, may be named: Judge Martindale,
Mr. and Mrs. George W. Julian, Mr. and Mrs. Addison Harris, Mrs.
Henry Bowan, Governor and Mrs. Baker, Professor and Mrs. Benton,
Professor Brown, and Professor Bell.

The convention was called to order by Mrs. Dr. Thomas, of
Richmond, President of the State Suffrage Association. The
services of the day were formally opened with prayer by Dr. J. H.
Bayliss, of Roberts Park Church. The resolutions[203] were
presented by the Business Committee.

Mrs. I. C. FALES, of Brooklyn: What is needed is an amelioration
of the nature and conditions of man by a powerful moral influence
brought to bear upon all classes and conditions so that the
conscience and the intellect may both be quickened to perceive
and redress the wrongs, with their consequent sufferings, which
inhere in the social structure. The moral sentiment must go into
harness and be thoroughly trained in order to do its work
effectually. The corruptions of to-day are the legitimate results
of the want of woman's influence in the formation of public
opinion. That influence is comparatively ineffectual because it
is narrowed to the small sphere of domestic life. No one can
suppose that an opinion unsupported by authority can have weight
enough to grapple with evils which have their root in the lawless
part of man's uneducated, undeveloped nature. The most that such
a sentiment can do is to enlarge itself by discussion, and every
other available method, until it is strong enough to incorporate
itself into legislative enactments, from whence it may shape and
modify daily life.

While much can be done in molding and directing public opinion,
the consummating force of legislation must be brought into play.
If woman possessed the elective franchise, her influence would be
greatly strengthened by her political power. The desire of reform
would naturally express itself in the selection of candidates who
would embody those ideas. Legislators chosen by men and women
together, would represent a higher level of thought, and would
tend to legislate more directly in favor of reform than if chosen
by men alone, for woman represents the moral principle, even as
man the intellectual, and knowing that the tone of legislation
rarely, if ever, rises higher than the moral