heir way out of it. What they received and valued as the
greatest of God's gifts, they gave to their women, rational,
human creatures like themselves, bone of their bone and flesh of
their flesh, only made to exemplify that peaceable and loving
side of human nature whose beauty has been always felt, and whose
triumph is written among the eternal prophecies which time only
fulfills. Honor then, to-day, to those truly brave and generous
men who, with their own hands unbound, were not afraid to unbind
the hands of their wives and mothers! Honor, too, to the women
who were intelligent enough to appreciate the gift, and wise and
brave enough to use it. No scandal accompanied its exercise.
There was no talk in that time of the women deserting their
household fires, their tender children, to fulfill their duty to
the State. In that State, in those women, culminated the success
and significance of the American Revolution. Remember the other
States did not think so, neither did the men or the women who
planned the International Exhibition of to-day think so. But it
was so, none the less. And we to-day must light our torches at
that very topmost flame of freedom, or they will smoke instead of
burning.

Mrs. ANTOINETTE L. BROWN BLACKWELL said she came as a
representative from New Jersey, her adopted State, whose unique
suffrage endowment, one hundred years ago, we are here to
celebrate. The ebb and flow which is the law of all progress, has
temporarily deprived our women of the franchise. But it will be
restored in the near future. "I have neighbors, whose mothers and
grandmothers voted, and who are beginning to recall the fact with
pride and satisfaction." Ex-Governor Bullock, of Massachusetts,
has well said that "Historically, woman, in America, is now at
the acme of her power." But at our next Centennial, men and women
will stand together, acknowledged peers, at the acme of human
achievement.

Mrs. ELIZABETH K. CHURCHILL said: The right of suffrage is always
either inherited or earned. The women of America have earned
their right by their work in the Revolution and in the Civil War.
The inertia of women themselves is the greatest obstacle of our
movement. But, in order to perform the duties which fall upon
them in humane and charitable work, wo