Convention. Our first
effort was made in a small room in Boston, where a few women were
gathered, who had learned woman's rights by woman's wrongs. There
had been only one meeting in Ohio, and two in New York. The laws
were yet against us, custom was against us, prejudice was against
us, and more than all, women were against us. We were strong only
"in the might of our right"--and, now, when this seventh year has
brought us together again, we can say as did a laborer in the
Republican party, though all is not gained, "we are without a
wound in our faith, without a wound in our hope, and stronger
than when we began." Never before has any reformatory movement
gained so much in so short a time. When we began, the statute
books were covered with laws against women, which an eminent
jurist (Judge Walker) said would be a disgrace to the statute
books of any heathen nation.

Now almost every Northern State has more or less modified its
laws. The Legislature of Maine, after having granted nearly all
other property rights to wives, found a bill before it asking
that a wife should be entitled to what she earns, but a certain
member grew fearful that wives would bring in bills for their
daily service, and, by an eloquent appeal to pockets, the measure
was lost for the time, but that which has secured other rights
will secure this. In Massachusetts, by the old laws, a wife owned
nothing but the fee simple in her real estate. And even for that,
she could not make a will without the written endorsement of her
husband, permitting her to do so. Two years ago the law was so
changed that she now holds the absolute right to her entire
property, earnings included. Vermont, New Hampshire, and Rhode
Island have also very much amended their statutes. New York, the
proud Empire State, has, by the direct effort of this movement,
secured to wives every property right except earnings. During two
years a bill has been before the Legislature, which provides that
if a husband be a drunkard, a profligate, or has abandoned his
wife, she may have a right to her own earnings. It has not
passed. Two hundred years hence that bill will be quoted as a
proof of the barbarism of the times; now it is a proof of
progress.

Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana have also very materially m