From a speech of the Rev. Knox-Little at the Church of St. Clements in Philadelphia in 1880:  “God made himself to be born of a woman to sanctify the virtue of endurance; loving submission is an attribute of a woman; men are logical, but women, lacking this quality, have an intricacy of thought.  There are those who think women can be taught logic; this is a mistake.  They can never by any power of education arrive at the same mental status as that enjoyed by men, but they have a quickness of apprehension, which is usually called leaping at conclusions, that is astonishing.  There, then, we have distinctive traits of a woman, namely, endurance, loving submission, and quickness of apprehension.  Wifehood is the crowning glory of a woman.  In it she is bound for all time.  To her husband she owes the duty of unqualified obedience.  There is no crime which a man can commit which justifies his wife in leaving him or applying for that monstrous thing, divorce.  It is her duty to subject herself to him always, and no crime that he can commit can justify her lack of obedience.  If he be a bad or wicked man, she may gently remonstrate with him, but refuse him never.  Let divorce be anathema; curse it; curse this accursed thing, divorce; curse it, curse it!  Think of the blessedness of having children.  I am the father of many children and there have been those who have ventured to pity me.  ‘Keep your pity for yourself,’ I have replied, ’they never cost me a single pang.’  In this matter let woman exercise that endurance and loving submission which, with intricacy of thought, are their only characteristics.”

From the Philadelphia Public Ledger and Daily Transcript, July 20, 1848:  “Our Philadelphia ladies not only possess beauty, but they are celebrated for discretion, modesty, and unfeigned diffidence, as well as wit, vivacity, and good nature.  Who ever heard of a Philadelphia lady setting up for a reformer or standing out for woman’s rights, or assisting to man the election grounds [sic], raise a regiment, command a legion, or address a jury?  Our ladies glow with a higher ambition.  They soar to rule the hearts of their worshippers, and secure obedience by the sceptre of affection....  But all women are not as reasonable as ours of Philadelphia.  The Boston ladies contend for the rights of women.  The New York girls aspire to mount the rostrum, to do all the voting, and, we suppose, all the fighting, too....  Our Philadelphia girls object to fighting and holding office.  They prefer the baby-jumper to the study of Coke and Lyttleton, and the ball-room to the Palo Alto battle.  They object to having a George Sand for President of the United States; a Corinna for Governor; a Fanny Wright for Mayor; or a Mrs. Partington for Postmaster....  Women have enough influence over human affairs without being politicians....  A woman is nobody.  A wife is everything.  A pretty girl is equal to ten thousand men, and a mother is, next to God, all powerful....  The ladies of Philadelphia, therefore, under the influence of the most ‘sober second thoughts’ are resolved to maintain their rights as Wives, Belles, Virgins, and Mothers, and not as Women.”