have kept them in the background longer, but for Sarah’s arguments, supported by the objection so frequently urged against the encouragement of their meetings,—­that slavery was a political subject with which women had nothing to do.  This objection she answered in a masterly paper, an “Appeal to the Women of the Nominally Free States,” which was printed in pamphlet form and sent out by the Female Anti-Slavery Convention, and attracted wide attention.  The chief point she took was this:  “The denial of our duty to act in this cause is a denial of our right to act; and if we have no right to act, then may we well be termed ‘the white slaves of the North,’ for, like our brethren in bonds, we must seal our lips in silence and despair.”

The whole argument, covering nearly seventy pages, is remarkable in its calm reasoning, sound logic, and fervid eloquence, and will well repay perusal, even at this day.  About the same time a beautiful and most feeling “Address to Free Colored Americans” was written by Sarah, and likewise circulated by the Convention.  These two pamphlets made the sisters so widely known, and so increased the desire in other places to hear them speak, that invitations poured in upon them from different parts of the North and West, as well as from the New England States.  It was finally decided that they should go to Boston first, to aid the brave, good women there, who, while willing to do all that women could do for the cause in a private capacity, had not yet been persuaded to open their lips for it in any kind of a public meeting.  It was not contemplated, however, that the sisters should address any but assemblies of women.  Even Boston was not yet prepared for a greater infringement of the social proprieties.

CHAPTER XIII.

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.  Their broad views, freely expressed in their New York meetings, opened up the subject of woman’s duties under the existing state of public sentiment, and, in connection with the revelations made concerning the condition of her white and colored sisters at the South, and the frantic efforts used to prevent her from receiving these revelations, she soon began to see that she had some moral obligations outside of her home sphere and her private circle.  At first her only idea of aid in the great cause was that of prayer, which men universally granted was her especial privilege, even encouraging her to pray for them; but it must be private prayer—­prayer in her own closet—­with no auditor but the God to whom she appealed.  As soon as it became public, and took the form of petitions to legislatures and to Congress, the reprobation began.  The enemies of freedom, fully realizing woman’s influence,