ight_, that every civil and
ecclesiastical obstacle be removed out of the way.

Rights are not dependent upon equality of mind; nor do we admit
inferiority, leaving that question to be settled by future
developments, when a fair opportunity shall be given for the equal
cultivation of the intellect, and the stronger powers of the mind
shall be called into action.

If, in accordance with your call, you ascertain "the bearing which the
circumscribed sphere of woman has on the great political and social
evils that curse and desolate the land," you will not have come
together in vain.

May you, indeed, "gain strength" by your contest with "difficulty!"
May the whole armor of "Right, Truth, and Reason" be yours; Then will
the influence of the Convention be felt in the assembled wisdom of
_men_ which is to follow; and the good results, as well as your
example, will ultimately rouse other States to action in this most
important cause.

I herewith forward to you a "Discourse on Woman," which, though
brought out by local circumstances, may yet contain principles of
universal application.

Wishing you every success in your noble effort,

I am yours, for woman's redemption and consequent elevation,
LUCRETIA MOTT.

PHILADELPHIA, _4th mo., 13, 1850_.

LETTER FROM LUCY STONE.

_For the Woman's Rights Convention:_

DEAR FRIENDS:--The friends of human freedom in Massachusetts rejoice
that a Woman's Rights Convention is to be held in Ohio. We hail it as
a sign of progress, and deem it especially fitting that such a
Convention should be held _now_, when a State Constitution is to be
formed.

It is easier, when the old is destroyed, to build the _new_ right,
than to right it _after_ it is built.

The statute books of every State in the Union are disgraced by an
article which limits the right to the elective franchise to "male
citizens of twenty-one years of age and upwards," thus excluding
one-half the population of the country from all political influence,
subjecting woman to laws in the making of which she has neither vote
nor voice. The lowest drunkard may come up from wallowing in the
gutter, and, covered with filth, _reel_ up to the ballot-box and
deposit his vote, and his right to do so is not questioned. The
meanest foreigner who comes to our shores, who can not speak his
mother-tongue correctly, has secured for him the right of suffrage.
The negro, cr