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THE PASSION OF ELIZABETH CADY STANTON'S LANDMARK ADDRESS flamed the Woman's Rights revolution and stirred NY state legislators to seriously consider the legal plight of women and the necessity for women to have a voice in government affairs. _____ On February 14, 1854, at the Woman's Rights Convention in Albany, NY, Stanton read aloud this Address she had prepared for the New York State Legislature arguing for women's right to vote; married women's property rights; the right of women to serve as jurors; fair inheritance and tax laws for widows; woman's right to conduct business and keep her earnings; and women's rights to share in custody of their children. _____ STANTON intended to personally speak to the Legislature, yet she was prohibited; so, she had 50,000 copies printed and distributed to each State Legislator and sold/distributed the remainder as tracts. Stanton's ADDRESS initiated an annual effort by suffragists to lobby the Legislature to revise New York's Married Women s Property Law to allow women more financial and legal freedom and the ability to conduct business and be joint guardians of their children. Changes to that Law were passed in 1860. _______________ In November 1917, NY changed their State Constitution to allow women citizens the right to vote. A few years later, on August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was signed into law allowing all women the right to vote! _______________ In this 1854 ADDRESS, Stanton cried out, "WE DEMAND the full recognition of all our rights as citizens of the Empire State. We are persons; native, free-born citizens; property-holders, tax-payers; yet are we denied the exercise of our right to the elective franchise. We support ourselves, and, in part, your schools, colleges, churches, your poor-houses, jails, prisons, the army, the navy, the whole machinery of government, and yet we have no voice in your councils. The wife who inherits no property holds about the same legal position that does the slave on the southern plantation. She can own nothing, sell nothing. She has no rights even to the wages she earns; her person. Her time, her services are the property of another." _____ Later in Dec 1854, Stanton spoke on woman suffrage, "We can never be said to have just and equal rights until the right of suffrage is ours. Our cause can never rest on a safe, enduring basis until we get the right of suffrage. So long as we have no voice in the laws, we have no guarantee that privileges granted to us today, by one body of men, may not be taken from us tomorrow by another." _______________ ELIZABETH CADY STANTON (1815-1902). Primary advocate for woman's right to vote, having co-organized the first Woman's Rights Convention, Seneca Falls, NY, July 1848, where she presented the RADICAL resolution demanding woman's right to vote (suffrage) arguing "[suffrage] was the right by which all others shall be secured." ___ Stanton, with Susan B. Anthony who joined the women's suffrage movement in 1852, passionately prepared arguments, presented petitions and lobbied State legislatures and U. S. Congress to secure woman's rights and her right to vote. Stanton was President of National Woman Suffrage Association, 1869-1890; National American Woman Suffrage Association [NAWSA] 1890-1892; and honorary President until death in 1902. _______________ CONDITION: FIRST EDITION. Published: 1854, Albany, NY: Weed, Parsons and Company. 8vo, 19pp + 1pp Appendix; with original green wrappers. Cover: very slight, small bend at top right corner. Spine paper cover 1" split at top. Back cover fine, no bends, no tears. Covers front and back, very minimally soiled with very few tiny specks. Heavy foxing throughout text block. Cover and text block are securely attached as originally published. Some pages have slight, small bend at bottom corners. EXAMINE PHOTOS CAREFULLY as they further reflect book's condition. Inquiries welcome.
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