idel fanaticism.
"People are beginning to inquire how far public sentiment should
sanction or tolerate these unsexed women, who would step out from
the true sphere of the mother, the wife, and the daughter, and
taking upon themselves the duties and the business of men, stalk
into the public gaze, and, by engaging in the politics, the rough
controversies and trafficking of the world, upheave existing
institutions, and overrun all the social relations of life.
"It is a melancholy reflection that, among our American women, who
have been educated to better things, there should be found any who
are willing to follow the lead of such foreign propagandists as the
ringleted, gloved exotic, Ernestine L. Rose. We can understand how
such a man as the Rev. Mr. May, or the sleek-headed Dr. Channing,
may be deluded by her into becoming one of her disciples. They are
not the first instances of infatuation that may overtake
weak-minded men, if they are honest in their devotion to her and
her doctrines; nor would they be the first examples of a low
ambition that seeks notoriety as a substitute for true fame, if
they are dishonest. Such men there are always, and, honest or
dishonest, their true position is that of being tied to the apron
strings of some strong-minded woman, and to be exhibited as rare
specimens of human wickedness or human weakness and folly. But that
one educated American should become her disciple and follow her
insane teachings is a marvel."
When we see the abuse and ridicule to which the best of men were
subjected for standing on our platform in the early days, we need not
wonder that so few have been brave enough to advocate our cause in later
years, either in conventions or in the halls of legislation.
After twelve added years of agitation, following the passage of the
Property Bill, New York conceded other civil rights to married women.
Pending the discussion of these various bills, Susan B. Anthony
circulated petitions, both for the civil and political rights of women,
throughout the State, traveling in stage coaches, open wagons, and
sleighs in all seasons, and on foot, from door to door through towns and
cities, doing her uttermost to rouse women to some sense of their
natural rights as human beings, and to their civil and political rights
as citizens of a republic. And while expending her t
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