was it the first State where the
battle for woman's enfranchisement was waged and lost for a
generation. There never was a more hopeful interest concentrated on
the legislation of any single State, than when Kansas submitted the
two propositions to her people to take the words "white" and "male"
from her Constitution.

Those awake to the dignity and power of the ballot in the hands of all
classes, to the inspiring thought of self-government, were stirred as
never before, both in Great Britain and America, upon this question.
Letters from John Stuart Mill and other friends, with warm words of
encouragement, were read to thousands of audiences, and published in
journals throughout the State. Eastern women who went there to speak
started with the full belief that their hopes so long deferred were at
last to be realized. Some even made arrangements for future homes on
that green spot where at last the sons and daughters of earth were to
stand equal before the law. With no greater faith did the crusaders of
old seize their shields and start on their perilous journey to wrest
from the infidel the Holy Sepulcher, than did these defenders of a
sacred principle enter Kansas, and with hope sublime consecrate
themselves to labor for woman's freedom; to roll off of her soul the
mountains of sorrow and superstition that had held her in bondage to
false creeds, and codes, and customs for centuries. There was a solemn
earnestness in the speeches of all who labored in that campaign. Each
heart was thrilled with the thought that the youngest civilization in
the world was about to establish a government based on the divine
idea--the equality of all mankind--proclaimed by Jesus of Nazareth,
and echoed by the patriots who watched the dawn of the natal day of
our Republic. Here at last the mothers of the race, the most important
actors in the grand drama of human progress were for the first time to
stand the peers of men.

These women firmly believed that Republicans and Abolitionists who had
advocated their cause for years would aid them in all possible efforts
to carry the Constitutional Amendment that was to enfranchise the
women of the State. They looked confidently for encouragement, and
inspiring editorials in certain Eastern journals. With Horace Greeley
at the head of the _New York Tribune_, Theodore Tilton of the
_Independent_, and Wendell Phillips of the _Anti-Slavery Standard_,
they felt they had a strong force in the press of