he Vice-Presidents we find
the names of Harriot K. Hunt and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Caroline
H. Dall, Ellen M. Tarr, and Paulina Wright Davis presented carefully
prepared digests of the laws of several of the New England States.
Mrs. Davis said:

In 1844 a bill was introduced into the Legislature of this State
(Rhode Island) by Hon. Wilkins Updike, securing to married women
their property "under certain regulations." The step was a
progressive one, and hailed at that time as a bright omen for the
future. Other States have followed the example, and the right of
woman to some control of her property has been recognized. In
1847 Vermont passed similar enactments; in 1848-'49, Connecticut,
New York, and Texas; in 1850-'52, Alabama and Maine; in 1853, New
Hampshire, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Iowa followed. But the
provisions "under certain regulations" left married women almost
as helpless as before.

Mrs. DAVIS further says: If in 1855, from the practical workings
of these statutes, we find ourselves compelled to pronounce them
despotic in spirit, degrading and tyrannical in effect, we do not
the less give honor to the man who was so far in advance of his
age as to conceive the idea of raising woman a little in the
scale of being.

We have always claimed the honor for New York as being first in this
matter, because the Property Bill was presented there in 1836, and
when finally passed in 1848, was far more liberal than in any other
State; and step by step her legislation was broadened, until 1860 the
revolution was complete, securing to married women their own
inheritance absolutely, to use, will, and dispose of as they see fit;
to do business in their name, make contracts, sue, and be sued.

The speakers on the first day of this Convention were Wendell
Phillips, Thomas W. Higginson, and Lucy Stone; on the second morning,
Caroline H. Dall, Antoinette L. Brown, and Susan B. Anthony. The
evening closed with a lecture from Ralph Waldo Emerson, and a poem by
Elizabeth Oakes Smith. No report of the debates was preserved.

In a letter to her family Susan B. Anthony, under date of Sept. 27th,
says:

I went into Boston on Tuesday, with Lucy Stone, to attend the
Convention. We stopped at Francis Jackson's, where we found
Antoinette Brown and Ellen Blackwell. A pleasant company in that
most hospitable home. The Conventio