Matilda Joslyn Gage: She Who Holds the Sky by Sally Roesch Wagner

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Matilda Joslyn Gage:
She Who Holds the Sky
Sally Roesch Wagner
Sky Carrier Press,
Aberdeen, South Dakota, 1998

List of places where articles by Gage have been published:
Fayetteville Gazette
The Revolution
The National Citizen and the Ballot Box (1878-1881)
Woman's National Liberal Union
New York Woman Suffrage Association
Speech at the dedication of the Statue of Liberty
Proceedings of the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA)
1989 NWSA convention report a speech by Gage "Woman's Demand for Freedom: Its Influence Upon the World"

Works authored or co-authored by Gage:
Woman's Rights Catechism
Woman as Inventor (1870)
Who Planned the Tennessee Campaign of 1862?
Declaration of the Rights of Women (1876)
first 2 and last 2 chapters of the first volume of The History of Woman Suffrage
Woman, Church, and State (1893)
Speech at the 1888 International Council of Women (possibly in Colby's Woman's Tribune )
" 'I am indebted to my father for something better than a collegiate education,' Gage told the International Council of Women in 1888. 'He taught me to think for myself, and not to accept the word of any man, or society, or human being, but to fully examine for myself.' " (p. 1)
" 'When I saw the reports of the first [national, woman's right convention in 1850] convention in the New York Tribune , I knew my place; and when I read the notice of a convention to be held in Syracuse, in 1852, I at once decided to publicly join the ranks of those who spoke against wrong.' " (p. 1)
"Having grown up in an abolitionist household, Gage well knew how vicious the backlash against justice could be. Still, it should be welcomed, as Gage explained in concluding her speech:
'We need no expect the concessions demanded by women will be peaceably granted; there will be a long moral warfare before the citadel yields. In the meantime, let us take possession of the outposts. . . . All great reforms are gradual. Fear not any attempt to frown down the revolution already commenced; nothing is more fertile aid of reform, than any attempt to check it; work on!' " (p.2)
"When his sermon was printed in a Syracuse paper, someone identified simply as "m" (Gage's identity remained unknown to the paper's readers) challenged the minister. 'He being one of the priesthood ignores the bible himself, since he does not minister in a robe whose hem is trimmed with bells of gold, neither does he wear a bonnet of fine linen,' "M" chastised. Rev. Sunderland should recognize that men were greater sinners than Bloomer-wearers for 'had not men, in their attempt to acquire feminine resemblance, progressed past both nature's law and the law of Moses (Leviticus 21:5) forbidding men to shave or 'mar the corner of their beards,' there would be no confusion of sexual identity. The ecclesiastical duel continued for several weeks in the local paper, much to the delight of Syracuse readers, especially when they discovered that the person running biblical circles around the minister was a woman! Gage challenged Rev. Sutherland's orthodox interpretation of Scriptures, and teased him with an "Adam was a rough draft" joke:
'With regard to Eve and the authority for her being bound to consult her husband in the relation established by the creation of the first pair, some persons might think the order of creation would imply just the contrary; for as we trace the progress of creation step by step, we perceive that the inferior were first made and each successive thing created, exceeded in rank the preceding one.' "(pp. 3-4)
Regarding the authorship of The History of Woman Suffrage:
" "Susan B. Anthony does not write, you know -- she says so, again and again and it is true. Her forte is letters -- nothing otherwise, but she is a good suggestion, critic, etc., looks over letters, reads proof, attends to the publishers, etc., is general factotum while Mrs. Stanton and myself do the writing.' " (p. 20)
"Gage worked hard in 1880 to gain New York women the right to vote and run for office in school elections. The New York Woman Suffrage Association used an interesting tactic to achieve their goal. Governor Robinson vetoed a bill giving women the right to serve on school boards when it initially passed the legislature. When he ran for re-election, the New York suffragists resolved to defeat him. They were successful, and the new Governor promptly asked the legislature to pass the bill again for his signature. The did so. Governor Cornell immediately signed the new bill. Gage interpreted their victory as a call for vigorous action:
'When men begin to fear the power of women, their voice and their influence, then we shall secure justice, but not before. When we demonstrate our ability to kill off, or seriously injure a candidate, or hurt a party, then we shall receive "respectful consideration" . . . We must be recognized as aggressive.' " (p. 24)
On the goals of The National Citizen and Ballot Box:
'As the first process toward becoming well is to know you are ill, one of the first principle aims of the National Citizen will be to make those women discontented who are now content, to waken them to self-respect and a desire to use the talents they possess, to educate their consciences aright, to quicken their sense of duty, to destroy morbid beliefs and make them worthy of the life which their Creator has endowed them.' (p. 32)
"Several papers, including Brigham Young's Deseret Evening News from Salt Lake City objected to Gage's goal of making women discontent. Nonsense, she retorted, 'The deepest depth of degradation is reached, when a person who is wronged is insensible of the wrong done him. The most degraded slave of olden time was the one content in his slavery. Whoever would be free. himself must strike the blow,' she concluded. 'No blow is ever struck until discontent is felt.' " (pp. 32-33)
Gage on religion:
      'The Christian Church is based upon . . . the theory that woman brought sin and death into the world, and that therefore she was punished by being placed in a condition of inferiority to man -- a condition of subjection, of subordination. This is the foundation today of the Christian Church.' (p. 40)
      "The story of Eve wan not peripheral to Christianity; it was 'its corner stone; for, without the doctrine of the fall, and the consequent need of a Savior, the whole Christian super-structure drops into nothingness,' Gage insisted." (p. 41)
      " 'The Bible creation story, Gage said, should be read: So God, Father-Mother, created man, male and female created He-She. Eve,' she went on, 'means the one who holds or gives life, the life-giver, the creative principle. in which respect the woman possesses superiority over the man." " (pp. 44-45)
On her speech at the 1888 International Council of Women
" 'Of course, but a small part of my radicalism appeared in that speech,' Gage explained to her family, 'only enough to rouse enquiry in those groveling material minds.' The Council showed her the importance of writing the full extent of her radicalism. 'I want to be alone & have rest, & write,' she resolved, 'to finish my book which is my first important work.' Gage held no illusions about the reception that she would receive. 'I expect it will bring a storm of indignation & vituperation onto me,' she acknowledged to her children, 'but I deem its completion a duty I owe the world.' Five years later, Woman, Church and State would be in print. " (p. 46)
"Her final editorial in the National Citizen and Ballot Box carried her belief in the future:
'To those who fancy we are near the end of the battle or that the reformer's path is strewn with roses, we may say then nay. The thick of the fight has just begun; the hottest part of the warfare is yet to come, and those who enter it must be willing to give up father, mother, and comforts for its sake. Neither shall we who carry on the fight, reap the great reward. We are battling for the good of those who shall come after us; they, not ourselves, shall enter into the harvest.' " (p. 67)
I also noted the book a biography of Lillie Devereux Blake:
Katherine Devereux Blake and Margaret Louise Wallace, Champion of Women (New York: Fleming H. Revell company, 1943)

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last updated Jan 20, 2000