t ones. In
making this provision for the education of its children, had they
waited for a majority of the urchins of this State to petition
for schools, how many, think you, would have asked to be
transplanted from the street to the school-house? Does the State
wait for the criminal to ask for his prison-house? the insane,
the idiot, the deaf and dumb for his asylum? Does the Christian,
in his love to all mankind, wait for the majority of the
benighted heathen to ask him for the gospel? No; unasked and
unwelcomed, he crosses the trackless ocean, rolls off the
mountain of superstition that oppresses the human mind, proclaims
the immortality of the soul, the dignity of manhood, the right of
all to be free and happy.

No, gentlemen, if there is but one woman in this State who feels
the injustice of her position, she should not be denied her
inalienable rights, because the common household drudge and the
silly butterfly of fashion are ignorant of all laws, both human
and Divine. Because they know nothing of governments, or rights,
and therefore ask nothing, shall my petitions be unheard? I stand
before you the rightful representative of woman, claiming a share
in the halo of glory that has gathered round her in the ages, and
by the wisdom of her past words and works, her peerless heroism
and self-sacrifice, I challenge your admiration; and, moreover,
claiming, as I do, a share in all her outrages and sufferings, in
the cruel injustice, contempt, and ridicule now heaped upon her,
in her deep degradation, hopeless wretchedness, by all that is
helpless in her present condition, that is false in law and
public sentiment, I urge your generous consideration; for as my
heart swells with pride to behold woman in the highest walks of
literature and art, it grows big enough to take in those who are
bleeding in the dust.

Now do not think, gentlemen, we wish you to do a great many
troublesome things for us. We do not ask our legislators to spend
a whole session in fixing up a code of laws to satisfy a class of
most unreasonable women. We ask no more than the poor devils in
the Scripture asked, "Let us alone." In mercy, let us take care
of ourselves, our property, our children, and our homes. True, we
are not so strong, so wise, so crafty as you are, b