men from both will form a new party, which will win for
itself sympathy, support, power, and supremacy, because it gave
itself to the service of those who needed justice. I care for any
party only as it serves principles, and secures great National
needs. But the Republican party made itself a power by doing
justice to the negro. When the war was over and the
reconstruction of the South became necessary, the Republican
party was in the full tide of power, and had its choice of
methods and means. It was the golden hour that statesmanship
should have seized to reconstruct the Government on the basis of
the consent of the governed, without distinction of sex, race, or
color.

Mr. BLACKWELL addressed the Convention as follows:

He enumerated the different methods which have been proposed in
order to secure the suffrage for women, as follows: By a XVI.
Amendment to the Constitution, as suggested by the Hon. George W.
Julian; by an Act of Congress enfranchising women in the District
of Columbia, as advised by Hon. Henry Wilson; by Amendments to
the various State Constitutions, and by litigation for a broader
construction of the XIV. and XV. Amendments to the Constitution.
Mr. Blackwell said that all these methods are worth trying, but
thought there was a swifter and easier method, viz: to induce the
State Legislatures to direct that the votes of all adult native
and naturalized citizens shall be received and counted in the
Presidential election of 1872. This can be done, in Mr.
Blackwell's opinion, under the first section of the second
article of the Constitution, which says:

Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature
thereof may direct, a number of electors equal to the whole
number of Senators and Representatives to which the State
may be entitled in the Congress.

The great underlying mass of ignorance is always conservative.
Hence the difficulty of making constitutional amendments, and the
importance of employing an easier method. Let every man or woman
who believes in woman suffrage organize within their respective
States and endeavor to obtain such an act from their respective
Legislatures next winter, and let it be understood that the votes
of the woman suffrage party, both men and women, will b