Elizabeth Cady Stanton In The Declaration Of Sentiments

Women’s Suffrage

Between 1840 and 1920, women were coming together to protest that they should have the right to vote. Many women joined this protest. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was one of the first women to begin the protest for giving women the right to vote. She and many other women came together to create the Declaration of Sentiments. Because of Stanton and the help of many other suffragettes, women stood together to win their right to vote.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was one of the first to say that women deserved the right to vote and that men should not have all the say so. After, many women were no longer afraid to stand up for themselves. Eventually, many women stood with Stanton. She spoke at many conventions, such as the Rochester Convention of 1848. In Seneca Falls and the Origin of the Women’s Rights Movement by Sally McMillen, it states that Stanton was even invited to the National Women’s Rights Convention in 1850, but she was not able to make it because of her pregnancy. She did not agree that men should have so much power over women. Women could not do the many things they wanted to do for the fear that it would look bad for their husbands’ or fathers’. So when Elizabeth stood up for what she believed

in, it gave other women the courage to finally stand up for what they believed in. Stanton met Lucretia Mott in 1840 and their friendship soon led to the Seneca Falls Convention.
The Seneca Falls Convention was “a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of women” (Seneca County Courier). The convention was held on July 19th and 20th, 1848. Nearly 200 women attended. Elizabeth Stanton decided to take on the duty of writing a document would be spoken and discussed upon at the Seneca Falls Convention. This document took heavy inspiration from the Declaration of Independence; it inspired its name, the Declaration of Sentiments.
The Declaration of Sentiments was highly controversial at the time.

Mostly the ninth resolution of the document caused this controversy. This resolution called for allowing women the equal right to vote. While most agreed with the rest of the resolutions, this one, according to History, was the only resolution that did not pass unanimously (“Seneca Falls Convention”). Because some of the people who attended were Quaker men, who often declined to vote, they believed their wives did not need the right to vote (Rynder). Frederick Douglass, a freed slave, agreed with Stanton that women should have the right to vote. He argued with the people and it was then decided that it should be passed. Seneca Falls was soon ridiculed by newspapers around the

country.
In the aftermath of the Seneca Falls Convention, there was heavy criticism brought upon Stanton and other women’s rights activists. Even Fredrick Douglass, according to a quote from ThoughtCo, said that “a discussion of the rights of animals would be regarded with far more complacency by many of what are called the wise and the good of our land, than would be a discussion of the rights of woman.” While Stanton did not like the negativity of the newspaper coverage, she did however like that it was getting covered. Stanton said, “It will start women thinking, and men too; and when men and women think about a new question, the first step in progress is taken” (Bradley 57-58).
In the midst of trying to get the right to vote, Stanton and other suffragettes shifted their focus on abolishing slavery during the Civil War.
Abolishing slavery was another big plan of Stanton and the women who did not agree with it. Stanton went to a convention with her husband, on their honeymoon, called the World’s Antislavery Convention (Biography.com Editors). Stanton also went to an antislavery meeting in 1851 near Seneca Falls where she was introduced to Susan B. Anthony by Amelia Bloomer, according to Katy June-Friesen of Humanities: The Magazine of the National Endowments for the Humanities. Later, in 1863, Stanton and Anthony formed the Women’s Loyal National League or the Woman’s National Loyal League to abolish slavery. This organization was formed to make an amendment to abolish slavery. In an effort to achieve this goal, they created a mammoth petition, which they had hoped would get almost one million signatures (Hamand). They only gathered around 400,000 signatures (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica). In 1865, the thirteenth amendment was created, which abolished slavery. This decision could have likely been influenced by the petition. After the passing of the thirteenth amendment, the Women’s National Loyal League disbanded. This meant that women could go back to focusing on women’s suffrage.
Around this time, Stanton and Anthony walked out of a meeting that was trying to link black rights with women’s rights. Stanton was furious that neither the fourteenth nor the fifteenth amendments addressed women’s rights. The fourteenth amendment gave the slaves the same rights as other citizens, while the fifteenth amendment gave them the right to vote. Stanton did not agree with this. She wished that it would have given all people, including women, the right to vote. This culminated in an argument with Stanton and Douglass, deliberating over which was more important, giving slave’s right to vote over women or vice versa. This led to the creation of the National Woman Suffrage Association (DuBois).
The Nation Woman Suffrage Association was founded to, not only use the Constitution to give women the right to vote, but also address other women’s rights issues. These issues focused on taxation of women without representation, governed without their consent, and being tried and punished without a jury of their peers according to Remarks by Susan B. Anthony in the Circuit Court of the United States for the Northern District of New York. Being taxed without representation is being taxed by a government of elected officials without any say in electing said officials. Governed without consent is being governed by a government that a person did not elect. Being tried and punished without a jury of their peers speaks for itself. It’s if a person is being tried, they do not have the opportunity to have a jury of the same sex or gender. Like Stanton said to Judge Hunt, “May it please your honor, I am not arguing the question, but simply stating the reasons why sentence cannot, in justice, be pronounced against me. Your denial of my citizen’s right to vote, is the denial of my right of consent as one of the governed, the denial of my right of representation as one of the taxed, the denial of my right to a trial by a jury of my peers as an offender against law, therefore, the denial of my sacred rights to life, liberty, property…” Because of Stanton never giving up, the nineteenth amendment was ratified; this gave women the right to vote.
Women, in history, had a hard time trying to be inferior to men. They wanted to have equal rights and say so, but were too afraid. Stanton then came forward, along with other suffragettes, to stand for all women. Other women saw Stanton as a role model, and followed in her footsteps. Stanton came up with the Declaration of Sentiments in hopes of women getting the equality they always wanted. Though it was a rough, Stanton, and the other women, did not give up until they got what they wanted.