cause it had opened its doors to people of different
colors upon terms of equality. But now the children of those who
had committed these outrages and follies, were applauding the
very principles which their fathers had condemned. After the
demonstrations of this first day, I found myself a welcome member
of the convention, and cordial greeting took the place of cold
aversion. The victory was short, signal, and complete.

This experience shows how little knowledge politicians have of what
lies in the hearts of the people; that even statesmen seldom
appreciate the many steps in progressive thought already achieved,
before there is any popular demonstration. It shows, too, the
commanding influence of personal dignity and lofty self-respect,
incapable of being either flattered or coerced to take any position
among men but one of absolute equality. And this was exactly the
position taken by those women who opposed the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Loyalists' Convention was held at a most critical period in the
Nation's life; the policy and action of all the Southern States
centered in its deliberations. Though Mr. Douglass would not hold the
rightful representation of his race in abeyance to the success of the
Convention, the pacification of the South, the policy of the border
States, nor the life of the Nation, yet he too criticised the women
who took precisely the same position in maintaining the dignity of sex
against the action of the Republican party and the whole Northern
policy of reconstruction. What to either class was the nation's life,
so long as the flag gave them no protection against the humiliating
distinctions of caste? What to them were boasted republican
institutions, so long as their rights, privileges, and immunities as
citizens were denied? White men could only be taught the lesson of a
common humanity by just such resistance as these oppressed classes
made. Protests and petitions, falling like seeds here and there on
good ground, at last moved some liberal Republicans to action, and
several bills recognizing the political existence of women were duly
presented. The best results of the war have been the struggle and
determination of black men and women for recognition in the
reconstruction, for they have compelled the nation's consideration of
the vital principles of republican government, and secured for both
classes many rights and privileges heretofore unknown.

The congre