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1 Free Speech 1861

handle is hein.beal/frespch0001 and id is 1 raw text is: FREE SPEECH: BY ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, AT THE AT ASSOCIATION HALL, ALBANY, N. Y., FEBRUARY 4th and 5th, 1861. LAIo AN GENTLEMEN-As I satin St. James' Hall, Buffalo, a few days since, and watched the development of an infuriated mob, I could not help philosophizing on the future of this Repub- lic. The rioters were chiefly young men led on by a few older heads. As I marked the bold defiance of those boys -the total 'absence of respect either for them- selves, the rights of others, or the authority of their chief magistrate, I said to myself, Are such as these, to be our future Judges, Senators, Presidents; the expounders of our constitutional law, the Fathers of our Republic ? * Alas! what an education is this for the grave responsibilities of self-government! Are such as these to be the legal representatives of woman, the mouth-piece of her civil and political rights ? And must my five sons, to whose education I have given the very hey-day of my existence, in whose young hearts I have endeavored to instil the purest principles of deniocracy, when they come to be actors in public affairs, must they too be false to God, to man and to themselves, turn their backs on justice and free speech ; or be martyrs too-to whom the rights of freemen will be denied ? When I look around and see brave, strong, full grown men swamped in the whirlpool of num- bers, I feel that a mother's duty is not all at home. Love prompts us to clear up the rubbish in the outer world, and pluck the thorns from the paths our sons so soon must tread. What avails it, that Christian mothers cultivate a high mo- rality, a deep religious earnestness, if, on the very threshhold of public life they find law, gospel, custom; the people, pulpit, press, all adverse to the lessons learned athome? Lessons of solemn warning, baptized inprayers and tears, and high resolve, all held up to ridicule, as womanly senti- mentalism, fanatical absurdities, impracticable abstractions. Itell, you, citizens of our Republic, it is something to true mothers, where and how their precious jewels shall be set. We train them not for passing time alone, but for the endless ages of eternity. Rather than see my sons in an hour like this, trembling like Belshazar, in their knees, false to freedom, to themselves, to man, to God; I would consecrate them all to martyrdom, to die, if need be, bravely, like a John Brown, on the accursed soil of Southern despotism, boldly declaring that Jesus died to give to the nations of the earth a blood bought liberty. How is it possible for men of age and experience, rank and respectability, to be so heedless and indifferent to the example and precept they are giving to those who soon shall fill their vacant places ? In the hurry of life, do they never forsee and think of the glorious principles of republicanism, and the abundant materials our young civilization has furnished for the experiment? Do the Recreant sons of the Pilgrims already repudiate the divine faith of their Fathers in self-government? Will they thus recklessly crush the hopes of breath- less nations who, on tip-toe, await our triumph, who, in our success, behold the redemption of the

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