declaration of women's rights and the female citizen

Hawley, responded to Stanton’s request with six tickets in the audience (not those on the stage that Stanton had wanted) and regret that the July 4th program was already too crowded with events to include the NWSA’s presentation. The head of the US Centennial Commission, General Joseph R. The document cited rights denied women (like those of trial by jury of one’s peers and taxation with representation) and condemned the federal government for “excluding one-half of its adult population from any active participation in the administration of its affairs.” Despite hostility and ridicule, the Women’s Declaration said, “We, therefore, women of the United States of America, do solemnly publish and declare that we are by nature, and of right, ought to be by law, free and independent citizens, possessing equal political power with our brother men.”1Įarlier in July, the NWSA’s president, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, had requested time on the July 4th program to present the Women’s Declaration. The Women’s Declaration equated women’s oppression by men with that of the American colonies by King George III. The NWSA planned to participate in the Centennial event by presenting their “Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United States” to the nation. Among those in the city for the festivities was the National Woman’s Suffrage Association (NWSA), an organization founded in 1869 to advocate for a constitutional amendment insuring women’s right to vote. Philadelphia’s July Fourth, 1876 celebration kicked off the nation’s one-hundredth birthday celebration to large, enthusiastic crowds.

Anthony and others stormed the stage with their Women's Declaration. An illustration of Richard Henry Lee (grandson) reading the engrossed copy of the Declaration of Independence on 4 July 1876 moments before Susan B.

Declaration of women's rights and the female citizen