s Tennyson's, "Woman is the lesser man." It would not do
for Madame de Stael to assert (for alas! it was too true
then--for the first Napoleon never read Rochefort's
"Marseillaise") that man could conquer, but woman must submit to
public opinion. To-day Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Anna E.
Dickinson take public opinion by storm, because they use the
everlasting logic of human rights. Woman has power enough
whenever fidelity, or truth, or genius are worshiped. She wants
authority. The will of the nation says, "She shall have it and
that speedily." We want and demand that Congress shall make a
loud "amen" to this clearly expressed will of the nation. The
civil rights bill did little good until you armed the African
with the ballot. Then the old master touched his hat to the new
citizen--his old slave. And why? Because he was a power in the
land. It is only Godlike to use power for humanity; and that is
the way we propose to use it. Congress must hear us--shall hear
us--because we speak in the voice of the people. And I speak to
you as a man, yes, and as a lawyer, when I tell you your boasted
amendments are the small dust of the balance till the XVI. is
written. Then we will have a country, never again clasping the
Bible with the handcuffs of slavery, but a land where we, men and
women alike, can worship a common God, before whom there is
neither Jew nor Greek, "white male" nor female, barbarian,
Scythian, bond nor free.

Mrs. WILBOUR remarked that she was fully aware of the truth that
humanity was a unit. She knew the day was coming when a woman
would be considered the equal of man. No disabilities to vote or
hold office should exist in a free country on account of sex or
color. She was anxious to know by what authority the word "male"
had been placed in the constitution, which governed woman as well
as man. Woman's rights were natural rights--nothing more or less.
She claimed the right of self-rule or self-government as a
natural right. Men were united in saying, "We have the right to
vote." She was not present to be an advocate of woman's rights,
whatever they may be, but of human rights. The largest giant had
no more rights than Tom Thumb. It was brain, not force, that
governed the world. A small hand was able to discharge a musket,
guide