ight, and it sinks into utter insignificance. To stand
before the cannon's mouth, with death before him and disgrace
behind, excited to frenzy by physical fear, encouraged by his
leader, stimulated by the sound of the trumpet, and sustained by
the _still emptier sound of glory_, requires no great heroism;
the merest coward could be a hero in such a position; but to face
the fire of an unjust and prejudiced public opinion, to attack
the adamantine walls of long-usurped power, to brave not only the
enemy abroad, but often that severest of all enemies, your own
friends at home, requires a heroism that the world has never yet
recognized, that the battle-field can not supply, but which woman
possesses.

When the Allied Powers endeavored to take Sebastopol they found
that every incision and inroad they made in the fortress during
the day was filled up by the enemy during the night; and even
now, after the terrible sacrifice of life to break it down, they
are not safe, but the enemy may build it up again. But in a moral
warfare, no matter how thick and impenetrable the fortress of
prejudice may be, if you once make an inroad in it, that space
can never be filled up again; every stone you remove is removed
for aye and for good; and the very effort to replace it tends
only to loosen every other stone, until the whole foundation is
undermined, and the superstructure crumbles at our feet.

The PRESIDENT: Before this Convention closes, I want to say a
word to the women who hear me. This work lies chiefly in our
hands. We have undertaken no child's play. It is nothing less
than a change in customs hoary with age--in laws which have
existed through long years--in mistaken religious interpretations
and views of duty, which have received the sanction and
veneration of antiquity. It is to place woman where she may make
herself fit for life's duties, in whatever department she may
find herself, whether as woman, daughter, wife, or mother. Every
influence around us to-day tends to the reverse. The young girl
stands beside her brother in the world's wide arena, and looks
out to see what it shall assign her. To him, everything that
power can win is open, while the world cheers him, by so much as
he grasps and conquers. To her is presented, what kind of a life?