tt. The clergy with few
exceptions were bitter in their opposition. Although, as
Abolitionists, they had been compelled to fight both Church and Bible
to prove the black man's right to liberty, conscience forbade them to
stretch those sacred limits far enough to give equal liberty to woman.

The leading men who championed the cause of the measure in the
Convention and voted in the affirmative, were Wendell Phillips, George
Thompson, George Bradburn, Mr. Ashurst, Dr. Bowring, and Henry B.
Stanton. Though Daniel O'Connell was not present during the
discussion, having passed out with the President, yet in his first
speech, he referred to the rejected delegates, paying a beautiful
tribute to woman's influence, and saying he should have been happy to
have added the right word in the right place and to have recorded his
vote in favor of human equality..

William Lloyd Garrison, having been delayed at sea, arrived too late
to take part in the debates. Learning on his arrival that the women
had been rejected as delegates, he declined to take his seat in the
Convention; and, through all those interesting discussions on a
subject so near his heart, lasting ten days, he remained a silent
spectator in the gallery. What a sacrifice for a principle so dimly
seen by the few, and so ignorantly ridiculed by the many! Brave, noble
Garrison! May this one act keep his memory fresh forever in the hearts
of his countrywomen!

The one Abolitionist who sustained Mr. Garrison's position, and sat
with him in the gallery, was Nathaniel P. Rogers, editor of the
_Herald of Freedom_, in Concord, New Hampshire, who died in the midst
of the Anti-Slavery struggle. However, the debates in the Convention
had the effect of rousing English minds to thought on the tyranny of
sex, and American minds to the importance of some definite action
toward woman's emancipation.

As Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton wended their way arm in
arm down Great Queen Street that night, reviewing the exciting scenes
of the day, they agreed to hold a woman's rights convention on their
return to America, as the men to whom they had just listened had
manifested their great need of some education on that question. Thus a
missionary work for the emancipation of woman in "the land of the
free and the home of the brave" was then and there inaugurated. As the
ladies were not allowed to speak in the Convention, they kept up a
brisk fire morning, noon, and night at their ho