Sermon by the Rev. Charles J. Stephens
March 2, 2014
Opening Words: All around us lies what we neither understand nor use. Our capacities, our instincts for this our present sphere are but half developed. Let us confine ourselves to that till the lesson be learned; let us be completely natural; before we trouble ourselves with the supernatural. I never see any of these things but I long to get away and lie under a green tree and let the wind blow on me. There is marvel and charm enough in that for me. ‐‐
ʺGood Senseʺ in a dialogue between Free Hope, Old Church, Good Sense, and Self ‐Poise. p. 127
Chalice Lighting: “If you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it.”
(These words have also been attributed to Thomas Fuller, sometimes in published works, but without a definite citation of either author.)
READING: We would have every arbitrary barrier thrown down. We would have every path laid open to Woman as freely as to Man. Were this done, and a slight temporary fermentation allowed to subside, we should see crystallizations more pure and of more various beauty. We believe the divine energy would pervade nature to a degree unknown in the history of former ages, and that no discordant collision, but a ravishing harmony of the spheres, would ensue.
Yet, then and only then will mankind be ripe for this, when inward and outward freedom for Woman as much as for Man shall be acknowledged as a right, not yielded as a concession. ‐‐ Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845)
What Woman needs is not as a woman to act or rule, but as a nature to grow, as an intellect to discern, as a soul to live freely and unimpeded. ‐‐ Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845)
The position I early was enabled to take was one of self‐reliance. And were all women as sure of their wants as I was, the result would be the same. But they are so overloaded with precepts and guardians who think that nothing is so much to be dreaded for a woman as originality of thought or character, that their minds are impeded with doubts till they lose their chance of fair, free proportions. The difficulty is to get them to the point from which they shall naturally develop self‐respect, and learn self‐help. ‐‐ Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845)
Sermon: Our Lady of Wisdom – and Wit, Equality, and Social Justice
Someone asked me if we, Unitarian Universalists, had saints. Individual leaders do come to mind like Susan B. Anthony John Murray, William Ellery Channing, Julia Ward Howe, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. But, I think Kimberly French had it right when she wrote, “If Unitarian Universalism were the sort of religion that canonized saints, then Margaret Fuller would be ‘Our Lady of Wisdom—and Wit, Equality, and Social Justice.’” Because of her neglect by historians, she continued, “…if we were completely honest, we might have to call her Our Lady of Perpetual Obscurity.”
Not many of our contemporaries have even heard of Margaret Fuller. Because I am a Unitarian Universalist minister who loves history, I have long admired her prominent role in the Transcendentalist movement. During recent years, I have learned even more about Margaret Fuller and I am confident that there is much more that we have yet to learn.
It is amazing that Margaret Fuller who wrote the first book by an American about equality for women has remained so obscure. Margaret Fuller was the first war correspondent, who served in combat in Italy and who set the standards for later war correspondents and yet she remains obscure today? How, could Margaret Fuller the first woman journalist on Horace Greeley’s New York Daily Tribune as well as the editor of the Dial Magazine and the first woman literary critic remain so obscure?
Part of the reason could be that she had a brief life. Sara Margaret Fuller was born into a prominent Unitarian family in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1810. Unfortunately, she died forty years later on July 19,1850 in a shipwreck. Yet, in her forty years, Margaret Fuller accomplished more than most men or women could ever hope to accomplish in twice as many years.
Another reason why Margaret Fuller has remained obscure is that she was radically visionary. She promoted both “…social and personal transformation, rationalism and mysticism, intellectual freedom and religious pluralism, and democracy and human rights outside our borders—(which) resonate with modern Unitarian Universalism. She definitely was a prophetic woman who demonstrated her principles in word and deed.” (Kimberly French)
Unfortunately, the major reason she has remained largely unknown as a significant historical figure is that she was a woman. Moreover, Margaret Fuller was a woman who assertively refused to conform to common assumptions or understandings of what being a woman meant in the 1800’s.
People considered Margaret not only bright, but also arrogant, aggressive and outspoken. She lived by her maxim, “Truth at all costs.” She courageously challenged long-standing assumptions about friendship, love, marriage and celibacy. Back in the early 1800’s she wrote that homosexuality was natural and ought to be acceptable in society. She wrote in defense of the character and actions of George Sand and Madame de Stael, both of whom openly had love affairs. She was sympathetic toward the poor and the insane. Margaret wrote about the need for halfway houses for jailed prostitutes. She publicly challenged men to lead sexual lives that paralleled the high ideals society demanded for women. Margaret Fuller was defiantly “Our Lady of Wisdom—and Wit, Equality, and Social Justice” and she had more than a touch of in your face defiance.
Fuller helped lead Unitarians of her day toward progressive social justice positions. I do not doubt that if Margaret Fuller were alive today, she would be working for the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women.
We are focusing on International Women’s Day partially because of the plight of women worldwide. Every minute of every 24-hour day a woman dies in childbirth or from complications of pregnancy. That calculates to about forty women just since the start of our Service of Worship. How many of those mothers would be alive to better raise their other children today if they had access to family planning counseling and progressive family health care? More than one million children are left motherless every year due to maternal deaths.
Margaret’s father Timothy Fuller was a successful Harvard lawyer. He was in the Massachusetts legislature and the United States Congress. He was not only Margaret Fuller’s father but also the great-grandfather of inventor and thinker R. Buckminster Fuller and the great-great-great-grandfather of the recent Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner.
In 1810, Timothy Fuller was disappointed when his first child was not a boy. Nevertheless, he educated her as he had been educated and the way he would have educated a son. At age three, he started Margaret out in a rigorous classical education, complete with Latin, Greek, grammar, history, mathematics, music, plus modern languages. By the time she was six-years-old Margaret was reading and translating Virgil. When her father returned home from his office, he would have her stay up late reciting what she had learned that day.
Margaret was brilliant and became accomplished and intellectually competitive. She was said to be insufferable. She eventually attended several schools for short times. In an effort to help her socially, her parents sent invitations to ninety classmates for a ball in her honor when she was twelve. The few classmates who accepted the invitation would not speak to Margaret afterward.
Margaret was so brilliant and strong-minded that she intimidated people. She demanded a depth of friendship that frightened away those of both sexes. Such isolation caused her to fall into depression and heartache. Her mother was ailing and her father put her in charge of running the household and educating her younger siblings, but she wrote, “I pour ideas into the heads of the little Fullers; much runs out.”
In 1836, at the age of 26, Margaret’s father died of cholera. She became the person in charge of financial wellbeing of her mother and her siblings. Of course, it was a male dominated world, and her uncle was placed nominally in control of the estate. Another significant event in Margaret’s life happened in 1836. She visited Ralph Waldo Emerson in Concord, MA and soon moved to Boston where she taught for Bronson Alcott.
This is when she discovered her mystical side that drew her to Transcendentalism. She wrote, “How is it that I seem to be this Margaret Fuller? What does it mean? What shall I do about it? . . . I saw there was no self; that selfishness was all folly . . . that it was only because I thought self real that I suffered; that I had only to live in the idea of the all, and all was mine.” The major goal in her life that made any sense to her was to continue growing.
It was not until she was older that she discovered some impressive peers who appreciated her intellectual gifts. Many of her young friends such as James Freeman Clarke, Frederic Henry Hedge, George Ripley and William Henry Channing went to Harvard and became prominent Unitarian ministers, but the young women she knew became minister’s wives.
Soon after that, she started to conduct discussion groups in nearby Jamaica Plain which she called “Conversations.,” Between 1840 and 1844, some 200 very prominent people, mostly women, paid to came to those “Conversations.” Among the attendees were Julia Ward Howe and Elizabeth, Mary, and Sophia Peabody, three sisters. Sophia married Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mary married Horace Mann and Elizabeth was prominent in the Transcendentalist movement. Interestingly, Mary Mann was the great grandmother of Kay Meserve.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote that Margaret’s “Conversations” were “a vindication of women’s right to think.” Margaret Fuller wanted to help women answer the important personal questions concerning what they were born to do and how they could go about doing it.
She did not just write about this. In 1844, she went to the Great Lakes area a rugged frontier area. While there, she wrote the book, Summer on the Lakes. She wrote about the excitement of being in the great outdoors, shooting rapids in a canoe, and about the hardships of pioneer women and the suffering of Native Americans.
Margaret was respected as an intellectual equal to the leading Transcendentalists. She developed a hot-and-cold intellectual friendship with Ralph Waldo Emerson. She was not afraid to challenge Emerson’s ideas or the celebrated poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow whom she thought was overrated. After spending a day with Emerson, she wrote in her journal, “We agreed that my god was Love, his Truth.”
While working at the New York Tribune she visited Sing Sing prison for an article. She wrote more than 250 columns often confronting race and class issues from the perspective of a woman.
In 1846, she was able to travel to Europe where she was welcomed to the homes of intellectuals including Thomas Carlyle, William Wordsworth and George Sands. While in Europe, she heard more and more about the Italian Revolution against the Austrians and the Vatican and soon traveled there. She sent stories about the war to the Tribune. She urged others to join in the support of the Italian revolution.
She proclaimed herself a citizen of Italy and joined in the revolution. She became the director of two Italian hospitals that predate both Florence Nightingale and Clara Barton’s work. In fact, she may have inspired Florence Nightingale who visited Rome when Margaret was organizing hospitals.
Margaret fell in love with a handsome a fellow revolutionary, Giovanni Angelo Ossoli, who was younger than her. At 38 she had a child with him. She said they were married, but there are no records of their marriage.
Unfortunately, the fledgling democracy they helped initiate in Italy did not last long. Margaret and her family left Italy on a merchant ship bound for America. Sadly, in a hurricane, the ship ran ashore off Fire Island, NY. They were carrying 150 tons of marble that smashed the hold. Some on board were able to swim for shore. Neither Fuller nor Ossoli could swim. At one point, people offered Margaret a place on a lifeboat, but she refused to leave her family and all three drowned. Emerson was so upset that he sent Henry David Thoreau to investigate and William Ellery Channing, known as the father of Unitarianism visited the scene.
Our Lady of Wisdom -& Wit, Equality, & Social Justice deserves to be raised from obscurity where she has too long been entombed.
