re the birthright of every citizen of
a republic. "Universal suffrage," said Charles Sumner, "is the
first proof and only basis of a genuine republic."

Mrs. Stanton referred to the bravery of recent women writers in
attacking social problems, citing Mrs. Humphrey Ward, Margaret Deland,
Olive Schreiner, Mona Caird and Helen Gardiner. She closed with a
tribute to the co-laborers who had died during the past year, among
them the Rev. James Freeman Clarke, Judge Samuel E. Sewall, Dr.
Clemence S. Lozier, Dr. Mary F. Thomas, Miss Abby W. May and numerous
others.

During the second day's proceedings the Rev. Alexander Kent, of the
Church of Our Father (Universalist), addressed the convention, saying
in part:

It is not uncommon among writers on woman suffrage to find the
root of the trouble in those notions of the creation and fall set
forth in the ancient Jewish Scriptures--notions which have very
generally prevailed throughout Christendom until recently, and
which even yet have a large hold upon many people professing to
be Christians. In the account of the origin of evil given by the
ancient Hebrew writer, woman is the chief offender, and upon her
falls the burden of the penalty. In sorrow she is to bring forth
her children; her desire is to be to her husband and he is to
rule over her. Unquestionably this has tended to prolong the
reign of brute force in Christendom by perpetuating a belief in
the rightful headship of man in the family and State. But it is a
great mistake to see in this Scripture the root of the evil. It
is only the record of a theory offered to explain a fact--which
antedated both the theory and the record. We find the fact to-day
even where we do not find the record--the woman ruled by the man
in places where there is no knowledge whatever of the Hebrew
Scriptures. I doubt not that among the founders of our
Government--meaning the people generally--this doctrine of the
rightful headship of man and the subordination of woman was
sacredly held as a part of the revealed word of God, and that as
such it operated to keep the women as well as the men of that day
from perceiving the full significance, the comprehensive scope of
the principles affirmed by their leaders, in the Constitution and
the Declaration of Independence....

If the ballot in the hands of woman is