Essay On The Declaration Of Sentiments

1. Introduction

It is no secret that women throughout history have been repeatedly considered human beings of less value than men. In fact, as men have been in a dominant position in most cultures worldwide, they have deliberately established the code of conduct, the beauty standards, and the rights and duties women are supposed to conform to.

The Declaration of Sentiments was a document signed by a group of 68 women and 32 men headed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902), one of the leaders of the nineteenth-century women's movement. The Sentiments demanded equality between men and women before the law, in education and employment, but the main pronouncement was focused on giving women the right to vote.

The Declaration was issued against

the backdrop of the Women´s Rights Convention held at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. The main argument of the declaration was based on the United States Declaration of Independence (July 4th, 1776), and it not only sought to tackle the wrongs perpetrated against womankind but it also made a call for rectifying those wrongs.
The paper was addressed firstly to the men of the United States of America, who had been breaching the natural law of equality between both genders, and secondly to the government of the country, who had responsibility for giving the same rights to all American citizens.
Due to its nature, this statement could be considered a historical- political document.

2. Elizabeth Stanton’s life
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) was born in Johnstown, New York. She was the daughter of Daniel Cady (a land speculator, lawyer and judge), and Margaret Livingston Cady. Elizabeth was educated at a local boys’ school and graduated from Troy Female Seminary in 1832. Her education had a strong influence on the development of her ideas about women’s rights.
In her twenties, Elizabeth used to visit the home of her maternal cousin, the reformed-minded philanthropist Gerrit Smith, in Peterboro, New York. There, she came into contact with supporters of the abolitionist, temperance, and women's rights movements.
It was there where Elizabeth met Henry Brewster Stanton, a field agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society. Being a skilled and eloquent speaker, Henry was one of the leading advocates of the abolitionist ideal. Mr. Stanton used to stop off at the Smith’s in the middle of his lecture circuit. His charisma turned Elizabeth’s life upside down.
Elizabeth and Henry got married on May 1, 1840, against her family’s wishes.

In their bold marriage ceremony they omitted the oath of obedience, which was an undoubted reflection of their political thoughts. In addition, the couple´s honeymoon was a trip to the World Anti-Slavery Convention celebrated in London, where Henry Stanton was a delegate on behalf of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Ironically, female delegates from the United States were not admitted to the convention. As a result, Candy Stanton joined Lucretia Mott and other excluded women delegates in objecting to their exclusion from the congress. These women saw the need of a convention that would deal with the challenges women faced in contemporary

society.
On returning to their country Henry and Elizabeth settled in Seneca Falls, a town in New York, and had seven children.

3. The Declaration of Sentiments
Historically women have had many moral duties in the home, the community and the church, but by contrast they have never had enough political and legal rights. During the Constitutional Convention Abigail Adams reminded her husband, John Adams, to "REMEMBER THE LADIES!”, but her warning went intentionally unheeded. Deprived of many of their essential rights and living in dependence of men, without the power to possess property, make contracts or vote, women were merely regarded as a way of enhancing the social standing of her spouse.
However, the social climate began to change when a number of courageous, outspoken women upheld several social reforms in connection with capital punishment, prisons, prostitution, alcohol, war and, most significantly, slavery. In 1848, together with Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth was among the most important organizers of the first Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls. The convention aimed to promote social, civil and religious rights for females.
Ms Stanton was an excellent writer, philosopher and tactician; she drafted the Declaration of Sentiments by herself, modeled closely after the Declaration of Independence. The document asserted the "self-evident" reality that "all men and women were created equal." Therefore, both should be treated with equal respect and given the same fundamental rights.
William Blackstone, the author of Commentaries on the Laws of England, wrote that “man shall pursue his own true and substantial happiness”. According to Blackstone this is a law of Nature, and as such, it has been dictated by God himself; therefore, human laws lack any validity if they are contrary to the laws of God. Based on this idea, Stanton argued that The Sentiments and Demands were indeed based on fair and lawful principles.
In the Declaration, Stanton emphasized the fact that “to secure these rights governments are instituted”, which conferred the responsibility of giving the same rights to all citizens on the State. In her opinion, the power of exerting the law with justice lays in the government, but “it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it” if the government does not fulfill the society’s expectations. She affirmed that women had been suffering patiently under a government that had never stood for their welfare; it was high time the status of women in America improved. At this point the document listed the main concern that had brought women to rebellion: the ban on voting, a right “which was given to the most ignorant and degraded men, both natives and foreigners” but not to women, meant that women lacked proper representation in the government and therefore they had to submit themselves to the law without speaking rights.
As Stanton pointed out, women had to suffer the burden of injustice at every stage of their life:
Married women became “civilly dead, in the eye of the law” and her husband acquired all the rights to property from her, even the right to the wages she earned. In the event of divorce, the guardianship of the children was given to the husband, on the belief that the father had greater authority. Single women also faced problems. If a single woman owned some goods or property, she was taxed by the government, which recognized her ownership only as a source of income.
In the labor market women workers were at a disadvantage. At the time men monopolized nearly all the advantageous employment in the country whereas women were only allowed to take the worst paid jobs.
Women were virtually unknown in fields such as theology, medicine or law because “he has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorough education”, as women had always been excluded from colleges.
At the end of the Sentiments other issues are mentioned, such as the exclusion of women from the ministry at church, and especially the existence of a different moral code for men and women. Stanton asserted that men were usurping the prerogative of God himself “to assign for her [referring to women] a sphere of action” when, in fact, it “belongs to her conscience and to her God”. Men sought “to destroy her [women’s] confidence in her own powers” and likewise “lessen herself-respect, and to make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life”. Elizabeth Stanton and her collaborators were mainly Quakers, and their faith certainly played a crucial role in their thoughts. She also supported her ideals on her religious belief: “it is time she [women] should move in the enlarged sphere which her great Creator has assigned her”.
After having exposed the harrowing conditions under which women had been living, Elizabeth Stanton together with other suffragists demanded “that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States”.
Nothing less would be acceptable to these fighters. They were determined to battle tooth and nail to achieve their purpose: equality.
For the following two decades Elizabeth Stanton worked in support of austerity, marriage and divorce amendment, abolitionism, and to obtain more protection for women's property rights. Shortly after the Civil War, she joined a group of feminists and abolitionists in founding the American Equal Rights Association, committed to gaining the right to vote not only for women but also for black men.
As a result of her dissatisfaction by the interpretation of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, Stanton helped to institute the National Woman Suffrage Association in 1878. The amendment was presented into Congress in every session until it was implemented in 1920. Further important documents related to women’s rights, such as the 14th Amendment, which deals with the rights of citizens; the 19th Amendment, granting American women the right to vote; and the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) marked new victories in the struggle for women’s equality.
Seneca Falls Convention was the “birthplace of the women’s rights movement”.

It was the first step of a long path. The document symbolizes the iron-willed determination of these women to fight for their (our) essential rights.

Despite this unquestionable guidance issued over a century ago, inexcusable violations of essential rights are still daily occurrences all over the world against the weakest members of society, including obviously women. The most tragic example is the women in the Middle East, who live under the unbearable yoke of a tyranny that denies them the most elementary human rights. However, we all must bear in mind that in Spain 64 women were murdered by their partners last year. Countless others are battered on daily basis, too terrified to report their torturer.

Women have come a long way since Seneca Falls. However, we still have many battles to fight. Courageous women like Elizabeth Stanton showed us the way. Now is the time for us (men and women) to play our part and commit ourselves to creating an egalitarian

society.