is 
 he entitled or justifiable, with impunity, to give more 
 education or instruction to a male child than to a 
 female one, if the female child evince an intellectual 
 capacity, and an equal susceptibility of receiving it. 
 All require education, and ample instruction, in order 
 
women's rights. 29 
 
 to fit and prepare them to live in the world, and 
 sustain moral society. And I emphatically repeat it, 
 that the female requires it as much as the male, and 
 more, as far as regards the bringing up of her family, 
 and the harmony and well-being of society at large. 
 I appeal now to any refined, well educated gentle- 
 man of our country, would he wish to take a young 
 lady for a wife who was unlearned, or wdio had but a 
 very limited education. If for any peculiar motives 
 (as is sometimes the case in matrimonial contracts), 
 he takes her for a consort in marriage, he will find 
 himself sadly disappointed, in point of society and 
 intellectual intelligence ; for, notwithstanding she may 
 be blessed with a prepossessing appearance, with 
 many amiable, kind, and good qualities (which ever 
 belong to and adorn the female sex), and with a 
 redundancy of affluence, yet she has not been suffi- 
 ciently educated and refined to enable her to . develop 
 those endowments with which she was gifted by na- 
 ture, in an intelligible, polite, and agreeable manner. 
 Hence, then, his comfort of sociability in his wife 
 (which is not one of the smallest in wedlock), must 
 be abandoned forever. His children grow up just as 
 she is; for notwithstanding he is educated, it is ut- 
 terly impossible for him to communicate to them the 
 instruction, by example and otherwise, which it is the 
 duty of an educated mother to communicate. He 
 (the father) can not stay at home. The avocations of 
 
30 women's rights. 
 
 life and business call him away, by whicli cause the 
 family is neglected in their mental improvement ; and 
 unless he be a man of independent affluence, sufficient 
 to allow him to employ educated and competent tu- 
 tors, or to send his family from home for education 
 (which abstracts domestic comforts), his children will 
 grow up in ignorance (perhaps in vice), and remain 
 so, and in all probability entail it to their posterity, 
 all for want of a properly educated mother. 
 
 It is not imperative on me, nor is it essentially 
 requisite for me to circumscribe or point out a lady's 
 education. Suffice it to say, that the more ample 
 and extensive her education be, comporting with a 
 lady's sphere of life, the more useful will she be to 
 herself, her family, and to society. 
 
 It is manifest from what I have said on this im- 
 portant subject, that if women were universally 
 educated better than they are at present, and have 
 been for generations past, that they would be more 
 exalted and more useful than they can be in their 
 present state, and that society, and civilization, a,nd 
 morality, and every advancement of prosperity in the 
 world would be ultimately benefitted by it. 
 
 A lady should be educated to suit the vocation 
 which she intends to follow. But should no note or 
 account be taken of this point, she should receive 
 ample education, moral training, and bringing up, 
 and virtuous integrity, and truthful instruction, to 
 
women's rights. 31 
 
 enable her to impart those delightful attainments to 
 posterity, for on this depends the destiny of genera- 
 tions yet unborn. 
 
 It is difficult, and, indeed, impossible, for me to point 
 out the amount of instruction or education which would 
 be necessary and sufficient for every woman ; for this 
 must vary with their respective positions in life, with 
 their mental powers and tastes, with their pecuniary 
 means, and with almost every circumstance connected 
 with living. However, for satisfaction to my readers, 
 I will abstractedly direct my attention to a few of the 
 elementary branches of literature, and such of the 
 sciences as, in my opinion, I deem necessary for almost 
 every woman to know. 
 
 If an artificer learn any thing pertaining to his trade 
 or the arts, it is essential that he should know and 
 understand it perfectly, in order to apply it properly 
 and to the best utility. So it is in literature ; a super- 
 ficial knowledge of any branch is of little or no use. 
 Hence, then, whatever a lady may learn or study, let 
 her do it perfectly, that she may afterward know how 
 to apply it usefully. It is lamentable that in the 
 elementary departments of female education, they are 
 allowed to advance too rapidly from one branch to 
 another, before they have a thorough knowledge of what 
 they have passed over. Let this not be the case with 
 any one who wishes to procure a sound education. This 
 evil in learning is to be attributed more to the inju- 
 
32 women's eights. 
 
 dicious teacher, than to the pupiL All teachers should 
 know well the ability of their pupils, and should fre- 
 quently test them on past studies. 
 
 Orthography being the first element of education, it 
 is essential to know it perfectly, in order to apply it 
 correctly when required. It is the basis of good read- 
 ing and correct writing in composition. Crood reading 
 is a beautiful, as well as an essential attainment, and 
 should be well studied, practiced, and diligently under- 
 stood by every female. A perfect knowledge of good 
 reading requires much time, instruction from a compe- 
 tent teacher, and an unremitting practice and due atten- 
 tion of the pupil. To read well is a worthy attainment. 
 And when once acquired, the pupil can improve her 
 mind by reading better than by any other mode of 
 private study. By reading attentively we can put our- 
 selves in the possession of the thoughts and minds of 
 others ; hence, then, I sincerely recommend it to all 
 females wishing to improve their minds. 
 
 Ladies' Penmanship is an acquisition of much intrin- 
 sic interest to every female. This should be carefully 
 studied, and learned under the instructions of a judicious 
 and competent teacher. To write elegantly is beautiful 
 in a woman, the attainment of which, merits the best 
 attention and careful application of every female youth. 
 There are too many miserably poor writers in the world, 
 and it is chiefly caused by negligence in the female 
 pupil, and the imperfect instructions of the injudicious 
 
women's eights. 83 
 
 teacher. The angular hand is now the most popular 
 and fashionable for ladies. It is the easiest learned, 
 and when well executed, constitutes a beautiful style of 
 ladies' penmanship. Let it be understood that the limits 
 of this treatise will not allow me to detail, at much 
 length, the properties, rules, attributes, etc., of every 
 scie°nce which I intend to point out as essential to be 
 attained by accomplished ladies. This is more the 
 duty and the work of the judicious teacher, than of an 
 
 humble writer. 
 
 Arithmetic should be early introduced to the study 
 of the young female. She will find this a delightful 
 study, and one of the highest importance through life. 
 The utility of arithmetic to the world is sufficient to 
 recommend it to the study of every one. It is the basis 
 of all calculation, scientific, commercial, and artificial, 
 and should be well understood by every female. It 
 expands the mental powers, and ushers itself into use- 
 fulness in every department of life. 
 
 English Grammar should be introduced to the female 
 whenever she can read properly. The utility and im- 
 portance of English grammar are indispensible to all 
 who mean to secure to themselves a proper education. 
 In order to communicate our ideas to others, it is essen- 
 tial that we should do it in a correct and intelligible 
 manner, in order to be correctly understood. Hence, 
 then, the indispensible necessity of studying grammar 
 perfectly, and applying it correctly. Without a know- 
 
S4 women's rights. 
 
 ledge of English grammar, we can neither speak nor 
 write the language of our country correctly. 
 
 Composition should be next commenced by the young 
 female. While progressing with the foregoing studies, 
 composition will make a delightful introductory change. 
 It is essential for every female to acquire a theoretical 
 and practical knowledge of this beautiful and useful 
 study. Here she will first find an opportunity to apply 
 her grammar. It will expand the powers of her mind, 
 and shed a radiance over all she has already learned. 
 Composition, to a lady, is of the highest importance, and 
 often through life will she rejoice at having made a 
 proficiency in the composition of the language of her 
 country. 
 
 Whether she be in private, public, or domestic life, 
 composition will prove itself to her to be one of the 
 most useful and delightful studies of her youth ; and 
 should she be endowed with a fruitful and brilliant 
 genius, then will the practical knowledge of composition 
 open a spacious and inviting field for her to express her 
 ideas to the world intelligibly. Without the use of this 
 beautiful study, and without receiving the necessary 
 instructions when at school, and without bringing it into 
 frequent practical application, the genius, the mind, 
 the intellectual powers, be they ever so bright and 
 clever, are shackled and enveloped forever. Hence, 
 then, to every female of any taste and genius, who 
 intends to procure- an eligible education, I would most 
 
women's rights. 35 
 
 earnestly recommend a thorough knowledge and prac- 
 tical experience in composition. It is as necessary to 
 know how to write our thoughts correctly, as it is to 
 know how to articulate, pronounce, and speak our 
 thoughts intelligibly. 
 
 When composition in prose is tolerably well under- 
 stood, and practiced by the ingenious young female, 
 she should then study the laws and rules of versifica- 
 tion. If her genius have any poetical powers, she will 
 find much delight in the composition of poetry. It is 
 the next charm to music, or more properly it is music 
 in reality, for it elevates and enlivens the mental 
 feelings and the very soul itself. 
 
 Logic should now be introduced, and blend in all its 
 beauties and charms with the compositions of the young 
 female. Logic contains the doctrine of the science of 
 reasoning. Its powers in the languages, and in argu- 
 ment, are of intrinsic merit to all, both man and woman. 
 When a proposition is made or set forth in any thing, 
 it must be illustrated by logic or it will rarely sustain 
 itself. Logic is the art of reasoning, and without 
 loo;ic we can not reason. 
 
 Rhetoric should be with logic combined. They are 
 inseparable companions, and nearly allied to each other. 
 These are delightful and interesting studies for ladies 
 as well as for gentlemen, and should never be omitted 
 from the catalogue of their literary attainments. 
 
 By logic, the proposition is opened, made, and in- 
 
86 
 
 telligibly introduced to tlie audience or individual 
 addressed, and by rhetoric it is made to bear, and drive 
 before it all opposition. Logic and rheto7ic then com- 
 bine to form one of the most powerful engines which 
 any language can constitute. When this engine is 
 properly applied to any argument it is overwhelming, 
 let the argument be right or wrong. It is by the 
 invincible power of these two sister sciences, that all 
 orators, public speakers, lawyers, representatives, sena- 
 tors, and theologians, carry their arguments and bring 
 them to bear. So great, indeed, is the masterly power 
 of that great lever, rhetoric, that among the ancients 
 it was said to be superstition to study or practice it ; 
 but that shallow idea has long since departed from 
 the literary worlds 
 
 Geography is a useful, sublime, and important 
 science, and may be introduced by the judicious 
 teacher at any convenient time, as a concomitant to the 
 foregoing studies. 
 
 It is the doctrine of the knowledge of the surface of 
 the globe which we inhabit ; and reason must tell us 
 that every one, both male and female, should know as 
 much about the surface of this earth (the place of our 
 being), as possibly can be known. It is a delightful 
 study, and will amply satisfy and reward its votar^^. 
 
 Drawing and Painting, and the construction of 
 maps should be now, if not before, introduced; and to 
 these should be combined the use of the globes. 
 
87 
 
 These are sublime studies and will beautifully expand 
 the mind of the young female. They will strengthen 
 it in what she has already acquired, and fit and pre- 
 pare it to receive the more advanced and more im- 
 portant sciences. 
 
 Botany is a science, but has by some writers been 
 called a branch of natural history. It is, no doubt, 
 historical in its nature, but it is also scientific. It con- 
 tains the doctrine of the science and history of plants, 
 vegetables, herbage, etc., from the smallest spear of 
 grass to the towering oak that crowns the mountain's 
 brow. It furnishes one of the most delightful and 
 essential studies to the young female mind. That it is 
 delightful in all its departments, can not be questioned ; 
 and that it is essential and important in all its bearings 
 and tendencies, reason must infer, since on the vegeta- 
 tion and productions of the earth (which is the province 
 of this science to investigate) our sustenance, our safety, 
 and our lives depend. 
 
 There are about nineteen-twentieths of the cooks of 
 the United States, and, probably, of all the world, 
 females ; hence, then, the imperative necessity of a per- 
 fect familiarity of the female sex with the science of 
 botany. On the knowledge of botany depends much, 
 very much of the personal safety and support on which 
 our lives depend. Then, again, what can be more 
 lovely and agreeable to the tasteful genius and investi- 
 gating mind of a female, than to acquire and possess a 
 
38 women's rights. 
 
 knowledge of the flowers, the plants, and the verdant 
 herbage which decorate the earth's surface ? 
 
 Chemistry should to botany be joined; as by the aid 
 of chemistry those plants and herbs already known by 
 botany can be analyzed, and their natural substances 
 discovered to be either of useful or of poisonous effects. 
 By a knowledge of these two sciences all vegetation 
 can be analyzed, etc. 
 
 Chemistry ranks among the most sublime sciences 
 of the world. By it we are enabled to discover the 
 component parts of all material matter, even from 
 the simplest on the earth's surface to the hardest 
 rock or metallic substance contained in the bowels 
 of the earth. It is of vital importance to man in all 
 the manufacturing departments of life. There is 
 scarce an operation pertaining to any manufactory 
 where caloric, liquid, or steam is requisite, but chem- 
 istry is applied. It is a most interesting study for 
 ladies. 
 
 Cookery should be studied before or after botany, 
 and, if convenient, before chemistry. This is an 
 essential study for all females to be familiar with, 
 and should be made a school study. The art of 
 cookery should be taught in every school, as any 
 other art or science, and should be read in common, 
 as any other book, in every house. But it is a 
 lamentable fact, that these books, viz., cookery, 
 chemistry, and botany, are not found in every house, 
 
women's rights. 39 
 
 nor in every school, particularly in the interior of 
 the country. Cooking, like farming, is accomplished 
 and learned from and by example, more than by 
 scientific principles; and hence the many thrilling 
 accounts of death by accident from eating vegetation, 
 and vegetable roots, containing poison sufficient to 
 destroy human life. If these important sciences were 
 studied at school, and reduced to practical operation 
 at home, under the superintendence of an educated 
 and judicious mistress, or mother, few, if any such, 
 accidents would transpire to be recorded. 
 
 Philosophy is the next study, but might be intro- 
 duced to the young female before chemistry. It 
 ranks among the sublime and most important sciences, 
 and will open a beautiful and expansive field for the 
 young female aspirant. Its doctrine is to investigate 
 all material substances, and even some things which 
 are imponderable. From the smallest atom to the 
 greatest mass composing the earth — all matter, mo- 
 tion, force, intensity, velocity, attraction, gravity, 
 electricity, galvanism, hydraulics, hydrostatics, pneu- 
 matics, accoustics, optics, caloric, cold, winds, tides, 
 etc., all are investigated by philosophy — also, all 
 mechanics, engines, and machinery. 
 
 Formerly this grand and great study was but little 
 known, but now it is common in every school, and 
 should be used, read, and studied in every family. 
 Like other sublime sciences, it was confined to the 
 
40 women's rights. 
 
 walls of colleges, and none could attain it but the 
 opulent and wealthy. But since the impetus given 
 to education in these United States, by the estab- 
 lishment of schools, and the consolidation of a school- 
 fund, which tend to disseminate education universally, 
 philosophy, and many of the other sciences, have 
 reached the common schools, and the domicil of the 
 humble farmer and mechanic. 
 
 I most earnestly recommend the study of this 
 science to all females. It will expand the mental 
 organization, and amply reward all the time and 
 pains given to it in the attainment. 
 
 Astronomy being the next grand science in pursuit, 
 it is worthy all the attention that the young female 
 can bestow upon it. It is one of the most sublime 
 sciences — than which a more delightful field was never 
 opened to the investigating mind. It may be said, 
 indeed, that females have no need of the knowledge 
 of this study. Why not? Is this science beyond 
 their capacity to understand? Certainly not. Well, 
 then, why withhold it? I say, a lady should know 
 it, and it should be taught in all female institutions. 
 It expands the mind, and enables it to comprehend, 
 in the solar system, the immutable laws of omnipo- 
 tence, and the inscrutable power of an eternal Jeho- 
 vah. By this great science we are enabled to soar 
 into the starry heavens, and there range, expatiate, 
 and ruminate among the moons, the satellites, the 
 
women's rights. 41 
 
 constellations, and the planetary organizations which 
 compose the solar system. And there we behold our 
 own nothingness, and conspicuously see and adore 
 the eternal and infinite Deity. If the question dare 
 be put to require a proof for the eternal existence of 
 God, let the curious investigator look into the solar 
 system, and there he will be satisfied when he finds 
 himself lost among the stupendous works of the 
 Almighty, and there palpably views his own insigni- 
 ficance. 
 
 Astronomy is of vital importance to the world. 
 By it the periodical changes have been accurately 
 discovered, the times of the revolutions of the heav- 
 enly bodies, the periodical influences which those 
 bodies have upon the earth, the true longitude at 
 sea, and many, very many, important events and 
 discoveries have been brought to light, and reduced 
 to practical utility, by astronomy — all of which tend 
 to promote the happiness and convenience of the 
 human family. How consoling it is to the benighted 
 mariner, when, after a violent storm at sea, he can, 
 by taking an observation of the sun, moon, or some 
 of the fixed stars, find accurately, by a simple calcu- 
 lation, the true longitude — whereby he will be enabled 
 to tell the distance made good, the latitude he is in, 
 and the distance he yet has to sail to reach his 
 destined haven. 
 
 On the skill of this mariner, remember, depend the 
 4 
 
42 women's rights. 
 
 many valuable lives on board — his own life, and mucli 
 goods and merchandise, all of which would be inevitably 
 ingulfed in the deep, were it not for the skillful applica- 
 tion of these grand discoveries, and the knowledge of 
 that sublime science, navigation. Since a knowledge 
 of these sublime sciences is useful and edifying to the 
 mind of a man, why not consolatory and edifying to the 
 mind of a woman? I admit that a woman can not, 
 nor does she wish to, become a mariner, nor an ope- 
 rative astronomer; these things are out of her sphere 
 of action ; but, notwithstanding, she could very well 
 acquire a competent knowledge of the science of 
 astronomy, or any other science, which would enable 
 her to teach them to others, and be the means of 
 disseminating knowledge, while it would console, expand, 
 and elevate her own mind. With these few remarks 
 on astronomy, I would earnestly recommend it to the 
 female sex, as being one of the most sublime and 
 delightful studies for both male and female. 
 
 Mathematics next presents itself to the inquisitive 
 student. Although most of the sciences of which I 
 have been treating are derived from mathematics, yet 
 after those sciences have been studied, Euclid^ s Math- 
 ematics should be carefully investigated. In ages gone 
 by, mathematics was said to contain all that was neces- 
 sary for man to know with regard to quantity, number, 
 and magnitude ; but the science of natural philosophy, 
 being reduced to practical utility, is found to contain 
 
women's rights. 43 
 
 (with regard to mechanics, matter, and motion), equally 
 as much important usefulness as mathematics. There 
 are many other branches of polite, domestic, and 
 literary education with which the accomplished female 
 should be familiar, in accordance to the vocation of 
 life she intends to pursue. These she will easily 
 discover, such as belles-lettres, needle-work, etc. There 
 are some of the sciences which I did not deem fit to 
 recommend to the study of the young female, being out 
 of their sphere of action. Of such is navigation, sur- 
 veying, guaging, mensuration. The knowledge of 
 mathematics, however, I most earnest recommend to 
 the study of young females, whether they may intend 
 to pursue teaching in future life, or any other avocation. 
 There is no science better calculated to expand and 
 strengthen the mental organization than is the mathe- 
 matics. As most of the other sciences have their 
 origin in, and are derived from, mathematical origin, 
 the study of Euclid throughout, will very much assist 
 and strengthen the young pupil. 
 
 Classics next falls under the consideration of the 
 young female student. Notwithstanding the aspiring 
 young lady may have taken a regular course of English 
 and scientific education, yet to accomplish an ample and 
 liberal attainment of knowledge, she must give her 
 attention now to the classics — Latin, Erench, Greek, 
 etc., or such other language as she may, or her parents 
 or guardians may deem most useful to her in future life, 
 
44 women's rights. 
 
 in due accordance with position in society, and position 
 of locality. If she intend to pursue the profession of 
 teaching, she should by all means acquire a knowledge 
 of one or more languages beside the English. I speak 
 here with regard to the female youth of the United 
 States, whose established language is the English. 
 
 Some precipitate thinkers may here remark that the 
 course I have been describing for the young female, 
 embraces too much, or more than is necessary for the 
 education of a female ; but I would reply to such thus : 
 I admit that many ladies of merit and dignity have not 
 probably learned all that I have pointed out, and many, 
 very many, have learned more ; but the young lady who 
 has received such an education, or even less, combined 
 with morality, integrity, and virtue, whether in private 
 or in public life, can, and in all probability will, elevate 
 herself in society, make herself useful to the community 
 around her, and transmit her education to her posterity 
 to be entailed on generations yet unborn. The unedu- 
 cated female must remain in her present position in the 
 scale of being, let that be wherever her destiny has 
 placed her. 
 
 That the dissemination of literary and moral educa- 
 tion for both male and female throughout these United 
 States should be universal and co-equal, I have already 
 mooted; and the great obstacle to be surmounted in 
 this regard, is the want of properly organized female 
 schools and colleges in this country, and the over- 
 
women's rights. 45 
 
 looking or misunderstanding of the State Legislatures 
 and Congress in not propagating and establishing such 
 schools. The reader may probably reply to me that 
 these honorable bodies have done their duty in estab- 
 lishing colleges and free-schools for universal educa- 
 tional purposes throughout the Union, open to both 
 sexes. True, they have done a laudable and honorable 
 work to themselves and to their country in establishing 
 free-schools and raising a school-fund, and have opened 
 the doors to all, to the female as well as to the male 
 youth of our country. This is laudable and praise- 
 worthy, and never did education advance in this or in 
 any other country with more rapid velocity than it has 
 done here since its recognition and establishment by 
 legal authority. Its ample strides toward the acme 
 of perfection, and its unparalleled progression, now 
 stand up as a mirror to the civilized world. 
 
 And what are the happy results of this development 
 of literature? It is the present enjoyment of all that 
 is great and good to constitute the well-being and 
 comforts of a free people. By the development of 
 education, the Arts and Sciences have been cultivated 
 among us ; commerce has extended from shore to shore ; 
 the country has been enlarged and preserved in tran- 
 quillity, and riches and happiness abound. These 
 blessings and their concomitant comforts are the happy 
 results of education. 
 
 But, to return to our city schools : they do not 
 
46 WOMEN^S RIGHTS. 
 
 constitute institutions fit and proper for tlie female 
 youth to receive a sound moral, virtuous, and ample 
 education. It is true, a female might receive the rudi- 
 mental or elementary part of her education in a city 
 school, but no lady ever received a complete education 
 in one of these schools. There are many things 
 pertaining to a lady's education which are not taught 
 in those schools at all. It is preposterous to think, or 
 say, that a lady could acquire or complete her education 
 in such a place. I have taught and conducted some of 
 those schools, and I approve of them as far as they 
 justly merit; but they are not the places properly 
 adapted to give a female a pure moral, virtuous, and 
 ample education. 
 
 The Legislature of the United States is to be lauded 
 for what it has done for the universal advancement of 
 learning, but the work is only in its embryo, it wants 
 a perfect carrying-out or completion, in order to make 
 it applicable to the female sex and of universal utility. 
 These schools were established and thrown open for the 
 education of both sexes of the youth of our country. 
 This was egregiously wrong. In whatever city, town, 
 village, hamlet, or district, a free school has been estab- 
 lished for the reception of both sexes, there should 
 have been one established exclusively for female edu- 
 cation, recognized by law, and conducted by a female 
 principal and female assistant teachers. In whatever 
 city, town, etc., there has been a number of free-schools 
 
women's rights. 47 
 
 organized for the reception of both sexes, one-half of 
 these in number should have been ordained for female 
 education exclusively, and by no means should the 
 sexes be allowed to commingle together in city or in 
 any other schools. As there are as many female youth 
 numerically speai^ing, as there are males, there should 
 be as many female institutions by law established and 
 sustained by the school-fund, as there are male institu- 
 tions sustained by that fund. Such institutions should 
 be propagated and established by law throughout the 
 extent of the United States, which is not the case. I 
 know there are many excellent female institutions of 
 learning in the United States, but these are principally 
 supported by their constituents, and by private individual 
 contract. Those parents and guardians who will not 
 allow their daughters, or those under their care to enter 
 a city school, must and do sustain those female literary 
 institutions at an enormous expense for board and 
 tuition, without any aid whatever from the school-fund. 
 This is a grievance of no small magnitude. A man 
 may send his sons free to the city schools and receive 
 a free education, let him be rich or poor; but his 
 daughters, in order to secure to them a pure moral and 
 literary education, he is obliged to send to some female 
 institution (perhaps some hundreds of miles distant, 
 if he live in the interior of the country), and sustain 
 them from his own pecuniary means. This can be 
 accomplished by the rich, but the poor man's daughter 
 
48 women's rights. 
 
 must grow up into maturity without education, unless 
 at the hazard of endangering both morality and virtue. 
 I might here expatiate and use language on this part 
 of my treatise, which I will evade. Suffice it to say, 
 that a pure and appropriate female education can be 
 acquired only at a pure female institution, established 
 and solely conducted for the purpose of female 
 instruction. 
 
 Female principals and teachers of schools should be 
 procured, and preparatory schools for properly educa- 
 ting them in every branch of literature pertaining to 
 a female education. In such schools the aspiring 
 female youth, wishing to become teachers would 
 thoroughly graduate, and fit, and prepare themselves 
 competently to teach their own sex. In this way, 
 female education would soon be promoted; it would 
 receive a fresh impetus at every succeeding period and 
 session, and its salutary influence would soon be a 
 blessing to society. 
 
 There are many, very many females now of high 
 rank and dignity, who are acquiring a liberal education, 
 but not at the expense of the State or the common- 
 wealth, not at all ; it is at the immediate expense of 
 their parents, or out of their own pecuniary means. 
 But what of the myriads of female youth in the interior, 
 who are not able to avail themselves of this advantage ? 
 They must either go without education or go into the 
 district amalgamated schools. In this regard, female 
 
49 
 
 education, the indubitable right of the female^ is either 
 ill-gotten, lost, or neglected. These things ought not 
 so to be. 
 
 The inalienable right of a female to an equal share 
 of education, is palpably plain and just, but in this 
 respect the female youth of our country are not fairly 
 dealt with, by the legislature of the commonwealth. 
 The pride, the glory of our country (and every country) 
 is neglected. The consort to man and his co-equal, 
 the mother of humanity, is left in the shade, in ac- 
 cordance to the old adage, as false as it is wicked 
 and absurd, namely, " that a little learning is suffi- 
 cient for a woman:" a saying which has proved itself 
 to be one of the greatest curses which humanity is 
 enduring. 
 
 This subject has lain dormant for centuries, and the 
 consequent evils still germinating. From age to age, 
 from generation to generation, the deletereous effects 
 of this unhallowed saying have been transmitted down 
 to the present time. 
 
 I must admit and acknowledge that this is a difficult 
 subject to discuss, as many will say in contradiction to 
 my statements, that the matters as regards women are 
 perfectly right ; but I must deny it. I think I have 
 explicitly shown and clearly demonstrated the sources 
 from which vice, crime, and immorality flow, to the 
 great detriment of social happiness and safety, and 
 palpably proved them to be engendered in the 
 5 
 
50 
 
 morbidity of ignorance, through the neglect of a pure 
 female education. 
 
 Men of talent and ability ; ladies of learning, dignity, 
 and influence, and all who are deeply interested in the 
 peace and happiness of society, and the extirpation of 
 crime, vice, and depravity from the land, and all who 
 wish the advancement of education and its consequent 
 happy results on the rising and succeeding generations, 
 should discuss the matter maturely, agitate, publish, 
 and fulminate the reverberations of the acclamated 
 rights of women, into the ears and understandings of 
 the various State Legislatures, and Congress, pro- 
 claiming and demanding a bill to be brought into that 
 honorable House, and passed, and ratified, securing to 
 TYomen their just and equal rights and privileges with 
 the male part of the community, in every thing pertain- 
 ing to their sex and station. 
 
 This procedure should be commenced by petition, 
 from the various cities, towns, etc., in the various 
 States of the Union, to their State Legislatures, and 
 transmitted from them to the representatives in Con- 
 gress, who would immedately embody them in a bill 
 comprising all the demands and wishes of the petitions. 
 This bill properly conducted and advocated, would get 
 a hearing, and the rights of women would no longer be 
 denied them. 
 
 This would not only elevate women in the scale of 
 being, but it would elevate man also. If this or some 
 
women's rights. .51 
 
 otlier measures were adopted, and the united voices of 
 the influential and dignified ladies of the United States 
 come before the honorable Congress, their just de- 
 mands would be freely granted, the bill would pass 
 triumphantly into a law, and the present position of 
 women would soon wear another aspect. Ample pro- 
 vision would be made for the education of thousands of 
 our beautiful and interesting female youth, who are 
 now obliged to attend the amalgamated city schools, or 
 grow into maturity unlettered and untaught. The 
 aspiring genius of talented young ladies would lead 
 them on to be teachers, and principals of colleges, and 
 female institutions of literary character and dignified 
 celebrity ; and the whole of female education would be 
 taught and acquired within the precincts of female 
 jurisdiction. 
 
 This is the way that female education should be 
 acquired. This is the way that female merit should be 
 elevated and appreciated, and the very sure way that 
 pure, moral, and literary female education can be 
 attained ; and the way that religion and virtue (those 
 darling gems which constitute the female character) 
 would be sustained in purity, and transmitted un- 
 sullied to posterity. 
 
 By an active and ingenious organization of female 
 institutions, recognized and sustained by the govern- 
 ment of the country, the phalanx of humanity, male 
 and female, would be elevated and enlightened; the 
 
52 
 
 dissemination of knowledge would be accelerated, and 
 societies and communities would rejoice and congratu- 
 late the prosperity of each other. If this, or such a 
 bill were introduced to the House even for educational 
 purposes alone (which is indispensably necessary), 
 other amendments would follow and be annexed to the 
 bill, granting and securing to women their just and 
 lawful demands. It may be asked here what more 
 rights do w^omen want ? They do want more ; for 
 notwithstanding the right of equal education is para- 
 mount, they want and are justly entitled to an equal 
 distribution of all and every privilege, and remunera- 
 tion for manual labor, etc., comparatively speaking 
 with men ; still in due compatibility with their sex and 
 sphere of action, and not otherwise. If women were 
 universally educated, they would then know their 
 rights and what to demand; but at the present day, 
 in the enlightened age of the nineteenth century (a 
 lamentable fact, and as true as it is lamentable), it is 
 only a minority of women who know their rights. In 
 the various points and modes of manufacture, have 
 women their rights? Certainly not. Witness the 
 amount of manufacture made and executed by women ; 
 but this is almost impossible to be calculated, for, 
 comparatively speaking of the finest manufacture of 
 all kinds of merchandise in this, as well as other 
 countries, they are almost exclusively accomplished 
 and executed by the manipulations of the delicate 
 
women's rights. 53 
 
 female's plastic fingers. The silk, the muslin, the 
 edging, the lace, the lawn, the hosiery, the gloves, and 
 almost the entire of male and female attire, emanate 
 from the labor and industry of the patient and in- 
 genious female. Wherever fineness, taste, and deli- 
 cacy of texture are recjuired in the manufacture of 
 goods, there must women be; but in no position of 
 business or labor is she remunerated equal to man. 
 Notwithstanding her performance and execution of the 
 manufacture may be superior to man's (which is often 
 the case), yet pecuniary remuneration will be less, 
 both in the manufacturing and in the making depart- 
 ment. Is this an equal distribution of rights? Cer- 
 tainly not, yet it is a very fact. 
 
 A tailor will pay a man double, or perhaps more 
 than double, the sum he will pay to a woman for 
 making the same kind of garment, and sell the 
 female's make to the customer at the same price he 
 w^ill sell the man's make. Here he enriches himself 
 at the expense of the depression of the female's 
 labor, and thereby monopolizes on the rights of wo- 
 men. 
 
 And so of all other mechanics who manufacture 
 fancy and fine goods. In many, very many kinds 
 of fine manufacture, the female can excel the man 
 in the execution thereof — yet, in no instance, will 
 she be remunerated equally. This is a sophism 
 which has been practiced time immemorial on the 
 
54 
 
 rights of women, as unjust as it is disgraceful to 
 man; but it is often met with a false logic, namely, 
 that women do not execute the work as well as men do. 
 If this be true, why employ women at all? It is 
 not generally so ; for, as I have said, in many in- 
 stances, particularly in fine manufacture, they execute 
 the work better than men do. But in no instance 
 do they receive the same remuneration. Glaring 
 injustice to man's co-equal ! Why not the law of the 
 land regulate this imposition of man's ignoble chi- 
 canery on the rights of women, and if she execute 
 work the same as a man, why not entitle her to a 
 similar remuneration ? But the law is dormant on 
 this important subject, while the flower and the 
 vitality of the country must and do suffer. 
 
 How, then, is this sad grievance to the female sex 
 to be remedied? By a due organization of every 
 right, pertaining to w^omen, being made and recog- 
 nized by judicial authority, and by having the same 
 ratified by law — which would entitle women to de- 
 mand the same remuneration for all kinds of manual 
 labor as men do. 
 
 It will be probably said that on this condition 
 women will not be employed. This can not be the 
 case, for the amount requisite of manufacture must 
 be done and executed, and there is not male labor 
 sufficient to accomplish it. Hence women must be 
 employed in the various departments of manufacture 
 
women's rights. 55 
 
 which are best adapted to their sex and manual 
 dexterity. 
 
 There is another grievance of no small magnitude 
 which women labor under, namely, they are disfran- 
 chised by law from voting at all kinds of elections. 
 The widowed lady or the unmarried lady is bound 
 hj the law to pay taxes if she possesses property, 
 and disfranchised, by the same law, from having a 
 voice in sending a candidate to the legislature, or a 
 representative to Congress, to legislate and make this 
 law. This is preposterous injustice ! Here are two 
 conflicting opposites, and must involve an error. 
 There are very many ladies in our country of supe- 
 rior judgment and mental abilities to men who vote. 
 There are many possessed of education, riches, and 
 honor, and very many as capable of giving a vote 
 on judicial or other important matters, as men are, 
 and yet all are simultaneously excluded! All are 
 universally disfranchised! I can not see the impro- 
 priety or iniquity of a qualified lady giving a vote. 
 It may be argued that it is unbecoming for the sex, 
 and moves a lady out of her proper orbit. This is 
 palpable nonsense, which all rational men and women 
 will discard. A lady may with the same propriety 
 vote that she will transact any other private or pub- 
 lic business. And should the act of voting publicly 
 be objectionable to either sex, a more appropriate 
 mode could very easily be adopted: that is, let there 
 
56 women's rights. 
 
 be females selected and qualified to receive votes, in 
 fit and proper places, apart from the polls of men ; 
 and thus, in due accordance to this adaptation, could 
 the entire female sufi'rage be obtained, to the great 
 satisfaction and just entitlement of the whole female 
 population. This would not at all be making any 
 inroads on the rights of men. It would verily be 
 an equal distribution of justice to all, as far as re- 
 gards the matter in question. 
 
 Let it be remembered that, notwithstanding I have, 
 on the foregoing page, advocated the right of women 
 voting at' elections, yet it is not among their claims 
 or demands. They want to have no interference with 
 governmental affairs whatever. 
 
 With regard to what women do claim, they must 
 bring the matter to issue themselves. Let them 
 agitate, and send into the State Legislatures and into 
 Congress, their claims, embodied in petitions, from 
 every State and Territory, and their demands will 
 obtain a hearing, and yet be granted. Their griev- 
 ances will be ameliorated, and they will triumph in 
 the achievement of one of the greatest blessings that 
 ever humanity enjoyed — that is, equality, freedom, 
 and inalienable rights to all. Generations yet unborn 
 would hail the achievement, and its vital advantages 
 to both sexes wouldv. be experienced and lauded in 
 the present age. Literary and scientific institutions, 
 as if by magic, would grow up. Females would be 
 
women's eights. 57 
 
 active, vigilant, and persevering (as they are ever 
 found to be), in tlie various departments of society, 
 and the beneficence of Providence would crown their 
 labors with success. That women would be not only 
 more useful to themselves, but to man also, by being 
 equally educated with man, and by enjoying equal 
 advantages and privileges in the general scale of 
 beings, is an axiom which needs no demonstration. 
 Throughout all the ramifications of society, wherever 
 woman's labor, industry, rights, and authority to 
 rights, have to compete with man's claims, their 
 equality is despised, their rights are trampled on, 
 and their labor and industry are always taken in the 
 minimum ratio of estimation or comparison. Thus 
 their inalienable claims are made to dwindle into 
 insignificance. 
 
 Those grievances of which I have been treating are 
 not of recent origin. They have been engendered 
 centuries ago — first in savage and barbarous nations — 
 they migrated from Asia and Africa into Germany, from 
 thence to England, and from England to the continent of 
 America. And now, at the present enlightened climax 
 of society in the United States, it has almost become 
 proverbial that a little education is sufficient for a 
 woman. This unhallowed expression was and is the 
 fountain from whence female degradation flowed, and 
 continues to flow, and from whence degeneracy con- 
 tinues to inundate the great western continent. When 
 
58 
 
 shut out from the light of instruction (at least from a 
 liberal education), comparatively speaking, the female 
 sex and their succeeding offspring must live, grow up, 
 and wallow under the penumbral cloud of morbid 
 ignorance. This may meet with opposition from the 
 precipitate thinker, and probably be sneered at by 
 the pedantic demagogue, who would scout the poly- 
 carp, that a woman should receive as much education 
 as a man, or have any voice in public matters of 
 business, commerce, etc., whatever. But I care not 
 for that. I can and will sustain the argument, based 
 as it is on justice and on truth, on utility, and on 
 the universal good of man as well as of woman. So 
 long as woman must remain in her untutored state, 
 she can have no voice or influence in matters of 
 general and public good, because she is thereby 
 rendered unable to develop her genius, or reduce her 
 clearest ideas to operative utility. But let woman 
 be amply and equally educated with man, and then, 
 if she do not act herself, she will at least assist him, 
 in all and every the intricate matters as touching 
 the importance of the commonwealth and domestic 
 happiness. 
 
 There are two grand spheres in the great scale of 
 humanity : one, in which the woman circles smoothly ; 
 and the other, which is alloted to man. Nor is the 
 female less tenacious to keep her orbit than the man 
 is. As the law of universal gravitation directs and 
 
women's rights. 59 
 
 controls all unorganized matter, so does the law of 
 mental capability and pbj^sical power control and 
 govern woman in her sphere of life, destined to what- 
 ever it may be. The law of nature, in not being 
 bestowed upon woman in point of physical power to 
 a similar degree with man, is no criterion to judge 
 of the mental organization ; neither can it be con- 
 sidered any inimical favor of endow^ment in the 
 beneficence of Divine Providence, who, in his inscru- 
 table wisdom, suited both sexes perfectly to their 
 respective spheres of action. While he endowed man 
 with a degree of superior muscular power, in due 
 accordance to his particular avocation of life, he was 
 no less beneficent to the woman, in best-owing upon 
 her a superlative degree of personal beauty, a pre- 
 possessing external appearance, a finer symmetry of 
 organic system, a clearer perceptibility of mind, a 
 nicer acuteness of feeling and touch, a superior 
 capacity and adaptation of taste, a higher degree of 
 sympathy and afi*ection, a greater love of morality 
 and virtue, and, in fine, a super-excellency in all the 
 traits and attributes of personal and mental faculties 
 which constitute the human character. 
 
 Notwithstanding, it is conspicuously evident that 
 woman was not destined to fill man's place in the 
 scale of being ; but it is egregiously preposterous to 
 think, or to say, that woman is inferior to man in 
 point of excellence in either body or mind. While 
 
60 women's rights. 
 
 man is made and endowed with qualities which enable 
 him to brave the danger, and endure fatigue, woman, 
 his faithful consort, is endowed with fascinating 
 charms, and a prolific genius, which enable her to 
 cheer and sustain him, and change the worst adversity 
 in life into a tranquil, sheltered covert. 
 
 The intricate cogitations of study, the elaborate 
 struggles, and combats of external duties, and the 
 various avocations of employment, seem to be the fitly 
 destined province of the male part of our species, 
 w^hile the precincts of domiciliary ministrations, and 
 the all important duty of promoting generation, fall to 
 the lot of the female sex. But, on the other hand, 
 because a women is not destined, nor equivalent to 
 perform in the elaborate sphere of action as man does, 
 is she not destined for as noble, yes and more noble 
 purposes? Most assuredly she is. Is she, because 
 her organic system, her lovely person, is more delicately 
 formed than man's, is she not to be educated and 
 trained up, and cultivated in order that she may be 
 enabled to develop those latent powers of genius and 
 mind, which will undoubtedly make her more useful 
 to herself and to succeeding generations? Are her 
 faculties (which are equal, and in some cases superior 
 to man's) to lie dormant for life, and entail on pos- 
 terity the same misery as she is now doomed to en- 
 dure ? Is her genial spirit to bloom only for a moment, 
 and never to be invigorated by the light of instruction, 
 
women's rights. 61 
 
 the only sure mode of adapting it to useful requisi- 
 tions? In due accordance to the mental abilities of 
 the mother who rules the domicil establishment, will 
 its inmates be. If she be educated, mild, moral, 
 virtuous, truthful, and benevolent, they will be so too. 
 If she be desperately wicked and uncultivated, they 
 will be demoniac in all their actions, and poison the 
 atmosphere of domestic happiness, spreading the bane- 
 ful contagion as far as their influence will extend. 
 Seeing then that the woman is the main lever, of not 
 only her own household, but extending to the sur- 
 rounding community, and perpetuating her example 
 to ages yet unborn, how essential it is, that she^ the 
 presiding angel of domestic and public happiness, or 
 the daemon of carnage to social consolation and weal, 
 should as far as possible be made a fit and proper in- 
 strument for so important a design ; a design on which 
 the present and future destiny of humanity entirely 
 depends. 
 
 That women is the acting and presiding angel in 
 her domicil, is an incontrovertible fact, as is manifest 
 in her domestic principality, which either presents a 
 scene of order, or of chaos, of beauty, or of deformity, 
 in accordance as she is enlighted and elevated, or 
 obdurate and ignoble. Who, then, can question or dis- 
 pute women's influence in the great scale of being, 
 when it is so palpably conspicuous in every dwelling 
 which is blessed with a female principal ; when it is 
 
62 women's eights. 
 
 equally obvious in public as well as in private life. 
 We see in every grade of existence, from the monarch 
 to the humblest servant: even in silence and unseen, 
 do the wisdom and influence of a woman modify the 
 character and dignity of her hus,band, and often, very 
 often through life, does she prove to be to him the 
 gr'^atest protection, and the strongest barrier in his 
 way to vice. Her counsel to liim is the balm of 
 Gilead, and truly should she be reckoned in the words 
 of Solomon, " a virtuous women is a crown to her 
 husband." Her very breathings are inhaled by her 
 childi-en, and whatever she be for good or for evil, 
 they permanently will grow up and become. Educa- 
 tion, then, is the important point at issue, that the 
 rising youth may recicve it and become useful mem- 
 bers of society. Education, in order to become valua- 
 ble, should become appropriate and universal. 
 
 Throughout all ranks and divisions of community, 
 and the entire organization of humanity, we every 
 where find (but in a peculiar degree in the civilized 
 circles of society), that woman is fitted and gifted by 
 nature and the God of nature, to fill her place in the 
 most important, as well as in the most trivial depart- 
 ments in which she may be destined to act; and 
 peculiarly gifted, by the beneficent Creator, with the 
 most beautiful and delicate gems of character. 
 
 Hence, her training and education, then, should 
 be in accordance to the importance of her position 
 
women's eights. 63 
 
 in the scale of beings, which, I must say, is not only 
 equal to, but paramount of all others. Her education 
 should be such at least, as to render her happy to 
 herself, to be of utility to society, and fit her for all 
 the practical, domestic, and public duties devolving 
 upon her, and Tvhich she is in a high degree com- 
 pelled to discharge through life. 
 
 It is a lamentable fact, and as true as it is lamen- 
 table, that the female youth of our glorious, free, and 
 independent country (with but few exceptions, com- 
 paratively speaking of the entire community), grow 
 up without a sufficient degree of attention being given 
 their mental or their physical development. Their 
 minds, although ever so susceptible of instruction, are 
 generally undisciplined with the study of any useful 
 or scientific subject, sufficiently long enough to make 
 them thoroughly acquainted with it. Those brilliant 
 powers of intellectual understanding are seldom or 
 ever excited, or brought into intense or vigorous 
 action; and those finer tendencies and refined taste 
 and feelings of the female sex peculiar to themselves, 
 which, if properly instructed and kept in reserve, 
 would most powerfully aid the noblest acquisition, are 
 for the most part neglected or called forth at the 
 expense of every other. 
 
 Thus, nominally speaking, the solidity of profound 
 female education is lost, and the mind is filled with 
 the mere ephemeral transitions of the day. What 
 
64 women's rights. 
 
 hope, then, in such a case, has a husband, or what 
 implicit confidence can he have in such an one for a 
 wife, whose affections he must philosophically judge 
 to be as slight and as frail as the superficial frame- 
 work of her mental attainment ? What alluring or 
 captivating inducements, or more explicitly speaking, 
 what intrinsic qualifications does she possess to enable 
 her to undertake the high and all important respon- 
 sibility of a mother? How can she think to sustain 
 herself in society, so as to embellish and improve it, 
 and elevate herself and famjly in that degree of dig- 
 nity to which they may be ^entitled ? 
 
 So far as her influence extends (if she be entirely 
 uneducated), she becomes dangerous and injurious to 
 society, and entails to the community in which she 
 circles the baneful inheritance of vice and depravity. 
 This germ of demoralization does not become extinct 
 at the dissolution of its progenitor, not at all; it is 
 engendered and will fructify, and cloud the prospects 
 of ages yet unborn. Why thus is an uneducated 
 mother so dangerous, when, in all probability, she is 
 blessed and gifted with the best of mental faculties? 
 Because her mind, from the neglect of a due youthful 
 education, literary, moral, and virtuous, has become 
 barren, sterile, and obdurate, yielding nothing but 
 a hidious wilderness of brambles, which, torpedo-like, 
 withers all that comes beneath its influence. The 
 society of her own domicil will never sustain a 
 
women's rights. 65 
 
 standard, but one as low and degraded as that of its 
 unhappy directress. Such an one lives but to die, 
 and when removed from the world, no traces can be 
 seen on her neglected path, but such as stigmatize 
 her existence, and blush her progeny. Her con- 
 tracted life is like the transient arrow which leaves 
 no impression on the atmosphere through which it 
 wended its precipitate flight. 
 
 But, on the other hand, were woman rightly edu- 
 cated, and truly trained up in her allotted sphere, 
 she could attain a degree of perfection not to be 
 excelled in this side of heaven. She would stand the 
 highest of all human beings in dignity and worth, 
 were she to receive a proper culture of mind; and 
 then, corresponding and attendant goods would mul- 
 tiply motives conducive to her own self-happiness and 
 respectability, and place her in a position but a little 
 removed below the angels. Beside the neglect of 
 education in the lower circles of female society, 
 luxury in the higher circles is equally baneful in 
 producing effeminacy of character and degradation of 
 principle. The canvas of the historic page of the 
 United States is conspicuously blended with these 
 evils. The effects of luxurious excess, were it prac- 
 ticable to bring it to public investigation, would sur- 
 pass the wildest flight of oriental fable. 
 
 This is most conspicuously obvious in the large 
 .icies of our commonwealth, occasioned by luxury, 
 6 
 
(j6 women's RiaHTS. 
 
 excess, and idleness, wliich have become common and 
 diffused throughout our wide empire, by the power 
 of the railway and the steam impetus. 
 
 Were female colleges and female institutions of 
 learning organized and established throughout our 
 country, the case would be otherwise than at the 
 present. 
 
 Young females of aspiring genius, opulence, and 
 dignity, would be busily engaged in scientific, or some 
 useful study, and graduating for some important 
 vocation of life, who are now traveling the country 
 for pleasure or levity, and who will return with heads 
 empty as their purses, without doing good to them- 
 selves or others. Traveling is essential ; but, when 
 carried to excess, it becomes an evil. 
 
 In my delineation of studies and sciences appro- 
 priate for the female sex, I omitted much descrip- 
 tion and many important theories ; namely, Physi- 
 ology, Metaphysics, Phrenology, Anatomy, and the 
 Ch'culation of the Blood. All these are essential 
 and sublime studies, and should blend in the cata- 
 loo-ue of the accomplished female's education. Music 
 I also omitted, which is one of the most ancient as 
 well as the most sublime and endearing sciences 
 which ever engrossed the attention of the young 
 female. Among the many myriads who study music, 
 there are but a few who become competent musicians, 
 a manifest proof that there are but few who are 
 
women's rights. 67 
 
 gifted with, or possess the requisite genius, taste, 
 and mental abilities, to acquire a theoretical and 
 practical knowledge of this delightful, but intricate 
 science. 
 
 I am now drawing to the close of this important 
 thesis, and must condense my thoughts in accordance 
 to mj space; but I repeat it emphatically, and it is 
 an undeniable fact, that the currents of vice, crime, 
 and immorality which have deluged, and are now 
 inundating, the fair face of our country, can be 
 stemmed only by a general literary and moral female 
 education. Educate women in youth, and they will 
 keep their proper sphere through life. This will dis- 
 pel the blighting miasma from the fragrance of our 
 glorious Republic, and the banner of freedom shall 
 wave unsullied in the blue arch of heaven. 
 
 From the nature and the delicate organization of 
 woman it may be readily inferred that she was not 
 intended for elaborate struggle, nor extreme manual 
 labor ; but in all ages, according to her physical and 
 acquired mental abilities, she has manifested a higher 
 degree of usefulness to the world than man. Admit- 
 ting that she was entirely exempt from the active 
 and troublesome cares of political life, from which 
 the responsibility of a domicil would in most cases 
 exonerate her, still I would invest in her (if educated) 
 the high honors of advising and guiding her husband 
 in a wise and just administration. She would form 
 
68 women's rights. 
 
 the minds and shape the deportment of those who 
 take upon them (whether husband or son) the great 
 responsibility of political office. 
 
 As w^oman is the active and real agent of the 
 glory of man, so it is her plastic hand and ingenious 
 intellect that alone can mold and modify him for 
 the genuine purpose of the nation. 
 
 While man is the active governor — woman is 
 virtually the real mother of the State. 
 
 Therefore, if we would have moral, true, and dig- 
 nified rulers of our country — if we would secure to 
 our fellow- citizens the attributes of intelligence, worth, 
 and honor, we must first elevate the mental, the 
 moral, and the religious condition of women. 
 
 In the foregoing pages, I have endeavored to illus- 
 trate the force and happy results of a thorough 
 female education on the present and succeeding gen- 
 erations of both sexes. The time is at hand when 
 the elevation of the female sex must receive a pow- 
 erful impetus and due consideration, as being the 
 only means whereby social happiness, safety, and 
 prosperity to the commonwealth can be sustained and 
 promoted. The accomplishment of this improvement 
 in the condition of society will disseminate education 
 and knowledge — it will dignify and elevate the entire 
 community, from the humblest domicil to the most 
 magnificent mansion; and monuments of fame will 
 yet arise to perpetuate the memory of illustrious 
 
women's eights. 69 
 
 personages who will make themselves accessory in 
 the achievement of this laudable requisition. 
 
 It will be said that vice and depravity prevail 
 among the female sex as well as in the male depart- 
 ment. I admit it. But what is the cause? For 
 want of a proper training and a proper bringing up. 
 In the absence of education, and wherever the dark 
 waters of ignorance flow, there will the alluvian 
 mounds of decomposed morals accumulate, and there 
 will the germs of corruption engender and fructify. 
 But with regard to the aggregate amount of crime 
 committed, the major part is on the male side of the 
 question. Yes, decidedly so. If it were possible to 
 accumulate the. amount of crime attributable to the 
 female sex from the creation to the present day, and 
 place it on the scale of a balance, and on the oppo- 
 site scale place the accumulated enormous mass of 
 crime committed by men since the same beginning, 
 the latter would preponderate quicker than a sheet- 
 anchor if cut loose from a cable's end, would sink 
 to the bottom of the sea. Such is the incompatibility 
 of the contrast, that a woman's depravity may be 
 said to be original innocence, comparatively speaking, 
 with the wickedness of man. As a proof of this (if 
 proof be necessary), witness the conscripts of the 
 judicial authorities, where they palpably show that 
 nineteen-twentieths of the inhabitants of jails, peniten- 
 tiaries, and States' prisons consist of the male sex. 
 
70 
 
 But I am not looking for crime. It is a deplor- 
 able fact, that there is existing, and being perpe- 
 trated, too much crime on both sides of the question. 
 It has been my primary object throughout these 
 humble pages to adopt the measures and point out 
 the methods whereby crime and depravity might be 
 obliterated and extirpated from among us, and if I 
 can but be in the least degree accessory in the ac- 
 complishment of this achievement, I shall think my 
 time well employed. 
 
 I implicitly believe and must reiterate it, that 
 there is no other way, unless by the interposition of 
 Divine Providence, to exterminate immorality and 
 crime, but by the propagation and thorough organ- 
 ization of a system of pure female education. 
 
 Is there a man on the face of the civilized habit- 
 able globe ; is there a man under our glorious and 
 free institutions on the Continent of America ; is there 
 a man who mingles in the society of men, who would 
 deny the female sex a just and equal participation 
 in literary education, and in all the advantages and 
 privileges pertaining to their sex and station, and 
 thereby trample on Women's Rights f If such an 
 one live, let his name be erased from among the 
 names of honorable and enlightened men, and let it 
 be indelibly inscribed on the catacombs of infimy 
 and degradation, and filed in the archieves of oblivion 
 and shame, and deposited in the lowest alcove of 
 
women's rights. 71 
 
 eternal perdition, never, never, to be opened or read, 
 but by his Satanic majesty, to bring to his reminis- 
 cence that an emissary of his, a slimy reptile in 
 human form, once infested this earth, denounced 
 by all who knew him, and anathematized by the 
 world. 
 
 But it is to be hoped that such a man does not 
 exist. 
 
 It is my sincerest wish that literary, scientific, 
 and moral female education may be established and 
 propagated from State to State, and organized from 
 shore to shore, from the Atlantic's margin to the wide 
 Pacific, and to the interior of the remotest Territory ; 
 that institutions of celebrity may grow up and be 
 recognized by law, and be sustained by the fostering 
 hand of our glorious Constitution. Convinced as I 
 am, that the dissemination of universal female edu- 
 cation will support the pillars of morality, will diffuse 
 knowledge, which constitutes the power of protection, 
 will promote happiness, peace, and personal safety, 
 and will eventually result in elevating the present 
 and succeeding generations above a mediocrity on 
 the scale of humanity. 
 
 I shall consider it my imperative duty, and one of 
 my happiest desires, as long as vital air shall ani- 
 mate my physical system, and genius shall supply 
 my mental organization, to write and to advocate the 
 inalienable Rights of Women, 
 
72 women's rights. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 In conclusion to the foregoing abstract on Women^s 
 Rights, I will add that the brevity of my limits would 
 not admit a sufficiently lengthy investigation of each 
 essential and particular point, as touching the vitality 
 of the whole; but I would at the same time request 
 my readers to draw such inferences from the attributes 
 of the subject, as will warrant them in judging im- 
 partially, and whereby they can conspicuously behold 
 its intrinsic merit, and the important necessity of 
 elevating the position of the female sex universally. 
 
 This can only be accomplished by efficiently carry- 
 ing out the measures herein adopted, for the general 
 dissemination of a moral and literary female education. 
 
 By this laudabe achievement, the human family, 
 male and female, would be elevated to a climax ap- 
 proaching the acme of perfection in the great scale of 
 being, arts and sciences would extend, commerce and 
 manufactures would increase, peace and tranquillity 
 would abound, and the blessings of a bountiful Provi- 
 dence would descend upon us. 
 
 ._Jjf FINIS. 
 
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