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A 19th Century Evangelical
Organizer
Evangelist Catherine Booth (1829-1890),
cofounder of the Salvation Army, was also an excellent organizer.
Her "Maiden Tribute Campaign" lasted from July 1884 until
August 1885 when parliament raised the legal age of girls from 12 to
16 years. The campaign against child prostitution started with a
series of ten newspaper articles in a 12,000 circulation paper which
soon reached over one million! Then she led mass meetings of up to
5,000. She sought and partly gained a voluntary ally of Queen
Victoria. Finally the army presented a petition with
393,000. What a series of actions by this evangelical Christian
organizer! For further information see Catherine Booth (CB)
by Roger J. Green, BakerBooks, 1996, p. 253-260 and The Life of
Catherine Booth (LCB) by F. de L. Booth-Tucker, Vol. 2., Revell,
1896, p. 464-483. Quotes below from these sources.
Excerpts of 1st letter to the Queen June 3,
1885
"... I feel
sure that if your Majesty could only be made acquainted with the
awful sacrifice of infant purity, health, and happiness, to the
vices of the evil-minded men who oppose the raising of the age, your
mother's heart would bleed with pity. ... I feel that your womanly
feelings would be roused to indignation, and that your Majesty would
make the remaining years of your glorious reign even more
illustrious ... to save the female children of your people from a
fate worse than that of slaves or savages. May He who is the Avenger
of the oppressed, incline the heart of your Majesty to come to His
help in this matter, prays Yours, on behalf of the innocents,
Catherine Booth
(response)
"Her Majesty, fully sympathizing with Mrs. Booth on the painful
subject to which the letter refers, has already had communication
thereon with a lady closely connected with the Government, to whom
Mrs. Booth's letter will be immediately forwarded." (CB, p.
255-256)
Excerpts of letter to Prime Minister E. E.
Gladstone
"My heart has been so oppressed of
late with the awful disclosures forced upon us in connection with
our movement throughout the kingdom ... insist upon the
re-introduction of the Criminal Law Amendment Bill .. I think I may
thoughtfully say that I represent hundreds of thousands of the
working classes in this request ... I would entreat you ... to raise
the age of the responsibility of girls to seventeen ...
(reply) "Mr.
Gladstone ... fears he cannot at a moment like the present ...
examine personally the questions you touch on ... forward(ed) your
communication to the Home Secretary ..." (LCB, p. 476-477)
From four letters to daughter Emma
"I
wrote to the Queen on Thursday about it, and received a most
gracious reply. ... All this on the top of our other work is
killing. However, I have felt better the last few days. ...
"These fiends perpetrating such
hellish crimes as these! It is a wonder that the people do not lynch
them and burn their houses about their ears! ... Pray that we may be
able to burst up this machinery of hell. ... Pray for me. Oh, if I
were only - but it is of no use wishing. You young ones must take my
place and do better. I am writing Lord Salisbury, who is now Prime
Minister, a somewhat similar letter to the one I sent Mr. Gladstone
on the question. We are determined to have the law altered. ...
"I am more distressed than I can say
at being just now so helpless physically, However, I am mending, and
hope to be able to address two meetings on the subject ... The
excitement in the city and in the House of Commons yesterday was
unparalleled for many years gone by. They say there was nothing else
talked about in the House. ... we see no way to mend the evil but by
fighting it out. I know you will pray for us ... God will preserve
us, and perhaps use us to do a great work of deliverance for
thousands of poor helpless girls. ...
"We had a grand time at Exeter Hall
last night; ... Two Members of Parliament spoke. The Hall crowded to
its utmost capacity. ... We are trying to arrange a meeting in the
Free Trade Hall, Manchester, on Monday, and we have meeting for
women only in Exeter Hall on Thursday nest. ... I felt as though I
must go and walk the streets and besiege the dens where these
hellish iniquities are going on. To keep quiet seemed like being a
traitor for humanity. Oh, it has been a fearful time. However, God
has helped me to speak. ... the truth I uttered electrified the
people till they could hardly sit on their seats. They shouted and
clapped and wept in all directions. I have rested better the last
two nights. Pray for me." (LCB, p.479-81)
A second and third letter to the Queen - July
14, 1885
"...
legislation will not effect what requires to be done. .. it would be
a great encouragement to thousands of those engaged in this struggle
if your Majest would at this juncture graciously send us a word of
sympathy and encouragement to be read at our mass meetings in
different part s of the kingdom, the first of which takes place on
Thursday evening next at Exeter Hall. All ow me to add that it would
cheer your Majesty to hear the responses of immense audiences in
different parts of the land ...
(reply) "...
the Queen feels very deeply on the subject ... it would not be
desirable for the Queen to express any opinion upon the matter
... of a Measure before Parliament."
A new tact
"... I fully
appreciate the delicacy of Her Majesty's position at the present
juncture. ... I wish to be allowed to convey to the people of
England that Her Majesty is fully with us in abhorrence of the
iniquities ... I am proposing therefore to read the note which Her
Majesty has been pleased to send me by your Grace at a meeting of
5,000 people on Monday night in London, and also at large meetings
in Yorkshire ... send a line ...or telegraph if Her Majesty objects
to my proposition ... Otherwise, I will conclude that I may use the
letter in the manner I have indicated. Catherine Booth"
"With no response forthcoming, Catherine assured people in her
public addresses that the heart of the queen was with them in this
cause!" (CB, p. 256-8)
The clincher action of the petition announced
July 18, 1885
"The Booths
wrote a petition to the House which in the course of seventeen days
received 393,000 signatures. The petition was nearly two miles in
length and was coiled up into an immense roll bound and draped with
Salvation Army colors - yellow, red, and blue. The petition was then
conveyed through London to Trafalgar Square, accompanied by an
escort of mothers and the men cadets' band. To comply with the law
that no procession should approach within a mile of Westminster when
the House was in session, the petition was then carried down
Whitehall on the shoulders of eight cadets and laid on the floor of
the House because there was not sufficient room on the customary
commons table. ...
"The Home Secretary decided to resume
debate on the Criminal Law Amendment Act, and on August 14, 1885,
after a third reading, the bill carried and the age of consent was
raised to sixteen. A thanksgiving meeting was held in the Exeter
Hall." (CB, p. 259-60)
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