USA > Ohio > The Western Reserve of Ohio and some of its pioneers, places and women's clubs, Vol. I > Part 12
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Her adventures during the next few years would fill a vol- ume. No suffrage association was organized until long after this time. She had no co-operation and no backing, and started out absolutely alone. So far as she knew, there were only a few persons in the whole country who had any sympathy with the idea of equal rights. She put up the posters for her own meetings with a little package of tacks and a stone picked up from the street. Sometimes the boys followed her, hooting and
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preparing to tear the posters down. Then she would stop and call the boys about her, and hold a preliminary meeting in the street, until she had won them all over and persuaded them to let her posters alone. Once a hymn-book was thrown, striking her on the neck so violently that she was almost stunned. Once in winter a pane of glass was removed from the window behind the speaker's stand, a hose was put through, and she was sud- denly deluged with ice-cold water while she was speaking. She put on her shawl, and continued her lecture. Pepper was burned, spit-balls were thrown, and all sorts of things done to break up the meetings, but generally without success.
She travelled over a large part of the United States. In most of the towns where she lectured, no woman had ever spoken in public before, and curiosity attracted immense audiences. The speaker was a great surprise to them. The general idea of a woman's rights advocate, on the part of those who had never seen one, was of a tall, gaunt, angular woman, with aggressive manners, a masculine air and a strident voice, scolding at the men. Instead, they found a tiny woman, with quiet, unassuming manners, a winning presence, and the sweetest voice ever pos- sessed by a public speaker. This voice became celebrated. It was so musical and delicious that persons who had once heard her lecture, hearing her utter a few words years afterwards, on a railroad car or in a stage-coach, where it was too dark to recognize faces, would at once exclaim unhesitatingly, "That is Lucy Stone !"
Old people who remember those early lectures say that she had a wonderful eloquence. There were no tricks of oratory, but the transparent sincerity, simplicity and intense earnestness of the speaker, added to a singular personal magnetism and an utter forgetfulness of self, swayed those great audiences as the
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wind bends a field of grass. Often mobs would listen to her when they howled down every other speaker. At one woman's rights meeting in New York, the mob made such a clamor that it was impossible for any speaker to be heard. One after an- other tried it, only to have his or her voice drowned forthwith by hoots and howls. William Henry Channing advised Lucretia Mott, who was presiding, to adjourn the meeting. Mrs. Mott answered, "When the hour fixed for adjournment comes, I will adjourn the meeting, not before." At last Lucy Stone was in- troduced. The mob became as quiet as a congregation of church- goers; but as soon as the next speaker began, the howling re- commenced, and it continued to the end. At the close of the meeting, when the speakers went into the dressing-room to get their hats and cloaks, the mob surged in and surrounded them; and Lucy Stone, who was brimming over with indignation, be- gan to reproach them for their behavior. "Oh, come," they an- swered, "you needn't say anything; we kept still for you!"
At an anti-slavery meeting held on Cape Cod, in a grove, in the open air, a platform had been erected for the speakers, and a crowd assembled; but a crowd so menacing in aspect, and with so evident an intention of violence, that the speakers one by one came down from the stand and slipped quietly away, till none were left but Stephen Foster and Lucy Stone. She said, "You had better run, Stephen; they are coming!" He answered, "But who will take care of you?" At that moment the mob made a rush for the platform and a big man sprang up on it, grasping a club. She turned to him and said without hesita- tion, "This gentleman will take care of me." He declared that he would. He tucked her under one arm, and, holding his club with the other, marched her out through the crowd, who were roughly handling Mr. Foster and such of the other speakers as
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they had been able to catch. Her representations finally so pre- vailed upon him that he mounted her on a stump, and stood by her with his club while she addressed the mob. They were so moved by her speech that they not only desisted from further violence, but took up a collection of twenty dollars to pay Stephen Foster for his coat, which they had torn in two from top to bottom.
When she began to lecture she would not charge an admis- sion fee, partly because she was anxious that as many people as possible should hear and be converted, and she feared that an admission fee might keep some one away; and partly from something of the Quaker feeling that it was wrong to take pay for preaching the Gospel. She economized in every way. When she stayed in Boston, she used to put up at a lodging house on Hanover street, where they gave her meals for twelve and a half cents, and lodging for six and a quarter cents, on condition of her sleeping in the garret with the daughters of the house, three in a bed.
Once when she was in great need of a new cloak she came to Salem, Mass., where she was to lecture, and found that the Hutchinson family of singers were to give a concert the same evening. They proposed to her to unite their entertainments and divide the proceeds. She consented, and bought a cloak with the money. She was also badly in want of other clothing. Her friends assured her that the audiences would be just as large despite an admission fee. She tried it, and, finding that the audiences continued to be as large as the halls would hold, she continued to charge a door fee, and was no longer reduced to such straits.
In 1855 she married Henry B. Blackwell, a young hard- ware merchant of Cincinnati, a strong woman's rights man and
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abolitionist. In 1853 he had attended a legislative hearing at the State House in Boston, when Wendell Phillips, Theodore Parker and Lucy Stone spoke in behalf of a woman suffrage petition headed by Louisa Alcott's mother; and he had made up his mind at that time to marry her if he could. She had meant never to marry, but to devote herself wholly to her work. But he promised to devote himself to the same work, and persuaded her that together they could do more for it than she could alone.
The wedding took place at the home of the bride's parents at West Brookfield, Mass. Rev. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who afterwards left the ministry for reform work and the army, and is now better known as Colonel Higginson, was then pastor of a church in Worcester. He was a personal friend, and a believer in equal rights; and was not only willing but glad to omit the word "obey," which almost all the ministers of those days used in the wedding service. At the time of their mar- riage, they issued a joint protest against the inequalities of the law which gave the husband the control of his wife's property, person and children. This protest, which was widely published in the papers, gave rise to much discussion, and helped to get the laws amended.
She regarded the loss of a wife's name at marriage as a symbol of the loss of her individuality. Eminent lawyers, in- cluding Ellis Gray Loring and Samuel E. Sewall, told her there was no law requiring a wife to take her husband's name; it was only a custom; and the Chief Justice of the United States (Chief Justice Chase) gave her his unofficial opinion to the same effect. Accordingly she decided, with her husband's full ap- proval, to keep her own name, and she continued to be called by it during nearly forty years of happy and affectionate married life.
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The account of her later years must be condensed into a few lines. She and her husband lectured together in many states, spoke in most of the campaigns when suffrage amend- ments have been submitted to popular vote, addressed Legisla- tures, published articles, held meetings far and wide, were in- strumental in securing many improvements in the laws, and to- gether did an unrecorded and incalculable amount of work in behalf of equal rights. A few years after her marriage, while they were living in Orange, N. J., Mrs. Stone let her goods be seized and sold for taxes (one of the articles seized was the baby's cradle), and wrote a protest against taxation without representation, with her baby on her knee. In 1866 she helped organize the American Equal Rights Association, which was formed to work for both negroes and women, and she was chair- man of its executive committee. In 1869, with William Lloyd Garrison, George William Curtis, Colonel Higginson, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, Mrs. Mary A. Livermore and others, she organ- ized the American Woman Suffrage Association, and was chair- man of its executive committee for nearly twenty years. She always craved, not the post of prominence, but the post of work.
Most of the money with which the Woman's Journal was started in Boston, in 1870, was raised by her efforts. When Mrs. Livermore, whose time was under increasing demand in the lec- ture field, resigned the editorship in 1872, Mrs. Stone and her husband took charge of the paper, and edited it together till her death, assisted during the latter part of the time by their daughter.
In her later years, Mrs. Stone was much confined at home by rheumatism, but worked for suffrage at her desk as dili- gently as she used to do upon the platform. Her sweet, moth- erly face, under its white cap, was dear to the eyes of audiences
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at suffrage gatherings, and sometimes the mere sight of her con- verted an obstinate opponent whom no arguments had been able to move, simply because she was so different from all his preconceived ideas of her. Better than most mortals, she knew how to grow old beautifully. Her life had passed into a serene old age, loved and honored by a multitude of younger women, but loved the most by those who knew her best.
Mrs. Stone was an admirable cook and housekeeper, of the old New England type. She made her own yeast, her own dried beef, even her own soap. Her family were never better fed than in the intervals between "help."
She always had a keen delight in the beauties of nature. As a little girl at school, when she had done her lessons well, the reward she asked was to be allowed to sit on the floor where she could look through the window into the shimmering leaves of a white birch grove that stretched up the hill. "Take time, dear, take time"-to look at the clouds, the trees, the sunset, etc .- she would often say to members of her family, if they seemed in such a hurry as to forget to observe the beauty of the world.
It had been one of the wishes of her life to see Switzerland. Being asked once why she did not go there, she answered, "Oh, why don't I do so many things! It is too late. I shall never do it now"; adding, contentedly: "But I have done what I wanted to do. I have helped the women."
She died on October 18, 1893. Her death was as beautiful as her life.
The beyond had no terrors for her. When it began to be thought that her illness would end fatally, she said, with her accent of simple and complete conviction, "I have not the small- est apprehension. I know the Eternal Order, and I believe in it. I have not a fear, nor a dread, nor a doubt."
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She made all her preparations to go, as quietly as if she were only going into the next room. As long as she was able to think and plan at all, she thought for others, and planned for their comfort. As she lay in bed, too weak to move, she still tried to save everybody steps, to spare the servants, to arrange that guests should be made comfortable, that a favorite dish should be prepared for a niece who had come to help nurse her, that the surplus fruit from the orchard should be sent to the little girls of the Industrial School. She planned at the same time for the carrying on of the household after her death, and for the carrying on of the Woman's Journal and the suffrage work.
To a friend who expressed the wish that she might have lived to see woman suffrage granted, she said, "Oh, I shall know it. I think I shall know it on the other side." She added, contentedly, "And if I do not, the people on this side will know it." Something was said about her possibly coming back to communicate with her friends. She said, "I expect to be too busy to come back."
The last letter but one that she ever wrote was to an influ- ential Colorado woman, warmly commending to her Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, who had gone out to take part in the suffrage campaign there, urging her to help the passage of the pending amendment. The last letter of all was to her brother, aged 86. He came to see her at the end, and, though twelve years her senior, he said to her, with tears, "You have always been more like a mother than a sister to me."
"I have had a full, rich life," she said. "I am so glad to have lived, and to have lived at a time when I could work!"
On the last afternoon, when it had become hard for her to speak intelligibly, she looked at her daughter, and seemed to
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wish to say something. The daughter put her ear to her lips. She said distinctly, "Make the world better." They were almost her last words.
She was wholly free from any thirst for fame. She kept no record of her work, told her daughter it was hardly worth while to write her biography, and advised her family not to have a public funeral, saying that she did not believe there would be enough people who would care to come, to fill a church. But long before the hour set for the service the crowd began to gather before the church, and hundreds of people stood silently in the street, waiting for the doors to be opened.
During her last illness the papers, even those most opposed to equal rights, vied with each other in paying tribute to her worth. When told of it, she said, "Oh, if they would only all come out for woman suffrage!" One prominent person, who had been her bitter opponent, said that up to that time the death of no woman in America had ever called out "so wide- spread an expression of regret and esteem."
JOSHUA R. GIDDINGS
This congressman was born in 1793. At nineteen years he saw some military service in the war of 1812.
He studied law with Elisha Whittlesay in Canfield, O., and was admitted to the bar in 1821.
In 1826 he was elected to the State Legislature. In 1831 he formed a partnership with Benjamin F. Wade, in 1838 he was elected to Congress and immediately he called for infor- mation as to the slave trade in the District of Columbia.
First, the number of slaves that have murdered themselves?
Second, the number of children who have been murdered by their parents for fear of sale to a foreign market?
Third, the amount collected on sale of licenses to deal in human flesh and blood?
But the rule, "That all pertaining to the subject of slavery be laid on the table without reading" prevented it. Five years later this rule was abrogated.
Mr. Giddings said, "Slavery is not recognized in the Con- stitution and if it continued in the Capital of the United States, the Capital must be removed elsewhere." This fixed his position at once as an anti-slavery man and ostracized him from both parties. In 1842 "the brig Creole" sailed from Hampton Roads to New Orleans with a cargo of slaves. They arose against the crew and compelled it to sail to Nassau. Mr. Webster made the demand on England that the negroes be given up as mutineers and murderers. This Great Britain refused to do, holding that human flesh was not recognized by international law.
Mr. Giddings arose and said, Prior to the adoption of the Constitution the several states had complete power over slavery within their own borders and surrendered none to the Federal
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Government, but did surrender to the general Government all power over the high seas. That a ship that leaves the waters of the state ceased to be under the laws of that state. That not to place the coast slave-trade under the protection of the general Government was subversive of the rights of the people of the free states and prejudicial to the national character." A resolution of censure was adopted. Mr. Giddings arose to pro- test: "I demand a hearing or I resign from this Congress." He returned home and was at once re-elected by 3,500 majority. He published "Pacificus Papers," which formed a creed for the Liberal Party. He fought against the Mexican war, and was one of the founders of the Republican party.
In 1859 he fell on the floor of the House with heart trouble. He was nominted for the next Congress but was defeated by one vote, for he had paid no attention to it. He was sent by Pres- ident Lincoln as consul to Canada.
Springfield, Ills., May 21, 1860.
Hon, J. R. Giddings,
My good friend :
Your very kind and acceptable letter of the 19th was duly handed to me by Mr. Tuck. It is indeed most grateful to my feelings that the responsible position assigned me, comes without conditions, save only such honorable ones as are fairly implied. I am not wanting in the purpose, though I may fail in the strength, to maintain my freedom from bad influences. Your letter comes to my aid in this point most opportunely. May the Almighty grant that the cause of truth, justice, and humanity shall in nowise suffer at my hands.
Mrs. Lincoln joins me in sincere wishes for your health, happiness, and long life.
A. LINCOLN.
SENATOR BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE
Attorney, judge, state senator and U. S. senator for eighteen years, was born October 17, 1800, and died March 3, 1878, at Jefferson, Ashtabula Co., O. From his life by A. G. Riddle, of Washington, D. C., we take the following:
He was the sixth son of James and Mary Upham Wade, born in Feeding Hill, Mass. He was one of eleven children, four girls and seven boys. His eldest brother, James, Jr., went to Albany, N. Y., taught school, married, studied medicine and became a noted surgeon.
Three brothers, Samuel, Theodore and Charles, came to Andover, O., in 1820. Andover was twenty miles from Lake Erie on the Pennsylvania line, Ashtabula Co. Settlement began in 1806. In 1819 it had ten voters and could be organized and have a justice of the peace, constables, school districts and high- ways. It held its annual meeting the first Monday in April. All the counties of the Western Reserve were divided into town- ships five miles square except those that bordered Lake Erie, and roads were built from center to center where public buildings were erected.
Samuel married a sister of the late Darius Cadwell, of Cleveland.
Theodore taught school in Madison for three months and received as pay six barrels of whiskey.
Charles taught a winter in Monroe and received five barrels of whiskey. The only way to dispose of surplus wheat and corn was to turn it into whiskey.
In three years the brothers cleared land and planted it into crops. Frank tired of this and hired out to a driver of cattle,
B. F. WADE MEMBER OF CONGRESS FOR 18 YEARS
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going to Philadelphia, Pa. He then joined his brother, James, at Albany, and worked on the Erie Canal at fifty cents a day. This was related to the Senate by William H. Seward, who said: "Wade who is one of the most talented members of this body, nothing is lost in the lives of men." This discipline was of the utmost importance to him in after life.
In two years Frank returned home, to find his brother, Edward, studying law with Elisha Whittlesey in Canfield, Ma- honing Co., O .- the private law school of Whittlesey & Newton. While east Frank had devised a new arithmetic, but before it was published it was burned in his brother-in-law's house. He then decided to study law. He was 25 years old. He had capac- ity for work, without which no man could succeed at the bar. The statutes of Ohio required two years of study. Frank was admitted to the bar in 1827. In no other calling can men so little forecast results. He was not a good public speaker-the mo- ment he rose to his feet, ideas fled from him. He was to be an advocate and an advocate must not stammer but must be bold, strong and effective. To do this, he must believe in the justice of his case; the trouble is, to know the facts. Clear statement of facts was his special glory. He and his brother Edward were two of the best pleaders in Ohio; they handled the rules of evidence the most effectively. For instance, Frank, one day, saw a man filling his bag from his corncrib and he quietly withdrew to save the man the mortification of discovery.
Joshua R. Giddings was admitted to the bar in 1821 and was an exceptionally bright young man and he formed a part- nership with Frank Wade in 1827. The firm of Giddings & Wade became the leading law office of that part of the state.
Mr. Wade's father and mother came west only to long to return to Feeding Hills, Mass. The aged man would sit watch-
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ing the circling shadows of the trees as the sun cast them over the log cabin. He planned for himself and wife to go back home. The winter of 1826 was severe; his wife died April 10, 1826. He was now eager to follow her and died May 9, a month later.
In 1837 the firm of Giddings & Wade dissolved partnership, and now it was Wade & Ranney. Rufus P. Ranney was a student in the above firm. 1837 was a year of panic and loss. It was said that Giddings & Wade had invested in city lots on the Maumee. There was liquidation and payment. All the earnings of years were devoted to this, a sacred purpose. They did not shelter themselves under the bankrupt law as did many others.
Mr. Wade was elected to the State Senate in 1837. In 1839 he was defeated. In 1841 he was re-elected.
When forty years old he met Miss Caroline M. Rosekrans. She, when two years old, went to live with her grandmother in Middleton, Conn. Her father had died and her mother married Enoch Parsons, of Middleton, and had a son who removed to Ashtabula in 1832. His mother and Caroline came three years later. She was a great reader of histories, biographies and pol- itics. She very quietly took a leading position in society .. There was a public meeting to shape the campaign of 1840 and Miss Rosekrans attended to hear the noted speaker, Senator B. F. Wade. He arraigned the Van Buren administration and the Democratic party. After the meeting Mr. Parsons introduced his sister to Mr. Wade. They were at once congenial spirits. They were married June 19, 1841, and resided in Jefferson through their entire life except when in Washington, D. C. This was a love marriage, not so rare as is commonly supposed, com- ments A. J. Riddle, who knew them intimately. They had two
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sons, the eldest James F. Wade, was Lieutenant Colonel in 1843 and Captain Henry F. Wade in 1845, who is now a farmer in Jefferson.
In the second term of Mr. Wade as State Senator some Kentucky commissioners came to Columbus and said to him, "Our slaves are treated like children, yet will run away. We ask you to return them to us." He replied: "But why do they run away? If you oppress the weak and defenseless no power can shield you from the consequences. You cannot deprive a man of his liberty without endangering your own. The practice of tyranny becomes habitual, engenders pride and is as fatal to the oppressor as to the oppressed."
The threat of dissolution by the South was then chronic. He defied them to execute it. He had decided objections to being a slave-hunter and bailiff and asked if they ever engaged in the business in Kentucky and they admitted they did not and said, "You have us at a disadvantage." "Dare you make a law which no decent man will execute," said Wade. "No one has yet compared your bill with the paramount laws. You cannot vio- late these laws with impunity. It will not only be void but you must suffer the consequences, the evil will recoil on your heads to the third and fourth generation."
This speech made Mr. Wade known throughout the United States and he was elected to the United States Senate in 1861.
Washington's population was 40,000; 18,000 were colored. On Seventh street was a slave-pen and whipping-post in sight of the Capitol. It was much more to be a member of Congress then than it is now. He was sworn in by Salman P. Chase. He was 51 years of age.
Charles Sumner was forty years of age and took his seat on the Democratic side. He was English in his attire, and his presence produced a solitude.
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