r mankind to accomplish....

There is no way in which you can do so much for this world as by
giving liberty to those who are the mothers of the generations
past and to come; so that freedom to think, freedom to formulate
opinions, freedom to decide by the majority of the whole of
mature human nature, shall be the universal boon as far as the
human race extends....

Miss Anthony then read a letter from Mrs. Stanton which embodied that
spirit of independence possessed by her almost beyond all other women:

I notice that in some of our conventions resolutions of thanks
are passed to senators, congressmen and legislators for
advocating some minor privileges which have been conceded to
women, such as admission to colleges and professions, limited
forms of suffrage, etc. Now I do not see any occasion for
gratitude to these honorable gentlemen who, after robbing us of
all our fundamental rights as citizens, propose to restore a few
minor privileges. There is not one impulse of gratitude in my
soul for any of the fragmentary privileges which by slow degrees
we have wrung out of our oppressors during the last half century,
nor will there be so long as woman is robbed of all the essential
rights of citizenship.

If strong appeals could induce the highway robber to return a
modicum of what he had stolen, it might mitigate the miseries of
his victim, but surely there would be no reason for gratitude,
and an expression of thanks to him would be quite as much out of
place as are complimentary resolutions passed in our conventions
to legislators for their concessions to women. They deserve
nothing at our hands until they make full restitution of all we
possessed in the original compact under the colonial
constitutions--rights over which in the nature of things men
could have no lawful jurisdiction whatever.... Woman has the same
right to a voice in this government that man has, and it is based
on the same natural desire and capacity for self-government and
self-protection....

Until woman is recognized as an equal factor in civilization, and
is possessed of her personal property, civil and political
rights, all minor privileges and concessions are but so many
added aggravations, and are insulting mockeries of that justice,
liberty and equality which a