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The Prayer of One Hundred Thousand

Charles Sumner · 1863

The first page of Senator Charles Sumner's 1863 speech presenting 100,000 emancipation petition signatures gathered by the Woman's National Loyal League, co-led by Stanton.

Stanton co-founded the Woman's National Loyal League whose petitions Sumner presented in this speech.

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Printed first page of Senator Charles Sumner's 1863 speech titled 'The Prayer of One Hundred Thousand.' The text describes the Senate presentation of the first installment of the emancipation petition from the Woman's National Loyal League. Below the text is a table of petition signature counts by state, with columns for men, women, and total, ending with a total of 100,000.
Charles Sumner, The Prayer of One Hundred Thousand, 1863.

About this source

What it is

This is the first printed page of a speech given in 1863 by U.S. Senator Charles Sumner. He presented to the Senate the first installment of 100,000 signatures on petitions calling for the emancipation of enslaved people. The petitions had been gathered by the Woman's National Loyal League. The page includes a table breaking down the signature counts by state and by men and women.

Why it matters

The Woman's National Loyal League was organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony during the Civil War to campaign for the end of slavery through a constitutional amendment. This speech shows how their organizing work reached directly into the U.S. Senate, linking the women's rights movement to the abolition of slavery.

Look closer

  • Why might Stanton and Anthony have focused their League's energy on petitions during the Civil War?
  • What does the table of signatures suggest about how the petition drive was organized?
  • Why would a senator, rather than a woman, be the one to present the petitions in Congress?

This speech is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Elizabeth Cady Stanton on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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