n our country and now, than in any
other land or time. All this, the thoughtful friends of suffrage
will gladly admit.

But does this concession belittle the importance of woman's
political rights? Exactly not! A part in the government becomes
important to any class in proportion as they become large
stockholders in common affairs and as they become aware of their
own interests and their own powers. The ballot is of little
value to an unawakened, unaspiring people; their masters will
look after matters. But American women are not unawakened or
unaspiring. To many of them, life has grown painful, because
their advancing ideal is dishonored by a sense of violated
justice. Along with large freedom has come developed faculty,
awakened desire, conscious power and public spirit. Precisely
because their actual freedom is so large and sweet, they are
galled by every rusty link of the old political chain. Not the
mere handling of a ballot do they crave, but the position of
unchallenged and unqualified equality, and the removal of the old
brand of inferiority, which weakens alike their self-respect and
their hold on the respect of others.

At present, the position of woman in the State is false,
contradictory and uncomfortable. She has ceased to be a nobody;
but she is not yet conceded to be a somebody. As she has gained
many rights which were once denied, the old theory which made her
a slave is overthrown; as she has not gained the absolute and
chartered right of self-government, the new theory of her
equality is not yet established. Of that equality suffrage is the
symbol, as in this country it is now the symbol for men. She
demands to be the custodian of her own affairs, and not to hold
them by sufferance. She demands to be equal behind the law and in
the law, as well as before the law.

The Committee on Nominations reported the list of officers[200]
for the ensuing year.

Miss EASTMAN said: There are many questions of profound interest
occupying the minds of the community, and people come together to
unravel if possible the complications of business and human
obligations; questions of railroads, of tariffs, of the
protection of dumb animals, and, most important of all, of the
delicate relations of society to the unfortunate classes,