I would not have
missed for the exhibition itself, and which I would not have you
miss for all the rest of my letters. I cannot expect you to be as
much interested in it as was I, but it is time you were becoming
interested in the subject; and, if you live a half century from
this time (in less than that, I hope,) you will see that what I
am about to relate was, as General Hawley admitted it would be,
"the event of the occasion."

At the commencement of the exhibition, Miss Susan B. Anthony and
Mrs. Matilda Joslyn Gage came to Philadelphia and procured the
parlors of 1,431 Chestnut street for the accommodation of the
National Woman Suffrage Association. These rooms were open to the
friends of the association, and public receptions were held and
well attended every Tuesday and Friday evening. During these
months these two ladies--assisted the latter part of the time by
Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton--were engaged in preparing a history
of the suffrage movement and a declaration of rights to be
presented at the great centennial celebration of the Fourth of
July, 1876. This document is in form like the first declaration
of a hundred years ago, handsomely engrossed by Mrs. Sara Andrews
Spencer, of Washington--a lady delegate to the Cincinnati
Republican convention, June 12.

The celebration was held in Independence Square, just back of the
old state-house where the first declaration was signed. There was
a great crowd of people collected; a poem was read by Bayard
Taylor and a speech delivered by William M. Evarts. But I knew it
was useless to go there expecting to hear any portion of either;
so I waited until twelve o'clock and then rode down in the cars
to Dr. Furness' church, corner of Broad and Locust streets, where
these ladies were to hold their meeting. The church was full, and
the exercises were opened by Mrs. Mott--the venerable and
venerated president--a Quaker lady of slight form, attired in a
plain, light-silk gown, white muslin neckerchief and cap, after
that exquisitely neat and quaint fashion. Then the Hutchinsons
sang a hymn, in which all were requested to join. Afterward Mrs.
Stanton came to the front of the pulpit, the house was hushed, to
a reverential stillness, and I never yet heard anything so solemn
and impressive as her