into the dust, and give freedom to the enslaved millions
of the earth. Where, I again ask, is the result of those noble
achievements, when woman, ay, one-half of the nation, is deprived
of her rights? Has woman then been idle during the contest
between "right and might"? Has she been wanting in ardor and
enthusiasm? Has she not mingled her blood with that of her
husband, son, and sire? Or has she been recreant in hailing the
motto of liberty floating on your banners as an omen of justice,
peace, and freedom to man, that at the first step she takes
practically to claim the recognition of her rights, she is
rewarded with the doom of a martyr?

But right has not yet asserted her prerogative, for might rules
the day; and as every good cause must have its martyrs, why
should woman not be a martyr for her cause? But need we wonder
that France, governed as she is by Russian and Austrian
despotism, does not recognize the rights of humanity in the
recognition of the rights of woman, when even here, in this
far-famed land of freedom, under a Republic that has inscribed on
its banner the great truth that "all men are created free and
equal, and endowed with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness"--a declaration borne, like the vision
of hope, on wings of light to the remotest parts of the earth, an
omen of freedom to the oppressed and down-trodden children of
man--when, even here, in the very face of this eternal truth,
woman, the mockingly so-called "better half" of man, has yet to
plead for her rights, nay, for her life. For what is life without
liberty, and what is liberty without equality of rights? And as
for the pursuit of happiness, she is not allowed to choose any
line of action that might promote it; she has only thankfully to
accept what man in his magnanimity decides as best for her to do,
and this is what he does not choose to do himself.

Is she then not included in that declaration? Answer, ye wise men
of the nation, and answer truly; add not hypocrisy to oppression!
Say that she is not created free and equal, and therefore (for
the sequence follows on the premise) that she is not entitled to
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But with all the
audacity arising from an assumed superiority, you dare not