have to marry a poor girl, and then
society will insist that he shall exert himself to earn a living
for the family; but you, poor thing, will only have to open your
mouth, all your life long, like a clam, and eat." (Applause and
laughter). So long as society is constituted in such a way that
woman is expected to do nothing if she have a father, brother, or
husband able to support her, there is no salvation for her, in or
out of marriage. When you tie up your arm, it will become weak
and feeble; and when you tie up woman, she will become weak and
helpless. Give her, then, some earnest purpose in life, hold up
to her the true ideal of marriage, and it is enough--I am
content! (Loud applause).

ERNESTINE L. ROSE said:--Mrs. President--The question of a
Divorce law seems to me one of the greatest importance to all
parties, but I presume that the very advocacy of divorce will be
called "Free Love." For my part (and I wish distinctly to define
my position), I do not know what others understand by that term;
to me, in its truest significance, love must be free, or it
ceases to be love. In its low and degrading sense, it is not love
at all, and I have as little to do with its name as its reality.

The Rev. Mrs. Blackwell gave us quite a sermon on what woman
ought to be, what she ought to do, and what marriage ought to be;
an excellent sermon in its proper place, but not when the
important question of a Divorce law is under consideration. She
treats woman as some ethereal being. It is very well to be
ethereal to some extent, but I tell you, my friends, it is quite
requisite to be a little material, also. At all events, we are
so, and, being so, it proves a law of our nature. (Applause).

It were indeed well if woman could be what she ought to be, man
what he ought to be, and marriage what it ought to be; and it is
to be hoped that through the Woman's Rights movement--the
equalizing of the laws, making them more just, and making woman
more independent--we will hasten the coming of the millennium,
when marriage shall indeed be a bond of union and affection. But,
alas! it is not yet; and I fear that sermons, however well meant,
will not produce that desirable end; and as long as the evil is
here, we must look it in the face without shrinking, grapple