fieldston american reader volume i – fall 2007 - Ethical Culture ...

But as he placed his hand on the door it opened from without,and his wife appeared on the threshold.She came in fresh and smiling, in her street dress and hat,shedding a fragrance from the boa which she loosened inadvancing.“Shall we have tea in here, dear?” she began; and then shecaught sight of Varick. Her smile deepened, veiling a slighttremor of surprise. “Why, how do you do?” she said with adistinct note of pleasure.As she shook hands with Varick she saw Haskett standingbehind him. Her smile faded for a moment, but she recalled itquickly, with a scarcely perceptible side-glance at Waythorn.“How do you do, Mr. Haskett?” she said, and shook handswith him a shade less cordially.The three men stood awkwardly before her, till Varick, alwaysthe most self-possessed, dashed into an explanatory phrase.“We -- I had to see Waythorn a moment on business,” hestammered, brick-red from chin to nape.Haskett stepped forward with his air of mild obstinacy. “I amsorry to intrude; but you appointed five o’clock -- “ he directedhis resigned glance to the time-piece on the mantel.She swept aside their embarrassment with a charminggesture of hospitality.“I’m so sorry -- I’m always late; but the afternoon was solovely.” She stood drawing her gloves off, propitiatory andgraceful, diffusing about her a sense of ease and familiarity inwhich the situation lost its grotesqueness. “But before talkingbusiness,” she added brightly, “I’m sure every one wants a cupof tea.”She dropped into her low chair by the tea-table, and the twovisitors, as if drawn by her smile, advanced to receive the cupsshe held out.She glanced about for Waythorn, and he took the third cupwith a laugh.Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentimentsand ResolutionsOn the eve of the Declaration of Independence, the Americanchallenge to the legitimacy of Britain’s traditional authorityover the colonies had led Abigail Adams to question thelegitimacy of a far more ancient and deeply rooted tradition -that of the subjugation of women to male authority. played asignificant role In the great burst of American reform activityof the 1830s and 1840s, working for such causes as temperance,abolition, and educational progress. A small number, led byElizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, took up the causeof what today would be called’ ‘s liberation.” The 1848 SenecaFalls convention on “the social, civil, and religious rights ofYvonne” was attended by about 300 people, 40 of them men.It attracted very little attention at the time, but expressed thefundamental concerns that would be the focus of women’sorganized political activities for many decades to come.The first four complaints registered In the declaration arevariants of the same grievance-that women were not allowedthe right to vote. Winning the suffrage was the central aim ofthe women’s movement from Seneca Falls until the NineteenthAmendment became law in 1920. The predominantly nonimmigrantwhite middle class character of the suffrage causethen and later Is Indicated by the blunt references to the votingof “the most ignorant and degraded mien-both natives andforeign.” Votes for women were frequently urged to offset theallegedly evil influence of Immigrants, workers, and (afterslavery was ended) black men. Several other of the complaintslisted in the Declaration, concerning property rights, divorcelaw, and education, were largely remedied well before 1920.The demands concerning access to certain occupations, an endto the double standard of morality, and Independence and selfrespectfor women are obviously of some continuing relevance.When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary forone portion of the family of man to assume among the peopleof the earth a position different from that which they havehitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature andof nature’s God entitle them, 2 decent respect to the opinionsof mankind requires that they should declare the causes thatimpel them to such a course....The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries andusurpations on the part of man toward woman, having indirect object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her.To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right tothe elective franchise.He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation ofwhich she had no voice.He has withheld from her rights which are given to the mostignorant and degraded ... natives and foreigners.266 fieldston american reader volume i – fall 2007