After closing their meetings in New York the sisters held similar ones
in New Jersey, all of which were attended only by women. From thence
they went up the North River with Gerrit Smith, holding audiences at
Hudson and Poughkeepsie. At the latter place they spoke to an assembly
of colored people of both sexes, and this was the first time Angelina
ever addressed a mixed audience.
The woman's rights agitation, while entirely separate from abolitionism,
owes its origin to the interest this subject excited in the hearts and
minds of American women; and to Sarah and Angelina Grimke must be
accorded the credit of first making the woman question one of reform.
They wrote and spoke often on the theme. Public feeling grew strong
against them, and at last the Congregational ministers of Massachusetts
saw proper to pass a resolution of censure against the sisters! This
resolution was issued as a "Pastoral Letter," which, in the light and
freedom of the present day, must be regarded as a most extraordinary
document.
Whittier's muse found the "Pastoral Letter" a fitting theme for its
vigorous, sympathetic utterances. The poem thus inspired is perhaps one
of the very best among his many songs of freedom. It will be remembered
as beginning thus:--
"So this is all! the utmost reach
Of priestly power the mind to fetter,
When laymen _think_, when women _preach_,
A war of words, a 'Pastoral Letter!'"
Up to this time nothing had been said by either of the sisters in their
lectures concerning their views about women.
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