als to
the right of self-government; we get ours just where man got his; they
are all Heaven-descended, God-given. It is our duty to assert and
reassert this right, to agitate, discuss, and petition, until our
political equality be fully recognized. Depend upon it, this is the
point to attack, the stronghold of the fortress--_the one_ woman will
find the most difficult to take, _the one_ man will most reluctantly
give up; therefore let us encamp right under its shadow; there spend
all our time, strength, and _moral_ ammunition, year after year, with
perseverance, courage, and decision. Let no sallies of wit or ridicule
at our expense; no soft nonsense of woman's beauty, delicacy, and
refinement; no promise of gold and silver, bank stock, road stock, or
landed estate, seduce us from our position until that one stronghold
totters to the ground. This done, the rest they will surrender _at
discretion_. Then comes equality in Church and State, in the family
circle, and in all our social relations.

The cause of woman is onward. For our encouragement, let us take a
review of what has occurred during the last few years. Not two years
since the women of New York held several Conventions. Their meetings
were well attended by both men and women, and the question of woman's
true position was fully and freely discussed. The proceedings of those
meetings and the Declaration of Sentiments were all published and
scattered far and near. Before that time, the newspapers said but
little on that subject. Immediately after, there was scarcely a
newspaper in the Union that did not notice these Conventions, and
generally in a tone of ridicule. Now you seldom take up a paper that
has not something about woman; but the tone is changing--ridicule is
giving way to reason. Our papers begin to see that this is no subject
for mirth, but one for serious consideration. Our literature is also
assuming a different tone. The heroine of our fashionable novel is now
a being of spirit, of energy, of will, with a conscience, with high
moral principle, great decision, and self-reliance.

Contrast Jane Eyre with any of Bulwer's, Scott's, or Shakespeare's
heroines, and how they all sink into the shade compared with that
noble creation of a woman's genius! The January number of _The
Westminster Review_ contains an article on "Woman," so liberal and
radical, that I sometimes think it must have crept in there by
mistake. Our fashionable lecturers, too, are now,