Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 3.djvu/452

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A Woman's Congress.
411

active in his opposition. However, soon after this, the lectures of the college were open to ladies, and a few years later President Barnard warmly recommended that young women should be admitted as students to all the privileges of the university.

A Woman's Congress was organized at New York, October 15, 16, 17, 1873, in the Union League Theater. Representative women[1]were there from all parts of the country. Its object was similar to the social science organizations—the discussion of a wider range of subjects than could be tolerated on the platforms of any specific reform. Mary A. Livermore presided, and the meeting was considered a great success. The speeches and proceedings were published in pamphlet form, and still are from year to year. This had been an idea long brewing in many minds, and was at last realized through the organizing talent of Mrs. Charlotte B. Wilbour, the originator of Sorosis. From year to year they have held regular meetings in the chief cities of the different States.

Dr. Clemence Lozier,[2]president of the city society, early opened her spacious parlors to the monthly meetings, where they have been held for many years. This association has been active and vigilant, taking note of and furthering every step of progress in Church and State. Mrs. Lozier and Mrs. Blake have worked most effectively together, the former furnishing the sinews of war, and the latter making the attack all along the line, to the terror of the faint-hearted.

The era of centennial celebrations was now approaching, and it was proposed to hold a suitable commemoration on the one-hundredth anniversary of the Boston tea-party, December 16, 1873. Union League Theater was, on the appointed evening, filled to its utmost capacity. The platform was decorated with

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  1. Julia Ward Howe, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Mary F. Eastman, Helen Potter, Sarah Andrews Spencer, Augusta Cooper Bristol, Alice Fletcher, Maria Mitchell, professor at Vassar College, Isabella Beecher Hooker, Frances Ellen Burr, Abby Smith, Rossella E. Buckingham, and others.
  2. Dr. Clemence Lozier was born of a good family in New Jersey. She was married at the early age of 16, and widowed at 27, left with a young family without means of support. But being an excellent teacher, she soon found employment. For eleven years she was principal of a young ladies' seminary. By natural instinct a physician and a healer, she determined to fit herself for that profession. A physician of the old school assisted her in her medical studies, and in 1853 she received a diploma from the Eclectic College of Syracuse, and shortly after established herself in New York, where her practice steadily increased, until her professional income was one of the largest in the city. In 1860 she began a course of free medical lectures to women, which continued for three years, culminating in "The New York Medical College for Women," which was chartered in 1863. The foundation and establishment of this institution was the crowning work of her life, to which she has devoted time and money. From the first she has been dean of the faculty, and after years of struggle at last has the satisfaction of seeing it a complete success, owning a fine building up town, with hospital and dispensary attached.