t the foundation-stone of this
republic, which is self-representation by means of the ballot. At
the bottom of this opposition is a subtle distrust of American
institutions, an idea of "restricted suffrage" which is creeping
into our republic through so-called aristocratic channels.

A distinguishing feature of this convention was the large number of
letters and reports sent from abroad, undoubtedly due to the fact that
Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony had spent the preceding year in Europe,
making the acquaintance and arousing the interest of foreign men and
women in the status of the suffrage question in the United States.
Among these letters was one from Miss Frances Power Cobbe in which she
said: "The final and complete emancipation of our sex ere long, I
think, is absolutely certain. All is going well here and I hope with
you in America; and with all my heart, dear Miss Anthony, I wish you
and the woman's convention triumphant success."

Miss Jane Cobden, daughter of Richard Cobden, said in the course of
her letter: "I feel all the more certain of the righteousness of the
work in which I am so much engaged, because I know from words spoken
and written by my father as far back as 1845, that had he been living
at the present day I should have had his sympathy. He was nothing if
not consistent, and so he said in a speech delivered in London that
year on Free Trade: 'There are many ladies present, I am happy to say.
Now it is a very anomalous and singular fact that they can not vote
themselves and yet they have the power of conferring votes upon other
people. I wish they had the franchise, for they would often make a
much better use of it than their husbands.'"

Miss Caroline Ashurst Biggs, for many years editor of the
_Englishwoman's Review_, sent a full report of the situation in
England. There was a letter of greeting also from Miss Lydia Becker,
editor of the _Women's Suffrage Journal_ and member of the Manchester
School Board. John P. Thomasson and Peter A. Taylor, members of
Parliament, favored woman suffrage in the strongest terms, the latter
saying: "Justice never can be done to the rising generations till the
influence of the mother is freed from the ignominy of exclusion from
the great political and social work of the day." Mrs. Thomasson,
daughter of Margaret Bright Lucas, and Mrs. Taylor, known as the
organizer of the women's suffrage movement in England, also sent
cordial good wishes.[1