so long and so valiantly for
the slave, now turned the searchlight of their intelligence upon the
condition of woman, and demanded for the mothers of the community the
civil rights which had recently been accorded to the negro. They asked
for nothing more and nothing less than the administration of that
impartial justice for which, if for anything, a Republican government
should stand.

When they requested me to speak, which they did presently, I could only
say, "I am with you." I have been with them ever since, and have never
seen any reason to go back from the pledge then given. Strangely, as it
then seemed to me, the arguments which I had stored up in my mind
against the political enfranchisement of women were really so many
reasons in its favor. All that I had felt regarding the sacredness and
importance of the woman's part in private life now appeared to me
equally applicable to the part which she should bear in public life.

[Illustration: LUCY STONE

_From a photograph by the Notman Photographic Company._]

One of the comforts which I found in the new association was the relief
which it afforded me from a sense of isolation and eccentricity. For
years past I had felt strongly impelled to lend my voice to the
convictions of my heart. I had done this in a way, from time to time,
always with the feeling that my course in so doing was held to call for
apology and explanation by the men and women with whose opinions I had
hitherto been familiar. I now found a sphere of action in which this
mode of expression no longer appeared singular or eccentric, but simple,
natural, and, under the circumstances, inevitable.

In the little band of workers which I had joined, I was soon called upon
to perform yeoman's service. I was expected to attend meetings and to
address audiences, at first in the neighborhood of Boston, afterwards in
many remote places, Cleveland, Chicago, St. Louis. Among those who led
or followed the new movement, I naturally encountered some individuals
in whom vanity and personal ambition were conspicuous. But I found
mostly among my new associates a great heart of religious conviction and
a genuine spirit of selfsacrifice.

My own contributions to the work appeared to me less valuable than I had
hoped to find them. I had at first everything to learn with regard to
public speaking, and Lucy Stone and Mrs. Livermore were much more at
home on the platform than I was. I was called upon to preside over
c