playthings, who ask for[Pg 833] better. The distance between men and women is lessening every year. Colleges are bringing them on to the same plane, and the agitation of this question of woman's right to a voice in the government, has given and is giving men new ideas respecting the strength of woman's intellect and her determination to be more than a doll in this busy world.
Whether we are made voting citizens or not, let no man beguile himself with the thought that the old order of things will be restored. They who step into light and freedom will not retrace their steps. This end is equality, civil, religious and political—there is no stopping-place this side of that. My best wishes are with you and yours.
Miss Huldah B. Loud, of East Abington, Mass., was the first speaker: Scorned by the Democrats and fawned upon by the Republicans, who profess but to betray, under these circumstances we come again to the fight. We believe in liberty in the highest degree, such liberty as our fathers fought for, and this struggle will go on until that liberty is gained; liberty is the pursuit of life, health, and happiness. We look in vain for honesty in political life. We turn in disgust from the meaningless platitudes of the Republican Convention at Worcester, from the incidental admission of a plank in the platform which means nothing.
If we would be recognized as a power by political parties, every suffragist should withhold his ballot, and thus politicians would be brought to their senses. If we labor for anything, if we mean anything, we mean woman suffrage, and let us not give a moral or material support, politically, to the man who is not in harmony with the principle of free suffrage in its broadest significance.
We are called unwomanly for our advocacy of this priceless boon to women. We are willing that our womanly character should stand by the side of those who oppose this movement. Do you call Lucy Stone, the woman reformer of the world, with her eloquence, her soft voice, her matchless, unwearied work for all that is good, with her motherly appearance, do you call such a woman unwomanly? Or Margaret Fuller, or Julia Ward Howe, do you call these women unwomanly? Then let us take our place by them, cast in our lot with them and be called unwomanly. It is said, and it is sadly true, that many women do not want the ballot; and it is no less sadly true that many of our most bitter opponents are our sister women. But if they do not want the ballot, if you deprive me of the right you do me a grievous wrong. It is said that if we were given the privilege of the ballot, we would not use it. Is it any reason if I do not choose to avail myself of my rights that I should be deprived of them? Why do you consult women if this right shall be given them? You did not consult the slave in regard to his freedom, but you said he was wanted for the salvation of the country, and you took him and forced freedom upon him.
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe and Mrs. Mary A. Livermore spoke alike with great force and earnestness upon the moral and religious phases of the movement.
Mrs. Frances Watkins Harper, of Philadelphia, made the closing speech. She showed that much as white women need the ballot, colored women need it more. Although the women of her race are no longer sold on the auction block, they are subjected to the legal authority of ignorant and often degraded men. She rejoiced in the progress already made, but