as well as matter, and point out the true
causes of the evils we see about us, whether lurking under the
shadow of the altar, the sacredness of the marriage institution,
or the assumed superiority of man.

1. We have been obliged to preach woman's rights, because many,
instead of listening to what we had to say on temperance, have
questioned the right of a woman to speak on any subject. In
courts of justice and legislative assemblies, if the right of the
speaker to be there is questioned, all business waits until that
point is settled. Now, it is not settled in the mass of minds
that woman has any rights on this footstool, and much less a
right to stand on an even pedestal with man, look him in the face
as an equal, and rebuke the sins of her day and generation. Let
it be clearly understood, then, that we are a woman's rights
Society; that we believe it is woman's duty to speak whenever she
feels the impression to do so; that it is her right to be present
in all the councils of Church and State. The fact that our
agents are women, settles the question of our character on this
point.

Again, in discussing the question of temperance, all lecturers,
from the beginning, have made mention of the drunkards' wives and
children, of widows' groans and orphans' tears; shall these
classes of sufferers be introduced but as themes for rhetorical
flourish, as pathetic touches of the speaker's eloquence; shall
we passively shed tears over their condition, or by giving them
their rights, bravely open to them the doors of escape from a
wretched and degraded life? Is it not legitimate in this to
discuss the social degradation, the legal disabilities of the
drunkard's wife? If in showing her wrongs, we prove the right of
all womankind to the elective franchise; to a fair representation
in the government; to the right in criminal cases to be tried by
peers of her own choosing, shall it be said that we transcend the
bounds of our subject? If in pointing out her social degradation,
we show you how the present laws outrage the sacredness of the
marriage institution; if in proving to you that justice and mercy
demand a legal separation from drunkards, we grasp the higher
idea that a unity of soul alone constitutes and sanctifies true
marriage, and that any law