"He May Sneer at the Course We Are Pursuing to Gain Justice": Lydia Sayer Hasbrouck, The Sibyl, and Corresponding about Women's Suffrage

Abstract

"He May Sneer at the Course We Are Pursuing to Gain Justice":Lydia Sayer Hasbrouck, The Sibyl, and Corresponding about Women's Suffrage Laura J. Ping (bio) In the fall of 1863 Wallkill, New York resident Dr. Lydia Sayer Hasbrouck was arrested for failure to pay her road tax. Hasbrouck, a water-cure physician and dress reformer, had achieved prominence within reform circles as the editor of the biweekly reform newspaper the Sibyl. The Sibyl primarily promoted the dress reform movement, which placed comfortable clothing at the center of women's fight for equality, but many articles also reflected Hasbrouck's passionate support for the women's suffrage movement. One of Hasbrouck's most ardent arguments was that women should not be required to pay taxes if they were unable to vote. It violated citizenship. By 1863 Hasbrouck, in protest, had not paid her road tax for more than two years. Consequently, the local commissioner of highways notified her that in order to settle the debt she would have to work ten and a half days on a road crew, a common punishment for tax evaders.1 On September 9th of that year Hasbrouck arrived at the appointed patch of road. She had been instructed to bring her "best" shovel and so, she wrote in the Sibyl, she did; it was a fire shovel designed for scooping ashes from a fireplace. The road overseer replaced it with a standard shovel and instructed Hasbrouck to begin filling a wagon with debris. She did not comply. Instead Hasbrouck stood, leaning on her shovel, talking, and "calling the attention of other workmen from work."2 At one point she sat down and began tossing pebbles into the wagon. Finally she occupied herself by reading a newspaper. After the fifth day Hasbrouck did not return to work, resulting in her arrest.3 [End Page 317] Newspapers across the United States reported this incident, but these articles do not reveal for how long Hasbrouck was imprisoned or if her punishment included a fine.4 She wrote more explicitly of the incident in the Sibyl. "Remember we did not go there to do a man's day's work or to work out a man's tax," Hasbrouck wrote.5 Her deliberate insubordination proved a point; women would not accept taxation without representation. But Lydia Sayer Hasbrouck's protest against women's disenfranchisement went beyond simply agitating local officials. In the pages of the Sibyl Hasbrouck used her experiences fighting for suffrage to expose her readers to the hypocrisy of demanding women to fulfill the obligations of citizenship without allowing them equal rights. Lydia Sayer Hasbrouck was born in 1827 in Warwick, Orange County, New York, the fifth of eight children. Her father worked as a farmer and distiller of apple brandy. Although few details are known about Hasbrouck's childhood, local historians noted from interviews that her family often hosted gatherings in their home. During these events young Lydia was the center of attention. She was intelligent and independent; neighbors noted her fearlessness. In 1849, at age 22, this vivaciousness was likely what gave Hasbrouck the courage to abandon fashionable dress in favor of the short dress and trousers worn by dress reformers, also known as the "American Costume." During the 1850s and 1860s the American Costume was adopted by the faction of dress reformers who dedicated themselves primarily to improving women's health. Although Hasbrouck never explained how she learned about dress reform, based on the year of her adoption it is likely that she read about it in health reform publications. The design had first been promoted in 1849 by the hydropathic newspaper the Water Cure Journal as an alternative to fashion. Many reformers feared that corsets and the long, heavy skirts typically worn by middle-class women caused irreparable [End Page 318] damage to their bodies.6 A similar garment, the bloomer costume, would famously become associated with the women's rights movement in 1851 after Elizabeth Smith Miller, daughter of abolitionist Gerrit Smith, adopted it full time. Miller then introduced the design to her colleague Amelia Bloomer, for whom the costume was nicknamed. For Miller and Bloomer dress reform symbolized women...