Speeches / page 297

Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Speeches
Temperance and Women's Rights - June 1, 1853
June 1, 1853
A little more than one year ago, in this same hall, we formed the first Woman's State Temperance Society. We believed that the time had come for woman to speak on this question, and to insist on her right to be heard in the councils of Church and State. It was proposed at that time that we, instead of forming a society, should go en masse into the Men's State Temperance Society. We were assured that in becoming members by paying the sum of $1, we should thereby secure the […]
Eleanor Roosevelt
Speeches
Speech to the ACLU - March 14, 1940
March 14, 1940
Ladies and Gentlemen: I am glad you gave an award to the press tonight, because that gave them the opportunity to tell us just what they could do. Now we have come here tonight because of civil liberties. I imagine a great many of you could give my talk far better than I could, because you have had first-hand knowledge in the things you have had to do in Chicago over the years to preserve civil liberties. Perhaps, however, I am more conscious of the importance of civil liberties in […]
Anna Howard Shaw
categories: Eulogy, Speeches
Eulogy to Susan B. Anthony - March 15, 1906
March 15, 1906
Following is the full text transcript of Anna Howard Shaw's Eulogy to Susan B. Anthony speech, delivered at Rochester, New York - March 15, 1906. Your flags at half-mast tell of a nation's loss, but there are no symbols and no words which can tell the love and sorrow which fill our hearts. And yet out of the depths of our grief arise feelings of truest gratitude for the beauty, the tenderness, the nobility of example, of our peerless leader's life. There is no death for such as she. There […]
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Speeches
The Declaration of Sentiments - July 19, 1848
July 19, 1848
The Declaration of Sentiments was written by Stanton and read by her at the Woman's Rights Convention held on July 19 and 20, 1848, in Seneca Falls, New York. After the initial reading during the morning session of the first day, each paragraph was re-read and discussed, with some changes made. According to the minutes of the convention, "The propriety of obtaining the signatures of men to the Declaration was discussed in an animated manner: a vote in favor was given; but concluding that the final decision would be the […]
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Speeches
Address on Woman's Rights - Sept. 1848
September 1, 1848
There is some question as to whether this speech was first given at the Woman’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls on July, 19, 1848 or in September of that year. Stanton did give this speech on at least two occasions in 1848: in September at Waterloo, New York, and in October to the Congregational Friends at Farmington, New York. Between 1848 and 1850, Stanton also used this address as a source for short articles. Ladies and gentlemen, when invited some weeks ago to address you I proposed to a gentleman […]
Frances D Gage
Speeches
Address to the American Equal Rights Association- May 9, 1867
May 9, 1867
Transcript according to H.M. Parkhurst's phonographic report - Library of Congress. This address was given at the Church of the Puritans. First Day - Morning Session I have but little to say because it is almost 2 o'clock, and hungry and weary people are not good listeners to speeches. I shall confine my remarks therefore to one special point brought up this morning and not fully discussed. Sojourner Truth gave us the whole truth in about fifteen words: "If I am responsible for the deeds done in my body, the […]
Julia Gillard
Speeches
Misogyny Speech - Oct. 10, 2012
October 10, 2012
Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia, replied in Parliament to Tony Abbott (Leader of the Opposition) regarding his use of sexist language. Thank you very much Deputy Speaker and I rise to oppose the motion moved by the Leader of the Opposition. And in so doing I say to the Leader of the Opposition I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man. I will not. And the Government will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man. Not now, not ever. The Leader of […]
Emma Goldman
Speeches
What is Patriotism? - April 26, 1908
April 26, 1908
Men and Women: What is patriotism? Is it love of one's birthplace, the place of childhood's recollections and hopes, dreams and aspirations? Is it the place where, in childlike naivete, we would watch the passing clouds, and wonder why we, too, could not float so swiftly? The place where we would count the milliard glittering stars, terror-stricken lest each one "an eye should be," piercing the very depths of our little souls? Is it the place where we would listen to the music of the birds and long to have […]
Florence Kelley
Speeches
Child Labor & Women's Suffrage - July 22, 1905
July 22, 1905
We have, in this country, two million children under the age of sixteen years who are earning their bread. They vary in age from six and seven years (in the cotton mills of Georgia) and eight, nine and ten years (in the coal-breakers of Pennsylvania), to fourteen, fifteen and sixteen years in more enlightened states. No other portion of the wage earning class increased so rapidly from decade to decade as the young girls from fourteen to twenty years. Men increase, women increase, youth increase, boys increase in the ranks […]
Crystal Eastman
Speeches
Now We Can Begin - 1920
December 1, 1920
Eastman delivered the speech "Now We Can Begin" following the ratification of the 19th Amendment, outlining the work still to do to achieve gender equality. It was published in The Liberator in December, 1920. Most women will agree that August 23, the day when the Tennessee legislature finally enacted the Federal suffrage amendment, is a day to begin with, not a day to end with. Men are saying perhaps "Thank God, this everlasting woman's fight is over!" But women, if I know them, are saying, "Now at last we can […]