vance in womanhood there will be an advance in manhood, and this will be one of the grand results of equal suffrage.
A long argument was then made by Hon. George W. Julian. After the Convention was called to order at the evening session, the Committee on Nominations[1] reported.
Miss Mary F. Eastman, of Massachusetts, spoke as follows: It has been said that the greatest study of mankind is man. I do not know but we shall all believe, before we get through the three days' session of this congress, that the greatest study of womankind is woman! Indeed, from being a good deal overlooked in various ways, she has come to be almost the topic of the age, and strangely enough is she considered. According to the standpoint of the observer, woman is a riddle to be solved, a conundrum to be guessed, a puzzle to be interpreted, a mystery to be explained, a problem to be studied, a paradox to be reconciled. She is a toy or a drudge, a mistress or a servant, a queen or a slave, as circumstances may decide. She is at once an irresponsible being, who must accept the destiny which comes to her with as little power of resistance as the thistle-down upon the wind, or the sea-weed which the tide leaves to bleach on the rocks or sucks back to engulf in its own unfathomed depth—or she is responsible for everything, from Adam's eating of the apple in Paradise to the financial confusion which agitates us to-day; the first because she coveted so much knowledge, the second because she wants so many clothes. I wish we could, as speedily as possible without a general crash, lay aside this nonsense (regardless of the great loss of sirens and angels, which really never seemed to me exactly adapted to earthly conditions), and learn to regard woman as simply a human being, plus the powers and gifts peculiar to her sex, just as man is a human being, plus the powers and gifts peculiar to his sex. Here is a common basis of likeness sufficient to give community of interests and pursuits, with a variation which makes them mutually attractive and serviceable, each recognizing in the other the complement of himself and herself....
Speeches were also delivered by Mrs. S. E. Franklin, Rev. Fred. A. Hinckley, and Mrs. J. Ellen Foster. The Rev. John Snyder, of St. Louis, the last speaker of the evening, although the hour was late, highly entertained the audience with an address on the rights of all humanity.
The Tenth Annual Meeting of the American Woman Suffrage Association was held at Cincinnati, November 4th and 5th, 1879. The hall had been tastefully decorated. Over the platform in large letters were inscribed, "Equal Work;" "Equal Wages;" "Welcome;" while around the entire hall ran evergreens in loops and circles. Elias Longley, the constant and true friend of suffrage for women, had taken charge of the advertising, and it was most effectively done. The newspapers showed good will in advance by pleasant local notices. Mrs. Margeret V. Longley, who has been a member of the American Association from the time it was organized, who is clear-eyed and true-hearted, took charge of arrangements for entertainment and hospitality. She was aided in this by Mrs. E. A. Latta, who has come later to the work, but who has brought her heart and conscience
- ↑ President—Mrs. Rebecca N. Hazard, of Missouri.
