Revisiting A Declaration of Sentiments

This article revisits the influential speech by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, The Declaration of Sentiments, presented at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. It discusses the need for women's rights in America, the oppression faced by women, and the call for equality and voting rights. The speech highlighted the denial of women's participation in government, political systems, and the inequality in fundamental rights. It also examines Stanton's use of ethos, pathos, and logos in her arguments. The article concludes by discussing the significance of The Declaration of Sentiments in paving the way for women's revolutions and empowering women to voice for themselves.

Running head: REVISITING A DECLARATION OF SENTIMENTS
Revisiting A Declaration of Sentiments
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1Revisiting A Declaration Of Sentiments
The “Declaration of sentiments”, a ground breaking speech by Elizabeth Cady
Stanton, was presented in the Seneca Falls Convention, in 1848, in front of 300 men and
women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, had fought tirelessly all her life, voicing for the rights of the
women and inequality faced by the women. She was one of the leading lady of the women’s
movement and was a suffragist and abolitionist in orientation (Thomas). Her speech, The
Declaration of Sentiments was primarily outlined upon the need for women’s rights in
America and the prime statement was women must be regarded as citizens and should be
given the voting rights and was in parallel with the struggles that women had faced in the
course of time with an approach towards change and contributed in making The Seneca Falls
Convention marking the onset of Feminist revolution in America (Hickner- Johnson).
The speech highlights that both men and women are provided with inalienable rights
and the women are deprived of that by the patriarchal structure of the society. She had
enlisted 16 grounds of women oppression including, denial of women’s participation and
representation in the governmental and political systems and the inequality in the provision
of certain fundamental rights like, right to vote, right to property, right to employment, right
to education and the marriage and divorce rights (Harris et al.).
The Declaration of Sentiments was an organised and properly drafted speech by
Stanton which appealed the audience with adequate ethos and pathos and was logical in its
orientation. At the very start, to understand the ethical points of her speech, her statement,
that men and women are created as equal beings and that they were endowed with the similar
rights of liberty, happiness and life, can be viewed upon. She further mentioned that these
truths are self-evident and unalienable. Further, she viewed that the history of mankind is
consisted of injury and absolute tyranny on the part of the men and the practice of absolute
subjugation and oppression on the women by the same (Thomas). She urged for the urgent

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repairs in the constitution of the country as she viewed that only the constitutional rights that
the women deserve fundamentally can empower the women in the truest sense.
Further, to project upon her pathological concerns, her accentuation of how denial of
education and marriage has severed the subjugation further can be evaluated. She was of the
opinion that the denial of women in participating in the educational system, initiates the
system of subjugation (Legacy). Education has always been viewed as the primary tool of
emancipation and empowerment, since, knowledge gives power and understanding and the
significance of voicing for the fundamental rights of women can only be actualised through
the tool of education. She further illustrated, that, by the law of marriage a woman becomes
civilly dead. She viewed that women, while unmarried is portrayed as a property of their
father and then once married, is portrayed as the property of their husband. Further, taking the
name of the husband furthers and completes the notion of women being property and thus,
they become invisible in the eye of the law a society (Legacy).
In her orientation, Stanton had directly attacked the patriarchal structure and
addressed the society as ‘He’. She continued her logical considerations with statements like,
he has disallowed and disapproved her basic right to practice her natural appropriate to the
elective establishment (Hurt). She continued saying, the women were compelled to follow the
rules of the men and were made submitted to them since they lacked the ground of voicing
for their positions and never could have the orientation of upholding their propositions. She
furthered her points of arguments by viewing the marriage and divorce laws (Calder, Octavia
and Nicola). She stated that the outlines of these laws were such that, the women can be
devoid of happiness after separation. From drawing upon the causes of divorce to the custody
of the children, all were constituted in such a sense that the happiness of women and their
sense of emancipation can be disallowed wholly. These laws, further, had allowed men to

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practice and withhold all the power and make women guilty and sinful in the eye of the
society.
Stanton’s speech thus, completely revolved around the basic fundamental rights of
women that they deserved but were devoid of, including all aspects of the society, such as,
social, civil and human rights as practised by men (Hurt). The basis of her arguments were
the age-old process of denying women from the inclusion in the social processes and system
of oppression and subjugation of women and the disapproval of the concept of women
employment (Hickner- Johnson).
Declaration of Sentiments was a much needed proposition containing strong
arguments. The resolutions and propositions were correctly posed and approached the
audience with correct logic and reason and moreover, it paved the way for the upcoming
women revolutions but more than that, it provided the women the courage to voice for
themselves.

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References:
Calder-Dawe, Octavia, and Nicola Gavey. "Jekyll and Hyde revisited: Young people's
constructions of feminism, feminists and the practice of “reasonable
feminism”." Feminism & Psychology 26.4 (2016): 487-507.
Harris, Sharon M., and Linda K. Hughes, eds. A feminist reader: feminist thought from
Sappho to Satrapi. Cambidge University Press, 2014.
Hickner-Johnson, Corey. "The Myth of Seneca Falls: Memory and the Women's Suffrage Movement,
1848-1898." (2015): 56-58.
Hurt, Avery Elizabeth. Women in Politics. The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc, 2017.
Legacy, Frederick Douglass’S. Rhetorical. "Frederick Douglass’s Rhetorical
Legacy." Rhetoric Review 37.1 (2018).
Thomas, Tracy A. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Feminist Foundations of Family Law.
NYU Press, 2016.