no young woman could desire to forget the picture of this
aged form as, leaning upon her staff, Mrs. Stanton spoke to the great
audience of over six thousand, as she had spoken hundreds of times
before in legislative halls, and whenever her word could influence the
popular sentiment in favor of justice for all mankind."

My birthday celebration, with all the testimonials of love and
friendship I received, was an occasion of such serious thought and deep
feeling as I had never before experienced. Having been accustomed for
half a century to blame rather than praise, I was surprised with such a
manifestation of approval; I could endure any amount of severe criticism
with complacency, but such an outpouring of homage and affection stirred
me profoundly. To calm myself during that week of excitement, I thought
many times of Michelet's wise motto, "Let the weal and woe of humanity
be everything to you, their praise and blame of no effect; be not puffed
up with the one nor cast down with the other."

Naturally at such a time I reviewed my life, its march and battle on the
highways of experience, and counted its defeats and victories. I
remembered when a few women called the first convention to discuss their
disabilities, that our conservative friends said: "You have made a great
mistake, you will be laughed at from Maine to Texas and beyond the sea;
God has set the bounds of woman's sphere and she should be satisfied
with her position." Their prophecy was more than realized; we were
unsparingly ridiculed by the press and pulpit both in England and
America. But now many conventions are held each year in both countries
to discuss the same ideas; social customs have changed; laws have been
modified; municipal suffrage has been granted to women in England and
some of her colonies; school suffrage has been granted to women in half
of our States, municipal suffrage in Kansas, and full suffrage in four
States of the Union. Thus the principle scouted in 1848 was accepted in
England in 1870, and since then, year by year, it has slowly progressed
in America until the fourth star shone out on our flag in 1896, and
Idaho enfranchised her women! That first convention, considered a "grave
mistake" in 1848, is now referred to as "a grand step in progress."

My next mistake was when, as president of the New York State Woman's
Temperance Association, I demanded the passage of a statute allowing
wives an absolute divorce for the brutality an