Susan B. Anthony Declaration of the Rights of the Woman

While the nation is buoyant with patriotism and all hearts are attuned to praise, it is with sorrow we come to strike the one discordant note on this 100th anniversary of our country’s birth. When subjects of kings, emperors, and tsars from the old world join in our national jubilee, shall the women of the republic refuse to lay their hands with benedictions on the nation’s head? Surveying America’s exposition, surpassing in magnificence those of London Paris and Vienna, shall we not rejoice at the success of the youngest among the nations of the earth? May not our hearts, in unison with all, swell with pride at our great achievements as a people. Our free speech, free press, free schools, free church, and the rapid progress we have made in material wealth, trade, commerce, and the inventive arts. And we do rejoice in the success thus far of our experiment of self-government.

(01:27)
Our faith is firm and unwavering in the broad principles of human rights proclaimed in 1776, not only as abstract truths, but as the cornerstones of a republic. Yet we cannot forget, even in this glad hour, that while all men of every race and clime and condition have been invested with the full rights of citizenship under our hospitable flag, all women still suffer the degradation of disenfranchisement. The history of our country the past hundred years has been a series of assumptions and usurpations of power over women in direct opposition to the principles of just government, acknowledged by the United States as its foundation. From the beginning of the century, when Abigail Adams, the wife of one president and mother of another, said, “We will not hold ourselves bound to obey laws in which we have no voice or representation.” Until now, woman’s discontent has been steadily increasing, culminating nearly 30 years ago in a simultaneous movement among the women of the nation, demanding the right of suffrage.

(02:51)
And making our just demands a higher motive than the pride of sex inspires us. We feel national safety and stability depend on the complete recognition of the broad principles of our government. And now, at the close of a hundred years, as the hour hand of the great clock that marks the centuries points to 1876, we declare our faith in the principles of self-government, our full equality with man in natural rights. That woman was made first for her own happiness, with the absolute right to herself, to all the opportunities and advantages life affords for her complete development. And we deny that dogma of the centuries, incorporated in the codes of all nations, that woman was made for man. Her best interest, in all cases, to be sacrificed to his will. We ask of our rulers at this hour, no special favors, no special privileges, no special legislation. We ask justice. We ask equality. We ask that all the civil and political rights that belong to citizens of the United States be guaranteed to us and our daughters forever.