persecution, mourned over by friends, ostracized in social life,
scandalized by enemies, denounced by the pulpit, scarified and
caricatured by the press, may well congratulate themselves on the
marked change in public sentiment which this magnificent
gathering of educated women from both hemispheres so triumphantly
illustrates....

We, who like the children of Israel, have been wandering in the
wilderness of prejudice and ridicule for forty years feel a
peculiar tenderness for the young women on whose shoulders we are
about to leave our burdens. Although we have opened a pathway to
the promised land and cleared up much of the underbrush of false
sentiment, logic and rhetoric intertwisted with law and custom,
which blocked all avenues in starting, yet there are still many
obstacles to be encountered before the rough journey is ended.
The younger women are starting with great advantages over us.
They have the results of our experience; they have superior
opportunities for education; they will find a more enlightened
public sentiment for discussion; they will have more courage to
take the rights which belong to them. Hence we may look to them
for speedy conquests. When we think of the vantage-ground woman
holds to-day, in spite of all the artificial obstacles placed in
her way, we are filled with wonder as to what the future mothers
of the race will be when free to have complete development.

Thus far women have been the mere echoes of men. Our laws and
constitutions, our creeds and codes, and the customs of social
life are all of masculine origin. The true woman is as yet a
dream of the future. A just government, a humane religion, a pure
social life await her coming....

At the close of this address Miss Anthony presented greetings from the
Woman's Liberal Association of Bristol, England, signed by many
distinguished names; from the Woman Suffrage Association of Norway,
and from a number of prominent women in Dublin.[67] There were also
individual letters from Mrs. Priscilla Bright McLaren and many other
foreigners.[68]

Dr. Elizabeth C. Sargent and eight other women physicians of San
Francisco sent cordial good wishes. Congratulations were received from
many Americans,[69] and a cablegram from Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch,
of England.

Miss Anthony then presented the foreign d