's State Temperance Society. We believed that the time
had come for woman to speak on this question, and to insist on
her right to be heard in the councils of Church and State. It was
proposed at that time that we, instead of forming a society,
should go _en masse_ into the Men's State Temperance Society. We
were assured that in becoming members by paying the sum of $1, we
should thereby secure the right to speak and vote in their
meetings.

We who had watched the jealousy with which man had ever eyed the
slow aggressions of woman, warned you against the insidious
proposition made by agents from that Society. We told you they
would no doubt gladly receive the dollar, but that you would
never be allowed to speak or vote in their meetings. Many of you
thought us suspicious and unjust toward the temperance men of the
Empire State. The fact that Abby Kelly had been permitted to
speak in one of their public meetings, was brought up as an
argument by some agent of that Society to prove our fears
unfounded. We suggested that she spoke by favor and not right,
and our right there as equals to speak and vote, we well knew
would never be acknowledged. A long debate saved you from that
false step, and our predictions have been fully realized in the
treatment our delegates received at the annual meeting held at
Syracuse last July, and at the recent Brick Church meeting in New
York.

In forming our Society, the mass of us being radical and liberal,
we left our platform free; we are no respecters of persons, all
are alike welcome here without regard to sect, sex, color, or
caste. There have been, however, many objections made to one
feature in our Constitution, and that is, that although we admit
men as members with equal right to speak in our meetings, we
claim the offices for women alone. We felt, in starting, the
necessity of throwing all the responsibility on woman, which we
knew she never would take, if there were any men at hand to
think, act, and plan for her. The result has shown the wisdom of
what seemed so objectionable to many. It was, however, a
temporary expedient, and as that seeming violation of man's
rights prevents some true friends of the cause from becoming
members of our Society, and as the officers are now well skilled
in th