own times, and you will find
there never has been a time when all men of any country--white or
black--have ever asked for a reform. Reforms have to be claimed
and obtained by the few, who are in advance, for the benefit of
the many who lag behind. And when once obtained and almost forced
upon them, the mass of the people accept and enjoy their benefits
as a matter of course. Look at the petitions now pouring into
Congress for the franchise for women, and compare their thousands
of signatures with the few isolated names that graced our first
petitions to the Legislature of New York to secure to the married
woman the right to hold in her own name the property that
belonged to her, to secure to the poor, forsaken wife the right
to her earnings, and to the mother the right to her children.
"All" the women did not ask for those rights, but all accepted
them with joy and gladness when they were obtained; and so it
will be with the franchise. But woman's claim for the ballot does
not depend upon the numbers that demand it, or would exercise the
right; but upon precisely the same principles that man claims it
for himself. Chase, Sumner, Stevens, and many of both Houses of
Congress have, time after time, declared that the franchise means
"Security, Education, Responsibility, Self-respect, Prosperity,
and Independence." Taking all these assertions for granted and
fully appreciating all their benefits, in the name of security,
of education, of responsibility, of self-respect, of liberty, of
prosperity and independence we demand the franchise for woman.

Please present this hastily-written contribution to your
Convention with best wishes.

Yours, dear madam, very truly, ERNESTINE L. ROSE.

WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON writes: Unable to attend the Convention, I
can only send you my warm approval of it, and the object it is
designed to promote. It is boastingly claimed in behalf of the
Government of the United States that it is "of the people, by the
people, and for the people." Yet reckoning the whole number at
thirty-eight millions, no less than one-half--that is, nineteen
millions--are political ciphers. A single male voter, on election
day, outweighs them all!

AARON M. POWELL writes: I have no doubt that if a fair and honest
vote c