Elizabeth Cady Stanton's 1854 "Address to the Legislature of New York" and the Paradox of Social Reform Rhetoric Page: 7
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Cady Stanton and the Paradox of Social Reform 7
crafted to avoid directly attacking her audience members and perhaps even to lull them into a
false sense of comfort by acknowledging women's proper roles even as she shrewdly
demonstrates her understanding of the legal situation. As Campbell puts it, "The scene was a
courtroom. Custom [...] has been overthrown. Now that he has been mastered by males, 'timid
woman' dares petition her male champions for relief' (94).
Campbell believes that Cady Stanton displays her understanding of her rhetorical
situation by appealing to men's better nature with a picture of "timid woman, on tiptoe,"
characteristically demure, coming to look the chained and caged Custom in the face, "and to
demand of her brave sires and sons...if, in this change of dynasty, she, too, shall find relief'
(146). She claims Cady Stanton's opening was a "careful strategic maneuver" that shifted any
blame for any evils against woman off of men and onto the personified villain, Custom (1:94).
And yet, by the end of the passage, Cady Stanton makes clear that her appeal is not to Custom,
but to the men in her audience. Times have changed, a new status quo is in place, but, she
charges, women are still groveling at the feet of men as they did at the feet of Custom. Custom is
chained, his authority usurped, and women are still without relief from their servitude even
though "righteous" men are in charge. In addition to an appeal to men's heroism, which the
introduction first seems to offer, Cady Stanton's introduction develops into a direct indictment of
the men in the chamber. Custom is rendered powerless, so women do not even bother asking
Custom for relief-they demand men grant women equal rights. This is made clear when she
begins her next paragraph, "Yes, gentlemen, in republican America, in the 19th century, we, the
daughters of the revolutionary heroes of '76, demand at your hands the redress of our
grievances--a new code of laws" (146).8 Custom is off the hook; men are now under Cady
Stanton's scrutiny, and she makes evident that she is fully aware of the legal circumstances in
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Skinnell, Ryan. Elizabeth Cady Stanton's 1854 "Address to the Legislature of New York" and the Paradox of Social Reform Rhetoric, article, 2010; [New York, New York]. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc146585/m1/7/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT College of Arts and Sciences.