the American Woman Suffrage Association is not a mere
mass meeting of individuals. It is a body of delegates from State
and local societies assembled in a representative capacity, and
as such I welcome you to-night. We meet for the first time in
this capital city of the republic, to promote a great social and
political change. We propose to substitute for the existing
political aristocracy of men alone, a government founded upon the
united suffrages of men and women. We urge the enfranchisement of
women, not in a spirit of antagonism between man and woman, but
as the common interest of both. We urge the enfranchisement of
woman as an act of political justice, and also as a measure of
the highest expediency. Women need the ballot for their own
protection and self-respect. Men equally need the votes of women
as an added power for order, temperance, purity, and peace.

Mr. BLACKWELL read a dispatch from Gov. Hoyt, of Wyoming
Territory:

GREEN RIVER, W. T., Dec. 15, 1880.

_To the Committee on Woman Suffrage_:--Your kind invitation
was delayed, so that my acceptance is impossible.
Understand, however, that I fully recognize the justice of
the cause you represent, and wish you and your co-laborers
God-speed in the great work of its furtherance.

JOHN W. HOYT.

Mrs. LUCY STONE was the last speaker. She spoke with a quiet
earnestness that showed the depth of her convictions, and how
greatly her heart was in her work. Her address was an entirely
argumentative one, abundant illustrations being used to clinch
her statements. She said that she felt keenly the degradation of
being disfranchised. To bring about a change in the present state
of affairs, she would have every mother impress upon her
children, when they were as young as nine years of age, that
women have as much right to govern as their fathers; then the
boys would grow up on the side of their mothers and the girls
would become advocates of the cause. Personally she cared more
for woman suffrage than anything else under the sun. In
conclusion, she urged the people of Washington to help them in
obtaining from Congress a XVI. Amendment to the Constitution,
giving women the right