iled, so far, to bring you the ballot, it has
ameliorated the condition of woman in very many particulars.
Her property rights are better protected; her sphere of
activity has been enlarged, and her influence for good is
more widely recognized. So I wish you well. Yours truly,

C. C. CARPENTER.

This year women were members of a lay delegation in the Methodist
conference, and also lay delegates to the Presbyterian synod. And
in two or three instances women have been invited to address
these bodies, and have received a vote of thanks. Many of the
orthodox clergy are openly advocating our cause, and in some
instances women have been invited by them to occupy their desks
on Sunday to preach the Gospel to the people. This is a wonderful
advance in sentiment since 1852, when in New York the clergy
would not permit women to speak, even on temperance in a public
hall.

In 1876 the society secured the services of Matilda Hindman, of
Pittsburg, Pa., who traveled over the greater part of the State,
lecturing and organizing societies, and was everywhere spoken of
as an eloquent and logical speaker. She was followed by Margaret
W. Campbell, and those who know her feel that the State gained in
her a valuable friend in everything pertaining to the interests
of woman. What is said of Miss Hindman as a speaker may also be
said of Mrs. Campbell.

The first governor of Iowa to officially recognize woman's right
to the ballot was the Hon. C. C. Carpenter, who in his message to
the General Assembly of 1876, said:

The proposed amendment to the constitution, adopted by your
predecessors, and which requires your sanction before being
submitted to the voters of the State, will come before you.
I venture to suggest, that the uniform expression in Wyoming
Territory, where woman suffrage is a fact, is favorable to
its continuance, and that wherever in Europe and America
women have voted for school or minor officers the influence
of their suffrage has been beneficent; and in view of the
peculiar appropriateness of submitting this question in this
year, 1876, when all America is celebrating achievements
which were inspired by the doctrine that taxa