ions of original Gothic
and Roman heathenism, which no amount of filtration through
ecclesiastical courts could change into Christian laws. They are
declared unworthy a Christian people by great jurists; still they
remain unchanged."

So Elizabeth Stanton will see that I have authority for going to
the root of the evil.

We had a delightful golden-wedding on the 10th inst. All our
children and children's children were present, and a number of
our friends hereaway. Our sister Mary W. Hicks and her grand
daughter May were all of James's relatives from New York. Brother
Richard and daughter Cannie could not feel like coming. Brother
Silas and Sarah Cornell could not come.

Love to all,
LUCRETIA MOTT.

In 1861 came "the war of the rebellion," the great conflict between
the North and the South, the final struggle between freedom and
slavery. The women who had so perseveringly labored for their own
enfranchisement now gave all their time and thought to the nation's
life; their patriotism was alike spontaneous and enduring. In the
sanitary movement, in the hospitals, on the battle-field, gathering in
the harvests on the far-off prairies--all that heroic women dared and
suffered through those long dark years of anxiety and death, should
have made "justice to woman" the spontaneous cry on the lips of our
rulers, as we welcomed the return of the first glad days of peace. All
specific work for her own rights she willingly thrust aside. No
Conventions were held for five years; no petitions circulated for her
civil and political rights; the action of State Legislatures was
wholly forgotten. In their stead, Loyal Leagues were formed, and
petitions by the hundred thousand for the emancipation of the slaves
rolled up and sent to Congress--a measure which with speech and pen
they pressed on the nation's heart, seeing clearly as they did that
this was the pivotal point of the great conflict.

Thus left unwatched, the Legislature of New York amended the law of
1860, taking from the mother the lately guaranteed right to the equal
guardianship of her children, replacing it by a species of veto power,
which did not allow the father to bind out or will away a child
without the mother's consent in writing. The law guaranteeing the
widow the control of the property, which the husband should lea