Lydia Maria Child, Letters of Lydia Maria Child
John Greenleaf Whittier, Wendell Phillips, Harriet Winslow Sewall, Ed.

[19]

To E. Carpenter.

Abolitionism is rapidly growing respectable here, because the abolitionists are becoming more and more numerous. Since truth is thus made to depend on the voice of the majority, what a comfort it is to reflect that all majorities were minorities in the beginning.

I cannot forbear to repeat to you an interview between Miss Martineau and Mrs.-- , formerly a fashionable friend of mine, deeply skilled in the small diplomacy of worldly wisdom. Mrs. said some things in disparagement of Maria Chapman, accompanied with the wise remark that women were not capable of understanding political questions. My friend Mrs.--, wishing Miss M. to take up the cudgel in defence of the rights of women, put her mouth to her ear-trumpet, and said, “Ask Mrs. To repeat her remark to you!” The lady somewhat reluctantly observed, “I was saying, Miss M., that women ought to attend to their little duties, and let public affairs alone.” “Believe me, Madam,” replied Miss M., “that those who perform their great duties best are most likely to perform their little duties best.” “Oh, certainly, of course,” said Mrs. - , “but Mrs. C. is so enthusiastic. She told me she felt she had a mission to perform on earth. Now, if I felt so, I should think I ought to be sent to Bedlam.” “Madam,” replied Miss M., “it appears to me that those of us who think we have no mission to perform on earth ought to be sent to Bedlam.”