August 31, 1850
Worcester Convention
We cut the following from the Philadelphia "Spirit of the Times." It was written by Mrs. Davis, the Mrs. Wright whose lectures on Physiology and Anatomy were so much spoken of some time ago. The call has been sent for our signature and that of our bigger half. Both are cheerfully given. The friend who sent it will please see them attached. We also owe Mrs. Davis for an invitation to attend said convention. A press of cares and our bad habits have prevented our answering; but it is not very likely we shall get time to go, and besides we grow so very restless and wretched when away from home, that we should be an object of compassion if we were there.

"The following address written, we are informed, by Mrs. Davis, of Providence, R.I., has been furnished to us by a friend. It is a handsomely drawn paper, in which the points are well put, and as it serves to show the spirit and objects of the movement, we give it publication. The address is in circulation for signatures; a large number of well-known names, both male and female, have been secured to it in New England and New York, and the Convention will probably throw another element into the reformatory movements already on foot. Last year a similar convention met in Salem, Ohio; the year before, it we recollect rightly, there was one in western New York. At those meetings, the rights, and wrongs, and the remedies of the aggrieved party were resolved and declared after the fashion of other primary assemblies of the people. The meeting here called, differs from the others in the circumstance that it does not exclude the tyrant sex, but gives both sides a welcome and a hearing."

Woman's Rights Convention
To be held at Worcester, Massachusetts, on the 23d and 24th of October next, (agreeably to appointment of a preliminary meeting held at Boston, on the 30th of May last.)

The men and women of our country, who feel sufficient interest in the great question of Woman's rights, duties and relations in the social system to give an earnest thought and effective effort to its rightful adjustment, are invited to meet each other in free conference at the time and place appointed.

The upward-tending spirit of the age, busy in a hundred forms of effort for the world's redemption from the sins and sufferings which oppress it, has brought this one, which yields to none in importance and urgency, into distinguished prominence. One half of the race are its immediate objects, and the other half are as deeply involved, by that absolute unity of interest and destiny which nature has established between them.

The neighbor is near enough to involve every human being in a general equality of rights and community of interests; but, Men and Women, in their reciprocities of love and duty are one flesh and one blood-mother, wife, sister and daughter come so near the heart and mind of every man that they must be either his blessing or his bane. Where there is such mutuality of interests, such an interlinking of life, there can be no real antagonism of position and action. The sexes should not, for any reason or by any chance, take hostile attitudes toward each other, either in the apprehension or amendment of the wrongs which exist in their necessary relations; but they should harmonize in opinion and co-operate in effort, for the reason that they must unite in the ultimate achievement of the desired reformation.

Of the many points now under discussion and demanding a just settlement, the general question of Woman's Rights and relations comprehends such as:-Her Eduction, Literary, Scientific and Artistic;-Her Avocations, Industrial, Commercial and Professional;-Her Interests, Pecuniary, Civil and Political, in a word-Her Rights as an Individual, and her Functions as a Citizen.

No one will pretend that all these interests, embracing, as they do, all that is not merely animal in a human life, are rightly understood or justly provided for in the existing social order. Nor is it any more true that the constitutional differences of the sexes, which should determine, define and limit the resulting differences of office and duty, are adequately comprehended and practically observed.

Woman has been condemned for her greater delicacy of physical organization, to inferiority of intellectual and moral culture, and to the forfeiture of great social, civil and religious privileges. In the relation of marriage she has been ideally annihilated, and actually enslaved in all that concerns her personal and pecuniary rights; and even in widowhood and single life, she is oppressed with such limitation and degradation of labor and avocation as clearly and cruelly mark the condition of a disable caste. But, by the inspiration of the Almighty, the beneficent spirit of reform is roused to the redress of those wrongs. The tyranny which degrades and crushes wives and mothers, sits no longer lightly on the world's conscience-the heart's home-worship feels the stain of stooping at a dishonored alter-Manhood begins to feel the shame of muddying the springs from which it draws its highest life; and, Womanhood is everywhere awakening to assert its divinely chartered rights, and to fulfil its noblest duties. It is the spirit of reviving truth and righteousness which has moved upon the great deep of the public heart and aroused its redressing justice; and, through it, the Providence of God is vindicating the order and appointments of his creation.

The signs are encouraging; the time is opportune. Come, then, to this Convention. It is your duty, if you are worthy of your age and country. Give the help of your best thought to separate the light from the darkness. Wisely give the protection of your name and the benefit of your efforts to the great work of settling the principles, devising the method, and achieving the success of this great enterprise.