fathers, "Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." The women of America pay taxes for the support of the Government, and their consent should be had in matters affecting their welfare and their lives. We have been making our work known for years, but it has been to no purpose, and we have come to the conclusion that the only way to remedy the evil is to get the ballot.... There is nothing to be asked for now but the ballot. I shall never ask for anything less than that while I live.
Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, the President, then addressed the Convention. Ladies and Gentlemen:—We expect that every great movement in the community will, from various reasons, meet with ridicule and depreciation, as well as plain, honest resistance. Nor are we indisposed to take our share in the merriment that is made. We are, however, indisposed to have it said that this is a complaining movement on the part of women. For, although there may be occasions of single outbursts of this kind, this movement has no such parentage, and it is progressing under no such motives. It has long been in the hearts of many that women should be raised to an equality in civil affairs with men, but that great discussion which aroused and instructed the conscience of the nation, and, above all, that issue of war which brought men down to the very foundations of their belief, has been fruitful in raising a multitude of questions which are advancing now and which are to be consummated. Among these is the question, "Are women equal with men?" You might as well ask, "Are all men equal to each other?" For you adjudicate no questions in this country on the ground of superiority or inferiority of classes among men. It makes no difference, therefore, in regard to this question, whether women be superior or inferior. The question is simply this: have they not, before the law, the same rights that men have, and ought they not to have, in the administration of public interests, precisely the same power that men have? Now, in arguing this question—in urging it upon the community, I find a fear first, lest woman's nature should deteriorate. Kings were always afraid that if their nobles got power it would make them dissolute and reckless and grasping, and the nobles were always afraid of the burgher class, that if they should get political honor, it would only puff them up and make them unmanageable, and the burgher class, when they have obtained their political privileges, were afraid to extend a share in these privileges to the yeomanry, the peasantry. You never saw one upper class who held a prerogative that could ever be made to see any reason why the inferior class should have a share of it. It is the universal law of the superior class to keep the privileges to themselves, and the privileges have usually had to be wrested from them.
In the first place, what has been the effect upon woman of enlarging the sphere of her influence? There can be no question that from generation to generation since the introduction of Christianity the sphere of woman has been enlarging. She has been growing up in the scale of power; has she been going down in the scale of moral character? You know as well as I do that they are better, and that, instead of deteriorating their character, it has improved them and augmented the volume of their being, and they are women still.
But it is said that "in politics it is different." In what way is it different? Do you hesitate to say, "Jane, on your way to school please take these let-