ceptre is broken--his crown is trampled in the dust--the
sentence of death is pronounced upon him. All nations, ranks, and
classes have, in turn, questioned and repudiated his authority;
and now, that the monster is chained and caged, timid woman, on
tiptoe, comes to look him in the face, and to demand of her brave
sires and sons, who have struck stout blows for liberty, if, in
this change of dynasty, she, too, shall find relief. Yes,
gentlemen, in republican America, in the nineteenth century, we,
the daughters of the revolutionary heroes of '76, demand at your
hands the redress of our grievances--a revision of your State
Constitution--a new code of laws. Permit us then, as briefly as
possible, to call your attention to the legal disabilities under
which we labor.

1st. Look at the position of woman as woman. It is not enough for
us that, by your laws we are permitted to live and breathe, to
claim the necessaries of life from our legal protectors--to pay
the penalty of our crimes; we demand the full recognition of all
our rights as citizens of the Empire State. We are persons;
native, free-born citizens; property-holders, tax-payers; yet are
we denied the exercise of our right to the elective franchise. We
support ourselves, and, in part, your schools, colleges,
churches, your poor-houses, jails, prisons, the army, the navy,
the whole machinery of government, and yet we have no voice in
your councils. We have every qualification required by the
Constitution, necessary to the legal voter, but the one of sex.
We are moral, virtuous, and intelligent, and in all respects
quite equal to the proud white man himself, and yet by your laws
we are classed with idiots, lunatics, and negroes; and though we
do not feel honored by the place assigned us, yet, in fact, our
legal position is lower than that of either; for the negro can be
raised to the dignity of a voter if he possess himself of $250;
the lunatic can vote in his moments of sanity, and the idiot,
too, if he be a male one, and not more than nine-tenths a fool;
but we, who have guided great movements of charity, established
missions, edited journals, published works on history, economy,
and statistics; who have governed nations, led armies, filled the
professor's chair, taught philosophy and mat