rick
Douglass, William C. Nell, and William C. Bloss advocated the
emancipation of women from all the artificial disabilities, imposed by
false customs, creeds, and codes. Milo Codding, Mr. Sulley, Mr.
Pickard, and a Mr. Colton, of Connecticut, thought "woman's sphere was
home," and that she should remain in it; he would seriously deprecate
her occupying the pulpit.

Lucretia Mott replied, that the gentleman from New Haven had objected
to woman occupying the pulpit, and indeed she could scarcely see how
any one educated in New Haven, Ct., could think otherwise than he did.
She said, we had all got our notions too much from the clergy, instead
of the Bible. The Bible, she contended, had none of the prohibitions
in regard to women; and spoke of the "honorable women not a few,"
etc., and desired Mr. Colton to read his Bible over again, and see if
there was anything there to prohibit woman from being a religious
teacher. She then complimented the members of that church for opening
their doors to a Woman's Eights Convention, and said that a few years
ago, the Female Moral Reform Society of Philadelphia applied for the
use of a church in that city, in which to hold one of their meetings;
they were only allowed the use of the basement, and on condition that
none of the women should speak at the meeting. Accordingly, a D.D. was
called upon to preside, and another to read the ladies' report of the
Society.

Near the close of the morning session, a young bride in traveling
dress,[10] accompanied by her husband, slowly walked up the aisle, and
asked the privilege of saying a few words, which was readily granted.
Being introduced to the audience, she said, on her way westward,
hearing of the Convention, she had waited over a train, to add her
mite in favor of the demand now made, by the true women of this
generation:

It is with diffidence that I speak upon this question before us,
not a diffidence resulting from any doubt of the worthiness of
the cause, but from the fear that its depth and power can be but
meagerly portrayed by me.... Woman's rights--her civil
rights--equal with man's--not an equality of moral and religious
influence, for who dares to deny her that?--but an equality in
the exercise of her own powers, and a right to use all the
sources of erudition within the reach of man, to build unto
herself a name for her talents, energy, and integrity. We do not
positively