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Miss Hindman urged the importance of suffragists working inside the churches. Here is where the sympathies of society center. We have eight million professed Christians, church-members; three-fourths of these are women. Miss Hindman gave very encouraging accounts of success in enlisting the pastors and women of the churches in the suffrage work, also of the growth of woman suffrage sentiment among the temperance women of the West.

The Hutchinsons sang "The Star Spangled Banner," the audience joining in the chorus.

Mrs. Stone uttered her dissent for the words and spirit of the song so long as women are without political rights. In conclusion she offered the following resolutions:

1. Resolved, That on this Centennial Anniversary of American Freedom, we re-affirm the principle that "Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed"—and that "Taxation without representation is tyranny." Yet women are governed without consent, and taxed without representation.

2. Resolved, That we celebrate the establishment of woman suffrage in New Jersey, a hundred years ago, as the prophecy and forerunner of the American future. We point with pride to the existence of woman suffrage in Wyoming and Utah, and we declare that as the first century of Independence has achieved equal rights and impartial suffrage for men, so the next century will achieve equal rights for all American citizens irrespective of sex.

The resolutions were unanimously adopted, and the meeting adjourned.

 

The Eighth Annual Meeting of the American Woman Suffrage Association commenced on October 2, 1876, at Handel and Haydn Hall, Philadelphia. Mrs. Mary A. Livermore presided and made the opening address.

The Committee on Credentials made a partial report, showing one hundred and three delegates present, representing twenty-three States and Territories. Two other States reported themselves at the close of the morning meeting, making in all twenty-five States and Territories^[1] represented. Brief addresses were made by Mrs. Howe and Mrs. Frances W. Harper. Letters were read from William Lloyd Garrison, and J. W. Kingman, of Wyoming. The Chairman of the Committee on Resolutions reported the following, which were accepted for separate consideration:

The American Woman Suffrage Association affirms: That woman's right to vote already exists in theory under a government based upon the consent of the governed; that her right to vote implies her right to take part in the nomination of her representatives in the primary meetings of the parties, and that this right can be granted at any time, by the State Convention of any party, without any change of constitution or laws. We therefore recommend the suffragists of each State to address a memorial to every political convention, asking for the adoption of a resolution. "That hereafter, women who are identified in principle with the party, and who possess the qualifications of age and residence required of male voters, are invited to take part in its primary meetings, with an equal voice and vote in the nomination of candidates and the transaction of business."

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1. Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Texas, Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, Colorado, California, Oregon, District of Columbia.