With hopes that your computer won't have Y19C problems in the next few days, your Women's History Guide presents, for your pleasure and edification, the lyrics to "A Hundred Years Hence" by Fannie Gage (Frances Dana Gage).
This song was first presented nearly 25 years ago, on July 4, 1875. The music having been written by James Hutchinson, this was sung by the Hutchinson family of New Hampshire, who began their career in 1841 singing about American themes, especially suffrage, abolition, and temperance.
Perhaps a hundred years hence, when the next millennium is almost ready to begin, our sisters and brothers will have achieved some or all of the good wishes of which Mrs. Gage writes.
As the angels wished, nineteen centuries ago, Good Will to Men, may we wish this for humanity, one short century hence:
A Hundred Years Hence
One hundred years hence, what a change will be made,
In politics, morals, religion and trade.
In statemen who wrangle or ride on the fence,
Those things will be altered a hundred years hence.Our laws then will be uncompulsory rules,
Our prisons converted to national schools,
The pleasure of sinning 'tis all a pretense,
And so we will find it, a hundred years hence.Lying, cheating and fraud will be laid on the shelf,
Men will neither get drunk, nor be buond up in self,
But all live together, good neighbors and friends,
Just as Christian folks ought to, a hundred years hence.Oppression and war will be heard of no more
Nor the blood of a slave leave his print on our shore,
Conventions will then be a useless expense,
For we'll all go free suffrage, a hundred years hence.Instead of speech-making to satisfy wrong,
All will join the glad chorus to sing Freedom's song;
And if the Millenium is not a pretense,
We'll all be good brothers, — a hundred years hence.
Have a happy new year, and may 1900 bring good luck, good fortune, peace -- and the vote for women!
More on Frances Gage, on this site:
- Ain't I a Woman Sojourner Truth, 1851 - an 1881 account by Frances Gage of the famous speech by Sojourner Truth, anti-slavery activist and women's rights advocate
- Address To The First Anniversary of the American Equal Rights Association - an 1867 address by Frances D. Gage
More on the song "A Hundred Years Hence":
- Religio-Political Insights of 19th Century Women Hymnists and Lyric Poets: the last section of this essay is about Gage and her hymn, "A Hundred Years Hence." Also includes some analysis of Julia Ward Howe's hymn-writing efforts.
Related articles:
- Lucy Stone: The Progress of Fifty Years - a speech by Lucy Stone from the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, reviewing the progress of women's rights to that date
- January 1, 1901 special from your Women's History Guide
