d
mastership. Yet she is in an eminent degree womanly, having an
almost regal pride of sex. In France, in the time of the
revolution or the first empire, she would have been a Roland or a
De Stael. I will not attempt the slightest sketch of her closing
speech, which was not only a powerful plea for disfranchised
womanhood, but for motherhood. It was now impassioned, now
playful, now witty, now pathetic. It was surpassingly eloquent,
and apparently convincing, for the boldest and most radical
utterances, brought from the great audience the heartiest
applause. For _this_, I love the people. No great, brave, true
thought can be uttered before an American audience without
bringing a cordial and generous response. All are not ready, of
course, to carry into action, into life, legislation, and law the
sentiments of liberty and justice they applaud; but they feel
that somewhere, in some nameless Utopia far away, such things
might be lived out. Thank heaven that Utopia is _possible_ for
humanity--a real, practical condition of our mortal life--only a
little way before us, perhaps.

Many good, refined people turn a cold shoulder on this cause of
woman's rights because their religious sentiment, or their taste,
is shocked by the character or appearance of some of its public
advocates. They say: "If we were only to see at their conventions
that Quaker gentlewoman, Lucretia Mott, with her serene presence;
Mrs. Stanton, with her patrician air; Miss Anthony, with her
sharp, intellectual fencing; Lucy Stone, with her sweet,
persuasive argument and lucid logic--it were very well; but to
their free platform, bores, fanatics, and fools are admitted, to
elbow them and disgust us." I suppose that such annoyances, to
use a mild term, necessarily belong to a free platform, and that
freedom of speech is one of the most sacred rights--especially to
woman. Yet I think some authority there should be to exclude or
silence persons unfit to appear before an intelligent and refined
audience--some power to rule out utterly, and keep out, ignorant
or insane men and women who realize some of the worst things
falsely charged against the leaders of this movement. But to see
the three chief figures of this great movement of Woman's Rights
sitting upon a stage in joint coun