Editing Seneca Falls Convention (section)

=== Declaration, grievances, resolutions ===

At their home in Waterloo on Sunday, July 16, the M'Clintocks hosted a smaller planning session for the convention. Mary Ann M'Clintock and her eldest daughters, Elizabeth and Mary Ann Jr., discussed with Stanton the makeup of the resolutions that would be presented to the convention for approval. Each woman made certain her concerns were appropriately represented among the ten resolutions that they composed.<ref>Stanton, 1922, p. 146.</ref> Taken together, the resolutions demanded that women should have equality in the family, education, jobs, religion, and morals.<ref name=historynow/> One of the M'Clintock women selected the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]] from 1776 as a model for the declaration they wanted to make at their convention. The [[Declaration of Sentiments]] was then drafted in the parlor on a round, three-legged, mahogany tea table.<ref>Smithsonian Institution. National Museum of American History. [http://historywired.si.edu/object.cfm?ID=383 ''Declaration of Sentiments table, 1848'']. Retrieved on April 24, 2009.</ref> Stanton changed a few words of the Declaration of Independence to make it appropriate for a statement by women, replacing "The history of the present King of Great Britain" with "The history of mankind" as the basis for "usurpations on the part of man toward woman."<ref name="nps declaration"/> The women added the phrase "and women" to make "...&nbsp;all men ''and women'' are created equal&nbsp;..."<ref name="nps declaration">National Park Service. Women's Rights. [http://www.nps.gov/wori/historyculture/declaration-of-sentiments.htm ''Declaration of Sentiments'']. Retrieved on April 24, 2009.</ref> A list of grievances was composed to form the second part of the Declaration.<ref name=Wellman192>Wellman, 2004, p. 192</ref>

Between July 16 and July 19, at home on her own writing desk, Stanton edited the grievances and resolutions. [[Henry Brewster Stanton]], a lawyer, politician and Stanton's husband, helped substantiate the document by locating "extracts from laws bearing unjustly against woman's property interests."<ref name=Wellman192/> On her own, Stanton added a more radical point to the list of grievances and to the resolutions: the issue of women's voting rights.<ref name=Wellman193/> To the grievances, she added "He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise", and to the Sentiments, she added a line about man depriving woman of "the elective franchise, thereby leaving her without representation in the halls of legislation ..."<ref name=Wellman193>Wellman, 2004, p. 193. Stanton's use of the word 'never' was incorrect: prior to 1848, women had voted in certain times and places.</ref> Stanton then copied the Declaration and resolutions into final draft form for presentation at the meeting. When he saw the addition of woman suffrage, Henry Stanton warned his wife "you will turn the proceedings into a farce."<ref name=McMillen93>McMillen, 2008, p. 93.</ref> He, like most men of his day, was not in favor of women gaining voting rights. Because he intended to run for elective office, he left Seneca Falls to avoid being connected with a convention promoting such an unpopular cause.<ref>Mani, 2007, p. 98.</ref> Elizabeth Cady Stanton asked her sister Harriet Cady Eaton to accompany her; Eaton brought her young son Daniel.<ref name=McMillen90>McMillen, 2008, p. 90.</ref>

On July 16, Lucretia Mott sent a note to Stanton apologizing in advance for James Mott not being able to attend the first day, as he was feeling "quite unwell".<ref>Stanton, 1997, p. 22.</ref> Lucretia Mott wrote to say she would bring her sister, Martha Wright, and that the two women would participate in both days of the convention.<ref>Wellman, 2004, p. 191.</ref>