Woman Suffrage Essential to the True Republic. An Address Delivered by the Hon. George F. Hoar de [Women's Suffrage] - 1873

Boston: Woman's Journal Office [American Woman Suffrage Association], 1873. First edition. Fine. Woman Suffrage Tract No. 8. Original self-wraps stitched at the spine and measuring 4 x 6 inches. 23, [1, blank]. An exceptionally clean and unmarked copy of a delicate and scarce pamphlet, which is the only copy on the market.

The Woman's Journal, an organ of the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) led by Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe, began issuing pocket-sized and cheap Woman Suffrage Tracts that featured equality speeches by prominent activists. Within their lineup are lectures by luminaries including Henry Ward Beecher, John Stuart Mill, and the present by Smithsonian Institution regent and American Antiquarian Society president George F. Hoar. Easy to exchange and share, the tracts expanded the audiences of major suffrage speeches, helping grassroots activists gain a vocabulary for day-to-day debates. Within Hoar's speech, he asserts that "this is with prejudice and not with reason we are contending" in conversations with anti-suffragists. If the U.S. is to fulfill its republican promise, "women must stand by your side in the church as equals, or the church must go back to the time of Inquisition...by your side as an equal in schools or colleges, or you must go back to the days of monastery...by your side as an equal in the State, or you must go back or do worse than going back, you must remain where you are." To Hoar, a scholar of history, denial of women's rights leads to devolution and stagnation. Women must be brought forward with equal rights, be given equal opportunity to succeed or fail, and make it possible for progress in the nation.

Krichmar 1722. Fine.