at all; who have acquiesced in the old order, and who have accepted the prejudices of men. Shall their unthinking acquiescence or the intelligent wish of their thoughtful sisters decide the question?
We can be patient. Our fathers won their independence of England by the logic of English ideas. We will persuade America by the eloquence of American principles. In one of the fierce Western battles among the mountains, General Thomas was watching a body of his troops painfully pushing their way up a steep hill against a withering fire. Victory seemed impossible, and the General—even he a rock of valor and patriotism—exclaimed, "They can't do it; they'll never reach the top!" His chief-of-staff, watching the struggle with equal earnestness, placed his hand on his commander's arm and said softly, "Time, time, General; give them time;" and presently the moist eyes of the brave leader saw his soldiers victorious upon the summit. They were American soldiers. So are we. They were fighting our American battle. So are we. They were climbing a precipice. So are we. The great heart of their General gave them time and they conquered. The great heart of our country will give us time and we shall triumph.
Mrs. Lucy Stone then introduced Hon. George W. Julian, member of Congress from Indiana. "His name," she said, "will always be held in grateful remembrance by good women as the author of the XVI. Amendment."
Mr. Julian said that, as a thorough-going radical in politics and a sincere believer in democracy as a principle, he could not see how he was to argue the question of woman suffrage, even if he had the time. Woman's rights, to his mind, rested upon precisely the same grounds upon which men's rights rest; and to argue the question of woman's rights is to argue the question of human rights. Subscribing as he did to the great primal truth of the sacredness of human rights, the same logic which held him to that compelled him—it is inexorable logic—to stand by the legitimate results to which it leads. The issue was between aristocracy and privilege on one side, and democracy and equality of inherent right on the other. Speaking of the XVI. Amendment, he said: "Believing as I do in democracy in the large and proper and full sense of the term, and being unwilling to write myself down a hypocrite or liar by refusing to women equal participation in rights which I insist upon for myself as a citizen of the United States, I thought it was my duty to introduce into the Congress of the United States a XVI. Amendment to the Constitution proposing to give to one half of our citizens who are to-day disfranchised a voice in the system of laws and government by which the other half of the citizens now govern them. Should it succeed, you will have a true and real democracy in this land; a Government emphatically of the people, for the people, and by the people.
Mrs. Celia Burleigh was then introduced, and said: Ladies and gentlemen, I am not generally in favor of compromises, but I come before you to-night to propose a compromise. I had written a speech for the occasion, and—a—I assure you it was a very good speech. As I am compassionate, however, if you will take my word for it that it is a very good speech I will not inflict it upon you.
These remarks brought such thunders of applause, that in response to the
