is only
since I have met the varied responsibilities of life, that I have
comprehended woman's sphere; and I have come to regard it as
lying within the whole circumference of humanity. If, as is
claimed by the most ultra opponents of the wife's legal
individuality, the _interests of the parties are identical_, then
I claim as a legitimate conclusion that their spheres are also
identical. For interests determine duties, and duties are the
land-marks of spheres. The dependence of the sexes is mutual.

It is in behalf of our sons, the future men of the Republic, as
well as of our daughters, its future mothers, that we claim the
full development of our energies by education, and legal
protection in the control of all the issues and profits of our
lives called _property_. Woman must seek influence, independence,
representation, that she may have power to aid in the elevation
of the human race. When men kindly set aside woman from the
National Councils, they say the moral field belongs to her; and
the strongest reason why woman should seek a more elevated
position, is because her moral susceptibilities are greater than
those of man.

Mrs. MOTT thought differently from Mrs. Nichols; she did not
believe that woman's moral feelings were more elevated than
man's; but that with the same opportunities for development, with
the same restrictions and penalties, there would probably be
about an equal manifestation of virtue.

ELIZABETH OAKES SMITH: My friends, do we realize for what purpose
we are convened? Do we fully understand that we aim at nothing
less than an entire subversion of the present order of society,
a dissolution of the whole existing social compact? Do we see
that it is not an error of to-day, nor of yesterday, against
which we are lifting up the voice of dissent, but that it is
against the hoary-headed error of all times--error borne onward
from the foot-prints of the first pair ejected from Paradise,
down to our own time? In view of all this, it does seem to me
that we should each and all feel as if anointed, sanctified, set
apart as to a great mission. It seems to me that we who struggle
to restore the divine order to the world, should feel as if under
the very eye of the Eternal Searcher of all hearts, who will
reject any