tion met
ostensibly to work that very work for which you have so
generously labored and freely suffered. The Convention has not
merely insulted you, but those who sent you. It has testified
that the men of America are at least far ahead of us in their
opinion of the discretion and usefulness of women. But above all,
this act of exclusion has shown how far the Society of Friends is
fallen from its ancient state of greatness and catholic nobleness
of spirit.
But my time is gone. I have not said one-half, one-tenth,
one-hundredth part of what I could say to you and to your
companions on this subject; but of this be assured, time and your
own delegators will do you justice. The true Christians in all
ages were the heretics of the time; and this I say not because I
believe exactly as you do, for in truth I neither know nor desire
to know exactly how far we think alike. All that I know or want
to know is, that you have shown the grand mark of Christian
truth--love to mankind.
I have heard the noble Garrison blamed that he had not taken his
place in the Convention because you and your fellow-delegates
were excluded. I, on the contrary, honor him for his conduct. In
mere worldly wisdom he might have entered the Convention and
there made his protest against the decision; but in at once
refusing to enter where you, his fellow-delegates, were shut out,
he has made a far nobler protest; not in the mere Convention, but
in the world at large. I honor the lofty principle of that true
champion of humanity, and shall always recollect with delight,
the day Mary and I spent with you and him.
I must apologize for this most hasty and I fear illegible scrawl,
and with our kind regards and best wishes for your safe return to
your native country, and for many years of honorable labor there
for the truth and freedom, I beg to subscribe myself,
Most sincerely your friend,
WILLIAM HOWITT.
Harriet Martineau, who had visited Mrs. Mott when in America, and was
prevented from attending the Convention by illness, wrote as follows:
I can not be satisfied without sending you a line of love and
sympathy. I think much of you amidst your present trials, and
much indeed have I thought of you a
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