Declaration Of Sentiments And Resolutions: Elizabeth Cady Stanton

At the Seneca Falls Convention in July 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton drafted a document, titled the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, that addressed the several issues that women faced in American society. Decades prior to the convention, founding fathers gathered together and wrote the Declaration of Independence, which became an example for the Declaration of Sentiments. Stanton modified a few words and phrases from the Declaration of Independence’s Preamble and Declaration of Natural Rights so that it would match her causes. However, her adaptation of the List of Grievances and the Resolution differed greatly from the original. I believe that Stanton’s motive for mimicking the Declaration of Independence was to take John Locke’s

According to The American Journey, the List of Grievances states, “The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States” (TAJ, 164). This sentence was also used in the Declaration of Sentiments but instead of the king being abusive towards colonists, it was mankind that caused harm to women. Another similarity between the two list of grievances is that most of the sentences began with “he has”. In the Declaration of Independence, the colonists were using “he” to refer to the oppressive King George III, in comparison to Stanton who meant for the word “he” to represent men. The Declaration of Independence confronted many wrongs King George III had inflicted on the Colonies such as the inability to trade with other countries, the forceful placement of British troops in homes, the lack of Trial by Jury in several cases, and other unjust decisions. On the other hand, American women endured the power and control that men held over their lives. For instance, husbands were granted ownership of all property that belonged to his wife, including the woman herself, and that resulted in the woman being “...if married, in the eye of the law, socially dead” (DOS, 8).

The women and men who were part of the Women’s Rights Movement stated in the Resolution of the Declaration of Sentiments, “...we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of these United States” (DOS, 21). In other words, the reformers were urging Congress to authorize women with all rights that were endowed to men. Congressmen claimed in the Declaration of Independence that the States had the power to “...levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do”(TAJ, 167) and that they were “...Absolved from Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is ought to be totally dissolved…” (TAJ, 167). The authors planned to separate from the British government, in contrast to the activists in the women’s movement, who did not want to become independent from America. Instead, they promised to “employ agents, circulate tracts, petition the State and national Legislatures, and endeavor to enlist the pulpit and the press…” (DOS, 22). In short, the colonists and the activists both desired certain rights, but the colonists were willing to go to war with the British government, unlike the reformers who pledged to fight with peaceful