Bedell, Dr. E. G. Cook, Dr.
Julia Holmes Smith, Dr. Alice B. Stockham, and many others have
won honorable distinction in this profession.

One of the marked crises in the history of the reform we trace
was the centennial Fourth of July. The daughters of the Pilgrims
realized as never before the cruel injustice by which they were
deprived of their birthright, and from the Western prairies and
Eastern hills their earnest protest was given to the nation. As
early as May 2, 1876, at a special convention of the Illinois
Woman Suffrage Association, two vigorous protests were read as
the official utterances of State and National Associations. The
convention was called to order by Mrs. Alma Van Winkle, who
stated that Mrs. Jane Graham Jones,[366] the beloved and
efficient president of the association, having determined upon a
European sojourn, had sent her resignation to the executive
committee, and that Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton Harbert, recently
removed to the State, had been elected to fill her place. This
action being ratified, Susan B. Anthony was introduced, and
although she had just concluded an intensely vigorous lyceum
tour, extending through many months, she spoke with unusual
power. Just here I wish to emphasize the great loss to women in
the fact that as Miss Anthony's speeches were never written, but
came with thrilling effect from her patriotic soul, scarce any
record of them remains, other than the intangible memories of her
grateful countrywomen. At this convention the following address
was read and adopted:

_To the Women of the United States of America, greeting:_

While the centennial clock is striking the hour of
opportunity for the Pilgrims' daughters to prove themselves
regenerate children of a worthy ancestry, while the air
reverberates to the watchwords of the statesmen of the
Revolution, let the daughters of the nation, in clear,
steady and womanly voices, chorus through the States:
"Taxation without representation is tyranny," and "all
governments derive their just powers from the consent of the
governed."

Womanly hands, firm, capable and loving, have been steadily,
persistently and unceasingly knocking, knocking at the doors
of judicial, ecclesiast