to do a great work for
society, it will be first and foremost because of its wholesome
influence on herself--because it rouses in her more of hope, more
of laudable ambition, more of earnest purpose, more of
self-reliance, more independence of the fashions, frivolities and
conventionalities of society and the dictates of the church....

Praying for the speedy coming of this day, and hoping it may work
gradually toward a purer and happier social life, and a further
companionship in thought and feeling, in purpose and effort,
between men and women, and especially between husbands and wives
in the life of the home, I express my sympathy with the purpose
of this convention.

Mrs. Caroline Hallowell Miller (Md.) took the ground that, after fifty
years of argument, women now should unite in a continuous demand for
the rights of citizenship.

In introducing the Hon. William D. Kelley (Penn.) Miss Anthony said
that not only in Congress, where he was known as the Father of the
House, but years ago in his own State Legislature, he advocated the
political equality of women. After paying a tribute to his mother, to
Mary Wollstonecraft and to Frances Wright, he said: "I am here,
because I feel that I should again declare publicly the justice of the
enfranchisement of women, which, having cherished through youth and
early manhood, I asserted in a public address in Independence Hall, at
high noon on the Fourth of July, 1841, before there was any
organization for promoting woman's rights politically." He then
sketched results already achieved and urged women to keep the flame
burning for the benefits which would come to posterity.

The Rev. Olympia Brown (Wis.) spoke on Foreign Rule, and after
pointing out the glory of a country which offered a home to all, and
expressing a belief in universal suffrage, she continued:

In Wisconsin we have by the census of 1880 a population of
910,072 native-born, 405,425 foreign-born. Our last vote cast was
149,463 American, 189,469 foreign; thus you see nearly 1,000,000
native-born people are out-voted and out-governed by less than
half their number of foreigners. Is that fair to Americans? Is it
just to American men? Will they not, under this influence, in a
little while be driven to the wall and obliged to step down and
out? When the members of our Legislatures are the greater part
foreigners,