g reorganization of all social, political,
and industrial interests and institutions. Moreover, it is a
movement without example among the enterprises of associated
reformations, for it has no purpose of arming the oppressed
against the oppressor, or of separating the parties, or of
setting up independence, or of severing the relations of either.

Its intended changes are to be wrought in the intimate texture of
all societary organizations, without violence or any form of
antagonism. It seeks to replace the worn-out with the living and
the beautiful, so as to reconstruct without overturning, and to
regenerate without destroying.

Our claim must rest on its justice, and conquer by its power of
truth. We take the ground that whatever has been achieved for the
race belongs to it, and must not be usurped by any class or
caste. The rights and liberties of one human being can not be
made the property of another, though they were redeemed for him
or her by the life of that other; for rights can not be forfeited
by way of salvage, and they are, in their nature, unpurchasable
and inalienable. We claim for woman a full and generous
investiture of all the blessings which the other sex has solely,
or by her aid, achieved for itself. We appeal from man's
injustice and selfishness to his principles and affections.

It was cheering to find in the very beginning many distinguished men
ready to help us to the law, gospel, social ethics, and philosophy
involved in our question. A letter from Gerrit Smith to William Lloyd
Garrison says:

PETERBORO, N. Y., _Oct. 16, 1850_.

MY DEAR SIR:--I this evening received from my friend H. H. Van
Amringe, of Wisconsin, the accompanying argument on woman's
rights. It is written by himself. He is, as you are aware, a
highly intellectual man. He wishes me to present this argument to
the Woman's Convention which is to be held in Worcester. Permit
me to do so through yourself.

My excessive business engagements compel me to refuse all
invitations to attend public meetings not in my own county. May
Heaven's richest blessings rest on the Convention.

Very respectfully and fraternally yours, GERRIT SMITH.

Mr. Van Amringe's paper on "Woman's Rights in Church and State" was
read and discussed, and a larg