Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 2.djvu/467

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Reception at the St. James Hotel.
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meetings and social discussions of the British Associations at Liverpool, and the Social Science Congress at Neweastle, have all been crowded into the last fortnight. Wishing you and your noble workers God-specd, believe me,

Yours, most truly,Emily Faithful

Dear Ladies:—It would give me great pleasure to accept your kind invitation to be present at your meeting to-day, if it were possible, bnt it is not.

Go on with your great work; it is arduous, but it is sublime! You are doing good that you know not of in old Europe. You have taken the initiative, and she is following hard after. I wich to recommend to you the appeal of Mme. Gasparin to the American women to join in her heart-cry for peace. Coming so recently as I have, from the seat of war—from Paris and from Rome—I can testify to the earnest, the beseeching appeal of Europeav women to their sisters in America to give them help in this their hour of calamity and necd—the help of sympathy, the succor of love!

The day before I Ieft France, one of the noblest of French women, Mademoiselle Daubie (the distinguished author of that remarkable work, "The Poor Women of the Nineteenth Century," which every woman and legislator ought to read,) said to me: "We are looking wistfully every whither for some hand stretched out through the darkness, but, alas! there is none. But you are going to America. Oh! tell the women there to help us in this struggle with ignorance, corruption, and war." Let us heed this cry.

France lies prostrate in the dust! But Rome is free! So in all human sorrow there is some hope. Let. us, then, lift up the one by all possible help, remembering her greatness, and pity her misfortunes; having faith in her capabilities, and praying for her liberty—for that liberty that can only be practicable when built upon intelligence and virtue, and only real when woman is not the slave, but the helpmate of man; and let us rejoice with that other sister—Italia—who is now lifting up her face toward heaven, and after these long years of anguish and waiting the mother is restored to her children!

The rule of the Cæsars is gone, and the reign of absolutism is passing away! And while the science of men goes flashing round the earth—over sea and land—uniting the nations in treaties of commerce and compacts of liberty, the warm, generous heart of woman shall keep pace, uniting humanity in sympathy and love.

I am, dear ladies, yours most respectfully, Emelia J. Merriman.[1]

The speakers during the day gave many delightful reminiscences of the noble men and women who had given their earnest efforts to promote this great reform, and dwelt with hope on the many encouraging steps of progress that had marked the years since the initiative steps were taken. The day before the Convention an elegant reception was held at the St. James Hotel. Nearly two hundred persons called during the afternoon, and about forty sat down to a sumptuous dinner.[2]

The Washington Convention of 1871[3] was thus described by The "Republican" of that city:

———

  1. Married afterwards to Pére Hyacinth.
  2. Chief among the guests were Mrs. Margaret Lucas, of Scotland, sister of John and Jacob Bright; Mrs. Governor Jewell, of Conn.; Mrs. Elmes, of Birmingham; Mrs. Caroline Stratton, and Miss Sarah Pugh, of Philadelphia; Lucretia Mott, Abby H. Price, Adelle Hazlett, Olympia Brown, Mrs. Davis, Mrs. Lucas, Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. Gage, and Miss Anthony; Mrs. Godbie, wife of one of the leading reform advocates of Utah; Mrs. Denman, of Quincy, Ill.; Mrs. Laura Curtis Bullard, and Dr. Clemence Lozier. Among the gentlemen present were Alexander Delmar, Rev. Henry Powers, Mr. Lewis, of the National Intelligencer, Col. Hastings, Theodore Tilton, Oliver Johnson, Prof. Wilcox, and Mr. Packard, of the Business College, and others.
  3. Call For A National Suffrage Convention At Washington.—We, the under-