t administration. Others have set forth, with equal
clearness, the ignorance of our rulers on the question of
finance....

The following letters were received and read in the Convention:

NEW YORK, Jan. 14, 1869.

MRS. JOSEPHINE S. GRIFFING,--_Dear Madam_:--Your favor of the 6th
inst. is received. Permit me to assure you it would give me great
pleasure to be present at your important convention of the 19th,
but indisposition will not allow me that gratification.

Looking at all the circumstances; the position, the epoch, and
the efforts now being made to extend the right to the ballot,
your Convention is perhaps the most important that was ever held.
It is a true maxim, that it is easier to do justice than
injustice; to do right than wrong; and to do it at once, than by
small degrees. How much better and easier it would have been for
Congress, when they enfranchised all the men of the District of
Columbia, had they included the women also; but better late than
never. Let the National government, to which the States have a
right to look for good example, do justice to woman now, and all
the States will follow....

It was a terrible mistake and a fundamental error, based upon
ignorance and injustice, ever to have introduced the word "male"
into the Federal Constitution. The terms "male" and "female"
simply designate the physical or animal distinction between the
sexes, and ought be used only in speaking of the lower animals.
Human beings are men and women, possessed of human faculties and
understanding, which we call mind; and mind recognizes no sex,
therefore the term "male," as applied to human beings--to
citizens--ought to be expunged from the constitution and laws as
a last remnant of barbarism--when the animal, not mind, when
might, not right, governed the world. Let your Convention, then,
urge Congress to wipe out that purely animal distinction from the
national constitution. That noble instrument was destined to
govern intelligent, responsible human beings--men and women--not
sex. The childish argument that all women don't ask for the
franchise would hardly deserve notice were it not sometimes used
by men of sense. To all such I would say, examine ancient and
modern history, yes, even of your