t the fingers of some of the mothers of the
Revolution had made. Though the Concord women were not permitted to
share the centennial honors, they were not deprived of the
privilege of paying their part of the expenses incident to the
occasion. To meet these, an increased tax-rate was assessed upon
all the property owners in the town; and, since one-fifth of the
town tax of Concord is paid by women, it will be seen what was
their share in the great centennial celebration of 1876.

The knowledge of the proceedings at Concord added new zest to the
spirit of the three conventions, and the events of the day were
used by the speakers to point the moral of the woman's rights
question. Lucy Stone made one of her most effective and eloquent
speeches upon this subject. She said:

FELLOW CITIZENS (I had almost said fellow subjects): What we need
is that women should feel their mean position; when that happens,
they will soon make an effort to get out of it. Everything is
possible to him that wills. All that is needed for the success of
the cause of woman suffrage is to have women know that they want
to vote. Concord and Lexington got into a fight about the
centennial, and Concord voted $10,000 for the celebration in
order to eclipse Lexington. One-fifth of the tax of Concord is
paid by the women, yet not one of these women dared to go to the
town hall and cast her vote upon that subject. This is exactly
the same thing which took place one hundred years ago--taxation
without representation, against which the _men_ of Concord then
rebelled. If I were an inhabitant of Concord, I would let my
house be sold over my head and my clothes off my back and be
hanged by the neck before I would pay a cent of it! Men of
Melrose, Concord and Malden, why persecute us? Would you like to
be a slave? Would you like to be disfranchised? Would you like to
be bound to respect the laws which you cannot make? There are
15,000,000 of women whom the government denies legal rights.

It might be supposed that a spot upon which the battle for freedom
and independence was first begun would always be the vantage ground
of questions relating to personal liberty. But such is not the
fact. Concord was never an anti-slavery town, though some of its
best citizens took active part in all the abolition movements. When
the time came that women were allowed to vote for scho