one of you a princess by divine right, and we will give you even
the half of our kingdom." That is all we ask. But they say, "Show
us the precedent. The thing never has been done before. The women
have been ignored in government from the earliest days until
now," etc. Why, gentlemen, away back in the remote ages of
history--so far that the memory of man runneth not distinctly
thereto--we find that women not only lived and gave men to the
world, but that they lived and gave laws to the world.

Mrs. STONE, the President, said she would like to speak to the
delegates and friends, because she knew those who were here had
been working in this cause for years. They are short of time, but
all give it that deep, earnest baptism of work for the principles
that underlie republican institutions. They would work until that
end is achieved, or until death relieved them from their labor.
She felt cheered on seeing the progress they had made. It was
about twenty years since the speaker came to this city to deliver
a course of lectures for woman's rights. They called it woman's
rights in those days. They did not use the word suffrage at all;
and, as she stood there now, her mind ran back over a score of
years. When she counted the gains they had made, it seemed as if
she had been in some fairy palace, and by charms the old wrongs
had dropped away and new good had sprung up. They had fought for
woman's rights, and had taken hold of the hands of little girls
growing out of girlhood into womanhood--girls who must stand on
their own feet and earn a living for themselves. When there was
no father's hand or brother's arm to help, what could woman do?
She looked out into the great thoroughfares of industry open to
all men, and almost all were shut against her. Woman was a
teacher at a dollar a day, and had to board round. She was a
seamstress with still smaller pay, or she was a housekeeper at
her own house or somebody's else, where, so far as material gains
were concerned, the results were small. Other industries were
shut to her. The world is as full of women as men. They have to
eat, drink, and be clothed, and, until other opportunities are
obtained, their supplies are infinitely smaller than those
offered to men. Why should women, whose supple fingers can set