"The convention was not the first time that women’s rights advocates legitimated their demands by an appeal to the Declaration of Independence. Legal reformers, too, using the Declaration of Independence as a model for women’s rights, paved the road for the formal women’s rights movement that emerged at Seneca Falls. But it was the Seneca Falls convention, the brainchild of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, that brought national attention to the issue of women’s rights. This convention, hurriedly organized and attended primarily by people from the immediate area, touched off a major national debate. Newspapers across the country picked up the story. Press reaction to the convention varied widely."
~ Courtesy of "The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History Advanced Placement United
States History Study Guide."
Positive Reaction
“It is easy to be smart, to be droll, to be facetious in opposition to the demands of these Female Reformers,” he wrote, “and in decrying assumptions so novel and opposed top established habits and usages, a little wit will go a great way….However unwise and mistaken the demand, it is but the assertion of a natural right and as such must be conceded.”
~ Courtesy of "Not for ourselves alone: The story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony."
Negative Reaction
“The women folks have just held a convention up in New York, and passed a sort of ‘Bill of Rights,’ said the Lowell (Massachusetts) Courier, “affirming it their right to vote, to become teachers, legislators, lawyers, divines, and do all and [sundry] the ‘lords’ now do. They should have resolved at the same time that it was obligatory [for] the ‘lords’ aforesaid to wash dishes,...handle the broom, darn stockings, ...wear trinkets, look beautiful, and be as fascinating as those blessed morsels of humanity whom God gave to preserve that rough animal man, in something like reasonable civilization.”
~ Courtesy of "Not for ourselves alone: The story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony."
The majority of the reactions to the convention were negative because of the pressure traditional norms placed on society. The idea of enfranchisement or any progressive notions was seen as abstract and the concept of giving women power was perceived as a threat to the superiority of men. Despite this, the convention did open the door to new possibilities of enfranchisement and legal equality for women. The major advantage of the convention was having the Declaration of Sentiments modeled after the Declaration of Independence because it gave people a reason to support suffrage as it was understood as constitutionally right.