Reactions from the Press
Negative
"But this change is impractical, uncalled for, and unnecessary. If effected, it would set the
world by the ears, make "confusion worse confounded," demoralize and degrade
from their high sphere and noble destiny, women of all respectable and useful
classes, and prove a monstrous injury to all mankind."
-Mechanic’s Advocate
world by the ears, make "confusion worse confounded," demoralize and degrade
from their high sphere and noble destiny, women of all respectable and useful
classes, and prove a monstrous injury to all mankind."
-Mechanic’s Advocate
"To us they appear extremely dull and uninteresting, and, aside from their novelty, hardly worth notice."
-Rochester Daily Advertiser "Every true hearted female will instantly feel that this is unwomanly..."
~Rochester Daily Advertiser |
"'PROGRESS,' is the grand bubble which is now blown up to balloon bulk by the windy philosophers of the age."
-Lowell Courier "The New York girls aspire to mount the rostrum, to do all the voting, and, we suppose, all the fighting too.... A woman is nothing. A wife is everything... A mother is, next to God, all powerful..."
- The Philadelphia Public Ledger and Daily Transcript "This is bolting with a vengeance."
~ Worcester Telegraph "Excessively silly"
~The Syracuse Recorder |
"No words could express our astonishment on finding, a few days afterward, that what seemed to us so timely, so rational, and so sacred, should be subject for sarcasm and ridicule to the entire press of the nation."
~Elizabeth Cady Stanton
~Elizabeth Cady Stanton
"The Lily was the first paper published devoted to the interests of woman and as far as I know, the first one owned, edited, and published by a woman... It was a needed instrumentality to spread abroad the truth of the new gospel to women, and I could not withhold my hand to stay the work I had begun... "
-Amelia Bloomer
-Amelia Bloomer
Positive
"A discussion of the rights of animals would be regarded with far more complacency by many of what are called the wise and good of our land, than would be a discussion of the rights of woman. It is, in their estimation, to be guilty of evil thoughts, to think that woman is entitled to rights equal with man."
~ Frederick Douglass's editorial in the North Star
~ Frederick Douglass's editorial in the North Star
"Respectable in numbers and highly respectable in character."
- The Seneca County Courier "One of the most interesting events of the past week, was the holding of ... a Woman's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls. .... We ... bid the women engaged in this movement our humble Godspeed."
~ Frederick Douglass's North Star editorial |
"Some will regard them with respect- others with disapprobation and contempt."
~ The Seneca County Courier “Success to the cause in which they have enlisted! A railroad speed to the end they would accomplish!...I look forward to woman’s emancipation with the most intense anxiety; I hail it as a great jubilee of the nation.”
-Herkimer Freeman editorial |
"...if ...this lady is a more eligible candidate for the Presidential chair than McLean or Cass, Van Buren or old "Rough and Ready," then let the Salic laws be abolished forthwith from this great Republic. We are much mistaken if Lucretia would not make a better President than some of those who have lately tenanted the White House."
-New York Herald
-New York Herald