Elizabeth Cady Stanton adding authority to her declaration of sentiments by

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and The Declaration Of Rights and Sentiments

by Margaret Watson

In 1848 Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the Seneca Falls Convention in New York for the purpose of discussing social, civil, and religious conditions, and the rights of women. It was the first convention held for such discussion. From this meeting emerged a declaration establishing the goals of the women's movement to gain equal rights as citizens of the United States and as human beings.

The Declaration of Rights and Sentiments as written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton at that time was closely modeled on the framework of the Declaration of Independence which was ratified on July 4, 1776, proclaiming the independence of the thirteen American colonies from Great Britain. Thomas Jefferson is usually given credit as the main author of this document although John Adams and Benjamin Franklin added their observations, and the Continental Congress made additional changes before its ratification.

The Stanton and the Jefferson Declarations are both organized through the use of a tight, logical argument structure called a categorical syllogism, consisting of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion that validly follows both.