engagements, he was not able to attend the
Convention and take part in the discussion.[68]

Dr. Bowring advocated the admission of the delegates at that
time; and afterward in a letter to this country, said: "How often
have I regretted that the woman's question, to me of singular
interest, was launched with so little preparation, so little
knowledge of the manner in which it had been entangled, by the
fears of some and the follies of others! But, bear up! for the
coming of those women will form an era in the future history of
philanthropic daring. They made a deep, if not a wide impression;
and have created apostles, if as yet they have not multitudes of
followers. The experiment was well worth making. It honored
America--it will instruct England. If in some matters of high
civilization you are behind us, in this matter of courageous
benevolence how far are you before us!"

Since that time women have fairly entered the field as students
of medicine and as physicians, as editors and lecturers, engaged
in schools of design, and in the taking of daguerres, as well as
in some other works of art, and in holding Conventions in several
of the States of our Union for the advocacy of our entire claims.
A National Society has been formed; and the proceedings of these
Conventions and Society meetings have been fairly reported, and
have received favorable notices in many of the papers of this
country, as well as in the _Westminster Review_ in England.

FRANCES D. GAGE said that allusion had been made in the address
to the popular sentiment, that men are what their mothers made
them. She repelled this sentiment as an indignity to her sex.
What mother, she asked, ever taught her son to drink rum, gamble,
swear, smoke, and chew tobacco? The truth was, that the boy was
virtually taught to regard his mother as inferior, and that it
was not manly to follow her instructions. When he left the
hearth-stone he was beyond her reach. He found men, and those,
too, in elevated stations, addicted to vulgar and vicious
practices, and he was liable, in forgetfulness of all that his
mother had taught him, to fall into such habits himself. Men
allowed grog-shops to be set up on the street corners, and
permitted gambling-houses to exist, to tempt the boy from the
pa