The Underground Railroad
are quite as monotonous as the Quakers." Whatever may be the abstract
merit of this argument, it is certain that the simplicity of Lucretia
Mott's nature, is beautifully expressed by her habitual costume.
In giving the principal events of Lucretia Mott's life, we prefer to use
her own language whenever possible. In memoranda furnished by her to
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she says: "My father had a desire to make his
daughters useful. At fourteen years of age, I was placed, with a younger
sister, at the Friends' Boarding School, in Dutchess county, State of
New York, and continued there for more than two years, without returning
home. At fifteen, one of the teachers leaving the school, I was chosen
as an assistant in her place. Pleased with the promotion, I strove hard
to give satisfaction, and was gratified, on leaving the school, to have
an offer of a situation as teacher if I was disposed to remain; and
informed that my services should entitle another sister to her
education, without charge. My father was at that time, in successful
business in Boston, but with his views of the importance of training a
woman to usefulness, he and my mother gave their consent to another year
being devoted to that institution." Here is another instance of the
immeasurable value of wise parental influence.
In 1809 Lucretia joined her family in Philadelphia, whither they had
removed. "At the early age of eighteen," she says, "I married James
Mott, of New York--an attachment formed while at the boarding-school."
Mr. Mott entered into business with her father. Then followed commercial
depressions, the war of 1812, the death of her father, and the family
became involved in difficulties. Mrs. Mott was again obliged to resume
teaching. "These trials," she says, "in early life, were not without
their good effect in disciplining the mind, and leading it to set a just
estimate on worldly pleasures."
To this early training, to the example of a noble father and excellent
mother, to the trials which came so quickly in her life, the rapid
development of Mrs. Mott's intellect is no doubt greatly due. Thus the
foundation was laid, which has enabled her, for more than fifty years,
to be one of the great workers in the cause of suffering humanity. These
are golden words which we quote from her own modest notes: "I, however,
always loved the good, in childhood desired to do the right, and had no
faith in the generally received idea of human depravity." Yes, it was
because she believed in human virtue, that she was enabled to accomplish
such a wonderful work. She had the inspiration of faith, and entered her
life-battle against Slavery with a divine hope, and not with a gloomy
despair.
The next great step in Lucretia Mott's career, was taken at the age of
twenty-five, when, "summoned by a little family and many cares, I felt
called to a more public life of devotion to duty, and engaged in the
ministry in our Society."
In 1827 when the Society was divided Mrs. Mott's convictions led her "to
adhere to the sufficiency of the light within us, resting on the truth
as authority, rather than 'taking authority for truth.'" We may find no
better place than this to refer to her relations to Christianity. There
are many people who do not believe in the progress of religion. They are
right in one respect. God's truth cannot be progressive because it is
absolute, immutable and eternal. But the human race is struggling up to
a higher comprehension of its own destiny and of the mysterious purposes
of God so far as they are revealed to our finite intelligence. It is in
this sense that religion is progressive. The Christianity of this age
ought to be more intelligent than the Christianity of Calvin. "The
popular doctrine of human depravity," says Mrs. Mott, "never commended
itself to my reason or conscience. I searched the Scriptures daily,
finding a construction of the text wholly different from that which was
pressed upon our acceptance. The highest evidence of a sound faith being
the practical life of the Christian, I have felt a far greater interest
in the moral movements of our age than in any theological discussion."
Her life is a noble evidence of the sincerity of this belief. She has
translated Christian principles into daily deeds.
That spirit of benevolence which Mrs. Mott possesses in a degree far
above the average, of necessity had countless modes of expression. She
was not so much a champion of any particular cause as of all reforms. It
was said of Charles Lamb that he could not even hear the devil abused
without trying to say something in his favor, and with all Mrs. Mott's
intense hatred of Slavery we do not think she ever had one unkind
feeling toward the slave-holder. Her longest, and probably her noblest
work, was done in the anti-slavery cause. "The millions of down-trodden
slaves in our land," she says, "being the greatest sufferers, the most
oppressed class, I have felt bound to plead their cause, in season and
out of season, to endeavor to put my soul in their soul's stead, and to
aid, all in my power, in every right effort for their immediate
emancipation." When in 1833, Wm. Lloyd Garrison took the ground of
immediate emancipation and urged the duty of unconditional liberty
without expatriation, Mrs. Mott took an active part in the movement. She
was one of the founders of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society
in 1834. "Being actively associated in the efforts for the slave's
redemption," she says, "I have traveled thousands of miles in this
country, holding meetings in some of the slave states, have been in the
midst of mobs and violence, and have shared abundantly in the odium
attached to the name of an uncompromising modern abolitionist, as well
as partaken richly of the sweet return of peace attendant on those who
would 'undo the heavy burdens and let the oppressed go free, and break
every yoke.'" In 1840 she attended the World's Anti-Slavery Convention
in London. Because she was a woman she was not admitted as a delegate.
All the female delegates, however, were treated with courtesy, though
not with justice. Mrs. Mott spoke frequently in the liberal churches of
England, and her influence outside of the Convention had great effect on
the Anti-Slavery movement in Great Britain.
But the value of Mrs. Mott's anti-slavery work is not limited to what
she individually did, great as that labor was. Her influence over
others, and especially the young, was extraordinary. She made many
converts, who went forth to spread the great ideas of freedom throughout
the land. No one can of himself accomplish great good. He must labor
through others, he must inspire them, convince the unbelieving, kindle
the fires of faith in doubting souls, and in the unequal fight of Right
with Wrong make Hope take the place of despair. This Lucretia Mott has
done. Her example was an inspiration.
In the Temperance reform Mrs. Mott took an early interest, and for many
years she has practiced total abstinence from intoxicating drinks. In
the cause of Peace she has been ever active, believing in the "ultra
non-resistance ground, that no Christian can consistently uphold and
actively engage in and support a government based on the sword." Yet
this, we believe, did not prevent her from taking a profound interest in
the great war for the Union; though she deplored the means, her soul
must have exulted in the result. Through anguish and tears, blood and
death America wrought out her salvation. Do we not believe that the
United States leads the cause of human freedom? It follows then that the
abolition of the gigantic system of human slavery in this country is the
grandest event in modern history. Mrs. Mott has also been earnestly
engaged in aid of the working classes, and has labored effectively for
"a radical change in the system which makes the rich richer, and the
poor poorer." In the Woman's Rights question she was early interested,
and with Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she organized, in 1848, a Woman's
Rights' Convention at Seneca Falls, New York. At the proceedings of this
meeting, "the nation was convulsed with laughter." But who laughs now at
this irresistible reform?
The public career of Lucretia Mott is in perfect harmony with her
private life. "My life in the domestic sphere," she says, "has passed
much as that of other wives and mothers of this country. I have had six
children. Not accustomed to resigning them to the care of a nurse, I was
much confined to them during their infancy and childhood."
Notwithstanding her devotion to public matters her private duties were
never neglected. Many of our readers will no doubt remember Mrs. Mott at
Anti-slavery meetings, her mind intently fixed upon the proceedings,
while her hands were as busily engaged in useful sewing or knitting. It
is not our place to inquire too closely into this social circle, but we
may say that Mrs. Mott's history is a living proof that the highest
public duties may be reconciled with perfect fidelity to private
responsibilities. It is so with men, why should it be different with
women?
In her marriage, Mrs. Mott was fortunate. James Mott was a worthy
partner for such a woman. He was born in June, 1788, in Long Island. He
was an anti-slavery man, almost before such a thing as anti-slavery was
known. In 1812 he refused to use any article which was produced by slave
labor. The directors of that greatest of all railway corporations, the
Underground Rail Road, will never forget his services. He died, January
26, 1868, having nearly completed his 80th year. "Not only in regard to
Slavery," said the "Philadelphia Morning Post," at the time, "but in all
things was Mr. Mott a reformer, and a radical, and while his principles
were absolute, and his opinions uncompromising, his nature was
singularly generous and humane. Charity was not to him a duty, but a
delight; and the benevolence, which, in most good men, has some touch of
vanity or selfishness, always seemed in him pure, unconscious and
disinterested. His life was long and happy, and useful to his
fellow-men. He had been married for fifty-seven years, and none of the
many friends of James and Lucretia Mott, need be told how much that
union meant, nor what sorrow comes with its end in this world." Mary
Grew pronounced his fitting epitaph when she said: "He was ever calm,
steadfast, and strong in the fore front of the conflict."
In her seventy-ninth year, the energy of Lucretia Mott is undiminished,
and her soul is as ardent in the cause to which her life has been
devoted, as when in her youth she placed the will of a true woman
against the impotence of prejudiced millions. With the abolition of
Slavery, and the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, her greatest
life-work ended. Since then, she has given much of her time to the
Female Suffrage movement, and so late as November, 1871, she took an
active part in the Annual Meeting of the Pennsylvania Peace Society.
Since the great law was enacted, which made all men, black or white,
equal in political rights--as they were always equal in the sight of
God--Mrs. Mott has made it her business to visit every colored church in
Philadelphia. This we may regard as the formal closing of fifty years of
work in behalf of a race which she has seen raised from a position of
abject servitude, to one higher than that of a monarch's throne. But
though she may have ended this Anti-slavery work, which is but the
foundation of the destiny of the colored race in America, her influence
is not ended--_that_ cannot die; it must live and grow and deepen, and
generations hence the world will be happier and better that Lucretia
Mott lived and labored for the good of all mankind.
JAMES MILLER McKIM.
More vividly than it is possible for the pen to portray, the subject of