ppointed a short time before by President Chester A.
Arthur. With a stroke of the pen he prevented the enfranchisement of
50,000 women.

Hundreds were turned away at the last evening session and there was
scarcely standing room within the church. A witty and vivacious speech
by Mrs. Helen M. Gougar (Ind.) was the first number on the program.
Mrs. Julia B. Nelson (Minn.) followed in an original dialect poem,
Hans Dunderkopf's Views of Equality. Mrs. Sewall showed the Absurdity
of the American Woman's Disfranchisement:

The inconsistency of the present position of the American woman
is forcibly shown in that she is now making such an advance in
education, studying political science under the best teachers of
constitutional law, and enjoying such advantages at the expense
of the Government, yet is not allowed to make use of this
knowledge in the Government....

Much has been said about the need of the ballot to protect the
industrial interests of men, but is it not as ungallant as it is
illogical that they should have the ballot for their protection
while women, pressed by the same necessities, should be denied
it?...

I may perhaps put it that man is composed of brain and heart and
woman of heart and brain. We must have the brain of man and the
heart of woman employed in the higher developments to come. There
can be no great scheme that does not require to be conceived by
our brains, quickened by our hearts and carried into execution by
our skilled hands. The activities which are considered the
especial sphere of woman need more brain; the realm of State
developed by the brain of man needs more heart. Home and State
have been too long divided. Man must not neglect the interests of
home, woman must care for the State. Our public interests and
private hopes need all the subtle forces of brain and heart.

An interesting feature of these national conventions was the State
reports, which contained not only valuable specific information, but
often felicitous little arguments quite equal to those of the more
formal addresses. Such reports were received in 1886 from thirty
different States. A large number of interesting letters also were
read, among them one from George W. Childs, inclosing check; John W.
Hutchinson, Belva A. Lockwood, the Hon. J. A. Pickler, Madame
Demorest, Dr. Mary F. Thomas, Lucinda B. Chandler,