vention of New Jersey, July 2,
1776, celebrated in 1876 by the American Woman Suffrage
Association, was as bright and beautiful as the fact it
commemorated. Notwithstanding the heat of the weather and the
varied attractions of the Exhibition and the great procession, an
intelligent audience assembled at Philadelphia in Horticultural
Hall. It contained many representatives of Pennsylvania, but was
mainly composed of several hundred friends of woman suffrage from
all parts of the country. The meeting was called to order by
Henry B. Blackwell, Secretary of the Society, who read the call
and introduced Mrs. LUCY STONE as Chairman of the meeting. Mrs.
Stone prefaced her address by a historical statement of the
interesting facts of woman's enfranchisement and disfranchisement
in New Jersey.[201]

The HUTCHINSON family sang with thrilling power and sweetness
"The Prophecy of Woman's Future."

Mr. BLACKWELL said: The Philadelphia newspapers are discussing
the question whether the second or the fourth day of July is the
real anniversary of American Independence. I give my vote for the
second of July for a reason which has not been generally named.
On this day the men of New Jersey, for the first time in the
world's history, organized a State upon the principles of
absolute justice. For the first time, they established equal
political rights for men and women. This was a greater event than
the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration only announced
the principle that "governments derive their just powers from the
consent of the governed," but the men of New Jersey applied the
principle alike to women and negroes. By as much as practice is
worth more than theory and life more than raiment, by so much is
the event we celebrate more glorious than any other in the annals
of the Revolution. It was the prophecy and the guarantee of our
national future.

Some people say that we celebrate a failure, because thirty-one
years later the franchise was taken away from the women of New
Jersey. But the generation which enacted woman suffrage did not
repeal it. New Jersey was first settled by the Puritans and
Quakers--educated and intelligent, full of the spirit of liberty.
Soon after the State was organized, this population was
overwhelmed by an igno