freedom. Now our wise men and
counselors, our statesmen and sages, are seeking how the
government and Union may be reconstructed. But they are laying
again false foundations. Of three immense classes, they proscribe
two and provide for one; and that one perhaps a minority of the
whole. Half our people are degraded for their sex; one-sixth for
the color of their skin. And this is the republican and
democratic definition of freedom. The ruling class boasts two
qualities, in virtue of which it claims the right to rule all
others. It is male, not female--white, not colored. For neither
of these surely is it responsible. For being women and colored,
the proscribed classes are no more responsible. A more cruel,
unrighteous, unjust distinction was never made under heaven. By
it we are driven into this new revolution; a revolution which is
to eclipse all that have gone before, as far as the glories of
Calvary outshone the shadows and terrors of Sinai. Even the
Anti-Slavery Society can only demand equality for the _male_ half
of mankind. And the Woman's Rights movement contemplated only
_woman_ in its demand. But with us liberty means freedom,
equality, and fraternity, irrespective of sex or complexion. It
is a gospel that was unknown to the ancients; hidden even from
the wise and prudent among our revolutionary fathers.
Revolutionary _mothers_ we seem never to have had. As in Eden,
"Adam was first found, then Eve," so in our revolution; but Eve
has come to-day, demanding her portion of the equal inheritance,
a mystery, a wonder, a "_new thing under the sun_," the
declaration of King Solomon to the contrary notwithstanding. And
here and to-day we lay new foundations. For the first time, law
and liberty are to be founded in nature and the government of the
moral universe. For the first time is it demanded that JUSTICE be
made our chief corner-stone. The ancient republics, not thus
underpinned, fell. Our old foundations, too, are fallen. In God's
wisdom, not in man's foolishness, let us henceforth build. And
the work of our hands, feeble as we seem to-day, shall survive
all the present kingdoms and dominions of the world.

Miss ANTHONY remarked that Theodore Tilton was in the house, and
had not yet spoken. She would like to hear his opinion.

Mr.