e she died.
[Laughter]. Tell me that a woman is fit to give an ideal life to
an American citizen, to enlarge his sympathies, to make him wise
in judgment, and to establish him in patriotic regard, who has no
thought above what to eat and drink, and wherewithal to be
clothed. The best housekeepers are they that are the most widely
beneficent. "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things shall be added unto you." God will take care
of the stockings, if you take care of the heads! [Laughter and
applause]. Universal beneficence never hinders anybody's
usefulness in any particular field of duty. Therefore, woman's
sphere should not be limited to the household. The public welfare
requires that she should have a thought of affairs outside of the
household, and in the whole community.

III. Woman brings to public affairs peculiar qualities,
aspirations, and affections which society needs. I have had
persons say to me, "Would you, now, take your daughter and your
wife, and walk down to the polls with them?" If I were to take my
daughter and my wife, and walk down to the polls with them, and
there was a squirming crowd of bloated, loud-mouthed, blattering
men, wrangling like so many maggots on cheese, what would take
place, but that, at the moment I appeared with my wife and
daughter walking by my side with conscious dignity and veiled
modesty, the lane would open, and I should pass through the red
sea unharmed? [Great applause]. Where is there a mob such that
the announcement that a woman is present does not bring down the
loudest of them? Nothing but the sorcery of rum prevents a man
from paying unconscious, instant respect to the presence of a
woman....

IV. The history of woman's co-operative labors thus far justifies
the most sanguine anticipations, such as I have alluded to.
Allusion has been made to the purification of literature. The
influence of women has been a part of the cause of this,
unquestionably; but I would not ascribe such a result to any one
cause. God is a great workman, and has a chest full of tools, and
never uses one tool, but always many; and in the purification of
literature, the elevation of thought, the advancement of the
public sentiment of the world in humanity, God has employed more