[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 11 (Thursday, February 12, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S746-S747]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. MOYNIHAN (for himself and Mr. D'Amato):
  S. 1641. A bill to direct the Secretary of the Interior to study 
alternatives for establishing a national historic trail to commemorate 
and interpret the history of women's rights in the United States; to 
the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.


             THE WOMEN'S RIGHTS NATIONAL HISTORIC TRAIL ACT

  Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, 1848 was one of the busiest years of the 
19th Century in Europe. Everywhere kings were abdicating, ministers 
fleeing, mobs roving. In London, Karl Marx and Frederich Engels 
composed a pamphlet entitled Manifesto of the Communist Party. 
Revolution was all the rage. But the real revolution was taking place 
in a small brick chapel in a village in upstate New York where people 
had begun to think of a revolution unlike anything known--equal rights 
for women.
  The American movement for women's rights began in Waterloo, New York 
nearly 150 years ago when five women met at the home of Jane and 
Richard Hunt. There, Elizabeth Cady Stanton of Seneca Falls, Mary Ann 
McClintock of Waterloo, Marta Coffin Wright of nearby Auburn, Lucretia 
Coffin Mott of Philadelphia and Mrs. Hunt planned the first women's 
rights convention held at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls. It was 
also there that they wrote the ``Declaration of Sentiments,'' a 
document which can certainly be regarded as the Magna Carta of the 
women's movement. Modeled on our Declaration of Independence, the 
``Declaration of Sentiments'' proclaimed that:

       All men and women are created equal: That they are endowed 
     by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among 
     these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

  This unprecedented declaration called for broad societal changes 
aimed at eliminating discriminatory restrictions on women in all their 
spheres of life. A woman's right to a higher education, the right to 
own property and the right to retain her own wages--all these and more 
were proclaimed in this landmark document endorsed at the Seneca Falls 
Convention on July 19 and 20, 1848.
  Perhaps most importantly, the convention was the catalyst for the 
19th Amendment. There, Elizabeth Cady

[[Page S747]]

Stanton made what was at the time a most radical proposal. She called 
for extending the franchise to women.
  Ameila Bloomer, publisher of Lily, the first prominent women's rights 
newsletter, eloquently defended Stanton's call and articulated the 
importance of the vote:

       In this country there is one great tribunal by which all 
     theories must be tried, all principles tested, all measures 
     settled: and that tribunal is the ballot box. It is the 
     medium through which public opinion finally makes itself 
     heard. Deny to any class in the community the right to be 
     heard at the ballot-box and that class sinks at once into a 
     state of slavish dependence, of civil insignificance, which 
     nothing can save from becoming subjugation, oppression and 
     wrong.

  It was fully 72 years before the Nation heeded their call for the 
vote for women.
  It took but 10 months in 1980, however, to establish a Women's Rights 
Historic Park at Seneca Falls and Waterloo, commemorating this call. 
Then-Senator Javits and I proposed a bill that created an historic park 
within Seneca Falls to commemorate the early beginnings of the women's 
movement and to recognize the important role Seneca Falls has played in 
the movement. The park consists of five sites: the 1840's Greek Revival 
home of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, organizer and leader of the women's 
rights movement; the Wesleyan Chapel, where the First Women's Rights 
Convention was held; Declaration Park with a 100 foot waterwall 
engraved with the Declaration of Sentiments and the names of the 
signers of Declaration; and the M'Clintock house, home of MaryAnn and 
Thomas M'Clintock, where the Declaration was drafted.
  On June 27 last, my friend and colleague, Senator D'Amato and I 
introduced S. Con. Res. 35, a resolution that urges the United States 
Postal Service to issue a commemorative postage stamp to celebrate the 
150th anniversary of the Women's Rights Convention. It is only fitting 
that a stamp be issued commemorating this historic anniversary and 
highlighting the importance of continuing this struggle for equal 
rights and opportunity for women in areas such as health care, 
education, employment, and pay equity.
  Today Senator D'Amato and I, in concert with Representative Louise M. 
Slaughter of Rochester, introduce legislation which would direct the 
Secretary of the Interior to study the development of a Women's Rights 
Historic Trail stretching from Boston, Massachusetts to Buffalo, New 
York.
  Mr. President, the contributions made by women in that region are 
many. This is hallowed ground that needs to be celebrated. It would 
include such sites as the Susan B. Anthony House and voting place in 
Rochester; the Women's Rights National Historical Park; the National 
Women's Hall of Fame and the Elizabeth Cady Stanton House in Seneca 
Falls; the Harriet Tubman House and memorial in Auburn; and the Eleanor 
Roosevelt home in Hyde Park.
  The women of Seneca Falls challenged America to social revolution 
with a list of demands that touched upon every aspect of life. Testing 
different approaches, the early women's rights leaders came to view the 
ballot as the best way to challenge the system, but they did not limit 
their efforts to this one issue. Fifty years after the convention, 
women could claim property rights, employment and educational 
opportunities, divorce and child custody laws, and increased social 
freedoms. By the early 20th century, a coalition of suffragists, 
temperance groups, reform-minded politicians, and women's social 
welfare organizations mustered a successful push for the vote.
  Today Congress honors Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, along 
with Susan B. Anthony, as revolutionary leaders of the women's movement 
by placing a statue of them in the Capitol Rotunda next to statues of 
other leaders in our Nation's history such as George Washington, 
Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
  An historic trail would be a living monument to women's history, 
bringing to life the numerous pioneers so often left out of our 
textbooks. In ``The Ladies of Seneca Falls: The Birth of the Women's 
Rights Movement'', Miriam Gurko writes:

       Most histories contain, if anything, only the briefest 
     allusion to the woman's rights movement in the nineteenth 
     century--perhaps no more than a sentence to include it in the 
     general upsurge of reform. Here and there the name of a 
     woman's rights leader might be mentioned, generally that of 
     Susan B. Anthony, sometimes Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The rest 
     might never have existed so far as the general run of 
     historical sources is concerned.

  One of the most important social forces of our time is women's 
struggle to achieve equality, and, as such, it is incumbent upon us to 
pay tribute to its many heroes.
  I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 1641

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Women's Rights National 
     Historic Trail Act of 1998''.

     SEC. 2. STUDY OF ALTERNATIVES FOR NATIONAL HISTORIC TRAIL TO 
                   COMMEMORATE AND INTERPRET HISTORY OF WOMEN'S 
                   RIGHTS IN THE UNITED STATES.

       (a) In General.--The Secretary of the Interior, acting 
     through the Director of the National Park Service (referred 
     to in this section as the ``Secretary''), shall conduct a 
     study of alternatives for establishing a national historic 
     trail commemorating and interpreting the history of women's 
     rights in the United States.
       (b) Matters To Be Considered.--The study under subsection 
     (a) shall include--
       (1) consideration of the establishment of a new unit of the 
     National Park System;
       (2) consideration of the establishment of various 
     appropriate designations for routes and sites relating to the 
     history of women's rights in the United States, and 
     alternative means to link those sites, including a corridor 
     between Buffalo, New York, and Boston, Massachusetts;
       (3) recommendations for cooperative arrangements with State 
     and local governments, local historical organizations, and 
     other entities; and
       (4) cost estimates for the alternatives.
       (c) Study Process.--The Secretary shall--
       (1) conduct the study with public involvement and in 
     consultation with State and local officials, scholarly and 
     other interested organizations, and individuals;
       (2) complete the study as expeditiously as practicable 
     after the date on which funds are made available for the 
     study; and
       (3) on completion of the study, submit to the Committee on 
     Resources of the House of Representatives and the Committee 
     on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate a report on the 
     findings and recommendations of the study.
                                 ______