the enjoyment of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"—as the Declaration of Independence declares "a people" to be entitled to these.
Surely it will not be said that the rights of half the people of the United States were ignored by the men who framed the Constitution of the United States. It was evidently the object of the Constitution to secure equal rights to all. The Constitution of the United States recognizes the great principle of human equality, and the rights of women can not be delegated to or represented by their husbands. Women who believe that they are responsible to God only, are not willing to be circumscribed by men.
Mrs. Hannah M. Tracy Cutler said that this was a progressive, a growing, and a glorious country. All people came here and found protection under its generous shelter, more or less. We had been digging away at this suffrage question until, in her opinion, we are getting pretty near the foundation of government. We are pulling up the old ideas and throwing them out of the way and making room for the grand tree of liberty to grow. That tree has already grown to considerable size, and flourished more or less under the generous protection of our institutions—less a good deal, the negro said a few years ago, though now he begins to realize that it is more.
We women are quite well protected. Sometimes we are protected a great deal more than we want to be. [Several ladies in the audience, "That's so!" and laughter.] The American men are the best men under the sun. Each one of them is a prince of the blood royal. That's a reasonably good compliment. Now, gentlemen, turn round and say to the women of America, "You are each and every one of you a princess by divine right, and we will give you even the half of our kingdom." That is all we ask. But they say, "Show us the precedent. The thing never has been done before. The women have been ignored in government from the earliest days until now," etc. Why, gentlemen, away back in the remote ages of history—so far that the memory of man runneth not distinctly thereto—we find that women not only lived and gave men to the world, but that they lived and gave laws to the world.
Mrs. Stone, the President, said she would like to speak to the delegates and friends, because she knew those who were here had been working in this cause for years. They are short of time, but all give it that deep, earnest baptism of work for the principles that underlie republican institutions. They would work until that end is achieved, or until death relieved them from their labor. She felt cheered on seeing the progress they had made. It was about twenty years since the speaker came to this city to deliver a course of lectures for woman's rights. They called it woman's rights in those days. They did not use the word suffrage at all; and, as she stood there now, her mind ran back over a score of years. When she counted the gains they had made, it seemed as if she had been in some fairy palace, and by charms the old wrongs had dropped away and new good had sprung up. They had fought for woman's rights, and had taken hold of the hands of little girls growing out of girlhood into womanhood—girls who must stand on their own feet and earn a living for themselves. When there was no father's hand or brother's arm to help, what could woman do? She looked out into the great thoroughfares of industry open to all men, and almost all were shut against her. Woman was a teacher at a dollar a day, and had