sion of
identical human faculties, and equal human needs, we claim for
her the recognition of that humanity and its rights--for the
freedom, protection, development, and use of those faculties, and
the supply of those needs. And we maintain that no accident of
sex, no prejudged or proven dissimilarity _in degree_ of
physical, mental, or moral endowment, or development, can at all
stand in the way of the admission of such just claim; and no
denial of such claim but must necessarily be fraught with evil,
as subversive of the Creator's economy and design. [Shouts and
laughter.]

Rev. JOHN PIERPONT, who, for the first time, took part in a
Woman's Rights Convention, said: Ladies and gentlemen, a woman,
at this hour, occupies the throne of the mightiest kingdom of the
globe. Under her sway there are some hundred and fifty millions
of the human race. Has she a right to sit there? [Several voices,
"No!"] The vote here is--no; but a hundred and fifty millions
vote the contrary. If a woman can thus have the highest right
conceded to her, why should not woman have a lower? Therefore,
some women have some rights. Is not the question a fair one,--how
many women have any rights? And, also, how many rights has any
woman? Are not these fair subjects for discussion? I do not come
here to advocate any specific right for women; I come merely for
the consideration of the question, what right she has. What are
the rights which can not rightfully be denied her? Surely, some
belong to the sex at large, as part of the great family of man.
We lay it, down as the foundation of our civil theory, that man,
as man, has, and by nature is endowed with certain natural,
inviolable, indefeasible rights; not that men who have attained
the age of majority alone possess those rights; not that the
older, the young, the fair, or the dark, are alone endowed with
them; but that they belong to _all_. The rights are not of man's
giving; God gave them; and if you deny or withhold them, you
place yourself in antagonism with your Creator. The more humble
and despised is the human being claiming those rights, the more
prompt should be the feeling of every manly bosom to stand by
that humble creature of God, and see that its right is not
withheld from it! Is it a new thing in this cou