In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

0 speeches atthe national Convention ofthe LoyalWomen ofthe republic May 14, 1863 New York, New York While National Woman’s Rights Conventions were suspended during the Civil War years, women of the Union states formed local “Loyal Leagues” to contribute to the war effort and provide support to the soldiers at the front. In 1863, as hopes for a victory that would expand human freedom seemed at risk, women’s rights advocates Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, and Ernestine L. Rose called a National Convention of the Loyal Women of the Republic to be held in New York. The convention attracted one thousand women, including women primarily interested in patriotic activity to support the Union, abolitionists, and women’s rights reformers. U.S. Senator Charles Sumner credited the work of the assembled women, who collected 400,000 signatures, with passage of the Thirteenth Amendment for emancipation of all enslaved people in the United States (DuBois 1978, 53). The opening discussion included challenges by attendees who believed that a Loyal League convention should focus exclusively on supporting the Union troops and ending slavery, with no discussion of women’s rights permitted. In the first of the speeches included here, Rose responds to the fifth proposed resolution, summarized by Susan B. Anthony as stating simply that in a democracy, every person should have the right to vote. After statements by a few more speakers, the resolution was passed by a majority, despite the vigorous opposition of those abolitionist women who did not wish to see suffrage for women tied explicitly to suffrage for African Americans, fearing that this would weaken support for the latter. At a later session, Rose presented a prepared speech calling for a Union worth supporting, one that lived up to the human rights values of its founding documents. She demands emancipation of all enslaved people as the only reasonable goal for which it would have been worth resorting to war. At the outset, preservation of the Union had been the declared reason for the war; only in January 1863 did Abraham Lincoln issue the Emancipation Proclamation, and even by May it enjoyed less than universal support in the North. In this speech, Rose showed her familiarity with the political actions of Civil War generals, especially those who publicly and actively differed from the President. For example, Major General John C. Fremont issued a proclamation on August 10, 1861, declaring free all enslaved people owned in Missouri. President Lincoln, fearing that Fremont’s order would lead the Border States to affiliate with the South, demanded that Fremont modify the order to apply only to those slave-owners actively aiding the Confederacy. This Fremont refused to do (Spartacus n.d.). On May 9, 1862, General David Hunter declared free all enslaved persons in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. On May 19, President Lincoln nullified Hunter’s emancipation edict and also urged the Border States to adopt gradual, compensated emancipation (“Chronology of Emancipation during the Cival War” 2007). 04 ernestIne l.rose Union Army general George B. McClellan to whom Rose referred as “our little Napoleon” was known as “the Young Napoleon” for his study of European military strategy earlier in his career. Later he was dubbed by the media as “Mac the Unready” because of his dilatory tactics and perhaps for his inability to cooperate with other generals and his refusal of a Presidential order (Sifakis 2003). Henry W. Halleck had retired from the U.S. Army in 1854, but joined the Union Army when Civil War broke out. He was appointed general-in-chief in Washington by Lincoln and specialized in defensive strategies. He was regarded as overly cautious and blamed for prolonging the war by those who wished to prosecute the war more vigorously. n huMan rights Must inCLudeWOMen’s rights Ernestine L. Rose :- . . . I for one, object to throw women out of the race for freedom. (Applause.) And do you know why? Because she needs freedom for the freedom of man. (Applause.) Our ancestors made a great mistake in not recognizing woman in the rights of man. It has been justly stated that the [N]egro at present suffers more than woman, but it can do him no injury to place woman in the same category with him. I, for one, object to having that term stricken out, for it can have no possible bearing against anything that we want to promote, for we desire to promote human rights and human freedom. It can...

Share