year, signed by the Brownings, the Howitts, Harriet Martineau,
Mrs. Gaskell, and Mrs. Jameson, asking for just such rights as we
claim here. It was presented by Lord Brougham, and was
respectfully received by Parliament. The ballot has not yet been
yielded; but it can not be far off when, as in the last
Presidential contest,[147] women were urged to attend political
meetings, and a woman's name was made one of the rallying cries
of the party of progress. The enthusiasm which everywhere greeted
the name of Jessie[148] was so far a recognition of woman's right
to participate in politics. Encouraged by the success of these
seven years of effort, let us continue with unfailing fidelity to
labor for the practical recognition of the great truth, that all
human rights inhere in each human being. We welcome to this
platform man and women irrespective of creed, country, or color;
those who dissent from us as freely as those who agree with us.

ERNESTINE L. ROSE, from the Business Committee, reported a series
of resolutions.[149]

The President stated that several letters had been received, one from
Francis Jackson, of Boston, one of the noblest of the noble men of the
age, inclosing $50, which, he says, he gives "to help this righteous
cause along." Also a letter from the Rev. Samuel Johnson, of Salem,
Massachusetts, which would be read by Mr. Higginson.

Rev. T. W. HIGGINSON said he was much more willing to be called
upon to read the words of others at this time, than to utter poor
words of his own. There were many who came into a Woman's Rights
Convention and started to find men on the platform. He could only
say, that in these times, and with the present light, there was
no place where a man could redeem his manhood better than on the
Woman's Rights Platform. Gentlemen in distant seats were perhaps
trembling to think that they had actually got that far into this
dangerous place. They might think themselves well off--no, badly
off--if the maelstrom did not draw them nearer and nearer and
nearer in, as it did him. He began, like them, hesitating and
smiling on the back seats; they saw what he had got to now, and
he hoped they, too, might get into such noble company before
long. He was prouder to train in this band than to be at the head
of the play-soldiers who were marc